In Memory of Fei Li (1931–2022): A Yangzhou Storyteller and Scholar of Yangzhou Pinghua

Erratum [08.14.24]

A small formatting edit was made on pages 92-93.

On February 22, 2022, Fei Zhengliang 费正良, artiste name Fei Li 费力, from Yangzhou, passed away at the age of 91. He was from a family of storytellers, belonging to the so-called Wu School¹ of Three Kingdoms (Wupai Sanguo 吳派三國, of Yangzhou pinghua 揚州評話).

As a child and young man,² Fei Li revolted against the strict education into the family trade of his father, Fei Junliang 费駿良 (1891–1952), and wanted to become a “cultural worker,” a journalist, instead of a storyteller. In 1950, Fei Li was enrolled in the local Literary Workers’ Troupe (Wengong tuan 文工團), where he had many functions: musical director, violinist, actor of modern spoken drama (huaju 話劇), teacher, and storyteller. In the early 1950s, he began to write and publish modern pieces for storytelling and sometimes performed them himself. During this period, he also studied chemistry at Anhui University for two years.

In 1962, Fei Li returned to his hometown, Yangzhou, and settled there. At this age, as he recollected, he was gaining a more serious understanding of Yangzhou pinghua, took up his profession as a storyteller again, and was organized into the Quyi Association (Quyi xiehui 曲藝協會). He performed as a member of the local Quyi Troupe (Quyituan 曲藝團) in most of the towns along the Grand Canal and the Yangzi River where Yangzhou pinghua traditionally had its strong-holds: places such as Zhenjiang, Shanghai, Donghai, Jiangdu, Huai’an, and Huaiyin. During the Cultural Revolution, he was fired from the Troupe and had to find other work. From 1967 to 1986, he worked in a chemical factory, retiring in 1986.

When I first met Fei Li in May 1989, he was playing a leading role among the Yangzhou storytellers. He was head of the grassroot organization “Yangzhou pinghua zhi you” 揚州評話之友 (Friends of Yangzhou Storytelling) and was engaged in research and editorial work, working in particular on his father’s handed-down manuscripts, such as the tale of Wu Zixu 伍子胥 that his father had recreated in storytelling form under the title “The Various States” (Lieguo 列國). Based on his father’s “scripts” for performance, jiaoben 脚本, Fei Li rewrote and edited the texts from their oral-related form to a novelistic form aimed at a national readership. This procedure was in line with the general view in China at the time on how to preserve the oral arts. Fei Li participated in most of the local undertakings of this kind and was among the handful of specialists who edited and published the repertoires of the famous masters in book form.³ From his father’s manuscripts⁴ for his “Three Kingdoms” repertoire (in the oral tradition of the Wu School), Fei Li created in the early 1980s novel-like books, such as Guo wu guan, zhan liu jiang 過五関斬六將(Crossing five passes and beheading six generals), and San gu maolu 三顾茅庐 (Thrice visiting the humble hut [of Zhuge Liang]). He was also involved in the publication of the repertoire of the “Wangpai Shuihu” 王派水滸 (Wang School of Water Margin), that is, the school of Wang Shaotang 王少堂(1889–1968). He was particularly active in establishing publishable versions of the “ten-chapter” cycles that the daughter of Wang Shaotang, Wang Litang 王麗堂(b. 1940), transmitted in oral versions: Song Jiang 宋江, Shi Xiu 石秀, and Lu Junyi 盧俊義. He likewise edited the repertoire Qianlong xia Jiangnan 乾隆下江 南 (Qianlong visits Jiangnan) and Yangzhou shuoshu xuan 揚州說書選(Anthology of Yangzhou storytelling). Always extremely diligent, he continued his mission of preserving and supporting Yangzhou storytelling throughout his life.⁵

In 1986, I started a project of studying the language and narrative structure of the Yangzhou storytellers’ oral performances. In the storytellers’ milieu, I found friendship and support of a kind that I would never have imagined. Fei Li offered me his generous assistance to have the tape-recorded texts for my study written down in characters. I drew heavily upon his experience and learning, not least in the question of storytellers’ technical terms and dialect expressions in the spoken texts. Although my methods of studying the storytellers’ performances deviated in many ways...