Title: Ruins of Flowers: A Journey in al-Andalus

Author: Zhang Chengzhi

Publisher: Sino-Culture Press

Edition: First edition, November 2017

Format: 16 - mo

Binding: Soft - hardcover

Number of Printed Sheets: 16.25

Word Count: 220,000 words

ISBN: 9787507547863

Price: 38.00 CNY

This book is a collection of essays by the renowned writer Zhang Chengzhi. The author spent a total of six months on two trips to Spain, Morocco, Portugal and other places, almost visiting every historical site in al - Andalus. The unique cultures and customs, the wild and vigorous nature, as well as the strikingly beautiful men and women often inspired the author with discoveries and emotions that felt like glimpses of truth. It can be said that this is a notebook saturated with emotions. The incisive and profound writing, and the intense expression of thoughts everywhere reveal the "Zhang Chengzhi - style" critical edge.

Zhang Chengzhi, whose ancestral home is Jinan, Shandong, was born in Beijing in the autumn of 1948. He is a Muslim.

After graduating from the high school affiliated with Tsinghua University in 1968, he went to the Wuzhumuqin Grassland in Inner Mongolia to settle and herd for four years. This experience bestowed by that special era laid the foundation for the author's thoughts and literature.

He graduated from the Archaeology Department of Peking University in 1975. In 1981, he graduated from the Department of Ethnic History and Languages at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, obtaining a master's degree in history.

He has worked in the Archaeology Department of the National Museum of China, the Institute of Ethnology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Art Creation Office of the Navy Political Department, and Aichi University in Japan. At the end of 1989, he resigned from the Navy, giving up all salary - related benefits, and became a freelance writer.

Simultaneously, year after year, he stayed in rural households on the Mongolian grasslands, in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, and on the loess plateau of Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai, experiencing and integrating. To understand the world, he traveled to Japan, Spain, and even Latin America.

Since 1978, he has won several national awards for excellent short and medium - length novels. In 1995, he won the first Aiwen Literature Award, which is privately sponsored and only awarded to one person.

His representative works include The Black Steed (1982), Saddle and Pen (in Japanese, 1995), Ruins of Flowers: A Journey in al - Andalus (2005), The History of the Soul (2012), Crossing the Dead Sea (2015), etc. In 2015, the Zhang Chengzhi Works Series in 10 volumes and the Zhang Chengzhi Collected Works in 12 volumes were published. So far, more than a hundred individual books have been published.

The Confluence of Two Seas / 001

Adjacent Antiquity / 019

The Water Tribunal / 027

Free Alleys / 039

Three Square Towers / 046

Ruins of Flowers / 052

The Almería Arch / 081

The Lonely Statue / 091

Armored Horses and Bullfighting / 102

Singing with a Torn Heart / 115

The Approaching Carmen / 136

The Secret of the Moorish Palace / 151

Echoes in the Empty Valley / 186

The Green of Grace / 202

Traces of Passion / 221

Appendix 1: Oh, Holy Tree! / 232

Appendix 2: Who is the Victor? / 243