Review: Traversing the Frontier: The Man'yōshū Account of a Japanese Mission to Silla in 736-737

Traversing the Frontier: The Man'yōshū Account of a Japanese Mission to Silla in 736-737 by H. Mack Horton
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I can't really rate this, since most of it was over my head. The actual travel account is from page 10 to 44 (with the Kanji and Japanese sounds transliterated as well). The rest is pretty much commentary. 

The first part is more or less an introduction, then the travelogue itself. Then "Traversing the Frontier", or basically a geographical tracing of where they (most likely) traveled. The sections after this (Internal contexts, Historical contexts, Literary contexts, Authorial and Editorial contexts) were pretty much over my head. I scanned some of the Historical contexts section, but even then I didn't absorb much. 

As for the travelogue itself, it isn't really a travelogue, but more a collection of poems and sentiments, most about how much they miss home and miss their wives. This was a bit disappointing, although I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy reading it. 

Still, obviously much work was done on this book, which from what I can tell is exhaustive and excellent, so hopefully someone more knowledgable than I am on the subject can give it a more thorough review. 

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Review: Silla

Silla by Fran�ois Hinard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a re-read. I really didn't remember much from the first time around, and I had given it only 3 stars, which is usually not a reason to read it again. But I was annoyed that I knew so little about Sulla, so I decided to give it another go.

And I'm glad I did. I think I have to raise my rating of this book now, and possibly lower my rating of myself as a reader.

Sulla is certainly an interesting character, and while the author seems to be a bit of an apologist for him, I'm inclined to be convinced it is with good reason.

Here is a man who seems unbeatable in battle (beating both Jugurtha, Mithridates and another Roman Army led by his superior Gaius Marius). He returns to Rome to become dictator, but then abdicated the throne to live as a private citizen and dies a natural death (presumably).

It seems odd to me that his reputation is by and large a pretty bad one, while someone like Julius Caesar, who wanted to remain dictator and ended up being stabbed to death, is so often revered.

4 stars

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