The Cockfight: A Casebook

A Cock Fight from the Ming Dynasty

YUAN HUNG-TAO A Cock Fight from the Ming Dynasty Not everyone realizes that the cockfight has long been popular in China. The first recorded cockfight in China occurred in 517 B.C. There is some consensus that the cockfight may have originated in eitherAsia or SoutheastAsia several millennia ago. The following anecdotal account was written by Yuan Hung-tao (1568-1610), who came from Kungan County in Hupeh province. He and several ofhis brothers founded a school ofwriting, the Kungan School, during the Ming dynasty (13681644 ). The cockfight described is, like the one obseroed by St. Augustine centuries earlier, a natural one. Because the participants were not ofequal size or strength, this natural cockfight appeared "unfoir" to obseroers. The criticalquestion was whether to interoene or to let nature take its course. It is, after all, human interoention into "natural" cockfighting that ultimately led to the human institution ofthe cockfight as we know it. In this short essay, a cockfighting incident is presented as aparable which criticizes "do-nothing" academics who disparage activism. The distinaion between pure research and "applied" knowledge remains relevant today. For a detailed discussion of the history ofthecockfightin China, seeRobertJoe Cutter, The Brush and the Spur: Chinese Culture and the Cockfight (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1989). For commentary on this particular essay by Yuan Hung-tao as well as an alternative translation (entitled "Recordofa Cockfight 1f7zen I Dwelled in theMountains '), see pp. 123-126. When I lived in the hills one ofmy neighbours to the south was a man named Chin, a minor official who lived a quiet life and whose hobby was keeping beautiful fowl. Another neighbour, Chiang, lived a quiet life as a merchant. Once Chiang brought back a huge cock from the north. All northern fowls are large, but this one was a monster with legs over a foot long, coarse feathers and a sharp beak. It moved with the unhurried gait of a stork and had a delightful dignity about it. Other cocks seeing it kept out ofits way, all but one ofChin's Reprinted from Chinese Literature 2 (1966): 70-72. By permission of the Chinese Literature Press, 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China. 7 Yuan Hung-tao cocks, which strutted about and foraged for food as usual. With white feathers and a golden comb, this bird was even more handsome than the huge cock, but only one-fifth the size. The big cock, meeting it one day, expressed its con· tempt by casually pecking at it. But small as it was, the handsome cock had its pride. It leapt up and challenged the other. The big cock spread its wings and glared, preparing to pounce; but the handsome cock stood its ground so steadily that it dared not attack too rashly. Both showed their mettle then, advancing, retreating and warding each other off for a considerable time. Once when the huge cock swooped down and the handsome cock knew it could not withstand the attack, it hid itself between those great legs, skilfully avoiding the onslaught; then, while the huge cock was wondering where it had gone, it leapt up from behind to catch it offguard. The big cock, thus assailed, turned furiously to swoop down on its opponent, and, quick though the handsome cock was, it could not escape a mauling. I had watched the fight from the start, rejoicing each time the handsome cock got the upper hand and waiting eagerly to see it score again-but it failed to do so. As it never occurred to me to help, however, the handsome cock was being worsted. I was on tenterhooks when a boy coming from the east stopped to watch the fight. He soon felt indignant and seized the big fowl to let the other peck it as it pleased; then he himselfdealt the big one several heavy blows. Thus humbled, the big cock fled, and the handsome cock followed up its advantage by pursuing it all the way home. Then the big cock turned and chased it back to the scene of their battle, the boy intervened as before, and so it went on several times. Two scholars who saw how seriously the boy took this said with a laugh, "We've never seen anyone attach such importance to a cock fight before." The boy retorted, "Isn't this better than helping petty tyrants to bully humble folk, as do those who study the.classics and wear the black gauze cap ofan official?" The...