Wolf Totem (Paperback Edition)

Author: Jiang Xu
Author Country: China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: Wolf Totem is a brilliant and extraordinary existence within the overall landscape of contemporary Chinese literature. If read as a novel, it is filled with history and legend; if approached as an anthropological work, it is equally fictional and imaginative. The author wonderfully combines his academic knowledge and literary talent, with ethnographic descriptions and knowledge permeating each other in such an unexpected and astonishing way. Clearly, this is a profound and powerful book that weaves emotion and reason together, leaving a deep impression. The book is a seamless flow of dozens of organic and interconnected "wolf stories," with. Readers can experience an intense sense of reading pleasure from every chapter and detail, making it hard to put down. The spirit-like Mongolian wolves leap out of the pages: the wolf's superior tactics in reconnaissance, deployment, ambush, and surprise attacks; its skillful use of weather and terrain; its unwavering courage and resilience; the familial bonds within the wolf pack; the relationship between wolves and everything on the grassland; the struggles and growth of the adorable young wolf as it struggles to adapt after losing its freedom—none of these fail to remind us of humanity, prompting us to reflect on the unresolved questions in human history: Why were the mere tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry able to sweep across Europe and Asia? What is the deeper reason behind the vast territory of the Chinese nation today? Did the Chinese civilization conquer the nomadic peoples in history, or did the nomads repeatedly "bleed" into the Han Chinese, allowing Chinese civilization to endure? Why do the equestrian peoples of China, from ancient times to the present, do not worship the horse totem but instead revere the wolf totem? Is the reason why Chinese civilization has never been interrupted the existence of an unbroken wolf totem culture? Thus, we cannot help but reflect and ponder, unable to face our once glorious and once broken mountains, rivers, and history without raising questions: We often boast of being descendants of Yan and Huang, but are we aware that the "Dragon Totem" is very likely to have evolved from the "Wolf Totem" of the nomadic peoples? Will the "Dragon Totem Worship" of the Chinese nation finally be revealed? Are we descendants of the Dragon or descendants of the Wolf?