Gao Ming is highly curious and loves to get to the bottom of things. He spent more than four years engaging with patients and eventually published “Genius on the Left, Madman on the Right,” a work hailed as China’s first collection of interview notes with individuals diagnosed with mental illness. The book became a sensation because it opened up a new way of viewing the world. Many readers found it chilling, as they discovered a sense of resonance within the minds of these so-called “madmen.”
— Global People Magazine

“Everyone perceives the world differently. Since a single reality can be interpreted in so many diverse ways, it seems quite intriguing to expose one person to multiple perspectives.”
— China Newsweek

When Gao Ming brought the inner worlds of the psychiatric patients he had encountered into the public eye, the very logic, emotions, and psychological states that had once deeply moved him—along with the fear, compassion, and insights he had experienced—were all rekindled in his readers.
— China Youth Daily

“Essentially, this is the story of how ordinary people are teased and humiliated by dozens of highly intelligent ‘neurotics.’ It features various incarnations of Sheldon Cooper, from young to old, male to female. Each of these ‘madmen’ is more erudite, logically rigorous, charismatic, morally exemplary, and inspiring than the last.”
— Southern Metropolis Daily

★ A bestseller for 13 years, with over 10 million copies sold—a brand-new edition of this viral masterpiece.
★ Author Gao Ming spent four years immersing himself in major psychiatric hospitals, conducting interviews with hundreds of patients to explore an unbelievably bizarre real world! Witness highly intelligent “madmen” humiliating so-called “normal” people!
★ Fully includes 60 electrifying stories: four-dimensional insects, biochemical slaves, walking corpses, the end of time… Each tale will leave you profoundly shaken!
★ Once you start reading, you won’t be able to put it down. For thirteen years, countless readers who have finished this book have been passionately debating: Between us and them, who is really the sane one? Where exactly lies the line between genius and madness?
★ Don’t take what mental patients say too seriously, and don’t get bogged down in the worldviews they share with you—otherwise, you might just go mad yourself sooner or later.

This book is the story of a group of geniuses who have gone astray, as well as a collection of tales about individuals hospitalized for mental illness. Over four years, author Gao Ming immersed himself in psychiatric hospitals, the Ministry of Public Security, and other secretive institutions, engaging directly with hundreds of “non-normative” people. Through interviews, he has documented the thoughts and feelings of those living on the fringes of society—patients with mental disorders, individuals suffering from psychological challenges, and other marginalized figures. It stands as China’s first empathetic oral history of people with mental illness. The conversations touch upon a wide array of disciplines, including physiology, psychology, Buddhism, religion, quantum physics, semiotics, and even Mayan civilization and its prophecies, revealing the unique perspectives of these individuals on the world and their profound reflections on life—insights that are both astonishing and rigorously argued.

They possess bizarre viewpoints, an extraordinary sensitivity far beyond the norm, and ironclad logic. Among them, some firmly believe that bacteria have minds of their own and that humans are merely their slaves; others contend that absolute four-dimensional beings exist and that time does not actually flow at all. There are even those who have undergone trepanation in pursuit of supernatural powers.

If mentally ill individuals are happy, why should we disturb their happiness?

After reading this book, you will be compelled to reconsider: between us and them, who, in truth, is the sane one?

Gao Ming
Born in Beijing in the 1970s. Currently serves as a project director at a certain company. He describes himself as stubborn and single-minded, with an insatiable curiosity about the unknown. Even before he started school, he had already developed his lifelong catchphrase: “Why?” As an adult, he became deeply engrossed in fields such as religion, philosophy, quantum physics, nonlinear dynamics, psychology, biology, and astrophysics. Since the beginning of the 21st century, he has also grown intensely curious about the inner worlds of individuals with mental illness, psychological disorders, and those on the margins of society.

Between 2004 and 2008, using every spare moment and drawing on a wide range of contacts, he visited psychiatric hospitals, units under the Ministry of Public Security, and other institutions to conduct close-up interviews with “non-normative” populations. The material gathered from these encounters ultimately formed the basis of this book.

Preface
Preface to the Old Edition
1. The Question of Roles
2. The Reality of Dreams
3. Four-Dimensional Worms
4. The Three Little Pigs — Part One: The Non-Existent Brother
5. The Three Little Pigs — Part Two: Multiple Personalities
6. Evolutionary Inertia
7. Birds and Beasts
8. The End of Life
9. Reincarnation
10. The Taste of an Apple
11. Skull Piercing — Part One: Seekers of Supernatural Abilities
12. Skull Piercing — Part Two: Ever Present
13. Biochemical Slaves
14. Forever, Forever
15. The True World
16. The Lonely Watchman
17. The Silent Rain
18. Chapters of Life
19. The Later Satan
20. The Women’s Planet
Extra Chapter: An Afternoon Conversation About Mental Illness
21. The End of Time — Part One: The Orange Space
22. The End of Time — Part Two: A Moment Is Eternity
23. On the Other Side of the Wall
24. The Weekly Death Report
25. The Tail of the Soul
26. Immortality
27. In the Mirror
28. Superficial Appearances
29. Super Evolution Theory
30. The Lost Traveler — Part One: Mental Transmission
31. The Lost Traveler — Part Two: The Compression Problem
32. The Lost Traveler — Part Three: Return Transmission
33. The Never-Ending Heart
34. The Forbidden Fruit
35. Born in the Morning, Dead by Evening
36. Foreseeing the Future
37. Twins
38. Walking Corpses
39. The Issue of Perspective
40. Fifty Years in This World
Second Extra Chapter: A Psychiatrist
41. Disguised Civilization
42. The Problem of Control
43. The Strong Wind
44. The Double-Faced Man
45. Conditions for Satisfaction
46. The Shaman
47. Stealing Time
48. Restoring a World — Part One: The Lost Civilization
49. Restoring a World — Part Two: Suggestion
50. Restoring a World — Part Three: An Unknown Civilization
51. The Grave Robber
52. Pawns
53. Who Is Who
54. Deep Within the Soul
55. Accompanied by the Moon
56. A Fleeting Moment
57. Jelly World — Part One: The End of Matter
58. Jelly World — Part Two: The Curtain
New Postscript: If Life Were Just Like Our First Encounter
Edition Postscript: If Life Were Just Like Our First Encounter