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Notes on Contributor
Wilt L. Idema (b. 1944) obtained his Ph.D. from Leiden University in 1974. He taught at Leiden University (1970–1999) and Harvard University (2000–2013). His research has mostly focused on traditional Chinese vernacular literature. He has published widely on early Chinese drama (with Stephen H. West) and on Chinese women’s literature (with Beata Grant). In recent years he also has completed several volumes of translations of traditional Chinese song narrative and prosimetric literature. His most recent publications are Mouse vs. Cat in Chinese Literature: Tales and Commentary (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019), and Insects in Chinese Literature: A Study and Anthology (Amherst NY: Cambria Press, 2019).
Notes
1 This edition is photographically reprinted in Pak Pyŏng-dong 박병동, Pulgyŏng chŏllae sŏrhwa-ŭi sosŏlchŏk pyŏnmo yangsang: pyŏnmunjip “Sŏkka Yŏrae sipchi suhaenggi” yŏn'gu 불경 전래 설화의 소설적 변모 영상: 변문집 "석가여래십지수행기" 연구 (Aspects of Literary Adaptation in Tales Out of Buddhist Sutras: A Study of the Bianwen-collection A Record of the Ten Stages of the Self-cultivation of the Tathagatha Śakyamuni; Seoul: Yŏngnak, 2003), pp. 243–337. The Chinese text is also available in a typeset edition (with Korean reading signs) as An Chinho, Sŏkka Yŏrae sipchi haengnok 釋迦如來十地行錄 (A Record of the Ten Stages of Cultivation of Shakyamuni Buddha; Seoul: Pŏmnyunsa, 1972, 2nd printing).
2 Wang Jingbo 王晶波, “Cong Dunhuangben Foshuo Xiaoshunzi xiuxing chengfo jing dao Jinniu baojuan” 从敦煌本佛说孝顺子修行成佛经到金牛宝卷 (From The sutra on How a Filial and Obedient Son Achieved Buddhahood by Self-cultivation, as Preached by the Buddha from Dunhuang to The Precious Scroll of Golden Calf), Dunhuangxue jikan (Quarterly of Dunhuang Studies) 2017.3: 77–94; Wang Jingbo, “Yinti jinjiao duzi jing de zhongwaichuanbo jiqi yanbian” 银蹄金角犊子经的中外传播及其演变 (The Distribution in China and Abroad and the Changes of The sutra of the Calf with the Golden Horns and Silver Hooves), Dunhuangxue jikan 2018.3: 1–19; and Wang Jingbo and Han Hong 韩红, “‘Niudu quqin’ gushi de fojiao yuanliu ji qi yanbian” 牛犊娶亲故事的佛教源流及其演变 (The Buddhist Origin and the Development of the Tale of the Marriage of the Calf), Gansu shehui kexue (Gansu Social Sciences) 2018.1: 100–107.
3 Korean retellings of this tale circulated both in manuscript and in print. For an abbreviated translation of the version printed in 1920, see A.M. Olof, “The Story of Prince Golden Calf and Tale Type 707: A Translation and Comparison,” in Korea in the Middle: Korean Studies and Area Studies, ed. Remco E. Breuker (Leiden: CNWS Publications, 2007), pp. 259–86.
4 The largest surviving fragment of this manuscript was transcribed in 1988 by Fang Guangchang 方广錩, “Dunhuang xiejing Foshuo xiaoshunzi xiuxing chengfo jing jianxi” 敦煌写经佛说孝顺子修行成佛经简析 (A Preliminary Analysis of The sutra on How a Filial and Obedient Son Achieved Buddhahood by Self-cultivation, as Preached by the by the Buddha, a Manuscript Sutra from Dunhuang), Nanya yanjiu (South-Asian Studies) 1988.2: 60–72. In this article he also amassed a large array of arguments in support of the Indian origin of the contents of this work. He provided a revised transcription of all known fragments of the manuscript in his “Guanyu Foshuo xiaoshunzi xiuxing chengfo jing de ruogan ziliao” 关于佛说孝顺子修行成佛经的若干资料 (Some Materials Concerning The sutra on How a Filial and Obedient Son Achieved Buddhahood by Self-cultivation, as Preached by the Buddha), Nanya yanjiu (South-Asian Studies) 2007.1: 69–77. This article also includes the text of the seventh tale in the Shijia rulai shidi xiuxing ji. For a detailed survey of Chinese and Japanese studies on this sutra see Wang Meng 王孟, “Tan Dunhuang yishu Foshuo xiaoshunzi xiuxing chengfo jing de yanjiu” 谈敦煌遗书佛说孝顺子修行成佛经的研究 (A Discussion of Studies on The sutra on How a Filial and Obedient Son Achieved Buddhahood by Self-cultivation, as Preached by the Buddha), Dunhuang yanjiu (Dunhuang studies) 2015.4: 83–88. One topic in these studies has been whether or not the Foshuo xiaoshunzi xiuxing chengfo jing should indeed be considered an apocryphal sutra or not. Another topic in these studies has been the origin of the theme of “the cat replacing the crown prince” (limao huan taizi 狸猫换太子), which since the nineteenth century has become associated with the legend of Judge Bao and in that version has become quite popular. See Li Xiaorong 李小荣, “Limao huan taizi de laili” 狸猫换太子的来历 (The origin of “the crown prince replaced by a cat”), Hebei xuekan (Hebei journal) 22.2 (March 2002): 149–52.
The tale also remained popular in China in various genres. Until quite recently the scholars of folktales on the topic of the marriage of the calf remained unaware of the Buddhist background of this tale. In one version of the story as a precious scroll, the golden calf is repeatedly designated as “the Buddha” (Fozu 佛祖), betraying an awareness of the origin of the story as a jataka tale, but we also find precious scroll adaptations that move the action to the court of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming dynasty.
In the early years of the sixteenth century the tale of the Golden Calf was depicted on the eastern wall of the Buddha hall of the Pilusi 毗盧寺 (Vairocana Monastery) outside Shijiazhuang. See Wang Jingbo, “Yinti jinjiao duzi jing,” 9–12; Zhang Xi 张熙 and Guo Jing 郭静, “Shijiazhuang pilusi shijiadian jinniu taizi bihua kaobian” 石家庄毗卢寺释迦殿金牛太子壁画考辨 (An Inquiry into the Wall Paintings of Prince Golden Calf in the Buddha Hall of the Vairocana Monastery of Shijiazhuang), Hebei daxue xuebao (Hebei University Journal) 43.3 (May 2018): 146–53. The decorative program for this wall is described as “the ten stages” (shidi 十地) but is not based on the Shijia rulai shidi xiuxing ji, as its account of the life of Prince Golden Calf includes episodes which only appear in the precious scrolls.
5 Fang Guangchang, “Dunhuang xiejing,” 76; Wang Jingbo, “Yinti jinjiao duzi jing,” 4 explicitly compares this format with the prosimetric format of bianwen 變文 (transformation texts) and jiangjingwen 講經文 (sutra-explanation texts).
6 This text has been preserved in a single manuscript that was copied in 972. For a typeset, annotated edition of the Lushan Yuangong hua see Huang Zheng 黃征 and Zhang Yongquan 張涌泉, eds. Dunhuang bianwen jiaozhu 敦煌變文校注 (A Critical and Annotated Edition of the Transformation Texts from Dunhuang; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), pp. 252–97. For an English translation of this tale on the legendary life of the saintly monk Huiyuan (334-417) by Tansen Sen and Victor H. Mair see “The Tale of Master Yuan of Mount Lu,” in Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, ed. Victor H. Mair, Nancy Steinhardt and Paul R. Goldin (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005), pp. 304–39.
7 A second and more damaged edition of the same text, also preserved in Japan, is titled Da Tang Sanzang fashi qujing ji 大唐三藏法師取經記 (Record of the monk Sanzang of the Great Tang fetching sutras). Both texts would appear to have been printed in the thirteenth century or thereabouts. The date of the composition of the text is subject of controversy, opinions ranging from the late Tang to the early Yuan. For summaries of these debates see Liang Liling 梁利玲, “Da Tang Sanzang qujing shihua yanjiu zongshu” 大唐三藏取经诗话研究综述 (A general survey of studies on The tale with poems how Sanzang of the Great Tang fetched sutras), Guangdong guangbo dianshe daxue xuebao (Journal of the Guangdong University of Advertising and Television), 21.6 (2012): 74–78 and Ren Pengcheng 任鹏程, “Da Tang Sanzang qujing shihua chengshu niandai kaozheng zongshu” 大唐三藏取经诗话成书年代考证综述 (A general Survey of the Arguments for the Dating of the Composition of The Tale with Poems How Sanzang of the Great Tang fetched sutras), Huaiyin gongxueyuan xuebao (Journal of the Huaiyin Engineering College) 19.3 (2017): 85–89. The Qujing ji is probably closer to the original text than the Qujing shihua; see Glen Dudbridge, The Hsi-yu chi: A Study of the Antecedents to the Sixteenth-Century Novel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 23–29.
8 For a photographic reproduction of this text, see the edition by Ota Tatsuo 太田辰夫 and Isobe Akira 磯部彰 published in 1997 by Kyuko shoin. For a typeset annotated critical edition see Li Shiren 李時人 and Cai Jinghao 蔡鏡浩, eds., Da Tang Sanzang qujing shihua jiaozhu 大唐三藏取經詩話校注 (A critical and annotated editions of The tale with poems how Sanzang of the Great Tang fetched sutras; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997). An English translation of the text by Charles J. Wivell may be found as “The Story of How the Monk Tripitaka of the Great Country of T’ang Brought back the Sutras” in The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 1181–207.
The versified passages usually occur at the end of the chapters, but in longer chapters they are also found in the main body of the chapter text. The tales in the Shijia rulai shidi xiuxing ji are not subdivided into chapters.
9 Zhou Shaoliang 周紹良, “Tan Tangdai minjian wenxue” 談唐代民間文學 (About folk literature of the Tang period), in Zhou Shaoliang and Bai Huawen 白化文, eds. Dunhuang bianwen lunwenji 燉煌變文論文集 (A collection of articles on transformation texts from Dunhuang), 2 vols. (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1982), p. 420, points out that in the Wu Zixu bianwen 伍子胥變文 (Transformation text on Wu Zixu) most versified passages are presented as delivered by the characters in the tale, but in this case these versified passages are composed in the standard ballad verse and of various length. For a typeset, annotated edition of the Wu Zixu bianwen see Huang Zheng and Zhang Yongquan, eds. Dunhuang bianwen jiaozhu, pp. 1–59. For English translations, see Arthur Waley, Ballads and Stories from Tun-Huang (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1960), pp. 25–52, and Victor Mair, Tun-huang Popular Narratives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 123–66.
10 Wilt L. Idema and Stephen H. West, trans. Records of the Three Kingdoms in Plain Language (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2016), p. 75.
11 Shin Ŭn'gyŏng 신은경, "Sŏkka Yŏrae sipchi suhaenggi che 7 chi 'Kŭmdok t'aeja chŏn' -ŭi sŏngnip kwajŏng-e taehan kŏmt'o - Unmun chesiŏ-rŭl chungsim-ŭro" 석가여래십지수행기 제7지 '금독태자전' 의 성립 과정에 대한 검토 - 운문제시어를 중심으로 (Inquiry into the formation of ‘The legend of prince Golden Calf’, the seventh stage of the Record of the ten stages of self-cultivation of the Tathagatha Śakyamuni Buddha – centering on the verse headings) Hangukhak 한국학 (Korean Studies) 36.2 (2013): 187–211 (English summary).
12 Shaoshi shanren, the editor of the 1448 edition, in his preface only tells us that he “removed the superfluous verbiage and once again collated and corrected [the text].” (Wang Jingbo, “Cong Dunhuangben,” 83). The expression I translate as “superfluous verbiage” (fanci 繁詞) should perhaps be more specifically translated as “superfluous ballad-verse,” which might suggest a more directed editing of the materials at his disposal.
13 Hu Shiying 胡士莹, Huaben xiaoshuo gailun 话本小说概论 (A general discussion of vernacular stories; Beijing: Zhongha shuju, 1980), pp. 169–73, 199.
14 Li Shiren and Cai Jinghao, Da Tang sanzang qujing shihua jiaozhu, 4.
15 Recent studies on the format of the Da Tang Sanzang qujing shihua are especially interested in placing the shihua as an intermediate genre in the development from bianwen to huaben and pinghua. See Liang Liling, “Lun Da Tang Sanzang qujing shihua de tizhi” 论大唐三藏取经诗话的体制 (On the format of The tale with poems how Sanzang of the Great Tang fetched sutras), Jiaying xueyuan xuebao (Journal of Jiaying College) 31.7 (2013): 69–73, and Han Hongbo 韩洪波 and Cui Changjun 崔常俊, “Lüelun Da Tang Sanzang qujing shihua de wenti texing” 略论大唐三藏取经诗话的文体特性 (A brief discussion of the genre characteristics of The tale with poems how Sanzang of the Great Tang fetched sutras), Huaiyin gongxueyuan xuebao 2013.2: 43–47. Both articles are fascinated by the frequent use of chu 處 (place) as the final word in chapter titles in Da Tang Sanzang qujing shihua, and interpret it as reference to the performance of bianwen.