Brush and Ink in the Evening Cool cover

Brush and Ink in the Evening Cool

Rating 3.7
Word count
140K words
Chapters
56
ISBN
9787218154756

Tags

Summary

This is a new collection of essays by the renowned writer Xiao Fuxing.

In “Reminiscences of Huiwen Teachers,” written for the 150th anniversary of his alma mater, the author recalls nine of his teachers at Huiwen Middle School, leaving a record of ordinary people from an era. “Late Coolness, Brush and Ink” mainly commemorates literary elders, including Sun Li, Shao Yanxiang, Gao Mang, Tao Ran, and Jiemin (Xu Juemin), among other masters, with genuine feeling and lingering resonance. “Wind Blows the Plum Message” recounts the author’s own life experiences; though its people and events are ordinary and trifling, they mirror the former pieces—literature and memoir at once, stirring deep sighs in the reader. This is also the precipitate of the author’s more than seventy years of life.

Its emotion is deep, its language plain, and its accomplishment so high that it has been hailed as “a new milestone in Xiao Fuxing’s essay writing.”

Editor's review

Late Coolness, Brush and Ink is a selection of Xiao Fuxing’s recent essays and occasional pieces, gathering many chapters on life, reading, art, and the past. The title evokes the mood of Du Fu’s line—“Where bamboos are deep, guests are kept; when lotuses are clean, one takes the cool”—and precisely sums up the book’s tone: a stillness, clarity, and warmth that come after long experience of the world. Xiao Fuxing’s writing has always been known for its plainness, sincerity, and human warmth, and in this work those qualities stand out especially. He writes of the changes in Beijing’s hutongs, of dealings with old friends, of what he has gained from reading Shakespeare and Chekhov, and of his delicate attention to everyday flowers and trees, meals and dishes. His touch is never sentimental or showy, yet in calm, unhurried narration it holds a deep attachment to and reflection on time, memory, and the humanistic spirit. For readers familiar with Xiao Fuxing, this is a long talk with an old friend in the “late cool”; for new readers, it is an excellent entry into the inner world of a sincere writer. In an age of noisy information, the experience of “slowing down” that this reading offers is itself a precious form of healing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who love plain, deep essays rich in the texture of daily life
  • Those interested in Beijing’s urban memory and cultural change
  • Readers seeking peace of mind and resonance amid a fast-paced life
  • Readers who appreciate the essay style of modern and contemporary Chinese writers and scholars

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who want strong plots, fast pacing, or fantastical excitement
  • Readers impatient with personal, life-flow narration

Reading tips

  1. Read in a leisurely afternoon or before sleep; the book’s unhurried rhythm makes its verbal flavor easier to appreciate.
  2. It can be treated as a “book of voices”: while reading, imagine the author telling it in a calm tone.
  3. The book touches on many works of art and many people; a little familiarity with the books, paintings, or music mentioned will enrich the reading experience.

About the publisher

Guangdong People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

Guangdong People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher whose list spans Eastern philosophy, philosophical works, history, foreign literature, documentary literature and classical literature. Its holdings include 255 titles, with representative books such as Wang Yangming's Instructions for Practical Living, Plato's Republic, Jiang Tingfu's Modern Chinese History, Natsume Soseki's I Am a Cat, Albert Camus's The Stranger, Nazi Germany and the Philosophers: A Man's Exile, The Winter of Literature: Artists under Hitler's Rule in 1933, and the five-volume Three Words and Two Slaps. Its authors and translators include Wang Yangming, Plato, Jiang Tingfu, Natsume Soseki, Albert Camus, Ding Wei, Xu Jianxiong and Li Yumin. The publisher balances philosophical classics, historical works and translated foreign literature, with attention to both classical and documentary literature. Public information is limited, so this introduction focuses on the publishing directions reflected in its catalog.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 自序
  3. 第一章 汇文师记
  4. 汇文师记
  5. 王瑷东老师
  6. 张学铭老师
  7. 田增科老师
  8. 高挥老师
  9. 韩永祥老师
  10. 美术老师
  11. 司锡龄老师
  12. 阎述诗老师
  13. 高万春校长
  14. 第二章 晚凉笔墨
  15. 燕鸣仍在华威楼——记燕祥点滴
  16. 想起洁泯先生
  17. 想念王火
  18. 怀念高莽先生
  19. 追忆诗人苏金伞先生
  20. 龙云断忆
  21. 忆陶然
  22. 一九八三年的稿费单
  23. 千行墨妙破冥蒙
  24. 孙犁读记
  25. 贺麟偶感
  26. 读方守彝
  27. 读《十力语要》小札
  28. 熊十力和梁漱溟
  29. 后浪德彪西
  30. 想起傅聪,想起肖邦
  31. 契诃夫的预言
  32. 阿赫马托娃和她的诗的翻译
  33. 韩文作法析
  34. 第三章 风吹梅信
  35. 风吹梅信又成寒
  36. 采桑子
  37. 岁月的身影
  38. 桥湾儿归去来辞
  39. 虞美人
  40. 味美思
  41. 遥想洋桥今夜月
  42. 母亲的世界
  43. 父亲的虚荣
  44. 老手表史记
  45. 微不足道的相逢
  46. 没有一丝风
  47. 荒原上的红房子
  48. 豆秸垛赋
  49. 北大荒过年
  50. 大年夜的冻酸梨
  51. 过年五吃
  52. 冬果两食
  53. 栗香菊影慰乡愁
  54. 起士林忆
  55. 过年的饺子
  56. 记不住的日子

FAQ

How does this book differ from Xiao Fuxing’s earlier essay collections?
Late Coolness, Brush and Ink more concentratedly reflects the author’s state of mind and accumulated experience in his later years. In subject matter it returns more to the everyday and the inner life, and its language is more polished and calm, with less youthful sentiment and more openness and depth born of years.
Is the content too personal or trivial?
The charm of Xiao Fuxing’s essays lies precisely in starting from personal experience and small details to connect a generation’s shared memory and cultural feeling. His “triviality” is filtered through a literary eye and steeped in emotion, and ultimately points to universal human feeling and the marks of the times.
Is it suitable for young readers?
Very suitable. Its views on art and reading, its cherishing of the true texture of life, and the sincerity that runs through it are fine spiritual nourishment for young readers, helping them understand a more composed and focused attitude toward life and aesthetics.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Xiao Fuxing Author · Chinese · 1947

Xiao Fuxing was born in Beijing in 1947, with his ancestral home in Cangzhou, Hebei. He graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in 1982. A contemporary writer, he has long been active in essays, fiction, and reportage. He served as deputy editor of People's Literature and Selected Stories, and as vice president of the Chinese Prose Society. He has published more than one hundred works and has repeatedly received the Bing Xin Prose Award, the Lao She Prose Award, and the Zhu Ziqing Prose Award. His essays often draw on everyday observations and personal memory, written in a plain, warm style that values natural expression of detail and feeling; his work also has wide influence in middle-school Chinese-language reading. This library holds 25 of his titles, covering classic essays, prose collections, film and television, and social fiction, including lyrical pieces such as Mother by the Window and When Plums Ripen and Gardenias Bloom, as well as sustained reflections on life and time in The Distance of Time and My Interesting Days in Boring Times.

More by the same author

Top rated in the same category