In the seventh year of the Republic of China, Tongcheng. Lu Chengan, a child of a scholarly family, returns home from Peking University to take care of his seriously ill father, the declining family business, and a small wooden boat left by his grandfather with the word "Shou Xin" engraved on it.
He originally wanted to be a well-behaved ferryman - like the old ferryman in his grandfather's story, who kept his integrity and ferried people smoothly in troubled times. But the water in Tongxi became dark, the crops along the river withered, and the people's taxes increased. Friends and relatives around them began to make their own choices for survival. At the invitation of newspaper editors Shen Wangchuan and Xu Qingru, he took up his pen and spoke for those who could not speak, and for the polluted river.
The article stirred up trouble and also brought disaster. He was taken to court by the powerful, faced with a $5,000 claim and the threat of ruin. My brother moved away from home, my friends were forced to leave, and my father was seriously ill in bed. He found himself standing on a river that was more dangerous than in his grandfather's story - the wind and waves were not in the water, but in the human heart.
This is a story about persistence and perdition, conscience and reality, individual and era. It is also a story about "crossing people" and "crossing oneself". When the boat is rocking in the wind and waves, can you still hold the pole steady?
"The Boatman" is set against the background of the troubled times of the Republic of China, and uses the fable throughout as its core to depict a group of ordinary people struggling to survive in the torrent of the times. No cheating, no cheating, just real humanity and difficult choices. The ending is open, like the mist on the river. You can't see the other side clearly, but you know the boat is still moving.
The boat travels steadily, and the people crossing the river guard their hearts. When people's hearts are in turmoil, the boat capsizes, and it is never caused by the wind and waves.
