The Precious Scroll of Liu Xiang: Late Ming Roots and Late Qing Proliferation

Abstract:Though Liu Xiang baojuan 劉香寶卷 has been widely used as a source for images of women’s religious lives in late imperial China, few studies have looked closely at the text on its own or its literary history and contexts. With roots in late Ming lay Buddhism, as one of the most widely reprinted baojuan in late Qing Jiangnan, to say nothing of its representation in other performance genres in Jiangnan and beyond extending into the Republican period, this story complex deserves focused study. In this article, I explore the tale’s history from the late Ming through the late Qing in order to lay the groundwork for future close readings of the narrative itself.摘要:儘管《劉香寶卷》已被廣泛用於展現明清中國的女性宗教生活形象，但極少有研究著眼於該寶卷文本本身、文本歷史及其語境。植根於晚明在家佛教，《劉香寶卷》是晚清江南重印次數最多的寶卷之一。其在江南及其之外地區的其他表演性體裁中的展現更是延續至民國時期。因此，該故事群值得更為深入的研究。本文探究該文本從晚明至晚清的發展歷史，以此為將來對其敘事本身進行的細讀奠定基礎。