Music and Oral Performing Literature in the Jin Ping Mei Cihua”: Appendix 1: Descriptions (6.18.14)

1 Appendix 1: Descriptions of Sonic and Musical Activities The main text of reference is Tao Muning 陶慕寧, annot., Jin Ping Mei cihua 金瓶梅詞話 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue, 2000), referred to in abbreviated form below as the “Renmin edition.” This edition is very different from the 1980s edition by the same press. References include the chapter number followed by a period and the page number. Jiaozhu refers to Bai Weiguo 白維國 and Bu Jian 卜鍵, annot., Jin Ping Mei cihua jiaozhu 金瓶梅詞話校注 (Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1995). Almost all of the references are to the notes in that edition, which are referred to by note numbers (without page numbers). These notes are particularly useful for indicating in a concise fashion what elements of the text are quoted or reworked from earlier sources (“for source” below refers to both circumstances). “Woodblock edition” refers to Jin Ping Mei cihua 金瓶梅詞話, 5 vols., original preface dated 1618 (Tokyo: Daian, 1963). Page references to it include chapter number, followed by a slash and the page number. “Roy” refers to David T. Roy, tr., The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P’ing Mei, 5 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993-2014). References to it include volume (in Roman numerals) and page numbers. The translation is especially useful for its provision of translations of song-suites mentioned but not quoted in the novel. Its notes also contain a wealth of material about the sources worked into the novel but they are only cited below with reference to a small number of specific questions (it is not a bad idea to get into the habit of skimming all of the notes for cited passages). It should be kept in mind, however, that although Professor Roy is very learned and deeply interested in the kinds of oral performance that are reflected in the novel, his translation is not as single-mindedly designed to reflect that aspect of the novel as the descriptions below. In some instances, the details pointed out in the notes below will not necessarily be reflected in Professor Roy’s translation. Sucai refers to Zou Juntao 周鈞韜, Jin Ping Mei sucai laiyuan 金瓶梅素材來源 (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji, 1991), another convenient reference with regard to the sources made use of in the novel. After this appendix there are a number of charts. One is designed to help find the location of citations in different editions of the novel than those cited. Other charts give information about the material in the different chapters sorted by a number of variables. The statistics presented in them with 1 The advantage of this file, whether in PDF or WORD, of course, is that it is searchable. 49 “Music and Oral Performing Literature in the Jin Ping Mei cihua”: Appendix 1: Descriptions (6.18.14) regard to the content of this appendix are based on the pre-2014 version. That and the present version differ only minimally in terms of content, but I have not had the time to redo/verify the statistics presented in the charts. The notes in this appendix are intended to be very inclusive. References to sound in general, and especially the use of onomatopoeia, are included, although no claim of completeness can be made. A lot of the bulk concerns the description of sing-song girls and prostitution in the novel, topics which are almost always closely related to music in the world of the novel. There are also some entries on the descriptions of occasions for which one would expect music (weddings, for instance) but in which music is not mentioned. It is very unlikely that these are exhaustive. There is an uneasy compromise below between trying to have each entry focus on a particular feature of the use of sound and music in the novel and the desire to avoid an unmanageable proliferation of entries. I have, however, tried to give separate entries for different levels of references to music. For instance, when a song is sung whose text includes references to music in it, there will be two entries, one to record the singing of the song, and the other to record the references to music (or sound) in it. At the end of all of the items below, references to the relevant section of the Roy translation are given, but in the present form of the items, not very much effort has been taken to make the descriptions match the Roy translation nor is a very high percentage of the information made available in the endnotes to the translation made use of. But given the format of the items and the information given in them, readers should be well situated to do this kind of comparative work themselves. However, passages in quotes not otherwise attributed should be understood as coming from the Roy translation. 50 “Music and Oral Performing Literature in the Jin Ping Mei cihua”: Appendix 1: Descriptions (6.18.14) Original Prefatory Matter: Xinxinzi 欣欣子 Preface (Renmin, pp. 1-3): Mentions a total of 9 fictional works or collections of fictional works, including at least one with strong connections to later dramatic works (“Yingying zhuan” 鶯鶯傳), but no works of drama. See Roy I, 3-5. Nongzhuke 弄珠客 Preface (Renmin, p. 5): Draws equations between characters in the novel and dramatic role-types: Ximen Qing to a dajing 大凈 (big painted-face role), Ying Bojue to a xiaochou 小丑 (lesser clown or lesser lesser painted-face role), and the various lewd women (yinfu 淫婦; Pan Jinlian, etc.) to choupo 丑婆 (women played by clown actors) and jingpo 凈婆 (women played by jing actors). See Roy I, 6. Nongzhuke 弄珠客 Preface (Renmin, p. 5): Relates an anecdote about a friend of the preface writer admonishing a young man for being infatuated with the character of Xiang Yu in a scene from a play featuring a banquet scene. The youth is reminded that the seductiveness of this scene should be seen as preparatory to and explanatory of Xiang Yu’s eventual bad end. See Roy I, 6. Lyrics [to the Tune Title “Burning Incense” (Renmin, p. 6)]: The first lyric ends with the line, “when drunk, sing” (zui shi ou 醉時謳). This is the only mention of music in this set of lyrics, whose implied persona is more refined than most of the characters in the novel. Music is not mentioned in the set of poems on the four vices (Renmin, pp. 6-7). See Roy I, 8. 51 “Music and Oral Performing Literature in the Jin Ping Mei cihua”: Appendix 1: Descriptions (6.18.14) The Novel Proper: 1.102: After he has told her that he is worried about not having an heir, Zhang Dahu’s wife tells him that she will have a matchmaker buy for him two maids to wait on him, and they will early and late (zaowan 早晚) study (xixue 習學) how to pluck an instrument and sing (tanchang 彈唱) so that they can wait on (fushi 服侍) him. Seeing that the narrator has told us that she does not permit him to have any pretty maids, her motivation for providing both pretty and musically accomplished maids for her husband is perplexing, especially in light of the fact that we can expect that the song repertoire that they were taught to sing would be, as in the rest of the novel, dominated by songs about love and desire, and from her severe reaction when she finds out later that he has been sleeping with Pan Jinlian and their lovemaking is presented as the cause of his death. The Jin Ping Mei cihua adds additional information about Pan Jinlian’s background (over that in the Shuihu zhuan 水滸傳); the added sections in turn borrow from a vernacular short story (Sucai 10-11), but the musical aspects are added in the Jin Ping Mei cihua (Sucai 10-11). See Roy I, 26. 1.11: We are told by the narrator 3 that Pan Jinlian was sold at the age of nine4 to Imperial Commissioner Wang’s household (Jiaozhu note 153) and there studied (xixue 習學) how to pluck an instrument and sing (tanchang 彈唱). See Roy I, 26. 1.11: We are told that by the time of Imperial Commissioner Wang’s death and she has been taken from that household by her mother, Pan Jinlian is only 15 but she is accomplished at woodwinds and plucked instruments (pinzhu tansi 品竹彈絲; Jiaozhu note 158) and is also good at the pipa 琵琶. See Roy I, 26. 1.11: We are told that Pan Jinlian is sold to Zhang Dahu for 30 taels of silver (in the novel maids are bought for as little as four or five taels of silver, 5 presumably she is more expensive 2 Unless otherwise indicated, the emendations of the text in the Renmin edition have been accepted for the purposes of this work. 3 Here and below, the phrase “We are told” should be understood as “We are told by the narrator.” 4 Characters ages are given according to the traditional Chinese system, and should be lowered by one year when converted to the Western system, as in the Roy translation, but I have not done so. Please keep this in mind. 5 See section on prices (wujia 物價) in Cai Guoliang 蔡國梁, Jin Ping Mei kaozheng yu yanjiu 金瓶梅考證與研究 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin, 1984), pp. 247-60, especially p. 60, “Ma he yatou de jiage” 馬和丫頭的價格. 52 “Music and Oral Performing Literature in the Jin Ping Mei cihua”: Appendix 1: Descriptions (6.18.14) than most girls because of her musical skills). In his household she continues to learn (xue 學) the pipa 琵琶.

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