A Black-and-White Historical Testimony

By Si Ningze, 2025

I am reading Liu Jiming's Black and White, not someone else's Black and White, much less another author's White and Black. I emphasize this to prevent confusion.

The name Liu Jiming was once quite ordinary—search it online and you'll find countless people who share the same name as the writer Liu Jiming. But nowadays, it seems more and more people sense an allegorical quality in this name, secretly hoping that the dark fog slowly devouring the light will soon dissipate, allowing the light to continue [Note: The name "Jiming" (继明) literally means "continuing brightness/light," creating wordplay with the themes of light versus darkness].

Liu Jiming was once the vice chairman of a provincial writers' association and had created many works, enjoying fame in literary circles early on. But after he finished writing The Human Realm, his colleagues drew their swords against him—someone who had never forgotten his original aspirations. They violently destroyed his car—that was the martial approach. They falsely accused him by "reporting" that his book In Defense of the Chinese Revolution, published in Taiwan, violated laws and regulations—that was the literary approach. When Liu Jiming filed a police report, the relevant authorities claimed they were powerless—that was covert. When they made false accusations, the relevant authorities swiftly investigated Liu Jiming—that was overt. What provoked such hatred and enmity? Presumably because Liu Jiming spoke some truths.

It was under such difficult circumstances that Liu Jiming spent five years creating the 1.2-million-character novel Black and White—what an admirable achievement. Liu Jiming had once said, exhausted after completing The Human Realm, that it would be his last novel. But now that has changed—he has sung another song and set off again on his journey. They wanted to silence him, so he had to create all the more; they wanted to rewrite history, so he had to restore history to its original appearance. What kind of life is this? What kind of black and white is this?

The Taiwan authorities, who were once deeply wounded by the mainland revolution and still deeply resent it, permitted the publication of In Defense of the Chinese Revolution (Professor Kong Qingdong of Peking University wrote the preface for this book, and following his suggestion, Liu changed the title to Defense and Outcry upon publication). However, the mainland, which benefited so deeply from the revolution, refused to publish In Defense of the Chinese Revolution—how starkly black and white. Hong Kong, the model of reform and opening, which experienced a hundred years of British colonialism without undergoing a major revolution, allowed Black and White to be published, but the mainland has yet to publish it (though reportedly it will be)—again, how starkly black and white.

Black and White is a work that truthfully recreates history, differing in this respect from The Human Realm, which depicted numerous heroic figures. The Human Realm contains expectations, so it has heroes struggle and strive; whereas Black and White contains only history cold as iron. The author cannot rewrite history—if history makes someone a hero, then he is a hero; if history rejects him, he is not a hero. When Chairman Mao watched The Red Lantern, he said with emotion that too many people died, then added, "But that's how history was." I imagine Liu Jiming had a similar state of mind when creating Black and White—after all, history is history!

It must be emphasized that Black and White does not reject heroes. For example, Wang Shengli is a hero worthy of our eternal admiration. He rendered outstanding service to New China and shed blood for it, sacrificing an arm. He never forgot his original aspirations, endured humiliation and bore heavy burdens for the sake of serving the people, persisted in struggle, refused to compromise with traitors, until his sacrifice. In life there exist countless people like Wang Shengli—they are society's backbone. But like Wang Shengli, they have lost their voice, able only to contribute to society through an unsustainable model of personal sacrifice. How can this not move one to emotion?

Wang Shengli wanted his son to become Wang Cheng [Note: The hero from the film Heroic Sons and Daughters], but he ended up becoming Wang Sheng instead. Think of Wang Shengli's painstaking efforts, think of Wang Shengli's education—how could it prove so fragile in the face of reality? We cannot blame Wang Shengli for not understanding educational methods, for not understanding the principle that "without comparison there is no discernment," nor can we blame that era for emphasizing only positive education while neglecting negative education. Regarding the moving story of father and son Wang Shengli, the author's pen carries not a trace of emotion, not the slightest tendentious guidance. "Hearing his son say this, Wang Shengli's turbid eyes brightened, that raised hand weakly dropped down, and a trace of consoled smile appeared on his face..."—this is the author's final description of Wang Shengli.

Wang Sheng is the author's sole chosen core character—he is both the most important central figure and the most important main thread, with all other important characters related to him. Wang Sheng's story is the core, while other stories, overtly or covertly, explain why Wang Sheng's story happens, how it develops, and what kind of ending it will have. Wang Sheng cannot be considered a hero, only a good person. Compared to those opposite him, he is truly too young and naive, sometimes extraordinarily simple. He urges his father to compromise with the Ba Dong father and son because he doesn't understand the deadly struggle between both sides; he changes his name from Wang Cheng to Wang Sheng because he cannot withstand others' mockery, doesn't know how to face what he should face; he passes a note to Lang Tao because he doesn't understand the inner world of liars; he associates with Du Wei because he doesn't understand the sinister nature of human relationships, nor does he understand what The Art of War teaches about not dealing with people of unclear stance and unclear intentions; ... he reports Wu Bozhong and his son because he doesn't know under what circumstances reporting works, nor does he understand he must be prepared to pay a price for it. All these descriptions are neither for praise nor for criticism, only for describing—and precisely because of this, one sees in Wang Sheng the shadows of countless people!

Wang Sheng's actions show he hasn't yet grasped the two characters for "justice." Some people like to say "justice may be late, but it never fails to arrive"—the "justice" in this phrase means punishment, not the fundamental meaning of justice. The fundamental meaning of justice is "the common interest of all." Only when one represents the common interest of a group is one just within that group—the two characters for justice clearly point to the beneficiary group. Precisely because of this, Chairman Mao proposed killing fewer and being cautious about killing, and showed leniency to many heinous criminals, and in doing so, what he sought was to achieve true justice—to achieve the people's greatest interests. Some people, under the banner of repaying grievances with kindness, engage in acts of recognizing thieves as fathers—this is not an awkward imitation but a bold conspiracy, because behind all this there is no true justice, no fundamental common interest of the people. What people often say about "he hurts you in the name of being good for you" expresses roughly the same logic. Which of the stories spanning nearly a century told in Black and White is not for the "common interest" of a specific group? Of course, those who truly work for the common interests of the majority will definitely proclaim this loudly and fulfill it in action. Those representing minority interests will also definitely proclaim loudly that they represent everyone's common interests, but it cannot possibly be implemented in action, much less fulfilled—no one can simultaneously represent the interests of both sides when interests are opposed. On this point, the story of Black and White is completely consistent with historical reality.

Because Black and White is so truthful, some people want to directly link the characters and events in the book with real-life figures and events—for example, Chen Yimeng was an educated youth, so he equals someone who was an educated youth; in the Donggang incident the masses beat a foreign capital representative (a Chinese person) to death, so they link it to the Tonggang incident [Note: A real 2009 labor dispute in Jilin]; Wu Bozhong can heal and deceive, so they link him to Wang Lin [Note: A controversial qigong master]; The Confession brought bad influence, so they link it to Superfluous Words [Note: A famous recantation by early Communist Qu Qiubai]; and so on, too numerous to enumerate. This kind of interpretation is not only selective but also diminishes the value of Black and White. In creating Black and White, which truthfully reflects history, there must have been numerous prototypes, but the created characters are richer, more profound, and more representative than the prototypes. Comparing it with a certain bloodless mass incident in reality can illustrate this point well. In that mass incident, protesters occupied a twenty-plus-story office building and all its windows, with even more protesters and official enforcers below. The moment the enforcers received orders to storm the building, the protest representative shouted, "If you dare rush in, we'll jump down," and hundreds of people instantly grabbed window frames with one hand, their bodies leaning out uniformly in jumping position—they would all jump if hands loosened slightly. This uniform and silent action shocked everyone into silence. The protest representative said: "Your legitimacy was forged with our workers' blood and lives. If you don't solve the problem, today we'll wash away your legitimacy with blood." Finally the authorities compromised and reached reconciliation. Can the Donggang incident in Black and White also represent this bloodless mass incident? Absolutely. The masses in both are the same, but the behavior of official personnel differs, thus leading to different outcomes.

Black and White is very different from The Human Realm. The Human Realm is singing transformed into weeping, while Black and White is weeping transformed into singing. Singing transformed into weeping is singing for heroes, and also weeping for heroes' suffering and heroes' scarcity. Weeping transformed into singing is weeping for endless suffering, weeping until there are no more tears, finally becoming a song of revenge. If there were thousands upon thousands of Ma Ke and Ma La [Note: Characters from The Human Realm], society would surely be different. And precisely because of the existence of thousands upon thousands of Wu Bozhong, Du Wei, Wang Sheng, and Chen Yimeng, society has become what it is today. One can read The Human Realm without reading The Communist Manifesto, but without having read the Manifesto, one cannot understand Black and White. The Human Realm embodies historical truth in specific details, and Black and White continues this style. For example, that traditional Chinese medicine can cure illness is demonstrated in Wu Bozhong, although Wu Bozhong is not a good person. Even his evildoing requires real skill to accumulate some capital. Through Wu Bozhong it also reveals how hospitals at certain moments ceased to heal. Wang Sheng organizes book catalogs in prison—the book list is long and detailed, containing quite a few works from 1966-1976, invisibly shattering the rumor that "those ten years had only eight model operas and one Hao Ran" [Note: Referring to the Cultural Revolution period]. Wang Sheng's cellmate Old Guo's "Story of the Watch" recreates the true course of household contract responsibility, letting people truly feel how difficult it was for the people of Nanjie Village in Henan, Zhouzhuang Commune in Hebei, Xingshisi Village in Northeast China, and Huaxi Village in the South—how they refused to submit. Also, from officials like Chen Yimeng, both good and bad, one sees they don't take The Communist Manifesto as their standard, much less mention it. And so on, too numerous to enumerate. Black and White writes out history's original appearance just like this, as distinct as black and white.

Black and White is a good book worth reading repeatedly. If I were to write out all my reflections after reading, they would probably be longer than the original work, so here I can only cast a brick to attract jade and stop at the right point. Borrowing the opening poem from Dream of the Red Chamber for an overall assessment seems quite fitting: "Seemingly absurd words, truly bitter tears. Don't say the author is foolish, understand the flavor within."

Marx and Engels said, "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned..." [Note: From The Communist Manifesto]—do you see it?

(This article won first prize in the inaugural "My Reading of Black and White" essay contest)