Ox-Cart Murmurs: A Collection of Reader Reviews, III - Reader "Once Very Future" Reviews "A Refined Scholar of the Cold"

These days, when choosing books to read, I generally pay more attention to the prose; time-travel fiction has a hard time breaking new ground in plot anymore. A Refined Scholar of the Cold made my eyes light up. I had finished The Royal Family, and although it had much to recommend it, the prose was still a little thin-brimming with inspiration, but every bit as unpolished. With A Refined Scholar of the Cold, though, I truly loved it to pieces. The storytelling, the portrayal of people, the depiction of things-all unfolded in an unhurried, engaging flow, truly like walking among mountains and rivers, with wonders and soaring peaks everywhere. The contrivance and labored craftsmanship of The Royal Family had already melted away, and the beauty of the prose stood vividly before my eyes. Let me offer a word of praise first :)

Then there were the characters: Chen Caozhi, refined and gracefully handsome; Lu Weiwei, pure and flawless; Xie Daoyun, unmatched in talent and debate; Ding Youwei, warm and lustrous as jade; Gu Kaizhi, Hutou, that great obsessive. Under Zei Dao's pen, they all leaped from the page, lively and lifelike. Think of Miss Lu traveling a thousand li there and back to protect the flowers, Miss Xie racing by boat for three days to hear a tune, Gu Hutou chanting poetry through the long, long night-the spirit and bearing of the Wei and Jin came sweeping into one's face, like drinking fine wine, mellow and sweet, intoxicating all on its own.

When it came to writing romance, this too stood well above The Royal Family. He and Lu Weiwei met through flowers, and through flowers affection grew; although their journey together was plain and uneventful, it entwined itself around the heart, portraying to the fullest a pure young girl's passage from innocent bewilderment to devoted, passionate love. Thinking of the unspoken understanding between the two across a desk-"Between us lay a clear stretch of water; gazing tenderly, we could not speak"-and of the heart-engraving depth of feeling when Lu Weiwei said, "There he gathers wormwood; one day without seeing him feels like three autumns," I could not help feeling a little moved. Since ancient times, love has moved people through the pain of longing. Lu Weiwei was a fine girl :) But I don't like this heroine (don't hit me, everyone :)). My favorite is still Xie Daoyun! Not the woman from history famed for her verse on willow fluff, not the one in Shishuo, but the Zhu Yingtai under your pen, solemn in appearance yet warm when approached. Whether she was the visitor on the river who traveled six hundred li just for a single tune, the sharp-tongued fellow student whose eloquence knew no obstacles, an ordinary woman a little jealous and a little foolish for love, or even a peerless beauty of incomparable loveliness from a great and illustrious family, her every gesture was graceful and full of charm. She seemed nothing like a character beneath an author's pen, but rather someone standing alive before your eyes. A woman like this, with joy and sorrow, praise and sighs, wins more of my affection than the simple Lu Weiwei... Author, she is going to join his harem, right?

As for the elder sister-in-law, all you beastly brothers need to concentrate your fire. Whether Zei Dao will have him bed her is a question, but for the sake of subscriptions, perhaps...

I am a gentleman, I am a gentleman...

Keep it up, author. Judging by my past record, every book I have written a long review for has become a hit. This is one of this century's ten great unverifiable mysteries, and I'm very vexed :)

Posted by: Once Very Future