Lesson plan
Wasobyoe
Wasōbyōe, or Strange Tales of Foreign Lands, also known as The Japanese Gulliver, is a 1774 narrative work by the pseudonymous author Yukokushi. It is a utopian fiction that has been compared to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. It was presented in English as a paper read to the Asiatic Society of Japan by Basil Hall Chamberlain in 1879. The name Wasōbyōe (also the name of the story's protagonist) is derived from that of Zhuang Zhou, wasō meaning Japan and byōe being a Japanese form of Zhuang Zhou's family name. The story promotes Taoist concepts over their Confucian equivalents, and Chamberlain suggested that its parable-like structure was intended to replicate the style of the Zhuangzi. In the tale, the titular Wasōbyōe sets out by boat from his native Nagasaki on a business trip, but is blown off course by a typhoon. He is shipwrecked in the Land of Perennial Youth, where he lives for 200 years, and he subsequently visits a number of other fictitious countries, including the Land of Idlers, the Land of Shams, the Land of Ancient Customes, the Land of Paradox and the Land of Giants. Wasōbyōe was popular in its day, and spawned at least two sequels, Wasōbyōe kohen (1779) by Sawai Iro and Wasōbyōe zokuhen (1854) by Kokunen Kocho Sanjin.…
Article summary
Wasōbyōe, or Strange Tales of Foreign Lands, also known as The Japanese Gulliver, is a 1774 narrative work by the pseudonymous author Yukokushi. It is a utopian fiction that has been compared to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. It was presented in English as a paper read to the Asiatic Society of Japan by Basil Hall Chamberlain in 1879. The name Wasōbyōe (also the name of the story's protagonist) is derived from that of Zhuang Zhou, wasō meaning Japan and byōe being a Japanese form of Zhuang Zhou's family name. The story promotes Taoist concepts over their Confucian equivalents, and Chamberlain suggested that its parable-like structure was intended to replicate the style of the Zhuangzi. In the tale, the titular Wasōbyōe sets out by boat from his native Nagasaki on a business trip, but is blown off course by a typhoon. He is shipwrecked in the Land of Perennial Youth, where he lives for 200 years, and he subsequently visits a number of other fictitious countries, including the Land of Idlers, the Land of Shams, the Land of Ancient Customes, the Land of Paradox and the Land of Giants. Wasōbyōe was popular in its day, and spawned at least two sequels, Wasōbyōe kohen (1779) by Sawai Iro and Wasōbyōe zokuhen (1854) by Kokunen Kocho Sanjin.…
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.