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University M o d film s International 300 N. Zaeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 8418951

Hsu, Wan-hua W, Tung

A STUDY OF FOUR HISTORICAL "PIEN-WEN" STORIES

The Ohio State University Ph.D. 1984

University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 A STUDY OF FOUR HISTORICAL PIEN-WEN STORIES

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By Wan-hua W. Tung Hstl, B.A., M.A.

xxxxx

The Ohio State University 1984

Reading Committee: Approved By

Tien-yi Li Daniel Barnes David Y. Ch'en

Yan-shuan Lao Adviser Department of East Asian languages and Literatures "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us."

Ephesians 3 : 20 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The pien-wen has long been an object of my admiration.

Once I was charmed by "Han P'eng . one of the

su-pien, the secular pien-wen, I became determined to write

on the secular pien-wen some day. In some secular pien-wen

stories, the attractive images of the super-ego, the

glamorous issue between Heaven and Man, and the heterodox

spirit of the way of man have eventually compelled me to

do research and also the writing of this thesis.

Since the summer of I98 I, after my "sister," Miss Li

Hwei-ying (along with Hwei-ying's family and my senior in

school, Miss Chang Yeh-min) had helped me to collect materials overseas, I started to check bibliographies for my study. In March, 1982, Yen Hstt and I together stepped on to a new stage in our lives. Since then, in various ways

Yen has greatly stimulated me to work on my thesis. From

Yen's recommendation of the inspiring movie, From Mozart to Mao, to his practical share of my burden in typing my first draft, I have been deeply grateful for his love and

"push." From 1982 to I9 8 3. even to the beginning of 1984, not only did my adviser, Prof. Tien-yi Li, direct my study, but also both Prof. Daniel Barnes and Mr. Gordon J.

DeLaVars in the English Department helped in reading the entire manuscript; improving the style, and suggesting

iii 1

iv

more appropriate words. The Writing Skill Labratory, where

Mr. DelaVars is turturing, is an unforgettable studio for me

Over the past one and half years, this facility has

exhibited genuine love, whole hearted teaching, and sincere

and bold encouragement. I am indebted to Mr. DeLaVars for

his selfless enthusiasm and kind instruction. He has read

my thesis more times than anyone else. I also owe a debt

of gratitude to Prof. Daniel Barnes, my minor field

instructor, for his careful reading and fervent guidance.

He is a diligent scholar with very tight schedules.

Sometimes we needed to reschedule our appointment three or

four times? nevertheless, he has enjoyed' reading Arthur

Waley's translation of the pien-wen, and has always given

me his utmost warm and encouraging direction.

During the period in which I wrote my drafts, Mrs.

Katherine Redner Ackers graciously gave me unfailing

assistance as well. As a lover of both writing and teaching,

she was not only eager to study and apeculate on many words

and phrases for my composition, she also did not mind my

frequent phone calls for questions on some late nights.

I am much obliged to my adviser, Prof. Tien-yi Li, for

his kind advice and direction; particularly, for his

unusual final help offered while on campus during his

professional leave. My special thanks also go to Professors

David Y.. Ch'en and Yan-shuan Lao for reading through my

final draft and giving precise corrections and important V

suggestions, and, to Prof. Feng-sheng Hstteh for answering

my questions. All these final teachings and support are

memorable.

Finally, I am grateful to my parents, my relatives,

my friends, and my brethren in Christ for their unceasing

prayers, devoted concern, and help. More than to any other

human being, again, I owe to my husband, Yen, the inspiration

and faith without which this work might never have been

completed. Especially, since this work was eventually done

during the period we were temporarily apart from each otha*,

I dedicate it as one of the rewards for his prayerful

waiting and persevering affection. Wan-hua Tung Hsti

May, 19 8 4

/ VITA

Dec..8 , I9 L9 ...... Bora - Taipei, Taiwan

1971...... B.A., National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

19 7^...... M . A. , National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

1975...... Lecturer at Churig-yUan University, Chung-li, Taiwan

1975-1976...... Lecturer at National Yang-ming Medical University, Yang-ming shan, Taiwan

PUBLICATION

Ts'ung Liao-chai chih-i te .jen-wu k'an Ch'ing-tai te k'o-chti chih-~fcu ho sung-vtt chih-tu ? f ^ > -7Taipei: Chia Hsin Foundation, 1976.

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Chinese Literature

Studies in Chinese Novel. Professor Tien-yi Li

.Minor Field: American Literature

Studies in American Literature

Prof. Daniel Barnes

vi TABLE OP CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... i ii

VITA ...... vi

11ST OF CHARTS ...... x

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER

I. TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF "PIEN" AND "PIEN-WEN" AND AN EXAMINATION OF TUN-HUANG STUDIES ..... 7

The Origin and Influence of the Pien-wen .... 8 The Meaning of "Pien" and 11 Pien-wen” ...... 11 Authorship and Audience of the Pien-wen 14 The Value of the Tun-huang Manuscripts ..... 15 The Unfinished Work in Tun-huang Studies ... 16

II. "MENG CHIANG-NU PIEN-WEN" ...... 23

The Early Evolution of the Meng Chiang-ntt Story Zh ■ Outstanding Features of ."Meng Chiang-ntl Pien-wen" ...... 31 A Spiritual Dimension ...... 42 III. "WU TZU-HStJ PIEN-WEN" ...... 47

The Early Literary Versions of the Wu Tzu-hstt Story ...... 48 "Wu Tzu-hstt Pien-wen": An Analytical Study .. 50 I^olklore Elements ...... 64 The Creative Episodes and the Meaning ...... 70

vii viii "Pao," The Way of Heaven and This Man, Page Wu Tzu-hstt ...... 7*4-

IV. "LI LING PIEN-WEN" ...... 82

Li Ling: A Tragic Hero and His Tragedy ..... 83 The Diminishing of the Tragic Effect ...... 93 The Presentation of Wars and Warriors: From Fury to Tears ...... 97 A Heterodox Tone ...... 102 A Reappraisal from the People: An Example of an Acceptable Surrenderer ... 103

V. "WANG CHAO-CH0n PIEN-WEN" ...... 118

The Early Records of the Story of Chao-chttn.. 120 The Presentation of the Heroine: A Literary Comment on "Wang Chao-chttn Pien-wen" ..... 126 From Personal Tragedy to Cultural Intercourse: Chao-chttn's Adventure and Its Symbolic Meaning ...... 139 life Determination. Death and the Green Tomb: The Integrity of’ the Heroine's Character!zatim. 1*4-6 Historical Fiction and Historical Account ... 153 An Idealized Image ...... 155 VI. A GROUPING STUD! OF THE FOUR PIEN-WEN ...... 162

The Popularity ...... 163 The Related Characteristics and Values Among the Four Pien-wen ...... 165 The Types of Heroes ...... 166 The Interrelative Merits ...... 17^ 1 The Basic Issue Between Heaven and Man 17*4- 2 The Heterodox Spirit and Tone: The Way of Man ...... 179 3 Universality ...... 185 4 A Conscious Literary Style 5 Folklore Elements and Realistic Pictures ...... Inheritance and Continuity ......

CONCLUSION . . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST OF CHARTS Fage

Chart

1. The Development of the Important versions on

Chao-chttn...... 201

x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ArchOrien Archiv Orientftlni

BEJEE2. Bulletin de l'Ecole fran9 ai.se d'Extreme Orient

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African

Studies

BSWS Erh-shih-wu shih (K* ai-ming shu-chtt) 3z

MAS Harvard Journal of Asian Studies

HS Han shu y % %

JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society

JAS Journal O f A s i a n Studies.

LEW Literature of East and West

SC Shih ohi

SPPY Ssu-pu pei-vao

SPTK Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an

SSCCS Shih-san-ching chu-shu v£«^*L.

TC Tso.. chuqQ i5 A % Vol.. V of The,.Chinese Classics. tians. James Legge (Hong Kong :The London Missionary

Society's Printing Office, I9 8 3 ) THC. T'ung--hsien chi

THPW Tun-huang pien-wen (Shih-chieh shu-chu)

I ) TSCC Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng ch''U pien.

TYC Tlao-vtt chi

xi INTRODUCTION

Towards the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty » in. 1699.

more than twenty thousand scrolls were discovered in the

Thousand-Buddha Temple ~ f at Tun-huang > in

Kan-su "0 ^ Province1. Among the Tun-huang manuscripts,

the pien-wen ‘^ft^v.a creative narrative , usually written in 2 both prose and verse , demonstrates the storytelling art

in the T'ang Dynasty . It is believed that the

pien-wen originated in the storytelling performance,

eventually becoming written records. By the end of the

seventh century, Chinese Buddhist preachers popularized

their doctrine through new narrative techniques that

influenced this tradition of popular storytelling. As

indicated in the Tun-huang manuscripts, the pien-wen is predominantly Buddhist in content, but also includes a number of secular ballads and tales about emperors, generals, heroes, heroines, scholars and commoners, which hare been named "su-pien" ^ , the secular pien-wen.

My study focuses on the secular pien-wen stories anong the

Tun-huang manuscripts, particularly four historical tales about Meng Chiang-ntt , Wu Tzu-hstt , Wang

Chao-chttn . and Li Ling * as manifestations >> of the folk traits and the literary merits in the secular pien-wen. Although the secular pien-wen shares much with

history and myth, unique features distinguish it from

both history and from myth. The pien-wen narrates past events

like history; however, unlike history, it has creative elements.

Unlike myth, the pien-wen deals with human beings possessing a literate, nonprimitive world view. Myth, on the other hand, deals with supernatural beings, ancestors or heroes in a primitive view of the world. The pien-wen may use mythical plots in its creative narrative; however, a discussion of tales about Meng Chiang-ntt, Wu Tzu-hstt, Wang

Chao-chttn, and Li Ling clearly illustrates that the secular pien-wen is neither history nor myth, but a genre of fiction.

My study generally examines these secular pien-wen stories from both contextual and textual perspectives. The contextual discussion of the pien-wen sets a historical basis for more literary study of the text itself. A definition of "pien" and of "pien-wen." and a description of pien-wen narratives are treated. The relationship between the secular pien-wen and popular storytelling, as well as between the pien-wen and Chinese folk literaturq are discussed. In addition, sources and versions of the secular pien-wen are examined. Early influences on the pien-wen and the pien-wen* s subsequent effects on later

Chinese literature are both included.

The major portion of my study, however, deals with textual, literary analysis of the secular pien-wen through close examination of the four pien-wen : "Meng Chiang-ntt

pien-wen," %. <*',vu Tzu-hstt pien-wen,"

"li Ling pien-wen," and "V/ang Chao-chttn pien-wen?’

. First, the creative strengths or the weaknesses of these stories are analyzed. The significance

of the pien-wen's new structure, incorporating both prose and verse, is discussed. Folk artists' efforts to employ different types of "rhetoric"— the word used by Wayne Booth k to mean the mediating activities of the narrator— and different types of narrative modes, and also the later influence of such methods, are developed through my analysis of the four pien-wen stories.

Kext, in the literary analysis, traits that the pien-wen shares with history and myth, as well as those that distinguish it from them, are disclosed. If we contend that either history or myth is composed of 'feacred" records, possessing " a certain quality of importance or authority 5 for the community," we may also assert that romance or fiction is

"fantastic" and intends to satisfy "the imaginative needs 6 of the community." After studying the creation of these four historical stories, which are based on historical records, I attempt to interpret them as good examples of how the creative historical .pien-wen story relates to the authoritative 'history:, and of what the down-to-earth folklore elements which are distinct from the saored myth in the pien-wen story are. 4

Finally, there are treated the common characteristics among these four pien-wen, such as the nature of the pien-wen hero, his or her world, the relationship between

Man and Heaven, the specific tone of the narrators, the conscious literary style, and the folklore elements. .

In order to close my study with a more complete overview, this study ends with a discussion of

"inheritance and continuity" of these pien-wen stories.

It seems to me that the figures in the secular pien-wen, such as Meng Chiang-ntt, Han P* eng B £3 , Wu Tzu-hstt, Li

Ling and so on, not only are the personae with whom people can identify, but also embody people's love, hatred, success, failure, desire, and faith. Especially, in the four pien-wen I have chosen, each hero or heroine experiences his or her life adventure and manifests the same journey 7 motif in each story. These pien-wen— a combination of elite and folk traditions, a compound of history and myth

— are rich and profound. No wonder, they are perenially g popular and have left an indelible impression upon Chinese vernacular fiction. 5

■NOTES

"*■ See Mark Aurel Stein, Ruins of Desert Cathav

(London: n.p. , 1912), 2.1'72. 2 . . This is a loose but simple definition of the

pien-wen, and it is adequate for the purposes of this thesis.

Cf. David Johnson, "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen" »

HJAS. IYX, No. 1 (1980), 9 7 . For the purposes of his

article, David Johnson uses "the term 'pien-wen*' rather

loosely to denote imaginative narratives, usually written in a combination of prose and verse, of moderate length, found among the Tun-huang manuscripts " since he j.s

It concerned with the content of these works, and not the label that should be attached to them." In this thesis,

I treat the four pien-wen from the same, perspective.

^ See Chiang Shu-ko ^ . Chung-kuo wen-hstteh shih ssu-shih chiang (Ch'ang-sha: Hu-nan

jen-min ch'u-pan she, I9 8 2 ), p. 240. 4 See Wayne Booth, Rhetoric of Fiction (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, I9 6 I)

^ Johnson, pp. 149-151* Also see Northrop Frye,

The Secular Scripture (Cambridge: Harvard University

Press., 19 76), pp. 6 , 8-9 , ]6-]7* 27.

6 Ibid. See my further discussion in Ch. VI.

See my development in Ch. VI about this "popularity," CHAPTER I

TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF "PIEN" AND "PIEN-WEN". AND AN EXAMINATION OF TUN-HUANG STUDIES

7 Among the Tun-huang manuscripts, the significant

folk literature of the T'ang Dynasty contains the

scrolls of Buddhist stories, folk stories and ballads. It tock a

while before scholars generally named these scrolls the

"pien-wen." Since scholars initially did not recognize

what the pien-wen was, they gave this genre different names

including: fo-ch’tt , su-wen , oh'ang-wpn ,

chiang-ch'ang wen t vtian-ch'i , va-tso wen^f*

• and pien-wen. Later, '*pien-wen" became popular, so

that "pien-wen” representatively covered all the other

names. Eventually, all seventy-eight "pien-wen" pieces were

collected and named "Tun-huang pien-wen"'1' .

The Origin and Influence of the Pien-wen

It appears that the earliest origin of the pien-wen

v\as rooted in ancient Chinese literature. The "pien" in

both "pien-wen" and "pien-ko" are closely related.

Both are folk works popularized from formal works, and both belong to new music associated with chuan-tu %Tj[ 2 and ch’ang-tao 8 IT techniques, new musical and narrative

techniques employed by Buddhist.preachers t& popularize

their teachings, -Similarly, .'Tseng' Yung--! remarks

that " pien" is "ehuan-pien" 3 ^ ■, arid . • "chuan-pien" 3 means-•« chuan-tu.", According to Chung-kuo hsi-ohtt

ch’tt-i tz'u-tien "chuan-pien" is an art

of storytelling in the T’ang Dynasty. For example, Kuo Shih*s 9 . "Kao Li-shih wai-chuan" lists Chuan-pien with

some other types of storytelling art, suchas chiaig-ching

lun-iffei^-and shuo-hualSSfcTn a T*awg poem, Chi Shih-lao's'o^f7^

K'an Shu nil chuan Chao-chttn pien" this "chuan" and "pien" also appear. As far as we know, this chuan-pien, .

influenced by the. popularization of Buddhist teaching, is

one of the earliest examples of storytelling in China. As

for pien-wen, it is the written form of chuan-pien

storytelling* Consequently, it is believed that the form of

pien-wen has originated from the popularization of Buddhist

teaching by chuan-tu and ch9 ang-tao.5 and it is related

to chuan-pien. In the T'ang Dynasty, monks travelled

to preach and perform in the great monasteries. If we check the Kao-seng chuan we see. good evidence , of the origin of this convention . Also in Yin-hua lu

(mid-ninth century), there is a description of the case of the

monk Wen-shu

There .is a monk, Wen-shu, who speaks publicty to great crowds. Pretending to discourse on the scriptures, in fact he talks of nothing but indecent, vulgar things. Idlers take turns in drumming up audiences and helping him out. Ignorant men ..and susceptible women, delight :iii hearing him speak, and stand packed together listening. In the monasteries he is called "priest" and treated with deep respect, and in the music schools they make songs in imitation of his chanting... Lately common monks have taken to calling thems&lves Messengers of Merit and Virtue, and are quite unafraid of the central or local authorities. They believe the gentry secretly observe their performances and they regard them with the bitterest hatred. Wen-shu 10

is the worst of them all. He has been beaten t and exiled to the frontiers a number of times.

The pien-wen is a changed version of Chiang-ching wen ^ . The latter recites the sutras as the main body, but the pien-wen focuses on the stories, sometimes quoting sutras to match them. As a result, most of the extant pien-wen,such as "Wei-Mo-chieh ching chiang-ching wen" , 'Mu-lien pien-wen" , "Ti-ytt pien-wen" are religious. Later, however, the secular pien-wen has.told. fi&’k stories alone, without the religious orientation, and' has berome. no different from a 7 folk story.'

A typical pien-wen mixes passages of narration with verse chanting. Only a few texts are composed entirely of either prose or verse. It is widely believed that this pien-wen form considerably influenced the later development of oral literature and many genres such as shuo-hua pao-chttan ^ % , and chu-kung-tiao § "t/U , all of which are prosimetrical, mixtures of.narration and chanting.

Even in the fiction of Ming and Ch'ing , the influence is evident. In the prose narration, verse sections of description are inserted. As stated by Cheng Chen-to |fp

$1$. , the pien-wen already employs "a rather crude and immature pai-hua Moreover, some secular pien-wa'i

, like"Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen" and others, contain the important characteristics of mature vernacular fiction.^

Furthermore; "Wu Tzu-hstt .pien-wen" shows the begining of a

conscious literary styled0 In these ways, the pien-wen

greatly influenced later Chinese literature.'1''1'

The Meaning of "Pien" and "Pien-wen"

What is the meaning of "pien" and "pien-wen"? Of the many theories put forth, the theories of Cheng Chen-to,

Chou Shao-liang [»l£a , and Ch'eng I-chung % are most compelling.

1. Cheng Chen-to asserts that the "pien" in "pien-wen is similar to the "pien" in "pien-hsiang" . "Pien means "change" : h.y changing the original text of the

Buddhist sutra into folk storytelling, the teller more easily popularizes religious sermons for a less sophisticated public. In other words, Buddhist sutras, historical accounts, and legends are remarked as folk 12 tales. The texts of these tales are the pien-wen.

Kuan Te-tung ^ ^ ^ b e l i e v e s that the "pien" in

"pien-wen" is the same as the "pien" in "pien-hsiang,'* but also thinks: that "pien-hsiang" has originated in <9 "man-t*u-lo" , "mandala" in Sanskrit meaning 13 "picture;" "Pien" is abbreviated from "mandala." ^

2. Chou Shao-liang proposes that pien-wen is an enlargement of the shen-pien stories in Buddhist 12 sutras. While the pictorial presentation of the shen-pien stories is "pien-hsiang," the literary presentation of the lb. shen-pien stories is "pien-wen.” Arthur Waley's theory that "pien-wen” is an "incident text" ^ is similar. Sun

K'ai-ti also thinks that "pien" is "strange and marvelous.

3, Ch'eng I-chung holds that "pien" is an "illusion."

"Pien-hsiang" is a picture of an illusion, and "pien-wen," in turn, is the "illustration of ' pien-hsiang*. Fu

Tung-hua also considers "pien-wen" as "illustration

Chou, I-liang (IQ^ ^ believes that "pien" is translated from "citra." meaning "color illustration" in Sanskrit. He says that it also means "different, various, strange and wonderful.

In addition, Tai Pu-fan cites the annotation of Tuan Ch'eng-shih £5^*^ and considers "pien" as "the portrait of Buddha." Consequently, he views "pien-wen" as a genre for spoken or chanted stories of Buddha. He believes that later the earlier spoken stories of

Buddha gradually became folk storytelling, instead of stories on Buddha?0 Likewise, Wang Wen-ts'ai X 'K. alleges that all the contents for secular pien-wen are drawn from popular legends and folk tales, and have 21 nothing to do with the meaning of the word "pien."

The first explanation of "pien-wen," translating

"pien." as "change," is the most popular. Liu Ta-chieh 13 '■H*''** concurs in this theory. 22 Lo Tsung-t’ao cites "Ta-ch’eng i-lin chang" K & t "To change the

old forms is named * pien*.” He focuses on change as

"modification and editing."2-^ The editors of

Chinese Stories. Y. W. Ma and Joseph S. M. Lau, also

follow this explanation in defining "pien-wen" as

"popularized text," a text changed for a popular audience.

In considering • the quotation of "Ta-ch'eng i-lin

chang," a Buddhist statement., should catch the original

or primary meaning of "oien" as a Buddhist-oriented tern>

I also favor the first theory and interpret " pien" as

"change," a change for popularization, and "pien-wen" as

"popularized text." I believe that at first the pien was rooted in the traditional ehuan-pien storytelling for spreading Buddhist doctrines-. However, later the earlier spoken stories of Buddha gradually became folk stoiytel 1 ing. Accordingly* the pien-wen, the popularized, text, contains many folk stories, in c lu d i n g quite a few Buddhist stories, 25 instead of Buddhist teaching. As for the difference and flnctbn between "pien" and "pien-wen," scholars have asserted that "pien" refers to the actual storytelling performance, while "pien-wen" signifies the written record, or the 2 6 script for the performance. 14

Authorship and Audience of the Pien-wen

David Johnson contends that the'pien-wen are not

likely to be transcripts of performance, or to be the work

of the performer. Arthur 'A'aley further suggests that the

secular pien-wen was written "by people of the scribe or

village schoolmaster class who could read and write, but

had not had the sort of higher literary education that

would have enabled them to join the regular civil

service."2''7 It is also possible that at firstr the

pien-wen was written for literate enthusiasts of oral 28 storytelling. Thus, possibly the pien-wen was purposely

created to interest the potential reader who ves originally the audience of oral storytelling. This may reveal one of the motivations of the creation of the pien-wen, and connect the potential reader among the audience of the oral performance with the initial need of the creation of the pien-wen— the realm of the oral storytelling with the world of the creative writing.

Although .we know- the background of pien and pien-wen and the fact that the traditional storytelling was influenced by Buddhists' new ways of spreading their messages, we still do not know exactly the process of how the sermons and stories did not remain in the oral realm, but became the written works. As far as we know, scholars have proposed the suggestions of the authorship and the 15

audience of the pien-wen, and believe that the pien-wen

combines two traditions— oral and written— and mediates

between the educated and the- least educated people.

The Value of the Tun-huang Manuscripts

The discovered Tun-huang manuscripts are valued by

the scholars throughout the world. Covering a large scope

in time and space, the manuscripts provide unprecedented

materials on medieval China, especially the historical

relationship between China and foreign countries during

medieval times. Many ancient cultural books and classics

that were presumed lost before were uncovered in these manuscripts, and the ’feorrupteds" were corrected

accordingly. The variety of the materials also offer 29 valuable resources in many fields of studies. 7 They are good documents for information about the secular literature economy, population, and religion at that time. Especially, in the last thirty years, "Tun-huang studies" has been brought to scholarly attention in the world. All the contributions to the study have helped us to understand the Buddhist thoughts, the judicial documents, the artistic works, the knowledge of storytelling , the folk stories and the legends, the vocabulary words, as well as the dialects and the vernacular language in the T*ang Dynasty?0 16

The Unfinished Work in the Tun-huang Studies

Scholars continue to study Tun-huang. Even in the four

countries most actively working on the most Tun-huang

manuscripts, materials still remain unclassified in the

British Museum and in the Soviet Union, for example. In

addition, in the Paul Pelliot collection of scrolls in

Paris, hundreds of items need identification. Materials

in the United States, Australia, India, and Japan also can

be studied. In recent years, the Japanese scholars have

taken full advantage of the microfilms for Tun-huang

studies with remarkable results. Of course, around the

world, the publishing task in cataloging the collection

of Tun-huang materials in. China and in other countries also

has contributed significantly to Tun-huang studies.

Many of the studies focus primarily on the context of

these rare materials. My concern, on the other hand, is

limited to the pien-wen, uniquely important in four

diverse areas: 1) The pien-wen provides a new genre— a mixture of verse and prose— for later Chinese literature?

Z) the pien-wen combines and expands on folk tales and legendary stories, and it influences later literary works?

3) the pien-wen preserves many ancient Chinese vernacular words. 4) the pien-wen also reflects missing sections and 31 mistakes recorded in Chinese official historical books. 17 To complete a fuller study of the pien-wen, focus on text, as well as context, must develop.

My study on the four chosen secular pien-wen attempts to present an example of the interior literary study of the pien-wen, one that indicates the important textual value of

Tun-huang manuscripts. Moreover, I hope that one day a complete and magnificent series of interior studies on the

Tun-huang manuscripts will be done. Perhaps then, my effort may be taken as an experimental exploration for further studies. NOTES

■*" This is a photocopy of the collection of

•the pien-wen. See Tun-huang pien-wen (Taipei: Shih-chieh

shu-chfl, I96 I ). Before this collection, Lo Chen-ytt .

first published a collection, Tun-huang ling-shihfe#

%Jo^in 1924, In 1925, Liu Fu 32*] presented 46 pieces of

pien-wen and song. Then Hsti Kuo-lin "1*4 I§I^ pUt out his

volume, Tun-huang tsa-lu In 1954, Chou Shao-Iiang

f U S S fk published twenty pieces in his volume. Tun-huang

pien-wen hui-lu Later, in 1951? Tun-huang

pien-wen chi, a two-volume compilation, edited by Wang

Chung-min and others, was published. StilL later,

Arthur Waley presented his translation, Ballads and

Stories from Tun-huang.in i9 6 0 .

^ See Lo Tsung-t'ao , "Pien-ko, pien-hsiang ya

pien-wen” Chung-hua hsfleh-vttan «

(Journal of Chinese Arts) No. 7 (1971). pp. 73-99- 3 J See Tseng Yung-i, "Kuan ytt pien-wen te t'i-mu,

chieh-kocxho y t l a n - y t i a n " Hsien-tai

wen-hstteh , No. 38 (1 9 6 9 ), pp. 217-219.

^ See Chung-kuo hsi-chtt ch»P-i tz'u-tien

(Shang-hai : Shang-hai. tz'u-shu ch'u-pan she, I98 I), p. 657. 19 ^ This theory is supported ty Cheng Chen-to .

There are two other theories: Ch'eng I - chung thinks that the origin of the storytelling literature is "fu"

, while Hsiang Ta fa dLasserts that we need to trace back to ch* ing-shang vtteh y% itl*r£ in the Six Dynasties to find out the origin of the pien-wen. I favor the first theory by Cheng Chen-to. Also, after studying these theories, Tseng Yung-i charted the origin and the evolution of the pien-wen, providing a concise and convenient reference. See. Tseng, pp.. 212*220 for .his chart and. all the sources of these theories. ^ David Johnson , "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen” HJAS.

No. 1 (1980), 100, no. 15 . Chao Lin Yin-hua lu

(TSCC ed. ), 4.25.

^ Ch'iu Cheng-ching examined the time-of the seventy-eight pien-wen and found out twenty-two of which prevailed at the end of the seventh century. See Ch’iu,

Tun-huang pien-wen shu-lun (T* ai-pei:

Shang-wu yin-shu kuan, 1970), pp. I9 -2 6. He proclaims that all the surviving manuscripts are the works from the end of the Tbng Dynasty/|$fl to the beginning of the Sung

Dynastj^Thus we also date the pien-wen. Q See John Bishop, The Colloquial Short Storv In

China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1 9 6 5), p. 5.

9 See Johnson, p. 9 6 .

See Eugene Eoyang, Word of Mouth: Oral 20

Storytelling in the Pien-wen. Diss. Indiana University, 1971, p. 180.

The introduction to Traditional Chinese Stories;

Themes and Variations states that "Its cpien-wen*sj exact

influence con later literature] has yet to be determined."

See Traditional Chinese Stories, ed., Y. W. Ma and Joseph

S. M. Lau (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), p. xxii.

2 See Cheng Chen-to , Chung-kuo su-wen-hsf)eh

shih 'f (Ch'ang-sha: Shang-wu yin-shu kuan, 1962 ),

Ch. VI.

^ See Kuan Te-tung 1 ^ ^ ^ , "Ltteh-shuo 'pien' tzu te

lai-ytlan" , in Tun-huang pien-wen lun-wen lu

ed., Chou Shao-liang and Pai Hua-wenfalCX,

( Shang-hai.: Shang-hai ku-chi ch'u-pan she, 1982), 1-162. ta See Chou Shao-liang, Tun-haung pien-wen hui-lu

3* (Shang -hai: Shang-hai ch'u-pan kung-ssu,

195*0. PP- x-xi. See Arthur Waley, Ballads and Stories from

Tun-huang (London: G. Allen and Unwin, i9 6 0 ), p. 2^5-

See Su Ying-hui Tun-huang lun-chi hsti-oien

(T’ai-pei: T’ai-pei: T'ai-wan hstleh-sheng shu-chtt, I9 8 3), p. 1 0 2.

^ See Ch'eng I-chung t-Uzt , "Kuan-yQ pien-wen te chi-tien t'an-so" Wen-hstteh i-ch'an 21 tseng-k'a n , V. X, No. 14 (1 9 6 2 )

See Fu Tung-hua \ ^ » Wen-hstieh shou-ts'e

% (T'ai-pei: Ta-Han ch'u-pan she, 1 9 6 2 ), pp. 39k-kOS.

^ See Chou I-liang ffj*" ^ , "Tu T'ang-tai su-chiang k' ao" in Tun-huang pien-wen lun-wen lu. 1 .162.

^ See Tai Pu-fan , Hsiao-shuo chien-wen lu/i^jf

(Hang-chou: Che-chiang jen-min ch'u-pan she,

1 9 8 0 ), p. 283.

See Su Ying-hui, pp. 103-104. 22 p See Liu Ta-chieh Chung-kuo wen-hstteh fa-chan shih ^Shang-hai: Chung-hua shu-chtt,

1 9 6 2 ), pp. 394-408.

See Lo Tsung-t'ao , Tun-huang pien-wen

(T'ai-peis Shih-pao wen-hua ch'u-pan shih-yeh kung-ssu, I98 I), pp. 27-2 8. 24 See Traditional -Chinese Stories., p. 2 9 .

^ This is the reason why I have given the pien-wen a simple definition. See p. 1 ; p. 5. no. 2. I also concur

Wang Wen-ts'ai's simpLe views on the secular pien-wen.

Although both Wang's and Tai Pu-fan*s theories of the pien-wen have been proposed later so that they are not as compelling as the three eras, I personally value their theories.

I believe that these theories, viewing "pien" and

"pien-wen" gradually apart , can complete the three theories, in which this gradually changed relationship

V I 22 between "pien" and "pien-wen” is neglected.

2^ See Waley, p. 2 9 .

2? See Eoyang, pp. 193-195. ? ft See Johnson, p. 101.

29 See Eoyang, p. 2.

Ibid., p. 2, no. 4, 5, 6 .

See Ch'iu, pp. 90-101* CHAPTER II

"MENG CHIANG-N& PIEN-WEN"

"The good wives of Emperor Shun wept so much thatthedr tears changed the color of the bamboos. The saintly and sacred wife of Ch'i Liang cried so hard that her Wailing tumbled the Great Wall." "Wang Chao-rchhn pien-wen"

23 2k

The Early Evolution of the Meng Chiang-ntt Story

in the history of Chinese literature, Meng Chiang-nU

is famous for her crying. However, in the rarliest versions,

her story does not mention her tears. At first, Meng

Chiang-nti is named "the wife of Ch'i Liang" , briefly

noted in Tso chuan ft. . It says that in the winter of

the twenty-third year of Duke Hsiang of Lu (•§^‘£550 B.C.), Ch’i and ChU g fight together in a war. In this same

war, Ch'i Jiang of Ch'i dies, leaving a wife. She convinces

Duke Chuang of Ch'i ^ t ' A t o mourn her husband's death at

their home, in order to abide by good manners^ As a result,

the reader is left to infer that the husband is loyal and the

wife well-mannered? she can be calm and reasonable even

while facing the death of her husband. This report is a

short note in a historical record; it has not yet evolved

into a literary work and dpes not mention the woman's tear^

Two hundred years later, in the middle of the Warring

States Period, two accounts do mention the tears of this

lady. "T’an-kung" ^ 5 li chi *itl> , contains an account quite similar to the one in Tso chuan, except for one sentence: "The wife of Ch'i Liang, who waits for her husbandfe 2 coffin coming on the road, weeps sadly over his death."

Note the subjective color of compassion in this remark, a tone different from the objective emphasis on manners in 25 Tso chuan. The phrase, "She weeps sadly," becomes the

determining point from which innumerable stories on Meng Chiang

(or Meng Chiang-nU) have later evolved.

Then, in Meng-tzu ja , Ch'un-ytl K'unr^f^rtsays, "The wife of Ch'i Liang cries so often that the whole nation has 3 been influenced by her crying." Clearly, the crying of this lady is not only famous, but also influential. Before the Warring States Period, she was described as a well-mannered one; however, in the early period of the Later

Han Dynasty?£>J^, the woman evolved into a renowned,tearful lady

Still later, in the final years of the later Han Dynasty, this story focuses on "crumbling the wall." The first person who mentioned this event was Liu Hsiang. In JShuo^^Uan j . j , I.iu Hsiang writes that the wife of Ch'i Liang hears the news of the death of Ch'i Iiang, and cries for ten days, 5 after which a city wall consequently crumbles. Liu Hsiang combines both the record in Tso chuan and a contemporary legend that associates this crying lady with the crumbling of a city wall. Such an association results in a paradoxical description of this lady as first a strong, well-mannered woman, then, a crying lady without self-control

In the period of the Southern and Northern D y n a s t y ^ ^

(U20-589) and the Sui Dvnastv^lfl(581-618).T*ung-hsien chi

L, a very important account, gives this story new life-

In T'ung-hsien chi, quoted in the Tiao-vtt c hi (surviving manuscripts copied in 747), the author names this lady— 26 "Meng Chung-tzu , instead of "Ch'i Liang's wife-,"

M o d e m scholars find that this account in T'ung-hsien chi is one of the two proto-versions of the Meng Chiang-ntt story, offering earlier and strong evidence that Meng Chiang-ntt is 7 none other than Ch'i Liang's wife. The other version is found in Lieh-ntt chuan quoted in Wen-hsttan chi-chu

completed after 7 3 2), in which the lady is named

"Meng T z u " '-£• . Also, "Though the origin of the Meng

Chiang-ntt story can be traced to an account in Tso chuan. 8 the story proper begins with these two proto-versions."

.The first version presents the story of this lady in

Tiao-vtt chi: Ch'i Liangwas conscripted during the reign of Emperor Shih-huang (221-210 B.C.) to labour at the Great Wall in the north. Not being able to endure the hardship of the severe work assigned to him, he escaped. Wandering as a fugitive, he got into the rear garden of Meng Ch'ao's Ji house and hid himself in a tree, Ch’ao's daughter, Chung-tzttW’^.who was bathing herself in the pond, saw him when she lifted her head. She, therefore, addressed him by asking him who he was and why he was there. Ch'i Liang answered, "My name is Ch’i Liang. I am a native of Yen. But I was recruited to build the Great Wall. The work being harder than I could bear, I ran away and came to this place." Chung-tzu said, "It is my earnest request that you take,me as your wife." Ch'i Liang replied, "Your ladyship was b o m in a noble family and brought up in the inner chambers. As you are further endowed with such beauty, why are you asking to be the wife of a conscript?" Chung-tzu,then, spoke her mind, "A woman's naked body cannot be seen by two men. Please do not refuse my request." So she brought the case before her father and he consented to their marriage. After the wedding, Ch'i Iiang returned to his work. The superintendent furious at his desertion, beat him to death, and built his corpse into the Wall. Meng Ch'ao, not knowing that Ch’i Liang was already dead, sent a servant to replace him in the hard task. It was then that the family learnt of Ch’i Liang's death and his interment in the Wall, No sooner had Chung-tzu heard the news that she, bursting into bitter sobbing, set out for the Great Wall. Upon arrival, she wailed in front of it. That side of the Wall that.faced her collaspsed to reveal piles of blanched bones that were strewn here and there. Being at a loss as to which her husband's bones were, Chung-tzu picked her fingers and dripped blood on the white bones, praying, "When I come to Ch’i Liang's bones, may the blood sink into them." As she drew blood to test the bones, it turned out that when she dripped her blood on Ch'i I.aing's bones, it sank into them. Whereupon, she brought them, home for burial .9

The second version of this story is preserved in 10 Wen-hsttan chi-chu! Meng'Tzu, who was not married, lived near the Great Wall. Ch’i...ran away from his task and hid himself in a tree above a pond in Meng Tzu's rear garden. Tzu was amusing herself in the pond when she saw the reflection of Ch'i Liang. She then came out of the pond, confronted him and said, "Please take me as your wife." Liang replied, "I am a life-long conscript on the run. Now I am only hiding myself here. How dare I expect your noble ladyship to choose me as your husband?" Tzu said, "A woman cannot be seen by more than one man. Now that you have seen me...here, how can I marry anyone else?" They then became husband and wife...She offered food. ...Later, she learnt of Ch'i Liang's death and bringing her wine and food, she went ot collect his bones. When she arrived at the foot of the Great Wall, she inquired about Ch'i Liang's body. It was then that she saw that workers were built into the Wall. Whereupon, she wailed in front of it and it collapsed to reveal such confusing piles of bones that she was not able to tell Ch'i Liang's bones from those of others. She, then, dropped tears on the bones cto test them?3 and her tears became blood. Besides the lady's names, these tv/o versions have

the following additions: 1) during the reign of Emperor

Shih-huang -V&% (221-22C B.C.), Ch'i Liang, a laborer, is

summoned to build up the Great Wall and dies, after which he

is built into the Wall. Ch'i Liang is brought from 550 B.C.

(in Tso chuan) to the time of 221-220 B.C. He becomes a

laborer, not a warrior; 2 ) the meeting in the garden and

the marriage are new, and they are elaborated upon in later

versions; 3) the wife cries over the hisband's death until

the Wall crumbles. The falling of a city wall now is linked

with destruction of the Great Wall; 4) the lady's tears not

only cause the Wall's destruction, but also cause the

emergence of her husband's bones, which she identifies by her

blood. These four points form the main body for the further

evolution of this story. These versions differ, greatly from

the previous ones; only the name of the hisband: Ch'i Liang and the incident of the wall falling connect them with the version in Shuo-vttan.

In the T'ang Dynasty, there is another simple account in a seven-word poem, "The wife of Ch'i Liang " , by

Kuan Hsiu • It briefly narrates that the wife of

Ch'i Iiang cries over Ch'i Liang's death; again the Great 29 vVall crumbles and the bones of Ch'i Liang emerge. fieverthejfiss

this piece is a poem, and is not yet a narrative.

Among the versions of the Meng Chiang story found in

the caves of Tun-huang in the T'ang Dynasty, there are two

categories, pi en-wen and su-ch* tt . The su-ch’tt includes

Pelliot 2809, Pelliot 3319, Pelliot 3911, and Pelliot 3718,

in which the first three are entitled "Tao-lien-tzu"-fJ?*^‘« the last one is named "Ch’tt-tzu ming-mu" .

In the T ’ang Dynasty, the wife of Ch’i Liang was

named as Meng Chung-tzu, Meng Tzu and Meng Chiang-ntt. In

Pelliot 28O9 , it says, "Meng Chiang-ntt, the wife of Ch’i

liang" ^ f t (Jt-I , and in Pelliot 3718,

"Ch’tt-tzu ming-mu," the line reads, "Meng Chiang-ntt, Ch’en

Ch’i Jiang" . The name of the lady has

been changed from Meng Chung-tzu or Meng Tzu to Meng

Chiang-ntt, a name which has been retained ever since

throughout the history of the story} 1

Some new details and more elaborate description appear

in the Tun-huang versions. First, the soul of Ch’i Liang

talks with Meng Chiang. Second, Meng Chiang journeys to

send winter clothes to Ch’i Liang, tying toghther the 12 winter clothes theme and the journey theme. Third, Meng

Chiang converses with the souls of other dead soldiers.

Among the versions of the Meng Chiang-ntt story,

particularly, "Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen," is a more structured and complicated, albeit fragmentary, account. The work

contains only the relationship between Meng Chiang and Ch'i

I.iang after their marriage. The extant text still provides

materials sufficient for study. In comparison with

"Tao-lien-tzu," this pien-wen has an elaborate and attractive

plot. The former merely describes Meng Chiang bringing

clothes to her husband. Although the latter also begins similarly, it gradually reaches its highest intensity as

the Great Wall crumbles and Meng Chiang distinguishes the bones of her husband with her blood; the crisis of the story is thereby resolved. Although Kuan Hsiu's "The Wife of Ch'i

Iiang" contains these two fantastic events— the breaking down of thr Great Wall and the emerging of Ch'i Hang's bones— Kuan Hsiu does not associate the bones with the blood of this wife. On the other hand, T'ung-hsien chi, which mentions Meng Chiang's blood, does not end the story as strongly.as this pien-wen does. This pien-wen designs a creative plot to.conclude the story. The pien-wen story achieves the most dramatic accomplishment among the early literary works on Meng Chiang-ntt, and is recognized as the intermediate inspiration for many later literary recreations on this same story.

In addition, this pien-wen uses the pi en-wen genre to present this story. This genre, a mixture of both prose and lyrical poetry, not orjly. gives the reader a very vivid presentation of the atory, but also provides a more 31 sophisticated structure than its predecessors. Composed

with two types of narrations, in structure, "Meng Chiang-ntt

pien-wen" also sets itself apart from many other works

about Meng Chiang-ntl in different genres.

Outstanding Features of "Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen"

"Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen" presents new and elaborated

descriptions for the story of Meng Chiang-ntt, and is unique

among many versions of the story. With the origins and.

background of the story in mind, I now analyze this

pien-wen and indicate its unique strength as follows:

1. Tension

Although beginning paragraphs of this pien-wen are

missing, a powerful tension is produced by lines that

• abruptly confront the reader with disaster in this extant work

The beginning lines in this pien-wen are

At the time of his taking leave from his wife he did not speak for long, For he hoped as it were between morning and evening to come back to his h o m e . 3

Next, however, the following lines abruptly announce bad

news:

Who could think that he would suddenly meet disaster by pestle and hammer, His soul be dissolved, his life finished— that he should perish at the frontier Wall? After he had taken leave and reached the cGreat* Wall The officials in charge of the work there treated him with bitter harshness. ■ When he died his body was at once built into the Wall, His wandering soul strayed afar amid the thorns and brambles;l^ • • • 32 Suddenly, this pien-wen notifies the reader that Ch'i Liang

dies of his toil and that even his corpse has been built

into the Wall. Here, a drastic contrast emerges. At first,

the husband and wife wish they could reunite soon. The wish

however, can be only an illusion because of the cruel

disaster. However, the husband dies shortly afterward and

he can never come back home. Then the following lines describe her reaction:

When his wife heard this, she burst into great sobbing; "Little did I know that you my lord had perished at the cGreatsWall ! You tell me now that the bones of your body are built into the cGreati Wall, But how am I to know in what part of this cGreat* Wall to look?" Chiang-ntl smote herself and wailed to mighty Heaven, Making plaint that so good a husband had perished all too soon. A wedded wife's intense devotion can move rivers and hills; Her great wailing had such power that the dreatJ Wall fell.15

From an expected reunion to an unexpected death separation, this lady is shocked by an incredible and ironic contrast.

Meng Chiang is suffering from an enormous, unbearable calamity; she wails desperately. Her compassion, so intense and devotional, moves rivers and hills— and the Great Wall itself falls!

From a lively wish of "as it were between morning and evening to come back" to'the news of death, passions are clearly expressed in the poetry. Likewise, right after Meng

Chiang's great wailing, the Great Wall falls accordingly— 33 immediately relaasing tension, an account considerably

more dramatic than any others— historical or literary.

2. Structure

The structure of this pien-wen. as a T'ang oral work

with prose and poems together, allows for prosimetrical

narrations, representing a new form among all accounts on

Meng Chiang-ntl. The opening fragmentary lines are generally

considered by scholars to be the words of the husband's

ghost addressed to his wife, Meng Chiang. He appreciates

that Meng Chiang sends clothes to the frontier. Then the

narrator explains how tragedy befell the husband so that

"his wandering soul strayed afar amid the thorns and

brambles." Following are the words of this wandering soul:

V/eary and destitute (?) on this long journey you came on purpose to see me. Bravely meeting wind and frost, wasting your energy. A thousand times farewell! Go quickly home; A poor soldier under the earth will not ever forget you.1®

The author delivers the bad news by the words of the

husband's ghost. Unlike the ghosts in chih-kuai A A *_ or in ch'uan-ch'i \ ^ »j or even in Shakespeare's Hamlet,

this is a tender ghost who has died unjustly. As though

he were still alive to comfort his wife, he is gentle and

affectionate. He releases his stray thoughts and compassion

toward his wife yet says nothing of himself. Hearing the words of the ghost, the survivor, Meng Chiang-ntl, realizes

for the first time that her husband is dead. She bursts 3^ into great sobbing. Thus, the tragic scene unfolds through dramatic method that differs from the narrations in many-

other accounts. The ghost of the dead man directly apeaks

to the living woman, adding a powerful effect to the story's

tragic force. Such dialogue also echoes the oral origins

of the work.

More echoes of an oral tradition are heard in Meng

Chiang's soliloquy and other dialogues in the lyrics when

the ghost has gone. She talks to herself as well as with

the many skeletons in the frontier. These verbal

expressions— dialogues and lyrics— are characteristics of

the pien-wen, in design as well as in structure.

3. "How was it that the Great Wall collapsed?"

Significantly, the climax of this pien-wen is the fall

of the Great Wall. Some blame Emperor Shih-huang for his

tyrannous command to construct the Great Wall; others view

the task as necessary for the people and culture of the Han race. But none deny that building the Great Wall was a tremendous duty and an arduous trial for the Han people.

Even in later times, generaions of young men devoted their lives to establishing the Wall at the frontier, where they fought the harsh winds and severe snow while shedding their sweat and blood. At home, their wives, abject and lonely, lament for them in this struggle between human wishes and an inhuman task. Cold comes and heat goes; fellow warriors present their bodies as pitiful sacrifices; and their 1

35 grieving ladies waste their youth in lamentation. It is

no wonder that frontier poets always memorialize these '% S. - * unknown heroes in "frontier poems" , depicting them

as "the dust on the Wall" or "the piles of corpses looking

forward toward home towns."

In the beginning of this pien-wen, Meng Chiang, like

many other momen, wants to send winter clothes to her 17 husband, because he is suffering from cold and cruelty.In

her eagerness to cover him with warm, hand-made fabrics and

to protect him against the merciless winter, she travels

a thousand miles; she has Had one desire in her heart— to

exchange coldness with warmth. The author conveys the

precious value of this act by the words of the ghost, "A

poor soldier under the earth will not ever forget you."

Warm winter clothes that protect her husband from harshness

of nature and the cruelty of an inhuman task symbolize love. 18 Sending clothes was an act of love at that time. Moreover,

in ancient times, a weak female's journey of a thousand

miles to the frontier to bring clothes was itself an act

of sacrificial devotion. In other words, the whole adventure

becomes so sacred and ritualistic that the ghost of Ch'i

Liang finds it difficult to return such devotion. However,

Meng Chiang never presents her devotion because her husband

has died— devoured by the bloody, thirsty Great Wall.

While, clothes cannot shield him from the torturous task 3 6 any more, she exposes herself to the harshness of the

disaster with her tearful entreaties. She bursts into tears

of ineffable grief as an appeal for justice to heaven and earth.

Following the entire mourning episode, the author builds tension and then proclaims a breathtaking result— the Great Wall is broken! At this moment while building this climax, he also meditates on the very wonder of it in an old poem:

Over the ridges sad clouds rise, In the empty wastes sorrowful is the voice of wailing. If you say that men have not the power to move, How was it that the cGreati Wall collapsed? Those stone ramparts, ranging over a thousand cubits, At one stroke melted into the streams and hills. Could it be that.the Wall had crashed and fallen Only because a wedded wife had come? This frontier land— strapge beyond reason^ With cold heart could not endure to hear. ^

These four lines pose rhetorical questions:

If you say that men have not the power to move, How was it that the cGreab Wall collapsed?

• • # Could it be that the Wall had crashed and fallen Only because a wedded wife had come?

The first two point out the reason for the fall of the

Great Wall and identify a corresponding relationship between man and natures if the Wall is indifferent and immovable by itself, how does it fall suddenly? One must answer that men have the power to move and crumble the Wall. The fall of the

Wall is a sign of man's great "power to move. " In 3? physical reality, wailing never will destroy the Great

Wall; however, in symbolic fiction., man can release just

such a moving power.

Second , the lines focus on the heroine. If the woman

had not come to the Wall, the power would not have been

released; the Wall could not have crumbled. Consequently,

both the power itself and the woman who holds the power

"cause" the wonder. Only this woman, with her deep

compassion and unspeakable grief, can confront and "break"

the Wall— an immovable symbol of torturous cruelty. Through

her. the impossible becomes possible. Actually, the four

lines cited above present very positive statements.

Paraphrased, they might read : "The Great Wall has collapsed

by no means other than man's power to move. You nust say

that only because a wedded wife has come, the Wall has

therefore crashed and fallen." Those lines catch the essence

of the story; the moving power of an authentic love enables

Meng Chiang miraculously to shake the huge Wall--the heretofore indifferent monster.

In the Han dynasty, Wang Ch'ung 3L > a renowned scholar, raised valid questions and doubts about the 20 actual fall of the Wall. His doubt is related to a significant understanding of literature. Cheng Ch'iaoHpf.^., another scholar, after reciting the story of Meng Chiang, remarks: "No matter whether a musical story is true or not, 21 one wants the musical sound only."' He reveals a thorough 38

knowledge about literary creations by giving an example

from musical creations. Just as "sound" directs music,

the "message" directs literary stories. In fact, the

purpose of poetic language, or literature itself, is

imaginative, not historical. It does not intend to repnesart

everything which really exists in history and even can 22 read, as scholars agree, as a "no-thing." Thus the

reader can apply his own imagination to fill in this blank.

Consequently, a complex work can deliver diverse messages

to different readers who are willing to study it. In

considering this knowledge, we see the author of this

pien-wen touching the core of the miracle so that he points

out the cause of the wonder by an old poem. In describing

the miraculous fall of the Wall, the author of this pien-ttm

turns to imaginative literature; he inserts an old poem in his otherwise straightforward storytelling style. In view of narrative, tale of the collapses of the Great Wall becomes a "mythical plot" in this pien-wen. If one accepts that a "mythical plot" in a short story presents the two characteristics of "absurditv" and "transcendence" through 23 a miracle, the key cause— the significant conflict-- which gives rise to a mythical plot also should be noted.

Initially, main characters find themselves in trouble; however, the mythical plot restores and releases them from their problems. Thus, through absurdity and transcendence, this mythical plot resolves the conflict. All these mythical designs focus on the problems. It seems that the greater is the difficulty, the more absurd

and transcendent is the solution. What miraculous solution,

for example. is able to disclose the circumstances of Ch'i

liang's death and burial under the Wall? The collapse of

the 'Wall— a transcendent solution. When Meng Chiang goes

to the Great Wall with her great suffering, she faces a

conflict that only a miracle can resolve. She cries and

pleads at the Wall. Thus the destruction of the Great Wall

seems an answer to her supplication. Clearly, the conflict

in this story invites the creation of a mythical plot

that can effect such an absurd and transcendent solution.

Although crashing down the Wall is logically absurd, it has sound literary possibilities. "Crumbling the Wall" demonstrates a transcendent power in breaking through the intense block-of difficulty for the heroine, and shows the necessity for the making of this story. Accordingly, the plot of "crumbling the Wall" is born.

Considering the meaning of this plot, we see how the author's meditation on the wonder reveals the central concern of this story. Obviously, the author is more concerned with the grievous burden of the lady and her overwhelming mission than with the physical wonder of the

Wall's collapse. Wisely, he draws attention to the cause, rather than to the result? only the cause touches the central concern and our compassion. The wonder itself is 40

merely a means by which the lady's burden of grief

dramatically reveals itself. In view of this device, Wang

Ch'ung's doubts about an actual fall of the Great Wall take

on a new light. This pien-wen incorporates the fall as a

fictional, symbolic element. The pien-wen is literature,

not history. Within the pien-wen itself, the author's

mediatation on release from human conflict by a physical

wonder is creative. It touches the human heart; Wang

Ch'ung's intellectual view focuses merely on the facts.

Although many earlier stories dealt with similar

incidents. "Meng Chiang-nti pien-wen" alone has a special understanding of the powerful cause for the collapse of

the Wall. At this point, the story convinces the reader

that Meng Chiang must cry to heaven and earth, with tears of such intense power that they inevitably break the Wall.

Needless to say, the audience is attracted first by the harsh conflict, caught by absurdity of the mythical plot, and then eventually lifted up by a transcendent spirit surpassing the conflict. As a genre of oral literature, an account of an old legend, "Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen" impresses us with its forceful revelation and keen observation.

4. Identifying Ch'i Liang's Bones by Blood

When the Wall falls and the white bones appear, an even greater wonder is introduced. After shedding her tears. Meng Chiang also sheds her blood to touch the bones 41

in order to test which her husband’s bones are. She bites

her finger to draw blood and put the bones to the test.

She murmurs from her heart: "If it is my husband, the blood

will sink deeply into the bones; / But if it is not Ch'i 24 iiang, the blood will remain apart." The strong love and

faith joining husband and wife is reflected in her examining

the response of the bones to tell which ones are her

husband’s. Right before the test is accomplished, the author 25 describes another close, "solemn sympathy": "The birds

and animals cry and shout, both mountains and forests are 26 trembling." Meng Chiang’s dignified, powerful love is

grand enough to shake the world; her tears and blood join

to convey her willingness to die after her dead husband.

This love, stronger than death, thus causes yet another

physical wonder. Her blood sinks into the bones, and she

finds the skeleton of her beloved husband. This incident

of identifying is no less important than that of crashing

down the Wall.

The highest intensity of the story is reached and

the crisis is completely resolved when her husband’s bones assimilate her blood. Finally, her quest is at an

end; she has found her husband.

Now the moving power is released freely by tears and by blood. Even the dispassionate Wall is touched greatly and also the dried, white bones are invigorated with the nourishment of the blood. Accordingly, the maximum effect 42

of a thrilling shock or an inspiring light is created in the story.

A Spiritual Dimension

The story does not end at the moment whe Meng Chiang discovers the precious bones of her husband. This resolution,

in turn, develops a spiritual dimension. When Meng Chiang observes other neglected bones or skeletons, she talks with them and is willing to take messages for them. Thus the bones, the apirits of men of noble families, ask her to tell their wives to remember them. Hence, as Meng

Chiang carries home the bones of Ch'i Liang, she actually becomes a self-appointed speaker and lovely, responsible messenger for all those silent and solitary bones.Although

Meng Chiang originally goes to the Wall for her husbandfe sake, she eventually becomes a witness to the bleak 'nether" world and a justifier of the forsaken lives. For this reason. Meng Chiang-ntt has the authority to eulogize the dead at the end of this pien-wen.

In the epilogue, her personality expands, illuminating a noble quality of humanity. Her loves grows because "If one loves one's house, one will expand his love to love the crows which nest on the house as well." Meng Chiang's love does not extend only to her dead husband; it grows with her concern for the death of others. Also, in view *j-3 of the pattern and rhythm of a short story, this closing episode opens the story instead of rounding it off. Thereftre, in addition to the enlargement of the capacity of love in the content of the story, this episode also offers, in its final expression, a type of beauty which allows this 27 pien-wen to achieve its own structure "expansion."

At its close, the story evinces a union of mankind's petition and heaven's righteous response, and it represents an amplification of personal concerns and sorrow for the pain and needs of others. Finally, Meng Chiang's "winter clothes" cover more people than just the one for whom she cares most. Meng Chiang's tears and blood motivate the character of the Great Wall, the bloody lines of the Han race, relieve the dry bones' isolation. In yet another mythical plot. Meng Chiang's devoted love and immovable faith turn over the world of inanimation and the dead.

For this reason, as long as we have such a lady in the frontier, who can ask. "How do the thousand li. jg of warriors' bones know to whom they belong? / Ten thousand li. of a bare 28 desert can not perceive the coming of the spring" ?

Crashing down the Great Wall with her tears, invigorating dry bones with her blood and communicating to the dead with her unselfish love, the tearful heroine ..of this pien-wen has accomplished powerful wonders in the history of Chinese literature. NOTES

■^•TC, Seang (Hsiang) ^23;.Legge, p. 4 9 9 .

2 Li chi , "T*ang-kung" £ § 3 (SFPY ed.), 3.l4a-l4b.

^ Meng-tzu Chao chu %.■&&&:'%■ , "Kao-tzu (SPPY ed. ),

12.7b-8a.

^ Ku Chieh-kang. /(til l^'J comments on this note.

Cf. Ku, "Meng Chiang-ntl ku-shih yen-chiu,"in

his Meng Chiang-ntl ku-shih yen-chiu chi ,

Chung-shan ta-hslleh min-su ts*ung-shu , ed.

Lou Tzu-k'uang % . % % ■ (T'ai-peir Tung-fang wen-hua kung-ying

she, 1970\ 30:1* 41-4-2. Ku believes that Ch'un-yll K'un

reversed cause and effect — the "crying" is a

reflection of the influence of the musical circle in the

vferring .StaissIteriai. So Ch'un-ytl should say that the crying of

the lady is a result of the musical effect at that time,

not the reverse. However, I have only focused on the main

point that this lady cries so often that one can take her

as a tearful lady.

^ Liu, Hsiang Sf*j fa, "Li chieh" jLlji, in his Shuo-vttan

t h j f a (SPPY ed.), 4.5a-6b.

6 See THC, quoted in TX£ (TSCC ed.), 12.52-53- ^ Sfee Wang, Ch'iu-kueilfMi/'The Formation of the Early

Versions of the Meng Chiang-ntl Story," Asian Culture 45 Quarterly, IX, No. 2 (Winter, 1 9 7 8 ), 113. O For a detailed discussion of these two versions,

see Wang Ch'iu-kuei, "The Transformation of the Meng

Chiang-ntl story in Chinese literature," Diss. Cambridge

University, 1977, Ch. 2.

9 See T H C , 12.52-53? Cf. Wang, "The Formation," no. 39,

134. Wang's translation.

10 See W'ang, 'The Formation,"no. 40, 134. Warg's translation

For a study of this name, see Ku Chieh-kang et al.,

"Meng Chiang-ntl ming-ch'eng te lai-ytlan"^.4r^r^ ^ ‘^'^ >

Min-chien Wen-hstleh , No. 90 (I963). pp. 120-124. 12 See Wang, Ch'iu-kuei, "The Tun-huang Versions of

Meng Chiang-ntl Story," Asian Culture Quarterly, V, No. 4

(Winter, 1977). 74.

^ THPW, p. 32; Waley, Ballads and Stories ,

pp. 145-46.

lZf Ibid.

Ibid.

16 Ibid. 17 ' 'Sending clothes to the frontier , a custom at that

time , is discussed in Ch. ..VI. .

18 See no. 17.

19 THPW, pp. 32-33; Waley, pp. 146-147. 20 See Lun-heng: Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch'ung, trans. Alfred Forke (New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1907 ) pp. 116-117. 46

21 See Cheng Ch'iao $ f>^#,, "Ytteh ltteh"I (— ), in his T'ung-chih lfleh SPPY ed.), 49.l6a-17b. 22 See Rudolf E. Kuenzli, "The Intersubjective

Structure of the Reading Process: A Communication-Oriented

Theory of Literature," Diacritics (June, I9 8 O), p. 52.

Roland Barthes, Le Plaisir Du Texte (Paris: Seuil, 1973),

p. 38.

2^ See Ytfeh Heng-chttn £7 ^ , "Ts'ung huang-miu tao

ch'ao-ytteh— Lun ku-tien hsiao-shuo churg shen-hua ch'ing-chieh

te chi-pen i-han," ~~ 1^7

in her Ku-tien hsiao-shuo san-lun (T' ai-pei:

Ch'un wen-hstleh ch'u-pan she, 1 9 7 6 ), pp. 227-265.

2k THPW, p. 33; Waley, p. 147. 2*5 • Northrop Frye points out that the use of 'solemn

sympathy' in a piece of more realistic fiction indicates

that the author is trying to give his hero some of the

overtones of the mythical mode. See Ffcye, Anatomy of Criticism

(Princeton: Princeton University :Press, 1957). PP* 35-36. 2^ %'%&?&'*%}. THPW, p. 33* translation mine. 2^ See E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel (London:

Edward Arnold Publishers Ltd., 1 9 4 9 ), p. 155»

Ch'en Piao , in

Ch'uan T'ang-shih kao-pen ed. Ch'ien Ch'ien-i

and chi Chen-i ^ % (T*ai-pei: Lierniung

ch'u-pan shih-yeh kung-ssu, 1979). 47.176. CHAPTER I I I

" WU TZU-HStf PIEN-WEN"

"Deep among the forests and mountains he lost his way. Uncanny birds flocked around and frightful snakes and wolves gathered in troops. The birds were called "hsing-hsing," the beasts, were named "fei-fei." Concealing his fear, Wu Tzu-hstl drew his sword and went on. Light shone from within the sword-box, illuminating the forest all around. On the blade were the sun and moon and the seven stars of the Northern Dipper. Fierce was his hero's heart, unafraid of even ir a thousand men. "WU TZU-HStf PIEN-WEN" (Trans. David Johnson) 48 The Early Literary Versions of the Wu Tzu-hstl Story

Originally, the Wu Tzu-hsll story is from Tso chuan.

in which it describes why and how Tzu-hsll (Wu Tzu-hstf) avenges the unjust death of his father, but provides nothing about

Tzu-hsll' s dramatic fugitive journey as presented

in " Wu Tzu-hstl pien-wen." S eco n d ly, the story is in

Kuo ytl ^'t'% , which is close to the one in Tso chuan

except for the episode.cf the death of Tzu-hsll. The next written

version of the Tzu-hstl story is Lti-shih ch'un-ch'iu

, in which the source of the story has nothing

to do with Tso chuan.^ Coming after, Shih chi provides another

version of this story. David Johnson observes that the

information on Wu Tzu-hstl in Tso chuan. Kuo ytl and Lu-diih

ch'un-ch'iu is not presented as an integral narrative as 2 in Shih chi. Also, Shih chi clearly points to the

existence of a well-developed tradition about Wu Tzu-hstl.

However, in these four early sources, one sees none of

them treating the story of Tzu-hstl as a creative story.

Then Wu Ytl eh ch'un-ch' iu (along with Ylleh chtleh shu ),which still belongs to the historiographical tradition,presents a narrative superior to those in

Shih chi . It has "profound affinities with its predecessors, 3 and is strikingly different from the pien-wen.

In all these literary traditions, the basic' story of

Tzu-hstl is given as follows: Tzu-hstl’s father and elder brother are unjustly killed

by King P'ing of Ch’u . Tzu-hstl escapes to Wu, and

then becomes an adherent of Prince Kuang. When Prince

Kuang becomes the Kirg of Wu, Tzu-hstl urges him to attack Ch'

The- King of Wu thus defeats Ch'u by using Tzu-hstl's

strategies. Later Tzu-hstl clashes with King Fu-ch'ai^,

a new king of Wu, over policy toward Ytleh. Finally, II Wu Tzu-hstl is forced to commit suicide.

Although " Wu Tzu-hstl pien-werf shows evidence of

borrowing from Wu Ytleh ch'un-ch'iu and Lti-shih ch'un-ch'iu.

"the differences between the literary versions and the

pien-wen are more striking than the resemblances !'-* I believe that the most important differences are the varying forms and styles, and the different viewpoints and emphases . "Wu Tzu-hstl pien-wen" , like most of the pien-wen, is an alternation, between poetry and prose that is new to the earlier literary versions. The point of view in this pien-wen seems considerably lower on the social scale, so it reflects Tzu-hstl .as a more real 6 person. This pien-wen is bold enough to describe Tzu-hsttts bloody avenging of his father's death. As David Johnson suggests, " Wu Tzu-hstl pien-wen" is- cathartic, but not the catharsis of tragedy, and thus it sets itself apart 7 from all the literary versiors to become a "romance."'

Moreover, there is much more of the supernatural in the g pien-wen than in the earlier versions. 50 Vu Tzu-hstl Pien-wen" An Analytical Study

Generally speaking, the versions of Wu Tzu-hsll's

life belong to two large traditions, one oral and the

other written. The inter-influence across 1he line dividing the two traditions is very limited. However, in the ninth

century or the tenth century, this situation began to

change. " Wu Tzu-hsll pien-wen"is a new way of telling

Tzu-hstl's story. This pien-wen draws on both the major

narrative traditions about Tzu-hsll, and as a good

example of the secular pien-wen, functions as a bridge .

between the elite and the common people. Also, the author

of this pien-wen and the audience of it are moderately

educated, a kind of people in between the most educat and the least educated? The following discussion is an analytical study of this pien-wen.

Prom PUgitive to Revenge

As a matter of fact, " Wu Tzu-hsll pien-wen"is a

combination of all the previous stories about Wu Tzu-hstl.

However, it has several creative episodes that canhot be found in any other related stories. These episodes present this hero and his trials and give the reader a series of imaginative.events and intriguing suspenses. One reads it iVi the beginning and cannot help reading it through. 51 The main creative episodes of this pien-wen are the descriptions

about Tzu-hstl* s fugitive journey and his revenge. I

will discuss the fugitive journey first.

A Fugitive Journey

This refers to the fleeing journey of Wu Tzu-hstl.

He is chased unjustly by King P'ing of Ch'u since Tzu-hstf's father has reproved King P'ingand is 1hus killed by him. King

P’ing wants to kill Tzu-hstl as well . King P'ing even promises to reward anyone who can report the location of

Tzu-hstl.

The whole journey starts with a sad song.depicting a poor runner who is hungry and frustrated. Although the world is wide, he has not one inch of space to stay.

Running alone on the Mang-tang Mountain , he sings in hi's loneliness. As soon as he reaches Ying River

7j< , he is afraid to go any further, so he stops, and then hides himself. The river sends tinesound of washing silk to his ear, and he realizes that a woman is washing silky clothes hearby. At this moment, he sings a short song that can be considered a fearful soliloquy released from

Tzu-hstl's trembling hearts

Passing from the Ying River, Exhausted from hunger and thirst, no further going, I heartte sound of washing silk. 52 peep through leaves, Only a woman washing silk in the stream, in need of begging food from her, ,q I hesitate and struggle in my heart.

Tzu-hstt struggles within himself. No sooner does he turn his back than the woman who is washing dolhes over there looks up and notices him— this man, "distraught in spirit, hungry of countenance, pacing with wild stride , and holding a sword at his waist. At once she knows that this man must be Tzu-hstt."'*''1' Obviously, Tzu-hstt is a widely known person in his country, so that the woman recognizes him immediately.

Because he has been celebrated, he becomes a target of people's attention. No matter how he looks— even half-starved and with a sad countenance— the woman still recognizes him without difficulty. Shemtcrilyhas recognized him first and then serves him a meal, but also commits suicide later to assure him that his secret will not be betrayed. Still later, a fisherman does the same thing. When Tzu-hstt flees, both a fisherman and a lady who have helped him on his way commit suicide. Tzu-hstt is presented as a hero. A critic,

Robert Ruhlmann, categorizes Tzu-hstt as "a princely hero," asserting that "A hero's ability to attract devotion without apparent effort or spectacular action is the best 12 measure of his merit and prestige."

This hero Tzu-hstt, however, is still a human being, whose needs must be met. Although he must be alone because he plans great schemes to take revenge on the unfair death of both his father and his brother, he must go to people when he is in need. Thus, he can not escape from this world in which he is destined to undergo trials and sufferings. He contributes to the heroic image by demonstrating such tested qualities as self-control, patience, sobriety, and so on. For several times, he

.learns to become indifferent to human affection— he keeps silent before his sister; he lies both to the woman by the Ying River and to his wife. Also, he tries to escape from pursuit by two of his kinsmen, his cousins, who want to get the reward. Sometimes he even hurts himself to keep his safety. For example, after he runs away from his wife, he knocks out his two protruding teeth which she has recognized.

Making use. of such a drastically dramatic design, aid passing through so many cruel trials, this hero eventually is able to separate himself from any association with people, even his closest relatives, and goes forward on his trials alone. Gradually, this process of trials results in a great 13 training in which Tzu-hsii becomes "supramoral." J

The highlight of Tzu-hstl's jo u r n e y describes his encounter with a fisherman who brings him to the end of his travels. This story is a type that has a well-designed plot, and its development works toward '-the purpose of the accomplishment 14 of the hero's goal," Tzu-hsti's gpal— to take revenge for his father and brother— which the story is intended to attain.

Then the fisherman, one of the important aids, teaches 54 Tzu-hstt how to accomplish his goal.

It should he noted that, traditionally, a fisherman symbolizes a reclusive life pattern, and he is equivalent to a hermit who does not want to compete with people for wealth and fortune. This particular fisherman also has wisdom, and is like a teacher who points out a way for Tzu-hstt to stop helplessly running. His character reminds us of the fisherman in "Fisherman" in Ch'u tz'u^tjjifc however, he is more affectionate than the latter. In this story, he recognizes Tzu-hstt and serves him a meal.

Tzu-hstt doubts him twice, but eventually Tzu-hstt trusts him and obtains instruction from him • No sooner does

Tzu-hstt leave him than he sacrifices himself, just as earlier had the woman. This is quite a dramatic plot that ends an intense journey. The fisherman is not an ordinaiy person; he is playing a role as a prophet who guides

Tzu-hstt to a successful direction, and this fulfills

Tzu-hstt's cherished will. This fisherman is linked to a turning point of Tzu-hstt's fate in the story. The whole device of the running journey is a distinct plot that is never seen in any of the other stories about Wu Tzu-hstt.

In the process of the journey, there are several inserted poems or songs. All the lyrical words release

Tzu-hstt's inner sorrow and isolation and divide the whole plot into many episodes— he often sings when he is facing a new place or approaching a water's margin, so that his songs seem always to end his previous experience, and to

start the next one. The first poem and the last poem are as one

might expect, are presented as a prelude to, and an epilogue for,

the plot conveying a fine rhythm through which we see a

tired , hungry, and mournful soul standing alone "between

heaven and earth. Every time that Tzu-hstt feels helpless

and fearful, not only his inner world is disclosed by the

poems, but also his circumstances are similarly exposed

in prose by the several lines in the stanzas that are

succinct four-word couplets, full of images. This hero

who is suffering from the tragedy that happened to his

family is depicted as a real and living person. Most of

the time, he has no way to go; although he has been

granted a princely hero's attraction and recognition as

reflected by the responses of the people whom he

encounters, his readers still can see his nervousness and anxiety as he passes through many ordeals. After he undergoes one ordeal, he grows stronger and then another life encounter'begins to continually challenge.him. No matter that the solitude, quiet mountains and waters, or frightful tigers and wolves, and strange birds are described as hindrances on Tzu-hstt's way; "these passages remind "the reader of the same evil images contained in Ch'u tz'u. which is also full of symbolic meanings. Fragrant weeds are mentioned with beauty, and are associated with images of goodness; but ice and wolves are images of evil. Correspondingly, all these images can reflect the runner's

state of mind. Because of fear and anxiety, when Tzu-hstt runs on his way to V/u, his mond anticipates danger and is suspicious.

So his state of mind seems to be threatened by frightening forces or unexpected happenings, as though he were encircled by furious tigers, wolves and strange birds. The poem and • the prose thus are working together to illustrate Tzu-hstt himself and his suffering. Also, the poems and the prose especially provide the desired effect of "showing," a pictorial effect of dramatic narrations,, which seem to show you many pictures hang before your eyes, thus you are able to penetrate the words to view either realistic scenes or reflections of inner worlds. I also treasure the passages quoted on the title page of this chapter. These reveal the author's intention to symbolically expose Tzu-hstt's inward growing strength and courageous spirit in contrast to the outward dangerous situation. Deep among the forests and mountains, this man has first lost his way and then is encardLed by the frightening animals. However, he draws his sword and goes on. Then, light shines from within his sword-box, illuminating the danger all around. One can imagine how the "light" casts all the darkness away. Also, at this time, this man's heart becomes powerful enough to defeat "even a thousand men." The illuminating light and

Tzu-hstt's fierce heart may be considered as the prediction of Tzu-hstt's future victory. 5? A Victorious Return

The fisherman not only shows Tzu-hstt the right direction

to Wu; he also suggests Tzu-hstt a clever way to approach the

King of Wu for help. Accordingly, Tzu-hstt makes up his face

with dirt, and pretends to be a mad man in order to attract

people's attention. At this tame,Uie King of Wualso dreams of

the coming of an unusual person. ftius-theKing of Wu summons

Tzu-hstt to the court. 1han the King of Wu appoints Tzu-hstt

his chief minister after he indeed recognizes Tzu-hstt as

an unusual person. From this moment on, Tzu-hstt gradually

fulfills his will. As soon as he trains the army of Wu

quite well, with the permissioncf iiBKihg of Wu, he directs

this strong army "to return and attack Ch'u to avenge his

father's death.

At this moment, there is a marvelous passage composed again in four-word lines, and with ten separate images, which release a strong spirit of the army of Wu. After the first two opening lines, "The sound of forty-two big drums spread across the sky. / The noise of the thirty-six horns deafens the earth these lines dispL^r many splendid pictures, some of which are—

the numerous soldiers, compared to the crowded scales of fish; the marching as neat as the wings of wild geese; the lances as great as forests; the soldier's open arch like the half round moon; white banners swinging like the falling of snow flakes; the battle-swords resembling frost; the arrows leaving cross-bcws 58 and dashing forward like thunderbolts; when the general ordering the soldiers, water ceases to flow; and at a great commander teaching his soldiers, a bird dares not to pass; The army covered hundred of li, goldan armor shining and silver saddlery gleaning.

In view of th^s wonderful presentation,again, we can

appreciate the magic art of these succinct four-word lines

and can also see the war vividly as on a stage. At the

end of this passage, these two lines, "Foxes and rabbits,

dragons and snakes are frightened by this army/so that 17 they run away suddenly, " recall the same imagery that

appeared before. One reviews once more the images of foxes

and snakes as symbols of evil and a malicious force in the

tradition of Chinese literature. Obviously, from these

impressive two lines, one realizes that the original

hindrance to Tzu-hstt*s way and the fear and sorrow in his

mind have gone, and all of them are beaten thoroughly by

Tzu-hstt's victorious spirit and the revenge force led by

him. Again, the foxes and snakes have a correspondence to

the tigers and wolves so that all of them can be considered

as related symbols that carry a close meaning. Thus the

running away of all these evil animals is a foreshadowing

of the future success of Tzu-hstt*s soldiers.

As mentioned abov$ 1he process of Tzu-hstt's revenge is an

intensive type of story which works on "the purpose of

accomplishment." As a result, the King of Wu is described as a commander who encourages Tzu-hstt to take revenge and to attack Ch'u. This episode differs from many official

records in historical books, which do not mention that King

of . Wu even encourages Tzu-hstt's revenge. Only this

pien-wen intends to present Tzu-hstt's accomplishment

completely. Also, following the orders of Tzu-hstt, the

soldiers of Wu win, and immediately Tzu-hstt opens the

gravecf Hie King of Cffu and desecrates the corpse. Moreover,

this pien-wen depicts the cruelest plot about this desecration

than all other accounts. Clearly, the author has planned

to describe a strong and thorough revenge. At this moment, with the statement of these two lines, "The thick and heavy grass extinguish^ the fire. / The hot water is •l poured over the snow, one can realize the defining significance of Tzu-hstt's triumph from these unequal and contrasting images, even like the heavy grass and hot water overcoming the fire and snow.

A Revenge J oumey

Tzu-hstt's triumph over Ch'u is the beginning of his journey for revenge that is a counter-journey to his running journey. After his derision and mockery of the dead King of Ch'u, he attacks Cheng ^because ite King of Chmg did not prevent his brother from going back to Ch'u to confront his final death end.

At this time, Tzu-hstt meets a son of the fisherman who 60

helped him and afterwards killed himself. This

approaches a dramatic legend which is seen only in this

pien-wen and in no other account. The fisherman's son

helped 1he Karg of Cheng to confront Tzu-hstt by using only one

"weapon"— love— to prompt Tzu-hstl to withdraw all the

Wu army and stop the war.

This episode proceeds as follows. At first, the King of Cheng,

atalcsson how to resist the all-conquering armies of Wu,

offers one half of his kingdom and a thousand pieces of gold to any one who can devise a scheme for halting the enemy.

The fisherman's son responds to this challenge by offering his services: "I can halt the armies of 'Wu, and for that purpose/I shall not need an inch of soldier or a foot of sword ." All he needs is one small boat and a punting-pole, a pair of dried fish, a bowl of boiled wheat, and a jug of good wine. Then, all of these are placed on the moat to the east of the city wall. When the army of Wu comes, this young man plies his oar while singing a long ballad and cruising about in his boat^ He has planned to remind Tzu-h^l of his father's dedication. Tzu-hstt is moved by his argument, and accordingly stops his attack. Then Tzu-hstt sets this young man on the throne as the King . of Ch'u, and the two countries— Ch'u and Cheng— live in peace.

For the woman who committed suicide by drowning herself in the Ying River for Tzu-hstt, Tzu-hstt now offers retribution by flinging a hundred pieces of gold into the Ying River for 61

her sake. This is a so-called retribution to the dead.

Turning to/the wicked nephews, Tzu-hstt shaves their heads,

cuts their ears, and also knocks out some" of their front

teeth as he himself had suffered from having knocked out

his own front teeth, and then condemns them to perpetual

slavery.

In mind of Tzu-hsfi's wife, I think that the return scene in which

Tzur-hstt fetches her provides 1he similar interest in ramindirg the reader' of Ch'iu Hu who is rejected by his wife at the time of their reunion. Because Ch'iu Hu does not 20 recognize his wife at first, his wife rejects him later.

For Tzu-hstt, he understands his mistake that he has lied to his wife, and has not recognized her; as a result now* she refuses to admit him. However, after Tzu-hstt expresses his regret, she teaches him a good lesson for a husband and wife that a couple is supposed to share shame and honor tqgether, and after these ideas have been cleared up, they become 21 "as affectionate as in the old days."

At the end of the -vengeance, Tzu-hstt has eventually effected a just retribution with every related person, and become . the chief minister of Wu. Tzu-hstt's vengeance recalls for us some unforgetable figures in-

European literature* the. hero in Alexander. Dumas'The Ccunt of Wimtp Cnstn-fhrinstance, or even Homer's Odysseus. Tzu-hstt also seems to become an "agent" of justice. He repays injury with injury. However, the idea of "retribution" 62 enforces the dramatic effect and unites the tight

relationship between Tzu-hsll and his kin. as .well as related

people. A mixture of love and hatred is seen in vengeance and

retribution , while the significance of the principles

of kin loyalty is restored after Tzu-hstl has been forced

to overlook-ttem during his fugitive period. In Dumas' and

Homer's works, the heroes become vehicles of vengeance,

so that even their wives and relatives do not at first

wish to accept them. But in this account, both the young * fisherman and Tzu-hstl* s wife use their wit and love to

move Tzu-hstl's heart; as a result, Tzu-hstl is eventually

able to be free from his vengefulness when he handles

their two cases. Obviously, there are two relationships

presented here: the father and the son, the husband and

the wife. These two relationships turn possible tragedies

into tales of blessed harmony, and make Tzu-hstl appear

softened by humane, compassionate principles. Therefore,

from these episodes, one sees that Tzu-hstl is still a

lovely and reasonable man in his homecoming, not a crazy

and unmerciful killer, who only offers a bloody tomeccming

as does Odysseus or Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte 22 Oristo.

Later the story . illustrates, that when Tzu-hstl is alive, Ytldij^attacks Wu, and is defeated by Wu. Hcwevep after Tzu-hstl is forced to die by the new King of Wu, the son of the old King of Wu, Ytleh attacks Wu again, 63 and destroys Wu. This sad end was foreseen by Tzu-hstt. This fighting between Wu and Ytteh is still ascribed to

Tzu-hstt. 64

Folklore Elements

The story of Wu Tzu-hstt has many folklore elements. David

Johnson claims that in the various versions, at least the

origins of-the following episodes are from folklore:

There are certain incidents in the various written versions of the Wu Tzu-hstt story which stand out sharply against the background of the surrounding material and which have a characteristic quality— fantastic, dreamlike, or magical— which I believe shows that they originated in folklore. These are (1) Wu Tzu-hstt'fc knocking out of his front teeth; (2) his encounter with the mysterious fisherman; (3) "the hanging of his head or eyes on the walls of the Wu capital; (4) the stuffing of his body into a leather sack which is then thrown into a river; (5) the violent response of the river to his death; and (6) the manifestation of his head to the invading Ytteh army. These incidents may go back to an extremely ancient stratum of legend which originally had nothing to do with the story of Wu Tzu-hstt at all — they seem more akin to myth than to history.

I agree with David Johnson about all of these six points.

If we check " Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen"with this list, we find, four points (1,2,3*6) in it. Since this pien-wen is fragmentary, it is hard to say if the original pien-wen also has the other two points (4,5). In addition to these points, I include several other folklore elements.

I. Iingttistie Trickery

1. The Use of Code When Tzu-hstt runs away from King P'ing, at first he meets his sister. She recognizes her brother's voice at a distance, and knows the fugitive fellow is Tzu-hstt. She 65

tries.to.do her best to comfort and console him, but he

keeps his mouth shut and does not say a word. She notices

that he has been hungry for quite a while, so she takes

a gourd and fills it with rice and makes an accompanying

salad of bitter herbs.

Tzu-hstt is .described wiser than most in this pien-wen . Carefully reflecting, he understands the meaning of what she has done:

"A gourd filled with rice", he says to hims^f "means bitterness without and sweetness within; a salad of bitter herbs means bitter mixed with bitter. What she intends me to understand is that I must go away at once, go away at once! I must not stay here any longer"^4.

As a result, Tzu-hstt takes his leave.

This kind of code can be found in riddles and many other folk literatures, Tzu-hstt is in danger and thus both he and his sister can not talk openly, they must depend on indirect code with which they play a game like guessing a riddle.

A similar trick is in the following element.

2. Ihe Application o f .a Riddle Poem

When Tzu-hstt encounters his wife, he tries to hide himself from her. She recognizes him and shows what has been happenning to him in a riddle poem full of the names of medicines, both vegetable and mineral, again, used punningly. For example, tang-kuei means a kind of angelica, but also "You must go back." T u - h u o means 66

another.kind of angelica, but also "live alone." So 2 5 Tzu-hstt replies in the same vein. J This passage is unusual

and can only be found in the soil of folklore. Of course,

this is untranslatable. This kind of poem releases both

the beauty of folk language and the suggestive mood of the

folk people.

This interesting idea has been found in other T'ang

accounts. For example, Hou Ning-chi's •

Yao p ' xx 1 [3 , has new ideas in giving different names to medicines. Even before the T'ang Dynasty, there was a record that also uses "tang-kuei" to imply "You must go back." However, not until this pien-wen has this idea been ful^r developed as a poem?^

II. Deception

1. Deception by Misleading

*After leaving his sister and traveling around twenty li, Tzu-hstt's eyes blink and his ears feel hot. He at once draws a diagram on the ground in order to take the omens, and the signs tell him that his sister's sons are pursuing him. He puts water on his head to drive them off, thrusts a piece of bamboo into his belt and puts on his clogs back to front. Then again he draws the patterns called "The Door of Earth" and "The Gate of Heaven." Having done so, he lies down among the rushes and recites the spell: "Death to/those that catch up with me. Doom to those that catch hold of me. Swift, swift as Lu ling."2'? The two nephews also draw a diagram on the ground and take the omens. The

signs reveal that uncle Tzu-hstl has "water on his heacy

which could only means that he has fallen from the bank

into the river; also that he has had a piece of bamboo

stick into his belt, meaning that his body has not been

recovered and a cenotaph has been built. Lastly, that his

wooden clogs ar^ put on back to front must mean going

backward and forward, and so getting nowhere. Therefore,

they make this conclusion, "All these signs can only mean

that he is dead./'Let us go home and not look for him any pO more."

From this episode, l&u-hstl is described as a man who

knows something of Ying yang magic very well.

Obviously, drawing diagrams.taking omens and putting on

clogs backwards are related to folk beliefe. In comparison,

one can find a similar circumstance in the following

extract from Western folklore: "If an evil omen has

occurred, / retrace your steps, sit down, and then start

again."2^ Without a doubt, "Going to the fortune and

escaping from the evil" is always a hope and an effort

implied in folklore literature.

2. Deception by Disguise

When Tzu-hstt comes to Wu, he disguises himself as a madman. He -tears. his hair, puts dirt on his face, and

cries loudly. This appears to be an example ofStith

Thompson .folklore motif number: K 1818.3» "Disguise as 6S

Madman (Pool)," and number K 1815.2, "Ugly Disguise."-*0 Tzu-hstl tries to distinguish himself as a madman?

eventually his unusual behavior catches the attention

of the King of Wu. As a result, the King of Wu summons

Tzu-hstl to the court. This is exactly what Tzu-hstl wishes.

Therefore, Tzu-hstl plays a deception on the King of Wu.

III. Dream

In this pien-wen. the account of Tzu-hstlSs encounter with the King of Wu is quite unique among many various accounts. The main difference is that the pien-wen author makes the King of Wu dream about Tzu-hstl before

Tzu-hstl comes to him.

Dream is a marvelous vehicle of folk literature. In fact, if we trace back to an earlier time in Chinese classics, in Shang , we can already find this kind of dream design. This design is like a mythical plot that links the real world and a mysterious world. Sometimes, it functions as a bridge between two unrelated persons of different statuses, who are strangers to each other, and serves as a connection between two different episodes.

Thus, it is a mythical tie that connects both people and episodes together. This design uses "dream" to progress the plot in order to fulfill an omniscient will in the story. Generally speaking, this "dream" carries a primitive belief that Heaven communicates with people even as people communicate with each other. It seems that "dream"bridges all the ^vertical" and "horizontal" conversations so that

these dual directed conversations become correspondent.I

1hink that "dream" design has an unchangeable ancient role

in the creation of folk literature, whether in the

Eastern or the Western world. Here, this pien-wen once

again performs this powerful and artistic design.

IV. Two Fishermen

Both the fisherman and his son are magical and dreamlike persons. They reflect the wit and cunning of a hermit, who is a type of wise man in Chinese culture.

The sacrifice of the father fisherman has caused the reward to his son. Obviously, both of these fishermen are wise. ' in. giving direction and getting rewards.

For instance, they separately mark Tzu-hstt's two trips: First, the fugitive journey; secondly, the' victorious return and the revenge journey. These two fishermen appear to be an example of Smith Thompson folklore motif K 1816.-6, 31 "Disguise as herdsman. The last two folklore elements bring us another topic:

"the story of the two fishermen also implies a common belief of retributionanorg folk people. From the dreams appearing in this pien-wen, onealso discovers what the folk elements on dreams and fantasies are. This topic I will also discuss later— the meanings of some folklore elements. 70 The Creative Elements and the' Meaning

"Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen" not only puts all the stories

about Tzu-hstt together, but also has its own creative

episodes. No wonder that " Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen"is

considered "the most complete Wu Tzu-hstt legend."

Here I will examine the accomplishment of all the creative

elements which are not found in any of the records about

Tzu-hstt, and also the meaning of the difference between this pien-wen and other accounts.

To begin with , the remarkable length of "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen" is notable . (It is the longest one in the historical pien-wen.) Let us check its new items one by one. In this pien-wen. the beginning conflict is caused by the King of Ch'u. A loyal minister, Wu She , the father of Wu Tzu-hstt, confronts the King of Ch'u with his sin. According to both Tso chuan and Shih chi, Wu She is supposed to be a good teacher of the son of the King of

Ch'u. However, in this pien-wen, Wu She is presented as a minister. Comparatively, the reader can see the seriousness of the error of the King of Ch'u more clearly from., a minister's formal reproach than from a teacher's gracious advice. Also,, we notice that Wu She has a burning and righteous desire to convert his master'smistake * On the contrary, in the Ch'u court, there is an evil minister, who is against Wu She. Hsieh Hai-p'ing points out that the name of "this evil role, 7l design~"Wei" is a homophone of "Wei" (hypocrisy).^

In this pien-wen, there is a missing passage that is

supposed to describe how Tzu-hstt and his brother contact

each other for the issue -whether they need to go back to

Ch'u to save their father. Nevertheless, based on the

-description of "this pien^wsn , one can envision,.the encounter between

Tzu-hstt and a messenger who chases after Tzu-hstt.

.It tells u's that originally the messenger has planned

to kill Tzu-hstt? on the country, Tzu-hstt eventually is not

hurt at all, and he even forces the messenger to take a

message back to the King of Ch'u that Tzu-hstt will take

revenge on him. Therefore,. Tzu-hstt is. thus described as a vigorous

and aggressive minister. He is shrewd enough to control his

enemy before his enemy can do anything to him.

In "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen," the most brilliant passages

are the fugitive course and the encounters discussed

a.bove . I .still emphasize the unique creativity

in the episodes of the encounters between Tzu-hstt and his kin: his sister, his nephews and his wife. These thrilling encounters cannot be found in any historical record, nor in any story about Tzu-hstt. (Only Wu Ytteh ch'un-ch'iu mentions the section on his wife.) Again I should assert that these contacts as testing rituals through which Tzu-hstt can be qualified for the strength to fight a crucial battle between justice and injustice. As for the sacrifice of the girl and the fisherman, neither of them is recorded in any formal history or historical stories,yet "they can be found in. sane legendary stories. This "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen" illustrates the sacrifices so well that Tzu-hstt's character of a princely hero is singled out.

This pien-wen has a unique and imaginative focus that depicts how Tzu-hstt presents himself to the King of Wu.

'3he Ungs dream and the disguised characterization of the

mad man of Tzu-hstt influenced by the folk literature are fantastic and imaginative and they are from- the author's creativity. Especially, the dream plot displays a dramatic design, an omniscient view-point and a strong faith. In " Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen," Tzu-hstt's revenge journey is also more vividly depicted than in many other accounts.

The point that the King of Wu supports Tzu-hstt to attack

Ch'u is one that belongs to this author's ideal. Consequent^ the vengeance described in this pien-wen is considered the most bloody of all the records.of Wu Tzu-hstt. The scene of Tzu-hstt's victory Is also the most victorious and compelling among all the accounts on Tzu-hstt.

In fact, there is no such record that describes Tzu-hstt attacking Cheng; one only finds this episode in Wu.

Ytteh ch'un-ch'iu. which greatly influences the writing of

."Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen." The episodes in which

Tzu-hstt punishes his cousins and admires his wife, again, are also the author's own creation •. These imaginative results are the consequences of the previous episodes in the process of Tzu-hstt's fugitive journey. The two episodes- after the victory, Tzu-hstt is promoted as a great minister, and later when Ytteh attacks Wu, Tzu-hstt leads the army of

Wu to fight them and wins— are of the author's own creation as well. As a natter of thct, in order to accomplish the entire victory of Tzu-hstt, the author becomes a skilled creative writer for the triumph of Tzu-hstt. No wonder at the end he only offers a few light words in mentioning Tzu-hstt's death lest Tzu-hstt's victorious images be covered up. 74

"Pao," The Way of heaven and This Man, ®zu--hstt

The artdre,,Wu 3zu-hstt pien-wen”is like a romance of

Tzu-hstt, but still not a romance of Tzu-hstt. I consider this pien-wen an account of Tzu-hstt's knight-errant experiences. Chiang-nan Shu-sheng a contemporary scholar, has already pointed out that the Chinese story of knights-errant, the story of "hsia" ^ , is different from the "romance" in Western literature. He thinks that the heroes in the "romance" still respect the absolute, strict law for their prime principles, and take the relative, comparative rules of knights-errant as their secondary considerations. t*he contrary, the

Chinese story of "hsia" highly emphasizes the relative, retributive rules first, and considers the absolute law secondary.Let us examine how Tzu-hstt relates to the relative rule in this pien-wen.

It is easy for us to promptly admire Tzu-hstt's filial piety in this pien-wan story , and consider the story a vehicle to advocate filial piety. However, in addition to a son's redundant relation to a father, the story serves as "a basis for social relations in China.Also, in my view, this story relies heavily 3 6 0 7 on a principle of "pao" , a "relative"-^ behavior that interweaves social relations together according to a universalistic.law. Therefore, in the first place, Tzu-hstt does not go to his father's place so that he can avoid

the trap set by the King of Ch'u. So Tzu-hstl does not

restrict himself to observe filial piety in a narrow sense

like his brother who carelessly loses his life for their

father. Later, as the only living son in his family, Tzu-hstl

tries hard to run away from Ch'u and takes revenge for

his father and brother. At this moment, we would rather

say that Tzu-hstl follows a primitive and .universalistic

law, rather than any particular piety.

" W'u Tzu-hstl -pien-wen" indicates the way of Heaven in its very begining. It shows us such a perfect world in a

neat order that even wind and rain are gentle and smooth.

This is in contrast to a later disordered world. One

notices that the way of Heaven distinguishes the righteousness

from the unrighteousness on earth. At first, as long

as the King of Ch'u is good to his minister and his people,

Ch’u is in a blessed harmony. However, after this King has become wicked and has killed his loyal minister, the way

of Heavenisnot ordained fer him any more. On. the contrary, Heaven always supports .the righteous man. As a r e s u l t , after Tzu-hstl has offered his enemies' hearts aid livers to the. spirit of his fether, _38 not only solemn sympathy, but also the furious response of the water?^ reflect that the way of Heaven declares poetic

justice for this hero.

As to the brilliant paragraphs describing the fugitive journey and the revenge journey of Tzu-hstl > they are also based on a "cause-and-effect" principle, a comparative

rule of knights-errant. This "repay injury with injury

and repay kindness with kindness" is again a liberal

behavior. It is a natural human response set against moral principles stated by Confucianism: "shu" *?. (forg ivoies s ) and "jang"

(yielding ) . Tzu-hstt's application of the principle

of " pao!' which the "yu-hsia" or "hsia" obeys as a kO goal, can demonstrate aome aspects of Taoism, instead of the orthodox teaching of the Confucian school. Understandably, the Confucianist treatment of knights-errant is chiefly based on the principle that justice should be administered only by legal authorities responsible to the emperor. But here Tzu-hstt tries to take revenge by himself. He is not a

Confucianist. For such persons as Tzu-hstt who depend on the way of Heaven, Heaven paves 1heir way to be against the greatest and highest person, 1he King , on earth. In view of this, one comprehends that all the dreams, omens and helpers for Tzu-hstt are on purpose. All of these are designed for the same reason: h.e is a significant person strengthened by Heaven, and even representative for Heaven— the Chinese people believe that an important man (not necessarily an authoritative person)on earth can be representative for the way of Heaven.

Nevertheless, in. this pien-wen Tzu-hstt is still, presented as a real person. On many occasions, one sees Tzu-hstt in desperate and helpless loneliness. He is depicted as neither a superman nor a moralist. He dares to love and hate. With a hatred burning within his heart, he must cherish

his life to take revenge. While he is a fugitive, he is

fatigued, hungry, and weak. He cherishes people's love

and swallows their wicked treatments. He has kept every

person's response in his mind. One day he becomes

victorious, pays back everyone of them by "an eye for

an eye, a tooth for a tooth,"-the way of " pao." He is

not a gracious or great man; but he is a real and

distinctive man. He follows a relative , primitive way

to love those he can love and to hate those he hates. Ul He is not a strict follower of Confucius, nor a "popular God"

who belongs to a world of fantasy.

Tzu-hstt is described as he is. The author of this.

pien-wen presents this man, Tzu-hstt, as an important,

dignified and living man. Finally, I would like to quote Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the Grand Historian's remark about

Wu Tzu-hstt to end this chapters

If Wu Tzu-hstt had joined his father She and died with him, he would have been of no more significance than a mere ant. But he set aside a small righteousness in order to wipe out a great shame, and his name has been handed down to later ages. How moving! At that time Wu Tzu-hsii suffered hardship by the riverside and begged for his food along the road, but in his detenninatian he did not for a moment forget Ying Sp . He bore all secretly and silently, and in the end achieved merit and fame. Who but a man of b u r m n g intartion could have accomplished such a deed? 78

NOTES

^ See David Johnson, "Wu Tzu-hsii pien-wen," HJAS.

IVX, No. 1 (1980), 123.

2 Ibid., 125.

3 Ibid., 129.

4 Ibid.,143.

5 Ibid., 144.

6 Ibid., 146.

^ Ibid., 148-149. Also, see no. 34. There is further discussion.

8 Ibid., 146.

9 Ibid., 9^-95.

THfW, pp. 4-5. translation mine.

11 Tim, P. 5; Waky. , p. 2 8. 12 . See Robert Ruhlmann, "Traditional Heroes in

Chinese Popular Fiction,"Tn Hne Confucian Persuasion, ed.

Arthur F. Wright (Stanfords Stanford University Press, i9 6 0 ), p. 1 6 0.

^ This is a kind of hero who possesses "outstanding gifts of personality and talent, and the resolution to behave on a level higher than that of the sages and the wise." See Fung ( Fsng) lu-Oan , Hsin-shih lun ^^jeSLn. p. : n.p., 1940), p. 7 8. 79 ^ Enlightened by a theory in Chinese (original

unknown), I translated it into English like this.

^ THPW, p. 19; I have used ChfenIi-Ji'stranslation.

See Ch'en, "Outer and Inner Forms of Chu-kung-tiao, with

Reference to Pien-wen, Tz'u and Vernacular Fiction," HJAS.

XXXII (1972), 1^2. ^ THPW, p. 19; translation mine.

17 Ibid.; translation mine. 18 Ibid., p. 20; translation mine.

^ Ibid., p. 21; Waley, p. 45.

20 Ibid., pp. 154-159, . " Ch'iu Hu pien-wen

21 Ibid., p. 24; Waley, p. 49. 22 Cf. The .Odysseys of Homer, trans. George Chapman,

2nd. ed. (London: Reeves & Turner, 187*0. Cf. Alexander

Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. ( Boston; Little, Brown, and Company, 1894) 2^ See Johnson, HJAS. IVX, No. 2 (I9 8 O), 469. 2Uf THPW. p. 7; Waley, p. 32. Elsewhere I have used Yaley's translation with ny changes. However,, this is a passage of

Waley’s translation without any change.

25 THPW. p. 10; Waley, pp. 35-36.

See T'ao Ku^J'fS., Ch'ing i lu (Hsi-vin-hsQaa ts'ung-shu ed.), 1.49-54; See Liu Hsiu-yeh *

"Tun-huang p e n ’Wu Tzu-hstl pien-wen'chih yenrchiu" ..JK.

1E /fT VL . in Tun-huang pien-wen lun-wen lu. 80 1982} 2 *529-530.

27 THPW, p. 8; Waley, p. 3 3. pD THPW, pp. 8-9; Waley, pp. 33-3**. 2Q See Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and

Imagery (Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co., 197*0,

p. 2 7 8.

3^ See Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. ed. Stith'

Thompson (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1 9 6 6 } 4.

*05. *02.

31 Ibid., 433 . ">2 See Liu Hsiu-yeh, 527.

33 See Hsi'eh Hai-p' ing , Chiang shih hsing

•chih pien-wen yen-chiu (T' ai-pei: Shia-hsin shui-ni kung-ssu wen-hua chi-chin hui, 1 9 7 3 ). p. 2 0 .

3^ See Chiang-nan Shu-sheng , Chien-hsia

Li Po (T* ai-pei: Shih-pao wen-hua ch’u-pan shih-yeh yu-hsien kung-ssu, 1978), 1*268-2 8 7. Chiang-nan *1 * Shu-sheng also thinks that the Biography of Wu Tzu-hstl in Shih chi is a story of "hsia"'ffi , a Chinese chivalric story. Since "Wu Tzu-hstl pien-wen" based on this biography has the same spirit, I believe that he consadegit a chivalric story as well.

3^ See Johnson, 29 I-3 0 9 .

See Yang Lien-sheng'i^^P^ , "The Concept of 'Pao' as a Basis for Social Relations in China," in Chinese lhcugfrt and Institutions, ed. John K. Fairbank (Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press, 1957). PP* 29 I-3 0 9 . 81 See Chiang-nan Shu-sheng.1*262-268.

After Tzu-hsU has completed his offering, he cries, and then "the sun and the moon become dim in response, and rivers and streams seethe./All of a sudden, clouds and fog darken the sky... *THPW, n 2L This is a description of "solemn sympathy." See p. 46, no. 25*

39 THPW. p. 21. 40 See Jameis J. Y. Liu, The Chinese Knight-Errant

(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1 9 6 7 ), pp. 12-13*

Taoism is individualistic and against conformity to social conventions. The knights-errant perform individual principles according to their natural inclinations. Also, the Taoists, like the knights-errant, have an anarchistic attitude towards government and law. Therefore, the knights-errant and the Taoists are similar to some extent.

However, Liu.precisely distinguishes the differences between them as well.

^ S e e Ctfen 3iouP%lf. Sai kuo chih (Ibi-ching: Chung-hua diidxi,

1959), 64.1449. It is also recorded in Hou Han shu that

the local people believed that Wu Tzu-hstlVs spirit was

**■ 4S , ■£. „ in the river. See Pan Yeh , Hou Han shu ,

Wang Hsien-ch' ien ohi Shiah. ed. 5 , 44.2b.4-8. 42 See SC, p. 2183? Burton Watson, Records of the

Historian: Chapters from the Shih Chi of Ssu-ma Ch* ien

(New York: Columbia University Press, 1969 ), pp. 28-2 9 . CHAPTER IV

" Li LING PIEN-WEN "

I considered that Li Ling had always shared with his officers and men their hardships and. want, and could command the loyalty of his troops in the face of death. In this he was unsurpassed even by the famous generals of old. And although he had fallen into captivity, I perceived that his intention was to try to seek some future opportunity to repay his debt to the Han. Though in the end he found himself in an impossible situation, yet the merit he had achieved in defeating and destroying so many of the enemy was still worthy to be claimed throughout the world. ------Ssu-ma Ch'ien "PaoJen Shao-ch'ing shu"

82 Li Ling: A Tragic Hero and His Tragedy

2 In Shih chi, there is a brief account of Li Ling

, and in Han shu > one can find a longer one.-* In comparison with the other three pien-wen in my study, we know that die materials about this hero, Li Ling, are more limited, but this pien-wen is more faithful to the historical records about Li Ling. It is not necessary to trace all the historical records closely; therefore,

I attempt to examine the content of this pien-wen first, and compare it with some historical records later.

This pien-wen describes how Li Ling, a Han>J|general, loses his fight with Ihe Hsiung-nu^js then captured and thus brings tragedy to himself and his family. In the beginning,

Li Ling impresses us with the indomitability of his bravery. Li Ling, grandson of Li Kuang , like his gr andfather, is an excellent general. Li Ling, in the service of Emperor Wu , at first is vividly pictured in this story as a daring, fearless general. Placed in command of an army in 99 B.C. for the purpose of attacking the

Hsiung-nu * Li Ling is allowed, in view of his confidence, to advance fhrinto 1he enemy territory with aligjit ooiLumn of five thousand' foot soldiers, leaving the main body of his forces a great distance behind. When the Hsiur^-ntt force turns out to be too numerous, and succeeds in defeating Li's army, Li Ling summons the attendants around him and asks them: 8k

"Why don't we fight agaistiheHsiung-nu again and again?" The attendant answer, "All of our troops are nearly destroyed. How can we fight again?" Then the heroic general says to his men, "The soldiers having three or four wounds can be carried with chariots to march. But the ones with one or two wounds must continue to fight the Hsiung-nu.

From this s t e m order , the . reader envisions a

severe general who demands his wounded soldiers to fight

without ceasing.and is able to catch the impressively

daring and consistent spirit of "The Flying General."-’

It seems that his governance and his "flying"

spirit that will never be exceeded . Consequently, when

this marvelous general is forced to surrender in

the end, one sees the sharp contrast to this previous

height of power and courage, and feels an even stronger and more tragic sense.

As to this outstanding general, how can the insult of being a pziscsBrof the Hsiung-nu come to him? And how can

his entire family be doomed to death? The answers are

historically recorded in this pien-wen? I will also analyze the special style of the creation of Li Ling as a tragic hero in this story., and evaluate the. narrator's.

arrangement about,the key point that changes the entire

life of Li Ling.

After the announcement of consistent fightirg, Li Ling orders the soldiers to beat the drums. However, the drums do not sound. At this moment, Li sighs, "It is Heaven 85 which has destroyed mei"^ Generally speaking, persons

endowed with genius and rare heroic virtues are always

sensitive to their fate. Here Li Ling is one of these

examples. At this time, Li Ling reaches the same state

of mind as Hsiang YU . As Hisang YU, a great general, is encircled by his enemies and at his wits' end, he sighs, "...it is Heaven which has destroyed me, and no fault of mine in arms!"''7 Both of them are aware of human limitations and the supreme and unpredictable power of Heaven. At a crucial time, they realize that they must submit themselves to an invisible force that is in control of everything.

Following the discovery of the war drums which do not sound, three columns of black smoke rise up to the sky. Observing this omen, Li Ling instructs his attendants to check whether anything is wrong. ])i dcdng so, they discover two women hidden among the troops, and then dismember than.

Then the drums sound even when they are not beaten. In comparison to the historical fact recorded in Han shu. we * know-that this episode in this pien-wen is its author's own well-worked invention. Interestingly enough, Han shu only mentions one sentence about the war drumsbeatai just oncety

Ihe soldiers. However, this pien-wen embodies this issue as a concrete, even a dramatic, message which I will explain later. The important point is that from this dramatic as invention, the tragic hero, Li Ling, gains foreknowledge

of the profane conditions around him descending from Heaven

to the earth and people. Being aware of this message, one

can appreciate this well-structured episode 'in the story

as a fore shadowing of the tragic ending. Later, Li Ling

sings a songs "Facing the enemies, I hate the slant shadow O of the sun." This is the same expression of an unlucky

image as the three columns of black smoke, used as a

forecast of the failure of this hero.

Li Ling indeed can not escape his destiny, a

fatalistic element that also appears in Greek tragedies.

Now, this General Li from the famous Lung-hsi family,

is warned by the omen and haunted by it. Although Li Ling

is wise enough to ' survive the seething fire, by

Hsiung-nu running, after him, he is eventually betrayed by his own soldier, Chtleh-kuo Kuan-kan • ChUeh-kuo, who is afraid of being punished for his mistake, ^flees to the Hsiung-nu tarritory with the intention of exposing weakness in Li's troops, saying Li Ling has not enough force and food to sustain his fighting. Thus Li Ling is pursued closely, and as a result, eventually captured by the

Hsiung-nu. It seems that ChUeh-kuo can be taken as the representation of the third column of the smoke of the mysterious omen. (Those two women may be taken as the representation of the other two columns of smoke.) As a matter of fact, the’ omen indicating two women and a traitor points out the inner problems of Li's army. The writer

of this pien-waibelieves that man and nature are correlative,

so that he invents smoke columns to predict the problems.

Of course, Li Ling recognizes the problem of soldiers

hiding women, so he kills the two women. . However,

he does not expect that the soldier whom he has trained

could be a traitor.

According to this- historically recorded pien-wen. .

there are other dire conditions surrounding Li Ling. First

of all, he leads only five thousand foot soldiers to fight against one hundred thousand soldiers cf the aneny..Secondly, he does not have any replacement force to continually supply food and weapcn. Nevertheless, even at this dangerous moment , Li Ling, an excellent general, oblivious of the danger , advances into the Hsiung-nu tetritoiy deeply eaough to fight off the enemies . Victorious at the outset, he leads his troops to perform their best. Therefore, in considering these facts that Li Ling has tried his best--and even has killed numerous enemies— I believe that his merits can make up fbrhis faults, and his bravery worthy of acclaim in history. Moreover, at this time Li Ling reluctantly surrenders toliTs

Hsiung-nu, planning one day to kill the enemies and return

to tie Han court. When the reader carefully thinks over the remarks and songs written in this story, he can appreciate

Li Ling's heavy mind that feels deep regret to his Emperor and his family. Thus., the reader may believe that this 88

loyal general will also be appreciated by the Han Emperor.

Some Han soldiers who run back home safely are asked to

deliver such amessage for Li Ling, "I., Li Ling feel

unworthy to the Han Emperor for his favor.This is so

humble an expression that we may imagine how Li Ling breaks his pride to utter such words and we do not forget

them. Moreover, at this moment, in the presence of the

Shan-ytt | f he ^s a surrenderor, still shows us his noble and unyielding character. We can not but be moved by. such an indomitable spirit.

However, the inevitable fate does not keep Li Lirg.from being cursed. After the Han Emperor hears the news, he is so angry that he wants to punish Li Ling's family immediately.

Although Ssu-ma C h 'ie n , the Grand Historian, admonishes the Han Emperor so that Li. Ling's family is saved temporarily from punishment , there is a mix-up that still causes the family to be destroyed.

Th e perscn is-Li Hsii^&,who teaches the Hsiung-nu how to discipline their soldiers. Unfortunately, the court of the

Han makes a mistake, which stems from General Kung-sun Ao

1% receiving the wrong information. This general originally plans to go to the Hsiung-nu -territory takirgLi Iirg and another Han officer, Su Wu backtolhe Han court, but returns stating that Li Ling is teaching the soldiers for the Hsiung-nu. Based on this incorrect information, the

Han Emperor mistakes Li Ling for an unpardonable traitor, 89 and then not only kills Li Ling's mother and his wife, hut

also castrates Ssu-ma Ch'ien as a punishment. Thus this

tragic story happens to Li Ling, as expressed in these

lines:

The blood seems to cover up all the city. It is an unjust punishment upon Li's mother, The sun and the moon los.e, their light, Branches break and fall.

From a loyal general to an unpardonable traitor who

causes . death to his family, Li Ling's suffering is grave

and miserable. The narration of the story is so full of

■righteous protest that it emphasizes the "solemn sympathy"'11

of nature and the injustice of punishment as a justification for

the hero. Furthermore, through Li Ling's wife's utterance the

author comments, "From ancient times to the present, this

kind of thing has never happened. .../ How can we do 12 anything under an unjust law and a cruel punishment?" When

Li Ling hears the bad news of the death from home, he is

horrified and bursts into desperate tears. At an earlier

time, before he . has surrendered , he is sad for

failing to attack the Hsiung-nu successfully and win a

Han victory. But at this moment, unexpectedly and ircmcaUy, he cries over the Han's exceedingly harsh punishment on himself and his family.

Although both the aocounts ..presented an Han du and in tiis pien-wen 90 defend Li Ling's position, there are two main differences

between them:

1. The historical account in Han shu only records the

actual events, while the pien-wen story portrays literary

qualities, such as a sense of doom . The history records

faithfully the failure of the general, but the story depicts

the inevitability of the evil fortune of the tragic hero.

Accordingly ,. the appearance of those women in the

army is written in two different ways. Ihe historical

account records that although Li Ling orders soldiers

to beat drums, the morale of the army is not stimulated

by beating drums. So Li Ling questkns if there are hidden

women in the any. 'Ihen Ye searches fbr wanen in 1he an y , finds than, and 13 kills them. J In contrast , in this pien-wen, the episodes

of the columns of black smoke and the deaf sound of war

drums that bring up the issue of the women (as mentioned

earlier} are created , by the author of this pien-wen.

2. Moreover, the historical.accomt describes Li Ling from the

objective view of a historian, but tie story., from the subjective view of an epic writer. The number of the Hsiung-nu soldiers is differently recorded The historical, account nunbars them as. 80,000, the story, 100,000.It seems that the more the Hsiung-nu soldiers are, the more we feel pity for Li Ling's failure.

As to the tragic mistake that causes Li Ling to lose his family, the history records it plainly, while the story does not. The author of the story first describes that Li Hstt tells a lie, but later he states the words of a messenger who exposes the person who tells a lie as General

Kung-sun, not Li Hsli. The fatal ambiguity of this event promotes its tragic effect. No matter how the mistake has first been made, the cruel ending which sees the whole family of Li Ling destroyed remains horrifying. The more ambiguous the mistake is, the more we feel the whole event is unbelievable and grievous. How does Li Ling become an unfortunate target of blame after his surrender that is taken as an unforgiven shame in the Han? '.Vhy do people like to take an unfair advantage of such a g reat general? Why is there another Han general in Ihe. barbarian place with the same surname as Li Ling's, and whose given name is also one word (as was customary at that time ) like Li Ling's, so that this mistake can easily happen?

Why is this betrayer helping the Hsiung-nu against the

Han at the same time when Li Ling has surrendered there?

It is this Li Hsll who is the secret betrayer; however, his unfaithfulness is mistaken for the actions of Li Ling, the innocent and sad-hearted surrenderer. Then, how fatally such a "mistake" (or a lie) even destroys the

Li clan! How ironical it is that originally the Han court wants to get Li Ling back, yet their final effort ends by their forever losing this outstanding general! Also, at first Li Ling plans to go back to the Han court in the future, yet eventually he has determined never to go . 92 back with a brokai heart. As a result, .the author makes us realize simply and tragically that fate is seldom understandable.

The pien-wen story also reflects the inner world of the tragic hero by his singing released from his heart.

As a result, as a creative historical story, this pien-wen is freer than the historical record, so that the work is more impressive.

At last, Han shu ends with this remark: "The general of the three generals is evaded by Taoist. / prom Kuang to Ling,the whole family of Li is destroyed.'^-

However, this pien-wen stops at the right moment when Li

Ling sings, whereupon the Emperor of the Han is ungrateful to him, in contrast to. his former .remark. This ends the story at such an exact point that it seems to leave the reader with a lingering idea, so that he can ponder it over and over. 93. ■The Diminishing- of the Tragic Effe.ct

In addition to my above discussion , if we check

the historical records about Li Ling , . we observe

that there are the following critical respects that

were negelected by the author of this pien-wen. This

neglect resulted in the diminishing of the tragic

effect of the hero in the pien-wen story.

1. The \feakness of Character.

Li Ling is full of conceit. He acclaims to the Han

Emperor that he would like to conquer the maxirum number of

enemy troops with minimum number of his troops. The .Han Emperor alb vs

him to do. so without replacement troops. Therefore, his

failure is initially caused by his bold conceit. I think

that the author of this pien-wen has not developed .Ihispcdnt very well . In this pien-wen, Li Ling only feels rqgretful

once for his own conceit after his failure. If the author

had fully presented this weakness as a tragic flaw

of Li Ling, then Li Ling could have become a stronger

tragic hero, and this story could have achieved more.

2. The Weak Relationship

Li Ling’s pride influences his relationship with people. Since he is brilliant, tut conceited, people arand him become jealous of him. He also tends to single himself out of the crowd; he is different and alone among the courtiers and the generals. According to the historical records in Han shu. right before his surrender

Li Ling is summoned to fight the Hsiung-nu under the

leadership of Li Kuang-li . Emperor Wu's brother-in-law. However, Li Ling despises Li Kuang-li,

who often loses in his fighting. So Li Ling refuses to

go with Li Kuang-li and asks . the Emperor to allow

him to fight alone with only miniinum number of troops. The courtiers who have been jealous of Li Ling,now accuse Li

Ling that he is proud enough to despise Li Kuang-li

(honored as "The Second General"by his relative

Emperor). The.Han Emperor is. also unhappy over Li Lirejs pride , apparent in the refusal of his brother-in-law's

leadership. Consequently, after the fatal loss, all the

courtiers condemn Li Ling for his pride and his failure

caused by his carelessness and his conceit. Needless to

say, Li Ling'fails to win the people's friendship first,

thus after his failure, people take this chance to attack

him.

There is only Ssu-ma Ch'ien who can not stand

the people's jealous attack on Li Ling, so he speaks out

for Li Ling. However, Ssu-ma Ch'ien's protesting admorashmait

is not successful. Ssu-ma Ch'ien's righteousness only

leads to castration for himself. As a result, there is no voice other than this, which dares to say some words in

Li Ling's behalf. This episode of Ssu-ma Ch'ien seems also to enforce the tragic sense of Li Ling's story. Thus Li Ling is finally all alone in the desert and is

condemned by all the courtiers after Ssu-ma Ch'ien's

futile and tragic-, protest. In this"Li Ling pien-wen," the author almost omits tins posLtiye point, only mentioning

Ssu-ma Ch'ien's admonishment as an independent episode.If he

would have emphasized the weak relationship between Li

Ling and the courtiers, and the useless effort of Ssu-ma

Ch'ien, the tragedy of Li Ling would become • a more

powerful one.

3* Omens and the Fulfillment As mentioned earlier, at the beginning of "Li Ling

pien-wen," there are strange omens that warn Li Ling about

his future failure. Then Li Ling indeed fails. Later the

betrayer, Li Hstl, is mistaken as Li Ling; even Li Ling's

family is persecuted. Apparently, the omens and the

fulfillment are also the evidence of this tragedy.

Although the author • has presented these omens dramatically

I think that he still can work more, particularly on this

device of omens and its fulfillment, and mak^ fuller use of

the evidence of this tragedy.

4-. The Fatal Mistake- and the scapegoats

Li Ling's family is destroyed by Li Ling's failure.

If Li Ling has already felt ungrateful for his initial

surrender, the demise of his family seems to create a deeper and more bitter sorrow in his heart. For such an excellent general, his own failure and the fatal mistake 96 that make .his family pay the price as the scape­ goats may become a lifelong guilt fbr him. For this merciless treatment, he not only hates the Han Emperor, but will also blame himself for the rest of his life.

This issue is another tragic attribution to the whole tragedy, which can also be well developed. In other wards,

I believe that the more the author emphasizes the cost of the failure and the fatal mistake, the more this pien-wen can attain its tragic aftermath.

Most of the above respects have not yet been developed; otherwise, this pien-wen could have achieved much more power and scope. The Presentation of War and Warriorss From Fury to Tears

Besides the incident of the three columns of smoke,

" Li Ling, pien-wen" has another episode that increases ..

the tension. As soon as Li Ling commands his soldiers

hiding in the deep grass to push back the Han troops

toward the south, a northern wind blows over them and

causes all the grass to shift southward. The Shan-yh recognizes this and starts to set fire to the grass to kill the Han soldiers. At this moment, Li Ling uses his quick wits to respond to this emergency. He asks, "How far is the fire from here?" "The fire is one li from here," his followers answer. Then Li Ling tells his troops to b u m the grass in front with firestone so that the fire chasing themfium-bdiind .will extinguish itself^ Li Ling is wise enough to divide the grass into two parts so that he saves the troops of the Han from a trick of the Hsiung-nu

The reader clearly senses here the tension of war; especially in the faUowing fine poems,, which even intensify; this tension by some doublets;

Red flame is b u r n in g more and more furiously. The grass is blown more: and .more upward.

Here we appreciate many doublets in ■ lines, such as

"fen-fen " "yen-yen" . "tui-tui" and so . on which separately depicts the immense size of the army ... of 98

the Hsiung-nu running ' after Li Ling's troo-ps,

and the furiousness of the fire and smoke. Later I

win discuss 1he.se' doublets jn (fetail. After Ling passes this fire disaster, a fatal experience is waiting for him.

At this moment, we observe how the enemy of Li Ling is presented. Even from the very first paragraph (the

begining of this pien-wen was lost), the character

of the Shan-ytl demonstrates in his speech. He regrets

first that his one hundred thousand troops are defeated

by the five-thousand Han soldiers in their early battle.

.He worries that .the Han troops will despise

him for . this failure. Later, after he fails once again

to kill Li Ling by setting fire to the grass, he is very

depressed. Although even later Chlleh-kuo Kuan-kan betrays

Li Ling and. teaks impcrtari xiftmafcions on the weakness of the

Han troops, the Shan-ytl is still not consjsta'it enough to press; the Han soldiers. He says, "We all are fatigued.Even

if I were able to. get to the Han troops, what would it be. for ?

I would rather go back." However, as soon as his generals admonish him, he is encouraged to continue the fight and 17 eventually captures Li Ling. ' The carxcature of thxs short-tempered Shan-ytl who is not Li Ling's rival at all seems to convince the reader that Li Ling is doomed to failure. It is no wonder that at the test moment before Li Ling's surrender, Li Ling says, "It is Heaven that:.has de.stroyed me'." Neither this caricaturi/.ation, nor the tears of Li Ling is- given in Han_shu. After fighting the Hsiung-nu with

planks from many wagons, Li Ling tries his best to attack

the? strong enemy. All the effort that Li Ling has made against

the Hsiung-nu is described in more detail in this pien-van,

and in . no other.historical record. Moreover, before

surrendering to the Shang-ytS, Li Ling's struggle is rs/ealed

in this pien-wen as well. In Han shu, at the crucial moment,

Li Ling makes one remark: "Today I must die; otherwise, I 1 R am not a brave man." In this pien-wen, this remark is

expanded into a paragraph in which one sees Li Ling fighting

struggling and eventually giving up. At this time, Li Ling

does not look like a great general who is quite confident,

yet he is blamed and condemned for risking the life of

five thousand of the Han soldiers against one hundred

thousand of the Hsiung-nu troops y . forever disgracing

his. ancestors and the Han Emperor.

Many attendants around Li Ling content him and try to

uige him to surrender. Right at this moment, he also remembers

a historical event when even the former great Emperor, Kao-

tsu if] 'k®- * with thirty thousand soldiers, were encircled

by the Hsiung-nu. In comparison, how careless he is in

taking such a high risk with so few soldiers! This allusion

•to a famous failure does not excuse him, but makes him more guilty. Being regretful, Li Ling becomes weak; meanwhile,

as he hears the attendants mention his parents, he' 100

immediately bursts into tears. Giving up hope, he then

buries a flag of the Han in the ground.(This episode in 19 this pien-wen is faithful to the record in Han shu) Crying again, he swears that he will not betray the Han Emperor.

These genuine pesaTtaiions that reflect Li Ling as a living e:smple of surrender, instead of a brilliant, unreachable general, are found only in this pien-wen and not in any other official record. '

Later, Li Ling's mother and wife are killed by his Emperor.

As . soon as Li Ling hears the news from a Han courier , he can . not . but weep again. Even before Li Ling talks .to the courier to varify the nevrs, first of all,-, he has cried already. This hero Li Ling, an indomitable commander fails to become strong enough to refrain himself from crying..

His cries convey a stirring message . Although Li Ling is in the Hsiung-nu territaynow, his heart never forgets "the Han Qiina.

His. life standard is still based on the response from the

Han court, and his love and care is still for his people and his family in Han China.

He probably expects that his Snperor will exhibit ■ understanding and mercy, so that it is hard for him to accept what he hears . No. sooner has he seen the courier' from the.f&i court than he checks that news with him. However, after verifying the news, he cries so loudly that he can not breathe. His eyes are filled with tears and his heart is bleeding; he even faints for a while. .The reader sees 101 a filial son and a pitiful and groaning soldier, not a strong "Cavalry Commandant"20 Focusing on Li

Ling.and presenting war and warriors, the author of this

pien-wen displays a. narration of fury changed to tears. Li Lingfe fbimerhigh vigor has now beccme a oonb±fce - spirit. A " Flying

General" has become a tearful failure. As a result, the passages about the war not only a description of exterior conflict, but also a reflection of the inner feeling of the hero from his fighting to surrender and his

suffering. 102

A Heterodox Tone

By comparing "the Han.scoundrel" (referring to the Han Emperor) with "The Master of Ten-thousand sheng"j^f&i 21 (referring to the Shan-ytl) , we sense the sharp contrast

between these two treatments. No wonder , Hsieh

Hai-p'ing a lle g e s that " Li Ling pien-wen " is

written by a Han person in the Hsiung-nu or a Han person 22 who has conformed to the Hsiung-nu. The author seems to respect the Shan-ytl and despise the Han Emperor.

Although Hsieh's remark may be correct, i think that he- needs more evidence to support this reading. Still

I too feel, however , that the author is inclined to support the Hsiung-nu instead of the Han. For instance, this remark, 2? "The Han.is weak, but the Hsiung-nu is strong." J not only indicates the different forces between the Han and the

Hsiung-nu, but also implies the author's standpoint critical of the Han.

Moreover , the author of this pien-wen includes a very disparaging statement: "How can we do anything under 24 an unfair law and a cruel punishment?" This is a comment made by Li Ling's wife before she is executed. By describing

Li Ling's family suffering from an "unprecedented" and merciless punishment , tteauthor strongly condemns the Han

Emperor. Furthermore, for a faithful general who has been brave enough to take a risk in fighting the enemy with many fewer soldiers and has also vowed to be loyal to the Han

after his surrender, his last comment, "Now Heaven should

know that the Han Emperor has been ungrateful to me," is

nothing but an awakening proclamation. After recognizing the

cruelty of the Han Bnperor. Li Ling realizes that he no

longer can be a wholeheartedly devoted follower of his leader.

Li Ling thus turns his eyes upon the way of Heaven ins tead

of his cold-hearted leader. When he is very resentful,

Heaven is the ultimate standard that can probe his heart

and provide justice for him. In other words, from this

Heaven-oriented judgment, the reader can also see the

author's tendency to protect Li Ling and blame the Han.

In view of this, the pien-wen has a tone of a heterodox

story. A heterodox tone is one full of a rebellious, .

challenging, and critical spirit, contradicting traditional

thoughts or Confucianist ideas, which are modest, decent,

and orthodox.

A Reappraisal from the People.: An Example of an Acceptable Surrenderer

By viewing of the heterodox tone in this story, one may be able to uncover a valid intention for the presentation of Li Ling's surrender. Let us briefly check the historical background of this surrender first. In the Han Dynasty people considered Li Ling's surrender shameful. However, Cheng Chen-to's Chung-kuo wen-hstieh shih $ jg) 104

analyzes the reasons why centuries after the Han Dynasty,

people began to mention Li Ling's surrender. The historical

backgound is as fbHows: After the Five Tartar bribes disturbed

the Han, the central plains was occupied by the Tribes. Many

loyal families that did not move toward the east or south

v\ere forced to surrender to the Tribes. People who had

surrendered began to comprehend the suffering of Su Wu and

Li Ling because they had.experiarced the same fate.. Ccnseq[uently,

they had empathy toward Su and Li, and even made up some

episodes about them.

In the whole collection of _. Tun -huang pien-wen. there

is one piece, ""Su Wu Li Ling.chjhpieh tsfu.S*t^SWJJj4in which these

two captures have an encounter: Li Ling meets Su Wu and

speaks his heart. This piece is influenced by"Li Ling ta

Su Wu shu and is recorded in neither Shih chi 27 nor Han shu. only in Wen-hsttan-fr^so that., scholars question

its authenticity. Scholars only accept one poem," Li Ling pieh

Su Wu shih" , recorded in shu as an aithentic era

I think that whetherarthaiticor not, one can appreciate the

sorrowful feeling of misplaced peopte as described therein . Ihus,

with the same viewpoint, and with reference to the hetsndax

tone, I am going to examine this pien-wen in order to

explore how Li Ling is presented as an acceptable surnsndarer and still remains a dignified fighter.

In ; •• Li Ling pien-wen," after Li Ling sighs, "Today I must die» otherwise . I am not a brave man." his followers i 105 around him say,

How can we say that our commanders and soldiers tend to be unfaithful to your great will and our own original wishes? Now our situation is very dangerous and isolated. It is like a fish swimrfiing in a tripcd ; a bird making his nest under a piece of curtain. As soon as the tripod is heated, the fish will die; As soon as the curtain is moved, the nest will be broken.As a matter of fact, the situation is not safe, and there is no reason for us to survive. We hope that you, our general, can find a way to save our lives.,2?

These words may be considered as protest of their failure and an explanation for their surrender. (This kind of explanation is not found in other accounts.)

As mentioned above, Li Ling remembers the failure of Emperor

Kao-tsu, Liu Pang ,at the moment when he is going to face his failure. His soldiers follow him to excuse themselves by r e f erring to the failure of the former great Emperor, who at that time even had better equipment against the

Hsiung-nu than Li Ling's troops. Under pressure of such a tremendous want, there is no food and no reinforcements, thus all the soldiers agree that it is reasonable for them to surrender to the Hsiung-nu. Li Ling sighs again and believes that he can not fight against his divinely authorized destiny. Here fate predicts Li Ling's future misfortune which has already been foreshadowed by the three columns of smoke, Although Li Ling and his soldiers can not but.give up, Li Ling still feels disgrace for his family and the Han Emperor. The soldiers around him can do nothing but comfort him that at least Li Ling's name

should be recorded in historical books . The composition of

the story changes to include a tone that is passive,

helpless and pitiful, which reflects the depressing mood

of the hero and the people around him. The high tension

analyzed earlier is gradually loosened and

eventually gone. From a furious fighting to a consistent

resistance, and at last,to a reluctant surrender, this story,

both in plot and in mood, begins to "cool-down," as a

slowly extinguishable fire. Likewise, Li Ling, an outstanding

commandant, is humbled by facing a shameful surrender.

These lively paragraphs describe Li Ling's unutterable

failure and make Li Ling alive before us.

Later, following the moving episode of how

Li Ling buries flags and treasures under ground and

beats his bosom hard while viewing the Han from a far

distance in the desert and . taking a vow to the. Han Emperor,

the author uniquely depicts a special scare, whan Li Ling faces the

Shan-ytl to surrender, he still stands on his dignity.

Boldly, Li Ling says this to the Shan-ytl, " Although my life

or my death can be determined by you, the King of the

Hsiung-nu ,. I still can make up my mind to stay or to 30 leave."-' The Shan-ytl is moved with admiration and appoints him as Yu-hsiao King . Later, Li Ling is mistaken for Li Hstl, so that the Han Emperor kills the mother and wife of Li Ling. This unbearable tragedy is certainly one 10?

of the worst ends to any surrenderer.

As mentioned earlier, after the Five Tartar Tribes

made incursion into China, people began to mention Li

ling's name and even made stories about him. This kind of

reappraisal may be considered a protest to an unfair

treatment of Li Ling. The author of this pien-wen also

expresses his reappraisal and protest in his work. The most

convincing and powerful words are the remark made by Li

Ling's wife before she is executed. Clearly, the author

intends to make this comment by the mouth of Li Ling's

wife. Li Ling's unfortunate loss in the desert and then

being accused because of wrong information result in his mother and wife becoming the victims. Li Ling's plaintive

song in the Hsiung-nu can be found in some records and

stories; but any voice from Li Ling's wife or mother is hardly heard. Thus the author of this pien-wen makes Li

Ling's wife cry out. The words from- a weak and innocent

lady, especially right before her death, are sincere and authentic and serve as an ideal vehicle for an expression of righteous indignation. This protest, with a sharp heterodox tone, points out that at first the Han Emperor is pleased with Li Ling, so that Li Ling is quite prosperous and honored in the Han court. However, misfortune taiexpectedly falls upon the Li family. As a matter of fact, according to official historical records, the entire Li clan was aU.but wiped out because of Li Ling's surrender,

even though the Li clan was formerly famous and highly

respected . Now, in this pien-wen the powerless lady'speaks

out against the cruel reality of the Han political policy.

Ironically, she first says that her marriage has tied her

with the strong,"unshakable"Li clan, so that she can avoid

unexpected misfortune or attack. However, all of a sudden,

the whole clan falls; not only she, but also Li Ling's

mother, are sentenced to death because of Li Ling's fault.

She sjghs of how the incredible fate has befallen the Li fhmity;

Although she seeks fortune in the noble Li family, she only

gains an ironic answer: she finds misfortune instead of

fortune, and the noble clan turns into a shameful one.

She also proclaims that in all of history this kind of

unjust treatment is.probably the worst one. She is so hurt

that she does not believe as do most Chinese that .Heaven

will eventually give "them j.ustice 5 therefore, she represses her

resentment, and only utters that she would like to meet

her husband in the afterworld . Apparently, though,

after this execution, the author releases the poetic justte 31 with.'Solarm s/mpathy, before that, he has already exposed a

sufferer's hatred as a strong and serious evocation for

the unfair punishment. Therefore, before and after the

terrible execution, the author doubly scolds the Han

court for the Li's family. The Li family gained fame because of "the Flying

General" Li Kuang, Li Ling's grandfather, but the decline

of the family probably also began with Li Kuang. After

Li Kuang commited suicide to escape from being insulted

by harsh minor ministers, the Li clan began to suffer in

the Han court. Li Ling was the i»hird generation, whose

tragic failure disgraced and even destroyed the already

declining clan. "All the retainers of the family in

Lung-hsi were ashamed to be associated with it cthe Li

familyj."^2 This is the historical fact. Nevertheless,

Ssu-ma Ch'ien spoke on behalf of this family, an action

which resulted in his castration. Not until Pan Ku's Han

shu did anyone defend.Li Ling with a stronger voice.

Continually, after Pan Ku, this pien-wen is supposed to

be one of the most vital and complete accounts which offer a

reappraisal of Li Ling and expose the resentment of the Li

clan. Certainly , one should take "Li Ling pien-wen" not simply as an example of the story of a common surrenderee experiencing humiliation because of. his

failure and surrender. In a greater sense, the author

of this pien-wen pictures Li Ling as a tragic hero, one who fears the warning of the strange omens and is haunted by his misfortune, and who eventually cannot avoid a fatal shame that seems to scheme against him in his lifa

In this way., not only the misplaced people particularly identify'their experiences with Li Ling's suffering, but 110 also the common reader -may universally exercise his "pity and

"ifear" cm this irgspc hera Moreover, .in. this pien-wen, Li Ling's

originally despised experience has been reconstructed .

enough to provide an improved image that helps this

surrenderer and his inevitable but still dignified

surrender to become more acceptable and understandable.

Representatively, this pien-wen may thus be considered as

a significant reappraisal of a well-known surrenderer in the

history of Chinese folk literature.

The Initiator of This Reappraisal

In ". Li Ling pien-wen," the heterodox tone and the

reappraisal allow the reader to recall the same unflattering

and critical spirit in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi. " using veiled words to criticize and slander, attacking his own 33 times", which as many critics agreed is stimulated by the Li Ling affair happening in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's life.

Because Ssu-ma Ch'ien admonishes the Han Emperor for Li

Ling, then suffers the humiliation of castration, the

Li Ling affair has produced an inevitable impact to both

Ssu-ma Ch’ien and his great historical record, .Shih..chi.

From a literary viewpoint, this torturous suffering has broadened this man and his great book in depth and scope.

Although " Li Ling pien-wen" does not place stress on an important tragic evidence— the correlated tragedies in ill both Li Ling's and Ssu-ma Ch'ien's lives-- essentially the Li Ling affair functions as the "eyes" of Ssu-ma Ch'ienfe

Shih chi . which portries dragon-like splendor .35 Many discerning, critical and penetrating chapters in Shih chi reflect the influence of the Li Ling affair bn Ssu-ma Ch'ien's life, such as "Kii-li lieh-chuan" , "Po I lieh-chuan"

"Li Chiang-chihlieh-chuan^fip'Jff , " Wu Tzu-hstt

Iieh-chuan"f-t3^1,j1^, and so on. If one examines the passages quoted at the end of Chapter III in/this-thesis' , one can see the indication of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's resentment. Having . suffered from a humiliating.punMmait, Ssu-ma CMsn conveys his resentment in a weighty, critical tone. CorrelativeJy,both in

Shih chi and in " Li Ling pien-wen " , which' is faithfully based on Shih chi and Han shu,one can sense the same critical, unflattering heterodox tone. Consequent^, the Li Ling affair has inspired consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, the writings of both.the Grard Historian and the author of this- ..historical story on Li Ling.

Finally, I would like to quote the Grand Historian's account of Li Ling and the Li Ling affair, which is found in his famous letter to Jen Shao-ch'ing ^ ^ f

In view of the message in the reappraisal of Li Ling in

" Li Ling pien-wen," I consider this acoeant the forerunner or the initiator of the same message through which one may catch the initial essence of the heterodox spirit in ' " Li Ling pien-wen •• : 112

Li Ling and I both held office at the same time. Basically we were never very close. Our likes and dislikes lay in different directions; we never so much as drank a cup of wine together or shared the joys of initimate friendship. But I observed that he was clearly a man of superior ability. He was filial to his parents and trustworthy with his associates, honest in matters of money and just in all his giving and taking. In questions of precedence he would always yield; he was respectful and modest and gave way to others. His constant care was to sacrifice himself for his country, hastening in time of need without thought for his own safety. This was always in his mind, and I believed him to be truly one of the finest men of the nation. A subject who will go forth to face ten thousand deaths, giving not the slightest thought for his own life but hurrying only to the rescue of his lord— such a man is rare indeed! Now he has committed one act that was not right, and the officials who think only to save themselves and protect their own wives and children vie with each other in magnifying his shortcomings. Truly it makes me sick at heart! The infantry that Li Ling commanded did not come up to five thousand. They marched deep into barbarian territory, strode up to the ruler's court and dangled the bait, as it were, right before the tiger's‘jaws. In fearless ranks they shouted a challenge to the powerful .barbarians, gazing up at their numberless hosts. For over ten days they continued in combat with the Shan-ytl. The enemy fell in-disproportionate numbers; those who tried to rescue their dead and wounded could not even save themselves. The barbarian lords in their robes of felt trembled with fear. They summoned their Wise Kings of the Left and Right and called out all the men who could use a bow. The whole nation descended together upon our men and surrounded them They fought their way along for a thousand miles until their arrows were all gone and the road was blocked. The relief forces did not come,, and our dead and injured lay heaped up. But Li Ling with one cry gave courage to his army, so that every man raised himself up and wept. Washed in blood and choked with rears, they stretched out their empty bows and warded off the bare blades of the foe. North again they turned and fought to the death with the enemy. Before Li Ling fell into the hands of the enemy, a messenger came with the report cof his attack*and 133

the lords and ministers of the Han all raised their cups in joyous toast to the Emperor. But after a few days came word of his defeat, and because of it the Emperor could find no flavor in his food and no delight in the deliberations of the court. The great officials were in anxiety and fear and did not know what to do. Observing His Majesty’s, grief and distress, I dared to forget my mean and low position, sincerely desiring to do what I could in my fervent ignorance. I considered that Li Ling had always shared with his officers and men their hardships and want, and could command the loyalty of his troops in the face of death. In this he was unsurpassed even by the famous generals of old. And although he had fallen into captivity, I perceived that his intention was to try to seek some future opportunity to repay his debt to the Han. Though in the end he found himself in an impossible situation, yet the merit he had achieved in defeating and destroying so many of the enemy was still worthy to be claimed throughout the world. This is what I had in my mind to say, but I could find no opportunity to express it. Then it happened that I was summoned into council, and I took the chance to speak of Li Ling's merits in this way, hoping to broden His Majesty's view and put a step to the angry words of the other officials. But I could not make myself fully understood. Our enlightened Ruler did not wholly perceive my meaning, but supposed that I was trying to disparage the Erh-shih General and plead a special case for Li Ling. So I was put into prison, and I was never able to make clear my fervent loyalty. Because it was believed that I had tried to deceive the Bnperor I was finally forced to submit to the judgment of the law officials. My family was poor and lacked sufficient fund to buy commutation of the sentence. Of my friend and associates, not one would save me; among those near the Emperor no one said so much as a word for me. My body is not made of wood or stone, yet alone I had to face the officials of the law. Hidden in the depths of prison, to whom could I plead my case? This, Shao-ch'ing, is something you must truly have seen for yourself. Was this not the way I always acted? Li Ling had already surrendered alive and destroyed the fine reputation of his family. And then I was thrown into the "silkworm chamber"cwhere castrations were performedj. Together we became a sight for all the world to laugh at in scorn. Alas, alas! Matters such as these it is J^ot easy to explain in detail to ordinary peopled6 This is such a moving work, through which the reader not only is informed about the Li Ling affair, but can also see the great character of the Grand Historian. I believe that the selfless love and righteousness of the Grand

Historian has made the Li Ling affair longlasting. In this letter, he shares his vholeheartedpersonality with us so well that we cannot but have empathy toward the whole issue.

It is most likely that the author of " Li Ling pien-wen" is one of the convinced readers of it; thus:he attempts to explain the Li Ling af fair with .his vivid illustration in his pien-wen. In Ssu-ma Ch'ien's letter, all his intentions-including his proclaimation of the noble manners and mind of Li Ling, his protest of Li Ling's inevitable failure, his condemnation of the courtiers' selfish attack on Li .Ling, and Li Ling's merits in his lost fight— have been lively demonstrated, in the pien-wen. Compara-tively, if we. say that Ssj-ma Ch'ienfe wiitirig style is as brilliant as a dragon, we may also s^r-thatthis pierHftgi presenis a view asdiarp as an eagle's. As an oral art, this pien-wen is able to rephrase the thoughts and messages in the letter by active dialogue and ominipo.tent display.

Thus the Li Ling affair becomes a panoramic picture before our eyes.

Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the Grand Historian, is not alone; in later times, at least there is such a follower, who transforne his great voice in his fine letter into a sustained piece of dramatic action, a story of reappraisal and protest. H 5

NOTES

See HS, p. 2730* Burton '.Vatson translated this M letter. See Watson, Ssu-ma Ch’ien's Letter in Reply to Jen

Shao-ch'ing,"in his Ssu-maCh'ien: Grand Historian of China

(New York: Columbia University Press, 1 9 6 3 ). p. 62.

See SC,, pp. 2876-7 8; Watson, Records of the Historian

(cited Ch. Ill, no. 4-1), pp. 271-73* Scholars believe that

"This section in c Shih chii is most likely not by Ssu-ma

Chfien,. but a later addition • It differs from the account

of Li Ling's life in Han shu 54- c pp. 2450-59 ^ and deals with events that are later than those described elswhere in the Shih chi. It may be recalled that Ssu-ma Ch'ien was condemned to castration for speaking out in defence of Li

Ling... ."See Watson, Records of the Historian, p. 273;

Cf- Liang Ytt-sheng , Shih chi chih-i Peking:

Chung-hua shu-chtt, I9 8 I), p. 1380.

In SC 110, there is also a short passage about

Li Ling. Cf. SC, p. 29 I8; Watson, p. 191.

3 SeeHS, pp. 2450-59, 2464-66.

In HS. 94, there is another short passage about Li Lang.

Cf. HS, p. 3777* Also, a similar one is recorded inJIS 6 .

Cf. HS, p. 203; Pan Ku, The History of the Former Han

Dynasty, trans. Homer H. Dubs ( n.p.: The American

Council of Learned Societies, 1 9 3 8), 2-*105. 116. 4 See THPW. pp. 85-86. All translated passages of

"Li Ling pien-wen," quoted in this thesis, are translation mine.

^ This is an honored title for Li Kuang ^fy( , Li Lira’s

grandfather. Here I borrow this name for Li Ling because

they have a similar spirit. Even Emperor V/u thinks that

Li Ling takes after Li Kuang. Se.e _HS, pp. 2450-51.

6 See THPW, p. 86.

^ See SC, p. 334 ; Watson, p. 101.

8 See THPW. p. 8 8.

^ I bid., p.. 90.

10 Ibid., p. 94.

11 S6.e p. 46, no.. 2 5.

12 See. THPW■ p. 94.

13 See HS, PP. 2452-53. ^ Ibid., p. 2469.

15 See TJiBi', p. 8 6.

^ Ibid., pp. 86-8 7.

' ^ Ibid., p. 88. As for all the caricature of the

Shan-ytl, see pp. 84-88.

18 See HS, p. 2454.

^ See Hsieh , pp. 26-27. Hsieh thinks that among

all. the pien-wen of historical stories, "Li Ling pien-wen"

is one that is the most faithful to the historical records. 20 Both in_SC and m HS, it is recorded that Li Ling

is entitled as "the Cavalry Commandant," or "the Chief 137

Commandant of Cavalry* See .SC, p. 2918; Watson, p. 1 9 .

Cf. _HS, p. 203; Dubs, 2.105.

21 See THPW. pp. 8 6, 9 3 . 22 Referring to these two different treatments, Hsieh

Hai-p'ing has made this remark. See Hsieh, pp. 58-59*

23 See THPW. p. 8 9 . oLl See no. 12.

2^ See Cheng Chen-to, Ch'a-t'u-pen Chtmg-kuo wen-hatteh shihaj&ffiffiffitffife Peking; Wen-hsueh ku-chi chU-pan she, 1959), 1.104.

26 See THPW. pp. 848-50.

2^ See Hsiao T' ung Chao-ming wen-hsttan ag gfl *4^,

Li Shan chul^* Hai-lu-hsttan ts'ang-oan 4l.lb-5a.

28 See HS, p. 2466.

29 See THPW, p. 8 9 .

30 Ibid., p. 9 3 .

3^ See p. 46, no. 25.

32 See .SC, p. 2 8 7 8; Watson, p. 273.

33 See Introduction to Pan Kufe "Tien-yin," in Hsiao.

T'ung, ‘48.4a. • oh, J See Watson, Records of the Grand Historian of China

(New York .- Columbus University Press, I96 I), 2 .5.

33 See Li Ch'ang-chih , Ssu-ma Ch'ien te ,jen-ko ytt feng-ko Cl-l^i^')/

P. 143. 3^ See HS, pp. 2729-32; Watson, Ssu-ma Ch’ien , pp. 60-62. CHAPTER V

"WANG CHAO-CHtlN PIEN-WEN"

Amid the many mountains and countless gullies that spread toward Chiang-ling, Still stnds the village where the Bright Concubine was bom. Once she left the purple palace, only an expanse of desert stretched before her, Where now a grass-covered grave, forever green, remains to face the yellow dusk.

In mary paintings, I have seen her face bright with the colors of spring? I can visualize the ghost with tinkling pendants returning in the moonlight to her early home. For centuries, alien tunes have been played on the loquat-shaped guitar; The wrongs she suffered are clear in every line of the songs. ------Tu Fu , "Thoughts on Historical Sites" (I £ 0 L ( - ) 1 1 8 119 Wang Chao-chlln (variously known as Wang Ch'iang 5 /I® , 2 Chao-chtin, Ming-chtln 9f!/§ or Mirg-ftei ) has been a favorite

subject of writers, poets and singers. Artists fbr centuries

have generally painted her "as an exquisitely beautiful

woman riding a Mongolian horse and carrying a loquat-diaped

guitar. Some sad melodies and songs chave beenj ascribed to 3 her." There have been numerous stories on Chao-chttn.

•In . short , all these stories depict Chao-chUn, a

court lady of the Han Dynasty, going to the Hsiung-nu as

a "peace offering" between the Han and the Hsiung-nu. This

lady is at first kept by Emperor YUan of the Han Dynasty^

in his palace as a. lady-in-waiting , and then goes

•to the barbarian's country alone. Of course, in view of

Chao-chtln's experience of alienation, her unusual adventure

is expected to be dramatic. However, because this lady hides

her sorrow when leaving the Han court and her homeland .and is

subjected to her fate, her journey becomes not only dramatic

but also tragic.

I am interested in exploring what the tragic essence is

in the story of Chao-chtin, and whether she is a real

"peace-maker." According to historical records, she

forces ..herself to leave the; Han for the Hsiung-nu. in .order

to make peace. In other words, she tries to present herself for a peace alliance, yet in contrast, she is out

of harmony within herself. As a result,, her sacrifice .beccmes ironic. Furthermore, if one says that she has a self-conflict 120

before she goes to the Hsiung-nu, one should not neglect, the fact that she has a cultural conflict after taking ter trip

to the Hsiung-nu. I wish to explore the implication of this cultural conflict as well. Finally, my concern

focuses on the meaning of all the difference between historical

accounts about Chao-chtin and historical fiction on Chao-chtin.

Jfere I have chosen; "Wang Chao-chUn pien-wen" among various works an

Chao-chtin as one of my topic§.Based on this story I examine all

the points above in order to clarify and evaluate the image of this lady presented in this work. I. am ' particularly interest ed in

its unique literary achievement and its special treatment

of this heroine. .

The Early Records of The S.tory of Chao-chtin

First, let us trace back some earlier records of Chao-dHn.

The Wang Chao-chtin theme derives from an account in Hou Han. & • ** £ shu . It is recorded that she is from Kan-chUn^jgp

(Chiang-lingsip£). As seventeen years old, she is selected to enter the lateral Courts. She has never met the Emperor II Yttan during her waiting time. The reason why Chao-chUn does not get a chance to see the Emperor is not given in historical records, but there are two popular legends on this interesting question. Ch.* in ts* ao. says that the

Chao-chtin's lateral room, where the Emperor seldom comes, is in solitude. Also, because she hates the Emperor who 1Z1 does not care for her, she tries to avoid his

presence.-* Ko Hung's Hsi-ching tsa-chi &

initially depicts the famous episode of the court lady's

portrait . It is said that there are too many court ladies

to besunmcned one by one by the Emperor? thus the Emperor

orders the painter to draw the picture of every court

lady, then summons the fortunate beauties according to the

portraits. Chao-chUn refuses to bribe the court painter so

that she can not please him as do many court ladies . Then

her portrait is maliciously blemished, with a result that

it can not attract the Emperor's attention.^ Although these

two accounts are different, both of them reflect the fhct that

Chao-chUn is a proud and solitary lady.

We are not sure of the reason why Chao-chUn has .failed

to find favor with her Emperor. Nevertheless, based on history recorded in Han shu. it is certain that in the first, year, of Ching-^ning ^,^(33 B. G. in the first month, the Hsiung-nu- Shan-yU Hu-han-yeh came to pay

court. The imperial edict states,

V .. cwhereasj Shan-yU cHu-han-yehj has not forgotten our favors and benefits. He has turned toward and striven to follow the rules of proper conduct .. .He wishes to . stay aw.ay from cborderi barriers and to continue cthis practises endlessly, so that the borders and frontiers will eternally be without any warlike affairs. The reign-title will be changed to be Ching-ning and clefa the cLadyj Awaiting an Imperial Edict in the Lateral Courts Wang Ch'iang i * Be granted to the Shan-yU to be his Yen-chih."' 122

. Chao-chtin is granted to the Shan-ytl. The Han Emperor even

changes the rejgr^tltle to Ching-ning meaning peace. No. doubt, this

marriage is an important issue to both the Han and the

Hsiung-nu. It is also certain that at that time, Chao-chUn

is entitled an "Awaiting," while waiting for the acceptance

of the Han Emperor in the Lateral Courts. This indicates

T that she is not one of the Emperor's favorite consorts but

only a court lady . In "Hsiung-nu chuan.,,iSfe*l^ Han shu,

there is another short account about this historical event

as well?

However, in Hou Han shu. there is a more detailed

account. It records that after Chao-chUn has been granted

to the Shan-yU, she bids farewell to the Emperor, She has

made up on purpose and at that time she turns and admires

her own beauty in front of the Emperor. Suddenly, the

Emperor, surprised at her excellent beauty, almost wants o to change his mdndso as tc let Chao-chUn stay in the court.

From this record, we see that the Emperor has not met

Chao-chUn until this moment; otherwise, he is not supposed

to be infatuated by Chao-chUn in that way. Since

the Emperor must keep his promise, Chao-chUn goes to the

Hsiung-nu. The- extant "Wang Chao-chUn pien-wen" is

incomplete. . It just starts from this dramatic

point, when Chao-chtin is taking-'her journey to the Hsiung-nu

Then it focuses on how Chao-chtin dies lonely in the barbarian

country.. Finally her tomb is left, "solitary against the dusk? 123 Based on historical records, after the death of Chao-chtin's barbarian husband, she marries his son according to the

Hsiung-nu custom. However, this pien-v/en primitively presents a tragic turning point for this story— the death of Chao-chun ends the story wordlessly. Later Ma Chih-ytlan's

JL Han-kung ch'iu and.many other literary works about Chao-chtin follow this tragic end.

In Chinese history, Chao-chtin is not the only one neglected in the lateral room. In this respect, she is not different from many unfortunate court ladies; nevertheless, what makes the difference is that she rebels against her destiny.

Tragically, the more she rebels, the more she suffers.

Y e t , there are two kinds of illustrations referring to the crucial decision of Chao-chtin: either she asks to go to the Hsiung-nu, or she is summoned to go (see later discussion), I would like to follow the record in Hou Han shu. According to Hou Han shu. Chao-chtin can not stand her endless waiting any longer because she has been neglected for quite a few years. She wants to fight against this fate* Therefore, as she hears the news that the

Shan-ytl will come to the Han court for a marriage of peaoq she presents herself to be "the object cf this marriage, askingto take a journey to a place unknown to her. Not only is the place unknown, her perilous future is also unknown to her while she makes such a choice. It seems that her capricious character leads her to fight with her fate,and pushes her 12^

to step out from the lateral, court in which she has stayed

as long as five or six years. Ironically, she still can not escape from the unpredictable fate even though she

chooses to rebel against it — this is the most tragic point

in Chao-chtin's life.

After Chao-chtin has lived in the Han court for five or six years, she is more than twenty years old. According to the rule of the Han court, if an emperor dies, all of these emperor's court ladies who are over thirty must be sent to tend the tomb of their dead emperor; only the court ladies younger than thirty can be excused to leave the court and become free to get married..Since Chao-chtin intends to break off the dull and critical waiting time, she would rather go to the Hsiung-nu. However, after she has been in the Hsiung-nu for only five months, she hears a news of the death of Emperor YUan. At that time she is twenty-two or twenty-three. Consequently, on one hand she 10 misses a chance to leave the Han court freely and on the other hand, she is already in the Hsiung-nu where she has chosen to stay. Because it is her choice, she must face whatever she will face. It is sad that the later account of Chao-chtin about her .days in the ’Hsiung-nu., indicates this heroine just chaging to another court from the Han court, and the new court or new environment starts to imprison her in a more miserable situation. Therefore, Chao-chtin not only misses a chance to go out of the "prison” of the Han court at first, she also is bound in a even worse

"prison." She is captured by the net of her tragic.fate without hope of overcoming it. Following the discussion

of the tragic story of Li Ling, we are viewing another

tragic hero, Chao-chtin, and her tragedy. 126

The Presentation of the Heroine: A Literary Comment on "Wang Chao-chttn Pien-wen"

Although this pien-wen is not complete, the extant

paragraphs still carry many significant messages for the

reader. We are especially fortunate to read a fragmentary

song and a long episodes regarding Chao-chtin on her way ■

to the Hsiung-nu territory in the begirning of this extant

piece. We can only guess what the former description is

before she takes this trip; however, we are sure that

she is in a sad mood on her journey to the barbarian

country. I wish primarily focusing on its presentation

of the heroine to make a literary comment on this pien-wen.

An Ironic Tone

Chao-chtin sings in the beginning of this extant pawgi:

I know that I can never expect to see the Emperor of the Han. No sunlight or moonlight can brighten my,gloony heart and this tragic-laden experience.

From these lines , it is obvious that Chao-chtin suffers

from her life experience and misses the Han. The fallowing

lines of this song illustrate that "She has a sorrowful heart as though tied in a thousand knots." Nevertheless, at this moment, the atmosphere around her is opposed to her inner state of mind. This marks an important ironic tone in the 127 story. Quite the reverse, the trip to the barbarian

country is a joyous celebration. It is like a parade of

a marriage . There all the troops of the Hsiung-nu are

welcoming their new queen. Consequently, there is a

contrast between the happy melody of this parade and the

sad mood of Chao-chtin.

If one likes it, it can be taken as a feather in one's cap; If one dislikes it, it can be taken as a boil.

If one likes it, one wants it to live;12 If one hates it, one wishas it to die.-

All these lines, in the beginning of this pien-wen,

release Chao-chtin's strange melody which is not in tune

with the parade of the happy marching troops. The above

lines indicate that this is a heart which hates whatever

the people around it like, and loves something that the

people around it do not know. Here is her soliloquy:

The northern men do not know that there are fifty thousand boats on the southern oceans; The southern men do not know that there are thousands of snowy days in the north.13

She forsees. her solitude. On the trip, all the

gorgeous music ironically stimulates her unspoken

lamentable state and plaintive heart.

There is a similar irony maintained in this passage that the more we view the grand scene, or consider the abundant property of livestock and fields, the more we 128

feel the loneliness of Chao-chttn. Obviously, she is not

able to identify with anything in all the wilderness, and she

does not have any sense of belonging in the vast desert

either. Moreover, woolen clothes make her miss silk and

linen, and hunting brings to her the fond memory of

cultivating and farming. It seems that everything makes her

feel irritable and homesick. "Months and years will pass

by quickly and continually," she laments, "how can I stay In­ here and stand the cruelty of time?" With a sad and

doubtful sound, she views darkly the future in her heart.

Nonetheless, the Shan-yti likes to please her; as he

sees her unhappyhe. attempts to do some special things for

her. But this attitude causes the ironic contrast to occur

again, making that tone even stronger. The more she observes

dancing people and animals around her, the more she shuts

her heart to keep silent during these clamorous circumstances 15 • ' to-fefS- At that time, she has been promoted as Yen-chih Queen

of the Shan-yU, but she still dresses herself in the clothes

of the Han. She is fed with rich foods, but she keeps missing the spring wine of her old times in the Han: "The peach is not always better than the spring wine. / How can a tent of pelt compare with a painted pavilion?"1^ Her body

is in the Hsiung-nu, but her mind is not there. So all 1he vfelcane becomes burdensome to her. She is suffering from a kind of inescapable care and love that she is not willing to accept. This creates .an.incompatible suffering. Here is one such 22Q honest expression from her heart:

The music of a foreign country can not release my sorrow; The love of a foreign king can not please me either.

As the Shan-yU . realizes that she is still sad, he makes an effort to do something unusual for her— He summons an impromtu hunting party at an unexpected time, arranging

Chao-chUn to he the center of the retinue hunting troop that ranges through ten thousand jLi. Superficially, Chao-chUn is the center of the activities; yet actually she is the only apathetic character, an outsider. Once more, she maintains a mood contrary to whatever her circumstances are. ApparaiEty; happiness only reflects her sadness; noise only deepens her homesickness. She can not escape from this ironic pressure which is like an invisible "prison" Futhermore, as soon as Chao-chttn mounts a high hill and sees the white clouds beyond, she feels unbearable homesickness and murmurs toward, heaven for her loss:

Even the Shan-ytt likes to please me, It is far less than the pity the Han Emperor has taken on me.

But the white clouds., xjver there is the place which I sadly miss.

Here Chao-chttn confesses her deep longing for the Han court by preferring even the pity of the Emperor to the

Shan-ytt's ever-present affection. It seems that now her ironic life compels her to idealize the old dull period in

her lateral room and also forces her to dream of an illusion

of the Emperor's pity. Then she cries continually and

reveals all her hidden thoughts*

Where is my affectionate mother? The Han Emperor does not come here to take me back. When I planned to get married with the Shan-yU, I did not wish to have happiness in the rest of my life. ... So I can only watch the vast desert hopelessly and must depart from my country forever. 19

Thus, she quickly becomes disillusioned, feeling a kind of

sudden, desperate awakening.

The Allusions and Her ffenifestation

Unexpectedly, however, right at this point of-desperation,

two strong allusions appear in Chao-chUn's mind:

The good wives of Emperor Shun wept so much thatthor tears changed the color of the bamboos. Tie saintly and sacred wife of Ch'i Liang cried^so hard that her wiling crumbled the Great Wall.

Here these allusions reflect the complicated mind of

Chao-chttn, which evoke her love, her struggle, her thoughts

on death as well as her inner conflict with an alien culture. After Chao-chttn bears regret aid sarrw,and even.suffers from

disillusionment, the occurrence of these two allusions in her mind implies that she begins to hope for something beyond her expectations. Interestingly enough, one .can try to identify her thoughts at this momait. As Chao-chttn climbs

the mountain and looks afar, she is understandably filled

with thoughts of home and the Han court. However, she also

knows that her original places are not close to her any more, and she is not expected to go back (like the old saying, "The southern horse will never go over to the north.'^.^'HllL^) As scon as .she puts her emotion vnder con trol, and becomes tranquil .enough to remind herself that she mustbe

apart from the Han forever, her thoughts toward the Han seem to become empty without any expectation for the future. It is possible that a sense of loss which forces

Chao-chttn to bid farewell to her homeland also produces deeper despair when she must face the journey down themountain, There .is no way for her to return (She is si$>posed to regret that onfy- if she could have waited five months more, the situation would have been different!), nor is there happiness in the land where she is staying. She observes the country from a high hill, a height which seems the most appropriate site for her because neither the lateral room beyond the hill nor the tent palace of the Hsiung-nu down the hill is home for her. She is not only displaced but also confused as IhCttgh.she almost lost her source of identity. .In this high place, she is more aware of- .her situation; she can not go beyond, and is not willing to go down either. Her heart is troubling her. Even as. die has definitely bidden farewell to the

"other side of the hill"(Over there, there are the Han court 132 and her home, her old world), so she has similarly.

dismissed her present world. The idea of "death" may be

clearer and stronger to her. Death is always hard to

confront; however, if it is necessary for anyone in .

desperation, death seems to compel one to face its cruelty

At this time, Chao-chttn is in a very isolated state in which she must face separation and death alone. She isolates herself because she 'bonceals hatred as high as a nountain 21 and also conceals sorrow as deep as the ocean." She almost inclines to unburden herself completely from her hatred and sorrow.

She can sense that death is her final solution; yet before she encounters her last moment, in the very midst of her despair and sense of desperate awakening, she suddenly reaches a state which evokes transcendent allusions. In one moment, she is bound by all the unconquerable on earth ; in another moment, her heart transcends to a mythical release— she is stimulated to think about the good wi. e of anperor

Shun and -the saintLyand sacred wife of Ch'i Liang, and their miracles. When Chao-chttn is trapped by her fate and the choice she has made, she confronts great difficulties in.her life, and must suffer from all the ironic treatments. It is not possible for her to resolve the problems; yet she perseveres; and is not willing to make any change or compromise. She rraintains her stubborn preference. She belongs to the Han only, and no place else can give her a sense of belonging. Now, 133 since she has closed all doors to the realistic .world, with

her insistence she can only go up to heaven. Right there,

she touches the core of the two ladies whose stubborn and

uncompromising burdens cause miracles to happen to them.

We know what miracle Chao-chtin is expecting when she allows

her troubled . heart to release itself through this mythical association. She might wish that she would

turn to a stone facing the south so that she could watch over the Han court forever. Nonetheless, we are sure that she has opened herself to tha highest heaven to embrace 22 the absurd and transcendent state of the mythical plot.

Thus, she associates herself with the two ladies and also indulges herself in their- exceptional experiences in order to win some relief from her painful world.

Both the wives of Emperor Shun and the wife of Ch'i

Liang have cried intensely over their husbands’ death,-their

tears have eventually caused miracles to happen: the change of the color of the bamboos and the crumbling of the Great

Wall. Because their love for the dead is so strong .that heaven shows sympathy for them. It.seems that their pleas are firm enough to call out an absurd indication for transcendart and overwhelming resolutions; otherwise, their tears would not cease. Although Chao-chtin is in a different situation, she is still able to identify herself with these ladies' great lamentation. She has hidden in her mind the same degree of loss as that.cf these ladies'. Of course, she does not lose her husband literally, but she has lost her chance

to be one of the consorts of. the Emperor; yet , most

importantly, she has lost the status to go back to her own

country. These. ladies at least are able to cry; Chao-chtin

attempts to cry with them , but her tears are dry as she

weeps. 7/hen she merely thinks about these allusions, it

seems that she would like to imagine the ladies* tears and

their crying power in order to relieve her own terrible

sense of loss. Most bke}y, she not cn]y in taxis to cry by herself, but also

wishes the ladies to cry for her?^ Since Emperor Ytlan has died.it

is reasonable to assume 1hat Chao-chtin is greatly missirg Han

China and the culture of the Han more than during her old days in the Han Palace. Moreover, in view of her insistence on wearing her old dress of the Han race, one sees that she does not give up her former civilization at all.

Through the strong image of the ladies, she seems also to express that her affection toward her old belongings and identification, on which she has placed her faith and lova is a. significant issue, a basic matter of life. For her, possibly, this stubborn burden and affection will be expected to result in some miraculous testimonies.as well.

She bears both deep sorrow and hatred, and she expects a miracle to happen. She would not like to belong to this cruel,uribrearahle world any more, in which all is ironic for her. The occurrence of the allusions can also be taken as

Chao-chtin* s inner revolution against her ironic suffering in !3 5 ■the Hsiung-nu. Consequently, after she steps down the hill,

she gradually becomes ill and grows thinner, and knows that

she will not live long. When the Shan-yU comforts her, her complaints are exposed: she can not find sufficient medicine or medical books and doctors in the Hsiung-nu. Also, she compares herself to a lonely bird without a mate, and a sharp sword missing a mate as well. Needless to say, she feels that she has been displaced and there

is a great emptiness in her life that can never be fulfilled.

The Last Irony

In comparison with Chao-chUn's will, the Shan-yU's answer expresses his innocent . and insistent love as well as a helpless realization that he cap do nothing for her.

He sighs that all food and fruits abound over tables and are filled up in. cartainers, but Chao-chtin does not appreciate them at all. As he understands that she will leave this world soon, he depicts this loss as a phoenix which loses its voice, and also Dragon City which can not provide music any more. He confesses that as soon as she dies, he himself is willing to die with her ■; his 25 heart surely will be gone with her. Nevertheless, that ironic tone comes back again* The Shan-ytt's naivetfe can do nothing but increase Chao-chtin's helplessness and 1 3 6

depression. However, she can not speak out in order to

release her anger and rage to this, helpless king who cares

for her very much, and does not merit her complaints.

Then the Shan-yU prayerfully sacrifices to the Mountains

and Rivers and pleads to the Sun and Moon. He does

everything he can do and is aware that "Even we are deprived

of the spring season on earth , Chao-chUn still can not 26 live any longer." The Shan-yU really discovers that

Chao-chUn is bearing a fatal sorrow in her life, from

which she can never be redeemed. We may say that fiomthe. tine when

Chao-chUn steps out of the Han, she has been deprived of

the spring season in.herlife. Even though the Shan-yU wants to

exchange his life and fortune with her; all his effort is

still in vain.

Chao-chUnsoon dies 3he Shan-yU himself tears his hair

and watches her during her last moments before she passes

away. He takes off his court clothes as a prince and puts

on the simple clothes of the common people. He and his

entire country participate in Chao-chttn's funeral.

Hundreds of thousands of people and animals circle around

Chao-chUn once more. At last, ironically, even when

Chao-chttn dies, she still can not avoid the noises that

always made her more lonely. The Shna-ytt holds the funeral

formally and extravagantly in accordance with the customs of the

Hsiung-nu, instead of the manners of the Han. Sadly,

Chao-chtin is born in the Han as a subject of the Han, but 137 dies in the Hsiung-nu as a ghost of the Hsiung-nu against

her insistence of being a Han lady in her Han dress. This

is the last weighted irony of Chao-chtin in this pien-wen. Also,

the'reader should not neglect the feet that this pien-wen sees the 27 Shan-ytt sympathetically. This likeable portrait of the

Shan-ytt only adds color to Chao-chttn’s undescribable

ironic sorrow.

At the end of the story, the author says,

It is regretful that a fec}y of the Wei-yang Palace got married in the Hsiung-nu, gnd died with a broken heart in the Hsiung-nu. ^

In this pien-wen, Chao-chttn offers herself as a sacrifice and retains.in death all her dissatisfactions. This pien-wen

expresses her concealed grievance so well that .by- reading about the struggle of her life, the reader seems to be able to hear’ her murmur all the way along until she dies unhappily.

She Is All Alone

Eventually, the fferi Bnpe.ror sends an ambassador to eulogize Chao-chttn by chanting to her:

tl She has effected the accomplishment of being the peace-maker between the Han and the Hsiung-nu. Her precaoiB bones were buried ten thousand li away.

Leaving a grave alone which is as high as the heaven, 138

She has made it like a green mountain in loneliness for ten thousand y e a r s . "^9

This eulogy of Chao-chUn suggests that she is

alone both according to distance and to time. The figure

"ten thousand" appears twice — "ten thousand li"

and "ten thousand years"— which has put Chao-chUn into

an isolated state in which she is all alone.

One stOl .fee2s, however, that most of the words in the eulogy

are only empty words for Chao-chUn, Probably, in the

statement there is only one quality left for which Cha>ch£irts

loneliness is remembered. This marks the most important

feature of the lady.

When Chao-chUn is alive, she has been exiled to the

Hsiung-nu, far away from the Han, and up to her death,

she has borne an everlasting solitude. She is remote

from us because both her journey and her loneliness keep

us at a distance. She is always by herself. Even though

she has tried to struggle with her fate, she has merely

earned mockery for her lonely life. This is the tragic message in the story. I will discuss more about this later. Besides, by examining the creation of Chao-chUn in this ."Wang Chao-chUn pien-wen" I will also focus

on the adventure of this lady and its symbolic meaning. 139 Erom Personal Tragedy to Cultural Intercourse: Chao-chUn's Adventure and Its Symbolic Meaning

As mentioned before,"Vfeng Chao-chUn pien-wen" is not

complete. The first part is lost , and the very corrupted

piece exists only in one MS, cansistir®of tvo chapters, of which the

first only approximately the last third survives. Since

this extant portion starts only from the narration that

Chao-chUn is on her way to the Hsiung-nu, it is impossible

to figure out which one among the bountiful legends on

Chao-chUn can be the original of the first part of the fragmentary piece. But by discovering the extant .Portion 30 which mentions a few words about the portrait of Chao-chUn, we can deduce that it is at least influenced by Hsi-ching tsa-chi. I have pointed.out that the author of Hsi-ching tsa-chi adds a new role and a colorful plot to the story.

The painter, Mao Yen-shou ^ , is first invented in the story recorded in this book. Thedeliberately caricatured portrait of Chao-chUn and the stories related to this portrait all contribute to the plot. Then these creations become the oommon form of the story of Chao-chUn. The subject is also one of the most popular in the whole repertoire of

Chinese legendary stories, providing the theme of countless poems, plays and paritdngs, and nearly all of them follow this form. 1 4 0

Asking to Go or Being Asked to Go

The character of Chao-chUn shown in the record of Hou

Han shu is comparatively more tragic than the one found

in Hsi-ching tsa-chi. The authors in later times, who

follow the weaker device, simply increase the reader's

feeling of Chao-chUn's solitude after her death. Based on

the extant piece of the pien-wen, the author is undoubtedly

an adherer to this device. However, the picture of the

heroine's spirit shown in the extant piece is so vivid

that the complicated features of her delicate, but

perverse characterization is also included. Therefore,

although the pien-wen follows the popular form after

Hsi-ching tsa-chi. it still retains its own special style

to capture the desolate pride of Chao-chttn. Furthermore,

I promote the possibility that this pien-wen sdopts both the

essence of Hsi-ching tsa-chi and Hou Han shu. After this 31 pien-wen, in Ytieh-fu shih-chi . we see a story

about Chao-chUn that combines the two kinds of arrangements.

It is recorded that after being insulted by the dishonest

picture (such as the first part of the design in Hsi-ching

tsa-chi). Chao-chttn asks to leave the Han court for the

Hsiung-nu (as with the tragic arrangement in Hou Han shu\

In view of this, if the author of this pien-wen intends

putting the strength of the two arrangements together,he may still emphasize that Chao-chUn asks to go to the Hsiung-nu 1 41 after she feels insulted ty the .dishonest portrait, rather than

adhering to the simple design based on Hsi-ching tsa-chi,

which says Chao-chUn's beauty is distorted by the unfaithful

picture so that the Han court summons her to go to the

barbarians.

A S elf-banished Lady

In this pien-wen, no matter whether Chao-chttn is

required to go , or she herself asks to go, that

Chao-chUn is doomed to take her anguished adventure to

the Hsiung-nu marks a rare tragic fabric which becomes a

part of her unusual adversity. The story narrates Chao-chunfe

strange and lonely feeling on her way to the Hsiung-nu;

meanwhile her regret is being ccnveyodty some songs. Being

an exile of the Han, Chao-chttn reveals her mind: "When I

p lanned to get married to the Shan-yU, I did. not wish to 32 have happiness in the rest of my life. " Besides a depressed feeling, these words also state her impulsive mood toward her journey, so that she seems to stake all on a single

throw. Consequently, the reader finds that the author of the story tries to catch the extreme character of the court lady. The author seems not only to take her as an exile, butaJsois a self-banished lady, the same way in which she appears in Hou Han shu. 1^2 In view of -her self-banishment, Chao-chiln acts

as a tragic hero in this pien-wen. Like heroes in old

tragedies, who want to escape their unfortunate fate,

she is- never able to escape from it. On the contrary, the

more she Izieis to escape, the more she gets involved in it.

No matter how Chao-chtln leaves the Han court, she leaves with

an unpeaceful .. mind. Her pessimistic and desperate remark

(quoted above) indicates' her extremely radical feeling. Before

this moment, her capricious nature is presented closely

in the following poem by a later poet, "How can I have a

mood to stay until death in my lonely Han court room? I

would rather go far to the Hsiung-nu to have a peace-making 33 marriage." Chao-chtln seems to care for nothing, and steps out

of the Han court with her blind desperation. Although she

leaves her melancholy room, she is still the victim of

the inescapable fate. She feels that she is an outsider in the Han court; however, as she goes to the barbarians, she becomes a stranger, who always has an ironic feeling that is contrary to the people around her. When she is in the Han, she suffers in seclusion; nevertheless, in the Hsiung-nu; she suffers from being surrounded . In the Han. she wishes to be noticed; ironically, in the Hsiung-nu, she is noticed, but she would rather be alone. Having gone a wrong'way, after she leaves the Han courl; she actually steps in death very soon. She gets rid of the suffering of being neglected in the Han court; but then she is captivated by unbearable irony and innocence. Eventually, she herself

accepts the mockery of her fate; one element which'as always big. enough to belittle man. No matter whether in the ancient drama,

Oedipus Rex,in which the hero falls into the snare of

fate, or in Thomas .Hardy's novel, Tess. of the D'Urbervil les

in which the heroine is also defeated by fate, the same

tragedy is experienced. Indeed Chao-chun may be associated

with an ancient Tess who is put in an impressed, beautiful

but deadly situation first, then she runs away from her old

mansion to a new palace. Nevertheless, she only finds the

mockery and cruelty of- fate in the rest of her turbulent

life. Consequently, one also may rephrase the last statement

that closes Tess, to close this pien-wen: "The President of

the Immortals.. .has ended his sport with Chao-chtln."-' Fate has played a trick on this lady.

An Hnbodiment of the Han Culture

I agree with Ch'en Li-li's remark that, in many passages of "Vfeng Chao-chtln pien-wen," all scenes are on a grand scale, far beyond the personal portrait of the heroine As a story 35 with a scope greater than that of an ordinary love story, this pien-wen inters if ie.s both Shan-ytl's affection for

Chao-chtln and Chao-chtln's grief witHin herself. I think that

Chao-chtln is not sinpiy a beautiful peace-maker , because she always clings to the Han culture, she also can 144

be taken as a reminder, or even an embodiment, of the Han

culture in the desert. From the following scenes, one of

which recounts her burial, one may see more of these

qualities:

In order to lessen her melancholy the Shan-ytt organizes a hunt involving an area of ten thousand li and one thousand hunters more than oncer5 When Chao-chttn dies, the fine fur and bright silver separately cover up the ground over one hundred _li and five hundred l i . . . Also, the entire country pours out numerous troops of cattle, goats(One hundred thousand goats are killed), and chests of gems and pearls are buried with hes... Even emissaries from the Chinese court arrive to convey the Han Emperor's condolences?'

Accordingly, I think that in Chao-chttn's consistent desolation, all of her adventure can be considered as ritualistic. In this pien-wen, she dies of homesickness at the Hsiung-nu encampment. Then Chao-chttn's grief and death not only are. expressive of her own final end, but . also represent, the sacrifices inherent in the intercourse between two cultures.

The "Wang Chao-chttn pien-werf reflects Chao-chttn's innar struggle of loss, self-banishment and displacement, and also presents the story on a grand scale to indicate something greater than a personal portrait. On the one hand, the descriptions are given such precise and subtle treatment that the reader is able to enter into all the worlds in the story in minute detail. On the other hand, in a greater sense, this pien-wen manifests the Chao-chttn story as a culturally tragic account. As a result, I assert that this work accomplishes a delicate and fine art that is far above any presentation of its previous works on

Chao-chttn. So it is not surprising that this pien-wen has had a great influence on later works on Chao-chttn, such as

Ma Chih-yttan's Han-kung ch'iu. 146

Life Determination, Death and the Green Tomb: The Integrity of the Heroine's Characterization

As we know, there are two kinds of illustrations which refer to the crucial life determination of Chao-chtln. One that she wants to go to the barbarians is active, the other that she is asked to go is passive. Both Hou Han shu and

Ch'in ts'ao adopt the former one, while Hsi-ching tsa-chi' and many of the subsequent accounts adopt the latter one. later, scholars mingle two of the illustrations together like the one in Ytieh-fu shih-chi. As I have mentioned-, since the original text of "Wang Chao-chtln pien-wen" is not complete, we can not determine to which one of these arrangements this pien-wen belongs. However, in considering the graphic description of Chao-chtln's tragic mood and her risky journey which catches the tragic spirit of Chao-chtln depicted in Hou Han shu, as well as the indication of the portrait which follows the arrangement in Hsi-ching tsa-chi. I sense that this pien-wen is close to the intent of the design that combines the two actions, in the same way as the treatment found in Ytieh-fu shih-chi, to make the tragedy even stronger. Consequently, on the topic of the crucial

Chao-chtln's life determination, a better design is that . 14-7

in this personal tragedy, there are two conflicts of

different dimensions. The first is a conflict between

Chao-chtln and Mao Yen-shou, the wicked painter* and the

second, a conflict within Chao-chttn herself. The result

of the first conflict is obvious ( "That wicked painter 38 has plotted against me'."). The reader can also sense that

there is the other conflict in the same piece as mentioned before. Clearly, the author manifestly presents Chao-chttnfe struggle in such an exquisite way that .he is not supposedto miss the significance of Chao-chttn's inner conflict.

Furthermore, if the author had fully recognized 1Ms vital ccnflict, also considered that the heroine's vanity is a tragic flaw in herself, he would have been able to effect an even better understanding of his work. In a later time, Chang

Hu , supports this point in his poem, "Chao-diin yttan" ^ o fo* j "Do not envy the excellent beauty of a female, / Chao-chttn herself has conceived very great 39 resentment for her incomparable beauty

The Death of Chao-chttn

Regarding the death of Chao-chttn, there are many different accounts. For example, one states that Chao-chttn passes by Hei River in Kuei-hua in which she 40 drowns herself. Another record describes how she swallows 148 41 pills to commit suicide. Among all the different accounts

of Chao-chttn's death, I think that the explanation of this

pien-wen is more natural and compelling, and matches this

ladyte indescribable inner world better than any other of the

Chao-chUn stories. In other words, the author of this pien-wen

makes Chao-chttn live and die natually. In this pien-wen,

this lady lives in loneliness and dies in loneliness. The

author designs a consistent world of loneliness for her.

It is less, important that scholars, such as Arthur Waley

have mentioned Chao-chttn together with Princess T'ai-ho

or identified the author as a guard of Princess

T'ai-ho,and-attempted to speculate on the historic age of ' 42 the story. But for me, this pien-wen may be approached from a

viewpoint which a poem about Chao-chttn implies: "As the

picture scroll is opened, we see the clouds of the 43' frontier" Thus, after we study this pien-wen, we may be

able to appreciate it in the same way we observe remote

and roaming clouds on the sky of a frontier. Indeed I see

Chao-chttn as the lonely and wandering clouds far av/ay from

us, unclear and untouchable. Aimlessly, this lady goes to

the frontier with a troubled and irritated heart. Being .a

representative.of the Han culture, she stays there unadjusted and homesick, and eventually she passes over with a still

troubled heart and an unresolve.d. resentment. Thus,

although Chao-chttn may be associated with another lady, Princess T'ai-ho, who also goes to tiiis strarge land in the T’ang Dynasty, I have cri2y ibcused oh Chao-chtin because I am

impressed that she is a quiet and sad bearer of her own

destiny in her ironic task of making peace. If one could

select one word to mark the epitaph of Chao-chttn, that

chosen word might very well be "loneliness." From the

cited Chi Shih-lao's poem, we also can imagine that in the

T'ang Dynasty, the Chao-chun's story is illustrated and also

presented with scrolls, which indicates an correlation

between "chuan" and "pien", between the pien-wen and the hi). story-telling Thus, Chao-chttn's loneliness has been

illustrated and chanted for centuries.

Since Chao-chUn is a historical figure, one may check and evaluate the difference between historical accounts and this historical fiction. For example, the author of "Vfeng

Chao-chUn pien-wen"alleges that Chao-chUn dies earlier than the Shan-ytt. .However, according to Kan shu and Hqu Han, shu,

Chao-chttn is married again after the Shan-ytt passes away.

Some scholars assert that all accounts which describe

Chao-chttn's passing away earlier are didactic fiction by which the authors intend to keep Chao-chttn purer in order 45 to uphold the pride of the Han race. Nevertheless. I still emphasize that the author of this pien-wen places Chao-chttn in a consistent loneliness so that he makes her die in isolation as she has lived. In view of this arrangement of death, I do not take this fiction as a didactic work.

On the contrary, one may feel a satiric tone in this 15Q version, when the Emperor's beautiful eulogy is pronounced

after Chao-chtln's death. As a result, this pien-wen is a

well-designed work of art, not a didactic or merely

instructive composition.

One can even go further to analyze in detail the

strengths of such a death that shortensChao-chUn's life as

arranged in the pien-wen.

First , this death is attuned to . the person and

the mood of Chao-chtln: Chao-chtln is a secluded and proud

lady. She has lived in an isolated court, then she goes to

the Hsiung-nu, where she is supposed to be free from her

solitary world. However, because the new environment

still excludes her (or more aptly, she excludes her new

environment ), she becomes even more depressed.* Like the

old saying, "A southern horse will never go over to the north." she will never go back to her old room again; and her new world is also meaningless to her, so she finally has nowhere to go. Once again she must close herself in.

On the barbarian earth, a natural death is a simple and solemn way for a sad and broken heart. This death, an escape from the realistic world, can also be taken as a

■symbolic retreat that conveys Chao-chttn's purity, quietness, and proud beauty. Secondly, this death marks the isolation of the Han culture: If Chao-chtln's dress stands for a representative indication of the Han culture beyond the Great Wall then the 151 death of this lady in her Han dress may mean a helpless early

withdrawal of the Han culture in the Hsiung-nu. It seems

that the Han culture with its lofty and lonely silence.excuses

itself from all the noise and innocence of the culture of

the Hsiung-nu,in a sense of releasing itself from its participaticn.

Thirdly, this design fulfills a complete tragic sense in the story. Not only the lady, but also the Han culture, for which Chao-chUn stands, struggles ironically in the desert . Wang Chao-chttn with her insistent culture is

"doomed" to suffer over there. In the beginning, Chao-chttn knows Ihereis no hope for her journey to the Hsiung-nu. Just like her pessimistic expectation ("... I did not. wish to have happiness ...") the whole process is indeed miserable. Gradually, this gloomy life turns even more crushing and finally reaches its end. This is apparently a self-imposed.and self-banished tragic experience. Chao-chttn is powerless against the wickedness of her fate. In fact, fate has plotted against this weak lady; thus in the end , she can do nothing but endure the end of the tiresome fight, and the Han culture which she embodies vanishes along with her life. Consequently, this death of Chao-chUn, an epilogue of her tragic experience, is a natural end for a fulfillment of the tragic sense in the story. Also, since Chao-chUn's life is nothing but loneliness, her quiet and simple death corresponds to her life, and becomes a full illustration of the tragic loneliness in her life and her world.

Hence, we are also able to perceive the symbolic

meaning of Chao-chtln's green tomb. It is said that the

grass on Chao-chtln's grave-mound, near Hohehot effrygiflj in inner Mongolia f*] ^ ‘fe , always stajs green in the desert

We see that after the lonely death of the lady, the green

tombwhich is green all the time , seems to reflect an unfading mark of her everlasting loneliness. Historical Fiction and Historical Account

■fa view of the above discussion, the reader may realize

that when he studies historical f i c t i o n , like "Wang Chao-chtln

pien-wen," he may need to think over what fiction is;

especially, what historical fiction is. Also, it may be

better to define the different quality between history and

historical fiction. More than two thousand years ago,

Aristotle pointed out this significant distinction:

The poet's function is to describe, not the thing that has happened, but a kind of thing that might happen, i.e. what is possible as being probable or necessary. The distinction between historian and poet . . . consists really.in this, that the one describes the thing that has been, and the other a kind of thing that might be. Hence, poetry is something.more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals,gwhereas those of history are singulars. ...

I also agree with Kuo Mo-jo > a historian and a writer of historical fiction, that

The study of history wants' the fact no matter whether the materials are quite scattered, or they go to pieces; because the more the materials go to pieces> the .closer they are to the fact. However, a historical fiction must emphasize the totality of its composition so that the int^ral becomes very important; the more integral it.is * the more complete and', perfect it is . Interestingly enough, the study of history is "to find out the exact picture according to the fact," but the creation of historical fiction is."close to the fact; but not ...the fact exactlyJT'' 15^ It is true that history focuses on a real point of

historicity, yet historical fiction focuses on a creational

point that is more philosophical than the goal of

historicity. This reminds me of a German critic's remark

that tragedy should not become an eulogy of famous persons>

the meaning of tragedy is more philosophical than the aim

of history.

I know, of course, that a great writer of historical fiction,

on one hand, does not neglect the history related to his work, especially on significant issues, and on the other handk

he makes something new of minor topics. When he makes something new, a thoughtful writer is expected to have his

own sharp and unique knowledge. In other words, he is not unfamilar with the history; he is dealing with; and has his insights on, the topic. Most importantly, he also knows how to make a good totality in his new creation.

Here the author of this pien-wen wants to integrate his

cwn artistic work so that he shortens the life of Chao-chtln, and makes her e x p o n a x e lonely death. He does not add any other episodes, such as drowning or swallowing pills; he does not make the lady die later than the Shan-ytl, as in the recorded history. .'Obviously, he is not concerned with the humiliation of the lady's remarriage.. He believes that the suffering of Chao-chtln is heavy enough to crush her to death quite early. Unfortunate suffering from her sad fate and a cultural shock, this lady can not 155 even make peace with herself in the frontier. She can not <* be considered a peace-maker, but a suffering exile. So

it is described that she dies earlier and lonelier in this

pien-wen than in the historical accounts.

An Idealized Image

Nowadays., in Mainland China, some writers and scholars admire Chao-chtln and recreate her as a new character who successfully carries a great mission of reconciliation between the Han and the Hsiung-nu- For example, one of the works is Ts'ao Ytl's Wang Chao-chtln, a famous drama that depicts Chao-chun a brave woman with no tears and equips her with brilliant and talented vision. Thus Chao-chtln is idealized as a joyful and bold heroine in the desert who has an unusual vision and an ambitious heart so that she brings peace to her people. However, I agree with critics who have singled out the weakness of this kind of "newimage" of

Chao-chtln. Formerly , in the Han Dynasty, people think that leaving one's own home town for the barbarian Place is a sorrowful issue. Moreover, Chao-chtln is only a weak lady; how can a weak lady bear such a sorrowful task?

The burden of blame may rest on the necessity of the Han race to make peace with the barbarians, so that the Han race adds sorrow to a weak lady by forcing her to bear 4 9 such a huge weight as a peace-maker. As a result, in 156 considering this particular historical environment, it

is impossible to make Chao-chUn a joyful ambassador

(Unless we take Chao-chtln an equa1 of Princess Wen-ch'eng

- -50 2E. , a famous peace-maker in the T'ang Dynasty.)

Secondly, Chao-chtln has come from an ordinary family

and then is secluded in the Han court for a few years. ,

This lady is young, simple-minded, and undisciplined aswell I too consider that, die does not have the wit to deal with big

political issues such as the new image of Chao-chtln depicted

in Ts'ao's '.Vang Chao-chtln. I would rather appreciate the

vital and integral creation of Chao-chtln in "Wang •f Chao-chtln pien-wen: a proud, silent and isolated Kan

lady with her silent but struggling, shortened but lasting

adventure to the nothern desert. It is true that for a

thousand years, the p'i-pa of Chao-chtln seems still 51 "in its music to be discussing all her wrongs and griefs:'

I 157

■ NOTES

1 See Tu Fu/fctflj , "Yung-huai ku*

Fen-men chi-chu Tu Kung-pu shih SPTK ed. ),

13*37a-37b* This poem is translated by William Hungy^^j^_.

See Hung., Tu Fu:China's Greatest Poet (Harvard: Havard

University Press, 1952), p. 2 3 6.

2 According to "Yttan-ti chi" in Han shu. the name of this lady is Wang Ch'iang 5- ft? . But 'Hsiung-nu chuan"in Han shu records a different character for this name: Ch'iang %% , instead of Ch'iang . Hou Han shu says, "Chao-chttn has another name: Ch"iang -fe^ ;" which is contrary to the record in Han shu: "Wang

Ch’iang has another name: Chao-chttn." Also, Chao-chttn is entitled Ming-chttn or Ming-fei . A scholar,

Ch'ien Ta-hsin has studied Chao-chttn's names and asserted that "Ch'iang" ^ recorded in Han shu is a correct one.

^ See Hung, p. 223*

^ See Fan, Yeh y Hou Han shu f Wang

Hsien-ch'ien chi-chieh , pp. 1057-1058.

^ See Ts'ai Yung Ch'in ts'ao ,

P'ing-chin-kuan ts'ung-shu ed. ,

2 .13b.

^ See Ko Hung]fp*f Hsi-ching tsa-chitfblffiitlfSPTK ed), 2.2a ^ See HS, p. 297; Dubs, 2.335* (with my minor changes )1^8

8 See HS, p. 3 8 0 3.

^ See no. 4.

1 0 See Lo L u n g - c h i5 h - £+o , "Wang Chao-chttn te ying-tzu"

ZVo'pt-llfy}, in his Ssu shui ch'ing-huai'fKr]

Yu-shih ytteh-k'an she, 197*0» P* 5**-. Lo precisely catches

the tragic essence of the story of Chao-chttn in this essay,

which has enlightened my study on "Wang Chao-chttn pien-wen."

^ See THPW. p. 9 8 . All the passages of this pien-wen quoted in this thesis are translated by this author except one passage (see no. 3 8) 12 Ibid.. P* 99* 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid.

15 Ibid. The "Yen-chih" is a multiple phonetic pun 16 Ibid. , p. 1 0 0.

17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. , pp. 100-1 0 1.

19 Ibid. , p. 1 0 2. 20 Ibid. This is also quoted on the title page (P* of Chapter II in this thesis.

21 Ibid.

22 See p. 46, no. 23*

2^ Prof. Lao Yan-shuan has pointed out that there may be reasons that the stories of Emperor Shun and Ch’i

Liang are included in this pien-wen. We know that Emperor

Shun died in Ts*ang-wu , which was far from the caitral 159 plains, and that Ch'i Liang died in the frontier. Also, the

wives of Emperor Shun, 0-huang-&r^|[ and Ntt-ying *tr ^ , died

in the area between Yang-tzu River and Hsiang Water

A*" , far away from their homeland. Now Chao-chttn is also

in the barbarian territory, not in her own country. Thus,

the combination of such similar situations could then evoke

a much stronger feeling of seperation and alienation.

24 See THPW. p. 102. ;

25 Ibid., p. 103.

26 Ibid. 27 See Eoyang, p. 177*

28 See THFW. p. 104.

29 Ibid., p. 107.

J Ibid., p. 102. Those words are, "That wicked painter has ploted against me."

See Introduction to "Chao-chttn yttan" in

Ytteh-fu shih-chi ed. Kuo, Mo-ch'ien

(Pei-ching: Wen-hstteh ku-chi k'an-hsing she, 1955).

59-la-lb.

^2 See no. 19.

^ Lu I-t'ien "Ching-i ntt-shih shih"

%<$ , in his Leng-lu (Shang-hai: Shar^-hai wen-ming shu-chtt, 1856), 8.23b. translation mine.

See Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D*Urbervilles

(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1921), p. 457- 16 0

35 See Ch'en Li-li, p. 133*

3^ See THPW, p. 100. Ch’en Li-li's translation (with

minor changes of mine ).

37 Ibid., pp. 104-105.

3® See no. 30.

39 see Ch'ttan T'ang-shih kao-pen, 43.228-29-

translation mine. 40 See no. 31* 41 See no. 5* ho See Waley, p. 249.

^3 see Chi Shih-lao., "K’an Shu ntt chuan

Chao-chttn pien" in Ch'ttan T'ang-shih kao-pen,

66.293-94. translation mine. 44 See pp. 8 -9 m this thesis. he Hsieh Hai-p'ing is one of the scholars. See Hsieh,

P. 6?. 46 Aristotl.e ., De Poetica, m The Works of

Aristotle. trans. W. D. Ross (Oxford: The Clarendon Press,

1946), 11.1451a.

^ 7 Kuo , Mo-jo , Mo-jo wen-chi

(Pei-ching: Jen-min wen-hstteh ch'u-pan she, 1 9 6 1 ), 13.16-2Q translation mine.

^ See Ts'ao Ytt , Wang Chao-chttn i /a

(Ssu-ch'uan: Ssu-ch'uan jen-min ch'u-pan she, 1979).

^ In "Wang Chao-chttn pien-wen," the author mentions

"the Turks" instead of "the Hsiung-nu." Understandably, 161

the author associates the peace-offering between "the

Turks" and the T'ang with the one between "the Hsiung-nu" and the Han. As a result, here I use "the Han race" and

"the barbarians" instead of "the Han Dynasty" and "the

Hsiung-ntl," to express a broader meaning. See Chien Fo-tsan

> Chien Po-tsan li-shih lun-wen hsttan-chi ^3*

(Pei-ching: Jen-min ch'u-pan she, I98 O), p. ^8Q

50 Cf. Liu Hsti %Y*] , Chiu T'ang shu ( ESWS ed.)

Vol. 196.

See Tu Fu, 13«37a-37b» David Hawkes's translation.

See Hawkes, A Little Primer of Tu Fu (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1 9 6 7 ), pp. 17^-177. CHAFTER VI

A GROUPING STUDY OF THE FOUR PIEN-WEN

162 163 A Grouping Study of the Four Pien-wen

I have chosen historical pien-wen as my topic, with a

focus on four major works . The reader may ask, why only

these four? Do they exhibit common literary features so

that I make comment on them together? How can I single

them out from the other works of the historical pien-wen?

A grouping study of the four pien-wen may help to answer

these questions. First of all, I assert their popularity.

The Popularity

The heroes or heroines of these four historical pjai-wen

are some of the most popular figures in Chinese folk

literature. From generation to generation, their names

and their stories have been retold. There is a famous line

by Liu Fu^J'llL., "People do not remember Emperor Shih-huang

of the Ch'in Dynasty and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, yet

they have talked about Meng Chiang frequently, even now.''*'

The story of Meng Chiang is so prevalent that in every

dynasty, people retell it using different genres. It has

received expression in almost every popular genre in

Chinese literature. For example, Meng Chiang is found

in short story, legend, storytelling, local drama, and so

on. In the winter of 1972, the Reasearch Institute of

History and Language of Chung-shan University ^ LLi 164

organized "The Association of Folklore ,"^#^ and 1henpublished many studies on folk literature. One of the published books

is an important work by Ku Chieh-kang's Meng Chiang-nti ku-shih yen-chiu ia . Later the folklorists changed the title of a periodical on Chinese folk literature,the

Kin-chien ytieh-k'an P^'J, into the Meng Chiang-nti vueh-k'an

in order to take the study . of Meng Chiang-nti as an impetus for research, on many other topics. Besides, since the studies of Meng Chiang are numerous , scholars have compiled most of these published works into a book entitled

Meng Chiang-nti ku-shih chi . Academia Sinica has collected abundant folk materials on Meng Chiang as walL

As for Chao-chtin, one of the best-known beauties • in Ancient China, there are over one hundred poets who have composed poems about her sinoethe Wei and Chin period

Chao-chtin has become an object through which the poet or scholar releases his sorrow and discontent. This is the reason why many people have visited the grave of Chao-chtin and thus her stele has become a " stele for; shedding tears. ^ Moreover, since the Han Dynasty,

Chao-chtin has been an inexhaustive topic in the history of Chinese literature. From the official records of Han shu and Hou Han shu to Ma Chih-yttan's outstanding drama,

Han-kung ch*iu, toe Chao-chunstory has been illustrated in various cross-genre works. Small.wonder that among prominent critics of. . Chinese literature, we may 165 often find many essays on Chao-chtin.

Despite that I.i Ling surrendered, he undoubtedly is one

of the best-known military failures in the history of

Chinese literature. I believe that Li Ling's resentment is

universally shared. Understandably, this resentment can

lessen people's feeling of suffering and indescribable sarse

of failure, particularly for those who have suffered from war or.lost their freedom in occupied lands.

While Li Ling is renowned for his surrender, Wu Tzu-hstl is famous for his successful revenge. In the Spring and

Autumn period and the Warring States 1^13 period, before 221 B. C. , the revenge of Wu Tzu-hstl is considered 3 the most dominant story of reprisal. Even now, Wu^

Tzu-hstl's adventure still ranks as one of the most dranatic stories of revenge for the Chinese people. Wu Tzu-hstl, with his filial but furious character, impresses all

Chinese people with a mixture of love and hatred, righteousness and outlawry. In Peking Opera, Wu Tzu-hstl is an everlasting welcomed figure. Consequently, the reader sees the popularity and prevalence of these four heroes and heroines and their stories.

The Related Characteristics and'teiues Among’the Four Pien-wen

In regard to the widespread popularity of the tradition of these folk tales, it is evident that these four pim-wen have offered significant presentations that affect the 166 evolutionary development and the increase of the popularity of the stories as well.In addition, I wish to emphasize the characterization of the heroes and heroines, the correlated universality and the, corresponding merits of these four stories. By primarily distinguishing the types of heroes,

I will disclose the respective value of these stories in the following analysis. Then I will turn to a grouping stucfy of these four stories to examine their common features.

The Types of Heroes

At first, I discuss the similarities of the different types of heroes in the four stories.

The Journey Motif

In viewing the narrations of these four stories, the reader discovers that the journey motif is common to all of them. Meng Chiang travels to the Great Wall, Chao-chtin journeys to the Hsiung-nu, and Li Ling is engaged in fighting expeditions in the Hsiung-nu. As for Wu Tzu-hstl, he takes both a fugitive journey and a revenge journey.

The journey motif has a rich meaning, and serves not merely as a literary device. J. E. Cirlot says:

From a spiritual points of view, the journey is never merely a passage through space, but rather an expression of the urgent desire for discovery and change that underlies the actual- movement and experience of traveling...Heroes are always travelers , in that they are restless. Traveling 167 Jung observes, is an image -of aspiration, of an unsatisfied longings that never finds its goal, seek where it may.

All the journeys' in the four accounts are linked with the

fate of the heroes, unlike the journey in the ch'uan-ch'i

tales that only "characterize to a certain extent

the mental state of the hero," nor that which "signifies 5 the occurrence of a major event in the life of the hero..."

In each of the four pie re-wen, the hero's car the heroine^ journey itself

simply serves as the heroic adventure, and is thus rightly

identifiable as that major event in the life of the hero or the heroine.

A Heroic Adventure

The standard’ path of the adventure of a hero is a

magnification of the formula represented in the rites of

passage* separation— initiation— return. Joseph Campbell

explains that

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure withgthe power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

I would like to apply these principles of archetypal criticism— based to a great extent on the theories of

James Frazer, C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell* Lord Raglan and Northrop Frye— to two of the four pien-wen, especially their heroes, Meng Chiang and Tzu-hstl. My purpose is to focus on the central figures and show the correspondence 168

between their actions and those contained in the universal

pattern. The following is an analysis of the hero’s life with a few fundamental features which comprise the life of

the Chinese archetypal hero in the pien-wen story of Meng

Chiang and Tzu-hstl. After this, those two tragic heroes,

Chao-chtin and Li Ling, different from archetypal heroes, will also be examined.

Departure

The first step for an archetypal hero is departure.

All of these four characters have taken this significant

step . Most importantly , they depart from "the world of common day"for their adventures. This is the start of their hero-quest. Meng Chiang leaves home for the Great.

Wall; Chao-chtin departs from the Han court to the Hsiung-m;

Li Ling leaves his mother and wife in hope of conquering the troops of the Hsiung-nu; and. Tzu-hstt runs away from, his home town in order to find help for a future revenge.

After their departure, we observe that the characters and events in both the pien-wen of Meng Chiang and Tzu-hstl correspond to those of a universal pattern, but the pien-wen of Li Ling and Chao-chtin, in which two tragic heroes take their tragic travel, do not fit the pattern exactly. I am presently going to examine the former archetypal heroes first. 169

A. Prom the Call to Adventure to the Return Both Meng Chiang and Tzu-hstt receive "summonS to their heroic adventures, but Meng Chiang is more moved to the'Summons" by the ghost.of her husband (as noted before, one of the tender and lovely spirits in the history of Chinese literature). Although this ghost advises Meng Chiang-ntt not to go to the Great Wall, but to go back home, this considerate advice even provides the character with the power to act, causing Meng Chiang-ntt to go to the Wall to find out the fact of her husband's death? at least she purposely determines to look for the corpse of her husband. Therefore, since Meng Chiang loves her husband so much , the more her husband's ghost deters her ardous quest for him, the more she determines to do her best to visit the place of his death. In other words, the beginning dialogue with the ghost seems to summon Meng

Cfiiang to her adventure. After responding to the supernatural call, Meng Chiang then goes to the Great Wall where she experiences mythical events. The Great Wall appears as a supernatural realm for Meng Chiang's heroic quest- which is: . centered around the . tragic: death— this is a hard task for her. However, when she soulfully weeps, releasing her resentment, a miracle happens: the Great

Wall crumbles. Following this justifying miracle, Meng

Chiang's faith in Heaven and justice seems to grow stronger.

After the destruction of the Wall, she sees bones, then she i ? o wishes to distinguish her husband's bones with her own

blood. In other words, she experiences one miracle first,

and asks Heaven f or another; and then Heaven answers her need

again. Her husband's bones respond to her blood, so she

discovers his remains. Eventually, she is also able to

converse with the dead.ones and brings their collected

messages back home. Meng Chiang's heroic quest has qualified

her to be amagLcal communicative medium for the dead and

the living. She also seems to be sanctified to deliver the

"love" from the dead to the living and awaken the love of the

iivingtoward the dead as well. Since she is able to communicate

"love" between the two different worlds, Meng Chiang is

clearly aherdnewho comes back from her mysterious journey " •• with a power to bestow boons on her fellow men.

As for " Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen}' it is also identifiable

as a story of the hero-quest. Although Tzu-hstt "has trials"

in his fugitive journey, he also encounters women, serving as

"temptress," over whom he is victorious As a hero in

adventure, he is not wise enough to find the best place

as a base for his future revenge until he encounters an

old fisherman, one who serves as "wise old man" in his

hero-quest. In the encounter, Tzu-hstt shows his "weapon,"

an excellent sword. After Tzu-hstt meets the old fisherman

who gives him instructions, he makes up his mind to take

a trip to Wu, where he idealistically gains help for his

reprisal. Tzu-hstt, following the prophetic direction (like 1 7 .1 a "call"), he feigns insanity in Wu, while possessing a

magic power, appearing in the dream of the King of Wu

so that this ruler tries to find him. Finally he becomes

the chief minister of Wu. For Tzu-hstl, Wu appears as a

mysterious land. So all the trials that he has suffered

before become the necessary tasks for him to be equippedand

qualified for a hero in the alien land. While magically fighting back

with the support of the King of Wu, he not only gets even

with the King of Ch'u for his own reprisal, but also

destroys an evil king and his tyranny ... over the

people of Ch'u. Therefore, one can say that Tzu-hstl is

"blessed" enough to bes~tow blessings on his people as well.

B. The Tragic Hero

Both Chao-chtin and Li Ling represent another type of hero. After these two heroes take steps of departure, they proceed; to a strange land ( It -is understandable, thatthe

-Han at- that time considered the' Hsiung-nu an unfamiliar people beyond the Great Wall ). Are these two heroes called to take their journey? It seems that they are called by their tenuous fate; then they suffer from their tragedies in the Hsiung-nu. Both of them are not permitted to go back to the Han; so the lady at last dies there lonely, and the general stays the rest of his life in the desert alone, both of them depressed in the strange land. Understandably, they are tragic heroes who fight their fate and do not triumph in their journeys (as described earlier). They are 1?2

not like the archetypal heroes who are able to return home

to bless their fellow .

In the following analysis, I will .point out the

similarities between Li Ling and Chao-chtin in order to

appreciate the depth of their characters and lives. I think

that Li Ling, the famous commandant, and Chao-chtin, the

exquisite court lady, have some such common characteristics

as follows*

L Tte typical Hero of Romance..

No matter if one rates these characters according to

Aristotle's standard or to Frye's standard of heroic

action, both express a nobility and natural courage truly

superior in degree to other men and their environment.

Like the typical heroes of romance, their actions are

extraordinary but they themselves are identifiable human 7 beings. They are simply humans possessing marvelous traits and confronting challenging experiences.

2 Tie Tragic Flaw and the tragedy

Both Li Ling and Chao-chtin have been characterized as

erfubitmg the so called "storm and stress" temper. Li ling,as a hereditary "flying general,." sometimes advances into the territory of the Hsiung-nu with a light, column of foot soldiers, an action which he performs "on his own confident representation." For a commandant, however, this character is his tragic flaw. More exactly, it is a strength , but gradually becomes a weakness. Thus we sense that one day this tragic hero will meet disaster. Then as Li.Ling is in

the disastrous war against the Hsiung-nu, he fails and results in his tragic story. As analyzed above, Chao-chtin,

too, has the same character and tragic flaw as Li Ling's.

Ji Ling is totally confident of his own ability and Chao-dii^ of her own charms and culture. In the two pien-wen, Li Ling at least regrets once for his own conceit after his military failure; but Chao-chtin cherishes her beauty and the Han culture until she dies. Eventually, they are left to sing their endless and solitary songs in the great desert.

Consequently, I believe that if they had changed their roles with each other, they would still have played out the same tragic stories, though on different stages.

Furthermore, both Li Ling and Chao-chtin with their tragic flaw are like the tragic heroes in Greak tragedy

Oedipus Rex, or in Shakespeare's Macbeth. They either can not rid themselves of .the omens appearing in the beginning of the story, or, in trying to rebel against their fate, find themselves all the more controlled by it

3. .The' Outsiders In a state of depression, Chao-chttn would rather leave the palace altogether and go to the Hsiung-nu as an outsider of the Han. After studying most of the records and legendary stories about Chao-chtin, we recognize two contrasting images; her extreme languor and her isolate pride. I think that in the very beginning of this, pien-wen. she can be taken as an outsider in the Han palace when she is secluded from the notice of the Emperor. After she ventures to the Hsiung-nu, far from the Han, she becomes a true "outsider," just like the delicate and ironic presentation of Chao-chttn in'Wang Chao-chttn pien-wen." In the same way, Li Ling is at first so outstanding among many commanders in the Han court that he towers alone in his environment. Sometimes fighting off the Hsiung-nu with minimum troops in the.£rontier, he, is far. away from the central land, of

Han China. He is not an insider in the court. At last, having surrendered to the Shang-ytt, and unable to go back to the Han, he. is finally .an outsider.

The Interrelative Merits

Based on the previous analysis, the four pien-wen can be grouped by the two types of heroes. Besides, some other attributes arb shared in common in these four stories.So I single out the following respects referring to the strengths in all four.

1. The Basic Issue Between Heaven and Man

The issue of Heaven and Man is a significant one in the pien-wen stories. If we compare the different characterizations of man in T*ang ch*uan-ch* i and in Sun hua-pen with those in the pien-wen, man is illustrated by "Id" and "Ego" separately, but in pien-wen 8 man manifests an.image of "Superego." In hua-pen. man is only a simple human being« he exposes his primitive features

and cruel nature in his relationship with both the realistic

and the supernatural worlds. He has few beliefs or grand- hopes beyond his daily life. It is most likely that Man has a pessimistic view of life, so that he becomes a sort of robot of Heaven which always plays mischief on him while belittling him. Man is in a powerless and unchallenging situation; consequently, even "fifteen strings of cash' can cause a great trouble for him, or a careless conversation unexpectedly becomes the reason for a serious crime. In this universe, man is nothing but a rough and miserable being who must gain a harsh,practical existence. In other words, the hua-pen is like an account of real, pitiful life.

In ch'uan-ch’i. however, man is presented in a better light. He seems to be much more cultivated in his relationship with his society and with nature, in comparison to the hua-pen. The tales reflect the image of man as one who meditates on the symbolic meaning of life and tries to comprehend the mystery of love and hatred,fortune and tragedy, the real world and the supernatural world. In most of the tales , man is not simply an ordinary person, but a hero who can think and act out events beyond the limitation of ordinary daily life. Therefore we see unusual men and unusual events in the T*ang ch*uan-ch* i; this is why the stories are named "cl^uan-ch'i," an action of transm'itfcirg and narrating marvelous tales. The heroines, such as 17 6

Huo Hsiao-ytt , Ying-ying and Li Wa '^pk£. , dare

to love, to hate, to choose tiieir own ways of life, and to die.

They present a sounder, more complete picture of man. Man

not only lives but also searches for what life is as well as

for the life aft.erthis liife. Camparedwith the hua-pen characters,

we may say that in the ch'uan-chi .tales, man has already

grown beyond his "Id" and become a being with his "Ego."

In pien-wen, the issue of Heaven and Man is essential.

For these four pien-wen, none of them contradict , to this weighty issue. The picture of Meng Chiang crying desperately

to Heaven for the death of her husband reflects her belief in Heaven. "High Heaven" (or "Holy Heaven" "PK i . e . i ^ ) 9 appears twice in " Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen.1' Heaven being high and holy enough to be an object of and a direction for this lady's pleas. Heaven shows mercy on her and collapses the Great Wall. Consequently, the connection between Heaven's work and man's wish is so amazingly close that Meng Chiang is stimulated to make another appeal for distinguishing her husband's bones. Thus, another miracle occurs to respond to her second plea. Eventually, Meng

Chiang is inspired to be a super messenger of love flrom the deadj while Chao-chttn is alone on the top of a mountain, she recalls the examples of Meng Chiang and the wife of

Emperor Shun praying for Heaven's gracious mercy on her as well. However, not until she dies and is buried does

Heaven mark the top of her grave with a sign— an evergreen patch in a waste of brown.Both Li Ling and Chao-chtin suffer

from a separation from their old places and people, even a

loss of their kin and country» however, Heaven's sympathy

is applied to them differently. Before Li Ling fails, he

is warned by omens revealing that Heaven and Man are

correlative. In "Li. Ling pien-wen," "High Heaven" is

mentioned orally both . by Li Ling and his w i f e ^ In

spite of the negative and resentful evocation of Li Ling's

wife■ befbra she is killed, the■ soleim sympathy, shown-.afterward indicates

that both this woman and . Li' s mother are tin justly executed^

The sun and the moon lose their light, and the branches

and leaves of trees break and fall.. In the lonely desert, .

Heaven is the common object on which Chao-chttn and Li Ling

set their mind. Both Li Ling and Tzu-hstt have become

fugitives and thus cry to Heaven for help. They would rattier

have Heaven's mercy, not the. favor of their oldrrulers,

from, whom.they;have .departed. Heaven specially favors

Tzu-hstt so that Tzu-hstt becomes a princely hero to take a

magically successful reprisal. Moverover, like Chao-chttn,

Tzu-hstt is justified by Heaven even after his death. Thus,

at the end of this pien-wen, even after Tzu-hstt has died

unjustly (caused by the new king of Wu), Tzu-hsu's ghost

can appear in the dream of the new kipg of Wu to warn him

that Ytteh's army . is coming to attack his kingdom, finally

fulfilling Tzu-hstt's prophetic will. As a result, Tzu-hstt makes the new king of Wu recognize his own mi stake. Moreover 1 7 8 according to Tzu-hstl's will, his head is supposed to be

hung on the eastern gate of the An City in order

to wait for the arrival of the army of Ytleh. So, when

Tzu-hstt dies, his severed head is displayad as a bloody signal of man's injustice, and be a plea to Heaven's justice^ Therefore, clearly there is a tie between

Heaven and Man in theae four plen-wenj one that inspires and impels man to such a grand state of "Superego."

As we know, during the Pre-Confucian period in ancient

China, Heaven was already taken as an impersonal and supreme existence, dictating the events of nature and man, wielding 12 the power of reward and punishment. Later, in the Spring and Autumn'and the Warring States periods i S — as reflected in statements by Confucius, Mencius %. ,

Hsttn-tzu *3* , and their contemporaries— there was also an increasing tendency to identify Heaven as an impersonal nature and self-operating force1^ Then, the theory of

Yin P^(negative)acdTang bg (positive) ; and the Five Elemoits

3 - ' i T (metal, wood, waiter, fire,.and' earth) developed.further during and.'-after the. Han period. .It. focused on 1he. supernatural theme of "interactior^ between Heaven and Man" ("t'ien-jen hsiang-ying"A/^@/j^-), as proclaimed by Tung Chung-shu't'lftj; the femous-arch-Confucianist in ihelfen Dynasty, who established an influential theory of the unity of the cosmic and the human order, and even installed Confucianism as the state orthodoxy i f or the Han Emperor Wu. He- emphasized that, the way 179 of Heaven is to bless the good and to punish the evil Besides,-,

governmental institutions are justifiable when they follow

the way of Heaven;thus,

From the activities of the sun and the moon to the intimate deeds of the individual's private life, all may be interpreted by this theory of Yin yang and the Five Elements; it deeply penetrated the minds of th&Xiommon as well as those of most Confucianistsr

Clearly, all the four pien-wen offer good illustrddcns of this theory that Heaven and Man share in common. In

other words, these stories dramatically present their heroes

pursuing the. way of Heaven in order to be dignified men

on earth. Heaven and Man fully display their interaction

in these four stories. No wonder .that the heroes or the heroines impress us with their superego images.

2. The Heterodox Spirit and Tone: The Way of Man

The above analysis will also lead us to the notion that in the interaction between ,;Heaven . . and Man, Heaven is believed to be in tune with the rule of response. As for Chinese people, the same principle of reciprocal response, the concept of "pao," actually serves as a "basis" for social relations, as alleged by Yang

Lien- sheng This principle "provides a common ground for both gentlemen and small men — in other words for the whole society," Yang has' also asserted that

"Another tradition which has influenced the concept of 180.

£ao is that of the 'hsiar or 'vu-hsia." / a term translated 18 as *knights-errant r ", and that "In the ethical code of

the knight-errant; the principle of response is 19 universalistic."

I have discussed that in. " Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen,".

Tzu-hstt does make this principle universalistic. Tzu-hstt

"is determined to repay every meal served with kindness

and to return every angry glance from the eyes of another 20 person," Because of the implication of the principle of

reciprocity, and also. the domination of the style

of knights-errant, we; sense a challenging spirit that is

in contrast to an orthodox idea or teaching, one whiph .I call

a heterodox s p i r i t * Then this spirit inspired by the

knights-errant differentiates Tzu-hstt from the Confucjanists

or the devoted followers of. Tung Chung-shu, Who-added, the

though'of the Yin yang School., and T°ism to Confttcaanism-; We have

recognized that both the knights-errant and the Confudarists

obey the principle of reciprocity, yet, as James J. Y. Liu

has pointed out, "In many ways, the knight-errant forms a 21 strong contrast to the Confucian scholar ": The Confudanists

emphasized universalism with particularism, while the

knights-errant performed a universalistic principle. The

Confliciarasts proclaimed moderation, virile the knights-errant

acted instead toward extremism. The Confucianists opposed the use of force, while the knights-errant inclined 2?- to achieve justice by violence. Likewise, there are differences between the Taoists and the knights-errant,

although both of them were anarchistic, individualistic,

and together respected the reciprocal principle. As mentioned

before, the knights-errant demonstrated.certain aspects of

Taoism. However, in considering the larger differences, we

can conclude that there is no actual affiliation between 23 these two. The differences were such that the. Taoists

recommended non-action, but the knights-errant were eager

for action; the Taoists sought a spiritual freedom, but oil the knights-errant strove for social freedom, and so on.

Therefore, we may say that . . in "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen,"

the heterodox spirit, which inherits from the spirit of the knights-errant, is unique. This, spirit claims the response of

Heaven , as do the ConfUcians and the Taoists. or. other schpcQs; while it advocates the way of man on earth, it is not as conservative and moderate as the Confucians, nor does it incline toward non-action as the Taoists, it is active, revolting, and individualistic. Consequently, this spirit approaches the way of Heaven with its individualism, extravagance, and superego motivations as well. Again, this is the spirit— not an orthodox , but a heterodox one. Now in " Wu Tzu-hsU" pien-wen-,' " we may comprehend even more the superego image reflected, in the issue between j/jan and

Heaven, and the heterodox spirit revealed in the issue of the way of man on earth. 182

In " Wu Tzu-hstt.pien-wen," when the heterodox spirit

is released by words, we have the heterodox tone, such

as: "t'ien-tao" t'ien-ping" (referring to the

righteous side of Tzu-hstt), and "tseL-ch'en" ^ 5 (referring

to the evil side of Tzu-hstt's enemy). This reminds us of

the same unflattering tone both in " Li Ling pien-wen "

and in the Grand Historian's Shih chi, the so-called "A 25 Slanderous Book,"tf’f'which I have discussed before. Besides,

it is noted that this same tone can be found in the other

two stories , " Meng Chiang-nu pien-wen" and Wang-

Chao-chttn pien-werf as well. In other words, we sense this

tone in all of these four stories.in common.

All the four heroes and.heroines in these.stories meet individual obstacles and sufferings in their lives. In order to break through these difficulties, they not only cry for help to Heaven but also become, symbolically or literally, critical of the real world. Meng Chiang miraculously fights with the Wall and with all the harsh issues of the Wall.

Chao-chttn tragically strives with her old situtation and also with her journey in a new and strange land. Li Ling loses his fight and experiences the cruel and merciless treatment of the Han court, and would rather remain silently in the desert in protest. Needless to say, Li. Ling .hate3 the unrighteous King of Ch'u, to whom he returns evil for eviL

It is observed that in these four, besides some points mentioned earlier.( such as the heterodox tone in the eulogy in "WangChao-chttn pien-wen,*)•w§ still may identify many other concrete expressions of this tone. The spirit of the four pien-wen described as heterodox is visible in each essential issue of these pien-wen. Consequently, in "Meng

Chiang-nti pien-wen," Meng Chiang's desperate crying is already set against the image of a well-mannered lady depicted in the early accounts of Meng Chiang. The crumbling of the

Wall, a consequence of this desperate lament, appears to demonstrate-, a frenzied thought of crashing down a monumental work accomplished by^he'--.authority.*s demand"on- 26 the laborers. In "Wang Chao-chttn pien-wen," in addition to the heterodox tone found in the eulogy, the action of

Chao-chttn's departure itself is'also clearly a part of this tone. Especially, we:-observe that Chao-chttn leaves the Han court in an unbalanced mood, this tone is even more apparent. The surrender of Li Ling is an event rebellious against the Han court» however, this talented commandant.eventually prefers to stay rather than go back to avoid any further humiliation from the Han (In Han shu,

Li Ling finally says, "I can not be humiliated again.")

As a result, Li Ling's stay in t'he Hsiung-nu is a kind of protest against the unmerciful punishment of the Emperor.

Basically, in addition to many heterodox illustrations, the central issue of "Li.Ling pien-wen" is opposed to orthodox ideology for the court, and belittling the authority. As for Tzu-hstt, a kind of knight-errant, one 184

who upholds his own principles instead of obeying the law

of his country, I only need to add one more comment, that

although Tzu-hstt takes revenge for his father, he is not

an ideal filial example in the eyes of the Confucianists.

Tzu-hstt*s revenge may lead us in another direction in

our discussion. His revenge and retribution can represent

an equal treatment, a "horizontal"-oriented value in

human society, which is different from a "vertical"-oriented

value given from authority to the people. Because Tzu-hstt

enbodies the principles of reciprocity and justic

relationship, he can stand for the "horizontal" value that

is opposed to the dominating "vertical" valued I have

used the terms "heterodox" and "orthodox" in connection

to these two values. The heterodox resembles a horizontal

value in the sense that it is directed by people, the

orthodox is similar to a vertical value and is directed

from the upper levels of authority down to the people at

the bottom. Scholars have researched and believed that i the conflicts and cycles between these two values— "horizontal" and "vertical"— represent universal phenomena in human society . For instance , Joseph

Shayer points out that in the later period of Feudalism in Western Europe, there was a change from the "horizontal" orientation to the "vertical" orientation. Albert Craig also asserts that there has been such a change of the 185

orientations of these two values in the Meiji Restoration 28 in Japan. Enlightened by .this, I would like to affirm

that all these four pien-wen have witnessed and contributed

to the strength of the horizontal value, which is

challenging the power of the vertical value. In these

pien-wen, the heroes and. heroines with their horizontal -values

confronting,the vertical values .have symbolically or

literally marked some conflicting moments of values, in Chinese

society for the Chinese people.

Hencat .first we have explored the issue between Heaven

and Man. in these. pien-wen, and we see the superego image in quest of the righteousness of the way of Heaven. Secondly, we hava.«tani'ned the heterodox spirit and tone in these pien-wen, and recognize the way of man on earth.

3. Universality Whether they be archetypal heroes or tragic heroes, all of these four characters contribute to the same universality.

Because literature is supposed to be a concrete illustration of man’s affectional inner world, underslandabfer the essential concern of literature is not simply or practically the record of every individual historical object, but represents concrete universality that is crystallized from such individual objects to reveal the common issue and universal essence of man’s existence.

Therefore, mindful of Aristotle's remark, although literature is not an' exact copy of a historical fact, it is more authentic and more philosophical than a historical'fact.

Goethe also declares that in the novel and in drama, we can see the activities of man’s character. The creation of literature is a process of making an exterior expression after the content has matured within a writer. The promina'it classic of Chinese literary criticism, Wen-hsin tiao-lung

fUji'tl,, als o states, "The writer's first experience is his inner feeling, which he then seeks to express in 29 words." 7 Thus by the use of language, we may touch a great spirit of a significant writer. Furthermore, we may even consider this spirit to be representative of the race for.the writer, in viewing of that one of the social goals of a representative masterpiece is to manifest and transform the language and the capability of compassion for a whole race. Therefore, on one hand* literature is a presentation- of the memory hidden deeply‘ in- the- secret and mysterious place of the writer's mind. On the other hand, literature is a crystallization of the author's time and life, so that the concrete illustration of individual works may also show the author's compassionate identification with people's existence. As for historical stories by folk writers, this analysis is suitable, magnificent and applicable., because both historical stories and folk writers are very 187 representative. Consequently, these accounts are intended

to reflect people*s thoughts and identify people's

existence.

It is no wonder that people pass on these stories,

giving them such a long life. As mentioned before,each of the fourpm-wen has respectively given all these stories new blood

Moreover, after we have disclosed the types of heroes, the

significant links between Heaven and Man, the way of man,

and also declared the universality for these four, we are

confident of their universal contribution. Understandably,

the reader reaches a measure of catharsis from the tragic heroes (Li Ling and Chao-chttn), while archetypal heroes

(Meng Chiang and Tzu-hstt) provide an universal myth. The ideology between Heaven and :Man reflects a basic belief of the

Chinese people that sustains them in their sufferings and conflicts. In other words, in those moments when the Chinese people suffer or struggle with their faith for Heaven’s justice, they are able to identify their perilous existence with the heroes in these .stories. To retell these stories, they can reach a catharsis through the bitter experiences of the tragic heroes, finding strength through the mysterious triumphs of the archetypal heroes. Not suprisingly, the

Chinese have always been fond of these four characters.

Now, if one visits the Great Wall in China, at the Shan-hai

Pass . A* , one will not miss a notable spot— The

Temple of Meng Chiang . Also, as you approach 188

the section of the Great Wall built in the Han Dynasty •/‘I 31 , in the south of which, near Hohehot there

is The CQreeni Tome of Chao-chttn 0 p / ^ f #|< . As

for Li Ling and Tzu-hstt, they and their heterodox events

are lingering in people’s mind as well. Therefore, we may

rephrase the famous line guoted before, "People do not '

remember Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, or the King of

Ch'u, but people talk about Li Ling and Tzu-hstt , even

now." The universality of these four stories lives, so

do these four stories.

4. A Conscious Literary Style

I wish to treat the composition of these four pien-wen

and their respective achievements as good examples of the

literary style of the pien-wen.

To begin with, I will examine the doublets in"Li Ling

pien-wen" in more detail. As mentioned before, there are

doublets in several lines to increase the tension of war in

"Li Ling pien-wen." Li Ling's troops at first beat the

Hsiung-nu's soldiers who are gravely wounded by knives 32 and arrows. Here the reduplicated words, " ch'ung-ch'ung,"

^ §? used twice form a doublet, in which both the repeated: sound*, and the reduplicated characters stress that

the soldiers hurt "severely." Later Li Ling's troops fail, but Li Ling still orders them to fight consistently. These 33 words of "ch'ung-ch'ung" appear again, at this moment, implying how hard the Han troops fight against the Hsiung-nu's. 189 When the Shan-yU fights back and sets fire to chase after

Li Ling and his troops, there are several doublets

in verses describing the severe battle fought in the fire:

"fen-fenl^’yen-yerirt^and "tui-tui"f|$appear at this moment.

These lines not only intensify the warfare in sound and in

meaning, but also present pictures to us» Armies are massirg j and marching " in great array and profusion;' the red flame

is burning"toore and mere furiously," and the smoke is moving upward

"in countless columns." At the end of this pien-wen, two doublets appear to emphasize the tone of the sadness and powerlessness of Li Ling: "ts’un-ts'un" ;f and

"fen-fen" . These lines say, "Each inch of Li Ling’s heart seems to be cut by a knife,"and "The 34 armies of my enemy are confronting me in plentiful numbers'

5?$lH®i;This is the third time that the "fen-fen" doublet appears .. expressing a more imposing sound that deminishes

Li Ling and ends his glorious times— after fighting, then losing and finally bereaving.

In " Wu Tzu-hsu pien-wen," as Idiave analyzed, there are succinct four-word lines with ten separate images, revealing an overwhelming spirit of the . army led by Tzu-hstl

Besides'the application of pun and a riddle poem as linguistic trickery exhhibit fine literary art. The special lyric words of the ghost in " Meng Chiang-nti .pien-wen» are unforgettable, and the quoted poem is even philosophical, by which the author meditates on: the miracle . 190

In "Wang Chao-chfln pien-wnmost of the prose narration and the lyric lines are ornate, which reflect the ironic

and complicated inner world of Chao-chtin. Kawaguchi Hisao

H| ® has noted the similarity between " Meng

Chiang-ntl pien-werf’ and "S'hrgChao-chttn pien-weri’ in the

format and paper quality of the original manuscript?-^

However, Wang Ch'iu-kuei thinks, "More significant

are the intrinsic similarities between the two pieces."

He points out that "the sacrificial address" is a feature

shared only by these two pieces, and both show "strong 36 influence of ornate upper-class style."

While the alternation of prose an d versa is. a technique found in

most pien-wen. this form generally is- in.three arrangements:

1) the prose narrates first, then the verse repeats what

the prose has described* 2) the prose and the verse work

separately and independently* and 3) the prose and the verse

combine with each other and work together. Most of the

deliberate examples in these four pien-wen show .the

reader the strengths of. combining prose and verse.

Either they are independent,but relate, to each other, or

they are mixed and work together as a whole. They seldom

duplicate each other. In these four, prose, which helps to

explain, and verse, which helps to present, are related 37 as balanced art of "telling" and "showing." It is

observed that although the alternation of prose and verse is found in most pien-wen, several pien-wen stories are 1 9 1

in prose alone. As a result, one can not insist that every

pien-wen must have the mixed form of prose and verse, which

is derived from the Buddhist storytelling. In other words,

the interspersion of verse and prose in the pien-wen

stories is not merely a required formula, but can be an

intentional design?® J. Prosek has declared that the

authors have their artistic purpose to add verse to

the prose in hua-pen stories?^! would like to apply this

remark to the pien-wen stories aswelL. I wash to point out that

before the hua-pen stories, many pien-wen stories are close to

these four, having deliberately mixed prose, and verse .•

J. Prusek has also compared the European novel in the nineteenth

century with the Chinese hua-pen stories in the thirteenth century, and asserted that both of them have added verse and."Its lyrical quality to the monotonous nature of prose on purpose. This alternation of prose and verse joints tog'ether realistic and lyric . styles together. The important message is that the lyrical style of the verse can promote the novel from a realistic narration to an abstract, poetic, 40 and even universal state. To apply this view, in.either

Tzu-hsfl's verses of proclamation , "Now I can not see either the Heaven or the sun. . My ambitious heart, covered 41 by moss, is bent for unfair treatment..", or the lyrical presentation of Meng Chiang,"This woman desperately expresses herself so that her affection moves the mountain 42 and the river. As soon as she cries, the Wall crumbles ", 192

we see a knight's heart with grave revenge and a widow's

irresistible moving power. Both in Li Ling's lyric remark--

"Today I have totally lost in my battle in the wilderness. Ur 3 How can I face our grand capital again?"— and in Chao-chtirfc

poetic crying— "I am yelling to the white cloud and asking

them to stop moving, so that they will hear my songs UrU- singing farewell to my country"— we also see the solitude

and loss of a hero and a beauty. Verses like these

do place the heroes and heroines in a vast and poetic

scope, thus enlargening these people into a more remote,

transcendent, and even timeless type. Therefore, the

reader realizes the authors' artistic purpose to add verse

to the prose in pien-wen stories.

In addition to providing this alternation of prose

and poetry, the pien-wen gives a clearer, more rhetorical 45 expression than the ch'uan-ch'i. Referring to whether the

secular pien-wen illustrates any crude effort of the folk

artists at employing different types of narrative modes,

I would like to answer that, at least, in these four

pien-wen, the authors have made an effort to completely

employ three narrative modes: commentary, description, and 46 presentation. The reader finds the mode of description in

the prose narration and the mode of presentation in the

lyric lines, and also observe the mode of commentary

occurring quite often in these four pien-wen stories. All of :these.imer:its iprovide evidence which exhibits the fine literary quality in these pien-wen. It is true that some characteristics of vernacular-fiction can be discovered in "Wu Tzu-hsu pien-wen ," as well .as in the other three 47 pien-wen, and they may show the beginning of a conscious 48 literary style.

5. Folklore Elements and Realistic pictures

" Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen" not only reflects the cruelty of the task of building the Wall, but also gives an example of the ancient custom of sending clothes to the frontier. Wang Ch'iu-kuei has studied "the winter clothes theme" and its popularity in T'ang poetry, especially in the ytteh-fu shih during the eighth and 49 ninth centuries, as welL as in the Tun-huang ch'tt . Then , he points out that, "...while drawing on the ytteh-fu f tradition, the pien-wen almost naturally incorporates the writer^ clothes theme into the story— Meng Chiang-ntt is made to deliver winter clothes to her husband at the Great .50 Wall." Moreover, the winter clothes theme is used to "gain predominance and to acquire a ritualistic meaning in later 51 versions." To test the bones with blood is also an illustration of a folk belief. According to critical consensus, this belief prevails at the end of the Han

Dynasty, and during Ch'i and Liang times as well.

One thing we may need to remember is that, at first, this test with blood is supposed to apply to the relationship between relativesj however, in "Meng.Chiang-ntt pien-wen," this test has been already applied to husband and wife

who are not a direct blood relationship. Eventually,

Meng Chiang brings back the bones of her husband and the

19 dead soldiers for burial. This reflects the general wish

of people in the Northern and the Sui Dynasties to havettoir • 52 tbonesj decently buried cby their homes?." Besides, in referring to Pei shih i b , Chiu T’ang shu % P t % and Hsin T*ang shul#^

this can be inferred from repeated government decrees to

dispose of the bones of the dead!^ Therefore, I agree

with Wang Ch'iu-kuei that this ending has both literary

and historical significance!^

Wang Chao-chttn pien-wen reveals that the theme of

beauty and the barbarian has been a favorite among the

Chinese. Eugene Eoyang thinks that " Wang Chao-chttn

pien-wen"can be safely dated sometime in the ninth century

and "It is just during this period that the theme of a

beautiful woman sent into exile for her country would be 55 particularly popular." For example, it is noticeable

that a similar motif evolves the "Hu-chia shih-pa p'ai"

the story about Ts'ai Wen-chi of the

Later Han Dynasty, on which Kuo Mo-jo has written a play

in recent years. Interestingly enough, K'uang P'ing-chang

has studied the foreign marriages of T'ang

"princesses" as an offering of peace and claimed that out

of twenty, only three were authentic in history!^

Futhermore, this pien-wen reflects various customs and 195 57 accurate local geography. . From the beginning the reader

may have a notion of the Hsiung-nu's wedding parade and 58 wedding music . Then as Chao-chttn arrives in the strange land,

the reader can follow the course of Chao-chttn and view the

scenery of the land . Later, when Chao-chttn stays

over there , the reader may see the common life of the

barbarians, including food, clothes, housing and traveling

and the hunting practices of the Hsiung-nu is also vividly

depicted. Therefore, this pien-wen shows abundant "local

color." When Chao-chttn is ill, the reader recognizes how

the Shan-ytt offers sacrifice to Heaven. Finally, the

extravagant ittneral in the Hsiung-nu is presented after

Chao-chttn has died. Chou Shao-liang says, "The most

important thing in 'Wang Chao-chttn pien-werf is that the

funeral reflects that the ancient people buried the

living with the dead in the ancient society. Up to now,

this is the only surviving material that directly depicts 59 the special funeral ritual."

" Li Ling _pien-wen" brings us a close picture of the

fear and suspicion between the Han and the Hsiung-nu. at

the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. We also notice an example of a surrenders which is composed of the

betrayer, Li Hstt; the winner, the Shan-ytt, the admonitor,

the Grand Historian; the tyrant, Emperor Wu, and the

surrenderer, Li Ling. Moreover, we take notice of people's response to this -surrender-in later times. Needless to 1

196

say, the sacrifice of Li Ling's family serves as an .example

of a cruel punishment. This pien-wen in its heterodox

spirit attunes with the letter of the Grand Historian,

both of which bear witness to the unreasonable political

world at that time. As a result, we take this pien-wen a

work of artistic reappraisal.

As analyzed before, "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen" provides

many folklore elements. In addition, this pien-wen records

a dramatic picture of one of the great reprisals at the

end of the Spring and Autumn period. It also illustrates

the interrelations between the countries in that period;

especially, the author 'eloquently displays the contacts

between Wu and Ch'u as well as between Wu and Ytieh. 197 Inheritance arid Continuity

The discussion of the inheritance and continuity in

Chinese folk literature is a magnificent topic. One may

consider taking Ku Chieh-kang' s^f^J five principles of

• 60 his study on the Meng Chiang story as a thorough guide for

this great topic. In fact, this alone can be amplified .

to., a subject for another thesis. However, among the wealth

of traditional materials, I only intend to glance at the

most important information about the inheritance and

continuity of these four pien-wen. By sketching the

story-cycles of these works and their themes, I will

briefly cover the basic concern of this topic.

To stun up..the evolution of the Meng Chiang story: its theme at first revolved around the fact that the lady

does not want to receive a rural mourning service. Then, before the Former Han Dynasty, her wishes were expressed by desperate weeping. Later on, in the latter period of the Former Han Dynasty, the central theme was changed to

" the crumbling of the Wall" instead of the lady's weeping.

From the end of the Later Han Dynasty till the end of the

Six D y n a s t i e s ; f o r more than four hundred years, this theme had not changed. " Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen" follows this theme and adds more episodes, such as that 61 in which Meng Chiang tests the bones with her blood; and a spiritual dimension at the end of the pien-wen. «■?» s. Then, after this pien-wen, in Sun , Ytian and 198 Ming times,there were numerous works about Meng Chiang,

such as Meng Chiang-ntt hua-pen , Meng Chiang-ntt

sung han-i (nari-hsi ), Meng Chiang-nu k*u

ch*ang ch*eng » Meng Chiang-ntt sung han-i Jz_|‘6r

iiljkfc (drama), Ch*ang-crfeng chi , and Ch*i Liang

ch*i r, and so on. Then from the Ch'ing Dynasty to

modern times, the Meng Chiang stories have transformed

into even more forms.. The Institute of History and

Philology in Academia Sinica at Nan-kang f£]•/%, , has the

following wealth of materials about Meng Chiang in

various genres: p*i-huang , pang-tzu t t y - } Huai-hsi

. p'ing-chfl , K.*un-ch’tt , t1 anrhuangyljfcf? , Yang-chou hsi nan-kuan , ko-tsai hsi-ffiirf/tlf. fa-shih_ hsi (tao-shih hsi ), pao-chttan^^-..

tadflj K t k , tzu-ti shu -3 ^ 4 , Fu-chou p*ing-huaT^lft§.

Honair chui-tsu . .shih-erh.-ytteh tiao f|§] , ma-t'ou tiao , p'ai-tzu ch’tt &7 , Ytteh-ch'tt ^ &} ,

Min-nan ko-ch’tt All of these genres can be divided into five categories: hsiao-shuo iUtS .("short.stor^H . duaTg-ch* ang ('fetory-telling, ti-farg ha>t#/ffiLocal drama") and su-crtft 1^#.0*folk song'), and ch»uan-shuo 1 f f (legend').

The divergences between different versions of the Meng

Chiang story reflect the flexibity of the Meng Chiang tradition.

Although there are many new episodes added to the Meng

Chiang story— such as the encounter of Meng Chiang and

Ch*i Liang (the swan lady theme \ Me m g Chiang s< dramatic journey 199 to the C&'e.at Wall, the episode of Meng Chiang and

Emperor Shih-huang of the Ch’in Dynasty, the theme of

incarnation and salvation » an association between the

Meng Chaing-ntt story and the story of the"lovers in seven

incamati£>rB,rfc‘t£y9^ and so on— the main features of the

Meng Chiang story have been ascribed to this pien-wen.

As for the Chao-chttn story, both the accounts in Hou

Han shu and in Hsi-ching ts'a-chi establish the major

image of Chao-chUn. Later, in Ytteh-fu shih chi, -we

find more than twenty poems on Chao-chUn, and in the T'ang

Dynasty more than sixty poems on Chao-chttn are included in Ch'ttan T'ang- shih i/p^,T.."Warg Chao-chttn pien-wen "

offers three conspicuous changes that link closely with the formations of the story in later times. . F irst, this pien-wen designs a new arrangement for Chao-chttn's death.*

Chao-chUn dies earlier in her lamentation. Among many different versions, this death is a more natural design.

Secondly, a new imaginative episode records that Emperor

Yttan sends an ambassador to the Hsiung-nu to announce an eulogy for Chao-chttn. Thirdly, this pien-wen asserts that because the Hsiung-nu is strong, Chao-chttn must be offered as a ransom for peace (Although the Han was actually stronger at that time ). Both the arrangements of the- death and the eulogy give insights to later writers , creating dramatic love affair between Emperor Yttan and Chao-chttn.

For instance, the great drama Han-kung ch'iu follows the third change and promotes the idea that the Hsiung-nu has

been a great- threat to the Han for a long time. In Han-feurg

ch'iu. there are also two additional designs./ First:, • it

describes that Chao-chttn drowns herself in the Hei-lung

River % (the Black Dragon River). This episode of

suicide is a further development from the lonely and sad

image of Chao-chttn in "Wang Chao-chttn pien-wen." Secondly,

the love affair between Emperor Yttan and Chao-chttn is

theatrically illustrated in this drama. These two

designs open a new vista for later works on Chao-chttn.

Afterthe Yttan. drama , we . continually see Chao-chttn ;.In

Ming ch'uan-ch'i » there are many accounts on

Chao-chttn such as Wu-ming-shih's Ho-jtfng chi

i j j and Ch'ing-chung chi • Also in K'un drama there is Ch'en Ytt-chiao's chao.chHw eh*n.sai

In the Ch'ing Dynasty, there is a novel, Shuang-ifcm chf i-yttan ^5^ » and also a drama, P*i-p'a ytt .

All of these later, works are based on Han-kung ch'iu,vhich

in turn is inf luenced by "Vferg Chao-chttn pien-wen J’ Consequently, the influence of "W ang Chao-chttn pien-werr passed to Han-kung ch'iu is continually observed among the works. Finally,

the reader can. consult the following list' which charts..

•the development of the story of Chao-chttn: 201 Kan shu •>£§-- > Hou Han shu ; 4-Hsi-ching' tsa-chiSrtM;?, 1— Ch'ln ts*ao ' cYtfeh-fu shih-ch "Wang Chao-chUn’ pien-wen" &£ Han-kung ch' iu % i'j\ Ch'ing-chung chihag^- ch* u-sai Ho-,lung chifo^lg4 a-°--c-hUrL eS.) T • i Shuang-feng ch * i-vUanffifffi& p' i-p'a y.U 6 3 Chart 1. The development of the important versions on CiHOK&lih .

Shih chi, Han shu, and Lang-veh tai tsui'p'ien

, one sees the records of Li Ling.. As discussed

before, " Li Ling pien-wen" is considered one of

the most faithful pien-wen to its historical

records. Although this pien-wen has more details than the

historical accounts, the central theme is the Li Ling

affair, as recorded in the Grand Historian's "Pao Jen

Shao-ch'ing shu" in Han shu. The Grand Historian dares not

say strong words for Li Ling in his Shih chi, and he

hides his lamenting resentment in veiled words. However,

in this pien-wen, the author directly criticizes the cruelty

and tyranny of Emperor Wu and the political v/orld at that

.time. That famous letter to Jen Shao-ch'ing is the only

piece by which the Grand Historian conveys the issue of

Li Ling and his ovm reason- to get involved, in this •

issue. Then, this pien-wen reflects the same message conceived in that letter. Following that letter and the poems attributed to Li arid Suv written during the times 202

of Ch'i and Liang,,.this pien-wen is supposed to be a very complete and provocative reappraisal of Li Ling.

It is observed that in later time, people have linked; the actions of Li Ling with those of Su Wu . in this pien-wen, the author mentions Su Wu-.1hrou^i the mouth of the Shan-ytt.

This arrangement seems to reveal that one can not talk about Li Ling without an association with Su Wu. As a matter of fact, people even have tended to prefer.Su Wu to

Li Ling. Su Wu,. who cherishes his loyalty and finally goes

back home, seems to lessen the stature of Li Ling, whb- • surrenders and then stays in the Hsiung-nu-land.. Thus, if we need to find a reference of Li Ling, we probably can first find the materials about Su Wu,in which we see Li Ling in a sidelight. In. later Dynasties , there were many dramas on Su Wu, such as Ma Chih-yttan's Su.

Tzu-ch'ing feng-hstteh mu-yang chi an anonymous writer's Su Wu mu-yang chi ; yet there are few stories on Li Ling. Finally, in Peiking operg it is Li Ling pei . in which the author intends to speak for Li Ling. Li Ling pei is the story of General

Yang Yeh who inthe'.twelveth century, has led his entire family, the famous Yang Family, to devote themselves to the emperor -and people. If today one passes the Great . walL built, in . the Ming Dynasty , one will not mi^,s a memorial temple in honor of this prominent general. However, in Li Ling pei, this general, hindered-by an. evil minister.,-.keeps 203

fighting without receiving reinforcements. At last* he is really-

exhausted. At this moment, he passes the temple of Su Wu,

»• ■* and -thei strifes.Li Ling pei, the memorial tablet of Li Ling,

As soon as he sees this tablet, he condemns the Sung court,

and then knocks his head on the tablet and dies. This end

has a great symbolic meaning, that marks the final end- of

a loyal general who undergoes cruel and unfair treatment

in the court, and one day awakens to the‘fact that all his effort and devotion is- worthless and in -vain» This story is so

close to the story of Li Ling that we may associate the

two together and ponder the title and the story

as. both evoking.. a memorial of .General Li Ling, This time,, the image of Li Ling and-his tragic ordeal

symbolically become the center concern in the story.

Because •• Wu. Tzu-hstt pien-wen" is the longest and

the most thrilling of all the secular pien-wen, its

influence is supposed to be the most significant. This

pien-wen adapts all the materials from a large number of

earlier versions found in ,Tso. chuan, Kuo vtt. Ltt-shih

ch’un - c h ^ u . Shih chi. Wu Ytteh c^un-ch*iuplus mary others which form a cult of Tzu-hstt. Moreover, in this pien-wen

the author adds something new by succinct narration and

elaborate songs. Therefore , in later times this pien-wen has provided inspiration for works about Tzu-hstt in many other genres. Fbr.example , in the tfian drama, Wtt Yttan oMul-hsiao 1 3 % , Tzu-hsu is such a popular figure. 204-

In numerous folk tales and folk dramas like Huan hsi sha 7% >

v ' l k & y (ch'uan-ch'i), Wu Tzu-hstt kuo Chao-kuan

( p'i-huang hsi ). Chao-kuan chi 9p H]f (j(ch'uan-ch' i ),

Tzu-hstt retains his stable popularity as well. In Peking

opera, there is even a serial on Tzu-hstt, Ting-sheng

ch'un-ch'iu , composed of Chan Fan-ch'engffJi'ffi’V,

Ch'ang-t'ing hui , Wen Chao-kuan § 1$$ , Huan-sha

chi , and Ytt-ch'ang-chien P - , in which the

story of Tzu-hstt has evolved more dramatic and complicated

details^ More over, Kuo Ch'in-t •ingu M ^ k condenses the

long story of Tzu-hstt into one single opera, in which

Tzu-hstt's revenge stimulates Shen Pao-hstt's ^ EJfl~ crying

for his country in danger, • and forms in turn, another story— an

extention of this story. Tzu-hstt eventually has become a

hero representative of both hatred and love, an unforgetable figure of reprisal. As a result, this pien-wen has marked’ its forceful contribution. 205

NOTES

1 See Ku, 30.3.21. 2 See Chien, p. 480. 3 See Liu Hsiu-yeh, 2.531* 4 See J. E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, trans. by

Jack Sage (New York: Philosophical Library, Inc. 1 9 6 2 ),

P. 157.

^ See Curtis P. Adkins, "The.Hero in T'ang Ch’uan-ch’i'

Tales," in Critical Essays on Chinese Fiction, ed. Winston

L. Y. Yang, and Curtis P. Adkins (Hong-kong: The Chinese

University Press, I9 8 O), pp. 40-41. Here I try to distinguish the different applications of the journey motif in the ch'uan-ch'i tales and in the pien-wen stories.

^ See Joseph, Campbell, The Hero with A Thousand

Faces (New York: The World Publishing Company, 1956),P* 20.

^ See Frye , Anatomy, pp. 33-34. Eugene Eoyang

thinks that in the case, of Wang Chao-chttn we even can ;

identify five character-types. See Eoyang,."The Wang Chao-

chttn Legend: Configurations of the Classic,.” Chinese

Literature Essavs Articles Reviews, IV, No. 1 (1982), 5-6.

8 Since once I heard Ytteh Heng-chttn sharing these

thoughts briefly, I have been inspired to develop these ideas like this. 9 See THPW. pp. 32-33.

10 Ibid., pp. 9 ^, 9 6 .

• Ibid., PP* 27-28. Because "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen"

is fragmentary, we can not see the end of the story which

is supposed to be like whatever Tzu-hstt has predicted.

However, at the end of this extant piece, Tzu-hstt does

come to the dream of the new King of Wu, so that in the

lost text, it should record that eventually Tzu-hstt*s

prediction is fulfilled.

12 See Fung (Ferg) Yu - ] a n ; $ . History of Chinese Riilosophy,

trans. Derk Bodde (Pei-ching rpt. 1937 ed.. .), Ch. Ill;

H. G. Creel, "Shih T’ ien" ^ , Yenching Journal, No. 18

(1935). PP. 59-71. Wen I-to, "T'‘ien-wen Shih T' i e n " ^ | ’.><|^A.»

T.sing Hua Journal, IX, No. b (193*0. 873-95*

■*"3 See C. K. Yang, "The Functional Relationship

Between Confucian Thought and Chinese Religion," in Chinese

Thought and Institutions , p. 273*

^ See Tung Chung-shu Ch*ung-ch*iu fan-lu^^

(SPTK ed.), The Table of Contents, 15 See C. K. Yang, p. 2 7 6.

^ See Yang Lien-sheng, pp. 29 I-3 0 9 .

17 Ibid.., p. 3P9.

18 Ibid., p. 29*K

1 9 Ibid., p. 306. 20 Ibid. 2.07 21 See James J. Y. Liu, p. 7.

22 Ibid., pp. 7-9- 23 Ibid., pp. 12-13. Liu has also explicitly pointed out that the knights-errant had no actual affiliation with any school of thinkers. Similarly, I think that the heterodox spirit and tone in these pien-wen reflect the same way. oh. * Ibid., p. 13.

25 See p. 117, no.. 3- P & Particularly, the author of this pien-wen expresses his perfect understanding about the literary device of crumbling the Wall by guoting an old poem, through which he catches the central meaning of the crumbling of the Wall, and shows his favor on Meng Chiang, the laborers and their. families as well. 27 ' See Chiang-nan shu-sheng, 1.272-83. oO Ibid., pp. 272-277; Cf. Albert M. Craig, ChCshP in the Mei.ii Restoration (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,

1 9 6 1 ), pp. 126-37^. " 2^ See Liu Hsieh "Chih-yin," a in his Wen-hsin

Tiao-lung T* ai-pei: K ’an-ming shu-tien, 1959). lO.l^aj See The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, trans. Vincent Yu-chung Shih (T'ai-pei: Hstteh-sheng shu-chtt, 1975). P. 371. -^.See Ch'ang-ch' eng -^*fij^(The great Wall), ed. Ytt Chin

Patching: Wen-wu ch'u-pan she, 1 9 8 0 ), p. c53^. 2.08

31 Ibid., p. c 2 6 j .

32 See THPW. p. 85.

33 Ibid., p. 86.

3^ Ibid., p. 9 6 .

See Wang Ch'iu-kuei, "The Tun-huang Version of the

Meng Chiang-ntt Story," Asian Culture Quarterly. V, No. 4

(19 77), 6 9, 76.

3 6 Ibid., p. 6 9 .

3^ See Wayne Booth, Ch. I, "Telling and Showing;"

Booth has pointed out, "Everything cthe author 3 shows will serve to tell; the line between showing and telling is always to some degree an arbitrary one." I have explained the term of "showing" alone (See p. 56 in this thesis), here I mention the other term "tellingr anauthorLta- tiye.description, and wish to focus on a balanced art of these two together. I think that in these four pien-wen, prose is used mainly to give an. effect of."telling" and verse is manfy for "showing." Prose and verse joint each other to provide a balance art of "telling" and "showing."

3® See J. Frusek, "The Realistic and' Lyric Elements'-in the Chinese Medieval Story.:" ArchOrien, XXXII (1964), 4*15.

39 Ibid. 41 See THFW. p. 12. 42 Ibid., P • 32.

43 Ibid., p. 8 9 . 44 Ibid., p. 1 0 1.

45 See p. 5. no. 4.

46 Cf. Patrick Hanan, "The Early Chinese Short Story:

A Critical Theory in Outline," HJAS, XXVII (196 7), 173-74.

^7 See p. 19, no. 9 . I have expanded Johnson's remark to cover the other three pien-wen. UR See pp. 19-20 , no. 10. I have also expanded the scope of this remark.

^ See Wang, "The Tun-huang version," p. 73-

50 Ibid., p. 7 4.

51 See Iikura Shohei , "Mokyo jo ni tsuite,"

Bungaku. XXVI. 8 (1958), 86-87 .

See Wang, "The Formation," pp. 127-28.

55 Ibid.

^ Ibid.

55 See Eoyang, pp. 176-78.

5^ See K'uang P'ing-chang , "T'ang-tai kung-chu ho-ch'in k'ao" , Shih-hslieh nien-pao

EL (Historical Annual, published by the History

Society of Yenching University), II.ii (Septrmber, 1935).

23-60.

57 See Eoyang, p. 177- 210 '

^ Pelliot also depicts the evidence of the Hsiung-nuh

marriage like the one in "Wang Chao-chUn pien-wen." See

his article in BEFEO. VIII (1903). 504.

^ Chou Shao-liang , Tun-huang pien-wen hui-lujftfff

(Shang-haij Shang-hai ch’u-pan kung-ssu, 1954),

p. 383* translation mine.

60 See Ku, 30:1.114-23. ^ Before "Meng Chian-nU pien-wen," only the .

T'ung-hs.ien chi version records this episode.

^ Cf. Yang Chen-liang "Meng Chiang-nU

ku-shih yen-chiu" , Shih-ta kuo-wen yen-chiu. so chi-k'an. No. 26 (1982), pp. 35-41.

^ I use the chart of Chang- Shou-lin with a modification. See Chang, "Wang Chao-chUn ku-shih yen-pien chih tien-tien ti-ti" 50Si n Tun-huang pien-wen lun-wen lu. 2.645. 64 See Ch’ang-ch'eng, p. c42 3 .

see Ed. Chang Po-chin ^n?tj£» Kuo-chtt ta-ch*eng

0/fel*riU T*ai-pei: Kuo-fang pu yin-chih ch'angj.969)» i.307-36. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, my study may be summarized as follows.

These four pien-wen are historical stories. On one hand,

they are related to history. They have integrated and

realistically featured many historical events and folklore

elements, such as those included in the winter clothes

theme, the theme of beauty and the barbarian, the

relationship between the Han and the Hsiung-nu. the

"Disguise as Madman (Fool)" floklore motif, to name a

few. On the other hand, they are stories exhibiting creative attributes and writing skills. These pien-wen stories are

concise with lively and evocative characterization, and the development of the plots is skillfully handled. The literary merits demonstrated in these stories have formed a significant part of Chinese literary heritage and exercised a great influence on later fiction.

In every chapter, my analysis of the pien-wen story has focused on the literary achievements of each of them, some of which have made these stories stand out. By quoting an old poem, in "Meng Chiang-ntt pien-wen," the author raises rhetorical questions which convey a real irderstanding of the creativity of literary works and capture the key meaning of the climax, the crumbling of the Wall. Some new details and more elaborate description have also set this

. • ■• • • v - 2 1 1 V

212

Tun-huang version aphrt from several other versions about

the Meng Chiang story. "Wu Tzu-hstt pien-wen" provides

intricately creative episodes and interesting folklore

elements, which magnificently contribute to a complete and

excellent presentation of one of the great reprisal stories

in Chinese folk literature. In "Li Ling pien-wen," the

author considers Li Ling 's tragic life experience as a

subject to amplify his protesting art and work of reappraisal

The author's heterodox spirit marvelously echoes the

historical events and the precedents, and also inspires

later writers. Standing alone on the top of the mountain,

Chao-chttn is graphically presented much like a solitary

model among all her images in numerous works about her.

"Wang Chao-chttn pien-wen" elaborates on the inner world of

Chao-chttn so vividly that I believe, this story with its

symbolic meaning should be ranked as one of the best

portraits of Chao-chttn in Chinese literature.

In referring to the writing skills and techniques, at

first * we review the pien-wen's new narrative or structural

technique, which has greatly affected-later Chinese literature. In the following aspects, we see this impact:

1) in later times, some genres, such as shuo-hua,pao-chttan and t 'an-tz'u . inherited this technique of the interspersion of verse and prose; 2) still later, in the

Ming and Ch'ing novels, this alternation also appears. The inserted poetry provides highlighting illustration while 213

prose gives narration in detail; 3) finally, in thePeking

Opera, the artistic combination of songs and dialogues is

also influenced by this pien-wen*s technique. These four

pien-wen exemplify this technique, through which we note

the pien-wen*s evident influence in this respect on later

literature.

Moreover, as previously discussed, the use of doublets

and puns, the succinct four-word lines or ornate lines, the

realistic narration and transcendent lyrics as a joint art

of telling and showing— all make these representative four

pien-wen distinctive artistic examples. Besides, in these

four pien-wen, the rhetoric, the mediating activities or

the intervention of the author, is explicit. Since the

pien-wen derives from storytelling, its narratives have

open intervention similar to the public story-teller

addressing his audience. The narrator's intrusion allows

him the freedom to quote a poem deliberately or make a

comment openly. This clear and obvious rhetoric produces

an effect which continually influences alter vernacular

fiction. For instance, the introductory mark or prologue,

providing the same type of free mediating activities, is

given in the later vernacular fiction. In addition, some

other devices found in later vernacular fiction, such as

the occasional pretended alternations with the audience

and the frequent summaries, all serve a similar purpose to make the rhetoric notable and also to give a "distancing 214 1 effect." Consequently, the rhetoric of the pien-wen as

shown in these four pien-wen is influential. Similarly,

three modes of narrative, which are already expressed in

these pien-wen, are continually used in the later vernacular

fiction as well. Therefore, as pioneers of vernacular

fiction, both in contents and in skills, these pien-wen stories

display conscious literary styles and qualities indicating

that the authors have utilized well the pien-wen's unique genre, the rhetorical techniques as well as the three modes of narrative, and have left masterful models for later following works.

Furthermore, before I end my discussion, in these pien-wen stories, both the two archetypal heroes and the two tragic heroes, by embarking on their journeys,eventually confront a central concern, the way of Heaven. The reader envisions these heroes or heroines on quests for answers about the relationship between Heaven and Man. Each of the®-characters find himself alone between Heaven and earth, whether at the climax or at the end of his life journey. We observe that Chao-chttn silently climbs the high mountain at a critical moment, and that Li Ling is left all alone in desert to face a tragic end. Also, Meng

Chiang is weeping desperately over the Great Wall in the wilderness, while Tzu-hsG suffers from his fugitive journey on earth first, then victoriously retruns and gives offering to Heaven and earth. The canvas or setting-of these stories 215 is immense , against which Li Ling and Chao-chttn convey their grief expression of loss and their innermost feelings; Meng Chiang and Tzu-hstt plea and give thamks for the wonderful things which Heaven has done. As a result, these pien-wen stories illustrate man's concern for the way of Heaven and have developed dramatic samples of man's quest for knowledge and perfection. When the reader finishes these pien-wen stories, he will appreciate that Meng Chiang and Tzu-hstt have received the justice of Heaven, and that before Chao-chttn dies and after Li Ling suffers, they have kept questioning Heaven about the unanswered mystery of their lives. As a consequence, these pien-wen stories have treated not only historical stories, but also man's universal and ultimate concern.

I have interpreted my study on these four historical pien-wen stories, which share folklore attributes and literary merits in common, to present the creative aspects of "su-pien." the secular pien-wen. By presenting this 2 study with a focus on "historical stories by folk writers,"

I have wished in the words of an old Chinese saying, "to throw out a brick to induce jade" . In the promising field of Tun-huang studies, I expect many prominent future studies, especially more splendid literary studies on the historical as well as the secular pien-wen. 216

n o t e s

^ See Patrick Hanan, "The Early Chinese Short Story:

A Critical Theory in Outline," HJAS, XXVII (1967)1 173-

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