Zhang Xianliang (December 1936 – 27 September 2014) was a Chinese novelist, essayist, and poet, and former president of the Chinese Writers Association in Ningxia. He was detained as a political prisoner during the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, until his political rehabilitation in 1979. His most well known works, including Half of Man is Woman and Grass Soup, were semi-autobiographical reflections on his life experiences in prison and in witnessing the political upheaval of China during the Cultural Revolution.

Zhang Xianliang Quotes

1. “Yes, this world is truly terrible, which is why the pure and the holy come bravely forward: They have decided to eradicate the sins of the world. They want to standardize people, keep them in order, keep them in place under their own rear ends. They are the reason I have had to die a hundred times.”
— Zhang Xianliang

2. “Mountains and rivers are easy to move, but it’s impossible to change a man’s nature.”
— Zhang Xianliang

3. “I’ve come to realize that it is much easier to infatuate people with promises, or even to lead them to their own deaths, than it is to awaken them to use their minds.”
— Zhang Xianliang