In his second book, a work of fiction this time, Mark Salzman does not quite pull off
the Iron and Silk magic once again
but no matter, The Laughing Sutra (1991)
is an eminently enjoyable read, a smart blend of fantasy, adventure and Chinese
history.
It’s a neat tweak of the old Middle Kingdom fable about the Buddhist monk Hsuan-tsang and Sun Wu-k`ung, the Monkey King. When the monk/scholar/century
traveller went across to India, the magical monkey accompanied him, protected
him from peril oftentimes, entertained him, and was good company for the weary explorer.
Here Salzman spins the tale of Hsun-ching, a young boy in
Mao`s China, born right in the middle of
the Cultural Revolution, who is brought up by a monk. The monk, Wei-ching, has just one wish: to read the Laughing Sutra
before he dies. This obscure sutra is so
precious that the one who reads it would instantly perceive his own Buddhahood,
and achieve physical immortality, besides. It had been brought back from India by
Hsuan- tsang but over the years, had fallen into a sad state of neglect and was
eventually purchased and taken to America by a Sinologist. Young Hsun-ching then decides to go to America, the
land of the Foreign Devils, to retrieve
the sutra for his master and adopted father.
En route he manages to acquire the strangest of companions, an
outlandish sort of creature who, by his own admission, is about 2,000 years old, is possessed of brilliant
yellow eyes and supernatural strength, and yes, he does rather resemble the Monkey King.
It`s an adventure of the sort the young Chinese boy could
never have imagined. The two meet all sorts of interesting characters on their
travels both in Hong Kong and San Francisco, and sweep the reader off with them
on their sometimes madcap but always focused escapades.
And it`s a tale told with much detail, sympathy and
humour. Like our best Indian fables, this one too, holds many a little tale
within the big one. The tales all carry a moral of course, but it is so lightly
handled, there is nothing remotely prosy about it.
Stray
Thought: In Col. Sun, one finds shades of the Norse god Loki, of
our own Hanuman.
Also, the author being Mark Salzman, naturally there is quite a bit about the martial arts. A Hong Kong resident watches the strange `Colonel Sun` in action and asks him which style of martial art he was practicing, the Shaolin or the Wutang style. `Neither,` replies Col. Sun. `I call it the Aware of Emptiness Fist style. To execute it properly, your mind needs to be completely empty. It must not stick to anything, not even the opponent. That way, you can counter his attack before he even moves, because you are so clear you can sense his intentions. On the other hand, he cannot counter your moves, because you have no intentions—there is only action.`
Irresistible gyan for a Tai Chi practitioner, like this
reviewer!