Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan
Author | Xizhou Sheng (西周生 "Scholar of the Western Zhou"; anonymous) |
---|---|
Original title | 醒世姻緣傳 |
Country | China |
Language | Chinese |
Genre | novel of manners |
Published | 17th-century |
The Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan (Chinese: 醒世姻緣傳; pinyin: Xǐngshì Yīnyuán Zhuàn; lit. 'The Story of a Marital Fate to Awaken the World'), also translated as Marriage Destinies to Awaken the World, The Bonds of Matrimony, A Marriage to Awaken the World and A Romance to Awaken the World, is a Chinese classic novel of the late Ming or early Qing dynasty. Consist of 100 chapters and over one million words, it was one of the longest Chinese novels of the period. Scholar Daria Berg calls it "one of China's most underrated traditional vernacular novels" and "one of the most grand-scale explorations of the world in fiction", a saga of two families, one a reincarnation of the other, whose "catalog of vices and moral decay conjures up the apocalyptic vision of a doomed nation".[1]
Originally named E Yinyuan (惡姻緣, A Cursed Marital Fate), the novel takes the
Authorship and text
The novel was published under the pen name Xizhou Sheng (西周生), that is, "Scholar of the Western Zhou" (the Zhou dynasty's Golden Age). Hu Shih's confident announcement in 1931 of his discovery that it was written by Pu Songling has been "largely discredited".[2] Nothing about the author is known, though authorship has been "wrongly" attributed to Pu[1][3] on the grounds that the novel contains many phrases from the Shandong dialect, as does Jin Ping Mei (indeed Jin Ping Mei is quoted in the novel).
The date of composition lies between 1628 and 1681, placing it either in the late
Plot
The plot is split between the two incarnations of a married couple. The victim of earlier wickedness will seek retribution by being a tormenting wife in the later reincarnation. In the first, set in the Han dynasty, the lascivious actions of Chao Yuan dissipate his family fortune in reckless living and tortures his father and wife until he is murdered. Retribution for his actions is visited upon his reincarnation, Di Xichen, in the early Ming dynasty, who after failing as a scholar becomes a prosperous merchant and is tormented by two shrewish wives, Sujie and Jijie. Xichen suffers for Chao Yuan's crimes.[1] In the final chapters, Xichen is saved from certain death by a monk. He then vows to abstain from killing, chants the Diamond Sutra, and leads a virtuous life with one of his wives until he dies at the age of 85.[5]
The author paints this serious family drama against a satirical panorama not only of officials, scholars, and teachers, for whom he has little respect, but cooks, midwives, and doctors. All provide examples of lechery, drunkenness, and love of money, yet each of the characters is given individual personality and particular language. The author makes precise use of proverbs, xiehouyu, and curses in the Shandong style, but also literary poetry, fiction, and writings. One of the author’s techniques is to pair one character against another of the same profession or type. Xichen is made to seem all the more inept, for instance, in contrast to his capable assistant, and his wives all the more ill-tempered in contrast with better women.[5]
Moral teachings
The intricate plot and didactic structure are centered on the Buddhist themes of rebirth,
Yet Xichen's final awakening also leaves the reader room for hope. In the second plot, ostensibly set in the early Ming dynasty, the author is especially concerned with transgressions against social hierarchy, whether within marriage, such as the wife dominating the husband, or in society at large, such as transgression of social class boundaries, and presents the literate elite as weak and selfish.[6]
Reputation and evaluations
The novel received relatively little serious critical attention in China until the campaign for
The novel also received much more Western critical appraisal in the 21st century. The novel was described by Kenneth J. Hammond as "an important work of literary and intellectual history".[10] The Journal of the American Oriental Society hailed it as "one of the masterworks of traditional Chinese fiction".[11]
References
- Berg, Daria (2001), "Traditional Vernacular Novels: Some Lesser Known Works", in Mair, Victor (ed.), The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 659–674, ISBN 0231109849
- —— (2002). Carnival in China: A Reading of the Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ISBN 9004124268.
- Fan, Ning, "Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan" ("The Story of a Marital Fate to Awaken the World")[permanent dead link]. Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed.
- Idema, Wilt and Lloyd Haft (1997). A Guide to Chinese Literature. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. ISBN 0892641231.
- Hu Shih, "The Chinese Novel" (unpublished address at the Literary Society, Washington D.C., February 15, 1941) in Chou, Chih-P'ing, ed. (2013). English Writings of Hu Shih Literature and Society (Volume 1). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg: Imprint: Springer. ISBN 9783642311840.
- JSTOR 2718972.
- Wu, Yenna (1999). Ameliorative Satire and the Seventeenth-Century Chinese Novel, Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan-Marriage as Retribution, Awakening the World. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press. ISBN 0773479562.
- —— (1998), "Xingshi yinyuan zhuan", in Nienhauser, William H. (ed.), The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 53–58, ISBN 025333456X
Notes
- ^ a b c d Berg (2001), p. 660.
- ^ Plaks (1985), p. 555.
- ^ Idema (1997), p. 189, 210-211.
- ^ Plaks (1985), p. 558-559.
- ^ a b Wu (1999), p. 55.
- ^ a b Wu (1999), p. 55-56.
- ^ Plaks (1985), p. 571-572.
- ^ Chou (2013), p. 64.
- ^ Wu (1998), p. 56-57.
- ^ Hammond, K. J. (2003). [Review of Ameliorative Satire and the Seventeenth-Century Chinese Novel, Xingshi yinyuan zhuan—Marriage as Retribution, Awakening the World, by Y. Wu]. American Journal of Chinese Studies, 10(1), 106–108. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44288731
- ProQuest 217134119.