are you ready for what is rising in the east? The Old Dragon’s Head by Justin Newland

Constructed of stone and packed earth, the Great Wall of 10,000 li protects China’s northern borders from the threat of Mongol incursion. The wall is also home to a supernatural beast: the Old Dragon. The Old Dragon’s Head is the most easterly point of the wall, where it finally meets the sea.

In every era, a Dragon Master is born. Endowed with the powers of Heaven, only he can summon the Old Dragon so long as he possess the dragon pearl.

It’s the year 1400, and neither the Old Dragon, the dragon pearl, nor the Dragon Master, has been seen for twenty years. Bolin, a young man working on the Old Dragon’s Head, suffers visions of ghosts. Folk believe he has yin-yang eyes and other paranormal gifts.When Bolin’s fief lord, the Prince of Yan, rebels against his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor, a bitter war of succession ensues in which the Mongols hold the balance of power. While the victor might win the battle on earth, China’s Dragon Throne can only be earned with a Mandate from Heaven – and the support of the Old Dragon.

Bolin embarks on a journey of self-discovery, mirroring Old China’s endeavour to come of age. When Bolin accepts his destiny as the Dragon Master, Heaven sends a third coming of age – for humanity itself. But are any of them ready for what is rising in the east?

1.       The Old Dragon’s Head is a story about a wall, as it is set on the far eastern end of the Great Wall of China.  The germ for the novel was a short story I wrote called, ‘Vallum Hadriani’, set on another famous wall, namely Hadrian’s Wall. At the time, I also re-read Franz Kafka’s The Great Wall of China. I remembered that I loved readingin my youth.  

2.      Some of the non-fiction I read to research the novel included The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Book of Chung Tzuby Lao Tzu, The Book of Mencius and the T’ao Te Ching.

3.      Some of the fiction I read for the research included The Chinese Maze Murders, a Judge Dee Mystery by Robert van Gulik, The Story of the Stone aka The Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Classic, vol. 1., The Golden Days by Cao Xueqin, and Stories Old and New, a Ming Dynasty Collection, Compiled by Feng Menglong.

4.      The Old Dragon’s Headwas my second novel and took me about a year and a half to write, edit, polish and finish. It was my first historical novel and has four point of view characters.

5.      As part of the research into China in the 14^th Century, I visited the China sections of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as they hold some fascinating artefacts of the period.  I also corresponded with the curators of the museums about their artefacts.

6.      To promote the novel, I wrote and developed an illustrated talk entitled “The Great Ming Code; How the Law Book of the Ming Dynasty attempted to harmonize human society with the will of heaven.”

7.       The cover artwork for the book The Old Dragon’s Head was done by Jim Burns, who lives not far from me in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. He has done the covers for all four of my novels now, and a wonderful job he has made of them too.

8.     The Old Dragon’s Head isa real place at the far eastern end of the Great Wall of China. In Chinese, Laolongtou is the Chinese word for Old Dragon’s Head. The name of the town there is Shanhaiguan. I would have liked to have visited the area but wasn’t able to do so.

9.      To keep out the Mongols, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, had a fortress built across a ten-kilometer pass between the Yellow Sea and the Yanshan Mountains in 1381.

10.   The biggest gate in the fortress was the Zhendong Gate, above which hangs the famous inscription, “The First Pass Under Heaven,” a sentiment which tells you everything you need to know about the Chinese mind set. One of the ironies of history is that in 1644 a Chinese soldier, disillusioned with the emperor of the time, opened the gates of the fortress and let in the Mongols.