In a time that advocates critical rationality and knowledge based culture, Liang Xiaosheng’s full-length novel A Lifelong Journey places equal emphasis on social and historical perception and the exploration of human nature. Merging “what is” and “what ought to be” in the real world, the novel reconstructs the warmth and nobility of morality oriented culture in several aspects—the significance of literature, the creation of personae, and the condensation of historical and philosophical consciousness. It provides cognitive values by portraying “history outside history,” and explores “what makes humans human.” With a strong pertinence to the modern time, it perfectly demonstrates the profundity and integrity of realistic literature that not only enlightens the mind, but also shows the way forward.