One Person's Classic of Mountains and Seas

The human-faced snake body is the prototype of the graceful Nuwa
Covered with the black cloak of time's mischief
When it grows up, it transforms into Medusa.
The temple is covered with dazzling shimmering scales
Each stone statue holds a tragic hero
The Yali, which hides during the day and comes out at night, lives in the crater of a volcano.
Chasing the defeated bandits who were saved by the historians --- "One Man's Classic of Mountains and Seas"

The light-year-long monsters of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas," dating back thousands of years, became archetypes for the good and evil, beauty and ugliness of the people around Chen Xizhe as she grew up. The nourishment of myths and monsters, and the loneliness of solitude, nurtured the poet's pen, penetrating yet lingering, imaginative yet meticulously restrained verse.

This collection of poems is divided into two volumes, showcasing his published and award-winning works over the years in a retrospective format. Volume 1 includes poems by Chen Xizhe from 2009 to 2019 that won the Singapore Golden Pen Award and the Fang Xiu Literary Award; Volume 2 features his younger works from 1998 to 2008.

Chen Xizhe boldly uses the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", an Eastern mythological classic from thousands of years ago, to blend the folk tales and ghosts and monsters rich in imagery in this classic with modern Western poetic texts to form the important backbone and core spirit of the entire collection of poems, reflecting the understanding of life and the world at different stages of life.

The poetry collection is paired with illustrations, outlining the spirit that the author wants to convey in his poems, and also allowing the imagination of the text to be cleverly captured in each illustration.

As Chen Xizhe himself said, "A collection of poems is a person's "Classic of Mountains and Seas". Only rare animals have the tacit understanding to understand the secret language and penetrate the forest of words."

Chen Xizhe

With words as his faith, he wanders between the emotional creation and rational criticism of literature, and occasionally uses a cynical attitude to dilute the hidden anxiety and violence.