Pre-Jin Ping Mei Uses of Oral Performing Literature

Rolston lin Ping Mei cihua For the rest of this paper, we will first examine the antecedents to the nonrealistic uses of oral performing literature in the earliest edition of the lin Ping Mei, and then proceed to an analysis of the various types of nonrealistic usages in that work. We will then tum to the fate of those usages in sequels to that novel and in later editions of the lin Ping Mei. In the final part of this paper, attention will first be turned to works of fiction generally held to have been influenced by the lin Ping Mei, such as the Honglou meng #r~~ and its sequels and imitations. Then we will take a glance at fiction not typically connected to the lin Ping Mei, and one novel, Qilu deng ~n~~, which positions itself in opposition to the lin Ping Mei. For a conclusion we will try to decide which of the types of nonrealistic uses of oral performing literature in the lin Ping Mei cihua were adopted by later authors and became a part of the tradition of fiction composition and which uses were abandoned. Pre-lin Ping Mei Uses of Oral Performing Literature The nonrealistic uses of oral performing literature we are interested in include descriptions of performances, quotations from and allusions to works of oral performing literature, and the application of techniques from oral performing literature to works of fiction. Prior to the lin Ping Mei cihua, performances of oral performing literature presented directly in the narrative of novels can be found, but they are few in number. In the earliest versions of the Shuihu zhuan, performances of this type are included composer and performer of .guci IDZ~Qjwho was an acquaintance of the author. See Richard E. Strassberg, The World of K'ung Shang-jen (N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1985), pp. 33-40. Also of note is the second act of the late Ming Suzhou playwright Li Yu's Qingzhong pu mJ~ ~ , in which Li Haiquan performs a section of the story of Yue Fei (Yue Fei Zhuan ffim~). Stage directions for the listeners onstage are included. It is also true that several Yuan dynasty zaju plays feature performers of zhugongdiao ~?K ~JWJ as their heroines. Characters using visual aids to tell stories feature in the famous zaju Zhaoshi gu'er m~f)1\)l, its chuanqi adaptation, Bayi ji J\~~B, and the Peking Opera play, Wang Zuo duanbi £filffW (also known as Duanbi shuoshu lffW~ _), which is based on the early Qing novel Shuo Yue quanzhuan ~ffi~~, to be discussed briefly below. 9 CHINOPERLPAPERSNo.17 for plot rather than thematic reasons. Yulan sings a famous ci ~Pj poem by Su Shi if~ (1037-1101) as part of the plot to frame Wu Song ~t.t for theft,30 and the author goes to the trouble of showing us Lei Heng watching the performance of a zhugongdiao (medley in all keys with interpolated prose) because he gets into trouble when he has no money on him with which to reward the performers?! The original version shows no interest in the content of the performance,32 as is also the case in the mention of the performance of an unnamed yuanben ~Jc*(dramatic skit) later in the novel.33 Although Zhang Qing lets on that he is afraid of what 30 Zheng Zhenduo J~1~~ et al., eds., Shuihu quanzhuan 7FMF~~ (Beijing: Renmin wenxue, 1954), p. 30.462. Others will perhaps see more going on here than I allow. 31 Shuihu quanzhuan, pp. 51.840-841. See also Wilt Idema and Stephen H. West, Chinese Theatre 1100-1450 (Weisbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982), pp. 198-200. Liu Hui ;U*f, "Lun xiaoshuo shi ji huode xiqu shi ~/J\m3t:~pmI¥JJlJtr±83t:," in his Xiaoshuo xiqu Zunji /J\§)lJlJt r±8~~ (Taipei: Guanya, 1992), p. 80, asserts that the performance is an instance of cihua ~Pj§~ (prosimetric narrative) rather than zhugongdiao. The lin Ping Mei cihua makes extensive use of the Shuihu zhuan, even outside the chapters treating Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian. A set-piece in parallel prose describing the main performer in chapter 51 is used in the later...