Dunhuang is a novel with hundreds of words, not too long. It only took three commutes and I finished watching it on the subway. I haven't read historical novels for a long time. Indeed, I was deeply attracted by it and couldn't bear to let it go.
I haven't been to Dunhuang, and for the first time I will think of the poem "Lonely smoke in the desert, the long river sets the yen". Author Jing Shangjing's love for the culture of the western regions makes us see the swords and shadows in the desert and the changes in the mysterious yellow sand from the story of Dunhuang. The faint murder is wrapped in a long camel bell, and everything is so far away and so kind.
Never believed in fate. However, throughout the life of the protagonist in the book, it seems that they are drifting aimlessly. I don't know who he will meet and what kind of life situation he will have, but he seems to be dragged in a fixed direction by invisible forces.
Zhao Xingde of Dunhuang has no persistent belief in life, and faces all the unknowns casually and calmly.
In the Song Dynasty, Zhao Xingde, a juror from Tanzhou Prefecture, went from his hometown in Hunan to Kaifeng, the capital, to take the exam. He was born in a Confucian family and liked reading since he was a child. He passed five levels and defeated six generals in the exam. But in the end, I was interviewed in the official department, fell asleep while waiting, missed the exam, and finally became unknown in the imperial examination.
The plot of the novel is very simple, the writing technique is single, there is no flashback and gag, and there is no complicated character relationship and complicated frame structure. The whole article takes the protagonist Zhao Xingde as the line and follows his footsteps step by step in chronological order, going down day by day.
I am like a peeping tom, always following Zhao Hangde and watching his words and deeds. Since he missed the exam, went to the market in despair, rescued the wild monster Xixia woman, and got a piece of Xixia word cloth in return, he suddenly came on an unprepared trip to the western regions.
Follow him all the way from loosening the soil to the desert; From Liangzhou, Xingqing, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Guazhou, and finally stop at Shazhou. The ending solidified in the Thousand Buddha Cave at the foot of Mingsha Mountain, forty miles outside Shazhou City.
It was this temporary trip that made him stay away from his native land and take root in the western regions of blood shed. Passive involvement in one war after another has nothing to do with his interests.
Zhao Xingde, a weak scholar, could not fight and shoot arrows, and was forced to become a soldier and a fearless general.
He has no sense of honor and mission to fight for the survival of the country. On the battlefield, he ignored life and death out of an instinct. You can live or die, and there is no strong inner appeal, which makes you passive and natural.
He didn't see through the world of mortals, nor did he give up on himself. He has no worries at heart.
He consciously loves the Uighur princess, but she is not a necessity in his life.
He is like a chess piece, being used by people. It doesn't seem to be useful, it's dispensable.
The inner fluctuation of the whole character is not big, and the brushwork is indifferent and sloppy.
In the second half of the novel, he turned from the guilt of Uighur princess's suicide because of breaking her promise to learning Buddhism. Use constant translation of Buddhist scriptures to offset inner anxiety. Just as he finally chose to write the Prajna Heart Sutra in an uninhabited house. He did this in order to transcend the spirit of Princess Uighur and find a peace for himself.
Until the end, Jing Shangjing didn't tell us why the princess died. In the more than a year after Zhao Hangde left, she and Zhu and the three were ever-changing, with only a few strokes.
In the whole article, her status is dispensable but important, and she doesn't have much overlap with everyone and is deliberately avoided. But it was such a woman who made Zhao Xingde, who had nothing in her heart, finally walk into the temple and let the heroic and unruly Han officials rebel and kill the king.
In the novel, Wei Chiguang died for money. Cao Xianshun fought to the end for the people of the whole country; Zhu put out the fire for his beloved moth. Everything, or for treasure, for honor, for faith. In fact, the world is not all black and white, and there is no strict distinction between bad guys and good guys. For Jing Shangjing, there are no strict standards of right and wrong for the parties to the war.
People in war can't help but control their own destiny. In the book, Princess Uighur is determined to die, and Zhu died in battle. Their experience, whether tragic or euphemistic, will eventually be lost in the long river of history, but it is enough for a person's life.
Behind the impermanence of Buddhism, there is something beyond impermanence, called spirit. Wealth, power and life all belong to oneself, while classics are different, and no one can take them for himself. Therefore, Zhao Xingde's feat of protecting Confucian classics at all costs in the war also achieved Dunhuang's previous life.
Finally, I returned to Zhao Xingde's wish: "May dragon day, the minister, take care of me, and make the city God peaceful and the people well-being. May the little darling of Ganzhou inherit this good deed, not drown in ghosts, and eliminate all worldly causes, and bless and support her forever. " If you gather, you will live, but if you disperse, you will die.
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