Guang yi ji
The Guang yi ji, translated into English as the Great Book of Marvels, is a collection of Classical Chinese stories written in the eighth century by Tang dynasty author. Although the original manuscript is now lost, over three hundred stories are preserved in various texts from the late Tang and early Song dynasties.
Publication history
Dai Fu, who graduated as a jinshi in 757, wrote most of the entries in the Guang yi ji while he was working as a bureaucrat in Zhejiang in the 760s and 770s. Many of the stories are set in this time and place; Dai claimed to have either witnessed the recorded events himself or heard about them from other local officials. Some stories appear in earlier texts and may have been transcribed by Dai into his work.Like most other short story collections from the Tang dynasty, the original manuscript purportedly comprising twenty scrolls and around a hundred thousand characters is now lost. However, some three hundred stories are preserved in the Taiping guangji, while a few others can be found in reference books from the late Tang and early Song dynasties, such as the Suishi guangji or the Taiping yulan.
The undated preface for the Guang yi ji was written by Gu Kuang, who had become a jinshi at the same time as Dai. Gu received the stories from Dai's two sons after his death at the end of the eighth century. In the preface, Gu briefly recounts the history of what he calls zhiguai or "strange tales" and suggests that Dai's supernatural stories would be regarded by contemporary readers as being of the same genre as historical records. Gu's preface survives in a sixteenth-century reprint of the tenth-century anthology Wenyuan yinghua, while variants of it can be found it at least a couple of later texts.
Contents
The following is a summary of a select number of Guang yi ji entries that survive in the Taiping guangji, although their order in the original text is unknown."Xu Fu" first recounts the legend of the titular character, followed by a sick man's successful attempt to find him during the Kaiyuan era.
"Master Pupu" follows the titular Taoist immortal and his dispute with a Huainan official.
"Two Gentlemen Called Zhang and Li" concerns two Taoists who befriend one another at Mount Tai; one becomes an official, while the other attains immortality.
In "Liu Qingzhen", twenty tea merchants get lost and are led to Mount Wutai by a mysterious monk, who subsequently transports them to Mount Lu. There, one of the men eats a magic fungus and transforms into a crane; the remaining men return home, only to discover that they have been gone for twenty years.
A man is led by a pig to a group of immortals in "A Man of Mayang Village", while a group of rebels avoid being killed by dragons on an island but are caught and executed after suffering a shipwreck in "The Compassionate Immortal". "Old Wang" tells of a man's brief encounter with divine cranes.
"Immortal Li" narrates the unfortunate events after a widow's marriage to a disgraced deity. "Venerable Master Pan" introduces Mount Song and its Taoist guardians. In "Qin Women", an exiled monk encounters a group of women in the Yanmen Pass. "He Erniang" recalls the titular shoe weaver's retreat to Mount Luofu.
In "Bian Dongxuan", an octogenerian turns immortal after she consumes some boiled noodles. In "Zhang Lianqiao", a Taoist nun fails to ascend to heaven and lives for the rest of her life without food. "Fu Shentong" culminates in the An Lushan rebellion. A man is killed after doubting the power of the vajra in "The Vajra Figures of Wuzhou".
While awaiting execution, a prisoner in Chang'an recites the Diamond Sutra for forty days in "A Prisoner in Chang'an". The Diamond Sutra is mentioned in at least twenty-two other stories. In "Zhang Guo's Daughter", a deceased fifteen-year-old is brought back to life; she subsequently marries the man who dug her out of her grave.
Other extant Guang yi ji entries include but are not limited to "The Hermit of Mount Heng", "Chen Lipin", "The Master of the Three Cuts", "The Abbot of Longxing Monastery", "Chen Zhe", "Seng Daoxian", "Censor Zhang", "The Mount-Splitting Sword", "Metropolitan Graduate Li", "Yang Yuanying", "Su Pi's Daughter", "Ouyang the Thunder Defier", "The Purple Goat", "The Myrobalan", "A Tiger's Woman", "A Great Fish of the Southern Ocean", "A Great Crab of the Southern Ocean", and "The Lord of Tao Trims a Tongue".
Reception
Dutch sinologist J. J. M. de Groot, who translated thirty-five stories in the collection, remarked that the Guang yi ji "forms one of the most valuable sources for the study of Chinese folklore."Works cited
Category:Chinese prose texts
Category:8th-century Chinese books
Category:Tang dynasty literature
Category:Chinese short story collections
Category:Chinese anthologies
Category:Chinese mythology
Category:Chinese horror fiction