Nirvana: Oshu Fujiwara Dynasty's Theme (Behind All War is Selfish Ambition)
The Lord gave me the plot to Nirvana: Oshu Fujiwara Dynasty when I awakened this morning (June 21, 2019).
What I’ll be doing in Nirvana: Oshu Fujiwara Dynasty is connecting the outer, true story (what really happened to my ancestors) with an inner, fictional story (describing their emotional and spiritual growth as a result of these happenings).
THEME: Behind every war is someone’s selfish ambition and greed. https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/what-is-the-relationship-between-plot-and-theme/
Here is a video that inspired me as I thought for this book:
Nobody really knows what these characters were really thinking and feeling as they went through the happenings that ended up destroying this family’s reign. We can only venture an intelligent guess. So I will be exploring betrayal inside the family and how this affected the main characters (Yuan, given a Chinese name, a symbol that this royal child is out of place in her Japanese world) and Tsunekiyo Fujiwara (real name of a real person who lived). Nobody knows the name of Tsunekiyo’s wife who lived on after he died. The main reason for the fall of the Oshu Fujiwara dynasty was betrayal within the family. My protagonist (male lead) was very heroic and deeply spiritual. He was always concerned about doing the right thing, no matter the consequences. He married for love, kind of like a Romeo and Juliet type of romance, because his family and his wife’s family were at war with each other. The marriage brought him love, but at the cost of his life. He ordered his wife not to kill herself but to live on for the sake of their son, if he should die in battle. He dies in battle, heroically standing by his wife’s family, suffering a brutal, painful death as punishment. She ends up marrying the enemy in a forced marriage, the price she pays for “living on”. This is the only way she can stay alive. She has a son from this enemy marriage that she becomes attached to. But the son is evil and causes her to get off her path, where she ends up siding with her second son (from the enemy she married) against her first son (from her true love who died). But Jesus lets her into heaven, but when she gets there, she does not want to marry her first husband in heaven, feeling alienated against him for following his advice to stay alive, which forced her to marry the enemy. So that’s the germ of the story. The subplot will be the happenings that really happened to this family and will be deeply tied into the main plot which revolves around regrets and love. So the story question will be how can the protagonist (who valiantly died for his wife) convince his true love that he deserves to be her husband for eternity? Jesus will not force her to marry her true love. She has to learn by herself that he is her true love. I think this has the makings of a great story, while at the same time teaching my readers some much needed history about my ancestors.
The impact character will be Yoshiie no Minamoto, who opposed his father’s (Yoriyoshi no Minamoto) ruthless ambition and loved his enemies and desired peace. Yoriyoshi murdered Tsunekiyo for betrayal (usng a blunt sword to cut off his head slowly causing a very painful death). Though Yoshiie was a brilliant warrior, he was a peace lover at heart and his cruel father’s actions caused him much shame and hurt and though his battle exploits were responsible for the fall of the Abe clan at the beginning of the story, it was he who (later in life) befriended Yuan’s son and helped caused the Oshu Fujiwara dynasty to come into being. Yoshiie is considered one of the greatest warriors in Japanese history, one of the two most influential members of the Genji clan. https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/impact-character-2
I have done a tremendous amount of historical research for this novel.
Yuan will experience spiritual growth in heaven, and will also see some of those that died and went to hell, be given a reincarnation into heaven when they observe the fall of the Oshu Fujiwara dynasty and learn important lessons. I will be covering a period of time from about 1040 to 1190 A.D. (basically the entire time period of the Oshu Fujiwara dynasty). This is a family saga novel.
Though this story is from a long time ago, history seems to be repeating itself and much can be learned by those who learn what happened to my ancestors and why they fell and how it affected those involved. It’s basically a story about war and peace and the price we pay for choosing war over peace and the excuses we make for war that show us to value money, pride, vanity and fame over love and true honor.
https://www.writersstore.com/connecting-with-audiences-through-character-emotions
Copyright © 2019 Gail Chord Schuler. All Rights Reserved.