◆What can be depicted by setting the story in the Tang Dynasty

–You deal with Chinese history in your three published works (“The Man of Thunder”, “The Great Heaven”, and “Wings of Fire”), but I heard that you’re self-taught when it comes to Chinese history.

Chiba: Yes. I didn’t major in Chinese history at university, nor did I study classical Chinese professionally. But my love for it grew, and I decided to try writing while studying, even if it was reckless.

–What got you interested in China, Chinese history, and Chinese things?

Chiba: I think it all started when I was a child and saw the Taiwanese movie “The Taoist Ghost”, which features a monster called a jiangshi (laugh). I would draw the talismans that were stuck on the jiangshi’s face in my notebook. Later, when I was in elementary school, I read “The Harem Novel” by Kenichi Sakami, which won the first Japan Fantasy Novel Award, and I was shocked to see such an interesting world! I think I found the anime interesting, and then I got into the novels. I feel like that reading experience is directly connected to the present. Since then, I started to read more and more works related to China. For manga, I read Chinese fantasy manga such as Fujisaki Ryu’s “Hoshin Engi” and Watase Yuu’s “Fushigi Yuugi”, and for novels, Ono Fuyumi’s “Twelve Kingdoms” series.

When I was a university student, I got hooked on Miyagitani Masamitsu and Kitakata Kenzo. I read Miyagitani’s works so much that I memorized them. I majored in Japanese language and culture, but chose Chinese as my second foreign language, and studied abroad at Hunan University for just a few weeks while I was a student.

–Do you find Chinese history more interesting than Japanese history?

Chiba: I like Japanese history too. I especially love the Heian and Kamakura periods. But Chinese history has a stronger sense of otherworldliness to it, so maybe that’s why I’m even more drawn to it. As a writer, I’m the type who wants to use my imagination rather than depict a certain era precisely, so to be precise, I think I’m not a historical novelist but a period novelist, but more of a fantasy type.

–The main characters in “Shinrai no Hito,” which won the Matsumoto Seicho Prize, your second work “Daiten,” and your third work, “Karin no Tsubasa,” which is your new book, are all different, so they can be enjoyed individually, but they are all set in the Tang Dynasty. What is it about the Tang Dynasty that attracts you?

Chiba: First of all, the culture. It was a time when trade on the Silk Road was thriving, so the art and crafts of the time are very international and gorgeous. In fact, it has a deep connection with Japan. Exchanges were also carried out through Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty. The basis of Japan’s current administrative structure is also based on the legal codes and systems of the Tang Dynasty that were introduced at that time, so I feel a sense of affinity with that as well. That’s right, when I worked at the Ibaraki Prefectural Office, the first position I held was “chief clerk.” I knew the titles of positions such as section chief and chief, but I didn’t know what “chief” meant, so I looked it up and found that the name was in the Tang Dynasty’s official system. By the way, at the Ibaraki Prefectural Office, there was a system in which the personnel manager would check with the person when announcing a transfer, asking “Is this okay?” I wondered why they would go to the trouble of doing this, since there was no way they could say “no” even if they were asked, and it turns out that the Tang Dynasty had a similar system. It’s easier to let your imagination run wild than a setting in Japan, but the values ​​and social system are familiar to me… that’s also what I like about it.

–All three works are set during the An Lushan Rebellion. The Ritsuryo system was established, and under the reign of Xuanzong, the Tang Dynasty boasted cultural prosperity, but Xuanzong became infatuated with Yang Guifei, and bureaucrats committed fraud, causing political instability. That’s when the An Lushan Rebellion occurred. This is a rebellion in which An Lushan, the governor in charge of guarding the borders, and his close friend Shi Siming raised an army.

Chiba: That’s right. Speaking of my personal history, I was in elementary school during the bubble period, and I was job hunting during the so-called ice age. I experienced in real time how Japan fell from its heyday in an instant, so I can’t help but feel a connection between the period when the Tang Dynasty fell under Xuanzong’s rule and the “lost 30 years” I lived through. In Japan, there has been no civil war like the An Lushan Rebellion in these 30 years, but I think the people have been confused and angry about the stagnation of Japan. So I wanted to write about the atmosphere of the world today projected onto the Tang Dynasty.

–The An Lushan Rebellion lasted for several years. Some say it lasted seven years, others nine years.

◆What can be depicted by setting the story in the Tang Dynasty

–You deal with Chinese history in your three published works (“The Man of Thunder”, “The Great Heaven”, and “Wings of Fire”), but I heard that you’re self-taught when it comes to Chinese history.

Chiba: Yes. I didn’t major in Chinese history at university, nor did I study classical Chinese professionally. But my love for it grew, and I decided to try writing while studying, even if it was reckless.

–What got you interested in China, Chinese history, and Chinese things?

Chiba: I think it all started when I was a child and saw the Taiwanese movie “The Taoist Ghost”, which features a monster called a jiangshi (laugh). I would draw the talismans that were stuck on the jiangshi’s face in my notebook. Later, when I was in elementary school, I read “The Harem Novel” by Kenichi Sakami, which won the first Japan Fantasy Novel Award, and I was shocked to see such an interesting world! I think I found the anime interesting, and then I got into the novels. I feel like that reading experience is directly connected to the present. Since then, I started to read more and more works related to China. For manga, I read Chinese fantasy manga such as Fujisaki Ryu’s “Hoshin Engi” and Watase Yuu’s “Fushigi Yuugi”, and for novels, Ono Fuyumi’s “Twelve Kingdoms” series.

When I was a university student, I got hooked on Miyagitani Masamitsu and Kitakata Kenzo. I read Miyagitani’s works so much that I memorized them. I majored in Japanese language and culture, but chose Chinese as my second foreign language, and studied abroad at Hunan University for just a few weeks while I was a student.

–Do you find Chinese history more interesting than Japanese history?

Chiba: I like Japanese history too. I especially love the Heian and Kamakura periods. But Chinese history has a stronger sense of otherworldliness to it, so maybe that’s why I’m even more drawn to it. As a writer, I’m the type who wants to use my imagination rather than depict a certain era precisely, so to be precise, I think I’m not a historical novelist but a period novelist, but more of a fantasy type.

–The main characters in “Shinrai no Hito,” which won the Matsumoto Seicho Prize, your second work “Daiten,” and your third work, “Karin no Tsubasa,” which is your new book, are all different, so they can be enjoyed individually, but they are all set in the Tang Dynasty. What is it about the Tang Dynasty that attracts you?

Chiba: First of all, the culture. It was a time when trade on the Silk Road was thriving, so the art and crafts of the time are very international and gorgeous. In fact, it has a deep connection with Japan. Exchanges were also carried out through Japanese envoys to the Tang Dynasty. The basis of Japan’s current administrative structure is also based on the legal codes and systems of the Tang Dynasty that were introduced at that time, so I feel a sense of affinity with that as well. That’s right, when I worked at the Ibaraki Prefectural Office, the first position I held was “chief clerk.” I knew the titles of positions such as section chief and chief, but I didn’t know what “chief” meant, so I looked it up and found that the name was in the Tang Dynasty’s official system. By the way, at the Ibaraki Prefectural Office, there was a system in which the personnel manager would check with the person when announcing a transfer, asking “Is this okay?” I wondered why they would go to the trouble of doing this, since there was no way they could say “no” even if they were asked, and it turns out that the Tang Dynasty had a similar system. It’s easier to let your imagination run wild than a setting in Japan, but the values ​​and social system are familiar to me… that’s also what I like about it.

–All three works are set during the An Lushan Rebellion. The Ritsuryo system was established, and under the reign of Xuanzong, the Tang Dynasty boasted cultural prosperity, but Xuanzong became infatuated with Yang Guifei, and bureaucrats committed fraud, causing political instability. That’s when the An Lushan Rebellion occurred. This is a rebellion in which An Lushan, the governor in charge of guarding the borders, and his close friend Shi Siming raised an army.

Chiba: That’s right. Speaking of my personal history, I was in elementary school during the bubble period, and I was job hunting during the so-called ice age. I experienced in real time how Japan fell from its heyday in an instant, so I can’t help but feel a connection between the period when the Tang Dynasty fell under Xuanzong’s rule and the “lost 30 years” I lived through. In Japan, there has been no civil war like the An Lushan Rebellion in these 30 years, but I think the people have been confused and angry about the stagnation of Japan. So I wanted to write about the atmosphere of the world today projected onto the Tang Dynasty.

–The An Lushan Rebellion lasted for several years. Some say it lasted seven years, others nine years.

Chiba: It began in November of the lunar calendar in 755 and ended on New Year’s Day in 763. In historical terms, when even a few days change, it’s one year, so it’s nine years, but in terms of actual continuous years, I think it was about seven years and two months. During that time, the unstable situation continued.

よ。