Download Xixiang ji Zhugongdiao - East

Xixiang ji Lecture:
Late-Imperial Period:
- period of opera and the novel (of course all other forms of literature, poetry
continued).
- COMMERCIAL: this is entertainment literature, often associated with the rising
urban centers of the Song dynasty (960-1279), Yuan (1279-1368), and Ming
(1368-1644). As described in loving detail in often nostalgically tinted memoirs,
these cities could have up to a million inhabitants, who had to be housed, fed, but
also entertained. Indeed, depictions of the city of Bianliang (capital of the
Northern Song), Hangzhou (capital of the Southern Song), and Suzhou (not a
capital whatsoever), the entertainment quarters were filled with hundreds of
different kinds of performance, acrobats, blind lute players, imitators of regional
dialects, jugglers, storytellers, kickball performers, courtesans, ad infinitum. The
late-imperial period is marked by the rise of a “middle class,” who, as literacy
spreads, increasingly comes to determine the forms literature will take. This
includes more vulgar forms of literature (at least in the eyes of the literati elite),
often written in a more VERNACULAR language:
- LONG and all inclusive: we have seen collecting before, i.e. the Guofeng were
the poems from the various states, there are famous collections of poetry every
since; there is the fu poetry of the Han dynasty, exhaustive cataloguing and
enumeration of things; here, however, I think that print-culture, combined with
urban density, and finally the commercial culture allows genres of literature
that attempt to create a single work out of a great variety of different things. 1.
Zhugongdiao: a form of storytelling by a single performer performing to some
musical accompaniment, mixing prose and poetry, including song suites which
are performed to literally “keys and modes.” (I,e, different tunes). 2. Opera
includes prose dialogue (with different characters speaking in different registers),
but also song and different kinds of lyrics, it includes the above-mentioned
entertainers; acrobats, jugglers, imitation of dialects, colorful costumes, and
finally a “curious” mixture/constant juxtaposition of tragedy and comedy. 3. The
novel: includes prose in the vernacular, but also classical texts, and poetry of
different kinds, sometimes even opera; huge casts of characters. In short: long
and diverse, easily hundreds of chapters (again, can be commercial), and hundreds
of characters, but also opera; in contrast with the unities of time space and action,
you have lengthy tales, that are set all over the empire, with a case of many,
many, many different roles.
1. Introduce the Two Texts we will be Talking about
2. Talk about performative/commercial/vernacular/all inclusive literature, as
opposed to poetic text
1. Xixiang Ji Zhugongdiao2. Dong Jieyuan’s Zhugongdiao 西廂記諸宮調
- who is Dong Jieyuan 董解元 (honorary title; master); he must have been from an
elevated social class; No clear dates, we know he lived during the years 1190-1208;
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- time period, the Jin (1115-1234):
-zhugongdiao 諸宮調, The genre of the zhugongdiao: flourished during the period from
1170-1280. B. combination of sung poetry and prose narrative: the poetry consists of
poems in a relatively free form of length, these lyrical songs then are linked into larger
suites all in a single “key” (gong), which have the same rhyme; next suite, more melodies,
a different rhyme. C performed in the capital, in the entertainment quarters: i.e. this
is a commercial genre, i.e. storyteller for a living;
- this commercial nature, i.e. work as entertainment can be found in the work of
literature itself: A. it is long: this is only a small part of what is a very long text; this is
partially the result of the commercial nature of the text (i.e. a performance spread out
over a good many days), indeed, to structure this text, the tale introduces B. cliff-hangers:
i.e. even in the piece you have read, there is the sense of “what happens next”? There are
actual breaks in the text where the storyteller would go round with the hat: if you
want to hear what comes next, you have to pay; small break in the middle of the
performance; big break at the end of the performance (come back the next day). (P 45:
suspense and identity with cliff-hanger; p. 56, sort of a fake cliff-hanger (who was he,
who was he; we already know); even better, p. 53 “A clashing sound was heard, was
the Monk dead?”) C. lively, loud, acoustic spectacle: the battle scene is an excellent
example of lively storytelling; there’s blood, there’s heart-stopping action, there’s arrows
being shot and caught in mid-air; P. 59 (A clap of thunder; an arrow shot in mid-air/crash
the whip intercepts and breaks the arrow). Lots of sound, and exclamations, and
questions: who was he, who was he, then the answer (even the opening poem leads to a
climax, conferring identity/name) D. the form itself: all keys and modes, medley,
chantefable, prosemetric literature : 1. a constant switch between poetry and prose;
this keeps things lively, you get a musical performance; you get prose in case you did not
understand what happened in the poem just song. 2. All kinds of tale within the pages of
a single narrative: it has lots of heroic, heart-pounding action, but it also has romantic
love, it has slapstick humor, and it has all the “keys and modes” different kinds of tunes.
E. romantic comedy: happy ending, really changes the Yuan Zhen story of Yingying
which ends in clear tragedy. F. A Colorful cast of Characters Leading to a Different
Kind of Identity Politics: whereas both in Mulan and the “Song of the Pipa” we had a
limited number of “actors” here emphasis is increasingly on “lots of characters.”
A. Examples
- the young Confucian scholar
- the Buddhist Monk
- the uncouth rough general
- the heroic general
B. Models of Feminity:
- the mother figure
- the young lady
C. Playing With Masculine Conventions
- the Buddhist monk who is a warrior (p. 649)
- the feminized young scholar who saves the day
E. Elements of identity:
- appearance (i.e. lengthy descriptions)
- behavior
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- emotional reactions (i.e. be afraid, be angry, etc.)
- moral behavior
- sexual acts: i.e. be on top or on bottom.
F. language of Identity:
- as a “monk” you should talk in a certain way, similarly as a man, woman, etc.
- it is this clichéd language that allows a storyteller to perform different identities.
- obviously, character can take on different identities by using different languages:
humor hear is the single monk speaking in different voices: i.e. he can both speak
bravely, vulgarly, and rhetorically convincingly. All of this is particularly humorous,
because the one “language” he should speak, i.e. the language of Buddhism is nowhere to
be found. And vice-versa with the general.
- VERNACULAR: the vernacular is not merely a “vulgar language” which appeals to
the man in the street because it is comprehensible, or shockingly (entertainingly) vulgar
(though quite often the more “vernacular/oral” elements are quite down and dirty), rather
it is a mixture of voices, many different voices (Bahktin and heteroglossia).
- The Single Storyteller Voice: masterful performance by a single man who can act out
all these different voices, this reminds us a bit of Zhuangzi (though this becomes much
more obvious in Jin Shengtan’s anecdote about the ventriloquist); here the storyteller
becomes a virtuoso performer of myriad different voices, the real spectacle (clearly so in
Jin Shengtan) is no longer the action itself, it is the way in which such action is voiced,
the way in which a single man can perform, myriad different voices. THIS MASTERY
OF LANGUAGE ALSO REDEEMS THE VULGAR TEXT: i.e. acting out or
imitating a vulgar tongue is not the same as actually speaking directly in a vulgar tongue.
G. Multiplicity of Voices:
- poetry (at least according to Bahktin, mind you) is limited to a single expression of
“deep lyrical intention,” i.e. in a poem we hear how the poet expresses his or her soul and
the reader comes into contact with that soul and hopefully (as in the moment where
Scholar Zhang plays the zither), there will be some resonance between author and reader.
This is the case even if the poet speaks, whether briefly, or for the entire poem, in the
voice of someone else, because the aim is never really to allow as many different voices
to speak, as the goal is to reaffirm/establish the identity of the poet crafting the poem.
When we listen to the song of the pipa, we still hear the voice of Bai Juyi (do we even
learn the name of the courtesan, we learn in the preface of her pipa teacher, but she
herself?)
- in contrast, when we move into storytelling and opera, we move from this poetic, deep
lyrical subjectivity, to a much more dispersed sense of opinions. Simply stated, we have
not one person expression his/her opinion, we have a whole array of characters stating
their view.
- there are two ways in which this effects our view of the work of art: First, we move
from subjectivist “total reality” to a dispersed view of the world. We are no longer
caught within the thoughts, feelings, opinions of the single “poetic subject,” but can more
from one to the other. Second, because we easily move from one subject to the next, we
step outside of this dominating subjectivity and get a more “objective”/three dimensional
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view on that subjectivity. I.e. we can both appreciate Master Zhang’s expressions of
yearning and longing, but we also get a sense that these highly amorous and subjective
feelings are a bit inappropriate; i.e. introduction of irony and self-consciousness. In the
piece you have read, for instance, you see how many of the amorous statements of Master
Zhang are ridiculed by other, seemingly less important characters, who sardonically
comment on his hyperbolic statements of amorous intentions, i.e. the side-kick of the
monk, Hongniang’s constant acerbic comments. Later on you will even see how the
author creates an almost feminized picture of Master Zhan who is caught in his
“feminized” longing for his lover Cui Yingying. Third: the reader is no longer
positioned in a mutual state of agreement with the single poetic soul, he is actually placed
in a transcendent position that is based precisely on his ability to see and understand all
the different voices and opinions and arbitrate between them.
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