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More reviews by Terry Grose
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Passing Under Heaven by Justin Hill
JUSTIN HILL's latest book, PASSING UNDER HEAVEN, recounts the fascinating story of Lily Yu, a young Chinese poet in the last years of the Tang Dynasty. Hill is a master storyteller who has not only researched the era well but has also lived in China for several years. The result is a gripping story of an exceptional life in difficult times.
One of the pleasures in this thoroughly fascinating story is that Lily's poetry, which appears throughout the book, is in fact a translation of the poetry of Yu Xuanji, a real female poet of the period, and it is around this original poetry that Hill has constructed his story of a life in the final years of the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906) was a golden age for China; inventions of the period included: printing, gunpowder, the magnetic compass and the abacus. The Tang Dynasty was also a period when poetry and art flourished, when China played a significant role on the world stage, and when Chinese women were permitted to play a greater role in society than had previously been permitted -- or would be allowed in the future.
But , inevitably, the time came when the dynasty started to break down, and it is during the last 50 years of this dynasty that Hill has set his story.
Despite the setting of troubled times, of secessionist movements and rebellions, Hill has not allowed his story to be hijacked by history. PASSING UNDER HEAVEN is very clearly the story of Lily Yu: a woman born in a desolate northern border region of China at a time when its neighbours were encroaching onto the lands of the fading dynasty; a woman who suffers loss and heart-break, but who, despite that, becomes an accomplished poet in the nation's capital.
There are, still in existence, 49 of Yu Xuanji's poems and it is around the material of these poems that Hill has created his story of Lily Yu. Or, as Hill describes it in the Author's Note at the end to the book -
Her poems remain grains of truth embedded in my fiction.
It is difficult to appreciate fully poetry originally written in another language, particularly when reading it 1,000 years later. Nonetheless, Yu Xuanji's feelings of love can still shine strongly through both the translation and the passage of a full millennium -
We're like the pine and the crag that endure many winters together,
two migrating birds, we'll be united.
I hate the lonely winter walking through cold days.
The day will come, we'll meet again, and the moon will be full.
So far away, what can I give you to remember me by?
Just melting winter tears, and this poem.
Hill is an astute observer of human nature and a superb writer. As a young man, Hill spent three years as an aid worker in rural China, experience that has clearly not gone to waste. This is, in fact, Hill's second book set in China. The first was The Drink and Dream Teahouse, a much more contemporary work. In light of these works, it was disappointing to read in a recent interview that Hill believes his "oriental phase" is over, but I will wait with interest to see what he tackles next.
Terry Grose
10/02/2005
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Terry Grose has an extensive background in the financial and commercial fields in Australia and throughout Asia. He began his career as a merchant banker and worked for a number of large companies, including Wesfarmers Limited, before founding his own corporate advisory business Grose International in Hong Kong which he ran successfully for eight years. Terry has returned to Australia to pursue a number of interesting opportunities. He is an avid reader who enjoys cooking and all things French. |
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