Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 151-164

Between Animal and Human: The Evolving “Mouse” in Successive Version of Fifteen Strings of Cash

Xinzhu LI School of Marxism Southeast University 2 Sipailou, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China [email protected]

Abstract: This paper focuses on the change of the image of “mouse” which was transformed from the legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash to the other versions. The legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash, written by Zhu Suchen, was a story of the vindication of defendants in a court case and formed the basis for a series adaptations. The legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash provided a frame of imagination about the image of a “mouse”. Meanwhile, the adaptation of the legend in folk opera provided a more ethical narrative than the original. The folk versions not only strengthened the “evil” of the “mouse”, but also heightened the suffering of innocent scholars. In the contemporary versions after 1949, the “mouse” as an animal disappeared in the story, and Lou Ashu (“shu” means “mouse” in Chinese) became a pure villain in this play, which also symbolized “evil” and pointed to the feudal and backward old society. Keywords: Fifteen Strings of Cash, animality, good and evil

The legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash was written by an author from Suzhou named Zhu He during the Qing dynasty. Zhu He also self-styled as Suchen, and was known by others as Sheng An. His precise dates of birth and death are unknown, but what is clear is that he was active in the late Ming dynasty, and was a key figure in the central group of drama writers in Suzhou (Kang, 1987). Divided into two volumes, Fifteen Strings of Cash tells the stories of two cases of social injustice. In the first case, a mouse causes an outrage, whereby a scholar named Xiong Youhui and a young woman named Hou Sangu are sentenced to prison. In the second case, a character named Lou Ashu kills Su Xujuan’s father in order to steal some money; and due to a case of mistaken identity, Su Xujuan and a scholar named Xiong Youlan are wrongly accused of adultery and the killing of Su Xujuan’s father You Hulu. However, thanks to the intervention of Chenghuang (town god), Kuang Zhong (a government official who is about to take office in Suzhou) realizes the injustice. Through a series of further interviews and checks conducted by Kuang Zhong, the two injustices are uncovered. The

© 2019 Xinzhu LI - https://doi.org/10.3726/CUL022019.0010 - The online edition of this publication is available open access. Except where otherwise noted, content can be used under the terms of the Creative 151 Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). For details go to http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ Xinzhu LI / Between Animal and Human… brothers on either side of the story, Xiong Youlan and Xiong Youhui, not only pass the imperial examination, but also marry the female protagonists Hou Sangu and Su Xujuan respectively at the end of the story. In the legend written by Zhu He, the “mouse” character takes two forms: mouse as animal; and mouse as person (Lou Ashu). In folk versions written by Lingren (opera actors in ancient China) about the story, the naturalness and unnaturalness of the “mouse” were further refined, meanwhile, the “mouse” appeared as deity and monster. In 1955, the legend was then adapted by Huang Yuan and Zhejiang Guofeng Kunsu Troupe. Under the guidance of the opera reform policy of the People’s Republic of China, references to the mouse as animal but also deity and monster were removed, leaving Lou Ashu as a mere mortal. In light of these evolutions, this paper will discuss the transformations in the image of the “mouse” in the Fifteen Strings of Cash in different versions from three key perspectives, namely: good and evil, humanity and animality, and the re-expression of images. In this way, we may hope to explore how these developments came to pass.

I. THE “MOUSE” IN THE LEGEND OF Fifteen Strings of Cash

In the first case of injustice, concerning Xiong Youhui and Hou Sangu, the character of the mouse is seen to steal a gold ring. In Zhu He’s original story, the mouse is an extremely destructive animal, characterized by disrupting the order of human society. In a later play called “Shu Qie” (a mouse good at stealing), the voice of the mouse is suggestive of destruction. Zhu He, meanwhile, uses an allusion to “Zhang Tang Shu Yu ” (a mouse stealing meat is judged by Zhang Tang) to imply the mouse is a thief by nature, and a bringer of chaos (Zhu, 1983:24). In the story, the mouse makes a hole in the wall, linking the two previously separated spaces. Hou Sangu’s golden ring is carried through this hole to Xiong Youhui’s home, while a poisonous morsel carried to Hou Sangu’s room leads to the death of the unwitting husband Feng Jinlang. As a result, the ring is used as evidence of infidelity between Xiong Youhui and Hou Sangu (Zhu, 1983:34-36). In this context, the wall represents a physical boundary, symbolizing the insuperable divide that exists between Xiong Youhui and Hou Sangu. The mouse carrying food from one room to another is described as “stealing,” and its nocturnal behavior is described as “zuoguai” (literally

152 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 151-164 meaning mischief). In this way, the mouse’s burrowing is seen as undermining the ethical boundaries, which cause the ethical and legal dilemma of Xiong Youhui and Hou Sangu. As such, the nature of the mouse and its destructive force give the mouse’s behavior in the legend a strong sense of social significance. In the second case of injustice, meanwhile, Lou Ashu plays a similar role to the mouse in the first story. Xiong Youlan and Su Xujuan suffer a miscarriage of justice because of Lou Ashu’s behavior. And in terms of time, space and behavior, Lou Ashu exists in direct parallel to the mouse. He even displays similar behaviors, sleeping in the morning and going out at night to gamble until dawn, a pastime he is so fond of that he cannot tell night from day, and confusedly asks his neighbor You Hulu “Weishenme zaozao kaimen?” (Why is the door open at such an early hour) In fact, Lou Ashu is insatiable in his gambling, pawning his cotton coat for “Wubai wen, zhiwang fanben.” (five hundred coppers, hoping to win) Seeing the 15 strings of cash by You Hulu’s bed, he thus comes up with the idea of stealing them, “qiaoqiao xiezou jiguan.” (quietly take a few strings) (Zhu, 1983:59) In ancient China, phrases like “Shu Yu,” (a mouse stealing meat is judged by Zhang Tang) “Shuo Shu,” (big rat) and “She Shu” (a mouse living in the tiny temple housing the village god) added special significance to the mouse’s behavior, such as burrowing were even linked to the destruction of human society. This concept had influenced the presentation of the image of the “mouse” in the Fifteen Strings of Cash. In constructing the image of the “mouse,” Zhu He also sought to create his humble opposite, the scholar. The behavior of the “mouse” epitomizes the destruction of human society and social order (in other words, “evil”). Its opposite is the “good” and orderly behavior shown by scholars like Xiong Youhui and Xiong Youlan. In the case of this story, these two brothers are born into a scholarly family, and though the family is poor, the two brothers are diligent and willing to learn, taking on the virtuous characteristic of what is called “lianbi” (“linked jade”, meaning the two brothers have virtue) in the process (Zhu, 1983: 3). This stands in direct contrast to the behavior of Lou Ashu, who while also poor, takes to gambling and theft to satisfy his greed (Zhu, 1983: 59). On the other hand, the instinctive behaviors of the mouse were not unduly reproached by Zhu He, and Xiong Youhui’s poisoning of the mouse was never permitted. In fact, the official in charge of the enquiry, Kuang Zhong, considers Xiong Youhui’s behavior in killing the mouse as

153 Xinzhu LI / Between Animal and Human… reprehensible, and suggests that Xiong Youhui and Hou Sangu have brought their injustices upon themselves (Zhu, 1983: 137). Yet, when the behavior of the mouse is transplanted into human form, Lou Ashu’s behavior is indeed depicted as immoral or evil. Gambling only spurs his greed, and he does not hesitate to steal or kill for money. Acting in line with his mouse-like characteristic: his gestures become startled, “chou pen jie,” (Lou Ashu sprays) (Zhu, 1983: 60), his words flurried, his manner funny yet hateful; he is “zhe liang ri xin huang dan sui, rou tiao xin jing.”(flustered and scared these days) (Zhu, 1983: 123)

II. THE ETHICIZED “MOUSE”

After the legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash was accepted by the Liyuan (opera troupe in ancient China), it formed the basis for a series of adaptations, including the Liyuan versions, the Fifteen Strings of Cash and Golden Ring in the Mu Yu Shu (one kind of opera in Guangdong), Shuang Shu Qi Yuan Bao Juan, Shuang Xiong Meng (a dream about two bears, “Xiong” meaning “bear” in Chinese) in the guci (a poem singing with drum), and so on. However, the “mouse” that appears in the adapted versions of Fifteen Strings of Cash is very different from the “mouse” presented by Zhu He. In the adapted versions, the Fifteen Strings of Cash and Golden Ring and Shuang Xiong Meng guci, for example, the mouse transcends itself, becoming both deity and demon. In comparison with the realistic description of the mouse’s destructive behavior in the original, the behavior in the folk versions is full of fun and fantasy. Comparing the original version, where in the “qing tian bai ri, laoshu zuoguai,” (the mouse is making trouble in broad daytime) (Zhu, 1983: 35) the “mouse” in the Mu Yu Shu version is clever and cute; the noise made by the mouse is compared to the noise of “caobing.” (trained soldiers) (Anonymous, 1957: 495) In the guci, meanwhile, the “mouse” shows lively movement, “na yiye haozi fang nei dachengcuan, xingcuan xingtiao laihui nao, ba zhua kou ken cheshupian, hutingde jijiao dongfang liang, laoshu liuqiu donglizuan.” (the mouse jumping and running in the room at night, scratching, pulling and gnawing; suddenly the chickens start crowing and the sky turns bright; the mice slip quickly back into their hole.) (Anonymous, 1957: 242) Such extracts show clearly how, in the folk opera versions, the image of the “mouse” is more humorous and playful. From the Mu Yu Shu even comes the Cantonese expression “laoshugong, laoshupo, laoshuzai shi laoshuge.” (the male mouse, female mouse, little brother mouse

154 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 151-164 and big brother mouse) (Anonymous, 1957: 502) It’s a humorous expression in Cantonese. Compared with the original, the “mouse” in the folk versions also has more freedom and power to destroy property and scramble the order of things. As an example, in the guci, the mouse goes to “zheng hunle yiye…jiahuo, wanzhan, zhuoshang de jingshu, fenfen er sui.” (mixing it up all night…The things, the bowls are scattered, the sacred books on the table are smashed) (Anonymous, 1957: 243) The sections of the guci known as the Shuang Xiong Meng also uses allusions such as “Wu Shu Nao Dong Jing,” “Bai Shu Jing and Tang San Zang” to support the destruction effected by mice, while allusions like “Hun Yuan Shu” and “Fei Shu Dao Liang” are also adopted. Here, “Hun Yuan Shu” refers to a kind of mouse that has the magic power to catch a “demon fox” in Chinese folklore, and the Ming dynasty opera “Hun Yuan He” tells us that “the demon fox has been practicing self-cultivation for a thousand years and the mouse god wants him to die.” (Anonymous, 2013b: 134-135) The story emphasizes that Hun Yuan Shu helps people to defeat the demon fox, Hun yuan shu is a metaphor for the “shen shu.” (a mouse-like god) Turning to the “Fei Shu Dao Liang,” this was written in or around the time of the Tang dynasty, Li Mi had done many bad things, a flying mouse stealing all the food, in an effort to save Li Shimin. (Anonymous, 2013a: 27) However, the “e shu” (evil mouse) (Anonymous, 1957: 243) of the guci still emphasizes the destruction of social order caused by the evil behavior of mouse, the singer not only highlighting its cunning, but also emphasizing its significance as a symbol of the links between the Yin (the nether world) and Yang (the present world) in the transformation between human and ghost, man and beast, and beast and deity. In conjunction with this, in the folk versions, gambling is typically depicted as a trivial activity, and although Lou Ashu has a gambling habit, there is no direct connection between his gambling and the murder. In the Bao Juan, guci, and Mu Yu Shu, Lou Ashu’s sinister image is made clear as soon as he takes the stage. The guci Shuang Xiong Meng stresses his evil side, telling us that Ashu was a man addicted to whoring and gambling, and habitually deceptive. (Anonymous, 1957: 315) The Mu Yu Shu version repeats this, while the Shuang Shu Qi Yuan Bao Juan states directly that Lou Ashu was a fiercely bad person, “sheng de yifu xiongxiang, zixiao zeitou gounao.” (had a fierce look, and the look of a thief since he was little) (Anonymous, 1957: 564) The original version never mentions Lou Ashu’s appearance,

155 Xinzhu LI / Between Animal and Human… but no doubt, his appearance is used to emphasize his corrupt nature. In any case, Lou Ashu remains an agent of chaos, but in the stage versions, his evil is no longer that of human nature, it is more an animalized evil. In a certain way, too, the evil behavior of the mouse corresponds with the unethical behavior displayed by Xiong Youhui and Xiong Youlan. The guci, in particular, emphasizes Xiong Youhui’s intention to kill the mouse, an act which leads to the disaster that befalls Hou Sangu and himself. As such, the poem of guci tries its best to portray the evil of Xiong Youhui: “Xiong Youhui hen shuhao ,enian shasheng;” (Xiong Youhui hates the mouse, and intended to kill the mouse) “haiming shasheng hensidao;” (a murderer’s heart is like a knife) (Anonymous, 1957: 248) “shaxin yidong, yousun yingong.” (when one decides to kill, one’s virtue is hurt) (Anonymous, 1957: 244) While Ashu is a representative of an evil which must be killed, Xiong Youlan and Xiong Youhui make it through their tribulations since they come from a family of scholars and never stop learning. (Zhu, 1983: 3) Overall, the violence and pain experienced by Youhui and Youlan in the guci and Bao Juan versions far exceed that of the original. In the guci version, the random behavior of Xiong Youlan and Xiong Youhui leads to physical pain and humiliation. Shuang Xiong Meng, a guci version of the legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash, for example, describes how Xiong Youlan and Xiong Youhui have their scholar status stripped by officials and are forced to kneel, as punishment for being accomplices to the criminal who might have murdered their husband or father. Among the endless complaints of the protagonists, cries of grievance bemoan the humiliating penalty brought upon them, creating a frightening atmosphere on the stage. Meanwhile, through their repeated descriptions of suffering in the guci, Bao Juan and Mu Yu Shu, Xiong Youhui, Xiong Youlan, Hou Sangu and Su Xujuan express the idea that good fortune and misfortune are fated. This point can be deduced from the brief moral lesson that Kuang Zhong gives Xiong Youhui in the legend of Fifteen Strings of Cash. The mouse as animal has its own life, and in the guci, You Jingui (Su Xujuan) persuades her father You Fulu (You Er) to put down the butcher’s knife, no longer slaughtering such poor animals, so as to avert the disaster caused by the gods, brought on by killing,“haiming shasheng tian baoyang.” (divine punishment for killing) (Anonymous, 1957: 328) In the revised guci, You Fulu’s death is also linked to “tian baoyang,” (It’s the scourge of the gods upon the people). Meanwhile, the certainty of blessing and curse means that Xiong Youhui’s retaliatory actions will only

156 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 151-164 bring disaster, “xinke zhuangyuan Xiong Youhui, fuhuo wumen ziji zhao, zhiyin enian shaxin zhong, yinde yousun fan tiantiao.” (While Xiong Youhui’s first- place finish in the imperial examination was predestined, the idea of killing a mouse damages his virtue, and he was in distress because of his evil thoughts) (Anonymous, 1957: 248) The four people affected by this outcome are not merely hindered by their own immoral behavior, they are all doomed. In the Mu Yu Shu version, when the official Kuang Zhong reviews the injustices of the individuals concerned, he pronounces that “qiansheng zhuding shou zaiyang;” (The sufferings of this life are predestined.) (Anonymous, 1957: 534) while of Su Xujuan (You Jingui), who wishes to avoid his father but eventually brings suffering upon herself, “You Jingui yanxia you yichang danan linshen, zaoding gaiyou bairi laoyu zhi zai.”(You Jingui is about to meet with disaster, and found herself many days in jail.) (Anonymous, 1957: 314) In some respects, in these works, suffering in the world can be seen to bring about good fortune in the other. The wheel of fortune turns, “jixing laile xiongxing tui, dixiong tongzhong muhuangen. Numing choushi jinbianhao.” (the auspicious star defeating evil, the brothers receiving kindness from the king. A turning of their destiny is coming) (Anonymous, 1957: 537) The guci also mentions “Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian Zhong Hua;” (a Taoist classic) or “xunhuan anli ying suishen. Yingong langlang zeng fushou, dexing mianmian ji zisun. Kuixin biran zhe fulu, yuan zai ersun jin zai shen.” (doing good things will help bring good fortune and longevity, not only in one’s own life, but in those of one’s children. Doing bad will surely decrease good fortune and longevity, by the same token) (Anonymous, 1957: 243) This metaphor indicates that scholars who have not achieved success, and unmarried women, were both disadvantaged groups in society. Their pursuit of “goodness” is out of incompetence and a desire for revenge of some kind. Lou Ashu is like a fierce animal, whose behavior is dangerous, and unconstrained by the moral order, is a symbol and representative of the strong in society. To counter such forces, it seems that only violence can keep the beast within its cage. In Zhu He’s version of the story, however, ending Lou Ashu’s life does not mean the recovery of social order. After the end of “En Pan” (judgement, one part of Fifteen Strings of Cash), Zhu He also wrote six plays to revive morality and reconstruct social order in more detail. However, in Shuang Shu Qi Yuan Bao Juan, the story ends with the death of Lou Ashu, and the same violent ending also defines the Kunqu

157 Xinzhu LI / Between Animal and Human… performance. Zhu He’s story-telling style did not win obvious favor from his actors in this regard, and in one of the editions of the Rui He Shan Fang, by Du Buyun, Fifteen Strings of Cash ends after the “;X

158 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 151-164 directed to emphasizing his animalistic nature. “Lou Ashu comes on stage, stretches himself, yawns and made some scratching gestures just like the mouse, in order to made the audience laugh.” (Wang, 2014: 97) These small gestures were designed to give the performer the semblance of a mouse, while the animal-like movements of Choujue in the Kunqu captured a more bestial feeling of danger and violence. Lou Ashu’s performance was usually more eye-catching than those of other performers, and often went down very well with the audience. Finally, in the stage productions of this work, spoken dialect was used to make Lou Ashu’s performance both humorous and more interesting. The dignified official tone of Kuang Zhong’s speech and the strong localized accent of Lou Ashu, in Wuxi dialect, came and went from the stage. This contrast between official speech and dialect make the localized Ashu tinier. Born at the bottom of the moral order, with his animal-like presentation as a Choujue in the Kunqu, the mouse not only reflects the ongoing tension between human nature and animal instinct, but also the ongoing tension between moral order and social order. The Qing dynasty’s Liu Tingji noted that “Fujing XiaoChou BingBai duo yong Suzhou xiangtan,” (the roles like Fujing Choujue in the operas often employ Suzhou speech) while “Sheng Dan Wai Mo, congwu yongzhi zhe,” (the roles like Sheng, Dan, Wai, and Mo in the operas never use that) and “Fujing Xiaochou suo ban jie xiapin renwu.” (the roles like Fujing Xiaochou plays are always people of low social status) It might infer, therefore, that “Su ren zi gan yu wei Fujing Xiaochou ye.” (people from Suzhou are willing to play the part of Fujing Xiaochou) (Liu, 2014: 271) Kuang Zhong is enlightened by the god in the town god’s temple, and the injustice caused by “mouse” needs a local official with divine power to clean up. As a corollary, Lou Ashu never belonged to the mortal world, either in a moral sense, or in terms of the normal societal order. He is a being who lived beyond the moral system.

III. POLITICIZED “MOUSE”

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the opera reform was an important movement of rebuilding the new world. The opera reform aimed at injecting new ideas into folk opera, eliminating the “fengjian mixin” (feudal superstition) and gods and ghosts of the past. Zhou Chuanying, a famous Kunqu artist who had been studying Kunqu operas

159 Xinzhu LI / Between Animal and Human… in Suzhou before 1949, learned to perform the Kunqu opera Fifteen Strings of Cash, which he carried in new directions after the revolution. Based on his explorations of the work, in 1953, he and some other artists decided to stage a production of it. They deleted the part where Kuang Zhong revisits the civil case following a moment of enlightenment in the town god’s temple, changing it so that Kuang Zhong listens to the statements of the four defendants, and makes his ruling accordingly. This version kept the focus on the one central injustice being caused by “mice digging holes”, but by November 1955, the situation had changed. The director of the cultural bureau in Zhejiang Province at that time, Huang Yuan, had got involved in an adaptation that was being made, and under Huang’s leadership, the first case of injustice caused by the mouse was excised, since the case was judged too coincidental and bizarre – coincidences and animal-led injustice were indicative of “unscientific” superstition. If it can be said that the 1953 version preserved Lou Ashu’s animal instincts, the 1955 version not only removed the role of the mouse as animal but also framed Lou Ashu’s behavior more within the context of human behavior. The phrasing of Lou Ashu’s theft changed from the more gentle “yiguan fu yiguan” (string by string, slowly) (Guofeng kunsu opera troupe, 1955: 6) to “wo tou le zhe qian, li ke qu dao dufang.” (he stole the money and ran immediately to gambling) (Anonymous, 1955: 5) In this way, the sense of greedy animal nature was replaced by that of human greed. In spite of this, Lou Ashu’s mouse-like greed was still somewhat rooted in instinct, and was mainly attributed to the behavior of a “rogue,” representing “fengjian poluo hu.” (rogue in feudal society) At the same time, Xiong Youlan was no longer a scholar replete with knowledge, but rather a diligent worker toiling at the bottom of society. As such, the 1955 version emphasized the character “Guo Yuzhi,” weakening the importance of the role of Lou Ashu. In both the original and the folk versions, the attitudes of the local officials saw significant change when they discovered the cases had been misjudged. In the new adaptation, however, Guo Yuzhi was a stubborn local official at first, and Kuang Zhong spotted the contradictions through reasoning based on hard facts, bringing the two culprits to justice. After the release of Fifteen Strings of Cash, some thought that Lou Ashu’s conduct should be presented in a grand people’s court, and allowed to be judged by the citizens. However, the majority believed that the theme of the story was about how the cadres deal with such cases. Director Huang

160 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 151-164

Yuan, who led the adaptation, agreed with this. Huang Yuan’s adaptation was welcomed by senior officials from the Communist Party of China, and Mao Zedong made it very clear that Fifteen Strings of Cash should be performed widely, since the characters in the play were to be seen living everywhere in society. (Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, 2013: 569) The modern versions therefore focused more on the relations between Guo Yuzhi and Kuang Zhong, while Lou Ashu was considered a liar, a thief and a rascal. As a Choujue in the Kunqu opera, Lou Ashu’s ugly performance was also relevant to the contemporary staging. Mei Lanfang commented when he watched Kunqu Fifteen Strings of Cash that Lou Ashu’s appearance was a “traditional one, not devised by a single individual.” (Mei, 1956) Hua Chuanhao, an artist good at Choujue performance, embodied Lou Ashu using several “oblique steps.” The first scene in the adapted Fifteen Strings of Cash was the Shu Huo, where Lou Ashu comes to the stage and steals money, and Hua Chuanhao walks with “body turned, step by step, in an oblique way,” while at the same time “turning his head back to look,” all of which was designed to make Lou Ashu’s on stage movement seem both “sneaky” and “surreptitious.” (Hua, 1961: 26) Crafty footwork aside, Hua Chuanhao’s Lou Ashu was guided to “frequently run his chin to his shoulder, to show his idleness and unpleasant thinking.” (Hua, 1961:18) In general, the styles of movement and footwork displayed by Lou Ashu in contemporary stage performance were inherited from the late Qing dynasty. Meanwhile, the adaptation of the Kunqu version of Fifteen Strings of Cash also changed Lou Ashu’s accent to that of an official, even though the stage performance was still using local dialect. In the performance of the Zhejiang Kunqu opera troupe, Lou Ashu’s performer Wang Chuansong sang in Suzhou dialect with a vivid tone and strong facial expression. In the movement, he “tilted his face, tilted his shoulders.” (Mei, 1956) However, Lou Ashu had undergone a change in the context of stage performance, as in the opera setting, Lou Ashu was fierce and sometimes alarming to others, but was always a villain, “a malevolent and sharp-witted rascal,” (A, 1956) skilled at cheating and stealing. His personality was described as “50% cattiness, 30% slippery, 20% vicious: just like his name ‘Shu (mouse)’” (Yu, 1957) In the performance, Lou Ashu’s movement was also highly animalized, and it was said that “There is a mouse living inside the heart of this kind of person.” However, Ashu was not “a coward only

161 Xinzhu LI / Between Animal and Human… committing evil deeds at night.” (A, 1956) The animalized performance only presented his “catty” and “evil” sides, and when teaching others how to play the role, Wang Chuansong pointed out that the performance should include some nuance and depth based on the character’s original image. (Sun & Qian, 1961) In terms of stage performances in contemporary China, Lou’s performance clearly sat more on the “vicious” end of the spectrum. The man with a progressive mindset called Kuang Zhong who brings Lou Ashu to trial was in fact a mortal rather than supernatural or moral force. Reflecting on Kuang Zhong’s character, he was interpreted as embodying a virtue that every local cadre should possess when processing a case: shi shi qiu shi (being able to seek out the truth based on the facts). Kuang Zhong’s behavior showed that he did not fully trust the files, but “cross-checked the files against what the prisoners said,” “proofreading the files according to the evidence rather than extorting confessions.” (Zhang, 1956) In contrast with this, stands the subjectivism of Guo Yuzhi and the bureaucracy of Zhou Chen. People at that time said: “subjectivism kills people,” (Li, 1956) while bureaucracy was “the bad habit of the government in the old society.” (Shen, 1957) To reject subjectivity and bureaucracy was “one of the most essential characteristics that distinguished our people’s judges from any other ruling class;” (Li, 1956) Backwardness represented subjectivity and bureaucracy, while progress represented shi shi qiu shi, and the former should be criticized and the later encouraged. It also suggests that the future is always brighter than the past. Lou Ashu’s behavior of gaining without credit, killing and stealing, was not only an immoral behavior, but also a feudal one. The metaphor here is that the animal nature of Lou Ashu’s character by then had been transformed into backwardness.

IV. CONCLUSION

From the mouse in the original scholarly version Fifteen Strings of Cash, to the “mouse” in the folk versions, and then the “mouse” in the contemporary versions, the “mouse” in this story travels the full spectrum between human nature and animal nature, nature and super-nature, and “good” and “evil” in the moral sense. The traditional Confucian concept of social superiority and inferiority was broken after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the tension between civilian and scholarly

162 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 16(2)/2019: 151-164 classes was transformed into a tension, between moral cadres and “evil” behaviors. Furthermore, the traditional morality which bound scholars and civil officialdom came gradually to be applied to the cadre system. The introduction of progressive morality, or new morality, has been used to constrain animality in human nature, and the restraint of cadres was derived from a standard of virtue combining tradition (being a “good” person) to becoming more precise (progressive “good”) person. In this sense, morality can be said to be a force repressive of nature, having great temporal significance in the modern age as it becomes a medium through which social order is constructed.

Notes

Grammatically proofread by Stephen Roddy, University of San Francisco.

References

Anonymous. Shi wu guan zhengli chugao ॷӊ䋡᮪⨼ࡓふ (The first draft of Fifteen Strings of Cash), Anonymous,1955. ——. “Shuang shu qiyuan bao jua 䴏啖ཽߚሬভ” in Shi wu guan xiqu ziliao huibian. ॷӊ䋡ᡨᴨ䋽ᯏᖏ㐞 (Operatic material on Fifteen Strings of Cash), Fu, Xihua and Lu, Gong, Eds. Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1957. ——. “Shi wu guan jin huan ji mu yu shu ॷӊ䋡䠇⫦䁎ᵞ冐ᴮ” in Shi wu guan xiqu ziliao huibian ॷӊ䋡ᡨᴨ䋽ᯏᖏ㐞 (Operatic material on Fifteen Strings of Cash), Fu, Xihua and Lu, Gong, Eds. Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1957. ——. “Shuang xiong meng gu ci 䴏⟀མ啉䂔” in Shi wu guan xiqu ziliao huibian ॷӊ䋡ᡨᴨ䋽ᯏᖏ㐞 (Operatic material on Fifteen Strings of Cash), Fu, Xihua and Lu, Gong, Eds. Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 1957. Shuo tang hou zhuan 䃠୆ᗂ۩ (The sequel of the stories in Tang .—— dynasty), Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe, 2013a. ⧀Hun yuan he ␭ݹⴈ” in Qing chewangfu cang xiqu quanbian (12)␻䔀“ .—— ᓒ㰅ᡨᴨޞ㕌ㅢ 12 ߂.Xiao, Shaosong Ed. Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe,2013b. A, Jia. “Xiang shi wu guan de biaoyan yishu xuexi shenme ੇॷӊ䋡Ⲻ㺞╊㰓㺉ᆮ㘈Ӷ 哲 (What can we learn from the performance of Fifteen Strings of Cash). ” People’s Daily Ӱ≇ᰛ๧, May. 18th, 1956. Du, Buyun. Ruiheshanfang chaoben xiqu ji (3)⪔只ኧᡵᢺᵢᡨᴨ䳼ㅢ 3 ߀,Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2018. Guofeng kunsu opera troupe. Shi wu guan ॷӊ䋡 (Fifteen Strings of Cash), Anonymous, 1955.

163 Xinzhu LI / Between Animal and Human…

Hua, Chuanhao. Wo yan kun chou ᡇ╊᰼䟒, Lu, Jianzhi, Ed. Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1961. Kang, Baocheng. “Li Yu Zhu Suchen Qiu yuan shengping shiliao de xinfaxian ᶄ⦿Ƚᵧ㍖ 㠙Ƚюൈ⭕ᒩਨᯏⲺ᯦Ⲳ⨴.” Journal of the Graduates of Sun Yat-Sen University ѣኧཝᆮ⹊ガ⭕ᆮࡀ, (2), 1987: 73-77. つуੂⲺሟ࡚֒仞 (Two differentޟ Li, Geng. “Liangzhong butong de shenpan zuofeng .trial styles).” Guangming Daily ݿ᱄ᰛ๧, Aug. 5th, 1956 Lu, Eting. Kunju yanchu shigao ᰼ࢽ╊࠰ਨふ, Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe,1980. Liu, Tingji. “Zaiyuan zazhi(3)൞ൈ䴒䃂 ভп” in Xin qu yuan (1)᯦ᴨ㤇(р), Ren Zhongmin, Ed. Nanjing: Fenghuang chubanshe, 2014. Mei, Lanfang. “Wo kan kunju shi wu guan ᡇⵁ᰼ࢽॷӊ䋡 (Impressions of Fifteen Strings of Cash).” Journal of Theatre ᡨࢽ๧, (5), 1956:10–11. Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee. Mao Zedong nianpu ∑◚ᶧᒪ䆒 (Chronology of Mao Zedong), Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2013. Shen, Tongheng. “Zhi ren gongwen buren ren ਠ䃃ޢᮽу䃃Ӱ ” People’s Daily Ӱ≇ᰛ ๧, Feb. 29th, 1957. Sun, Zunian and Qian, Lizhuan. “Kunsu jutuan de xiao yanyuan ᰼㰽ࢽൎⲺቅ╊ଗ (Young actors of Kunsu opera troupe).” People’s Daily Ӱ≇ᰛ๧, Aug. 9th,1961. Wang, Xiangyang. Liyuan quwen lu Ởൈ䏙㚔䤺, Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2014. Yu, Zhenfei. “Jingji shuji er buyou ㋴ᾫ⟕ᾫ㙂у⋯ (A perfect performance).” Hangzhou Daily ᶣᐔᰛ๧, Feb. 3th,1957. Ӱ⢟ (There charactersفZhang, Zhen. “Tan shi wu guan de sange renwu 䃽ॷӊ䋡Ⲻп of Fifteen Strings of Cash).” Journal of Literature and Art ᮽ㰓๧, (11),1956: 27- 29. Zhu, Suchen. Shi wu guan jiaozhu ॷӊ䋡ṗ⌞ (Fifteen Strings of Cash: Collated and annotated), collated and annotated by Zhang, Yanjin. and Zhang, Songyi. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1983.

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