Tun-Huang is a fictionalized account of how a trove of scrolls came to be stored in a sealed cave between the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. The sealed cave, Cave 17 of the Thousand Buddha Grottos was excavated in the early 1900s and the texts unearthed therein spanned centuries, religion, and language. Most were Buddhist texts, such as a copy of the Diamond Sutra that proves to be the oldest woodblock printed work ever found. Other diverse finds involve Manichean texts, critical to our understanding of that religion, Nestorian Christian texts, and a prayer in Hebrew. It's an archeological find that sparks the imagination, and Yasushi Inoue spins a narrative towards it.

The tale is centered around Hsing-te, and administrative official in 11th century Song China that journeys north after sleeping through his civil service examination. Most of the novel takes place in the Gansu corridor, between the undulating borders of the Song, Western Xia, and Tibetan and Turkic tribes. Early his travels he becomes second in command to Wang-li a military commander saves a Uighur princess in a watchtower of an abandoned town. She assumes her fiancé dead and since Hsing-te, despite forcing himself on her, is otherwise kind and offers to hide her.

Three other characters are involved with this Uighur girl romantically. Hsing-te is ordered to go east to learn to write the Hsi-Hsia language. He asks Wang-li to watch over her in his absence. Wang-li initially refuses saying that she's a willful, demanding person who will be the death of anyone who sleeps with her, but eventually agrees. The Uighur girl has two moonstone necklaces and gives one to Hsing-te to remember her by. These necklaces pass hands over the course of the novel and are important symbols of the Buddhist vice of attachment. These moonstones could be seen as diamonds, or fake diamonds, and the reader should note a connection to the Diamond Sutra.

Hsing-te is supposed to return within a year, but is late due to getting overly focused on studies in the Hsi-Hsia capital. He returns to learn Wang-li had taken the princess as a lover, but lost her to a prince who demanded her as a concubine. The princess throws herself from a wall, in view of Hsing-te. Hsing-te comes to meet Kuang, a travelling merchant who is apparently a former royal of Khotan. He sees the necklace on Hsing-te and becomes obsessed with it. Though unstated until the epilogue, he's obviously the missing fiancé.

Kuang is the owner of the caves in which the scrolls are buried. Ultimately, he, Hsing-te, and Wang-li perish in the climax of the novel, with the prince lives to a ripe old age of 45. This is a rather ironic result given Wang-li's ominous dictum at the beginning. We would assume that the princess is taken away repeatedly by someone who is in turn more violent. Presumably, the Hsi-Hsia prince slept with her as his concubine, and presumably Kuang had not, yet their fates are reversed. Given this irony, perhaps Wang-li's dictum is wrong or incomplete. It was not necessarily sleeping with her that led to their deaths, but attachment to her and the necklaces that symbolized this attachment.

It's been over a decade since I've read either, but the Diamond and Heart Sutras are mentioned repeatedly in the text, and reading those before the novel will likely enhance the reader's appreciation. There is a point towards the end - and I'm not sure if this is a conscious decision of the author or an error in the translation - where it is very confusing as to which sutra is being immediately dealt with and transcribed. Overall, an unfamiliarity with either won't ruin the novel; the descriptions of the setting and character's mindsets are beautiful images on their own.

Tun-huang

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