Excerpts from "The Distant Savior"
Self-Mockery
Originally a man from the back mountain, I happened to be a guest in the front hall.
Drunk, I danced through half a scroll in the sutra pavilion, and from a well-bottom I spoke of the vastness of the sky.
Grand ambitions made a game of fame, and the sea was the measure of fortune and misfortune.
When talk turns to the empty purse, I point angrily at Heaven and Earth for their mistakes.
This page contains selected excerpts from the novel The Distant Savior (遥远的救世主) by Doudou (豆豆), which was adapted into the TV drama Tiandao (天道). The excerpts are organized into nineteen sections covering key philosophical dialogues and plot points from the novel. The original Chinese text of these excerpts can be found on the Chinese version of this page.
Key themes explored in the excerpts include:
- Cultural attributes and destiny — Ding Yuanying's thesis that strong cultures produce the strong and weak cultures produce the weak
- The nature of salvation — the argument that there is no savior; salvation comes only through the Dao (the Way), through awakening, not through dependence
- Religion and philosophy — Rui Xiaodan's interrogation of criminal Wang Mingyang using insights from Christianity, Buddhism, and the concept of the "narrow gate"
- The dialogue at Wutai Mountain — Ding Yuanying's visit to Master Zhixuan, discussing Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and the distinction between strong and weak culture
- Killing the rich to help the poor — the ethical tensions in Ding Yuanying's poverty alleviation scheme, including the confrontation with Lin Yufeng of Music Saint Company
- The meaning of the inconceivable — that natural law does not wait for your deliberation; it simply is
The novel's central philosophical statement: "God is the Dao, the Dao is the law of nature, the law of nature is tathata (suchness) — it does not admit of your deliberation. The person who acts according to the law is God."