Ba Jin and Xiao Qian - Two Old Men

Author: Wen Jieruo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: This book is a heartfelt recollection by Wen Jieruo, the wife of Xiao Qian, of the interactions between Ba Jin and Xiao Qian, the two elderly gentlemen. It takes us through history, telling the stories of their tumultuous lives and winding emotional journeys, allowing us to step into the ordinary lives and profound inner worlds of two literary giants. It invites us to explore, reminisce, and reflect. As a memoir, its greatest treasure is the inclusion of 125 letters exchanged between Ba Jin and Xiao Qian from 1952 to 1999, many of which have never been published before. Ba Jin was not just a writer but first and foremost a great moral thinker and social reformer. In 20th-century China, he was akin to Rousseau in 18th-century France or Leo Tolstoy in 19th-century Russia. Xiao Qian symbolizes the maturation of contemporary Chinese literature. His later works and thoughts were "mature, brilliant, sharp yet not harsh, profound yet not obscure, always reasonable, always forceful and well-structured." If Ba Jin had not known Xiao Qian, he would still have been Ba Jin, but if Xiao Qian had not known Ba Jin, things would have been different. Xiao Qian once said, "One of the greatest blessings in my life was meeting Ba Jin in Beijing in the early 1930s and maintaining our friendship for 70 years. If it had not been so, I would have taken many more detours in my life. Shen Congwen taught me how to write, but Ba Jin taught me how to be a person."