PREFACE I have endeavored to share a few more thoughts on The Ravages of Time , in order to celebrate the one-year anniversary of t...
PREFACE
I have endeavored to share a few more thoughts on The Ravages of Time, in order to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the discord server devoted to discussing and promoting such a brilliant text.
Hopefully the following reflections and ruminations would encourage newcomers to give the series a fair chance, and embolden veterans to study the masterpiece more closely.
That being said, without further ado...
I. Prologue: A Prelude to How the Fire Phoenix Ravages the Playing Field of the Three Kingdoms
Of the many tales set in different periods of the central plains, the three kingdoms saga - starting from the last decades of the Later Han, to the rise and fall of Shu Han, Cao Wei, and East Wu - is among the most renowned, with numerous adaptations (of varying styles and substance) across various media, throughout the centuries. It thus would not be surprising that some aspiring composer would want to use a tried and tested setting, only to end up struggling to make one's iteration stand out among the crowd and garner a dedicated following.
At this point, Ravages is superficially distinctive for being exceedingly lengthy in its format (the classic Sangokushi manga by Yokoyama Mitsuteru covered a significant portion of the tale within 60 volumes, while Ravages currently has 63 volumes, and despite omitting a few stories and events has yet to reach the halfway point of its primary source text, the 120-chapter standard edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms), as well as for being an established long-runner (17 years since 2001, and without any sign that this would be over anytime soon). In addition, Ravages has also acquired a reputation for complexity and convolution (more on this point in a bit).
When viewed from a certain lens, what Ravages offers is not really that remarkable. Two keystone characters, an ensemble cast with rotating (relative) protagonists, the cycles of revenge, the path of a hero, the conflict between idealistic visions and pragmatic policies, and so on... these elements and more have been presented in other stories before, and tacking them onto the three kingdoms setting does not a masterpiece make. Still, delivery and style matter (and Ravages does perform admirably in that regard), not to mention the overall orientation of a text with respect to its broader contextual and inter-textual network (perhaps the key to understanding what Ravages is about and how it excels).
Basically, what characterizes Ravages as an adaptation (without necessarily distinguishing it, for there may be other works with similar aspects) is its rather ironic and critical stance towards the source texts and the background period. Unlike relatively straightforward attempts to repackage (with some creative twists) what the classic novel or the historical accounts have to say, but also unlike blatantly fantastic deviations that merely make use of the period as an inspiration or as a target of parody, Ravages proactively - and provocatively - comments on its own roots.
To begin with, story unfolds in such a manner that the overall outcomes of major events remain similar for the most part to what is stated in either the Romance or the Records, even as the details (from the characterization of the personalities, to the deeds and tricks unleashed during the campaigns) are twisted and reconfigured in surprising ways that nonetheless provide workable excuses for the emergence of the received views. This is further enhanced by the skillful use of narrative techniques such as foreshadowing and callbacks (and even subtle allusions to the source texts being played with). In addition, scenes and lines, at times ironically invoking older tales, are inserted throughout the text to problematize processes of (partial) historical documentation and acts of (selective) collective remembrance. Moreover, Chen Mou himself fosters this questioning irreverent atmosphere by adopting cynical meta-historical stances during interviews (albeit cleverly disavowing from more explicit remarks on current Chinese affairs). Although at first glance this all seems to be a facile attempt to be edgy (and a simplistic excuse to embrace revisionist accounts without question), the bigger message Ravages hints at is that the suspicion directed at received classics also applies - and arguably even more aptly - to present attempts to invoke whatever claim about bygone times (whether mainstream or fringe) for whatever partisan or ideological purpose. The author's (dead) silence does not prevent the reader-respondent from dissecting or embalming the floating bloated textual corpus.
On a final note to this preliminary section, let it not be said that Ravages is without its light quirks and gimmicks. As a commercial series published in a shounen magazine, Ravages also makes use of some features (such as bishounen character and outfit designs, moments of grandstanding, well-choreographed action sequences, etc.) that would appeal to more casual viewers, although thankfully enough it neither indulges in excessive gore nor panders to male gazes by inundating the story with titillating female figures and all manner of lurid scenes. What's more, Chen Mou also admits to being a fan of various pop-cultural commodities and genres, and so it comes as no surprise that traces of those would be blended into the text alongside the classical passages and the layered schemes and the philosophical discussions and the social commentary and so on.
II. Intermission: Preliminary Notes for Re-Reading The Ravages of Time
This segment shall be brief.
Given the intricacy of Ravages (yes, it is a challenging text, but in no way does it forbid intrepid and enterprising newcomers), I have suggested a fourfold approach to be used when scrutinizing the text. Eventually I realized that I would be unable to complete the great undertaking of implementing the scheme chapter by chapter, thus I propose it for fellow students of Ravages to adopt and appropriate.
The first round would involve focusing on the broad outlines of what is happening in the story world as presented in the chapters (or the volumes, or the arcs). The second round would involve concentrating on the stratagems and twists, the strategies and tactics used by the various factions throughout the course of the many conflicts. The third round would involve turning one's attention to the rhetorical devices and dramatic props and storytelling techniques (and visual elements and poetic structures and literary allusions) mobilized in the text. The fourth round would involve spending time thinking about assorted themes and topics invoked or implied in the composition, or inspired by one's encounter with the series.
This fourfold schema can be correlated with the elements of what I call the special Ravages intellectual template as follows. Convoluted schemes are the main concern in the second round, extensive citations to the classics (insofar as they are textual effects) belong to the field of study in the third round, incisive social commentary and profound philosophizing (the content of which may be derived from the cited classics) form the core topics in the fourth round.
Blessed is he who can partially handle and attend to the four layers in a single reading, but to one who is overwhelmed, they are asked to read again (and again - and again, and again...)
It is highly recommended that you research in advance, or as you go along, or both.
III. Introduction: Prolegomena to a Critique of Ravages Reason and its Categories
In order to fairly examine and investigate the complex package that is Ravages (from the exemplary portions to the lackluster tidbits), one must first acquire some familiarity with what it has in store. And in order to achieve some insight into Ravages, one is advised to look into some of its more salient features. Having already gained the impression that it is an adaptation of a renowned story in a historical setting (and an especially intricate one, if the endorsements are to be believed), the next step would be to study certain other prominent ingredients and elements. This is where what I call the special intellectual four-part template comes in. However, it is not enough to merely brag about it (and how Ravages has hardly any parallel when it comes to the concurrent manifestation of all four template features throughout the story), and so to corroborate the claims, cases have to be shown and elucidated. The subsequent paragraphs will deal with but a few of them.
About the schemes, Ravages offers plenty (both in terms of number and kind), to the point of sheer convolution. For instance, what is depicted as a minor skirmish in the source texts is transformed into a tit-for-tat match of stratagems stated to go up to sixteen layers deep, with the two belligerent sides attempting to predict and one-up one another all the way (while keeping casualties low to prevent interested third parties from taking advantage of the situation), and with one party's loss being part of its own grander plan. In another case, a battle that was supposed to end with one major fire attack involved at least four fire attacks, followed by a flood on the retreat path predicted long in advance by one side, but signs of which were aptly concealed by the smokescreen. Aside from more familiar exercises such as ambushes and feints and supply raids and espionage operations, military and diplomatic maneuvers also incorporate factors such as birthday celebrations and commodity trade and religious scriptures and rumor-mongering. Ravages even contrives its own military doctrines (such as the method of morale management, and the lesson of letting enemies 'know' one's moves so as to better predict and surprise them) to complement the classical theories it frequently invokes. In general, Ravages portrays every notable faction as being cunning in some way, with the designated 'geniuses' and reputed 'brutes' elevated to higher levels (though it must be emphasized that campaigns are not merely individual battles of wits, but collective efforts involving unnamed goons, some of whom even get to speak and provide useful input).
As far as philosophical nuggets are concerned, Ravages deals heavily with notions and claims and arguments having to do with morality and governance and history, although more speculative concerns such as truth and fate and aesthetics are also touched upon every now and then. A notable political debate - happening right in the middle of a battle on horseback - involved two warlords arguing over the reasons for the decline of the imperial dynasty they're living under, with each side making partial points while accusing the other of instigating the chaos, revealing how both are ultimately implicated because of their ambition to accumulate their own power bases. Moving on, one particular site of dispute that recurs throughout the series concerns the value of high-minded virtues (typically seen in Confucian terms), such as loyalty and righteousness, in a period of social unrest. What makes the approach of Ravages laudable in this regard is that rather than sticking to a simple struggle between two camps (say, between 'idealists' and 'pragmatists', albeit with superficial idiosyncratic variations among individual interlocutors), it instead modulates and complicates the dialectical and discursive terrain (by stipulating further nuances that lead to further sub-division, and having diverse issues intersect to generate distinct combinations of opinions). Although suspicion, tinged with 'modern' (and broadly liberal) sensibilities - Chen Mou is still a man of his time after all - remains the overarching tendency cultivated in Ravages, various stances and opinions are nonetheless accommodated in a modestly pluralistic vein, with no single tendency emerging as the overall winner that gets everything right since every other school still has some lessons to impart.
When it comes to the potential for social commentary, although Ravages does not always make things explicit, there is nonetheless enough material provided that may be used to talk about current affairs and contemporary issues. For one thing, the episodes of philosophizing woven into the text (from monologues and floating narrator voices, to conversations and speeches) are mainly attuned to practical matters and topics to begin with, thus setting up a conducive platform for interpretative leaps from the story world to the situations encountered by readers. And as mentioned previously, the critical and playful manner in which Ravages deals with its source material serves as a springboard for interrogating not just the processes of historical recording and memorializing, but also present-day attempts by different factions to selectively invoke and manipulate the relics and archives we have inherited. But besides these wide-ranging avenues, Ravages also inserts moments and lines - some of them bordering on the meta-fictional - that appear to remark on (or even poke fun at) specific cultural practices or media conventions. In one instance, an officer sensibly talks about the usefulness of controlling allied morale by means of favorable rumors, even as he ends up making rumors about himself as the mastermind behind the latest string of rumors. Another scene features a rebuke of flashy but ineffective martial arts moves, which doubles as a slight jab at the more superficial gimmicks in wuxia literature and kung-fu films. And then there's a callback chapter that treats feats in the early chapters as exaggerated rumors, perhaps Chen Mou's way of joking about his own work (in volume afterwords and interviews he makes use of self-deprecating humor, and even the pen name he chose, roughly meaning 'mister Chen', is rather self-effacing).
Regarding citations from ancient sources, Ravages copiously makes use of various treatises and verses, from those classics already renowned by the time of its setting, to deliberate nods to pieces made years after the in-universe moment of quotation (if the source texts and the scholars are to be believed), and even to outright anachronistic borrowings from texts composed in much later periods. The cited sources themselves come in various forms, ranging from divination guides (the I Ching) and collections of ancient poetry (for instance, the Book of Odes and the Songs of Chu), to philosophical compilations (such as the Analects and the Mencius) and manuals of warfare and statecraft (like the Records of the Warring States and Sun Tzu's Art of War). Of special note are unexpected inclusions of passages from the very source texts Ravages draws from and comments on. Additionally, aside from the relatively straightforward quotations and paraphrases easily traced to the classics, Ravages makes use of hundreds of four-character idioms, themselves of varying origin (with a lot of them resulting from condensations of classical passages into pithy expressions). It should be noted that Ravages does not feature these fancy literary tidbits merely as ornaments and trinkets, given that a lot of them are also thematically linked to the developments in the particular chapters (or volumes, or arcs) where they are invoked. Philosophical texts being used to articulate a stance, and military texts being invoked to signal the scheme being implemented, are the more obvious cases of this incorporation at work. Another set of cases would be where poetic lines are extracted and displayed for what they evoke and symbolize, setting the mood for at least a segment of the chapter. At times, something more remarkable happens whereby lines from different sources, using similar imagery but with different (or even opposing) connotations, are showcased as figurative representations of the ongoing conflict.
It goes without saying that these four special aspects are not just brought up in isolation, but are woven together along with the narrative dynamics of the series. There are even cases where a chapter or a scene features all four at once, as when a particular classical passage that happens to deal with a social issue in a philosophical manner is invoked, while in the midst of scheming. This is not to say that Ravages is impeccable and unparalleled in its use of any of these four aspects, but the point remains that Ravages is perhaps among the very few literary works (and a comic, at that) masterfully integrating all four these intellectually loaded facets. To be sure, some series may come to rival Ravages in scheming and citations (this is hard to achieve), or philosophizing and social commentary (this is doable), but it's another thing altogether to outdo Ravages in all four criteria. At any rate, the challenge for readers would be to prepare themselves and become comfortable with the four-layer template, in order to facilitate critical and charitable readings of the series (thus explaining this section's cumbersome title - with references to Kant).
POSTSCRIPT
Why does this post not have an actual concluding section?
Because readers are invited to proceed into further studies and undertake more extensive and intensive research about Ravages.
These portals may be of use.
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