Why Autumn Water?
Autumn Water (秋水, Qiūshuǐ) is the title of Chapter 17 of the ancient Daoist text Zhuangzi. It tells, among other things, of the River God who believes in the greatness of his own waters until he reaches the sea and discovers something immeasurably larger.
I have always liked the ideas behind Autumn Water: the limits of our own perspective, the uncertainty of what we think we know, and the possibility that reality is much larger than the world we can see.
These questions also find their way into much of my fiction. What is consciousness? How much of reality can we actually perceive? What happens when something we thought impossible forces us to reconsider what we know?
There was also a simpler reason for choosing the name. Chu Shui — Autumn Water — can sound naturally like a Chinese personal name. I liked the idea of carrying a little of Zhuangzi with me without having to explain it.
So I became Martin Chu Shui.