Walking Through the World

Reading Walking the Human World, one first feels a sense of "truth." This "truth" comes from the author's sincerity toward the yellow earth beneath his feet. Whether recalling the people and customs of his hometown or recording what he saw and felt on his travels, the lines are steeped in deep concern for the culture of the Qin region and the fate of ordinary people. When he writes of rural figures, he neither deliberately elevates them nor arbitrarily judges them; he uses plain, descriptive language to restore the resilience of their lives, and this very technique carries great compassion and respect. The second quality is "thought." Chen Zhongshi's essays are never merely records of events or scenery; at their core they are the monologues of a thinker. Often, within seemingly plain narration, he inserts sharp insights into history, culture, human nature, and even literary creation. These thoughts dissolve like salt in water, giving the essays a weighty substance.

For readers, the value of this book lies in the excellent window it provides for understanding Chen Zhongshi the man. You can see the literary source of the historical weight and sense of fate's vicissitudes found in White Deer Plain, and you can also see a more vivid, sensitive individual life after the halo of "famous writer" has been removed. His perplexities, his persistence, his warmth, and his loneliness are all candidly laid out in the text. This is not only a reading of literary works, but a sincere dialogue with a profound soul. It lets us believe that great literature is ultimately rooted in the deepest love for, and the clearest understanding of, the world of everyday life.