Dictionary of Chinese Myths and Legends: Best Book for You to Know About Chinese

Author: Yuan Ke

ISBN: 9787550211759

Publisher: Beijing Union Press Crop.

Publication date: Jan. 2013

Price: ?49.80

About the Author

Yuan Ke (1916-2001) is a contemporary master of Chinese mythology. In 1946, he served in the National Institute for Compilation and Translation of Taiwan, beginning the systematic study of Chinese mythology. In 1949, he returned to Sichuan, and continued to engage in the study of literature and mythology; he was transferred to the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences in 1978 as a researcher, and in 1984, served as the Chairman of the Institute of Chinese Mythology.

Mr. Yuan has written a lot of works. In 1950, Myths in Ancient China was published, which is the first relatively systematic monograph on ancient myths of Han nationality, establishing the academic status of Mr. Yuan. After that, Mr. Yuan has successively written more than 20 books and over 8 million characters of papers, including Myths of Ancient China: An Anthology with Annotations, Collected Papers on Mythology, Analects of Myths by Yuan Ke, The Classic of Mountains and Seas: A Collation and Connotation, Bashu Myths (as co-author), etc. The majority of Mr. Yuan’s works have been translated into Russian, Japanese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Korean, Esperanto and other languages. His works have also been included in school textbooks in countries such as China, Japan, U.S. and Singapore.

Content Abstract

It took the author ten years to write Dictionary of Chinese Myths and Legends , which was published by the Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House in 1985, with the first printing of 500,000 copies. The book caused some repercussions among the readers upon publication, gained the recognition of the professional field, and won the 1985 Special Award for scientific research achievements by Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences. In this revision, rearrangement was made according to the manuscript in which many of the entries in the 1985 edition were rewritten and supplemented by Mr. Yuan himself, in order to make this classic work better completed, providing readers with the best book to understand Chinese mythology.

This book contains rich and detailed information, different versions of the same legend are all included, and the styles and indexes are neat, rigorous and reliable. The entries are explained by referencing the original texts, so that the citations of content are accurate. Such a comprehensive and professional dictionary is not only beneficial to the research of myths, but also has a precious academic value. In this book there are more than 400 illustrations, providing the original look of myths and legends.

Recommended by Editor

Rich and detailed materials: Mr. Yuan collected and collated mythological data that were scattered in the historical records, and included different versions of the same myth completely based on generalized mythological theory, so that the course of the evolution of Chinese mythology is increasingly clear, and how the original myth promoted the production of a new myth is further learned about.

Neat and practical style: This book provides index by stroke of Chinese characters, supplemented by a classified index in the postscript; after the main entries, for some ambiguous entries due to evolution of legends are listed in the reference entries, while cited with the page numbers. Such a cataloging not only facilitates browsing and checking, but is also conducive to studies.

Rigorous and reliable citations: This book cites the original ancient texts, different original data from various books are collected, starting from collation and emendation, former errors are corrected, and precise proofreading is conducted, laying a solid data foundation for Chinese mythology.

Extensive and interesting picking: In addition to the important reference value, written narrative is also vivid and interesting in this dictionary, providing revelation or inspiration for the creators, which is the best book to know about Chinese mythology for readers.