Illustrations from an 18th Century edition of Journey to the West (西遊記) by Wu Cheng’en (吳承恩) via Wikimedia Commons.
Speaker: Qiancheng Li (Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature, Louisiana State University)
Date and Time: 15 October 2026, 2:00pm to 3:30pm
Venue: Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Faculty Building, room 8&9, University of Cambridge.
Abstract: Further Adventures on the Journey to the West (Xiyou bu 西遊補) is a consummate literati novel distinguished by its unusually dense intertextuality. Passages drawn from other works are woven into its narrative, creating a textual continuum that is complemented and enriched by sixteen illustrations. These images introduce a distinct visual discourse, requiring the illustrator to negotiate between fidelity to the text and the autonomy of artistic expression. Through close readings of the illustrations, this lecture situates them within the wider network of illustrated fiction and drama in the late Ming, when books were produced as art objects and illustrators drew on established painting traditions while synthesizing different styles. It explores how the artist engages with both literary and pictorial sources, contributing to the novel’s rich visual intertextuality and the interplay between text and image.
Speaker: Qiancheng Li is Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at Louisiana State University. He is the author of Fictions of Enlightenment: “Journey to the West,” “Tower of Myriad Mirrors,” and “Dream of the Red Chamber” and Transmutations of Desire: Literature and Religion in Late Imperial China. With Robert E. Hegel, he translated Further Adventures on the Journey to the West (Xiyou bu). He is also the editor of a variorum critical edition of Xiyou bu.
“Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond” Lecture Series:
This lecture series, launched in Michaelmas Term 2023, features talks on writing and publishing in the Buddhist tradition and in related religious and cultural spheres. Lectures in this series offer insights into the various ways in which writing and printing has been shaping Buddhism, as well as the multifaceted impact of Buddhism on book culture in East Asia, past, present, and future.
This lecture series is organised by Dr Noga Ganany (ng462@cam.ac.uk) in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge with the generous support of the Glorisun Global Network.
