Description: The first book in English to trace the resurrected skeleton, this text translates major adaptations while drawing parallels to Jesus's encounter with a skull and the European tradition of the Dance of Death.
Brief description: Wilt L. Idema is Professor emeritus at Harvard University in Chinese Literature and has published widely in both English and Dutch, especially on Chinese drama and fiction. Among his publications are A Guide to Chinese Literature (Michigan, 1997); The Red Brush: Writing Women in Imperial China (Harvard Asia Center, 2004); Meng Jiangnü Brings Down the Great Wall: Ten Versions of a Chinese Legend (Washington, 2008); The Resurrected Skeleton: From Zhuangzi to Lu Xun (Columbia, 2014); and The Orphan of Zhao and Other Yuan Plays (Columbia, 2014).
Review Quotes: Idema is the master translator of Chinese popular and religious culture. Here he offers the first English-language translations of enchanting texts, both famous and rare, around one classic story: Zhuangzi's encounter with a skeleton. The anthology speaks both to universal concerns and to Chinese literature's unique way of blending religion, philosophy, poetry, and farce.--Vincent Goossaert, coauthor of The Religious Question in Modern China