Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
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| Author | Mo Yan |
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| Translator | Howard Goldblatt |
| Country | China |
| Language | Chinese |
| Genre | novel |
| Publisher | (Eng. trans.) Arcade |
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Publication date
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2006 |
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Published in English
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19 March 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 552 pp (Eng. trans. edition) |
| ISBN | (Eng. trans. edition) |
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out (simplified Chinese: 生死疲劳; traditional Chinese: 生死疲勞; pinyin: shēngsǐ píláo) is a 2006 novel by Chinese writer Mo Yan. The book is a historical fiction exploring China's development during the latter half of the 20th century through the eyes of a noble and generous landowner who is killed and reincarnated as various farm animals in rural China. It has drawn praise from critics, and was the recipient of the inaugural Newman Prize for Chinese Literature in 2009. An English translation was published in 2008.
The story's protagonist is Ximen Nao, a benevolent and noble landowner in Gaomi county, Shandong province. Although known for his kindness to peasants, Nao is targeted during Mao Zedong's land reform movement in 1948 and executed so that his land could be redistributed.
Upon his death, Nao finds himself in the underworld, where Lord Yama tortures him in an attempt to elicit an admission of guilt. Nao retains that he is innocent, and as punishment, Lord Yama sends him back to earth where he is reborn as a donkey in his village on January 1, 1950. In subsequent reincarnations, he goes through life as a donkey, an ox, a pig, a dog, and a monkey, until finally being born again as a man. Through the lens of various animals, the protagonist experiences the political movements that swept China under Communist Party rule, including the Great Chinese Famine and Cultural Revolution, all the way through to New Year's Eve in 2000. The author, Mo Yan, uses self-reference and by the end of the novel introduces himself as one of the main characters.
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