Jihai: Yu Shicun Reads Gong Zizhen
by Yu Shicun
About This Novel
In 1839 (the year of Jihai in the lunar calendar), Gong Zizhen, a civil servant in the Qing Dynasty, resigned from his official position, left the capital Beijing, returned south to his hometown, and then went north to pick up his family and return to his hometown. During this period, he traveled nine thousand miles, had two love affairs, saved countless dinners, and wrote 315 poems. This is a rare large-scale poem collection in the history of Chinese literature, "Miscellaneous Poems of Jihai". In 2019 (the year of Jihai in the lunar calendar), contemporary scholar Yu Shicun used elegant and unique modern Chinese to incarnate Gong Zizhen to give a lyrical monologue. Through a poetic interpretation of "Miscellaneous Poems of Jihai", he spliced and reproduced Gong Zizhen's spiritual map during the Jihai year. It includes not only Yu Shicun's comprehensive research and profound understanding of Gong Zizhen, but also Yu Shicun's own insights and passion for the world. Gong Zizhen's classical poetry and Yu Shicun's vernacular interpretation are ingeniously designed to intersect on the same page, as if two hearts were having a conversation across one hundred and eighty years of time and space. From this spiritual biography that transcends time and space, attentive readers can clearly see how Gong Zizhen, who embodies the culmination of traditional culture, reconciled with the world and himself in the most difficult state; and how contemporary scholar Yu Shicun used Gong Zizhen and the traditional cultural spirit he represented to gain clarity and get out of the dilemma of greasy middle age.
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