Essay collection explores the ordinary life

What does it mean to live a good life?

For Guo Hong, a philosopher and author, it starts with refusing to chase an ideal that may not exist.

"There is no such thing as an ideal life," Guo said at a book-sharing event in Beijing on Sept 13. "Or rather, the life you have is the life you deserve."

The event at RDV bookstore in Beijing's SKP mall marked the release of Guo's second essay collection, Echoes of Gentleness. This time she was joined by her husband, scholar and writer Zhou Guoping.

Guo, who holds a doctorate in Western philosophy from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is also known by her pen name, Blue Socks. She previously worked at Commercial Press, where she edited works by Chinese writers Yang Jiang and Qian Zhongshu.

Echoes of Gentleness gathers essays Guo wrote over the past six years. Set in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Long Island in the United States, and Italy's Florence, the essays explore the many roles she inhabits, including self, wife, mother, daughter, and friend. Her essay topics range from the mundane to the metaphysical.

The English title Echoes of Gentleness captures the book's tone: its reflections on everyday life. As Guo writes in her preface, "The 'taking the liberty' in it is not gentle at all. It carries a certain domineering bandit spirit, because this is my own life and I have absolute authority over it."

That spirit, she argues, is precisely what makes gentleness possible. "Gentleness has never been weakness," she said. "It is the patient, loving endurance that only the strong can offer."

Throughout the book-sharing event, Guo returned to the idea that gentleness is not a retreat from life but an engagement with it. She rejects the notion that one must be perpetually clear-eyed, clever and rational.

"To face the blemishes of body and mind plainly, without trying to fix them, but to care for them, is already the greatest sincerity toward life," she writes.