Translations from Wang Bocheng’s Tales from the Tian Bao Era (Tianbao Yishi): Genre and Eroticism in the Zhugongdiao

TRANSLATIONS FROM WANG BOCHENG’S TALES FROM THE TIAN BAO ERA (TIANBAO YISHI): GENRE AND EROTICISM IN THE ZHUGONGDIAO Fan Pen Chen1 (SUNY-Albany) The zhugongdiao 诸宫调, translated variously as all keys and modes, medley, or chantefable, consists of suites of songs of the same rhyme and musical mode interwoven with prose narratives. One performer would enact a complete tale by singing the arias within the suites and connecting them with dialogues and prose. A popular form of entertainment which flourished from the end of the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, the zhugongdiao was a precursor to and co-existed with the renowned Yuan zaju 元杂剧 (Yuan drama) and was influential in its development. Its influence helps to explain the unusual convention in Yuan zaju that no matter how many characters appeared on stage, it was typical for one performer to sing all the arias of the play. Although Tales from the Tianbao Era (Tianbao yishi zhugongdiao 天宝遗事诸宫调; hereafter Tianbao Era) by Wang Bocheng 王伯成 (ca.1276)2 survives only in partial form, it is one of only three zhugongdiao that are extant in any form whatsoever.3 While the other two have been translated into English, Professor Jim Crump being a co-translator of one of them, no extensive translation of Tianbao Era exists.4 This translation of arias from Tianbao Era is dedicated to Professor Crump, whose interest in the performing arts laid the foundation for studies in this field in the west. It is also intended to complement the analysis of Tianbao Era in an earlier article of mine5 by focusing on the influence of genre constraints on gender depiction through translating a selection of suites of the arias from this almost lost zhugongdiao to show at once the preponderance of love and eroticism, and richness of the language in this genre at its height. 1 I would like to express sincere gratitude to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, which helped to update portions of the introduction and improve the translations. 2 For data on Wang Bocheng, see Wilt L. Idema, “Banished to Yelang: Li Taibai Putting on a Performance,” Minsu quyi 民俗曲艺 145 (2004): 5-38, pp. 10-13. 3 The other two are Master Dong’s 董解元 (ca. 12th century) Xixiang ji 西厢记 (Western Chamber Romance) and the anonymous Liu Zhiyuan Zhugongdiao 刘知远诸宫调 (Ballad of the Hidden Dragon). The former is the only extant complete version of a zhugongdiao and was translated by Li-li Ch’en, as Master Tung’s Western Chamber Romance: A Chinese Chantefable (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), while the extant fragments of the latter were translated by Milena Doleželová-Velingerová and James Crump as Ballad of the Hidden Dragon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971). 4 There is the partial translation of two suites and an analysis of Tianbao Era in Fan Pen Chen, “Yang Kuei-fei in Tales from the T’ien-pao Era: A Chu-kung tiao Narrative,” Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies 22 (1990-92): 1-22 and a translation of two of the prologue suites in Stephen H. West, Vaudeville and Narrative: Aspects of Chin Theater (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1977), pp. 102-105. 5 See the previous note. CHINOPERL Papers No. 26©2006 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. CHINOPERL Papers No. 26 The zhugongdiao are many chapters in length and treat mostly romantic stories. Aside from the three extant works, Tianbao Era, Master Dong’s Western Chamber Romance, and Liu Zhiyuan Zhugongdiao, nine more love stories were said to have been done in zhugongdiao form.6 Wilt L. Idema, however, has shown that of those nine stories, only the title of the story of a romance between a student, Shuang Jian 双渐, and a courtesan, Su Xiaoqing 苏小卿, can be positively identified as a zhugongdiao title.7 The main problem with Tianbao Era, praised by the renowned critic, Zheng Zhenduo 郑 振铎 (1898-1958), as surpassing in artistry the highly acclaimed Master Dong’s Western Chamber Romance,8 is the state of its preservation. Not only is it less complete than the partially preserved Liu Zhiyuan zhugongdiao, none of its prose passages have survived and all we have are an unknown percentage of the arias as they were collected in four...