Seeing Jeremy secomb say in an interview that Chinese audiences would be very excited when talking about Javert, it reminded me of an idea I had been thinking about before. Javert's death might in some sense be a death that is very compatible with Eastern aesthetics. Compared to Western religious doctrines that view suicide as an unforgivable sin, emotions about suicide appear more complex and diverse in the context of Chinese classical literature and culture. Suicide is both tragic and full of sacredness. It is the most decisive choice made by a person to prove himself and preserve himself. In literary works, such as Liu Lanzhi and Jiao Zhongqing (from the poem “The Peacock Flees to the East and South,” where the two died of love), Du Shiniang (from “Du Shiniang Drops Treasures,” Du Shiniang committed suicide by jumping into the river because she did not want to be humiliated), or the play “Empress Flower” (the last princess of the Ming Dynasty and her husband committed suicide by taking poison for martyrdom), in the description of their making the choice to commit suicide, they all tend to describe them as choosing to end themselves in order to persist in some way, in order not to be contaminated by those things that make them feel pain and shame, and they also always describe the scene after their death in a mythological or deep and peaceful environment. From this perspective, “redemption” and “pity” for Javert were like gray dust in an originally black and white distinct world, disturbing the composition of his original world, twisting his originally persistent, straight forward path in another direction, which made him confused, painful, and unbearable，so he chose to preserve himself by ending himself in a way, perhaps also in another sense “preferring to be broken than whole.” In my memory, I had previously seen a post describing Javert as “quality and purity return purity, stronger than sludge sinking into ditches,”（质本洁来还洁去，强于污淖陷渠沟） which seems to be true. In short, Javert‘s choice to jump into the river may correspond to the hidden lamentations and yearnings of many people about “you can not crossing the river, but you instinct on crossing the river.”（公无渡河，公竟渡河）
看到Jeremy secomb 在采访中说中国观众在谈到沙威的时候会非常兴奋，就想到个人此前一直在思考的一个想法，沙威的死亡也许从某种意义上来说是很符合东方审美的一种死亡。相较于西方在宗教教义中将自我了结视为一种不可饶恕的罪过，在中国古典文学和文化语境下对于自杀的情感显得更加复杂和多元，自杀是悲剧性的，也是充满神圣性的，它是一个人为了证明自身，保存自身而做出的最决绝的选择。如文学作品中的刘兰芝与焦仲卿（出自诗歌《孔雀东南飞》，两人殉情而死）、杜十娘（出自《杜十娘怒沉百宝箱》，杜十娘因不愿受凌辱跳河自尽），或是戏曲《帝女花》（明朝的末代公主和她的丈夫为殉国服毒自尽），在对其做出自杀选择的描述中，都倾向于将其描述为为了某种坚持、为了不沾染那些令自身觉得痛苦、耻辱的事物而选择了自我了结，且也总是以神话亦或是幽深宁静的环境描写来描绘其死后的情景。从这个角度看，“救赎”、“怜悯”之于沙威就像是原本黑白分明的世界中灰色的尘埃，扰乱了他原本世界的构成，将其原本坚持的，笔直向前的道路扭向了另一个方向，这让他困惑痛苦且无法忍受，所以他选择了用自我了结的方式保存了自我，也许也是另一种意义上的“宁为玉碎，不为瓦全”。记忆中以前看到过一条转发用“质本洁来还洁去，强于污淖陷渠沟”来形容沙威，想来确实如此。简而言之，沙威选择跳河的结局，也许符合的正是许多人所隐藏的关于“公无渡河，公竟渡河”的哀叹与向往。
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