Literati Use of Oral or Oral-Related Genres to Talk about History in the Late Ming and Early Qing: From Yang Shen to Jia Fuxi and Gui Zhuang, and from Education (Jiaohua) to Cursing the World (Mashi)

LITERATI USE OF ORAL OR ORAL-RELATED GENRES TO TALK ABOUT HISTORY IN THE LATE MING AND EARLY QING: FROM YANG SHEN TO JIA FUXI AND GUI ZHUANG, AND FROM EDUCATION (JIAOHUA) TO CURSING THE WORLD (MASHI) YINGZHI ZHAO City University of Hong Kong1 By the mid-seventeenth century, Chinese literati had experimented with treating the ups and downs of Chinese history in almost all genres. One of the shared goals was to provide future generations with moral lessons in the process. The political turmoil of the Ming–Qing transition, which featured extreme administrative dysfunction in the late Ming and alien rule in the Qing, intensified politically marginalized Chinese literati’s interest in transmitting moral lessons through historical writing. This article focuses on the use of popular literary forms2 associated with oral delivery by looking at three works by such literati: Yang Shen’s 楊慎 (1488–1559) Ballad-Narrative on History through the Ages (Lidai shilüe cihua 歷代史略詞話3 ; also titled The Prosimetric-Narrative of the Twenty-one Histories [Nianyi shi tanci 廿一史彈詞]), Jia Fuxi’s 賈鳧西 (1590–1674) Drum-Ballad on History through the Ages (Lidai shilüe guci 歷代史略鼓詞), and Gui Zhuang’s 歸莊 (1613–1673) song-suite Remnant Sound of Playing the Zhu (Jizhu yuyin 擊筑餘音).4 My analyses of Yang Shen, Jia Fuxi, and Gui Zhuang reveal the relationship between their eccentric personalities and their choice of using popular/low genres to write Chinese history, as well as the ways whereby the rhetorical possibilities generated by popular genres allowed them to rewrite the conventions of historiography. Writing history in popular/low genres was a gesture of resistance for literati who were removed from the political center or lived under repressive regimes. Writing history in popular/low genres more closely connected to performance also 1 I would like to express my gratitude to Professor David Rolston for sharpening the argument of this article and carefully editing my writing. I am also thankful to the anonymous readers for their helpful comments. 2 I use “popular literary form” to indicate genres that were consumed more widely and by broader audiences than the literary genres most closely associated with the literati. 3 Some versions of this title include shiduan jin 十段錦 (in ten sections of brocade [-like writing]) before cihua. 4 The zhu 筑 was an ancient kind of zither similar to the qin 琴. Remnant Sound of Playing the Zhu shares a lot of text with another work of similar structure attributed to Gui Zhuang, Wangu chou 萬古愁 (Sorrow through the ages). Their relationship will be addressed below. CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 34. 2 (December 2015): 81–114© The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2015 DOI 10.1080/01937774.2015.1096543 allowed them to explore the idea of the commensurability between life and theater and inspired them to express historical views, describe historical events, and judge historical actors in ways impossible in historiography and more formal genres of poetry. But I will also show that although Yang Shen was a model for Jia Fuxi and Gui Zhuang, there are important differences between them. Yang turned to using a popular medium to talk about history primarily for educational purposes (to convey information and moral teaching to a broader audience [jiaohua 教化]), while Jia Fuxi and Gui Zhuang seem to have used them more for the kinds of expressive freedom that move granted them. Far more than is the case with Yang, their works on history in popular media are known for their “cursing of the world” (mashi 罵世). YANG SHEN’S BALLAD-NARRATIVE ON HISTORY Yang Shen (hao Sheng’an 升庵) is famous for his encyclopedic knowledge and for being a very prolific writer.5 Many anecdotes describe his eccentric behavior and his engagement in popular genres after his banishment to Yunnan, one of the remotest areas of China at that time. Anecdotes of Yang Shen’s eccentric personality have been popular since the late Ming; literati of that time and later emphasized how he hid his political aspirations behind a mask of eccentricity. Yang Shen’s banishment was a result of his involvement in the Great Rites Controversy (1521–1524) that pitted his father the Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe 楊廷 和 (1459–1529) and other cabinet...