My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary

by John Blofeld, Chungliang Al Huang (Foreword), Daniel Reid (Translator)

The only English translation of John Blofeld’s memoirs as a Westerner living in China prior to the Communist Revolution

• Paints an intimate portrait of the grace and refinement of ancient Chinese civilization

• Originally written in Chinese for Chinese readers, revealing a rare glimpse of Blofeld’s private Chinese side and uncensored views

• The last book by the great English sinologist, translator of the I Ching and author of Taoist Mystery and Magic

The reveries and remembrances contained in the travel diaries of John Blofeld cover every aspect of his life in China--from visits to opium dens and sing-song houses to sojourns in the Buddhist monasteries and Taoist hermitages of China’s sacred mountains. Here is a vivid glimpse of “old” China as it existed in elegance and grace for three thousand years before China’s Communist Revolution. Originally written in Chinese for a Chinese audience, Blofeld’s travel diary reveals a rare, uncensored view of pre-communist China to which few westerners have been exposed.

Genres: History, Travel

296 pages, Hardcover

First published March 18, 2008

About the author

John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld (M.A., Literature, University of Cambridge, 1946) wrote on Asian thought and religion, especially Taoism and Chinese Buddhism. During WWII, he working in counterintelligence for the British Embassy in Chongqing (Chungking), China, as a cultural attaché. In the 1950s, he studied with Dudjom Rinpoche and other Nyingma teachers in Darjeeling, India. He later mentored Red Pine in his translation work.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Blofeld is the author of a number of excellent books on Buddhism, Taoism, and other Asian religions -- as well as of a couple of excellent travel classics, such as this book (My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary) and City of Lingering Splendour: A Frank Account of Old Peking's Exotic Pleasures.

His travels take him through the China of the 1930s, during the period of the Kuomintang and various warlords, and during the Japanese invasion of the Northeast. Blofeld writes mostly about visits to monasteries, sacred mountains, and friends scattered throughout China.

It is a pity that he is not better known.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly meandering, mild-mannered memoir of Blofeld's years in pre-Mao china of the thirties & forties. In his younger, more curious years, he has interesting encounters with the Singsong Girls of the Flower-ships, as well as the opium pipe. As things move on, they get more academic, though occasionally a rivetting meta-moment occurs in the higher reaches of Toaist practice.

This narrative seems to lose color a bit as it attempts to 1. steer away from the political thunderclouds in China in that day, 2. find paths that navigate all bottlenecks presented by the tricky intersections of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and 3. generally avoid criticism, never ever disparaging any aspect of Chinese culture, social practice, class structure or milieu... All presumably well-intentioned observances, but together they manage to drain the atmosphere a bit, and it's color and atmosphere that I tend to value most in a Period Travel memoir.

All that being said, this is a gentle and eventually winning account of China in the early twentieth century, standing on the doorstep of spectacular upheaval. Blofeld is on a spiritual quest here, too... He's not exactly here for anthropology, and by the end of the tale we get his vision a little better :

Modern science can now provide evidence for this idea of the primordial unity of all manifest form, throughout the universe. It has been demonstrated by science that matter (form) and energy (formless) are interchangeable, and that they both share the same essential vibrational nature. Einstein's famous equation E=MC²defined the dynamic commutability between these two dimensions of existence. Furthermore the advanced science of quantum physics now agrees with the fundamental hypothesis of ancient Eastern Cosmology that the entire manifest universe is formed and shaped by consciousness, and that nothing whatsoever exists beyond the infinite luminous field of primordial awareness.

It's possible that some of the distant quality here comes from the fact that the English Blofeld wrote this account in Chinese, his second language, for a Chinese readership-- and for this book his protégé has translated it back to English.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting for pre-1949 Chinese culture. Writing style/translation not great.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. I've defined learnt a lot about China.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blofeld is best known as a translator and expositor of Chinese Buddhism and Taoism. This memoir records his early years in China, until self-exiled following the Communist revolution in 1948. Blofeld is a Sinophile, adopting all the ways of old China. He gravitates towards the literati and Buddhist and Taoist masters. Sadly, Blofeld is a turgid, boring writer. He doesn't even attempt to write of the misty mountain settings of the spiritual masters and retreats he visits. And he perserverates on his desires and attempts to secure a Chinese wife. This pursuit became a primary obsession in his 30's. His traditionalism is alienating.

[David Gould · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Blofeld is best known for his spiritual travels and writings on Buddhism and Taoism. This book reveals China before Communism trashed and despoiled the rich culture and life of the Chinese people.