RECEPTION OF BAI JUYI’S PROSE IN BULGARIA: HOW DO FOREIGN AUDIENCES PERCEIVE HIS WORKS AFTER 1250 YEARS?

Abstract

The poet from the time of Tang dynasty (唐朝) Bai Juyi (白居易, 772–846) left a lasting mark on the history of Chinese literature. His innovation in literature and free spirit, which does not obey external requirements, are evident not only in his poetry, but also in his prosaic texts. Nowadays his prose is relatively less well known than his poetry. The paper presents a research on the reception of his work “A Script for the Thatched Cottage in Mount Lu” 《( 庐山草堂记》) in Bulgaria. It was conducted through surveys among Bulgarian students, who study Chinese, and students from other humanities majors. Conclusions were drawn about the perception of this text and by comparing the respondents’ answers, the importance of background knowledge for the perception of this work was studied. A translation of this text has been presented in Bulgarian for the first time. The article will also include an analysis of A Script for the Thatched Cottage in Mount Lu, both based on students’ answers and through independent interpretation.