Towards Chaos: Trilogy (Latest Edition)

Author: Cong Wei Xi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-04-01
Features: With unadorned brushwork, the author records his more than two decades of hardships. In fact, the word "hardship" cannot bear the weight of these two decades of vicissitudes. The two suicide attempts by his wife Zhang Hu, the expulsion and return of his mother, and his son being innocently struck by others—these events trampled upon the sacred family bonds in his heart. Under the scorching sun, the nakedness of the soul and body, rebirth in the flames of the chemical plant, and the sweat-soaked labor in the mine subjected his body to immense suffering. What is tragic is that the harsh reality crushed the romantic sentiments and literary dreams surging within his heart. The sorrow, bitterness, and despair woven into this constitute a tragic symphony in the spiritual history of Chinese intellectuals.
The author also uses his personal experiences as the main thread to record the spiritual journeys and trajectories of intellectuals of his generation and fate: from the demise of the aesthetic giant Lü Ying to the drowning of the bookish Zhang Zanzu, from Jian Yuanjun with a "tearful eye" to the "muscle weakness" suffering from a terminal illness, from the life legend of Ying to the dust of the journey along the post road of Jiang Baocen. What is precious is that the author does not idealize intellectuals (including himself) in the book but instead, through profound self-reflection, portrays their weaknesses and the imperfections of their lives. Tragic farces of and are played out among intellectuals at a higher level, leaving one not only shocked but also feeling an bone-chilling chill. It can be said that this self-examination of the soul by intellectuals is vast, grand, profound, a sign of civilization and evolution, and a rebirth.