Waves

A historic battle between Taiwan and Japan—the Battle of Mudansha. The Satsuma man roared, raised his sword, and slashed across. He sheathed it abruptly, then raised his spear. Then, with a graceful click of the trigger, the grass fell, the trees leaned, the water flowed, and the scenery became peaceful. The reverberating roar of the Mudan River flowing through the pass, despite the sense of airiness created by the altitude, did not diminish in volume as the climb up the rock face increased. The scenery below, like a miniature, shrank to half its normal size. The lush green mountains of Gojongyama across the rock face seemed peaceful, as if oblivious to the fierce gunfight that had just occurred here, resulting in numerous casualties.
In 1871, the people of Miyako Island, returning from a tribute to the King of the Ryukyu Kingdom, encountered storms and drifted to the waters off the east coast of southern Taiwan. After landing, they were massacred by members of the Gaoshi Buddhist Society for various reasons. This sowed the seeds for the Japanese government to launch military action against Taiwan and provided samurai, unemployed after the Meiji Restoration, with an opportunity to establish merit and regain their samurai dignity. Meanwhile, Zhuo Qidu, the chief of the eighteen tribes of Langqiao, passed away. The tribal alliance on the Hengchun Peninsula was in a state of disintegration and reorganization. The sudden arrival of the Japanese army provided an opportunity for the Northern and Southern Alliances to demarcate their differences. Then, like the turbulent waters of the Mudan River, the fierce warriors of the Mudan Society rushed down. A duel between the samurai sword and the Paiwan tribe leader's sword took place at the stream's edge and on the mountaintop. Blood and skulls marked this historical event, expressing the grief and helplessness of a first-person perspective.
Novelist Badai, with his masterful historical writing, lays out the international situation, dominated by the Japanese army, and the little-noticed conflicts among the Eighteen Societies of Langqiao. He meticulously depicts the razor-sharp battle of wits and strength between the Japanese samurai and the Mudan Society warriors, who both respected and threatened each other. The novelist offers a fresh perspective on the Mudan Society Incident, unprecedented in literary history.

2017-09-27

INK印刻文學

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9789863871910