"I was looking for the breath of life / a little touch of heavenly light"

[larryhammer]

In John Minford's translation of Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Penguin Classics), in the story "Grace and Pine," a character encounters a book titled Jottings from a Distant Realm, which is glossed in the endnotes with:

An echo of an actual work of the Mongol dynasty, recounting expeditions into fairy realms. Here it is a condensed and elegant way of indicating that Kong has entered an otherworldly (fox-spirit) dimension. (p.512)

Does anyone have ANYTHING elucidating this? What's the original title, and is it available in English?

---L.

Comments

[larryhammer]

Whee -- that's interesting. Pity about the apparent lack of translations.

---L.