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Zhao Baitian， a writer from Zhejiang， has made his name known across the country by publishing two books on intellectuals of historical significance. At a forum on Zhao's works recently held in Shanghai， participants， mostly writers， commented that \"Yu Qiuyu used to be a must and now Zhao Baitian is a must.\" In Shattered Shadows of History which brought his poetic narrative style to national attention， Zhao discusses eleven intellectuals in the southern China in the years of the short-lived Republic of China. Critic Jing Wendong says that the book is a miniature history. Blooming Trees inside Rocks， the latest book by Zhao， relates the lives and academic achievements of seven great scholars of the Ming and the Qing. It is through the daily life details and imagination that Zhao restores history and portrays the personages and events of the past. Some readers treat the two books on scholars as history while others read them as stories.

Zhao Baitian began to publish short stories in the 1990s. In the early years of his career， his avant-garde narration caught the attention of reviewers. In recent years， Zhao has turned to the history of culture and thought and prominent scholars whose life stories constitute the history. His 1998 short story called A Tale of the Ming Dynasty relates the legendary life of Xu Wei， a preeminent scholar， calligrapher and painter of the Ming Dynasty. Looking back at the short story， the writer comments that the history in the story is a fictitious background against which his hero moves around and that he wrote in a deconstructive way. He realized that reconstructing from within would be more difficult. He explored.One evening in 2001， he jotted down \"narration， text， human story\" on a piece of paper， thinking he finally found a key to a new world. The new style no longer confines narration to intricacies of humans and events. He wanted to work as a historian and examine history from angles of geography， economics， politics， psychiatry so that history might evolve in humanistic details. In addition， he wanted to apply western methodologies such as New Criticism， text study and keywords to the interpretation of Chinese historical events so that he can fully display historic figures， historical sentiments， and the complete vista of a time in which these scholars dwelled.

Zhao Baitian penned a few essays in his experimental style and sent them to Jiangnan， a Hangzhou-based literary bimonthly. Xie Lubo， an editor with the bimonthly， asked Zhao to host a column at the bimonthly. Zhao named it Shattered Shadows of History， based on a statement of Lu Xun (1881-1936)， a leading writer of the 20th-century China.

An alternative biography of Wang Yangming， a flagship philosopher of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)， is the most important section of the Blooming Trees inside Rocks. The philosopher under Zhao's pen gives no sense of greatness. The philosopher once observed that he did not remember how many students he had taught in his lifetime and that these students， no matter whether he remembered their names or not， carried his thought like fire to where they were. Most readers are amazed by the rebellious approach Zhao adopted in writing the biography. He deviated from the orthodox and wrote in the first person. This was his first successful experiment with what he names \"historical imagination\". What he produced was neither a pure fiction nor a review in the strict sense of the word. Following the advice of the publisher， he added a few hundreds of footnotes after he had finished the biography. In his eye， writing the narration in the first person was like creating a barrier. The five-hundred-year hiatus in time posed a difficulty in exploring the heart and mind of the great philosopher. But Zhao asked himself， \"What is the import in writing a book without tackling something difficult?\"

In writing that book， he experienced moments of confusion and loss. He tried dozens of beginnings until he came to this sentence: \"I will remember the face in the rain to the last moment of my life.\" Reading the sentence， he was confident that he had finally put himself in a style that looks like sumptuous and luxuriant woods in the south. During the writing of the book， he set himself a task. At night he would imagine himself living in the ancient time and write some imaginary descriptions about scenes， people， and thoughts. Most of the midnight random descriptions were discarded and some found their way into the book.

It was by no accident that Zhonghua Shuju is the publisher of Zhao's works. The two books were recommended by authoritative book-review publications and caused a stir among high-end readers. Positive reviews appeared in important literary publications. According to critics， Zhao \"opened the history's black box with a poetic and intellectual narration\". The two books are listed as midlist books， books with a strong intellectual or artistic bent which have a chance of significant success but are not assumed to be likely bestsellers. The two books have enjoyed nice sales.Shattered Shadows of History had sold out by May， 2007 and as for Blooming Trees inside Rocks， half of the first edition was sold within the first month after the publication.