Abstract: China has a tradition of writing revolutionary history. Since the “Seventeen Years” period (1949–1966) to the present day, writers have continually engaged in the creation of revolutionary historical novels, crafting a series of classic revolutionary figures. In the new century, Sun Ganlu, in his novel A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains, integrates elements from his avant-garde period–such as dreams, duality and death–with revolutionary themes, shaping revolutionaries who break free from dreams, who live for others, and who embrace life through confrontation with death. The dream represents the convergence of the revolutionaries' practical and spiritual dilemmas. By resisting the self-numbing effect of the dream, achieving self-redemption and ultimately escaping the labyrinth of their predicament, they become revolutionaries who break free from dreams. “Duality” is the revolutionaries' fate. The choice from “duality” to “singularity” entraps them in a succession of destinies and, within this succession, the inheritance of mission prompts a spiritual sublimation from “for oneself” to “for others,” transforming them into true revolutionaries. Death represents the revolutionaries' possibility of being. By redefining death, these revolutionaries transcend individual limitations, regarding death as nothingness. They generate potent vitality within death and attain eternity through revolutionary death, thus becoming revolutionaries who embrace life through confrontation with death. The fusion of avant-garde and revolutionary elements renders the revolutionary figures in the novel avant-garde revolutionaries, constituting a unique image of revolutionaries belonging specifically to the new century.

Key words: Sun Ganlu, A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains, revolutionary, avant-garde, history