Bones of the Master - Hardcover

Crane, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593041798 ISBN 13: 9780593041796

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2000

Synopsis

A story of spiritual adventure retracing the miraculous escape of a Chinese monk from the Red Guards, and his return 35 years later to give proper burial to his beloved teacher.

About this title

Review

In the steady hands of poet George Crane, previously unknown Zen master Tsung Tsai comes off as truly extraordinary. A "poet, philosopher, house builder, scientist, doctor, and when necessary, kung fu ass-kicker", Tsung Tsai would still be wandering about anonymously if it were not, Crane says, for the need of the financing provided by an advance on this book. The last of the monks from his Chinese monastery, Tsung Tsai felt he had to return one last time to find and honour his master's bones and rekindle his tradition. Crane recounts their joint adventure, opening with Tsung Tsai's harrowing decades-earlier escape from newly communist China, walking from Inner Mongolia to Hong Kong through a war-torn, famine-struck, psychotic land, nearly starving along the way. Crane, a self-styled hedonist ne'er-do-well, who says that meditation makes him nauseous, sets the stage for an entrancing friendship story as he ventures back to China with this highly disciplined but carefree Zen master. As their mutual affection grows, Crane absorbs Tsung Tsai's spare but demanding philosophy, which sustains them through the poverty of northern China, a life-threatening 18-hour climb up and down a treacherous mountain, and a confrontation with a master of black magic. A page-turner and an eye-opener, Bones of the Master is worth every penny of that advance. --Brian Bruya

From the Back Cover

In 1959, Tsung Tsai fled from the Red Army who had destroyed his monastery and walked three thousand miles across Communist China, determined to carry on the teachings of his old master, Shiuh Deng. Hidden under his peasant jacket he carried a book of poetry and his monk's certificate, both capital offences.

Nearly forty years later, Tsung Tsai travels back to his birthplace with his friend Crane, a hedonistic American poet with a dislike of authority. His mission is to find Shiuh Deng's grave and build a shrine in his honour. Flouting bureaucratic restrictions, they re-enter a lost world of superstition nearly extinguished by history.

On the way they encounter foxy town girls and rural shamans, morning meditations and drunken feasts, sand-scoured wilderness and a master of black magic. As their quest culminates with a nearly fatal climb to a remote mountain cave, we glimpse the power of a timeless faith to endure in the heart of suffering.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593041798
• ISBN 13: 9780593041796
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304