Confucianism and Humor

◀ Human Rights Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667. Humor Yōumò 幽默 The use of humor is as common in China as it is butterfly he dreams himself to be. Zhuangzi’s stories have elsewhere in the world. From the ancient phi- delighted Chinese readers for generations and served as losophers to contemporary television, from models of humorous writing. political satire to regional insults, humor has A chief target of Zhuangzi’s wit was an earlier prominent philosopher, Confucius (551–479 bce). In contrast to always been a part of Chinese culture. Daoists like Zhuangzi, who believed in living in intuitive harmony with the natural order, Confucius promoted a strict code of ethics and social hierarchy. Confucius is layful writing and amusing anecdotes survive from often depicted as a rather stern teacher, but there is evi- China’s earliest times, and they continued to be dence in the conversations with his disciples recorded in produced throughout the imperial era (221 bce – the Analects that he, too, had a sense of humor. One of 1912 ce). As in other cultures, humor has served a variety of the most amusing images from ancient China was actu- purposes in Chinese history, including entertainment, cul- ally produced to illustrate the Confucian ethical principle tural criticism, personal denigration, and bolstering group that one should be respectful to one’s parents: A stone solidarity against outsiders. It is important to study humor, carving in the funeral shrine of the Confucian scholar therefore, for a fuller appreciation of the complexity, ten- Wu Liang, constructed during the second century ce, sions, and joys of Chinese life over the ages. relates the well-known story of a seventy-year-old filial son persuading his even more elderly parents that they are still young by acting like an infant. Zhuangzi on Confucius The most famous and influential humorist of ancient Confucianism and Humor China was the philosopher Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu, 369– 286 bce), whose eponymous writings are considered one Since the Han dynasty (206 bce– 2 2 0 ce), Confucianism of the two primary texts of Daoism (the other being the has tended to dismiss humor, seeing it as incompatible with mystical Daodejing). Zhuangzi used playful parables, sincere devotion to ethical principles. The female histo- parody, and clever wordplay to mock other philosophers’ rian and writer Ban Zhao (c. 45– 116 ce) stated that a good beliefs in the power of human reason. According to woman should shun jokes and laughter and solemnly devote Zhuangzi, people’s understanding of the world is always herself to serving her husband and his parents. Some Con- restricted by their own limited perspective, just as a frog fucian scholars criticized as frivolous all humorous popular in a well cannot see more than a small patch of the sky or novels and plays, which were often banned by governments a sleeping man has no way of knowing that he is not the that tended to adopt the most rigid Confucian perspective 1116 www.berkshirepublishing.com P © 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC Humor n Yōumò n 幽默 1117 Humor in Periods of Unrest Advances in printing and publishing beginning circa 1100 in the Song period (960– 1279) contributed to the wider dissemination of humorous literature in China. Two periods of political unrest and technological change in later Chinese history produced a flood of writing that spanned the spectrum from escapist entertainment to harsh satire: the early seventeenth century, when the Ming dynasty (1368– 1644) was in decline; and the Republican period between the fall of the Qing dynasty (1912) and the found- ing of the People’s Republic of China (1949). In the earlier period, occasional bawdy and erotic novels, such as Jinpingmei (Golden Lotus), and comic short stories, such as those collected by Feng Menglong (1574– 1646), were immensely popular. During the 1920s and 1930s, China’s greatest satirist, Lu Xun (1881– 1936), criticized Chinese society and politics in essays and short stories published in some of the hundreds of newspapers and literary journals that appeared in those years; he also promoted woodblock printing and satirical cartoons that the illit- erate masses could understand. Also during this period, the writer Lin Yutang (1895–1976) introduced the English word “humor” into the Chinese language and argued that China needed more of it. During the era of Mao Zedong (1949– 1976), and par- A man on roller skates entertains a crowd. ticularly during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), sin- Photo by Joan Lebold Cohen. cere revolutionary fervor was held up by the Communist Party as the only proper attitude toward life. Humor did not entirely die out, but it was politically dangerous. on humor as subversive of the social order. Even whimsi- cal poetry did not escape the attacks of sterner Confucian critics in the late imperial era (1368– 1912), who saw it as a Humor Themes waste of time that instead should be spent studying history and promoting morality. The themes of Chinese humor often resemble those in The question of the value of humor was never defini- other parts of the world: Published joke books abound tively settled within the Confucian tradition, however, with stereotypical characters such as the henpecked hus- and Confucian thought continuously coexisted and inter- band and the lusty widow. Confucian and Buddhist in- acted with other schools of thought (such as Daoism) that stitutions and thought are also popular objects of humor, did appreciate humor. Buddhism came to China during especially in plays and operas that existed prior to the the Han dynasty, and the Chan school of Buddhism made twentieth century. Residents of one part of China often use of the “shock effect” of humorous and absurd images make fun of those of another, but this sort of regional to bring about knowledge, much as Zhuangzi used humor humor and jokes about foreigners are not as prominent to question rationality. The use of amusing yet incongru- in China as humor involving ethnicity and nationality ous images for their shock value was borrowed by poets is in Europe and North America. Instead, the nature in the Song dynasty (960– 1279) and later periods. of the Chinese language, which has a relatively small www.berkshirepublishing.com © 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC 1118 Berkshire Encyclopedia of China 宝库山中华全书 number of different sounds, encourages puns and word- Further Reading play. These are particularly common in the performance Ebrey, P. B. (Ed.). (1993). Chinese civilization: A sourcebook humor called xiangsheng, which resembles vaudeville (2nd ed.). New York: The Free Press. dialogue. Harbsmeier, C. (1989). Humor in ancient Chinese philosophy. Philosophy East and West 39(3), 289– 310. Harbsmeier, C. (1990). Confucius Ridens: Humor in the Analects. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 50(1), Humor Today 131–161. The decades of the 1980s and 1990s, during which ideo- Hyers, C. (1973). Zen and the comic spirit. Philadelphia: logical orthodoxy disintegrated in the People’s Republic Westminster Press. of China (PRC) and the use of the Internet mushroomed, Kao, George, (Ed.). (1974). Chinese wit and humor. New York: Sterling Publishing. may have been the beginning of another great age of hu- Kowallis, J. (1986). Wit and humor from old Cathay. Bei- mor in Chinese history. A growing appetite for humor jing: Panda Books. in the PRC led publishers to comb traditional literature Kupperman, J. J. (1989). Not in so many words: Chuang and excerpt the funny bits in best-selling anthologies. Lin Tzu’s strategies of communication. Philosophy East Yutang’s writings from the 1920s and 1930s are enjoying and West 39(3), 311– 317. new popularity, and the television sitcom has become a Lin Yutang. (1936). The little critic. Shanghai: The Com- well-established form in the PRC. Chinese bloggers ex- mercial Press. periment with the full array of humor, visual and textual, Mair, V. (Trans.). (1994). Wandering on the Way: Early on the Web, keeping the government’s Internet censors Taoist tales and parables of Chuang Tzu. New York: busy removing anything deemed subversive. Much of the Bantam Books. online humor, political or otherwise, has made its way Owen, S. (Ed. and trans.). (1996). An anthology of Chinese onto sites outside of China managed by overseas Chinese. literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: Norton. In this way Chinese humor is increasingly global. Wells, H. W. (1971). Traditional Chinese humor: A study in art and literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Kristin STAPLETON Press. China changes constantly, and 閒談 the Encyclopedia of China will chat change and grow, too. Berk- shire’s authors and editors wel- come questions, comments, and corrections: [email protected]. Hunan Province ▶ www.berkshirepublishing.com © 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC.

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