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Stephen Albert, the British scholar of Chinese culture Yu Tsun must kill to pass on his information, represents a culturally hybrid life beyond the narrowly defined and nationalistic world of Yu Tsun’s work as a spy. While Yu Tsun feels strictly constrained in his actions by the political realities of the war, in Stephen Albert he sees an example of an intellectual freedom that transcends national identity. Although Albert is English, he loves Asian culture and has devoted years of his life to understanding the work of Ts-ui Pên. Even that scholarship combines elements of both Asia and Europe, as his receipt of the letter from Oxford leads to his understanding the novel. His home, too, reflects the idea that deep understanding of the world requires looking beyond national borders. His English garden contains a Chinese pavilion. His library holds books and artifacts from Europe and Asia, including an ancient Chinese vase influenced by pottery from the Middle East. 

Borges depicts Albert as a wise man, the kind of guru found after a long journey. Yu Tsun finds Albert by following the children’s directions to take every turn towards the left, which he recognizes as the traditional instructions for finding the center of a maze. This literal journey from the train station is mirrored by the journey of Yu Tsun’s life, which has led him to this very moment. While Borges does not specify the precise series of decisions that have led Yu Tsun, born in China, to become a spy for Germany, a country and occupation he disdains, his life is a result of whichever choices he made and represents one unlikely outcome among many. This is an example of the story’s dominant imagery of paths forking from one another to create infinite possible realities. Albert’s life is just as unlikely as Yu Tsun’s. Yu Tsun compares him to a sailor and a priest, illustrating his sense of both wisdom and a broad knowledge of the world gained through journeys. He is an Englishman who has worked as a missionary in China and has arrived at this moment as both the one man who can help Yu Tsun complete his mission for Germany and the one man who can explain to Yu Tsun the meaning of his great-grandfather’s work.

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