我为什么这么绕

刘震云

因为写了几本小说，许多人说，我是中国最“绕”的人。绕来绕去，我只好承认我是中国最“绕”的人。

但我想说，不是我绕，是生活本身就绕。我不创造绕，我只是生活的搬运工。世界上二百来个 国家，两千多个民族；在二百来个国家和两千多个民族里，我们这个民族是最绕的。我是一个特别绕的民族的儿子。我们这个民族特别容易把一件事说成另外一件 事，接着又说成第三件事，一直到第八件事。说来说去，最后一句话是：这事说不清楚。

为什么由一件事变成了八件事？为什么说不清楚？那是因为，我们这个民族一件事和另一件事的边缘从来都不清晰，不清晰就容易演变。每一件事情，每一次演变，都有它自己的道理；因为一件事演变成了八件事，每件事便有八个道理；因为它已经演变成了八件事，于是一件事里便有八八六十四个道理，八八六十四条管道。

其实“绕”这件事情不应该由作家来做，应该由哲学家来做。有一种说法我未必同意，但可以讨论——中国从先秦始，没有产生过大的哲学家，他们只是站在管道之外发表了些人生感慨，而没有钻到八八六十四条管道里产生哲学体系。

说句大胆和悲催的话，因为我们这个民族思想的营养先天贫乏，我只好用小说来钻这些黑暗的管道。

恰恰中外伟大的文学作品都证明，如果文学是一幢大厦，思想对于文学，就像大厦的下水管道甚至像地基一样重要。没有强大和独特的思想支撑，“大厦”就淤塞和倒塌了。

也许，这是我作为一个中国作家的幸福和幸运。

Why I am so Complex

Liu Zhenyun

After I have written several novels, many people have said that I am the most “complex” person in China. No matter what others say, I admit that I am the most “complex” person in China.

However, what I want to say is not that I am complex but rather that life itself is complex. I did not invent complexity, yet I am only someone who facilitates the transmigration of life. There are more than 200 nations in this world, and more than 2000 ethnic groups. Among the 2000 ethnicities and the 200 nations, our ethnic community is the most complex. I am the son of a people that is very complex. Our people will very easily talk about one matter in a way that changes into another matter, then into a third matter, and so on until an eighth matter. We talk and talk, and finally we come to the conclusion: this matter cannot be talked about.

How did eight issues evolve from this one issue? Why can we not talk about it? This is because for our people the borderlines between one matter and the other have never been made clear, and because it is not clear, shifts can easily happen. Every matter and every shift has its reason, and if one matter changes into eight matters, then they all have their eight reasons, since it has already become eight issues.  Thus every matter has 64 different reasons and 64 different ways to handle, or 64 “pipelines”.

Actually the question of “complexity” should not be debated by writers, it should be discussed by philosophers. There is one tenet which I do not fully agree with, but it can be discussed: Since the ancient period from before the Qin Dynasty, China has never produced any philosopher, these scholars only stood outside the concrete problems and uttered some emotional sighs about human life. They never drilled into the inner side of these “pipelines” to handle the 64 different problems, nor did they produce any philosophical system based on these.

Putting it in a daring and pathetic way, it is because from the very beginning our people lacked food for thought, thus I had no other way than to write novels in order to drill through these “pipelines of darkness.”

The great pieces of literature in China and abroad show that if literature is a huge building, then thinking can be compared to the waste-water pipelines of that building, or even the foundations of the building. If there is no support of strong and independent thinking, then the whole “building” will be clogged or it might even collapse.

Being a writer in China, perhaps this is my fortune and good luck.