Lingshan (30th Anniversary Edition, featuring the author's preface and interview for the first time)

Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian's classic novel, a pilgrimage novel about wandering through the mountains and borderlands, a journey of spiritual contemplation, has been published in a new edition to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

★First time including the author's preface and interview★
A self-examination of the most distant experiences in one's life, the freedom of returning to Lingshan to inquire.

The first reason for escaping is to survive, the second is to seek freedom. As an artist and writer, it is for the freedom to create.
──Gao Xingjian

The 30th anniversary of the publication of "Spirit Mountain", Gao Xingjian's "greatest work" in retrospective writing, not only took the longest time to write, spanning from China to France, but also recounts the author's experiences in the 1980s as he journeyed through the Yangtze River Basin, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and Guizhou, Sichuan, covering more than 10,000 kilometers through wild mountains and harsh waters.

After being misdiagnosed with lung cancer, the novel's protagonist leaves Beijing and wanders upstream along the Yangtze River. Along the way, he stumbles upon the name "Lingshan Mountain" and, driven by longing, journeys to the small town of Wuyi, seeking the mountain's entrance. Life's odyssey thus takes on the connotations of a pilgrimage. Ostensibly as a writer, he visits villages, collects folk songs, and meets with singers and priests. He delve into a land where the Tibetan, Qiang, and Miao ethnic minorities still practice witchcraft and mythology, encountering another woman. In reality, he embarks on an inner philosophical journey, intertwined through the perspectives of the personal pronouns "I," "you," and "she."

The narrator declares: "In this long monologue, you are the one I am speaking to, the self who listens to me. You are merely my shadow." This novel, with its unique polyphonic narrative, blends novel aesthetics such as dramatic spoken language while revealing layers of thought. As Gao Xingjian puts it, "it opens a channel to one's consciousness and subconscious," and "personal pronouns are the channel." Through the practice of language art, it approaches the narrator's spiritual freedom from all angles.

The Royal Swedish Academy's eulogy stated: "Spirit Mountain is not only a pilgrimage novel narrating the protagonist's journey, but also represents a process of reflection, the two sides of this reflective path being fiction and real life, fantasy and memory. The form of the exploration of intellectual issues is gradual and in-depth, in order to break away from purpose and meaning."

Recommended by all walks of life

"Spirit Mountain" is a truly dizzying novel, worthy of its title. The fearless Gao Xingjian has just written one of the most baffling novels of all: a meta-skywalker's guide, page after page like a kite, whirling and captivating! --André Clavel, "Express"

This is certainly a novel, a comprehensive masterpiece covering everything from nature to life. Chinese literature, which was almost dead in the 1990s, can now rely on Gao Xingjian's creativity and courage. --Alain Peyrobe, Le Monde

People will understand: Gao Xingjian's creation is not a nostalgic work, but an art form that represents a mountain of the soul! To understand how he climbs it, the key is to never stop! —Jacques Decornoy, Le Monde International Edition

This captivating book is the work of a painter, poet, and philosopher: a wondrous kaleidoscope, it presents an eternal China, brutal, sometimes wonderful, and fragmented, amidst destruction and rebirth. He spent seven years on this wondrous ascent, weaving together memories of the past and childhood, the mundane world and human affairs, the songs of ethnic minorities and the violent, brutal new climate, creating a strange contrast. In short, it is a microcosm of humanity. --Diane de Margerie, Le Figaro

The historical and political aspects are merely the surface of this multifaceted book, which alternates between a picaresque novel, a dream, and a lyrical poem. As the author puts it, this is what is known as an Oriental novel, encompassing allegory, travelogue, and myth. —Gérard Meudal, Libération

This wonderful book, a poetic chronology, weaves together historical anecdotes, folk tales, literary research, philosophical reflections, and romantic entanglements, and, as the author says, puts an end to homesickness. -- Jean-Luc Douin, Film and Television Weekly

This is not just a simple novel; "Spirit Mountain" is a spiritual journey. --Jose fa Martinez, Marseille Daily

2020-11-26

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