Libraly Journal

Libraly Journal ›› 2021, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (9): 145-154.

Previous Articles    

A Textual Study of the Buddhist Play Guiyuanjing: Woodblock#br# Prints in the Qing Dynasty#br#

Wang Mengxiao  (Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California)   

  • Online:2021-09-15 Published:2021-09-27
  • About author:Wang Mengxiao (Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California)

Abstract: The Buddhist play Guiyuanjing written by Monk Zhida has been widely circulated from the early Qing period until today. Its historical reception illustrates the dynamic interactions between Buddhism and theater in early modern China. There are multiple editions of Guiyuanjing, which have not yet received sufficient scholarly attention. Based on my archival research at libraries in Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, and the United States, I discovered several editions that had never been recorded before and summarized two systems of the woodblock prints in the Qing Dynasty. In this article, I argue that the Zhaoqing Monastery edition was published in the late Qing, rather than in the early Qing as previous studies have stated. The publication of the Zhaoqing Monastery edition demonstrates how different Buddhist monasteries in Zhejiang province collaborated to publish books in the nineteenth century. I also show that the 1784 Beijing Dragon King Temple edition was adapted to the conventions of performing large-scale plays at the Qing court. Drawing on a close reading of these editions, this article explores the hybrid nature of sacred andsecular characteristics of Guiyuanjing.