There are so many things we have today which were almost beyond imagination in the past. This has been particularly brought home to me this week as I'm making a few trips to our county town (more than 100 miles away), and because we lost the internet which brings home just home much we use it! Technology certainly has its benefits! In fact, looking around the room (and this is a comparatively old-fashioned room) as I'm writing this, there are so many things we take for granted which would simply not have existed even a couple of hundred years ago. You can, of course, discount anything which uses electricity and, more interestingly, all of the paperback books - of which there are hundreds - and none of the MDF bookcases either. There would have been no photographs, although there may well have been paintings and sketches of the people in them. But it's not just about taking away what is here now. It's also about what we have lost since then. Rooms needed lighting, and th...
It's #HistFicThursdays, and I'm so excited to be sharing a guest post from Justin Newland, as part of his Coffee Pot Book Club tour. Find out all about how China inspired Justin's fantastic book The Old Dragon's Head. But first, let's meet the book...
Blurb
The Great Wall of China may be constructed of stone and packed earth, but it is home to a supernatural beast – the Old Dragon. Both wall and dragon protect China’s northern borders from Mongol incursion. Just beyond the fortress of Shanhaiguan, the far eastern end of the wall protrudes into the Bohai Sea – that’s the Old Dragon’s Head.
Bolin, a young man working on the Old Dragon’s Head, suffers visions of ghosts. The local seer suspects that he has yin-yang eyes and other supernatural gifts. Bolin’s fief lord, the Prince of Yan, rebels against his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor. In the bitter war of succession, the Mongols hold the balance of power. While the victor might win the battle on earth, China’s Dragon Throne can only be earned with a Mandate from Heaven – and the support of the Old Dragon.
In every era, a man endowed with the powers of heaven – the Dragon Master – is born. Only he can summon the Old Dragon, providing he possesses the dragon pearl. It’s the year 1402, and neither the Old Dragon, the dragon pearl, nor the Dragon Master, has been seen for twenty years.
Bolin’s journey of self-discovery is mirrored by that of old China, as both endeavour to come of age. When Bolin accepts his destiny as the Dragon Master, heaven sends a third coming of age – for humanity itself. But are any of them ready for what is rising in the east?
The Old Dragon's Head is available at Amazon UK - Amazon US - Amazon CA - Amazon AU - Amazon India - Barnes and Noble - Waterstones - Kobo - Author’s Website (where buyers can enter a dedication to be signed by the author) - Blackwell’s (UK) - Bol (NL) - Books.Telegraph (UK) - Publisher’s Website - Saxo (DK) - Scribd
Guest Post
I have long been intrigued by the ancient land of China. The Old Dragon’s Head is the title of my second novel. It’s set during the Ming Dynasty, and the action plays out in the shadows of the Great Wall. It’s historical fiction, but with a supernatural twist, showing my two loves – history and the supernatural or the esoteric. China and Chinese history was a perfect place to find inspiration. And it did not disappoint.
The Old Dragon’s Head is a real place. The Great Wall of China is home to a supernatural beast – the Old Dragon. And just beyond the fortress of Shanhaiguan, the far eastern end of the wall protrudes into the Bohai Sea – that’s the Old Dragon’s Head.
Map of Shanhaiguan Great Wall
The fortress of Shanhaiguan, which means mountain-sea pass, was built by the Hongwu Emperor in 1380 to bridge the gap between the Yanshan Mountains and the Bohai Sea. That’s where the action of the novel takes place.
The novel is not only about physical walls and boundaries; it’s about meta-physical, psychological and supernatural ones and the endeavour of the people of China to build themselves a new future. If you look at China today, would you say they succeeded – or not?
Back in the 1400s, when the novel was set, the Chinese people had a deep-seated belief in demons, ghosts, and gods. Their overriding belief in the supernatural shot through the whole of their society, from Emperor to courtesan and from mandarin to beggar. This played perfectly into my love of the supernatural.
Then there’s the pervasive mystery of the Bagua, the mysterious eight trigrams of the I Ching, the famous Book of Divination.
There’s the Tao, and its enigmatic adherent, Lao Tzu. You might have seen him riding by on his ox. You may be familiar with the Yin-Yang symbol. I was curious too about the person who had Yin-Yang eyes, the name given to a seer or clairvoyant. I set out to write a character with this extraordinary vision. Her name was Luli.
Image of Lao-Tzu on an ox.
Then there’s the stoic wisdom of Mencius and Confucius and the considerable influence their writings had on Chinese ideas about society and the family and the respect within those entities.
Into this exciting mix, you can put the religious beliefs of Buddhism and all their colourful and obscure ceremonies. The Chinese, like their European counterparts, controlled their people with a rigid and sometimes ruthless hand and had, at the same time, a remarkably modern tolerance for different religions. It was not unusual for debates involving Taoists, Buddhists, Christians, and Islamists to be conducted in the Emperor’s court.
The Chinese during the Ming Dynasty was almost obsessed with the need to appease the deities they believed ruled their lives. Nearly every person from wood gathered to the Emperor himself had to conform to the required practices – or suffer the consequences.
There were also subtle and essential differences between our western and Chinese notions of justice. For example, the Chinese believed that criminals had to admit to their crimes before they were taken to trial and sentencing. When you think about it, it makes good sense. If a person fails to admit to their offence, any punishment meted out to them will not work. Even worse, it could back-fire and engender resentment and revenge.
Image of man in a cangue
They even invented the cangue, similar to the English or European idea of the stocks. The cangue was designed so that the criminal’s hand could not reach his mouth, meaning he had to rely on the pity of others to feed him.
All in all, China remains a mystery, even unto its own people. And long may it remain so!
Now, let's meet the author:
His novels speculate on the human condition and explore the fundamental questions of our existence. As a species, as Homo sapiens sapiens – that’s man the twice-wise – how are we doing so far? Where is mankind’s spiritual home? What does it look or feel like? Would we recognise it if we saw it?
Undeterred by the award of a Doctorate in Mathematics from Imperial College, London, he found his way to the creative keyboard and conceived his debut novel, The Genes of Isis (Matador, 2018), an epic fantasy set under Ancient Egyptian skies.
Next came the supernatural thriller, The Old Dragon’s Head (Matador, 2018), set in Ming Dynasty China.
His third novel, The Coronation (Matador, 2019), speculates on the genesis of the most important event of the modern world – the Industrial Revolution.
His fourth, The Abdication (Matador, 2021), is a supernatural thriller in which a young woman confronts her faith in a higher purpose and what it means to abdicate that faith.
His stories add a touch of the supernatural to history and deal with the themes of war, religion, evolution and the human’s place in the universe.
He was born three days before the end of 1953 and lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.
Thank you so much for hosting Justin Newland with The Old Dragon's Head today. Much appreciated. xx
ReplyDeleteHey Clemency. Many thanks for hosting this stop on the Coffee Pot blog tour of The Old Dragon's Head.
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