Chinese Short Fiction
Final paper (individually)
- Analyze one or more than one stories from either the Ming or Qing period in terms of its literary innovations in relation to its precursors in a written assignment (no more than 1,500 words).
- Comment that authors are no longer anonymous
- There is now a canonical version of the story
- Authors care about their name
- The story was determined by a single person rather than a society
Week 1 - 小说
小说 - Xiao-shuo: Chinese Conception of Fiction
What is fiction
- Imaginary characters and events, not true
- Narrow definition - written narratives in prose.
- Broad definition - imaginary stories in any format - films, songs or even video games
Why fiction is written
- Mode of expression
- Political and social commentary
- Invoke empathy and influence the common people
Why fiction is read
- Entertainment
- Social value - to connect with other people in the society
- To improve in language skills and storytelling skills
Characteristics of fiction
- Democractic - fiction is accessible by anyone
- Inclusive - the subject could be a beggar, prostitute or the empreror
- Universal - could be accessed by people from a different society or a different time
- Adaptable - can be adapted into different formats
Reading:
- “Hsiao-shuo” in The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, volume 1, page 423-426.
- 说 - “shou” speak, “shui” persuade, “悦 yue” entertain (speech act)
- Confucian scholars do not treat fiction seriously
- 《汉书·艺文志》：“小说家者流，盖出于稗官，街谈巷语，道听途说者之所造也。”
- “Street talk and alley gossip”
- The authors are unknown, and stories are modified along the way.
- Most fiction authors are unnamed until the Tang dynasty
- 子曰：“虽小道，必有可观者焉，致远恐泥，是以君子弗为也。”
- Gentlemen should not engage in fiction even if it is popular
- Fiction was recorded to understand the populace.
- The earilest Western texts are fiction (e.g. Greek epics). The earliest Chinese texts are philosophical.
Adaptation
- An acknowledged transposition of a recognisable work or works
- A creative and an interpretative act of appropriation of salvaging
- An extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work
Watch Hero 英雄 (or The Emperor and the Assassin)
- See Wikipedia for sypnosis
- The concept of Chinese Hero
- Honorable, Loyal
- Sacrifice / willing to die for a cause
- Righteous
- Does not require success, or good martial arts
- Adaptations
- Stories are loosely based on Chinese history. We know the context. We know the ending (i.e. spoilers) - we know who will die, and who will never die.
- Since when do Chinese writers write fiction that is not meant to be the real history?
Reference:
- William H. Nienhauser, Jr. “The Origins of Chinese Fiction”. Monumenta Serica. Vol.38 (1988), pp. 191-219.
L.H.Wu, “From Xiaoshuo to Fiction: Hu Yinglin’s Genre Study of Xiaoshuo” in HJAS 55.2 (1995): 339-371.
Week 2 - History
Historiography, Historical Biography and the literary style of Chinese short fiction: Righteous Tragic Hero
《豫让》
-
“The Assassin-Retainers, Memoir 26” in Sima Qian, translated by William H. Nienhauser. The Grand scribe’s Records. Volume VII The Memoirs of Pre-Han China (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994) pp. 319-334.
-
The biography of Yu Jang 豫让《战国策·赵策一》
- Yu Jang served the earl of Chih 智伯 who treated Yu Jang very well.
- The earl was eliminated by Lord Hsiang 赵襄子, and Yu Jang vowed to take revenge - “士为知己者死,女为悦己者容”
- (性别美学 - reflects Chinese gender aesthetics)
- The first assassination failed, while the lord’s attendants wanted to execute Yu Jang, Lord Hsiang released him because he values Yu Jang’s righteousness.
- Yu Jang friend suggested that he could take revenge by offering his services to Lord Hsiang. Yu Jang rejected this recommendation because he want to bring shame to future betrayers. “亦将以愧天下后世人臣怀二心者”
- (Motivation of addressing the future generation, he treated himself as a historical figure.)
- The second assassination failed. Lord Hsiang allowed Yu Jang to strike his robes, and Yu Jang commit suicide.
Style of writing
- Factual and straightforward, chronologically
- Without describing how Yu Jang looks like, we know how he is like
- Important episodes and dialogue only to highlight character’s characteristics
《燕丹子》
Why is this fiction
- 果乌白头、马生角
- Details of the assassination
- 史记 records differently
How are the stories different
- Story contains many unnecessary details
- The main patagonist of the second story is unclear
- Contains figurative details unnecessary to the plot
- Does not strongly represent preferred values
- Not a biography, many essential details missing
Lecture
Forms of Chinese history
- Generally Chinese history is recorded in two forms
- 编年 - chronicle
- 记传 - biography
- A dynastic history usually includes
- 本纪 - annals of the imperial house
- 书 - documents
- 列传 - biographies of nobles and top officials
- 表 - chronological tables
- (起居注 - a diary of the activities of the emperor, recorded by the historian)
- Reflects the Chinese obsession with history
- 小说 - 杂史 or 野史
- The greatest Chinese historian 司马迁 and 史记
Week 3 - 世说新语
世说新语 （南朝时期笔记小说）
- Shi-shuo Xin-yu (A New Account of Tales of the World): Literati and Literati Self Presentation in Richard B. Mather translated. A New Account of Tales of the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976
- Consists of more than 1130 historical anecdotes about elite life in the late Han and Wei-Chin period.
- Describes “魏晋风度”, one of the “most creative and iconoclastic periods of Chinese imperial history” as it is very liberal and open to expression
- Type of writing - 傳神寫照 (capturing the spirit does not require exact replication) vs 摹仿 (exactly replicate the look to capture the spirit)
《品藻》
- Chapter IX, “ Classification according to Excellence”
- http://www.guoxuemeng.com/guoxue/10277.html
- Themes
- “著名人物的言行、外貌、风度、气质等进行了对比性的品味，在记述中表达了作者的爱憎倾向。” - from Baidu
- A lot of dialogue about comparison
- Use of metaphors: 4,17,87
- Notable stories
- 30) 而兼有诸人之美 - on excellence
- 35) 我与我周旋久，宁作我 - on self-comparison
《容止》
- Chapter XIV, “Appearance and Behavior”
- http://www.guoxuemeng.com/guoxue/10282.html
- Themes
- Use of metaphors: 5, 26, 11
- Use of jade as metaphor is common
- Beauty standards
- The preference for whiteness
- How Chinese care about appearance and judge by appearance
- Notable stories
《贤媛》
- Chapter XIX, “Worthy Beauties”
- http://www.guoxuemeng.com/guoxue/10287.html
- Themes
- Views on standards expected of women - virtues, partners, marriage
- Not just appearance
- Notable stories
- 2) 志不苟求，工遂毁为其状 - on integrity
- 4) 狗鼠不食汝余，死故应尔 - on jealousy
- 6) On lack of beauty and saving the marriage
- 31) 发白齿落，属乎形骸；至于眼耳，关于神明，那可便与人隔
Lecture
Three aspects of Wei-Jin intellectual life (as described by prof)
- The practice of character appraisal 人伦鉴识
- 玄学 (abstruse learning)
- “Chinese painting is not only about the appearance of a person, but also about the spirit of the person ‘全神气’”.
- 工笔 meticulous drawing, 水墨 water and ink - analaguous to the use of factual description and metaphors respectively
- Greek art - the accurate and even illusionistic - “mimesis”
- The growth of self-awareness - identity expressed in concepts such as body, self, person and gender.
Comparison with the style of stories from last week
- Still historical ancedotes, still no commoners
- Not a biography, not a complete story or anyone
- Insignificant moments of the characters’ life are captured
- Use of metaphors from natural imagery
- Treating humans with aesthetics rather than their status
- Analects - people are compared to a standards, in this compilation - there is no universal standard, people are compared to each other
- Use of abstract ideas to capture characterisitics
Chinese concept of gender
- Use of yin and yang as metaphor
- Belief in fluidity
Reference:
- Qian Nanxiu, Spirit and Self in medieval China: The Shih-shuo Hsin-yu and its legacy. (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001) chapter 1-3. pp. 17-83.
- Richard B. Mather. “Introduction to A New Account of Tales of the World”
- Harold Fisch, “Character as Linguistic Sign,” New Literary History 21.3 (1990):593-606;
- Lacan, Jacques, “The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience,” Ecrits: A Selection, trans. from the French by Alan Sheridan (New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1977), pp. 2-3.
Week 4 - 志怪小說
Six Dynasties (222-589) Supernatural and Fantastic Tales: revenge, knight-errantry and supernatural manifestation
- Karl S. Y. Kao, Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985)
- 六朝志怪小說
- Explainer https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/classical-chinese-tales-of-the-supernatural-and-the-fantastics/section/7df47edc-0c0d-4384-883b-bf20b93fe814
Primary Reading:
《列异传》- 曹丕
- “Chiang Chi’s Dead Son”
- The dead son was suffering at his underground position and appeared in the mother’s dream.
- “Ts’ai Chih’s Wife”
- A country clerk lost his way, and found himself in Heaven. His dead wife was then revived.
- “Sung Ting-po and the Ghost”
- Sung Ting-po met a ghost. They carried each other. The ghost revealed that ghosts are scared of spittle. The ghost suspected that Sung Ting-po is not a ghost. The ghost turned into a lamb, which Sung Ting-po sold for 1500 copper coins.
《搜神记》- 干宝
- “The Jade Maiden from Heaven”
- Relationship with a Godness “jade girl”, the man married another woman matched by the parents, the “jade girl” had to leave as the affair was exposed.
- “Kan Chiang and Mo Yeh”
- The swordmaker was killed by the king. The son wanted to take revenge. A stranger helped to take revenge. The king, son, and stranger’s head ended up in the claudron.
- “the Filial Girl of Tung-hai”
- A girl devoted herself to the care of the mother-in-law. The mother-in-law did not want to waste the girl’s youth and hanged herself. The daughter of the mother-in-law reported this as a crime. The girl was then executed. The new migistrate needed to perform a sacrifice.
- Crime fiction but supernatural
- “The Daughter of King of Wu
- King of Wu denied the marriage of his daughter. The daughter, named Purple Jade, died of grief. When the guy returned to the tomb, the spirit of the girl reappeared, and gifted the pearl. He presented the pearl to the king, who was enraged.
- “Ch’in Chu-po and the Ghosts”
- “Li Chi, the Serpent Slayer”
- There is a serpent. From dreams and sorceress it was learned that the serpent want fertile girls as sacrifice. Li Chi killed the serpent.
《搜神后记》- 干宝
- “The Daughter of Hsu Hsuan-fang”
- A slow resecerruction process.
- “The Pure Maiden of the White Waters”
- An orphan found a giant snail and kept it. The snail was actually a godness. She prepared food and drink, but was discovered. She had to leave. The orphan was soon married and became a local magistrate.
Lecture
- Confucian attitude towards the supernatural 子不语怪力乱神
- Type of supernatural
- Portent and augury (disasters)
- Necromantic communion
- Animisitic phenonmena
- Communion with transecendent beings - fairies and deities
- Thaumaturgic phenomena - magic feats and transformation
- Retributive phenomena
- (Foreshadowing the future)
- Why are the stories considered strange
- There is the supernatural, and there is the unexplained
- Characteristics of ghosts
- Looks like human beings
- Chinese underground institution and documents
- Access dreams
- Transformation (五行 concept that every object in the world is made of the same spirit which transform from one to another from one phase to another)
- The contact with humans is limited or secret
- (There is no canon on how ghosts behave)
- Characterisitics of deties and fairies
- Use of poetry - lyrical momemt - non-event event 无事之事
- Miscellanous
- Corelative thinking, and metaphors
Reference:
- Karl S. Y. Kao, “Introduction,” Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic, pp. 1-21,27-39.
Kenneth J. DeWoskin. “The Six Dynasties Chih-kuai and the Birth of Fiction.” in Andrew H. Plaks edited. Chinese Narrative: Critical and Theoretical Essays. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), pp.21-52.
Week 5 - 唐传奇
Tang Supernatural and Fantastic Tales: the monster, the knight-errant and female hero
- Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, in Tang Dynasty Stories.( Beijing: Panda Books, 1986), pp. 97-105, 144-149.
- Karl S. Y. Kao, Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic.(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), pp.351-362.
Primary Reading:
《南柯太守傳》- 李公佐
- https://baike.baidu.com/item/南柯太守传#2_2
- Chunyu Fen was forced to retire because he offended the general. Chunyu Fen has been living his days often drunk. He had a dream. He was escorted to the Kingdom of Ashendon (大槐安国). He was given a high appointment and Chunyu performed well at the job. Then the kingdom was invaded by a foreign kingdom. Chunyu lost the favour from the king and was sent home. Then he found out that it was a dream. The kingdoms were actually ant hills.
- Began as biography, suggesting influence from previous fiction.
- “The same two messengers dressed in purple accompanied him out of the gate. But there he was shocked to see a shabby carriage with no attendants or envoys to accompany him” - contrast before and after
- “Presently they emerged from the hollow and Chunyu saw his own village unchanged. Sadness seized him, and he could not help shedding tears.” - The Daoist idea that effort cannot change anything
- “the slanting sun had not yet set … he had lived through a whole generation” - poetic
- Use of fiction to convey philosophical ideas
《虯髯客傳》 - 杜光庭
- Characters - Curly Beard Man, Li Jing, the maid
- One of the most influential wuxia.
- Li Jing engaged in a conversation with Yang Su.
- The maid of Yang Su eloped with Li Jing.
- On the way it was met by a stranger. The tension in the encounter was resolved by the maid.
- (Rest of the story)
- Romanticised the political struggle?
《聶隱娘》
- Nie Yinniang was kidnapped and trained. Nie married a man who makes his living by polishing mirrors as her husband. General Tian Ji’an sees Nie’s advanced skills and hires her as an assistant. Nie turns on Ji’an and works for Liu Changyi.
- Furious, he sends Jingjinger to slay both Nie Yinniang and Liu Changyi – but he fails and Nie kills him instead. Tian Ji’an escalates the battle, sending Kongkonger to assassinate Liu, but Nie foils the assassination attempt. Finally, Liu Changyi is safe and treats Nie better than ever.
- Adapted into the film The Assassin (2015)
“The White Monkey”
- Ouyang’s wife was kidnapped. After some search, it was found out that she was kidnapped by a white monkey. Ouyang’s men slain the monkey and released the women.
- The monster of this story is very human - sexual desires, artisitc, good conversationalist
- “This is a satire on the famous calligrapher Ouyang Xun who was reputed to look like a monkey”
“The K’un Lun Slave”
- A scholar encountered with the singing girl and she left a signal. Mo-le decoded the signal and brough the scholar to the girl, and they eloped.
- Morals?
Reference:
- Karl S. Y. Kao, “Introduction,” Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic, pp. 21-27, 39-48.
Y.W.Ma. “Facts and Fantasy in T’ang Tales.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews, 2:2 (July 1980), 167-81.
Lecture
- Different from Western romantic novels (what are they anyway?)
- Only now writers are consciously writing fiction - based on no real story
- Begin of the use of puns and word games
- Characteristics of xia (knight errant) - temperament - they have strong passion
- Usually involved in politics but not taking the central role
- Illustrate the obsession and disgust with politics
- Has become interesting since
Week 6
Tang Romance: the dedicated lover, the heartless lover and the femme fatale
- Y.W.Ma and Joseph S.M.Lau edited Traditional Chinese Stories
- Jiang Fang, Tang Dynasty Stories, pp.43-55
“The Courtesan Li Wa”
- There is a young man who went to went to Chang’an for examinations, and was given two years of provision. He encountered Li Wa, a courtesan. He squandared his provisions over one year. Then Li Wa, and her mother, abandoned the young man. Then the young man worked in the mortuary (because he was going to die) and became a successful singer. His father recognised him and flogged him. Then the young man encountered Li Wa, and Li Wa took pity on him and took him in. Then the young man continued studying and them did well for exmainations. He became successful. Li Wa offered to leave despite the young man’s wishes. Eventually, they married and their children also became successful.
- Views on morality, and how the lack of it allows one to become rich
- How to resolve the social gap - living a honorable life (in contrast with Karl Marx class struggle and revolution)
“Prince Huo’s Daughter”
- Li Yi met Jade through a matchmaker. They lived together for two years. Li came first in the examination and needed to move. His parents has found a match for him and Li did not refuse. Li deserted Jade. Jade spent her fortune to find Li, and even had to sell her hairpin. The story became known in the capital and people resented Li. Li’s friends tricked Li to meeting Jade. Jade expressed her anger on Li and died. Li became crazy.
- What caused this tragedy?
- Social norms marrying courtesan is usually result in bad reputation - not really because we see how the society condemn Li Yi for his desertion
- Different understanding of the marriage - Li Yi does not treat marriage seriously - he searched for his wife among the courtesans. He treats marriage as a social contract. Jade view marriage as a divine commune 神圣的结合. She already know that this relationship will not result will not have a good end, but is very passionate about love, and marriage is not a social contract that can just be ended. (Caring only about your own feelings is also a problem.)
《莺莺传》
- I do not understand the story.
- How Yingying address the conflict between love and li
- Semi-autobiography - many details are hidden and conflicting logic
- The author’s is interested in something else rather than explaining the story.
- Narrative pace is slow.
- The purpose of the author - express his lyrical vision of a lost love long ago
- What is important in story? - Lyrical fiction - the poems are the feature in the story
- The author tried to jusitfy misogynic attitude, (femme fatale?)
Summary
- These Tang romances shows author’s lyrical vision 诗笔
- Chinese people love money. No money = bad life
- Who to write the fantastic but without the supernatural.
- The Tang Romances is the first set of writings that write of the sake of writing, innovative approaches towards fiction (e.g. making an atmopshere), use of story to illurstrate the concepts of morals, desire and spirituality.
- Tang Romances is still strongly influenced a historical style - and it also influenced by Chinese poetry, use of story and and illustration of literay skills
Week 7 - Recess
Week 8
Dong Huang Bian Wen: Buddhism and the Archetypal Questing Man
Primary Reading:
- “Chao T’ai and his experience in Hell” in Karl S.Y.Kao edited Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selection from the Third to the Tenth Century. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), pp.166-171.
- “The Great Maudgalyayana rescues his mother from hell” in Traditional Chinese Stories: themes and variations. edited by Y.W.Ma and Joseph S. Lau. (Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company, 2002), pp. 443-455.
The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell
- Tang Transformation Text
- Retrieved texts from Tun-huang, a city which was forgotten until recently (?)
- There are 20 surviving texts, this one is the most complete
- 变文 - 神变之文 - texts of marvelous events
- 变相 - pictures
- Takes stories dealing with miraculous transformation from Buddist sutras (?) and elaborate them into written works for the purpose of guiding the common people and converting the masses
- Difference with older stories - older stories are gossipy, this is not for entertainment
- Characteristics
- Introduction on how the story was told - no longer following the histographical style
- Episodic narrative progression (episodes are loosely linked to one another)
- Homogeneity (spoken style?)
- Illustrations (depictions)
- Prosimetric structure (prose and verse)
- Buddhist ideas
- Reincarnation, Samsara 轮回
- Nirvana 涅槃/解脱
- The futility of human endeavour
- How monk/nun tell the story
- Differences with the translated text
- The sins of the mother is presented differently
- The most important part of the story is told
- Correct the misconception of 普渡 and the current practices during hungry ghost festival
- Preaching of vegetarianism
- How does the Buddhist version of the hell differ from the Six Dynasties version of hell?
- (The other reading is a reference for the depiction of hell in Six Dynasties)
- Buddhist version focuses on retribution
- Very strong moral judgement on the people who landed in hell
- Many more types of hell
- The role of Yama King - no longer have absolute power in hell
- Much bigger universe - and how they integrated the Buddhist universe of Indian origin into the Chinese folk religion
- Dialectics in story (?) - rise and fall and enlightenment
- you need to want something to lose something
- Buddhist soteriological pattern
Reference
-
David Johnson edited. Ritual opera, operatic ritual: “Mu-Lien rescues his mother” in Chinese popular culture. Berkely: IEAS Publications, 1989.
-
Victor H. Mair. Tang Transformation Texts: a study of the Buddhist contribution to the rise of vernacular fiction and drama in China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989.
-
Li Qiancheng. Fictions of enlightenment. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004.
Week 9
Ming Vernacular Stories: Love, Self and Society
Primary Reading
- “The Jade Kuanyin,” Traditional Chinese Tales
- “The Oil Peddler Counts the Courtesan”, “The Pearl Shirt Reencountered”, “Han Wu-niang Sells Her Charms at the New Bridge Market”, “Tu Shih-niang Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” in Traditional Chinese Stories: themes and variations. edited by Y.W.Ma and Joseph S. Lau. (Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company, 2002)
“Han Wu-niang Sells Her Charms at the New Bridge Market” 《新橋市韓五賣春情》
- Plot
- Wu Shan fell in love with a stranger Chin-nu, lost his money, almost lost his life, saved my a monk (who appeared three times) and got saved
二八佳人体似酥， 腰间仗剑斩愚夫；
虽然不见人头落， 暗里教君骨髓枯
- Views on male and female sexuality
“The Oil Peddler Courts the Courtesan” 《賣油郎獨占花魁》
- Plot
- There was a smart girl Yao-chin 辛瑶琴
- Her village was ravaged by war and separated from her parents
- Neighbour tricked her and sold her to a brothel to Chiu-ma the pimp
- Yao-chin (later Mei-niang) is very popular in the brothel
- Mei-niang lost her virginity to rich man patron Chin through rape
- The Madam’s sister persuaded Mei-niang to work in the brothel
- Mei-niang cooperates and makes a lot of money for the brothel
- In another storyline, oil peddler Chin Chung is a good an honest boy
- The father thought that the son stole money and kicks Chin Chung out, and sells oil for a living
- Chin Chung sells oil to a monastery, first time seeing Yao-chin, infatuated with her
- Chin Chung is a regular oil supplier to the brothel
- Chin Chung saved up for three years and asked for Mei-niang
- First time the oil supplier met Mei-niang she was too drunk. (The vomit symbolises her immoral business, water symbolises purity - she recovered something she lost for a very long time)
- (Second half of the story)
- Characters and nameplay
- Oil peddler - 情重，情种
- Courtesan - 瑶琴 - wanting love
- Courtesan’s father - ???
- The bad neighbour - 不巧
- 帮衬
- 钱财
- Author’s attitude towards individuals
- The author separates the physical desire and spiritual love.
- Make desire very divine, worthwhile to persue,
- Analysis
- Both the male and female protagonists are refugees
- Coincidence is also a feature here
“The Pearl Shirt Reencountered”《蒋兴哥重会珍珠衫》
- Plot
- 蒋兴哥 is married to 三巧儿
- 陈大郎 is already married to 平氏 and liked 三巧儿
- 陈大郎 asked 牙婆 on how to get her 三巧儿
- 陈大郎 and 三巧儿 had an affair
- 三巧儿 and 蒋兴哥 divorced and were remarried
- 蒋兴哥 was implicated in a court, and the judge is 三巧儿 new husband
- The judge allow 蒋兴哥 to remarry 三巧儿
- The Pearl Shirt was hidden by 平氏 thinking that it is pillaged goods, and argued with 陈大郎
- 陈大郎 died soon
- 平氏 remarried with 蒋兴哥 and 蒋兴哥 reunited with his Pearl Shirt
- Elements of the plot
- There are many coincidences (a character is named 三巧儿)
- Word play (蒋德)
- Item - the Pearl Shirt - and how it linked the people and the plot together
- Characters and nameplay
- 蒋兴哥 - gave his cheating wife an opporunity to continue on with his life - why did he not shame his wife and destroy her reputation?
- 三巧儿 - ???
- Author’s attitude towards individuals with desire
- No one is invincible to temptation and depravity
- How a moral person behaves in the real context - something you could do but you should not do.
“Tu Shih-niang Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” 杜十娘怒沉百寶箱》
- Wikipedia, YouTube
- Plot
- Li is studying in a pay-to-win imperial academy
- Fell into a relationship with courtesan Tu Shih-niang
- 300 taels within 10 days to buy freedom of the girl
- 150 taels sponsored by the girl, 150 taels borrowed from somewhere
- Freedom was granted
- After two years, passerby Sun asked to buy the Shih-niang for 1000 taels, with the additional persuasion that his parents disapprove of the relationship
- At the exchange, Shih-niang revealed that she has much more wealth, which she dumped into the river, and she jumped into the river
- Who should be responsible for this tragedy?
- Is it because of the cold-heartedness of Li, or because of overwhelming desire of the Shih-niang?
- Li should definitely be blamed for being heartless, as well as Sun
- Shih-niang could have resolved everything with money - why does she not want to start a new life?
- Why did Shih-niang commit suicide which is very radical?
- (Why did Shih-niang felt destroyed from Li despite being very familiar with betrayal from her Courtesan?)
- Take revenge, to fight against society, ideals is valuable and is worth dying for and refuse the accept reality and want to protect the dream. Show her true identity
- What is the difference between this story and those from the Tang dynasty (The Courtesan Li Wa / Prince Huo Daughter)
- More complex, hidden part of the story, more worth re-reading. We can discover that Shih-niang is quite rich in the clue?
- The female character is now more complex - she is realistic given her success as a Courtesan, and idealistic as well and believed in love without the pollution of gold and sliver, but in the end discovered that this dream is only a fantasy
Lecture
- Author - 冯梦龙
- Books 古今小說, 警世通言, 醒世恆言
- In late Ming, physical desire was being sentimentalized, romantic sentiments were becoming sensualized.
- Vernacular Fiction 百话小说
- The concept of desire 情/欲
- Early Confucsian thought - 情 is part of the individual but it is something to be negative and to be controlled - 人之阴气有欲者 - 说文解字
- Desire is part of your essence - from the interpretation of 情
- 有情人终成眷属，无情, 间温情
- 情 is analagous to the flow of water
- 欲 is analagous to the waves which may cause the water overflow, something dangerous - Zhu Xi
- 欲 is more physical desire 情 is phyiscal desire
- You do not go to hell for desire. Transgressions can be forgiven, and seen as part of being human. You can have a happy ending despite faults.
- China was going through rapid (premorden) urbanisation and commercialisation
- Takeaways
- The development of traditional Chinese fiction as a narrative genre was closely related to the changing views of desire in late imperial China
- The obsession with individual desire is an essential quality that defines traditional Chinese fiction as a narrative genre
- This genre has matured, and we can appreciate how it has became sophisticated.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy7XNnMljRs
- Simulated text 得胜回头/入话
- The stories are performed in the marketplace or the theatre
- In order to warm up, or wait for more audience to settle down, there is a preamble with related very short stories.
Reference
- Hanan, Patrick. “The making of the Pearl-sewn shirt and the courtesan’s Jewel box”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Vol.33 (1973), pp. 124-153.
- The Chinese Short Story, pp. 1-7.
- The Chinese Vernacular Story, pp. 98-119.
Martin Huang. Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), pp.206-235.
- Literati and Self-Re/Presentation: autobiographical sensibility in the eighteenth-century Chinese Novel. (Stanford University Press, 1995), pp.15-44.
Week 10
Ming-Qing Gong-an 公案 Fiction: Crime, Justice and Moral Retribution
Primary Reading - Traditional Chinese Stories: themes and variations. edited by Y.W.Ma and Joseph S. Lau. (Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company, 2002), pp. 467-502.
The Judicial Murder of Tsui Ning
The Jest that Leads to Disaster
Lion Cub Lane
- Imperial brother Tsao killed a man and his child for his wife
- Lord Bao solved the case and cornered the emperor to pardon the empire (for what?)
Magistrate T’eng and the Case of Inheritance
- Preamble - filial piety and brotherly love
- Prefect Ni retired with a married son Shan-chi
- Prefect Ni fall in love with a young woman Mei-chih and had another son Chung-yang/Shan-shu
- Vicious rumours from Shan-chi
- Prefect Ni suffered a stroke. Prefect Ni chose to give most of the assets to Shan-chi.
- The scroll was discovered. Shan-shu got her fair share of the remains.
- Shan-chi son’s turned out to be profligates, and Shan-shu house prospered
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
An example of Western detective fiction
Plot
- There is a smart detective, who is not from the police.
- The murderer is an orangutan. There is a smart detective was discovered.
Lecture
- Essential features of Western detective stories
- A murder at the beginning and its explanation at the end
- An innocent person is suspected the guilty one is not (false clue)
- The detection is the work of an outsider, not the police
- The world of detective novel is constructed differently from that of our everyday experience
- How a detective operates - draw from observations, only extremely inconspicouous things interest him/her
Team sharing
- What is Gong-an fiction
- Well-known protagonists include Bao Zheng, Di Ren Jie
- Judge Dee was popularised by Robert van Gulik (高罗佩) to the West
- Why is it popular
- Allowed by the authorities for propaganda
- Escape into a world in which a solution is guaranteed
- Escape into a world of justice, where the problem of the evil is a puzzle, and someone can bring justice
- Characteristics of Gong An fiction
- Concept of retribution and karma - 报应
- Similarities of Chinese Gong An fiction with Western detective fiction
- Difference of Chinese Gong An fiction with Western detective fiction
- Chinese Gong An fiction is written for performance, Western detective story is written for reading and you need to reread multiple times for the evidences
Reference:
-
Karl S.Y.Kao. “Bao and Baoying: Narrative Causality and External Motivations in Chinese Fiction”. Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) Vol. 11 (Dec., 1989), pp.115-138.
- Robert E. Hegel and Katherine Carlitz edited. Writing and Law in Late Imperial China: Crime, Conflict, and Judgment. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007.
- R.H. van Gulik. Crime and punishment in ancient China: T’ang-Yin-Pi-Shih. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2007.
Week 11
Li Yu and His Silent Opera: Chaste Wife, Ugly Husband and Homoerotic Desire
- Partick Hannan edited Silent Operas (Wusheng xi). (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990). Pp. 1-42, 97-134, 161-201.
An Ugly Husband Fears A Pretty Wife but marries a beautiful one 《丑郎君怕娇偏得艳》
- Preamble on “pretty face, sorry fate” 薄命红颜 instead of 红颜薄命 and is an inversion of 才子佳人 - and on how being a attractive woman is considered retribution for someone previous life, and
- Male character - Not Quite Que (阙不全)
- Rich and very ugly
- Judges woman woman by appearance and loyalty
- Miss Zou (described as pretty)
- Miss He (described as beautiful)
- Was tricked by Que with a handsome man
- Miss Zhou (who committed suicide) and Miss Wu (described as pretty and beautiful)
- (what is the difference between pretty and beautiful?)
- Final arrangement - rotate among three wifes, burn incense to mask the smell of Que
- Each of the wives bore a good-looking son
A male Mencius’s mother raises her son properly by moving house three times 《男孟母教合三迁》
- Though Xu Wei preferred young boys and hated women, he got married and had a son
- Xu Wei sold most of his property to raise money to get married with Rui Lang
- Rui Lang castrated himself to gain Xu Wei’s favour and turned himself into a woman, but this was illegal.
- Xu Wei died protecting Rui Lang from the punishment of his crime.
- Rui Lang raised Xu Wei’s son Cheng Xian as her own.
- Cheng Xian was also extremely handsome, his classmates and even his teacher tried to please and molest him, so Rui Lang moved away from these bad influence like Mencius’ mother did.
- Cheng Xian know about his real identity and his father’s story but still treat Rui Lang as his real mother
Analysis
- Preamble that homosexual relationship is against nature
- Praised the love and loyalty between the characters
- Praised Ruilang and make an analogy with Mencius’s mother
- Transfers the ideals of courtship, marriage, filial piety, chaste widowhood, and selfless child raising to a homosexual love affair
- Does the concept of chasity apply to the male?
An actress scorns wealth and honour to preserve her chastity 《谭楚玉戏里传情 刘藐姑曲终死节》
- Preamble on how prostitutes and entertainers are considered the lowliest classes of the society
- Miaogu is daughter of a troupe
- Tan Chuyu join the troupe to pursue Miaogu (it is against tradition for actors and actresses to love each other)
- Miaogu parents want to sell her daughter to a rich man
- Miaogu played “The Thorn Hairpin” 荆钗记 and commited suicide (the story should have ended here). Tan jumped into the river as well
- The couples were saved by fisherman Mo.
- Tan Chuyu became successful.
- They seeked out Miaogu’s troupe and asked to perform “The Thorn Hairpin” again. Tan sensed that Miaogu has repented.
- Fisherman Mo did not want additional rewards and explained why.
- Happily ever after
Comments
- Note the parallelism 对仗 when Miaogu sacrificed herself to the river and reunion with her mother.
Team sharing
- Who is Li Yu?
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Yu_(author)
- Lived between Ming and Qing dynasty
- Writer, dramatist, landscape architect
- Considered as “fervent apostle of the new” and believed newness is a universal value in everything
- Contrasts with Confucians values the tradition
- High standard for “newness” - as a writer he does not want to repeat even himself, does not see the value repeating an old story once again
- Gave up his official title, so that he can freely express himself in fiction
- Does not feel ashamed for selling his work to the public
- What are the characteristics of Li Yu short fiction?
- Likes to explain everything
- There are usually multiple climaxes (e.g. Miaogu compared to Du Shih Niang)
- Comedy
- Novel content
- Against traditional views
- What are the literary innovations of Li Yu’s short fiction?
- Challenge the current understanding of the desire
- Entirely fiction now, non-referentiality 非参指性
- Use of vulgar language
- Format liberalisation - long preamble (as seen in Ming stories)
- The majority of the plots in Li Yu’s fiction involve reversals of accepted situations, e.g. upright officials are more harmful to society than their lax or corrupt counterparts
- Ingenuity in its carefully designed structure - with intrincate parallels and contrast of characterisation, incident, order and arrangement
- Ingeunity marked by quick twist and deft (usually comic) images, and it is punctuated by jokes
Reference:
- Patrick Hanan. The invention of Li Yu (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), pp. 76-110.
- Chun-shu Chang and Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang. Crisis and Transformation in seventeenth-century China: society, culture, and modernity in Li Yu’s world. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992), pp.231-266.
Week 12
Liao Zhai Zhi Yi (Strange Tales from Make-do Studio): the supernatural maiden, the ghost wife
The Earthquake
- Describe reaction to a earthquake rather than the earthquake
- The reaction to the earthquake
- Is running out naked considered unusual
Lust punished by foxes
- Plot
- Husband bought a house with fox-spirits who constantly spoiled his clothes
- Husband has a hobby 癖 of collecting aphrodisiacs
- The fox-spirits slipped one of the drugs into the congee
- The wife is sexually aroused, and want to have sex with the guest
- The guest refused
- The wife wanted to hang herself, but was discovered by the maid
- The husband threw away his aphrodisiacs
- Analysis
- Desire/lust is bad and immoral
- Obsession can be dangerous
- Chinese concept of self
- Excessive desire and attachment to something
- The desire defines the self
- 人无癖不可与交
- If I give up my obsession, am I still myself?
- 人与物的关系
- The fox is the symbolic manifestation of the obsession
Homunculus
- Another story about obsession
- “I think I’m taking shape”
- The demon as a symbolic manifestation of Taoist yoga.
- If you lose your obsession, you lose your soul - “as if his very soul gone missing”
Living Dead
- TBC
- Analysis
- The living beings are already dead
- The dead being is more active and purposeful than the supposedly living
Rouge
- Plot
- Rouge liked a first-class scholar named Li Qiusun
- Other males posed as Li to get Rogue
- Murders and etc
- Brought to the judge
- Su Jie is a lecherous
- Big Mao is the killer
- Rouge is married with Li
- An example of Chinese detective story
The Painted Wall
- Meng Longtan
- Fell in love with woman on the painted wall, went to live with her in the world, and was forced leave the world when found out
- Monk - the illusion lies within the man himself
- Analysis
- Obsession - propose to abstain from obsession in order to regain our inner peace
The Magic Sword and the Magic Bag
- Analysis
- Obsession for sex or money
- Boundaries between dead and living can be resolved, you can build a relationship with a ghost
The Painted Face
- A demon who could draw his face
- A madman who helped the wife revive her husband
- Analysis
- Obsession over female beauty
- Obsession can be illegal as well, and it has subversive power
- Obsession bcause it is illegal, e.g. Madonna-whore complex
- Difference between evil spirit and the wife
The Haunted House
Stealing a Peach
Prof have no idea how to interpret
Lecture
- Returned to Chinese narrative tradition
- Recovering the tradition can also be considered an innovation
- Ignored during his times
- Motivation Pu Songling 蒲松齡 is revealed in Preface - where he talked about his life journey
- He cited some of the famous literati (and negatively compared himself to him)
- He failed national examinations repeatedly, there world he is living is bleak
- He wondered about the meaning of his own existence
- Usage of obscure skills to boast his language skills
- Common theme of anguish in Chinese fiction
- Use of fiction to explore certain themes
- The issue of obsession
- The question of self
- Stories is a mirror to author personality
Primary Reading:
- Selections from the Strange Tales from Make-do Studio, Tales # 6.Tales # 1. Tales # 11. Tales #43. Tales # 12.
Reference:
- Judith Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale.(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997). “Introduction”.
- Allan Barr, “A Comparative Study of Early and Late Tales in Liaozhai zhiyi (Strange Tales from Make-do Studio).” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 45.1 (1985):157-202.
Week 13
Old stories retold: Traditional Chinese short fiction and Contemporary Chinese cinema
Videos
- King of Chu and Mo-ye
- Sung Ting-po and the ghost (x3)
- Chin-chu po and the ghosts
- The Living Dead
- The empreor and the assassin
Feedback from Prof and notes on making adaptations
- (Learn how to stream the video, massive lag for many of the videos)
- Rely on performance rather than on the words or narration
- Actor and actresses is important
- Character differentiation
- Setting is important (should be at night)
- Personally I prefer memes
Movie Screened
- Qian Nv You Hun (A Chinese Ghost Story 2011)
- The conflict between heroism and qing
- On the conflict between qing and the law of nature
- On the reconciliation between dead and living
Reference:
- Judith Zeitlin, The Phantom Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in Seventeenth-Century Chinese literature(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997). “Introduction”.
- Kevin Heffernan. “Inner Senses and the changing Face of Hong Kong Horror Cinema”, in Jinhee Choi and Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano edited. Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009).