Annal:1977 National Book Award for Translation

Master Tung's Western Chamber Romance

Chieh-Yuan Tung, Li-Li Chen

• 1977 NBA–Translation winner
• Score: 10.27

This twelfth century masterpiece suffered virtual oblivion from the late fourteenth century until 1912, when it was rediscovered by the great sinologist Wang Kuo-wei who helped restore it to its preeminent position in Chinese literature. Comprising 184 prose passages and 5,263 lines of verse to be narrated and sung by a performing singer-storyteller, it is an elaboration of the T´ang dynasty love story, The Story of Ying-ying, by Yuan Chen (779-831).