Can we dream inside a dream?

Sailen Routray

I recently read 'The Nine Cloud Dream' by Kim Man-Jung. This is one of the best loved books in Korean literature. A few years back a desire to fill the Pacific-sized holes in my literary education took hold of me. I started accumulating a few classics from across the world, especially those from East Asia. 'The Nine Cloud Dream' was one of these. But as often happens, the mere fact of buying the books seemed to satisfy me and I never really got around to reading the volumes themselves. 

I don't know how, but I finally started this journey (am I glad!) and began reading this Korean masterpiece translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl. Dr. Fenkl is a Professor of English at SUNY New Paltz. He was born in South Korea. He has a German father and a Korean mother. He grew up in Korea until he was twelve and then moved to Germany. He is now settled in the USA. Over the last three decades he has built a steady reputation for his work as an author, editor, translator, and folklorist specialising in Korean literature.

The author of the novel, Kim Man-Jung, was a bureaucrat-politician in 17th century Korea. But now he is remembered primarily as the author of the novels 'The Nine Cloud Dream' and 'Record of Lady Sa's Trip to the South'. The latter describes the political situation of his times through satire, although it is set in Ming dynasty China. The former novel, set in ninth century Tang dynasty China, has strong Buddhist overtones. It narrates the experiences of a young Buddhist monk, Hsing-chen. He has a chance encounter with eight fairies, which brings forth latent desires that are seen by his master as unseemly. For this he is banished from the monastery and is reincarnated into a life of luxury as Shao-yu.

Over the course of a few years, Shao-yu rises to become an important state official, trusted by the emperor and becomes his brother-in-law. Apart from this Chinese princess, he also ends up with seven other beautiful and accomplished women as spouses (taken either as wife or concubine). The narrative arc is that of a bildungsroman fantasy. 

One of the most refreshing things in the book is its wholesome and capacious notion of human sexuality. For an Indian, the shared Buddhist heritage makes many of its aspects immediately accessible. Reading this novel (an almost contemporary of 'Don Quixote' and 'Robison Crusoe') helps us see the many pasts of the novel, and enables us to reimagine for it plural futures. It is also just unputdownable.

     

Details of the book: Kim Man-jung. 2019. The Nine Cloud Dream (translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl). Penguin.