Book review: The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman

In his second book, a work of fiction this time, Mark Salzman does not quite pull off the Iron and Silk magic once again but no matter, The Laughing Sutra (1991) is an eminently enjoyable read, a smart blend of fantasy, adventure and Chinese history.

It’s a neat tweak of the old Middle Kingdom fable about  the Buddhist monk Hsuan-tsang  and Sun Wu-k`ung,  the Monkey King. When the monk/scholar/century traveller went across to India, the magical monkey accompanied him, protected him from peril oftentimes, entertained him, and was good company for  the weary explorer.

Here Salzman spins the tale of Hsun-ching, a young boy in Mao`s China, born  right in the middle of
the Cultural Revolution, who is brought up by a monk. The monk, Wei-ching,  has just one wish: to read the Laughing Sutra before he dies. This obscure sutra is  so precious that the one who reads it would instantly perceive his own Buddhahood, and achieve physical immortality, besides.

It had been brought back from India by Hsuan- tsang but over the years, had fallen into a sad state of neglect and was eventually purchased and taken to America by a Sinologist. Young  Hsun-ching then decides to go to America, the land of the Foreign Devils,  to retrieve the sutra for his master and adopted father.

En route he manages to acquire the strangest of companions, an outlandish sort of creature who, by his own admission,  is about 2,000 years old, is possessed of brilliant yellow eyes and supernatural strength,  and yes, he does rather resemble the Monkey King.

It`s an adventure of the sort the young Chinese boy could never have imagined. The two meet all sorts of interesting characters on their travels both in Hong Kong and San Francisco, and sweep the reader off with them on their sometimes madcap but always focused escapades.

And it`s a tale told with much detail, sympathy and humour. Like our best Indian fables, this one too, holds many a little tale within the big one. The tales all carry a moral of course, but it is so lightly handled, there is nothing remotely prosy about it.

Stray Thought: In Col. Sun, one finds shades of the Norse god Loki, of our own Hanuman.

Also, the author being Mark Salzman, naturally there is quite a bit about the martial arts.

A Hong Kong resident watches the strange `Colonel Sun` in action and asks him which style of martial art he was practicing, the Shaolin or the Wutang style. `Neither,`  replies Col. Sun. `I call it the Aware of Emptiness Fist style. To execute it properly, your mind needs to be completely empty. It must not stick to anything, not even the opponent. That way, you can counter his attack before he even moves, because you are so clear you can sense his intentions. On the other hand, he cannot
counter your moves, because you have no intentions—there is only action.`

Irresistible gyan for a Tai Chi practitioner, like this reviewer!