Breakthrough In Desperation

In the 80s, with the implementation of the Reform and Opening-up Policy and the prosperity of market economy, a kitsch wind swept the literature field. However, Shi Tiesheng is a special writer. He is one of the most admirable contemporary Chinese literature writers. He became disabled when he was young. Because of this, he has profound sentiment and thoughts of misery, disability and death. His writing is part of his life, he writes on the sufferings, explores death, asks for ultimate meaning of his life. Perhaps because Shi longed for death eagerly at the beginning of his suffering, he always chooses the "death" as the theme in his novels. His works are full of the strong awareness of death, while he thought more carefully, he gradually gained a new understanding of life and death, which had been brought into his creative stories.This article is divided into three chapters. The first chapter analyzes Shi's death reflection with details. He only got a unclear, unknown impression of death when he is young. Until he suffered the misfortune of disability, death seemed to be the only way to set him free and also the best destination. After sensible thinking, he turned from the expectation of death to concern of the life, and finally created a unique philosophy of "Life Process Theory". Along with depth of thinking, he realized that though the corporeal body may be dead, the soul could go on with the human eternal life, and surpasses the corporeal death.Chapter two analyzes the source of his death concept. First, about the character and temperament, Shi Tiesheng, who is a quiet man and good at thinking, and was recognized as a philosopher, can think about life and death patiently and insist on pursuing the ultimate meaning of life. Then, his rough life experiences directly made him face the death, It was love and writing that saved him and gave him the spiritual support for his worthy breakthrough. In this process, he was inspired by the Christian original sin, Sisyphus's spirits of rebellion, the "Process Theory" in the existentialism domain and the concept of Buddhist reincarnation, and formed his own viewpoint of death in the end.Chapter three summarized Shi's characteristics of "death" theme at different stages. With the changes of Shi's death concept, his novels turn from "charming" to the word "beauty" during the descriptions of the death, which is a great qualitative change. In the earlier period of his works, death seems to be charming and the best relief to those disabled people. When he thought deeply, the results of his heroes no longer trapped in death, but obtain another kind of life finally. In his later works, the descriptions of death are described in a way of quiet and beautiful, which have a sense of aesthetic and mystery.