Li Qiancheng and Robert E. Hegel (trans.): Further Adventures on the Journey to the West. Master of Silent Whistle Studio. xxxvii, 278 pp. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020. £30. ISBN 978 0 29574772 9.
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Authors
Ganany, Noga
Publication Date
2021-06Journal Title
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
ISSN
0041-977X
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Volume
84
Issue
2
Pages
412-413
Type
Article
This Version
AM
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Ganany, N. (2021). Li Qiancheng and Robert E. Hegel (trans.): Further Adventures on the Journey to the West. Master of Silent Whistle Studio. xxxvii, 278 pp. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020. £30. ISBN 978 0 29574772 9.. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 84 (2), 412-413. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x21000525
Abstract
Li and Hegel’s new translation of Xiyoubu makes a great contribution to the field of Chinese Studies not only for its masterful English translation of this seventeenth-century literary gem and its erudite introduction, but also for presenting the work with the various paratexts that accompanied its late-Ming edition. Qiancheng Li’s enlightening “Introduction” is followed by the (translated) preface, sixteen illustrations, and “Questions and Answers” essay that accompanied the main narrative in its 1641 edition. While Li and Hegel based their translation on the 1641 edition of The Further Adventures on the Journey to the West (thereafter Further Adventures), they also incorporated into Further Adventures two sets of commentaries from the 1641 and 1853 editions. By including these paratextual materials, Further Adventures intends to “reproduce as nearly as possible what readers encountered when they first read its Ming and Qing period imprints” (p. xxxv). This laudable decision renders Further Adventures a valuable resource for students and scholars of premodern Chinese literature, as it reflects publishing conventions and reading habits during the Ming and Qing dynasties, opening a window onto late-imperial book culture. Further Adventures also provides a bibliography and a useful overview of relevant scholarship and translations (including that by Shuen-fu Lin and Larry James Schulz, The Tower of Myriad Mirrors: a Supplement to Journey to the West (Ann Arbor, 2000)).
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x21000525
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/337998
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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