Jin Shengtan, Mao Qiling, Commentary and Sex, and the Caizi Mudan ting Notes to The Story of the Western Wing

CHINOPERL Papers No. 26 (2005-2006)©2006 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. JIN SHENGTAN, MAO QILING, COMMENTARY AND SEX, AND THE CAIZI MUDAN TING NOTES TO THE STORY OF THE WESTERN WING Stephen H. West1 (Arizona State University) We would expect that the small two-part section on The Story of the Western Wing (Xixiang ji 西廂記) found as an appendix to the Caizi Mudan ting才子牡丹亭2 would carry on the agenda of that commentary on the Mudan ting (The Peony Pavilion). Certainly, on the one hand it desires to treat the Western Wing as an historical and textual basis to bolster its erotic interpretation of Mudan ting. The first part of the section is primarily a list of metaphorical readings. They are not, I submit, actually a lexicon of erotica, but are meant to be road signs, approximations that guide the reading of the text as a whole as well as of any particular passage. Some, for example the explanation of proper names, are clearly meant to set an allegorical tone for the reading of Western Wing: 鶯鶯喻女根毛觜並其聲． “Yingying” [Oriole] calls to mind the hairy lips of the female sexual organ and the sound that it makes.3 雙文之文代紋, 即牡丹亭三分、八字等意． The “Text” in Double Text [another name for Oriole] is a replacement for “wrinkle,” used like the words “three-part” [male sexual organ] and “eight” [female sexual organ] from Peony Pavilion. 紅娘喻女根色，即肚麗娘所本． “Crimson” calls to mind the female genitalia, and is precisely that upon which duli niang (“the beautiful flower in the belly”) is based.4 1 A translation by Sun Xiaojing 孫曉靖 of an earlier version of this paper appeared in Hua Wei 華瑋 , ed., Tang Xianzu yu Mudan ting 湯顯祖與牡丹亭 (Taibei: Academia Sinica, 2005), pp. 467-95. 2 Tang Xianzu 湯顯祖, Caizi Mudan ting 才子牡丹亭, Cheng Qiong 程瓊 and Wu Zhensheng 吳震生, comment. (Yongzheng ed.) 208a–214a (hereafter, CMT). For a general introduction to this commentary and its authors, see Hua Wei 華瑋, “Cheng Qiong, Wu Zhensheng, yu Caizi Mudan ting” 程瓊吳震生與才子牡丹亭, Ming Qing funü zhi xiqu chuangzuo yu piping 明清婦女之戲曲創作與批評 (Taipei: Academia Sinica, 2003), pp. 363–99. 3 I take this to mean either the physical sound of love making or the barely perceptible sound of the organ; each of the organs of the body is presumed to resonate at a certain frequency and to produce a natural harmonic. 4 CMT, pp. 9a-b; see also Hua Wei, “Caizi Mudan ting zhi nüxing yishi” 才子牡丹亭之女性意識, Ming Qing funü zhi xiqu chuangzuo yu piping, p. 423. CHINOPERL Papers No. 26 歡郎喻男根 “Happy Lad” calls to mind the male sexual organ. 河中府、普救寺非女根而何？後周所建，而謂天册娘娘功德院，真於喻 意更精． “District within the Rivers,” “Monastery of Universal Salvation”: If these are not the female sexual organ, then what are they? Since the temple was not constructed until the Latter Zhou [951–60], calling it the place where Wu Zetian “performed her pious deeds” makes the metaphor all the more seminal! 法本者觸法之本，所謂二根，所謂造端乎夫婦． “Dharma Law Origin” means the basic tenets of skillful sexual practices, that which is called the “two roots” 5 and “the beginning of [being a Gentleman] is first formed between husband and wife.” 6 博陵塚亦喻女根之意． “Tomb of Boling” also calls to mind the female sexual organ. The rest of the terms listed in the first part oscillate between a set of standard readings that are lexical in nature (i.e., seeing the characters “sun” and “moon” as graphic representations of the shape of the female sexual organ, or identifying “dragon” as a male sexual organ), and those that are highly context dependent in meaning. For instance, if we consider the following aria, delivered by Student Zhang as he reaches the Yellow River, we can see how the identification of key terms shapes the proximate meaning of the lines and of other words. [仙呂][點絳唇]游藝中原，腳跟無線、如蓬轉。望眼連天，日近長安遠。 [油葫蘆]九曲風濤何處顯，則除是此地偏。這河帶齊梁，分秦晉，隘幽 燕；雪浪拍長空，天際秋雲卷；竹索纜浮橋，水上蒼龍偃；東西潰九 州，南北串百川。歸舟緊不緊如何見？卻便似駑箭乍離弦． 5 This probably tangentially refers to the passage from the Tantric : “[Those who are possessed by the demon] are fond of saying that the Pure Land resides in the sensations of the eyes, ears, nose, and tongue; and that the sexual organs of men and women are the true places of bodhi (enlightenment) and 「口中好言，眼、耳、 鼻、舌，皆為淨土；男女二根，即是菩提，涅槃真處，彼無知者，信是穢言。」Shoulengyan yi shuzhu jing 首楞嚴義疏注經, Taisho Tripitaka 大正新脩大藏經, Vol. 39, No. 1799, p. 954a. CBETA Chinese Electronic Tripitaka V1.12, App-Format T39n 1799_p0954a; http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/cbeta. 6 From “Zhongyong” 中庸, 12, in...