Man and Eternity (Treasure Edition)

Author: Zhou Guoping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: I don’t believe a person can only love once in their lifetime, nor do I believe a person must love many times in their lifetime. You are a deep valley; one love is like a river, many loves are like many waves. You are a shallow; one love is just a small stream, many loves are just many bubbles. Zhou Guoping is a renowned domestic expert in Nietzsche philosophy and has published over twenty works. Among them, Man and Eternity is his most popular and favorite book. This book is a collection of musings by Zhou Guoping and his second book, which holds great significance for him. Published in 1987, it has been a bestseller ever since, exerting a lasting and profound influence among young students and intellectuals. The book is filled with philosophical reflections on major life issues such as life, suffering, and love. Zhou Guoping’s writing is a precious gift to readers who love life, possess deep emotions, and seek to explore the meaning of life. This collection of musings has been ranked as one of the ten essential books for cultivating one’s temperament, partly because it discusses many philosophical insights on how to conduct oneself in the world. This philosophical interpretation of life is neither a worldly, smooth philosophy nor an ascetic philosophy detached from the mortal world. Rather, it is a philosophy that pursues happiness, appreciates life, discovers and fulfills oneself, and is more a philosophy for those with a suffering soul. As the book states: "Humans are the only animals that can question the meaning of existence. This is the greatness of humans, and also their tragedy. 'Man is the measure of all things.' Humans measure all things by themselves, seeking their meaning. But when they seek the meaning of themselves, what measure do they use? Still humans? The measure and the object are the same, making it impossible to measure. Measure something beyond humans? Yet humans are unwilling to submit to anything else, and this very act degrades the value and meaning of human existence. The search for meaning leads humans into a paradox of duality."
When discussing Man and Eternity, Zhou Guoping said: "I like it because it is entirely the product of spontaneous inspiration. A thought or a fleeting insight would come to my mind, and I would jot it down freely. The mindset was very open. It records the raw state of thought, which exists in the minds of every person who feels and thinks. It easily evokes associations, connections, collisions, resonance, and wonder. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that it has also gained the favor of readers."
I believe that the great mysteries of life cannot be solved by anyone. Perhaps each mystery has countless answers, and thus no definitive answer. My interest lies in solving puzzles. Whenever I seem to solve a puzzle, I realize that the true answer is just a step further away, and I find this mystery even more intriguing.
Zhou Guoping is a scholar and writer second only to Yu Qiuwei in popularity among Chinese readers. Man and Eternity is one of his representative works, expressed in the form of short essays, elaborating on his lifelong concerns and reflections on life issues, including humanity, nature and life, love, solitude, life, beauty, transcendence, happiness and suffering, humor, women and men, genius, marriage, death, time, and eternity. The content is concise yet profound, and the language is elegant and philosophical.