A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China PDF
Preview A Couple of Soles: A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China
Li Yu A Couple of Soles A Comic Play from Seventeenth-Century China TRANSLATED BY & Jing Shen Robert E. Hegel A Couple of Soles TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ASIAN CLASSICS The lovers in a fishnet. (Woodblock-p rinted illustration by Cai Sihuang (cid:15185)(cid:5709)(cid:10956), from Wusheng xi he ji (cid:10065)(cid:13986)(cid:6239)(cid:2616)(cid:19702), a Shunzhi era [1644– 1661] imprint, reproduced with permission from Liu Xin and Xiao Jieran, eds., Zhongguo gu banhua: Renwu juan, Xiaoshuo lei [Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 1998], 186) 比 目 魚 A Couple of Soles A Comic Play from Seventeenth- Century China Li Yu TRANSLAAAAATTTTEEEEEDDDD BBBBY Jing Shen &&&& RRRRRooooooobbbbbbeeeeerrrrrt E... HHHegel Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the Wm. Theodore de Bary Fund and the Pushkin Fund in the publication of this book. Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup . columbia . edu Copyright © 2020 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data Names: Li, Yu, 1611–1 680? author. | Shen, Jing, translator. | Hegel, Robert E., 1943– translator. Title: A couple of soles : a comic play from seventeenth-c entury China / Li Yu ; translated by Jing Shen and Robert E. Hegel. Other titles: Bimuyu. English Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2020] | Series: Translations from the Asian Classics | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2019025146 (print) | LCCN 2019025147 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231193542 (cloth) | ISBN 9780231193559 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780231550369 (ebook) Classification: LCC PL2698.L52 B5613 2020 (print) | LCC PL2698. L52 (ebook) | DDC 895.12/46—a c23 LC record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019025146 LC ebook record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019025147 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-f ree paper. Printed in the United States of America Cover image: Royal Asiatic Society, London, UK/Bridgeman Images Cover and book design: Lisa Hamm To Cyril Birch (b. 1925) and to the memory of James I. Crump, Jr. (1921– 2002), master translators of China’s great plays TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ASIAN CLASSICS Editorial Board Paul Anderer Allison Busch David Lurie Rachel McDermott Wei Shang Haruo Shirane For a complete list of books in the series, see page 331. CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Note on the Translation xi Introduction by Jing Shen xiii Dramatis Personae and Their Role Categories xxiii Preface by Wang Duanshu 1 Scenes 5 A Couple of Soles 13 Appendix: The Playwright and His Art by Jing Shen 239 Notes 271 Bibliography 323 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS O ur thanks to the librarians and scholars in Beijing, Taipei, and elsewhere who helped us find old editions of the text we translate here, and to the Chapin Fel- lowship at Eckerd College, which funded the research trip. We also thank the many colleagues who commented on earlier ver- sions of the introduction and appendix at annual meetings of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, particularly Professor David Rolston. Dr. Hua Wei’s kindness in clarifying some tech- nical aspects of the play is greatly appreciated. Thanks, too, to Christine Dunbar and her colleagues at Columbia University Press for their enthusiastic support from the moment we first mentioned the project to her. Christian Winting’s guidance of the manuscript through the editing and publication process has been exemplary. And we must acknowl- edge with gratitude Irene Pavitt’s meticulous copyediting and her tremendous patience and the care with which production editor Susan Pensak saw this project through to print. Finally, we are especially grateful for the painstaking efforts of the two anonymous reviewers enlisted by the press. Their attention to detail revealed their thoughtful consideration of each aspect of the manuscript, while their erudition was clear
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