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Red-Light Novels of the Late Qing

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Red-Light Novels of the Late Qing Red-light Novels of the late Qing starr_f1_prelims.indd i 3/12/2007 9:07:36 AM China Studies Published for the Institute for Chinese Studies University of Oxford Editors Glen Dudbridge Frank Pieke VOLUME 14 starr_f1_prelims.indd ii 3/12/2007 9:07:36 AM Red-light Novels of the late Qing By Chloë F. Starr LEIDEN • BOSTON 2007 starr_f1_prelims.indd iii 3/12/2007 9:07:36 AM Cover illustration: Textual compilation from Xiuxiang Huayue hen (Guangyi Shuju, n.d.), author’s copy. This book is printed on acid-free paper. ISSN 1570-1344 ISBN 978 90 04 15629 6 © Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands starr_f1_prelims.indd iv 3/12/2007 9:07:36 AM . to say this is a book which leads people into depravity would be mistaken. Preface, Qinglou meng starr_f1_prelims.indd v 3/6/2007 4:45:19 PM starr_f1_prelims.indd vi 3/6/2007 4:45:19 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..................................................................... xi Preface ......................................................................................... xiii Chapter One Text and Context 1.1 The Literary Context ........................................................ 1 1.2 Classifying the Late Qing: Literary Periods and Divisions ............................................................................. 3 1.2.1 De ning the Late Qing ......................................... 5 1.2.2 Old, New and Modern ......................................... 10 1.3 Raising Fiction ................................................................... 15 1.4 The ‘Courtesan Novel’ and its Reading History .............. 18 1.4.1 Editions and Texts: The Modern ‘Courtesan Novel’ ....................................................................... 23 1.5 Literary Ancestry: A Brief Survey .................................... 27 1.5.1 Love and Warnings: Lessons from Ming Short Stories ..................................................................... 29 1.5.2 Narrating the Perfect Woman: Caizi jiaren novellas ................................................................... 40 1.5.3 Textual Origins and Gendered Desire: Honglou meng ......................................................................... 47 1.6 The Textual Context ......................................................... 53 1.6.1 Textual Meaning .................................................... 55 1.6.2 Scholars and Texts in a Post-kaozheng Era ............. 57 1.6.3 Technological Advances ........................................ 59 1.7 Adverts and Bans ............................................................... 64 1.8 Rights to the Text: Authors and Authority ...................... 66 Chapter Two The Narrator Framed 2.1 Introducing Narrator and Text ......................................... 75 2.2 Figuring the Narrator ........................................................ 90 2.3 Narrator, Text and Transmission: Mirrors and Frames ... 98 2.3.1 Frames .................................................................... 100 2.4 The Central Story and the Fiction of Unmediated Transmission ...................................................................... 106 starr_f1_prelims.indd vii 3/6/2007 4:45:19 PM viii contents 2.5 Narratorial Contradictions and Resolutions ..................... 111 2.6 The Effects of Edition ....................................................... 118 2.7 Conclusions ........................................................................ 121 Chapter Three Characterisation in Context 3.1 Reading Red-light Characters: Textured and Gendered Relationships ...................................................................... 128 3.2 The Essential Male: Qinglou meng ....................................... 134 3.2.1 Text ........................................................................ 135 3.2.2 Qing ......................................................................... 143 3.2.3 Honglou meng ............................................................ 146 3.2.4 Female Roles .......................................................... 147 3.3 The Group Male: Fengyue meng .......................................... 152 3.3.1 Narrated Character ............................................... 154 3.3.2 Group Characterisation ......................................... 159 3.3.3 Bilateral Relations: Purchase and Betrayal ........... 164 3.3.4 Suicidal Loyalty ..................................................... 170 3.4 Conversational Drama: Haishang hua liezhuan .................... 176 3.4.1 Stock Characters .................................................... 177 3.4.2 Jealousy .................................................................. 181 3.4.3 Gendered Viewpoints ............................................ 184 3.4.4 The Social Ladder ................................................. 187 3.5 Reading Character ............................................................ 187 3.6 Conclusions ........................................................................ 193 Chapter Four Structure: The Textual Representation of Itself 4.1 Narrative Structures and the Nineteenth-Century Novel 199 4.1.1 Narrative Drama: The Red-light Novel as Textual Soap-Opera ............................................................ 203 4.1.2 Poetry ..................................................................... 212 4.1.3 Drinking Games .................................................... 219 4.1.4 Macro-Structure: End Frames, Disjunctures, and the Supernatural .................................................... 223 4.1.5 Romantic/Realist Distinctions .............................. 228 4.2 The Text in the World ...................................................... 231 4.2.1 New Printing Technologies and Novel Serialisation ............................................................ 236 starr_f1_prelims.indd viii 3/6/2007 4:45:20 PM contents ix 4.2.2 Serial and Narrative .............................................. 242 4.2.3 Text and Image ..................................................... 248 4.3 Subsequent Editions: Red-light Fiction Re-made ............. 253 4.3.1 Modern Editions and the Place of the Author .... 256 4.3.2 Removing the Prefaces: A Case Study ................. 257 4.3.3 Modern Editorial Approaches .............................. 263 4.3.4 Serial Editions ........................................................ 266 4.4 Conclusions ........................................................................ 268 Bibliography ................................................................................ 275 Index ........................................................................................... 287 starr_f1_prelims.indd ix 3/6/2007 4:45:20 PM starr_f1_prelims.indd x 3/6/2007 4:45:20 PM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful to many who have seen this work through various stages of evolution, from DPhil. thesis, to portions of articles, to mono- graph on red-light novels, with a deviation further into textual studies restrained by considerations of cohesion. Glen Dudbridge both super- vised an earlier edition of the text when I was a graduate student, and has acted as editorial advisor for inclusion in this series: his assiduous care is much appreciated. I am very glad that Margaret Hillenbrand agreed to swap entire manuscripts at nal draft stage: I fear I got the better deal. Many thanks are due to those who gave comments on chapters and earlier portions, including Elisabeth Dutton, Jim Hinch, Tao Tao Liu, Laura Newby and David Pollard, my doctoral exam- iner; all those involved with ‘Gentility;’ and colleagues and students in Cambridge, Durham, SOAS and Oxford. An anonymous reader at Brill made some particularly insightful criticisms which caused much re-writing and have, I hope, produced a stronger text. Patricia Radder, also at Brill, has been most ef\ cient and helpful. David Helliwell at the Bodleian has always been extremely generous with his time, and rst port of call for library advice. Alexander Des Forges, Joseph McDermott and Catherine Yeh were very gracious in furnishing me chapters from forthcoming works. Patrick Hanan inspired my initial research into the topic with a graduate course on courtesan novels at Harvard University in the mid-1990s. A term’s sabbatical from St John’s College, Durham, kept research viable during a busy post. D.F. Starr has procured editions in Liulichang, read through copious semi-formed drafts, given technical advice, and never complained at checking translations (isn’t is curious how our father’s generation still has better classical Chinese?). Thanks are due most of all to those who have supported me throughout the research, writing and job hunt phases of life, and in particular my family, to whom this volume is dedicated. starr_f1_prelims.indd xi 3/6/2007 4:45:20 PM starr_f1_prelims.indd xii 3/6/2007 4:45:20 PM PREFACE
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