Customer Reviews

My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary

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John Blofeld's account of his travels in China during the 1930's & 40's are translated for the first time and it is a cause for celebration for all Sinophiles. His words are a visual canvas of pastels and rich colors, smells, and tastes of a China no longer to be seen. Blofeld comes across as a gentle loving soul that if one were to accept reincarnation as a fact, then this British born man was truly Chinese in his soul. Besides a journal of his travels, he also offers folk stories and accounts of inexplicable sights and people he encountered along the way.

Blofeld is a fine writer of great subtlety and nuance. Normally I am a quick reader but like a fine tea I wanted to savor each page and chapter of this book. The translation by Daniel Reid is superlative. Reid's deep friendship and admiration he cultivated in the last years of Blofeld's life imbues this work with a warmth and charm too little seen in memoirs today.

For those interested in the history of China, Chinese folk life, Taoism, Confucianism or Buddhism this book is recommended. I know this is a work that I will return to every so often like a visit with a good friend and raconteur.

Wow! What a great book. Now, I admit that I am biased toward anything John Blofeld writes. I first used his translation of the Yijing when I began studying baguazhang 25 years ago. I still prefer his translation. Blofeld was determined to write one book in Chinese, and he did...this one. It was his last book. Daniel Reid has produced a very readable English translation. It has the feel of a Blofeld book. Buy this book, sit back, and read about China in the 1930s and 40s from the eyes of an Englishman gone native. Blofeld's Chinese name was Lao Pu or Old Pu. His adventures are always fascinating, his attempts to understand the tao and Buddhism are often enlightening, and some events are just down-right funny. Highly recommended! I only wish I could read it in the original Chinese. Sigh.

To be honest, I purchased this book for its beautiful cover, and happily, I wasn't disappointed by the text inside. Author 'Lao Pu' (John Blofeld) followed his dreams to China in the 1930s and presents in thoughtful and well-written text (originally written in Mandarin) the wonders and spritual life that he saw and experienced there through the eyes of an enraptured Sinophile. The 'Middle Kingdom' that he describes is clearly not the one we see today - the sorry regime created by Mao and destroyed by his 'Great Leap Forward', nor the 'economic miracle' that is modern China.

First off, this is beautifully translated by Daniel Reid. Only a fellow sinophile such as Mr. Reid could have brought the nuances of a lost culture to life for modern English readers.
John Blofeld, the author of classics such as Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin (Shambhala Dragon Editions) and I Ching: The Book of Change has written an account which is far more frank than his City of Lingering Splendour: A Frank Account of Old Peking's Exotic Pleasures. I had always known that "sing song girls" were a fact of traditional Chinese culture, but Blofeld's description of traditional Chinese bordello etiquette makes the practice more understandable in a wider cultural context, if only a little less sordid. Being an intimate autobiography, Blofeld spends a lot of time writing about the women in his life. I am certain this was cathartic for the author, but these descriptions also help to inform the reader of the culture and mores of pre-communist China.
Beyond Blofeld's love life, it is clear that "mystic" was not an idly chosen word for the title. Mr. Blofeld is a mystic through and through, but he doesn't force the reader into his cosmology. He simply describes his experiences and lets the readers interpret them as they might. When he describes the "Bodhisattva Lights" on Wutai Shan (a Tibetan Buddhist sacred mountain) Blofeld says he saw lights floating across the sky. His description is so straightforward that I do not doubt that he saw a tangible reality. Having read a few descriptions of Tibetan Buddhist practice from that time period, Magic and Mystery in Tibet, etc., I believe these lights were real projections of the mind, as described in Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies .
Many "coincidences" fill this book, of both a Taoist and Buddhist nature. Mr. Reid's introduction reinforces that synchronicities were the salient feature of Mr. Blofeld's life. Blofeld describes these events with such simplicity and humility that this reader finds it difficult to disbelieve these fantastic tales.
John Blofeld truly loved China and the Chinese people. Reincarnation is often mentioned in this gem of a book, and the author makes it clear that he believes he spent previous lifetimes as a Chinese, and met many of his "fellow travelers" in his travels in the East. He did not suffer racism against his Asian friends from haughty Europeans silently, which was a very courageous action at that time. I suppose every culture is racist in a way, but the northern European variety can be the most vicious, especially when they had the guns to back it up (China was an occupied country in many ways, with foreign troops in the cities and foreign navies patrolling the coast and rivers).
Blofeld also describes a pilgrimage to Tai Shan in Shandong province (for wonderful photographs of Tai Shan and its temples from that time period see Travels of a Photographer in China, 1933-1946 ).
The China that John Blofeld describes in this book is long gone. We can all thank the old master that he had the courage to bare his soul in such an intimate way, and we are all the richer for it.

Part travelogue, part memoir and part cultural exploration, My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary deserves ongoing mention as a powerful expose from the travel diaries of English-born John Blofeld, covering his life in China. Blofeld translated the I Ching and spent much of his adult life traveling during the 1930s and 40s; his scholarly comments are ideal for any who would better understand pre-World War II China. Highly recommended.

What can I say? Just a wonderful book by a great man who has a large story to tell. John Blodfeld is one of a kind... there will be no one to replace him... plus, the world has changed so much during his life that much of what he lived as gone now... never to return. Blofeld lived through interesting times.

This is a newly published translation of Blofeld's last book, which he wrote in Chinese for Chinese readers at the end of his life (it was published posthumously). Ten years ago, I might have just enjoyed the ride in Blofeld's boat, but now I feel a skeptical distance. His childhood experience of passion for, and devotion to, the Buddha is an interesting story that I pretty much take at face value.

Blofeld is frank in his naivete, and his admiration of individuals and culture. He is an unabashed enthusiast. I wonder, is he exaggerating his adoration of traditional Chinese culture to flatter his readers? You might say the book reeks of sincerity, and I do not trust it.

When Blofeld sees an undesirable trait (say, racism) in a Westerner, he calls it a Western trait, as if Asians were immune to it; when he sees a desirable trait in an Asian, he seems to think that it is a trait of all Asians, but unknown in Westerners. This is tiresome. I am also dismayed by his willingness to accept a gift of a silver ingot from a monastery which he knows can ill afford it.

But I appreciate his summary of his romantic love life, described as three episodes. His philosophical outlook on what was apparently a difficult marriage is admirable. He eventually accepted the trials of an argumentative wife on multiple counts - that "A man as stupid as me is easily disappointed. A reasonable man would understand that because women are human, they naturally have imperfections, and that a husband should be tolerant of certain flaws in his wife."; that his own character flaws led him to reject another woman who might have made a happier match. But when he considers that other woman and his rejection of her, he recognizes that he was wrong, and simultaneously accepts his own flaws, as something he cannot help. All in all, sensitive and pragmatic. (Some questionable tinges of naivete lurk here too, though - the fiancee who first displayed independence of mind, then reflexively agreed with him in everything during engagement, might have shown yet another character upon being wed. But I am familiar with the unthinking romanticizing of who might have been.)