Solitude and Classical Music as Thinking Fuel

“After arriving, he would shut himself in a room for a long time to think hard, with Western classical music playing beside him. He often listened to Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, and his favorite was Bach. He rarely socialized, liked to be alone; he engaged in a bustling enterprise that turned everyone upside down, yet lived a tranquil life light as clouds and gentle as wind. His eyes captured any hint of an innovation signal related to his business on the horizon, while his ears were washed every day by the purest religious music. Career, life, culture—so harmonious and yet so fragmented—ultimately formed a kind of harmony within fragmentation, achieving a pluralistic balance.”

“As a successful entrepreneur, Mr. Zhang Zhongmou has throngs of followers and a single call brings many responses; but as a thinker, he is still somewhat lonely. He does not craft a gentle tone to express his negations, nor does he use arm-in-arm familiarity or buddy-buddy tactics to soften his rules. Thus, as one journalist put it, this man once looked up to by all of society is, in fact, out of step with society: “I know many people don’t like me.” This is his sincere self-assessment, yet he does not intend to change anything.”