Full of Gods

The value of this book lies not only in the label "collection of essays by a famous author" but in how it places the myriad things of heaven and earth alongside everyday human life in Jia Pingwa's writing, letting readers see a posture of fully concentrated living. The selections balance classics commonly found in textbooks—such as "Wind and Rain," "The Ugly Stone," "A Shell," and "A Little Peach Tree"—with the first inclusion of new works like "Frog Matters," "Eyes," and "Hazhou Observations," creating a contrast across time between old and new pieces. The addition of 17 of the author's paintings is not decoration but offers another way of seeing, mutually confirming the playful interest in "things and I looking at each other" found in the text. It suits slow reading in fragmented time—each piece is only a thousand-odd characters yet often turns ordinary things into life's passion; it also serves as a writing model, observing how the author moves from an ugly stone or a shell to human feeling and heaven and earth. It is not a book that wins by plot; readers need to set aside the urge to race through and linger with the text in ordinary places to appreciate the meaning of "poetry is not far away."