A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty (Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library) [1st ed. 2021] 9811624895, 9789811624896

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Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library

Shuofang Xu Qiuke Sun

A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty Translated by Li Ma

Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library

Taking advantage of the interdisciplinary strength of Zhejiang University, “Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library” seeks to build bridges between social science academics in China and abroad. Whether the subject matter is on the arts or sciences, the past or the present, the east or the west, pure or applied; it seeks to promote publications that represents the academic excellence, cultural quintessence and the research cutting edge of China’s higher education.

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Shuofang Xu · Qiuke Sun

A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty

Shuofang Xu Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China

Qiuke Sun Kunming University Kunming, China

Translated by Li Ma East China University of Political Science and Law Shanghai, China

ISSN 2731-5304 ISSN 2731-5312 (electronic) Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library ISBN 978-981-16-2489-6 ISBN 978-981-16-2490-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2 Jointly published with Zhejiang University Press The print edition is not for sale in China (Mainland). Customers from China (Mainland) please order the print book from: Zhejiang University Press. Translation from the Chinese language edition: 明代文学史 by Shuofang Xu, et al., © Zhejiang University Press 2018. Published by Zhejiang University Press. All Rights Reserved. © Zhejiang University Press 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publishers, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

The Key Project of National Social Science Academy Awarded in the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” of National Publishing Project Nominated in the 1st Session of China Publication Government Award Awarded in the 1st Session of “Three One Hundred” Original Publishing Project Sponsored by Zhejiang Provincial Fund for Academic Works

Preface

Novels and operas are undoubtedly the most distinctive and important content of the literature in the Ming Dynasty. In that sense, the climax of the literature in the Ming Dynasty should not come until the later part of the Ming Dynasty. However, it does not mean that this book should expel the poetry from the literary history of the Ming Dynasty, as poetry was also an integral part of the Ming Dynasty. Chinese ancient novels and operas are different from those in the West and have their own unique development processes. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the novel and the opera share the same life, rely on each other and are closely related. It is impossible to understand the laws of their development unless they are linked together, because quite a few works were finally written by the literati and were passed on from generation to generation by Talents of Book Society, storytelling artists and anonymous writers. Those writers were from different eras, who accumulated the collectively created works passing on from generation to generation in the continuous process of circulation. Literati’s took the lead for the growth of novels and operas. The term “Talents of Book Society” firstly appeared in the Ghost Book by Zhong Sicheng in the Yuan Dynasty and has been passed down. However, as for the identity of the Talents of Book Society, the predecessors did not make a clear definition. In fact, they were the adapters for the compilation of the collectively created works for generations. It is necessary to explain that the so-called collectively created works don’t just refer to the works created by collective participation of the writers at the same time (of course, there is no possibility of discussion and questioning between participants in different eras), but refer to folk artists of different generations who deleted and modified the novels and operas that had been inherited. It involves a rule similar to the survival of the fittest—the law of evolution: if the deletion and modification made by the Talents of Book Society in a certain period of time were not good enough to surpass their predecessors’, their works would be ignored by future generations, and they would use the style before them. The above mentioned compilation includes all situations as the passive recordings and its comprehensive creation. The novels and operas of the generational collectively created works that had undergone a long process and were adapted and written more than once from the less desirable material to the nearly perfect work. The Talents of Book Society played a very important role in this process. vii

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As the name suggests, Book Society should be the guild of the storytellers at first, and later expanded to the Zaju, puzzles and other art forms. The beginning of the Water Margin engraved by Rongyu Hall in the Ming Dynasty refers to “Book Forest”. Quite some books were proved to be the works from Talents of Book Society, such as Little Suntu was inscribed with “Compiled by the Ancient Hangzhou Talents”, Official’s Child Wrongly Positioned was inscribed with “Compiled by the Ancient Hangzhou Book Society”. The Talents of Book Society can be actors or mainly compilers without getting on stage. In spite of high demands of the talents who wrote novels in The Drunken Talk, the talents writing operas must meet even higher requirements, at least in written form. In this way, the opera has strict rules, including four sounds and harmonious rhymes. Therefore, the Talents of Book Society must also be literati. However, due to the low social status, they were not scholar-officials (in feudal China). That’s why the Ghost Book distinguished Ming Gong from the talents. The ancient book society was a loosely managed organization, and may not have any definite organizational forms. The book society originated in the Song and Jin Dynasties, though we haven’t found the relevant records to match their real identities. After entering the Yuan Dynasty, due to that fact the imperial examination was suspended for a long time, the literati had fallen into The Talents of Book Society in mass and became the mainstream by pushing aside the less educated members of Book Forest. In Hongwu and Yongle era, literati were subjected to political persecution, by as a class in the society, the status of literati (including the Talents of Book Society) had been improved and their original social identity was restored. The last records of the Book Society that can be found now were in Liu Panchun’s Resentment of Sachet (Fold I), the Zaju by Zhu Youdun. Later, most of the writers of the generational collectively created works were taken over by the literati having a slightly higher social status. There have been many misunderstandings about the development of the operas in the Ming Dynasty. One is that the Zaju was lost after the Jin Dynasty and that a small number of literati had their own actors playing Zaju in the study room or the red carpet, which was the literati’s self-entertainment after their meal and had been cut off from the people. However, according to the description of the performance of Golden Lotus, the Zaju which was staged at that time was The West Chamber (Chapter 61), The Golden Boy and Jade Girl (Chapter 32), The Marriage of Two Lifetimes (Chapter 41), Keeping Shoes (Chapter 43), Stormy Era (Chapter 71), and Jewellery Box, in which the librettos were different from today’s version. In fact, the popularity of operas in the Ming Dynasty was far beyond common speculation. According to Fu Xihua Yuan’s Full Repertoire of Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty, there were about 550 kinds of Zaju, (It should be pointed out that among the Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty recorded in this book, most of them were from the Song and Jin Dynasties). In his Full Repertoire of Zaju in the Ming Dynasty, there were 523 kinds of Zaju of the Ming Dynasty. Besides the creation and theoretical research of Zaju made by the two princes Zhu Quan and Zhu Youdun in the early Ming Dynasty, there were also many people who had engaged in Zaju besides the legends, such as Liang Chenyu, the author of The Red Line Girl; Mei Dingzuo, the author of Kunlun

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Slaves; Xu Xiazuo, the author of A Penny. There were also literati who had been famous for their Zaju, such as Xu Wei and his The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape, Wang Daokun and his Daya Hall Zaju, Wang Heng and his Robe of Yu Lun, Marriage of Another Life, Real Puppet and No Way, all of which can’t be easily obliterated. The Zhu Youdun’s Zaju was widely circulated in the early Ming Dynasty. There were notes for a performance attached to the end of the The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape. It was not difficult to find records of such performances in Wang Daokun and Wang Heng’s Zaju. It is simply not the case that they were closet plays. The second misunderstanding about operas in the Ming Dynasty is about the origin and survival of the Southern Opera. The Southern Opera, which emerged in the southeastern coastal areas of China and the vast urban and rural areas of the Yangtze River, was considered to be limited to Wenzhou city of Zhejiang Province, and it was confirmed groundlessly by some that it had been lost in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, among the literature of ancient Southern Opera that has been preserved to this day, the records of Hangzhou are slightly more than those of Wenzhou. The story of Zhao Zhennv in the Southern Opera was the only one which had been completely adapted. The well-known editor of the book, Gao Ming, was the author of Pipa Notes. It should be pointed out that Gao Ming’s adaptation of the book was in Yushe of Ningbo, far away from Wenzhou. Lu You’s poem Boat Tour Near the Village (part 4) was about the widely spread folk legend of Zhao Zhennv in Shaoxing’s countryside. It was far from Wenzhou but close to Hangzhou. As we all know, the rise of a kind of an opera must be based on a certain tune. However, Wenzhou hasn’t got any native singing so far, which is an insurmountable obstacle for the view that Southern Opera originated from Wenzhou city. Did the Southern Opera tend to decline after the Song and Yuan Dynasties? Just take a look at Golden Lotus to get the answer. When the family of Ximen Qing officially set a banquet for senior officials, such as in Chapters 49, 63, 64, 72, 74, 76 of Golden Lotus, the Zaju performed were all in Hai Yan tune, and the details were mindfully recorded in Chapters 74 and 76. This indisputably provided evidences for the popularity of Southern Opera in the Ming Dynasty. The Zaju of Jin and Yuan Dynasties was as popular as the legend of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Actually the most prosperous time for legend was during the late Ming Dynasty. This view summarized the basic trends of the development of ancient operas. Such a generalization is so brief that it could be misleading. The folk Southern Opera was neglected because of the long process of circulation and creation, and it is difficult to specify its starting era. The general term of Southern Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties is actually not limited to the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Their creations had not been in decline throughout the Ming Dynasty. Their performance and circulation among the folks continued on the same scale. It was only because of the rise of the literati legend that Southern Opera lost its former monopoly position which led to the misunderstanding that it had declined. The third misunderstanding about the operas in the Ming Dynasty is that all the legends belong to Kun Tune. After the Zaju of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the prosperity of the legend heralded another new prosperous era from the late Ming

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Dynasty until the middle of the Qing Dynasty. The cumulative creation and development of opera tunes in Pipa Notes, The Romance of a Hairpin, Jade Hairpin and Peony Pavilion by artists had become the treasures of our national cultural and artistic heritage. They were not originally created for the Kun Tune, and the transplantation and processing of them by Kun Tune only happened later. More precisely, all the Southern Operas and the legend of the literati were of a universal script of various tunes in the Southern areas. As far as opera creation is concerned, it didn’t start from the Laundering Gauze of Liang Chenyu. All the legends were meant to be created for Kun Tune. Kun Tune was one of the branches of folk southern opera, whose metric perfection cannot be done overnight. It had undergone a long process of improvement, even Suzhou singers were no exception. It turned out that after Laundering Gauze, Kun Tune did not immediately became dominant in opera performance. Take Golden Lotus as an example—didn’t mention Kun Tune or other tunes in the Southern Operas that used flutes as the main accompaniment instrument. Even if in referring to the “actors of Suzhou Opera” popular in the north in Chapter 36, it didn’t mean the actors of Kun Tune. In the era of Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing, Kun Tune and other local operas coexisted, and the same opera texts can be performed by Kun Tune and others after simple adaptations. This can be seen as a necessary step from the creation to the performance, which is true even in modern operas. The distinction between Southern Opera and the legend does not depend on their tunes. It is not that the Southern Opera is exclusively applicable to the four major tunes, but that legend is only applicable to the Kun Tune. The main difference between them is that the Southern Opera is folk opera, and legend is from the adaptation and creation of literati, which results in the different properties of the two. The development of ancient Chinese vernacular novels took shape after the period of storytelling texts. The texts can’t be overly literal, interpreted as the scripts of the storytellers, as Lu Xun had done in his book A Brief History of Chinese Novels: Scripts of the Song Storytellers. Lu Xun was obviously considered as the texts for a teacher that he was familiar with. This explanation was not consistent with the description in the Preface to the Ancient and Modern Novels by the owner of the Green Sky Museum. The textbook is a copy for people to read, but there is no need for a script for the storytellers to pass their stories on to their apprentices. People have never doubted Lu Xun’s statement for decades. Another view of people toward the scripts is that they are just prose without poetic rhyme, and once there is poetic rhyme, they become imitating vernacular novels, this is exactly the opposite of the facts. The Drunken Talk in the Southern Dynasty, the earliest documentary materials for the art of storytelling, bluntly said in The Beginning of Novels A, Vol 1st, “every sentence contains poetry (to show the storyteller is talented and well cultivated)”. The description of the storytelling of Bai Xiuying in Chapter 51 of Water Margin can be concrete proof. With the insertion of poetry and prose in the storytelling, vernacular novels are also called poetic stories. There is no essential difference between the two. We must break the stereotype that the “Four Masterpieces” in the Ming Dynasty are works completed by individual writers when discussing their era and authors. East Capital Dreams Recorded, Vol. 5th, inscribed in the self preface with Meng Yuanlao on the New Year’s Eve of Shaoxing 17th year in the Southern Song Dynasty,

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recorded “Huo Sijiu tells the story of Tripartite Division”, which indicates the advanced level of storytelling on the theme of the Three Kingdoms. In the Zhizhi Period (1321–1323), the newly published Illustrated Stories of the Three Kingdoms, which was the earliest prototype of the stories on Three Kingdoms, Sketches of the Tree Divisions was a counterfeit of its adaption. From historical facts to novels, it was a slow process for the stories of the Three Kingdoms from the late Tang to the Northern Song Dynasties. Stories of the Three Kingdoms used heroes in the Water Margin to describe Liu, Guan and Zhang. The two different themes interacted and influenced each other in the long-term circulation, developing from the 55,000 words of story style, into Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms with a total of 580,000 words. In the first year of Jiajing (1522), the story of the Three Kingdoms was officially transcribed into book form. The book was introduced as being “passed down from Duke Ping Yang of Jin, compiled by the later scholar Luo Guanzhong”. According to this, Luo Guanzhong became the key figure in many revisions. The novel was finally adapted by him. The engraved copy in Jiajing 1st year, in a certain sense, may be only an imagined version. The original book had not been passed down. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Mao Lun and his son Mao Zonggang in the early Qing Dynasty had been accepted as the final version in the past 300 years. The altered preface by Li Yuxu and the preface assuming the name of Jin Shengtan should not be from Mao’s writing. So the Romance of the Three Kingdoms at present had been revised several times after Mao’s edition. The other three of the so-called Four Masterpieces experienced the same evolution as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which was a basic fact in the history of Chinese novels. There had been a long period of storytelling before the book was written and gradually grew mature along its circulation among artists from different ages. Finally, the book was compiled by one of the literati. This book referred to this type of ancient Chinese novels and operas as collectively created works. The combination of “collectively created works” and “adaptive works” is the basic connotations of this important academic viewpoint. However, there might have been the following situations: there was a coexistence of both, such as “The Four Masterpieces”; some collectively created works had been written by literati without any of their own revisions such as “The Four Major Southern Operas”; some adapters of collectively created works had devoted more efforts and put in more of their personal elements, such as Pipa Notes. However, they were all developed into books through continuous revisions. It is not entirely up to a writer to be responsible for the strength or the weakness of a book, whether he is a genius or not. The first formation of the stories in Water Margin was in the Yuan Dynasty. There is a difference between a story and a written book, and a book came into being after the story. Golden Lotus originally was a branch of the story of Water Margin series. Later, it became powerful from its vassal. Both the Water Margin and Golden Lotus were collectively created works formed in long-term circulation with different imprints of the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties. The formation of the Water Margin was earlier than that of Golden Lotus, but their predecessors—“storytelling” or “poetic story”, made it hard to tell which was presented earlier. It is better to say that Golden

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Lotus shared the same source with Water Margin rather than being based on several chapters in Water Margin, including the stories of Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian. The stories of Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian in the Water Margin was earlier than that of Golden Lotus, but some other stories might be the opposite. These are series of stories that have not been stereotyped and went through the normal process of long-term evolution with infiltration and mutual influence. The earliest edition of the existing 100-chapter Journey to the West is the copy revised by Huayang Dongtian Master and published by Jinling Shide Hall. The Journey to the West had also undergone a long process of cumulative evolution. Xuanzang’s Records of the West in the Great Tang Dynasty and Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master compiled by his disciples Hui Li and Yan Cong provided a fictitious basis for certain plots of Records of the West and Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master recorded a number of historical facts and the illusions of religious believers. Their objective effects were similar to the artistic fiction of the novel. About six centuries after the death of Xuanzang, the Poetic Stories of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures by Zhang’s Publishing House in Zhongwazi of Hangzhou, is the earliest extant copy by folk artists. It is still not clear whether The Journey to the West or The Legend of Deification came first. Even if the exact formative age of the two books had been confirmed, the same fragments in later books were not necessarily copied from the former. Both books had undergone a long-term circulation, including the folk artist storytelling stage, but we can’t rule out the possibility that if they infiltrated each other in the process of formation, the earlier compiled works may also be influenced by the later compiled works, and the creation and circulation of the later compiled works may have been their earlier prototypes. The novels which were created by individuals in ancient China were spurred by the collectively created full-length novels represented by The Four Masterpieces. Between the individual creations that had finally came to the fore and the collectively created works that had existed for a long time, there were also works that had the dual natures of individual creations and collectively created works. A book may mostly or slightly belong to one nature, while some works had equal proportions of dual natures, and others might be a thirty-seventy ratio or the opposite. At the beginning of individual creation, there were rarely creations which were completely by individuals. When we say that a work is an individual creation, it is just a general term. As any collectively created work may be compiled and revised by at least one or two individuals. In this sense, we regarded Private Records of the Embroidered Couch and other works during that era as the symbol of the rise of ancient Chinese individual creative full-length novels. In today’s creditable Chinese full-length novels, the Private Records of the Embroidered Couch of Lu Tiancheng was the earliest. It was compiled into a book in the twenty-seventh year of Wanli (1599). It was a poor imitation of Golden Lotus which was a disclosure of the dark aspects of society along with a number of porn clips with great realistic significance. However, Private Records of the Embroidered Couch was a book without any artistic value except pornograpghy. The appearance of A Dream of Red Mansions showed the positive influence of Golden Lotus in later

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novels. Embroidered Couch was an example of the adverse effects of Golden Lotus. Since then, collectively created novels continued to be written into books and were published. Individual creations had emerged and was gradually building up its influence and momentum. It should be emphasized that the Embroidered Couch was not the only case in the development of the above-mentioned ancient Chinese novels. It was not just one novel that could take the lead in a new era of individual creation of novels. Loyalty of Guard Yu had the distinct characteristics of individual creation, but it was not written into book form until 1611; Quotations of Crazy Ji Zen Master’s Lectures in Qiantang Lake was published in Longqing 3rd year (1569). It was similar to individual creation and collective compilation of folklore, with little modification and retouching by “the authors”. Both of the works belong to one of the biggest genres of ancient Chinese full-length novels, namely historical biographic novels. They all started from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. From a certain perspective, they were either successful or unsuccessful imitations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The former is too real, the latter tends to be grotesque and absurd. Romance of the Three Kingdoms was successful in maintaining the right proportion between the virtual and the real. If I were to list the works with some achievements, I would recommend New Annals of Kingdoms which was modified by Feng Menglong and Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties which was adapted by Zhu Renhuo. Yu Shaoyu, Yu Wentai and Feng Menglong were all publishers, but they were also engaged in novel adaptations, which turned it to being a trend for the creation of historical novels, to a certain extent. Imitation, inheritance and citation of the collectively created works in the same generation were similar, but not the same. The creative activities of individual authors can be found in their process of imitating, inheriting and citing. Among the earlier individual creation of full-length novels that started from imitation, there was also the famous Popular Romance of the Eunuch Sanbao in the West Ocean (1597), the Western Ocean Records for short, with a total of one hundred chapters. The first seventeen chapters were mainly collectively created works. Although the composition of individuals can not be ruled out, it only takes a secondary position; the last eighty-three chapters are mainly based on imitation, and the collectively created works accounted for the secondary. The book had both consistent styles and non-consistent performances. It may be that the traces of the different stories coming from with different sources. Zhao Jingshen said that the author used a style of writing the fairy tale stories to create Western Ocean Records (A Study of Chinese Novels. Eunuch Sanbao in the West Ocean). In fact, they were not fairy tales, but a feature of the collectively created folk storytelling literature. There are two sources for Chinese short novels: Classical short stories can be traced back to historical biographical novels and novels of notes. They originated from Historical Records and were written in classical Chinese or close to it. Their authors were literati. The vernacular short stories were dominant in the Ming Dynasty, but since Qu You’s New Remarks by Oil Lamp in the early Ming Dynasty, the short stories of classical Chinese still developed weakly and slowly, which served not only as a bridge to the Strange Tales of a Lonely Studio and Notes of Yuewei Thatched Cottage, but also provided a lot of material for

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creation of the literati who were prospering in the late Ming Dynasty. For example, Song Maocheng (1569–1622), the most outstanding short story writer in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote the works of Collection of Nine Flutes and Love Forsaken which were originally documentary works. It was said that they were written into books according to hearsay, and then adapted by anonymous writers, evolving into the famous Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt Regained and Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger in the collection of “Three Enlightenment”. From this one typical case, the influence of the classical novel can be seen in the development of short stories in the Ming Dynasty. As a collection of large-scale classical Chinese short stories, Wang Shizhen’s Romantic Adventures represented another literal type, which has the common ground with the theme in the vernacular short stories. History of Romance caught more attention because of its relationship between Love Story, “Three Enlightenment” and “Two Admonition Books”. The vernacular short stories are the same as the long chapter novels, which appeared under the influence of storytelling texts. Their relationship with classical Chinese short stories is not only manifested in the adaptions which were based on a great deal of materials from short novels, but also on the fact that some of them were classical Chinese. Such as Qian Sheren’s Poems in Swallow Tower in Convincing Arguments Warning the World, Vol. 10th, Zhang Hao Meets Yingying in Suxiang Pavilion (Vol. 29th, idem.), and Emperor Sui Yang Visits Zhao Qian in Lasting Words, Vol. 24th. Maybe they were all the old texts from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, which were turned into books early. The literati’s vernacular short novels became prosperous during the late Ming Dynasty. It was the short story style based on the storytelling scripts, which was generally taken as imitated vernacular short novels. As a whole, Feng Menglong’s “Three Enlightenment” was a collection of vernacular novels which were mainly composed of the old stories of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and popular oral stories. Only The Old Examinee’s Gratitude was completely created by Feng Menglong. In that sense it was the beginning of imitated vernacular novels by literati. Contrary to the “Three Enlightenment”, Ling Mengchu’s “Two Admonition Books” was typical imitated vernacular novels by literati. Lu Renlong’s Motto for Behaviors had taken a step further from imitated vernacular novels to individual creations. The vernacular short story was very popular during the late Ming Dynasty. This is because it met the needs of the public and brought a lot of financial benefits to the propagators. As the messenger, editor, creator and publisher of public cultural communication, or a person with multiple roles, such as Feng Menglong, they played an important part in the process of dissemination. Although moral preaching was the common tenet of such novels, the vast marketing and publishing benefits were undoubtedly the important driving forces for them to distribute novels. The market operation was relatively mature at that time. When the A Survey on Ancient and Modern Anecdotes was first engraved and published, it had not been popular until the name was changed into The Ancient and Modern Jokes. After the first publication, the second publication was rushed to market in haste. Rare as it was during that time, but it’s not hard to understand today.

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In the late Ming Dynasty, there was another genre called legendary novelettes. They were longer than short novels but shorter than full-length novels, and they were collected in many popular engraved books in the Ming Dynasty. However, it was difficult to find out information about their authors. The earliest works that can be traced now are the old work Story of Jiao Hong in the Yuan Dynasty. Obviously Story of Jiao Hong, with the traces of the Ming Dynasty, was not completely an old work. Under its influence, a batch of similar novels appeared, such as Wu’s Romantic Adventure, Dragons of Orchid Pool Record, On Lianfang Tower, Collection of Love Poems. In fact, most of them were about the romance between talents and beauties, without many legendary features, and their forms of expression were between vernacular novels and imitated vernacular novels, just as their authors were between literati and actors. As mentioned above, though novels and operas occupied a unique position and a great proportion in the literary history of the Ming Dynasty, it did not mean that we can obliterate the achievements and significance of traditional poetry in the literature of the Ming Dynasty. It is one thing to ignore it and quite another to give them a fair evaluation for their achievements. It is reasonable to make vertical comparisons about the traditional poetry of the Ming Dynasty. We don’t agree with the one-sided negation of it, and we should avoid the other extreme of giving them full affirmation. In fact, there are many issues in the poetry of the Ming Dynasty deserving further explorations. The Ming Dynasty was a prosperous period of popular literature and traditional literature was relatively going downhill. In fact, the Ming Dynasty was neither the beginning nor the end of this situation. Objectively, the Ming Dynasty was only a part of the decline of traditional literature after the Song Dynasty. There were indeed no master poets like Li, Du, Han, and Liu, but this was just one aspect. On the other hand, even in the waning period, there had still been some prosperous moments in literature, and even a few famous writers had emerged. This is another fact of traditional literature in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, from Li Mengyang, the leader of the Early Seven Scholars who advocated restoring the ancients, to Yuan Hongdao, the leader of Gongan school who was anti-retro, the traditional poetry of the Ming Dynasty had never stopped learning from folklore. This shows that popular literature and traditional literature were not contradictory. Instead, the traditional literature actively learned from folklore and developed itself, which presents us with a new perspective for the traditional poetry of the Ming Dynasty. Song Lian, Liu Ji and Gao Qi had always been regarded as the symbols for the prosperity of poetry in the early Ming Dynasty, but in fact they were all literati who were from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty. Song Lian praised the emperor and his country with poetry so he became the model of a new generation of orthodox literature; the poetry of Liu Ji and Gao Qi was no longer featured with the characteristics of the Yuan Dynasty. During this period, famous scholars rarely met with a good end, including Song Lian and Liu Ji. The four masters of Wu Zhong, headed by Gao Qi, all died in their boots. The Wuzhong (mid Wu area) literature, once poetic and prosperous, turned sluggish. This was another result of the political rectification in the early Ming Dynasty. Although the four masters of Wu Zhong did not stop their

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creation of poetry after entering the Ming Dynasty, the rhyme and style of this poetry contained the sadness of disharmony with the flourishing era of the Ming Dynasty founded by Zhu. It is necessary to distinguish the different spiritual intent of the literati between the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, rather than ignoring it; it is also necessary to explore what impact on those literati from the political purge, but not just the work itself. In addition, the striking literary retro movement in the literary history of the Ming Dynasty had already set off a wave during the early Ming Dynasty, but it was often overlooked. As the forefront of the literary retro movement of the Ming Dynasty, the literary retro in the early Ming Dynasty was caused by the development of traditional literature itself, and also related to the literati’s recognition of the new dynasty of this period. In the early Ming Dynasty, poetry was very popular, and there were many genres and various viewpoints and performances of the retro style. These claims had shown the convergence in the diversification in the same context. The theories, practices, controversies and shortcomings of the literary retro in the early Ming Dynasty had a significant impact on the literary retro of the middle and late Ming Dynasty. After the Yongle period, with the death of the poets living through the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, poetry completely entered the age of the Ming Dynasty—This era began with the formation of a “Three Yang” (Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, Yang fu) bureaucratic group and its poetry style. The nature of the Three Yangs poetic style had not been defined, and its relationship with Yang Shiqi’s retro theory did not attract any attention either. The poetic style of Three Yangs emerged under the prosperous ages of Ren and Xuan, and had always been criticized for their emptiness and vulgarity in its content. In fact, its weakness was not just the eulogy of peace and prosperity of the age, but its monotonous content lacked dispositions and temperament; Three Yangs can not be regarded as a literary genre, but a bureaucratic group characterized by their flattering poetry to the monarch and fellow officials, which can not be defined as literature. Different from Song Lian and Liu Ji, who entered the Ming Dynasty with disappointment during troubled times and profound experiences of the Yuan Dynasty. “Three Yang” were the talents created by the Ming Dynasty, they did not experience the disappointment during troubled times nor the feelings about the poorly run administration at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. They became one of the members of bureaucrats in the peaceful dynasty and advocated the quiet peaceful secretariat style. Li Dongyang and Chaling Schools rose during the declining period of traditional literature when popular literature had not yet been formed. Due to the level of Li Dongyang’s special position in the political and literary circles of the Ming Dynasty, his poetic theory and creative practices had been a link to the past as well as to the future. As a follower of secretariat style, his status in political and literary circles was similar to that of Three Yangs. His literary achievements and his influence on that time and later, were far greater than Three Yangs could ever catch up to. He summed up the poetry style theoretically and also created considerable secretariat works, but what we want to emphasize today is his other side: he was the first influential poet of the Ming Dynasty. His literary theory had distinctive features of Taoism.

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In poetry creation, he advocated learning from Han, Wei and the prosperous Tang Dynasties. He made a hundred types of ancient poetic music, and he emphasized the inner feelings (The Poetry Collection of Wang Chengshan, The Poetry Collection of Chicheng) and the external cultivation (Notes on Poetry of Huailu Hall). Three times he departed from the secretariat style and created many excellent works that demonstrated his poetic views. His works were in striking contrast to the hypocritical fake style of Three Yangs. The Early Seven Scholars respected and worshiped the Han, Wei and prosperous Tang Dynasties, which was obviously influenced by Li Dongyang; their Yuefu poems featured “to tell today’s story with my own feelings” (Li Mengyang Refutation to He’s Views), indicating that Li Dongyang’s influence was positive. Li Dongyang’s development and promotion of the poetry in the Ming Dynasty obviously exceeded his inheritance of the secretariat style. He had been in the literary world for nearly half a century as a follower of the secretariat style. His old friends and disciples had formed the Chaling School, which had been active for decades. They made great indelible contributions in correcting the secretariat style and developing the poetry of the Ming Dynasty. In the periods of Hongzhi and Zhengde, the Early Seven Scholars continued literary retro. When there came the opposition, there had been a retro versus antiretro movement lasting for hundreds of years. As the first influential school in Ming literary history, the Seven Scholars greatly influenced and developed the poetry of Cha Ling School and Li Dongyang not with their political status but with their works, The History of the Ming Dynasty the Biograghy of Li Mengyang described that Li Mengyang only ridiculed Li Dongyang’s weakness, which may not be wrong, but it was true that they were not necessarily opponents. This genre began the retro movement based on the view of following Qin and Han’s style in literature and the prosperous Tang’s style in poetry. The result of this movement was that the original intention of correcting the malpractice of the era ended in making it worse. It should be affirmed that their Yuefu poems focused on contemporary social reality, but their literary theory was based on the foundation of the Qin and Han Dynasties without any novelty. Without the in-depth study of the social context, it would be difficult to evaluate the literary retro of the Early Seven Scholars objectively From Jiajing 28th year (1549), when Li Panlong, Wang Shizhen and Xie Zhen met for the first time in Beijing, to Wanli 8th year (1590) when Wang Shizhen died of illness, the Latter Seven Scholars spent 40 years in the field of literature during the late Ming Dynasty. The formation and transformation of this genre was crucial to the field of literature of the late Ming Dynasty. Wang Shizhen was the literary leader after Li Panlong, but his literary creation was not in line with the fame he had acquired. We can’t find the answer why the Latter Seven Scholars rose up in the late Ming Dynasty from the unusual perspective and maintained their status for such a long time. We must focus on the political background of their rise. It was the reflection of their common political stance that they were dissatisfied with arbitrariness of Yan Song. Wang Shizhen’s struggle against Yan Song and his criticism of Yan Song and the dark side of contemporary politics in his works were the reasons that he became famous. The suffering of father and son of Wang’s family and other members of the Latter Seven Scholars also enhanced their reputation. In their first meeting, Xie

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Zhen and Li Panlong showed their major differences in the theory of poetic creation. The differences were mainly in the use of retro methods. This was similar to the differences between Li Mengyang and He Jingming among the Early Seven Scholars. However, no matter how many differences there were between them, the direction of retro was consistent. Some of the Latter Seven Scholars in this imitated pattern made breakthroughs, but the overall achievements of literary creation were not productive, which was the true reflection of their limitation in theories. In the early years of Jiajing, with opposition to the Former and the Latter Seven Scholars as the starting point, Wang Shenzhong and Tang Shunzhi advocated the poetic rules of the Tang Dynasty, Wen Zongou (Yang Xiu) and Zeng (Gong) set off a wave of anti Seven Scholars with Gui Youguang and Mao Kun as the leading figures. This became the Tang-Song School in the history of literature. This school came into being after the Early Seven Scholars and lasted till the time of the Latter Seven Scholars. Their literary theory was the same but also different as the Former and the Latter Seven Scholars: Their anti-retro style was conducted in the fashion of retro, so that they belonged to the retro school by nature, but only had the different models to follow and different methods to use from the Seven Scholars. The theory of the Tang-Song School inherited both the active sides and negative sides of Taoism. Their emphasis on “Taoism” did not mean the denial of “literature”. They advocated the rationality and adapting to the age, including the concerns for reality. They also advocated Shao Yong and Zeng Gong at the rise of anti-science progress thoughts represented by Wang Yangming and Li Zhi. However, their hesitance between the heavenly principles and the human desires was the main manifestation of their backwardness. During the Wanli period, as a powerful opposition to the retro atmosphere, Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao, Yuan Zhongdao raised the banner of the literary reform of the Gongan school. The anti-retro movement centered on the “Three Yuans” had deep influence on society, and there was an evolution and promotion process. The criticism of plagiarism of the Former and the Latter Seven Scholars was the basis of the literary reform theory of the Gongan school. Generally, they didn’t oppose learning from the ancients, and they believed that we shouldn’t square accounts in every detail about their formats. Recognizing that change was the essence of literary development, they decided to follow the innovative spirit of the ancients. The literary development of Gongan school shook the theoretical foundation of the retro school. Under the cover of the retro banner, it was of great significance to curb plagiarism. The Gongan school advocated expressing its own temperament, which is required for literature in both content and form. Correcting plagiarism with temperament, and correcting retro with developmental views, the refutation of Gongan school to the Former and the Latter Seven Scholars was obviously more powerful than it was in the Tang and Song Dynasties,. The literary theory of the Gongan school was not isolated. It was the performance of contemporary, progressive, philosophical thought in the literary world. Famous writers such as Tang Xianzu and Xu Wei also had tangible and intangible influences on them. There were two main defects in the literary theory of the Gongan school: the spiritual theory tended to ignore the reality; the emphasis on seeking new thoughts and changes easily led to a total denial of

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the inheritance relationship in the process of literary evolution, thus limiting their creative achievements. After the Gongan school, there was the Jingling school. People had totally different views on the Jingling School. Their supporters took it as the shrine, and the opponents called it the “demon of poetry”. No literary genre had such a diametrically opposed evaluation. Too much is as bad as too little, absolute affirmation and negation can lead to bad judgment. When evaluating Jingling school, we should not be misled by these opposites in history. The literary theory of Jingling School was the correction of Seven Scholars school and Gongan school, but it had not stepped out of the absurd circle of Seven Scholars school and Gongan school. In the evolution of the late Ming Dynasty, the relationship between Jingling School and Gongan school was subtle. Some scholars regarded them as the fellows of Gongan school, but this is not the fact. Its representative, Zhong Xing, didn’t care much about the retro of Seven Scholars and Gongan school. He even thought that there was no difference between the Gongan school and the Seven Scholars school. His only worry was that there were too many drawbacks (With Brother Wang Wei Gong). Yuan Zhongdao, the late representative of the Gongan school, also clearly stated that he would like to take sides with Qian Qianyi to be the Jingling School by giving loud and clear arguments (Stories of Poems in All Dynasties Original). The literary proposition, the quiet and secluded style of Jingling School was completely the opposite extreme of the Gongan school. As Zhong and Tan were not from the upper class, they expressed their feelings about the evilness of the contemporary social reality and the grievance of the common people. Regrettably, such works accounted for a very small proportion in the works of the Jingling School, and their existence did not change the general autistic tendency of this genre in its creation. There were many schools of poetry in the Ming Dynasty, but each school was not a unified whole as people thought. Their literary propositions and creative practices were also very complex. For example, among the Early Seven Scholars, Li Mengyang admired Han-Wei Yuefu, and He Jingming was more influenced by the Tang poetic style and modern poetry. The differences and disputes among them on the different retro methods were also very intense, though this did not get in the way of them sharing the same goals in retro. Xu Zhenqing was originally one of the talented scholars in the middle Wu, but later changed his course and joined the camp of the Early Seven Scholars. The Latter Seven Scholars had undergone a sense of unity and in the process of forming and developing, with personal disputes as well as literary propositions. Although both the Former and the Latter Seven Scholars advocated retro, their specific retro propositions were not exactly the same. Without examining the changes of the Seven Scholars and the relationships between theory and creation, either as a school or as persons, we are unable to make reasonable explanations toward the changes of poetry and literature. In the camp against the Seven Scholars, it was also not as simple as we thought. The Tang and Song school opposed the Seven Scholars but they two shared a lot in common. The Jingling and Gongan schools both have the common tendency of anti-retro and are obviously different in their literary positions and creations. Even between the camps of retro and anti-retro, there was also some exchange and mutual penetration. In addition to the retro and anti-retro

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camps, there were also some free and independent poets. Before and after the rise of the Early Seven Scholars, Yu Qian, Yang Shen, and the people of Wu Zhong, each added bright color to the literary world. Although the retro-style trend of the Latter Seven Scholars was prevalent, the opposition had never stopped their criticism of it— Li Zhi, Xu Wei, Tang Xianzu, Zhang Fengyi had criticized retro-ism before Gongan and Jingling school came out of this. They were pioneers of anti-retro schools both in theory and in creation. All this made the field of literature in the middle and late Ming Dynasty more complicated. We have to investigate the specific schools and individuals without ignoring the overall context. The two periods of Tianqi and the Chongzhen were turbulent. The decadence of the social atmosphere in the late Ming Dynasty had led to corruption in the field of literary works, and the great changes in the late Ming Dynasty had inspired the scholars. The poetry of the Ming Dynasty thus entered into a period of creative prosperity, being glamourous by the end of the Dynasty. Traditional prose seemed to be out of place in the changes of the Ming Dynasty. Previously, the retro and anti-retro contests had formed a tendency for essays to deviate from the tradition both in content and form. The rise of essays had become a highlight in the literature of the Ming Dynasty. The loudest melody in the poetry of the late Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly patriotism. The imitation of bizarre words and the waves of arrogance were overwhelming in this specific historic background, and the patriotic songs of the late Ming poets represented by Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun were shocking to all souls, leaving an admirable stroke in the literature of the Ming Dynasty. Waves of retro and anti-retro movements could not restore the decline of orthodox poetry in the Ming Dynasty fundamentally. On the contrary, the folk songs were developing on the fertile soil of the countryside and the cities, bringing out vigor and vitality. The liveliness of the folk songs attracted the attention of the literati. The literati not only collected and compiled folk songs, but also created works by imitating Traditional poetry was thus mixed with earthy smell. In fact, as early as the era of the Early Seven Scholars, Li Mengyang recorded his folk songs Songs of Guo Gong and added them to the collection of poetry. He also added a sentence as: “Let people know that the true poetry is in the folk” (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 6th). It is to be noted that the poems were not literally written but was collected by Li Mengyang, the leader of retro school. People often refer to non-opera songs as scattered songs, which is not correct. The scattered songs were originally relative to the operas, the difference between them was that they were performed in different venues, one on the stage, the other in the clubs. However, Short Verse was originally a term in the Ci poetry, it is inappropriate to introduce Short Verse to the field of opera. We often refer to the non-opera songs as clear songs, including the songs and couplets instead of the ambiguous name of the scattered songs. Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, there were more writers and works of clear songs during the Ming Dynasty. The development of legendary opera singing had brought about new changes to music. The achievements of the clear songs in the Ming dynasty were not as good as those of the Yuan Dynasty. Partial achievements and a certain stage of prosperity may be compared with that of the Yuan Dynasty, and the outstanding works were also competitive when being fit

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into the Yuan works, but it is still an unfair and overstatement by comparing them with those of the Yuan Dynasty only by numbers. The number of works does not necessarily mean innovation and transcendence—it is especially important when we test their real value in historical development. General literary history simply excluded Ci poetry from the Ming Dynasty literature. We do not deny that the output of Ci in the Song Dynasty were enormous, and it was never surpassed by future generations. The people of the Ming Dynasty were convinced that even though there were several famous authors, there were no masters, let alone sharing the status with those of the Song Dynasty. It is worthwhile to read the Ci of the Ming Dynasty, but few works had passed down to future generations. The literati in the Ming Dynasty did not commit to the creation of Ci poetry, and there were few people who specialized in it. The north and south songs flourished, which had a great impact on the tradition of the Ci; Ci poetry was synchronized with the rising mountain songs, and folk songs became popular in the late Ming Dynasty—this was the situation of the Ci then. Part of the Ci contained a few new elements. As a part of the history of the Ci, it is not appropriate to deny the status of Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty in history. Both of Qian Jibo and Song Peiwei put the eight-part essay into a special chapter in their works on the literary history of the Ming Dynasty. Probably with this influence, much of the literary history about the Ming Dynasty compiled in recent years also had this chapter, but the eight-part essay was a kind of imperial examination system with a fixed format, which had been used by the ruler to impede the literati’s spirit with ever-increasing intensity to exhaust their lives without knowing it. Even if there were a few admirable articles, it was also very improper to boil down the literary works in general. It would be different if we view it from the perspective of its influence on the literary works of the Ming Dynasty. I beg to differ that we value the eight- part essay as a part of literature of the Ming Dynasty. With this view, we exclude it from this book. In compiling the books of literary history, the author would definitely have their personal views involved. The comprehensive literary history maybe impressive with its overall information, but it is impossible to cover everything even if the book is lengthy. The author must make a choice. The laws of survival of the fittest was also reflected in the history of literature development. That is to say, in terms of works, the classics or masterpieces were preserved like gold being washed out of sand, so as to be recognized as the main body of the literary history. Other similar works were not worthy of being listed and evaluated. On the contrary, this book would not ignore the seemingly minor standpoints in the study of the literary history, as they may indicate special angles or new signs. It is our goal to explore the literature of the Ming Dynasty and reveal the basic laws of the development and evolution of the literary in the Ming Dynasty with the help of various approaches. We strive to reveal the laws governing the evolution of the literature in the Ming Dynasty on the basis of singular cases of literature and the solid research in related fields. Instead of using the classification of social history in that period or the classification of genre as an organizational method, our study is generally based on the facts of the development

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in novels, operas and poems to construct the basic system of the literary history in the Ming Dynasty, so as to lift the veil of the literary process of the Ming Dynasty. The complexity of literature itself, the combination and mutual restraint of various levels and various factors in the evolution of literary history determined the ideas and methods of research on literary history. It can neither be a dominant nor a single and mechanical idea, but the times we live in offers the possibility of conducting academic research in multiple ways. We must not only deliberately avoid the pursuit of novelty, but also avoid being shackled by the pursuit of stability. Whether it is traditional or modern, eastern or western methods, as long as it is conducive to the deepening of academic research, it may be inherited and used. The approaches for this study can be briefed as: (1) Using sociological criticism to avoid vulgar sociological tendencies. The book does not arrange special chapters to discuss the various influences of the background of the times in its literature. In the summary of specific analysis and laws, we should not neglect the roles of people, time and place on their influence to literature. (2) Adopting developmental perspective rather than a mechanical evolution view. Not only should we know that the development of the Southern Opera as a legend was the mainstream of the history of opera in the Ming Dynasty, we should also know that in the entire Ming Dynasty, the creation and circulation of the folk southern opera had never been discontinued; not only should we know that the Kunqu came to the fore from the four major sound chambers, we should also know that at the same time, other chambers were still popular on a certain scale. (3) Based on the study of singular literary cases, the data research and the law summary are parallel. For example, through the investigation of the process of collectively created works of the “Four Masterpieces”, the basic laws of the development of novels in the Ming Dynasty are revealed. (4) Studying the development and the essence with both vertical and horizontal comparative analysis. For example, we should pay attention to the comparison of the same literary genre and similar works in different stages of development and the developmental laws of Chinese and Western novels, operas and creative methods. (5) Investigating the relationship between literary theory and literary creation practices. For example, it is necessary to pay attention to the relationship between the creative method of Golden Lotus and its creation, the relationship between Tang Xianzu’s opera theory and his opera creation, and the relationship between literary theory and creative practices of various poetry schools. (6) The literary appreciation and academic research should go together at the same time. Literary works are the basic materials for the study of literary history, but they have their own unique aesthetic traits. Only by appreciating and discovering these aesthetic traits and viewing the works as arguments can we grasp the nature of the literature itself rather than deviate from its original developmental orbit. Can the combination of the above aspects make the establishment of our so-called literary history system in the book? Wishes may not always be honored. It can be the case of this book of literary history. Corrections are appreciated from all readers. Finally, I will talk about three notable issues in the literary background of the Ming Dynasty.

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The traditional Confucian-centered thoughts have been passed down from generation to generation in China with considerable stable status, which is the fact universally acknowledged. How to evaluate the rise of anti-tradition thoughts in the late Ming Dynasty? Li Zhi said “The is no standard for right or wrong if the Confucius standard is applied for all right and wrongs” in his Book for Collection. Comprehensive Biographies of the Centuries. “The criticism is directed at the great sage.” Since the Qin Dynasty, all those who were emperors have been thieves,” said Tang Zhen in his Hidden Book: Chamber Sayings. This is the denial to the rule that “the monarch is the centre”. (Writings to Someone from Collection of Dai Dongyuan II, B) The later Confucianism were the cannibals with their rites. “This is the origin of the doctrine of rites cannibalism in the May 4th era. For these flagrant oppositions, is traditional thought also included in traditional culture? If not, is it to say tradition itself turns out to be worthless? If it is, aren’t they the same? In the study of literature in the Ming Dynasty, we should first see that the opponents and the Confucianism they criticized still shared a lot in common before giving them our evaluations. There is an inextricably link between. Li Zhi’s “mind of a child” (The Theory of Childlike Innocence from The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd), “the innocent heart” (Mencius. Foresight B) and “heart assured” (Mencius. Gaozi, A) There is an obvious inheritance relationship between them. As far as the progressive literature is concerned, the criticism to the ethics in the Peony Pavilion was tolerated, which was a product in the special context. But Du Liniang could only find pleasure with Liu Mengmei in her dreams when she turned into a ghost. After the ghost is revived, she must obey the ethics of the world. In this case alone, it can be said that the hero and heroine did not violate the ethics. In Water Margin there are both praise and descriptions of the robin hood heroes for their loyalty. The same is true in Journey to the West, in which the Monkey King can’t jump out of the palm of Buddha Tathagata, no matter how much trouble he can make in heavens palace. To give proper evaluations to these works, we need to be aware of the fact that they broke with the traditional ideas in different ways or at different levels, but on the whole, we should still see clearly that progressive thinking does not exclude themselves from traditional culture. The emergence of progressive thought brought about the fundamental changes in certain aspects of traditional culture, making itself the most valuable component at the same time. In today’s study on the literature of the Ming Dynasty, no one can ignore the influence and performance of progressive thought. What is to be on guard is the overstatement of their achievements. Due to the special status of novels and operas in the literary history of the Ming Dynasty, the historical reasons why they flourished in the late Ming Dynasty lies in the germination of capitalism and their popularity among the people. There have been different views about the time for capitalism to sprout, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Song and Yuan Dynasties or the Tang and Song Dynasties. If we take Historical Records Biographies of Merchants as an example, we will have to trace it back as early as the Western Han Dynasty, but here comes the question: sprouting, as the name suggests, is either growing or wilting. How can it be true by not growing up nor wilting for hundreds or thousands of years? The industrial revolution of Britain did not happen until there came the invention and promotion of

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the steam engine, while China had the record of advanced economic development of cities as early as the time of Historical Records. Neither Zhuge Liang’s wood cattle and horses, nor other kinds of “strange and obEpisode skills” in the later generations (Book of Documents. Qin’s Pledges II), can initiate an industrial revolution. The emergence and development of urban commercial economy can’t be equated with the budding of capitalism. In the same way, it is doubted if ancient China ever had an urban stratum. This is not to wipe out the existence of commercial economy and urban population but that we can not elevate the micro performance to an unrealistic extent. There is also the problem of feudal society. In the next two thousand years in China, centralization became more authorized, and the system of enfeoffment preserved only the political and economic status of the individuals or the families of the feudal lords. In this regard, the term “Feudal” only applies to a small region of the Han Dynasty. The Chinese feudalism we talk about actually means a unified, centralized monarchy. Under the feudal system in Western Europe, peasants are the serfs without their own identifications, while in China, farmers could take part in the imperial examinations to become officials since the Tang and Song Dynasties. This was unimaginable in the feudal age of Europe. To use the stereotype from the study of European history for Chinese history, is the typical Europe-centered colonial cliche. It is just some personal opinions with no intention to change the accepted academic viewpoints, and they will be kept as much as possible from this book. Hangzhou, China Kunming, China

Shuofang Xu Qiuke Sun

The Origin

It has been 40 years since I started my dream of writing the history of literature of the Ming Dynasty. In 1962, I was a Lecturer in the Chinese Department of the university when I was just entering my fortitude. One day, I received a letter from the People’s Literature Press asking me to write the history of literature of the Ming Dynasty. That’s when, after the Great Leap Forward, the spread of “left” opportunism gradually ebbed and the trend of pragmatism began to rise. After a flurry of flattered excitement, a simple idea occurred to me that in Hangzhou, where I live, I could not find all the materials needed for this work. After explaining the situation to the publishing house, I unexpectedly got their encouragement and commitment: the publishing house would borrow all original copies of poetry and prose needed from libraries in Beijing, and send them to me by registered mail. I was amazed by the rich collection in the reference room of the publishing house. Not all the books they sent me needed to be borrowed. I remember borrowing only once. It was a collection of books from the library of Beijing Normal University. When I received the books, I began to read them, compile a simple chronicle of writers and transcribe some of their representative works. One of the characteristics of the poems from the Ming Dynasty was the voluminous volume of works, but not many of them could be defined as literary works. I remember that when Mr. Pu Jiangqing, a professor of Beijing University, invited me to have a meal, he talked about this issue with me. I told him that these works could probably only have a documentary value, which is to deny their literature value. Perhaps Mr. Pu regarded me as a young “leftist”. From his tone, I could feel his helplessness of “a scholar’s reasoning with a soldier”. I ventured to think that there was a common fault in the history of Chinese literature or of a certain dynasty written by all the famous writers: the writers did not read all the works they discussed before writing. Otherwise, under the editor’s reputation, some mistakes are impossible. This was my biggest concern when undertaking this task. Can it be remedied by collective discussion? Collective discussion and collective revision, like the History of Chinese Literature (1962) edited by He Qifang, the researcher from the Institute of Literature in the Chinese Academy of Sciences at xxv

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that time, may have reduced many obvious mistakes, but failed to update the science of literary history. The best way is to gather people with different academic views interested in sharing and writing together in an open and brainstorming way. The problem is not only the difficulties in finding qualified people and organizing, but also the unlikelihood for any academic organization to undertake such a task. In 1963, the History of Chinese Literature edited by You Guo’en (Beijng University), Wang Qi (Zhongshan University), Xiao Difei (Shandong University), Ji Zhenhuai and Fei Zhengang (Beijng University) was an attempt similar to this endeavor, but later this manner was lost. Due to the intense work covering days and nights, I already felt like what is said in Han Yu’s Funeral Oration for the Twelve Gentlemen “blurring in sight and graying on head”. I found myself suffering from high blood pressure. After a physical exam in the hospital, I was suspected of coronary heart disease, even the doctor was not ready to confirm it yet. “Cultural Revolution” and swimming based exercises saved me. Neither the publishing house nor I brought this matter up to the other party again. This work was put on the shelf naturally. It’s a pity that I didn’t know, after many of my inquiries, which of the leaders in the publishing house had a special favor for me by entrusting me with this important task. As a aftermath treatment, I handed over about 50,000 words of 18 materials from Gao Qi to the Early Seven Scholars to a person in charge of the Literature Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on November 24, 1981, because they were planning to write multiple volumes of the history of Chinese literature. At that time, he took the initiative to make a lot of commitments, such as hiring me as a special researcher for the Institute and paying for contributions in publishing. It’s out of his kindness, which I did not take it seriously nor expected much from it. I just wanted to make the most of what I have, and I didn’t care how they would be used. At that time, I didn’t keep a copy. Later, I asked for a copy but the part about Gao Qi was missing, because it had been cut and used. At that time, the idea of writing the History of Literature in Ming Dynasty was revived in my mind. I think that the compiler of literary history should read and study all the writers and works of the period. The editor has the right to decide what is to be included, but the works should be carefully read in advance. There could be some inappropriate comments, but they must be their own opinions, right or wrong. Being wrong just means the author is not good enough, instead of blaming it on someone else under the excuse of being “affected by others, unrelated to myself”. Being right may bring the credit of originality to the author, rather than to someone else. Of course, this is what I think is the right way, as for to what extent this can be achieved, it is another issue. In the Ming Dynasty, there were a lot of unique precious books, but few of them were published publicly. A book may be divided into different parts and stored in different places. For example, Zheng Ruoyong’s North Travel Manuscripts, the second volume of poem collections is stored in the Shanghai Library, while the third volume is in the Shandong library. His other anthology, the Collection of Dung Beetles (eight volumes), is a special collection of Japanese Zunjing Pavilion. The

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Collection of Qingyin Pavilion by Gu Dadian is collected in the Zhangjiakou Library. There are 12 pages of the fragmented edition of Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo, which can make up for the deficiency of the copy in the Zhangjiakou Library. It’s hard to believe that Yang Xunji’s and Tang Yin’s works can’t be found in the large library like the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature. Lu Lin, a stranger to the Institute of Ancient Books of Nanjing Normal University (now in the editorial department of the Journal), read my Meng Chengshun’s Chronology in Chronicle of the Late Ming Composers, and in a friendly way wrote me that there is Meng Chengshun’s Poetry Collection of Zhongfang Hall in the catalogue (front page) of the Zhuji Library, which can supplement the deficiency of the chronology. I felt ashamed of my knowing nothing about the title of the book. Unfortunately, after several visits, nothing was found. During the so-called cultural revolution, many ancient books were lost. Even if some of them survived, they were piled up in makeshift warehouses. According to the manpower, material resources, and work progress of the cultural sector, it is not difficult to speculate that they may never be seen again. Having access to the books was so hard to come by, let alone reading them. Mediocre works or those with some new ideas can’t be remembered clearly after reading. Even as the writer of the chronology may forget them completely after a long time. When I was 40 years old, I had the dream of compiling the history of Ming Dynasty literature, which had remained for decades. My research area had been focused on the Ming Dynasty literature. To this day, I have to admit that I haven’t read the poetry collection of Ming Dynasty. I think it’s hard to make up a history of literature dating earlier. Could it be ten years earlier? It is necessary to acquire the needed knowledge in literature and history. We should have a good understanding of Chinese history before and after the Ming Dynasty, in a manner of being above the average level of non-professionals. Otherwise, what could be the point for the writing of it? I remember that when I visited the Taiwan Institute of Literature and Philosophy (Preparatory) upon their invitation in 1995, I ventured to talked about the issue of the division of the Ming Dynasty history in their affiliated organization, the Institute of History. It is actually the division of the Ming Dynasty literature history that I am going to write. I think the literary history of the Ming Dynasty is a branch of the social history of the Ming Dynasty, so the two should be consistent. Although, some important events in the history of society usually cause later repercussions to the history of literature. Practice is the only criterion to test truth. Everything must be based on reality, which is the guideline of contemporary social science. Under the guidance of this thought, I divided the literature history of the Ming Dynasty into two parts: literature history and reference materials. References do not refer to the pure and objective compilation of some historical documents, but to a comprehensive record of several chronologies compiled through sorting. In his Self Preface. Annals of Poets in the Tang and Song Dynasties in 1954, Mr. Xia Chengtao said: “In my early years, I tried to read the annals of King Jing Gong by Cai Shangxiang, from which I found his method of comparing Jing Gong’s records in different years to distinguish the true from the false and clear up all doubts. Due to the integration of the annals, it

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was easy to learn the background before and after the events, and to identify the true or false of later stories, which is a recommendable research strategy in historical study.” This is the origin of my idea to put literary history and several chronologies in one book. The Chronicle of the Late Ming Composers and the Textual Research and Compilation of Novels are my down-to-earth preparations for the history of literature, operas and novels of the Ming Dynasty. The parallel structure of literature history and chronology complement each other. It can not only save many notes in the text of literature history, but also avoid the groundless generalizations. I don’t know how long it will take to sort out the old yellow manuscripts and how many chronicles can be published besides novels and operas. Literature History of the Ming Dynasty was honored with the Sponsorship from the National Key Social Science Project Fund of the Ninth Five-year Plan. When I picked up the old project for the fourth time, I was almost 80 years old, and my health was a lot worse than before. I admit that even if I can work healthily to the age of 90, still I can’t boast that I’m fully prepared. So what I can do is to start the work as soon as possible. The work did not go well. After my Preface was published in the Literary Heritage, 1999 (1), my health deteriorated and my work almost stopped. In the autumn of 2000, Sun Qiuke, an Associate Professor from the Chinese Department of Kunming Normal University, came to Zhejiang University as a visiting scholar. With her consent, she was greatly supported by the leaders of Zhejiang University of Humanities and Kunming Normal University to complete this project together with me. So far, the Literature History of the Ming Dynasty has been written for the fifth time. All the above details are just to record the decades long relationship between a scholar and a book of literary history. Looking back on the long process, I can’t help feeling touched. The Literature History of the Ming Dynasty is finally finished. I don’t want to use my old age and infirmity as an excuses for its possible defects or mistakes, but so far this is the best it can be done, which is probably a fact hard to change. Shuofang Xu, at the foot of Gem Mountain of Hangzhou, the end of 2002

Contents

1

2

3

4

Literature of the Early Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Gemini: Song Lian and Liu Ji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Grievous and Indignant Voice of Prosperous Times of the Four Great Men in Wuzhong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Beginning of the Literary Retro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Qu You and New Remarks by Oil Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 Zhu Youdun and the Changes in Zaju . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Evolution from the Southern Drama to the Chuanqi Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 The Linkage and Differences Between the Southern Operas and the Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Dramatists During the Transitional Period Between the Southern Opera and the Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Completion and Achievements of Full-Length Novels of Accumulated Collective Creation Through Generations (I) . . . . . 3.1 The Early Full-Length Novels and Collectively-Created Works Through Generations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Luo Guanzhong and the Adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Unfold the Heroic Scrolls of History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Water Margin: The Legendary Life of Art Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 1 7 12 21 28 35 35 42 53 53 57 61 82

The Completion and Achievements of Full-Length Novels of Accumulated Collective Creation Through Generations (II) . . . . . 97 4.1 Journey to the West: Twisted Minds Create New Myths . . . . . . . . 97 4.1.1 The process of the creation of Journey to the West . . . . . 97 4.1.2 Journey to the West and the Adapter of the Final Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 4.1.3 The Main Idea and the Artistic Features of Journey to the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 xxix

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4.2

4.3 4.4

Golden Lotus: The New World of Secular Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 The Publication, Adapters, Dates and Editions of Golden Lotus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 The Literary Achievements of Golden Lotus and Its Significance in Literary History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.3 The Creative Tendency of Golden Lotus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The International Dissemination of the “Four Masterpieces” . . . . A Brief Account for the Other Full-Length Novels of the Collective Creation from Accumulation of Generations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.1 Stories of Gods and Demons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.2 The Poetic Stories on History—Poetic Stories on the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.3 Historical Novels of the Sui and Tang Dynasties . . . . . . . 4.4.4 Public Case Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

111 111 115 126 130

135 135 141 142 145

5

Individually Created Full-Length Novels That Stand Out from the Collective Creations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 5.1 The Rise of Individually Created Full-Length Novels . . . . . . . . . . 149 5.2 A Brief Account of the Full-length Novels Created by Individuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

6

The Crisis, Development and Retro of the Literature in the Middle of the Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 The Formation of Three Yangs Bureaucratic Group and the Secretariat Poetic Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Li Dongyang’s Exploration of the Ming Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 The Doctrine of Literary Retro and Creative Practice of the Early Seven Scholars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Yu Qian, Yang Shen and the Literati of Wuzhong . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5 The First Anti-retro School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7

8

The Retro and Anti-Retro Trends in the Literature of the Late Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 The Retro Flag Planted by the Latter Seven Scholars . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Li Zhi’s Doctrine of Childlike Innocence and His Writings . . . . . 7.3 The Poetic Creation of Xu Wei and Tang Xianzu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 The Counterattack of Gong’an School Against Retro Trends . . . . 7.5 A New Style of Tranquility and Solitude Developed by the Jingling School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

165 165 168 175 192 203 211 211 221 226 237 243

The Creation of Zaju Drama in the Middle and Late Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 8.1 The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape and Other Works by Xu Wei . . . 250 8.2 Meng Chengshun and Other Masters of the Late Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

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8.3

Meng Chengshun and Other Dramatists in the Late Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

9

The Flourishing of the Literati’s Chuanqi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 9.1 The Reform of Kun Opera by Wei Liangfu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 9.1.1 Liang Chenyu and Laundering Gauze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

10 Tang Xianzu: The Legendary Drama Master of a Generation . . . . . 10.1 The Bumpy Life of Tang Xianzu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2 The Formation of Tang Xianzu’s Thoughts and Four Dreams of Linchuan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.3 An Unprecedented Masterpiece: Peony Pavilion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4 The Tune of “Four Dreams of Lin Chuan” and the Disputes Between Tang and Shen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.5 The Opera Views in On Qingyuan Opera Master of Yihuang County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Compilation of Vernacular Short Novels and the Prosperous Development of Imitating Vernacular Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1 Definition and Evolution of Vernacular Novels and Imitating Vernacular Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2 Feng Menglong and the Compilation of Three Enlightenment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.3 Two Admonition Books, Motto for Behaviors and Other Imitating Vernacular Texts Written by Literati . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.4 The Novelettes of Erotic in Common Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.5 The Influence of Later Classical Chinese Novels on the Creation of Imitating Vernacular Novels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

289 289 296 305 321 328

335 335 339 350 358 364

12 The Apocalyptic Brilliance of Poem and Prose in the Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 12.1 The Unique Beauty of Zhang Dai’s Essays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 12.2 The Elegy of Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 13 The Last Glory of the Chuanqi Dramas in the Ming Dynasty . . . . . . 13.1 Yuan Yuling and The West Tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2 Wu Bing and Five Legends of Blooming Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.3 Meng Chenshun and Ruan Dacheng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

379 380 383 388

14 Ci Poetry and the Off-stage Tunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 14.1 The Endeavors of Ci Poetry Writers of the Ming Dynasty in Its Decline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 14.1.1 The Creation and Development of the Off-stage Tune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

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15 The Popular Folk Songs and Tunes Prevailing Across the Changjiang River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.1 The Outshining Popular Folk Songs and Tunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.2 The Singing of Love from Popular Folk Songs and Tunes . . . . . . 15.3 The Disclosure of Social Maladies from Popular Folk Songs and Tunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

415 416 418 422

Postscript I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 Postscript II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Postscript of Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 Enclosed with: Bibliography of Major Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 A Brief Chronology of the Ming Dynasty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Chapter 1

Literature of the Early Ming Dynasty

Literature in the periods of Hongwu and Yongle presented some special features when transferring from the Yuan Dynasty to the the Ming Dynasty. Literati at the time when entering the Ming Dynasty had complicated feelings towards the perished Yuan Dynasty and the new dynasty. In the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the ruling Zhu family purged the court, exerting influences on the spirit of the literati. Vitalizing the state with his essays, Song Lian set an example for orthodox literature in the new era while Liu Ji and Gao Qi’s poems lost their leading status as they had in the Yuan Dynasty. The restoration of poems and prose gained momentum in the early Ming Dynasty and classical Chinese novels were restored by carrying a fresh sentiment, though still in the old style. New Remarks by Oil Lamp, written by Qi You in the early Ming Dynasty, was a recurrence of the legend genre of the Tang Dynasty. The enrapt love stories in his book successfully epitomized a disordered and dissociative society in the late period of the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty did not become extinct. Instead, there was a successful theorist named Zhu Quan and a successful writer named Zhu Youdundun in Zaju. It was impossible to deter literature in the early Ming Dynasty from its further development through external forces.

1.1 Gemini: Song Lian and Liu Ji Among literati promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang in late Ming period, Song Lian and Liu Ji were complementary. Both as assistants to the emperor, Liu Ji was adept in military ways, while Song Lian was an expert in literature. Song, with his capacity as an educated man, illuminated the state with his essays, and his partner Liu was admired for his poems. Besides their successful experiences, both of them inherited Neo Confucianism of Eastern Zhejiang School. Born and cultivated in similar cultural backgrounds, they had diverse destinies and poems as a result of distinct talents. © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_1

1

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1 Literature of the Early Ming Dynasty

Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu was born in Fengyang, north Anhui Province, where he organized his groups to conquer China. For him, the troubling issue was Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng rather than the Yuan armed forces. In June Hongwu period 3rd year (1370), he told the Prime Minister: “The Yuan Dynasty had ruled the country for almost a century, you and I as well as officials in the court all survived on its governance. It confused me why you are frivolous now? You have to stop this.”1 In the summer of the second year in Hongwu period (1369), General Xu Da asked him whether they should pursue enemies after taking Yuan’s capital. Zhu put forward his strategy: “Expel enemies from our country, safeguard the border and prevent their invasion” (Biography of Xu Da in History of History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 125th). Zhu Yuanzhang didn’t think much of the literati from the central part of the Wu region who were favored by Zhang Shicheng, which explained his promotion of Song Lian and Liu Ji instead of central Wu literati. Maybe Zhu himself did not realize his preference of choices for officials in court. However, the fates of literati and the styles of literature were greatly influenced by the emperor’s preferences. Song Lian (1310–1381), with the style name of Jing Lian, and pseudonym of Qian Xi, was born in Pujiang (currently Pujiang county in Zhejiang Province). In the late Yuan Dynasty, he declined the position of an editor in the Imperial Academy. His works includes Literature Collection. Liu Ji, with the style name of Bo Wen, was born in Qingtian (currently Qingtian county in Zhejiang Province). He became Jinshi in Zhishun 4th year of Emperor Yuanning (1333). Since then, he had the official positions as the assistant of county magistrate at Gaoan in Jiangxi Province, the deputy supervisor of Confucianism in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province and the Chief Secretary in Chuzhou. Later on, he resigned and resorted to reclusion. His work includes Collection of Liu Ji’s Essays. Song Lian did not do well in the imperial examinations of the Yuan Dynasty, and his works Writings of Jiehua and Morality of Long Men Zi signified his reckoning to the Yuan court. Comparing to Song, Li Ji performed better in exams, but his official career was also bumpy. Due to a disagreement on the Fang Guozhen issue between him and his superior, Liu resigned and went back home. He wrote fables to reveal and criticize maladministration of the late Yuan Dynasty in his Yu Li Zi in ten volumes, laying the foundation for his turn to the emporer Zhu Yuanzhang. In Zhizheng 20th year of Emperor Yuanshun’s reign (1360), Song Lian and Wu Ji received invitations from Zhu Yuanzhang, king of Wu region. That year, Song and Liu were 51 and 50 years old respectively. After Song Lian’s arrival in Nanjing, he was appointed as the supervisor of Confucianism and teacher to the emperor’s sons. He compiled History of the Ming Dynasty as the editor in chief after the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, and was elected as the Chief Secretary to the emperor in the Imperial Academy at the peak of his career. In his later years, his first grandson got involved in Hu Weiyong’s case. Even with unremitting efforts from the empress and prince, his whole family was banished 1

Biography of Emperor Taizu in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 2nd, Zhonghua Book Company 1974, p. 24.

1.1 Gemini: Song Lian and Liu Ji

3

from the court to Maozhou, and Song Lian committed suicide on his way in Kuizhou. Liu Gi followed Zhu Yuanzhang to subjugated Chen Youliang as soon as he arrived in Nanking, playing a role of strategist, gallantly and valiantly. However, he got involved in some crucial plots schemed by Zhu Yangzhang, with the identity of a scribe in East Zhejiang, which aroused the hostility from the North Anhui group. In turn Shanchang and Hu Weiyong imparted calumnious accuses about Liu Gi to Zhu Yuanzhang, alleging that he coveted a cemetery in Tamiang, with the purpose of leaving his descendants a property in the future. A suspicious man as Zhu Yuanzhang was, he believed these false statements easily. When titles of meritorious statesmen were conferred by Zhu Yuanzhang, Liu Gi was granted the Shou Zheng founding civilian court official of Yi Yun, the senior official of Zi Shan, and the Senior General of the army, moreover, the Earl of Sincerity. However, he was not entitled to have the hereditary right, and his salary was cut off afterwards. He ended up in consuming away with grief. Song Lian was apt at writing essays, and was praised as the number one scholar of the founding civilian court official by Zhu Yuanzhang2 His loyalty to the emperor integrated perfectly with his Neo-Confucianism accomplishment and literary talent, thus his essays fit the needs of civil administration of the new dynasty, and became the paradigms of essays for that generation. Song Lian wrote essays eulogizing the emperor, such as Poem Preface in Praise of the Winter Days.3 Epigraph for Imperial Collected Works (On Codes, Vol. 1st, 2nd). Besides, no matter what epitaphs and biographies he wrote, he was always able to boil them down to monarchical eulogium, in an ingenious fashion. Allegorical essays revealed that he was much more skilled at eulogizing the monarchy, such as The Biography of Bao Wengzi (On Codes, Vol. 10th), he used the theory of farmland irrigation put forward by Bao Wengzi as a metaphor to expound the principle of being a government official: you shall be a hermit when the political situation is of turbulence, and you shall be an activist when the state is of integrity. At the end of the his writing, Bao Wengzi had his presence in the royal palace, which shows how a “person of integrity” ended up in eulogizing the monarchy. Among his biographies, many of those were the recognition about loyal women, chaste women, dutiful sons, and virtuous mothers, which indicated his admiration of Neo-Confucianism in one’s social life. Moreover, Neo-Confucianism was also the norm of his emotional life. Both Song Lian and Liu Gi wrote Pine Breezing Pavilion, but their styles were completely different. Song Lian was more rational but Liu Gi tended to be spontanous. Song Lian’s essays were from the scenery to the Neo-Confucianism, palatable pleasures of moonlit nights and pine trees sounds triggering his inspiration about Tao (On Codes, Vol. 2nd). Different from Song Lian, what Liu Gi felt, upon the wind blowing over the pine trees, was the “sound of 2

Song Lian “had been engaged in reading all his life, and was omnipotent in learning. His writings are numerous and profound in their thinking, which is as good as the ancient authors. In his office at court, he was the top scholar official in charge of ceremonies for the religious and ancestral temples, the dressing etiquette of the court and the epigraph writing for the meritorious officials.” History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 128th, pp. 3787~3788. 3 See Song Lian: On Codes, Vol. 4th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. All Song Lian’s poems quoted in this section are from this edition.

4

1 Literature of the Early Ming Dynasty

nature”,4 holding that the author was not meant to be just an observer nor to observe the scenery with rationality, but shall integrated with nature. However, not all essays of Song Lian embodied the doctrine of Neo-Confucianism, his opinion was that Taoish literature would lose their essences if they are not supported by The Six Classics (Collection of Art Design in On Codes, Vol. 2nd, 5th). He also maintained that “the world expected saints out of normal human beings, but their code of conduct are out of Taoism, which was at intersecting purposes. I could be a normal person, and my words could be of Taoism at the same time (On Codes, Vol. 2nd and 7th, Miscellaneous Words in Luo Shan). His Words of A Qin Man (On Codes, Vol. 2nd and 8th) recorded words and deeds of a gentlemen of Qin named Deng Bi, who was not a Confucianist nor a chivalrous man. His words and deeds were all against the Confucianism that he believed in for his whole life. The character in his Biography of Wang Mian (On Codes, Vol. 10th), was hardly a traditional Confucianist, but Song Lian pinned his hopes on him sincerely. This writing should not be from him if he truly verbalized what was in his mind just as the gentleman he described in his writings. The two-sidedness in Song Lian’s essays revealed the contradiction between his Neo-Confucianism accomplishment and his true disposition. Song Lian’s prose were rigorous and elaborate, elegant and classic, but he also wrote some profound essays. All his prose on “the relationship between man and nature” in his Miscellaneous Words in Luo Shan. are short and concise, but meaningful and witty. For example, “A man tried to have another man’s brain, and he was told ‘how can you get my brain when I am not dead?’ He got the implication immediately. It is applicable to learning as well.” His prose are mellifluent with the unique diction about scenery, free of the solemn and rigid style from the Taoish literature and presented to the readers with the surprising beauty. The depiction about spring scenery in Poem Preface about Waterside Ritual in the Peach Blossom Ravine was stunning and phenomenal: …Peach blossom filled the river banks, backed by the chilly mountains, Late blooming made the Episode more lasting.. Pine needles were sky reaching, looking like green clouds. Suddenly, fresh flowers peak in the grass with dewdrops, which just like raging fire ready to burn, what an enjoyment! (On Codes, Vol. 6th). Song Lian was good at writing prose, while Liu Ji was good at writing poems and articles, poems in particular. Unlike Song Lian, Liu Ji was very generous and liked to show his talents. Furthermore, Song Lian preferred reading and learning, while Liu Ji put more emphasis on practice. Liu Ji advocated the view that “the rise and fall of literature is related to the ebb and flow of the times” (Preface of Collection of Su Pingzhong in Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 15th). This rule applies not only to explaining the development of the literature at that time, but also to interpreting his own works. In The Preface of Xiang Bogaos Poems (Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 7th), Liu Ji said: “In the past five or six years, I have seen wars constantly taking place and resources being exhausted. I was so sad that I couldn’t stop writing sad words. At that time I 4

Pine Breezing Pavilion in Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 9th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. All Liu Ji’s poems quoted in this section are from this edition.

1.1 Gemini: Song Lian and Liu Ji

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realized that Du Fu’s sad poems were written out of inner grief. I’m sorry that I had questioned him about that, which was actually due to my shortsightedness.” Despite of the success in his imperial examination, Liu Ji had some rough times in his official career and ended up in working in the low position. With this exprience, he got to learn the social reality of the late Yuan Dynasty, which served as the inspiration for his poems about the suffering of the people. On the other hand, he also wrote magnificent poems to express his emotions with flourish diction. In History of the Ming Dynasty, as a minister of the emperor and a founding hero, Liu Ji was granted great power by the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, in the early Ming Dynasty, his poems were as bold as his political claims. In early Hongwu period, in his long lyric folk song named Two Ghosts (Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 10th), Liu Ji likened Zhu Yuanzhang to the Jade Emperor, and compared himself and Song Lian to ghosts. While writing this poem, Liu Ji and Son Lian were relegated for trivial matters, which was actually Zhu Yuanzhang’s rectification of civil officials in order to establish his imperial power. In this poem, Liu Ji made full use of his imagination to describe a moody, mean and stubborn emperor, though the whole poem seems to eulogize the emperor’s holiness and repent Liu Ji’s own sins. Despite of the severe punishment he suffered from the emperor, Liu Ji did not really think he was wrong. Liu Ji also agreed with Zhu Yuanzhang’s appointment of Song Lian as the first founding Civil Minister of country.5 However, in Two Ghosts, he compared himself to Yu Yi, the guardian of the Sun God, and compared Son Lian to the guardian of the Luna God, Jie Lin. From this we can see that he was thinking very highly of himself and actually differed from the emperor’s appointment. The writing style of this poem is a combination of fiction and reality. The poet, Liu Ji, used his fertile imagination to express his understanding of politics and the relationship between the monarch and ministers in reality. Since Liu Ji and Song Lian took office in Nanjing in 1360 A.D., they were closely related to Zhu Yuanxuan, both in their literary creations and their political careers. These entanglements among the three, especially between Liu Ji and Zhu Yuanzhang, before and after the establishment of History of the Ming Dynasty, were all reflected in Two Ghosts. The poet described real life with the grotesque touches, revealed serious realistic connotations with humor, and expressed noble and honest characters with fantasied verses. In classic Chinese literary works, among the poems about poet’s political career, the most representative was Qu Yuan’s Li Sao. Two Ghosts, not as magnificant and complete as a whole comparing to Li Sao, is one of the masterpieces next to Li Sao. We can find the impact of Li Sao on Two Ghosts. But the latter’s insights and generalizations about political life and it’s innovative writing style are as breathtaking. With the increasing political oppression, Liu Ji’s writing style became fresh and subtle. In Liu Ji’s collected works, Collection of Mr. Li Mei, little of his early magnificent poetic style was left. He made a euphemistic statement about his situation,as he wrote in Blossoms on the Wall, “Blossoms on the wall, envied by the brocade” 5

Liu Ji once told Emperor Taizu: “In today’s rank of writings, Song Lian is the first, followed by Chen Ji, and then Meng Ji.” Biography of Zhang Mengqian in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 285th, p. 7320.

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(Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 15th), and in The Tall Pine, he wrote, “I’d rather be a small tree, for my life will be carefree. I’d rather not be a tall pine, which brings misfortune” (Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 15th). All of those poems showed his worry, even his homesick poems expressed his concerns about life. Fifty Poems on The Road (Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 15th) expressed his feeling openly. The frequent emergence of words such as “contenting with destiny”, “avoiding the trouble”, “melancholy”, “heartbreak”, “sadness”, “grief”, “sighing for hard life” showed his worry about life and fear of disasters. Worries caused by intense political pressure and helplessness caused by aging diseases were woven into the poet’s sad lines: “Tears dropping when petals falling, worries building with endless drinking” (Nine Poems from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 15th). “Haunted by immense sorrow, sleeplessly count the sound of the night patrol” (Eight Poems for Autumn from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 16th). Between the lines we can see a lonely, melancholy, wandering protagonist. This character is inconsistent with Liu Ji’s identity as a successor of neo-confucianism. The theme of these poems also goes against match his practice-oriented claim. Compared with Song Lian who wrote to explain his philosophy which was in line with the Ming Dynasty’s civil administration, Liu Ji seemed to be more indifferent to the society and paid more attention to his emotions. Spring time did not bring him vitality of life, instead, he wrote: “Day by day, my hair turns greyer, and my face gets paler.” (Spring from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 16th) “Gone is my youth, done is my lofty sentiments” (Six Poems for Spring from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 16th). Upon seeing the autumn leaves, he wrote, “Older, lazier. Time flies, here I am with disease”, “With no more talent, I dare not even envy the talent” (Eight Poems for Autumn from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 16th). In his illness in later years, Liu Ji recalled his life in the sigh “dream as life is, it is even scarce when one is old with sickness.” In his Eight Poems in Spring from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 16th. Liu’s woefulness can also be seen in his other poem named Diversions where he described a bleak scenery that “heavy weed on heavy door, on the lost soul, light sunset cast from the tree shadow.” Liu tends to describe the bleak autumn to show the woefulness in his poems when he was old. In his writings, wind, frost, rain and dew were all elements in the bleak autumn, tree and chrysanthemum got withered, geese flew away, yellow leaves fell and rivers were dry. All of these are the reflection of Liu’s woeful mood under the tumult. As a result, Collections of Mr. Li Mei were sentimental, nothing as grand or graceful as Collection of Valueless. Liu is innovative in visualizing his feeling with natural phenomena, such as “As rain falls on moss, tears fly with petals” in Nine Poems from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 15th, or “east wind had no mercy, young aspens were blown yellow with no vitality.” (Getting Ready from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 16th), both reflecting Liu’s sense of loss.

1.2 The Grievous and Indignant Voice of Prosperous Times …

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1.2 The Grievous and Indignant Voice of Prosperous Times of the Four Great Men in Wuzhong Soon after Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty,ruled the country, the literati in central Wu (Wuzhong) which used to be ruled by Zhu’s foe Zhang Shicheng, had a rough time. The literary world went downhill in Wuzhong and the Four Great Poets in Wuzhong were put to death out of political reasons. Poets changed their poetry style upon entering the Ming Dynasty. Their heroic tone in the poems of the Yuan Dynasty were gone, and whats left in their poems was the woefulness incompatible with the flourishing age of the new dynasty. Gao Qi, Yang Ji, Zhang Yu and Xu Ben were referred to as the Four Great Poets of Wuzhong, a name following the Four Great Poets of the Early Tang Dynasty. However, their similarity is only in their writing styles. The Four Great Poets of Wu had never been as good as the Four Great Poets of the Early Tang Dynasty, either in their courage to lead a new trend nor in the uniqueness of their characteristics. The two groups were only compared in terms of writing styles. The Biography of Gao Qi was followed by the other three poets’ biographies in The History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 285th. Gao Qi (1336–1374), whose style name was Jidi, was from Changzhou (today’s northeast Suzhou in Jiangsu). His early pseudonym was Qing qiuzi and later changed into Zhaxuan. The versatile poet’s erudition and prestige established him as the leader among the four and was recognized as the first poet of the Ming Dynasty. According to The Biography of Gao Qi in The Biographies of the Ming Poets (A) that after Zhang Shicheng took control of Wu, his political consultant Rao Jie expressed his appreciation for Gao Qi’s poems, and Gao was treated “as a rare talent”. But Gao resigned eventually and secluded himself from the world by residing in Qing Qiu. As Zhu Yuanzhang attacked Suzhou in Zhizheng 27th year (1367), Zhang Shicheng, Zhu’s foe, was killed. Gao Qi’s brother and his friends in literary circle, including Yang Ji, Xu Ben, Yu Raochen were all banished. In 1369, Gao was appointed to compile and revise History of the Yuan Dynasty. One year later, he was appointed as the Hanlin Academy editor and mandated to teach seigneurs. In autumn of Hongwy 3rd year (1370), Zhu Yuanzhang promoted Gao as the undersecretary of the Department of Finance, Gao declined the position with the excuse of “being too young to be qualified for such an important position.” (History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 285th) Therefore, he asked for money to return home and then secluded himself in Qing Qiu again, living by teaching. At that time, Wei Guan, the magistrate of Su Zhou, was a close friend of Gao. In 1374, Wei was found guilty for remodeling his mansion. Gao was also involved in the case because he wrote Groundbreaking Hymn for this project. As the penalty, Zhu cut Gao in two at the waist in public. Gao died at the age of 39. The date of Gao’s execution can not be found in the historical record. It was known that Zhu killed Gao as an open warning for those who were not willing to serve his administration. Gao wrote more than two thousand poems such as Feng Tai Collection, River Pavilion Collection, Lou Jiang Script, On Gu Su. He selected about 1,000 poems

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and compiled Fou Ming Collection. In Jingtai 1st year (1450), Xu Yong collected other lost poems and compiled them into The Complete Works of Gao, which was compiled and annotated by Jin Tan in the Qing Dynasty, naming it Collection of Gao Qingqiu. Gao’s poems were elevated and romantic by integrating various styles from the ancient and the modern in a sophisticated fashion. His ambitiousness could be seen in one of his works Song of Youth6 in which Gao expressed “never a loser is my sword, tomorrow will be the day to perform in the battlefield”. However, tumult of the Yuan Dynasty deprived Gao of his opportunity to achieve his ambitions. Though out of office Gao was deeply concerned with people’s sufferings. In his On Cattle Ranching in the The Complete Works of Gao Vol. 2nd, he had the line “Nothing is more miserable than a cattleman having to sell his cattle”. In his On Silkworm Rearing, he wrote “More hast to make silk, less speed to catch up on the summer tax”. He was definitely not a bystander among the suffering people, and more empathy was showed in his On Farmland, Vol. 2nd, which was rare among the common literati then. In spite of Gao’s empathy, his passions could not serve for the right purpose as he lived in a turbulent age. With a critical view he had a self depiction of himself in The Song of Qing Qiuzi in The Complete Works of Gao, as “never bow for the mess of pottage but to keep the virtue and integrity”, from which an man of character was reflected. A conscription notice from the Ming Emperor seemed to be an opportunity for Gao Qi and he was temporarily out of that high profile. It’s hard to image that upon the announcement that my anthology was appreciated by the emperor, and as one of the plebs, I am so honored to be able to meet his Majesty (Submitting the Book of Yuan Upon Imperial Edict from The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 14th) was written by Gao Qi, who was the author of Song of Qing Qiuzi. He was beyond being grateful for the clothes given by the emperor (Gratitude to the Royal Award of Clothes from The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 12th). Think constantly of it when living in the capital alone, he wrote “all of my possessions were pawned, but my clothes from his Majesty” (In the Capital Lodge, idem). Most of the time, the writing style of Wuzhong scholars made Gao Qi depressive, so he expressed his state of mind through metaphors. There was a thought-provoking image in his later works-beauty’s silhouette: Ready for a greeting but her name is unknown, Against the east breeze her figure is sentimentally shown. Not that the painter failed to convey, Her beauty is far beyond what he can portray.7 Youth enclosed in courtyard,with the real world behind. Memories dear, but no one to share.8 6

The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 1st, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. All Gao Qi’s quotations in this section are from this edition unless otherwise noted. 7 The Painting of the Beauty’s Silhouette, The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 14th. 8 The Painting of the Beauty, The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 18th.

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Obviously, the image has some overtones. It represents Gao Qi’s true feelings for the Ming Dynasty. It is stated in his complaint: “Nothing to serve for the royalty except writing. a bookworm as me better resign for fishing.” (Bitterness in the Capital from The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 14th) which explains his motives for resigning. Gao Qi’s poetry is good at poem-set-to-music and seven-character poems. His poetry was increasingly mature in the late Ming Dynasty. Nine Poems of Plum Blossom (The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 15th) could be the masterpiece of Gao Qi’s modern style poetry at the time either in its content or form. The delicate touches embody the profound meaning. Gao Qi compares the plum blossom to a beauty, who is as pure as jade and as clean as ice, just like a fairy from an immortal mansion. The delicate descriptions, such as “encountering the beauty in white ‘,’ the faint moonlight”, “accompanied by the cloud”, “soul of a jade”, “tis my dream world with the gentle moonlight and thin cloud hovering, with sorrow I am left alone in the mountain with streams purling”, which are more admirable in the conveyance of the essence than the rhetoric. We can’t tell whether the plum blossom is just the beauty, or the beauty is right of the blossom. The two images are integrated and inseperable in the poem. The lines “It’s the snowy mountain where the hermit residing, it is the moon-lit night when the beauty descending”are the soul of the poem, from which the poet’s elevated artistic aspiration was derived. The “hermit” and the “beauty” are supposed to be two totally unrelated images, but the poet implicitly makes them correspondent to each other. The moon frames the beauty and the snow gives contrast to the hermit. Each of them makes the other more appealing, which represents the desire of Gao Qi in his depressed situation. River View from Rain Flower Pavilion in Jinling (The Complete Works of Gao, Vol. 11th) is a masterpiece of poem-set-to-music style in Gao Qi’s later creation. It is still of great vigor, but compared with the Song of Qing Qiuzi, it is obvious more sorrowful and depressed: From thousands of mountains the river surging, toward the east both are reaching. Winding like a dragon, Mountain Bell is extending to the West,topping the river as in a contest.Shocking Episode in this beauty contest, ‘tis truly a diamond cut diamond.Royalty boosted with gold hidden under by Emperor Qin,Not that can overpower the dazzling Episode.To remove vexation, I got on Yuhua tower with intoxication. Facing bleak smoke and sunset, I’m so helplessly nostalgic and lost. Under the stone city, the river is raging,how dare thousands of Northern cavalry venture crossing? Heroes captivated,bad signed presented. Iron chain in the river broken, all defensive work set in vain. The capital for the Three Kingdoms followed by the Six Dynasties, turned into a world of desolation! Conquerors busy dividing land, blood streaming like river on the tide. Blessed with the sage I met, from the south of River Yangtze. I had my troupe sent. Chaos settled and here I am recuperated. My sweet home at all four seas, with no line set by Yangtze.

At the beginning of the poem, the author describes a massive and splendid picture: the Yangtze River is surging east and the Zhong Mountain rises west straight like a dragon, corresponding with each other. What a unique glorious view in the world! Based on this background, the author depicts a melancholic poet with “To remove vexation, I got on Yuhua tower with intoxication”. The line of “facing bleak smoke and sunset, I’m so helplessly nostalgic and lost”, is the critical touch Through the veil of time, the author naturally combines the descriptions of scenery with the

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reflections of the past, the reality with the history. The tone of the poem is vigorous, the momentum is magnificent, and the whole poem is solemn. Although the poem ends up with extolling the Ming Dynasty for uniting the nation like a laud, its desolate mood distinguishes itself from ordinary poems that extol a peaceful society. It expresses the poet’s wish that he desires peace after going though chaos caused by war in the late Yuan Dynasty. The whole poem is rhythmic with exquisite strokes. We can say that it has the style of Su Dongpo’s poem-set-to-music style even though Su’s writing rarely has the work of this kind. We can also say that it shares the style of Han Yu’s fine works like Hill Stones which are approachable, vibrant and explicit yet without any of Han’s arrogance; or we can say that it shares no similarity with either of the two masters at all. Rather, each of the three poets composed the best poetry in their own style. This kind of verse keeps their original characteristics and exhibits fully the strength of a certain artistic form, demonstrating the originality of Gao Qi’s poetry in a distinctive way. Gao Qi is one of the greatest poets in the Ming Dynasty but can hardly get the title of first-class master in Chinese literature history due to his lack of the necessary environment and experiences for a master despite all of his talents. From 33 to 39 when he was killed, Gao lived under the reign of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (Zhu Yuanzhang) for 7 years. Though Gao almost became Zhu’s exclusively-hired scholar, the ruling power won’t allow him to talk freely and Gao himself couldn’t just ignore the torture his brothers and close friends were experiencing at that time under the rein of this new government. After sequestering himself, he could only look for inspiration from mountains, rivers, pavilions, gardens, memorial temples and cemeteries, which resulted in his 123 poems named Freestyle Songs in Gusu. Gao made a self-mockery in his preamble: “my stomach is full but my head is empty.”9 We can easily get the implication of those lines. Whenever at the end of the Yuan Dynasty or at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Gao experienced no ups and downs in his life until the unexpected misfortune which ended his life at the age of 39. Compared with Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Su Shi who were demoted and sent away to remote areas, roaming in the great mountains and rivers to reap the valuable experiences, Gao lacked these experiences and his life journey was much shorter. Even under these circumstances, he can never write his poetry freely. If Du Fu died at the age of 39, his widely-extolled works would barely exist. Certainly, another 20 years won’t make Gao another Du Fu. Nevertheless, there is another possibility. There is no testament to Gao’s talents due to his premature death, yet the social conditions of the early Ming Dynasty won’t allow those poets to exert their talents freely even if the Almighty gives them another life. Yang Ji (1326–1378), styled name Meng Zai and pseudonym name Mei An was from Jia Ding county (now Leshan city, Sichuan province). Yang was born in Wuzhong known for his talent of reciting The Six Classics (The Book of Songs, The Book of History, The Book of Rites, The Book of Changes, The Book of Music, 9

Gao Qi: Collection of Chirping, Vol. 3rd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

1.2 The Grievous and Indignant Voice of Prosperous Times …

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and The Spring and Autumn Annals) at the age of 9. Yang once composed a piece of work named Song of Iron Flute,10 which was greatly admired by Yang Weizhen who then lived temporarily in Wuzhong. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Yang sought retreat in Chi Mountain in Wuzhong and worked in Zhang Shicheng’s mansion as the secretary, a position he quit soon after. Yang worked as the magistrate of Xingyang county in the early Ming Dynasty and soon was demoted once again. Afterwards, he got the position of a consultant in Jiangxi and then was removed from that office for 6 years on account of a criminal offence. 6 years later, he got his job back and was promoted to be the Chief Prosecutor in Shanxi. Before long, the poor man once again lost that job due to others’ disparage and this time was demoted to Shu Zuo, a job he worked till his death. Of all the “Four Outstanding Men of Wu” members, only Yang spares the tragedy of a violent death but the three-time demotions made Yang nothing different from his peers who never got the mercy from Zhu’s regime. Yang Ji, only second to Gao Qi of all The Four Great Poets of Wu, had his works compiled in Collection of Mei An. He wrote his poems in a relaxing and delicate style, manifesting the great pain and grief after surrendering himself to the Ming rulers. Gao Qi’s being cut at waist sowed the seed of unbearable pain deep in Yang’s heart. He had a poem titled Crying for My Old Friend Gao Jidi (Collection of Mei An, Vol. 9th) in which it is written “nothing is left with all your work being splendid, all you have here is my mournful towel with tears-soaked”, expressing Yang’s deeply-hidden pain. There are other two pieces “Dreaming About My Old Friend Gao Jidi (Collection of Mei An, Vol. 11th)” in which the poet chews once again on the happiness of discussing poems and clapping hands with his close friends, revealing his inner most feelings. Truly, it is the the most painful experience to see one’s friends losing their lives at their prime: There was this song, sonorous and fair-sounding; There was this man, bursting into tears. The spring left with all the flowers withering and falling; My reminiscence is bringing me these rovers.11

The imageries in Yang’s poetry are refreshing and ethereal, which are demonstrated in lines as “Lush verdancy, far-reaching fragrance, spring is presenting the tender fantasy” (Collection of Mei An, Vol. 8th, titled Spring Grass), or “snow being delicate gentleness from jade, my cheeks brushed by the breeze, with no trace to track (Plum Blossom in Autumn Pavilion in Collection of Mei An Vol.2nd )”. He also likes using furnishing to create originality, like “With frosty lush green the defoliated tree is colored, with no tinted yellow the withered rain-hit flowers are painted” (Five Rhyme-singing Poems in Autumn Chamber in Collection of Mei An, Vol. 16th), or “swallows fly across the floral embroidery curtains in the dusk, fish surface to kiss as the floating willow passed” (Twenty Freestyle Poems in Riverside Village in Collection of Mei An, Vol. 7th). 10 Yang Ji: Collection of Mei An, Vol. 4th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 11 Remembrance of Music Enjoyment in Cuiting, Collection of Mei An, Vol. 9th.

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Zhang Yu, style name Lai Yi, has no written birth and death date on record. His works is compiled in Collection of Tranquility, which collects only his poems but his articles are not found. He excelled in writing five-character poem and Yuefu poemset-to-music style. His poetry is refreshing and romantic. According to Chapter 285 in History of Ming Dynasty, Vol. 285th, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang thought highly of his works. Xu Ben (1335–1393), style name Youwen and pseudonym Bei Guosheng, was a poet and painter of the Ming Dynasty. He was good at Chinese landscape painting. His works are collected in the Beiguo Collection. Based on the description in History of the Ming Dynasty, he wrote some poems when he was on the way back from the mission of visiting today’s Shanxi and Hebei province in 1374 A.D. Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was pleased with his works and appointed him to the position of Inspector. As the country fell into chaos and turmoil at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Yu and Xu Ben were fleeing from the attacks in the countryside. They were not appointed until the Ming Dynasty. However, the recognition from the Emperor did not bring them any good luck. They both died miserably as soon as they served the Ming Dynasty. As Zhang Yu was involved in Duke Chuyang’s crime and was banished to the South of the Five Ridges. Despite the fact that he was recalled from exile, he still committed suicide by jumping into the Dragon River, as he was clearly aware that his life won’t be speared anyway. As for Xu Ben, he died in jail for not rendering assistance to the General in time in a borderline battle. During the early Ming Dynasty, there were some other poets who went through the transition from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, such as Yang Weizhen’s disciple Be Qiong and Yuan Kai, who was known as White Tern Yuan for his poem White Tern when he was young. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Kai played dumb to keep himself out of trouble and Bei Qiong gave up all his characters, having nothing remarkable in his poems.

1.3 The Beginning of the Literary Retro In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, literary retro was blooming. However, the seeds of the movement had been planted in the early Ming Dynasty. The scholars who went through the turmoil at the end of theYuan Dynasty naturally had some expectation for a flourishing country. It was the hope deeply rooted in people’s mind for the golden age of prosperity. Li Ji, a poet in the early Ming dynasty ruled by Zhu Yuanzhang, traced back to the three generations of Tangyu and dug deep into the literature of the subsequent dynasties, such as Han, Tang, Song and Yuan. He appealed to scholars to inherit the cultural tradition by writing the eloquent poems compatible to those written in the past prosperous ages. His views were embodied in the Bowen Collection and the Preface for the Su Boheng Collection. As he wished the poetry and the Ming dynasty would be as good as the Tang Dynasty, Lin Heng named his

1.3 The Beginning of the Literary Retro

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book as the Collection in Honor of the Prosperity.12 But, the revival of traditional culture was the fundamental reason. Prior to the Ming Dynasty, the most influential revival of literature took place in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. In essence, the two movements were not identical. If the movement in the Tang Dynasty was the result of officials political appeals to rejuvenate the country, the literary retro the Ming Dynasty came in response to the development of literature. The golden age of poetry in the Tang Dynasty is a formidable hurdle for the scholars in the Song Dynasty. Therefore, there came the Song scholars’ great admiration for the poems created in Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties as in Notes on Poets and Poetry, as well as innovative styles of poems, and Ci was a poetic form came into being. Upon entry into the Yuan Dynasty, opera was budding. It is the classical Chinese poetry presented in the tunes of various songs. The traditional poetry is inevitably edging downwards. As the poems became tawdry at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the literary retro was blooming. Yang Weizhen, a prominent poet at the end of Yuan Dynasty, played a significant role in literary retro. In Zhizheng 24th year (1364), his follower Zhang Wan wrote a preface for Yang Weizhen’s book, Collection of the Classical Poems. He wrote, “Born in the period of recession, he writes poems in honor of the old days. His writing exceeds those of Ji and Lian, close to Han and Wei,only next to Sao and Ya… It is an exceptional work of cultural rebirth.”13 Songlian, the leader of East Zhejiang school wrote an epitaph for him in memory of his retro achievements: “Scholars of this area mostly past away. His writings are as majestic as the mountains and ocean, which featured him till his demise over forty years…His talent is extraordinary, incomparable unless with the scholars from the pre-Qin and East-west Han Dynasties …”14 Wang Hui advocated Yang Weizhen’s views in his Preface for the Poems of Lianbo, “I have heard Yang’s appeal for writing poems using the stories of Han and Wei Dynasties and the rhythm of Tang poetry.”15 As Yang Weizhen was highly valued among the scholars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, his proposal had broad impact in the development of literature of the early Ming Dynasty. In addition, the activities of Mingzhong School scholar located in today’s Fujian province had reached its peak in the early Ming Dynasty. Yan Yu and Zhen Dexiu were the most influential Fujian scholars in the movement. Yan Yu put forward the complete theory in the initial stage while Zhen Dexiu edited the Classic Literary Masterpieces. At 12

Liu Song wrote a preface for The Collection in Honor of the Prosperity, “Today, I saw Official Lin’s poems that reflects the classic literary style of precedent prosperous dynasties…. Such style of poetry can take the lead in vitalizing our literature and eventually bring about the prosperity of the country. Therefore, I named the book as the Collection in Honor of the Prosperity.” (See Lin Hong: The Collection in Honor of the Prosperity, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library). 13 Yang Weizhen: Collection of the Classical Poems with Zhang Wan’s preface, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 14 Song Lian: Epitaph for Scholar Yang, Anthology of Chief Editor Song, Vol. 16th, four part series (first edition). 15 Wang Wei: Collection of Wang Zhongwen. Vol. 5th. Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Yining supported the ideas of Yan Yu. In the early Ming Dynasty, the Ten Talented Scholars in Fujian province further developed it. The Classic Literary Masterpieces edited by Zhen Dexiu collected the excerpts from Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals, Historical Records, Book of Han and some prose written by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan. It also collected a number of poems ranging from Thoroughfare, Knocking the Earth to those written by Li Bai and Du Fu. Gao Bing, one of the Ten Talents, edited the Classic Tang Poetry based on Collection for the Appreciation of the Tang Poetry. Both of them were the textbooks in the Literature Academy for advanced scholars. Undoubtedly, they had great impact on the retro movement.Gao Bing’s writing was based on the Sounds of Tang, a book adapted by Yang Shihong in Zhizheng 4th year (1344). Yang, born at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, was from Xiangcheng in Henan province. He wrote in his preface of the book that “No poetry in any of the other dynasties could be as outstanding as those produced from the Tang Dynasty. Li Bai and Du Fu in particular, their poems are exquisite and untouchable. They are the masters of poetry for ever and after! Of the selected poems, more of them were from the late Tang Dynasty but less from its prime time.” After all, it is acknowledged that Gao Bing’s Appreciation of the Tang Poetry was a variant from Sounds of Tang, in the common structure with some minor changes. All the above shows that literary retro had gone through a long process of accumulation before it was established, meanwhile the orthdoxical literary style was in decline. The voice of restoring the traditional writing style continued at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty as the delicate descriptive writing style retained from the Yuan Dynasty did not take any new look. However, there were many literary schools in the early Ming Dynasty,16 and soon after the unification of the Zhu and Ming Dynasties, literature still had the regional differences in the state of separatism at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Hence, the scholars in the early Ming Dynasty were different from those in the middle and late Ming retro school, who were easily organized for the purposeful large scale literary retro movement with the convenience of gathering together the students and their teachers from the capital. Instead, the literature schools in different regions were relatively independent even with the influences from each other, in a diversified pluralistic retro fashion: some advocated the emotion based poetry writing, but others advocated inheriting the tradition of Taoism and writings for conveying truth; some advocated an all-embracing approach, while a lot of voices for following the styles of the Han, Wei, and Tang Dynasties; some proposed that the meanings rather than the expressions should be followed, but at the same time it was quite a trend to copy the past styles as well as their metaphors. Song Lian and Liu Ji were both Daoism inheritors from the East Zhejiang School. In view of literature, Song believed in writings for conveying truth (Preface to White Cloud Manuscript from On Codes, Vol. 7th) with the view that “It is the essence of all 16

It is said in Hu Yinglin’s Poetry Marsh said: “In the early period, the Wu poetry school was initiated by Gao Jidi, the Yue poetry school by Liu Bowen, the Min poetry school by Lin Ziyu, the Lingnan poetry school By Sun Yi, the Jiangyou poetry school by Liu Song. The five schools of talent, distinctive with their own features, are in the vanguard of modern times” (Hu Yinglin: Poetry Marsh, Sequel, Vol. 1st, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House).

1.3 The Beginning of the Literary Retro

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writing to present truth. One can not do without the other.” (Preface to the Collection of Mentor Xu, On Codes, Vol. 7th). Liu held that neither praise nor irony would give moral exhortations. (Preface to the Collection of Zhao’s Poems from Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 7th). He was against focusing on themes like warbler, flower, dew and moon without relating them to the real world. To some extent, Song’s instrumentalism was in the same line with Liu’s pragmatism so that they once agreed to “develop and advance the ancient classic traditions”.17 Song Lian’s view of restoring ancient ways showed the salient Daoism. In his On Ancient Restoration, he proposed that the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius should be inherited at all perspectives18 and poetry is to inherit the spirit of The Book of Songs and the poems of the Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties. A Reply to Scholar Zhang on Poems was an important writing which not only sketched the outline of poems’ evolution history but also manifested Song’s ancient restoration ideas. He regarded The Book of Songs as the first to light the torch for poems which flourished in the Han and Wei Dynasties and got to their prime in the prosperous age of the Tang Dynasty. As a result, he took it for granted that we should follow the footsteps of the Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties poems. Advanced poets should learn their meaning more and the average should learn more of their word selections. “By following suite all the way, a poet would be no more than a servant following the master with no character in one’s poetry writing!” Song admitted imitation is the initial stage of poem writing of the average, but there should be a goal set for a poet to have one’s own style.19 Different from Song, the order Liu listed was that true poems began from the three generations of Tang Yu, Shun, Xia, Shang, Zhou, and ended in the Yuan Dynasty, between them were the Western Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty with representatives of Li Bai, Du Fu, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan and the Song Dynasty represented by OuYang Xiu, Zeng Gong and Su shi, Wan Anshi, follwed by the Yuan Dynasty represented by Liu, Xu, Yao, Yu, Huang, Fan, Jie.20 Zhu Youdun.Zhu Youdun, another scholar from East Zhejiang School, held that true poems originated from the Pre-Qin days, the Eastern Han, Tang and Song Dynasties. “The standard for the later generations”21 17

Preface to the Poetry of Hymn, On Codes, Vol. 32th: “It is said that poetry must be based on three hundred poems. Li Ling’s five-character lines, since they came out, had been followed without any other revivals of the ancients. Although there are authors between Jin and Wei, the rhymes and syllables had been difficult to follow. Fang and Mr. Liu Bowen both advocated the quintessence of the ancient. As Wu Congshan requested tomb inscriptions for his ancestors, I am pleased to put it in writing.” 18 On Ancient Restoration, On Codes, Vol. 2nd: “Those who learn from the past should take it from the above, and there were a lot of saints in the past. What is the point of just following one? The ancient mentors in morality were Confucius and Mencius…Those who were good at assisting governing were Yi Ying and Zhou Gong. The learning would be doubtful if not to follow them. If you want to practice retro, they are the ones to be followed.” 19 Cheng Minzheng: Authoritative Reviews of Writings, Vol. 25th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 20 Preface for the Su Boheng Collection, Preface to Shangshu Collection of Wang Shilu, Bowen Collection, Vol. 6th, 15th. 21 Preface to the Literature Reviews on the Qin and Han Dynasties,White Cloud Manuscript, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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were Historical Records and History of the Han Dynasty, according to his book Literature Reviews on the Qin and Han Dynasties. After that, he collected writings from eight scholars, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, OuYang Xiu, Zeng Gong, Wang Anshi, Su Shi, Su Zhe and Su Xun, which was known as “The Collection of the Eight Men of Letters in the Tang and Song Dynasties” (lost). The Eight Schools had thus been recorded. Fang Xiaoru (1357–1402) was known for his writings. He had the style name Xi Zhi and Xi Gu and was a native of Ninghai in Zhejiang Province. Tutored by Songlian, Fang Xiaoru was known for his articles, with the work of Poetry Anthology from Xunzhi’s Study. In his On Moving to Luoshan (On Codes, Vol. 26th), Song Lian asked his descendants to be instructed by Zheng, who was under the same roof with the tenth generation, and Fang Xiaoru also wrote 15 songs of “Family Admonition”22 Guided by Tao principles (Preface to Xizhai Poems from Poetry Anthology from Xun-zhi’s Study, Vol. 12th), the retro style interpreted by him can be “ the blue that is extracted from the indigo plant, but is bluer than it”. After Zhu Yuanzhang’s death, Zhu Yunshi, the Emperor’s grandson, went to Nanjing to serve as the lecturer in Hanlin Academy. In fact, he is an advocate of retro reform. If Prince Zhu Biao was still alive, the chance for Zhu Di (Duke of Yan) to be successful is very slim, and this will give Fang Xiaoru an opportunity, which he never had before, to put retro into practice. But this did not happen in history. When soldiers of Yan entered Nanjing, Fang Xiaoru refused to draft the imperial edict for them and got the extermination of his entire family of ten extended relatives (including his students). Fang Xiaoru was deeply influenced by his teacher, Song Lian, and believed that “abide by the rules, follow the principles and poetry will thus be made” (Poetry Anthology from the Xunzhi’s Study, Vol. 12th, Preface to Liu’s Poems). The Preface to Su Taishi’s Collection of Essays proposed that “mind connects with the Devine” (Poetry Anthology from the Xunzhi’s Study, Vol. 12th), which shows that the key to his retro, that is, the key to follow the “principle”, is to focus on its spirit, not to copy the skills or forms of the ancients. He admired Li Bai’s genius, and admired even more Du Fu’s versatile talents and his individual styles.23 He firmly opposed imitation and idolatry. As he said, “Poems by Li Bai and Du Fu, were popular all over the world. I wonder if they had some one to follow. To explore the deep insight of Feng (Ballad) and Ya (Dynastic Hymns), a world of wonder is discovered.” “(Talking about Poetry, one of the five Poems in Poetry Anthology from Xunzhi’s Study, Vol. 24th). Fang Xiaoru is fond of the ancient style. “The spring water under the sacrificial altar is exhaustible, and the spring grass is green on the sacrificial altar. The water of the Yellow River flows day and night, and the green grass sprout in spring every year.” (The Sacrificial Altar from Poetry Anthology from Xunzhi’s Study, Vol. 24th). It can be seen it is the imitation of Li Bai, 22

Poetry Anthology from Xunzhi’s Study, Vol. 1st, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. All quotes in the following are from this edition. 23 Cottage Monument for Mr. Du of Chengdu from Poetry Anthology from Xunzhi’s Study, Vol. 22nd: “Mister Du from Shaoling…He was knowledgeable about the ancients and expressed in his poems. His writings concerned people of all classes, covers all dimensions, with classy phrasing and he distinguished from other schools with all their quintessence.

1.3 The Beginning of the Literary Retro

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But The Picturesque Landscape from Poetry Anthology from Xunzhi’s Study, Vol. 24th is refreshing and innovative in its style, being beyond the phrase of imitation. Wang Yi (1322–1373), style name Zi Chong, was from Yiwu, Zhejiang Province. In the early Ming Dynasty, he participated in the compilation and revision of The History of the Yuan Dynasty, and took the office of Hanlin Academy after the completion of the book. He was also the author of Collection of Wang Zhongwen. As a student of Huang Shu and a friend of Song Shu, Wang Yu had the common retro thought with Song Lian. He was a big fan of the poetry in the Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties. He said in Preface to Poems of Zhang Zhongjian, “Of the three hundred works, poems after the Qin and Han Dynasties, those in the Tang Dynasty are the most outstanding.” (Collection of Wang Zhongwen, Vol. 7th). Different from the literati in southern Zhejiang, the poets represented by Gao Qi were open and direct, with little exploration of truth nor retro thoughts. His retro thoughts are mainly reflected in his Preface to the Collection of Solitary Hut. In this article, he put forward his main poetic point of view: There are three keys in poems, that is, style, meaning and taste. Since the Han, Wei, Jin, Tang Dynasties, all poets, except Du Fu, were good at their own exclusive styles…So we must learn from each school by first copying, till it is time to digest and create. This is the open attitude to avoid bigotry. “(Collection of Chirping, Vol. 2nd) Style, meaning and taste are the comprehensive requirements for poetry in genre, lyricism and aesthetics. In order to achieve the realm of all three, one needs to be incorporated in all schools without taking one side. This is Gao Qi’s experience with his creative exploration. Wang Yi, another poet in Wu, commented that he “can not help talking about poets in Han, Wei, Jin and Tang Dynaties in any conversation about poetry… Referring to the ancient style by writing poems out of emotion. But he added, “the styles of the Han, Wei, Jin and Tang Dynasties works can all be found in his poems. If compared with Ji Di’s work, it’s hard to tell who is better.”24 This is an undervaluation of Gao Qi, who had inherited different schools as well as initiating his own style. By the same token, Gao Qi’s theory of retro and artistic practice was not fairly evaluated in The Abstract in the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, holding that he “restores ancient style by utilizing the delicate descriptive wording of late Yuan Dynasty” in order to “imitate” the classic works but failed to “to digest and create”. As far as imitation is concerned, there is nothing wrong, it was even normal, to have it at the initial stage of artistic creation, but this does not necessarily lead to creation. It is easy to feel the flavors of Tao Yuanming, Liu Yuxi and even Li He from Gao Qi’s poems, such as The Song of Miracle String, The Abstract Vol. 1st, The Bamboo Song Vol. 2nd, Tillers Vol. 6th. Gao Qi finally showed his personality with his creative works. The Abstract not only overestimates his inheritance to the poetic style of the late Yuan Dynasty, but also exaggerates his retro tendency. Gao Qi had never set up an insurmountable idol for himself, let alone taking imitation as the ultimate of creation, which is totally different from the the extreme revivalism of Qin-Han writings and Tang Poetry. It is unfair to underestimate his creativity. Based 24

Wang Yi: Preface to Gao Jidi’s Poetry Collection from Collection of Wang Changzong, Vol. 2nd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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on Yuefu’s ancient poems, Gao Qi’s Song of Qing Qiuzi in the late Yuan Dynasty (The Abstract Vol. 1st) and his River View from Rain Flower Pavilion in Jinling in the early Ming Dynasty (The Abstract Vol. 1st) are entitled to be the most distinctive masterpieces in the history of Chinese poetry. In the early Ming Dynasty, the poets in central Fujian were the most popular. Lin Hongshi, a Fujian native, made his comments by imitating the rules of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. According to The Biography of Lin Hong from the History of the Ming Dynasty, he said that “the poetry in Fujian is based on the style of Hong”. In fact, the ancient source of the patriarchal system of the poets in central Fujian can be traced back to Yan Yu in the Song Dynasty, followed by Zhang Yining at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and then Lin Hong. Cao Zhenji in the Qing Dynasty commented, “Of the Canglang style, who can do better than Gao Bi and Lin Hong?”25 It can be said that he had found the source of the revival of the central Fujian poets. Zhang Yining inherited Yan Yu’s poetic theory and became the first person in the Ming Dynasty to narrate the Han and Wei dynasties and to respect the forerunners of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. He said to himself, “enjoy the poems in the Tang Dynasty, which were started by Su, Li, and ended with Tao and Ruan. The seven-character lines were best written by Li and Du while the latter was also a master of the modern style. It is the commoners wish to get the essence of the ancient style but what they wrote is not even close.”26 He repeatedly expressed the attitude of respecting the prosperous Tang Dynasty: “Of the five hundred top poems in the Tang Dynasty, those from Li Bai and Du Fu were placed on the top rank.”27 “Of the next three hundred poems, none was better than Tao and more popular than Li and Du.”28 Zhang Yining and Gao Qi have the same idea on the retro methods. He holds “an individual style that can be established with the metamorphosis of other styles”. “A style without copying is a style with similar features”, “it is craftsmanship not to have excessive carve”, “it is delicate work not to carp at the wordings.”29 He also described it vividly: “If you throw salt into the water, and drink it, you will taste it without seeing the trace of the salt.”30 Lin Hong, style name Yu, was born in Fuqing (now Fuqing City, Fujian Province) at an unknown age. He was the first poet in central Fujian in the early Ming Dynasty. In the early days of Hong Wu, he was recommended as the talent and got the position of an instructor in Jiangle County (which is still Fujian Province). He also served at the Fined Meal Division of the Protocol Department but resigned to return home when he was less than 40 years old. He wrote Collection in Honor of the Prosperity. He and Yan Yu adhered the retro school by following the prosperous Tang Dynasty, 25

Cao Zhenji: Tune of Spring Pavilion, Ke Xue Ci Poetry II, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 26 Preface to Seeing Mr Lu Home, Complete Works of the Ming Dynasty (2), Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1992, p. 109. 27 Preface to Poems on Fishing Veranda. p. 94. 28 Preface of Huang Zisu’s Poetry Collection, Complete Works of the Ming Dynasty (2), pp. 92–93. 29 Preface to the Poems of the Jungle, Complete Works of the Ming Dynasty (2), p. 106. 30 Preface to the Poems by Bu zhongzhao, Complete Works of the Ming Dynasty (2), p. 118.

1.3 The Beginning of the Literary Retro

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which was taken as a standard by Gao Xuan. Hence there came the compilation of Collection for the Appreciation of the Tang Poetry.31 The theory of restoring ancient poetry in central Fujian had been carried forward. The spirit presented by the verse is glamorous. The comments to the poetry of the prosperous Tang Dynasty by the scholars of Fujian school were brilliant, but they are high minded and low handed by just imitating its super facial linguistic styles. No matter how hard they tried in their imitation works, it is impossible to have any achievements. Li Dongyang held that Lin Hong’s poems “show up the cliche upon opening”.32 A bit acerbic as it is, it does hit the drawback of the retro school. In the early Ming Dynasty, the retro style was also reflected in the creation of Lingnan poets, whose representative character was Sun Yi whose styled name was Zhongyan. In the early days of Hongwu, he was the secretary of Hanlin Academy. He had the work of Collection of the West Temple, in which a number of imitated ancient Yuefu poems were found. Some expressed the poet’s feeling of being in the new dynasty. “My husband is from Jinling, the town of prosperity.” From the female point of view, this poem of Purple Horse is a clever description of Beijing and China in the prosperous dynasty. (Collection of the West Temple, Vol. 2nd) Trip to Beijing expresses the poet’s direct perception of the journey to Beijing (Collection of the West Temple, Vol. 2nd) can be seen from “the day of prosperity in Beijing, the time of beauty in the south of the Yangtze River”. The poem Cattle Herding (Collection of the West Temple, Vol. 2nd) expresses the poet’s expectation of a leisurely rural life: “The ox coming out in the morning, returning home in the evening. Herding cattle is like tree planting. Let the cows feast on the refreshing grass and water, it is the best without disturbing.” These poems are easy to write and fresh among many of the boring works. There were quite some imitations of ancient poems in the south of the five ridges. There are a lot of other poets in the south of the five ridges imitating the ancients, but there are not many who put together the ancient poems as clearly as Li De’s Liu’s Strolling On the Mountain Manor.33 Liu Song (1321–1381) was born in Taihe, Jiangxi Province. He was the first scholar in Jiangxi Province. He had two collections, one is the Poems of the Woodman, the other is the Collection of the Woodman. Liu Song was good at the ancient style, 31

Collection for the Appreciation of the Tang Poetry. Scholars’ Reviews: “The study of poetry is like the study of Buddhism. The poems of Han, Wei, Jin and the prosperous Tang Dynasties are the best. Therefore, the principles of poetry can not be determined by personal evaluations, and Buddhism can be used as a metaphor to infer that since the Han- Wei Dynasties, the poetic style of the prosperous Tang Dynasty was followed like the model. “Collection for the Appreciation of the Tang Poetry. Ordinary Cases” The respectful senior Lin Hong once discussed poems with me…During Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods, the spirit presented by the verse is glamorous. It is to be learned by all scholars. With this in mind, I collected the ancient and modern sages’ opinions and the arguments of Mr. Yan of Canglang school. All was agreed by Mr. Lin. Therefore, the poems of the Tang Dynasty were compiled.” Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, pp. 12–14. 32 Li Dongyang: Collection of Li Dongyang, Notes on Poetry of Huailu Hall, Yuelu Publishing House, 1985, p. 534. 33 See Poems of Four Gentlemen from Guangzhou, Vol. 2nd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature of the Imperial Library.

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meanwhile having had his own style,34 but he was never interested in talking about retro. Chen Mo (1305–1390), a scholar from Jiangxi known for his theory of retro, while Yang Shiqi was his successor. Chen Mo, style name Yi De, pseudonym Xinwu and also named Haisang, was the author of Collection of Haisang. In the early years of Hongwu, he was recruited to Beijing. Song Lian and Wang Yu tried to keep him in the position as the sinologist, but he resigned with illness. Chen Mo paid equal attention to the poetry of the Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties and highly esteemed Li and Du, and were strongly against bigotry and plagiarism. He criticized the new school of poetry at the time: “Those who enjoy the Selection revere the Tang poetry with Li and Du as the most distinguished, while those who think less of it hold the poetry in Wei and Jin Dynasties as the best.”35 The Preface to Guo Sheng’s Poems satirizes “those taking old verse as the trend” as “fashion of copying”, and points out that they take imitation as the op-notch, resulting in “thousands of poems in one tune”.36 Chen Mo was not against imitation, but emphasized the importance of imitation without copying. That is to say, form can serve as the initial model and the learning can lead to innovative essence. Most of his ancient poems are self propositional, but less inherited of the old Yuefu themes. No matter the ancient style or the modern style, his poems carry the tranquil flavor with less clichés, even though the image is not exactly refreshing. The theory, practice, controversy and demerits of Literature Restoration in the early Ming Dynasty had an obvious impact on the movement of Literature Restoration in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Firstly, the theory of carrying Tao had a legacy in the late Ming Dynasty. Chen Zilong asked to restore the elegant tradition of poetry which is more related to reality,37 though he was better at modern style in the structure of poetry. Secondly, the tendency of respecting the Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties was inherited and absolutized by the middle and late Ming retro school. Early Seven Scholars took the banner of pursuing the essay writings of Qin and Han Dynasties and poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, along with the poetry in the Wei-Han periods. Their overall achievement in Yuefu poetry is higher than those in modern style, which is probably an indisputable fact. The Latter Seven Scholars basically inherited the theory of the former seven, Xie Zhen,in the early stage of his creation,took the lead in the five-character style. In the later stage, Wang Shizhen’s poems gain the most popularity with the ancient style of Yuefu. Third, it was considered there were two 34 Xie Jin, On the Three Poems in Collection of Wenyi, Vol. 15th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature of the Imperial Library. Those who tried their best to learn from the ancient Yuefu tune were “Liu Song, Peng Yong and Liu Yong, who were equally enthusiastic.” 35 The Preface of Yong Yan, Complete Works of the Ming Dynasty (2), p. 564. 36 Complete Works of the Ming Dynasty (2), p. 588. 37 According to The Preface of Li Shuzhang’s Ancient Poems: “Ever since after 300 Works, ancient style proved to be the modal in inheriting Dynastic Hymns, in memorizing Changyu, and to express one’s aspirations.” According to the Preface of the Book of Songs, “if a man’s poems are based on his emotions of happiness and anger, poems are the best expression. Poems can be metaphoric as not to directly refer to the current affairs and the feelings that serves as the purpose of writing.” (see Collection of Chen Zilong. Anya Hall Manuscripts, Vol. 1st, 3rd, Photocopy of East China Normal University Press, 1988, pp. 28–64).

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ways of learning from the ancient: one is learning the spirit rather than the form, the other is learning the rhetoric skills. Among the Early Seven Scholars, there was the dispute of “copying”38 and “borrowing”39 the ancient. While among the Latter Seven Scholars, there was the dispute of Li Panlong’s strict adherence to the “method.”40 of the Western Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty as opposed to Xie Zhen’s “no need to dance to ancient tune”.41 This shows that the method problems faced by those who advocated literary retro in the early stage were still the focus of the consensus in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and the imitation of the retro school in their writing became more and more intense and irresistible.

1.4 Qu You and New Remarks by Oil Lamp Historical biographies and literary sketches, such as A New Account of the Tales of the World and In Search of God in the Six Dynasties, are the source of Chinese classical short stories and the legend of the Tang Dynasty. In addition to the legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties, most stories from the voluminous works in Anthology of Tales from Records of the Taiping Era in the Northern Song Dynasty are euphemistic, tortuous and vivid classical Chinese short stories and short notes. For a long time after that, the creation of classical Chinese short stories almost came to an end. Qu You’s New Remarks by Oil Lamp appeared in the early Ming Dynasty, which can be taken as the revival of the Tang and Song legends. Just like the legend of the Tang and Song Dynasties, it has the mysterious features with romance as the theme. Qu You (1347–1433), style name Zong Ji, pseudonym Cheng Zhai and Le Quansou, was from Qiantang (now Hangzhou). At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the situation was turbulent. Zhang Shicheng rebelled and at times surrendered. Qu You spent his childhood by being exiled in Ningbo. Qu You was known for his poems, which were appreciated and influenced by Yang Weizhen, a famous scholar in the Yuan Dynasty who was 49 years older than him. Yang Weizhen was not only specialized in the the study of Spring and Autumn Period, but also famous for the fragrant dowry poems. He is called “the literary demon”.42 38 See Refutation to He’s Views, Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 62nd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 39 See Discussion on Poetry with Li Kongdong, Collection of Da Fu Vol. 32nd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 40 Li Panlong himself did not elaborate much of his theories, but Wang Shizhen commented in the Biography of Mr. Li Yulin (Four Manuscripts of Yanzhou, Vol. 83rd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library) that he “wanted to be the author of the ancient”. In Views on Art from Four Manuscripts of Yanzhou, Vol. 15th, his articles are described as “not a single word that is from after the Han Dynasty”, and Yuefu was "exquisite in every single word. By comparison, his writing was no other than copying.” 41 Xie Zhen: Open Views on Poetry, Complete Collection of Xie Zhen, Qi Lu Press, 2000, p. 762. 42 Wang Yi, The Literary Demon from Collection of Wang Changzong, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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Qu You, a young man, was the author of both Collations on the General Reflection Compendium (unseen), Eight Topics on Fragrant Dowry and Tune of Spring Pavilion. Shoe Cups. It can be seen that he was influenced by Yang Weizhen in two aspects. He also imitated Yuan Haowen’s Advocating Tang Poetry and compiled 1200 poems of the Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, which were entitled Sequel of the Tang Poetry Advocation. The book ended with the last line “all but for the pursuit of the Tang style”, which was also fromYang Weizhen’s influence. Qu You returned to Suzhou at the age of 20, the year before the fall of Zhang Shicheng, the king of Wu. He escaped the punishment of the Ming Dynasty as he happened not to be involved. At the age of thirty-two, Qu finished his collection of classical Chinese short stories New Remarks by Oil Lamp. In the later period of Hongwu, Qu You was successively appointed the officers of Renhe, Lin’an and Yiyang in Henan. In Yongle 1st year (1403), he was promoted to the Right Chair of Duke Zhou’s Mansion, which was the fifth rank title. Right Chair deals with the administrative affairs of the Duke, as well as the tutoring work. Duke Zhou was the younger brother of Emperor Yongle. He was arrogant and was once reported for issuing official documents to some prefectures and counties outside the fiefdom. The Emperor was suspicious of him, but didn’t want to have the reputation of setting up his brother. Qu turned out to be a scapegoat for the crime of dereliction of duty. After being sent to prison, he was transferred to Bao’an outside the Great Wall (now Zhuolu, Hebei Province) to serve in the army, when he was over sixty years old. When Qu was seventy-four year old, Hu Ziang, a friend of an inmate brought him his preserved New Remarks by Oil Lamp to visit. The next year, Qu You wrote a preface for it. However, this friend died when Xinghe (now Zhangbei, Hebei) was lost. When he was seventy-nine years old, Qu was called back. He was glad that he came back safely and sound. Feeling lucky, He took Le Quansou (safe and sound old man) as his name. In 1433, Qu You died at the age of 87. In 1378, the New Remarks by Oil Lamp was completed, including classical Chinese short stories and twenty articles, plus an autobiographical record Autumn Fragrance Pavilion. It is certain that the author of this collection is Qu You. But there are also some other assumptions that are not grounded. According to Dou’s Views On Compilation by Dou Mu, Zhou Ding from Jiaxing believed that New Remarks by Oil Lamp was originally the work of Yang Weizhen. In Sketch of Short Stories, Dai Bufan revealed that he had, an incomplete volume of stories from the Ming Dynasty, in which five of the short stories can be found in New Remarks by Oil Lamp. Among them, Que Ming was the author recorded for the story of On Lianfang Tower, Qu You in Shanyang for the story of On Tower of Scenery, Chen Yu of the Yuan Dynasty for the story of On the Peony Lamp, Liu Guan of the Yuan Dynasty for the story of The Golden Phoenix Hairpin and Wu Yan of the Yuan Dynasty for the story of The Girl in Green. It can be proved that New Remarks by Oil Lamp is not a work written by one person, but a book compiled by an editor. The Ming people often signed their names leisurely upon compiling. As many Ming versions of New Remarks by Oil Lamp have the name of Qu You recorded as the author, the above evidence is hardly convincing. There may be some other sources for New Remarks by Oil Lamp:

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The preface of the book says: “In editing the strange stories in ancient and modern times, this Oil Lamp Records runs forty volumes long. Inquisitive people can only have learned the stories from a few decades to a hundred years. When it’s accumulated and upgraded, some make believe ideas would prevail. For this reason, I am engaged in this work of recording.” This is to say that most of the twenty works were based on real “modern events”. Even if some of them were mixed with the weird talk of ghosts and gods, the author also narrateed them as real and true events. Artistic fiction is often formed by unintentional distortion. Focusing on some wonderful love stories, such as the legend of The Golden Phoenix Hairpin, On Lianfang Tower, On the Peony Lamp, Encountering by Wei Pond, Of My Love and The Story of Miss Jade. Other stories might be the reproduction of previous literature, such as Water Palace Celebration was based on Su Shi’s Neptune’s Call in Pond Anecdotes, Rooftop Meeting with the Hermit on Tao Qian’s Peach Blossom Source, Tablet in the Unknown Temple on Lu Guimeng’s Unknown Temple in Yongzhou. The main plot of The Golden Phoenix Hairpin is obviously the same as that of the A Fair Lady’s Soul Fleeing with Her Lover. Some themes seem to come from Qu’s own experiences and emotions. In his collection of poems and songs, there are lines in A Spray of Plum Blossoms. Encountering by Wei Pond from Yuefu Music: The pavilion is by the water sand, a village turns up a fairy land. The bamboo branches lowering, the willow branches tilting, red peach blossom by the white pear flowers. Knocking on the door for a cup of tea, making the crows flee but two others out to see. By the water I sighed,for those kind folks and for this amazing sight.43

The romantic story of Encountering by Wei Pond is already in full swing here. In Qu’s poems, Sangao Pavilion in Returning to the Field are in the same vein with the story of Meeting of Spirits in the Dragon Hall. Neither Wei Pond in Songjiang nor Sangao Pavilion in Wujiang are far from the author’s hometown. The records of Sangao Pavilion in the novel, [a twig of plum] from Remnant Yuefu Music and Returning to the Field might be the works at the same period of time. The sentence structure of “the memory of the past dynasty, the past place, the meeting of gods and immortals”, and other sentences in Magnolia. White Lotus in the Taiye Pool of the Golden Palace of Yuefu Music, is the same as or similar to those in the novel Teng Mu’s Intoxication in the Scenery Garden. When the author was thirty-two years old, Qu You had never been to Yanjing or Nanjing (Kaifeng), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty according to existing records. However, the Scenery Garden in the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty was near his hometown. Obviously, Qu You used the scenery of his hometown to describe the Golden Palace Museum. Perhaps on the contrary, it was the imperial palace that caused his nostalgia. As Teng Mu’s tribute to the maid of honour Wei Fanghua on her funeral in the novel: “Many wars in the Central Plains caused the absence of a monarch in the country. Caressing the gap of time and seeing the running wheel of the sun and the moon. However, the spirit does not die, and thoughts lasts forever. (Teng Mu’s Intoxication 43

Complete Works of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Zhonghua Book Company, 2004, p. 167.

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in the Scenery Garden) By all means, it reveals a sad nostalgia for the peaceful life at the end of the Yuan Dynasty before the turmoil in the early Ming Dynasty. Qu You was young and talented. Yang Weizhen, Ling Yangui, Qiu yanneng, Wu Jingfu and other Yuan Dynasty elders all befriended with him, which increased the sentimental mood of recalling the old times in his works. The works with autobiographical and non autobiographical features are so harmoniously blended, which is also a secret to the success of his New Remarks by Oil Lamp. Attached to New Remarks by Oil Lamp, the story of Autumn Fragrance Pavilion is a sentimental autobiographical love story, in which sadness and joy, confusion and trance are diffused. The hero, Shang Sheng, is a pseudonym that the author borrowed from Shangqu, a disciple of Confucius. The archetype of the heroine is the granddaughter of the late poets Yang Zai and Qu You’s great grandmother. They attached to each other when they were young and were regarded as a good couple by their families since childhood, but later they were separated by the war. Caicai was still in love after her marriage, the same is true for Shangsheng. After Caicai moved to Nanjing with her husband, she still sent poems to Shangsheng from time to time to express her feelings. Qu You came to Suzhou to review his old dreams. Trance and confused love became the keynote, and poetry was an essential interlude. The characteristics in New Remarks by Oil Lamp may be related to this experience of Qu You. In New Remarks by Oil Lamp, it’s not the romance between the scholar officials and the wealthy pretty ladies, but the illusive joys and sorrows in the picturesque southern water town after the war. It is not a simple resurrection of the old legend, but with the imprint of a specific social background in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. As the poem by Shangsheng in Autumn Fragrance Pavilion says “good marriage turns into bad marriage, it is the war not the heaven to blame.” Different from the common thinking, it bears no grudge against national contradiction, but carries the tender feelings for the former rich southern urban and rural areas. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the old and the young shared the same sense for the alternation from prosperity and abolition as would happen to any changing period of dynasties. Like Qu You, there were few differences between the literati in this period and those in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, even though their ethnic backgrounds were quite different. In the preface of the novel, the author said: “all recorded are delightful, pathetic, frightening and strange.” The famous love stories are as follows: after Xing Niang’s death, she used her younger sister Qing Niang’s body to return her soul to have a tryst with Xing Ge, eloped, and let Qing Niang carry on the front line for herself (the story of The Golden Phoenix Hairpin); Wang Sheng tangled with the dream soul of the tavern girl, and finally became a couple (Encountering by Wei Pond); Jin Sheng searched for his wife for thousands of miles, and the spirits of the two went beyond the barrier of power and accompanied in the other world (The Story of Miss Jade); The girl in green died because of her attachment to Zhao Sheng. After her death, she never lost her spirit which showed up to fulfill her wish from the previous life (The Girl in Green) Most of the stories are fascinating, but the charm of the story was mainly in the strange background, the protagonists and heroines are persistent

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in love. The plot of the story writing, which is usually valued for novels, has taken a back seat here. Most of the heroines in the Tang and Song legends were put into immortals, famous prostitutes, princesses and other special identities to transcend the shackles of conventional rites. Although New Remarks by Oil Lamp shares the same monstrous language style, the author took the confusion and sentimentality in the era of change as the background to make a difference, which turns out only in techniques but not much in purpose. It may not be intended by the author but quite explicitly presented in the work. Therefore, the dreamy and confused mood of the work can not cover up the realistic color of the heroine and the ardent pursuit of love beyond life and death. In the three sad love stories of The Peony Lamp, The Girl in Green, Encountering by Wei Pond, the heroine’s feelings for the loved one were as passionate and epic as life and death, no matter how different their identities are. New Remarks by Oil Lamp was written in classical Chinese. It is down to earth but not vulgar, descriptive but not blatant, very consistent with the theme of love. At the same time, the writing is filled with profound and witty remarks, such as Shang’s words to Caicai when they were playing and the description of their traveling together in the night of the Mid Autumn Festival in Autumn Fragrance Pavilion. Some poems or parallel prose are often inserted in the text, but they are not necessarily boring. It’s unfair to criticize his writing without considering the needs of the content. New Remarks by Oil Lamp is good at its unique poetic and picturesque style, as Qu You was a poet himself. His writings are gorgeous, and sentimental. New Remarks by Oil Lamp inevitably carries these features. However, its success is not the result of pleasing people with “boudoir” and “gorgeous words”. This novel is far beyond the reach of literary celebrities at the time. More than 40 years after Qu you’s New Remarks by Oil Lamp came out, Li Changqi’s Notes by Oil Lamp appeared in Yongle period. With a long interval until Wanli period, Shao Jingzhan’s Remarks in Seeking Lights appeared,all of which were the imitations of New Remarks by Oil Lamp. The influence of New Remarks by Oil Lamp is far more than classical Chinese novels. Of its twenty stories, the stories of The Golden Phoenix Hairpin, The Story of Miss Jade and Blessed Three Hills have been rewritten into vernacular Chinese short stories in Two Admonition Books. The imitations of Notes by Oil Lamp and Remarks in Seeking Lights also provide the materials for the imitated versions of the story in the late Ming Dynasty. The Golden Phoenix Hairpin was adapted by Shen Jingju into poetic drama The Falling Hairpin, On Lianfang Tower into south drama by Zhou Chaojun, Encountering by Wei Pond into poetic drama Wang’s Encountering by Wei Pond by an anonymous author, The Story of Miss Jade into poetic drama Miss Jade’s Winter Clothing, The Girl in Green into Of Red Plum by Je Zuxian, which has been used as a repertoire in Kun Opera, Peking Opera, Qinqiang opera and other local operas. Romantic Adventures, the collection of classical Chinese short stories edited by Wang Shizhen, also includes Encountering by Wei Pond, The Girl in Green and The Golden Phoenix Hairpin. The above works are the distant or close echoes of New Remarks by Oil Lamp in Ming Dynasty literature. In neighboring countries, it also has a great influence.

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First, it is undeniable that New Remarks of Golden Turtle by Jin Shixi in North Korea is an imitation of it. In 1884, New Remarks of Golden Turtle authored by Mei Yuetang published in Tokyo, Japan came out with a brief biography of Mei Yuetang. According to the biography, Mei Yuetang was the pseudonym of Jin Shixi, who had the style name of Lie Qing. He was born in Guangshan, and later shaved to be a monk, living in seclusion in Golden Turtle Mountain from 31 to 36. According to Korean historical records, his birth and death years are 1435–1493. The most striking proof for New Remarks of Golden Turtle being originated from Qu You’s New Remarks by Oil Lamp is Banquet in Dragon Palace, which is obviously an imitation of Qu You’s Water Palace Celebrations. Both people and location were changed from China to South Korea. The structure is the same. The original Xingou Palace was changed to Yin Jianjia Pavilion. Scholars from all over the world were invited to the Dragon Palace (Water Palace) to write Shangliang prose. The same rhymes are found in the East, South, West, North, Top and Bottom of Shangliang prose. The other two stories are about the relationship between the talents and the female ghosts. All love stories were told in poetry in the background of war. These two are the characteristics of the love stories in New Remarks by Oil Lamp. About a century after New Remarks by Oil Lamp came out, Notes on Legend by Ruan Yu, another imitation. came out in Vietnam. Just like New Remarks by Oil Lamp, Notes on Legend is composed of 20 chapters, which are divided into four volumes. In Duke Xiang Temple, even wordings in overturning the case of Xiang Yu were exactly the same, such as “the Prime Minister’s face is earth-like, he was speechless” were turned into “the premier is speechless, his face is like earth” in Qu’s Water Palace Celebrations. However, this word -by-word copy is not common. The creative imitation is not the simple copy. For the same story in the dragon palace, The Suit in Dragon Palace is quite different from Meeting of Spirits in the Dragon Hall in New Remarks by Oil Lamp; in the same unknown temples, Judgment in Umbrella Temple is nothing like Unknown Temple in Yongzhou of Qu; in the same land of idyllic beauty, neither The Fairy Tale Wedding of Xu nor Firewood of The Mountain was free of romance like Rooftop Meeting with the Hermit from New Remarks by Oil Lamp. The reason for the spread of New Remarks by Oil Lamp in Japan is that New Remarks of Golden Turtle by Jin Shixi from Korea was published in Japan in 1658 with Japanese notes (kana) and In 1884, Mei Yuetang version came out in Tokyo. In the Qing Dynasty (1596–1615), four volumes of movable type were published. The Peony Lamp in New Remarks by Oil Lamp was adapted by the monk Asai (about 1611–1690) into Peony Lantern collected in Maid Ga published in 1666. According to Qu’s original work, the story took place on the Lantern Festival. In order to adapt to the Japanese custom, Peony Lantern collected in Maid Ga changed the time to the Mid Yuan Festival, which is called the Yulan Pot Festival. In two hundred years after the publication of Maid Ga, the storytelling artist Sanyu Yuanchao (1839–1900) successfully adapted the story of Peony Lantern into storytelling, which was popular all over Japan. Most people did not know that it was the adaptation of the story of Peony Lantern by Qu You. The storytelling art in Japan then had two kinds, one was historical narration, the other was the street storytelling show, a very personal style

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called “Duo”. It grows rapidly under the influence of Kabuki. Yuanchao was one of the outstanding families for this art in the Edo era. In 1885, Peony Lantern performed by Yuanchao had a written script, which was published on Yamato News and became very popular. Pingnei Xiaoyao (1859–1935) and other outstanding writers liked to follow the literary style of Yuanchao as the modal for their new novels, which turned out to be a rare successful example in the history of cultural exchange between China and Japan.44 Notes by Oil Lamp was the most successful imitation work of New Remarks by Oil Lamp in the early Ming Dynasty. The author, Li Changqi (1376–1451), style name Zhen and pseudonym Zihan, was born in Luling (Ji’an, Jiangxi Province). In Yongle 2nd year, scholars were selected to participate in the compilation of Yongle Canon. He came to Henan as a Treasury Officer, honest and generous, and won the hearts of the people. In the fourth year of Zhengtong (1439), he retired after living there for more than 20 years, and died in the second year of Jingtai (1451). As Notes by Oil Lamp was an imitation, it has little innovation in content and style. But there are also well written chapters, such as Lotus Screen and The Returning Soul of Jia. They were adapted from simulated vernacular storybooks. Lotus Screen was rewritten as Love of Sandalwood, Meeting at Lotus Screen collected in The Amazing Tales I. The Returning Soul of Jia was rewritten as Matching at the Snowy Hall collected in West Lake II. These writings are compassionate and subtle with the narrative style of New Remarks by Oil Lamp. However, the artistic beauty in Qu You’s novels, such as the trance feeling of the time, the refreshing scenery description of southern water towns, the melancholy and poetic language, can not be reproduced. In the early Ming Dynasty, some of the classical short stories were obviously legendary with unknown authors. Lin Hong’s novel Dreams of Immortals was written in the form of a documentary, was written in Hongwu 14th year (1381). The author told the story by being a visitor to the Yuhua cave to describe the adventures of dreams in the fairyland and the his meeting with Yun Xiang, the daughter of the Cave Master. The writing does not involve obscenity. Lin Hong woke up as soon as he was ready to express his love to her. However, he took the position of the examiner in the story with the help of the master in Huayang cave and cataloged the Rays of the Sun for God’s observation. His own poems were from the comments of Yun Xiang. Maybe this is the main purpose of the author’s writing of this novel rather than the romance. The writing of the novel is brief and concise and the metaphors were refreshing. Zhao Bi, style name Xuehang and pseudonym Xuehang, was originally from Sichuan Province. At the beginning of Yongle, he was granted the title of the Confucianism Instructor in the Imperial Academy in the Ming Dynasty and lived in Hanyang. He was the author for three volumes of On Imitation, which were written Xuande 3rd year (1428). According to The Comprehensive Catalogue of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, “it is compilation of all lessons and retributions, which were meant to give warnings in story telling.” At the concluding part of the book, the author explained that the book was entitled On Imitation for the 44 Noted with thanks from the abbreviation of Peony Lamp in Japan written in Chinese by Professor Suzuki Yang of Kanagawa University.

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reason it followed the suit of Hong Jinglu and Qu Zongji (you). The novel is based on biography, such as stories of Conspiracy Unmasked and The Recluse in Qingcheng.

1.5 Zhu Youdun and the Changes in Zaju Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, the creation of Zaju in the early Ming Dynasty not only declined obviously, but was also mostly the performance of palace drama or the adaptation of traditional drama, rarely facing the reality directly. The Zaju lost its vitality in the real world and could not be as popular among the people as it used to be in the Yuan Dynasty. However, it was not totally weakened as people always think, nor completely became the written work. Fu Xihua’s Complete Repertoire of the Yuan Dynasty Zaju collected 550 copies of Zaju, while Complete Repertoire of the Ming Dynasty Zaju compiled by himself collected 520 kinds, which shows the declination of Zaju in the Ming Dynasty. But the number does not make as much difference as the above views. Zaju was originally written by the playwrights, then by the literati. The performance of Zaju may be gradually ignored, but it had never been isolated by the playwrights. In the early period of the Ming Dynasty, before the rise of legend, northern Zaju was still the main active one in the field of drama, and under the influence of southern opera, it showed some new changes with slow growth. Until the late Ming Dynasty, the creation and performance of Zaju continued to change. The two seigniors made the best contribution to Zaju in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Quan, the 17th son of the Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Youdun, his grandson, made great achievements in Zaju in the early Ming Dynasty. Especially Zhu Youdun, his Zaju represents the achievements of the early Ming Dynasty Zaju, and also shows the general trend and new changes of the early Ming Dynasty Zaju. From the thirty-one kinds in Chengzhai Opera, we can see that Zhu Youdunyi, with the financial resources of the vassal state and the talents he recruited, the performance and stage setting of the Zaju improved unprecedentedly. Zhu Quan (1378–1448), the 17th son of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, was granted the title of Xian, known as the Duke of Ning Xian in Hongwu 24th year (1391) in Daning (today’s Pingquan area of Hebei Province). Daning was an important military town, adjacent to the fiefdom of Zhu Di, Duke of Yan. Zhu Quan was famous for his good strategy with a lot of soldiers to guard Daning. All the cavalry were brave and good at fighting, but he still felt bullied by Duke of Yan, as he was enticed to writing the declaration of war for the latter on his promise of dividing the country after his success. However, when Duke of Yan ascended the throne, he not only broke his promise, but also suppressed Zhu Quan. In the February Yongle 1st year, he was renamed Duke of Nanchang. Soon he was accused of witchcraft cursing and demagogues. Although he was not punished, due to the lack of evidence, Zhu Quan kept himself out of the affairs of the world, having a low profile by building a nice house in which he engaged himself in books and music. When Renzong ascended the throne, the control over him was slightly relaxed, but

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he was still not completely free. In lofty aspirations, Zhu Quan socialized with the literati and gave himself many literary names as Shiny Fairy, Mr. Fantasy, Sir Empty Fairyland. He is the author of dozens of books. Zhu Quan’s achievements in opera include the creation of Zaju and the writing of opera studies. Of his twelve Zaju, only two of them remained: Up into the Sky and Elopement Xiangru. The full name of Up into the Sky is “Chong Mozi Dashing Up into the Sky. It tells the story of Lu Chunyang and Zhang Ziyang who ordered Emperor Donghua to enlighten Chong Mozi. It’s a play of immortality and Taoism. Both Chong Mozi and immortal Danqiu are the names of Taoism adherents, with obvious imaginations. The full name of Elopement of Xiangru is Zhuo Wenjun’s Elopement with Xiangru, which is all about romance between a a man and a woman. This theme was derived from the historical record Biography of Sima Xiangru, which had always been popular among scholars. There were many kinds of Zaju before, but none of them has been handed down. Zhu Quan’s Zaju probably integrated its achievements and performed the story in a relatively complete way with simple and elegant ancient songs. All of Zhu Quan’s Zaju inherited from the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. It is worth noting that his Taihe Standard Notes has an important influence on the history of opera. This is a theoretical work of opera study that imitates it after Ghost Book. The content of Taihe Standard Notes can be roughly divided into three parts: music (including drama and clear songs), historical materials of operas and opera theories. Temperament and Ancient Temples is the most characteristic in the whole book. It can be used as a reference for collating the existing scripts by analyzing and quoting the level and oblique tones of the 335 notes in each temple. The historical materials contain the opera schools, the origin of the characters and the stories of the good singers in the past dynasties. The theoretical part is a comment on various styles and artistic styles of dramatists, such as “the words of Ma Dongli are just like the sun rising and phoenix’s singing.”45 “Wang Shifu’s words are just like the beauty among flowers.”46 Although such comments are not accurate, they are very influential by their simple images. Taihe Standard Notes is not necessarily precise in writing on the whole, but it has its irreplaceable value in opera literature. Zhu Youdun (1379–1439), pseudonym Cheng Zhai, is the son of Duke Zhu Ding, the fifth son of the Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty. He inherited Zhou and was granted the posthumous title of Xian, known as the Duke Zhou Xian. Being a prince, he was in charge of vassal affairs. In the Biography of Zhu (The History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 16th), it is recorded that “he was good at learning and able to write poems”, “he used East Book Hall as the classroom for his son whose instructor was the Counsellor.” Under the influence of his father, Zhu was versatile. Duke Zhou had his own theatrical troupe. In Hongwu 11th year (1378), Zhu changed his title from Duke Wu to Duke Zhou. In the 14th year when he arrived at Kaifeng mansion, the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang assigned him 27 troupes to protect him. On this basis, Duke Zhou’s theatrical troupes developed gradually and had a considerable scale. 45 46

Collection of Chinese Classical Operas III, China Opera Press, 1959, p. 16. Collection of Chinese Classical Operas III, China Opera Press, 1959, p. 17.

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Zhu Youdun’s being the most accomplished dramatist in the early Ming Dynasty is closely related to this prosperous theatrical environment of his family. According to the anonymous Dreamy Notes·Seasonal Etiquette in the Ming Dynasty: “on the 15th day of the New Year, the Lantern Festival, all official and landlords showed off their lanterns and had banquets. Each family has 70–80 theatrical troupes and 20–30 bands… “Chang Maolai of the Qing Dynasty noted: “there used to be royal music in the mansion of Duke Zhou. Both men and women had their teachers. The performances are music played by the orchestra, dance, drama and circus. Women’s music is good for playing palace opera and is used in the palace. Circus is played at the grand ceremonies, accompanied by orchestra and all in serious manners.” According to the bibliography of Duke Zhou Ding in The History of the Ming Dynasty, he was demoted. In January of Yongle 1st year, the Emperor issued the edict that he return to his fief, he wrote nine eulogies and organized dancing to express his gratitude. In the next year, he went to the court to offer a holy tiger Zou Yu as a sacrifice. The Emperor being pleased treated him with a feast. “It’s said that Zou Yu was a kind of righteous beast, which is used to symbolize benevolence. Therefore, Duke Zhou’s troupes wrote a play on this topic and offered it to the court, for the purpose of getting the favour of the Emperor. Zhu Youdun was the author of Zaju of On Getting Zou Yu, which was what he presented to the Emperor. Later, Wang Zhi had Poetry on Zou Yu in his Yi An Collection, which was also used to eulogize saints. According to the original version of Stories of Poems in All Dynasties, Zhu’s plays were widely distributed, reaching as far as the Central Plains: “Duke Xian experienced the ups and downs, devoting his time to his vassals, studied the classics diligently, and pursued the art of calligraphy. In his Chengzhai Opera, he wrote a few variations. The melody was harmonious and beautiful. It had been popular in the mansion performances. Up till now, it is still played by the string instrument in the Central Plains. In his Bian Zhong Lantern Festival poem, Li Mengyang commented: “Concubines of Zhongshan relies on make-up, beauties on stage showed up. Singing the songs of Duke Xian, the moon is like frost outside the Jinliang bridge.’ From these lines, the fabulous Episode in the capital is unimaginable.” The above literature shows that the troupes of the Duke Zhou is not only for the amusement of his own mansion, but also for the performance in the palace. Therefore, Zhu’s plays are usually the scripts (engraved by Duke Zhou’s Mansion) used by the Duke Zhou’s troupes, and spread to the Central Plains. Zhu Youdun created his Zaju with in honor of the vassals.47 With the needs of the Duke’s mansion and the Royal Palace, also due to the limitations of their life experiences, the themes of the plays

47

According to the law, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang set regulations for Zaju in in May of Hongwu 30th year: “performers are not allowed to dress up as emperors and concubines, loyal martyrs and gods and sages. The violators are to be flogged one hundred strokes; the family of officials and average people are to be equally abide by the rules. This law does not apply to playing the fairies, a righteous husband, the filial children and grandchildren, or whatever advocating good deeds.” (Wang Lizi collated and compiled, The Historical Data of Forbidden Novels and Operas in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1981, p. 13).

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were mostly immortals and moral education for palace feasts and festivals. This is an understandable situation, which he explained preface of his plays. The trend catering for the palace without relating to real life in Zaju in the early Ming Dynasty is more prominent in Zhu’s dramas. There are thirty-one kinds of dramas written by Zhu Youdun, which are called Chengzhai Opera, and twenty-four kinds of dramas collected by Wu Mei in Shemota Chamber Verses. The new version of the old works was the main source of Zhu Youdun’s Zaju themes, which can be divided into the following categories: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5. 6.

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Palace plays, such as On Peony, Peony Garden, Peony Fairy and Little Peach Red, are famous works of palace flowers appreciations, singing and dancing to promote peace. Other works are the birthday celebrations or the praising of the Saint virtues, such as Immortals’ Celebration, Eight Immortals’ Birthday Party, Festival of Immortal Peaches, On Getting Zou Yu. Plays for the famous, such as Seeking Plum in the Snow on the experience of Meng Xiangyang (Haoran) and Jia langxian (Island) supplemented by the experiences from Li Bai and Luo Yin. Before this play, the poem In Search of Plum in Snow by Ma Zhiyuan was collected in Ghost Book. The plays on Water Margin, such as Leopard Monk which was about Lu Zhishen’s family affairs. But this story was not seen Water Margin; The same is true for Justice over Money, which was about how the Black Whirlwind Li Kui rescued a girl. Enlightenment plays, such as Ghost Fighter Qiao, The Virtues of the Stepmother, using ghosts and gods for retribution and good deeds being rewarded as moral guidance. There was a play under the same name of The Virtues of the Stepmother by an unknown author in the Yuan Dynasty. Dream of Reunion was a story about the loyalty between a husband and a wife. Plays about the Immortal, such as Ever Green Life and Understanding Zhen Ru, are about cultivating the truth into the Tao and transforming into immortals. Courtesan plays, such as the story of Fan Wenzheng and Zhen Yue’e in Qing Shuo Hall, the story of Miss Peach and Li Zhao in Peach Scenery, the story of the prostitute Liu Panchun’s killing herself in return for her lover’s love in Resentment of Sachets, and the story of the prostitute Lan Hongye got married in Dreams of Whorehouse. T he latter two plays were based on real stories. Back to Whorehouse records how Liu Jin’er unsettled in the married life and went back to be a prostitute again.48 In Qujiang Pool, the story of Li Yaxian and Prince Ying Yang were recorded. In Little Peach Blossom, Dream of Reunion and Midnight New Start, courtesans and immortals are blended. They narrate the story of prostitutes’ cultivation of truth and understanding of nature, and eulogizing the so-called “righteous fairy and loyal courtesan”.

Both Guan Hanqing and Zhu Quan had the same story in their Zaju before this, which were all lost.

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Courtesan plays belong to the realistic kind. Though mainly persuasive and moralizing, they reveal the miseries of the prostitutes’ life and their desire to have a normal family life. Just like Zhen Yue’e in Qing Shuo Hall said: “when can I get out of this miserable life?” “it’s just a momentary fun to match. How can I keep up a constant relationship?” Courtesan plays have the good structures in art. They are either passionate or picturesque, the best one should be Qujiang Pool. The story of Zheng Yuanhe and Li Yaxian is the origin of the later legend Resurrection by Zheng Ruoyong. The story comes from The Life of Liwa in the Tang Dynasty. Before Zhu Youdun, there were two versions of Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty: Zheng Yuan and Beating Jar in the Snow by Gao Wenxiu and Intoxication by Qujiang Pool by Shi Junbao. Gao Wenxiu’s version has been lost and Shi Junbao’s version still exists. The title of Zhu Youdun’s Zaju is the combination of the two “Zheng Yuan and Beating Jar in the Snow. Intoxication by Qujiang Pool”. Therefore, Zhuang Yifu in his A Study of Classical Opera held that Zhu ‘s Zaju obviously used them as the draft. In Shemota Chamber Verses. Preface to Chengzhai Opera Wu Mei thinks that the difference between Zhu and Shi is not that Zhu modified Shi’s work, but that Zang Jinshu altered Shi’s work on the basis of Zhu’s work. Zhuang’s saying is not consistent with the reality. Wu’s sayings were not supported by any grounds. Comparing Shi and Zhu’s work, the major difference is that the plot of the novel was not been found in Shi’s play Strategy of Moving but Zhu took the plot of the novel. Zheng Yuanhe refuses to recognize his father when he is an official, and Zhu’s play makes him willingly recognize his father. In Shi’s play, Zheng Yuanhe gets married without telling his family when he becomes famous, and Li Yaxian takes his wife’s place calmly. While Zhu’s play takes the plot of the novel that Li Yaxian refuses to marry him with the excuse of the incompatibility in their status. These plots are very important. “Strategy of moving” can not only make the conflict more intense, but also shows more effectively the environment of the characters. Shi Junbao deleted the plot in The Life of Liwa and changed it to Zheng Yuanhe being driven out by the godmother. The effect of the play is not as good as that of Zhu’s play. The difference between the two plots shows the difference between the authors and the times: Shi Junbao, as a minority of Nv-zhen who joined the army when he was young, was unrestrained and alien to the Han culture, while Mongolia’s domination of the Central Plains did not assimilate with the traditional culture of the Central Plains. The family ethics is not in Shi Junbao’s horizon at all. Therefore, since the father is cut off from the son, he naturally held that the son’s rise “has nothing to do with his father”. Since Zheng Yuanhe “depends on his wife for the rest of his life”, it’s natural for him to honor his wife. Zhu Youdun was different. As a vassal king, he was infiltrated by the orthodox culture since his childhood. The Ming Dynasty also advocated the morality of filial piety and loyalty. Therefore, all parents in the world should not only recognize each other, but also let their father decide their marriage. As for Li Yaxian, there should also be the concern that “prostitutes can not be matched with quality officials”. It can be seen that Zhu Youdun is more in agreement with Bai Xingjian, a scholar of arts. In terms of “draft”, this Zaju is more based on The Life of Liwa than the Zaju of theYuan Dynasty.

1.5 Zhu Youdun and the Changes in Zaju

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Courtesan plays also created some distinctive images of prostitutes, such as Zang Tao’er’s bravery, shrewdness and the worldly wisdom, Liu Jin’er’s audacity and self indulgence, and Li Yaxian’s kindness, enthusiasm and toughness. Most of the prostitutes in these plays share a very absurd characteristic, that is, they are born in the whorehouse but can keep the moral integrity. As Li Yaxian said in Qujiang Pool, “I started wrong but set myself up and stick to my ideals. He who knows me may be forgiving.” This is the embodiment of the author’s painstaking moral preaching. Zhu Youdun’s Zaju are clear and appealing, a combination of literary talent and natural tone. The dialogue is full of rural flavor. In Peach Scenery, Li Zhao’s exile is set with northern dialect, and even Mongolian is included in the song. As the dialogues of Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty published in the Ming Dynasty were mostly tampered with by the Ming people rather than the original, the language mode in Zhu’s dialogues kept many of features in Zaju. The changes and innovations of Zhu Youdun’s Zaju are worth noting. In the northern Zaju, one person generally sings from the beginning to the end, while in Zhu’s Zaju, there were chorus and rotations. In the palace plays, there were two or more chorus in order to make a fuss. In singing by turns, there was one leading singer for each episode in Back to Whorehouse, and four singers sang in turns; Qujiang Pool is the complete version of singing with both male and female, and four singers alternate in turns according to the order of a female and an elderly male, one for two people and two temples for each episode in each round. There were no singing and dancing in northern Zaju, while many of Zhu’s plays, such as On Peony, Peony Garden, and Little Peach Red, had the 16-day group dancing at the end of the play. There was no poem in northern Zaju, but there were many poems in Zhu’s works such as On Peony, Dream of Reunion which used a lot of five-character poems as dialogues, and Dreams of Whorehouse used a lot of seven-character poems as dialogues. It is important to mention that the first one to introduce the North-South combination in the Zaju is Jia Zhongming’s Dream of Being Immortal. Zhu Youdun was the first one to introduce Southern opera into the Zaju’s Innovative Mode. Zhang Zhennu was the actor in the first three acts of Lu Dongbin’s Party of Fairies. From the middle period of the Yuan Dynasty to the early period of the Ming Dynasty, there were only two cases of singing the South-North combination and the South Song in Zaju. At that time, the world of Zaju was still dominated by the traditional pattern of Jin-Yuan Zaju. But in the middle and later period of the Ming Dynasty, this spark brought about a prominent phenomenon of new changes in Zaju.49 All these changes show that Zhu’s plays did not blindly follow his predecessors. He was also innovated in making ups, singing and dancing of Zaju by using his power of being the vassal king. In Zhu’s Zaju, we can also see some conditions of the creation and performance of the Zaju in the early Ming Dynasty. In Episode 1 of Liu’s Resentment of Sachets, it says: “This Jade Box just hit the spot. It was written by a member in the old 49

See Wu Gan: The Historical Value of the Literary History of the Ming Dynasty by Xu Shuofang and Sun Qiuke--on Novels and Operas, Yan Zhao Learning. Spring Volume, 2008, p. 109.

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1 Literature of the Early Ming Dynasty

Book Society recently.” According to Mei Dingzuo’s Blue Mud Lotus, it is written according to a real event that happened in 1432, Xuande 7th year. Later, there was no exact record of the Book Society. Unfortunately, the date is not clear.50 This shows that a large number of scholars who fell to the Book Society in the Yuan Dynasty changed their status in the Hongwu and Yongle times, so they separated from the Book Society and directly led to the decline of the Zaju in regard to creation. In Resentment of Sachets, Liu Panchun’s libretto also lists more than 30 variations of popular Zaju at that time, which shows the prosperity of Zaju performance in the early Ming Dynasty. In addition to Zhu Quan and Zhu Youdun, there were some more active dramatists in the early Ming Dynasty. Sixteen people, such as Wang Ziyi and Liu Dongsheng, are mentioned in Zhu Quan’s Taihe Standard Notes. Trends in Ancient and Modern Music. Of the eight authors in the book, thirty stories were included in addition to the twelve by Zhu Youdun, four by Wangziyi and Yang Zikui respectively, three by Gu Zijin, two by Liu Dongsheng, Tang Shunmin and Yang Jingyan51 and one by Jia Zhongming. Most of these dramatists lived in Hongwu and Yongle years, earlier than Zhu Youdun. Some of them were favored by Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, such as Yang Na, Tang Wu and Jia Zhongming. Generally speaking, their Zaju were divorced from reality and still belong to the type of Palace Dramas. Their themes are mostly immortals, and they were more focused on the ornate compositions. It is said that it is a sequel to Jia Zhongming’s Ghost Book. It contains the life stories of Zaju and Clear Song artists in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. Although it is not very detailed, it is a relatively important literary document in the history of opera. There is no record of Zhu Quan and Zhu Youdun in this book.

50 In the first story of the revised Golden Stamp in The Series of Ancient Operas Vol. 1st, there is a line: “The stories of the six kingdoms will be recorded by the Book Society when time permits.” This is the last record of the Book Society mentioned in the literature of the Ming Dynasty. 51 Sequel to Ghost Book, Yang Jingyan(xian), “he had the name Xian, then changed into Ne, pseudonym Ruzhai.” See Collection of Chinese Classical Operas II, China Drama Press, 1959, p. 284.

Chapter 2

The Evolution from the Southern Drama to the Chuanqi Drama

As a matrix, the Southern Opera has bred another burgeoning artistic form in the history of Chinese opera, the legend. However, during the whole of the Ming Dynasty, the creation and performance of the Southern Opera did not go downhill. The Southern Opera developed into the legend, not only due to the differences between folk artists and literati, which are from two different kinds of writers, but also to two different kinds of writing process, which are the collective creation of generations and individual creation. Due to the lack of data, we can’t prove if the literati who were engaged in writing operas earlier or the writers of the Southern Opera were the authors of the legend.

2.1 The Linkage and Differences Between the Southern Operas and the Legend The word legend, is similar to “romance” in English language, which tell fantastic and wonderful stories about traditional warriors, boasts both novels and operas during the Middle Ages. In the history of Chinese literature, legend has two meanings: One is short novels of the classical Chinese Tang and Song Dynasty, namely, the legend of the Tang and Song Dynasties which originated from the book The Legend by Pei Xing, who lived in the Tang Dynasty. The original copy was lost, but its contents can be found in the Anthology of Tales from Records of the Taiping Era by Guan Xiu, who lived in the early Southern Song Dynasty. Afterwards, works of similar types were all put in the legend category, such as Pillow Story by Shen Jiji, Story of Prefecture Nan Ke by Li Gongzuo and Story of Yingying by Yuan Zhen. As the legendary novels were mostly drawn from the Southern Opera of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and later the operas of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the second meaning of the term legend in the history of Chinese literature is the legendary opera of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, mainly based on the Southern Opera. © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_2

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Legend of the Ming Dynasty was born and developed in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Southern Opera is the abbreviation of Southern Tune Composition. According to in-depth study by Wang Guowei, the connection between Jin and Yuan Zaju and Qupai couplets has been confirmed, but the relation between Southern Opera and Qupai couplets has always been misunderstood. Southern Opera shall be a local opera in the southern regions, which didn’t start from Wenzhou. When a genre of drama came into being, it would take shape, develop, and gradually improve artistically; meanwhile, it communicated and assimilate with neighboring areas. Southern Opera spread in southern regions, especially in southeast coastal areas, in similar and slightly different styles or in different but slightly identical styles, which is the reason for Southern Opera not to have a certain single place as its birthplace. The same is true for the Zaju, which can only be identified as being originated in the northern area without a specific location. No one can deny that artists in Wenzhou had made significant contributions on the emergence and development of Southern Opera, and Wenzhou was one of the areas where Southern Opera first became popular. However there is no proof, even just a few words so far, that Wenzhou had any of its own unique tunes. In this way, it lacks ground that Southern Opera was born of Wenzhou. The prevalent areas of Southern Opera covered southeastern coastal provinces and vast areas as Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan, corresponding to the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty by and large, which can be proved by some ancient genre of drama in those areas. Due to different dialects and cultural backgrounds in southern areas, Southern Opera had formed four major tunes as Haiyan, Kunshan, Yuyao and Yiyang, the tunes of Yuyao and Yiyang are very rough, and those of Haiyan and Kunshan are relatively elegant. All of them are branches of Southern Opera. The so-called Four Major Tunes is just a generalized expression with emphasis from the southeast area. Lacking historical documents, we know little about Yuyao tunes. Moreover, with the interaction and penetration of all tunes, it is hard to differentiate all the tunes. For example, the Wu Opera in Jinhua area, known as Double Group and Triple Group, were the integration of different extraneous tunes, but all boasted regional styles of Jinhua. Other examples are like Kun Tunes from Suzhou, Jinhua, Yongjia, Hunan and Northern areas. As all belonging to Kun Tune, they can be referred to as the same genre as Kun Tune, but can also be specified as different tunes based on their different local features. All Southern Operas or legends can be sung by any one of the four major tunes, with some additional and some adaptive modifications at most. As the capital was moved to Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, the agricultural and handicraft production in the southern area rapidly developed, business emerged, exchanges among various regions boomed, and the pronunciation were further unified, which brought about unprecedented prosperity. Haiyan tunes became the recognized major tune of Southern Opera by drawing the merits of various other tunes, At the same time, all kinds of different tunes still continued their evolution process respectively in their birthplaces. That is to say, Haiyan tune lost its locality to some extent and possessed universality of Southern Opera of different regions. In this way, the artists

2.1 The Linkage and Differences …

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from Wenzhou, Chaozhou and other regions all sang in Haiyan tune, which inevitably differed from their own tunes. The existing notes such as [Dong’ou lyric], [Fuqing song], [Taizhou song] and other indecipherable notes can all explain that the source of Haiyan tune is not limited to the western Zhejiang region. Taking the block-printed edition Reprint of the Complete Works of the Supplemented Northern Opera Mirror Story by the Fivecolor Spring in Jiajing 45th year (1566) in the Ming Dynasty collected by Tenri University (Japan) for example, Episode 20 [standing in the clouds], Episode 22nd [yellow warbler], Episode 24 [Liangzhou sequence], Episode 28 [returning drunk] and Episode 29 [four dynasties] are all labeled as Chao tunes, which indicates that except for five songs in Chao tune, most of songs in this opera used Haiyan tune. Through two other Southern Operas excavated in Chaozhou, Guangdong, The Newly Southern-northern Mixed Tune of Golden Hairpin Annotated by Liu and The Newly Engraved Illustrated Rural Story of Lichee, both of which show that “annotation” refers to the “annotation of tunes” rather than “words”, which is opposite from “rural talk”. “Annotation” adopts the rhyme from the Central Plains, while rural talk adopts dialects. What distinguishes Southern Opera from legend is that the former is folk opera and the latter is individual creation of literati. All characteristics of Southern Opera were originated from the collective creation by folk artisans of their generation. During the process of handing down, some unknown writers participated in the creation, editing and enhancement of the same work during different times. The Four Major Southern Operas: The Romance of A Hairpin, Liu Zhiyuan’s Story of A White Rabbit, Obeisance Moon Cabin and Story of Killing A Dog are all the works of this kind.1 They were widely circulated among the people and put down in written form at last without the recreation by literati. None of these Southern Operas were produced before the Ming Dynasty. However, it would be an arbitrary statement that folk artisan had left none of their marks in the Ming Dynasty, but that it is the fundamental feature of collective creation of generations. This can be well supported by the circulation and transformation the Four Major Southern Operas. In the 48th play of The Romance of A Hairpin in Music of Sixty Kinds, there are 58 songs that are somehow compatible with cases in ancient operas cited by The Beginning of Nine Temples. It seems that The Romance of A Hairpin hadn’t been 1

The first of the four southern operas is Liu Zhiyuan’s Story of A White Rabbit, and the latest is Story of Killing A Dog. There is a Zaju with the same name in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Lady Yang kills the Dog to Persuade Her Husband. Sun Rong, the leading role, said that he was born in Nanjing. Nanjing here should be Kaifeng of Henan, which proves that this is at least a legacy of several generations of work. In Episode 1 [fairy couple. lip rouge] in Obeisance Moon Cabin of the Beauty in Boudoir, which was believed to be Guan Hanqing’s work, it is said: “This gorgeous land, is suddenly attacked by the heavenly army from the northwest.” According to the History of the Jin, Vol. 14th, Mongolia occupied the main part of the capital of the Jin State (Beijing). The troops came from the West Capital (now Datong, Shanxi). Episode 4 of the Southern Opera The Story of the Boudoir (Obeisance Moon Cabin) said, “I heard the invaders already got to the boundary, their army has arrived at Yuguan.” This is totally inconsistent with the historical facts, which is obviously influenced by the invasion of Nuzhen nationality from Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty. It can be seen that this Zaju is earlier than the Southern Opera.

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polished and finalized just like Pipa Notes being adapted by Gao Ming. Different copies were prevalent at the same time. Among the Music of Sixty Kinds, the original copy (lost) cited by The Beginning of Nine Temples, and the Views of Tu Chishui, there was no confirmation as to which one was the original copy and which one was the adaption. Only The New Edition of the Original Romance of a Hairpin was proved to be the adaption, claiming itself as the original copy. The Story of A White Rabbit in the Chenghua period is not divided into Episodes, while Music of Sixty Kinds has 32 episodes and Fuchun Hall version has 39 episodes. Among 59 lost songs in The Story of a White Rabbit collected in The Beginning of Nine Temples, 29 of them were the same as the Chenghua copy, which shows that it was the circulating copy of Liu Zhiyuan’s Story of A White Rabbit from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The origin of the copy of Music of Sixty Kinds was of ancient origin, which was a system that had been followed by later performance copies for Kun opera. Fuchun Hall version was used by most of the different local operas. The typical example of “supplement” to the Fuchun Hall version is Episode 38 Meeting in the Mill about the reunion of Liu Zhiyuan and Li Sanniang. While according to Opening of Minor Male Role, the Chenghua copy was Li Sanniang Held the Seal on the Flax Land, Liu Zhiyuan Returned to His Hometown in Glory. Episode 32 in the copy of Music of Sixty Kinds was named as Meeting in Private, in which Liu Zhiyuan said, “We separated before in the melon field, and we united today in the mill.” Obviously, “flax land (Ma Di)” was misunderstood as “(Mo Fang)”. The performance copy for Kun opera followed the copy of Music of Sixty Kinds, which was called Flax Land. Actually all the three copies originated from the same source but were diverse from each other. Obeisance Moon Cabin of the Shide Hall version has 43 acts, while both Music of Sixty Kinds and The Story of the Boudoir reviewed by Li Zhi, has 43 Episodes. The two copies have slight differences except for fewer Episodes and more words. In Act 39 of the Shide Hall Version, Jiang Shilong and Jiang Shichang shared the same attitude towards the official media, but in another version of Music of Sixty Kinds, Jiang Shilong said “I dare not take orders”. In Three Tunes of Southern Melody Ling regarded Shide Halls version as “dramatic change at the end, turning right back to the beginning.” In this version, Jiang Shilong’s refusal to marry has its own meaning, distinguishing their love story from the romantic affairs between the talents and the beauties. Some researchers took it completely as feudal virtue, which is rather one-sided. Two different plots have their pros and cons for each, without obvious advantages and disadvantages. Among Four Major Southern Operas, The Story of Killing A Dog had little difference, it was not the adaption of the literati. The authors of Four Major Southern Operas has always been open to debate, which also indicates that those works were of folklore. Just like The Romance of A Hairpin, there is one opinion that the author was Ke Danqiu (On Legend by Qing Gaoyi), another says that it was Zhu Quan (Record of Tunes by Wang Guowei). According to the Fuchun Hall version of The Story of A White Rabbit, which was revised or refined by Xie Tianyou. On Tunes by He Liangjun, Diction of Songs by Wang Shizhen, Rules of Tunes by Wang Jide, Anthology of Wanli by Shen Defu holds

2.1 The Linkage and Differences …

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that Shi Hui is the author of Obeisance Moon Cabin, Xu (Zhongyou) as the author of The Story of Killing a Dog. In fact, as a folk opera, the Four Southern Operas are the collective creation of generations, and there would not have been a single individual author for any of them. Among all the extant Southern Operas, Pipa Notes is the only exception of being written by the literati. Xu Wei’s Southern Poem Narration listed Virgin Zhao and Cai Erlang as the first opera composition, which was changed into Cai Bojie in folk opera, and was further recreated by Gao Ming (1298–1359), from form to content, from rhetoric to structure, all stamped with Gao Ming’s personal brand through the work. According to the southern Ci narration, the main content of Virgin Zhao and Cai Erlang, is that “Bojie abandoned his wife and died in a thunderstorm”. The character developed from Erlang—Zhonglang—Service Officer (zhong lang), affiliating to the book of “Story of Cai Zhonglang”, the historical celebrity Cai Yong (style name Bojie). Lu You said in his poem Boat Tour Near the Village, “The old willow in the setting sun, the drum player in village Zhao was an old man. After death nothing matters in right or wrong, all villagers’ talking is Cai Zhonglang” (Poem Manuscripts of Jiannan. Vol. 33rd). If Cai Zhonglang had long been a villain in folklore, the poet would not have felt aggrieved about him. Virgin Zhao and Cai Erlang was changed by the folk entertainer to Chai Bojie, and the hero was more important than before, which may mean he had transformed from a villain to a positive character. Apart from the extraordinary sympathy for the hero of the play, who was also a scholar, the artistic improvement of Virgin Zhao, the transformation of Cai’s character is also the most critical part of the play. In Southern Opera, the leading roles can be the male or the female or both. From this point of view, the revision of Chai Bojie can be determined by the needs of the play itself. It is hard to imagine the leading roles of a male or a female as villains in the Southern Opera, like the Jin-Yuan Zaju. In a word, the villain male leading roles, such as The Number One Scholar Zhang Xie and Virgin Zhao, only existed in the original form of folk works. Folk literature is featured as being simple and healthy, with striking emotions of love and hate Sometimes it can become a weakness, such as killing the villain by a thunderstorm to please the audience can lead to superstition. Gao Ming’s re-creation of Pipa Notes focused on the reconstruction of the images of Zhao Wuniang and Cai Bojie. To Zhao Wuniang, it is just an elevation of the same figure in folk opera, while to Cai Bojie it is the transformation in its opposite direction, which poses a lot more challenge in the art form. In order to achieve this goal, Cai Bojie appeared in more than half of the 42 episodes, even more than Zhao Wuniang. As most of the plot is used to defend him, in a laborious way, only a few Episodes, such as Episode 22 Music by the Lotus Pool, Episode 24 Sad Thoughts in the Official House and Episode 28 in Enjoying the Full Moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival, are as successful as A Wife’s Self Loathing. The troubles of man brought about by the malformed marriage system in ancient times are perfectly depicted, and the indecisiveness and political vacillation of the ancient literati in their personal lives are also described with exceptional success in Cai Bojie. For the lack of moral power in Zhao Wuniang, it is not easy to be appreciated outside the circle of male literati in the literature history of the Ming Dynasty.

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The opera language attainments of Pipa Notes were nearly two centuries ahead of its time. It remained the most popular for quite a while, as if it had no successor to take over. Though different from legend such as the Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships, it was independent from the rest of them, and has not been echoed by their peers or counterparts in Suzhou or Jiangnan, the origin of the legend. Pipa Notes, as the first successful legend carefully adapted by the literati, blazed a new trail for later generations. During an interval of more than a century, Gao Ming’s successors such as Shao Can, Xu Lin, Wang Ji and Zheng Ruoyong appeared successively, and it took about half a century to reach the climax of legend creation, which shows that Gao Ming was far ahead of his time. Another point should not be avoided: Pipa Notes carried a harmful tendency of ancient moral preaching, which formed an unhealthy trend that influenced other works like Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships and The Story of the Sachet. Pipa Notes is not only the most famous Southern Opera, but also the first legend created by the literati, or the transition from Southern Opera to legend. Pipa Notes is not entirely the individual creation by Gao Ming but was originally a Southern Opera, but as an adapter, no one had ever worked so hard and left such indelible marks as he did in the original work that he deserves the title of being the author of Pipa Notes. In this sense, the script can be a legend. None of the other adaptions made by the literati can be equal to its creation as Pipa Notes, such as The Story of A White Rabbit of Fuchun Hall version adapted by Xie Tianyou and Romance of a Hairpin compiled by Wen Quanzi amd annotated by Meng Xianzi. West Chamber of the South adapted by Cui Shipei and Li Jingyun, Lu Can and Lu Cai introduced the northern Zaju Romance of the West Chamber into Southern Opera, which is beneficial to the popularity of the classical drama, though they are far less than their original, let alone a re-creation. Pipa Notes was not included in the four major Southern Operas, since it was different from all the other folk Southern Operas. Due to meticulous polishing of Gao Ming, it attained the quality equivalent to legends by the literati. In order to be different from the southern folk opera, we call the creations of the literati legend, but the author of the southern folk opera can not be non-literati, which is relative rather than absolute. No matter how rough the Southern Opera was, each note had its rule so it is hard to think that the adapters were uneducated. As long as we do not forget its folk nature, southern folk opera can also be called legend. In the early Ming Dynasty, operas mainly inherited the Jin and Yuan Zaju method with some changes, which can be seen from the two royal writers. Zhu Quan, the Lord of Ningxian had 12 kinds of Zaju, which named itself as the Danqiu style, and Zhu Youdun, the Lord of Zhouxian had more than 30 kinds of Zaju, of which 25 are still extant none of them had ever written a composition, from which we can have a glimpse of the atmosphere of the time. Can this explain that the Southern Opera was out at that time? This is not the case. Take the Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships and The Story of Sachet as examples, we can see some situations in the folk opera compositions. Qiu Jun (1421–1495), a neo-confucianist and an important bureaucrat, had been taken as author of the Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships, The New Edition of Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships with Moral Exhortation in Northern and

2.1 The Linkage and Differences …

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Southern Elegant Songs collected in Kyujanggak at the Seoul University broadens our view. It is roughly the same as Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships in Loyalty and Filial Piety, collected in The Series of Ancient Operas Vol. 1st, but it is more like the traditional ancient copy of Southern Opera. Those who have the slightest knowledge of the history of ancient Chinese opera can easily come to the conclusion, upon reading the Opening of the Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships, without any additional research—it was written by an unknown literati from the Book Society, totally unrelated to Qiu Jun. The authors’ names are not found in the two books. Both the song [partridge sky] “who will pass the Zaju on from the Book Society?” and the dialogue “recently a gifted scholar has organized this play called Five Cardinal Relationships” indicate that it is not a personal creation.2 The unique preface for the Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships provides a clue to why it is mistaken for the work by Qiu Jun. The Preface of the copy from Kyujanggak said: “I got this Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships written by the Taoist Chi Yufeng at an official scholar’s home.” According to Tao Fu’s Records of Old Age from Collected Works, Qiu Jun once took Yufeng as his pseudonym, which was similar to the name mentioned and which was the reason for the misunderstanding. At the same time, special emphasis on the three principles and five virtues seems to be from famous scholars of neo-confucianism. As a matter of fact, for thousands of years, Confucian ethics have been deeply rooted in the hearts of all people. Many novels and operas with emphasis on loyalty and filial piety were not necessarily written by scholars. The Story of Sachet is the earliest literary legend of the Ming Dynasty. The author Shao Can’s biography was recorded in Seclusion from the Annals of Yi Xing, Vol. 8th of Wanli Year, but his year of birth and death is unknown, and his life story is not clear. The first Episode Home Door in The Story of Sachet said: “Reading the new book of five cardinal relationships, and mark the purple sachet.” It was written a little later than Book of the Five Cardinal Relationships. Shao Can, a native of Yixing, Jiang Su province, was about the same time as Qiu Jun, and probably had a low official rank. He was mistakenly taken as “royal consultant” from both Lv Tiancheng’s Tune Reviews and Wang Guowei’s Record of Tunes. By referring to the Record of Inscriptions of Metropolitan Graduates in the Ming and Qing Dynasty, no scholars named Shao in Yi Xing were on the list. In fact, Xu Wei’s Southern Poem Narration was right: The Story of Sachet was written by Shao Wenming, an old examinee in Yi Xing. As a legend of early personal creation, The Story of Sachet started from simulation, and it imitated Pipa Notes and The Story of the Boudoir. Its Episode 4 and Episode 5 are respectively the imitations of Episode 4 Forced Test by Master Cai and Episode 5 in Farewell in Nanpu in Pipa Notes, Pipa Notes has a righteous Taigong Zhang, and The Story of Sachet has a neighbor named old lady Wang. While Episode 29 in Post Booth reminds people of the similar layout of The Story of Boudoir. 2

As early as in the spring of 1987, Xu Shuofang pointed out in On the Artistic Features and Popular Areas of the Southern Opera that “the author should be a literati of the Book Society, and the elders believe that it was written by Qiu Jun is doubtful.” See Collection of Xu Shuofang, Vol. 1st, Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 1993, p. 259.

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The Southern Poem Narration commented that “In the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming, no modern writings were taken as Southern Opera…This malpractice started with The Story of Sachet… As for the imitations of “Sachet”, they are all the simulations of the original for words and plot, restored from the old versions of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The common people of the Three Wu believed that they were elegant and taught this to their servants, so they became popular. Nothing is worse than this misfortune for Southern Opera.”3 According to this specific narration, “modern writings were taken as Southern Opera,” actually refers to the literati’s adaption of Southern Operas. This is not too harsh a criticism of some legend works, most of which have these defects, but this is not fair criticism for the general trend. The development of Southern Opera into legend is not only due to the different identities of folk artists and literati writers, but also due to the different writing processes of the two types: one is the collective creation of generations, the other is the individual creation of literati. Therefore, there must be many defects at the beginning of legend writing, which Xu Wei did not see as part of the process of the development that the Ming legendary works had to go through It may be hard for him and modern people to imagine that The Story of Sachet was once so popular that it became a repertoire sung by theatrical groups. Episode 56 of The Golden Lotus is about how Ximen Qing treated Number One Scholar Cai with Episode 2 [moon hall] (red flat peach) and Episode 6 [zhao yuan song] (by flowers and willows) of The Story of Sachet by Haiyan singers. It is not an overstatement to say that “nothing is worse than this misfortune for Southern Opera”, but it is also an insurmountable link. Without the defects at the beginning of the late Ming Dynasty, there would be no prosperity of legend later. To put it more directly and figuratively, Peony Pavilion would not have existed without the The Story of Sachet. It is not that Peony Pavilion inherits The Story of Sachet in artistic technique or ideological content, but that Peony Pavilion is a brilliant achievement in the mature period of the literary legend initiated by the mediocre works such as The Story of Sachet.

2.2 Dramatists During the Transitional Period Between the Southern Opera and the Legend The tremendous difficulties in creating literary legends can be illustrated by the following facts: First, those who wrote legends and Zaju at the same time had better northern opera writings than their Southern Opera writings. The reason is very simple: Zaju had been matured in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, but the legendary language was still in the process of exploration, without any set norms to follow. Another fact is that due to the lack of literature, most of the literati engaged in opera writing in the early period of Jiangnan region were unknown for who they were or even their names. There are not enough detailed records to determine whether they were the writers of legend or the writers of Southern Opera. 3

Collection of Chinese Classical Operas III, China Drama Press, 1959, p. 243.

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Resurrection by Xu Lin, The Serial by Wang Ji, and The Story of A Jade by Zheng Ruoyong are supposed to be the same type of work as Pipa Notes, but their original versions are not as well-known as Virgin Zhao and Cai Erlang, and their adaptations didn’t reach the achievement as Pipa Notes did, so they had been viewed as complete individual creations. In fact, in the early period (specifically on the eve of the emergence of Kun tune), such literary legend writers were almost all adapters of the southern folk opera. Therefore, different from the situation for The Story of Sachet, the above introduction for the nature of Pipa Notes is also applicable to this batch of works. Xu Lin (1462–1538), style name Ziren, called himself Taoist of Nine Hills, or Kuaiyuan Old Man, and also Bearded Fairy for his beautiful beard. He was born in Songjiang (near Shanghai today) and grew up in Nanjing. Xu Lin’s calligraphy and painting inscriptions were all signed with “Xu Lin of Wu”, except one that was signed with “Xu Lin Nine Hills”. Nine Hills refers to his birthplace Songjiang. In Nanjing, Xu Lin had interactions with the Minister of Personnel Ministry Qiao Yu, Assistant Minister Chu Quan, the Minister of Justice Ministery Gu Lin and other high-ranked officials. When Emperor Zhengde went to the south, he summoned Xu Lin in Linqing and went to Nanjing, then returned to Beijing together. The emperor had visited Xu’s home twice in Nanjing, which was rare at that time. Probably due to the early death of Emperor Zhengde was the reason that Xu Lin did not become an official. According to the biography of Xu Lin in the Stories of Poems in All Dynasties (C), he “travelled with Shen Qinan when he was young”, which is an ancient saying of the relationship between a mentor and a student. Shen Zhou was the founder of Wu School of Painting. Wu Wei (1459–1508), a famous painter from Jiangxia (now in Hubei province), painted the Picture of Shen and Xu, Two Profound Scholars Indulging in Pleasures. Wen Zhengming, the later master of Wu School of Painting, wrote a poem for the picture: “The new legend for Yuefu of Peach Leaves Sail, the colorful painting of Xuetao noted, old as I am but not to forget, that same aged Moling smoke.” In Trivia in Jinling. Tune Reviews, Zhou Hui said: “Xu Lin’s was well travelled when he was young and his composition writings are talented with standard metrics, which were followed by all schools.” Wen Zhengzhong (Zhengming), who lived in Wuzhong, painted a picture and sent it to Xu with a poem, in which there is a line: “The new legend for Yuefu of Peach Leaves Sail, the colorful painting of Xuetao note.” “Xuetao” generally refers to the famous prostitutes at that time, and “Peach Leaves Sail” refers to brothels in Nanjing. Xu Lin’s calligraphy, especially the Seal Character, enjoyed a high reputation at that time. Li Dongyang and Qiao Yu were recognized as the master seal calligraphers in those days, though they didn’t think they were as good as Xu Lin. Painting scrolls of The Forest of Poems by Wu Wei, The Study by the Lake and Mountain by Wang Fu, Collection of Eastern Garden by Wen Zhengming, and Dream of the Butterfly by Tang Yin were all inscribed by him with seal characters. On account of the high income from calligraphy and painting, he was able to build an exquisite garden villas, accompanied by poetry, wine, beauties and operas in his late years. This kind of living condition had great impact on the formation of Xu Lin’s work style.

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All of Xu Lin’s poetry collections have been lost except Resurrection, one of his seven opera creations (or adaptations). The Story of A Jade by Zheng Ruoyong partly borrowed from the legend of the Tang Dynasty The Life of Liwa, and then two misunderstandings occurred: one was that Resurrection was also written by Zheng. It is said Stories of Poems in All Dynasties (D) by Qian Qianyi: “There is a legend called A Jade. Xing Yangsheng was thought of as the prototype of the character.” Xing Yangsheng was Zheng Yuanhe, the leading role in Resurrection. Obviously this is contradictory due to the similarity between the two legends. The same is true for Gao Yi’s Legend Reviews and Jiao Xun’s On Operas later. Tune Reviews by Lu Tiancheng was put under the name of Zheng Ruoyong in Resurrection out of negligence. However under the author’s name, only Jade and Integrity was listed. Another misunderstanding originated from Tune Reviews, which said: “I’ve heard that there were hardly any audience when the play A Jade came out, but Resurrection got all the audience back when it came out. That’s the power of compositions.” The first and forth volumes of Notes on Poetry in Tranquil Residence by Zhu Yizun dramatize this record in Tune Reviews, saying that Xue Jingyan was requested by a brothel to produce this play. Zhou Hui’s Trivia in Jinling is known for its informative account of the local humanities, and considered the author of Resurrection was Xu Lin. New Composition of Southern Ci Poetry compiled by Shen Jing, and annotated by Shen Zijing includes The Comprehensive Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Compositions. All works are listed with the author’s names except the anonymous, which included Resurrection, which indicates clearly it is an anonymous work. If the records of Trivia in Jinling and Notes on Poetry in Tranquil Residence are true, then Xu Lin and Xue Jingyan may have revised and adapted it successively. Shen Defu pointed out that among southern tunes, Four Seasons, The Serial and Resurrection were composed in the period of (Cheng)hua and (Hong)zhi. (Talks on Tunes. Famous Lyricists). It has been found out that The Four Sections was composed by Shen Lin in Zhengde 15th year (1520), when the retired cabinet minister Yang Yiqing was hosting Emperor Zhengde in his mansion house. The Serial may be composed in Jiajing 1st year, and Xu Lin adapted Resurrection in around Hongzhi 6th year (1493) or earlier. It makes sense that Shen Defu pointed out that they were early works of legend. When commenting on Obeisance Moon Cabin, it is said in the same book: “Besides Obeisance Moon Cabin, my favorite is Feather Snow Flakes (Episode 31) in Resurrection, which are all the chitchats of beggars, utterly natural with no flaunting,comparable to the ancient poems Peacock Flies to the Southeast and The Song of Mulan. I consider that it must be the work of the Yuan Dynasty, as this excellent style of writing was way beyond the writers in (Cheng)hua and (Hong)zhi years.” As a matter of fact, this is not the difference between the writers in the Yuan Dynasty and the writers in (Cheng)hua and (Hong)zhi years or with the author Zheng, but just the different characteristics of folk artists. With this understanding, Shen Defu might have revealed the secrets for the completion as well as the style of Resurrection. Resurrection can present itself not as a work of literati, but as a Southern Opera adapted by literati. The degree of modification is different in each Episode and in

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other aspects. Zheng Yuanhe, with the identity of being the son of the prefecture, can even take a hundred servants for the imperial examination to Beijing. After being cheated, the number of servants turns out to be fifty (Episode 6); “two bundles of leek equal eighteen” turns out to be “eighteen dishes and drinks” (Episode 21). Although some of these descriptions are exaggerated and untrue, they are extremely plain, and obviously the remnants of folk works, and it is hard to imagine that they could have been written by scholars. In Episode 11: “With money you can go through Tai Hang Mountain as if on a boulevard, without money you can only choose the sand bank”, “the Prime Minister’s walking on the newly-built sand bank.” “Sandbank”, in these two examples, was an idiom in the Jin and Yuan Zaju. It referred to the smooth road, compared with the steep Tai Hang Mountain. In the dialogue, Zheng Yuanhe asked: “What does it mean ‘without money you can only choose the sand bank’?” Dao De replied, “Suppose the procuress comes to you and ask for money. If you have no money and tell her to go away, she would say something different, such as the road ahead is rough and she can’t get through by walking on her tiny feet and bad shoes. This is what we know, you can only choose the sand bank with no money.” The answer is not very appropriate, which might be due to the fault of the adapter, but this error retains the original folk creation. Contrary to the above situation, in Episode 4, Li Yaxian commented on Minister Cui and Scholar Zeng: “When it comes to state affairs and Neo-Confucianism, the scholars are not as good as the prime minister; while once it comes to romance and sentiments, the prime minister is not as good as a scholars.” This is the comment on Wen’s participation in politics and the literati Wang Yuanding by the famous prostitute Shun Shixiu in the Yuan Dynasty. The plot in Episode 14, Zheng Yuanhe gave orders to kill the streaky horse, and made a soup out of the horse’s intestines to please Li Wa, is the story of Wang Yuanding and Shun Shixiu as well (see The Volume of Whorehouse Trend by Snow Fisher in the Yuan Dynasty). Obviously, it is the embellishment by literati upon the adaption or its completion. The first story is about Li Wa, who dealt with difficult situations tactfully without offending anyone. In the second story, Zheng killed the horse to boil soup, but Li Wa was “tired of mutton taste and didn’t want to eat it”. The infatuation of Zheng Yuanhe and the indulgence of Li Wa were all presented. It is not to be generalized as there are lots of successes but also lots of failures in the adaptations of folk works by literati. Resurrection is irregulated on rhyme as the three compositions in Yongle Canon, It preserved more original characteristics of folk Southern Opera. Yumo rhymes with Wensi, Gege, Zhisi and Qiwei, and Qiwei rhymes with Jielai, Gengqing rhymes with Zhenwen, Hanshan, Huanhuan and Xiantian, and even rhymes with Lianxian, Jianxian. A lot of Episodes change rhymes repeatedly, especially Episodes 28, 35, 36 and 41 are the most blended. Shen Ling (about 1470–1523), styled name Shouqing or Shoufu, and self addressed as Fisherman in Liantang, was from Jiading (now in Shanghai). Tune Reviews by Lv Tiancheng listed Shen Lianchuan as the author of Four Sections, Thousand Pieces of Gold, and Returning the Belt and classified these works as first class. He also listed Shen Shouqing as the author of Jioao Hong, San Yuan and

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Dragon Spring and classified these works as second class. Shen Ling, a renown legend writer, was thus taken as two persons by his different names.4 In the winter of Zhengde 5th year (1510), the couplet poems of Shen Ling, Lv Shutong and Tang Yin were preserved because of Tang’s calligraphy was cherished by later generations. The brief biography of in The Record of Anting Town, Vol. 17th commented about him: “devoting himself to studying the ancient. He was unrestrained, not good at farm work but good at music. He admired Liu Qi Qing (Yong) for his personality. He wrote songs and taught the servants stage performance. He had the painting by imitating Wen Yangzhou (tong), calligraphy by imitating Su Wenzhong (Shi) and Zhao Chengzhi (meng). His poetry is known by the world to be refreshing, beautiful and sentimental.” Based on all data, he and Tang Yin are the same type of romantic style celebrity, failed to become provincial graduates, but were well-known. Perhaps to the extent as is said in Tune Reviews: “Fame high as five mountains, talents weigh as ten thousand pounds.” Shen Ling may have died at the same time as Tang Yin, and a little later than Xu Lin, who lived in Nanjing. There are four extant works of Shen Ling, namely, The Four Sections, The Story of Returning the Belt, The Story of Thousand Pieces of Gold and The Story of Sanyuan. The Four Sections and The Story of Thousand Pieces of Gold are worth mentioning here. The Four Sections includes four short plays such as Du Fu Went on a Spring Outing, The Story of Xie Anshi in East Mountain, The Story of Su Zizhan Visiting the Red Cliff and The Story of Scholar Tao in Post Booth, matching up the four seasons and relatively independent.5 In the Brief Biography of Calligraphers, Painters and Seal Carvers it is said: “The royal Minister, Yang Yiqing, retired to his hometown (today’s Dantu in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province), heard of him and invited him over. They had a poetry party at the Bodhi Temple. When Emperor Wuzong was having a tour to the South, he met Yang who hosted the Emperor with an opera. Not having a good script, they had the legend Four Happiness written and rehearsed over night and put on stage the next day. The Emperor was exultant and asked who was the writer. Yang replied it was Ling. The Emperor asked to call him over but he escaped.” Four Happiness is a saga of Xie Dang (1512–1569). It is impossible to be written and rehearsed overnight. As it is an overnight work for a social occasion, there must be a small reform in the system, which can be called southern Zaju, or a short legend. The Four Sections is not a successful work, but it provided a new form for opera creation, which can be an inevitable result of the integration of the two opera systems. Lv Tiancheng pointed out: “This work is for the birthday celebration of Minister Yang

4

Qi Biaojia’s Review of Tunes in Yuanshan Hall was misrepresented and did not allow for any correction. This is a vivid example that the novel dramatists were not paid attention to, and their life stories were not explored. In Chapter 5 of History of Chinese Modern Operas written by Aoki Masaru and translated by Wang Gulu, had some mistakes and doubts of the names. 5 In fact, it was collected in the library of the royal family of San Lorenzo in Escolia, a suburb of Madrid, Spain. Except for some dialogue, it is likely to be the complete or at least close to the complete version, The situation is similar to the 30 kinds of Zaju published in Yuan Dynasty.

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in Zhenjiang … One story is split into four parts, hence the name of the play.”6 The Story of Thousand Pieces of Gold was known with the story of Han Xin’s rewarding Lady Piao a thousand pieces of gold for her bowl of meal after his success. It focuses on Han Xin’s great achievements in the war of Chu and Han, without mentioning his tragic end when he was suspected of treason and was killed. This made him somewhat different from the real historical figures, and quite close to Pei Du in the Story of Returning the Belt. The specific content of these two operas were also similar to each other: The Story of Returning the Belt has False Reports of the Debater as Episode 32 (Pei Du’s wife was killed), and Death of Pei for Slander as Episode 33, while in The Story of Thousand Pieces of Gold, there is False Rumour (Episode 33), in which Han Xin was killed. It can be seen that as early legend writers, they were not good at fabricating plots. Chasing North in Episode 22 of The Story of Thousand Pieces of Gold shows the integration of north and south tunes just like The Four Sections, as it follows nine northern tunes in Episode 2 of Xiao He Chased Han Xin in the Moon Light by Jin Renjie in the Yuan Dynasty. Wang Ji (1474–1540), style name Boyu and pseudonym Yuzhou, was born in Wuzhen, Tongxiang, Zhejiang province. Wang Ji was from a wealthy family and inherited a good fortune. However, he failed the autumn exams repeatedly and didn’t become a local magistrate in Hengzhou (now in Hengxian, Guangxi) and an acting governor until he was over 40 years old. Wang Ji was known for his legend The Serial, which was even earlier than The Pearls and Laundering Gauze, and can be considered one of the pioneer writers of the literati legend of Three Wu (outside Suzhou). It had always been stage repertoire for its unique artistic achievements. The story of The Serial is about what happened at the end of the East Han Dynasty. Minister Wangyun betrothed his foster daughter Diao Chan to Dong Zhuo and his trusted subordinate Lv Bu at the same time, in order to provoke dissension between them. It made Lv Bu turn his back on Dong Zhuo and to attack him and end up in killing him. This is what serial tricks were about. The opera was based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms (equivalent to Chapter 8 in Mao’s edition Minister Wang’s Tactful Plots, the Imperial Tutor Dong Made A Episode in Fengyi Pavilion), by adapting the plots from Chapters 3 to 9. There were only three or five songs in each of the thirty episodes, twelve songs are the maximum, depending on the needs of the stage performance. Its compositions are fluent and smooth with neither a flaunty style commonly seen from the literati, nor the slang common from the folk works. It is obviously different from the general literary legend for its originality in characterization and plot arrangement. Compared with novels, legend had adjusted the characters in them. The legend script took the young male and female, normally as husband and wife or lovers, as the main characters. In order to highlight Wang Yun and Diao Chan, The Serial set Wang Yun as the leading male character, while his wife as the old female character. Diao Chan was the female leading role, while Lv Bu was a young man. In addition, the legend image of Wang Yun had been greatly improved. In the novel, he killed 6 The Old Legend in Tune Reviews, Collection of Chinese Classical Operas VI, China Drama Press, 1959, p. 226.

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Dong Zhuo unwillingly, upon Yuan Shao’s urge in a letter and Cao Cao’s suggestion, but in the opera, he did it willingly. In Episode 11 Sword Discussion, Wang Yun invited Cao Cao to discuss the issue by asking Cao Cao to walk before him and taking the seat first. Then he tested him with the history book and the sword by revealing only half of his intention, until the minds of both sides were well read and Cao Cao was consigned the mission of the murder project. In the novel, Diao Chan took the initiative, while the opera version of Episode 18 Obeisance Moon tells what happened later after Episode 13 Ring Bestowed and Episode 15 Signs for the Ring, manifesting that Wang Yun had foreseen all the situations. Wang Yun’s loyalty and foresight, as well as the risks he took, were highlighted in the opera. The legend version only made a few changes in the layout of the novel, but the plot has its twists and turns, and the structure is well-knit. For example, in chapter 8 of the novel, Wang Yun gave a golden crown to Lv Bu, who flirted with Diao Chan in front of him. Wang Yun betrothed his daughter personally to Lv Bu as a concubine, which is not reasonable. The opera added a detail: Lv Bu lost his purple-golden crown fighting Liu, Guan and Zhang (Episode 17). This provided the right moment for Wang Yun to offer the crown (Lv Bu was ridiculed by Dong Zhuo for losing the crown, which also became one of the reasons for his subsequent attack). In the novel, the golden crown was made by a good craftsman, while the legend changed this plot to it being made by Wang Yun as a gift to Diao Chan. When Wang Yun ordered Diao Chan to go out to see Lv Bu, Wang Yun made an excuse to quit, and eavesdroped from the outside, to give the convenience of private love pledged between Lv Bu and Diao Chan. Wang Yun suddenly came in when they were canoodling. He blamed Lv Bu first and then formally betrothed them, foreshadowing what will happen later. These details serve as the golden touch, filling the play with suspensions till the end, which is another success of The Serial. Right before the rise of Kun tune, Zheng Ruoyong was the earliest Suzhou playwright whose detailed life story can be ascertained, and whose poems and other works can be researched. Obviously, he is one of the “San Wu Mortals” denounced in the Southern Poem Narration, and his legend The Story of A Jade is undoubtedly “the imitation of The Story of Sachet”. Zheng Ruoyong (1489–1577), style name Zhongbo and pseudonym name Xuzhou, was a native of Kunshan, Jiangsu province. At the age of 16, he took the imperial exam every three years. It is said that he failed to pass the exam three times in a row, then retreated to the Zhixing Mountains situated by Taihu lake. In ancient times, it was noble to retreat. When he was thirty-seven years old, he wrote An Ode to the New Temple. Eulogy articles for the court are not issued out of thin air, they were often used for the dignitaries (including examiners), in order to attract their attention. In the same year, he took part in the autumn exam and failed. Soon after he was expelled from school for misconduct. At the age of 39, he visited Hangzhou and wrote An Ode to the Tide in Qiantang. The Story of A Jade might have been written during this period or later, as more than 20 West Lake scenery attractions are mentioned in Episode 12 Appreciation of Flowers and Episode 20 was named Tide Watching.

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Lu Can was a schoolmate of Zheng Ruoyong. After Lu Can became a scholar, he experienced the ups and downs of officialdom, then was dismissed from the office and returned home. The two met again in their hometown. Ever since he left home and went to the north at the age of 46, his association with Lu Can lasted for 18 years. Lu Can brothers are the authors of The Pearls and West Chamber of the South respectively. While Zheng Ruoyong was working for Lord Zhao, Lu Can fell ill. Without his friend’s urging, he wouldn’t leave. They had a close relationship and became the early legend writers in Suzhou almost at the same time. It was impossible for them not to influence each other. Zheng Ruoyong wrote the legends such as The Five Blessings, The Integrity and The Story of A Jade which was the most popular than the rest. According to Episode 1 Title Moonlit Flute in The Story of A Jade, “The jade is sad to have flaws, the blossoms fell in weeping chirps. The knit brows are like green willows.” From dreams of Yangzhou, the mind is freed in a smile. The author was expelled from school for his visits to brothels. The legend was written in 1527, which was a little later than the Memory of Huaixiang written by Lu Cai, and a decade or two earlier than the Laundering Gauze written by Liang Chenyu. The first half of The Story of A Jade borrows the story of the prostitute’s cheating on her lover in the Tang Dynasty legend The Life of Liwa, which may be similar to Zheng Ruoyong’s unsatisfactory experience in the demimonde. The second half is borrowed from the story of Wang Kui’s betrayal of Guiying, the hero Wang Shang became a Number One Scholar after the misfortune, while another whoremaster Gui Xi was killed. Wang Shang later became the judge in Trial of the World, and the god of the sea was replaced by the god of the Qiantang River. In the legend of the Tang Dynasty, the heroine’s wonderful ending of her rehabilitation was moved to the wife of Wang Shang. In short, The Story of A Jade was edited by two famous erotic love stories to criticize the unfaithfulness of prostitutes. What is interwoven with the love story were the historical facts in the Southern Song Dynasty, during which Geng Jing revolted in the Jin area of Shandong, and Xin Qiji returned to the Southern Song. The historical facts with bizarre and exotic plots were adapted into a quite mediocre play: Zhang Jun pledged a northern expedition with Xin Qiji as the general, and captured Zhang Anguo. The hero Wang Shang was ordered to serve in the army after becoming the Number One Scholar, then was imprisoned by the Jin soldiers in Jinshan Temple. He eventually killed his enemies and escaped. When his wife was captured in her hometown by enemies, she cut her own hair and disfigured her face, and she finally was reunited with him. According to the author’s logic, a talented man is justified in seeking carnal pleasures, and that he deserves sympathy when he suffers (not including Gui Xi who is wealthy but not talented). While his wife was obliged to preserve chastity, even if she has to disfigure herself and shave her hair. The ethics advocated by the author has nothing to recommend. In the layout, civil Episodes and the military Episodes alternated, the state affairs and romance integrated, which almost became the general legend pattern afterwards. Between the two of them, there can be internal relations, such as the Southern Opera Obeisance Moon Cabin; and may not be related as The Story of A Jade, which can be the earliest and relatively complete typical structure of similar legends.

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Not only The Story of A Jade took the first half of The Life of Liwa and the second half of Wang Kui’s Betrayal of Guiying as its own outline, Strategy of Moving, Trial of the World and Suing in the Underworld also took advantage of them. In addition, the north couplet [nocturnal ship] Autumn Thoughts by Ma Zhiyuan was turned into a southern tune in Episode 29, and [a twig of plum] in Episode 4 Seeing Off was developed from Episode 33 Acceding in The Legend of A Hairpin. Seeing off used four [willow lady] in succession, which may be inspired by Acceding’s using four [zhaoyuan song] in succession. In literary legends, the convention of plots and words were mimicked on purpose, while folk operas often influenced each other in the process of transmission. The Story of A Jade has many allusions, Zang Maoxun’s Preface to the Selection of Yuan Operas even said it “is based on similar works 始用类书为之.” Shen Defu’s Talks on Tunes. Famous Lyricists, liked Episode 12 Appreciation of Flowers the most, considering it a guide to the West Lake in Southern Opera. Xu Fuzuo’s Laowei Talk in Sanjia Village said: Scholars nowadays really appreciate this work in which a lot of good lines are found, such as “hearing the rooster in silver comforter, moonlit pear blossoms get colder,” (Episode 4 [willow lady]), and it is as good as The Story of Sachet. These two examples illustrate that the author of The Story of A Jade wrote the legend with the verse composing skills of the literati. Every Episode in The Story of A Jade has a rhyme, with the only exception being in Episode 7 Recalling Husband, which has four times of rhyming with Fu and Youhou. Obviously, what the author complying with was not the rhyme of tunes, but the rhyme of poems. According to the poem rhyme, Fu is the rhyme on the rising tone. The Story of A Jade has mutual rhyming on adjacent rhymes, which is the legacy of the Southern Opera style. Lu Can (1494–1552) and Lu Cai (1497–1537) were brothers from Wuxian, Jiangsu province. Lu Can became a Jinshi at the age of 23, and was selected as a secretary in the Hanlin Academy. Senior officials of Hanlin Academy were the alternate personnel for cabinet ministers, while secretaries were the alternate personnel for senior officials of Hanlin Academy. As the cabinet minister Zhang Cong was offended, every secretary of that session was assigned the post as a local official or a county magistrate. Lu Can won the first place in the examination and became the inspector in the Ministry of Work. When he was 36, he was imprisoned for offending the Emperor for being involved in royal inside information and punished with court flogging. Soon after he was once again imprisoned for impeaching Zhang Cong and denigrated as the posthouse official in Du Yun in Guizhou. Two years later, he was transferred to the mountainous district of Yongxin county as the magistrate. He resigned to return home after three years. Due to his integrity and indomitability, Lu Can had a high reputation among the local literati and was honored as Mountain Integrity. He had The Collection of Lu and the short sketch of Volume of Gengsi. Lu Cai, three years younger than his brother, failed in six autumn exams. He once went west to explore two caves of Zhanggong and Shanjuan, and climbed Mount Tai in the north. After the failure of the last autumn exam, he took the opportunity of visiting his friend who served as an official in Fujian to travel to Wuyi Mountain, Jianyi and Fuzhou. His frustration of the imperial examination traumatized him deeply. In search of a soulmate, and perhaps to take part in another autumn exam, he went to Beijing, but

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returned due to sickness and soon died. Lu Cai had ten volumes of Talks on Scenery Sites and five volumes of Notes of Tianchi Mountaineer. The Pearls created by both Lu Can and Lu Cai was one of the earliest legends in Suzhou before the rise of Kun tune. As far as the legend itself is concerned, it is an outstanding work with compact plots, rigorous structure, not as loose as common legends. Unfortunately, it has not received enough attention yet. It has not showed a significant influence on the later operas except that it was used in the legend of Colorful Letters by the anonymous. The Pearls was based on The Life of Wushuang, the famous classical Chinese novel by Xue Diao at the end of the Tang Dynasty, without much change to its plot. Before Wang Xianke and Wushuang got together, he married Wushuang’s maid as a concubine. Although polygamy was a common practice at that time, the novel does not contain this part, which showed the sincerity of Wang Xianke’s love. When the chivalry Gu Yaya kindly helped to secure their marriage, the novel said “cut the guy’s head off and throw it in the pit”, which is a very confusing line and the opera had this unnecessarily brutal line deleted. In the novel, Gu Yaya committed suicide, while in the opera version, he was dissuaded. Those alterations were better than the original. The opera doesn’t move on to the main part until Episode 16. Wushuang’s father was prosecuted by treacherous ministers, and she was taken into the harem, then sent to the garden as a worker. When staying in Chang Le Post, Wang Xianke happened to be the posthouse official, so they tried to sneak out to meet. Gu Yaya sent a false imperial decree to poison Wushuang, he got the body but used the fairy medicine to restore her life. The opera used a pair of pearls, the token of love, throughout the beginning to the end, so it got the name The Pearls. With the pursuit of art and the talent of the authors, they mastered the compact structure organizational skills emphasized in Jin and Yuan Zaju and western opera but fell short of the legend writers for traditional Southern Opera. This opera has 43 Episodes, the span of time is about five years, three years are arranged between Episode 15 and Episode 16, and the time span of the subsequent 27 Episodes was greatly shortened. The original arrangement of the novel was quite awesome, such as Wushuang was saved and the loved ones were able to be reunited. Plots like Wushuang hid the letter under the brocade mattress for the night not only indicate the alertness of the maid of honour even when out of the palace, the isolation of the palace from the outside world, but also reveal the wit of Wushuang. The opera not only includes the acceptable descriptions in the original work, but also enriches them, such as Episode 33 Writing an Imperial Decree and Episode 34 The False Imperial Order. Caiping disguised as an eunuch to prescribe medicine to Wushuang, but failed in the cross-examination. The appropriateness of the description is open for further discussion, but the idea deserves recognition. Nothing but chivalry with his supernatural powers could bring Wushuang back to life, but Wang Xianke never stopped his pursuit after being separated from Wushuang which are described vividly in the plot as delivering letters to the posthouse and meeting at the Wei Bridge. He was not disheartened by the first refusal of Gu Yaya, and quit his position to followed Gu to his seclusion (Visiting the Chivalry). As time passed, Gu Yaya was moved and promised to saved Wushuang at the risk of his

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own life (Open Heart). Generally in the works of chivalrous theme, characters were mostly passive and powerless in order to highlight the power of chivalry. Novels like The Life of Wushuang and operas like The Pearls are different in this respect. No other legendary works by Lu brothers are as successful as The Pearls. Splitting the Shoes and The Story of Peppers are lost. The Story of An Orphan was adapted by Lu Bi the Episode Dating was included in The Blooming Spring. Like other plays of this period, it is quite common to rhyme similar parts in The Pearls. This general practice of Southern Opera was avoided by some later writers of Kun tune operas. In this respect the Lu brothers went even further than Tang Xianzu. As they were from Suzhou, critics couldn’t say they used Jiangxi pronunciation as they did to Tang.In fact, Zheng Ruoyong, the Lu brothers and even Shen Jing’s contemporary Gu Dadian, all adopted the relatively free rhyme of Southern Opera that were not necessarily written for Kun tune operas, just as being mentioned in The Golden Lotus that the Suzhou performers were not necessarily the singers of Kun tune operas.

Chapter 3

The Completion and Achievements of Full-Length Novels of Accumulated Collective Creation Through Generations (I)

3.1 The Early Full-Length Novels and Collectively-Created Works Through Generations The early full-length novels in ancient China experienced a long process of brewing and circulating among storytellers before they were completed. They are the results of the collective creation from the accumulation of many generations. During the period from the reign of Jiajing to the reign of Wanli (1522–1620), these novels were successively adapted, written, and published by literati. The years of publication seemed to be sparse, and it is common for them to be separated from one another by decades. Iit was considered that many versions had not been passed down, the actual intervals between these novels should be much shorter than we know. However, in any case, during the long and extremely slow development of novels of ancient China, they can already be regarded as rapids that come one after another. The earliest editions of extant important novels are listed as follows: Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Jiajing 1st year (1522); Water Margin, with the preface written by Wang Daokun, the foreign minister in capital, Wanli 17th year (1589); Journey to the West, the 100-chapter edition of Shide Hall, Wanli 20th year (1592); Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus, Wanli 45th year (1617); History of the Sui and Tang Dynasties (Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties), refined block printing version of Gong Shaoshan, Wanli 47th year (1619); Three Battles in Sweeping Demons and The Legend of Deification were published in Wanli reign, and the specific publication year is unknown (1522); It is said in the preface to the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms in Hongzhi 7th year (1494) by Yong Yuzi, also named Jiang Daqi, who was from Jin Hua: “After the book was completed, the intellectual official busybodies scrambled to transcribe it for reading.” This refers to its latest adaptation after Luo Guanzhong’s draft which was only 28 years away from Jiajings version, and no records about the last versions © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_3

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for several other books were ever found before their completion. There was a long period of time between the published versions and the last versions before, ranging from decades to hundreds of years. For example, the reprinted Historical Records of the Kingdoms by Three-terrace Library in Wanli 34th year (1606) is extant now, while the incomplete book of which was reserved by the Literature Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has the preface written by BoyYan in Zhizheng 17th year (1357) in the Yaun Dynasty. The present Journey to the West of the 100-chapter Shide Hall edition was published in Wanli 20th year (1592). It is mentioned in Appendix A for Journey to the West by Glen Dudbridge, the preface Yang Ti wrote in Jiajing 20th year (1542) for his brother Yang Shen’s Zaju Immortal Cave had already mentioned the book named Journey to the West and some of its specific plots were consistent with the present draft. Thus, it can be seen that Journey to the West had been written at least half a century before the edition of Shide Hall. Another example, the extant earliest edition of Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus is the edition of Wanli 45th year, but the last chapter of Tang Xianzu’s The Story of Nanke in Wanli 28th year (1600) used the similar plot of Golden Lotus, which indicates that Tang Xianzu read the novel at that time. The Liu family in Macheng had this book, and Tang once visited them in Wanli 8th year (1580) and selected about three hundred kinds of Zaju of Jin and Yuan Dynasties for his family. If Golden Lotus read by Tang was among them, it should be at least 37 years apart between its completion and publication of Golden Lotus. The above-mentioned novels are the collective creation from the accumulation of many generations. They started from the earliest of legends, becoming books successively during this period after being adapted by the writers during different periods. Embroidered Couch by Lv Tiancheng (1580–1618) is the earliest extant credible Chinese full-length novel of individual creation, and it was completed around Wanli 27th year (1599), which is the latest time of the collective creation by generations in China, also the earliest time for full-length novels of individual creations. Before that, full-length novels of individual creation did not exist in China, which is one of the basic facts about the development of the earliest novels in ancient China, and also an unavoidable problem for the researchers of the history of novels. Since then, novels of the collective creation from the accumulation by generations continued to be published, but novels of individual creation emerged, and were gradually increasing. The earliest editions of the novels listed above are now available, half of which were produced after the above mentioned period. However, the completion of the novels were obviously earlier, which is the reason why they are included in the discussion. All of the above novels have experienced the process of circulating, and they inevitably had influenced and were permeated by each other, which in turn proves that they are not individual creations. Individual creation has a one-way effect of either influencing or being influenced rather than a dual effect of mutual influence. This is another basic fact of the development of early ancient novels in China that should not be ignored. Many other examples can be cited for the two-way effect that novels were influenced by each other and permeate each other in the process of long-term circulation. In the case of the introductory poems, we can find such examples between of Water Margin and Golden Lotus, Journey to the West and The Legend of Deification, Water

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Margin and Wiping Out Demons, Water Margin and Journey to the West. As “The light of the cross street is brilliant” in Chapter 16 of the 40-chapter Wiping Out Demons and “Splendid lights on the Cross Street” in Chapter 31 in Water Margin, and in 100-chapter Golden Lotus. If they were not influenced by each other nor permeated by each other, it’s hard to understand the similarities. The above-mentioned two-way inheritance in the process of circulating and the forming of the early ancient novels only takes the hymn or quoted poems as examples, because they are brief and easy to understand. In fact, their mutual influence is far more than this. They can happen between works with similar themes, such as Journey to the West and The Legend of Deification, between Water Margin and Wiping Out Demons, or between works with different themes. For example, in Chapter 5 of Water Margin, Lu Zhishen hid in the tent of a woman and beat the mountain king who wanted to be the bridegroom to flee, was the same as Great Sage Subdues the Devil in Gaolao Village in Chapter 18 of Journey to the West. Wiping Out Demons, Water Margin and The Legend of Deification are all about heaven gangsters and earthly devils. The story of Guan Yu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms obviously influenced Huang Feihu’s crossing the five passes in The Legend of Deification. The deification list at the end of The Legend of Deification is the same as Heaven Instruction on the Stone Tablet of Loyalty Hall in Chapter 71 of Water Margin. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical story about the separation of the great powers, while Water Margin narrates the heroic legends of the Robin Hood. The themes are not the same, but the brotherhood among Liu, Guan and Zhang is very close to the style of Robin Hood. Zhang Fei is Li Kui, the hero of the Three Kingdoms. Li Kui and Cheng Yaojin in the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties use the same weapon, a hatchet, which can look like a pairing of the same role in different books. The Legend of Deification is later than the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It was obviously influenced by the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Section 129 of the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms is Zhang Fei’s Fighting with Ma Chao in Jiamen Pass. Jiamen Pass is located in today’s Shaohua County, Sichuan Province. It was not in the way of Zhou’s attack on the Western Zhou Dynasty, nor in the way of King Wu’s attack on Zhou Dynasty, but it actually appeared in Chapters 30, 31, 35, 40, 51, 71, and 74 in The Legend of Deification. Jiamen Pass was recorded differently in one character with the same pronunciation in one place, which can only be explained as an influence from the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. From the above examples, it can be seen that the influence is mutual, rather than the one-way influence of one work on another. Such a situation can only come into being when both of them are generational collective creations and passed through a common long-term circulating process. As long as one of them is a writer’s work, then two-way communication is impossible. The relationship between Journey to the West, which is similar to the theme of The Legend of Deification, is far more complicated than that between The Legend of Deification and Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is no definite confirmation if Journey to the West or The Legend of Deification was earlier. Either one could have been earlier than the other. The most typical example is Nezha’s story being shared by the two books. A brief biography of Nezha is listed in Volume 2 of

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Five Lamps at Yuan Years by Puji, a monk of the Song Dynasty, which is attached to The Holy Essence of the West and the East. Tang Xianzu’s twentieth poem in his Obituary Renewed and Chapter 83 in Journey to the West both said that Nezha “cut his flesh to return to his mother and took his bones to return to his father”. It can be seen that Nezha mentioned in the above belongs to one system. The Legend of Deification tells the complete story of Nezha’s birth from Chapters 12–14. Although its content has greatly increased, it does not have the description of flesh and bone separation, except for just a general sentence: “today, I cut my belly to give back my intestines and bones to my parents”. It can be seen that the story in The Legend of Deification is another system, which was later than Journey to the West.” The story of Nezha in The Legend of Deification is more vivid and complete than that in Journey to the West, which is additional proof of works by the later generations were upgraded. This might be a rather simple statement. The two books have both the evidence that Journey to the West is earlier than The Legend of Deification, and the evidence of its opposite. The story of Nezha in The Legend of Deification is the improvement and further development of the same story in Journey to the West. Later, the image of Nezha was divided into Nezha and Red Boy, which is just in Journey to the West but not found in The Legend of Deification. In ancient China, the early novels were accumulated by unknown storytellers from generation to generation, and they were mostly written into books by literati who were not highly educated. The Stories of the Three Kingdoms in the Zhizhi reign of the Yuan Dynasty (1321–1323) could be the intermediate product of the gradual evolution from speaking performance to reading materials. Many homophonic words are traces left by the the so called speaking-listening art, which can be found in all books, and their illustrations show that story telling began to circulate as reading materials at that time. Most of the adapters of these novels were not necessarily educated and their knowledge about books were inadequate, causing some failures from time to time. However, they still made outstanding contributions to the development of ancient Chinese novels with their writing skills. If we consider that the early novels of ancient China are all collective creation of generational accumulation types, with the natural mutual influence and permeation in the process of circulating when we evaluate the art of traditional novels, we should see their unique characteristics: they attract readers with the coherence and vividness of the plot, rather than twists and turns, and even if it’s strange and tortuous, it’s done in a natural way. The time span for what is described maybe decades or even more than a hundred years. They seldom talk like later generations when long narrations were made during the time when the character can walk from upstairs to downstairs. They have few lengthy psychological descriptions, because of the innate influence of the speaking-listening art, there are no descriptions like the London fog in Dickens’s Bleak House or the description of Edens wasteland in Hardy’s Returning Home. In a word, the description of early Chinese novels is often as simple as narration. Modern literary theories tend to promote description and belittle narration. In fact, instead of being unrelated, these two are rather closely related. There could be narration in the description, or description in narration. Both of them may have various artistic achievements. It is difficult to draw a fair conclusion by comparing vivid description

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with tedious narration or mediocre description with fascinating narration. The potential of both narration and description is infinite. We can’t say that there have been works or writers in the world that have reached the limit of narration or description of art. This limit does not exist. When the early novels appeared in ancient China, there was no standardized compulsary Chinese. It was difficult to cast a pure literary language from half ancient and half vernacular language. In addition, the adapters and writers lacked the necessary cultivation. It was easy to find the rough and wrong expressions from the novels, but it was difficult to find their merits. On the whole, it left a memorable impression on the readers. The charm of early Chinese novels deserves further exploration. If we fully consider that the early novels of ancient China are all collective creations of the generational accumulation type, with the natural mutual influence and permeation in the process of circulating when we evaluate the art of traditional novels, it may be difficult to justify the various explorations of the main idea of the novels. The speaker may not know or be interested in the topic or a certain doctrine. Even if the earliest or a certain adaptation writer had such intentions, it is difficult for the later adaptation writers to maintain it without deviations in subsequent intentional or unintentional changes. It’s like a variety of forces pushing an object forward. Its speed and direction do not depend on a certain component, but on the combined force of various components. Some of the components may be mostly offset, some may be basically turned, and the direction and speed of the final combined force may be different from the original direction and speed of each component, and they play a more or less respective role. This is exactly the formation of complex thought of the early Chinese novels.

3.2 Luo Guanzhong and the Adaptation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and in the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Luo Guanzhong, a master of long chapter novels, appeared in the history of Chinese novels. He adapted the stories of Three Kingdoms and the water margin that had a long history of evolution into full length chapter novels of Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the earliest novel using chapters in China. Since Chen Shou (233–297) wrote the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms in the Jin Dynasty, which was annotated by Pei Songzhi (372–451) in the Southern Dynasty, the themes of the Three Kingdoms gradually went from the official history to the legend (including the folk oral legends and the unofficial historical notes of the literati), and then into the collective creation process of generations mainly by speaking artists, and further adapted and written by Luo Guanzhong as the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. After that, it was revised by folk artists, and finally improved by Mao Zonggang and his son on the basis of the Ming edition, which

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became the recognized final version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The writing process of the Three Kingdoms story provides the longest, most typical and most complete example for the evolution and development of the collective creation novel style. The situation for the completion of Water Margin is different from that of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is far from any historical facts, so it should be more of a literary creation based on artistic fiction rather than a historical novel. As oral literature, the story of the water margin was formed during the Yuan Dynasty. As can be seen from Ode to the 36 Heroes, the Forepassed Incidents in Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty and the Zaju of the water margin in the Yuan Dynasty, a complete set of Water Margin stories close to the later Water Margin has been formed in the oral part by the speakers in the Yuan Dynasty, but some of its important plots have not been finalized. Based on the story books handed down from generation to generation, the novel Water Margin was adapted and written by Luo Guanzhong at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty. At least ten years before Jiajing, this book had begun to spread, and aroused great interest of scholars. There had been a time when various versions competed to publish and distribute. The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms had been created by the collective by generations, and was finally adapted and written by Luo Guanzhong. Its signature has been recognized. However, the problem for Water Margin is not so simple. There are two types of signatures used: one is Shi Nai’an, the other is Luo Guanzhong and Shi Nai’an. So who is the author of the adaptation? The earlier records are as follows: First of all, Lang Ying’s Seven Categories of Classic Works, Vol. 23rd: “The Three Kingdoms and Song Jiang are two books compiled by Luo Guanzhong, a Hangzhou native. There must be an old version of the book, so it’s called compiling. It is also said in Song Jiang: “the origin of it is by Shi Nai’an from Qiantang.” Second, Gao Ru’s Annals of A Hundred Rivers, Vol. 6th: “100-volume Loyal Water Margin. Original version is from Shi Nai’an from Qiantang, adapted by Luo Guanzhong.” Third, Tian Rucheng’s On West Lake Tour: “Luo Guanzhong of Qiantang, who was born in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote dozens of novels, and Water Margin is about Song Jiang.” Fourth, Narration of Water Margin by the Foreign Minister of the Capital said, “it’s said that in the early days of Hong Wu, the Yue people named Luo, who was witty wrote this 100-chapter book.” Although the above items are different, their contents are basically the same. According to The Epitaph of Shi Nai’an in Sequel Annals of Xinghua County written by Wang Daosheng of Huai’an in the Ming Dynasty, Shi Nai’an (1296– 1370) was from Shi’s Bridge, Baiju Town, Xinghua County, Jiangsu Province. It also records: (Shi Nai’an) became Jinshi in 1331. He was once an official in Qiantang (now Hangzhou) for two years. Not getting along with the people in power, he abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown. He wrote behind closed doors His works include Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Three Battles in

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Sweeping Demons and Robin Hood Heroes, namely, Water Margin. For each draft, it must be proofread by the scholars for embellishment, in which Luo Guanzhong offered the best help.

The above text itself has a lot of doubts, which is unbelievable. For example, Zi’an, the author of Water Margin, has the style name of Nai’an. People with a little bit of common sense in the traditional culture would know that Nai’an, which means temple, can only be a pseudonym, not a style name. According to the traditional custom, there is a difference between the two. It is also said that he was a Jinshi in 1331. Checking the History of the Yuan Dynasty, there was no exam for Jinshi in that year. It can be seen that the author of the epitaph did not even know the name of the tomb owner and the time when he became a Jinshi. Obviously, it is a fake article which was produced only after Shi Nai’an was known as the author of Water Margin. Although the records about Luo Guanzhong are also deemed different, the biography in the manuscript of Sequel to Records of Ghosts collected by Tianyi Pavilion are quite credible from all aspects. They are cited as follows: Luo Guanzhong, born in Taiyuan, has the pseudonym of Leisure Man of Lake and Ocean. He was unsociable. He has the style of Yuefu in conversing, with witty and fresh remarks. We had the friendship between generations. Lots of changes took place and we were apart from each other. We met in Zheng Jiachen 24th year (1364). It’s been more than 60 years since our last meeting, and I even have no idea of his whereabouts now.

According to the existing historical data, the birth and death year of Luo Guanzhong is unknown. His Zaju include Stormy Era (preserved), Fei Huzi (lost), and The Serial Remonstrances (lost). In addition to the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he is said to be the adaptor for the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Three Battles in Sweeping Demons, and the Romance of the Five Dynasties of the Remnant Tang Dynasty, but they were revised many times later. He being the adaptor for Water Margin is proved by the following reasons: 1.

2.

According to the preface of Sequel, Jia Zhongming was 80 years old in 1422, Yongle 20th year during the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, and his was born in 1343. He and Luo Guanzhong had a friendship between generations, with the age difference of about 20 years. According to this, Luo Guanzhong was born in around 1323 and nearly 50 years old at the demise of the Yuan Dynasty. This coincides with the following argument that Water Margin was written at the end of the Yuan Dynasty or at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. According to Sequel to Records of Ghosts, comments from Lang Ying, Gao Ru and the inscription of Water Margin, Luo Guanzhong should be a native of Taiyuan (or East Yuan) and lived in Hangzhou. This is the general knowledge among the scholars of the Book Society in the Yuan Dynasty according to the Records of Ghosts. For example, Ma Zhiyuan, Zhang Shouqing, Dai Shanfu, Gong Dayong, Zheng Dehui, Zeng Ruiqing, Qiao Ji were all northerners who traveled south to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Among them, Zheng Dehui and Qiao Ji all ended up in Hangzhou. According to the Water Margin itself, it uses the northern language, which must have been written by a northerner.

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3.

A.

B.

C.

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Judging from the geographical situation mentioned in the book, there are many mistakes, even the general orientation is ignored. For example, Jiangzhou (today’s Jiujiang in Jiangxi) and Wuwei Army (today’s Wuwei in Anhui) are four or five hundred li away, but the novel put them in two places only separated by the Yangtze River, and the Wuwei Army can be seen in Jiangzhou city; Wang Qing was occupying the west of Huaihe River by taking eight military states in Nanfeng (today’s Nanfeng in Jiangxi), Jingnan (today’s Jiangling in the north of the lake), Shannan (today’s Xiangyang in Hubei), Yun’an (today’s Yun’an in Sichuan), Ande (today’s Deping in Shandong), Dongchuan (today’s Dongchuan in Yunnan), Wanzhou (Nanyang, Henan) and Xijing (Luoyang, Henan), which are all far away from Huaixi. However, the names of villages and streets in Zhejiang Province, especially those in Hangzhou, written in the battle of Fang La, are Golden Gate, Xiling (Ling) Bridge, Baochu Pagoda, Jingci Harbour, West Creek, West Hill, Dragon Flying Palace, Five Clouds Mountain, and even remote villages such as Ancient Pool and Fan Village, all the directions and mileage are correct. In a word, from the perspective of the literary language and geographical situation of the novel itself, only those who are from the north and have lived in Hangzhou for a long time can be the writers of its adaptation. Only Luo Guanzhong meets these two indispensable conditions. Some people have compared Water Margin with Luo Guanzhong’s extant Zaju The Stormy Era of Emperor Taizu in the Song Dynasty, and thought that their writing styles are not the same. To find the similarity between the verse in the opera and the vernacular in the novel is obviously too harsh. With careful examination, the similarities can still be discovered by the following: The description of Emperor Taizu in the Song Dynasty in Zaju is the same as that of Liu Bei’s benevolence in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the opposition against treacherous officials, abusive officials, corrupted officials, the bullies, and the loyalty to the emperor in Water Margin can be seen. According to history records, Zhao Kuangyin, Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty, was a warlord before the Chen Qiao mutiny. However, the Zaju said that he and Zhao Pu, Cao Bin, Zheng En, Chu Zhaofu “had close relations and became brothers, as in the brotherhood between the ancient Guan and Zhang”. This relationship between Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Pu and others is characterized as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The same is true for Snow Night Visit to Pu and Three Visits to the Cottage. A leading line in Zaju goes: “when is the end of the morning Liang and evening Jin Dynasty?” Miao Xun said in Episode 1: “The Lord is the leader of the eight emperors of the nine dynasties, and he was the founder of the 400 years.” The introduction of the novel goes: “At that time, the morning time belonged to Liang, and the evening belonged to Jin. The country was called the Great Song Dynasty, and its capital was Bianliang. The leader of nine dynasties, eight emperors and the founding emperor of four hundred years.” The similarity between the two is obvious.

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Of course, if the writer is determined only from the similarities between Water Margin and Stormy Era, it would be far fetched, but at least it can be proved that it would be too arbitrary to deny they come from the same writer Luo Guanzhong because of the difference between the two styles.

3.3 The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Unfold the Heroic Scrolls of History 1.

The Evolution and Circulating of Stories and Storytelling of Three Kingdoms

Starting from official history, stories of Three Kingdoms spread very early, but the novel was finished much later. From poems about people and historic spots of Three Kingdoms period collected in The Complete Poetry Collection of the Tang Dynasty, poems in the early Tang Dynasty, the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the middle Tang Dynasty are based on official history. The two lines “Firing up the sky and ocean, General Yu conquered Lord Cao as the completion” from Li Bai’s poem Red Cliff Songs of Departure described the facts that are consistent with its official history. Zhou Yu was the major general who defeated Cao Cao. His military exploits weren’t eclipsed by Zhuge Liang’s glamour. There are two lines “the descendant of the heroic lord, a commoner living a life of self deprivation” in Du Fu’s famous poem A Song of a Painting to General Cao Ba. Although his poems like The Temple of the Premier of Shu and The Eight-sided Fortress expressed his respect for Zhuge Liang, respecting Liu Bei did not necessarily connect with disparaging Cao Cao. It was not until the late Tang Dynasty that the poems showed the sign of changing into fiction from history, such as lines in Red Cliff of Du Mu (803–853) “No wind aiding General Zhou Yu in returning, both Qiao girls are behind the copper bird lock in spring.” Judging from the former line, we can see the chief of the Battle of the Red Cliffs was Zhou Yu, and there is no fictional description of Zhuge Liang winning the battle with the help of the wind. Judging from the latter line, it departs from the historical accounts and is closer to later novels. According to Annals of the Three Kingdoms. State of Wei, Vol. 1st, The Battle of Red Cliffs took place in Jian’an 10th year (205) during Emperor Xian’s reign in the East Han period while the Copper Bird Palace was built in Jian’an 15th year (210), which means the chronological order of historical data and literary work is just the opposite. Either Du Mu’s lines were affected by the legends about the Three Kingdoms at that time, or later novels were inspired by his lines. The line “Yide’s soul avenges for the lord” in the poem starting with “a boat cruising ten thousand miles” entitled with No Title by Li Shangyin (813–858) is the same as one of the major chapter titles of Guanyu and Zhangfei Go Together to Western Shu in a Dream, a Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty by Guan Hanqingin. It is also found in Illustrated Storytelling Scripts for Guansuo’s Demotion to Yunnan, one of the four Chenghua versions of Illustrated Storytelling Scripts for Biography of Hua Guansuo, but it was not used by Stories of the Three Kingdoms and Romance of the Three Kingdoms,

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which shows that different plays competed and co-existed. Almost at the same time, there was a poem My Beloved Child by Li Shangyin, “Teasing the beard of Zhang Fei, laughing at the stutter of Zheng Ai…all of a sudden imitating the performance of the Canjun role and the sound of the Canghu role.” The cute performance and action of his son after hearing the stories are vividly described. It can be seen that the storytelling art of the Three Kingdoms reached a high level in the Tang Dynasty. Stories of three kingdoms further prevailed in the Song Dynasty. For example, Shadow Play from Origins of Objects, Vol. 9th by Gao Cheng said “In Emperor Renzong’s reign in the Song Dynasty, if some city folks can tell stories about three kingdoms or use the materials of them, they could make figures with decorations, to set up the background for the tripartite division war among the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu.” Biography of Fan Chunli from The History of the Song Dynasty, Vol. 314th recorded “A villager went to the theater. He saw a craftsman making a bucket. He put it on his head and asked ‘Do I look like Liu Bei?’” What should be pointed out is that it was quiet a slow process for three kingdoms stories to evolve from historical accounts to a novel. Su Shi, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote in Nian Nujiao. Remembering Red Cliff: “I dream of Marshal Zhou Yu in his day. With his bride Qiao, he was dashing and debonair. Silk-capped, with feather fan. He laughed and jested, while the dreaded enemy fled like ashes burned !” It deserves attention that “silk-capped, with feather fan”, which describes Zhu Yu in the poem, turned out to be used by Zhuge Liang in the later Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In Tile Skills of the Capital in volume 5 of East Capital Dreams Recorded inscribed in the preface by Meng Yuanlao on the new year’s eve of Shaoxing 17th year (1148) during Emperor Gaozong’s reign of the Southern Song Dynasty, it is recorded that “Huo Siju’s talking of Tripartite Division”. It can be seen that the Three Kingdoms as the theme of storytelling was already at a high level. From Shi Junbao’s “Romance of Purple Cloud Pavilion in All Temples”, the first song of the female singer goes: “I am going to sing about the Three Kingdoms, first starting with ten songs”. It’s not hard to see the prevalence of the storytelling art on Three Kingdoms. Illustrated Stories of the Three Kingdoms was published during the Zhizhi period (Yingzong year, 1321–1323) in the Yuan Dynasty. It is inscribed in the book “Jian’an (now Fujian Jian’ou) Yu’s new edition,” in the lower right corner of the first illustration, it is inscribed “Ancient Woodcutter Wu Junfu edition”. In the other three story versions, it is inscribed “Qiao Chuan (now Fujian Shaowu) Wu Junfu edition”. It is possible that Wu’s plate later belonged to Yu’s in the neighbouring count? Yu’s cover was added to it, which is known as “new edition”, which can be proved by the differences in the quality between the cover and the body of Stories of the Three Kingdoms. Wu’s original edition was the earliest surviving version of the Three Kingdoms before the Zhizhi period. Stories of the Three Kingdoms in Zhizhi version may be the product of the gradual evolution of the storytellers’ speech to the reading materials at that time. In particular, the homophonic and misspelled words are the traces left by the art of speaking, and their illustrations show that they have been circulating as a book.

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In fact, after Stories of the Three Kingdoms, there was an Overview of Tripartite Division with the inscription of “Zhaoyuan new edition” at the beginning and end of the volume, which is a poor imitation of the former. Researchers have noticed that the two books are the same in aspects of cover, illustration, the number of lines on each page of the text and the number of words in each line, especially the same homophonic and misspelled words, which is enough to show that the two books are using the same edition system, and one book copied another book. Individual differences in writing, such as Sima Yi’s “Yi” character is written as “壹” in Stories of the Three Kingdoms, but “一” in Overview of Tripartite Division, are not enough to change the above facts. The researchers also noticed that there are eight pages (one side) missing from Overview of Tripartite Division, which are between the last second to the fourth pages of each volume, and the words before and after the missing pages are not connected. The lack of pages of thread bound books often occurs, but the situation of Overview of Tripartite Division is different. Stories of the Three Kingdoms has “23” marked at the end of the first volume, indicating that the first volume is composed of 23 sections; Overview of Tripartite Division changed the mark into “20” at the end of the volume after deleting three sections. It can be seen that this is not a general case of missing pages due to negligence, but a case of deliberately cutting corners, without even slightly remedying the incoherent situation, since the front and back are not connected after abridgment, just as its plate and handwriting are extremely poor and almost illegible. The contrast between the rough manufacture of the text (including illustrations) and the relative fineness of the cover (the difference between the two is much greater than Stories of the Three Kingdoms), which is also a common and and awkward way to attract customers with fake and inferior products. There are two explanations for “Zhaoyuan new edition”: if “Yuan元” refers to the Yuan Dynasty, it means that it is a Ming Dynasty edition; if “Yuan” is connected with “原”, it means that it is reprinted according to the original edition. Both of the above statements indicate that the Overview of Tripartite Division was published after the Stories of the Three Kingdoms. Stories of the Three Kingdoms is divided into three volumes 23 sections are marked at the end of the first volume, while the other two volumes are not, but the number is similar. The titles of each section can be seen in illustrations, such as “Han Emperor Enjoys the Spring” and “Heaven Appoints Minister Zhong as the Head of the Underworld”. Some concave scripts are inserted into the main text, such as “Three Battles against Lv Bu” and “Zhang Fei’s Fighting Alone against Lv Bu”. Sometimes the titles in the illustrations are not consistent with those in the concave scripts, For example, the icon for the illustration is “Underwater Capture of Lu Bu”, but the concave scripts are respectively “Hou Cheng’s Horse Stealing” and “Zhang Fei’s Capture of Lu Bu”; again the icon of “The Star General’s Falling into Kongming’s Camp” has the concave scripts of “The West Autumn Wind Blows 50 Feet Plain”. It can be seen that it was not completely finalized at that time. The book begins with Han Emperor Enjoys the Spring and ends with The Death of Zhuge Liang. Stories take the formation of the Three Kingdoms as the consequence for Han Xin, Peng Yue and Yingbu, the three heroes’ being killed innocently in the

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Western Han Dynasty, “among the three the world is divided, for his wrong killing Gaozu is avenged.” The most prominent tendency of Stories is to respect Liu and demote Cao. Liu Yuan was the monarch of Xiongnu nationality and had no blood relationship with Liu Bang and Liu Bei. Stories described him as the grandson of the Shu State of the Han Dynasty. It not only reveals the adaptor’s lack of education, but also the tendency of respecting Liu and demoting Cao is ridiculous. Chapter 43 in the story of Zhuge Liang’s Lecturefield in Mao’s version has not been formed in Stories. Stories uses the method in Historical Records. Biography of Qing Bu, in which Xiao He forces Qing Bu to kill the emissary of Chu State and join the Han, and produces the Episode of “Kong Ming killed the emissary of Cao” to force Sun Quan to launch the battle. It has its own merits in art, but not as wonderful as Lecturefield. In Stories, it is Zhou Yu’s business in Borrowing the Arrows from Straw Boats, which has nothing to do with Zhuge Liang. In the battle of Red Cliff, Zhou Yu’s achievements gradually shifted to Zhuge Liang. This trend emerged in the Zaju in the Jin-Yuan period, which coincided with Stories of the Three Kingdoms. In Episode 4 of The Vendor by the unanimous, Zhang Sangu has the line: “when the fire burned the Wei Emperor in the west, General Zhou was fighting bitterly with all his might. No need to wield the long swords, the heroic power overwhelmed millions of opponents. Just at the moment Zhuge Liang lit the fire on the Yangtze River, burning Cao’s army of 830,000.” But in Battle of Wits across the River by the unanimous, Zhou Yu’s talk in Episode 1 is: “Later, Zhuge Liang borrowed troops from across the river, and my Lord helped him (Liu Bei) with 30,000 sailors, appointing someone as the Marshal and Huang Gai as the Pioneer. At Xiakou and Sanjiang, Cao’s soldiers of 830,000 were burned with one massive fire, nothing was left.” Zaju and the storytelling both followed the process from historical facts to fiction, though the progress was slightly uneven. Liu, Guan and Zhang, who are described in the Stories of the Three Kingdoms, established their status by suppressing the Yellow Turban Uprising. This is the historical fact which made it difficult for the Stories to change. However, their descriptions and depictions are based on the heroes of the water margin, or more correctly, it is a clear proof that the legends of the Three Kingdoms and the water margin have infiltrated and communicated with each other in the long-term circulating process. Liu Bei recruited the rebel army without permission; Guan Yu killed the county magistrate and fled; Zhang Fei beat a cavalry officer, whipped the post officer, occupied the ancient city, crowned himself as the king of no name, built Huang Zhong palace, and established his year as “Joy”—these are all acts of “bandits”, which are similar to heroes of the water margin. Zhang Fei crossed the wall and killed more than 20 people, such as the eunuch, his wife, bowman, and so on, a vivid demonstration of Inspector Zhang’s Blood Splashed Mandarin Duck Building in Chapter 31 of Water Margin, but it was before the improvement. Zhang Fei whipped the post officer to deposit grass on Taishan Mountain, and later said it was Taihang Mountain. Obviously, it was written in the Yuan collection of Anecdotes in Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty, in which 20 people, including Chao Gai, “went to Liangluo (water) in Taihang mountain to be aggressors”, all with traces of the rise of the rebel forces in

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the Taihang Mountain Area in the Southern Song Dynasty. The three sworn brothers in a peach orchard is the forerunner of the gathering of thirty-six people in water margin. Song Jiang got the book of heaven in the Temple of Ninth Heaven Fairy, and the teacher of Zhang Jiao, the leader of the Yellow Turban Uprising, Sun Xueqiu, got the book of heaven in the Stories of the Three Kingdoms. The contents of the book of heaven are different. It is noteworthy that when the Stories of the Three Kingdoms was improved in Luo Guanzhong’s hands later, the influence of Water Margin became less. Only Zhang Fei and his social status allowed him to retain some of Li Kui’s characteristics. In Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, the shadow cast by Song Jiang and Wu Yong is less. 2.

Jiajing edition and Mao’s edition

As late as Jiajing, the story of the Three Kingdoms was adapted and written by Luo Guanzhong on the basis of long-term circulation. His original Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms is an important link in the evolution and improvement process from Stories of the Three Kingdoms, Overview of Tripartite Division to Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The manuscript of Hongzhi 7th year (1494), written by Mediocre Man Jiang Daqi is, in general, Luo Guanzhong’s Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which was engraved in Jiajing 1st year (1522) with the inscription of Beard Shaver (Zhang Shangde) in Central China in the preface, and announced its official completion. After two centuries, the Stories of the Three Kingdoms developed from the 55,000 words in the stories to a novel of about 580,000 words. In the early Qing Dynasty, Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang, the father and son, took Li Zhuowu’s review as the basis, adding (text) more than deleting (poetry) to the review of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which was the closest to its final version, with 700,000 words. The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms is generally called the Jiajing edition because “Jiajing (1522)” is marked in the preface by Beard Shaver, but it can not be the original printing of the Jiajing edition. The original carvings of Jiajing may not have been handed down. In fact, they do not exist. This book consists of 240 sections in 24 volumes, with 10 sections in each volume. Each section is titled with seven words and one sentence. There are obvious traces of this book. As for the two stanzas in a row, the title being changed from a single sentence to a antithesis, and the antithesis becoming more and more neat, that’s what happened later. It is inscribed “Biography of Chen Shou, the Marquis of Pingyang in Jin. Compilation of Later Scholar Luo Guanzhong”. The so-called “completion of the book” in the preface of Jiayin (1494) in Hongzhi 7th year, which was signed by Jiang Daqi of Jinhua, with the pseudonym of Mediocre Man, refers to another processing and adaptation not long ago, which was handed down in manuscript form at that time. In Jiajing 1st year (1522), it is said in the Preface inscribed by Zhang Shangde in Central China with the pseudonym of Beard Shaver: “The guest said …(this book) is vast and very difficult to transcribe. To put it in print to distribute is a good way to let the readers bypass the task of transcribing. Don’t you think so?…I don’t speculate on the original meaning of the author from superficial expressions, but just affix forty rhymes at the beginning of the volume.”

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The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms has been printed (Jiajing edition) since then. According to the inscription, Luo Guanzhong is a key figure in more than one writing and updating, however, there should have been more than one or two talented writers who contributed to the processing and updating of this novel. Both Jiang Daqi and Zhang Shangde may have contributed to its improvement more or less in the process of copying and publishing. They are two of many processors who are lucky enough to keep their names. More people are unknown and it is hard to find out who they are. In the Jiajing edition, “tripartite division” among Han Xin, Peng Yue and Yingbu at the beginning and “Liu Yuan’s restoration of the Han Empire” at the end were deleted from the Stories, which changed the idea that historical development was regarded as, one good turn deserves another. In general, it was written according to the official history and supplemented the missing parts till Wang Jun Takes the Stone City with Wit, Sima Yan, the emperor of Jin, subdued Sun Hao, the Lord of Wu, and unified China, making up 33 sections to complete the book. This showed great progress in the evolution of the story of the Three Kingdoms. This adaptation may have originated from Luo Guanzhong, which is the reason for the inscription “compilation of the late scholar Luo Guanzhong”. After Luo Guanzhong, the book was revised by people in the Book Society, however, the later revisers were not all highly literate people. Those revisions made by artists or finishing publishers that were helpful to the improvement of the work were integrated into the adaptation and writing of collective creation for many generations due to their illegibility. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, Mao Lun and Mao Zonggang, the father and son imitated Jin Shengtan’s comments on Water Margin. According to the Jiajing edition and other versions, the comments were processed into 120 copies which were later referred to as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In fact, this book has been accepted as the final one in its three hundred years of circulation. Mao Zonggang (about 1632–1709 or later), style name Xushi and pseudonym Lonely Temple, was born in Changzhou (today’s Suzhou). His father Mao Lun (about 1610– ?) had the style name of Deyin and pseudonym Sound Mountain. The father and son have never had any official positions during their entire lives. Mao Lun was blinded in middle age, and he entrusted his son Zonggang to write for him. He made a review of Pipa, which was published the next year (1666, Kangxi 55th year). Chu Renhuo (16,351?), the editor for Gourd volumes and Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and You Dong (1618–1704), a famous scholar, legend and dramatist, were all friends of Mao Zonggang. There is a preface in the present Romance of the Three Kingdoms with the signature of “inscribed by Jin Shentan in Shunzhi year”, which is a plagiarized version of the preface written by Li Yu for Mao in 1679, Kangxi 18th year. Of the 1035 words in the main body of the preface, 910 words were plagiarized from Li Yu.1 1

According to the above textual research of Chen Xianghua, see The Life of Mao Zonggang and the Preface of Jin Shengtan in Mao’s Comments on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Documents, 1989 (3).

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms deliberately imitates Jin Shengtan’s comments on Water Margin, with the Analysis on the Three Kingdoms, Ordinary Cases at the beginning of the volume and the review before each chapter following the pattern of Jin Shengtan. It has the same method as Jin Shengtan’s by using the invented ancient books to cut the basis of Water Margin. If we are skeptical about Jin Shengtan’s intention of cutting, we can still see it improves the artistic skills of Water Margin. However, Mao’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms has all the advantages without any disadvantages, which can be regarded as a better work. As the review and criticism of Mao’s edition Romance of the Three Kingdoms deliberately imitated Jin Shengtan, it was later entitled the Unofficial Book of Shengtan and The Book of No. 1 Talent. It seems that these changes and the modification of Li Yu’s preface did not come from Mao himself. The original manuscript of Romance of the Three Kingdoms of the Mao’s edition with Li Yu’s preface at the beginning of the volume may have been lost, and the existing manuscript of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms of Mao’s edition, like all the other editions, is distorted in the process of reproduction. The most obvious evidence is what is written in the second item of Ordinary Cases: “there are many errors in the records of common versions, such as Shao Lie’s dropping the spoon upon the thunder, the murder of Ma Teng in Beijing, Guan Gong’s being conferred the title of Shou Ting of Han, which are inconsistent with the ancient books.” Actually Hanshou is a place name, and Shou Ting is a marquis title. Guan Gong was granted Shou Ting in Hanshou, which is correct and is to be found in Chapter 26 in Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Mao.2 All of them mistook it as Shou Ting Hou (Marquis), and the word “Han” was misinterpreted as Han Dynasty. It can be seen that the word “Han” mentioned in the second item of Ordinary Cases is redundant. If there is the word “Han”, it can not be “inconsistent with the ancient book”. There are two other examples in the same item of Ordinary Cases. They are all examples of Mao’s artistic processing of the Jiajing edition, that is, mostly out of the old editions. On Heroes with Plum Brewing Wine in the Jiajing edition, Vol. 5th: “Cao pointed to Xuande first, and then to himself, saying, ‘The world today belongs to you and me.’ Before he had finished, Xuande’s spoon fell to the ground. Just at the moment, there came the thunders before the heavy rain. Upon seeing this, Cao asked why he dropped the spoon. Xuande replied, ‘The sage said that the thunder and the storm will bring about changes, it is due to the power of shock…’.” Chapter 21 in Mao’s edition: “Cao pointed to Xuande, and then to himself, ‘today’s heroes are only you and me.’ Xuande was shocked by the words, and the spoon in his hand fell to the ground. It was just in time for the rain and thunder. Xuande calmly bent over and picked up the spoon, ‘it is due to the power of shock….’.” Mao commented: “Two heroes can not coexist, but they can take advantage of each other. Cao’s taking Bei as a hero is to take advantage of him and in turn knows that Bei is of the same thinking. Bei conspired with Dong Cheng and how couldn’t he be shocked 2

At the end of the volume of Jiajing edition and Zheng’s edition engraved by Lianhui Hall, it was signed “by Zheng Shaoyuan of Min Jian Book Forest in Wanli 33rd year (1605).”

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upon hearing this? Thunder is an excuse, rather than the real reason, for the dropping of the spoon. If the spoon dropping was on purpose and thunder was used to cover it, it would be no more than a child’s trick. How could it be used to deceive Cao Cao? There are many errors in the original, so they should be corrected according to the original.” Zhangfei Recommended Feng Chu in Leiyang in the Jiajing edition, Vol. 12th wrote that Ma Teng and Huang Kui were loyal to Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and had a secret discussion about killing Cao Cao when he was reviewing the troops of Guanxi. However, Huang Kui’s concubine who was having an affair, revealed the plot: When Guanxi Army arrived at Xutian, Ma Teng and Huang Kui asked Cao to review troops and entered into the Minister’s Mansion. Cao ordered Ma Teng be arrested...had both families of Ma Teng and Huang Kui, totaling over 100 members, beheaded in downtown.

Chapter 57 of Mao’s edition reads as follows: The next day, Ma Teng led the Xiliang army to the city. He saw a cluster of red flags in front of him, under the banner of Prime Minister. Ma Teng thought it was Cao Cao who came over for the army review and beat his horse forward. Suddenly he heard a gunshot, the red flag was flown, and then came the arrows that were shot at him. Cao Hong took the lead. When Ma Teng hurriedly turned back the horse, two shouts came back, with Xu Xuan on the left, Xia Houyuan on the right, and Xu Huang from the back cutting off the Xiliang troops and trapped Ma Teng and his two sons in the heart. Ma Teng saw that they were stuck and he fought hard to break out. Ma Tie, the son of Ma Teng, had been shot dead by random arrows. Ma Xiu rushed left and right with Ma Teng but failed to get out. They were seriously injured and their horses were shot from under them by arrows. Both father and son (Ma Teng and Ma Xiu) were held...and killed.

Of the above two paragraphs, the former is based on Huayang Annals, the introduction to Annals of the Three Kingdoms. State of Shu, Vol. 2nd, while the latter is based on the introduction of Historical Survey annotated by Pei from volume 6th of the same book. Compared with the Jiajing edition, Mao’s edition tends to stray away from the original text of the ancient books to have more fictional parts, from simplicity to complexity, the art level had improved, which was recognized as the main basis for the final edition. Ma Teng’s passage is not so wonderful. Maybe it is more suitable to be regarded as a representative example from simplicity to complexity. Liu Bei’s spoon dropping passage is not a case of distorted description, nor historical fact, but a more detailed and accurate description of psychology and of the Episodes, which is another example of Mao Ben’s improvement of artistry. The battle of Red Cliff is a wonderful chapter of the novel, representing the artistic achievements of the Jiajing edition. Stories such as lecturefield, borrowing arrows from straw boats, borrowing the east wind are all the great enhancements of Zhuge Liang’s image. Zhou Yu did not lose the demeanor of a famous general, such as his plan of Huang Gai’s feigning surrender and the trap set to Jiang Gan, which were all the necessary strategies for the downfall of Cao Cao. The fictional plot as three enragements of Zhou Yu strikingly describes his narrow-minded and jealous personality. Zhou Yu is resourceful, while Zhuge Liang is superior in wisdom. Both of them impress the readers deeply. This is a great achievement. Based on this, Mao’s

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edition has further improvements and made more reasonable changes. Chapters 43– 50 in Mao’s edition is equivalent to the corresponding chapters of Jiajing’s volumes 9–10. In this range, there are three Fu poems and eighteen poems (songs) in Jiajings edition, Mao’s edition deleted one Fu poem and eight poems (sentences omitted in one poem are not included) in Mao’s edition. It is a general rule in Mao’s revising to cut unnecessary poems. Within this scope, it corrected the descriptions harming the characters in the Jiajing edition. For example, in Zhuge Liang’s Sacrifice for Wind in the Seven Star Altar in volume 10 of Jiajings edition, after Kongming borrowed the east wind, he was taken back by Zhao Yun by express ship. Zhou Yu’s plot to murder Kongming failed. “Zhou Yu was shocked and said: This man makes me sleepless. In this situation, we’d better make peace with Cao Cao, we should capture Liu Bei and Zhu Geliang first to avoid future troubles.” The novel convincingly presents the secret thrilling and life-threatening struggles between Wu and Shu, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, under the common plan of uniting against Cao. One of the reasons is that the battle of Red Cliff is fascinating. Zhou Yu’s words negated Sun Quan’s personal plan to fight against Cao, exceeded his authority, and differed from Zhou Yu as one of the protagonists in the fight against Cao, which was an obvious failure. Chapter 49 in Mao’s edition changed it into: “Zhou Yu was shocked and said, ‘this man has so many tricks that he makes me sleepless at night.’ Lu Su said, ‘let’s wait and deal with him until we wipe out Cao.’ Yu agreed.” This is just enough. This kind of big change only happens once in the eight chapters of Mao’s edition. In the same scope, Mao corrected two obvious mistakes: (1) Zhuge Liang’s Lecturefield in volume 9 of Jiajing edition: “Just as Yang Xiong of the Han Dynasty who was named the number one scholar with his articles”. In the Han Dynasty, there was no imperial examination system of later generations, which was an obvious common sense mistake. Chapter 43 in Mao’s edition changed it into: “Just as Yang Xiong known by the world for his articles.” (2) Zhuge Liang’s Witty Speech to Zhou Yu in volume 9 of Jiajing edition, “Cao ordered his son to make a Fu poem, which is called On Copper Bird Palace.” The meaning of the Fu poem is that his family is of royal background and he vows to marry the two Qiao girls. This is Zhuge Liang’s intention to change the sentence in the Fu to incite Zhou Yu’s hostility to Cao Cao, but when he recited it face to face, it was the original text without any changes. Chapter 44 in Mao’s edition changed the original sentence “take two Qiaos to the southeast, just like a dragon in the sky” (this is different from Cao Zhi’s original work), into “take two Qiao to the southeast, and be happy for the whole day and night.” At the beginning of the volume, Mao]s edition added a [Linjiang immortal] Ci poem from the third paragraph of “Talking about Qin and Han Dynasties” in Yang Shen’s “Fiddle Ballads of 21 Dynasties”. The first chapter began with “Talking about the general situation of the world, the long-term division must be combined, and the long-term combination must be separated”. The ancient poem in the Jiajing edition concludes that “tripartite division has become a dream, and the unification of the world belongs to the Jin Dynasty”. Mao’s edition changed the last sentence into “later generations whine in vain”, sad and sorrowful, as if it was the feeling toward

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the new dynasty. Many comments have reiterated the orthodoxy of the Compendium for Comprehensive Mirror, which indicates they may be related to each other. Mao’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms and its later editors did the revision on the basis of the Ming edition represented by Jiajings edition, namely the colloquial edition. They occasionally revised some large sections, but more often it was the polishing, sorting, improving and upgrading, done little by little. They gradually changed the less ancient words into the more understandable style, or simply rewrite it into vernacular, so that it becomes a recognized edition. If we don’t go back further, this is the general process of completion from the Stories of the Three Kingdoms to Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It has experienced the longest evolution process in the “Four Masterpieces” and all the ancient novels. 3.

On the tendency of respecting Liu and demoting Cao, historicism and the structure of the novels

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms starts from the official history, unfolds a scroll of heroes, and represents the history of a generation from various angles. We can see the experience and lessons in politics, military affairs, governance of the country, employment of people and the conduct of the society, and we can also see the general trend and social situation of the historical development of that time. The connotation of the novel is complex and profound, so it’s difficult to summarize it with one concept nor to define it in one sentence. But as far as its ideology is concerned, the most noticeable one is to respect Liu and demote Cao. This tendency is not formed in one generation, but developed in the long process of collective creation accumulated by generations. The main difference between the Annals of the Three Kingdoms and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms annotated Pei Songzhi, that is, the main difference between historical facts and fiction, lies in the tendency of the latter’s respect for Liu (including Zhuge Liang) and the corresponding demotion of Cao. Stories of the Three Kingdoms has strongly indicated this tendency at the beginning and at the end, but the detailed description of it was generally implemented in the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which came out in the late Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. It should be pointed out that, the historical facts were reorganized according to the viewpoint of respecting Liu and demoting Cao, and continued until the revision of the Mao’s commentary edition in the early Qing Dynasty and the adaptation of Peking Opera in the late Qing Dynasty under the traditional inertia. On the other hand, even in Mao’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the opposite view towards the tendency of demoting Cao has not been completely eliminated. The honoring title for Cao Cao as Cao Gong and the corresponding descriptions still appear from time to time. Zhang Xuecheng (1738–1801), a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, believed that the novel was “70 percent fact and 30 percent fiction” (Extra Edition of Zhang’s Memorial Notes of 1796), which also shows that the tendency of respecting Liu and demoting Cao was not finally implemented into the whole description of the novel. Respect for Liu must be accompanied with the respect for Zhuge Liang and the respect for Guan and Zhang. Guan Yu and Cao Cao are the only two characters in the whole novel who

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are honored with the title “Gong”. The latter comes from the official history and the former from the novel. From some records of the Song Dynasty, we can see that the tendency of respecting Liu and demoting Cao in the stories of the Three Kingdoms has aroused strong resonance among the people. In Volume 6 of Notes of Dongpo: Wang Pengchang said, a child in town is naughty, the family was bothered and gave him some money to listen to some storytelling. It was the story about the Three Kingdoms. When it came to Liu Xuande’s defeat, some people in the audience frowned frequently and cried; when it came to Cao Cao’s defeat, they changed becoming happy and started singing. It is a way to tell a good man from a villain, a test never fails. Guiding Notes by Zhang Lei: A young man from a rich family in the capital… is fond of watching shadow play, crying whenever it comes to the Episode when Guan Yu was beheaded. In fact, the tendency of respecting Liu and demoting Cao in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms can be traced back to teeth-chiseling Spring and Autumn Period of Han-Jin and On Historical Documents. Exploration of Mysteries by Liu Zhiji in the Tang Dynasty. Later, Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty emphasized the orthodoxy in his book Compendium for Comprehensive Mirror for Aid Government and he expressed it clearly in Ordinary Cases: “Usurping a country or a land, as in the States of Wei and Wu in the Han Dynasty.” In Zhizheng 2nd year (1342) in the Yuan Dynasty, the right Prime Minister Tuotuo was ordered to compile the Three Histories of Song, Liao and Jin which were successively completed in Zhizheng 5th year. Yang Weizhen (1296–1370) actually reported to the throne in his Orthodox Discrimination, denouncing the Three Histories: “The first example in Spring and Autumn was not heard, and the grand section of the Compendium was not mentioned.” He said: “The antecedent scholar (Zhu Xi) deemed it as integrity for the rulers not to seize the power of Liu Shu for his bad luck and the inferior location of his land upon the unification after the Han Dynasty, so did the righteousness in Spring and Autumn. In his book (referring to Chen Shou) of Three Kingdoms, there are those who surrender to Zhao Lie while befriending the States of Wu and Wei, making Han’s successor the righteous, but referring to them in private as the Han bandits. They are the sinner of Spring and Autumn” (Introduction in Collection of Dong Weizi). The orthodox thought flourished under the specific historical conditions of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. It was not simply out of individual prejudice against Cao Cao, for the formation of the ideological tendency that would not be determined by any individual. Orthodoxy has always had a strong patriarchal color, which does not deserve affirmation under normal circumstances. However, in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, many people compared Shu, Wei and Wu to the confrontations of the Song, Liao and Jin, and have their worries about the national situation (before the demise of the Song Dynasty) or the thoughts of their homeland (after the Song Dynasty). It makes sense to eliminate the patriarchal clan system and the narrow tendency of Han chauvinism. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms has been circulating for thousands of years, which can not be denied by the simplistic extreme left trend of thought.

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Historical novels are bound to express the concept of history, which is undoubtedly the embodiment of ideological tendencies of novels. It can also be the selection and refinement of historical facts by the author’s consciousness. For the collective creation such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the concept of history is not only influenced by the orthodox concept, but also people’s intuitive sense of historical phenomenon. The historical view of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms shows the typical theory of historical cycle. The famous opening saying in the novel “talking about the general situation of the world, the long-term division must be combined, and the long-term combination must be separated” is a popular generalization of this historical view and historical phenomenon, which is better than the numerous and erudite theories of the great scholars since the Han Dynasty, and it is generally accepted. The artistic structure of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is closely related to the tendency of supporting Liu and opposing Cao and the theory of historical circulation, can be seen from two aspects. Starting with the tendency of supporting Liu and opposing Cao, the novel takes State Shuhan as the central structure. We can see this fact with the simplest addition and subtraction. A novel is composed of 120 chapters with the time span of over a decade. The story begins with a few words to explain the decline of Han, immediately followed by the friendship among Liu, Guan and Zhang. Then Liu Yan, the Chief of the Imperial Guard, recognized Liu Bei as his nephew and sent him to fight against Yellow Turban. Liu Bei was thus involved in the competition. At that time, the three men were just average folks as “a mat hawker” (Liu Bei), “a butcher” (Zhang Fei), “a refugee” (Guan Yu). Although Liu Bei was the descendant of Han family, he still claimed himself to be “nobody”. This arrangement in the first chapter is meaningful. Till Chapter 35, though Liu, Guan and Zhang did not gain much power yet, their heroic images were more often displayed during the competition. From the chapter when Zhuge Liang came to join them in Chapter 39 till Chapter 104 when Zhuge Liang died in 50 Feet Plain, the full length of 67 chapters in the novel, no matter where in the story plot or in the characterization, obviously takes the State of Shuhan as the center and Zhuge Liang as the focus. If we start from Chapter 66 when Xu Shu recommended Zhuge Liang, it should total 70 chapters. There is nothing wonderful in the rest of the 16 chapters after that. Starting from the theory of historicism, the novel takes the cycle of combination, separation and combination as the starting point of the whole book. The first chapter begins that “long-term division must be combined, and the long-term combination must be separated”, and ends with “the long-term combination must be separated and the long-term division must be combined”. The Emperor of Jin reconstructs the “foundation of unity”. Obviously, the summary of the two paragraphs at the beginning and the end, the change of the order of “opening” and “closing” are not a word game, but the completion of a historical cycle. These two paragraphs have the function of opening and closing the whole situation. In part, Chapters 1–35 is about the separation, the competition among the heroes, and the division of the world. Among them, Chapter 67 is about the Three Kingdoms, and finally it is about the unification of the three. This structure of head and tail anaphora, with the three links

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in the middle, can’t help but explain the theory of historical circulation in detail and in its complete form. 4. (1)

The artistic achievements of Romance of the Three Kingdoms Reasonable artistic fiction

The comment “70 percent fact and 30 percent fiction” from the Extra Edition of Zhang’s Memorial Notes of 1796 by Zhang Xuecheng for Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is an influential point of view, which is based on Zhang Xuecheng’s comparison with various novels: All the legend books, such as Annals of Kingdoms, Eastern and Western Han Dynasties, About the Tang Dynasty, Southern and Northern Song Dynasties, are mostly documentary; books as Journey to the West and Golden Lotus are all based on fiction: no harm done. Only Romance of the Three Kingdoms is 70% fact and 30% fiction, such as peach orchard, so that the audience are often confused and the scholars directly used them for their writings. Therefore, the legend belongs to... However, we should follow the principle of stating the truth on the basis of facts and making the fables clear when it is based on fiction. We should not confuse the truth with the fiction as in the Three Kingdoms.

Zhang’s point of view was agreed by Lu Xun. In the Historical Changes of Chinese Novels, he said that the author thought that this novel was “easy to be misunderstood”, because it has “70 percent fact and 30 percent fiction; but in fact, people tend to believe it is all true as there are more facts than fiction.”3 He then criticizes this style of writing by taking the example of Wang Shizhen’s poem Homage Paid to Pang Tong in Phoenix Slope, written on his belief of what happened in Phoenix Slope in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. What Zhang Xuecheng and Lu Xun referred to was the problem of historical truth and artistic fiction. Obviously, there is a certain distance between their requirements and what the historical novels should present. Lu Xun added, “but it’s hard to write by referring to the old historical books, in which the truth and rhetoric expressions are mixed up.”4 He pointed out that the creation of historical novels face two difficulties: how to deal with the relationship between “old history” (historical reality) and “ rhetoric expressions” (artistic fiction). This is the critical issue that Lu Xun did not give a solution to. The biggest difference between historical novels and general novels lies not in whether they can be made up, but in the fact that they must have a certain historical basis. However, as long as we admit that a work is a novel, no matter what its subject matter is, artistic fiction is an important standard to evaluate its achievements. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a novel with historical themes. It can completely make up stories. Storytellers and writers will not think about the two proportions like critics. They would probably think more about the needs of the audience, As an early historical novel, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has no creative experience to draw lessons from. The creators can only describe and enrich the story content to attract the audience with their own imagination in the narration 3 4

Lu Xun’s Academic Works, Zhejiang, People’s Publishing House, 1998, p. 231. A Brief History of Chinese Novels, People’s Literature Press, 1973, p. 107.

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of historical stories, which is the first step of the development of Chinese novels from historical storytelling. The formation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in its long process can not be detached from historical facts, but to take the Annals of the Three Kingdoms as a textbook in a dry and pedantic way is neither what the storytellers were good at nor what the audience wanted. Therefore, it is impossible for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to exclude artistic fiction and reflect historical facts completely. In many places, the composition of artistic fiction has already greatly exceeded historical facts, far more than 30%, which is an exquisite writing method of novelists. A typical example is Three Visits to the Cottage. In the Annals of the Three Kingdoms. Biography of Zhuge Liang, there are only five words: “Visiting three times, finally met.” The novel uses Chapters 36, 37, and 38 for the description with a lot of vivid created details, showing Liu Bei’s thirst for talents, and highlighting Zhuge Liang’s extraordinary ones. Another example is the most wonderful part of the novel, the Battle of Red Cliff, which is only recorded in a few words in the Annals of the Three Kingdoms. The novel develops it in profusion, presenting it in a massive scale with eight chapters. Such examples are too numerous to enumerate. It is not true for the statement made in Hu Shi’s preface of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that its “imagination is too little and creativity it is too weak”; while Zhang Xuecheng denounces its “30 percent of fiction” and that it should be “based on facts”, which is contrary to the essence of the novels, and which undoubtedly means that there is no need for historical novels. In addition, none of Zhang Xuecheng’s “based on facts” novels of the same kind is completely consistent with historical reality, and none of them is as successful as Romance of the Three Kingdoms by maintaining a proper proportion between historical reality and artistic fiction. Storytellers and adapters of all ages made reasonable fiction on the basis of their artistic experience and intuition, bringing Romance of the Three Kingdoms out of the dilemma and to the top rank of Chinese historical novels. “Confusion” and “misunderstanding” do not indicate the ignorance of the receivers, nor the fault of the novel. As a novel that has been accumulated for generations, it has great influence and is deeply rooted in people’s hearts. It is also normal that many stories in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms are used as allusions. This is true for all other classic historical novels at all times and in all countries. (2) The gain and loss of characterization There are more than 400 characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, many of which have the distinctive characteristics and are successfully portrayed. However, due to the obvious ideological tendency of the novel, the depiction of the positive characters is too much in the pursuit of perfection, which violates the aesthetic principle of the reality in life and art; For the negative characters, it is the opposite: they are not totally labeled due to the historical facts. So the objective artistic effect of the work is exactly the opposite to the subjective intentions expressed. This is the situation of the creation of the main characters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The former mainly refer to the idealization of characters. Although the idealized characters are vividly portrayed, they are so incredibly perfect that they

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turn out to be failures to some extent, such as Zhuge Liang. The latter refers to the characters who are deliberately derogatory but succeed because of their authenticity, such as Cao Cao. Zhuge Liang is a model of ancient Chinese ministers. The original version Annals of the Three Kingdoms laid the foundation of the image for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms with his outstanding ability in governing the country and using the army. “He is a man of knowledge and his skills in governance are as good as Guan and Xiao” is the comment to him in Annals of the Three Kingdoms. The novel puts a lot of highlights on this point, particularly on Zhuge Liang’s wisdom and loyalty, as well as the tragedy of his “death before success”. Zhuge Liang’s brilliant intelligence, rich experience in political and military, combined with his loyalty to the State of Shuhan, endow this literary image an enduring artistic charm, and relatively diminish its artistic defects. Zhuge Liang’s wisdom is described in a multidimensional perspective, rather than in a simplistic way, by putting him among the wise men in complex situations to highlight his unparalleled wisdom like the moon being supported by the stars around it. From his early days to his death in 50 Feet Plain, he met many outstanding opponents in his long career of assisting Liu’s two monarchs, but all of them were defeated by his superhuman wisdom. Zhou Yu and Sima Yi, whom he met respectively before the tripartite division and when they marched into the Central Plains, were the best of the best. They were really both the good matches for Zhuge Liang, but they were often defeated by Zhuge Liang in one sweeping stroke. Zhuge Liang had the ability of knowing before seeing, Zhou Yu knew when he saw, but Sima Yi didn’t know until later. It is because of such a gap that the novel highlights Zhuge Liang’s unique intelligence. He is often knowledgeable about his opponent’s character and psychology, and is good at using their weaknesses. For Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang targeted at his narrow mindedness, by going to Eastern Wu cross the river, before the battle of Red Cliff, with the method of inciting his determination to fight against Cao and show it in public. So the unity between Sun and Liu was finally reached, which laid the foundation for the victory of the war. Then he skillfully defeated Zhou Yu three time: first is his loss of the South County (Chapter 51), second is the loss of his wife (Chapter 55), last is the loss of Jingzhou (Chapter 56), and he finally died of anger. For Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang targeted his cautiousness and suspiciousness, and boldly used the empty city plan after the embarrassing battle of losing the Street Pavilion. What’s more, “the dead Zhuge can scare Zhongda (Sima Yi) to death” brings Zhuge Liang’s wisdom into full play. Sima Yi exclaimed afterwards: “I can predict his life, not his death!” (Chapter 100) Zhou Yu also looked up to the sky before he died and sighed: “Where there is Liang, there is no chance for Yu!” The failure and exclamation of these two men are the most powerful contrast to Zhuge Liang’s image of wisdom. From Chapters 90 to 104, the novel uses a total of 14 chapters to write about Zhuge Liang’s six expeditions to Qi Mountain and his northern expedition to the Central Plains, which focuses on shaping Zhuge Liang’s devoted and loyal official image. For this historical event, the records in Annals of the Three Kingdoms are quite detailed. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, based on historical reality with

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proper fictional supplements, instills vitality on to Zhuge Liang’s image, and gives readers a much more vivid impression than just the official history. For example, in Annals of the Three Kingdoms, there is only one sentence to the death penalty of Ma Su: “Liang pulls out more than a thousand families in Xi County, and returns them to Hanzhong, killing Su in public to give them justice.” Chapter 96 of the novel describes it after a long narration: “In a moment, the guard presented Ma Su’s head to the floor. Kong Ming was crying. Jiang Wan asked, ‘Why is the Minister crying? He committed crimes and now justice is served by military law.’ Kongming said, ‘I didn’t cry for Ma Su. I thought of what the late Emperor told me when the city of Baidi was in danger.’ He said, ‘Ma Su’s words are not credible, and can’t be of great use.’ It turned out to be true! But I deeply hate myself for not taking it seriously. I cried when thinking of the Emperor’s wisdom.” His pain was due to his loyalty to Liu after all. During the six rounds in the battle of Qi Mountain, the two sides have been in a long-standing stalemate. Zhuge Liang was seriously ill. His subordinates advised him to take a break. He “sobbed and said: ‘I know. But I was entrusted by the late Emperor to help the young emperor. I have the worry others might not bave as devoted as I am!’” The description of Zhuge Liang’s crying twice makes his loyalty true and moving. Before he died, what he thought most about were state affairs. It was just so-called painstaking and exhausting. These descriptions filled the work with a strong tragic atmosphere, which easily aroused people’s admiration for Zhuge Liang. Romance of the Three Kingdoms created the fullest and the most successful image of Cao Cao. In the process of long-term circulating, the works take into account the feelings of the people and portray Cao Cao as a villain, so as to reveal his antagonist features completely. Between the truth of history and the fiction of art, the basic attitude of the work is to be faithful to history, so there is a split between the subjective intention and the objective effect: Cao Cao was originally written as a traitor who was reviled, but with respect to history, his heroic aspect was not totally eliminated. In this way, Cao Cao is an image with the dual characters as a traitor and a hero before the audience. A few people’s comments on Cao Cao in the first chapter of the work set the tone of the dual character play of Cao Cao: “At that time, a man named Qiaoxuan said to Cao Cao, ‘the world is going to be in chaos. Only a man with exceptional talent can restore it, Can that man be you?’ He Peng from Nanyang saw Cao and said, ‘The Han is coming to an end. This is the man who is going to take over the world.’ Xu Shao from Runan is a wise man. Cao went to him for a visit and asked: ‘What am I like?’ Shao didn’t answer. He asked again and Shao said, ‘You are a powerful minister in the governing of the world, and a treacherous hero in troubled times.’ Cao was exultant upon hearing it.” For a successful artistic image, though the dual characters can not be completely free of simplification, it is obviously more in line with the reality of human nature, and thus is a common character structure of literary image creation. With the help of Pei Songzhi’s annotation, the work describes Cao Cao’s treachery in the first chapter. This treachery is combined with his cruelty, which makes Cao Cao’s personality prominent at the very beginning:

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When Cao was young, he was good at hunting, and was fond of singing and dancing; he was tricky and skillful in trimming his sail to the wind. Cao Cao had an uncle. Seeing that Cao Cao wandered around, he was angry and talked to Cao Song. Song blamed Cao. Cao had a plan: when the uncle came, he fell to the ground deceitfully as if having a stroke. The uncle was shocked and told Song. Song came in a hurry. “It’s all right.” Song said: “I don’t have the problem. Since I don’t have my uncle’s favor, I just pretend to be sick upon seeing him.” Song believed him. Later whenever the uncle said something against him, Song ignored it. As a result, Cao became more reckless.

Although the novel adopts the Biography of Aman (Cao Cao) annotated by Pei, it obviously draws on the common techniques of biographies in Historical Records in its overall characterization. That is to say, at the beginning of the story, the novel uses one or two trivial things in the early years of the characters to outline their basic personalities and their ways of conducting relationships, so as to lay a foundation for further characterization. Chapter 4 is about Cao Cao’s failure in his attempt to assassinate Dong Zhuo and escaped to his father’s old friend Lv Boshi’s house. Lu Boshi ordered his family to kill their pig and he went to buy drinks himself. He never expected that his hospitality would bring disaster to his family. The novel describes this as follows: Cao has been sitting with Gong for a long time. Suddenly, he heard a sound of the sharpening of the knife in the backyard. After they sneaked into the thatched cottage, they heard them saying: “how about binding before killing?” “That’s it!” said Cao, “If we don’t make our move now, we will be captured.” Then he and Gong drew their swords and went straight in. He killed all the men and women, eight in a row. Searching in the kitchen, they saw a pig there ready to be killed. Gong said, “You are too suspicious. We killed good people by mistake.” They hurried out of the house and went on horseback. In less than two miles, they saw Boshi, with two bottles of liquor hung in front of his donkey saddle, fruits and vegetables held in his hand...Walking away from him for a few steps, he went back, suddenly pulled out his sword and asked, “Who is there?” When Boshi looked back, Cao wielded his sword and killed him by the donkey. Gong was shocked, “It was a mistake what we did. Why are you doing this now?” “I would rather betray the whole world than be betrayed.” said Cao.

It’s not uncommon to kill people due to a misunderstanding, but it’s uncommon to kill the innocent on purpose when knowing it is a mistake. This is the most powerful depiction of Cao Cao’s negative image. Cao Cao reveals his creed of life with his words to Chen Gong “I would rather betray the whole world than be betrayed” in this typical event and situation, which shows his treacherous and cruel character. It can be seen that Cao Cao’s character is set at the beginning. Romance of the Three Kingdoms also describes well the heroic side of Cao Cao: good at employing the right people, open to all advice, loving talents and openminded. To this end, the work describes him in two ways: one is to use Guo Jia’s words to summarize, the other is to use specific examples to illustrate. In Chapter 18, Guo Jia compared Cao Cao with Yuan Shao by summing up Cao Cao’s “ten victories” and Yuan Shao’s “ten defeats”. This is not Guo Jia’s flattery, but a programmatic expression of Cao Cao’s positive image. The specific description is as follows: In Chapter 26, Cao Cao caught Guan Yu, but he customized a robe for him when seeing his robe was old; he had a sand bag made for him to protect his beard when seeing his beard was long, and he gave him a thorough-bred horse when seeing his horse

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was thin. In the 30th battle of Guandu, Cao Cao gathered the collective wisdom and succeeded in defeating Yuan Shao with lesser army force, in sharp contrast to Yuan Shao’s headstrong refusal to adopt Xu You’s strategy. In Chapter 41, Cao Cao cornered Zhao Yun, who was carrying the prince Adou and fighting alone in Steep Slope. He could have killed him by massive shooting, but he let Zhao get away out of his love for talent. After the defeat of the 50th battle in Red Cliff, Cao Cao’s three laughs in his panicked flee vividly shows his open-minded heroic character: … Cao can see the forest is thick, the mountains and rivers are precipitous, but he started his fits of laughter on horse back. “Why is the Minister laughing?” asked the generals. Cao said: “I’m just laughing at Zhou Yu’s lack of planning and Zhuge Liang’s lack of wisdom. I would have laid down my army here in advance if I were them, what do you think?” Before he could finish, the drums on both sides were beaten loudly, and the fire rose in the sky, which almost made Cao Cao fall off his horse. A big army came out from aside…Cao ordered Xu Huang and Zhang Shuang to fight against Zhao Yun, and he fled in a hurry...Cao sat in the woods and laughed loudly. The officers asked, “The Minister was just laughing at Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, and it was followed by the attack of Zhao Zilong who killed so many of us. What makes you laugh now?” Cao said, “I laugh at Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu for their lack of wisdom. If I were to use my troops...” In the meantime, there came shouts from back and forth. Cao was shocked, casting off his armor and mounted on horseback... After a few miles, he was waving his whip in the air and and laughed on horseback. “Why is the Minister laughing?” the generals asked. Cao said: “People say that Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang are resourceful. In my opinion, they are incompetent. If they have their army force here, we will definitely be captured.” At the end of the speech, there was a sound of gun blasts, and five hundred swordsmen on both sides came up. When Cao’s army saw it, they were half dead with fright and looked at each other. Cao said, “If this is the situation, we have to fight to the death.”

In such circumstances, he could still laugh, criticize the other party’s military strategies, and imagine how to deal with it if he were to use his own soldiers. Although the original intention of the work is to show Cao Cao’s failure and Zhuge Liang’s ingenious calculation, it unexpectedly highlights Cao Cao’s heroism. “The figure of merit and crime, a combination of infamy and fame.” This complexity of Cao Cao’s image is shown in the work (Chapter 78 of Mao’s version). Therefore, because of its authenticity, this image is more successful than all the perfect characters in the work. There are also obvious shortcomings in the characterization of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Instead of proving its success, “Three Wonders” or “Three Miracles” summarized by Mao Zonggang5 provides counter evidence for its defects. It shows that the characterization of this work has the tendency of typology in general. Another prominent defect are that the characters in the novel have almost no development nor change, and they are in a static state from the beginning to the end. For example, even Zhuge Liang was wise and worldly before participating in the competition, he was just lacking practical experience. In the novel, he is always resourceful 5

In Mao’s Analysis on the Three Kingdoms: “I think there are three wonders in the Three Kingdoms, which can be called three miracles: Zhuge Kongming, Guan Yunchang, and Cao Cao…Kong Ming…is the most wonderful person among all the sages…Yunchang…is the most amazing person among the famous generals of all ages… Cao Cao…is the most extraordinary treacherous hero in the world” (Inner Mongolia People’s Publishing House, 1981, pp. 2–3).

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and calm from his coming out of the cottage till his demise like “a star falling to the 50 Feet Plain in the autumn wind.” We can neither see the specific environment of the character at the beginning, nor feel the development and change in the character later. The only mistakes made was misusing Ma Su and losing the Street Pavilion, not enough to make up for the defect of typology in the creation of Zhuge Liang’s wise image. (3) The various styles of narrative art The Romance of the Three Kingdoms skillfully integrates narration and description, which shows the various narrative art styles of early the novels. Due to the theme, it takes war as its narrative subject, and because of it being evolved from the storybook, it tells the story in a fascinatingly style, and the Episode description is also full of artistic appeal. The most amazing, of course, is the battle of Red Cliff, the most profound art accumulation in the long process of writing. It is based on the complex and intricate relationships among the three kingdoms, within the Sun and Liu alliance, and between the Sun-Liu alliance and Cao Cao. It takes Zhuge Liang as the center to construct a story, including the scenarios of lecturefield, incitement of Zhou Yu, meeting of the heroes, borrowing arrows from straw boats, the battered-body trick, chain scheme, borrowing the east wind, burning Red Cliff, Huarong Road, and so on. It is like a big stage, where people from three sides are having their full play. The narrative is complex and orderly, the story lines are interconnected; the descriptions are simple, vivid, varied and very touching. This kind of writing is a model for the narrative art of the novel, and its contributions can not be overemphasized. There are many experiences in the narrative art of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, we only list some outstanding points. The skill in writing about war is undoubtedly one of the most powerful aspects of the narrative art in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Developed from historical storytelling, Romance of the Three Kingdoms has formed the narrative technique of “making the most of events with the magic of writing skills” summarized by Mao’s edition in the long-term creative process, which is especially obvious in the description of war. The novel inherits the tradition from Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals: it is not keen on describing the confrontation between the two armies and fighting, but focuses more on the relationships between the warring parties outside the battlefield, as face to face wrestling is not the main factor determining the outcome of the war. The final victory of the Red Cliff war only accounts for less than one eighth of the novel, and the previously popular stories of wits fighting are far more eye-catching than the burning of Red Cliff. As a legend of heroes, the work of course can’t do without the extraordinary skills of heroes’ brave fighting. Lv Bu shoots the halberd gate and Guan Gong kills Hua Xiong by drinking is just one or two of them. What the novel strives to create is the pattern of every war, big or small. In the war of Guandu (Chapter 30), the author focuses on how Yuan Shao lost his credibility, how Cao Cao won the battle by beating the stronger with his weak army force. Chapter 85 highlights Zhuge Liang’s well-thought-out military plan in describing his peaceful life in Pingwu Road. On the other hand, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has greatly developed the traditional art form of war description, which is not

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only flexible, rhythmic, but also poetic. For example, in the battle between Sun and Liu in Jingzhou, a story about Liu Bei’s marriage in Eastern Wu was inserted. Mao Zonggang commented on the wonderful touch of Liu Bei’s marriage in the general comment before the chapters: “Nothing is more surprising than the Episode of a candlelight wedding amid the spears and the swords, while the the spears and the swords are amid the candlelight wedding. Ferocity is auspiciousness, auspiciousness is in ferocity. Auspiciousness lies in ferocity and ferocity lies in auspiciousness. Just this one scenario is good enough to show how the events are described beyond our expectations” (Chapter 54). This is a peculiar technique used in a war description to combine the flash of cold steel with the tender emotion, the military stratagem with romance. As a historical novel with war as an important theme, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has many good examples of war, which shows that narrative art has gone to a new level from Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals and Historical Records, which pursued some change to a certain extent on the basis of truth, as well as the rough and simple version of the storybooks. Fiction and imagination play an important role in it. The use of such elements, the more juicy the story is, and the more qualified it is for the artistic requirements of a novel. Being good at describing scenery is the second characteristic of the narrative art used in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Guan Yu went to the meeting alone in Chapter 66, Lu Su and the generals concealed their intention of murder, but were awed by Guan Yu’s heroic spirit from beginning to end. They helplessly watched him coming and going freely: Lu Su saw Guan Yu speeding away in a boat, Lu Su begged to take Jingzhou and Guan Yu declined under the pretext of being drunk, Zhou Cang stopped him by a loud cry and Guan Yu took the opportunity to take Lu Su away The Episode is described with intense fast movements. Here we can see the scenery description of Hongmen banquet in the Historical Records. Xiang Yu, but its innovation is also outstanding. Guan Yu’s two episodes of speeding away in his boat and fleeing are particularly brilliant: The next day, Su had people looking afar from the shore. In the morning, a boat came from the river, on which there were a few boatswains and a red flag fluttering in the air with a big character “Guan.” As the boat neared the shore, it was seen that Yunchang was sitting on the boat, in a green robe; next to him was Zhou Cang, holding a broadsword; there were also eight or nine big guys from West China, each had a broadsword. Lu Su was shocked and showed them the way to the house. Courtesies were performed, they started to drink and toast, Lu Su dared not to look straight up... Yunchang held the knife with his right hand and Lu Su’s hand with his left hand... Lu Su was entranced with fear, and he was pulled to the riverside by Yun Chang. Lu Meng and Gan Ning were ready to send their own troops out, but when they saw that Yunchang was holding a broadsword in one hand and Lu Su in another, they did not venture to take action for fear of hurting him. Yunchang walked to the boat and let go of his hand. He bade Lu Su goodbye when standing at the boat. Su was dumbfounded, watching Guan Gong’s boat sailing away with wind.

The scene of “empty city strategy” is another style. Sima Yi’s troops went into the empty city, and the situation was grim. This critical situation is described lightly with one stroke. However, it elaborates Zhuge Liang’s calm and relaxed demeanor when he was in the city. What’s more, Zhuge Liang is like a brilliant actor performing on the city tower. Although there are many viewers in the city, Sima Yi is the only one who

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understands. Whether Zhuge Liang can succeed in this dangerous game depends entirely on Sima Yi’s thoughts. On the surface, it’s calm, and the confrontation between being on top of the city tower and under the city tower presents to the readers the psychological and intellectual contest between the two most outstanding militarists in the world. The tense atmosphere is relieved with the enemy’s retreat. “Empty city strategy” becomes the most wonderful segment of the novel and is loved by readers of all ages, which shows that scenery description has the unique artistic achievement for Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Painstaking efforts have been made in imitating this skill by other outstanding novels in China ever since. It is another characteristic of the narrative art of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to be good at writing similar events in different and fascinating ways. Different things can definitely be written in different ways, but it is not easy to give the same kind of events a fresh feeling. The latter is obviously a better narrative art of classical novels than the former. Instead of avoiding repetition, the description of events in Romance of the Three Kingdoms intentionally uses the repetitions by giving them different characteristics, which provides another valuable experience for novel writing techniques. The fire attack is an example: It was late, densely cloudy with no moonlight; the wind started to blow in the day and got stronger at night. Xia Houdun was urging the army to fight all along the way ...when moving on, he saw Yu Jin suddenly hurried from the rear and he asked why. Jin said: “The south road is narrow, mountains are close to each other, and trees are numerous, which means we can be attacked by fire.” Xia Houdun suddenly woke up, he turned back the horse to stop the army from going ahead. Before they could say anything more, loud shouts came from behind and a blaze of fire was seen ahead, and then the reeds on both sides were also burning. In a moment, the fire was burning all around; the wind was getting strong, and the fire became fiercer. Cao’s army trampled on each other, and countless soldiers died. When Zhao Yun’s army returned to kill him, Xia Houdun was gone in a puff of smoke. (Chapter 39) Huang Gai waved his knife and the boats at the front started to shoot. Fire flourished with the power of the wind and the wind helped the fire. The ship was like an arrow, and smoke rose in the sky. Twenty fire boats ran into the water stronghold, and all Cao’s boats caught fire; they were locked by iron rings and had nowhere to escape. Across the river, the fire boats came together, but on the surface of the river, the fire was flying along the wind, and the whole sky was red. Cao Cao looked back at the camp on the bank, where there were several fire blazes. Huang Gai jumped on the boat, with a few people sailing behind him, in smoke and fire, to find Cao Cao. When Cao saw that the situation was urgent, he tried to jump on the bank. Suddenly Zhang Liao and a dozen people came to help Cao Cao get to the bank. Huang Gai saw someone in a red robe getting off the ship, thinking it must be Cao Cao. He sped up the boat, raising his knife and and shouted loudly: “Cao bandit, stop going! Huang Gai is here!” Cao moaned. Zhang Liao picked up his bow and shot at Huang Gai. At this time, the wind was blowing loudly and Huang Gai missed the sound of the bowstring. He was shot in the middle of the shoulder socket and fell into the water. (Chapter 49)

Fire attacks were Zhuge Liang’s often-used strategy (burning Xinye in Chapter 40, burning rattan armoured army in Chapter 19, trapping Sima Yi and his son in Shangfang Valley in Chapter 100). The enemy is defenseless against this, and the description of it is various. In addition to Zhuge Liang, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms also wrote several times of other people’s use of fire attacks, each of them was presented fantastically with little repetition. Another example is the funeral Episodes: Lu Su’s

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mourning of Liu Biao is quite different from Zhuge Liang’s mourning of Zhou Yu in terms of the intensity; for false surrender, there is hardly any similarity in Chapter 46 between the two false surrenders of Cai He and Cai Zhong, Huang Gai and Kai Ze.

3.4 Water Margin: The Legendary Life of Art Fiction 1.

The completion of Water Margin

As mentioned above, compared with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin is almost independent of history and completely a literary creation because it is far from historical facts. After all, the novel begins to evolve from the legend of real people and true stories, which is the first step in the long process of its formation. Let’s take a look at the records of Song Jiang’s uprising in Song History: (1)

(2)

(3)

Biography of Emperor Huizong, Vol. 22nd: in February of Xuanhe 3rd year, Huainan bandit Song Jiang and other criminals attacked the Huaiyang army and the generals were sent to arrest them. He also committed crimes in the east of the capital and north of the river, entering the boundary of Chu and Haizhou. Zhang Shuye from Zhizhou was ordered to recruit him (April, 1110). Xin Xingzon, the military defense officer in Zhongzhou captured Fang La at Blue Greek. Biography of Hou Meng, Vol. 351st: Song Jiang was the gangster located east of the capital. Meng submitted the proposal to the Emperor that: the 36 people of Jiang are on a rampage in the States of Qi and Wei, which can not be pacified by tens of thousands of army force. He is a man of talent. With riots now in Blue Greek, it would be feasible to forgive Jiang and let him fight against Fang La to redeem himself. The Emperor said, “I appreciate your loyalty for not forgetting your king, even you are living at the border.” He ordered the general of Zhidong for the mission, who suffered a sudden death before setting off, at the age of 68. Biography of Zhang Shuye in Vol. 353rd: Song Jiang started from Heshuo and raged onto ten counties. The soldiers dared not confront him. He spread the word that he will be around (to Haizhou). Shuye sent people to check him out. The rebellious bandits went straight to the ocean side and robbed over ten big boats, with full loads of goods A thousand brave soldiers were ambushed in town, with less soldiers to lure them from the ocean area. Some strong soldiers were hidden by the sea beforehand, ready to burn their boats when the other soldiers came. Upon hearing it, the bandits were disheartened. The ambushed soldiers came out and captured his crew chief. Jiang surrendered. Zhang was honored with official title and moved to Jinan city.

There are records of Song Jiang’s expedition to Fang La in the books of History of the Song Dynasty, Compendium of the Ten Dynasties, Sequel to Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government, and Compilation of the Three Dynasties and the North

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Alliance. It is said in the Records of the Treacherous with Zhongxing Name, Vol. 52nd: “In Xuanhe 2nd year, Fang La rebelled in Muzhou and took Wentai, Wuchu, Chu, Hang, Xiuzhou and other cities, shocking the southeast. (Tong) Guan, the Imperial Inspector in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, led Liu Yanqing, Liu Guangshi, Xin Qizong, Song Jiang and other troops with over 200,000 soldiers to suppress him” (based on Yu Jiaxi’s Treatise on Learning. Textual Research on Song Jiang and His 36 People) In the Epitaph for Zhe Gong—the Second General of Hedong, Martial Art Official in the Song Dynasty unearthed in Shanxi Province in 1939, it is said that after Zhe Kecun captured Fang La, “the army went across the state and got the imperial edict to capture Song Jiang, a grass-root bandit. They got him in a month. The martial art official was transferred.”6 Did Song Jiang and his uprising end in surrender or captivation? If in surrender, was Song Jiang involved in the suppression of the Fang La uprising? All kinds of records are contradictory to each other. Official documents are hardly credible, and the epitaphs to honor the dead may not be true records in every aspect. They can not be used to overthrow all the old sayings that are different from them. Due to the lack of historical data, it is difficult to draw a conclusion on these problems. Now we can only think that the ending of Song Jiang’s being recruited and records of Fang La written in Water Margin later in the literature of the late Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty have a certain basis. From the historical data, it is not clear if Song Jiang’s 36 people are all the insurgents or the 36 leaders, and Huainan and Shandong have not been further identified as the two places of Liaoerwa and Liangshan Marsh in the novel. There are two other points worth our attention in the records of the same era: first, Li Xinzhuan’s Annals since Jianyan, Vol. 7th said: “The rebellious bandit Shi Bin lived in Xingzhou (today’s Lueyang in Shanxi Province) enthroned himself (July in Jianyan 1st year). Bin, the ex-follower of Song Jiang, was a rioter” (quoted from Yu Jiaxi’s Treatise on Learning. Textual Research on Song Jiang and His 36 People). This can be related to the water margin hero Nine-lined Dragon Shi Jin. According to the novel, he is from Huayin, Shanxi Province. He once made a Episode in Huashan, the western mountain. Secondly, according to Second Annual of Yijian, Vol. 6th, History of the Song Dynasty. Biography of Mencius of Puzong, Vol. 328th, Biography of Xu Ji, Vol. 353rd and Biography of Ren Lang, Vol. 356th, Liangshan Marsh in the Northern Song Dynasty is the famous “bandits’ Moor”. In the Yuan Dynasty, the stories of Song Jiang and others came out of the historical facts in the form of oral literature, and were widely spread among the people. The rudiments of Water Margin began to take shape. At the turn of the dynasties between Song and Yuan, Gong Kai’s Eulogy for the 36 Heroes, included in the Sequel of Miscellaneous Notes on Gui Xin, said: “Stories of Song Jiang have been the talk of the town, but not enough. Although they were 6

From Textual Research on Song Jiang by Zhang Zhengyun in History Teaching, January, 1953. Notes: Since Zhe Kecun was not the general, it’s improper for him to get the “imperial edict”; for the capture of Song Jiang by sending troops out of the capital city, it’s too easy to have it accomplished “within a month.” These are the doubts in the epitaph.

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written by someone like Li Song, the scholar officials were also interested. I had the intention of drawing the pictures to express my admiration when I was young and energetic, but gave up due to the lack of written historical support.” It can be imagined that Song Jiang had become the subject of storytelling in the Southern Song Dynasty. Loafer Yanqing is praised: “Of all alleys and streets of Pingkang, his name is widely known”; Zhang Shunzan, the White Stripe in Waves, is praised: “He follows the loyal soul and scolds the angry tide.” It already includes the story of Chai Jin Got into the Forbidden Courtyard by Wearing the Flower in Chapter 72 of Water Margin, Yanqing Meets the Taoist Master in Moonlight in Chapter 81, and Zhang Shun’s Going to Heaven in Yongjin Gate in Chapter 14. They are related to the event of Song Jiang and Fang La. If there are signs to be found relating to Fang La later at the turn of Song and Yuan, then the story of the heroes of the marsh itself should have been circulating for a long time. Some people think that Eulogy for the 36 Heroes is only focused on nicknames, and there were no ready-made stories of the water margin for the author to use for reference.7 This is obviously not true. The Green-faced Beast in The Drunken Talk by Luo Ye in the Southern Song Dynasty, The Tattoo Monk and Martial Man in “Club Weapon” are all water margin themes. At the beginning of the New Edition of the Forepassed Incidents in Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty, there is a poem saying: “With all the ups and downs when the world changes, there are bosom friends in the mountains and rivers.” It’s clearly the style of storytelling, but carries all the features of written form. Maybe it is due to being the work of the late Southern Song Dynasty, which was modified by the Yuan people. Although the story of the water margin narrated by it has been greatly compressed, it still preserves the original storytelling expressions faithfully. Including the plot of Yang Zhi selling knives, Zhichu’s taking birthday gifts by strategy, Song Jiang’s running to Chao Gai at night by sharing with him the information to let him go and the killing of Yan Boshi. It also includes that Song Jiang got the book of heaven in the Temple of Ninth Heaven Fairy. At the end of the book of heaven, there was a line: “The book of heaven assigned the Planet Academy 36 valiant generals and made Song Jiang, who was called Hu Baoyi, the commander, to promote the righteousness and suppress the evilness.” Song Jiang was related to Liangshan Marsh and became fortified village head after Chao Gai, being recruited by Zhang Shuye, subdued the “three gangs” and Fang La, etc. In a word, the framework of Water Margin has taken shape from then. There are six kinds of Water Margin Zaju in the two books of Selection of Yuan Operas and The Only Extant Copy of Zaju in Yuan and Ming. In addition, in Records of Tunes by Wang Guowei, there are 22 kinds of repertoires of Water Margin Zaju. Kang Jinzhi’s Apology of Li Kui in Liangshan Marsh is equivalent to Chapter 73 of Water Margin. The other five kinds (Double Contribution, Fishing Fighting of Yanqing, Returning to Jail, Competing for Gratitude, Yellow Flower Valley) are different from the existing Water Margin. Some of them were originally popular water stories of water marsh, but later they were not incorporated into the novels; some of them were 7

Nie Yannu: On the Ideological and Artistic Improvement of Water Margin, People’s Literature, May, 1954.

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newly compiled by the dramatists for stage performance. Eliminating the evil for the good, subduing the bullies, combating the corrupt officials, and correcting the wrong cases were all the responsibilities of Liangshan heroes. It is written in Chapter 75 of the novel: “the heroes of the marsh would go down the mountain at leisure, with a couple of guys or just a few leaders (this is the common pattern of Water Margin Zaju)…” For an official’s home, they would pack the gold and silver in the box, nothing would be left for the family. If it was a rich and bully’s home, they would send more people to come and carry openly all their belongings to the mountain. Who dared to stop them! If they heard of any newly-rich who oppressed the good and who accumulated some wealth, they would go and clean it up no matter how far it was. This happened to more than a thousand places. It is worth noting that, except for Competing for Gratitude, all five kinds of Zaju mentioned that Chao Gai died of arrow shooting in the third strike of Zhujia Village, and Song Jiang succeeded the leader of his fortified village; except for Competing for Gratitude and Returning to Jail, all four kinds of Zaju mentioned thirty-six leaders and seventy-two members. Obviously, the book compilers were familiar with the stories of these dramas and were influenced by them. As can be seen from Eulogy for the 36 Heroes, Anecdotes in Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty and water margin themed Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty, a whole set of water margin stories close to the novel had also formed in the Yuan Dynasty’s storytelling, though some of their important plots may not have been finalized. Like Liangshan Marsh and water margin, Liao’erwa mentioned in many of the Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty refers to the fortified village for the gatherings of the heroes, which may be a part of Liangshan Marsh, as it is said in Chapter 11 of the novel: Liangshan Marsh is more than 800 miles around. In the middle is Wanzi city and Liao’erwa. In Chapte 120 later, Liao’erwa was placed outside the South Gate of Chuzhou as the burial ground of Song Jiang and others. In addition, many kinds of Water Margin Zaju said that Chao Gai was killed when he was involved in the third strike of Zhujia Village. However, the novel postpones it till Chapter 60, King Chao Killed by the Arrow in Zengtou Town. A complete set of water margin stories close to the novel Water Margin was completed in the Yuan Dynasty, but when was it first published in written form after it was recorded, sorted, processed and even created into a book? From the novel itself, we can find some clues to answer this question: First, the word “the deceased Song” is used in many places in the novel, which is the tone of the people in the Yuan Dynasty or the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty. In Chapter 38: “In the deceased Song Dynasty, a jailer was called Parent in Jinling 1st Road, and President in Hunan1st Road.” Others can be found in Chapters 41, 72, 90, and 114 respectively, but they were not recorded. If we refer to Guo Xun’s edition in Jiajing or Water Margin which came out not long before it, it had been 240 years since the demise of the Song Dynasty, which is not quite appropriate for this reference. Secondly, many of the folk colloquialisms used in Water Margin can be seen in the Yuan Dynasty Zaju, and they should not be too far from the completion of the book. As the saying goes: “to kill, you must see blood, to save people, you must save

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them completely” (see Chapter 9 of the novel; “to save a man, we must save him completely” in Episode 1, Chapter 1 of Zaju Competing for Gratitude in the Yuan Dynasty; “to be a person, one need to a character completely” Episode 1, Chapter 4 in The Romance of West Chamber); “I am a man without a headscarf, a tinkling woman, a man can stand on my fist, a horse can walk on my arm, and a man can walk on my face” (see Chapter 24 of the novel; in Episode1 of Fishing Fighting of Yanqing: “I’m a man standing on a fist, a horse walking on an arm, a man without a headscarf, a woman of tinkling and clanging”). There are many verbs, words and idioms in the novel that are found in the Zaju of theYuan Dynasty.8 Thirdly, in the story of Lu Junyi, first of all, Li Gu borrowed the plot of The Sweatshirt, a Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty by Zhang Guobin. The young pawnshop owner Zhang Xiaoyou saved Chen Hu, a villain who was frozen and fell in front of his door. He took him as a sworn brother and recommended him for the secondary lord title. Chen Hu planned to get Zhang Xiaoyou to worship in Dongyue Temple in Xuzhou. He killed Zhang Xiaoyou on the way and took over his wife (what happened later was Zhang Xiaoyou was rescued and finally reunited with his family). Second, the so-called disaster of hundred days’ blood is a formulaic old Episode in the Zaju of Yuan, which can be found in the Zaju such as Childbirth Mascot, The Pot Ghost, Gold-making Box and A Load of Cinnabar. It’s not hard to imagine that Lu Junyi’s story was made up under the influence of several Yuan Dynasty Zaju that were popular in the last few years.9 After a comprehensive study of the above examples, it can be concluded that the first formation of the story of Water Margin was at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, because, according to the term “the deceased Song”, the time should not be too far apart; according to the story of Lu Junyi, it should not be earlier. Water Margin is the crystallization of the creative works accumulated by the Book Society talents and folk artists from many generations. Like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it was developed on the basis of the storybooks handed down from generations, but there must be a writer who finally compiled them into a book by doing the recording, organizing and processing work. It’s more likely that after the first book, someone came out to process and create the novel to upgrade it to a new level, maybe once, twice, or several times. Later, there was one or two representative writers who had it adapted and written on the basis of the collective creation accumulated by the people from generations, bringing it to the height we see today. It is difficult to enumerate the detailed proof here. In today’s Water Margin, we can find traces of the old water margin storytelling almost everywhere, which is a fact that can not be easily erased. When they are scattered, they may not attract much attention, but once they are put together, we will have to reconsider the relationship between the author and the work. The fact that there are a lot of traces of the old 8

This item refers to Chen Zhongfan’s On the Author of Water Margin and the Age of Its Creation, See the Collection of Water Margin Research, Writers’ Press, 1957, pp. 111–126. 9 Lu Junyi’s story plot is very illogical. Therefore, there is no possibility for such Zaju as The Sweatshirt and A Load of Cinnabar to imitate Lu Junyi’s story.

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story books shows that the writers have not made a thorough re-creation. They did all the works of recording, sorting out, processing and creating, which means it is more appropriate to call them adapters. It has been proved that Water Margin was adapted and written by Luo Guanzhong on the basis of the collective creation of generations. Of course, if half of the great achievements of Water Margin can be attributed to adaptation writers, then at least half of them should be attributed to the collective wisdom of generations of Book Society talents and folk artists. Some people easily believe that the author of Water Margin had personally participated in the uprising, or he would not be able to write Water Margin without such an experience. On the one hand, they overestimate the ideological nature of Water Margin, on the other hand, it regarded it as a personal creation. If we don’t deal with the authorship of Water Margin scientifically, that is, the completion of the book, we can neither explain its strengths, nor its weaknesses properly—for example, there is the striking difference in the quality among chapters, the structure of the book is relatively loose. 2.

The main version of Water Margin

As for the publication and main edition of Water Margin, there is a passage in Li Kaixian’s Banter of Ci Poetry: Cui Houqu (Xian), Xiong Nansha (Guo), Tang Jingchuan (Shunzhi), Wang Zunyan (Shenzhong) and Chen Hougang (Shu) said: “Water Margin is a book with detailed descriptions and eloquence, only next to Historical Records. Ever since ancient times, there has been no book that could record one event in 20 volumes. It is unfair to criticize its content of fraud, theft, evilness and hypocrisy without recognizing its skill of narration and its artistic value of historiography.”

This is the earliest and most reliable record of the novel Water Margin. No later than the first day of Jiajing 10th year (1531)10 : The book had begun to circulate, and had aroused great interest of some scholars. It should be a 100-chapter version in 20 volumes. It is likely that it is the so-called engraving of Lord Guo Xun in Wuding, and it may also be the 100-chapter of Loyal Water Margin recorded by Gao Ru’s Annals of Various Records (1540). Since then, there has been a situation in which different versions were competing and widely distributed. Important versions fall into two systems: (1)

10

100-chapter classic character copy, with the preface by the exterior minister of the capital, reviewed by Li Zhuowu and published by Ronghe Hall, the Sizhi Library version reviewed by Zhong Bojing with the preface written by Dadi

I. Cui Houqu (Xian), a Jinshi in Hongzhi 18th year (1505), the other four became Jinshi in the Jiajing 15th year (1526) and Jiajing 8th year (1529), respectively, and the latter four started their interaction from becoming Jinshi in the same year or having participated in the meeting at the same time, forming a loose literary group called “eight talents of Jiajing.” Li Kaixian said in the Preface to the Collection of Lu Jiangfeng from Leisure Notes Collection, Vol. 5th, that they “were hanging together only for several years, at most eight or nine years.” II. According to History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 15th, Guo Xun was promoted as the Minister of Yi in Jiajing 8th year (1539) from the Lord of Wuding. The so-called Wuding edition should have been published before that year. According to the above two points, this book defines the time when the Water Margin was popular in the decade of Jiajing.

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Yuren, entitled Loyal Water Margin in Wanli 17th year. The parts of Wang Qing and Tian Hu are not included. The simplified edition, mainly engraved in Jianyang, Fujian Province: A. The New Beijing Edition of Illustrated Loyal Water Margin with Tian Hu and Wang Qin’s Stories, the remnant edition of the Chinese Novels and Operas in the National Library of Paris based on Zheng Zhenduo’s Evolution of Water Margin collected in the National Library of Paris, France.11 B. 25-volume The Supplemented Annotated Beijing Edition of Illustrated Loyal Water Margin Review Collection, published by Yu’s Double-peak Hall, collected by Loving Sunshine Library, Japan, and photocopied by Literature and Ancient Books Publishing House in 1956. It is inscribed inside “compiled by Luo Guanzhong, the original name of Qing Fu, in the Central Plains. The later scholar Yu Zong recorded the annotations by his father, and Yu Xiangdou had it published by the Book Forest Wentai Press.The preface was written in Wanli 22nd year.”

In addition, there is the 120-chapter The Complete Stories of Loyal Water Margin, which are inscribed with Li Zhuowu’s review, Yang Dingjian’s addendum, and Yuan Wuyake’s engraving. It is a combination of classic-character 100-chapter version with the simplified version of Tian Hu and Wang Qing’s part (not including Jin Shengtan’s so-called 70-chapter fifth talents’ book and the original Guanhua Hall engraved version). We try to explain that, first of all, by comparing different versions, the stories of the first 70 chapters and the expedition to suppress Fang La are the least different, followed by the expedition to Liao. Those of Tian Hu and Wang Qing are the most different, as if the stories had not been finalized and were open to be modified at will; second, in the expedition to Liao and the three wars of Tian Hu and Wang Qing, none of the 108 generals of water margin died. Obviously, this is because their ending was already arranged in the war of suppressing Fang La and could not be changed. As can be seen from the above two points, the story of suppressing Fang La was organized in the early stages of the legend of the water margin. As it is written in the Forepassed Incidents in Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty, even the Song Dynasty army in the novel was led by Zhang Zhaoqiu, which was also influenced by the plot of Song Jiang’s being recruited by Zhang Shuye. The story of the expedition to Liao was added later, and the story of Tian Hu and Wang Qing was added last. The stories of Tian Hu and Wang Qing may not have been added until the Min edition, so they marked “with Tian Hu and Wang Qin’s Stories” in the title of the book. However, if they believe that this is a bookseller’s work out of thin air, it may not be true. First, in addition to the expedition of Fang La, The Forepassed Incidents in Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty had long referred to the “three road bandits”, although it is unknown what they mean; second, there is also a historical basis for the expedition to Liao. For example, Compilation of the Three Dynasties and the North Alliance, Vol. 6th said that in June Xuanhe 4th year, Tong Guan made the expedition to Liao and Yang Zhi led the vanguard army to fight against Liao. Volume 47 in the 11

Zheng Zhenduo: Evolution of Water Margin and Research on Chinese Literature, Writers’ Press, 1957, pp. 111–157 and 1275–1313; Ma Youyuan: The Earliest Extant Revised Version of Water Margin, Collection of Chinese Literature and History, Vol. 3rd, 1985, pp. 73–121.

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same book cited Xiaoya of Jingkang clearly pointed out that Yang Zhi was “a major bandit being recruited” (Textual Research on Song Jiang and His 36 People by Yu Jiaxi); third, Chapter 72 in the 100-chapter version mentions the names of the four bandits in the official book, including Tian Hu and Wang Qing; fourth, there are some narratives about Tian Hu and Wang Qing in the Min version. For example, in Volume 20 of Water Margin Review Collection, it is mentioned that Forest of Joy is a forest in the suburb, with more than 30 casinos, snack shops and restaurants. It seems that this is not the explanation based on the place named in the story of Shi Enyi’s Taking Forest of Joy, but the result of retaining the true features of oral literature. Yang Dingjian and Yuan Wuyi made considerable changes when adding the stories of Tian Hu and Wang Qing in the Min version of The Complete Stories of Water Margin. They deleted the unrealistic description of Song Jiang’s being greeted by the Emperor of the Song Dynasty when returning upon his conquering Tian Hu and Song Jiang’s being the Grand Marshal, making it more consistent with the tragic ending of the later expedition to Fang La and improving the ideological quality of the novel. According to the Min version, Wang Qing was the chief military instructor of eight hundred thousand imperial guard troops. He was persecuted by treacherous officials and rose up in arms out of desperation. Just like Lin Chong, another chief military instructor of eight hundred thousand imperial guard troops, Wang Qing’s Complete Biography was rewritten as Wang Qing was Sued for Treachery (Chapter 102), which slandered him and showed orthodox prejudice. 3.

The content and structure of Water Margin

If the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a vivid representation of the history for a generation, Water Margin is not so much a faithful reflection of the single event of Song Jiang’s uprising in history as a collective reflection of numerous popular uprisings in ancient China, especially from the Song and Yuan Dynasties to the early Ming Dynasty in literary creation, a literary summary of the experience and lessons of numerous previous popular uprisings (including peasant uprisings) for two or three hundred years since Song Jiang’s uprising. The difference between the real story of Song Jiang’s uprising and the fictional literature masterpiece is no less than that between grain and alcohol. It’s wrong to replace the study of Water Margin literature with historical textual research. Similarly, it’s definitly wrong by departing from the basic facts of the novel to create a new theme. Water Margin is a legend of heroes. It artistically makes up a large-scale popular uprising and describes the whole process of its occurrence, development and failure, so as to express profoundly the decadent darkness of the society, the people’s ideals and desires of that time. The insurgents had always been denounced as bandits by the orthodox defenders. In this book, they are endowed with the glamour of legendary heroes, and become the embodiment of justice and strength, representing people’s strong demands to resist oppression and change the unjust society. Jin Shengtan summed up in his second preface to The Fifth Talent’s Book of Guanhua Hall that “all the goodness belongs to the Robin Hood and all the evilness belongs to the imperial court”. If we don’t use it out of context, it is followed by “those who are bandits are proud in reading it, those who are not bandits wished to be bandits after

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reading it”. Obviously, it is the criticism rather than praise of the novel, but from another point of view, this can also be a summary and approval of the tendency of singing carols for the rebellions in Water Margin. From the ruling class’s prohibition of Water Margin, we can see how challenging the content of this novel was to the social order they wanted to maintain.12 If language is the material shell of thought, then structure is also the form of content. The first seventy-one chapters of Water Margin concentrate on the process of people being forced to revolt against the government and heroes of all walks of life come to the same end through different routes, gather together in Liangshan and act for heaven. The stories of heroes such as Lin Chong, Wu Song, Lu Zhishen and Chao Gai highlight the typical significance of this process. The structure of the first half of the novel is the expression of people’s ideology that was formed among people. In order to show the essence of the official persecution and the people’s revolt, the novel gets into the real life from Gao Qiu’s evil conduct as his rise, his revenging personal grievances in the name of official duty and his oppression to the good, reflecting the decadent and incorrigible of the whole ruling group, so as to reveal the typical social environment of Liangshan. Gao Qiu, who was originally a loafer born from a downfallen wealthy family in the capital city, got this nickname “Gao Qiu (good at playing balls)” for his skill in playing polo. Duke Duang happened to appreciate him and he was promoted to be a palace commander after Duke Duang was enthroned (as Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty). So he simply used his nickname in a formal way. Gao Qiu was thus established and tyrannized. He persecuted Wang Jin and drove Wang Jin and his old mother out of their hometown, only because he was knocked down to the ground by Wang Jin’s father when they competed in martial arts in the early years; he persecuted Lin Chong and ruined Lin Chong’s family, only because his adopted son coveted Lin’s wife’s beauty. What’s more shocking is that these two people persecuted by Gao Qiu were not ordinary people, but the chief military instructors of eight hundred thousand imperial guard troops in the capital city, which shows what a powerful figure Gao Qiu was. Jin Shengtan made a profound interpretation of the good intentions of the novel’s opening: “An enormous book of 70 chapters about 108 people does not start with 108 people. If 108 people, instead of Gao Qiu, are put at the beginning, it indicates the chaos from the bottom; if Gao Qiu, instead of 108 people, is put at the beginning, it indicates the chaos from the top” (the first general review in The Fifth Talent’s Book of Water Margin). It’s true. Like Gao Qiu, there are also Cai Jing, Tong Guan and others. Under them, there are the governors, magistrates, the corrupt officials, the local bullies and the evil gentry. They are oppressive and trample people like 12

According to Inscribed Request for Inspector in the Criminal Department Zuo Maodi to Burn Water Margin On April 17, Chongzhen 15th Year: “Li Qingshan, gathered the bandits in Liangshan…the bandits must use the names and live in the style of Liangshan Marsh. It is said that he learned it from the book Water Margin… a book that poisons people’s hearts. Isn’t it hateful?” Prohibition of Water Margin in June of Chongzhen 15th Year: “…it is posted, whoever possessing the book of Water Margin or its original version should burn it as soon as possible, and they are not allowed to hide it…” (quoted from Historical Materials of Forbidden Novels and Operas of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, 1981, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, pp. 16–17).

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mud and ashes. For example, Zheng Tu took away Jin Cuilian, Ximen Qing plotted against Wuda, and Mao Taigong colluded with the government to frame Xie Zhen and Xie Bao, etc. Even Chai Jin, the medallion holder, could not be devoid of the disaster, let alone the situation of ordinary people. The heroes go to Liangshan Marsh for different reasons, but one thing in common is they are all “forced”, which is the fulcrum of the structure for this great work. The novel vividly shows how Liangshan heroes flow from individual resistance to group rebellion. From Chapters 72 to 81, the novel generally describes the Liangshan leader led by Song Jiang who planned to be recruited. Chapters 82–120 are about how Liangshan heroes were ordered by the imperial court to fight against other insurgents. After the suppression of Fang La, the Liangshan rebel army, which was always regarded as alien by the rulers, was completely disintegrated by the court. Regarding the great achievement of Water Margin is not the individual creation of a genius writer, but the accumulation of collective creation from generations, we can see that the focus of the novel is how the heroes were forced to Liangshan, not how they attacked the city and plundered the land or resisted the court after they became the followers of Songjiang, this structure corresponds to the strength of the novel, the depiction of the legendary heroes. Song Jiang, as the real leader of Liangshan, did not go up the mountain until Chapter 42. Only in this way can we get a reasonable explanation. As far as the whole story is concerned, it is written that at the time when Liangshan’s career was at its peak, some leaders from the non working class, such as Song Jiang, accepted the imperial court’s recruitment for peace, which eventually led to the complete failure of the uprising. There are different views on the authenticity of the recruitment in history. However, no matter what the historical fact is, the tragic ending of the novel is reasonable and basically successful. The last 50 chapters not only present the whole uprising process completely, this inevitable tragic ending also vividly shows the limitations and historical lessons of the ancient Chinese people’s uprising. The gathering of the heroes’ spirits in Liao’erwa painted a heavy exclamation mark for the uprising with a thick and desolate color, a thought provoking Episode left for later generations. As far as the structure is concerned, Water Margin is a relatively independent and loosely connected whole, and the heroes’ order ranking in Chapter 71 can be a dividing line. The first 70 chapters are relatively independent, but the following 50 chapters are relatively concentrated, while the latter is a reasonable continuation of the former. The structure of the first part of the novel is interlaced by two levels: Liangshan Marsh is the destination of heroes. This basic trend of the development of the first 70 chapters form the first level of narrative clues. The story of the heroes being forced to go to Liangshan one after another formed the role center of the second level. On this level, no matter how long the narrative length is, there is always a character who takes the prominent position of the novel in a certain period of time, so as to promote the development of the story, such has Wang Jin → Shi Jin → Lu Zhishen → Lin Chong → Yang Zhi → Chao Gai → Song Jiang → Wusong Although some of these characters did not become the protagonists at that time and later, such as Shi Jin; some did not fade out immediately, but shared a common path with the latter protagonists, such as Lu Zhishen and Lin Chong; some of them did not immediately

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become the center, such as Song Jiang, their natural encountering and story evolution based on their common recognition of “Heroes” made the narratives of the first 70 chapters orderly and appealing. This structure of Water Margin is similar to Golden Lotus: Pan Jinlian, Meng Yulou, Li Ping’er have relatively complete stories before coming to Qimen’s house from different backgrounds. This similarity may be due to the relationship between novel and storytelling. Different from the former 70 chapters, the justice alliance of Liangshan heroes has already formed in the latter part. The novel takes the war officers and the expedition army as the central structural story, that is, the latter 50 chapters no longer take the story of individual characters as the center, but the same event and character group as the main structural form. In fact, the transformation of the narrative form of Water Margin had taken shape since Chapter 47 when Zhujia Village was attacked, before Chapter 70, it was interlaced with their being forced to Liangshan. When a justice alliance of Liangshan and the order ranking are completed in Chapter 71, the narrative naturally turns to focus on all the heroes fighting against the enemy (the official army or other rebel forces). 4.

Individualization is the core of the characterization in Water Margin

From Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Water Margin, the creation method of the novel has made great progress with the skills in characterization. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is greatly limited by the reality of history, so the characterization relies on historical materials excessively; Water Margin is different. As an artistic fictional work, it brings characterization art to a more advanced level. Water Margin has created images of Liangshan heroes with strong legendary characteristics, turning it a genealogy of legendary heroes. However, this is only one aspect. The highly individualized image of the characters is the core of the art of characterization in Water Margin, and it is also a great contribution to the ancient Chinese novels. Under the label of “hero”, many characters have something in common. For example, when it comes to characters, they all tend to draw a sword and render help whenever there is injustice; when it comes to martial arts, they all have their own strengths and each excels. Only by describing their distinctive personalities can we distinguish them from each other. Water Margin describes the typical environment on which the character’s personality forms. The typical environment affects the typical characters and promotes development and change of their characters. In turn, typical characters can reveal the essence of a typical environment. Hegel once said: “To have realistic and objective existence, one must have a physical world around them, just as God need to have a temple.”13 Romance of the Three Kingdoms does not pay attention to the expression of the relationship between the environment and the character, so it is necessary to highlight the character’s personality. The relationship between environment and character is most commonly expressed in the process of being forced to go to Liangshan, in which the heroes are different. Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, Wu Song, Yang Zhi are all well written about the relationship between their personalities and their environment, especially Lin Chong. 13

Hegel: Aesthetics, Vol. 1st, translated by Zhu Guangqian, Commercial Press, 1979, p. 312.

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Chapters 7–12 and 19 concentrate on the story of Lin Chong. The coexistence of heroism and cowardice are the characteristics of Lin Chong’s image in the first half of his biography. The former is his inside and the latter is his outside. With the change of the external environment, the two sides transform into each other, and the former prevails in the end. This is the basis of the characterization of Lin Chong’s personality in the novel, which shows that Water Margin has a good grasp of the relationship between the description of a typical environment and the personality of prominent characters. Lin Chong was born into a family of military officers. He inherited the position of chief military instructor of eight hundred thousand imperial guard troops in the capital city. Such status and a beautiful wife made him a more cautious man when he was in trouble then. He compromised to the reality, wishing for nothing but a peaceful family life, which led to his tolerance, but he was endowed with a heroic spirit with birth and status. This heroic spirit had been revealed at his first appearance in the novel when watching Lu Zhishen’s performance and when he learned that his wife was stopped for flirting. It was just a flash of light and electricity at the moment then. In the following part of the story, his hero cyclone was drowned by his endurance: Lin Chong leaves Zhishen, jumped over the wall and rushed to Yue Temple with Jin’er. Getting to the Wuyue Tower, he saw a young man standing by himself, with his back to him, and stopped Lin Chong’s wife. “Go upstairs and I will talk to you.” Lin Chong’s wife blushed and said, “How dare you flirt with a woman of good family in the peaceful world?” Lin Chong rushed to him, turned the young man’s shoulder blade, and shouted, “Do you have an idea of the crime you are committing to flirt with a good man’s wife!” Just before blowing his fist, he recognized it was Gao Yanei, the adopted son of Grand Commandant Gao... who was a bully in the capital, particular fond of seducing the wives and daughters of others. The people in the capital were all intimated by his power and nobody dared to confront him. He got the nickname of “playboy”. At that time, Lin Chong turned him over, and saw it was Gao Yanei. He softened... Lin Chong was still angry. He stared at Gao Yanei and Zhishen said, “I’ll fight for you!” Lin Chong said: “He is the adopted son of my boss Grand Commandant Gao. He didn’t know it was my wife. I was going to beat that guy up for his rudeness but gave up to save the face of Commandant Gao. There is the old saying: “Immediate boss is more important than the top officials”, I will forgive him this time upon his request.” (Chapter 6)

Through the description of Lin Chong’s sudden change of attitude of feeling indignant but not dare to speak out, the novel truly describes the restriction of environment on his character. The novel specially contrasts Lu Zhishen’s performance with that of him, so as to have it strengthened: Zhishen said: “you are afraid of this Grand Commandant, but I don’t give him any mind. If I run into that lower level creature, I will let him feel three hundred strokes of my Zen sticks!” After this incident, though Lin Chong put up with it, he was “depressed for days and not willing to go to the street”. When he heard that Lu Qian had tricked Mrs. Lin to his home and let Gao Yanei flirt with her, he immediately rushed there and smashed Lu Qian’s home to pieces. It can be seen that patience is his last option under the circumstantial constraints. This restriction played a role in Lin Chong for a long time in the development of the whole event: entering the White Tiger Hall by mistake, he knew it was a trick, but he just begged and confessed; being banished to Cangzhou, he

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endured the beating, scolding and scalding of the escort; facing the attempted murder in Boar Forrest, he sat in tears, waiting for his death. This is due to the limitation of the previous environment which prevented him from recognizing the nature of Gao Qiu. After being persecuted, he always had a bit of fantasy and was willing to serve his sentence well and be an obedient man. Without being driven to the verge of death, the “forbearance” in his character cannot be transformed automatically. The hero’s toughness is like the earth fire hidden under the surface of tolerance. When the external pressure was gradually increasing, and the pursuer burned the forage field, his fantasy completely disillusioned, and it is impossible for him to be obedient any more. The true nature of his character took the upper hand, resistance took the place of forbearance, and finally he beheaded his enemy and went to Liangshan without hesitation. In this way, the work depicts Lin Chong’s image in the conflict between environment and personality, and reveals the relationship between his personality development and external environment. When the external environment and Lin Chong’s true personality reach the same level, his main characteristics of firmness, determination and magnanimity are presented. The conflict with Wang Lun is the last and the best of his stories in the work. In this event, it mainly shows Lin Chong’s determination and magnanimity. He made the quick decision of killing Wang Lun, devoted himself to Liangshan career, and helpd the late comer Chao Gai in the first place. Since then, he had been loyal to Liangshan’s cause and one of the most determined opponents of royal recruitment. Water Margin is good at writing connections between the plot and the personalities of the characters, so as to highlight those personalities. Plot serves as the history of character development. Focusing on plot, is a major artistic feature of Chinese classical novels developed from the storytelling script. In the aspect of image building, it is different from the structure of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which combines historical chronology and life stories of the characters. To some extent, the evolution of some parts of the novel, which are connected just by storytelling, depends on the complete narrative process in closing the gap so as to achieve the whole. It is said that attaching importance to the plot is a major artistic feature of Chinese classical novels developed from its script, meanwhile it may have more important significance for the complete plot construction of a certain character. An excellent plot description should be closely related to the performance of the character’s personality. That is to say, to highlight a plot complies with the aesthetic principle that the plot is the history of character movement. If only from the point of view of storytelling, the plot of Water Margin twists and turns with all the intricacies, showing a very high narrative art, but this is far from being its full charm. The plot and the performance of the character correspond perfectly. The plot is written according to the characteristics of the characters, so that their personalities are highlighted in words, which is the strength of the novel. Wu Song’s brave and upright personality are shown in his tiger fighting in Jingyang Hill, rejecting Pan Jinlian, killing his sister-in-law to sacrifice his brother, drunkenly beating Jiang Menshen, making a Episode in Feiyunpu, and splashing blood on Mandarin Duck Tower. Lu Zhishen is kind-hearted and hot-blooded, characterized with rudeness and quick wit, but also presented with the events such as

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helping Jin Cuilian, punching Zhen Guanxi, making a Episode in Wutai Mountain, pulling up the willow tree, and saving Lin Chong in Boar Forest. Similarly, Li Kui’s honest, innocent, reckless and fearless personalities are also vividly depicted with his making a Episode in Xunyang River, saving Song Jiang from the execution ground, killing four tigers with Yiling fist, chopping Luo Zhenren with an axe, killing Yin Tianxi, pleading guilty and scolding recruitment. Such examples are numerous in Water Margin. Water Margin achieves highly in presenting the personality of different characters in one plot. For example, the story of taking birthday gifts by strategy focuses on seven people, including Chao Gai, Wu Yong, Ruan Sanxiong, Liu Tang, Gongsun Sheng, and interspersed with other characters as Bai Sheng, Song Jiang, Yang Zhi. Their personalities are fully demonstrated such as Chao Gai, as the leader and military counsellor of Liangshan later, is righteous, generous and sociable among the heroes, Wu Yong is resourceful, bold and prudent. The same is true for the other characters in the plot: three heroes of Ruan’s family are brave and gallant, Liu Tang is innocent and willful, Gongsun Sheng is cunning and lofty, and Bai Sheng is witty and flexible. The novel is also good at expressing the personalities of different characters in similar plots. On the way being escorted to the army, Lin Chong suffered a lot of frustrations, what he did was just to hold it inside himself and gave in, but when Wu Song was first escorted to the army in Mengzhou, he ordered two escorts around as if there were servants. When he was escorted the second time to Enshou, the escorts plotted to kill him in Feiyunpu. He killed them with shackles, ran back to Mengzhou City, killed Zhang Dujian, Zhang tuanlian, Jiang mengshen, and wrote his name on the wall. In fact, as for martial arts and shrewdness, Lin Chong is no less than Wu Song. It’s just because tolerance prevailed in Lin Chong’s character at that time. However, Wu Song never had as many fantasies and concerns as Lin Chong, so he acted at will. Another example is Lu Zhishen’s punching of Zhen Guanxi. He only wanted to teach him a lesson, but ended up killing him with three punches. Facing the accident, he cleverly said “feign death” and quickly ran away. Li Kui also accidentally killed Yin Tianxi, but he not only failed to get away himself, but also incriminated Chai Jin in prison. In this way, it distinguishes the rudeness of the two characters: the refined roughness of Lu Zhishen and the simple brutality of Li Kui. The detailed description of Water Margin is often the finishing touch, and also an important means to depict the personality of the characters. For example, there are two details in the description of Shi Xiu: one is to clear Pan Qiaoyun’s false accusation against him and get the trust from Yang Xiong, he killed Pei Ruhai, who had an affair with Pan Qiaoyun, and then stripped his clothes as physical evidence to make Pan Qiaoyun speechless (Chapter 45). The other is his going to Zhujia Village to explore the road in Chapter 47, “after walking for more than 20 li, he saw that the path is zigzaging and complicated, and the four corners are similar; the trees are dense, so it’s hard to recognize the road ahead, Shi Xiu had to drop the firewood load and stopped.” Then he aimed at an old man, deliberately taking a ride with him, and finally learned that the turning of poplar trees in the village was the secret of the road. He took the opportunity to sleep in the old man’s house and found out that Zhujiab Village used the red light as the order of dispatch that night. As a result, he not only

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kept himself safe, but also saved Liangshan army. In contrast to Shi Xiu, Yang Lin, who also went to explore the road, was reckless and soon caught alive. Water Margin is endowed with the legendary features of the heroes, but it seldom deifies the heroes like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Instead, it describes the heroes with “the most modern of expressions” (Jin Shengtan’s The Fifth Talent’s Book. A Study of Water Margin). The difficulty in creating heroes is not in writing their extraordinary, but in writing their ordinary. For example, Wu Song’s bravery is extraordinary even among the heroes. But Chapter 23 is not about his tiger fighting, but about his fear which came out of human instinct. He did not go to Jingyang Hill without knowing that there were tigers in the mountain, but that he didn’t believe the rumors. He didn’t know it was true until he saw the official post. Upon this, his first thought was to return to the inn, but he was afraid of being teased, so he had to go up the mountain. When the tigers really appeared, his response was “Whoops” with cold sweat. After the tiger fighting, he had no energy to feel the joy of victory, instead his hands and feet were soft, just wishing there would be no more tigers. When there came out two other tigers from the bush appeared, not knowing they were the hunters, he was shocked: “Oh! no!” It is this kind of description of ordinary human nature that shows the hero is different from ordinary people not because he is extraordinary, but because he can overcome the inherent cowardice that is natural to ordinary people. In Chapter 42 Gongsun Sheng was going to visit his mother. Song Jiang went to see him off. When the banquet was over, Li Kui cried loudly and said, “What’s happening! One is going to meet Pa, another is going to visit Mom. Nothing like me, the iron ox out of the earth pit.” It turned out that this Episode reminded him of his old mother. The hero’s cry is also a very modern touch. The ingenious combination of legendary color and “the most modern expressions” makes the legendary hero in Water Margin true and believable, and strengthens the realistic expression of the novel.

Chapter 4

The Completion and Achievements of Full-Length Novels of Accumulated Collective Creation Through Generations (II)

4.1 Journey to the West: Twisted Minds Create New Myths 4.1.1 The process of the creation of Journey to the West Originated from the historical events that Monk Xuanzang (600–664) of the Tang Dynasty privately went to Sindhu to get the scripture, the 100-chapter Journey to the West of Shide Hall version was published in Wanli 20th year of the Ming Dynasty (1592). From the start to the publication, a history had been mythologized, and it also reveals how this novel was collectively created based on the accumulation of generations. Its publication also marks a new stage for Chinese mythic novels. Journey to the West was based on the historical event of Tang Monk Xuanzang’s journey to fetch some scriptures. His family was Chen and his hometown was Houshi (now within Yanshi County) in Henan province. When he was 6, his father was dismissed from his position as the county magistrate of Jiangling, and four years later, his father died. He got his religious name at the age of 13 when he became a monk in the Buddhist Holy Earth Temple in the east capital (today’s Luoyang). In Journey to the West, the author made him a native of Honglong, Haizhou. Haizhou now is the Lianyuangang city of Jiangsu province and the Yuntai mountain, where Huaguo mountain waterfall cave was. It used to be an island and was then connected to land. Honglong (now Lingbao county, Henan Province) didn’t belong to Haizhou, and the two places were far away from each other, but Honglong was close to Monk Xuanzang’s hometown. Therefore, the place of Honglong, Haizhou was the combination of Xuann Zang’s hometown and the place in the legend of the Monkey King. According to the novel, Monk Xuanzang brought “35 important mahayana books, 5480 volumes in total” (Chapter 100 of Journey to the West). Actually, the “5480 volumes” is the total number of Tripitaka and Monk Xuanzang brought back 657 of them, including 416 Mahayana Sutras and Analects. The Hongfu Temple and the Ynata Temple are described as places where Monk Xuanzang lived in the novel, are © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_4

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Hongfu Temple and Daci’en Temple respectively in reality. This is consistent with historical facts. The above are merely a few examples of the relationship between the novel and the historical facts. Records of the West in the Great Tang Dynasty written by Monk Xuanzang and Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master in Great Mercy Temple written and edited by his disciples Huili and Yancong offered inspiration of some fictional plots in Journey to the West. Most contents of Records of the West were used by the Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master with more concise expressions. The following parts will only compare the corresponding plots in the two books as proof, but of course, the plots of fiction are not necessarily directly taken from the two books, but that some of the contents were used in the legend and turned into a story chain, through variant text, popular stories, Zaju and other various forms, and finally Journey to the West was completed. As “Shahe” , “Xinjing” and “Qu Wentai”, the king of Gaochang mentioned in the Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master Vol. 1st, Guanyin and The Heart Channel of Hand-Shaoyin were also the origins of the power to rescue Monk Xuanzang and the Monkey King, and the resource of the Liusha River mentioned in the Chapter 22. The same volume also describes that Qu Wentai, the king of Gaochang Country decided to be the “sworn brother” with Monk Xuanzang, and they promised to reunite when Monk Xuanzang returned. When Qu Wentai saw Monk Xuanzang off, he “sent four acolytes to accompany Monk Xuanzang”. Monk Xuanzang’s experience in Black Chicken Country in Chapter 40 of Journey to the West is similar to what was between him and Qu Wentai as well as the reunion with Qu Wentai upon his returning from the west. Monk Xuanzang’s four disciples, including Sun WuKung, Sha Ceng, Pigsy and White Horse, are consistent with the four acolytes which Qu Wentai provided to Monk Xuanzang, and the fictional brotherhood between Emperor Taizong of Tang and Monk Xuanzang might have something to do with the above historical facts. The four female countries recorded in Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master, Vol. 4th is the prototype of the West Liang Women’s Country in Chapter 54 of Journey to the West. Some false records and the hallucination in Records of the West and Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master have the same artistic effect with the fictive plot in the novel. In Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master, the journey to the west is described as “cold, dark and dry mountains, the valley of rough waves, the black wind with air of fierce poison and clusters of beasts”, which became part of the 81 difficulties in the novel. Somehow, except for the Research on Journey to the West written by Hu Shi, Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master and Records of the West have attracted little attention from researchers. About six centuries after Monk Xuanzang’s death, Zhang Wazi Publisher of Hang Zhou published Poetry of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures, which, of all the reserved literature, is the earliest folk edition themed by searching for Buddhist Sutras. The fourth one of the Ten Poems on Sakyamuni and Laozi in The Complete Work of Mr Hou Cun, Vol. 43rd already has such descriptions as “the annoying monkey on the way of searching for Buddhist Sutras”, which proves that this book came out no later than the Song Dynasty. The first 12 chapters of the 100-chapter Journey to the West is the preface, which consists of two parts: (1) before Monk Xuanzang set off from Chang’an, Guanyin

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bodhisattva had a journey from the west to the east, and it also introduces the backgrounds of the Monkey King, Pigsy and Friar Sand; (2) the reason why Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty sent Monk Xuanzang to search for the Buddhist Sutra, including the background of Monk Xuanzang, killing Jing River Dragon in dream and Taizong’s soul going to the heaven. Poetry of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures is composed of three volumes, with six, seven and five sections respectively, 18 sections in total. The first section, which includes the first 12 chapters, was missing. It neither includes the Monkey King’s havoc in heaven, nor anything about Pigsy and. Friar Sand, was not Monk Xuanzang’s disciple, but merely one of the monsters he came across during his journey to the west. Almost at the same time or a little later than Poetry of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures, the Southern Opera of Chen Guangrui’s Monk Sand came out, and its last tune [Bao laocui] mentioned the name of Qian’an Buddhist monk (in reference to the Yellow Bell Tune in The Beginning of Southern Nine Temples), which is yet another sign of proof for the above inference. Going Poetry for Buddhist Scripture records the places(countries) Monk Xuanzang came cross during his journey to the west, including Xiangshan, Snake Country, Lion Wood, Treemen country, Fire Land, Long Pit, Snake Hill, Nine Dragon Pool, Deep Sand, Ghost Mom Country, Women Country, West Queen Pool, Eaglewood Country, Poluo Country, Youboluo country, India and Panlv Country. Of all these places, four are concisely described in Journey to the West: (1) section 6 of Going Poetry for Buddhist Scripture mixes up the Lady White Bone with the Ghost White Bone, and they just had one battle, rather than the three battles that are described in section 27 of the novel; (2) in section 8 of Poetry, although Friar Sand ate Monk Xuanzang’s antecedent two times, and Monk Xuanzang’s skull was hung around his neck, this time he magically made himself a golden bridge to help Monk Xuanzang cross the river. After Monk Xuanzang reached the bank, he said to Friar Sand: “I will return your favor as soon as I am back from the west.” This novel represents two images of Friar Sand, the first one is the Friar Sand in Chapters 8 and 22 who wears a neck made of nine scripture fetchers’ skulls. The other one is the turtle in the 49th chapter who carried Monk Xuanzang across the Heaven Reaching River. Monk Xuanzang promised to consult about his future in the west, an act to “to return his favor,” in Poetry. (3) the Women Country in Chapter 10 in Poetry is edited into Chapter 54 of the novel. (4) section 11 of the Monkey King’s stealing of flat peaches in West Queen Mother’s Lake of Immortals in Poetry is adopted into Chapter 24 in the novel as stealing ginseng fruits in the Five Village View of Long Life Mountain. Though Poetry mainly describes the flat peach, it still preserves the legend of young ginseng fruit. It also writes that the fruit stone was thrown to Mount West “where giseng has been growing ever since.” The two legends are mixed up in Poetry, and in the novel, they are properly handled (5) in section 11 of Poetry, Monk Xuanzang was given 5480 volumes of scripture. On his journey back, he passed by Xianglin temple of Panlvguo, and Dingguofo granted Monk Xuanzang with Duoxinjng. Monk Xuanzang again obtained the scriptures. In the Chapter 19 of the novel, Monk Xuanzang Got the Heart Channel of Hand-Shaoyin in Futu Mountain, in which the giver was Master Wu Chao. By that time, they had merely gone through 12 of the 81 difficulties.

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In the novel, the second time that Monk Xuanzang got the scriptures is described in Chapter 98 where they changed the blank scripture into the true one. Poetry is not as detailed in description as Journey to the West. For example, in Poetry, there is almost no plot about the Eaglewood Country and Poluo Country. The above comparisons are probably not comprehensive. Chapter 17 of Shanxi Wang Changzhe’s Wife Killing Her Son in, Poetry has nothing to do with Monk Xuanzang’s journey to the west, and it is not adopted by the novel. One important point is that some materials of Poetry are adopted and developed by Journey to the West. We can’t ignore the fact that Poetry and Journey to the West have tremendous differences in their developmental levels. Poetry is like a seedling while Journey to the West is like a big tree. For example it is clear in the novel that the Monkey King, Pigsy, Friar Sand and White Horse are Monk Xuanzang’s disciples. The Monkey King, who was restrained by Monk Xuanzang after the havoc in Heaven, is Monk Xuanzang’s first disciple. Monk Xuanzang completely relied on the Monkey King to deal with every challenge as he has no capability in that regard. Their destination is Thunder Temple in Mount Spirit of India. They should send Monk Xuanzang back to the east within eight days after they arrive at Thunder Temple (in reference to Chapter 98 of Journey to the West). Guanyin Bodhisattva is the main immortal to protect Monk Xuanzang during his journey. In Poetry, there is no Pigsy and Friar Sand. The similar image of Friar Sand in Poetry is Sand God, who is merely one of the monsters that Monk Xuanzang came cross in one of the 36 countries in his journey, and Monk Xuanzang didn’t recruit him as his disciple. There are seven people (including Monk Xuanzang) on the journey to the west. Apart from Monk Xuanzang and the Monkey Monk, the rest of them had no names. So in Poetry, there is no separate description of the five people. Neither did the Monkey Monk cause havoc in Heaven, nor did he get a byname of Heavenly Sage and a Buddhist name of Sun Wukong. Instead, he turned into a scholar in white and seemed willing to assist Monk Xuanzang to fetch scriptures in the west. He used to be the monkey king for 84,000 iron-headed monkeys in Purple Cloud cave of Huaguo mountain. While in the novel, he is just a monkey king in Waterfall cave instead of Purple Cloud cave. The immortal for protecting Monk Xuanzang is Pishamen Brahma who gave three magic weapons of a invisible hat, tin stick with a golden ring and alms bowl to Monk Xuanzang and the Monkey Monk. In the novel, the three magic weapons became Monk Xuanzang’s Kasaya, the tin stick, and the Monkey King’s golden cudgel. The three weapons have different functions. It was not until the end of the novel where the characterizations of Monk Xuanzang and the Monkey King were completed. The differences and similarities between Poetry and the novel have been discussed in the above. Besides, it must be pointed out that the two incomplete versions of Poetry of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures published by Zhang Wazi Publisher of Hang Zhou and the remaining copy in Japan are just the two versions of the same system which survived by sheer accident, which is sufficient to present the artistic level of the novels on this theme (including variant text, popular stories, notes on poems and notes on Ci poetry) between the Song and Yuan Dynasties. All

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these prove that this version of Poetry of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures was a poorly-written version at that time.1 Journey to the West was roughly completed no later than at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Some parts as Chechi Country already had vivid plots at that time, while Poetry’s plots were simple, which can be proved in Yongle Canon (1408). Killing Jing River Dragon in Dream is included in Yongle Canon, Vol. 13, 139th, the beginning of which is noted with “Journey to the West”. It was 40 years after the end of the Yuan Dynasty that Yongle Canon was finished. Thus the stories of Journey to the West collected in Yongle Canon must have been finished no later than the Yuan Dynasty. It is different from unofficial histories of The Complete Record of the Imperial Court and the variant text of Heavenly Record of Emperor Taizong of Tang because it includes the plot of Jing River Dragon King’s soul suing Taizong in hell. This plot has 1,400 words in total in this version, and 9,400 words in the 100-chapter version. The 100chapter version of Shide Hall has 680,000 words. According to this proportion, this version of Journey to the West which includes Killing Jing River Dragon in Dream in Yongle Canon has 130,000 words. The block-printed edition of Chinese Learning of Piao in South Korea was published in 1677. It is a Korean-Chinese version which the Korean used to learn Chinese. The adapter says that the two “stories” of Dragon Story of Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty and Journey to the West of Tang Master Monk Sanzang were available in Beijing, and they should have been completed no later than the Yuan Dynasty. We know that an adapter wouldn’t have shared the detailed information of a newly-published and unpopular book. The 12 monsters and places they passed by written in page 267 of Chinese Learning of Piao are generally the same with these in the 100-chapter version. For example, the Shituo Country, the Spines Hole, the Volcano and the Poop Cave in the Chinese Learning of Piao are respectively in Chapter 74, Chapter 64, Chapter 59 and Chapter 67, with slightly different characters but the same meanings and pronunciation. The story of the four-round battle against the Master of Chechi Country on page 295 of the Chinese Learning of Piao is described from Chapters 44–46 of the 100-chapter novel.2

1

As it has been explained, section 17 should be the error of section 18: at least two of them lack the plot, which shows that the deletion is improper and the editing is very hastily done. As far as geography is concerned, it equates the West Heaven (Tianzhu) with Jizu Mountain in Yunnan Province. See section 2 “the same to the West Heaven Jizu Mountain”; section 15: “this is the West Heaven Tianzhu state, near Jizu mountain. On the third day, a city gate, with a plate on it, was in sight…The Buddha is in Jizu Mountain.” In terms of the times, the sixth, thirteenth, fifteenth and last sections all refer to the Ming Emperor, that is, the abbreviation of the posthumous title of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (reigned from 712 to 756), and only the last section refers to Emperor Taizong (reigning in 627–649). Two different eras are mixed up into one. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the adapters and booksellers of popular literature were not at the same level. Therefore, it was said that it was a poor surviving version. 2 The above citation is based on the 1677 reprinted edition of Imperial University of Japan in 1943, which is in the collection of Gerhard Library at Princeton University. In the book, there are not only the words “Spring of Zhizheng Bing Xu year in the Capital (Zhizheng of the Yuan Dynasty 1346)”, but also the name of Shuntian Mansion of the Ming Dynasty. I would also like to express my thanks

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The above is the plot in Chinese Learning of Piao about Journey to the West, which can be regarded as the same as those in the existing 100-chapter novel. The different versions of Chinese Learning of Piao are two kinds: one is the explanation the adapter of Chinese Learning of Piao has made about the literature historical truth in Journey to the West, which is almost consistent with history. This is not the difference between the edition of Journey to the West in the Yuan Dynasty or at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and that of today. The other differences between the version of the Yuan Dynasty and that of today are true: the order of the 81 sufferings recorded on page 267 of Chinese Learning of Piao that Monk Xuanzang experienced is greatly different from today’s version. The narration of Chechi Country in Chinese Learning of Piao presents the differences between today’s version and that of the Yuan Dynasty–-today’s version has been improved and finished on the basis of that of the Yuan Dynasty. From Chapters 44 to 46, it has 300,000 words to depict the adventures Monk Xuanzang, along with his companions, had in Chechi Country. The story of praying to God for rain and another four contests, (the cloud ladder climbing, guessing behind the clapboard, heart gouging and oil pot frying), as the story of the Monkey subdues the White-Bone Demo and the story of Borrowing Palm-Leaf Fan from Princess Iron Fan, are brilliant chapters that the author finished with greatest energy. Zaju at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and in the early part of the Ming Dynasty was also related to novels. According to the Ghost Book of Tianyi Library version, Wu Changling, the author of Zaju in the early Yuan Dynasty, created a Zaju named Fetching the Scripture to the West. It is summarized as: Laohui returns to the east tower for Buddha, Monk Sanzang travels west for the scriptures.” Jia Zhongming commented that it was “completely different from the novel”, which means the Zaju is rather different from the novel in their plots. Although Zaju is well-reserved, it is of little use for the research of the novel. Journey to the West by Yang Jingyan, who lived at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and in the early Ming Dynasty, consists of six Zaju. It was finished almost at the same age as Killing Jing River Dragon in Dream and Chinese Learning of Piao of Yongle Canon. The first one of the six Zaju, along with Killing Jing River Dragon in Dream, are enough to prove that stories for the background of Monk Xuanzang, Killing Jing River Dragon in Dream and Heavenly Record of Emperor Taizong of Tang, and that they became the important parts of Journey to the West no later than during the early Ming Dynasty. Obviously, Yang Jingyan deleted the stories of Killing Jing River Dragon in Dream and Heavenly Record of Emperor Taizong of Tang because of the restriction of Zaju. The six Zaju consist of 24 episodes in which there is no main role going through all of them. The role of the Monkey King shows up in Episode 9. He is called Sage of Power, and Heavenly Sage is his brother. This is the point where Zaju is unique. The content of the Monkey King being pressed under Five-finger Mountain after he caused havoc in Heaven is consistent with that of Chinese Learning of Piao. So according to the legend, the character of the Monkey King, as Friar Sand and Pigsy, are introduced one after another in Monk Xuanzang’s journey to the west, and he is not the main to Dr. Wu Xiuqing of Seoul University, South Korea, for presenting me Piao’s Chinese Learning collected from Kyungpook National University.

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character throughout the novel, but the Monkey King has a lot more experiences than the other two, so his part absolutely dominates the whole novel, which makes the Monkey King a unique main character in the novel. The story of Sum WuKong is put in the first volume of the novel, giving the role of the Monkey King a unique and relatively independent position. This is a creation of the adapter. The introduction of Monk Xuanzang’s background in the novel is the same as that of Staying by the River, The Sweatshirt and The Vendor, The name of Monk Xuanzang’s mother (Man Tangjiao), as well as the role of a little girl named Little Golden from Chen Village in Chapter 47, also originated from the Zaju. It is almost impossible to finish both the Zaju and the novel of Journey to the West without folklore literature.

4.1.2 Journey to the West and the Adapter of the Final Version The earliest version of the 100-chapter Journey to the West was proofread by Master Huayang Dongtian, published by Shide Hall of Jinling. At the beginning of the volume, Chen Yuanzhi of Moling (today’s Nanjing) wrote preface for Four Days in the Early Summer of Renchen. Renchen was Wanli 20th year (1592). According to A Bibliography of Novels Seen in Tokyo, Japan, by Sun Kaidi, the version of Journey to the West in the Ming Dynasty didn’t include the original 9th chapter of Chen Guangrui Coming Cross Disaster on His Way to Office, Monk Jiangliu Revenging on His Dead Parents. In this chapter, the renowned Jinshan Temple and the Jiaoshan Temple of Zhenjiang are put in Jiangzhou (today’s Jiujiang of Jiangxi province, and the Wanhua shop that Chen Guangrui and his wife passed by on their way from Meizhou (today’s Lianyungang of Jiangsu province) to Jiangzhou, are put in northwestern Hongzhou (today’s Nanchang province). The direction and the distance are totally wrong. On the other hand, the part of introducing the background of Monk Xuanzang has little to do with Monk Xuanzang in the novel. Therefore, the missing parts are intentionally deleted by the adapter, not just missed unintentionally. Besides, the adapter made four chapters as the 10th, 11th and 12th chapters of the novel in this version, so as to make up for the missing chapters In the rhymed writing of Chapter 11, the adapter kept words showing traces of the original “Born in a life of a falling star, the river is surging with the tide. There is strong evidence for Jinshan island, as he was raised by the monk Qian’an.” In Chapter 99, the adapter made ‘Full moon cast in the river’ the third one of the 81 difficulties. Therefore, the plots of the 9th and the 11th chapters are regarded as the symbols for the Shide Hall version. The book reviews for Journey to the West of the Qing Dynasty version include Zhengdao Book of West Journey by Huang Taihong and Wang Xiangxu, The Truth of West Journey by Chen Shifu, The Essence of West Journey by Liu Yiming and The True Common Story of West Journey by Zhang Hanzhang. The common ground shared by all these versions for Journey to the West in the Qing Dynasty is to include the original Chapter 9 “Chen Guangrui Coming Across Disaster on His Way to

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Office, Monk Jiangliu Revenging on His Dead Parents”, incorporating the original Chapters 9–12 into three new chapters and changing Qian’an, the name of the monk in Jinshan Temple, into Faming. Among all the collectively-created novels through generations, the words and sentences in Journey to the West are much more standardized than the other works of the same type. The original Chapter 9 had to be deleted due to the many mistakes in it, such as the wrong names of Jinshan Temple and the Wanhua Shop, the contradiction that the birth of Monk Xuanzang and the time of the journey to the west are both in Zhenguan 13th year. Journey to the West of Shide Hall version deleted the original Chapter 9, which shows that there existed another version of the 100-chapter Journey to the West—the common resource for all kind of versions. There are two characteristics of this earlier 100-chapter version: (1) it includes the story of the monk named Qian’an adopting Monk Xuanzang; (2) its words are not as fluent as the Shitang Hall version. Ever since the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, Journey to the West seemed to have two system versions, Shide Halls version and the version of The Truth of West Journey, but they have few differences, apart from the omission or adaption of the original Chapter 9, the different names of the Monk and conciseness of the plot. Journey to the West of Shide Hall is the final version for the novel. Its words were greatly polished, the original Chapter 9 was deleted and the introduction about Buddhist Scriptures might be an addition to the novel by the adapter. The adapter of Journey to the West made more effort to perfect the novel than that of Water Margin and that of The Golden Lotus. All the other versions are the selections of the Shide Hall version or its original version. Is Wu Cheng’en the author of Journey to the West of Shide Hall version? We can infer, from the development of the novels such as Journey to the West, Poetry and Yongle Canon to the Zaju of Journey to the West by Yang Jingyan, and the extant original version discussed before, that the novel of Journey to the West was not created by an individual. Therefore, the comment by Lu Xun and Hu Shi that Journey to the West was written by Wu Cheng’en is not creditable.3 According to the article of Whether the 100th−Chapter Journey to the West Is Written by Wu Cheng’en by professor Zhang Peiheng, the only ground for that comment is the record in the Records of Articles and Bibliography of Huaixian in Huai’an Prefecture Records, Vol. 19th: “Wu Cheng’en: Sheyang Collection (4 volumes); Preface to Spring and Autumn Historical Records; Journey to the West.” There is no explanation about the volumes and the writing genre for Journey to the West in the prefecture records. The 8th volume of Bibliography of Qianqing Hall by Huang Yuji in the early Qing Dynasty is about the geography, but “Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en” is recorded. Obviously, it is not the novel for Journey to the West we can read today. Zhang also pointed out that Wu Cheng’en named Er Lang God Master QingYuan in Er Lang God’s, Mountain Searching, which is different from that in Journey to the West. It is said in Yuding Historical Records “All the stores in my chest are gone, but only a dozen things remain.” Zhang believed that no matter when the records 3

Social Sciences Front, 1983 (3).

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were written, before or after Journey to the West, it was not consistent with the novel Journey to the West. Besides, Zhang questioned the Huai’an dialect in Journey to the West. Here we must supplement that there were more than one set of travel notes on the theme of Journey to the West in the Ming Dynasty. In the preface Wang Shizhen wrote for Collection of Dami Mountain House by Li Weizhen, he said Li Weizhen had written Journey to the East and Journey to the South, together called Four Journeys, which was finished a little earlier than the Wanli 14th year in the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Han wrote a preface for his Dreamy Notes by the Pine Window in Wanli 21st year in the Ming Dynasty (1593) when he was 83. In the second volume of this book, there are Journey to the West and travel notes for South, North and East. Journey to the West is his travel notes during his travel in Jiajing 38th year during the Ming Dynasty starting from his hometown Hangzhou, going through Anhui, Huguang, Three Gorges, to Chengdu, Chang’an and Taiyuan. The Monkey King has the main role in Journey to the West. His birthplace is no doubt in Huaguoshan Waterfall cave, and Monk Xuanzang’s hometown is changed into Hongnong County of Haizhou. The rhymed writing that “ten thousand meter water fall being heard from ten miles away,” in the 8th chapter eulogizes the Liusha River, which was derived from A Hundred Step Waterfall of Xuzhou at that time. The less famous Xuyi mountain referred in Chapter 66 is the Xuyi county of north Suzhou. We can believe that the novel has some relationship with the Huaihai district, but this relationship doesn’t necessarily mean that its author was from north Suzhou. Su Shi had famous poetry works of A Hundred Steps Waterfall and Tower of Monks in Sizhou but he was from Meishan, Sichuan. North Suzhou was a big region with a dense population, in the same scale as a middle-sized European country. Even though one of the authors for the novel might come from north Suzhou, it doesn’t mean this person is Wu Cheng’en. To sum up, as the novel was collectively-created through generations, Journey to the West was finished no later than the early Ming Dynasty. Whether Wu Cheng’en is the true author for the novel still needs to be proven.

4.1.3 The Main Idea and the Artistic Features of Journey to the West Journey to the West initiated a new era for literature creation of mythology. As a mythological novel, the essential characteristics of myth and has two significant differences with ancient myth: (1) in novels, reality and the mythic world share the common world, the latter is the reflection of the former. While in original myth, its the explanation of reality (2) the conflicts presented in novels are purely those between people and their society, but the contradictions in original myth are between humans and nature. In original myth, people’s living environment is the rough reflection of people’s simple ideas, while in the novel, the real society is not only the real, existence, but also a miraculous fantasy. All immortals and demons wear all kinds

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of masks, playing different roles in real society and representing all types of people in reality. Therefore, in the novel, reality and the ideal life are contrasted with each other, the secular life and lofty thinking are integrated. What is the main idea of Journey to the West? Over the past years, it’s been a heated topic of discussion, mostly on the basis of it being an individual work of Wu Cheng’en. If we recognize that the novel has gone through collective creation through generations, its mythic characteristics and the special social background against which it was finished, we will find the contents of the novel are rather complex and the belief of the author is not simple. So the ideological feature of the novel is it doesn’t have a main idea. From the author’s perspective, we can only infer that the combination of three religions prevailed when the novel was finished and it had some influence on the creation of the novel. Therefore, Journey to the West, which shows great respect for Buddhism, quoted the poem of Quanzhen Taoism, which contain a lot of expressions of Buddhism The pure doctrine of Quanzhen Taoism may not exist in the novel, And because of this, the Buddhism hymn from Monk Xuanzang in Chapter 78 criticizes some approaches of Taoism by saying “If we collect Yin to nourish Yang, it is a fallacy; if we take pills of immortality, it is empty words actually”, but he also quotes Zhuang Zi “Great wisdom is idle and indifferent to the material; the truthful mind is silent and set it free in leisurely style.” Anyway the author didn’t treat the three religions equally by respecting Buddhism and restraining Taoism, giving more attention to Confucianism and less to Taoism. Most of the monsters are from Taoism in the novel, which is typical of respecting Buddhism and restraining Taoism. This is illustrated by the Buddhism hymn from Monk Xuanzang in Chapter 78. Another illustration is when the queen’s father, a Taoist priest, from Biqiu Country quoted Hyme of Tao, “showing the gallantry of Taoism, better than Confucianism, better officials, wealthier life”, the second sentence was omitted (Lingering Sound of Crane, Vol. 9th). The combination of three religions has made great influence on the research for Journey to the West ever since the Qing Dynasty, but no matter how much of such an idea is presented in the novel and no matter which religion it respects or restrains, it is merely the background for one of the complexities in the novel. It would be understandable if we have to give a main idea to Journey to the West or think it provides profound implication with common expressions. The novel is merely to show the wit of a mass culture, the feelings, experiences and ideals of life people had during the creation of the novel using historical facts of traveling to fetch Scriptures in the form of myth in a humorous and fantastic way. The Monkey King is imposed with a ferrule on his head in the novel, but we shouldn’t impose upon the novel a main idea. Although the opinion of Hu Shi in his Criticism on Journey to the West might be a little rash4 and the view of Lu Xun in Change of Chinese Novels in History might be too general,5 they at least recognized that the main idea of the 4 A Textual Research on Journey to the West: “Journey to the West is at most a very interesting myth novel, which has no subtle meanings but carries a bit of abusive cynicism” (Hu Shi’s Views on Chinese Classical Novels, The Yangtze River Literature and Art Press, 1987, p. 314). 5 Lu Xun said in his Historical Changes of Chinese Novels: “As for the purpose of this book, some people say it is to motivate learning; some say it is to talk about Zen; some say it is to preach, a lot of

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novel is rather complicated and they were not urgently looking for a definite answer. It is true that academic research should weed through the old and bring forth the new, but not all the old is out of date and not all the new means advancement. Nowadays, some people are interested in making comment on the philosophy or the so-called fable essence of Journey to the West by referring the religious doctrines. In fact, those are the defined views that critics have had ever since Chen Yuanzhi made a preface for the Shide Hall version Some scholars today further summarize that those are the representations of mind studies during the Ming Dynasty, but obviously they have neglected the fact that Journey to the West was finished no later than the early Ming Dynasty and mind study prevailed in the late Ming Dynasty. It is almost impossible that such social trend of thought should be the main idea in such collectively created novels as Journey to the West. Even if the author cared about the trend, it is still hard to be the main idea in the novel. The most outstanding artistic achievement of Journey to the West is the successful establishment for the role of the Monkey King. The Monkey King, the main character of Journey to the West, the same as the role of Zhuge Liang, is not a product made by a genius. As we mentioned above, in folk legend, the Monkey King, Pigsy and Friar Sand are of equal importance and that the Monkey King becoming the main character of the novel is an important creation. In the first seven chapters, the role of the Monkey King features breaking all the shackles, pursing freedom and desiring an easy life, thus becomes a unique character. He was born between the sky and the earth, innocent with a free mind. He dares to do whatever he wants and never shirks from any responsibilities like a hero. The first chapter tells how Subodhi gave him the name by using the components of the Chinese character “monkey”. After he got the Golden Cudgel in the Dragon King’s Palace, he asked the Dragon King for some proper clothes. The Dragon King tried to decline and the Monkey King said: “Really? Then what about testing the iron stick (Golden Cudgel) on your body?” The Dragon King had no choice but to do what he was asked. A ghost from Hades tried to steal the Monkey King’s soul. Then the Monkey King burst into Hades, which frightened the judge and offered him the pen to let him cross out the Monkey from the death book (Chapter 3) The Jade Emperor sent a message to pacify the Monkey King, trying to constrain him in Heaven, but when he realized that the Horse Master was just a minor officer, he was so angry that he returned back to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits and proclaimed himself Monkey King. The Jade Emperor had to recognize this name and tricked him back to Heaven (Chapter 4). The Queen Mother of the West didn’t invite the Monkey King to attend the Festival of Immortal Peaches, so the Monkey King caused havoc in Heaven and again returned back to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits (Chapter 5). This time, the Monkey King would neither trust those immortals in Heaven, nor withstand Heaven. When Buddha came to help the Monkey King, he claimed that unless he became the Jade Emperor, he wouldn’t stop causing different understandings, but in my opinion, it’s just the author’s game. Since he was influenced by the belief of the same origins of the three religions, so that Sakyamuni, Laojun, Guanyin, Zhenxing, Yuanshen are omnipresent, which is applicable for believers of whatever religion” (Appendix to A Brief History of Chinese Novels, People’s Literature Press, 1973, p. 297).

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havoc (Chapter 7). However, though the Monkey King could turn a somersault to a distance of one hundred and eight thousand li, he still couldn’t get away from the palm of Buddha. He was finally pressed under the Five-finger Mountain and his confrontation against Heaven was ended with the success of Buddha. When the Monkey King appeared again in the Chapter 14, it was 500 years later. He became a great disciple of dharmas protection who had been converted to Buddhism and together with Monk Xuanzang went to fetch the Buddhism Scriptures in the west. Besides, in order to prevent him from revolting again, he was forced by the Goddess of Mercy to wear a lock ring. Monk Xuanzang could read the Incantation of the Golden Hoop to control him. In mythic novels, no matter how weird the artistic form is, it always includes realistic factors. It seems that the former part about the Monkey King contradicts with the second part which describes the Monkey King’s paying allegiance to Buddhism and becoming the protector. In fact, that is not the case. Regardless of the intent of the adapter, it is the euphemistic reflection of reality that under any specific environment, that the people’s rebellion against the existing order could only end with failure. This point, was well handled. The Monkey King is to protect Monk Xuanzang during their journey to the west, but to surrender to the Jade Emperor. This change keeps the former and latter image of the Monkey King unified, but no doubt this change is the ideological concession to reality. This might be the tragic significance of the image of the Monkey King. Of course, what the image of the Monkey King brings most to us is spiritual encouragement, that is, encouraging the pursuit of freedom, the neglect of authority and the triumph over all difficulties. In an imperfect society, people’s essence of nature is usually alienated and the development of an individual is always impeded. The collective creators of the novel placed their nature and their desire for omnipotence on the Monkey King, so that they can joyfully feel that the power of themselves extending in the ideal world created in the novel. The immortals and demons in the novel, no matter how high their position is, or no matter they are evil or righteous, they are all the representatives of people in reality. Similar to the immortals living on the Alps in ancient Greek myths and legends, the behavior of those immortals and demons in Journey to the West can reflect on the social life during the process of creation. In Chapter 98, the four of them finally reach the West, and when A’nuo and Jiaye assigned the scriptures to Monk Xuanzang and his three disciples, they try to blackmail them. When that failed, they fooled Monk Xuanzang with blank scriptures. Then Monk Xuanzang and his disciples came to Buddha to tell him what his disciples had done, but Buddha thought it was just a little problem, and said Biqiu had just earned three-liters of rice worth of gold. “I once thought it was such a bad deal that the descendants would be starving, but you come empty-handed so the result is blank scriptures.” In fact, Buddha had already known this. He just indulged his disciple. This is apparently more like profiteering in business dealings than the passing of scriptures. Yellow rice stands for gold and white rice for silver. These terms prevailed in the Ming Dynasty and they were the codes for bribery. According to Anecdotes of Ruling, Vol. 2nd by Chen Hongmo, during the time of Hongzhi, the eunuch named Li Guang was in power and the ministers bribed him. After Li Guang died, people found a notebook with records of his gains

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from bribery. It recorded that the number of gold and silver reached millions. In the 67th chapter of The Gold Lotus completed after Journey to the West, when Huang Si bribed Ximen Qing, he gave Ximen Qing a note for one hundred silver, and took some silver from his pocket. Ying Bojue shoot a glance and found 100 liang silver. The bribery codes are included in the 18th, 26th, 75th chapters.6 Journey to the West is good at shaping the appearance of the characters through the animal’s image, and endowing them with characteristic of ordinary people, thus creating new images of immortals and demons. Apart from the image of the Monkey King which has attached great importance, the image of Pigsy is also vivid. Although the appearance and the habits of the pig are not that pleasing, his personified characteristic is brilliant. This is a complete and well-rounded image. He is sincere and honest, tough and hard-wording, but at the same time selfish and lazy, greedy and concupiscent, gossiping and always ready to go back to his Gaolao Village whenever difficulties come to him., He and the Monkey King are both clever, but the Monkey King is as smart as a monkey and Pigsy is as clumsy as a little pig. The descriptions for different characters in the novel are all brilliant. The depictions of the opposing characters, such as White Bone Demon, Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan, are also impressive. As the only non-immortal or non-demon image, Monk Xuanzang is the idol in the novel, which the adapter established by all means possible, and this image is exclusive to Chinese ancient novels. It seems that the image shaping for Monk Xuanzang is not that successful, as he is too fatuous and cowardly, but in this novel, the author advocated his spirits of showing no fear for dangers and difficulties, determined and indomitable in pursuing his ideal which he finally fulfilled through all the hardships. He represents the great wisdom that guided his disciples to accomplish their cultivation. By contrast, the fire and golden eyes in telling demons and monsters of the Monkey King are merely ordinary wisdom. Therefore, the great wisdom of Monk Xuanzang is essential for their journey. When four of them finally became immortals, Monk Xuanzang turned around to express his thanks to his three disciples. The Monkey King said: “We two are supporting each other. I was lucky to follow you to have myself cultivated” (Chapter 98). Their conversation well explains their relationship. The image of Monk Xuanzang is more or less stereotyped while the image of Friar Sand has no individuality. As one of the famous works collectively-created through generations, compared with Water Margin and The Golden Lotus, Journey to the West has one obvious feature: its words and sentences are carefully polished by its adapter. Not only that the ill-formed sentences are few, but also the syntax, wording and phrasing are much more standardized than the other novels of the same type. The irony style of the language makes the dialogue more humorous, very refreshing to the readers. The contribution Journey to the West made for the development of language in vernacular long novels, is possibly related to the process of the creation, and more likely related to the adapter’s language skill.

6

Chen Zhao: A Notes on Golden Lotus, Shanghai Bookstore Press, 1999, p. 99.

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In the artistic organization, Journey to the West combines the collected biographies for characters with one main clue with typical poetic story style. The first 22 chapters are the collected biographies for the five characters (including White Dragon Horse), with the Monkey King as the line supported by the origin for the west journey and the organization of the team, including the background stories of Monk. Xuanzang, Pigsy, Friar Sand and White Dragon Horse. In the second part, the cause of the journey turns out to be the main story line and the 81 difficulties form into about 40 stories. This is actually a simple organization presented in Poetic Stories art, good for storytelling and entertaining for the audience. The first part of the novel makes the Monkey King the main role while giving relatively complete collected biographies for all the characters. Obviously, this is similar to the organization of the first part of Water Margin. This is also the process of enriching the story of the Monkey King as well as distinguishing him. It is a transferring part to help readers follow the story with the background knowledge of the trip and the characters, upon which plots with all kinds of difficulties during the journey can be easily developed. Of the 40 stories, the 81 difficulties are relatively independent, that is, different difficulties are presented in different chapters. This can also set suspense to attract the listeners attention and facilitate the storyteller to continue his story next time. The organization of the novel does not have many amazing skills and meanings. Some researchers point out that the organization of the novel includes some symbolic meanings, an opinion that we should respect. As a new mythic novel, the symbolic meaning is indispensable. This characteristic can be explained not only from the organization but also from the story as long as it has something to do with reality. The novel is nourished by the materials of the collective creation, and also creates stories such as causing havoc in Heaven, three fights with White Bone Demon, marriage in Gaolao Village, stealing Ginsen fruit and three times of switching of the banana fan, which is the development of a Chinese classic narrative novel. However, though the hardships are of all kinds, the narration of the story is flat as the stories develop further, which is the apparent weakness of the novel. Jin Shengtan said in Reading the Calligraphy of the Fifth Talent: “Whenever Monk Xuanzang and his disciples can not handle situations, there must be the Goddess of Mercy to help them.”7 This comment hits the mark.

7

The Fifth Talent’s Book of Water Margin, Jin Shengtan’s Reviews on Talent Books, Guangming Daily Press, 1997, pp. 19–20.

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4.2 Golden Lotus: The New World of Secular Life 4.2.1 The Publication, Adapters, Dates and Editions of Golden Lotus Golden Lotus is ranked in last place among Chinese ancient collective novels. As the leader of pornographic novels, it seems that it is not worth the researchers’ efforts, but the novel has some more important aspects. It is the first novel in China going into the new world of secular society with its depiction of secular people. Among the four masterpieces, it is undoubtedly closer to today’s readers and has more modern features. Lu Xun classified Golden Lotus and A Dream of the Red Mansion into novels of human feelings in A Brief History of Chinese Novels, which is of great theoretical significance. The two novels are more than a century apart, which fully affirms the fact that it was since Golden Lotus that the secular characters became the protagonists of the novels. As far as the art of a novel is concerned, it is the first Chinese novel with open structure, which breaks the pattern of linear development. At the same time, it is the first novel in China with negative roles as protagonists. If we don’t understand the process of its completion, a crucial stage in the history of the development of Chinese novels will be vague and the truth will not be totally revealed. It has always been believed that Golden Lotus is the beginning of a long novel written by individuals in the history of Chinese literature. The earliest version of Golden Lotus was printed in 1617, Wanli 45th year. Shen Defu listed Golden Lotus under the entry of Ci and Qu in Anthology of Wanli, Vol. 25th with the full name of Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus, which shows the importance he attached to the term “poetic story”. The two words are significant as it indicates the art style of the time, with its text of about 700,000 words. This means that it is an unchangeable fact that Golden Lotus is a collective creation of accumulation by generations. Poetic story, a kind of storytelling art with the combination of talking and singing, was once popular. Golden Lotus being associated with poetic stories was not a mistake. In addition to Golden Lotus, Poetic Stories of the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty are the only extant long poetic stories in the Ming Dynasty. If we admit that the latter is the writing of collective creation, but deny that the former has the same nature, it is undoubtedly a contradiction. Some people may ask: how can the content of Golden Lotus be openly talked in the show? There are some facts to answer this question. Fu Xihua’s “Notes on Music · Playboy Tune” points out that Playboy Tune is one of the popular folk songs in Beijing. There are eight kinds of stories about Golden Lotus sung by it, including chapter 27. In the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai’s Unlocked Garden in The Dream of Tao’an, Vol. 4th also has a record of “talking about Golden Lotus in northern tune, which is intoxicating”. From the numerous records of poetic story art left by Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus itself, it can be seen that it is not a personal creation: there are lyrics at the beginning of each chapter and at the end of most chapters; some parts of the text retain the features of poetic stories at that time; almost all of the chapters have the poems and songs inserted, especially the songs. When it comes to play, the dramas

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and Zaju are included with full acts in the book; popular folk literature and art were adopted at will, which turns out to be important material for the study of poetic stories and operas in the Ming Dynasty. In the book, the operas expressions, the popular allegorical sayings and proverbs in the marketplace were skillfully used. Some of them are rare in common opera novels, so it is difficult to interpret now. The lines are very sparse, repetitive, inconsistent and disorderly, which is in line with the situation of daily segmented musical conversation; the structure tends to take ten chapters as one long paragraph like Water Margin, which is the trace left by the long paragraphs in Ten Chapters of Wu in the early spreading process of Golden Lotus. From the perspective of edition, the existing manuscripts of Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus are full of mistakes and errors, which makes the proof invalid. It is difficult to determine what could be from the original version. However, if Ximen Qing is simplified as Menqing, it will not be the original work of the scribe, but only indicates that the work is not from an educated professional literati writer. The more important evidence for Golden Lotus is not being an individual creation is that Li Kaixian’s legendary opera Sword has been quoted by Golden Lotus many times, some as a libretto, some as a description or narration of the text. In addition, it quotes 20 sets of couplets (17 of which are full text), 103 Off-stage songs, most of which are found in the music works such as The New Sound of the Prosperous Time, Adaption of Ornate Diction, Yong Xi Yuefu and Elegance of Wu Tune. The number and length of citations of predecessors’ Ci poetry, tunes, Zaju, legend and vernacular texts are extremely large, which was pointed out by many scholars among which the most complete summary was presented in the paper The Exploration of Golden Lotus by Han Nan of Harvard University (see Xu Shuofan’s Collection of Western Papers on Golden Lotus). This paper points out that the plots of nine kinds of novels, vernacular or non vernacular, have been borrowed or interspersed by Golden Lotus. Anyway, there are many original chapters in Golden Lotus. The author was able to write these chapters without any support, but plagiarized other works in the mediocre and unimportant parts of the novel. This can only be justified when the novel is a collective creation of generational accumulation, in which excellent paragraphs are repeatedly tempered, and the plagiarized parts come from the process of mutual influence and absorption among different works. The other related problem is that it is generally believed that Golden Lotus was developed from the story of Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian in Water Margin, regardless of the fact that they had influenced and infiltrated each other before they were independent books. People only see one aspect that Water Margin was earlier than Golden Lotus, without seeing that they might have coexisted or even the opposite. Chapters 1–9, plus Chapter 87 of Golden Lotus are roughly equivalent to the content of Chapters 23–26 in Water Margin. The new story of Golden Lotus mainly happened during the period from Wu Song’s banishment to his amnesty and returning home. It can be imagined that both books adopted the original works of their unwritten ancestors or poetic storytelling script series when they were handed down, thus producing overlapping parts. When developing into two independent novels later, they were bound to go their separate ways, which is the origin of the different parts. Therefore, in the main body of Golden Lotus, which is also the part overlapping with Water

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Margin, either Pan Jinlian is killed by Wu Song with a knife, nor Ximen Qing is punched to death by Wu Song like in Water Margin. Moreover, Chapter 24 of Water Margin keeps a rare original feature for the family history of Ximen Qing in Golden Lotus. There is also a very important argument - the main overlapping part of the two novels has a slight noticeable difference: the former takes place in Yanggu County, and the latter in Qinghe County. The name of the street is the same, Purple Stone Street. The story has a long history, even if the county is different, the name of the neighborhood can’t be changed easily. According to Water Margin, Wu brothers and Pan Jinlian were originally from Qinghe County, and Ximen Qing was the downfallen landlord in Yanggu County. The story happened in Yanggu County. According to Golden Lotus, the Wu brothers were from Yanggu County and later moved to Qinghe County. Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing were both from Qinghe County where the story took place. There is little difference even between the wordings in the overlapping parts of Water Margin and Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus. Then, why should Golden Lotus change the location of Purple Stone Street in Yanggu County in Water Margin as Qinghe County? Both books confirmed Qinghe County and Yanggu County as adjacent counties, which belong to Dongchang Prefecture. During the Song Dynasty, there were Qinghe County and Qinghe Prefecture, which belonged to Daming Road in the Yuan Dynasty and Guangping Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty. Chapter 17 in Golden Lotus reads: “May 20th is the birthday of the Security Commander Zhou in the Commander Mansion. Ximen Qing packed five shares of gifts, selected two handkerchiefs and dressed in neat clothes and hat. He rode on a white horse, followed by four young men, and went for the birthday celebration. Drinking during the banquet were military officers as Investigator Xia, Militia Zhang Tuanlian, Thousand-household Commander Jing and Thousand-household Commander He Qianhu.” “Investigator and Militia were the titles in the Song Dynasty system, Commander Mansion in the prefecture was in the Yuan Dynasty, and it was the Ming system to set up the garrison position under the commander-in-chief in a certain place. No matter how disordered this passage is, it can be determined that Yanggu County could not possibly have had such higher-level positions, while Qinghe County had the positions closer to the Prefecture. For a story about the rise of a downfallen family, with relevance to the current Prime Minister and further exposes the darkness and decay of the imperial court like Golden Lotus, it is much more convenient to change the location of the story from a county to a prefecture for the development of the plot. This is the reason that Golden Lotus can only place the location of the story in Qinghe County rather than Yanggu County. When Water Margin was written in the Ming Dynasty, the location being changed to Yanggu County under Dongping Prefecture might be due to the consideration that Qinghe County did not belong to Dongping Prefecture of Shandong Province. Of course, this is not necessarily the result of the storytellers or the writers’ investigation of historical records, but the fact that the original legend is immutable, which made it difficult for the storytellers or the writers of Golden Lotus to change. Therefore, it can be seen that Golden Lotus may be earlier and more faithful to the original legend than the overlapping part of Water Margin.

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Based on the above reasons, we contend that Golden Lotus is not the individual creation of literati, but the collective creation of accumulation by generations, which was written on the basis of folk artists’ poetic story scripts. The writer may be Li Kaixian, the author of Sword, or his followers. Only he or his like-minded followers in opera criticism and practice can conform to the citations from Sword in Golden Lotus mentioned above. Two more pieces of evidence are provided for this: there are many pieces of opera songs in Golden Lotus, about one third of which are mentioned in its chapters, but Kun tune is not mentioned even once, which is the same as Li Kai Xian’s Banter of Ci Poetry. Pleasure. Li Kaixian is called one of the “Eight Talents of Jiajing,” which coincides with Shen Defu’s record in his Anthology of Wanli that the author of the novel is the famous scholar in Jiajing. After Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, Golden Lotus came out almost at the same time as Journey to the West. The earliest extant version of Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus was engraved in 1617 (Wanli 45th year). It must have been written after 1547 (Jiajing 26th year) and before 1573 (Wanli 1st year). The upper limit can’t be earlier, and the lower limit can be revised to 1590 (Wanli 17th year). There are two systems in the edition of Golden Lotus: Poetic Stories version (Wanli version), Chongzhen version (commentary version) and its derived version of the remarkable volume (Zhang Zhupo’s Criticism). The earliest edition in the Chongzhen edition system is The Newly Engraved Original Golden Lotus with Embroidered Portraits. From the comparison of the two versions, though Chongzhen’s version is called “the original”, the Poetic Stories version is the one closest to the original Golden Lotus. The main differences are as follows: there are many rhymes in the Poetic Stories version, but the Chongzhen version is greatly abridged; the chapters in the Poetic Stories version are disordered, while the Chongzhen version is well organized; the Poetic Stories version is rough in language, and the Chongzhen version is elegant; the Poetic Stories version has the prefaces by Xin Xinzi, East Wu Pearl Guest and the forward by Er Gong, while in the Chongzhen version, prefaces by Xin Xinzi are not found; the Poetic Stories version begins with Wusong fighting the tiger, and Chongzhen version begins with Ximen Qing’s gathering together with the ten sworn brothers; the Poetic Stories version doesn’t have embroidered portraits while Chongzhen version has two hundred of them. Due to the explicit sexual description in Golden Lotus, there has been a “clean version” with the pornographic content deleted since the Qing Dynasty. The earliest clean version is the Ancient Golden Lotus written by Jiang Jianren in 1864 (Tongzhi 3rd year of the Qing Dynasty).

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4.2.2 The Literary Achievements of Golden Lotus and Its Significance in Literary History As mentioned above, Golden Lotus is the first novel in China with philistine villains as the protagonists. It has made many contributions to the development of Chinese Novels: it has timely displayed the various aspects of society after the rise of its commercial economy at the time, and vividly shaped the characters with strong philistine features, such as Ximen Qing, Pan Jinlian, Li Ping’er, Song Huilian and Earl Ying. At the same time, Golden Lotus is the first open structured novel in China, which breaks the basic pattern of single line development in the novel structure. In the “Four Masterpieces”, its artistic structure is more complete, the character descriptions are more detailed and specific, and the technique of depicting the personalities of the characters is more mature.

Open and Complete Art Structure The statement that the structure of Golden Lotus is open-ended may not be questioned. However, to say that it is complete, some people may question: how to explain this novel’s ubiquitous omissions? The answer is: the completion refers to the structure of this novel as a whole, but its omissions are inevitable due to its nature of being an accumulated work based on the speaking art of generations. For the errors in its structure, we have a few examples: when Chen Jingjing and Pan Jinlian first met in Chapter 18, it is said in the novel: “it is exactly: five hundred years of destined love, finally met; thirty years of love, started.” Pan Jinlian was 27 years old at that time, and 32 years old when she was killed in Chapter 87. The “love” between them was actually only five or six years; Chapter 48, arranged in the time sequence according to the novel, is about what happened in Zhenghe 7th year (1117) when Guan Ge (Ximen Qing) was less than one year old, while in Chapter 13, the novel clearly said that Guan Ge was born in Xuanhe 4th year (1122), which led to the miracle of time reversal; At the end of Chapter 54, Ximen Qing sent Doctor Ren home and took the medicine from him. At the beginning of Chapter 55, Doctor Ren is still talking at Ximen Qing’s house. In Chapter 100, Ximen Qing is reincarnated as the second son of Shen Tong, a rich man in the East Capital, and soon after he is said to be reincarnated as his posthumous son Xiao Ge. Such kind of omissions are numerous in the novel. If it were a written version created by a writer during a certain period of time, it is difficult to understand, but it is not surprising if it were a daily performing work with a long-term evolution when the original parts were relatively independent, and the writer may not have done a serious and comprehensive processing and revision job. Omission is just one of the aspects for the collective creation of Golden Lotus as the accumulation work of generations. On the other hand, the process of the novel’s long-term circulation and being written by a certain literati also tempered its artistic structure, which created a new pattern of open structure in Chinese novels,

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and reached its completion in a general sense. The first three of the four masterpieces in general are all single line narrative structures. Romance of the Three Kingdoms was generally the narration of historical facts; Water Margin, being composed of long sections of “10 Chapters of Wu” and “10 Chapters of Song”, is obviously the compilation of several heroic legends; causing havoc in the heavenly palace and the 81 disasters by way of scripture-fetching in Journey to the West are the distinctively two different parts. Respectively, the above works are unique, but the structural art techniques in them are relatively primitive two-dimensional structures: telling stories, narrating plots, and the characters are represented in them. The story is onedimensional, the character is another. The method of creating suspension, referred to by the old novel critics as connecting mountains by clouds, or the shadow of characters, plot lines, are all related to the artistic structure of the novel. There is a common line in poetic storytelling “if you want to know what happened next, listen to the next speech”. It is easy for a poetic story of a daily performance to form a simple extension of a single line. The structure of Golden Lotus is tight and integrated, which may be related to its early origin but being written the latest at the most mature stage of the novels. As far as narrative structure is concerned, Golden Lotus can be divided into three parts: Chapters 1–10 are synchronized with Pan Jinlian and Ximeng Qing’s stories in Water Margin with more detail; in Chapters 11–79 till Ximeng Qing’s death, it is all about the family history and life of Ximeng Qing, which is totally different from Water Margin; in Chapters 80–100, it focuses on the decline of Ximeng Qing’s family, with the contrast of the prosperity of Security Commander Zhou. In the middle of the story, Chapter 87 is about Wu Song’s revenge, but in later development, it doesn’t return to the plot of Water Margin. This structure fully proves that Water Margin and Golden Lotus did have a complex relationship of mutual penetration, exchange and departure from each other in the process of circulation. Such an analysis does not mean that there is only a simple narrative process in Golden Lotus, but actually it has shown that the structure of the work is innovative and pioneering at a deeper level. Each stage has the central person and place to start life, but each stage is not limited to one thing and one point. There are multiple dimensional relationships between paragraphs, which are closely related. The characters are not shown in the usual plot, but in the magnetic field of life. In a word, the novel breaks through the limitation of time and space and forms the opening effect in the whole structure: in the love between XiMen Qing and Pan Jinlian, different peaks emerge, and the affair of secretly marrying Meng Yulou is inserted. Naturally, it is not a simple idling business. XiMen Qing’s life experiences are a combination of seeking wealth and official positions, hunting for beauties, being involved in both family and brothels, officialdom (from Qinghe County to the imperial court) and purchasing fine items (from hometown to the Canal). In the last twenty chapters, the comprehensive description of the Episodes in Linqing such as the decline of the Ximen family, the rise of Security Commander Zhou, the relationship between Chen Ji and Pan Jinlian, Meng Yulou, Chunmei, Han Aijie and their endings, are all based on previous contexts, but all of them are different. The plot of the whole novel is often inserted in the narration from all dimensions. The complicated conception shows the strength of the novel in expressing a complex life.

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There is a typical example in Chapter 17: Security Commander Xia was disappointed to learn that he had been promoted as the Commander for Guard of Honour, he “turned pale and was speechless for quite a while.” After being in the capital, Ximen Qing seemed respectful to him, “he dared not walk with him, let him mount first”, “followed him by addressing him as Your Honor”. This is one side of the story. After that, Chamberlain Zhai of the Grand Tutor complained the Ximen Qing leaked the news. Security Commander Zhou found a powerful man to help him in requesting that he was willing to stay in the position of the security commander. Ximen Qing’s position was almost lost, which was another line. Later, after six chapters, the author explained how the secret was passed to Security Commander Zhou. Such insertion is like skillful hand stitching in tailoring, which shows the integrative structure of the novel. Another example is that in Chapter 16, when it was the time to marry Li Ping’er, but what followed in Chapter 17 is that Commander-in-chief Yang was impeached, for which Ximen Qing was involved, and Li Ping’er was ready to marry Jiang Zhushan at her own home. After many twists and turns, it was not until Chapter 19 that Li Ping’er was married at Ximen mansion. Such a multi-dimensional arrangement shows the charm of the novel’s narrative art. In a word, Golden Lotus has formed a multi-dimensional narrative space. Different from the relatively closed simple structure of highlighting the characters in the storytelling and events narration as in the past, it turned to be a radiating structure playing down the plot in describing life in a multi-level, multi-faceted and all-round way by presenting the social life and the personalities of the characters in the dramas of everyday life. The novel is not to tell the readers a complete story from the beginning to the end, but to pursue the three-dimensional and overall artistic effect. This new narrative form provides a solid structural foundation for the novel to express the broad social life, complex psychology and various personalities of the characters. A Dream of the Red Mansion is a personal creation, which is not limited by the speech art of daily performances. It is painstakingly accomplished. It is a further step taken than Golden Lotus, reaching the highest level of structural art of Chinese classical novels. Zhi Yanzhai is not only the earliest critic of A Dream of the Red Mansion, but also some of his opinions were taken or valued by Cao Xueqin in the process of writing. When commenting on the relationship between Golden Lotus and A Dream of the Red Mansion, he emphasized that the structure of the latter used the former for reference. In Chapter 13 of A Dream of the Red Mansion, Jia Zhen purchased a precious coffin for Qin Keqing, his demised daughter-in-law, which was obviously influenced by Golden Lotus. The comment of Zhi Yanzhai is that “everyone was being presented, nothing is missed, truly got the interior of Golden Lotus.”8 “Interior” is a metaphor for the originality of a work. Otherwise, a small detail description, no matter how good an imitation work it is or even surpassing the original, has no great significance. Cao Xueqin put this small trivial of buying the coffin into the noisy and broad Episode of Qin Keqing’s death. He intended to observe and portray the specific reactions of various characters in a specific environment: first, Sister Feng dreamed 8

For more details, see Re-evaluation on the Story of a Stone by Zhi Yanzhai, People’s Literature Press, 1975, p. 275.

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that the dead had come to say goodbye to Jia’s family, and told her about the future affairs and foresight of Jia’s family; Jia Baoyu listened to this bad faith, and got stabbed in his heart, spitting out a mouthful of blood; You Shi was suffering from her old illness of stomach, in which there seemed to have something hidden, and which also has a hidden line for Sister Feng’s arrangement of a funeral later. Jia Zhen cried for his wife’s death, which is in contrast to his father Jia Jing who thought himself going to rise to heaven and didn’t care about anything else. This leads to the plot of Xue Pan giving Pearl the coffin for her own burial with the dead; Baozhu became an adopted daughter in front of the dead, the eunuch seized the opportunity to blackmail and so on. For the material of the coffin Xue Pan was as dull as he was rich, and Jia Zheng showed his pedantry. Just like a stone falls into the water, causing layers of ripples, from near to far, for a long time. Qin Keqing’s death became the pivot of people’s activities and the focus of all kinds of life. Therefore, the real significance is not in the coffin event itself, but in “everyone was being presented”, which is the true meaning of “getting the interior of Golden Lotus” said by Zhi Yanzhai. Comparing to the vast Episode of Li Ping’er’s death, who can deny the contribution of Golden Lotus to the structural art of Chinese classic novels?

It Has Created the Image of Ximen Qing, an Unprecedented Villain The name of Golden Lotus comes from the names of Ximen Qing’s concubine Pan Jinlian and Li Ping’er, and Chun Mei, the housemaid. Unlike its previous long chapter fictional novels, which take historical figures, legendary heroes or gods and demons as their main characters, nor like many operas of the same era which take the orthodox scholars and scholar officials, Golden Lotus takes Ximen Qing, an unprecedented villain with a strong philistine personality as the protagonist. Through him, the book presents a new world of secular life, and some essential characteristics of social life in the late Ming Dynasty are also profoundly revealed. Not only Ximen Qing, but also most of the characters described in the novel, from the Emperor, the Prime Minister to the officials of the prefecture, the staff in the county government, the prostitutes, procuress and the idlers, are mostly all villains. It is on such a broad stage of the villain’s activities that the novel makes a rather delicate depiction of the decadent system. Ximen Qing was a downfallen herbal medicine shop owner in Qinghe County. As he was the trusted follower of the Commander-in-chief Yang Jian and hobnobbed with the devious Prime Minister Cai Jing, he became the deputy Thousand-household Commander of Jin Wuwei, deputy investigator in the Criminal Detention Center in Shandong. Later, he sent more than 20 loads of gifts and became the foster son of Cai Jing. Soon he got the position of Thousand-household Commander, and concurrently operated several stores. Through the relationship between Ximen Qing, Caijing and other bureaucrats, the novel extensively touches on all kinds of malpractices from the imperial court to the prefectures and counties. At the same time, it also exposes that Ximen Qing’s reckless bullying act was backed by the evil imperial court. In the book, Cai Jing bribed the government and traded for official positions; it especially

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mentions the relationship between his son and his housekeeper, and the relationship between Cai Jing and his foster son Ximen Qing. On Cai Jing’s birthday, Ximen Qing sent him the expensive gifts, not to ask for a position, but to draw a more powerful backing. We can even make a calculation for his expensive gifts: less than five hundred liang of silver is used to weave brocade python clothes, and three hundred liang of silver for gold and silver wares. But he got two thousand liang of silver to do a favor for Wang Sifeng, a salt merchant in Yangzhou, which was lot more than what he spent. In addition, Cai Jing helped him from being “a villager” to becoming the deputy Thousand-household Commander of Jin Wuwei as a return. For him, this was an extra benefit. Both Ximen Qing and Caijing suffered no losses, which can be regarded as a win–win business relationship. Ximen Qing is not a pure bureaucrat, nor a landlord in the traditional sense. As a bureaucrat, he is not a lackey, but by colluding with the powerful to make his own money, to be very wealthy of the town. The novel doesn’t say how much land he owns and how he exploits the peasants, but upon his death, he specifically explained the scale of his business and the sum of his loan. The principle totals in silver: fifty thousand liang for the satin shop, sixty-five hundred liang for the wool shop, five thousand liang for the silk shop, and four thousand liang for the cargo on board; the debt includes five hundred principal and one hundred fifty-two interest for Li San and Huang Si, five hundred and ninety two for Tutor Liu, Secretary Hua, Xu Si. It can be seen that compared with traditional landlords who relied on land income, the source of Ximen Qing’s income was obviously commercial activities. Ximen Qing got to the position of Thousand-household Commander in the Criminal Detention Center of Shandong, and he was the foster son of Cai Jing, the Grand Master. In addition, he had collusion with eunuch, grand commandant, grand coordinators, itinerant inspectors and other central and local officials and bureaucrats. His status was definitely high, and he was definitely arrogant. However, between an official or a businessmen, he belongs to the latter. The original intention of Ximen Qing’s hobnobbing is not for power and to advance in a official career, but to open the door for his seizing and plundering wealth by power. Due to this power, he became a bully in the local area, doing whatever he wanted and monopolizing the market. The first political event directly related to Ximen Qing was Commander-in-chief Yang’s impeachment by Yuwen, and Ximen Qing was involved by being a follower. This crime of his and others was “using the power to harm people, being cruel and greedy. The numerous malpractices depressed average people and caused disorder of the market” (Chapter 18). The collapse of Jiang Zhushan’s herbal medicine shop, the competitor of his business, was just one example. This incident was not only caused by his courtship of a woman, but also related to the business and the wealth of Li Ping’er. The pursuit of wealth brought about by the commodity economy in the late Ming Dynasty was manifested in Ximen Qing’s desire for profit, which was more important than beauty hunting. In terms of the general layout, Chapters 1–6 is about the conspiracy between him and Pan Jinlian to kill Wu Da, and what follows should be their plots. But a matchmaker Xue Sao’er showed up unexpectedly to pair him with Meng Yulou. He married Meng Yulou first, and Pan Jinlian was put aside. Chapter 8

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is the story of Pan Jinlian. The emergence of Meng Yulou in this chapter stands out in art, and enhances the chapters before and after. What’s more, it has the gold touch by pointing out that what motivates Ximen Qing is not love but lust and wealth. Sometimes his desire was kindled for women, sometimes for money. The lust he had for Pan Jinlian was strong enough to make him murder Wu Da, but compared with Meng Yulou’s thousands of silver coins, around 300 roles of cloth and other dowries, Pan Jinlian was cast into the shade. After Meng Yulou entered his door, that is, after the formal transfer of the ownership of her dowry, Pan Jinlian’s body became attractive again, winning over Meng Yulou. In general, women are the first in Ximen Qing’s mind, but when it comes to money, women become secondary. Ximen Qing’s love affair is totally different from those of other novels and operas, such as talents and beauties, and the romantic affairs of literati. For Ximen Qing, a local bully, supported by power and money, even thought that karma could be eliminated with money. He did Buddhist donations and gave to charity just to enjoy all the benefits of this world more peacefully. In Chapter 57, Wu Yueniang used Buddhism to persuade her husband to “pursue less money and lust, and accumulate some credits for the next life which might serve for that child.” Ximen Qing replied: “there are still Yin and Yang in the world, and men and women interact naturally. In this life, adultery and promiscuity are all determined by the previous life. They were all listed in the marriage book that is to be accomplished in the next life. Is it just the conduct of the rogues? We heard that the Buddha in the West could not but cover the floor in gold, and the ten halls of the Underground Palace need the paper money. As long as we do our best in charity, abundance of wealth will still be maintained even by raping Chang’e, seducing Weaver Girl, abducting Xu Feiqiong, and stealing the daughter of the West Queen!” The pungent greediness for money and filthy souls are exposed in this naked confession, which make people shudder. Among power, wealth and lust, Ximen Qing used wealth to seek power. He used power to seek wealth, and used wealth to hunt lust. This is the main characteristic of Ximen Qing’s image under the social background of the rise of the urban commercial economy in the late Ming Dynasty. If we only regard Ximen Qing as a lecher, it’s just as we regard Golden Lotus as an phonographic book, which is not totally groundless, but at least a one-sided view. Ximen Qing can be the ancestor of bureaucrat capitalists in modern history. Even the historical backgrounds are different, their genealogy can be linked. Golden Lotus uses this image to reveal the development of commercial and economic factors in Chinese society since the middle of the Ming Dynasty. This is the same as short vernacular novels, such as Oil Seller Owes the Beauty, Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt Regained, Shi Runze’s Goodness Returned in which businessmen are the protagonists, that reflect the characteristics of the decline of the landlord class and the gradual rise of an urban commercial economy of the era. For various reasons, the growth of the commodity economy in ancient China was slow and powerless. As a businessman, Ximen Qing had to appear as a bureaucrat at the same time, who carries with him all the characteristics of a patriarchal society. Only in this way can this image reflect the essence of social life.

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A notable problem is that the attitude of Golden Lotus to Ximen Qing is not consistent. It seems that there is no definite view. Generally speaking, Ximen Qing is described as a villain. In quite a lot of places, we can see the negative attitude of to him between the lines, but in Chapter 56, it is said: “In one’s life, one can not possibly keep glory and wealth all the time. When bad thing happens, one has to leave empty handed for hell even with piles of gold and jade. So it’s no surprise that Ximen Qing is spending his fortune in helping the poor. Needless to say, he is admired by all.” In the same chapter, the book makes the speech for Ximen Qing to express his wise views on gold and silver treasures: “That is an active moving thing no good to be kept quietly. How can it be hidden while it is supposed to be used? What one person puts away is what another is missing. Therefore he who accumulates wealth is most guilty.” This, to some extent, offsets the depiction of Ximen Qing’s ugliness in the process of collecting money. This may be due to the writer’s negligence, or the writer is still erratic even though he noticed it. What’s more, just as the image of Jia Baoyu in A Dream of the Red Mansion is half positive and half negative, so are the descriptions of Ximen Qing in Golden Lotus. Only for the influence of ethics, the adaptor had to treat Ximen Qing as a villain completely, and he deleted the positive descriptions, of which some are inevitably left out.

Features and Limitations of Pan Jinlian’s Image In Water Margin, Pan Jinlian is described as a typical prostitute. Her name is almost synonymous for a prostitute to some people. Golden Lotus transforms Pan Jinlian’s image to the opposite direction. However, Water Margin came out before it, and the image has been stereotyped. Moreover, the two novels may have different choices in the original story and developed in different ways: Water Margin wrote Pan Jinlian just to send Wu Song to Liangshan, and Golden Lotus takes her as the protagonist to describe the secular life. Therefore, the intention of creating Pan Jinlian’s image, which is totally different from that of the Water Margin, is destined to be given up as it can not be carried out consistently. The so-called creative intention does not exist in the collective creation from accumulation of generations. How can the folk artists of different generations have a unified creative intention? Each component with different directions will inevitably form a joint force. It can not be the exact fulfillment of an artist’s original intention, but it can not be too far from his original intention. If a folk artist does not conform to the main tendency of creating Pan Jinlian’s image in Golden Lotus, he will not participate in the creation. The so-called resultant force must have a general trend. Although for the folk artists participating in this activity, few would have such global foresight. Whether they had it or not, as long as they participated in this creative activity with detailed work, the result is the same. At the beginning of Golden Lotus, there are a few lines [moving fragrance] (no tune title marked), “this story, is all about “feelings” and “lust”, which are mixed as one. Therefore, the lust is from the beauty of her looks, the feeling is from the heart, and feelings and lust grow together. From ancient times to the present, the

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benevolent and the gentlemen have always kept it in mind.” This makes people think of the beginning of Convincing Arguments Warning the World. The Throat-cutting of Jiang Shuzhen, but it is the invention of Golden Lotus to compare the beloved Qi Shi of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, and the beloved Yu Ji of Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, with Pan Jinlian. From here on, the specific descriptions of Pan Jinlian in Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus differs from the prostitute in Water Margin. The neighbors’ comment to Pan Jinlian’s unfortunate marriage in Water Margin, “A good piece of mutton falls in the dog’s mouth,” is elaborated in detail in Golden Lotus. When Wu Da first appears in Chapter 1 of Poetic Stories, he is described as being “cowardly and wretched …His body is rough and his face is narrow.” But these words are not easy to express in speech art or performance, so his shortness was amplified, which may not necessarily be the original meaning of the Poetic Stories. Poetic Stories presents a strong contrast between the couple, expressing sympathy for Pan Jinlian. Just like Water Margin, Poetic Stories also wrote about ten cunning tricks of Wang Po and Ximen Qing, which confused Pan Jinlian under their conspiracy. This premeditation greatly alleviated Pan Jinlian’s guilt of murdering Wu Da, during which she involuntarily committed the heinous crimes in the patriarchal society. As Water Margin is just to justify Wu Song’s killing of his sister-in-law without revealing the inner world of the people and characters around, Pan Jinlian here is just a vicious prostitute. In Golden Lotus, Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian had several trysts and “their two hearts clinging together as closely as though one were painted upon the other.” In chapter 7, the rich widow Meng Yulou suddenly came to the fore. Ximen Qing seemed to have far less feelings for Pan Jinlian than for the wealth from Meng Yulou, so that Pan Jinlian’s stereotyped image of being a harrowing prostitute gained the readers’ sympathy. It is a creation of Golden Lotus to depict Pan Jinlian’s psychology by using popular songs of that time. Pan Jinlian sings a [hillside sheep] when she is disappointed in waiting for Ximen Qing in Chapter 1. It may be a casual psychological description, but it doesn’t seem to be accidental when it occurs in different situations. There are few psychological descriptions in ancient Chinese novels. It is common to see the insertions such as “the poem says… ” or “it is said in Ci…”, which describes the characters by external depictions or simple character descriptions. Golden Lotus is not the case. Pan Jinlian, who can’t even read the almanac in Water Margin, becomes a performer with special education. In Chapters 1, 8, 12, 38, she plays and sings popular songs, which expresses her mind set in time, so as to distinguish her image from a stereotyped prostitute in Water Margin and short story books. Although there are some successful, mediocre and even lame borrowings of popular songs, they have been successfully used in psychological descriptions and become an important means to typify Pan Jinlian’s image, which did not happen before Golden Lotus. Compared with Water Margin, Pan Jinlian’s personality in Golden Lotus is more distinct, more complex and more concrete. We can see that Pan Jinlian is not deliberately portrayed as a prostitute in the book, but may interact with the same segment of Water Margin in the process of spreading, which makes it impossible to be separated with the image of a prostitute, neither can her portrayal surpass the social reality. In these times, women were required to obey and cater to men. With the changes of

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social ethics and values when the poetic stories was put into written form, women were still living in the limited space of social life, for this reason the book takes sexual descriptions as a means to highlight the personality of the characters, and Pan Jinlian mainly carried this historical content. Therefore, the pornographic description is too much concentrated on Pan Jinlian, which could be the reflection of real life, but we can’t help but point out that too much obEpisode description goes beyond the significance of Pan Jinlian’s image that the novel wants to express, and it’s hard for the readers to accept and understand. For example, the affair between Pan Jinlian and Chen Jingji can only be used as a counter reaction to Ximen Qing’s lewdness and get the readers’ understanding. Beyond this, it becomes the cliche of obEpisode description. In fact, to keep Pan Jinlian’s image of a prostitute or to reshape her had always been a difficult problem for the folk artists who participated in the creation of Golden Lotus and the final adapters. As mentioned above, Golden Lotus strengthens the description of environment and psychology, and tries to portray the image of Pan Jinlian, which is different from that of Water Margin, meanwhile it develops Pan Jinlian’s lewd and vicious character. The death of Song Huilian and Li Ping’er is a typical example to highlight Pan Jinlian’s personality. Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing murdered Wu Da together in Water Margin, mainly because of Ximen Qing’s seduction. In Golden Lotus, it is no longer this simple when she became insane and dehumanized after entering Ximen’s house. If she is not the culprit in Song Huilian’s death, then to kill Li Ping’er and to harm an ignorant baby shows that her ferocity has developed to the extreme. The murder by herself made the negative influence of this character far more than that of Water Margin. Of course, this may only be due to the needs of the diversified development of the same story, but such an effect is obviously unexpected for storytellers or adapters. After Ximen Qing’s death, when Wu Song returned to his hometown with amnesty, he completely and thoroughly went with the water margin, and the description of Pan Jinlian’s image in Golden Lotus lost its uniqueness.

The Main Means of Personage Individuation In addition to Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian, there are many characters in Golden Lotus who have been meticulously depicted with different personalities. These characters seem to be telling readers with their stories: “you may not like us, but we not only have our own faces, but also our own tempers and qualities, likes and dislikes,…” All the characters in Golden Lotus are created on the basis of everyday life. In the history of novel writing, this is a new chapter in the art of character description. Golden Lotus is good at revealing characters’ personalities according to real life. Li Ping’er’s personality is inconsistent before and after, which is where Golden Lotus is criticized. Li Ping’er was fierce and vicious to the two ex husbands Hua Zixu and Jiang Zhushan, but she became kind and cowardly after being the sixth concubine of Ximen Qing. Superficially, it is indeed contradictory, but with in-depth observation, we can see that this just shows that the description of the characters in Golden Lotus have changed from static and flat personality depictions to the more interior level

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according to the reason and logic of life. When Ximen Qing was about to marry Li Ping’er after Hua Zixu’s death, he had to put this matter aside for the time being due to the trouble in his officialdom. Li Ping’er despairingly thought it was impossible to follow the plan again, and she married doctor Jiang Zhushan. Unexpectedly, Ximen Qing’s false alarm is just a prelude to a greater momentum, and he turned to be more powerful than before. After Jiang Zhushan was insulted by Ximen Qing, Li Ping’er abandoned him. Soon after, Li Ping’er is back in Ximen Qing’s arms. These twists and turns are a painful lesson for her at the same time. Later, when she was finally married by Ximen Qing, “the sedan chair landed at the gate for a long time, and no one came out to meet her.” For three nights, Ximen Qing didn’t go to her room. She cried and tried to commit suicide through shame. After being rescued, she was whipped by Ximen Qing, being undressed and knelt on the ground. This is Li Ping’er’s second painful lesson. From then on, she was obedient and gentle to Ximen Qing, and even showed her kindness to others. It can be seen that the change of Li Ping’er’s character is in line with the logic of life, and there is no contradiction between them. Different from the portrayal of characters in the tense and dynamic plot of Water Margin, Golden Lotus is good at depicting the Episodes of everyday life to show many personalities. From Chapters 22 to 26 of the novel, the death of Song Huilian highlights this feature. The description in Golden Lotus about the event does not pursue this fascinating effect, and there is nothing surprising and breathtaking. What is displayed in front of us is just ordinary and trivial real life. However, with the development of complex relationships and conflict between people, the personality of the characters are presented distinctly. Song Huilian is a very successfully depicted character in the novel, in which marvellous and concise writing is rare in Golden Lotus. Song Huilian and her husband Lai Wang’er are both servants for Ximen Qing. She was seduced by Ximen Qing because she was envious of the rich life of her master. She was even willing to let her master find another woman for her husband to free herself. However, she did not expect that this caused jealousy for Pan Jinlian and others, resulting in fierce conflicts which eventually led to her death by hanging herself. As for Pan Jinlian, the reason for the conflict between her and Song Huilian was that her exclusive position of being favored by Ximen Qing was threatened. Pan Jinlian could instigate Ximen Qing to pick on Lai Wang’er and Song Huilian to fight with Sun Xue’e was that Sun Xue’e and Lai Wang’er also had an affair. The chaotic sexual relations and contradictions between the master and the servants not only give Wu Yueniang a footnote for her comment that Ximen house is “chaotic and disordered”, but also lay a foundation for the characterization of the characters. As a maid of low status, Song Huilian was eager to “climb to the higher branch of a tree”, and the only advantage she had was her beauty. When being liked by Ximen Qing, the master of the house, she was so elated and ready to be another concubine, totally unaware of the approaching storm that would swallow her up. When the event irreversibly developed in the opposite direction of her wish, as a woman born at the bottom of society, the kindness and the strength in her character showed up. She could not bear to harm her husband who was in the same position as herself, even

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though she was proud of improving her status with Ximen Qing and agreed that Ximen Qing dismiss Lai Wang’er. Therefore, when she learned that Lai Wang’er was set up, she begged Ximen Qing to rescue him. When Ximen Qing was still having sweet talks to her, she suddenly learned that Lai Wang’er had been banished. At this time, she showed the shrewd side of her character. She sharply scolded Ximen Qing: “You are a murderer! The one to bury people alive and watch the funeral after your murder!” Under various pressures, she quickly ended her short life. The novel is not intended to show Song Huilian’s resistance to oppression, but it truly describes the possible life of a more personalized maid in a wealthy family, and depicts a vivid image of a woman in the marketplace. The death of Song Huilian is not only about one person, but also about Pan Jinlian’s scheming, Ximen Qing’s insidiousness and ferocity, Sun Xue’e and Hui Xiang’s performances in different positions. Each of them had the remarkable performances due to their personalities. There is no model for Golden Lotus to follow for this description. Another success for Golden Lotus is to reflect the spirit of the characters by describing their every twinkle and smile with fine strokes. The description is concise but forceful, which can be exemplified by the description of Han Daoguo in Chapter 33: Then Han Daoguo sat on the stool, held his face high, waved his fan and said, “The humble one like me, is working for my benefactor Ximen, thanks for the benefit shared by you all. We split profits three by seven. I am taking care of his millions of wealth, and supervising his several shops. I am particularly respected, different from others. Xie Ru said: “I was told you are working just in one of his wool stores.” Han Daoguo said with a smile: “You don’t know, my brother, the wool store is just a name. I am actually the accountant for all his businesses, big and small. He follows all my advise and I know all his good or bad news. Nothing can be done without me. At the beginning, senior officials came to the house every day to have meals. I had to go and accompany them. They can’t eat without me. We two always sit in his small study, chatting while having some snacks, till midnight, and he went to the backyard to sleep. Yesterday was his first wife’s birthday, I went there in a sedan chair to send gifts. His wife invited me for dinner and I stayed to drink until the second watch. We share with each other anything and everything. To be honest, he even contended with me for the bed performance. I am dignified and conscientious, working for the rich to get rid of the evil and help the poor. One should make money in a clean way. Even Fu Zixin is afraid of me. No bragging, Ximen his honor are pleased with me for...” Just in the middle of his talking, a man rushed in and cried: “Brother Han, you are yapping here! I went to the store and didn’t find you!” He pulled the man to a corner who told him what happened in his family. Upon hearing it, Han Daiguo was shocked and turned pale. He smacked its mouth, stamped his feet and was ready to hurry away. Zhang Hao asked: “Are you leaving? Brother Han, you have not finished yet.” Han Daoguo raised his hand and said: “I have some family chores to take care of. Gonna go.” He left in a hurry.

It turned out that Han Daoguo’s wife and his brother had an affair, and they were both taken to Yamen after being caught. He went to Earl Ying, kneeling down to make the request that he ask for favor on behalf of him from Ximen Qing by speaking with the county magistrate so that he won’t be insulted in public. The novel describes how Han Daoguo suddenly fell from the clouds of self ostentation to the reality of

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humiliation, so that he became a living clown with a dirty soul with flesh and blood. In Chapter 49, Ximen Qing treated Imperial Censor Cai with two prostitutes after the banquet,. “When Imperial Censor Cai saw that he was in a dilemma of not being able to advance or retreat, he said: “Siquan, that is too kind of you to do so. I’m afraid I can’t accept it.” Ximen Qing said with a smile, “How is it different from the trip to East Mountain?” Cai said: “I’m afraid I’m not as talented as Anshi, but you have the loftiness of Wang Youjun.” Obviously, the brief dialogue reveals vividly the imperial officials’ hypocrisy and the upstarts’ flattery to the powerful. This kind of writing method can be the beginning of Chinese satirical novels, which was developed by The Scholars.

4.2.3 The Creative Tendency of Golden Lotus Although Golden Lotus is criticized for its explicit sexual description, the success of its realistic description has far-reaching influence in the history of Chinese novels, which exceeds the negative influence caused by its sexual descriptions. However, in the history of Chinese literature, in such great work as Golden Lotus which is 100 chapters long, almost all of the characters are villains, except for two or three like Wu Song who appeared occasionally. This a new phenomenon and a new issue. It is worth studying how to write such kind of novels and how Golden Lotus was actually written. Few people would demand a short work to include all characters who stand for the beauty, the ugliness, the good and the evil. It is different for a large-scale work such as Golden Lotus to have all the protagonists, including the emperor and generals as well as the peddlers, as villains. Golden Lotus is mainly about the villains and exposing the darkness, missing the ideal candlelight for the readers. Although Gogol’s Dead Souls in Russian literature has no heroes, it doesn’t make the reader feel they have anything missing. It’s doesn’t mean the ending must be desirable with an exciting lyric monologue indicating a bright future. The thoughts of The Scholars won’t be reduced even if it doesn’t have Wang Mian and several other so-called ideal characters in the last chapter, but for Golden Lotus, it is easy to doubt its critical power that realism should have and take it as the work of objectivism, but this should be the first thought. Through the description of the secular life and the villains in Golden Lotus, we can see that it takes realism as the basic orientation in its creation, with objectivism elements. It is the concept of foreign literary theory to distinguish literary creation methods and literary schools by the standard of “isms”. In the creative practice, ancient Chinese novelists may not consciously have used some creative methods as we do today. They only created with their experiences and skills, or even by their intuition. This is especially true of the cumulative works like Golden Lotu. The expression of objectivism in Golden Lotu is related to the development history of Chinese novels. Although the term “novel” and the style known as “novel” have a long history, novels of modern significance can only be traced back to the Tang and Song Dynasties in China. If the classical Chinese novels of the Tang Dynasty or legends are the development of

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the strange stories of Six Dynasties, then the vernacular novels after the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the story telling books, are the direct products of folk poetic story scripts. On this basis, the storytelling theory of A Dream of Red Mansions, which is purely the storytelling of literati, was developed later. The thought and art of the story books of the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties and those novels related to folk poetic stories and legends are directly and indirectly determined by the hobbies, interests and other psychological factors of average readers. Poetic story is just an art for their entertainment and self expressions. To a great extent, the advantages and disadvantages of these works can be explained by this situation. This is the main source of objectivism (or simple naturalism) in ancient Chinese novels. The one-sided pursuit of the bizarre and tortuous plot in Four Robin Hoods of Song, the indulgence in the explicit description of vulgar taste in Jin Hailing’s Death of Indulgence, and the realism with no evaluation in Case of Leather Boots by Er Lang are the expression of the objectivism tendency in vernacular novels. They are all related by catering to the common people’s idiosyncrasies. The relationship with speech art and the nature of collective creation for generations endow Golden Lotus with the elements of objectivism. Due to the far-reaching influence of social background to vernacular novels, objectivism is quite common in ancient Chinese novels. Golden Lotus takes Ximen Qing as the protagonist and exposes the darkness of the reality as its main body. Its revelation of the essence of life and the portrayal of typical characters undoubtedly show the basic trend of realism, even though the choices and descriptions of some specific objects are disordered or even repeated in a confusing way. In the period when Golden Lotus became a book, the artistic techniques of the ancient realism novel was ahead of the realism theory. It was practice that opened the way for the theory, and the theory turned back to guide the practice, which may of what happened much later in the history of Chinese novels. The description for some of the main characters in Golden Lotus have made great achievements in realism in some aspects, especially Ximen Qing, which shows the characteristics of the times. The description of the character development for Earl Ying and Li Ping’er represent the contradictory performance of the two creative methods of objectivism and realism in the characterization of Golden Lotus. For example, in chapter 56, Earl Ying recommended Water Scholar to Ximen Qing, and made some funny remarks, which showed the flattering features of an idler. This is just the most typical example. This kind of technique becomes the almost fixed performance of the character Earl Ying whenever he shows up in the novel. It can only be said that it is a molding and sweeping sketch. It’s like a still life sketch. No matter how lifelike it is, the reader knows that this is the description of the model. The description of Li Ping’er is that the characters seem to live and express themselves independently without relying on the author. The work leaves it to the readers to appreciate, understand and evaluate by themselves. Except for the artistic image itself, it no longer needs any explanation. In a work, if there are more characters like Earl Ying, it will become or come close to the objectivism creation method, while the creation of Li Pinger’s belongs to the realism method. Of course, it is more complicated than the clear-cut division between the two methods, they are more mixed up in different proportions. The same person may have a more obvious tendency during a certain period, but

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the opposite tendency in another period; one may have more realism, while others may have the opposite tendency. If we were to look at the creative tendency of a work, it should be based on its mainstream. As far as the characters are concerned, it obviously depends on the main methods of shaping the main characters in the work. The typicalization of Ximen Qing’s image in the work is an example good enough to illustrate its achievements in realism. We say that Golden Lotus is a realistic creation with objectivism components mainly because it used the turbulent era as the background to reveal some essence of social life through the ugly family history of Ximen Qing, though in some places it ignores the main tendency for the objectivism description. It may be difficult to understand, as the novel starts with Four Greediness: alcohol, lust, wealth and Qi. The first chapter starts with the composition in [moving fragrance] in a long paragraph, warning the world in view of “emotion” and “lust”. The story took place in the late Southern Song Dynasty: “four treacherous officials, Gao, Yang, Tong and Cai, are favored in the court”, “thieves and gangsters are springing up”, “Song Jiang is the only one acting for heaven, fighting against injustice, killing the corrupt officials, the wealthy bully and unruly people”. Then it comes to Wu Da, the character in the book. It’s not just a general background introduction. Of the four treacherous ministers, Yang and Cai, are both related to Ximen Qing, and there are detailed narratives in the book. The water margin uprising, with Wu Song as the clue, is also related to the stories of Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian. In such a structured novel, the creator or adaptor have cudgeled their brains. The book ends with a poem: Pondering on the will in idle reading, who knows the heaven’s choice is cycling. Ximen the tyranny has no descendant, the arrogant Jingji is wiped out. Long live Lou Yue the kind, short lived are Ping Mei the dissolute. The pathetic Jinlian punished, for thousands of years a notorious legend. Although it can’t get out of the superstitious thought of cause and effect reincarnation and retribution of good and evil, the moral lessons shown here are obvious. All these should be regarded as the expression of realism in Golden Lotus. Of course, to judge the ideological tendency of a work, we should not only see its comments at the beginning or the end of the work, but also see its specific description. If the above sermons sound empty and powerless, then the fine and vivid artistic description of the novel itself can be the proof that it is a masterpiece among ancient novels. After all, Golden Lotus is not exactly a pornographic novel like its bad imitation Embroidered Couch. In terms of social life reflection, Golden Lotus has achieved more than any other novels before. As far as the characterization of the characters is concerned, Golden Lotus is indeed better at depicting the characters with fine strokes than previous novels by capturing the details of daily life to depict the personality of typical characters. The power is always penetrating with a few strokes. Not to mention the description of the main characters as Ximen Qing, Pan Jinlian, even the description of the two prostitutes used by Ximen Qing to entertain Censor Cai and the description of Fan Daoguo, as mentioned above, are all regarded as wonderful examples of realism. Correspondingly, Cai Jing’s birthday party in Chapter 55 and

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Grand Commandant Zhu’s mansion are well-known for their elaborate description, which also influenced the great realistic novel as A Dream of Red Mansions. The exaggerated and untruthful erotic descriptions of Golden Lotus reminds us of another angle that we can’t give the final verdict to this work with naturalism. Many works have pointed out that the reason why these descriptions came into being is related to the addiction of the upper class at that time. However, the number of poems, articles, novels and operas of the same era is so large that only a few works like Golden Lotus have explicit or even untruthful sexual descriptions. Most of them are vernacular novels and simulating vernacular novels, among which only Golden Lotus is unbridled. Obviously, this is only one aspect of the problem. Operas, such as Episode 1, Episode 4 in Wang Shifu’s Romance of the West Chamber and Episode 10 of Tang Xianzu’s legend Peony Pavilion, all have sexual descriptions. These could be due to the author’s ideological weaknesses, but they might be more or less a sign of anti-ethics. We should take it as a warning if it is bad writing, but it is not fair to dismiss all of them as naturalism. Similarly, the Decameron of Boccaccio of the Renaissance cannot be compared with the pornographic novels of later Western Europe. There is only one explanation for all the bizarre and abnormal descriptions of sex in the Golden Lotus: it comes from the oral legends passed down, being enriched and intensified during each period (including the influence from some written records).What it pursues is not the authenticity of the detailed description, but the unconventional and sensational effects. For example, the description of Pan Jinlian’s image, as well as the exaggerated and untruthful sexual description in the meeting between Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian in Chapter 2, are almost as absurd as those in the supernatural and martial art novels. In a word, the sexual description of Golden Lotus as a whole is contrary to the details required by naturalism. It is grotesque and sensational, so as to cater to the low taste of the readers (including the original audience of vernacular novels). Therefore, to criticize the pornographic description of Golden Lotus by labeling it as naturalism is inappropriate and an overstatement, which may be contrary to the original intention of the critics. The pure objective description or narration can not possibly exist in novels. It’s even more difficult to imagine that the writer’s ideas are concealed in a work like Golden Lotus. When we say that it has an objectivism element, it is not to deny its realism, but that it has an ambiguous attitude in some aspects by not having a clear division of being right or wrong. Not enough eulogy for what should be eulogized, nor criticism for what should be criticized. For example, the relationship between Golden Lotus and the stories in the water margin is complicated, and there are many vivid images of uprising heroes in Water Margin. They are the combination of realistic struggles and people’s ideal, but the characters such as Song Jiang and Wu Song mentioned in Golden Lotus, except for the overlapping parts, are differently depicted. The difference between the two books is a good contrast. In Water Margin, Wu Song used the excuse of observing the 7th Day funeral ceremony for his dead brother and invited his neighbors over. He closed the door and forced Pan Jinlian and Wang Po to confess what they did one by one. At the same time, he asked Hu Zhengqing to write down their confessions. He had all four neighbors signed their

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names and then killed Pan Jinlian. The whole action was open and aboveboard, upright and dignified, manifesting the heroism of a man by all means. In Golden Lotus, Wu Song pretended to marry Pan Jinlian and swindled her into the bridal chamber. He did have his revenge, but in a sneaky way, which turns the hero who beat the tiger in Jingyang Hill into a despicable villain. Another example is Pan Jinlian’s ending being lamented repeatedly in the novel. After Ximen Qing’s vicious life, he was reincarnated as a Xiaoge, and was transformed into the Western Paradise. Although this kind of description may weaken its realistic power, it is not enough to label it as the naturalistic novel.

4.3 The International Dissemination of the “Four Masterpieces” As the forerunner of ancient Chinese vernacular novels, the influence of “Four Masterpieces” is not limited to China, they spread to many countries beyond national boundaries. According to Wang Lina’s Classic Chinese Novels Abroad, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is currently translated into Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, English, French, Russian, etc.; Water Margin is translated into English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Latin, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, etc.; Journey to the West is translated into Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Polish, etc. There are English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Hungarian, Czech, Yugoslav, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian versions of Golden Lotus. Our east neighbor Japan, which is most influenced by Chinese culture, is the country with the earliest and most prosperous spread of the “Four Masterpieces”. According to the History of Chinese and Foreign Literary Exchanges, edited by Zhou Faxiang and Li Xiu with Ji Xianlin as the editor-in-chief, there was a Japanese translation of Popular Three Kingdoms in 1689, 100-chapter copy of Loyal Water Margin in 1757 and Popular Journey to the West in 1831. Edo era is the period in Japan most prevalent in copying and imitating Chinese novels. Bakin Kyokutei (1767–1848) said in the postscript to The Legend of Eight Nights in Nansousatomi that since after Water Margin, “By imitating Cold Swallows in Ping Mountain, the plan is set up to write the romance between the talents and the beauties. Recently, there have been a lot of foreign short novels, such as The Fortunate Union and The Story of Willow Warbler, numerous of this similar kind.” They also said that these novels “only write about their true feelings, without anything lewd or obEpisode.” It can be seen from the above that the “Four Masterpieces” came first, followed by a large number of novels about the talents and the beauties. Under the influence of Chinese novels, there came the prosperity of Japanese Edo era novel creations and the characteristics similar to those of Chinese novels took shape. Japanese writers not only translated, but also adapted and simulated Chinese novels. They mainly adapted “Four Masterpieces”. For example, in the novel The Heroes of the Three Kingdoms

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by Saluoben, which was based on brothels, Liu, Guan, Zhang and Kongming in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms are used as the whore masters. The wit strategy of Kongming to Sima Zhongda was almost a household name in Japan then. New Golden Lotus by Bakin Kyokutei is a remake of Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus. Due to the special situation of the spread of Golden Lotus, we will discuss more about its influence overseas. The first introduction of Golden Lotus into the West is The Story of Wu Song and Jinlian, a French version by L. Bazin. It is equivalent to the first chapter of the novel (see Modern China published in Paris in 1853). Up till now, there are at least 12 versions of fragments or adaptions of western languages published successively. The French translation was completed by Andre Levy, who was born in Tianjin, and the English version was translated by David Roy, who was born in Nanjing. Golden Lotus seems to be less important at home than it is abroad. Different from Bakin Kyokutei’s New Golden Lotus based on Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus in the Edo era, Japanese scholars in the twentieth century devoted themselves to the translation of the original works. Osaka Tokushi translated Golden Lotus. Osaka Tokushi translated Golden Lotus, Sawada Mizuho translated Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus and Bibliographic Manuscript of Golden Lotus. According to the Introduction of Andre Levy’s French translation, Golden Lotus has a circulation of more than 200,000 copies in the West. This is not a matter of freedom of the press, it involves different traditions and values between China and the West. From ancient times till now, different Chinese governments have the same stern attitude towards the issue of Golden Lotus, which can only be explained by the different cultural traditions of China and the West. In the eyes of Westerners, the sexual description of Golden Lotus is easy to be tolerated, and its description of individual psychology, thoughts, feelings and independent personality is naturally accepted. Such a novel with striking modern features, written by the unknown writers of the east at the same time and a little earlier than Shakespeare, seemed to them a great miracle. The traditional Chinese culture, centered on family, society and country, has always attached great importance to the ideological significance and social role of literature and art. The first consideration for Golden Lotus is that its sexual description will be harmful to morality. Chinese Literature—culture is, of course, an integral part of world literature. It is not advisable to write works of world history centered on China or Europe or any country or continent. However, we can’t deny that Chinese literature has not really become one of the components of world literature. Some of the most representative Chinese literary works only have complete foreign translations recently, and the circulation is very small, except perhaps Golden Lotus. To assess the extent to which a nation’s literature has been shared by the people of the world, the depth and breadth of foreign scholars’ research on it is another sign. In the early 1940s, the Preface to the English translation of Golden Lotus by Arthur Waley, a famous British Sinologist, was out of date. It’s not that he was not outstanding at that time, but that the Sinology level of the time was rather low. Now the western research papers that can compete

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with domestic scholars are far more than a handful, which can be testified by some papers in the Collection of Western Essays on Golden Lotus.9 Based on the research of Feng Yuanjun’s the Historical Literature Data in Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus and other scholars, Hanan from America wrote the Exploring the Origins of Golden Lotus on the novels, scripts, Off-stage songs, operas, documents and Poetic Stories literature quoted in Golden Lotus, which is an outstanding achievement. The materials it collected are very detailed and can only be collected in famous libraries at home and abroad. Exploring the Origins of Golden Lotus is a textual research with profound ability, but the work is not limited to this. As it points out, Golden Lotus is more closely organized in narration than its previous existing novels. “If Golden Lotus is a story of women’s misfortune, the novel is irretrievably wrong, but it’s just a remote comparison with the new novel created by the author. The new type of novel requires a more detailed description of the characters, which should be another kind of detail compared with the old type of novel.” “I think there are two pioneering contributions of Golden Lotus in the history of Chinese novels: one is that the common characters in the secular world have become the protagonists of the novel; the other is that the plot structure and character creation have broken the single line development pattern, and realistic novel art has become mature.” All of these show that the author of the paper takes Water Margin and other storybooks as the original old style novels, while Golden Lotus is a new type novel with psychological description. The scope of Zheng Peikai’s paper Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus and the Drinking Habits of Ming People is very clear and limited. Before it, Dai Bufan found from Golden Lotus that Jinhua liquor is mentioned many times, so he thought that the author of the novel was from Lanxi, Jinhua, and that Lanling was Lanxi. Zhang Yuanfen claimed that the author of Golden Lotus was Jia Sanjin of Yi County, since he took Jinhua liquor as the alias of Lanling liquor. Wei Ziyun thought that there was no yellow liquor in the north, and Jinhua liquor was yellow. The same kind of liquor, due to different opinions and different locations, is interpreted differently. Zheng Peikai’s research can be a fuss, without any omissions. He counted fifty-three occasions on which the varieties of liquor mentioned in the book, all after Chapter 15. He points out that Ximen Qing likes to taste different kinds of liquor, which is related to his nature of being fond of the new and tired of the old, just like in the ways of women. This links the description of liquor with this characterization. The author of this paper cites many records in the Ming Dynasty and makes a comprehensive study of the drinking habits then. He points out: “If we consider that Jinhua liquor was the most popular in the North during the Jiajing period, while the three spirits were popular in the Wanli period, and the scholars in the south often used derogatory words about Jinhua liquor, then we can get the following explanation for the name of Jinhua liquor in the book: this book describes the drinking habits of the northerners during the Jiajing period, which is true and accurate, and this kind of habit is not

9

Selected and annotated by Xu Shuofang, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1987. The translation of the following comments not noted are all from this book.

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suitable for the southern style Wanli years.” This paper provides some evidence for the time when Golden Lotus was completed. Xia Zhiqing’s New Views on Golden Lotus is simple and profound. It was originally written for Western English readers, but it can also be used for reference by professionals. This article is not intended to be textual research, but some of its discussions are as rigorous as textual research. It points out that “the author’s obvious carelessness, his impulse to seize the opportunity to use ridicule and exaggerate satires, and his eagerness in copying the compositions have damaged the realist feature of the novel in all places.” It seems too harsh, but in fact, there is always the original text as the basis. It comments a little less about the artistic achievements of the novel, which may be a deficiency in a good work, but it may play a sobering role in the popular tendency of overestimating the artistic achievements of Golden Lotus. It divides the novel into three parts: the first ten chapters follow the story of Water Margin, without showing its own characteristics, the last twenty chapters are “a pile of rarely connected stories put together”, only the seventy chapters in the middle have the integrity of realism. The author of the paper calls them the novels in the novel. Some of its comments may have gone too far, but they are enlightening. The paper The Garden Images in Golden Lotus and A Dream of Red Mansions by Shi Meirui makes a unique contrast between the two masterpieces. The paper makes a convincing explanation of the suggestive role of the garden in the artistic structure and characterization of the two works. For example, Pan Jinlian and Li Ping’er live at one end of the garden respectively, “this life and death struggle in the garden is centered on Ximen Qing. In essence, this is the question of which end of the garden has the upper hand in his mind.” Li Ping’er symbolizes spring and Pan Jinlian symbolizes autumn. The author goes on to say: “his (Ximen Qing’s) infatuation with Ping’er and children is in sharp contrast to his ambivalence towards Jinlian. For Jinlian, he was afraid of her and wanted her, so he always treated her with threats and indulgence.” She thinks that Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai complement each other in personality, one is Miss Autumn, the other Miss Spring, similar to Li Ping’er and Pan Jinlian, but the relationship is far more complicated. Some of the statements may be made in pursuit of profoundness, but they are not too far fetched. Golden Lotus is not only a social novel, but also a pornographic novel. Chapters 26 and 27 can be regarded as representatives of the two, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Yang Yi’s paper Study on Song Huilian and Her Symbolic Role in Golden Lotus and Colid’s paper Puns and Metaphors in Golden Lotus show that they attach the same importance to these two chapters as we do, though their specific views are very different. Professor Yang Yi’s paper points out that “no one, including the author of A Dream of Red Mansions, can control several opposite forces of the same event and they are so clearly distinguishable that we are still confused about its artistic power as time goes by, and that we can’t give them a comprehensive explanation so far.” This is “the unique success of the realism mode” in Golden Lotus. Taking Song Huilian and Ximen Qing’s tryst in Snow Cave in Chapter 23 and Wu Yueniang’s rescue by the master of the Snow Cave in Chapter 84 as examples, the author points out that sex and religion go hand in hand in the novel, which is the theme of Golden Lotus. “The

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concept of lust is death, which is the essence of the whole novel, and also the internal factor of thorough understanding of religions” is the symbolic role that the title refers to. This is the only example we can see of the interpretation of Golden Lotus with Freudian theory and symbolism. Introduction to the French Translation of Golden Lotus by French Translator Andre Levy and Foreword to the French Translation of Golden Lotus by Aikin Buller provide us with various situations of the translation, publication and comments of the novel in Europe, far beyond the scope of the French translation. The Novel Critic School founded by Li Zhi, a progressive thinker, and developed by Jin Shengtan, Mao Zonggang and Zhang Zhupo, reached its peak during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It had a far fetched tendency in exploring the micro meaning of the works. Moreover, whether they comment on ideas or art, they tended to focus on the minor while ignoring the major. However, it is another extreme to give up inference and deduction just to avoid the weakness of examining the details, which is like focusing on the lush forest by ignoring the important features of the plants. The paper Flaws in the Perfection written by American Professor Andrew H. Plaks comments from close shots to the landscape. He pointed out that Zhang Zhupo followed the commentary of the Chongzhen edition, while the commentary of the Chongzhen edition reflected “the common arguments of the commentary under the name of Li Zhi”. Chongzhen’s comments may even be traced back to the time when Golden Lotus was written. Is it possible that Golden Lotus also had Li zhi’s comments, or if not from himself, but from his disciples, admirers and even believers? This is a question that can be extended from this paper. This paper also points out that Xie Zhaogu died in 1624. According to the description of Postscript for Golden Lotus in Collection of Little Grass Study, Vol. 24th, the Golden Lotus he read was the 20-volume version. This is the same as the versions of Chongzhen and Zhang Zhupo. The 20-volume version may even be traced back earlier, but the version earlier than Chongzhen was generally recognized as the 10volume one. From the perspective of volume division, 20 volumes are obviously earlier than 10 volumes. The author believes that there is still a lack of convincing arguments for the recognition that the Poetic Stories version was earlier than the Chongzhen version. This is another important issue in the study of Golden Lotus. The number of volumes itself, no matter 10 or 20 volumes, does not necessarily involve specific content, the publisher can modify it at any time. Even if it is true, the author believes that it remains to be explored as which is earlier and which is the original. For the dissemination and research of Golden Lotus in the foreign countries during the twentieth century, Wu Gan’s Long History of the twentieth century Golden Lotus Research,10 has a more detailed introduction, which can be referred to.

10

Wu Gan, Long History of the 20th Century Golden Lotus Research, Shanghai Wenhui Press, 2003.

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4.4 A Brief Account for the Other Full-Length Novels of the Collective Creation from Accumulation of Generations 4.4.1 Stories of Gods and Demons The Legend of Deification is the most outstanding novel with similar themes in the Ming Dynasty besides Journey to the West. It is not a personal creation either. The earliest existing version of the novel is the 100-chapter/20-volume of Zhong Bojing (xing)’s criticism kept at the Japanese Cabinet Library. The cover inscription indicates it is Shu Chongfu’s carving in Jinkai Bookstore. In the beginning of the second volume it is noted that it was written by Jin Kai published Yang Shu Imperial Press. Maybe it’s the same bookstore with a different names at different times. In Wanli 47th year (1620), The New Issue of Mr. Xu Wenchang’s Comments on the Romance of the Tang Dynasty collected in Martial Art Treasured Pearl Library also noted being published by Yang Shu Imperial Press. So their publication time must be close. Li Yunxiang of Hanjiang, wrote the preface obviously in the voice of the writer, but he had these evasive remarks.11 Zhong Xing (1574–1624), a native of Jingling, Hubei Province. How could he buy the unfinished manuscript in his hometown the central Chu? It’s obviously a fake. It seems that “he has not yet fulfilled his wish of completing the work” refers to his comments, while from the perspective of “daringly continued the writing, by deleting its absurd parts and the vulgar slang”, it also refers to the text of the novel. It’s unimaginable to write the criticism in the name of Zhong Xing and to think of his statements as “absurd” or “vulgar”. The second volume of this book is also notes the adapter being “Zhong Shan Leisure Man Xu Zhonglin”. In Kangxi 34th year (1695), the revised version of Four Snow Thatched Cottage by Chu Renhuo did not mention the author of this book. It seems that the author’s name was not affirmed, In fact, it just shows that the book is a collective creation accumulated by folk artists from generations, and there is no single author. Compliance to Providence in A Collected Study of Legend, Vol. 7th explains, “it is written by Lu Changgeng, a Taoist in the Yuan Dynasty”. Supplement to Lu Xixing’s Study of Wu Chengen’s Story (Anthology of Breezing Hall II) by Mr. Liu Cunren, an Australian, said that Changgeng was also named Xi Xing (1520-about 1601). He thought that Lu Ya in the book refers to the author himself, Zhongzhong refers to Tao Zhongwen and Shang Rong refers to Xia Yan, which is ungrounded. Li Yunxiang said in his preface, “The story of Jiang Ziya’s beheading the generals and deification 11

It is said in Li Yunxiang’s preface, “Yu Youshu and Chongfu paid a lot of money from the central Chu for a volume of The Legend of Deification, which was reviewed by Mr. Zhong Bojing. He has not yet fulfilled his wish of completing the work, but entrusted me with it. I daringly continued the writing, by deleting its absurd parts and the vulgar slang. After each chapter, I added the comments in either statements or ironic comments for the related loyalty, chivalry or the treachery and stubbornness, so as to awaken the people of the world … Now the book is finished and it is up for the readers to decide if it is credible or not, for which I am not in a position to comment.”

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has no written version. However, as it is passed down from storytelling, it must be credible.” This shows that the book is written on the basis on poetic story scripts. Xu Zhongling, the author in the second volume of the book might be one of its early adapters. Later, Li Yunxiang revised it, and names in the second volume should be the remains of the old one that has not been completely deleted.

The Time for the Completion and Adaption of The Legend of Deification As a collective creation of accumulation for generations, The Legend of Deification is connected with some other literature works in the process of writing. They are mainly as follows:

The Legend of Deification and New Popular Story of King Wu’s Crusade to Zhou The Legend of Deification is deduced, expanded and adapted from New Popular Story of King Wu’s Crusade to Zhou of Shang. The plots of the two books are basically the same, the number of words in this popular story is about 34,000, and the number of words in the novel is 13 or 14 times more, so the novel is the deduction and expansion of the popular story, but there are many differences: for example, according to the popular story, King Zhou had only one son, Yin Jiao, who later helped Zhou to conquer Zhou of Shang. The novel changed it into two brothers, Yin Jiao and Yin Hong, who were supposed to help Zhou to conquer Zhou of Shang for revenge of their dead mother Empress Jiang. Later, they were instigated by Shen Gongbao and went against their swear to attack Zhou, and they got their due punishment. In the popular story, there is no Shen Gongbao, but only Shen Tu Bao, with the similar name and different image. King Wucheng and Huang Feihu turn to be the King of South Yan; the Clairvoyance and Clairaudience Li Lou and Shikuang turn to be Shen Tu and Yu Lei. In the popular story, Jiang Shang once served as a minister in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. As he offended King Zhou, his mother was killed. In the novel, Jiang Shang’s official experience was different, and no harm was done to his mother; Yunzhong offered a wooden sword to kill Daji while in the popular story, it was Xu Wensu who offered the sword. Such differences are numerous. The biggest difference between the plots of the two books is that the popular story has “beheading generals” but not “deification”, as Li Yunxiang’s preface said. the popular story belongs to the historical legend and the novel turned to be a fiction of gods and demons. The most obvious distinguishing mark between the two is the geographical situations reflected in the two books: the route of the eastern expedition of King Wu in the popular story, from Qizhou to Tongguan, Mianchi, Luoyang to Sishui Guan, crossing the Yellow River to Chaoge (now Qi County, Henan Province), is consistent with the actual geographical position. In the novel, the route of the eastern expedition is in the opposite direction: the route from west to east turns to be from east to west: from

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Qizhou turns to be from Sishui Guan, Tongguan turns to be Lintong. The heading of Chapter 33 even mistook Sishui 汜水 for Sishui 泗水 (the battle of Huang Feihu in Sishui) based on the same pronunciation. By the same token, the Shouyang Mountain to the north of the Yellow River was moved to the south of the Yellow River, and the Yanshan Mountain in Hebei Province was moved to Shaanxi Province (see Chapter 50: “the army traveled to Yan Mountain the other day, and they looked up to see Mount Taihua all of a sudden…”). This is circumstantial evidence that the novel did not come from the writing of Lu Xixing or other literati, but from less educated folk artists or booksellers. There was a middle link between the Popular Story of King Wu’s Crusade to Zhou of Shang and the 100-chapter edition of The Legend of Deification. It is Historical Records of the Kingdoms and Historical Records of the Shang Dynasty compiled by Yu Shaoyu published in the Ming Dynasty.12 He truthfully pointed out that six tenths of The Legend of Deification “don’t have the slightest traces that are found in the Popular Story. About two-thirds of the characters in the Popular Story never appear in The Legend of Deification.” Then he pointed out: “Of the hundred thousand words in The Legend, we can’t find a single sentence that is completely copied from the Popular Story without any changes.” It is a fact that the ratio of the Popular Story to the number of words in The Legend of Deification is about one to thirteen. It is impossible for the Legend to follow the Popular Story “without any changes.” However, we would disagree if the succession of the Legend to the Popular Story is underestimated. Take the similar description in Daji’s death penalty as an example: Popular Story: The executioner was ready to behead Daji. Daji looked at the executioner with flirting charms. The executioner’s knife fell to the ground and couldn’t bear to kill her. In his rage, Taigong ordered to behead the executioner and replaced him with another executioner. This executioner came up with a knife. Daji looked back at the executioner, in a teasing way. The executioner was taken aback with her charm, his knife fell to the ground and again he couldn’t bear to kill her. In a rage, Taigong beheaded this executioner... Legend (Chapter 97), Lei Zhenzi was the only one conducting the execution of the fox spirit: all the soldiers were stunned by Daji and couldn’t lift their swords... Lei Zhenzi reported the Episode of Daji’s execution that all the soldiers were stunned by the evil fox, and they could not move (their hands). Ziya said angrily... Take down the execution sergeant and behead him to the public...

The successive relationship is obvious, even though the quotations and the more complete sentences are different, and even many descriptions are different.

The Legend of Deification and Zaju A littler later than the Popular Story of King Wu’s Crusade to Zhou of Shang between the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Records of Ghosts published by Tianyi Pavilion recorded Wu Changling’s Zaju “Prince Nezha’s Eyes” and Zhao Jingfu’s Zaju “Yi 12

Liu Cunren: Anthology of Breezing Hall I. the Relationship between Popular Story of King Wu’s Crusade to Zhou of Shang in the Ming Edition Historical Records of the Kingdoms and The Legend of Deification.

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Qi’s Proposal to King Wu for the Crusade to Zhou of Shang”. In addition, the tune [Nezha ling] was used in Zaju, such as “Shen Nu’er”, “Tablet of Luck”, “Xie Jinwu”, “Yueyang Tower”, “Butterfly Dream”, “The Soul of A Beautiful Woman”, “Yangzhou Dream”, “Contract ”, “ Spring Jade Pot” “Jade Mirror”, “Xue Rengui”, “ Marriage of Two Lives”, “The Story of Forbearance” and “The Story of A Lime Circle”, “Jewellery Box”, “Tactics of Triangular Love Affair”, “Peach Blossom”, “Lover’s Creditors”, “The Insult to Master Fan”, “Wutong Leaves”, “The Pot Ghost” and many other works in all periods of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, including the first episode of the Lvsong couplet by the anonymous, which may have originated from the source earlier, at least no later than Popular Story of King Wu’s Crusade to Zhou of Shang. The sentence referring to Nezha is like[good bucks]in the first fold of Guan Hanqing’s Zaju “Lu Zhai Lang”: “Meeting face to face with that evil Nezha.” In [first inquiry] In the first episode of Li Wenwei’s “Yanqing’s Fish Fighting”: “to kill people and set fire, I can recognize it is done by that cruel Nezha.” In [magpie on the branch] in the first episode of “The Pot Ghost” by anonymous: “it’s just the black face Nezha, the pursuer of the soul.” All these may have an impact on the completion of the novel.

The Legend of Deification, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West The Legend of Deification is later than Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It obviously accepted the influence of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. King Wen of Weishui Employs Ziya in Chapter 24 of The Legend of Deification reminds us of Chapter 37 Liu Xuande’s Three Visits in Enlisting the Talent in Romance of the Three Kingdoms; the red rabbit horse in Chapter 40 in The Legend of Deification to Guan Yu’s mount; the seven escapes and seven captures in Chapter 68 to Zhuge Liangzheng’s battle to Meng Huo. Jiameng Pass is located in today’s Zhaohua County, Sichuan Province. Ma Chao’s Battle in Jiameng Pass and Liu Bei Takes Lead in Yizhou in Chapter 65 in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Jiameng Zhangfei’s Fighting against Ma Chao in Jiameng in Chapter 129 of Popular Romance of The Three Kingdoms. Jiameng was recorded as Jiaming in Stories of the Three Kingdoms, with the similar pronunciation. This place is either on the way to Zhou of Shang’s attack on the Western Zhou Dynasty, nor on the way of King Wu’s attack on Zhou of Shan, but it actually appears in Chapters 30, 31, 35, 40, 51, 71, and 74 of The Legend of Deification. The place name is recorded as Jiameng Pass once with similar pronunciation, and the rest are all named Good Dream Pass. Apart from the influence of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there is no other explanation. The king of Wu conquered the five passes, which is inevitably influenced by the Guan Gong’s conquest of the five passes, though the specific descriptions are not the same.13

13

Zhang Qiang: On the Influence of Three Kingdoms’ Stories on the Journey to the West. See Study on Ming and Qing Novels, 1989 (1).

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The relationship between The Legend of Deification and the similar theme Journey to the West is much more complicated than that between the former and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Liu Cunren’s paper “The Father and Son of Vaisravana and Their Relationship with Chinese Novels” in Anthology of Breezing Hall II quoted the two collections of Buddhism and Taoism that attracted little attention, which is admirable. However, it is questionable for its view that “the age when Journey to the West became a book may be later than The Legend of Deification.” Whether Journey to the West or The Legend of Deification is earlier remains to be undetermined. Even if it is determined, the same fragments in both works may not be the copy of the earlier, because both of them have experienced a long-term circulating process, including the stage of folk artists’ storytelling. If they permeated each other in the process of formation, the work with early completion may also be affected by the works with late completion. On the contrary, the works with late completion might be produced and disseminated earlier than those with an early completion, a possibility that can not be ruled out. When making a comparative study, all kinds of complicated situations should be taken into account. Due to the different themes adopted and adapted in The Legend of Deification, and the lack of careful processing in the adaption, there are many doubts and flaws. For example, in Chapter 16, Jiang Ziya said that he was from Xuzhou by the East China Sea, but it is said in Chapter 100, “owing to the merits of his ancestors, King Wu conquered Zhou of Shang and granted his uncle Wen the Xu place, that is, today’s Xuzhou.” In this case, how can Jiang Ziya say that he was from Xuzhou before the crusade to Zhou of Shang? Xuzhou is in Henan Province, how can it be connected with the East Sea?14 In Chapter 98, King Wu of Zhou’s Giving Away Money in Lutai is the same as that in Chapter 97, “building Lutai to gather the wealth of the world.” According to the Book. Wucheng, Lutai should be the storehouse of the Shang Dynasty. However, Chapters 18 and 25 described it as a luxurious palace, which is contradictory. In Chapter 37, Jiang Ziya ordered Baijian to supervise the building of the deification platform, and in Chapter 39, Baijian had become Qingfu God. What is Qingfu God? When was he appointed? Nothing relevant was written. The mistakes in such detailed descriptions are enough to show that the novel has not been written as seriously and consistently as personal creation. The original legends and stories in The Legend of Deification can be countless, the characters are eclectic, the plot is complex, and the purport is various. Some examples quoted in this book are incomplete, but it is enough to show that it is also a typical example of the accumulation of generations in Chinese novels. The Legend of Deification was adapted in the Ming Dynasty, which can be asserted by at least three internal evidences: First, King Zhou of Shang said in Chapter 5, “The Prime Minister will do this for me.” The term “Prime Minister” is also used in Chapters 6, 9, 10, 20, 8, 51 and so on. The cabinet began in the early years of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty when Xie 14

It is said in Mencius. Devotion: “Dagong established Zhou of Shang and lived by the East China Sea.” Dagong refers to Jiang Taigong (Jiang Ziya). Xuzhou, in today’s Henan Province, is a thousand miles away from the sea,

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Jin and other officials joined the cabinet from the position of Hanlin bachelors. The cabinet system and the name of prime minister gradually came into being. Second, it is said in Chapter 93, “let the troops in the regiment be transferred…” According to the original period of The History of the Ming Dynasty, the regiment began in Jingtai 3rd year (1452). Third, in Chapter 7, before Empress Jiang was killed, she said, “There is an old saying: fearless of having your bones and body crushed, but you keep yourself innocent.” Yu Qian (1398–1457) wrote a poem called Lime Chant. The original sentence was: “No fear of having one’s bones and body crushed, only if one can remain innocent.”

The Content and Artistic Features of The Legend of Deification The Legend of Deification is developed according to the basic historical facts of the tyrannical ruling of Zhou of Shang, his being conquered by King Wu of Zhou and the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, to describe the historical period between the Shang and Zhou Dynasties with the story of the gods and devils. The novel begins with Daji and other demons who bewitched King Zhou of Shang, leading him to cruelty and self indulgence in maiming the loyal and exploiting the people, which resulted in being attacked by King Wu of Zhou. The novel, with peculiar imagination, divides the gods and demons into intercepting religion and elucidating religion. The former helped Zhou of Shang, and the latter helped Zhou of King Wu. In the end, the latter won and the former was destroyed, Jiang Ziya proclaimed the gods, and King Wu of Zhou then granted the princes. The story of Jiang Taigong’s meeting with King Wen at the age of 80 and Bigan’s having seven orifices in his heart, the story of the door god Huwei Shenda, Yu Lei, Clairvoyance and Clairaudience and the Marshals Heng and Ha, the stories of Shancai and daughter of the Dragon King have become folk customs, so deeply rooted that no other novel can compare. However it is not one of the “Four Marvelous Novels” of the Ming Dynasty, because it mainly attracts readers with magic weapons and weird plots, but ignores the creation of characters or typical characters. There is one thing for sure: its weak chapters were seldom inspired by ready-made legends, but mostly by the adapters; Some of its wonderful chapters have long been in folklore and were about to be completed. Otherwise, it is difficult to understand how the level of each part in the same work is so different. This is another type of proof that this book was not written by any individual writers from the perspective of novel art. There are many characters such as King Zhou of Shang, Daji, Huang Feihu, Wen Zhong, Jiang Ziya and the demons with three eyes, three heads and eight arms, and the flesh wings in The Legend of Deification, which can impress people, but they are not focused and concise enough. In Chapter 37, “Jiang Ziya Goes to Kunlun”, it is written that Jiang Ziya wanted to obey his master by ignoring the man who came to call him and the story of the white crane boy taking Shen Gongbao’s head, a meaningful and novel idea which should be well used but unfortunately not fully developed.

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There are also well written passages in The Legend of Deification, the story of Nezha from Chapters 12–14 are the most wonderful. Nezha is a seven-year-old boy. He made trouble in the sea and launched the sky shaking arrow unintentionally. His image is full of vitality. He didn’t want his parents to be in trouble. “He cut his stomach, intestines and bones, scattered seven spirits and three souls, and ended his life in another world.” Later, when his father destroyed his palace and his statue, he would seek revenge from his father, which was a public revolt against ancient ethics. It was only because the light Taoist granted Li Jing, his father, the pagoda and made him the Pagoda King, that Nezha was forced to recognize his father. In ancient times, when unconditional loyalty and filial piety were strongly advocated, it was a shocking move to admire unreservedly about Nezha’s resistance. The relationship between the father and son was not hostile after all. In the end, Nezha made up with his father despite being forced. Some theorists think that this is a compromise or a retreat, which should be a mechanical view. The story of Nezha has been recorded in the Five Lamps at Yuan Years in the Song Dynasty. There is a simple biography of Nezha in the Song monk Puji’s The Transformed Sages in Western Heaven and the Eastern Land from Five Lamps at Yuan Years, Vol. 2nd: “Prince Nezha tore his flesh to return to his mother, the bones to return to his father, and then kept what is left for himself, showing his great power and making it fair for his parents.” With the influence of popular stories, Zaju and various legends of the same era, three excellent chapters in The Legend of Deification took shape.

4.4.2 The Poetic Stories on History—Poetic Stories on the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty Poetic Stories on the Tang Dynasty tells the story in the end of the Sui Dynasty when all the heroes came together, and Li Shimin set up his army to fight against the Sui Dynasty, unified the world and established the Tang Dynasty. Volumes 1 and 2 in the main body of the book are entitled Revision to the Biography of King Qin of the Tang Dynasty according to History, Volume 3 is entitled Revision to the Legend the Tang Dynasty according to History, with the heading Updated Revision of the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty, consisting of 8 volumes and 64 chapters, noted with being “adapted by Master Dan Garden, jointly revised by Qing Xiu Hermit.” Master Dan Garden was Chu Shenling. The preface at the beginning of the work was written under the name of Lu Shike, known as the “Versatile Talent” who was a Jinshi in Wanli 35th year (1607). At the beginning of Volume 4 and Volume 7, there are Fu and 10-scenary poems respectively about the West Lake, which may be completed in Hangzhou. Chapter 58 quotes the author’s 6-character poem: “Spring has passed by and by, the leap month is Marching on.” Before Wanli 35th year, both Wanli 5th year (1577) and Wanli 19th year (1591) had the leap months in March. This book was written around 1591. Each volume has the words “revised according to history”. The events recorded in the book are quite different from the two Books of

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the Tang Dynasty, with the strong folklore characteristics everywhere, and obvious geographical errors, such as Baling Valley in the eastern suburb of Chang’an was written as far away as outside Tongguan. It can be seen that “according to history” is only the advertisement of the booksellers, which is not to be taken seriously. There are two systems in the popular historical novels about the Tang Dynasty in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: one is the collective creation of accumulation by generations, such as the Romantic History of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and the Historical Remains of the Sui Dynasty; the other is the popular reading materials, such as the Popular History of the Tang Dynasty, which again greatly abbreviated by the literati “according to history” or “according to research” (the comprehensive research). In fact, this book belongs to the first category, but nominally it belongs to the second category. Apart from the rhymes in the beginning of the volume, there is no obvious trace of the literati’s revision. The author’s adaption did not make many changes to the original work, for which it is valuable. This book is the only one of the long poetic stories of the Ming Dynasty besides Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus. Yang Shen’s 10 Ornate Poetic Stories on the Brief History of the Past Dynasties is an imitation work by literati, which is different by nature. In the first volume of this book, there are four Ci poems [spring tower] standing for the four seasons, followed by a 7-character poem before the main body text. In Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus, there are also four [moving fragrance] Ci poems at the beginning, which are generally the hymns of the four seasons, and immediately followed by the four greedy [partridge day] Ci poems, condemning human lust and desires. Both books are the combination of poems and prose, and the poems are used at the beginning and end of each chapter. When prose is more than rhymed verse, it is the result of adaptation. The above-mentioned [spring tower], [moving fragrance] and [partridge day] are not labeled with the names of tune titles, which is the case for literati when they were writing the compositions for music. In 1967, the poetic stories unearthed in Jiading County of Shanghai during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty were mainly 7-character sentences and a few 10-character sentences. In the parts of singing, there are two types: one is the combination of words and songs as Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus and Poetic Stories on the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty; another type is the Chenghua version which is mainly composed of 7-character sentences and a few 10-character sentences, exactly the same as the coexistence of Qupai couplet and Banqiang in opera.

4.4.3 Historical Novels of the Sui and Tang Dynasties Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties The full name for the Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties is Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties Annotated by Yang Shengan with 12 volumes and 122 chapters. Among them, Chapter 89 is divided into two parts, so it is actually 123 chapters. Each chapter is entitled with a 7-character line. According to the preface by Lin

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Han, the book is also named the Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, which is also printed in the middle margin of the pages. It is inscribed as being “edited by Luo Guanzhong from Dong Yuan and reviewed by Yang Shen, style name Shen’an, from West Shu”, and collected by Zunjing Pavilion, Japan. Muji said at the end of the book: “it is from Yang Jian, the Lord of Sui, being granted the throne by King Zhou in the 13th year (581) of Chen Gaozong (as Emperor Xuan)’s reign, till Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty was enthroned, and after four centuries in the 5th year of Emperor Qianfu’s reign (878), the Tang general Zeng Yuanyu killed Wang Xianzhi, which totals 295 (as 298) years. After that, there is a detailed record History of the Remnant Tang Dynasty for Five Generations, which is strongly recommended for the readers to read through. Wanli 47th year (1619). Early Autumn. Printed by Jin Chang Book Forest.” The historical events recorded by Muji coincide with the New Book of Tang · Biography of Emperor Xizong. There are 124 chapters in volume 12th of the book, and according to the narration it ends in Zhonghe 2nd year (882), that is, the year recorded in Chapter 124 “The Conquest of Zhu Wen in the War of Zheng He”. However, these two chapters can only be found in the contents of this volume, and the text still ends in Chapter 122. It can be seen that the booksellers were quite careless before printing.

The Remnant Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty The full name of The Remnant Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty is The Treasured Copy of Annotated Remnant Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty by Jianxiao Pavilion, which is composed of 60 chapters and the author is signified in the preface as “Master of Fortune Garment in September of Chongzhen 6th year (1633) written in the Ye Garden of West Lake”. Yuan Jin (later renamed Yu Ling, 1592–1672), style name Ling Zhao and pseudonym Master of Fortune Garment, was from Wuxian county and known as the author of The West Tower. In fact, he is the adaptor of this generational cumulative collective novel. It is said in the preface: “The Remnant Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty intends to focus on the declination of Qin (Hu), and the people around him…” “Qin (Hu)” refers to Qin Qiong, the Duke of Hu. who is the central figure throughout the whole book. He was taken as the axis, reflecting the demise of the Sui Dynasty and the rise of the Tang Dynasty. It is commented in Chapter 3 “Tang Gong Is Stolen in Hawthorn Hill”: “In the old version, the prince (Yang Guang) disguised himself as a thief to stop Tang Gong (Li Yuan) from robbing him, which was known by Tang Gong. This is applicable for novels. In my opinion, with this enmity for thirteen years, how can the Emperor and his courtier face each other? So here the change is made.” Chapter 35 and Chapter 55 also refer to the original. It seems that the adaptor is quite respectful of the original and will not change it easily. It is said in the preface: “In view of changes in writing, it is to keep, omit and add wherever is needed.” This is the author’s own adaptation attitude, but in fact, there are only a few revisions. Some scholars in the late Ming Dynasty often exaggerated their

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revision as the adaptation, which was not surprising. For example, Zang Maoxun, the adaptor of Selection of Yuan Operas said in a Letter to Xie from Hangzhou, “selecting from the Zaju by deleting the redundant and change the parts that don’t fit in.” Later generations even misunderstood Selection of Yuan Operas as a forgery, which is certainly not true. In addition to the plot of the novel, the comments at the beginning of each chapter, such as the paragraph “Chen Meigong of the current time said…” in Chapter 39 and poems of the four seasons in Chapter 26, can be “… add wherever is needed”, as they are not an integral part of the novel and are not relevant.

Romantic History of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty Romantic History of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty has another name, Biography of the Romantic Emperor. Its full name is “The Newly Engraved Illustrated Popular Romantic History of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty”, with author’s information of “ being adapted by Qidong Savage, without be reviewed by the Master”. In Chapter 40 of Volume 8, the adapter Unofficial History Recorder wrote the self preface in Chongzhen 4th year (1631). According to the inscription by “a friend of mine from the plum town (now Jiaxing, Zhejiang), Snake Hermit “at the same year,” My friend (the author) is from the east, chivalrous and talented. He used the others’ works to write the book Romantic History, which is about the life of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty”. It is compiled on the basis of Miscellany on the Great Enterprise, Remnants of the Sui Dynasty, Stories of Oceans and Mountains, Canal Building and Indulgence, with few added fictions. One of the ten items in Ordinary Cases said: “The novels of the minor officials are well-known because they tried to play the role of the official history. All the books about the recent unofficial history are using the groundless information to catch people’s attention. It turns out to be absurd and distorting. This book of Romantic History, though being a novel, quotes the truth and observes the official history. It does not use the unauthorized sources nor add its own words to give explanations. Therefore, the source is grounded and can be used for collection and data. It is not only popular for a while, but can also spread for thousands of years.” Its writing is fluent and elegant, which has neither the common weakness of vulgarity in the writings of the generational cumulative novels, nor the strength of vividness in them. The seventh item in Ordinary Cases said: "The greatest taboo for romantic novels is the obscenity which damages elegance.” Moreover, “The idea for wonderful situations come out in a subtle way.” This may not be achieved, but it is a fact that “there is not a single word of obscenity in this compilation”. The author of the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties of Four Snow Thatched Cottage version, Chu Renhu with the pseudonym of “Out-of-date farmer of Changzhou,” marked several chapters about Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty as using the materials from this book. It can be seen that this book had some influence on later novels.

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4.4.4 Public Case Stories Bao Longtu Judges a Hundred Public Cases The full name of Hundreds of Public Cases Adjudicated by Bao Longtu is “New Beijing Popular Legend of Bao Longtu Judges a Hundred Public Cases”, inscribed as An Yushi, with the pseudonym Qiantang Leisure Man, was published by Zhu’s Yugeng Hall. Before Chapter 1, there are The History of the States and The Family Origin of Bachelor Bao, with the pictures in the above and the text below, the title Saving the Filial Son from Biography of Baogong printed in the middle margin. The book is composed of 10 volumes and 100 chapters. At the end of the book, there is a sign: “Jiawu year of Wanli reign by Zhu’s Yugeng Hall.” Jiawu year of Wanli reign is Wanli 22nd (1594). The compilers of the novels were not as educated as traditional literati, nor had the skills of storytellers. In order to make up for 100 cases, they had to borrow from different sources and make the changes in different cases, such as changing the non Bao case into the Bao case. For example, Chapter 68 uses the story from Wang Zhongwen’s Zaju Saving the Filial Son, which was about the upright official Wang Xiaoran, whose biography was originally in The History of Jin, Vol. 15th, His name Wang Xiao in this book was changed to Bao Gong when the story was used. Chapter 1 turns Lu Guimeng’s Wild Temple Monument in the Tang Dynasty into a story and Bao Gong was arbitrarily written as a local official in Yongzhou. Chapter 23 is developed on the Zaju Dream of Red Garment in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Bao Zheng, the official in the Kaifeng government in the Northern Song Dynasty, was adapted as the head judge of Shuntian (Beijing) in the Ming Dynasty. In terms of sources: Chapter 51 is from Supplement Jiang Zong’s the Legend of the White Ape in the Tang Dynasty, Later, this story was rewritten, and it can be found in Chen Xun’s Losing His Wife in Meiling from Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories, and Chen Congshan’s Losing His Family in Meiling from Ancient and Modern Novels, Vol. 2nd; Chapter 78 Lin Zhaode from Southern Opera of the Song and Yuan Dynasties; Chapter 19 Zhu Wen’s Peace Money; Chapter 49 Yuan Wenzheng’s Soul Return, Chapter 62 Guo Hua; Chapter 27 Contract in Jin and Yuan Zaju, and Chapter 87 The Pot Ghost. Some of them are derived from the plot of a certain book of Jin Yuan’s Zaju, such as Dream of Red Garment and Saving the Filial Son. Some of them are derived from the vernacular stories of Song and Yuan Dynasties such as Letter of the Monk in Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories, which was later adapted into Monk Tricked Huangfu’s Wife with the Letter in Ancient and Modern Novels, Vol. 35th.Some of them are derived from the full-length novels such as Chapter 41 Three Battles in Sweeping Demons. Some of them are different because of the different ages of story spreading and writing, and it’s hard to distinguish the related works from each other, so it’s impossible to determine which was earlier. For example, the relationship between Chapter 58 and Five Rats Stir the East Capital and Baogong Subdues the Evil Spirit, and the similarities between Chapter 50 and The Zither Boy Revenging for the Master and Chapters 47–48 in Golden Lotus, which might be

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the latter’s borrowing the story which A Hundred Public Cases used in this chapter, rather than the original text of A Hundred Public Cases. If we take the original text of the case, the relationship between the two may be exactly the opposite. It is likely that Chapter 50 in A Hundred Public Cases was written after Golden Lotus. As A Hundred Public Cases was published in Wanli 22nd year (1604), it is hard to imagine that the popularity of Golden Lotus came after it. A Hundred Public Cases is not only a compilation of popular southern operas of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Zaju, vernacular scripts and other novels and operas of later generations, even among the 100 cases, there are some similar parts. For example, both Chapter 30 and Chapter 90 describe the means to solve the case by having the prostitutes and corpses laying together. The southern operas Lin Zhaode on which Chapter 78 was based and the Zaju Dream of Red Garment on which Chapter 23 was based on are similar initially. Chapters 73, 74, 84, 85 of the novel are all derived from the Yuan Zaju Chen Zhou’s Selling Rice to which Chen Liu’s relief in Chapters 47, 76 may also be related, but the most wonderful story Chen Zhou’s Selling Rice in the Baogong case has not been collected in the book, which shows that the compiler did not do a careful job in selecting.

Guo Qingluo’s Hearing Records of New Civil Public Cases in Six Provinces The term “new civil public cases” in Guo Qingluo’s Hearing Records of New Civil Public Cases in Six Provinces is derived from Book of Zhou. Kanggao, which means that the local officials should pay more attention to education. The title of the volume is “Newly Engraved Guo Qingluo’s Hearing Records of New Civil Public Cases in Six Provinces,” with the inscription of being “published by Yang Baiming, Zhenhui in Jianzhou, and engraved by Jin Chengzhong in the Book Forest Immortal”. At the beginning of the book, there is the Quotation from the Records of New Cases, which said it was being “inscribed by Wu Qian, Huanchu, in Yanling of Nanzhou, during his break in the Autumn of Wanli 33rd year of the Ming Dynasty (1605)”. Maybe the book was completed around this year, when Guo was far away as the governor of Guizhou. Its author is unknown. The book is entitled “Hearing Records of New Civil Public Cases in Six Provinces”, while in the Biography of Guo Gong in the first volume, it is said “Guogong had attended new civil cases in five provinces”, which is inconsistent with the title. The original book is not found. Guo Qingluo, style name Zizhang (1542–1618) and pseudonym Xiangkui, was from Ji’an, Taihe in Jiangxi Province. In Longqing 4th year (1570), he took the autumn exam and became Jinshi the next year, working as the an intern in the Ministry of Justice. He had successively served as Jianning Prefecture magistrate, Chaozhou Prefecture magistrate, Sichuan examiner, Zhejiang administrative inspector of Hangzhou, Shanxi judicial inspector, Huguang, Fujian treasury inspector, and then resigned home. In 1599, Wanli summoned Guizhou grand coordinators to govern Chu and Shu to assist Li Hualong, governor of Huguang and

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Sichuan, in suppressing Yang Yinglong’s rebellion in Bozhou. He asked for sick leave in Wanli 35th year. In Wanli 40th year he was awarded the title of Minister of War and right deputy governor. He is the author of Posthumous Writings of Mr. Guo Qingluo, with a chronology of his son. There are 46 cases in extant New Civil Public Cases, most of which are from the section chief of the Supreme Court in Jianning, including all the cases in the first volume and others scattered in other volumes. Next to Jianning are the cases from Zhejiang and Chaozhou, followed by Sichuan and Yunnan (Songming Zhou). Each is accompanied by a petition and a verdict. There may be some actual cases, and some may boast a little. There are also cases with ghosts and gods or karma, such as “Life from the Post Attendant for Life” (Vol. 1st), “Murder and Corpse Stealing by the Pirate Monk,” “Double- headed Fish Killed” (Vol. 2nd), which are obviously out of fiction. Even it came out two centuries later than Baogong’s Zaju during Jin-Yuan periods, its ideological content and artistic skills have not been improved with the progress of the times. At that time, Guo Zizhang was famous for being good at hearing lawsuits. Although the stories contained in Ji’an Prefecture Annals in Volume 26 are very brief, they are very similar to those in Volume 2 of the book, The Monkey’s Vindication for the Master. It can be seen that legends had been popular for a long time.

Chapter 5

Individually Created Full-Length Novels That Stand Out from the Collective Creations

5.1 The Rise of Individually Created Full-Length Novels Individually created novels in ancient China rose under the impetus of the collective novels created by generations represented by the four masterpieces. Embroidered Couch by Lu Tiancheng (1580–1618) is the first credible Chinese novel created individually so far. It was written around Wanli 27th (1599). Since then, there were still novels of cumulative collective writings by generations coming out, but individual creation had emerged and was gradually prevalent. It should be emphasized that Embroidered Couch appeared in the development of ancient Chinese novels. It is not isolated, but along with many other works that they led and opened up a new era of individually created novels. Between the individual creation that finally stood out and the collective creation that had been around for a long time, there were also works with dual natures of individual creation and collective creation. The two natures contained in the same work may have very different proportion ratios, some of them may be 50–50, some of them may be 30–70. At the beginning, few of them were totally individual creations. Individual creation is only a general term. The same is true for the collective creation of generational accumulation, as there is no denying that it was adapted by one or two or more individuals. Therefore, we regard the Embroidered Couch and some works during that period as a symbol of the rise of ancient Chinese individual novels. The difference between Embroidered Couch and Golden Lotus is one is a simulation and the other is being imitated, and the similarities between their plots and other novels are accidental. Obviously, Embroidered Couch is not a collective creation of generational accumulation, but one of the earlier individual novels that started from one’s imitation. Luo Maodeng’s West Ocean Journey, which came out at about the same time, was based on the Journey to the West. The first 17 chapters have the characteristics of generational accumulation novels, and the last 83 chapters may be mainly imitative individual creation.

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Loyalty of Guard Yu has the obvious characteristics of individual creation, but it came out as late as 1611, and belongs to historical full-length novels, the largest branch of ancient Chinese novels. All of these novels started from the Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms. From a certain point of view, they are both successful or unsuccessful imitators of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The most successful imitation is Annals of the New Kingdoms and Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The former was processed by Feng Menglong and the latter was adapted by Chu Renhuo. It is appealing for publishers like Yu Shaoyu, Yu Wentai and Feng Menglong to be engaged in adapting and even to some extent creating historical novels. Although imitation, inheritance and quotation are similar to collective creations of generational accumulation, they are not the same, as behind them we can see the creative activities of individual writers. Similar to individual creations, Crazy Ji Zen Master’s Lectures in Qiantang Lake is actually a collection of folklore accumulated from generations. The “author” did little in either processing or polishing. It was published in Longqing 3rd year (1569). During the Jiajing period, Chao Xuan’s Bibliography of Baowen Hall already contains Stories of Ji Zen Master by Hongqian, and the stories of Ji Zen Master were also told by storytellers in Hangzhou during the Jiajing period as recorded in On West Lake Tour. It is found in the Lectures that Ji Zen Master was born in 3rd year of Emperor Guangzong’s reign in the Song Dynasty (1192). Emperor Guangzong had only one year under the name of Shaoxi. According to the novel, he died in Jiading 2nd year (1209) when he was only 18 years old, but it is said in his death hymn, “it has been 60 years of a mess.” It can be seen that the novel is very rough, not to mention unorganized, less creative. Both Loyalty of Guard Yu and Crazy Ji Zen Master’s Lectures in Qiantang Lake can be included in the category of historical biographical novels. The former is too real, while the latter tends to be grotesque. Neither of them has achieved success by maintaining proper proportions between the real and the false, as in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

5.2 A Brief Account of the Full-length Novels Created by Individuals 1.

The erotic novel: Embroidered Couch

This novel is a poor parody of Golden Lotus. In Golden Lotus, the revealing of social darkness with realistic significance coexists with a number of pornographic clips, but Embroidered Couch has are the pornographic descriptions. Its hero, nicknamed Dong Mensheng, is a copy of Ximen Qing, the hero in Golden Lotus. The erotic descriptions of Hu Seng, Chun Yao, Mian Ling and the karma at the end all come from Golden Lotus, which has no artistic feature. If A Dream of Red Mansions shows the positive influence of Golden Lotus on later novels, the Embroidered Couch is the opposite, which is an example of the bad influences of Golden Lotus. The novel is anonymous. According to the Bibliography of Chinese Popular Novels by Sun Kaidi, the two volumes of Bibliography of Shipped Books published in Jiangli Library in Jiaxu year of Baoli were printed by the Shanghai Library in

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1915, inscribed by Master of Love Crazy and revised by Hermit of Hidden Hut. This is as elusive as the writer of Golden Lotus, Giggler of the Blue Hill. According to Wang Jide (1542–1623)’s Miscellaneous Treatise, in the second half of part 39 from On Metrics, Vol. 4th: “Qin was a very productive writer, with ornate and obscene diction and his rhetoric skills are admirable. The well-known Embroidered Couch and Idle Affairs are all from the pens of playful young writers.” Only then can it be confirmed that the author is Lv Tiancheng (1580–1618), and Qin was his style name. When he was 24 years old, he sent 10 legends to Shen Jing, the expert of music, for review. Shen Jing commented on his Two Whores, “it’s like a white drawing of spring.” Later, according to Wang Jide’s propositions, he wrote 200 quatrains, which were called Red and Green Quatrains, including Red Boudoir and Rhyme of Brothel. He was the great grandson of cabinet minister Lv Ben (1504– 1587). His extravagant life and the loose living style of scholar officials at that time enabled him to write these obscene novels like Embroidered Couch in his 20’s. Wang Jide said that Embroidered Couch is from “a playful young writer” as Lu Tiancheng. The age difference between Wang and Lv is nearly 40 years, but they were all from Shaoxing City and with their close relationship, these words should be credible. However, how can a teenager have such an experienced sexual life, and be so imprudent as to put it down in writing? This is naturally questionable. According to Republished Proceedings in Long Ying’s Reply to Constable Lu Linzhi (Yinchang), Vol. 24th, among the ten legends Lv Tiancheng sent to Shen Jing for review, at least three are his father’s works, namely Goddess, Pearl of Purity and Gold Box. Maybe being afraid of affecting his reputation in his official career, his father put his works under his son’s name, while he could bring his son a literary name. It could also be created by one person and polished by another. It seems that this is the case with the completion of Embroidered Couch. According to the Chronicle of the Late Ming Composers on Wanli 36th by Xu Shuofang, another example of the same era is Qi Biaojia’s Tune Reviews in Remote Hill Hall which originated from his father Qi Cheng.1 Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine that a “teenager” would have the “playful” writings deliberately imitating the pornographic chapters of Golden Lotus. According to the collected version of Hatano Tar¯o of Japan, the whole book consists of four volumes with 105 sections. The number of words in the titles of each section varies from two to eight characters, which follows the pattern of early novels. The content of the novel is intended to imitate Golden Lotus, with the new component of the hero’s orientation of male relationships, even offering his wife and maid to the male partner for him to enjoy. The specific plot is as follows: The Concubine’s Intense Lust in Volume 3, the same plot found in Ancient and Modern Novels. Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt Regained, which was written on the basis of Song Maocheng’s Pearl Shirt (see Collection of Nine Flutes, Part 1st, Vol. 11th). Pearl Shirt was written in Wanli 23rd year, which may be several years earlier than Embroidered Couch. However, Collection of Nine Flutes was not published until

1

See Collection of Xu Shuofang, Vol. 2nd, Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 1993, pp. 404–405.

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nearly 20 years later, which means the similarity might be by coincidence. These elements and specific plots later became the convention of obscene novels. 2.

Stories of gods and demons—West Ocean Journey

When it comes to the early individual creation of novels starting from imitation, Luo Maodeng’s Popular Romance of the Eunuch Sanbao in the West Ocean (1597, abbreviated as West Ocean Journey) is remarkable. The Foreword in West Ocean Journey from The Complete Collection of Ancient Novels points out that on Zheng He’s experience as an ambassador in the book, Ma Huan’s Records Along the Ocean and Fei Xin’s Overviews from the Boat are considerably quoted. According to the preface and the conclusion of the volume, Ma Huan went to the west with Zheng He in Yongle 11th year (1413) and completed the book in Jingtai 2nd year (1451). It records Zhengs third, fifth and seventh voyages to the west (whether he accompanied him for the fourth and sixth time is unknown). According to the biography of Zheng, he is in the History of the Ming Dynasty, the third time he was ordered to go to the West was in November of Yongle 10th year. The 11th year of Ma Huan’s record was the actual departure time, and there was no contradiction between the two. Later, the book had a preface in Zhengtong 1st year (1436). The two books may be engraved by local officials in the Guangxin Mansion of Feixin’s hometown at the same time. Overviews from the Boat records the travels of 40 countries and regions, twice as much as Records Along the Ocean. This may be a mechanical comparison, not necessarily in line with the facts. For example, there is no Cuilan Island listed in the book, but Cuilan Island is mentioned in Bengala, and its customs are found in the Naked Country. Although the two books have different records, they all take the Kingdom of Heaven as their limit. After the Kingdom of Heaven, the tour of local government is obviously beyond the scope of the two books. The records in the two books should be true, but there are many obvious mistakes due to a hurry up of comings and goings and the distance from the locals (including languages and political situations). For example, the first sentence of Records Along the Ocean is wrong: “Zhancheng State, is the so-called Wangche City in the Buddhist Scriptures.” Zhancheng is located in the south central part of Vietnam. In the Buddhist Scriptures, Wangche City refers to the capital of the ancient Magadha of Indian, which is in the present Bihar of Indian. The same is true for the corpse fish (Records Along the Ocean) recorded by the state of Zhancheng, that is, the dead human heads recorded in Overviews from the Boat. It is obviously not true for what West Ocean Journey recorded in Chapters 31 and 32. Zheng went to the West seven times (there was a saying of eight times), none of which exceeded three years in length. West Ocean Journey synthesizes one time to another, and it says in Chapter 99, “They left in Yongle 7th year, and now it is Yongle 14th year, more than seven years have passed.” The rhyme in Chapter 22 goes: “the sky opens with blessed scenery, the royal great grandson adheres to the Tao doctrine.” The great grandson means Emperor Xuanzong. The last time Zheng went to the West was in Xuande 6th to Xuande 8th years, during which Emperor Yongle had been dead for many years. What the Foreword of West Ocean Journey said is right. It is not a faithful reflection of the historical facts of Zheng He’s going to the west, but it was

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mainly a fictional novel of gods and demons. The same preface also points out that “as for the stories of gods and demons, they mostly imitate Journey to the West and The Legend of Deification.” “Although the book is named after Zheng He, the real hero is Jin Bifeng, which is equivalent to the Monkey King in Journey to the West, while Zheng He is equivalent to Monk Xuanzang.” Any analogy has its defects, but it does not necessarily hinder the authenticity of it. The Monkey King is Monk Xuanzang’s apprentice, and Jin Bifeng is the National Teacher entitled by the emperor, respected by Grand Marshal Zheng He. Monk Xuanzang can recite the tight hoop mantra to subdue his apprentice, but Zheng He can only worship the National Teacher without any presumptions. There are 100 chapters in West Ocean Journey. The first seventeen chapters, before Zheng He’s fleet set out, mainly describes the special birth and the magic Buddhism of the National Teacher Jin Bifeng (as well as his apprentice Fei Huan and Song Yungu). At first, it seems to be similar to the first seven chapters of Journey to the West, but in fact, it is quite different. The Monkey King was originally subdued on the way to the West. Later, due to the increasing number and importance of his deeds, he was transferred to the beginning of the volume. However, the beginning of West Ocean Journey was intended to indicate the special identity of Jin Bifeng. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, he was invited to Nanjing by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty. In the novel, he was written as the ancient Lamp Buddha coming to the secular world. His death was in 1372, thirty-three years before Zheng He’s first voyage to the West. Such a person, who had nothing to do with West Ocean Journey, was written as the protector for the trip and the ideal person to illuminate the whole book. Why? Song Lian was known as the first literary Minister of the Ming Dynasty. He had an article entitled “Silent Illumination of Jade (Green) Peak the Great Yuanming Zen Master’s Monument of Li Tower”. The monument says that the Buddhist monk Green Peak was named Bao Jin, and Green Peak (Bifeng) was his pseudonym. He was from Yongshou of Qianzhou (now Yongshou County, Shaanxi Province, under Xi’an Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty). At the age of six, he became a monk under Master Wen of Yunji Temple in his hometown county.2 Luo Maodeng’s West Ocean Journey actually wrote that he was the son of Lord Jin outside the Yongjin gate in Hangzhou. His parents died after he was born, and he became a monk under Yunji master of Jingci temple in West Lake of Hangzhou. In this way, the first name becomes the surname, West Shaanxi becomes Hangzhou, the Yunji Temple of Yongshou in Shaanxi becomes the Hangzhou Jingci Temple, and the original Temple name becomes the name of the mage. Song Lian also wrote about some of the miracles of Zen Master Bifeng, especially the following two: first, when he sat in the water, the stream rose and he was immersed in the water for seven days without be drowned; second, when he practiced on the 2

According to Huang Yongnian’s The True Identity of Jin Bifeng in the Records Along the Ocean, See Chinese Classics and Cultural Treatises, Vol. 2nd, Zhonghua Book Company, 1995. Song Lian’s “Silent Illumination of Jade (Green) Peak the Great Yuanming Zen Master’s Monument of Li Tower” can be found in the Anthology of Scholars Song, Vol. 15th.

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secret magic rock of Wutai Mountain, Manjusri turned into a woman with disheveled hair before him. The inscriptions try to render the strong magic power of Zen Master Bifeng, but none of these contents were adopted by the novel. Is it due to the fact that Luo Maodeng was unaware of Song Lian’s inscriptions, or he did not find it though he knew it existed? According to Ge Yinliang’s A Brief Account of the Beginning and End of Bifeng Temple in the Records of the Buddhist Temple in Jinling, Vol. 39th, Song Lian’s article was written by imperial edict. According to Song Lian’s reputation and the popularity of his anthologies, it is impossible for Luo Maodeng not to see the inscriptions. The only possible explanation is that the author adopted the complete legend of Zen Master Bifeng formed over 200 years before and after the death of him, which is not to be corrected at will, nor intervened by the content from Song Lian’s inscriptions. The novel shows the author’s familiarity with the monasteries, alleys, places of interest and spots around Hangzhou. It is not so much the evidence of his life and activities in this area (such possibilities exists), but rather the traces left by the folklore formed in this area. In the first ten chapters, much folklore has been preserved, such as Huida’s saying that “lecturing on a high tower during the day, sleeping in a cocoon at night” (Chapter 15).3 Huida was an eminent monk in the Western Jin Dynasty. The nine ring Buddhist abbot’s staff of Zen Master Bifeng was originally the golden ring stick of Monk Xuanzang in Notes on the Poetry of Fetching Scriptures, the predecessor of Journey to the West. The Legend of Xiangshan from which Chapter 11 derived the story of the thousand hands and thousand eyes Avalokitesvara. The affaire of Lv Dongbin and Bai Mudan, and the attempted murder of Zen Master Huanglong provides a new version in addition to those in the novel Flying Sword and folk operas. In Chapter 12, Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty wrote Eulogy of Tao “Of the three religions, only the Tao is supreme,” which was initiated by Chapter 78 of Journey to the West. According to Tao Scripture. Lingering Sound of Crane, Vol. 9th, West Ocean Journey did better by including its the full text, while Journey to the West only intercepted the second half of it. The New Book of the South by Qian Yi in the Northern Song Dynasty recorded the relationship between Hu Nailing and the doggerel poetry. Hu Nailing himself is a bowl repairer (with nails), but in Chapter 17 of the novel, he gets Jin Zhen’s teaching and becomes a Ming Dynasty person of interest. In the Yongle period of the early Ming Dynasty, there was no, or it seemed impossible for, religious conflict between the rise of Taoism and the extinction of Buddhism. Daoyan, a disciple of Master Bifeng, was one of the main counselors for Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty who started an army to pacify the catastrophe. He was granted the title of the Duke of Honor and was buried with monks after his death. It can be seen that the story of his competition with Heaven Master Zhang in the novel was originally a folk legend. Ge Yinliang’s A Brief Account of the Beginning and End of Bifeng Temple in the Records of the Buddhist Temple in Jinling also has the following records: 3

See Pearl Forest of Buddha Dharma, Vol. 41st.

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It’s a time of long drought. The Emperor was driven to the Gate of Heaven and asked Taoist Master Zhang to pray for rain. No result. Zen Master Zhang was called in. The Emperor questioned how can a monk’s pray work for rain? The monk ensured that it is no big deal. The Taoist Master commented that rainfall is from God’s will, no human force should be imposed. The Zen Master produced a bowl, from which a golden dragon jumped out and went into the air. Soon after, it turned cloudy, followed by a downpour. The water got as deep as over a foot. People were relieved from the sever drought and the Emperor sighed, “The monk is really the God.” The Monk was seated, treated with a meal and seen off out of Xihua Gate. There is a royal inscription of “Bowl of water overflowing the Dragon” left. Later, the Taoist Master was displeased, and confided to the Emperor: it is just the alien monk’s enchantment, please try the fire and water. No damage caused.

Maybe this is the original version of folklore in Chapters 12 and 13 of the novel. In terms of language, Zhao Jingshen’s paper Eunuch Sanbao in the West Ocean points out that the abuse of parallel structure in the novel is also annoying. Parallel structure is a kind of figure of speech. If used properly and sparingly, it can be considerably effective. In West Ocean Journey, each row of the parallel structure is very long, at least four or five sentences, but there is little change in each row except for a few words, just like writing a fairy tale. For example, the fighting between Master Bifeng and goblin in Chapter 7… Such grand scenes are presented at least a dozen times, which is so unbearable for the readers that we have to jump past them to stay away from its nagging.”4 This paper also points out that this kind of situation only exists in the first few volumes, which is exactly the case. For example, the rhymes in Chapters 33–37 (except Chapter 35) and Chapter 46 use Qupai name, and Chapter 47 uses medication name. There are both consistent parts and inconsistent parts in the book, which may be the traces left by different sources of each section. Zhao Jingshen said that the author of West Ocean Journey is “like writing fairy tales”. In fact, these are not the characteristics of fairy tales, but the characteristics of the accumulation of folk storytelling literature from generations. As mentioned above, the first 17 chapters of the West Ocean Journey mainly focus on the collective creation accumulated from generations, while the individual writing can not be excluded, they can only occupy a secondary position; the last 83 chapters mainly focus on imitation, so the collective creation accumulated from generations only occupies a secondary position. 3.

The novel of historical biography—Loyalty of Guard Yu

Loyalty of Guard Yu by Sun Gaoliang narrates the story of Yu Qian (1398–1457), the mainstay of the Civil Fort Incident in the Ming Dynasty. According to The Complete Collection of Ancient Novels (a 44-chapter photocopy), Lin Zixu said in its Preface that it was written in Wanli 9th year (1581), and its publication date was set as Wanli 1st, at least 30 years earlier than it should be. It is said: “With all the data collected, it took 7 years for the completion of the book Merit of Guard Yu.” ‘Seven years’ refers to the time in writing the manuscript of Lin’s novel when he wrote the preface. 4

See A Study of Chinese Novels, Qi Lu Publishing House, 1980, pp. 293–294.

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In the process of creation, the author has extensively collected anecdotes and folklore from official history, unofficial history and literati’s notes. According to Ordinary Cases, it includes 22 kinds of books such as: Authentic Records, The General Records of Royalty, The Royal Political Affairs, Compendium of the Court, Charter Record, Tribute Record, Memorials to the Throne, Biography of Ministers, Records of Famous Officials, Series of Learning, Sequel to Records of Modern Figures, Peculiar Stories of the Past, Daily Records of Tianshun, Records of Restoration, Shuidong Diary, Shuyuan Miscellany, Ocean of Today, Records of Trivialities, Notes of Su, Notes of the Wild, A Study of Dreams. According to the preface at the beginning of Sequel to Records of Modern Figures written by Jiao Hong in 1611, Wanli 39th, Loyalty of Guard Yu used only “two of ten anecdotes” in it, which indicates that Loyalty of Guard Yu could only be published after Sequel to Records of Modern Figures. It follows the writing tradition of historical biography since ancient times, such as to the augury, prophecy, Daoism, case-solving of whirlwind and superstition about The One. It only mistakes the age of Yu Qian’s death from 60 to 61 (Chapter 49), which may be a mistake during copying. Loyalty of Guard Yu is a typical historical novel written by literati. Although it is mainly focused on Yu Qian, it actually reflects on the whole era after the Civil Fort Incident (1450) and the restoration of the Yingzong (1457). Yu Qian was killed in Chapter 50, and the whole book has 70 chapters. Perhaps because it is too close to the official history and rarely fictitious, it had never been appealing to readers. 4. (1)

Stories of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty Historical Records of the Twelve Dynasties before the Kingdoms and Five Hegemony and Seven Powerful Kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn Period

Historical Records of the Twelve Dynasties before the Kingdoms is composed of 54 sections in 4 volumes published by the Three-terrace Library Imperial Press. The internal title is “(Newly) Engraved Historical Records of the Twelve Dynasties before the Kingdoms Based on the Popular Legend”, which is inscribed with “compiled by Yu Xiangdou admired by Three Terrace Mountaineer, published in Double Peak Hall of West Fujian, Three-terrace Library Imperial Press.” It is said at the beginning, “Data is collected from all the books like the previous biographies and legends, starting from the beginning of the world till the period of King of Shang’s spoiling of Daji.” It is stated at the end of the book, “Historical Records of the Kingdoms has been the best seller which provides comprehensive knowledge. It records the history from the time Pan Gu created heaven and earth, through the periods of the three emperors and five sovereigns, till King Zhou of Shang’s ruining of the kingdom.” Obviously, it was adapted and reprinted by Yu Xiangdou in Wanli 34th year (1606), on the basis of his uncle Yu Shaoyui’s Historical Records of the Kingdoms. It is entitled Historical Records of the Twelve Dynasties before the Kingdoms as twelve dynasties refer to three emperors, five sovereigns, Tang, Yu, Xia and Shang Dynasties. There are fifty-four sections in the catalogue of the book, but two or three sections are often connected in the main body without additional headings.

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In 1635, Chongzhen 8th year, New Edition of the Popular Records for the Interpretation of Opening Up the World, inscribed as “Collection of Zhou You (Yangzhi), Wu Yue Mountaineer, Wang Xuezi, Hermit Jingzhu, interpreted”, is composed of six volumes and eighty chapters and it is similar to the text of this book. Obviously one book is based on the other, with little addition and deletion. For example, the title Discrimination at the end of Volume 4th On the Restoration of King Tang by Pan Geng and the few sentences of “Yangzhi said” were omitted at the end of Chapter 76 in Interpretation of Opening Up the World. The inscription of “Mr. Zhong Bojing’s original comment” in Interpretation of Opening Up the World is ostensible. Chapter 80 and Section 54 seem to be quite different, but in fact, they have the same number of words. It seems that Historical Records of the Twelve Dynasties before the Kingdoms should be the original. The compilation of this book is hasty and the writing is poor. For example, Pan Gu’s creation of the world at the beginning of the volume follows the suit of Buddhism. The same is true for the part “according to the Mirror”. In fact, Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government does not record the historical facts before the Warring States period. These examples indicate the publishers’ poor compilation and printing work. Annals of Five Hegemony and Seven Powerful Kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn Period (hereinafter referred to as Annals of the Kingdoms), with eight volumes and reprinted in Wanli 34th year (1606) by the Three-terrace Library, is collected in the Japanese Hosa Bunkouo Library. On the cover of the book it is written “Illustrated Review on the Kingdoms Based on the Legend” and is inscribed with the following: “The book Kingdoms was compiled by my ancestor uncle Yu Shaoyu, on the basis of the legend, the one copy being reprinted several times till the board was worn out. It was revised by Xiangdou (Yu) and re- engraved, and the illustrations are used to help in the understanding by the gentlemen of the world. The buyers shall recognize the logo of Double Peak Hall publisher.” The name “Yu Wentai” was signed. It is inscribed at the beginning the volume “The preface is written by Yu Shaoyu in Wanli 34th year after Mengchun reprinting.” The author of the preface did not claim to be the author of the book, nor did he deny it. According to the cover inscription “accurate annotations are made according to the ancient rules” and the 7-character quatrain by Yu Shaoyu is inserted into the main body of Volume 3 “Battle over Hong Water between Song and Chu”, Yu Shaoyu should be the author adapting it from the old version. In addition, there was another “preface written by a junior admirer of Yu Xiangdou” in the same year, in which it is said: “Deeply worried by my lack of knowledge, I made painstaking efforts in searching for the facts of the kingdoms, collecting the notes of the historians, reorganizing the data, putting them in writing and making the preface.” It can be seen that Yu Xiangdou is another editor after Yu Shaoyu. He left more traces of revisions than his “ancestor uncle”, such as his poems found in “Ziya Subdues Chonghou Tiger” and “Ziya Subdues Luoyang City” in Volume 1 and “Village Woman Lu Upholds Justice for the Whole Country” in Volume 3. According to the catalogue, there are 226 sections in the 8 volumes of the book, but the catalogue does not completely conform to the content. Some of the texts have

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the titles and corresponding contents, but they are not found in the catalogue, such as Zikua Thrones Zizhi in and King of Zhuo’s Fleeing to Jimo Volume 8; some of the titles are in the catalogue with the corresponding descriptions of the texts, but no titles are included in the text parts, such as Zheng Zhuangong’s Martial Art Performance in Zu Palace in Volume 2, Guanzhong Subdued by the Powerful Chu in Zhaoling in Volume 3; some even appear twice in the catalogue, such as Qin Mugong’s Conquest of the West in Volume 4; some of the titles are similar, like King of Qin’s Unification of the World for Zhou and Unification of the World by the First Emperor of Qin in Volume 8, which shows that the compilation is quite cursory. As for some obvious mistakes, such as Gao Qi, a poet in the early Ming Dynasty, was taken as a poet from the Tang Dynasty, and Wang Anshi was mistaken as the writer for “The day Zhou Gong fears the rumor”, a line from Bai Juyi’s Words Unfettered. The so-called ten volumes annotated by Li Zhuowu and twelve volumes annotated by Chen Jiru are mostly erroneous and uncorrected. In fact, the eight-volume, ten-volume and twelve-volume versions of Annals of Kingdoms are basically the same. Although the later versions have a few revisions, there is no substantial difference. (2)

New Annals of Kingdoms and Summary for Annals of Kingdoms

Feng Menglong compiled New Annals of Kingdoms according to Fu Xihua’s Bibliography of Chinese Popular Novels, and now 12 original copies by Jin Kaiye Jingchi in the Ming Dynasty are extant. At the beginning of the volume, there is a preface written by Xiaoya, a Taoist from Wumen, followed by seven examples, one introduction and two maps. It has no separate volumes, with 108 pages in total. Feng Menglong felt that “there are many omissions in the old annals, and they are not coherent by making up stories of their own regardless of truth, such as treasure competition in Lin Tong, which is ridiculous” (see his Ordinary Cases). So he based his writings on Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals, Unofficial Records of Spring and Autumn and Historical Records, and took references from the classics as Gongyang’s Interpretation of Spring and Autumn Annals, Guliang’s Interpretation of Spring and Autumn Annals and other books as Guan Yu, Yan Zi, and other histories as Wuyue Records, Spring and Autumn in Wuyue. By deleting the indecent and ridiculous events, he organized the data and put them in writing. In order to distinguish it from Spring and Autumn Annals, the word “new” is specially added to the entitle of the book. According to the Preface made by Taoist Keguan, “Mohan revised it and turned into a 180-chapter book, starting eastward moving to the time of Emperor Qin. Those who moved eastward started all the kingdoms, while Emperor Qin ended all the kingdoms. This book is based on Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals and Historical Records, with reference to other books. The research was conducted in detail, the data was comprehensive. Even with addition and embellishment, it is true to reality in general. It is a full view of the ups and downs of the kingdoms, the success and failures during big events, and the good and bad characters.” This novel is a further adaptation of the historical novels with the themes of other countries. It omits the plots of treasure competition in Lin Tong and tiger fighting

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in Bian Zhuang, which are typical of folklore and far away from historical facts, and it uses more historical records such as Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals, Unofficial Records of Spring and Autumn and Historical Records. On the whole, the novel still maintains the characteristics of collective creation of accumulation for generations, but improves the individual creation part in historical novels. Summary for Annals of Kingdoms in Eastern Zhou, abbreviated to Summary for Annals of Kingdoms, was compiled by Yang Yong, style name Banghua and pseudonym Shenyuan, who was from Fengcheng, Jiangxi Province. The book is composed of 8 volumes and 190 sections, which is the abbreviation of Feng Menglong’s New Annals of Kingdoms. The latter is composed of 180 chapters, equivalent to 260 sections, from which the book is abridged. This book is in the same system with Yu Xiangdou’s reprint of the 8-volume New Beijing Illustrated Edition of Annals for Five Hegemony and Seven Powerful Kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn Period published by the Three-terrace Library in Wanli 34th year (1606), New Edition of Annals in the Spring and Autumn Period Reviewed by Mr. Chen Meigong and Anecdotes of the Kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn in Wanli 43rd year (1615), in which all the typical folklore plots as treasure competition in Lin Tong and tiger fighting in Bian Zhuang that are far away from historical facts are found. Annals of Kingdoms in Eastern Zhou, the book a little earlier and reviewed by Cai Yuanfang, is the revision and embellishment of New Annals of Kingdoms, and this book is its abridgment. In addition to chapter reduction and amalgamation, each section of the text is greatly compressed, leaving only a synopsis. As a novel, it is difficult to arouse readers’ interest; as a popular historical reading, it may have won a place at that time. 5.

Stories of the Sui and Tang Dynasties—Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties

Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties is composed of 100 chapters, with the full name of Popular Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties by Four-snow Thatched Cottage. It is signed “Original copy by Qidong Savage, Jianxiao Pavilion, compiled by Lost Farmer from Changzhou, participated by Crane Wu, Idler Crane and Woodcutter”. The copy collected in the Beijing library was presented by Zheng Zhenduo. The Original Preface for Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties (incomplete) at the beginning of the volume was signed “written by Lin Han, the former Jinshi, retired senior official, former Counsellor in Nanjing, former minister in the Ministry of Machinery, Military Affairs, Ministry of Officials, former secretary of the State Council, former official of the Imperial College, former lecturer of feast day and national history, on 5th day after the Flower Festival in Feburary of Zhengde 3rd year (1508).” Lin Han was from Min County, Fujian Province. Another preface was signed: “by Chu Renhu from Changzhou at Four-snow Thatched Cottage in October Kangxi 34th year (1695).” The illustration in Chapter 100 of the book has the inscription of “Zhao Chenghua from ancient Wu in mid-spring of Kangxi 33th year (1684)”. It is possible that Chu’s name was not signed in the first edition and was added 11 years later. The original copy of Jianxiao Pavilion refers to Yuan Jin (Yu Ling)’s Remaining Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty, while the original copy of Qidong Savage

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refers to Romantic History of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. The adaptation of Chu Renhuo were based on History of the Great Sui Dynasty and the similar book Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, both of which have their prefaces written by Lin Han, and Gong Shaoshan’s copy published by Jinchang Book Forest in Wanli 47th year (1619). Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties is inscribed “edited by Guanzhong Luo from the East Plain”. According to the preface written by Chu Renhuo in his own book, the story of the marriage between Zhu Gui’er, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, and the revived Yang Gui’fei, the imperial concubine of the Tang Dynasty, was taken from Anecdotes by Lu Zhao of the Tang Dynasty. Lei Wanchun and Lei Haiqing being written as brothers, as well as the stories of Hua Mulan and her sister, may be what the editor referred to as “interesting and elegant parts collected from the time”, but they were not brilliant. The narrative range of the first 66 chapters of the book is roughly the same as that of the 60 chapters in the Remaining Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty, which is the essence of the novel. Comparing the two, the book has 6 more chapters, which is due to the addition of some parts from the Romantic History of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. The book pointed out that the details in the fighting between Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong in Chapter 56 was originally Yuchi Gong’s giving Qin Shubao three lashes of the whip and Qin Shubao’s giving Yuchi Gong two lashes of mace in return. The book changed it into they two hit big stones with weapons. The one who had hit more than once would lose. This description is not as good as Chapter 46 of The Complete Legend of the Tang Dynasty that came out later. Section 33 in the Popular Romance of the Tang Dynasty and Section 41 in Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasty signed by Xu Wenchang had the same writing method, Section 54 in the Remaining Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty had another writing method. In Chapter 30 in the Poetic Stories on the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty, is written that Yuchi Gong’s three lashes of the whip were not as fatal as Qin Qiong’s two lashes of mace which killed two generals. It can be seen that the writers had different ways to attract readers. This book ends at Chapter 100 with the death of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. It says: “This book just narrates what had happened between Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and Emperor Minghuang of the Tang Dynasty without relating to the rest.” The author of the second half used the least references. He was the most diligent but the least skilled. According to the preface by Shen Zongjing in Hard Melon Collection, Part D, Chu Renhu was born in 1635. In Hard Melon Collection, Part D, he made the preface for the book in Kangxi 29th year (1690), and the rest of the parts have the preface of Zhangchao in the Kangxi 41st year (1702). The whole book is a piecing-together of the notes from past dynasties. Although there are prefaces made by celebrities, it is actually very mediocre. Hard Melon Collection and Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasty are both engraved and issued by him, which was common for the Book Forest of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

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Three kinds of historical stories about the founding of the Ming Dynasty

There are three kinds of historical novels with the theme of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The first is the New Biography of Famous Founding Heroes of the Ming Dynasty, Biography of Heroes for short, has eight volumes and sixty chapters. Volume 1 is entitled “Original edition of Nanjing Qifu Publishing House”, “Book Forest Mingfeng, Yang’s Imperial Press”, published in 1591, Wanli 19th year, and collected in the Cabinet Library of Japan. Several notes in the book mark the origins from the old copy. Duke Fu of Qi, the 7th son (born by the concubine) of Zhu Yuanzhang, lived in Nanjing during Hongwu 3rd–15th year, and Yongle 1st–4th year. He died suddenly in Xuande 3rd. The second is The New Edition for the Abridged Biography of Famous Founding Martyrs of the Ming Dynasty, Biography of Martyrs for short. It has 6 volumes, and the time of publication is unknown. The cover is inscribed “Illustrated Official Copy of Biography of Martyrs” and “Book Forest, Yu Juntai Imperial Press”. It is collected in the Beijing Library and Japanese Cabinet Library. The third is Mysterious Traces of Cloud Gatherings which was engraved in Wanli 44th year (1616). It has eighty items in twenty volumes, each of which is titled with a 4-character antithetical sentence. They are collected in the Shanghai Library and Dalian Library. It is inscribed at the end of the volume, “compiled by Xu Wei, Wen Changfu, and reviewed by Yuming Hall”. After that, there were the Huaide Hall of Qing Dynasty and the Yingde Hall of Qing Dynasty copies, both of which are entitled with a 7-character sentence. The above three kinds of novels come from the same system (or the original copy), and Biography of Martyrs has been well known. It has six volumes, each with ten sections. There is a table of contents in every five paragraphs to indicate the beginning and the ending dates. The first five paragraphs of the first volume are actually six paragraphs, and the whole book has sixty-one paragraphs, each paragraph has a “title” of a 7-character couplet, such as the first paragraph “Emperor Yuan Shun indulges himself in extravagance, the honest Minister Tuo Tuo frankly admonishes”. Generally speaking, a 7-character couplet was considered to have been developed later, but from the Biography of Martyrs and the Mysterious Traces of Cloud Gatherings, it is just the opposite, which means it is not true for all cases. The unsigned original preface at the beginning of Biography of Martyrs said: “The historical records of the prominent dynasties were extensively collected, the old version was revised and polished, the parts missing were supplemented, the arguments were testified and it is compiled into six volumes.” In fact, it is an overstatement, as even some of the obvious mistakes have not been corrected. For example, the 5th year (7th year) of Yuanshun’s reign was put into Yuan Zhizheng, Liu Ji was taken as the grandson of Liu Bingzhong, the Imperial Guardian of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, in the description of the locations in Zhejiang Province such as Hangzhou, Jinhua, Zhuji, Wuzhou and Wuyuan are mixed up into one. The comment in Item 43rd of Mysterious Traces of Cloud Gatherings said: “This part is more detailed, a lot better than Biography of Martyrs.” It has Chen Youding’s psychological description when he decided not to kill the enemy general Hu Shen. Wang Xi’s lines of “the white snow falls with the reed flowers” in Item 35th is an

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excerpt from Wang Xi’s “Autumn River Fu Poem”. The ancient style line for Han Cheng (“the clouds of battle are moving sadly in the sky”) in Item 36th is the rewriting of “the battle clouds are soaring over the sky” under the title of “The battle between the two families, the details are in the following” in Biography of Martyrs. It can be seen that the Biography of Martyrs is closer to the original. Mysterious Traces of Cloud Gatherings may be based on the original, or it may be based on the Biography of Martyrs or Biography of Heroes. The narration of Biography of Martyrs ends in Hongwu 14th year (1381), and Mysterious Traces of Cloud Gatherings ends at the first month of Hongwu 16th year’s (1383), the number of words is only about half of the former. It is not a simple reduction of the details, but there are also some changes and additions, such as the events of Hongwu 15th and 16th years; the changes are like the cause of the Red Scarf Uprising; the transplants are like Hua Yun’s being murdered and his orphan’s experiences are not related together. The two books can be said to be basically the same but different. Although Biography of Martyrs is better than other historical novels, its weakness is its lack of originality. These three novels, with the story of the founding of the Ming Dynasty as the theme, all imitate the beginning of Water Margin by firstly presenting a cave in which there is a stone tablet of prophecy. The image of Zhuge Liang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the plot of burning Red Cliff by the east wind, Cao Cao’s teasing of the enemy for not setting ambush before he encounters the ambush in Wulin, played a reference role in Liu Ji’s image and other similar descriptions. 7.

The story of the dynasty—Biography of Saints and Martyrs in the Ming Dynasty

There are five volumes of Biography of Saints and Martyrs in the Ming Dynasty. Each volume is composed of thirteen, fourteen, six, nine, and six items respectively. There are forty-eight items in total. The first one is preceded by a small quotation. The original book is collected by Nagazawa Kikuya of Japan. The Brief Preface of the volume said: “Biography of Saints and Martyrs is compiled by Wild Minister of West Lake …His Majesty has justice served.” It means that Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch party, was eradicated in November 1627. It is also said in the Brief Preface, “The materials are found from official documents and anecdotes, and they were turned into this biography…It is the joyful time to get rid of the devious, to sing and dance for the prosperity of the peace”, and it is noted “inscribed by Wild Minister Le Shunri respectively after fumigated bath.” “Le Shunri” should be the author’s pseudonym, and the first part of the text was signed The West Lake Righteous. The narrative of this book starts from Wei Zhongxian’s origin and ends at “The Ministry of Officials issued the imperial edict of promoting Qian Longxi, Yang Jingchen, Lai Zongdao, Li Biao, Zhou Daodeng, Liu Hongxun to the Ministry of Rites and as the Secretaries of States in the East Cabinet to assist Shi Fenglai”. It happened in December of Tianqi 7th 1628. In Guangxu 32nd year, Shanghai Zhongxin book company printed the revised version of the book by entitling it Anecdote of Wei Zhongxian, which is in line with the content of this book. In the book, each line is engraved in lower case, and in the case of Ode to the sage, capitol case. In the Bibliography of Novels Found in Tokyo of Japanese by Sun Kaidi,

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it is pointed out that three illustrations from Convincing Arguments Warning the World at the beginning of the book, which shows that the author was extremely excited and rushed to printing it on the day when the Wei eunuch party was destroyed. It was entitled Biography of Saints and Martyrs in the Ming Dynasty, which was probably written in Chongzhen 1st (1628) or later. It is hard for the excitement to be maintain after a long period of time because of the rush to publish the book, there are some differences between the contents and the title in the main body. For example, the titles in contents The Hero Pushed Eunuch Li into the River and Zhou Zongjian’s Soul in the Underworld Took the Boat in the fourth volume turned to be The Gusu Hero Pushed Li Shi into the River and Zhou Jihou’s Soul in the Underworld Took the Boat in the main body. There is no substantial difference between Zongjian and Jihou as Jihou was Zongjian’s pseudonym. The novel is a combination of official documents and legends. For example, Qian Longxi and six other people were promoted to the Ministry of Rites and as the Secretaries of States in the East Cabinet, which was consistent with the History of the Ming History. Ministers’ Chronology. Wei Jinzhong in Favor and Killing Wang’an is slightly different from Wang’an’s biography in the third and fifth volumes of History of the Ming History, which can be the result of artistic processing, though not so brilliant. As for the plot that Wei Zhongxian’s father was actually a fox spirit, it’s totally nonsense. Wang An, the former imperial eunuch before Wei Zhongxian, was described in the eighth part of the first volume as “Wang An, an old minister, is loyal and upright in nature”. It can be seen that the author was not a scholar official. Otherwise, he would not call a eunuch an old minister.

Chapter 6

The Crisis, Development and Retro of the Literature in the Middle of the Ming Dynasty

The literary field of the Ming Dynasty entered an era of cultivating writers by itself because some literatus passed away during the transferring period from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty after the Yongle period. The Secretariat poetry during the heyday of Zai Ren and Xuan Liang emperors failed to promote poetry in the Ming Dynasty. Instead, Li Dongyang and Chaling schools emerged with their contributions and the Early Seven Scholars headed by Li Mengyang evoked a new round of retro. At the same time, the well-known literati of Wu, including Yu Qian, Yang Shen and Wu Zhong, added bright color in literature with their works.

6.1 The Formation of Three Yangs Bureaucratic Group and the Secretariat Poetic Style In 1426, Zhu Di, Emperor of Chengzu in the Ming Dynasty, ended his 22-year reign and Emperor Renzong (Zhu Gaozhi) ascended to the throne. Although Renzong was in office for only a year, he was popular for ruling with benevolence. Then Emperor Xuanzong (Zhu Xianji) succeeded the throne and maintained the cause founded by his predecessors successfully. The two emperors were in favor of “Three Yangs”: Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and Yang Pu, who brought about flourishing times in the Ming Dynasty on the basis of the grand cause founded by two wise rulers— Taizu and Chengzu. Yang Shiqi (1365–1444), with the style name of Yu, pseudonym name of Dongli and pseudonym name of Wenzhen, was born in Taihe County in Jiangxi Province was the author of Collection of Dongli. Yang Rong (1371–1440), with the early style name of Zi Rong and pseudonym name of Wen Min, was born in Jian’an County in Fujian Province (Jian’ou City, Fujian Province), and was the author of Collection of Wenmin. Yang Pu (1372–1446), style name of Hongji and pseudonym name Wen Ding, was born in Shishou (today’s Shishou City, Hubei Province). “Three Yangs” took office in succession for four emperors and were all © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_6

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entrusted with important positions. As the last one to serve in his position, Yang Pu died during the Yongle period of the Qing Dynasty, at Zhengtong 11th year of Emperor Yingzhong’s reign. “Shiqi was educated, Rong boasted his knowledge, Pu was highly integrative” (The History of Ming Dynasty, Vol. 148th). With the joint efforts of “Three Yangs”, the world was peaceful, and the imperial administration made no terrible mistakes. “Three Yangs” made their names in the country. Yang Rong and Yang Pu were scholars in Jianwen 2nd year (1400). Yang Shiqi, being introduced to the Hanlin Academy as the tutor, took lead of the three. Serving as important academic officials, they advocated the poetic style of the flourishing age, later referred to as “Secretariat Style” (the officialese style of the Ming Dynasty). This style of poetry has always been criticized for its boring hymn with no essence. In fact, its critical weakness was not the praise of peace, but the sameness without characters. “Three Yangs” can not be regarded as a literary genre, but a bureaucratic group. The topic of their poems are mostly the harmony between Kings and the ministers or fellow officials, but not literary creation. This kind of poetry was socalled “grace of the prime ministers in peace” (Biography of Yang Shiqi from Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties, A), and they were in the form of bureaucratic form rather than literature.” “Three Yangs” became officials in court during the heyday of the Yuan Dynasty. While Song Lian, Liu ji and Gao Qi and other literatus in the early Ming Dynasty who served the old courtiers from the Yuan Dynasty entered the Ming Dynasty with frustration for the chaotic time and grief for the loss of the Yuan Dynasty. If East Zhejiang school inherited by Song Lian and Liu Ji possessed critical thoughts of the philosophers, the book of Reconstruction Confucianism in Yingtian Prefecture (Collection of Wen Min, Vol. 9th) by Yang Rong absolutely manifested that Confucianism adopted by “Three Yangs” was completely secular, it was all about governing the country. According to History of the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shiji assisted the prince who was keen on literature. The prince admired Duke Shan’s poetic proposal to the king. Yang suggested that Six Classes deserved more attention, and imperial edicts in Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties are also recommendable. Poetry is just a trifling skill. With the attitude of “Three Yangs” to Confucianism and literature, it is hard to imagine that they have their characters in poetry. As the representative figure of “Three Yangs” and the style of the Secretariat, Yang Shiqi’s literary theory and practices are related to the Jiangyou poetry school of the early Ming Dynasty. The influence of Liu Song and Chen Mo on him was consistent from theory to his completed works, which is not only due to the fact that Yang Shiqi was the nephew of Chen Mo. In its abstract state, the Collection of Haisang from Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature held that “his writing is simple and elegant, and the style of poetry is leisurely and melodious. Dongli is knowledgeable, which is presented by his style.” In its abstract, Poems of the Woodman also indicates the relationship between the Yang Shiqi and Jiangyou schools, but they did not find out the retro writing trend of Yang Shiqi. Yang Shiqi put forward two concepts, the integrity of poetry and the temperament of poetry. The so-called integrity of poetry is elegance-the Songs of Chu-the Dynasties of Han, Wei and Jin-the glorious age of the Tang Dynasty. The so-called temperament of poetry is just like Du Fu who understood his emperor and worried

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about his country by inheriting the style of elegance.1 On one hand, there were no poems after the Tang Dynasty. One the other hand, “There is only one versed in poetry among all poets, that is, Shaoling (Du Fu)” (Preface of Dongli Poetry from Collection of Dongli. Sequel, Vol. 15th). To simplify the idea of retro of Yang Shiqi is the fact that poetry held in high esteem is in the flourishing Tang Dynasty by Du Fu. As the spokesmen of the golden age, “Three Yangs” were highly commended for their literary talents and skills in handling state affairs. If they wanted to express their essential feelings of the time by poems, they would follow the example of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. “Voicing for better governing with a level hand and integrity” was what Yang Shiqi pursued (Preface to White Snow Studio from Collection of Dongli, Vol. 5th). The poetry of Secretariat was the direct production of Yang Shiqi’s idea of retro, which was also viewed as the ending of retro of the early Ming Dynasty. It stood out over the retro works of ordinary literati for its flamboyant rhetoric. Given the emperor’s will, but not the literature, “Three Yangs” also highly praised Ouyang Xiu. Yang Shiqi said when emperor Renzong was reading Ouyang Xiu’s memorials in the east palace, he sighed more than once, even though they were not of the same generation. He had the officials annotate his works (Account of Inebriate Pavilion from the Collection of Dongli, Vol. 2nd). It is a common phenomenon in the history of literature that the emperors could affect the style of writing. In fact, the emperor and “Three Yangs” only value Ouyang Xiu’s style of Secretariat. Admittedly, the works of “Three Yangs” are not without merit. Some of Yang Shiqi’s early poems, such as “Travel Notes of the Eastern Hills” (The Collection of Dongli, Vol. 1st) written in the Hongwu 28th year (1395), can even be regarded as masterpieces. This writing, sincere and moving, depicted an outing with twisting and turning plots in a concise and lively style, blending with narration, scenery, lyric, and character description to express “life gathering and dispersing” and “the sense of separation and reunion”. It goes to the nub of Ouyang Xiu’s prose, which is soothing, calm, simple, and plain. Yang Shiqi’s poems also have delicate and memorable sections, like Boating on the Han River at Night from Collection of Dongli. Poems, Vol. 1st) and A Message to Liang Benzhi (Collection of Dongli. Poems, Vol. 2nd). Unfortunately, after taking office, he was occupied with the writings without emotions, like “thousands of vehicles heading back to the palace” (Backing to the Palace from Collection of Dongli. Poems, Vol. 3rd), failing to create outstanding literary works. The personal creating process of Yang Shiqi can serve as the interpretation of “the slow demise of true poetry”.2 It was reasonable for “Three Yangs”, as a bureaucratic group, to write the eulogies for the Emperor (from the original sequence of Collection of Wenmin). Their collections are filled with formalized officialese, epitaphs, responding between poets, overflowing with eulogies of divine grace and glittering with dazzling brilliance, but 1

Yang Shiqi: Preface to Review on Du Fu from Collection of Dongli. Sequel, Vol. 14th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 2 Collection of Special Ming Poems, Vol. 3rd by Shen Deqian: “since the Yongle period, Secretariat poetry had being recommended by the senior and respected officials, which was followed by common people and later turned into a style. The true poetry gradually passed away” (Collection of Special Ming Poems by Shen Deqian, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1979, p. 59).

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just a heap of scales in the sun. An example case can be seen from The Hill by Yang Rong: From the bright horizon there appeared the heavenly lotus, Standing in nine folds there arise the treasure trees. From the clear stream the glasses are filled with waving wine, Dropping down a pearl curtain and sprays on the golden dragon. Auspicious air floats on the palace all year round, Green mountains in the distance emerge from the fog. We owe our Emperor a great debt of gratitude, For his kindness we have the life of peace blessed.3 The prevailing literary style of “Three Yangs” proves a rule “Those who enjoy great talent in literature always suffer the most, but the vile takes advantage of the others’ mistakes” (Missing Li Bai). In the age of flourishing or the age reigned by brilliant emperors, literature would be confronted with setbacks and falterings. Secretariat poetry carried some features of Da Fu style in the Han Dynasty, but with little of the literary flavor or the elegant allegory at the end of the writings. This trend lasted for several decades, with the writers like Jin Youzi who was promoted to be a the Minister of Rituals of the Xuande period in the Ming Dynasty (Collection of Jin Wenjing from History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 147th), Wang Zhi who was promoted to be the Minister of the History Department (Yi An Collection from History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 169th). None of the works had much poetic emotion nor characters.

6.2 Li Dongyang’s Exploration of the Ming Poetry After poets Liu Ji and Gao Qi faded out, literature circles during the transferring period from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, “Three Yangs” was thriving in the flourishing age in Yongle and Renxuan. By advocating Secretariat poetry that deviated from the fine tradition of lyricism and concerning for the society, they invited sharp slashes. Li Dongyang rose in the age of Chenghua and Hongzhi, and the first poet created by the Ming Dynasty knocked at the door of the poetry and formed the Chaling School, blazing a trail for the development of the Ming poetry. Few people denied Li Dongyang’s place in literature history of the Ming dynasty, just like what Shen Deqian said “after Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, Chaling School rose, and Li and He followed up, rapidly hitting the prime of their careers.”4 This assessment has been widely quoted, and there were a lot of people sharing similar views: “Li Dongyang from Changsha submited memorials, causing the abandoning of 3

Yang Rong: Collection of Wen Min, Vol. 1st from Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 4 Shen Deqian: Collection of Special Ming Poems, Vol. 3rd, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1979, p. 75.

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vulgar music. Great masters of academic or artistic works were belittled”.5 However, people were overly concerned about Li Dongyang’s serving in the cabinet in a high position and instilling his Secretariat poetry, so that for a long time he and his different ideas could not gain the due attention. All of this brought a problem that as a successor of “Three Yangs”, how could he carry forward and have a far-reaching impact on Secretariat poetry during its decline? Obviously, this question cannot be answered from a part of Secretariat poetry, but should be answered from his whole literary thought and creation. The Chaling School was known for being the birthplace of Li Dongyang (1447– 1516). Chaling belonged to Changsha in Huguang province during the Ming Dynasty. In fact, Li Dongyan, born in Beijing, was summoned three times by Emperor Jingdi (emperor of the Ming Dynasty) for his ability to write big characters at the age of 4, and had access to Shuntian Prefecture at the age of 8. He passed the provincial civil service examination at the age of 16 and became Jinshi at the age of 18. With a smooth and triumphant career, he first served in the imperial academy and then in the cabinet and was promoted to Secretary of the State (which was equivalent to prime minister in feudal China). Qian Qianyi said that “he has worked in the cabinet for 40 years and never left the capital”.6 In fact, he briefly left the capital three times: in Chenghua 8th year (1472), he accompanied his father back to his hometown in Hunan; in Chenghua 16th year (1480), he conducted a provincial examination under the emperor’s order; On imperial orders in Hongzhi 17th year (1504), he offered sacrifices to the Confucian temple in Qufu, Shandong. It was this experience of leaving the cabinet three times that infused depth and vitality, which he was unable to get in the cabinet, into Li Dongyang’s thought and creation. Only then, did a real poet came into being. Li Dongyang was the author of Collection of Huailu Hall and Huailu Hall Poetry.7 Li Dongyang was entrusted with important positions for decades, and Secretariat poetry naturally became an important part of his work. The History of the Ming Dynasty held that Li Dongyang was versed in ancient Chinese, and the most of the calligraphy in their academy was from him and they always became popular right after. “Three Yangs” had never elucidated the characteristics of Secretariat poetry from the aspect of theory. However, Li Dongyang made a comprehensive summary. Preface to Ten Scenes of Capital analyzed the background of Secretariat; The Collection of Wen Xigong explained its genre and relation; The Poetry of Huailu Hall put forward writing requirements of being distinctive, dignified and elegant. The gist of Li Dongyang’s comments was that the literati’s style should be divided into two types, namely, the Secretariat and the Shanlin, others were insignificant. It is based on the view that there were only two life styles: one was being entrusted 5

Tao Zongyi: On Shuofu, Vol. 79th, II, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 6 Stories of Poems in All Dynasties, Classical Literature Press, 1957, p. 245. 7 Apart from Li Dongyang’s poems, this section was also in line with the Collection of Huailu Hall and the Poetry of Huailu Hall from the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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with important positions, and the other was living with nature. He believed that the Secretariat poetry produced in the flourishing period of a country was suitable for praising holy virtues of the emperor, chanting the peaceful age, writing the court’s laws and regulations, civilizing the people, which was related to the national code and must not be secularized. The production of Li Dongyang’s Secretariat poetry was only a profile of him in the history of literature. His being a maestro for his ability of revitalizing the decay owes more to his exploration of the Ming poetry rather than his inheritance of Secretariat poetry. Li Dongyang’s understanding of the Secretariat style was part of his view of traditional literature, which was mainly reflected in the promotion of “the teaching functions of poetry” from him and Zeng Gong. He valued the Yuefu poetry in the HanWei period, and wrote more than 100 Yuefu poems. In Preface to Yuefu Imitation, he made it clear from the aspect of style and enlightenment that the purpose of imitating ancient Yuefu was being joyous rather than being indulgent, being sad rather than be distressing. In his opinion, being expressive was to follow the principle of poetry without losing moderation and peace. Limited by the teaching function of poetry and the Secretariat environment, Li Dongyang’s 100 Yuefu poems were entirely based on official documents. “To nominate topics either out of a person or an event”, and “in pursuit of conveying ideas and complying with the rhythm.”8 It led the trend of chanting history. Probing life from books made the ancient Yuefu poetry incomparable with Yuefu poetry of Han-Wei periods in the spirit of realism, but also uncomparable with Yuefu poetry of the Former and the Latter Seven Scholars. Wang Shizhen’s criticism from the Artistic Expressions was right to the point. “Li Wenzheng was the School of Yuefu, being authentic and few people can compete.”9 But by bringing in a new atmosphere of poetry, Li Dongyang imposed a great impact on Ancient Yuefu poetry. Needless to say, the Chaling School poets and other poets of the Ming Dynasty were followed until the Qing Dynasty. It was mentioned in the General Catalogue of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, the summary from Collection of Spring brook, the summary of the Poems in History of the Ming Dynasty by Yan Suicheng in the Qing Dynasty, and the Poetry of Huzhunshan by Xia Xichen in the Qing Dynasty. The biggest drawback of Li Dongyang’s simulation of Yuefu poetry was that the follower imitated the style and failed to bring forth new ideas, while the positive side was the influence on the Early Seven Scholars”. These scholars prized the poetry in Han-Wei periods, and their Yuefu poetry “described current affairs with their feelings.”10 Although Li Dongyang’s imitation of Yuefu poetry was not as excellent as original in spirit, he was the first to advocate the Yuefu poetry of the Han-Wei periods, and actually had enlightened people. Li Dongyang not only admired Yuefu poetry in the Han-Wei periods, but also prized the poetry in the Tang Dynasty. He once said, “Li Bai and Du Fu reached the 8

Li Dongyang: The Prelude of Ancient Yuefu, Collection of Li Dongyang, Yuelu Press, 1985, 1–2. Wang Shizhen: The Work of Literature and Art, Four Books of Yanzhou, Vol. 149th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 10 Li Mengyang: The Refutation of He Jingming, The Collection of Kongtong, Vol. 62nd. Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 9

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peak of perfection in the past years” (Preface of Spring Rain Hall from Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 63rd). “As for the poetry of the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai, Meng Haoran and Muo Jie can be crowned with the name of great masters except for Li Bai and Du Fu.” He did not exclude poems from other times. Preface to the Literature Garden. History of the Ming Dynasty once described “he was well versed in the poetry in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and referred to the origins from the Tang and Song Dynasties”. What was valuable in his view was that he opposed imitation and advocated innovation. He criticized the poetic style of the Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties, and “nothing is literary except those from the Tang Dynasty or Song Dynasty” (Manuscripts of the Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 28th, The Poetry Collection of Jing Chuan). He held that “it is real poetry that causes no controversies” (Poetry of Huailu Hall). The above remarks can be taken as criticism towards the Early Seven Scholars. Li Dongyang insisted on learning from predecessors, but firmly opposed to adhering to one school with its rigid imitation, which was the essential difference from the Early Seven Scholars. Li Dongyang had a good start, but the Early Seven Scholars did not learn the poetry of the Han-Wei periods with the right attitude. Li Dongyang maintained that the reason why poetry was different from the Six Classics was that it is characterized by its rhymes. In the past, commentators had emphasized this point unilaterally. All of these had misled people that Li Dongyang laid stress on form. However, he actually had a comprehensive view towards poetry. In the Poetry of Huailu Hall, he explained the features of poetry in three aspectsemploying metaphors, following the rhythms and expressing inspiration. In The Draft from the Poetry Collection of Hermit in the Capital and Poetry Collection of A City in Red (Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 22nd), he repeatedly made it clear that “poetry manifests one’s inspiration”. Li Dongyang’s poetic theory was a powerful backwash to the absence of true feelings and the loss of the imagery. Once such a theory is put into real life, it gave birth to the first real poet in History of Ming Dynasty poetry. Draft of Heading South, Record of Heading North Record of Sacrifice in Winter written during his leaving Beijing, were the practices of his poetic theory. Through these three experiences, he obtained the opportunity to get in touch with the ordinary people at the bottom of the society, and recognized drawbacks of real life politics, so as to write poems of true feelings and concerns for people’s livelihood. His unique aesthetic journey of magnificent rivers and mountains documented with poems, and the sadness of parting was also turned into interesting images in his works. It could be said that, upon leaving the academy, he gained the feelings of a poet and turned to become a real poet. The cursory glance in the journey enabled Li Dongyang isolated by the academy to experience real life. He was an expert in seeing through the superfacial phenomena and expressing his understanding of its nature with irony. For example, the Transportation by Cargo Boat revealed the corruption of the canal transport, which was the long-standing abuse in the past dynasties. In the writings of Li Dongyang, the freighters carried “less official goods and more private goods”. The officials patrolling the traffic knew of this social phenomenon but they would not address it, “the officials did not dare to interrogate those who played up to people of power. They were

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fighting and competing with each other so as to avoid being bullied…The court often gave orders, and the officer in charge of the ferry claimed money”. The smugglers were not ordinary people, but officials who were supposed to be law-abiding. The government set up supervision for “prevention”. As a result, officials, small or big, were complicit to deceive people. Finally, it was the ordinary people who suffered losses. In the poet’s seemingly calm narrative, it was not difficult for us to see his sharp satire and a sense of anxiety. Poplar Trip (Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 91st) described the scene of a miserable life of the people by the river in the years of famine. “The route passed the Poplar River, muddy and shallow. The inhabitants who lacked clothes scrambeled into the river.” The muddy shallow river, naked people, reflected the severity of the disaster. He was also struck by the starvation of local people. It was not easy to understand “a man with head down seemed to have caught something, then he cheered up”. However, we could understand that they were digging clams to appease their hunger, when we read “I stopped the boat to ask them what they were doing”. In the year of this big natural disaster, it was not easy to find anything to eat. The difficult situation of survival was described in his works, “we are still alive as business remains.” The poet looked around again, and he observed “the vast Jianghuai region had thousands of squares of barren field”. The sentence “I was frustrated and lost into sorrow for them” reflected his sadness. “Perhaps, the heavy rain can remove the public sorrow” (Record of Sacrifice in Winter from the Draft of Heading South) can feel the poet’s anxiety for people living in great misery. Record of Heading North the Thatched Cottage on the Way to Lihe River (Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 93rd) brought us a significance subtext through combining the autumn harvest season with the official river inspection “the official inspected the disaster situation” with “we will dedicate the great harvest to our emperor”. Record of Sacrifice in Winter. Worries for the Drought (Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 96th) with the perspective of empathy for the disaster depicted the tragic situation of the people under the ravages of the drought, and expressed the wish that he would rather suffer so as to bring the poor happiness: The red sun scorched the earth, which confused people and made them lose direction. The autumn wheat was dried-up, and the spring wheat could not hit eight inches. Most of the autumn field was barren, and the men there did not have wives. Shallow boats could not operate in the official river and grain carriers would not carry the production in the name of Nan Zhou. Tax collectors got nothing paid, and when can the japonica rice in Taicang arrive there? The spring and half of the summer past without rain, which the poor people were praying to be blessed with. How they wish to be endowed with a heaven rain, upon which the sorrow can turn into song. With this life of trials, how can I light up with pleasure?

The poem was equivalent to the poem from Du Fu, “in the year of no harvest, worries tortured me from inside”. Even in prosperous years, people at the bottom were not free from poverty. Solicitude for ordinary people and the description of it should be one of the measures to evaluate the value of poetry. The sense of solicitude for ordinary people and his country from Li Dongyang and Du Fu is similar to the compliment of imposing landscape from Li Dongyang and Li Bai. In the two visits to Yangtze River, he described the natural barrier of the Yangtze river with his vigorous style. The theme of The Draft of Heading South.

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Visiting Yangtze River from Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 91st extols the virtue of the emperor: “They know that they can not rely on the natural barrier, and only the virtue of the emperor can bring a great world.” There is not much in a poem like “his Majesty’s royal graciousness is infinite, he has the eternal life as mountains and rivers.” However, employing metaphor and eight “as if” gave the vivid description of the unique shapes and infinite variation of the Yangtze river: As if it started from primal chaos; as if the upright and outspoken atmosphere was filled with the world; as if the woman weaver held the white silk; as if horses dashed forward. The tiger roared on the empty mountain, and rainbow was between mountains. As if Xuan Yan smelted the Nine Tripod Cauldrons, and the iron moulder fanned his stove; as if KuaFu ran after the Sun with his crutch, as if soldiers galloped through a valley at night; as if ghosts and souls wander in and out.

Li Dongyang’s poems were adept at expressing his feelings by virtue of material objects, pursuing the integration between the imagery and the fresh and natural style of the poetry. For example, “Grass on each side of the river has different roots, the light in West Tower witnesses the sad dreams” (Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 91st, Draft of Heading South. Cangzhou). “The river twists and turns and green hills are like the dark color of eyes” (Collection of Huailu Hall, Vol. 93rd, The Record of Heading North). The first example “Grass on each side of the river has different roots” has the function of killing two birds with one stone. “Grass on each side of the river” implies that one person had left by boat, but the other was reluctant to separate. In the last example, it is common to compare mountains to the brows and eyes, while it is new to compare the green mountains to dark eyes. A slight change produces innovation. The brief contact with real life and the practice of progressive poetics helped Li Dongyang’s poetry creation which was different from the style of Secretariat poetry. Li Mengyang’s sneering on his feebleness was overly generalized and deviated from the fact. Li Dongyang made a name for himself when he was young, being entrusted into a high position. He took the lead in literature and formed the Chaling School which lasted for decades. The members of Chaling School can be divided into two parties: the first is Jinshi and fellow officials together with Li Dongyang, especially Xie Duo and Zhang Taiying who boasted of their influence. Those people had some special titles: Zhang Tai and Li Dongyang were equally ranked as “Li and Zhang”. Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty put down in writing: “Tang Yuan recommends that ‘in the period of Chenghong, realm of art and literature was led by Li Huailu and Zhang Cangzhou…” Lu Yi once said that Zhang Tai, Lu Yi and Lu Rong was called “three phoenixes in Kunshan,”11 and History of the Ming Dynasty Literature Garden described that the three people was called “three phoenixes in Loudong”. The other party was the students of Li Dongyang, and they were the most influential people known as “Six Masters”12 in Stories of Poems in All Dynasties. Shi Fou, with the 11

Zhu Yizun: Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 26th. Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature. 12 Qian Qianiyi: Stories of Poems in All Dynasties. Classical Literature Press, p. 273.

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style name of Hongji, came from Gaocheng (in today’s central and western Hebei province), recorded in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 190th. Luo Qi, style name Jing Ming, was a native of Nancheng (in today’s eastern Jiangxi Province), recorded in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 186th. Shao Bao, style name GuoXian, came from Wuxi, recorded in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 282nd; Gu Qing, style name Shi Lian, was born in Songjiang Huating (in Shanghai), recorded in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 184th; Lu Duo, style name Zhenzhi, was born in Jingling (in the southern Hubei Province), recorded in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 163rd; He Mengchun, the style name of Zi Yuan, was born in Chenzhou, Hunan, recorded in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 191st. Like Li Dongyang, the works of the Chaling School poets had a significant breakthrough in the atmosphere of the Secretariat. Xi Duo was an important poet of the Chaling School, Jinshi working in the Hanlin Academy. Li Dongyang once compiled poems of Xie Duo in Draft of Paradise, which was more than 80 volumes. Among the Chaling poets, Li Dongyang only praised Xie Duo’s ancient Yuefu (The Draft. Preface to the Paradise), and he remembered what he said when they were once discussing poems in Hanlin Academy, “As for poets writing about ancient Yuefu poetry recently, Fang Shi is the only one who got the essence of the Yuefu poetry” (Poetry Collection of Huailu Hall). Inevitably, with some features of Secretariat poetry, the poems of Xie Duo was different from the rhetorical poems, like his poems of Glittering of Taiye Pool and Spring in Qiong Island 13 from “Three Yangs” and part of them expressed the spirit of caring for reality. The Sighs of A Peasant Family was written for the peasants’ interests and revealed the fact that they were being brutally exploited “sheriffs visited common people, and their production for decades was given, but the rents were still in arrears. Each year they are victimized by schemes, after selling their property and then selling their children” (Collection of Xie Duo, Vol. 3rd). Letter to Civil Officer Huang after Flood described the night rain in Chang’an caused the anxieties for ordinary people. For example, it was portrayed in the third volume that “the weather in the countryside was rough, and the field was in trouble. The grey-haired old man wailed in mourning, and they sold their clothes to buy cows” (Collection of Xie Du, Vol. 4th). The deep sympathy for the peasants was put down to paper, which was just the tip of the iceberg to the poems for Chaling poets. Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, with the purpose of upholding justice, mainly selected the poems of the Chaling School and the commentaries from some compilers like Zhu Yizun and Li Dongyang for the On Poetry in Tranquil Residence. All of these reflect the creative features and achievements of Chaling School. The poems from a student of Li Dongyang, Shi Bao, had the exquisite depiction and original imagery, representing the proposition of Li Dongyang. For example, Miscellaneous Poems outlined the bright moon combining with the emptiness with reality, “The earth is shrouded in darkness, and the clear moonlight cuts through the sky” (Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 3rd); The Song of Lotus in Autumn (Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 29th) pictured that the 13

Xie Duo: Collection of Xie Duo, Vol. 1st. Zhonghua Book Company, pp. 2–3.

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flower and people were complementary to each other, “the dress waves on the green water”; in the sentence “as the sun was about to set, the tender chilliness dropped”, the “tender” greatly conveyed the degree of “chilliness”. Shi Bao not only depicted the exquisite feeling of the natural scenery, but also concern for ordinary people and society. Mowing in the Field (Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 29th) showed sympathy for the peasants and heavy allegory of Taxation, “Last year’s wheat failed to have a good harvest, this year witnessed a harvest but farmers have nothing gained. To survive they have to live in thrift, By adding water to the porridge made from wheat.” In the Collection of the Spring Hall, the poems of Shao Bao inherited from Li Dongyang established his own system, and especially highlighted the expressions of feelings and thoughts with implicit and terse features. Zhu Yizun praised Gu Qing and quoted the remarks from Sun Zhenfu “Wen Xi (the posthumous title of Gu Qing) wrote about the conditions of the people” (Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 31st). The poem of Seeing Zong Duyun to Changlu (idem.) showed industrious salt workers and their heavy taxes,” The pressure from public and private interests has brought them torment, and people come afar to borrow money. The sweltering weather accounts for the poor year, and after you’ve been bullied, one must go back to work.” On the Virtuous Wife Zhang (idem.) describes a young widow, whose husband “never saw her in person, never knew her by mind”, but she had to “be constant to the relationship and compliant to the rites”, which implies the author’s criticism of feudal ethics. Guided by the poetry theory of Li Dongyang, the poets of Chaling School cherished the past times and concern for the situation of people. They observed the law and used the figure of speech like metaphors, so that Chaling poetry became influential. Moreover, it rectified the style of Secretariat, and paved the way for the development of the Ming poetry. It will not be possible to learn the truth in literature nor to have the accurate evaluation for the historical position of the poet and the School without the full recognition of the performance of Li Dongyang and the Chaling School.

6.3 The Doctrine of Literary Retro and Creative Practice of the Early Seven Scholars The Early Seven Scholars was a school of literature, which had been active in the period of Hongzhi and Zhengde, the two reigns of the Mid-Ming Dynasty. They were different from “Three Yang” and Li Dongyang, the leader of Cha Ling School who appeared before the Early Seven Scholars and were all in the highest official position. They were followed by a large number of their students and old friends, so more or less they were supported by the their political status to dominate the literary world. Meanwhile the political positions of the Early Seven Scholars were mostly below the fourth rank and they all had frustrated political careers. Most members in this school got entangled in the anti-eunuch political struggle, going through rough times in their careers. However, this school unexpectedly became popular at that time and

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it was the first school leading to great repercussions with literature academicism in the history of literature during the Ming Dynasty. When Li Dongyang and his students and old friends formed the Cha Ling School that became influential to the literary world, Li Mengyang sang a different tune which was cheered by people all around. He and He Jingming, Xu Zhenqing, Bian Gong, Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi, Wang Tingxiang were called the Seven Talents (Biography of Li Mengyang from History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 286th). Later generations distinguished them from the other seven scholars, who were in the period of Jiajing and Wanli, another two reigns of the Ming Dynasty (later than Hongzhi and Zhengde), such as Wang Shizhen. For this reason, they were referred to as the Early Seven Scholars. As Li Mengyang was the most senior.14 And the most achieving, he was deemed as the recognized leader by the other six members. Together with He Jingming and Xu Zhenqing who joined this school later, three of them were considered as the three pillars of the Early Seven Scholars.15 To a certain extent the Early Seven Scholars came out the opposite of Li Dongyang. However, it seems difficult to understand that the leader of the Early Seven Scholars not only had no hostile relationship with Li Dongyang, but also inherited and developed his literary theory. Biography of Li Mengyang. History of the Ming Dynasty said, Li Dongyang took the lead in the literary world during the period of Hongzhi and was admired by all. Li Mengyang was the only one who ridiculed him for the wilt style in his poems. This was probably the reason why Li Dongyang was considered to be opposed to the Early Seven Scholars led by Li Mengyang. In fact, the private relationship between them was that of teacher-student, as when Li Mengyang took the metropolitan examination, Li Dongyang was his examiner. Also, Li Dongyang once wrote the epitaph for Li Mengyang’s deceased father. And Li Mengyang had some poems written for Li Dongyang, such as a complimentary poem named For the Revered Mr. Li Living in the Suburbs16 : (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 25th), Thirty-eight Rhythms on Li Xiya’s 60th Birthday (Li Xiya was Li Dongyang’s pseudonym) (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 28th), which expressed his gratitude and admiration for Li Dongyang. In addition, in his other poem On Departure To Xu Zhenqing’s Leaving for Hunan, Hymn for the Talent of the Time with All My Best (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 20th). In this poem, Li said, “Literature had no style in the period of Xuande. Fortunately, there was 14

Li Mengyang became Jinshi in 1493, three years earlier than Wang Jiusi and Bian Gong, nine years earlier than Kang Hai, He Jingming and Wang Tingxiang and twelve years earlier than Xu Zhenqing. 15 Selected Poems of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 6th: “Xu Zhenqing’s poems, not as grand as Li Mengyang nor as lofty as He Jingming, but they are full of vigor and characters, which makes him one of the pillars in the Early Seven Scholars.” Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 36th: “At that time, Li Mengyang and He Jingming were seen at the same level, although Xu Zhenqing did not have many masterpieces, he had a different style which distinguished himself, and made him one of the pillars among the Early Seven Scholars”. 16 What was quoted from Li Mengyang’s works in this section are all from Collection of Li Mengyang, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library unless otherwise specified.

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Yang Shiqi, who assisted the excellent ministers in the royal government. And my teachers, Yang Yiqing and Li Dongyang, came in time to turn the tide.” Therefore, it was hard to say that this was a left-handed compliment for Li Dongyang. He Jingming also wrote some poems for Li Dongyang, such as Cherishing the Memory of Li Xiya17 (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 32nd) and Proposal to Li Xiya (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 32nd), which persuaded Li Dongyang from retiring. After Liu Jin’s death, He Jingming’s re-entry to official circles was owed to Li Dongyang’s recommendation. In terms of poetic insights, even though Li Dongyang opposed imitation, he advocated reading and understanding the rules of propriety, which had influence on the Early Seven Scholars’ retro practice. In his poem, Notes on Poetry of Huailu Hall, he expressed his ideas on promoting poems of the Tang Dynasty while curbing poems of the Song Dynasty, and he also paid attention to all antithesis, functional words and the transference of words in the regulated verse. All of these were not much different from Li Mengyang’s ideas, especially his so-called “rules.” In their creation, Li Dongyang, Li Mengyang and He Jingming all valued the Yuefu poems in the Han-Wei Dynasties, which was also a common feature among them. If Li Dongyang had made a significant contribution to correcting the vulgarity and emptiness of the Secretariat style, the Early Seven Scholars led by Li Mengyang and He Jingming started from Li Dongyang’s achievements and continued to develop poems of the Ming Dynasty to a certain extent. The reason why they were different was not because of the differences in their directions, but one had gone further and had achieved more than the other. On the object of restoring, Li Mengyang clearly opposed the remaining style of the Six Dynasties (more will be explained later) which was popular at that time. Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi, who were members of the Early Seven Scholars, did oppose Li Dongyang and they also had some personal grievances against him. However, this could not be regarded as the general tendency of the Early Seven Scholars’ attitude towards Li Dongyang. In order to truly understand the school of the Early Seven Scholars and to evaluate their literary activities fairly, we should start with Li Mengyang’s influence on the literary world and his ideas on literary retro. Li Mengyang became influential in the literary world around the age of 30 when he served in the Ministry of Revenue. In the Responsory Poems Among Poets (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 59th), he said, “Responsory poems among poets was most popular in the period of Hongzhi. At that time, learning from the ancients was becoming a trend. Gentle manners were advocated.” Then he enumerated 20 scholars such as Bian Gong, Xu Zhenqing, He Jingming, including himself, to participate in the responsory activity. “Due to the large number of people in the Hanlin Academy, none of them are listed here.” Thus, Kang Hai, Wang Jiusi and Wang Tingxiang must also be included and the so-called Early Seven Scholars were all listed. By adding Zhu Yingdeng and Gu Lin to the list, the so-called “Ten Talents” were also included, except Wang Tingxiang, Chen Yi and Zheng Shanfu. From “learning from the ancients”, we could see a sign of 17

What was quoted from He Jingming’s works in this section are all from Collection of He Jingming, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library unless otherwise specified.

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retro development. However, at that time, responsory only happened among fellow officials without forming a school. Xu Zhenqing was originally one of the Wuzhong Four Talents and his poetic style was different from Li Mengyang’s. The interesting thing is he later switched to Li Mengyang’s side, which proved Li Mengyang’s influence then. From the data available, we could see that Li Mengyang first proposed his ideas on literary retro in the Debating with Xu on Writings (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 62nd), which was written in Hongzhi 18th year (1505). He maintained that, “Good poems tend to be more euphemistic than shocking; focusing more on inner nature rather than the flamboyant form; valuing more of the sentiment than the complicated contents and favoring the harmonious structure to the exquisite one… in the past three dynasties, poems of the Han and Wei were closest to the ancient ones.” According to Li Mengyang in this letter, this comment was to honour Xu Zhenqing’s request in writing him that he join their responsory, just like the other two poets, Pi Rixiu and Lu Guimeng, who were from the late Tang Dynasty. Li Mengyang indicated that the blunt words, the flamboyant form, the complicated contents and the exquisite structure that he opposed not only aimed at Pi Rixiu and Lu Guimeng, but also targeted at Yuan Zhen, Bai Juyi and Han Yu, Meng Jiao, who were from the Mid-Tang Dynasty, for their responsory was like “continuously using couplets for competing, but no winner came out after a thousand rounds.” Therefore, Li Mengyang accused this kind of responsory for being like “dealing for gold and staging for acting.” Li Mengyang’s judgements were undoubtedly correct. His idea of “in the past three dynasties, poems of the Han and Wei were closest to the ancient ones” was further explained in his other work Introductory Poem for Zhang Yang Farewell Party (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 56th). “In this century, poems of the Six Dynasties, especially in the place of Nandu, have been learned and valued by all people, such as Gu Huayu (Gu Lin), Shengzhi (Zhu Yingdeng) and Yuanrui (Liu Lin), as far as I know. Nandu was a popular place in the Six Dynasties, which makes it easy to follow its poetic style. However, Tingshi (Bian Gong) of the Southern Qi Dynasty followed it in the same way. Why? Maybe they preferred the sentimental tone of the Six Dynasties to the flamboyance, and the elegance of the Six Dynasties to flattery. It was easily seen that Li Mengyang’s ideas on retro practice were characterized by advocating the poems of Han-Wei Dynasties in order to oppose the flamboyant style of the Six Dynasties, which was popular at the time. The ones he criticized were all members of the Seven Talents or the Ten Talents, such as Bian Gong, Zhu Yingdeng and Gu Lin. who were all line with him. Also, Liu Lin, Gu Lin and Xu Zhenqing were known as the Jiang Dong Three Talents. In this respect, it could be seen that the literary schools at that time were very loose, with free access and open entry. The creations of various writers and their literary ideas could not be generalized. From Li Mengyang’s criticism to Xu Zhenqing, Bian Gong, Zhu Yingdeng, Gu Lin and others, we can also see his active leadership role in the literary world. Li Mengyang also said in his Introductory Poem for Zhang Yang Farewell Party, “If we sail against the stream, we are taking risks. This is needed in the current situation.” It seemed contradictory with what he said in Debating with Xu on Writings, “Good poems tend to be more euphemistic than shocking.” Actually, “shocking” refers to the shocking

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expressions and rhymes in the responsory, which was opposed by Li Mengyang. However, “taking risks” refers to the challenge of styles in order to distinguish their poems from the flamboyant and flattering ones of the Six Dynasties. Li Mengyang had overly corrected them and made them opposite and complementary to each other so that both can grow. Li Mengyang had other three important poems, Preface to the Anthology of Poems,18 Refutation to He’s Views, Requestioning He Jingming’s Ideas (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 62nd). The first one showed the positive side of Li Mengyang’s literary ideas, while the rest reflected the negative side. In the Preface to the Anthology of Poems, he emphasized that, “genuine poetry should be among the common people, while the scholars always consider only the rhymed verse poems.”He also thought that the working class (“labors around the alley”) “whispering while walking; singing while siting; eating as fast as retiring to bed, responding to all the singing. With metaphors and analogies, they expressed their emotions.” He was thus convinced that “poems were the natural sound of the universe.” For this reason, he especially emphasized the learning from the folk-song-styled verses of the Han-Wei Dynasty and referred to it as being “expressive analogies.” It could be seen that from this Preface, the retro practice that he advocated was to inherit the fine traditions of the folk-song-styled verses of the Han-Wei Dynasty and to learn from ancient folk songs, which proved the positive side of his literary ideas. In his Preface to Pottery Music (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 52nd), he commented that “By observing people all over the country, I can tell that those who are knowledgeable about poems are never pedagogic in their writing, which is true of the Pottery Music.” In the postscript of Songs of Guo Gong, Li Mengyang said, “People always thought that without academic words, the poems could not be called poems, In fact, poems without them belong to the style of ‘Ya’. The folk customs were spread by the ballad, it is fine to be presented in whatever form. A piece of ballad is collected here to let people know that genuine poetry was actually among the people” (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 6th). From this we know that Li Mengyang not only did value the ballads, but also did some collections of them. From Against Mr. He’s Writing Views and Requestioning Mr. He, we can see the disagreements within the Early Seven Scholars. Li Mengyang and He Jingming had some common ground as well as disagreements in their literary views. Although He Jingming was eleven years younger than Li Mengyang and became Jinshi nine years later than him, he was also one of the leaders of the Early Seven Scholars as Li Mengyang was. At that time, they were called “Li He” or “He Li”, which showed that their status was almost equal. From Li Mengyang’s Against Mr. He’s Writing Views and Requestioning Mr. He, Replies to Zhou Zi (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 62nd) and He Jingming’s Debate on Poems with Li Mengyang (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 32nd), we could see that the conflict between them was mainly the different views of methods or ways toward learning from the ancient. Li Mengyang believed that He Jingming’s works 18

Collections of Articles in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 262nd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature.

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“violated the ancient ways”, so he persuaded He to “change the way that he values” (Against Mr. He’s Writing Views). To this He Jingming gave his counter arguments bluntly and Li Mengyang repeatedly wrote to refute him. With the bad habit of the ancient scholars belittling each other and acting on impulse, this debate carried with it a lot of personal attacks instead of targeting on the principle issues. In this case these writings were not noble but informative for us to understand the weaknesses of Li Mengyang’s ideas on literary retro. In the two letters to He Jingming, Li Mengyang repeatedly emphasized the techniques of ancient poetry. He said, “Writing and calligraphy are the same. In the situation of imitating ancient calligraphy, if the imitations are not well done, they might have the honour of having their own style. If this is true, why not initiate their own style without even imitating?” (Requestioning Mr. He) This is meant to defend imitation. In fact, in terms of calligraphy, it was necessary to learn by copying, but it is not the way to produce masters of calligraphy, as we witness from the past generations. As for how to learn from the ancients, Li Mengyang proposed a word of “Fa (rules).” He explained that, “The ancients had various ways in their creation, but there is a general pattern. If there is a part that is thin, what follows will be thick part, a part that is wide will be followed by a part that is narrow, a part thats solid will be followed by a part that is empty, the folded scenes must mean two things, which are the definition of “Fa”, just like the round compass and rectangle ruler for a carpenter” (Requestioning Mr. He). Of course, such a view is not convincing enough to retort He Jingming. In Debate on Poems with Li Mengyang, He Jingming satirized that he was just like “a child learning walking by holding on to something”, meaning he can not have a style of his own. He also criticized Li Mengyang as “taking sluggish loneliness as gentleness; dogma as the profound, obscurity as wit and vulgarity as classic”, which meant Li Mengyang’s works set out as tigers but end up as dogs. Aiming at Li Mengyang’s “conforming with the Fa”, He Jingming provided another way that of “discarding the raft to get ashore”, which referred to the raft as learning from the ancient, but eventually should be discarded. If one could not discard the raft, he could never go ashore and could never “establish his own idea and form his own style.”He Jingming’s opinions are obviously correct. Not until 1524, three years after He Jingming’s death, Li Mengyang still argued in Replies to Zhou Zi, “The ancient style we are following today are by no means the copying of their ancients, but the creation with their own content.” It means by learning from the ancients, they are learning the techniques or principles of their literature creation. It definitely makes sense. In another letter, he said, “It would be useless effort if one can not learn the rule of the ancients.” We could see that Li Mengyang emphasized the rule of the ancients. Generally, the theoretical disagreements in retro between Li Mengyang and He Jingming were mainly the flexible learning or rigid following. Some people may ask, with this heated debate between He Jingming and Li Mengyang, to what extent can Li Mengyang’s poetic views represent the Early Seven Scholars? Yes, in Debate on Poems with Li Mengyang, He Jingming said, “By recalling the past for poetry, Li Mengyang intentionally used the ancient fixed style and copied the ancient pattern for poetry creation. While I just collect more

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materials first to get their spirit, then reorganize the structure with reference to the particular scenery without copying the style of the ancients’. There is a line, “Only when I have my own creations, can I compare them with the works of the ancients. If I just seek the similarity to the ancients, I would feel that I am so foolish.” Based on this letter Biography of He Jingming. History of the Ming Dynasty holds “Li Mengyang focuses on the imitation, while He Jingming concentrates on the creation.” This obviously missed the last sentence in the above quotation: “seeking similarity.” In Preface to Collection of Yuan Kai (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 34th), He Jingming had the frank confession that, “Jingming learns poems from the modern style, which are mainly from the two poets (Li Bai and Du Fu) and along with some from the early and flourishing Tang Dynasty. The ancient style must be traced back to the Han-Wei periods.” In terms of creation, He Jingming’s Eighteen Ancient-style Poems (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 8th), Ten Poems of Sentiments (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 9th), Eight Octaves on Autumnal Musings (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 24th) were not just the simple imitations. He Jingming’s existing writings about poetics, whether Preface to the Collections of Han-Wei Poems (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 34th), Preface to Wang Wei’s Poems (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 34th), or Preface to Collection of Yuan Kai, Preface to Thoughts of the Bright Moon (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 34th), all reiterated the above-mentioned claims. He Jingming and Li Mengyang shared the common ground in honoring and advocating the works of the Han-Wei periods and the Tang Dynasty, as the foothold of the Early Seven Scholars’ retro claims. Without this common ideological foundation, it would be impossible for the Early Seven Scholars to form a school in the history of literature. However, in terms of their creations, Li Mengyang was more influenced by Yuefu poems of the Han-Wei period, while He Jingming benefited more from the poems of the Tang Dynasty and the modern-style poems. These two actually reached the Han-Wei period, the same goal of retro but by different means. The positive contributions of the Early Seven Scholars represented by Li Mengyang could be summarized into two points. First, attaching more importance to folk songs. In the Preface to the Anthology of Poems, Li Mengyang advocated that “the genuine poetry was actually among the people”.19 He downgraded the scholars’ poems to “rhymed verses” and described them as “working too much for words with little feeling”, which criticized their poems for only conforming to the rhymes and to the forms instead of true thoughts and feelings. Attaching more importance to the folk songs, taking the poetry as “the natural sound of the universe”, was actually the first signs of later Gongan School’s literature claim and it was worthy being recorded in literature history. Next was his proposal of learning from the Han and Wei, which included two aspects. The first aspect was to learn from the poets of the Wei and Jin, such as the viewpoints he expressed in the prefaces in the poetry collections of Cao Zhi, Ruan Ji, Lu Ji, Xie Lingyun, Tao Yuanming and his own simulated works. These could be considered retro or pro- retro. The second aspect was to learn from the Han and Wei Yuefu poems, which was from his emphasis on folk songs. It should not 19

Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 6th, Songs of Guo Gong, the author made notes that “the genuine poetry was actually among the people”.

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simply be denied as retro practice. He once defended himself in Refutation to He’s Views that “if I try to express my feeling on what is happening today in the ancient way without using the ancient diction…Is it possible?” Li Mengyang’s Yuefu poems were indeed close to putting new wine into old bottles. However, “expressing my feelings on what is happening today” shows that in face of the reality, he was serving his own progressive political ideas, which should be affirmed. It could be seen that the poetic style of the Early Seven Scholars represented by Li Mengyang can not be defined by retro, especially their positive aspects. It is necessary to clarify a statement that has always been mistaken as fact that in Biography of Li Mengyang. History of the Ming Dynasty, Li Mengyang “advocated that writings must learn from the Qin and Han Dynasty, and poems must learn from the flourishing Tang Dynasty, or it is the wrong way.” In the Stories of Poems in All Dynasties C, Vol. 3rd, it even says that Li Mengyang “did not read books written after the Tang Dynasty”. What was the truth? In the second part of On Learning, Article Six (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 65th), it says “After the Han Dynasty, no ancient writings were ever seen.” This is the advocacy of “writings must learn from the Qin and Han Dynasty”. It also says “Confucianism of the Song Dynasty rose when the ancient writings were abolished”, which means that the ancient writings were not abolished until then. It could be seen that words may not be used as the basis for the argument. In the Introductory Poem for Zhang Yang’s Farewell Party (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 56th), Li Mengyang thought the Tang Dynasty poems had the advantages over the Six Dynasties’. In the Biography of Yu Yuxiang (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 48th), he used the Tang Dynasty poems to negate those of the Song Dynasty, but in the On Departure To Xu Zhenqing’s Leaving for Hunan, Hymn for the Talent of the Time with All My Best, he said “No matter in the period of Dali or Xining, there was someone who did the best for their poems” (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 2nd). From this, we could see that he made appropriate recognition of the Song Dynasty poets. The poems in the flourishing Tang Dynasty were not the only poems to respect among the Tang poems. In the Preface to Pottery Music (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 52nd), he thought that “Until the Tang Dynasty, poems did not have the ancient style”; In the Preface, he thought Li Bai’s and Du Fu’s poem-set-to-music style were just “competing skills” (Writings of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 262nd), which expressed his disdainful attitude. It can be seen that Li Mengyang was not all affirmative to the Qin and Han Dynasties and the flourishing Tang Dynasty. Except for those, nothing else was worthwhile. Retro is easily associated with degeneration. Was the Early Seven Scholars’ retro claim literary degeneration? As they were the first school in the Ming Dynasty’s literary history to clearly advocate retro, this is an issue worth attention. It is mentioned in the above that the “Early Seven Scholars” advocated that the Han and Wei Yuefu poems were related with the emphasis on folk songs, which was different from ordinary retro. Secondly, the Han-Wei period and the flourishing Tang Dynasty advocated or were adopted indeed during the peak in the history of Chinese poetry. Poets in the Six Dynasties and the Song Dynasty were dissatisfied and were opposed to some truly retrogressive phenomena, so their claims were mostly true to

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the reality in literary history. They held that the Tang Dynasty’s poems were better than those of the Six Dynasties, and that the Ming Dynasty poems didn’t flourish until their time. This was not necessarily the view of degeneration. Li Mengyang, style name Xianji and pseudonym Kong Tongzi, was born in the Qingyang city (now Qingyang City, Gansu Province). He was from a poor family, and his great-grandfather had married into and lived with his bride’s family-the Wang’s family. It wasn’t until his father’s generation that his surname Li was recovered. His father used to be the tutor in Zhoufu, Fengqiu, and later his family moved to Kaifeng, Henan. Li Mengyang held first place in the Shaanxi Provincial Examination in the Hongzhi 6th year, and became Jinshi in the following year. Due to the loss of his parents and having to stay home for the funeral, he only became the head of the Ministry of Revenue at the age of 27. At the age of 34, he was promoted as the Ministry Councillor, and Chief Secretary the following year. At the age of 36, he was demoted as the Chief Secretary of Shanxi Province, and later was dismissed. At the age of 40, the year after the eunuch Liu Jin was executed, he served as the educational officer in the Department of Justice of Jiangxi. Three years later, he was imprisoned for a criminal case, losing his position and later returned to Kaifeng. In Li Mengyang’s 7 years of his official career life, he had been removed from office for four years and had been jailed three times. He died at the age of 57. In Hongzhi 8th year (April 1505), Li Mengyang, as the head of the Ministry of Revenue, wrote a memorial to the Emperor. It was the first appearance he made in politics even though he was known in the literary world. He summarized the malpractices of the current government into two diseases, three harms, and six gradual changes. He specifically pointed out that eunuchs were the “heart of the diseases”, and among the clan of the Consorts, he attacked the Empress’s younger brother Shou Ninghou, Zhang Heling (Manuscript to Emperor Xiaozong from Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 39th). After Li Mengyang was imprisoned on charges of offending the Empress, he was soon released due to Emperor Zhu Yutang’s protection, with just the penalty of a three-month pension. It was said that after he was out of prison, he met Zhang Heling in the street and punched out two of his teeth with a horsewhip. Zhang did not fight back even though he was the brother of the Empress. In Zhengde 1st year, the year after the above-mentioned incident, the new Emperor Zhu Houzhao came to the throne but the power was centralized in the hands of the “eight tigers” headed by eunuch Liu Jin. On behalf of the head of Ministry of Revenue-Han Wen, Li Mengyang drafted a memorial of impeachment and also fought with the courtiers to demand the execution of Liu Jin and his party. The plan failed because the Emperor changed his mind halfway through and the ministers resigned from under the assistant minister down. In the following year Li Mengyang was dismissed from office and Liu Jin was declared one of the crafty sycophants. One year later, he was arrested in his hometown and was sent to Beijing for imprisonment because he had drafted the memorial to impeach the eunuchs. Liu Jin desired to kill him quickly, but he was released due to the rescue by Kang Hai. Although Li Mengyang died in Jiajing 8th year, as mentioned above, his main political and literary activities were during the period of Hongzhi and Zhengde, especially the ten years before he was dismissed from office at the end of Hongzhi

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to Zhengde 9th year (1514). That was where his collection of poems, Collection of Hongde, got its name. Li Mengyang’s creations were mainly poems, and his Fu could be ignored. Predecessors praised his seven-character poems in particular, and Wang Weizhen once praised him “Since Du Fu, Mengyang was the only one who can make good use of the rhythms and flashback method” (Collection of Li Mengyang from History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 286th). He tried to imitate Du Fu’s Eight Octaves on Autumnal Musings and he created the poem Eight Octaves on Memorizing Autumn (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 29th). The following is Parts II and III: Qingyang was the late Emperor’s territory, Facing the East Hill none for cemetery. Moon lit White Leopard Stronghold. Foxes wondering under yellow cloud. Harvesting and packing the corn in the clear day, In sunset herding the horses in Creek Mountain. Drums beating but not for General Guo’s recalling, Once coming to Yu Sai to deliver army supply, Sad memory brought tears in autumn sky, Frozen moon shines in sandy frost, Wild goose flies over the lonely city in sad flute, Achievements not determined in war, Going to the battlefield for the justice of all. Solders died from the West, Smoke rarely seen in sight. It can not be denied that this was a profound simulated work, but it did contain the feelings of the author when he was worried about the country. However, either from the word or sentence level to the layout of the text, it did not surpass the ancient format at all. No matter how superb, it was just a simulation. Li Mengyang once ridiculed He Jingming: “‘Hundred years’ and ‘million miles’, they occur repeatedly” (Requestioning Mr. He). In fact, some of the common words used by Du Fu, such as “earth and heaven”, “universe”, “the remotest corner of the earth”, “the four seas”, etc., as well as several sentence patterns, were all used by himself over and over. There were more than 18 examples in his over 300 seven-character poems, which made his poems no better than He Jingming’s. He really lacked self-knowledge. There were more than 120 poems in Li Mengyang’s ancient poems noted as the imitation of Tao Qian, Li Bai, Du Fu, and even Zhang Ji, Wang Jian and Li He, but none of the recent poems noted from whom they were imitated. In fact, most of them imitated Du Fu’s poems, perhaps because he imitated too much and they resembled so much that he did not think it was necessary to note. From these imitation works, we could see all the harmful effects of Li Mengyang’s poetics in his creation. Judging from his Yuefu poems and ancient poems, Li Mengyang was indeed an important poet in the Ming Dynasty. His Emperor’s Yellow Horse (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 6th) exposed and lashed out at the wrongdoings of eunuchs and agents of the Dongchang and the Xichang. “Destroying others’ houses for the

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convenience of our carriage” was a daily scene in the capital city, while it was also a bloody complaint against the eunuch. The eunuch’s refuge in lawlessness and impunity, based on the imperial power, was truly represented in the poem. The “Sparrows in the Empty City” (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 7th) used the sparrows to peck all the seed-heads of the weakest person as the metaphor, reminding people of the aristocratic landlord group’s plundering of the working people, while revealing the author’s helpless emotions. This kind of poem was his poetic practice of “using his feelings to tell about what is happening”, but their being too prosaic was a common problem in art. Li Mengyang’s certain Yuefu poems did not follow the old routine as his sevencharacter poems did. If Li Mengyang’s recent poems could be seen at a glance as the imitation of Du Fu’s, then his imitation of Han and Wei Yuefu poems was not so traceable, which explains why they did not get much attention. This may be due to his using different ways of imitating the poems in the Han and Wei Dynasty and poems in the flourishing Tang Dynasty. This difference was also related to the style of poetry. Recent regulated verses and quatrains were originally lyrical poems, unlike Yuefu poems, which had the tradition of facing reality since the Han-Wei periods. Recent poems, especially regulated verses, had a special emphasis on the technique itself. As mentioned earlier, Li Mengyang criticized He Jingming by pointing out that “If there is a part thin, what follows will be thick, a part wide be followed by a part narrow, a part solid will be followed by empty space, the folded scenes must mean two things.” This set of tricks was especially applicable to the regulated verses. On the other hand, Li Mengyang’s repeated poetic theories of “expressive analogies” and “express my feeling on what is happening today” were particularly applicable to the Yuefu poems and ancient poems, but not to the recent poems. For some of the reasons cited above, Li Mengyang’s Yuefu poems were more innovative. He compiled a recorded folk song Songs of Guo Gong into the collection of poems, and added the phrase “Genuine poetry should be among the common people”. The poem itself was not brilliant, but it is worth noting for attracting the attention of Li Mengyang, who was regarded as the initiator of Ming Dynasty retro, Another example is his Chirping (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 6th): In- law- sister, evil monster, picking on the bride, who prepared the breakfast, humbly serving on her.

Such a poem may be closer to the folk song, but it was hard to see the true nature of the poet. Li Mengyang’s Yuefu poems were very distinctive in the ancient poets’ quasi Yuefu poems. This was an effect for not seeking resemblance in form but seeking similarity in spirit. Generally, the imitation works were often too fluent and superficial, but they did not have new ideas; Li Mengyang’s poems inclined to be astringent and rigid, and the his ideas were in line with the realism of Yuefu poems. Since he stated in his poetic theory that in order to oppose the popular style of the Six Dynasties poetry, he would rather go to the other extreme, which explains his style. It may seem vulgar in his lines like “Everyone’s face turns into the color of earth” (Xiangyang Song, Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 19th), “A child repeatedly

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cries for milk” (Sequel of Bitter Rain, idem.). In the two Yuefu poems quoted earlier (Emperor’s Yellow Horse and Sparrows in the Empty City), they were truly simple and natural, from which we could see the main artistic features of his Yuefu poems. Li Mengyang’s ancient poems were second only to his Yuefu poems. For example, Song of General Shi’s Battlefield (Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 22nd), A Visit to Xuanming Palace, idem.). The reason why they were inferior to his Yuefu poems was related to more traces of imitation. Comments made on the strength of his poems were all about the same as those to his Yuefu poems, as the ancient poems were closer to the Yuefu poem system. From the above examples, we could see that the progressive nature of Li Mengyang’s poetic theory helped his creation. His good poems with positive meanings were often related to his progressive political struggles. The sharp points were directed at the nobles and eunuch groups, which conveyed the people’s aspirations to some extent. In the past, the comments about Li Mengyang often simply negated his creation because he had retro poetics. In this way, they not only turned a blind eye to the progressive part of his poetics, but also targeted on the negative side of his literary thoughts in his entire thought. They failed to see his progressive political thought, its influence on his poetics and his creation, which was definitely just a one-sided view. He Jingming (1483–1521), whose style name was Zhongmo and pseudonym was Dafushan, was from Xinyang, Henan Province. He was born into a post officer’s family, clever at a very early age. At the age of sixteen, he won third place in the provincial examination and four years later he became Jinshi. He got the position of secretary at the age of 22, when he began his friendship with Li Mengyang and the others. In the following year, due to the death of Emperor Zhu Youcheng, he was sent to the minority areas around Guizhou and Yunnan. Upon returning, he wrote to the Minister of Personnel, Xu Jin, and advised him not to indulge Liu Jin, an eunuch, less it be unaccepted. At the age of 25, out of fear of being framed, he asked for sick leave to return to his hometown. The following year, he and all the officials, who had returned to their hometowns for a long time, were removed from office by Liu Jin. Three years later, Liu Jin was defeated. Due to the recommendation of the Secretaries of State in the Cabinet, Li Dongyang, He Jingming got the position of secretary and then the officer in the Catering Department. Emperor Zhu Houzhao adopted hundreds of sons and gave them the surname Zhu. Most of them were related to eunuchs. They were transformed from land ruffians and rogues into governors and commanders. The emperor also invited the monks to the palace, keeping the National Defense Forces in the capital city. He Jingming wrote a memorial, Memorial of Public Security in Compliance with Imperial Edict (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 32nd) to remonstrate and dissuade, but it was just like a stone dropping into the ocean, no response was heard. At this time, he was 32 years old, and three years later he was promoted to vice director of the secretary for inspection of Ministry of Personnel and also did his job in the cabinet. The following year, he served as the vice surveillance commissioner of Shaanxi Province and died of illness at the age of 39. He Jingming’s and Li Mengyang’s literary thoughts were similar but still had some differences. They criticized the government, opposed the eunuch, and suffered similar setbacks to their official career. Their poem creations also advocated their

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own political ideas. If Li Mengyang’s poetic theory focused on ancient Yuefu poems, which was also his strength in creation, He Jingming admired the Han and Wei Yuefu, at the same time, he emphasized the study of Four Literary Eminences in Early Tang for their beautiful words and syllables, which were also song verse. The poetic style, which he was good at, was the modern style. He Jingming’s Yuefu poems were not as good as Li Mengyang’s, and Li Mengyang’s song verses were not as good as He Jingming’s. If we compared the song verses with the same subject Going to Xuanming Palace by the two, it was not difficult to see that the characteristics of He Jingming’s poem were close to the characteristics of the Four Literary Eminences in the Early Tang Dynasty. One of Li Mengyang’s songs was as follows: “Majestic monument shines for the achievements? Or may he send a boy to serve as a Taoist. Silent and sad, for what ancient warriors had gained.” The two sentences “Majestic monument” and “Or may” were rigid, and they were out of touch with each other. In terms of ideas and content, He Jingming’s poem focused on the following sentences: “Although the emperor could make justice, new orders are not established” (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 14th), the whole poem was not limited to sigh for Xuanming Palace’s relics, not only to expose the crimes of the dead eunuch Liu Jin, but more importantly, it was aimed at reality: a eunuch failed, and the new dignitaries were already spoiled. This was the epitome of the political situation where the aristocratic landlord was in power. Li Mengyang’s sloppy ending was not impressive to readers. He Jingming’s Travel at the End of A Year (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 11th) “Recently hearing that fox and rabbits have also been enlisted, and the nets were set in the mountainous towns”, exposing the ruler’s greedy exploitation; Inspection of Troops (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 14th) “National Defense Mansion House located to the west of the Forbidden City”, criticizing Emperor Zhu Houzhao for keeping the border army in the capital and sending old and weak soldiers to the frontiers. These were good poems with social significance. He Jingming’s modern lyrical poems were meaningful, which were beyond Li Mengyang’s. Take one of the Fifteen Poems of Autumnal Musings (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 28th) as an example: Blossoms are blown away in rain with sorrows, Petrels and geese are heading for different directions. Looking at the tower is depressed, Cicadas are gathering in the sunset. During his lifetime, He Jingming had written letters to Wang Tingxiang, who was one of the Early Seven Scholars, inviting him to come to meet to discuss his essays, but it didn’t happen. His essays may not have been completed, or they may have been lost, or they may be the twelve existing essays, called He Zi. In terms of prose, the rhetoric was fluent; the argument was calm; and it did not carry the old styles of “following the suit of the Qin and Han Dynasties”. As for the content, for example, the third statement of Rites and Actions (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 30th) and the fourth statement of Appointing Generals (Collection of He Jingming, Vol. 30th)

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were all criticisms of hitting the disadvantages. Kang Hai once said that it would make sense treating He Jingming as just as a poet, was a superficial view. Since the dispute between He Jingming and Li Mengyang, people have discussed the merits of the two. In fact, as far as creation was concerned, the two were indeed inseparable. Li Mengyang admired the Yuefu style of the Han-Wei periods, while He Jingming accepted the influence of song verses of the Tang Dynasty and the modernstyle poems, but they both shared the Retro view; Li Mengyang’s “ruggedness and boldness” was easily criticized, but we could not forget his simple and unpretentious works; He Jingming’s “elegance and naturalness” was acceptable even if there were flaws, but his characteristics were not as impressive as Li Mengyang’s. In literary theory, He Jingming was not as good as Li Mengyang in terms of social impact and positive contributions. There is no doubt to that the Early Seven Scholars could be represented by Li Mengyang and He Jingming. If to choose one as the representative, it could only be Li Mengyang, not He Jingming. Xu Zhenqing (1479–1511), the third-ranked poet among the Early Seven Scholars, had the style name Changgu or Changguo. His ancestral home was Changshu, Jiangsu Province, but he moved to Wu county. At the age of twenty-seven, he became Jinshi and got the position of the left deputy of the Highest Judiciary. Due to the loss of prisoners in his charge, he was demoted to the assistant in the Imperial Academy. He died in Beijing at the age of thirty-three, leaving Collection of Xu Zhenqing and Additional Collections of Xu Zhenqing. Xu Zhenqing, who hadn’t become Jinshi at that time, and Tang Yin, Zhu Yunming, Wen Zhengming were called Wuzhong Four Talents. The other three were famous for painting and calligraphy, but Xu Zhenqing was famous for his poems. As the “The Highest Poet in Wuzhong” (The History of Ming Dynasty, Vol. 286th, Biography), he entered into Li Mengyang’s team, but was ridiculed by the people in Wu Zhong as “imitating others and thus lose his own individuality” (Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties C, Original). Li Mengyang also criticized him for his “rigidness” (Debating with Xu on Writings), but these did not prevent him from becoming a poet who was influential in both the north and the south at that time. When being in Wuzhong, Xu Zhenqing’s poems kept the style of Qi and Liang. Let’s take the example of a seven-character Writings of Romance which was popular at the time: Sick in the the wind and frost, the chilly season is like a snake bite. Chrysanthemum falls in autumn, hair turned gray before the lamp. Writings in Jiangzuo are like jade, blossom trees in Yangzhou are all round. Wait till this heart dies out, holding the monk’s bowl for a life of another world.20 His poems were far from reality with a frustrated literati’s sentimental mood, but the style was fresh and beautiful. After becoming Jinshi, entering into Beijing and making friends with Li Mengyang, his style changed. The four volumes of Collection of Xu Zhenqing were compared with the three volumes of Additional Collection of 20

Additional Collection of Digong, Vol. 3rd, Volume of the Hongzheng Four Distinguished.

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Xu Zhenqing clearly, so that one can see the difference between his poem style before and after. If putting together his several Yuefu poems, which were similar as Li Mengyang’s, Trips of A Tiger and The Bitter Cold Travel (Collection of Xu Zhenqing, Vol. 1st) together with Writing and Romance, it was hard to believe that they were written by the same poet. The realization of this transformation from the early style of Wuzhong poems was not consciously voluntary at the outset. He said in a poem: “Ready to like Li Zuoche, with no practice and my mind does not accept it. Considering I am new to you, no decision can be made” (Collection of Ming Dynasty’s Poems, Vol. 36th, brief biography quote). Later, he took the initiative to write to Li Mengyang, requesting to make friends with him. For his sincere attitude, Li Mengyang also answered enthusiastically, which was background for the famous Debating with Xu on Writings mentioned earlier. In this letter, Li Mengyang also made criticisms and suggestions for improvement of Xu Zhenqing’s earlier works. This was the aforementioned “Good poems tend to be more euphemistic than shocking; focusing more on the inner nature than the flamboyant form; valuing more the sentiment than the complicated contents and preferring the harmonious structure to the exquisite one”. This was specific for Xu Zhenqing, but for Li Mengyang, it also had a broad meaning for the poetic style of the Six Dynasties. Xu Zhenqing’s reply (Collection of Xu Zhenqing, Vol. 6th, Debate on Writing with Li Xianji) expressed his repentance for several works, but his attitude towards Li Mengyang’s teaching was reserved. This was the internal reason why Xu Zhenqing “rigidness”, was both refreshing and resolute with the style of the north and romance of Jiangzuo (area of the south bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River). It was precisely because of this that he still made Li Mengyang admit that he was “following an easy way” when making the conclusion.21 On the other hand, this situation also made people wonder whether Xu Zhenqing regretted his several works and changed sides. Whether there were some difficulties when he was lonely in the face of the northern literati group headed by Li Mengyang, forced by pressure and forced to do so, was not like Zhu Yizun’s Poetry Talks in Jingzhiju said “quiet understanding”. Some people thought that Collection of Xu Zhenqing may be revised by Li Mengyang.22 Although this statement was not necessarily reliable, it had some truth. Xu Zhenqing’s poems could be said to have the strengths of two very different schools, which were the Early Seven Scholars and Wuzhong Four Talents. He changed the style of realistic poetry in the Han-Wei periods. Therefore, he was able to avoid the disadvantages of roughness and had it refined. Unfortunately, the horizon is limited. Perhaps it is due to his early death that he failed to fully display his talents. The quatrains he was talented at, such as Seeing Xiao Ruoyu Off (Collection of Xu Zhenqing, Vol. 3rd), were enough to represent his achievements of integrating North and South:

21

Preface to the Collection of Xu Digong, Collection of Li Mengyang, Vol. 25th. See Li Kaixian: Lord Jianpi’s Self-criticism, Leisure Notes Collection, Vol. 10th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

22

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Seeing you south as far as the Bayu area, friendship lasts as Xiang River. Wondering where to go ahead, from the valleys in the dusk arose the ape’s sound. The volume of Talking about Art in Collection of Xu Zhenqing was Xu Zhenqing’s work on talking poems and it was also one of the representatives of the Early Seven Scholars’ poetics. Some of these views were obviously influenced by Li Mengyang, for example, “The poems of Wei are decorative while poems of Han are profound”; “The three hundred ancient poems can be enriching in resources, the nineteen poems left can be intriguing, the grand Yuefu can be inspiring, and the profound Li Sao can be thought-provoking, then the Scriptures can be served as mottoes and the ancient poems are the models. Although I have not yet got the gist of the mystery, I have gotten lost in it.” Biangong (1476–1532), whose style name was Tingshi, was from Licheng (now Jinan City, Shandong Province). He passed the imperial exams at the provincial level at the age of 20 and became Jinshi the following year and got the position of assistant in Taichang. At the age of 30, he changed to be an inspector and was promoted to be the assistant clerk of Taichang. Five years later, he served as the governor of Jingzhou. Then, he attended a funeral and returned home the following year. At the age of 39, he was the vice academic commissioner in Henan. In Kaifeng (a city of Henan), he got together again with Li Mengyang, who was out of office. About ten years after he was 47 years old, he had been in Nanjing all the time, while his official position changed from Shaoqing of the south Taichang, Siqing of Taipu, and Vice-minister in the Ministry of Justice and Principle to the Ministry of Revenue. Being a high-ranking official and doing nothing, he was eventually impeached and removed from office because of his “alcohol abuse”. He had the work called Collection of Biangong. He, together with Li Mengyang, He Jingming and Xu Zhenqing, were also called “Hong (Hongzhi) Zheng (Zhengde) Four Masters”. He had the highest official position among the four, but the lowest literary achievement. On the orientation of reality, he was not as good as Li Mengyang and He Jingming, on the beauty of talent, he was not as good as Xu Zhenqing. Wang Tingxiang (1474–1544), style name Ziheng and pseudonym Junchuan, was from Yifeng (now in Kaifeng, Henan province). He passed the imperial exams at the provincial level at the age of 22 and became Jinshi at the age of 29. He was selected as secretary to the Hanlin Academy and then to inspector of the Ministry of Military. At the age of 35, he was demoted to the magistrate in Bozhou due to some trivial faults. He was called back the following year and was promoted as the Imperial Censor in Shaanxi Province. At the age of 41, he was arrested and jailed for offending a local eunuch official, and he was relegated to be the magistrate’s assistant in Ganyu County. Two years later, he was transferred to be the magistrate of Ningguo and was promoted as the official in Songjiang Prefecture the following year. After the age of 45, he was promoted to be the examiner of Educational Commission, the vice academic commissioner in Sichuan, the academic commissioner in Shandong, surveillance commissioner in Hu-Guang, treasury officer in Shandong, and vice imperial censor in Sichuan. When he was in office for being surveillance commissioner in Hu-Guang

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and governor of Sichuan, he was appreciated by the rulers for suppressing the peasant and ethnic minority uprisings. After the age of 55, he was promoted to the right viceminister, the left vice minister in the Ministry of Military, principal in the Ministry of Military in Nanjing, the left imperial censor, and his official position reached second rank. At the age of 68, he was dismissed for his improper handling of the case of Prince Guo Xun. On the one hand, Wang Tingxiang was in the ranks of the Seventh Secretary of the Qing Dynasty, with the blood of the insurgents on his hands; on the other hand, he was a progressive thinker at that time, with a clear materialist tendency. He criticized Cheng Yi’s dualistic view of “rationality as being out of morality, temperament is out of nature”, and also boldly objected to Mencius’s theory of “Humans Have Good Nature”. Yashu, Speech Discretion, Answer Xue Juncai’s Theory (edited into Wang’s Collection) were all his important philosophical works. As far as literature was concerned, Wang Tingxiang did not show significant features in the Early Seven Scholars. He was good at ancient Yuefu, which was the same as Li Mengyang and He Jingming, but his achievements could not be compared with Li and He. The content of his poems was reality-oriented. Even his ideas were not expressed concisely they displayed a special splendid feature. Wang Jiusi (1468–1551), whose style name was Jingfu and pseudonym was Meibei or Purple Pavilion Mountaineer, was from Hu County (now Hu County, Shaanxi Province). In Hongzhi 9th year (1496), he became Jinshi. He got the position as the historic documents editor in the Hanlin Academy. He was later appointed as the Chief Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel. Wang was banished for his connection with Liu Jin who was subdued. He was no longer consulted upon when the decision was made by the administration. He had the work of Collection of Wang Jiusi. Kang Hai (1475–1540), whose style name was Dehan and pseudonym was Duishan or Fisherman of Pandong, was from Wugong, Shaanxi Province. In Hongzhi 15th year (1502), he became the number one scholar in the test and got the position as the Chief Editor of Hanlin Academy. He had the work of Collection of Kang Hai. In the early years of Zhengde, Liu Jin was in power and wanted to win Kang Hai over, but was rejected. Later, Li Mengyang was jailed for offending Liu Jin and sent a letter to ask Kang Hai for help. Kang Hai met Liu Jin who was happy to see him. Liu admired Kang Hai, who brought up the case of Li Mengyang. Due to this, Li Mengyang was released. Due to Kang’s association with Liu Jin’s party, he had to retreat to his hometown after Liu Jin was abolished. He led a life of drinking with the prostitutes and singing songs, taking himself as an actor so as to release his depression. The situation of Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi was different from the other five. They were close relatives by their children’s marriage and their lives were very similar. They were all from Shaanxi and were from the same town of eunuch Liu Jin. In the Early Seven Scholars, Li Mengyang, He Jingming, and Wang Tingxiang were all prosecuted by eunuchs. Xu Zhenqing was disappointed. Bian Gong also stayed in the lower ranks for a long time when Liu Jin was in power, which was different from Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi. Although they did not intend to collude with Liu Jin, Liu Jin deliberately lured them.

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When Li Mengyang and He Jingming fought against Liu Jin, Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi maintained an ambiguous and silent attitude. After Liu Jin was defeated, they were treated as being part of Liu’s party and dismissed from office. As mentioned earlier, Li Mengyang, He Jingming and Assistant Minister Li Dongyang had maintained friendly relations in politics and literature, and had never been dissatisfied or opposed; Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi mistakenly thought that their dismissals were due to Li Dongyang’s “framing”, so they hated him and publicly satirized him. As far as literature was concerned, Li Mengyang and He Jingming’s main achievements were poetry, while Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi focused on writing. Meanwhile Kang and Wang were also famous dramatists.

6.4 Yu Qian, Yang Shen and the Literati of Wuzhong When the Guange style was in, Yu Qian was out of it. The Early Seven Scholars of Ming were popular, Yang Shen developed a school of his own. Scholars in Wuzhong were more willing to create their own schools even though they outnumbered other groups. These poets, with the personalities of their own without following suite, brought out a fresh air for the literature world of the time. 1.

Yu Qian and Yang Shen

Yu Qian (1398–1457), was from Qiantang (Hangzhou city now), and his style name was Yan Yi. In Yongle 19th year (1421), he became Jinshi. In Xuande 1st year of Emperor Xuanzong’s reign in the Ming Dynasty, he was authorized to be the censor in Shanxi Province and was promoted to the Assistant Minister in the Ministry of War after five years, being in charge of He’nan and Shanxi areas for eighteen years. When he came back to the capital city, he became the principal of the Ministry of War and promoted to the position of Shaobao, the Teacher of the Prince. During the war of Tumubao, Yingzong was captured and the Mongol armies invaded the capital of China. The major officials argued that the capital should be changed, but Yu Qian disagreed. He made Zhu Qiyu, the younger brother of Yingzong the Emperor and subdued the Mongols with his army. Later, Yingzong came to the throne again, and Yu Qian was executed in the West Town under the excuse of helping the enemies sneak into town. He was given a posthumous title as “Sumin” in the years of Chenghua of Emperor Xianzong in the Ming Dynasty. His book was entitled the Collections of Zhong Su. Yu Qian was not a civil minister, so literature didn’t draw much of his attention However, he had his own opinions on literature without following the trends of the Secretariat style. Yu Qian was adept at quatrains. In his poems, the writing was concise and clear, the characters were novel and the style natural. In his comments on writing poems, the most interesting part was his opinion on the topic of logic and sentiment. He said, “It’s never easy to write poems, poems need to express one’s innermost feelings and take shape with good rhythms. They vary with the change

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of sentiment and environment. It is not a good poem unless it boasts profound logic and truth with appropriate sentiment.”23 Ever since the emphasis of Novel Material and Sentiment in the creation of poetry proposed in Notes on Poets and Poetry, the topic of logic and sentiment was a real hit for several centuries with a lot of contrversies. Yu Qian held that the two don’t have to be against each other. What matters is if they are “profound”, or “appropriate” or “truthful”. The truthful poems differed from those that were deliberately created without true feeling. What Yu Qian pursued was the harmony of internal “genuineness” and corresponding expressions. The logic and the sentiments were so harmoniously blended in his poems that they illustrated reasoning and the emotion from the experiences of the poets, Hymn on Lime,24 written by Yu Qian in his youth, shared his views on logic and sentiment. The lime was explored from the deep mountains, After experiencing thousands of hundreds of hammerings. Calmly it sits in the raging fire, even broken into pieces, But worthwhile for keeping its innocence. By using metaphor and parodies specific images carry the implications that can easily inspire the readers of their intentions. Therefore, the metaphorical skill to feeling is what the image is to the reason. The reason can be expressed with images, if not, there is a barrier in reasoning. This poem was constructed by Yu Qian in a new way, with logic and the sentiment brought in harmony. Yu Qian set a unique connotation for lime with his unexpected imagination. The lime symbolized the lofty personality that the poet desired, an upright and ambitious scholar-official which was a self-portrait of himself. In terms of natural scenery and romance, Yu Qian’s writing was refreshing and natural with great significance. His poem Scenery in the Late Spring Trip goes, “In full blossom the pink peach bloom in rains, in breeze the green wicker sways. Wondering who is taking lead of the spring, across the bridge a pair of butterfly flying” (Collections of Zhong and Su, Vol. 11th). The descriptions of late spring were mostly the chilly rain and beaten blossom, but in this poem, the pink peach blossoms in rain were full of vigor, and the willows in the breeze present the lively spring, which was a beautiful scene. The term “wondering” changed the reality into imagination that easily evokes the readers with association, delivering perfectly the essence of quatrains. Another poem The Imitation of Wu Nong goes, “Missing my darling with tenderly love. The rooster of wood cannot crow, with mouth but no 23 Yu Qian: Preface of Yu Cen Poem Collections, Collections of Zhong Su, Vol. 12nd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. All the poems quoted in this chapter are from it unless otherwise noted. 24 From Lin Geng (Ed.). Selections of Poems from the Past Dynasties, People’s Literature Press, 1979, p. 827. The poem, which is not collected in Collections of Zhong and Su, is found in Anecdotes in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Vol. 22nd from Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, “The lime was explored from the deep mountains, truth revealed after hundreds of hammerings. Ignoring the raging fire, even broken into pieces, but worthwhile for keeping its innocence”.

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heart as I should know” (Collections of Zhong and Su, Vol. 11th). This was a bluetuned poem, but in a direct way without its typical feature of plaint. The metaphor was very simple and vivid, making the emotional female character with an outgoing personality alive. Instead of just enjoying the scenery, Yu Qian wrote many poems about circumstances of the country and the average people’s livelihood, such as the poem Trip to Pingyang (The Collections of Zhong and Su, Vol. 11th.) Willows casting shade, with water birds singing. Beans budding while wheat growing. A harvest year all expected, Rice in April will be fairly priced. The happiness and joy of spring are derived from the field blessed by nature and people’s well-being of having enough food. As a poet and a military leader, the poem totally revealed the poet’s concerns towards people. Yang Shen (1488–1559), with the style name Yong Xiu and pseudonym name Shengan, was from Xindu, Sichuan Province. In Zhengde 6th year (1511 AD), he became the number one scholar and got the position of editor. He was involved in the compilation of The Memoir of Emperors Jiajin 3rd year. Due to his inappropriate reporting rituals twice and taking lead in a tearful appeal to the emperor, Emperor Shi Zong was offended and gave him “life banishment” to Yong Changwei of Yunnan Province (Baoshan City today), where he stayed till his death. During this period, Yang Shen came back to Luzhou of Sichuan Province in the name of military service in Jiajing 32nd year (1553). However, he was sent back into Yunnan in escort Jiajing 37th year (1558). According to The Epitaph of Yang Shen, A Hanlin Compiler by You Jujing, the governor of Yunnan at that time, Yang Shen died at his house of Gao Yao in Kunming in July 6th, Jiajing 38th year (1559). This was also described in The Preface of Seventy-line Passages of Mr. Shengan written by Zhou Fujvn in Writings of the Ming Dynasty.25 During this period, whenever Emperor Shi Zong asked about his situation, the courtiers’ reply was all about his being old and sick. Upon hearing this, Yang Shen chose to free himself by drinking and powdering his face, playing the role of a maid by wearing flowers and walking around with hookers in his arms. He said, “I want to enjoy the beautiful scenery, as a way to fulfill my ambition and to spend the rest of my life.”26 Obviously, these crazy behaviors were to show his anger and depression. Yang Shen wrote many books, of which hundreds of his works were popular. His poem collection was called Collection of Shengan Poems. He was skilled in poetry, Ci and tunes, featured by erudition. Stories of Poems in All Dynasties goes that Yang Shen quoted ancient books with his memory because he was relegated for a long time to a poor border region where books were rare. Therefore, the works of Yang Shen included several mistakes, which is understandable. Known for writing poems 25

Feng Jiahua, The New Annotation of Yang Shen’s Death, Journal of School of Literature in Nanjing Normal University, 2006 (2). 26 See details from Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties. Original C, Classic Literature Press, 1957, p. 354.

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since he was young, he was appreciated and supervised by Li Dongyang. He became Jinshi and was befriended by the Early Seven Scholars. In The Preface of Shengan Poems, Li Diaoyuan commented that Yang Shen wrote poems not by following one style, nor following one dynasty. He was open to everything, taking advantage of all schools without over-doing it. When the Early Seven Scholars of Ming were very well received, Yang Shen was willing to form his own school, instead of following others in either creation and of poem theory. In spite of his appreciation of the Early Seven Scholars,27 he was reluctant to be their hanger-on. In a letter replying to his friend, he said, “In literary creation, my writing is nothing comparing to the modern poets, with the difference between Venus and Medusa. How dare I accept the compliment?”28 The inner disdain is hidden in his modesty. There are a lot of examples that he assailed imitation works. He ridiculed “the contemporary poets”, “so-called writers” that they used the word “breathe” to describe the sound of a warbler, not the more proper word “crow”, the word “hoar” to the sound of ape, not the “whistler”, by claiming “this is Du’s style”. If this is it turned to be, “it will be followed and the situation would be worse.” He also criticized those Du Fu imitators, “recent poets are imitating Du Fu, which is nothing but copying. This would lead poem creation astray.”29 Yang Shun was more open without just preferring one style, especially when he was older. In earlier periods, his poems were the style of the Six Dynasties or the Late Tang Dynasty, from imitating to modifying. However, in later periods, he created his own style instead of imitating. The relegation enabled him to have another life and the environment in the borderland allowed him to stay away from the influences of the mainstream poetic circle. That’s to say, his Shengan Poems carried more of his individual characteristics after his being banished. His two main topics in Yunnan were to express his anger and depression due to his relegation, as well as to describe the splendid scenery and the local culture. His poems included almost every style though not best at every one. He was good at styles of seven-character, regulated verses, song verse, which he truly excelled at.30 Yang Shen stressed the rhythms and maintained the magnificence of the seven-character poems. The collection of poems, On Spring, was obviously written with the inspiration of On Autumn by Du Fu. But Yang transferred the scene of spring to that of autumn and expressed his inner dismay that he was unwilling to die without any achievements for the country during the beautiful spring. This big replacement of

27

He said, “The years of Hongzhi was the prime time of learning, and the ancient culture was popular. Li Huailu and Zhang Cangzhou took the lead in art, followed by different groups. Chen Baisha and Zhuang Dingshan took the lead in writing the poems about the mountains and forests, with the feature of Taoism. Until then, Li and He started to imitate Du. How splendid!” (Biography of Li Mengyang, Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 34th. The Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 28 Replies to Zhou Mujing on Poetry, Works of Shengan, Yun Hong Press. 29 Yang Shen. Words upon Departure, Selected Poems of Zhang Yuguang, Vol. 2nd. Yunnan Series. 30 Yang Shen. Collection of Shengan, Vol. 26th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. All the following notes from Yang Shen are from this edition.

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background setting showed his attempt at being creative. The first poem in the collection showed a scenery of splendid, sunny with open landscapes, from the overview of the author in a tower, but the striking contrast was the poet’s figure and his feelings in the second half. In one poem, “The wanderer was in tears, relegated in desolation for nine years. Following Li Guang as a common man, away from the court with the Mongolians.” In the second poem, “Accompanied by the lonely cranes and the gulls every day. On the high pillow I enjoy my life in a leisurely way, no longer a talent needed by the Qing Dynasty.” He consoled to himself that he needn’t care about the affairs of the country as he had friends, like the cranes and the gulls, but in his inner heart, he was still desiring the life of past days when he was an official making contributions to the country (from the third and the fourth poems). The complexity of his feelings and the contradictions were sincerely shown between lines. In terms of the maturity of regulated verses, the collection had open artistic conception, perfect matching, concise words and expressions, so it was a representative work with great writing-skills. Yang Shen wrote many great poems with seven-character lines, as well as the grand artistic conception, the skillful techniques, colorful images and fluent rhythms, all of which delivered artistic appeal. For example, the On The Painting of Thousand Red Trees to Yang Maozhi: (Collection of Shengan, Vol. 24th): Xiao loves painting green-jade rooster and golden horse. The painting of a thousand mountain red trees, Reflecting the stunning autumn scenes. Even Apollo is amazed when leaves are falling, To see the General off on the water after mountain climbing, On the early morning of the red forests, there was heavy frost, By the purple valley I could feel the heat from the sunset. The old friend is parting for his hometown, It is a far-reaching place from Yunnan. When mulberry falling and we got drunk, It’s the time we feel intoxicated. With hair turning gray without returning, So wretched I feel like leaves falling. When can we see each other under the red trees? I can only follow you in dreams. The golden horse and the green-jade rooster were two famous archways that were precisely measured when being built. The two gateways were several meters apart. When Jiazi month and day (the Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Terrestrial Branches) coincide, the shadow of the two arches also met, which was a splendid scene. The poem started with it and introduced the root of the painting, from which the leaving place was indicated. Next, the description of the autumn was to express his feelings as well as the scenery. The early morning in the red forest and the setting sun in the purple valley all expressed the theme of the picture of thousand mountain red trees, depicting the view of autumn. The words “old friends” kept to the theme and

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expressed the poet’s feelings. It’s left with the dismay and homesickness of the poet. The last sentence expressed his sad feeling of departure and kept the theme focused. Weeping Willow (Collection of Shengan, Vol. 13rd) was written in another way. In the poem, a willow along the road was used to express the feeling of being banished from the capital to the border area. The willow, actually, the poet, was put in an important position in Ling He Palace, just as stated in the poem, “I am the leader of literature, official and compete who has the best poems according to the topic of the emperor. The emperor asks me to ride the horse of bigwigs, and my poems can win that from the eastern great poets,” but the willow was destroyed due to being envied by others, “the willow was deserted to the area thousands of miles away from its hometown. It was torn to pieces and scattered in the desolated pavilion.” The comparison between today and the past, the flourishing and withering told the readers that the willow was the embodiment of the poet. The poem gave the proper image to the real items. The first part was fantastic while the second part was in dismay, which was identical to the situation of the willow. The whole poem was in perfect rhythm with proper allusions, but the relation between metaphorical objects and real objects was too direct to leave space for ones imagination. Gales by Water (Collection of Shengan, Vol. 23rd) described the wind of Cang’er in the Chongqu Pass in Xiaguan county (Dali, Yunnan Province) vividly, “the pale water runs from Mount Cang, and the Star Tian Liang is in the center of the sky with thunder in the day. The wind inside it is continuous and violent and it blows the gravel away and throws up big waves. … and the army horse neighs while the traveler lowers his head.” In terms of the description of the character of the famous city in Yunnan, the poem was similar with that of Cen Sen, the poet in the flourishing period in the Tang Dynasty, “The stones are like buckets, rolling along the furious gales.” The seven-character quatrains of Yang Shen had clear and perceived truth and profound thought. The banishment made him depressed, but the beauty of Yunnan, Mount Cang and Er Sea and the kindness of the local people presented him the better part of life. He accepted joyfully the influence of the local folk songs and expressed his true feelings with simple quatrains. Such poems as Songs of Dian Pool and the Bamboo in Dian Pool and some other poems gave the items proper images and expressed the feelings and thoughts of a poet, fully filled with life. Kunming pool runs over hundreds of kilometers, Flowers and seaweed connect the ten states. Further than the envoy’s vehicle can reach, Beyond Emperor Wu’s fancy boat could ever touch.31 Spring is coming and the fisherman singing, The song echoes while he is paddling. Spring and blooming for all four seasons.32 The ocean breezing caress the holy mushrooms. 31 32

Songs of Dian Pool, 18th. Collection of Shengan, Vol. 16th. Songs of Dian Pool, 18th. Collection of Shengan, Vol. 16th.

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The firewood cutters child is falling asleep. Living by Huayang Cave is the Immortal, Sending over some of their holy roses.33 In the seven-character poems, the first one related the beauty of Yunnn with its stories in the past by covering a wide category. The reason why Yunnan was called Dian was the Dian Pool. The first and the second sentences not only used the image which was the best representative of Yunnan, but also described the grandeur and the beauty of Dian Pool. The next two sentences moved on to the water area, and introduced naturally the story that Yunnan was conquered in the Han Dynasty. The second poem described the features of the weather in Kunming, in a simple and graceful way. As we all know, Kunming was crowned as the Spring City, “Spring and blooming for all four seasons” is the most accurate of all the descriptions. The third poem was about the specialty in Yunnan, which was a rare delicious wild mushroom growing in the mountains. Its shape was like an umbrella and its branches were white and glittering. The poet described it ingeniously with the virtual realism technique that makes it is hard to think it’s about a kind of food. The poet also affectionately wrote such a precious thing was presented as a gift, the emotions involved are well expressed. 2.

Famous scholars in Wuzhong

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, poets in Wuzhong were a strange existence. They were usually regarded as a group (for example, Xu Zhenqing, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming and Zhu Yunming were known as the “Wuzhong Four Talents”). Being in the same region, they had a friendship or teacher-student relationship. For example, Tang Yin and Wen Zhengming had learned painting from Shen Zhou, while Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming had been very close. Most of these famous scholars in the south of the Yangtze River were engaged in calligraphy or painting (Shen Zhou, Tang Yin and Wen Zhengming were all famous poets and painters). They did not focus on poetry, but had made extraordinary achievements. Apart from Xu Zhenqing who later joined the Early Seven Scholars and died young, other poets mostly independent of any schools as Chaling school or the Early Seven Scholars, reflected the feature of Wuzhong, one after another or at the same time. For different reasons, they all deviated from the conventional life track by living in the mountains or forests with springs, in a gentle or a wild manner. Shen Zhou was influenced by his family tradition. Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming failed the imperial examination, while Wen Zhengming and Yang Xunji were frustrated by their official careers. Although they did not pay attention to poetry, as a tool of expressing emotions and aspirations, all of them focused on the world affairs and feelings of life. The truthful, simple and refreshing poetic style was established due to their similar life experiences and the down and out temperament of southern talents, completely different from the conventional style. Shen Zhou (1427–1509), style name Qinan and pseudonym Stone Field and White Stone Man in his later years, was born in Changzhou (today’s Suzhou). Among 33

Songs of Dian Pool, 18th. Collection of Shengan, Vol. 16th.

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Wuzhong Scholars, he was a middle-aged elder one. His family led a style of seclusion. His grandfather and uncle lived in seclusion in forests with springs. During the reign of Jingtai, the local prefect once wanted to recommend Shen Zhou for a position, he declined. He lived in a bamboo village in Xiangcheng to support his mother and died at the age of 83. Shen Zhou was famous for his paintings and poems. When he lived in seclusion, he still had a lot of visitors. He showed his painting skills to the guests and wrote poems on it, with hundreds of words in an instant. His student, Wen Zhengming, said in a note for his teacher: “He was known by people either from the capital, or far away from Fujian, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Guangzhou.” “The cultural relics in Southeast China, which have been flourishing for a hundred years, are glamorous and unsurpassed by any other regions” (Collection of Futian, Vol. 25th). Shen Zhou’s anthology of poems is entitled Selected Poems of Stone Field. There are a lot of laments about aging sickness and sorrows, but there are also many pieces worth reading. The fame-free hermit’s life gives his poems an innocent flavor. Just as The Catalogue of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature said, “The expressions from the pasture life are to be interpreted, not to be confined and fit into any rules.” Two Poems on Snow34 represents this style best: Ten days after spring, the door is closed with sudden snow falling, House luxuriously turned white, green mountain wrongly decorated. Overwhelming the vast wilderness, dropping from the sky with willfulness, Sitting alone scratching my head, wondering when the plum be blooming in coldness. This is the first poem, starting from the poet’s view and depicting a delicate snow white world. Such a natural style of poetry should not be less than that by Tao Yuanming, the poet that the author admired. Shen Zhou was also good at expressing feelings on scenery spots, with detailed explorations in natural diction, such as 50 pieces of Falling Blossoms. According to Wen Zhengming, Shen Zhou “always turned sad or happy upon hearing of the current political situations, which can be understood that he didn’t cut himself from the real world” (Selected Poems of Stone Field, Vol. 25th). His Army Marching is collected in Selected Poems of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 4th, in which it is noted: “such solemn and stirring works by a hermit are left out by all other anthologies.” It can be seen that the loftiness by living in the forests with springs is not the whole of Shen Zhou’s poems. Learning from the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, he was influenced by Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Su Dongpo and Lu You. Selected Poems of Stone Field has the category of “current affairs”, which covers a wide range, from the government administration to social customs. There are also the epic poem of Reviews on Memorial on Sending Out the Troops (Selected Poems of Stone Field, Vol. 5th), which is full of passion. These poems have rising and falling in cadence, 34

Shen Zhou: Selected Poems of Stone Field, Vol. 1st, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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which is consistent with his free and easy style, such as Worshiping the Statue of Marshal Yue (Selected Poems of Stone Field, Vol. 8th). Shen Zhou’s views on politics and history were sometimes very naive. For example, in Rain Mocking (Selected Poems of Stone Field, Vol. 1st), Wang Anshi and Jia Sidao were compared as “murderers”. His relative Zhu Yunming (Yunhong, the eldest son of Shen Zhou was his brother-in-law) wrote an article On Wang Anshi in the History of the Song Dynasty (Collection of Huaxing Hall, Vol. 1st). It not only holds the same opinion as Shen Zhou, but also holds that it was unfair for Qin Hui and Jia Sidao to be killed while Wang Anshi stayed alive. This obviously shows Shen Zhou’s wrong viewpoint. Besides Shen Zhou, Tang Yin was the most talented and most famous scholar in the south part of the Yangtze River. Tang Yin (1470–1523), style name Bohu and later changed into Ziwei, was born in Wu county. He got first place in the Tianfu (Nanjing) provincial examination in Hongzhi 11th year (1498), known as Scholar Tang. During the capital examination, he was sent to prison for being involved in the cheating case of a rich examinee and was demoted to a clerk. He resigned and returned home. Prince Ning tried to attract the world’s famous talents and hired him by paying him a lot of money. Upon discovering Prince Ning’s rebellious plan, he pretended to be crazy and indulged himself in alcohol. Finally, Prince Ning was forced to release him. In his early years, Tang Yin considered himself to be an ancient hero and despised the imperial examination. However, he hoped to make some achievements after the provincial examination. Being wronged during the capital examination, his suffered a heavy blow.35 In To Wen Weiming, he described himself as being “severely torn up” at that time. The setback of the imperial examination made him quickly turn to a relaxed life which was irrelevant to fame and wealth. From then on, he stopped his pursuit of an official career and converted to Buddhism, giving himself a name Six Illusions, but his converting to Buddhism was just by name and his real attitude towards life was to act in a straightforward manner. As he said in his Sentiments (Complete Works of Tang Bohu, Vol. 2nd): “No alchemy, no meditation, eating when hungry, sleeping when tired. Career is poetry and painting, among blossoms and willows I am hanging. Aging with spring as seen in the mirror, enjoying the moon as the couple are before the lamp. Happily drinking and idling, a life of earthly immortal as I am having.” In the peach blossom garden he built, he indulged in drinking all day, half awake and half drunk. He wrote the Song of Peach Blossom Cottage (Complete Works of Tang Bohu, Vol. 1st), claiming himself as “Peach Blossom Fairy”. He also compared himself to Li Bai and said, “As Li Bai the poet good at drinking. I have a hundred cups of liquor and a thousand poems in competing.” “No embarking on royal boat, no resting in the capital for the night. Outside the city of Gusu, I have thousands of trees and peach blossoms in sight” (Toasts to the Moon, Complete Works of Tang Bohu, Vol. 2nd). Such a life attitude can not be tolerated by orthodoxy. The fact that there is no collection of Tang Yin’s poems and essays in the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature is a conclusive proof.

35

Tang Yin: Complete Works of Tang Bohu, Vol. 5th, China Bookstore, 1985.

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Tang Yin’s poems in his early years were rather elegant. After his failure during the imperial examination, his personality turned wild and unruly, and his poetic style changed to unrestrained and vulgar. Wang Shizhen ridiculed Tang Yin’s poem “just like a beggar sings the falling of lotus flower”,36 Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 32nd by Zhu Yizun lists eight “elegant” quatrains inscribed on paintings to defend them. In fact, their aesthetic vision is limited to tradition, which illustrates the uniqueness of Tang Yin’s poetry from two aspects. In comparison, Tang Yin’s creativity can be better expressed in his poems of “lotus falling”, such as Sighs of the World (Complete Works of Tang Bohu, Vol. 2nd): No need to pursue wealth and prosperity, shame on you if you fail sadly, Stretch your foot when you could, retract your head when compelled. Land remaining, children are leaving. All the Heaven’s intention, nothing to concern. Among works from the ancient literati, such a poetic style is really unique. Tao Qian’s luxury, Li Bai’s clear water hibiscus, and even Bai Juyi’s allegorical colloquial poems are still elegant. However, Tang Yin brought the “plain vulgarity” to the extreme, and they had gone to the opposite side of traditional aesthetics in poetry. The combination of “lotus flower falling” style and the details of indignation towards society is exactly what Tang Yin achieved in his later poetry style. Different from this, Tang Yin’s ancient poems are obviously influenced by Moonlit Night on Spring River and Lamenting on the White-haired Man in the early Tang Dynasty. In the same unrestrained style, Tang Yin’s song verse also has an easy flow with clear and bright artistic images. As a representative of this style, such as Song of Peach Blossom Cottage and Toasts to the Moon mentioned above, as well as Drinking in Blossoms (Complete Works of Tang Bohu, Vol. 1st), his poems have the clear and beautiful feature of song verse in the early Tang Dynasty, but the charm of the combination of madness with sadness can be comparable to Li Bai’s works. Zhu Yunming (1460–1526), style name and pseudonym Zhishan, was a native of Changzhou. He passed the provincial examination in 1492. After many times of failure in the capital imperial examinations, he was appointed as the magistrate of Xingning County in Guangdong Province. Later, he was transferred to the capital city (Nanjing) as a judge but he retired from the position immediately. He and Tang Yin were intimate friends. Their similar experiences in the imperial examination connected them by sharing similar attitudes towards life. They were both unrestrained and uninhibited. Gu Lin, a poet of the time, said that he “played with the world, set himself free, and was afraid to approach Confucian rites and rules” (Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties, C. Original). He was not only fond of alcohol, but also fond of prostitutes. He spent all his money, leaving no money to bury himself after his death. Shen Zhou and Tang Yin were known for their paintings, and Zhu Yunming was the master of calligraphy. He had the Collection of Huaixing Hall, with poems rich 36

Please refer to Various Genres of Writings, Vol. 438th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature.

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in content, fresh and clear in style and different from common works. Idle Autumn Days is an example: Getting away to shut myself down, no need to have the ancients to look upon. Tossing the cup and spoon for laziness, a few writings not hindering the idleness. To the temple yard leaves are blown, clouds open revealing the opposite mountain. Easy life as seclusion is believed, a harsher living it is than the secular world.37 Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), style name Zhenzhong, was born in Changzhou. He had Collection of Fu Tian. As far as poetry is concerned, he was below the abovementioned people in terms of talent and achievement. However, due to his 90 years of age, after the death of Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming, he took lead of Wuzhong’s elegant style for more than 30 years with his integrity. He didn’t go to the capital for the interview of a position as a candidate until the age of 40, and he became a clerk in Hanlin Academy. However, he was not happy with it, so he returned to his hometown three years later. In his Upon Leaving the Capital (Collection of Fu Tian, Vol. 11th) there are such sentences as “tired and lonely with sickness” and “green bamboo and yellow flowers live up to my wishes”, which showed his disappointment with the official career pursuit and his yearning for the countryside. He build a “Yupan Mountain house” to live in. His disposition was pure and lofty, never reaching out for dignitaries. When Prince Ning recruited Tang Yin, he also tried to recruit him, but he declined his offer. Wen Zhengming was very different from Tang and Zhu’s wildness. He was gentle and strict. According to Ancient and Modern Poetic Stories, Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming hid prostitutes in the boat and invited Wen Zhengming to travel with them. When he found it out, he wanted to throw himself into the water, and Tang and Zhu had to send him away. Wen Zhengming’s poems are gentle, tranquil, elegant, and they also have the openness of the other Wuzhong scholars. After the Snow is an example: The crystal chilly day starts with the whistling sound, the snow in the yard cleared overnight. The bony old tree stands at the wall in the west, the sad eyes behind the window turned bright. A fisherman’s cape is appealing, wondering how it could be poetically inspiring, The remaining southern plum will be exhausted, the spring water is deep in front of the gate.38

37

Zhu Yunming: Collection of Huaixing Hall, Vol. 6th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 38 Wen Zhengming: Collection of Fu Tian, Vol. 1st, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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6.5 The First Anti-retro School In the early years of Jiajing, Wang Shenzhong and Tang Shunzhi held high the banner of the eight great masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties and launched a critique of the Seven Scholars. The opposite of the retro school appeared in the literary world. This is the Tang-Song School in the history of literature. Gui Youguang and Mao Kun were also its representatives. This school appeared in time after the Early Seven Scholars and extended to the Latter Seven Scholars. Interestingly, its leader, Wang Tang, used to be a follower of Li Mengyang. Wang Shenzhong (1509–1559), style name Daosi and pseudonym Zuiyan Hermit or South River in his later years, was born in Jinjiang, Fujian Province. In Jiajing 5th year (1526), he was appointed the Principal of the Household Ministry. He went to Henan Province to take office and later resigned to his hometown. He was known, together with Tang Shunzhi, as “Wang Tang”, and “Eight Talents Jiajing” with Tang Shunzhi, Chen Shu, Li Kaixian, Xiong Guo, Ren Han, Zhao Shichun and Lv Gao. He had Collection of Zunyan. Tang Shunzhi (1507–1560), style name Yingde, Yixiu and Mr. Jinchuan, was born in Wujin (now Changzhou, Jiangsu Province). He became Jinshi in Jiajing 8th year (1529), and was appointed principal in the Ministry of Military and Ministry of Personnel, till later he became grand coordinator in Fengyang. He had Collection of Jingchuan. Mao Kun (1512–1601), style name Yingde and pseudonym Deer Gate, was born in Gui’an (now Wuxing, Zhejiang Province). In Jiajing 17th year, he was appointed magistrate of Qingyang county, the assistant general of Daming and later was impeached and dismissed. Gui Youguang (1506–1571), style name Xifu and pseudonym Zhenchuan, was from Kunshan. At the age of 19, he failed successively in eight examinations. In Jiajing 44th year (1565), he was appointed as a magistrate of the county and later the minister of 6th rank in Taipu Temple. He died of overwork. He had Collection of Zhenchuan. In his early years, Wang Shenzhong followed the Early Seven Scholars and thought that there was no merits in the writings after the Qin and Han Dynasties, and nothing worth attention except the poetry during the prosperous Tang Dynasty.39 Later, he learned from Ou (yang Xiu) and Zeng (Gong) and was enlightened. He burned his old works and tried to learn from them. According to Li Kaixian’s The Imperial History of the Tang Capital by Jingchuan, Tang Shunzhi learned from Li Mengyang at the beginning, and then changed his ways under the Guidance of Wang Shenzhong. His writings turned to be different ever since. According to the biographies of Wang Shenzhong and Mao Kun in Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties (D). Original, Wang Shenzhong once said to Li Kaixian with pride: you admire Jingchuan (Tang Shunzhi) only, but you don’t know that he is my follower. Mao Kun also admired Tang Shunzhi, ranking him as the top scholar. However, Selected Works of the Eight 39

For details, please refer to the biography of Wang Shenzhong from History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 287th and Collection of Zunyan, such as Upon Sending Poems to Liu Baichuan, Upon Sending Poems to Sheng Zimu, Upon Sending the Book to Brother Qidao 7th. All quotations in this section of Tang-Song School are from the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library unless otherwise noted.

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Talents from the Tang and Song Dynasties compiled by Tang Shunzhi included the writings of the eight great writers from the Qin and Han Dynasties, in addition to those from the Tang and Song Dynasties, and Mao Kun’s Selected Works of the Eight Talents from the Tang and Song Dynasties excluded the Qin and Han writings. It can be seen that the Tang-Song School are increasingly cautious in their development, rather than always being open to the works from the Qin and Han Dynasties. The Tang-Song School criticized the Early and Latter Seven Scholars with a mocking tone. Tang Shunzhi said in the Preface to the Collection of Assistant Minister Dong Zhongfeng that the retro school thought that the writings of Qin and Han Dynasties were their own styles, without knowing that they were “the sound of rotten wood and wet drum”.40 Mao Kun, in his Preface to the Selected Works of the Eight Talents from the Tang and Song Dynasties, said that Li Mengyang’s writings were no more than “being clumsy and plagiarizing each other”. The most sever criticism of the retro school came from Gui Youguang, a representative of the late Tang- Song School, though he had a good personal relationship with Wang Shizhen. The Preface to Collected Works of Xiang Siyao (Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 2nd) criticizes Wang Shizhen for “claiming to learn from the ancients, it is just to take one or two arrogant mediocre people as the masters to follow, so as to slander all predecessors”. It is said that Wang Shizhen heard it and said, “It is true that some were arrogant ancients, but none I can take as being mediocre.” Gui Youguang immediately counterattacked: “Arrogance goes with mediocrity, as is the common rule with no exception.”41 In terms of theory and creation, Wang Shenzhong and Tang Shunzhi were the representatives of the Tang-Song School in the early stage and Gui Youguang in the later period. Although Mao Kun had many works, he was not quite so achieving. His Selected Works of the Eight Talents from the Tang and Song Dynasties set up a new idol different from the Seven Scholars. In fact, as early as the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu You, a scholar in eastern Zhejiang, compiled the Collection of the Eight Masters by collecting the works of Han, Liu, Ouyang, Zeng, Wang and the three Sus. This book was lost, and the name of the eight great masters in Tang and Song Dynasties should be derived from it. It seems to be the same as the Seven Scholars’ patriarchal system of Qin, Han and prosperous Tang. So, as the opposite of the retro school, what are the characteristics of the Tang-Song School’s repeated ancient theory, and what are the differences between them and the Early and the Latter Seven Scholars? This can be studied from the following three perspectives. In theory, the Tang-Song School not only inherited the positive side of the Tang and the Song ancient writers, but also inherited the negative side of imprisoning human nature from the Neo-Confucians of the Song Dynasty. As far as this is concerned, the Seven Scholars’ advocacy of the Qin and Han Dynasties or the prosperous Tang 40 For details, please refer to Various Genres of Writings, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 41 For details, please refer to Qian Qianyi’s biographies of Gui Youguang in Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties D. Original, Shanghai Classical Literature Publishing House, 1957, p. 559.

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Dynasty did not have such a clear sense of idea conveyance. They did not pay attention to and express the reality, but they were mainly stimulated by their own feelings of society. On the positive side, Tang Shunzhi said that “the first thing is to master the classics and understand worldly affairs” and “the learning of the world should be applied to the world” (With Mo Ziliang in Collection of Jingchuan, Vol. 4th). He said that “self inspection” and “remorse” were not as timely as learning Tao (idem.), and repeatedly talked about the experience of the Six Classics (idem.) and that “the heart cannot be separated from the classics, just as the classics cannot be without the heart” (idem.). To Minister Huang Shitan in the same volume says that “it is better to play divination than learning a poem every day”. All of these show the self-consciousness of requiring the writers to undertake social responsibilities. Tang Shunzhi had made contributions to the war against Japanese pirates as a Chief Guard in the Ministry of Military. Mao Kun also planned Anti Japanese actions for Hu Zongxian, the governor of Zhejiang Province. Gui Youguang was an official and devoted himself to the administration. It can be seen that the advocacy of “Tao” in the Tang and Song Dynasties were not empty words, but practiced by themselves directly which had a certain significance under the social background at that time. In terms of writing, the Tang-Song School inherited the fine tradition of paying equal attention to diction and thoughts of the ancient writers in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Tang Shunzhi believed that “if one can write literary works, it means one has established views” (With Mo Ziliang). Wang Shenzhong also expressed a similar view On the Maritime Anecdotes (Collection of Zunyan, Vol. 9th). Gui Youguang said that “the great writers always expressed compassion for the times and worries about the world” (Preface to Mr. Shen Cigu’s Poems in Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 2nd). He put forward the proposition, in a more definitive way than Wangand Tang, that ideas should be prior to the writings.42 The adherence to Shao Yong and Zen Gong is a reflection of the negative theory in literature from the Tang-Song School. Tang Shunzhi held that “the writings of less than three generations are below those of Nanfeng (Zeng Gong); the poems of less than three generations are below those of Kangjie (Shao Yong)”.43 On the rise of the anti-Neo Confucianism progressive thought, represented by Wang Yangming and Li Zhi, the Tang-Song School was still under the influence of thought-binding Neo Confucianism. Gui Youguang’s prose not only highly praises loyalty, filial piety and martyrs, but also expresses human feelings, wandering between Taoism and human nature, reflecting the contradiction between the theory and creation of the Tang-Song School, which prevented them from carrying out anti-retro ideas. It is another fulcrum of the Tang-Song School literary theory to advocate writing “true nature” and “spirit”. Tang Shunzhi explained the basic content of the theory of true nature in his To Principal Mao Lumen (Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 4th). What 42 It is said in his On Giving the Style Names for Chuan’s Two Sons in Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 3rd: “The virtue of truth is more than the beauty of literature, the virtue of sincerity is more than glamorous words; the thoughts of the author is more important than the writing skills. With thought, there is no limit in writing”. 43 For details, please refer to In Office with Wang Zunyan in Writings of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 16th.

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is true nature? He mainly put forward two standards: first, “express one’s feelings directly and write freely, just like writing letters home”. In To Hong Fangzhou, he used another expression “like opening ones mouth to show the throat”.44 This is a very popular proverb to illustrate. Second, there should be “the true spirit and a steadfast view”, or it will be inferior even if it is a wonderful piece of writing. Wang Shenzhong and Gui Youguang also put forward the theory of “spirit”.45 Like the theory of nature, he advocated the creation of “being independent” and “individualized expression”. Both the theory of nature and the theory of spirit are targeted at the simulation of the retro school, a breakthrough from their worship of idols and servility, manifesting the extreme valuable spirit of independence. It was very enlightening at that time. In the pursuit of creativity, the Tang-Song School was obviously at a much higher level than the Former and the Latter Seven Scholars, which is why they became the facade of the retro school and distinguished from it. Third, the Tang-Song School pursued truth and independent thought, and maintained rules at the same time. However, the “rules” they advocated were totally different from the rigid simulation of the literary format of the retro school. Tang Shunzhi admitted that “there must be rules in literature” and demanded that “out of nature” should be taken as rule.46 However, Gui Youguang said that “All writings have their own origins, which are from the mind and not supposed to be arranged” (With Shen Jingfu in Additional Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 7th). Although such a theory was not originally created by the Tang-Song School, they repeatedly emphasized this point, which is undoubtedly a refreshing proposal to the prevailing archaism. Due to the distance between theory and practice, in literary creation, the overall achievements of the Tang-Song School did not necessarily surpass those of the Seven Scholars. Poetry, in particular, may have never gotten rid of the stereotype of simulation. The literary creation of the Tang-Song School is mainly composed of prose, which gives the impression that it has no value in practicing its tenet of Taoism. What had been widely circulating were the fresh and fluent works that expressed their feelings directly. The Gong’an school also expressed the appreciation for such works of the Tang-Song School. For example, Yuan Zongdao said some current writing, such as those by Tang Shunzhi and Wang Shenzhong, were acceptable, and and Collection of Zhenchuan by Gui Youguang was also good. It would be a pleasure if all the works could be collected and a selected work be compiled, together with his own works, which can be the model for later poetry (Reply to Tao Shijie in Baisu Study Literary Categorizations, Vol. 16th). Yuan Hongdao also said that among the contemporary 44

For details, please refer to Various Genres of Writings, Vol. 264th. Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 45 It is said in Preface to Seeing the Poet Shen Qingmen in Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 11th, “if a poet is single, he has the ability to trigger the spirit of nature, as he is free of worldly material restraint.” Preface to Mr. Shen Cigu’s Poems in Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 2nd says that “The works of a poet are not based on the diction, but by his spirit, which is also a significant realm”. 46 Preface to the Collection of Assistant Minister Dong Zhongfeng in Various Genres of Writings, Vol. 38th “Writings must follow rules. If all are out of nature with no changes, they can not be distinguished”.

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literati, Tang Shunzhi, who was rejected by the Latter Seven Scholars, had brilliant insight and was far ahead of all other literati; Gui Youguang, though not archaic, had his own individuality and was open in his writings (Manuscript Consultation with Jiang and Lu in Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang). The Gong’an school appreciated the Tang-Song School based on the common ground of opposing the Seven Scholars’ plagiarism, and the works they appreciated were the practice of this idea. As an early writer of the Tang-Song School, Wang Shenzhong’s prose is characterized by its elegant and complicated writing style. As poems are highlighted by some sentences, Wang Shenzhong’s prose often has wonderful paragraphs in one work. For example, Preface to Bo Zhi’s Resignation (Collection of Zunyan, Vol. 10th) expressions of his opinion when Cheng Longfeng was dismissed by the imperial court under the excuse of his being ill in Jiajing 23rd year (1544). The paper repeatedly demonstrates the absurdity of deposing him with make believe excuses, and the language is difficult to understand, such as “the ancient constitutions are old but did not mind begging for advice”, “they suffered from choking on chunks of meat” and “cultivate the tools of supporting and taking care of them”. The last paragraph, however, expresses the grievance in plain language: “You are leaving, gathering what you have learned, to teach the children of your hometown. Walking in the mountains and rivers, walking lightly, enjoying your meal, and be happy. If the guest is surprised and asks, ‘So you are not sick?’ Your answer should be ‘The old disease is getting worse now,’ Is it Ok?” His Memoirs on Subduing the Pirates (Collection of Zunyan, Vol. 8th) begins with boldness in outlining the heroic figure of Yu Dayou, a famous Anti Japanese general, by means of contrast. He was good at capturing vivid details to shape the characters, which was appealing to the readers. Unfortunately, the writing is still difficult. Tang Shunzhi followed Wang Shenzhong, but he was able to change his writing from being complicated to being bold, from being difficult to being easy. He practiced his own idea of expressing his own feelings directly and out of nature. His masterpieces are Bamboo Creek Notes of Ren Guanglu (Collection of Jingchuan, Vol. 8th) and (To Principal Mao Lumen, Vol. 4th). Although he advocated “opening the mouth to show the throat”, he did not always get to the point and go straight to the theme in his writings. As in the previous article, bamboo was used to describe people, admiring the lofty scholars. In the beginning, the author used an analogy to describe the different attitudes towards bamboo between the rich in Beijing and the people in the south of the Yangtze River, and further inferred that the people who were not from the bamboo area will surely be laughed at by those from the south of the Yangtze River. It seems an old saying will be followed that a local product will be treasured when it is away from where it belongs, but the author said the opposite: “Bamboo can be expensive without going out of the south of the Yangtze River !” This view is not immediately put forward. With fresh and simple touches, the southerner Ren Guanglu who loved bamboo, felt the relaxed attitude toward life on bamboo, which led to a discussion: since ancient times, few people had loved bamboo, as it was not as ingenious as stone nor as gorgeous as flowers, just like a “lonely and stubborn man who can not be reconciled with the world”. Therefore, the

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rich in Beijing favored bamboo just for the purpose of competing wealth, which was the same reason that people in the south of the Yangtze River didn’t value bamboo. Finally, bamboo blended with human nature and the theme was fully explored. The whole text is fluent, simple and elegant. It is a rare good article by the Tang-Song School. It is Gui Youguang’s prose that really makes Tang Song school’s creation unique. This kind of prose does not account for the majority of Gui Youguang’s articles, but he won more with less, which established his position as an excellent essayist. He was good at expressing human relations and family ties, and his language is concise and simple. Among them, the beauty of human nature and scenery make these articles unique, and the description of details is vivid and dynamic, which shows the author’s profound skill in the art of line drawing. A few examples can be cited in Anecdotes of My Parents (Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 25th): “On May 23th, Zhengde 8th year, a woman died. When the children saw their family members weeping, they began to cry. However, they thought that their mother was asleep, truly sad… The woman was from Wu’s Bridge, a place where people don’t have to worry about food…but she was hardworking, picking the charcoal chips to make fire in winter, working as a maid servant and falling on the steps. There was no disorder in the house and no idle people at home. Holding the older children by her hands and carrying the baby in her arms, she was still knitting all the time. Wu’s Bridge produces fish, crabs and cake, and the people there are well-fed. My family is happy to see them.” The relationship between human beings and the industrious image of the ancient woman are quite moving in the author’s simple style of writing. Gui Youguang’s sentimental prose is often reminiscent. Therefore, whether the story is pleasant or sad, it is full of sadness and melancholy, touching the softest spot of people’s hearts. After all, it is the common feeling of mankind to miss the good old days. What makes Gui Youguang more different is his openness in writing love: Records of Xiang Ji Loft: five years after this record was written, my wife came back and asked me about what happened before or how I studied here. When my wife returned to Ning, her younger sister asked, “I heard that there is a garret in your house? what is a garret?” My wife died and my house was broken There is a loquat tree in the court. They were planted by my wife in the year of her death. Now it has grown like a pavilion. (Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 17th) Mourning for the Chilly Blossom: The maid servant came with my wife Wei since after her marriage. She died on May 4th in 1537 and was buried in Xuqiu. I feel so sad for her miserable destiny! She was ten years old when she first came, with two hair strands hanging on each side of her face and was dressed in dark green. On one cold day, the maid was cooking the water chestnuts. I came from outside to get some, she wouldn’t give them to me. My wife laughed. Every time when she was eating, as my wife asked her to, her eyes were moving in the way that my wife found to be quite amusing. When I am thinking about it, it has been ten years since she passed away! How pathetic! (Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 22nd)

For the Taoist view advocated by the Tang-Song School, the honest expression of affection is undoubtedly a deviation. Gui Youguang didn’t suppress his true feelings with hypocritical Taoism. His writings served for Taoism and imperial examination,

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as well as his manifestation of true love for women. Wang Shenzhong said: “If Taoists have the innermost emotion that can’t help being expressed in writing, this writing would be the best” (Preface to Chen Shaohua’s Poetry Anthology, Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 9th). Gui Youguang’s articles have reached the level as advocated by Wang Shenzhong, and have developed the creation of kinship prose opened up by Han Yu’s Sacrificing 12th Nephew. Compared with prose, the poetry creation of the Tang-Song School was obviously a failure. Simulation is no less than the Seven Scholars, while achievement is not. For example, Gui Youguang’s Touring on White River (Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 10th): “when the yellow sand is blown over the frontier, March flowers in Chang’an disappear. Remembering the beautiful scenery of my hometown, cherries would be ripening upon my return.” As we can see, the first half is from Ouyang Xiu’s Reply to Yuanzhen in Fun, and the second half is from Du Fu’s Meeting Li Guinian in the South of the Yangtze River. Another example is Tang Shunzhi’s On Way to Guangde (Collection of Zhenchuan, Vol. 1st). Among the mountains is the smoke from cooking, on old trees thatched cottages are perching. Vine fig invaded the stone path in drizzling, autumn rice covered the fields of the mountain. Shadows are far away from the clouds, hidden springs are heard from the grass. Qin people met might be a stranger, thinking you wrongly got by Wuling River. The scenery in the first couplet is reminiscent of Tao’s poems. Although the thatched cottage depicts the height of the mountain more appropriately at the top of the tree, it is not as natural as Tao Yuanming’s “crowing from mulberry tree top”. At the end of the article, the allusions in the Peach-Blossom Source are used to echo the first two sentences. The two couplets are very unskillful in imitation of Tang poetry, and the tone and the sentiment of images are not integrated with the beginning nor the end. The whole poem is like clip art, which is only an example of the lack of individuality in Tang- Song School poetry.

Chapter 7

The Retro and Anti-Retro Trends in the Literature of the Late Ming Dynasty

Poetry and prose continued to develop during the rise and fall of the retro and antiretro trends in the late Ming Dynasty. The Latter Seven Scholars echoed the Early Seven Scholars, and re-planted their flag of retro. The Gong’an School advocated the modern style and spirituality to crack down the retro trend of the Seven Scholars. The Jingling School opposed both the Latter Seven Scholars as well as the Gong’an School and found a new way out of the two. Although the Gong’an School and Jingling Schools were against the Seven Scholars revivalism, they did not totally deny learning from the ancients. On the other hand, both schools advocated the expression of spirituality, there are substantial differences in the common views they advocated. Responding to the trend of philosophy of the times, the struggle between retro and anti-retro in the literary world of the late Ming Dynasty was also the expression of the struggle between literature and Neo Confucianism and the pursuit of a relaxed leisure style. Not all writers belonged to the two camps of retro and anti-retro. Li Zhi, who advocated the theory of childlike innocence, showed his unique personality with his distinctive style of poetry and prose creation; Xu Wei, Tang Xianzu and Zhang Fengyi also viewed these trends with a critical eye by giving play to their individualities. Their existence undoubtedly enriched the literary world in the late Ming Dynasty.

7.1 The Retro Flag Planted by the Latter Seven Scholars In the decades after the Early Seven Scholars, the Latter Seven Scholars, led by Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen, staged the literary arena and then planted the flag of retro. According to the Biography of Li Panlong. History of the Ming Dynasty, it is held that the best writings are from the Tang Capital, and the poetry after the Tianbao years (Tang period) are not worth reading. In his time, Li Mengyang is the most © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_7

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recommendable, which was agreed by everyone. If not, they would be put down as Song School followers. Panlong was the most talented and most prized, who favored Wang Shizhen. They were equally ranked with the title of Wang-Li (History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 287th). This is only a general statement about the formation of the Latter Seven Scholars. The real situation is not so simple. In the Mid-Autumn Festival of 1549 (Jiajing 28th year) in Beijing, Li Panlong, Wang Shizhen and Xie Zhen met for the first time.1 Till Wang Shizhen died in 1590 (Wanli 18th year), the Latter Seven Scholars 40-year activities in the literature of the late Ming Dynasty went to that end. The formation and evolution of this school, as well as their retro literary ideas and creation turned out to be a crucial issue in the literary history of the late Ming Dynasty. First of all, we should find out the origin and development of the Latter Seven Scholars as a literary school. Li Panlong became Jinshi in Jiajing 23rd year (1544). Wang Shizhen followed three years after. Xie Zhen, as a hermit, had free access to the homes of noble officials. At the first meeting of the three in 1549, Xie Zhen was 55, Li Panlong was 36 and Wang Shizhen was 24. In the second year (1550), Xu Zhongxing, Wu Guolun, Zong Chen and Liang Youyu became Jinshi at the same time. The following three years were times when the Latter Seven Scholars had their most frequent gatherings. Everyone had a poem about the gatherings at that time.2 However, the Latter Seven Scholars did not form and maintain their bond from their first meeting. In Jiajing 31st year (1552), Li Panlong wrote On Five Talents, which refers to Xie, Wang, Xu, Zong and Liang. Later, they all had their own responsive poems, with each of their own poems excluded. Li Panlong initiated it and did not list his own name. They were actually six talents, plus Wu Guolun, making seven in total. However, Li and Xie had a dispute in the following year and Wang Shizhen revised Five Talents Poems to exclude Xie Zhen and replaced him with Wu Guolun, with the name order as Li Panlong, Xu Zhongxing, Liang Youyu, Wu Guolun and Zong Chen. Wang Shizhen said: “Li Panlong initiated this series of five talents’ poems, which were to record the friendships between friends. Next year I will finish my work, return to the north, and Li Panlong will stay in Shunde. Remove Qaoqin and add Wu Mingqing.”3 Li’s Five Talents Poems in the Cangming Collection, Vol. 4th, the name order is Wang, Wu, Zong, Xu and Liang; in Wu’s Five Talents Poems and Yu’s Writings from Manuscripts of Pottery Vase Cave, Vol. 5th, the order is Li, Wang, Zong, Xu and Liang; Five Talents Poems in the Zong Zixiang Collection, Vol. 1

Collection of Xie Zhen: “on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Yiyou year, Li zhenglang’s son Zhu Yan, the Li Yuling, Wang Yuanmei enjoyed the full moon together with me. Talking about poetry, we went into detail with an open mind” Qi Lu Press, 2000, p. 756. 2 In Wang Shizhen’s Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, there are poems such as Gathering On Jan. 7th in Vol. 3rd, Gathering On Jan. 14th in Vol. 23rd, Gathering in Sickness in Vol. 2nd. In Tianmu Mountain, Vol. 4th by Xu Zhongxing, he had the January 7th Gathering, January 14th Gathering, January 3rd Gathering. In Cangming Collection, Vol. 1st by Li Panlong, he had Meeting On January 7th. 3 Artistic Expressions in Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 15th, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. Unless otherwise noted, all the quoted poems in this section are from this version.

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4th, the names are in the order of Xie, Li, Xu, Liang and Wang; Five Talents Poems in Lanting Manuscript, Vol. 1st by Liang Youyu put the order as Xie, Li, Xu, Zong and Wang. Zonghuan and Liang Youyu left Beijing early, and then died early. Their Five Talents Poems were not changed, in which Xie Zhen was found but not Wu Guolun. Wang and Li both changed their works by replacing Xie with Wu, which was easy to see. The fact that Xie Zhen’s name was replaced was not only due to his humble status, but also his differences from the others in theory. Xie Zhen and others were well-known at the beginning of the poem collection. In fact, they were the central figures of the Latter Seven Scholars, that is to say, “occupying a leading position as the commons” in the Stories of Poems in All Dynasties. D, Part I. The other six were young and had newly become Jinshi. Xie Zhen was at the same rank with his younger generation Jinshi, which was taken as condescension. He made friends with the new nobles as an unsung pilgrim, which was also a kind of lofty ambition. The great difference of status makes their communication difficult to be consistent. Wang Shizhen was the youngest and the most important among the six new Jinshi of the Latter Seven Scholars. It was mostly due to his high profile.4 Another important reason is that between the theoretical difference between Xie Zhen and Li Panlong, Wang Shizhen was obviously a supporter of Li Panlong. Xie Zhen expounded his unique secrecy of poetry creation in the book Open Views on Poetry, Vol. 3rd, which was actually the program of the retro theory of the Latter Seven Scholars: When visiting Beijing, Li Yuyu, Wang Yuanmei, Xu Zihe, Liang Gongshi and Zong Zixiang were invited to form a group to write poems. When talking about the twelve poetry collections of the early and prosperous Tang Dynasty, as well as poetic styles of Li and Du, they were wondering who can serve as the model? Shen, Song, Li, Du, or Wang Meng? After a period of silence, I said, “the work of the fourteenth poets can all be models. We can select the best few and put them together as one. Reading it to capture the spirit, singing it for the sake of tone, and tasting it to get its essence. These are the three major issues when taking the first steps in writing. There is no need to dance to ancient tunes. The key issue is to master the common rule…” Everyone laughed and agreed.5 This so-called retro program shows the nature of learning from multiple schools by widely inheriting the strength of the predecessors’ poems, and emphasizing that imitation is not its orientation, but what it missed is the fundamental characteristics of Du’s poems, which is the inseparable connection between poetry and reality. To Xie Zhen’s view, though “all laughed and agreed”, actually the difference between him and Li Panlong already showed up at the time, similar to the difference between Li Mengyang and He Jingming among the Early Seven Scholars, were mainly the differences on the retro method. Xie Zhen’s “there is no need to dance to ancient 4

Wang Shizhen’s grandfather was appointed as Right Secretary of the Ministry of Military. His father won many battles against Mongolian invaders. He was recognized by the emperor and promoted from Imperial Censor to Minister of Governors within three or five years. Wu Guolun became Jinshi while working under his father, and Li Panlong was also favored by his father. 5 Collection of Xie Zhen, p. 762.

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tunes” is the flexible use of the ancient model. Li Panlong maintained that to strictly abide by the rules of the Western Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty will lead to a dead end. Li Panlong himself did not have much theoretical elaboration, but in his Biography of Mr. Li Yuling,6 Wang Shizhen viewed him as “wishing to be an ancient writer.” In Artistic Expressions from Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 15th, it is said that his article, “not a single word written is from after the Han Dynasty”, and and Yuefu was “exquisite in every single word. By comparison, his writing was no other than copying”. Though Wang Shizhen highly praised Li Panlong, he also pointed out his shortcomings, which were deeply rooted in his rigid learning. Not only Li Panlong, but others also had this problem. There is nothing wrong with following the poetry of the prosperous Tang Dynasty represented by Li and Du. However, the defects of the Latter Seven Scholars are: first, they replaced creation with imitation; second, they have a narrow vision by excluding the poets of the middle and late Tang Dynasty, as well as the two Song Dynasties. Wang Shizhen’s targets of learning was not only in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but also Su Shi.7 In addition, some of his masterpieces in the transformed Yuefu poems were more a creative work on than imitation.He still said in Artistic Expressions: “Li Xianji (Mengyang) advised people not to read post Tang literature. I first took it as being too narrow-minded but now I believe it.” “In poem writing, no use of the words of the Six Dynasties, no use of the events after Dali year (766–779). This is the taboo in poem writing. Be careful, be careful.” “Works after Zhenyuan year (785—805) are not really of much value.” Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 144th. In fact, it is not wrong for the world to list Xie Zhen as a Latter Seven Scholar. No matter how different he was from other people, he was consistent in the direction of retro. In addition, Xie Zhen’s name was removed in Jiajing the 32nd year. The Latter Seven Scholars, as a literary school, had frequent activities before that year in Beijing. Soon after, they split by going in all directions and even the short-term meetings of two or three of them were not common. It was not important whether Xie Zhen’s name was removed or not. After Xie Zhen’s name was removed, Li Panlong had been the leader of the Latter Seven Scholars for nearly 20 years, during which Wang Shizhen was ranked equally with him and they were known as “Wang-Li”. After the death of Li Panlong (1570), Wang Shizhen took lead in the literary world till 1590 (Wanli 18th year). According to the History of the Ming Dynasty, “Wang Shizhen and Li Panlong became intimate. After the death of Panlong, Wang Shizhen was the lead for 20 years, by being the most authoritative and most prominent. He enjoyed the popularity and admiration from all over the country. The scholar officials, the hermits, free lancers, monks and Taoist all came to him to visit. He got profuse praise” (History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 287th). Qian Qianyi’s Stories of Poems in All Dynasties D, Part I) has similar records.

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See the appendix of Cangming Collection, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 7 For details, refer to In Reading Su Shi’s Poems from Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 15th.

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The above is the basic track of the formation and evolution of the Latter Seven Scholars as the most influential group in the literary world of the late Ming Dynasty. The next issue is that as a school that advocated retro, the Latter Seven Scholars did not have any additional innovative theory than that of the Early Seven Scholars and did not achieve much in their creations. How did they become popular? This is difficult to explain from literary creation itself, but rather from their political activities. The first influential social activity of the Latter Seven Scholars was Xie Zhen’s running to Beijing to save Lu Nan, a student from prison. Lu Nan’s imprisonment is not entirely due to false accusation, but it is also obvious that the county magistrate took advantage of this to vent his personal anger. Owing to Xie Zhen’s help, he got his freedom. He became a famous chivalrous man, and the image of the Latter Seven Scholars in people’s mind also improved. Except for Xie Zhen, the Latter Seven Scholars were all new Jinshi. The status of the new Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty was not high, but they could become candidates for senior officials. Most of them were apprentice officials of various departments. They were idle and familiar with the government administrations. Once there formed small groups in politics or literature, they would be noticeable. If a group of new Jinshi got the sympathy or support of some ministers or some remonstrators when discussing the government, a new faction would appear in the political group. Facts showed that many conflicts among political groups in the Ming Dynasty were related to the activities of the new Jinshi. They often disagreed with the old minister’s political views, and corresponded with the remonstrating officers or the faction not in power. When the Latter Seven Scholars came to the literary world, it was the prime time for the prime minister Yan Song. Wang Shizhen said that they “roamed around the country when chanting, being known as seven scholars or eight scholars, but they were never said to be flaunting. When the Fenyi family was in power, they were highly appreciated for their elegance. It was inevitable that they were envied and slandered.” Artistic Expressions from Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 15th. If the literati didn’t follow the rules, they would be persecuted sooner or later. The formation of the Latter Seven Scholars was due to their dissatisfaction with the common political position of Yan Song’s dictatorship. The relationship between Wang Shizhen’s, father and son, and Yan Song made the conflict more intense. Wang Shizhen’s father, Wang Yin, was recognized by the emperor and was promoted from Imperial Censor to Minister of Governors in a short time. If Wang’s didn’t submit to Yan Song, they would definitely be hated. At first, they seemed to have tried out a way of balance, but when their contradictions worsened, they objected to some of Yan Song’s practices more and more openly.8 Since Wang Shizhen 8

Wang Shizhen had many works involving current affairs, for example: (1) In the 27th year of Jiajing, Zhou Shangwen, the general of Datong, died without getting a pension, as he offended Yan Song even though he had won a lot of battles. Wang Shizhen wrote poems such as General’s Marching West and In Memory of General Zhou to show sympathy for him. (2) Xia Yan, the former prime minister, was Yan Song’s political rival. He was removed from the position in January Jiajing 27th year and was killed in October. Wang Shizhen mentioned this in his poem “from the swallow to the clouds, banishing the frivolous scholars”, which shows that

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came into office, his relationship with Yan Song deteriorated due to their political disagreements. Yang Jisheng and Shen have been killed successively, making the conflict almost irreconcilable. In this way, the members of the Latter Seven Scholars were also regarded by Yan Song as his opposition. Wang Shizhen sent Yu Yunwen a letter saying, “Did Zhongwei know that Wu Mingqing was relegated? Just for talking about the article? Almost all of them were prosecuted. It’s said it all was owed to the servants, who were deeply hated” (Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 127th). Wu Guolun was further relegated to Nankang legal assistant from the interior secretary, and Xu Zhongxing went on to be magistrate of a prefecture in Ting State, and the Minister of the Zong Chen was transferred from the Ministry of Official Personnel Affairs to the Chief Secretary of the Fujian government. Wang Shizhen himself “stayed in the same position for nine years” and was finally appointed Deputy Commissioner of Shandong Province, in charge of the military and security in Qingzhou. For a scholar like Wang Shizhen, it’s just a deliberately difficult job. In Jiajing 38th year (1559), Wang Shizhen’s father, the governor of Jiliao, was arrested and sentenced to death for his misdirection. Although there was a reason, Yan Song could easily rescue him if he wanted to. After his father was sent to prison, Wang Shizhen resigned from the official post of Deputy Commissioner of Shandong, and immediately returned home for the funeral. Wang Shizhen was mostly known for his resistance to Yan Song and criticism to the contemporary dark politics in his works then. What happened to the father and son of Wang’s and to the Latter Seven Scholars during Yan Song’s reign also enhanced the reputation of the Latter Seven Scholars. Political prestige can improve the reputation of the Latter Seven Scholars, but it can not replace the actual achievements of literary creation. The literary creation achievements of the the Latter Seven Scholars were not high in general—of course, the situation was not the same. Some of them made breakthroughs in their imitation style. Li Panlong (1514–1570), style name Yu Lin and pseudonym Cangming, was from Licheng (now Jinan, Shandong Province). In Jiajing 23rd year (1544), with the rank of Jinshi, he was appointed as the Principal of the Ministry of Justice, and was sent to Henan as an inspector. He was the author of Cangming Collection. He advocated he would rather withdraw from politics than mingle with others. Later, there were poems such as The Luxuriant and Song of Drought, which showed the same attitude. (3) In Jiajing 34th year, Zhao Wenhua, the supervisor of Yan Song’s foster son, lied that the invaders were subdued and won the victory. Wang Shizhen wrote a satirical poem Three Shocks. Two years later when Zhao Wenhua was out of office as a common man, Wang Shizhen wrote another Yuefu poem, Hymn of the Minister. (4) Yang Jisheng was killed in Jiajing 34th year for the proposal of impeaching Yan Song. After Yang was sent to prison, Wang Shizhen asked his supervisor Wang Cai to plead with Yan Song that Yang’s wife requested to die on behalf of her husband. The request manuscript was revised by Wang. After Yang’s death, Wang took care of his funeral, which was a fact made open to the public at that time. (5) The royal guard Shen got the penalty of ten strokes of stick and demoted to a farmer in Baoan prefecture for his ten crimes against Yan Song in January of Jiajing 30th year. Wang Shizhen was inspecting the prison in the area and he went to visit Shen to express his sympathy and write the poem A Night Visit to Shen with Zhu, in which he openly defended Shen.The above works were compiled in chronological order, without including some poems aiming at Yan Song and Zhao Wenhua in the Yuefu changes that the author did not want to make public at that time.

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strictly abiding by the ancient model in retro, so he was criticized by Wang Shizhen for “copying”. Among the Latter Seven Scholars his archaism is the most disgusting. His viciousness is so severe that he openly plagiarized by only changing a few words of ancient poems in his writing. In the two poems of Pondering and Mulberry on the Road from his Cangming Collection, Vol. 1st, he changed the sentence “back with complaining, just for watching a sitting beauty.” to “come back and complain, just sit and watch again.” The original “sitting” is not a verb. It seems that the imitator did not get it. In Seeing Zi Xiang Back to Guangling, Vol. 12th: “In autumn rain got on the open Guangling, on horseback went to River Qingfeng. A thousand sails in the setting sun, the snowy mountain coming in a storm.” Although there are some changes, it is obviously a copy of Li Bai’s Farewell to Jingmen. On the other hand, as the leader of the Latter Seven Scholars, Li Panlong did not completely abuse his reputation. His seven-character modern style poetry has always been praised for its sonorous rhyme, but the problem is that it’s annoying to have too many similar phrases and images. In Cangming Collection, Vol. 6th, Reply to Dian Qing has the line “in sorrow to see the beauty in the palm”, in the 3rd volume Peony in the Mountain, Vol. 3rd, “in drunk holding the flower in the palm,” in Seeing off the Secretary to the Capital, Vol. 14th, the line is “hair turns black with new song,” Nine Days, Vol. 9th, “the yellow flower and white hair renewed in sickness.” Each of these sentences has the word “new”, but in fact, none of them has a new meaning. Such poems are not rare in Li Panlong’s works. Wang Shizhen (1526–1590), style name Yuanmei and pseudonym Fengzhou or Shanren, was from Taicang (now Jiangsu). In Jiajing 23rd year (1544), he was a Jinshi, the head of the Ministry of punishment, and the right deputy governor in the years of Wanli. He was the author of Sequels and Four Yanzhou Manuscripts. Wang Shizhen was once as famous as Li Panlong, and after Li Panlong, he took lead for many years. Among the Latter Seven Scholars, he was the most achieved. In terms of poetry, Wang Shizhen imitated Du Fu deliberately. In Poetic Dialogues in Wei Yuan from Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 23rd, “looking at the palace the cloudy west, a fisherman comes from the northern world”, is clearly from the line in Du’s Seeing off Li Jianzhou, “Out of glittering water comes the wavy hair, a fishing boat goes into the waves in the sky”. In Moon Night Visit, the line “lucky to have this writing, for us to come and read by riding” (Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 23rd) was derived from Du’s Guest, “No writing can be so amazing, that people came on horses and carriages for reading”. In this mechanical imitation, even words and sentences are not very coherent. This occurred more in regulated verses. However, Wang Shizhen is not as incurable as Li Panlong as his imitations didn’t account for much in all of his works like Li Panlong; secondly, he did not go so far as Li Panlong to take the ancient works as his own; thirdly, Wang Shizhen’s imitators were not limited to the Tang poets, and he liked Tao Yuanming and Su Shi as well, which was similar to the poems of the Seven Scholars’ retro approach “the pursuit of Tang poetry”. Wang Shizhen’s achievements in poetry creation can be represented by 22 poems of Yuefu Changes, ten of which were included in Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 6th and published in Wanli 4th year. The other twelve poems didn’t come out until

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after his death in Sequels, Vol. 2nd. Some of these poems are clumsy and difficult in language because of their scattered cultural context. Even as prose, they are not as concise and elegant, lacking basic artistry completely. Yuefu Changes has the proposition of true stories, all of which are real characters and current events, with only “Trip of the Virtuous Woman” unrelated to state affairs. Prelude of the Day praises the new policy of the Longqing Administration after Yan Song. The “oldiers” Envoy praises the middle and lower ranked officers who made great contributions to the war against Japan. The White Lotus condemns the scum who colluded with Anda intruders. The Change of Stone, Mourning for Liaoyang and Change of Earth reflect respectively the Nanjing mutiny, the famine in the Northeast front line and the earthquake in Shanxi area. The other 15 works, namely most of Yuefu Changes, focus on one theme: anti power. King of Chu, Shouning Weeping, Junzhou Change and Prostitute of Jiangling were aimed at the relatives of the Emperor and the feudal princes. Yuanjiang Water, Song of Taibao, Trip of the General, High up on Yuetai and Hymn of the Minister attacked those in power then. Yellow River Approaching, Minister in Shangzhong and Minister in Zhizhong showed sympathy for persecuted honest officials. All the characters mentioned above have their own biographies in the History of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, due to the fact that the three poems such as Trip of the Respected, Outraged Prince, Riding of Jinwuti are not specific enough, as the people and events in them can not be proved, but it can be confirmed that the characters in the poem are all the followers of Yan Song and Lu Bing. Song of Taibao and Yuanjiang Water are two works that represent the artistic value in Yuefu Changes. Song of Taibao aims at Lu Bing, the late head of the royal guards, and mercilessly exposed his evilness, such as the description of the pawns under Taibao: “riding in all directions, being scared by all households. The million-dollar Taibao patrols like lightening.” The language is concise, vivid and impressive. After Lu Bing’s death, he was deposed: “the Golden Rooster drum has two wings, for the first time ten thousand households got to relax. No wild horse riding around, thousands of citizens prayed.” The damned Taibao could trample on people before this. What an irony! The whole poem was based on facts in every word or sentence, but it was written in free and unrestrained expression as if out of one’s imagination. Trip of Lujiang Petty Woman was based on the landscape of Yan Song’s hometown. It was originally Peacock Flies Southeast. Wang Shizhen’s Yuefu Changes not only used its title, but also had the similar structural system. Both of them are five-character narrative poems with more than 300 sentences. There are obvious imitations at the beginning of Wang’s poems, such as the description of Yan Song’s experience and the description of the mansion. The corresponding sentences can be found in Peacock Flying Southeast. It’s not a parody but just close. There’s nothing else between the two. The contrast between Yan Song’s life experience, his shameful ending and the tragic marriage of Trip of Lujiang Petty Woman is not a passive imitation, but a masterpiece. As one of the few examples enhancing the value of the ancient imitation school, its wonderful part lies in that it looks like imitating, but it’s all creation based upon fact. This is not so much a reference for a specific work as a study and attempt for

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the folk style of Yuefu Poetry. This has played a positive role in overcoming the coarseness and inflexibility of Yuefu Changes’ literary language. This poem can be considered the biography of Yan Song. However, it shows the power structure of the late Jiajing period with the complex relationship among the county magistrate (Jiajing)—the Prime Minister (Yan Song)—Minister of Public Works (Yan Shifan, son of Yan Song who was Minister of Public Works). It not only three levels, but also contains a Trinity. The county magistrate had the highest position here, but is at the lowest level and the most powerful in peacetime. This complex and delicate relationship is fully reflected in the first eight sentences, which are divided into two groups, and each group is divided into two pairs. Four to four, two to two, both parallel and moving further. The last paragraph is the expansion of the first eight sentences. The line “the son has great wisdom and can understand the world” is repeated over again, which was ironical with a lot of implications. The sentence uses the paradoxical technique of Du Fu, which the author once disliked, that is, to play with words to achieve elegance. The unique syntax and language of Yuefu Poems vividly reflect the delicate and complex power structure of contemporary times, which is an unprecedented achievement in narrative poems. Xie Zhen (1495–1575), with the style name of Maoqin, and the pseudonym of Siming mountaineeror Shoeless Old Man, was born in Linqing (now Shandong). He had one eye blinded and lived as a common man all his life. He is the author of Open Views on Poetry and Siming Collection (also known as “Siming Poetry”). Xie Zhen used to like travel. Later, he focused on his studies, and was particularly known for writing poems. According to the Summary of Siming Collection in Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, “his poems are popular but his theories on poetry are absurd”. So his Open Views for Poetry was left out. In Stories of Poems in All Dynasties D, his modern style poetry “has profound power, sonorous and with stable characters, standing out from all Seven Scholars or Five Scholar.” Selected Poems of the Ming Dynasty also said that his five-character modern style was “unique among the Seven Scholars”. The verses in Autumn Field in Siming Collection, Vol. 8th is the most representative of Xie Zhen’s poems. The earth is broad, the frost is clear and the persimmon leaves are thin. The wild clouds are pale in autumn and the mountains are shining in the evening. Three rivers are moved by the murderous air, a riding soldier flies over. Many brave men in the Central Plain, who can rescue Jinyang from its besieged pain? His poetry carries some of Li Bai’s freshness, Du Fu’s melancholy, but it is different from the general imitation, not to mention the bad habit of replacing the creation with a little change. The other four of the Latter Seven Scholars became Jinshi in the same year, and their achievements and fame were lower than the above three. Zong Chen and Liang Youyu died young, both of them only lived for about 30 years. Due to their short time of participating in the activities of the Latter Seven

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Scholars, they relatively had less of the retro influence. Zong Chen (1525–1560), style name Zi Xiang, was from Xinghua (now Jiangsu). He was the author of Collection of Zongzi. Liang Youyu (?–1566), style name Gong Shi, was from Shunde (now Guangdong). He was the author of Lanting Manuscript. The style of Zong Chen’s poems are elegant, such as Think of Zi Pei upon Seeing Wild Geese (Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 51st). “The autumn rain is showering, the cold clouds are booming. Seeing the wild geese in the sky, wondering when they will come back.” He also wrote the prose Reporting to Liu Yi zhang, which is a rare masterpiece among the Latter Seven Scholars. The poetic style of Liang Youyu is a little weak but clear, which we can see from lines as “The trees are green with dew rolling, the feather leaves thriving with flowers falling” (On Mr. Huang’s Green Veranda from Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 51st) and “Jingkou trees are embraced by the rain, Haimen wind is racing along with tide print” (Guabu Overview from Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 51st). Xu Zhongxing (1517–1578), style name Zi Yu, was born in Longwan, Tianmu Mountain, Changxing (now Zhejiang). He is the author of Collection of Tianmu Mountain Hall and Qingluo Hall Poetry. His poems are somehow refreshing even with some staleness. There are lines like: “leaving a piece of western mountain moon, shining upon the old jar of wine” (Nostalgia from Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 51st). “Mirrored in the stream are the people in crowds, cast in the pine shades are prints of the horses” (Setting out from Chuyang in Dusk from Ming Poems Selected by the Emperor, Vol. 59th). Wu Guolun (1524–1593), style name Mingqing and pseudonym Chuan Lou or Nanyue Mountaineer, was born in Xingguo (now Jiangxi). He lived the longest among the Latter Seven Scholars and died after Wang Shizhen. He was the author of “The Vase Cave Manuscript” and “Sequels”. In the Stories of Poems in All Dynasties, he was said to be “brilliant”, but in On Poetry, Hu Yinglin satirized him “many words are used in the same way. Reading one is like reading all”. They pointed out two weakness of Wu Guolun’s creation. Wu Guolun, blessed with senior years, was equally ranked as Wang Shizhen.9 His The Vase Cave Manuscript and Sequels were competitive with Wang Shizhen’s works, but most of his works are similar and boring. Wu Guolun’s later poetry style had changed a lot, which is different from those following the beaten track. Taking the Yuefu Poems admired by the Early and Latter Seven Scholars an example, the biggest difference between Wu Guolun and others is that he is no longer limited to the Han-Wei Dynasties, but also learns the folk songs of Wu and Chu at the same time, forming a clear poetic style. Songs of Streams is an example: “Welcome in Dongwu Pavillion, Farewell in Dusang Road. Let the stream be filled with water from the ocean, the ship can not take you to the land of alien” (Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 1st). His masterpieces in modern style poetry are like Poyang Lake from Ancient and Modern Poetry, Vol. 3rd: 9

The History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 287th. It was originally said that when Wu Guolun returned home, he “was well-known, a person seeking fame by going east to Taicang (for Wang Shizhen), or west to Xingguo”. Zhonghua Book Company, 1974, p. 7379.

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Wishing to be in Kuang Lu lying in white clouds, in palace pavilion with water dense. Hundreds of mountains with caves bathed in sunshine, Thousands miles of frost with wild geese in the skyline. Under the sky the waves hold the masts, Like a mirror the stars are divided by different borders. At the end of the year in the southeast, do not send a boat to chase the guests. The horizon of the poem is broad, and the language is not stagnant. It can be a good example of the Latter Seven Scholars’ adhering to the Tang poems and assimilate them into their own.

7.2 Li Zhi’s Doctrine of Childlike Innocence and His Writings Although the retro ethos of the Early and the Latter Seven Scholars were shrouded for a while, the opponents never stopped criticizing them, whether as groups like Gang’an and Jingling, or as individuals as Li Zhi, Xu Wei, and Tang Xianzu. The left wing Wang Xue gave the ideological enlightenment to the opposing parties, and Li Zhi’s theory of the doctrine of childlike innocence had the greatest influence in literature. Li Zhi and Tang Xianzu did not have a close relationship, but his influence on Tang Xianzu was significant. Tang Xianzu said in Answering Guan Dongming: “You can see the power of the wit and hear the outstanding remarks of Li Zhi. His smart words are just like a magic sword. If you look at his words, you will find a beautiful sword.”10 Compared with Li Zhi, they are both rebellious. When Li Zhi’s The Burnt Book was published at the beginning of Wanli 18th year, Tang Xianzu wrote to Shi Kunyu, the governor of Suzhou, “Upon reading The Burnt Book, Mr. Li Baiquan took the author as a strange fellow…Would you please send me the book?” (Letter to Shi Chuyang in Suzhou from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 44th). In Wanli 27th year (1599), this thinker once visited Tang Xianzu in Linchuan, and it can be seen that they shared the same aspirations. Luo Rufang, Tang Xianzu’s teacher, often cited “mind of a child” which coincided with Lizhi’s “childlike innocence theory”, but did not elaborate about it as profoundly as the latter. Li Zhi (1527–1602), style name Zhuo Wu or Hong Fu, pseudonym name Hermit Wenling or Dragon Laker, was born in Jinjiang (now Fujian). He became Juren in Jiajing 31st year (1552), but continued to take the examinations after. He served at the same rank for many years in a difficult life situation, with only his eldest daughter surviving out of seven children. He used to be an instructor in Nanjing and Beijing in the Imperial Academy, a minister in the Ministry of Rites, a Councillor in the Ministry of Justice in Nanjing, and finally a magistrate of Yao’an in Yunnan (1577). 10

Tang Xianzu: Answering Guan Dongmingg, Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 44th, Beijing Ancient Books Publishing House, 1999, p. 1295.

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After three years in office, he retired from the position and moved to Huang’an in the Huguang area. A few years later, he became a monk in nearby Zhifo Temple in Macheng. His wife and daughter returned to their hometown. In Wanli 29th year (1601), he was accused of propagating ideas and rebellious behaviors that were seriously challenging reality. The emperor authorized the royal guards to arrest and punish him, banning all his works. After being imprisoned, he still wrote books. In the next year (1602) he cut himself with a razor in prison and died two days later. As a monk, Li Zhi’s life is a major turning point. He once made a clear explanation about the reasons: “The reason I decided to shave off my hair is that some idlers of the family expected me to go back, and they always came from a long distance to force me into returning to take care of secular affairs. So I shaved my hair to show my determination that I will not go back, and will never deal with their family chores. In addition, people lack of an insightful view me was heresy. So here I am the heresy one, call me the villain. Haunted by those thoughts, I ended it by cutting off my hair, not really out of my true desire. In fact, what I really want is to stay out of the secular worlds affairs while getting older.”11 There is only one paragraph in the article of the same name in the full text of Sequel of the Burnt Book, Vol. 1st, and the text is slightly different. This proves that the real reason for Li Zhi becoming a monk is that he was forced by the secular world and lived in heresy. Otherwise, he didn’t need to repeat it. To this end, Yuan Zhongdao, one of the “Three Yuans” of Gong’an School, once accurately commented that Li Zhi was “strong willed, never to give in to whatever he did not want.”12 Li Zhi’s works include Chu Tan Collection, The Burnt Book, Sequel of the Burnt Book, The Hidden Book, Sequel for the Hidden Book. He knew that his use of heresy would not be allowed by the world, and his life would not be guaranteed, so he named his book as The Burnt Book, which meant that it would be burned and abandoned. “Collection of books” means that the book would be adverse to the current affairs and could only be hidden in the mountains for future generations. It turns out that what happened was not due to his bad luck, but he had foresight. The origin of Li Zhi’s thoughts belonged to the Taizhou School, which was founded by Wang Gen, a branch of Wang Yangming’s mind study. However, the pursuit of individual liberation and freedom with mind science as a weapon is a reaction to Cheng Zhu’s philosophy as the ruling ideology at that time. In Li Zhi’s philosophy, the most challenging is the theory of childlike innocence. He fought against the hypocrisy of suppressing human nature and made himself the opposite of society. Aiming at hypocritical Taoism, he tore off the sacred veil of so-called human relationship physics and revealed the true nature of “dressing and eating”. According to Childlike Innocence (The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd): “However, the Six Classics, Words and Mencius were all about Taoism. They are popular due to its large number of followers, but childlike innocence can not be understood by all.” He became a monk without any discipline, and his life is not much different from the secular world. He pursues “dressing and eating as human ethics”, and believes 11

Li Zhi, With Zeng Jiquan, The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974, p. 146. Yuan Zhongdao: Biography of Li Wenling, Collection of Ke Xue Study, Vol. 17th, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1989, p. 720. 12

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that “apart from dressing and eating, there are no ethics. All of the worldly things are about clothing and food” (Replies to Deng Shiyang from The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd).13 Li Zhi dared to challenge the will of his superiors when he was in office, and even ignored the secular etiquette after he became a monk. The most shocking was that he communicated with the wives and daughters of the scholars to talk about Buddhism. He publicized the letters with them and printed their manuscripts as Guanyin Questions. He didn’t hide his behavior and thought that the so-called demoralization were no more than those who talked about Zhou, Cheng, Zhang, Zhu and others (With Jiao Weihou Again from The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd). Such a bold challenge to the real world order later became a major crime for him. Li Zhi’s anti traditional thoughts and behavior not only came from mind study, but was also influenced by the anti mainstream style of Wei and Jin Dynasties. The Talents and The High Rollers in Chu Tan Collection, Vol 17th recorded all kinds of strange behaviors of famous scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, with the indication that they belong to the same category, such as “I am entitled to do what they did, why not?” “Today’s principle is not to be followed”, “no convention to be pursued”, “no comments needed”.14 Li Zhi put forward a literary theory based on the his Childlike Innocence. Childlike innocence means “sincerity”, which is “the original intention of the first thought”. To be specific: firstly it is the truth against Taoism. Li Zhi believed that all the best literature in the world came from childlike innocence, rather than the insincerity by following the sages. There was no sincerity without childlike innocence. There was no real writing nor real author without sincerity. Only “the words of childlike innocence” were valuable, or it didn’t make any sense to use any skills for the form. Only a truthful person could have truthful writing. “Nothing is true from an untruthful author.” Secondly it is admitted that literature changed with time and the ranking of works should not be based on their chronicle order. Li Zhi made it clear that “with a childlike mind, everyone can be literate, and must be at all times.” Therefore, “why should poetry be selected in ancient times, and why should literature be selected in the pre Qin period?”15 In literary theory, childlike innocence undoubtedly attacked the retro practice of the Early and Latter Seven Scholars, and opened up Tang Xianzu’s emotion-oriented theory and the unique spirit of Gong’an School. Miscellaneous Theory from (The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd) is one of the few discussions about the artistic from Li Zhi. In the comparison of Obeisance Moon Cabin, Romance of the West Chamber and The Story of the Pipa, he put forward the concepts of “creation by nature” and “creation by painting”. He thought that the first two works 13

Li Zhi said in With Historian Jiao: “There is no enlightenment in learning Confucianism, let alone the mean of Confucian is lack of knowledge, vulgar Confucian is its lack of honesty, and pedantic Confucian gets rotten before death, and the famous Confucian would seek fame after their death!” (Sequel to the Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd, p. 72). 14 Li Zhi: Chu Tan Collection, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974, pp. 262–268. 15 For details, please refer to The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd, pp. 273–276. According to Sima Qian’s Biography from The Hidden Book, Vol. 4th: “If a saint’s words are taken as golden rules, his views will be taken as the saint’s view, even it is not his own thinking. Words that do not come from one’s heart are tasteless unless they are irresistible” (Zhonghua Book Company, 1959, p. 692).

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were creations by nature, while the latter by painting. He held that nature had no work. Although the painting was skillful, it fell secondary. With all efforts made in painting, nothing was left for the readers to think about. He added that the real literati didn’t mean to be literate, but to relieve the depression out of their chest, throat and mouth, the emotion that could not be held back. Only with this outburst, could they achieve creation by nature. Li Zhi never thought that the pursuit of form was meaningful. His discussion here is still based on the theory of childlike innocence. As a thinker, Li Zhi wrote for expression and the dissemination of ideas without any intentions. “No one in the world has been able to have immortal writings without having their own thinking,” he said in his Replies to Jiao Ruohou from The Burnt Book, Vol. 2nd. His sharp thoughts and outstanding personality sparkled in his writings like torches shining at night. His independent and uninhibited personality, as well as his spirit of pursuing freedom are presented not only in his articles, but also in a few poems. Li Zhi’s prose, regardless of its genre, can give people a sense of joy and natural completion. An example in the case is his Self Praise from The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd, a marvelous piece that can be compared with the Biography of Mr. Wuliu written by Tao Yuanming. His has the hot temper, indifferent attitude, vulgar words, crazy mind, presumptuous behavior, with few friends but having friendly greetings when meeting them. He is always looking for faults from others, but never cares about their merits. For those he dislikes, he would disconnect and try to set them up. His ambition is nothing but survival, considering himself as a sage, being a common man, he labels himself as a man of virtue. Not willing to share but excuses himself for not being needed; being shrewd, but claiming that the other is not deserving. His behaviors are against the rules of world and his actions are different from words. Being such a man he is totally despicable. Zi Gong once asked Confucius, “what shall one do if disliked by all?” Confucius replied, “It is not accepted.” Is it acceptable for a recluse?

By drawing the portrait of himself with irony and depicting the miniature to indicate the broad view, his sharp words and stubborn personality are well merged for a vivid figure of a bold and uninhibited challenger against the world order. Praising Liu Xie (The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd) is also a short and brilliant piece of writing. The article satirizes a false Taoist claiming to be “the disciple of Zhongni (Confucius)” by disguising himself in cardinal guides and constant virtues, and by using some of the sage’s words. Liu Xie humorously called him “Brother Zhongni”. He became angry and said, “the world would be pitch-dark without Zhongni. Who do you think you are that you dare call Zhongni as brother?” “It’s strange that our ancestor sages were walking around in candle light.” The writing is lively, and the two metaphors are vividly and aptly used. The full text is like a caricature with simple lines, interesting and spicy. Although Li Zhi didn’t write in a particular purposeful way, his writings were not necessarily disorganized, that he didn’t want to hinder his thoughts with novelty, to harm his natural expressions with ornate diction, nor to pick up others’ saliva and think of himself as spitting out pearls and jade. The artistic skills were only used to enhance his expression of ideas. Different from the sharp and pungent style of writing,

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he had another style in writing about the mourning of his wife. Upon hearing his wife’s obituary thousands of miles away, the pain of the eternal separation between heaven and man flowed down from his pen, with heartbreaking weeping: “Haunted by dreams every night since the obituary, none was about death. Is this really the case? Is her soul calling to console me?” (With Zhuang Chunfu from The Burnt Book, Vol. 2nd). The overflowing emotion in the text helps us understand better his theory of childlike innocence even more. At the same time, he also wrote a series of poems Crying for Huang Yiren from The Burnt Book, Vol. 6th). The lines are all from his heart, which are competitive to Yuan Zhen’s mourning poems of the Tang Dynasty. Li Zhi’s poems are very common in both language and images, which are different from those imitations or plagiarism. He once commented that average people preferred novelty to the ordinary but they didn’t know that nothing in the world was more novel than ordinary things. Just as the sun and the moon were common but refreshing forever, cloth and beans were common but could keep people from coldness and hunger. Novelty existed in the ordinary, and the world looked for novelty out of the ordinary. Thus how could we define them as novelty? (Replies to Geng Dong from The Burnt Book, Vol. 2nd). Seeking novelty out of the common is the artistic conception pursued by Li Zhi’s poems. Here, novelty cannot be understood in a general sense, but in the sense of no imitation nor no echoing. The examples are the lines in Visiting Hu Nan Senior (The Burnt Book, Vol. 4th): Seating at home most of my time, friends coming are also welcome, Vegetables in the garden for picking, no need to think of paying. His poems are about daily life. With no imitation of others, they are as simple as everyday conversation. Everyone’s feelings about life and scenery are different, even if they have the same life experience. To express one’s genuine feelings is to seek novelty with commonness. At the same time, we can also see that there is no complete coincidence between Li Zhi’s literary theory and his specific creative practice. That is to say, based on the theory of childlike innocence, the words should express the thoughts and feelings from the heart, but we can clearly feel that Li Zhi has some affectations. Yuan Hongdao’s criticism on Li Zhi’s self contradiction has some factual basis. The contradiction of his duel personalities will inevitably lead to inconsistency in his writings. For example, he repeatedly explained that his becoming a monk was due to the pressure of secular affairs and that he was regarded as heresy by the common people. He said in his poem Shaving: “May the sun and the moon be shining all the time, deliver all living creatures from torment.” “Being a Confucian most of my life, being greedy for wealth during working time. To prove the lack of tolerance for life, I ended up abandoning my wife” (The Burnt Book, Vol. 6th). He repeatedly expressed that he was lazy and tired of social activities, but was fond of talking, in his 70s, about his life before he was 50 years old. “Striving for support and worship, to worship out of hearty respect” (Hearing the Wild Geese in the Mid-night from The Burnt Book, Vol. 6th). Which of these two different personalities from Li Zhi is closer to the truth? In addition, many of Li Zhi’s poems are not poetic for the lack of necessary refinement. Even though he did not seek fame from his poems, it is a pity after all.

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7.3 The Poetic Creation of Xu Wei and Tang Xianzu Before the Gong’an School and Jingling School, Xu Wei and Tang Xianzu criticized the Retro School respectively. Their creation and the significance in the history of literature need to be evaluated. 1.

Xu Wei (1521–1593)

Xu Wei, style name and pseudonym Tian Shuiyue, Tianchi Mountaineer and Ivy Taoist, was from Shaoxing (now Zhejiang Province). His biography was recorded in History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 28th. According to Tao Wangling’s Biography of Xu Wenchang,16 Xu Wei believed that among his artistic achievements, calligraphy was ranked first, poetry second, literature third and painting last. He didn’t say a word about the famous opera creations at that time. Of all the Chinese poets, maybe only Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty can be compared with him in dabbling in the field of literature and art. It is not necessarily appropriate to compare the two writers who are eight centuries apart, but it may give us some enlightenment. The Tang Dynasty was the golden age of Chinese classical poetry. Those who liked Wang Wei took his artistic achievements only next to those of Li Bai and Du Fu. The Ming literature was not famous for its poetry, but there were many poets and numerous works. Praising Xu Wei’s poems as much as Yuan Hongdao, he could not give him a rank, but there is no doubt that both Wang Wei and Xu Wei are worthy of being ranked as modern talents. However, the family background and social conditions on which they lived were strikingly different. No matter from which aspect, the hardships of Xu Wei’s life were far beyond what Wang Wei could imagine. Xu Wei compiled a chronology for himself, which was called Abnormal Chronology. Zhuangzi. Grand Master said: “those who are abnormal are abnormal to common people but normal in heaven.” Yuan Hongdao’s Biography of Xu Wenchang (Appendix of Collection of Xu Shuofang) provides another annotation: “Nothing in Wenchang that is not surprising. Nothing not surprising means everything about him is abnormal.” As far as he is concerned, it is a fact that “abnormal to people” is incompatible with society. As for “normal in heaven”, it means following nature and integrating with nature, even though it is not necessarily true. His Taoist thought gave himself the nickname Heaven Pond, derived from Zhuangzi’s The Untrammeled Traveler, but he was far from alienating himself from the physical world as the name suggests. It is difficult to find another ancient literati having as rough a life as him. His unique literary and artistic style is the crystallization of his miserable life. Xu Wei passed the elementary level of the official examination at the age of 20, but he failed eight times in succession until he was 41. Governor Hu Zongxian recruited him. When the invaders got into the southeast coast, Xu Wei was determined to defend his hometown by going to the enemy’s barracks to spy on the enemy, and put forward corresponding operational plans many times, thus became Hu Xianzong’s right assistant against invaders, but being favored by Hu Zongxian is the beginning 16

See the appendix of Xu Weiji, Zhonghua Book Company, 1983. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations in this section are from this edition.

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of his misfortune. Hu Zongxian was implicated in Yan Song’s dismissal and died in prison. Due to his close relationship with Hu Zongxian, and because Xu Wei once refused to be drawn by Li Chunfang, the cabinet minister, he felt the danger and had a sharp attack of schizophrenia. He prepared a coffin in advance, wrote the epitaph for himself, and then tried to kill himself. He attempted suicide many times. In such a state of mind, he killed his fourth wife, so he was removed from his position, arrested and jailed. After six years, he was rescued by friends. From then on, he was haunted by this time-honored mental illness and many other diseases for 20 years, until his death. Another fact that has always been ignored is that everyone knows that Hu Zongxian was taking care of Xu Wei’s marriage and bought him a house. However, few people think that he is also under Hu Zongxian’s control. Even when he took a leave due to illness, he had to plead again and again for fear of being suspected. This can be found in the few lines from the Official Reply to Fengda. First: “when someone came and delivered the letter today, he could see that I was not able to broom myself. All the gifts from relatives and friends were wasted. I was not in good shape, which was obviously true without any deceit.” Second: “I got the letter, salaries, examination papers and poetry. I received them and sincerely kowtowed four times.” “When a messenger came today, he saw me being undressed, nothing deceitful. That’s why I didn’t dare to leave home and travel in summer” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 16th). It was held in the two versions of Biography of Xu Wenchang by Tao Wangling and Yuan Hongdao respectively that he was the only one to be favored by Hu Zongxian, the powerful man in Southeast China who easily shared with him a partnership. This is just like saying that he refused to let in the guests of important status nor presented people his inscription when being requested. It’s only one side of the truth. A large number of works collected by Xu Weiwen show that almost all of the local officials in the prefecture and county have received his inscription. The complete fact can only be the combination of the two. In addition, when he worked as an assistant for Hu Zongxian, he had to sing praises for Yan Song with Shen Lian, who had been killed for the impeachment of Yan Song in the previous chapter. A poor scholar like Xu Wei could by no means be enterprising if he didn’t obey Hu Zongxian’s orders, nor could he cause any stir in the literary world if he did not cater to the government. This is the real tragedy of Xu Wei. The inner contradiction and pain caused by this is also an important reason for his mental illness. His suffering and misfortune were very traumatic to him, but with tenacious vitality, he was like a tree struck by lightning, heavy and full of lush shade among the blackened branches. Yuan Hongdao’s Biography of Xu Wenchang sums up his literary and artistic creation with one word—“strangeness”. However, Xu Wei tried to express his own personality and oppose retro, but he didn’t intend to be innovative in its form. In the Preface to Xiao Fu’s Poems, he said: “if you live in the later generations, there will be poets. There are so many poems that you can’t surpass them, and so many styles of poems that you can’t read all of them. For poems, there is no emotion of any kind, emotions are nothing but make believe ones. The make believe emotions used are just for the purpose of turning the sentences into a poem. By having the

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name of a poem, it is bound to follow the pattern of poetry and plagiarize classic words. If this is the case, poetry is doomed, that is to say, there are poets but no poems” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 19th). In the Preface to Ye Zisu’s Poems, he reiterated the same view (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 19th): “Not being able to write by oneself, but to steal from others, claiming that this one belongs to a certain style, the other one doesn’t; one line is similar to a certain poet’s, the other one isn’t. There could be something similar, but no more than the birds talking human words.” Though it is not directed at the Latter Seven Scholars, it can be told between the lines. He also expressed his dissatisfaction with the Latter Seven Scholars by innuendo in the Painting of Nine Horses and Snow on the 28th Day (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 5th), and objected to “faked truth” After the Manuscript of Shucao Hall: “When a woman newly got married, she wears cosmetics, acts gracefully with gentle steps and shy smiles, as if this is the way she always is. After a few decades, she would be rearing descendants and looks like an elder by deposing cosmetics and shy expressions, and walking in strides. When asking the maid about housework, she talks loud in the way of shouting to the chickens. She laughs by showing her decayed teeth, scratches her hair without combing. Looking back to her conduct in the past, she feels shamed to have the disguise by covering her true nature with decoration. The in-law women in the family who were deceived look at her like a baby. What a pity! It is the view of Wei’s writing of poetry. Imitating at the first stage but be open to speak one’s heart in the next, which will be appreciated by more people” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 21st). By holding such poetics, Xu Wei definitely disdained the writing by imitating. Xu Wei’s literary works are characterized by peculiarity, and his intention was to run counter to traditional techniques, ideas and appreciation habits. His rebellious attitude, which was incompatible with the time, was first manifested in his character, then in his creation. He was anti orthodox in his thinking, but he was far less remarkable than his breakthrough in many aspects of traditional art. He was not a thinker, but a poet and an artist. In the art of poetry, the whole poem may be unrestrained and vigorous, while the specific strokes may be vulgar and astringent, which is a grotesque combination of elegance and vulgarity. Like his calligraphy and painting works, some of them are unsophisticated and some of them are exquisite. His poems not only have an obscene description (Foot Washing from Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 5th), but also have many remarkable elegant chapters. Xu Wei often used amazing description, modifications or images in his works, which shocked the readers first and soon after overwhelmed them with their aptness and vividness. The examples are the allusions he used as in “Obituary to Zhang” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 28th), by comparing the effort Zhang Tianfu made to rescue him from prison with the protection to the small country offered by Duke Huan of State Qi in calling the support of the mass in the Spring and Autumn Period. As Zhang Tianfu died before he was released, he compared it as Lu You’s sigh “not been able to see the unity of the country with all my sadness”. It is said at the end of his row writing, “In recent years, the snow in the south is worse than that in the north. It’s funny to think that the weather between the North and the South exchanges. Like the trading between merchants? The rain in the frontier fortress

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had been scarce, but now it rains all the time. 19 Rhymes” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 9th): “All things are buried, sometimes a skull is revealed.” Nobody would ever describe the snow this way, but it accurately conveys the poet’s feelings of indignation. To celebrate one’s birthday, he said, “Mama has good tooth that can chew sugar cane in the centenary feast” (Bestowing Flowers to A Mother’s Centenary Birthday, Vol. 5th from Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 3rd). He encouraged the son of his old friend Shen Lian with “See what a good successor Xiao Li is to the family. Good donkeys don’t join the donkey line” (Visiting Mr. Shen from Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 5th). His slang and vulgarity of words are rare, and the commonness of images are surprising, but none of them are improper. In A Painting of Zhaojun’s Marriage from Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 5th, he criticizes the image of Zhaojun coming to Hu, land in the painting: “It snows ten thousand li from morning till dusk, how she could be still so charming with pink cheeks.” He said it was the painter’s “intention”, which was against reality. This is not meant to correct details and make the traditional image more accurate, but to show his rebellion against customs and traditions. In accordance with his literary ideas and unique style, Xu Wei is the most skillful of the seven-character ancient poems among all kinds of poetic styles. The Fivecharacter style is not as much as the seven-character style in having a wide space for free galloping, while the regulated verse style is too strict, which is regulated but restraining. Xu Wei wrote several seven-character ancient poems, with eight sentences in each, among which there are also antithesis, very close to regulated verses, but he just didn’t want to be bound and write them into regulated verses. This is enough to show his artistic personality and interest. His seven- character ancient poems can be considered the smelting of the boldness of Li Bai, the eccentricities from Li He and the combination of article and poem from Han Yu, establishing a unique style of his own (With My Friend Ji): “The poems of Han Yu, Meng Jiao, Lu Tong, Li He have been widely read in recent years, but I know that beyond Li and Du, there are so many kinds of strange styles, and my horizon is broadened” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 16th). By blending all the styles in his own writing, it is hard to tell which style he belongs to. “Youth”, “Awl Holder”, “Snow on the 28th Day”, “Four Songs” and “The Song of Bamboo to Mr. Li” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 5th) are all his masterpieces. “The Song of Bamboo to Mr. Li”, written in Wanli 4th year (1576), wrote about his meeting in Beijing with Rusong, the son of General Li Chengliang, who had just returned from the Liaodong front line: The Childe comes from Liaodong far away, from people his sword cannot be pulled away. In yesterday’s Pinglu castle war, blood drowned the windlass and sword. The battle of Pinglu was brutal, headed by the Hu officers from their Imperial. It’s like the head of a chief, never falls down on the childe’s knife. All the princes in the armor would go as guerrillas, or be killed as captives or the king’s penalties. Dying upon losing and thriving upon winning. Why do you worry? More sighing than talking, tears dropped with the non- stop weeping.

Not long after the victory of Pinglu Castle, the Emperor once visited the Gate of Imperial Supremacy to receive the congratulations from all officials, but the poem

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was full of lamentations. The Frontier Poems of the past dynasties are not as magnificent as those of the Tang Dynasty. No matter if they are sad or happy, there are always poems following the beaten tracks, even though the specific names in time, geography and hostile tribes cannot be confirmed as they followed the ancient usages. Xu Wei’s works were all written under current names, which is consistent with historical records. Some of his records may supplement the lack of historical materials. Not only that, he also wrote about the hidden troubles after the victory: “No soldier can be a hundred foot bug in the martial arts, the world depends on the three inch pen.” The fate of officers and soldiers was not determined by the winning or losing in the battlefield, but by the report of the imperial censors, grand coordinators and the governors. The whole poem depicts a fierce battle, being metaphorized with the bamboo painting process. It is filled with blood-boiling passion and ends with “to answer with no words, but just a gift of my work with chilly strokes”. It’s a mixture of warmth and cold and was profoundly thought provoking. The writing method of the poem is just like that of articles or memorials, which goes from military to political gains and losses at that time. Such a work with profound realistic content can only be compared with Gao Shi in the Frontier Poetry of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Tao Wangling commented that his poems “have more strength in content than in form”. This may mean that Xu Wei’s poems are sometimes cursory in their writing, with no intention to decorate with wording. He put comments into poems, or had a slight cultural tendency, but the strength was to faithfully reflect the complexity of the author’s thoughts and the objects of his descriptions. The Song of Bamboo to Mr. Li was free from the empty heroic words and coined descriptions without the characteristics of the times, so as to bring the realistic art of Frontier Poetry-War Poetry to new heights. Xu Wei was a painter and poet. His painting poems seem to be inspired by color or ink, and followed by creation in language. Excellent painting poems are an inseparable part of painting. They complement each other and enhance each other. Xu Wei was not doing the jobs of two, but combining two beauties into one, which made his painting poems full of unique charm. Metaphor is a common technique in Xu Wei’s painting poems. An example can be cited from his Grapes (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 11th): Wretched for half of his life, there stood the old man under his shaky roof. No deal for words from his pearl pen, better throw it in the wild rattan. The poem contrasts poverty with treasures, which is quite unique. The last two sentences are metaphorical and intriguing. However, if metaphor becomes ambiguous, it may damage the image of the poem. For example, Snow Bamboo II in Lost Manuscript goes: “Old cypress are under the clouds, hidden in the west pond are the hawks and dogs, hunting for the Merlin birds, nothing but snowy bamboo left with emptiness.” The people he implicated could be Hu Zongxian whose pseudonym name was Meilin, cypress (Hui-Qin Hui?) refers to Xu Jie in Songjiang, west pond refers to the west of the Qiantang River. He might use the place to indicate the Security Consultant Lu Fenyi, who was from Lanxi, Zhejiang Province and who

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impeached Hu Zongxian. The bamboo at the end of a sentence is a metaphor for himself. Of course, poetry that can’t be explicitly explained like this may have some difficulties, but this ambiguity is by no means admirable. Misery and misfortune did not affect Xu Wei’s description of beautiful things. His painting poems depict the beautiful images with vivid strokes. For example, Cockscomb in Plantain says: “Under the plantain leaves the cockscomb, a red flower too gorgeous to hide. So drunk that I try to wipe the picture out. after the rain, the west sky suddenly shows up at sunset” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 11th). The conclusion is a finishing touch. Whether it is the painter’s actual vision or an illusion caused by “a red flower” after drinking, it is a wonderful portrayal of the scene in full swing extended by cockscomb. The flower and the sunset in the west are illusory. Is it about the flower or the sunset? It can be none or both. Another example is Six Poems on Narcissus (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 11th): A little style there is in Chen Miaochan, nothing secular from the Sister could be found. With all his sculpture technology, Master Lu is at his wit’s end to capture her beauty. Self annotation: “Lu Zigang, from Suzhou, jade craftsman.” A beautiful Taoist, just like a fairy showing up in the empty valley, plus a jade carving craftsman, without a single word about flowers, but the pure and graceful image of a fairy land is presented before the readers. It is a vivid portrait without direct description. The spirit of his style has been fully developed in these two poems. There is also a rare theme in Xu Wei’s painting poems—poems about children. It’s probably the suffering in his adult years that made Xu Wei miss the joy of childhood more. He wrote some children’s poems. The most beautiful ones are the twenty-five poems “The Kite Painting of Guo Shuxian for Rich Children” (Xu Wei Collection. Xu Wenchang III, Vol. 11th). Three of them are cited: High on the mountain kites flying, down at the bottom thorny pears hanging. The kite flies with no foot, not knowing that till on the pear it stepped. Sneaking out to fly kite. the tutor came but nobody is found,. Someone pointed out to show, he was the red shirt under the snow. Making kites from window paste, scaring the swan to fall on the ground. Looking for thread from mom’s sewing box, taking it away from pairs of shoes and socks. Such poems can be included in the list of the best children’s poems in China, but we can also think that they are not children’s poems. Xu Wei called this group of children’s poems “Elegy” in the preface. It can be seen that they are not lingering memories of childhood, but to contrast sufferings in real life. 2.

Tang Xianzu (1550–1616)

Tang Xianzu established his position as a first-class dramatist in the history of Chinese opera with Peony Pavilion. At that time, he devoted himself to poetry and

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ancient prose. As a master of an eight part essay, he was listed as one of the eight masters in the contemporary official examination, meanwhile he was the firm opponent to the Latter Seven Scholar’s retro. The reason why the History of the Ming Dynasty includes his biography is that he was a political activist. The achievements of Tang Xianzu’s poems have two aspects, which are different or even contradictory from each other. They are not only the concentrated reflection of the spirit of the times, but also the unique expression of Tang Xianzu’s character and personality. Tang Xianzu left numerous poems with remarkable achievements. However, his fame in opera obscures his achievements in other aspects, so that later generations tend to underestimate his creative poetry. Tang Xianzu was outstanding in poetry creation. In his poetry garden, there are different varieties of exotic flowers and plants, but only to be discovered by those with a good eye. Some of them have their own particular elegance, without being fake antiques like the Early and Latter Seven Scholars. Sometimes the poems have their own tones, without being shallow like those of the Gong’an School poets nor queer like those of Jingling School poets. At that time, Tang Xianzu was a unique poet without attachment to any school. Tang Xianzu’s first collection of poems, Red Spring and Grass, was published in Wanli 3rd year (1575). From this collection of poems, we can see that he was trained in the writing skills of traditional five- seven- character poems from his childhood, but his literary works were not mature enough. Some of the chapters, such as Golden Tune, Farewell to Jiang in Trading Sword for Wine,17 showing the germination of some of the author’s later works. in general, due to the influence of the eight part essay technique, it lacks natural charm. For example, in Observing the Sun to Taishan (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 2nd), “the tiger roars in the north with three laughs in the north, people are in the east with Four Worries”. Two allusions are used, one from the prestigious monk Huiyuan, the second is from Zhang Heng’s poem Four Worries. The rhetoric skills surpasses the creation of its artistic conception. Tang Xianzu spent a lot of effort on his poetry, not only in vain, but also limited his later potential achievements in five- seven- character poetry creations. However, Tang Xianzu’s performance of his skills in the first poetry collection shows that he was trained only for one purpose, that is, eight part essay craftsmanship, which is a reflection of the limitations of the times seen in him. Tang Xianzu’s second poetry collection, Yong Zao, is now lost. The third poetry collection is called Posted Script to Wen Ji, which was compiled by Xie Tinglang, a fellow student from his hometown. At the beginning of the volume is the preface written by Xie in Wanli 6th year. The word “Wen Ji” is used here as the pronoun of the author’s surname, which can be seen in Tang Wen from Lie Zi, Vol. 5th: “Yin Tang asked about Xia Ji.” Original note: “Xia Ji, style name Zi Ji, is Doctor Tang. 革, is pronounced as Ji (Zhuang Zi)”. According to Xie Tingliang’s preface, these works were all sent to him, so they were called “Posted Script”.18 17 See details in Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 2nd, Beijing Ancient Books Publishing House, 1999, pp. 31, 34. Tang Xianzu’s poems quoted in this section are all based on this version. 18 For details, please refer to Preface to Posted Script to Wen Ji (10 Volumes), Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 2nd.

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In writing Posted Script to Wen Ji, Tang Xianzu demonstrated his difference from the conservative Latter Seven Scholars by using the ornate diction of the Six Dynasties and the early Tang Dynasty. Among them, his seven-character ancient poems such as Yu Jin Ballad, Trip of the Senior General (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 4th), Farewell to Mr. Shen, Farewell to Mr. Zhang from Jingzhou (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 3rd) are the representatives. They were inspired by the short verse of the Southern Dynasty, and covered by gorgeous make ups uncleaned from the Six Dynasties, from the early Tang poetry. When these poems came out, the slogan of “following the poetry of the prosperous Tang Dynasty” was prevailing. Instead of learning the essence of Du Fu’s poetry, he was only admired for his artistic skills and imitated his words, sentences and rules. Tang Xianzu satirized this situation in the second book of Purple Flute: “The boy in the study is named Little Green, shredded vegetables are served as a dish in spring. No fun to seek from a hundred years senior, get a paper for the boy to write.” Then from the scripts in the play, he sarcastically said: “Du Zimei is my old friend, his poems were copied by your young emissaries, and they copied them well.” “As they couldn’t copy all of them, but only some notes or rules from Du Fu’s poems.” Obviously, Tang Xianzu was not satisfied with the style of poetry at that time, but he could not put forward his own ideas. So he just replaced the prosperous Tang Dynasty with the Six Dynasties and the early Tang Dynasty. The point is that he was exploring the path of reform after all. Tang Xianzu had one poem “The Epidemic” and another “The Year of Famine” (see Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 3rd). Comparing the second with the first, they are similar while the second is simpler. It is difficult to determine which is the first draft and which is the final draft. The two poems are incorporated into the poetry collection at the same time, which shows the author’s attention to it. From poems collected in the same volume two years ago, the works as Flood in May 1406, 30 Rhymes after the Feast, to The Year of Famine, The Epidemic, and other simultaneously written works of The Hungry Man in the North, Brother-in-law Wu’s Sigh of Famine, Questions to Officer Wu, Letter from Jiangxi, etc., it can be seen that Tang Xianzu’s romantic poems were gradually switching to the reflection of the severe reality of people’s livelihoods. The author not only narrated and described the terrible disaster truthfully, but also wrote about the different destinies of people of different social status. His poems as “the wealthy take good luck, the poor suffer from disaster”, even not as contrastive as those of “the wealthy had their wine and meat smell, the poor had their dead body frozen by the roadside”, but they are consistent in spirit, and they all reflected the harsh reality of society at that time. The other feature of these poems is to link natural disasters with social factors, and even accused the court and the Emperor of this: “Not getting the given Jiangnan rent, long time reading Shandong imperial edict. All under His Majesty’s power, except when there is a disaster. Living like Pariah as us, destined to plough for life and death” (Brother-in-law Wu’s Sigh of Famine). In August of this year, the emperor inspected his mausoleum through Tianshou Mountain in Changping, and spent 200,000 liang of silver at a time, all of which was spent by the state treasury. He was indifferent to the tragedy of “the people suffering from famine and the dead bodies that died of starvation” (Mencius.King Liang Hui). The ending of Brother-in-law Wu’s Sigh of

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Famine changes from “we” to “you all” by imitating the high ruler’s indifference to the people’s livelihood, which is a merciless lash and criticism. From the perspective of literariness, Tang Xianzu was better at seven-character poems, among which there are many fresh and recitable works. An example can be cited from “Sounds of Milk Forest”: “Going into the mountains in late spring, a thousand peaks surrounded by the buoyant moon. Startled up by the sound of Sanskrit, west tower wrapped in rain and wind” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 10th). Tang Xianzu’s poems of friendship and farewell are also unique and profound. In Chapter 32 in The Death of Jin Chuàn from Reevaluation on the Story of the Stone by Zhi Yanzhai, he was quoted for his long poem “Seeing the Moon in River and Cherishing Mr.Da” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 14th). Zhi Yanzhai said: it was obvious that Mr. Tang had excellent poems about cherishing people, which was worthy of reading. It is quoted here for the confidants: ‘merciless to the boundless, but feelings are still endless. To the point of being filled with passion, no trees nor shadows in the light of the moon.19 The poem was written by Tang Xianzu, who went to Nanchang from Linchuan with Da Guan, the Buddhist temple master, and then returned to Linchuan alone. Although the poem is full of Zen, it still reveals its sincere feelings. Zhi’s work quoted this poem in the comments to The Story of the Stone, which manifested his deep understanding of it. Unfortunately, only in small poems did Tang Xianzu showed his best characters, but not in the poems with more social significance, such as the theme of disaster and epidemic written in Wanli 16th year, which are careless in art. He had good lines in the seven-character verses, but not many perfect ones as a whole poem Tang Xianzu is unique in the poetic world where the retro style of the Latter Seven Scholars prevailed. His creation can be independent of the Retro School, which was motivated by his theoretical antipathy and criticism of this trend. Tang Xianzu once wrote in Reply to Wang Dansheng (Wang Dansheng, style name Shi Qi, was Wang Shizhen’s eldest son, whose literary proposition was different from his father’s) that: “When being young I was ignorant. In the discussion with friends about writing, we held that articles of the Han and Song Dynasties are extremely interesting, but are not easy to learn. Learning the Song Dynasty literature was like haste with less speed. With Shuai in the Catering Department we discussed Li Xianji, with Zhao Shiqing of Licheng we discussed Li Yulin, with Deng Ruxiao in Jintan Hall we discussed Yuan Mei, by annotating their writing on the origins from Han history and Tang poetry. We can see that the expressions and styles of the past have been exhausted, and there is no way to have better writings today. It’s just a claim that it can be done. However, what had been done so far is this much, the essence of the ancient was not caught.” Tang Xianzu criticized the Latter Seven Scholars’ imitation in creation. Even though he did not advocate imitation, he pointed out that the prose of the Song Dynasty is more suitable for learning than that of the Western Han Dynasty. These words showed the differences between Tang Xianzu’s and the Latter Seven Scholars. In addition, there are two intriguing things that can prove that Tang Xianzu opposed the Latter Seven Scholars. First, Tu Long was listed as one of the the Latter 19

Reevaluation on the Story of the Stone by Zhi Yanzhai, People’s Literature Press, 1975, p. 731.

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Five Scholars by Wang Shizhen. He wrote a long letter to Tang Xianzu after he was criticized and dismissed. Tang Xianzu only replied with a short letter.20 In fact, it’s not that he is merciless to Tu Long, but because Tu Long advised him to respect Wang Shizhen in his letter. In his letter, Tu Long praised Tang Xianzu and Wang Shizhen as “two sages”, but Tang avoided answering and didn’t appreciate it. Second, Hu Yinglin, one of the Latter Five Scholars, wrote a poem for Tang Xianzu.21 Generally speaking, Tang Xianzu should have replied, but nothing is mentioned of Hu Yinglin in the existing Tang’s anthology. A reasonable explanation can only be that he later found out that Hu Yinglin got Wang Shizhen’s legacy, which caused his antipathy, so he deleted all of the relevant works of him in his anthology. At the same time, Tang Xianzu and Xu Wei, who opposed the retro doctrine, and the “Three Yuans” of the Gong’an School, were in the same camp, which is worth mentioning in the literature of the Ming Dynasty. In Wanli 8th year, when Xu Wei went to Beijing to read Zhang Yuanbian, he read Posted Script to Wen Ji on the way, and wrote a poem for it. Among them was “most pleasant moment in my life of teaching” on the appreciation of Tang Xianzu. Not being able to have it delivered then. it was not sent out until someone went to Jiangxi.22 Xu Wei was 60 years old, 29 years older than Tang Xianzu. Xu Wei wrote A Picture of Happy Fish,23 by deliberately imitating Tang Xianzu’s Fragrant Tree (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 4th). Tang Xianzu also wrote a poem Letter from Moling to Xu: A Hundred Fish was chanted over again, Xiaojing restarted the western expedition. Begging Sky Pond for even half of the water, I will come back if being a survivor. Shen Jifei, editor of The Selected Works of Yuming Hall (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 4th), said that “if” can be “will”, which means “positive (to survive)”. A Hundred Fish refers to this Picture of Happy Fish. There is a line, “who can write this a hundred fishing boats?” This poem was written in Wanli 16th year. At that time, Xu Wei traveled north of Nanjing. Tang Xianzu heard about it afterwards and wrote the poem. The original note under the title of “Picture of Happy Fish”: “the author is unknown. Recently seeing Mr. Tang I admired and learned from him.” “Recently seeing Mr. Tang” referred not to seeing in person but his work Fragrant Tree. There are 36 seven-character sentences in the whole poem, and from the 12th sentence in the middle part of the poems are “fragrant thoughts by the fragrant tree”. The word “fragrant” is repeated 23 times. In Xuwei’s “Picture of Happy Fish”, there are 46 sentences in the poem, from the 12th sentence “new harvest new restaurant with new wine opened”, the word “new” is repeated 29 times. It is a good rhetorical skill to reproduce certain words in the seven-character poems so as to make the syllables 20

Tang Xianzu, With Liu Jundong: “Tu Changqing once wrote thousands of words to me, but I just replied in in eight lines. Hope it was not offensive” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, p. 1482). 21 See Shaoshi Mountain Draft, Vol. 53rd: “When Tang came to visit, I was having people combing my hair. Trying to come up to greet him, he stopped me from getting up and we had a nice talk and laughing when I was combing. The life style of the bamboo forest is as elegant as that of the Jin people. I’m going back to the south. I’m sending you a poem, as a memo to our meeting”. 22 See The Chronicles of Xu Wei, Collection of Xu Shuofang, Vol. 3rd, Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 1993, p. 172. 23 See Collection of Xu Wei, p. 135.

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sonorous and the images replayed. In his poem A Night of Flowers and Moonlight by the Spring River, Liu Ruoxu of the Tang Dynasty used the words “moon” for 15 times, and “river” was used 12 times. The words “spring river”, “spring moon” and “river moon” were repeated many times, but the whole poem is fluent and natural. Tang Xianzu’s poem is novel and original, nothing like those of the Seven Scholars, but more or less playful. Xu Wei’s “admired and learned from Tang” indicated clearly his intention of opposing Wang and Li. Tang Xianzu’s anti imitation proposition coincided with the “Three Yuans” of Gong’an School explicitly.24 His “natural aura” in “Preface of He Qi” is a bit mysterious. In fact, it refers to interest and spirituality, which was exactly what the Gong’an School advocated. Some of Tang Xianzu’s essays, such as the inscription on the poem of On the Fallen Blossoms in the Stream, are not as sharp, innovative and charming, nor as delicate as Yuan Hongdao’s. Tang Xianzu’s letters, either parallel or scattered, are lyrical, euphemistic with twists and turns and full of aftertastes. Tang Xianzu and Gong’an School not only shared the common ground of literary ideas and creation, but also had some contacts. In the spring of Wanli 23rd year (1595), Tang Xianzu went to Beijing, and met with “Three Yuans”. At this time, Yuan Zongdao was appointed as the editor of Hanlin Academy, Yuan Hongdao was appointed as the county magistrate of Wu County, while Yuan Zhongdao was still taking the exam. Tang Xianzu was 46 years old and Yuan Hongdao was 28 years old. Three years later, Tang Xianzu left the political arena, while Yuan Hongdao started his career. Tang Xianzu’s attitude against the Latter Seven Scholars was remarkable as early as twenty or thirty years earlier, and was appreciated by Xu Wei. “Three Yuans” were still young and unknown in the literary world. Therefore, it is worth noting that Tang Xianzu repeatedly played a pioneering role in the anti-Retro School. This meeting is of great significance to both sides. After the meeting, Tang Xianzu and Yuan Hongdao went south together. Eighteen years later, both Zong Dao and Hongdao passed away. Tang Xianzu sent a letter to Zhongdao to remind him of his old trip to Beijing (To Yuan Xiaoxiu from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 4th). Zhongdao recorded his memories in Trip to Jubei.25

24

In his Preface of He Qi, “It is hard to communicated with old fashioned rigid scholars who are illinformed and write articles with their limited knowledge. How can they be articles? Natural aura comes from trance without thinking. It’s strange and indescribable. Unique elements can blend. Su Zizhan’s painting of dried bamboo and stone is different from that of ancient and modern paintings, but even more fantastic. If we paint by a standard, it hardly qualifies. The figures in the mountains and water paintings of Master Mi are not out of particular intention, but they can bring up vividness with a few strokes, but it would be different if they paint out of particular intention. Therefore, my small skill of writing and ink can be absorbed into the spirit of present holiness. Since there is no Mr. Know it all, who can understand this?” (see Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, p. 1138). 25 See Yuan Zhongdao: Collection of Ke Xue Study, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1989, pp. 1310–1311.

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7.4 The Counterattack of Gong’an School Against Retro Trends The Tang Song school, which rose in the Jiajing period, did not fundamentally wipe out the retro trend. In the Wanli period, as powerful opposition of the Latter Seven Scholars, the Gong’an School raised the banner of literary innovation and launched a counterattack against the retro trend. The members of the Gong’an School are the three brothers–Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao. This school got its name because they were from Gong’an region in Huguang (now Hubei). Yuan Zongdao (1560–1600), style name Bo Xiu and pseudonym Shi Pu. In Wanli 14th year (1586), he took first place in the examination. He was selected as secretary to the Hanlin Academy and later promoted from editor to the position of Court Director. He admired Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty and Su Shi of the Song Dynasty. He named his study Bai Su Room and wrote Collection of Bai Su Room. Yuan Hongdao (1568– 1610), style name Zhong Lang and pseudonym Shigong, ranked second among the three Yuan brothers. He became Jinshi in Wanli 20th year (1592), then was promoted from magistrate in Wu county to officer in the Ministry of Officials, the author of “The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang”.26 Yuan Zhongdao (1570–1624), style name Xiao Xiu, ranks the third among the three brothers of Yuan family. He became Jinshi in Wanli 40th years (1616), then professor of Huizhou Prefecture, until becoming the Chief Secretary in the Ministry of Rites. He resigned to return home due to illness. He had Collection of Ke Xue Study. Yuan Hongdao was the representative of Gong’an School for their literary theory and creation achievements. Most scholars at that time gave up the Seven Scholars and followed them. For example, Huang Hui who was in the Academy with Yuan Zongdao, Gu Tian and Li Tengfang who were colleagues of Yuan Hongdao, often met with the Yuan brothers to discuss how to correct the abuses of the Seven Scholars. Yuan Hongdao even asked Feng Zhuan, his supervisor to support.27 When he was meeting Jiang Jinzhi in Wuzhong, he “would always try to persuade him with poems and articles to correct the current retro trend” (Preface to The Collection of Snow Wave Pavilion in The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I). The promotion of the anti-retro movement led by the “Three Yuans” went through a process of progressive performance.

26

Yuan Hongdao: “The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang”, Shanghai Guangyi book company, 1936. The following quotations from Yuan Hongdao are all from this edition unless otherwise noted. 27 To My Mentor Feng: “Being out of office, I have been idle by staying indoors all year round to read and write occasionally. I can not help lamenting on the perniciousness of the current imitation, the danger and narrowness of this theory. I have been thinking about how to change this trend. However, not being talented nor influential, I wonder how can I have this idea be followed? Who else can take the lead in correcting this except my teacher? Recently, I have been discussing it constantly with Huang, Gu and Li, but it is likened to supporting a falling building with one or two slim branches. I request you to speak out and your viewpoint will be determinant. Why? Your prominence and virtue can be convincing enough to change the trend” (see The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II).

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The criticism of the Seven Scholars’ retro style is the basis of the literary theory of Gong’an School. They were not generally opposed to learning from the ancients, but advocated the spirit of originality.28 Yuan Hongdao believed that “the weakness of modern poetry” was due to the fact that “plagiarism becomes a common practice, with all writings in one utterance” and “passing copies to each other” (Notes on Views Shared with Jiang and Lu from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I). He pointed out that so-called retro was no more than “plagiarism”, that is to say, “using the similar sentences and words regardless of the current scenery. The farfetched description and decadent words are prevalent…What a shame to have such poems!” (Preface to the Collection of Snow Wave Pavilion in The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I). He compared Li Mengyang to “the servant of the Ministry of Works (Du Fu)”, saying that he “blatantly lavished his words and shamelessly got a lot of followers” (Reply to Mr. Mei in The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II). The sharp criticism hit at the nub of the Retro School. His attitude towards the poet he admired is just the opposite. He once said to Feng Zhuo’an, “I know a poet named Xu Wei in modern time, whose poems are innovative and all out of his own mind” (To My Mentor Feng in The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II). From this positive view of all the poets, we can see how much antipathy Yuan Hongdao had towards the trend of plagiarism. No matter what the original intention of the Seven Scholars was, they advocated that all articles must follow the Qin and Han Dynasties and poetry must follow the Tang Dynasty. It is obviously absurd. The Gong’an School put forward the view of literature evolution, refuted the Seven Scholars’ idea of retro, and fundamentally shook their theoretical foundation. Yuan Hongdao believed that poetry should be better in each generation (Qiu Changru from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II). No need to value the past and put down the present, but “literature cannot be modern by excluding the ancient, the same is true the other way around”. Therefore, he strongly advocated “the exploration of novelty in poetry” (Preface of Snow Wave Pavilion Collection from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I). Yuan Zhongdao also clearly expressed the view of literary evolutionism in Prelude to Hymn for Flower Clouds: “No writing would remain the same for a hundred years.” Yuan Hongdao and Yuan Zhongdao both saw that change was inevitable and required literature to change with the change of the times. They advocated change, which is to curb the imitation of the Retro School. The development of literature should be viewed from the perspective of evolution, and literary creation should be demanded with the consciousness of innovation. The Gong’an School’s affirmation of modern writing (eight part essay), folk songs, novels and operas are not only from the inspiration of the Early Seven Scholars, but also the product of their literary evolutionism. Let’s start with the eight part essay. 28

His Collection on Bamboo says: “Those who are good at painting are better in studying their painting objects then other painters; those who are good at learning are better in studying the principles than learning methods; those who are good at poetry are better in learning varieties of styles than from certain poets. By following Li Bai or the Tang poem, how can you copy the words? What is to follow is how Tang poetry never followed the Han, the Wei nor the the Six Dynasties. This is the essence” (see The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I).

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In the past, we used to regard the affirmation or criticism of the eight part essay as a standard to judge whether the ancients were advanced or not, so we ignored their background of their affirmation or negation. The eight part essay does not necessarily mean reactionary or backwardness. The specific context must be looked into. Yuan Hongdao had articles on eight part essay, such as “Discussing the Current Essays with Friends” (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II), “Preface to the Current Essay”, “Preface to Shanxi Provincial Examination” (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I), which can help us understand that the Gong’an School was positive about the eight part essay. “Discussing the Current Essays with Friends” criticized the Seven Scholars straightforwardly: “it is not necessarily an article if it is just better than that of the Han Dynasty, it is not necessarily poetry if it just follows that of the Tang Dynasty.” Yuan Hongdao’s appreciation of the eight part essay from the perspective of valuing the present and valuing the truth is inevitably over-corrected and overvalued. In the Preface to the Record of Shanxi Provincial Examination, he even said that he often read the transformations of the present and the past in current texts, and saw the compatibility between current art and current events. It is truly an overstatement. We can only say that the Gong’an School’s affirmation of the eight part essay reflected its opposition to the idea of retro and their demand for literary innovation. They also affirmed folk songs, novels and operas for the same reason. Therefore, the criteria for the evaluation of literary value of the Gong’an School are unified: true feelings without following the predecessors. “On Xiao Xiu’s Poems” says: “As I said that today’s poetry will not be handed down, except for the songs such as ‘Splitting Jade’ and ‘Stick for Beating Dates’ sung by women and children of Lv Yan today. Those written by the unknowns are mostly the true voices” (Reply to Li Ziran from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I). Moreover: “there is no writing at present except those in Lv town. It is enjoyable to drink while listening to their music with you.” In “Jiang Jinzhi”: “What people are singing today as Silver Willow Silk and Hanging Branch, is there one word copied?” Game in Drinking: “Of the legends, Water Margin and Golden Lotus are the classics” (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II). The Gong’an School not only denounced plagiarism and advocated correction of the Retro School with current and popular literature, but also provided a therapy. This is the famous saying of Yuan Hongdao’s praise of his younger brother Yuan Zhongdao’s poetr On Xiao Xiu’s Poems (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I). “He expresses the spirit of the soul without following any rules. Whatever he writes, it must be flowing out of his own mind.” The spirit of nature is “not to be made”.29 If it comes from the spirit, it will be new forever; if it comes from plagiarism, it will be old right after it’s written. It’s interesting and novel to express one’s spirit and not stick to the rules. The so-called “interest” refers to the childlike mind, which is free of rationality but out of spontaneity. More rational, less interesting (Narration 29

See The Rope Collection of Shuyi Family: “Brewing makes things sweet, fire burning makes things bitter, but nothing can make things light. Not being able to be artificially made is the true spirit of literature. The thick can not be turned thin, the sweet can not be turned spicy, but the light can be made. If everything can be made, it is the true abnormality of literature” (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II).

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of Chen Zhengfu in Click of Mind from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II). The so-called novelty means that “as long as to express whatever others can not, with the words, the structure and the tone flowing out of one’s own mind” (Reply to Li Yuanshan from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II). It can be seen that spirituality is not only a requirement for content, but also for form. The literary theory of the Gong’an School is not an isolated thought, it is the expression of contemporary progressive philosophy in the literary world. By referring to Childlike Innocence,30 it can be affirmed with the following two paragraphs: He who is childlike is sincere. If childishness is not necessary, sincerity is not. He who is childlike also has the original intention of the first thought. If you lose your childlike innocence, you lose your sincerity; if you lose your sincerity, you lose your real life. If there is no sincerity in human beings, it is the loss of human nature. Why should poetry follow ancient times, and why should literature follow pre-Qin? It was descended into Six Dynasties, changed into the contemporary style, further into legend, opera scripts, Zaju, then Romance of the West Chamber and Water Margin, for the purpose of paving a new path for people of today. The sages’ ways were from ancient times to modern times, which is not to be judged by historical periods. This is what I came up with from childlike mind views. What can be the comments on Six Classics, The Analects and Mencius?

The first paragraph can obviously correspond to the theory of spirit from the Gong’an School, and the second paragraph can correspond to evolutionism. Tang Xianzu once pointed out the origin of the Gong’an School and Li Zhi’s literary thought with his poem Thinking of of Reverent Zhuo in Reading Jin Fan Collection: “The world is exquisite, the wise people are far away as the flowing of Xiang River. They pick the green lotus to bestow to the Yuans from Gong’an” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 19th). As a result of advocating innovation and change, expressing one’s own spirit by not sticking to the rules and regulations, the Gong’an School pursues the simple style of writing without even avoiding vulgar words and slang.31 Yuan Hongdao said that he liked the “defects” of Yuan Zhongdao’s poems for their “original unique words”, and in the Preface of Snow Wave Pavilion Collection, he thought that “it’s good to see corrections to current super facial writing”, but it is easy to fall into the pit of over correction. After all, literature is a kind of artistic creation. If it is mixed up with the aesthetic pursuit of slang, it will also lead to decadence. Yuan Hongdao’s own flawed works have proved this. Although he said that “the further he went into the Tang Dynasty, the more he was proud of himself” (Zhang Youyu from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I), he also admitted that “Yu’s poems were too direct” and “Yu’s messages were directly sent” (Collection on Mr. Zeng from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I). No matter then or later, there had been criticism to the 30

Li Zhi, Childlike Innocence: The Burnt Book, Vol. 3rd, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974, pp. 273, 276. 31 Preface of Snow Wave Pavilion Collection: there are those who wrote by means of colloquialism, such as “seeing the eyelashes without seeing the person”, and those who wrote by means of slang, such as “one hundred with one spared, gives you ninety-nine strokes by a stick” (On Xiao Xiu’s Poems from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I).

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style of the Gong’an School.32 As a matter of fact, those who criticized the Gong’an School’s slang and casualness were mostly constrained by the aesthetic standards of elegant literature without realizing the progressive significance of the style they advocated at that time. There are serious defects in the literary theory of the Gong’an School. The theory of spirituality emphasizes the subjectivity of literature, but takes the human mind as the source of creation, and holds that “there is no limit to the soul when we search for it”.33 However, it went to another extreme of neglecting the objectivity of literature, which took away the care for society from the literary creation. The so-called “there is not a word of concern for the people in the poem”.34 Although the theory of literary evolution had fundamentally shaken the theoretical basis of the Retro School, it is not conducive to the development of literature by holding a negative attitude towards tradition and ignoring the interdependence between new and old in the process of literary evolution. Yuan Hongdao was not a follower of any doctrines. He expressed his attitude towards life as an “easy going” outlook by “never referring to any of the sages such as Yao, Shun, Zhou or Confucius.”35 This is the ideological basis of his tendency towards vulgarity in literature. To this end, he made it clear in his poem Listening to Zhu Sheng’s Talk about the Water Margin (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II): “I was intrigued in the funny stories when I was young. Later when reading ‘Water Margin’, I was impressed with the strangely changed language, more popular than the Six Classics. The battle scenes are more appealing than the works of Sima Qian. In the rain with west wind, I’m listening to the hot debate.” Yuan Hongdao’s works truly show his pursuit of a suitable life, sometimes with cynicism and strong anti-traditional color. In a letter to Gong Weichang (Mr. Gong Weichang, The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II), he vividly described five kinds of so-called “real happiness in life”, such as the pleasure of hosting guests and intercourse between men and women, the pleasure of buying fancy houses and boats to carry concubines, and the shameless pleasure of begging in brothels, which were unprecedented and appalling. Another example is Wang Bogu’s letter, which said that when he went to Baiyue Mountain and saw that there were many people praying for a son, he asked the Taoists to pass 32

Stories of Poems in All Dynasties, Original D, p. 567: “When Zhonglang’s theory came out, the ideas of Wang and Li were swept away, the literati began to know how to dredge their minds, to work out ways to cover up, which is very achieving. The sword is out to over correct. Then there came the disorder of favoring vulgar slang, the elegance is lost and broken, and talent is swept away”. 33 Yuan Zhongdao: Preface to the Complete Works of Zhonglang, Collection of Ke Xue Study, Vol. 11th, p.521. 34 Yuan Hongdao: Rhymes for Urban Mountains and Forests in Epiphany Palace, The Complete Works of Zhonglang II. 35 Xu Hanming: “There is a unique easy going view…Being a Confucian, but never referring to any sages such as Yao, Shun, Zhou or Confucius. My brother likes this kind of person best. He thinks that this is an extremely comfortable attitude that he admires” (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II).

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his words to them that he had many sons, and that it would be enough to have only a few short-lived concubines who could not give birth in the future (Wang Bogu from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II). He also envied Lin Xun on his “having the plum as a wife and a crane as a son, who was the first man of all joy in the world. Nothing like poor me by having a wife, putting myself in trouble. It’s a difficult situation of having something disgusted but unable to discard. It’s just like walking in thorns by wearing rags, being stuck in every step” (Lonely Mountain, The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang, Vol. II). We can say that this is his truth or his weakness, but many traditional scholars would not write openly their thoughts of mind, even if it is what they desired. It is admitted that Yuan Hongdao’s works are true, but not all the true expressions are valuable. However, from the perspective of anti tradition, such works should not be completely denied. Yuan Hongdao was also good at expressing his feelings. When he was magistrate of Wu county, he wrote a “leave note” (Request for Returning in “Seven Slips to Wu (I, II)” from “The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II”), expressing these feelings to his grandmother who he spent his childhood with. He was deeply affectionate and sincere though he didn’t go to serve on her immediately after leaving office until after two years when he returned from his tour to the mountains and rivers. Yuan Hongdao’s travel notes, in the style of new dexterity, free of the malpractice of imitation, fresh and appealing. This is the most valuable part of Yuan Hongdao’s creation, and it also has an impact on the essays at the end of the Ming Dynasty. A Journey to the Well and Trip to the Moonlit Six Bridges (from The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang II) vividly depicted poetic and picturesque scenery in the countryside of Beijing and the West Lake in the early spring. The thought of breaking away from vulgarity endows his work with unique spirit. “Colors of blossoms, sentiments of willows, features of mountains and tenderness of water, each brings its particular interest”, which is the characteristics of his own essay. Yuan Zhongdao’s poetry style is delicate, and his brother Yuan Hongdao’s “On Xiao Xiu’s Poems” praised his poetry for its unique expression of spirit and creation of phrases, but he was not highly achieved. One of his works is “Double Seven’s Day with Peng Changqing and Zhonglang” (Collection of Ke Xue Study, Vol. 4th): Sending the simple night snack by the river, Passing the bamboo house around the bridge corner. Clear water and the green jungle in autumn, The chilly wind blew under the bleak moon. The poor the stranger came as an intruder, The old poet felt himself to be a loner. No Birds chirping and night watches missing, What I heard is the tide of milky way coming. Even this kind of better poetry is featured with cliche, and its poetic setting is too common to show much spirit. As Yuan Hongdao, his brother, criticized that

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there is too much decoration and imitation.36 It is not easy to break away from tradition, and it is also difficult to innovate. When Yuan Zhongdao was young, he used to go on horseback, go boating in Xiling, and travel all over Yanzhao, Qilu, and Wuyue. Therefore, he was best at writing travel notes, but his weakness was that he did not have enough practice. Compared with Yuan Hongdao’s travel notes, it is more complicated. Qian Qianyi said that if the travel notes of Yuan Zhongdao is cut down by half, they can be matched with the ancients classics (Stories of Poems in All Dynasties. D), which is really not maliciously derogatory. Yuan Zhongdao also wrote a kind and natural prose, which expressed his understanding of the truth in a humorous way, such as a paragraph in his “Forthright Joy on a Mountain Tour” (Collection of Ke Xue Study, Vol. 21st): “There was a friend who once entered the western mountain with forthright joy. At the beginning of spring, he was barefoot and naked, entering the Silky Lake in the Jade Spring Mountain. People were surprised, and he was complacent. After a few years, I asked him, ‘It was really forthright of you to bath in the silky lake.’ He was happy for himself. I asked again: ‘In the early spring of the north, the ice and snow were freezing, didn’t you feel hurt when doing it? Be honest.’ He said: ‘It’s very hard. Up till now, the cold air is still in my bone, resulting in feet pain, which has not yet been cured. At that time, I was forthright, and I didn’t know if it was harmful.’ However, for the world’s forthright things, few would give up the Silky Lake bathing for the worry about future.” Yuan Zongdao is less talented than his two younger brothers, but his prose has a lot of impressive fresh lines, such as the Pilgrimage to the Blissful Temple (Collection of Bai Suzhai, Vol. 14th), which is good at analogy and simple in language. In a word, even with some shallow and vulgar works from the the Three Yuans of Gong’an, in their effort to avoid imitating or plagiarism, it is inevitable to have the mistake of over correction. Comparing with the Retro School which pursued imitation instead of creation, their value should be fully affirmed.

7.5 A New Style of Tranquility and Solitude Developed by the Jingling School At the same time, Jingling School was another opponent of retro in addition to Gong’an School. The Jingling School was named after the place where the founders Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun were from, Jingling was in Huguang (today’s Tianmen in Hubei Province). Zhong Xing (1574–1626), became Jinshi in Wanli 38th year(1610). He took office in the Department of Information and was promoted to Examiner in Fujian Educational Commission, the author of Collection of Yinxiu 36

In Yuan Hongdao’s poem On Xiao Xiu’s Poems: “There are both merits and demerits in it. No further comments for its merits. For the demerits, there are a lot of characters. However, Yu was very pleased with his flaws, and the so-called ‘merits’ could not, but being mostly decoration and imitation, not being able to be free from the current trends of literature” (The Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I).

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Pavilion.37 Tan Yuanchun (1586–1637), style name You Xia and pseudonym Early Writer, but he was not successful in passing the imperial examination until the age of 42, winning first place in the provincial examination. After that, he failed in the rest of the examinations. At the age of 52, he took the examination in Beijing and died suddenly in the inn. He was the author of Tan Yuanchun Collection.38 Tan Yuanchun befriended Zhong Xing, who was 12 years older than him, and they compiled and annotated “The Return of Tang Poetry” and “The Return of Ancient Poetry”, which became best sellers as soon as they came out and they both became famous all over the country, known as “Zhong Tan”. All poets of the country followed them, and their Jingling style became very popular. People’s opinions on Jingling School varied greatly. Those who admired it regarded it as the shrine.39 The detractors denounced it as the demon of poetry,40 No school of literature has ever received such opposite evaluations. Going beyond the limit is as bad as falling short, absolute affirmation and negation may lead to judgment that deviates from the fact. Many people regard Jingling School as being on the same page with the Gong’an School in opposing the Seven Scholars. In fact, Jingling School approved neither the retro nor the pro-modern of the Gong’an School. Instead, it took solitude and quietness as its realm and developed a new way to form its own school. As for the origin of Jingling School, Qian Qianyi held that it was from Zhong Xing’s “thinking differently by setting up a profound and lonely clan on top of the the ancients” (Biography of Ding Ji, from Stories of Poems in All Dynasties D), which was partly right. Zhong Xing really wanted to set up another school, not to be on top of the ancients, but out of their dissatisfaction with the Seven Scholars and the Gong’an group. He said that the study of the Seven Scholars of the ancients was only based on their superficiality, narrowness and convention, and they thought they had their own spirit. However, those who corrected them “didn’t know what direction to head for, and their comments were no more than the the spit of toads” (More Report to Cai Jingfu, Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Vol. 28th). He maintained that “in all poems and articles, there have been problems of plagiarism and over correction.” Following the ancient and ignoring the present; One voice at present and imitated by the future (With Brother Wang Zhigong from Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Vol. 2nd). The analysis of the abuses of the Latter seven sons and the Gong’an School is the real reason for Zhong Xing’s breaking away from them and “establishing another school”. Yuan Zhongdao, the later representative of the Gong’an School, made it clear that he was willing to join Qian Qianyi who was against Jingling School. His tone was

37

Zhongxing: Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1992. All quotations in this section are from this edition. 38 Tan Yuanchun: Tan Yuanchun Collection, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1998. This section is cited from this edition. 39 Li Mingrui said that Tan Yuanchun “was the author of the book that is regarded as written in immortal lines” (see Collection of Tan Yuanchun, pp. 958–959). 40 Stories of Poems in All Dynasties, D: “As soon as their books came out, the true features of Zhong- Tan were revealed…Poets more demon like than the author of Five Elements!”.

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very strict.41 However, regardless of their attitude towards each other, the Gong’an School and Jingling School have the same idea of opposing the Seven Scholars and pursuing their own ideas. Zhongxing once enlarged and revised the Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang by himself, and Tan Yuanchun wrote the Preface to the Sequel for Complete Works of Mr. Yuan Zhonglang.42 Later generations of Gong’an School even thought that only Tan Yuanchun was Yuan Hongdao’s confidant.43 Therefore, it is not completely wrong to say that the two schools are the same. Another aspect of the problem is that the two schools did differ. Even if they shared the theory of spirituality, their interpretations of it were not the same, resulting in different literary aesthetic trends. The Gong’an School combined it with “no restrictions”, while the Jingling School took “individual vision” as its purpose. Jingling School put forward the relationship between “spirit heart” and “thickness”, which is another obvious difference between them and Gong’an School. Zhong Xing discussed with Tan Yuanchun, saying that “thickness” comes from “a spiritual heart”, and “from freshness to thickness”, so as to be free of “being overly upfront with traces.”44 This is a therapy from Jingling School to avoid returning to the Seven Scholars’ retro and the Gong’an School’s pro modern that might lead to shallow vulgarity. However, the aesthetic purport put forward by Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun in the Preface to the Return of Poetry on the issue of spirituality is not included in the concept of “thickness”, and also different from the aesthetic 41

Yuan Zhongdao said in the Stories of Poems in All Dynasties D: “Du’s Autumnal Musings, Bai’s Song of Eternal Sorrow and Yuan Zhi’s On Lianchang Palace are all unique and of great vitality. What did Chu people know? Upon their unsupported sayings, we criticized sharply with solid ground, so as to prevent future generations from being misled”. 42 See Lu Zhixuan’s The Origin of Revision to the Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang by Zhong Bojing (Appendix 3 of Yuan Hongdao Collection Revision, 1981, pp. 1720–1721); Tan Yuanchun enlarged and revised the Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang by himself (see Preface to the Sequel for Complete Works of Mr. Yuan Zhonglang, Vol. 2nd, Tan Yuanchun Collection, 22nd, pp. 599–600). 43 Preface to the Sequel for Complete Works of Mr. Yuan Zhonglang: “Yuan from Gong’an talked about his sequel of Zhonglang and asked me to write the preface. He said: “The predecessors can not be copied. Those who copied the predecessors would only humiliate them. Those who didn’t copy were their confidants, but the modern people can talk about them” (see Tan Yuanchun Collection p. 599). 44 Zhong Xing’s With Tan Youxia also says: “Cao Nengshi …said the poems of this generation are fresh but carry traces, which are very profound and quite to the point, words out of wisdom. ‘Trace’ is exactly the freshness that is presented to the readers. Traces can not be forced out, but ‘thickness’ can be practiced. Thickness can last, but freshness can not.” The Observation with the Tall Child: “The development of thickness in poetry is easy to understand. However, since ancient times, there has been no one who can be a poet without spirituality in their heart. Thickness comes from the spirit, but the spirit can not be thick as one wishes, however, you must keep this spirituality in your heart before you can study and nourish your aspiration. If I take my stubbornness as being thick, then my child is thick. Cao Neng once said the poems of my brother and Tan Youxia were fresh and somehow carry traces. He also said that the book Return of Poetry was a book of openness, which was being overly upfront. The so-called carrying traces and being overly upfront, can be due to a lack of thickness. My brother was convince, but being open is for the purpose of persuading the stubborn and incorrigible. As for the traces, they can’t be produced willingly but can only to be built up with freshness till it is thick. How can one give up the freshness to pursue being free of traces?” (Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, pp. 473–474).

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pursuit of the Gong’an School. Zhong Xing’s “feeling of tranquility” and “thinking in solitude”, Tan Yuanchun’s “solitary feelings” and “solitary attainments.”45 This kind of aesthetic orientation turns them completely to the opposite side of the down to earth style advocated by the Gong’an School. This is to make literature break out of worldliness in content and explore the author’s mind,46 and pursues the unique and unique form.47 Obviously, it’s a reaction to the Seven Scholars’ retro and the Gong’an School’s pro modern down-to-earth style. It’s the expression of Zhong and Tan’s lofty and introverted attitude towards life and their rejection of a down-toearth style in literary theory. Tan Yuanchun said that Zhong Xing “has a deep and peaceful nature, like a steady stream of water”, and that he “is cold as frost as not to connect with secular people” (Epitaph of Mr. Tuigu from Tan Yuanchun Collection Vol. 25th). Zhong Xing said that Tan Yuanchun’s character was “solitary” and in his poems compiled, he “didn’t beg for the words of celebrity for the preface” (Preface to the Modern Poems of Jianyuan Hall from Collection of Yinxiu Pavilion, Vol. 17th). Literary style is a reflection of one’s personality, which is a saying applicable to Jingling School. The Jingling School advocates literary theory of tranquility and solitude, which brings their writing into a sub style with hard and simple touches, especially in Tan Yuanchun’s poems. For example: “The light reflects the scenery of May, the willows mingled with the cool soul sway” (Reply to Bojing upon River Farewell from Tan Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 3rd), “Stars are scattered to drive away the moon, away it went to guard the mountain” (Night in Shangfeng Temple from Tan Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 5th), “The flowing willows are green and charming, the plums are white and tiny when budding” (12 Rhymes in the Thunderstorms on New Year’s Eve from Tan Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 19th), “Touching the silk with my stiff skinny hand, clouds are gathering to make the wave knot” (Song of Yuquan Temple from Tan Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 4th). It’s no wonder that the combination of strange images 45 See Collection of Yinxiu Pavilion, pp. 236–237 in: “Inspecting all hearts, nobody would venture being like an ancient scholar, but try to learn the poetry of the ancients. True poetry lies in its spirit. To observe the feeling of tranquility, the solitude in noises, is to use the power of thought by roaming in the vast dark space…The ancient poems passed down are like new poems by people today.” Tan Yuanchun Collection, p. 594: “If one has a lonely mind and lonely attainments, he must be lonely in person, by going between ancient and modern times, without blending with the rest of the world and being understood by one or two sighing for him. This is where the real poem is from. Just like smoke curls above the sky, blown by the wind into a line. Intermittently, It is scattered and gathered. When the wind sets, the smoke is picked up, then it runs to all directions by chasing the stars and the moon”. 46 Zhong Xing said in “With Tan Youxia. Again” that “when our poetry reaches to where there is no smoke and fire, it is a sharp edge” (Collection of Yinxiu Pavilion, p. 273). 47 Zhong Xing said in the Preface to Wen Tianrui’s Poems: “On Poems is for teaching. It is peaceful and plain, which makes it possible to sing and chant and enjoy. The unique and profound words are another issue. However, there are poems in the Qin Dynasty, such as The Black Horse and Xiao Rong, which are classic and important, also excellent to go with music. Some of them may not be appreciated by all, such as Chang Yang and Hunting by Fencing. The uniqueness and profoundness are found in ‘four poems’. Scholars do not like to study and ponder. They are afraid of difficulties and prefer easiness. They like peaceful and plain writings. This is why the study of the ancients was abandoned” (Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, p. 281).

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and ancient words led to the criticism of “demon poetry” and “ghost language”.48 These wordings are also in the texts of their better prose. For example, Zhong Xing’s Notes on Huanhua River (Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Vol. 2nd) describes the large number of tourists: “The canopies were thick and turbid, the noise was overflowing and unbounded.” Tan Yuanchun’s Three Trips to Wulong Pool (Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 2nd) wrote that when friends came up from the path in the south, it would be decorated into the confusing line as “coming from the micro path south”. As for the words like “gang he pi tuo”, were only used in the Fu verse of the Han Dynasty. They criticized others for over correcting, while they fell into the same pit. To a certain extent, Jingling School deviated from their own theory, which made their works infuse the realistic spirit in addition to the lonely mind. Zhong Xing’s poetry of Wang Wensu’s Poems on the Hall of Reverent Wang (Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Vol. 4th) severely condemned the officials in power to “err on the people of the country in recent years, but were good at getting away from their massive slaughter”, which touched the most sensitive issues in the politics of the Ming Dynasty. The anxiety and patriotic enthusiasm of soldiers in the frontier are also found in the works of Jingling School by lamenting the dead soldiers. For example, Tan Yuanchun’s “Notes on staying in Tianjie Temple on the first night of July, watching the old monk offering food in memory to the dead soldiers in the battle of Liao, kneeling down for the honored soul, in spring” (Tang Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 3rd). They were also inspired by the spirit of the soldiers on the expedition, such as Zhong Xing’s “Upon Qiu Changru’s Leaving to Liaoyang, Bestowing my Farewell Poem with My Gutwrenching Grief ” (Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Vol. 14th). Regardless of the style of the work, a poet with no life experience could by no means to have such feelings. Either Zhong or Tan had respectful social status, so they shared the same feelings about the evils of contemporary life and average people’s grudge against politics, which were truthfully depicted. Tan Yuanchun’s poem Buying Rice on June 18th (Tang Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 11th) describes the bleak scene in desolate years: “Buying rice bran, hunger caused pain. Not good as real rice, at least something to cook. Each day the price is raising, like crows people are starving.” Four Poems for the River (Tang Yuanchun Collection, Vol. 8th) wrote of the pressure from taxation: “Worry about his constant collection, even the saint crows can be pursued for taxation.” Tyranny is not only more fierce than tigers, it could even kill the saint crows. As soon as he got into the situation of reality, the poet’s feelings were blazing and his language was no longer awkward. The pursuit of rationality and interest by thinking about reality make some of Jingling School’s essays insightful and profound. Zhong Xing said in the Preface to the Scenic Spots in Shu (Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Vol. 16th), “It’s hard to hear that rationality and interest is mutually generative, power and reality are interdependent. I would take the spirit of the ancients and turn it to the spirit of mountains and rivers, so that they are never separated from words, blending in one piece. You take what you have in writing and they can offer whatever is available there. With all dimensions assimilated, the writing would achieve beyond what the author could expect.” This 48

Li Wei, History of Poetry, East Press, 1996. p. 220.

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should be the best state of writing. On Summer Plum (Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Vol. 36th) is a representative work of Zhong Xing. In this article, he wrote the plum blossom in summer contrasting with the common idea of hymn for winter plum. The point of writing is not to portray the plum blossom, so the article begins with the comparison of the cold and the hot and brings rationality into interest: “ice and snow in winter and spring, colored by flowers beaming”, the coldest season attracting the most tourists; “in the heat of summer, the tree and leaves are fighting against the hot sun”, the host season attracting the least tourists. This strong contrast shows the resentment of “the world has its cold places, where only power and fame matter”. As an image, the plum in winter and summer is interesting, while the power and fame were the target of its connotation “beyond what the author could expect” is the description of the author’s loftiness and solitude. What’s more, this article is smooth and seamless. Although it doesn’t reach the realm that the author expected, it’s still a good piece of work with a combination of rationality and interest. The Jingling School was very popular with a lot of followers for a while. Zhu Yizun in his Poetry in Tranquility said disdainfully: “Since The Return of Poetry came out, it was a best seller just like the lewd incantation of modern women, all those who heard it were enticed” (Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 71st). As far as the south of Fujian, there were people responding, such as Cai Fuyi. Even in the prosperous Jiangnan area of cultural relics, there were many followers, such as Zhang Ze, and Hua Shu, and. Cai Fuyi, whose biographies are found in the History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 249th, Zhang Ze and Hua Shu have no biographies. According to The Comprehensive Catalogue of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, Vol. 18th, Zhang Ze was born in Suzhou. He carved 23 volumes of Tan Youxia Collection, each of which had its own criticism with the deliberately imitated Tan Yuanchun’s comments. According to Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 74th), Hua Shu, style name Wen Xiu, was from Wuxi.

Chapter 8

The Creation of Zaju Drama in the Middle and Late Ming Dynasty

In the background of the rise and prosperity of legendary opera, there was no drastic development in the creation of Zaju in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, The tendency of singing and dancing in Zaju continued. The length of Zaju became shorter and shorter, with one or two episodes. The tunes came both the Northern and the Southern areas, and the Southern tunes were more dominant. It can’t be said that there was no change. In the late Ming Dynasty, dramatists often created legends at the same time. Compared with legends, Zaju was relatively rare, but it still existed in literati’s works, performers and family music performances. He Liangjun’s Talks of Four Friends, 37th said: “My young maid recorded more than fifty songs, but the scattered sets were only four or five sections. The rest were all Zaju in Ci poetry by the Jin and Yuan people, which were unknown to the Nanjing Music Academy.” He Liangjun died in Wanli 1st year (1573). This is just what he saw, which doesn’t mean it was the same situation in both the North and South at that time.1 There are also records of Zaju performances in Biography of A Crazy Woman, which was completed during the same period as Golden Lotus. According to Pan Zhiheng’s Wu Opera in Music of Elegance, Vol. 3rd, Daya Hall, Story of Hong Fu, Stealing Amulet, Tiger Amulet and Zhu Fa were quite popular from 1579 to 1582. Wang Heng (1561–1609), the son of Wang Xijue, the Minister of the cabinet, was an eye-catching dramatist. The father and son maintained a lasting friendship with the early opera artist Zhao Huai (Zhanyun) without caring about the social status gap. 1

Golden Lotus takes the Northern Song Dynasty as its historical background, the social customs it recorded and the performance of the Jin and Yuan Zaju are the reflection of the facts when it was written. Chapter 41 in Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus records the prostitute’s libretto during the banquet, which is the full text of Episode 3 in the Jin and Yuan Zaju Marriage of Two Lives. In Chapter 70, several pieces of music for the lead in the second adaption of The Romance of West Chamber are quoted. In Chapter 71, the full text of Episode 3 in The Legendary Stories sung in He Qianhu’s family music is quoted. The libretto is quite different from the present one, which can be used as reference for annotation. © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_8

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Literati dramatists were not only involved the creation, but also the stage performance of Zaju in the middle and later period of the Ming Dynasty.

8.1 The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape and Other Works by Xu Wei Xu Wei wrote the Zaju collection entitled The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape which is composed of four kinds of Zaju: The Angry Drummer of Yuyang (one episode), Zen Master Yu’s Dream in Cuixiang (two episodes), Daughter Mulan’s Joining the Army for Her Father (two episodes), and The Number One Scholar Woman (five episodes). According to his disciple Wang Jide (1542?–1623) it is recorded in On Metrics (second half of Miscellaneous Treatise, Vol. 40th, Part 39) that Zen Master is “his writing of early years”, and the completion time of other three Zaju are successively Daughter Mulan, The Angry Drummer and The Number One Scholar Woman. Wang Jide recalled: “Our houses were just separated by a wall. Each time when he completed one play, his cheers would be heard from his study, and his joy was expressed by his chanting.” It can be seen that the three plays were completed successively, approximately after Jiajing 37th year (1558), before Xu Wei entered the shogunate of Hu Zongxian, when he was 38 years old. The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape got its name from the folk song quoted in Li Daoyuan’s River Documents.the Three Gorges: “The Three Gorges of Badong stretches for miles, three sad sounds of the ape bring tears to drop on my clothes.” By entitling it with “four sounds”, it means it is more miserable than “three sounds”. It was at the time when Xu Wei suffered a lot: his mother was expelled from his family, his wife died early, his right of inheritance was deprived, and he failed many times in the autumn imperial examination. The worse blow for him came from Shen Lian’s death from the prosecution of the treacherous minister Yan Song for his direct advice, which happened a year before he entered the shogunate. In his poems, such as Mourning for the Fourth Son, Shen Canju (Qinxia), Poem Presenting to Qian, and Sending Shen off to the Fortress, he associated the death of Shen Lian several times with the story of Mi Heng’s accusation of Cao in drum beating. Shen Lian’s death was so close to the writing time of The Angry Drummer that it’s no coincidence. This can be used as circumstantial evidence of the creation time of Xu Wei’s The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape. Xu Wei’s plays have a strong folk color, and The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape is lively, relaxed and healthy. The title of the collection was given later. The feelings of joy and sorrow in the four Zaju are different, so they should not be treated in the same way. The following is a brief description of the four plays, listed according to their creation times. The story for Zen Master Yu’s Dream had a long history, and it had been used for storytelling as well as Zaju in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. It was adapted from Monk Yue Ming’s Redemption of Liu Cui in Clear Words to Illustrate the World. No matter

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in terms of characters or plot, Xu Wei’s creation is close to this novel and different from the Zaju of Yuan Redemption of Liu Cui. According to the legends recorded in Tour of West Lake, Vol. 13rd by Tian Rucheng in the late Ming Dynasty, this story had been circulating for a long time, and there are still some sites in Hangzhou relating to it. It’s said that due to the reason that Zen Master Yu Tong didn’t attend the preaching ceremony of Yin Liu, the new Lin’an Prefecture, Liu instructed the prostitute Hong Lian to lure Yu Tong to break the precepts. Yu Tong was framed and he killed himself after the shower. In order to seek his revenge, he was reincarnated as Liu Cui, the daughter of Liu Xuanjiao. He degenerated into a prostitute so as to ruined the reputation of Liu’s family. Finally, Yu Tong’s Dharma friend, Monk Yue Ming, enlightened Liu Cui on the origin of her last life and redeemed her to the immortal world. The novel has the strength for the intricacies of the strange plot, but not much ideological significance. Xu Wei’s adaptation of it into two Zaju is just in line with the intention of the novel—paying equal attention to the past life and the present life. The novel focuses on the description of the temptation of Hong Lian to Yu Tong, while the Zaju just gives it a light touch. The first song in Episode 1 [new water rhyme] begins with the story of the monk’s repentance and hatred of his misconduct. It is bold and concise, showing his extraordinary ideas. In Episode 2, Monk Yue Ming points out that Liu Cui seduced Zen Master Yu in her previous life, which was performed in the style of pantomime. In ancient Chinese drama, this is innovative. Daughter Mulan was based on the folk narrative poem Mulan Poem in the sixth century AD. Mulan was forced to join the army on behalf of her father. She was eager to return home and live a peaceful life again. In fact, the ending of the narrative poem is not so much the triumph of returning home, but the yearning for peace of the people living in war time. Therefore, like poetry, the most successful description of the whole play is before joining the army and after returning home, while the descriptions of the war are very slight. Xu Wei’s choice of this subject coincided with his usual rebellious mentality: the great man was inferior to the women they despised. In another word, it indicates that successful scholar officials may not be better than a poor scholar like himself, but in his works, this kind of indignation is replaced by a relaxed comic mood. When a highly successful work is rewritten in another literary form, most of them can only end in mediocrity or failure. It seems that Xu Wei was no exception. His works are good enough as it is never an easy job. The most outstanding of the four plays is the unique northern Zaju The Angry Drummer. The story of Mi Heng’s unyielding toughness in front of Cao Cao had been recorded in A New Account of the Tales of the World, Post Han Annals and the other lost books before them, but none of them went so far as the face-to-face scolding. In Chapter 23 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there is a story of “Mi Zhengping nakedly scolding the bandit”, but the specific description is much more softened than the title. The real scolding of Cao can only be completed in Xu Wei’s works. In terms of ideology, The Angry Drummer follows the tendency of supporting Liu and opposing Cao in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and its image of Cao Cao is quite different from that in the historical records. The typical image of Cao

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Cao as a traitor and careerist was shaped by the continuous processing of folk artists from generations, which can never be changed by the preference of an individual. As mentioned above, The Angry Drummer is related to the event of Shen Lian. The author said in Sacrifice to Mr. Shen with Friends: “Your death is due to your accusation of treacheries that they had your killed by others, just like the naked scolding in drum beating of Mi Heng.” Cao Cao’s ordering the prefecture of Jiangxia to kill Mi Heng was similar to Yan Song’s framing of Shen Lian by the hands of Yang Shun, the governor of Xuanda, and the imperial inspector Lu Kai. This is the author’s confession, and the whole play is metaphorical to the author’s life to some extent. When the White Jade Tower of the Emperor of Heaven was completed, Mi Heng was appointed as Underworld Imperial Secretary. This is a rotten allusion for the unsuccessful talented scholars to comfort themselves with, but Xu Wei wrote it differently. He didn’t write that an early death would necessarily be followed by a rise to heaven, but only happened after a long time in the underworld, when his turn came to this desirable job. Before going to the post, even the King of Hell asked the judge to “prepare money and gifts”, which showed that the officials in the underworld were greedy as well. The above two themes interact with each other in Xu Wei’s works to synthesize the sad and solemn [lip rouge] couplet. Here is the first song: “I left home to avoid chaos, roaming around. Going up to the tower, looking back to the remote past, who knows I would strip myself to show my bottom.” Two allusions, Wang Can and Han Xin, are used in the song implicitly. Those who know the source can understand it better, and those who don’t can understand it as well. The theme of The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape sets the sad and solemn tone for the Zaju, represented by [lip rouge] couplet. There is comedic banter and satires in the specific description of The Angry Drummer. Comparing with Mi Heng’s drum scolding of Cao, the underworld replay of this scene upon the request of the judge is a better reflection of this. This is not only a breakthrough in the creation of structure, but also a reflection of the author’s unique style of poetry in drama, with a sense of humor that is not common in poetry. A sense of humor doesn’t dilute the tragic atmosphere, instead, it makes it more intense in contrast, and at the same time, it gives the ghost play a kind of human feeling. Tang Xianzu, inspired by this expression of human feelings in ghost plays, followed the style in Episode 23 Underworld Judgment in Peony Pavilion, bringing strong contrast of tragicomedy to a new height. The Number One Scholar Woman obviously was written to make up for the number of four Zaju. It was written to express the indignation of the author’s many failures in taking the imperial examinations. It is a play of five episodes, which tells the story of Huang Chongzhen’s outstanding talent during the Five Dynasties. She disguised herself as a man and passed the examination as the number one scholar. Minister Zhou wanted to recruit her as his son-in-law. After the truth was revealed, he married her as his daughter-in-law. She abandoned her official position and returned to her boudoir. The outline of this Zaju is similar to Daughter Mulan. Its lyrics are ornate and natural. Daughter Mulan is not so much intended to enhance women’ rights, but rather for the frustrated scholars like the author. The images of the female general and the female number one scholar are served as contrasts to show that the male generals and the male number one scholars are not real talents. This kind of theme

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was repeated in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties, but few works were desirable, including the works even by the master like Xu Wei. The length of the four plays in The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape varies from one to five episodes. Except the two [lip rouge] couplets (the first episodes of The Angry Drummer and Daughter Mulan) are Northern Zaju, the rest are short plays of Southern Zaju, with free styles, which can be the product of mutual penetration of North and South tunes. The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape also attaches great importance to the stage performance effect, for example, Episode 2 of Zen Master Yu is pantomime. In the Qing Dynasty, Lu Ziyun’s Lakeside Notes.Tomb of Liu Cui Redeemed by the Monk commented: “dancing with masks, like children’s play.” In this way, it describes the performing style of pantomime: “putting on masks (Monk Yue Ming put them on Liu Cui) to play the role of an official, a monk or a woman. It shows the reason why Liu Cui was enlightened immediately, which explains socalled Liu Cui being redeemed by the monk. It’s said that it’s not proper for the monk to carry Liu Cui in the moonlight and dance.” The first episode of the play also has the note: “Zen Master Yu just played whatever roles she could, regardless if they were male or female, old or young.” It is also noted at the end of Daughter Mulan: “Whenever Mulan tests the equipment or changing clothes and shoes, it must include excellent kicking, jumping, and beating movements, followed by singing for each round, otherwise it would be mixed up.” Other key tips for the directors are also pointed out. At the same time, Wang Jiusi and Kang Hai, the dramatists of the period, had the same experience and they had a close relationship. They were not only fellow officials from the same town, but were also abolished as the henchmen of eunuch Liu Jin; they were all members of the Early Seven Scholars, as well as in-law parents to one another. Two kinds of Wang Jiusi’s Zaju are extant, Zhongshan Wolf and Du Zimei’s Drunken Tour in Spring. The two kinds of Kang Hai’s extant Zaju are Zhongshan Wolf and Wang Lanqing’s Chastity. Wang Jiusi’s Du Zimei’s Drunken Tour in Spring, also known as Qujiang Spring, describes Du Fu’s spring tour to Qujiang. Seeing that the palace was desolated, he hated Li Linfu’s loss of the country, so he got himself drunk. Cen Shen came to join him and they both travelled in Bampi. The next day, they went boating with prostitutes, when the idea of seclusion occurred to them. At last, Du Fu resigned from the Imperial Academy and left in a sea boat. According to Zhuang Yifu’s A Study of Classical Opera: “Bampi is the author’s hometown, also the author’s pseudonym, and Du Fu is also the author’s self description”.2 This is credible. In the play, Du Fu’s touring with prostitutes and going into seclusion are consistent with Wang Jiusi’s experience. The biography of Wang Jiusi in Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties C said that Wang Jiusi first worked for Li Dongyang, and then followed Li Mengyang. Therefore, Li Dongyang was responsible for his “relegation and permanent imprisonment”. As he “became the outcast in his prime years, he released his anger by writing ballads and the Zaju like Du Fu’s Spring Tour. He 2

Zhuang Yifu: A Study of Classical Opera, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, p. 419.

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severely scolded West Margin (Li Dongyang), which became popular among people and echoed by the scholars of the Northwest.” It may be true that the role of Li Linfu is to satirize Li Dongyang in the play, but this is actually Wang Jiusi’s misunderstanding to Li Dongyang. Kanghai’s best known Zaju is Zhongshan Wolf . Wang Jiusi, Wang Tingne, Chen Yujiao all have Zaju of the same name, but the one by Kanghai is undoubtedly the best one. Ma Zhongxi, the teacher of Kang Hai and Li Mengyang, both had The Story of Zhongshan Wolf , which were included in the collection of Dongtian. In the Qing Dynasty, Wang Shizhen’s Talks over the North Pool, Vol. 14th said that in Kang Hai’s Collection of Mountains, there is Reading the Story of Zhongshan Wolf , saying, “I did a lot of things out of love in my life, how can I remember ever saving the wolf?” (the poem is not found in Collection of Mountains of Jiajing version, but in Wanli version). When Li Mengyang was sent to prison by Liu Jin, Kang Hai came out to rescue him. Later, when Liu Jin failed and Kang Hai was involved, Li Mengyang ignored him. It is believed that Ma Zhongxi’s The Story of Zhongshan Wolf was written to satirize Li Mengyang, which was the origin of the Zaju Zhongshan Wolf . The Zaju Zhongshan Wolf is no different from The Story of Zhongshan Wolf . This story is widely spread among the Chinese people, known by everyone. Even if the play was actually written by Kang Hai to satirize Li Mengyang, the profound implication that the benefactor being castigated can be completely irrelevant, to the readers, to the author’s particular intention. This drama vividly depicts the wolf’s cunning and ferocity and Mr. Dongguo’s kindness and pedantry, with style and careful structure of the Northern Zaju. Shen Tai said, “This play is refreshing and tranquil, free of flowery rhetoric. It beats the strength in Jin-Yuan writings and outweighs the value of the works by Guan and Zheng” (head notes in Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty. Zhongshan Wolf ). Aoki Masaru said, “it’s impossible for people after Wanli to directly follow the style of the Yuan Dynasty” (Chapter 6, Section 3, History of Chinese Modern Opera). What they said is not exaggeration, but contains an important fact: it is the end of the influence of the Jin-Yuan Zaju to the Ming Dynasty, and then there are obvious changes in the form of Zaju: the free styled short Zaju with one or two episodes, blending Northern and Southern tunes. This change had been shown by Xu Wei in his The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape, and Wang Daokun, who lived almost at the same period as him, had also tried to show this in his works. Wang Daokun (1525–1593), a native of Shexian county (now in Anhui Province), had the first style name of Yuqing, later changed into Boyu, and the pseudonyms of Nanming, Taihan and Hanwong in his later years. He became Jinshi in Jiajing 26th year (1547), together with Zhang Juzheng and Wang Shizhen. He got the position of magistrate of Yiwu in Zhejiang and was promoted to Itinerant Inspector of Fujian in Jiajing 40th year. The next year, he went to Hangzhou asking for help when Japanese pirates took Xinghua. Qi Jiguang sent seven thousand soldiers to Fujian, with Wang Daokun as the Deputy Commander, and subdued the Japanese pirates. His official rank reached that of Assistant Minister for the Ministry of War, but he resigned and returned home soon after. He had Taihan Collection and four kinds of Zaju, including

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Daya Hall Zaju. Wang Daokun and Wang Shizhen who later became equally famous, as both of them had served as military ministers and were called “two Simas”. Wang Daokun’s Daya Hall Zaju was written when he was the magistrate of Xiangyang in 1560 in Jiajing 39th year. His four Zaju are Story of Gaotang, Goddess Luo, Story of Five Lakes and Story of the Capital, with the protagonists respectively as Duke Xiang of State Chu, Cao Zhi, Minister Fan Li and Yin Zhangchang from the capital. According to Pan Zhiheng’s Music of Elegance. On Tunes, the author once told him that the first two plays were dedicated to Zhu Houjiong, Duke Xiang. The latter two plays have the nature of chanting. The four plays are all based on common love affairs, and there is no unpleasant flattery in the works dedicated to the prince, which is different from the general entertainment works.

8.2 Meng Chengshun and Other Masters of the Late Ming Dynasty The four Zaju are single-episodes, not desirable enough in content. Zang Mao, in the second part of his Preface to Selection of Yuan Music, held that its composition was “pure flowery”, which was close to poetry but not really poetry. Their strength was the changes they made in the form: the four-episode Zaju can be regarded as an independent unit, but also as a whole. In the Qing Dynasty, Hong Sheng’s Four Beauties and Shu Wei’s Revision of Music Scores in Pingsheng Hall were inspired by Wang Daokun’s works. Each episode has a short beginning, equivalent to the opening of the supporting role in the Southern Zaju, and ends with a concluding poem. Five Lake Tour is a northern couplet, sung in pairs with a male and a female, and the other three are sounthern tune, which is an obvious example of the transformation of Zaju into southern tunes. It is an inevitable trend for Zaju to adopt the southern tune. Some researchers think that this is the result of the literati’s writing by complying the music scores regardless of the stage performance, which is not in line with the actual situation at that time. Pan Zhiheng’s Music of Elegance. Wu Opera points out that between 1579 and 1582, there were “four popular Zaju, Daya Hall, Story of Hong Fu, Stealing Amulet, Tiger Amulet and Zhu Fa”. Northern Zaju being introduced into the south, sooner or later, more or less, it is bound to bring about southern Zaju. The prosperity of legendary opera promotes the development of this process. Almost at the same time that Wang Daokun compiled these four Zaju in Xiangyang, Xu Wei also created The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Their creations can be the attempts for the southernization of Zaju. It’s not important who had an impact on another between them. They were making the same efforts in achieveing the same goal. It can be seen that this change of Zaju is inevitable. In addition, Wang Daokun’s Daya Hall Zaju is similar to Zhu You’s Birthday Celeberation of Eight Immortals and Peony Immortal, with a tendency of singing and dancing. According to the records from Li Kaixian’s Leisure Notes Collection

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Epilogue to Zhang Xiaoshan’s Short Verse, Wang Daokun’s Taihe Mountain II in Taihan Collection, Vol. 73rd and Chapter 55 Lord Miao’s Seeing Off the Young Singer to Yangzhou in Golden Lotus, as well as the relationship between Zhu Quan, Zhu You and Zaju, it can be seen that from Duke Ning Xian, Duke Zhouxian Zhu You, and Duke Xiang Zhu Houpeng to Wang Daokun, most of the the nobilities and official mansions have their family music troups (and It can also be proved by prime minister Wang Xijue’s family). They were willing to spend a lot of money to hire musicians and actors, which is particularly conducive to the improvement of costumes, props, music and other aspects of opera. The so-called songing-dancing plays with no emphasis on plot structure and characters were produced in such a context. From the perspective of the trend of opera development, this is a misdirection, but it also has its positive side to the prosperity and development of opera performance art.

8.3 Meng Chengshun and Other Dramatists in the Late Ming Dynasty Xu Wei’s The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape and Wang Daokun’s Daya Hall Zaju opened a creation style of short Zaju dominated by southern tune, which was more popular in the late Ming Dynasty. In this period, dramatists were often the legend writers at the same time. Zaju was becoming shorter and shorter, which is a breakthrough to tradition. The southern style of Zaju is the inevitable result of the development of Zaju in the prosperity of legend. Chen Yujiao (1544–1611), style name Guangye and pseudonym name Yuyang or Yuyang Immortal, was from Haining (now Zhejiang Province). In the preface of his legendary collection Crazy Amulet, these is the inscription of “written by my friend Qi Cou at Rennian Study.” Qi Cou and Rennian Study were both pseudonyms of the author. Chen Yujiao became Jinshi in Wanli 2nd year (1574), same as Shen Jing, a famous dramatist. At first, he was in charge of the logistic department in the Ministry of Work. His last position was as Assistant Judge of Taichang Temple, where he left to visit his mother, and didn’t come back. He had four legendary works, Yu Garden Collection (poetry and Off-stage songs), Chuan Collection (letters), Yellow Gate Collection (Memorials) and Crazy Amulet, and three kinds of Zaju, which were collected in Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty. There are many similarities between Chen Yujiao and Shen Jing, who was born in the same year as him, in their experiences: they both attached great importance to melody and rhyme in opera creation, the difference is that Shen Jing had made great efforts in the rise of Kun tune Opera, but Chen Yujiao had no preference for it; Shen Jing emphasized natural expression and sometimes it was close to being vulgar, while Chen Yujiao had the better wording. Chen Yujiao’s three kinds of Zaju are Zhaojun’s Marriage out of the Frontier, Wenji’s Marriage to the Frontie and The Loyal Dog of Yuan.

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In terms of content, the first two Zaju are all adaptations of traditional themes, while the latter one is rarely changed from the historical facts. If we compare Zhaojun going out to the frontier with Ma Zhiyuan’s similar Zaju Autumn in Han Palace, we can see that the latter has an inseparable connection with the background of the times and the rise and fall of the country during the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In Chen Yujiao’s writing, it is just a traditional popular theme. The Loyal Dog of Yuan was written with disappointment and resentment when his eldest son was jailed for murder. He asked for help everywhere but failed. This play, based on History of the South Dynasty, Vol 26th, is the story of Yuan Can, a minister in the late Song Dynasty. When Xiao Daocheng usurped the throne and established the Qi Dynasty, Yuan Can attempted to return to the country by mutiny and was killed after his defeat. The nurse took his little son in her arms and went to Di Lingqing, his former student. Di Lingqing offered the child up and the child was killed. The leading title of it is “Beast face with human heart the minister’s dog, human face beast heart Di Lingqing”. Chen Yujiao asked for help from the two students and were rejected. The view of gratitude and hatred in this play has a strong sense of backwardness and tradition, and it is also combined with karma. It too had a similar theme of Zaju of Zhongshan Wolf , which has been lost. Chen Yujiao’s Zaju attaches great importance to metrics, and the composition is also admirable. Zhaojun’s Marriage out of the Frontier represents his achievements in this respect. Compared with the emphasis on the melody and prose, Chen Yujiao paid less attention to the stage art of opera in his Zaju. For example, when the heroine in Zhaojun’s Marriage out of the Frontier received the news of the distance marriage, what she said was nothing expect “it’s terribly boring”, which lacks the corresponding arrangements. The separation of mother and son was obviuosly a dramatic plot, but it was dealt with mediocrely in Wenji’s Marriage to the Frontier. The first two episodes of Loyal Dog are about Di Lingqing. They are straightforward and unimaginative. In the first episode, the spot light was won by Wang Heng’s Zaju No Way inserted in. The two Zaju of Zhaojun and Wenji, one going in and one going out, both stopped at Yumen Pass, which seemed to be the abrupt clear cuts. One can not help wondering if this is the playwright’s withdrawal from the critical moment to deal with conflict? As mentioned above, Zhaojun’s Marriage out of the Frontier by Ma Zhiyuan deeply expresses the inner feelings of the characters in almost every line. Zhaojun’s thoughts and feelings fluctuate with the cadence of the verse, which provides great potential for stage performance. Chen Yujiao’s works are lyrical and physically expressive, but the dramatic elements are obviously insufficient. Xu Fuzuo (1560–1629 or later), formerly known as Du Ru, style name Yanchu, pseudonyms Bozhu, Three Family Senior Villager and Poqian Taoist, was born in Changshu (today’s Jiangsu Province). His grandfather Xu Xun served as governor of Jiangxi Province and Zhejiang Province successively, and later was promoted as principal of Ministry of Work in Nanjing but was impeached before going to this post. His mother’s family was known as Millionair An, the richest family in Jiangdong. After his grandfather’s death, the family members had fratricidal struggles, and there were successive cases of murder for money. In his early years, Xu Fuzuo lived a wealthy life, but ended up being impoverished and dreary in his later years. He had the

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pseudonym of Three Family Senior Villager, thinking his life to be more frustrating and unfortunate than Xu Wei’s. His works include Talks of Flowery Pavilion, namely Talks of Three Family Senior Villager, from which Treatise on Music should be a part, same as Whispering to My Children, which retained some life records of himself and some contemporary opera commentators as well as their opera commentaries. He has six kinds of legendary opera works, three of which are extant, and three kinds of Zaju, the one extant is A Penny. There are six episodes in A Penny, which were based on a Buddhist story. The rich man Lu Zhi was a stingy miser. He set a fixed quota for food of each family member, so the wife and children were leading a life of starvation with shabby clothes. One day, he found a penny. After all kinds of calculations, he bought some sesame-the food with the largest amount. Being afraid of being robbed by birds and dogs, and he went to the mountain to enjoy it by himself. This Zaju reminds people of the protagonist of the Yuan Zaju The Money Guard, who was also a rich man. He reached out his five fingers and greased them with the oil on a duck head. When he came home, he smacked a fingers after eating each bowl of rice. He saved the grease on the last finger, but it was smacked clean by the dog, so he got angry and sick. Finally, he was awaken and bought a penny of tofu. His will was to use the manger as the coffin, and asked his son to cut his body into two parts to fit in for burial. The axe should be borrowed from others so as not to roll its blade. This kind of conception is simply exaggerated and divorced from reality. It didn’t return to reality when Wu Jingzi’s The Scholars in the Qing Dynasty described Yan Jian’s dying moment,when he was reluctant to swallow his last breath because there was extra light in the lamp. The exaggeration of A Penny is no less than that of The Money Guard, which can be illustrated by an example in the first episode of Lu Zhi’s picking up money: Ah, what’s on the ground ahead? (picking it up to see and laugh) What good luck! It’s good money. Happy! Happy! (looking and laughing again) I need to hide it. Not funny if it falls out and is claimed by another. (making hiding movement) Wait, where to hide? If I hide it in my sleeve, I’m afraid it would drop; if I hide it in my socks, my socks are bottomless; if I hide it in my towel, it has too many holes. Well, I’ll just hold it tight.

At the end of the play, Sakra turned into Lu Zhi and returned to his home to distribute all his property. When Lu Zhi returned home, the fake owner said that the real Lu Zhi was the incarnation of a miser and wanted to beat him. This kind of plot is very rare in ancient operas. Unfortunately, it is linked with religious superstition, even saying that Lu Zhi was an Arhat descending to the world, which makes the originally satirical description less meaningful. Wang Heng (1561–1609), born in Taicang (now Jiangsu Province), was the son of the prime minister Wang Xijue. Such a birth, instead of bringing him good luck, was a burden to his career. At the age of 28, he took the Shuntian Mansion (Beijing) provincial examination and won first place, but was soon impeached for cheating in the examination, which in fact was a trigger point for many conflicts between the officials but had nothing to do with Wang Heng. He past the second round exam in February the next year, but Wang Heng was hurt. After that, he angrily refused to take part in the spring exam three times in a row, thus delaying it for nine years, and once

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quit in the middle of exam. At the age of 41, he became Jinshi in second place and got the position as editor of the Imperial Academy. Chen Jiru, his good friend, said in the Preface to the Collection of Mr. Goushan that the author was “unfortunately born into the minister’s family and his talent was concealed by his high birth”. Wang Heng’s family music was famous in Suzhou, similar to Zhu You. It’s not surprising that he wrote Zaju, as the only son of the prime minister. He had four kinds of Zaju: Robe of Yu Lun, Marriage of Another Life (in doubt), Real Puppet and No Way. According to the Notes of Xiangzu written by Wang Shizhen in the early Qing Dynasty, Wang Heng also wrote Harmony of Peizhan, which is now lost. The first three can be seen as portraits of a father-son’s life by historical figures, both autobiographical and lyrical. Robe of Yu Lun is a story of Wang Wei, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, who can be the author’s self metaphor. According to Xue Yongwei’s Collection of Varieties, Wang Wei was falsely accused, in his exam, of getting the admission for winning the 9th Princess’ favor with Robe of Yu Lun. The Zaju uses the fictional character Wang Tui to take the exam but failed, which shows that what Wang Wei relied on was true talent and knowledge, not the slander of being a counterfeiter. Marriage of Another Life is about the mourning of Emperor Wu in the Han Dynasty for his wife Li. Mrs. Li was reborn as Mrs. Gou Yi and married Emperor Wu. Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty collected this play, with the inscription of the author being Hengwu Room. According to the Records of Relics, Hengwu fragrance was originally a strange fragrance from the dead lady Li in the dream of Emperor Wu. This inscription seems to be false. In Zhuang Yifu’s A Study of Classical Opera, Hengwu Room is the name of Wang Heng’s house, of which the source is unknown. Wang Heng had lost his wife three times. In terms of content and style, it’s logical to take it Marriage of Another Life as Wang Heng’s work, but further verification is still needed. Real Puppet has just one episode. It is said Shen Defu’s Talks on Tunes was actually written by Wang Heng. Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty is inscribed with the anonymous Green Field Hall. Green Field Hall was the villa of Pei Du, the famous Minister in the Tang Dynasty, which was used by Wang Heng to show his family status. Du Yan, the dramatist, alludes to his father, from which he placed a kind of good wish. No Way, just like the name suggests, shows that he could not find a way out in the world, unless jumping into the gourd to find his home. This is not so much a Zaju as a couplet to tell his own story. As is mentioned above, Wang Heng’s four kinds of Zaju are all based on the characters’ allusions to himself or his father, with the narrations and signs of themselves as the characteristics. This limits his horizon for being too much focused on himself without describing it incisively and vividly to show the realistic connotation of these themes. The music is fresh and easy to follow, but it lacks the unique firm spirit of northern tunes. Obviously Wang Heng didn’t pay attention to the structure of opera. For example, Robe of Yu Lun made up another Wang Tui besides Wang Wei. The Real Puppet temporarily used the clothes of puppet opera in the scene of receiving the imperial edict. All of these ideas have their own ingenious points, but apart from Robe of Yu Lun, it is difficult to be the key point attracting the audience to the stage. Therefore, most of Wang Heng’s Zaju can only be enjoyed as written work. This

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is a common problem for the Zaju of Wang Heng’s contemporary literati, but their readability rarely reaches the level of Wang Heng’s works. Ye Xianzu (1566–1641), style name Meidu and pseudonym Liutong, Tongpai or Pine Garden Hermit, was born in Yuyao (now Zhejiang Province). In his early years, he studied in Nanjing with his father. At the age of 29, he passed the provincial examination in Nanjing. After several examinations, he became Jinshi at the age of 54 (Wanli 47th year, 1619). He was the same age as Wu Bing, another legendary dramatist. Granted Xinhui (now Guangdong) county magistrate with outstanding political achievements, he should have been promoted to imperial historian, but he was affected by the impeachment of Wei Zhongxian by his son-in-law Huang Zongxi’s father Zunsu, and his position was changed to being the judge in Dali Temple. At the age of 62, he was demoted for being against Wei Zhongxian’s building of the ancestral hall. After Wei Zhongxian’s defeat, he became the principal of Ministry of Justice in Nanjing again, and finally returned to his hometown by taking a long vacation when he was the judge in Guangxi. Ye Xianzu had at least three kinds of legends and five kinds of Zaju such as Winter Clothes, Cursing at the Party, Morality of North Mang Hill, Flowery Hairpin and The Emperor and the Assassin. They are mostly adaptions or were drawn from the old works. They often changed the tragedies of the predecessors into comedies by desalinating conflicts. The plot structures are more inherited than innovative, with more emphasis on metrics and less on creative talent. Morality of North Mang Hill is the only remarkable one, with southern tunes in the first half and northern tunes in the second half—a rare variation in the Zaju. The Emperor and the Assassin is not a good work, but in terms of composition, there are also wonderful fragments. Meng Chengshun (1599–1684), style name Zisai, Zishi, and Ziruo, was from Kuaiji (now Shaoxing). Inscriptions of Two Xus was signed by Cloud Dweller in Little Penglai. He was the compiler of Selection of Ancient and Modern Classic Plays, which collects fifty six kinds of Zaju in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, including four of his own. As a Zaju dramatist who was good at both Zaju and legend, Meng Chengshun’s early creations were all Zaju. His six kinds of Zaju, except for the lost two The Youth of Beauty and Textual Research of Modern Music, the other four of them, Charming Eyes, Three Visits to the Peach Blossom (A Maiden’s Peach-pink Face in Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty), A Smile before the Blossom Flower are found in Selection of Ancient and Modern Classic Plays. Willow Collection. His The Recreation of the Remnant Tang Dynasty (Success and Failure of A Hero in Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty) is found in Selection of Ancient and Modern Classic Plays. Sacrificing River Collection. A New Release of Life is found in Selection of Ancient and Modern Classic Plays. His Selection of Ancient and Modern Classic Plays is divided into two parts, Willow Collection and Sacrificing River Collection, presented with graceful style and bold style respectively, which is true for the division of the themes and styles of his Zaju. From his creation, he is better at graceful style. The graceful style was applied for the love stories. The playwright was especially good at describing female psychology, the graceful melody and the lyric tone were well combined, easy to recite and perform. Charming Eyes is about Chen Shen, a professor of Yueyang Prefecture in the Southern Song Dynasty, who fell in love with

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Jiang Liu, the top prostitute. For his reputation in his official career, the magistrate sent Jiang Liu to Chenzhou. Chen Shen wrote [charming eyes] as a farewell composition. With the help of their friend Lu Yunxi, the two finally reunited. A Maiden’s Peach-pink Face, based on the widely spread story of Cui Hu’s asking for water in Meng Xuan’s Poems and Anecdotes of the Tang Dynasty, describing the everlasting love between Cui Hu and Zhen’er. In Poems and Anecdotes the female character is not identified. In Zaju it is Zhen’er, and it is added that Zhen’er died early in Cui Hu’s arms, but came back to life and they eventually got married. Charming Eyes is about Tang Bohu’s love story, which was derived from Miscellany of Jinglin. Meng Chengshun changed the status of the maid into an adopted daughter. Due to his limited experience, he was not familiar with people like maids. This change makes it easier for him to describe their psychology, such as [oil gourd] in the fourth fold: Flowers are blooming in the picture and branches are stretching in the mirror, just like lovers being apart. He imagines going to Qinchuan town with his poem of love, I dream of making the trip of flying to Wushan Temple. Much as he writes its never enough for the sadness of separation, much as I moan never exceed the craving for our reunion. Plus the constant sneerings from Little Plum, how I wish to have the relief!

This song describes the love of a noble girl delicately, which is in line with the graceful style of Meng Chengshun’s love drama. In describing the love of lower class girls, his success in ancient opera writing is only next to Guan Hanqing’s The Romantic Skills of the Smart Girl. Meng Chengshun’s bold and unconstrained style Zaju, such as Success and Failure of A Hero, presents a unique mentality and tragedy of a fallen scholar. This play is in northern tune, which is most suitable for such themes. So Opera Reviews of Yuanshan Hall said that it “carries all the poetic style of the Yuan writers.” Meng Chengshun can be a perfect finish for the Zaju in the Ming Dynasty with his high achievements.

Chapter 9

The Flourishing of the Literati’s Chuanqi

Kun Opera originated from a branch of southern opera and developed into the top of the four major tunes, and it is an important symbol for the prosperity of literati legends. Wei Liangfu, Liang Chenyu and Shen Jing had all made great contributions to it. This is a long process of development, which could not possibly be completed by several dramatists in a certain period. There are few documents recording its specific evolution, and the limited words about it are easy to be ignored. The reliable sign is its use of rhymes. Similar rhymes were common in early legendary works. Since Wei Liangfu (the year of his birth is unknown), a reformer of the Kun Opera, wrote the Introduction of Southern Ci Poetry (1543 A.D. or earlier), Kun Opera gradually became the dominant voice of legends in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is said Liang Chenyu’s (1519–1591) “Laundering Gauze” was the first legend created for Kun Opera. The combination of Kun Opera art and legend was not achieved overnight, but went through a process. Kun Opera stood out from the four major tunes and rose to the top of the national repertoire, and it is much younger than people imagine. Liang Chenyu was the successor of Wei Liangfu. When he was about twenty-five years old (1544), he used the traditional rhyme of Southern Opera. Due to its prosperity from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, Kun Opera was misunderstood as a rival to Southern Opera, rather than being regarded as one of the local operas from the south. It seems that all the literati legends were created for its singing, as if the Qupai couplet of Southern Opera was exclusive to it. In fact, even in the middle of Wanli, quite a number of Suzhou composers, from Zheng Ruoyong, Lu Can, and Lu Cai to Liang Chenyu, Zhang Fengyi and Gu Dadian, still followed the traditional rhymes of Southern Opera. At the same time, Haiyan Opera and Yiyang Opera were never famous anywhere. The competition between Haiyan Opera and Kun Opera may have lasted for hundreds of years. This is the most noteworthy phenomenon in the history of Ming opera. Kun Opera artists’ creation and development of performing arts such as Pipa Notes, The Romance of a Hairpin, Jade Hairpin and Peony Pavilion have become treasures of Chinese culture and art. However, none of them were originally created for Kun © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_9

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Opera, and the transplantation and processing of them didn’t happened until later. To be more precise, all Southern Opera and literati legends were the common scripts of various Southern tunes. Yiyang tune change the tune of “Jade Hairpin” when singing, the same is true for Kun tune, which also needed a particular music composition. The difference between Kun Opera, Haiyan Opera and other Operas was not in the script itself, but in their different tunes and performance art. Kun Opera was a branch of Southern Opera before Wei Liangfu reformed it. As the earliest and most widely transplanted opera in China, Mu Lian Saves the Mother provides an example for the above statements.

9.1 The Reform of Kun Opera by Wei Liangfu From the middle of the Jiajing to the Wanli period, the development of literati legends entered a prosperous period. It is not that Southern folk opera stopped developing or was gone, but that the occasional adaptation and creation of literati writers had gradually become the mainstream of legendary operas. In the literati’s hands, the melody gradually became strict, which is an important difference between Southern Opera and legend. In Jiajing 22nd year (1543), Wei Liangfu wrote the Introduction of Southern Ci Poetry to reform Kun Opera. His successor, Liang Chenyu, wrote Laundering Gauze before and after, which is the first legend created for Kun Opera. Since then, Kun Opera has stood out among the four major tunes. Kun Opera, based on Kun tune, became the mainstream of legendary opera in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties. This is a turning point in the history of Ming opera. Zhang Dafu (1544– 1630) wrote a passage in the Wanli 5th year (1577): Wei Liangfu, pseudonym Shang Quan. lived in Nanguan of Taicang. He could harmonize the sounds to achieve a silky effect. Zhang Xiaoquan, Ji Jingpo, Dai Meichuan and Bao Langlang were his followers, making all their efforts in learning his skills, but Liang Fu said he was not as good as Marquis Guo Yunshi, to whom he always went to for advice and whom would give his approval if it was well done, or he would keep on revising with much patience. Lu Jiuchou from my hometown was also good at changing tunes. Gu went on the stage together with Liang, willing to play a supporting role. When Liang Bolong (Chen Yu) heard about it, he started to learn from them and studied the Yuan opera by renovating the tune, presented by “Jiangdong White Ramie” and “Laundering Gauze”. Together with Zheng Sili, he also studied music theories, such as those from Tang Xiaoyu and Chen Meiquan that developed from the past five or seven generations, on all the sonorous sounds. Music was mostly taken from Qi Pengjin and Ziyi’s family from Fan region, and the sound were mostly from the Bolong family. This tune was later called Kun tune. Jinshi Zhang was not good at new things. He took advantage of Liangfu’s revised version and excelled past all his predecessors. He joined Zhao Zhanyun, Lei Zhumin and his uncle, Xiaoquan, in the moon pavilion to sing and then was joined by many, which was later named South Wharf music. As a matter of fact, it adhered to the law of

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Liang, by taking its meaning from some rhymes, which was not easy to fit in Kun tune.1 This is an important record showing the beginning of Kun Opera. According to Qian Qianyi’s Stories of Poems in All Dynasties, can be found in Ling Mengchu’s Miscellaneous Notes of Tan Tune, Li Kaixian’s Banter of Ci Poetry, Shen Shongsui’s Notes to Singing with Music and Song Zhifang’s Trivial Records. “Transposition” is to imitate female voice singing with high octave falsetto. According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, only the Wild Harvest believed that the story of Laundering Gauze was written in the early years of Wanli. Zhang Fengyi’s Story of Hong Fu was written in Jiajing 24th year (1545). Ling Mengchu’s Miscellaneous Notes on Tang Qu held that Story of Hong Fu imitated Laundering Gauze. It can be seen that Laundering Gauze must be earlier than Story of Hong Fu. The quotation above “…to sing and then joined by many, which was later named South Wharf music” is worthy of attention. In the early Ming Dynasty, Liu Jia River in Taicang Prefecture was a seaport for Zheng When he went west, it provided a necessary breeding ground for the new tune. Although Xinqiang later became the entertainment of the bureaucrats and played down the influence of the commercial to it, there were some reasons why it came into being in the harbor near Suzhou, an important industrial and commercial town at that time. Wei Liangfu’s reform was mainly involved with the sounds, so there were few written materials handed down. The same is true for Liang Chenyu’s activities, including his learning from Wei Liangfu, which was rarely recorded. After the rise of Kun Opera, the Pipa Notes and the four southern operas, which had been popular for a long time before hand, as well as the literary legends created before and after, such as the Sword by Li Kaixian and the Four Dreams by Tang Xianzu, were transplanted into Kun Opera successively. It caught up from behind by prevailing on the old operas. In fact, Haiyan Tune and Yiyang Tune never got popular anywhere until Wanli, including Suzhou, the birthplace of Kun Opera. On the one hand, Kun Opera’s status rose and eventually became the mainstream of literati legends in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties, other tunes were not wiped out by it. They were still sung in their own region, so there came a situation of coexistence without contradiction, which is one of the most important phenomena in the history of Ming opera. Kun Opera remained the most famous opera until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Its gradual development since the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty shows its essence. According to Li Dou’s Records of Yangzhou Boat Painting. Vol. 5th (1795, Qianlong 60th year), “To salt officials of two Huai Rivers, two styles of opera, Elegant and Mixed, were prepared to perform. Ya is in Kun tune. Mixed is composed of Beijing tune, Qin tune, Yiyang tune, Bangzi tune, Luoluo tune and Erhuang tune, generally called Random Tunes.” On the basis of Hui and Han tunes, Beijing Opera gradually formed by absorbing Kun Opera and Bangzi tune. Beijing Opera is a kind of Ban tune, which not only has a seven tone scale, but 1 Story Series from the Ming and Qing Dynasty, Anecdotes from Melon Pedicel Monastery, Notes, Vol. 12th, Kun Opera, Plum Blossom Thatched Cottage, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1986, p. 774.

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also retains the traces of five tone scale, forming a national opera. It is not only the synthesis of the local operas in the south, but also the combination of Beijing Opera and Qin Opera, which has become the main opera of modern Kun Opera.

9.1.1 Liang Chenyu and Laundering Gauze Liang Chenyu (1519–1591), style name Bolong, was from Kunshan. He was the author of some poetry and Qing opera collections with three Zaju, such as Ancient Yuefu, Lucheng Collection, Jiangdong White Ramie and Red-thread Woman. He also had one legend Laundering Gauze. Liang Chenyu’s great grandfather was once the rear service officer in Quanzhoui, and his father was an instructor in Pingyang County, Zhejiang Province. He himself was only a clerk. Later, he paid for the qualification of being an examinee, so that he had more opportunities to meet teachers and friends. Except for that, his status had not changed much. From his grandfather to himself, we can see clearly the decline of status of the middle-level bureaucrat’s family. In his youth, his farm property enabled him to afford a luxious life. As described in Zhang Dafu’s Biographies of Huangming Kunshan Figures, Vol. 8th, he was “good at serving the chivalry and enjoying music”, “he camped in nice tents, attracting celeberities from all over” and “people in all circles tried to socialize with him”. Out of his father’s heritage, he wrote poems, sang and danced, which became one side of his life. There is no support for Zhang Dafu’s biography of him that he “would not give into take the examinations”. Every province had a quota for the autumn examination. Suzhou scholars often went to the south and north capitals, which had more quota by paying for their qualifications in order to seek the convenience of the imperial examination. At the age of 40, Liang Chenyu, despite his seniority in age, participated in the autumn test of Shuntian Mansion in Beijing. It was conceivable for what his situation had been before that. Later, as his family declined, he went for long-distance trips at least twice. The first time he went to Wenzhou at the age of 35, and the second time along the Yangtze River to Jingzhou at the age of 37. In fact, this was a helpless way to make a living in disguise. In the first and second episodes of Jiangdong White Ramie, he had many writings in Qing tune, such as To Jinling Yang Jizhen on Behalf of Shen Taixuan, To Jinling Lu Xiaoqiao on Behalf of Zhu Changru, which were all for the fun of it that the playful child like men or rich businessmen were seeking from the prostitutes. He had to use his “skillful tougue” to “play his tunes” (Biographies of Huangming Kunshan Figures, Vol. 8th), so as to win the favor of his masters and their concubines. The second long-distance trip also had the intention of escaping from the invaders. At that time, the northern Mongolian aristocrats attacked the capital directly, and the invaders along the southeast coast went forward by encountering little resistance. It was not that Liang Chenyu was indifferent to the external troubles, but that as his family went downhill, a person with a good background like him had to make a living as a singer among the prostitutes.

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The time for Laundering Gauze to be written was much earlier than people misidentificationly believed, because of the record of Shen Defu’s Notes on Guqu·Legend of Liang Bolong (see also Wanli Wild Harvest, Vol. 25th): “When Laundering Gauze was first published, Liang toured in Qingpu and Tu Weizhen (Long) got the order to host him in a grand ceremony. He had the new opera play at his birthday celebration”. If so, it would be thirty or fifty years later that Zhang Fengyi’s Story of Hong Fu and Lu Cai’s The Pearl was heard. The Lu Cai brothers and Zhang Fengyi lived in Changzhou (now Suzhou) for generations, according to Yin County Annals, Tu Long was transferred to Qingpu as the magistrate in 1579. If Laundering Gauze came out so late, the honor of being the creator of Kun Opera will not be bestowed to Liang Chenyu. Tu Long’s account of his friend Liang Chenyu’s whereabouts and his relationship with him is certainly more reliable than that of third party’s hearsay. Tu Long’s Preface to the Lucheng Collection said: “I’m from Ruying, and taking a break here at Youquan. Holding the bridle in the mountain, in the county I’m roaming. With joy and terror taking turn, I’m like a vigorous wind. There he is with me, Liang Bolong from Kunyang.” This is to say that Tu Long was proud to meet Liang Chenyu for the first time. Then he said: “When he was young, Bolong preferred a new sound… Not until recently I read his ancient style writings.” Taking, “young” and “recently” as the comparison of sequence, “young” refers to the time when Liang was famous for his clear songs or opera, and “new sound” refers to Laundering Gauze, which was created earlier for Kun Opera, “recently” means the time after reading his poetry. There must be a gap of twenty or thirty years. Liang Chenyu was sixty-four years old during his visit to Qingpu when Tu Long wrote the preface for him. He was by no means still “young”. When Liang Chenyu was thirty-five years old, he traveled south to Zhejiang Province. Two years later, he traveled across the Yangtze River to Jingzhou. When he was thirty-eight, he returned home. Owing to his fame, he was entertained by the prefectures and even the king of Liao. At that time, his Ancient Yuefu, Lucheng Collection and Jiangdong White Ramie had not been finished yet. The only possibility is that Laundering Gauze had long been published, which made him famous. According to the relationship between the playwright and the tunes at that time, Zhang Fengyi’s Story of Hong Fu was written in 1545. Ling Mengchu’s Miscellaneous Notes of Tan Tune commented: “(Zhang) doesn’t need to polish his words, and the decoration of words is not what he is good at. He uses a lot of authentic local dialect. He has a forthright spirit, but he ended up in giving into the prevalent ill trend by piling up words to piece together writings, which is also the result of imitating Bolong.” Of course, Laundering Gauze came out earlier than Story of Hong Fu. Xu Fuzuo’s “On Tunes” said: “Wuzhong’s old tune was learned from Wei Liangfu from Taicang and Bo Qi had the renovation, and they became the founders.” A link was omitted between “was learned from Wei Liangfu” and “Bo Qi had the renovation”. This is Liang Chenyu’s introduction of Kun Opera into the legend of literati and his creation of Laundering Gauze for Kun Opera. The writing of Laundering Gauze happened when he was about 25 years old (1543), a little earlier than Story of Hong

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Fu. Only in this way can it be consistent with most of the records at that time (obviously false rumors are not included). In this way, beginning from Laundering Gauze, the writers and composers wrote Kun Opera nearly half a century earlier than the old sayings stated. Suzhou was one of the most prosperous industrial and commercial cities at the time, and it was close to the commercial port of Liujiagang, where Kun Opera was born. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, a school was called South Wharf Tune, but it grew with the support of literati. Therefore, there was less public sentiment for the Ming and Qing legends than that of the Yuan Dynasty Zaju. Liang Chenyu was one of the legendary writers who was deeply influenced by the urbon dwellers’ sentiment, which made him different from the orthodox literati. Laundering Gauze was based on Historical Record, Family of King of Yue Goujian. Many plots and images of Xishi come from the Spring and Autumn in Wuyue, Wuyue Records and Land of Wu. The theme of the war between the two countries Wu and Yue turnd the opera into a historical play with numerous historical facts and legendary stories. The plot of the play can easily be scattered and trivial, and it is difficult to reflect such a huge theme truthfully if the plot is simplified. This is the first problem since southern opera evolved into a legend. Laundering Gauze left some detailes uncut, which makes the structure of the whole play a little complicated and disorganized. One of the reasons is that some historical records are not easy to abridge, the other is that they are vulgar and can cater to the tastes of only some audiences. The example of the former is like The Adopted Son, which is a more popular folktale in later generations, but it has little to do with the whole play, while the latter is like Imitating the Beauty’s Frown. Generally speaking, the script takes the gathering and separation of Fan Li and Xi Shi as the main story line of many plots, which is very suitable for legendary art with male roles as the main characters. A male role’s joys and sorrows are mainly based on fictional plots of legends or semi legends, while national events are based on historical facts as much as possible. The structure of combining the virtual and the real almost laid a constant pattern for all the later historical legends, including the Hall of Eternal Life and the Peach Blossom Fan. This is a great contribution of Liang Chenyu and other early historical playwrights. Wang Shizhen’s poem Ridiculing Liang Bolong said: “When the seven foot body has no heart beat, there is the wish to be buried by Yao Li’s side” (Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Vol. 49th). This is to say that Liang Chenyu compared himself to Liang Hong, the hermit of the Eastern Han Dynasty and wished to be buried by his tomb. In the first episode of Laundering Gauze, Home Door, serves as its own preface [red forest]: “The horse is sadly tamed, the swan goose is trapped. Recalling the past, only words can tell of the broken heart. Who is the writer? His name is Liang Bolong, in good times a generous giver, in bad time an ambitious wood carrier.” The wood carrier refers to Zhu Maichen in the Western Han Dynasty. Compared with Liang Hong, Zhu Maichen was better known by the local people. The historical sites of King Helu of Wu, Fan Li and Xi Shi are all over Suzhou, such as Gusu Tower, Helu’s residence in Huqiu, Children’s Palace in Lingyan Hall, Xiang Lang and the stone

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chamber where Fan Li was imprisoned. Liang Chenyu takes Fan Li and Xi Shi as the theme, which expresses his frustrations and expectations. In connection with this, Fan Li, who built up his career and regarded wealth as a floating cloud, was willing to persuade the beauty to retire together with him, which was Liang Chenyu’s life ideal. In “Autumn View over Taihu Mountains”, he wrote in the second half: From Dongting lake I saw the southern flood, to the vast land I saw the Yue state. The two oars returned from the sky, the peaks and waves were straight. In memory of the sons of Wuyi, the deep thoughts have been with me. Recalling the words of the King when the boat was racing, with my wish he was too much a hero for me in learning.” It was originally a writing for scenery but suddenly changed into a song of Fan Li’s sailing on the five lakes with Xi Shi. This is another reason to think that Fan Li was used as the main character in Laundering Gauze. The arrangement of plot structure in Laundering Gauze is very complicated. The king of Wu, Fu Chai, was satisfied with his ambition, indulged in his emotions, and Gou Jian, the king of Yue, tried to learn the lessons from the hardships by tasting animal gallbladder and sleeping on the wood on a daily basis; Wu Xu and Bo Pi become estranged and schemed against each other; Fan Li, the literati and the military courtiers all worked together to fulfill their respective duties. On the one hand, the loyalty and the treachery are the two opposite sides, but on the other hand, they worked together. They set off and contrast one after another in the play. The ending of Fan Li’s and Xi Shi’s seclusion broke the stereotyped ending of southern opera, which was refreshing to the audience. Fan Li’s achieved his success both in his career and marriage, which fullfilled the author’s intention of creation. It is not fair for Xu Fuzuo to criticize it as “no bone, no muscle, no enlightenment” in his On Tunes. The defect of Laundering Gauze lies in that the characters are not fully established, the protagonists Fan Li and Xi Shi are short of flesh for not being vividly depicted, and the treacherous official Bo Chu is just a simple scandal. Fu Chai’s libretto in Episode 28 [monologue]: “I want to buy joy and laughter all my life. There is no desirable chic” is like from a loafe rather than from a dissolute monarch. The lyrics of Laundering Gauze are in line with the distribution of roles and the style of tunes. The northern tune was sung by male roles and southern tunes were sung by female roles, such as the duet in Episode 45 of the Vast Lake, which shows the different characteristics of southern and northern tunes. The following are the two examples: (female singing): you have not returned from your expedition, I have been lonely in the mountain. The warbler and the swallow are in pairs. Who knows that life flies by, who knows that life flies by. Upon your returning, I am out like flowers fluttering. (male singing): Leaving home to service my country, to service my country. To seperate for the Lord, I can feel my heart ache.Looking at Gusu behind, tears touching my mind!

Some words are bold, such as in Episode 24 of Request: I know Zigong, also call Duanmu Si. He is a complete villain. He is very good at business and his family is very rich, but he gets everything for his own family, never willing to help others. His school mates, Yuan Xian and Yan Yuan, were both kind but impoverished. They spent time together day by day at Confucius school, but never offered them any help.

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What’s the use of having such a friend? It is really funny for Confucius to say, “he went to do business without being dictated by fate.” In Episode 44 of Safeguarding the Country: “In the past, King Wu was attacking Zhou and granted Duke Zhou with Da Ji. The future generations of the world know everything. Da Ji was the concubine of the prince, and Duke Zhou is the great sage of ancient and modern times.” Opera is not as formal as general poetry, and the harmless jokes are easy to be tolerated. However, it is rare to laugh directly at Zhou and Kong, the great sages of Confucianism. This is a flash of brilliance in Liang Chenyu’s mediocre thoughts. Unfortunately, there are too many words in Laundering Gauze and too few natural and fluent dialogues. Xishi’s role in the war between Wu and Yue has never been emphasized in previous legends. Her image is not the product of ancient female disaster theories such as Da Ji and Yang Guifei. She is a heroine who is active and devoted to serving the country. This is another aspect of Liang Chenyu’s new creation. Therefore, the King of Yue couple, Fan Li and Wen Zhong had to invite her to sit on the table and worship her, which makes it possible to match Fan Li. In the story of Laundering Gauze, a wife and he share weal and woe to achieve a great goal. All of the above new dramas are the counter stimulation of the traditional sense of men’s superiority over women.

Shen Jing and Wu Jiang School Shen Jing was ranked first among the contemporary dramatists in the late Ming Dynasty in Lu Tiancheng’s Tune Reviews New Legend Reviews. His “Thirteen Tunes of Southern Nine Temples” is regarded as the standard of the fixed pattern of opera creation. The rise of Wujiang school and the emergence of opera writers with similar styles in Suzhou in the early Qing Dynasty were inseparable from Shen Jing’s name. Shen Jing (1553–1610), style name Bo Ying, pseudonym Ning An and autograph Yin Sheng, was from Wujiang, Suzhou. Wujiang was close to Kun Shan. Shen Jing became Jinshi in Wanli period (1574). He was the principal in the Ministry of Military Affairs. The next year, he returned home due to illness. In 1579, he was appointed as the principal of the Ministry of Rites and promoted to the director of the Ministry of Officials. He was not a senior official, but was in charge of appointments and removal of positions. In 1582, he returned home on funeral leave, and got back to his original position three years later. In the following year, he proposed to the king to crown the prince as soon as possible and the title of the Royal concubine to be given to Wang’s mother, the eldest son of the Emperor, of was demoted to the third level and transferred to the Ministry of Information. In 1588, he was appointed as the examiner of Shuntian (Beijing) provincial examination and promoted to judge in Guanglu Temple. Shen Jing was forced to return to his hometown the following year because of fraud of some examiners and the impeachment of courtiers. Shen Jing was helped by prime minister Shen Shixing owing to his relationship with him as fellow countrymen and his student, and soon got back to work. However, he resigned for the admission of his son-in-law and other malpractices in the examination. Shen Jing was attached to the cabinet, sometimes lacking principles, which was different

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from the bookworms who had the courage to ridicule the government. This kind of political attitude is closely related to his mediocre and conservative views in opera. Shen Jing quit his official career at the age of 37 and began his 20-year career in opera creation. Red Lotus was his first work. The play was originally written under the disguised name of Shi Rusong. At the end of the play, the lines in restructured verse implied his real name and birth place, which reflected the conflict of the mind for a feudal scholar official who willingly came down to earth by composing music and opera. Shen Jing was more orthodoxic than other dramatists at the time, but he persisted after all. In the first episode of the same play [lead to centuries], “a free heart and then a warm heart”, “a happy mind and a good choice of prostitutes”, tells the fun seeking sentiment of frustrated scholar officials. He chose the study of tunes and opera creation as his lifelong career with a disguised autograph, which indicated his interest and pursuit. The six playes (in chronological order) Red Lotus, Buried Sword, Ten Filial Piety, Splitting Money, Double Fish and A Shirt are Shen Jing’s early creations. Among them, Ten Filial Piety, Splitting Money, and A Shirt were lost. Red Lotus was based on the legendary novel Zheng Dezhen from Anthology of Tales from Records of the Taiping Era, Vol. 152nd. The novel is mainly about Zheng Dehuang’s love story, while the opera develops another love story by using Cui Xizhou, the protagonist who was just mentioned in the novel, as the main character. Two clues interlace together, producing the plot of “ten unprovoked coincidences”. The plot is intricate and scattered, and the main line is not prominent enough. The author controlled the ups and downs of the characters arbitrarily, which is not only lacking of authenticity, but also failed to create the comedy atmosphere on stage. This play was once regarded as Shen Jing’s best work by Xu Fuzuo, Wang Jide and modern time Wu Mei. Wang Jide appreciated its “colorful language” (second half of Miscellaneous Treatise, Part 39 from Rules of Tunes, Vol. 4th), which shows that the language of his operas is not as boring as his later works. Wu called it a “novel couplet with harmonious rhythm” (Postscript to Red Lotus), which was Shen Jing’s later creation feature. It is true that opera should be written in beautiful language and harmonious tones, but the task of playwrights is a lot more than this. Burying the Sword was adapted from the legendary novel Wu Bao’an, which is included in Anthology of Tales from Records of the Taiping Era. Vol. 166th. Wu’s story was also collected in Book of Tang. Stories of Loyalty. The theme of the opera is the life long friendship, which turned out to be the most popular even since the Brotherhood between Fan and Zhang by Gong Dayong in the Yuan Dynasty. The personal friendship between Guo Zhongxiang and Wu Baoan is connected with patriotic loyalty to the country, which enriches the social significance of the works. However, the new plots and characters, such as cutting one’s flesh to cure an aunt, loyal servants and righteous maids, have the tendency of orthodox ethics. This is the best of Shen Jing’s plays. Unfortunately, the moving stories were not turned into wonderful Episodes on stage, so it has been forgotten for a long time. In terms of art, Shen Jing admitted that Red Lotus is “a work with each word and sentence decorated” (Tune Reviews by Lu Tiancheng). It was a written work not suitable for performance. The same is true for Buried Sword and Double Fish.

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The author didn’t realize that the weakness of them were the lack of new ideas, vivid characters and plots, but owed it to the lack of commonness in his expression. So after the Story of the Righteous Hero, the language style of his opera changed. His eleven books are Shen Jing’s later creations, including (in chronological order) Story of the Righteous Hero, Wedding Comforter, Exorcising Board, Splitting Oranges, Four Roles, Drilling A Well, A Pearl String, Amazing Anecdotes, Hair Binding, Falling Hairpin, For Your Amusement. Now only the following four are left: Story of the Righteous Hero is based on the story of Wusong in Water Margin, which is called Ten Episodes of Wu. It’s hard to imagine that the story of the tiger fighting hero is included in the legend as the male leading role. The author’s fictional plot of Wu Song and his fiancee is better than those of the same kind in the story of Red Lotus and Double Fish. The description of Wu Song’s righteousness basically follows the novel. It’s unreasonable and demanding to expect it to achieve the level of “Water Margin” in art. In order to adapt to the characters and theme, the author made great efforts to popularize its language, which is the reason why among 17 of Shen Jing’s operas, only some of them were still being performed by later generations, such as Another World in the Falling Hairpin and Episode 4 Tiger Fighting, Episode 8 Acting Uncle, Episode 10 Farewell Brother, Episode 12 Pulling Curtain, Episode 12 Making Clothes, Episode 16 Catching Adutery and Episode 17 Taking Poison in Story of the Righteous Hero. Exorcising Board was adapted according to Zaju version Bao Longtu’s Survey over Backyard Flower by Zheng Tingyu of the Yuan Dynasty. The contents are all about adultery, homicide, honest officials, retribution of ghosts and gods It might be very attractive to the audience in theaters then. The play is compact owing to the good organization of the original work. Shen did not make any further improvements. Falling Hairpin, also known as One Feeling, was adapted according to the Story of Golden Phoenix Hairpin adapted from Qu You’s New Remarks by Oil Lamp, Vol. 1st. The characters and plots are basically the same. There is no superstitious plot of Mr. Bing Ling, Uncle Lu and the King Of Zhou’s Temple in the novel, which was added by Shen Jing. The author did not deny that it is a simulation of Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion. It’s a pity that we lost the exciting theme of anti ethics in Peony Pavilion. In addition to the follow-up imitation, Shen Jing adapted the Peony Pavilion into The Same Dream. For Your Amusement is Shen Jing’s last creation, a unique collection of comedies. In For Your Amusement, except for the first episodes that explains the origin of creation and prompts the repertoire, the remaining 27 episodes consist of ten independent short plays: three episodes for Wu Xiaolian, two episodes for County Magistrate, two episodes for Tiger Knocking on the Door, three episodes for Fake Living Buddha, three episodes for Selling Sister-in-law, three episodes for Fake Woman, four of Righteous Tiger, two episodes for Thief Saving Man, two episodes for Ghost Catching, three episodes for Hunting for Thief . Just as Xu Wei’s iniation of Zaju “Four Ape Howlings” as a short form of play, For Your Amusement breaks the pattern of legend. Comedy is good in short from, and this is a meaningful exploration. Shen Jing’s ten legendary short plays are mostly about current affairs. They didn’t take talented people, beautiful women, nor historical and legendary figures as the

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main characters, but the new Jinshi, local officials, reinstated officials, monks and Taoists, village women, merchants, hoodlums, actors, thieves, and peddlers, who carried the characteristics of the times in the play, which is refreshing. Unfortunately, character description is close to caricature, lacking vividness, and the plot is too simple, lacking appeal. Generally speaking, the thought in Shen Jing’s plays was old and conservative, but he had the desire to innovate in the artistic form. For example, Ten Filial Piety and For Your Amusement are tries in shortplays. The plays such as Red Lotus, Buried Sword and Double Fish have more or less dual structures. They were intended to succeed with strange plots consisting of twists and turns. They had a great influence on playwrights who were later active in Suzhou. In the early Qing Dynasty, Zhu Sushen’s Dream of Two Bears (later Fifteen String of Coins) was a work of the same type. Shen Jing, as a great master of metrical school, compiled the Southern Rhyme Selection and commented on the Yuefu Directions by Shen Boshi in Wujiang of Song Dynasty. His works on tune studies include Corrections to Wu, Six Principles of Ci Poetry, ABC to Tunes (all mentioned are unfound) and Thirteen Tunes of Southern Nine Temples. The last one is the most important.2 Shen Jing’s view of tune study is nothing more than two points: the rules and metrics were more important than the artistic and ideological nature of the works; the language of opera advocates the essence. In practice, he didn’t do what he said. Feng Menglong’s Taixia New Tunes pointed out many of his errors in music rules, and he himself “apologized for taking Red Lotus by leaving out the essence” (Miscellaneous Treatise Part 39 in On Metrics, Vol. 4th). It is like a musician mistaking fingering practice for masterpieces to perform. Shen Jing’s achievements in opera creation are limited, but he was as famous as Tang Xianzu, the first-class writer in the field of opera. This is due to the great influence of his music composition, and his being the leader of Wujiang school. Owing to the above two characteristics of Shen Jing’s treatise on the study of tunes, Wujiang school was also known as the metrical school or the essentialism school. In terms of the areas it covered, Wujiang school not only referred to Kunshan and Suzhou, but also includes Southern Jiangsu and parts of Zhejiang. In fact, Wujiang 2

Southern Nine Temples was published in around 1606. In 1549, Jiang Xiao of Changzhou compiled the Southern Nine Temples Music according to Chen and Bai’s Catalogue of the Old Southern Nine Temples and the Syllables of Southern Thirteen Tunes. Jiang wrote lyrics for the 652 songs for the Southern Nine Temples, while 503 songs in Thirteen Tunes were only listed. Shen Jing took more than 80 ancient southern operas, old legends, contemporary literati works and some Tang and Song Ci poetry as the source materials, researched the origin, sentence pattern, clapper and four tone rhymes of each tune, making 652 Qupai a model that the author and singer can follow. Shen Jing added 67 pieces of music to 503 old songs in Thirteen Tunes that were or will be lost, so that they could regain their vitality. It took half a century from Jiang Xiao to Shen Jing to produce the Southern music score. 40 years after Shen Jing, there was a revised version of the New Composition of Southern Ci Poetry written by Shen Zijin, his nephew. Editors take inheriting family studies as their own duty, naturally they could not have made significant improvements. In addition, Feng Menglong’s Mohan Composition of Ci Poetry (not completed) in 1646 and Xu Yushi’s and Niu Shaoya’s The Beginning of Southern Nine Temples in 1652 all revised Shen Jing’s omissions.

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school had become the authentic Kun Opera. In addition to Shen Jing, famous writers include Lu Tiancheng, Ye Xianzu (Yuyao, Zhejiang), Gu Dadian, Feng Menglong (Suzhou), Fan Wenruo (Shanghai), Bu Shichen (Jiaxing), and Shen Zijin (Wujiang). The term Wujiang school, in fact, is only a relative concept. The members of Wujiang schoole were more or less related to Shen Jing, but this does not mean that they were completely consistent with Shen Jing from the perspectives of opera or the creative styles. At least, Gu Dadian and Wang Jide showed different trends from Shen Jing. Even Shen Jing had to admit it. Xu Fuzuo’s Rhyme Collection of North and South is the inheritance and development of Southern Rhyme Selections, which has an obvious tendency of praising Shen and restraining Tang. Xu Zichang, another composer, also left a trace of imitating Shen Jing in his creation. In fact, they are more likely to belong to Wujiang school. For the dramatists and theoreticians who had great influence on Wujiang school in the field of opera, they are listed below. Gu Dadian (1541–1596), with the style name of Dao Xing and pseudonym Heng Yu, was born in Wujiang (now Jiangsu Province). In Longqing 2nd year (1568), he served successively as an instructor in the Shaoxing goverment, a judicial officer of Chuzhou (now Lishui, Zhejiang), principal of Nanjing Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Military Affairs, officer in the Ministry of Officials, and an assistant examiner in Shandong and Fujian Province. He was a poet, painter and dramatist. He was the author of four legends: The Story of Green Shirt, Vine Shirt, The Story of Yi Ru and On Customs. The last two are lost. Gu Dadian’s legends are mostly based on enlightenment and mediocre in their thinking. The Story of Green Shirt is his best work among all. The Story of Green Shirt was written in Wanli 20th year (1592). Ma Zhiyuan of the Yuan Dynasty created the Zaju Green Shirt Tears according to the famous work Pipa Trip. The legend of Gu Dadian The Story of Green Shirt is the adaptation and expansion of the Zaju version, which describes the joys and sorrows of Bai Juyi and Pei XingNu, a famous prostitute. Bai Juyi pawned the green shirt to make love with Pei XingNu. After their separation, she redeemed the green shirt and offered it to Fan Su and Xiao Man. Finally, she and Bai Juyi got back together and Bai Juyi wet his green shirt with tears. In addition to the death of tea merchants, the friends Meng Haoran and Jia Dao were changed to Yuanzhen and Liu Yuxi, but the legend did not change the plot of the Zaju much. The green shirt is a clue with natural and ingenious structure. Zhang Fengyi wrote a preface for the play, saying that it is “a picture in the mirror”, and that Bai Juyi’s image is the author’s shadow, which should not be doubted. Gu Dadian had a deep friendship with Shen Jing. In his nephew Shen Zijin’s New Book of Southern Ci Poetry, Shen Jing selected one tune in Gu Dadian’s The Story of Green Shirt and three tunes in On Customs. However, it can be seen from the mixing of adjacent rhymes in The Story of Green Shirt that Gu Dadian’s view on rules of tune is obviously different from Shen Jing’s though they are both from Suzhou. Xu Fuzuo, their contemporary, has long been aware of the differences between Gu Dadian and Shen Jing in their views. He included Gu Dadian’s Vine Shirt (Wutong tree in Shang Tune) in his Rhyme Collection of North and South, and pointed out: “Shen is most

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strict in rhymes, and why didn’t he make it clear to Gu? Mr. Gu and Mr. Zhang were very close. How could it be possible for one to give up the expression one likes better?” At the end of the sentence, Gu Dadian used the rhyme of southern opera adopted by Zhang Fengyi, which was true at that time. Xu Zichang (1578–1623), style name Xuan You, was born in Suzhou. His family was rich but he was not doing well with his taking of the imperial examinations. After failing the fourth autumn exam, he donated money to get a position as a clerk in Wenhua Palace, and then resigned and returned home. He revised, adapted, or created nine kinds of legends, such as Water Margin Stories, Jade Planting, Chivalry, Dating Site, Pearl-handling Tower and Pendant of Soul. Xu Zichang and Shen Jing were distant relatives. His plays were obviously influenced by Shen Jing. For example, Episode 5 of Pearl-handling Tower, Episode 20 of Pendant of Soul and Episode 18 of Water Margin Stories all mentioned the details in Shen Jing’s Red Lotus. These plots can be found in the legend Zheng Dezhen of Tang Dynasty, but no one used it as the allusion of men and women’s love like in these three plays. The hero of Pearl-handling Tower found the girl’s poem on the boat, the heroine of Pendant of Soul threw herself into the water and died, the hero and heroine of Dating Site met on the boat, the three legends are similar to some of the plots of “Red Lotus”. The marriage of men and women in Pendant of Soul was completed by Master Bing Ling, who was also found Episode 9 of Shen Jing’s Falling Hairpin. According to the story of Wusong and Pan Jinlian in Water Margin, Shen Jing compiled Chivalry, while Xu Zichang compiles Water Margin Stories from the southern opera, on the story of Song Jiang and Yan Poxi. Episode 11 begins with six questions of “Isn’t…?”, which is clearly the simulation in Episode 12 of Chivalry. The difference between Xu Zichang and Shen Jing lies in the fact that the latter’s lyrics had changed from ornate diction to slang after the story of the Red Lotus, while the former’s lyrics had changed from the common in Pearl-handling Tower and Pendant of Soul to elegant in Water Margin Stories. The paragraghs in Episode 9 are especially obvious. The plot of Xu Zichang’s legend is mostly complicated and strange, while the composition is mediocre and rarely good. For example, the elegant expressions in Water Margin Stories are incompatible with the heroes of the marsh and Yan Po Xi’s urban dewller’s lifestyle, being flashy but not brilliant. In terms of artistic structure and performance effect, Water Margin Stories is a rare success. There are too many characters in Water Margin Stories by anonymous, with 20 or 30 of them whom the author was reluctant to give up even if they had no significant interposition. Xu Zichang’s legend Water Margin Stories is not so much adapted from its southern opera as based on the novel directly. It has thirty-two episodes, focusing on strategic birthday gift taking and the killing of Xi. The two stories are inseparable, and the less relevant details were deleted. The two stories account for nearly half for each, and the others are interspersed between the two. The unique feature of this legend is that it intended to reproduce the essence of novel while not purposefully pursue its form. The affair between Yan Boxi and Zhang Wenyuan are just intended for the plot of killing Yan Boxi without any playing up to it, which can be taken as a local theme that has never been explored. This is the highlight in Water Margin

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Stories, in which it was played up wantonly. It had achieved unexpected success. The most successful one was Captured Alive. Although the relevant episodes such as Borrowing Tea, Picking Up Towel, Before Luring and After Luring also heavely sensationalized the plot neglected in the novel, they are only the foil of Captured Alive. In terms of ideology, the legend Water Margin Stories always sympathizes and affirms Song Jiang’s uprising. The whole play ends with Gather for Brotherhood, which is rare in all water margin plays and even the original works of Water Margin. The image of Yan Boxi also shows the innovation of the play. The legend accurately and meticulously avoided the direct reprimand of Song Jiang, and made a convincing portrayal of the poisoned hand he had to give, putting sympathy on Yan Boxi. She was forced to sell herself, and the legend played up Song Jiang’s indifference to her tender feelings on the night of her new marriage, which justified her for her extramarital affairs due to her dissatisfaction with marriage. Zhang Sanlang was not her ideal lover either. She had no choice, which was her real tragedy. Capture Alive is not about the ghost of an abandoned womans revenging a heartless man like Wang Kui’s Isolation of Gui Ying, but about the ghost of a murdered woman persistently pursuing the same man when she was alive, even though he was not worthy of her. This is an unprecedented unique creation. Yan Po Xi’s bad habits, affected by the environment, were purified to a certain extent by her tragic death. Xu Zichang painstakingly went deep into the soul of Yan Boxi, the humble woman, and made a useful exploration on the borderline between evil and innocence, so as to obtain an irreplaceable position on the same subject matter with its unique style. The social thoughts and the characteristics of literature and art in the late Ming Dynasty are embodied in Captured Alive. It was not the Renaissance that came with the primitive accumulation of capitalism, but it had some signs similar to the Renaissance. They were new things with too many elements of traditional culture; they were old but were not to be defined by the ideas expressed by the legends. Wang Jide (1542–1623), a Yuezhong composer, was listed being of Wujiang school because of his deep friendship with Shen Jing and their mutual respect. In fact, the two have differences in opera theory. Wang Jide was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. He had other pseudonyms as Bo Liang, Fang Zhusheng and Qin Towe Story Teller. His Rules of Tunes, Zaju Male Queen and legend On Red are existent. Even though being well-known, he had a poor life because of not being able to pass the imperial examinations. Wang Jide was born in the opera atmosphere of Wenzhou, Hangzhou and Suzhou, where the southern opera was popular and not far from Shaoxing–the birthplace of Yuyao tune which was in its administrative region. He adapted his grandfather’s The Story of the Red Leaves into On Red in his 20’s. Its Episodes 26, 33 and 36 are all marked with “crowd rolling” under the relevant Qupai, which is the singing method of Yiyang tune and Qingyang tune. According to On Red. Headings, by referring to Obeisance Moon Cabin and The Story of the Pipa, the lines of Qi Wei and Zhi Siyun, Xian Tian, Hanshan and Huan Huan in this legend followed the common rhymes. That is to say, On Red follows the southern opera rhymes and is more open than Kun Opera, which was the starting point of Wang Jide’s view of tunes and opera creation.

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On Red. Headings it stated: “It is said that the style name Yu Sheng in the biography was Youzhi, the name of Madame Han was Cuiping, and the name of the servant Yu Ying are all in Yuan people’s Zaju.” It can be seen that this legend is different from the story of red leave poems in Meng Shu’s Poems and Anecdotes and Fan Qi’s Meeting at Cloud Creek, also with different ages and names of the protagonists. The Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty it drew should be of Bai Pu’s work Yu You’s Love Poem in the Golden Valley, Han Cuiping’s Red Leaves in the Water. The most unsuccessful change of this legend to Zaju is that Yu You got the rank of number one scholar by following the traditional pattern of a gifted scholar matching up with a beauty, without fully exploring the unique connotation of red leave poems. The common feature of Wang Jide and his teacher Xu Wei was that they used a relatively loose traditional southern opera style and rhyme. As for Shen Jing, though he had a deep friendship with him, he neither blindly obeyed, followed, nor hid his differences. The difference between them is first and foremost the so-called question of essence. This is a hot topic in the debate of tune study, but people’s understanding of it is not the same. Wang Jide believed that the essence of Bai Juyi’s poetry was the interpretable style without too much emphasis on rhymes, rather than Shen Jing’s “taking its sound, regardless of its meaning” and “the most refined poem” (the first half of Miscellaneous Treatise, Part 39 in Rules of Tunes, Vol. 3rd). Although Shen Jing didn’t see Rules of Tunes, which came out after him, he once said in a letter to Wang Jide, “I have a particular like for essence, which may not be what you wish.” It can be seen that the two were well aware of their differences. In addition, they hold different attitudes towards the strictness of the rhyme of southern opera. Wang Jide was originally more open than Shen Jing, but became more strict than Shen Jing after being influenced by Shen Jing and his fellow townsmen Sun Rufa (1559–1615) and Lv Tiancheng (1580–1618) of Tongjun. In other words, Shen Jing abided by Rhyme of the Central Plains but he was limited by the phonetics in Suzhou. Wang Jide switched to Standard Rhymes of Hongwu and modified it with the dialects in Shaoxing. The musicians of Yuezhong tune mainly adhered to their own local characteristics in terms of sound, then gradually agreed with Shen Jing’s theory of pattern and carried it further. Lv Tiancheng, the author of Embroidered Couch, was also a famous composer in Yuezhong. He has ten kinds of legend and eight kinds of Zaju, all of which have been lost except Qidong Jokes, which was collected in Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty. As a composer, Lv Tiancheng was famous for his Tune Reviews, which provide valuable materials for the history of opera in the late Ming Dynasty. In particular, its first draft and three-year later edition, namely Yang Zhihong’s manuscript, are both extant, from which life stories of some writers could be discovered. For example, it is from Tune Reviews that the author of The Story of Banana Handkerchief was written in Wanli 39th year when the author was 50 years old. Ye Xianzu is regarded as one of Shen Jing’s favorite students by Lv Tiancheng. His legends include The Story of Phenix, The Story of Four Seasons and Golden Lock. There are 27 Episodes in The Story of Phoenix, which narrates the love and marriage stories of two young couples, Du Yang and Zhao Wenshu, Wen Tingyun

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and Yu Xuanji. The story of the first couple is the main plot. The story of cutting the hair as a monk after Jiadao’s death, and later returning to the secular life to become Jinshi is interspersed with it. Phenix is a token of affection given by Du Yang to Zhao Wenshu. Three friends, three clues and complicated plots are its shortcomings. However, the three scholars show three aspects of the author’s self-image, which was quite unique. These three scholars, Yu Xuanji and Ling Hu were all real figures of the Tang Dynasty. Ye Xianzu created them by organizing them into a play with some sporadic records in unofficial historical notes. The Story of Four Seasons is composed of four short plays, with nine Episodes in each, including the introduction of the family: Little Peach’s Silk Fan (spring), Blue Lotus] Embroidery Amulet (summer), Osmanthus Golden Jewelry Box (autumn) and Plum’s Jade Toad (winter). The first part of the title is the name of the heroine in the play, and the second part are the words of their love keepsakes. This form of short story has its own originality. Golden Lock was adapted from the Zaju Injustice to Dou Er in the Yuan Dynasty. The plot is that Dou Er’s husband, Cai Changzong, became Jinshi and the family had a reunion was the biggest failure of the play. All the revelations of unreasonable social reality in the original work have been deleted. Superstitious results have appeased the earth shaking indignation that was in the Zaju. Most of the empty story outlines have been preserved, which is quite different from the spirit of the original work. Like his Zaju, Ye Xianzu’s legend emphasizes rules but lacks talent.

Zhang Fengyi, Mei Dingzuo and Other Dramatists Zhang Fengyi, style name Bo Qi, pseudonym Ling Xu and Ling Ran Hermit, was from Changzhou (now Jiangsu). Born into a well-off business family, he and his two brothers Yan Yi and Xian Yi were famous talents in Suzhou, known as “Three Zhangs”. He met Wang Shizhen when he was about 30 years old. Soon after that he donated money to Nanjing Imperial Academy. He didn’t pass the examination until the age of 38, at the same time as his third brother. Although he was well-known for his literature and adored by many celebrities and elders, he didn’t have the luck in the examinations. After failing three spring examinations, he wrote a poem: “Ten years not shedding bones in the mountain, three times to the feast no food eaten” (On Ambition from Collection of Chushi Hall, Vol. 3rd). “10 years in short coat but heart kept from dying, three long trips for the exams with my tongue kept still” (Farewell to Mr. Xu, idem). Since Wanli 8th year, he lost hope in pursuing fame and stopped taking the exam at the age of 54. Zhang Fengyi lived on his good calligraphy skills. He posted the prices of his poems and writings outside the door. He was the author of Collection of Chushi Hall with two sequels and had made greater achievements in opera. He co- starred in Pipa Notes with his son. His legendary works include Red Lotus (1545), Tiger Amulet (1578), Zhu Fa (1586), Garden Watering (1590), Ping Bo Stealing Amulet (1603). There is still doubt whether Door Bolt was written by him.

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Zhang Fengyi wrote Red Lotus when he was newly married, more than 30 years before the other works and it was also the best of all of them. This legend was based on the famous legendary novel “Biography of Qiu Beard”. The theme of the original work is to eulogize Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. The love stories of Li Jing and Red Lotus are of secondary importance. On the contrary, Zhang’s novels are mainly about Li and Red Lotus’ love stories. Red Lotus had a unique insight by taking the impoverished Li Jing as her hero. She resolutely abandoned the position of concubine in a powerful family and eloped in the middle of the night. To make the play more refreshing, it replaced the stereotype of talent and beauty in the legend with a hero and a chivalrous woman, and also inserted the story of Princess Lechang breaking a mirror and reuniting with Yang Su from Poems and Anecdotes by Meng Bi of the Tang Dynasty. The two stories are intertwined. Yang Su, who was once a good for nothing walking skeleton, was also endowed with the character of cherishing talents. Generally, when the author adapts a novel into an opera, the plot is often added or deleted, but seldom thinks of adjusting the character’s personality accordingly. The attention paid to this aspect in the story of the Red Lotus shows the author’s meticulous intention. For example, in Episode 2 “Zhang Ce Crossing the River” expresses Li Jing’s heroic spirit against the background of the river, which not only gives people a sense of preemption, but also avoids the shortcoming of loose entry and slow progress at the beginning of the general legend. Episode 10 Elopement of A Chivalrous Girl is as good as Episode 2. The author used three exciting [northern river] songs to express Red Lotus’ determination of discarding a privilege life. A woman disguised as a man is not only used to get rid of the guard’s inquiry, but only in this way can she show her chivalrous nature. The description of the hero and heroine shows that only the real hero is worthy of Red Lotus’ commitment, and only by making efforts could Red Lotus get real happiness. Princess Lechang’s reunion comes from the gift of others. The weak are pitiable, but not praiseworthy. The combination of the two stories form a double structure, and the symmetry or echo of the art form falls into secondary. What comes first is the theme, which is deepened by contrast. It’s unfair just to be obsessed by minor details without seeing the ups and downs of the two families; it’s also unfair to see the artistic strength of the double structure without seeing the wonderful use of it in the ideological sense. Only by seeing both, could we live up to the playwright’s painstaking efforts. The conciseness of language and plot is another feature of the story in the Red Lotus. Its writing is like shorthand, with a few strokes and profound meaning. Each turn is accompanied by sound and dance, processing it into a colorful oil painting. Elopement of A Chivalrous Girl is the key episode of the play. It only uses seven pieces of music, but Feng Menglong’s adaptation of Female Husband doubled it. Although the adapters were complacent, they were not well received by readers. This style of Red Lotus remained unchanged in Zhang Fengyi’s other plays decades later. Zhang Fengyi’s other legends were based on history. Garden Watering was based on the stories of Wang Xuan in Historical Records Tian Jingzhong’s Family and Strategies of the Warring States Period. Qi. The origins of Tiger Amulet, Zhu Fa,

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and Stealing Amulet can be respectively found in Biography of Hua Yun from The History of the Ming Dynasty, 289th, Biography of Xu Kexiao and Historical Records Duke Xinlin from History of the South, 62th, respectively. Almost all the plots are faithful to the original, except for the made -up relationship of the couple in Garden Watering. In Tiger Amulet, the original misfortune of the loyal official Hua Yun and the filial son Xu Kexiao were changed to a happy reunion. Stealing Amulet changed the consequence of stealing the amulet, which was implied in Duke Xinlin, into being forgiven by the king of Wei, showing the author’s penchant of receiving rewards for one’s virtuous deeds. Xu Fuzuo, who was also a Suzhou playwright with Zhang Fengyi, having six kinds of legends. The three extant ones are: Red Pear Blossom, Throwing Shuttles and The Moonlit Sword. Among them, Red Pear Blossom was better than the other two in terms of ideology and artistry. In the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shouqing had Zaju Red Pear Blossom. In his Preface to Red Pear Blossom Xu Fuzuo said that the legend was compiled on the basis of Yu Taifeng’s Advocacy in Leisure, and only after it was completed did he see the Zaju, but it is in vain to deny the fact that legends benefited from Zaju. For example, there are two or three words identical between Chapter 23 in the legend Misidentification II and Episode 3 of Zaju, which show clearly it is an adaptation. The two branches of [up stairs] Zaju are similar to the two legendary ones [parasitic grass]. In fact, the recognition of a small number of lineage does not affect the achievement of the Red Pear Blossom. The Zaju Red Pear Blossom is the same type of Zaju as Xie Tianxiang by using the plot of misunderstanding. More than 30 legends had been adapted from the famous Zaju that was just composed of 4 episodes in each. It is always very likely to turn magical into rotten. Red Pear Blossom is a rare exception. It is a kind of farcical Zaju, and the legend was long enough to accommodate more details and twists to include the love story of scholar Zhao Ruzhou and famous prostitute Xie Suqiu. Red Pear Blossom was held by Xie Suqiu as a token of love and recognition in the Poem on Red Pear Blossom by Zhao and Xie. The legend takes Episode 11 Misidentification, Episode 12 Misidentification II and Episode 29 Misidentification III as the central clue of the plot development. Zhao Sheng saw his sweetheart being taken away in a vehicle, but he couldn’t open the curtain to have a look. Later “mistakes” all started from this moment. It makes the development of the plot more logical and easier for the audience to accept, which is necessary supplement to the plot of Zaju. In order to achieve this, the author weaved a series of plots about misfortunes of the late Northern Song Dynasty being damaged by traitors and invaded by the Jin people, so that the first meeting of the male and female protagonists was delayed till Episode 19 after two thirds of the plays. Due to the large scale of legends, considering the different roles, most legends are inserted into a sideline parallel to the development of the main plot to avoid uneven distribution. To a great extent, the quality of the script depends on whether the sideline is redundant or an organic combination. Whether it is based on human beings or has its own aesthetic value, whether it is based on external factors to disperse the theme, or whether it is a combination of the two. Red Pear Blossom is obviously the latter. Before the first

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meeting, both sides admired each other upon hearing the saying “Zhao Bochou the Apollo, Xie Suqiu the Venus”, with each willingly took a huge risk for this. This makes the legend different from the general prostitute erotic play, which not only enhances the seriousness of the theme, but also keeps the fun aspect of a comedy. Meanwhile in the development of the plot, Zhao and Su had a private meeting. Hua Po lied that Su Qiu was the ghost of Wang Taishou’s daughter, which prompted Zhao to make preparations for an important examination. Without the sideline before the First Meeting, Zhao’s falling in love with an impostor will become a frivolous act without the logic basis of real life, and the eventual marriage of the lovers would not be appreciated. The sideline describes Zhao’s witness of Su’s being sent to the gold camp. Before that, the two just heard the sounds from afar and never met each other. In this way, it’s reasonable for Zhao to fall in love with the real Su Qiu and the two of them to get together after finally the truth is revealed. Although the lyrics in Red Pear Blossom are not as famous as those in the Peony Pavilion, they draw on the success of Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty in an appropriate way. Gao Lian (1527 or earlier-1603 or later), style name Shen Fu and pseudonym Hermit Rui Nan, was born in Qiantang (Hangzhou). Little records are found about his life. Lv Tiancheng’s Tune Reviews gives him a mid-lower rank, with only one comment: “memorized only in the records for officials.” His life story can only be roughly inferred according to Wang Daokun’s epitaph of his father in Collection of Tai Han, Vol. 471st, Gao Lian’s own works Eight Tips to Health Care, the legend of Jade Hairpin, On Filial Piety, as well as divertimento scattered in Southern Palace Ci Poetry, Wusao Compilations and Taixia New Tunes. Gao Lian had a seal engraved with “15th generation of the Empress Dowager Gao of Song”, indicating that he was a distant descendant of the grandfather of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, who probably moved to Hangzhou by crossing the river towards the south. Gao’s family had long ago declined. It was only from Gao Lian’s father that he became rich in business. Due to this, being of his good fortune, his father gave him a good education. He was not only a dramatist, a Qing Opera writer connecting theaters and literati, a connoisseur of book editions and a collector of cultural relics and antiques, but also a healthy preserver with strong Taoist ethics. Gao Lian paid to attend the Imperial College in Beijing, where he failed twice in the autumn examinations. Gao Lian’s most famous legend, Jade Hairpin, was written shortly after he failed his second autumn examination and lost her wife. This play had been popular on the stages of opera houses for 400 years, The first episode Flirting had been used as a basic textbook of Kun Opera, as it is easy to follow and gives full play of voice and emotion for the singers. The tune [lazy thrush] harmoniously cooperates with the young male singer’s leisurely gait. When Yu Zhenfei, a famous Kun Opera expert, read the line “the door is half closed, and he can’t help getting in”, the tone alone made people feel as if they were watching real life. Autumn River, another episode, is the highlight for multiple operas. Jade Hairpin is a love story between Pan Bizheng, a scholar, and Chen Miaocheng, a Taoist nun, intersected with Zhang Xiaoxiang, a famous Minister of the Southern

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Song Dynasty. This story of the three was recorded in The History of Ancient and Modern Women, and later evolved into the novel Zhang Yuhu’s Mistakingly Staying in the Nuzhen Temple and the anonymous Zaju with the same name. The extant manuscript of Zaju (1615) was collected by Zhao Qimei in Wanli 43rd year. Obviously, the relationship between legend and Zaju is closer than that between the novel, Ci Poetry of Willows and other poems in Zaju were all transferred to legend, and the language of play is closer to Zaju. In the Zaju, Zhang Xiaoxiang did not disclose his identity, so he was refused when courting Chen Miaochang during his stay at Daoguan Temple. Later, Chen Miaocheng and Pan Bizheng secretly made love. After the pregnancy, they filed a complaint to Zhang Xiaoxiang, the official of Jiankangby claiming they were engaged upon birth by their parents and asked to be allowed to marry. In fact, this is Zhang Xiaoxiang’s idea. Zhang satirized Chen Miaocheng and accomplished it, forming the double themes of praising Chen and Pan’s love and teasing. Zhang and Pan played equally in Zaju, forming a triangle of love. The legend appropriately cut down Zhang Xiaoxiang’s lines, focusing on the love between Chen Miaocheng and Pan Bizheng, and then canceled the ending of Chen Miaocheng’s “being pregnant” at the wedding held at the hall. Chen Miaocheng, a daughter of a common family in Zaju, was changed into the daughter of the official gentry in the legend, and she performed the story of free love in the Taoist Temple. This change shows the attitude of anti-feudal rites, which were more radical than the thought of Zaju. It is also a necessary factor for a famous opera to use unique opera language to create lifelike characters and conflicts. In this respect, Episode 16 in Ji Nong (in Flirting) and Episode 23 of Farewell (in Autumn River) are good examples to represent its achievements. Flirting is composed of four pieces of [lazy thrush] tune and four pieces of [chaoyuan song] tune, which are sung by male and female singers in turn [lazy thrush] was originally a interval song. Being the first song here has the function of introduction. In the atmosphere of “the moon is bright and the clouds are light and the dew is thick”, the episode of the first meeting between Chen Miaocheng and Pan Bizheng is set. Then it turns to four songs of [chaoyuan song] through dialogue. “Long clearness and short clearness”, “cloud heart and water heart”—Chen Miaocheng’s heart was stirred by the man, but she tried to stay calm in front of him; “the night is deep”, “the strings play with complaints”, Pan Bizheng took the opportunity to advance, but was rejected and had to leave bitterly. “A man sent by heaven” and “merciless and affectionate”. When she was alone, Miao Chang regretted it again: “Seeing you coming and asking in a smile, I am smart in my heart but pretend to be cruel. It’s my wish to accept, but too shy to do that.” “Secular feelings go with Taoist feeling”—a glimmer of hope came back in Pan Bizheng’s heart [Chaoyuan song] was originally used for travelling, such as in Episode 33 Going to the Post from The Romance of a Hairpin. Here, it is used for singing and responding. The third and fourth songs end with one section being bugged and the other section praying to heaven for “wish of uniting fulfilled”. Especially the third song which is very touching. Of course, the “flirter” is the hero who plays “The Pheasant Flies,” but the heroine is not passive, she also has a song “Roaming in Vast Chill”. She said that “deep in the flowers, act

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carefully”, just like her “wish to have a good time and ask for advice”, she can also be regarded as a flirter. Flirting, refusing and counter flirting–implicitly, all are the descriptions of the special character of Chen Miaogang. The legend cleverly unfolds the dramatic conflict through a hierarchical psychological depiction, which shows the development of the love between a man and a woman. The episode of Autumn River describes how Chen Miaochang had to say goodbye to her lover in public under the supervision of her master. Not willing to give up, she snucked out to catch up with her lover’s boat. This is the further development of women’s bold pursuit of love despite the constraints of ethics after the Western Chamber Dream of Caoqiao and The Soul of A Beautiful Woman. The pursuit of YingYing and Qian Nv is false, but Miao Chang puts the pursuit of her love into practice. Shi Pan (1533 or a little earlier—1629 or a little later), style name Shu Kao, was from Hui Ji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang). He is Xu Wei’s disciple. Huang Zongxi praised him on his calligraphy and paintings being a facsimile to those of Xu Wei. Even Xu Wei himself could not distinguish between the two. He never achieved fame in his life. There are four legendary stories written by Shi Pan: The Dream of Triple Stones, The Story of Hairpin, The Story of Cherry and The Story of Red (later changed to The Story of Red Thread). He was nearly 90 years old when he wrote The Story of Red. In the four legends of Shi Pan, the leading men all got number one scholar titles, which is a kind of psychological compensation for the author’s disappointment in reality. To varying degrees, the script expresses the dissatisfaction with the examinees who had no real talent and practical learning but stepped into official careers, which was also a grievance of himself for not being recognized even with his talent. In the description of the characters, Shi Pan was often led by the need of the plot at any time, regardless of the internal logic of the development of the characters’ personality, sometimes even on famous historical figures, either positive or negative. If the reunion of the hero and heroine in Menglei depends on the change of Emperor Song Huizong’s mind, then the luck of the couple in The Story of Cherry owes it to the intervention of Huang Chao. In art, the common ground of the four plays is the double structure and the misunderstanding coincidences. For example, The Story of Hairpin is about two couples, Song Jing and Jing Yanhong, Kang Bi and Zhen Guoxiu; The Story of Red is about the Huang Fu brothers as well as Wu You and his servant, The Story of Cherry has two lines of Ai Juan and Lilac; and The Dream of Triple Stones also has two lines of Wen Jingzhao and Cai Yi. All kinds of misunderstandings, such as substitution, transfer, being cheated, and credulity, have become indispensable factors in the conflicts between the four dramas. The above-mentioned way of composition of Shi Pan’s opera prevailed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which became a trend, but this is not desirable, as in pursuing this trend, the writer did not pay enough attention to portraying characters. According to Wang Jide’s Rules of Tunes, Shi Pan’s works “performed all over as soon as they came out”, but they were gone soon after, which might be due to this reason. It is the experience and lesson of Shi Pan’s dramas that success can’t be achieved definitely by relying on the double structure

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and the combination of misunderstanding and cleverness without working hard on the characterization of the personage. Zhou Chaojun (1599–1684), style name Yi Yu, was a native of Yin county (now Ningbo, Zhejiang Province) and had the position of staff. Wang Zhideng, the author of Series of Ancient Opera of Yu Ming Hall edition at the end of the Ming Dynasty, said in its preface: “His demeanor shows the temperament of a gentleman, with a kind of loftiness that is detached from the world.” Red Pear is his extant work. The Story of Red Pear Blossom, also named Red Pear Blossom, is about Pei Yu, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, came across the official named Jia Sidao in a fancy boat with Geisha when he was traveling to the West Lake. Li Huiniang came with him. When she saw Pei, she let out a sigh: “beautiful boy!” So he was killed by Jia Sidao. On another occasion, Zhao Rong, the daughter of Commander Lu, met Pei Sheng and gave him a Red Pear, but Jia Sidao took a fancy to Zhaorong and wanted to force her be his concubine. Therefore, he had Pei detained. Li Huiniang’s ghost helped Pei get out of danger. Finally, Pei passed the examination and was reunited with Lu Zhaorong. Li Huiniang’s story comes from Qu You’s Biography of the Man in Green from New Remarks by Oil Lamp, 4th, and Lu Zhaorong’s story was made up by the author. The legend interweaves the love stories of Li Huiniang and Pei, Pei and Lu Zhaorong. By combining the real and the fictional and relating to the struggle with Jia Sidao, the structure turns out to be not only innovative, but also profound in its connotation. Li Huiniang’s bravery in love and hate, her vivid and moving image, being fearless of others power, even surpasses Lu Zhaorong, the heroine in the main story line. It can be said that the artistic vitality of Red Pear is largely due to the existence of Li Huiniang. According to the legend in the Biography of the Writers in Yongshang by Li Ye Si attached to Poems in Yongshang, “My uncle, owner of Yuhai Mansion, was the commander of Yingshan mountain in Central Sichuan. The county was in the most remote mountains. Upon his arrival, the county officials offered wine for the welcome toast, accompanied by music. The theatrical troupe came to perform the plays, three of which were on the list. By previewing them, only Red Pear Blossom was picked. After that, Red Pear Blossom had been performed at every banquet in and out the mansion. It thus became popular all over.” It can be seen that Red Pear Blossom had been the most suitable for performance. In addition to Tang Xianzu, among the dramatist of Anhui and Jiangxi in this period, Mei Dingzuo was a high achiever. Mei Dingzuo (1549–1615), style name Yanhe and pseudonym Yu Yin, and Shengle Taoist in his later years, was from Xuancheng (now in Anhui Province). He was born one year earlier than Tang Xianzu and died one year earlier. He became famous very early, but from the age of 19 to 43, he failed in all of the nine autumn examinations. Although he had access to dignitaries and was appreciated by the literary leaders Wang Shizhen and Wang Daokun at that time, nothing helped his fame. Due to the disappointment of an official career endeavor and family disputes, Mei Dingzuo was depressed, indulging himself in sensuality by being involved with famous prostitutes. It is no surprise that

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his legends Jade Box, Threads of Longevity, and his novel Blue Mud Lotus are all about prostitutes. Jade Box was based on the rebellion of An Shi. It tells the story of Han Hong, a talented man in Nanyang, and Liu Shi, a Geisha, who were separated and reunited during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. The jade box was given to Liu by Han Hong as a token of affection at the beginning. Later, Liu returned it to Han Hong as a token of desperation, hence the name of the play. Jade Box was sung in Haiyan tune, with another name of Willow in Zhangtai, more than 40 years after Laundering Gauze and eight years later than Tang Xianzu’s Purple Flute. Mei Dingzuo was deeply influenced by Tang Xianzu, which can be seen from the artistic similarities between Jade Box and Purple Flute. The latter can be the model of the former. For example, Purple Flute was based on the legendary novel Biography of Huo Xiaoyu by Jiang Fang of the Tang Dynasty, and Jade Box was based on the Poems and Anecdotes by Meng Cai in the Tang Dynasty. Both of them take treasure as the clue throughout the plot, and neither of them is the original. The heroine of Purple Flute was actually a prostitute. According to Poems and Anecdotes, the heroine of Jade Box was also a prostitute. The two legends were originally different stories, but Purple Flute was only written as the first half of the novel. Compared with the first half of Jade Box, it became surprisingly similar. There are also similarities in the tune scripts of the two, such as Episode 1 in Purple Flute [pearl curtain], Episode 16 in Jade Box [yellow dragon roll], Episode 16 in Purple Flute [exploring spring] and Episode 3 in Jade Box [Zhu Yingtai approaching]. According to Tang Xianzu’s Inscription to Jade Box, “I tend to regard it as the Biography of Huo Xiaoyu (that is, Purple Flute), and his deep and beautiful thoughts reduce its weakness of redundancy.” Besides its sincere self-criticism, it also implies the relationship between the two. Xu Fuzuo’s On Tunes said that Jade Box was “the best seller among the scholars”, but in fact, the legend is not much of a remarkable work in its characterization and stage performance. It has always been regarded as the representative work of elegant script writing. The criticism of it is very sharp. The next criticism in Xu Fuzuo’s On Tunes is: “If Jade Box is being performed at a banquet, how many of the audience can understand it, no matter who they are, farmers,housewives or officials?…It was originated in the empty boat (Zheng Ruoyong) and burst the dike in Yujin.” Shen Defu’s Notes on Tunes criticized its shortcomings: “Jade Box by Mei Yujin is the most fashionable. However, it is difficult to attract people with so many parallel lines. Strings of ornate phrases turn the opera into a novel of proverbs, just like putting make-up on a skeleton, or making a fairy out of power, which is unlikely to be liked.” Generally speaking, these accusations are not demanding, but at the same time, we should also see that some parts of it are suitable for stage performance, such as Episode 37 Returning the Jade. The composition is as clear as words, and is closely related to the plot. Wang Tingna (1569?—after 1628), style name Qutai, later changed to Changchao, pseudonyms Wuru, Hermit Nothing, Mr. Zuo Yin and Quanyi Zhenren, was from Xiuning, Huizhou (now Anhui). He was a grotesque figure in the late Ming Dynasty. At that time, most of the senior officials and famous people in north and South Beijing

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had contact with him. He was adopted by rich merchants of his family when he was little. In his youth, he won the appreciation of the tune study predecessor with his [listening on horse] Gift from Chen Qiongqing when Visiting Sun Chu Tavern. He entered the Nanjing literati circle and paid for the qualification as a supervisor of Nanjing Imperial Academy. When he was in his 30’s, he got a position, seventh rank, in the Department of Salt. He transformed the family business of the rich merchants into the manor where the literati lived in seclusion, including the establishment of his own printing house, and the publisher of manuscripts. With all he did, he completed the transformation from a rich businessman to a man of fame. Wang Tingna was the author of Collection of Mr. Zuo Yin and Collection of Hua Gun in Huancui Hall, among which there are many cases of deception and fraud. There are 15 kinds of his legendary plays, including Lion’s Roar, Jade Planting, Three Wishes, Peach Giving, Fancy Boat, Book of Heaven and Uprightness. He was not good at dealing with the plot of the opera. His achievements were not high though he wrote many operas. He also wrote seven legendary Zaju Moon of Guanling, in which the second episode is a large-scale copy of Shen Jing’s On Tunes, the same is true even with a lot of words. This can be the influence of Wujiang school in southern Anhui. Lion’s Roar is a better one of Wang Tingna’s legends, and there are still occasional performances of the wife-fearing part. Every drama has its own origin, this one is from Bantering from Fiction Series of Song People, Vol. 3rd. The legend is about how Chen Jiannei of Song feared his wife. Chen’s wife, Liu Shi, was extremely fierce. One day Su Shi, Chen’s friend, came to hear Liu’s roar and wrote the poem. The play was called Lion’s Roar. In the Journey to the Underworld, Liu was detained in the underworld and repented. He preached for macho by ghosts and gods. At last, Liu left for India and went to Lingshan. The ideas advocated in the whole play are nothing instructive, but it is full of joking and teasing. As Lu Tiancheng said in the Tune Reviews, “it’s always hilarious to be extremely ugly.” It’s hard to categorize Li Kaixian to a certain group of dramatists. The Story of Phoenix is the work by an anonymous. Li Kaixian (1502–1568), style name Bo Hua and pseudonym Zhong Lu, was born in Zhangqiu, Shandong Province. He became Jinshi in Jiajing 8th years (1529), and later promoted to be judge of Taichang. He was the author of two kinds of Zaju and two kinds of legends, which are extant. Lu Tiancheng’s Tune Reviews said that he was “the flying general in the field of Ci poetry and the talent of tune writer”. Of his two legends, The Story of Sword and Broken Hair, the first one being more famous. Episode 53 in The Story of Sword was based on how Lin Chong was being forced to go to Liangshan in Water Margin, which is a legend of people’s revolt and their tragic endings. The Golden Lotus, which is partly coincident with it, focuses on the development of the relationship of Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing. The Story of Sword takes the biography of Lin Chong to describe the struggle of loyalty and treachery within rulers. In this opera, Lin Chong became the great grandson of Lin Hejing, a reclusive poet of the Song Dynasty, the son of the chief of Chengdu, and the immortal of Wuqu star descending to the world. He joined the army to enlist Fang La. For this meritorious service, he was appointed as general for the west army, but soon lost his

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position for his remonstrance to Tong Guan’s promotion. Later he was banished to Cangzhou for reporting on Gao Qiu. His family was destroyed, he escaped and was forced to Liangshan. At last, he and Liangshan heroes together defeated the traitors and avenged themselves. In a word, Lin Chong and other heroes’ stories relating to the uprisings are largely cut out of the play. Instead, many newly edited stories relating to the internal struggle of the rulers are used as substitutes, the karma as well as ethical and moral sermons that are not found in the original work are added. Lin Chong’s heroism is almost wiped out. As in Episode 37 Running at Night, Lin Chong sings: “Ah! It makes me sweat like soup, and fry the oil in my heart! How can the heroic spirit disappear? Carrying a snow blade sword, wailing step by step. I’m too scared to get out of the temple.” It can be seen that the sword alludes to the struggle between loyalty and treachery in real politics of the Jiajing period to some extent. The Story of Phoenix by anonymous can be the sister legend of this theme in the Ming Dynasty. The Story of Phoenix was written in the reign of Longqing (1567–1572). Probably because of the conflict between Wang Shizhen’s (father and son) and Yan Song (see Chap. 7, Sect. 7.1 of this book), The Story of Phoenix was considered to be written by Wang Shizhen or his disciples in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, but there was no sufficient evidence. The whole play of The Story of Phoenix is composed of 41 episodes. It tells the story of Yan Song, a powerful minister in Jiajing, who killed Xia Yan and Zeng Mi (Shuang Zhong), then with the joint effort of Yang Jisheng, Dong Chuance, Wu Shizhong, Zhang Helou, Guo Xiyan, Zou Yinglong, Sun Piyang and Lin Run (Ba Yi), Yan Song was finally overthrown. The legend admires their spirit, as “the chorus of phoenix at sun rise”. Opera is good at refining typical cases to form dramatic conflicts, thus shaping the image of loyal officials and righteous people, such as Impeachment of Traitors, and Beheading Yang. In terms of form, it broke the pattern of legend dominated by male and female roles. The male role (Yang Jisheng) and female role (Zhang Shi) ended in Episode 15, leaving about two-thirds of the play for others to perform. The main drawback of this legend is that the characterization of the characters is superficial and the single line structure is difficult to coordinate the complicated historical events and numerous characters. This may be due to the author’s being too eager to present the current events to polish it. If The Story of Sword only alludes to the struggle of loyalty and treachery, then The Story of Phoenix shows the admiration for loyalty and hatred for treachery. In the history of legendary development, The Story of Phoenix takes the contemporary major political struggle as the theme, which is of pioneering significance. Its influence can easily be found from Li Yu’s Record of Qin Loyalties and Kong Shangren’s Peach Blossom Fan.

Chapter 10

Tang Xianzu: The Legendary Drama Master of a Generation

In the second half of the sixteenth century, Chinese opera entered another prosperous period after Jin and Yuan Zaju. Tang Xianzu was an outstanding representative. For the birth of this legendary opera master, the history of opera had been preparing for hundreds of years. Without a mature art form and a large number of art lovers who are knowledgeable and sophisticated in their taste, a playwright could do littler even if he is a genius of transcendence. On the other hand, when a certain art form evolves to a certain stage, it is definite that a great playwright would appear, but who is the one is not only to be determined by the situations of the time, but also by the qualifications of the writer, which obviously is a key factor. Tang Xianzu was in line as the era’s choice of a legendary opera master in a generation. Tang Xianzu was chosen as a milestone in the development of legendary opera, and he did not fail to live up to his historical mission. He was as prominent as Guan Hanqing and Wang Shifu, and no dramatist in the Ming Dynasty had been so admired by later generations.

10.1 The Bumpy Life of Tang Xianzu Tang Xianzu (1550–1616), style name Hai Ruo or Ruo Shi and pseudonym Taoist Qing Yuan, (referring to his biography in The History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 23rd) was from Jiangxi Province. His hometown was located at the confluence of the Chongren River and the Ru River, belonging to Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province. With Ru River in the East and Chongren River in the south, the town was named Linchuan (between water) for having water on both sides. Ru River is not big but deep and wide, which provides the convenience in shipping. From here, one can go to Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, through Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River. This is the place where Tang Xianzu was born. His birthplace place is of great significance for a writer. Due to the historical and geographical environmental © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_10

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elements for the establishment of art forms, just as most of the dramatists in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties were northerners, the birthplaces of legendary dramatists were concentrated around Taihu Lake with Suzhou as the center, i.e. Suzhou, Changzhou, Songjiang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou. The eastern Zhejiang, Southern Anhui and northeastern Jiangxi are its outer edges. Tang Xianzu’s hometown was in the northeast of Jiangxi Province. Despite being from the outer edge area was part of the reason to have his legendary works criticised and adapted by other writers from the central areas, such as Shen Jing from Wujiang, Zang Maoxun from Changxing (Huzhou) and Feng Menglong from Changzhou (Suzhou), but if he were not from Jiangxi, there would be no chance for him to be a legendary master at all. This is different from Kong Shangren, the author of Peach Blossom Fan, who lived in Yangzhou for a long time but was born in Qufu, Shandong Province. He appeared rather late in the early Qing Dynasty when Kun Opera was already popular in the north to the south. The Tang family was scholarly gentry landlord who did not break away from farming. They were not of a notable family but were still rich. Tang’s family lived together in Wenchang outside the east gate of Fucheng, for six generations since Tang Xianzu was born. His ancestors, Jun Ming, was favored by the court for donating grain for disaster relief. His family’s collection of more than 40,000 volumes of books showed that he was fond of reading and had a good life. From the great grandfather to Tang Xianzu’s father, Tang’s family had four generations of scholars, who were well-known in their area, but none of them were officials. Shang Xian, Tang Xianzu’s father, was a man of severe temperament, and he stressed Taoist health preserving skills. Wu’s mother could read but she was weak and ill. This wealthy landlord family, for generations, had no one selected to be Jinshi or any official post, so they were full of expectations for the descendants to pursue official careers. The name of Xianzu (honouring the ancestor), the first grandson from the first son, showed the family’s hope in him. This was also a normal life path arranged for him by his family. The so-called promising people would not deviate from this path. Tang Xianzu’s life experience can be roughly divided into four stages. Till the age of 21, Tang Xianzu completed his studies in his hometown. Tang’s clan set up a family school near Tanggong temple in the city, where Tang Xianzu first went. Later, in order to let the double-first grandson receive a better education, the Tang family set up a tutorial hall near the Wenchang gate. The family imposed too much expectations and premature induction on the weak child. Tang Xianzu could make a couplet at the age of 5 but he was not physically strong. Making the couplet was one of the basic training tasks for the ancient imperial examination. The next stage was to memorize the original texts and annotations of the Confucian classics “Four Books”, “Five Classics” and “Thirteen Classics”. Under such circumstances and pressure, Tang Xianzu’s childhood was boring and lacked interest. Reciting and reading and writing all day made him even weaker. Tang Xianzu was introduced to He Tang, an officer in the Education Commission in Jiangxi Province when he was a prep for the school. He was interviewed by having to use an eight part essay, to which Tang performed well. He Tang praised him that he will be famous for his articles in the future. Being recognized by He Tang, Tang Xianzu was admitted to the Linchuan county school at the age of 14.

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The Tang family spared no effort in the education of the double-first grandson, and the teachers they got for him before and after entering the school were the best candidates that could be found in the local area at that time. The first teacher, Xu Liangfu (about 1506–1665), was a native of Dongxiang, a neighboring county. In Jiajing 17th year, he was a Jinshi and once served as an official in the Ministry of civil affairs. From him, Tang Xianzu got access to Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals, Historical Records, Literary Selections and the ancient writings of the eight great schools of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and got out of the narrow circle of sages and sages’ classics, expanding his vision to literature. Luo Rufang (1515– 1588), another teacher of Tang Xianzu, is a giant of Wang’s left school. At that time, he was the principal in the Ministry of Justice. When he returned home from leave, he was invited by Tang Jiazhi to give a lecture to his children. At that time, Tang Xianzu was only 13 years old. Although the two teachers and students did not meet again until after 20 years, the teacher’s influence on the student was life long. From the age of 21–34, Tang Xianzu involved himself in the imperial examinations. At the age of 21, Tang Xianzu took part in the Jiangxi provincial examination, taking 8th place. Liu Sibu and Zhang Yue, the chief examiners, were both chief executives of Jiangxi Province. At this time, Tang Xianzu was very proud, as if the way of making progress and fame had been opened for him. He designed his own way of life, which was to build and honor the country in the future, and then retreat to the forest. He never expected that he would encounter setbacks on the way to the imperial examination. At the age of 22 and 25, he failed in two spring examinations. At the age of 28 (1577, Wanli 5th year), the prime minister Zhang Juzheng, in order to help his second son to get a good standing in the examination, gathered wellknown talents to take the exam together with him. A year before that, he invited Tang Xianzu and his classmate Shen Maoxue to cover up by cheating for his son by using their literary credits. Shen Maoxue paid a respectful visit to Zhang’s house but Tang Xianzu declined. As a result, Shen Maoxue was the number one scholar in this subject, Zhang Sixiu was the second, and Tang Xianzu failed. Zhang Juzheng was in power then and even all the cabinet ministers were at his order, but Tang Xianzu’s refusal made his trek in vain. In Wanli 18th year, Tang Xianzu went to Beijing for the fourth time to take the spring test at the age of 31. In order to make Zhang Maoxiu, the third son of Zhang Juzheng, get a good rank in Jinshi examination, he repeated the trick by visiting Tang Xianzu again. Tang Xianzu also paid a return visit, without seeing him, but no further efforts were made after that. In fact, even though he didn’t refuse directly, it was still a declination. As a result, Zhang Maoxiu got the number one scholar position and Tang Xianzu once again failed. In this year, he created the legend of Purple Flute. In fact, Tang Xianzu was already a famous eight part essay writer, but with four times failures, the malpractice of the imperial examination made him tired of eight part essays and turned his attention to Ci and Fu poetry. In Wanli 11th year, almost under the compulsion of his friends, he picked up the old preparation work and hurried North for the fifth spring exam. At this time, Zhang Juzheng had passed away, and Tang Xianzu finally got to become Jinshi with a number 211 ranking of

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the top three class. At this time, he was 34 years old. Due to worldly considerations, he concealed his age in the exam and changed it from 34 to 28. This shows how much he felt being wronged. In the second and third class levels, several scholars can be selected. They can serve in the Imperial Academy with the first three scholars, making themselves the alternates of senior officials. Prime Minister Zhang Siwei and Vice-Prime Minister Shen Shixing’s sons became Jinshi at the same year as Tang Xianzu. They also wanted to make friends with Tang Xianzu, but they were declined as well. In this way, Tang Xianzu can only be an candidate officer (equivalent to a trainee), in a position to make up a vacancy of position. From 35 to 49, Tang Xianzu set foot on an official career. In July of Wanli 12th year (1584), Tang Xianzu left for Nanjing to take the post of Doctor Taichang, who was a junior official of the seventh rank. This position was in charge of rites, music and sacrifice, a job with few duties to perform. Tang Xianzu was very fond of the beautiful scenery in this town where he could see traces of the Six Dynasties everywhere, which triggered his feelings for the ancient. He wrote in his poems, “talents prefer poems of the Six Dynasties.”1 However, it does not mean that Tang Xianzu, a new official, could stay away from politics. After Emperor Chengzu moved to Beijing, there were still six central bureaucracies in Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty but it was just in name without much to deal with in its administration. Some of the idle officials feel frustrated because of it, which eventually led to dissatisfaction. They criticized the government with a sober attitude. Some of them were originally transferred to Nanjing either out of discrimination, or during a period of having leniency from a minor punishment before their next appointment. Among them were Wei Yun, Li Sancai, and Zou Yuanbiao. At this time, there was a growing accumulation dissatisfaction against the ruling group, which came mainly from some honest and young officials. Nanjing was the center of their activities. Shu Hua, a senior fellow of Tang Xianzu and principal of the Ministry of Justice, probably learned of Tang Xianzu’s closeness to the young officials and wrote him to become closer to the old. Tang Xianzu’s Reply to Principal Shu (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 44th) was euphemistic and neutral surfacially, but it actually showed the opposite attitude. The next year, Si Rulin, a county magistrate in Linchuan, sent a letter to Tang Xianzu. He said that as long as Tang Xianzu was not so stubborn, he was willing to communicate with the ruling class and try to mediate, for the promotion of Tang to the Ministry of Officials, but Tang Xianzu’s will was not changed. He wrote back and refused, making the last attempt of the ruling party to win him over a failure. Tang Xianzu was brave enough to comment, filled with passion, on current events in Nanjing which was favored by right wing “righteous” men of the ruling class. For this he was called “crazy slave” (Preface of Tang Yireng’s Relegation to Chaoyang from Complete Works of Zou Zhongjie. Preserving Truth, Vol. 4th). In Wanli 15th year during the imperial examination, Tang Xianzu was attacked for his political 1

Tang Xianzu, In Memory of Taixue Upon Arrival in Moling, Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Beijing Ancient Books Publishing House, 1999, p. 213. Tang Xianzu’s comments and works quoted in this chapter are all based on this version.

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speech. The next year, he was appointed as officer at Zhan Shi’s mansion in Nanjing at the seventh rank. This is an agency intended to tutor the crown prince, who was physically in Beijing. It had little work involved, but was just a position, which was an indication of deliberate indifference to Tang Xianzu. In fact, the term of office of Tang Xianzu in Taichang had expired before a proper vacancy was available, so he was transferred to Zhan Shi’s office. The change from standard seventh rank to sub seventh rank, though not being downgraded, made him unhappy. In Wanli 17th year (1589), Tang Xianzu was promoted to the principal of Ministry of Rites in Nanjing. At the age of 46, he was able to become an official of sixth rank. His career was not smooth, but it was a promotion. Tang Xianzu was oppressed by rulers again on his way to the imperial examinations without much being achieved. After leaving office, he once hoped that the children of those in power would intervene in order to reconcile the contradictions between the young and the old. The old party wanted him to change course but failed. This situation made Tang Xianzu increasingly estranged from them and finally became their opposite. In 1591, Tang Xianzu suffered another major setback in his official career. He was relegated to Xuwen, the southern tip of Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong Province, to make local chronicles (annotations). The reason for this is that he wrote a memorial about the assistant ministers and officials (Auxiliary Minister and Officials from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vols. 3rd–4th). Auxiliary Minister referred to the “prime ministers” and officials referred to “discipline inspectors”. In the memorial, he accused the Prime Minister of all kinds of crimes, such as his power to silence officers and what he did during the great drought along the Taihu Lake in Wanli 17th year. Yang Wenju, the officer working under him was appointed to supervise the famine administration and was authorized to deal with the derelict officials in the disaster area. However, he relied on the power of his boss Shen to accept bribes, sell his official posts, spend a lot of money, and put the disaster behind him. His bad behavior was known by everyone in the local area, but he was promoted. At last, Tang Xianzu concluded that “in the first ten years, Zhang Juzheng was just, but later turned lustful, while in the latter ten years, he was at times both gentle and lustful, and at the same time, his lust became prevalent.” The memorials shook the court like a thunderbolt from the blue. Shen Shixing was too offended to go to court. The emperor ordered Tang Xianzu to be blamed and comforted Shen. Tang Xianzu was demoted to Lingnan. One month after his demotion, Wang Xijue, the royal secretary of Wuying Hall, returned home in the name of a home visit. Shen Shixing proposed to the court more than ten times to dismiss him, forcing the court to issue a stern order to suppress criticism. Soon after, Shen Shixing and Xu Guo, the royal secretary of Jianji Hall, resigned one after another. Yang Wenju, who was impeached, was forced to return home due to illness before that, and was immediately demoted to a minor position in the border area. Less than two years later, Yang Wenju was dismissed for having a “lack of prudence”. His work in Xuwen was minimal, but Tang Xianzu founded Guisheng Academy here, which contributed to the cultural communication in remote areas. He stayed in Xuwen for only half a year and returned to Linchuan the next year. What impressed Tang Xianzu most in Xuwen, a place where he was demoted to, was what he saw

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when going on out on the main road along Dayu Hill. It was said to be covered with plum blossoms. The trees on the southern side blossomed while the trees on the southern side were still cold branches. There was a plum pass where the wild geese flying to the south returned to. The background for Peony Pavilion was set in Nan’an mansion (Dayu). It was not the author’s idea by chance in Du Liniang’s singing in the scene of Startled Dream “watching the plum pass in early morning” [crow in the dark night]. In Wanli 21st year (1593), Tang Xianzu came to Suichang County, Chuzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province, to be the county magistrate. It was a mountainous area with overlapping mountains and the people were ill-informed. Tang Xianzu and his close friends thought it was a transition to return to work. In Suichang, he was devoted to benevolent governing by eliminating the tyrants and ensuring peace. Here, he established Suichang’s first formal school and the earliest public library in the Zunjing Pavilion behind Minglun Hall. However, he still offended the officials and the gentry. Although he knew the suffering of the people, how much could a county magistrate do? Friends made all efforts to help with his promotion, but it all turned out to be in vain. Tang Xianzu himself knew that this was due to his memorial Auxiliary Minister and Officials (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 3rd–4th). He said in The Four Observations of the Tang Dynasty (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 12th) that “Knowing the blamings from the ex-prime minister, now is the time for the blame from the current prime minister.” Shen Shixing, the prime minister who was offended by Shangshu, was retired at this time. Wang Xijue, also returned to his hometown for a long holiday because of this memorial, he got back to work as Prime Minister just two months before Tang Xianzu was appointed as the magistrate of Suichang county. Tang Xianzu’s furthering of his official career was almost impossible. Tang Xianzu went to Beijing in 1598 for an up inspection. According to the regulations of the Ming Dynasty, the local officials were inspected every three years, which was called “up-inspection”. When he came back from this visit, he knew that there was no hope of becoming an official in the court, so he thought of retiring. This can be confirmed by his pseudonym “Qingyuan Taoist” for Inscription on Purple Hairpin written by him in the same year.2 When he was in Beijing, Tang Xianzu told the Ministry of Officials that he would return home for a long holiday. He was 49 years old that year. As he was still in the position of the county magistrate, it is a resignation from his official career. From 52 to 67, Tang Xianzu spent his time in his hometown. In Wanli 26th year, Tang Xianzu abandoned his post to return home. In Wanli 29th year (1601), when the inspection came for the country officials, he had already 2

This is where “Qingyuan Taoist” was first seen as his pseudonym. When he was demoted to Xuwen, he passed Qingyuan, Guangdong Province, and wrote a poem named “Sending Guests to Qingyuan from Lingling.” So some people mistakenly thought that this is where the name was from. In fact,it came from the hexagram of “Jian” in the Book of Changes: “When the wild geese are landing, their feathers display the ceremanies. Sign of luck.” Wang Bizhu annotated: “Upon entry to a noble place, there is no need to worry about their status. There is nothing to disturb their mind and they will not do anything against their wishes. The ceremonial feather display of the wild geese is admirable”.

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left his post for three years, which was not supposed to be in the list of inspection, but he actually got an “idle living” punishment, and was officially dismissed. That year he was 52 years old. The door of his official career was closed to him. From then on, he began to live in the countryside. He seldom went out, and the farthest place he went was Nanchang, the capital of the province. By this time, all his opera creations had been completed, which was 15 years before his death. Tang Xianzu wrote a poem when he returned home to visit his relatives at the age of 35. It was entitled “Returning from Beijing and Feeling Linchuan A Small Town” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 8th). In fact, what he felt was not narrow space, but spiritual loneliness. For Tang Xianzu, who was prominent in literary circle, the isolation from the world is too painful, but in his later years, Tang Xianzu’s socialization was more strict, remained upright and integrative. He seldom communicated with senior officials.3 In the literary world, Tang Xianzu was lonely in his late years, because all his confidants died earlier than him. The death of Zongdao and Hongdao of Gong’an “Three Yuans” made him sad, and the death of Li Zhi and Daguan Zen master made him feel that life were impermanent. In his Mourning the World (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 19th) he wrote: “Flying all over the sky, my tiger and eagle brothers are rare.” Although he still had contacts with his early friends, such as Tu Long, Zou Diguang and Mei Dingzuo, but what they did mostly was to show their mutual admiration, no more than courtesies. In fact, they were far from being his confidants. However, the charm of Tang Xianzu’s morality and writings were not masked by his removal of office and returning home.4 3

For example, Li Sancai, the governor of water transport and governor of Fengyang prefecture, sent an envoy to invite Tang Xianzu to his post but was declined, just as he thanked Li Hualong, the former governor of water transport, for his condolence with a special vehicle. Another time, on the brithday of Zhu Geng, the 70-year old cabinet minister, his son-in-law Zhang Rulin, head of the Ministry of Military Affairs, requested Tang Xianzu to write poems for him through the Linchuan county magistrate, which was also declined by him. 4 Gu Xiancheng, Gao Panlong, and Zhao Nanxing, from the Donglin Party, had indirect correspondence with Tang Xianzu. The friendship with Huang Ruheng, a Hangzhou native and the magistrate that was close by Jinxian Zhixian and Zhang Shiyi, a Changzhou native and the magistrate of a far away county Xinyu, became his spiritual consolation. Both of them became Jinshi in Wanli 26th year (15 years later than that of Tang Xianzu). They were authors of Yu Ling Collection and and Yue Lu Hall Collection respectively, but their achievements were not high. They were the first readers of Peony Pavilion and the first collectors of the manuscript and original edition.The new people in the literary world then, such as Dong Qichang, Qian Qianyi, and Tao Wangling, all wrote to him as celebrities of the Imperial Academy. Wang Siren, who was famous for his essays, Tan Yuanchun, a poet of Jingling School, Ling Mengchu, the editor of The Amazing Tales, Pan Zhiheng, the author of Everlasting History, Zhang Dafu, the author of Notes on Plum Blossom Cottage, all contacted him either to seek advice or just for the honour of making his acquaintance. Xu Chongxi from Jiaxing, Zhejiang province and Zhang Shiyi, who was mentioned earlier, all took to publishing his collection in Suzhou as their own duty; Gu Dazhang and Han Jing were also the co-editors of his collection. The editor, Chen Jiru and Wang sirens were also the annotators of Peony Pavilion. Tang Xianzu wrote inscriptions or comments for Zhang Taihe’s Red Lotus, Zheng Zhiwen’s The Story of Qi Ting, Zhou Chaojun’s Red Plum and Wang Yufeng’s Burning Incense. Xu Chongxi and Wang Qimao of Shishou, Huguang traveled thousands of miles to get instructions. In order to study nearby, Zhong Zongwang of Guangdong even took his family to live in Linchuan for three years. Ten years after Tang Xianzu’s return from Suichang, the county magistrate and the prefecture magistrate sent

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At the age of 64, Tang Xianzu began to consider arrangements for after his death. He wrote “A Will to My Three Sons on April, 19th, 1613” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 16th) and said: “Divide the instruments but not the books, so that all can benefit. Divide the land but not, not the house, so that the family stays together.” In addition, he was looking for a cemetery for himself and wrote Two Poems on Divination (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 19th). Soon after he wrote Negative Recitation, recalling his life’s acquaintances, teachers and friends. Seven fivecharacter poems came after this, named Last Words to the World. His last poem was Flickering Recitation (all the above are from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 16th): Looking at my seven mournful children, saddened at the bottom of their hearts. Put on the smile to guard at my bier, in a room that is full of ants.

Tang Xianzu, a legendary opera master, died at Yuming Hall in Linchuan on June 16, 44, Wanli 44th year (July 29, 1616 A.D.).

10.2 The Formation of Tang Xianzu’s Thoughts and Four Dreams of Linchuan Tang Xianzu was not known by the world as a thinker. His legend Four Dreams of Linhuan, among which Peony Pavilion especially, shows his profound thoughts on how advanced enlightenment thoughts flew into the long river of history in China at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when he lived. As a great dramatist in the era of despotism, Tang Xianzu’s thought can not completely break the unique pattern of that era, but his breakthrough of the shackles of traditional Neo Confucianism is of great significance. This kind of personal factor, breeding and echoing the trends of thought of the times, was expressed in the art form of his legendary opera, which was most familiar to the average people at the time. Tang Xianzu’s famous Four Dreams of Linhuan is a window for us to peek into the development of his thoughts. In other words, the development of his thoughts contributed to the emergence of “Four Dreams” in different periods of his life. Without understanding the development of Tang Xianzu’s thought, we can’t possibly understand his “Four Dreams” and may even fail to live up to the eternal dream of Peony Pavilion. It’s hard to label Tang Xianzu’s thoughts as they went through a process of change and development due to his experience, personality, political environment, and ideological trends of the times. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the relationship between the important facts in his life and the formation of his thoughts, as well as their influence on the “Four Dreams”, rather than hasten to a conclusion. At the beginning of Tang Xianzu’s thought, both in his family and in the social environment, the thought of virtual immortality and secular Confucianism (presented people to draw pictures and set up a ancestral temple there. Needless to say, many scholars came to visit.

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by the enthusiasm for the imperial examination) were contradictorily extant, forming a complementary relationship, so that the scholars at that time could find the basis of their thoughts whether they advanced or withdrew. In practice, Taoism does not hinder the progress of fame and wealth. When frustrated, it is a good spiritual placebo. When satisfied, it is the continuation of worldly wealth and beautifies worldly fame and fortune. Tang Xianzu’s father and grandfather as well as his first teacher, Xu Liang, all believed in Taoism. He later recalled that “a child with fairy complexion, hearing the father’s teaching in vain” (In Memory of Fairies with Father from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 2nd) Xu Liang ignored the age difference and induced the younger disciples with his old and frustrated intoxication of Sendoh. At the age of 15, Tang Xianzu’s poem Thoughts in Mid-Tao (Vol. 1st, idem) obviously contains the thought of Taoism. However, the family’s expectation for Tang Xianzu was to pursue the imperial examination and then enter the government, for the reason that the Tang family, though rich, had no official status. It is undeniable that the thought of Confucianism’s active accession to fame was of great significance to Tang Xianzu. In fact, though the thought of Buddhism and Taoism was expressed at certain stages of his life, the active accession to fame had always been the main trend of his thought. Which was proved by his performance whether in his taking imperial examinations or his concern and participation in politics during periods in and out of office. There is a close relationship between Tang Xianzu’s Buddhist thought and his communication with the Buddhist master of Daguan. In Wanli 18th year (1590), Tang Xianzu, who just turned 40, met with Daguan (also known as Zhen Ke and Purple Pine) who was a Zen master at the residence of Zou Yuanbiao, a member of Nanjing Ministry of Justice. Daguan and Li Zhi were both known as two major religious leaders. Their profound influence on Tang Xianzu’s thought was incomparable with both negative and positive aspects. In fact, Daguan paid attention to Tang Xianzu as early as 20 years ago. In Longqing 4th year (1570), Tang Xianzu was selected in the rural examination. When he went to Yunfeng Temple in Xishan to thank the examiner Zhang Yue, he accidentally dropped a hairpin in a bundle into the lotus pond, so he wrote the poem “Two Poems for Hairpin Falling to the Lotus Pond” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 14th). The transcendent attitude to fame and wealth expressed in the poem attracted the attention of the Daguan. The young Tang Xianzu’s spontaneous writing bought out his determination of restoring his soul. He believed that Tang Xianzu was “a man with a good nature, a man with little worldly desires, a man with great talent, who is seeking the essence of Tao” (With Tang from Collection of Master Purple Pine, Vols. 2nd–3rd). Twenty years later, he recited Tang Xianzu’s two poems and a poem of his own Of the Poetic Lines On the Wall. He hoped that Tang Xianzu would one day fulfill his long cherished wish expressed in his poem, saying that he would become a monk ten years later. Tang Xianzu read Buddhist scriptures in Bao’en temple as early as when he was 27 when he went to Nanjing Imperial Academy. Three years later, he ascended the altar in Qingliang Temple delivering a speech. The Taizhou School he believed in was originally related to the philosophy of Zen, which was proven by his meeting with Daguan in the home of the Neo Confucianism Zou Yuanbiao.

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Both Daguan School and Taizhou School are dissatisfied with Zhu Xi’s Orthodox Neo Confucianism. A monk is not as restrained as an official Neo Confucianist, sometimes more sharp. He claimed that Zhu Xi’s philosophy can only be spread for five hundred years, and now it’s the time to die. Like all Neo Confucianists, he affirmed “rationsality” and denied “emotion”. Surprisingly, he pointed out that Zhu Xi’s philosophy was based on “feeling” rather than “emotion”. This is likened to having a dose of one’s own medicine. Shen Defu said in his Celebrities in the Zen Forest in Wanli Wild Harvest, Vol. 27th: “Daguan the old man is straightforward and happy, and all the frivolous young men are blown away.”5 From this biased praise, we can see that the scholar officials’ disapproval of his concept, and we can also see his rebellious nature, but Tang Xianzu fell in love with him almost at first sight and was taken as a confidant. He professed immediately in Nanjing. Daguan named him Cunxu (Inch Empty), and hoped that his square inch heart would be empty forever. In the first year of Tang Xianzu’s leaving his official post and returning home, Daguan came to Linchuan. At this time, Tang Xianzu had a look back on the road of imperial examination and official advancement, and it felt like a dream. Peony Pavilion, The Story of Nanke and The Story of Handan were all written in this period. Daguan had keen expectations for Tang Xianzu’s becoming a priest, but Tang Xianzu still had the desire to get back to his official position. When Daguan reached the north, he wrote a long letter to Tang Xianzu, upgrading his legal name “Cunxu” to “Guangxu” (Broad Empty), and then to “Juexu” (Feeling Empty). The successive promotion of names showed the expectation of Daguan’s eager expectation of Tang Xianzu’s being a priest. In fact, though Tang Xianzu didn’t follow the guidance of Daguan to embark on the road of Taoism, his bumpy career had made him more and more obsessed by the thought of Taoism. The education of Neo Confucianism of Taizhou School that he received since his childhood had never made Taoism dominant in his thoughts. In fact, not only could Tang Xianzu could not free himself from the secular world, but also Daguan himself. Ten years later, Daguan came to Linchuan again before leaving for Beijing. Tang Xianzu accompanied him to Nanchang. He went to Beijing this time just to let the emperor cancel the mining tax levied in Wanli 24th year. He was killed in this trip for the crime of involving himself in politics. Tang Xianzu could have immersed himself in Buddhism, but he didn’t convert to it. However, his thought of being a monk had left indelible marks in The Story of Nanke, and The Story of Handan, after his abandoning the official post, seeing off Daguan and losing his eldest son. These two legends do not reflect all the contradictory thoughts of Tang Xianzu, but focus on recording the negative and weak side of his thoughts, namely the idea of being a monk. Huai’an Country in his writing is undoubtedly the author’s representation of the real society. Right after The Story of Nanke, Tang Xianzu wrote The Story of Handan, soon after he was officially dismissed. This play is also a short and pithy work in the legend of the Ming Dynasty. There are only 30 scenes in the whole play, which is the story of immortality and Taoism. Taoism itself does not interfere with Tang Xianzu’s creation ideologically of many Buddhist classics, so The Story of Handan is less interfered by abstract preaching. Lu Sheng’s 5

Shen Defu: Anthology of Wanli, Zhonghua Book Company, 1959, p. 693.

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life history is the history of the high ranked officials from the beginning to the end. The satirical description in the play is obviously a way for Tang Xianzu to express his dissatisfaction with contemporary politics. The Story of Nanke and The Story of Handan were written after Purple Hairpin and Peony Pavilion. From these two legends, it can be seen that both Buddhism and Taoism were related to reality and politics in Tang Xianzu’s thought, and he had never really stood out from the world. In order to get this aspect of Tang Xianzu’s thought better, we need to further explore the relationship between his thought development, his legend Four Dreams and the changes of traditional Neo Confucianism at that time, as well as the relationship between the politics then and his personal political destiny. In terms of political thought and behavior standards, the most influential one is Luo Rufang (1515–1588), his teacher. Luo Rufang was a third generation disciple of Wang Gen, the founder of Wang Xue (Taizhou School). Wang Gen passed it onto Xu Yue, Xu Yue passed it onto Yan Jun, Yan Jun passed it onto Luo Rufang, who greatly influenced Tang Xianzu. Wang Gen was from Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. His disciples were all from Jiangxi Province. Wang Gen was a student of Wang Shouren (pseudonym Yangming 1472–1540), was from Yuyao (now Zhejiang Province). Wang Xue, also known as the study of the mind, was a philosophy of subjective idealism, which was different from the objective idealism philosophy advocated by mainstream thought. Wang Xue and Cheng Zhu’s Neo Confucianism also advocated “to eliminate the human desire and keep the heavenly principles” (Yaozhou Study Cases from The Cases of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 1st). The difference between them is that Wang Yangming did not always deny sexual desire, which was his self contradiction. He said, “seven emotions are the emotions of joy, anger, and sorrow. All seven are shared by people, but we should recognize them with our conscience and understand them. The seven emotions are guided by nature and used with conscience, but they can’t be created. The created emotions are all desires” (The Complete Works of Wang Wencheng, Vol. 3rd). The meaning of all the above was summarized by his disciple Qian Dehong as “It is the mind’s body to be either good nor evil, it’s a sign of desire to be both good and evil” (Yaozhou Study Cases from The Cases of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 1st). Human desire that can not be denied in all can be both good and evil, which is a breakthrough in the shackles of Neo Confucianism in Cheng and Zhu. Wang Gen’s famous work Song of Learning Happiness said: “People are happy by nature, and they tie their selfish desires. When lust is aroused, conscience is still conscious. It’s gone at once, and people are still happy.” Yan Jun emphasized “to be frank, to be pure and natural” (Taizhou Study Cases from The Cases of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 32nd). Luo Rufang proposed “a child’s conscience, no learning, no worry” (Consulting with Mr. Luo Jinxi on Politics in Taizhou Study Cases III, idem, Vol. 34th). Yan’s and Luo’s ideas are the forerunner of Lizhi’s theory of childlike innocence. At the age of 13, Tang Xianzu was instructed by Luo Rufang who appreciated him a lot. In the The Complete Works of Mr. Luo Jinxi, there are poems such as To Tang Yi the Learner and Farewell to Tang Yi at Jade Cold Spring. It’s quite unusual for Luo Rufang to present poems to his minor disciples.

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Taizhou School did not advocate struggle in theory. Tang Xianzu was good at criticizing politics in Nanjing, making friends with “righteous scholars” and showing an uncooperative attitude towards the ruling people. According to his words in the article Scholar Theory (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 37th), he “gave the full play of his passion.” In the same article, we can see that Luo Rufang gave a lecture in Nanjing (Wanli 14th year) and once severely criticized his student who he hadn’t met in 20 years, but in real politics, struggle cannot be avoided. Due to heresy spread by Wang Xue of the left, its thinkers had been persecuted to varying degrees, which was the best time to reflect on one’s personality and integrity: having offended the devious Prime Minister Yan Song, Zhao Zhenji was banished to Guangxi, accompanied by Yan Jun in anger; Xu Yue was killed in Yunnan, and he traveled thousands of miles to get the bones of his teacher. Yan Jun was arrested and jailed for offending the authorities. Luo Rufang sold off his farm property and tried to rescue the teacher. He would rather be ordered to resign than stop lecturing. For Tang Xianzu, what these wordless teachings left to him was far more impressive than the abstract and subtle study of life. Tang Xianzu twice refused to win over Prime Minister Zhang Juzheng on his road in taking imperial examinations, so that he became a Jinshi at the age of 34 at a low rank; he refused to accept the help of the other two officials in power (Prime Minister Zhang Siwei and the second minister Shen Shixing) at the beginning of his official career, by rather taking a candidate position; when he was an official in Nanjing, he criticized the current politics in Auxiliary Minister and Officials, and was banished to Xuwen, Guangdong Province, and finally dismissed as the magistrate of Suichang. Only by considering Tang Xianzu’s family and his passion for fame, can we measure what strong determination he needed to have to be proud and unyielding to the powerful. Only by understanding the relationship between Tang Xianzu and Taizhou School and the spirit of Taizhou School, can we understand how Tang Xianzu can sacrifice fame and wealth repeatedly and maintain integrity in his rough career. Many facts have proved that what Tang Xianzu was dissatisfied with, criticized and opposed in politics was mainly the autocratic system of the ruling party rather than political innovation. As mentioned above, the relationship between Tang Xianzu and Zhang Juzheng, Shen Shixing and the stir caused by his proposal Auxiliary Minister and Officials are enough to prove it. Although Tang Xianzu’s time of being supervised by Luo Rufang was not long his influence was lifelong. In a word, the Taizhou School had a good influence on Tang Xianzu from ideas to behavior, advocating freedom of thought and speech, and breaking away from all kinds of doctrines that bound the body and mind established by Neo Confucianism. However, Tang Xianzu’s antipathy and criticism of despotism did not reach the height of modern democracy in ideology, and his expression was more perceptual than rational, and he had more subjective indignation than objective analysis. This situation may be a weakness in philosophy, but when it becomes the thinking essence of a literary giant for a generation, it just enables Tang Xianzu’s legendary creation to reach an unprecedented depth. Tang Xianzu first accepted, and later discarded the influence of Luo Rufang. It would be one-sided by only seeing the former but not the latter. In the Preface to

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the Collection of Taiping Mountain Houses (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 3rd), he said: “I went to the Master of Mingde (Luo Rufang) for instruction when I was little. As a child, I learned all from his meditation, mild talk, poetic singing or drum and harp playing. Later, I turned against it for the stimulation of passions by entertaining myself with singing, dancing or reciting for over ten years.” “The golden mean was ended and the time of nature is over.” Although Tang Xianzu wrote these words in a tone of self reproach, it was just for that he “turned against it”, that Tang Xianzu became the most outstanding dramatist and political activist in the Ming Dynasty. Tang Xianzu called his criticism and struggle against autocracy the contradiction between “feeling” and “law”. In the Green Lotus Pavilion (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 34th), he said: “there is a world of feelings and a world of law.” The former refers to the reason why Li Bai in the Tang Dynasty was unsurpassed was that he caught up with “the world of feelings”, while Tang himself lived in an era of “destroying talent and respecting official law” (With Uncle Qiu Mao from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 47th). He added: “The law, rather than people, is the whole about our country.” The words are slightly different but the main idea is the same. He summed up the suppression of autocracy on people and himself with the word “official law”, and distinguished the social politics of Tang Dynasty and Ming Dynasty with “feeling” and “law”. The author’s main consideration is not whether this comparison is in line with reality, targeting not on the ancient, but on the allegory of the present, and on the whipping of reality. In Purple Hairpin, Li Yi lost his freedom and Huo Xiaoyu was abandoned; in Peony Pavilion, Du Liniang died of a futile desire for love, the God of flowers was interrogated, Liu Mengmei was suspected as a tomb robber, and his marriage with Du Liniang was still not recognized in the category of “law” until the end of the play, all of which can be regarded as the expression of the contradiction between feeling and law. The Story of Nanke and The Story of Handan point out that only the crooked ways such as nepotism and bribery can break the suppression of “official law” on people. The contradiction between feeling and law focuses on politics and ethics. From the perspective of philosophy, it shows the contradiction between feeling and reasoning. The contemporary writer Chen Jiru’s Annotatinging the Inscription of Peony Pavilion had long recognized this: “Zhang Xinjian (wei) once had a talk with Tang from Linchuan: ‘With your eloquence, you will be a great talent in delivering the philosophy of life if you give lectures, and your influence would not be under any of the great figures like Lian, Luo, Guan and Ming. How can you waste it in meaningless drama creation?’ Tang of Linchuan said, ‘I have been teaching with my teacher all day long, but people don’t understand me. My teacher talks about disposition, I talk about feelings.’ Zhang Gong had no answer.” The so-called “disposition” here means “reasoning”. Tang Xianzu said: “there is no good or evil in disposition, but in feeling. When feeling becomes a dream, dream becomes a play” (Reply to Gan Yilu from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 47th). He summarized his thought development from the beginning of Neo Confucianism to the creation of the legendary “Four Dreams” based on feelings, which is the theoretical basis provided by Wang Xue for Tang Xianzu’s feeling-orientation drama theory. In fact, Tang Xianzu made use of

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the inner contradiction of Wang Xue. Wang Xue, like all the Neo Confucianism scholars including Zhu Xi, advocated desire free, but leaves a saying of good and evil. Without the desire free idea, Wang Xue will become heresy as it was not allowed by the mainstream. Without saying that feeling can be good or evil, Wang Xue will lose its significance of existence. Feeling is not all bad, reason is not all good. Tang Xianzu found his place in the narrow philosophical gap neglected by others. In the final analysis, the opposition between feeling and reason is the opposition between democracy and autocracy. Tang Xianzu, the author of the Peony Pavilion, did not straightened it out in his self-consciousness. The premise that “feeling can be good and evil” also shows that he shared common ground with Neo Confucianism, but this did not hinder his enlightenment on people’s thoughts at that time. However, Tang Xianzu’s theory of “feeling” has been repeatedly criticized by Neo Confucianism. When he was demoted to the south, Zou Yuanbiao encouraged him in the Preface to Tang Yi’s Relegation to Chaoyang that demotion was just the “opportunity to strengthen one’s mind and enhance one’s benevolence”, so one should be more precise in “the study of life”. One should not “get to the high tower and write poems and express his own depression and boredom” (Complete Works of Zou Zhongjie. Preserving Truth, Vol. 4th). Tang Xianzu mentioned in his Reply to Luo Kaunghu (from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 46th) that another fellow Neo Confucianism scholar, Luo Dahu, criticized him for “being obsessed in ornate words” and thus denied his legendary creation. Tang Xianzu also admitted that it did not live up to the expectation of Luo Rufang’s teaching. In the passage of the Preface to the Collection of Taiping Mountain Houses quoted above, his so-called “the golden mean”, “the time of nature” and “life” are equivalent to reasoning; “the stimulation of passions by entertaining myself with singing, dancing or chanting” and “express his own depression and boredom” criticized by friends are equivalent to feelings; “ornate words” refer to the catharsis of emotion by poetry and opera, but Tang Xianzu was not ready to repent. He said to Daguan, “if there is feeling, there will be no reasoning, if there is reasoning, there will be no feeling” (To Daguan from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 45th). In his Inscription on the Peony Pavilion (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 33rd), he had his refutation of the critics with the declaration that feeling prevails over reasoning. What he wanted to prove was the opposite proposition “what can not physically be proved by reasoning might be proved by feeling.” Wang Xue’s theory of “good and evil feelings” was purposefully expressed in the legendary opera Four Dreams by Tang Xianzu. Purple Hairpin and the Peony Pavilion are examples of good feeling. Huo Xiaoyu and Du Liniang were oppressed by the social “law” and “reasoning” at that time, and their ideals could only be realized in their dreams. The author’s focus was on the dream, but what critics saw was the plot of the talent getting the number one scholar spot at the end of the play. It is certainly the limitation of the author to have the male and female protagonists matched by means of’ the talent getting number one scholar place, but the author’s painstaking efforts to find a way out only in dreams can not be ignored, or it would be regarded by the author as his “theory of physical view” (Inscription on the Peony Pavilion).

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The Story of Nanke and The Story of Handan are the examples of evil feeling. In his later years, after the big blow of life, Zen and Taoism were the starting points of these two dreams, but they were not the final result of Tang Xianzu’s thought. The Story of Nanke originally wanted to be faithful to the legend of the Tang Dynasty, the Biography of Nanke Prefect, but it started from the abstract preaching of “dream for sleep, love for Buddha” (Inscription from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 3rd), and took the abstract principles from Buddhism and the expression of “Zen comprehension” as the first, the perceptual knowledge of life experience and social practice as the second, turning this script of mediocre work among the “Four Dreams”. The government of Huai’an state and the officialdom of Nanke county are all compared with common practices and bad habits of the central and local officialdom in the Ming Dynasty, which all are reflected in Episode 24 Folk Rhyme. Neither Huai’an nor Nanke county was the author’s politically ideal country. Moreover, the description of reality is just a teasing with great panach. When the writing is developing toward the direction of satiring and attacking, it was diverted by the idea of immortality which offsets its serious significance. From the perspective of “feeling”, The Inscription of Nanke Story said: “Here is the feeling, entranced and engaged.” “The Inscription of Peony Pavilion” said: “Not knowing when the emotion was aroused, it was so deeply she had fallen in.” It seems that there is little difference between the two. In fact, the situation was totally different after just two years. The “love” in the Peony Pavilion had become the “infatuation” (Episode 8 Birth of Love) The Story of Nanke. There is no doubt that this legend was based on the Buddhist view of “feeling”. Therefore, compared with Peony Pavilion, the author’s thought reversed backward rather than being advanced. This is obviously related to his in depth communication with Daguan when he wrote this legend, and Daguan was against the view of feeling. In The Story of Handan, criticizing the government had become an important thought. There are some figures and events that were in line with contemporary reality. For example, in Sheng Wu, Mrs. Lu said: “That official wanted some bribery from him, you know what he offered? Flock mate.” This reminds us of the story of Hou Jinxian, the “Minister of Genitle Rinsing” during the Chenghua period, and Wan’an, the prime minister whom he flattered. More facts in the play were related to Zhang Juzheng. The relationship between Lu Sheng and Gao Lishi is similar to that between Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao. “Fell in for three days after one illness, the important events were decided in front of the bed. The emperor’s grace and propriety were abundant by sending officials of in the Department of Rites to send gifts and do a sacrifice blessing for recovery” (Episode 28 Sign of A Friend), which also vaguely referred to what Zhang Juzheng said when he was dying. However, we should pay attention to the fact that the author got these images from real society to reflect the ugly life of the senior officials at that time, rather than directly as an allusion to Zhang Juzheng or anyone else. Either in Purple Hairpin or Peony Pavilion, the dream is the key to the whole play. However, the former only mentioned the dream in Episode 49, while the latter only wrote a daydream of Du Liniang when she had an urge in the spring (though the dream is of great significance). The dreams in The Story of Nanke and The Story of Handan show the disillusionment of life as a dream, which is not an ideal sustenance.

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Tang Xianzu was so obsessed with dreams, but failed to write a dream close to Utopia. He lamented that in his “Four Dreams”: “people know their joy, they don’t know their sorrow” (Replay to Li Naishi from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 46th). This shows that in that particular historical period, what he could do was not to point out a way out for society, but to criticize it and destroy its creed. After three hundred years, the trickle of his advanced enlightenment thought converged in the new trend of ideological emancipation of the May 4th movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. Only by reviewing and looking forward in the long history can Tang Xianzu’s thoughts and the significance of his legendary works be properly evaluated. Tang Xianzu was known for his Four Dreams of Yuming Hall, especially Peony Pavilion, which established his irreplaceable position in the history of Chinese opera. In the history of the development of Chinese opera, Zaju of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties and the legends of Ming and Qing Dynasties sparkled with multiple features. Zaju of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, as a collective creation of generational accumulation, with Guan Hanqing as the representative of the writers and Wang Shifu’s The Romance of West Chamber as the representative of plays. That is to say, none of Guan Hanqing’s works can be compared with The Romance of West Chamber. However, Wang Shifu can’t be credited with the outstanding achievements The Romance of West Chamber. He only pushed the work to a new height on the basis of the accumulated stories of generations. With the development of opera in the Ming Dynasty, the writer’s personal achievements took a bigger proportion in his works. Tang Xianzu’s “Four Dreams” came from the transformation of various themes of his predecessors, just as his western counterpart Shakespeare’s more than 30 kinds of plays, with the only exception of The Tempest which was created by the playwright himself. From the quality and influence, rather than from the quantity, both Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu can be regarded as individual writers. Tang Xianzu and his Peony Pavilion are entitled to be the representative of the writers and works of the Ming Dynasty legend. The emergence of outstanding writers of Chinese novels and operas is far behind poetry and prose, which is determined by its unique development. Tang Xianzu began to write the poem After the Chaos at the age of 12. In his later 50 years, his efforts in opera only accounted for a small part of his lifetime achievements. However, the whole significance of his life and his main contribution to Chinese and even world literature are concentrated here. Peony Pavilion should be the crystallization of his life, thoughts, experiences, and all his artistic talents. In Tang Xianzu’s time, China, with a long and glorious history, had come to a turning point. She was supposed to rise and take off like the later Renaissance in Western Europe, but she was delayed due to various historical reasons. In this way, it doesn’t mean that the individual scenes in the Peony Pavilion are the tortuous projections of Macao, the Portuguese concession, but the great artistic power of the Peony Pavilion, which lies in Tang Xianzu’s merciless and incisive criticism of late Ming society and its main ideology and ethics. This criticism was carried out by Tang Xianzu as a scholar official. This is not only the tragedy of the times, but also the tragedy of Tang Xianzu but Tang Xianzu also gained immortality for this.

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10.3 An Unprecedented Masterpiece: Peony Pavilion Tang Xianzu completed Peony Pavilion in 1598 (Wanli 26th year), which was more than 400 years until this drama became a sensation in the literary world since it was published. Shen Defu’s Notes on Tunes said: “Once the dream of Peony Pavilion was published, it was handed down from family to family, reducing the price of the West Chamber ….”6 It attracted many celebrities, such as Zang Maoxun and Feng Menglong, to make adaptations, until the Qing Dynasty there were still people doing this. Shen Jing was the leader of Wujiang school who was opposite to Tang Xianzu, but he not only adapted Peony Pavilion, but also wrote Falling Hairpin out of its inspiration according to Wang Jide’s Rules of Tunes. Miscellaneous Treatise. Not to mention that later Wu Bing deliberately imitated Peony Pavilion, and even in the famous work of Hong Sheng in the Qing Dynasty, Hall of Eternal Life, we can clearly see its influence. Peony Pavilion is Tang Xianzu’s representative work. It is a work produced when the author’s thoughts and art were maturing. It is not like the story of Purple Flute and Purple Hairpin, nor does it have the obvious negative tendency like The Story of Nanke and The Story of Handan. 1.

Some historical facts outside the Peony Pavilion

Peony Pavilion is the abbreviation of Peony Pavilion’s Requiem, also known as Requiem. There was also a book of Yuan Wenzheng’s Requiem in southern opera, which was called Requiem for short, which is easily confused, so it is not suitable for Peony Pavilion to use the same abbreviation. This legendary opera was based on the story book of Du Liniang’s Lust and Soul Return. Chaofan’s Bibliography of Baowen Hall had it recorded in miscellaneous categories with the title of The Story of Du Liniang. What we see now is the book contained in Re-engrave and Supplement Notes of Yanju, Vol. 9th compiled by He Dali in the Ming Dynasty. Chao Yu was a Jinshi in Jiajing 20th year (1514), which was earlier than Tang Xianzu. Therefore, it can only be that Peony Pavilion was based on the novel, but not based on the opposite. The plot of reviving from death and the thought of anti patriarchal ethics in the storybook were not temporary creations, but the long-standing stories formed after years of circulation. The important scenes of Peony Pavilion, such as Startled Dream, Dream Seeking, Mourning, Portrait Found, Playing with Truth, Garden of Eden, Oath of the Underworld and Return to Life, all took shape in the script, and many words and sentences were unchanged. This is to say that the important plot of the love story in Peony Pavilion had already existed in the story book. However, it is so crude that people hardly found its charm and possible social influence. Tang Xianzu selected from hundreds of mediocre works the story book Du Liniang’s Lust and Soul Return for its transformation. The role of the writer can be of varying degrees from simple recording to modifying the complete creation, which is a unique phenomenon in the history of Chinese novels and operas. The story book is just a simple love story, but Tang Xianzu gave it a broad social background of the Ming Dynasty, and transformed 6

For details, refer to Collection of Chinese Classical Operas IV, China Drama Press, 1959, p. 206.

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its plot, characters, contradictions and conflicts. On the basis of profound thoughts, the story book was widely used for reference, so that the whole book improved at the creative dimension. In addition to the script, Peony Pavilion was also influenced by the Zaju in some aspects. Green Peach Blossom by anonymous tells us that Green Peach was scolded by her parents for having a private meeting with Zhang Daonan in the back garden. After her death, her soul met with Zhang Daonan. The judge found out that her life was not over, and Green Peach returned her soul to reunite with her lover. The main plot of this drama is similar to Peony Pavilion, especially the judgment of the dead and the return of the soul. If the character Yu Xiao is not a prostitute but a lady from an official family, if she was not a reincarnation but a returned ghost and married her lover, then Peony Pavilion was just an adaptation of the drama. There is a realistic plot in the Marriage of Two Lives, which was born from the Collection of Li Qing. Biography of Cui Hui. Later, Qiao Ji’s Zaju and Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion borrowed it as a necessary link for men and women to get together (Peony Pavilion) or reunite (Marriage of Two Lives). However, in terms of the vivid reflection of the young generation’s sadness for wasted youth and love for the beautiful years under the confinement of patriarchal social ethics, this profound idea, though sprouted in the script, had only been fully expressed in Peony Pavilion. In Qiao Ji’s drama, The Story of Money, Han Hong, the talented son, was hung and beaten by Fu Yin, Liu Mei’s father, because he was seeing her. Later, Han Sheng got the number one scholar spot and was ordered by the Emperor to marry her, so they reconciled. Tang Xianzu said that the plot was copied from the story of Suiyang King in Searching for the Immortal, Vol. 16th, but in fact, whether in The Story of Money or Searching for the Immortal, this plot did not lead to a real conflict like in Peony Pavilion. Compared with the previous works related to Peony Pavilion, the achievements are not the same, but in a sense, they are only semi-finished products. In every plot and conception of the legend, Tang Xianzu did his best to make full use of it by digging deeply and being innovate. As far as the most important part of drama creation is concerned, the author was particularly committed to the formation and development of contradictions and conflicts, which are the key for the characters and plot structure. Even though it is irrelevant to interleave some dialogue, it is good enough to show the author’s literary talent, especially when every poem in the next stage is composed of seven words of Tang poetry, which is closely integrated with the plot of the drama. As for the time of creation to Peony Pavilion, Tang Xianzu wrote his own inscription in the autumn of 1598 (Wanli 26th year), which was after he left his official post in Suichang. Some people think that Wanli 26th year was the time when it was published.7 Tang Xianzu wrote Reply to Zhang Mengze two years later by saying: “Just like Peony Soul and Nanke Dream, I did some proofreading of it before it was published.” It can be seen that there is no possibility that the play was published or would be published in Wanli 26th year. He wrote in With Qian Jianqi: “Zhen Fu is passing home toward West Lake for a visit. I showed him the ‘Four Dreams’ 7

See Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, p. 1451.

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“manuscript, which is for the singers to perform.”8 Huang Ruheng, style name Zhen Fu, was transferred from Jiangxi Province to Hangzhou. Zaju in Wanli Wild Harvest, Vol. 25th also said: “When Ruheng got to Jinxian upon his wife’s call, the gift he presented was Tang’s new work Peony Pavilion, which is really a piece of marvelous writing.” This is the earliest record of “Four Dreams” in Wanli 33th year. The actual publication time should be before that, but it won’t be far apart. The first scene Heading in Peony Pavilion said: “Busy place attracts people and idle place to live, looking around, but no happy place to be found.” “In Yuming Hall I spent day and night, in the red candle light and the beautiful scenery sight, my writing is thus helped.” The “busy place” and “idle place” here are clearly explained by the author in his Notes to the Ancient Yongan Temple in Linchuan County: “Where there are idle people, there is an idle place, where there are busy people, there is a busy place. What are busy people? Those who strive for fame in court and those who strive for profits in the market. These are all busy people of the world. That is, even though there are idle places, how can they be willing to go?”9 “Busy place” refers to the official career, and “idle place” refers to the hometown where the official is dismissed. This article was written by Yuan Shizhen, the Linchuan County magistrate, who was in office, that is, between the 27th and 32nd year of Wanli, shortly after the completion of Peony Pavilion. This piece of lyrical writing is very close to the situation of Tang Xianzu’s dismissal in Wanli 26th year (busy place attracts people) and then living at home (idle place to live). “Looking around, but no happy place to be found” expresses his mood upon returning from office. Although Suichang county magistrate has few official duties, it is an official career after all. If Peony Pavilion was created in his office as the Suichang county magistrate, it would be barely called “idle place”, because of the county’s secluded mountainous area, and the imperial court was regarded as “busy place”, the whole sentence was not quite in line with Tang Xianzu’s situation, as he was not transferred directly from the busy place (the imperial court) to the idle place (Suichang), but from the demoted Xuwen to Suichang. As for the “Yuming Hall” mentioned in the writing, it was a general name for the ancient literati’s study even if the author was far away from his hometown. “In Yuming Hall I spent day and night”, this Yuming Hall may not necessarily in Linchuan. The situation of this lyrics are different. The name of the hall is not only used as the pronoun of the name of the person, but also refers to the specific building, that is, the author’s home. What the Heading says should be the true situation of the author’s legendary writing. Tang Xianzu’s ancestral home was outside the Wenchang bridge in Fuzhou. No later than when he was a child, there was a school near Tanggong Temple under Xiangnan peak in the city. On New Year’s Eve, when he was twenty-three years old, his ancestral home caught on fire. After that, they did not have a permanent place to live for ten years. Perhaps at this time, the old school gradually changed into a residence. Later, the famous Yuming Hall was established. “Yuming” got its name from a white camellia in the east yard of the official yamen of Fuzhou in the Song Dynasty. In the first year of Jingding in the Southern Song Dynasty (1262), Kunwong, a prefecture 8 9

See Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, p. 1466. See Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, p. 1185.

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official, had a book called Yuming Pavilion, saying that the flower was comparable to the magic flower viburnum. Three centuries later, Tang Xianzu abandoned his official post and returned to the south. He wrote the poem 20 Rhymes of Viburnum (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 12th), praising the flower “just one Yuming ever and after from all over the world”. When Tang Xianzu wrote Peony Pavilion, he was quite experienced in both the social life and official affairs, but his enthusiasm for life and politics did not decline, and he still maintained his sharp edge. As a dramatist, he was at the top of his artistic creation career at this time. His thoughts, experience, and opera art all provided mature conditions for the writing of his masterpiece Peony Pavilion. There is another interesting fact: Tang Xianzu’s poems at the beginning of his return to his hometown, which can be dated exactly, are the first ten poems compiled into Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 14th, and more than half of them refer to dreams. Reply to Zhou Songyang said: “In my dreams, flowers of Heyang are drifting afar, arriving in Pengze seeing willows sprout. Newly off duty from the country magistrate of Suichang, the author felt like he was in a dream. His Note to Officer Gao Upon Returning said: “Years of clear dreams about Chang’an, now a fishing rod in Linchuan”, which is about the vision of officialdom in the past. Although not completely disappointed, he was having a feeling of being lost. This can be a distant forerunner of The Story of Nanke and The Story of Handan. Beginning of Return said: “Birds singing in the yard of deep spring, dream over beauty gone with door half opening.” It was just a short day dream. Building A Sand Well said: “Wandering by the water in the breeze, waking with moon above navel from my dreams.” This is a dreamy spring night. Sending a Dream is about the whole dream: The retired official rests like an immortal, with flute fading guests leaving. In my dreams are the butterflies in spring, my real life is fishing in Wuling. Come with hair straightened and air gathered, leave to see the rainy curtain at sunset. Wind breaks and laughs in the moon, empty songs in heaven filled with hesitation.

It may be similar to the dream recorded in the preface of the poem “Dreamtime” sent to Zen master Daguan in February of the next year: “Sleeping on a spring night, I dreamt of a maid by my bed, a pretty girl. This scene was put in the play as the painting of Plum Dress.” It’s hard to know whether there was an actual affair relating to this. What’s to be noted is that they were written at the same time as Peony Pavilion, which may not be a coincidence. Tang Xianzu’s legend took “Four Dreams” as its name. They all have long or short dreams with various forms and different contents, which are the expressions of the author’s attitude towards life. All of the dreams are related to the author’s dream like thinking and his indulgence in them. Dreams don’t make people completely forget reality. During the period of April and May when Tang Xianzu first came back, that is to say, in the year of his creation of Peony Pavilion, he wrote a poem, Upon Hearing the Draught of Beijing and Heavy Taxes (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 14th): Five winds and ten rains are prayed for, incense is burning with ashes on His robe. We learn the rain stays away from tax collection, from the Jiangnan laughing Shen.

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During the drought near Beijing, the Emperor seemed worried about the country and the people. He prayed in the open air in the Forbidden City at night. According to Lu You’s Book of Southern Tang, Vol. 17th, Shen Jiangao was a comedian for Li Min, the head of the Southern Tang Dynasty. During the time of a serious drought. Li Min asked his courtiers why it rained everywhere except in Beijing? Shen Jian answered loudly: nothing strange. Rain is afraid of tax and dared not enter the city. It was the same case when Emperor Wanli was sending eunuchs to search for gold and silver treasures all over the country. Officials at all levels, both central and local, were severely punished for their poor implementation. The amount of gold unearthed in the underground palace of Dingling is enough to prove that Emperor Wanli did not observe the people’s condition. Tang Xianzu actually compared the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty with the head of the Southern Tang Dynasty. His courage was rare among scholars of the same era. Attention to this poem is of great significance to understand the author’s thoughts and feelings when he wrote Peony Pavilion. 2.

Dramatic conflict, artistic image, and the connotation of Peony Pavilion

Peony Pavilion is a moving love story with the significance of the time, which was based on the transformation of the old theme. Du Liniang, daughter of Du Bao, the magistrate of Nanan, was raised in a boudoir and strictly regulated by etiquette since her childhood. One spring day, she finally walked out of the embroidery house and went to the back garden. The spring garden made her feel her time was wasted and melancholy. After returning to her room, she had a dream. In the dream, she had a tryst with Liu Mengmei, a scholar. When she woke up, she fell in love with Liu Mengmei, the scholar in the dream, so that when she fell ill, and as she was dying, she painted her beautiful face and hid it under the Taihu stone in the back garden. After Du Bao’s promotion, Liu Mengmei, a scholar in Lingnan, stayed in Du’s mansion and found Du Liniang’s self portrait. The ghost of Du Liniang appeared in the night, rejoicing with Liu Mengmei. Later, Liu Mengmei was ordered by Du Liniang to dig the tomb and Du Liniang came back to life. Encouraged by Liu Mengmei, she married him without waiting for her parents’ approval. After their wedding, they went to Beijing together. After Liu Mengmei took the imperial examination, Liniang asked him to go to his father’s place to report her reincarnation. Upon hearing it, Du Bao did not believe it. Liu Mengmei was imprisoned and tortured for the crime of tomb robbery. Right in the middle of the mess, news came that Liu Mengmei got the number one scholar spot. Du Bao went to court and became the Prime Minister. Due to the fact that his daughter married without permission, Du Bao refused to recognize the couple. With mediation by the Emperor in the royal palace, they were finally reunited. Tang Xianzu said in the Inscription on the Peony Pavilion: “Of all the women in love in the world, no one is like Du Liniang! She fell sick for the man in her dream and never recovered. She held back her death until after she did her self portrait to passed on to the world. After three years of death, she resurrected from the tomb for the man she dreamed of. Li Niang is a character to define love. Not knowing when the emotion was aroused, it was so deep she had fallen in. The living can die, the dead can revive. To live without death, to die without rebirth, is not the end of love…

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worldly things can never be perfectly handled. As a common man, I can only use my reasoning. What can not physically be proved by reasoning might be proved by feeling.” The author’s remark is a summary of the proposition of “feeling” against “reason” in Peony Pavilion. The conflict between feeling and reason is the center of the conflict in this legendary drama, and also the basis of artistic image. Is the contradiction between feeling and reason the contradiction between emotion and rationality? Not in Peony Pavilion. No matter in the past, the present and the future, there is not only the harmony between emotion and rationality, but also the irreconcilable and inconsistent side. If the contradiction between feeling and reason means the contradiction between emotion and rationality, Peony Pavilion will completely lose its significance of the times. It can be seen that “feeling” is similar to emotion but not equal to emotion, but refers to human desire. Human desire is feeling, that is, the innate nature of human beings; “reason” is similar to rationality but not rationality, which refers to the constraint of ethics and morality of a patriarchal society on human nature, that is, ethics. Feeling and reason, that is, the struggle between human desire and heavenly principles, played an important role in the ideology of ancient Chinese society. However, since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Neo Confucianism’s thought program of “keeping the heavenly principle and destroying the human desire” met unprecedented challenges before Tang Xianzu was born. It came from inside the ruling class, which is the proposition of Wang Yangming’s philosophy that “it is the body with a heart to be no good and no evil; it is the action from the mind to be good and evil”. It is also the development of this proposition by Luo Rufang, his fourth generation disciple and the teacher of Tang Xianzu. In Wang Yangming’s proposition, mind and reason are equal to heavenly principle, mind or Qi are equal to lust. Lust has always been regarded as a monster, but Wang Yangming’s theory thinks that it can be treated separately, without being completely denied. This special proposition provided a theoretical basis for all socalled heresy with anti ethics factors of that time. Luo Rufang further pointed out that lust and natural principle are not isolated, but can transform each other under certain conditions. It can be said that in order for Tang Xianzu to write this Inscription on the Peony Pavilion, the history of Chinese thought had been prepared for nearly a hundred years, but at the same time, we should also see that in the west, the personality theory of Renaissance thinkers led the way for the personalized characters in literary and artistic creation, while in contemporary China, the literature and art represented by Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion, which pursues the perfect combination of love freedom and typical images, is in the forefront of anti ethics. In this era, Chinese writers can not consciously and clearly put forward the idea of individuality and the demand for liberation of individuality, but their works make such a call with specific image and unique performance. Tang Xianzu’s greatness and limitations are also reflected in this. It is easy for writers to make their works flow as the mouthpiece of their ideas to create literature from abstract ideas, but if this idea is the sublimation of the writer’s whole feelings, experience, and accomplishment, and there is enough rich life accumulation and superb artistic talent as the basis of creation, then such works can also be successful. The conflict between emotion and reason in Peony Pavilion

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has made remarkable achievements due to its ingenious combination with the shaping of individual characters. As the hero and heroine of the legendary opera, Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei are equally significant in the drama. Their artistic images, which have distinctive characteristics, show the profound connotation of the times, and carry the theme of resistance throughout the play. The image of Du Liniang is a brilliant creation of Peony Pavilion. She is a girl who loves beauty, life and freedom. Her inner feelings are as strong as fire, but her actions are tightly bound by ethics. As the beloved daughter of the magistrate Du Bao, in the eyes of her parents, she should be cultivated as a feudal lady with three obediences, four virtues, knowledge of books and etiquette, and then become a good wife and mother, which is a good life path set for her by her family status and social environment. For this purpose, her father invited Chen Zuoling, an old academic, to be her teacher. Du Liniang’s first lesson in the private school was Guan Ju, the first chapter of the Book of Songs. In her father’s and teacher’s view, this poem about “the virtue of the empress” is the most appropriate teaching material. However, Du recognized it as a passionate love song by her intuition. Her father and teacher never thought that this was the most important enlightenment of anti ethics thought to Du Liniang. The love songs in the Book of Songs enlightened Du Liniang’s sleeping youth consciousness. In Startled Dream and Dream Seeking, the next two scenes followed, are the only practical actions she has ever had in her life. They are important experiences worthy of special touches in the plays. Encouraged by Chunxiang, her maid, she secretly left the embroidery room where she had been detained for years. For the first time, she saw the real spring in nature and found her life as beautiful as spring. Before that, she blurted out a sentence “I know that my love for life is nature”. Her subtext is to love beauty and life, which is her inborn nature. She cherished her youth, and the beauty of nature aroused strong resonance in her heart, bringing about her dissatisfaction with her parents who detained her and did not allow her to appreciate the spring scenery and their so-called compatibility marriage concept: “I was born in an official clan and grew up in a famous family. Being over my puberty, but still no one to match. It’s a waste of youth. Time passes in the twinkling of an eye. It’s a pity I have the fate of dry leaves even though I am a flower in full bloom!” She added: “Even if I was born like Chang’e, find a partner with matching family, what kind of good fortune is this? My youth is wasted!” However, she is in the nightmare of patriarchal social ethics, under the pressure of tangible and intangible, which is not a clear understanding, but we can feel how deep her exclamation is: The world turns out to be such a gorgeous colorful place, but my life is paid to the ruins. A pleasant day coupled with a fine landscape, who is there to enjoy the happy event with a joyful mind?…From dawn to dusk, green porch hugged by the clouds, wrapped in the rain and the wind, all is so pictureque!

Her helplessness is not limited to the ending spring of March, but to see the passing of her youth. This is the psychology of Du Liniang, who was born into a famous family, standing in front of the patriarchal rites of that time, and also an important aspect of

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her spiritual outlook. Although the pursuit of love has sprouted in Du Liniang’s mind, the real world she lives in will never allow this sprout to grow, let alone have any results. All the way down from “a dream”, the author shows a clear understanding of the reality through the psychology of the characters in the play. “Startled Dream” is a romantic world, but from Dream Seeking, Portrait to Mourning, Du Liniang has always been an image strictly in the real world. Her portrait was picked up by this man. The lover in the dream later became a real lover. Her ghost and him achieved a happy ending. What a coincidence! Of course, this could just be the author’s fiction. On the other hand, with this ancient high-class girl, there are obvious traces of being bound. Her dream is shrouded in the heavy shadow of ethics. In her dream, she could not speak freely with the opposite sex. After waking up, she faced her mother’s severe rebuke, which showed that Du Liniang couldn’t find a way out in reality. Therefore, the dream was still her most reliable reality, and seeking this dream was her practical action of pursuing happiness. The two tunes of [yellow bean leaf] and [jade branch] show that ecstasy in memory suddenly turned to a sad reality. Du Liniang’s passion with nowhere to vent it accumulated greater strength in its suppression. She confided this enthusiasm to a plum tree. Extreme excitement followed by a burst of sadness. If she could not live with her lover, she was willing to die with the plum tree in her dream. With a unique technique, the scene Portrait shows Du Liniang’s desire for love deeply and powerfully. In the wake of youth and love, she grew up like a small tree. She could no longer restrain the flame of love filled in her heart. She put aside the coyness of the girl and told Chunxiang what she was thinking. The torment of love finally exhausted her life, but the goal was not achieved. The death of Du Liniang reveals the social reality that young women were destroyed under the pressure of ethics. Du Liniang’s love for youth, life and freedom doomed her to be destroyed in that society. Either she turned herself into a haggard in accordance with the requirements of ethics, or she would be destroyed by the dark society. It must be one or the other. As long as she gives up her interest, she can be a good wife and mother, like her mother. Du Liniang was faithful to her pursuit: “All these flowers and plants are adored. They live and die according to people’s wishes, and then they are heart broken without complaint” (Dream Seeking [river]). How weak and resolute the voice is! Unlike The Romance of West Chamber and The Dream of Red Chamber, which expresses how ethics set up many obstacles and destroyed the happiness of a couple or of lovers, it was impossible for Du Liniang in the Peony Pavilion to find a lover in reality, let alone to have a happy ending. She did not die due to the destruction of love, but of the vain desire for love. After her death, even her spirit could not relax, so that the judge released her and let her ghost meet and fall in love with the lover in the dream. This is not the playwright’s superstition on the soul, but the only way to flog the harsh reality. Although Du Liniang was attractive, if it were not for her spiritual temperament, this image could be not appealing. It should be out of the dramatist’s consideration of the reality that Du Liniang had regressed in front of the powerful ethics after the return of her soul, but Liu Mengmei has become stronger. In fact, the theme of “feeling resisting reason” in Peony Pavilion is finally completed by him. We admit

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that Liu Mengmei’s image is not as dazzling as Du Liniang’s, but we should not neglect his important position after the scene Return to Life. Liu Mengmei is an ideal image of a scholar in the late Ming Dynasty. As soon as he appeared in Du Liniang’s famous spring dream, he led the girl to break through the confinement of love in the real world and achieve the preliminary victory of resisting reason with love. Due to the harsh environment of Du Liniang, Liu Mengmei had no chance to enter the real world of Du Liniang like Zhang Shengzhi in Yingying (West Chamber). Only the description of romance and passion can express the ideal realm and the expectation of the times. Although Liu Mengmei appeared in the second one, the impression left to people was only a vague shadow. Until Du Liniang’s heart breaking spring dream, his image became clear. This dream carried Du Liniang’s desire and call for life to spring. With the author’s unique penetrating power, fresh and delicate description, this part has become one of the most shocking scenes in Chinese classical literature. If the spring of nature makes Du Liniang realize that life is as gorgeous as spring, it was Liu Mengmei in her dream that woke up her sleeping instinct. If Liu Mengmei first met Du Liniang in the illusory dream, and his attitude towards her was somewhat frivolous, then, with love growing in his heart, his attitude became more and more sincere. No matter what the situation was, he always stood firmly with Du Liniang. After the return of Du Liniang’s soul, the darkness of reality has not changed. Her retreat had led Liu Mengmei to the highest level of his personality: resistance to the reality. In “Away from Wedding”, when Liu Mengmei logically asked Miss Du, whose soul returned, “to wed tonight”, she unexpectedly moved out by saying “to get the approval of the parents, the words of matchmaker”, “ghost yesterday, living body. A ghost can be virtual, a living body must have the real ceremony” and other words to decline. Although under Liu Mengmei’s insistence, the two finally got married privately, Du Li Niang was more or less passive. Liu Mengmei’s resistance to the reality is more brilliant in the conflict with Du Bao. With uneasiness, he bravely declared that he was “the son-in-law of Lord Du to see him” when he announced his name. Later, he “rushed to the banquet” and ignored the authority of Lord Du. This scene is named as “Stirring up the Banquet”, the word “stiring” illustrates Liu Mengmei’s strong spirit of resistance. The [wild geese falling] his song in the episode “Interrogation” is undoubtedly a merciless mockery of the rules and regulations and their guardians like Du Bao. He competed with Du Bao all the way, until he had to go through “Confrontation”, during which he was still holding his head high and remained unyielding. Liu Mengmei’s rebellious spirit gave Du Liniang the courage to refuse her father’s request to leave her lover: “You are telling me to go back to Du’s house and leave Liu’s place. I will be your cuckoo shedding red tears by non-stop sad singing” (Happy Reunion). The description of Liu Mengmei’s rebellious character in the second half of his work guarantees the overall achievement of the whole drama in both ideology and art. Judge Hu is the most unique character in Peony Pavilion. In “Underworld Judgment”, he was in a gloomy and miserable hell, in which he could give verdict with the stabbings of swords As long as his pen moved slightly, the ghost would be put into the “one hundred and forty-two inferno”, prepared for all kinds of punishment as sawing, burning, pounding, grinding. Once again, the author reminded the readers

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that the underworld was just as greedy and corrupted as the “gold judgment, silver judgment, copper judgment, and iron judgments” in the world. Judge Hu, who was regarded as “honest and intelligent” by the Jade Emperor, also “needs to polish his brush for ten ingots of gold, ten strings of copper worth of paper money”. This is the author’s merciless criticism of reality. Judge Hu’s hostility to true love is the same as that of the guardian of the real world. He could not imagine that the girl would “die in a dream” in the same tone as Du bao’s “how can one child have the seven emotions”. In his view, even a myriad of colors and flowers in full bloom in spring was demoralizing. In the song [backyard flower rolling], Flora cited thirty-nine kinds of flowers in one breath but was scolded by the judge one by one. His pedantry and stubbornness can only be compared with Du Bao and Chen Zuoling in reality. This ghost crying mansion is a very realistic epitome of the court in the real world and the dark society. The author also wrote about the difference between the real world and the underworld. Although judge Hu has something in common with people like Du Bao and is also an obnoxious figure, he is more frank and funny than those like Du Bao. It’s no wonder that in Happy Reunion, Du Liniang said in the palace: “Such a ferocious man (referring to the general of the guard), with whatever you say, nothing scares me anymore, after I saw all the devils in hell.” Hell was not as scary as the court! Only when the resentment and anger to real society were beyond expression, could the writer adopt this strange technique. Du Bao is not a simplistic image of the villain. Properly depicting his complexity is conducive to enhance the authenticity of the character. The thought of patriarchal clan ethics was not what was imposed on him. He instinctively opposed everything contradictory to it. He was very concerned about his daughter, but he believed that she could only have a standard of life, that is, ethics and morality, and did not think that his daughter could have her own thoughts and feelings. Peony Pavilion holds a critical and revealing attitude to him, but does not make a simple description or uglification of him. The author even transplanted some of his good memories from being the magistrate of Suichang County to him. Episode 8 Advice to Farmers is undoubtedly Tang Xianzu’s personal experience. Chen Zuoliang was a very poor minor character. He took the exam once every three years. After 15 times, he was still a county level scholar. He was characterized by his spiritual emptiness and tenacity. The author’s description of him is stereotyped, but as a typical example of an old scholar whose youth was swallowed up by the imperial examination system and whose thoughts were stifled by traditional dogma, he reminds people of some characters introduced by later scholars. 3.

Plot structure and language art of Peony Pavilion

Ancient Chinese opera has a tradition of telling a complete story from beginning to end, which is different from modern drama. The legendary opera is long, generally with thirty or fifty episodes, which makes it impossible for it to end in one performance; the structure is loose, the plot is complex, and the rhythm is slow, which is a common problem for all. The flexible way to perform is that an opera often selects only a few of its highlights and links them into a generally complete repertoire, sometimes only performing one or two of its fragments, which are called Highlights from

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Operas. The plot of the story has long been a household name. The performance of the fragments does not hinder people’s appreciation and understanding. The separation and combination of segment selection, performance, and literary reading endow the legendary opera with two characteristics: the part of it is stage script, but the whole is mostly literary works. Therefore, the excellent legendary opera must stand the test in both aspects. Peony Pavilion is made up of 55 episodes. With its popularity, it was also criticized by later generations. In Rules of Tunes, Wang Jide criticizes it for “rotten wood and rotten grass, always winding on the pen tips”, which refers to the defects in its structure and composition, as well as in its choice of words and sentences. Even with some grounds, these accusations are also exaggerated and untrue. If it is not clarified, it will be difficult for us to understand his high praise of the play for its “subtlety and beauty”. Hong Sheng of the Qing Dynasty, the author for Hall of Eternal Life, first saw that Peony Pavilion had a careful internal structure. He pointed out that the whole play “is at the time of death and life. From life to death, there are five episodes: “Startled Dream”, “Dream Seeking”, “Diagnosis”, “Portrait” and “Mourning”; from death to life, there are also five episodes: “Roaming Soul”, “Garden of Eden”, “Fun Time”, “Oath of the Underworld” and “Return to Life”, (quoted from the Miscellany of Three Women’s Comments on Peony Pavilion). These ten episodes are symmetrical and form the central axis of the whole play. In “Startled Dream”, “Dream Seeking”, and “Portrait Found”, “Playing with Truth”, the lyric solos of the male and female protagonists echo each other and set off each other. The contrast between “Happy Reunion” and “Portrait”, as well as “Interrogation” makes the judges of the underworld the metaphorical figures for the rulers of the real world. It is not a mechanical pursuit of the neat art form, but a proper arrangement in the changes of thousands of forms on the stage without losing its natural interest and originality. If the Startled Dream does not come immediately after the Advice to Farmers, the development of the plot will be unconvincing for a lack of temporal feature. This is the same as the Dream of the Red Chamber, which made Jia Baoyu move into Grand View Garden at the order of Princess Yuan when his father was on a long journey. Without Dream Seeking and Portrait, it is not reasonable to have Mourning. For the death of Du Liniang and her return to life, Underworld Judgment is an indispensable stage transition. If Du Bao and his wife did not get lost, there will be no misunderstandings from Chen Zuoliang and the following comic scenes such as “Stirring up the Banquet”, “Number One Scholar Suoyuan”, “Interrogation”, “Good News”, “Happy Reunion”, which revitalizes the whole play towards its end. The same is true for the plot structure and the character arrangement. The basic conflict of drama should exist between father and daughter. However, in this aspect, it is not appropriate to have more than one occurrence nor even let it occur in real life, which makes it necessary for Chen Zuoliang to appear. As a noble lady, Du Liniang should not have direct conflict with the teacher, so she must take Chunxiang as her substitute. In this way, the conflict between “reason” represented by Du Bao and “feeling” represented by Du Liniang can be unfolded positively in Boudoir

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School. An outstanding dramatist will not let a supporting role come into being for the development of a single plot, just as Grandma Liu (The Dream of Red Chamber) entered the Rongguo Mansion three times, Chen Zuoliang also has his own unique value in the paly. Du Bao, Liu Mengmei and Chen Zuoliang are three different types of feudal intellectuals. A work with profound social content can’t just write about love, even if it takes love as its theme. Peony Pavilion can’t only write about Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei. There are other characters by the protagonists, as Du Liniang has Chunxiang and Liu Mengmei has Guo Tuotuo. Chen Zuoliang is the key figure who connects Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei, performing the tasks of three, from which we can see the significance of the arrangement of the characters in the Peony Pavilion and the author’s thoughtfulness. From the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the reason why Pipa Notes, Peony Pavilion, Hall of Eternal Life and Peach Blossom Fan became the representative works of southern opera and legend lies in the perfection of their overall structure. Hall of Eternal Life and Peach Blossom Fan take the rise and fall of a generation as the theme, and the whole play is as long as forty or fifty scenes, which is easy for it to give people the feeling of complexity. However, Pipa Notes and Peony Pavilion are the long novels based on personal joys and sorrows, which requires the writers and playwrights to have profound artistic skills. The overall success does not mean that every episode of Peony Pavilion is perfect, but it may be difficult for any genius to do so. “Boudoir School”, “Startled Dream”, “Dream Seeking” could be listed as elaborate works, but there are gains and losses in Peony Pavilion, even for the unsuccessful scenes, such as “Road Wizard” and “A Female Thief ”. No other legendary composition is as widely read as Peony Pavilion. Probably because people love it so much, they are also very critical. Some even list its author as the founder of the school of Rhetorical Group. Wang Jide said it was “graceful and charming” in Rules of Tunes, while Li Yu said that “such witty words can only be used in the view of literature and learning, but not in the view of legend” (Casual Notes, Vol. 1st). Li Yu’s implication is that Peony Pavilion is not suitable for performance but can be appreciated as written literature. However, even the language in Peony Pavilion is not down to earth, but its performance value can not be easily denied. Contrary to the usual criticism, in terms of the stage adaptability of the play, the lyrics in the Peony Pavilion are unparalleled. This can be proved by more than 400 years of performances. The composition of Peony Pavilion is in accordance with the identity and status of the people in the play and can fully express their personalities, so it is also the most suitable stage performance. Although the well-known Startled Dream and Dream Seeking are restricted by strict music rules, the spring garden described in them is vivid and lively, which gives the audience the feeling as if they were sharing their experience with Du Liniang. The gorgeous and colorful diction is consistent with the objects it describes (spring scenery and beauty), and has touching artistic charm. Let’s take a look at a piece in Dream Seeking: [lazy thrushes]This is the year of the most exciting spring, why climb on the wall to do the lily painting, as the spring heart is all over bouncing. (stumbling) Ah, the sleeping Mandala hanging up the skirt, flowers pulled away just like my heart.

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Du Liniang’s desire for love is conveyed with the scenery around her. Relying on the contrast of the scenery, the writer reveals the deep secret of Du Liniang’s heart in an implicit style, which is not harmful to her identity. The purpose of landscape painting is to convey feeling, while the inner beauty renders her physical beauty. It can be seen that these descriptions serve to create an excellent artistic image. The lyrics in Peony Pavilion are personalized. It’s the same admiration for Du Liniang’s beauty. It comes from Liu Mengmei’s poetic language (Startled Dream). With your blooming gorgeous beauty, time goes like running water, squandering it in your leisure, only to find self pity in the boudoir!

In Underworld Judgment, when the ghost of Du Liniang comes to hell, the judge just takes a look and says to himself in secret, “how pretty is this female ghost!” Then he sings: Suddenly see this shocking beauty. Come to my house. (Du Liniang groans inwardly) (judge) Enjoying seeing her struggle in the blood basin. (imp whispers to judge) Maybe your honour can take her as a concubine. (judge) Oh, there’s a rule of heaven. Taking female prisoners will be beheaded. Then your little devil’s head can randomly be cut. Where can I buy the judge’s head?

The beauty of Du Liniang had overwhelmed the merciless hell. Nothing is better than these comedic conversations to fit in the identity of judge and imp. Liu Mengmei’s songs are sung in southern tune, while the judges’ songs are sung in northern tune. With the combination of both elegant and vulgar, each doing its best. It may be the case as the comments from Wang Jide, a contemporary drama critic, who said in his Rules of Tunes that Tang Xianzu’s literary language was “between shallow and deep, between thick and thin, between refined and vulgar”. As for the narration, Tang Xianzu used parallel prose in his early legends, even for the servants. This situation has greatly improved in Peony Pavilion. For example, in scene Advice to Farmers, the language style is a lot more common for officials, farmers, shepherds, mulberry picking women and tea picking women, which was also commensurate with their status. With the decrease of the parallel prose style, the lively colloquial language increases correspondingly. Take Episode 30 Oath of the Underworld as an example: when the ghost Du Liniang confessed her life experience to Liu Mengmei, he asked, “Ah, how did Mr. Du leave the young lady behind when he was promoted to Yangzhou?” For Du Liniang, who is a ghost and doesn’t want to talk about it at this time, this question is really hard to answer. Then she gently answered, “you cut the light!” and the question was subtly turned off. This kind of dramatic and vivid dialogue is also very successful even in today’s drama. The narration of Peony Pavilion can best show his own characteristics on Chen Zuoling. For example, episodes like “Pedantic Sigh”, “Boudoir School”, “On the Road”, “Frightful Change” all have Chen Zuoling’s narratives. The language is popular and concise, which is as good as the excellent vernacular novels of the same era. It is a prejudice to only pay attention to the fancy features of the composition in the Peony Pavilion without assessing the high artistic achievements of its narration. Although the language of Peony Pavilion has its unique achievements, there are many problems. The author uses a large number of obscure allusions, which makes

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some sentences and fragments of the work obscure, and some of them seem very stiff, far fetched or not up to the point. For example, “can eight be split into an eye? (mistaken for the character of four)” (Episode 3), “hair tails” (Episode 15), “in the same maturation phase cave” (Episode 18), “there’s a night lotus, which can’t hold the immortal belt” (Episode 23), “how can the wind of The Bamboo Shadow Temple be covered” (Episode 36), “Frangrant Mountain loan”, “this is the toad sucking the moon, and the sun flint and ice plate” (Episode 21), “to name a few. They are not only the author’s improper creations, but also the inappropriate use of dialect, which is the inadequacy in the language of Peony Pavilion. 4.

Peony Pavilion and ancient women

Du Liniang in Peony Pavilion is a typical female image in Tang Xianzu’s time, even in the patriarchal society of all times. Therefore, Peony Pavilion aroused strong resonance of many women at that time and also in later times. In ancient Chinese literature, this situation is unprecedented. In the era of Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion, the education of women’s ethics was carried out by official behavior. In addition to Four Books and Ancient Classics for both men and women mentioned in Peony Pavilion,10 there were also Domestic Training by Empress Xu of Chengzu in the Ming Dynasty and Boudoir Model by Lu Kun, a neo Confucianism scholar. With the development of neo Confucianism in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, some of its ethical principles became insurmountable norms. During the Ming Dynasty, the governors and supervisors of all provinces set a new example for women every year. Some women were listed as martyrs and were reported to the court, temples and memorial archways were built for them. There are more than 260 characters in the Biography of Women Martyrs in the Ming Dynasty. According to the editor, this was selected from the actual records of the imperial court and the local chronicles of various places. Many women were moved by Du Liniang’s fate, not on impulse, but in association with their own reality. When they feel dissatisfied like Du Liniang, their awakening had to end in tragedy. There are many records about the repercussions of Peony Pavilion in women’s mind. Here are two examples based on sufficient evidence. Feng Xiaoqing (1595–1612), a native of Yangzhou, was beautiful and talented. At the age of 16, she was taken as a concubine by Feng Sheng in Hangzhou. Not being accepted by Feng’s wife, she lived lonely in a mountain by the West Lake, and died of depression soon. She wrote two famous quatrains: In front of Goddess of Mercy, prays are not for heaven nor west, May it be a drop of water on willows, sprinkled on the earth to match the lotus. Cold rain outside the window can’t be heard. reading Peony Pavilion in the light. Some one there also falling in love, with Xiaoqing who is filled with sorrow. 10

Four Books for men refers to the book compiled by Zhu Xi, a neo Confucianism scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, Four Books for women should be the one compiled for the purpose of educating women about ethics, not referring to a specific book. Ancient Classics is a kind of elementary reading book compiled with maxims.

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This is quoted from Hermit Jian Jian’s Biography of Xiaoqing found in History of Women. Brothels compiled by Qinhuai Guest. The manuscript of Huang Laihe (1631) was handed down at the end of the book “written in the autumn of Wanli 40th year (1612) in the Water Tower of the West Lake”. Another record can be found in Yu Niang from Zhang Dafu’s Plum Thatched Cottage Notes in the Ming Dynasty. Yu Niang, a pretty girl and the third child of the family...died at the age of 17... She loved literature and history. The father adored her and gave her the instructions. She read and annotated, many of which the father even did not understand. One day, she was given the story of “Soul Return”. She spent quite a while in reading and turned gloomy. She said: “The book expresses its meaning. Most authors since ancient times failed to do that. It is the most truthful expression as ‘the living can die, the dead can revive. To live without death, to die without rebirth, is not the end of love’. She was well-read, making notes while reading, having innovative evaluations. Like what is said in the On Startled Dream: “Whenever I fall into sleep, I am haunted by dreams that have no reference. Miss Du is ahead of me in this.” Yu Niang had a younger sister who was driven to prostitution. She was in first place and was called Fairy...Mr. Tang (Xianzu) once wrote me: it is said that Mr. Taicang (Wang Xijue) was fond of Peony Pavilion. It is not necessarily true. A few words were put into his Plum Thatched Cottage Notes, and I feel honoured to have my reviews here.11

This record is consistent with Tang Xianzu’s poem Crying for Loujiang Woman and the short preface. It only mistakes Sanniang as Erniang, but this does not affect its authenticity. Yu Niang’s sister “was driven to prostitution”, which means her status was not too much different from Xiaoqing. One married the wrong person and met the man’s jealous wife, the other was unmarried and died from her desperation for the future. Their destiny is more tragic than that of Du Liniang. When they read Peony Pavilion, they all turned a blind eye to Du Liniang’s return of soul and reunion, but only paid attention to her tragedy. This is not out of negligence, but out of a deep understanding of the connotation of legend. Although they couldn’t find the cause of Du Liniang’s tragedy and their own tragedy, the problem had been raised, which is the beginning of women’s awakening. Different from the above-mentioned situation, no matter what kind of feelings the daughter of an eminent families had when they read Peony Pavilion, they could not have been recorded. It’s not that there were no real stories in the upper class to be traced and analyzed, but it could only be inferred indirectly from some relevant materials. Take Tao Zhen (1558–1580), the daughter of Wang Xijue, who once was Prime Minister of Wanli, as an example. When she was 17, her fiance Xu Jingshao died. Although the two never met, she had to live a strict life, commonly known as “widowed”. In the long-term mental disorder of self confinement and semi hunger strike, she often saw the illusion that she being the incarnation of Tanluan Bodhisattva, named Tan Yangzi. When she got her way to heaven and died of depression, thousands of people took part in the ceremony and made a sensation. Tang Xianzu once offended Wang Xijue, who was the first assistant at that time, for his proposal of the “Auxiliary Minister and Officials”. Due to this reason, Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion, written 11 For details, please refer to the Notes on Plum Blossom Cottage. Series of Anecdotes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties from Melon Pedicle Temple, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1986, p. 470.

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after 18 years after Wang Taozhen’s death, was thought to satirize Wang Xijue’s, the unfortunate daughter. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. In Wanli 35th year, Wang Xijue was recalled to the cabinet and repeatedly applied for resignation. Governor of Yingtian, Zhou Kongzi, went to his house to persuade him. Wang’s family theatrical troup, one of the best private troupes in Suzhou, staged Peony Pavilion for him. It can be seen that Tang Xianzu did not boast that Wang Xijue was fond of Peony Pavilion, which was cited in the Plum Thatched Cottage Notes. Tang Xianzu had two poems of Crying for Loujiang Woman (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 16th), which were written two years before his death. At that time, Wang Xijue had passed away: Pearl weeping in candle lit golden pavilion, How come this sad song only in Loujian? If you die of love, there will be God in sorrow. Notes are made for the love ends miserable.

The first part, “sad song” happens to be in Loujiang (Taicang). If we look into the meaning of “only”, we can see there should be more than one sad song: one could be Yu Niang, the other should be Wang Xijue. The preface to the poem narrates the time when Peony Pavilion was staged in the Wang’s Mansion and his comments that, “Even for an old man as me, I feel so touched.” It should be natural for Wang Xijue to associate his dead daughter with Peony Pavilion. Tang Xianzu’s narration of Wang Xijue’s “love” and “touched” for Peony Pavilion is a deep understanding of his feelings. If the first two sentences of the first verse are used to describe a common people’s home like Yu Niang, the scenery is too luxurious, and some are different. Only the Prime Minister’s mansion can match. The title Crying for Loujiang Woman can’t be the crying for Wang Xijue, but only for his daughter. From Wang Xijue to his daughter, the poet recalled the tragedy of Tan Yangzi more than 30 years ago, not as a satire, but the mourning. The second part “Notes are made” refers to his creation of Peony Pavilion. The “the love ends miserable” refers to Yu Niang and all the unfortunate women in the world, including Tan Yangzi. It was just when the oppression of ethics on women (whether noble or common people) were increasingly heavy, and the tragic fate similar to that of Yu Niang and Wang Taozhen were duplicated among a large proportion of women (such as the Biography of Women Martyrs mentioned above), the rebellious images of women of all classes represented by Du Liniang, Li Huiniang and Jiao Guiying appeared in the legends of the Ming Dynasty, which got extraordinary resonance from the women in real society then but not limited to then. We can see the secret sobbing in the works of the Qing Dynasty writers. An example in case is Dream of Red Mansion: Lin Daiyu’s reading of the Romance of the West Chamber was just out of her love for its wonderful words and her envy for Cui Yingying’s having a widowed mother and weak younger brother, the situation better than her own. For Peony Pavilion, a few verses sent along with the wind stirred her so much that she could hardly control herself:

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Lin Daiyu went to see Baoyu, and heard that none of the sisters was in the room. She felt bored and wanted to go back. Turning around the corner of the Pear Fragrance Yard, she heard the melodious flute across the wall and the graceful singing. Lin Daiyu knew that it was the twelve women practicing the opera, but Lin Daiyu, who was not very fond of reading plays, didn’t pay attention and just went on. Occasionally a few words were blown to her ears, loud and clear in singing: “world turns out to be such a gorgeous colorful place, but my life is paid to the ruins.” When Lin Daiyu heard this, she was deeply touched and stopped to listen. The singing went on, “a pleasant day coupled with a fine landscape, who is there to enjoy the happy event with a joyful mind?” After listening to these two sentences, she nodded her head and sighed, thinking: “there are good lines in the play, but people only know how to watch the play, which may not be enough to get its connotation.” At this point, she regretted the distraction from listening and again focused on the singing: “with your blooming gorgeous beauty, time goes like running water...”. After these two sentences, Lin Daiyu was shocked. It continued “squandering it in your leisure, only to find self pity in the boudoir!” Being intoxicated, she couldn’t help sitting on a stone, playing with the words “blooming gorgeous beauty, time goes like running water”. Suddenly she remembered the other sentence of “flowers fading with water flowing, it is like time departing.” Another poem had “the flow of flowers and the flow of spring, toward earth and heaven we are heading.” In the Romance of the West Chamber she just read, another line was “the flow of flowers and the flow of red, with my idle and melancholy mood.” All of them came together all at once, turning up her thoughts before she was seized by heartache and bewilderment, with tears in her eyes.12

What a wonderful description of the resonance of the Peony Pavilion among the upper class women! At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there was On Peony Pavilion by Three Women in Wu Wu Shan. Wu Shan (also named Wu Yiyi) was a friend of Hong Sheng. The “three women” refer to his fiancee Chen Tong, his exwife Tan Ze and his stepwife Qian Yi. They commented on Peony Pavilion one after another, admiring the expression of “uttermost feeling”, especially Chen Tong, who died before marriage, was full of yearning between her lines. She said in the marginal notes of Interrogation that “the wonder of this part is not much of Li Niang but of Liu. The world’s infatuated women are mostly like Du Liniang, having the same dream, but died without reviving… It is rare for men who are like Liu. “It is not only the helplessness of girls to live in reality, but also the unfulfilled ideal they place on men, which undoubtedly reflects the great achievements of Peony Pavilion from another angle.

10.4 The Tune of “Four Dreams of Lin Chuan” and the Disputes Between Tang and Shen For a long time, there has been a misunderstanding that Peony Pavilion was originally created for Kun Opera. In fact, just like Pipa Notes and The Romance of a Hairpin, Peony Pavilion was transplanted after Kun Opera flourished and became the most popular repertoire in Kun Opera. Therefore, some people have the illusion that it was 12

For details, please refer to Alarmed Heart for West Chamber and Peony Pavilion, Dream of Red Mansion, Chapter 23rd, People’s Literature Press, 1982, pp. 327–328.

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originally written for Kun Opera. If not, what was Tang Xianzu’s opera written for? It is more reliable to find it out from his own writings. According to more than two thousand poems and articles left by Tang Xianzu, there are nine records of his opera singing: To Lu Linzhi: “complex Yiling tune” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 14th); At Brother Shuai Congsheng’s Garden, Ryhme 3rd of the 4: “small garden in small Yiling tune” (Vol. 18th, idem); To Male Singer Zhang Luoer, Ryhme 1st of the 2: “Incantation in Qingyuan Temple and Cuckoo Singing” (Vol. 18th, idem, both male and female singers in Yiling tune). Sending Qian for His Return to Wu, one of the two rhymes: “leaving song in Yihuang tune” (Vol. 15th, idem); Sending Yiling Singers to Celebrate the Birthday for Official Li Ximei of Wanping (Vol. 19th, idem); Sending Yiling Singers to Assistant Administrator Gan on the 9th day in Yongxin (Vol. 19th, idem); Singing of Two Dreams: “Drinking in Zen with Yiling Singing” (Vol. 19th, idem); Reply to Gan Yilu: “I am learning to sing Two Dreams for my love of Yiling tune” (Vol. 47th, idem); On Qingyuan Opera Master of Yihuang (Vol. 34th, idem) mentioned that Tan Lun, his hometown fellow, introduced Haiyan tune from the Deputy Minister of Zhejiang Province in 1560. When he wrote this article, it was only about 40 years ago, and there were more than 1,000 artists living on it. These nine places only mentioned Yiling, not a word about the relationship between Kun Opera actors and his plays. Yiling is a branch of Haiyan opera, an actor of Yihuang opera was not an actor of Kun Opera. Yihuang opera was transplanted on the land of Yihuang. At that time, it was popular in the north and south, not limited to the localized Haiyan opera in Jiangxi Province. Not only Peony Pavilion, but also the “Four Dreams” all took Yihuang tune as their original tune. When Kun opera was prevalent, Haiyan opera was still popular in Jiangxi, Tang Xianzu’s hometown. Kun opera was centered in Wuzhong but Tang Xianzu, who was from Jiangxi Province, created operas in the period when Kun opera had the dominant position but had not covered the whole country’s opera circle. That’s why his “Four Dreams” were the operas in Yihuang tune. In fact, the criticism from the dramatists in Wuzhong and the surrounding areas to Tang Xianzu’s opera rules was due to the reason that they took Kun Opera as the standard to assess the Yihuang tune opera that Tang Xianzu used, which should definitely lead to the conclusion that Tang Xianzu’s opera was unqualified. Meanwhile, as Kun tune originated in Suzhou, the critics of neighboring counties often had a sense of regional superiority and despised Tang Xianzu, a Jiangxi native, because they thought only Kun tune was authentic. It can be represented by Preface to Legend of Yuming Hall by Zang Maoxun of Huzhou, “The gentleman from Linchuan is not around Wu area and is not knowledgeable about music. By following the sages’ classics, he flaunts the profundity of words, with the horizon only limited to his hometown, and tunes with no rules to follow. How can’t it be a laughing-stock for Yuan people? (initiators of operas)” Zhang Qi from Hangzhou in his On Heng Tune (Compilation of Wu Music) even said: “Recently, the play of Du Liniang in Yuming Hall is not very appealing, barely watchable until being polished by Wu Zhongshan in coordinating its tunes.” It seems that Shen Jing’s tampering of Peony Pavilion was not just for his own sake.

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The dispute between Tang and Shen is a big issue in late Ming opera history. The above situation was its context. First of all, the dramatists and theorists of Wujiang school, including Shen Jing, respect Tang Xianzu. Wang Jide pointed out that among the Wujiang school members, only Lu Tiancheng and Bu Shichen “follow suit for every inch”,13 and Lu Tiancheng put Shen and Tang on the same list in his Tune Reviews, “Though I rank Shen above Tang, they are more complimentary to each other in the same way like cheerful mood is needed for sorrow and low key was needed for prime time. Their difference in rank is slight.”14 Even Shen Zijin (1583–1665), Shen Jing’s nephew, admitted that Tang Xianzu and other “famous writers of new Ci poetry” all “taking lead in Southern Ci Poetry, even Mr. Shen Jinghas had to step from the first rank and couldn’t help admiring” in his Revision of Southern Ci. It can be seen that not all dramatists of Wujiang school were opponents of Tang Xianzu. In theory, the dispute between Tang and Shen started from Tang Xianzu’s adherence to the folk tradition of southern opera, while Shen Jing further standardized Kun tune, a branch of southern folk opera, which is conducive to the prosperity of Kun tune. Shen Jing’s Thirteen Tunes of Southern Nine Temples is the inheritance and development of Chen Bai’s Catalogue of the Old Southern Nine Temples, the Syllables of Southern Thirteen Tunes and Jiang Xiao’s Tunes of Southern Nine Temples (1549). Shen Jing’s tune being called southern tune is based on the fact that it mainly provided a standardized note rule for Kun Opera, which contributed to the prosperity of Kun Opera and then turned it into a national opera. However, all the legendary writers, including Tang Xianzu, were required to comply with Kun Opera, which was not appropriate and realistic. After him, there were other adaptions and creations from Shen Zijin, Feng Menglong, Xu Yingqing (Yushi, 1574–1638), and Niu Shaoya (1564–?) who demanded that the creation of traditional opera fit to their rules. However, the efforts of several generations, such as Shen Jing, did not have their wishes fulfilled. In fact, even with their temporary extraordinary momentum, Shen Jing, Feng Menglong and Ling Mengchu’s adaptation of contemporary opera masterpieces were mostly put on the shelf quietly. Contrary to their wishes, the adjacent rhymes were accepted by Kun Opera circles. Besides, all the legendary plays were sung in different tunes. Tang Xianzu’s “Four Dreams” can be performed with Kun Opera as long as they are slightly adjusted. The best proof is the fact that Peony Pavilion had become the most popular traditional opera in Kun Opera for more than 400 years. The specific controversy between Tang and Shen was that Shen Jing loved Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion and thought it was not in accordance with the rule of Kun tune, so he adapted it into Same Dream. Same Dream was lost before being published. Two pieces of its music have been preserved in the second volume and the sixteenth volume of New Book of Southern Ci Poetry. Compared with Peony Pavilion, this music regressed rather than being improved. Tang Xianzu obviously expressed his indignation at this kind of tampering, which led to the controversy. Even the dispute 13 14

See Collection of Chinese Classical Operas IV, China Drama Press, 1959, p. 165. For details, please refer to Collection of Chinese Classical Operas VI, p. 213.

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between Tang and Shen arose from the rules of tune, it was not a simple dispute between schools of tune rules, nor was it much related to the progress and conservatism of political attitudes of both sides. The focus of this debate is that Tang and Shen had different views on content and form. The formal record of the dispute between Tang and Shen can be found in the second half of Chapter 39 of the Rules of Tunes by Wang Jide: “Shen Jing once polished Requiem by the author of Linchuan. Lu from the Ministry of Officials (Yu Lansheng the respected) wrote to Linchuan, who was displeased by replying: “Does he have any idea of the meaning of the text? If up to his rule, the singer’s throat would be ruined. Just a matter of different tastes.”15 It is wrong to think that Tang Xianzu’s letter means that he totally ignored the rules. His letter has now been lost, but he also had “Reply to Lu Jiangshan (Yinchang)” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 44th) left, in which he clearly expressed in the letter: “I am sending this book of reviews on Wuzhong tunes. ‘A tune is better understood in singing, not in writing.’ The composition should be based on meaning, appealingness, spirit and rhetoric meaning, interest, spirit and rhetoric. Only by taking those into consideration, could one accomplish the perfect presentation of the words. How is it possible to sing nine notes and four tones at one time? If the words have to fit to certain rules, there will come suffocation, which may hamper the fluency of a sentence” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 44th). “Wuzhong Opera Reviews” refers to Shen Jing’s writings like Knowing upon Singing. Lu Yinchang, as a friend, presented Shen Jing’s Knowing upon Singing to Tang Xianzu. Of course, Tang Xianzu knew Shen Jing’s famous theory of music: “It’s better to comply with rules of the tune than stick to the rules of words. Lines not good in a poem maybe good when singing. It would be perfect if they are good in both by chance” (Wang Jide, Miscellaneous Treatise Part 39 from Rules of Tunes). Mr. Shen’s View on Tunes. Er Lang God, the first part of For Your Amusement, said in the cycle: “He Yuanlang’s words are just to the point.” He Yuanlang’s original words are: “Regarding the formality of words, they are less important than the coordination of the sound” (Miscellanies in Four Friends Study). Shen Jing’s statement was intensified. In this reply, Tang Xianzu refuted it from the theoretical perspective as if its content or form is the determinant factor. His sharp views silenced the other party. The four characters of meaning, appealingness, spirit and rhetoric are equivalent to the content of the work, but they have broader meanings, including the plot structure, character image, and drama conflict, “Magnificent words” and “spendid sound” are juxtaposed, that is to say, they attach equal importance to both rhetoric and metrics, which is equivalent to the expression form of opera language. Between content and form, the former is more important. By asking “how is it possible to sing nine notes and four tones at one time?” it does not mean metrics are not needed, but when “the natural aura comes” (Preface for the Collection of Strange Writings from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 32nd) upon some inspiration, one doesn’t need to care too much about the subtle details in the form as rhymes or tones. Opera needs to be governed by metrics, but metrics can not be placed above everything, let alone being a rigid border that can 15

For details, please refer to Collection of Chinese Classical Operas IV, p. 165.

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not be crossed. The first thing that the dramatist should consider is the content of the work, not its form. Tang Xianzu’s point of view is to grasp the whole, rather than one point, of opera art at a higher level. In a word, it’s not that form does not matter, but that content is more important than form. It can be seen that it is not right to categorize Tang Xianzu as rhetoric school. In Wanli 38th year (1610), Tang Xianzu made a final attack on Shen Jing’s view of tune in his Reply to Sun Jiju (Rufa). The letter expressed his ideas under the premise of “the views on tune were shared open heartedly. It is good to play with them and end the dispute with open views.” Zhou Boqi wrote Rhyme of Central Plains, but Boqi was not the poet in Bohui and Zhiyuan’s record. Shen Boshi wrote the guiding instructions for Yuefu, but he was no writer of Ci poetry as Hua’an and Yutian. Composition is varied and opera is just composed of nine notes and four tones. Without noting the types of tunes, how can the examples cited prove to be against certain rules? In addition, how can it be a comprehensive survey with less than ten examples? I pride my meself on being knowledgable about tunes and have had quite some writings, which is really cause for damage to the voices of all singers.16

We can imagine that the author was impulsive and straightforward and didn’t care about the details in writing this letter. The author of Rhyme of Central Plains is Zhou Deqing, but here mistakenly named Boqi, and Bohui was also mistaken for Dehui. Hua’an and Yuling was mistaken for Hua’an and Yutian, referring to Huang Sheng and Zhang Yan. However, it’s easy to be ignored that Tang Xianzu talked about the formation of the music scores and the composition rules here. He pointed out that all music scores and word scores were summed up from the styles of the previous notes and texts. It is presumptuous to assert that a sentence is not in line with the rule as we can not possibly understand all styles of the past, because of this, Note rules should not be rigid. He admitted that there were irregularities in his creation, but did not agree that all the words and sentences that don’t conform to the existing tune were irregular, that is, he could not accept the absolute standard for the rules of tune. This is the most reasonable view that Tang Xianzu could make on the issue of rules. Some people read the latter paragraph of this letter and come to the conclusion that Tang Xianzu was against the rules, which is obviously biased. It is unimaginable that a playwright of note couplets opposed the rules. All of Tang Xianzu’s operas can prove that from whatever critical views, most of his works are in accordance with the rules. It is a special formalism that Shen Jing placed rules on top. He certainly deserved to be entitled as the leader of Metrical Pattern School. We can see from the remaining two tunes he changed in Peony Pavilion that the changes are really unnecessary. A comparison is made between Peony Pavilion and the remnant of Same Dream. The Lius are the prominent clan in Hedong, belonging to Zhang and Gui in constellation, years of cold rain blown on generations of the confucian. From books one can find wealth, where are my glowing beauty and golden house? Poverty turns a man pale, but in spirit he is still noble. (Tang Xianzu’s original double tone introduction [pearl curtain])

16

Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 46th, p. 1392.

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Liu’s hairpin and tassel are the most famous in Hedong, belonging to Zhang and Gui in constellation. Years of cold rain are blown on generations of the confucian. From books one can find wealth. Where are the golden house and jade beauty? Poverty turns a man pale, but in spirit he is still noble. (Shen Jing’s modified version)

The music piece [pearl curtain] is composed of nine fifty-two words in Worshiping the Moon Pavilion and Lying on Ice, but the first and the last two sentences are different from each other. Worshiping the Moon Pavilion has the first sentence with six words, the second sentence with four words, the eighth sentence with seven words and the last sentence with six words; while Lying on Ice has the first sentence with seven words, the second sentence with three words, the eighth sentence with seven words and the last sentence with four words. Tang Xianzu used four words in the first sentence and five words in the second sentence. The rest of them are the same as Worshiping the Moon Pavilion. We don’t know on what this is based. Shen Jing changed the first two sentences to the format of Lying on Ice, while the last two sentences used the syntax of Worshiping the Moon Pavilion, which was not three or four, still inconsistent with the metric. “He Dong Liu’s hairpin and tassel, the most famous family”, the syntax is awkward, the tone is not smooth. The whole song has not been better than the original in terms of its style and taste. Only in this case, it can be seen why Shen Jing’s change of the famous work Peony Pavilionv is lost. Tang Xianzu was very angry at Shen Jing’s changing Peony Pavilion. He not only expressed his dissatisfaction with it severely in the two letters mentioned above, but also wrote a poem entitled “Laughing at the Change of Peony Pavilion” (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 16th): “A drunkard has a special taste for feasts, fairies with iron flute are all alone in the sea and clouds. For a man with scenery only at his insight, Wang Wei’s Old Snow picture is a waste.” In his letter to Sun Rufa and Lv Yinchang, Tang Xianzu said: “The views on the tunes were shared open heartedly.” and shared his “reviews on Wuzhong tunes”. It seems that it is not method to open a critique with a compliment. It’s inconceivable that composers are against music rules and metrics, no matter how reckless Tang Xianzu was. It’s strongly supported by the fact that his works are so much more popular than Shen Jing’s. All in all, Tang Xianzu was not against the music metrics in general, but he was against the absolutization of it. Each kind of literary work has its own unique form, going through the process from roughness to perfection; however, when it reaches maturity, there are often some formalism tendencies. Shen Jing’s opinion on metrical rules is that it interferes with the meaning of words by tones, by focusing on form and ignoring content. There are some examples of “achieving the coordination of the sound at the price of language formality in his more popular work The Righteous Swordsman,” the girl Xiao He, “with a sword in her belly” in Episode 9 [amber cat pendant] and, “isn’t it the mark of Xu Dalang’s keeping guests” in Episode 12 [red rag jacket], which meant to link with the idioms “a sword hidden in a smile” and “a honey tongue, a heart of blade”. They are not only a problem in formality, but also confusing. The legendary characters and plot structure should be paid more attention to by the writers than the sentence patterns and rhymes. The so-called composers, represented by Shen Jing, confined their attention to rhymes and metrics, while the others were

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placed in a secondary position, thinking that they are unique, which is another manifestation of absolutizing music metrics. In Episode 9 [new chrysanthemum] from his The Righteous Swordsman: “when done with the sweaty work, time to wait to be honoured with the stamp.” Stamp is the honour given to a general. Who would think these are the lyrics of Wu Song, the hero of tiger fighting? The first half of Episode 9 [swimming around the pool]: “when the heat evaporates, the parasol tree falls, the sick and worried eyebrows are locked.” No matter how popular the words are, it doesn’t sound like Wu Song’s fiancee. On the contrary, “Warbler singing in dreams, disorderly evil time, pondering in deep courtyard” (Episode 10 Peony Pavilion) is like what Li Yu said in his Casual Notes “every word is deliberately managed, but none is clear”,17 which gives the true description to Du Liniang. Without taking into consideration the social status and living conditions of the characters in the play, it is unlikely to reflect the characters in a truthful way. This is common sense in today’s drama creation which is beyond Shen Jing’s understanding. The disputes between Tang and Shen had its historical origin, and the issues involved can also be explained from various angles. However, regardless of the specific merits and demerits of the dispute between Tang and Shen, the significance of the dispute in the history of traditional Chinese opera lies not in the dispute itself, but in the content and form problems it raises, which had attracted the attention of dramatists and critics and promoted the reform and development of Chinese traditional opera art. In the history of modern opera, there were also Wujiang school and so-called Yuming Hall school (metric pattern school and rhetoric school). It is not practical for opera history to put together the Yuming Hall school with some writers who had no contact with Tang Xianzu nor were not the same age with him. Among the literati composers, Tang Xianzu was majestic, independent and incomparable. Zhang Fengyi, Tu Long, Mei Dingzuo and many younger composers, such as She Qiao and Zheng Zhiwen, had communicated with him by discussing and learning, but they did not form a school like Shen Jing. One of the reasons may be that he was disgusted by the prevailing sectarian style in literary and art circles at that time and did not want to be influenced by the bad habit of forming schools. There is no point in pulling some dramatists together to piece together Linchuan school, for the purpose of confronting Wujiang school. To affirm the influence of Wujiang school does not hinder our esteem of Tang Xianzu. In 1930s, Japanese scholar Aoki Masaru first put forward the view that Wujiang school and Yuming Hall school had a confrontation in the late Ming opera world in his History of Chinese Modern Opera. The third section of Chapter 9 is entitled “Tang Xianzu”. Apart from that, there is no one under his banner. The second section of Chapter 10 is entitled “Yuming Hall School”, which includes Ruan Dacheng, Wu Bing and Li Yu. They are “a kind of coordination school” between Yuming Hall school and Wujiang school. This view is obviously difficult to establish, because these three people are different from those of Wujiang school. They were different 17

For details, see Lyrics and Music from Li Yu’s Casual Notes, published in Collection of Chinese Classical Operas VII, p. 23.

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from Tang Xianzu and had nothing to do with each other. If they are called Yuming Hall school because of their imitation of Tang Xianzu, can the Seven Scholars before and after be also called Shaoling school? Besides, Shen Jing’s legend of Falling Hairpin came from imitating Peony Pavilion. The characters and plots of Peony Pavilion are mentioned repeatedly in Episode 19 and Episode 31 of his works, and the episodes had the similar or the same names with those of Peony Pavilion such as Mourning, Underworld Judgment, Portrait Found, Detective Servant (also known as Catching the Traitor) and Soul Departure. Same Dream is simply an imitation of Peony Pavilion. In this way, no writer’s works can be more qualified to be called Yuming Hall school than Shen Jing and his Falling Hairpin. Moreover, if Yuming Hall school is a “coordinating school”, isn’t it also a “Wujiang school”? The socalled Yuming Hall school only exists in the imagination of the researchers of the history of opera. We can not expect much from a foreign scholar, but since then, the history of Chinese opera and literature had followed this theory and derived the view that Wujiang school belongs to metric school and Yuming Hall school is rhetoric school, which is obviously untrue. In fact, as far as music rules and literary rhetoric are concerned, they are not necessarily incompatible. Logically speaking, the opposite of the metrical school should be the anti metrical liberal school, but there are only strict or non-strict differences between the two, and there was no author who abolished the metrical school. It can be seen that such a classification is conceptually confusing and cannot stand scrutiny. Besides, we can’t make an absolute distinction between rhetoric and natural style. According to Lu Tiancheng’s Tune Reviews, Shen Jing, known as the leader of the metrical school, admitted that his Red Lotus was “all words decorated, a writing just for reading”, while Chen Jiru’s Comments on the Inscription of Peony Pavilion said that “Tang from Linchuan is the most qualified for this work”. It can be seen that it is also unreasonable to separate the two schools with the rhetoric and natural style which only differ to that extent.

10.5 The Opera Views in On Qingyuan Opera Master of Yihuang County In addition to the theory of meaning, appealingness, spirit and rhetoric put forward in the debate with Shen Jing, Tang Xianzu’s opera theory is mainly reflected in On Qingyuan Opera Master of Yihuang (Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 34th). At the same time, it is also important piece of literature of ancient Chinese opera theory. Tang Xianzu’s To Yiling Luo Zhang’er (Vol. 49th, idem) said: “How is it going with Zhang’er? Are you doing well? Try to choose good actors for Temple Records.” Obviously, this letter was written after the completion of Temple Records. Luo zhanger should be the manager and actor of a drama troupe in Yihuang County. He was recommended by his colleagues in Yihuang County in requesting Tang Xianzu to write this Temple Records. It is admirable that Tang Xianzu did not form a clique among literati, but took actors as confidants. The letter To Yiling Luo Zhang’er

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shows his concern for the actors’ life and their financial situation. He told them to use the original Peony Pavilion to perform and not to ask for too much money and food. It can be imagined that Tang Xianzu was the spiritual support of thousands of actors in local opera circles, and Temple Records is his summary of theoretical guidance to the local operas. He taught music for actors, so-called “teach little actors by picking sandalwood marks” (Drunken Reply to Jun Dong on Lover’s Festival (II) from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Vol. 18th), and gave on the spot guidance in performance, and sometimes sent them to perform for his friends in other places (Sending Yiling Singers to Celebrate the Birthday for Official Li Ximei of Wanping, Vol. 18th, idem. Sending Yiling Singers to Assistant Administrator Gan on the 9th Day in Yongxin, Vol. 19th, idem), and he even went on stage in his robe (Making Purple Costumes II, Vol. 19th, idem). Instead of keeping “a family music troup”, he made friends with the actors himself. According to Er Lang God Locks the Heavenly Sage, the first part of Unique Copy of Yuan and Ming Zaju, Zhao Yu, Erlang God of Qingyuan Taoist, followed his master Li Banyin to Qingcheng Mountain when he was young. During the reign of Emperor Yangdi of the Sui Dynasty, he was appointed as the governor of Jiazhou. He rode a unicorn with a magic dog, good at using gold bullets and three pointed two edged knives. After beheading Jian Jiao (the flood dragon), who bullied the people along the Lengyuan River areas, he subdued the seven monsters of Meishan. It is obvious that the image of Qingyuan Taoist is composed of Erlang, the son of Li Bing, the founder of Dujiangyan Dam, and Yang Jian, the God of Erlang in Journey to the West and The Legend of Deification. There is a very small difference in Episode 18 of Red Lotus by Shen Jing, but neither of them mentioned his relationship with opera. Taking Qingyuan master as the drama God should come from traditional folk southern opera, but the origin and age are unknown. The remarkable thing about Temple Records is that the author compared the unknown God with the great sages of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism: “Everybody recites Confucius who are shrined in their temples, and the same is true for Buddhists. Qingyuan Master, with disciples all over and the teaching no less than the above two, has no ancestral hall. There is no way that it can be disparaged by the anti music school with their own ideas.” The term “anti music school” here obviously does not refer to Mohist school, but to the orthodox literati who maintained their ethics and ignored opera. One of the great contributions of Temple Records is that it puts forward the theoretical basis of anti traditional opera from the philosophical and social perspectives. This paper discusses the social function of opera. There are quite a lot of sentences which are very similar to the Confucian classic Book of Rites. Book of Music apparently but different in its meaning. In essence, the two are completely opposite. For example, Book of Music believes that ritual and music are inseparable, and it places all music, songs and dances in a broad sense under the constraints of ritual. It even puts forward “music, arises from virtue”, “music is the sound of morality” and other propositions. It has repeatedly stressed the following statements: “stillness is the human nature, and also the nature of heaven; moving is diven by material things, like desire is aroused by sex”; “controling desire by Tao, then music is in order”; “the law of nature is destroyed if one has no control over one’s likes and dislikes

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internally and being induced externally, with no introspection.” The philosophical basis of the Book of Music can be summed up in the following: to preserve the principles of heaven and eliminate human desires. All music and dance that are not in accordance with etiquette and considered to be contrary to the principles of heaven are all condemned as “new music”, “drowning music”, Zheng Wei’s voice, the voice of troubled times or the voice of subjugation. Temple Records starts with “humans are born with desires”, which is based on the principle of “feeling orientation” and which is also consistent with the thought of “When feeling becomes a dream, dream becomes a play” in Reply to Gan Yilu. That is to say, we should take advantage of the basic proposition of Wang’s Theory that “there are good and evil in the mind” (Yaojiang Study Cases from The Cases of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 10th) and applied it to opera. Wang Shouren thought that human desire can not be generalized, it has the difference of good and evil. On the other hand, he pointed out that natural principle is not absolute good, it can also change to the opposite. He said: “Nature is guided by its own principles. Human desire is managed by humans” (Taizhou Study Cases from The Cases of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 32nd). Luo Rufang, a teacher of Tang Xianzu, made a more clear exposition of the relationship between heaven and human desire (see Sect. 10.2 of this chapter). While abiding by the teacher’s training, Temple Records applies it to stage art, and then affirms all abstract feelings, which is the viewpoint stated in the first sentence: “Born to heaven, to earth, to ghost, to God, of all figures in a thousand miles away, with the changes of ancient and modern age… It’s like seeing people from thousands of years, all occurring in a dream.” These words remind people of the idea expressed by Shakespeare, the contemporary British playwright, in Act 3, Scene 2 of Hamlet, through the talk of the protagonist: “…from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ‘twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” Tang Xianzu said that opera is a faithful representation of the world, from ancient times, now and even dreams, from gods and heroes to ordinary people. Loyalty, treachery, humbleness, nobleness, beauty, ugliness, good and evil, all manifestations of life should be reflected in the artistic mirror. In reality, feelings can be good and evil. Stage opera is a place to give them meticulous and accurate artistic expressions on an equal basis. Good and evil is not to express the playwright’s personal will directly to the audience, but to let the audience make their own judgment from the reality reflected by the artistic image. The characters on stage can be good and evil, and they can also be more complex people with a combination of both. They can be good or evil, detestable and despicable, or pathetic. Li Shilang in Tang Xianzu’s Purple Hairpin, Chunyu in The Story of Nanke and Lu Sheng in The Story of Handan are not simple characters, but the representatives of certain tendencies. The purpose of giving priority to emotion and art, rather than to reason and moral thoughts, is to facilitate the personage’s individuation and visualization, rather than to ignore reason and moral thoughts. The distinction between good and evil is not a preconceived abstract indoctrination, but gradually, not at the beginning of the performance, are revealed with the development of the plot. It is the natural result of whole stage performance art. Therefore, no matter the beauty or the ugliness,

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the good or the evil should also be carefully handled by the artists. From this point of view, there should be no difference in presenting people, good or evil, in real life from the perspective of stage art. Temple Records reveals that the purpose of the director and performing stage art is “the inner most human feelings” and “the music of elite education”. It’s not to restrain emotion by etiquette, but to affirm it and let it transcend to its normal catharsis. “Elite education” is the object, “music” is the subject. Temple Records boasts that opera can “make people all over the world happy or sad for no reason”, and can restore the disabled physiological organ function of deaf, dumb, blind and lame people. It even said, “This is way it works… The old end up with it, the young grow up with it. The doors can stay open, and desires can be reduced. With music, family can be free of disease and the world can have peace.” The morality of the world can be achieved through opera performance. No one can say that the role of opera is so magical, but a gentleman can’t denounce these words as heresy. It comes from the Book of Music: “With music, you have no resentment; with rite, you have no dispute. Those who bow to govern the world are called masters of rites and music. No uprisings, no soldiers, no penalty, no sufferings from people, no anger from the king, all of which is the intent of music. Unite father and son, set the order of old and young, harmony of the world is achieved. It is also the way for the emperor, then the rites are performed.” (Book of Music, Vol. 11th). By combining rites and music, the function of music is exaggerated, it is meant to publicize the superiority of “rites”. Tang Xianzu modified it by abandoning the rites-orientation in traditional opera. Temple Records said: “It can enhance the rites for both the monarch and the minister, the grace between the father and son, the harmony between the young and the old, the joy between a couple, the friendly manners between friends, it can also dissolve grievances, release depression and eliminate bad hobbies.” The subtle difference between it and Book of Music lies in that Book of Music requires music to be restricted by rites and put into the track of a patriarchal system. Temple Records thinks that opera itself has its own characteristics and its educational function is restricted by the law of art itself. Tang Xianzu didn’t deny the social function of opera because of his feeling orientation, but held that the social function should be the result of entertaining and moving people naturally. The educational function of opera is different from that of philosophy, politics, and ethics. Tang Xianzu emphasized that opera, through its artistic means, had a subtle effect on entertaining and moving people. On the surface, Temple Records seems to preach the omnipotence of opera, but in essence, these words are just a reaction to the social prejudice that belittles opera. The ideological and theoretical basis of opera performance and directorial art put forward in Temple Records is generally as described above. The composition writers and researchers try to point out the differences between Zaju and legend, as if they are different, while the critics focus on the rhythm and metrics. In fact, as far as the artistic form of opera literature is concerned, rhyme and metrics are only part of the problem, not the whole. As for stage art, the characteristics of opera are almost ignored by the writers of the same era with Tang Xianzu, and few related discussions have been found today. Temple Records said: “The first stage was the imitation of birds, then there came Zaju and legend with different roles. They were

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different in length, from 50 to 4 parts.” It studies Zaju and legend as a unified stage art of opera, but it doesn’t mention the rhythm and metrics that had been emphasized by others. This is not to say that Tang Xianzu was against metrics and ignores the rhymes, but that these are the basic requirements and common knowledge of opera. What he wanted to focus on is the performance and directing art that people neglected. Temple Records is only a short article, it is impossible to make a comprehensive discussion on performance and directing art. It does not mention traditional basic skill training and other stylized professional teaching, due to the fact that these are the important issues that many people had realized and the issues having no controversy, which can be omitted in the discussion. It focuses on the two aspects that are often ignored by experts. We can simply summarize them as the morality and principles of plays. The ancient despised entertainers and they were listed as one type of rabble. The noble cause of enriching people’s spiritual life and beautifying people’s soul is regarded as the last choice in a desperate situation. For this discrimination, persecution and corrosion from a society that some corruption occurred among the old actors. Temple Records requires actors to treat art with religious piety: “Looking up as towards God, with solemnity and reverence”, “ignoring the physical pain, cutting time on sleeping and meals. The young keep their spirits to cultivate their looks, while the old eat simple food to cultivate their voices.” Stage art is extremely serious and must be dedicated to. Only by keeping a simple life style and abstaining from indulgences can one maintain good looks and beautiful tones. This is the virtue of plays, which is closely related to the sublime role of plays discussed above. Principles in plays, namely, the theory of performance and directing, is a particularly detailed part of Temple Records. As far as the drama is concerned, the analysis of the script, the thought and the theme of the script, its image system and the anatomy of the script constitute the basic links of modern directing. The characters of ancient Chinese operas are difficult to understand, and most of the themes came from legends. The situation is more complicated due to the different backgrounds of the times, the system of laws and regulations, and their customs. If the actors are confused about all this, they will not be able to harmonize their facial expressions and body movements with their libretto, voice and emotion. It’s just a mechanical way to learn from famous actors’ singing and body styles. No matter how lifelike it is, it’s just the copy in shape. Even the best copy can have a lack of vitality in any case. Opera masters and experienced ordinary people can tell the difference on this point. In Temple Records, actors are required to “select a good teacher and a good partner, to understand the meaning of the words”, which coincide with modern directing study. It is golden advice to the opera circle from then on. Without it, all art and skill are in vain. Besides the full understanding of the script, another principle is put forward in Temple Records: “The movements need the observation of the changes of heaven, earth, human, ghost, world and instruments, the quietness need thought”; “to be a woman, one needs to think of himself as a woman; to be a man, one need to know how to be like a man.” That is to say, singing, posture, and other procedures are secondary to learning from real life. Being secondary does not mean it is not important, but that they must go with real life. About thirty years after Tang Xianzu’s article, Hou

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Fangyu wrote the Biography of Ma Ling. It records a vivid story about ancient opera performance and directing. Nanjing’s Xinghua troupe and Hualin troupe were performing the Story of the Phoenix at the same time and in the same place. When they were singing the Two Competing Ministers, Li Ling, who played Yan Song, attracted almost all the audience. With most of the audience left in front of the Xinghua troupe stage, Ma Ling, who played Yan Song, could not finish the performance and left the stage in a hurry. After that he worked as a servant in the current Yan Song’s mansion for three years and deliberately imitated his voice and smiles. Upon completion of his learning, he asked Li Ling to have the rival show again. The program was still the same. Ma Ling finally won over his opponent. This story can be used as a footnote to the passage of the Temple Records. Temple Records and Biography of Ma Ling remind us of Stanislavsky’s art system of experiential school, which was based on Salvini in Italy in the nineteenth century. According to Stanislavsky’s own explanation, it is characterized by the creation (performance) being completely based on emotion and the use of an experiential process, and the emphasis on using the inner feelings of actors to affect the audience directly. The essence of this school is that “(actors) should feel the emotion each time when performing and each time in re-performing.”18 That is, the actor should experience the role. The opposite of experientialism is expressionism, which is represented by the French actor Coquelin. He advocated that we should keep calm and sober all the time while we try our best to express our emotions with extraordinary vividness. In short, the experiential school requires actors to enter the role, while the expressionist school does not. It emphasizes stylized stage art skills. It is not advisable to make a mechanical comparison between the ancient and the present, and reach a hasty conclusion. It must be noted that the distinction between expressionism and experientialism in Europe since the nineteenth century is only in terms of drama. Temple Records is about ancient Chinese opera art. The traditional opera art characterized by stylization is naturally close to expressionism, but different from experientialism. Some comments in Temple Records seem to emphasize the role of its actors, but seldom refer to stylization. As stylization has been taken seriously in the field of drama, few people pay attention to its involvement in the role. This is to apply medicine according to indications, not necessarily to favor one and slight the other. All art forms have their own programs, which come from the experiences accumulated from predecessors, while experience comes from life. The relationship between art and life is only being direct and indirect, and can not be isolated from each other. When an art form is developed into a certain stage, or emphasized to a certain extent, it will inevitably become a shackle of art. By this time, the innovation that meets the need of real life of the time will emerge. Tang Xianzu pointed out that if we want to further improve stylized opera art, we must learn from life directly. Temple Records believes that the ultimate success of opera art lies in “hearing the voice of the character without sound, seeing the temperament of the character at 18

For details, see Experiential Art. Stanislavsky’s Collection of Papers, Speeches and Letters, translated by Zheng Xuelai, China Film Press, 1981, p. 517.

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one sight. The actor’s emotions are naturally revealed, and the viewer understands the character’s heart, and the actor and the audience achieve the integration of soul in this spiritual world. With this achieved, the actor can be qualified as a disciple of Master Qingyuan, and the essence of the play is attained.” While writing, what was lingering in the author’s mind must be the famous fable of Chuang Tzu. Master of Health Preservation, in which it tells how a butcher learns the skills of dismembering an ox by learning the body structure of an ox first. Superb skills bring the performance into sublimation without relying on any functional senses. It is not only the highest level that actors can reach when they enter a role, but also the peak of stylization. The two are complementary to each other. An actor cannot and should not enter the role completely and absolutely, unless his expression and movements are combined with perfect stylization. Or from another point of view, the perfect synthesis of stylizations must be loyal to life and reality and deeply involved in the role, so as to have the highest achievement of performance art, with the combination of the role and stylization. This is the essence of Tang Xianzu’s theory of performing and directing art, as well as the principles of plays. On Qingyuan Opera Master of Yihuang is worthy of being the foundation work of Chinese opera. On the basis of critically inheriting the ancient excellent cultural heritage, opera artists today can still get useful inspiration from it.

Chapter 11

The Compilation of Vernacular Short Novels and the Prosperous Development of Imitating Vernacular Novels

11.1 Definition and Evolution of Vernacular Novels and Imitating Vernacular Novels As a new style of ancient short stories, Imitation flourished in late Ming Dynasty. It appeared under the influence of vernacular text, just like long chapter novels, and had gone through the process from adaptation of the Yuan texts to the personal works by the literati. As a noun, the connotation of “imitation” is clear. In discussing the imitating vernacular novels, we need to know what is the concept of vernacular novels first. Only by defining it, could we reveal the essence of the evolution from vernacular novels to imitating vernacular novels. Lu Xun defined it as follows: “Speech, though it is out of the speaker’s spontaneous ingenuity, should always have a script, which is referred to as ‘vernacular text’.”1 This statement, which has been used by many up to now, should be corrected. According to the Preface of Ancient and Modern Novels by the Owner of the Green Sky Pavilion, “There used to be speakers, who are now storytellers, in the Entertainment Ministry of the Southern Song Dynasty. The texts for the speakers must be popular and there should be no authors found. The Emperor when at leisure would like to enjoy some stories. He got one story sent in each day and rewarded the contributor with money if it was a good one. The court officials collected from all over the country strange anecdotes, ancient or modern, and hired people to polish them to entertain the Emperor. However, they were mostly read just once and left behind in the court, only a few got out to circulate.” Clear Words to Illustrate the World was entitled as Story of Ancient and Modern Novels in the first edition of Feng Menglong’s “Three Enlightenment”. The word “ancient” refers to the old story books from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The above data shows that the texts were for people to read, not for people to use when talking. The reason why the script for 1

Lu Xun: A Brief History of Chinese Novels, People’s Literature Press, 1973, p. 90.

© Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_11

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reading was called the vernacular text is that most of the stories were handed down orally in the form of speech, and then written by certain literati. The oral story of the speaker was called “storytelling”, while the vernacular text was handed down from generation to generation, being tempered and taking shape after many years. With this background, it was called vernacular text. Like opera, the folk art of talking had been handed down from one to another without any written text. The storytellers may be as illiterate as the opera performers. Storytelling artists can be illiterate, or people with very little education and low social status, but the writers of vernacular text could not be illiterate, but they could not be highly educated nor have high social status either. They can be regarded as literati, or they would not have been “hired by the court officials” to polish the texts. In addition to believing that the script is the basis of vernacular text, people who believe in A Brief History of Chinese Novels have a misunderstanding that the vernacular text is just prose, without rhymes; the ones with rhymes should be imitating vernacular text. This is exactly the opposite to the facts. The earliest document having detailed records containing the art of speaking, the The Drunken Talk, expressed clearly in The Beginning of Novels, Vol. 1st, Part I: “talking about ten thousand books and poems.” It has also been proven by the description of Bai Xiuying’s storytelling in Chapter 51 of Water Margin. At the sound of gongs, Bai Xiuying went to the stage in the morning, paid homage to the four sides, picked up the gongs and sticks, hitting them like drops of beans. By beating the ferule, she recited four lines of seven-character poetry, and said, “As Xiuying’s signboard today clearly says, this story was originally romantic, calling Shuang Jian’s Pursuit of Su Qing in Yuzhang Town.” She is thus talking and singing in turns… The admiration for Bai Xiuying’s storytelling in the novel said: “Her voice is gentle, her singing is like the warbler sound; her dancing is graceful and her silhouette is like the phoenix turning between flowers…” Unfortunatly then there was no video or audio recording at that time. The description of Bai Xiuying’s storytelling in the novel was clear enough. However, confined by the old expressions, Ye Dejun disagrees that Bai Xiuying’s singing is talking, but a talking singing of Various Temples.2 In fact, the description in the Water Margin is completely consistent with other records of Ming people. The Preface of Water Margin by Exterior Minister of Capital said: “A few writings like Grandma Lamp sound very much like garlic cheese,” which was later explained in The Amazing Tales I. Ordinary Cases, “The poems in the novel, are called Garlic Cheese.” Seeing the alternating of poetry and verse, the vernacular text was also called Ci vernacular, between which there is no essential difference. Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt Regained from Story of Ancient and Modern Novels, Vol. 1st said: “Dear audience, listen to my Ci vernacular today about the story of the Pearl Shirt”, which is solid proof of the shared nature of the two. Others are like the 9 poems cited in The Legendary Stories of Shi Hongzhao; 10 poems [vinegar gourd of Shang tune] in The Throat-cutting of Jiang Shuzhen, 11 poems in Cui Daizhao’s Love of Life and Death, 15 poems in The Monks Fighting over Ghosts, and 6 poems only by [west river moon] 2

Ye Dejun: A Study of Drama Novels, Zhonghua Book Company, 1979, p. 649.

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in Magistrate Su’s Shirt Matching Feng Menglong didn’t delete the poems and verses quoted in the above-mentioned writings, which preserved the original versions. The vernacular text became the object of the literati’s imitation, so there were imitating vernacular novels. Generally speaking, they didn’t come out until the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Compared with the writer of vernacular text, the author of Imitating vernacular novels were more educated and had higher social status. The vernacular novels of the Ming Dynasty are represented by Three Enlightenment, Two Admonition Books and Motto for Behaviors. Of the 120 works in Three Enlightenment, except for 18 old ones from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, over a hundred of them can be classified as vernacular novels, but most of them are the rewriting of classical Chinese novels or adaptations of stories handed down. The only one so far proved to be written by Feng Menglong himself is The Old Examinee’s Gratitude in Warning the World. Two Admonition Books and Motto for Behaviors are typical literary imitations, only a few of which are the adaptation of previous works. It is different from Three Enlightenment in terms of the components and artistic achievements. There was also a kind of work which was called a medium legendary novel. They were mostly during the Jiajing and Wanli years, being longer than short stories and shorter than long ones. They were written in simple classical Chinese. They were defined as between vernacular novels and imitating vernacular novels in recent years, since they are more sophisticated than the old Song and Yuan writings but less than the imitating vernacular novels of the literati. In terms of their themes, they are mainly stories of gifted scholars and beauties, with a lot of poems.3 As far as the origin is concerned, they are the tributary of the story telling book of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the evolution of the novel Love of Eternity (but this novel had been rewritten by the Ming people) in the Ming Dynasty, which is different from the legend of the Tang Dynasty. Even many of them compared The Story of Yingying with Love of Eternity, they can not be attributed to the legend. Just as the form of this kind of work is between vernacular novels and Imitating vernacular novels, their authors were probably also between folk artists and the literati, more educated than that of the folk artist and less than that of the literati who were skilled in imperial examinations. During the period of Chongzhen, there came mid-length 3

It is typical of vernacular texts as they were composed of poems, words, songs and compositions. Take Dragons of Orchid Pool as an example, the joys and sorrows of the couple in their separation were not presented in common forms such as chanting lines and Fu poetry, but more often in the poems and songs, as many as 40, between the gifted scholars and beauties in the novels. In addition, there were also the Fu poetry as Funeral Oration, Words of Sorrow and Obeisance Moon Cabin. According to the above situation, we can speculate as follows: the changes of the novel to the former famous play Obeisance Moon Cabin were all made by unknown writers to adapt to the characteristics of vernacular novels. Many poems were not necessarily beautiful, but were necessary for script singing. Besides there were some novels that were different from the later novels by the interleaving of poems or songs. There are more than 70 of them in Collection of Love Poems and even as many as 100 of them in Li Sheng’s Love of 61 Days. If this is the author showing off of his talent and learning, they fell short as none of them is decent, which is similar to Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus. Put these works together, there is nothing special for having so many poems interspersed just like Golden Lotus.

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novels. One kind tells a story from the beginning to the end, the main themes are history, people, gods and demons. The historic theme is like The Records of The Emperors edited by Zou Zhongxing and appraised by Feng Menglong, in which there are The Legends from Pan Gu to Tang Yu (2 Volumes, 7 Chapters), Biography of Xia (4 Volumes, 19 Chapters), and Biography of Shang (4 Volumes, 12 Chapters); The theme of people is like Yue Wumu’s Devotion to the Country compiled by Yu Huayu (7 Volume, 28 Chapters); The theme of gods and demons are like the Journey to the West (16 Chapters). This kind of work inherited the similar themes of the early novels, but the length is greatly reduced, and the achievements of Journey to the West Supplement is slightly higher. The other kind is between 5 and 20 Chapters. The whole book has one title and several independent stories, which are actually equivalent to a collection of short stories. There is not much breakthrough in the theme of this kind of novel. Romance keeps the style of erotic novels following the years of Jiajing and Wanli, such as the episode of Wind and episode of Snow in Clapping Loftiness (40 Chapters in total, 10 Chapters in each). They also depict world life, just like the episode of Flower and the episode of Moon. As for the description of abnormal sexual relations, such as Hat and Hairpin (20 Chapters in total, divided into 4 Episodes, 5 Chapters in each) and Spring Fragrance (20 Chapters in total, divided into 4 Episodes, 5 Chapters in each), were the bad development of pornographic novels of the late Ming Dynasty. Superstition prevailed in the late Ming Dynasty, from the princes and nobles to the common people, all of which were infiltrated. There were also themes of immortals and Taoism, such as the Incantation of Dates (14 Chapters in total) and Flying Sword (13 Chapters in total) by Deng Zhimo. The long-standing short story books were compiled at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which was helped by bookmakers to cater to popular taste, to collect, collate and publish, and to do the active promotion for commercial purpose. Beijing Vernacular Novels, Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories and Xiong Longfeng’s Four Kinds of Novels were all published by bookmakers. At the same time, some scholars devoted themselves to popular literature, engaging the spread of the vernacular novels, and adapted the vernacular texts of the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Feng Menglong adapted and compiled Three Enlightenment, and he was also a publisher, which is the most typical example. Imitating vernacular novels by the literati came last. The emergence of many Imitating vernacular novels, represented by Two Admonition Books, indicates that the development of vernacular novels had entered a new era. We classify vernacular novels mainly published by bookmakers and the short stories adapted by literati into the vernacular writing category due to the reason that their copyright does not belong to one person, and their compilation situation is different from imitating vernacular novels.

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11.2 Feng Menglong and the Compilation of Three Enlightenment Three Enlightenment compiled by Feng Menglong is a big collection of vernacular novels. As mentioned above,though many of them can be classified as imitations, the only one that was completely created by Feng Menglong is The Old Examinee’s Gratitude. So, for the majority of Three Enlightenment, it is a collection of stories adapted and written by collective writers; but for this one, it can also be seen as the beginning of imitating vernacular novels. Feng Menglong (1574–1646), style name Yulong, pseudonym name Ziyou, or Mohan Study Man, was born in Suzhou (Changzhou). Some people may not agree if he was taken as a great writer. As far as his own works are concerned, none of them can be worthy of ranking first. However, his collection of short stories Three Enlightenment, folk song collections Hanging on the Branch and Mountain Folk Songs, as well as his collection of short music pieces New Tunes of Dawn, are all collections of popular literature in the late Ming Dynasty. Without his enthusiastic collection and sorting, at least some of them could not be passed down to the present. His adaptation of Three Battles in Sweeping Demons is supplemented according to the original, while the Annals of the New Kingdoms was significantly improved compared with Yu Shaoyu’s version. Feng Menglong’s outstanding contribution in collecting and sorting out popular literature of the late Ming Dynasty is indelible. Feng Menglong was born at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Although it was only 24 years later than that of Tang Xianzu, the situation was quite different. In Tang Xianzu’s era, the social background of thought and literary trends was similar to those of the Western Renaissance, with the influence of scholar bureaucrats, were zigzagging forward. In Feng Menglong’s era, the economy in China’s society was developing abnormally, especially in his hometown of Suzhou. As it was bearing the heavy hereditary burden of patriarchal society, the economy didn’t follow the development path of Florence Italy or other modern cities in Western Europe. On the positive side, the liberation of the democratic spirit and individuality was far from being mature. Another down side of it was the unsettling fashion of extravagance in the city. The profound brand of the ancient literati and bureaucrats of Tang Xianzu and his contemporaries were presented in Feng Menglong as philistine,which was typical of the idling lower class rather than the average working class. Examples can be found in Feng Menglong’s poetry works showing the sincere and touching love between men and women are intertwined with whoring, prostitution and same sex activities. Before Feng Menglong, there were already voluminous literary classics, which were compiled, annotated, engraved and published by scholars. For example, Zhang Fengyi’s Annotated Selections, Mei Dingzuo’s selected works of the past dynasties including Literary Chronicles, Poets of Eight Dynasties, Ancient Poetry Garden, Survey of Books, and Zang maoxun’s Ancient Poetic Conception, Poetic Conception and Selection of Yuan Operas. They were the scholars and publishers. Feng Menglong’s Three Enlightenment, Three Battles in Sweeping Demons, Annals of the New

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Kingdoms, Revised Legend, Brief of Romance Category, Hanging on the Branch, Mountain Folk Songs, Guidance to Classics, A Survey on Ancient and Modern Anecdotes, On Ma Diao Game, Anthology of Tales from Records of the Taiping Era, Stories of Wisdom and Collection of Thoughts were all best sellers as popular literature, entertainment books and exam oriented reference books. Some of them were written for other bookshops. For example, Anthology of Tales from Records of the Taiping Era was engraved by Shen Fei Zhong. The Stories of Wisdom was edited upon the request of Jiang Zhiqiao in Jiaxing. Guidance to Classics, Studies on Spring and Autumn Classics and Supplement on Stories of Wisdom were engraved by Zhang Zicheng in Wujiang. Feng Menglong’s work is equivalent to that of a professional writer. Most of the other books signed by Mohan Study were managed by himself, and their varieties and plates (printed pages) were more than the total of Zhang Fengyi, Mei Dingzuo and Zang Maoxun in the past. Feng Menglong can be ranked as the best editor, publisher and disseminator of popular books in ancient times. Feng Menglong exhausted his efforts for the imperial examination with no success. He didn’t get the qualification of a candidate position until Chongzhen 3rd year (1630) when he was 57 years old. While being frustrated with imperial examinations, his younger classmates, Qian Qianyi (1610), Chen Renxi (1622) and Wen Zhenmeng (1632), successively became first class scholars. The Old Examinee’s Gratitude, the only short story that can be confirmed as Feng Menglong’s creation in the Three Enlightenment, reveals his desperate lament with the unrealized dream of the old man. After obtaining a candidate position, he was appointed as Dantu Oracle, an educational position at the county level. In 1634, when he was 61 years old, he took the post of magistrate Shouning County in the mountainous area of Fujian Province. Four years later, he was dismissed from his post and returned to his hometown, where he completed Annals of Shouning and Content. In 1644, Emperor Zhu Youjian was forced to commit suicide when Li Zicheng’s uprising army broke through Beijing. For Feng Menglong, on the one hand, it greatly inspired his patriotism, on the other hand, his lack of understanding of the political situation was revealed. He edited and published 13 volumes of Jiashen Chronicles at this critical moment. As a reckless minister, he proposed On Regulations of Currency to the corrupt Nanming court, dreaming that one day the Ming Dynasty would prosper. Like many of the officials at that time who did not know the general situation, he thought that General Wu Sangui’s opening up the city gate to let the Qing army in was a turning point in history that “everyone is happy and cheering” (Preface to Strategies of Revitalization). Right before Nanjing city was taken by the Qing soldiers, Prince Fu had fled in a hurry. The so-called Prince Chongzhen, who was released from prison, played a farce of “the new Lord ascending the throne”, but it lasted less than 24 h. Feng Menglong was encouraged by the news. The year after the Jiashen incident, he traveled from Suzhou, Wujiang, Huzhou, Hangzhou to Taizhou, Zhejiang at the age of 72. It is obvious that he followed the footsteps of the Emperor’s southbound journey. Only because of the deterioration of the situation, he returned home halfway there. The compilation of Three Enlightenment is Feng Menglong’s great contribution to ancient vernacular short stories. This is the general term of the three collection of

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novels, Clear Words to Illustrate the World, Convincing Arguments in Warning the World and Lasting Words to Awaken the World. Each of them has 40 novels, totaling 120. As mentioned above, Preface of Ancient and Modern Novels by the owner of the Green Sky Pavilion describes that Three Enlightenment is a long-standing revision and collection of vernacular texts. From Beijing Vernacular Novels, Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories and some of its corresponding novels, we can have a glimpse of the evolution of vernacular novels. The editor and publication date of Beijing Vernacular Novels are unknown. It was first seen in Miao Quansun’s work of East Hall Sketch (1920). It includes 7 remaining vernacular texts: Grinding Jade Goddess of Mercy, Pusaman, Ghost of Western Hill, Officer Zhang, Stubborn Minister, Beheading of Cuining by Mistake, Feng Yumei’s Reunion (from Volume 10 to 16),which can all be found in Three Enlightenment. Due to reasons like Miao not having any background explanations, there have been doubts. The doubts were most powerfully represented by Ma Youyuan and Ma Tailai’s The Age and Authenticity of Beijing Vernacular Novels in 1965,4 and Su Xing’s Identification of Beijing Vernacular Novels.5 Ma’s paper concludes: Beijing Vernacular Novels is only a fake book. All the collected stories were selected from Convincing Arguments in Warning the World or Lasting Words to Awaken the World compiled by Feng Menglong, with some words and phrases slightly modified in an attempt to make the readers think that it is an unprecedented collection of early Song vernacular texts. Just take Officer Zhang from Beijing Vernacular Novels as an example, the story can be found in Young Lady Presenting Money to the Youth from Convincing Arguments in Warning the World, Vol. 16th. In Chapters 1, 2, and 100 of Golden Lotus, the influence of Officer Zhang is easily seen. In terms of the artistry of the two, the corresponding part of Golden Lotus is obviously not as good. The preface of Convincing Arguments in Warning the World was written in 1624 by Hermit Non-barrier, while Golden Lotus had already the preface written by Dongwu Pearl Man in Wanli 45th year (1617). From this fact, we can be sure that Officer Zhang is not from Convincing Arguments in Warning the World. If the extant version of it is not the original version of the original story, then it must be based on something else. It still remains to be further demonstrated for Ma’s statement that, “all the texts of Beijing Vernacular Novels were collected from Feng Menglong’s Convincing Arguments in Warning the World and Lasting Words to Awaken the World.” Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories is a remnant story book collection, whose editor is unknown. Qingping Hill Hall is the name of Hongcai’s bookstore in Qiantang during Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. 15 of them were collected in the Cabinet Library of Japan. In 1929, Beijing Ancient and Modern Sketch Book Printing House made photocopies and publications based on their photo films. Its name was based on the inscription “Qingping Hill Hall” in its edition. In 1933, Ma Lian found another 12 stories with the same inscription of “Qingping Hill Hall” in the layout in Ningbo, which are the old collection of Tianyi Cabinet, different from that of the Japanese Cabinet Library. Later, A’Ying 4 5

For details, please refer to “(Taipei) Tsinghua Journal (the new 5 volumes)”, (1), 1965. Cultural Relics, 1978, (3).

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found another two kinds of incomplete books. The results of the three discoveries are 29 pieces, including vernacular texts of the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The language in them is simple, the structure is loose, and there are not many artistic skills. Vernacular is the main style, sometimes mixed with classical Chinese, many wrong words, the poetry and prose are extremely vulgar, because of the above defects, it has preserved a lot of original style of the vernacular text. Some of these works have lost their original features after being polished by scholars. Taking The Throat-cutting as an example, it was entitled as The Throat-cutting of Jiang Shuzhen in Convincing Arguments in Warning the World, Vol. 38th. According to The Comprehensive Series of Chinese Vernacular Novels, Feng Menglong had made various changes: (1) Correct the words that are difficult to understand, such as “as long as the string of sticks is fresh”, Feng changed “string of sticks” to “clothing”. (2) Change the classical Chinese sentences in the novel into vernacular. For example, after the death of Er Lang, his family regarded Jiang Shuzhen as a discarded broom” and Feng Ben changed to “ignore her”. (3) Reorganize the sentences to make the writing compact. For example, after Zhang Erguan killed Jiang Shuzhen, “he saw the place where the knife passed: ‘a pair of heads fell, two cavities of blood rushed to the sky.’ “At the end of the novel, there is another saying: “it’s just the saying that kindness returned with grievances, all worldly things are empty.” Feng, moved these two sentences ahead right after the first sentence. After the above changes, the novel is indeed better than Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories. Another example is The Story of Rings, entitled “Ruan’s Repaying the Unjust Debts Three Times in Xianyun Nunnery “in Ancient and Modern Novels Vol. 4th. The second sentence of the eight-line poem “don’t complain about fighting, don’t complain about heaven” is changed to “don’t complain about others, don’t complain about heaven”. These deletions cut off the rhyme parts of the verse. Ling Mengchu’s Two Admonition Books uses the material in Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories, and made similar changes. Among the 120 works of Three Enlightenment, about 18 them are from the Song and Yuan Dynasties; over 40 of them are obviously from the Ming Dynasty based on their official titles, [ocation names and some words with particular time features, such as “Hu Yuan”, “country dynasty” and some special notes of the Ming Dynasty (some may only show that they were compiled and modified by later generations); less than 60 are not determined regarding the times. Those that can be regarded as old works of the Song and Yuan Dynasties can be categorized as nine kinds,which are found in Luo Ye’s The Drunken Talk, Vol 1st, Part I: Mellon Zhang Marries Wen (Clear Words to Illustrate the World, Vol. 33rd), Four Robinhood of Song (Vol. 3rd idem), Qian Sheren’s Poems in Swallow Tower (Convincing Arguments in Warning the World, Vol. 10th), Three Appearances and Bao Longtu’s Case Settling (Vol. 13 idem.), Zhang Hao Meets Yingying in Suxiang Pavilion (Vol. 5th idem.), Wu Qing Meets Aiai Jinming Pool” (Vol. 3rd idem), Revenge of Wan Xiuniang on Mountain Pavilion (Vol. 27th idem.), Case of Leather Boots (Lasting Words to Awaken the World, Vol. 13), General Zheng’s Meritorious Arm Bow (Vol. 31st idem). Their original names in The Drunken Talk are: The Farmer God, Zhao Zheng’s Enraging of the Capital, Swallow Tower, Three Appearances, Peony, Words of Ai Ai, Ten Dragons (also known as Iron Monk Tao), Magic Hand Er Lang, and Red and White Spider. Monk Jiantie

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Tricked Huangfu’s Wife from Clear Words to Illustrate the World, Vol. 35th was listed as one of the stories from the Song Dynasty Monk Jiantie in Qian Zeng’s Yeshi Garden Bibliography. In the same volume, Underworld Judgement of Sima is Three Kingdoms originally written in vernacular in the New Issue of Yuanzhishi. The above stories are undoubtedly the old version from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. On the whole, Three Enlightenment is a collection of large-scale vernacular texts. Of the imitating vernacular novels in Three Enlightenment, the only one written by Feng Menglong himself is The Old Examinee’s Gratitude in Convincing Arguments in Warning the World. This is a combination of reality and the author’s fantasy. There is an introduction before each chapter and all words are in vernacular style, which is typical of imitating vernacular novels by literati. The exact date of the novel’s creation is unknown. The preface of Convincing Arguments in Warning the World was written in 1624. In the novel, the old examinee passed the exam at the age of 57 and didn’t become Jinshi until 61, while Feng Menglong was 51 at that time. It’s only a coincidence that they were both at the age of 57 when the old examinee passed the exam and Feng got the candidacy. Generally speaking, the production of the common imitated vernacular novels should go through three stages: the creation of literati, the processing and improvement of the storytelling in the process of storytelling, and the adaptation and writing of literati, but the specific cases can not be proved. It seems unlikely that The Old Examinee’s Gratitude was incorporated into Convincing Arguments in Warning the World after a long time of circulation. This is a rare case of imitating vernacular novels in Three Enlightenment. It is related to Feng Menglong’s dual identity as the author and editor of the novel. Convincing Arguments in Warning the World Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger provides another type of imitating vernacular novels: the adaptation of classical Chinese novels by literati. In fact, Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger is the vernacular rewriting of the classical Chinese novel Love Forsaken (see Collection of Nine Flutes, Vol. 5th) created by Song Jucheng (1569–1619). Convincing Arguments in Warning the World was published in Tianqi 4th year (1624), and the introduction of vernacular novels tells of Emperor Wanli’s reign lasting 48 years (1573–1620). It can be seen that the adaptation of this vernacular novels must be between 1621 and 1624. In view of the short time from the adaptation to the publication of Convincing Arguments in Warning the World, the same is true for The Old Examinee’s Gratitude, it is unlikely that Love Forsaken had a process of spreading and improving among storytelling artists before being selected, and it is more likely that Feng Menglong adapted it. Its karma ending is also close to the thought he revealed in The Old Examinee’s Gratitude. “Song Youqing said” in Love Forsaken, it contains a section of praise narration which is subtle and graceful and impressive. From an artistic point of view, the adaptation of vernacular is self defeating. However, Liu Yuchun, a new character in the adaptation, not only contrasts with Li Jia and Sun Fu, but also makes the plot better developed, which is the pride of the adaptation. In a word, except for the ending and some fragments, the vernacular version is more vivid than classical Chinese novels, and the adaptation is basically successful. In fact, if this is the case, Du Shiniang may be regarded as a typical example of the writer’s adaptation of classical Chinese novels in the past. Du Shiniang rewrites Love Forsaken from

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classical Chinese into vernacular, and then adds some introduction in vernacular style. What more appropriate attribution can such a novel have other than imitating vernacular novels? As most of them are literal translations or free translations, the adapters are different from other writers. The situation of “Shen Xiaoxia’s Practice of Memorial on Sending Out the Troops” in Convincing Arguments in Warning the World is similar to this. The original works are Feng Menglong’s Romance and Supplement on Stories of Wisdom. From more than one adaptions, we can see Feng Menglong’s love for this work. Jiang Yingke’s Shen Xiaoxia’s Concubine (see 16 Entries of Ming Literature, Vol. 3rd) is its original. The first volume of Shen Xiaoxia’s Practice of Memorial on Sending Out the Troops” [partridge sky] has the nature of self narration: “take off the ribbons, cast the hairpins slowly, the sun and the moon will never be overcast.” Feng Menglong was still an examinee when he published Clear Words to Illustrate the World. He could not have had the experience of “removing ribbon” or “casting hairpin”. The last adaptation was clearly made by a frustrated official. Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt Regained in Clear Words to Illustrate the World provides a third type for the imitating vernacular novels: the new compilation of the old stories by the literati. The Pearl Shirt in Collection of Nine Flutes, Vol. 2nd by Song Fucheng is the predecessor of Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt, which is also recorded in Spoony, Vol. 4th in Song Cunbiao, his nephew. Song Cunbiao’s original work has the comments of “Hermit said” and also referred to it as the new Pearl Shirt. There were old carving versions of it. Song Fucheng changed the “Hermit” into “Waste Man”, and Pearl Shirt in Brief of Romance Category, Vol. 16th, the unofficial history reviewed by Feng Menglong changed “Waste Man” into “Mr. Nine Flutes”. It can be seen that the novel had been revised by Song Fucheng and Feng Menglong before it was selected into Clear Words. Before that, Song Cunbiao revised the old carving version. That is to say, before the first of the three stages of the early common vernacular novels, the story had gone through a long or short spreading process. Clear Words changes it from classical Chinese to vernacular, which is another update after changing from the old carving to the new Pearl Shirt. It is also the characteristics of the two imitating vernacular novels to retain the historical influence of the original work. A considerable part of the Ming Dynasty vernacular novels, if not most of them, were about real people, at least the author believed them to be. A short story based on a protagonist, such as Love Forsaken from which Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger was adapted, was included in the fifth volume of Nine Flute by Song Yucheng together with the biographies of his friends, but not in the tenth volume of Benefit. So far, we can have a clearer understanding of some real situations in the creation of vernacular novels. For example, in Pearl Shirt of Romance, Vol. 16th, it is written that “there is a story of Pearl Shirt, but the names were unknown” and “I can’t find the real names”. It is not that they didn’t have names but that they were biographical stories of real people and true things. The author deliberately avoided them, and the editor took them as unreal. If we don’t get this point by not taking them as imitation vernacular novels for lack of some characters’ names in the original works, it would be very wrong. In Shen Xiaoxia’s Practice of Memorial on Sending Out the Troops, even the term of

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office of Xu Lun, the Minister of War mentioned coincides with the History of the Ming Dynasty. Chronology of Officials. At least one third of the short vernacular novels in Three Enlightenment were popular in the Ming Dynasty, but except for the official titles, place names and some words with the characteristics of the times as well as the traces clearly indicating them as works of the Ming Dynasty, none of the other records had been left as to their authors, when, where and under what conditions they were compiled, which makes them remain mysteries until now. Even in The Old Examinee’s Gratitude, it can be inferred as Feng Menglong’s own life experience from the fact that the protagonist “passed the civil examinations at the age of 57, got Jinshi at the age of 61, being in office for 23 years, with golden belt and purple robe and three generations of grace”, but he was depressed and frustrated before entering the exam. The wealth and honor in the second half of the story were just a product of his delusion. The rest of the story is still unknown. From the perspective of the characters in the novel, about a quarter of the works the main characters are businessmen and craftsmen. They include merchants, machinists, dyers, hoteliers, kiln owners, boat owners, fishermen, flower farmers, melon farmers, decorators, and carpenters, to name a few. Apart from nearly 30 works with historical figures (including literati) as protagonists, along with some works adapted from ghost stories, the works with businessmen and craftsmen as the protagonist occupy a considerable proportion in the whole book. Among the 44 works of the Ming Dynasty, the proportion of such works totals one third. The legends of Tang and Song Dynasties can be just the stories of historical figures, literati, gifted scholars and beauties. Jin and Yuan Zaju began to change in this respect, but works like East Hall Senior and Red Sand with businessmen as the main characters are still rare. In another kind of Jin-Yuan drama, such as Tears on Green Shirt, people can feel that businessmen have become an aggressive social force, but they had to be supporting roles then. Compared with the legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties and Zaju of JinYuan periods, vernacular novels can be regarded as a kind of real urban literature, in which the city dwellers had the leading roles rather than supporting roles, which was a big change, but we should also see that in the story books collected by Three Enlightenment, there are even more works about traditional talented women, literati, bureaucrats and landlords. The ideology of citizens reflected in the works is sporadic and unsystematic, often submerged by orthodox ideas, which was determined by the social conditions at that time. Although the economy developed greatly at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was far from the point of budding capitalism as some people thought. In ancient times, merchants were regarded as the last of the four classes, they were even discriminated against, for a long time, In “Oil Seller Owes the Beauty”, Qin Chong, the oil vendor, realized that “I am a pure and innocent person in business”. In the eyes of Wang Meiniang, the beauty, “average class of business” was still not comparable to “the family in hats and robes”, but she also admitted that he was an “honest business man” and finally married him, and lived on business after marriage. In Romance, there is a chapter named Yu Tangchun, which says that Wang Sheng

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“his father returned to the government to pursue his official career, and he used his son as the subordinates to get the salaries.” In Yu Tangchun’s Meeting Husband of Convincing Arguments in Warning the World, Wang Sheng’s father was a minister, and loaned his 30,000 Liang of silver savings. Wang Sheng was left to collect the debt. Although the plot of Convincing Arguments in Warning the World is not as reasonable as Romance, it inadvertently reveals how popular business activities, such as making loans, were like at that time. From Rags to Ri of Xu Laofu in Lasting Words to Awaken the World praises Xu Laofu’s business and wealth in a poem: Wealth is rootless, and it comes from diligence. Please watch the lazy with cold and hungry face. This is one of the earliest works defending merchants in ancient Chinese literature. It shows that business and wealth are different from that of aristocratic landlords in terms of inheritance. It covers up the truth of monopoly, speculation and usurpation with a clean word of “diligence”, and publicizes this as truth. On the other hand, the poverty and suffering of the masses were naturally described to be the fault of “laziness”. It’s up to them to take the blame. Even sympathy is unnecessary. This thought is the most explicit one in Shi Runze’s Goodness Returned in Lasting Words to Awaken the World. If the two stories of Pei Du and Shi Yujun quoted in the introduction explain that wealth and longevity of the bureaucrats and landlords are due to so-called credit in the other world, then the text of this work tells the same myth that the businessmen got rich for the credits in their previous life. Shi Runze, a small merchant in Shengze Town, Suzhou, originally lived a life of “a weaving couple”. Only because he returned the money he found and never killed, he not only avoided the disaster of two deaths, but also got his family business to prosper and “ranked first in the town”. The work vividly describes an old man who started a refreshment shop and worked hard to accumulate eight ingots of silver for his own burial. One night, he had a strange dream of seeing eight guys walking out of his bed, saying goodbye to the old man to go to a good place. The next day, the eight ingots of silver, together with more than 2,000 additional gold pieces, were turned into hidden gold and discovered by Shi Runze. Shi Runze was kind-hearted. He secretly put two ingots of silver in the steamed bread and gave it back to the old man. The old man gave the steamed bread to Shi Runze’s family, and the family went to Shi Runze’s wife to exchange it for other snacks. “He knew that when it is time to be rich, money can not be driven away. If not, money is never available no matter what.” All the differences between the rich and the poor are predestined. In the process of his making a fortune, Shi Runze wrote as follows: “one is that he has a good selection of silkworm eggs, and the other is that he has some luck. There is not a single cocoon of silkworm. When they are reeling, they are even and tight in fineness (round), clean and bright, and there is not a single uneven coarse section. Each basket of silkworms reels more silk than others. As usual, when weaves are sold on the market, they look so lustrous and lubricant that customers bid for them. As a result, they increased to three or four machines, becoming well-to-do. He got the name “Shi Runze”, meaning lustrous and lubricant. Later, he was “still frugal,

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working day and night and saved thousands worthy of golden ingots. He bought a big house, got 30 or 40 machines, hired more hands and the the family business was run perfectly.”This work emphasizes the thrifty and prosperity of the industrial and commercial business owners just like people From Rags to Riches of Xu Laofu, but the old man who runs a snack shop was also thrifty all his life. As a result, why can’t he become rich? On the contrary, even the few ingots of silver that he used to send off his life in the future were also taken away? This is hard to justify. Frugality may explain how Shi added 34 machines, but it’s hard to explain how he added 30 or 40. So we have to resort to the so-called myth of destiny and credit in the other world. Destiny and credit in the other world are ultimately remote. In the real world, how can we explain why we are rich on a more realistic basis? The way is to discover more than 3,000 Liang of hidden gold in addition to industry and thrift. This is an unexplained explanation, still a mystery. Shi Runze’s Goodness Returned reflects the views of the ancient Chinese people, the businessmen and the industrialists, and helps them to realize their lies, which fills works with superstition and sermons, but this does not hinder the nature of this class represented in its works. Three Enlightenment also expresses the views of the civil class on love and marriage. 36 of 120 works are about love and marriage, accounting for the majority of the works in the Ming Dynasty. Love and marriage are worthy of attention as they are not simple personal problems in any era and social context. However, their extraordinary prominent position in the theme of vernacular novels means that other major social and political issues have not been adequately reflected. This is a fundamental defect of the novels. This can only be explained by the social status of the authors and the audience: the social status of being lower than those above and higher than those below makes them seem to be from all kinds of conflicts in a real social life, because of this, the vernacular novels of a love theme seldom treat it as a social problem consciously, which is the major weakness of vernacular novels in the Ming Dynasty. Ruan’s Repaying the Unjust Debts Three Times in Xianyun Nunnery in Clear Words, Vol. 4th said: “how many daughters squandered their best time for matching for the reason of choosing family status? Who can stop the puberty? A man might venture to sneak and a girl might go astray. It is too late to regret!”6 In this passage, there is a criticism of the emphasis on marriage between families of equal social rank, but the thoughts are not high and the tone is vulgar. The so-called love life that Wang Sanqiao and Jiang Xingge had in “Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt” is “pairing up, having fun day and night, being dreamlike”. Her love could not last more than a year and a half of parting, let alone the real severe test of life. She and Chen Shang were also “love and stick to each other like glue, no less than a married couple”, but Chen Shang’s death had not left any wound in her hear, and it’s not accidental. When Wang Sanqiao was abandoned, she killed herself. After being saved, her mother advised her: “A girl still in your twenties, you are a flower not in full blossom. How can you do this? Let alone 6

Ruan’s Repaying the Unjust Debts Three Times in Xianyun Nunnery, also named The Story of Rings, included in Rain Window Collection. Qingping Hill Hall Vernacular Stories,carved version in Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. It is different from Clear Words only for a few words. The words quoted in this story are missing from Rain Window Collection, which should be added in the Longqing Wanli period.

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your husband might change his mind of having you back. Even if he divorces you, someone else will want you. You can still remarry and have a good life.” This is just a pragmatism marriage view of the people at the bottom of society. Many love works in Three Enlightenment only emphasize “young men and girls are equally erotic”, which is no better than the formula of talented scholars matching beautiful women. Sometimes the specific description of love is mixed with “dimming”, which is vulgar and frivolous, and has low taste. Therefore, a considerable part of the works about men and women relationships in Three Enlightenment are not worthy of being treated as love, and even fewer works are with an anti ethics spirit. Bai Yuniang Suffers for her Husband focuses on the narrow circle of personal destiny, and the author has ignored the destruction of her country; in Cai Ruihong’s Revenge for Humiliation, Cai Ruihong finally succumbs to the ethics and commits suicide; Song Xiaoguan’s Reunion, attributing the happy ending of love to Buddhism and promoting superstition; Jin Yunu Beating the Lovelorn, which is a story of a women getting back to be with the murderer just proves her loyalty for one man. Li Xiuqing’s Brotherhood with Huang Zhennv, Huang Zhennv dressed as a man did not dare to marry her regular confidant, but to another man. Only after she married did she know that he was not the right man. She had poor thoughts and could not resist conventional ethics. All of these performances were related to the concept of love and marriage of city dwellers at that time. There are about 20 novels about historical figures (including literati) in Three Enlightenment, accounting for one sixth of the whole book. The characteristics of them is they are often not based on historical records, but on legends; they do not write or write less about the “personality” of these characters, but write about their private lives. In a word, they do not intend to write historical novels. As far as the modern meaning of “novel” is concerned, it is the natural progress of classical novels. For example, “Zhao Taizu’s Seeing Jingniang Off ” and “Tang Jieyuan’s Marriage”, as long as the names of the protagonists are changed, no one can see that they are related to historical figures. In Shen Xiaoxia’s Practice of Memorial on Sending Out the Troops, the story of Shen Lian’s being framed by Yan Song, a traitor, for his straightforward admonition, is the same as the story of Shen Lian in the History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 2nd The main part of the novel, that is, the story of Shen Li (Xiaoxia), the eldest son of Shen Lian, and Wenshu, his concubine, is fictitious. In this struggle of loyalty and treachery within the ruling class, apart from Wen Shu, there are also minor characters as Jia Shi and the jailer standing on the side of Shen Lian’s father and son. Even under such a dark regime of evil ministers, the progressive force they represent is powerful, which makes the significance of the novel go beyond the scope of the internal contradictions of the ruling class. In the novel, the burden of struggle is placed on the despised concubine, and she is greatly praised, which is also a betrayal of the idea that men are superior to women at that time. Liu Fang and Li Xiuqing in “Liu Xiaoguan’s Male and Female Brothers” and “Li Xiuqing’s Brotherhood with Huang Zhennv” both play the roles of made up males. Although the achievements of the above novels are different, they are consistent in their democratic ideas against women’s inferiority to men.

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There are about 15 public cases and 15 religious ghost and God novels in Three Enlightenment. The public case novel was to satisfy the curiosity of the citizens. The eulogy of the work to the honest officials conceals their slight exposure to dark society and corrupt officials, more of a whitewash than a criticizism. The artistic skills of the Ming Dynasty’s public case novels are not as good as those of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, such as Four Robinhood of Song, and Joke of Fifteen String of Coins Leading to Disaster. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, religion became popular, such as Taoism in Jiajing and Buddhism in Wanli. The decadent ruling class not only used them for self anesthesia, but also used them to make the working people’s attention shift from reality to the next life when they felt that their ruling position was in danger, so as to dispel their fighting spirit. Although the legends of preaching the power of Taoism, such as 7 Trials of Zhang Daoling to Zhao Sheng and Iron Tree Surrendered Demon in Jingyang Palace, were earlier, they were widely popular in the Ming Dynasty, which obviously related to this. In terms of art, the excellent works in Three Enlightenment, such as Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt, Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger, Oil Seller Owes the Beauty, Shen Xiaoxia’s Practice of Memorial on Sending Out the Troops, are popular with their intricate plots, simple description of mind and distinct characters. Compared with the previous novels, the description of mind in Three Enlightenment is particularly praise worthy. The vernacular novel adapted from the classical Chinese Pearl Shirt is refreshing enough only with mind description. In western novels, the description of characters’ personalities has always been valued. With the development of modern experimental psychology, mind description has become an important means of characterization. In the Chinese novels of late Ming Dynasty, due to the lack of traditional psychological descriptions in history, the application of this technique is more noticeable. San Qiao’er’s encounter with Chen Shang from Xin’an, which made the novel unconventional, is largely due to the unfolding of psychological descriptions: Believing the words of the fortune teller, San Qiao’er was obsessed with her husband’s coming back. From then on, she often went to the front room and looked around behind the curtain...seeing a handsome young man, in the same clothes Jiang Xingge was wearing before. San Qiao’er saw from afar, taking him as her husband and opened the curtain to have a closer look. Chen Dalang looked up and saw a young beautiful woman upstairs. He couldn’t turn his eyes away. He was very much attracted and gave a hint with his eyes on what was upstairs. Actually both of them were mistaken. San Qiao’er felt ashamed for mistaking him as her husband and quickly closed the window. She ran to the house behind, sitting on the edge of the bed, and her heart was beating fast.

Unlike western novels, which describe the mind with a lot of comments, this description is the Chinese style, vivid and simple, one more stroke would be redundant. Another example is that in Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger, Du Shi Niang’s psychological transformation from love to hate seems somewhat abrupt as the description is too simple, but to some extent, it is in line with Du Shi Niang’s personality and the reality of her love experience with Li Jia. The original Love Forsaken and the adaptation both described the night when Li Sheng betrayed

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Du Shiniang. Not knowing the truth, Shiniang held Li Jia in her arms comforted him with gentle words. When she knows that she was betrayed by Li Jia, she let go of his hands and sneered. Another section has been added in the adaptation: the next day, Shiniang peeped at the gentleman happily, urged him to reply quickly and get enough silver for exchange as soon as possible.” “Peep” is the masterstroke of the adapters. Such a simple psychological description is beyond the imagination of Western novelists. Three Enlightenment is adapted and embellished by Feng Menglong, forming a fluent vernacular style. Oil Seller Owes the Beauty describes the psychological development of the heroine Xin Yaoqin, the enthusiasm and consideration of the oil seller in their first meeting, and the description of the procuress’s big mouth, which shows that vernacular literature had become mature. Here we can get a revelation: dying Ming and Qing ancient literature can no longer produce people like Sima Qian and Han Yu. It’s just a matter of lingering. In Three Enlightenment, there are some novels composed of more classical Chinese expressions such as Qian Sheren’s Poems in Swallow Tower (Convincing Arguments in Warning the World, Vol. 10th, Zhang Hao Meets Yingying in Suxiang Pavilion (Vol. 29th idem.) The Vicious Emperor of the Sui Dynasty in Lasting Words to Awaken the World, Vol. 24th. That’s because they were the old novels of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. In addition, some of them, such as Shen Xiaoxia’s Practice of Memorial on Sending Out the Troops and Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger, are all based on classical Chinese novels, and some classical Chinese elements are still retained even after the adaption. With many plots added and supplemented, they may be slightly different from the real vernacular novels, but they can no longer be attributed to classical Chinese novels.

11.3 Two Admonition Books, Motto for Behaviors and Other Imitating Vernacular Texts Written by Literati After Three Enlightenment, the vernacular short stories entered a prosperous period of literati’s imitating vernacular novels. Ling Mengchu’s Two Admonition Books has always been ranked together with Three Enlightenment in the history of novels, but they are not the same by nature: Three Enlightenment is mostly a collection of stories adapted by scholars, which belongs to the collective creation in general, and Two Admonition Books marks the maturity of scholars’ imitating vernacular novels, while Motto for Behaviors, which was from the similar period, can be regarded as the individual creation at the end of imitating vernacular novels due to their weakening feature. Ling Mengchu (1580–1644), style name Xuanfang and pseudonym Chucheng or Master Empty View, was born in Wucheng, Zhejiang Province. He was not successful in his imperial examination. He was more than 50 years old when he became an official as a deputy Gongsheng. In the early years of Chongzhen, he was appointed the county magistrate of Shanghai, and promoted to be the judicial officer in Xuzhou.

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Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty, he was enlisted by He Tengjiao and proposed 10 Strategies of Suppressing Bandits for the battle against the peasant uprising. When Li Zicheng’s uprising army approached Xuzhou, Ling Mengchu fought stubbornly with his back to the wall and finally died vomiting blood. In the early period of Ling Mengchu, he was a victim of that era. After entering the government, he was loyal to the court, which showed that he was still pursuing the style of scholar officials. In literature, Ling Mengchu was an important creator and disseminator of popular literature in the late Ming Dynasty, and the greatest effort he made was in vernacular short stories. Due to the influence and commercial interests of Three Enlightenment, he compiled Two Admonition Books. In addition, he had also written miscellaneous operas such as Beard Man, North Hongfu, and compiled an anthology of opera Three Sounds in the Southern Tune. Two Admonition Books is the abbreviation of The Amazing Tales I and The Amazing Tales II, each of which is composed of 40 volumes, and each volume is a novel. The Fulfillment of Eldest Sister’s Last Wish and Little Aunt’s Love in The Amazing Tales II, Vol. 23rd is the same as The Amazing Tales I, Vol. 23rd and Song Gongming’s Lantern Festival is a Zaju. Therefore, The Amazing Tales II has 38 novels, and there are 76 novels in total. Two Admonition Books has no old novels from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Some of the themes were from books. Ling Mengchu made some explanations from time to time. For example, in Tao’s Keeping Guest in Rain, Jiang’s Getting the Woman with a Word from The Amazing Tales I, Vol. 12th: “This story is from Zhu Zhishan’s West Wood Stories…The purpose of collecting it here is to disseminate it for future generations to enjoy.” It is said in the Story of Li Kerang’s Empty Letter and Liu Yuanpu’s Two Sons in Vol. 2: “This story is from Silence, now being compiled in this volume to advise the world for its good deed.” The stories based on the life of the Ming Dynasty are very eye-catching in Two Admonition Books. Taking The Amazing Tales I as an example, Vol. 31 has the note of Yongle year of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 83 has that of Jingtai year, Volumes of 1, 4, 11, 12 have those of the Chenghua year, Volume 10 has that of Zhengde year, Volume 3 has that of Jiajing year, and Volume 2 has that of Wanli year. The Amazing Tales I was completed in 1627, and The Amazing Tales II was completed in 1632. The original preface of Ling Mengchu’s The Amazing Tales I provides us with the basic situation of the development of imitating vernacular novels. He divided the development into three stages: the first stage are the vernacular novels of the Song and Yuan Dynasties: “There was a job like novelist in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, which was to gather events from households as entertainment to cater to the palace, the language was colloquial, and the meaning was to teach and show satire. Though not in a learned and elegant style, the stories did offer some moralities.” The second stage is Feng Menglong’s compilation and adaptation of the old Song and Yuan Dynasties: “In modern times, people lost their aspirations. A few ill-informed youngsters who are just learning to write would venture to slander the world and make false accusations, either being too absurd to be believed, or too obscene to be read. Their works are popular and well sold, which really makes learned people worry. There should be strict laws to have them banned. Clear Words to Illustrate the World compiled by Longzi (Feng Menglong) is quite elegant, well organized,

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free of current corruption, and the old novels of the Song and Yuan Dynasties are also included. “The third stage is the creation of the scholars’ imitating vernacular novels: All people saw how popular it was (Three Enlightenment), and they tried to explore other stories. Unfortunately the one or two remaining (the old novels of the Song and Yuan Dynasties) were not worth restoring. In this situation, some old and new anecdotes were pieced together into novels for entertainment like storytelling or acting…” The Amazing Tales II Foreword said that the appearance of the sequel was due to the fact that “the book sellers made a success from it (The Amazing Tales I) and here is another try”. From Ling’s statement, we can see that from the old novels of the Song and Yuan Dynasties to the Imitating vernacular novels by the literati, the participation of literati made the vernacular short novels gradually move towards social reality with highlights of enlightenment. They were gradually recognized by the mainstream culture, and their popularity among the public brought considerable commercial profits to the bookstores, all of which are the direct reasons for the prosperity of imitating vernacular novels. Ling Mengchu paid special attention to enlightenment, which was discussed in two of the five articles in The Amazing Tales I. Ordinary Cases and The Amazing Tales II Foreword. However, this is not entirely the case. When it comes to “morality” and “exhortation”, sometimes it’s just a facade. It is said in the Foreword: “Upon hearing one or two strange events from recorded ancient or modern times, I can remodel them into novels, offering them as entertainment in conversation. It might be no more than relaxation.” Hermit in Sleeping Town said in the Preface for The Amazing Tales II: “Master of Empty View is a strange man, who has strange writings and strange experiences. As his talent is restrained, he comes up with the ideas of legend and then puts them down as stories…” If we read between the lines, we will not be surprised by the coexistence of both sharp and vulgar ideas in Two Admonition Books. Ling Mengchu’s failure in the imperial examination and career experiences are the basis for his production of Two Admonition Books, especially the sharp works in The Amazing Tales I. On the other hand, the vulgar side shows that the author was unable to be free from outdated ideology. The Amazing Tales II was made by collecting the “Bailiang residual materials and Wuchang leftover bamboo” (The Amazing Tales II Foreword) of The Amazing Tales I due to the commercial purpose of the bookstores. Therefore, The Amazing Tales II is not as good as the The Amazing Tales I. As far as Three Enlightenment and Two Admonition Books are concerned, the latter is not as good as the former, especially those old Song and Yuan novels in the former. But, as a collection of fiction based on personal creation, the Two Admonition Books has its own merits. The description of commercial and economic activities of the Ming Dynasty in The Amazing Tales I is much more vivid than Three Enlightenment. The most acclaimed one is the first story, Good Luck in Dongting, Pearl Found Under the Shell. This novel vividly expresses people’s desire for money through business adventures. The commercial exchange with overseas trading during the Ming Dynasty in the novel is an early reflection of ancient foreign trade, but like Feng Menglong, Ling Mengchu couldn’t give a correct explanation for Wen Ruoxu’s becoming rich. What he showed us is a legendary story, which makes people admire and believe that wealth

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is brought on by success completely, and that personal effort is meaningless. This might be the origin of Li Ruzhen’s The Marriage of Flowers in the Mirror in the Qing Dynasty, which is a long story describing overseas business with more complicated fiction and more bizarre plots. The ridicule in The Amazing Tales I to the officialdom and hypocritical scholars is quite spicy. General Wu Paid for the Meal, Chen Dalang’s Meeting of the Three in Volume 8 narrates the story of Chen Dalang’s association with the bandit Long Beard out of curiosity. It openly admires the bandits’ righteousness and satirizing “thieves in decent clothes”. It is said at the beginning of the poem, “I’ve been surprised that there are so many thieves among the upper class, who knows that there are heroes among thieves.” Then he said: “where in the world are there no robbers? If there is a first-class official who deceives the king and exploits the people, though with high status and wealth, isn’t he a thief? There is the prince type that relies on the power of his father and brother to cheat the villagers, to bribe, to take bribes and do everything corrupt. The people dare not complain about the injustice and inquire about the case. Are they not thieves? Another is the scholarly type, who gathers friends, controls the government, interferes with lawsuits, and breaks apart peoples families, aren’t they thieves? It’s only about official scholars, let alone the businessmen and staff in public sectors… Not even as good as the people in Water Margin, who always call themselves heroes, but want to earn fame among heroes of the greenwood. Among robin hoods, some are too impoverish to survive, some killed people out of righteousness, some lost favor of the imperial court and tried to socialized here. Though mostly villains, there are also some who support justice and neglect money.” At the end, he said, “why should the Confucian prevail over the green forest?” Although these poems and theories reflect the author’s consistent attitude against peasant uprising, it is also poignant to compare the officials, the powerful, and the scholar to the thieves. Evil Boatman and Cruel Servant in Volume 11 severely condemns despicable officials: “Many kind people are punished in prison and the innocent are wronged in law suits. Here is a message to all the corrupt officials, retribution can be close in sight and can reach far to their descendants.” Maybe due to his personal feelings, Ling Mengchu’s lashing out on the imperial examination system and his criticism to the social situation were very impressive. Scholar Han’s Lucky Marriage, Prefect Wu’s Favor for the Talent in The Amazing Tales I Vol. 10th describes a intricate marriage before the poor scholar Han Ziwen’s success. The introduction said: “Now it is a snobbish world. Once a person becomes a provincial graduate, or Jinshi, someone would propose to his daughter if he has a daughter, and have the daughter marry his son if he has a son.” The extensive influence of the imperial examination then is well expressed here. The story tells that Han Ziwen was poor and had a fiancee. His future father-in-law would not marry out his daughter unless he gets first place in the examination, but he met the greedy examiner Master Liang who preys on money from imperial examinations. Master Liang is an illiterate, greedy and flattering person. He is scolded by all the people in Hangzhou, Jiazhou and Huzhou areas where he supervised the examinations. Due to his inability to flatter the examiners, Han Ziwen only got third place even with his excellent writings that everyone admired. The novel sends out such an

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exclamation: “high talent lives poor, mediocre lives well.” Han’s experience is not a unique case. The Boudoir Heart, the Winning Banner in Volume 29 tells the marriage story of Zhang Youqian and Luo Xixi, a couple of childhood sweethearts. Their fate was also controlled by the imperial examination. It is said in the Introduction: “What is a good picture in the world? nothing but the rank of the exam. Look at the change of people’s feelings, nothing is more important than the hard work of reading!” Then it praised the advantages of recommending talents before the Han Dynasty, and said that even though the Tang and Song Dynasties paid attention to the imperial examination, they were still fair. That is to say, in the early Ming Dynasty, the famous ministers did not only come from first place in the imperial examinations, but then it switched to the criticism of the reality directly: Until recently, it has become more and more important. People who never attended the imperial examination are not allowed to be in power. This is the strangest thing in the real world. The humble can be noble, the poor can be rich, the inextricable feuds can be solved, the extremely dangerous roads can be leveled, and the shameless things can be simply covered by a bed of brocade.

This is the Chinese Ming Dynasty version of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, only by changing Shakespeare’s “gold” into the imperial examination. The way one is treated by the world depends not only on one’s wealth, but also on the imperial examination, which can not only bring wealth, but also the dignity of the rich. Being wealthy and noble, was the envy and pursuit of the people at that time. The imperial examination inevitably went to the alienation of human nature, infiltrated into the whole social life, and affected people’s value judgment. The depth of Two Admonition Books in this aspect exceeded Three Enlightenment. In the literary works of the Ming Dynasty, there are few critics of the disadvantages of imperial examinations. However, too much discussion dilutes the detailed description and characterization that should have been done more, which is a common defect of Two Admonition Books. Ling Mengchu’s views on women’s issues are quite democratic. It is commented in Li Gongzuo’s Interpretation of Dream, Xie Xiaoe’s Capture of Thieves from The Amazing Tales I, Vol. 19th “a wise woman is better than a man”. The Great Confucian Fulfills the Aspiration, the Heroine being Tortured for Honor in The Amazing Tales II, Vol. 12th, admires the prostitutes’ righteousness is “comparable to the ancient ethics of righteous knights”, and even won the emperor’s appreciation and sympathy. Ling Mengchu, after all, was a scholar whose thoughts were not advanced at that time. His consciousness of exhortation was reflected in his works, which were full of superstitions as karma. As for ghosts and grotesques, there are also more than he admitted. His explicit pornographic description is also quite different from his claim of “never making a dirty mouth, demoralizing and devitalizing” (The Amazing Tales I. Ordinary Cases). These contents with low style are not only the expression of corruption, but also the inevitable result of the author’s lack of criticism on the citizens’ backward consciousness. As imitating vernacular novels, there are two praiseworthy aspects in the art of Two Admonition Books:

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One is to add a casual touch at a certain place, which can trigger the readers’ perception of potential information. There are two good examples in The Amazing Tales I. One is Story of Li Kerang’s Empty Letter and Liu Yuanpu’s Two Son, and the other is Gu Axiu’s Love of Sandalwood, Cui Junchen’s Meeting by the Lotus Screen. These two works are all about the story of the family separation of victims, the rescue from the good people and finally the reunion. Liu Yuanpu sheltered the wife and orphan son of Li Kerang, a new scholar, and raised the orphan till he was an adult. After all, Liu Yuanpu deliberately broke the story in front of the public, so the mother and son “cried and thanked” before everyone, and the crowd “was very amazed”. In the next story, it is said that couple Cui Junchen and Wang took their revenge with the help of Gao Gong, the imperial historian. Afterwards, Gao Gong invited the family members to reunite Cui Junchen and Wang in public. “The couple cried to express their gratitude to Gao Gong, and all the people in the audience cried and praised Gao Gong’s virtue, which is rare in both ancient and modern times”. It seems to be an inadvertent description, but it makes people feel that whose who did justice were actually for their own honor. Their actions have made people completely unable to feel justice. This is the dissimilation of justice with the pursuit of profit in the late Ming Dynasty, which shows the average people’s psychology of haggling over each other. If they do good deeds, they need to get a good reputation even though they don’t expect a return. Secondly, the psychology of the characters in a specific situation is fully described, so that the readers can feel the breath of the characters from the lines. In The Amazing Tales II, Vol. 9th, Rash Guy Broke the New Couple, Peng Meixiang Recognizes the Jade Toad, it is written that Sumei and Fengsheng are secretly engaged. The whole process intersects with an intricate plot and psychological descriptions, which shows the complexities of the characters’ inner activities: “Feng indulged himself in dating and while living in the study, he just wishes spending all his time making…. There was Sumei, who was also excited. She was like a child playing with fire crackers, with love and fear.” A metaphor vividly conveys the feelings of the first tryst of a girl in a boudoir. Shortly after the meeting, the Dou Shangwen brothers suddenly came and took Fengsheng away by force. The novel then describes the psychological activities of Sumei in detail, showing a high- level art of white drawing.

In addition, for an imitating vernacular novel, poetry is also an indispensable part of Two Admonition Books. Although the poetry of Two Admonition Books is not brilliant, there are many new rules, which are different from the old verses. Ling Mengchu said: “Poetry and other categories in the novel are called Garlic Cheese. The strong part comes from the new structure, and some of them adopt the old one. They take the current situation and the old one of novelists. Don’t be afraid of plagiarism.” (The Amazing Tales I. Ordinary Cases) This is basically in line with the reality of the work. Two Admonition Books has a lot more introductions than other works, not one or two, but many. For example, The Amazing Tales II, Vol. 4th, takes Praise as the outline, which is followed by nine consecutive introductions, before entering into the formal text. Some of them are quite long and almost equal to the formal text, such as The Amazing Tales I, Vol. 8th and The Amazing Tales II, Vol. 17th. From the perspective of the structural art of short stories, the expansion of introduction is not necessarily progress. In terms of the origin of the subject matter and the weakening of the imitative features of novles, Motto for Behaviors can be regarded as a vernacular short story created by the literati. There are 40 chapters in total. Each chapter is a short story. Before the chapter, there is a preface, sub-preface, introduction, lead-in and inscription by the Owner of Cuiyu Pavilion (Lu Yunlong). At the end of the chapter, there are general comments, eyebrow comments and sometimes double-line notes. Each

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chapter has the signature of Qiantang Lu Ren (Long Junyi). There are words such as “Created”, “Compiled”, “Made” and “Edited”. In fact, they all mean “Wrote”. Lu Yunlong, the owner of Cuiyu Pavilion, whose style name is Yuhou, a native of Qiantang, Zhejiang Province, was born in 1587 (Wanli 15th year), and died in 1666 (Kangxi 5th year).7 According to what he said about “my brother’s pen” in Motto for Behaviors. Preface, it can be seen that Lu Renlong was his brother, other information was unknown. Some of the chapters of Motto for Behaviors begin with “My dynasty”, probably originated from the stories circulated at that time. Some point out that the story is based on the biography of the people of the same dynasty. For example, in Chapter 2, “Biography written for Zhang Xiaolian in Wu County by his wife Gao Qiyi”, “This story can coexist with Biography of Zhang Xiaolian”; in Chapter 6, “Historian Yang Shengan wrote him the memorial biography”; in Chapter 9, “Wang Yuan has a biography, which is similar to this”; in Chapter 16, “Judge Li Nanzhou wrote the memorial biography for him” and “Historian Yang Shengan wrote him another biography”. The title of the novel takes the meaning of “motto of the world” (the end of the first chapter), “Role model” (lead-in of the third chapter). The so-called “model” is nothing more than loyalty, filial piety, brotherhood, constancy, righteousness and martyrdom; what the novel denounces is adultery, prostitution, theft, hegemony, drunkenness, lust, wealth and Qi. It is also filled with the superstition of karma. Those contents are clear by turning on the pages. From Three Enlightenment, Two Admonition Books to Motto for Behaviors, the law of late comers becoming the first has not been verified, but rather on the contrary. To a large extent, this is because there are many old stories for generations accumulated in Three Enlightenment. There are also some well written chapters and fragments in Motto for Behaviors. In the Ming Dynasty, tcorruption was getting worse and worse. The peasants living on the land were displaced, without being able to live and work in peace. In Chapter 9 Away from Villain, Dream of Filial Piety for the Son, the author analyzed the causes of this situation, including bad years, bad government, bad local officials, the third kind of damage was especially severe. Wang Xi, the protagonist of the story, was in such a situation that he left for a far away place, being separated from his family. The novel points out that the common people’s abandonment of farmland were for seeking of profits nor opportunities. The theme of the third volume of The Nodding of the Stone is the same as that of this. The story can be seen in Li Zhi’s Sequel of the Collection and Biography of Wang Yuan in The History of the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 297th, which should also be the shared origin of the story in Motto for Behaviors, with only a slight difference. “Truth Revealed, Love Found” in The Amazing Tales II, Vol. 29th and “Jiang Lang’s Rematching by the Fox” in Motto for Behaviors, Vol. 38th had shared them with different styles in writing, from which we can see the authors’ different artistic renderings. The Amazing Tales II said that this happened in “the Jiashen period of Emperor Tianshun’s reign”, and that “this story was handed down by the old man of the capital, formerly known as Three Grass Bundles of the Fox. Motto for Behaviors 7

Hu Lianyu: Biography of Lu Yunlong, Study on Ming and Qing Novels, (3), 2000.

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said: “This was not sensational, but recorded in some writings.” The so called old man of the capital, is just the old scripts of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and actually from the storytelling of the early Ming Dynasty. The so-called “some writings” in “Motto for Behaviors” refers to “Romance Dabie Fox”, and one in The Amazing Tales II may be based on storytelling. The heroines of the two novels have different identities. In The Amazing Tales II, Yunrong is a girl with some status, who lives in an inner boudoir; in Motto for Behaviors, the heroine is a shopkeeper, who goes in and out of the shop. This shows the different ideas with the same love story. In the first story, the couple have different status. Their love shows the idea of equality. In the latter story, the couple are equal in identity, and it is filled with vivid descriptions of the love of average people. Both novels describe the first meeting of the hero and the heroine. Lu Renlong’s description of the scene is simple and vivid: “When Jiang meets (Wenji), he was attracted by her and came up to bow. Wenji returned with a bending courtesy. They looked at each other and were both filled with chemistry.” In Ling Mengchu’s version, he made Yunrong and Jiang Sheng look at each other from upstairs to downstairs, and to render their feelings from the perspective of a third person. It cost a lot of words, not as good as letting the hero and heroine perform directly. The plots of the two novels are roughly the same, and the detailed description of Motto for Behaviors is richer. For example, when the fox spirit saw Jiang Rixiu’s obsession with Wenji, “she picked up a skeleton in the mountain, put it on his head, and bowed to the north several times, as if she were a woman, a beauty by nature.” These are the detailed descriptions that Ling Mengchu doesn’t have, so the writing is less juicy. Another example is the fox tryst. Lu Renlong’s ghost Wenji asks Jiang to make an oath, which shows the cunning of the fox spirit. This is also what Ling Mengchu missed, which makes his image portrayal rather rough. West Lake (II) took the West Lake as the background of the story. Since it is (II), there should be (I). In Volume 17, Liu Bowen Recommended Talent to Zhezhong says Liu Chengxin’s Assistance of Royal Mission in West Lake (I) probably mentioned this. It can be seen that there used to be West Lake (I), but it has not been found so far. There were many lost novels at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and West Lake (I) may have been lost. The author was Zhou Ji (Qingyuan) of Wulin (Hangzhou). As for Zhou Ji, Hu Haishi’s Preface to the West Lake (II) said: “He is talented and broadminded. He likes to talk about the past and the present, but his talent never has never been recognized and he suffered from poverty.” The author described himself as, “I am too poor to host guests…to hang about with seniors… not willing to accept this, but still being punished by outrageous fortune and being insulted by creatures out of no reasons. I can only look at the sky and sigh, getting in the stream and scream.” He is also said to be the writer of West Lake (II), which is “an only option to borrow others’ wine, drink to enhance one’s own spirit, by means of writing novels”. This preface shows that since Sima Qian, there had been a great transformation from the orthodox to vulgar literature in the literary works of the literati, which could also be one of the factors for the prosperity of the literati vernacular short stories. The main content of this novel is to persuade the world, praise the saints, and express the anger of loneliness. Persuading the world is a common feature of vernacular novels, while praising saints means praising the monarch in the early Ming Dynasty, such as “Lord

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Hongwu”, so as to show the dissatisfaction with reality subtly. The work also exposes and criticizes all kinds of social maladies, from the corruption of the Emperor and the court to the severe poverty of the common people. The most representative of the ideological depth of this novel is Volume 20, Smart Prostitute Helps Her Man for Fame. This work tells the story of prostitute Cao Miaogo who was sure that “nowadays people who wear gauze hats ask for extra money”, so Wu Erzhi, a student who was good at gambling, used gambling techniques to trap and collect money and bribe officials with the gold and silver treasures he had cheated to recieve. He succeeded in the manipulation, and finally became Jinshi. Cao Miaogo’s method of “helping her man for fame” revealed the absurdity of the imperial examination system. In the novel, Cao Miaogo also compared the brothel procuress with the corrupt officials and called them “hypocritical thieves.” there were many hypocritical thieves, and they lived in a world of money all the time. At the sight of “money”, they would be soft and could not straighten up. It’s just like the greedy old witch playing all the tricks for money. They would be smiling from ear to ear if there is money, and pucker the mouth if there is no money. Nowadays ‘Saint’ is an alien word. The ancient ethics as practiced 30 years ago no longer work. Nothing works except for money,…” It’s truly an eloquence direct swearing! In the late Ming Dynasty, the more famous collections of vernacular short stories included The Nodding of the Stone by Silly Man of Nature with preface written by Feng Menglong, Drunken Awakening Stone compiled by Crazy Man of Donglu, Quarrelsome Lovers by West Lake Fisherman (Happy Spectacle, Indulgence), A Mandarin Duck Needle by Huayang Leisure Man.

11.4 The Novelettes of Erotic in Common Books In the late Ming Dynasty, there emerged a number of medium-sized erotic novels with the theme of talents and beauties, which seemed to come out abruptly but did not last. The first section of this chapter has defined the nature of these novels. They were among various popular books, according to Sun Kaidi’s “A Bibliography of Novels Seen in Tokyo, Japan”: 1.

2.

3.

In Wanli 48th year (1620) Ten Biographies of Idle Erotic Record recorded eight stories like “Love Collection”, “Three Miracles”, “Adventure of Destiny”, “Biography of Jiao Hong “and “Biography of Three Wonders” (i.e. Wusheng’s Beauty Hunting), which are also found in Spring in Embroidery Valley. In Wanli 15th year (1587), National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance with Xie Tingliang’s preface collected seven stories, including “Dragons of Orchid Pool Record”, “Liu Sheng’s Lotus Seeking”, “Beauty Hunting”, “Three Miracles of Flora”, “Adventure of Destiny”, “Record of Red Plum in Ancient Hangzhou”, “Love Collection”, which are also found in “Spring in Embroidery Valley”. Wanli version published six volumes of Love Anecdotes, which are also divided into two parts. The genre is similar to Spring in Embroidery Valley. Among them,

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4.

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four stories are found in Spring in Embroidery Valley, such as “Love Collection, Three Miracles of Baisheng, Biography of Lotus Seeking and Adventure of Destiny”. In the Ming Dynasty, ten volumes of Yanju Notes were re engraved and added. The preface was written by He Daliu and is divided into two parts. Among them, six stories are found in “Spring in Embroidery Valley, such as Adventure of Destiny, Love Collection”, “Three Miracles of Flora”, Furnace Warming of Jiao Hong and “Record of Red Plum in Ancient Hangzhou”.

It can be seen from the contents of the above that this kind of book follows each others’ footsteps by printing the remodels. The booksellers only pursued profits, and the quality of compilation and printing was very poor. In Liu Qiqing’s River Tower Entertainment, Li Yu’s The Beautiful Lady Yu: “When will there be no more autumn moon and spring flowers” was put under the name of Liu Yong, which shows the editor’s disqualification. All the contents are similar. The selected works are not all excellent works, but it shows that they were once popular. If there is still some significance from a historical perspective, it is not how smart the selections are, but that they have preserved some scripts and other literary history materials that had considerable influence at that time, which can be used for reference by researchers. These novels may took shape in the hands of literati who are similar to literati of the Book Society, or the authors may be between storytellers and literati. Novels were despised by the orthodox culture then, the literati were ashamed to admit their works, and the booksellers did not care much about the authors. As a result, like many vernacular books, the names and lives of the authors of these novellas are difficult to ascertain. The reason why we call these novels erotic novels is that they are based on talents and beauties. Polygamy and obscenity are the two most important characteristics. Indulging in the amorous feelings of talented people and beauties, happy and sad, the ending is always the golden list of talented people, a polygamous reunion. Almost all of them are almost obscene, but they are not pornographic. They are not love novels either. Love and eroticism should be different. Most of these works are of erotic nature, with the difference in extent. Next, we will have some discussions on the most popular books that have been preserved works with higher achievements. There are ten volumes of National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance. Originally, it was divided into two levels, the upper level was divided into 12 categories, with 15 short stories and and legends, and the rest were poems, songs and Fu, proposals, reports, and anecdotes; the lower level was compiled with seven novellas, the most valuable part of the book. The book is edited by Wu Jing, in his pseudonym of Golden Touch Son. The preface was written by Xie Youke, in his pseudonym of Nine Purple Mountaineer, in Wanli 15th year (1587). It is said in the preface: “The book is named National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance to indicate it is precious..” The current version of the book, in addition to the reprint of Wan Quan Pavilion publisher (1597), also has the Guangqi Hall version, Yishan Hall version and Tongde Hall version in the Qing Dynasty, which shows its popularity.

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National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance and Spring in Embroidery Valley are most closely related. There are 12 volumes in this book. It was compiled by Northern Innocent Mind of Yang Luochi and revised by Master Shide Hall of Jian Ye and it is the only copy. The title of the book should be as Hermit Lu Lian’s “Preface” said, it means “the prosperity of the Embroidery Valley, the beauty of the spring”. As for the publication time, it is indicated in Shen Shihang’s “Memorial for the Grace of His Majesty” in Volume 12, that “one rank takes six years of tests”. According to the History of the Ming Dynasty Ministers’ Chronology, in Wanli 6th year, Shen Shixing became the Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Officials and also the secretary of Dongge Academy. In June of the tenth year, he became the instructor for the prince of Jin, the first-class rank official The rule of “six years of tests” should be in Wanli 15th year (1587), which is the upper limit of the book’s age; and Purple Flute, which was included in the book, was published at the latest in Wanli 24th year. However the actual publication time should be much later, though its current version is earlier than National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance. Otherwise it is difficult to explain why it overlaps with National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance so much. The most important novella in Spring in Embroidery Valley are the following 11 novellas: Volume 1 Wusheng’s Beauty Hunting, Volume 2 Dragons of Orchid Pool Record, Volume 3 Liu Sheng’s Lotus Seeking I, Volume 4 Liu Sheng’s Lotus Seeking II and Liu Qiqing’s River Tower Entertainment, Volume 5 Shen Houqing’s Story of Jiao Hong, Volume 6 Three Miracles of Bai Huangyuan, Volume 7 and Volume 8 Li Sheng’s Six Love Adventures, Volume 9 Love Adventures of Qi Sheng I, Volume 10 Love Adventures of Qi Sheng II and Record of Red Plum in Ancient Hangzhou, Volume 11 and Volume 12 Love Collection of Gu Fu. Of 11 stories, 7 of them overlap with National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance. The only one not found is Notes of Double Relations and Shen Houqing’s Story of Jiao Hong. The difference between them is the latter version is simpler with some deletions, such as the seven long paragraphs of poems in Dragons of Orchid Pool Record and Spring in Embroidery Valley, but in Spring in Embroidery Valley, there are some lines that are not found in National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance, that is, the conclusion of “Nine Generations of Hairpins and Tassels” on page 109 (The Complete Collection of Ancient Novels, same below): “Once wiping out the enemy, I can show my loyalty to His Majesty.” It can be considered that the two books are of the same edition. There are only two different sentences in the two books, that is, on page 124 of Spring in Embroidery Valley, “I also thought that Ji would take advantage of Chu’s ear”, and on page 18 of National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance, “I also thought Zhang Yi used business to take advantage of Chu’s ear”, both of which are understandable and have the same meaning. As with National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance, it can be seen that it is a popular book from the two-tier format, poor engraving and the collection of stories in Spring in Embroidery Valley (in addition to National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance, there are also Ten Romantic Fun, Notes of Yanju, Love Anecdotes, to name a few). The reduced interests from the public for the the previous classic works in the popular novels since Jiajing and Wanli years can be seen from the comparison between the

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southern opera Obeisance Moon Cabin (The Story of the Boudoir) and the novel Dragons of Orchid Pool. In the past, it was generally believed that the southern opera Obeisance Moon Cabin was based on Guan Hanqing’s drama of the same name. Southern opera and Zaju opera not only have the same entries, but also have the corresponding verses, such as the song in Act 1 [oil gourd] “it’s clear that the wind and rain urge people to leave their hometown” and the Act 3 [for scholar] “Are you the little devil ready to be in love?”. It makes sense to have the above assumption. However, Shide Hall version said that it was based on the “old Yandu edition” of “Book Mansion”. The works of “Book Mansion” are not dramas, but vernacular novels. That is to say, the story book of Beijing was distributed to Hangzhou and then adapted into southern operas. It doesn’t mention Guan Hanqing’s dramas at all. Due to the different systems of the two major operas in the north and south, it is understandable that the relationship between vernacular scripts and South opera is closer than that between South opera and Zaju. The “old Yandu edition” on which the Shide Hall edition was based had been lost, but it has not disappeared. Its greatly distorted and degenerated book is entitled Dragons of Orchid Pool Record, which is kept in Volume 1 of National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance published in Wanli 15th year. Spring in Embroidery Valley, published later, was titled the Complete Record for Dragons of Orchid Pool.8 In Episode 5 Death out of Loyalty in The Story of the Boudoir, which was composed of 60 pieces of music, it is said [red cotton coat]: “These foreign demons are funny. How can they fight against our army of three thousand loyal soldiers ?” Baiyun: “there are three thousand loyal troops under the General. Everyone is brave to fight at the front. When the treacherous minister comes, kill him with the sword.” This is a conversation with his subordinates before he left. Although there are differences among the southern operas, they all refer to the loyal army. The whole events in the drama happened in Jin Kingdom. “Up till now, the loyalty and filial piety is difficult to be built in the army,” it is said in Military Records in History of Jin, Vol. 4th, “when the army is mixed with other people, it is to bring disaster from the outside.” It can be seen that the whole play was based on a certain historical background, and is developed from a long-standing story. The wonderful parts of the opera, such as Episode 26 in Sad Encounter of Huanghua, and the Episode 32 Running to the Moon from the Boudoir, are all mediocre, and the new plots are cliches. Of the two couples with one military and one civil, there is only one couple left in the parallel interleaving in the opera, which shows how a good work was degraded under popular influences. Even this is not true in every case, Peony Pavilion is the only exception in upgrading the vernacular text Du Liniang’s Lust and Soul Return into a novel. In novels, it doesn’t make any sense by changing the names of two or three characters. Wang Ruilan, whose surname was changed into Huang was the grand daughter of Huang Qianshan, the Prime Minister of the Southern Song Dynasty. As the positive protagonist, the author added a notorious treacherous minister as her grandfather, without any particular purpose. It seems that the author might not know what kind of person Huang Qianshan was. The plot of 8

See the second volume of the book.

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the operas still follows the pattern of the love between gifted scholars and beauties, taking the number one scholar as a necessary condition for reunion. The main themes of the erotic novels in the late Ming Dynasty are the love affairs and the separation of the gifts and the beauties. Love cares about oneness, but beauty hunting is the opposite. In addition to Dragons of Orchid Pool and Shen Houqing’s Story of Jiao Hong, the protagonists of these novels have more than one sexual encounter, thus forming the basic structure of the novel. Qi Sheng in the Adventure of Destiny finally sets up twelve courtyards besides his wife’s house. Each courtyard house had a head, which was called “twelve hairpins at incense stand”. There were more than one hundred maidservants, who were called “beautiful hundred-flower screen” and “six courtyards by West Pool”. One court side house had two concubines and six maidservants. There are many characters in this novel, but the images are not clear enough. However, with many of sexual encounters, if there is anything to be praised, it is that the novel can organize and easily conclude within the limits of the chapters the most intricate plot and the most complicated relationship. In the novel, Qi Yudi’s love affair is used as the clue to unfold the story: Qi Sheng and the women met one after another when he was living at home or out to get away from disaster. Later, either for the family misfortune or being taken by the court as maids, or being moved to a distant place, all the women were rescued and taken care of by Qi Sheng when he became a high-ranked official. He met them by different coincidences and took them to retreat to his hometown, indulging himself in pleasure. The novel arranges complicated human affairs into three plots of meeting, separation, and reunion. It is written in an orderly and tortuous way, which provides a good model for the artistic structure of the novella. The story is set to a certain historical background, such as Qi Sheng’s ups and downs with the girls are closely related to Tie Mudie’er, the powerful minister who framed his subordinates. Tie Mudie’er, the emperor, the empress, Guanyin Bao and Zhao Mengfu are all real historical figures, which indicates certain social significance in the erotic stories. In the late Ming Dynasty, the first erotic novel was Jiao Hong Ji. With 20,000 words, the novel was collected into a variety of popular novels in the Ming Dynasty. The names were changed from Spring in Embroidery Valley to The Story of Jiao Hong, from Notes of Yanju to Furnace Warming of Jiao Hong, from Blooming Elegant Verses and National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance to Double Jiao Hong, from Romantic Adventures, a collection of classical note style novels, to Biography of Jiao Hong. All the texts are similar with little difference. Lin Jinyang’s additional edition and He Dalian’s edition of Notes of Yanju have few deletions. The novel is about a touching love tragedy. According to its imitated works in Jiajing and Wanli years and the discussion about it by the protagonist in this work, it is undoubtedly the earliest extant popular novella in classical Chinese, which has a profound impact on later similar novels and operas. There are different views about the author and the times of this novel. For example, Qiu Rucheng’s Preface to the Zaju of Jiao Hong said that “Numerous writers from the Song to Qing Dynasties wrote The Story of Jiao Hong”, while Guest of Qin Huai named the author as Li Xu of the Ming Dynasty in his Women’s History of Green Window. The spirit of Ming Dynasty is obvious.

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At least, this is a novel rewritten by the Ming people out of the hands of the Yuan people. The novel gets its name from the heroines Wang Jiaoniang and Fei Hong. The same is true for the names of Jin Ping Mei (Golden Lotus) and Ping Shan Leng Yan (Cold Swallow of Flat Mountain). In fact, Feihong is only a supporting role, far less than the degree of “double beauty”. Notes of Yanju was renamed Furnace Warming of Jiao Hong. However, there is not enough description about the plot of holding the furnace. The title is not consistent, at least not very consistent. It can be seen from this that if a novel is written by a single author, the existing book has been added, deleted and changed intentionally or unintentionally in the process of circulation and retouching, as if the work had not been completed. If the novel was not by a single author, its composition belongs to the collective creation from generations of accumulation, and its writers might not have done serious processing, or it is hard to understand why the novel was named The Story of Jiao Hong. Perhaps in another version, both Jiaoniang and Feihong were Shensheng’s “double beauties”. Feihong’s identity is said to be “the servant of the uncle”. She also said that she was “being envied by the uncle’s wife, so she didn’t get the favor of the uncle”. Another maid said clearly that “Feihong is the concubine of a judge”. Another saying goes “since the time when the uncle’s wife was more open, Feihong got the favor of the uncle.” If Fei Hong was just an average maid, it doesn’t make sense for Jiaoniang to say “Fei Hong is taking control”, “I’ve failed to win Feihong’s favor in today’s situation”. At the end of The Story of Jiao Hong, it is said, “When a man and a woman are living together, it is a great relationship, the bless of the two and the best wish from both”. Meanwhile it has another saying, “It’s never been easy to be virtuous since ancient time. I first feel sorry for the couple but also feel happy for them”, which shows obvious contradictions. However, the actual description has the positive attitude for the relationship between men and women, ascribing Jiaoniang’s death to the persecution of the power and sympathizing on the unfortunate destiny of Shen Sheng and her by the repeated sighing of “how painful it is !” Jiaoniang is a very unique artistic image. Beauty is just the common element of the heroine in the novels of gifted scholars and beautiful women. Her moving heart is full of fire-like passion, the courage to pursue love and a strong anti ethics spirit. The presentation of this character in the work is gradually unfolded from the outside to the inside. Jiaoniang fell in love with Shen Sheng at first sight, with a reserved attitude, which was not affectation, but a reasonable expression of her self-respected status as the woman of the judge. She has a clear understanding of the reality and foresees that it will not be easy for her to fall in love with Shen Sheng. Therefore, she vowed to “repay you with death” when hugging the furnace and taking an oath. Later, she took the initiative to ask Shen Sheng to have a tryst. Shen Sheng had some concerns and retreated. Only under her encouragement did he become firm. None of the later novellas had achieved such success in the description of the characters’ individuality. The Story of Jiao Hong shows the pursuit of love from young men and women and the tragedies of not having it realized. There is no explicit sex description in this novel, and love is its keynote. However, it has been regarded as a pornographic book for a long time in the process of its circulation, and it was repeatedly forbidden in the

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Qing Dynasty.9 Now some scholars also hold that it has opened the door to obscene novels, which is really an unfair statement. The Story of Jiao Hong should not be considered the initiator for the wanton description of flesh lust in similar novels of the late Ming Dynasty. In erotic novellas of the late Ming Dynasty, the rebellious spirit and tragic color contained in The Story of Jiao Hong, as well as the lingering sad love description were no longer so remarkable. For example, the word “love” in “Love Collection” was copied from The Story of Jiao Hong, which became the motivation for the protagonists Gu Sheng and Yu Niang to encourage each other when they bravely rebelled against the ethics. They eloped twice and finally got their parents’ understanding and had a happy ending, which made the oath similar to that of Jiaoniang lose its weight, and the strength of resistance was also dispelled. On the other hand, the stereotype of the hero’s family or even polygamous reunion after his success transformed the tragic nature of Jiao Hong into a commonplace comedy of erotic novels. The same plot, fuzzy characters, the same language and scenes, and a large number of poems inevitably make readers tired. It is definite that these kind of novels disappeared quickly.

11.5 The Influence of Later Classical Chinese Novels on the Creation of Imitating Vernacular Novels Since Qu You’s New Remarks by Oil Lamp, short stories in classical Chinese have been developing slowly, reviving in the late Ming Dynasty, providing new and rich creative materials for contemporary imitating vernacular novels, and promoting their development. There are three main categories of classical Chinese short stories in the late Ming Dynasty: one is the collection of literati, such as the collection of classical Chinese short stories Romantic Adventures compiled by Wang Shizhen, the other is the adaptation of literati, such as Feng Menglong’s History of Romance and A Survey on Ancient and Modern Anecdotes, the last is the personal creation of literati, such as Pearl Shirt and Love Forsaken in Song Maocheng’s Collection of Nine Flutes and Tao Fu’s Collection of Flower Shadows. The original version of Romantic Adventures has not been found. The extant one is the Ming collection of 40 Volumes and a sequel of 19 Volumes, with the title of Romantic Adventures Selected by Mr. Wang Yanzhou of Yuming Hall New Edition. At the beginning of the book, there is the Preface authored by Yuming Hermit of Tang Xianzu, the date is “three days after the Tiansun crossed the river in Wuwu year”. Wuwu was Wanli 46th year (1618). Tang Xianzu had died two years ago. This 9

Novels such as Liu Sheng’s Lotus Seeking, Beauty Hunting, Three Miracles, History of Passion, Five Colored Stones, Embroidered Couch mentioned The Story of Jiao Hong are not well received. It’s been on the list of forbidden novels of the Qing Dynasty. According to Li Mengsheng’s On Chinese Forbidden Novels, it is on the forbidden list of Jiangsu Province in Daoguang 18th year (1838), Zhejiang Province in Daoguang 24th year (1844), and Jiangsu Province in Tongzhi 7th year (1868). (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1994, p. 4).

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preface and the so-called “Yuming Hall selection” are obviously fake. In addition, there are 2 Volumes and 19 Volumes of the Ming Dynasty edition of “Yuming Hall Adaption and Commenting”. In addition, according to Wu Dazhen’s Completed Romantic Adventures and Ordinary Cases in the Ming Dynasty, “it’s said that they are famous Confucians in Shengguo (Yuan Dynasty), who had kept the copy for a long time. The first book on the shelf in Yanshan (Wang Shizhen) used to be hidden in the pillow.” It is credible to believe that Romantic Adventures was not created by Wang Shizhen, but not to believe that he simply reprinted the original edition of the famous Confucians of the Yuan Dynasty. It can be seen from the classification and collected works of Romantic Adventures that this was the editor’s leisure entertainment. The classification is tedious and the source is complex. However, the compiled stories, as the title indicated, can be summarized as “Gorgeous” and “Varied”. The former mainly refers to the love between men and women, focusing on five parts: tryst (such as The Story of Yingying, The Story of Jiao Hong), love of the underworld (such as The Story of of the Departing Soul, Jia Yunhua’s Returning Soul), the sleepwalking (such as Encountering by Wei Pond), the prostitutes (such as The Story of Huo Xiaoyu, The Story of Liwa), the ghosts (such as The Girl in Green, The Story of Golden Phoenix Hairpin), and the others are “varieties”. As a whole, this collection of classical Chinese novels is more “varied” than “gorgeous”, which is one of the sources for the themes of the imitating vernacular novels in the late Ming Dynasty. For example, the stories of Jin Hailing’s Death of Indulgence in Lasting Words to Awaken the World Vol. 29th and the two chapters of Jin Hailing’s Numerous Favors and Hailing in Romantic Adventures, Vol. 14th have some shared materials. History of Romance and A Survey on Ancient and Modern Anecdotes are mainly the compilation with a few creative works, but it is not easy to distinguish. The former one was compiled in 1620, Wanli 48th year. It is said in the book “Mei Zhihui, the brother of the Ancient Pavilion Society said in Preface for the Survey: “Yulong said: ‘If you are not good at writing, you can still enjoy yourself. I am neither knowledgeable nor ambitious. How dare I go into in depth study? A survey is good enough.’ “This shows that this novel was compiled for self entertainment, so the story is mostly based on jokes, but with a prudent attitude. When it first came out, there were few responses, and in the second edition, it was renamed Ancient and Modern Jokes. According to Li Yu’s Preface to the History of Ancient and Modern Jokes, it became a best seller. The compilation of History of Romance had gone through a long period of accumulation, and it came out about two years after A Survey. It is also known as Brief of Romance Category or Heavenly Treasure of Romance. There are more than 870 stories in total, with 24 categories. It is said in the “preface by Long Ziyou from Wu”: “The temptation was made to collect ancient and modern beautiful love stories, to preserve them for the future. Then some common stories were turned into love stories, private affairs turned to public, events of loyalty to the country were added with love anecdotes, but he was down and out, totally incapable of doing the compiling work. The External Historian Zhan Zhan took this opportunity for the completion of the work, which is indeed a wonderful thing! It was signed “Edited and Commented by The External Historian Zhan Zhan”. This can not be the reason

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to deny that this book was compiled by Feng Menglong. The influence of History of Romance on imitated vernacular novels was unique in classical Chinese novels of the Ming Dynasty. One third of the total stories in Three Enlightenment and Two Admonition Books were derived from the five novels. Song Maocheng (1569–1622) was the most outstanding short story writer of classical Chinese in the late Ming Dynasty. He was from Huating (now Shanghai), with the style names of Youqing, Zhiyuan, Ziyuan and pseudonym of Shuyi. His poems were appreciated by Tan Yuanchun of Jingling school. The Pearl Shirt in Collection of Nine Flutes (Additional Collection of Nine Flutes, Vol. 2nd) and Love Forsaken (Collection of Nine Flutes, Vol. 5th) were originally documentary, but they were written under the pretext of hearsay, later rewritten as the famous vernacular novel Jiang Xingge’s Pearl Shirt Regained in Three Enlightenment (Yuan Yuling’s adaptions of the legendary opera Pearl Shirt and Du Shiniang’s Sinking of Her Treasure Chest in Anger). Liu Dongshan’s Boasting Skills from The Amazing Tales I, Vol. 3rd was also adapted from Liu Dongshan (Additional Collection of Nine Flutes, Vol. 2nd). In addition to the above three novels, Loyal Lord Hai in Collection of Nine Flutes, Vol. 10th is also related to imitating vernacular novels. In the late Ming Dynasty, there were also some classical Chinese novels related to imitating vernacular novels. For example, Liu Xiaoguan’s Liu Xiaoguan’s Male and Female Brothers in Lasting Words to Awaken the World was adapted from Liu Fang’s Three Loyal Stories in Collection of Flower Shadows. There were also some scattered classical Chinese novels that had been compiled into various collections and became the basis for imitating stories. For example, Cai Yu’s The Story of Liaoyang Sea God had been compiled into the Ancient and Modern Sea Sayings, Guest helped, Spirit Showed from the Sea God in The Amazing Tales II was adapted from The Story of Liaoyang Sea God.

Chapter 12

The Apocalyptic Brilliance of Poem and Prose in the Ming Dynasty

In 1644, the Chongzhen reign was destroyed by internal and external turbulence. Nanming Court changed frequently, and the demise of the Ming Dynasty was irreversible. Although the heroes of anti Qing Dynasty were rising from all over the country staging a tragedy of martyrdom, their patriotic poems were not only a dignified stroke in the literary history of the Ming Dynasty, but also a treasure we should cherish. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were also some literati who lived in seclusion. The spiritual world and artistic achievements of their poems also had certain value in the literature of this period.

12.1 The Unique Beauty of Zhang Dai’s Essays Zhang Dai (1577–1684) was the most accomplished essayist in the late Ming Dynasty. He had another name of Weicheng, the style names of Zongzi, Shigong, and the pseudonyms of Pottery Hut and Butterfly Hut. He was from Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province) and his ancestral home was Mianzhu, Sichuan Province. Sometimes he also called himself a Shu Man or Ancient Sword. Zhang Dai’s family were Jinshi for three generations starting before his grandfather, while his father didn’t succeed in the imperial examination for a long time, the same was true for himself until his death. His poetry collections include Lang Huan Collection, The Dream Memory of Pottery Hut and The Night Boat. Growing up in the affluent area in the south of the Yangtze River and a family of wealth, Zhang Daiyang lived a playboy life style. He once described himself as, “Being a dandy, I’m very fond of luxury, fine houses, beautiful maids, pretty boys, fancy clothes, delicious food, horses, lanterns, operas, drums, antiques, flowers and

© Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_12

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birds, tea time entertainment, and I am also a lover of books and poetry…”1 This kind of self-report was more or less a joke. It can’t be taken seriously. Zhang Dai was once lofty. In the Snow View on Dragon Mountain (Zhang’s Poem Selections, Vol. 5th), he thought of “willing to acquire the view of the universe to free the world of its defects” upon seeing snow-covered field; he thought of “wishing to have the hands of official doctors to fill the world with vitality” upon seeing the miracles performed by doctor in helping the world (A Record of Qi Shipei’s Remedy for the Disease from Zhang’s Poem Selections, Vol. 3th). The failure of his imperial examination doomed his ambition of having an official career. Self Portrait Inscription is the summary of his life: “Fame is lost, wealth is like a dream, loyal officials are in pain, hoes are heavy, twenty years of writing is nothing but paper for jar covering. How can I be of any use?” (Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 5th). This self portrait and Epitaph for Myself mentioned above are just like Guan Hanqing’s famous Qing opera Unyielding to Age, which is full of anger by self mockery. Zhang Dai suffered great changes in Jiashen year at the age of 50. He took his family to the mountain and forest areas, turning himself from a gentleman who had never known the difficulties of farming into a poor farmer. “There was no tile on the top and no place to rest feet on the floor” (Zhong’er’s Helping in Cooking in Zhang’s Poem Selections, Vol. 2nd). His family with 20–30 members were always starving. However, he held himself with integrity in poems “rather starving than taking” (Calling for Children’s Return from Exam in Town in Zhang’s Poem Selections, Vol. 2nd), “don’t accept given food” and “integrity never goes to an end” (Seven Poems of the Poor in Zhang’s Poem Selections, Vol. 2nd), never wavering because of poverty. The corruption of politics in the late Ming Dynasty led to the degeneration of scholar’s ethos, while the sharp national contradictions in the late Ming Dynasty encouraged the integrity of scholar officials. Generous martyrdom and seclusion were two possible choices of the scholar bureaucrats at that time. The latter option seems to be more passive, but for Zhang Dai, who could not make contributions through an official career nor joined the army during turbulent times, a lot of courage was needed for him to make the move. He took Sima Qian, who tolerated the misery of life to strive for his aspiration, as an example to write the Book of Stone Case, and expressed his true feelings for his choice in his poems, such as Preface for Book of Stone Case, Preface for Dream Memory (Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 1st), and Reply to Book of Stone Case Written by Brother Yiru (Zhang’s Poem Selections, Vol. 3rd). Of Zhang Dai’s literary creation, he had the highest achievement in his essays. In fact, his poems are also well written. In his opinion, poetry and composition were originally integrated (Epilogue to the Ice and Snow Pondering, Vol. 1st from Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 1st). In his early years, he studied with Xu Wenchang (Wei). Later, he changed to Jingling School because his friends criticized him for his imitation of Xu. At last, he realized: “even if my writings have Wenchang’s style, people would say that it is only the duplication of Wenchang’s writings. What 1

For details, please refer to the Epitaph for Myself in Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 5th, Collection of Zhang Dai’s Writings, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1991, p. 294. Unless otherwise noted, all the poems quoted below are from this edition.

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value can be found in a duplicator?” (Preface to Zhu Ming Chao from Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 1st) He used the metaphors of transforming the fetus to change the face instead of the bone, and the grafting of flowers and trees. He aptly criticized the shortcomings of simulation instead of making changes (Preface to the Supplement of Lang Huan Collection). Finally, he established his own style by making his changes. He set the standard for poems as having “the spirit of ice and snow”, and said that “the number of words for poems are limited, but they can be full of spirit out of talent, or can be stinky Tofu out of the mediocre” (Ice and Snow Pondering, Vol. 1st from Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 1st). He added: “The ice and snow mean the bone or the spirit of a writing, so the ancients used jade to describe the bone and autumn dew to describe the spirit. They have done their best to elaborate it…The ancients evaluated poetry in terms of their spirit, classics, profoundness, vigor, loftiness, sharpness, all those are the standards.” It seems that the so-called “spirit of ice and snow” refers to the personality, vitality, style and artistic conception. Zhang Dai’s aesthetic pursuit is mainly presented with his essays. One of the characteristics of Zhang Dai’s essays is its symbolism that the subjective consciousness is contained in his artistic images. The natural scenery in his works is the counterpart of the subject’s mind, not only its objective existence. For example, Huangzhuo Mountain (Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 2nd) describes its mountain as “solid and upright, as brilliant as eyebrows”, but it can not be listed in the eight famous mountains of Yuecheng. It has been “left behind the town, with thousands of ravines and rocks, where few people have access”, and laments that “famous mountains and scenic spots are cast aside, being ignored by the villagers and common people, remaining unknown by the world”. “Mount Emei” (Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 1st) wrote the opposite situation: “There have been countless treasures that had been ignored by the mediocre. This mountain, born in the city, located in a busy area, is separated by a wall so that it is not revealed to the world, except for a few hard stones to be used. How pathetic! It has been recorded by Gan Bao that the mountain died, by Sang Qinzhi that the stone can walk, so when the mountain has spirit, how can they remain unknown? An example in case is the strange mountain in Dongwu. I would rather the mountain free itself of barriers by uprooting and flying away.” No matter ignored in an isolated area or abandoned in the noisy city, the mountain was no longer just part of nature, but the embodiment of the author’s disappointment of life, or even the author himself. It is another aesthetic feeling that Zhang Dai’s essays bring to people his simple and vivid description in creating unique artistic conception. The West Lake is the author’s spiritual home. The central image of the author’s homesickness is expressed in his Preface for Dream Seeking in West Lake: “Dreaming of the West Lake, it is like returning home. A dream as it is, it is also true.” According to Preface for Dream Memory of Pottery Hut: “In writing it, I have the feeling of walking on the old path, and seeing an old friend.” Before Zhang Dai, no one had ever written about the West Lake with such feeling and style with a combination of resentment and admiration, and presented the lake, mountain and scenery, urban customs, along with memories of beauty to the readers with a unique prospect. Snow View at the Lake Pavilion seems to solidify the static beauty of “sky, cloud, mountain and water, up and down

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white”, and the “shadow on the lake” of “a long line of dike, a pavilion is a dot, a boat a mustard, two or three seeds in the boat”.2 It is full of vigor and vitality, with the incomparable simple landscape painting and nimble artistic description in the essay realm. The West Lake on Mid-July describes the tranquility of West Lake in the middle of the night after a hectic day with a light touch: “the moon is like a mirror newly polished, the mountain is refreshed, the lake is restored… Sleeping in the vast extension of lotus, dreaming in fragrance” (Dream Memory of Pottery Hut, Vol. 7th). Is this poetic realm to express the author’s yearning for the West Lake, or to repent of the former “prosperous and gorgeous extravagance”? The answer is not important. The yearning for beauty has come into being in the readers’ mind. The artistic beauty of Zhang Dai’s essays undoubtedly comes from the beauty and conciseness of language and the expressiveness of writing. The essay is like a quatrain, but it’s beautiful and concise, which presents a miraculous realm. His writing is ethereal and reverie inspiration. Zhang Dai also had some argumentative essays, which are metaphorical, illustrative, using images when reasoning and critical to reality. For example, the Preface to the Night Voyage (Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 1st) uses the story of “two bookcases” about a monk and a young man sleeping on a night voyage. It satirizes the person who only has the written knowledge, but can’t even solve a simple real life problem. Preface to the History of the Tiger in Baiyue Mountain (Lang Huan Collection, Vol. 1st) said that the tiger had the “tiger way”, such as benevolence, righteousness, rites, wisdom and faith. Otherwise, it would not be tiger-like but beast-like. It’s not shameful for a tiger to be like a beast, because “tigers are also beasts”, while “today’s tigers are different…A tiger won’t reveal himself as a tiger, a beast won’t reveal himself as a beast, then a tiger would be disguised as people. It is shameful for people to be disguised as a tiger and a tiger to be disguised as people.” His writing is not only metaphoric, apposite, interesting, but also sharp and pungent.

12.2 The Elegy of Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun In the anti Qing wave launched upon the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, the scholars were an active group. Some of them held their righteousness calmly and sang elegantly, forming the climax of patriotic poetry in the late Ming Dynasty, among which Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun were undoubtedly outstanding representatives. Chen Zilong (1608–1647) was a close friend of Xia Yunyi, the father of Xia Wanchun, as well as a teacher and comrade in arms to Xia Wanchun. He was from Songjiang, Huating (now Shanghai), with the style names of Wozi and Maozhong, and pseudonyms of Yi Fu and Dazun. In 1637, in Chongzhen 10th year, he became Jinshi and was elected as section chief of the Supreme Court in Shaoxing, and later promoted to the Ministry of Military in the central government, but the Jiashen 2

See Dream Memory of Pottery Hut, Vol. 3rd, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, pp. 28–29.

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Incident occurred before the appointment. Zilong followed Prince Fu and became a patriot of the anti Qing Dynasty. At the beginning of Hongguang’s reign, he proposed a defense plan to Prince Fu, and suggested, “To be on top of riots, the leader must be a pioneer in order to restore order. If measures are to be taken after the invasion, passion would be lost and it is nothing more than peaceful acceptance.”3 Upon seeing that Nanming Dynasty was becoming increasingly corrupt, he asked to return home. After the fall of Nanjing, he retreated to the mountains and forests. Later, he took part in the anti Qing war many times. He ended being arrested for instigating the uprising of Taihu soldiers and died at the age of 39. Chen Zilong was a member of Retro Society and one of the founders of several other societies. At the beginning of its establishment, Retro Association was famous for intervening in politics, and several societies held the same purpose. After the Ming Dynasty, many of them participated in anti Qing salvation activities, and later died for their country. It is impossible for Chen Zilong, who had the political background of Retro Society, not to care about the world for long. His short retirement left little trace in his career. His personal experience of the pain of national subjugation, the act of national salvation and the final death for righteousness, as well as the many poems he wrote and his compiled work The Anthology of Huangming Scriptures, all showed the unique inner world of him as a poet and a scholar. Chen Zilong had works such as White Cloud Grass, Xiangzhen Pavilion Manuscripts and Anya Hall Manuscripts, which were later banned. Not until the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, did Wang Chang compile the Complete Works of Chen Zhongyu, but the search was not complete. Anya Hall Manuscripts and his poem collection Orchid Grass were not included. Chen Zilong was considered by many to have retro tendencies and his literary theory was the same as that of the Seven Scholars. In fact, this can at most explain his early years. In theory, Chen Zilong’s aim was to restore the style of elegance, the care of reality, and the integration of rhetoric and thought. He repeatedly talked about the classics of song and the elegant tradition of the ancient poetry of the Han and Wei dynasties, which is exactly the goal he pursued. For example, his Preface to Li Shuzhang’s Ancient Poems said: “Since after the Three Hundred Classics, elegance was established, nothing is better than classic poetry in expressing all emotions like sadness, happiness or depression.”4 According to the Preface to the Book of Songs, “Poems express one’s will. If the emotions of joy and anger need to find a release, then they will be let out as poems. They can be used as a pretext to refer to current affairs and all worldly objects, which is the essence of writing” (Collected Works of Chen Zilong. Anya Hall Manuscripts, Vol. 3rd). On the other hand, he was good at discussing the contemporary era and had sharp criticism of contemporary literary style. Preface to the Selection of Huangming Poetry summarizes the evolution of 3

For details, please refer to The History of the Ming Dynasty Original, Vol. 277th, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974, p. 7098. 4 Collected Works of Chen Zilong. Anya Hall Draft, Vol. 1st, cited in this section is Collected Works of Chen Zilong East China Normal University Press, 1988 (photocopy); poems are from Poetry Collection of Chen Zilong, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1983.

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Ming poetry and says: “since Hongzhi, there has been a succession of elegant and magnificent talents, and they have no choice but to take their own responsibility…Yu song, Yin Eulogy, Zhou Elegance, Chu Sao, regardless of their styles, are all good with their literary skills...Compared with earlier periods, the current poems are most flourishing, featured with numerous authors, open views, sharing a coexistence of benevolence and meanness, elegance and rigidness. The shallow and vain trends since modern times emerged along with the declination and disorder of the society” (Collected Works of Chen Zilong. Complete Works of Chen Zhongyu, Vol. 25th). In the Preface to the Poem Manuscripts of Fanfu Tower (idem.), he commented that “the contribution of the Seven Scholars to restore elegance can’t be denied, and their initiatives in literature is invaluable”. Through the phenomenon of restoring the ancient times, he saw the historical achievements of the Seven Scholars; At the same time, he also pointed out the defects of the Seven Scholars: “Those talents are particularly good at imitating, but not much with their own resources. They were more ambitious than being stylish, more momentum than profound. Their lines are overwhelming but repetitive. Under the clear sky, they preferred the complicated description. Of numerous works, there are some less remarkable words.” These comments were much more objective than the general opposition’s overall negation of the retro school. In the same article, he also criticized the opposition: “Those who prided themselves on their talents tried to correct them, but they should learn their merits rather than simply putting them down; picking on minor details is not sufficient in giving them a general statement. If the effort is made just for the purpose of being different for the predecessors, regardless of how poor one’s own work is, it would be a laughing stock for the future. In the past decade, there have been strange thinkers and dwarf poets in the literary circle.” Such criticism may be harsh, but it is not necessarily groundless. In terms of creation, Chen Zilong’s poems, Ci and literary styles are all inclusive, and he was most successful in his poems. His early poems were ornate. Later, he attached great importance to the writing relating to the real world, and his poems also turned to care about the country’s economy and people’s livelihood. For example, the Little Chariot (Poetry Collection of Chen Zilong, Vol. 3rd) describes the hardships of a couple escaping from famine, which shows the suffering of the people caused by a drought in 1637. After he became Jinshi, the poet was sent to Guangdong as an official, and passed Shandong on way to his post, during which he also wrote many poems of compassion for its people. Chen Zilong also had some sentimental poems in this period, mainly to express his love relationship with Liu Rushi, a famous prostitute, such as Sickness on Lovers’ Day (Poetry Collection of Chen Zilong, Vol. 12th) after their separation. Chen Zilong said in his Preface to White Cloud Grass (Collected Works of Chen Zilong. Complete Works of Chen Zhongyu, Vol. 26th) that poetry is not only to please oneself. “Of the Three Hundred Classics, poems can be either sad or joyful, but are mostly out of the critical times upon the downfall of the country.” If his early poems were mostly to express his own feelings, then his style of poetry changed greatly after Jiashen and became more mature in art. In this period, he tended to express his feelings of sadness and disturbed mind with rhymes, filled with vigorous and tragic

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spirit. He liked to use allusions, and used them appropriately and naturally, without stagnation. After the defeat of the anti Qing army in Taihu Lake in 1646, the poet wrote a series of poems “Autumn Thinking” (Poetry Collection of Chen Zilong, Vol. 15th) in the old Wu area of his hometown, which is representative of his later poems. In the background of late autumn, from the bright to the melancholy, the first part of the poem shows how the poet was looking around, wandering, crying and singing. The poet took the famous allusions in the Book of Songs (Wang Feng · Millet), and imaging himself as the old courtier who lost his country, wandering in the ruins of the old capital, climbing the tomb where the martyrs of Wu were buried, raising his glass to pay homage to the ministers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty who once cried in the New Pavilion, expressing his sorrow and aspirations5 takes the symbolic meaning of cuckoo’s weeping blood to describe the sad situation of the defeated country, and the poet’s indignation of “the wall of Chu incisively questioned the heavens”. Xia Wanchun (1631–1647), style name Cungu and pseudonym name Xiaoyin, was born in Songjiang Huating (today’s Shanghai), is an ancient Chinese writer. At the end of Ming Dynasty, his father, Xia Yunyi wrote his last words and committed suicide in the river. After that, his uncle Xia Zhixu hung himself in the Confucian temple after writing his own last words. His teacher, Chen Zilong, was as famous as Xia Yunyi, and ended his life in the same way. They were both admired for their devotion to the common cause. Xia Wanchun was very talented. He could write poems at the age of seven, known as a prodigy. At the age of twelve, he had his own poem collection. Under the influence of his father and teacher, he could talk with the elders about military affairs when he was quite young. At the age of 16, he and his teacher Chen Zilong and father-in-law Qian Kuai instigated a fight against the Qing Dynasty, and wrote to King Lu, who conferred on him the title of state secretary. Later, Xia Wanchun went to the anti Qing general Wu Liaojun as a consultant. After his father and uncle died in his country, and he drifted away from home. The next year (1647), he was arrested and escorted to Nanjing for his involvement in planning the anti Qing fight. Before he left, he wept for his mother, “how can I fulfill loyalty and filial piety?”6 He not only didn’t kneel down to Hong Chengchou, but also indignantly denounced him. Someone tried have him released, but he refused. Qian Chan became weak, and was willing to submit. This gave him the encouragement in time, Xia Wanchun was only seventeen years old when he died. It’s said that Xia Wanchun had nearly a thousand poems, but they were scattered after his martyrdom in the army. According to Wang Chang’s Preface to the Complete Collection of Xia Jieming, there are still many missing after many efforts of collecting. Wang Chang, Zhuang Shiluo, Chen Jun and He Qiwei compiled the 5

It is said in A New Account of the Tales of the World. Speech II: “Every time when people crossed the river, we would gather at the New Pavilion. They are invited to have a feast with flowers around. Lord Zhou sat and sighed, ‘The scenery is different. The mountains and rivers are different.’ They all looked at each other and wept.” Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature. Original I. 6 For details, please refer to Farewell to My family in Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 3rd, Zhonghua Book Company, 1991. The following quotations of Xia Wanchun’s poems are based on this version.

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Complete Collection of Xia Jieming by putting together his poetry anthologies such as the Collection of Yufan Hall, Collection of Internal History and South Crown Grass, which was published in Jiaqing 12th year Dynasty. Xia Wanchun’s works before he was 13 years old were mostly imitation of ancient times and skill practice, which didn’t have much significance. However, from Jing Wei (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 3rd), Song of Yisui, Song of Wavy Sand (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 4th), his individuation of his poetic style had been formed. At the age of 13, he wrote the Ode to Deep Sorrow (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 1st). It said in the preface, “Since I was a child, I have been feeling the misery of my country. I can’t but serve the country and join the army.” “No wine of Lu nor songs of Chu can cheer me up! The opera of Wu and Yue can only make me sad.” For the pain from the fall of the country, the study of the wording in his poems is unnecessary. However, though the wording is not what the poet meant, he made great achievements. The poems written by Xia Wanchun in the last few years of his short life, with a clear cut style and depressed tone, are full of sadness and forcefulness, forming a lofty and open artistic conception. In Xia Wanchun’s poems, the description of the mountains and rivers of the homeland is usually interwoven with the memory of the dead Ming Dynasty. It is often beautiful suddenly broken by the sadness of millet, and becomes the depressed thoughts of the lost country, such as Farewell (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 5th)”, “birds singing by the lawns, swallow landing on the fallen blossoms. The apricots dropping in the red rain and the willows hidden in the green smoke.” It clearly describes the beautiful spring scenery in peacetime. It is not revealed until the end that the poet is expressing the feeling of facing chaos: “every year the place is full of sorrow” Climbing on the Tower (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 5th) is another situation: “On the tower in sun set, the dusk is a sorrowful sight. In moonlit Yangtze River pass, the king of Yue’s platform is locked. The birds return to the forests, and light smoke rises along the banks. Five colored clouds drifting along. I know it’s from the Emperor’s town.” The first four sentences are words of mourning, while the last four express endless thoughts of homeland with light touches. The delicacy shown by the light smoke and drifting clouds does not only present a sharp contrast but also shows the harmony with the bleakness painted by war and the moon. South Crown Grass was written by Xia Wanchun when he was escorted to Nanjing. Among them, Farewell to the Clouds (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 5th) was written at the beginning of his being arrested: Three years of roaming detention, back in South Crown again. Weeping for the boundless rivers and mountains, where to find my vast earth and heaven? Knowing that life is close to the end, it’s hard to bade farewell to my homeland. Upon the unyielding soul’s returning, the flag of spirit will be waving. The poet bid farewell to his relatives in his hometown and set his mind to die for his country. The first line tells how the poet had drifted around alone and devoted

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himself to the struggle against the Qing Dynasty since the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, “Three years” and “today”, are the two successive declines in his status; the pain of subjugation is expressed by the word “again”, with a lot of significance. The next two sentences “boundless rivers and mountains” and “vast earth and heaven” are the description of space. The images seem to be similar, but “weeping” and “where to find” form a tension, which expresses the two extremes to highlight the anger of the poet in losing his homeland. In another poem, the poet said, “The rivers and mountains of the home country are still in sight, the lonely Minister is totally lost” (Seeing Friends to the North from Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 5th). No fear of death, but what the poet could not leave behind was still a homeless mountain and river. The term “home country” goes beyond its original meaning here. It refers to the country in general. The reason why it is difficult to leave is that he could no longer fight for his homeland. The concluding lines are impassioned, which shows the heroic spirit of the poet who regards death as his return, just like Jing Ke’s Elegy of Changing Water. The two poems of “Wild Cry” in South Crown Grass (Fine Forest Wild Cry and Wujiang Wild Cry from Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 4th) express his mourning for Chen Zilong, the teacher and comrade in arms, and Wu Yang, who had fought together in the Anti Qing War, with the tragic seven word song style. Fine forest is the name of the mountain, where Chen Zilong once hid after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Wujiang was the hometown of Wu Yang. Their relationship with the poet was special. Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun instigated Wu Tong to fight against the Qing. Xia Wanchun used to be the military adviser. After the defeat, Wu Yiwu was arrested and killed by the Qing army. Chen Zilong killed himself by drowning in water. Xia Wanchun was also arrested the next year. He had already put life and death aside: “The road of life and death, is just the hero’s travel path” (Mr. Jian Bantun from Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 5th). He still felt sorry about being arrested before fulfilling his ambition, “failed to fulfill my aspiration in the army, regret for thousands of years for not achieving my ambition” (From Danyang to Beijing from Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 6th). In such a situation, halfway through Fine Forest and Wujiang, the poet was impassioned and could not help himself. The first poem is more gloomy than the second one: “On top of the Fine Forest mountain the crows cry, at the bottom of the mountain the autumn grass thrives. There are boats on the river untied, to west Songjiang they are driven by the wind.” The poem begins with an atmosphere of sadness and a hint of pain. Upon his hearing and seeing, though it was only for a moment, it was enough to arouse the poet’s memory of the old friend: “I remember the time meeting my Fine Forest guest, Master Meng whose writings were known by people of the world.” In his later years, Chen Zilong was named Master Meng, but the poet didn’t mean to praise Chen Zilong’s writings. He soon turned to the description of their mutual understanding and common cause: “When visiting in white clouded mountain, getting lost among the leaves all fallen. Until I learned Master Meng enjoyed lake and ocean, we met by the moonlit water at a desolate pavilion. Crying for the sadness of the country, drinking to feel common aspiration.” This scene is composed of white clouds, fallen leaves, the moonlit desolate pavilion and the sparkling water, which all present the

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lofty spirit, while crying and drinking are the expressions of impassioned feelings of the world. This combination of contradictions effectively shows the real situation at that time. Although Chen Zilong had been reclusive, he never forgot state affairs. Xia Wanchun knew his mind well, so he went for a visit, which naturally led to the memory of both the poet and Zilong’s instigation of Wu Yang, and their failure in the war of resistance against Qing: “In drumming death occurred in Pingling last year, together we crossed the water of Wujiang River. Dreaming this year of breaking the cloud of nine peaks, the purple of dusk mountain reflected on the flags. Tears of Qin have been flowing, as if Liaocheng’s arrow is flying.” From last year to this year, it was only a blink of an eye, but in the eyes of the poet, the color of the sunset still reflected the flag of that day. “Tears at Qin Court” came from Master Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals. Shen Baoxu cried for seven days and nights in the Qin court, and finally made the king of Qin send troops to save Chu state. This is to show that he had done his best for his country. The word “as if” indicates that the poet is still immersed in the imagination of fighting. However, his ambition was not paid, and his people were gone: “The yellow swan tried to fly but the wings are broken, all over the vast world I have nowhere to return. Retreating from heaven to earth the whole universe, the rainbow of spirit is buried in the belly of a fish.” The poem uses metaphors to express regret to Zilong, which also aggravates the gloominess of the poem. It is followed by “With heartbroken gratitude to master, crying to call his soul by cut-paper (sacrifice ritual)” directly expresses his feelings, responding to the above words “the common aspiration”, emphasizing the friendship and the common goal with Zilong, who was also his teacher and friend. “Fierce Emperor” ended with abrupt turns of expressing sadness of the destruction of his family and country, the remorse of an unfulfilled great cause, calling out to the deceased, confessing his wish for martyrdom, and surging up to highlight his patriotic ambition. The poem starts from “On top of the Fine Forest mountain the crows cry, at the bottom of the mountain the autumn grass thrives”, and ends with “Build me and a hut on terrace for the night, I would be hugged by cold moon and the frost”, which fills the poem with a bleak atmosphere on the autumn night. However, the ups and downs of his feelings brightened the gloomy images and vitalized the sadness in the poem. The style of the whole poem is solemn and vigorous, with strong artistic appeal. Xia Wanchun’s famous prose was written after he was jailed. Facing death, he put his fearless spirit into earthshaking writings. “Thoughts in the Mud Room” (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 9th) reviewed his short life. He was generous and upright, and his words were simple: “Ever since my father sacrificed himself in the water, I lost my home. In three years of drifting along, exposed to wind and frost, wearing shaggy short coat, suffering from the hardships of the world, the brutality of injustice is as much as the benevolence from his Majesty.” “I know perfectly that it is time close to death, but the national disaster is still left not avenged … it is for this reason I am still alive to put up with the hatred …My father died for the country, and I stay alive for the country.” “Family feuds have not been avenged, contribution to the country have not been made, ambition underachieved, hatred will remain for thousands of years.” The lines are filled with agony, but it is followed by the spirit of a boost “This life has already passed, the next life will last. The spirit of

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righteousness will never disappear. Nine days and eight posts, the soul of the hero is eternally inspiring…Carrying the voice to the underworld, smiling in the ground”. Letter to Mother in Prison and Letter to Wife (Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Vol. 9th) are full of passions for his family, being sad but without losing their awe inspiring righteousness. He said to his mother: “With me living a wandering life, we have no one to depend on in life and no inquires can be made in death. It is nothing for Chun’s death, but how can my family of eight survive?” “All lives have death, but the death must be for its worth!” By assuming that the hardships of his wife’s serving his parents and raising his daughter behind him, the second poem reflected the touching gentle emotions of his heroic spirit. In addition to Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun, the main poets of these societies are Xia Yunyi, Xu Fuyuan, Zhou Lixun, Wang Guangcheng, Li Wen, Peng Bin, Song Zhengyu and Huang Chunyao. They ended their lives in different ways, and their poetry achievements are far less than those of Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun. The members of several societies were mostly Songjiang people, and the ancient name of Songjiang was Among the Clouds, the literati of those societies are also called Could Poetry School. Among the Could Poetry School, there were also “Six Cloud Poets” and “Three Cloud Poets”. The Six Cloud Poets are Peng bin, Xia Yunyi, Chen Zilong, Zhou Lixun, Xu Fuyuan and Li Wen. The Three Cloud Poets were Chen Zilong, Song Zhengyu and Li Wen. In addition, Chen Zilong and Li Wen were also called “Chen Li”.

Chapter 13

The Last Glory of the Chuanqi Dramas in the Ming Dynasty

Many of the famous legendary writers in the late Ming Dynasty entered the Qing Dynasty, but most of their legendary creations were completed in the late Ming Dynasty or in the transferring period. The legendary operas, which rose in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, still maintained a strong momentum of development at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The dominance of Kun opera’s in the field of drama did not change until the reign of Kang and Qian in the Qing Dynasty. Take two examples to illustrate: according to Zhang Dai’s The Dream of Pottery Hut, a famous actor who is good at both local tune (Kun tune) and Diao tune, his singing art of folk tunes is no less than Kun tune; according to the Talks of the Dragon Chamber, Ruan Dacheng sang excerpts of Swallow Notes and Spring Lantern Riddles for the Eight Banners in the early Qing Dynasty.They improvised to Yiyang tune as they were not used to Kun tune. It can be seen that the legend script was still used by all southern tunes. Owing to Tang Xianzu’s great influence, the legendary dramatists who had made great achievements after him were often called “Yuming Hall school” by modern drama historians. Up till now, almost all kinds of literary history has adopted this term. Section “Zhang Fengyi, Mei Dingzuo and Other Dramatists” of Chapter 9 of this book has explained that the Yuming Hall school was the fabrication of some drama historians, so we do not use this term in this chapter.

© Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_13

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13.1 Yuan Yuling and The West Tower Yuan Yuling(1592–1672),1 was from Wu County (Jiangsu Province). He was formerly known as Jin, with style names of Wenyu and Lingzhao, pseudonyms of Lingzhao, Fugong and Tuo’an, and he became Gongsheng in the late Ming Dynasty. Yuan Yuling lived in the Qing Dynasty for nearly thirty years. His opera works were all completed during his youth. He was an authentic late Ming composer, but he spent all his official career in the Qing Dynasty. After entering the Qing Dynasty, he was appointed as state judge, then promoted as principal of the Ministry of Industry, and then as the prefecture of Jingzhou in Shunzhi’s reign. For this reason, Yuan Yuling became a controversial figure, leaving two distinct records of both positives and negatives in notes and the unofficial history. Yuan Yuling wrote nine legends. The extant four are The West Tower, The Story of Golden Lock, The Fairy Bird, The Happiness of Longevity. The one partially kept is Pear Shirt and the four lost ones are Jade Amulet, Auspicious Jade, He Pu Pearl, The Story of Miluo River. The West Tower is the representative work of Yuan Yuling’s legends, but there are controversies about its creation time and evaluations. In Wu Mei’s A Survey to Chinese Operas, The West Tower is included in the Legend of the Qing Dynasty I. The famous historian Meng Sen also failed to give the year of its creation in his The Study of the West Tower (Series of Heart History II). In fact, it was written before the end of the Ming Dynasty, which can be proved by at least three records of the Ming Dynasty: 1.

2.

Shi Shaoshen’s Wutong Tree. The Dragon Boat Festival in the Boat in Temple Flower Album of Autumn Dew, Vol. 2nd “said in its forward, “The famous prostitute Ran Shen is beautiful and talented. The wine is cold with cattail fragrance” is the sentence in “Mandarin Duck Script” In the afternoon of Xinhai year (around 1611, Wanli 39th year), lyrics were added. It is a pearl undiscovered, being used to make a few nickles. Qi Sheng, though they never met in person, must be charming and of high taste that is worthy of dying for love. In The West Tower, Yu Juan suffered a disgrace. Beauty is to be cherished and talent is to be cherished. To be demoted for a woman, is really sad. Alas! “ Shi, a native of Huating (now Shanghai), is close to Yuan Yuling’s hometown, Changzhou. His birth and death years were 1588–1640. Therefore, “Xinhai year” can only be the Dragon Boat Festival in the 39th year of Wanli, and The West Tower should be completed the year before, which is consistent with the records of Shi Shaoshen. The last record of it is in Shen Tonghe from Talks in Flower Pavilion, Vol. 5th written by Xu Fuzuo, a composer of Changshu. Shen Tonghe is the prototype

1 Zhang Ye wrote a poem for Yuan Yuling, entitled “Crying to Inscribe for Yuan Zhen’s Demise”). The epilogue of the poem clearly records Yuan Yuling’s year of death: “To comfort the filial weeping children, he has enjoyed the life of 81 years glory. “(Poetry Collection of Zhang Dai”, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1991). Based on this, he died in 1672 instead of the current popular saying 1674.

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of the Third Master of Chi in the story of The West Tower. Xu Fuzuo’s lived between the years of 1560–1629, no later than after the end of the Ming Dynasty. Tang Xianzu’s Poems of Yuming Hall, Vol. 16th has four seven-character poems Autumn of Chu River, they are the outline of performing scripts of The West Tower and Notes of Playing. There is a line in the second poem “sitting and listening to amber words against guardrail”, “Amber words” refer to Qupai [amber cat pendant] in Notes of Playing. There is no other explanation. Tang Xianzu died on Wangli 44th year (July 29, 1616). His third son Kaiyuan did not go to Beijing to take the exam the previous winter because of his father’s illness. It can be seen that Tang was seriously ill in the spring of Wangli 44th year, during which the possibility of his listening to songs and watching plays can be ruled out. The four poems should have been written 43 years earlier.

Yuan Yuling was only 19 when he wrote The West Tower, but the script had been constantly revised several years before it was written. Unfortunately, we don’t know the details of each revision. The West Tower was performed many times during the reign of Shunzhi and Kangxi. The author often entertained his friends during the new dynasty. Therefore, it is easy to mistake it as Yuan Yuling’s new work in the new dynasty. In addition, the first half of the first song [fairy by the river] in Scene 1 Heading in The West Tower,a component of the Sixty Types of Songs, said: “The grey haired worries about having no seeds, taking advantage of your youth. The romantic chivalry shows his eloquence. Putting on its best look during day time, giving the most sweet speech before the lamp. “It’s hard to believe that it came from a 19-yearold, which gives more proof that it is a misunderstanding of it being written in the Qing Dynast. In fact, this is exactly the trace of the revisions for many years. The West Tower was also named A Dream of the West Tower. There was an interesting story about it. Chu Renhuo from the same region said in The West Tower from Sequel of Gourd, Vol. 16th: When Yuan Yunyu first completed The West Tower, he took it to Feng Yulong for advise. Feng read it put it on the desk without comments. Yuan was at a loss. He left in confusion. Feng ran out of food at the time and his family reminded him of it. Feng said there is no worry. Yuan will give me a hundred gold coins today, but don’t shut the door. He may not necessarily come early, but when he is here, just directly take him to the study. Everyone in the family thought it was strange. When Yuan was back home, he had been hesitating till midnight and suddenly called for the lamp be ready for him to take a hundred gold coins to Feng. Upon arriving, he saw that the door was still open. Asking why, he was told Feng was waiting for him in the study. He was surprised and got in. Feng said, “I knew you would be back. It’s good in both tunes and poems, but there is one story missing. Now I have it added.” It was the Wrong Dream. Yuan was overwhelmed. The work became very popular since then, particular the Wrong Dream. In fact, Feng Menglong had commentaries for each scene in his adaptation of the play, none of this part was mentioned. It was also said Yuan revised the work by himself in Jianxiao Pavilion, and gave it another name A Dream of the West Tower. If Wrong Dream was not part of it, why does the name of the play have the word “dream” in it? It can be seen that part of the story Feng Menglong wrote is not creditable.

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The West Tower tells the love story of Yu Juan and the prostitute Mu Suhui. Yu Juan is famous for his talent and is good at writing tunes and poems. Mu Suhui read his Fancy Sail of Yuefu and loved the “Love of the Chu River” most, so he wrote it with flowery notes. Yu Juan saw it by chance in the West Tower. Su Hui was ill, and they talked about their long-term admiration for each other, and privately became engaged. Later, Yu Juan was put under house arrest by his father. Su Hui wanted to move and wrote a note to date Yu Juan. However, she mistakenly sent a piece of paper, so Yu Juan didn’t make it. The bawd tried to sell Su Hui at a high price but she fought with death. Yu Juan suffered from sickness of love. So someone misinformed the news of two people’s death. They were very sad after hearing of the death of each other. Fortunately, with the help of Chivalry Xu Biao, Yu Juan became the number one scholar and eventually married Su Hui. There is no basis for the story of the legend. Yu Juan and Xu Biao have some autobiographical elements. For example, it is often described in the play that Yu Juan was detained by Yan Fu, and his schoolmates caused alienation between him and his father, leading to stricter control over him. In the same area, as early as 20 years before The West Tower, Song Qicheng’s Regret to Read the Ancient Books recorded how children were forbidden by parents from reading all the ancient books, including Han Feizi and Historical Records, in order to prepare them for the imperial examination. Yuan Yuling was just a playboy in that era. The two aspects of the dissolute and indulgent ranger are both presented in the play. On Drama, Vol. 3rd quoted Miscellaneous Records Kuang Yuan: During Yuan Yuling’s life time, he prided himself on his Golden Lock, and now his West Tower is the most popular. “This is because the West Tower is not a work of following a fixed pattern for reading, but a play for performing on stage. Mao Xianshu recounts Yuan Yuling’s confession in the Preface to Yuan Yu’an’s Seventy: “Once the lyrics were written in the morning, they would be spread all over by evening. In around ten days, they would be played by all the orchestras. The operas for all theaters, like Beili, Shanhe and mansions with lights and candles, was no other than Yuan’s play. “The fact that The West Tower was more popular among the legends of Yuan Yuling is that it is more suitable for performance. As the male singer was the leading role in the legendary play, the main song is very important. Instead of writing a new song, the author of The West Tower picked one from the famous songs. The main song [Chu River sentiment]is the engaging song between the couple, not too high- pitched but very popular. Yuan Yuling used it by only changing a few words, but consistent enough to express a famous prostitute’s ardent yearning for her lover. Episode 8 of The West Tower [Chu River sentiment] indicates that it is composed of two pieces: [fragrant belt] the green sleeves in the morning are cold and the fragrant furnace is held in bed. Waking up from heavy sleeping with eyes hardly opened, too lazy to urge the parrot to call Mei Xiang. Closing the red door quietly and opening the curtains, the willows are blown like the horse racing of the prince. [wind over the river] dreams locked in the luxuriant, feared to chase the east wind. Bees bumming on the paper of the window, butterflies flying over the whitewall, how my mind be known by anyone at all.

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Wu Mei sai: “It’s said that the popular sentence of ‘the green sleeves in the morning are cold’ [Chu River sentiment]are originally from the ancient song of[early morning boudoir resentment]. It is really a surprise that it could be popular.” (On Tunes Vol. II) Moreover: “The scattered tunes of Yuefu (Zhu you) by the collectors of Ming and Qing Dynasties have never recorded this, which means this is the only one. My friend Wang Jun of Tongxian county looked into this issue… This book is not divided into volumes, but only two types of scattered songs and sets. In addition [Chu River sentiment], from Boudoir Resentment in the Early Morning was also seen in the selection of Wu Sao. It was titled with an ancient poem for the lack of knowledge that it was written by Cheng Zhai, and each song is followed by a piece of north tune [gold-word scripture], which is also not included in the anthology. It shows the poor selection of Ming Dynasty’s seasonal songs. And the song “Er Geng” is very similar to The West Tower [Chu River sentiment] written by Yuan Yu’an. It can be seen that although yuan Yu’an is well-known, he owes a lot of his writings to Xian Fan (Zhu You). “(Postscript for Zhu You’s Cheng Zhai Style of Yuefu) it is likely that at that time, the playwright had only seen it in a popular tune book Selection of Wu Peng’s Works, and may not know who its original author was. It is like the old saying that “the articles are created by nature, and only the smart can get them by chance”. The plot of The West Tower is compact and intricate. It takes misunderstandings and mistakes as the key of plot development, which is a common technique used by many composers in Suzhou of the same era. Yuan Yuling said in the Preface of the Remaining Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty: “It is an important feature of the legend to be imaginative. The hero can take sudden turns of being angry and happy.” It’s possible this is the reason why some plots in the story of The West Tower are different from traditional techniques.

13.2 Wu Bing and Five Legends of Blooming Study Wu Bing (1595–1648), was born in Yixing, Jiangsu Province. His great grandfather was a famous scholar with the style name of Kexue and pseudonym Yishan. In Zhengde 9th year (1514), he became Jinshi. He went to Sichuan to take office. His grandfather’s name was Yu, and he was the clerk in Honglu Temple. His father’s name was Jinming, with the pseudonym name of Kanghou. He was the Secretary in Taichang Temple. Under his father’s instruction, Wu Bing worked hard in reading and got the admission into prep school at the age of 14. At the age of 20, he was stopped from taking the examinations because four members of his town were selected at the same time at the local examination. In the second round of examination in Beijing the next year, he kept on suing, and his grievances were identified. He became Jinshi when he was 23 (1619, Wanli 47th year) and served successively as governor of Puqi county in Hubei Province, principle of the Ministry of Justice, vice director of Ministry of Work, magistrate of Fuzhou, judge of Zhejiang Salt Transportation Department, magistrate of Ji’an in Jiangxi Province, and deputy examiner of Jiangxi Province. Wu Bing was honest and upright as an official. At the beginning of his

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official career, he was suppressed by the Wei party because of his friendship with Donglin Party members. He was also forced to return home for refusing big bribes and trying to stop the malpractice of Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian Province. He stayed in his home town for six years from Chongzhen 3rd year to Chongzhen 9th year. In 1644’s Jiashen Change, Wu Bing was in the position as deputy examiner of Jiangxi Province. Zhu Yusong, Lord Fu, established in Nanjing. He made a pilgrimage to congratulate and went back to his hometown to visit his relatives. He was willing to retire, but his father did not allow him to. He cried and said, “I can never go against the filial piety in my life!” Then he followed his father’s orders and went back to Jiangxi office. In April 1645, the Qing soldiers entered Yangzhou and Shi Kefavdied. In May, Nanjing fell and it was taken by Duoduo, the Lord of Henan of Qing. In June, Zhu Yujian, Lord Tang, was established in Fuzhou and changed the calendar to Longwu. Wu Bing left his office, going from Jianchang (now the border of Jiangxi and Fujian) to Fujian to join him and was appointed as Treasury Director. Since then, he followed the south monarch alone and embarked on the road of exile. In August 1646, Zhu Yujian, Lord Tang was killed, and Zhu Youlang, the Lord of Gui, became emperor in Zhaoqing (now Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province) and changed the calendar to Yongli. When Wu Bing came to Zhaoqing from Fujian, Lord Gui asked him to be minister in the Ministry of Rites. In 1647, Lord Gui was taken to Wugang (now Wugang City, Hunan Province) by Liu Chengyin, the Duke of An. Wugang was changed to Fengtian Capital and Wubing followed him. In August, the Qing army attacked Wugang. Wu Bing was ordered by the Lord Gui to escort his prince to Jingzhou. He was captured by Kong Youde in Chengbu (now Chengbu County in Southwest Hunan Province). After Wu Bing was captured, the Qing army persuaded him to surrender. He resolutely refused to yield, and was taken to Hengyang. In the first month of the next year, he committed suicide by fasting in Xiangshan Temple of Hengyang. The former residence of Yixing for Wu family is called Blooming Villa, for which Wu gave himself the name of the owner of Blooming Study. According to his life and some records, his legends were probably written in his hometown, so it was named Five Legends of Blooming Study (Green Peony, West Garden, Mail of Love, Figure in the Picture, and Jealous Healing Soup), which are included in the Shemota Chamber Verses by Wu Mei. Wu Bing’s legendary creation time can be divided into two stages. The first stage was after he returned to his hometown for the second round exam in Beijing in 1616 (Wanli 44th year), during which he wrote West Garden and Green Peony. Scenes of “Qiandai” and “Retest” in Green Peony are similar to Wu Bing’s own retest experience.2 There was one saying that the legends was written 2 See Biography of Shiqu by Wanshu in the Genealogy of the Wu Clan in Yijing: “in Yimao year (1616, Wanli 44th year) he was recommended by his home town and took the retest but failed.” Biography of Shiqu by anonymous: “recommended by home town in Yimao year.Disputes aroused for discipline issue.Exam qualifications was stopped. Next spring, he went to the royal palace to participate in the second round exam with Hui Yuan and Shen Tonghe. With his continuous appeal, he was found innocent. He passed the south palace exam to become a Jinshi.” (Ji Mei Hall woodblock version, Guangxu 2nd year in the Qing Dynasty).

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by the Prime Minister Wen Tiren’s younger brother Wen Yiren in the year when he took office, to ridicule the Retro Society; another saying was that it was written by Wu Bing on the trust of Wen Yuren, but none of them is credible. In History of the Ming Dynasty · Ministers’ Chronology, Zhou Yanru gave up his position as prime minister. Wen Ti Ren succeeded him in Chongzhen 6th year, while Retro Society was founded in Chongzhen 2nd year (see Lu Shiyi’s Briefs of Retro Society, Vol. 1st). In addition, Wu Bing made good friends with Donglin Party members and was suppressed by the Wei party during the examination and election period. According to Biography of Shiqu by Wanshu in the Genealogy of the Wu Clan in Yijing he took office in Puqi of Hu-Guang regions, performed admirably but some opponent party candidates (noted as Wei Zhongxian) took away his position.3 It’s impossible for him to write the legend and ridicule Retro Society. With Wu Bing’s righteous personality, it was not possible for him to be hired for the writing either.4 The second stage was Chongzhen 3rd year (1630). It was between Wu Bing’s returning home due to illness from his office at Fuzhou and before taking the office at the salt transportation department in Zhejiang in 1636. Wu Bing’s return to his hometown was due to his uprightness and impartiality, which offended Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian Province. This leisure time lasted for six years. Mail of Love, Figure in the Picture, and Jealous Healing Soup should be finished in this period. Foreword to Mail of Love noted that it was written in Chongzhen 3rd year, which is the only one of the five legends that can be dated. According to Biography of Shiqu by anonymous in the Genealogy of the Wu Clan in Yijing, the five legends were to “express the resentment for not being able to fulfil his ambition and find an outlet in the writing”, which is closer to reality; another 3

He was appointed as the Principal of Ministry of Justice. As he made good friends with all the gentlemen in the East Forest party, he transferred to Ministry of Work. Biography of Shiqu from Reprint of the Old Records of Yijing County said: “Being at the office of Puqi, he was good at governance and became the Principal of Ministry of Justice. At that time, the Wei party sent a lot of people to prison. Bing kept his integrity and did not dare to use favoritism. He transferred to the Ministry of Work, working devotedly." His working in the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Work should all be in Tianqi 4th year. 4 In 1630, when Wu Bing was appointed as magistrate of Fuzhou, he came back with illness due to offending the authority with his righteousness. According to Biography of Shiqu by the anonymous in the Genealogy of the Wu Clan in Yijing: “When Xiong Wencan was defeated and got his boat burned in his fight against the bandit Liu in the Min Sea, he wanted to get money from the merchant to pay for the loss, and asked Wu Bing to send the merchant to prison. Bing said, “I can’t bear to kill people nor flatter people.” Biography of Shiqu by anonymous in the Genealogy of the Wu Clan in Yijing said: “Chen Kuang, the grandson of the director in the Ministry of Personnel was put in prison for misconduct of the examination. He had gold sent to Wu at night, which put him in a difficult situation.” Biography of Shiqu by Wanshu said: He transferred to Fuzhou to the office of prefecture magistrate of Fujian Province. There was a rich man named Chen Kuang who was taken for his malpractice in the exam and Wu was asked by Fu Gong to protect him. Chen sent the Treasury officer to bribed him with three thousand Liang of silver, but he refused and dismissed the Treasury officer. He resigned for illness right after and wrote to the judicial officer Zhao Jiding by telling him the truth: “I refused the money and dismissed the officer. It is an open confrontation. If I don’t leave right away, I will be in trouble.” (block-printed edition in Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty).

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saying is that the five plays are his “minor works”, which can only be compared with his On Changes written in his later years. In a word, before Wu Bing took office at the salt transportation department of Zhejiang Province in Chongzhen 9th year, Five Legends of Blooming Study should have been completed. After that, he was busy in his official career and transferred several times. Till Jiashen Change, the turbulent time came and he followed the south lord by living a wandering life, leaving him no time nor the right mind to write. Due to Wu Bing’s limitations of his background, his scholar bureaucrat’s thought, and the creation environment, his five plays are a combination of being in-depth and mediocre, being innovative and stereotyped. While affirming Wu Bing’s legendary achievements, we should not ignore the weakness of his creation. Wu Bing’s legend has a profound expression of social malpractice. Green Peony let Shen Hanlin choose his son-in-law by imitating the imperial examination. Some intricacies occurred because of Qian Dai, and the truth was revealed through the second round examination. It was serious in banter and satirized the prevailing fraud in the imperial examination at that time. In West Garden. Underworld Refusal, the author expressed his criticism of reality angrily through illiterate Wang ‘s words: “The alcoholic me is better than the bookworm you, my rice tummy is better than you article tummy, and my straw bag is not as boring as my schoolbag. You see how many people in the world are literate. However, it can’t stop them from plagiarizing like a wild fox. They don’t even have the real Orchid Pavilion books at home! “In Mail of Love, head of the Imperial Privy Council, Anaiyan was obscene and extravagant. He sent people to the south of the Yangtze River to buy a concubine. Wang Ren (forgetting benevolence), the Judge of Yangzhou, was trying to stay away from trouble and offered his maid in the name of his daughter, which serves as the cause of the conflict. In the development of the plot, it fully demonstrated that evil behaviors of power officials in bullying average people. It was obviously different from many legends at the time that real politics was only an ornament with little realistic significance. In response to the advanced pursuit of individual liberation since the late Ming Dynasty, Wu Bing’s Five Legends of Blooming Study is mostly sentimental. He even had his “Sentiment Theory” in “Views” and “Forward” in his Mail of Love. Finally, he concluded that “all people are mails, and all are based on sentiment.” “One dies without sentiment and one lives for sentiment.” The other side of profoundness is regrettable mediocrity. Five Legends of Blooming Study sympathizes with women and admires their talent. Green Peony even moves the examination hall into the boudoir, making the talented woman be the examiner. Most of the works fail to be fundamentally free of a patriarchal psychological stereotype. For example, Jealous Healing Soup is full of sympathy for Xiaoqing’s tragic fate, revealing the passive position of women in patriarchal society, while the title itself is the expression of patriarchal consciousness. The purpose of criticizing “strange jealousy” in the work is to promote “virtuous style”. The so-called “virtuous style” means that women not only willingly, but also actively take concubines for their husbands. The happiness and misfortune of Xiaoqing’s life depends entirely on if the man’s wife is virtuous or jealous, which certainly failed to reveal the essence of Xiaoqing’s tragedy. At the end of the play, the theme of this legend was further

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publicized: “may the virtuous wind spread all over the world…all the sourness of jealousy come to an end”, which further reveals the author’s shallowness. The ending of the reunion of one husband and two wives in Mail of Love is another version of the patriarchal center thinking. This kind of performance of Wu Bing’s legend inevitably brings about a sense of retrogression. If Zhang Sheng in The Romance of West Chamber once flirted with the matchmaker maid, Chunxiang is never allowed to share Liu Mengmei’s love in the Peony Pavilion! In the increasingly patterning situation of legendary works, Five Legends of Blooming Study can be a work striving to be innovative in art. There are two kinds of themes: one is to be independent, the other is to follow the previous works, while the former is his mainstream. Green Peony, West Garden, Mail of Love are not seen in previous works, which can best show the creativity of Wu Bing. According to the last poem at the end of the volume, only Mail of Love was inspired by Dai Shanfu’s Zaju “Scholar Tao’s Intoxicated Writing on the Beautiful Scenery”. The script, with a poem written on a mail box repeatedly sung by referring to the marriage of the couple, is more complicated than the old one, and is rated as “the crown of legends in the Ming Dynasty” (Postscript for Mail of Love by Wu Mei). Jealous Healing Soup is originated from Biography of Xiaoqing. A solo play of Xiaoqing’s self drawn portrait comes from the imitation of Peony Pavilion. Portrait. This is Wu Bing’s creation, which focuses on the widely read poems of Xiaoqing. If Xiaoqing’s poem is a famous work on the theme of Peony Pavilion, it is undoubtedly the best work of Xiaoqing’s story in opera. Five Legends of Blooming Study is good at using coincidence structure in legends. There is a tune in West Garden: “The world is against mistaking, but this might be where love is occurring. All the coincidences are nature’s miracle turning.” (Ashram [ending]) This is the technique Wu Bing favored in his writing. This legend is intertwined with Zhao Yuying’s tragedy and Wang Yuzhen’s comedy. The tragedy line criticizes the crime of arranged marriage, while the comedy line shows the young couple’s pursuit of marriage freedom, which is very realistically significant. Unfortunately, too many coincidences dilute the revelation of the development of the second line of sadness and happiness, and the images of the two girls are not fully displayed. As early as Li Zhi criticized Pipa Notes, he put forward the idea of “too much drama strays from truth” (Scene 8 of Li Zhuowu’s Criticism of Pipa Notes). “Too much drama” means too much dependence on coincidence, and “strays from truth” means that it does not conform to the reality of life. Unfortunately, the further the legend developed, the more serious the malady was. In this case, Wu Bing’s talent could be exerted. In addition to the more sophisticated layouts, there are also masterstrokes in portraying the characters. It’s wrong to think that Wu Bing didn’t make any effort to portray the characters. The female images in his works are special in their character, as smart as a Che Jingfang, as affectionate as Qiao Xiaoqing, and as warm as the ghost Zhao Yuying. In Green Peony, Che Bengao and Liu Xiqian’s clownism at the Talents’ Meeting and their foolishness of being teased by Xie Ying in the curtain test are all impressive. Such local highlights sometimes surpass artistic effect that the whole character image can achieve. However, there is a big gap between layout setting skills and typical environment writing, and between writing with supernatural

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power and shaping a complete personality image. Due to his failure to transcend the pattern of coincidence, Wu Bing failed to reach the height he could have achieved in its second aspect.

13.3 Meng Chenshun and Ruan Dacheng Meng Chengshun was ranked last among the playwrights in the Yuezhong region. The early stage of his opera creation were all Zaju, while in his later stage, he turned to the writing of legend. Like his Zaju, his legends The Story of Jiao Hong, The Story of Zhen Wen and The Story of Two Xus can also be divided into two categories. The first two are love plays, and the second one can be regarded as the continuation and development of The Recreation of the Remnant Tang Dynasty. The Story of Jiao Hong is the first legend of Meng Chengshun. It has 50 episodes and its full name is The Story of Jiao Hong in the Mandarin Duck Tomb of Jieyi. It was based on the novel of the same name. In the novel, Jiaoniang is Shen Sheng’s cousin, and Feihong is the concubine of Shen Sheng’s uncle. It is obvious that the novel does not deal with the identity of Feihong well, which is harmful to Shen Sheng’s sincere love for Jiaoniang, which is a major defect of the novel. The relationship between Shen Sheng and the prostitute Ding Lianlian is also harmful to Shen Sheng’s image, although this plot is designed to encourage Ding Lianlian to urge the younger son of Shuai mansion to marry Jiaoniang and destroy the marriage between Shen Sheng and Jiaoniang. The image of the female ghost turning into a charming woman is also a line of Shen Sheng’s love, which has nothing to do with the theme. Before Meng Chengshun, Liu Dongsheng adapted the novel into Zaju at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty and added the words “golden boy and jade girl” to the title, which made the script fatalistic. Meng Chengshun’s legendary work was written in 1638, which accepted the above defects of the novel. It not only failed to improve, but also intensified some shortcomings, such as the relationship between Shen Sheng and Feihong. Liu Dongsheng, the author of the Zaju, is Meng Chengshun’s older country folk fellow. Of course, his Zaju may be noticed by Meng Chengshun. The legend not only took the name of “Mandarin Duck Tomb of Jieyi”, but also added the words “golden boy and jade girl” in the title of Zaju, which can be taken as a double moral sermon. It would be one-sided if we affirm the ideological significance of the work only by looking at the lyrics of Jiaoniang in Episode 4 “It is my wish we have the same heart, die in the same cave, live in the same house, then we will have joint graves, the joint graves and I will be still filled with happiness”. Although Meng Chengshun sometimes attached great importance to the plot structure and character image in his commentaries in the Selection of Ancient and Modern Classic Plays, and also had good performances in his creations such as A Smile before the Blossom, he seemed to forget these things when he adapted The Story of Jiao Hong. On the whole, this legend can’t compare with his Zaju of love stories. There are thirty-five episode in The Story of Zhen Wen, with the full name being The Story of Zhen Wen in the Parrot Tomb of Three Purity in Zhang Yuniang’s Boudoir. Zhang Yuniang, style

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name Ruoqiong, was a poetess from Songyang, Zhejiang Province. Her Collection of Snow Orchids is extant. She was engaged to her cousin Shen Quan at the age of 15. Later, her father regretted the engagement, and Yu Niang did not agree. Shen Quan died before they got married and she stayed unmarried till death. Three Purity refers to two maids and a parrot who died together. According to this legend, the legendary opera depicts the two lovers as the disciples of Guanyin Bodhisattva, Shan Cai and Dragon Fairy, who came to the world with their servants and a parrot. It also makes up the Shangshu prince as another suitor. He became the number one scholar, Shen Quan the second, with few other changes. If we say that the golden virgin in The Story of Jiao Hong is only at the end of the story, The Story of Zhen Wen runs through the whole play, filling the play with superstition and sermons. Episode 32 even criticizes Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun’s story through the maid: “Xiangru had a misconduct and Wenjun elopes, unreal for a beauty”, which turns the whole play into a failure. From the positive significance of a love theme in Meng Chengshun’s Zaju to the crisis in the legend The Story of Jiao Hong, it may be due to the fact that the complexity and ambiguity of the original were too difficult for him to control. However, The Story of Zhenwen shows that the crisis had made the author irreversibly change from a preacher of anti ethics to a defender of orthodox martyrdom. The Story of Two Xus, named after its protagonists Wu Zixu and Shen Baoxu, tells the story of Wu Zixu’s father and brother being killed by Chu. He was determined to overthrow the state of Chu, so he escaped to the state of Wu and follows the king of Wu attacking Chu. While Shen Baoxu, his sworn brother, was determined to revive the state of Chu. When the state of Chu was surrounded, he fled to the state of Qin to ask for help. He cried for seven days and seven nights in the state of Qin. Finally, he moved the king of Qin to send troops to save Chu and the state of Chu prospered.5 In Sima Qian’s works, the only protagonist is Wu Zixu, and Shen Baoxu is secondary. In fact, Fu Chu is Zhang Ben, the real protagonist becomes Shen Baoxu, which is the expression of the patriotic thought of the playwright in the specific historical environment of the late Ming Dynasty. There are many descriptions in the play that remind people of the scene on the eve of the Ming Dynasty’s demise, which is a real record of the thoughts of a scholar official left in the opera works. In addition to Hall of Eternal Life, Peach Blossom Fan and even the earlier A Thousand Loyalties, it also has its own unique significance. There is no second work of the same type in this period. Meng Chengshun’s opera was deeply influenced by Tang Xianzu, and it can even be said that his creation was impossible without the Peony Pavilion. In the Preface to the Selection of Ancient and Modern Classic Plays, he said: There are two kinds of Ci writers: Shen Ning’an (Jing) is dedicated to metrics, while Tang Yi is dedicated to rhetoric. Both of them are biased. Those who work on rhetoric are just the same as the talented scholars, while those who focus on metrics are no different from the instructor of the actors getting on the stage. It’s quite rigid to put them into two categories. However, most important is to use words to express feelings, and the metrics are supportive. “His comments on Tang and Shen seem neutral, but actually 5

See Historical Records Wu Zixu.

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he was more on the side of Tang Xianzu. In terms of his imitation to Tang Xianzu, Meng Chengshun’s Zaju with a love theme are more successful. For example, he creatively learned from Tang Xianzu in some segments of Charming Eyes, Three Visits to the Peach Blossom Source and A Smile before the Blossom. His writings are beautiful and smooth, elegant and moderate, and the form and spirit are integrated. Too much imitation might be the reason why his love legend is not as good as love Zaju. Some better imitations are to use the same Qupai to describe different characters or similar scenes with similar syntax. The following are the two tunes of Wind over the River: In Episode 5 of The Story of Jiao Hong, the handsome young man sings: the young man, born wealthy, brought up by a good family. Adored by his parents, cherished like a pearl held by two hands. It doesn’t need a piece of paper nor a line of words. The baby is held on the head. In Episode 9 Peony Pavilion Chunxiang sings: Little Chunxiang, working as a slave in the house, serving on Jiaoniang in the painting pavilion. Waiting on Jiaoniang, for her making up powder, for her hair sticker and flower. Making her embroidered bed, burning her incense at night. What little slim has is the lady’s stick. What’s worse is to copy the original sentences without any changes. The situations in The Story of Jiao Hong and The Story of Zhen Wen are similar. Here are two examples from The Story of Zhen Wen: staging poem in Episode 7, “Scholars of the world are extremely poor, and the scholars in the school are extremely mature.” It is exactly the same as the staging poem in Episode 4 of Peony Pavilion. Episode 14 [river water] “He was originally a case of immortal love from a famous family” and [uprooting] “this heartfelt emotion, only known by heaven” are two cases that are obviously from Episode 10 [hillside sheep] in the Peony Pavilion: “Pick a case of immortal love in a famous family…tortured, for the lifetime remaining, only known by heaven.” By the standard of “creation”, no matter what the effect of imitation is, it is not worth advocating. This is one of the reasons why the evaluation of Meng Chengshun’s plays should not be too high. Ruan Dacheng (1587–1646), with the style name of Jizhi and pseudonyms Shichao and Wood Cutter of Baizi Mountain, was from Huaining (now Anhui Province). He became Jinshi in Wanli Bingchen year (1616), having the position of minister in the Ministry of Provision. During Chongzhen’s reign, he attached himself to Wei party. When Prince Fu established himself, he turned to follow Ma Shiying, persecuting the Donglin Party and the Retro writers. When the Qing soldiers crossed the river, he surrendered and attacked Xianxia Pass with them. Then he let his horses run loose and dropped dead on the rocks. Ruan Dacheng’s moral conduct had always been despised by scholars. Although Wu Mei holds that evaluation of one’s work should not be based on the author’s personality,6 but the legend of Ruan Dacheng does not have much to be credited with. There are 11 kinds of legends written by Ruan Dacheng, four of which are extant: Spring Lantern Riddles, Swallow Notes,

6

Wu Mei: The Anthology of Wu Mei’s Opera, China Drama Press, 1983, p. 162.

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Double Nominations and The Story of the Pearl. The first two are the most popular and they are generally called Four Legends of Shichao. Spring Lantern Riddles is a story composed of various coincidences. Yuwen Xingjian, the newly appointed Instructor of Xiang County, Hunan Province, had two sons named Yuwen Xi and Yuwen Yan. Wei Shuzhong, who was promoted as the official of the Privy Council, had two daughters named Yingniang and Xixi. The legend is about the ten misunderstandings between the four of them. Finally, Yuwen brothers succeeded in the imperial examinations and married the Wei sisters. The play was based on no original copy but on the Lantern Festival riddles, so it is named Spring Lantern Riddles. The play was also called “Ten Times of Mistaking” based on the ten scenes of mistaking. The same is true for Swallow Notes. It’s about Huo Duliang, a scholar in the Tang Dynasty, and Hua Xingyun, a famous prostitute, and Li Feiyun, the daughter of a Shangshu official family, who misunderstood and fell in love with each other. In the end, the two women were all reunited with Huo. The main point of the legend is that Fei Yun wrote poems on a paper, which was taken by a swallow and fell into Huo’s hands, thus leading to their love story, and for which the play was named. The legend of Ruan Dacheng had been admired by some, such as “featured with skillful thinking” in Liang Tingnan’s On Operas, Vol. 3rd; and “deeply endowed with the spirit of Yuming (Tang Xianzu)” by Wu Mei.➁ The detractors are like Ye Tang, who commented in his Nashu Studio Theatrical Music (Vol. 3rd of the sequel) that Ruan Dacheng considered himself learning from Tang Xianzu, “in fact, he didn’t get its slightest essence.” Spring Lantern Riddles and Swallow Notes are not the representative works of an era, since they were originally written only for entertainment (real artists are not just satisfied with providing entertainment to the audience), in a low ideological level, and his habitual techniques of using double structures and misunderstanding coincidences were the common practice of legendary writers during that period. It had been popular in the early history of play writing, a little earlier than Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing, which gradually became a pattern.

Chapter 14

Ci Poetry and the Off-stage Tunes

In the history of literature, Ci poetry in the Song Dynasty had brilliant achievements, at the same level with the poetry in the Tang Dynasty. There were several Ci writers in the Ming Dynasty, but there were hardly any to be called Ci poets. This is not to belittle Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty at will, but to say that after the Ci poetry of the Song Dynasty reached its peak, Ming people were in fact unable to continue, but on the other hand, even if it is a declining era, there was some vitality in certain parts. Therefore, There are some Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty that deserve credit. Compared with the Yuan Dynasty, there were more writers and works of Off-stage Tune in the Ming Dynasty, and the development of legendary operas brought new changes in music. The achievements of Off-stage Tune in the Ming Dynasty can not be compared with those of the Yuan Dynasty in general. Some of the achievements and the prosperity of a certain stage may follow those of their predecessors. However, if we compare it with the Off-stage tune of the Yuan Dynasty in terms of quantity, it is one-sided. Quantity can explain prosperity, but it does not necessarily mean the breakthroughs and transcendence especially when we test its value from the development of this genre. Less than Yuan and more than Qing, is the actual status of Off-stage Tune in the Ming Dynasty.

14.1 The Endeavors of Ci Poetry Writers of the Ming Dynasty in Its Decline 1.

The characteristics of Ci poetry in the Ming Dynasty

Chen Zilong’s Preface for Orchid Grass Poems has a brief and comprehensive comment on Ci poetry in the Ming Dynasty: Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been a large number of talents, literati and poets. The creation was in no way to compare with that of the Song Dynasty. The most known authors © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_14

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were from Qingtian, Xindu and Loujiang,1 Their works have the integration of their spirit and style, but there is nothing remarkable. It is easier to aquire knowledge, like putting on make up by using powder or drawing eyebrows,which is redundant. The beauty in Yuan Dynasty works is like taking them out of the natural scenes. However, high brow poems like “under the Phoenix Bridge”can also fall into being a Wu ballad. It’s not just a matter of lacking talent, but a matter of carelessness,which eventually lead to massive scale plagarism. The North and South Nine Temples were sophisticated, but the actors no longer followed older fashion. It was less polular, with less writers and fewer creations.2

Who can be the representative of Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty? There have been different choices since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. These can be ignored. It is more important to understand the situation of Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty by understanding the following two points: First, the literati of the Ming Dynasty didn’t care about the creation of Ci poetry, which explains why their achievements were not high; second, Ci poetry had the tendency of turning into folk songs at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which was synchronized with the popularity of folk songs at that time; third, the popularity of northern and southern tunes greatly weakened the influence of traditional Ci. “It was less polular, with less writers and few creations.” These phenomena show the interaction of cause and effect. In modern times, Wang Yi also discussed the shortcomings of Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty: “Those attached to the form were more restricted by its metrics, those attached to the spirit did not express enough true feelings and noble temperament.”3 He also noted that their words are often explicit with no lingering effect. Those who followed the bold style tended to be rough and unconstrained, and those who followed graceful style tended to be feeble and have no character. In addition, they were mostly not good at metrics, writing without observing the rules. Upon learning that northern and southern tunes are open to the switching of tones, adding and reducing the lyrics and changing the rhymes, they thought that the same is true with Ci, by being totally free of restrictions from any rules. The falsehood passed from one to another, and thus ridiculous works were produced.4 This criticism makes sense, but in general, it evaluates Ci from a traditional perspective, by which Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty was definitely against the rules of Ci from either form or content. By the same token, the new characteristics of Ci by merging the influence of popular literature and modifications were considered a malady. There were some “perfect” Ci Poetry from the Song Dynasty, such as Xin Qiji’s many Ci works; Ci of the Song Dynasty also had some works that didn’t stick to the rules, such as Dongpo Ci. As far as “true feelings and noble temperament” are concerned, Ci of the Ming Dynasty is not totally absent, but just can’t be compared with Ci of the Song Dynasty. 2.

Periods and creations

As Ci poetry was not given much attention in the Ming Dynasty, there was no influencial schools established. Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun, the literati of the societies 1

Represented respectively by Liu Ji, Yang Shen and Wang Shizhen. Chen Zilong: Collected Works of Chen Zilong, East China Normal University Press, 1988, p. 85. 3 Wang Yi: History of Ci and Tunes, Oriental Press, 1996, p. 346. 4 History of Ci and Tunes, p. 347. 2

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as Li Wen and Jiang Pingjie were all referred to as Cloud Ci school, which can be regarded as the only Ci school. In this case, the development of Ci Poetry of the Ming Dynasty can be roughly divided into three periods. The following is a brief introduction to the more distinctive Ci writers of different periods. (1)

Ci poets in the early Ming Dynasty

From the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Ci writers in the early Ming Dynasty either expressed the sadness of the times, or inherited a delicate style at the end of the Yuan Dynasty as seen in their poetry. Although their personal characteristics were not distinctive, they still carried the style of the Song Dynasty. Wang Guowei’s Poetic Remarks on the Human World (Appendix 1) said: “In the generations of the Ming Dynasty, Yuefu declined. Of Love and Rhymes on Boat still have the Yuan Dynasty’s legacy.” Liu Ji’s collection of Ci is called Collection of Love. The long verse is gloomy and sad, and the short verse is clear and beautiful. The former has a personal style, far better than the short one. Fishing. Jinling Autumn Night is an example: It’s a desolate and lonely hall in the moon. it is unbearable when wild geese moan.Hair turning gray on the temple, crispy like the blown willow.Red door is closing in rustling, upon the steps leaves are falling. A broken soul is wandering away. Needless to keep it in memory. Sleepless in the long long night, accompanied by the cricket sound. In woodcutting and fishing, with heaven we are competing. A waste of time to strive for fame. The fleeting years are like the Yangtze River passing, looking back to see the boundless blue clouds. Looking in vain, from the beauty of lotus and yellow blossoms only found a heart broken, worn out by wind and rain. Lonely old South Dynasty, my nostalgia is calling,when my tears dropping,with my hands on the railing. (Collection of Liu Ji, Vol. 11th )

In Zhizheng 20th year, Liu Ji was recruited by Zhu Yuanzhang to Nanjing to help in Zhu Yuanzhang’s military strategy and to fulfill his own ambitions in life. The sad scenery and sentiment in this Ci poem seem to be inconsistent with the complacent situation of the poet. However, after the great upheaval in the ancient capital of Jinling, the feelings of the vicissitudes of life came forth, which makes it reasonable. His personal exprience of the upheaval and his feeling towards the scenery of the ancient capital called for the sadness of the changing of dynasties, which overwhelmed his individual complacency. The style of Liu Ji’s long verse can be an expression of the times. As for the short verse of Charming Eyes, from the theme to the technique, it is only the copy of the predecessors’ stereotype. In Poetic Stories in Zhushan Hall (Vol. 2nd), Chen Ting pointed out: “The two lines of ‘wild geese murmured in low clouds’ and ‘spring mountain grass recolored green in Autumn’ are touching, and were never questioned by anyone before. In my opinion, they are the modification of old lines of ‘long wild geese road with open clouds’ and ‘spring grass greener in autumn.’” Gao Qi had Collection of Rhymes on Boat. He was talented, and his Ci poem style is majestic, such as Tune of Spring Pavilion. Wild Goose; or gentle and lovely, such as Moving Fragrance “such gorgeous makeup”. Jiang Chengzi. Boat Woman (not included in the Collection of Rhymes on Boat) is charming, similar to folk songs:

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Lotus skirt is the best for autumn,by the willow, rowing the boat. Glance of the eyes, flowing with dusk waves . People turned back and smiled, not being bothered, but shyness felt. Against the setting sun is the West Tower. Returning to rest, no need to keep the guest. By the bay teaching singing, with moon of Huzhou shining. Disturbing the madarin duck is not to be feared, but the worried one on the river to be cared.5

Besides the works of Liu Ji and Gao Qi, there are still some works that are refreshing, such as works of Yang Ji and Qu you, but mostly they are imitations of predecessors without much creativity. Xie Jin (1369–1415), style name Da Shen or Jin Shen, was from Jishui (now Jiangxi Province). In Hongwu 21st year (1388), he was appointed as state secretary, and later was deposed for criticizing Emperor Taizu with a long report of ten thousands words. He was the first scholar of Hanlin Academy in Yongle years, presiding over the compilation of Yongle Canon, and was deeply trusted by Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty. Later, he was imprisoned for the crime of “disregarding royal courtesy” and died in prison three years later. He had Collection of Wenyi, and the collection of Ci poetry is called Collection of Spring Rain Study. His short verse was particularly admired, as the following single tune of Falling Plum Wind: The Moon Godness in sight, turning round tonight. Dropping down the cloud curtain, her Majesty is hidden. Holding the rail without sleeping, watching the Guanghan Palace who is passing.6

According to Lang Ying’s Seven Categories of Classic Works, Vol. 29th, the poem was written at the Mid Autumn Festival banquet of Emperor Chengzu in the Ming Dynasty in Yongle years. At that time, the moon was covered by clouds, Jie Jin made the poem and the moon rose in the middle of the night. Emperor Chengzu laughed and said, “A talent can be the controller of heaven!” His words are clear cut with no redundance, distinguishing himself with his natural style. (2)

Ci poets in the middle and late Ming Dynasty

In this period, there were many poets and their styles were similar to those of the same period. It’s just that the tradition of Ci is to express personal feelings, so there are more sentimental Ci poems, but there are also some poets who write about their ambitions, talk about current events, or uphold their bold and unconstrained spirits. The Collection of Dongli is Ci poetry by Yang Shiqi, the first of “Three Yangs”. His style of Ci is similar to that of his pavilion poetry, such as ten poems made for peaceful times Qing Ping Le. Longevity Mountain Tour. He wrote Red River in his later years with spring, summer, autumn and winter as the theme to descripe the pasture life, with his constant leisurely style, calm demeanor, presenting the refreshing scenes, such as Spring Herding: “A cotton robe, brown hat worn in a casual mode, blown by the east wind.” Autumn Fishing: “Music sound, before white gull from the flute, the tune South of the river” (The Collection of Dongli. Sequel. Vol. 62nd). 5

Complete Works of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Zhonghua Book Company, 2004, p. 159. See Collection of Wenyi, Vol. 4th from Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library.

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Shen Xuan, the year of birth and death unknown, had the style name of Mingde, pseoudonym Two Mountains, and he was from Renhe (now Zhejiang Province). He lived outside Wulin in Hangzhou. He had the positions of graduate candidate, then tribute officer and instructor of Anqing School in Wanli reign. He was good at poetry and landscape painting. He had two Ci poems New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to describe the customs of Hangzhou in the rhyme of “A butterfly loves flowers”, which are very colloquial, just like spreading out a painting of local customs. An example in New Year’s Day: Meeting the kitchen god at dawn, firecrackers are making huge sound,urging the door to be opened. Picture of Zhong Kui hung first,the red spring poster framed with gold. Atractylodes heap for the burnig of incense, yellow paper piled with immortal plates, entitled with heaven names. Ashes of paper money covered the ground, in the dusk half of the street is drunk.7

The style of Wen Zhengming’s Ci poetry is graceful, such as “clear water ripples over the pool, the moon rises behind the willow” (Red River. Spring Dusk). The one with the highest realm and the most widely read, is the impassioned Red River. Brushing the Monument: Brushing the remnant stele, the imperial edict it can still tell. Thinking of how Fei was entrusted, sighing for how miserally he ended. Upon the achievments, there came death, lamentations are beyond words. Most innocent, most tragic, in prison being held with hatred. How can it be forgotten, the misery of the Central Plain,the shame of Emperor Hui and Qin ?How can he be enthroned with their return?Condemned by generations for south crossing,for fear of Central Plain’s restoring.Not that the clownish Kuai was empowered, but that his wish is honoured.8

In the Ming Dynasty, Shen Runqing dug into the land and got the stone carved with the imperial edict from Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, which is what the poem was written and what Yue Fei’s Red River was about. While Gaozong praised Yue Fei’s father and son in his imperial edict, he connived Qin Hui to set them up and imprisoned them. The first part starts with concise narration, and the vast and gloomy historical atmosphere covers the rest. Then he denounced Zhao Gou, expressed his sympathy for Yue Fei with his passion and indignation. The unique historical view of the author is reflected in the second part. In an impassioned tone by asking: “how can it be forgotten…”, it goes on to the answer as followed: it is not that Zhao Gou had “forgotten”, but that he was being selfish. What was he concerned about was only if he would be able to be throned if the Central Plains were restored and Emperor Huizong came back. “For fear of Central Plain’s restoring” revealed the truth of its history: the reason why a common courtier Qin Hui was able to kill Yue Fei was due to the fact that he catered to Zhao Gou’s selfish intentions (his wish is honoured). For hundreds of years, there have been many people writing in the ryhme of “Red River”, expressing grievances for Yue Fei, with the theme of 7

See Garden of Ci Poetry, Vol. 1st, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 8 Complete Works of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, p. 501.

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praising Yue Fei’s loyalty and scolding Qin Hui’s treacherous conduct. That is to say, writing on the same themes by taking the homonyms of the Ming Dynasty, such as Xia Yan’s Ryhming with Yue Wu Mu and Zhang Kentang’s Rhymes Upon Worshiping Yue Wu Mu Temple. Wang Shizhen’s Red River. Ryhme with Shen Shitian’s Poem on Emperor Gaozong’s Edict to Yue Fei said: “The minister’s edict on twelve golden plates, the stormy paper sending him to the King’s prison.” “Looking from the north the minister Gou resides, the branch of the south will demise upon the revival of the Central Plains.” This is also a remodeling work of similar subjects, but not as sharp as Wen Zhengming’s. No matter from its content or form, Wen Zhengming’s works are distinguished among the works in the Ming Dynasty. Yang Shen (Sheng An) has two volumes of Ci poetry. He is famous for his erudite knowledge and versatile creation among the writers of the Ming Dynasty. Kuang Zhouyi’s comments on Yang’s Ci in Notes on Huifeng Ci Poetry, Vol. 5th said, “I pride myself on my own comprehensive knowledge and I never accept the writings of making up or deceiving. Upon reading Yang’s poems, I can’t help but smile at his wonderful ideas and exquisite expressions, which are beyond the reach of ordinary talents.” However, when Yang Shen’s erudition applied to Ci writing, it had a problem of overusing citations. His omnipotence in all kinds of styles made his creation of Ci less elaborate. His short Ci has the strength of beinge subtle, such as Lip Rouge Travel Notes, Qing Pingle Palace, Moonlit Mountains Spring. The beauty of Yang’s Ci lies in its slang and vulgarity, which was the weakness by the standards of traditional Ci criticism, but by the marvelous natural beauty presented by Yang’ s Ci poetry. Examples are his twelve pieces of “Fisherman’s Pride. Southern Yunnan Moon Festival”, written on a monthly basis to describe the flower festivals in which they are full of vitality. The long verse Tune of Spring Pavilion expresses his broad mindedness and unrestrained feelins: On birthday drink for a self toast, chanting by the waterfront, alone sitting by the mountain side. Laughing at the soldiers dancing, weapons put away with enemies retreating, not much done by the talents of writing. Coming back old, time of noble birth away in another world. Spring Festival is good, filling in the pot, drinking to enjoy the blooming sight. Drums beating for the flower blooming, like wine color rose apples fermenting. The Milky Way flows,fillinged the laurel moon with silver juice. Red cloud on the island, fragrant snow in the cave, the drunken beauty wrapped in brocade quilt.In a land of intoxication, meeting is to drink with no return.9

Tang Xianzu was mistakenly regarded as the first Ci poet in the late Ming Dynasty for being a legendary figure of a generation. Collection of Ancient and Modern Ci Poetry compiled by Zhuo Renyue collected 15 Tang Xianzu’s Ci (including one by Gao Qi by mistake); Wang Yi’s History of Ci and Tune comments that “there were few poets in the late Ming Dynasty, the one to be ranked on top should be Tang Xianzu …he has ‘Ci Poetry of Yumingtang Hall’”.10 However, Tang Xianzu did not have Ci Poetry of Yumingtang Hall. This long-term misunderstanding did not start from Wang Yi. Maybe people were influenced by Li Yi’s opening line “West River 9

Complete Works of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, p. 790. Not found in Collection of Sheng An. See History of Ci and Tune, p. 360.

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Moon” in Episode 1 of Purple Hairpin “embellishing the Red Spring old version, update it with Yuming new words.” In fact, the so-called Tang Ci were compiled from “Four Dreams”. On Return of Ruan Lang from Selected Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty of Lan Gao, Vol. 2nd, the line “not knowing much of the world but feeling attached” is entitled Boudoir Resentment. A line in Good News “it is drizzlig outside the curtain” is entitled “Sorrow and Resentment”. In fact, the first one was seen in Episode 14 Portrait of Peony Pavilion in the ryhme of “Drunken Peach Land”, which is the opening song of Du Liniang and Chunxiang. The second one is found in Episode 39 Poems by Candle Tears in Purple Hairpin, which is the opening song of Little Jade. Selected Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty of Lan Gao Examples said: “No Ci manuscriptions were found in the Ming Dynasty, which was always regrettable. The editor made the research but it was in vain. Nothing was found…even from Tang Xianzu.” Tang Xianzu’s two poems collected in this book are just a small remodel work. The Synthesis of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty collected the two poems from Selected Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty of Lan Gao.11 History of Ci and Tune by Wang Yi, a modern author, also adopted what is found in Return of Ruan Lang. So far, some editors have listed Tang Xianzu as a Ci poet. For example, Complete Works of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty collected 15 Tang Xianzu’s Ci poems from Collection of Ancient and Modern Ci, Collection of Sitting Hermit also collected one poem from Tang Xianzu, all of which were based on the same misunderstanding. Tang Xianzu was not a Ci poet as he didn’t have special Ci works nor Ci collections. Shi Shaoxin, style name Ziye, called himself Wandering Fairy of Mountain and Lake. He was from Huating (now Shanghai) Zhu Sheng, but the age of his birth and death is unknown. His temperament was relaxed and uninhibited, being fond of prostitution and good at music. He was an admirer of the Yuefu music made by Zhang Sanying (Zhang Xian of the Northern Song Dynasty) and he had his Ci work entitled The Collection of Flower Shadows. Shi Shaoshen’s writings, especially the short verse, have a lot of elegant lines, lyrical and sincere. Two Examples are cited here in his West River Moon. Nostalgia, “Never thought of the world to be so complicated, by now all thinkings are redundant”, “Seeing indicates disconnecting,thinking recalls cherished feelings.”12 Chen Jiru (1558–1639), style name Zhongchun and pseoudonym Meigong, was from Huating (now Shanghai). He got prepatory candidacy to the school of imperial examinations at the age of 20 and later made himself a hermit, He had a wide social circle and was the author for the two volumes of The Poems of the Late Fragrance Hall. His short verses are natural and unrestrained, mostly expressing a relaxed state of mind with Taoist preachings, such as Willows in the Wind: Swallows fly to repair the old nest,the thatched cottage is wide, no mansion is needed. The song of water, the picture of mountain, upon them green is coloring.

11

For details, please refer to Synthesis of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 4th, Selected Works of the Four Branches of Literature. 12 See Selected Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty of Lan Gao, p. 48.

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Knocking from the guest’s cane, coming for bamboo scene.Home is the garden,vegetables with the stream to be seen. Wine filled,rice cooked,the sun is radiant and life is blessed.13

(3)

Ci poets at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Wu Ye (1612–1646), style name Risheng and pseudonym Shuoqing, was a native of Wujiang (now Wujiang City, Jiangsu Province). In Chongzhen 10th year (1637), he became Jinshi. Being adept with both the pen and the sword, he was well known in the literary circle and served Prince Fu after the demise of the Ming Dynasty. In the first year of Hongguang, he took Taihu Lake as the base to fight against the Qing soldiers. After his defeat, his family drowned in water. He swam away, gathered the rest of his troops and continued to fight against Qing. The next year, he was captured and died at Caoqiao Gate in Hangzhou. According to The Synthesis of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Vol. 7th, Wu Tong had two volumes of Echoing Ci of Southern Lake, and modern scholar Zhao Zunyue said he had 21 poems in his A Summary of the Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty in Xiyin Hall. As an anti Qing general, Wu Xu’s words were impassioned, and some later poets believed that it was the inheritance of Wen Tianxiang’s Song of Uprightness. The broken country aroused his strong patriotic feelings. In his poems, he expressed his fighting spirit with a romantic imagination. He was obviously influenced by Xin Qiji. More than once, he used Nuwa, the mythical goddess who mended the sky, as a metaphor to express his feelings of serving the country, such as: “willing to turn into colored stone, to make up for the broken earth and heaven.” (Red River. Echoing to Wang Zhaoyi) “who has the hand to repair the sky?” (To the Bridegroom. Cherished Memory). In response to abundant patriotic feelings, the images of Wu Ke’s Ci poetry are grand and magnificent, such as “the great conqueror in dominance, overwhelming ten thousand crossbows” (Fishing. Zhejiang Tide). “Leaning on the sword, surrounded by the dead in Kunlun, the blood of whales is washed by the star ocean” (Red River. Danyang Road on New Year’s Eve). Wu Ke’s Ci works, fused with romantic passion, had a bold and unconstrained style among the Ci of the Ming. Waves. Death Sentence shows the poet’s spirit of seeing death as a return and his grief and indignation with unfulfilled ambition. The second part goes, “Singing and laughing by the jar of wine, stirring high up in the sun. Shooting the wolf of sky in drunk, looking for my lost world, a dream ended.” The most representative of Wu’s bold and unconstrained style is Nian Nujiao. Crossing the River in Snow. The opening part presents vividly to the readers the mountain and river momentum of “between the river and the sky, at daybreak, thousands of trees and mountains contend” and the tragic feeling of “silver armour, frost and dagger, funeral of three armies occur”, and a hero image of “sweeping through the mountains, driving across the states, for the country life is to sacrifice.”14 In contrast to the numerous schools of poetry, Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty did not have schools. At the end of the Ming Dynasty. The Cloud School of Ci, headed 13

See Imperial Selection of Poetry in the Past Dynasties, Vol. 43rd, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. 14 The above is quoted from Complete Works of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, pp. 2915, 2916, 2918.

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by Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun, had a certain influence, and its members were roughly equal to the Cloud School of poetry. Notes of Golden Grain Ci Poetry written by Peng Sunhui in the Qing Dynasty said: “Of all the modern poets,Cloud School was the most popular.” Chen Zilong, Li Wen and Song Zhengyu were called “Three Poets of Cloud”. They had a collection of Ci, Orchid Grass, which is a collection of the early works of the three. Wang Guowei didn’t think highly of this school. He said in the Poetic Remarks on the Human World (deleted), “Ci in the Tang, Northern Song and Five Dynasties was elegant and truthful. The works by the Cloud are just flaunterous. This is the case for ‘Xiang Zhen’ (Chen Zilong’s Ci collection), what can be expected from the works next to it?” If we look into the theory of Ci history, Wang Guowei’s evaluation is not harsh. However, the works of Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun, and Wu Ke, which came into being in the process of fighting against Qing to rescure the country, can not be generalized as being flaunterous. Wu Weiye compiled six volumes of Echoing Ci Poems composed of six Ci collections. Among them is Chen Zilong’s Xiangzhen Pavilion Manuscripts. The background of this collection was the bloody Anti Qing war after the demise of the Ming Dynasty, which is totally different from that of Orchid Grass. The style and images may not have changed much, but the flauntery was mostly replaced by indignation and sorrow. The style of Chen and Xia’s Ci works is the most graceful, which is totally different from their general vigorous style of poems. This difference is particularly obvious in the patriotic themes. Patriotic feelings are expressed directly, vigorously and passionately, while in their Ci works, they are expressed euphemisticly with a spring boudoir resentment. It can be seen that they complied with the tradition of gracefulness as the authentic in the creation of Ci, which is in sharp contrast with Wu Ke. Chen Zilong showed in the Inscription of Orchid Grass that in his eyes, Ci poetry is just “an insignificant skill” and “a game”. This is also the consensus of Cloud School. Due to their different attitudes towards the creation of Ci and poetry, their achievements are different. However, the lyric tradition of graceful Ci, characterized by comparisions and metaphors, was inherited by scholars like Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun who fought against Qing in the south of the Yangtze River during the drastic social change at the end of Ming Dynasty. It was definite the pain of national subjugation and their life experience that brought about the unique aesthetic value and influenced the Ci style of the scholars in the early Qing Dynasty under similar backgrounds. For Chen Zilong’s Ci poems, there are two unique views in Selected Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty of Lan Gao, one is Hu Yingchen’s comment in volume three of Layered Mountain. Nostalgia: “The poet’s Ci is about how how was wandering in sorrow, which equals Emperor Li’s nostalgic poems, but rather than washing his face with tears as Li, he was burying his soul with blood,truely touching.” Another is Gu Jingfang’s comment in volume seven of Nian Nujiao. Orchid Chanting in Spring Snow: “This is a big vase of fragrant blossoms,the image that Xiangzhen Pavilion first presents to the readers.”15 When we look for Chen Zilong’s true feelings, we can see that he often had one or two images in his implicit metaphors, which indicates the 15

Selected Ci poetry of the Ming Dynasty of Lan Gao, pp. 73, 153.

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direction of his true feelings. This kind of image reveals the secret of his emotions that could not be explained with common expressions between men and women. For example, Tang Duoling. Cold Food: Green grass with fragrant forest. water filled in the cold pond. Away to the hills the wind and rain blew in deep night. On the flowers the rain drops, running down the blossom cheeks all the tears. Double floors embroidered with gold, in Pingsha the oil-walled cart. The palace beauty loves the willows outside. Looking back to Xiling at the pinestreet, thinking of you is my constant broken heart.16

“Xiling” in the last part was the mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty. The title Cold Food means the Tomb Sweeping Day in the Chinese calender. These are the poet’s last words. The title echoes with the image of the conclusion, which is easier for the readers to understand the patriotic feelings of the poet conveyed by his sentimental expressions. As a poet of the same school, Xia Wanchun used the same metaphors to express his hatred for the destruction of the country and his patriotic feelings in Candle Shadow in Red. Resentment,17 The first part narrates the words of a palace beauty who was out of favor to express the hatred for the loss of the country, while the second part is told from a depressed prince for a family foe. The opening is filled with implications: “Not living up to the work of heaven,like the Nine Cloud spring ocean. Dreams ended in broken heart, waiting by the silver jar.” Heaven blessed the palace with the beauty of spring, and those who failed to keep it are to be blamed rather than blaming it on heaven. This implies the poet’s condemnation of the rulers of the Ming Dynasty who led to the collapse of their country. The next few lines indicate the dream-like ambition of restoring the country, but he won’t give up even with a broken heart. It is said in the second part, “once the dynasty is changed, the soul is lost and prosperity is gone.” “The change of the dynasty” symbolizes the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and “the soul is lost” and “prosperity is gone” show the deeply felt pain of the country’s subjugation. What follows is the description of luxurious scenes of “golden hairpin” and “pearl shoes”. The former refers to the beauty, while the latter refers to the guest. According to Historical Records Biography of Master Chunshen: “Master Chunshen had three thousand guests, all of whom went to see the official from Zhao in pearl shoes.” Although the style of Ci is sad and euphemistic, the ambition of young heroes are vividly depicted. Liu Rushi (1618–1664), a native of Wujiang (now Jiangsu Province). Her family name was Yang, first name Ai. Later, she changed her family name as Liu, first name as Yin. She had the style name of Rushi, pseudonym East River and Meiwu. Liu Rushi was highly achieved in her poetry creation. At that time, no famous prostitute could compare with her in Ci creation. She first had a relationship with Chen Zilong, then married Qian Qianyi. In her early years, she was involved in the politics of the 16

Chen Zilong: Poetry Collection of Chen Zilong, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1988, p. 611. 17 Xia Wanchun: Annnotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1991, p. 377.

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late Ming Dynasty and the anti Qing struggles in the south of the Yangtze River. After Qian Qianyi died, she hanged herself. Liu Rushi was slandered and framed by many Taoists during her life time and after her death. For this person, Chen Yinke, a famous historian, wrote the Biography of Liu Rushi with more than 800,000 words, from which a few lines are quoted here from volume three of her representative work Jinming Pond. Chanting for Winter Willows annotated by Chen Yinke: A cold tide of disappointment, an afterglow of a ruthless heart, right at the Southern riverside. Wind blowing, alone in frost standing, remember the old days of willow catkins flying? Coming late, in smoky sun set, dancing to the travelers to show the slim waist. Haunted by the haggard desolation, consoled by the pavilion composition.

Spring makes the autumn rain, the past fun with today’s heart broken. Even if touring the dike in your fancy boat, gone with the wind, the water backs to be quiet. Recalling the past, through curtains brushed by the east wind, frowning and worried. Dating the plum ghost at dusk, whispering to tell my sentiment.18 By using the same rhyme of Qin Guan’s poem Dynasty, many predecessors’ poems and opera compositions are not only so harmonized in one piece, but also are all appropriate and natural in many places, which shows the author’s great talent.

14.1.1 The Creation and Development of the Off-stage Tune 1.

The rectification of the Off-stage Tune and its status in the Ming Dynasty

Generally speaking, non opera music is called Various Tunes, which does not make sense. As Various Tunes script is different from Qupai couplet opera in that it is the same kind of tune without stage performance. Short Verse was originally used in lexicology, though often borrowed in music, but has a different style. Off-stage Tune is a concept opposite to opera, so it is called Off-stage Tune by Hu Wenhuan in his Classification of Music. It is a form of singing art, also known as oratorio. The songs are composed of two styles: individual songs and couplet songs. According to Hu’s classification, only couplet songs can be divided into Off-stage Song and opera. There is some truth in his statement. Qupai couplet is the main form of ancient Chinese opera. Opera is mainly composed of singing, supplemented by performance, technically referred to as “listening to opera” rather than “watching opera”. It’s in the Off-stage Tune that the music is separated from the stage and sung alone on certain occasions. At that time, the difference between Off-stage Tune and opera was just like the difference between the singing concert and the performance on stage. Compared with traditional Chinese opera, Off-stage Tune didn’t need makeup, dialogue nor performance. It only had simple musical accompaniment and singing. Its popular premise is roughly the same as that for traditional Chinese opera. As far as most Jin and Yuan Zaju are concerned, Northern Song is just a lyric aria, which had little performance nor plot. Zaju is mainly composed of music, supplemented 18

Chen Yinke: Biography of Liu Rushi, Beijing Sanlian Bookstore, 2001, pp. 342–343.

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by dialogue. In this regard, there is no difference between the sets in Zaju and Offstage Tune. The common features between the Off-stage Tune sets and those of Zaju, Southern Opera and legend are dominant, while the differences are secondary. Hu Wenhuan’s classification mentioned in the above is reasonable, but he neglected that Clear Song includes both organized sets and unorganized individual songs, both of which could be sung in an off-stage style. Wang Jide’s Rules of Tunes.on Short Verse said: “The so-called Short Verse of Songs is just folk singing by common people.” Yangzhou Off-stage Tune can also be used as circumstantial evidence of the above statement. According to the Encyclopedia of China. Opera.Volume of Tunes, Yangzhou Off-stage Tune is a kind of local music that originated in Yangzhou and became popular in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It was a ditty based on the folk song of the Yuan Dynasty while absorbing various other local folk songs. The period of its formation was roughly equivalent to the the popular time for [hanging on the branch] and [silver thread] in mid-Ming Dynasty, when Short Verse was a fashion. The Qupai of Short Verse contained in “Popular Short Verse” in Anthology of Wanli by Shen Defu is commonly used in Yangzhou Qingqu, and most of them remain in Yangzhou Qingqu up until now. There are two kinds of Yangzhou Clear Song, which was composed of a single piece (an individual song) and couplet songs. The former is short and lyrical, while the latter can be used to sing a complete story. No matter the source or the system of Yangzhou Off-stage Tune, it is proved that Off-stage Tune is the oratorio of the concert. We can also find examples from Notes on The Golden Lotus: there are hundreds of times when Notes on The Golden Lotus talks about singing, among which there are individual songs and couplet songs. Without the Qupai names or the first sentence, there are as many as 20 couplet songs and 120 individual songs quoted in it. Among them, there are not only popular songs such as [lock south branch locked], [hillside sheep], but also the original works of Yuan and Ming scholars. We should supplement Hu Wenhuan’s classification by referring individual songs and couplet songs as Clear Song instead of undefined Various Tunes. Contrary to the positive view to the increased number of the Clear Songs in the Ming Dynasty, some researchers think that the Off-stage Tune of the Ming Dynasty lost its inherent style, life flavor and fighting function in the Yuan Dynasty. It was better than the Ming Clear Song with its characteristics of elegant composition, euphemistic style from the southern tune, and the expression of romance in content. From another perspective, these shortcomings may be characteristics of Clear Song in the Ming Dynasty. It is unfair to demand Clear Song of the Ming Dynasty to have the inherent style of theYuan Dynasty. The popularity of the southern tune and romance description are two features of Off-stage Tune in the Ming Dynasty. The former shows the new changes of music in the Ming Dynasty, and the latter is the reflection of the style of philistine in the Ming Dynasty. Without them, what is the identification of Off-stage Tune in the Ming Dynasty? Looking at the development of literature from the mechanical and vulgar sociological perspective can only lead to a one-sided negation of literature in later generations. There are many reasons why Off-stage Tune of the Ming Dynasty can be inherited from the Yuan Dynasty, developed and made some achievements. There are at least three main factors:

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First, further prosperity of opera in the Ming Dynasty promoted the development of Off-stage Tune. Since the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, not only had mature opera declined in the Ming Dynasty, but also Zaju had been staged. The southern opera has developed into the mainstream of opera in the Ming and Qing Dynasties as legend. The legendary scripts of the Ming Dynasty can be sung in any of the four major tunes of southern opera. Later, after the modification of Wei Liangfu and the practice of Liang Chenyu, Kun Tune became the dominant tune from the late Ming Dynasty till the early and middle Qing Dynasty. Yuan Opera was originally divided into opera and Off-stage Tune, and their prosperity was inter related. During the prosperity of legendary opera in the Ming Dynasty, Zaju and southern opera were still popular. There were both northern tune and southern tune. The potential for the development of Off-stage Tune was great and its prosperity was inevitable. The northern Off-stage Tune (Xiansuo), which was popular in the Yuan Dynasty, spread into Wuzhong after the the Ming Dynasty and became the Southern Song. The rise of Kun Tune, with its soft and beautiful tone, won the scholar’s love and swept the world. These two turning points promoted the prosperity of Off-stage Tune in the Ming Dynasty. This was recorded in Opera from Guest’s Verbosity by Gu Qiyuan in Wanli 46th year: Before the reign of Wanli in the southern capital, princes, gentry and rich families, when there was a party, would use Various Music (i.e. Clear Song) played by three or four or more people in big sets of northern tune,by using musical instruments such as zithers, pipas, threestringed violins or clappers… Later, they changed and sang in southern tune. The singers only used a small clapper, or replaced it with fans,occasionally with drums in between. Today, there is Kunshan tune, more elegant than Haiyan tune, the length of a word extended to a few breaths, the literati expressed the essence of the heart, remarkable indeed.19

After that, there were similar discussions in the “Comments on the strings” in the Guide of Tunes by Shen Chong Sui. In the episode of “Survival and Downfall of String Rules” in this book, Wang Shizhen was quoted as saying: “the strength of north is in the string, and the power if the south is in the clapper,” which shares common ground as Wang Jide’s “the second comment on the southern and northern tunes” in his On Metrics. When northern tune was popular in the south, the oratorios were only using small clappers or fans instead. Before the rise of Kun Tune, Off-stage Tune was prevalent in the south. After the rise of Kun Tune, the Wujiang School of opera writers, who emphasized rules, such as Shen Jing, Wang Jide and Shen Zijin, created Collective Tune (Fan Tune), so that the new tunes continued to derive. This had undoubtedly expanded the generating capacity of new songs and promoted the prosperity of Off-stage Tune. Clear Song was popular in the Ming Dynasty. Although, like Ci, with the development of the times, its musical part has been completely lost and become pure written literature, its relationship with the development of legendary opera in the Ming Dynasty can not be ignored in tracing back to the cause of the prosperity of Clear Song in the Ming Dynasty.

19

See Historical Record Series of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Zhonghua Book Company, 1987, p. 303.

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Secondly, the need of literati’s life and lyricism promoted the prosperity of Offstage Tune. Since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the literati’s life style had been dissolute, and their writings were different. They used southern tune (called “Wushe” and “Wusao”) as their tunes, with content of romance, which catered to people’s wishes of pursuing new voices and the extravagant style of the whole society. These two situations resulted in a sharp increase in the quantity of Clear Song in the Ming Dynasty, but the other side of this prosperity is the drastic decrease of quality comparing with those of the Yuan Dynasty. On the other hand, with the aggravation of social contradictions in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there were also some honest or unsuccessful literati who felt social injustice and the crisis acutely. Therefore, they used Off-stage Tune, a form of playing, laughing and cursing used by the Yuan people, to lash out at social reality, vent their anger in their hearts, and reveal social malpractice; some scholars also used the soft and gentle music features of southern tune to express the sincere love between men and women. These two kinds of works are few, but they can be compared with the Off-stage Tune of the Yuan Dynasty in part. The third is that the popularity of philistine ditties promoted the prosperity of Clear Song in the Ming Dynasty. Although the Clear Song of the Ming Dynasty inherited the refined tendency of those in the late Yuan Dynasty, the influence of popular folk songs on the Clear Song of literati at that time was obviously greater. In addition to the flavor of popular songs in their work, some scholars in Ming Dynasty wrote Clear Song completely in popular song style. Needlessly to say, Feng Menglong’s Oleander is typical. Other scholars were also greatly interested in this current style, such as [Luo River resentment] and [silver thread] in Zhao Nanxing’s Yuefu of Fangru Garden [south branch locked] and [jade belly] in Feng Weimin’s Ci Manuscript of Haifu Mountain Hall Hall [hanging on the branch], and [double green] in Liu Xiaozu’s Ci Treasures. The influence of popular songs on the literati’s Clear Song in the Ming Dynasty deserves our attention. It can also be considered as a source of literati’s Clear Song creation. 2.

Different styles of Off-stage Tune in different periods

As mentioned above, the prosperity of Clear Song in the Ming Dynasty is closely related to the changes of opera music and the life of scholars. Its development should be divided into two periods in terms of music. Many scholars agree with this view. At the same time, it is also consistent with the changes of their theme and style that Clear Song brought about by changes of its social context. Off-stage Tune of the Ming Dynasty is divided into several schools, and there are different divisions based on different grounds.20 As Off-stage Tune is oratorio, the schools should be divided on the basis of areas the music belongs to rather than 20

Lu Kanru and Feng Yuanjun put them into three different schools: the school represented by Feng Weimin, Wang Jiusi and Kang Hai inheriting Ma Zhiyuan; the school represented by Wang pan, Jin Luan and Shi Shaoxin inheriting Zhang Kejiu; the school represented by Liang Chenyu, Shen Jing and Wang Jide advocating literary metrics (History of Chinese Poetry, Writers’ Publishing House, 1956, pp. 718–719); Liu Dajie divided it into two schools by the north and the south: the northern school represented by Feng Weimin and the southern school represented by Wang Pan

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on the persons in this regard. Off-stage Tune, like opera, may have been related to certain regions at the beginning, but the relationship became more and more distant as time went by. The difference between dividing the north and the south by music or by regions lies in that the Off-stage Tune of the Ming Dynasty is in the background of the combination of north and south, with the south taking the leading position later. The writers of the Qing Dynasty often wrote both north and south, and did not have a sense of its geographical divisions. Before the rise of Kun Tune, northern tune was still in the dominant position, but soon after, southern tune developed vigorously, meanwhile northern tune became popular in the south. Kun Tune turned to be popular all over the country, breaking the limits of north and south regions. In this case, the division between north and south is just a general view, which may be more in line with the situation of the Off-stage Tune in the Ming Dynasty. The north south division of Chinese literature and art style started from the era of Book of Songs and The Songs of Chu. The southern and northern operas have totally different musical systems. So even if some of them have the same Qupai, the tone is actually different. Music and lyrics correspond to each other, adapt to the needs of expressing different emotions, thus forming different styles. Some descriptions of the different styles of the southern and northern operas by opera theorists in the Ming Dynasty can help us understanding their differences. Wang Jide’s On Metrics said: “The northern tune is like a horse in the battlefield, galloping freely; the southern tune is like a courtesy at the emperor’s feast, gentle and elegant” (Miscellaneous Treatise, Part 39, Vol. 4th). Xu Fuzuo’s Treatise on Music said: “The Off-stage Tune of Wu is like a young girl’s voice,gentle and refreshing.The northern tune is suitable for the General’s Iron Plate song ‘The River Goes East’, which means the style is quite straightforward.” In short, the northern tune is more bold and unconstrained, while the southern tune is more graceful. The preserved collection of Off-stage Tune of the Ming Dynasty was organized according to the time sequence. There is The New Sound of the Prosperous Time in the Ming Dynasty, which was annotated by Zhang Lu and renamed Adaption of Ornate Diction. Later, Guo Xun compiled Yong Xi Yuefu. Zhang Chushu and Zhang Xuchu co edited Complete Works of Wu Sao selected from Wu Sao I, Wu Sao II and Wu Sao III. “Wu Sao” refers to Kun Tune. Zhou Zhiji’s Elegance of Wu Tune is a selection of southern opera. The Various Song Series compiled by Ren Zhongmin today includes five kinds of Various Song collections by Kanghai, Wang Pan, Feng Weimin, Shen Shi and Shi Shaoshen. Xie Boyang’s Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty collected 10,606 pieces of Short Verse with 2,064 sets.21 In the early Ming Dynasty, some writers wrote Off-stage songs in the transferring period from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty with Yuan features. There are also Royal clans like Zhu You, who wrote music for the feasts at the official mansions and the royal palace. In this period, there were not many works of Off-stage Tune

and Shi Shaoxin (History of Chinese Literature, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982, p. 1078). 21 Xie Boyang: Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty, Qilu Publishing House, 1995.

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preserved, the limited few left were poor in content by just following northern tune with no characteristics of the time. With the prevalence of northern tune in the south and the development and popularization of southern tune, the two tunes learned from each other and competed for splendor. On the other hand, the extravagant style and the exposure of various social contradictions were parallel, which broadened the views of some Off-stage Tune writers and they got involved in more social life. Since Hongzhi’s reign, Off-stage Tune had entered a period of prosperity, with writers and works of various themes and styles. The northern tune was realistic and vigorous, while the southern tune was romantic and gentle. Only then did the Off-stage Tune of the Ming Dynasty show its own characteristics. Chen Duo, Wang Pan and Feng Weimin can be the representatives of this period. Chen Duo (about 1488–1521), was born in Xiapi (now Pi County, Jiangsu Province), lived in Nanjing during his life time. He had the style name of Dasheng and pseudonym of Qiubi. He was good at painting and poem writing. He had a free and unrestrained character. He was well-known for his study of music metrics, particularly in compositions. He always had the clapper with him and was known as the “king of music”. Qian Qianyi’s Stories of Poems in All Dynasties (Sketch. Original Vol. III) said that he wrote “the loose sets, balalnced, harmonious and beautiful.When played with instruments, each note fits in accurately.” Complying with the music metrics is the characteristic of Chen duo’s off-stage songs, but rather than doing it in a rigid way he wrote “in consistency with the meanings of the words with a natural flow” (Stories of Poems in All Dynasties. Original C). Although his Pride of Pear Cloud and Autumn Yuefu have been criticized for having more simulations than containing his own talent, they do have some fresh and remarkable parts, such as [east wind intoxication] Secluded Stream which describes the beautiful scenery of autumn evening: “pave the water surface to the glowing sunset, touch the fine reed with the bow of the boat.” “Far in the sky is the picturesque mountain, on the sand of Autumn River its shadow is casting.” Chen Duo’s Qingqu is more natural in Funny Rhyme, especially in the depiction of all kinds of people in the marketplace, capturing the characteristics of the craftsmen and reflecting the life of common people. Among the Off-stage songs in the Qing Dynasty, this is a rare picture of the city dwellers’ life. For example [water fairy], in Bricklayer describes the Bricklayer’s life of laying tile: “being mud till he is old, for decades he’s been working hard” [peace intoxication], in The Porter describes his life of caring the burden: “three hundred and sixty days a year, never a day at leisure” [goose falls], in Blacksmith, in which the descriptions of the craftsmanship and hard work of blacksmiths are particularly true: Sharpening the blade with skill of hand, forging the iron with the mind. The steel is soft and the iron is dry. Day and night, hands never stop, even in summer heat. Hammering all over, there is no complainer. Eight or nine stoves, heatstroke from the bystanders.22

Wang Pan (about 1470–1530),style name Hungjian and pseudonym West Tower, was from Gaoyou (now Jiangsu Province). His Off-stage Tune collection is entitled 22

The above is cited from works of Chen Duo, Various Song of the Ming Dynasty, pp. 451, 525, 530, 553.

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Yuefu of Mr. West Tower. He was born into a rich family, but he was not interested in wealth nor fame. He was fond of classic Chinese works and was attached to the mountains and rivers. He lived in a small building in the west side of the city, where he focused on his study of music, socialized with celebrities, and achieved profoundly in music metrics. His works of chanting mountains and rivers and expressing his leisure mind were derived from his attitude towards life and his life style, but some of his works are satirical, and the sharpness of his writings was no less than that of Yuan writers. These works show that Wang Pan was not completely beyond the mundane world. Qian Qianyi called him and Chen Duo “the crown of southern song” (Stories of Poems in All Dynasties. Original C). Wang Pan’s best works integrate his views of the time into the vivid depiction of the city’s scenery, forming a profound sustenance. Its artistic conception is broad, its momentum is strong, and its style is distinguished, a combination of bold and unconstrained northern song and the refined southern song, which is rare among the Off-stage songs of the Ming Dynasty. His representative works are the individual songs [double tone toad palace] in Lantern Festival [courtesy to prince], in Chanting Trumpet, and couplet songs Lasting Snow. Lantern Festival uses the contrast technique to show the disappointment that the festival is not as it used to be: “Last year’s Lantern Festival sounds, thousands of songs and dances. This year’s Lantern Festival sounds, thousands of worries and complaints.Where were the beauties and carriages of the mortal world, it is now the old wood jackdaws at dusk.” In his works, not only did people lose the taste of poetry and wine, but also the spring wind felt loneliness and isolation. The feelings of the scenes, the contrast between the present and the past, bringing about a broad view of Off-stage Tune. In Chanting Trumpet, current events were satirized by means of certain objects. The humor carries the pungency and anger: “The trumpet, the suona horn, small tune but loud.” “I can see that I have blown over this house and hurt that house, and I can blow all the water away!” The work takes advantage of the sounds of music, satirizes eunuchs who are domineering and bullying people, and shows the disastrous political reality caused by the eunuchs in the period of Emperor Wuzong in the Ming Dynasty. Lasting Snow is a set of songs with profound sustenance and great momentum. It describes the image of snow from a unique perspective in the opening: [a flower] To Yan Pass it is fluttering, to Cheng Gate it is sprinkling.Toward Liang Garden it is flying, across Ba Bridge it is dancing. Hustle and bustle, upside down turning the earth and heaven, burying for good the good fortune. The sun light is worn out, the green mountain lost its color.23

This is the first song in the whole set. Its description of snow is not the common admiration written by the literati, but the violence it has by disturbing and bullying the whole world. The evil side of snow is rendered as a monstrous devil. The second one uses the technique of white drawing to depict the scenery and the allusion to refer to people, which shows the harm of snow to the world, especially to human beings. The 23

The above cited works of Wang Pan are found in Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty, pp. 1044, 1049, 1051.

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concluding part confirmed that when the sun rises and the sky is clear, evil snow will melt naturally: “one day, when the sun is really hot, the warmth claps and the spring breeze rolls to the ground, there will be tens of thousands of icebergs collapsing in an instant. Sweeping the clouds, the sky will be clear and sunny.” The symbolic meanings of snow is rich enough for people to associate it with various evil forces between heaven and earth. The third piece further strengthened this implication with allusions: “to hold the upright Han Tui in Blue Pass, to bury the loyal Su Ziqing in North Sea, to starve the honest Yuan Shaogong in the study.” It can be said that the author’s dissatisfaction with reality is as great as the momentum of the work. Feng Weimin (about 1511–1580), style name Ruxing and pseudonym Haifu, was born in Linqu (now Shandong Province). During Jiajing’s reign, he became the provincial graduate, got the position of judge in Baoding, and later resigned to live in seclusion in the countryside. It is said in Stories of Poems in All Dynasties. Original that “he is good at modern Yuefu, which is popular in East County.” His off-stage songs were collected in the Ci Manuscript of Haifu Mountain Hall. Feng Weimin’s former residence had a unique landscape, so there are many works describing the landscape in his off-stage songs. He once pursued an official career, but was not successful, from which he had a deep understanding of injustice of the world. He was knowledgeable about music metrics, had profound artistic attainments over a lot of off-stage song subjects with a simple and natural style at a very high level. Therefore, he took the leading position among off-stage song writers. The second song [jade lotus] in Happy Rain is a moving pastoral song, which shows the farmers’ joy in the rain after the long drought. The style is lively, natural and refreshing: Dropping off the eaves of the cottage, the newly arrived water from nature,happily prospering the mulberry and hemp everywhere. Thousands of gold worth, rescuing eight families from death. All blooming: buckwheat flower, bean flower, red golden melon seen in the gourd shed.24

Different from the leisure style of the countryside, the couplet songs Suing of the Skull castigates Ming Emperor Shizong’s corrupt official Duan Guyan for the crime of extorting the tombs of the people by means of trial of a homicide case. Strange imagination with a pungent tone, the melancholy and boiling resentments permeate through the work. The rise of Kun Tune in the period of Jia and Long, though not on the top of the opera circle, was a turning point that had an inestimable impact on the development of Clear Song. At this point, the southern tune became more and more popular until the end of the Ming Dynasty. In this period, the composers, represented by Liang Chenyu and Shen Jing, emphasized music metrics and started collective tune and Fan tune, and improved the creative potential of Off-stage Tune; while writers like Xue Longdao introduced the frontier theme into Off-stage Tune, bringing a fresh element to it. This is the period of the decline of northern tune in the development of Off-stage Tune. However, the Off-stage Tune of southern tune did not have many achievements. 24

The above cited works of Feng Weimin are from Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty, pp. 1921, 2100–2103.

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The collection of off-stage songs by Liang Chenyu was named East River White Ramie, which is composed by two volumes. According to Zhang Dafu’s records, Wei Liangfu was able to harmonize the voice and rhythms and produce the most gentle sound, many people competed for being one of his students. “Liang Bolong heard it and followed. He studied and revised Yuan opera, and wrote songs such as East River White Ramie and Laundering Gauze. He also studied music theory with Zheng Sili, which was later learned and passed down in various styles by Tang Xiaoyu and Zheng Meiquan, and it turned out to be Kun Tune.”25 It can be seen that, as the first composer who introduced Kun Tune into the practice of opera creation, Liang Chenyu’s East River White Ramie played an equally important role in Off-stageTune as Laundering Gauze in legendary opera. The Off-stage Tune in East River White Ramie is mostly the work of leisure childes or rich merchants when they were seeking fun in brothels. Works of this kind are common in his collection, such as [good news of Zhonglv] in Zhu Changru’s Gift to Lu Xiaoqiao in Jinling, [double tune gentle steps] in Autumn Farewell to Xing Sulan, [Fairy Lv the poor] In Memory of Ma Xianglan from the Hermit, [the little red peach] in To Chu Qian of the Southern Capital from An Mao. In addition, there are many works of the same nature without information or dates. Under the pressure of life, sometimes Liang Chenyu had to “use his skills in serving people” and “play his own writings of music” (Biographies of Huangming Kunshan Figures), so as to win the favor of the masters and their concubines.26 Taking Liang Chenyu as an example, the clear songs produced on these occasions were all just about ornate diction, in addition to the compliance with music metrics, the songs were to be made as graceful as possible with no emotion nor life experiences involved. So there was a saying then that once the southern Ci came out the song would be put to an end. Shen Jing had one volume of off-stage song collection Crazy Love Murmuring, one volume of New Words Hidden in Prose, and two volumes of Blue Ice in Music Ocean. The original book is lost. In the anthologies such as Taixia New Tunes, Compilation of Wu Music, Love Lyrics under Colored Pens and Yang Zhihong’s manuscript appendix New Composition of Southern Ci Poetry and Tune Reviews, 42 couplet sets (including various palace tunes) and 16 individual off-stage songs are collected.27 Most of Shen Jing’s off-stage songs were written for courtesans, and their artistic level is very mediocre. Occasionally there are some good sentences, but they are far from being perfect for the lack of necessary context. Blue Ice in Music Ocean was the southern song rewritten from a previous northern song. The author’s original intention was that blue is extracted from the indigo plant but is 25

For details, please refer to Kun Tune in Notes on Plum Blossom Cottage, Vol. 12th, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1986, p. 774. 26 For example, Ci Tunes Northern and Southern Sets in Anthology of Wanli, Vol. 25th said that “Liang Shaobai (Chen Yu)’s Mink and Fur Dye (i.e., [spring rhyme of south lv] To Yang Jizhen of Jinling from Shen) was written for a salt merchant who consigned him the work of writing music for the prostitute Yang Xiaohuan of an old brothel in Yangzhou.He was paid 100 gold for his birthday” (Historical Record Series of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Zhonghua Book Company, 1997, p. 640). 27 Collection of Shen Jing compiled and revised by Xu Shuofang, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1991.

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bluer than the latter; and the ice is better than the water but colder than the water. It turned out to be a disappointment by having grandiose aims but puny abilities. For example, the double tone of Zheng Guangzu of the Yuan Dynasty [standing horse listening], “when it rains over the pond where the water is fertile, the clouds return to the ravine and the lean hillside” was changed to “the cloud is going down the the valley, the water is fertile with a lot of rain”. It is just like burning daylight, if not making it worse, at least a move of self defeating. In his works, a large proportion of them were north songs remodeled into south songs, and the newly created Fan tunes and collective tunes, which are so-called “varied songs”. It shows that he put music metrics above the ideological artistry in the creation of off-stage songs. At that time, he was recognized as the authority of music metrics. What is confusing is that his own works, no matter opera or off-stage songs, have quite some arbitrary additions or deletions of words and sentences or lines of no rhymes. According to Wang Jide’s On Metrics, Vol. 4th: “Wujiang abides by music metrics, without a single note wrongly placed, but some major parts are clumsy.” In this comment, “without a single note wrongly placed” is a compliment, while the “some major parts are clumsy” is a fact. Xue Lun Dao (1531?—16)?, style name Tande and pseudonym Lianxi Hermit, was from Dingxing (now Hebei Province). He had his literary name when he was very young and he liked military discussions. He had served in the army for more than 30 years and was once in the position as a general. He resigned to return home but was called back for office again. He had ten volumes of off-stage song collection entitled Rock Jungle of Leisure Mind with various themes, such as the description of frontier fortress scenery, the grievance for unrecognized talent, the cynicism, and the expressions of boudoir interest…but on the whole, they are superficial, which may be due to both his weakness and strength. They are free of the flaunting ornaments commonly found in the off-stage songs during this period, meanwhile it is definitely too rough. The frontier fortress theme is a more distinctive work of Xue Lundao’s off-stage songs, such as the first piece of the couplet set [yellow oriole] Double Ninth Festival on the Frontier Fortress, which presents a vast and magnificent picture, rarely seen in off-stage songs: Year after year on Double Ninth, by Taihang Mountain amid the flags.Ascending on where are the clouds,the sky is immense, the clouds are boundless, the water is endless.The dust of Hu is swept and the mountains and rivers are magnificent. Looking into the wild, where is the royal court? Thousands of miles of autumn frost.28

Zhu Zaiyu (1536–1610)?, style name Boqin and pseudonym Qushan Mountaineer, self named Crazy Man, was from Huaiqing (now Henan Province). He was born into the Ming royal family as the eldest son of Zhu Houtan, Lord Zhenggong. His father was imprisoned in Fengyang for nineteen years because of the royal family riot. He studied music metrics in an earth room outside the forbidden area and accompanied his father. After his father’s death, Zhu Zaiyu gave up the succession of the throne, became obsessed with music studies and wrote the books as the Complete Volume of Music. 28

See Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty, p. 2761.

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His off-stage songs were included in the Ci Poetry of Awakening to the World. Having experienced the pain of the bone and flesh strife, most of Zhu Zaiyu’s offstage songs lamented the overturning of the world, fickleness of human nature, the honor and disgrace in one’s life, or ridiculed all kinds of lamentable and ridiculous things among the aristocracy. For example [hillside sheep], in Away from the Rich has the line “persuading the world from making friends with the rich.” Then it lists all kinds of snobbery and abhorrence of the rich. The works Lamentable Friendship, None to Expect, and [yellow oriole] in No Help Found 29 are obviously the expression of the author’s own feelings [hillside sheep], in Ten Deficiencies30 is reminiscent of Won-Done Song in A Dream of the Red Mansion. Zhu Zaiyu’s off-stage songs are unique among the works from a royal family in the Ming Dynasty. The common characteristics of these works are simple in style, vulgar in language, funny and spicy.

29

The above are from Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty, pp. 2978, 2979, 2981. See Song Selection of the Ming Dynasty compiled by Lu Gong, not found in Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty. 30

Chapter 15

The Popular Folk Songs and Tunes Prevailing Across the Changjiang River

In contrast to the decline of orthodox poetry, since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the tune of folk songs had developed in the fertile soil of rural areas and towns with vigorous vitality. Li Mengyang, the leader of the Early Seven Scholars, realized that true poetry was among the people and learning from folk songs was a way to save traditional poetry. Shen Defu’s Popular Short Verse in Anthology of Wanli, Vol. 25th said: “From Xuanzheng to Cheng and Hong years [south branch locked] was popular in Central Plains again… Mr. Li Kongtong heard it as soon as he moved to Bianliang from Qingyang, and he thought this could be the most popular after Airs of the States. He Dafu was also truly fond of it.”1 Yuan Hongdao, the leader of Gon’an school, also deeply felt the vitality of contemporary folk songs and used it as a contrast to criticize the Seven Scholars’ retro. “I don’t think the poetry of today will be handed down,” he said in On Xiao Xiu’s Poems. “If it should be passed on, it might be the songs of common people, the women and children such as [jade breaking] or [making hay], which are truthful voices from unlearned people of real life. It’s delightful to see that they don’t follow styles of the Han and Wei Dynasties, nor imitate the prosperous Tang Dynasty. To express one’s feelings of anger, joy, sadness and desires is a better way to communicate.” Feng Menglong, the most authoritative in popular literature compilation and promotion, edited two folk song volumes of North and South China, Children’s Voice I Hanging on the Branch and Children’s Voice II Folk Songs He said in On Ballads: “Although it is the end of the Dynasty, there are fake poems and no fake ballads. The ballads do not compete with the poems, so they do not have to be fake. As I don’t care about fake, I am here to preserve the truthful.”2 Yuan Hongdao said to his friend, “Recently the poetics have made great progress, a lot 1

Historical Record Series of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Zhonghua Book Company, 1997, p. 647. Collection of Popular Folk Songs and Tunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties I, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1987, pp. 269–270. Unless otherwise noted, all works cited in this chapter are of this edition.

2

© Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2_15

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more poetry came out, and the poets are a lot more broad-minded. The poets are so dedicated in their writings that it is for them a suffering. I am content with [jade breaking] and [making hay], finding from them joy as I do in poems.3 It seems that the scholars turn their attention to folk songs, fully affirming its truthful content. Zhuo Renyue collected comments in Collection of Ancient and Modern Ci Poetry and said: “Although Ming poetry was not abandoned, its poetry is next to the Tang, Ci is next to the Song, opera is next to the Yuan, Only the few Wu songs, [hanging on the branch], [Luo River resentment], [jujube pole], [silver thread] are unique for the Ming.”4

15.1 The Outshining Popular Folk Songs and Tunes In addition to the two monographs compiled by Feng Menglong, the Ming Dynasty folk songs were mainly collected by the people of the Ming Dynasty, such as Zhengde edition of The New Sound of the Prosperous Time, Jiajing edition of Adaption of Ornate Diction and Yong Xi Yuefu, Wanli edition of the Yu Gu Chirping and A Branch of Ci Forest, as well as Chen Wen’s Southern Temples. In addition, some folk songs are scattered in various popular novels, legendary operas and historical documents. Hanging on the Branch and Folk Songs compiled by Feng Menglong collected the most popular excellent folk songs at that time. His On Ballads shows that these two collections were compiled successively: Ruofu used the romance between men and women to preach morality, The first contribution was Hanging on the Branch, then came Folk Songs.5 Hanging on the Branch started from the north, later spread to the south, and finally prevailed all over the country, while Folk Songs was mainly popular in Southern Wu dialect area. In terms of genre, they represent two categories of folk songs in the Ming Dynasty. The former was a new folk song in the Ming Dynasty, which was called popular song, also referred to as popular tune, small tune and varied tune. The latter was a traditional folk song south of the Yangtze River, but it is obviously influenced by contemporary popular tune, which was different from Wu Song in the Six Dynasties. Hanging on the Branch and Folk Songs show the difference in form and content of folk songs between the north and the south: Hanging on the Branch has two kinds: Short Verse and couplet sets, while Folk Songs has small tunes composed of four sentences in each and long compositions composed of songs and dialogues in which different tunes can be used. Hanging on the Branch is mainly in northern dialect, while folk song is mainly in Wu dialect. However, Hanging on the Branch was also influenced by southern folk songs when it is sung from north to south. 3

Bo Xiu: Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang I, p. 78. Zhuo Renyue: Collection of Ancient and Modern Ci Poetry, Liaoning Education Press, 2000, p. 13. 5 Collection of Popular Folk Songs and Tunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (I), Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1987, pp. 269–270. Unless otherwise noted, all works cited in this chapter are of this edition. 4

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As a new popular ditty in Ming Dynasty, popular tune was widely sung in the urban areas, and became an attractive element of civil culture in the Ming Dynasty, which vividly expressed the folk customs of citizens. For example, in the banter part Children in Hanging on the Branch, Vol. 9th: The kids are dressed up with fun. The jade hairpin shows the gauze hat. White silk shirt with peach red pants, big sleeves of Taoist robe, puffer fish shoes with low heels. One by one with high spirit held.

According to the statistics of Feng Yuanjun’s Summary of Ancient Operas the Literary Data of Golden Lotus, there are more than 100 references on Off-stage Tune in Notes on The Golden Lotus, of which 60 entries are found in Yong Xi Yuefu and 46 entries in Adaption of Ornate Diction. It’s unimaginable that they were included in the three books if they were not popular at that time. In addition, Shen Defu’s Popular Short Verse in Anthology of Wanli, Vol. 25th lists the popular songs since the mid-Ming Dynasty, such as the ditties of [south branch locked], [by the dressing table], [hillside sheep], [playing with children], [peace intoxication], [parasitic grass], [unrest dawn], [Luo River resentment], [crying for the emperor], [dried lotus leaf], [pink lotus], [song of Tong town] and [silver thread]. He added: “Since this year, the two songs, [jujube pole] and [hanging on the branch] which are similar in tunes, are sung by everyone, no matter if they are men or women, old or young, rich or poor, from north or south. Everyone learns them, and everyone likes to hear them. As a result, it was published and read throughout the world. I don’t know where the tune comes from. I’m really shocked.” Some of the tunes mentioned above appear frequently in Notes on The Golden Lotus, similar to those recorded in other collections. For example, Episode 38 [river adventure II] had the popular song of the same name with the one in Adaption of Ornate Diction. In a word, popular songs were widely distributed at that time, especially in Hanging on the Branch. Shen Defu ranked [jujube pole] and [hanging on the branch] equally. Gu Qiyuan’s Ballads in Guest’s Verbosity, Vol. 9th and the above cited Collection of Ancient and Modern Ci Poetry also regard them as two tunes. In fact, they are the same tune with different names [hanging on the branch], was also known as [hay making pole] and [true hanger]. Guan Dedong made some textual research in the Collection of Popular Folk Songs and Tunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Preface to Hanging on the Branch. At the same time, he pointed out that [hanging on the branch] and [jade breaking] are often mixed up as one tune as they share the same metrics. For the same song, it is common for some books to name it as [hanging on the branch] and some books name it as [jade breaking].

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15.2 The Singing of Love from Popular Folk Songs and Tunes Singing of love has always been an important part of folk songs. The popular ditties like Hanging on the Branch and Folks Songs during the same period were a common way of courtship among young men and women. Folk Song. Singing, Vol. 2nd: “sister sang a silver thread, and brother sang hanging on the branch. He wishes sister not to be bound by the thread, she wished brother not to be stopped by the branch.” Feng Menglong’s On Ballads said: “All the popular songs are of a love theme.”6 He said that the reason why he compiled these folk songs was the same as Confucius compiling the Book of Songs, “truthful feelings can not be ignored”, so he “preserved the truthful” and “used the romance between men and women to preach morality.” Out of this thought, direct or obscure pornography accounts for a large proportion. This is also the manifestation of the trend of thought of individual liberation in the ideology of the folk song compilers since the mid-Ming Dynasty. Feng Menglong’s standpoint in editing the tune of folk songs was totally different from that of the ancient poetry collectors, and his purpose was not to use it for political education. In the collection of folk songs, his idea was not consistent with his compilation of novels, which emphasized moral preaching. That is to say, compared with other editors of the same era, his choice was also far from being traditional. In contrast to the false Neo Confucianism advocated by the ruling class, folk songs are full of passion for love with pungent expressive songs, such as the popular songs in Hanging on the Branch: Clay figurines, it’s like two of us, one of you and one of me. How about two of us? He came to rub and redo, re twist a you, reshape a me. I have you, and you have me. (happiness episode Clay Figurine) To separate, unless heaven turns into earth; to separate, unless the East turns to the West; to separate, unless officials become a nobody. You can’t leave without me, I can’t leave without you. Even in yellow spring end our lives, we can not be separated ghosts. (happiness episode Separation)

The first one was very popular. According to Shen Defu’s Popular Short Verse in Anthology of Wanli, Vol. 25th, as early as Chenghua and Hongzhi years, “the three works of Mud Figures, Shoe Divination and Hair Bun have been ranked on top”. “Mud Figures” is Clay Figurines, which is similar to [south branch locked] of Popular Songs of Bian in Southern Temples, Vol. 6th by Chen Suowen, but the description is more delicate and more passionate, which is probably the difference when it was sung in difference regions. Feng Menglong said that the theme came from Zhao Mengfu’s words to Mrs. Guan in the Yuan Dynasty, “it is unique by adding a few words. Zhao said: ‘I have you in my mud, you have me in your mud.’ The term ‘on muddy body’ is replaced, which is even better.”7 This popular ditty expresses sincere and pure love with childlike innocence and a fresh earth flavor. Therefore, it 6 7

Collection of Popular Folk Songs and Tunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties I, p. 269. Comments by Ma Menglong: Hanging on the Branch, Hubei Dictionary Press, 1995, p. 311.

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is deeply moving and has a lasting artistic charm. The second song Separation has the same text as [jade breaking] from Xiong Renhuan’s North and South Hui Pond Elegant Tunes in New Style, Vol. 1st. With a series of oaths that are impossible to happen in real life, it shows the swearer’s persistent pursuit of love, both in spirit and in artistic form, it is a reproduction from the Ming Dynasty of two other folk songs, Heaven in the Han Dynasty, and [buddha’s dance] in the Tang Dynasty by anonymous “making a thousand wishes by the pillow”.8 There is a slight difference between the two, as it seems that the swearer in [buddha’s dance] was having difficulties in a love relationship. Both in novels and operas, the basic requirements for aristocracy to marry is the compatibility of families, the talented and the beauty, and the success in imperial examination. In folk songs, the lovers value true feelings. They put all other additional conditions aside: “The click matters more than looks, the click matters more than money, the click can happen even when the couple meet late” (privacy episode Click in Hanging on the Branch). “Click” means love, and to them, true love is above all. Thinking of you, and my soul will be gone. I’ve seen thousands of men, nobody is as good as you. You are so smart and handsome. I will not trade with a golden man. Even the golden man limited, not good as you the romantic sight. (happiness episode Better than Gold in Hanging the Branch) Thinking of staying with you in the field, no matchmaker nor betrothal gifts needed. The fish is caught by the silk net, made of a thousand feet of silk, like the endless love from my heart. (Amorous Glances in Folk Songs, Vol. 1st)

True love is “better than gold”. The idyllic pastoral life is the ideal of a couple in love. The folk tune also shows that the love of young men and women suffers from the pressure of ethics. For example, the woman in the private episode Coughing in Hanging on the Branch repeatedly asks her lover to pay attention to “the wind outside, ears on the wall, we must take care”. It can be seen that free love is not always accepted. Some love folk songs show resistance from women to their parents’ pressure. “Keeping away from mother” (Part 1): Mother controls me like a tiger. I have to cheat on her. Just as the thief who hides from the patrol inspection, a soldier at night watching for the situation. “Beaten by mother” (Part 1): Beaten by mother and crying so bad, just ask my love to come every night. The shirts and dishes are for me to clean, but the ice of the frozen lake is here to open. “Sneaking” (Part 2): Don’t be flustered for the date, I will take all blame if we are caught. The worst is we kneel to the judge and confess, I will be the one to let them punish. 8

It goes in Heaven, a folk song of Yuefu in the Han Dynasty: “By heaven, I shall love you. To the end of time! Till mountains crumble.Streams run dry, Thunder rumbles in winter snow falls in summer,and the earth mingles with the sky—Not till then will I cease to love you” (Yuefu Poetry Collection, Vol. 73rd, Four Part Series) [buddha’s dance]: “making a thousand wishes by the pillow, no split till the green mountains rot, a hammer over to float, the Yellow River to dry up, stars appear in daylight, the dipper goes to the south. The day I am to be isolated, is the time when the sun rises in midnight” (Zhang Jian: Annotations on Composition of 100 Dunhuang Songs, Dunhuang Literature and Art Publishing House, 1991, p. 14).

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Sincere and passionate love makes them fearless in the face of the pressure imposed by ethics. They are even willing to defend love with death, and say it’s better to die if they can’t love alive, but even if they die, they should be romantic ghosts, and go hand in hand on Helpless Bridge. The upfront singing in the happiness episode Firm Heart in Hanging on the Branch is rarely seen in folk songs of past dynasties. It’s the end, how can it be the end! One death, one life, just one round. Let all the people have us tortured. To be ghosts, we will be romantic ghosts. To get on the bridge, we need to get on the Helpless Bridge. I would rather be dead, if we walk on the bridge hand in hand.

In the folk songs of the Ming Dynasty, most of the love songs are for women, only a few of them are for men. In the happiness episode Change in Hanging on the Branch, the man imagines that he becomes something that a woman can carry with her so that they can be together all time, and he asks his lover to change too: “you change into a needle, I change into some thread, so we are connected. I’ll change my makeup and meet you every day. You turn into a box, I turn into a mirror.” The appropriate metaphors reveal the simple thoughts of equality between men and women. Fresh and lively, simple and varied, the expressions were brewed into a special flavor of a love confession in folk songs. Popular folk tune is good at white drawing, vividly and delicately expressing various psychological activities of young men and women in love. The descriptions of the unfulfilled wish are like: “seeing you and feeling shy, away my mind is for you to occupy” (happiness episode Fire in the Eyes in Hanging on the Branch); the love that can not be stopped: “Smart people break into a enchantment array, saying to give up, but feeling hurt in his heart” (thinking episode Love Sickness in Hanging on the Branch); the anxiety of waiting for a date: “Gardenia opens six petals, and the lover asks me out at dusk. The day is too long to spent, holding the window rail for sunset” (Wait in Folk Songs, Vol. 1st); the suffering of love at heart: “things in my heart, weighing in my mind. I can’t tell, I can’t speak out, I have to think in private. Thinking of everything but nothing is right” (thinking episode Something in My Mind in Hanging on the Branch). Here’s another one: The moon is so high, my darling is not in sight. Out of the window, the flower and branch shadows swayed, wondering if my name is whispered. Pushing open the window, it is the swinging of the flower tip. Joy turned to shame, shame turned to anger. (privacy episode Misidentification II in Hanging on the Branch)

This folk song describes the psychological activities of a woman waiting for her lover who did not show up, her feelings turned from shame to anger. The last sentence can be the finishing touch. Feng Menglong commented on Hanging on the Branch that its highlights are often in the conclusion, which is true in most works. In addition, it is also a wonderful expression of love psychology to describe the completely different feelings of the same thing when the state of mind changes. For example, in Hanging on the Branch, there are two parts referring to a woman’s drawing a portrait of her lover. When the heroine is immersed in love, “Drawing your romantic temperament, drawing your handsome features, but how to draw you tenderness, I have to stop

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and think” (happiness episode Portrait in Hanging on the Branch). When the lover changes his mind, “trying to portrait your features, it turned upside down several times. Easy to have your face depicted, hard to depict your evil heart. Even if I drop a little ink, it seems like your good heart” (complaint episode Evil Heart). In addition to psychological descriptions, folk songs are also good at depicting the mood and image of women in love. For example, in Pain and Annoyance: Wondering if you know why I love you? Wondering if you know why I am angry with you? Don’t you know what it means. Love for the constant feeling, anger for the easy breaking. Still in love with you, still angry with you. (privacy episode of Hanging on the Branch)

The girl’s coquetry is vividly depicted. The same is true in the Truthful Heart in the same episode. Seeing Off My Love in Folk Song, Vol. 1st describes how an affectionate and cunning girl boldly invites her lover to have a tryst at home, and how she cleverly sneaks by her mother to take her lover out. The first part: “walking out my love side by side, right before mother’s glowing lamp. Opening my coat to cover my love, two of us walking in one shadow.” The image of the girl’s passion and shrewdness comes clearly into view. Popular folk songs often have unexpected imagination and witty depictions. The novelty of imagination gives people the surprise of reading. For example, sentiment episode The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid in Hanging on the Branch: When it’s boring, I’ll live alone under the stars and the moon. Looking up, I saw a river. Altair and Vega are sitting on both sides. Namo Amitabha! That star also lives in loneliness. The stars can’t be in pairs, let alone him and me the nobodies.

It is a traditional theme of Chinese folk songs and literati poems to compare the separation of lovers to two stars metaphorized as the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid, but the writing method of this folk song is different and refreshing. Feng Menglong commented on the song: “If there is one word in the writing that is distinguished, it can be an immortal work…” The word “sitting” is used uniquely, which can be compared with the popular firefly and orioles in the Tang poetry. It is especially striking in “jujube pole.”9 The reason why the word “sitting” is innovative is that it comes from the imagination of a girl and shows her innocence and vivacity, but the young girl chants Buddha, finds the balance in the lonely star, which turns out to be a divine touch of the writing. The same is true for the imagination of Worshiping the Moon (sentiment episode in Hanging on the Branch): Burning incense and waiting for the moon in jade terrace. Deeply bowed to Chang’e the Moon Fairy and told my desolation, “I’m sorry the scholar like myself has no company.” Chang’e said, “What you scholar don’t know is, when you are telling me your desolation, to who I tell my desolation?”.

To let a male character express his sadness to Chang’e, who made such an unexpected answer, the Moon Fairy suddenly became secularized, as ordinary as the girl next door. 9

Collection of Popular Folk Songs and Tunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties I, p. 163.

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Metaphors and puns are skillfully used in popular folk songs such as “I treat you like gold and jade, you treat me like earth and mud” (gap episode Heartless Man in Hanging on the Branch); “no one is good in a thousand days, no flower is red in a hundred days” (gap episode Love Is Light in Hanging on the Branch); in Folk Song Lantern, Vol. 6th: “a pair of Lantern held in the street, one is dim and one is bright. Wish my love unlike a lantern with eyes of a thousand, but a candle of one heart. We need to have a relationship that is permanent.” The first metaphor means that the man is unfaithful, the second one means that the man should be devoted to love, and the last sentence tells of her dissatisfaction. The expressions are intricate, clear and appropriate. The chanting episode Lotus of Hanging on the Branch uses the dew on the lotus leaf as a metaphor for a lover with uncertain mind, a very lifelike touch: Pearls of dew rolling on the lotus leaf, connected by me the one crazily in love. Who knows that your wateriness is so changeable, scattered and rolled in a circle. Your feeling to me is not real, away from me you go.

The characteristic of using witty puns in the folk songs of the Six Dynasties had been developed in the Wu songs of the Ming Dynasty. The most representative one is the Folk Song. Handkerchief , Vol. 10th: “No writing of love poems, a handkerchief sent for lovesickness. Turning it all around, seeing all the meaning from the silk.” This folk song comes from Tong Town Popular Song, which is a local tune originated in Tong Town, Anhui Province. It circulated in Wu dialect areas after it was introduced into the south. From the use of puns in Handkerchief , we can see that it had assimilated into the Wu song. There are also puns in Hanging on the Branch, which is probably the change after it was circulated to the south. For example, Golden Needle (chanting episode): “Golden needle, to pinpoint the two clicked hearts.” It goes in Stone Lion: Stone lion, I am your counter companion. I see you, you see me, how lonely. Both of us are stony. Not being far away, but being together in no way. Living in separation, loving you in vain. (chanting episode in Hanging on the Branch)

15.3 The Disclosure of Social Maladies from Popular Folk Songs and Tunes The spirit of realism, in line with the book of songs and the Yuefu of the Han Dynasty, had established the fine tradition of exposing the social maladies in ancient Chinese popular folk songs. However, this aspect is obviously weak in Ming Dynasty popular folk songs. The songs in Hanging on the Branch and Folk Songs account for half of the existing folk songs of the Ming Dynasty. Their main content is the feelings between men and women. Few works expose the social and political maladies, but they are profound and sharp, which can still present the spirit of reality. Folk songs are widely sung in the marketplace. They expose social maladies, obviously show public consciousness, and the detestation to some social phenomena from average citizens. This kind of mood, often comes out with the tone of witty

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ridicule in delight which seems relaxed and humorous, reveals the essence of social reality. Fraudulence is a common behavior in city life. The description of it in folk songs is not only limited to the general life scene, but also to disclose the darkness of reality, which was harshly critical. The Pawnshop in Hanging on the Branch reveals that the pawnshop had been doing its business everyday by “Shalocking”, an act of heavy profit exploitation. The Silversmith says that “it’s the living robber who sends out the silver”, “it’s the thief who sprinkles a handful of niter and steals the silver” (see joke episode of Hanging on the Branch above). If the fraud revealed in these two folk songs only involves the financial interests of the general public, then Fake Gauze Hat explicitly exposes the political malpractice of selling official positions and titles at that time: A real gauze hat makes you bold, wearing it only to feel shamed instead. It didn’t go up or down all year. Upon death you would have a portrait, and look good in pilgrimage. Even if you are having a good post, your passing of wind won’t even make a sound. (banter episode of Hanging on the Branch)

After all, a fake gauze hat is fake. It can only bring vanity to its owners. However, there were too many real gauze hats, which lead to chaos and perversion of law, but the disaster is unpredictable. Folk Song·Many, Vol. 4th castigates this phenomenon: The moon is not clear for too many stars, the water in the pool is not clear for too many fish. Too many officials stir up the imperial court, too many lovers stir up the sister’s heart.

It is extremely ironic to compare the disorderly practices of officials with the disorderly sex of prostitutes. Feng Menglong added a dialogue with prostitutes below, saying that the selection of officials is no better than the prostitute’s selection of customers, which shows how the literati resonate folk songs. The two songs of Mountaineers in Hanging on the Branch and Folk Songs satirize the scum of the scholars, who claimed to live in seclusion but were not willing to be lonely. They cheated, speculated and boasted about themselves. In fact, they could only cheat to get money for some food and drink: “Asking about the mountaineers, they don’t live in the mountains, they were cheeky to write a few crooked poems. Wearing the scarf, claiming to help the world and handing over their name card.” (banter episode in Hanging on the Branch). “In the monk’s robe with open sleeves, wearing metropolitan graduate scarfs on their heads… with all their disgrace. Trying to connect with God, holding the notebook. Up and down as a posture, requesting favor, cheating for either food or gold…The mountaineers are truly funny. Being busy all day, nothing real but empty. Oh! The mouth is clear, the heart is dark as ink. Eight lines of crooked poems, trying to use official documents. Today meeting one Lord at Xu Gate, tomorrow seeing off another Lord at Chang Gate” (Folk Songs, Vol. 9th). Both folk songs vividly depict the real nature of the false hermit. In comparison, the first one is shorter, and the second one is longer with both songs and dialogue. The description is more incisive. It is a dialogue between the mountaineer and the God of the earth to ridicule the life of the mountaineer. Feng Menglong once thought that this folk song was written by Zhang Fengyi in the commentary of Hanging on

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15 The Popular Folk Songs and Tunes …

the Branch, but later in his commentary of Folk Songs, he said that Zhang Fengyi just polished it.10 The popular folk songs in the Ming Dynasty also reflect the widespread social problem of prostitutes, such as Standing at the Door in the miscellaneous episode of Hanging on the Branch. One deal over and no next, the brothel’s debt can never be paid. The procuress is angry for more or less, her appetite is big with no limit. One comes after another, all the asking ended up in nothing. Wearing through the wall by leaning against the door, standing all the time with my feet sore. Finally there comes a handsome man, Alas! he went to the other house.

Prostitutes are social evils, but for individuals, many of them were disgraced in misery, becoming the toys of the rich and the powerful, and struggling in pain. Kind people can understand their bitterness and pain of prostitution while revealing their deception (for example, miscellaneous episode Prostitute in Hanging on the Branch): “The young girl is a living robber. She has a sweet mouth and a bitter heart. She kills people with no knife.” Folk Song contains the most popular folk song of Wuzhong, which was also the earliest one extant, The Half Moon, Vol. 5th: The half moon shines on Kyushu, some families are happy while others feel miserable. Some couples are united in their tents, others are scattered at different ends.

Feng Yumei’s Reunion in Beijing Vernacular Novels, Vol. 16th quoted this folk song and commented, “this song comes from the Jianyan period of the Song Dynasty. It describes the suffering of civil unrest.” Gaoqi’s Ci poem Jiang Chengzi. Boat Woman have a sentence “teaching the song of Bay (half moon), moon shining on town of Lake”. “Chu Renjing’s Gourd (XII), Vol. 2nd said,” Qu Zongji listened to a prostitute’s song of “The Half Moon”, and then turned it into Ci poem.”11 It can be seen that this is a folk song handed down from generation to generation. It shows the strong contrasts in society, which is universal in turbulent times and arouses wide resonance.

10

Collection of Popular Folk Songs and Tunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties I, pp. 327, 432. According to Tour of West Lake in Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library, Vol. 25th, of songs in Suzhou, Wu songs are the best, and writers of Hangzhou are close to be poets, such as “The half moon shines on some states, some families are happy while others have sadness. Some are drinking on the tower high up, some are floating outside.” This is Fu style. When Qu Zongji (You) went to Jiaxing, he heard it from the prostitutes. Then he turned it into Ci poem: “The curtain rolled up in the West Water Tower, in doggerel a new tune is sung. Sleeping in the rain, dreaming of the cloud when you were young. No singing. Drink before you are dead, sailing in the moonlight. But tonight is a revisit. Same lost guests in an alien place, no worries. The half moon shines on some states.” According to Qu You, it is [folks of south].

11

Postscript I

“After the gathering of flowers to make honey, here comes the wonder for who did this contribution.” This is considered to be a common sigh from writers upon their completion of a great work. It is quite different for the A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, which has just been completed. When Sun Qiuke, an associate professor of Kunming Normal University, came to Zhejiang University as a visiting scholar, I was just feeling troubled by the delay in completing the A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, a key project of the Ninth Five Year Plan funded by the National Social Science Fund. I requested her upon cooperating on this subject. At that time, I had an idea that I had finished a first draft for her to revise and enrich, but to my disappointment, my eyes were nearly blind. Therefore, it is impossible to provide a simple first draft. In this case, she had to work from nothing, though not necessarily from scratch, which turned out to be a big challenge. She worked on the project without complaint or regret, trying to figure out my ideas, soliciting my opinions, and making all her efforts to maintain academic standards. Due to factors of natural law, I became the only remaining academically productive elder in my Department. For my publications of Chronicle of the Late Ming Composers and Collection of Xu Shuofang, I was overly given credit by the public, as I didn’t even have a chance to read many of the books, such as Dreamy Notes, mentioned in the first chapter of the A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty published in the Light of Kui Bi, let alone relate to the specific evaluation of Zhu You. Upon reading Sun’s paper on Pan Jinlian, I wrote Re-exploration on Golden Lotus, which was published in Golden Lotus Research, Vol. 7th. Later, I read her paper on Liu Mengmei, which made me feel that my study on Peony Pavilion is far from being enough. I graduated from the Normal College of Zhejiang University and have worked here for more than 50 years, having close ties with many of my colleagues. When they learned that Ms Sun Qiuke would cooperate with me to complete the task, they expressed their concern, for which I am deeply grateful. I know that it’s very distressing for me to follow others’ will in writing a book, so I hesitated many times © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2

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before reaching out to students who graduated in earlier years, and finally gave up the idea. The ancients say, “after even just three days’ absence, a scholar must be regarded with new eyes.” It’s been ten or twenty years since they graduated. It would be absurd of me to still regard them as my students. I’m glad that I didn’t allow myself to think that way. That’s why I didn’t look for collaborators among my old friends and students. Sun’s dexterous and skillful writing style runs through the whole book, ringing the bell for my old manuscripts. I can not help wondering, in this tiny study, if it is like recognizing the sound of a bosom friend from the lofty mountains and river? To be the first author of this book, which I hardly deserve, I have confessed the truth for the readers to understand. Xu Shuofang in Hangzhou, Spring, 2003

Postscript II

The four seasons of Kunming are always green, just like the verdant bamboo forest on Hangzhou Gem Mountain. This spring, the new green seems to be more eyecatching—after many unexpected setbacks, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty is about to come out. Mr. Xu Shuofang has done pioneering research for many years, and I have spent five years of hard work on it. Now, does Mr. Xu feel gratified that his long cherished wish has been fulfilled? In the autumn of 2000, I came to Mr. Xu as his visiting scholar on a provincial school cooperation project. Later, I was invited by Mr. Xu to participate in the writing of A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty. At the end of 2002, I returned to Kunming from Hangzhou. The first draft of the book was completed the following spring and sent to Mr. Xu for approval. In late July, Lisong, Mr. Xu’s second son, called from Hangzhou and said that Mr. Xu was taken to the ICU of the hospital due to a massive intracranial hemorrhage caused by his falling. This is the most serious one of Mr. Xu’s many falls in his old age. As the days passed, his life was saved, but he fell into a deep coma. Later I learned that Mr. Xu’s eyes were nearly blind, and his writing hand was shaking. Wu Zhijian, a doctoral student, read the manuscript to him for revision. Another doctoral student, Xu Yongbin, sent the manuscript back to me after Mr. Xu’s accident. The revised handwriting on the manuscript is very scrawled, and there were only scratches left in some places. It can be imagined how hard Mr. Xu worked under these circumstances! What’s more, in order not to bury my efforts, Mr. Xu has revised his “postscript” many times. Now this one in the book is the one he approved with the word “final edition”. In this book, I have undertaken the work of collection and collation: I have collected and collated the relevant influential works that Mr. Xu had published in succession in academic circles at home and abroad, which became the main part of this book; I have taken the theory of generational accumulated collective creations that Mr. Xu had systematized through many years of empirical research as the cornerstone, the novels, operas and poems as the clues for their development and evolution, to constitute a system of the Ming Dynasty literary history. On the other hand, I made up more than 130,000 words that Mr. Xu couldn’t cover before. Finally, the © Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2

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manuscript was approved by Mr. Xu. This is a what I want to explain after Mr. Xu’s “postscript.” In the process of writing and publishing the A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Mr. Xu’s students gave a lot of enthusiastic help. Professor Zhang Mengxin has provided me with material conditions for a better life at Zhejiang University. Professor Liao Kebin, Lou Hansong and Zhou Mingchu have made a lot of efforts in publishing. After I returned to Kunming, Xiang Yurong was still studying as a doctor. His e-mails became the fastest way to revise the A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty. Dr. Xu Yongming is familiar with ancient books and documents, and has provided the supported many times. Dr. Yan Xuanjun read the manuscript for several days in the heat, and frankly conveyed his feelings. Whenever there was a progress in this tortuous process, some students would report to Mr. Xu’s hospital. It is hoped that the publication of this book would awaken him to continue his beloved academic career. Thanks to the experts who made the conclusion appraisal for this book. They carefully and responsibly read the manuscript, fully affirmed its strength, pointed out the existing problems, and put forward some suggestions for revision, so as to further improve the academic quality of this book. I owe my thanks to those who were in charge of each sector in the National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences, with a highly responsible attitude towards the quality of key projects and the respect for academic achievements and the achievements of scholars’ labor, they provided the feedback from experts in a timely fashion and highlighted the recommendation of this book on their website. Thanks to the support of Zhejiang University and Kunming University, which is one of the basic conditions for the completion of the A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty. Finally, I would like to thank Zeng Jianlin and Zhong Zhongnan, deputy editors of Zhejiang University Press. I admire their hard work and their rigorous and serious spirit. It seems that the words show a lot of thanks, but this is true, I believe it is also what Mr. Xu was willing to say. We do not deny the individual nature of academic activities, but we should also admit that truth is not always true. If it wasn’t for the pushing by so many people, it would take much longer for this book to come into being. Sun Qiuke in Kunming, Spring, 2006

Postscript of Second Edition

When the Literary History of the Ming Dynasty was reprinted, it had been two years since Mr. Xu Shuofang passed away. For me, the arduous task of revision for the second edition was by no means pleasant work in my capability, but I accepted it. The revised edition mainly corrects the obvious mistakes in the previous edition, and makes some modifications to the imprecise and incomplete parts as much as possible. The principle is not to change the basic structure and viewpoints of the original book, so as to maintain the framework with Mr. Xu’s approval. It’s not that I don’t want to upgrade it, but I think we should respect the hard work of the dead. In accordance with Mr. Xu’s instruction, some weakness can only be left for others to improve. Even if I have the honor to follow Mr. Xu’s footsteps and gain some achievement in the study of the literature of the Ming Dynasty, I can’t put in these contents just to expand this book behind him. After the publication of the book, it was highly praised by experts and scholars in academic circles. Professor Zhang Peiheng of Fudan University and Professor Li Xiusheng of Beijing Normal University both affirmed it. Some experts wrote book reviews based on the book. While fully affirming its value, they also sincerely pointed out its shortcomings, such as Professor Wang Rumei of Jilin University, Professor Wu Gan of Xuzhou Normal University and Professor Wang Li of Dalian University did. I have appropriately adopted the opinions of my teachers and friends in the revision. However, for the sake of maintaining the original contents, most of their opinions have to be ignored in the revision. Fortunately, all the book reviews have been published or will be published. Here I would like to express my heartfelt thanks and apologies to all the experts and scholars! Although Mr. Xu Shuofang did not pursue fame and wealth in his lifetime, I still want to honor the award that he won after the publication of A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty in front of Xu’s spirit: in 2007, this book won the award of the First National “Three One Hundred” Original Publishing Project organized and implemented by the State Administration of Press and Publication; in 2008, this

© Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2

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book was nominated for the Book Award in the First China Publishing Government Award. I would like to express my thanks to Zeng Jianlin, the editor in charge of this book, and the Zhejiang University Press! Sun qiuke in Kunming, October 2008

Enclosed with: Bibliography of Major Citations

Attachment: Main Cited Bibliography

Poetry On Codes, Song Lian. The Complete Works of Gao, Cao Qi. Collection of Chirping, Cao Qi. Collection of Mei An, Yang Ji. Poetry Anthology from Xun-zhi’s Study, Fang Xiaoru. Collection in Honor of the Prosperity, Lin Hong. White Cloud Manuscript, Zhu You. Collection of Wang Zhongwen, Wang Yu. Ke Xue Ci Poetry, Cao Zhenji. Poems of Four Gentlemen in Guangzhou, Unanimous Compiler. Collection of Xi An, Sun Yi. Collection of Hai Sang, Chen Mo. Collection of Wang Changzhong, Wang Yi. Collection of Wenyi, Xie Jin. Collection of Dongli, Yang Shiqi. Collection of Wenmin, Yang Rong. Collection of Huailu Hall, Li Dongyang. Collection of Li Mengyang, Li Mengyang. Collection of He Jingming, He Jingming. Collection of Digong, Xu Zhenqing. Collection of Sheng An, Yang Shen. Collected Records in Demotion, Yang Shen. Collection of Zhongsu, Yu Qian. Selected Poems of Stone Field, Shen Zhou. Collection of Futian, Wen Zhengming. Collection of Huaixing Hall, Zhu Yunming Collection of Zunyan, Wang Shenzhong.

© Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2

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432

Enclosed with: Bibliography of Major Citations

Collection of Siming, Xie Zhen. Collection of Cangming, Li Panlong. Four Yanzhou Manuscripts, Sequels, Wang Shizhen. Collection of Zixiang, Zong Chen. Collection of Jingchuan, Tang Shunzhi. Collection of Zhenchuan, Gui Youguan. Additional Collection of Zhenchuan, Gui Youguan. The Synthesis of Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yizun. Ancient and Modern Poems, compiled by Li Panlong. Garden of Ci Poetry, Xu Zhen. Shicang Selected Poems of All Dynasties in Shicang, compiled by Cao Xuequan. Various Genres of Writings, compiled by He Fuzhen. Royal Selected Poems of All Dynasties. (All the above are the photocopies from Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library). Anthology of Chief Editor Song, Song Lian, four-part series (first edition). Authoritative Reviews of Writings, Cheng Minzheng, four-part series (first edition). Collection of Chushi Hall, Sequels, Zhang Fengyi, Wangli engraved copy in the Ming Dynasty. Complete Works of Tang Bohu, China Bookstore, 1985. Additional Collection of Digong, Xu Zhenqing, Volume of the Hongzheng Four Distinguished. The Burnt Book, Li Zhi, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974. Collection of Shen Jing, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1991. Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, Beijing Ancient Books Press, 1999. Works of Shengan, Yunhong Printing Press. Collection of Xu Wei, Zhonghua Book Company, 1999. Complete Works of Yuan Zhonglang, Shanghai Guangyi Publishing House, 1936. Collection of Tan Yuanchun, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1998. Collection of Ke Xue Study, Yuan Zhongdao, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1998. Collection of Yinxiu Pavillon, Zhong Xing, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1992. Collection of Zhan Dai, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1991. The Dream of Tao’an, Zhan Dai, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1982. Collected Works of Chen Zilong, East China Normal University Press, 1988. Poetry Collection of Chen Zilong, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1983. Annotated Collection of Xia Wanchun, Zhonghua Book Company, 1991. Collection of Qu Shiqu, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1981. Collection of Tang Poetry, compiled by Gao Yi, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1982. Selected Poems of the Ming Dynasty, compiled by Shen Deqian and Zhou Zhun, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1979. Collection of Popular Folk Songs and Tunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, compiled by Feng Menglong et al. Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1987. The Synthesis of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, compiled by Wang Chang, Summary of Four Branches of Literature. Selected Ming Ci of Lan Gao, Gu Jingfang et al. Liaoning Education Press, 2000. Collection of Ancient and Modern Ci Poetry, compiled by Zhuo Renyue, annotated by Xu Shijun, Liaoning Education Press, 2000. Complete Works of the Ming Dynasty, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1994. Various Songs from the Ming Dynasty, compiled by Xie Boyang, Qilu Press, 1995. Completed Works of Ci Poetry in the Ming Dynasty, compiled by Rao Zongkai, edited by Zhang Zhang, Zhonghua Book Company, 2004.

Enclosed with: Bibliography of Major Citations

433

Novels Overview of Tripartite Division, Yuan edition. Stories of the Three Kingdoms, Yuan edition. Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Jiajing edition. Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wanli 10000-volume Tower edition collected in the Japanese Cabinet Library. New Beijing Illustrated edition of Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wanli Lianhui Hall edition. New edition of the Forepassed Incidents in Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty, Commercial Press, 1915. The Complete Stories of Water Margin, People’s Literature Press, 1954. The Fifth Talent’s Book of Water Margin, Jin Shengtan’s Reviews on Talent Books, Guangming Daily Press, 1997. Complete Biography of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures, Zhu Cangling from Zhitan edition, collected by Bodley Library, Oxford University, UK. Poetry of Tang Master Monk Sanzang’s Collecting Scriptures, photocopy of Literary Classics Press. Killing Jing River Dragon in Dream, Yongle Canon. Biography of Tripitaka Dharma Master in Great Mercy Temple, Zhonghua Book Company, 1983. Chinese Learning of Piao edition, photocopy in 1677 by Imperial University of Japan. Journey to the West, Shide Hall edition. Journey to the West, People’s Literature Press, 1955. Poetic Stories of Golden Lotus, photocopy of Literary Classics Press. The Legend of Deification, Ming edition. Poetic Stories on the King of Qin in the Tang Dynasty, photocopy of Literary Classics Press. Annals of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Wanli Gong Shaoshan edition, collected in Zunjing Pavilion, Japan. The Remnant Historical Records of the Sui Dynasty, Imperial Library of Tokyo, Japan, Chongzhen edition of Mingshan Collection. Romantic History of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Renrui Hall edition collected in the Japanese Cabinet Library. Bao Longtu Adjudicate Hundreds of Public Cases, Wanli Xhu’s edition, Yugeng Hall. Guo Qingluo’s Hearing Records of New Civil Public Cases in Six Provinces, manuscript collected in Yan Xiangnian of Japan. Eunuch Sanbao in the West Ocean, Collection of Ancient Novels, Shanghai Ancient Books Press. Loyalty of Guard Yu, Ming edition. Quotations of Crazy Ji Zen Master of Qiantang Lake, Ming edition. Historical Records of the Twelve Dynasties before the Kingdoms, Three-terrace Library edition of the Ming Dynasty collected in Tianli Library, Japan. Annals of Five Hegemony and Seven Powerful Kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn Period, Wanli Three-terrace Library edition collected in Hosa Library, Japan. New Annals of Kingdoms, engraved copy of Ye Jingchi in the Ming Dynasty. Summary for Annals of Kingdoms, Qianlong Sizhi Hall collected in Literature Department of Suzuki Library, Kyoto University, Japan. Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Four Snow Thatched Cottage edition collected in Dalian Library. Biography of Famous Founding Martyrs of the Ming Dynasty, Ciyan Hall of Ming edition, collected in Koyama, Seikoen, Japan. Biography of Famous Founding Heroes of the Ming Dynasty, Wanli edition, collected in the Japanese Cabinet Library. The Miracles of Clouds, Wanli edition collected in Dalian Library. Biography of the Rise of Saints and Martyrs in the Ming Dynasty, Ming edition collected by Nagazawa Kikuya in Japan.

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Enclosed with: Bibliography of Major Citations

New Remarks by Oil Lamp, Jiajing edition. Romantic Adventures. Guidance to Classics, compiled by Feng Menglong, Literary Classics Press, 1955. Collection of Nine Flutes, Song Qicheng, Forbidden Books in the Four Branches of Literature. The Comprehensive Series of Chinese Vernacular Novels, Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, 1989. National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance, Ancient Chinese Forbidden Novel Library, Xi’an Taibai Literature and Art Press, 1996. Ancient and Modern Novels (Ming Dynasty), compiled by Cheng Yizhong and Xue Hongji, Zhonghua Book Company, 2001. A Brief History of Chinese Novels, Lu Xun, People’s Literature Press, 1973. Bibliography of Chinese Popular Novels, Sun Kaidi, People’s Literature Press, 1957. A Bibliography of Novels Seen in Tokyo, Japan, Sun Kaidi, Shangza Publishing House, 1957.

Opera Selected Works of Yuan Opera, compiled by Zang Jinshu, Zhonghua Book Company, 1958. Music of Sixty Kinds, compiled by Mao Jin, Zhonghua Book Company, 1958. Zaju of the Prosperous Ming Dynasty, compiled by Shen Tai, photocopy of Wujin Chong’s engraved copy by China Bookstore. The Series of Ancient Operas, Shanghai Commercial Press, 1954. The Series of Ancient Operas Vol. 2nd, Shanghai Commercial Press, 1955. The Series of Ancient Operas Vol. 3rd, Beijing Literary Classics Press, 1957. The Series of Ancient Operas Vol. 4th, Shanghai Commercial Press, 1958. Shemota Chamber Verses, edited by Wu Mei, Shanghai Commercial Press, 1929. Red Lotus, The Righteous Swordsman, Falling Hairpin, Farces. (All of the above are from Collection of Shen Jing, compiled and annotated by Xu Shuofang, Shanghai Ancient Books Press, 1991). Purple Flute, Purple Hairpin, Peony Pavilion, The Story of Nanke, The Story of Handan. (All of the above are from Complete Works of Tang Xianzu, compiled and annotated by Xu Shuofang, Beijing Ancient Books Press, 1999). Complete Records of Wu Lun, Kui Zhang Pavilion edition. Sword, Ming Dynasty edition. The Serial, manuscript of the Qing Dynasty. The Four Sad Sounds of the Ape, Xu Weiji, Zhonghua Book Company, 1999. General Catalogue of Music, People’s Literature Press, 1959. Full Repertoire of Zaju in the Ming Dynasty, Fu Xihua, Writers Press, 1958. Full Repertoire of Legend in the Ming Dynasty, Fu Xihua, Writers Press, 1959. A Study of Classical Operas, Zhuang Yifu, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1982. Collection of Chinese Classical Operas, China Drama Press, 1959. History of Chinese Modern Opera, Aoki Masaru, translated by Wang Gulu, Zhonghua Book Company, 1954. A Survey to Chinese Operas, Wu Mei, China Drama Press, 1984.

Enclosed with: Bibliography of Major Citations

435

Others The Comprehensive Catalogue of Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. The Cases of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty, Huang Zongxi, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature in the Imperial Library. Stories of Poems in the Past Dynasties, Qian Qianyi, Shanghai Classical Literature Press, 1957. History of the Song Dynasty, Zhonghua Book Company, 1977. History of the Ming Dynasty, Zhonghua Book Company, 1974. Dreamy Notes, engraved copy of Ma Jiwen Study in Kaifeng. Plum Thatched Cottage Notes (Series of Anecdotes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties from Melon Pedicle Temple), Zhang Dafu, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1986. Historical Record Series of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, reprinted edition, Zhonghua Book Company, 1997.

A Brief Chronology of the Ming Dynasty

AD

Year Number

Emperors

Years of Reign

1368–1398

Hong Wu

Taizu (Zhu Yuanzhang)

31 years

1399–1402

Jianwen

Huidi (Zhu Yunwen)

4 years

1403–1424

Yongle

Chengzu (Zhu Di)

22 years

1425

Hong Xi

Renzong (Zhu Gaochi)

1 year

1426–1435

Xuande

Xuanzong (Zhu Zhanji)

10 years

1436–1449

Zhengtong

Yingzong (Zhu Qizheng)

14 years

1450–1456

Jingtai

Dai Zong (Zhu Qiyu)

7 years

1457–1464

Tianshun

Yingzong (Zhu Qizheng)

8 years

1465–1487

Chenghua

Xianzong (Zhu Jianshen)

23 years

1488–1505

Hongzhi

Xiaozong (Zhu Youyu)

18 years

1506–1521

Zhengde

Wuzong (Zhu Houzhao)

16 years

1522–1566

Jiajing

Shizong (Zhu Houyu)

45 years

1567–1572

Longqing

Muzong (Zhu Zaiyan)

6 years

1573–1619

Wanli

Shenzong (Zhu Yijun)

47 years

1620–1621

Taichang

Guangzong (Zhu Changluo)

1 year

1621–1627

Tianqi

Xizong (Zhu Youxiao)

7 years

1628–1644

Chongzhen

Sizong (Zhu Youjian)

17 years

© Zhejiang University Press 2021 S. Xu and Q. Sun, A History of Literature in the Ming Dynasty, Qizhen Humanities and Social Sciences Library, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2490-2

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