On bats, borrowings, and beginnings: How translation begets literature

While stories and myths are common in all societies, the development of what may be termed a “literature” is a much rarer occurrence. Most spoken languages do not even possess a script, and the appearance of writing, of visible language, does not itself mark the advent of a literature. How then does literature come about? This paper attempts to answer this far-reaching question by looking at a small Tibeto-Burman minority group in southwest China, the Naxi, and how their ritual texts might have developed into a literature for broader consumption. The Naxi have a well-developed mythic narrative surrounding a white bat that travels to the heavens to collect sacred books of divination. Just as Buddhist translator Xuanzang in the Chinese tradition evolved into an emblem of Buddhist literary culture (the transmitter of sacred texts), the more clearly mythological white bat serves a similar purpose for the Naxi. But where did this story emerge from? How did the myth become literature? This paper will take the tale of the white bat in the Naxi tradition as a case study, specifically revealing how Eastern Himalayan narratives coalesced via a translational process into a distinct literary tale that became emblematic of book culture.A longer abstract of this article in this language can be found here: synopsis.