MCLC: Gao Jianqun's new novel

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bruce Humes <xumushi at yahoo.com>
Subject: Gao Jianqun's new novel
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Source: http://www.bruce-humes.com/?p=6976

Eighteen years after he penned his best-selling Last of the Huns (最后一个匈
奴), 
Gao Jianqun has announced his new novel The Eminent Monk and the Hun King
(高僧与匈奴王，高建群著) will be published by year-end 2012.  It is based on
his 
screenplay for Tongwan City (统万城) whose filming has already begun.

The storyline consists of two parallel narratives: the reign of Helian
Bobo (赫连勃勃),  founder of the Xiongnu state of Xia (407-431), and his
decision to build his heavily fortified capital at Tongwan (modern Yulin,
Shaanxi), a city that remained difficult to siege even hundreds of years
later; and the life of the Kuchean Buddhist monk and scholar, Kumārajīva
(344-413), renowned for efforts to propagate Mahāyāna Buddhism and his
Sanskrit-to-Chinese translations such as the Diamond Sutra.

Gao has long been fascinated by the Hun and their “nomadic culture. .
. that helped sustain the Chinese civilization by periodically pumping
fresh blood and energy into the Han culture whenever it began to show
signs of decline,” writes Li-Hua Ying in the Historical Dictionary of
Modern Chinese Literature.  In this sense, there are parallels with the
more recent Wolf Totem (狼图腾，姜绒著) that finds inspiration for the
sedentary 
Han in traditional Mongolian culture.

Other historical novels by Gao include Nomad Horses and the Northern Wind
(湖马北风与大漠传) and his Trilogy of the Great Northwest: Last of the Huns
(最后一个匈奴
),Last of the Folk World (最后的民间) and Last Long Journey (最后的远行).