The Reflections on Fate in Inoue Yasushi’s Dunhuang

“The white riverbed” is the literary underpinning of the well-known Japanese poet and novelist Yasushi Inoue, and his concern for the theme of fate can be considered an extension of “the white riverbed”. Yasushi Inoue’s thoughts on fate originate from his personal experiences in his early years and his novels can be regarded as a projection of his personal experiences. In the story of Dunhuang, Yasushi Inoue’s Chinese-themed historical novel, the word “fate” is found everywhere. Also, the protagonist, Zhao Xingde, is not Yasushi Inoue himself, but is a shadow of him. Dunhuang has attracted a large number of readers from both China and Japan, not only because it evokes the readers’ rich imagination of the western regions of China, but also due to the sigh of fate this novel embodies.