Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud (Hardcover)

~ Sun Shuyun (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'10,000 miles without a cloud,' is a Buddhist saying. It signifies the search for a mind clear of doubts: a perfect title for this remarkable book on a journey of discovery and faith. Son Shuyun grew up in China during the dark night of the Cultural Revolution, when it was more important to learn the right attitudes than to study. Her father was an ardent communist and a veteran of the Long March, her grandmother (with whom she shared a room) a Buddhist. By the time Sun Shuyun reached university, she had witnessed the bitter disillusionment of both her father - for whom Mao's brand of communism had failed to deliver on its promises - and her classmates. Scarcely surprising then, given the influence of her grandmother, that she turned to Buddhism for inspiration, and specifically to Xuanzang, a true Chinese hero waiting to be rediscovered. Xuanzang lived in the seventh century AD - a golden period in Chinese history. He was a man of extraordinary qualities, who travelled from China through Central Asia to India in search of enlightenment. Sun Shuyun set out to discover what gave Xuanzang such phenomenal strength and purpose and, above all, to find a faith for herself, a faith that could replace the false god of communism. In retracing Xuanzang's steps, Sun Shuyun makes a journey, both literal and metaphorical, through four landscapes - historical, cultural, spiritual and personal. In so doing, she presents us with a vivid and fascinating insight into China and its people, past and present. Though sparsely illustrated, this is a book whose rich, descriptive language is marvellously evocative. Moving and original, it is both a fine introduction to Chinese Buddhism, and an extraordinary voyage of the soul. (Kirkus UK)

Product Description

Xuanzang should be known as one of the world's great heroes. His travels are legendary. He brought true Buddhism to China. His own book provides a unique record of the history and culture of his time. Yet he is unknown to most of us and even to most Chinese. Sun Shuyun, herself brought up in China, was determined to follow in his footsteps, discover more about Xuanzang and restore his fame. So she retraced his journey from China to India and back. In the 8th century, crossing 110 kingdoms, he took 18 years. He opened up the east and west of Asia to each other - and to us. A man of great faith and determination, Xuanzang won the hearts of kings and robbers with his teaching, his charm and his indomitable will. Against all odds he persuaded the Confucian emperors to allow Buddhism to flourish in China. At the heart of this book lies Sun Shuyun's own personal journey towards understanding the Buddhist faith of her grandmother, recognizing also the passionate idealism of the communist beliefs of her own family and discovering her own beliefs.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (July 7, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 0007129645
• ISBN-13: 978-0007129645
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,308,386 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh, August 7, 2005

By	Ping Lim (Christchurch) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud (Paperback)

These days, it's only too common for us to read books about Chinese who had a hard time living under Mao's reign in China. After a while, everything became a cliche and it became all too difficult to have empathy for them somewhat. This book was a bit like that but it didn't delve in that for too long. Rather, it touched upon the Monkey King story, a fable that Chinese had been brought up with including myself. What I didn't know then was it's actually based upon a true event, the monk himself, XuanZhang. The rest of the fable was naturally dramatised to captivate people's interest and to transport listener's from turbulence and chaos of the time. It's not a mean feat for a monk to defy the Chinese Empire and to head to India to get himself more immersed in Buddhism and to bring sutras and other relevant items back to somehow "enlighten" his people. The journey itself took 18 years and nobody could brag to accumulate so much mileage in that period of time and to actually translate so many sutras into Chinese. XuanZhang would have inducted himself into the World Records of Fame. In that aspect, this book became a "Lonely Planet" book of his time as XuanZhang jotted down of his minute observations of the places that he had been. It then also became an adventure book describing how he overcame avalanche, appeasing robbers, survived in the desert for 4 days without water. Mark Burnett of "Apprentice" fame would have made a reality TV show based on him!!! Then, there's a bit of anthropology going on as the writer tackled to dissect what made XuanZhang the person that he was. Last but not least, the writer also endeavoured to become Jonathan Spence as she discussed about the Chinese Empire, and political mood of the time. There was also mentioning of grave diggers as well, and many of them happened to be Westerners who "ransacked" the historical places rather than getting the pieces from proper channels. Anyway, it's quite ironic to note that some German archealogists commented that they did China a favour by bringing them to German museum for perservation only to have them annihilated into pieces when the Allies bombed Germany during World War 2. Once we engaged into this book, we would find the present time is strikingly similar to the past. Life and death is truly a hair brush away. In all these aspects, this book is really Jack of trade, master of none. Whilst there's no denying that this book tackles a rather difficult topic, I sincerely think that the author should keep her chin high for having the courage to carrying such a complicated task with such aplomb. A rather refreshing book to read and good for self-knowledge. Commendable reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Following the journey of a 7th century Buddhist monk, February 7, 2008

By	Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud (Paperback)

Shuyun was born to zealous communist parents in the 1960s; but a great influence in her childhood was a beloved maternal grandmother who lived with them and who was a devout, though illiterate, Buddhist. During the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976), the Red Guards staged bonfires of books, and the grandmother rescued from the pile a book of comic strips for her granddaughter. It depicted the legend of the Monkey King who protected an early 7th century Chinese Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, on an arduous 18 year journey from China to India and back, to bring back to China 657 Buddhist sutras from India. Shuyun loved the tale. She learnt that the Monkey King was legend, but that the journey of Xuanzang had really happened.

The Cultural Revolution ended; Mao died; the open practice of Buddhism was grudgingly permitted again. Shuyun was able to go to Beijing University in 1982, and then, in 1986, to Oxford. She married an Englishman and made her home in England; she became a documentary film maker with the BBC; but the story of Xuanzang never ceased to haunt her. Ever since she had lost her teenage faith in Communism, she had felt that `something was missing'. In 1999 she decided to travel in the monk's footsteps, though she would take one year instead of eighteen; and this book is built around an account of that pilgrimage.

The immense roundabout route, starting in Xian in Northern China, was through Xinjiang (Sinkiang), along part of the Silk Road, through the blistering Gobi Desert, and eventually enters India through the North-West frontier. Xuangzang faced the danger of avalanches as he crossed the passes in the frozen Heavenly Mountains into what is now Kyrgyzstan but was then ruled by the Great Khan of the Western Turks. From there he had travelled on through what is today Uzbekistan and then Afghanistan; but Shuyun was refused an Uzbek visa and could not travel through Afghanistan anyway. In Xuangzang's time Afghanistan had been a devoutly Buddhist area, but it was now run by the Taliban who would, within a year or two, destroy the great Buddhas of Bamiyan and every other Buddhist image in the country. So Shuyun flew direct to Peshawar, just inside Pakistan, to rejoin Xuangzang's route. And from there she at last entered India.

From now on we get rather more about the history of Buddhism than we have had so far, though in a rather unsystematic and unchronological way, dictated by the order in which Shuyun visits Buddhist landmarks. For example, her first major halt in India was Nalanda, the great Buddhist centre where Yogakara Buddhism was founded some seven centuries after the Buddha's death. Her next visit, to near-by Bodh Gaya, takes us back to the Buddha's own life-time: it was there where the Buddha had found enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree.

Xuanzang spent five years in Nalanda, mastering Sanskrit and translating sutras into Chinese, steeping himself in the doctrines of the different Buddhist schools before embracing the most difficult Yogakara school which he eventually propounded back in China.

Shuyun flies to visit places on Xuanzang's route after he left Nalanda: through Southern India, then up the West coast and then back across the Silk Route, its southern branch this time, taking in the old Buddhist kingdom of Khotan, which was so savagely destroyed by the Muslims about three centuries after Xuanzang's time.

Eventually the Muslim invaders destroyed Buddhism in India so completely that the history of Buddhism in its native country was lost even to the Indians themselves. And although Xuanzang's account of his journey was known in China, it was not known in the West until the 1850s. His account is so immensely detailed and accurate that it then helped western scholars and archaeologists, notably one Alexander Cunningham, to rediscover and sometimes excavate some of the most famous Buddhist monuments. Xuanzang was honoured as a sage and scholar in the India and the China of his own time; and now, among contemporary Indian Buddhists, he is immensely revered as the man who restored their lost history.

At last Xuanzang crossed back into China at Dunhuang, where he meditated for a while in the first of the thousands of caves which later became Buddhist places of worship with fabulous frescoes. One of the caves contained a depository of 50,000 Buddhist scrolls and manuscripts, discovered only in the early 20th century. Xuanzang then converted the great Tang Emperor Taizong from Daoism to Buddhism.

Shuyun had set out on her journey with an interest in Buddhism, but with some reservations, not only about the superstitious beliefs which had accompanied her grandmother's serene attitude to life, but also about the doctrines of karma and rebirth. Apparently it was only on her journey that she met Buddhists who taught her that true Buddhism discards the idea of miracles. And she was most drawn to a Buddhist school which was founded only in 1956 by B.R.Ambedkar, a convert from Hinduism, for this, too, rejects the idea of karma and rebirth, and relies entirely on the self-discipline and compassion taught by the Buddha. She ended her own journey with a stay in a Buddhist monastery in Dunhuang, in the hope that she might `reach the deep emotion and sense of belonging that I longed for.' It is not clear whether she managed that, although she gained a deeper appreciation of Buddhism - and she has certainly taught her readers a great deal about its history and its message (as well as given much other information, ranging from Islamic resistance movements in today's Khyrgizstan and Xinjiang, through aspects of Hinduism, through the lawlessness in the state of Bihar to silk production in Khotan).

Shuyun is a fine descriptive writer, but readers should also look at some wonderful pictures on Flickr or Google Images of places and monuments she mentions.