The Sorceress' Revolt -
Ko Eiji's Story
Author: Toriumi Jinzō
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
Translator's Afterword
The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt, also translated as Quelling the Demons’ Revolt and The Sorcerer’s Revolt, is a Chinese novel attributed to the 14th-century novelist Luo Guanzhong. The earliest known version was compiled between 1571 and 1589 CE. In 1620 CE Feng Menglong expanded the novel to forty chapters from the original twenty. The novel blends comedy with the supernatural, though the end is tragic. The forty-chapter version is sometimes noted as an early example of a Chinese psychological novel.
Purportedly the historical account of a revolt in Beizhou in 1048 CE, the original novel spends very little time on actual historical events. Each chapter is a self-contained story about different characters, some of whom are recurring, like Wang Ze, the instigator of the revolt, and Hu Yong’Er, his accomplice and possible lover. Like other famed Chinese classical works such as Journey to the West and The Water Margin, The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt was more compiled than written. It began as a series of loosely interconnected oral tales that could be related piecemeal to audiences or on the street.
The basic outline of the original novel’s plot is as follows: Wang Ze, a military commander, marries the sorceress Hu Yong'Er. Hu Yong'Er was conceived after her mother burned an enchanted painting. She was taught magic from a fox spirit, enabling her to conjure armies with her spells. The three sorcerers Zhang Luan , Bu Ji, and the Egg Monk Danzi join Wang Ze after a series of adventures battling corrupt officials with their supernatural powers.
Wang Ze leads a revolt to overthrow the government with the help of the sorcerers. The three sorcerers grow disillusioned with Wang Ze’s impropriety and defect to the government forces headed by Wen Yanbo, who had arrived to suppress the rebels. The Egg Monk disguises himself as a Daoist and aids the imperial generals. Together, the three sorcerers defeat Wang Ze and end the rebellion.
At its heart, The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt is a satirical novel of protest. Several Ming Dynasty officials are lampooned quite specifically in the text for corruption and lewd behavior—all of which explains the generally deplorable behavior of this novel’s sorcerers. The original novel has suffered censorship in China because of themes that can be interpreted, probably correctly, as individualistic and anti-authoritarian. Unlike many contemporaneous Chinese novels with which it shares context and shelf space, The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt is relatively unknown in the modern world and has received little (though not zero) scholarship.
This rewritten adaptation of the original novel, The Sorceress’ Revolt, uses many of the same set pieces and characters as the original novel and its forty-chapter rewrite, but is otherwise a completely different animal than its predecessors.
A Note on Names
This is a Japanese rewrite of a Chinese story, so naturally, all of the names are given in Japanese! That makes Wang Ze into Ou Soku, Hu Yong’Er into Ko Eiji, Zhang Luan into Chō Ran, etc. I had a choice to make at the start of this novel on how to standardize names. All main characters’ names in this translation are given in Japanese romanization because that it how this novel’s intended audience would read them. Minor characters and real historical personages like Emperor Renzong, Xia Song, Fan Zhongyan, etc. have their names presented in the original Chinese.
Why the discrepancy? In part, I chose to do this in order to better differentiate fictional characters like Tanshi from real people who actually existed. In some rare cases, like Wen Yanbo (Bungen Haku) and Lei Yungong (Rai Ingyō), they are both main characters and real historical personages. I have kept to Japanese names for these characters throughout, but their Chinese name is given as a gloss in the Character List at the front of the book. In cases where there is no clear Chinese equivalent name, only the Japanese name is listed.
The Characters
Like its source novels, The Sorceress’ Revolt is a tale of protest against a corrupt government regime. Read at a surface level, it reveals the perils of unrestricted power and the necessity for checks and balances in government and military matters.
But that’s not really the fun stuff.
The Sorceress’ Revolt benefits from being conceived and written as a psychological novel. Its characters are all human, with human foibles and desires; even the worst of them is at least somewhat psychologically comprehensible. They often exist in thematic pairs. Sei Koko’s tragic early history is mirrored by Amuri’s. Chō Ran’s disciplined power focused on protection is set against Chō Ki’s more vicious and devil-may-care attack style. Ri Chū’s and Ri Shun’s skills are related, but not the same, and how they change as people determines what happens to them. Kei Kai and Ryū Gen show the benefits and drawbacks of working with and against the flawed system, respectively. And of course, there are the titular characters, Ko Biji and Ko Eiji—who might or might not be the same person.
Perhaps the most important thematic pair is that of Tanshi and Ou Soku, who serve as the story’s primary protagonists. They have a lot in common as characters: Tanshi starts his life idealistic, educated, and principled, and so does Ou Soku. But where Tanshi keeps his moral compass intact through everything that happens to him, Ou Soku learns that his mother broke social customs for the sake of his education and rejects her and society at large because of this knowledge. Consequently, their attitudes toward women and the world couldn’t be more different. Tanshi is abused by the system just like Ou Soku is, but Tanshi doesn’t respond by seeking to break and conquer. His stakes are smaller and more personal than Ou Soku’s. Ou Soku sees betrayal by his mother as betrayal by the world and needs the world to reform to be satisfied. Tanshi sees the world as corrupt but doesn’t seek to reform it, just himself, because he recognizes that himself is all that he has control over. Together, they form a character study of a mature mind set against an immature one.
Ko Biji and Ko Eiji, the secondary protagonists, get a bit less to work with than the protagonists, though Ko Biji’s defiance in the face of the evil Sei Koko and her determination to be free of Sei Koko’s influence echo through the whole of the story. Tanshi wants to transcend the limitations of fate. Ko Biji doesn’t believe there are any limitations. This realization is ultimately what inspires Ko Eiji to be her own person after living for years in Sei Koko’s shadow.
Sei Koko is the primary antagonist of both parts of this novel, though her role in Ko Biji’s Story is more muted and set alongside the corrupt actions of the imperial government. As the story progresses, she becomes increasingly fanatical and unhinged, showing just what can happen to a person who longs for nothing but power. Her megalomaniacal cunning is what ultimately proves to be her undoing—she failed to realize that since her sorcery is nothing but tricks, everyone else can use those tricks, too.
Feminism
Unlike the original novel, The Sorceress’ Revolt is laser-focused on women’s role in war. To give it due credit, the original novel was actually something of a trailblazer in this regard, since it put Ko Eiji at the heart of battle and had her summon soldiers with magic, but she is usually the only woman on the battlefield.
The Sorceress’ Revolt changes that up quite a bit.
Not only is the primary antagonist in the novel female, but so are both secondary protagonists. An all-women cavalry unit marches out of the Jurchen lands and liberates a city in a standout scene. Powerful historical women like Wu Zetian feature prominently in the text.
Increased feminism (equality of women and men) isn’t a change for diversity’s sake, but a reaction to the story’s theme of corruption. Rape is a recurring tragedy in this novel, and one way to counter the tragedy and horror of rape is to show women fighting back and giving as good as they get. (No female rapists—there’s progressive, and there’s regressive!) Women are portrayed as civilians, soldiers, and sorceresses; each of these kinds of women has a different role to play in their corrupt world. Some women make things better. Some women make things worse. Just like men.
Sorcery, Magic, Science
One of the author’s stated themes in his afterword is the tug-of-war between science and magic. Where is the line? Are they functionally the same?
Like Toriumi Jinzō, the original author of The Sorceress’ Revolt, I’ve spent my life as a realist. I don’t believe in actual magic—but I absolutely adore magic shows. Tricking my senses when there are no stakes involved is a lot of fun. Magic being used as a manipulative tool in this story is an interesting angle to take, not just because seeing the magic (tricks) in action is interesting but because it concentrates the conflict between Sei Koko and everyone else.
Sei Koko’s sorcery isn’t “real.” All her tricks are revealed by the end. It’s all just manipulation because she wants power. Other secondary villains like Xia Song don’t use magic to achieve their ends, but they do use tricks: obfuscation, lies, slander. Functionally, sorcery and corruption are the same thing in this novel. Even Ou Soku runs afoul of this when he succumbs to a temptation for power at any cost.
Tanshi’s magic might or might not be real. Tanshi believes in it, which adds another layer to the theme: how much of standing up for the right thing is confidence, and how much is competence? It’s undeniable that both are needed (at least in Tanshi’s case), but it seems like confidence is king when it comes to Tanshi’s magic. He wasn’t able to defeat Sei Koko until he believed he could.
Ryū Gen’s ambivalence toward magic and Shin Katsu’s passion for science balance one another while moving toward the same goal. Ryū Gen doesn’t care about why something works; he just wants it to work and assumes there’s a logical explanation. Shin Katsu is obsessed with how things work to the point where he doesn’t believe that either sorcery or magic are real at all.
So is magic real or not? Sorcery is just technology. Technology is pretty amazing, in general and within the confines of the novel. But magic? The door is left wide open on this question. Even En Kō and his goddess aren’t sure where the line is between the incredible wondrousness of technological marvels and true magic. Reincarnation might be the foot in the door, straddling the hazy line between the world of the real and the world of the supernatural.
Notes
For ease of reading, I have made textual notes on important cultural figures and practices that would be common knowledge in Japan or China, but which Western readers likely have less familiarity with.
Time periods like Chinese dynasties are given clear dates in the text.
This novel was originally published in Japanese in 1997. The bright and bubbly optimism that characters like Tanshi, Shin Katsu and Amuri possess points to a pre-2001 world, but there is also a warning inherent in the text about terrorism, which Japan was just beginning to struggle with in a modern context. As I translate this text in America in 2024, I feel the fear of domestic terrorism and a deep disillusionment with a broken system all too keenly.
That is why I wish to end this afterword with Ryū Gen’s rallying speech: “Most people go their whole lives believing in the right thing, but never standing up for it because they’re afraid… When I was a young man, I swallowed my pride and let terrible things happen before my eyes. That shames me. I should have stood up for the right thing then. I’m trying to make up for it now.”
Stand up for what you believe in. Protect what you love. Remember that the historical revolt of 1048 failed, but the story survived.
Something always survives.
Ainikki the Archivist
December 2024
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