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Outlaws of the Marsh: A Somewhat Less Than Critical Commentary
More Classical Chinese Literature
If after reading Outlaws of the Marsh you are interested in reading other works of
Classical Chinese Literature, then I have a few suggestions. These books are listed in terms
of how much I enjoyed them.
- Journey to the West by Wu Ch'êng-ên (1505-1580 A.D.)
This book details the travels of a monk, Tripitaka Tang, from China to India in the seventh century
to obtain Buddhist Scriptures and return them to the Emperor of China. The Bodhisattva Kuan-yin
sends three supernatural disciples to protect Tripitaka Tang along his journey. First and foremost
among these disciples is Monkey, the "Great Sage Equal to Heaven" as he likes to call himself. This work
can be enjoyed as a very funny action comedy (ignoring the fact that it is filled with Buddhist
philosophy).
This book is available in several formats:
- Journey to the West (4 Volumes, 100 Chapters) trans. Anthony C. Wu, University of Chicago, 1977.
This is a complete scholarly translation, with abundant endnotes and lyrical translation of poems.
- Journey to the West (3 Volumes, 100 Chapters) trans. W.J.F. Jenner, (first published by Beijing
People's Literature Publishing House, 1955), (published by Foreign Languages Press, hardback 1982,
paperback first edition, 1993, second edition 1997).
This is a complete translation.
- Monkey (1 Volume, 30 Chapters: 1-15, 18, 19, 22, 37-39, 44-49, 98-100)
trans. Arthur Waley, Grove Press, New York, 1943.
This is a very enjoyable version of a few of Monkey's selected exploits.
- The Monkey King (1 Volume, 39 Chapters) trans. George Theiner, Paul Hamlyn, London, 1964.
This is an easy-reading version of a few of Monkey's selected exploits.
- Creation of the Gods by Unknown Author(s) during the Ming Dynasty (c. 1368-1644 A.D.)
This book details the demise of the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty (1700 to 1100
B.C.) and the rise of the Zhou
dynasty (1066 to 256 B.C.) from a mythological point of view.
This book is available in the following formats:
- Creation of the Gods (2 Volumes, 100 Chapters) trans. Gu Zhizhong, New World Press, Beijing, 1992.
This is a complete translation.
- The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin (Tsao Hsueh-chin) (1715-1763 A.D.)
This book has been called a "novel of manners". It describes life within an aristocratic
family in seventeenth century China. The families fortunes are on the decline. The
novel describes the social, political, and economic troubles, both external and internal. At
the center of this novel is Jia Bao-Yu, the son of the family head, and Lin Dai-Yu, an
orphaned cousin. In a previous incarnation, Lin Dai-Yu was a plant. When she was feeling
dehydrated, the previous incarnation of Jia Bao-Yu brought over some water and spread it
on her leaves. For this, Lin Dai-Yu now strives to repay this debt, using the water of
her tears. This underlying karmic destiny clouds the blossoming romance between Bao-Yu
and Dai-Yu.
This book is available in several formats:
- The Story of the Stone (5 Volumes, 120 Chapters) trans. David Hawkes, Penguin Books, New York, 1973.
This is a complete translation.
- Dream of the Red Chamber (1 Volume, 60 Chapters) trans. Chi-chen Wang , Twayne Publishers, 1958.
This is an abridged translation.
- Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (1330-1400 A.D.)
This book is a novel of historical fiction, describing the events that lead to the
collapse of the Han Empire (220 A.D.) in an era known as the period of the
three kingdoms. The novel is attributed to Luo Guanzhong, to whom "Outlaws of the
Marsh" is also partially attributed. Three Kingdoms is a much more difficult novel
to read than "Outlaws of the Marsh" because interspersed between the personal stories
of the protagonists (Liu Xuande, Lord Guan, Zhang Fei, and Kong Ming) there are
extremely lengthy accounts of military actions, featuring hundreds of names, which
come and go without introduction. Still, there are sections of the novel, which are
as poignant as any in "Outlaws of the Marsh".
This book is available in several formats:
- The Three Kingdoms (3 Volumes, 120 Chapters) trans. Moss Roberts, Foreign Languages Press, 1991.
This is a complete translation.
- Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (145-89 B.C.)
This book is actually a piece of nonfiction from roughly 100 B.C., describing events
from China's prehistory to detailed accounts of the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty up to
100 B.C. It contains numerous biographies of famous personages of the time.
Written by the Emperor's Historian and his son, Sima Qian, it reads like an epic narrative.
This book is available in this format:
- Records of the Grand Historian (3 Volumes:
(i) Qin Dynasty, (ii) Han Dynasty I, (iii) Han Dynasty II)
trans. Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, 1961, 1993.
This is an incomplete translation, but it is the most complete translation available.
- Golden Lotus (Chin P'ing Mei) by Wang Shih-chêng (1526-1593 A.D.)
This book is a spin-off of Chapter 24 of Outlaws of the Marsh. In this version of the story,
Golden Lotus escapes death and moves in Ximen Qing.
This novel is described as a "moral erotic novel".
- Golden Lotus (4 volumes, 100 chapters) trans. Clement Egerton, Kegan Paul International, New York, 19??)
This translation reads very literally. There is no music to it.
- Golden Lotus (4 volumes, 100 chapters) trans. Clement Egerton, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1939, 1957)
This translation is an earlier publication of the same translation above, but all of the lengthy
paragraphs with explicit sexual content have been rendered in Latin. This is called an expurgated version.
- Chin P'ing Mei (2 volumes, 49 chapters) trans. No translator is named but probably Bernard Miall translating
from the German translation by Franz Kuhn, Intro by Arthur Waley, Putmans, 1940)
This is an abridged translation.
- The Plum in the Golden Vase (1 volume, 20 chapters) trans. David Tod Roy, Princeton University Press, 1993)
This is clearly the best translation but has only the first 20 chapters. Rumor is that the
remaining 80 are NOT forthcoming.
- Jou Pu Tuan (The Prayer Mat of Flesh) by Li Yü (1611-1680 A.D.)
Like "Golden Lotus", which preceded "Jou Pu Tuan" by roughly 70 years, this novel is a moral erotic novel.
However the pedantic moralism of the novel is pretty much isolated to the final two chapters of the novel.
The bulk of the novel is simply an easy reading narrative describing an intelligent, good-looking young man
who decides to sample the world's carnal delights
before devoting himself to the life of a Buddhist recluse.
His flagrant excesses eventually bring about his ruin.
The novel does contain graphic descriptions of sexual encounters, which in the Western world only have an equal
in pornography. While some have cited Boccaccio's "Decameron" as an analog of "Jou Pu Tuan" in the world of
Western literature, the similarities are superficial and the degree of explicit sexual content is not
remotely comparable.
- Jou Pu Tuan: The Prayer Mat of Flesh (1 volume, 20 chapters) trans. Richard Martin from the German translation by Franz Kuhn, Grove Press,
New York, 1963)
- The Before-Midnight Scholar (1 volume, 20 chapters) trans. Richard Martin from the German translation by Franz Kuhn, Andre Deutsch, London, 1965) This is the same translation
as the book above.
- The Scholars by Wu Ching-tzu (1701-1754 A.D.)
This book describes the life of a civil servant in seventeenth century China. As such, it is
a sort of political satire, unveiling the corruption inherent in the institution.
- The Scholars (2 volumes, 55 chapters) trans. Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, Foreign Languages Press, 1964)
- The Journey to the North (Pei-yu Chi) by Unknown (first published circa the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644))
This book has typically appeared as one of four parts of a book entitled The Four Journeys (Ssu-yu Chi), respectively entitled
The Journey to the North, The Journey to the South, The Journey to the East, and The Journey to the West.
The part of this novel entitled The Journey to the West has some of the same content as the more famous epic of the same title, listed above.
The Journey to the North relates the occurences which befell one of the Jade Emperor's three souls when he petulantly wished one day to return to the mortal realm.
All of Heaven lends a hand in helping the soul, The Venerable Teacher, not fall prey to the world of the red dust, but rather to be able to attain The Way and return
to its original form.
- The Journey to the North An Ethnohistorical Analysis and Annotated Translation of the Chinese Folk Novel
(1 volume, 24 chapters) trans. Gary Seaman, University of California Press, 1987)
In addition to the translation of the novel, the book also contains a forty page essay on the novel by the translator.
- Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991 A.D.)
Yasushi Inoue was a twentieth century Japanese scholar and novelist who had a particular
interest in historical China. His novels read very much like Outlaws of the
Marsh and Three Kingdoms. Listed below are a few novels by Inoue that
I read and enjoyed, and which take place in ancient China
- Wind And Waves (Futo) (trans. James T. Araki, University of Hawaii Press, 1963, trans. 1989)
This novel describes Kubilai Khan's attempts to invade Japan told from
the point of view of the King of Korea, from whose peninsula the attack
is to be launched.
- Confucius (Koshi) (trans. Roger K. Thomas, Peter Owen Publishers, London, 1989, trans. 1992)
This is a historical biography in novel form of Confucius. This novel can teach you more about
Confucius than reading the Analects directly.
- Tun-Huang (trans. Jean Oda Moy, Kodansha International, 1959, 1978)
This novel describes how the trove of Buddhist Scriptures that were a major archeological and cultural
find at the beginning of the twentieth century came to be hidden in the Thousand Buddha Caves in the area
of China called Tun-Huang in the years between 1023 and 1033 A.D.
- Lou-lan and Other Stories (trans. James T. Araki, Kodansha International, 1979)
This novel describes the ephemeral existence of a small city-state bound between larger states
in ancient China. The interesting thing about this novel is that it is told knowing beforehand,
the fate of the city from archeological records. Thus, the characters in the novel seem to be
fated to meet their doom.
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