On the earliest version of the Miaoshan-Guanyin story in Vietnam: An adaptation of a Chinese narrative in the Nom script

Tóm tắt

This article discusses the origins and special features of the earliest extant Vietnamese version of the Princess Miaoshan story-the National Version of the Original Deeds of Guanyin, which forms a hagiography of Bodhisattva Guanyin; compiled by the monk Thích Chân Nguyên ca. end of the 17^th century. With the use of comparison of different Vietnamese and Chinese versions of this story, we have detected that the National Version of the Original Deeds of Guanyin was based on the Chinese novel Complete Story of Guanyin of the Southern Sea (ca. end of the 16^th century), thus contesting the previous views of the Vietnamese scholars on the origins and the history of transmission of the Miaoshan story in Vietnam. This early Vietnamese version represents peculiar features of Sino-Vietnamese cultural exchange in the aspect of Buddhist teaching, including the interchange of written (classical) and popular (vernacular) elements in this story.

Received: 11^th­August 2016; Revised: 24^th October 2016; Accepted: 26^th October 2016