Introduction

Flowers of peach and pear come to bloom under the caress of the spring breeze. We sing songs and tell stories in the sheltering shade of the silver birch. /\. r I r '" ~~ -fA -tB QS -kii!i: "Efi:J --H-- ~ ~ -:7' ~± ~f4 t:b ~~f~ ' !j~rHJ~JXl~ ' r~~ 1'§Ffjp~§JG~ 1JT7j(J¥ ' ~~1t:ffi ' IJ\~M* BtJ~*r Photograph by Cathy Birch Epstein VB INTRODUCTION Almost a decade has gone by since Professor Cyril Birch retired from UC Berkeley and the idea of compiling, in his honor, a collection of articles written by his former Ph.D. students first began to germinate. Now, with the same mixed sense of trepidation, relief, and expectation that we always experienced when we submitted our term papers to him some fifteen, twenty, or even thirty years ago, we finally, in a tangible way, can say to Professor Birch: "~~1~Er~f{~ 0 " The articles in this volume are arranged first according to the genre dealt with and then chronologically within each broadly defmed area. We begin with two articles on Ming drama, followed by 10 articles that in one way or another focus on various aspects of Chinese fiction-from Ming huaben stories and popular Qing gongan type narratives, to the May-fourth era and the wuxia (martial arts) and xiangtu (regional) fiction, to the avant-garde stories of the 1980s and 1990s. We also have two articles that concern themselves with translation, and one on classical poetry. We conclude the articles with a fine and most informative piece on Peter Sellars' production of Peony Pavilion by Professor Catherine Swatek, solicited by the editors of CHINOPERL. Some of the articles were written as early as the 1990-91 academic year, at which time we had the unrealistic aim of presenting the volume to Professor Birch soon after his retirement; whereas a couple of the articles were not completed until early 1999. All 15 articles, regardless of their completion dates, have gone through the editorial hands of at least two or three readers and have undergone at least one major revision (except for the article by Marston Anderson, who passed away in August 1992). We understand that none of the articles can match Professor Birch's scholarship out hope that all of them will meet with his approval. In the following pages I will comment briefly on each article, summarizing in a few sentences its gist. • With a detailed discussion of Tang Xianzu's "character design" in his Peony Pavilion, Hua Wei demonstrates how Tang (1550-1616)-rightfully considered the most important and renowned late-Ming dramatist-through skillful disposition of his dramatis personae, brings his intended dramatic CIllNOPERL Papers No. 20-22 (1997-99)© 1999 by the Conference on Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. CIllNOPERL Papers No. 20-22 themes to the foreground of the stage. Hua Wei for Peony Pavilion (a play with some 90 characters) distinguishes three sets of major characters~ the "thematic pair" (i.e., the female protagonist and her lover), the "thematic foils" (i.e., the characters who contrast with the "thematic pair"), and the "choric characters" (i.e., the characters who provide commentary upon and explanation of the dramatic action). Through the interaction of these three sets of characters, Rua Wei asserts, Tang Xianzu has strengthened his thematic presentation and brought into sharp focus the theme of unrelenting pursuit of love and of personal fulfillment, noting that Tang Xianzu is a master in dramatic character-design and supporting her argument with reference to several of Tang's otherchuanqi plays. • Following the traditional Chinese literary historian's path, Edmond Vee examines the sources, evolution, influences and legacy of Gao Lian's late-Ming chuangqi play Yuzanji. In his article, Yee poses this provocative question: why the lasting enthusiasm for this play-by general agreement amongst critics, a "mediocre" play by a "mediocre" playwright-and the attention? Yee's answer provides one of the main reasons underlying the interest of 20th century literary scholars in Ming drama and fiction as a whole: Yuzan Ji is a work of "social criticism", and is one of the first Ming plays to deal with human sexuality. Viewed as such, the play reflects...