Path to inner calm

Author Zhao Defa tells why he prescribes traditional ethics and values for people in present-day China

There was a time when Zhao Defa was famous for his stories about life and politics in rural China. But these days, readers find the author more at home with his so-called "culture novels". Although fictional in nature, these tend to be nonfictional approaches to traditional Chinese values that face numerous challenges in modern society.

Last month, in Beijing, the Shandong Provincial Writers Association and Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House jointly released the revised edition of Zhao's culture novel trilogy: Junzi Meng (Dream of Chinese Gentlemen), Shuangshou Heshi (Praying Hands) and Qiandao Kundao (The Tao of Heaven and Earth).

The three books are about the survival of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in present-day China, and were earlier published in 1999, 2008 and 2012. It is the first time that the novels are being presented together in one collection.

"Many Chinese people today have no faith in religion or traditional ethics that shaped Chinese people over the past thousands of years, such as integrity and honesty, but only live for their worldly desires," Zhao tells China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"As a writer, I believe I should write something about traditional Chinese culture and ethics."

Born in 1955 in Linyi, Shandong province, the writer spent his childhood and early adulthood in poverty, much like many others from rural China in the 1950s and '60s. At 23, his life started to look up when he cleared an exam to become a public school teacher, shortly after which, he was made a local government official. But secretly he always aspired to be a writer.

In 1979, after chancing upon a literary magazine, he began to learn how to write. In the next few years, some of his writings were published in magazines and newspapers.

In 1985, at the age of 30 when he had already become the deputy director of a county-level government agency, he quit his job to become a full-time writer.

"Writing is the most natural way to bring out emotions and thoughts that people accumulate in their lives, and that desire cannot be suppressed," Zhao says.

"I just wanted to write and nothing else seemed important."

The theme for his first published novelette in 1990, Tong Tui Er (Sleeping Head to Toe), was based on his memories of the countryside where he grew up. The story of friendship between two rural women whose husbands had joined the Communist army won him the Baihua Literature Award. After winning the national literary honor, Zhao's writing career took off.

Having published more than 6 million words, he was nominated for China's top Maodun Literature Award in 2011.

Many of his early works reflect the impact of both rural and traditional values on society and discuss the effects of Confucian doctrines that urge people to follow integrity, tolerance and altruism.

But Confucianism is less and less influential in modern Chinese society than egocentrism, Zhao says.

His book Junzi Meng, which he began writing in the late 1990s, tells how a rural intellectual and his offspring try to lead their fellow villagers to live an altruistic life but fail, no matter what doctrines they follow. The novel, published in 1999, received praise from readers and critics for highlighting the conflict between traditional values and modern aspirations.

In 2003, Zhao started to write Shuangshou Heshi, for which he spent the next four years visiting and living in nearly all of the major Chinese Buddhist temples, to closely observe a monk's life and study Buddhism.

The novel follows how the protagonist monk Huiyu goes through internal and external struggles to finally be enlightened to create his own way of practicing Zen Buddhism.

To write Qiandao Kundao, which tells the story of the pursuit of inner peace by the severely ill protagonist, following doctrines of Taoism, Zhao lived in Taoist temples across China to look for inspiration.

The three books were not only market hits, but they also charmed critics.

"They are among the best of very few books exploring the struggling existence of traditional culture and ethics in modern life through novels," Zhu Handong, an official from the Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House, says of its decision to republish the books.

As for Zhao, he hopes readers will not only enjoy the novels' storylines, but will also be enlightened by the protagonists' faith in following traditional Chinese ethics and values.

Note: Junzi Meng was first published by People's Literature Publishing House in 1999, Shuangshou Heshi was first published by Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House in 2008, and Qiandao Kundao was first published by Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House in 2012.

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/09/2015 page29)