Lin Mei took 20 years to publish two novels, Watching the Sky and Beyond the Sky, the way one takes 10 years to sharpen a sword, totaling a million-odd characters. This article focuses on her latest novel, Beyond the Sky, with a number of arguments that it is a book, characterized by the shaping of unique and new characters, that presents the spiritual puzzlement of the modern people and their exploration in a spiritual world, in a new century of modern technology and material advancement, from a broad perspective of a global village;that the author, by inheriting from two superior cultural traditions, merges China and the West in one, turning the book into a great cultural text by looking at the three aspects of textual cross-reference, cultural mirror and cultural bridge;and that the author consciously includes a sense of ecology in the creation of this novel and delves deep into the ethical relationship between the great social ecology and human beings in that she artistically showcases the time-related topic of ecological civilization that is a universal human concern. Part 4 and Part 5 of this article discuss dream realism, character metaphors, motive power and compassion involved in the writing of this novel.%林湄以两个“十年磨一剑”，用二十年时间，出版了两部长篇《天望》与《天外》，百余万字。本文重点论述长篇近作《天外》，分几方面展开：一、《天外》以宏阔的地球村视野，独特而崭新的人物形象塑造，呈现出在现代科技、物质发达的新世纪，现代人的精神困惑与心灵世界探求。二、作家承继两个优秀文化传统，融中西于一体，从文本互涉、文化之镜、文化之桥三方面将著作演绎成一个文化大文本。三、作家自觉地把生态意识纳入长篇创作之中，将笔触深入到社会大生态与人的伦理关系中，艺术地展现出人类所普遍关注的生态文明这一时代话题。第四，第五部分，论述梦幻写实、人物隐喻及作家创作此著的原动力与悲悯情怀。
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