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The Manchu Reading of Jinpingmei: Commentary, Encyclopedism, and Translingual Practices in Early Eighteenth-Century China
- Late Imperial China
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 42, Number 2, December 2021
- pp. 1-48
- 10.1353/late.2021.0005
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
This article examines the notorious, but little-studied Manchu translation of Jinpingmei. I argue that the translation embraces multiple levels of translingual literacy, embodied in the philological reading aids provided throughout the text. The forms of commentary contained within require a reconsideration of Manchu reading practices and allow for a comparison with approaches to Sinitic writing and vernacular reading across early modern East Asia.