"Spirit and Flesh" - Zhang Xianliang
Zhang Xianliang, a famous contemporary writer, was born in Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province. After graduating from middle school in 1955, he taught at Yinchuan Cadre Culture School in Ningxia. In 1957, he was classified as a rightist because he published a long poem "Song of the Wind" in the literary monthly "Yanhe". He was sentenced to labor camp, control, and imprisonment for more than ten years. During this period, he fled and wandered, begging for food. He was rehabilitated in September 1979. In 1980, he was transferred to Ningxia "Shuofang" literary magazine as editor. In the same year, he joined the Chinese Writers Association and began professional literary creation in 1981. He once served as vice chairman and chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Federation of Literary and Art Circles, chairman of the Ningxia Branch of the Chinese Writers Association, and served as a member of the Sixth CPPCC National Committee and a member of the Bureau of the Chinese Writers Association. Influenced by his family, he has been deeply influenced by Chinese classical literature since he was a child. In middle school, he began to have extensive exposure to Russian literature and French literary works, and tried literary creation. He has written and published more than 60 poems. After returning to writing in 1979, he successively published the short story "The Story of Old Man Xing and the Dog"; the novella "Love Stories in the Dungeon" and "Greening Tree"; and the novels "Men's Style" and "Habit of Death". Among them, "Spirit and Flesh" and "Shor Brak" won the National Outstanding Short Story Award in 1980 and 1983 respectively, and "Greening Tree" won the third National Outstanding Novella Award.