The Dramatic Potential of Xi Shi: Huanshaji and Jiaopaji Compared

THE DRAMATIC roTENI'IAL OF XI SRI: HUANSHAJI AND JIAOPAJI COl-1PARED. Cyril Birch University of California, Berkeley We are tempted to think of many late-Ming chuanqi1f J.r plays as essentially closet-drama, because of their impractical length, their appearance in fine, illustrated editions, and the fact that by the middle of the ei~hteenth century hardly any play was ever performed complete. Yet the early-Qing dramatist Li Yu had stated categorically that r~he very purpose of writing plays is stage performance. ,,1 Flays that were not at least intended for performance were probably very few indeed. Whether they ever did actually reach the stage, and whether having done so they succeeded or failed, would depend on their relative strengths in a number of different aspects. I propose to compare two plays, Huanshaji ;.'1> J~ 16 and Jiaopaji 11 'ph iB, in terms of a scale of six values, which we may label musical, lyric, mythic, mimetic, comic and spectacular.2 The two plays feature the same heroine, the celebrated beauty Xi Shi \ftJ j~ , but they differ greatly in the extent to which they possess the six values of our scale. By comparing the~ point by point we may gain some insight into what constituted admirable theater and what ended up in the late-Ming closet. Huanshaj i, 'The Girl Washing Silk, " is the mos t highly developed of several dramatic versions of the Xi Shi story as outlined in WuYue chunqiu fk.... Ji. }j J):. It is a dramatic romance set against the historical background of the rivalry between Wu and·Yue, principalities of the lower Yangzi Valley in the fifth century B.C. Yue is no match for Wu in military terms and is only slowly recovering from its defeat of three years previously. Guile is called for if the rival is to be weakened and Yue's disgrace avenged. King Fucha of Wu is a notorious old lecher. If Yue's King Goujian presents him with a consort of outstanding seductiveness, Fucha can be at once misled into belief in Yue's submissiveness, and distracted from such matters of state as the proper maintenance of his own armies. The high minister of state Fan Li is commissioned to recruit a beauty to effect this stratagem. When all other candidates have been rejcted he has no 129 THE DRAMATICIDTENrIAL OF XI SHI: HUANSHAJIANDJIAOPAJI COMPARED. Cyril Birch University of California, Berkeley We are tempted to think of many late-Ming chuanqi1f .it plays as essentially closet-drama, because of their impractical length, their appearance in fine, illustrated editions, and the fact that by the middle of the eighteenth century hardly any play was ever performed complete. Yet the early-Qing dramatist Li Yu had stated categorically that "the very purpose of writing plays is stage performance. 111 Flays that were not at least intended for performance were probably very few indeed. Whether they ever did actually reach the stage, and whether having done so they succeeded or failed, would depend on their relative strengths in a number of different aspects. I propose to compare two plays, Huanshaji ;'ft J~ 1e,and Jiaopaj i i 1fh iB, in terms of a scale of six values, which we may label musical, lyric, mythic, mimetic, comic and spectacular. 2 The two plays feature the same heroine, the celebrated beauty Xi Shi Jo fa~ , but they differ greatly in the extent to which they possess the six values of our scale. By comparing them point by point we may gain some insight into what constituted admirable theater and what ended up in the late-Ming closet. Huanshaj i, "I'he Girl Washing Silk, 11is the most highly developed of several dramatic versions of the Xi Shi story as outlined in Wu Yue chunqiu 'f.k_ }i }J Ii] t 4z jl~ J.~,) {f7/:/;. Jl.i'; ,Ji .it1, Youshi yuekan ~~ '~/f }~ fJ ' 44, 4, reprinted in Zeng Yongyi, Shuo xigu 1'{) /:.2t \1tJ , Taibei, 1976, 1-22; Zeng discusses eight desiderata for a successful traditional play. 3. Lu Eting j?,$ ~ Ji& . Kunju yanchu shigao ~tJ1'J 3-1 ;b -;Z>'f,% ' Shanghai, 1980, 90. 4. Kunju yanchu shigao, 330-336...