Synopsis "The Saga of a Taoist Nun, 2: English Edition: Novel of Martial Arts (in English)"
This is the English version of "The Saga of a Taoist Nun", Book 2. Hanson Chan's The Saga of a Taoist Nun, Book 1 & 2, in English editions are in fact the second and revised editions of Hua Hu, Book 1 & 2, which were previously published in 2006. Both are translations from the original Chinese versions by the same author. In real history, "Hua Hu" or "Lao Tzu's Hua Hu Jing" was an ancient Taoist scripture that circulated in China in the fourth century. It stated that Lao Tzu, after having finished the Tao Te Ching and discovered Tao, left China for India, where he taught a disciple named Sakyamuni. This disciple founded a religion called Buddhism, which preached kindness to all. However, its story was challenged by Buddhists and deemed as a slander. For centuries, debates between the two religions were held with no result until the Kubilai Khan's reign when the Taoists were allegedly defeated and the Mongol emperor decreed all copies banned and burnt. Hanson Chan's two martial arts novels about Hua Hu Jing are based on this particular event and more...... In this second book, "Hua Hu, Book 2: The Thunder Spell", the author picks up where his previous novel "The Forbidden Scripture" leaves off. Mystic Pearl and her new champion White Ling find themselves lost in a desert having escaped from the battle in the cave. We see Mystic Pearl's mission to protect the precious Hua Hu manuscript and to locate surviving members of her Taoist sect turns into a mission fought with peril, with surprises lurking around every corner. Nothing is what it seems to be. Meanwhile we see Mystic Pearl beginning to come into her own as a woman. She goes from being someone who runs from her problems to someone who is starting to tackle them head on. Again, Chinese history and culture including some historical figures play a key role in the story of a Taoist Girl trying to find her place in the world......
