At times the intrigue of Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun is a bit tough to follow (I needed a Dramatis Personae), but overall this is a beautifully-written exploration of gender, politics, ambition, and desire in 14th century China with some mild fantasy elements. I think there's even an interesting sort of thought experiment about Buddhist conceptions of desire and suffering to be found.
Amidst a famine, we meet a girl from the Zhu family. While greatness has been prophesied for her brother Chongba, for her there is... nothing. We never even learn her original name. This haunts her for the rest of the novel as she either, depending on how you look at it, takes on her brother's greatness (and name) or becomes great herself to spite the prophecy.
After her family is killed, she passes for a boy in order to join a local Buddhist monastery (I enjoyed this peek into an imagined 14th century Chinese Buddhist monastery). What follows is Zhu's improbable, yet destined, rise to power from the monastery to the highest ranks of military and political power. Is it her sheer will that makes her great, or is she destined through the concept of the Mandate of Heaven (here a real sort of light that some people can see)?
On that note, the only other fantastic element is the main character's ability to see ghosts. This novel is primarily in the mode of historical fiction. I used to read more historical fiction as a teenager before I switched mostly to SFF, but I think whatever Parker-Chan is doing here works really well.
But is Zhu so great? Is her desire what brings her success or does it ultimately bring her suffering? Here is the philosophical core of the novel for me.
One could read this novel as a critique of Buddhism. Is desire really the root of suffering as Buddhism's second noble truth says? Or is desire the engine of success and worldly greatness, especially for those downtrodden by their society?
But there is perhaps a more subtle reading: maybe desire is both a cause of suffering and an engine toward greatness? And we have to grapple with the issue of whether this makes the suffering worthwhile. I'm not sure the novel answers that question. I'm not sure anyone can. But that's what makes this so engaging, both historically and philosophically, not to mention the fun of imagining that some of the "Great Men" of the past were not who we think they were.
One of my favorite classical critiques of Buddhism comes from the materialist Cārvāka school in ancient India. Their saying is that complaining about life because it contains suffering is like complaining about a tasty fish because it contains scales and bones.
I hear versions of this critique from a lot of my 21st century students as well: you can't have happiness without suffering, so why are the Buddhists whining so much about suffering? And maybe there's a version of this critique from Zhu's longtime friend Xu Da, a monk who chooses a relatively quiet life of sensual pleasure. Or perhaps another answer is in the character Ma, a noble woman who represents what little compassion and tenderness is to be found in this novel.
But Zhu herself takes this to more dramatic conclusion (perhaps a somewhat Nietzschean one as well): especially for someone with as few advantages as her, brute desire and its attendant suffering are the only way to greatness. And maybe there's something to that. But I think the Buddhist question remains: at the end of the day, is all the suffering worth it, or is it just another turning on the wheel of samsāra?
I won't spoil exactly how great Zhu ends up here, but I do look forward to seeing what happens and thinking about whether it's all worth it in the sequel.
This is on the Hugo short list for 2022, and it's easy to see why. I also somewhat understand why this one might be more popular with the pros rather than the fans (it's tremendously well-written, but it's not everyone's cup of tea). I'm not sure where it will rank as there's some stiff competition this year. Honestly I haven't disliked any of the nominees this year, so it will be a hard decision for me. My guess is this will end up somewhere in the middle of the pack, but I'll have to think about it. Stay tuned!
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