Zhang Zhongxing: Solitary Musings at Sunset

Author: Written by Zhang Zhongxing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features:
First, the essays in the book are written by the renowned author, and even considering the thought of "the past is full of hardships," it is worth buying and reading.
Second, each essay in the book was carefully selected by Ms. Xu Xiushan alongside the author through multiple deliberations, resulting in the following advantages.
One is the selection is refined. That is, all the chosen essays are those the author put effort into writing and believed to be well done, worth reading.
Another is the scope is broad. Speaking of prose, essays, sketches, or miscellaneous writings, the author has written many over the years, and there are already seven or eight collections compiled. The selected essays here can be said to cover everything, with themes ranging from grand to small, from objects to the heart, attitudes from praise to criticism, from serious to humorous. Thus, reading it will allow one to gain a glimpse of the whole picture.
Third, it balances the emotional and value aspects of the content while catering to the readers' interests, so there is no need to worry about it being dull or unengaging.
Third, many essays in the book have been included in other collections and published before. Reprinting them would inevitably lead to repetition. How to solve this? One idea is that it doesn’t matter much, because, for example, if one book sells to one person out of 100,000, and the national population is 1.2 billion, it can sell 12,000 copies. Another book might also sell 12,000 copies, but the chance of the same 100,000th person buying both is unlikely. In such cases, or perhaps only in such cases, the adage of "the power of numbers" can be applied without hindrance.
Alternatively, one could add that when buying books with one’s own money, we are always voluntary. If one sees repetition and is not interested, they can simply choose not to buy it. Thus, the problem is reduced, and the issue becomes trivialized.