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In the early 1920s, the unstable Qing Empire fell into the source of darkness, while the pains that subsided from cultural collision would last for a whole century.
In face of the extreme chaos, writer Yang Zhijun turned his sight on an invasion war with the purpose of economic aggression and faith conquering. Without suspension, the resister failed in terms of military. It seemed that those solemn and stirring, yet tenacious resistances didn’t leave much bright traces in the turbulent Chinese history in the 20th century. It crept in with winding battle line and slow progress, and it was a conquest of industrial civilization over agrarian age, a machine gun and cannon’s triumph over antique matchlock muskets. Like other wars, it has its rigorous faces and thrilling political wrangling. However, with absolute gap in the strength, this war didn’t witness the glory of the intruders, but melted the courage and strength of the conqueror with a quiet end.
This is “The War of Tibet”.
In history, the invasion war started from the Battle of Mount Lungthur in 1888. Soon afterwards, the well-equipped English Crusaders passed through Chumbi Valley and Qumeixianguo. They captured Gyangz and occupied Lhasa in about ten years from the start to the end. In the novel, this history was condensed into a complete and continuous confrontation, starting from Priest Das who sneaked into Tibet with the faith of preaching and ending up with the departure of British army after victory, and it depicted two symbiotic, comprehensive, and harmonious worlds with gleaming and glory.
It was a world with solemn predestined fate, which was livid and gloomy, harsh and ruthless. In reality, it was the Qing Empire, swaying in the midst of raging storm; it was a regime, so broken that required its governor to mediate with tears of blood, to sacrifice his children for the sake of the cause, and to break his fingers to show his high ideals; various forces fight desperately between paganism and faith, between British devil and Tibetan, between strength and tactics, between obtaining and losing. Within the upper level of Tibetan regime, the three major monasteries (including Gandan Monastery, Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery)and four major Hutukutus (including Danjilin, Gongdelin, Cemolin and Xidelin) had cold relationships among each other. The Regent Buddha and Gaxia government counterbalanced each other, and local manors secretly wrestled among each other. Meanwhile, in face of the invasion, the Regent Buddha IX Dimu Living Buddha was forced to get out and plunge into the vortex of political struggle. Wen Shuo, the minister stationed in Tibet, was unwilling to make peace and strongly advocated to resist. The God KingXIII (the Dalai Lama XIII) developed and grew during the shift of political rights in the war and treated his political opponents arduously while uncompromisingly fighted against British army. This macro world overlooked the existence of individual lives. The once protector, Qing Government, was fully compromising with the British Government and competed with Tibetan Government. In order to resist aggression, the monks and Tibetan went to the war, making the snowy plateau red with blood. Flaunting the banner of preserving human treasure, the British General Macaulay, who believed in the law of jungle, was busy about conquering with blood and fire, about carrying the treasures here and there in Tibet back to British Empire....
The other world was with some comical color of fate, which was warm and gorgeous, light and transparent. No matter how conflicting the reality was, it was still a place full of comfort and sympathy, a place of miracle and paradise, of consideration and warmth, and of confusion and adhigama???. In such a world, illiterate Xijia Lama, just like Troubadours in ancient Greek who were able to sing praises, could speak to god and sang breathtaking scriptures and became the incarnation of ideal commander in the bloody battle. For both sides at war, there was no difference between sturdy Tuotuo Lama and doughty British captain. They were all conquered by love and beauty. In the presence of the Fairy Sang Zhu, no matter she was stained by war or not, she was always heavier than entire Tibet in the heart of Xijia. For Ronghe, he could abandon British Empire for Sangzhu. The God and the Buddha showed miracles in this same land with picturesque scenery. Death here dispelled sadness, shrilling and solemnity, and was turned into supernatural sorrow. Every flower and tree, every sword and gun, and people of the same or different race, were all living under the light of gods and would all grow and decline naturally and fall into samsara. All sadness and confusion will eventually fade away, just like history, who will abandon victory, defeat and wounding.
The British army trekked hundreds of miles, while the Tibetan resisted desperately. On the throne of power, the ones with blue eyes and big nose were as decisive as the ones with yellow skin and black hair. But for Xijia Lama, the girl Sangzhu, Captain Ronghe, the minister stationed in Tibet Wenshuo, Priest Das and even for Living Buddha Dimu as an individual, the serenity of spirit and soul had gone beyond ruthless reality.
Maybe it was because of having seen through the harshness of reality and the magnificence of faith, the novel shaped the character of Vanity King --Sha Gexun, who assumed the essence of Jesus from the west to come to this unknown land and also assumed the Buddhist doctrines and Buddha's light of this snow-covered land through hard practice. For Vanity King, this war was real and unreal at the same time. When the Jesus preacher became the saint of Buddhism, there would always be seekers looking forward to two suns rising respectively from the east and the west.
The double narration of grand history and secret soul gives the novel expansive sense of time and space. When the smoke scattered and the shouting faded, ecstasy and grief went quiet, leaving only the coldness of realism and the warmth of mysticism intertwined among the words.
The river of history was hanging by a thread. Outside the boundary of desire, the blood mist of war was like ancient obscuration, fascinated with the pupil of the saint dripping with gold. While within the boundary of faith, all vagrant souls reached immortal and found their eternal resting place.
Hundred years later, the story ended with the gazing on Voice of Dharma in Paradise by Living Buddha Dimu in St Paul’s Cathedral in England. This is “the awakening seed” and also “the final conversation”. Of course, nobody knows its content. Because we are, the same as the author, still trekking on the endless way of life.
In face of the extreme chaos, writer Yang Zhijun turned his sight on an invasion war with the purpose of economic aggression and faith conquering. Without suspension, the resister failed in terms of military. It seemed that those solemn and stirring, yet tenacious resistances didn’t leave much bright traces in the turbulent Chinese history in the 20th century. It crept in with winding battle line and slow progress, and it was a conquest of industrial civilization over agrarian age, a machine gun and cannon’s triumph over antique matchlock muskets. Like other wars, it has its rigorous faces and thrilling political wrangling. However, with absolute gap in the strength, this war didn’t witness the glory of the intruders, but melted the courage and strength of the conqueror with a quiet end.
This is “The War of Tibet”.
In history, the invasion war started from the Battle of Mount Lungthur in 1888. Soon afterwards, the well-equipped English Crusaders passed through Chumbi Valley and Qumeixianguo. They captured Gyangz and occupied Lhasa in about ten years from the start to the end. In the novel, this history was condensed into a complete and continuous confrontation, starting from Priest Das who sneaked into Tibet with the faith of preaching and ending up with the departure of British army after victory, and it depicted two symbiotic, comprehensive, and harmonious worlds with gleaming and glory.
It was a world with solemn predestined fate, which was livid and gloomy, harsh and ruthless. In reality, it was the Qing Empire, swaying in the midst of raging storm; it was a regime, so broken that required its governor to mediate with tears of blood, to sacrifice his children for the sake of the cause, and to break his fingers to show his high ideals; various forces fight desperately between paganism and faith, between British devil and Tibetan, between strength and tactics, between obtaining and losing. Within the upper level of Tibetan regime, the three major monasteries (including Gandan Monastery, Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery)and four major Hutukutus (including Danjilin, Gongdelin, Cemolin and Xidelin) had cold relationships among each other. The Regent Buddha and Gaxia government counterbalanced each other, and local manors secretly wrestled among each other. Meanwhile, in face of the invasion, the Regent Buddha IX Dimu Living Buddha was forced to get out and plunge into the vortex of political struggle. Wen Shuo, the minister stationed in Tibet, was unwilling to make peace and strongly advocated to resist. The God KingXIII (the Dalai Lama XIII) developed and grew during the shift of political rights in the war and treated his political opponents arduously while uncompromisingly fighted against British army. This macro world overlooked the existence of individual lives. The once protector, Qing Government, was fully compromising with the British Government and competed with Tibetan Government. In order to resist aggression, the monks and Tibetan went to the war, making the snowy plateau red with blood. Flaunting the banner of preserving human treasure, the British General Macaulay, who believed in the law of jungle, was busy about conquering with blood and fire, about carrying the treasures here and there in Tibet back to British Empire....
The other world was with some comical color of fate, which was warm and gorgeous, light and transparent. No matter how conflicting the reality was, it was still a place full of comfort and sympathy, a place of miracle and paradise, of consideration and warmth, and of confusion and adhigama???. In such a world, illiterate Xijia Lama, just like Troubadours in ancient Greek who were able to sing praises, could speak to god and sang breathtaking scriptures and became the incarnation of ideal commander in the bloody battle. For both sides at war, there was no difference between sturdy Tuotuo Lama and doughty British captain. They were all conquered by love and beauty. In the presence of the Fairy Sang Zhu, no matter she was stained by war or not, she was always heavier than entire Tibet in the heart of Xijia. For Ronghe, he could abandon British Empire for Sangzhu. The God and the Buddha showed miracles in this same land with picturesque scenery. Death here dispelled sadness, shrilling and solemnity, and was turned into supernatural sorrow. Every flower and tree, every sword and gun, and people of the same or different race, were all living under the light of gods and would all grow and decline naturally and fall into samsara. All sadness and confusion will eventually fade away, just like history, who will abandon victory, defeat and wounding.
The British army trekked hundreds of miles, while the Tibetan resisted desperately. On the throne of power, the ones with blue eyes and big nose were as decisive as the ones with yellow skin and black hair. But for Xijia Lama, the girl Sangzhu, Captain Ronghe, the minister stationed in Tibet Wenshuo, Priest Das and even for Living Buddha Dimu as an individual, the serenity of spirit and soul had gone beyond ruthless reality.
Maybe it was because of having seen through the harshness of reality and the magnificence of faith, the novel shaped the character of Vanity King --Sha Gexun, who assumed the essence of Jesus from the west to come to this unknown land and also assumed the Buddhist doctrines and Buddha's light of this snow-covered land through hard practice. For Vanity King, this war was real and unreal at the same time. When the Jesus preacher became the saint of Buddhism, there would always be seekers looking forward to two suns rising respectively from the east and the west.
The double narration of grand history and secret soul gives the novel expansive sense of time and space. When the smoke scattered and the shouting faded, ecstasy and grief went quiet, leaving only the coldness of realism and the warmth of mysticism intertwined among the words.
The river of history was hanging by a thread. Outside the boundary of desire, the blood mist of war was like ancient obscuration, fascinated with the pupil of the saint dripping with gold. While within the boundary of faith, all vagrant souls reached immortal and found their eternal resting place.
Hundred years later, the story ended with the gazing on Voice of Dharma in Paradise by Living Buddha Dimu in St Paul’s Cathedral in England. This is “the awakening seed” and also “the final conversation”. Of course, nobody knows its content. Because we are, the same as the author, still trekking on the endless way of life.