Abstract
In the first Chinese history of Chinese literature, History of Chinese Humanities (Zhongguo wenxue shi, 1904), Lin Chuanjia (1877–1921) faulted not only Yuan-dynasty literature for its alleged vulgarity, but also took the well–known Japanese proponent of Chinese fiction and drama, Sasagawa Rinpu (1870–1949), to task for mistaking “low-class customs” for “high-brow literature”:
The literary forms of the Yuan deteriorated steadily. They could not match the splendor of the Tang and the Song. … [In the Yuan,] they latched onto Yuan Zhen’s prose tale “Encountering a Transcendent” [alternately known as “Story of Yingying”] and turned it into the obscene lyrics [of the Xizxiang ji]. In his History of Chinese Literature, the Japanese [author] Sasagawa recorded all the obscene books that were previously burnt in China. He did not know that zaju plays and yuanben farces could not be compared to the prose of old. At best, they should be listed among customs (fengsu).… The fact that Sasagawa included plays and novels, including [those by] Tang Xianzu of the Ming and [by] Jin Shengtan of the Qing, shows that he had the adulterated understanding [characteristic] of the lower echelons of Chinese society.1
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Notes
Both the preface and postface enumerate Zhou’s criteria, which favored the current pronunciation over the ancient, the standard over the dialect, the natural over the contrived. See Zhou Deqing, “Zixu” and “Houxu,” Zhongyuan yinyun, XQXBHB, 1: 8–11. The question of what actual “standard” Zhou Deqing proposed is hotly debated among historical linguists. See, for example, Wang Jiexin, Zhongyuan yinyun xinkao (Taipei: Commercial Press, 1988).
My translation follows YXYF, 10: 20a–21a. Other translations include William Dolby, “Kuan Han-ch’ing,” 50–52, n. 123; Jerome P. Seaton, tr., “Not Bowing to Old Age,” in Sunflower Splendor, edited by Wu-chi Liu and Irving Yucheng Lo (New York: Anchor Books, 1975), 415–17
and Wayne Schlepp, “The Refusal to Get Old,” The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, edited by Victor Mair (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 349–50.
The authorship of this play has been in dispute, but Douglas Wilkerson argues convincingly that the play emerged from of Wang’s circle, especially in light of Wang’s other song-related works (“Shih and Historical Consciousness in Ming Drama,” 238–64). For a revisionist reading of Wang’s play as a serious intervention in the political discussion about the dangers of absolutism rather than as a simple diatribe against specific individuals, see Dieter Tschanz, “History and Meaning in the Late Ming Drama Ming feng ji,” Ming Studies 35 (1995): 1–31.
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© 2003 Patricia Sieber
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Sieber, P. (2003). Art Song Anthologies, Editorial Attributions, and the Cult of Affect: Guan Hanqing (ca. 1220–ca. 1300) and the Transformation of Attestatory Authorship. In: Theaters of Desire: Authors, Readers, and the Reproduction of Early Chinese Song-Drama, 1300–2000. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982490_2
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