LA Story: Transparent Stone

Author: Ke Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-02-01
Features: Buddhist chanting, a special-style Chinese dirge; Luoyang, a magnificent city lost in thorns; within this thornland, no towering pavilions have materialized. Luoyang, this ancient metropolis buried in weeds, once held the glory of being the capital of thirteen dynasties (the center of the world). Through the rise and fall of Luoyang during the Northern Wei Dynasty, this novel attempts to outline a lost past in Chinese memory and the anxieties bestowed upon ordinary people by that era. The exquisite and enigmatic Buddhist art of the Northern Dynasties embodies psychological contexts, providing unique clues for the novel. The story begins with the plight of a southern craftsman from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, who hopes to reunite with his separated wife in the afterlife. He creates and experiences a series of illusions, only to discover that he himself is trapped within a larger illusion. The flow between visual details is the "point of view" of the story—"seeing" the story rather than just "reading" it, which is the intention behind the author's illustrations. The lengthy essay appended at the end of the book offers an introductory read on the historical background of the novel, helping readers understand the connection between the work and the living conditions of the time. In the past, the rise and fall of great dynasties that regarded the common people as mere straw dogs were not merely idle chatter.