Hidden and Visible Realms

Zhenjun Zhang is associate professor of Asian Studies and Modern Languages & Literatures at St. Lawrence University. His publications include: Buddhism and Tales of the Supernatural in Early Medieval China: A Study of Liu Yiqing’s Youming lu (Brill, 2014) and Traditional Fiction and Chinese Culture (Guangxi Normal University Press, 1996).Zhenjun Zhang is associate professor of Asian studies and modern languages and literatures at St. Lawrence University. His books include Buddhism and Tales of the Supernatural in Early Medieval China: A Study of Liu Yiqing’s (403–444) Youming lu (2014).

Keith Knapp, The Citadel:
Hidden and Visible Realms makes a valuable contribution to the study of Chinese zhiguai “Records of the Strange” literature. For the first time, Zhang’s translation of the Youming lu gives English readers a sense of the marvelous richness of the text’s contents and its diverse themes.

Kenneth J. DeWoskin, University of Michigan:
The fields of early Chinese studies will enthusiastically welcome this excellent work by Zhenjun Zhang that combines a skillfully rendered translation of Liu Yiqing’s Youminglu with an extensive treatise, providing the most comprehensive review of the long history of zhiguai studies we have to date.

Wilt L. Idema, Harvard University:
The nearly three hundred miracle tales that survive of Liu Yiqing’s compilation offer fascinating insights into China’s society and imagination of the late third to early fifth centuries. This complete translation will be eagerly welcomed by all students and scholars of Chinese literature, religion, and thought, as it was precisely in this period that Buddhism had become part of Chinese life.

Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania:
Hidden and Visible Realms is the most complete and critically annotated translation of the seminal collection of zhiguai (‘tales of anomalies’), Liu Yiqing’s Youming lu, in any language, one that will be enthusiastically welcomed by all who are interested in the history of Chinese fiction and religion.