thanatography and the poetic voice 97poor by Chinese standards nationwide and across social strata. He had
few social contacts and apparently suffered heavy blows from ill-fated
love affairs. He wrote at an astonishing pace in several genres at the
same time, the most important being short, lyrical poems, long, narra-
tive-epic poems and plays in verse. Living by himself, writing at night
and sleeping in the mornings, displaying no desire to partake of daily
realities in the world around him, eating little and drinking heavily,
suffering from depression and in his final months from delusions and
pathological symptoms possibly indicating cerebral aneurysm, Haizi
was the epitome of romantic poethood.
DeathsOn 26 March 1989, twenty-five years old, Haizi threw himself under
the wheels of a train near Shanhaiguan, a couple of hundred kilome-
ters east of Beijing, close to the sea. On his body, he carried a note:^7
My name is Zha Haisheng. I am a lecturer in the philosophy teach-
ing and research group at the Chinese University of Politics and Law.
My death has nothing to do with anybody. My previous will herewith
becomes wholly invalid: my posthumous manuscripts are to be given to
Luo Yihe of the editorial office of October, for him to administer.On 31 May Luo Yihe, Haizi’s fellow poet and closest friend and now
his posthumous editor, died after developing a brain hemorrhage and
entering a coma earlier that month. The story of Luo’s death at age
twenty-eight, shortly after he and Xi Chuan had begun work on Haizi’s
literary legacy, was uncanny from the start. The popular view was
that Luo had over-exerted himself while working to establish Haizi’s
memory. Moreover, he had first collapsed on Tiananmen Square, oc-
(^7) See Yang Li 2004: 16-17 and Liaoyuan 2001: 340. Yang Li 2004 contains
Luo’s letter to Wan Xia describing Haizi’s suicide. Luo cites only the latter two
thirds of the note on Haizi’s body, leaving out his identification of himself and his
employer. Liaoyuan’s version of the note differs from its citation by Luo. According
to Liaoyuan, the note’s penultimate sentence reads: “My previous will remains whol-
ly valid: please give my poetry manuscripts to Luo Yihe of October.” Upon Haizi’s
death, Luo was the one who went to Shanhaiguan to handle the formalities of the
situation and was given the note. There is no reason to doubt the reliability of his
letter to Wan. The difference between Luo’s and Liaoyuan’s accounts may be ex-
plained by a typo, with remains wholly valid (ܼ䚼ᇓ᭄) being a miswritten version of
the near-homophonous becomes wholly invalid (ܼϡᇓ᭄). The issue doesn’t affect the
argument made in these pages.