周秦行纪 by 韋瓘 known to anybody?

[ximeng]

Hey there,

At the moment I am studying several "chuanqi" of the Tang-period. I have read through a lot of literature and worked on all the major tales. In a collection of these "chuanqi" published in China, I came across one tale called 周秦行纪, supposingly written by 韋瓘.

I have tried to do some research on the internet on this tale, but didnt came across anything useful. I consulted the collection "Traditional Chinese Stories" by Ma & Lau and several other translation works, but did not find anything.

Is anybody around here able to provide me some useful information or research sources on this tale? A translation would come in very very very handy, as I am supposed to hold a presentation on this tale on tuesday.

Any help on this will be highly appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

ximeng

[flup13]

you can use a chinese rearch engine www.baidu.com it can give you the information you want

[zhouxyz]

I have read this story, which was said to be written by 牛僧孺, the main character in the story. However, recent studies prove that the author must be 韋瓘. The story is in 太平广记 of Song Dynasty. I don't know whether you've read it. I would like to tell you the plot and some comments of the tale.

It tells a story of 牛僧孺, who lost his ways and attracted by a kind of special aroma. Following the aroma, he came to a house and hoped to stay for one night in the house. He found that there lived some women, who were very famous in the history.They talked for some time and each of them wrote a poem to describe their own stories. After 牛僧孺 left the house next morning, he couldn't find the house . He saw an old and deserted temple only.

the tale is commonly considered to have something to do with politics. The writer of the story may suggest that 牛僧孺 was not loyal to the emperor. It is hard to describe the logic in English. It should be related to the Chinese context.

hope you good luck. and forgive my poor english.

[florazheng]

There is a typo in your title. The correct book title should be 周秦行记 written by 牛僧孺

Here's the URL link for the story.

http://www.guoxue.com/tangyanjiu/tdcq/zqxj.htm

[zhouxyz]

I suggest you refer to 中国小说史略 by 鲁迅. It is the first book of research in ancient chinese novel. I would like to provide a link below,

http://www.tianyabook.com/luxun/zgxs/012.htm

This page includes some information of the novel in the book.However, it is written in chinese, a kind mixture of both ancient and modern chinese language. Hope not to be so hard for you to understand.

[ximeng]

Hey there thanks for your help so far...

Zhouxyz, what hints are there in the Chinese text, that 牛僧孺 was not loyal to the emepror? That would be very interesting for my presentation. You don´t need to give me translations in English, Chinese quotations from the text are also fine.

Thanks a lot,

ximeng