Short Version of River Yang 小陽河 (a.k.a., The Four Saints Return to Heaven 四聖歸天): A Marionette Play from Shaanxi

CHINOPERL Papers No. 28 (2008-2009)©2009 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature SHORT VERSION OF RIVER YANG 小陽河 (a.k.a., The Four Saints Return to Heaven 四聖歸天): A MARIONETTE PLAY FROM SHAANXI Narrated by Wei Runsheng 魏潤生 from Memory Translated and Introduced by FAN PEN CHEN State University of New York, Albany It is said that the earliest known form of puppetry in China, traditional string-puppet theatre (tixian mu’ou xi 提綫木偶戲, xianxi 綫戲) or marionette theatre (kuilei xi 傀儡戲), presently exists only in Heyang 合陽, Shaanxi, in northern China. While the marionette theatres of southern China, particularly those of Fujian, have been amply documented (Chen 1986; Jin 2003; Minsu quyi 1983, 2002a, 2002b; Ruizendaal 2006; Song 1994; Ye 2007),1 only one book and a handful of short articles have treated that of Heyang (Heyang xian Wenhua guan n.d.; Huang 1999; Shi 1999).2 Possibly, due to the similarity in nature of puppets to statues representing deities, both puppets and statues are thought to have spiritual powers through the execution of specific religious rituals. In Fujian, traditional puppetry has been considered particularly efficacious as representations of deities in mythical, religious ritual plays. However, this formerly vital, religious role of the puppet theatre is all but extinct in northern China and not mentioned in any of the published sources. Through fieldwork conducted in Heyang during 2005, I was able to find out from Dang Wenhui黨文輝, former performer and troupe director of the official marionette troupe of Heyang, then 68 years old, some of the 1 These are selected from among fifty-some bibliographic items I have collected on string puppetry in Fujian and Taiwan. 2 These are selected from more than a dozen bibliographic items on the string puppetry of Heyang, Shaanxi. CHINOPERL No. 28 rituals related to Lord Guan (Guangong 關公; Guan Yu 關羽), patron saint of the Heyang marionette theatre and the most popular local deity. I was also able to obtain the rare copy of Short Version of River Yang, one of the most popular plays because it featured Lord Guan, that is translated below. History Puppet theatres predated the human actor theatres in both India and China. Many scholars have noted the influence of string-puppetry on human theatrical forms such as the Peking opera (jingju 京劇; Sun 1965; Chang 1951, 134-135; Su 1995, 3:13-14). The geographical origin of puppetry is, however, a controversial topic. Richard Pischel believes that India is the home of the puppet theatre and that it spread to the rest of the world by Gypsies (Pischel 1902). Berthold Laufer connects the Chinese word for puppets, kuilei 傀儡, to the Turkish name, kukla, for marionettes. Tracing the word to Medieval Greek, he suggests that it spread from Byzantium to the Slavs who passed it onto the Turkish tribes of central Asia. The word is still used in the Slavic, Turkish and Gypsy languages (Laufer 1923, 39). Noting the existence of eleven variant orthographical forms or characters for the Chinese word for kuilei (窟礧子 kuleizi，魁礧 kuilei，魁櫑 kuilei，窟磊 kulei，魁壘 kuilei，魁攂 kuilei，滙磊 huilei，傀磊子 kuileizi，苟利子 goulizi，加[嘉]禮戯 jialixi), Victor Mair also concludes that the name “….must undoubtedly have been transliterated from a foreign language” (Mair 1983, 18). Other scholars look for the origins of the puppet theatre in the masked dances of the exorcistic nuo 儺 rituals of the Han (206 B. C. E.–220 C. E.) and earlier (Dolby 1981, 99; Dong 1983, 36-37; Sun 1980, 40 and 55-57; Jiang 1988, 63-68). In addition, funerary statues symbolizing the dead and people accompanying the deceased to the underworld were thought to be predecessors of marionettes (Dong 1983, 24-35; Sun 1980, 52-55). The first use of the word kuilei is found in a source from the end of the Han (Ying Shao’s 應绍 Fengsu tong 風俗通 quoted in Sun 1952, 4) although this source was not recorded until the sixth century (Dolby 1981, 97). According to this and later sources, it is certainly clear that puppets were used for funerals by the end of the Han. At the same time they were also used to entertain guests at private parties. During the Northern Qi dynasty (550-557) of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, Baldy Guo (Guo Tu...