Any available translation of Nie Yinning (《聶隱娘》) ?

[Naphta]

After having watched Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Assassin, I'm interested to read the original text from which the film is adapted as well as other stories by the same author, Pei Xing (裴鉶) from the Tang dynasty. According to Wikipedia, all his short stories were published in the collection Fantastic Stories by Pei Xing (《裴鉶傳奇》) but I can't find this volume as such. Instead, I've found that these stories were published in early Song's Taiping Guanji (《太平廣記》) compiled by Li Fang (李昉), which is easy to find online in Chinese. (And here for the short story).

 

Does anyone know of any English (or any other Western language) critical edition either of the Pei Xing Chuanqi or the Taiping Guanji? Or even a translation of the short story Nie Yinning (《聶隱娘》) in any of the many existing anthologies of Tang's dynasty short stories? Kobo-Daishi posted in another thread a link to a translation on this blog.

 

Thanks!

[Angelina]

(off topic: interesting blog)

it will be cool to compare the English subtitles of the film and any potential translations of the short story

[Naphta]

A French translation of the short story has just been published, alongside with the screenplay of The Assassin and the chronicle of the shooting by Hsieh Hai-meng (謝海盟). I have only read the translation by Catherine Charmant and Deng Xinnan, and it seems to be good although it has no critical apparatus. This would have helped to fully understand the context of a story based after all on historical events. Probably there is more detailed information on Hou's choice of this text and its historical background in Hsieh's chronicle. She is by the way the niece of Chu Tien-wen (朱天文) who has been Hou's most usual screenwriter since the early 1980's.

 

This is the book's full reference: Hsieh Hai-Meng, Nuages mouvants. Chronique sur la réalisation du film The Assassin, Paris: L'Asiathèque, 2016

[Angelina]

awesome