Tun-huang Popular Narratives

The tales deal with both religious (mostly Buddhist) and secular themes, and make exciting and vivid reading.

Victor H. Mair (Author)

9780521039833, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 July 2007

340 pages
23.4 x 15.5 x 1.7 cm, 0.473 kg

Tun-huang Popular Narratives presents authoritative translations of four vernacular Chinese stories, taken from fragmentary texts usually referred to as pien-wen or 'transformation texts'. Dating from the late T'ang (618–907) and Five Dynasties (907–959) periods, the texts were discovered early last century in a cave at Tun-huang, in Chinese Central Asia. However, written down in an early colloquial language by semi-literate individuals and posing formidable philological problems, the texts have not been studied critically before. Nevertheless they represent the only surviving primary evidence of a widespread and flourishing world of popular entertainment during these centuries. The tales deal with both religious (mostly Buddhist) and secular themes, and make exciting and vivid reading.

List of illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1. ??riputra
2. Maudgaly?yana
3. Wu Tzu-hsü
4. Chang I-ch'ao
Usages and symbols
Notes on the texts
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]