▲ "Zi Bu Shu: Complete Collector's Edition", by Xia Da, published by Beijing United Publishing Company in January 2022
The book tells the story of 9-year-old Whisper and his parents who moved to Lintoe Town for work reasons. This quaint and mysterious town has a stretch of distant mountain fields, green trees and shallow ponds, and hibiscus flowers blooming in the garden. Unlike long narratives, this book uses small stories to connect the lives of whispers.
For example, the first "Cocoon" is very representative. Whispering inadvertently broke into the old street that had long been empty, saw a group of mother-in-law who were spinning threads, and was pulled into the hot and hot cocoon workshop by the mother-in-law... Reeling silk, boiling cocoons in hot water, stripping cocoons and drawing silk, and making clothes with silk are things that adults are accustomed to. Whisper felt the burning of the ice silk pajamas on his fingertips, "Is it the despair of weeping that sobbing cocoon?" "It turns out that the selfless dedication of the spring silkworm to the death of the silk is just wishful thinking of human beings.
At the end of each episode, the author Shada will tell a short story related to the chapter. "Shadow" originated from the river where students fall into the water every year in his hometown, and "The Old Carpenter" is a nostalgia for his grandfather who did not have time to tell himself his story, and it is these small emotional accumulations that make daily life different.
With her keen heart and delicate painting style, Xia Da outlined a world in which human beings and all things coexist and fear nature. Here there are not only indescribably beautiful hibiscus flower essences, the souls of the deceased, but also the gods borrowing the way, the white snake shelter, and most importantly, sincere emotions, forgetting the river extradition, winter flying flowers, the hatred of the demon ferret, and the death of the crane.
Through the perspective of 9-year-old whispers, it tells us that the silk thread has temperature, the wood carving can breathe, and the hibiscus flower will feel cold, leading us to see the warmth of the world.
"Zi Bu Shu" began serialization in 2007, 14 years ago. The teenagers who originally followed the manga have grown into adults, but "Zi Mu Whisper" still retains a unique charm that spans time. Through warm comics and fascinating plots, the whole book conveys the author's beautiful hopes and leads everyone to understand the precious meaning between people and between people and nature.
"Zi Bu Whisper: Complete Collector's Edition" includes the stories of "Ah Bao" and "Don't Lose Don't Forget" for the first time. It also includes an interview with Xia Da and the work of Xiao Han, director of "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City".
Book excerpts
The story behind "Zi Mu Whisper" - An interview with Xia Da
Q: The origin of the creation of "The Son of Silence".
Xiada: I was born in Xiangxi. Xiangxi is a very mysterious place with many strange legends. When I was a child, many old women would tell strange stories, and children would listen to them with relish, so they heard about them from a young age. When I was a child, there were many county and local chronicles in my family, and I often read them as stories. There are some stories that also influence later creations. For example, the inspiration for the "Wood Furong" chapter in "Zi Bu Shu" comes from the story of Hibiscus Flower Essence and Wang Changling in the county chronicle. However, the record of the county chronicle is relatively thin, just saying that the hibiscus flower essence poured wine for Wang Changling and accompanied him to recite poems, which is a bit similar to "Liaozhai". When I painted "Zi Mu Shu", I added my imagination of this story, and the fairy who could not take his eyes off the eyes met the poet who was not in the picture at that time.
Q: Why did you choose "The Power of Language" as the entry point for your story?
Shada: The relationship between the strange stories and the language that I came into contact with since I was a child is very large. For example, there is a saying that "someone tells you not to say yes in the middle of the night", which reflects the importance of "name". Similarly, there are some magic weapons in "Journey to the West" setting, "I call you a voice do you dare to agree", the other party will be sucked in once they answer. In the cognition of many people, a person's name has a special power. When I grew up a little, I was exposed to literature, such as Ursula Legunn's novel Legend of the Earth and The Sea, which had a core setting of "telling my real name." In my opinion, there are a lot of interesting legends and story settings, which are essentially talking about the power of language, so I naturally thought of this as the main axis of the story.
Q: Does the character of Whisper have your own projection?
Shada: Actually, no, whispering personality is completely different from mine. Whisper is what I think of as a "good boy"—playful, kind, polite, gentle and empathetic. When I was a child, I was not so well-behaved, and my personality was relatively middle-class. So when I was creating whispers, I was just blending into the life environment that I was familiar with. I may borrow some fragments from real people when I build characters, but the correlation is weak. But I love whispers, and you can find that almost all of my protagonists will be very badly injured for some reasons, such as long songs, and Adin in the now serialized "Step Heavenly Song", only Whispers are still alive and jumping, although occasionally there will be a fever...
Q: Are there any fragments of the author's life in "The Son of Silence"?
Shada: In addition to the living environment in which I grew up, it also includes a relatively large humanistic background. For example, when depicting the streets and buildings of Lintoe Town, I will refer to my hometown to a certain extent, such as ancient alleys, courtyard structures, flying pigeon arches, wood carved window ledges, etc., all of which are appropriately absorbed and used as painting elements in the story. Among them, the Furong Building, which many readers are familiar with, is like a doomed fate for me, and I often dream about it during the period when I first left my hometown.
Q: Finally, I would like to ask one thing that everyone wants to know the most - will "Zi Mu Whisper" be re-serialized?
Shada: Yes, I will continue to draw the story of "The Son Is Silent". Maybe it won't be the near future, and now the main energy is still focused on the serialization of "Step Heavenly Song", but the story of "Zi Mu Whisper" will be told in the future, and I am also looking forward to the arrival of that day.
Author: Ye Xiaotian
Editor: Xue Weiping
Editor-in-Charge: Zhu Zifen