【Original Postscript of New York Edition】

 

"Qingqiu Chronicles" consists of three works: the first is "Character Creation", which was originally published in the 6th issue of "Harvest" magazine in 2017, and was later included in the novella series "Kojiki", published by People's Literature Publishing House (2018); the second is "Big Character Creator", which was first published by "Baihuazhou" magazine, and later included in the short story collection "Six Strange Records" (2020.97) published by CITIC Dafang Publishing House; the third is "Character God", which has also been published in the 1st issue of "Shanhua" magazine in 2020.

 

As long as you conduct knowledge archaeology on these three works, you will find that they are essentially the same work, with strict logical continuity of characters/events. For this reason, I have put them together to form a new book. After adding necessary knowledge annotations, I hope it can be presented in a relatively complete appearance to facilitate novel researchers, translators, children's book rewriters and film and television adapters to read it in full. I would like to thank Ms. Wang Zhilan and Mr. Li Zirui for their careful revision of this book, and Mr. Luo Weinian of World Chinese Publishing House for his important contribution to the publication of this book in New York.

 

By the way, since traditional Chinese characters are used, there will be some problems in the conversion of characters. Although a lot of work has been done, there are still some omissions. I hope readers will forgive me.

 

The Kingdom of Qingqiu comes from "Classic of Mountains and Seas: Overseas East", and originally had nothing to do with the legend of Cangjie creating characters. In this novel, it is just a borrowed place name. However, since it became the main place of activity of the mythical Cangjie, it might as well be used as the name of this book. This kingdom covered with green hills completely fits people’s spatial imagination of the ancient oriental homeland.

 

Chinese characters are the core of traditional intangible cultural heritage. They once provided strong cultural support for the construction of the entire East Asian civilization, and will continue to play a backbone role in future cultural evolution. Considering that Chinese characters were once attacked in the "New Culture Movement" in the early 20th century and had a serious bad reputation, this novel attempts to return to the imaginative experience of mythology/history, from which to clarify its positive/negative value and explore its complex interactive relationship with East Asian agricultural civilization. In any case, the "Chinese character community" with characters as the core has always been the cultural cornerstone of Chinese ethnic cognition.

 

In the current extraordinary context, writing a little myth for literary readers may be the best choice for a writer. Myths store the dream of the soul flying freely. Defending this dream is the natural mission of novels.

 

But this mythical novel is not the ultimate allegory. It is an independent text in and for itself, completely beyond my control. It is an illusion, but it may also be history that has happened. In this sense, writing is just to recall lost memories.

January 15, 2020, at Columbia University’s East Asian Library in New York

 

【Supplementary Notes for the Chinese Edition】

 

"The Creator of Characters: A Brief History of the Cangjie Family" has made some major adjustments based on "Chronicles of Qingqiu" published by World Discourse Publishing House in New York (2020). First, in order to make it easier for readers to understand the story, the title of the American version was changed with great reluctance; second, the chapters were reshuffled to make it look more complete; third, some texts were modified and added and deleted in an attempt to improve its narrative sense and temperament.

 

In any case, after eight or nine years of repeated struggles, including a three-year hibernation during the pandemic, this novel has finally been revived and has a relatively complete form. Although it still has a lot of flaws, it can be regarded as a sample of my "new myth" along with these flaws. It has epic ambitions, but only the weight of a pamphlet, and is completely unable to modify the reality of the collapse of Chinese literature. In the end, these human-made texts will become dust to be cleared by AI processors. Time is not the terminator, but AI is.

 

Thanks to Huacheng Publishing House for accepting this little book, allowing it to be published decently, and providing it with a beautiful visual text. Perhaps it is like a meteor, just born, and will fall back into darkness. But it once streaked across the sky, giving people who long for the light of myth a brief moment of hope.

 

Posted on April 1, 2024 in Great Neck, Long Island, New York