tang dynasty times

view from inside a bronze ding (司母戊鼎)

I guess it's beause he inevitably reminds me of my ex-husband, but whenever I hear mention of Chiang Kai Shek, I always find myself growing annoyed.

A few days ago, the View from Taiwan brought up the old story of the Chiang Kai Shek and the infamous stolen gold. It seems that the actual pilot of the chartered aircraft came forward to say that, yeah, he too often wondered where the gold had disappeared to. Slick airlines out of Oakland. Love it. As everyone keeps pointing out, the Generalismo's gold was a drop in the bucket compared to US aid to the KMT.

The plane was "grossed out"... I am "grossed out."

Inside a bronze ding

Have you ever heard of The Square Ding Dedicated to Mother Wu (司母戊鼎; 12th century B.C.)? This ding is said to be the heaviest bronze vessel found anywhere on earth, weighing in at over 875 kilograms (about the size of a compact car!) Found near the royal Shang burial site at Anyang in March of 1933, the piece was so heavy that it was put back into the ground when it was first discovered. Waiting out World War Two underground, it was finally officially excavated by archaeologists in June of 1946 and then presented to CKS on his 46th birthday.

My Japanese books (NHK publications) say that he treasured the piece, keeping it nearby him in his study during the long period of political struggle and civil war. From Shanghai to Nanjing and then all the way to Chongqing...However, when the weary Nationalists eventually retreated to Taiwan, the tremendously heavy bronze ding had to be left behind much to his dismay-- for what better symbol of political power could there be then this enormous bronze ding?

Remember the troublesome general from the state of Chu who was belligerent enough to ask about the weight of the nine tripods (問鼎)? You will recall the wise answer provided to the general by the Zhou King's steady servant Wáng-sūn Mǎn (王孫満):

The tripods do not matter, virtue does.

It's all in a person's approach, isn't it?

夢の都

My Beloved Emperor faced a similar problem in his city of dreams. The world's most glorious empire was about to be overrun by barbarians of the very worst kind. And what did my man do? Well, for one thing  

he had special tunnels dug under the Forbidden City in order to visit his favorite courtesan’s house or walk the streets of Kaifeng un-detected. And he continues obliviously writing his poetry and lavishly spending on the arts as his country teetered on the edge of disaster

As I have said elsewhere, I think when one is facing a terrible dilemna there are 3 possible approaches.

1) You can ignore the problem.
2) You can directly face the problem head-on
or
3) You can indirectly seek to eliminate the causes of the problem so that the problem will cease to arise

Huizong's detractors perhaps could accuse him of the first, while those who are fond of him might prefer to posit the third.

So, there he was. His country on the brink of disaster, and rather than mobilizing the army, he sought instead to throw himself into the study and re-cataloging of the ancient bronzes. As if to say, in the words of one of my great aristocratic friends, if I could just get the bronzes right, everything else would follow suit.

Pursuing virtue in small ways. One doesn't always need to be dramatic. Or in the words of Mencius,

 Knowing their government by seeing their ritual; knowing their virtue by hearing their music

View from a minaret
View from inside a bronze ding

 

 

view from a minaret

 

It was the view like from the top of a minaret. Like in my dream--  he had captured an angel's eye view, very much like that of a Persian miniature. Pure geometry drawn from the timeless perspective of God; the colors were like that: richly detailed and incredibly vibrant-- the shimmering and rich colors of Herat and Tabriz. Of Delhi seen from the top of a minaret.

Maya said, "symmetry and harmony are inseparable."

But I had just put flowers in a bizen vase and so had pleasing imperfections on my mind. My tea teacher had always urged for balance and harmony in assymetry (Wabi-sabi, etc). 

There are so many ways to see beauty.

And, so an artist attaches a camera to a kite. He tells me, it is a Japanese kite. Up, up and away... he gazes upon the world as beauty unfolds in front of his eyes like an illuminated manuscript

...of angels, parosols, tigers, tents, dragons and meloncholy princes, and in the process what he hinted at was this: There was a time when Allah looked upon the world in all its uniqueness, and believing in the beauty of what he saw; bequethed his creation to us, his servants. The duty of illustrators and of those who, loving art, gaze upon the world, is to remember the magnificence of what Allah beheld and left to us...

You recall Master Effendi in My Name is Red.

The Sultan's ambassador, Enishte Effendi finds himself in Venice. A renown miniaturist in the service of the Ottoman Court, he is utterly speechless when he sees his first Venetian-style Renaissance paintings. That is to say, the paintings completely boggle his mind.

What could they possibly mean, he wonders?

One painting in particular has him so disturbed he is unable to sleep. It is a portrait- done in the Renaissance style. It is not meant to present a timeless realm, or represent any deeper truths. It does not seek to embellish a tale or illuminate the perspective of God, but rather, he realizes, it is something which stands all on its own.

I learned from the Venetian gentleman who was giving me a tour through the palazzo that the portrait was of a friend, a nobleman like himself. He had included whatever was significant in his life in his portrait: In the background landscape visible from the open window there was a farm, a village and a blending of color which made a realistic-looking forest. Resting on the table before the nobleman were a clock, books, Time, Evil,  Life, a calligraphy pen, a map, a compass, boxes containing gold coins, bric-a-brac, odds and ends, inscrutable yet indistinguishable things that were probably included in many pictures, shadows of jinns and the Devil and also a picture of the man's stunningly beautiful daughter as she stood beside her father.

"What was the narrative that this representation was meant to embellish and complete? As I regarded the work, I slowly sensed that the underlying tale was the picture itself. The painting wasn't the extension of a story at all, it was something in its own right.

First, he was absolutely horrified-- just like Su Shi, he must have thought that

while even a child could produce a work of realistic likeness, that only a true scholar and a gentleman was able to create art of moral value; so that-- again-- even from within the confines of the city the viewer could be utterly transported.

To be utterly transported.

When Westerners first came into contact with Chinese painting, they--ironically-- found it childlike for it's lack of a fixed perspective. They actually considered these paintings to be technically lacking!

What they didn't understand was that not all art aimed at realistic likeness; indeed, there are many artistic projects which are aiming at something altogether different.

That was Enishte Effendi first reaction as well. And yet-- and yet!-- he found himself increasingly intrigued by the idea of representing individual people or horses or landscapes. Unable to get the idea out of his head, he thought, "I, too, wanted to be portrayed in this manner."

Telling his idea to Black, Black becomes intrigued as well. For you see, Black is himself deeply in love. And who wants a bird's eye view when you are in love?

Had I taken Shekure's portrait with me, rendered in the style of the Venetian masters, I wouldn't have felt such loss during my long travels when I could scarcely remember my beloved, whose face I'd left somewhere behind me. For if a lover's face survives emblazoned on your heart, the world is still your home.

**

Yesterday, looking at Nicolas Chorier's beautiful photographs-- windmills and Ottoman miniatures on my mind-- I remembered the ending of My Name is Red; written from the perspective of the hero's beloved, Shekure.

It seems all her life, she too had dreamt of having two paintings made. Like Master Effendi, she longed to have her portrait made in the style of the Europeans. Something in time. She did not seek to be painted as a Chinese beauty. No, she wanted a youthful portrait of herself --a painting of what she really looked like.

And the other painting?

Well, of course, she wanted a painting of perfect bliss. A painting of a mother with her son. She says: " I'd want the bird in the sky to be depicted as if flying, and at the same time, happily and eternally suspended there, in the style of the old masters of Herat who were able to stop time."

"I know it's not easy," she says to her son Orhan-- Orhan Pamuk, who then goes on to write the novel.

**

Photographs by Nicolas Chorier-- be sure to see his Uzbekistan gallery on his site. Also (BBC): India-- a Kite's Eye View

  

silk road diplomacy

"the very immortals can be moved; their virtue and honor and strength are greater than ours are, / and yet with sacrifices and offerings for endearment, / with libations and with savor men turn back even the immortals / in supplication, when any man does wrong and transgresses” (Iliad, IX 497-501)

You have to admit it stands to reason that the gods would indeed be moved in this version of Homeric destiny-- so guided by the human prayers and curses that forever bound together Troy, Rome and Carthage.

And knowing that their prayers had wings, the ancients also knew that to be truly great one must be able to defeat a great enemy-- so the Greeks praised Troy's strengths to high heaven-- as did Polybius, the Carthiginians'. This is not to argue that war itself was somehow more noble in ancient times, but rather that there is a possibility that how you understand your enemies in the end matters. That is to say that there are more or less noble ways of both going to war but also more or less noble ways of creating and "spinning" battle narratives-- and that these differences could be significant.

As my dear Caesar says, those who seek to promote war often ignore history.

And how much easier to do so in a world where you can go about life forgetting your country is even at war in the first place. To me, this is connected to having a very dfferent kind of concept over destiny; a concept which does not seem to include the Homeric notion of ordinary human influence. We still go to war but that idea of going up against a respected opponent is missing completely as the other side is dehumanized. Perhaps the ultimate symbol of this kind of modern prayerless destiny are the unmanned, robotic bombings which are remotely carried out by staff in an office building somewhere outside of Las Vegas and Langley. This is a policy which not only does Obama embrace but something with which he "virtually" kicked off his reign. (For the moral aspect of the policy, see the transcripts of this philosopher's zone program on political violence; and for a quick overview on the historical back ground, see the comment by the always brilliant, Patrick S O'Donnell here; also highly recommended is the Jane Mayer article from the New Yorker linked below).

It is a far cry from the days of Troy, when the Kings and elite oftentimes at least actually went into battle.

Along these lines classicist Mary Beard remarked recently as well that,

The bigger problem here is how we understand Virtue and Evil. It suits the cheaper side of political debate and media hype to imagine that somehow all the virtues (or vices) come together, as a package: a good person will be good across the board, a bad one similarly bad. It's a view with a long pedigree (and Aristotle has got a lot to answer for), but it crudifies political culture, is almost always a gross oversimplification and it undermines our capacity to deal with racism, terrorism, discrimination or whatever.

**

So if historical memory and the promotion of war are on one side of the coin, don't you think that communication and diplomacy are on the other?

I am a great fan of the writing of William Dalrymple. Not all that long ago he had another great article in the Guardian about the future of travel writing. One paragraph in particular caught my attention:

"It's no accident that the mess inflicted on the world by the last US administration was done by a group of men who had hardly travelled, and relied for information on policy documents and the reports of journalists sitting interviewing middle-class contacts in capital cities. A good travel writer can give you the warp and weft of everyday life, the generalities of people's existence that are rarely reflected in journalism, and hardly touched on by any other discipline. Despite the internet and the revolution in communications, there is still no substitute."

Indeed, reading this I thought that with the further and further cutting back ("outsourcing") of the old diplomatic corps really US policy is probably being decided mainly by a cabal of monoglots and cultural provincials. Whereas in contrast, the more I read about silk road history, the more I have been amazed by the way kings and leaders seemed to surround themselves with polyglot and multicultural advisors, spouses and elite. From al-Andalus to Chang'an, there were stunningly cosmopolitan and polyglot rulers.

The thing is, people quite simply do not always universally behave the same way and you cannot know this unless you go and see it! Or at the very least, you need people with such first-hand experience and language skills to advise you.... To wit: Vietnam.

This is why I appreciate Parag Khanna's work so much (though I don't agree with all his conclusions). A polylingual, the man has traveled pretty much everywhere on the planet. Hence, when he speaks, real experience talking to people informs his opinions. I am greatly looking forward to his upcoming book, the Future of Diplomacy.

Yes, two-way communication in the relevant languages really does matter.

Here is the other side from a war (Israel-Palestine Conflict) that very much has been played out-- for better or worse-- according to the old rules of the Game (though it seems drones are much used in that conflict as well; indeed, my friend Tina tells me that they were probably used in the incident named by the Slate.com author thereby confusing his argument?).

Some may say, there will always be warfare and it is in our benefit to make what is a necessary evil as efficient as possible. Others will counter that one needs to take the long view when it comes to political violence (and that includes the ethical implications).

Afterall, "historical provincialism" applies forward in time as well-- right into a short-sightedness.

**

Here is a link to the Jane Mayer article on predator drones and Pakistan.

And this on the  historical background of Asymetric Warfare and China.

dream journeys 臥遊

--from the peony archives

   

A friend and I were talking about the way certain places can leave a deep and indeliable impression on a person.

He said, It's always cities that draw me.

Really? I replied, For me, it is almost always landscapes. But like with people, it's not that every place will have the power to move me, but rather that I long for certain landscapes like I long for certain people.

And, I cannot remember if I said this aloud or just thought it, but so tied is this feeling of being moved to the workings of my inner world (that place where my heart beats) that some of these landscapes I have never even actually traveled to; they are, nonetheless, no less significant to me 

By this time-- and some of you may even know this much about me-- I was already on my tiny boat, drifting very slowly downstream as each of the legendary Eight Views passed in front of my eyes. Bathed in mist, the pale landscapes seemed to be themselves drifting hazily in and out of focus-- drawing me in through their ambiguity. This ambiguity being characteristic, of course, of all the finest Southern Song landscapes, where the imagination of the viewer and the emotion of the landscape merge. 

Dream Journey over Xiao Xiang 瀟湘臥遊図巻

The painting is a Song dynasty masterpiece, and now a National Treasure of Japan. Without a doubt, it is within this landscape that I travel more than anywhere. Maybe many of you will feel the same when I say that very rarely do I meet a person who is so agreeable; who engages me so fully on the level of the heart that I am quite certain that a lifetime with that person would never be enough. That is also how I feel about this painting. And, for 10 years it has been my computer desktop wallpaper. Some of you will, I suppose, be thinking: Wow, 10 years-- that's a long time to look at the same painting. Believe it or not, though, I never grow tired of gazing at it; as it continues to fascinate and draw me in.

So there I am alone on a boat just ahead of my lover, who is drunk and trying to paint peonies in the boat just behind mine. Sometimes it starts to rain-- ruining the painting-- and therefore ruining my always precarious mood.

Can you see us? Slowly, slowly floating downstream as the landscapes unfold-- one after the other-- in front of our eyes (here I present them in the traditional Japanese order):

Autumn Geese Descending on a Sandbar  平沙落雁  
Returning Sails off Distant Shores  遠浦帰帆 
Mountain Market in Clearing Mist 山市晴嵐 
 River and Sky in Evening Snow  江天暮雪
Autumn Moon Over Lake Dongting 洞庭秋月
Night Rain on Xiao Xiang 瀟湘夜雨 
Evening Bell from Mist Shrouded Temple 烟寺晩鐘

As I wrote elsewhere about the painting, Song landscapes are not only viewed but are paintings that one can "walk around in." This is the Dream Journey implied by the painting's title. It is the potentially rich empty space in the painting-- the hallmark of Southern Song landscapes-- that in effect carries the viewer far beyond the painted images into a pure and natural realm beyond the "dust of the everyday world.

Obviously, it isn't easy to brush off the dust when one is living down on the flatlands-- where the air is foul and stifling-- so one needs props. "Gayu" is the Japanese pronunciation of the characters 臥遊 "dream journey." Like the ability to imagine mountains even when you are down on the plaines, for a literati scholar it was paramount to always be able to access this world of cultivated mind and spirit-- even from within the dusty and oftentimes unbearable confines of ordinary life in the city. 

My beloved was very fond of using this theme at his academy. However, while He seemed to appreciate both the landscape and the idea of Xiao Xiang, He never actually painted in that style Himself. Always preferring to paint colorful birds and peonies. (I hope no one will hear this as a complaint for I have nothing but good to say of my man of Kaifeng).

And, where are these landscapes located, you are wondering? Well, the celebrated Eight Views of Xiao Xiang 瀟湘八景　are to be found-- in the parlance of the ancients-- in the southern part of the Kingdom of Chu. Yet another Chinese "watery world of lakes and marshes," the northern part of the region in particular is known for the beauty of the great river (where it flows east of the Three Gorges). One of the Yangzi's major tributories, the River Xiang also flows east ending its own long journey pouring into Lake Dongting, after being augmented along the way by dozens of smaller rivers and streams-- one of which is thought to be the River Xiao. 

The theme of the "Eight Views of Xiao Xiang" were, in fact, already old by my Lover's time, having been celebrated hundreds of years earlier in Tang dynasty verse. It is thought that it was an official working in the Tang Ministry of Transport and Administration in Changsha who painted the very first series of "Eight Scenes." The paintings unfortunately no longer exist, but some suggest that they were painted on the walls of a terrace that stood overlooking the Xiang River in Changsha. Whatever their appearance, they must have been stunning, as before long they had created such a stir which continued all the way down to the late Song court.

Not only did my lover and I talk of Xiao-Xiang unendingly, but so too did our pet peeve Su Shih (Okay, I admit, Su Shih was mainly my pet peeve, and I took every chance I could, too, to blacken his name at court-- really, how could I resist?) In any event, before I could stop him and his endless grumbling, he had composed a set of poems which became so famous, that the Eight Views of Xiao Xiang became the stuff of legend. 

A legend that would travel to my new home of Japan where it become celebrated in true 文人 style.

As much as Su Shih annoyed me (and indeed, I must admit to you Dear Readers that I often fantasized about putting him down a well); in fact he did say something rather wonderful about how, while even a child could produce a work of realistic likeness, that only a true scholar and a gentleman was able to create art of moral value; so that-- again-- even from within the confines of the city (or God Forbid, from within the walls of a gulag), that the viewer could be utterly transported. Su Shih praised this kind of art that could induce a state which could put the viewer in touch with the simplicity of nature-- or in his words: with the dao.

To be continued...

**

Recommended reading: Dreaming the Southern Song Landscape/Van Gulik's Chinese Pictorial Art by the Connoisseur/ Barthes, A Lover's Discourse (adorable! as fascination)

Finally: These images. MW: the large title calligraphy "Dreams of Mists and Clouds" (氣吞雲夢) was written by Qianlong. I wrote about my favorite calligraphy by Dong Qichang in that comment (do you remember where I wrote that? I can't find it)

**

Listening to the night rain on Xiao Xiang (瀟湘夜雨 )-- it is a thousand years of tears (and it's as close as I could get to the Eight Views):

reflections of the silk road (in Japan)

 

It is said that sometimes as many as 500 camels would make up the great silk road caravans that journeyed east-west across what is some of the most daunting terrain on earth. Indeed, it is the terrain itself that perhaps more than anything defines these lands through which the caravans passed. In addition to being dominated by some of the highest mountain ranges on earth-- the Pamirs, the Karakoram, the Himalaya, the Kunlun--- the area is also home to some of the most deadly deserts and lifeless basin areas as well. Completely landlocked, it was a journey of great extremes.

The silk road...

**

A victim of the atomic bomb blast (hibakusha 被爆者) at Hiroshima, Ikuo Hirayama is one of Japan's greatest living nihonga painters. Last night, flipping through a book containing some of his most famous paintings, a description of a time in his youth when the artist had hit a very low place in his life caught my attention. Suffering from sickness caused by radiation exposure, Hirayama had grown physically weak. And, in this debilitated state, he became emotionally distraught over his lack of success as a painter. "If I were to collapse now," he wrote, "none of my paintings would ever be known to the world-- nothing of myself would be left behind." He then vowed that he would not give up hope until he had achieved at least one painting that truly expressed what was in his own heart as well as the spirit of the times in which he was a part.

It was around this time that the image of the legendary translator of the silk road, the Chinese monk Xuanzang came to him in the form of his first great artistic success, the Transmission of Buddhism.

More powerful than what must have been great anxiety and fear over the hardship of making such a hazardous journey was Xuanzang's strong commitment to transmit the Buddhist teachings. Overcoming all his fears was his hope and prayers for a better and more peaceful future for humankind. It was this hope which gave the young Hirayama the start for his own personal journey （「平山郁夫の世界」より）

 

And what a journey his life has taken. From his painting of the great Chinese monk, Hirayama would embark on a lifetime devoted to painting and writing about the Silk Road. Not just as a painter, but in his capacity as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, Hirayama has traveled and painted the silk road for some 50 years. From his work in Afganistan to UNESCO symposiums and children's projects, he is known for his vision of a "silk road" style cooperation and mutual flourishing between peoples.

Last week, I was working on a translation of an interview with one of Japan's greatest living composers. Like Yo Yo Ma, Miki Minoru is best known for his work on silk road music. When asked why he holds up the silk road as a symbol of mutual cooperation and peaceful coexistence, Miki had this to say:

The Silk Road was a uniquely peaceful trade route. Connecting Rome with Chang’an, it was a route that served to promote peaceful exchanges and mutual cooperation between Eastern and Western countries. It is interesting that while in Asia the Silk Road holds great interest and dreams, in the west it seems to be mainly of interest to archaeologists. As a person who fundamentally rejects the current uninteresting state of affairs whereby as the world Westernizes we are seeing more and more of a mono-culture, what I can do in my own projects is to choose artists whose own sense of identity is not that of “international.” Having said that, however, in my Japanese or Asian music projects, there are countless cases in which we utilize technologies or know-how produced by the West. Also, because of Japan’s own history of waves of influence by the refined culture of China, within my own identity as a Japanese, this great East Asian cultural flowering—together with my own personal approach--has been essential in my larger scale artistic activities.

Like Miki Minoru, I too have been surprised by the gap in how the silk road is understood in different places around the world. But rather than east versus west, I think that in fact all of the countries that once stood along the ancient silk road have a more or less similar view of the ancient trade route's symbolic value as an alternative possibility to international relations and globalization. Indeed, from Europe to Japan, UNESCO holds its Silk Road symposiums with this aim of promoting what they call "two-way dialogues" in the form of harmonious cultural and trade exchanges.

Especially in Japan, the Silk Road is often held up as a symbolic alternative to globalism-as -mono-culturalization. UNESCO's Eiji Hattori remarks that the opposite of this idea of the Silk Road is that of empire or colonialism. 

Miki, in his interview has a better description, I think, in which he says that while there will always be inbalances of power between different peoples over the stretch of time, when that inbalance of power tilts too far in one direction that it is this overwheming dominance of one group over another that has shown itself to have tremendous power in generating the kind of hate that leads to violence. And, it is his belief that it is only through harmonious exchanges and collaborative efforts between people that genuine peace can be established.

Yo Yo Ma said much the same thing in an interview he did for Wisconsin's public radio program East Meets West. Calling the Silk Road the "Internet of Antiquity," he said that as important as virtuosity in his work is what he calls a spirit of generosity. This is really captured by the image of an orchestra, says Miki, where virtuosity (in the form of the individual musicians) come together in a spirit of general equality (or as Yo Yo Ma says generosity) with the ultimate aim of mutual flourishing for all members.

**

Obviously, no one is really talking about how things actually may have been or not, for indeed, we have also seen the silk road used as a slogan for aggressive multinational corporations wanting to get a piece of the energy pie in that part of that world as well. But, in Japan-- at least-- the silk road has been overwhelmingly taken up as a symbol of mutual cooperation and co-flourishing which is viewed ultimately as a symbol for anti-"globalization" and world peace. 

What is most illuminating about this vision is that the opposite of globalization is not isolation. It is a more cooperative or mutually benefiting type of "two-way" exchange. And, as a two-way exchange, it would have less impact than current trade practives. (I have been reading about the way the cultural and trade practices of traditional societies along the silk road in the Himalaya which had remained basically intact for a thousand years of silk road history are becoming almost totally extinct over the past two decades for reasons related to empire, globalization, monoculturalization. For more see this post on Ladakh)

Japan, with its vibrant peace and ecology movements, has taken up these reflections of the silk road like perhaps no other people. (See this post). Having lived the past two decades through this silk road boom, I have been so impressed by both the approach of silk road history scholars (like those at Ryukoku University) as well as the surprisingly long term enthusiasm of the general public.

As Eiji Hattori once famously remarked: civilizations don't clash, ignorance does.

And so this unique commitment to an ideal of peace and mutual cooperation as seen in the romance of the stories we tell about the history of the silk road has always struck me as highly praiseworthy. To try and see the connections and our mutual co-dependence...

A friend remarked that he sometimes feels as if a new culture is being born. I wish I could agree with him. I guess I am too dark and gloomy for that. But, I will say this much: if a new culture is being born, I wonder if it isn't the one I sometimes feel blossoming right here in Japan at the grassroots level- where peace and ecoloogy is is so often spoken of in terms of inter-connectability, inter-dependence and dialogue.

**

Finally, I really recommend the Wisconsin public radio program (with Yo Yo Ma): East Meets West: the New Silk Road. Yo Yo Ma spoke about how important he believes it is for people to feel that they are a part of something bigger than just the practical concerns of their own lives. It reminded me of my friend Arsen's comment the other day concerning our conversation about Heidegger and "being online," when he remarked how hard he felt it was to find a spiritual or literary school in the busy-ness of our everyday practical lives (and how the Internet is so helpful in reaching out to form intellectual or spiritual communities). This all is, of course, very close to my own heart. To borrow my dear Caesar's words, I would always want to be the kind of person who isn't just sitting safely on the beach watching other people doing the swimming. Yes, it is a risk to get in the water-- you could even drown-- but, no matter what, I categorically agree with Caesar (and Yo Yo Ma) that one wants to live engaged and committed to something beyond just the practical. (Yes, Kierkegaard for President)

Japan's Silk Road Boom

 
While modern day Xian is often claimed to be the "terminus of the Silk Road," the Japanese rightly insist that the sands of the caravan routes really stopped at Nara. From Persian instruments and dances from Kucha to Buddhist scriptures brought by monks from China and Cambodia-- all this and more found its way to Japan during the 7th-8th century. And thanks to an almost obsessive antiquarianism, Japan today holds some of the most important and best preserved artistic treasures from that early period of Silk Road history.  And not just art objects, but believe it or not, Central Asian music and dances that originated during Tang Silk Road times still exist in Japan much as they were over 1000 years ago. Just like the perfectly preserved roman glass goblets that can be seen in Japanese museums today, the Japanese Imperial Household has preserved some of this music and dance for a millenium. (For more read this post on Kuchean Dancers and the Sogdian whirl).

Considering this thousand year-long fascination, it should come as no surprise that Japan still finds itself in the gripes of what is called its modern "Silk Road Boom." (For more on the Japanese approach to the Silk Road, see my post Silk Road Reflections). The general public for the past three decades just cannot seem to get enough of silk road history and there have been many large-scale, overwhelmingly popular documentaries, a seemingly unending stream of publications and countless museum exhibitions which draw large crowds. Of the museum exhibitions, the annual Shosoin Exhibition held in Nara is the most famous. This year marked the 61st annual exhibition and I wonder if it would pretty much take that long for a person going every year to see the collection in its entirity? For more on this exhibition, see my fellow Silk Road intriguer Jean's post on it for Kyoto Journal here.

1980s-1990s

NHK Special: The Silk Road. People say-- and wikipedia concurs-- that what really kicked off Japan's "silk road boom" was the legendary NHK video series: The Silk Road. Production began on the three-volume series in 1979. The first volume was a joint-production between NHK and China's CCTV-- the first-ever joint Sino-Japanese film production in history. The series was conceived immediately after diplomatic relations were restored between China and Japan in 1972. At that time the Chinese Premier Chou Enlai gave a press conference for Japanese reporters in which he challenged them to introduce China to the world. Not surprisingly, the theme of the Silk Road was brought forward and thus began the first-ever modern filming in Western China  by the outside world. It took some seven years of planning but in 1979 production was started which had the dual aim of both introducing China to the world, but more importantly to trace the way that Japan was itself connected to the rest of the world via Silk Road history.

The show remains a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. I mean, even 30 years ago, NHK is NHK: public television at its best. Of course, TV has come a long way in 30 years. Instead of digital high definition, the filming can be shakey at times and everything is obviously dated: from the famous 1970s opening song with its psychedelic shots of a 12 arm goddess moving to the rhythm of Kitaro's new age synthesizer to the journalist who heads out with a portable box-like audio recorder and microphone--it is from a different time and space!

China has changed a lot. In the filming, you see rural images that could have been taken a 1000 years ago. And, even in Xian, everyone is in gray Mao jackets and red caps, bicycles everywhere. Party officials ride through the crowded streets like hornets in their motorcycle side-cars. Its like those communist-era ballets that you see-- you can hardly believe your eyes.

I cannot locate the figures now, but the program had an astronomical budget and was funded almost entirely by NHK and included original research and many publications to accompany the series.

20% of the Japanese TV audience were said to have watched the series, which had very significant guest appearances by Shiba Ryotaro and Inoue Yasushi. There have been complaints about the English version that the content was "spotty" but the fact is the content was not spotty from a Japanese language point of view. I have not seen the program in English-- nor will I. The Japanese version is a masterpiece.

The first 12-volume series was so popular that the public demanded a second volume. And, so NHK went on alone (without their Chinese partners)-- all the way to Rome in 18 more volumes! This was filmed in 1983-4 and includes important filming of the Iraqi marshland people whose way of life have vanished.

For more, you can see my incomplete guide to the series: NHK The Silk Road Series/ NHK site here

--It was Kitaro's music for the Silk Road series that brought him international acclaim. Here it is!

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Monkey. Like in China, the story Journey to the West 西遊記 is incredibly popular in Japan. A drama series based on the Chinese novel called Monkey was aired from 1978-9 and then a second series from 1979-80. The series was extremely popular. It's opening narration was especially impressive and this has retained for the later remakes of the series. Like Kitaro for NHK, the soundtrack for the series Monkey by the popular band Godiego was also a huge success-- especially popular were the songs Gandhara and Monkey Majik. 

The gorgeous Masako Natsume who played the starring role gained world-wide attention for this drama, as did Godiego and Monkey Majik. Watch music video Gandhara and Monkey Majik.

2000s

In 2000,Ikuo Hirayama created his monumental mural,  Series of Paintings of Western Regions in the Age of the Great Tang Dynasty in the Xuanzang Pavilion which stands behind Yakushi Temple in Nara. The Temple has been associated with the great Chinese Silk Road monk Xuanzang from its very beginnings in the 7th century, and Hirayama was asked to mark the millenium by making a series of paintings of the monk's journey on the pavilion walls. 

100 Year Anniversary of Otani Expedition. 2003 marked the (infamous?) Otani expedition to Central Asia. Along with the other "foreign devils on the silk road" like Aurel Stein, Sven Hedit, Pelliot and Von Le Coq, Kozui Otani led several archaelogical expeditions into Central Asia from which he brought back an astonishing amount of art works and important cultural properties. For more see my Post The Otani Mission. To mark the 100 year anniversary,a silk road symposium was held by Ryukoku University on silk road cultures and modern scientific research. the Mainichi Shinbum also had ran a very popular series of articles about the mission and the called 『阿弥陀が来た道―百年目の大谷探検隊』 ("The Road that Amida Traveled: 100 years since the Otani Mission"), which was then published as a book.

Saiyuki was re-made again in 2006 starring Shingo Katori. This series was the basis for the 2007 movie, also starring (you guessed it) Shingo. Movie trailer here and music here!

2005 New NHK Silk Road Special. In 2005, to celebrate NHK's 80th anniversary a New NHK Silk Road series was produced with the basic aim of re-visiting volume one of the original series to compare how much had changed in 25 years.

2007 NHK Special: The New Silk Road. A seven-part series, subtitled "Travels in Turbulent Lands," this latest edition was markedly different from the earlier series as it was mainly concerned with war and strife in Central Asia and the Arabia peninsula. Whereas the earlier documentaries were produced with the aim of showing common threads that bind the Japanese to other cultures as far away as Afganistan, this latest series was highlighting the tragic elements of more recent history.

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Important Digital Archiving work related to Silk Road:

2010 will mark the 1300 year anniversary of the founding of Nara, and to help mark the monumental ocassion, mayors from cities that are located along the Silk Road are being invited to visit.