Youyang zazu

The book Youyang zazu ( Chinese酉阳 杂 俎 Yǒuyáng zázǔ; "A colorful plate of stories from the south side of You Hill") was written by the Chinese scholar Duan Chengshi段 成 式 (803–863) from Zibo, Shandong in the time of the Tang Dynasty .

Contents of the book

The main part (quanji) has 20 chapters (juan), the supplement (xuji) 10 chapters.

It tells stories of strange or curious things, tells of secret scriptures, tells of unusual incidents, of Daoists and Buddhists, people and spirits, of bad and good omens, correct predictions; It also contains little stories about the most varied things in everyday life, all in all it is a motley mixture: a real treasure trove of legends, myths and fairy tales, anecdotes, unofficial history, customs and traditions and products of the southern and northern dynasties and the Tang Dynasty .

In the following, we can only pick out a few points from this colorful variety: The Cinderella or Cinderella fairy tale and some aspects of Chinese eating and drinking culture.

Cinderella / Cinderella

Chapter 21 of the book contains an early version of the classic Cinderella or Cinderella fairy tale. The story was told to the author by one of his servants who came from what is now Nanning in Guangxi .

Eating and drinking culture

The section on alcoholic beverages and food (jiushi 酒食) is contained in Chapter 7 (of the main part). It consists mainly of some anecdotes about food and drink in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty, and provides over 100 names of food ingredients, alcoholic beverages, dishes and contained in the Benwei (本 味) chapter of Lüshi chunqiu and other books Spices together as well as the preparation methods of some dishes from already lost books, such as B. the Shici (食 次) or the Shi Jing (食 经).

Parallels to Zhang Hua

In the way the reported material is arranged and in its literary style, it is similar to the book Bowu zhi博物 志 (Report of Strange Things) by Zhang Hua张华 (232-300) of the Western Jin Dynasty .

Some prints and modern Chinese editions

Contents of the book are contained in many old book collections, e.g. B. in Siku quanshu , Comprehensive collection of Congshu or the Japanese Chugoku shokkei sosho . A modern edition was published in 1981 by Zhonghua Shuju Publishing in Beijing, and another in 2001 by Xueyuan Chubanshe Publishing , also in Beijing.

See also

• Cinderella
• List of sources on the history of Chinese food and drink culture

literature

• Cihai ("Sea of ​​Words"); ISBN 7-5326-0839-5
• Ding Naitong: The Cinderella cycle in China and Indo-China ; Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1974, ISBN 951-41-0121-9
• Carrie Elizabeth Reed, A Tang miscellany: an introduction to Youyang zazu ; New York, NY [u. a.]: Lang, 2003 (Asian thought and culture; 57); ISBN 0-8204-6747-2
• Edward H. Schafer: "Notes on Tuan Ch'eng-shih and his Writings." Asian Studies 16 (1963): 14–33.
• Zhongguo pengren cidian , p. 660
• Zhongguo pengren wenxian tiyao , No. 20

Web links

• Cinderella Around The World
• Chinese ideas in the West Professor Derk Bodde (pdf) (1.27 MB)
• A Chinese Cinderella ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Other works by the author are Jianxia zhuan剑侠 传 ( Gujin yishi古今 逸史) and Nieyin niang zhuan聂隐娘 传 ( Gujin shuohai古今 说 海). During the Qing period, the collection of his poems was put together under the title Duan Chengshi shi (段 成 式 诗).
2. ↑ See Zhongguo pengren wenxian tiyao and Cihai
3. ↑ See the essay by Derk Bodde: Chinese ideas in the West (pdf; 1.3 MB) and the work by Ding Naitong.
4. ↑ Richard Wilhelm translates the chapter title of the 2nd chapter from Book XIV with "How to get delicious food".