The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century 9781442653856

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The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century

MILENA DOLEŽELOVÁ-VELINGEROVÁ is a member of the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto.

This collection of essays reveals the dynamic role of the late Qing novel in the process of modernization of Chinese fiction. Substantial changes in various aspects of the Chinese novel at the turn of the century, demon­ strated by structural analyses of several representative novels, suggest that the evolution of modern Chinese fiction was a more complex process than a simple imitation of Western literatures. The results challenge the scholarly consensus that modern Chinese fiction resulted from a radical change brought about by the May Fourth Movement in 1919. It is demonstrated rather that the transformation had already begun in the first decade of the twentieth century and that the conspicuous changes in Chinese fiction of the 1920s represent a culmination rather than a beginning of the modern evolutionary process. The book consists of nine studies which analyse the late Qing novel in its general and specific aspects. The introduction and first essay explain how social changes conditioned cultural and literary changes during the period and how the resultant new theory of fiction generated new concepts of a politically engaged novel. The two following studies develop a general state­ ment of narrative structures and devices, derived from structural analyses of seven outstanding late Qing novels. The last six articles examine particular novels in detail, focusing on the specific fictional techniques which predomi­ nate in each. This is the first volume in a new series, Modern East Asian Studies.

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Edited by MILENA DOLEŽELOVÁ-VELINGEROVÁ

The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T O R O N T O PRESS Toronto

Buffalo

London

© University of Toronto Press 1980 Toronto

Buffalo

London

Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-5473-0

Library of Congress Cataloging i n Publication Data M a i n entry under title: The Chinese novel, 1897-1910. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Chinese fiction - Ch'ing dynasty, 1644-1912 — History and criticism - Addresses, essays, lectures, I. Doleželová-Velingerová, Milena, 1932PL2437.CS4

895.1'3'03

79-22783

ISBN 0-8020-5473-0

C O V E R : The first instalment of 'Benguan fuyin shoubu yuanqi' (Announcing our policy to print a supplementary fiction section] by Yan Fu and Xia Zengyou, published anonymously in Guowen

bao (National news] in 1897, and generally

regarded as the first modern Chinese essay to discuss the social function of popular fiction, S O U R C E : A Ying ed

Wan Qing wenxue congchao: xiaoshuo xiqu yanjiu

iuan (Anthology of late Qing literature: research materials on fiction and drama] Beijing 1960

Modern East Asian Studies 1

Contents

PREFACE vii

Pinyin -Wade-Giles Conversion Table 2 Introduction 3 The Rise of 'New Fiction' / SHU-YING TSAU 18 Typology of Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels / MILENA DOLEŽELOVÁ-VELINGEROVÁ 38

Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels / MILENA DOLEŽELOVÁ-VELINGEROVÁ 57

A Novel of Setting: The Bureaucrats / DONALD HOLOCH 76 Time in Nine Murders : Western Influence and Domestic Tradition / GILBERT CHEE F U N FONG

116

The Travels of Laocan: Allegorical Narrative / DONALD HOLOCH 129 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai hua / PETER LI 150 Characterization in Sea of Woe / MICHAEL E G A N

The Nine-Tailed JEAN D U V A L

177

Turtle:

165

Pornography or 'Fiction of Exposure'? /

vi Contents GLOSSARY

189

BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

211

225

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

241

205

Preface

This book is the result of a joint research project which was carried out over several years at the University of Toronto. It began in 1971 in seminars on late Qing (1897-1910) fiction, and was intended to discover more about this intri­ guing period of Chinese literature, which has been neglected in the West. Our curiosity soon led to the enthusiastic research of a team of young scholars, directed by the editor of this book. Its first fruits were presented to a larger audience at the Conference on Late Qing Fiction held in Toronto in February 1972. The encouragement of Professors James I. Crump, Douwe Fokkema, Robert Ruhlmann, Richard Strassberg, and John C . Y . Wang, whom we thank most profoundly, gave us the confidence to continue and finish this project. Another rewarding result of the conference was an essay by Peter L i , who, although not a member of our research project, kindly consented to include his essay in our book. Most of the late Qing novels discussed in this book appeared serially in fiction magazines of the period. These - and the first editions in book form are virtually unavailable in Western libraries, and we have accordingly used the standard editions. In this collection an effort has been made to bring studies of late Qing fiction into contact with Western literary theories. We felt that the already existing and.encyclopaedic knowledge of Chinese and Japanese scholars could be sup­ plemented by a modern approach to the study of late Qing fiction. It was, however, a difficult process keeping up with both lengthy Chinese novels and modern theoretical thinking at the same time. That we not only endured our task but also enjoyed it is in large part due to Professor Lubomír Dolezel, who gave us invaluable theoretical guidance in the project. Professor Cyril Birch has been kind enough to read the manuscript and point out some at least of the

viii Preface errors and inadequacies. We wish to thank John Parry most profoundly for his assistance in editing this manuscript. Our gratitude must finally be expressed to the Canada Council, and to Dr Claude Bissell, former president of the University of Toronto. The generous grants of the Canada Council and the University of Toronto made this research possible. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and of a grant from the Andrew W . Mellon Foundation to University of Toronto Press. M.D.-V.

The cover of Xiuxiang xiaoshuo (Fiction illustrated), edited by L i Baojia and published by Shangwu yinshuguan (Commercial Press] in Shanghai (1903-6)

ZJCS

SOURCES

DH

Dianshizhai huabao (Dianshizhai illustrated journal) plus volume number

LYZ

Wei Shaochang ed Laocan youji ziliao (Research materials on The Travels of

Z]CS

Zhang Jinglu ed Zhongguo jindai chuban shiliao (Historical documents of

Laocan) Beijing 1962 Chinese premodern publishing) 2 Shanghai 1954

LEFT T h e cover of the first book edition of Wenming

xiao shi (A short history of

m o d e r n timesl by L i Baojia [Shanghai: S h a n g w u y i n s h u g u a n ( C o m m e r c i a l press) 1906] ZJCS R I G H T T h e cover of Hen hai (Sea of woe] by W u W o y a o [Shanghai: G u a n g z h i shuju [Wide knowledge company] 1902?] ZJCS.

T h e caption gives 1902 as the date of

p u b l i c a t i o n ; other sources indicate 1906.

OPPOSITE T O P A n 1884 picture by W u Y o u r u shows the p r i n t i n g studio of the D i a n s h i z h a i C o m p a n y , w h i c h introduced photolithography to C h i n a and published DH and Jiuwei

gui (The nine-tailed turtle] by Z h a n g C h u n f a n .

ZJCS

OPPOSITE B O T T O M Illustrations to chapters 5 and 12 of Laocan youji Laocan) by L i u E, i n Xiuxiang

xiaoshuo

are Prefect Y u ' s torturing cages.

LYZ

(The travels of

(Fiction illustrated] nos 11 and 12. O n the left

TOP An 1884 picture by W u Youru shows the printing studio of the Dianshizhai Company, which introduced photolithography to China and published DH and Jiuwei gui (The nine-tailed turtle] by Zhang Chunfan. Z]CS

BOTTOM Illustrations to chapters 5 and 12 of Laocan youji (The travels of Laocan) by Liu E, in Xiuxiang xiaoshuo are Prefect Yu's torturing cages. LYZ

(Fiction illustrated) nos 11 and 12. On the left

W u Zimei portrays the building of the first railroads in China. The editor says the locomotive can pull 20 cars. DH 2

Viceroy L i Hongzhang and French high commissioner Fournier, in Tianjin, call for a peaceful settlement of the Sino-French war. Picture by W u Youru. DH 1

A Chinese victory at Tanshui, in Taiwan. The editor says the Chinese army captured 8 French cannons, 3,000 guns, and many soldiers. Painted by W u Youru.

DH 3

In the foreign concessions, a young man has stolen from a foreigner. The court condemns the boy's father to pay for the damage. DH 1

W u Youru depicts a candidate who hired a man to write his imperial examination essay. He was condemned to wear the wooden collar in public. DH 5

A new district magistrate accuses his subordinates of bribery. He orders them to wear cheap clothes and has their extravagant garments burned. Li Baojia views a similar scene satirically in Guanchang xianxing ji (The bureaucrats: a revelation]. Picture by Zhang Zhiying. DH 6

In spring and autumn, court officials perform a sacrifice to the god of the sea. W u

Woyao pokes fun at the custom in Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang (Strange events seen in the past twenty years]. Picture by Jin Shanxiang. DH 4

On the birth of his son, a minor official throws a banquet, with two troupes of actresses performing - excessive for his rank. He was condemned to 3,000 lashes. Picture by Jin Guisheng. DH 1

In warm spring weather, while out walking, one could often see acrobats, wrestlers, and fire-eaters - here a woman tightrope acrobat. Picture by Tian Zilin. D H 6

T H E C H I N E S E N O V E L A T T H E T U R N OF T H E

CENTURY

Pinyin-

Wade-Giles Conversion Table of Selected Names, Places, and Terms

baihua (pai-hua) Beijing (Peking) Cao Xueqin (Ts'ao Hsiieh-ch'in) H u Shi (Hu Shih) Li Baojia (Li Pao-chia) Liu E (Liu O)

Lu X u n (Lu Hsün) Taibei (Taipei) wenyan (wen-yen) W u Woyao (Wu Wo-yao) Zeng Pu (Tseng P'u) Zhang Chunfan (Chang Ch'un-fan)

Introduction MILENA DOLEZELOVÁ-VELINGEROVÁ

The fiction written in China between 1897 and 1910, during the last years of the Qing dynasty, is traditionally described as 'fiction of exposure' [qianze xiaoshuo). The term was given in the early 1920s to the novels of this period by Lu X u n ; ht considered it a fairly homogeneous body of literary works unified by a common tendency 'to expose social abuses and lash out at contem­ porary politics, sometimes at social conventions as well.' 1

2

Lu Xun's authority and the influence of his pioneering work, the first history of Chinese fiction, explain why his characterization of late Qing fiction pre­ vails, though numerous scholarly works have substantially enriched Lu Xun's sketchy and not always accurate observations. Yet only a study with new approaches, based on detailed investigations of the works of the period, can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of late Qing fiction. This collec­ tion is intended to contribute to a broader understanding: its results suggest that late Qing fiction can be regarded as a prefigurement of the modern C h i ­ nese fiction of the May Fourth era, since it developed qualities which were fully realized only in the 1920s. The evaluation of late Qing fiction as a transitional period between tradi­ tional and modern Chinese fiction challenges the scholarly consensus that modern Chinese fiction resulted from a radical change brought about by the May Fourth Movement in 1919. Our endeavour was inspired by those studies which had - prior to our project - recognized the changes in late Qing litera­ ture and the need to study it as a transitional phenomenon. We have espe­ cially to express our indebtedness to the Czech specialists in Asian literatures whose three-volume work, written between 1965 and 1970, outlined the his­ torical processes which produced the modern literatures of Asia. Late Qing fiction was also integrated into a wider framework of pre-modern and modern literary developments by the Soviet sinologist V.I. Semanov. He has outlined 3

4

4 Introduction both the connections and the discontinuities of late Qing fiction with previous periods of Chinese literature and has demonstrated the importance of late Qing fiction for the development of Lu Xun's literary theory and praxis. However, the general and comparative focus of the studies mentioned above prevented them from giving a sufficiently detailed picture of late Qing fiction. Semanov gives an account of two outstanding writers of the period, Li Baojia and W u Woyao, while the contributions of Czech scholars are restricted to the formu­ lations of general trends, with no analyses of specific late Qing novels. 5

In this frame of reference, late Qing fiction is an important stage in the general evolutionary process taking place not only in China but in the whole of Asia, a crucial process of cultural transformation. Our project was based on the recognition that only an in-depth study of late Qing fiction could reveal its contribution to this process. However, the large number of novels written dur­ ing late Qing prevented us from being exhaustive; we had to base our analyses on a limited number of texts. Since our intention was to pay attention to the writers' literary excellence as much as to the historical contribution of the particular works to the literary development, some of the selected novels are recognized masterpieces. These include Guanchang xianxing ji (The bureaucrats: a revelation) by Li Baojia (1867-1906); Laocan youji (The travels of Laocan) by Liu E (1857-1909); Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang (Strange events seen in the past twenty years) by W u Woyao (1866-1910), and Niehai hua (The flower in the world of retri­ bution) by Zeng Pu (1872-1935). Others are less well known, such as Li Baojia's Wenming xiao shi (A brief history of modern times), W u Woyao's Hen hai (Sea of woe) and Jiuming qiyuan (The strange case of nine murders); or almost forgotten, such as Jiuwei gui (The nine-tailed turtle) by Zhang Chunfan (died 1935). But since these novels were selected for analysis after a careful examination of a much larger sample of books, we can claim that the features found in these novels are representative, yet not exhaustive, of the whole period. In my intro­ ductory outline I want to summarize the fundamental results of the individual studies in this book and add some observations of my own. The ostentatiously iconoclastic character of the May Fourth Movement seems to be one of the main reasons why the formation of modern Chinese literature is often interpreted as a radical and short-term process of replacing literature written in wenyan (classical language) by literature in baihua (vernacular). Such an interpretation is, however, rather simplistic, because it does not take into consideration less obvious, but important, evolutionary processes which took place in Chinese literature long before they culminated and became con-

5 Introduction spicuous in the modern period. Among these processes figures prominently the interaction between high and popular literature which was a revitalizing ten­ sion throughout the history of Chinese literature, but has not yet been suffi­ ciently recognized as an important factor in the formation of modern Chinese literature. The neglect of the mutual interferences and influences between baih.ua and wenyan literatures may result, however, in the same ahistorical approach to Chinese literature as advocated by the orthodox Confucian aesthetics. For cen­ turies, this rigidly normative aesthetic stubbornly adhered to the concept of two mutually exclusive literatures in China. O n the one hand, there were those texts which satisfied its normative ideals and which were defined by the double function, of conveying the moral principles of Confucian sages and of 'assisting the ruler to govern the nation' [jing ji), formulated by Yao Nai in the eighteenth century. O n the other hand, there were fiction and drama, ex­ cluded from the Confucian concept of literature, whether written in wenyan, koine, or dialect, because they were considered pure entertainment with no didactic value. 6

The Confucian orthodoxy was re-emphasized in the eighteenth and nine­ teenth centuries by the Tongcheng school, notably by its spokesmen Yao Nai (1731-1815), Zeng Guofan (1811-72), and Lin Shu (1852-1924). But this theory was in clear contradiction with the developing literary situation, because it did not take into account substantial changes in the vernacular novel and drama, and in wenyan fiction. From the seventeenth century on, vernacular fiction and drama had integrated many aspects previously appearing only in wenyan poetry and essays. Themes of emotional relationships, social criticism, and patriotic feelings, expressing the individual author's political stance and per­ sonal experiences, were incorporated. Vernacular language developed into a sophisticated medium, enriched in many ways by the classical language. Moreover, the authors of novels and dramas were themselves educated literati, as were their audiences. Wenyan novella of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries assimilated themes from folklore and, similarily to novels and dra­ mas, conveyed the authors' personal reactions to social events. In this way the development of fiction, both in wenyan and in vernacular, displays at least some converging trends which need to be studied in detail if we are to dis­ entangle the real literary situation from the Confucian mythology about the two rigidly separated literatures in China. In the late Qing period, the opposition between the Confucian elitist concept of literature and the new tendencies in literary practice and literary theory reached a new stage. A group of Chinese intellectuals observing the tragic situation of their country and inspired by the example of Meiji Japan and

6 Introduction modem Western countries, realized that China had entered a new and critical period of its history. This new period required the creation of a standard liter­ ary language which could be used for both written and oral communication, and the creation of a literature addressed to the whole nation, rather than to a very limited elite. This group started creating and formulating a new concept of literature, the concept of a national Chinese literature. The formation of a national Chinese language and the formation of modern Chinese literature are two parallel processes, both beginning in the late Qing period. In this historical context, the relationship between high and popular literatures acquires a fundamentally new character. It is no longer limited to mutual influences of two co-existing literary forms. Rather, vernacular litera­ ture is transformed into a national literature attaining new status and respect­ ability. Not surprisingly, the focus of late Qing theoreticians is on fiction and drama, those literary genres which developed the qualities closest to this ideal and which were excluded from the Confucian concept of literature. It was primarily Liu Shipei (1884-1919) and Zhang Binglin (1867-1936) who actively sought the incorporation of fiction into the national literary heri­ tage. In his 'Lun wen zaji' (Miscellaneous notes on literature) written in 1905, Liu Shipei argued that the concept of literature proposed by ancient scholars does not correspond with modern times; not only literature in wenyan, but also novels (like Sanguo and Shuihu) and drama, are worth serious attention. Unlike Confucian scholars, he saw not only change, but progress in the deve­ lopment of Chinese literature, when he stated 'it is simply the general principle of evolution which speaks for the inevitable integration of vernacular literature into literature in China's modern times.' Although less outspoken, Zhang Binglin, also, unconventionally, included the novel [xiaoshuo] in the frame­ work of Chinese literature. In his 1906 essay 'Wenxue lun lüe' (Briefly on literature), he made an attempt to fit various forms of Chinese literature into systematic categories and, interestingly enough, he put the novel on an equal footing with history and official documents. Zhang Binglin and Liu Shipei made an important theoretical contribution by suggesting the concept of a national literature and thus discarding in theory the Confucian demarcation line between 'high' and 'low' literature. O n a dif­ ferent level, Wang Guowei (1877-1927), a prominent Confucian literary scho­ lar, broke the barriers of the 'untouchable' vernacular literature, when he wrote his brilliant study 'Honglou meng pinglun ' (Critical study of the Dream of the red chamber) in 1904, and later, his seminal works on Song and Yuan drama. Still, the interest of the scholars mentioned was primarily in fiction of the past. 7

8

7 Introduction Shu-ying Tsau, in her introductory essay to this book, points out that it was left to other late Qing theoreticians of fiction, notably Yan Fu (1853-1921), Xia Zengyou (1865-1924), and Liang Qichao (1873-1929), to formulate the tasks of fiction. In the work of these theoreticians, fiction is not only accepted as an integral part of national literature, but it is promoted to the very core, to the most important genre of this literature. This status is bestowed on fiction as a consequence of the belief that it is the most important force in enlightening the people and thus contributing substantially to the impending radical change in the fate of the Chinese nation. The late Qing theoreticians concluded some­ what naively that fiction played a decisive role in the modernization of such countries as England, the United States, and Japan, and they believed that it could play a similar role in the modernization of China. At first glance, there does not seem to be a remarkable difference between the educational function of fiction advocated by the reformists and the Confu­ cian pragmatic and ideological usage of literature. Liang Qichao even uses a familiar wording when he formulates the social function of fiction in 1902: 'Fiction is the greatest vehicle of all literature' because 'it possesses an astonish­ ing potentiality to affect the Way of man.' The reformists indeed shared with the Confucians the utilitarian concept of literature. Yet Shu-ying Tsau came to the conclusion that there is a discernible difference among the reformists themselves in the scope of the utilitarian function. Depending on their politi­ cal stance - conservative or radical - their understanding of utilitarian func­ tion and their evaluation of traditional fiction either coincide with Confucians (as does Liang Qichao's) or depart from them radically (as Xia Zengyou's). 9

In my view,^Liarng Qichao's imaginative and highly creative enrichment of theory of fiction is based primarily on his incorporation into it of ideas from a completely different tradition, one connected with vernacular fiction. C . T . Hsia has recently remarked that in many prefaces to vernacular short stories of the Ming period we find the emphasis on the emotional power of fiction. Thus the preface to Gujin xiaoshuo (Stories old and new) claims that the story­ tellers have the ability to recite 'what gladdens and astonishes us, what saddens us and makes us cry and what causes us to sing and dance.' The preface to the Guangxu (1875-1908) edition of ]ingu qiguan (Strange tales new and old), tells the reader that the stories will 'make us sad or joyful, will cause us to sing and will astonish us.' Such formulations, emphasizing the emotional powers of fiction while always subordinating it to didactic function, arose probably from a popularized and simplified Buddhist theory of cognition which conceived the cognitive process as a chain of consciously experienced stages where sensations and perceptions are involved to a high degree. In fact, this concept of cognition became later the leitmotiv in the Dream of the Red Chamber, a traditional 10

8 Introduction Chinese novel where, however, emotions erupt with a previously inconceiv­ able strength. During the late Qing period a whole theory identifying the creation and com­ prehension of aesthetic objects with emotional 'immersion' [chenzhuo] was developed by Kuang Zhouyi (1859-1926), one of the most imaginative and innovative members of the famous Changzhou school of ci criticism. K . I . Golygina speculates that Kuang's idea of 'immersion' was adopted from Buddhist theory of cognition. She also points out that many of the late Qing theoreti­ cians of fiction noted that fiction generates a specific spiritual world [jingjie], the reader's emotional fascination, and I also would connect this interest with the Buddhist tradition, whose fundamental concerns, as commonly known, are not metaphysical or theological, but rather psychological. 11

12

Liang Qichao, who tried to explain the emotive power of fiction in a syste­ matic way, pointed explicitly to Zen Buddhism as the source of many of his ideas and concepts. Liang defines four powers of fiction which gradually lead the reader from an indefinite, foggy understanding of the text to the urge of imitating the heros of the literary work. The highest power of fiction, ti (eleva­ tion), is regarded by Liang as the most advanced of all Buddhist means of self-transformation. It fits neatly with the ideas of enlightening the reader through fiction, an idea derived from the Confucian tradition. 13

The merging of the Confucian and the Buddhist tradition of literary aesthe­ tics in late Qing theory of fiction which, moreover, endorsed concepts from late-nineteenth-century Japanese theory on the political novel, is a clear mani­ festation of the synthetic character of this period. Elements from two different Chinese traditions, one associated with high literature, the other one with ver­ nacular literature, were now brought together and reconciled with foreign ones. This synthetic theory of fiction helps us better understand the character of late Qing fiction itself. The late Qing theory of fiction made a forceful argument for accepting fic­ tion as the basic genre of national literature. For the first time in the history of Chinese criticism such an argument was systematically developed and accepted by a large group of intellectuals. The importance of late Qing theory for the practice of fiction of this period cannot be overestimated. Removing the old prejudice against fiction and bestowing on fiction a new social and aesthetic status, the theory opened the way for an unprecedented upsurge of fiction writing. During the first decade of the twentieth century several hundred original novels were written and an even larger number translated or para­ phrased from foreign literatures.

9 Introduction It should be noted that some of these novels and most of the best translations and paraphrases were written in wenyan. There was also a strong trend to write novels in dialect, especially in W u dialect. Yet the experiments of writ­ ing novels entirely in dialects soon proved abortive and the revival of wenyan fiction was also pushed into the background, due to the rising importance of written baihua, the basis of the future national language. It was vernacular fiction which won the leading position in the late Qing. 14

Our assumption that the late Qing novel manifests many properties which were later developed in modern Chinese fiction is, therefore, based primarily on our analysis of artistic features of the vernacular fiction. This analysis is a predominant concern of most of the essays in this book. I would now like to summarize these findings. Thematically, all these novels describe China from 1880 to 1910. Most deal directly with events of this period, including the most prominent ones, such as the 1898 Reformist Movement, the Boxer uprising, the invasion of the foreign armies, and the decline of the central administrative power. These crises made China's intellectuals acutely conscious of the collapse of traditional China, her bitter meeting with the West, and the necessity of modernization; and the content of the novels, capturing this atmosphere, is fascinating. Moreover, none of the novelists of previous periods had depicted their own times with such a striving for authenticity as did the late Qing writers. In their fiction there is not the pretext - customary in traditional fiction - that the events occurred in the past or at an unspecified time. Here, as in modern Chinese fiction, it is unabash­ edly claimed that what we read is the present observed by the writer. The local setting of the late Qing novels is extremely varied, reflecting a country in the process of modernization, with increasing mobility. Only one of the novels examined, Travels, is set in a single province, Shandong, thus repeating the pattern of traditional fiction whose plot is usually localized in one town or one particular area. In the other novels the characters travel freely from one province to another, observing or taking part in events which concern China as a whole. Instead of the provincial town of the heartland, the action now takes place most frequently in the big cosmopolitan cities of the east coast, notably Shanghai. And for the first time - if we ignore the imagery travels in Xiyou ji (Journey to the west) and Jinghua yuan (Flowers in the mirror) scenes set outside the boundaries of China are included. So, for instance, Li Baojia's Modem Times describes the lives and activities of the first Chinese overseas students in Japan, several scenes in his The Bureaucrats take place in England, and the hero of Zeng Pu's Flower, a prominent scholar and diplomat, travels to Germany and Russia.

10 Introduction The variety of social milieux described in the late Qing novels is also ex­ tremely broad. Officials, high and low, with their wives and concubines, the military, merchants and compradors, unemployed intelligentsia, students, revolutionaries, anarchists, prostitutes, servants, and beggars, and, on the top, the foreigners have more or less important functions in the development of the plot. Unlike traditional fiction, characters of the lower strata of society do not here fulfil mere auxiliary roles, and their social condition is explored in detail (as, for example, the world of prostitutes in Turtle). Even more important, these various social groups are described in mutual relationships which are often in sharp contradiction with the traditional Confucian outlook. Thus, for instance, the world of officialdom is often related to and compared with the underworld of prostitutes and thieves [Travels, The Bureaucrats, Strange Events, Turtle), suggesting a basic similarity between these social groups that operate on the basis of extortion, bribery, and cheating. Finally, it is necessary to stress that a preoccupation with social events is not the only theme of late Qing novels, for a growing significance is attached to the themes of love and sentiment. The two themes are here intertwined frequently [Flower, Sea of Woe, Turtle), expressing the conflict between the fate of a sensitive individual and the pressures of insensitive social forces. We can say that the late Qing novel has captured the emerging modern society of China in all its complexity, diversity, and uncertainty. This thematic range, reminiscent of the contemporaneous European realistic novel, indicates the ability of late Qing fiction to function as a national literature. The broadness of themes and settings in the late Qing novel is matched by an astonishing variability of narrative forms, devices, and styles. Late Qing fiction is a giant melting pot where traditional narrative devices and experimental innovations converge. This situation is reflected in the wider spectrum of the term xiaoshuo, pre­ viously including only anecdotes, vernacular short stories, and novels. Used in the late Qing theoretical essays, the term also encompasses classical tales in wenyan, story-teller ballads [tanci), drama [za)u and chuanqi), and even Western fiction. The loosening of the traditional norms and aesthetic rules explains the greater willingness to accept foreign fiction, and even the attempts to adopt its techniques into Chinese fiction. In his article on the concept of time in W u Woyao's novel Nine Murders, Gilbert Fong discusses why only certain foreign techniques could be successfully adopted, while others had to fail or were not even taken into consideration. The elements experimented with did not need, however, to be foreign to be rejected. Some novels, such as Liang Qichao's Xin

11 Introduction Zhongguo weilai ji (The future of new China) (1902) or Chen Tianhua's Shizi hou (The lion roars) (1905-6) proved to be artistic failures, because their authors, both prominent and eloquent essayists, were unable to surmount the substantial artistic difference between a political essay and a novel. They over­ burdened the narrative with political discussions, paying little attention to their organic integration into the plot. Other experiments resulted in highly stimulating innovations, showing that the individual author rather than traditional rules now controlled and deter­ mined the final form of the narrative. We can observe, for instance, remark­ able changes in the principles of plot structuring. Peter Li's chapter on Niehai hua suggests that the plot of this novel is still conceived in accordance with the cosmological cyclic principles and the Buddhist principle of retribution typical of traditional fiction. Yet my 'Typology of Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels' shows that this traditional plot structuring is being replaced by a vari­ ety of plot patterns which impose different forms of organization on the diverse material. In his detailed discussion of The Bureaucrats, Donald Holoch demonstrates that the plot of this novel is arranged as a system of relationships between the various strata of Chinese society described in the novel. More frequently, how­ ever, the protagonist of a novel (Travels, Strange Events, Turtle) gradually discovers these relationships by moving from one social group to another. Gen­ erally, the plot is tragic, in contrast with Confucian ethics and the reconciliatory dénouement of traditional novels. The hero's struggle with overwhelming social forces is unsuccessful and the hero fails or dies. The only exception is the protagonist in Turtle who is defeated in his career, but finds refuge in his happy love. Jean Duval concludes that this double ending to the latest of our novels, as well as its strong sentimentalism, marks the eclipse of the politically engaged late Qing novels and anticipates the 1910s with their prevailing senti­ mental and erotic stories. The themes of love and sentiment are also instrumental for another impor­ tant change foretelling the later appearance of the modern short story. Michael Egan's analysis of Sea of Woe, W u Woyao's programmatic 'novel of sentiment,' demonstrates how these themes made possible the psychological development of characters, resulting in the subordination of story to characterization. The most surprising finding of our studies is the detection of individual ideolo­ gies and styles in the works of the late Qing novelists. Under the impression of Lu Xun, H u Shi, A Ying, W u Xiaoru, and Ômura Masuo's descriptions of late Qing novels, we had at first assumed that late Qing fiction represents socially engaged literature distinguished by a common tendency summarized by Lu 15

12 Introduction Xun as the 'exposition of social abuses and criticisms, which were made openly without innuendo, sometimes even exaggerated to suit the popular mood.' Certainly, social engagement is important in all the novels analysed. But this does not mean that the sole intention of the authors was to ridicule, expose, and castigate the evils of society. Such an impression can be deduced only from the reading of individual episodes. Taken as a whole, however, the novels convey a striking diversification of ideological attitudes, ranging from an apolo­ gia for the status quo [Travels], through a belief in historical 'retribution' (Flower) and an attempt to escape the social evils in the paradise of the heart (TurtJe), to a recognition of the domination of social forces over the fate of individuals (Sea of Woe, Strange Events) and a radical rejection of the present system (The Bureaucrats). The strengthening of the subjective vantage point is sometimes expressed in the structuring of the plot and in the symbolism of narrative devices, sometimes in an explicit affiliation between the author and the protagonist and sometimes - as shown in my article on narrative modes by the subjectivization of the narrator. The style of the authors is similarly diversified and individualized. W u Woyao is undoubtedly the most versatile and innovative among the late Qing novelists. He introduced the first-person narrator into Chinese vernacular fic­ tion,- he alone mastered a variety of narrative modes; he attempted to introduce into China a new fictional form - the novel of sentiment; he updated the tradi­ tional historical and detective novel in conformity with the needs of politically engaged literature,- and he wrote the majority of his works in the form of short novels, a significant breakthrough from the traditional lengthy novels. Yet his greatest power lay in his depiction of the emotional world of his heroes, caught in conflict with their surroundings. Li Baojia's novels complement and contrast with W u Woyao's fiction. In L i Baojia's panoramic pictures of Chinese society, there is no room for complex characterization. For him, characters are just types representing social groups. Yet he is an unsurpassed master of criticism of various strata of Chinese soci­ ety. He evidently patterns each novel according to an identical plot, which is episodic and serves as a base for a systematic depiction of social milieu. This gives him room to capture a wide scope of Chinese life from various angles. Yet, there are several traits common to Li and Wu's style. In general (with the exception of Wu's Sea of Woe, where the events are narrated from the perspective of the novel's heroine), their novels are marked by an overtly 'castigatory' tone. The narrator's evaluative comments and expressions and frequent direct questions to the reader make the text explicitly tendentious. There are none of the poems required by the traditional code (except for clichéd verses at the beginning and end of the chapters), and the traditional allusions are replaced by popular proverbs and sayings. As a result, Li and Wu's novels 16

13 Introduction appealed to the semi-literate, namely (in the Chinese concept) to an audience without a classical education. The styles of Li Baojia and Wu Woyao show in general a remarkable affinity with that of Chinese story-telling. This affinity is probably not accidental, since the journalistic profession of both authors demanded the same intimate relation with readers required by professional story-tellers. A further example of this affinity is Gengzi guobian tanci (Ballad of the great 1900 incident), one of Li Baojia's early works written in the form of the popular ballad (tanci). The style of the novels of Liu E and Zeng Pu seems to continue a different stream of Chinese fiction. At first glance, Travels and Flower seem to represent two extremes. Liu E's Travels is set within a single Chinese province, Shandong. Zeng Pu's Flower develops against the vast background of both southern and northern China, and brings in several European countries. In Travels the social theme is overwhelming and the romantic one is merely touched upon, while in Flower, both social and romantic themes play an equally important role. Psychology of character, brought to an artistic excellence by Zeng Pu, is almost missing in Travels. Yet, their symbolic character makes these novels stylistically akin, making possible more than one obvious interpretation of the intricately encoded message. Their symbolic character - discussed by Peter Li, and by Donald Holoch in his article on Travels -is central to their style. The narrative mode is objective, offering the reader no direct clues to interpretation. The plot is a puzzle with an obscure coherence. Poems in classical style and many allusions to old wenyan literature are a delight to a sophisticated reader, since their comprehension requires a good knowledge of classical literature. Even the innovative poetic descriptions of nature - introduced into Chinese vernacular fiction on a significant scale for the first time by Liu E and Zeng Pu - frequently have symbolic connotations. In both novels the downfall of the old Chinese social system is associated with the moral decline of the high officials in the bureaucracy, and, characteristically, the future of China is discussed only by highly educated people in lengthy philosophical debates. As a whole Liu E and Zeng Pu's novels seem to be addressed to a very different reader than those of Li Baojia and Wu Woyao. They do not instruct as the former do, but provoke, as a riddle to be deciphered. The reader has to be as well educated as the author. Not surprisingly, therefore, we have found Flower and Travels similar in many aspects to the novels of the eighteenth-century literati. The sound classical education of Liu E and Zeng Pu and their social background also suggest this affinity. If Wu Woyao and Li Baojia's works were more appealing to the average reader, and Liu E and Zeng Pu's novels were addressed primarily to a sophisticated one, then Zhang Chunfan's Turtle could be attractive to both. Its style

14 Introduction emerges from the author's rather debased and often conflicting use of the de­ vices of both the literati and the story-teller novel. The style pretends to follow a literati novel, but it never reaches its elegance and genuinely symbolic char­ acter. The intrusive narrator imitates the story-teller's control of the reader, but instead of instructing him about new values, he is disturbed by the loss of traditional moral values. It is not surprising that sex, love, sentimentalism, and social criticism mix freely in this novel and that - unlike many gloomy novels of late Qing - Turtle ends on a happier note. The investigation of the general character of the late Qing novels examined and their fundamental constituents makes it possible to return - with a higher degree of understanding - to the problem of the formative process of modern Chinese fiction. As in any other transitional phenomenon, new trends in late Qing fiction and literature competed with the old ones in a dynamic tension. It is therefore typical for this period that strong movements, led by progressive intellectuals, called for new poetry, new drama, and new fiction. Yet .surprisingly, Western influences did not play the expected crucial role in these movements for the modernization of Chinese literature. In poetry, their role was virtually non­ existent and the new impetus came from the neglected folklore poetry and old forms of classical Chinese poetry. In drama, Western impact was strongest, but unsuccessful because the spoken drama introduced could not be accommo­ dated within the tradition of Chinese drama. In fiction, the Japanese concept of the political novel, itself derived from nineteenth-century English political fiction, became an integral part of Liang Qichao's theory of fiction. But even there it was merely a catalyst, suggesting the medium through which the the­ ory, fusing two Chinese ideological traditions, could be channelled. In literary practice, the new developments represent a transformation of old ideologies and narrative devices rather than a direct adaptation of Western ideological concepts or fiction techniques. Accordingly, the only Western literary works translated were those which were congruent with the development of late Qing fiction; furthermore, the works were 'sinicized.' And Western literary techniques, such as the first-person narrator or the inversion of narrative time, were introduced only because Chinese fiction had developed similar tech­ niques or had evolved to a stage where the integration of an element from outside was only completing the previous evolution. The sources and direction of the new developments in late Qing novels ex­ plain their strong nationalism. Late Qing fiction is an integral part of the preva­ lent intellectual atmosphere in China at the turn of this century, succinctly expressed by Zhang Zhidong (1835-1909), a leading thinker of the period: 'In

15 Introduction order to render China powerful, it is absolutely necessary that we should utilize Western knowledge. But unless Chinese learning is made the basis of education, and a Chinese direction given to thought, the strong will become anarchists, and the weak, slaves.' The importance of the late Qing period to the modernization of fiction should not therefore be sought in the process of westernization. Rather, the period should be seen as the culmination of the long and complex interaction between wenyan and baihua fiction. This gradual fusion probably started during the seventeenth century and saw features traditionally associated with wenyan fiction gradually incorporated into baihua fiction. One of these features is subjectivity in vernacular fiction. As Jaroslav PrûSek and Oldïich Král pointed out, the process of subjectivization of the originally audienceoriented vernacular fiction deeply affected Chinese vernacular fiction during its 'classical' period (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries). Instead of 'editing' various previous sources into sagas exemplifying Chinese history and accepted ideology, novelists began to relate their individual experiences and views drawn from personal observation of society or their own private lives. 17

18

This trend toward subjectivization of vernacular literature culminated in the late Qing period. Novelists, many of them earning their living as entrepreneurs or journalists, were freed from the previous economic and ideological dependence of bureaucrat-writers on the bureaucratic system. In a period of general crisis, they could now reveal social forces, relationships, and conflicts hitherto obscured by traditional concepts and laws, in an act of personal cognition and interpretation. Their unique ('strange') perception of life and its idiosyncratic (ideological and artistic) expression are the most important innovations of late Qing fiction, stimulating the development of modern Chinese literature. Not surprisingly, the new era in Chinese fiction was launched by Lu Xun's Kuangren ri/i (Diary of a madman), a work which reveals its idiosyncratic stranger in its title.

NOTES

1 Lu Hsun A Brief History of Chinese Fiction (Peking 1959) 372-88. This book, under the title Zhongguo xiaoshuo shi Hie, grew out of the lecture notes Lu Xun used when teaching a course on Chinese fiction at Peking University between 1920 and 1924. In January 1923 a first volume was printed and in June 1924 a second volume; in September 1925 these were reprinted as one book. I quote from its English translation by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, published by Foreign Languages Press.

16 Introduction 2 Lu Hsun A Brief History 372 3 Cyril Birch 'Change and Continuity in Chinese Fiction' in Merle Goldman ed

Modem Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era (Cambridge, Mass. 1977) 385-404; Chen Zizhan Zhongguo jindai wenxuezhi

bianqian

(Shanghai 1929);

Chen Bingkun Zuijin sanshi nian Zhongguo wenxue shi 3rd ed (Shanghai 1931); Henri van Boven Histoire de la littérature

chinoise

1946); Fudan daxue ed Zhongguo jindai wenxue

shi gao (Beijing I960); Jaroslav

moderne

(Peiping

PrûSek T h e Changing Role of the Narrator in Chinese Novels at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century' Archív

Orientdíní

38 (1970) 169-78; Helmut Martin

'A Transitional Concept of Chinese Literature 1897-1917. Liang Ch'i-ch'ao on Poetry Reform, Historical Drama and Political Novel' Oriens Extremus

20 (1973)

175-217

4 OldFich Krai et al. Contributions Modem Literatures

to the Study of the Rise and Development of

in Asia 3 vols. (Prague 1965-70)

5 Vladimir I. Semanov Èvoljucija kitajskogo ego predsestvenniki

romana (Moskva 1970) and L u Sin i

(Moskva 1967)

6 For a detailed discussion of Yao Nai's theory see Kirina I. Golygina Teorija

izjaWnoj slovesnosti

v Kitae XlX-naëala

XX v. (Moskva 1971) 77-85.

7 Liu Shipei 'Lun wen zaji' in his L i u Shenshu

xiansheng

yishu

20 (n.p. 1936),

paginated separately, lb 8 Zhang Jiang [Zhang Binglin] 'Wenxue lun lüe' in Zheng Zhenduo ed Wan

Qing wen xuan (Shanghai 1937) 731^1 9 Liang Qichao 'Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhizhi guanxi' in A Ying ed Wan

Qing

wenxue congchao: Xiaoshuo xiqu yanjiu juan (Beijing I960) 14-19 10 C . T . Hsia 'Yen Fu and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao as Advocates of New Fiction' in Adele

Rickett ed Chinese Approaches to Literature from Confucius

to Liang Ch'i-

ch'ao (Princeton 1978) 226 11 For a detailed discussion of this theory see K . Golygina Teorija

158-69.

12 Ibid 213 13 Liang Qichao 'Lun xiaoshuo.' Marian Gálik has pointed out the foreign and Buddhist influences in Liang Qichao's theory in 'On the Influence of Foreign Ideas on Chinese Literary Criticism (1898-1904)' Asian and African

Studies

(Bratislava) 2 (1966) 3 8 ^ 8 , as has K . Golygina in Teorija 210-16. C . T . Hsia in 'Yen Fu and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao' refers to specific Buddhist sutras which used the terms adopted by Liang Qichao. 14 For the reasons of this development see my article T h e Origins of Modern Chinese Literature' in Merle Goldman ed Modem Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era (Cambridge, Mass. and London 1977) 17-35. 15 For the reference to their works see the bibliography of this book.

16 Lu Hsun A Brief History 372

17 Introduction 17 Zhang Zhidong Quanxue

pian tr Samuel I. Woodbridge as Chinas

Only

Hope

(New York 1900) 63 18 Jaroslav Prûsek 'Subjectivism and Individualism in Modern Chinese Literature'

Archiv OrientdlnilS (Praha 1965]

(1957] 261-83 and Oldïich Král Umëni dínskeho

romanu

The Rise of 'New Fiction' SHU-YING TSAU

At the core of the 20th century there is a great spectre: it walks without legs, flies without wings, is heard without knocking; it pierces the brain, amazes the eye, satisfies the mind, improves the intellect; now solemn, now harmonious, now praising, now weeping, now exciting, now persuasive, now witty, now biting, appearing in profusion, embodying careful labour, as dazzling as lightning, immensely fascinating, it has incred­ ibly great power and displays features distinctive in the world of literature. What is this thing? Fiction. T A O Y O U Z E N G , in his

1907

essay

1

During the nineteenth century, the technology and ideology of Western capi­ talist society established beachheads in urban centres of China, and penetrated inland in the form of commodities which were entirely novel or produced by novel means. From 1839 on, China's repeated defeats in skirmishes with West­ ern powers drew officiai attention to methods of neutralizing the foreign mili­ tary threat through diplomacy or appropriation of its technology. The most expansive sectors of the merchant class, particularly in finance and long­ distance trade, had manifold business contacts with their Western counter­ parts, detailed knowledge of the legal and commercial practices of Western capitalism, and a concrete image (in the treaty ports) of a kind of state more favourable to merchant interests than China was. When it became clear in 1895 that the capitalist powers would pursue an imperialist policy a reform movement developed, urging the defence of the state and economy. The reformers insisted that the Chinese government assume responsibility for economic development, unlike the traditional land­ lord' conception of the state. Yet for the moment novel views were attractive because the war with Japan had destroyed the Qing army and navy and com2

19 The Rise of 'New Fiction' pletely discredited the policy of adopting only the technology of the West to strengthen China. By the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China would have to pay Japan indemnities of unprecedented size. A l l imperialists stood to profit from the loans the court must make to meet its obligations. Fiscal crisis and ominous international negotiations concerning China shook the govern­ ment. In 1895 the Self-Strengthening Study Association was founded; it soon be­ came an organization for reform propaganda under Kang Youwei's direction. Liang Qichao began publishing the association's daily paper using equipment loaned by the official Peking Gazette it was distributed free to people on the Gazette's subscription list. Criticisms of its director Kang's unorthodoxy sur­ faced and quickly undermined metropolitan support for the reformers. Kang's circle left the capital to seek provincial backing for their policies. By August 1896 Liang Qichao was publishing the Shiwu Bao (Current events) in Shanghai with the support of viceroys Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi; once again conservative opposition crystalized. Provoked by crisis, reform activity addressed itself to the elite, using newspapers, schools, and political clubs. Enjoying initial support first from metropolitan and then from regional officials and provincial elite, it generated powerful opposition as the bureaucracy and elite discovered in it a threat to the traditional state. 3

The reformers were recalled to Peking by a second major crisis - the seizure by Germany of a Shandong port and hinterland in late 1897. Within two months, Kang Youwei was in touch with the Zongli Yamen (Foreign Affairs Department) and eventually the emperor himself. Because they pinned their hopes on the elite, Kang's circle had refused to co-operate with Sun Yatsen in 1897; though Sun's political organizations had publicly taken reform positions, their base of support - overseas Chinese and secret societies - was too low on the social scale for Kang Youwei to consider. Kang Youwei succeeded. His circle became part of the central government under the direct sponsorship of the emperor. Liang Qichao was authorized to establish a college of translators, and his Current Events was converted into an official newspaper. The reformers inspired decrees which called for such steps as 'abolition of examination under the old classical-essay system; conversion of temples and outmoded learning institutions into new-type colleges and high schools; ... establishment of a national bank; institution of a general adminis­ tration for mining and railways and bureaux of agriculture, industry and commerce ... founding of Peking University; promotion of new publications and intensified training of the army on modern lines.' 4

Such measures aimed at reforming the entire bureaucracy by abolishing sinecures, revamping the army, and introducing a budget system. Since Kang

20 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Youwei was relying almost entirely on the power of the emperor to carry the reform, his circle naturally did not have the organization to withstand the conservative reaction, led by the empress. When she deprived the emperor of power in September 1898 and executed six of their group, the 'Hundred Days Reform' came to an end. 5

For a second time the reformers had to centre their work in Shanghai, Japan, and elsewhere among overseas Chinese. Reform thought had to find refuge in modern urban settings, appeal more consciously to the urban audience, and modify its chosen forms - political groups, newspapers, schools-to suit its new surroundings. Bourgeois reform theory was brought into active contact with the Chinese bourgeoisie, a development symbolized by the shift from Peking to Shanghai as the centre of activity. China's cities were typically located on water routes. Before the advent of steam and rail transport, there was no other way to supply cheaply a large population centre with grain. During late Qing a new kind of city was evolv­ ing. By 1900 there were ten centres with populations of half a million or more; Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan [a triple city including Hankou), and Canton were the four largest, and they were all treaty ports. Fei Hsiao-tung observed that the treaty port was 'a gateway to an economically underdeveloped conti­ nent, opened toward the Occident.' Shanghai was the epitome of the modern city. It owed its tremendous growth during the nineteenth century to a combination of Chinese and West­ ern bourgeois interests. Shanghai replaced Canton as the chief centre of foreign trade. It also became the chief centre for political dissidents, who found asylum in its extensive International Settlements area. Shanghai had obvious advan­ tages: it 'was better situated than Hankou for communication with overseas Chinese supporters and for contact with progressive intellectuals in China and Japan ... Political leaders could hope for a good chance of escaping to Japan. Meanwhile, the publication of a large number of newspapers, both in Chinese and in Western languages, served an essential propaganda purpose.' The cul­ tural capital of China had been Nanjing; when it became the Taiping capital in 1853, 'Shanghai, or rather the foreign settlements there, became of the utmost military and political importance' for the outcome of the struggle. The Taiping Rebellion kept 'together in Shanghai a group of literary men who, although not precisely political refugees, found conditions in the interior too disturbed and dangerous for their liking.' 'By 1870 it was clear that Shanghai was emerging as the centre of literary activity and attracting to itself all those features of life for which Nanjing, Suzhou, and Yangzhou had been famous in the past.' The shift 6

7

21 The Rise of 'New Fiction' of the cultural capital to Shanghai was a shift to merchant patronage more bourgeois than bureaucratic. The major cities were natural focal points for the rising merchant class of Qing; in addition they were the most desirable and, after the Nanjing Treaty of 1842, the most accessible footholds for seaborne Western commerce. There was also a concentration of landlord-intelligentsia in the big cities, a process which had long been underway. With the sharpening competition for office during Qing, the greater cultural resources of the cities and their evident effect on academic success drew students to them in growing numbers. 8

There had been a major shift in China's rural-urban ratio during the nine­ teenth century under pressure from the sharply falling land-population ratio and the sharply rising taxes on land. The number of urban poor who had only recently left their villages grew rapidly in the newly constituted treaty ports. Many had been soldiers - defeated forces of the great peasant rebellions or demobilized troops who had fought for the dynasty. The urban masses of peas­ ant origin got irregular employment in retail, transport, and services-as shophands, hawkers, coolies, boatmen, and domestic servants. Living uncertain lives in strange surroundings, these people needed some kind of social organi­ zation to protect them and secure them a place in the city. Traditionally urban life differed from rural by the greater variety of its social relationships and the consequent prominence, as a supplement to kinship, of bonds between individuals unrelated by blood. Such values were most deve­ loped by secret societies: their 'elective brotherhood' - which included women on an equal footing with men - replaced the conventional obligations of family, clan, village, guild, civil, or military hierarchy. Far more complex and repre­ sentative in its social composition than the bureaucracy, the secret society may be seen as serving the general interests of an unprivileged bourgeoisie, which defined itself by contrast with the semi-bureaucratic great merchants with their government-granted monopolies of essential goods and services. This petty bourgeoisie was involved in an active illegal commerce, such as largescale smuggling, and often made common cause, through the secret society, with peasants in organized uprisings. 9

10

The generally elitist origins and sensibilities of the reformers, which gave them affinities with the examination candidates and the respectable bourgeoisie, made it difficult for them to communicate with other social circles. The lower classes of the cities were organized, however incompletely, in groups with petty bourgeois representation. This enabled reformers, through the society leaders, to establish at least limited political contact with the bulk of the urban population, thereby making them a component of the reformers' urban audience. 11

22 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century The 1900 revolt, led by Tang Caichang, drew support from both Kang Youwei and Sun Yatsen. Since 1895, Sun's policy had been active collaboration with secret societies; it now became the general policy of the reform move­ ment as it entered its consciously revolutionary phase. The movement was essentially a consolidation of ties between the haute bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie in order to co-ordinate action against the dynasty. 12

The major spokesmen for radical change were not safe in most of China; the printed word could circulate more widely and freely than they could. Though Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao had fled to Japan in 1898, they still sought Chinese support for their ideas. They devoted their energies to newspapers and fiction magazines, directed mainly at the urban dwellers of China. Reforming society, they were now convinced, required reforming people's ideas, and they saw fiction as a means to this end. Among the ideological developments which accompanied social change, the most notable in the world of art was fiction theory. Late Qing writers referred to fiction with the term xiaoshuo, often also applied to stage works; the themes and sources and political intent were remarkably similar. No such close relation existed between novels and poetry. The term xiaoshuo is 2000 years old in China, but the content of the term has changed. Its first recorded use, in Zhuangzi (The philosophy of Zhuangzi), refers to insignificant writing of any kind. From then on, the educated elite applied the term to a variety of prose forms, all of them considered trivial. During late Ming some literati developed new ideas about the subject. Li Zhi, Feng Menglong, Ling Mengchu, and the prose stylist Yuan Zhonglang praised the artistic elegance of fiction and spoke of the relation between fiction and social life. They set fiction above the canonical texts of Confucian scho­ lars. Liu Dajie says that this is the first time literati recognized the artistic and social value of fiction. Feng Menglong's preface to Yushi mingyan (Stories to enlighten men] is an example of the new view: 'The refined works of Tang touch the educated mind; the popular works of Song suit the common ear. The educated of the world are few, but the common people are many. Thus there is less fiction in refined than in the popular language ... It is not certain that reading the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety will quickly or deeply move anyone. Can this be done by anything but the colloquial?' Early Qing literary critic Jin Shengtan continued this trend and, alone among his contemporaries, paid attention to artistic devices. While fiction was now taken seriously by some literati, there was nothing that could be called public discussion of the role of fiction, and the range of views was quite limited. It was only toward the end of Qing that the political and social func13

14

15

16

17

18

23 The Rise of 'New Fiction' tions of fiction were defined and its artistic qualities related to these functions. Theories of fiction were elaborated which urged authors to write in a particular way and contributed to radical changes in literary practice. Beginning in 1897, articles with new ideas on the theory of fiction appeared in a variety of periodicals. The first Chinese magazine devoted entirely to fiction, including essays on the role of fiction, was Xin xiaoshuo (New fiction), started by Liang Qichao in 1902. Very soon afterwards Xiuxiang xiaoshuo (Fiction illustrated), Xin xin xiaoshuo (Brand new fiction), Ershi shiji da wutai (The great twentieth-century stage), Yue yue xiaoshuo (Monthly fiction), and other fiction magazines mushroomed; more than thirty titles were published during late Qing. Since nearly all fiction theory, criticism, and novels first appeared in fiction magazines or newspapers, fiction magazines emerged as a new, very important cultural and political medium. They were partly a reflection of the impact of aggressive foreign capitalism on China. As a new means of circulating fiction, they were also a sign of a new relation between writer and reader. This relationship rested on several recent developments. Advances in printing technology allowed for more rapid, voluminous, and economical publication - printed matter could reach a larger audience. The appearance of the popular press, especially papers that discussed poli­ tics, facilitated the publication of fiction magazines. Although an official press had existed for well over a thousand years, the readers were exclusively offi­ cials and the elite because it carried little besides bureaucratic matters. Before and after the Opium War, foreign-run papers existed in China, but their aims were to spread religion or make a profit and they did not express popular opin­ ion either. But after the end of the Hundred Days Reform, many newspapers appeared. Liang Qichao organized the Emperor Protection Society and started a news­ paper which carried on a ten-year debate with the papers of Sun Yatsen's revo­ lutionary party. These papers emphasized political debate, daily news taking second place,- readers bought them to follow the evolution of the debate, being more interested in China's political future than in particular events. The development of the Chinese press provided, for a number of specific problems (editing, typesetting, and organization), solutions which were applied to the publication of fiction magazines. There were increasing numbers of potential readers and writers. The new urban population liked to read newspapers and magazines as a new kind of entertainment, as one can see from incidents in several of the novels. If he couldn't afford up-to-date papers and magazines, the city dweller could buy 19

20

24 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century them several days later at cheaper prices. The fact that journals of fiction serialized long works and ended each instalment in the middle of an episode encouraged readers to buy successive issues. The vernacular language and the new content gave regular public expression for the first time to the major political and social concerns of the urban population; both writers and readers shared the excitement of using this new avenue of expression. Professional writers and journalists made their first appearance in China during the late Qing period. M e n such as W u Woyao and Li Baojia turned down official careers in order to devote themselves to editing and writing, not only because of their talents, but also because they thought it a noble thing to do. This was in contrast with earlier novelists, who rarely wrote more than one novel; they often wrote when they were old, distilling a life's experience, for the purpose of entertaining or illuminating their readers. The late Qing novelist normally made a living from his editing and writing, often producing several serialized novels simultaneously. 21

Considerable Chinese publishing was done in foreign concessions where people were influenced by Western bourgeois democratic thought and pro­ tected somewhat by Western law from government reprisal. The writers began to demand freedom of speech, and published a great deal of fiction highly critical of political events. The old tradition, that common people were not supposed to concern themselves with the government of China, was breaking down. Now that politics had become a popular topic of discussion and enjoyed some protection under the laws of the concessions, it was difficult for the Qing court to reverse the trend, though it tried. Liang Qichao's New Fiction printed so many works offensive to the imperial court that it was prohibited from circulating in China. The 1903 edict of prohibition against 'seditious' literature said that New Fiction and other magazines and pamphlets 'horrify the reader, are full of crazy ideas, and are truly loathesome. If they are carelessly allowed to become popular, not only will they ruin people's beliefs but, it is to be feared, they will injure the peace of the world.' If an offensive work was published in a foreign concession, the Qing court could not easily suppress it. In 1903 Su bao was the Chinese paper most outspoken in its criticism of the Qing government. It published favourable reviews of Zou Rong's violently anti-imperial pamphlet, Geming jun (The revolutionary army), which had a preface by the paper's editor, Zhang Binglin. The Qing government wanted to arrest and execute Zou and Zhang as well as the owner of Su bao. The foreign government of the Shanghai concession (where the paper was published) would not consent to the extradition of the three men. Thus they were tried by the Shanghai mixed court and received relatively light sentences. 22

23

25 The Rise of 'New Fiction' Under the influence of the literary theory of the day, the late Qing fiction magazines all had common views on purpose and content, and on the impor­ tance of both original fiction and translations. The editors and publishers had a well-formulated purpose for publishing, namely, to use fiction to educate the masses, foster a new morality, and criti­ cize society so as to change it for the better. This can be seen from their initial statements of purpose usually printed in the first issue, as well as their choice of published literary works. Late Qing magazines published large quantities of 'new fiction,' works whose purpose was to develop popular political consciousness and sometimes to promote new 'scientific' modes of thinking, and to expose and criticize social evils. Fiction Illustrated, for example, explicitly refused to print conventional tales about scholars and beauties. 24

Given the general consensus that the problems facing China had faced other countries, that solutions found elsewhere were worth considering in China, and the prevailing social view of fiction, one can see why foreign fiction in translation was given ample space along with new Chinese novels. Although Western literature had appeared in Chinese as early as 1740, it was mostly translations from the Bible or retelling of Bible stories, which have generally been regarded as fiction in China. It was only after the Sino-Japanese War that the large-scale introduction of translated foreign fiction began. Over 1000 titles of new volumes of fiction appeared during late Qing; about one-third were original Chinese works, and two-thirds were works of foreign fiction translated into Chinese. The four leading late Qing magazines, New Fiction (1902-10), Fiction Illus­ trated (1903-6), Monthly Fiction (1906-8), and Xiaoshuo lin (The grove of fiction) (1907-8), were instrumental in their introduction to the wider public. New Fiction serialized 8 original novels - among them Liang Qichao's Xin Zhongguo weilai ji (The future of new China), and Tong shi (Painful history); Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang (Strange events seen in the past twenty years), Jiuming qiyuan (The strange case of nine murders), and Dianshu qitan (Strange tales of electricity), all by W u Woyao but also published 10 translated novels, and printed photographs which gave Chinese readers their first pictures of Tolstoy, Shaw, Byron, Shelley, Goethe, Schiller, Maeterlinck, Sienkiewicz, and others. Fiction Illustrated printed L i Baojia's Wenming xiao shi (A brief history of modern times) and Huo diyu (Living hell), Liu E's Laocan youji (The travels of Laocan), W u Woyao's Xia pian qiwen (Strange tale of a blind cheat) and others, 17 original works all together. There were 17 translations, including the Ara­ bian Nights and a novel by Mark Twain.

25

26

;

26 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Monthly Fiction printed 14 original works, including W u Woyao's ]ie yu hui (Ashes of destruction), and several dozen translations including novels, short stories, and some of Shaw's plays. This first attempt to popularize modern foreign short stories contributed to the later development of fiction. The Grove of Fiction published few original novels, but did print the most popular novel of the times, Zeng Pu's Niehai hua (The flower in the world of retribution), and 3 others, as well as 17 short stories,- translations were more numerous than in other magazines, with 9 long works, including Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (translated by Zeng Pu) and many short stories. This magazine also printed photographs of Dumas, Verne, Shaw, Scott, Dickens, and others. 27

As already noted, the public discussion on the role of fiction started in 1897. At the beginning the authors of the essays were mostly prominent politicians who were later also active in the running of fiction magazines and in the writing and translating of novels. Within several years the discussions were so wide­ spread that several magazines started special sections devoted to brief 'fiction talks' and introduced columns on how to write and read fiction. The discus­ sions did not proceed with reference to a well-defined body of Chinese literary concepts (these did not exist for the novel) but rather centred on the relation between history and literature, aiming at consciously influencing current events through fiction. Their first steps toward a theory of fiction may thus appear to sacrifice aesthetics to politics; but the highly political frame of refer­ ence helped both critics and novelists to generate innovations in the art of the Chinese novel. It should be noted that while the articles promoted vernacular literature, they were all written in wenyan, the classical language. Traditionally, litera­ ture might be written in the vernacular, but theory had always been written in wenyan. With the lack of the necessary model in the past, the scholars would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to write in vernacular on theoretical problems. Furthermore, they knew that a theoretical article in vernacular would get little attention among educated circles. The scope of late Qing literary criticism is very vast and is available now in A Ying's Wan Qing wenxue congchao: xiaoshuo xiqu yanjiu juan (Anthology of late Qing literature: research materials on fiction and drama) published in Peking in 1960. Yet, with one exception, there is no English study of late Qing literary theory. For this reason we will discuss some of the more influen­ tial articles individually and translate key passages, with emphasis on their distinctive points. The first article to appear was an essay by Yan Fu and Xia Zengyou pub­ lished in 1897 in the sixteenth issue of Tianjin's Guowen bao (National news) 28

29

27 The Rise of 'New Fiction' and entitled 'Benguan fuyin shuobu yuanqi' (Announcing our policy to print a supplementary fiction section). In their discussion of the value of Chinese fiction, the essayists did not limit themselves to the usefulness of the popular forms, but also stressed the value of the popular tradition. The fiction which embodied it kept alive Chinese history unlike the unappealing official Twentyfour Histories. Popular fiction kept a different kind of history alive; its heroes had been killed off or neglected in the pages of orthodox volumes. This means, Yan and Xia point out, that fiction is a 'basic reference for orthodox history'; therefore China should use fiction to enlighten people. The possibility of doing so had already been demonstrated in Europe, America, and Japan, where fic­ tion played an important role at the start of the modern era. 30

Yen and Xia also reflected on the devices that made popular fiction so suc­ cessful as a prose form and they made five points on the subject. The first three concern language: it is contemporary, close to the spoken, and ample; the other two concern subject matter: popular fiction deals with daily life, and it gives form to popular aspirations. The five points were an attempt to explain the power and enduring value of traditional Chinese fiction; but they also had prescriptive force: a modern novel with these five qualities would be an effec­ tive work. The man who had the greatest influence on reform journalism was Liang Qichao. His ideas stimulated the development of theory, of criticism, and of the writing and the translation of fiction. After his flight to Japan, Liang published there the two articles (1898, 1902) on the theory of fiction which had the greatest effect during late Qing. The first, 'Yiyin zhengzhi xiaoshuo xu' (Foreword to our series of political novels in translation), appeared in the first issue (Yokohama, December 1898) of Qingyi bao (The China discussion). Here was the first use in Chinese literary criticism of the term 'political fiction.' Under the impact of Japanese theory, which was influenced by the English novelists Bulwer-Lytton and Benjamin Disraeli, Liang strongly advocated that the fiction translated into Chinese should be political. In turning from the court to the public as the instrument of change, Liang was asking for fiction that would continue the didactic tradition of the classical canon. 'Political fiction' and the Classics, in such a view, are different forms of the same message. 31

Few people who can barely read will read the Classics, but they will all read fiction. Since they can't be taught by means of the Six Classics, fiction should be used. Ortho­ dox history won't affect them, fiction will. The works of Confucius can't instruct them, fiction can. Law can't regulate them, fiction can. There are only a few learned men in the world, the poorly educated are numerous; few are steeped in literature, but many

28 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century have a rough knowledge of it. Though the Six Classics are elegant, if neither the words nor their meaning are understood, they are like pearls on a dark night.

32

Elsewhere in the article Liang stresses the usefulness of fiction in preparing public opinion for political change, and he draws examples from abroad; stress­ ing the role of political fiction in Europe, Japan, and North America. In requiring that fiction serve politics, Liang shows a traditional and elitist prejudice against earlier Chinese novels. He condemned Honglou meng (Dream of the red chamber) and Shuihu zhuan (Water Margin) as instruction in lust and banditry, with not a line worth preserving. In his eyes, what had been a form of popular expression was reprehensible in its values; it was now to be appropri­ ated by an elite as a vehicle for the values of enlightened men (modernizing scholars and officials, and the modern bourgeoisie) in the interests of the people. The article publicly raised a major question: What direction should Chinese fiction take? Liang's answer may be considered 'the prelude to the revolution in fiction.' 33

To stress the distinction between the popular novels of the past and the political fiction he had in mind, Liang called for xiaoshuo geming (revolution in fiction) and he coined the term xin xiaoshuo (new fiction). He formulated these ideas in the article 'Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhizhi guanxi' (On the connec­ tion between fiction and ruling the masses), printed in 1902 in Yokohama in the first issue of his magazine New Fiction. Appealing to traditional fiction as proof, Liang spoke of the positive and negative effects of fiction on the masses and on the politics, morality, and general climate of society. He begins with typical hyperbole, in lines that were often quoted by his contemporaries: T o transform the people of a nation, the only way is to first transform that nation's fiction. Therefore to transform morality, religion, politics, customs, learning and the arts we must transform fiction; even to transform the mind and character of people, we must transform fiction. Why? Fiction possesses an astonishing potentiality to affect the way of

man.34 Drama and poetry, it is implied, cannot compare in this respect; fiction is described as literature's zuishang cheng (greatest conveyance). Marian Gálik comments.on this idea: 'It is nothing else than an assertion, veiled in Buddhist garment, that the novel has the highest position in the hierarchy of literary genres. In analogy with the original Buddhist terms these words ... [imply] the novel has the function of a vehicle which conveys the truth of its creator to the readers and helps them to a general political and social orientation.' 35

29 The Rise of 'New Fiction' In a formulation which was highly original Liang described the 'four powers' that make fiction so influential - the power to diffuse, to permeate, to touch, and to elevate. According to Liang, when one reads a novel one is often influenced without knowing it until one is eventually changed; then one may affect others, leading eventually to a change in society. This is the power to diffuse. When one reads a novel, one often remembers it for days and months; feelings of love, sorrow, happiness and rage remain - this is the power to permeate. When one reads a novel, one often feels a shock; this is the power to touch. Finally, the reader can identify with the hero; this is the power to elevate. 36

37

A man of letters who can master one of these powers is a great writer; he who can master all four is a literary giant. Religions and political organizations utilize these powers. If these four powers are used for good, they may bring good fortune to millions; but if they are used for evil, their poison lasts for thousands of years. Since fiction has this potentiality, it is both admirable and fearful. Liang sums up his argument: T h e profound philosophy of the sages, their thousands of words of instruction, are not sufficient; a novel or two picked up in a bookshop is more than enough to destroy it all ... T o transform the ruling of the masses, we must begin with a transformation of fiction. 38

Liang was instrumental in spreading the new serious attitude toward fiction and in creating the means - fiction magazines - for circulating new fiction. He himself ran a fiction magazine, translated foreign novels, and wrote his own highly political novel. A Ying in Wan Qing xiqu xiaoshuo mu (Bibliography of late Qing drama and fiction) calculates that among over 600 works in the new style, 90 per cent were written from 1902 on - i.e. after Liang began publica­ tion of his magazine. Liang's influential ideas represent one major trend in the new literary circles. But once the intelligentsia accepted the idea of the importance of fic­ tion, the reform movement was bound to generate more radical bourgeois eval­ uations of its role, past and present; this was the other major trend. Indicative of this radical shift is Xia Zengyou's second article, published under the pen name Bie Shi in 1903 in the third issue of Fiction Illustrated, and entitled 'Xiaoshuo yuanli' (Axioms for fiction). In this article he discusses the proper subject for fiction. Instead of heroes, historical events, wealth, and invented incidents supported by the author's explanations, popular fiction should deal with minor villainy, everyday events, poverty, and true incidents in which the facts are left to speak for themselves. Basically, in Xia's view, good fiction is a vivid and detailed representation of life for which the

30 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century author must draw on his own experience, something which may give the reader insight into his own life. Xia goes even further when he proposes two kinds of fiction, one for the elite and one for commoners (specified as 'women and illiterates'). Xia considered the majority, rather than the educated few, the more important audience for fiction. In 1905 in New Fiction appeared an article entitled 'Lun xieqing xiaoshuo yu xin shehuizhi guanxi' (On the relation between the new society and the love stories). It was by Jin Songcen, the author of the original first four chapters of Niehai hua. He shares Liang's views about the powers of fiction, but he reminds the translators to consider the benefit of a translated novel for China's future. 'When I read contemporary new fiction,' he says, 'I am delighted. When I read contemporary love stories, I am terrified.' The individual insight late Qing writers hoped to induce did not lead them to concentrate on the psychology of personal experience. They saw in fiction a means to inculcate patriotism, democratic republicanism, a scientific outlook, and national unity: fiction's attention to daily life would increase political con­ sciousness. In this context Jin's criticisms of translated Western love stories take on meaning. In 1907, in Monthly Fiction, Tianlu Sheng published an article entitled 'Lun xiaoshuo yu gailiang shehuizhi guanxi' (On the relation between fiction and social reform). He pointedly contradicted Liang Qichao by asserting that traditional novels did have the serious purpose Liang had claimed exclusively for 'new fiction:' 'I a m trying to say that Water Margin is a socialist novel that Golden Lotus shows revulsion at social conditions; and that Dream of the Red Chamber is a social and ethical love story. The authors of these novels felt a bitterness they could hardly put into words and used indirection and allegory to express it. Some readers don't recognize the authors' intentions and treat the novels as instruction in lust and banditry; this is because they are no good at reading novels.' He concludes the article on a note of urgency: 'At present, after the Four Powers' Agreement every one is afraid that China will be ruined.' 'One or two talented people will never save the country; this won't be possible until the majority of citizens are armed with patriotism. Fiction is most capable of playing this role.' In traditional Chinese fiction itself there was much that even the progres­ sive reformers disliked, though this was usually indicated by passing over the offending works in silence. The progressives were not unanimous on what should be perpetuated in modern works. Episodic form and drumsong style were singled out as means of tapping a large reservoir of readers. The case was stated in its most general terms by Tianlu Sheng in his 1907 article 'Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo shi lun' (On the history of China's traditional fiction) published 39

40

31 The Rise of 'New Fiction' in Monthly Fiction. 'In writing fiction one must choose the facts appropriate to this society, one must choose a style suitable to our people's understanding.' Tianlu Sheng deftly defined the major distinction between Western and Chinese fiction: Chinese fiction is the account not of an individual fate but of a multipli­ city of characters and events: 'A Western novel talks of a single character and a single event, but our Chinese fiction talks of several characters and several events, which is sufficient cause for pride in our nation's fiction.' A n article which systematically covers interesting topics rarely even men­ tioned by other writers on fiction appeared in 1908 in the ninth and tenth issues of The Grove of Fiction under the title T u z h i xiaoshuo guan' (My view on fiction). Its author, [Donghai] Juewo, shows a more serious concern than previous authors with the practical application of theory and he has unusually concrete ideas of the reading public as well as an uneasy sense of the influence of commercialism on the publication of fiction. For example, he complained about the inaccurate or missing information about the provenance of the trans­ lated novels, he gathered statistics on publishers' success with books of fiction (to his dismay, the bestsellers were detective novels, followed by romances, and comedy and novels of manners), and he wanted to inform writers and readers that fiction in wenyan was selling better than vernacular fiction, because about 90 per cent of those who bought the books were from old scholarly circles, 9 per cent were common people, and those who had modern education, and welcomed new fiction, amounted only to 1 per cent. The figures are only estimates and refer to book sales, while novels were first published in news­ papers and fiction magazines. Despite the proliferation of theories and new novels, an attempt to measure their influence objectively shows that the change had only begun and still faced difficulties. 41

42

[Donghai] Juewo has specific suggestions for the reform of fiction. Form, style, language, purpose, and price should all be adapted to the readersstudents, military men, people in commerce and industry, and women; and he specifies form, content, length, and price for each group. The regular periodical publication of literary criticism began in 1906 as a section in Liang Qichao's magazine New Fiction under the heading 'Xiaoshuo conghua' (Colloquium on fiction). Following this, The Grove of Fiction included a section called 'Xiaoshuo xiaohua' (Brief talks on fiction). Though there were many other such sections, the most influential criticism appeared in these two. They provided interesting discussions of traditional and recent Chinese fiction, drama, and drum songs as well as essays on fiction translated from other languages. Moreover, foreign and Chinese fiction were compared.

43

Liang Qichao said that the reading of the drama Taohua shan (The peach blossom fan) could arouse a reader's nationalist sentiments. Xiaren praised the 44

32 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Dream of the Red Chamber as an extremely valuable political, ethical, and moral novel written, from a philosophical perspective, for the purpose of wip­ ing out the old morality. In his article on Water Margin, Ding Y i said 'this book is a sapling striving for freedom, self-strengthening, democracy and people's rights.' 45

Aesthetic considerations received less than systematic treatment in the maga­ zine discussions, because of the general conviction among critics and writers that the purpose of a novel was to present contemporary life, diagnose social conditions, and inform readers of the state of the nation. Huang Moxi, cofounder of The Grove of Fiction, used Hegel for support, saying that fiction must be able 'to satisfy aesthetic needs' and must have 'ideals' and 'images' a writer who failed to recognize the 'true nature' of the novel could not perform his social function. Even more important were Lin Shu and Wang Guowei, who, though not directly involved in late Qing literary discussions, contributed substantially to the growing aesthetic recognition of fiction. Lin Shu, the most prolific and most influential of all the late Qing transla­ tors, introduced to Chinese readers such foreign authors as Shakespeare, Defoe, Fielding, Swift, Scott, Dickens, Balzac, Ibsen, Cervantes, and Tolstoy, and his translations of Dumas fils' La Dame aux camelias and Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin made a deep impression on the Chinese literary world, lasting long after the late Qing era. Lin Shu also wrote original stories and novels which, like his translations, were rendered in wenyan. In one of these, Guanchang xin xianxing )i (The bureaucrats: a new revelation), he broke with a tradition of Chinese fiction, the episodic style and division into chapters; following his innovation, Chinese fiction began to dispense with the old convention of chapters. Lin Shu made the remark (outrageous for the time) that Scott's novels were as sophisticated as the phenomenal history by Sima Qian, the second century BC founder of Chinese historiography. This statement left the elitist, Sino-centric Chinese literary men in a profound state of bewilderment; but it forced them to re-evaluate the status of fiction, and encouraged China's novelists to write, and translators to continue rendering foreign fiction into Chinese. Wang Guowei's highly philosophic and still stimulating essay 'Honglou meng pinglun' (Critical study of the Dream of the red chamber), which first appeared in 1904 as part of the book fiaoyu congshu (Education anthology), is in sharp contrast with the tenor of politically engaged late Qing literary life. Strongly influenced by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Wang praises the novel because, in his view, it is a tragedy, and it is the duty of art to depict the 46

47

48

33 The Rise of 'New Fiction' essentially bitter nature of life and provide catharsis. The appreciation of art, however, is a temporary release from entanglement in the world of desire, and requires concentration on the form rather than the content. Wang's pessimistic view values release rather than reform, and leads to an abstract aesthetics rather than political engagement. Yet the simple fact that Wang Guowei, a traditional, withdrawn Chinese man of letters, devoted his studies to a Chinese novel, is a sign of change in attitude toward previously proscribed fiction, and had an ideological impact comparable to the essays of his politically outspoken contemporaries. Late Qing literary theory as discussed in the literary magazines began with quite abstract ideas, in an elitist frame of reference (Confucian classics were to be replaced by new fiction as a means of social control.) As the theory was elaborated, it became more specific in its treatment of literary questions and more democratic in its frame of reference. In time, an inclusive theory was sketched out which dealt with basic problems for the development of Chinese fiction. The consensus was that fiction should be related to contemporary life and political struggles; why, how, and for whom fiction should be written were questions of public debate. The form and content of later Qing fiction was highly influenced by the debate; most of the articles we have discussed were constantly referred to in literary magazines of the time. Though major innovations were made in Chinese fiction during late Qing, and the attitudes towards fiction and the very existence of a theory of fiction were unprecedented, there was not a revolution in fiction. Deficiencies in the­ ory ensured the disappointment of its great hopes. A new society could not be created by fiction alone, and old reading habits might make it difficult for new fiction to gain much of an audience. The fundamental problem was the way of life of the people and their role as readers. Politically speaking, the new fiction movement served the interests of the reform movement and shared its limited success. Nevertheless, the elaboration of a literary theory where none had been before, its inclusiveness and detailed consideration of the social and aesthetic aspects of evaluation, and the new writing it helped call into existence, all within the space of a decade, were great achievements. It was a necessary foundation from which the new developments of the ensuing decades could proceed. 49

34 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century NOTES

Abbreviations

MQXYL]X

Ming Qing xiaoshuo yanjiu lunwen ji xubian (Second collection of

studies on M i n g and Qing fiction] (n.p. 1970] A Ying Wan Qing xiaoshuo

WQXS

shi (A history of late Qing fiction] (Beijing

1955]

XXY]

A Ying ed Wan Qing wenxue congchao: xiaoshuo xiqu yanjiu juan

(Anthology of late Qing literature: research materials on fiction and drama] (Beijing 1960] 1 Tao Youzeng 'Lun xiaoshuozhi shili jiqi yingxiang' Youxi shijie

XXY]

10 (1907] in

39

2 This and the preceding paragraph are based on T a n Bi'an Wan Qingde

baihua-

wen yundong (Wuhan 1956] 1; Yen-p'ing Hao The Comprador in Nineteenth Century China: Bridge between East and West (Cambridge, Mass. 1970] 211-14; John E. Schrecker Imperialism and Chinese Nationalism: Germany in Shantung

(Cambridge, Mass. 1971] 46ff, 55.

3 Joseph Levenson Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and the Mind of Modern China (Berkeley 1970] 20-4; Schrecker Chinese

Nationalism

46; Charlton M . Lewis 'The

Reform Movement in Hunan (1896-1898]' Papers on China

15 (Harvard 1961]

65, 68, 71, 84ff 4 Tung Chi-ming An Outline

History of China

(Peking 1959] 263

5 Schrecker Chinese Nationalism 52 Meribeth Cameron The Reform Movement in China 1898-1912 (Stanford 1931] 32 William Ayers Chang Chih-tung and ;

;

Educational

Reform

in China

(Cambridge, Mass. 1971] 139; George T . Y u Party

Politics in Republican China: The Kuomintang 23; Levenson Liang Ch'i-ch'ao

1912-1924

(Berkeley 1966] 14,

28ff, 31; Kung-ch'uan Hsiao 'The Case for C o n ­

stitutional Monarchy: K'ang Yu-wei's Plan for the Democratization of China' Monumento Sérica 24 (1965] 13ff, 18, 28, 38 6 Figures (in millions of inhabitants] for the five largest cities in 1900 are: Wuhan 1.3, Canton 0.9, Shanghai 0.84, Tianjin 0.75, Peking 0.7; Nanking was fourteenth (0.35]. See Dwight Perkins Agricultural 1368-1968

Development

in

China

(Edinburgh 1969] 290-6

7 Henry McAleavy Wang Tao: The Life and Writings of a Displaced Person (London 1953] 3, 8 Ping-ti H o 'The Salt Merchants of Yang-chou: A Study of ;

Commercial Capitalism in Eighteenth-Century China' Harvard Journal of Asian

Studies 17 (1954] 157ff, 168; Hsiao-tung Fei China's Gentry: Essays in RuralUrban Relations

(Chicago 1968] 122ff, 133, 137

35 The Rise of 'New Fiction' 8 Ping-ti Ho The Ladder of Success in Imperial China (New York 1962) 253ff Robert M . Marsh The Mandarins: The Circulation of Elites in China 1600-1900

;

(New York, 1961), 77 ñ

9 Feiling Davis 'Le rôle économique et social des sociétés secrètes' in Jean

Mouvements populaires et sociétés secrètes en Chine aux XIX (Paris 1970) 50, 52; Jean Chesneaux The Chinese Labor Move-

Chesneaux et al

et XX siècles e

ment 1919-1927

e

(Stanford 1968) 53ff, 62ff Sybille van der Sprenkel Legal ;

Institutions in Manchu China, A Sociological Analysis (London 1962) 24ff Jean Chesneaux, Les sociétés secrètes en Chine - 19 et 20 siècles (Paris 1965) 89, ;

e

and T h e M o d e m Relevance of Shui-hu

e

chuan : Its Influence on Rebel Move-

ments in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century China' Papers on Far Eastern History

3 (March 1971) lOff

10 Davis 'Le rôle économique' 50, 58, 60; Yuji Muramatsu 'Some Themes in Chinese Rebel Ideologies' in Arthur Wright ed The Confucian

Persuasion

(Stan-

ford 1960) 256-60; Winston Hsieh 'Triads, Salt Smugglers and Local Uprisings: Observations on the Social and Economic Background of the Waichow Revolu-

tion of 1911' in Jean Chesneaux ed Popular Movements China

1840-1950

and Secret Societies in

(Stanford 1972) 157ff, 162, 164, 146

11 This point is emphasized by John Lust 'Secret Societies, Popular Movements and the 1911 Revolution' in Chesneaux ed Popular Movements

175.

12 Edmund Fung T h e T'ang Ts'ai-ch'ang Revolt' Papers on Far Eastern

History

1 (March 1970) 71, 104 13 X X Y J 60, 69

14 Liu Dajie Zhongguo wenxue fada shi (Taibei 1967) 936 15 Li Z h i was arrested for his radical ideas and died in prison; see John C . Wang ' M . H . Abrams' Four Artistic Coordinates and Fiction Criticism in Traditional China' Literature

East and West

16 (1973) 997ff. Feng Menglong edited three

collections of forty stories each: Xingshi hengyan, Yushi mingyan,

and Jingshi

tongyan-, since each title ends with yan, the three collections are usually referred to as San Yan (The three Tan'). Ling Mengchu edited two collections of

stories: Pai'an jingqi and Erke pai'an jingqi

}

the two collections are called Er Pai

(The two 'Pai').

16 Liu Dajie Zhongguo wenxue fada shi 936 17 Feng Menglong ed Yushi mingyan

(Hong Kong 1965) 'Preface' 1. This preface

was written under the name of Lutianguan Zhuren, a pen-name of Feng Menglong according to Liu Dajie Zhongguo wenxue

fada shi

974.

18 Jin Shengtan claimed that China had produced six masterpieces of writing:

Zhuangzi, Lisao, Shi ji, D u Fu's poetry, Water Margin, and the drama Xixiang ji

}

see John C . Wang Chin Sheng-tan

(New York 1972) 21.

36 T h e C h i n e s e N o v e l at the T u r n of the C e n t u r y

19 WQXS 1 20 The earliest newspaper expressing the ideas of people other than officials was Zhaowen xinbao,

published in Hankou in 1874. Following the appearance of

Zhongwai jiwen and Qiang xue bao, run by Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and other reformers, papers and magazines mushroomed; there were more than 300 well-known titles. See Ge Gongzhen Zhongguo baoxue shi (Taibei n.d.] 115-20. 21 Chen Meng 'Zhongguo jindai Hang xiaoshuojia zhuan' Xiaoshuo shijie 9.4 (1925) If

22 Ge Gongzhen Zhongguo baoxue shi 171 23 Ibid 154-6; John Lust 'Introduction' to Tsou Jung The Revolutionary

Army

(Paris 1968) 12ff

24 Anonymous 'Bianyin Xiuxiang xiaoshuo yuanqi' Xiuxiang xiaoshuo 1 (1903) in XXY] 144 25 Liu Dajie Zhongguo wenxue fada shi 1093 26 WQXS 1, 180 27 A Ying Wan Qing wenyi baokan shu Hie (Shanghai 1959) 13-19, 25-31 28 For example, Liang Qichao himself found it took too much time to write in vernacular. See Mabel Lee 'Liang Chi'i-ch'ao (1873-1929) and the Literary Revolution of Late-Ch'ing' in A . R . Davis convenor Search for Identity -

Modern

Literature and the Creative Arts in Asia (Sydney 1974) 211. 29 C . T . Hsia 'Yen Fu and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao as Advocates of New Fiction' in Adele

A . Rickett ed Chinese Approaches to Literature from Confucius

to Liang Ch'i-

ch'ao (Princeton 1978) 221-57 30 Published anonymously 'Benguan fuyin shuobu yuanqi' Guowen (10

Nov.

to

11 Dec.

1897)

in XXYJ 1,

bao 16

12

31 This preface was written for the Chinese translation of the political novel by the Japanese writer Shiba Shiró Kajin-no

kigù

(Unexpected meetings with beautiful

women). Liang Qichao adopted the term 'political fiction' from Japanese theoreticians and novelists who started to advocate political content for fiction after the 1868 Meiji Restoration. They were responding to ideas of the political novel as developed in mid-nineteenth-century England. See Marián Gálik 'On the Influence of Foreign Ideas on Chinese Literary Criticism, 1898-1904' Asian and African Studies

(Bratislava) 2 (1966) 39-41 and Kirina I. Golygina Teorija

izjaScnoj slovesnosti

v Kitae xix-nafala

xx v. (Moskva 1971) 210-11.

32 Liang Qichao 'Yiyin zhengzhi xiaostruo xu' Qingyi bao 1 (1898) in XXYJ 33 Z h u Meishu 'Liang Qichao yu xiaoshuo jie geming' MQXYLJX 34 Liang Qichao 'Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhizhi guanxi' in XXYJ

13

516

14

35 Gálik 'Foreign Ideas' 40 36 See, for example, the reference to the four powers in the first poem of 'Ten Poems of Greeting for the First Issue of New Fiction'

MQXYLJX

517.

New Fiction

1.5 (1902) in

37 The Rise of 'New Fiction' 37 The original terms - xun, qin, ci, and ti - are also borrowed from Buddhism; see Gálik 'Foreign Ideas' 40. 38 Liang Qichao 'Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhizhi guanxi' 19 39 [jin] Songcen 'Lun xieqing xiaoshuo yu xin shehuizhi guanxi' Xin 2.5 (1905) in XXY]

xiaoshuo

32

40 Tianlu Sheng 'Lun xiaoshuo yu gailiang shehuizhi guanxi' Yue yue xiaoshuo (1907) in XXY]

41 Tianlu Sheng 'Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo shi lun' Yue yue xiaoshuo

XXY]

1.11 (1907) in

34-7

42 [Donghai] Juewo 'Yuzhi xiaoshuo guan' Xiaoshuo lin 1.9, 10 (1908) in XXY] 43 XXY]

1.9

37-9

43-6

308-539 contains an extensive selection of such articles of criticism.

44 Discussions and anthologies of the time made no special distinction between drama and fiction. 45 XXY]

314-15, 324, 328, 342

46 Donghai Juewo 'Yuanqi' and Huang M o x i 'Fa kan ci' Xiaoshuo

XXY]

lin 1.1 (1907) in

157, 160-1

47 For Lin Shu's translation activity and the impact of his work see Leo Ou-fan Lee 'Lin Shu and His Translations: Western Fiction in Chinese Perspective' Papers on China

19 (1965) 159-93

48 Zheng Zhenduo 'Lin Qinnan xiansheng' Yue yue xiaoshuo

15.11 (1924) 1-12

49 I would like to thank Donald Holoch who kindly let me use his unpublished doctoral dissertation, ' A Bourgeois View of the State: L i Boyuan's Novel The Bureaucrats'

Cornell University, 1975. T h e historical section of this essay con­

denses part of that dissertation.

Typology of Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels MILENA DOLEZELOVÁ-VELINGEROVÁ

For a structural interpretation of the Chinese novel, and the late Qing novel in particular, the plot construction of the Chinese 'episodic' novel represents a major challenge. It has often been indicated that the traditional plot is a con­ glomeration of loosely connected stories with no design and thus the weakest and least artistically elaborated element of the structure. It has been also pointed out that 'the heterogeneous and episodic quality of plot' is 'most dis­ turbing to the Western reader,' hindering his understanding of the Chinese novel. If the Western reader is not totally lost in the numerous episodes which are narrated within the novel, he certainly has a hard time getting his bearing in the crowd of characters who - to the reader's bewilderment - appear and disappear, only to re-emerge in episodes seemingly unconnected with their preceding actions. Several recent studies have revealed that the plot in Chinese novels is far less erratic than was believed, and that plot is, as in Western novels, subject to certain organizing principles imprinting a unifying character on the novel. Yet studies of the late Qing novel have been less conclusive. Knowledge about plot construction in the late Qing novel is still largely limited to the preliminary and sketchy observations by Lu X u n and H u Shi in their studies in the 1920s and later echoed by A Ying and other scholars. With the exception of Niehai hua (The flower in the world of retribution) the 'compact and well-conceived plot' of which was praised by Lu X u n but questioned by H u Shi, the loose construction of the other three masterpieces of late Qing fiction has been gen­ erally considered their most conspicuous feature. According to Lu Xun, H u Shi, and other scholars, Li Baojia's Guanchang xianxing )i (The bureaucrats: a revelation) consists of a number of freely connected stories, thus imitating its assumed model, W u Jingzi's eighteenthcentury novel Rulin waishi (The scholars). A certain advancement in the 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

39 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels concept of plot, ascribed by H u Shi to the influence of Western fiction, is discerned in W u Woyao's Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang (Strange events seen in the past twenty years); here, the miscellaneous, numerous epi­ sodes are unified by the first-person protagonist, who experiences or witnesses them. A similar opinion is held by Michael Wai-mai Lau who observes that the hero, 'as narrator and auditor, provides a focus, and his wanderings make a loose structure in which the hundred-odd stories are treated freely and in real­ istic detail, while the characters and the milieu of the novel often change from story to story.' However, both Lu X u n and H u Shi apparently felt that this mere presence of the protagonist did not add much to the unity of the plot, because Lu X u n observes that the novel is still written much in the style of The Bureaucrats and H u Shi admits that Strange Events can be considered an offspring of The Scholars. The widespread opinion that Strange Events lacks any artistic design and organization of material was only recently rejected by V . I . Semanov. According to him, the complex composition of Strange Events is one of its artistic achievements, and he compares it to 'a chain reinforced by an inter­ lacing wire (the central characters).' Liu E's novel Laocan youji (The travels of Laocan) is also claimed to be a novel which lacks unity in both plot and subject when 'judged by the Western conception of a novel.' H . Shadick speaks of 'the book's unity of feeling pro­ duced by the author's tireless interest in people and things, his moral integrity and his pervading sense of humour.' C . T . Hsia considers the absence of the latter kinds of unity to be deliberate, indicating the author's 'dissatisfaction with the plot-centered novel of his predecessors and his ambition to encompass the higher and more complex kinds of unity consonant with a faithful render­ ing of his personal vision of China.' This poor understanding of plot construction in late Qing novels has inevi­ tably led to a poor understanding or subjective evaluation of their meaning. Because no unifying plot or subject has been detected, the novels have been often judged according to the utterances of isolated characters or on the basis of individual episodes given an inappropriate importance, being considered as representative of the whole novel. No wonder then, that some late Qing novel­ ists (especially W u Woyao and L i Baojia) were often characterized as mere entertaining raconteurs whose merit is restricted to social criticism. This study will describe, through the typological principle of 'stringing' and semantic analysis, three types of plot structure in late Qing novels, and thereby challenge the widespread opinion that there is no unity of plot and subject in these novels. I hope this analysis will eventually lead to a better understanding of the meaning of these novels. 8

9

10

11

12

13

14

40 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century 'STRINGING' A N D T H ECHINESE

NOVEL

Episodic plot construction has been considered the principal feature differen­ tiating the Chinese novel from its Western counterpart. This idea seems to result from a fallacious comparison of two incompatible entities: the Chinese traditional novel and the Western novel of the nineteenth and twentieth cen­ turies. The outcome of such a comparison must necessarily show only differ­ ences, pointing to the 'limitations' of Chinese fiction. Comparative studies of Chinese with Western novels can be fruitful only if the Chinese novel is given a fair treatment. In European fiction before the nineteenth century there are many novels resembling the Chinese episodic novel in their 'loose' structure. In his pioneering work, O teorii prozy (Theory of prose), published in 1925, the Russian formalist Viktor Sklovskij drew his material primarily from this period in attempting to discover hidden structures underlying the variety of seemingly disconnected episodes. Although Sklovskij's analysis is unsystematic, some of its conclusions can serve as the starting point of an analysis of plot construction in late Qing novels. One of the basic plot patterns discussed by Sklovskij is called stringing (nanizyvanie). 'In this compositional pattern,' he states, 'one self-contained novellamotif follows another, all of them being connected by the unity of the main acting characters.' Sklovskij cites some fairy-tales, the Odyssey, Sinbad's adventures, Apuleius' Golden Ass, and the picaresque novel as examples of this type. He specifically mentions that, in many of these narratives, travelling combined with a search for a career or a partner was used as the motivation of 'stringing.' In Sklovskij's pattern of stringing, reorganized more systematically, four kinds of narrative events can be distinguished: 1 The episodes of the protagonist's story dominate the plot structure, serv­ ing as the 'string' binding all the other narrative elements. 2 The story of a secondary protagonist is linked to the first by structural affinities (they complement each other by contrast, mirror-like symmetry, etc.), with integration into the overall plot structure equivalent to that of the episodes discussed next. 3 'Anecdotes' acted out by other characters form the chain surrounding the main plot line. The anecdotes are confined to one or very few episodes and their acting characters are coterminous with the anecdotes. The main protago­ nist assumes the role of an observer or an addressee of a narration. Anecdotes are 'somebody else's' stories which the protagonist collects in the course of his own story. They are similar to the secondary plot line, except for being selfcontained and disconnected (vis-à-vis other anecdotes and the main story) 15

16

41 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels this explains why they readily assume non-action functions, especially the expression of the social setting. 4 Outside the action are various reflections and contemplations on philosophical, social, and moral themes. In some novels these grow into selfcontained episodes governed by typical philosophizing characters (monks, innkeepers, etc.). This 'non-action material' assumes a more or less 'belletristic' form (philosophic dialogue for example) and in this form is integrated into the plot. To sum up, the novel with the string-like plot consists of four planes: the main protagonist's story-the 'string'; the secondary (optional) protagonist's story which parallels it; the sequence of self-contained anecdotes; and nonaction material in a belletristic form (the last two being held together solely by the string). Following the Czech structuralist Jan Mukafovsky, Sklovskij's formal concept of plot needs to be supplemented with a consideration of its semantic organization. Plot 'is no longer a matter of architecture (the proportions and the successions of parts), but of the organization of the semantic aspect of the work'; it is 'a set of means characterizing the literary work as a semantic whole.' In other words, it must be determined whether the episodes of the string-like plot have something in common in their meaning. If a general semantic unity to the episodes can be discovered, then the coherence of the novel depends not only on stringing, but also on a more profound semantic unity of the episodes. 17

STRING-LIKE PLOT N O V E L

In our sample of late Qing novels, the string-like composition is very well represented; Strange Events, Travels, Flower, and Jiuwei gui (The nine-tailed turtle) can be classified as examples of this type. Strange Events will be analysed in detail here to demonstrate both the formal and semantic unity of the work. (Each of the other three novels is studied in a separate article later in this book.) During the late Qing period the novel Strange Events was popular. However, critics later expressed contradictory appraisals of W u Woyao's chef dœuvre. Lu X u n harshly rejected Strange Events because it 'fails to make a strong appeal, merely presenting some gossip as material for idle talk.' H u Shi, as already mentioned, gave the novel more credit seeing its advantage in the unifying figure of the protagonist. Later, in the fifties and sixties, Chinese and Japanese critics either praised Strange Events as a patriotic, anti-feudal, and anti-imperialistic novel or were dismayed by its petty-bourgeois reform18

19

20

42 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century ism and elegy of the past. Some scholars also pointed out the mixed character of the novel which makes it difficult to evaluate unequivocally its ideological qualities. In the only two Western studies devoted so far to Strange Events, Michael Lau sees its message in 'education and restoration of traditional social values/ while V.I. Semanov adheres to the opinion of those Chinese scholars who describe Strange Events as an 'exposure of political life and social morale.' The varying views about W u Woyao's novel derive from an unsatisfactory analysis of the novel's overall structure. The novel conveys an impression of isolated, gossipy anecdotes, only tenuously combined by the character of Jiusi yisheng, 'The M a n with Nine Lives.' After all, the novel was written over a period of eight years (1903-10) and printed in instalments by different publishers. W u Woyao was notorious for his hasty writing, pressured by an acute need of money. 21

22

23

24

25

26

Yet it can be demonstrated that the apparently disorganized and choppy plot structure of Strange Events is only so on the surface. The plot structure consists of four planes, as described above: the main protagonist - The M a n with Nine Lives; the secondary protagonist, a Manchu official, Gou Cai; anecdotes which offer a comprehensive picture of Chinese society; and non-action discourse between several 'positive' characters who criticize the status quo and suggest some solutions for China's problems. 27

There are two layers in the main protagonist's story. In the first one, the protagonist is an active character involved in his own plot - the covert conflict with his uncle. This layer is concentrated in relatively few (10) chapters of the 108-chapter novel, but its even distribution, at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the novel, creates a dramatic crescendo. In the second layer, the protagonist functions as a 'string' linking the story of the secondary character, the sequence of anecdotes, and the non-action discourse by his role as listener and witness. By its very nature this layer is extended throughout the novel. At the beginning it is represented by the naïve young hero whose curiosity leads him to seek explanations for things strange to him, but typical of the times. Later it is carried by the hero's travelling to various places in China motivated by his job as partner of a fuel company. 28

The protagonist's own plot - his conflict with the uncle - serves as archetype of the formal and semantic organization of the whole novel. At the beginning of the story, the uncle is believed by the hero and by his mother to be the most trustworthy relative, because he is the eldest brother of the hero's recently deceased father, and Confucian ethics assign him now the role of the family's head. At the funeral, the uncle appears a concerned relative

43 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels and a rich and successful official. Without hesitation, the hero's mother entrusts him with the large inheritance of her late husband as he suggests. Yet, in a sequence of disclosures made by the hero himself or by his close friends evidence accumulates that he has defrauded the family and seduced his own niece (engaged already to another man). The hero's bitter experience with his relatives extends even beyond the uncle's death. When he arrives at his funeral, the uncle's family talk only of money and rob him overnight of all the belongings in his trunk. As can be seen from this outline, the protagonist's own story can be characterized as a cognitive process, an epistemic story,- starting with a false belief, the hero achieves in the course of events a true knowledge of his uncle's character, status, and actions. The story is actually a modified mystery story, because the hero learns to know what was originally hidden. The hero's story is formally organized according to a well-known principle of mystery stories: the principle of delayed information. The true image of the hero's uncle is revealed gradually. The thrill and tension of the discovery are enhanced. The principle of delayed information is effected by the splitting of the episodes of the protagonist's story; the individual episodes are separated by sequences of anecdotes ('other people's stories') - and the revelation is hindered by various obstacles which the hero must overcome in order to contact his uncle (the uncle refuses to see him, leaves town, pretends to be sick, and so on). 29

The protagonist's own story is the novel's pivot: its semantic base (the epistemic transformation) serves as a model for the semantic structure of all the other planes of the plot. If this is so, then it can be claimed that the coherence of Strange Events is given not only in its organization of events, but also in the uniform underlying semantic base of these experiences. The cognitive process links all the episodes of the novel: the true character of 'strange events observed in the past twenty years' is gradually revealed to the hero. The secondary plot of Strange Events centres around the Manchu official Gou Cai. His story is longer and more elaborate than any of the anecdotes. He functions as a foil to the main protagonist: the individual episodes of his story are concentrated at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the novel, as are the episodes of the main protagonist's story. In chapter four we first meet Gou Cai seeing off one of his visitors, while the hero, who does not know him yet, observes him from a distance. The youth is mainly attracted by Gou Cai's extravagant dress which is described minutely. This detailed description (which contrasts remarkably with the lack of or sparsity of physical description of other characters) is essential at this point, for it leads the naïve young hero to believe that the stranger must be a rich official. 30

44 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century In fact, the man is on the brink of poverty, with rank but no post. As a newcomer to the area, he is only pretending to be rich while frantically search­ ing for influential people who might procure him a job in exchange for future favours. But all this and Gou Cai's debased character are discovered by the hero only gradually, either by his own observation or with the help of other people. The true character of the 'stranger' is first hinted to the hero by one of his friends. He discloses the man's name, Gou Cai - which is the homonym of a Chinese curse word (in English approximately meaning 'Mongrel'; literally, 'A man of dog's nature'). Later, the hero gains more insight when his friend tells him a simile about an impoverished but pretentious Manchu official who lived sometime in the past. Yet Gou Cai's appalling character is mainly exposed by his own behaviour and deeds. By unscrupulous machinations Gou Cai finally acquires a profitable post, but his greed and his obsession with a more lucrative career drive him to commit a frightful act. Violating the Confucian principle that a widow must never remarry, he sends off his recently widowed daughterin-law, a beautiful young girl, to the governor as a concubine, hoping that he might barter her for a lucrative post. He succeeds. In the end, he is poisoned by his second son. Yet, as the hero is informed later, the murderer's motive was not to punish the father for his immorality; he wanted to get rid of his father, because he refused to give him one of his pretty concubines. Thus the story of Gou Cai is based on the same semantics as the protago­ nist's story. The hero, observing Gou Cai's career, experiences the same epistemic process as he did during his own personal conflict with the uncle. The person he originally believed to be an honourable and rich official turns out to be a beast who mercilessly devours others both in his own family and in offi­ cialdom. The principle of delayed information is employed even more skilfully in Gou Cai's story than in the protagonist's story. Tension is achieved through a gradual revelation of Gou Cai's character, and two of the longer episodes (the bartering of Gou Cai's daughter-in-law and Gou Cai's murder) are themselves designed as miniature mystery stories. In the first case, Gou Cai's plan of dis­ posing with the girl is deliberately hidden from the reader. First, Gou Cai only whispers it into his wife's ear later he relates it to one of his accomplices - but in neither case is the reader explicitly informed about Gou Cai's intentions. The plan is disclosed only on a third occasion, during Gou Cai's direct confron­ tation with the victimized girl. The episode of Gou Cai's murder closely fol­ lows the plot pattern of the traditional Chinese mystery story. The hero is informed who the murderer is and how he planned to kill his victim, but the motivation of the crime is disclosed only at the very end of the story. ;

45 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels Although organized according to an identical semantic pattern, the second­ ary plot is not a mere repetition of the protagonist's story. Its significance lies in contrasting the protagonist's plot. This contrast is most striking in the mood of both stories. The protagonist's story is predominantly tragic and serene, in harmony with the passivity and moral uprightness of the victimized hero. The episodes composing Gou Cai's story are very often comical and burlesque, com­ plementing well Gou Cai's gross character. The juxtaposition of these two plots also renders a clear moral message. The protagonist's story concerns a positive character who becomes a victim. The protagonist of the secondary story is a negative character, who routinely com­ mits crimes similar to those which have victimized the main protagonist. In the end he is destroyed, not as punishment for his misdeeds, but through the action of another crook. One villain is eliminated by another in a constant struggle for prey. The juxtaposition of the two plots is therefore one of the prime sources of the tragic quality of the novel, which arises from a total inversion of moral values. The third stratum of the novel consists of a set of anecdotes relating petty incidents of everyday life. These anecdotes, narrated either at once or in instal­ ments, create a mosaic of the social milieu in which the two main stories are immersed. Formally, they are again related to the protagonist by his own obser­ vation or by his hearing the anecdotes from other characters. But, unlike the two main stories, their role is not to reveal the masked faces of individual characters. Rather, the characters of the anecdotes are types representing members of a Chinese family or various social groups of Chinese society: mer­ chants, bureaucrats, soldiers, half-educated intellectuals, prostitutes. This thematic diversity is again unified by the epistemic semantic structure. The anecdotes have a single pattern. First, the protagonist observes an incident or hears gossip. Later he finds out the background which throws a completely different light on the original event. Consider two examples. In chapter 68 the protagonist visits a naval base at Tianjin to find a friend of his. When he is surprised to see the barracks all decorated, his friend explains that this is to welcome Si Dawang, the river god. Intrigued, the hero follows his friend to the great ceremonial hall where ranking naval officers, festively uniformed, have assembled to greet the god. Overwhelmed by curiosity, the hero approaches the dais and discovers that the fearful god is actually a small, harmless snake which - to the bewilderment and horror of the audience - he picks up by its tail. In another anecdote, narrated in instalments in chapters 32, 39, and 45, a certain L i Jingyi, son of an old family friend, comes to borrow some money

46 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century from the protagonist to arrange for the burial of his younger brother. Assuming that Li acts in accord with Confucian piety, the protagonist lends him the required sum. But later, the hero learns from a neighbour the story behind the younger brother's death. Li convinced his father to force the younger brother to commit suicide because he was a homosexual and thus a disgrace to the family. Yet his real goal was to get hold of several chests given to his brother as a dowry. When Li opened the chests, and found nothing valuable, he sold his sister-in-law to a brothel in revenge. The story of Li Jingyi continues in chapter 39 when the protagonist hears that Li sold off all his belongings and disappeared and in chapter 45 when the hero meets Li again, this time in the robe of an impoverished Buddhist monk. Assuming that Li has repented, the protagonist donates him the money for which the monk begs. Afterwards, the hero hears, however, that Li has turned into a thief and rapist who disguises himself in monk's clothes. Through the observation of petty incidents in a wide range of social life the protagonist acquires a broad perspective, yet the outcome of his cognitive pro­ cess is as devastating as it was in his personal story and in the story of his foil. The repetitive character of the identical semantic pattern - underlying the stories of the three planes - reinforces the critical message of Strange Events but the diversified manifestations of the semantic model prevent the novel from being monotonous. As already noted, the anecdotes treat all aspects of Chinese life, in all sorts of moods. The short anecdotes, narrated at once within one chapter, have usually a comical dénouement; the longer ones, narrated by instalments in several separated chapters, are likely to have tragic overtones. Their variety is further­ more enhanced by the different methods by which the crucial information is disclosed. In the short anecdotes (as in the first example) the story follows traditional chronological order. Its effect is achieved by a sudden upset of expectations. But in the longer anecdotes, the principle of delayed information is applied with more sophistication. The protagonist is first presented with an isolated fact and he is led to an incorrect conclusion by this elliptical information. The necessary but missing parts of the story are disclosed only later, and the sur­ prise is achieved when the parts of the puzzle are assembled in their logical order. Since in many of the anecdotes the missing parts are events of the past, the dénouement of the anecdotes is often coupled with the inversion of time. This technique, unusual in traditional Chinese novels, was one in which W u Woyao excelled and brought to a peak in his later pseudodetective novel Jiuming qiyuan (The strange case of nine murders). Most probably - as noted in Gilbert }

47 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels Fong's essay in this book - he adopted it from the traditional Chinese mystery story and traditional story-teller genres. But no matter what the source of this technique, its dramatic character contributed largely to the attractiveness of the novel. The fourth and last plane consists of non-action discourse. In Strange Events, this plane is represented by protracted moralizing, exclusively by positive and often victimized characters, such as Wang Boshu, a dismissed official who turned into a travelling bookseller, another failed official Cai Lüsheng, the young widowed sister of the protagonist, and the protagonist's friends Wen Shunong and W u Jizhi. The hero himself participates in these discussions, but his role is restricted to that of a listener who interrupts his partners with occa­ sional and intriguing questions. As in the previous planes, progress in knowledge governs the organization of these narrative elements. The protagonist experiences a cognitive process lead­ ing from ignorance to knowledge. There is, however, a substantial difference in the final result of this learning process. In all the action planes, the epistemic process leads to discovering negative aspects of somebody (or something) that originally appeared very positive. In the non-action plane, something that first seemed to be negative turns into a positive value. A good example might be the discussion between the hero and Wang Boshu in chapter 22 about the role of learning and education in China's past and present. Enraged by the debased behaviour of the pseudoscholar Li Yuxuan, Wang Boshu first laments that China's disastrous situation is caused by the traditional learning which turn scholars and officials into mere 'bookworms' incapable of performing their duties. While in the past, he maintains, superior Chinese culture absorbed all the barbarian invaders, China is now unable to cope with similar invasions from the West, because its learning is outdated. However, as he explains to the protagonist in the next discussion, he is not against learning. O n the contrary, he became a travelling book salesman pre­ cisely because he believes in the power of learning and because he wants to enlighten people. A l l that is necessary is to study the books adequate to the new situation - books of practical value. Such learning would make China strong, with a bright future. A similar semantic organization is employed in the discussion between the hero's sister and other relatives in chapter 21. During her first visit to Shang­ hai, the sister wants to leave the inn to go sightseeing, but the protagonist as well as his mother and his aunt oppose the idea, because the Confucian ethic supposedly does not allow a young widowed woman to walk around by herself. This attitude incites the hero's sister to a discussion of the position of women

48 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century in Chinese family and society. She argues that the Confucian classics have been misinterpreted in favour of men and she points out that the classics actually promote the idea of women's education and their right to participate in social life. The reversal of a negative attitude to a positive one, as demonstrated in these examples, explains why the plane of non-action discourse is of a more 'optimistic' tone than the three action planes. It also shows why the very few characters who are the bearers of the discussions emerge as the only 'positive' figures in the novel. In order to preserve this positive role, the meditating characters do not engage in actions; as a rule, their speeches are their only participation in the development of the novel and their only contribution to its meaning. Thus, in all respects, the knowledge acquired by the hero during the discussions with his friends is in contrast to the knowledge acquired in his personal conflict with the uncle and during his observations of the world around him. This analysis of the four planes in Strange Events demonstrates that the supposedly chaotic and disconnected quality of plot structure is only superficial. A closer examination proves that the plot structure of Strange Events is complex but highly coherent. Only when the principles of this coherence, which brings into mutual relationship all the parts of the novel, are understood can the novel's meaning be comprehended. It bears repeating that the formal principle of coherence lies in the relationship of all the narrated events and non-action discussions to the 'string' - the experiencing hero. It has been demonstrated, moreover, that the coherence results from an even more significant, semantic factor: all stories in the novel belong to one and the same semantic type. They are epistemic stories, stories of the acquisition of true knowledge. At the same time, the variability of manifestations of this common semantic base renders the cognitive process interesting, presenting it in respect to various characters and various social strata as well as in different tones. The hero's progress to knowledge occurs in his own private life, in his experience as a member of his community and, finally, in his intellectual involvement with philosophizing characters. The three action planes bring about a shocking and tragic revelation of the true nature of the 'strange events.' Whatever the hero has believed i n morality, piety, loyalty, all the values of Confucian ethics - appears, in the end, as false. Once the mask of appearance is removed, the decay of all human values is revealed. The hero's epistemic progress from naïve credulity to bitter knowledge results in the 'exposing' but pessimistic message of the novel.

49 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels The meditations offered in the non-action episodes suggest, however, some hope: the crisis of values is temporary. Chinese society requires a re-examina­ tion of its traditional values. Perhaps, when properly interpreted and adapted to the crisis of the times, these values, enriched by practical Western learning, could survive the crisis and provide a new ethical basis for China. N O V E L OF C Y C L E S

The string-like plot can be used as a starting point for developing a typology of plots. Other types of novelistic plot can be derived from it. It needs to be emphasized that this theoretical derivation is quite different from a historical description of the origins and developments of the particular types. The typo­ logy provides a tool for a structural classification of various plots, but says nothing about the history of the types. The string-like plot can be transformed in two possible ways: to form the novel of cycles (discussed here), and the unitary plot novel (discussed in the next section). By removing the main protagonist's story the plot is deprived of its string, that is, its formal unifying principle. Thus the parallel secondary plot must also be dropped. A plot structure limited to the plane of anecdotes and of non­ action discourse will result. It can be assumed that non-action episodes will increase both in extent and frequency. However, the novelistic structure will be dominated by the action anecdotes, since otherwise it would rather be a collection of essays, illustrated by story-like examples. Since the unifying protagonist will be missing, the novel of this type will lack coherent action. In order to differentiate this novel from a cycle of short stories, a new unifying principle has to be supplied. Clearly, it has to be a semantic principle; it will operate in a way similar to the unifying semantic principle described in the case of the string-like novel. The semantic unity of Li Baojia's novel The Bureaucrats lies primarily in the organization of all its anecdotes and the accompanying reflexive elements which provides the reader a complete and systematic image of the social strata of Chinese officialdom. In this respect The Bureaucrats is clearly reminiscent of the classical Chinese novel The Scholars. However, at closer inspection (see Holoch's detailed analysis in this book), The Bureaucrats discloses also a deeper level of semantic organization. Its particular episodes are organized into cycles, with each cycle limited to a certain constellation of characters or a small set of locales and representing a specific theme of the life and activities of the bureaucracy at the turn of the century. In depicting thoroughly officialdom the author has so organized the cycles as to present a systematic view of

50 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century China's state. Since the cycles and their arrangement represent the main com­ ponents of the plot, this type of novel can be called the novel of cycles. According to Holoch's analysis, the novel has ten cycles. The first two pro­ vide a general introduction to the two major aspects of bureaucratic circles, the internal problems of recruitment, bearing, and advancement (cycle l) and the external problems, dealing with foreigners and westernized sectors of Chinese society (cycle II). The following six cycles (ill to Vlll) comprise the body of the novel; they 'first build up a detailed and comprehensive picture of bureaucratic practice at all levels (ill, IV, v) and then examine the internal necessities of the system (vi, VII, Vlll).' The final two cycles offer a conclusion. 'The State is a structure of systematic extortion, the officials functioning as little more than accredited thieves and the people individually being helpless ... to oppose them unless with the support of foreigners' (cycle ix). The system is disintegrating, however, since 'the entrepreneurial ethos among the bureaucracy has no place for reasons of State and turns public position to private advantage. In its rela­ tions with foreigners, the State in effect regards China as a commodity and is presiding over its sale' (cycle x). Thus, the particular actions and characters assume no importance in their individuality. They are only 'examples,' incidents in the complex, but coher­ ent, story of the Chinese bureaucracy. The unifying principle lies in the thematic organization of identical series of episodes into cycles and into a logi­ cal arrangement of cycles. These not only gradually unfold the social milieu, but lead to a certain conclusion, supported and enhanced by the message of the prologue and epilogue. U N I T A R Y PLOT N O V E L

We derived the plot structure of the novel of cycles by eliminating the protago­ nist's story. The second transformation of the string-like plot retains the main protagonist's story, but eliminates its 'stringing' function. The main story will no longer serve as a collection of somebody else's stories, but will become an end in itself. Consequently, two developments are likely: first, the main story (and the optional secondary story) will become conspicuously more coherent and the protagonists may be accorded deeper psychological depiction; second, the frequency of anecdotes and non-action episodes is likely to decrease sub­ stantially. As a result, the plot of the novel will be dominated by a single coherent story with some possible secondary episodes related to it. This type will be called the unitary plot novel. W u Woyao's lesser known, but structurally important novel, Hen hai (Sea of woe) is a good example of the unitary plot novel in late Qing fiction. Its typo-

51 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels logical peculiarity is already apparent in a purely external feature: the novel is much shorter than the novels with the string-plot or the novels with the cycli­ cal plot, and the number of acting characters is reduced drastically. The novel clearly explicates its historical setting in the turbulent year 1900, the time of the Boxer uprising, integrating this historical event fully into the story structure as one of its prime movers (actants). Two girls and two boys have grown up together in Peking, in the household of wealthy families of officials and merchants. In 1900 they are engaged to each other by their parents. But the family harmony does not last. The engaged couples and their parents are separated in the chaos during the invasion of eight allied foreign armies and the Boxer rebellion. One girl leaves Peking with her parents for Suzhou. Her fiancé stays with his parents in Peking and, when they are killed by Boxers, he leaves Peking for the interior, where he can obtain a job as an official. In vain he tries to locate his fiancée who has disappeared from Suzhou. The second girl leaves Peking with her fiancé and her mother, but the couple are separated by Boxers and they cannot find each other. The mother dies from the hardships of the journey. By the end of the novel the engaged partners find each other, only to recog­ nize that they are no longer compatible as man and wife. The girl who left Peking first with her parents is discovered by chance by her fiancé in a Shang­ hai whorehouse and, though they recognize each other, they do not speak. The girl hides herself in the inner rooms and the young man gives away his pro­ perty and departs for the mountains to become a hermit. The fiancé of the second girl is found by the girl's father in an opium den he has become a thief and lives in the underworld of Shanghai. Nevertheless, he is invited to the girl's house where the girl treats him as her future husband. But the man runs away and as an opium addict he soon dies. The girl decides to become a nun. It is readily apparent that the two stories form mirror-like symmetry based on the symmetry of the main protagonists. In the first story, the girl perishes (morally) and her fiancé retires to a hermitage. In the second story, the boy perishes (morally and physically) and the girl retires to a monastery. The story is duplicated. The linking is motivated by a well-known device of plot con­ struction - grouping the protagonists around one family. The second aspect of the novel - connected with its t h e m e - i s equally important. The concentration on the intimate theme of love (the main erotic motif being coupled with that of parental love and filial piety) is a major fea­ ture pointing towards the development of the psychological novel. A deeper characterization (discussed in Michael Egan's essay, pages 165-76) points in the same direction. At the same time, the individual is placed against the elemental forces of history. History, in the form of a concrete social event, ;

52 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century assumes the role of the villain who destroys the prospective happiness of indi­ vidual human beings. The victims are finally crushed, despite their active opposition, evidenced by their prolonged search for each other. The individual suffers a complete defeat from the evil force of social circumstances, a tragic theme which foreshadows many stories of modern Chinese literature. CONCLUSION

The plot typology of late Qing fiction can be useful in general as well as spe­ cific studies of the Chinese novel. In the general framework, our typology reveals that the late Qing novels analysed are constructed according to specific unifying principles. In this respect, our typology brings a result similar to that of recent analyses of Chinese novels from previous periods, and demonstrates again that the notion of chaotic composition, supposedly typical for the traditional Chinese novel, should be abandoned. Our application of Sklovskij's observations on the European pre-eighteenthcentury novel pointed out some common properties of plot structuring in Chinese narrative and in the narrative of other cultures. This aspect, fre­ quently denied or not yet sufficiently emphasized, may bring still another rewarding dimension to the study of Chinese narrative. Like the narrative of every other culture, Chinese fiction has a specific character. But this can be concretely revealed only in the framework of comparative studies which may uncover universal properties of the narrative and show cultural specificity to be the variations of the common model. In the specific framework, the plot typology of late Qing novels reveals three creative innovations which indicate that the author, rather than the traditional aesthetic rules, now controls the final form of his narrative. 1 There are remarkable changes in the principles of plot structuring. The plot of the traditional novel, as convincingly pointed out by Andrew Plaks and Robert Hegel, is frequently patterned according to the principles of cosmological 'complementary bipolarity' [yin-yang) or cyclical 'multiple periodi­ city' which also underlie traditional Chinese philosophy and world-view. The essay by Peter L i in this book shows that the plot of Flower is still couched within the concept of Buddhist retribution and the yin-yang cosmology, the ceaseless existential alternation of prosperity and decline. After a time of splendour, China and all those who represent her - like the main hero of the novel - must inevitably decline in retribution for their misdeeds. 31

32

33

Yet, in other novels analysed the plot pattern breaks away from the tradi­ tional cosmological concept, and the universal pattern is replaced by a variety

53 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels of plot structures, suggesting the authors' search for logical, causal, and evolu­ tionary interrelationships of events hitherto incomprehensible and discon­ nected. In The Bureaucrats, the plot is organized in cycles arranged as a system of relationships between various social strata of Chinese society. The striking prevalence of novels with a string-like plot indicates the authors' growing interest in the fate of the individual faced with new historical deve­ lopments. Endowed with more extensive and further reaching mobility than their traditional counterparts, the heroes now move all over China, and behind the delusive decorum they unmask people and discover the hidden ties be­ tween seemingly isolated events [Strange Events, Travels, and Turtle). If, however, they are blind and unprepared for the new stage of history which mercilessly intervenes in their private lives, the heroes perish in a vain struggle with overwhelming social forces [Sea of Woe). 2 The typology of plot has helped to uncover what could be considered a typical story of the major late Qing novels. Its semantic pattern can be summa­ rized as 'evil always defeats good' and 'the greater evil defeats a minor one,' where 'evil' is represented either by a character or by history. This semantic pattern is of course in sharp contradiction to the Confucian ethical tradition and to the belief that after the times of decline a new era of splendour will come again. Inevitably, it creates a pessimistic or even tragic quality in the majority of novels analysed, most conspicuously expressed in the concept of the main hero and in the dénouement. The main hero in late Qing novels is always doomed to failure, thus antici­ pating modern Chinese fiction whose favourite hero is an underdog. In Flower, the protagonist's peril is an inescapable consequence of his immoral behaviour, but in other novels, the heroes are unsuccessful not because of personal inabili­ ties, immorality, or predestination, but because the social forces are always stronger. The hero's failure or the tragic end of his life is the final point of the story, contrasting with the reconciliatory and 'morale lifting' dénouement of the traditional Chinese novel and 'the return of new generations of warriors, rakes, or scholars to carry the ball through further revolutions of endless flux.' Unlike traditional full-length narratives which 'tend to reach a climax - or a logical end-point - long before the literal terminus of the book,' the late Qing novels frequently culminate by a tragic ending in the very last chapters. 3 The typology reveals yet another remarkable change in plot structuring, namely a radical shortening of the novel and the emergence of a unitary plot which brings about a concise structure and reduction in the number of char­ acters, as in the novel Sea of Woe. It is reasonable to presume that this type of plot has its predecessor in the so-called caizi jiaren stories which were customarily shorter than other traditional novels due to their theme-the 34

35

54 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century endangered love of a young unmarried couple. Yet Sea of Woe differs substan­ tially from these sentimental stories in that it does not describe merely the 'romantic' relationship between the lovers. Its contribution is mainly in the psychological development of its characters, resulting in the subordination of the story to characterization, and in the introducing of history - in place of various lesser obstacles in the conventional stories-as a fatal threat to love. This change prepared the Chinese literary soil for the later acceptance of the nineteenth-century European short story and the appearance of the modern Chinese short story which emerged in the 1910s and became a dominant liter­ ary form of the 1920s.

NOTES

1 The 'elementary' construction of the episodic plot is usually considered only a partial manifestation of the supposedly overall artistic and ideological inferiority of the traditional Chinese novel, when compared with its Western counterpart. This criticism was first expressed in the twenties and thirties by Chinese authors and critics such as H u Shi, Chen Duxiu, Qian Xuantong, and Mao D u n cf ;

Zhao Jiabi ed Zhongguo xin wenxue da xi (Shanghai 1935], I. Mao D u n Hua xiazi (Shanghai 1934] 177-84. It is understandable and justified, because the authors of the M a y 4th era were only partially acquainted with Western literature, their knowledge mostly limited to nineteenth-century fiction. However, this opinion is still retained in much later studies of some sinologists in the West; cf John L . Bishop 'Some Limitations of Chinese Fiction' Far Eastern Quarterly 239-47; C . T . Hsia The Classic Chinese Novel

15 (1956]

(New York and London 1968]

Introduction. 2 Bishop 'Limitations' 242 3 Lucien Miller Masks of Fiction in Dream of the Red Chamber. Myth, and Persona (Tucson, Arizona 1975]; Andrew H . Plaks Archetype in the Dream of the Red Chamber Chinese

(Princeton 1976]; Andrew H . Plaks ed

Narrative. Critical and Theoretical

4 L u X u n Zhongguo xiaoshuo

Mimesis,

and Allegory

Essays (Princeton 1977]

shi Hie (Beiping 1923 and 1924], hereafter quoted in

its English translation A Brief History of Chinese Fiction tr Yang Hsien-i and Gladys Yang (Peking 1959] 372-88; H u Shi 'Wushi nian lai Zhongguozhi wenxue' in H u Shi wencun 5 A Ying Wan Qing xiaoshuo

2 (Taibei reprint 1953] 180-261 shi (Shanghai 1937]; W u Xiaoru 'Wan Qing xiayi

xiaoshuo he qianze xiaoshuo' Wenyi

xuexi

8 (1955] 23-5; Ó m u r a Masuo

'Chügoku no Shimmatsu shakai shôsetsu' Tôyô Bungaku Kenkyü 17-28, 14 (1966] 1-16, 15 (1967] 50-64

12 (1964]

55 Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels 6 Lu Hsun Brief History Hu Shi wencun

385; H u Shi 'Zai ji Chen Duxiu da Qian Xuantong' in

1 (Taibei reprint 1968] 39

7 Lu Hsun Brief History

375; H u Shi 'Wushi nian lai Zhongguozhi wenxue' 234

8 H u Shi 'Wushi nian lai Zhongguozhi wenxue' 237 9 Michael Wai-mai Lau 'Wu Wo-yao (1866-1910): A Writer of Fiction of the Late Ch'ing Period' unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard 1968, 95 10 Lu Hsun Brief History

378; H u Shi 'Wushi nian lai Zhongguozhi wenxue/ 238

11 Yang Jialuo Zhongguo wenxue

baike quanshu

2 (Taibei reprint 1967) 20; W u

Xiaoru 'Du Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang xiaoshuo pinlun

za ji' in Zhongguo gudian

ji (Beijing 1957] 196; Ó m u r a Masuo 'Shimmatsu shakai' 14

1-6; W u Wo-yao Vignettes from the Late Ch'ing: Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed

over two Decades tr Shih Shun Liu (Hong Kong 1975) xvi

12 Vladimir I. Semanov Èvoljucija

kitajskogo romana (Moskva 1970] 238

13 H u Shi set up this critical approach in his 'Lao Can yuji x u / written in 1925 and reprinted in H u Shi wencun

3 (Taibei 1953) 529-53. Harold Shadick shares this

opinion in his 'Translator's Introduction' to The Travels of Lao Tsan

(Ithaca,

New York 1952) xxi. 14 C . T . Hsia 'The Travels of Lao Ts'an: A n Exploration of its Art and Meaning'

Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies new series 7.2 (1969) 40 15 Viktor Sklovskij O teorii prozy (Moskva 1929) 16 Ibid 87 17 Jan Mukafovsky 'A Note on the Czech Translation of Sklovskij's Theory of

Prose' in The Word and Verbal Art. Selected Essays by Jan Mukafovsky ed John Burbank and Peter Steiner (New Haven and London 1977]

tr and

138

18 Lu Hsun Brief History 379 19 H u Shi 'Wushi nian lai Zhongguozhi wenxue' 237

20 A Ying in his article 'Guanyu Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang' xuexi

(1957) 6-9 reevaluates his assessment of Strange Events

Wenyi

in his 1937

Wan Qing xiaoshuo shi and ascribes to this novel a stronger patriotic and exposing character than he did before. T h e same conclusion is reached by Ó m u r a Masuo 'Shimmatsu shakai' 14 1-6

21 Wang Junnian 'Zenyang kandai Ershi nian muduzhi guai Guangming ribao 18 April 1965 22 Zhongguo jindai wenxue

xianzhuang'

shi gao comp Fudan daxue (Beijing 1960) 251-61; W u

,Xiaoru 'Du Ershi nian ... za ji' 183-91 23 Lau 'Wu Wo-yao' 162 \ 24 Semanov Èvoljucija

227; he quotes Zhongguo wenxue

shi 4 comp Beijing daxue

(Beijing 1959) 307 25 Lau and Semanov's analyses, containing many valuable insights, are the most thorough and systematic studies of Strange Events.

Still, Lau neglects the rela-

56 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century tionships between the protagonist's story and the episodes, and Semanov docu­ ments his statements by quotations from isolated characters and parts of the novel. 26 Strange Events xiaoshuo

began to be published in 1903 as a serial in the journal X i n

(New fiction) in Yokohama, Japan. The first 45 chapters had been

published by 1905, when the magazine closed. These chapters, together with 30 more, were published separately in five ce in 1906 by Guangzhi Book Company. The next 5 chapters, 76-80, were presumably written in 1906. In 1909, six ce were published, consisting of two parts: chapters 76-80 and 81-87. In 1910, the seventh ce and the eighth ce were published, containing the last 21 chapters, 88-108. So by 1910, the novel had been completed in 108 chapters and was pub­ lished in eight ce. This information is taken from Lau ' W u Wo-yao' appendix A . 27 I use the edition published by Renmin wenxue chubanshe (Beijing 1959) and annotated by Zhang Youhe. 28 T h e three sections consist of chapters 2, 10, 11, 12, and 18; 50 and 64 80, 82, ;

and 108. I count only those chapters which carry the action of the plot. Chapters in which motifs are inserted to delay the information are not included. 29 For the concept of the epistemic story see Lubomir Dolezel 'Narrative Seman­

tics' PTL: A Journal for Descriptive Poetics and Theory of Literature

1 (1976)

129-51 and Lubomir Dolezel 'Narrative Worlds' in L . Matejka ed Sound,

Sign and Meaning. Quinquagenary

of the Prague Linguistic Circle (Ann Arbor,

Michigan 1976) 542-52. 30 Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 / / 44, 63, 67 / / 87-90, 93-96, 101, 103-106 31 Plaks Archetype Hung-lou

and Allegory

and his articles 'Allegory in Hsi-yu chi and

meng' and 'Towards a Critical Theory of Chinese Narrative' in Plaks

ed Chinese Narrative

163-202 and 309-52 respectively

32 Robert G . Hegel 'Sui Tang

yen-yi

and the Aesthetics of the Seventeenth-

Century Suchou Elite' in Plaks ed Chinese Narrative 33 Plaks Archetype

and Allegory

chapter 3

34 Plaks 'Towards a Critical Theory' 339 35 Ibid 338

124-59

Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels MILENA DOLEZELOVÁ-VELINGEROVÁ

Narrative mode is a set of devices and verbal means which create an image of a story's mediator, the so-called narrator in the narrative. In Western literary theory the study of the narrator started relatively late, at the end of the nineteenth century. Since then, however, numerous studies have been devoted to the relationship between the narrator and the fictional world he presents. Various classifications of narrative modes ('point of view,' 'narrative forms,' 'narrative situations') have been proposed. 1

Traditional Chinese criticism never developed a consistent theory of narra­ tive and consequently a theory of narrative mode is absent. This neglect reflects the inferior position of fiction in the Chinese hierarchy of literary genres and the practical rather than theoretical preoccupation with fiction by those eccentric scholars who found its study to be as rewarding as the study of poetry and history. But even when these reasons disappeared and fiction received long-overdue theoretical attention, narrative mode attracted little scholarly interest. This indifference perhaps occurred because the distinction between first- and third-person narration is less conspicuous in Chinese than in any Western language. Chinese has no indication of person in the verb and there is a pronounced tendency to omit sentence subjects and pronouns alto­ gether. Yet, in my opinion, the examination of narrative modes and the study of narrative structures in general are necessary steps to the resolution of some essential problems of Chinese fiction and its history. In addition, differences between fiction written in vernacular [baihua) and classical [wenyan) lan­ guage would be illuminated. And, since occidental theorists have devoted so much scholarship to describing the narrator's roles, such a study would be fundamental for comparison of Western and Chinese narratives.

58 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Because the scholarship on narrative modes in Chinese fiction is still in its initial period, the aim of this study must be primarily descriptive. Some char­ acteristics of narrative modes in a limited sample of late Qing novels will be analysed. Only occasionally will historical and comparative observations be made, and these will be hypothetical. It is hoped, however, that this descrip­ tion of the late Qing situation will improve our understanding of the rise of modern Chinese fiction, where a wide range of narrative modes made its appearance. 2

TYPOLOGY OF NARRATIVE

MODES

Our investigation of the late Qing novel uses a classification of narrative modes based on three criteria: 1 the story can be told either in the third or in the first person; 2 the narrator is or is not an acting character; 3 the narrator expresses or suppresses his subjective attitudes, evaluations, comments, etc. Six narrative modes are defined by these criteria, three variants of the thirdperson form and three variants of the first-person form: 3

Only three tff the six possible narrative modes are represented in the late Qing novels analysed here: 1 The third-person objective mode The narrator is not an acting character and functions only as mediator of the story, which does not express his subjective attitudes and value judgments. He performs only the function of representation. It has to be emphasized, however, that the narrator's objectiv­ ity does not mean the text lacks an ideological message, only that this message is not explicitly expressed in the discourse assigned to the narrator. It can be expressed by other components of the narrative structure (e.g. by the plot and by the contrast of characters) and by stylistic devices (such as allegory, symbol­ ism, and satire).

59 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels 2 The third-person rhetorical mode The narrator is not an acting character, but, unlike the objective narrator, is free to express his subjective evaluations and observations. The narrator's primary function of representation is here coupled with the function of interpretation. 3 The first-person personal mode The narrator is an acting character involved in the story and is unrestricted in his subjective evaluations, reac­ tions, and comments. In this mode the narrator is assigned three functions: representation, interpretation, and action. The absence of the three other narrative modes is not due to the limitation of our sample. The first-person objective (observer's) and the first-person rhetorical modes are relatively rare also in Western fiction. The third-person subjective (personal) mode is a rather late development in the history of the narrative text. In Western fiction it resulted from the stylistic experiments of such writers as Flaubert, Tolstoy, James, and Virginia Woolf. In Chinese fic­ tion, this mode appears only in the modern period. T H I R D - P E R S O N OBJECTIVE M O D E

The third-person objective mode appears in three of our seven late Qing novels: Laocan youji (The travels of Laocan) by Liu E, Niehai hua (The flower in the world of retribution) by Zeng Pu, and Hen hai (Sea of woe) by W u Woyao. In these texts the narrator is extremely restricted in his explicit value judgments and commentaries. Nevertheless, the novels are not an exception to the engagé fiction of the period - all convey a strong ideological and political message. This exposure of the evils of Chinese society at the turn of the cen­ tury was not achieved by the narrator's interpretations, but by other narrative

devices. In Travels the ideology is conveyed primarily by means of allegory not merely - as usually believed - restricted to the prologue but extended to the text of the whole novel. The ideological message of Flower is expressed in its dramatic structure. In Sea of Woe the message is implied in the plot's struc­ ture, based on a conflict between the fate of individuals and the elemental forces of history. Moreover, in all three novels, the implicit ideological mes­ sage is explicitly intensified by two specific literary devices, the prologue and the epilogue. Prologue and epilogue are traditional devices of the Chinese narrative inhe­ rited from story-telling. In the early extant vernacular narratives (such as bianwen) the prologue in verse had to capture the audience's attention by a short announcement of the theme or subject of the narrative, the epilogue to inform it that the performance was finished. In later vernacular narratives (such as 4

5

6

7

60 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century huaben, zhugongdiao, pinghua), and in the early novels of the Ming period, the prologue adopted a new role. From the originally short and matter-of-fact introduction it expanded into a poem or chain of poems with philosophical reflections, sometimes coupled with one or more anecdotes. Seemingly, these were only loosely connected with the theme of the main story, but actually their content accentuated in various ways the message of the following narra­ tive. In the story-teller's narrative, prologue had its special names and was formally separated from the main story. In the later novels, prologue was quite often integrated within the first chapter or chapters and the formal division between prologue and main narrative disappeared. 8

The epilogue usually remained brief, limited to a reflective poem and/or a short paragraph in prose. It had no special name and, in most cases, it was placed within the last chapter of the narrative. Its connections with the pro­ logue are, however, indicated by the corresponding reflective mood and a repe­ tition of the main idea expressed in the prologue, even to the point that a number of identical expressions were employed. In this way prologue and epilogue constituted a frame of the main narrative and, as they directed the reader to the intended interpretation of the story, they performed an interpretative function. Quite often prologue and epilogue were written in the first person, thus contrasting with the third-person narrative of the main text. The use of the first person was not necessarily an indication that the interpretation expressed the author's own opinion. Rather, it had a purely rhetorical function presenting an abstract ideology as the author's personal conviction, thus increasing the impact on the reader. In the late Qing novels we are examining the prologue is sometimes formally separated from the first chapter and in that case, it is called xiezi, 'induction.' Both prologue and epilogue function as they did in previous vernacular fiction and their connections with the main narrative are emphasized stylistically. This stylistic adjustment with the main text can be demonstrated lucidly par­ ticularly in the prologue, because its interpretative function for the whole novel is more important than that of the epilogue. In the case of Travels and Flower this overall style is symbolic. Both novels show a predilection for poems loaded with symbolic meaning and for classical allusions. It is therefore not surprising that the prologue of the two novels is written in a similar way. In Travels the prologue is represented by Laocan's dream which makes up most of the first chapter. In his dream Laocan sees a sinking ship, the symbol of collapsing China. With amazing accuracy, the parts of the ship correspond to the administrative regions of China, and its crew and passengers represent various social strata or political parties of Chinese society. Various passengers try to rescue the ship, but their efforts are frustrated because they do not act in

61 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels co-operation. Laocan hurries with two of his friends to the ship's rescue. They offer the captain naval instruments, a compass, and a sextant, but they are rejected - alluding to the unwillingness of China's court to save the country by the inventions of Western civilization. Finally, the passengers throw Laocan and his friends overboard, and as they are about to drown, Laocan wakes up and realizes his plight was only a dream. This allegorical interpretation of the dream has been offered in various studies. However, the symbolic connection between the prologue and the main narrative has not been indicated. In my opinion, Liu E in this case assigned to the dream a function well established in traditional Chinese fiction, where the dream was often a prognostic device. In the dream a character, usually the hero, is given a vision of his future or of the future of his community, so that when he awakens he can decide the course of his actions more wisely. The dream is therefore both warning and advice to the hero. The narrative of Travels answers the dream's challenge; Laocan's actions and deeds are a sym­ bolic suggestion of the efforts needed to save China. 9

10

In Flower the prologue narrates the fate of an isolated island near Shanghai whose revelling, savage, and ignorant inhabitants perished without realizing the cause of their death was lack of fresh air. A journalist named Freedom Lover searches in Shanghai for witnesses of the catastrophe. A beautiful stranger informs him that the island never existed, but entrusts to him a manuscript - the 'text' of the novel - with the assurance that this is a true story. The prologue to Flower is an interesting example of a traditional narrative device in a transitional stage of development. O n the one hand, the prologue still guides the reader to the symbolic interpretation of the novel - the cata­ strophe of the vanished island is a warning that China might experience the same fate. O n the other hand, the prologue is a device for stressing the story's authenticity. This function of the prologue recurs later in some modern Chinese short stories and novels, such as Lu Xun's Kuangren riji (Diary of a madman) and Mao Dun's Fushi (Corruption). The last of the novels written in the third-person objective mode - Sea of Woe - differs strikingly in structure from Travels and Flower. It is innovative in its tightly knit plot and more penetrating psychological analysis of char­ acters. Not surprisingly, its prologue is written in a different style and conveys a different message. Its language is simple, straightforward, with symbols and similes reduced to a minimum. The first-person narrator, obviously expressing the author himself, explains why he wants to establish à new novelistic genre, 'a novel of sentiment' [xieqing xiaoshuo). His statement sounds much more like a modern literary manifesto than a traditional didactic message to the

62 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century reader. The glorification of sentiment, expressed in the prologue, makes it clear that not only politics, but also human relationships, should become the focus for novelists. Although still forced into the strait-jacket of Confucian concepts of love and sentiment, the tragic love story of Sea of Woe has a significance for modern Chinese fiction similar to that of the sentimental novels of the late eighteenth century in Western fiction. The third-person objective narrative mode is not an innovation of the late Qing novel, but one of the fundamental modes of Chinese novelistic tradition. Eighteenth-century novels, such as Rulin waishi (The scholars) and Honglou meng (Dream of the red chamber) as well as the early nineteenth-century ]inghua yuan (Flowers in the mirror) are characterized by an objective narrator. Not unlike that of some late Qing fiction, the 'ideology' of these novels is not conveyed by a narrator commenting explicitly, but by other means structural and stylistic. A n essay written during the late Qing period shows that narrative objectivity was still highly esteemed by critics: The depiction of characters in fiction should be like reflections in a mirror. Let the beholder himself note their beauty or ugliness. Above all the author must avoid mixing his comments in. It is something like a character in a play who appears on stage and insists on including a speech about how good so-and-so will be and how bad so-and-so will be, but the actions of those figures do not necessarily fit his descriptions. Even if there should be no contradiction, people would still think it clumsy, with nothing left to thought. Therefore, although fiction has nothing serious to teach, its use of a personal view is impermissable. For instance, the descriptions of chivalry in Water Margin, of

sex in Golden Lotus, of beauty in Dream of the Red Chamber, and of various social types in The Scholars, are all without preceding commentaries; but the characters' nature, status and whether they are good or bad, is clear even to women and children, just as in facing a mirror nothing is invisible. A n d a mirror has no personal bias.

11

Travels and Flower continue in many aspects the method established by eighteenth-century novels. Structurally, both novels are seldom innovative. The use of the third-person objective narrative mode can therefore be ex­ plained as another element adapted from novelistic tradition. Sea of Woe, however, in many structural aspects departs from this tradition. Is it not then surprising that it still employs the traditional narrative mode? The apparent incongruity is, however, not exceptional in the history of literary structures. As Jan Mukafovsky pointed out, 'there is always something in the work of art which is bound to the past and something which points to the future. As a rule, the factors involved are distributed among various groups of elements. Some observe the norm while others destroy it.' The most famous of W u Woyao's 12

63 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels novels, Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang (Strange events seen in the past twenty years) is another example of this tendency. In it W u Woyao introduced the first-person narrative mode; yet the plot structure and characterization of the novel follow the traditional model (see below). THIRD-PERSON RHETORICAL M O D E

In our sample of late Qing novels the following are characterized by the thirdperson rhetorical mode: Guanchang xianxing ji (The bureaucrats: a revela­ tion) and Wenming xiao shi (A brief history of modern times) both by Li Baojia, and Jiuwei gui (The nine-tailed turtle) by Zhang Chunfan. Lu Xun's term 'novels of exposure' [qianze xiaoshuo), coined in his Zhong­ guo xiaoshuo shi lue (A brief history of Chinese fiction), suits most fittingly those late Qing novels permeated by the intrusive, inquisitive, commenting rhetorical narrator. It is not the exposing theme which makes some late Qing novels so conspicuously different from mid-Qing satires - after all, the earlier novel The Scholars is also an exposure of the flattery, toadyism, cheating, and quarrelling among officials we know so well from the later The Bureaucrats. Rather, what distinguishes the satires of these two periods is the manner in which the satire is conveyed - the rhetoric of the text, the narrative mode of the explicitly commenting narrator. The significant difference between the objective and rhetorical mode may be noted already in the style of the prologue or epilogue. In both modes the interpretative function of epilogue or prologue is achieved by use of symbols or similes. Yet the styles are strikingly different. In Travels and Flower, the sym­ bols are conveyed by non-expressive nouns (ship, passengers, island, inhabi­ tants), while in rhetorical novels the symbols are remarkably expressive. In the epilogue to The Bureaucrats, a sick man sees in his dream a world inhabited not by men, but by vicious, fawning animals. In the prologue to Turtle, the narrator explains with obvious irony the etymology of the word 'turtle' (in contemporary Chinese one of the most abusive epithets), to point out the simi­ larity between prostitution and officialdom. In the prologue to Modern Times, China is compared to the morning before sunrise and to the sky before the storm. Moreover, as if the similes were not clear enough, the narrator explains them directly to the reader, inserting many addresses and questions: Consider, gentlemen: before the sun comes out, how can anyone know it will? There is a reason for it. Anyone can see the reason. One only has to watch the tide and listen to the wind to know that the sun must come out and the rain must come down. What's

64 The Chinese Novel at the T u r n of the Century hard about that? The story writer because of these two experiences, thought up a com­ parison on which I'd like your advice, gentlemen: What is the present state of our world? Someone said, 'It's not certain that the grand old empire can be rejuvenated.' Someone else said, 'It's in its infancy and can easily go from childhood to manhood.' In my humble opinion, the present condition, however, is not one of infancy, rather it is not far from the time when the sun will come out and the rain will come down. How do I get that? You know that for the last few years the new politics and the new learning have been noised abroad all over heaven. Some have practiced it well and some have practiced it poorly, some have learned successfully and some have not. N o matter whether they did well or poorly, they were after all the first ones willing to act; no matter whether they learned successfully or not, they were after all the first ones willing to study. What's more they inspired people, roused men high and low. Wasn't this tide of feeling the same as when the sun was to come out and the rain was to come down? Therefore this group, whether they succeeded or failed, tore down or built up, were public-spirited or selfish, true men or false, will certainly be honored in the civil­ ized world, and so, for this reason in particular I have made this book to praise them, otherwise I would be unworthy of their earnestness.

13

The rhetoric of the prologue anticipates the narrative mode of the main text. The narrator's discourse is frequently interspersed with evaluative adjectives, expressive figures of speech, long explanations and commentaries, and direct addresses and questions to the reader. The most conspicuous of these devices are the narrator's comments. The narrator interrupts the flow of the narrative to remark on events or social phenomena depicted in the novel. These com­ ments remind us of the poems inserted in early Chinese vernacular narratives, expressing judgments on the characters and their actions. Commenting on Chinese students in Japan, the narrator in Modem

Times

did not supress his irony: But with such great numbers, it was hard to tell the sheep from the goats and wise men from fools,• some didn't even know beans about Chinese, using their school years abroad to fool around, and some made study abroad an excuse to cheat money out of their parents to spend on extravagant living ... There were quite a few young kids, immature, imitating whatever they saw, who, if they did not want to be the vanguard of a revolu­ tionary army, wanted to be masters of their own country in the future; now high, now blue, spirits rising and falling, not sure of their own value, yet they said such stuff as only this was freedom, only this was equality. How ridiculous! The next example, from The Bureaucrats,

14

gives the impression of a news­

paper editorial rather than a passage from a novel. This impression, however, is

65 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels not accidental. The politically engaged late Qing novels played a role in the education of the masses similar to that of the periodical press of the time, and the style also reflects the new social status of some late Qing novelists; L i Baojia, for example, became a novelist while earning his living as a journalist: For the last few years several nations have had the fixed idea of usurping the territory of our China, repeatedly sending gunboats to patrol the waters around China's river and sea ports. Once they get to a place they are slow to leave. Sometimes they send men ashore; it's hard to tell how many there have been. Don't call it a case of surveying, just call it military practice. T h e highest authorities in the contact regions still act as if nothing can be done, so why bother mentioning the local officials. (55: 515.15f)

15

The narrator of Turtle is mainly concerned with decaying social morality, personified by greedy and cynical prostitutes and their equally corrupt custo­ mers, high officials, and spares none of them. The style of his criticism (expres­ sive words, addresses to the reader, and commentaries) is the same as that in Li Baojia's novels: Reader, did you guess who that person is? He is no other than the idiot of Changzhou, the S.o.B. Jin Hanliang;

and Once you observed Jin Yuelan's behaviour and deeds, you could realize how corrupt she was, how unscrupulous and heartless. For this reason, don't let it ever happen to you to become trapped and marry a prostitute. Your obedient servant [narrator] gives this advice to you from his own experience. Please, don't take it as mere rhetoric or a passion for empty talk!

16

The rhetorical mode was not invented in late Qing novels. It seems to pre­ vail in early vernacular short stories, preserved in the San Yan collection of the Ming, and in early story-teller-type Chinese novels, such as Sanguo yanyi (The romance of three kingdoms) and Shuihu zhuan (Water margin) before their value-judging poems and narrator's comments were extensively excised and their texts turned into the objective mode by early Qing commentators and editors. Yet there is a noticeable change in the content of the rhetorical com­ ments and judgments. In the early stories and novels the narrator propagated ideas and moral values which were accepted as the consensus. In the late Qing novels examined, the ideology of the rhetorical narrator is considerably diversi­ fied.

66 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century As Donald Holoch points out in his essay on The Bureaucrats (pages 76-115), Li Baojia's narrator identifies himself with the viewpoint of the lower-class characters of the novel and radically opposes and ridicules estab­ lished morality and thought. In contrast, Jean Duval, in his article on Turtle (pages 177-88), shows that the narrator's stance coincides with that of the hero of the novel, a refined young scholar torn between criticism of the moral decay of his society and nostalgic regret for the loss of Confucian ethical values. This diversity may indicate that the narrators reflect the different worldviews of the various authors or even the contradictions and discrepancies in the world-view of the same author. The same tendency can be observed in the first-person prologue to Modern Times, where the narrator evidently conveys the experiences and reflections of the author himself. In this way, the rhetori­ cal mode attained an increasing subjectivity and variability, not surprising at a time when China's crisis provoked the authors - as well as other intellectuals to their own reflections and reactions, questioning or even contradicting the dogmas of the establishment. FIRST-PERSON PERSONAL

MODE

The first-person personal narrative mode is certainly an innovation in the his­ tory of Chinese vernacular fiction. W u Woyao's Strange Events is the first occurrence of the first-person narrative in haihua literature. Its appearance is especially significant in comparison with occidental literature, where firstperson narrative has been well established since classical Greece. The novel is presented as the memoirs of a certain Jiusi yisheng (The man with nine lives), framed by a prologue and epilogue written in the third-person rhetorical mode. The prologue consists of two sections, the description of local setting and an anecdote. The dynamic yet repulsive picture of Shanghai at the end of the nineteenth century is a powerful introduction in the best spirit of exposure fiction: Shanghai - what a bustling hub of trade and commerce! Chinese and foreigners mingle together, crowds fill the streets. Ships and junks come and go, goods and things flow in and out. Fallen beauties from Suzhou and Yangzhou are drawn to the smell of money and flock to set up their shops around Fourth Avenue. T o succeed you must attract attention, so they put up their dazzling signs. The merchant princes find their way to the courtesans of the upper ranks; for gourmandizers of lesser taste willing to sup from a more common pot, there are girls of a lower rank. A n d so, what sixty years ago was a stretch of reedy beach became a bustling spot which has no rival in the whole of China.

67 The Rise of 'New Fiction' But alas! Pomp and wealth easily turn to pride and folly. It didn't take long. In all the swirling crowds of Shanghai no one would open his mouth but to put himself forward. Everyone is on the make. In life, one has to meet people. Not for them the normal meaning though; for them 'meeting people' is drinking, gambling, and whor­ ing. T h e gay bustle and debauchery never cease for a moment. T h e stream of carts and

horses never stops, day or night. A n d then there are those whose wallets

empty - though down at heel they still act like swells, joining the crowd who seek pleasure. It seems there is nothing better to do than spin around and around in the social whirl. That's why overnight these phony 'highrollers' became a regional spe­ cialty of Shanghai. But that's not all. Rackets, kidnapping, gambling, and all the strange things which one never dreamed of before cropped up in Shanghai. A n d so, this place, charming and innocent some sixty years ago, turned into a shelter for sinners and swindlers.

17

The prologue's anecdote discloses the origin of the novel, thus serving to authenticate it. In a marketplace on the outskirts of Shanghai a manuscript is offered for sale, but its seller is curiously passive and no one wants to buy the manuscript since its price is exorbitant. A destitute Shanghai man who calls himself 'Escapee-from-Death' (Sili taosheng) strolls nearby and out of sheer curiosity displays interest in the book. Thumbing through the manuscript, he is flabbergasted by the similarity of his name and fate with those of the manu­ script's 'author.' When the bookseller notices the scholar's astonishment, he gives the manuscript to him, explaining that the author instructed him to do so if ever the author's 'soul-brother' were found. Escapee-from-Death is so enthralled by the sincerity and truth of the 'memoirs' that he decides to rewrite them into a novel and submits the tale for publication to the journal New Fiction in Japan. The prologue conveys stronger authenticity than Flower. In contrast to the 'real' text of memoirs in the first-person form it is written in the third-person narrative to emphasize the illusion of historical reality. This is further enhanced by the fact that the first instalment of the novel was indeed published in New Fiction (Xin xiaoshuo) in 1903, a fact known to the reader of the time. The strongly suggested identity between the 'finder' and the 'author' of the alleged manuscript hints that W u Woyao did not hesitate to include events which he himself lived through. The 'author' explains that it was his cruel experiences which imprinted his strange name on him: 18

When I look back on those twenty years since I became a man, I can recall only three kinds of creatures which I met: vermin, predators, and vampires. Y e t - d u r i n g these twenty years - no snake or insect, no rat or ant has bit me; no wolf or tiger or leopard

68 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century has seized me. I escaped them all! A m I not a M a n with Nine Lives? That's why my name is a memorial of myself.

19

Nine Lives recalls what happened to him and to some people around him during a period which can be dated approximately as the last two decades of the nineteenth century. At the beginning he is a callow fifteen-year-old from a southern Chinese village who has lost his merchant father and inherited a considerable amount of money. The boy's uncle, a shrewd, greedy official of middle rank arrives to arrange the funeral of his late brother and offers to deposit the inheritance in a Shanghai bank for interest. When the boy's mother needs some money for living expenses, the uncle does not answer her letter of request. The boy is therefore dispatched to Nanjing to search for his uncle and ask for the money. After unsuccessful attempts, he finally meets his uncle who shrewdly avoids conversation about the inheritance, entirely squandered on his whoring, gambling, and bribery. Educated in Confucian ethics, the boy does not dare argue with his elder relative and leaves. Penniless and lost in the big city, the boy fortunately meets a former schoolmate and gets work as yamen secretary to this friend. His job gives him plenty of opportunities to observe the local society. Yet as a naïve village boy, he does not understand its system. So he must ask his friend, and through their lengthy conversations, he gradually begins to understand. What he first considered to be 'strange [qi]' - bribery, cheating, toadying, flattery, philandery, and hatred are not strange at all. They are the ordinary phenomena of a decaying society. In the first part of the novel, the narrator's account of his personal experiences and his comments on them are blended. The narrator reflects on how his friend Jizhi explained the boy's 'strange' adventures during the travel to Nanjing: When I heard Jizhi's words, I thought to myself: So what he's been telling me about these two intendants and the district magistrate, is that they are actually thieves and prostitutes among the officials. But because Jizhi himself had now begun an official career of his own, I didn't say anything and kept my laughter to myself.

Another passage relates the narrator's daily activities: A t that time there were only two newspapers in Shanghai, The Reporter and Shanghai News.

In Nanjing one could read them only several days late. It was just the time

when France began the war with Annam. I picked up the newspaper, checked the date of the issue and read a report of several paragraphs about the war. However, it didn't seem to be any real news at all. Not a single report in the newspaper was free from

69 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels 'rumour has it', 'it is said', 'according to', 'according to unverified sources', etc. T o read it was like listening to gossip.

20

W u Woyao's unfamiliarity with the techniques of first-person narrative can, however, be sensed in the second part of the novel. There the narrator, in his twenties and thirties, loses the curiosity of youth; as he travels around the country in search of possibilities to open new branches of his company, he engages in conversation with local people whose stories help him to understand the newly visited place. Consequently, his personal experiences are pushed into the background and the protagonist's first-person narrative is frequently interspersed with stories told by others. The protagonist's narration and commentaries are reduced to a minimum and the text reads like a traditional thirdperson narrative with inserted stories by secondary narrators. It is significant that the narrator of the novel is at first a naïve youth and later a traveller. In both roles he is not a genuine member of the community which he observes. He performs the role of a stranger who observes the society from the point of view of a newcomer, able to see things which others could not because their eyes and minds were blinded by the everyday sight of their environment. Here, W u Woyao successfully mastered the well-known technique described in the late 1910s by Viktor Sklovskij and called 'making it strange' (ostranenie). Its effect is, as he put it, that 'a thing is transferred from [a sphere of] its usual perception to that of a new perception, which results in a particular semantic shift. This device is employed, for instance, in Swift's Gullivers Travels, in Li Ruzhen's novel Flowers in the Minor, and in Lao She's Maocheng ji (The city of cats). Because the juxtaposition of a stranger and the 'exotic' milieu often generates comical situations, the device of 'making it strange' is a favourite medium of satirical novels. Humour and satire in Strange Events result from the same confrontation. However, the comical mood is confined to individual anecdotes, taken out of the context of the novel. Considered as a whole, the novel renders an opposite, pessimistic, impression. The function of the first-person narrative explains this seeming contradiction. The hero-narrator of the novel is not an observer who is detached from what he sees; he is deeply affected by the narrated events and experiences a shattering cognitive process. A l l the things the hero believed in in his youth morality, piety, loyalty, the values of Confucian ethics - appear in the end as fraud. Once the mask is removed, the people around him change into ghostly beasts who - as he mentions at the beginning - were ever ready to devour him. 21

Thus, it is the perspective and not the actional participation of the narrator which strings together otherwise unrelated observations and adds a new mean-

70 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century ing to them: the society is cannibalistic and false. Unlike the 'strange' (qi) of traditional fiction designating something abnormal which everybody could see but no one could explain, the strange or abnormal in W u Woyao's novel is an invisible, unperceptible property of 'normal' things, events, and characters and is unveiled as such by an 'alien' narrator. In this I see the modernity of Strange Events, foretelling Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman, and the affiliation of the M a n with Nine Lives with the author. Like the hero of the novel W u Woyao, too, was a stranger when he came from a small southern town to cosmopolitan Shanghai. Because they stood aside, they gained the ability to see the world not as an accumulation of traditional con­ cepts, abstract laws, or isolated events, but as a complex mesh of relationships revealed by an inquisitive mind. W u Woyao's attempt to introduce an innovative artistic device never used in earlier vernacular fiction through an entire text indicates the problems of inte­ grating an alien element into a well-established literary genre with an ancient, and therefore quite rigid, aesthetic norm. In the period between 1903 and 1910, during which W u Woyao wrote and published (with interruptions) his Strange Events, the Chinese literary world was exposed to the first significant impact of foreign literature. Hundreds of Western and Japanese literary works were translated - although not faithfully and accurately - into Chinese, and W u Woyao himself claims proudly in an essay written in 1903-4 that he read several hundred foreign novels and short stories. We may assume that he came across a Western first-person narrative novel. His willingness to adopt from Western literatures was keen; in the same essay he shows a great enthusiasm for Western fiction and he explicitly urges learning from foreign literatures. The Japanese model of autobiographical fiction was also at hand. In 1890 Mori Ôgai published his short story Maihime (The dancing girl), the first example of autobiographical fiction, a distinctive genre in modern Japanese literature. In 1906 and 1907 Tôson's Hakai (The broken vow) and especially Katai's novel Futon (The quilt) 'caused a sensation in Japanese circles because the hero was patently a self-portrait of the author and because the real-life models of the other characters were readily identifiable.' W u Woyao visited Japan frequently during the first years of the twentieth century (in connection with his collaboration with the journal New Fiction) and he apparently knew at least some Japanese, since he paraphrased [yanyi) into Chinese the Japanese novel Dianshu qitan (Strange tales of electricity) by Kikuchi Yüho (1870-1947). These facts also suggest that W u Woyao was not isolated from the new move­ ment in Japanese literature. 22

23

71 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels Yet the way W u Woyao handled his writing of the novel refutes the specula­ tions that Strange Events is copied after the Western first-person novel or the modern Japanese autobiographical novel. They play a role of inspiration rather than of direct model. Although the narrative is presented as a personal memoir and the episode about the uncle's fraud is indeed based on W u Woyao's experience, Strange Events remains detached from those literary traditions which were alien to Chinese vernacular fiction. There cannot be found in the novel a trace of the typical Western search for self; nor is there a sign of the impact of Hakai, on the themes of social criticism and individual self-awakening, and Futon, a passionate personal confession. 24

25

Even speculation about connections between the Chinese first-person narra­ tive, well-established in wenyan narrative, and W u Woyao's novel is mislead­ ing. The purely formal affinity of the first-person mode is not a connection. This is most evident in a comparison of Strange Events with Pou sheng liu ji (Six chapters of a floating life), confessional prose written by Shen Fu in the early nineteenth century. Here, Shen Fu narrates his private life, marriage, and emotional experience. The depiction of the outer world is - at least in the core chapters - restricted, and Shen Fu uses the first-person mode to convey directly his intimate feelings and moods. His narrative is a confession in introverted and lyrical prose. As such it is fully integrated within the tradition of wenyan literature where the lyrical and introspective first-person narrator had been established since antiquity in narrative poetry and in essays. In contrast, W u Woyao's story is focused on the narrator's observation of the society around him, and in the course of the novel the narrator's personal life is pushed more and more into the background. The character of this first-person novel is conspicuously extroverted. The personal feelings and emotions of the narrator are almost absent. Thus, for example, the narrator makes no mention of his sorrow when he loses his father. The same want of emotional reaction can be observed when the narrator relates other events of his personal life, especially his wedding and his mother's death. The only fully developed episode is the narra­ tor's confrontation with his uncle. However, even here the narrator never criti­ cizes his principle antagonist. Yet when it comes to commenting on Chinese society, the narrator imposes no limits on his indignation and condemnation. In this respect W u Woyao's novel is clearly affiliated with the traditions of the politically and socially concerned vernacular novel. The Chinese novel was almost never (with the exception of the Dream of the Red Chamber) a medium for the writer's intimate emotions and experiences. Nor was it a platform for philosophical reflection on basic questions of individual existence. Rather, it was a medium in which the novelist expressed his personal observations and reflections about the state of his society. The conventions of third-person nar26

72 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century rative, however, prevented earlier authors from expressing their subjective thought in a more intimate persuasive first-person mode. W u Woyao's attempt to break the tradition of a solely third-person narrative cannot, therefore, be dismissed as a mere 'pose' or of no 'functional change.' The switch from the third-person to the first-person narrative mode is much more than mere formality. As European critics have pointed out, this transformation has significant repercussions both in the novel structure and in the reader's response. 27

28

In Strange Events the assignment of the social and political critique to a first-person narrator is a significant step in the development of the exposure novel. The first-person narrative gives the narrator's statements the impression of authenticity and consequently results in a stronger impact on the reader. The 'ideological' affinity between the author and the narrator in Strange Events enabled W u Woyao to express through his narrator his own Weltanschauung . In this respect W u Woyao's innovative narrative technique can be explained as an example of the increasing subjectivity and individualism of the writer which, according to PruSek and Krai, represents a fundamental development in Chinese fiction of the Qing period. 29

Because of W u Woyao's ability to accommodate the alien first-person narrative mode within vernacular fiction, his Strange Events can be considered a link between the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century critical novels and modern Chinese fiction. Yet it was only in the twenties and thirties of this century that the process leading to the full variety and artistic maturity of first-person narrative was accomplished, absorbing the introspective and lyrical tradition of first-person mode from narratives in wenyan, the extroverted and socialminded tradition from vernacular fiction, and the deeper psychological description from the Western and Japanese first-person novel. In many modern Chinese short stories, the first-person narrator's experience is combined with the search for his own identity in a world wider than his private universe. The basic question 'Who am I?,' obsessive in Western fiction, is in China overshadowed by the query, 'Who am I in my society?' In conclusion, the late Qing novel, unlike the traditional novel, could accommodate at least three narrative modes simultaneously. This coexistence of narrative modes is a dramatic breakthrough. That at^ïêast one writer, W u Woyao, wrote his novels in all three narrative modes signals the impending collapse of traditional restrictions imposed on the genre. The individual writer, freed from these restrictions, could now select from the possible narrative modes according to his own purposes. The author's individual style, resulting from his selection, begins to shape the novel structure which till then had been deter30

73 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels mined by many aesthetic restrictions. The wide range of individual narrative styles in modern Chinese fiction continues these trends already being launched in late Qing fiction.

NOTES Abbreviation XXYJ A Ying ed Wan Qing wenxue congchao: xiaoshuo xiqu yanjiu juan (Anthology of late Qing literature: research materials on fiction and drama) (Beijing 1960) 1 For the development of the concept of point of view in Western literary criticism see especially Norman Friedman 'Point of View in Fiction: The Development of a Critical Concept' Publications of Modem Language Association 70 (1955) 1160-84 and Oswald Ducrot and Tzvetan Todorov Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences du language (Paris 1972) 411-6. 2 To my knowledge, these studies started to be written only in the 1970s. With the exception of the article by Jarmila Kalousková and Zbigniew Shipski, 'Some Problems of Typological Analysis in Modern Chinese Fiction' in Etudes d'histoire et de littérature chinoises offertes au Professeur Jaroslav Prûsek (Paris 1976) 143-53, they are mainly devoted to a single author or a single novel, such as the essay by Patrick Hanan, The Technique of Lu Hsün's Fiction' Harvard Journal of Asian Studies 34 (1974) 53-96; Wong Kam-ming 'Point of View, Norms, and Structure: Hung-Jou Meng and Lyrical Fiction' in Andrew H . Plaks ed Chinese Narrative. Critical and Theoretical Essays (Princeton 1977) 203-26. The study by Jaroslav Prûsek, The Changing Role of the Narrator in Chinese Novels at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century' Archiv Orientâïni 38 (1970) 169-78, suffers from theoretical inconsistencies, but it is thought-provoking in its new. approach to the study of late Qing fiction. 3 This general model is adopted from Lubomir Dolezel Narrative Modes in Czech Literature (Toronto 1973). 4 See Donald Holoch's study 'The Travels of Laocan: Allegorical Narrative' in this volume, 129-49. 5 See the article by Peter Li, The Dramatic Structure of Niehai hua,' in this volume, 150-64. 6 See M . Dolezelová-Velingerová Typology of Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels' in this volume, 50-2. 7 For detailed description of prologue and epilogue in the early vernacular narrative see Sun Kaidi Sujiang, shuohua yu baihua xiaoshuo (Beijing 1956) 85-93.

74 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century 8 T h e functions of prologue in huaben stories are described in Cyril Birch 'Some formal characteristics of the hua-pen story' Bulletin and African Studies

of the School of

Oriental

17 (1965] 346-64.

9 See, for example, Harold Shadick 'The Travels of Lao Ts'an : A Social Novel' Yenching

Journal of Social Studies

2 (1939) 407-37; Jaroslav Prûsek 'Liu O et

son roman, Le Pèlerinage du Vieux Boiteux' Archiv

Orientdlm

15 (1946]

352-85. 10 This function of the dream can be found for example in Tang classical tales

[chuanqi] such as Nanke taishou zhuan (The prefect of Nanke] and ji (The story of the pillow], in Pu Songling's novella Xu Huangliang tinuation of Yellow Millet)

Zhenzhong (The con-

as well as in the novel Honglou meng (Dream of the

red chamber], where, however, the hero is unable to make a deep introspection into the course of his life, because the dream is incomprehensible to him. T . A . Hsia, in 'The Hsi yu pu as a Study of Dreams in Fiction' in Chow Tse-tsung ed

Wen-lin, Studies in the Chinese Humanities

(Madison, Milwaukee, London

1968] 244, maintains that the dream which summarizes a man's life is used as a metaphor of a quickly passing life and, therefore, generates pessimism in a literary work. In my opinion, however, the dream may also lead the hero to a psychological catharsis and - in the case of its understanding - to wisdom. This function of the dream can be found in the pre-eighteenth-century European novel, as indicated by Viktor Sklovskij in O teorii prozy 11 Anonymous 'Xiaoshuo xiao hua' Xiaoshuo

12 Jan Mukafovsky Aesthetic Function,

(Moskva 1929) 210.

lin 1 (1907] in XXYJ

351-2

Norm and Value as Social Facts tr Mark

E. Suino (Ann Arbor 1970] 35-6 13 L i Baojia Wenming

xiao shi (Beijing 1955) prologue

14 Ibid 271 (ch. 42] 15 L i Baojia Guanchang

xianxing

ji (Hong Kong n.d.| 515 (ch. 55]

16 Zhang Chunfan Jiuwei gui (Shanghai 1936) 67 (ch. 13), 296 (ch. 64)

17 W u Jianren Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang

(Beijing 1959] 1 (prologue)

18 In the majority of literary studies it is claimed that W u Woyao's novel Strange Events

began to be published in X i n xiaoshuo

(New fiction] either in 1902 or

1904. This is highly improbable, since Liang Qichao launched this journal at the end of 1902 and W u began to publish there only from the third issue of 1903. Strange Events

was written between 1903 and 1910 and published with three

major interruptions.

19 W u Jianren Ershi nian 5 (ch. 2) 20 Ibid 26 (ch. 4), 58-9 (ch. 8] 21 Viktor Sklovskij 'Iskusstvo kak priëm' Poètika

(1919] 112. Its German

translation, 'Die Kunst als Verfahren,' was published in Jurij Striedter ed

der Russischen Théorie

Formalisten

i: Texte zur allgemeinen Literatur-theorie

der Prosa (München 1969).

Texte

und zur

75 Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels 22 Liang Qichao et al 'Xiaoshuo conghua' Xin xiaoshuo

1 and 2 (1903-4) in

XXYJ

347-8 23 J.B. Power 'Shiga Naoya and the Shishôsetsu' in A . R . Davis convenor Search for

Identity. Modem Literature and the Creative Arts in Asia (Sydney 1974) 21. From this article I also drew my information on the modern Japanese autobiographical novel. 24 In general, Chinese literary critics commented only by passing remarks on W u Woyao's technique of first-person narrative. Only H u Shi recognized its innovative character and he vaguely ascribes it to the influence of foreign literature. See his 'Wushi nian lai Zhongguozhi wenxue' in H u Shi wencun

2 (Taibei

reprint 1953) 237. This statement is merely echoed by many other scholars without further investigation.

25 Gao Boyu 'Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang

suoyin' in his D u xiaoshuo zha

ji (Hong Kong 1957) 67 26 Milena Dolezelová-Velingerová and Lubomir Dolezel ' A n Early Chinese Confessional Prose: Shen Fu's Six Chapters of a Floating Life' in T'oung Pao 58 (1972) 137-60 27 Jaroslav Prûsek 'The Changing Role of the Narrator' 173

28 For example, Bertil Romberg Studies in the Narrative Technique Person Novel (Stockholm 1962)

of the First-

29 Jaroslav Prùsek 'Subjectivism and Individualism in Modern Chinese Literature' Archiv

Orientdlm

25 (1957) 261-83, and Oldfich Král Umení

cïnského

romanu (Praha 1965) 30 The analysis of W u Woyao's third-person rhetorical novels was not included in this study, but many of his novels, such as Jiuming qiyuan

(The strange case

of nine murders) and Tong shi (Painful history), were written in this mode.

A Novel of Setting: The Bureaucrats DONALD HOLOCH

The Bureaucrats is a masterpiece of satirical writing so inexhaustibly inven­ tive in terms of incident that it bears comparison with the plotting in any great Chinese novel. For skilful story-telling it ranks with works of epic art any­ where in the world. Unexpectedly, behind the broad, vigourous, but not overly subtle satire of characters, one discovers a comprehensive and subtle analysis of society. The satire is based not on personal distaste for practices of the time, but on an understanding, rooted in history, of their necessity. It integrates the decline of the state, the status of women, the bureaucratic personality, the role of imperialism, and the commercialization of human relations. The Bureau­ crats is an impressively coherent materialist critique, a serious interpretation of history; for its ideological power and its artistic achievement it deserves to be known in the West. Guanchang xianxing ji (The bureaucrats' or, more literally, 'Official cir­ cles: a revelation') is the magnum opus of a leading and prolific late Qing author and journalist, Li Baojia (1867-1906). He worked on it, simultaneously with a half dozen other novels, from 1901 to 1906, the year of his death; the first half appeared in instalments in the periodical Shanghai shiji fanhua bao (The bustling world of Shanghai) in 1903. The 60-chapter version, the one current since 1906, is commonly held to be the work of two men, the last 12 chapters allegedly added by a friend, Ouyang fuyuan, after Li Baojia's death. Considerations of authorship, however, play no part in this analysis; The Bureaucrats is a major late Qing novel and, as I hope to show, forms an aesthetic whole. 1

A major difficulty in discussing the work is its length: it contains close to 600,000 characters (zi), scores of episodes, and over 800 dramatis personae. The abundance is bewildering. T o talk about such a novel, and avoid the error

2

77 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

of taking a part for the whole, it is necessary to know in outline the features of the entire work. The theme, as the title indicates, is the civil service, specifi­ cally the late Qing bureaucracy, depicted in the process of disintegration: a portrayal of historical change rather than the embodiment of the cynical view that bureaucracy is always and inherently corrupt. Further, given the long historical role of bureaucracy in the conception of Chinese culture, one can appreciate what the novel conveys - the shattering import of the decomposi­ tion of the bureaucratic system. The implications of the theme are broad and are fully explored; the purpose of this essay is to show how. I will begin at the episode level, characterizing narrative style in terms of plot, character, setting, and narrator. Next the author's clues, in the prologue and epilogue, to the meaning of the novel will be analysed. Then the unity of the work will be shown in terms of the dominant structural unit, the cycle. Finally, it will be argued that The Bureaucrats is an example of bourgeois fiction. I EPISODES

Traditional vernacular novels - zhanghui xiaoshuo (fiction in chapters) include the most diverse narratives of over half a millennium. The Bureau­ crats follows the traditional format: chapters which begin and end with the formulas expected by any reader of vernacular fiction. Chapter titles also fol­ low the convention, with parallel sentences of equal length, for example chapter 39: 'Saving his money and fearing his wife, he falls victim to a quack doctor; concealing the facts and keeping a mistress, he is grateful to a generous friend.' Because a chapter in this work does not usually consist of two major units, the conventional parallelism makes the title an unreliable guide to the contents. Titles are often enigmatic to pique the reader's interest; they become comprehensible only in the course of reading. The chapter format is nothing more than a set of literary devices for interrupting a narrative and resuming it. The structure of the narrative itself is unaffected by chapter divisions; it is built instead out of episodes. There are two kinds of episode, action and non-action. By 'action episode' I mean a narrative unit in which a goal is conceived and an action begun (by the protagonist or on his behalf) and carried out (possibly with reverses) to its con­ clusion (whether success or failure). The appearance of a new protagonist or a new goal initiates a new episode. Unlike chapters, episodes are not clearly marked off from one another and vary from 1 to 30 pages in length. The episode in The Bureaucrats is not always a consecutive unit of narrative; in

78 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century many cases episodes interrupt and break each other into sub-units so that as many as four plot lines are in process at one time. To identify the episodes, then, involves making some judgments, and there is room for difference of opinion - my reading yields 61 action episodes. By 'non-action episodes' I mean a narrative unit in which there is no action or where the movement of char­ acters, rather than contributing to the fulfilment of a plot, is strictly an illus­ tration of setting. Since they are the basis of my analysis, episodes (rather than chapters) are referred to by number: action episodes are 1 through 61; non­ action episodes are numbered in a separate sequence, 01 through 010. The appended summary of the novel (pages 109-14) identifies and numbers the episodes. 3

4

Plot The protagonists of the 61 action episodes can be classified according to four types (note that the same character may serve twice as protagonist, e.g. Q u Nai'an in ep. 37, 39): 1 bureaucrats - civil officials, from Governor down to Warden; clerks and aides; army officers; 2 aspirants - anyone seeking entry into officialdom: rich men or their spoiled sons, officials' sons, former petty bureaucrats, and an exam candidate; 3 money-lovers - those who allow none of their social relations, whether offi­ cial or domestic, to interfere with their concern to make or save money; 4 women - wives or concubines, who appear as dependents or victims of men. The goals of the episodes can be described under six headings: advancement, retention of office, money, redress of grievances and insults, preservation of order, and reputation. The following table accounts for the goals and the pro­ tagonists of the entire novel:

PROTAGONISTS

Bureaucrats

Aspirants

Money-lovers

Women

GOALS

(33)

(15)

(8)

(5)

Advancement (20)

4

15

Retention (10]

9

1

Money (17)

9

7

Redress (7]

4

Order (4)

4

Reputation (3)

3

1 1 3

79 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

We can see at the elementary level of plot type a depiction of individual existence centred on position and money and of a social order characterized by the bureaucratic acquisition of wealth. The episodes provide us with a pano­ rama of forms taken by the contradiction between social existence and the selfish scramble for a piece of the pie. As variations on this general theme and the basis of the novel's argument, plot contributes to unity; but the composi­ tion of the parts into a larger unit is not a notable function of plot in this novel. The normal plot connection between episodes is annular: a character or two from one episode leads us into the next where he has little or no effect on the action; in this way one protagonist is constantly eclipsed by the next. Such plot connections are superficial, sometimes pointedly so, becoming the subject of narrator's comments. The other type of plot connection between episodes is their simultaneous unfolding, interrupting each other in the course of the nar­ rative. A n entire cycle (ill) is composed in this way, but otherwise only parts of cycles are so constructed. In The Bureaucrats there is no fabula (plot that runs the length of the work); a superficial serial linkage of episodes is the norm. Plot is unimportant in the composition of the novel but has strong thematic impli­ cations. Character The enormous population of the novel is drawn from seven spheres. Three spheres are basic, providing the majority of the characters: domestic, bureau­ cratic, and foreign; three are treated as aspects of the basic spheres: entertain­ ment (aspect of domestic and bureaucratic), commercial (bureaucratic and foreign), and military (bureaucratic); finally, productive of the fewest char­ acters, comes the local sphere, which includes peasants and rural elite. There is no episode without a bureaucratic character; there are very few without a domestic character. The large majority of primary characters (epi­ sode protagonists) belong to the bureaucratic sphere. Domestic characters (family members, concubines, servants) are normally secondary and appear only because of some connection with the bureaucratic types. The same char­ acter may appear in both bureaucratic and domestic roles, but in both roles the nature of the bureaucracy tends to determine relations with others; for example, the father who, to protect his commission in the army, stresses filial piety to his daughter until she consents to become the concubine of his lecherous com­ mander (ep. 26). Among the women of an official, who typically has concu­ bines as well as a wife, there is a bureaucratic impulse to rise in the hierarchy of the official's favour which also confers easier access to his wealth and influ­ ence; likewise with the characters of the entertainment sphere, the callgirls, who want to be bought out of their servitude into a household: they are aspi-

80 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century rants to the 'post' of concubine (ep. 36). In the commercial sphere finance and credit dominate, and in the military commendation and promotion - the most bureaucratic aspects - dominate. Bureaucratic modes of behaviour are the standard; they permeate many spheres of Chinese life. Operating outside these norms are the foreigners (Westerners in China). They are minor figures: the entry of a foreigner normally precipitates a crisis, a new set of pressures on prior relationships among Chinese characters; but he tends to be a catalyst, uninvolved in the action which his presence motivates. Local people also operate largely outside the norms since most have no hope of entering bureaucratic circles. Even more, they are disruptive of norms when, as victims, they band together to demand their rights from the officials: atten­ tion to good government, rather than getting and keeping post and perquisites, is non-bureaucratic. Individually, local people are no more than background figures, but when aroused they can function collectively as a secondary char­ acter set against a protagonist (ep. 13). Bureaucracy determines the distribution of characters. Rural v. urban, Chi­ nese v. foreign, good v. bad-none of these dichotomies, even when made clear, is a clue to the qualities or behaviour we may anticipate in a character. The informative distinction is the bureaucratic one between superiors and in­ feriors. Such a distinction often takes on the quality of predator v. prey. In some of these cases, where the prey are not themselves suppressed or potential predators, we have the good characters, the innocent victims. Most victims are not good in this sense, but are scrambling to become predators. The basis for the distribution of characters is relative status rather than moral fibre or geo­ graphical origin. Having considered the characters collectively, in their hierarchy and distri­ bution, we come to their individuality: How are they characterized? Indirect means, allowing the reader to assess the character, dominate and almost always take the form of portrayals of behaviour (i.e. through dialogue, of which there is a great deal, and through action); the use of setting as an indirect means is extremely rare (e.g. the money-papered lightless room of a miserly official, ep. 09). Characterization by direct means - explicit assessments by narrator or characters - since they may be unreliable or ironically intended, are invariably measured against behaviour; self-revelation in particular, which takes the form of uttered words and never of introspection, is used when there is a dis­ parity between a character's ostensible and his real motives and the possibility of exposure is important to the plot. Such cases are common: an elaborate example is Governor Fu (ep. 04) who beneath a crusading exterior is as venal as the average official.

81 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

The contents of characterization are background, nomenclature, appear­ ance, and personality. A character's background, almost always introduced by the narrator, at least locates him in the superior-inferior distribution (rank and occupation), but normally also includes place of origin, family connections, means of entry into the bureaucracy, and summary of career. Many characters have significant names which alert the reader to a personal trait or, less com­ monly, refer to physical appearance: He Bao ('Wallet,' a greedy treasurer, ep. 4), Mao Deguan ('imposter in office,' ep. 26), Sun the Beard (ep. 06) ; these are either nicknames under which a character is popularly known, or original names homophonous with other words. As for appearance, a character's face, physique, and clothing rarely get a passing mention. Only a limited repertoire of features is observed: official garb is described to indicate pomposity; ragged clothing is the sign of the perennially unappointed bureaucrat; a sallow complexion indicates an opium smoker,- a beard or moustache goes with officials who are hard on their subordinates but henpecked at home; a woman's beauty is described when the plot is to involve love. The internal qualities of characters tend to be unpleasant - hypocrisy, greed, lechery, arrogance, servility, superstitiousness - and however bizarre the form they take the qualities are presented as typical, to be found again in other characters. Though supplemented with statements by narrator and others, the basic evidence of personality is a character's own action. By comparison with traditional Chinese fiction, characterization in The Bureaucrats is simple. It was standard to introduce a character by his 'curricu­ lum vitae'; the convention is especially suited to this novel's bureaucratic theme. But it is striking that one has little or no idea of what the characters look like. In this novel description, as a clue to personality, has been reduced to significant nomenclature. The exceptional detail (e.g. Q u Nai'an and his wife are still childless in their late forties) is typically introduced for purposes of plot (to motivate Qu's taking a mistress). In most cases a man is what he does: the prominent characters tend to be strictly creatures of plot. They are drawn from a limited portfolio of simple types; the interest lies in their kaleidoscopic combina­ tions, which provide ever new opportunities for satire. Such characters do not develop; when they change at all it is to adopt new roles because of a change of fortune. Some of the most important characters, however, have a non-plot func­ tion. They form and preside over a situation in which other characters move. With reference to the episode, we can talk of protagonists, and of secondary and background characters; in the perspective of the whole novel, they all are reduced to background figures. In the frame of the episode, characters are subordinate to plot; in the frame of the novel, they are aspects of setting.

82 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Setting Because of its prominence in late Qing fiction and its relative neglect in West­ ern literary theory, setting deserves an introduction at this point. I will first propose a set of categories appropriate to this component of fiction, and then return to the analysis of The Bureaucrats. Setting means the objects and relations which constitute the context for char­ acters and actions in a narrative. The three important considerations here for a critical description of any setting are content, scope, and mode of presentation. The possible contents of setting are natural phenomena, material culture, and social relations. Natural phenomena ('nature') include weather and scen­ ery; material culture ('product') includes anything produced, from cities to opium pipes, or transformed by man, even if only through transport or use, e.g. gems, or tree stumps for seats) ; social relations ('milieu') range from relations of production, through ideologies, to etiquette. These three categories are not mutually exclusive: a farm is simultaneously a natural and a human product and an embodiment of social relations, and could function in any or all of these capacities. A l l possible forms of setting can be designated in terms of 'nature,' 'product,' and 'milieu.' It should be noted that 'nature' in narrative (or any other form of art) is invariably a human view of nature and inevitably implies a philosophy of man. The ideological significance of nature, though not always important in a narra­ tive, is never absent from it and is sometimes manifest in symbols. Description of nature in the narrator's text is a component of narrator's point of view; in character's text, it can be a means of characterization. Like nature, product has symbolic potential: it can serve as a means of characterization (e.g. clothing as a clue to status, personality); or it can serve as a concrete embodiment of social relations (a town, a ship, a bank). Setting may be static or dynamic. Static setting is presented all at once, and serves as a clearly established framework for a narrative unit. Setting can be presented dynamically - that is, new elements of a given setting or new aspects of old elements appear gradually in the course of the narrative. In the dynamic mode a significant portion of a work's specific settings have general implications. As a frame of reference, a setting may be general or specific. A general setting is relevant to the narrative as a whole and goes beyond the needs of the episode in which it is presented. A specific setting serves as background for a single episode and may help render the logic of particular events intelligible, but does not contribute to an understanding of other episodes. In novels that give a broad picture of society the distinction may be the key to the artistic success or failure of a narrative.

83 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

In the case of The Bureaucrats the description of typical, episode-level qualities of setting will not take us far we must go beyond the confines of the episode to handle setting adequately. This is especially necessary with regard to social relations and will be explored further in the section on cycles. The other forms of setting occupy very little of the text. The virtual absence of nature might seem surprising since the appreciation of gardens and scenery as a pas­ time in elite circles was taken for granted. The only allusion to such a pastime is in terms of cost: to entertain an old acquaintance who is passing through Hangzhou, a poor official decides to take him to the scenic West Lake as the cheapest possible way to spend the day (15:156.3). Product, too, is rarely a focal point; however, in a novel so sparing of sensu­ ous description, a number of man-made objects attract our attention simply for being described. The Hongkong-Shanghai Bank (06: 301.15-302.19) is a splen­ did example: from the sights, sounds, and layout of this British bank as viewed by the treasurer of Jiangnan, there emerges casually and humourously a sym­ bol of the superior capital of foreigners, the inferior status of Chinese, and the consequent irrelevance of traditional Chinese social distinctions in the face of this modern intrusion. Even brief descriptions are significant, e.g. a silver coin minted in China (09: 425.9-16), on which a dragon is surrounded by a foreign inscription. One of the most humourous, because of its context, is the portrait of a yamen; it ends a series of episodes that unfold under an economizing governor's regime: ;

The Zhejiang administration, ever since Acting Governor Fu had taken office, spared no effort to purge itself and although it wasn't absolutely effective, still there had been a change in the situation. He must have appeared to an outsider as a truly honest official: the outer wall was old but he didn't paint it; the entry gate collapsed but he didn't fix it; the audience hall was shabby but he didn't paper it. Under orders from him, the prefects didn't dare undertake these jobs. A dignified Governor's Mansion was now looking like an old whorehouse. Around the major building the tall grass had gone to seed - no one cut it down; horseshit was piled several feet deep - no one swept it out. Everyone said that with such a superior, who did not himself go in for litigation and forbade others to do so, it must be a golden opportunity for magistrates. True enough nothing was spent on the outside, but the presents on the inside were considerable and had better be in cash. (04: 187.4-7)

This passage illustrates a general feature of descriptive detail, namely that it brings to light a meaning, and exposes social relations inherent in the disposi­ tion of things. The purpose is analytical.

84 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Social relations, to which nature and human product are subordinate, are the dominant aspect of setting. These are presented either dramatically, in the encounters and dialogues of characters, or in exposition by the narrator, and involve most of the novel. Specific episodes can take on a general significance; and the dynamic, gradually unfolding relationship between various settings can be used to expose hidden connections between events. The presentation of setting centres on relations involving the bureaucracy; since the bureaucracy is seen in its totality, the social setting is the whole of China and the national picture is a compound of all the episode settings. A n action commonly begins after an account of practices prevailing under a local official; e.g. episode 010, appeasement of foreigners under the Jiangnan Viceroy, is followed by episode 54, Magistrate Mei's 'pro-foreignism.' This establishes a framework for actions that follow. Episode settings also readily take on a general significance: they point to features recurrent throughout the novel, and are setting for the novel as a whole. The sale of posts is one such general feature. A n early account of it comes in episode 4: Whoever had money got the post, but it was a fair exchange without the slightest favouritism. Those without ready cash could write a cheque negotiable after appoint­ ment and the official would still accept, but they took a back seat to those who had paid cash. Now this Provincial Treasurer, after revising his regulations to mean what they said, actually had a yamen like a market - business flourished. (4: 27.9-11)

The stress is on the economics of the situation, and alerts the reader to the workings of a system that generates public and private immorality. Eco­ nomic factors are never far below the surface of events and often come into full view (ep. 5, 7, 15, 23, 31, 50). The above passage is relevant not only to the numerous other cases of selling posts but to the novel in general: the opportu­ nities for chicanery are circumscribed by an economic structure, the 'market.' The market principle is not autonomous, as is shown when a bureaucratic entrepreneur is victimized by a foreign firm (ep. 7) and the narrator observes, 'Indeed, foreign officials are specially serious about protecting business, unlike China's officialdom, which is especially hard on businesssmen' (69.5). But the principle is beyond individual control. Thus the market is conceived as subject to societal control while independent of individual desires. Here we have a link between the specific and the general - a prime example of how setting can unify a work in which plot and character are not unifying components. Plots follow one another in an order which brings the general elements of setting to our attention.

85 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

Given the vastness of the setting (China) and the complexity of its concep­ tion, it cannot be presented all at once. Key elements appear many times; their significance emerges gradually from the variety of contexts. This dynamic mode can characterize a consecutive unit of narrative; e.g. episode 7 in which the conventions of profit-making in urban commercial circles are slowly unfolded. The dynamic mode can also involve widely separated elements of narrative, as in the case of opium. First mentioned casually (01: 3.12; 2: 19.6), it soon becomes familiar as merely a diversion or stimulant in bureaucratic circles; then it takes on the quality of a form of personal dependence, wide­ spread (from the number of incidental references) and sometimes demeaning (Warden Zou, ep. 9; Liu the Braggart, ep. 17); finally, when a national official proposes to exclude foreign opium by promoting home-grown, opium is revealed as a mark of China's economic subordination to the West, but the alternative exclusionist 'policy' would merely shift profits from foreigners to peculating officials and encourage nationwide addiction. The most significant case of the dynamic mode is the foreign presence in China, which in the novel is transformed from a source of comedy into a profound threat. Similarly with the closely connected motif of China's military f o r c e - a coherent picture emerges from unconnected incidents in different provinces. The gradual or delayed exposé, characteristic of the dynamic mode, is not merely muckraking, an occasion for moral indignation. It is also analytical; it explains typical features of setting by showing the purposes they ultimately serve. This mode permits a very complex picture of society: details are abun­ dantly provided until the cumulative effect reveals a pattern of relationships, and meanings unstressed or unmentioned become apparent in the larger per­ spective. The society depicted is not static; it is not a 'type' as the characters tend to be, but a structure in the process of great change. What makes the society tick? Can it possibly continue? These are the major questions of the novel. Chinese society is seen historically, not as an eternal embodiment of 'the human condition' but as one of the settings for human existence, and one that is in transition. Character is subordinate to plot, and the great number of plots serve to illustrate the specific social setting. The narrator's occasional com­ ments on the disjointed sequence of personae and actions simply emphasize the central importance of setting in the novel. Narrator In the vernacular tradition, a narrator's interpretations were confined to pro­ logue and epilogue and to verse interspersed throughout the prose, while the body of the narrative was presented in relatively objective fashion. The

86 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Bureaucrats contains no verse; the judgments are not formally distinguished and are present throughout in rhetorical words and phrases, ironies, and signifi­ cant nomenclature, as well as in the narrator's protests of fidelity to life. These devices colour the text with the narrator's attitudes more fully than ever before in vernacular fiction, and in forms less readily separable from the 'objec­ tive' body of the work.

5

For example, the narrator's view of certain situations as unpardonable and particular characters as corrupt may take the form of open criticism: For the last few years several nations have had the fixed idea of usurping the territory of our China, repeatedly sending gunboats to patrol the waters around China's river and sea ports. Once they get to a place they are slow to leave. Sometimes they send men ashore; it's hard to tell how many there have been. Don't call it a case of surveying, just call it military practice. The highest authorities in the contact regions still act as if nothing can be done, so why bother mentioning the local officials. (55: 515.15f)

A less direct way of expressing judgment is through the significant repetition of a phrase. In episode 50, for example, niiliuzhi bei (a condescending refer­ ence to women) recurs four or five times, first in the mouth of characters (462.8; 473.8) and thereafter in the narrator's text (479.16; 481.7). The phrase stresses the dependent status of women as a condition for a major form of predatory relations in Chinese society. Similarly, in episode 15, the narrator introduces daotai Guo Fu as honest [zhonghou, 156.2) and repeats the descrip­ tion twice (156.8; 160.10); the story has meanwhile shown how Guo Fu inad­ vertently became a middleman for bribes. The irony of the description is a judgment on the situation, the bureaucratic milieu which corrupts its mem­ bers. Sometimes a single loaded word or phrase suffices to express the narra­ tor's view of a character: 'a bitch like that' (270.14); 'a fox of a treacherous minister' [285.11); a young man who 'connived' to sign over to a foreigner the mining rights of an entire province (496.13). The emergence of this intensely rhetorical mode of narrative during the last decade of Qing is related to the new confidence of writers in the value of fiction, their consciousness of mission, and their sense of urgency. In The Bureaucrats it also serves as the vehicle of the narrator's basic, if vague, identi­ fication with the lower strata of Chinese society. We can see this by comparing characters' comments on character and action with those of the narrator. Many characters in the novel, some only aspects of setting, serve as a sort of collective conscience. Most episodes include an outspoken figure of low social status who, not directly involved in the bureaucracy, has a livelier moral sense

87 Setting: The

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than superiors and is freer to express it. The condition for this relative freedom is explained by an employee advising another to quit their master: 'Wait and see! M e , I'm waiting with my bedding rolled up to go. fust think how officials have really got it coming to them. Take h i m - p r o m o t e d yesterday was one thing, cashiered today is something else again. Not like us servants - quit one household, there's always another, you eat their fucking food all the same. But officials only have the one emperor and nowhere else to go.' (3: 24.1)

A n expression of open disapproval comes in episode 26. Mao Deguan, to bolster his own career, wants his daughter to become his commander's concu­ bine; under the circumstances the father is little more than a pimp. A young guard twice pointedly calls him 'father-in-law' of the older Commander (274.4,14); Mao Deguan turns red both times. Blunter criticism of an official comes from a witness in a murder trial. Bankrupted because of the judge's ill-considered change in trial procedure, the witness now lives as a fortune­ teller. Judge Jia, in disguise, is at his stall listening to his complaint: ... T h e n along comes that goddam Chief Justice, a real lousy bastard; now I'm ruined and the family is scattered like stars in the sky.' Shocked to hear this, Judge Jia asked, 'Which Chief Justice, the former one or the present one?' The fortune-teller said, 'I mean that present son of a bitch Jia.' (21: 195.6)

These and other examples illustrate that the narrator, in his views and his manner of expressing them, has the attributes of this novel's lower-class char­ acters; he may comment on events at hand, but, unlike some officials, does not provide an explanation of why the events take place, why one episode follows the other. The narrator does not provide the organizing principle of the novel; setting does this. Analysis of the novel's prologue and epilogue will bring us as close as we can come to an expression of purpose in the work and will serve as a practical introduction to the unifying function of setting. II F R A M E W O R K : P R O L O G U E A N D EPILOGUE

In the well-known traditional novels the author provides a clue to the interpre­ tation of the entire work. A formally distinct section, no longer than the aver­ age chapter in length, appears at the beginning and a shorter one at the end; they provide the philosophical framework within which the story is to be viewed and underline the moral to be drawn. Rather simply conceived in earl-

88 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century ier fiction derived from oral tradition, these prologues and epilogues became quite elaborate in Qing novels, which were conceived and composed by a single author. A philosophical poem, an allegorical vision (commonly in the form of a dream), reflections on history, the passage of time, the ideal existence - these are typical of the frame in which authors of traditional novels set their stories. Aside from the concluding allegorical dream, The Bureaucrats seems to lack the traditional framework. In fact, however, the frame is blended into the body of the text and the narrator draws no attention to it. It can be shown that there are both a prologue and epilogue which are formally related to each other and serve the traditional purpose. Prologue Since the prologue was a standard feature of fiction, the late Qing reader must have expected one. Any such anticipation would appear on first reading to be disappointed by the beginning of The Bureaucrats : The story goes: In Chaoyi County of Tongzhou Prefecture in Shenxi, 30 li south of the county seat there was a village inhabited exclusively by two clans, the Zhaos and the Fangs. The village could not be called small nor yet large; there were 20 or 30 families in it. They had tilled the soil for generations. When Grandfather Zhao took over, he invited a tutor for his sons to study under; and when grandsons came along one sud­ denly became a degree candidate. In the shallow view of country people, candidacy was no small thing, and the entire village praised him. But the Fang clan found they were falling behind; the Fangs were green with envy and several families went into debt, regardless of expense opened a school and visited town to invite a man with a juren degree to the village to teach the young men of the Fang clan. T h e professor, Wang Ren by name, was getting old and decided to accept. (01:1.2f)

A comic story of parochial jealousy follows, in the course of which there are several significant dialogues: when the Zhao boy passes his juren (provincial) exams, tutor Wang Ren and the star pupil among the Fangs argue about the worth of degrees; next morning, during a solemn ceremony, the Zhao clan elder praises Zhao Wen's achievement; at a village feast that afternoon, the local bigwig and guest of honour, Squire Wang, pompously holds forth on the necessity of the examination system. Though the novel begins abruptly with a story, this story repeatedly focuses on the question of the purpose and significance of the degree. It poses the central problem of the work: How does the system - the State - maintain itself? Although Zhao Wen, about to ascend to officialdom, is the central figure here, the story begins by concentrating on the backwoods milieu that produced him.

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The characters who express their views may be somewhat ridiculous, but nowhere in the novel does the validity of views depend on the virtues of the proponent. The tutor's view is materialistic and individual: to him the real purpose of the degree is office, which means wealth and power for the holder; the oppressive nature of the system is reflected in the crude delight he shows at the opportunities for intimidation. The clan elder, with the inversion typical of popular religion, attributes the operations of the system to supernatural causes: it has, in his mind, the highest sanction; the real benefits to the clan of having a member in office (local political protection at the least, as his grandfather later explains to Zhao Wen: 1: 15.10) are seen in terms of the ghostly concern of dead ancestors. And Squire Wang's comic self-importance has a serious basis: he correctly indicates the ideological significance of the examination system in maintaining the continuity of the state and the state-sanctified 'culture.' Whatever the reasons for it, there is general agreement on the importance of the system. The squire, in contrast to the villagers, is the voice of experience on such matters, though his official position was in fact relatively insignificant. When he raises the mere possibility that the system isn't eternal, Wang Ren is shocked. (The same question was topical when the first instalments of The Bureaucrats came out: it was public knowledge that the court had commis­ sioned studies on the abolition of the exam system.) The squire's belief, of course, is that the system must continue in one way or another because of its importance to the state. As the episodes multiply we find that the examina­ tions have lost their importance in the recruitment of officials - even Zhao Wen finally buys his first post. The search for individual advantage and bene­ fits for relatives persists, but the ideology and the power of the state are disinte­ grating. The squire asks how long the examination system will last; the novel shows its irrelevance; the real question is how long will the entire bureaucratic system endure. The next major incident in the Zhao Wen story is the visit to the squire's residence in town. Here we have one of the rare descriptive passages: the mansion of the former official, seen through the eyes of an up-and-coming student, appears as a collage of riddles, which the narrative pointedly leaves unresolved (01: 7.18-8.14). The objects described have been carefully selected. Though Zhao Wen, new to such sights, does not understand them, the scene is a dumb show on the world he is preparing to enter: an official is a member of an elite fraternity [jinshi plaque and juren announcements on display) who is wealthy (from the looks of the house) and not readily accessible (doorman and intimidating 'tigerboards') he has power (the caps and whips are the accoutre­ ments of an official in his role as judge, the sedan chair is his mode of ;

90 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century transport - borne on the shoulders of other men), enjoys personal glory and secures benefits for his clan (patent cases); he affects high culture (scrolls of calligraphy, objets d'art) and morality (the room entitled 'Decency Hall') and is involved in philanthropy (the placard reading 'Shanxi-Shenxi Disaster Relief Bureau' which, on the evidence of all the other charities in the novel, must be a racket). The details of the mansion, besides suiting the Zhao Wen story, are an elaborate symbol, a pictorial plaque hung out at the start of the novel for the uninitiated reader to ponder. Though written in the bluff story-telling manner of the rest of the novel and not separated from it by any formal means, the first ten pages are actually a prologue. Epilogue: Dream A parallel situation occurs in episode 61, leading up to an apocalyptic dream which brings the novel to its climax. The central figure here is Pockedy Huang, one-time tax-collector, who had switched to serving as aide to his low-ranking in-law Zhen and then aspired to climb the bureaucratic ladder. His actions have established him as a mercenary type (ep. 60); but when he began paying court at the governor's mansion, he observed that self-debasement was a prerequisite for high position, and went back into Zhen's service. Huang, in sharp contrast to the passive, naïve, easily awed Zhao Wen, is a character with initiative and a cynical view of bureaucracy. After his experience (and after the bulk of the novel), an idealistic view of official career can only seem ludicrous. Zhen's father, a retired education commissioner, is en route to visit his ailing elder brother; Huang accompanies him and listens to his account of the brother's life: it is the sorry history of such an idealistic view. The commissioner adopts the tone of a man of experience: he was smart enough to buy official status for his sons, while the misguided brother, now in his seventies, is still taking exams and failing them. As in the prologue, we have here a direct consideration of the value of the examination system and office-holding, but a much dimmer view is taken. When the two travellers reach the brother's home (purchased with his wife's money), we have an equivalent to the scene in the prologue where Zhao Wen observes the official paraphernalia in a strange house. Pockedy Huang, who has never seen the building before, is baffled by the entry wall where red paper notices of title and rank are pasted in indiscriminate profusion. Knowing the owner never held office and never had money to purchase distinctions, Huang muses, 'I wonder what he means by it?' (61: 573.20-574.5). Since Huang is not a naïve protagonist like Zhao Wen, his puzzlement means that an experienced observer- like the reader at this point in the novel - will also find the scene a riddle. The question alerts the reader, intro-

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ducing a dramatic build-up to the ailing brother's apocalyptic dream on which the novel ends. As for the entrance way, we are never told 'what he means by it.' Whatever the brother's motives, the red title strips do represent, in their range from the impressive to the trivial, the entire range of official ranks and positions. This is the bureaucratic circle into which the brother has sought entry for his whole life. What it means to be a member and what the bureau­ cracy means to China are presented in the apocalyptic dream, that is, in a form not to be taken as the limited viewpoint of a character. The author uses this device to give the novel's most thorough single analysis of state and society and to summarize the main ideas of the episodes. The dream is narrated by the critically ill brother: He is concealed by trees in an animal-infested wilderness. Longing to escape, he suddenly finds himself in a city, sits down for a nap outside a modern building, then gets into a fight with someone who tries to drive him off the premises. The group inside, who have been proofreading a book, emerge and one explains that their work is part of God's plan for saving China. There is a sudden fire: only half the manuscript survives; the group decide to publish it as is. They disperse, the dream ends, and the brother awakes cured. The dream has four fairly well demar­ cated sections, each dominated by a different symbol: 1. animals (beginning at 575.2), 2. the modern house (575.13), 3. a divine proposal (576.2), and 4. the book (576.9). 1 The animal section is an allegory on the bureaucracy: there were all kinds of jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards that would just as soon eat a man alive as look at him ... T h e hills were full of ratholes; if it was penetrable, the rats were into it, if it was rock or any impenetrable thing, they would keep at it anyway. The dogs would bite a man on sight but were scared of being eaten by tigers

;

when they saw one their heads would bob, their tails would wag, what a sorry sight. Worst of all were the cats with their climbing: when they saw leopard or tiger they climbed a tree and when it got far away they climbed down again. Monkeys copied what they saw. The weasels looked ahead and never looked back; if something was hot on their heels they let a salvo of rotten farts and ran. Besides these there were foxes made up as extraordinary women strolling in full view, enough to make you die of love. T h e pigs and sheep were the peak of uselessness, and though the oxen were big it was just for show. [He then thinks,] '... hills and plains are full of them. It's a world full of animals and there's no getting away.' ... I closed my eyes to think of a plan. A t this juncture, without warning, there was a tremendous roar as if heaven and earth were about to crack open ... In a second I was in another world.

The division between officials and common people, such as the dreamer, is given as animals v. men. Bureaucrats are predators (jackal, etc.); they meddle

92 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century where they can (rat) and, always moving on, can be heedless of consequences (weasel). They are deceptive (fox, ox), imitative (monkey), timid (dog, cat); within their ranks they are oppressive (tiger, leopard) and disgracefully servile (dog), and toward commoners they are generally oppressive (jackal, etc., and dog) ; finally, they are not really needed (pig, sheep, ox). The bureaucracy is both a demeaning influence on its members and an unnecessary social evil. The world it dominates is unfit for people, but one alternative - getting away - is impos­ sible because officials are everywhere: this impasse is presented and then the section ends. Because upheaval precedes the change of environment, one can imagine the other alternative - the violent removal of bureaucracy. 2 The house section is an allegory on the Chinese state: In my dream I came to a capacious thoroughfare with no end of carts and horses coming and going, just like Shanghai Boulevard. M y feet took me east and somehow I got to a place, a huge modern house with a large flight of stairs. As I walked i counted eighteen steps in all. A t the top of the stairs, well, it seemed my legs were aching, so I stretched out on a foreign chair that was there by the east wall. [He dozes off but someone rudely tells him to leave because 'Their Honours' 'with their cap insignia and soft boots' are at work inside.] ... I said, 'Let them be Their Honours and let me get my sleep, I'm not stopping them. If they can't complain, what's your complaint? You say I have no idea of what's proper. You mean to tell me improper business is out of fashion for those men with insignia and boots?' [The two start a fistfight which brings the others out.] One of them asked me where I was from. How I answered him is all confused for the moment, I can't remember.

The 18 steps are the 18 provinces of China proper: the huge house in a com­ mercial setting (the main street, horses, and carts) with a council in session represents China's government; the insignia and boots indicate that the com­ mitteemen are definitely Chinese officials. The fact that it is a modem house with a foreign chair contrasts with the traditional transport (horse and cart) and points up an indeterminate foreign influence on the state; this is strength­ ened by the suggestion that the government is in Shanghai [the centre of such influence) rather than Peking. When the attendant attempts to bully him by glorifying the government and demeaning the man, the dreamer refuses to yield and defends with his fists his need to rest. The dreamer, the common man (his origin is purposely left unspecified), is not mystified by the state. 3 The proposal section satirizes the imperial ruler. But I do remember asking him, 'What are your people doing?' He said, 'We're correcting the proofs of a book.' I asked what book. What he said was, 'God pities China for

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becoming as poor and as weak as it is. He is determined to save China. But how can China's 400 million all be saved at once? Therefore he has devised a boldly simple method, namely: T h e people of China seem to have an inborn fear of officials; as officials go so go the people, a case of 'action above, imitation below.' Hence his resolve to take the officials first and mould them to such a degree that they might emerge prepared to lead and devoted to the people. Another consideration: China has thousands upon thousands of officials big and small, and their faults all seem to have been learned from a single teacher. Therefore he conceived a new method: edit several textbooks modeled on classroom method to instruct them. Moreover, it is in line with worldwide pedagogy: they start in primary school and move up grade by grade into upper primary, middle school and high school. When, after receiving the diploma, they are sent out as officials, naturally they will all be good officials. Twenty years from now could there still be unrest in the Empire?'

This section reinforces the idea of foreign influence by the reference to God (the term shangdi had gained currency from its use by Christian missionaries) and the appeal to worldwide pedagogy. Second, the proper concerns of the government are attributed to God, so that the government appears passive in the national crisis; further, the alleged nationwide corruption ("'action above, imitation below",' '[officials'] faults all seem to have been learned from a single teacher') makes the ruler specifically the chief culprit. The situation is ironic: under their corrupt and impotent ruler, a body of Chinese officials is following orders from a Western deity to save China. From what? Poverty and weakness are divinely pitied, but the official executor of divine will is really concerned about unrest. Specific schemes to make the regime both stable and palatable have already been refuted by the outcome of various episodes, e.g. reform of judicial procedure (ep. 21), of military organiza­ tion (ep. 27), of provincial administration (ep. 30), and of the exam system in its up-dated (ep. 57) and its traditional (ep. 59) aspects. The committeeman's bookish optimism is a flat contradiction of a central point of the novel, that bureaucratic behaviour is moulded by bureaucratic experience, not by ideo­ logy. God and bureaucrat are collaborating in an enterprise which, on the evi­ dence of the novel, is absurd; by implication, any serious attempt to change poor, weak, and corrupt China would have to remove the given regime from ruler on down. 4 The final section of the dream is an ironic evaluation of the novel: [The committeemen re-enter the house with the charred remnants of the book.] Back inside there wasn't a trace of the fire, and on the floor not even a drop of the water that had just poured out of the hoses ... They announced that the first half was all that

94 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century remained of the book they were proofing. In its original form the textbook had a first half which exclusively pointed out the bad side of officials so that they could read and know what faults to correct; the last half then taught the proper method of being an official. Now that the last half was burnt only the first remained. With only the one half it didn't seem like a textbook but more like The List of Canonized

Gods or Journey

to the West :

the spooks and demons were all there. [One committeeman proposes :]'... better print the fragment. Though it can't induce virtue it can eradicate vice. Besides, in past history a fragment, The Analects, a fragment?

was used in governing the Empire. How, then, can one object to

... The group, since it had no other ideas, could only go along with his.

The meeting broke up noisily. When they were all gone my dream was over and, strange to say, it seemed to be the end of my disease! ... The brother lived on to a ripe old age.

The view that there can be no reformist conclusion to the novel's exposé of officials is flaunted: the spectacular fire has no apparent cause and leaves no trace, it simply eliminates the second, reformist, half of the book produced in response to the divine proposal. The surviving half is compared to two novels whose titles serve as comments on the content of The Bureaucrats. The 'list' [bang] in The List of Canonized Gods (Feng shen bang) is the same term used for the list of successful examination candidates (e.g. 1: 14.13). The title can also be rendered as 'the list of appointed [feng] gods': it is an ironic reference to the officials. Journey to the West is intended figuratively: it suggests the in­ creasing official turn toward and subservience to the foreign powers. The point of the comparison is that officials, again identified as anti-popular (character­ ized as spooks and demons here in place of animals), have no right to office and are selling China to foreigners. The suggestion that The Bureaucrats replace The Analects as a guide to present government is a colossal piece of irrever­ ence toward the ideology of the state. In brief, the fourth section of the dream proposes a false possibility - that the book might aid reform, and then mocks such a view of the book as well as the very idea of reform. As I read it, the essence of the dream is this: The bureaucracy is fundamen­ tally anti-popular; its members are dehumanized and make China unfit for human habitation; the imperial bureaucratic state, which is under the influ­ ence of foreign powers, is incapable of changing itself; it serves no legitimate and no necessary purpose; the alternative to oppression is revolution, since mere reform is impossible as this novel demonstrates. The dreamer, as charac­ terized by his actions in the dream, is impulsive, outspoken, and sensible of human decency, thus joining the brotherhood of the minor lower-class char­ acters and the narrator. The contrast between the mortally ill brother (as described by the commissioner) and his dreaming self is similar to that between Zhao Wen in the first story and Pockedy Huang in the last. Young Zhao acts 6

7

95 Setting: The

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on a positive view of official career, which is embodied in the Wang man­ sion - the accretion of a minor bureaucrat who has grown smug and comfort­ able on the booty of his posts; Huang's view is negative, embodied in the invalid's house - a cocoon of paper hopes in which the pupa is dying. The shift of view between the beginning and the end of the novel is a fair reflection of a historical change in the possibilities and the esprit in the bureaucratic circles. The point is brought into sharper focus in the person of the elder Zhen: an abject ever-failing aspirant for entry into a cancerous institution, he has a dream in which he sees through the façade of bureaucracy and stands up for himself. As a result of this reversal of view, he wakes up cured. The Bureaucrats is a novel of individually entertaining episodes with an over­ all serious purpose which is hinted at in the prologue and stressed in the epilogue. Formal similarities between prologue and epilogue point up a major change of perspective. T o see how this is accomplished in the body of the work we will concentrate on its dominant component - setting - as it unfolds in the course of the narrative. This brings us to cycles and the meaning of the novel. Ill

CYCLES

The majority of episodes in The Bureaucrats are linked to the narrative by the device of annular plot, and nearly half by the additional device of simultaneous unfolding. Thus the novel is a slightly modified form of stories in series. Such purely formal linking devices, however, are secondary in the composition of the novel. It is unified by major thematic units which I call cycles. Since this may be a new way of reading The Bureaucrats, let me tell how I came to it. Traditional Chinese fiction, both earlier [Sanguo yanji and Shuihu zhuan) and later [Rulin waishi], seems to be constructed in terms of cycles of thematically grouped episodes, so a novel at the end of the tradition might well operate on similar principles. Of course, The Bureaucrats might simply be a series of fortuitously related anecdotes - serial publication in the newspapers demanded no more than that. Yet certain sections of the novel, even on a first reading, are clearly not a haphazard conglomeration of stories. I looked for cycles and found that the novel consists of a sequence of cycles. It is in terms of this sequence that the unity of the novel can be shown. A cycle in The Bureaucrats, containing from four to nine episodes, tends to be limited to a single constellation of characters or a small set of locales. A new protagonist or a new setting marks the transition from one cycle to the next. There are no formal indications and the transition to a new cycle can easily

s

96 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century pass unnoticed. Nevertheless one realizes as one reads that the novel's focus is gradually shifting from one set of problems to another; the significance of late Qing China is revealed gradually, an aspect at a time. The Individual Cycles There are ten cycles in sequence. Each cycle (indicated by a roman numeral) consists of one non-action episode (indicated by 0 plus an arabic numeral) and a sequence of action episodes (indicated by an arabic numeral). Their semantics centres around one prominent theme which unifies the cycle and one or two secondary themes. Each cycle is also marked by a meaningful shift, from one area of China to another, which corroborates the main theme. I have entitled each cycle according to its main theme (see synopsis, pages 109-14). To illustrate the structure of the cycle and my analysis, I will discuss in detail Cycle I, 'The Yamen Business.' It consists of a series of episodes: 01 Anticipation of profit and personal advantage attract the rural nouveau riche to the examination system, which has an uncertain future. 1 Zhao Wen, not having learned to use bribes and flattery, fails to pass the metropolitan exams and must buy a post; however, he has learned to mistreat his servant. 2 Qian, a former warden, must use bribes to have his personal record doctored before he can get a reappointment and secure an actual position. 3 Past misdeeds make Huang's promotion to daotai uncertain; officials vacil­ late accordingly in their treatment of him. Once he bribes superiors to cancel charges against him, he secures his position and officials' respect. 4 Treasurer He Bao, selling posts in businesslike fashion, restricts the margin of profit for his middleman and younger brother, San He Bao, but stops short of a permanent split because San has been bringing in good customers. 5 A new magistrate, having borrowed from a friend to buy the post, takes him along as assistant. When the magistrate tries to renege on his debt, the friend stops the intake of taxes and through the prefect forces repayment. The précis reflect fairly the original sequence of events, since there is little interruption of episodes in cycle I. The narrative moves from rural Shenxi (ep. 01) through Peking (ep. 1) to settle in Jiangxi province, where it shows official circles in the capital (ep. 2, 3, 4) and problems of county administration (ep. 5). Thus it runs the gamut of the Chinese polity: imperial centre; provincial yamens, the highest and the lowest; and a village well below the lowest bureaucratic centre. The major theme of cycle I is the cash nexus of social relations and of official status. A key conversation, immediately after the description of the

97 Setting: The

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Wang mansion, includes Zhao Wen as a tongue-tied auditor, and is devoted exclusively to the cash value of office; it revolves around Squire Wang's brother-in-law, the warden Qian Bofang (01: 8.20-9.10). No honour goes with the menial post of warden; the 'practical' consideration of money is all that matters. The Squire, euphemistically but with relish, tells his listeners that Qian has grown rich by oppressing commoners, a role he evidently pursues in his civil capacity-he is a landlord. Considerations of cash dominate not only the official career, but also other relations in official circles: the mercenary nature of sworn brotherhood comes up twice in episode 2 (16.1; 19.7), and the subordination of blood brotherhood to profit is the point of episode 4. If the post is seen only as a source of money, then it is reasonable to buy it: the price is a form of investment. As insurance, one also buys a clean record (ep. 2, 3); and having acquired the post, no matter the means, one also receives official esteem (ep. 3). Possession is all that counts in the case of a post, just as in the case of the queen of commodities, money. The commodity nature of the post is revealed in the description of the market in posts (4: 27.9). Records and regulations, sign of the coherence of a bureaucratic structure, are shown subject to the solvent action of money. A secondary theme, that bureaucratic relations are erected on the backs of commoners, recurs often throughout this cycle. Qian boasts of extorting money from the locals on the pretext of birthday gifts for fictitious relatives (1: 12.9); a troupe of actors, hired for an official's party but dismissed when the party is cancelled, are not paid for their several days of rehearsal (3: 22.5); the plot of episode 5 - the refined vengeance of a slighted creditor, Jiang Fu - takes for granted the injustice of the taxes levied on the agrarian population (36.1237.1). The link between bureaucracy and oppression is dramatically embodied in the change of a character, Zhao Wen. He first appears (01) as a gawky non­ entity, grist for the examination mill. En route to Peking he listens to the boasts of Warden Qian and observes his harsh handling of the servant. Appa­ rently discomfited, young Zhao suggests more courteous treatment and listens skeptically to the Warden's homily: to be an official, throw your weight around and keep the buggers down. Zhao Wen's proposal and doubt are the first signs he shows of independent thinking. However, when he first asserts himself later on in Peking, it is to boss the servant around (l: 14.13). We see that a young nonentity, en route to an official career, learns how to abuse inferiors. The warden has already planted the suggestion in the reader's mind that career and oppression are complementary, and the mentioned incidents of this cycle help confirm it.

98 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century The nine cycles which follow are built along identical principles. Cycle II, 'Western Influence and Commerce,' shifts the scene to Shandong and is introduced by the theme of Western influence. After several incidents pok­ ing fun at officials' ignorance of Western ways, the scene switches to Shanghai and the theme of commerce dominates. The major point is the connection between modern commerce and Western influence. The meaning of Shan­ dong, i.e. the modern commercial milieu, and the object of the first imperialist grab for broad territory in China, is revealed through the actions of a naive protagonist, Tao Ziyao, who as purchasing agent for Shandong province is sent to Shanghai to buy machinery for modernization. Tao is cheated by comprador Chou Wuke. Chou's scheme works because of a foreign firm and its ability to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on Chinese officials. The comprador and company make money and Shandong is not richer by a single piece of machin­ ery. The success of this commercial fraud is facilitated by Tao: as a backwoods charlatan, he is no match for the Shanghai slickers. The minor theme of cycle II is the degradation in bureaucratic circles - the official's wife, the unemployed functionary, the average official. Her husband's constant travels condemned the official's wife to long periods of loneliness. Her unpleasant personality notwithstanding (8: 76.13), Tao's wife suffers from this cause and complains of it (77.14). The episode describing a penniless former warden Zou, is a striking portrayal of the desperation of the unemployed placeseeker. A more fundamental criticism of the system itself, of the bureaucratic personality, is raised with the comparison between bureaucrat and prostitute. Tao visits an elaborate Shanghai teahouse. In Tao's first conversation with a teahouse girl, Miss Xin compares the professions of official and hooker (7: 56.2-9). Tao's self-righteous denial, far from convincing us, strengthens the impression that to be an official is to abandon morality for a demeaning role as object of human use. Cycle III, 'Bureaucracy v. the People,' leaves the Western theme and reverts to the indigenous context of bureaucracy. It begins when Zhou, a background figure of Episode 7, becomes titular magistrate and goes inland, from Shanghai to Hangzhou. The splendid storytelling of this cycle, which interweaves a peace-keeping campaign with a pair of bureaucratic vendettas and a detective plot, is a power­ ful depiction of the antipopular nature of the bureaucracy. The goal of three of the episodes is public order - suppression of bandits, discovery of a thief, pacifi­ cation of aroused villagers - rather than the exploitation of commoners. Yet the goal, public order, is invariably achieved at the expense of the welfare,

99 Setting: The

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self-respect, and even the lives of innocent people. None of the victims was a target of these official undertakings; the suffering of all is incidental from the perspective of bureaucratic goals. The major theme is that the unintentional sacrifice of popular interests is the normal feature of bureaucracy. It is largely in connection with whores that this cycle develops its minor theme, the hollow personalities of officials. Pointedly, the scene of this cycle moves from Shanghai to Hangzhou, which is linked to the hinterland by riverboats: transport reserved for official use, they are also floating brothels. Yet it is not the prostitutes who are condemned, since some of them are portrayed as women of genuine and even noble feelings. By contrast with these figures, the shallowness of the bureaucrat seems doubly repulsive and the comparison has added sting: 'whore' in that context can now be understood as a metaphor for moral degradation, while literal whores are far better than officials. Cycle IV, 'Bureaucratic Reform,' takes place in the capital of Zhejiang, largely in or around the governor's mansion. Though Zhou has left the scene, his charges against the Governor Fu provoke an imperial investigation of the entire administration and the appointment of a new governor. This section details the bureaucracy's responses to his hypocritical reforming zeal and concludes by depicting the hypocrisy of his private life. The final part of the cycle, which takes place in Henan, parallels the first: reforms which are ruinous in practice are initiated by a new chief justice whose personal dishonesty matches his public show of virtue. Cycle IV not only revels in the failure of bureaucratic reform; it also suggests the reasons for its impossibility. The major theme is that virtue has no place in the bureaucratic system or in the practice of its individual members. From the first theme comes the second: traditional morality, masking the actual workings of the system, is a false view of the world which serves the state but harms the people. This exposé of ideology is accompanied by a portrayal of economic processes: the operations of the market and the influ­ ence of foreign capital in a semi-colonial situation. These processes are hilari­ ous factors in the plot, embarrassing the governor by upsetting his frugality campaign. The bureaucracy, for all its ability to intimidate people and make money under the table, is not in control of economic relations. Cycle v, 'Posts, the Imperial Commodity,' focuses on the mechanism of creat­ ing actual officials: the method of distributing posts. The scene moves to Peking, the imperial and administrative centre of China. The major theme is the commodity nature of posts. Governor Fu blamed the court for creating the market and undermining standards (ep. 04). In this

100 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century cycle we see that Fu's charges are justified: the mercenary view of posts and the commercial traffic in them are not local distortions of the system but origi­ nate at the heart of it. Where does the money come from that circulates in the market for posts? Flood control bureaus are one source. As the narrator points out, they convert disaster for the people into a bonanza for officials (22: 201.18-20). Yet he also points out the countless aspirants who can never afford the market in posts (25: 252.11). Thus at the start and at the end of the cycle, the reader is reminded of the casualties of the system; but further than this, there are ominous signs of national instability (the secondary theme of cycle v) for which the top levels of government are blamed. The Peking episode begins with a disappointment for young Jia he had hoped to rely on the influence of his father's friend, Grand Secretary Zhou, but discovers that Zhou is 'behind the times' (23: 207.18), i.e. out of favour with the court for having recommended a reformer to office (208.2). Later we learn from Xia Shi, the orderly of a cashiered gen­ eral, that this imperial smugness about the status quo is ill-founded (25: 248.8-17) - fraternal organizations were responsible for the victory of the imperial armies over the Taipings; the same organizations have become poten­ tial nuclei of rebellion because of distrust by the ruler and exploitation by the military bureaucracy; disaffection in the ranks is widespread and capable of linking with opposition to civil misrule. Xia Shi's account raises the possibility that the state may become the source of its own destruction. The cycle ends on the same note when daotai She Xiaoguan, a slightly tipsy guest at a Viceroy's dinner party, bluntly blames the court for China's problems (253.18-254.5). ;

Cycle VI, 'Uneasy Oppression,' concentrates on the triangular relations among bureaucracy, foreigners, and people. Accordingly, the scene moves from Nan­ jing, capital of Jiangnan and centre of the military and civil bureaucracy, to Shanghai, the epitome of the power of foreign finance, and finally to Shanxi, a disaster area. The dominant figure is the Jiangnan Commander Yang, w h o though not the protagonist of this cycle's episodes - presides over both military and civil bureaucratic circles, and at the same time is in effect a vehicle of foreign power. The theme of cycle vi is that the bureaucracy is predicated on oppression and harbours a fear of its subjects. Many episodes reiterate and converge for the first time the major themes of cycles II and III, the Western power over Chinese bureaucrats and bureaucratic oppression of the people. But this cycle goes beyond cycle III, where oppression is the result of callousness and bureau­ cratic ineptitude, somehow accidental. Here oppression appears as a necessary condition for bureaucratic welfare. The chief victims are soldiers, peasants

101 Setting: The

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(here presented in extremity, during a famine), and women, as we have seen in earlier cycles. In this cycle, the new element is bureaucratic fear. It first comes to the surface briefly in Commander Yang, who had seemed the most self-confident of corrupt officials; yet he has nightmares about mutiny (26: 269.18-20). Again, when Yan Er, the philanthropist, is making his pompous progress through Shanxi toward the capital, Taiyuan, to dispense charity, he compels his entire entourage to disguise themselves as refugees lest they invite attack in the hardest hit areas (32: 316.8-10). The matter of foreigners once again becomes prominent, but again in con­ nection with fear. That the imperial troops must somehow be brought up to date is dimly realized in the bureaucracy; now and again foreign models are imitated. One result is Yang's command: a chaotic mix of Chinese, British, and German training. Foreign influence is manifested in two striking instances, the foreign drill instructor's unchallenged abuse of one of Yang's captains and the Jiangnan Treasurer's awe at the unimagined scope of foreign finance. Both the commander and the treasurer feel powerless to interfere in foreign activities; the commander and his cronies are not merely awed, but frightened. The bureaucracy fears the people, and it fears the foreigners. It also has something in common with foreigners: the unprovoked violence of the drill instructor shows that foreigners, as well as officials, are agents of oppression. A n uncer­ tain collusion against the popular interest is being suggested. Thus themes previously distinct are reviewed and their connections revealed, taking on a more sombre significance in this cycle. Cycle VII, 'Distaff Bureaucracy,' makes the novel's sole mention of China's ruler, the dowager empress. It concentrates on women and shows the connec­ tions between their condition and the commodity relations in which their men, the bureaucrats, are inescapably involved. Accordingly, many of the episodes develop in women's circles, specifically in the headquarters of Hubei's viceroy. Here the viceroy rather than the empress is the chief authority, but the influ­ ence-brokers are some of his twelve concubines. The main theme is the place of women in the structure of power. A woman is either a commodity for men, or a power behind the most powerful officials; but no woman's status is stable, given the practice of concubinage and the constant presence of callgirls at bureaucratic entertainments. For her own security a woman must master these relations and thus make herself indis­ pensable to bureaucratic careers. This is the aim of the viceroy's concubines. There is a complete women's circuit, a sort of shadow bureaucracy in which the business is conducted by women and from which they derive a certain leverage (36: 351.14-16). For example, Q u Nai'an's wife promises to secure

102 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century him a post through this circuit in exchange for control of the family income, and the stingy Q u can only agree. The news that Q u is seeing a whore is a shock to Mrs Qu, not simply because of jealousy, but because they have been a childless couple: if the other woman bears him a son, Mrs Qu's influence in the house will decline. Such uneasy access to a man's income or influence is the whole extent of any woman's power in the world of The Bureaucrats. The wife or the concubine is in a position of access, while the whore must strive simply to achieve the possibility: she can have no security before her freedom is purchased and she becomes some man's concubine. This is the aim of Qu's whore, especially since her features are plain and her business is poor (38: 361.18; 362.10]. The liberation of women, to the extent it is conceivable in such a society, requires that they become active manipulators of commodity relations. The alternative is to be a victim of them; the whore is the complete victim. The predilection of active women for Buddhism and for meeting in temples has a decided effect on integrating religion into the commodity relations dominated by the bureaucracy (36: 351.17; 352.2). Women must struggle with the alter­ natives offered them by late Qing society. The struggle, on these terms, can only reinforce that society's ugliness, but cannot change it. Cycle VIII, 'Bureaucratic Unemployment,' is also set in Hubei, with frequent movement between the capital and various rural posts. The Q u couple, on whom the plot of the last cycle had eventually centred, take us into the new cycle with their move to the husband's new post. Mrs Q u had been the domi­ nant member of the pair in cycle VII; Q u Nai'an, now Subprefect Q u , here becomes the more prominent. A subprefect is a species of magistrate, the agent by which the people's wealth is directly appropriated by the state. The first half of the cycle shows the relations of such an official with the peasants under his jurisdiction, the local gentry and his bureaucratic superiors. The second half takes a long look at official antechambers, the haunt of unemployed bureau­ crats seeking preferment. Not only is there a competition for employment and a gloating over elaborate schemes for the tiniest income, but there is also a pathetic scramble to bask in borrowed glory and a drive to maintain face. Resentment of the uncertainty and servility of bureaucratic life is the essence of cycle v i i l . Its theme is that lower officials, the bulk of officialdom, are themselves exploited by the bureaucratic system; they must compete in the sale of their services. Cycle IX, 'Government by Extortion,' starts with mention that the fiscal records of Hubei (setting of cycle Vlll) are to be audited before the arrival from

103 Setting: The

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Peking of an inspector, the president of the imperial board of revenue, Tong Ziliang. We follow him in his assignment, to improve the flow of provincial revenue to Peking, as he travels through Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui. The focus then shifts to the Anhui governor's chief aide, Diao, and his concern for the household of a wealthy widow; the scene is restricted to Wuhu, the largest city in the province. Cycle IX consists of parallel halves which develop the major theme, bureau­ cracy is theft. In the first, a series of incidents involving the success of culpable bureaucrats is seen through the prism of Tong's clear and righteous concept of the national interest. It is possible for any malpractice to pass through this prism: the bizarre self-serving twists of which Tong's principles are capable result in a spectrum of misrule. There is conflict between the provinces and the national centre over the division of the spoils, but essential agreement (as in Tong's accommodation with provincial officials) on the spoils system. The theme is government by extortion at the national level. The second half of the cycle introduces the new protagonist Diao Maipeng (homophonous with 'vile friendseller') and presents an elaborate single action, bureaucratic misappropriation of the wealth of a household. At the death of rich Zhang, survived by a wife and eighteen concubines, Diao (now a daotai)ibefriends the widow. He volunteers to look after her inter­ ests and investments, helps her limit the concubines' portion, gets legal control over the widow's portion, then leaves her without income. She dies of shock. The picture is one of government by extortion at the local level. This cycle summarizes previous criticisms of the bureaucracy's undeserved levies on Chinese society and makes it systematic - attacking the state from the top to the bottom, from imperial delegate to urban police. The last and longest of the cycles, 'Loss of Sovereignty,' directly introduces its major theme; the first protagonist is Yin Zichong who wants to sell the mining rights of a province to a foreigner. The narrative soon shifts from Anhui to Peking; returns to Jiangnan (of which Anhui is a member province) for an extended picture of the administration through its viceroy, Wen Ming (whose name means 'up-to-date' with overtones of 'semi-foreign'), and a subordinate, Mei Yangren [yangren is homophonous with 'foreigner'); then goes to England. When the story returns to China - to Hunan, then finally moving between Peking and Shandong - the question of reforming the bureaucracy comes to the fore. The themes are linked: the episode on reform is followed by the episode on foreign influence, and the final juxtaposition of Peking and Shandong is to stress that the significant context of bureaucratic reform is the threat of foreign domination.

104 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century In this cycle, as in the previous one, a range of geographical settings, set off by the scenes in England, is given by way of suggesting the whole of China. In fact the notion that China's dilemma is resolvable into regional problems is specifically ridiculed, in the person of Mao Weixin. The sole qualification of this member of the Jiangnan foreign affairs office is that he has the 1843 Nan­ jing Treaty by heart; he obstinately refuses to look at later Sino-foreign treaties which have superseded it, because they were signed in other provinces. Bureaucrats' personal lack of pride, so amply illustrated throughout the novel, are found again here. In cycle X we find this sense of shame in a number of tableaux: from his ship a foreign admiral sees a top Chinese naval officer kneeling on shore in a traditional attitude of respect and asks, 'Why is he half the size of other men?' (55: 519.18-520.4); from the window of the Chinese embassy in London the imperial flag is displayed on a line along with under­ wear (56: 530.13-18). Behind the shame lie the circumstances of power. We are reminded of the shoddiness of Chinese troops and their lack of esprit in contrast with foreign forces (524.20). The vague sense that China must be informed about the West and its modern development leads, in bureaucratic practice, to nothing but stillborn attempts at innovation; on the other hand we see how a name for foreign expertise has, like other forms of reputation, become a commodity to be traded for advancement. This state of affairs encourages foreign interven­ tion. High-level policies of innovation and reform (e.g. 536.4-537.1) all sink from sight in the bureaucratic quagmire, while the private ambitions of offi­ cials lead to the piecemeal satisfaction of foreign demands and constitute, in effect, China's policy. The dominant theme of the final cycle is an irreversible internal process of change at work which acquires a terrible new significance in the context of foreign interests: the Chinese state is presiding over its own dismemberment, and the Chinese will be a colonial people. The Sequence of Cycles The Bureaucrats unrolls a teeming and, on first impression, chaotic scroll of life in late Qing China, but in fact the incidents are organized and provide a serious analysis of Chinese society, with the state as the central concern. The broad changes of thematic focus, which I have presented as a sequence of cycles, is not only a series of shifts but a development. The first two cycles provide a general introduction to the two major aspects of bureaucratic circles: the internal problems of recruitment, bearing, and advancement (cycle i); and the external problems of dealing with foreigners and westernised sectors of Chinese society (cycle II). Within these circles both

105 Setting: The

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bureaucratic and personal relations are shot through with mercenary calcula­ tions. The contrast is considerable between the actual practice of officials and the awed or lofty views of office expressed in the prologue. The explanation for the contrast, as suggested in the prologue, may lie in the new role of money within the bureaucracy: the purchase system is encroaching on the examina­ tion system and weakening its effect of reinforcing the ideology of the state. Throughout these two cycles we get glimpses of official maltreatment of sub­ ordinates and subjects, but the narrative for the most part pokes fun at the predicaments bureaucrats get themselves into, and the prevailing mood is light. The following six cycles (in to Vlll) are the body of the novel, which first builds up a detailed and comprehensive picture of bureaucratic practice at all levels (cycles III, IV, and v), and then examines the internal necessities of the system (cycles VI, VII, and Vlll). Concerned only with reward and advancement and the bureaucratic procedures to secure them, officials show a colossal indif­ ference to popular welfare (cycle III) ; innocent commoners are victimized as a secondary result, it seems, of purely internal qualities of the bureaucratic sys­ tem. There is no possibility of reform from within (cycle iv); though officials may espouse reform, their fundamental aims remain unchanged. The perva­ sive hypocrisy by which the bureaucracy presents itself as guardian of public welfare and morality reveals on the one hand the function of ideology as a means of control and, on the other, the active role of bureaucracy in the de­ struction of cultural values. The mechanism behind this process, which is in effect depriving the government of its rationale, is the government-instituted purchase system (cycle v). Posts have become commodities, and the values formerly associated with posts (such as reputation) have become (to the extent that they survive) commodities also. The logic of the marketplace, which per­ meates the bureaucracy from the top down, entails a neglect of the general welfare both civil (disaster victims) and military (rank and file) that is causing popular discontent. Officials' relations with the people, originally seen as neglectful and inciden­ tally injurious, are now comprehensible as a consequence of the nature of China's bureaucratic structure. Oppression of the people is necessary for bureaucratic welfare; the purchase of a position is essentially a calculated in­ vestment on the returns to be extracted from the people, as is most directly evident at the tax-collecting level, that of magistrate (cycles VI and vil). A corollary of this relationship is the officials' constant though submerged fear of the people; yet officials assume the relationship will continue, despite the pre­ sence of financially and militarily superior foreign powers (cycle vi). The bureaucratic system in which individuals repeatedly confront one another as

106 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century dealers in commodities - posts, influence, reputation - is particularly hard on women. Barred from office, they have only their bodies or borrowed power with which to bargain (cycle Vll). The choices open to them are either to be the object (e.g. whore) or the subject (e.g. entrepreneurial concubine) of commod­ ity relations. In fact the condition of bureaucrats, the majority of whom are petty functionaries and expectant officials, is analogous to that of women: they are dependent on the favour of superiors, which they must buy with cash or services, and they compete among themselves for assignments since the appli­ cants outnumber the openings (cycle Vlll). What they all seek - the bureau­ crats, and the women in their circles - is to make the transition from victim to predator. But once one enters a lucrative post one is obliged to share the pro­ ceeds with one's immediate bureaucratic fraternity. Thus the bureaucracy confronts society as exploiter, but also reproduces exploitative relations within itself. The last two cycles draw the conclusions from this vision of Chinese govern­ ment. In its relations with the people, the state is a structure of systematic extortion, the officials functioning as little more than accredited thieves (cycle ix). The system is disintegrating, however, since the entrepreneurial ethos among the bureaucracy has no place for 'reasons of state' and turns public position to private advantage; concretely, the central government cannot re­ plenish its treasury. In its relations with foreigners, the state in effect regards China as a commodity and is presiding over its sale (cycle x). This is a natural result of the normal activities of bureaucrats in pursuit of private interest, and does not appear as a qualitative change to them; they anticipate staying in business as colonial administrators. The end of China and the disgrace of all Chinese is the prospect in view. The epilogue reviews the corruption of bureaucrats, emphasizes the impossibility of reform, and implies that only a revolution can change the prospect. IV C O N C L U S I O N : BOURGEOIS F I C T I O N

The Bureaucrats is a novel of setting and one of the earliest examples of bour­ geois fiction in China. Having examined its style and unity, its general features can now be briefly summarized. The work consists of 61 episodes. The linkage among them is not a func­ tion of character and plot: there is no fabula and there are no central protago­ nists. Among the enormous and constantly shifting cast of characters, all of them types, distinctions derive chiefly from social status, relation to the bureaucratic hierarchy above all, while individualizing attributes are insig-

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nificant. The real difference among characters, often hinted at in their names, lies in the situations in which they find themselves; they are essentially crea­ tures of plot. The numerous separate plots, though making use of a limited repertoire of goals and protagonist types, are highly varied and capable of great complexity within very short compass (the average length is ten pages) ; this makes them constantly entertaining, especially since each can be understood separately. The sequence of these self-contained plots is generally determined by theme, which is always pertinent to milieu. Plot, in other words, is subordinate to setting. The major features of setting are presented in a sequence of ten the­ matic cycles, with the result that the significance of particular aspects changes and deepens. This presentation of setting is dynamic in conception: its object, China, is shown as a structure of social relations in a process of profound change. Here lies the continuity and the sustaining interest of the novel. The narrator throughout has two chief functions. First, he provides back­ ground information, usually on the particulars of bureaucratic procedure, on recent history, and on local conditions - on milieu in a word; in this capacity he is subordinate to setting. Second, he comments on incidents in language which associates him with a series of minor characters defiant of the dominant milieu; in this capacity he stands in opposition to plot. By means of a prologue, fairly well disguised as no more than the first epi­ sode, the author hints at the themes to be explored through the setting; and he is explicit about them in an epilogue which, in its formal features, recalls the prologue and thus forcefully expresses a changed understanding of setting achieved in the course of the narrative. T o indicate the dominant feature of the novel and the key to its aesthetic unity, I call The Bureaucrats a novel of setting. In a novel with such a structure, the discussion of meaning must be based on an analysis of setting. Here I can give only a very summary account. There is a process under way in China, both internal and external to it, the former creat­ ing the conditions for the latter: the decline of the bureaucratic landlord state, set in motion by its Pyrrhic victory over the Taipings, is leading to the ascen­ dancy of Western imperialism. The unity of the process lies in the economics of commodities, a feature of the Chinese scene that is not under anyone's control. This is the law of motion that explains the changing framework of human action and provides the unity behind its seeming variety (plot is subordinate to setting). In the light of this process, individual qualities have little bearing on the nature of the possible

108 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century actions: cynical support, stupidly ignorant defence, and reflexive defiance of the bureaucracy are the terms in which the process works itself out (character is subordinate to plot]. At the same time, the internal process is generating a counter-motion: popular defiance is an unavoidable feature of the declining state, a highly conscious opposition has now appeared, and the possibility of a coalition now exists. The conscious opposition is bourgeois. While the future is uncertain for all levels of Chinese society, it portends a crisis for the bourgeoisie alone. For bureaucrats a colonial administration seems to mean no more than new top-level officials (and a change of superiors is no innovation); it would only be a continuation of the general trend. But the foreigners' possession of technical expertise and mobilization of superior finan­ cial resources; their consistent interest in railroad construction, access to raw materials, and organizing modern production on Chinese soil; and their control of Chinese access to industrial technology and equipment together constitute the danger of economic takeover, specifically of the conditions of existence of the nascent Chinese bourgeoisie. It is, above all, anxiety of this bourgeoisie that is expressed in the climactic cycle - anxiety based on economic considerations. Western military strength is by no means overlooked, but it is not treated as the cause of the danger. The same economic logic that accounts for the internal decay of the state accounts for its movement into a new stage. This is a far cry from theories of moral rejuvenation (ridiculed in the epilogue) which assume a cyclical history and can accommodate reform-even violent reform-but never revolution. The clarity and thoroughness with which the narrative strips the old state of all claim to respect or obedience shows a total rejection of Confucian ideology. More than that, the novel embodies another type of thinking: a materialist view of history characteristic of the militant stages of bourgeois development elsewhere in the world. The confluence of bourgeois and popular oppositions constitutes the rudi­ ments of a human resistance to the seeming impersonal logic of the general situation (the narrator stands contrasted to the plot). Individual plots are humourous; together they constitute motion toward a grim future. The narra­ tor and minor characters' comments are serious and biting; together they represent the basis for hope. This contrast is the root of the irony that per­ meates the novel, and the source of the humour in the satire, for despite the serious implications of the picture, the final effect is not one of despair. The Chinese social scene is an antagonistic unity of the contrasts embodied in the opposition of narrator to plot. T o express the characteristics of this setting, which reflects the viewpoint of China's emerging bourgeoisie, I call The Bureaucrats a bourgeois novel.

109 Setting: The

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APPENDIX Précis of The

Bureaucrats

Each of the ten cycles ( l II, ...) is integral - not interwoven with other cycles. Each cycle ;

is composed of two sorts of units, episodic (l, 2, ...) and setting (01, 02, ...]. The inter­ ruptions in the narration of a unit (its actual distribution in the text] are ignored here, so that its summary is a condensation of from one to as many as seven passages. The order of summaries reflects the sequence of the first passage of each unit.

I The Yamen

Business

01 Anticipation of profit and personal advantage attract the rural nouveau riche to the examination system; the system, a device of ideological control, has an uncertain future. 1 Zhao Wen, not having learned to use bribes and flattery, fails to pass the metropolitan exams and so must purchase his post; however, he has learned to mistreat his servant. 2 Qian, a former warden, must use bribes to have his personal record doctored before he can get a reappointment and secure an actual position. 3 Past misdeeds make Huang's promotion to daotai uncertain; officials vacillate accord­ ingly in their treatment of him. Once he bribes superiors to cancel charges against him, he secures the position and officials' respect. 4 Treasurer He Bao, selling posts in businesslike fashion, restricts the margin of profit for his middleman and younger brother, San. Relations between them grow strained. He Bao stops short of a permanent split with him because San has been bringing in good custo­ mers. 5 A new magistrate, having borrowed from a friend to buy the post, takes him along as assistant. When the magistrate tries to renege on his debt, the friend stops the intake of taxes and through the prefect forces repayment.

II Western Influence and Commerce 02 T h e administration in Shandong province goes to comical lengths to accommodate Western officials and businessmen. 6 Jiaozhou Commander Wang Bikui, whose troops are below quota and out of practice, is suspended and - unable to afford a bribe - demoted. 7 The Shandong governor's inexperienced purchasing agent, Tao Ziyao, comes to Shanghai for foreign machinery. His first time in the big city, this bumbling schemer is easily fleeced by whores and compradors who threaten him with Western retaliation for any breach of contract. Finally, with money provided through the manipulations of an in-law, he pays his debts and goes home without the machinery. 8 Tao's wife, informed that Tao has taken a mistress, comes to bring him home.

110 T h e C h i n e s e N o v e l at the T u r n of the C e n t u r y 9 Place-seeking Zou, a penniless former warden, moves an official's servant to help him get a recommendation. in Bureaucracy

v. the

People

10 Dai, a senior clerk in the Zhejiang yamen, angered at his new colleague Zhou, gets him assigned to a military campaign. When Zhou does well, Dai vainly tries to discredit him with their superior, the governor. 03 Bandits have risen with the decline of the dynasty's post-Taiping army. In expedi­ tions against them - as in other official journeys - the leaders give top priority to whor­ ing on the official riverboats. 11 O n one such expedition, Commander H u dawdles with whores en route to Yangzhou, partly out of fear of bandits. In fact, the Yanzhou bandits don't exist. He conducts a campaign anyway to earn promotions for his entourage and ravages unoffending villages in the process. He makes a theatrical departure and returns to Hangzhou (pro­ vincial capital] in triumph. 12 The whore Lanxian, jailed on circumstantial evidence for theft, is maltreated and commits suicide. A persistent constable discovers that L u , captain of the flotilla of riverboats, is the thief. Because Lu is Commander Hu's colleague and pays hush money, he is not brought to justice. 13 Angry villagers accuse H u to the local magistrate, Zhuang. Zhuang scares the people's spokesmen, dupes the crowd into blaming bandits instead of the troops (see 11], and so saves Hu's reputation. A crowd curses H u at his departure. 14 Angry at Hu's presumed reluctance to share the campaign profits with him, Zhou lodges accusations against him with a Peking censor. iv Bureaucratic

Reform

15 Honest incompetent Guo Fu finds he is the liaison between imperial inspectors and the Zhejiang administration. He learns to profit from his position. 04 The new governor takes a moralistic economizing stance. His 'reform' is shaken by the laws of the market and the fear of alienating foreign investment. The sole real change is that the administration looks seedy. 16 Place-seekers Liu and Huang try to demonstrate frugality. Huang gets a job after he secretly bribes Governor Fu. 17 Liu, to win Fu's favour, quits opium, but gets hooked on the cure, morphine. Only when he enhances Fu's moral image by demeaning himself is he rewarded with a post. 18 Despite Fu's orders, his officials all gamble. When his favourite, Huang, is dis­ covered, Fu accepts a discreet bribe as settlement. 19 The quack who prescribed morphine pills is removed from official employment. Ironically, his pills will then be his only livelihood. 20 A woman deceived by Fu (a whore from his past] calls at the yamen. Fu won't pay her off; she won't leave. A clever servant's plan, tailored to Fu's stinginess and hypo­ critical morality, averts a scandal.

111 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

21 Incoming Chief Justice Jia, a conspicuously filial son, revises legal procedure in the interests of humaneness and his mother's piety. This only compounds injustice.

v Posts, the Impend

Commodity

22 Jia's son, a calculating young man, gets involved in flood control and, as expected, quickly acquires rank. 23 Young Jia goes to Peking to seek appointment. A stranger to the city and its ways, he relies on banker Huang, an influence broker, to direct him in the discreet intricacies of bribing grand councillors and palace attendants for advice and influence. Banker and cronies milk him for all he's worth. He leaves Peking in debt and still without a post. 24 A councillor's secretary, Wang Bogao, uses his influence to avenge an insulted fel­ low townsman and makes money at it. 25 Wealthy Shi Xiaoren hopes to earn a post as a reward for his good reputation, for which he is willing to defame anyone. Because a good name is purchasable in ruling circles, he succeeds. 05 A daotai says China is doomed since ruling circles put money before national affairs.

vi Uneasy

Oppression

06 In post-Taiping China, loyalist veterans starve, while the bureaucracy gambles, whores, embezzles army funds and smokes opium. Many officials are rich brats who entered via the purchase system and its satellite philanthropies which exploit disaster victims. T h e bureaucracy has no control over the foreign banks that flourish on C h i ­ nese soil. 26 Mao Deguan, competent only at scheming, becomes an officer by using false docu­ ments and the aid of a bribed concubine of lecherous Commander Yang. Despite expo­ sure, Mao keeps his post by making his daughter Yang's whore. 27 Businessman Tian buys rank and becomes the Jiangnan viceroy's adviser on sadly needed military reform, but his bookish proposals are useless. 28 Beaten bloody by an arrogant foreign military instructor, Captain Long seeks Yang's aid in securing justice. Yang fears foreigners and forces Long to blame himself. 29 Tax Commissioner She, seeking promotion, makes a deal with the viceroy's secre­ tary Zhao. She's whore asks She to get her townsman a promotion. Zhao secures She a recommendation. 30 Imperial investigation of Jiangnan is pending. Failing to make She the scapegoat on the basis of his shady finances, the administration pacifies the investigators with bribes. 31 Bookseller Wang learns that the sale of moral tracts to improve society is a less profitable racket than philanthropy. 32 Because of his charities, which exploit disaster victims, Yan Er has wealth and gets a post. His aide profits from handling donations and procuring prostitutes from among the poor.

112 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century vu Distaff

Bureaucracy

33 Tang, a rich young snob and opium sot, decides to buy a title. T h e relative who convinced him makes money on the deal. Tang goes to Peking to buy a post and, new to the situation, is repeatedly cheated by relatives and Manchu impostors. He is finally appointed to Hubei. 34 Hubei Viceroy Tuan has twelve concubines. Several are successively his chief influ­ ence brokers. He must keep them from encroaching on his profits and prerogatives; whenever one goes too far, she loses her ascendancy. 35 The (Manchu] viceroy gives scant help to the suppliant son of a former (Han] col­ league because of a Manchu superstition and a certain pride of high rank. 36 M r s Q u , wife of poor prefect Q u Naian, gets him an appointment by cultivating Viceroy Tuan's right-hand woman through her profession of Buddhist faith. 07 A monk uses the occasion of the cruel initiation of Buddhist novices to elicit contri­ butions from fashionable women spectators. 37 Stingy Q u breaks a leg: despite the agony, he prefers Chinese (cheap] to Western (expensive) doctors until a friend offers to pay the fee. 38 M r s Q u discovers that her husband has been shacking up with a whore whose freedom he has purchased. She makes a scene and gets him back home.

vin Bureaucratic

Unemployment

39 As a new subprefect, Q u Naian antagonizes peasants, gentry, and bureaucratic circles by his arrogance, greed, and stinginess. Consequently, when his sponsor T u a n is transferred, Q u is sacked and can't get an audience with the new viceroy to ask for reappointment. 40 Rather than take a leave of mourning, Subprefect Wang has concealed his father's death and stayed in office to collect taxes ahead of schedule. He tries to forestall possible exposure by his successor, Q u . 41 T h e outgoing accountant (Wang's employee] collects fees from local debtors by falsely promising to cancel their debts. 08 T h e hierarchically organized distribution of official employment, in which even familiarity with art can be used to get a position, is more obviously demeaning at the lowest levels among crowds of poor unemployed bureaucrats where the struggle for cash and position is most desperate. 42 Warden Sui struggles frantically, once with a predecessor and again with a substi­ tute, over the collection of petty perquisites. 43 T o impress acquaintances and ingratiate himself with the y amen staff, Acting Warden Qian gives a feast, at which he promises to use his influence in a lawsuit; later he toadies to his superior. In each of these projects he fails miserably.

ix Government

by Extortion

09 The court commissions Tong Ziliang, a money-mad and fanatically anti-foreign protectionist, to investigate provincial finance and replenish national coffers; he drains

113 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

provincial funds into his own pocket. With no other protection against local racketeer bureaucrats, common people turn to foreign missionary influence. 44 In Shandong, Magistrate Ba gets into trouble trying to bribe Tong with foreign articles; next he manages a successful bribe, and Tong has the governor promote him. 45 Because of the eccentricity of his greedy father, Young Tong is able to steal a large sum from him undetected. 46 During Tong's inspection of Jiangsu, the most unscrupulous official, Prefect Bu, wins his favour and then uses it to enrich himself by exploiting gentry as well as com­ moners. 47 A Jiangsu prefect, W a n , facing impeachment for squeezing the gentry, gets off by bribing Tong with a year's supply of opium. 48 Tong is to investigate A n h u i Governor Jiang for having ordered the razing of peasant homes during an anti-bandit campaign. Jiang's chief clerk Diao Maipeng tricks the three campaign leaders out of incriminating evidence against Jiang: Jiang is saved, leaving the three to take the rap. 49 By relying on women's circles, Diao discovered a service he could do for the new governor, Jiang, who consequently made Diao his clerk. 50 A t the death of rich Zhang, survived by a wife and eighteen concubines, Diao (now a daotai) befriends the widow. He volunteers to look after her interests and investments, helps her limit the concubines' portion, gets legal control over the widow's portion, then leaves her without income. She dies of shock. 51 T e n of the Zhang concubines, having set up house on their own, are victimized by Daotai Diao, local police, and hired thieves. Taking a sympathetic waiter's advice, they turn to a foreign missionary for aid. 52 A man, ostensibly an official and claiming to be Guozhu, rich Zhang's long-lost son, turns up acting like a textbook paragon of filial piety, wins local officials' respect, sells the Zhang mansion out from under the remaining three concubines, and gets a post.

x Loss of Sovereignty 53 Indebted to a foreigner who will pay well for the mining rights to Anhui, Y i n Zichong tricks his in-law, Grand Councillor X u , into signing the rights away. Y i n is eventually arrested after a spree on the foreigner's money. 010 While paying lip-service to modernization, the generally incompetent bureaucracy sacrifices Chinese welfare to foreign demands. Even top level appointments are subject to foreign approval. Compared with foreign armed forces, China's are shoddy. Officials, convinced they are indispensable, view possible loss of sovereignty with equanimity. 54 Magistrate M e i abandons his former anti-foreignism to win Jiangnan Viceroy W e n Ming's approval. He shows interest in foreign religion (but inadvertently antagonized the religious, who are local Moslems) and starts modern schools with funds squeezed from local merchants. 55 Anchoring off the coast of Mei's prefecture, a foreign naval mission is treated with servile courtesy. It incidentally captures pirates. M e i informs W e n Ming, claiming

114 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century some credit: promotions are in order, but W e n M i n g gives them only to men com­ mended by the foreign captain. 56 Fatpaddle Fu, after a wasted stay in England, pretends to have foreign expertise. O n this basis he gets a post as a factory official. 57 A new modernizing Hunan governor terrifies bureaucrats by instituting qualifica­ tion tests, but he ignores the results and gives preference to an incompetent relative. 58 When a foreigner kills a Chinese child, Daotai Shan short-circuits popular demands for justice and plays the conflicting demands of gentry and foreign consul against each other. 59 Hypocritical old-guard Hanlin Director Shen opposes a modern exam system but recommends for office a friend who can't pass the traditional exams. 60 In Shandong, mercenary Huang rises from tax-collector, to official's aide, to titular official. Though no other career offers the possibility of so much money, being an official involves such loss of self-respect that Huang has second thoughts. 61 A n old man, who has vainly followed the exam route instead of the purchase sys­ tem, is now critically ill. He dreams that Peking will publish an admonitory exposé of the prevailing inhuman bureaucratic behaviour; positive proposals, unfortunately, are not available. He wakes in good health.

NOTES

1 G u Jiegang 'Guanchang

xianxing

jizhi zuozhe' in Xiaoshuo yuebao 15.6 [June

1924) 14; Zhang Youhe 'Houji' in Li Baojia Guanchang

xianxing

ji (Beijing

1957) 1081-3; Werner Bettin 'Die Darstellung der Gentry in Li Boyuans Roman

"Die Beamten'" in Wissenschaftliche Berlin

Zeitschrift

der Humboldt-Universitfit

zu

11 (1962) 425

2 There are 817 characters according to Bettin 'Die Darstellung.' 3 Bettin, in ibid, states that there are 34 episodes, but does not list them or give his criteria. 4 A l l references to the novel are to the Kwong C h i Book Company edition (Hong Kong n . d j . The format for references to the novel in the text is episode: page .line - thus 1: 12.16 means episode 1, page 12, line 16. In some references episode is omitted - thus 69.5 means page 69, line 5. 5 See M . Dolezelová-Velingerová 'Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels' [58-9, 63-6) in this book. 6 Zhang Youhe 'Houji' 1082 draws similar conclusions: the 'second half of the novel does not exist; it is an ironic fiction to underscore the impossibility of reforming the bureaucratic system. 7 This novel is commonly known under the title Feng shen zhuan

cidian and Lu X u n in his A Brief History of Chinese Fiction}

;

(e.g.

Guoyu

but Lu Dan'an, in

115 Setting: The

Bureaucrats

his dictionary of vernacular fiction phrases Xiaoshuo

ciyu huishi

(Beijing

1964] 866, uses Feng shen bang. The latter title best serves Li Baojia's irony. 8 Peter Li 'Narrative Patterns in San-kuo

and Shui-hu'

in Andrew H . Plaks ed

Chinese Narrative. Critical and Theoretical Essays (Princeton 1977) 73-84

Time in Nine Murders : Western influence and domestic tradition GILBERT CHEE F U N FONG

W u Woyao's Jiuming qiyuan (The strange case of nine murders) has consis­ tently been hailed as one of the best of the late Qing novels. H u Shi, in his article 'Wus'hi nian lai Zhongguozhi wenxue' (Chinese literature in the past fifty years) considers Nine Murders one of the most accomplished late Qing novels in terms of narrative techniques. He points out that the novel, unlike many traditional stories, has a unified structure which contains no artificially inserted episodes; the themes in the story - superstition, corrupt bureaucracy, and human deceitfulness - are organically incorporated into the tightly woven structure. H u Shi also praises Wu's usage of time inversion in the novel, ascribing this technique to the author's adoption of 'the design of western detective fiction.' A Ying and Liu Dajie both echo H u Shi's appraisal and Liu Dajie comments that the time inver­ sion technique of Nine Murders links together organically the causes and the consequences of the murders. This feature, he continues, is different from the plot structure of the eighteenth-century novel Rulin waishi (The scholars), and must have been the result of influence from Western fiction. The opening scene of Nine Murders is a highly suspenseful account of a crime whose causes are revealed only later-unique in Chinese fiction. In vernacular Chinese fiction, the concept of time was linear and chronological. Does the uniqueness of this technique of time inversion in Nine Murders, however, prove that its sole source is Western fiction? Are there reasons why W u employs this and not other techniques from the West? What is the scheme of time arrangement of the whole story? Is it traditional, or new, i.e. Western? Or is it a mixture of both? What were the preconditions within the tradition of Chinese vernacular fiction which made this innovation possible? And finally, what is the importance of the domestic literary tradition for the writing of Nine Murders . H u Shi and others did not clarify these and related questions; this article attempts to answer them. 1

2

3

2

117 Time in Nine

Murders

Nine Murders was originally serialized in the twelfth issue of the first volume of the journal Xin xiaoshuo (New fiction) in 1906; one year later it appeared in book form. Based upon a real eighteenth-century murder case in Canton pro­ vince, it tells the story of the feud between the Liang and Ling families, who are related by marriage. Ling Guixing, the wealthy heir to his father's fortune, wants to advance himself through the examination system as a bureaucrat. Induced by his greedy uncle Zongkong and by a fortune-teller, he sees the stone house in the Liang family's compound as a geomantic obstruction to his family fortune, blocking his rise in officialdom. He offers to purchase it from his cousin Liang Tianlai, the middle-class owner of a sugar store. When Liang firmly refuses to sell, Ling keeps on harassing the Liangs with the help of his uncle and a few sordid relatives, hoping that the Liang family will yield under pressure. They excavate the grave of Liang's dead father, put a curse on his house, destroy the Liangs' garden, rob them of their furniture, crops, and money collected from business. Out of shame for the treacheries of Ling, his sister and his wife both commit suicide. Ling, however, blames the Liangs as the instigators of their deaths. Consequently, he recruits gangsters from outside and plans to kill the Liang brothers, plotting to disguise their murder as robbery by bandits from outside the village. His scheme, however, is overheard by the honest beggar, Zhang Feng. He warns the Liang brothers and they flee from their home. O n the night of the murders, only the women of the family are left behind, as the gangsters have said that they would not harm them. The gangsters, unaware of the absence of the Liang brothers, arrive at the Liang household to find it empty. Thinking that all the Liangs are hiding in the stone house, they set it on fire and kill Liang's pregnant wife and six other members of the family; only Liang's mother manages to save herself from suffocation. Liang Tianlai attempts to avenge the murder of eight lives. From county to provincial courts, he tries to prosecute Ling to no avail, for the wealthy Ling succeeds in bribing his way through the trials. Zhang the beggar, Liang's only witness, is tortured to death by officials who have received money from Ling. Thus, the murders come to nine. In desperation, Liang resorts to presenting his grievance to the imperial court at Peking. Ling again sends out his villains to try to waylay and kill Liang on his journey. However, Liang is saved by Judge Chen, who is on his way to take up a position in Canton. Judge Chen disguises himself as a fortune-teller and persuades the villains to leave immediately their assignment to kill Liang, lest ill fortune befall them. Finally, Liang reaches Peking, where several judicious magistrates are dispatched to review the case, fudge Chen, after arriving at Canton, continues his disguise as a fortune-teller and coaxes Ling not to flee

118 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century the country. In the end, the villain Ling Guixing and all his accomplices are executed and the corrupt officials are punished. This famous murder case actually occured in 1738. In 1809, a Cantonese named A n He first rendered it as a novel entitled Liang Tianlai jingfu qishu [Liang Tianlai: A strange story of warning to the rich). Since then, various novels and Cantonese nanyin ballads describing Liang Tianlai's fate have been published. In Nine Murders, W u Woyao acknowledges having 're-edited' [chongbian] the story, which leads A Ying and Sun Kaidi to assume that W u based his book upon A n He's Warning to the Rich . However, their assumption is contested by Junichi Kôsaka, who maintains that nanyin ballads and later popular novels are the primary sources for Nine Murders. Kôsaka compares Earning shenyuan (The story of solving the case of eight murders), written by another Cantonese Ji Tang in 1894, with Nine Murders, and discovers similarities in the number of chapters, the texts of written accusations, children's songs, poems, proverbs, and the use of Canto­ nese dialect. Nonetheless, one can still detect traces of Warning to the Rich in Nine Murders in most of the areas where Kôsaka finds similarities. In addi­ tion, W u has refrained from using Cantonese dialect in his story, except in certain cases to retain local flavour. Therefore, it is most likely that W u draws his inspiration from all the available sources. But despite the similarities between Nine Murders and its predecessors, W u Woyao has made a number of improvements in his version. If we compare it with Warning to the Rich, we will find that although the story line remains essentially the same, W u in Nine Murders redistributes and rearranges the episodes, omitting some superfluous scenes and expanding the crucial ones. This, coupled with the removal of descriptive poems and the reduction of the number of minor characters, tightens the plot into a unified whole. In lan­ guage, the awkward pseudo-classical style of Warning to the Rich is replaced by vivid vernacular. But the most significant change occurs in the arrangement of the time pattern, which we may now examine. 4

5

6

7

As already mentioned, the most interesting aspect of the time arrangement is the time inversion of the plot at the beginning of the novel. W u Woyao unlatches the story with a series of exciting dialogues: 'Buddies, this is the place. Look, the front door is locked tight, how are we gonna attack ? ' 'Stupid! Only two wooden boards and we can't crack them? Come on, come on, get me my iron hammer.'

119 Time in Nine

Murders

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Tt's noisy as hell.' 'Good! The front door is busted ... Damn it, here are two iron gates, what are we gonna do?' Boom! 'Good! This blast is the signal. Big Brother Lin is coming.' 'Big Brother Lin, we are having trouble with these damned iron gates.'

8

The urgency in the dialogue creates excitement and tension, and suspense is increased by the reader's ignorance of the reasons for the burning and his apprehension concerning the fate of the people trapped inside the house. The dialogue is followed by a poem depicting the burning and the suffering of the victims: Poisonous smog clouds the sky, Dense smoke clothes the earth; Where the wind blows, fiery flames blaze, When the fire plunges, black smoke flares

;

In the house dogs bark and chickens flee, A l l at once the gods howl and devils cry: The sound of the gongs shakes the earth, But let it be, For the government troops aren't coming to help. The roars of the guns reach to the sky one can hear ;

The bandits are coming on strong. Smoke and odour of the burning tung-oil stink, Seeping through the cracks of the gate of stone. Dispatches from Heaven tolerate no excuses, Coming from the palace of the King of Hades T o urge the souls in the chamber, T o be ghosts in the netherworld

9

Then, more dialogue follows. And finally, 'in a roar, [the bandits] disperse. There's nothing wrong with this dispersal, except that it produces the noto­ rious strange case of nine murders.' Since novels in late Qing usually start with prologues, the opening of Nine Murders emerges as a highly daring experiment, for this crime takes place only later in chapter 16. The narrator acknowledges this break from convention with an apology: 'Honourable readers, look at me. Out of nowhere I mindlessly 10

11

120 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century tell you this episode of robbery. Why is it that the leader, a certain Master Ling whose family has mountains of copper and caves of gold, wishes not to rob money but to kill the people in the stone house ? Honourable readers ... you must be baffled. It would be misleading, however, to presume that W u Woyao haphazardly plucks a scene out of chapter 16 and transplants it to the beginning of the book, for if we are to restore the opening scene to its proper sequence, it would not fit properly there: against the background of the predominantly thirdperson narration, this dramatic dialogue-only text would be out of keeping with the style of the adjacent episodes. Moreover, a detailed examination of the concept of time in the novel suggests that the inversion of time in the first chapter is only a part of W u Woyao's innovative system of time. 12

H u Shi and other critics pointed merely to the time inversion in the first chapter. Although the most conspicuous, it is by no means the only such occurrence in Nine Murders. In fact, time inversion appears throughout the entire novel. It is employed four times, in chapters 17, 18, 31, and 35. At the end of chapter 16, Liang Tianlai's mother, suffering from suffocation, is shown struggling for her life. In chapter 17, the action shifts to the Liang brothers and their escape, leaving the readers in suspense about mother Liang's fate. Only after Liang's arrival at the murder scene does the narrator return to the inci­ dent at the end of chapter 16 and depict how mother Liang saves herself by sprawling on the ground. In chapter 18, the action returns to the night of the murder (chapter 16) to describe the celebration of Ling and his gang of bandits. Here, the line of narration dictates the need for the time inversion, for the narrator has been following the story of the Liang family in chapter 17 and has to finish it before shifting the narration to the villains. The next inversion occurs in chapter 31 where the reader is amazed and worried by the sudden arrival of the hero among the villains. (They are staying at the same inn.) The narrator then recapitulates Liang Tianlai's journey to Peking: 'It was like this: Liang Tianlai, knowing that the newly-appointed Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi had arrived, presented his grievance to the Governor. It was ignored. Therefore, he became very determined to go to Peking to prosecute at the imperial court. The last time inversion occurs when Ling, feeling certain that his money has exonerated him from prosecution, is holding a big banquet. But he is astounded by the sudden arrival of soldiers to arrest him. At this point, the narrator inter­ venes in the story and explains: 'Honourable readers, this incident is like a sudden blow on the head. No wonder they [the bandits] think that it is a dream. Even the honourable readers, upon reading this, might not under13

121 Time in Nine

Murders

stand.' There follows a recapitulation of the last part of Liang's journey and the failure of Ling's bribery attempt which leads to his arrest. The narrative intrusion here resembles the explanatory apology given after the opening time inversion. W u Woyao obviously employs a similar device in both instances. Thus, the time scheme of Nine Murders can be represented as follows: 14

This scheme clearly illustrates that the time arrangement is intricate and deliberate in the whole text of Nine Murders. The first inversion, due to its prominent position at the beginning of the novel, is more striking than the others. But the later ones are of no less importance. They recall the first occur­ rence, making the story full of suspense and surprises. From the frequent use in Nine Murders of time inversion, a feature rarely found in traditional Chinese novels, it is tempting to argue that the technique is a direct import from Western fiction. Upon closer examination, however, it becomes clear that W u Woyao's experimentation with the concept of time was inspired by two sources: one domestic, and one foreign. In all probability, the domestic model is supplied by the Cantonese nanyin ballad. As pointed out by Junichi Kôsaka, nanyin ballads frequently start with an interesting episode which chronologically belongs somewhere in the middle of the plot, but is inserted at the beginning to enhance the suspense. This time inversion was also employed in the nanyin ballad Liang Tianlai, thematically similar to W u Woyao's Nine Murders. It starts with a theme song, immedi­ ately followed by another song depicting the murder scene, which chronologi­ cally belongs to chapter 18 of the ballad: 15

Ephemeral worldly affairs are best minimized, Distress and trouble, contentment always saves.

122 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century If one is careful, with good nature, Let the big gangs show their rascally hands. Ling Guixing, With brutal heart, Calls out bandits from the hills. Send those killers and crooks T o besiege Tianlai's house and home. Some men set fire at the front, Others dig out in the rear. At once flames soar up high, Fires burn from all four sides. As with Red Cliff the fires destroy ... It is said that the bandits cannot unlock the stone house with their strategy. They then use fire to attack Tianlai's home ... [People inside the stone house] sprawl on the ground, their eyeballs popping out, their excrement flows. But they still cannot die; they'd rather be chopped into two halves by a big knife.

16

Since the text of the ballad was published in 1897, eight years before the appearance of Nine Murders, there is a strong possibility that W u Woyao, himself a Cantonese, has adopted the time-inversion technique from this Can­ tonese nanyin ballad. This is further supported by the rather conventional manner in which W u presents the inversion of time in his novel. In chapter 1, amidst the dramatic dialogues, there is a highly traditional descriptive poem. A few lines later, the narrator falls back on the age-old role of the story-teller by directly addressing the readers. Then, as in traditional novels, he recapitulates the word 'strange' [qi] in the title by asking two rhe­ torical questions: 'Is it not strange that Ling Guixing, a wealthy scholar, should become a bandit? And is it not strange that this case should happen in the Yongzheng period, which was considered one of the most law-abiding eras in Qing history?' Indeed, the whole of chapter 1 can be construed generally as an expanded prologue typical of the traditional novel, for the story actually begins with the second chapter. There, the narrator, again in a very traditional way, commences by giving a description of the locale of the story, i.e. Canton, and introduces Liang and Ling's fathers and their home town before bringing out the two main characters. Conventional modes of stylization are juxtaposed with the time-inversion device in the first two chapters to mollify the impact of the novelty of this technique, so as to be more readily acceptable to the readers. 17

123 Time in Nine

Murders

The other, foreign, model provides W u Woyao's novel with an exciting opening. As has been already mentioned, Nine Murders begins with two sequences of dialogues separated by a conventional poem. The dialogues carry out the action and inform the readers about the core of the plot - the murders; but unlike traditional narratives, the speakers of the dialogues remain uniden­ tified and moreover, the obligatory introductory words, such as yue, dao, shuo, etc. are omitted from the text. No previous Chinese novel begins with a comparable dramatic scene, and this fact strongly suggests that W u Woyao looked for his model in Western fiction. Further evidence can be found in volume 1, number 8, of the journal New Fiction. There Zhou Guisheng, W u Woyao's close friend and collaborator, translated a story under the title Hei she quan (The black snake curl) by a French writer Baofu. The opening chapter starts with a dialogue between a father and his daughter. 18

'Father, how come the collar of your shirt is all twisted?' 'Dear, this is all your doing. You know that without your help, I can't dress properly.' 'It may be so. But tonight, you don't seem to need any help from me. You're in such a hurry, as if any move on my part would delay you.'

19

Zhou Guisheng recognizes the fact that the dialogue-only opening represents a striking break from traditional Chinese fiction writing, and fears that such a break might not be acceptable to the reading public. Therefore, he explains this device in the preface to his translation: The structure of Chinese novels has been as follows : the names and origins of the main characters are always introduced first, to be followed by their stories; or, sometimes, prologues, poems, or essays fill the first chapter. These are considered the only ways to begin. One novelist copies the other, so that they have become the formulas to follow. The readers naturally are well familiar with this fact. This story [The Black Snake Curl] was written by the French master of fiction, Baofu. At the beginning, there are exchanges of dialogue between the father and his daughter. It is a striking opening ... However, upon closer examination, the story is very well-structured. If the writer were not a master, he would not dare to approach it in this manner, although this is the normal practice of western fiction. I have tried to closely follow the original in the translation to introduce this technique to our literature, hoping that the story will not be laughed at as being fragmented.

20

Only four issues after the appearance of Zhou's translation, W u Woyao's Nine Murders began to be serialized in the same magazine. Therefore, there is ample reason to believe that the translation of The Black Snake Curl had a

124 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century direct influence on the writing of the opening dialogues in Nine Murders. It is interesting to note that, as in Nine Murders, there are no introductory words such as yue or dao in the dialogues in Zhou's translation. W u Woyao's concept of time in Nine Murders is undoubtedly archetypal. By an adroit combination of a domestic and a foreign model, he enriched C h i ­ nese fiction with a technique which marked a substantial break with tradi­ tional fiction writing, paving the road for the modernization of the Chinese novel. The fact that this Western technique was only introduced into Chinese by W u Woyao's daring experiment in the first decade of this century is undeni­ able. What, however, of the state of preparedness in the domestic literary tradition for this new phenomenon? T.S. Eliot points out in his 'Tradition and Indivi­ dual Talent': What happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultane­ ously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new] work of art among them. The existing order is complete before the new work arrives.

21

What is this 'existing order' - the literary pre-conditions in Chinese fiction which allowed for the innovative time arrangement in Nine Murders ? And what were the reasons that Nine Murders, in structure still a traditional novel, broke with the tradition in this particular aspect? First, W u Woyao may have learned a great deal from the traditional crime stories [gongan). The most noticeable feature from this genre in Nine Murders is the character of the judicious judge in disguise. However, it seems that the plot structure of gongan stories played an even more important, although less conspicuous role, in the development of the plot of Nine Murders and its strik­ ing opening. As we can conclude from our reading of the popular Baogong qian (Strange case of Baogong), in many stories the narrator elaborates the crime first and the punishment later. The typical structure of such stories is, for example, as follows: 1 2 3 4

A criminal (criminals) commit (s) a crime. The crime is reported or discovered. The wrong man is apprehended. A n official arrives to investigate (sometimes he is informed through super­ natural sources).

125 Time in Nine

Murders

5 The official seeks out the real criminal (sometimes with supernatural help, e.g. the dead victim identifies the murderer in a dream). 6 The criminal is heavily punished. 7 The wronged man is compensated (sometimes with official honours). 8 The narrator praises the official's judiciousness and hands out a moral warn­ ing to the readers. 22

Depiction of the scene of crime usually comes first, after a very brief description of the initial situation to arouse the interest of the readers. W u Woyao has adopted this structural feature in his novel. But Nine Murders is not essentially a gongan novel. It is a transformation of a gongan novel. Although the crime and its punishment - as in gongan stories - generate the action of the novel, its emphasis - unlike its model's - is not on a judicious official. In common with other late Qing novels, its leading theme is an attack on decaying morality, superstition, and the disastrous vice of greed. Neverthe­ less, W u Woyao perhaps borrowed some of the structural elements from the traditional crime story. Second, there was a time-inversion technique already standard in the tradi­ tional Chinese novel. While time in traditional novels was always chronological and linear, the formula phrase yuanlai ('actually'; 'it was like this') provided the narrator with the means to reverse time in order to explain past actions which have importance for the present. The time marker yuanlai was employed to introduce new characters who have just appeared in the story by briefly stating their origins and their actions in the recent past, or, in other cases, to recapitu­ late scenes in the past which have been left unexplained. These brief digres­ sions from the otherwise linear progression of the plot structure, were used to give supplementary information to fill in the gaps of the story. The time inversions in Nine Murders, except for the first one, are all intro­ duced by yuanlai. M u c h longer than the yuanlai passages in traditional novels, they are used deliberately by the narrator to interrupt the linear timescheme to surprise the readers. In fact, the time inversions of Nine Murders can be considered as transformed and expanded versions of the yuanlai device of traditional novels. The formula phrase makes later time inversions of Nine Murders less conspicuous as a new technique. And it was probably for this reason that they escaped the attention of H u Shi and other critics. Third, W u Woyao had already experimented with time in his earlier novels. In Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang (Strange events seen in the past twenty years), he frequently employed the same device of time inversion, though on a smaller scale. In chapter 5, for example, the narrator called 'Nine Lives' is informed of a fraud in a jewellery shop; one chapter later, it is revealed 13

126 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century that the crook is the shop owner himself. Since the story is narrated in the first-person mode, there is no shift back in fictional time; the inversion occurs in the 'real time' when the fraud actually takes place. As in Nine Murders, the intended effect is to surprise the readers. Three years after the appearance of Strange Events, one of W u Woyao's best novels, Hen hai (Sea of woe), was published in book form in 1906. In this story of love and separation, W u continued to experiment and develop the use of time. Because of the turmoil created by the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the hero, Chen Bohe, escorts his fiancée, Zhang Dihua, and her mother away from Peking. They are soon separated due to the chaotic conditions of the war. Meanwhile, Chen Bohe's father, being an official, decides to stay in Peking with his younger son, Chen Zhongai. Zhang Dihua's father, Zhang Heting, has already left Peking for Shanghai. T o describe the fate of all four parties, the narrator adroitly employs con­ necting links and flashbacks in the time arrangement of the narrative. For example, when Zhang Dihua is reunited with her father later in Shanghai, the narrator recapitulates Zhang Heting's story: 'Actually Heting was staying in Shanghai ...' Even with four different lines of narration in the story, the epi­ sodes are well woven together without being confusing. Instead, the reader is constantly delighted by the surprises created from the changes in setting and in time. The intricate pattern of time in Sea of Woe is a great improvement upon Wu's earlier novels such as Tong shi (Painful history) (1902), and Xia pian qiwen (Strange tale of a blind cheat) (1904), both of which are narrated in a strictly chronological order. Surely Sea of Woe and Strange Events paved the way for the innovative time inversions of Nine Murders. Fourth, Nine Murders owes much to the gongan emphasis on how the criminal is punished rather than on who he is. When H u Shi insists that Nine Murders has adopted 'the design of western detective fiction,' he is probably referring to the positioning of the murder scene at the beginning of the story. We have seen, however, that this feature could be more usefully traced back to the structure of the gongan stories. Further, time inversion is not an overly popular procedure in Western detective stories, where the action generally depends upon the gradual unfolding and accumulation of evidence. It has been remarked that 'the interest of the detective story depends entirely on its rous­ ing the reader's curiosity; every detail of its plan must sustain and heighten an intense determination to know the solution.' Nine Murders, however, is not dependent upon the 'guessing or reasoning out' of the identity of the murderers as a method of tantalizing the reader. It is clear from the beginning that Ling is the culprit; instead, the reader is invited to guess when the final, ninth, murder will take place. Later, the sus24

25

26

27

127 Time in Nine

Murders

pense is generated not by whether the murderers will escape punishment (we have already been told they will be punished), but by the time and manner in which Liang will succeed in avenging himself. This emphasis in the Chinese crime story on 'how the criminal is punished' contrasts markedly with the 'whodunit' obsession of Western detective fiction. Consequently, the role of the detective is also different in Western detective stories and in Nine Murders. Though Judge Chen, the magistrate in disguise, plays an important role in resolving the crime, he is far from being the central figure of the story. Thus, even though translations of Western mysteries were tremendously popular in the late Qing period and perhaps inspired the writings of W u Woyao, the structure of Nine Murders is clearly distinguishable from Western detective stories. 28

Western literature helped to promote a climate of change in late Qing fiction. This willingness to accept the new and the unaccustomed enabled W u Woyao to adopt the time-inversion device from both Western fiction and the Chinese nanyin ballad. The anticipation of modern time inversion in the traditional gongan stories and in the yuanlai time-marker must not, however, be overlooked, for this explains why only t h i s - a n d not other Western literary devices - was brought into use in Nine Murders. Since each literature develops according to its own laws and traditions, foreign literary influences must meet the internal needs of the culture into which they are being incorporated. They must be adapted for the new soil in conformity with pre-existing conditions. The time-inversion technique in Nine Murders is a perfect example of this process of assimilation.

29

NOTES

1 W u Woyao Tong shi, Hen hai, Jiuming qiyaan (Taibei 1962) 2 H u Shi Hu Shi wencun 2 (Shanghai 1921) pt 2 144-6 3 A Ying Wan Qing xiaoshuo shi (Beijing 1955) 155; Liu Dajie Zhongguo wenxue fazhan shi 3 (Hong Kong 1973) 363-4 4 Reprinted as Earning shenyuan (Taibei n.d.) 5 Junichi Kôsaka 'Kyümei kien no seriritsu' Nihon Chûgoku gakkai hô 15 (Oct. 1963) 181. He lists them as: Baming shenyuan (1894); Liang Tianlai gao yuzhuang (1904); Baming chenyuan (1906). 6 A Ying Wan Qing 154; Sun Kaidi Zhongguo tongsu xiaoshuo shumu (Beijing 1958)

194

7 Kôsaka 'Kyümei' 184-92

128 T h e Chinese N o v e l at the T u r n of the C e n t u r y

8 W u Woyao Jiuming qiyuan 1 9 Ibid 2 10 Ibid 3 11 Milena Dolezelová-Velingerová 'Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels' in this volume, 57-75

12 W u Woyao ]iuming qiyuan 3 13 Ibid 73 14 Ibid 160

15 Kôsaka lists the following: Nanyin hengwenchai; Huoshao hongliansi; and Jiuren jiuji ('Kyümei' 196]. 16 'Kyümei' 193. In a later 1904 nanyin version, Liang Tianlai gao yuzhuang, the opening murder scene is placed back in its proper chronological sequence.

17 W u Woyao Jiuming qiyuan 3 18 Baofu is the transliterated name; I cannot identify the person. 19 Yang Shiji Wenyuan

tanwang

(Shanghai 1946] 14

20 Ibid 15 21 T . S . Eliot The Sacred Wood

(London 1960] 49-50

22 See especially the stories of 'San bao dian ' and 'Amituofo

jianghe ' in Longtu

gongan (Hong Kong 1971].

23 W u Woyao Jiuming qiyuan 77, 142, 160 24 W u Woyao Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang

(Beijing 1959]

25 W u Woyao Hen hai chapter 9; for a discussion of this novel see Michael Egan's article in this volume, 165-76.

26 Carolyn Wells The Technique

of the Mystery Story (Folcroft, Pa. 1973] 297

27 Ibid 296 28 A Ying says, 'If it can be said that there were one thousand titles of translated works, detective stories amounted to more than five hundred in number' [Wan

Qing xiaoshuo shi 186]. 29 Victor Erlich Russian Formalism: History - Doctrine (The Hague 1965] 267-8

The Travels of Laocan: Allegorical Narrative DONALD HOLOCH

Wild words by the page, tears by the fistful: mad author, they say. Who'll get his meaning? CAO XUEQIN,

quoted in the preface to The Travels of Laocan

1

Like other Chinese novels of its day, Laocan youji (The Travels of Laocan ), 34 chapters in length, by 'Hongdu Bailiansheng' (an obvious pseudonym), was serialized in periodicals. After its appearance in 1903-07, all but the first 20 chapters were forgotten. A 40-chapter edition appeared in Shanghai in 1919, but the last 20 chapters were spurious. In 1925 H u Shi uncovered the fact that Liu E (1857-1909) was the real author,- his evaluation of the authentic text, of which he had only the first 20 chapters, helped establish the reputation of the novel. Chapters 21 to 26 (the 'sequel' or nun's tale) were recovered by Lin Yutang, serialized, and then published in book form in 1935. Chapters 27 to 29 (the underworld) and a chapter-length manuscript 'Fragment' were pub­ lished in Taipei in 1972 as part of the most complete edition to date. The remaining 5 chapters (30-34) seem to have been lost. T o further complicate the picture, one must note that, according to the narrator of the 'Fragment,' the novel originally had 60 chapters: 2

3

4

5

6

7

In the 50 years that I accompanied Laocan, whenever the land was bitten by cold and the hills were strewn with dead branches, then by the wee light of this oil lamp, with creatures chirping in every corner, Laocan would speak and I would write and somehow

a 60-chapter Travels of Laocan took shape. T h e editor of the Tianjin Daily

News

accepted the first 20 chapters into his columns and it has received uncommon acclaim

130 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century from prominent men in the land. Since Laocan carelessly used to wrap his herbs in them, many of the remaining 40 chapters have been lost . . .

8

Liu E's joke implies that he regarded the first 20 chapters as a unit. Should the critic take his cue from this? Or does the novel yield a more sensible reading if we include the nun's episode (which has its own preface) and the underworld episode as well? Or perhaps the author is not jesting: maybe 'the book lacks unity both of plot and subject matter,' as Shadick asserts; then we should accept the book as a melange of pet theories, assessments of the era, assorted ad hominems, and an apologia pro vita sua, as Prusek advises. 9

10

11

In China the fame of the novel actually rested on select passages, first the prophetic and later the descriptive, the one ridiculed and the other praised by H u Shi in his fragmented view of the work; as one result, the descriptions were excerpted for school anthologies as models of style. There is no denying that Travels lends itself to such treatment with its episodic nature and diversity of styles (from elegiac lyricism to murder mystery) ; the various portions of the work do not seem to depend upon the whole for their meaning and effect. This suggests a possible approach to the work: it is no novel but rather an anthology, one author's excursions into the various genres of his day (scenic description, exposé of officials, Taoist utopia, demi-monde romance) in the vein of Washington Irving's Sketchbook. H u Shi, Prûsek, and Shadick all recognize in the work a pervading moral earnestness and the importance of this ideological element to the whole. Zhang Bilai, Nian Ru, and Lao Hong emphasize the political nature of this element and set aside other parts of the novel as unimportant. They share in the prevailing tendency to treat the novel as an odd hybrid of lyrical and political elements. C . T . Hsia has directly addressed the problem of unity in this dichotomy, but, despite important insights, he ends by giving disunity a new name. The novel, he argues, is a lyrical third-person journal which makes story-telling subordinate to individual vision. The political ingredient of the vision is so strong that this 'could be regarded as China's first political novel.' However, 'the journal proper' (i.e. all except the Peachblossom Mountain episode) reveals, in the person of Laocan, 'many-sided interests' which are rarely eclipsed, 'a rich sense of life with all its odd surprises and delightful contingencies'; the journal plays down plot to render a scene 'in all its actuality' and to dwell on characters 'for their intrinsic human interest.' In my opinion, a journal which interlards politics with life's surprises, contingencies, and intrinsically interesting scenes and characters does not express unified vision, whatever the merits of its components. 12

13

14

15

16

131 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

Prûsek provides the most revealing clues to the artistic integrity of Liu E's work while admitting certain difficulties. He finds that Taoist figures symbolize a yearning for liberation from mundane cares: this is 'the only way we have of explaining the bizarre elements that crop up again and again in the midst of a realistic narrative.' Actually the solution to the problem is implicit in PruSek's initial characterization of the novel: 'Liu E has clothed the traditional ideal, the Confucian sage, in a concrete form placed in the midst of real life ... The book is the last great apologia of the old Chinese civilization before its fall.' Without using the word 'allegory,' Prûsek has identified some of its major features. It is the aim of this paper to take such a line of analysis a bit further. 17

If the whole work (and not just the dream episode of the ship of state) is read as an allegory, many otherwise puzzling or unintelligible aspects of Travels become functional. Features fundamental to allegory as a form are all prominent in the construction of Travels: personification; striking attention to the particulars of visual imagery matched by a deep concern for abstract concepts; action interspersed with extensive commentary; episodic structure and the repetition of similar incidents; the extended metaphor of the journey; and the central contradiction between static accumulation of incident and dynamic movement tending toward change. Since the dream episode is generally accepted as allegory, 1 will start with that, to show that the allegory does not end when Laocan awakes. 18

19

Prologue In a brief wenyan preface, the author asserts that the essence of mankind is its spiritual nature, which accounts for sorrow; he invokes a series of works written over the millennia purportedly for the purpose of expressing sorrow, and indicates that their meaning must be sought below the surface; he includes his own novel in this elegiac tradition. The narrative, set in Shandong in the decade before 1900, begins in chapter 1. This chapter has, for purposes of analysis, nine units, the last of which is resolved at the start of chapter 2. We come to realize that chapter 1 is a prologue and that its central figure, Laocan, has symbolic importance. A n outline of the units of the prologue will show how this is achieved: 1 Penglai Pavilion is described - its setting by the sea, and the custom among gentlemen of watching the sunrise there. 2 Laocan (hereafter L) is introduced. His father was an honest (and therefore poor) official; the son has inherited the honesty but, though educated, has nothing to do with the bureaucratic system. Penniless at thirty, L learns from a

132 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Taoist the secret of healing all diseases, and lives as an itinerant doctor for twenty years. 3 In Qiancheng one year, he treats the important M r Huang who has a strange annual summer disease : eruptions appear on his body and suppurate; stanched in one place, they appear next year in another. The treatment works: for the first time in a decade no suppuration occurs, and the entire household celebrates. 4 Tired of feasting, L goes to his room for an afternoon nap. His friends Wen Zhangbo and De Huisheng walk in, tease him about sleeping so early, and invite him on a trip to Penglai Pavilion. A l l three go. 5 They stay up one night to be ready for sunrise, but ominous clouds fill the sky. L assures his friends that just to observe wind and sea without the sunrise will satisfy him. A steamship passes. 6 A scarred sailing ship appears in serious danger of sinking. But while captain and helmsmen attend to their duties, sailors are stripping the passengers of food and clothing. 7 Enraged, Zhangbo wants to take a fishing boat out to the ship and kill and replace the offenders. L says that the three of them against a crew of 200 is foolish and that, besides, the crew isn't bad, only confused by the unaccustomed storm; if the ship is provided with a compass and the captain with advice, all can be saved. The other two agree with him. 8 When their boat is close, they hear a man on shipboard harangue the pas­ sengers: 'The crew is to blame for the distress of your ship - don't put up with them. If you give me money, I'll gain you your freedom.' T o Zhangbo he is a hero; to L, a fraud. Money collected, the speaker gets out of harm's way and says to kill the crew. Young men respond and are killed instead. When the speaker suggests the passengers should organize, an old man objects that such struggle will only sink the ship. L expresses the same sentiments. 9 The three board ship, aided by its poleman. They get a sympathetic reception from captain and helmsmen. The crew shout that these bearers of modern in­ struments are foreign agents, and the passengers take up the cry. Unable to defy the mob, the captain can only advise the three to escape. People on shipboard throw broken bits of the ship at their boat and sink them. [Chapter 2:] L is wakened to eat dinner at the Huang house. 20

The settings for chapter 1 have mythical overtones. The town of Qian­ cheng, recorded in early medieval times, no longer exists; and Penglai is a utopia associated with immortality. The prologue has two central allegorical events: the treatment of the Yellow River and the vision of the ship of state. M r Huang Ruihe is a pun on Huang he, Yellow River; the disease is the annual breaking of the dikes, as is evident when Laocan invokes the great Y u , 21

133 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

mythological controller of floods, as the originator of the cure. Similarly we know that the sailing ship is a symbol from the inordinate detail of its descrip­ tion and from the sequence of events on board. That the allegory of the ship of state is actually a dream (which began after Huang's feast) we realize only at the start of chapter 2, when Laocan wakes up. Since the central figure of both allegories is Laocan, and since he wakes from an allegorical dream to an allegorical reality, the nature of the rest of the text is suggested and it is important to specify what Laocan symbolizes in order to get the author's meaning. A unit-by-unit précis of the prologue renders the alle­ gorical meaning: 1 It is a custom among men of culture to look for a bright future. 2 A n educated man of integrity, who has extracted from tradition the solution to all problems, 3 and has already stopped the Yellow River from flooding, 4 observes the custom, 5 but sees hard times ahead. Compared to modernized nations, 6 China is at a disadvantage, suffers internal conflict, and may be destroyed by internal and external pressure combined (gashes on the ship symbolize impe­ rialist attacks by Russia, Japan, and Germany). 7,8 The bureaucracy is oppressive simply as a reflex to the unprecedented crisis; the solution lies with modern technology, which the man understands quite well. He approves the wise pro-government proposal to help top officials understand technology; the foolish self-serving anti-government proposal, to aggravate internal conflict, will destroy China. 9 The obstacle to the preferred solution, and threat to the man, is the mass of petty officials and common people. Briefly, in a time when China's problems cry out for solution, Laocan has the remedies. In a novel which is to examine the prospects for Chinese culture (see unit 1 above), Laocan symbolizes the ideal view. Laocan is a symbol of the ideal. We know this from a series of contrasts in the prologue. He is distinguished from common people by his learning, from edu­ cated officialdom by his honesty, and from top levels of administration by his appreciation of modern technology. Not involved in the questionable practices of bureaucracy, he is always willing to tackle the real problems of China. He can do so with success, in the case of traditional problems, by his familiarity with tradition and particularly those aspects of it which have undeservedly fallen out of practice. He is a man of uncommon vision, for while others cele-

134 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century brate the successful treatment of a traditional problem (river control), he wor­ ries about even more serious modern problems. Here his proposals are based on a thorough analysis; unlike more radical proposals they are neither foolishly hasty nor unscrupulous. Laocan is clearly not meant to represent a group or class - he is a socially uncontaminated pure ideal, a selfless morality applied to politics. The content of Laocan's political vision is essentially this: though China has many problems, the crucial one is the new one posed by the aggression of modernized nations; the solution is the application of technology rather than changes in social structure. The vision is a response to the preceding decade of China's history: defeat in the Sino-Japanese War and consequent competition among imperialist nations to carve out spheres of influence; the Reform Move­ ment which attempted to counter the threat but met government opposition and was succeeded by revolutionary groups. The allegory of the ship of state is a reactionary rendition of that history. First, in place of a court responsible for the revolutionary movement through suppression of reform, we have a court (captain = emperor, helmsmen = grand council, mastmen = board presidents) of men of good will; though their meth­ ods are faulty they show an interest in reform (as the court did only after 1901, reluctantly and mainly to discredit more radical proposals). Second, radical proposals are dismissed by showing the shortcomings of their adherents, by slander in other words: they appeal to impetuous fools (Zhangbo), political shysters (the speaker), or callow youth. Third, the bureaucracy (sailors) in its dealings with common people (passengers) are oppressive not by nature of the system (they are not culpable, says Laocan) but because they are confused by the sudden crisis; they can be excused for causing the deaths of common people, but the 'radical' cannot because he is a shyster. Fourth, the people are a stupid herd, whose propensity to do what they are told is inimical to China's interests. Not only is this a highly partisan account of history, but in its judgment of bureaucrat's and revolutionary's treatment of people it is so disingenuous that one wonders if Laocan (who makes the judgment) isn't meant to repre­ sent a partial view, narrower than that of the narrator who intends to ex­ pose his limitations. But no, Laocan does represent the ideal. It is the ideal of a technocratic elite, which must sustain itself by idealizing the rationality of the ruling group and discrediting all forms of dissent as selfish disregard of national (= technical) progress. The ideal is politically reactionary but under conditions recognized as quite modern - historically a transitional position. 22

135 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

Political power is subjectively regarded, in terms of motive. The prologue re-examines Chinese tradition not only for what is most amenable to technical innovation, but also to establish the moral superiority of the ideal. The reader is meant to like Laocan as a character: the ideal has an ethical as well as a political aspect. Besides being affable, modest, helpful, intelligent, and unaffected, Laocan is a man of principle; and there is a suggestion of the tragic about him, since the likelihood (in the dream allegory) is that his solution for China's key problem will not gain acceptance. In this connection recall the author's preface. Here is given the epitome of a subjective view of life: a series of images from the animal world are used to argue that the 'spiritual nature' of creatures is independent of experience, and is the source of weeping. Human beings are creatures of the highest spiritual nature. In other words, human suffering is independent of history (though history may be the pretext for tears) and an expression of the human essence. In fact, given the list of literary works invoked, sorrow is the sign of a man's sensitivity, his culture. This elegiac idealist view of human existence, followed by the first chapter's idealist view of Chinese history, casts light on the pro­ tagonist. We can expect Laocan, the political symbol, to embody the moral ideal of a sensitive and tragic perception of human experience; the dramatic structure of the prologue - with Laocan, in the midst of a celebration, having visions of a troubled future - suggests that this will be the case. One antici­ pates a reflective and philosophic novel. Plot: Stage One Throughout the novel, discussion of ideas (and not merely dialogue which might serve the plot line) occupies a large part of the text. M u c h of the action has no consequence: there are many self-contained tales, whose function (rein­ forced by similar tales) is to establish typicality of action, not cause of motive for subsequent action (see the analytical précis, 141-2) Plot structure, both as a means of linking the seven stages of Laocan's journey and of organizing material within each stage, contributes little to unity. Tableaux which call for an explanation are distributed throughout the text: e.g. the ship vision, on which three observers comment; natural scenes, with inscribed plaques or the poems they inspire or recall to the observer. Laocan responds to situations and scenes but is not changed by them; his prime role is as viewer, auditor, commentator, in short as focus of conscious­ ness (though he is, in this role, replaced entirely in the Peachblossom Mountain episode and largely in the Mount T a i episode; see précis). What we have in this novel is a series of ideological units - emblematic tableaux, typical actions, 23

24

136 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century theoretical discussions - linked, through the device of the journey, by an ideal commentator. That the series of units is also a coherent sequence remains to be shown. I think this possible through the method illustrated below in an analysis of parts of chapters 2 and 3. When the allegorical prologue ends, Laocan leaves Qiancheng for the city of Jinan, the political seat of the province, noted for its scenic beauty. The themes of the prologue are continued and developed by placing Laocan in a series of park-like settings and viewing his remedies in a bureaucratic context. Laocan's first impression on entering the city is that the scenery 'holds still more interest' than that of the south (10.2.4). He strolls through the streets shaking his bells to identify himself as an itinerant doctor. Then he crosses Quehua Bridge (a framing device) away from the workaday world. Since que (magpie) is a cliché for good omen, and hua is poetic for China, the name of this emblematic bridge can be rendered 'Auspicious China.' A careful look at the enclosed scene will show the political and philosophical import of the name. Laocan rows. He stops first at Lixia (old name for Jinan; literally 'at the foot of [Mt] Li') Pavilion, where he sees an inscription: In Lixia this pavilion's oldest; in Jinan famous scholars abound.

25

The juxtaposition of person and scenic object signals the author's allegorical method here and, as we shall see later, in the parallels established between the springs and persons. The next stop is the temple to Tie Gong. Tie Gong defended the legitimate emperor against the usurper Prince Yan, who eventually became the third Ming emperor. The legitimate one disappeared in the fighting and, according to well-known legend, lived on in hiding for many years. The fact of the emperor's absence is underscored by the chapter title, 'At the Foot of M t . L i , Traces of an Ancient Emperor,' since the only trace is a shrine to his defender. This allusion associates Laocan with the pro-emperor movement of his own day. Since the empress dowager's coup in 1898, she had ruled China while the legitimate emperor Guangxu lived on not in hiding but under virtual house arrest. The gong in Tie Gong is a common honorific, similar to sir; the gover­ nor's council member Gao, for example, is referred to as Gao Gong. The name 'Tie' is identical with Laocan's family name (introduced at the start of the novel). Thus when Laocan is referred to elsewhere in the text as Tie Gong, it 26

27

137 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

is entirely proper by the rules of nomenclature and evokes no comment from the characters, but it shows a parallel between Laocan and the loyal Ming hero. Both are defenders of the legitimate emperor. From the temple Laocan observes a scene which is a complex vision of tran­ scendental peace. Nomenclature is significant: 'Lake Darning' is here unidiomatically shortened to 'Lake Ming,' thus calling attention to ming ('illumina­ tion,' both physical and spiritual) M t Li reflected in the lake appears under the common alternative name 'Thousand Buddha Hill' with its metaphysical overtones. The view from the temple begins with the hill itself: it is pic­ turesque and, in the narrator's text, comparable to an artifact, a painted screen {pingfeng, etymologically a shield against the wind). Then a fisherman's song (the motif, though related to labour, traditionally evokes a rural idyll) redirects Laocan's attention: ;

28

He looked down and, behold, Lake M i n g had grown as untroubled as a mirror. The 29

image of Thousand Buddha H i l l reflected in the lake shone perfectly clear. He felt the uncommon splendour of its buildings and trees surpassed the Thousand Buddha Hill above in beauty and clarity.

The Buddhist vision reveals its full value in a material context suggestive of turmoil. The theme is immediately reinforced by a mundane reminder: Just past the south bank of the lake was a marketplace, but a dense stretch of reeds blocked it out.

The narrator then turns our attention back to the central image, the two hills - one beyond mundane contact, the other somehow involved: It now being blossom time, a bank of white flowers reflected the mist-filled rays of the setting sun, like a roseate broadloom cushioning the hill above from the hill below.

Adumbrated here are two stages of the travels, two contrasting hills: the less satisfactory escapist transcendence of Peachblossom Mountain, and the immanent transcendence of M t T a i which Yiyun professes. The lake vision is a complex and tension-filled image. In it the workaday world is consciously held at a distance in order to focus on alternative responses to its troubles. This introduces a new level of consciousness which is to be deve­ loped in the course of the novel, in both its political and metaphysical aspects. The function of Laocan's reflections on this vision is to fix it in our minds along with his role in this 'travels' [youji] as sole contemporary perceiver: 30

138 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century 'Such a lovely scene; why are there no travelers [youren)V

...

[On reading the inscription:] O n four sides are lotus blossoms, on three sides are willows. A whole town is mountain scene, a half town is lake. He silently nodded and said, 'Precisely!' Entering the main gateway, the Hall of Tie Gong was facing him, a lotus pond was to the east.

There is a relatively clear awareness (the lake, with its reflected hill) in a broader context (the 'whole town') whose troubles have a political dimension, as the reinvocation of Tie Gong stresses. The next and final part of this brief boat tour is preceded by verbal em­ blems: on the way to the lotus pond, Laocan passes an old structure with a plaque reading 'Ancient Water Spirit Shrine' and an inscription: A cup of chilly stream poured for chrysanthemums, a midnight painted boat pushing through water-lilies.

Laocan, who has acquired mythological associations in the prologue, then enacts the tableau, 'water spirit' rowing through lotuses: Passing Water Spirit Shrine he re-entered his boat and rowed to the back of Lixia Pavi­ lion. Lotus leaves and flowers [heye hehua) hemmed the boat in from both sides. The leaves, beginning to wither, scraped against the chuckling boat;

31

the startled water

birds flew off squawking.

Laocan easily makes it back to the bridge. This 'action' seems to be a direct if symbolic challenge to the empress: 'how could the whore, Yehe [he Yehe hua), hem the boat in from both sides?' With considerable bravado, the passage reworks the motif of the boat with a political mission (previously encountered in the dream prologue, and later evoked in the title of chapter 3, 'Plain Sail Goes West to Visit Grey Falcon,' an allusion to Laocan's investigation of Y u Xian), giving it a sense which is both more ambiguous and more hopeful. In brief, the Auspicious China Bridge frames an excursion which specifies Laocan's political stance - pro-emperor, anti-empress reformism - but also reveals a philosophic dimension to Laocan's concerns; significantly, a note of optimism enters when the perspective ceases to be exclusively political. The ideal that bodes well for China is a broadly cultural concern to realize tran­ scendent values in a period of political crisis. 32

139 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

The sights described in chapter 3 all centre on springs. The narrator directs attention to four: Leaping Spring, Goldthread Spring, Black Tiger Spring, and 'Pearl Spring in the Governor's Mansion' (20.2.5). Laocan reaches Leaping Spring, as he later reaches Gao Gong's home, by going west (19.2.4; 21.3.1). The prominent feature of one is its three jets of water (19.3.2); of the other, its three-character plaque, 'Gao Gong's Residence' (21.3.2). Near the one is a temple to Patriarch Lü; in the other, a painting of Liezi. Both Lii and Liezi are Taoist figures: the one (though the text does not state it) is known for his medical and flying abilities,- when Laocan sees the other, depicted as flying, he has come to diagnose a patient - the medical and flying motifs have become explicit. The main observation made on Leaping Spring is that its three jets lost their original strength after the pool was repaired. The contrast between Gao and Laocan is that, while both are committed to some form of service, Gao is in government and Laocan is outside of it: the impaired strength of the jets seems to be the author's metaphor for the effect of the civil service on a good man. 33

In going to see Goldthread Spring, as in the visit to Gao's sick concubine, Laocan 'entered the inner gate' [jinle ermen), then went west through another doorway (20.2.1; 22.1.1). Each is located in a northwest corner, the spring surrounded by plantains and the concubine by the printed grass-linen curtains on her bed (20.2.3; 22.1.2ff.). In both cases Laocan bends his head to look (20.3.4; 22.3.1), and he analyses them both in terms of opposing forces: the phenomenon of the 'gold thread' appears at the juncture of 'currents from two sources whose forces contend' (20.3.5), while the concubine is ill because 'fire is blocked up by chill' (22.2.2). In Goldthread Spring, the wavering balance between contending currents has persisted for centuries; the concubine, how­ ever, is nearly dead because of a previous doctor's attempt to repress one of the opposed elements, fire. The association of spring and concubine suggests that any remedy will fail which violates the natural principle of contending forces (the fundamental principle, one discovers later, of Yellow Dragon's meta­ physics) . The link between Black Tiger Spring and Prefect Y u Xian is simply that both are characterized by violence. This is spotlighted by the title of the chapter, in which the conventional parallel structure juxtaposes 'Black Tiger' and 'Grey Falcon,' an allusion to Y u Xian made explicit in chapter 6. As the sightseeing proceeded, the narrative led us to expect 'The Four Famous Springs.' What we got, in terms of their dominant qualities, was: impaired strength, contending forces, violence, and absence from view. The sequence of scenic tableaux has a meaning relevant to the problem posed in a4

140 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century the preceding chapter and underscored by the opening reference to winter's approach, namely, the need to remedy China's condition. Genuine concern and ability, as symbolized by Laocan, will be wary of restraints, will carefully examine phenomena to discover the contending forces they embody, and will be aware of violence - all in a general sense incomplete because of the absence of one component. The position prefigured in the sightseeing tour of springs, and developed afterwards through association with persons, has the status of a hypothesis, which the novel subsequently explores: Bureaucratic ties only hamper good political action, for which an understanding of contending forces is prerequi­ site, since ill-informed and repressive remedies deepen China's crisis. But how do we know that the crisis is generalized as 'China's' and that 'remedy' there­ fore is a metaphor for political action? When the governor's mansion is mentioned, the word futai occurs, one of several common designations for the governor's position. The man himself, however, is always designated as Zhuang gongbao, which effectively means governor Zhuang (as Shadick translates it). In fact, gongbao literally means guardian of the heir.' The text calls attention to the imperial associations of this title by pointing out that the part of the mansion where Laocan first meets the man bears the ancient title 'Entrance to the Palace' \gong menkou : 25.2.2). Furthermore, just as in the allegorical dream Laocan, to advise the captain, is brought on board the ship of state by a poleman \gaogong: 8.2.2), so in this allegorical reality Laocan, to advise the 'guardian,' is brought to the 'palace' by Gao Shaoyin (25.2.1; commonly called Gao Gong: e.g. pp. 23, 24). The two incidents are parallel. The fact that in the latter case Laocan's advice does not reach the top (it reaches the guardian rather than the heir) points to the absence of the emperor (like the absence of Pearl Spring) from the realm of policy making. The allusion, once more to the Chinese government, means that the problem of honourable action, action which expresses enduring values and is effective in coping with crisis, is to be seen on a general level, in the context of China as a culture and as a nation. Allegorical Stmcture and Its Meaning Though the scope of this article rules out further analysis, let me indicate schematically the tentative results of an allegorical reading of the entire novel. The basis of discussion is an analytical précis. The application of V . Propp's terminology here is meant to highlight the difference between this novel and Propp's material, the Russian folk-tale, for in that genre the ideological ele­ ment (motive) has little significance. 35

141

Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

Summary I

'Laocan's remedies and sightseeing'

A

L has a dream which reveals China's

Analytical

Precis

a Hero perceives lack.

need. B,C

L goes sightseeing, hears some music, and in discussions of government

b Hero's ideology and chosen mode of action.

(including River) policy, hears of Y u Xian. Rejecting official entangle­ ments, L sets out to see for himself.

II

'Cruel Prefect Y u Xian'

A

L hears tales of Yu's cruelty and sees him promoted.

B

Angered, L writes an impeachment

c Hero observes injustice (unwitting villainy rewarded), d Hero restores justice (inconclusive).

and, to help Yu's kind subordinate, proposes to enlist the extra-legal aid of Liu. C

ill

Signs of debased culture sadden L .

e Hero perceives lack.

'Philosophy on Peachblossom Mountain'

A

As per L's plan, Ziping climbs

f Agent undertakes

quest.

mountain in search of Liu. B,C,D Enjoying discussions on ethics,

g Agent acquires wisdom

(inconclusive).

music (which is performed for him), metaphysics, and politics, Z imper­ fectly grasps his hosts' message. Z leaves and finds Liu.

iv A

'Prostitutes, victims of flood' Frozen River (political impasse) and

h Hero perceives lack.

reflections on debased culture sadden L. B,C

L meets an official, Huang, with 2 call-girls, one more alive to culture than H . H needs L's help to save her. L hears the girls' tale: they are vic­ tims of bookish River policy.

i Hero observes injustice punished).

(innocence

142 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century V

'Murder mystery'

A

H can't risk his career, but L is free to

/ Hero restores justice.

save (=marry) the girl. L hears of mismanaged murder trial,

B

secures aid in saving the innocent

k Hero observes injustice punished}.

(innocence

defendants. By good detective work with a

C

1 Hero restores justice.

helper, L acquires a Taoist antidote to restore the murder victims to life. vi A

T h e nun's tale' L has discussions with De and they

m Agent undertakes quest,

go sightseeing with their women. Bc ;

Yiyun, the nun, recounts her path

n Agent acquires wisdom.

from erotic awakening to spiritual enlightenment, and discusses various paths to enlightenment (for call-girl, De, Mrs De, L). vu A

T h e Underworld' L, in earthly paradise, receives sum­

o Hero faces test.

mons to underworld. B

L receives no punishment, sees the

p Hero passes test,

sights, and discusses sin. C

L is transformed into an immortal.

q Hero is rewarded.

Disregarding o, p, and q for present purposes, the analytical précis reveals that the novel is built on a single semantic pattern. The pattern is more evident when the précis is reduced to its essentials as follows. We can treat b (hero's ideology and chosen mode of action) as an amplification of a. The theme of the present status of Chinese culture first comes to the fore in e (hero perceives lack) and is resumed in h : the two units, which refer to the actual state of learning, provide a frame for the Peachblossom Mountain episode, with its abstract consideration of culture. Thematically e is a premonition of h which sets the stage for the contrast between the unlettered call-girl's instinct for culture and the education official's perfunctory association with it: e can be subsumed under h. 36

37

The next four units, i,j,k, and I, represent the one part of the novel charac­ terized by interwoven episodes, the simultaneous unfolding of two plots ; they have a notably similar pattern of action. This interweaving, for all its compli-

143 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

cations, serves to reinforce the theme by duplication. In both cases the hero observes injustice, but the observation is the focus of attention in the first case (call-girls) more than in the second (murder mystery) : i subsumes k. In both cases the hero restores justice, but this process in the first case is dispersed throughout text which focuses on the resolution of the second: / is subsumed under ]. We are left with a, c, d, f, g, h, i, 1, m, n as the essentials of the précis (? = inconclusive): h

Hero perceives lack

c Hero observes injustice

i

Hero observes injustice

d Hero restores justice?

1

Hero restores justice

f Agent undertakes quest

m Agent undertakes quest

g Agent acquires wisdom?

n

a Hero perceives lack

Agent acquires wisdom

Note that m, n represent the six chapters of the M t T a i episode, which has been called a 'sequel' and critically regarded as separate. In terms both of inter­ nal textual connections and of general structure I view it as an integral part of the novel. The function of the parallel cycles indicated in the above scheme is to approach a problem first from one perspective and then from another; to work first toward a solution which is ambiguous, then to work toward a more satis­ factory solution. The shift from the first to the second cycle represents a major intellectual movement. The structure embodies what Gay Clifford describes as the paradox of allegory: its 'incompatible tendencies: towards the repetition of structurally similar incidents, which produces the effect of immobility, and towards some kind of large-scale movement, which suggests the possibility of radical change.' The hero is the mythical bringer of remedies, Laocan. His perception of a lack is presented and developed in terms of symbols. In the first cycle, the perception is political: the absence of the emperor and the severity of the national crisis make action urgent (the ethical aspect of action is mooted but not stressed). This leads to a political act: a move against an official in order to change relations between the people and the representative of the state. The cycle culminates with detached philosophic discourse: ethics is discussed, but the focus and climax are politics and a metaphysics of change. Though it rein­ forces certain themes of the prologue, the value of this discourse - its 'truth' in the narrative-is uncertain for several reasons: first, the absence of the sole consistent and reliable commentator in the text, Laocan; second, the limita­ tions of his 'agent' Ziping, whose animal nature (fearful, like the donkey) is stressed; above all, the ostentatiously arcane nature of the argument, which 38

144 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century also leaves key issues unresolved (Do the personifications of good and evil really exist? 105.2.2). Yellow Dragon's concluding insistence that the political insights proffered will enable Ziping to save his skin comes close (by moral standards established in the prologue) to satire on the Taoist sage. The point to note here is that the most explicit political message in the novel, unam­ biguously reactionary and simultaneously inspirational and passive, is sur­ rounded by ambiguity. The reappearance of Laocan begins the second cycle. In his perception of lack, the cultural crisis and the ethics of action are now paramount. This leads to a pair of ethical acts: saving two girls from prostitution (rather than aiming at the political source of the problem, the implementers of faulty River policy) and rescuing two innocent defendants and thirteen victims of poison. In both cases it is made abundantly clear that the conditions that produce such victims have not been changed; the hero has simply helped the victims at hand (155.4.2). Political action is being eclipsed by ethical; the former produces no clear results while the latter, though limited in scope, can succeed. This cycle culminates on M t Tai, and this time Laocan is present, mainly to provide occasional comments and to be identified, in effect, as a sage by Yiyun (257.1.1). The M t T a i episode focuses on Yiyun's experience and what Lao­ can's composite agent (Cuihuan, M r and Mrs De) learns from it. Here the message is unambiguously ethical and leads down from the mountain: an im­ manent transcendence will take Yiyun from her convent back to the world, but the world is no longer conceived in political terms. The theme is reinforced when we learn that De Huisheng will quit officialdom (259.1.11), though his first actual appearance (in chapter 20, reminiscent of his dream appearance in the prologue) was linked with intense political concern. In fact, De's general movement in this sixth stage of the travels recapitulates that of Laocan in the novel as a whole; the difference is that De is seen to learn something whereas the 'progress' of Laocan, the ideal consciousness, is not an education for him but a device for enlightening the reader. Conclusion There is no dispute about Liu E's preeminence as a lyrical prose stylist. H u Shi and C . T . Hsia observed that Liu E uses prose poetically and in so doing achieves effects worthy of great poetry and far superior to the novel's own passable verse. In Travels he attempted to develop, through the 'humble' medium of vernacular prose, aesthetic effects of 'high' wenyan literature, of both the reflective essays and the nature lyric. 39

The poetic element of the novel, however, seems to me to be neither virtu­ oso display nor diversion from the political content and mimesis of society: it is

145 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

not something confined to detachable descriptions. The linguistic resources of lyric poetry - rich allusion, coherence of imagery, significant parallelism, all in conjunction with scenic depiction - are at work in the prose of this novel, whether setting is evoked or social interaction is portrayed. That the author does not resort to poetic cliché (as even hostile critics agree) indicates his successful development of lyrical procedures in the medium of prose. We have looked at his method. A pervasive symbolism integrates the varied handling of setting, character, and plot and gives them a coherent texture, and also points toward the underlying ideological unity: the gradual elaboration of a concept of human action through a series of dramatic oppositions. In the pro­ logue the dynamics of the argument derive from the confrontation of political necessity (in terms of the national crisis) with moral freedom (in terms of Chi­ nese culture). In the novel, then, characters and events function as illustrations of moral positions and of typical actions. Setting is emblematic, and provides important clues as to what the illustrations signify; since the narrator is ex­ tremely objective, he offers no support to setting in this, its prime function. The journey is a convenient linking device but not a source of artistic unity. 1 tried to indicate the source of artistic unity through the analysis of the first stage of the novel. Continuity in theme and method between the dream and the subsequent text has been shown: the source of unity is the fusion of lyrical procedures and concept elaboration, the allegorical method in a word. This particular allegory is governed by what one might call 'rhetorical setting': scenes which, once their emblematic nature is discovered, instruct us in inter­ preting the persons and events that follow. 40

41

The entire novel can then be interpreted as an allegorical structure with two parallel cycles in which the first, ambiguous, political resolution of the pro­ tagonist's concern with injustice is eventually replaced by a more satisfactory metaphysical understanding of the dilemma first posed in the allegorical events of the prologue. Travels is a product of its times in the prominence of political themes and the exposé of officials. These features are not the central ones, however. We can accept Hsia's view of the novel as 'political' only if we specify that it is pro­ foundly anti-political, rejecting political action as useless. It is a retreat from the process of change, which seems, in the conservative perspective of the narrative, beyond rational comprehension. The alternative is a concern with cultural values, which are seen to be, like the Chinese state, under attack. These unchanging values need to be recovered from the great repository of Chinese tradition by a critical intelligence undaunted by orthodox doctrine. They need to be preserved in practice, enacted in a world of individual human 42

146 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century relations, where suffering is perennial and perennially in need of remedy. The discord between the ahistoric idealism of the first preface and the historical engagement of the prologue is resolved in the course of the novel by showing that political acts do not achieve the good results intended. A n enveloping melancholy is the price of abandoning politics. The lyricism of the novel is elegiac. The complex and sophisticated conservatism expressed in Liu E's fiction is fully aware that the preservation of values is not automatic and requires a struggle. In turn-of-the-century China, where cataclysmic change stared the intelligentsia in the face, if a theoretical reformulation of 'China' were re­ jected, then the familiar situations and traditional texts had to be scrupulously re-examined to discover their true nature, and the essential China could be preserved on the basis of recovered truth. Liu E's artistic method expressed the need to grasp and master the actual detail in a world where all things would otherwise dissolve, to see things as they were so that truth would be revealed. His conservative impulse in a dynamic historical context led to aesthetic innovation. The unprecedented mimetic quality of his descriptions was necessary to embody his overriding ideological concerns. The abandonment of cliché and the new accuracy of detail have diverted critics into discussing the novel in terms of verisimilitude: autobiographical value, accurate representation of objects, imitation of the effects of music, fidelity to contemporaneous social conditions, literalness of the Shandong scenery. Of course Liu E provided ample basis for this critical activity; my aim is not to deny or diminish his mimetic skill. The point is simply that here mimesis is at the service of allegory, and that this relationship is the key to the unity of the novel.

NOTES 1 T r Harold Shadick (Ithaca 1952). Shadick renders the traveller's name as Lao Ts'an; I will use the pinyin

rendering Laocan.

2 Translations in this paper are largely based on Shadick's, modified to make the object of analysis clearer. Shadick's version is painstakingly accurate and pro­ vided with notes of great value to the English reader. The six-chapter erji or 'sequel' has been translated, more cavalierly, by Lin Yutang under the title ' A N u n of Taishan': first as a separate book (Shanghai 1935) and then, revised, as

part of Widow, Nun, Courtesan

(New York 1951).

3 Chapters 1-13 (excluding 11] appeared in Xiuxiang xiaoshuo 9-18 (Mar. 1903-Jan. 1904); chapters 1-20 with the addition of the preface appeared in

147 Travels:

Allegorical N a r r a t i v e

Tianjin riri xinwenbao (1904]; see C . T . Hsia 'The Travels of Lao Ts'an: A n Exploration of its Art and Meaning' Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 7.2 (1969] 57ff. T h e remaining chapters, 21-34, continued to be published in riri xinwenbao Travels

Tianjin

between 1904 and 1907; see 'Translator's Introduction' in

tr Shadick xiv, xvii.

4 H u Shi 'Laocan youji xu' in Laocan youji (Shanghai 1933] 37 5 Liu Tiesun 'Laocan youji erji ba er' in Wei Shaochang ed Laocan youji ziliao (Shanghai 1933) 37 6 Serialized in Lin Yutang's bi-monthly Renjian

shi 6-14 (June.-Oct 1934]; pub-

lished as a separate book, Laocan youji erji (Liangyou tushu gongsi] (Shanghai 1935); see Liu Dashen 'Guanyu Laocan youji'

in W e i Shaochang ed Laocan

youji ziliao 92n. 7 This 1972 Taibei edition, Laocan youji quanbian, unfortunately retains the unauthorized emendations of a less complete earlier Taibei edition by Yang Jialuo, Laocan youji chuerji ji qi yanjiu

(1962| the defects of the latter have ;

been indicated by Hsia in the valuable bibliographical note to his article. More reliable is the text of the 1969 Hong Kong Taiping shuju edition, Laocan

youji,

which contains chapters 1-26. Unless otherwise noted, all references are to this edition; they are given in the format 10.2.4 (= page 10, paragraph 2, line 4).

8 Laocan youji quanbian (Taibei 1972) 350 9 A l l critics confine themselves essentially to the first 20 chapters. Of the 29 chapters extant, all but chapter 20 end with some version of the conventional formula, 'If you don't know what happened then, hear it settled in the next chapter.' This suggests first that chapter 20 is a conclusion; and second, that whatever the relation of the subsequent 9 chapters to the first part, chapter 29 is not a conclusion. Whether the formulae are appropriate to the content is another question.

10 Travels tr Shadick xxi 11 Jaroslav PrûSek 'Liu O et son roman Le Pèlerinage du Lao Ts'an' in his Chinese History and Literature (Dordrecht 1970] 158 12 H u Shi 'Laocan youji xu' 23ff, 28-33 13 Zhang Bilai 'Laocan youjide fandongxing he H u Shi zai Laocan youji pingjiazhong suo biaoxiande fandongde zhengzhi lichang' in Ming Qing

xiaoshuo

yanjiu lunwen ji (Beijing 1959) 374 14 H u Shi 'Laocan youji xu' 15ff, 22; Prusek 'Liu O et son roman' 140, 165; Travels

tr Shadick xvii, xxi

15 Zhang Bilai 'Laocan youji'

368, 388; Nian R u 'Yinggai yi shenzhong yanjinde

taidu lai pingjia Laocan youji' in Ming Qing xiaoshuo yanjiu lunwen ji 401, 405; Lao Hong 'Liu E ji qi Laocan youji' in Ming Qing xiaoshuo yanjiu lunwen ji xubian (n.p. 1970) 462

148 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century 16 Hsia ' A n Exploration' 41, 66n, 44, 45 17 'C'est d'ailleurs la seule façon qui nous permet d'expliquer les éléments bizarres qui viennent s'insérer au milieu d'un récit réaliste.' 'Liu O a revêtu l'idéal traditionnel du savant confucianiste d'une forme concrète et l'a campé au milieu de la vie réelle ... Ce livre est la dernière grande apologie de l'ancienne civilisation chinoise avant son déclin.' Prûsek 'Liu O' 166, 140. 18 This characterization is drawn from G . Clifford The Transformations

of Allegory

(London 1974] 5, 9, 22, 23, 34. 19 For example, H u Shi 'Laocan youji Travels

xu' 12-14; Prûsek 'Liu O et son roman' 159;

tr Shadick 237; Zhang Bilai 'Laocan youji'

376; Hsia ' A n Exploration'

44, 52 20 The friends' names are significant: Travels tr Shadick (238n] gives 'Leader in Literary Composition' for Wen Zhangbo and 'Student of Morals and Wisdom' for De Huisheng. De, the less impulsive of the two, appears in chapters 21-26 and has obvious affinities with Laocan. Wen, who appears only in the dream, is satirized, a foretaste of Laocan's criticisms of bookishness throughout the novel. 21 Ibid 238n 22 A concise account of the allegory is in ibid 238n. Zhang Bilai 'Laocan

youji'

376-9, has the best discussion of the social types depicted in the allegory. 23 Actions which have consequences, thus contributing to plot, and actions which have no consequences, thus irrelevant to plot, are distinguished in Lubomir Dolezel 'From Motif ernes to Motifs' Poetics 4 (1972] 55-90. It may seem contradictory to deny the structural significance of plot here and then later, in the analytical précis (141-2], to account for structure in language appropriate to plot. However, as the summary shows, the plot relation between 'Hero perceives

lack' and 'Hero observes injustice'

is superficial [a and c] or absent [h and i)

}

there are similarly flimsy plot connections between the hero block and the agent block [a, c, d and f, g-, h,i,l

and m, n). Unity is achieved not through compo-

nents (e.g. plot, setting) which participate in the formation of the story, but through narrative commentaries which are here derived largely (but not exclusively) from allegorized settings. For a theoretical formulation of this procedure, see Lubomir Dolefel 'Narrative Semantics' PTL 1.1 (Jan. 1976) 141. 24 For an illuminating explanation of why this is so, see Hsia ' A n Exploration' 52f. 25 The last line of the couplet, ]inan mingshi

duo, finds an echo in the governor's

words (24.4.4), 'Mufu rencai jiji': 'In council [mufu, which is in Jinan] talented men are numerous [jiji, written with the same character as the ji in Jinan].' T h e existence of a standard phrase, jiji duo shi, combining characters from both lines, is an additional incentive to associate them. T h e text following the governor's words suggests that Laocan is the outstanding talent. Thus the last line of the couplet is a reference, in the oblique style of the novel, to Laocan.

149 Travels:

Allegorical Narrative

26 See K.S. Latourette The Chinese: Their History and Culture (New York 1966) 228. 27 137.4.1, 146.2.12, 146.3.2; 176.2.5 28 H u Shi, unaware of the aesthetic function of the scene, points out that the actual hill is too far distant to be reflected in the water: T h e r e are occasional mistakes in the scenic descriptions ... [One smiles to] read of the image of T h o u ­ sand Buddha Hill in Lake Darning in front of Tie Gong Temple ... Suppose that 30 years ago the lake had not been overgrown with reeds, this was still impos­ sible. Perhaps the author's memory failed him?' H u Shi 'Laocan youji xu' 33. 29 Chengjing

means 'pure,' a less common word than the synonym it immediately

suggests - chengqing,

which is a metaphor for ridding the world of disorder.

30 For perceptive comments on the limitations of this utopia, see Hsia ' A n Explora­ tion' 53. 31 Literally, 'scraped so that the boat made a chichi 32 Here I read hua

(scornful chuckle) sound'

(flower) in its alternative meaning of 'prostitute.' Yehe was part

of the empress' clan name, Yehe Nala. A similar contemporaneous (1903) insult using the other part of the name was made by Zou Rong in his famous pam­

phlet, The Revolutionary

Army: maiyinfu

Nala shi ('the bawd Nala'). See the

reprinted text in Tsou fung The Revolutionary

Army

tr John Lust (Paris 1968)

16. Another allusion to the empress' illegitimate power is found at the end of Yellow Dragon's discourse when Xi youji

[ci our novel's title Laocan youji) is

mentioned as an allegory [yuyan). O n the relation between yuyan

see Andrew H . Plaks Archetype

and allegory,

and Allegory in the Dream of the Red Cham­

ber (Princeton 1976) 84n. Liu E's contemporaries would immediately have recognized the anti-empress tenor of the novel in its attack on her leading advisers, Y u Xian and Gang Y i : see Hsia ' A n Exploration' 52. 33 Travels tr Shadick 241n 34 Ibid 246n 35 See V . Propp Morphology

of the Folktale tr Louis A . Wagner and Alan Dundes

(Austin, Texas 1968). 36 I agree with Hsia's judgment that since stage seven is 'decidedly inferior, Liu E's fame as a novelist must rest upon the chubian

[first part] and the first six

chapters of its sequel' (Hsia ' A n Exploration' 59). 37 The theme of Chinese culture does appear earlier, in a, but there it is subordi­ nate to the political theme. 38 Clifford Transformations

34

39 H u Shi 'Laocan youji xu' 33; Hsia ' A n Exploration' 46, 43 40 Zhang Bilai 'Laocan youji'

394

41 Ibid 395 42 For perceptive comments on the elitist bias of this critique of government, see Zhang Bilai 'Laocan youji'

393ff and Lao Hong 'Liu E' 46Iff.

The Dramatic Structure of Niehai hua P E T E R LI

The world of the late Qing panoramic novel Niehai hua (The flower in the world of retribution) by Zeng Pu (1872-1935) bears a certain resemblance to the world of Balzac in La Comedie humaine. Although Flower can hardly equal the dimensions of La Comédie humaine, the intention is the same. Zeng Pu wrote in the preface to his 1928 revised edition of Flower that he wanted to record in 'cinematographic' fashion the cultural and political changes that took place at a 'flying pace' in China from 1870 to 1900. He mapped out for himself these thirty years of Chinese history in much the same way that Balzac staked out the Restoration period in France. H u Shi and Qian Xuantong criticized Flower and its author on the basis of Zeng Pu's panoramic ambitions. 1

H u Shi levelled the following charges against the novel: first, it reads more like a volume of occasional notes than a novel; second, the author indulges in groundless superstition, thus revealing his 'old-fashioned muddle-headedness'; and third, the structure is loose, plotless, and episodic. In his preface for the revised edition of the novel Zeng Pu replied to H u Shi's charges. T o the first point Zeng Pu replied by praising H u Shi's perspicacity and he admitted that he had tried to record as much as possible of the cultural and political changes that were taking place at the time, thus crowding the pages with people, places, and events. As for the second point, Zeng Pu accused H u Shi himself of old-fashioned muddle-headedness, and cited sev­ eral examples of the use of fantasy and supernatural phenomena in Western literature. In response to the last point, on structure - our special con­ cern - Zeng Pu wrote: 2

As for H u Shi's charge that the organization of Fiower is like that of Rulin waishi (The scholars), I dare not agree. Although a large number of brief accounts are used to make

151 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai

hua

up the story (as is the case in The Scholars), the method of organization is drastically different. Let us take the analogy of stringing beads. The incidents in The Scholars are like beads strung straight through from beginning to end on one string. The end result is just one straight strand of beads. In my case, I coil and twist the string, this way and that; I tighten and loosen it, but never losing sight of the centre. The end result is a string of beads in the shape of a flower. Or, let us take the analogy of flowers blossom­ ing. The incidents in The Scholars are like flowers arranged in a single column, and they blossom sequentially from top to bottom ... In my case, I let the flowers blossom in the shape of an umbrella. Beginning in the centre, they blossom in layers of different designs which bear a definite relationship to each other. The end product is a huge ball-shaped arrangement of flowers ... It cannot be said that my novel does not have a complex structure.

3

Let us assume for the moment that there is a definite structure in Flower, but that Zeng Pu's analogical characterization of it is not totally satisfactory. What does he mean specifically by 'beads' and 'flowers'? What 'arrangement' is he talking about? The analogies do not give us these answers. But imprecise as these analogies may be, they do give us a clue to understanding the novel. Flower is 'architectonically' laid out - the emphasis is on pattern and design, with a strong feeling for proportion, symmetry, and balance rather than unified plot development, character change, or cause-and-effect relationships in gen­ eral. A consequence of this emphasis is the seemingly loose, episodic structure of Flower, and of Chinese prose fiction in general. Yet, a careful analysis of Flower reveals two principles of organization, 'architectonic' construction and incremental dramatic development, both spe­ cial characteristics of Chinese prose fiction and both important to the under­ standing of Flower. With these two underlying principles in mind, the tragic career of the protagonist, Jin Wenqing, can be traced, demonstrating how these characteristics, in conjunction with other techniques, bring about the overall effect of Flower.* Setting There is a correlation between the plot and the geographical setting. The action of the plot tells of the rise and fall of the zhuangyuan, Jin Wenqing, whose career can be divided into three stages. The first stage bridges about twenty years from his success in the palace examination in 1868 to his appoint­ ment as special ambassador to Russia, Germany, Holland, and Austria in 1887. The second stage spans three years from 1887, when the hero boards the Ger­ man ship Saxon for his mission abroad, to his appointment to the Zongli Yamen (Foreign Affairs Department) in 1890 after his return to China. The 5

152 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century last stage is from 1890, after his return to Peking, to his agonizing death in 1893. These three stages in the course of the zhuangyuan's development have three geographical foci - Suzhou, Shanghai, and Peking; each has a special sig­ nificance in the novel. Suzhou, for the Chinese, is synonymous with paradise on earth; the mild climate, beautiful women, enchanting mountains and waters make it a scho­ lar's dream-world. The favourite pastime was to spend an evening on a hired boat on one of the many rivers and canals which criss-cross the city and dine and watch the sunset, accompanied by charming, gifted courtesans who fur­ nished poetry and song. In the novel, it becomes the playground of the scholarpoet when he retreats from official life. It is here that Jin Wenqing meets his beloved future concubine, Caiyun. In Shanghai, the old meets the new, and the East meets the West. In the streets and public places there are young men and women dressed in Western clothing. Even dignified officials, wearing their long gowns and official caps, can be found dining in Western-style restaurants, eating with knives and forks, and drinking champagne and coffee. In their conversations, they talk about government, politics, literature, and the arts of foreign countries. In the last decades of the Qing dynasty, Shanghai was transformed from a busy trading port to the cosmopolitan commercial centre of China. It is here that Jin Wen­ qing is hosted by a group of foreign-affairs experts. Peking is the stronghold of stubborn, reactionary forces. Tradition has a firm hold on its people, who are preoccupied with the past. Their ideal is the gentle­ man of leisure; erudition and expertise are prized for their own sake; courtesy, polite conversation, and refined manners are the sine qua non of social suc­ cess. Zhuangyuan, bangyan, and tanhua, the three highest winners of the examination system, people the world of Peking high society, and they make up the literati-aristocracy of Peking. They collect rare editions of ancient books, stone-rubbings, paintings, and other exotic treasures. Feasting and wine-drinking, in the company of singing girls and boy-actors, are common practices of the day. Peking is the principal setting of Flower. The Hero Let us turn to the hero and see how he is woven into the pattern. There are two phases in the first stage of the action. In phase one, Jin Wenqing, the finest scholar in the empire, is faced with a dilemma: he is uncertain of the value of the zhuangyuan in the unstable final years of the Qing dynasty. Although he is hailed as the zhuangyuan, the title and honour which had been most coveted in Chinese society for the previous five hundred years, he is plagued by a feeling of inadequacy imposed upon him by the changing world around him.

153 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai

hua

But first we are given this tongue-in-cheek narrator's description of the yuan: I think those of you who have not seen an explanation of the zhuangyuan

zhuang­

do not know

its true worth. China is the one and only nation in the world that has this [institution], and there is only one zhuangyuan

selected every three years. Only a person who has

accumulated generations of merit, who is unmoved by the presence of beautiful women, who has close friendships in the capital, whose essays are dazzling with ele­ gance, is qualified. He is the most outstanding among the immortals and a disciple of the Son of Heaven himself. There is such an air of nobility and wisdom around him that even Su Dongpo and Li Taibo must step back ninety li in deference. How much more so must Bacon and Rousseau!

6

Following his success in Peking, Jin Wenqing asks for temporary leave to return to his home in Suzhou. O n the way he stops in Shanghai where he greets many well-wishers and is invited by his friends. One of his well-wishers is Feng Guifen, a forceful, clear-headed modernizer, who advises him to study 'foreign affairs,' and exhorts him with the old adage, 'a scholar should feel ashamed as long as there is one thing of which he is ignorant.' That same evening his friend Xue Shuyun and five of his colleagues in foreign affairs invite Jin Wenqing for a Western-style dinner at the restaurant Yipinxiang. As he listens to his friends discourse on politics and learns of Western countries, he is brought to a shameful realization: 'although I am a zhuangyuan and my name is known throughout the empire, how can it be that I am completely ignorant of these things. It is undreamt of! From now on, it seems that high honours at the examinations do not amount to anything. One must learn about Western countries and become versed in foreign affairs, and then enter the Zongli Yamen and be sent abroad. This is the only way to become outstand­ ing.' While still in Shanghai, Jin has a brief encounter with the revolutionary Chen Qianqiu who remarks T don't know how many promising young men have been ruined by that word "zhuangyuan".' After a brief stay in Suzhou, Jin Wenqing returns to Peking with his family. From this point on, time passes quickly. Jin becomes an expert on foreign affairs by his own diligence on the one hand, and by recommendations of high officials in Peking on the other. In the process we are introduced to a gallery of characters in Peking, Gong Hefu, Pan Baying, Li Chunke, and others. 7

In Peking Jin Wenqing meets the charming singing-girl, Fu Caiyun, who later becomes his concubine. Jin is persuaded by a number of his old friends to join them in celebrating the Qingming festival. He joins them reluctantly as he is supposed to be mourning for his mother who passed away a year earlier.

154 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century However he becomes infatuated with the most beautiful of the singing-girls, Fu Caiyun, as soon as he joins them. The five friends, each accompanied by a singing-girl, board one of the 'painted' boats on the famous Ten-mile Canal in Suzhou to view the sights and drink wine. This meeting is the first high point in the novel, and during it the design of the novel is laid out. The Plot Foreshadowed The plot or design of the novel is foreshadowed in the seven quatrains com­ posed by the guests in a drinking game, the xingjiu ling; in this case it is the Caiyun ling, in honour of the female guest. The first line of each of the seven quatrains is from the text of the drama Huanhun ji (Return of the soul), or Mudan ting (Peony pavilion). The second line is the name of an aria from the same drama, and the third line is from Shijing (Book of poetry). The conclud­ ing verse, feishang or 'flying goblet,' is a line of Tang poetry which contains the two characters cai and yun. The choice of the drama Return of the Soul is not accidental, since both Flower and the drama involve the return to life of heroines who had died. Peony Pavilion, a long drama in 55 scenes by the sixteenth-century scholarplaywright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), tells of the love between D u Liniang, the daughter of a high official, and a young scholar Liu Mengmei, whom she meets and with whom she has an affair in a dream. Unable to have her dream ful­ filled in life, she pines away in lovesickness, dies, and is buried in the peony garden. Subsequently, the young scholar Liu comes upon her tomb; her spirit appears to him and urges him to open her coffin where he finds her alive and well. They marry, and after further obstacles the story ends with official pro­ motion and a grand family reunion. In the original, unrevised version of Flower, Jin Wenqing abandons a singing-girl whom he had befriended during his student days. Jin had promised that he would return to marry her after he succeeded in the examinations. But when he fails to return, she commits suicide by hanging. Fifteen years later when he meets Caiyun for the first time, there is at once a strange mutual fascination. Then he notices a red mark around her neck which she tells him she had at birth. When Jin learns at last that she is fifteen sui (age fourteen), he realises that she is the reincarnation of his former girlfriend; the red mark around her neck is evidence of her previous existence. The parallel between the two stories is meant to be more suggestive and symbolic than exact. Both heroines are charming and beautiful, and they both return to life. Here the similarity ends; the hero and heroine of the drama live happily thereafter, whereas the other pair ends in tragedy. The first quatrain of the drinking game reads :

155 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai hua She stands like a cloud beside the moon; A gathering of worthy guests

;

They saunter about by the river;

the feishang is: Caiyun and Xiao Shi halt momentarily.

8

The first three lines describe the setting on the river, the gathering of guests, and Caiyun and Jin Wenqing's being together for the first time at the banquet table. The last line tells of their immediate fascination with each other. Xiao Shi, the legendary flute player who has magical powers to call forth dragons and phoenixes, refers to the zhuangyuan Jin Wenqing. Throughout the verses, the words cai and y u n , which mean literally 'beautiful cloud,' also refer to the heroine, Caiyun. This quatrain, then, sets the scene. The second verse reads: Embarrassed by her own shyness, she fashions her hair aslant; Happy upon meeting; M a y the gentleman live for ten thousand years;

the feishang is: He learns to play the phoenix flute to catch Caiyun.

These lines foretell their courtship and Jin's proposal to take Caiyun as his concubine. The third poem reads: Last night beyond the fragrant clouds ; A n audience at the Golden Gate; There is the sound of bells, regular and clear;

the feishang is: Stopping and starting, Caiyun continues to rise.

These lines foresee Jin Wenqing's promotion to special minister to Russia, Germany, Holland, and Austria; and Caiyun's elevation to the rank of his first wife while she is abroad. The 'continues' refers to Caiyun's rise from the status of a singing-girl to that of a zhuangyuan's concubine and finally to his wife.

156 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century The fourth poem reads: Afraid that she would be blown away by 'mist and rain'; Remember me for my tenderness; We were to grow old together;

and the feishang

is:

Changes into Caiyun and flies away.

These lines forebode Caiyun's amours in Europe, and her heart going to the young German army officer Waldersee. The fifth poem reads: In the vastness, hanging by clouds under an autumn moon; A long way from home; The days and months will have gone;

the feishang

reads:

The song of the jade flute ends and Caiyun is restless.

These lines anticipate the end of Jin Wenqing's days; he dies soon after he returns from Europe. Caiyun is impatient to move on to other amours. The sixth poem reads: A picture of the conjugal pair in the azure sky

;

The highest tower; The wind whistles and the rain spatters;

The feishang

reads:

Caiyun dissolves easily and the coloured glass is thin.

Ironically, these lines, composed by Jin Wenqing himself, foretell the novel's tragic end: Wenqing's death and Caiyun's departure from the Jin household. The final poem reads: As soon as the traces of the 'rain and mist' have disappeared; Spring in the Jade Palace; Harmoniously we talked and laughed;

157 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai and the feishang

hua

is:

Bundled up on the bridge, he grasps for Caiyun.

These last lines tell of the aftermath of the whole affair. After Jin Wenqing dies and Caiyun leaves, only the happy memories are left. The Plot Now that we have the outline of the plot laid out for us, let us see how the plot itself is carried out. In accordance with the third p o e m - ' A n audience at the Golden gate /There is the sound of bells, regular and clear' - Jin is appointed as ambassador to Europe shortly after he returns to Peking from Suzhou. The first stage of the action ends with Jin's departure for Europe; furthermore, he has set his mind on making a name for himself in foreign affairs. ;

In the second stage of the action, there is a marked difference in the hero's ability to cope with his new environment. As soon as he is aboard the Saxon, his concubine, Caiyun, becomes the centre of attention, and Jin assumes a secondary role. In the first stage, Jin was on the upswing of the wheel of fortune. However, as soon as he leaves China, he is bewildered by a flood of new experiences and finds himself at a loss. O n board the Saxon, he is swindled out of 15,000 marks. Later he purchases in Germany, at an exorbitant price, twelve Sino-Russian border maps to help him in settling boundary dis­ putes, but they turn out to be faulty. In St Petersburg while Jin is downstairs pouring over his maps with great dedication, his concubine is having affairs upstairs. The literati in general, and the zhuangyuan in particular, seem to take on comic roles here. The zhuangyuan himself becomes the butt of comic farce. It is customary for a new zhuangyuan, after his success, to pay respects to all his examiners. But Pan, one of his examiners, refuses to receive the new scholar because he has expected the honour to go to someone else. Finally, after many attempts, the student sees his examiner. A t the end of the audi­ ence the examiner had his servant bring tea for the candidate - a signal for the candidate to leave. The candidate got up and backed off to go. But he did not notice that there were some steps in back of him ... he slipped and fell over backwards with his four limbs thrashing in the air ... The shangshu guffawed and walked away. Needless to say, the candidate scrambled up and rushed for his carriage. 9

158 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Also included are several incidents of topical interest, such as Caiyun's secret meeting with German Empress Victoria, and an episode about the Rus­ sian anarchists and their attempted assassination of Alexander ill. But the inci­ dents in Peking make up the main sequence of events. Social gatherings in particular characterize Zeng Pu's technique. There is a small circle of Jin's friends, Lu Fengru, Qian Tangqing, and Zhuang Xiaoyan, who appear on different occasions in the company of various people. Jin, of course, is the thread that links them together. However, when Jin is on his mission in Europe, his best friend, Lu Fengru, becomes the new connecting link; and Jin maintains contact with him by letter, telegram, and personal messenger. In chapter 11, Lu Fengru attends a celebration in honour of a famous Gongyang commentator of the Han dynasty, He Shao, in the home of Pan Baying. This celebration anticipates the grand birthday celebrations for Li Chunke in chapter 20, the high point of the entire novel. There are nine guests besides the host himself, and they all appear again at the later gathering. Again, in chapter 13, after Lu Fengru has received the maps from Jin, he is invited by Qian Tangqing, another close friend of Jin, to a small party where Lu meets Duan Huchiao, Zhuang Xiaoyan, and Wen Yungao, who also appear later at the birthday celebration. Lu gives the maps for safe keeping to Zhuang Xiaoyan, an official in the Zongli Yamen. The climax of this section is the banquet at Weichunyuan restaurant in Shanghai shortly after Jin Wenqing returns to China. In spite of everything that has happened in the course of his mission, Jin is hailed as a member of the new elite of foreign affairs experts. Recall the banquet hosted by Xue Shuyun at Yipinxiang in Shanghai about twenty years earlier; once more he is the host, and the six guests at that first meeting are all present again at this one, with a few new faces added. The size of the banquet has also increased from seven to eleven guests. This scene illustrates most clearly Zeng Pu's technique of 'coiling and twist­ ing the string but never losing sight of the centre.' Here we find the string crossing over itself after making a large loop. The guests talk nostalgically about old times, and they discourse on the affairs of the world with their newly gained knowledge. Jin Wenqing, who felt such shame at their first meeting, now boasts of a personal message which he is bearing to the emperor from the Russian czar himself. This is the second high point in the novel. Jin Wenqing has risen a step higher in the eyes of his colleagues, and soon he is to learn that he has been appointed to the Zongli Yamen. The third part begins with Jin Wenqing's departure for Peking after he learns that he has been appointed to the Zongli Yamen. He arrives just in time for the

159 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai

hua

elaborate birthday celebrations for the famous, temperamental scholar-eccentric, Li Chunke, who is a landmark on the Peking cultural scene. The eighteen guests include high government officials, provincial officials, promising young scholars, and three favourite boy-actors of the guest of honour, and there is poetry and song. This episode marks the second and major high point of the novel and of Jin Wenqing's career. The host is Cheng Boyi, an imperial clansman, who has a grand, luxurious private garden called Yunwoyuan. The setting for the celebrations is the most lavish of all the ones we have seen so far. The garden has a pond, pavilions, memorial arches, and lush vegetation. The magnificence of the occasion is also marked by the sheer number of guests; in addition they are all men of talent and accomplishment. We have already met twelve of the eighteen guests on previous occasions. After L i Chunke has made a slow tour of the garden and has met all the guests, he and the host invite them all to sit down at the tables. The three boy-actors Aiyun, Yiyun, and Suyun play their flutes and each sings an aria appropriate to the feast. Then the host suggests a drinking-game which requires verse-making in the Boliang manner, that is, a poem in seven-syllable lines composed in succession by guests around the table. This Boliang style was originated by emperor W u of the Han dynasty when he suggested it to celebrate the completion of his Boliang Tower. Cheng Boyi further suggests that the verses be about each guest's favourite treasured object, such as rare editions of famous works, stone-rubbings, and other objets dart. The guest of honour chooses his diary which he has kept steadily for forty years. For Jin Wenqing it is the set of border maps which he had purchased in Europe. Zhuang Xiaoyan chooses his collection of paintings by Wang Shigu. Li Shinong names his collection of Huashan rubbings of the classics. And so it goes. By the time all eighteen guests have presented their lines, a great amount of wine has been consumed. Everyone is rosy-cheeked and merry, especially the guest of honour, Li Chunke, who leaves the table with a boy-actor by his side to enjoy a tête-à-tête. After this high point begins the dénouement. Jin Wenqing falls ill for a month; then his good friend, Qian Tangqing, brings the bad news that his maps have been used by the Russians to gain territory for themselves, and charges have been made against him. His concubine, Caiyun, becomes restless in Peking and begins to have lovers. Then news arrives that Pan Baying is seriously ill, and soon afterwards we learn of his death. By chapter 24, the border question involving the maps is settled and Jin Wenqing is absolved from blame. But his colleague Zhuang Xiaoyan insults him, and Caiyun makes a cuckold of him by further indiscretions, so that he finally breaks down. Just before his death all his fears and wrongdoings come to haunt him in his hallucinations. He sees Caiyun's lover, Count Waldersee; the ship's captain whom Caiyun

160 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century went to see stealthily; his personal servant, A Fu, who became Caiyun's con­ stant companion; and finally, as he looks into Caiyun's face, he sees the face of the singing-girl whom he had betrayed twenty years earlier. Jin cries out for help and loses consciousness. The workings of retribution or karma have come full cycle, and Jin dies. Conclusion The features of Flower which we have analysed, the architectonic structure and the incremental dramatic development with banquets and celebrations, are not Zeng Pu's innovations. A n instance of the first is in chapter 5 of Honglou meng (Dream of the red chamber), where Baoyu in his dream wanders into the Realm of the Great Void [tai xu huan jing), discovers the registers of the Twelve Maidens of Jinlin, and reads their fate but without real understanding. Then the Twelve Songs sing, in veiled language, the whole story of the novel, but Baoyu again listens without comprehension. As in Flower, the author in­ tends that the protagonist remain ignorant of future events, but permits his readers to have a glimpse into the future. A n instance of incremental development is found in chapter 37 of The Scholars, where D u Shaoqing and his worthy fellow scholars perform the sacri­ ficial services at Taibo temple. When the ceremonies are over and the mem­ bers of the procession - 72 in all - return home, they find the streets lined with cheering people, young and old, from miles around. Several gatherings in the preceding chapters have prepared us for this grand occasion. Zeng Pu did not break new ground in the art of fiction. In fact, he adhered closely to the tradi­ tional narrative form. He reverted to a form of rhetoric antedating that of Cao Xueqin and W u Jingzi, who both made advances in the art of Chinese fiction. Flower clearly bears the marks of its time. There are sections which are mainly of topical interest, such as the fascination with the hypnotist Pierre, Caiyun's secret meeting with Empress Victoria, and the activities of the Rus­ sian anarchists. They do, however, provide a new perspective: China in rela­ tion to the rest of the world. Zeng Pu's style is often dazzling, as in the banquet scenes. His style is leisurely, informal, clear, and lively, at times attaining elegance. He dwells and lingers in some places, and moves quickly in others. His style has a smooth, flowing quality which gives the reader reassurance concerning the nature and working of the narrator's world. The gentle wisdom of the narrator prepares the reader for the unexpected. For example, before the fateful meeting between Wenqing and Caiyun, the narrator tells us: 'At this point quiescence has reached its limit and longs for action,- yin is exhausted and yang begins to rise. It is just this feeling of rest-

161 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai hua lessness that stirs up the accumulated merits and demerits of his [fin Wen­ qing's] past existences.' It is the natural order of the universe to swing from non-action to action, and from action back to non-action. The internal logic of the narrator's world is a loose, casual one, in which the reader is invited to explore and follow the passageways which twist and turn. This mode of narration, in conjunction with the architectonic structure of the novel, permits the author, by virtue of an internal logic, to embrace digres­ sions, contingencies, and sub-plots with a greater sense of harmony than is possible in Western novels. Causal sequences, and cause-and-effect relation­ ships in general, are not the only kinds of logic at the author's disposal. As portrayed in the novel, Jin Wenqing, a zhuangyuan of 1868, is one of the high-level officials in Peking. His rise and fall are a miniature of China's rise and fall. Since Zeng Pu felt China's weakness was the result of centuries of accumulated extravagance, corruption, and negligence, which penetrated to the core of Chinese society, he appropriately chose the inexorable force of retribution [baoying) as the theme of his novel. He skilfully identified the fate of a scholar possessing the highest honours {jinbang zhuangyuan) with the fate of China. In the novel's title, Niehai hua, the hua stands for China in her sinful splendour. Also it stands for the zhuangyuan, for the beautiful but wil­ ful courtesan, Caiyun, and for the literati-aristocracy in Peking. The niehai 'world of retribution' stands for the unfathomable evils which have been perpe­ trated by the officials and rulers of China during the previous centuries. The extravagance and the gaiety described in Flower are like an Indian summer signaling the inevitable coming of severe weather. 10

Flower is a work heavily burdened with Chinese literary and cultural tradi­ tions, yet pregnant with the new trends and interests of late Qing society. It does not present a picture of an 'unchanging' and complacent China closed to foreign influence. Rather, it presents the picture of a China in great agitation, in a state of flux, and with a sense of impending doom. Geographically, the scenes of the novel shift from Suzhou, Shanghai, and Peking to Berlin and St Petersburg; Bacon and Rousseau are juxtaposed with Chinese poets Li Bo and Su Dongpo, emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty with Louis XVI. The Chinese revolutionaries are juxtaposed with the Russian nihilists; the reformist philoso­ phy of the Gungyang school is contrasted with the revolutionary social philoso­ phy of Saint-Simon; and the romance between scholar and beauty [caizi jiaren) is opposed to the patriotic, selfless passion of the Russian nihilist lovers. A prologue at the beginning of the novel describes an out-of-the-way island called the Island of Enslaved Happiness (Nule dao) where the inhabitants live a carefree, ignorant, savage existence without having ever experienced freedom. One day the island topples into the sea. But, lo and behold! the Island of

162 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Enslaved Happiness is connected to Shanghai. This out-of-the-way island is really China herself, which was about to collapse. Flower reflects Zeng Pu's serious concern with the crisis in China and ex­ presses his innermost feelings of doubt and ambivalence. If we believe with Leon Edel that the 'subject selected by an artist more often than not reveals some emotion the writer had to express, some state of feeling, some view of life, some inner conflict or state of dis-equilibrium in his being, which sought resolution in the form of art,' then Flower is the expression of Zeng Pu's feelings of pain and sympathy, anguish and impatience, marvel and astonish­ ment which were transformed into tragedy, satire, and odyssey. From the very first chapter in the novel we are not given any illusions about the state of affairs in China in the last years of the Qing dynasty. As a pessimis­ tic observer in the novel notes, 'Not only is Manchuria in danger, but the whole of China is about to be lost!' It is precisely the contrast of this pessimism with the lavishness of the banquets and celebrations which creates this sense of impending doom. We have seen how the festivities become bigger and more extravagant as the scene moves from Suzhou to Shanghai, and from Shanghai to Peking. Jin Wenqing's political career also advances with the progression of banquets, whereas in reality his competence and ability are not in step with his outward advance. Inevitably, he will fall. The tragedy of Jin Wenqing is not heroic,- it is rather an ironic or social tragedy in which the protagonist's power of action does not rise above the forces of his environment. Unable to overcome these forces, he becomes their prisoner and victim. Although the working of retribution is the motivating principle of this tragedy, the overall sweep of action does not implicate clearcut villains, or reward victims. Flower conies to an end without a sense of resolution. Jin Wenqing has simply passed on with the movement of the yin and yang. There is a forcefulness of conception and unity of design in the first 24 chapters, those analysed here, which cannot be overlooked. The fact that these first 24 (of a planned 60) chapters were left untouched for more than twenty years testifies to their natural unity. Characteristic of the 'crisis literature' of the late Qing period which was written with a great sense of urgency, Zeng Pu completed the first 20 chapters of Flower in three months in 1904. And it was an immediate success. As we read the pages of the novel, we notice many changes in mood and tone. The novel begins with condemnation, then moves to cynicism and satire. The panorama of life in China and Europe, described in chapters 8-19, must have been a source of fascination for the Chinese reading public at the time. And the fact that most of the characters in the novel are thinly disguised 11

163 The Dramatic Structure of Niehai

hua

characterizations of well-known public figures in real life must have added an extra dimension to the enjoyment of the novel, and may have, at the same time, obscured the meaning in the sense that I have tried to demonstrate it here. The frustration of the social tragedy finds momentary relief in satire and irony. A n d the new world-view of Flower

placed China and her fate in a new

perspective, thus giving her people a new perception and consciousness about themselves. The analysis of the novel reveals that the theme of retribution forms the scaffolding or superstructure which gives Flower unity. The fate of the zhuangyuan

its forcefulness and

coincides with the imminent fate of impe­

rial China. The architectonic design and incremental progression give the work an organizational and developmental pattern.

NOTES 1 The edition of FJower used in this analysis is the 24-chapter original, unrevised version of the novel, 20 chapters of which were published in 1905 (Shanghai: Xiaoshuo lin she), and 4 additional chapters in Xiaoshuo

lin monthly in 1907.

Zeng Pu's revision and continuation of the novel after 1928 changed the spirit and content of the work; therefore I have not used it here. For the revised 30-chapter edition see Zeng Pu Niehai hua (The flower in the world of retribu­ tion) 2 vols (Taibei reprint 1966) vol 2. 2 H u Shi 'Zai ji Chen D u x i u da Qian Xuantong' in H u Shi wencun

1 (Taibei

reprint 1968) 39 3 Zeng Pu 'Xiugai hou yao shuode ji ju hua' in Niehai hua 1 (Taibei reprint 1966) 2-3 4 T h e theory of 'string-like plot' described by M . Dolezelová-Velingerová (this volume 41-9) is applicable here. T h e principles which I have discerned supple­ ment the principle of 'stringing' with a developmental aspect. 5 Flower is a roman àclef-, practically all the characters are based on prominent figures of the day. Jin Wenqing is Hong Jun (1840-93) in real life, and a zhuang­ yuan of 1868. Fu Caiyun, the prominent female character of the novel, is modelled after the famous courtesan, Sai Jinhua (1874-1936), whose fame be­ came especially widespread after the death of her husband, Hong Jun, when she became a public entertainer. She also acquired an international reputation perhaps notoriety - during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 when she was associated with the German field marshal Count Waldersee, who was in command of the allied occupying forces in Peking. Among the remaining characters, Feng Guifen in the novel is Feng Guifen (1809-74) in real life, a bangyan of 1840 and a pro­ gressive thinker; Xue Shuyun can be identified with Xue Fucheng (1838-94), a

164 T h e Chinese N o v e l at the T u r n of the C e n t u r y special minister to England and France; Chen Qianqiu can be identified with Chen Qing, a member of the Revive China Society, and so on. For further infor­ mation on this subject see Ji Guoan 'Niehai hua renwu tan' Niehua hua 2 (Taibei 1966] 1-24 (separate pagination]. 6 Ibid 2: 5 (ch. 2] 7 Ibid 2: 15 (ch. 3] 8 For these lines in the first round and the remaining six, see ibid 2: 74-6 (ch. 8). 9 Ibid 2: 132-3 (ch. 13] 10 Ibid 2: 69 (ch. 7) 11 Leon Edel 'Literature and Biography' in James Thorpe ed Relations

Study (New York 1967] 62-3

of

Literary

Characterization in Sea of Woe MICHAEL EGAN

The purpose of this collection of essays is to reveal the changes the Chinese novel was undergoing during the late Qing period. Close scrutiny of one aspect of a single novel might help indicate the transformations taking place. The study of character, touching so many facets of the novel, is ideal for this purpose. The exploration of character and characterization in W u Woyao's neglected yet important and innovative novel Hen hai (Sea of woe), published in 1906, will help show the development of the Chinese novel around the turn of the cen­ tury. Sea of Woe has a unitary plot structure; briefly, a single continuous story runs through the entire text, and the cast of characters is small and stable. This is strikingly different from traditional Chinese narratives, with their multitude of plots and sub-plots, and large numbers of characters. Sea of Woe focuses on a very few people, and lets the reader concentrate on them without being distracted by rapid scene changes, or by having to keep in mind a host of fleeting characters, all competing for attention. Thus, the unitary-plot novel emphasizes a certain kind of narrow characterization in the narrative unfold­ ing of the plot. The intimate relation between reader and character is very important, be­ cause Sea of Woe is more concerned with personality than with event. Its plot depends more on dynamic and psychological characterization than on action. That the protagonists and their relations to one another actually change during the course of the novel distinguishes Sea of Woe from earlier works, and points the way to a new direction in Chinese fiction. The reader gets his first hint that Sea of Woe is a novel about its characters' psyches rather than a novel of action at the beginning of the first chapter. This introductory section functions like a prologue in more traditional fiction:

166 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century The story which I'm going to tell may be called a novel of sentiment. When I tell a tale it's usually about sentiment, because from birth onwards, there's not an aspect of human affairs that does not concern sentiment. The squawking of little babies is an expression of sentiment, though the vulgar would rather call that sound the bubbling of little cesspools. What the vulgar call sentiment is merely sex between man and woman. But I mean the innate feeling that Heaven has sown in our hearts and which, as we grow older, manifests itself everywhere, under various forms according to its object. Toward one's lord and country, it is loyalty; towards one's parents, it is filial piety; toward one's children, it is parental love toward friends, it is generosity. We can thus ;

see that this feeling is what all great principles stem from. Love between the sexes may be called infatuation; it need not and should not appropriate the term sentiment. If one recklessly dissipates one's love, that's a case of bewitchment. A final word. Our predecessors said of widows that they are like withered wood and ashes, or dry wells, cut off from passion. T o be cut off from sentiment means that one grows old in the memory of a first love. The vulgar recognize only love between the sexes as love they can't discriminate between sentiment and the merely frivolous. ;

Moreover, much fiction has been written, not about sentiment, but about sex. It pre­ tends to be about sentiment, but is really about sin and transgression. Now I'll tell my little story, but first of all I want it understood that in writing about sentiment I'm not advocating carnality and indecency. With wisdom and discernment the reader will be able to see just what it is that I'm preaching.

1

This is not the standard apologia which declares its good intentions and decries impropriety in terms that are themselves vaguely enticing and titillat­ ing. It makes distinctions among various types of sentiment, and strongly hints that Sea of Woe is aiming at a sensibility distinct from that of the adventures portrayed in static swashbuckling romances, or in bawdy novels. The passage about widows warns the reader to be alert for a love that might come to grief. These signs imply that the novel's emphasis will be on sentiment, not action. The story is about two main characters: a young man, Bohe, whose actions are more or less traditionally presented, and whose adventures form the catalyst upon which the deeper psychological plot depends; and his fiancée, Dihua, whose depiction is more modern in that it is oriented toward her state of mind, and the emotional turmoil she endures in the course of the novel. 2

Bohe and Dihua are introduced in traditional fashion, at the beginning of the story. However, contrary to many traditional novels, there is no physical description; only their names and ages are given. The diminished attention paid to external traits corresponds to character presentation in other late Qing novels, especially those by W u Woyao and Li Baojia. Our first description of

167 Characterization in Sea of Woe Bohe is provided by Mrs Zhang, Bohe's prospective mother-in-law, when she and her husband discuss the pros and cons of engaging their daughter Dihua to him. The description concentrates on Bohe's inner qualities: [Bohe] is much more sprightly than even his brother. He likes to listen to tales and to read, and is clever. As for whether he would match up with Dihua, well, it's too soon to talk about it. They're still small children; how can they understand these matters?

3

The reader is told outright the personality traits (sprightly and clever) he would have had to infer from the traditional description of externals, and those exter­ nals themselves are not given. Thus, at the beginning of the story, data is presented that sketches the pro­ tagonist in static terms. A situation is roughed out, and, within it, a character who belongs to familiar linear stereotypes. If he is to change, new information must be given which will significantly alter the reader's perception of him. Chapter six describes how Bohe is separated from his fiancée by a crowd of marauding Boxers, and how he made his way to an inn, where he settled down to await Dihua's possible arrival. When a large group of Boxers arrives at the inn he flees, all thought of his loved one forgotten. He looks back and sees the inn set ablaze by the Boxers, presumably with all its other occupants still inside. This is a small incident, insignificant in itself, yet it serves to presage the further degeneration of Bohe's character. Later, wounded by a foreign soldier, he hides in an abandoned house, which apparently belongs to a wealthy phar­ macist. When discovered by a foreign army officer some weeks later, Bohe pretends that he is the servant of the absent landlord, and out of loyalty and at great personal risk to himself, has stayed behind to safeguard his master's pro­ perty. The officer is so moved by this evidence of loyalty on the part of the 'servant' that he permits Bohe to take all movable property from the house and transport it to Shanghai to protect it for its rightful owner. Bohe consents - the admirable youth, already shown as a coward, is changing into a con artist as well. Bohe's further decline is narrated by M r Zhang, the prospective father-inlaw, who has been searching for him at Dihua's desperate request. Here, W u Woyao violates the traditional linear time scheme of the novel, and employs an inversion of time, used in some of his other novels as well (see pages 125-6). Zhang becomes an extra medium for the voice of the narrator; this makes the tale more poignant, as it is now couched in the guise of heresay, with a strong human element. Zhang relates the news he has of Bohe from an opium dealer in Shanghai. On the boat to Shanghai, Bohe met a pedlar of dates, who as his ominous name

168 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Xin Shuhuai (Troublemaker-who-brings-grief) indicates, led Bohe astray. Bohe, spoiled by the wealth of his ill-gotten gains, and seduced by the lure of the big city, took up life in the Shanghai underworld, and began consorting with prostitutes. He became addicted to opium. Cheated and robbed by the prostitute Jin Ruyu (Golden Nephrite), he was left destitute and had no recourse but to become a beggar. The narrator's text resumes the tale of the lovers. Dihua's father invites Bohe to his home and asks him to give up opium. Bohe makes an effort, and moves in with Zhang, but his attempt fails; he returns to the street. Bohe finally dies in hospital, with Dihua by his side: [Dihua] took two or three steps nearer his bed to look at him. She saw that Bohe's cheeks were flushed red, his brow jaundiced. His lips were white and his breath was failing. Dihua sobbed, 'Bohe! Can't you see who has come to you?' Bohe barely opened his eyes and said, ' M y love! I've failed you!' Having said this, his body slowly became cool, the flush faded from his cheeks, and he finally breathed his last.

4

We finally get a direct external characterization of Bohe at the novel's very end; the opposite of its traditional place. And it shows us how debased Bohe has become in death, not what a fine figure of a man he must have been when the story opens. This is an innovation in the direct depiction of externals: it is at the end, rather than at the beginning of the plot; it is a realistic, instead of an idealized portrayal; and most important, it is used to describe the dynamic rather than the static character of the protagonist. The description drives home Bohe's psychological as well as physical deterioration. This direct characteriza­ tion punctuates the information we have been getting about him in indirect characterization through behavior. We are left with a portrait radically altered from the conception of him as a charming and intelligent, if opportunistic and rather happy-go-lucky, young man, which we had at the beginning of the novel. Still, Bohe's dynamic character is shown primarily in his physical degrada­ tion, rather than the psychological transformation he must have undergone. What he does is more important than what he thinks. Bohe's thoughts are often revealed, but since his major role is to provide action for the plot, those thoughts are almost always limited to very concrete situations. He might be confused about what to do, or how to proceed in certain circumstances, but he doesn't agonize or philosophize. The reader may be given insight into Bohe's mind when it is under stress, but what Bohe thinks of Dihua, or what he suffers as a result of his deterioration, is not revealed by interior monologue. After he has fled the Boxers and is wondering where to go, Bohe thought:

169 Characterization in Sea of Woe The Boxers hate only foreigners. So I better get out of this place and flee to the interior to avoid any trouble. But if I do that how will (Dihua and her mother) find me when they arrive? I'll do best if I go to the station at Xigu and wait there; when they come they're bound to pass by, and we'll see each other.

5

So we see that Bohe is shrewd, but deeper insights into his personality must be gained elsewhere. Sea of Woe's other primary figure, Dihua, is also dynamic, but her character changes in a way quite different from Bohe's. The novel is really the story of how Dihua is devastated by Bohe's downfall. Without her reaction the tale of Bohe's trials would be meaningless. Dihua's love for Bohe is the only constant of her personality. She is shattered by grief, and at the novel's end is very different from the carefree maid she was at the beginning. The story of Bohe's woe initiates action, but it is Dihua's reaction which is the focus of Sea of Woe. Dihua is the more modern of the two characters: her depiction is the more psychological. The method of her presentation is significantly more sophisti­ cated than that of Bohe. She is introduced to the reader as a quite ordinary girl, the product of a traditional upbringing. Dihua did not study; she only learned a little needlework from her mother. T h e books

she slowly read through were the Warning for Women and the Woman's Canon of Filial Piety.

However, they were all but forgotten in her mind. She remembered only

the rough meanings; she had not memorized any of the lines.

6

She would be expected to be passive, keep her emotions concealed, and accept without complaint any fate which her parents or husband-to-be might have in mind for her. But when Bohe is separated from her, she is forced to take control of her own life and make her own decisions. She must care for her mother, and she takes steps to try and find Bohe. Unlike him, she is pre­ sented as having a very full emotional life, and she is able to act from her emotions in a direct and praiseworthy manner. Her search for Bohe is sparked by a dream which tells her just what he means to her. She gets in touch with herself and loses her passivity. Dihua is refreshingly unlike the traditional stereotyped female she first seemed to be. Accordingly, the forms of her ex­ position are likewise more modern than those depicting Bohe. This modernity is indicated by the formal devices used in the text, as well as by the emotional content of the story line.

170 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century In a traditional novel or narrative text, alternating segments of narrator's dis­ course and character's discourse contrast, and are clearly delineated. In late Qing times, when the use of punctuation was spotty at best, the difference between the two forms of discourse was shown by context, use of different pronouns, the appearance of colloquial particles, a shift in the way a sentence could be broken down into clauses, etc. 'In the traditional text, the narrator's discourse will reveal no trace of the speaker and his organizing control, while in the character's discourse the speaker and his control will be felt without any restrictions.' The narrator's portion of the text is presented impartially and in clear distinction from the speech of the characters. Character's speech is plainly depicted, and is unambiguous in presentation, as in conversation, or plainly marked interior monologue or soliloquy. 7

8

One important structural change in the evolution of modern literature has been the blurring of the clear line between narrator and character's discourse. The opposition between the two lessened or became neutralized, in order to give the author more narrative possibilities. 'As a result, a transitional zone has come into prominence, represented ... by the occurrence of more or less fre­ quent ambiguous segments. The most important device of this ambiguity is the so-called represented discourse.' 9

When represented discourse, and not direct discourse, is used, the text com­ bines the heretofore separate verbal and semantic features of the narrator and character's discourse. As a result, the reader might not know where he is get­ ting his information from: the presumably objective narrator, or the subjective mind of a character. Represented discourse ambiguously presents the attitudes, viewpoints, and evaluations of the character; or the character's addresses to or questions of the reader, as though they were part of the narrator's discourse. Thus, in a modern novel reality can be altered; the reader must double-check to see whether his perceptions are the objective 'facts' of the narrator's dis­ course, or the subjective thoughts of a character. In Sea of Woe, the use of represented discourse is not yet fully developed or mastered, but there are indications of the blurring of lines between the narra­ tor's text and the character's text. This neutralization is uneven; it is not equally shown in the depiction of the paired characters Bohe and Dihua. When the text deals with Bohe, distinctions between narrator's and character's dis­ course are always clear. The following typical passage describes the flight of Bohe, Dihua, and her mother from Peking. The road is crowded with refugees, and their carters refuse to go any further: 10

Bohe listened to the carter's grumbling and asked: 'What are we going to do?' A carter replied: 'You don't have to ask what we are going to do. I'm not going to handle this

171 Characterization in Sea of Woe business. When I get my fare I'll go back.' So Bohe asked another one: 'And how about you?' The carter answered: T h e others won't move if they don't get paid. The only way would be for all four of you to sit in my cart. But then how would I pull it all by myself? You should have known beforehand that this would be a long trip. There is no way but to hire two carts.

11

It is very clear who speaks and at what time, just as Bohe's mental debates when fleeing the Boxers were clearly marked. But when the text describes Dihua, the line between the narrator and character's discourse becomes hazy and the reader is unaware, often until the very last moment, whether the passage is part of the narrator's or character's text. This effect is achieved by a shift in the use of key words which mark character's discourse. Sea of Woe, like traditional narratives, uses key words to mark direct dis­ course. In the absence of punctuation, words such as shuo or dao (both mean­ ing 'said' or 'he said') were used to mark speech. Interior monologues in Sea of Woe are set off by key words such as anxiang (secretly thought), xinzhong anxiang (thought in his mind), huixiang (thought again), xiangba (thought through) and just plain xiang (thought). Such key words can come before or after a passage of thought. Yet there is a distinction between how the key words are used in passages describing Bohe's contemplations and those of Dihua. When the character doing the thinking is Bohe, the phrases almost invariably precede the segment, and mark it beforehand. But Dihua often has long sections of interior mono­ logue that begin with no clues at all. The switch from character's to narrator's discourse is sudden and without warning. The following passage describes Dihua after her separation from Bohe, as she ponders her fate as a refugee. The passage is remarkable for the transitory nature of its represented discourse. Note the sudden switch of grammatical persons and verbal tenses, along with the reference to the temporal and spatial position of Dihua, and her subjective evaluation of the situation: This year she had only turned eighteen. A n d yet she had to go through the hardships of an unsettled life. She doesn't even know what her future will be like, so it's difficult to say if her marriage will come to a happy fruition. But one thing I know is that our fates are linked together. Having thought thus far . . .

1 2

The reader is not sure which thoughts are Dihua's, and which are the narra­ tor's. Similar passages are common in the novel. Dihua's frequent interior monologues, and the weaving into the text of rhetorical addresses and ques­ tions, and subjective semantics which point towards Dihua, all result in a

172 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century prominent shift in point of view. The narrative of the novel gives the impres­ sion of being conveyed from Dihua's point of view. It serves to make her mental state a much more intrinsic part of the plot than that of Bohe. The text shows her sensitivity and reveals her emotional state, while the thoughts of Bohe are mostly concerned with mundane, practical matters. This is a case of literary and semantic style changing with content.

13

One of the most striking scenes in the novel is Dihua's dream sequence in chapter five. Here W u Woyao skilfully uses the traditional device of a dream to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination. However, W u uses new stylistic techniques to enhance an old device, and truly render fact and illusion unclear. A perfect blending of style and content results: Dihua laid down next to her mother and her thoughts went out to Bohe. Where is he going to spend this night? Things have gotten so wild these days: was he hurt, or had he reached Tianjin in safety? Her mind was now joyful, now despairing, and never at rest. She was on the verge of going to sleep when she heard Fifth Maid say: 'Good news, miss, young master Chen is here!' When Dihua heard this she avidly asked: 'Where?' Fifth Maid replied: 'Outside, he just came. I'll take you to see him.' Dihua got up and went out the gate with Fifth Maid; there was a wide road stretching into the distance, and on it were refugee carts one after another without end; which one was Bohe on? As she strained to see, Fifth Maid pointed and said: 'Look miss, isn't that M r . Chen?' Dihua looked where she was pointing, and really, she saw Bohe on top of a carriage, riding towards her with a big smile on his face. She wondered who might be inside, as he was riding on the roof. She looked again; the driver was the same one they had hired when they left Peking, the same one she had sent back that morning. She couldn't supress the joy in her mind: 'So the driver was trying to find him for us.' Dihua cried out: 'Bohe, dear!' She shouted twice, but the carriage just rolled past, and Bohe pretended not to hear. The driver rushed the beast, and they went right on by, going south. Dihua was very distraught, she thought, he always considered me too shy, and thought I avoided him out of false modesty; it was because of this that he was angry. Feeling that it would be improper to cry out loud, she just took out a handkerchief to wipe off the tears. Suddenly she heard a voice beside her say: 'Don't break my heart! You always ignore me, sister.' When she turned around, it wasn't Fifth Maid, but Bohe standing there. A t once, sorrow turned into joy. She wanted to speak, but in the interior of the carriage that had just passed there suddenly appeared a cow. It came nearer and nearer to her, and bellowed. Frightened, she ran away. Bewildered, she looked back and saw only darkness, no Bohe. T h e n and only then she knew she had been dreaming.

14

Thus the narrative technique becomes very modern, flexible, and ambiguous when it deals with Dihua, whose delineation is primarily psychological. Bohe

173 Characterization in Sea of Woe exists chiefly to provide concrete action in the plot of Sea of Woe, and char­ acter discourse devoted to him is suitably direct and straightforward. Sea of Woe is also interesting in its use of more minor characters. A sub-plot has been constructed around two secondary characters, the girl Juanjuan and Bohe's younger brother, Zhongai. At the beginning of the novel the couple is betrothed. The girl's parents flee Peking because of political and social instabi­ lity, and she goes with them. Zhongai stays in Peking until his parents are killed by the Boxers, and then goes off to seek his fortune. Both characters remain off centre stage until near the end of the novel. Zhongai calmly walks in on Dihua and her father just before Bohe dies, but does not re-encounter Juanjuan until some time after the death scene. He muses that he has re­ mained a virtuous bachelor for too long, and sets off for a brothel with a friend. Lo and behold, one of the prostitutes is Juanjuan, unheard of since the first chapter. In a scene that skirts the edges of bathos and melodrama, they recog­ nize each other but do not speak. This vignette is the last scene in the novel. The sub-plot is very brief; only in the first and last chapters do Zhongai and Juanjuan appear side by side. It is clear that the sub-plot exists less for its own sake than to heighten our appreciation of the two main characters, Bohe and Dihua, whose love comes to a similar tragic end. In one couple the man comes to a bad end, in the other, the woman. The sub-plot provides a mirror-like and ironic counterpoint to the main story, because the secondary characters con­ trast so well with the protagonists. Since the sub-plot has its dénouement at the very end of the novel, after Bohe's death scene, it is the final bit of evidence which convinces us that life must be, indeed, a sea of woe. Zhongai is presented in identical fashion to Bohe, his elder brother, and is even introduced in the same sentence: The head of the L i branch of the Chen clan had two sons. The elder's personal name was Xiang, and his given name was Bohe; the younger's personal name was Rui, and his given name was Zhongai.

15

Again, there is no physical description, but Dihua's mother discusses Zhongai along with Bohe; we learn that he has the same good qualities and is seventeen years old at the beginning of the novel. The narrative focuses on him from time to time, but his most important role is as a glass, in whose image we can see other characters reflected at the story's end. The other secondary character, Juanjuan, is very sparingly depicted. As a 16

result, she is the only important character in Sea of Woe who is in any way a stereotype. Her name, Beautiful, is more than vaguely evocative, and she is the

174 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century only person who receives a physical description, though brief, at the beginning of the novel: Juanjuan was still attending school and being tutored; she had been born with black brows and elegant eyes; her teeth were white and her lips were red.

17

This description, and the fact that she is joyful and loves to smile, contrasts sadly with her later fate. In this she is similar to Bohe. She is a stereotype in that her physical description is used to imply personality. She stands about half-way between being a static and being a dynamic character. Her fate is hinted at in stereotypical fashion at the very beginning, yet events bring her to a situation entirely different from her origins. Her reaction to her changed status is not delineated, since the demands of the plot make such a description superfluous and anti-climactic. The role of the two secondary characters is to enrich the main plot by pro­ viding opposites to the two primary characters. Their function is to create a mirror plot, rather than to be appreciated on their own behalf. Two auxiliary characters are also worthy of mention. They are Dihua's mother and the pedlar Xin Shuhuai, who is such a bad influence on Bohe. Although the mother is very sparingly described, her importance to the plot is disproportionate to the amount of space given her not because she figures in the linear advancement of the plot (the traditional role of auxiliary characters), ;

but because she functions as a foil for Dihua. The presence of the

mother

forces Dihua to overcome her passivity and to take a more active role in trying to work out her own fate. X i n Shuhuai is unusual because he comes from a very low social stratum. Such characters in more traditional fiction usually played a background role. X i n Shuhuai is rather well delineated, and he exerts a moral influence on Bohe, albeit for evil. He is thus a cut above the traditional beggar stereotype and indicates a new willingness to give a more rounded treat­ ment to what had been a very narrow class of characters. In conclusion, Sea of Woe is an example of change in character and character­ ization in the late Qing novel. The innovations in Sea of Woe contributed to the development of fiction in China. The advances it made in the deeper psy­ chological portrayal of love and sentiment parallel the course taken by the Western novel. W u Woyao deliberately set out to write a novel of emotion and psychology; in the preface he expresses the intention of probing the feelings of his characters. While the novel does not reveal all the types of sentiment which W u talked about in his hyperbolic way, it does tell the tight little tale of Bohe and Dihua's love very well indeed. It can probably be considered the

175 Characterization in Sea of Woe beginning of the Chinese psychological novel, wherein character change follows and depends upon plot. Precisely the opposite had previously been true, with stereotyped characterization dictating the pattern of events in the plot. Heroes acted heroically, villains schemed, and lovers might have pined away and died for one another. Once character was established, the plot could develop only within certain boundaries. These were novels of action and novels of character, as Edwin Muir would have described them, rather than psychological novels. But the plot of Sea of Woe is the process of the characterization of its protagonists. If they did not change and develop, there would be no plot. Conversely, all the action of the plot has but one purpose: to change the lovers' relationship in a way that will move the reader deeply. While Honglou meng depends very heavily upon psychological description, it can be argued that Jia Baoyu remains essentially the same person throughout the novel. The same is true of the characters in Jin Ping Mei. In Sea of Woe Bohe has been changed by life, environment, and flaws in his own personality. The plot of the novel is the tale of the changes in his character, and their effect on Dihua. Previously, character had determined plot; for the first time, plot determines character; and the plot, consisting as it does of the tale of the deterioration of love, is a new one in Chinese literature. In a very modern way, freedom and causality are extremely important in Sea of Woe. The social realism of Sea of Woe is typical of late Qing fiction; when it is combined with themes of sentiment and psychological realism, Sea of Woe harkens forward to writers like Ba Jin and Yu Dafu.

NOTES

1 W u Woyao Hen hai in A Ying ed Gengzi shibian wenxue ji (Beijing 1959) 603-4 2 The outline of the story of Sea of Woe is given in M . Dolezelová-Velingerová's article 'Typology of Plot Structures' in this volume, 51. 3 W u Hen hai 606 4 Ibid 666 5 Ibid 641 6 Ibid 606 7 Z . Slupski and J. Kalousková 'Some Problems of Typological Analysis in

Modern Chinese Fiction,' in Etudes d'histoire et de littérature au Professeur Jaroslav PrùSek (Paris 1976) 143-53 8 Lubomir Dolezel Narrative Modes in Czech Literature 9 Ibid 18

chinoises

(Toronto 1973) 17

offertes

176 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century 10 Represented discourse in modern Chinese fiction has not as yet been systemati­ cally studied. However, its occurrence in Mao Dun's novel Ziye

(Midnight) was

pointed out by J. Priisek in 'Quelques remarques sur la nouvelle littérature

chinoise' in Mélanges de sinologie offerts à M. Paul Demieville

(Paris 1966) esp

218. 11 W u Hen Hai 612 12 Ibid 636 13 It is also worthwhile to note that Bohe's thoughts are more often enclosed in quotation marks than those of Dihua, thus further separating those thoughts from the rest of the text and the reader's sensibility. But it is difficult to know whether this elimination of quotation marks is an early formal sign of the break­ ing down of the rigid barrier between the narrator and character's discourse or the result of an erratic usage of Western punctuation marks introduced into Chinese texts during late Qing. 14 W u Hen hai 630 15 Ibid 604 16 Ibid 607 17 Ibid 606

The Nine-Tailed

Turtle:

Pornography or 'Fiction of Exposure ? 7

JEAN D U V A L

Jiuwei gui (The nine-tailed turtle), published serially from 1906 to 1910 and written by Zhang Chunfan (?-1935), is one of the latest and, at the time of publication, most popular of those late Qing novels written partly in W u dialect. These novels, usually called 'Wu dialect novels' [Wuyu xiaoshuo] emerged in China in the 1890s. The use of W u dialect is closely connected with the social milieu described in the novels. Prostitutes from the Shanghai-Suzhou area, the historical W u region, were famous throughout China for the sweet­ ness of their language - the Wu nong manyu, so that the novelists, describing the world of prostitution, let their heroines speak in their typical dialect to enact the atmosphere of the gay quarters. 1

In the eyes of Chinese critics, the use of the dialect seems to be the only redeeming feature of this type of fiction, usually vilified for its indulgence in eroticism. Only the first of the W u dialect novels, the 1892 Han Ziyun's Haishang hua lie zhuan (Lives of Shanghai singsong girls) and the later Li Baojia's Hai tian hongxue ji (Shanghai impressions) were praised for their original treat­ ment of the prostitutes' underworld. Others, among them Turtle, were con­ demned as mere 'handbooks for the brothel-goers' [piaojie zhinan).* Consequently, the bulk of W u dialect novels attracted only a marginal scho­ larly interest. Their texts (like that of Turtle) fell into oblivion, and their role in the development of Chinese novel diminished. The aim of this study is to recover one of these novels, Turtle, from this unjustified obscurity. Though by no means a literary work of high artistic orginality and excellence, it may never­ theless show the trends of late Qing vernacular fiction during its final period. 2

3

5

The action of Turtle, a 192-chapter novel in the traditional style, is centred on the travels and deeds of Zhang Qiugu (or Zhang Ying). He is a handsome and sensitive young man from Changshu, in Jiangsu province. Unhappy at home, with a wife whom he considers a hindrance to the development of his 6

178 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century natural gifts, he takes his leave and, in the company of other young men, roams in the gay quarters of several Chinese cities. A refined poet and an excellent mahjong player, he is the centre of attention in the elegant gatherings in the apartments of famous courtesans. Many of Zhang Chunfan's contemporaries saw in the novel a boastful auto­ biographical work. But such an interpretation explains neither the title of the 7

novel nor its prologue: There are three-legged turtles; there are also nine-tailed ones. The Erya

comments: 'In

the south, there are nine-tailed turtles. Who sees them reaches honours and fortune.' In olden times, the unicorn, the phoenix, the turtle and the dragon were called the 'Four Supernatural Beings,' which proves to what extent turtles were then worshipped. But nowadays, things have changed and the word 'turtle' has become one of the vilest insults: if a woman is unfaithful, it is the nickname which is given to her husband ... This novel, under the tit^e of The Nine-tailed

Turtle,

tells the story of a high-ranking

official of our time, who was rich and powerful but had so little control over the women in his household that he soon became a common subject of derision.

8

The ill-famed Kang Jisheng, the former governor of Jiangxi province, is the 'nine-tailed turtle,' as the narrator points out: he owes his nickname to the public misdemeanours of the nine women in his household. But his story is told quite late in the novel and it is much shorter than that of Zhang Qiugu. This apparent discrepancy between the prologue and the composition of the novel has led Zhao Tiaokuang to see there an alteration of the author's original plan: 'In my opinion, the author first planned to develop a long narration about this high-ranking offi­ cial. But, finally, he shows him only briefly and gives him perfunctory treat­ ment. Such a change in the original plan was probably caused by later scruples of the author, who feared to hurt feelings too much.' If such a change had occurred, it should have affected the cohesion of the novel. But Zhao Tiaokuang does not search for textual proofs which would corroborate his hypothesis. Neither the autobiographical interpretation nor Zhao Tiaokuang's explana­ tion answers the questions contained in the title and the prologue of the novel : what is the role of the 'nine-tailed turtle'? How can seeing it help one reach honours and fortune? The narrator indicates that Kang Jisheng is the 'ninetailed turtle' - is this the only possibility? In my opinion, the title and the prologue of the novel open a hermeneutic code which can be followed only through a close study of the plot of the novel. More important, such research should enable us to answer the basic question raised by the attitude of most critics: is Turtle simply a pornographic novel, a 'handbook for the brothelgoer' - or something more? 9

10

11

179 Turtle:

'Fiction of Exposure'?

T H E PLOT

The Primary Plot In Turtle, the main narrative stream tells the travels and adventures of Zhang Qiugu: we follow him from Changshu, his home-town, to Suzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Peking, Nanjing, and finally Canton, where the narrator leaves him to his fate with these words: Zhang Qiugu spent some more time in the Canton province, where he had many other opportunities to ridicule officials and to distinguish himself through his gallant deeds. But I, your servant, will not have the leisure to tell them in details and, therefore, this narration comes now to an e n d .

12

In the course of his travels, Zhang Qiugu meets all sorts of persons, whose adventures the narrator tells in turn. The basic narrative, Zhang Qiugu's per­ sonal story, thus becomes a central line from which branch out episodes of various importance, which form subordinate narrative units. Zhang Qiugu, through his adventures, is a leading thread which enables the narrator to deal with his material in a certain order. Clearly, the plot structure of Turtle belongs to the compositional type characterized by the 'stringing' function of the main hero. 13

Zhang Qiugu's adventures are a mixture of heroism in the cloak-and-cape (wuxid) style and of sensitivity fashionable among the 'talented young men' (caizi). Such a structural motif can be found in most late Qing novels com­ posed around the travels and quests of a central character, as well as in novels from previous periods. But, whereas heroic and erotic elements are usually introduced through totally different characters - for instance in the thematic specialization of Shuihu zhuan (Water margin) or Roupu tuan (Midnight scholar) - Turtle combines both types of elements in one composite character. Zhang Qiugu's first quest is for personal happiness, a companion who would not be an obstacle to his aspirations. In the company of other culti­ vated young men he acquires fame in the high spots of prostitution in Suzhou and Shanghai by the way he deals with girls, ridicules dishonest or pre­ tentious customers, and by his clever comments on all sorts of subjects. Even­ tually, he finds in the courtesan Chen Wenxian the ideal wife and marries her. But this wedding does not bring his wandering to an end. The quest for personal happiness, concluded by the reunion with his mother and his first wife (not unusual in polygamous Chinese society), is followed by another quest: to awaken the society around him from the darkness.

180 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century This double quest, the main narrative stream of the novel, is at the same time the plot of the central hero's personal adventures and the string around which the narrative ensemble is organized. This ambiguity, reinforced by Zhang Qiugu's interventions in most of the subordinate narrative elements, makes it necessary to define clearly the two levels of the central plot: the compositional link (the hero in relation to the anecdotes and to the 'non-action material') and the personal story. The Anecdotes As the central hero of the novel, Zhang Qiugu is firstly a 'functional' character, in that he introduces secondary episodes, or 'anecdotes.' This 'linking' function can be isolated from the line of his personal story by a structural study of these anecdotes: a comparison of their fabulae shows that they all can be expressed by the basic formula W- I —> R (+D), where W represents an initial wrong, / the central hero's intervention, R the result of his intervention and D an optional discussion on the anecdote. Here is an example: 14

Motifs

Motif

ernes

Fang Youyun courts Lu Lanfen.

Initial wrong

i5

He does not pay her. She extorts money from him.

Fang Youyun calls his cousin Liu Houqing

Non-hero's intervention

to his help. Liu Houqing fails to get the money back.

Fang Youyun calls Zhang Qiugu to his help.

Hero's intervention

Zhang Qiugu makes an inquiry. Zhang Qiugu admonishes Fang Youyun. Zhang Qiugu gets the money back.

Resolution

Fang Youyun realises his mistakes. He leaves Shanghai. Zhang Qiugu explains the relations between prostitutes and their customers.

16

Discussion

181 Turtle:

'Fiction of Exposure'?

The basic formula may slightly vary, but whatever their type, the anecdotes provide a general social setting for the novel. Their protagonists are character­ ized in a rather rudimentary way and appear primarily as stereotypes: greedy and dishonest courtesans, miserly customers, lewd wives, debauched officials. With very few exceptions, they are totally negative and their relations are dominated by the attempt to satisfy immediate material desires: money, power, carnal pleasure. Though the types of characters differ from one anec­ dote to the other, this basic rule is to be found with every single one of them, from the prostitute to the high-ranking official. This repetition of the same motif under different forms brushes in, in dark colours, the society that will be the background of Zhang Qiugu's quest. His intervention in the anecdotes is of secondary importance: he appears\mainly as a judge, and not as a real protago­ nist. At most, one can see in his actions and attitudes a form of indirect charac­ terization. But the main function of his interventions remains primarily to link these anecdotes to the central plot, which constitutes the backbone of the nar­ rative ensemble. The Non-Action Material Zhang Qiugu functions as a link also in discussions. This 'non-action mate­ rial' is usually an opportunity for the central hero to display his intellectual qualities and his understanding of his society. Whatever the subjects-the Reform Party, the foreign powers' agression and the Chinese response, the political situation of China, love - Zhang Qiugu is always the central speaker. With his attractive personality and keen judgments, he appears as an excep­ tional medium to reach the reader's mind. In this respect, the similarities between Zhang Qiugu's opinions and those expressed in the narrator's rhetori­ cal comments can be noticed. But close links also exist between the anecdotes and the non-action discussions. In the former, the central hero's interventions constitute an indirect means to indicate the interpretation of events; in the latter he expresses direct criticism of the world around him. His tone is then bitter helpless. He usually includes sad poems in these latter, which contrast dramatically with the tragi-comic irony of the anecdotes. In spite of their difference, both the anecdotes and the non-action dis­ cussions have the same basic function: they stress the lack of competence, the greed and the deceit which prevail in society, the discussions providing a more general context for the lively illustrations found in the anecdotes. Together, they provide a colourful image of the setting in which the central hero evolves. 17

18

182 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century The Personal

Story

Zhang Qiugu's adventures, beside their compositional function, constitute also a personal story which, as we have already mentioned, consists in a double quest. Only the quest aiming at personal happiness is successfully concluded. The second quest appears to meet with failure. After distinguishing himself in Tianjin under the honest official Jin Yunbo's orders, he finally agrees to sit for the imperial examinations in Nanjing. But, though his essays are well written, he is failed, and from then on, his fortunes turn for the worse: the ruin of his family by a swindler, the sudden death of his mother, and the vengeful slander campaign of Q i Ba complete the failure. Without money or position, but above all hurt by the non-recognition of his talents, Zhang Qiugu decides to isolate himself from the world. It is at this moment of frustration and dis­ appointment that he discovers the depth of Chen Wenxian's love for him. Not only does she remain by his side now that he is poor and weakened, but she is ready to sell her jewels and give him whatever she possesses to help him out of his difficulties. The social failure thus loses its significance, overshadowed as it is by the rediscovered importance of love. The deep feelings of the couple bring to a sudden end the pessimism which had hitherto filled the narration of Zhang Qiugu's misfortunes. This change of atmosphere is reinforced by Zhang Qiugu's departure for Shanghai and then for Canton: this new beginning in the world is an indication that his social failure was not a total defeat. The Secondary Plot Void of linking function, the narrative ensemble of the adventures of Kang Jisheng, whom the narrator designates as the 'nine-tailed turtle,' constitutes the secondary plot of the novel. These adventures are told in two parts: the first takes only three chapters (79-81) and narrates the childhood, the studies, and the official beginnings of this governor of Jiangxi province. The second, much longer (chapters 115-27), is mainly devoted to the aspects of Kang Jisheng's private life which have entitled him to his nickname: In his household, this governor had five secondary wives, two sisters-in-law, and two daughters-in-law, and these nine women were all lewder the one than the other. So he was called the 'nine-tailed turtle.'

19

As in the case of Zhang Qiugu, Kang Jisheng's story can be considered a double quest, on the personal and social levels. He first tries to achieve

183 Turtle:

'Fiction of Exposure'?

social success. But, unlike Zhang Qiugu, it is not as a means to put his ideals into practice: he merely wishes to acquire power and riches. His methods reflect his objectives, and he succeeds only through recommenda­ tions and bribery. But his career is eventually brought to an abrupt end: because of his own debauched behaviour, he is unable to keep up the stand­ ards of conduct of his household and such scandals occur that he has to be demoted. He then retires to Shanghai, where he pursues actively the second side of his quest: the search for pleasure with women. The culmination of this is his marriage with the courtesan Wang Suqiu. Once in his household, she imposes herself as the real master and, by her lewdness, sets an example for the other women. In the course of time, even Kang Jisheng's sons do not respect him any more and seduce his wives, while the whole population of Shanghai laughs at his misfortune. His failure is then complete, on both social and personal levels. A striking symmetry exists between Zhang Qiugu's and Kang Jisheng's stories, as shown by the following scheme: ZHANG QIUGU

KANG JISHENG

Quest for personal happiness

Quest for social success

happy marriage

purchase of a title

Family harmony

Success

Family harmony

Quest for personal happiness

Failure

Unhappy marriage

Family harmony

Unhappy marriage

New departure

It appears that the stories are parallel: in each case there is a double quest with a single conclusion. The contrast between the conclusions reflect the differ­ ence in the nature and motives of the quests. More contrasts between both stories come out through the comparison of their respective motifs:

184 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Z H A N G QIUGU'S STORY

K A N G JISHENG'S S T O R Y

Zhang Qiugu marries the courtesan

Kang Jisheng marries the courtesan

Chen Wenxian. She is loyal to him.

Wang Suqiu. She deceives him.

Chen Wenxian brings harmony

Wang Suqiu corrupts the women in

to the family.

Kang Jisheng's household.

Zhang Qiugu is a filial son.

Kang Jisheng takes concubines during the mourning period for his dead father.

Zhang Qiugu fails to become

Kang Jisheng buys an official title.

a civil servant.

He makes a career through corruption.

Zhang Qiugu is unjustly slandered.

Kang Jisheng is demoted for his misdemeanour.

Zhang Qiugu finds consolation in

Kang Jisheng is ridiculed because of

Chen Wenxian's love.

his concubine's lewdness.

Through the parallelism of their two stories, Kang Jisheng appears as a nega­ tive reflection of Zhang Qiugu, and the contrasts at the level of action reveal the fundamental opposition between the two men's natures: Zhang Qiugu is led by his feelings and sentiment; Kang Jisheng follows only the impulse of his material desires. The motifs developed in the secondary plot are also to be found in the anecdotes. As a victim of Wang Suqiu, Kang Jisheng is a token for all the customers who let themselves be fooled into marrying untruthful pro­ stitutes. As a cuckold, he shares the ridicule heaped on Magistrate Bei, whose wife has illicit relations with an actor. While the merchant W u Jiafu marries his sister-in-law, Kang Jisheng seduces one of his daughters-in-law and peeps on the other one; he takes concubines during the mourning period for his dead father, thus showing as little filial piety as Fang Ziheng who does not want to leave the courtesan Lu Lanfen when his father is ill. Lewdness, corruption, lack of ethics within the family, and unfaithfulness are motifs common to the anecdotes and Kang Jisheng's story. In the story,

185 Turtle:

'Fiction of Exposure'?

Kang Jisheng is the only one to blame for his unhappiness. He is deeply involved in the search for carnal pleasure and he suffers the consequences of his own acts. He lacks what saves Zhang Qiugu: ideals and sentiment. The opposition between both characters' fate is stressed by the fact that, unlike Zhang Qiugu, Kang Jisheng will not be given the opportunity to start a new quest. The contrasts between the primary and the secondary plots are thus of paramount importance for the interpretation of the novel: Kang Jisheng's story is the pivot which stresses the irreconcilable opposition between Zhang Qiugu and the protagonists of the anecdotes, between the search for idealistic perfection and total immersion in a materialistic society. SETTING

Prostitution indeed represents an important element in Turtle. Yet its importance cannot be deduced merely from its titillating nature. Its real role is to show the actions and behaviour of the officials in an unusual, cruder light. With its cruelty and the brutal straightforwardness of its rules, prostitution reveals the real nature of the official world, otherwise hidden under the decorum and hypocrisy of social convention. A man who, under normal circumstances, would inspire awe and respect becomes just another customer in the hands of a prostitute; urged on by his desire, he destroys the image society has of him and his innermost personality comes out in its true light. In this way, the setting provides the same artistic effect as the protagonist of W u Woyao's novel Strange Events. Just as 'Nine Lives' discovers the true world only because he observes it as a naïve youth who does not understand its mechanism, the milieu of Turtle becomes a vehicle of social criticism because - as Viktor Sklovskij puts it - the artistic device 'makes strange' the habitual (here officialdom) by presenting it in a novel light, by placing it in an unexpected context. The setting in Turtle cannot therefore be understood as a mere mimetic picture of the world of prostitution. Although the reality is unquestionably the source, it must be transformed to become an integrated part of a literary work. In Turtle it becomes a systematic re-creation of a world without moral values, a picture of general depravity. Thus the role of milieu in Turtle as the medium of critique corresponds and blends with other devices - the rhetorical narrator, the protagonist's critical comments, and the plot structure - which convey the same message. It is therefore not surprising that it is Zhang Qiugu who draws the following parallel: 20

The world of prostitution is rather similar to the officialdom of our time: natural beauty and talent are worthless; it is only external appearance andflatterywhich are imporrant.21

186 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century Conclusion: Between Social Criticism and Sentimentality Zhang Qiugu's simile of prostitution, also appearing recurrently in W u Woyao's Strange Events, Li Baojia's The Bureaucrats, and Liu E's Travels, reveals the vision Turtle shares with other novels of the time: deep concern about China's vanishing glory, and indignation at the total lack of moral values. The anec­ dotes in which Zhang Qiugu plays the role of an observer, the plot of Kang Jisheng, and the setting all serve as vehicles for this social criticism. Yet Zhang Qiugu is also a suffering figure in the world around him. His quest for an ideal woman and fulfilled love reflects a sentimentality absent in other characters of the novel. Handsome, clever, and refined, he is a modified version of the traditional caizi; his sensibility does not limit itself to love affairs, and is not simply, as Lu X u n puts it sarcastically, 'being upset by the crowing of the rooster and saddened by the sight of the moon.' The major feature of his personality is a new kind of sentimentality which reminds one of W u Woyao's definition: 22

the innate feeling that Heaven has sown in our hearts and which, as we grow older, manifests itself everywhere, under various forms according to its object. Toward one's lord and country, it is loyalty; toward one's parents, it is filial piety; toward one's chil­ dren, it is parental love toward friends, it is generosity. We can thus see that this ;

feeling is what all great principles stem f r o m .

23

Zhang Qiugu's attitude to the world illustrates this new sentimentality in a rather chivalrous way. He sees a social career only as a way to promulgate his ideals and do good for his country and his people. His heroic aspect - he is as physically fit as he is bright and sensitive - is but another obvious manifesta­ tion of his compassion towards those unjustly treated. Even his affair with Chen Wenxian cannot be viewed only as a simple love story between a man and a woman. Like him, she suffers from the state of society, in which she can reach the consecration she deserves for her beauty and her talent only through indignity, just as Zhang Quigu cannot succeed in his search for a career. Their union is that of two individuals whose sensibilities make them unable to cope with the lack of moral values in the world in which they live. Together, they find a kind of love based on mutual esteem and understanding. In a way, their union is a retirement from society, a salvation from its evils which can make a man a 'nine-tailed turtle.' In this context, the meaning of the sentence from the Erya quoted in the prologue, 'who sees a nine-tailed turtle reaches honours and fortune,' is clear. Zhang Qiugu has seen quite a number of such turtles: Kang Jisheng, as well as all these men and women in search of immediate pleasures who cause the moral degradation of his country.

187 Turtle:

'Fiction of Exposure'?

By refusing to enter their world and by retiring with the true love of his wife, he has rediscovered the divine turtle - the real honours and the real fortune. Sentiment thus appears to be an important feature of the novel. Sentiment preoccupies many late Qing novels, as it does, for example, W u Woyao's Sea of Woe-, and Turtle grows out of this trend. Yet the role of sentiment in Turtle is significantly different from its role in Sea of Woe. Sentiment could not save the lovers in Sea of Woe from the turmoil around them. For the lovers in Turtle, however, sentiment becomes a refuge from the troublesome world. In that respect, Turtle, one of the last late Qing novels, prefigures the fiction of the 1910s, the sentimental 'Mandarin Duck and Butterfly fiction.' u

NOTES 1 The W u dialect had already played a role in Chinese literature, namely in kunqu

drama and in Suzhou tanci - a form of popular story-telling in the

Suzhou dialect. 2 Most Chinese critics usually consider that W u dialect novels were imitations of Lives.

The best example of this attitude can be found in H u Shi's article

'Haishang hua liezhuan

shi Wuyu wenxuede diyibu jiezuo' in H u Shi wencun

3 (Taibei reprint 1971) 488-96. For recent description and evaluation of this

novel see Stephen Cheng 'Some Aspects of Flowers of Shanghai ' Tamkang Review

9 (1978) 51-65.

3 Lu X u n A Brief History of Chinese Fiction (Peking 1964) 354, and H u Shi 'Haishang' prefer Lives, whereas A Ying, in Wan Qing xiaoshuo shi (Beijing 1955) 169-70, commends Shanghai Impressions.

A few studies have been devoted to W u

dialect fiction by Japanese sinologists, but they are mainly concerned with its linguistic aspects. Cf, for example, Ota Tatsuo's annotated edition of Li Baojia's Hai tian

hongxue ji: Kai ten küsetsu ki, Gogo chükD (Kobe 1970). 4 H u Shi 'Haishang' 488-96 and L u X u n 'Shanghai wenyizhi yipie' in W e i

Shaochang ed Yuanyang hudie pai yanjiu ziliao (Shanghai 1962) 2 5 T h e interesting character of Turtle

was already recognized by V . I . Semanov in

his book Èvoljucija kitajskogo romana (Moskva 1970). In a brief discussion of the novel, he sees in it a link between the novels of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries and the novels at the turn of the century. 6 T h e novel was first published serially from 1906 to 1910 in Dianshizhai

huabao,

an illustrated journal printed in Shanghai. I use the edition published in Shang-

hai in 1936. For more details, cf A Ying Wan Qing xiaoshuo xiqu mu (Shanghai 1957) 66.

7 Zhao Tiaokuang 'Jiuwei gui kao' in Jiuwei gui (Shanghai 1936) 3

188 The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century 8 Jiuwei gui 1 (ch. 1] 9 Ibid 798 (ch. 192) 10 Kang Jisheng does not appear in the novel before chapter 79. 11 Zhao Tiaokuang 'Jiuwei gui kao' 3

12 Jiuwei gui 798 (ch. 192) 13 M . Dolezelová-Velingerová Typology of Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels' in this volume, 38-56 14 The fabula is defined by the Russian formalist Boris Tomasevskij as 'l'ensemble des événements liés entre eux qui nous sont communiqués au cours de l'oeuvre. La fable pourrait être exposée d'une manière pragmatique, suivant l'ordre naturel, à savoir l'ordre chronologique et causal des événements, indépendamment de la manière dont ils sont disposés et introduits dans

l'oeuvre.' See T . Todorov tr and ed Théorie de la littérature, listes russes (Paris 1965) 268.

textes des forma-

15 T o analyse the anecdotes in this novel, we have used a theory developed by L. Dolezel in 'From Motif ernes to Motives' Poetics 4 (1972) 55-88. Developing V . Propp's analysis on the composition of Russian folk-tales, Dolezel defines the notions of 'motifemes' - 'propositions predicating act to actant' - and of 'motifs' 'propositions predicating an action to a character.' Both these terms are used here in this meaning.

16 Jiuwei gui ch. 4-9 17 M . Dolezelová-Velingerová Typology of Plot Structures' 41 18 Jiuwei gui 35-7 (ch. 7), 614-18 (ch. 145^6), 602-3 (ch. 142), 737-8 (ch. 179) 19 Ibid 548 (ch. 127) 20 Viktor Sklovskij 'Iskusstvo kak priëm' [Art as a Device] Poetika further discussion of 'making it strange' see Viktor Erlich Russian History - Doctrine

(1919) 102. For Formalism,

(London, T h e Hague, Paris 1965) 175-80.

21 Jiuwei gui 77-8 (ch. 16) 22 Lu X u n 'Shanghai wenyizhi yipie' 2 23 W u Woyao Hen hai in A Ying ed Gengzi shibian wenxue

ji (Beijing 1959)

603-4 24 Michael Egan 'Characterization in Sea of Woe' in this volume, 165-76

Glossary

A Fu A Ying Aiyun

Amituofo

iianghe A n He anxiang Ba Jin

Ba [Xiangfu] (Magistrate Ba] baihua

Baming Baming

chenyuan shenyuan bang (list) bangyan Baofu

Baogong qi'an baoying Baoyu Bei (Magistrate) 'Benguan fuyin shuobu yuanqi' bianwen Bie shi Bohe Boliang

Bu Houhan shu yiwen zhi Bu Zhifu (Prefect Bu)

190

Glossary C a i Lüsheng Caiyun caiyun ling caizi c a i z i jiaren Cao Xueqin ce Changshu Changzhou C h a o y i x i a n (Chaoyi C o u n t y ) Chen C h e n Bohe Chen Duxiu C h e n Jitong Chen Qianqiu Chen Qing Chen Tianhua Chen Wenxian C h e n Zhongai C h e n g Boy i chengjing chengqing chenzhuo chichi chongbian Chou Wuke

Chu bao chuanqi chubian c i (poetry) ci (to touch) Cuihuan D a i [Dali] Darning hu dao daotai De Huisheng

Dianshizhai huabao Dianshu qitan

191

Glossary Diao Maipeng Dihua Ding Y i [Donghai] fue wo Dongya bingfu D u Liniang D u Shaoqing Duan Huqiao

Er Pai erji

Erke pai'an jingqi Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang Ershi shiji da wutai Erya Facai mijue Fang (the Fangs] Fang Youyun Fang Ziheng

Fanhua bao feishang feng (appointed] Feng Guifen Feng Menglong

Feng shen bang Feng shen zhuan Foshan

Fou sheng liu ji Fu Caiyun Fu Erbangchui (Fatpaddle Fu) Fu fuyuan (Governor Fu)

Fushi futai

Futon Gang Y i Gao Gong Gao Shaoyin gaogong (poleman)

192

Glossary Geming Gengzi

jun

guobian

tanci gong

Gong Hefu gong menkou gongan gongbao Gongyang Gou Cai Guanchang Guanchang

xianxing

ji

xin xianxing

ji

Guangxu Gujin

xiaoshuo Guo Fu

Guowen Guoyu

bao cidian

Guozhu Hai tian hongxue Haishang

hua

ji

liezhuan Hakai Han

Han Ziyun Hangzhou Hankou

ribao hao He Bao

He Shao he Yehe hua Hei she

quan

heimu xiaoshuo Hen

hai

heye hehua (lotus leaves and flowers) Hong Jun Hongdu Bailiansheng Honglou Honglou

meng

meng pinglun H u Shi

H u tongling (Commander Hu) hua

193 Glossary Hua xiazi huaben

Huan hai Huang daotai (daotai Huang) Huang Ermazi (Pockedy Huang) Huang he (Yellow River) Huang Longzi (Yellow Dragon) Huang M o x i Huang [Panggu] (the banker) Huang [Renrui] Huang Ruihe Huang (Sanliu) (the place-seeker)

Huanhun ji Huashan Huifeng yinhang (The Hongkong-Shanghai Bank) huixiang

Huo diyu hongliansi

Huoshao

Ji Tang Jia Baoyu Jia da shaoye (Young Jia) Jia nietai (Judge Jia) Jiang Fu Jiang zhongcheng (Governor Jiang)

Jiaoyu

congshu Jiaozhou

]ie yu hui jiji duo shi Jin Hanliang

Jin Ping Mei Jin Ruyu Jin Shengtan Jin Songcen Jin Wenqing Jin Yuelan Jin Yunbo Ji'nan Ji'nan mingshi duo jinbang zhuangyuan

194

Glossary jing ji (from jingshi jimin] Jinghua

yuan jingjie

Jingshi

tongyan

Jingu

qiguan

jinle e r m e n Jinlin jinshi Jiuming

qiyuan

Jiuren

jiuji

Jiusi yisheng Jiuwei

gui Jizhi

Juanjuan J u n i c h i Kôsaka juren Kajin-no

kigü

K a n g Jisheng Kang Youwei kaozheng Katai Tayama K i k u c h i Yüho Kuang Zhouyi Kuangren

riji

kunqu Lanxian Lao H o n g Lao She Laocan Laocan Laocan

youji

youji Erji li

L i Baojia L i Bo L i Boyuan Li Chunke L i Jingyi Li Lianying

195

Glossary Li Ruzhen

Li sao Li Shinong Li Taibo Li Yuxuan Li Z h i Liang Qichao Liang Tianlai

Liang Tianlai gao yuzhuang Liang Tianlai jingfu qishu Liezi Lin Shu Lin Yutang Ling Guixing Ling Mengchu Liu Dajie Liu Dakua (Liu the Braggart] Liu E Liu Houqing Liu Kunyi Liu Mengmei Liu [Renfu] Liu Shipei Liu Tieyun Lixia Long dusi (Captain Long) Lu Fengru Lu Lanfen

Lu Nanzi: Lian Lu X u n Lu zongye 'Lun wen zaji' 'Lun xiaoshuo yu gailiang shehuizhi guanxi' 'Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhizhi guanxi' 'Lun xieqing xiaoshuo yu xin shehuizhi guanxi' Lutianguan zhuren Lii Z u (Patriarch Lü)

Maihime maiyinfu Nala shi (the bawd Nala) Mao Deguan

196 Glossary Mao D u n Mao Weixin

Maocheng ji M e i Yangren (Magistrate Mei) Mengpu M o hai

Modeng

yinnii

M o r i Ôgai

Mudan ting mufu rencai jiji

Nanke taishou zhuan Nanting Tingzhang nanyin

Nanyin

hengwenchai Nian Ru

Niehai hua Nule dao nüliuzhi bei Omura Masuo Ouyang Juyuan

Pai'an Jingqi Pan Baying Penglai ge (Penglai Pavilion] piaojie zhinan pingfeng pinghua pinyin Pu Songling

qi Q i Ba Qian Bofang Qian [Qiongguang] (Acting Warden Qian) Qian Tangqing Qian Xuantong Qiancheng

Qiang xue hao

197 Glossary qianze xiaoshuo qin Qingming

Qingwang qui Qingyi bao Q u Nai'an Q u taitai

Quanxue

pian

Quehua

Renjian shi Roupu tuan Rui

Rulin

waishi

Sai Jinhua

San bao dian San He Bao

San Yan Sanguo Sanguo yanyi Shan daotai (daotai Shan) shangdi Shanghai damalu

Shanghai shiji fanhua bao shangshu She Xiaoguan Shen Fu Shen zhongtang (Hanlin Director Shen) Shen Ziping

Shi H Shi Xiaoren Shiba Shirô

Shijing Shimazaki Tôson

Shiwu bao Shizi hou Shuihu Shuihu zhuan Shuliushanfang

198

Glossary shuo Si D a w a n g Sili taosheng Sima Q i a n Songshan

quansou Su bao Su Dongpo sui

Sui [Fengzhan] (Warden Sui) Sun D a h u z i (Sun the Beard) Sun Kaidi S u n Yatsen Suyun Suzhou S u z h o u tanci Taibo T a i g u [sect] Taiping T a i s h a n ( M t Tai) t a i x u huanjing Taiyuan tanci tanhua Tang Caichang T a n g [Erluanzi] Tang Xianzu Tao Ziyao Taohua

shan ti

T í a n (Zimi) (Tian, the businessman) Tianjin Tianjin

mi

xinwenbao

T i a n l u Sheng Tie Gong T o n g Dashaoye (Young Tong) Tong

shi

Tong Ziliang T o n g c h e n g pai T o n g w e n guan

199

Glossary Tongzhou fu Tôson Tuan zhitai (Viceroy Tuan] Wan taizun (Prefect Wan) Wan Qing wenxue congchao:

xiaoshuo xiqu yanjiu juan Wan Qing xiqu xiaoshuo mu Wang Bikui Wang [Bochen] (Subprefect Wang) Wang Bogao Wang Boshu Wang Guowei Wang [Mushan] (Wang the bookseller) Wang Ren Wang Suqiu Wang xiangshen (Squire Wang) Weichunyuan Wen M i n g Wen Shunong Wen Yungao Wen Zhangbo

Wenming xiao shi 'Wenxue lun lüe' wenyan W o Foshan ren W u Hengxuan W u Jiafu W u Jianren W u Jingzi W u Jizhi W u nong ruanyu W u Woyao W u Xiaoru W u Youru Wuhan Wuhu

Wushi nian lai Zhongguozhi

wenxue wuxia Wuyu

200 Glossary W u y u xiaoshuo

Xi youji Xia pian qiwen Xia Shi Xia Zengyou Xiang (Bohe's personal name] xiang (to think] xiangba Xiao Shi xiaoshuo

Xiaoshuo

conghua

xiaoshuo geming

Xiaoshuo lin Xiaoshuo lin shushe

Xiaoshuo

xiaohua

'Xiaoshuo yuanli'

Xiaoshuo

yuebao Xiaren

xieqing xiaoshuo xiezi X i n saosao (Miss Xin) X i n Shuhuai xin xiaoshuo

Xin xiaoshuo xin zhong anxiang

Xin Zhongguo weilai ji xingjiu ling

Xingshi Xinxin Xiuxiang

hengyan xiaoshuo xiaoshuo Xixiang ji

X u danjunji (Grand Councillor Xu)

X u Huangliang Xubai Xue Fucheng Xue shuyun xun yan Yan Er

201

Glossary Yan Fu Yan Wang (Prince Yan) Yang (Emperor) yang (foreign) yang (opposite of yin) Yang tongling (Commander Yang) yangren Yangren Yangzhou yanyi Yanzhou Yao Nai Yehe Nala

Yenhua

nüxia yin

Yin Zichong yinyang Yipinxiang 'Yiyin zhengzhi xiaoshuo xu' iyun (a character from Laocan

youji)

Yiyun (a character from Niehai

hua) youji

youren Youxi hao Y u (the great Yu) Y u Dafu Y u [jinchen] (tax commissioner Yu) Y u Xian (fictional figure) Y u Xian (historical figure) Yuan Zhonglang yuanlai Yuanyang hudie pai yue

Yue yue xiaoshuo Yunwoyuan

Yushi

mingyan yuyan

'Yuzhi xiaoshuo guan' zaju

202

Glossary Zeng Guofan Zeng Mengpu Zeng Pu Z h a n g (Dihua's parents] Z h a n g Bilai Zhang Binglin Zhang Chunfan Zhang Dihua Z h a n g Feng Zhang Heting Zhang Qinguo Zhang Qiugu Z h a n g [Shoucai] (rich Zhang] Zhang Y a n Zhang Ying Zhang Zhidong z h a n g h u i xiaoshuo Z h a o (the Zhaos] Z h a o [Shaozhuang] (secretary Zhao] Zhao Tiaokuang Zhao W e n Z h a o yeye (Grandfather Zhao] Zhaowen

xinbao

Z h e n gexue (Zhen, the education commissioner] Z h e n M e i Shan Zhen

zhong

Zheng Zhinan

ji hai bao

Zhongai ' Z h o n g g u o lidai xiaoshuo shi l u n ' Zhongguo

xiaoshuo

shi

lue

zhonghou Zhongwai

jiwen

Z h o u [Daguan] (Dai's colleague] Z h o u Guisheng Z h o u zhongtang (Grand Secretary Zhou] Z h u a n g s h o u x i a n (Magistrate Zhuang] Zhuang Xiaoyan zhuangyuan Zhuangzi

203

Glossary zhugongdiao zi Ziping

Ziye Zongkong Zongli yamen Zou Rong Zou taiye (Warden Zou) zuishang cheng

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Biographies of Authors

LI BAOJIA (1867-1906J Li Baojia, also known by his acquired name (zi) L i Boyuan and the literary name [hao] Nanting Tingzhang (Master of the southern pavilion), was born in Jiangsu. W h e n he was three, his father died; he was raised by an uncle, a magistrate in Jinan in Shandong province,- later he worked as a clerk for his older brother, a daotai in charge of the likin bureau in Chuzhou, A n h u i . He left work for study but failed the official examinations several times. He enjoyed art and poetry from childhood; by the time he was recom­ mended to an official post in 1901, because of his knowledge of economics, he was more interested in his career in journalism and fiction. In Shanghai he published his first newspaper Zhinan

bao (The guide) in 1896. A year

later his second paper appeared, Youxi bao (Amusement news). This was the first of the Shanghai tabloids and inspired such a host of inferior imitations that he sold the paper and started another, Fanhua bao (Prosperity), which ran from 1901 to 1910. In 1903, under contract to the Commercial Press, he began editing the semi-monthly xiaoshuo

Xiuxiang

(Fiction illustrated).

A l l of L i Baojia's fiction was written in the years 1901 to 1906. His fiction was serialized in the papers and he was often working on several novels simultaneously. Perhaps the Boxer Rebellion shocked him into writing fiction (which he took seriously as a means of mass enlightenment), since it provides the theme of his first work Gengzi guobian tanci (Ballad of the great 1900 incident). In Wenming

xiao shi (A brief history

of modern times) he satirizes 'reformers' and 'modern' schooling; exposes the judicial and prison system in Huo diyu

(Living hell) ; and makes a target of the empress's most

intimate adviser in a novel that bears his name, Li Lianying

- the empress had it

banned. His magnum opus and most popular work, Guanchang

xianxing

ji (The

bureaucrats: a revelation), also attracted the empress's attention: she investigated and punished some officials whom she recognized as characters in the novel.

206

Biographies of A u t h o r s

Li Baojia died, of tuberculosis, poor and childless, in 1906. T o support themselves after his death, his wife and his concubine sold the publication rights to The

Bureau­

crats for a thousand yuan . Sources: Chen Meng 'Zhongguo jindai liang xiaoshuojia zhuan' (Biographies of two premodern Chinese novelists] in Xiaoshuo shijie (Fiction world] 9.4 (Jan. 1925] 1-2 Gu Jiegang 'Guanchang xianxing jizhi zuozhe' (The author of The Bureaucrats) in Xiaoshuo yuebao (Monthly fiction] 15.6 (June 1924] 14 Tsau, Shu-ying 'Li Boyuan and the Tendency of Thought in His Works' in 'The Emergence of Modern China in Fiction (1895-1907]' unpublished thesis, University of Toronto, 1971, 119-28 DH

LIU E (1857-1909] Liu E (Liu Tieyun) was born in 1857 to a family of land-owners and office-holders from Jiangsu. His father and a brother were pioneering proponents of Western learning, interests reflected in the family library. Books on mathematics and Chinese medicine were of great interest to young Liu E . Although he received a good classical education, he also (unconventionally, in the eyes of his peers) 'hung around with the guys on the street.' Rather than follow the traditional examination route into office he tried his hand, unsuccessfully, at herbal medicine and other enterprises. He also spent some time studying with members of the Taigu sect, which espoused a syncretic philosophy drawn from Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions. When the Yellow River flooded Henan in 1888, Liu E impressed Governor W u Hengxuan with his proposals on river control and took active part in on-the-spot work. He antagonized several officials for his outspoken criticism of alternative river policies. The success of his methods led to flood-control work in Shandong under Governor Zhang Qinguo (an old friend of the family] and ultimately to an official appointment on the basis of his technical expertise. When the Boxer Rebellion led to the foreign occupation of Peking in 1900, Liu E came to the capital to take part in relief work. He arranged the purchase of rice to be sold at low prices to the starving citizens of Peking. It was rice from the Imperial Granaries, but he purchased it from the Russian forces who had occupied the granaries. For this, Gang Y i , a top official and the empress's adviser, accused Liu E of collusion with the enemy, and for a while he had to live in the foreign concession in Shanghai for his own safety. This was made easier for him by his foreign acquaintances there. Liu E frequently tried to convince government authorities of the virtues of moderni­ zation; he was involved in a mining enterprise in Shandong as well as a railroad building

207

Biographies of A u t h o r s

scheme. His entrepreneurial flair was evident in a whole series of private business ventures. They all failed, but they were notable for their innovative quality, making use of modern methods and technology. Liu E's passion for antiques, with which he filled his five homes in as many cities, led to a breakthrough in Chinese historiography: illustrated catalogues of oracle bones, which he was the first to publish, became important in the study of ancient Chinese history. In the course of his life Liu E had made enemies of several high officials. Though the circumstances are not clear, bureaucratic vengeance seems to have motivated his con­ viction for crimes against the state in connection with his rice deals in Peking in 1900. He was exiled to Xinjiang where he died. Aside from his sole novel Laocan

youji

(Travels of Laocan), he wrote two books on river control, three on medicine, and seven on antiques and oracle bones.

Sources: Wei Shaochang ed Laocan youji ziliao (Research materials on the Travels of Laocan) Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1962 Yang Jialuo ed Laocan youji chuerji ji qi yanjiu [The Travels of Laocan, parts one and two, and the research on it) Taibei: Shijie shuju 1962

DH

W U W O Y A O (1866-1910) W u Woyao, also called W u Jianren, was born in the small town of Foshan in Guang­ dong province. The name of his home town was an inspiration for one of his pseudo­ nyms, W o Foshan ren (I, the native of Foshan). His father and grandfather were officials, but died during W u Woyao's childhood and left little money to the surviving family. W u supported his mother while serving as secretary to a county official. In his twenties he went to Shanghai and earned his living as a clerk in an arsenal and by occasional contributions to daily newspapers. W h e n Liang Qichao started the fiction magazine Xin xiaoshuo

(New fiction) in Yokohama in 1902, W u published some of his

most famous novels in this journal. Between 1902 and 1905 he became the editor of the American-owned journal Chu bao (also called Hankou

ribao) in Hankou. He resigned

the post in 1905 in protest against the American exclusion policy directed against Chinese labourers in the United States. In 1906, W u and his friend Zhou Guisheng established in Shanghai Yue yue xiaoshuo

(Monthly fiction), the most important liter­

ary journal after the demise of New Fiction (published in 1902) and Xiuxiang (Fiction illustrated), printed between 1903 and 1906. Monthly

xiaoshuo

Fiction closed in 1908.

208 Biographies of A u t h o r s Between 1907 and 1910 W u was the principal of a primary school for children of Canto­ nese families in Shanghai. W u taught himself the craft of writing, having little formal education or schooling. Before 1903, W u wrote poetry, drama, epigrams, humorous anecdotes and fables, all in classical language. After 1903, he started to write fiction in the vernacular. Among his

twenty-odd novels, the most famous is his Ershi nian muduzhi guai

xianzhuang

(Strange events seen in the past twenty years], published between 1903 and 1910. Its sequel Xin shi nianzhi guai xianzhuang

(Strange events of the last ten years] appeared

in 1910. W u achieved artistic excellence in his short novels, especially Hen hai (Sea of woe] (1906), and Jiuming qiyuan

(The strange case of nine murders] (1906). His other

important novels include Tong shi (Painful history) (1903-6), Xia pian qiwen tale of a blind cheat) (1904), and Facai mi\ue

(Strange

(Secrets to getting rich) (1907-8). Wu's

views and thoughts about fiction were mostly published in Fiction Illustrated

between

1903 and 1906.

Sources: Lu Xun Xiaoshuo jiuwen chao (Reprint of older materials onfiction)in Lu Xun quanji (Lu Xun's collected works) 10 n.p.: Lu Xun quanji chubanshe 1938 148-51 Kong Lingjing Zhongguo xiaoshuo shiliao (Historical materials on Chinesefiction]Shanghai: Gudian wenxue chubanshe 1957 Yang Yinshen Zhongguo wenxuejia liezhuan (Biographies of Chinese writers) Reprint. Hongkong: Guanghua shudian 1962 Lau, Michael Wai-mai 'Wu Wo-yao (1866-1910): A Writer of Fiction of the Late Ch'ing Period' unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1968

MDV

Z E N G PU [1872-1935] Zeng Pu (T. Mengpu, pen name Dongya bingfu), writer of the famous late Qing novel Niehai hua (The flower in the world of retribution), was born in Changshu, Jiangsu. The Zeng family were wealthy land-owners. Because of good family connections, Zeng Pu spent his early adult years in Peking, where he came to know the eminent men of his day. During his stay in Peking he gathered invaluable materials for his novel Niehai hua.

From 1889 to 1895 he compiled Bu Houhan shu yiwen zhi

[A bibliographical

treatise on the literature of the later H a n dynasty] and ten chapters of kaozheng (critical annotations]. Zeng Pu obtained his juren degree as a successful candidate in the provincial exami­ nations in 1891. In 1895 he began to study French at the Tongwen guan (Language Institute) in Peking - it was a means of entering government service. Although he failed to get a position in the government, he became interested in French literature. In 1898,

209 Biographies of A u t h o r s he met General Chen Jitong, a Chinese military attaché, who was versed in French literature and wrote several books in French. Later he became Zeng Pu's private tutor in French literature. In 1904, Zeng Pu and several of his friends established Xiaoshuo lin shushe (The grove of fiction book company) in Shanghai. It published many translations of foreign works of fiction and some original Chinese works. In 1904 he also wrote the first version of his novel Niehai hua, in twenty chapters. Jin Songcen initiated the work and wrote the first four or five chapters which Zeng Pu agreed to revise and continue. In 1907 four more chapters (21^4) appeared serially in Xiaoshuo

lin

(The grove of

fiction), a monthly periodical published by The Grove of Fiction Company. T h e magazine stopped its^ssues and the company closed in 1908. After the Révolution of 1911, Zeng Pu took part in Jiangsu provincial politics, but remained semi-active in literature. In 1927 he returned to literature and founded, together with his eldest son Xubai (born 1895), Zhen M e i Shan (Truth, beauty, excellence) book company in Shanghai. He translated into baihua instead of the more customary wenyan

a number of works of his favorite French writer Victor Hugo, e.g.

Hernani, Ruy Blas, Lucrèce Borgia, Quatre-vingt

treize. In 1928 a revised and longer

version of Niehai hua in thirty chapters was published by his company. A year later he completed a confessional novel L u Nanzi: lian (LuNanzi: love) about his childhood and youth. After 1931 Zeng Pu was no longer able to write because of ill health. His last years were spent peacefully cultivating flowers at his home in Changshu, Jiangsu, where he died in 1935.

Source: Wei Shaochang ed Niehai hua ziliao (Research materials on Niehai hua) Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju 1962

PL

Z H A N G C H U N F A N (?—1935) Zhang Chunfan (also known as Zhang Yan and by the pseudonym of Shuliushanfang), a native of Changzhou in Jiangsu province, spent most of his life in Shanghai, where he worked on several magazines. In this respect, his career was typical of a professional fiction-writer of the late Qing period. He also travelled through China as an assistant to high-ranking officials who hired his services. He spent some time in Guangzhou, where he gathered the material for his first novel, Huan hai (The world of officials), depicting the milieu of Cantonese bureaucrats. After the overthrow of the imperial dynasty, he kept writing novels in the traditional style, and his name is closely associated with the so-called 'School of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies' (Yuanyang hudiepai) for such novels as Qingwang

qiu (Love

210

Biographies of A u t h o r s

game), Mo hai (The world of devils), Zheng hai (The bureaucracy), Songshan (The boxing master of Mount Songshan), Yanhua nüxia Modeng

yinnü

quansou

(The heroic courtesans), and

(Modern depraved women). His earlier novel Jiuwei gui (The nine-

tailed turtle), published serially from 1906 to 1910, is often considered as one of the earliest examples of 'Black Curtain Fiction^fteimu xiaoshuo), a branch of 'Mandarin Duck and Butterfly Fiction.' Sources: Zheng Yimei 'Minguo jiupai xiaoshuo mingjia xiao shi' (Short biographies of famous old style fiction writers of the republic) in Wei Shaochang ed Yuanyang hudie pai yanjiu ziliao (Research documents for the school of mandarin ducks and butterflies) Shanghai: Wenyi chubanshe 1962, 452-519 Kong Lingjing Zhongguo xiaoshuo shiliao (Historical materials on Chinese fiction) Shanghai: Gudian wenxue chubanshe 1957, 325 ID

Bibliography

I L A T E Q I N G N O V E L S A N D NOVELISTS examined in this book

Editions used Note: The majority of the late Qing novels examined in this volume originally appeared in serial form in late Qing periodicals. These and the first book editions of the novels are extremely rare, if not totally inaccessible, in Western libraries. Standard editions were therefore used instead of the preferable first editions. Li Boyuan

-i^é-Tü Guanchang

xianxing

(The bureaucrats: a revela-

ji

tion) Hong Kong: Kwong C h i Book C o . , n.d. -

Wenming

xiao shi

Liu E

(A brief history of modern times) Beijing: Tongsu

jivfi^i.

wenyi chubanshe

a t e 1 9 5 5 (The travels of Laocan) Hong Kong: Shangwu

Laocan youji

yinshuguan

1962

(Second volume of The Travels of Laocan)

- Laocan youji erji Shanghai : Liangyou tushu gongsi

- Laocan youji quanbian

£ ifi $

%,&$kii £& /

1935

(A complete edition of The Travels of

Laocan ) Taibei: Y i wen yinshuguan

1972

W u Jianren 5-»f ^ Ershi nian muduzhi guai xianzhuang

z. 1if- g $ ¿ ^ 1 1 ^

(Strange events seen in the past twenty years) annotated by Zhang Youhe 2 vols. Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe

W u Woyao S^ik^L wenxue

ji

)k z

Kfc&k

Kai ten kôsetsu ki, Gogo chüko

^&*i*&&J*IMi

(Annotated edition of Hai tian hongxue ji), Gogo kenkyu sôkan (Wu dialect research publications) 2, Kobe, mimeogr. ed. 1970 PrùSek, Jaroslav 'The Changing Role of the Narrator in Chinese Novels at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century' Archiv

Orientdlni

38 (1970) 169-78

218 Bibliography

Semanov, Vladimir Ivanovo Èvoljucija kitajskogo romana (konec xvni-naâalo

xx v.)

(The evolution of the Chinese novel from the late 18th to the early 20th century] Moskva: Nauka 1970 -

L u Sin i ego predSestvenniki

Tan Bi'an

(Lu X u n and his predecessors] Moskva: Nauka 1967

Wan Qingde baihuawen yundong

(The late

9fct&U2L&.ij>

Qing vernacular language movement] Wuhan 1956 Tsau Shu-ying T h e Emergence of Modern China in Fiction (1895-1907)' unpublished thesis, University of Toronto, 1971 W u Xiaoru i-\-VL

1:-^

'Wan Qing xiayi xiaoshuo he qianze xiaoshuo'

-^ll^tl

(The novels of adventure and the novels of exposure during late Qing]

Wenyi xuexi

(Literary studies] 8 (1955) 23-5

Zheng Zhenduo yue xiaoshuo

'Lin Qinnan xiansheng'

fyfàfy

(Mr Lin Qinnan) Yue

(Monthly fiction] 15.11 (1924] 1-12

(An outline history of pre-

Zhongguo jindai wenxue shi gao modern Chinese literature) Fudan daxue Z h u Meishu

tkS-i^

ed, Beijing 1960

%&%K 'Liang Qichao yu xiaoshuo jie geming'

~&i£W$^Vk%r%^

(Liang Qichao and revolution in the world of fiction] in Ming Qing xiaoshuo lunwen

ji xubian

yanjiu

(Second collection of research essays

+

on M i n g and Qing fiction] n.p. 1970, 512-30

IV STUDIES OF C H I N E S E F I C T I O N

Studies of Chinese fiction of other periods, and general studies of Chinese literature

Beijing daxue

it%*J%

ed Zhongguo wenxue shi

^Œ

(A history of Chinese

literature) Beijing 1959 Birch, Cyril 'Change and Continuity in Chinese Fiction' in Merle Goldman ed Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1977, 385-404 -

'Some formal characteristics of the hua-pen story' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

17.2 (1965) 346-64

Bishop, John L. 'Some Limitations of Chinese Fiction' Far Eastern Quarterly

15.2 (1956)

239-47 Dolezelová-Velingerová, Milena and L . Dolezel A n Early Chinese Confessional Prose: Shen Fu's Six Chapters of a Floating Life' Toung

Pao 58 (1972) 137-60

Hanan, Patrick 'The Technique of Lu Hsun's Fiction' Harvard Journal of Asian

Studies

34 (1974) 53-96 Hegel, Robert G . 'Sui Tang yen-yi

and the Aesthetics of the Seventeenth-Century

Suchou Elite' in Andrew H . Plaks ed Chinese Narrative. Critical and Essays Princeton: Princeton University Press 1977, 124-59

Theoretical

219

Bibliography

Hsia, C . T . The Classic Chinese Novel

New York and London: Columbia University

Press 1968 Hsia, T . A . 'The Hsi yu pu as a Study of Dreams in Fiction' in Chow Tse-tsung ed

Wen-lin. Studies in the Chinese Humanities

Madison, Milwaukee, London:

University of Wisconsin Press 1968, 239-45 HuShi

- « 4 'Zai ji Chen Duxiu da Qian Xuantong'

(Another

letter to Chen Duxiu in reply to Qian Xuantong] in Hu Shi wencun

1, Taibei reprint

1968 Kalousková, Jarmila and Zbigniew Sftipski 'Some Problems of Typological Analysis in

Modern Chinese Fiction' in Etudes d'histoire et de littérature chinoises offertes au Professeur Jaroslav PrùSek Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1976, 143-53 Kong Lingjing

+

Zhongguo xiaoshuo shiliao

(Historical mate-

rial on Chinese fiction) Shanghai 1957 Král, Oldfich Umèni cinskelio

romdnu (The art of the Chinese novel) Praha, Acta

Universitatis Carolinae, Philologica Monographia v m , 1965 Li, Peter 'Narrative Patterns in &zn-kuo and Shui-hu'

in Andrew H . Plaks ed Chinese

Essays Princeton: Princeton University Press

Narrative. Critical and Theoretical 1977, 73-84 Liu Dajie

#J