Tun-Huang

Tun-Huang, in Central Asia, is a walled city along the Silk Road that historically connected China to the West. It is also the site of the Thousand Buddha cave where, in the early 1900s, Sir Aurel Stein discovered an extraordinary treasure trove of early Buddhist sutras and other scriptures. In Tun-Huang the novel, the great modern Japanese novelist Yasushi Inoue imagines how the scriptures came to be hidden in the caves. Set in the eleventh century CE, this is the story of Chao Tsing-te, a young Chinese man whose accidental failure to take the test that would have qualified him for a career as a government bureaucrat leads to a chance encounter that takes him farther and farther into the wild and contested lands west of the Chinese Empire. There he finds love, distinguishes himself in battle, and finally devotes himself to the strange task that led to the rediscovery of the scriptures so many centuries later. A book of magically vivid scenes, fierce passions, and astonishing adventures to equal Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tun-Huang is also a profound and stirring meditation on the mystery of history and the hidden presence of the past.

About the Author :
Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991) graduated from Kyoto University and became a journalist for the Mainichi Daily News. His first novel, The Bullfight, won the revered Akutagawa Prize. Among his works that have been translated into English are Journey Through Samarkand, Chronicle of My Mother, and a book of short stories entitled Lou-lan. In 1976 he was decorated with the Cultural Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Japanese government. Jean Oda Moy is the American-born daughter of Japanese immigrants who has worked as a clinical social worker, a teacher and a translator of Japanese literature into English. Her latest book is a memoir, Snow on Willow. She lives in Northern California. Damion Searls is the author of Everything You Say Is True, a travelogue, and What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going: Stories.

Review :
“A true historical imagination is exceedingly rare, and [Tun-huang] is a superb example of such an imagination at work.” —Robert Payne, ASIA “The unique thing about Inoue’s work, for me . . . is that every story presents a vision, and that unlike the visions in books by other authors, I can always follow the vision as I’m reading, always believe it; Inoue has lived and felt these images and has the simplest and airiest language for them that I have ever seen. I don’t need to believe his illuminations, they are simply there in the book, as facts.” —Peter Handke “a work of superb historical imagination. . . ” —James Kirkup, The Independent “Early in the 20th century an incredible hoard of Buddhist sutras and other manuscripts was discovered by itinerant monk in Tun-huang. Archaeologists recovered thousands of documents that have been concealed in the Thousand Buddha Caves for 900 years. The author…speculated on the reasons for the hiding of such treasures, and this fascinating and exotic novel is the result.” —Publishers Weekly “Historical reconstruction of a very personal and special kind.” —Donald Richie “An enthralling tale.” —Oriental Economist “A unique writer who has managed to escape the often narrow topical bounds of the Japanese novel.” —Japan Quarterly "One of Japan's most prolific and respected authors..." —Japan Economic Newswire “The descriptive passages in Yasushi Inoue's ‘Under the Shadow of Mount Bandai’ are worthy of the longer passages of an Anne Radcliff Gothic tale" —The Japan Times ''One of the most respected novelists in Japan.'' —The New York Times