Morality tales or pleasing history: rediscovery of a 17th century Chinese album through digital discovery tools

Since its donation to the Bodleian Library by Francis Douce in 1834, an album of Chinese woodblock illustrations remained largely unidentified, vaguely labelled as "Daily stories and myths". Recent research, enabled by the comparison of digital facsimiles and rare print editions, has finally identified the origin of these illustrations.

The study reveals a significant discovery: these images served as the visual blueprints for Bishop Thomas Percy’s 1761 publication—the first Chinese novel translated into a European language. This connection is particularly striking given the disparate genres of the works—a collection of morality tales versus a literary romance—and the skepticism surrounding the translation's authenticity at the time.

In this lecture, Mamtimyn Sunuodula, Head of the East Asian Section at the Bodleian Libraries, highlights the transformative role of digital discovery tools in reinterpreting obscure collections. It further maps the complex networks of reception and circulation that defined the presence of Chinese literature in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain.

The Digital East Asia Lectures are co-hosted by the Centre for Digital Scholarship and the Asian and Middle Eastern Collections at the Bodleian Libraries. The event has been generously supported by the Chung Hon Dak Fund.

Speaker

Mamtimyn Sunuodula is the Head of the East Asian Section at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. His research focuses on the history and materiality of Chinese books and manuscripts, as well as the intellectual history of Sino-European cultural exchanges.

Prior to his current role at Oxford, Mamtimyn served as a curator at the British Library and as Head of Asian and Middle Eastern Collections at Durham University Library. He holds a PhD from Durham University and has published extensively—including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and monographs—with leading international journals and academic publishers.

Dr Mamtimyn Sunuodula