I Am What I AmFor the Unique Qualities I Have

By Xia Chunjin

Mu Xin is the pen name of Sun Pu （March 17， 1927-December 21， 2011）， who is also known as Sun Yangzhong， courtesy name Yushan. He was affectionately called “A Zhong” by friends and relatives. He changed his name to Sun Muxin in the 1940s， which had become his official name ever since. The pen name Mu Xin is said to have derived from Buddhist thoughts， which means an educator with true heart.

Apart from Mu Xin， he also used many other pen names， including Luo Gan， Ji Guang， Gao Sha， Sima Buqian， among others. While Mu Xin was born in Wuzhen， a historic water town in Zhejiang province， his family originally hailed from Zhejiang’s Shaoxing city， until Sun Xiulin， his grandfather， decided to move the whole household to Wuzhen in the late years of the Qing dynasty （1616-1911）. As a well-known Chinese poet， writer and painter， Mu Xin is regarded as a legendary figure who has drawn on both Chinese and Western artistic and literary traditions.

Mu Xin began writing when he was only 14 years old. Throughout the seven decades of his career， Mu Xin wrote his literary compositions in Chinese. Essays， prose， poems， plays， short fictions， haiku … his works cover a broad range of subjects and genres. While he had to stop writing for a while， he started to publish his works in New York and Taiwan after picking up his pen again in 1983. By the end of the 1990s， a total of 12 literary works had been published in Taiwan. Since 2013， another 15 books in the “Collected Works of Muxin” have been published， setting off a “Muxin craze” on the island.

Since 2006， when Mu Xin’s writings appeared in publication on the Chinese mainland， a total of 17 books have been published so far. Currently， there are still thousands of manuscripts left by Mu Xin， waiting to be compiled for publication. Besides， An Empty Room， a collection of 13 evocative stories， has been translated into English by Toming Jun Liu， a Chinese translator， and published in the US.

Mu Xin’s artistic endeavors started quite early. He began to learn painting at the age of eight and held his first solo exhibition in Hangzhou at the age of 17. He was admitted to the Shanghai Fine Art School in 1946 and had engaged in arts and crafts for a long time after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In the early 1980s， his paintings began to be noticed and won awards in Japan. After studying in the US in 1982， he had been devoting himself to painting. Since 1984， he had held various exhibitions in the US， and those held from 2001 to 2003 helped him gain widespread recognition. At present， three collections of his paintings have been published at home and abroad.

The relationship between the author and the reader is really intriguing， on which Mu Xin， as a writer and a poet， once said： “In my mind， the ‘reader’ is a magnificent and graceful idea， and this idea is almost entirety of my aesthetics. You’re my reader， and that’s quite something！” The last part is more an exclamation of surprise from Mu Xin when he saw his readers. He valued his readers and expected them to be at least his equal， if not his superior. To this end， he sought out his audience much as he sought out his enemies.

It has been 38 years since Mu Xin rebooted his writing and publishing in 1983. If indeed， Mu Xin and his works are “nothing more than that” as some claims stated， they should be just a flash in the pan. On the contrary， in the past four decades， his outstanding talent and wisdom have been acknowledged by many. Two articles from contemporary artists in this book， “Wind， Water， and a Bridge： The Mu Xin I Know” （by Wang Qisen） and “Remembering My Father and Mr. Mu Xin” （by Hu Xisoshen）， are just such testimonies.

After Mu Xin went to study abroad， it wasn’t long before his talent showed itself. The appreciation and encouragement from Chen Yingde and his wife as well as friends like Chen Danqing restored his confidence. It is interesting people first started to notice Mu Xin mostly because of his paintings. Chen Yingde’s piece “Watching the Supernatural Landscape Paintings of Mu Xin” was written under such circumstances. Xu Xin was much heartened by this article that he regarded it as “the first major event in his artistic endeavors”. “If I am finally ‘known’ to the world，” he wrote excitedly in his thank-you letter to Chen Yingde and his wife， “it all starts with you， the two ‘prophets’.”

In his late years， two of his younger friends， Chen Danqing and Chen Xianghong， are also among those who have known Mu Xin the best. “Henri Michaux and Mu Xin： An Encounter of Ghosts” （by Chen Danqing）， “A Courtesy Appointment” and “What I’ll Say to the Moon Tonight” tell the stories of how Mu Xin was invited to return. Then there is Zheng Mingli， a literary scholar from Taiwan， who is one of the earliest to conduct research on Mu Xin’s prose. Her paper “On Mu Xin” points out that “as far as the development of modern prose is concerned， this type of prose [by Mu Xin] is really worth exploring; it is worth the author’s while to work harder and dig deeper， and it is also worth the reader’s while to carefully taste his words time and again.”

In addition， Toming Jun Liu， who translated Mu Xin’s An Empty Room into English and a professor in the Department of English at California State University， Los Angeles， has long been a “professional” reader of Mu Xin’s works as well. He had been in literary communication with Mu Xin for over two decades， and has long mastered Mu’s style. Like Toming， Chen Zishan， Sun Yu， Li Jing， and many more contemporary literary scholars and experts are such “professional” readers， too.

In general， the researchers who take an interest in Mu Xin are either those “who don’t belong to the circle of contemporary literary criticism” and therefore are able to break free the restraints imposed by the academic disciplines， or those who just think highly of Mu Xin’s poetic mindset and his unique aesthetics.

Mu Xin’s virtuosity means that commentaries on his paintings and music compositions have also been selected for this collection， in addition to a few pieces on the Mu Xin Family House as well as the Mu Xin Art Museum， which have already become new landmarks in the cultural Jiangnan （south of the Yangtze River） and ideal places for readers to reminisce about and be closer to Mu Xin.

Mu Xin cared a lot about readers’ responses to his works， and he was always willing to read review articles on his writings. But little did he know that his audience would spread across all walks of life and ages. What we have gathered here is mainly a group of “professional” readers， who have shared their views on Mu Xin and his works from their own backgrounds and perspectives. Whatever their take， this collection will be a valuable addition to the body of research on Mu Xin.