Strange Eventful Histories: Identity, Performance, and Xu Wei's Four Cries of a Gibbon PDF
Preview Strange Eventful Histories: Identity, Performance, and Xu Wei's Four Cries of a Gibbon
SHIftMIN KWA STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORIES IDENTITY, PERFORMANCE, AND XU WEI'S FOUR CRIES OF A GIBBON STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORIES IDENTITY, PERFORMANCE, AND XU WEI'S FOUR CRIES OF A GIBBON SHIAMIN KWA When it comes to really knowing a person, is what you see really what you get? Is it ever all you get? In this first critical study and annotated translation of the dramatic masterpiece Four Cries of a Gibbon by the late Ming dynasty Chinese playwrightXu Wei, author Shiamin Kwa considers the ways that people encounter and understand each other in extraordinary circumstances. With its tales of crimes redressed in the next world and girls masquerading as men to achieve everlasting fame, Four Cries of a Gibbon complicated issues of self and identity when it appeared in the late Ming dynasty, paving the way for increasingly nuanced reflections of such questions in late Ming and early Qing fiction and drama. Beyond their historical context, Xu Wei's influential plays serve as testimony to what Kwa argues are universal strategies found within drama. The heroes and heroines in these plays glide back and forth across the borders of life and death, of male and female, as they seek to articulate who they truly are. As the actors sort out these truths onstage, the members of the audience are invited to consider the truths that they live with offstage. Strange Eventful Histories Identity, Performance, and Xu Wei's Four Cries of a Gibbon SHIAMIN KWA Published by the Harvard University Asia Center Distributed by Harvard University Press Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2012 © 2012 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Printed in the United States of America The Harvard-Yenching Institute, founded in 1928 and headquartered at Harvard University, is a foundation dedicated to the advancement of higher education in the humanities and social sciences in East and Southeast Asia. The Institute supports advanced research at Harvard by faculty mem- bers of certain Asian universities and doctoral studies at Harvard and other universities by junior faculty at the same universities. It also supports East Asian studies at Harvard through contributions to the Harvard-Yenching Library and publication of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and books on premodern East Asian history and literature. A portion of this book has appeared previously in "The Shape of Things: Locating the Self in Xu Wei's Zen Master Yu Has a Voluptuous Dream" in Text, Performance, and Gender in Chinese Literature and Music, edited by Maghiel van Crevel, Tian Yuan Tan, and Michel Hockx, Leiden: Brill, 2010 (pp. 175-92), and is reprinted here with the permission of the publisher. The translation of Xu Wei, The Female Mulan, on pp. 169-87 is from Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend, with delated Texts, edited and translated by Shiamin Kwa and Wilt L. Idema. Copyright © 2010 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kwa, Shiamin. Strange eventful histories: identity, performance, and Xu Wei's Four cries of a gibbon / Shiamin Kwa. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-674-06685-4 (acid-free paper) 1. Xu, Wei, 1521-1593. Si sheng yuan. 2. Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature. I. Xu, Wei, 1521-1593. Si sheng yuan. II. Tide. PL2698.H775S735 2012 895.i'24~dc23 2012031801 Index by the author © Printed on acid-free paper Last figure below indicates year of this printing 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 ForBenno and Bso ^ • So when our mortal frame shall be disjoined The lifeless lump uncoupled from the mind From sense of grief and pain we shall be free We shall not feel, because we shall not be. —Lucretius, "Against the Year of Death" The puppets performing before the curtains are already an illusion. A painting of puppets moves still further from reality. But just consider that the sky is also a vast curtain: then which of us is not an actor on this stage? —Xu Wei, 'Tainting Inscription forHang^hou Visitors" Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction i 1 Undressing for Success: The Mad Drummer Plays the Yuyang Triple Rolls (Mi Heng) 15 2 The Shape of Things: Zen Master Yu Has a Dream of Cuixiang yj 3 The Namesake: Costumes of Words in Mulan 63 4 The Woman Who Took Herself for Himself: Truth, Evidence, and Identity in The Girl Graduate 84 Conclusion 105 Appendixes I The Mad Drummer Plays the Yuyang Triple Rolls 117 II Zen Master Yu Has a Dream of Cuixiang 139 hi The Female Mulan Joins the Army in Place of Her Father 169 iv The Girl Graduate Rejects the Female Phoenix and Gains the Male Phoenix 189 Reference Matter Notes 243 Bibliography 259 Index 269 Acknowledgments I owe a debt of gratitude to Wai-yee Li for first introducing me to Zen Master Yu, and then reading subsequent drafts of the manuscript many times over, explaining fine details that I could never have caught. There could be no finer advisor than Wilt Idema, who survived my nervous emails of despair and tolerated my abject ignorance while teaching me how to read vernacular fiction and drama. When I moved away from Cambridge, he cleared his schedule for my day-long visits and patiendy went through my translations with me line by line, and then treated me to french fries at Charlie's Kitchen for sustenance during breaks. I would like to thank others who contributed comments at different stages of this manuscript's production. I thank Rick Todhunter at Hackett Publishing for editing an earlier version of the Mulan chapter and translation. Maghiel van Crevel, Michel Hockx, and Tian Yuan Tan edited and commented on an earlier version of the chapter on Zen Master Yu. I would like to thank this book's editors: Will Hammell, who shep- herded the book through the submissions process, and Kristen Wanner, who oversaw every stage of the editing. I would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of this book, whose questions, criticism, and sug- gestions answered many of the lingering questions I had about tricky lines in the plays and inspired me to think more carefully about what I was trying to argue. Though at this point it feels like this book is more the product of crowd-sourcing, the one area where I gladly take full responsibility is in the errors and faults that remain in these pages. Additionally, I would like to thank Diana Abouali, Sarah Allan, Shar'-Lin Anderson, Deborah Barrett, Susan Blader, Bob Dostal, Tom Gauld, Hank Glassman, Paul Goldin, Lisa Johnston, Martin Kern, Nadine Knight, Julia Lee, Victor Mair, Steve Owen, Sharrona Pearl, Lino Pertdle, Michael Puett, David Rosen, Atsuko Sakaki, Emi Shimokawa, Paul Smith, Karen Thornber, and Bill Todd for their help along the way. Special thanks go as well to the staff and librarians at Baker Library, Fondren Library, Widener Library, Van Pelt Library, and, especially, Yenching Library. Finally, I thank my family: Shialing Kwa, Stephen Powell, and Helene and Daniel Roses. Most of all, I know that I could not have started, written, nor finished this book without the constant support of Robert Roses. John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife Abigail, "I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, natural history and naval architecture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, tapestry, and porcelain." Many thanks go to my parents, Lucy and Boo Hoe Kwa, and their parents, Fanny and Tchan-Wing Tze, and Seok Hui and Eng Bee Kwa: they all did the hard work, so that I could study poetry and music. S.K., June 2012 Strange Eventful Histories
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