The present volume consists of nine stories by Duanmu Hongliang which evidence his ardor for the Manchurian landscape and people. His ""native soil"" fiction style, which features the homeland with poetic realist touches, is shared by many modern Chiense writers such as Shen Congwen.

作者簡介：

Duanmu Hongliang (1912–1996) was one of the most talented writers in the modern period of Chinese literature. His poetry, prose, painting, and calligraphy are all works of art, and each has its unique style. None of his contemporaries can match the brilliant of his descriptions of the vastness and the wild nature of the plains and desert of northern China, as well as the spectacular images of nature in his early liter-ary works. Some of his short stories from the 1940s remain as lasting literary treas-ures.

Howard Goldblatt is Research Professor of Chinese at The University of Notre Dame, USA and Haili Kong is Professor of Chinese Language, Litera-ture and Film at Swarthmore College, USA.

端木蕻良（1912–1996）堪稱中國現代文學史上的才子作家。他所作的詩文畫及書法不但都屬一流，而且自成一體；他的文學敍述更是別具風格，常常使各種風土人情自然風貌，維妙維肖躍然紙上。特別是他早年筆下的關外草原沙漠的遼闊和荒野，以及自然景象變化時的恢宏，實在很難在他同時代人裏找到能夠與之相匹配者。他在四十年代寫下的一些短篇更成為獨特的文學精品，經久不衰。

葛浩文為美國聖母大學中文講座教授；孔海立為美國索思摩學院中國語言文學電影教授。