I am glad that my novel "The Garden" has also been translated into French, so that the readers of "Home" can see more clearly how the feudal landlord families in China are declining and perishing.

When the first edition of "The Garden" was published in 1944, I wrote the following "content description":

This novel uses the clues of a mansion to write the unfortunate story of the two masters in the old society. Unearned money became the cause of family calamity and the opportunity for the depravity of children and grandchildren. The affluent parasitic life caused a young man to drown in the river, a young master to die of illness in prison, and a son to drive away his father and his wife to deny her husband. The old owner of the garden, the Yang family, collapsed, and its new owner, the Yao family, began to go downhill. Even the kind-hearted woman who wants to "wipe every tearful eye" will suffocate in this mansion in the future, unless she has the courage to rush out.

I myself was born in this mansion. I'm writing about real life. Yang Laosan and Yang Mengzhi in "Rest Garden" are Gao Keding in "Home". His death is written according to his true ending. Someone criticized me for "sympathizing with the protagonists, pitying them, feeling angry for them, but...... None of the protagonists have ever stood up and struggled to transform their lives. "There is no one in the novel "The Garden" who dares to fight. My novels are just elegy for the dying old society.

However, it all passed like a nightmare. My country and people, as well as my readers, are striding forward today towards an infinitely bright future. The painful memories of the past and the contrast between the old and the new society can only strengthen their courage and confidence to move forward.

If French friends and readers can see from this melancholy story the old society in which we lived, better understand the high-spirited spirit of the new Chinese who have been freed from the old shackles and our desire and determination to urgently realize the four modernizations, and warmly hold the hand of our outstretched friendship, then as the author of the novel, I have no more to ask for.

May 3, 1978.

Appendix to "The Garden" Preface to the French translation of "The Garden" is being typed, please wait a moment,

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