Abstract: A Hungry Village is the first work which directly and profoundly represents the tragedy of “people eating people” during “three years of great Chinese famine”. Suffering gives birth to true literature. The novel makes a literary reflection on the miserable historical event, which helps people remember and retrospect the history. Moreover, it also expresses the strongest desire from life instinct of the common people, and reveals the significance of the desire to the social development. What’s more, through the description of nonconventional, unmoral and anti--humanity behaviors such as “people eating people” in extremely arduous conditions, the novel discovers the profound contradiction in human nature and common Chinese people’s understanding of the ultimate value of life in great suffering.

Key words: WANG Zhi--liang, A Hungry Village, suffering, people eating people, value of life