《Forgotten Kingdom》内容简介
Peter Goullart / Eland Publishing Limited / 2017 -
On the eve of PRC’s establishment, brilliant linguist Peter Goullart made himself totally at home in Likiang, capital of the all-but-forgotten Nakhi Kingdom of south west China. He unpicks the complex society, which believed simultaneously in Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Animism and Shamanism. Goullart lets us in on the love affairs and rivalries of his neighbours, his meetings with ancient dowagers and handsome warriors, as well as allowing us to catch the sound of the swift mountain streams, the coarse ribaldry of the markets and the happy laughter of the wine shops.
It is not easy to write a good book about paradise, but people are Mr. Goullart's forte, and when he mixes us up with the Nakhis he delivers us up to his idyll. Likiang itself, its sunlight and its owners and its rushing waters, its wine shops and caravans, its glints of danger, its swagger and its happy laughter, is beautifully captured in his story of adapting to and living in the Lijiang culture.
Written during the time when this "Silk Road" Town was the only access point for outside goods to China during WWII, "Forbidden Kingdom" is an incredible verbal picture painted by Peter Goullart's first-hand account of the changes that happened during the 1940s in the Nakhis Chinese area.