“Bankruptcy, famine, civil unrest,” Sano said, remembering his lessons at Zōjō Temple. “And when government control over the country weakens enough, the emperor loses the Mandate of Heaven. Amid war and turmoil, a new regime rises to challenge the old. The cycle goes on.”

“Exactly,” Abbot Liu Yun said. “In this most recent instance, the challenge came from the northeast Manchurian nomad tribes. They conquered Fushun, Liaoyang, Mukden, Shensi, Honan, Shantung, Kiangnan, Kiangsi, Hupeh, Szechuan, Fukien, Chinchou, Amur, and eventually Peking. The chieftain proclaimed himself emperor and founded the Ching dynasty.”

“Most of the population, including officials of the former dynasty, accepted Manchu rule. I was one of many who donned foreign costume and arranged my hair in a queue. But a few Ming loyalists would not concede defeat. A rebel named Kuo Hsing-yeh organized several thousand troops along the coast. They managed to take Amoy, Quemoy, Chinkiang, and the island of Taiwan. The Ching rulers recovered all the mainland territory, then hired the Dutch East India Company to help capture Taiwan. Taiwan fell seven years ago, in a fierce sea battle, after nearly two decades of war. My brother was one of Kuo Hsingyeh’s commanders—a broken old man and one of the last defenders of a lost cause. Jan Spaen was captain of the Dutch ship that destroyed his squadron. Spaen took my brother prisoner and tortured him to death. I suppose it’s understandable that people who know this story would believe I bear a grudge against the Dutch in general, and Spaen in particular.”

“You mean you don’t?” Sano asked skeptically. A samurai would take the torture and slaying of a brother as a personal insult, and seek revenge. Were the Chinese so different?

Aboard the junk, the acrobat executed an impressive backflip, then bowed to the abbot. Liu Yun raised his hand in a gesture of praise before turning a condescending smile upon Sano. “When I entered the monastery, I freed myself from the pain, suffering, and complications of earthly life. I relinquished my diplomatic career, my wealth, and my family to seek spiritual enlightenment. Once I would have grieved over my brother’s death. But in my present station, grief is an emotion that exists on a plane far below me. I feel only the joy of approaching nirvana—the eternal, ecstatic union with the cosmos.”

“So you didn’t blame Jan Spaen for killing your brother, or wish him dead?” Sano asked, still unconvinced.

The abbot’s chuckle sounded like a cricket chirping inside a brass temple bell. “I did not, and would not have even before I turned my back on secular life. It was my brother’s own stubbornness that really destroyed him—his refusal to accept that the Mandate of Heaven had passed to the Manchu rulers. Jan Spaen and the Dutch East India Company were merely agents of his fate.”