THE VILE CHINESE EMPIRE, A KOREAN TRAITOR AND THE JAPANESE PILGRIMS - ETHNIC STEREOTYPES IN 'JIANZHEN'S VOYAGE TO THE EAST' (A.D. 769) (Podle imperium chinskie, koreanski zdrajca i japonscy wedrowcy - etnostereotypy w 'Przekazie o podrozy na wschod'

Jianzhen (688-763), a Chinese monk, scholar and an expert in medicine, accepted an invitation by a group of Japanese emissaries to lecture in their home country. He set on a perilous journey and after a total of six attempts, he managed to reach the shores of Kyushu. The odds he and his disciples faced during the journey included unfavourable weather conditions, numerous government interventions and, finally, an eye infection that made him blind. Jianzhen's journey was documented years after his arrival in Japan by a court official, Omi no Mifune (722-785). This biography, although based on the information provided by Jianzhen's disciples who survived the journey and settled in Japan, contains elements that are clearly mythological and the characters appearing throughout the text are often seen through stereotypes rooted in the mind of ancient Japanese aristocracy members.