他是第一个获得诺贝尔文学奖的中国人，第一个出生成长在大陆并得到这个奖的中国人，可是有几个中国人读过他的作品呢？
为了弥补这个缺憾，我也来读一点吧！下面的一段节选于他的《一个人的圣经》，第54章。
你不再活在别人的阴影里，也不把他人的阴影作为假想敌，走出阴影就是了，不再去制造妄想和幻象，在一片虚空宁静之中，本来就赤条条一无牵挂来到这世界，也不用再带走甚麽，况且带也带不走，只恐惧那不可知的死亡。
你记得对死亡的惧怕从儿时起，那时怕死远超过今天，有一点小病便生怕是不治之症，一有病痛就胡思乱想，惊慌得不行，如今已经历过诸多病痛乃至於灭顶之灾，还活在这世上纯属桡幸，生命本来就是个奇迹，不可以言说，活著便是这奇迹的显现，一个有知觉的肉体能感受到生命的痛苦与欢欣不就够了？还寻求甚麽？
你对死亡恐惧都是在心力衰弱的时候，有种上气不接下气的感觉，担心支撑不到缓过气来，如同在深渊中坠落，这种坠落感在儿时的梦中经常出现，令你惊醒盗汗，其实那时甚么毛病也没有，你母亲带你多次去医院检查过，如今则懒得去做体检，那怕医生叮嘱也一再拖延。
你再清楚不过生命自有终结，终结时恐惧也同时消失，这恐惧倒恰恰是生命的体现，知觉与意识丧失之时，刹那间就终结了，不容再思考！也不会有甚麽意义，对意义的追求曾经是你的病痛，同少年时的朋友当初就讨论过人生的终极意义，那时几乎还没怎么活，如今人生的酸甜苦辣似乎都尝遍，对意义的追索徒然无益只落得可笑，不如就感受这存在，对这存在且加以一番关照。
你仿佛看见他在一片空虚中，稀微的光亮不知来自何处，也不站立在甚麽确定不移的土地上，却又像一根树桩，只是没有投影，天地之间的那地平线也消失掉了，或是又像雪地里一只鸟，左顾右盼，时而凝视似乎在沉思，而沉思甚麽并不清楚，不过是个姿态，一个多少有点美妙的姿态，存在就是姿态，尽可能适意，张开手臂，屈膝转身，回顾他的意识，或者说那姿态便是他的意识，便是意识中的你，从中便得到隐约的欢宣口。
没有悲剧，喜剧或闹剧，那都是对人生的一种审美，因人因时困地而异，抒情也大底如此，此时的情感到彼时，感伤与可笑也可以互换，也不必再嘲弄！自嘲或自我清理似乎都已经够了，只是静静延续这生命的姿态，努力领略此时此刻的奥妙，得其山口在，在独处自我审视的时候，至於在他人眼中如何，都不再顾及。
你不知还会做出甚么事情来，又还有甚麽可做，都不用刻意，想做便做，成则可不成则罢，而做与不做都不必执著，此刻觉得饿了渴了，便去吃喝，当然也照样会有观点看法倾向乃至愤怒，尚未到愤怒都没力气的年纪，出口然也还会有所义愤，不过没那么大的激情，可七情六欲依然还有，就由它有去，但再没有悔恨，也因为悔恨既徒劳且不说损伤自己。
你只看重生命，对生命还有点未了之情，留给自己一点兴趣，有待发现与惊讶，也只有生命才值得感叹，难道不是这样？
更多内容参见：https://www.kanunu8.com/book3/7146/index.html
《一个人的圣经》是法籍华裔作家高行健的第二部长篇小说，1999年出版，一般被视为《灵山》的续作。该书像前作一样具有自传性，描写了作者在文革及流亡西方时期的一系列见闻。书中叙事者继续了《灵山》中的朝圣之旅，探索存在的形而上学意义。在叙事技巧上，《灵山》中的“我”分别以“我”、“你”、“他”来叙述，以制造疏离感。
小说分两条线进行，第一部分是“你”现在的生活，“你”是一个流亡国外的剧作家和小说家。第二部分是“他”在文革中及改革开放早期的经历。“他”是“你”在回忆中唤醒的，在德国犹太女人马格丽特的询问中，当时你二人在香港的一所宾馆里，而香港即将回归。马格丽特沉浸在犹太民族的痛苦回忆中，而“你”则与过去彻底决裂。
Excerpt from One Man’s Bible
54
You no longer live in other people’s shadows nor treat other people’s shadows as imaginary enemies. You just walked out of their shadows, stopped making up absurdities and fantasies, and are now in a vast emptiness and tranquillity. You originally came into the world naked and without cares and there is no need to take anything away with you, and if you wanted to you wouldn’t be able to. Your only fear is unknowable death.
You recall that your fear of death began in childhood and that your fear of death was much worse then than it is now. The slightest ailment made you worry that it was an incurable disease and when you fell ill you would think up all sorts of nonsense and be stricken with terror. Your having survived so many illnesses and even disasters is purely a matter of luck. Life in itself is an inexplicable miracle and to be alive is a manifestation of this miracle. Is it not enough that a conscious physical body is able to perceive the pains and joys of life? What else is there to be sought?
Your fear of death arises when you are mentally and physically frail. There is the feeling of not being able to breathe and you are anxious that you will not be able to last until you can take your next breath. It is as if you are falling in an abyss, this sensation of falling was often present in dreams during childhood and you would wake in fright drenched in perspiration. In those days there was nothing wrong and your mother took you for many hospital examinations, nowadays even under the doctor’s instruction to have an examination, you repeatedly procrastinate.
It is absolutely clear to you that life naturally ends and when the end comes the fear vanishes, for this fear is itself a manifestation of life. On losing awareness and consciousness life suddenly ends, allowing no further thought and no further meaning. Your affliction had been your search for meaning. When you began discussing the ultimate meaning of human life with friends of your youth you had hardly lived, it seems that now you have savoured virtually all of the sensations to be experienced in life you simply laugh at the futility of searching for meaning. It is best just to experience this existence and to take care of this existence.
You seem to see him in a vast emptiness, faint light comes from an unidentified source. He is not standing on some specific or defined patch of ground and he is like the trunk of a tree but has no shadow, and the horizon between the sky and the earth has vanished. Or, he is like a bird in some snow-covered place and is looking from one side to the other. Occasionally, he stares right ahead as if deep in thought, although it’s not clear what it is that he is pondering. It’s simply a gesture, a gesture of aesthetic beauty. Existence is actually a gesture, a striving for comfort, stretching the arms, bending the knees, turning around, to look back upon his consciousness. Or, it may be said that the gesture actually is his consciousness, that it is you in his consciousness, and from this he is able to gain some ephemeral happiness.
Tragedy, comedy and farce do not exist but are aesthetic judgements of human life that differ according to person, time and place. Feelings too are probably like this and the emotions of the present at some other time can fluctuate between the sentimental and the ludicrous. And there is no longer the need for mockery as self-ridicule or self-purification seem already to be enough. It is only in the gesture of tranquilly prolonging this life and striving to comprehend the mystery of this moment in time that freedom of existence is achieved, for in solitarily scrutinizing the self the perceptions of the self by others loses all relevance.
You don’t know what other things you will do or what else there is to do but this is of no concern. If you want to do something you proceed to do it, it’s fine if it is done but if it is not it doesn’t matter. And you do not have to persist in doing something for if at a particular moment you feel hungry and thirsty you simply go and have something to eat and drink. Of course you continue to have your own opinions, interpretations, tendencies and can even get angry as you haven’t got to the age when you no longer have the energy for anger. Naturally, you still become indignant but it is without a great deal of passion. Your capacity for feelings and sensory pleasures remains intact but as this is so then so be it. However there is no longer remorse, remorse is futile and, needless to say, damaging to the self.
For you only life is of value, you have a lingering attachment to it and it continues to be interesting as there are still things to discover and to amaze you, and it is only life that can excite you. That’s exactly how it is with you, isn’t it?