The following is a serial translation of Abdurehim Ötkür’s 1985 historical novel Oyghanghan Zemin, Chapter One, pp. 20-24. New readers are encouraged to start from the beginning, Chapter One, Part One. This translation is presented for information and entertainment purposes only. It is also a work in progress — comments are welcome, especially on the (questionable) quality of the translation.

In Chapter One, Part Three, the progressive official Fan Yaonan succeeded in his plan to overthrow Yang Zengxin. We last left him and his party making their way to the General’s yamen…

3

The General’s yamen was not very far from the scene of the incident. Fan Yaonan forced his way into the Military Office, located in the yamen’s third hall. He retrieved Yang Zengxin’s name stamp, wrapped in yellow cloth, from its case, and abruptly called high-level officials to a meeting, sending messengers with the urgent news.

Chief of Bureaucratic Affairs Jin Shuren had left that ceremony with a craving for opium, lying down under the “shisha dome”. When he read the urgent news brought by a messenger, he was momentarily dumbfounded, then got up from the kang and began to pace back and forth. Previously, since he had, with his submissive and obedient nature, served his master, looking upon Yang Zengxin’s face and being seen warmly in his eyes, he had been moved from the Ambal of Ürümchi to his present position. “What must be done?” he found himself thinking feverishly.

At that moment, the son of that military officer who had eaten fire together with Yang Zengxin, Regiment Commander Du Gaoji, entered in a panic and asked Jin Shuren, invoking protection on the basis of their being of the same geographical extraction, for help in taking revenge on Fan Yaonan in the name of his father. Right behind him, another old compatriot of Fan Yaonan’s, the military officer Zhang Peiyuan, came in and said that he had mobilized an entire battalion of soldiers to punish Fan Yaonan. Just then, Jin Shuren, as though having located some new intelligence, became filled with energy and left the room in the manner of a commander-in-chief of all the forces gathered to exact General Yang’s revenge. Shortly, several hundred rabble soldiers came to action and surrounded Fan Yaonan’s party.

After an exchange of fire lasting more than an hour, Fan Yaonan, whose companions had all perished, desired to shoot himself, but, as all of the ammunition in every pair of Mausers was depleted, he came to be taken alive by his enemies.

The “victors” had tied him to a pillar, and they were forcing him to give the names of his collaborators. As for him, as though taking no notice of the continuously-striking whip, clubs, and hard fists, he held his head high and his lips tightly closed, saying nothing. Even his sparse moustache was pulled out. His entire body was drenched with blood. Again, he brought no one’s name to his tongue.

Finally, Jin Shuren burst in and began to pull off his flesh from his thin body, piece by piece, with pliers. At that moment, Fan Yaonan spat, hard, at Jin Shuren. A piece of flesh mixed with blood connected with Jin Shuren’s face. This was his chewed-off tongue. Du Guoji pulled out his sword and plucked out both of his eyes. After this, realizing the uselessness of interrogating him, Jin Shuren shot him dead by his own hand. Soldiers threw his body from the top of the yamen wall to the street. That night, a middle-aged woman who worked as a servant in Fan Yaonan’s house and that yellow-bearded carriage driver found a carriage and took his body away to a cemetery in Liudaowan.

Hence, two great characters on Xinjiang’s political stage disappeared in the one same day. Headmaster Zhang Zhongshi had met with tragedy in that firefight. The official who had given the general’s seal to Fan Yaonan was likewise shot dead that day.

The next day (the Eighth of July), notice papers, impressed with the great four-cornered red stamp, were stuck up at every bend in Ürümchi’s roads. These notices were written in Chinese and Uyghur, and Jin Shuren had declared himself the Xinjiang government’s provisional Chairman and commander. That night, martial law was declared in the city, and arrests began. Among the arrested were the young man called Yunusbäg and that yellow-bearded carriage driver.

The carriage driver was interrogated that very night. An officer, fat like a wineskin, with uncreased eyelids, questioned him with the help of a mouse-moustached man with hands and feet fine like those of a mantis.

“Who sent you to bury the body of the rebel Fan Yaonan?”

“I went under my own volition.”

“What do you mean, you went under your own volition? Hadn’t you heard that he had shot General Yang?”

“I had heard,” said the carriage driver, clanging the shackles on his feet.

“Then, why did you show favor to that rebel, why do you mourn for him?”

“Mr. Fan was a dishonest, but also a compassionate and gentle man. For so many years I have driven for him, and he never one gave me grief.”

“Save your words. Recently, whose houses did he go to?”

“I don’t remember!”

“Speak kindly. Whose houses did he go to?”

“Whose do I remember? Wherever he said to go, I would drive him there in my carriage.”

“In that case, it seems we will have to cure your forgetful disease,” said the interrogator, jumping to his feet.

Four soldiers with their sleeves rolled up to their shoulders burst in like bullets and stripped the carriage driver.

>> Read Chapter 2, Part 1…

The following is a serial translation of Abdurehim Ötkür’s 1985 historical novel Oyghanghan Zemin, Chapter One, pp. 14-20. New readers are encouraged to start from the beginning, Chapter One, Part One. This translation is presented for information and entertainment purposes only. It is also a work in progress — comments are welcome, especially on the (questionable) quality of the translation.

In Chapter One, Part Two, the progressive official Fan Yaonan and his co-conspirator Zhang Zhongshi set their plan to assassinate Yang Zengxin in motion. When we last left Fan Yaonan, he was admiring his friend Tahirbäg’s library.

Having viewed the books and journals, Fan Yaonan briefly investigated those in languages with which he was unfamiliar and said, finally:

“This library of yours has gotten quite rich. It seems one could sit in this room and see a large part of the world. If libraries like this became more plentiful in Xinjiang, it would be as though rays of sun had scattered here, and it would slowly begin to be enlightened.”

“At that time,” laughed Mäxsut Muhiti, “it’ll be rough for ignorant bats like General Yang, and for them mouse holes will seem as palaces.”

Everyone laughed. A short while later, Fan Yaonan begged his leave, and Tahirbäg and the others saw him off at the gate.

“Oh, I wanted to say, hasn’t anyone seen Mr. Burhan?” asked Fan Yaonan, stopping before the door. Tahirbäg said that he was preparing to go to Turpan the next morning, having received an important order from General Yang.

“Farewell,” said Fan Yaonan, getting into his carriage. “See you tomorrow. I’ll call you all tomorrow to the General’s yamen.”

Regret for the past, dissatisfaction with the present, hope for tomorrow – this is a sort of rational formula that interminably governs human life. Usually, however, humanity’s tomorrow is accompanied by unexpected events. Perhaps for this reason, despite their having been together for so long that day, Fan Yaonan’s “I’ll call you all tomorrow” rather surprised Tahirbäg and the others. As though their souls sensed something, they began to worry.

“Why would he call us tomorrow?” asked Tahirbäg, whispering slowly.

“Hey, I dunno, I didn’t understand anything,” said Mäxsut Muhiti, shaking his head.

2

Just as he had said, the next day in Ürümchi, an entirely unexpected incident came to pass.

Although this day was a Sunday, as the sun moved through the vapor from its apex, the carriages of military and government officials had begun to flow en masse towards a luxurious courtyard house that stood in view of the Buddhist temple standing upright on a mound of earth by Ürümchi’s North Gate. As the Teknikum of Russian Governmental Law, in those days considered Xinjiang’s place of highest learning, was located in just this courtyard, as we said above, the graduation ceremony of the first class of students was to be held there that day. In a long hall decorated with red and green banners, more than a hundred people were sitting quietly, all waiting for someone or other.

Right at the moment when tea was being served, among the melodious sounds of the military orchestra, a striking man with a high collar, a colorful ribbon under a short white military jacket, and all kinds of shiny medals pinned to his chest appeared on stage with a small group of others. In response to thunderous applause, this man straightened his gold-embroidered, white-tasseled peaked cap, smiled and waved at the people in the hall, and took a seat in deepest part of the stage. This was Yang Zengxin. The Soviet Consul, Kawlof, also took his seat with the high-level officials in this party.

The attention of everyone in the hall was on Yang Zengxin. It was as though they were looking for the first time at this pleasant, talented, intelligent, and respect-worthy elder statesman. They did not move their eyes from him. He, himself, sat among his loyal followers, smiling evenly with kindness to everyone, a compassionate elder sheikh. Only the Consul Kawlof alone, expelling light blue rings with the tobacco in his mouth, sat as though entirely unconcerned, holding himself upright.

After Fan Yaonan had come to the podium and finished joyously announcing the commencement of the ceremony, and once he had finished declaring “My deep gratitude for His Excellency General Yang’s honoring us with his presence,” he invited the Chief of the Bureau of Education to speak. After that, with Fan Yaonan’s invitation, among the sounds of joyful applause, Yang Zengxin crossed over to the podium. Despite his having aged, he held his massive frame erect and spoke spiritedly in a booming voice. Finally, he concluded his long-drawn-out speech with these words:

“I don’t have a lot to say to you all. To sum up, I only have one sentence to say: You are all Xinjiangese, just tomorrow you will enter society, don’t mess up this place’s business. You should keep in mind: if, in the positions to which you will go, there happens to be any kind of activity that talks of ‘Revolution, revolution,’ my sword will play first upon your heads…”

As he spoke, the Chief of the Bureau of Administrative Work, Jin Shuren, succumbed to a craving for opium and sat yawning deeply. Finally, he curled up and held his belly and, just when Yang Zengxin’s speech had ended, asked for and received his permission to leave.

After the student representative Yunusbäg’s words, the ceremony concluded, and the guests were invited to a banquet.

Some soft chairs had been placed in a smallish hall in the interior of the courtyard. Yang Zengxin was placed at a table in the middle with some high-ranking officials. At the next table, the Consul Kawlof, in a grey suit and trousers, sat with his pretty wife, dressed in a white hat and a white blouse. Fan Yaonan and several other chief officials sat at this table, as well. In his capacity as this teknikum’s Chief Invigilator, he too sat in the manner of a master of his house. The rest of the tables were likewise filled with officials. Commonly-dressed footmen stood fanning the guests with large fans made of birds’ wings. Workers with white aprons spread under their blue shirts, perspiring, shuttled back and forth between the kitchen and the middle of the hall. Yang Zengxin’s eight personal bodyguards and those of other officials were being treated as guests in separate houses in the exterior courtyard.

Yang Zengxin would sort of shake his massive frame and dexterously extend his fat fingers to sit and joke, “Gaoxing,” with the official sitting next to him and win over his own enemies, cackling in a booming voice. At the other tables, as well, the sound of laughter rang out, “Gaoxing, gaoxing.”

In the meantime, the Teknikum’s Headmaster, Zhang Zhongshi, pushed the bottle standing before him towards Fan Yaonan.

“Ready?” said Fan Yaonan, looking at him.

“Hm,” said Headmaster Zhang Zhongshi, suddenly glancing at the short servant holding a fan next to the table where Yang Zengxin was sitting.

Fan Yaonan filled the glasses with alcohol, stood up, and invited Consul Kawlof to make a toast. Simultaneously with the invitation, that short, fan-holding servant pulled a pistol from his bosom and pulled the trigger. Like kernels of corn, two pieces of lead, like flower buds, made Yang Zengxin’s massive form shudder. This man, who had drunk the blood of some tens of heroes like Tömür Xälpä, who had been the death of stars of learning and knowledge like Abduqadir Damolla, and who had lived happily sitting on the despotic throne for seventeen years, continuing the darkness of the Middle Ages in the environment of the twentieth century, screamed loudly and, lost for words, with the third shot, fired by Fan Yaonan, fell to the ground on his face. That military official who had enjoyed himself with him, gaoxing – he, too, ate fire with another companion of his and became free of life.

In the hall, filled with whitish smoke from the pistols of Fan Yaonan’s party, a terror like that of the Day of Judgment was prevailing. The sound of rifles pervaded the outer courtyard, as well. One of Yang Zengxin’s half-drunk bodyguards who was still left alive was kneeling at the base of a wall, prostrating himself, begging someone for his life. When another one, quite possibly the leader of the bodyguards, resolutely resisting Fan Yaonan’s party, came to the threshold of the inner hall, a bullet sent him tumbling. Someone took his Mauser, lying on the ground, and clamped it to his belt. At that moment, as Yang Zengxin’s corpse was being thrown around, the eye of Fan Yaonan, who had seized the key from Yang’s pocket, came to rest on Consul Kawlof. Kawlof was leading his wife, whose face had turned as pale as a wall, hurriedly out the side door.

“You’re in no danger at all!” Fan Yaonan shouted, his Russian pronunciation a little broken.

Fan Yaonan, who up until this moment had been known to people as a schoolboy, had finally, like a commander of the front lines waving his hands, expertly given orders to his own companions and thus got his own troop of twenty or so men behind him and headed, running, towards the General’s yamen.

>> Read Chapter 1, Part 4…

The following is a translation of Abdurehim Ötkür’s 1985 historical novel Oyghanghan Zemin, Chapter One, pp. 9-14. New readers are encouraged to start from the beginning, Chapter One, Part One. This translation is presented for information and entertainment purposes only. It is also a work in progress — comments are welcome, especially on the (questionable) quality of the translation.

As time passed, some changes in Fan Yaonan’s temperament began to appear. To speak in terms of the psychologists’ analyses, he was beginning to turn from an extrovert into an introvert. That is to say, rather than talking about the absolute necessity of establishing Republican law in Xinjiang, realizing equality for ethnic groups, completely ending corruption, and developing education, he began, like a man who has lost something, to talk to himself and to move about quietly. Yang Zengxin, having heard news of his rival’s situation, was pleased with his talent. Cackling, he said, “Well done, gold! What an exceptional thing you are! As you melt in the fire, you make those who melt you themselves melt away, don’t you! It seems it is true: the mouth that has eaten is ashamed.”

In fact, underneath Fan Yaonan’s quietude, there smoldered an explosive force. Looking at this with a wise eye, underneath this quiet man’s silent surface, a powerful, surging force was gaining strength, like an ocean undulating harder by the moment, or like a hunter holding his breath, waiting among the trees for the moment to take the clever fox with a single bullet.

As a result of the magnificent revolutionary war against the northern warlords throughout the country, in the summer of 1928, the Beijing warlord government was overthrown. However, the fruits of the revolution’s success were picked by the Nationalists under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, and they established the Nanjing government. The strongest warlords committed themselves to the Nanjing government. Finally, Yang Zengxin, having not given up on being a free ruler as he was before, also began to move towards commitment to the Nanjing government, hoping to save his own local regime. He also got to work drawing up the membership of the new regional Xinjiang government; Fan Yaonan was not part of it. This news put salt in Fan’s wounds, enraging him. He moved immediately to action.

The center of Fan Yaonan’s action was Ürümchi’s Teknikum of Russian Governmental Law. Yang Zengxin, with the goal of nurturing his own loyal diplomatic officers, had himself founded the school and taken on the role of its honorary director. On behalf of Yang Zengxin, Fan Yaonan also acted as the school’s chief invigilator. The Headmaster of the school, Zhang Zhongshi, was Fan Yaonan’s most loyal comrade. As such, this teknikum was under Fan Yaonan’s direct influence.

The very next day at that teknikum there was to be held the graduation ceremony of the first class of students. There was one young Uyghur man among the graduates, as well. This slender-figured, pale-faced young man from Turpan’s name at school was Yu Wenning, and his own name was Yunus. Usually, ethnics called him Yunusbäg. One day before the ceremony, in the morning, Fan Yaonan and Headmaster Zhang Zhongshi called Yunusbäg to their own office to entrust him with giving a speech in the students’ name at the event.

“I will do this poorly,” said Yunusbäg, his face reddening.

“No. You are, like a seed of wheat among the barley, the only Uyghur at this school. What’s more, your studies are excellent,” said Fan Yaonan, smiling.

“Let’s do it like this,” added Headmaster Zhang Zhongshi. “I will help you write the text.”

“When you speak,” said Fan Yaonan, laughing, “don’t forget to first bow deeply to General Yang, nor, in your speech, to praise General Yang’s noble moral virtues!”

Yunusbäg, executing a well-mannered bow, exited the office.

“This young man,” said the academic official Zhang, gesturing towards the door with his eye, “as you know, is meant to be the possessor of exceptional talents. Looking at his composition and oratory, after four years, I could no longer tell he was an Uyghur. The way I look at it, Uyghurs seem an extremely industrious, skilled, well-tempered, intelligent, clever people. Great people may emerge from among them. Unfortunately, they take no interest in educating their children. They’re driven away from school. Even the most prominent ones press poor children into service, paying them to go in their children’s place.”

Fan Yaonan, with a cry of “Hey, brother,” interrupted the Headmaster and said:

“This is all a tragedy stemming from our policies. The people of Xinjiang are being sacrificed to the Honorable General Yang’s policy of keeping them in a state of ignorance. So tell me, is there any public school that teaches in local ethnic students’ native language, or a course preparing teachers to teach at such a school?! No! Even if exceptional figures among the local people, say, people like Mäxsut Muhiti in Turpan and Abduqadir Damolla in Qäshqär, do something and open a new school, what slander does our government not stick to them?! What inconveniences do they not pass along? What’s more, where’s the use in splitting up Uyghurs who’ve studied in Chinese-language xuetang to be translators in governors’ offices? From what I hear, Uyghurs say ‘The only thing worse than the governor is his translator.’ This saying didn’t come from nothing. So, why wouldn’t they get their children interested in learning! Alright, let’s leave it at that and come to our own work. Have all of the invitations to the ceremony been distributed completely?”

“Yes.”

“And that business, is everything in place?”

“Every matter is in place. I ask that His Excellency the Mayor be reassured.”

“May God will it. Today is Saturday, and tomorrow is Sunday. May the God of Heaven grant that this Sunday come to be an unforgettable day in history!”

After they had whispered with each other for another short while, Fan Yaonan returned to his own house and, after lunch, having arrived of his own volition at a desire to see Tahirbäg, came again to that garden courtyard.

Tahirbäg was renting some rooms in this courtyard. When he told Fan Yaonan the news that Mäxsut Muhiti was, too, in Ürümchi, Fan Yaonan immediately invited him to call Muhiti over, as well. So, the three of them sat for some hours, conversing happily while drinking a little tea. In the course of the conversation, Fan Yaonan’s eye came to alight once again on that photograph on the wall. That photograph, taken at the conclusion of the Xinhai Revolution, on the First of January, 1912, when for the first time a republic was founded in China, was a souvenir photograph of the Sun Zhongshan, elected to the office of President, with his minority ethnic delegates. Since Tahirbäg had been the head of this delegation, in the picture, he sat next to Sun Zhongshan.

Looking at the picture, Fan Yaonan said:

“I’m seeing this picture in your house for the third time, and each time I look at it, I become awash in different impressions. You were the first among the Uyghurs to visit Mr. Sun Zhongshan, and you must have been the first Uyghur Mr. Sun Zhongshan had ever seen. Isn’t that right?”

“Indeed,” said Tahirbäg. “I, too, whenever I see this picture, I remember Mr. Sun Zhongshan with deep respect. But I feel terribly regretful that his promises to us were never fulfilled.”

“You’re right,” said Fan Yaonan. “According the Republic’s program, our Mr. Sun didn’t put his heart into realizing local autonomy for minority ethnic groups, developing the economy, and causing education to bloom.”

“I think,” said Mäxsut Muhiti, interrupting, “when people like General Yang are at the head of a regime, though Sun Yat-sen may be fated to live to be a hundred, realizing his ideals would be impossible. This is because, wherever a stone lies on the road, it will eventually be an obstacle to the cart.”

Fan Yaonan, listening with care to his words said with slightly broken Chinese pronunciation, suddenly came to life, as though he had found something in his soul:

“You’re both absolutely right. You’re right,” he said, patting Mäxsut Muhiti on the shoulder.

“From what I hear from some people,” said Tahirbäg, howling a little, “General Yang wants to say that he is waiting to make Xinjiang an inseparable part of the Republic of China, and that, without him, this will be difficult – that, otherwise, it will be like the land was taken and run off with by thieves. Speaking in moderation, this may be true, but, if the man who was Xinjiang’s General hasn’t kept a tight hold on this land, if it is stolen, then, Yang Zengxin, no longer a tyrannical warlord, would end up having to sell the land, of course! That would be no bad crime against humanity!”

Fan Yaonan, hearing these words, became even more lively, holding Tahirbäg’s hand and saying, “Excellent opinion, excellent opinion.” He wanted to say something, but swallowed the words that come and stood on the tip of his tongue and turned to the bookshelves. The bookshelves were full of all manner of books in Chinese and in Russian, as well as those printed in the presses of Tashkent, Qazan, and Istanbul. On the oval table before the window with a few journals lay some issues of Pravda, Qizil Özbekistan, and Dagongbao, printed in Tianjin.

>> Read Chapter 1, Part 3…