The third lecture in the Seminars on Vietnamese Buddhist Studies hosted by FGU-DBS was held via Zoom the evening of May 12th. Among the 50 audience members, aside from the participants based in Taiwan, guests joined in from Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, United States, Malaysia, and Lancaster University in the UK.
In this lecture titled "Legends of Quan Âm Diệu Thiện, Godmother of the Southern Kingdom", Drs. Nguyễn Tô Lan (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies, Hanoi) and Rostislav Berezkin (National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai) surveyed their research results, recently published in book form by Vietnam University of Education Publishing House as "Phật Bà bể Nam: Truyện Quán Âm Diệu Thiện tại Việt Nam."
Dr. Nguyễn and Prof. Berezkin presented the many variations of the legend of Quán Âm Diệu Thiện (Miaoshan Guanyin). They note that the version of the Xiangshan Baojuan" discovered by Professor Li Fuqing during the Cultural Revolution (which is still sung in ballad form in parts of Jiangsu today) was much shorter than the version discovered in Vietnam.
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The conclusion of the lecture was followed by a riveting Q&A session.
More than 50 participants joined us for this lecture via Zoom.
Prof. Lee Kuei-Min of NCKU organized and served as host of the CBS Seminars in Vietnamese Buddhist Studies.
Dr. Nguyễn and Prof. Berezkin began with an account of the Legend of Miaoshan in China.
Dr. Nguyễn and Prof. Berezkin then presented their research results, recently published in book form as "Phật Bà bể Nam: Truyện Quán Âm Diệu Thiện tại Việt Nam."
A riveting Q&A followed the conclusion of the talk.