Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s3.t7.28

v2.c10.s3.t7.28

Lu Xun thought highly of ancient Indian literature, including *Ramayana*. He wrote: "On the Power of Satanic School of Poetry" in 1907, and mentioned admiringly Kalidasa in this long article, "ancient India had four *vedas*, which are fascinating and profound; *Mahabharata* and *Ramayana* are two epics with charming beauty". The poet-monk Su Manshu, after studying Sanskrit and travelling in India, published *Yanzikan Suibi* in 1913, and praised the Indian epics *Ramayana* and *Mahabharata* as "grand and elegant", and "a great treasure in the eyes of European literary figures, just like Illiad and Odyssey were to Greece. These two Indian epics have not been translated into Chinese, and only in the book "Huayan Jingchao" it states, "*Ramayana* and *Mahabharata* are names of books. They were translated into European language a long ago, and the best is the translation made by Ramesh Dutt, with an introduction provided by the British scholar Max Müller, but it is a partial rather than complete version." Obviously, he realised the great value of the two Sanskrit epics and had a strong desire to translate them into Chinese.