Desert Hunters: An Inquiry into the Ultimate Cause of Earth’s Destruction

Desert Hunters: An Inquiry into the Ultimate Cause of Earth’s Destructio

AURORA, ILLINOIS, US, February 12, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- “As long as the great harmony society has not yet been established, the implicated meanings of its image will last forever. A crazy idea even occurred to me: this book should be delivered to another planet via cutting-edge technologies. Perhaps, billions of light years later, when the alien species on that planet study the universe, Desert Hunters could serve as a reference: oh, that is how the Earth was destroyed.”

The German edition of Desert Hunters (Desert Trilogy Book 2), written by the renowned novelist Xue Mo, has recently been printed by an Austrian publishing house BACOPA and released across the globe. This new book was translated by the German-Chinese translator Hans-Peter Kolb, the same translator of the German edition of Desert Rites (Desert Trilogy Book 1), which was first debuted at the 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair.

Desert Hunters (Desert Trilogy Book 2) is a marvelous fable written in a realistic style, with a uniquely broad humanistic perspective. The novel revolves around a small place deep in the desert- Pig’s Belly Well, the most sensitive point to detect vibratory stimulation of the social network within that region.

This well provides drinking water not only for the wild animals near it, but also for all the local herdsmen and their livestock. To win over access to and rights of freshwater resources, wolves start to attack humans and livestock, while humans begin to fight each other. Consequently, a series of disputes and bloodshed take place one after another.

Each dispute stems from one’s soul entanglement. Greed leads to the corruption of the soul, and the soul’s corruption in turn breeds more greed. This vicious circle is the cause of the ultimate destruction of Pig’s Belly Well, and to be noted, it is also the root cause of all evils prevalent in our society.

“The three basic causes of human tragedies are greed, anger, and ignorance. People are ignorant because of greed; they become angry due to ignorance and then fight each other out of anger. This is how evils are produced. Human beings are the makers of evils, and at the same time, they are the victims of evils too. Almost each and every human catastrophe is associated with greed. Greed obscures conscience, distorts human nature, corrupts the soul, and gives birth to evils. As a matter of fact, the tragic story of Pig’s Belly Well tends to mimic the common destiny of mankind.” Xue Mo concluded when speaking of his real intention why he wrote Desert Hunters.

Desert Hunters is Xue Mo’s second full-length novel, which has won many national and regional awards over the past two decades. Desert Rites, Desert Hunters and White Tiger Pass (Desert Trilogy Book 3) constitute Xue Mo’s first novel collection, The Desert Trilogy. Lei Da, a prestigious critic from Chinese Writers Association, once commented as below,

“Our contemporary literature desperately needs spiritual calcium, and luckily, Xue Mo’s Desert Trilogy happens to be a perfect choice. There is way too much we can take from it, which may shed light on our life and career in this impetuous era.”

“Xue Mo is naturally talented in telling stories in a fascinating way,” said Yue Wen, a critic and senior researcher from Chinese Writers Association. “He is definitely a literary expert at gathering all kinds of objects, events, and characters into his novels. Which means he has a strong ability to construct a fictional world, and apart from that, his vision is grand. I’m so impressed with his resilient personality and extraordinary talent.”

“Desert Hunters presents a panoramic daily-life view of the vast desert and people who live around. It centers on the conflicts and compromises behind the scene. To put it another way, this is not a story that can be adapted into a comic strip, but rather a giant oil painting spreading over an endless wall, with a multitude of scenes, many characters with expressions, and traces of stories as well. Instead of all the ups and downs of multiple stories, its excellence actually lies in the overall, strong visual impact the whole book has created.” Yan Jingming, Editor-in-chief of Literary Gazette regarded Desert Hunters as “a realistic scroll painting of human survival.”

Cui Daoyi, Editor of People’s Literature Magazine, once wrote a journal article to praise Desert Hunters as “a shared cultural treasure of all mankind.” He stressed the significance of this fable-like novel as follows,

“As long as the great harmony society has not yet been established, the implicated meanings of its image (Desert Hunters) will last forever. A crazy idea even occurred to me that in order to avoid the miserable fate of those Tangut documents (which have been discarded and burned by an irresponsible official), this book should be delivered to another planet via cutting-edge technologies. Perhaps, billions of light years later, when the alien species on that planet study the universe, Desert Hunters could serve as a reference: oh, that is how the Earth was destroyed.”

The German edition of Desert Hunters was a translation by Hans-Peter Kolb, a PhD student of the preeminent German sinologist, translator, and poet Wolfgang Kubin. At the 2019 Frankfurt Book Fair, Wolfgang Kubin dialogued with Xue Mo to discuss the significance of Dao De Jing in today’s world. During their conversation, Professor Kubin said, “Xue Mo is not only a writer; he is a philosopher too.” Later, Kubin published a book review of Xue Mo’s works on the Frankfurt General Newspaper, which attracted widespread attention from the German media and German readers. This year, the two old friends met each other again in Beijing at a panel discussion themed “Communicating the World with Literature” on February 25th.

So far, Xue Mo has published 105 literary works and culture-themed publications in total. Besides English, Xue Mo’s works have also appeared in French, German and more than two dozen other languages, reaching a large international readership. The English edition of Desert Hunters was a collaborative translation by the preeminent American sinologist Howard Goldblatt and his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin, printed by Encyclopedia of China Publishing House in 2018.

Nine of Xue Mo’s full-length novels, as well as one epic poem, have been rendered into English by the award-winning team of Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin. Remarkably, the English edition of Into the Desert, Xue Mo’s award-winning short novel, gained wide attention among overseas scholars and researchers.

Goldblatt said that it was a utterly fresh experience to read and translate Xue Mo’s works, and he hoped that his translation might allow more English language readers to fully appreciate the beauty of China’s West.

According to the latest statistical analysis of media presence for the 2022 Frankfurt Book Fair conducted by Meltwater, Chinese writer Xue Mo ranked No.1 in the list of Top Topics in the International Media, who even outshone the Spanish Guest of Honor and became the most talked-about figure during this event. This is considered one of the most impressive pieces of news related to the Fair.

Over the past decade, Xue Mo’s works have debuted at many international book fairs, such as the New York Book Festival, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the London Book Fair, the New Delhi World Book Fair and the Singapore Book Fair. Xue Mo’s consistent efforts build a bridge of friendship and cooperation for cross-cultural exchanges between China and other countries.

As an influential book author in contemporary Chinese literature, Xue Mo has been shortlisted three times for the Mao Dun literature Award, and created dozens of full-length novels, including The Desert Trilogy (Desert Rites, Desert Hunters, White Tiger Pass), The Soul Trilogy (Curse of Xixia, Legendary Wolf of Xixia, The Holy Monk and the Spirit Woman), Wild Fox Ridge, Liangzhou Ci: A Tale of Wulin and Eternal Love. Other renowned publications include a poetry collection Fox Worshiping the Moon, as well as a wide range of cultural studies, namely “Secrets of Mahasiddhas” (Volume I-VIII), Buddha’s Wisdom (Volume I-III), Laozi’s True Thoughts (Tome I-IV), Laozi in Poems, Luminous Mahamudra Series Book 1-10, Xue Mo’s Philosophy of the Mind Series, An Outline of Xue Mo’s Study of the Mind, A Study Guide for Cultural Transmission. Four of his non-fiction works are One Man’s West: A Biography of Xue Mo, Descendants of the Huns, Don Quixote in North America, and Mountain God’s Arrow Stacks. His Suosalang, an epic poem in eighty thousand lines and over a million words, emerged from his own study and lifelong practice.

Official Link of the Newly Translated Novel the German Edition of Desert Hunter：
https://bacopa-verlag.at/produkte/die-jager-der-wuste#flipbook_container_1/

Amazon Link of the Newly Translated Novel the German Edition of Desert Hunters：
https://www.amazon.de/Die-J%C3%A4ger-W%C3%BCste-Mo-Xue/dp/3991140004/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1K5UA3M0GHOQ8&keywords=9783991140009&qid=1679394465&s=books&sprefix=9783991140009%2Cstripbooks%2C62&sr=1-1 and etc.

Amazon Link of the Award-winning Short Novel the English Edition of Into the Desert:
https://www.amazon.com/Into-Desert-Xuemo/dp/1592652549/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=into+the+desert+xuemo&qid=1676602370&sr=8-1

Ida Liu
Ruxue International Media Inc
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