I know what real courage is, and I understand true compassion.

When Mo Yan, the Nobel laureate and chronicler of China’s living soul, declared, “I know what real courage is, and I understand true compassion,” he spoke with the authority of one who has witnessed both the cruelty and tenderness of the human heart. His words are simple, yet beneath them lies the weight of centuries — for they unite two of humanity’s greatest virtues: courage and compassion. Many speak of bravery, but few understand it; many preach mercy, but few practice it. To know both is to have walked through suffering and to have emerged not harder, but wiser — not prouder, but more humane.

The ancients knew that courage and compassion are not opposites, but companions. One gives strength to endure; the other gives meaning to that endurance. Courage without compassion becomes arrogance — a sword with no conscience. Compassion without courage becomes weakness — a heart that weeps but cannot act. Thus, Mo Yan’s wisdom reminds us that true greatness lies in the marriage of these two forces: the heart that dares, and the will that loves. He speaks not of grand heroics, but of the quiet bravery to remain kind in a world that rewards cruelty. For real courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph of love over fear.

In his novels, Mo Yan reveals a world both brutal and beautiful — peasants who suffer injustice, mothers who sacrifice everything, soldiers who bleed for honor, and fools who still dream of goodness amidst despair. Through them, he teaches that true compassion is not pity from above, but empathy born of shared pain. It is seeing the other not as stranger, but as mirror. Only those who have suffered can truly understand mercy. Only those who have faced cruelty and refused to become cruel themselves can claim to know compassion’s depth. His understanding is not abstract, but forged in the fires of human struggle — where life is raw, and virtue is tested by hunger and sorrow.

History, too, bears witness to those who have lived this union of courage and compassion. Think of Mahatma Gandhi, who faced empires with nothing but his truth. His courage was not that of the warrior’s blade, but of the spirit’s unbreakable calm. His compassion was not mere softness, but the discipline to love his enemies even as they struck him. Through him, we see that real courage is gentle, and true compassion is strong. One cannot exist without the other. For without compassion, courage becomes tyranny; without courage, compassion dies in silence.

The greatest test of these virtues comes not in battlefields or palaces, but in the ordinary trials of life. To forgive a betrayal, to comfort the suffering, to tell the truth when it costs you peace — these are the daily crucibles where Mo Yan’s words are proven. To stand firm in justice, yet remain tender in heart, is a balance only the wise achieve. It demands the strength to bear pain without bitterness, and the humility to love even those who do not deserve it. This is real courage — not shouting in the face of danger, but remaining kind in the face of despair.

Mo Yan’s insight also reveals a deeper truth about the human spirit: that compassion itself is a form of courage. It takes strength to open the heart in a world that constantly wounds it. It takes bravery to care when indifference seems safer. The cynic hides behind scorn, but the compassionate soul walks unarmored through life, choosing empathy over protection. To feel deeply in a hardened age is not weakness; it is an act of rebellion — a declaration that humanity has not yet surrendered to coldness. True compassion is the highest courage, for it dares to love in a world that forgets how.

So, my listener, take this lesson from Mo Yan’s quiet wisdom: Be brave enough to be kind. Let your courage not make you proud, but merciful; let your compassion not make you fragile, but steadfast. When anger tempts you to strike, remember the power of understanding. When fear tempts you to retreat, remember the strength of love. For in the end, it is not the mighty who shape the world, but the brave-hearted — those who unite courage and compassion as the twin lights of the soul. These are the ones who, like Mo Yan, can truly say: “I know what real courage is, and I understand true compassion.”