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Tun-huang : a novel

Translated by Jean Oda Moy

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More than a thousand years ago, an extraordinary trove of early Buddhist sutras and other scriptures was secreted away in caves near the Silk Road city of Tun-huang. But who hid this magnificent treasure and why? In Tun-huang, the great modern Japanese novelist Yasushi Inoue tells the story of Chao Hsing-te, a young Chinese man whose accidental failure to take the all-important exam that will qualify him as a high government official leads to a chance encounter that draws him farther and farther into the wild and contested lands west of the Chinese Empire. Here he finds love, distinguishes himself in battle, and ultimately devotes himself to the strange task of depositing the scrolls in the caves where, many centuries later, they will be rediscovered. A book of magically vivid scenes, fierce passions, and astonishing adventures, Tun-huang is also a profound and stirring meditation on the mystery of history and the hidden presence of the past.

japanese title: Tonko
notes: Japanese title: Tonko.
genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780870113147
9780870115769
9784770010865
OCLC number: 4222594
publisher: Kodansha International, 1978, 1983; New York Review Books, 2010, 2011
publication place: Tokyo, New York; New York
english publication date: 1978
document type: Book
description: xii, 201 p. : map ; 22 cm