The nature and contents of the Yüeh-fu hung-shan

P. D. Hanan

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00064715

The nature and contents of the Yüeh-fu hung-shan

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

P. D. Hanan

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The Yüeh-fu hung-shan is a Ming dynasty work which is generally thought to have been lost. What little is known of it is entirely dependent on one man's description. On the strength of this, however, the work has come to occupy a fairly important position in histories of Chinese oral literature. The purpose of this article is to call attention to a surviving copy of the Yüeh-fu hung-shan, and to show that the nature of its contents has been completely misunderstood.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 1963 , pp. 346 - 361

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00064715 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1963

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^{page 346 note 1} In the British Museum, 15257 e 15. It was first listed in Douglas, R. K., Catalogue of Chinese printed books, manuscripts and drawings in the Library of the British Museum, London, 1877, 263Google Scholar. It is mentioned also by Davis, J. F., Hān koong tsew, or the sorrows of Hān, a Chinese tragedy, 1829Google Scholar, VIII.

^{page 346 note 2} In the fifth number of the newspaper's weekly literary section T‘u-shu p‘ing-lun chou-k‘an .

^{page 346 note 3} For an account of the evidence for such a form see Yeh Tê-chün , Sung-Yüan-Ming chiang-ch‘ang wên-hsüeh, Shanghai, 1957, 29–36.

^{page 346 note 4} ibid., 30–1

^{page 346 note 1} Notably Yeh Tê-chün, op. cit., 23–4. Ch‘ên Ju-hêng also refers to it (Shuo-shu shih-hua , Peking, 1958, 117).

^{page 347 note 2} See Yeh Tê-chün, op. cit., 30–1.

^{page 347 note 3} ibid., 23–4. This is by no means an unlikely hypothesis. The same thing did happen with other forms, e.g. pao-chüan .

^{page 347 note 4} For the most extensive lists of these works, see two of the catalogues compiled by Fu Hsi-hua , Ming-tai tsa-chü ch‘üan-mu , Peking, 1959, 292, and Ming-tai ch‘uan-ch‘i ch‘üan-mu , Peking, 1959, 538–43. The contents of many of them are listed in Wang Ku-lu's appendix to Chung-kuo chin-shih hsi-ch‘ü shih (translated by him from the original Japanese of Aoki Masaru , Peking, 1958, II, 737–54. For two other anthologies not listed in any of the above, see Chao Ching-shên , Yüan-Ming nan-hsi k‘ao-lüeh , Peking, 1958, 124–35.

^{page 347 note 5} No explanation of how this meaning (of a form of oral literature) came to be assigned to the word t‘ao-chên has yet been put forward.

^{page 347 note 6} The names for the different forms of Chinese literature are notoriously liable to slip and hange in their application. The outstanding example is that of the word yüeh-fu, which also occurs in the title of this work.

^{page 347 note 7} Several of the anthologies are devoted to plays belonging to the repertoires of particular local styles of drama. Some of these local styles became fashionable and quickly spread throughout the country, only to be superseded by others in their turn. Wang Ku-lu has collected some excerpts from different anthologies which exemplify a style of drama which originated in Anhui and which became widely popular towards the end of the sixteenth century. (See Ming-tai Hui-tiao hsi-ch‘ü san-ch‘u chi-i , Shanghai, 1956.) The Yüeh-fu hung-shan makes no claim to be of such a specialized kind. The majority of its contents, apart from the half-dozen excerpts of tsa-chü or Northern drama, differ little from the orthodox K‘un-ch‘ü versions of the plays concerned. At least one of the excerpts—no. 30 from the Wu-kuei chi —contains passages for singing in the manner called kun-ch‘ang . Such passages, composed of lines of regular length, were sung to a rapid beat before, in the middle of, or at the end of, the tunes used in the drama. (See Wang Ku-lu, op. cit., pp. 5–16.) They were the main feature of the Anhui style of drama, although not confined to it.

^{page 348 note 1} The others are as follows:

chüan 2 ‘husband and wife’

chüan 3 ‘birth of a child’

chüan 4 ‘instruction’

chüan 5 ‘encouragement’

chüan 6 ‘parting’

chüan 7 ‘longing’

chüan 8 ‘announcement of success’

chüan 9 ‘making inquiries’

chüan 10 ‘enjoying the scenery’

chüan 11 ‘feasting’

chüan 12 ‘chance encounter’

chüan 13 ‘love’

chüan 14 ‘loyalty, filial piety, fidelity’

chüan 15 ‘doing good by stealth’

chüan 16 ‘the hero's reception’

^{page 348 note 2} The page-numbering is complete without it.

^{page 348 note 3} Excerpts 5 and 19 have been bisected in the process. The actual order is: 1–4, 5 (first part), 16–18, 19 (first part), 5 (second part), 6–15, 19 (second part), 20–98, 100.

^{page 348 note 4} There is one four-lined poem prefaced to chüan 11.

^{page 348 note 5} The sole means of identification was the seal at the end of bis preface. See Sun K‘ai-ti , Chung-kuo t‘ung-su hsiao-shuo shu-mu , revised edition, Peking, 1957, 52.

^{page 348 note 6} See Ming-tai ch‘uan-ch‘i ch‘üan-mu, 185–7.

^{page 348 note 7} ibid., 127, 457, 463, 464.

^{page 349 note 1} Sun K‘ai-ti, loc. cit.

^{page 349 note 2} Thanks largely to the appearance of Fu Hsi-hua's bibliographies and to the publication of the Ku-pên hsi-ch‘ü ts‘ung-k‘an reprints, Series I-III, Peking, 1954, 1955, 1957 respectively.

^{page 349 note 3} The possibility cannot be ruled out, however, that it is a Northern act inserted in a predominantly Southern play, although the fact that, as will be shown later, it is combined with a ‘wedge’, seems to make this unlikely.

^{page 349 note 4} The sources of the story are collected in Ch‘ien Nan-yang , Sung- Yüan hsi-wên chi-i , Shanghai, 1956, 260.

^{page 349 note 5} See the Lu-kuei pu , Shanghai, 1957, edition, 16. Li Tzŭ-chung's name appeared in Chung Ssŭ-ch‘êng’s original work, which was completed in 1330. Neither of the two plays attributed to Li Tzŭ-chung survives.

^{page 349 note 6} Shanghai, 1957, edition, 88. There is a reference to a play of the same name in Ch‘ao shih Pao-wên-t‘ang shu-mu , Shanghai, 1957, edition, 139, but without the attribution to Li Tzŭ-chung. It could have referred to a Southern play on the same subject, of which there were several. Among Ming plays are (1) the Ch‘ing-so chi , fragments of which survive in anthologies, see Ming-tai ch‘uan-ch‘i ch‘üan-mu, 16, (2) the extant Huaihsiang chi as well as (3) an earlier, lost Huai-hsiang chi, op. cit., 502–3. There was also a hsi-wên; Ch‘ien Nan-yang, op. cit., 260–2, has collected together 12 songs from various works of dramatic prosody, most of them entitled Han Shou. He assumes that the reference in the Pao-wên-t‘ang shu-mu is to this play.

^{page 350 note 1} The similarity is more than formal. Both passages deal with secret love-making between hero and heroine. One of the tunes in the Yüeh-fu hung-shan is wrongly named; yu-ch‘ai-p‘ing , the title of a Southern tune, is a mistake for yu-hu-lu .

^{page 350 note 2} The fact that this act was in the hsien-lü mode raises a further problem. The hsien-lü was customarily reserved for the first act of the (usually four-act) tsa-chü, yet this excerpt deals with one of the play's climaxes. If we compare it with a surviving Ming play on the same theme, the Huai-hsiang chi, this is a stage which is reached only in the 25th of the play's 40 acts. A possible explanation is that the T‘ou-hsiang chi, like certain other tsa-chü plays, was written in more than one part, and that this excerpt formed the induction and first act of some part after the first.

^{page 350 note 3} It differs from the two extant plays of the same title in the Ku-pên hsi-ch‘u ts‘ung-k‘an, Series I.

^{page 351 note 1} See T‘an Ch‘ien , Kuo ch‘üeh , Peking, 1958, edition, chüan 72, p. 4494, chüan 76, pp. 4722 and 4730. He held the post of (Grand Secretary of the Wên-yüan-ko) until the second month of 1594, and that of (Grand Secretary of the Chien-chi-tien) from then until the fifth month of the same year. It was a mistake on the part of the play's author to describe him as the holder of a similar post.

^{page 351 note 2} I have not so far been able to find out anything about the daughter. The relevant local history is not accessible to me.

^{page 351 note 3} See the San-kuo yen-i (chapter 66 of the 120-chapter editions). Excerpt 77 is on precisely this subject. See below.

^{page 351 note 4} There was also a hsi-wên of that title. See Ch‘ien Nan-yang, op. cit., introduction, p. 5. It is among the list contained in one of the Yung-lo ta-tien , plays.

^{page 351 note 5} loc. cit. A play called Lao Lai-tzŭ is listed in the Pao-wên-t‘ang shu-mu, 144, but there is no means of deciding whether it is a hsi-wên or a tsa-chü. The lost play Pan-i huan attributed to the Ming writer Fan Wên-jo was probably on the same subject, although its author may have lived too late for it to have been this play.

^{page 351 note 6} There are two other Ming plays which sometimes go by this title. See Ming-tai ch‘uan-ch‘i ch‘üan-mu, 186 and 490. They deal with different subject-matter from this play.

^{page 352 note 1} For the subject-matter of the Pai-shun chi, see Ch‘ü-hai tsung-mu t‘i-yao , Peking, 1959, edition, I, 694–5. It was based on the life of Wang Ts‘êng, who was first in each of the three examinations (hence the term san-yüan). The girl married to him was the daughter of Yang I , although this was apparently not a historical fact.

^{page 353 note 2} They include the extant T‘an-hua chi (see excerpt 93) and the Yü-yü chi (see excerpt 55), of which the songs are all that survive. There was another play, not extant, which is not represented in the Yüeh-fu hung-shan. This is the Tan-chung chi . See Ch‘i Piao-chia , Yüan-shan-t‘ang ch‘ü p‘in (Yüan-shan-t‘ang Ming ch‘ü p‘in chü p‘in. chiao-lu , ed. Huang Ch‘ang , Shanghai, 1955, 101).

^{page 353 note 3} See Ming-tai ch‘uan-ch‘i ch‘üan-mu, 214, 406. The former survives only in anthologies, and is not accessible, but some information about its subject can be got from the catalogues in which it is mentioned.

^{page 353 note 4} ibid., 342. This is a play by Chu Ts‘ung-lung . Fu Hsi-hua states that its subjecti matter differed from that of the other two plays, I do not know on what evidence.

^{page 353 note 5} Ku-pên hsi-ch‘ü ts‘ung-k‘an edition (Series I, No. 19), Act 24. The P‘o-yao chi is usually described as a hsi-wên; there certainly was a hsi-wên of that title (see Ch‘ien Nan-yang, loc. cit.), i but the earliest surviving edition of this work belongs to the middle of the Ming dynasty.

^{page 353 note 6} ibid., Series II, No. 10, Act 17.

^{page 354 note 1} The Ts‘ai-lou chi has also reduced the number of acts (20 to the 29 of the P‘o-yao chi).

^{page 354 note 2} See Chao Ching-shên , Hsiao-shuo hsi-ch‘ü hsin-k‘ao , Shanghai, 1939, 293–308.

^{page 354 note 3} See Ch‘ien Nan-yang, op. cit., 270–2.

^{page 354 note 4} There was a play called the Ch‘a-hsiang chi which may be one of the ch‘uan-ch‘i under another title. (See Ch‘i Piao-chia, op. cit., 28.) The same note refers to an earlier work, also lost, called San-shêng chi .

^{page 354 note 5} See Ming-tai ch‘uan-ch‘i ch‘üan-mu, 127–8 and 198–9. There was also a hsi-wên, of which some songs survive. See Ch‘ien Nan-yang, op. cit., 44. The Pao-wên-t‘ang shu-mu notes two plays of this title (pp. 139, 140).

^{page 354 note 6} See the list of contents below, under the first excerpt from each play. Excerpts 2, 8, 18, 19, 21–24, 30, 38, 55, 76, 77, 79.

^{page 354 note 7} See under excerpts 21, 23, 55, 76, 79.

^{page 355 note 1} For example, excerpts 22 and 38 are from plays which are represented only in one or two other anthologies.

^{page 355 note 2} See under excerpts 6 and 24.

^{page 355 note 3} Excerpt 88 comes from a play with a different title from the Chuang-lio chi. It presumably represents a different version of the same play. See under excerpt 16.

^{page 355 note 4} Excerpts 11, 16, 46, 98.

^{page 355 note 5} Excerpts 19, 25, 28, 35, 40, 45, 49, 54, 69, 73, 87, 89–91.

^{page 355 note 6} Many of the titles usually dismissed as ‘alternative’ do denote a different version. The fact that most of them occur in anthologies of excerpts, which are based mainly on popular versions, only goes to prove the point.

^{page 355 note 7} For example the drama originating in Anhui province in the late sixteenth century. See Wang Ku-lu, Ming-tai Hui-tiao hsi-ch‘ü san-ch‘u chi-i.

^{page 355 note 8} See, for example, Ch‘i Piao-ehia, op. cit., 94, 105, 142, etc.

^{page 355 note 9} The most outstanding example is provided by excerpt 91. (See under excerpt 6.)

^{page 356 note 1} The form of the tsa-chü in the Ming period diverged increasingly from the practice of the Yüan dramatists. Some of the later ones are tsa-chü by virtue of little more than their brevity.

^{page 356 note 2} See Fu Hsi-hua, Ming-tai tsa-chü ch‘üan-mu, 160.

^{page 356 note 3} See Shên Tê-fu , Ku-ch‘ü tsa-yen (Chung-kuo ku-tien hsi-ch‘ü lun-chu chi-ch‘êng edition), 207.

^{page 356 note 4} Shêng Ming tsa-chü edition.

^{page 356 note 5} A brief description is included in Fu Yün-tzŭ , ‘Naikaku Bunko tu-ch‘ü hsü-chi’ (Pai-ch‘uan chi , Tokyo, 1943), 132–3. If this excerpt really did belong to the T‘ai-ho chi, then Chu-shou chi must have been its own individual title.

^{page 356 note 6} Excerpt 25 is much shorter than its counterpart.

^{page 356 note 7} Four of these excerpts differ widely from their counterparts in editions of the complete work. Excerpts 19, 45, and 49 contain much more speech than their counterparts. Note further that one of these, excerpt 49, differs considerably from the same scene as reprinted in an anthology of regional drama. (Ku-lu, Wang, Ming-tai Hui-tiao hsi-ch‘ü san-ch‘u chi-i, 99–100Google Scholar). However, the most significant difference occurs in the case of excerpt 91. It replaces three of its counterpart's songs with six others, it has much more speech, and, in addition, it contains a so-called P‘i-p‘a tz‘ŭ sung by the heroine Chao Wu-niang . This is evidently a popular ballad, which must have been current at the time. It also occurs (in the same scene) in at least one other anthology. (See Ku Chieh-kang , ‘Ming su ch‘ü p‘i-p‘a tz‘ŭ’ , Wên hsüeh , I, 1, 1933, 78.)

^{page 356 note 8} In another anthology, the Ch‘iu yeh yüeh there is also an excerpt which differs entirely from Act 9 while containing the same subject-matter. (See Chao Ching-shên, op. cit., 134.) The titles of the two excerpts differ, but this does not mean that their text is not identical, for the titles of excerpts in anthologies seem to depend on editorial whim.

^{page 356 note 9} F, 21. The excerpts in this anthology are not textually related to the Ssŭ-chieh chi which is contained in the Feng-yüeh chin-nang , although they are concerned with the same subject-matter. (On the Feng-yüeh chin-nang, see Liu, James J., ‘The Feng-yüeh chinnang, a Ming collection of Yüan and Ming plays and lyrics preserved in the Royal Library of San Lorenzo, Escorial, Spain’, Journal of Oriental Studies, IV, 1–2, 1957–8, 79–107.Google Scholar)

^{page 357 note 1} Nor is it to be found in a somewhat different version of the play, KP, I, 22. (Of the two, excerpt 36 is closer to the LS version.) An excerpt from the Yü-huan chi appears in an anthology under the title of Hsü-yüan chi (F, 457); the change of title may signify a different version. There was also another Yü-huan chi, not now extant (F, 200).

^{page 357 note 2} F, 455.

^{page 357 note 3} F, 457.

^{page 357 note 4} F, 451.

^{page 357 note 5} Excerpt 89 is much shorter than its counterpart.

^{page 357 note 6} Its subject-matter corresponds to that of Act 19. However, whereas the birth of a son to the Emperor's consort is the whole subject of the excerpt, it is merely reported in Act 19.

^{page 357 note 7} F, 475.

^{page 357 note 8} F, 486.

^{page 357 note 9} F, 482.

^{page 358 note 1} F, 193.

^{page 358 note 2} F, 480.

^{page 358 note 3} F, 143–4.

^{page 358 note 4} F, 191. This excerpt differs widely from a version of the same scene in an anthology of regional drama. See Ku-lu, Wang, Ming-tai Hui-tiao hsi-ch‘ü san-ch‘u chi-i, 78–84Google Scholar, where the play appears under its other title of T‘i-hung chi .

^{page 358 note 5} Excerpt 28 contains much more speech than its counterpart.

^{page 358 note 6} F, 477.

^{page 358 note 7} F, 453–4.

^{page 358 note 8} Excerpt 35 diverges from its counterpart half-way through; three songs differ. In excerpt 87, one song differs. Excerpt 69 lacks a good deal of speech at the beginning, in this respect resembling the same scene in another anthology. (See Chao Ching-shên, op. cit., 134.)

^{page 358 note 9} F, 478.

^{page 358 note 10} The Yüeh-fu hung-shan excerpt has four opening songs which are not found in the other. The excerpt differs widely from the same scene as included in a repertoire of the Anhui style of drama. See Ku-lu, Wang, Ming-tai Hui-tiao hsi-ch‘ü san-ch‘u chi-i, 49–52Google Scholar.

^{page 359 note 1} There is an adaptation entitled Chin-yin ho-tsung chi which is not accessible. (See F, 228.) There was also a New Chin-yin, apparently an actors’ version, which is no longer extant. (See Ch‘i Piao-chia, op. cit., 94.)

^{page 359 note 2} F, 455. It is possible that the different titles originally stood for differing versions.

^{page 359 note 3} It is about half the length of its counterpart.

^{page 359 note 4} F, 210.

^{page 359 note 5} Yüan Ming tsa-chü edition. Excerpt 58 contains two extra songs at the beginning. What is evidently the same excerpt appears—also under the title of Huang-p‘ao chi—in another anthology. (See Wang Ku-lu, op. cit., 750.)

^{page 360 note 1} F, 211.

^{page 360 note 2} See Wang Ku-lu, op. cit., 739, 746, 752. There is also a San-kuo chi , presumably the same work, pp. 744, 749. There is also a play, entitled San-kuo chih, contained in the Feng-yüeh chin-nang. (See under excerpt 20.) Excerpt 77 is textually related to its counterpart in that play, although there are wide divergences.

^{page 360 note 3} F, 220–1.

^{page 360 note 4} The Lien-huan chi is an early play—it is listed in the Pao-wên-t‘ang shu-mu—although the only surviving complete copies date from the Ch‘ing dynasty. It has been extensively adapted. The speech is full of Soochow colloquialisms, a characteristic of Ch‘ing K‘un-ch‘ü, and in Act 5 there is included a list of about 100 play-titles—a minor catalogue—which contains many Ch‘ing works. Excerpt 90 combines text which is found in Acts 5 and 13.

^{page 361 note 1} KP, III.

^{page 361 note 2} The text in the middle of this act is missing; it can be filled in from the excerpt.

^{page 361 note 3} Ts‘ai Hsiang was also the subject of the Ssŭ-mei chi. See under 97.

^{page 361 note 4} See Wang Ku-lu, op. cit., 738, 740, 741, 747.

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