The biggest story in Chinese literature this week is a book called Peace Mantra (or Peace Sutra, Classic of Peace—however you want to translate Ping’an Jing 平安经), written by He Dian 贺电, an officer with the Public Security Bureau in Jilin.

The South China Morning Post's Liu Zhen describes Peace Mantra like this: “The 336 pages of the book are covered only with variations of the sentence: ‘Let … be safe.’”

Let the train stations of China be safe

Let Beijing Station be safe, let Xi'an Station be safe, let Zhengzhou East Station be safe, let Shanghai Hongqiao Station be safe, let Hangzhou East Station be safe, let Guangzhou South Station be safe, let Nanjing South Station be safe, let Chengdu East Station be safe, let Beijing South Station be safe, let Tianjin West Station be safe, let Wuhan Station be safe, let West Kowloon Station be safe, let Hsinchu Station be safe.

An introduction explains: “The world needs peace. The nation needs stability. All industries require safety. The people yearn for tranquility.”

When news of the book and He Dian’s extensive promotion spread to social media, it was mocked and condemned. State media joined in with editorials.

It seems clear that there was some funny business. The book was priced at 299 RMB ($42 USD), which doesn’t sound that bad, but puts it at a price point about six or seven times what most books sell for. There were symposiums held to discuss it, and there were public readings.

And the possible corruption aside, some are sure that it has no literary merits:

Examining it from a serious literary perspective, Peace Mantra is a shoddy collection of scraps; it is absurd and mechanical, the "writing" closer to some form of abnormal performance art than literature. Literary esthetics are highly subjective, but a consensus has been reached about certain standards. Any "normal person" would quickly realize that Peace Mantra has no merits. Unfortunately many "intelligent people" are too absorbed in the world of officialdom to offer a genuine opinion. Those that praised Peace Mantra as a "transnational masterpiece" would have been the first in line to tell the Emperor that they loved his new clothes.

I’m sympathetic. It’s kind of tempting to see it as avant-garde officialdom poetry, or, yes, “abnormal performance art,” a sutra for stability maintenance theater… It does feel subversive, actually.

Some sections are more absurd than others.

Let each gender be safe

Let men be safe, let women be safe.

And a selection from my favorite section:

Let people of all ages be safe

Let newborns be safe, let one month olds be safe, let children who have reached 100 days be safe, let 1 year olds be safe, let 2 years olds be safe, let 4 years olds be safe, let 5 years olds be safe, let 6 years olds be safe, let 7 years olds be safe, let 8 years olds be safe, let 9 years olds be safe, let 10 years olds be safe, let 11 years olds be safe, let 12 years olds be safe, let 13 years olds be safe, let 14 years olds be safe, let 15 years olds be safe, let 16 years olds be safe, let 17 years olds be safe, let 18 years olds be safe, let 20 years olds be safe, let 21 years olds be safe, let 22 years olds be safe, let 23 years olds be safe, let 24 years olds be safe, let 25 years olds be safe, let 26 years olds be safe, let 27 years olds be safe, let 28 years olds be safe, let 29 years olds be safe...

It goes on like that.

It’s kind of a sweet idea, also, beyond that subversive reading. There are probably worse things being done by Public Security Bureau officials than selling bound New Age pamphlets praying for peace and tranquility at Tianjin West Station.

None of He Dian's superiors seem to agree now, though, even if some are on record as having approved the publication or praised it.

It's hard to say exactly how far the attack on him will go, but the book has been yanked from shelves and He Dian is under investigation.