Stars. Moon. Sun - Hu Shi's Emotional World

Author: Jiang Yongzhen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: Due to Hu Shi's tendency to cherish his reputation and constantly worry about how history would judge him, he never easily left any emotional traces in his letters or diaries. Therefore, to understand Hu Shi's emotional world, what we must rely on are not the words he left behind but the stars and moons surrounding this "sun," the love, affection, resentment, and obsession revealed in their letters to him. Jiang Dongxiu's letters demonstrate her love, tolerance, and straightforward decisiveness toward Hu Shi. Wei Lianshi's letters are numerous and lengthy. Her early letters fully showcase her sensitive and unconventional personality; during their romantic phase, they overflow with her admiration, passion, longing, and sorrow for Hu Shi; after becoming close friends, they reveal her considerate and caring attentiveness to him. Cao Chengying's letters, though not many, express her fierce passion and unreserved love and hatred. Even the stars who left fewer letters have their own unique words of love or even teasing for Hu Shi. Therefore, although the protagonist of this book is Hu Shi; although from a male-centered perspective, these stars and moons may seem merely supporting characters orbiting this sun; and although in some brilliant passages he also plays the roles of writer, director, and audience in addition to being the main character, it is those stars and moons who dare to give and show love that truly bring blood, emotion, and color to this story. Their loves and hates, their longing, their struggles, and even their praise for love and desire are the most captivating essence of Hu Shi's emotional world.