Xiangkong laoweng (The Codger Who Soars through the Sky): James I. Crump, Jr. and Chinese Oral and Performing Literature (With a Bibliography of Professor Crump’s Published Writing)

XIANGKONG LAOWENG (THE CODGER WHO SOARS THROUGH THE SKY): JAMES I. CRUMP, JR. AND CHINESE ORAL AND PERFORMING LITERATURE (WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PROFESSOR CRUMP’S PUBLISHED WRITING) Jeff Keller1 (University of Chicago) James Irving Crump, Jr., was born on March 8th, 1921, in Newark, New Jersey, to James Irving Crump (1887-1979) and Marguerite D. Whitney. His father, under the name of Irving Crump, was editor of Boy’s Life for over twenty-five years and wrote over forty books, many in The Boy’s Book Series. Father and son co-authored in 1963 a book on the archaeology of China for general readers entitled Dragon Bones in the Yellow Earth. Professor Crump attended Columbia University and graduated with an A.B. in 1945, going on to earn his Ph.D. at Yale in 1950 under George Kennedy. He began teaching at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1949, becoming a full professor in 1972. Professor Crump retired in 1988, was granted emeritus status in 1989, but remained in residence in Ann Arbor and regularly gave guest lectures in colleagues’ classes. He died in 2002. A festschrift was in preparation for over a decade but was never formally submitted for publication. The contributors included Professor Crump’s students Anne Behnke Kinney,2 William O. Hennessey,3 Paul Kroll,4 Dale Johnson,5 Cynthia Ning,6 Ching-Hsi Perng,7 and Stephen West8 ; his departmental colleagues Kenneth DeWoskin, Shuen-fu Lin, and David Rolston; and non-University of Michigan colleagues Cyril Birch, Milena Doleželová,9 Wilt Idema, Dana Kalvodová, and John C. Y. Wang. Even though his own festschrift never appeared, and he himself reportedly never set much store in the whole project, Professor Crump showed his deep attachment to his many students by dedicating one of his later books to them.10 His students kept in close contact with him, he was well loved by many, and he left a strong impression on all who knew him. 1 This paper was originally written for a seminar at the University of Chicago as part of my M.A. course work. I would like to thank Professor Crump’s colleagues, Professors Shuen-fu Lin and David Rolston, for providing information and guidance. Although I received my B.A. from the University of Michigan, I never had the opportunity to speak with Professor Crump. 2 Her dissertation was actually directed by Kenneth DeWoskin. 3 “The Song Emperor Huizong in Popular History and Romance: The Early Chinese Vernacular Novel, ‘Xuanhe Yishi’” (1980). 4 “Portraits of Ts’ao Ts’ao: Literary Studies on the Man and the Myth” (1976). 5 “The Prosody of Yuan-ch’ü” (1968). 6 “Comic Elements in the ‘Xiyou Ji Zaju’” (1986). 7 “Judgment Deferred: An Intra-Genre Criticism of Yuan Drama” (1977). 8 “Studies in Chin Dynasty (1115-1234) Literature” (1972). 9 Professor Doleželová did a post-doc at Michigan with Professor Crump as mentor. 10 See the discussion of his Songs from Xanadu below. Dissertations directed by Professor Crump also include those of James Erwin Dew on verb phrase constructions in zaju 雜劇 (1965) and Elleanor Crown on Yuan dynasty lyric suites, santao 散套 (1975). CHINOPERL Papers No. 26 (2005-2006)©2006 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. CHINOPERL Papers No. 26 Professor Crump had wide-ranging interests that extended far beyond the academic. Despite being a professor of Chinese, he called himself a sometime classicist and knew Latin, French, Japanese, and German. He was an avid fisherman and carpenter, building both practical things for his house, such as cabinets, as well as more unusual things, such as a harpsichord and a glider. The latter was built in his basement and he had to add a new door to get it outside once it was finished (he always claimed that this had been part of the plan from the very beginning). Proudly painted on the tail of the glider were the characters Xiangkong laoweng 翔空老翁—he had both a very healthy and self-deprecating sense of humor. Professor Crump’s contributions to the academic world extended beyond the classroom. In particular his overseeing of the microfilming of rare editions of Chinese novels in Japanese collections...