Journey To The West Research Articles

Demon-Immortal Monkey: Categories of Being in the Cosmos of Journey to the West

A little-studied aspect of the Monkey character 孫悟空 (Sun Wukong) in Wu Cheng'en's 吳承恩 Xiyou ji 西遊記 (Journey to the West) is his identity in terms of category of being, that is, how he fits into and rebels against the cosmic system of the ranking and classifying of beings that governs the novel. He is a human-like monkey, who is also an aspiring immortal, who was once a miscreant demon, who moreover never completely sheds his demon-like behavior. Journey to the West pays particular attention to the taxonomy of beings, which therefore needs a more detailed examination than has appeared so far, including a look at the lists of categories that Journey to the West applies. A deep sense of category envy and species rivalry courses through the novel, which underlies both the conflicts that Monkey initiates and the ones he meets head on. Two types of being, immortal (xian 仙) and demon (yao 妖), are in special need of unfolding. Originating in ancient times, they remain as expansive and malleable as ever in Journey to the West, in which Monkey alternates between the two even after his subjugation.

How Should the Dragon King Memorialize the Jade Emperor? Margins of Political Thought in Late Ming China

A vast array of “vernacular” novels from late imperial and modern China feature well-edited official documents such as decrees, edicts, and memorials. The present study argues that these long-overlooked official documents offer unique access to creative political ideas that would otherwise be inaccessible to us. Using Xiyou ji 西遊記 (The Journey to the West) as a case study, this article initiates a critical dialogue between histories of documents, print culture, knowledge dissemination, vernacular novels, and political thought. The study begins with an exposition of the Ming regulations governing the formatting and representation of official documents. Tracing how the civil service examinations familiarized the reading public with documentary formatting, it then details how anonymous producers of various editions of the novel problematized the emperor's two bodies on documentary margins. It concludes by providing examples from Manchu manuscripts and Lu Xun's novels, suggesting that the methods explored here may be applied to further studies beyond Sinitic texts and the late imperial period.

Lady White Bone: The Making of a Monstress

Lady White Bone, a demon from the sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji 西遊記), has grown into one of the most celebrated femme fatales in popular imagination. This paper explores the formation of this monster as a gendered skeleton and its association with the dead body. Contextualizing this character in a broadly defined genre of skeleton fantasy, I investigate her lineage in a textual network of literature and religion, focusing on zhiguai 志怪 (accounts of anomalies) short stories and the Buddhist meditation “White Bone Contemplation” (baigu guan 白骨觀), which in turn, leads to the notion of “beauty is white bone” (meiren baigu 美人白骨), a highly gendered rendering of the Buddhist notion “form is void” (se ji shi kong 色即是空). To study the creation and development of this dazzling undead is to examine how women are posed as danger in various traditions, and to understand how this character continues to fascinate readers and viewers centuries after its creation.

Loss and Deformation: Views on Women in Xiyou Ji’s Cross-cultural Journey. A Case Study of Waley’s English translation Monkey

Xiyou Ji ( Voyage vers l’ouest ) relate la véritable histoire du voyage de Hsuan-tsang (Tripitaka) en Inde à la recherche des Saintes Écritures, et l’histoire elle-même ne peut se passer de la communication et de la diffusion interculturelles. Xiyou Ji crée une série de personnages féminins uniques : des femmes mortelles, des enchanteresses et des déesses, qui jouent un rôle indispensable dans le développement de l’histoire. Cependant, dans la traduction anglaise de Waley, Monkey , qui est la plus largement répandue et acceptée en Occident, ces images féminines ne peuvent échapper au destin in « absentia » dans le voyage interlinguistique et interculturel, et les images et les points de vue culturels traditionnels chinois sur les femmes qu’elles véhiculent ou impliquent sont « perdus » ou « déformés ».

Lust, Caution, and Enlightenment


 
 
 The formation of the character of Sun Wukong has remained one of the most controversial issues in the field of Xiyou ji studies. While acknowledging that different strands might have fed into the image of Sun Wukong in the sixteenth- century novel Xiyou ji (Journey to the West), this paper calls attention to complex and sometimes contradictory representations of Sun Wukong’s sexuality and explores the mechanism of displacement that subtly operates in the novel and reveals itself through such representations. It further demonstrates the dual function performed by the displacement of Sun Wukong’s sexuality: on the one hand, it connects Sun Wukong to the image of the lustful ape in the white ape tradition; on the other hand, such displacement allows him to utilize and transcend his desire by experiencing the process of awakening to kong 空 by means of se 色 on his path to enlightenment. Therefore, a reexamination of Sun Wukong through the lens of sexuality helps draw together these two seemingly separate aspects and reveals a narrative in which Sun Wukong’s sexual desire not only encodes his hidden past associated with the white ape tradition but also generates significant meaning in light of the Buddhist context, that is, the notion that erotic encounters and fulfillment of sexual desire can be integrated into the Buddhist journey to enlightenment.
 
 

Bringing the Monkey King to the World

By the end of 1930s, Waley had already established his reputation as a sinologist and an outstanding translator of Chinese poetry. Under what circumstances did Waley decide to translate the novel Xiyou ji into English? How does Monkey connect to social and literary realities during his time? If we follow Pascale Casanova’s application of Abram de Swaan’s “floral figuration” to her discussion on the literary world, how is this Chinese novel of the periphery linked to the center through Waley’s translation and other “cosmopolitan intermediaries”? Furthermore, if world literature, as David Damrosch proposes, is “an elliptical refraction of national literatures,” in what ways does Monkey respond to the tension between the receiving culture and its national context? By addressing those questions, this paper seeks to demonstrate Waley’s multiple relationship with Xiyou ji and highlight various factors that contribute to the canonization of the novel in a larger space of world literature.

Review of <em>The Journey to the West</em>, Vol. 1, Translated and edited by Anthony C. Yu

This is a critical review of volume 1 of the 2012 revised translation of the classical Chinese vernacular novel Xiyou ji (The Journey to the West) by the late Dr. Anthony Yu (1938 - 2015), former Professor Emeritus in Humanities and in the Divinity School at The University of Chicago. It represents the first of four volumes of a thorough overhaul of the first edition, published originally from 1977 to 1983; this complete edition in 4 volumes and almost 1,900 pages (including extensive introduction, endnotes and index) appeared simultaneously on December 17, 2012. It is a result of the translator’s lifetime engagement with the novel, as well as his expertise in religious studies and comparative literature.

Lust, Caution, and Enlightenment: A Reexamination of Su Wukong's Sexuality in <em>Xiyou ji</em>

Lust, Caution, and Enlightenment: A Reexamination of Su Wukong's Sexuality in <em>Xiyou ji</em>

Journeys to the West: Travelogues and Discursive Power in the Making of the Mongol Empire

Abstract Before the Mongol conquest in 1279, numerous envoys were sent from the Southern Song court to its neighboring states. Their purpose was to evaluate and tame foreign territories and alien peoples and thereby reduce their threat to Song culture, and the travelogues resulting from these journeys were often “utilitarian” in style. The Record of the Perfected Master Changchun's Journey to the West (Changchun zhenren xiyou ji 長春真人西遊記), however, deserves special attention for its nuanced handling of a complex cultural-political power dynamics. Its compiler, Li Zhichang, was a leader in the Quanzhen sect, and his travelogue documents the journey of his master, Qiu Chuji, at the invitation of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan. Li's text illustrates the tension of competing political and cultural authorities: while the Mongols were becoming the source of political authority, the Taoists still owned the discursive power. The author argues that Li deliberately adopted a narrative strategy that conceded the Mongol claim to political legitimacy while simultaneously asserting Taoism's cultural dominance over the Mongols. The article also juxtaposes Li's work with the travel record by Yelü Chucai, a Khitan adviser to the Mongols who traveled with Chinggis Khan during his western military expeditions. Although Yelü's travelogue is often read as a rebuttal to Li Zhichang's work, a closer look reveals how Yelü appropriated Li's strategy for his own agenda: to justify Mongols' invasion of Central Asia while highlighting the cultural values shared between the Mongols and the Han Chinese. Both works employ rhetorical strategies that laid the foundation for political discourse affirming the Mongol-Yuan dynastic legitimacy.

Taming the Monkey

This article challenges common assumptions about the history and function of the classic Chinese novel the Xiyou ji, arguing that it served an important ritual and liturgical function before and after it was reconceived as a work of secular literature. The novel is considered from two related perspectives. The first is the early history of its European and North American translations. Arthur Waley’s celebrated abridgment marked an important turning point in a long tradition of interpreting the novel for a Western audience. Prior to Waley, most translators remarked – with either curiosity or exasperation – on the novel’s influence on popular religious practice and belief. Following Waley, however, the novel was consistently portrayed as a work of fiction, and its religious imagery was downplayed or dismissed as inconsequential. The second perspective explored here is that of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Chinese reformers who sought to enlist the Xiyou ji in their vision of a new, modern, and secular China. The efforts of these intellectuals and officials, influenced to a degree by Western missionaries and scholars, effectively transformed the Xiyou ji into work of secular, entertaining fiction.

In Memory of Oldřich Král

IN MEMORY OF OLDŘICH KRÁL LUCIE OLIVOVÁ Oldřich Král (1930–2018) was a student of Jaroslav Průšek and a member of the strong generation of sinologists which this celebrated scholar educated in Prague after 1950. As the most prolific of Průšek’s students, Král left an enduring oeuvre in the field of the history of Chinese literature, comparative literature, and translation. While still dependent on the guidance of his teacher Průšek, like his fellow students Král was engaged with modern literature, and consequently translated Ba Jin’s 巴金 Family (Jia 家) and Mao Dun’s 茅盾 The Shop of the Lin Family (Lin jia puzi 林家鋪子). From then on, however, he turned to classical philosophy and literature, which he considered the core of Chinese culture. In his doctoral dissertation, he analyzed Rulin waishi 儒林外史 and also published his findings in English.1 It needs to be said, however, that the majority of his theoretical work was written in Czech. He also published the full Czech translation of this novel in 1962. This was something new. Before him, from the field of literary prose, only Laocan youji 老殘遊記 and Fusheng liuji 浮生六記 had been translated in full, both by Průšek during the war. By this time, there appeared also Shuihu zhuan 水滸傳 and Xiyou ji 西遊記, translated from the shortened versions which sometimes are more appreciated by the readers. However, Král’s endeavor always was translations of the complete original texts. He became an assistant professor at the Chinese Department of Charles University, Prague, and being on his own, plunged into early medieval literature and literary theory. What he covered is restated in another English study2 which may seem superseded in some respects today, but in those times was a major step opening this domain. Consequently, he compiled and translated the anthology Tao: the Book of Silence, comprising extracts from Laozi, Zhuangzi, the seven masters of the bamboo grove, Lu Ji’s Wenfu, Wang Wei, Tao Qian, and many more. This anthology captures the very special poetics of ancient Chinese writings and was published three times (1971, 1994, 2016). Meanwhile, he completed his Habilitation thesis on Wenxin dialong 文心雕龍 and was about to submit it, expecting academic promotion. Then came the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia, the aftermath of which shattered society and caused thousands to lose their jobs. Průšek, Král and other sinologists were among them. Král’s study of Wenxin diaolong had to wait 30 years before it was published as an introduction to the complete Czech translation in 2000. Král had supported the regime, but “woke up” after 1968 and would not yield. He had to leave his post and his career plummeted. At first, he was only able to get a 1 For example, “Several Artistic Methods in the Classic Chinese novel Ju-lin wai-shih,” Archív Orientální 32 (1964): 16–34. 2 “Miscellaneous Writings on Chinese Aesthetics,” in Charles University on Far Eastern Culture: Studies and Essayes, ed. Oldřich Král and Vlasta Hilská (Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 1968), pp. 31–42. CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 37. 2 (December 2018): 190–191© The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2019 DOI 10.1080/01937774.2019.1596056 manual job at a large train depot. One year later, life took an unexpected turn, and he became a curator at the Asian Arts Department of the National Gallery. This was only possible thanks to the great courage and risk undertaken by his new employers. It was there that he undertook his massive translations, although he could not publish officially. As the saying goes, his work could only be piled up in the drawer of his writing desk. His translations of the Yijing 易經, The Platform Sutra of the 6th Patriarch (Liuzu tanjing 六祖壇經), Zhuangzi 莊子, Sunzi 孫子, and other works were only published during the 1990s, after the Communist regime fell. There was one exception; an anthology of Tang tales (chuanqi 傳奇) was published in 1980 under an apocryphal translator’s name. Such imposture became practiced in those times, but it was a dangerous practice for the person who lent his name. Translating chuanqi was the gate through which Král...

Contents ZHENG He's Voyages to the West and the “Kylin Diplomacy” in the Ming Dynasty

Contents ZHENG He's Voyages to the West and the “Kylin Diplomacy” in the Ming Dynasty

Time travel and chronotope: The Lost Empire and The Forbidden Kingdom as adaptations of Journey to the West

This essay examines two examples of contemporary adaptations of the Chinese classic Journey to the West (Xiyou Ji) in American popular media: the 2001 NBC TV mini-series The Lost Empire and the 2008 Hollywood film The Forbidden Kingdom. This analysis applies Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of literary chronotope to the study of cross-genre and cross-media adaptations, and explores the relationship between chronotope and adaptation. Following a brief overview of the major chronotopic features of the original text Journey to the West, focusing on the contrast of the “biological time” of Tripitaka and the “magical time” of the Monkey King, an analysis of time travel in the two adaptations demonstrates the significant changes that these adaptations have made by means of altering the chronotope, additionally explicating the orientalist and imperialist logic of such changes. This study represents an argument for the value of the chronotopic approach in the study of cross-cultural and cross-media adaptations.

Wordless Texts, Empty Hands: The Metaphysics and Materiality of Scriptures in Journey to the West

Why are the pilgrims given empty scriptures in the final chapters of Journey to the West ? Prevailing interpretations read it as a transparent joke. This article instead proposes that the final chapters of the novel should be read as an extended allegorical commentary on the Heart Sūtra . The metaphysics of the empty scriptures and the materiality of the fragmented scriptures deliberately correspond to the Heart Sūtra ’s duality of emptiness and form, a duality that is ultimately dissolved in the Buddhist paradox of expressing nonduality through linguistic means. Xiyou ji , and in fact Buddhism at large, suggests that all texts—whether they be scriptures or literary fiction—are necessary yet insufficient vehicles in the pursuit of ultimate truth. Texts are only instrumental; the proverbial raft that must be discarded once the river to enlightenment has been crossed. 摘要: 本文將《西遊記》的結局作為《般若心經》的託寓來解讀，分析小說如何 以無字天書的的形而上學的內涵來闡述心經中色與空之間虛妄的雙對性。《西遊 記》指出，在追尋絕對真義的過程中，文本只不過是一個工具而已。这一道理无 异于佛法的基本教義。

The Journey to the West ed. by Anthony C. Yu (review)

(or rereading) of Topley’s lucid and brilliantly descriptive essays is recommended for anyone who has a serious interest in the practice of Chinese religion. JAMES L. WATSON Harvard University ANTHONY C. YU, trans. and ed., The Journey to the West. Revised edition. 4 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. xx, 552 pp., ISBN 978-0-22697132 -2 (vol. 1); xvi, 410 pp., ISBN 978-0-226-97134-6 (vol. 2); xvi, 422 pp., ISBN 978-0-226-97137-7 (vol. 3); xvi, 428 pp., ISBN 978-0-226-97139-1 (vol. 4). US$27.00 per vol. (pb). Among the earliest long prose narrative texts in Chinese that are considered to be novels are a series having to do with gods and monsters that appeared late in the Ming period. Probably the first, and certainly the most challenging, is Xiyou ji 西遊 記, generally known in English as Journey to the West. Many of these novels seem to be less than serious despite the unquestioned religious status of their central characters, among them Guanyin 觀音 (the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokite svara), Mazu 媽祖 (Tianhou 天后 or Empress of Heaven, patron goddess of fishermen and seafarers), and the Daoist Eight Immortals 八仙; they are more often adventure tales than morality texts. By contrast, in addition to humor and adventure, generations of commentators have consistently found profound religious teachings in Journey to the West, and yet over the last century the novel has often been considered a ‘‘folk novel’’ and a humorous tale meant for the amusement of children. Only in recent decades have the novel’s ubiquitous references to Buddhist and Daoist concepts again been taken seriously, but few modern readers are sufficiently scholarly in the lore of both religions to plumb their significance. Anthony C. Yu 余國藩 is a rare exception. Yu published his first complete translation of the text between 1977 and 1983. At the time it was remarkable for its innumerable scholarly notes: they explained historical, religious, philosophical, and literary references, discussed matters of characterization and structure, and drew attention to stylistic matters. No Chinese text available then had anything like that degree of explanatory commentary, making his Journey to the West an essential aid for understanding Xiyou ji even if one could easily read the original. Professor Yu’s translation was a work of tremendous ability and enthusiasm, but in small ways it also appeared to be the product of haste, a rush to finish an enormous undertaking—for the translator but even more for the Press. The fourvolume set was widely recognized as a tremendous accomplishment, meriting a slightly revised printing that corrected some of the typographical errors that bedeviled the first. Now Professor Yu, recently retired from the University of Chicago, has spent years revising every page. Significantly, the old standard WadeGiles Romanization scheme has been converted to the far more widely read Hanyu pinyin in order to facilitate its use in the classroom. What was originally an erudite introduction has been further expanded to incorporate thirty years of active scholarship on the novel in Chinese, Japanese, English, French, and German. But the real contribution here is the incomparable effect of three decades of Professor Yu’s own reading and reflection on the text, its contexts, and its meanings. The result is 134 BOOK REVIEWS both an academic tour-de-force and a literary milestone: now readers of all levels of preparation can appreciate the complexity of the original in a style of English that is both complex and colloquial, engaging, and thus far more directly comparable to the rich and varied language of the original than was Yu’s earlier Journey to the West. Surely this revised edition is the crowning glory of a highly productive scholarly career, an event to be celebrated and a text worthy of very wide reading. Professor Yu’s Introduction takes up 96 pages of volume 1. It begins with a biographical sketch of the historical monk whose name is given to a protagonist here, Xuanzang 玄奘 (596?–664): in 627 he secretly left Tang 唐 on his own, an act of treason, to travel widely through Central Asia and far into the Indian subcontinent on a personal quest to learn whether Buddha nature was...

Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500–1700 by Jimmy Yu (review)

messages of the text, the time the text allows us to escape from mundane realities into the fictional world of philosophy and humor. And of course the Monkey King’s quest, from its early pages through chapter 100, is to escape time, to evade mortality. We can only laugh as we confront the novel’s deep truths. Journey to the West thus functions simultaneously as diversion for the reader and as ongoing sermon on mental self-discipline and the nature of human experience. Part IV of Yu’s Introduction addresses the allegorical and symbolic aspects of characters and situations in the novel. Here the reader can appreciate Professor Yu’s encyclopedic command of relevant primary and secondary writings; his essay serves effectively as a comprehensive survey of Xiyou ji studies. Highly learned in both religious lore and literary traditions, Yu’s erudition is obvious throughout the Introduction and the 125 pages of notes to the first volume. (The other three volumes have between 20 and 24 pages of notes each.) Likewise, the breadth of his reading is visible in his insightful references to Hebrew, Hindu, and early Buddhist intellectual traditions for comparisons. Senior scholars of Chinese religions will appreciate his lucid and carefully considered explanations, as will students and comparativists. Reading the revised translation is a delight. Yu’s style of language here is concise, crisp, and immediately comprehensible. For example, in his earlier version Professor Yu translated the title of chapter 1, 靈根育孕源流出 心性修持大道生, as ‘‘The divine root being conceived, the origin emerges; /The moral nature once cultivated, the Great Tao is born.’’ His revision reads, ‘‘The divine root conceives, its source revealed; /Mind and nature nurtured, the Great Dao is born.’’ Even when clarity is not enhanced, concision is much more common in the revised version. The second half of the title for chapter 25, 孫行者大鬧五莊觀, in the first edition reads, ‘‘Pilgrim Sun causes great disturbance at the Temple of Five Villages’’; the revised edition reads, simply, ‘‘Pilgrim Sun greatly disturbs Five Villages Abbey.’’ What conveyed information before now delights as well; throughout the text, Yu’s revised version exemplifies what translation can be in the hands of a true master of the craft. In sum, this new translation provides a signal service, especially to students. It reveals all the joys of a great story well told in a format that provokes rereading to relish its language as well as its images and plot, while providing the information needed for the specialist to appreciate its compiler’s deep knowledge of Chan 禪 Buddhism and Quanzhen 全真 Daoism. The result is a truly enjoyable read that provokes contemplation at every turn. Its intellectual depth—and its stylistic sophistication—demand consideration of Journey to the West as one of the world’s greatest works of religious literature. ROBERT E. HEGEL Washington University, St. Louis JIMMY YU, Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500–1700. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. xiv, 272 pp. US$29.95, £18.99 (pb). ISBN 978-0-19-984490-6 Jimmy Yu begins this book with two striking anecdotes: a filial son saves his father by sending the emperor a message written in blood, and a Buddhist cleric sets himself on fire, promising his public that their prayers to him will henceforth be 136 BOOK REVIEWS rewarded by rain. Neither of these deeds fits neatly into the conventional understanding of Confucian or Buddhist tradition, and that is Yu’s point: his project is to show how bodily mortification in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries worked as a language of its own, cutting across religions and traditions to empower performers in an era of rapid social change. Drawing on ‘‘a combination of ritual studies and discourse analysis of different genres of texts, including miracle tales, official history, popular novels, literary essays, local gazetteers, and exemplary narrative’’ (p. 17), Yu treats four kinds of ‘‘self-inflicted violence’’: blood writing, ‘‘filial slicing’’ (feeding and curing an ailing parent with one’s own flesh), the suicide or de-eroticizing self-mutilation of young women resisting rape or remarriage, and the exposure or immolation of one’s body to call down rain. Yu explores the religious roots of all four practices, but argues...

Daoist Cultivation in the Zhongnan Mountains

193 Daoist Cultivation in the Zhongnan Mountains GERHARD MILBRAT & KNUT GOLLENBECK The Zhongnan mountains 鍾南山, southwest of Xi’an, are a major center of Daoism. Not only do they contain the place where Laozi transmitted the Daode jing, but the area also brought forth the Longmen lineage 龍門 派 of the school of Complete Perfection (Quanzhen dao 全真道) with its particular combination of Daoist thought, ways of nourishing life, and internal alchemy. For over a thousand years, wise men, hermits, monks, priests, and healers have lived in this Daoist holy land, inspired by its heritage and inspiring their followers. Master Li Jiacheng 李佳诚, a 22nd gen‑ eration Longmen Daoist, is one of the key figures there today. Receiving Daoist in‑ struction from childhood, he finds himself increasingly in the public eye, especially in his spread of the esoteric practices of Jin Dan Dao 金丹道(Golden Elixir Dao‑ ism). The abbot of a small yet ancient temple called Anle gong 安樂宮(Palace of Peace and Happiness), his work centers on self‑cultivation, Daoist medicine, espe‑ cially qigong treatments, and meditation. He is creating a new dimension of Daoist practice today. 194 / Journal of Daoist Studies 6 (2013) The Zhongnan Mountains Southern Shaanxi is divided east to west by a mountain range approxi‑ mately a thousand miles long, known as the Qinling range 秦嶺山. Its mountains form a natural barrier and create a watershed between north and south china. Blessed by a rich flora and fauna as well as ample de‑ posits of jade, gold, and other metals and minerals, the peaks reach up to 9000 feet: the main summit is Mount Taibai 太白山 at 11,300 feet (3767 m). The foothills of the Qinling range begin about thirty miles southwest of Xi’an, to rise from there into a lesser range known as the Zhongnan mountains. Ranging for a length of over 150 miles, they contain many Daoist centers and have housed innumerable hermits over the millennia (see Porter 1993). Many important masters lived and practiced here. Laozi transmit‑ ted his philosophy here, at Louguantai 樓觀台, on his emigration to the west. Wang Chongyang 王重陽(1113‑1170), the founder of Complete Per‑ fection, began his ascetic career here before venturing into Shandong to spread his teachings. The Xiyou ji 西遊記 (Journey to the West) has Faxian stop first at the Jinxian guan 金仙觀 (Temple of the Golden Im‑ mortal) with its terraces dating back to the Han. Jinxian guan Milbrat & Gollenbeck, “Daoist Cultivation” / 195 The temple is, moreover, the root location of Korean Daoism: a Korean monk 金可记 reached immortality here before bringing Daoism to his homeland. Today Daoism is increasingly popular in China, in the various areas of religion, health enhancement, and tourism. Many temples are being restored and expanded. In the Zhongnan mountains, these include espe‑ cially the Yuquan yuan 玉泉院 (Jade Spring Monastery) at the foot of Mount Hua, the Zongsheng guan 宗聖觀 (Monastery of the Ancestral Sage), occupying several hectares of a new Daoist Culture Area near Longuantai, and the Danyang guan 丹陽觀 (Monastery of Ma Danyang), about twenty miles west of Louguantai, where the Complete Perfection master Ma Yu 馬鈺 (aka Danyang; 1123‑1183) worked. Danyang guan The Chinese government supports this expansion, encouraging Daoist groups to restore historic areas and develop new, modern facili‑ ties such as spas, hospitals, and sanatoria, which increasingly make use of Daoist methods of life cultivation. This overall development is also affecting smaller and lesser known temples. Among them is particularly the Anle gong, in the early middle ages founded as a Buddhist temple by the name of Baoning si 寶寧寺 196 / Journal of Daoist Studies 6 (2013) (Monastery of Treasuring Peace). It became a Daoist temple in the early years of Complete Perfection, when Qiu Chuji 邱處機 (aka Changchun 長 春; 1148‑1227), the senior and most famous of the founder’s disciples, settled nearby on Mount Longmen. Anle gong Its name derives from Prince Anle, the third son of emperor Yang Jian 楊 堅, the first emperor of Sui Dynasty. After many years of war, wished his son to grow up in “peace and happiness” (anle). The temple honors all major Chinese religions: its main hall has a stone statue of the Buddha in the center, with Confucius and Lord Lao on his right and left. Surrounded by mountains covered with pine trees...

“Cloud-Transcending Crossing” (“Lingyun Du”) or “The Great Revenge of Blue Snake” (“Qingshe da Eaochou”), the Second and Final Installment of a Chengdu Shadow Play Script, Thunder Peak Pagoda ( Leifeng Ta )

``CLOUD-TRANSCENDING CROSSING'' (``LINGYUN DU'') OR ``THE GREAT REVENGE OF BLUE SNAKE'' (``QINGSHE DA BAOCHOU''), THE SECOND AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF A CHENGDU SHADOW PLAY SCRIPT, THUNDER PEAK PAGODA (LEIFENG TA) FAN PEN CHEN State University of New York, Albany1 Translated below is the second of two installments (ben ,) of a most unusual version of the White Snake (Baishe }Ç) legend that comes from the shadow theater (piying xi ®q2) tradition of Chengdu, Sichuan. Although the whole play goes by a title, Thunder Peak Pagoda (Leifeng ta ÷ðT), that was used for versions of the story that tell how White Snake ended up under that pagoda as well as what happened afterward, this version of Thunder Peak Pagoda instead deals only with events after her con®nement under the pagoda. In the ®rst installment, White Snake's companion, Little Blue (Xiaoqing R),2 subdues a new character, Little Red (Xiaohong ), with whom she storms the Buddha's Western Paradise to exact revenge for White Snake in the second installment. The second installment of the play, which is also known under the titles of ``Cloud-Transcending Crossing'' (``Lingyun du'' Ìò!)3 and ``The Great Revenge of Blue Snake'' (``Qingshe da baochou'' RÇ'1Ç), is particularly intriguing because of the extended battle between the animal sprites (jing ¾)4 and Buddhist deities, the use of various ``sacred'' objects as weapons, the special effects, and the use of female 1 I would like to express my immense gratitude to the editor for his work on this article and to the anonymous reviewers for their valued comments. 2 Depending on context and usage, qing can refer to colors as varied as blue, green, or black. This is why the qing in the different forms of the White Snake's companion's name appear in English translation sometimes as ``blue'' and sometimes as ``green,'' and her stage costume can be either color. 3 Probably the most famous appearance of this crossing place (du !) across the river dividing the mortal world from the dwelling place of the Buddha is chapter 98 of the Ming novel, The Journey to the West (Xiyou ji 8), where only the Monkey King is willing to think about making the crossing and so the Tang Monk and his disciples end up getting ferried across the river. 4 Jing are animals (or sometimes plants or even things) who have, by dint of extended selfcultivation , attained magic powers, including the ability to take on human form. CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 32.1 (July 2013): 30±71 # The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literatue, Inc. 2013 DOI: 10.1179/0193777413Z.0000000008 nudity as a weapon against Buddhist deities. It is because these features are of interest both in and of themselves and because of how they represent parts of the White Snake story not readily available elsewhere that this installment was chosen for translation here.5 Although all three of the snake spiritsÐWhite Snake, Blue Snake, and Red SnakeÐare defeated by the Buddhist forces, they are all also given the chance to gain enlightenment. Insofar as the tale demonstrates the subjugation of snake spirits by the Buddhist religion, this play also re¯ects the historical use of Buddhism to suppress snake deities and cults associated with them that proliferated among the native peoples of southern China. This introduction will explain the relationship between the snake spirits and Buddhist deities in the translated play through a discussion of the evolutions of both the legend of White Snake and the subjugation of snake cults. A synopsis of the ®rst installment of Thunder Peak Pagoda is also included. 5 The translation of the second installment below is based on the text given as an appendix to Jiang Yuxiang _‰e, Zhongguo yingxi - q2 (Chinese shadow theater; Chengdu: Sichuan renmin, 1992), pp. 315±30. The original of that text is described by Jiang (p. 330) as ``a manuscript produced from memory and edited'' (huiyi zhengli de chaoben Þ¶t„„,) by Chen Jiyu s|^, the sole surviving member at the time of the book's publication of Chunle yuan %, a famous shadow troupe in Chengdu during the 1920±1930s. Jiang says that Chen was over...

Ireland: From Racism without “Race” to Racism without Racists

The Irish have been relentlessly racialized in their diaspora settings, yet little historical work engages with “race” to understand Irish history on the island of Ireland. This article provides an interpretation of two key periods of Irish history—the second half of the sixteenth century and the period since 1996—through the lens of racialization. I argue that Ireland's history is exceptional in its capacity to reveal key elements of the history of the development of race as an idea and a set of practices. The English colonization of Ireland was underpinned by a form of racism reliant on linking bodies to unchanging hierarchically stacked cultures, without reference to physical differences. For example, the putative unproductiveness of the Gaelic Irish not only placed them at a lower level of civilization than the industrious English but it also authorizes increasingly draconian ways of dealing with the Irish populace. The period since 1996, during which Ireland has become a country of immigration, illustrates how racism has undergone a transformation into the object of official state policies to eliminate it. Yet it flourishes as part of a globalized set of power relations that has brought immigrants to the developing Irish economy. In response to immigration the state simultaneously exerts neoliberal controls and reduces pathways to citizenship through residence while passing antiracism legislation. Today, the indigenous nomadic Travellers and asylum seekers are the ones that are seen as pathologically unproductive. Irish history thus demonstrates that race is not only about color but also very much about culture. It also illustrates notable elements of the West's journey from racism without race to racism without racists.

The monkey & the monk: a revised abridgement of The journey to the West

The monkey & the monk: a revised abridgement of The journey to the West