Customer Reviews

Tun-huang (New York Review Books Classics)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Typical to Inoue's style in historical fiction, he starts with a well-known historical mystery--namely, how a large set of valuable Buddhist scrolls came to be hidden in temple caves of Dunhuang some time in 11th century China under unknown circumstances--and fills in the gaps from his imagination.

The story takes place mostly in Kansu, Western China, where a new rising power, the Tanguts, have recently founded a state of their own called the Xia. The main character, a Sung scholar, fails an imperial examination by falling asleep while waiting for his name to be called. Afterwards, a chance encounter with a Tangut woman being sold in the city's marketplace leads him to a journey to the western borderlands of China where his adventures, both physical and spiritual, takes place.

This is a great book and shows the depth of Inoue's imagination. It is based upon the Buddhist Scriptures found in Tun Huang, a part of the silk road path. Inoue tells the story of how these scriptures were placed there in the first place. The story has very little to do with Buddhism or religion. It is more of an adventure novel with a scholar as its hero. Well written and evenly paced, it takes the reader back to a time when there were magnificent battles in Asia. After you read this book, rent the video. Unfortunately, the American version of the video is chopped up so that the story is not really comprehensible. However, if you've read the book, you may be able to appreciate the movie a little better.

This quiet little (209 pages including the epilogue) story runs deep.

The line of this tale is easy to describe: an 11th century scholar wanders west into Central Asia and finds himself caught up in conflicts between established and emerging empires not unlike that region experiences today. Along the way, the scholar is drafted into an army, briefly falls in love with a girl who may have sacrificed herself for him, falls in with a fierce warrior, and spirits to safety a library of Buddhist scrolls before the final battle of the story. There are, of course, warriors, villains, and otherwise conflicted characters along the route.

But that's not what this story is about, although it can provide a satisfactory read just for the story line.

This story, delivered in simple, short, and direct language, not unlike the brush strokes in calligraphy, tells the tale of a man seeking, but not knowing what he seeks, until he finds it. What he finds in the end of his story is a calm that comes with accomplishing an act that is generous, virtuous, requires great effort, demands grace under pressure, an insightful understanding of events around him, and finally an understanding of how the ebb and flow of the conflicts that define the age and individuals living in those times are connected. Practitioners of Buddhism will see the six perfections (generosity, ethics, perseverance, patience, meditative concentration, and wisdom) in this story.

But even for those not schooled in Buddhism, this historical fiction, I think, will create a sense of calm, even after reading about the strife and conflicts detailed in this lesson of impermanence.

The ideas of this text are subtly woven into it. In contrast to many tales set in an historical setting, the characters in Tun-Huang are subtly drawn and complex. The virtuous have fatal flaws. The wicked perform virtuous deeds. The unguided realize purpose and direction. Relationships, cities, even ancient civilizations are impermanent and seldom accurately recalled in memory.

I found this a most rewarding read. It leaves me with a sense of peace and calm, not unlike after a good meditation.

The early twentieth-century find of some 40,000 ancient scrolls and documents in the caves outside Dunhuang (Tun-Huang) fascinated the eminent Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue. The cache included the first printed book, unknown Buddhist scriptures and rare topographical and historical data. Inoue wondered how such an immense cultural treasure trove got there. History offered no explanations. So Inoue decided to fill in the blanks.

His novel, enriched by five years of research, is a tour de force of imagined history. Originally published in 1959, it brings the past to life with amazing power. I got so caught up that I'm wishing I could visit Dunhuang and feast my eyes on the art treasures of the Silk Road. Maybe I will.

The story opens in 1026. Hsing-te, a most engaging character, fails to take the final exam that would have ensured his success in the Chinese bureaucracy. Through an odd adventure (the first of many), he becomes obsessed with learning the written language of Hsi-hsia. This new nation is aggressively resisting China's dominion on the northwestern frontier. Impulsively Hsing-te sets off for this barbarous region.

On one level Tun-Huang reads like an adventure story. Yet it's also infused with romance. Hsing-te has unforgettable encounters with exotic women. He has prophetic dreams, as well, that add an element of mysticism and a sense of destiny to everything that transpires.

This New York Review Book edition is full of wonderful introductory material. It brought me up to speed on the Dunhuang discovery and Yasushi Inoue's literary achievements.

I'd highly recommend Tun-Huang to history buffs and lovers of Japanese literature.

As historical fiction goes, Tun-Huang left me as parched as the cache of dry and dusty scrolls that are the featured subplot of the novel. Yasushi Inoue's even and factual narration seems best suited to history, less to fiction. While the story possesses a sharply etched clarity, the author falls short in applying this to his characters. They are drawn with a lean hand and lack human warmth and dimension. Their remoteness makes it difficult to believe that they are sufficiently motivated to act as they do or to feel what they feel. The translator's English is stiff and formal, often resulting in stilted, artificial dialogue. It was a quick read, but I was disappointed that such a well-received book could seem so immediate and yet lacking in life.

Maybe I've missed something the other reviewers see in this stiff translation of Inoue's imaginary reconstruction of Chinese history a thousand years ago.

The other reviewers call it a novel about the Buddhist themes of change and impermanence. However, much of it seemed to me of a dreary sameness, despite the constant action, and all that changed was my steadily diminishing interest. (And I am a practicing Buddhist.)

A great deal of it consists of repetitive descriptive passages of caravans moving slowly back and forth from one remote frontier city to another. On the first two days they pass through grasslands, then the next three days through a windswept wasteland, then 2 days through a desert with mountains in the distance, then they come to a frozen lake. Thirty pages and a few days or months or years later, and they are off again.

All of it interspersed with battle scenes and endless preparations for battle that all sound very much alike.

The well-educated protagonist spends a lot of time fighting in these foreign wars, not caring which side he is on, or whether he will live to see another day. His aimless life leads to an interest in Buddhist scriptures, first reading, then translating, finally trying to preserve them for posterity.

The story goes back and forth between macho conflict and camaraderie, and obsessive male fantasies, rivalry, revenge and greed stirred by a brief encounter with a captive princess. If it sounds a bit cheesy, it is. As for its Buddhist view of the world, it barely scratches the surface.

Instead we get lots of strenuous, earnest dialogue like "You must give me that necklace now!" "No, I cannot do that!" "Give it to me!" "I will not!" Or "I will not rest until the head of Lin-yao is on a pole!" Or "You should leave now before the city is destroyed." A great novel by a Japanese master? Alas, a lot of it reads more like a good manga or a B-grade samurai movie.