The Legend of Miaoshan

by Dudbridge, Glen

• ISBN13: 9780199266715
• ISBN10: 0199266719
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The tale of a devout Buddhist girl who separates from her family and through suffering and death finally achieves divine status is a myth of religious celibacy, of filial piety, and of ritual salvation of the dead. It also presents a major symbol of the tension in women's lives between individual spiritual fulfillment and the imperatives of family duty. This is a new edition of the first full study of this important and influential Chinese legend.

Author Biography

Glen Dudbridge is Shaw Professor of Chinese, University of Oxford

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
List of Abbreviations	x
1. Introduction	1	(4)
2. The Guanyin Cult at Xiangshan Monastery	5	(16)
The Monastery and Jiang Zhiqi	5	(9)
The Birth of the Legend	14	(7)
3. The Original Story	21	(15)
4. Versions of the Story to 1500	36	(21)
The Idea of A Written Tradition	36	(2)
Thirteenth-Century References	38	(3)
The Version by Guan Daosheng	41	(6)
The Early Growth of a Baojuan Tradition	47	(10)
5. The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries	57	(31)
The Nan Hai Guanyin Quan Zhuan	57	(10)
Calendars of Gods and Saints	67	(6)
First Signs of a Theatrical Tradition	73	(6)
The Spanish Evidence	79	(9)
Reinterpretations 82
6. Anatomy of the Story	88	(14)
Annotations	89	(6)
King Lear	95	(3)
Development Before and After 1100	98	(4)
7. Interpretations	102	(17)
A Charter for Celibacy	102	(5)
A Supreme Act of Filial Piety	107	(3)
Miaoshan in the World of the Dead	110	(7)
Concluding Remarks	117	(2)
Appendix A The Xiangshan Monastery Inscription of 1100	119	(15)
Appendix B The Versions by Zuxiu and Juelian	134	(8)
Appendix C The Mythical Oxford Exhibition	142	(2)
Appendix D Table of Names and Features in the Story	144	(3)
List of Works Cited	147	(8)
Index	155