】】Power of Writing
DEDICATION, NOBILITY, righteousness, love：these types of words bear shades of extraordinary joy and power, like radio waves that can carry feelings from your fingertips on to your soul. And they became one of the reasons that I wrote I Came to Yingxiu with the Spring, or it was rather the alluring sweet savour of their articulation and cohesion.
Yet, I had faced barriers since writing this book. I thought it had all been fact that by the end I overcomed the barriers.This feeling was becoming increasingly clear when the hardest part of writing came.I asked myself questions about that same fate and then thought that I had chosen to let heaven make me put pen to paper and do this job, just as the workers and managers from the reconstruction group were chosen to work in Ying Xiu.They were chosen by the Dongguan Provincial Party Committee and thousands of locals, and carried their hope.Actually, the expression of literature was chosen by providence which originated from the will of the people.
In fact, I like occasionally singing chants of praise like a tireless cuckoo sings about seeds and the spring. And after all, why shouldn't I?Beauty gleams so brightly that when it rises from people's remarkable lives it infiltrates those of others like music and beams like rays of light that turn into a power that upholds the progress of our civilization.Day by day, hours and minutes fly away together as it shines with rays of boundless radiance.Freeze them, magnify them, and make people feel them：that is responsibility and beauty of art and literature.
There must be criticism but praise should turn into respect. The ones who generously risk their lives and swap their pain for the satisfaction of others, are those who set their own lives on fire to become flares held up high, illuminating space and time, creating a legacy of the noteworthy virtues of a nation.The passionate heartbeats of their surging souls will set the tempo of songs about times of heroes.
That was indeed the reason why I decided to write on Guangdong's support of the recovery and reconstruction of Wenchuan after the big, historical earthquake. The people who agreed to take on this arduous yet sacred mission, went through hardships spilling blood, sweat and tears in a land devastated by the tragic aftermath of the earthquake.They reforged souls and buildings with heavenly remorse, pain and determination.Portraying love and beauty, they are the glory of our time and the pride of our nation.
The strokes of my pen, focused on the post-disaster reconstruction of Yingxiu, epitomize the recovery of the whole area of Wenchuan. They show a written record of unprecedented, noble human actions.
The success or failure of the reconstruction and post-disaster recovery of the Wenchuan Earthquake depended on the recovery of Yingxiu. The complete restoration of the entire province of Sichuan depended on the successful recovery of Yingxiu.
Despite how true that was, it was not the reason which initially appealed to me；the reason why I went, as stated in the book, is that it was the epicentre of an earthquake which ripped off people's hearts in that completely ravaged town which had to be built anew. In other words, its reconstruction was most unusual and difficult.Beauty lies in difficulties found in the laws of art, of nature and life.
I only came to seek the beauty of it.
The strength of hope came from the future of a once unfortunate Yingxiu.
And the desire to help the recovery came from the heart.
There were indeed all kinds of hardships in the process；what made it difficult for me was that when I arrived the reconstruction was mostly completed. That meant my journey of researching the initial situation was like sailing upstream on a river.
Doing interviews was really hard, since most workers had returned to their hometowns；I had to comb the area, finding people one at a time. Finding information was even more difficult.If you search for a key word online, a long list of results will come up after just one click.However, despite that overwhelming number of web articles, you would make the painful discovery that most media reports are void of substance just like windblown sand；reading them all day would be of no use.From top to bottom, every word, every phrase of these lengthy articles, and even the most basic facts, let alone the messages of these texts, were never clearly stated.You would need to struggle for a whole day or even for a few to simply put together one small paragraph of information.
I used to think to myself：perhaps that was the reason I was chosen to write that book?History needs a plain, solid, simple, clear record to take you sailing downstream on a river.
Plain, solid, simple and clear：these are characteristics which bring order.
Ordered writing stems from an ordered mind which also reasons well. Having order would mean having tranquillity, yet it can only be the outcome of cultivated efforts, suppressed materialistic desire, concentrated spirit and a clear and deep sense of perception.
What supported me is the deeply moving stories of my characters. It also means that I am promoting the feeling of deep affection and the desire to work.
By infiltrating that unique event, you infiltrate the minds of reconstruction workers. Plunging deeper makes you feel the beauty of the process but also makes you appreciate how hard the work was.The reconstruction and all of the blood, sweat and tears sacrificed by the workers evoked respect and admiration, but it was particularly difficult for those reconstruction workers.Far from their hometowns and their close ones, they had given up a comfortable life and working environment to come to a faraway land struck by a calamity.It was a constant, desperate struggle through the suffocating exudes of ruins to reach the town's pleasant warmth and hospitality；the workers gave all they had unreservedly, through years of hazy skies and after spilling tears for all sorts of reasons, when bright and sunny times had come, they walked away with a smile，“without taking a cloud[1].”
Another supportive force came from the inner man in me. The force was the feeling I had of being heaven's chosen one, or actually was commonly thought of as a sense of mission.The solemn heart which came from the sense of mission was to help people acquire excessive power to persevere despite obstacles.
In fact, the only expectation I had for myself was that my heart follows the will of heaven without being sloppy, without lacking of effort and without accepting the possibility of failure.
A touching beauty lay in the warmth of people. Something that urged its development must be of a noble character and stem from feelings of perseverance, deep love and many more beautiful factors.Such feelings filled up one's chest like white clouds flying into a valley and heartfelt words came out like cool, refreshing spring rain falling from the clouds, resembling sunrays which showed their shiny charm of hope reflected in the moon.
My view that in a work of art form and content are determined in relation with each other was once again confirmed when I was writing of this book. The moment ink turns into lines of text came naturally like flowing water which rises up to form drifting clouds；emotions take over and there is no time to think about the genre and style of writing.After finishing the first draft, I glanced over my papers and marked in the top corner of the first page：“documentary prose.”
That was predetermined by emotions and a sense of order. And they were also what distinguished this book from media reports and“fast books”.“Fast book”is the definition I gave of books with vibrant writing characteristics of a certain time they are written in a trendy, post-modernist style in a modern-day fast rhythm but never simultaneously elegant, calm and lyrical.
Later, some of my friends said that they found what I had done to be unprecedented to date；this book seems to be the first piece of Chinese documentary prose themed around an event of social importance. I have not actually confirmed this fact.But if it is indeed true, then it is not surprising that presenting themes in such a way has some degree of difficulty not necessarily related to the writing itself but rather to the needed patience and decisiveness；these two traits are absolutely crucial.
This book also put my writing ability to a test. Looking behind the florid language is like blowing dust off an object made of gold, and the text conveys the mood of the situation.This level of meaning was already explained.
Has this book accomplished the unthinkable?In terms of speed and quality, the reconstruction of Yingxiu was a miracle which is inconceivable. Coincidentally, the book that tells its story has a similar description.
Few books succeed in illustrating that type of sacred meaning.
My reward is the Concise thoughts that I get through striving to explore the meaning of each word, for me all of them have turned into invisible pieces of gold.
That type of writing also brings a reward for authors who are learning to be noble and cultivating their moral spirit.
It is needless to discuss the definition of a real literary work, since it is not the written words that are important, but rather the meaning that they convey. The utterly deep variety of an author's sharp emotions and his profound thoughts that have been spilled on paper turn naturally into writing.
Eloquent writing is a chant of emotions and a flow of love.
18 May 2012
Aohan[2]
