Connotation: Humans have lost not only grasslands and wolves, but also the values of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. What is lost is the early totem of the Chinese nation: the spirit of freedom, independence, tenacity and courage, the character, will and dignity of never giving in and never surrendering. This is the theme of Wolf Totem and the writer's sad call.
Main contents:
The background of the story took place in the late 1960s, the last piece of primitive grassland near the border of Chinese mainland and Inner Mongolia. Mongolian herders here still retain the ecological characteristics of nomadic people. They graze cattle and sheep freely and romantically on the grassland, and maintain the ecological balance of the grassland together with groups of powerful prairie wolves. They hate wolves ―― wolves are enemies who invade their homes; At the same time, they are also in awe of wolves-prairie wolves help Mongolian herders kill herbivores that cannot be carried too much on the grassland: antelopes, rabbits and prairie rats of all sizes. Wolf is the primitive totem of Mongols. The wolf's ferocity, cruelty, wisdom and team spirit, as well as its military talent and organizational division of labor, were once the natural instructors and evolutionary engines of the Mongolian army in Eurasia in the13rd century.
It is the history and mystery of the Mongolian nation, as well as the vastness and romance of the grassland that makes the protagonist of this book, a young Beijinger named Stark Chan, walk into the grassland. Soon, Stark Chan discovered that grasslands are not all romantic and free. Herdsmen have to fight wolves to protect their property. He witnessed Mongolian women and children fighting unarmed with wolves that attacked sheep-wolves as big as leopards. I have also strayed into wolves, and I have seen with my own eyes how wolves, under the command of the first wolf, dispatched troops to kill hundreds of antelopes. However, people took away the food stored by wolves. In order to avenge people's greed, the wolf used the cover of winter snowstorm and summer mosquito disaster to launch two cruel and heroic battles and attack horses on a large scale. So people were angered again. Cadres from farming ethnic groups, despite the opposition of Mongolian herders, started a large-scale wolf hunting battle. Stark Chan was shocked by the dignity and sacrifice of the wolf before he died. Stark Chan and his friends personally dug up a litter of puppies and raised one of them. He wants to explore the wolf's habits and philosophy through the growth of a little wolf. Through a series of intoxicating and interesting stories, Stark Chan found that the wolf is the only mysterious animal that cannot be tamed. For example, when facing food for the first time or facing a lot of food, a running circle will be held, similar to the gratitude ceremony or sacrifice of modern religion; For example, once a wolf leaves the earth, he will tremble and be weak, just like Aetna in Greek mythology. Furthermore, Stark Chan found that Mongolians not only regarded wolves as the object of totem worship of their own nation, but also put their bodies in the haunts of wolves for "celestial burial" after their death. Mongolian herders believe that wolves will take their souls to Tengger (Mongolian: heaven). Wolves are the enemies that Mongols fear, and they are also their friends for life and even the afterlife. It was the Mongols who conquered almost half the world with the spirit of wolves and opened up the commercial, trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.
Stark Chan and his young friend from Beijing became one with the herdsmen because of the wolf. But they can't stop the destruction of grassland ecology by farming culture and wrong policies during the Cultural Revolution. They first used modern weapons to kill wolves and drove the only remaining wolves out of the border. In addition, a large area of grassland has been reclaimed. A few years later, the grassland was infested with rodents and a large area of grassland was desertified. At the end of the work, that is, at the end of the novel, sandstorms from Mongolian grasslands have ravaged Beijing, and floating dust even drifted across the sea and wandered in the skies of Japan and South Korea. ...