All Living Beings
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Summary
This edition features a ten-thousand-word introduction specially commissioned from Professor Cong Zhichen of Peking University.
This is a strikingly avant-garde novella and short story collection by Shi Tiesheng, originally titled Novella 1 or Short Story 4, and a classic work in which he explores the nature of fate and the meaning of existence. The book consists of four linked short pieces—"Edge," "Part," "Composition," and "All Beings"—which, though not a seamless whole, all circle around the contingency and determinism of fate and the predicaments of human nature. The style continues Shi Tiesheng's characteristic delicacy and depth, using a cold, incisive touch to dissect human bewilderment and seeking amid absurd fate, carrying his eternal meditation on why we live.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Shi Tiesheng's fiction and its avant-garde side
- Literary readers who enjoy fragmented narrative and open structures and do not require a complete story
- Reflective readers drawn to philosophical questions of fate, life and death, and the meaning of existence
- Students or researchers of modern and contemporary Chinese literature who need close reading of the text
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting traditional linear narrative and complete plot closure
- Readers who prefer light reading and do not want to expend effort on textual structure
Reading tips
- Begin with Cong Zhichen's introduction to understand the logic linking the four pieces and their avant-garde methods, then move into the main text
- Pause for a day or two after each piece to let the fragments settle; do not rush to connect the whole
- Read alongside Shi Tiesheng's essays to sense how the same thought takes on different textures in fiction and nonfiction
- After finishing, return to "Partial" and "All Beings" to note echoing details and shifts in perspective
About the publisher
Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 边缘
- 局部
- 构成
- 众生
- 导读
FAQ
What is the relationship among the four pieces? Must they be read in order?
I haven't read any other works by Shi Tiesheng. Can I start with this book?
Is the style very different from Shi Tiesheng's essays?
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About the author
Shi Tiesheng (1951–2010) was a Beijing-born contemporary Chinese writer and essayist whose ancestral home was Zhuo County, Hebei Province. In 1969 he was sent to northern Shaanxi as a zhiqing, and in 1972 he became paralyzed in both legs. He later developed kidney disease, which progressed to uremia, and he depended on dialysis for many years. His writing grew largely out of personal experience, and in both essays and fiction he returned repeatedly to questions of existential difficulty, memory, and spiritual survival. His restrained, introspective style, conveyed through plain narration, reveals a persistent inquiry into fate and existence. Works such as Wo yu Ditan, Wuxu biji, Bingxi suibi, and Ming ruo qin xian brought him wide attention in contemporary literary circles, and he received the Lu Xun Literary Prize and the Chinese Literature Media Award for Outstanding Achievement of the Year. The library holds twenty-one of his works, spanning essays and miscellaneous writings, classic works, and social fiction, offering several facets of his writing.
Li Yuchun is an author about whom limited public information is currently available. Three of his works are included in the collection, with representative titles such as Sentient Beings, The Uncarved Ye Family Medical Cases, and Wu Kui. Judging from the common categories, his writing spans two rather different fields: social fiction and medicine. On the one hand, he attends to social life and human experience through fiction; on the other, he is involved in the compilation or writing of medical case texts. As no clear records of his birth and death dates, nationality, education, or personal history have been found, it is difficult to sketch a complete biography at present, and only brief observations on the works themselves are possible. The existing titles suggest that Li Yuchun's writing combines literary narrative with medical documentation, and that his choice of subjects is distinctive. Readers may consult the individual works to learn more about his style and concerns.
