Dongdu ji

Saomei dunlun Dongdu ji (掃魅敦倫東度記),[a] also known as Dongyouji (東遊記),[b] is a novel written in the Ming dynasty by Chinese author Fang Ruhao (方汝浩). Dongdu ji tells of two respected Buddhist monks—Burumiduo (不如密多) and Bodhidharma, who leads his three disciples from India to China to promote their religion. Described as a shanshu (善書) or "morality book", the novel was first published in 1635.

Contents

Written in vernacular Chinese,[4] the first eighteen chapters of Dongdu ji follow Venerable Burumiduo (不如密多尊者) as he rescues "the masses of lost people in Southern and Eastern India", while the rest of the novel's one hundred chapters revolve around Bodhidharma and his three disciples, as they journey from India to China to preach about Buddhism.[3] The novel's structure is modelled after that of Journey to the West.[1]

Publication history

The novel was first published in Suzhou in 1635,[5] during the twilight of the Ming dynasty.[1] Although Ming dynasty writer Fang Ruhao (方汝浩) is conventionally credited as the author of Dongdu ji,[2][3][6] French researcher Vincent Durand-Dastès alleges that the novel—which he describes as both a shanshu (善書) or "morality book" and an adventure novel—might instead have been written by the author of the 17th-century novel Sanjiao kaimi guizheng yanyi (三教開迷歸正演義) or The Romance of the Three Teachings.[6] Early editions of the text are housed in both the Peking University Library and the Jigendo Library in Japan.[2] The novel was translated into Korean under the title Dongyugi sometime in the nineteenth century, with a few surviving volumes now kept by the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences.[7] A partial French translation of Dongdu ji by Durand-Dastès was published in 2008 under the title La Conversion de l’Orient.[1]

Critical reception

Translator Vincent Durand-Dastès criticised the novel's "frequently ponderous style" and "simplistic plot structure", but acknowledged that it provided great insight into the cultural climate of the late Ming dynasty.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ Translated into English as The Cleansing of the Demons and Restoration of Proper Human Relationships, or The Record of the Conversion of the East.[1]
  2. ^ Translated into English as Mission to the East[2] or The Journey to the East.[3]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d Clart 2010, p. 134.
  2. ^ a b c McMahon 1988, p. 106.
  3. ^ a b c Liu 2008, p. 535.
  4. ^ Huntington 2020, p. 146.
  5. ^ Hegel 2009, p. 101.
  6. ^ a b c Clart 2010, p. 135.
  7. ^ Kim 2017, p. 61.

Bibliography

  • Clart, Philip (2010). "Review by Philip Clart of La Conversion de l'Orient". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 73 (1). Cambridge University Press: 134–135. doi:10.1017/S0041977X09990528. S2CID 163023782. Closed access icon
  • Hegel, Robert E. (2009). "La Conversion de l'Orient: Une pérégrination didactique de Bodhidharma by Vincent Durand-Dastès (review)". Journal of Chinese Religions. 37. Johns Hopkins University Press: 101–103.
  • Huntington, Rania (2020). Alien Kind: Foxes and Late Imperial Chinese Narrative. Brill. ISBN 978-1-68417-382-2.
  • Kim, Yeong (2017). "A Study on the Korean-translated Manuscripts Dongyugi Preserved at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences" 러시아 상트페테르부르크 동방학연구소에 소장된 번역필사본 ≪동유긔≫에 대한 고찰 [A Study of the Translated Manuscript Dongyugi held at the Institute for Eastern Studies in St. Petersburg, Russia]. Journal of Chinese Language and Literature (in Korean) (83). Chinese Literature Research Society: 61–81. doi:10.26586/chls.2017..83.003.
  • Liu, Yongqiang (2008). "The description concerning foreign affairs and exotic imagination in the fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties". Frontiers of Literary Studies in China. 2 (4): 531–560. doi:10.1007/s11702-008-0021-2. S2CID 195069900. Closed access icon
  • McMahon, Keith (1988). Causality and Containment in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Fiction. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-08545-9.
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