You Rule the City, I Rule the Mountains

You rule the city, I rule the mountains.

— Line from the film Rambo: First Blood

First Blood was the first movie I ever saw. I remember one Children's Day, a mobile film team came to our village hall and showed that very film starring Sylvester Stallone. I was under ten that year, and I still remember the film—especially the line spoken by the protagonist Rambo: "You rule the city, I rule the mountains."

In First Blood, the veteran Rambo is discriminated against and humiliated in a small town; crippled by war trauma, he cannot fit into normal life. But once he flees into the deep mountain forests, this ex-special-forces soldier shows his extraordinary combat power, taking on an army single-handedly. Rambo undoubtedly won the sympathy of many viewers, myself included. I even named my pet cat Rambo in his honor.

From about age thirty, I stopped enjoying socializing. Before thirty I was highly sociable and had many friends; for a while I lived in Zhongguanyuan just outside Peking University's east gate, and our home was always full of guests. After thirty, I gradually lost interest in socializing. Fifteen years of closing my door to visitors later, I have cut off almost all unnecessary social contact and spend my time largely studying the life sciences. Occasionally, when my wife attends a class reunion and needs a decorative husband in tow, I go with her; or for important gatherings with close relatives, I will also attend. Beyond that, there is no social life. Even those few gatherings I do attend can be counted on one hand in a year.

I have long since forgotten all table manners—or rather, though I used to socialize a lot, I never paid them much mind; after all, the people I mixed with were a bunch of headstrong young idealists pursuing their dreams in Beijing. I am a spontaneous person who values simplicity and authenticity and does not conceal myself. Anyone who has met me once can see my strengths and weaknesses at a glance. My clumsy social skills form a stark contrast with my reasonably competent professional expertise.

Under the principle of use-it-or-lose-it, functions long unused gradually atrophy. I have indeed atrophied in many ways, to the point that I can hardly fit into any circle and my social skills are near zero, while in my own field I keep evolving. That is why I love the line "You rule the city, I rule the mountains"; I think this is the best direction for social development. No one needs to drift with the current or compete to the death with so-called mainstream conventions; instead, each person can develop individuality and explore deeply a niche they love.

I have repeatedly emphasized this idea to my son, encouraging him not to box his future in too narrowly and, while young, to boldly explore the direction he truly loves. One day, when he finds that direction, he will be deeply drawn to it and, as if called by destiny, will devote his whole life to it without tiring. Such a life will be active and interesting, and it will not devour our happiness.

A diverse, multiform natural world is extraordinarily splendid; likewise, human society is better only when pluralistic. An ideal society should allow a great many individual ways of being. The more pluralistic the society, the more stages there are for more individuals to fully develop themselves. If everyone pursued self-realization along the same single road, over-competition would inevitably set in, with everyone scrambling fiercely. Only when there are countless paths to self-realization can more people live active, happy lives.

Walking a path different from others requires a certain willpower—fearless of gossip and undaunted by failure. But once we have walked that path through, we will enjoy sights that others cannot see.

Countless people inhabit this world, but broadly they fall into two kinds: those who yield to reality, and those who do not. Most yield to reality and surrender in life's compliance tests; a few refuse to yield, refuse to conform to social convention, and eventually find a distinctive way of surviving and living.

Whether the crowd sees this way of living as success or failure, I personally think it is cool. Life is lived only once; once lost, it never returns. A brief life, if not lived according to one's own will, would be utterly tragic. If we do not like the city and cannot rule it as others do, but we love the mountains, why not go and be king there?