No one knows the reasons behind a person's suicide, despite theories about this phenomenon. The mystery deepens when it involves a poet like Hai Zi who ended his life at the peak of his poetic brilliance.

Sometimes, insight precedes vision. Hai Zi, who threw himself in front of a train at the age of 25, had written about eight ways to commit suicide in one of his poems. In a short message discovered after his death, he said: "My name is Cha Hai Xing, I work as a teacher at China University of Political Science and Law. My death is no one's fault."

Was the latent energy in his poetry responsible for urging him to end his life? No one can provide a definitive answer. What remains is Hai Zi's poetry, which we present here in a second, revised edition with selected works.