Chapter 9

Friends, Romans, Countryman... 😛 Yes, I am introducing a Roman Christian missionary in my historical fantasy story involving Chinese gods, Buddhist deities, and a whole lot of references to Journey to the West. To be fair, I never quite understand why Chinese writers avoid talking about Christians as they came around this period as Missionaries in China, establishing the Church of the East. The same goes with historical fantasy western writers, who avoid talking about Chinese philosophical religions influencing Roman culture. I really hope I am not the first guy to just point out this fact.

Also in this chapter, I am playing with dueling transgender issues between two canonical transgender entities: Guanyin as China's most revered Buddhist deity second only to the Buddha was biologically male, but transformed into a female. Daji in contrast as the nine-taled demon fox was biologically female but portray himself as a male to rule Shang kingdom. I want to offer readers some food for thought at how transgender presentation in ancient myth was prevalent.