Macdonald, Alastair Ewan (2016) Reimagining the vernacular story : textual roles, didacticism, and entertainment in Erpai. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/23804 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. Reimagining the Vernacular Story: Textual Roles, Didacticism, and Entertainment in Erpai Alastair Ewan Macdonald 548934 Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2016 Department of China and Inner Asia SOAS, University of London 1 Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: 21/6/2016 Alastair Ewan Macdonald 2 ABSTRACT Reimagining the Vernacular Story: Textual Roles, Didacticism, and Entertainment in Erpai This thesis studies the late Ming vernacular short story collections Pai’an jingqi 拍案 驚奇 (Slapping the Table in Amazement) and Erke pai’an jingqi 二刻拍案驚奇 (Slapping the Table in Amazement Volume Two), together known as Erpai 二拍 (Two Slaps). They were written by Ling Mengchu 凌濛初 (1580-1644), who was heavily inspired by Feng Menglong’s 馮夢龍 (1574-1646) genre-defining Sanyan 三 言 (Three Words) collections. Through close textual analysis, this thesis argues that the overriding focus on the “functional effect” (entertainment and didacticism) of the stories represents a reimagining of the genre given shape to by Feng. In place of Feng’s concern for the literary respectability and perceived popular origins of the texts, Ling focuses on the entertaining and didactic effects of the stories on their audience. This reimagining is primarily manifested in Ling’s manipulation of the three textual roles of writer, commentator, and storyteller to privilege the functional effect of the collections. The textual analysis is focused on these three roles. Chapter One introduces the historical context, Ling Mengchu’s life, the genre of huaben fiction, the Erpai collections, the way Ling conceived fiction. The literature review rounds off this chapter. Chapter Two examines the question of the intended audience of the collections. Chapter Three examines the use of textual roles in prioritising the didacticism of the collections, making use of the communicative theoretical framework of ventriloquism. Chapter Four examines the use of textual roles in prioritising the entertainment value of the collections. Chapter Five compares the use of textual roles in Sanyan with that in Erpai, demonstrating the differences in approach between the works. Finally, the Afterword considers the implications and influences of Ling’s reimagining of the vernacular story. 3 General notes: All translations and the mistakes in them are my own unless otherwise noted. Within quotations, marginal commentary is enclosed in curly brackets {} in English, and square brackets 【】 in Chinese. Interlineal commentary is enclosed in triangular brackets <> in both English and Chinese. The marginal comments were, of course, originally placed in the margin, though here they are placed in line with the main text for ease of reading. The placement of the comments follows that found in the Ling Mengchu quanji 凌濛初全集 editions for Erpai, and the 1991 Jiangsu guji chubanshe (Zhongguo huaben daxi 中國話本大系) editions for Sanyan. Where a quotation from a story contains a verse passage, this is set in italics in English and indented relative to the main text. In Chinese, it is indented relative to the main text. Punctuation in the Chinese text follows that found in the Ling Mengchu quanji editions. Chinese characters are given in citations only on the first time an author or work is cited, with pinyin being used in all subsequent citations. Abbreviations used in footnotes EKPAJQ: Erke pai’an jingqi 二刻拍案驚奇 (Slapping the Table in Amazement Volume Two) (Ling Mengchu quanji edition) GJXS: Gujin xiaoshuo 古今小說 (Stories Old and New) (1991 Jiangsu guji chubanshe edition (Zhongguo huaben daxi 中國話本大系)) JSTY: Jingshi tongyan 警世通言 (Comprehensive Words to Caution the World) (1991 Jiangsu guji chubanshe edition (Zhongguo huaben daxi 中國話本大系)) LMCQJ: Ling Mengchu quanji 凌濛初全集 PAJQ: Pai’an jingqi 拍案驚奇 (Slapping the Table in Amazement) (Ling Mengchu quanji edition) SYLPZL: Sanyan-Liangpai ziliao 《三言、兩拍》資料 (Materials on Sanyan- Liangpai) XSHY: Xingshi hengyan 醒世恆言 (Immortal Words to Wake the World) (1991 Jiangsu guji chubanshe edition (Zhongguo huaben daxi 中國話本大系)) 4 Citations from other editions are not abbreviated. Abbreviations used for individual stories Stories from Pai’an jingqi, Erke pai’an jingqi, Gujin xiaoshuo, Jingshi tongyan, and Xingshi hengyan are generally referred to using an abbreviation and a number. “I” refers to Pai’an jingqi, “II” refers to Erke pai’an jingqi, “GJ” refers to Gujin xiaoshuo, “TY” refers to Jingshi tongyan, and “HY” refers to Xingshi hengyan. The number refers to the order of the story within the collection, so I-10 refers to the tenth story in Pai’an jingqi. 5 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express sincere and special thanks to my lead supervisor Prof. Tan Tian Yuan for his support, guidance, and patience over the last four years, and without whom I could not have done this. Sincere thanks also to Prof. Andrew Lo, Prof. Michel Hockx, and Prof. Liu Yongqiang for their insightful advice and comments along the way. I would also like to thank the organisations and schemes that provided much- appreciated funding and valuable opportunities: the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation’s Doctoral Fellowship scheme, the Confucius Institute’s New China Study Plan, the Elizabeth Croll Fieldwork grant, and the SOAS-NTU project. Thanks also to Jacob, Jasmine, and all in China for their help and encouragement. Last but definitely not least, I thank Hannah for her unflagging support, careful proofreading, and delicious cakes. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction and Literature Review 8 Chapter Two: Intended Audience 107 Chapter Three: Textual Roles and Didacticism 163 Chapter Four: Textual Roles and Entertainment 256 Chapter Five: Reimagining the Short Story 343 Afterword: Implications and Influences 400 Appendix I: List of Ling Mengchu’s Works 408 Appendix II: Wu vocabulary and sentence patterns in Erpai 419 Bibliography 433 7 Chapter One: Introduction and Literature Review 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 Introduction 10 Historical background 15 Ling Mengchu 22 Huaben fiction 44 Erpai 54 Ling Mengchu’s conceptions of fiction and drama 65 Literature review 86 9 Introduction The Ming dynasty short story collections Pai’an jingqi 拍案驚奇 (Slapping the Table in Amazement) and Erke pai’an jingqi 二刻拍案驚奇 (Slapping the Table in Amazement Volume Two), together known as Erpai 二拍 (Two Slaps), were written by Ling Mengchu 凌濛初 (1580-1644) and published in 1628 and 1632 respectively. The stories constitute the second major body of work in the genre of vernacular short story often known as huaben 話本1 fiction after Feng Menglong’s 馮夢龍 (1574- 1646) Sanyan 三言 (Three Words) collections. The original contribution of this thesis is to argue that they represent a reimagining of the genre given shape to by Feng. This reimagining hinges on the prioritization of “functional effect”, specifically entertainment and didacticism, to a position of overriding importance. In place of Feng’s concern for the literary respectability and perceived popular origins of the texts, Ling focuses on the entertaining and didactic effects of the stories on their audience. This privileging of functional effect is achieved through the use of the three “textual roles” afforded to the author by the features of the huaben. The notion of the “textual role” was adopted in this thesis to highlight the fact that Ling performs three distinct roles in these texts: a writer, deciding on the events of the story, a simulated storyteller, narrating the story, and a commentator, remarking on 1 See section “Huaben fiction” in this chapter, p.44, for more detail. 10 the story. These three roles all vary in distance from the events of the plot, and each enable Ling to enhance the functional effect of the stories by making them more entertaining and didactic in different ways. Though these three roles may be found to differing extents in a range of fictional genres, the distinction between the roles is particularly sharp in huaben fiction thanks to the use of clearly defined personas to narrate and comment on the stories. In huaben fiction, the task of narration is performed by a conspicuous “storyteller” persona, who mimics the patter of professional marketplace storytellers and possesses a discernible character of his own. The role of commenting on the story, meanwhile, is played by a “commentator” persona, kept distinct from the “storyteller” persona both linguistically, through his use of the literary language, and spatially, through the positioning of the comments on the margins, outside the printed “box” in which the main text was set. Both personas are distinct from each other and also distinct from the role of the writer.