"All are God's grace." This is one of the most favorite sayings among Christians. Christians also like to quote this Biblical verse: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear¡K Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" This is indeed a beautiful verse, but it cannot stand scrutiny and it is by no means practical in our daily life. Birds may afford not to sow or reap. Can we? A little bit of a farmer's laziness in the field can prove costly and affect the life of his entire family the next year, let alone not to sow or reap. Even the birds work hard to store food for winters or else they starve to death. Therefore, many birds and animals in mother nature know to store for the winter. Even the ants do. Human beings as intelligent animals should work even harder with their own hands to build up their bright future instead of relying on God's mercy.

Mr. Wang Meng, the renowned writer, is one of my favorite and respected writers. When he worked in the Department of the Communist Youth in the fifties, he wrote his first piece The Newcomer of the Department, which brought him instant fame. In the Anti-rightist movement, he was labeled as a rightist and was exiled to Xin Jiang to reform by labor. In the harsh exilic environment, he was not allowed to write but he never gave up and never left his fate up to God. Instead he made the most of his environment. He lived an active life in which he learned the Uighur language from the elderly natives and made friends with them, and he accumulated a lot of valuable materials for creative writing. After the Cultural Revolution, Wang Meng returned to Beijing. His family of five lived in a single tiny room where they had to fight extremely cold winters and extremely hot summers. But he continued to write with full force and in a short time he published numerous works over millions of words including Long Live Youth, The Moving Transformer, The Hard Porridge, The Poor-mannered Season, all of which won great honor at home and abroad. Later on, he was appointed head of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. He was also elected vice president of the Chinese Writers' Guild. He is now a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee. His family life has also greatly improved. Whatever he has accomplished in his creative writing result directly from his individual efforts. Had he not strived with great perseverance to enrich his career in the harsh days as opposed to adopting a passive attitude, could he have made his way into such a significant position and become such an important literary figure?

I also know Cao Ming the writer. The path of her becoming a writer was in itself a touching piece of poetry filled with individual efforts and personal perseverance. Cao Ming was a native of Guangdong Province. She came to Shanghai at the age of 19 and became a follower of Lu Xun. In the thirties she wrote The Dead End and The Woman Worker, both of which won high praises from Lu Xun. Later on she and her husband Ou-yang Shan went to Yanan. To better understand the life of the working people, she rode a donkey and traveled from northern Shanxi to the northeast provinces all by herself. Both the Xiao Feng Man Power Plant and the An Gong Steel Mill have witnessed her tiny and fragile figure. She was rewarded with creative inspiration and enthusiasm and she produced such renowned novels as The Original Force, The Locomotive, and Riding the Wind and the Waves. In the early sixties she came to Beijing, in time to witness the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Cao Ming was persecuted and locked up in the cow shed. When the Cultural Revolution was over, she picked up her pen again. Although she had stepped into the dusk of life and she was in poor health, she still continued to write day and night with unbelievable perseverance. Illnesses had brought her a lot of pain but she clenched her teeth and managed to complete her novel of over 450,000 words, The Children of China. She even revised it three times following its first publication. The novel was highly acclaimed in the literary circle and in society at large. She won respect from everybody. She received great honor from the government. Medals poured toward her. She was elected a member of the National People's Congress and a permanent member of the National Women's Union. She is now a member of the Chinese Writers' Guild. With her talent, her love and her hard work, Cao Ming recreated the glory of life. We see in her the older generation of Chinese writers and their vivid footprints through the tough journey of human destiny. Cao Ming said to me, "Whenever I encounter difficulties and setbacks, I will try to overcome them with strong willpower and self-confidence." Indeed, as an atheist, all of what Cao Ming achieved relied on her individual efforts and struggle. If she had just waited for God's grace in the harsh days, she would have been a mere housewife who spends most of her time in the kitchen, and she would never have become a woman writer who occupies an important spot in the history of literature. With her great efforts, she has changed her own fate God has given her.

"There is never a true savior, nor will I rely on any gods or kings. To build up happiness for mankind, we must rely on ourselves¡K" Career success does not equal happiness, but it is an important part of happiness. The Bible is beautifully written, but it is hard to believe it all. God's grace is intangible and uncertain. If a Christian falls into the water, he will try hard to save himself, and he will never wait for God to come to his rescue. The only difference, though, is that Christians' faith in God gives them spiritual comfort and strength. Besides, Christians see their good luck as God's grace and their bad luck as a lesson from God. I believe this can become a very interesting research topic in psychology.

The author is from Beijing, a member of the Chinese Writers' Guild and a senior editor of a state-run publisher. See pp. 21-23 for a response to this article.