Fascinating Authors

Book Review
by
John H. Manhold

Confucius Jade, ISBN 9780981929132, Dudley Court Press, 348 pages, Paperback, $14.95, by Frederick Fisher.

My review copy of this book is a recent edition of the original story published several years ago by Times International in Singapore. It is a fascinating account of discovery of a one of a kind boulder of jade and the course of events that follow.

The very young daughter of one of the descendents of Confucius accidentally discovers the rock and, with her brother’s help, adds it to her collection. An incident later reveals the unique quality of the stone to the child’s mother, who is a gifted carver of jade. Because of political and other changes, the family, living in exile in Burma, decides to return to China and secretly carry the stone with them. Upon arrival, the mother confers with a relative who is recognized as an even more gifted carver. Together they view the secret of the stone when they visualize the appearance of the Chinese God of Longevity, Shou-Xing Lao, arising life-like from it at a particular period of the moon’s appearance. They proceed to release the figure from the stone in a manner that produces the God and his counter image in carvings that provide a unique, life-like quality, for anyone observing the figures in a particular moon-lit setting.

The story moves from these early endeavors to a plan developed by the entire Wong clan to provide an institute for the teachings of their ancestor, K’ung Fu-tze, (whose name the Jesuit priests had anglicized to Confucius). From this point, the story rapidly moves forward to the modern world and encompasses an offer of the jade to collectors to obtain the money required to establish the institute. Because of the priceless nature of the jade figures, only three collectors are selected to bid on the work – an American media mogul, a Japanese pearl magnate, and a ruling, oil-rich, Arabian sheik.

The story of the Confucius Jade is an utterly fascinating one that begins slowly and gradually accelerates to an intriguingly complicated ending. On the way, the author  provides a most interesting, and believable, cast of characters, and introduces enough of oriental mysticism to make one want to accept the unusual possibilities that the actions of the God of Longevity might provide with respect to longevity and redemption in the face of the intertwining emotions of love, loyalty, deception, greed, generosity and treachery.

I have some personal knowledge of the areas of the world encompassed by Frederick Fisher’s descriptions, and can only admire the manner in which he uses his intimate knowledge to provide settings that the reader will find most intriguing. And here a word of warning to the reader. This is a book where descriptions of places, events and beliefs take time to develop properly, so do not allow the descriptive passages to be a deterrent. If the reader should allow this to happen, he/she will miss a thoroughly entertaining and intriguing story that moves beautifully to its most satisfying climax and provides wonderful descriptions on the way.