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An Annotated Translation of Zhang Jiqing’s Lecture on Playing Cui-Shi in Chimeng (The Mad Dream): A Sample Lecture from Kunqu baizhong, Dashi shuoxi (One Hundred Pieces of Kunqu, Master Performers Talk About Their Scenes)
- An Annotated Translation of Zhang Jiqing’s Lecture on Playing Cui-Shi in Chimeng(The Mad Dream): A Sample Lecture from Kunqu baizhong, Dashi shuoxi(One Hundred Pieces of Kunqu, Master Performers Talk About Their Scenes)
Josh Stenberg is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Theatre and Film at The University of British Columbia. He works on and with xiqutroupes in Jiangsu, Fujian, and in the Chinese diaspora.
Footnotes
Supplemental Material
The full lecture video is available in three parts at on Project MUSE.
1. In Dashi shuoxiand in Kunqudiscourse generally, the term zhezi xi折 子 戲 or zhezi折子 refers to short scenes that were typically developed from chuanqiscripts and which form the basic unit of a typical Kunquperformance event. Narratively unrelated zhezi xiare most often performed separately as part of a single-evening or -afternoon program of zhezi xi, though zhezi xifrom the same narrative can also be performed in sequence to make a standalone show, which in that case is referred to by actors as daxi大戲 or quanben xi全本戲. In practice, in Dashi shuoxiand elsewhere, zhezi xican also be used to refer to short scenes with no such relationship to a longer script, but they make up a small minority. In the lectures in Dashi shuoxi, and in xiqudiscourse in general, zhezi xican be referred to just as xi戲, as can standalone adaptations. Since they are neither exactly “plays” nor “scenes,” when Zhang is referring to a zhezi xi, I will use that term instead of “play” or “scene.”
2. “One hundred” should be understood as a round rather than a precise number. See Kim Hunter Gordon’s review of this project in this issue of this journal.
3. The set of DVDs and their introductory booklet as well as the set of five volumes of written versions of the lectures all share the same title and the same publishers and publication date: Hunan dianzi yinxiang and Yuelu shushe of Changsha, 2014. The video of the lecture translated below can be found on the second of 110 DVDs and its written version can be found on pages 15–25 of the first volume of written versions. The original printing of Dashi shuoxiwas not large and only brief clips from eight of the lectures are available online. The project’s dedicated website gives an English title for the project: Masters’ Lectures on 109 Excerpts: The Performing Art of Kunqu. See http://www.dashishuoxi.com/ for that title and http://www.dashishuoxi.com/dashishuoxi_list_video.php?dii=436 for the clips; accessed August 26, 2016. The written version and the video of this lecture will be available as supplemental material on the websites for CHINOPERL and this journal.
4. For a translation of the relevant parts of this biography of Zhu Maichen, see Josh Stenberg, “Staging Female-Initiated Divorce: The Zhu Maichen Story in Twentieth-Century Drama from Opprobrium through Approbation,” NAN NÜ16.2 (2014): 308–40, 312. The biography itself can be found in the Zhonghua shuju edition (1962), pp. 62A.2791–93.
5. Fu Jin 傅謹, “Ruhe rang Zhu Maichen gushi you jiaoyu yiyi” 如何讓朱買臣故事有教育意義 (How to imbue the story of Zhu Maichen with educational meaning), Bolan qunshu博覽群書 (Wide reading in multitudes of books) 2006.3: 49...
