Love affairs of the young men from eminent families and the courtesans who were trained to entertain (and to fleece) them were a popular theme in the Chinese vernacular literature of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The stories of these happy and disastrous affairs were popular with all genres of performative literature. This volume offers a representative selection of texts on the grandeur et misère of the working girls and their Chinese and Jurchen patrons. Alongside popular works by famous playwrights such as Guan Hanqing and Shi Junbao, This volume also offers a wide range of scintillating texts by lesser known and anonymous authors.
Acknowledgments
Table of Chinese Dynasties
Introduction: Singsong Girls in Sanqu Songs
1 Lost in Performance
Shuang Jian, Su Xiaoqing, and the Triangle of Desire
2 Jurchen Playboys and Courtesan Entertainers
Anonymous, A Playboy from a Noble House Opts for the Wrong Career
1A Playboy from a Noble House
2The Story
3Date, Genre, and Formal Features
4The Value of Opts for the Wrong Career to the History of Chinese Theater
5Dramatis Personæ in Order of Appearance
6The Play
3 Plays by Shi Junbao, One
All-Keys-and-Modes: Wind and Moon in the Courtyard of Purple Clouds
1The Author
2Authorship
3Story and Plot
4Editions
5Dramatis Personae, in order of appearance
4 Plays by Shi Junbao, Two
Li Yaxian: Flowers and Wine at Serpentine Pond
1Editions
2Dramatis Personæ in order of appearance.
3The Play
5 Plays by Guan Hanqing, One
Grand Prefect Qian in his Wisdom Dotes on Xie Tianxiang
1The Author
2The Background to the Play
3The Play
4The Edition
5Dramatis Personæ in order of appearance.
6 Plays by Guan Hanqing, Two
In Breeze and Moonlight Zhao Paner Saves Sister Song from the Wind and
Dust
1The Story
2The Edition
3Dramatis Personæ by order of Appearance
7 A Record of Liu Qiqing
Pleasures of Wine and Poetry in the Tower of Enjoying the River
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Plays listed in Opts for the Wrong Career
Appendix 2: Ending of Act 4 of Serpentine Pond by Zang Maoxun
Bibliography
Index
Stephen H. West, Ph.D. 1977, University of Michigan, is Louis Agassiz Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley and Foundation Professor of Chinese Emeritus at Arizona State University. He has published monographs, many articles in English and Chinese on Chinese literature of the period 1100-1450.
Wilt L. Idema, Ph.D. 1974, taught Chinese literature at Leiden University (1970-1999) and Harvard University (2000-2013). He has published widely on the vernacular literary traditions of late imperial China. Together with Stephen H. West he has published several volumes of translations from early Chinese drama.
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