Author | Ernest Bramah |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Series | Kai Lung |
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | Richards Press (UK) Doubleday, Doran (US) |
Publication date | 1928 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Pages | vii, 344 |
Preceded by | Kai Lung's Golden Hours |
Followed by | The Moon of Much Gladness |
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat is a fantasy novel by English writer Ernest Bramah. It was first published in 1928 and has been reprinted a number of times since, most notably as the sixty-fourth volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in February, 1974.
This book consists of three parts. In the first, Kai Lung's village has been pillaged by the evil Ming Shu, and not only have his house and garden been destroyed, his wife has also been taken away. It is left to the story-teller's wits to think of a plan to defeat Ming Shu, and reclaim his property.
In the second part, Kai Lung overhears a neighbor using an improper analogy, and decides to educate him by providing an example of a properly composed piece of prose.
In the third part, Kai Lung receives the distinction of being allowed to practise his craft before any official within three and a half li of his residence, provided that official is not engaged in important business at the time, and is authorized to style himself as "Literary Instructor to the Shades of Female Ancestors". He then finds a suitable occasion to launch into one of his narratives.
Unrolling his mat is something Kai Lung does very often (usually under a mulberry tree), to tell his tales.
Kai Lung adventures usually serve as mere excuses to bring up side stories along the way, which typically take up the better part of a Kai Lung book. However, this is one of the few books that has a purposeful main narrative as well as intriguing side stories.
Kai Lung comes home one day to meet his wife, but finds everything in a state of disarray. An elderly neighbour tells him that the village has been devastated by Ming Shu. Kai Lung goes in the direction of Ming Shu. Along the way, he meets barbarians, a poor farmer named Thang, a bandless captain in the city of Chi-U, and finally (disguised as Mang-hi, a foreigner from the land of Kham) Ming Shu himself.
A sage, finding sleep to be an unwelcome obstruction to his pursuit of enlightenment, cuts off his eyelids and throws them away. At the spot where his eyelids land grows a shrub whose leaves look like his eyelids. Later, during a famine, the shrub is rediscovered and used to make a potion that soon becomes famous enough to catch the attention of the emperor, who subsequently bestows great honors on Wan.
A case of two people with the same fingerprints creates difficulties which are resolved by the mandarin Wong Tsoi.
A ring of thieves realizes that its members don't need to take the trouble to steal to make a living, if they exact a tribute from everyone in the town in return for a promise not to give them any trouble.
Lin Ho, an ugly boy, is orphaned and sent to live with his rich uncle, who employs him as a slave. Lin Ho has been taught to do the best he can and not worry about the reaction to his actions, so he accepts this lot stoically. Then, one day, his uncle decides to get rid of him by sending him to make an offering at a shrine, giving him a lunch that contains a poisoned onion. At the foot of the hill containing the shrine, Lin Ho meets a proud warrior named Lam-Kwong, who, on the pretense that one cannot speak to the gods with onion breath, takes his onion, devours it greedily, and then dies—but not before killing Lin Ho with a stone directed at his head. Lin Ho goes to heaven, but the beings there are not quite ready to receive him, and so, as a reward for the virtuous life he has led so far, he is allowed to reënter his body. However, once he comes back to earth, he sees his own body lying beside that of Lam-Kwong, and decides that it would be much nicer to inhabit the forbidding body of a warrior than to resume his original post. This, however, poses a problem, for now he needs to work out what is expected of him…
The apprentice to an ivory-carver, who works diligently but without much reward, wanders into the woods one day, and sees a tree, a pagoda, and a young woman, all of perfect proportion…
Some years later, Kai Lung tells a story to an unwilling listener, a suitor of one of his daughters.
At an early mythical period of imagined history, a young man redeems his word to cut a crescent off the moon, in order to win a young lady's hand.
Kai Lung is informed by his neighbors that he has received official honorable recognition, though he is displeased when he discovers it is for rumored skills he does not possess, rather than for his real accomplishments.
The last scion of a deposed dynasty overthrows a corrupt monarch and finds happiness, and a prophecy comes true, though not in the expected way.
Much mention is made of Chinese mythology, such as a creation myth, as well as belief in various supernatural beings (most commonly referred to as "demons"), and the almost commonplace practice of magic and divination through omens. Also, some aspects of Chinese cosmology are incorporated, such as geocentricity, and the division between "Upper Air", "Middle Air", and "Lower Air".
Various allusions are made to actual events and periods in Chinese history, such as the Golden Age of Han.
The topography seems to be largely invented, though places are given plausible-sounding names.
The names and toponyms do not seem to conform to any single dialect of Chinese; some names look more Mandarin (transliterated, of course, with the Wade-Giles system, as was the convention at the time), others more Cantonese. This is evidence that the names are largely invented.
Ernest Bramah, the pseudonym of Ernest Brammah Smith, was an English author. He published 21 books and numerous short stories and features. His humorous works were often ranked with Jerome K. Jerome and W. W. Jacobs, his detective stories with Conan Doyle, his politico-science fiction with H. G. Wells, and his supernatural stories with Algernon Blackwood. George Orwell acknowledged that Bramah's book What Might Have Been influenced his Nineteen Eighty-Four. Bramah created the characters Kai Lung and Max Carrados.
Kai Lung (開龍) is a fictional character in a series of books by Ernest Bramah, consisting of The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900), Kai Lung's Golden Hours (1922), Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat (1928), The Moon of Much Gladness, Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree (1940), Kai Lung: Six (1974) and Kai Lung Raises His Voice (2010).
The Grand Bauhinia Medal is the highest award under the Hong Kong honours and awards system; it is to recognise the selected person's lifelong and highly significant contribution to the well-being of Hong Kong. The awardee is entitled to the postnominal letters GBM and the style The Honourable. The award was created in 1997 to replace the British honours system, following the transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The list was empty because no one was awarded from 2003 to 2004. Bauhinia, Bauhinia blakeana, is the floral emblem of Hong Kong.
The Gold Bauhinia Star is the highest Bauhinia Star rank in the honours system of Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system of the Order of the British Empire after the transfer of sovereignty to People's Republic of China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). It is awarded to those who have given distinguished service to the community or rendered public or voluntary services of a very high degree of merit.
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Kai Lung's Golden Hours is a fantasy novel by English writer Ernest Bramah. It was first published in hardcover in London by Grant Richards Ltd. in October, 1922, and there have been numerous editions since. The first edition included a preface by Hilaire Belloc, which has also been a feature of every edition since. It was reissued by Ballantine Books as the forty-fifth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in April, 1972. The Ballantine edition includes an introduction by Lin Carter.
The Wallet of Kai Lung is a collection of fantasy stories by English writer Ernest Bramah, all but the last of which feature Kai Lung, an itinerant story-teller of ancient China. It was first published in hardcover in London by Grant Richards in 1900, and there have been numerous editions since. Its initial tale, "The Transmutation of Ling", was also issued by the same publisher as a separate chapbook in 1911. The collection's importance in the history of fantasy literature was recognized by the anthologization of two of its tales in the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, edited by Lin Carter and published by Ballantine Books; "The Vision of Yin" in Discoveries in Fantasy, and "The Transmutation of Ling" in Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy Volume II.
Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree is a collection of fantasy stories by English writer Ernest Bramah featuring Kai Lung, an itinerant story-teller of ancient China. It was first published in hardcover in London by The Richards Press Ltd. in February 1940, and was reprinted in 1942, 1944, 1946, and 1951. The first American edition was issued by Arno Press as a volume in its Lost Race and Adult Fantasy Fiction series in 1978.
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