Book Reviews: Reischauer, Edwin O., trans. Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law Reischauer, Edwin O. Ennin’s Travels in T’ang China
George Keyworth received his B.A. (Honors) in Chinese and Asian Studies and M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
摘要
Every library that does not own copies of the original 1955 printing of these two volumes must purchase reprinted editions of Edwin O. Reischauer’s (1910–1990) two books about Ennin 円仁 (794–864), a Japanese Buddhist monk and pilgrim who journeyed to China from 838–847. Among the many reasons why academics and educators worldwide should be especially grateful to Valerie Hansen (Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Yale University) for leading the project to have Reischauer’s two marvelous books about Ennin republished by Angelico Press more than six decades after these monographs were first published is that, unfortunately, it very well may be the case that not enough has changed in our teaching curricula to assuage Reischauer’s rationale for writing about Ennin in the mid-twentieth century. In Ennin’s Travels In T’ang China (3), Reischauer wrote:
The Venetian’s account of his wanderings, by stirring men’s imaginations, helped to shape the course of history, while Ennin’s record of his travels has gone virtually unread and unknown to this day. Yet Ennin long preceded the Italian to that great land and left what is in some ways an even more remarkable record of his peregrinations. The illiterate Marco Polo, years after his travels were over, recounted his adventures orally and in broad and sometimes hazy outline, but Ennin’s day-to-day diary of his varied experiences is a unique document for its time in world history.
