여행지리서로서의 《島夷誌略》과 그 서술방식 — 《諸蕃志》와의 비교를 겸하여

Abstract

This paper compares and examines the narrative style of the Daoyi zhi lüe as a book of travel geography with that of the Zhufan zhi. As a travelogue containing information about various places in the Chinese South Sea, Southeast Asia, India, the Arab world and Africa, the Daoyi zhi lüe is significant in that it is a record of Wang Dayuan’s first-hand observations and travel impressions. This paper examines how the record of first-hand observation is narrated in the Daoyi zhi lüe from three aspects: the literary description of the geographical environment, the intervention of the first-person narrator “I”, and the telling of bizarre stories. The literary description of geographical information in the Daoyi zhi lüe becomes a more authentic way of describing actual experience or reality, and the intervention of the first-person narrator gives it a unique realism that information-oriented geography books do not have. This is quite different from the Zhufan zhi, which can be said to be a record of an indirect visit. In other words, the literary description and the narrator’s intervention in the direct visit actually multiply the realism of the area. The analysis of the bizarre stories in the Daoyi zhi lüe shows how the author’s historical rejection of certain regions, as well as his Chinese-centred values and worldview, are reflected in these records.