Library

Mr. Liu Mingjiu's collection of essays includes nostalgia for people, reminiscing about the past, and correspondence with friends. "This Teacher Is a Saint" and "Blues Bian Zhilin" commemorate two senior scholars of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Feng Zhi and Bian Zhilin, and are brilliant chapters in this collection that show their skill. At the beginning of the reform, the academic climate suddenly turned cold. Mr. Liu's "Study on Sartre", which was the first to break through ideological restrictions, not only attracted envious eyes, but was also labeled as a specimen of "spiritual pollution" by conservatives and was banned and destroyed. Bian Zhilin inherited Xu Zhimo's poetic style and became famous in the early years with a poem "Fragment of Chapter". Although he had a history of traveling to the red base areas, he retreated midway. As a result, he was sandwiched between Li Jianwu, Yang Jikang, Luo Dagang and other scholars at the Academy of Social Sciences. The role between the scholar and the veteran cadre is quite awkward; but "the blood of nobles is blue", the celebrity and elegant scholar described by Mr. Liu is indeed outstanding, showing a detached, free and easy personality in his academic career that has been changing for decades.

His son died young in the United States, leaving behind a wife with no job or income and a little daughter less than five years old. According to his wishes during his lifetime, his body was donated to a public medical institution. His relatives, colleagues, friends, and old classmates held a grand memorial service in the local area, full of affection and friendship... In addition to ensuring that his wife and daughter could live a stable and well-off life without worrying about food and clothing, the property he left behind also established a permanent scholarship named after him at the university where he graduated. Although the scale is small, it can support the tuition and living expenses of a poor student every year. Drinking water and remembering the source, this Chinese young man originally graduated from a scholarship from an American university. He only lived to be thirty-seven years old, but he made his own return to the society that accepted him...

For the first time, Mr. Liu Mingjiu conducted a panoramic scan and confession of his life, showing his academic journey and inner monologue as a living fossil in the history of modern Chinese humanities. He has no intention of erecting a monument or biography for himself, nor does he whitewash his self-portrait in oil paint in order to gain the glory of history. Instead, he expresses his feelings directly, stays true to his own inner self, and truthfully writes a real self that can be seen, felt, and reflected in every detail. This is a writing in which the soul is present. In order to fully present its spiritual core and soul guidance, he even did not hesitate to reveal his inner weakness, entanglement and helplessness. Its frankness and sincerity directly follow Rousseau's "Confessions", which makes people sigh when reading it.