Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
68
Vol 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
BUDDHIST SOURCES OF THE NOVEL
FENG-SHEN YEN-I
:
LIU TS'UN-YAN. PH.D.
INTRODUCTION
The Feng-shên Yen-i, or 'Investiture of the Gods,' is a long novel consisting of 100 chapters. Its authorship had long been unknown, until in 1931 Prof. Sun K'ai-ti discovered in the Japanese Cabinet Library a Ming edition of this novel labelled "compiled (pien-chi) by Hsu Chung-lin, styled Chung-shan I-sou." Many scholars therefore concluded that Hsü Chung-lin was the author. For instance, Lu Hsün in his A Brief History of Chinese Fiction (Chung-kuo Hsiao-shuo Shih-lüeh) mentioned Hsü as the author, though he added that he had not seen the original preface and therefore could not ascertain the date of the novel. This attribution of authorship is not reliable, for in Ming times the term "compiling” (pien-chi) was rather freely used, and sometimes booksellers would reprint a book with slight additions and alterations and label it as being "compiled" by a new writer. In view of this, from 1935 to 1956, I tried to find out the true author of this novel, and my researches led me to the conclusion that the author or compiler of the novel was in fact Lu Hsi-hsing (1520-1601?), a Taoist priest of the Chia Ching period.
Like the Hsi-yu-chi ("Pilgrimage to the West", also known to Western readers as "Monkey"), the Fêng-shên Yen-i is a work of fiction dealing with the supernatural. It was produced during the time when Chinese fiction was evolving from the prompt-books (hua-pên) of story-tellers to long novels. Its plot is based on the historical events related to the defeat of King
1 There is no English translation of this novel. The German translation by Wilhelm Grube and Herbert Mueller, Die Metamorphosen der Götter (2 vols., Leiden, Brill, 1912) contains only chapters 1-46. Chapters 47-100 have been summarized by Mueller. The novel is mentioned in E. T. C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China (London, 1934) and in Sir J. C. Coyajee, Cults and Legends of Ancient Iran and China (Bombay, 1935).
2 Chung-kuo Hsiao-shuo Shih-lüeh, Ch. 18, p. 176 (1953); also the English translation entitled A Brief History of Chinese Fiction by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, p. 220 (1959).
3 Details of my evidence and arguments are contained in my unpublished thesis, "The Authorship of the Feng-shen Yen-i", a copy of which is in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.
4 Cf. James J. Y. Liu, "The Knight Errant in Chinese Literature", in this volume, pp. 30-41.