2025
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The plot is gripping, the thought deep — an epic. Every character is alive, and each one's shifting inner life is drawn with unusual richness. I had read Crime and Punishment before, and found Dostoevsky especially gifted at writing the human conscience: how, after a wrong, a person repents and seeks redemption in the discovery of that conscience. He believes in the nobility and beauty in human nature. Now, on this cold winter night, in a chaotic world, I still choose to believe — to believe in everything beautiful, to believe there is still hope for us, to believe that things will get better. Won't they?
The Red and the Black
Stendhal
The struggle of a small man. The psychology is true. Anyone with ambition might see themselves in Julien — that youthful fire, that great passion, that all-or-nothing resolve. As the line goes: no one lifts me toward the clouds; I will walk through snow to the peak myself. The mad love-and-war between Julien and Mathilde, and that stunning, terrible ending, stayed with me. When I was young I always imagined I too would have a love that cut to the bone. Later I found she was not Mathilde, and I was not Julien. Life is not a novel. Live it well.
America Against America
Wang Huning
A relatively objective outsider's look at the United States, and a great help in understanding the modern American political system. The problems he named then still exist in America today, and have grown more intense. That foresight is why a book from more than thirty years ago still has value.
From the Soil
Fei Xiaotong
Interesting and deep: it lays out the inner logic of traditional Chinese society. Some of that logic still works by inertia today, so it answered questions I had carried for years, and gave me a new way of seeing facts I had long taken for granted.
Symposium
Plato
Fun. Mixed with all kinds of strange myths, it still showed me what a healthy, beautiful feeling looks like, and gave me a chance to look honestly at my own heart. It also partly undid prejudices and fears I had — from traditional thinking — toward certain topics and minority groups. The prose is excellent.
1587, A Year of No Significance
Ray Huang
Through events in the Wanli reign of the Ming, it writes the logic of the ancient Chinese court, and proposes the so-called “macro-historical view.” It gave me a new understanding of Ming history. Quite interesting.
Remarks on Lyrics
Wang Guowei
This work of literary criticism has been quite inspiring for my own writing. I once wrote a “commentary on the commentary” for it — Alone with Lyrics Under an Autumn Lamp. Someone said that piece sounded weathered and seasoned. Amusing.
Our Ancestors
Italo Calvino — The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, The Nonexistent Knight
The language is full of imagination, almost fairy tale and fable. Many things are woven together: the scale of good and evil in human nature, the existential crisis, the relation of the individual to society. It feels like an abstract painting in a museum of modern art.
The Plague
Albert Camus
Especially like those three years. The psychology of people is described truly; it is oppressive to read, like watching a disaster film. That idealism, the choices small people make in the face of life and death — so small against nature, and still moving. The writing is very good.
The Silent Majority
Wang Xiaobo
At first it is bracing, especially the remarks on intellectuals, which made me think hard. After a while the ear tires: the same points said again and again. It is a collection of essays, though — treat it as a snack, not a main course.
Ming Dynasty 1566
Liu Heping
The plot is still a good read; as a novel it is satisfying. There is no need to insist it is using the past to criticize the present. Every country, every era, has its own conditions. Beware over-deconstruction and plugging everything into a formula.
Stories of the Sahara
Sanmao
Fine. The prose is plain; its virtue is honesty. A way to know the customs of the desert.
Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
Mo Yan
A good conceit. Not much else.
View original Chinese中文原文
《卡拉马佐夫兄弟》
情节精彩，思想深刻，堪称一部史诗，每个人物都很生动，且每个人动态的心理转变也描绘得相当丰富。之前也读过《罪与罚》，发现陀思妥耶夫斯基特别擅长写人类的良心，尤其是在犯了错误之后，人怎样在良心发现中忏悔和救赎自己，他相信人性中的高尚和美好。现在，在这寒冷的冬夜里，在混沌的世界格局下，我仍选择相信，相信一切美好的事物，相信人类还有希望，相信一切都会好起来的，是吗？
《红与黑》
小人物的奋斗史，心理描写很真实，也许每个有野心的人都能从于连身上看到自己，那种少年意气，那种伟大的热情，那种不顾一切的决心，正所谓“无人扶我青云志，我自踏雪至山巅”。于连和玛格丽特之间相爱相杀的疯狂和那惊心动魄的惨烈结局也令我印象深刻，年轻的时候总幻想自己也会有像这样刻骨铭心的爱情，后来才发现，她不是玛格丽特，我也不是于连，生活不是小说，好好过日子。
《美国反对美国》
相对客观地以局外人视角观察美国，对我了解整个的美国现代政治体制有很大帮助。并且他当时指出的一些问题在今天的美国仍然存在并愈演愈烈，这种前瞻性让这本三十多年前的书在今天仍有其价值。
《乡土中国》
很有趣，很深刻，揭示了中国古代社会的内在逻辑。这些逻辑有些因为惯性直到今天还在生效，因此解答了一些我多年以来的疑惑，对一些平时熟视无睹的事实也有了新的认知。
《会饮篇》
有意思，虽然掺杂着许多奇奇怪怪的传说，但让我明白了正常健康美好的感情是什么样子，给了我一个正视自己内心的机会，并且部分消除了我由于传统思想对于某些话题以及一些少数群体产生的偏见和恐惧。文笔很好。
《万历十五年》
借明朝万历年间的事情写出中国古代庙堂之上的逻辑，并提出了所谓的“大历史观”，让我对明史又有了新的了解，挺有趣的。
《人间词话》
这本文学评论对我的文学创作挺有启发的，我曾经专门为此写过一篇“评论的评论”（秋夜灯下独品词 | 杂谈），别人说我这篇写得沧桑老练，也是有趣得很。
《我们的祖先》三部曲（《分成两半的子爵》《树上的男爵》《不存在的骑士》）
文字富有想象力，天马行空得近乎童话寓言故事，许多东西交织在一起，人性的善恶天平，存在主义危机，个人与社会的关系，感觉像是一幅现代艺术博物馆里的抽象画作。
《鼠疫》
特别像之前那三年。对人们心理状态的描述很真实，看得很压抑，像在看灾难片。那种理想主义，小人物在面对生死时的抉择，尽管在大自然面前显得那么渺小，还是令人动容。文笔很不错。
《沉默的大多数》
乍一看还是挺提神醒脑的，特别是关于知识分子的论述让我进行了深刻反思。但看久了就审美疲劳，车轱辘话反复说，不过这毕竟是杂文集，就当个点心看吧，不能当正餐。
《大明王朝1566》
情节还是好看的，当作一部小说看得过瘾。不过说借古讽今就没必要了。每个国家，每个时代，都有不一样的具体情况。谨防过度解构和盲目套公式。
《撒哈拉的故事》
还行，文笔朴素，贵在真实，可以了解沙漠的风土人情。