A noisy river full of red light is raging with sharply angular waves.
In the center of the composition, a half-naked man with broad shoulders is running with open arms toward the reckless giant river.
He was like a superficial little duck, swimming forward.
This is not the first time he has swum here, he has swum across the river many years ago when he was a child, when he was still a clumsy duckling.
Now he is no longer the superficial little duck, but a sensible man who has tasted pain all over again.
The river, which he had swam twice, was, to him, his father.
His father's name was Huang he.
One of the largest rivers in the north, passing through the rugged and bold nature of the Loess Plateau, travels thousands of miles throughout the north, this is the raging Yellow River water, but also the river of our lives.
For thousands of years, this Yellow River has nourished the people of the whole north, but it has also nurtured more lives with a broad mind.
And our youth, our love, our lives, are all related to this river.
The flowing Yellow River seems to be a river, but the history it has witnessed for thousands of years, the roads it has traveled, and the culture born because of it are full of vitality and thickness.
This thickness is like the thickness of life itself, so the river in the north is also the river of life.
Some people see the river in the north as a real estate, after all, it is there, flowing;
There are also people who regard the river in the north as the source of our northern culture, to explore, to think, to worship, to love, to pursue.
In fact, in the vast world, everything has spirituality, but the river in the north is not a real estate, it is a poetic and romantic existence.
Someone wanted to compose it into a poem, and then there was "The River of the North."
"The River of the North" is a poetic and romantic existence, which carries the author's love and admiration for northern culture.
This book seems poetic, but it is not poetry, nor prose, but a novella, and the creator is Zhang Chengzhi.
Speaking of Zhang Chengzhi, he is the most poetic existence among the northern writers.
He was young and manic, grumpy, but full of idealism.
A heroic northern man, with a big voice unique to the northwestern, and more typical machismo, but loves romance.
Such a magical place can only be found in the north, and only the north is suitable for him.
Zhang Chengzhi belongs to the north, and he became famous at a young age, speaks many languages, and also has a lot of knowledge of human geography, history and archaeology.
In this life, he came from the north, took root in Inner Mongolia, searched in Xinjiang, created in Beijing, and pursued abroad.
His life was like a river in the north, never stopping.
That love of life, as well as the fanatical pursuit of ideals, makes him like a river, a rushing river, a river of youth, a river of life.
In him, we can see the self who is not willing to accept defeat; see the youthful, crazy but sensitive self; see the self who loves life but is full of passion.
He is an ideal being, carrying the aspirations of all northerners, and he has lived as a river of the north, and that river is closely related to us.
Today's Zhang Chengzhi studies human history in Japan, and his life has come to this day, but he still has not stopped his running pace.
A lot of times, we wonder, where did his passion come from? Where did his fanaticism come from?
Now that I have read this "River of the North" written by him, I think I understand, it turns out that this book is about the dream-chasing self, and it is also written about us who are chasing dreams.
"The River of the North" is a unique presence in Zhang Chengzhi's novels, involving geography and humanities, historical archaeology, family affection, love, friendship, and youth and growth.
The great river in the northern geology runs through humanistic thinking, mixed with the ancient culture of history and archaeology, and through personal growth, those growing youths are gathered into a river under Zhang Chengzhi's pen.
This river of life is the River of the North.
The novel takes the first-person "I" as the protagonist of the novel, and through the story of "I" and the river, it tells the bumpy years of a person and a generation, and exposes the story of young people's difficult choices and survival in the context of special times.
The story is thick, but it's also romantic.
The protagonist of the story is a college graduate who is at a turning point in choosing his future.
At this time, he was confused and full of passion.
Until he remembered the river in the north, the love for the river in the north and the love for the ancient Chinese culture that he had no hesitation in applying for the human geography major.
The newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, he has a youthful momentum, he decided to go to the Loess Plateau to investigate.
On the Yellow River, he met a female newspaper photojournalist.
A man, a woman, and a Yellow River constitute a beautiful picture.
And the protagonist of the picture is this northern man.
On the banks of the Yellow River, looking at the majestic waters of the Yellow River, the majestic shock of the atmosphere, and the rapids of the river, all aroused the competitive spirit of the man, who wanted to cross the Yellow River, just like when he was young.
Conquering the Yellow River is like conquering himself, and at this moment he is like a typical northern man, rough, responsible, but passionate.
The rapids and majestic waters of the Yellow River not only stimulated his desire to conquer, but also reminded him of his father.
He said: Yellow River, just like my father, I don't have a father, I need such a father.
At this moment, he truly regarded the Yellow River as his father, and he could be like a wayward child, plunging headlong into the water, feeling the touch and comfort of the Yellow River water, and feeling the escort given to him by a father.
He jumped into the Yellow River and butterfly-swam across.
In the Yellow River, he felt that he was old and sad for himself, but he was unwilling to admit defeat and finally successfully crossed the Yellow River.
The courage and passion to cross the Yellow River is what we need most in life, but some people give up this kind of thing early, while some people cherish it again and again.
Life is not perfect, it is full of broken cracks, tinkering, and in the end it cannot be renewed.
And life is a rushing river, only continuous creation, and never stop exploring and pursuing, in order to make people's lives tend to be complete.
The Yellow River is the largest river in the north, but it does not mean that he is the whole of the north, he is only one of them.
And our life is also, we will not stay in one place, nor will we be willing to stay in one place.
He loves geography and studies the Yellow River, his road is still far away, and the Huangshui River is the other end of his life.
A poor student who has no money to go where he wants to go is the sadness of young people.
Until the help of the female photographer, he went with her to the Huangshui River to investigate.
He saw another scene in the Huangshui River, this time the big river is different from the Yellow River, but it is still important.
Here, the female photographer found a faience fragment, and she loved photography to photograph it.
This faience pottery bears witness to the long history of this river and also bears witness to an ancient history.
This history is broken, it's messy, just like our lives.
Over the millennia, the things that have survived have lost their original appearance, either all of them are broken spots, or they are old after being baptized by the years.
Our lives are like this faience, broken and messy.
This was destined to be just the place he passed, but it was not destined to be the end he wanted.
So this time he chose to go back to Beijing, back to the place where he was going to struggle, and get into graduate school in human geography.
In the process of entering graduate school, because of the admission ticket, because of the illness of his family, because of the choice between friends, and because of this girl, he experienced various setbacks and difficult choices in life.
Fortunately, he found a way out in confusion and pain, and like the river in the north, he began another part of his life.
At the end of the novel, he sleepwalks in Heilongjiang, and on this river full of mythology, he sees his rushing youth.
This is a new force, but also a life force.
The river in the north is a river of youth, love, growth, and fanaticism, and in this river, it is not only the endless river that flows, but also our soaring youth and life.
The novel takes the river in the north as the origin place, and through exploring the starting point and direction of the river, learns about a river and the cultural origin and humanistic history of the north.
These broken or incomplete histories make a young man see his mission and responsibility more, and he is more determined to find the direction of life value.
The first person of the novel "I", without a name, without too much introduction, this person can be Zhang Chengzhi, or it can be us, but also everyone who struggles on the road.
Kawamoto is something that cannot speak and cannot express, but it has the breath of life in Zhang Chengzhi's pen, and there is a symbolic meaning.
This symbol infuses the expression of the river into the human body, so that the river has the spirituality of the people and the perseverance of the people, so the river in the north is not only the river itself, but has another meaning, this meaning is that life is a rushing river, and we all need to move forward bravely.
Reading this book, people will have a surging enthusiasm, a strong taste of northwestern men, a clarion call for youth, and those confused and determined choices, all let us see the passion of life.