The Margins of Utopia: Shui-Hu Hou-Chuan and the Literature of Ming Loyalism [Hardcover ed.] 0674548477, 9780674548473

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The Margins of Utopia: Shui-hu hou-chuan and the Literature of Ming Loyalism Ellen Widmer

Published by the Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University; and distributed by Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 1987 Tu Hsing, from Shui-hu hou-chuan (Ch'ing ed.) Courtesy of the East Asia Collection, Yale University Library

Copyright 1987 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College Printed in the United States of America The Council on East Asian Studies at Harvard University publishes a monograph series and, through the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research and the Reischauer Institute ofJapanese Studies, administers research projects designed to further scholarly understanding of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Inner Asia, and adjacent areas. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Widmer, Ellen. The margins of utopia. (Harvard East Asian monographs ; 128} Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Ch'en, Ch'en, b. ca. 1608. Shui hu hou chuan. 2. Chinese literature-Ming dynasty, 1368-1644-History and criticism. 3. Loyalty in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PL2698.C38S539 1987 895.1'34 86-24382 ISBN 0-674-54847-7

To my mother and father Caroline Ford Read Edward Mason Read III

Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations Used in the Text and Endnotes xm INTRODUCTION: THE MARGINS OF UTOPIA 2 CH'EN CH'EN AND THE MING-LOYALIST PREDICAMENT 13 The Life of Ch'en Ch'en 13 Three Legal Cases 24 "Nine Songs" 32 The Death of Ch'en Ch'en 39 Annals of Tung-ning 40

Other Perspectives 42 3 MING LOYALISM AS MEANING IN SHUI-HU HOU-CHUAN 51 Chin-ao 55 The Hou-chaun and the "White Heads" 60 Siam and Taiwan 63 Siam's Success Versus China's Failure 65 Siam as Happy Ending 71 4 READING BETWEEN THE LINES: CHIN SHENG:r'AN AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE "AUTHOR'' IN SHUI-HU CHUAN 79

Chin's Fifteen Techniques 91 Western Comparisons: A Brief Aside 103 5 "FICTIONS OF THE SELF": COMMENTARY AND THE "AUTHOR'S" VOICE IN SHUI-HU HOU-CHUAN 109 Ch'en Ch'en and the Chin Sheng-t'an 110 Vtt

vm · Contents The "Author's" Sphere 120 Time and the Definition of an "Author's" Sphere 123 The Two Spheres of Shui-hu hou-chuan 133 The Irony of Civility 138 Irony and the Hou-chuan's Ideal World 144 Finite Stable Irony 149 Hou-chuan Practice and the Chinese Critical Tradition 152 6 NATURE AND UTOPIA IN SHUI-HU HOU-CHUAN 157 Natural Description 158 The Problem with Utopia 164 Utopia as Dream 167 Shui-hu hou-chuan as Precursor to The Scholars and Dream of the Red Chamber 176 Nature, Utopia and the Ming-Loyalist Predicament 178

Acknowledgments

7 SHUI-HU HOU-CHUAN REVISED 183 8 EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION: AFTER SHUI-HU HOU-CHUAN 197 Appendix 1 Editions of Shui-hu hou-chuan 213 Appendix 2 Resume of Shui-hu hou-chuan (Ch'en edition) 235 Notes 267 Bibliography 295 Glossary 307 Index 313

This study has benefitted in crucial ways from the help of a number of individuals and institutions, two most significantly. Professor Patrick Hanan of Harvard University has advised it through several incarnations, first when it was a seminar paper, later when it became a doctoral dissertation, and more informally in its present stage. Thanks to his interest, ideas, bibliographic knowledge, and above all, high scholarly standards, the enterprise has been an eduction, and the result reflects his wisdom in a variety of ways. Mrs. Ou Chieh-fang Lee of Brown University is the other whose help has been indispensable. In putting her mastery of Chinese language and literature at my disposal, she has given me acccess to materials that would otherwise have lain well beyond my powers and has helped me realize my dream of bringing Ch'en Ch'en's entire corpus of surviving writings into the discussion at hand. Besides Professor Hanan, a number of scholars have read the manuscript in whole or in part: James R. Hightower, Benjamin I. Schwartz, Howard S. Hibbett, Frederic Wakeman, Jr., Lynn A. Struve, Mary Gluck, Robert Campbell, and Eric Widmer. Each of their readings has stimulated new reflection on all or part of the material and have increased the bibliographic range. Several others have provided advice on specific questions: Rulan C. Pian on Peking opera, Tatsuo Hino on Bakin, Boris Riftin on the seventeenth century, Hsu Hung on Ming loyalism, R. Kent Guy on censorship, Edward W. Wagner on Korea, Robert Scholes and Naomi Schor on structuralism. Ron Egan's skillful editing has weeded out numerous errors and improved the zx

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x · Acknowledgments

xi · Acknowledgments

writing style. Apart from Mrs. Lee and Professor Hanan, those who have helped with language include Tsung Yung-yih and Hsiung Pingchen with Chinese, Haruko Iwasaki, Tatsuo Hino, and Sakie Fukushima with Ja:panese, Sungha Kim and Kyunghee Jin with Korean. Many others have involved themselves with the collection and reproduction of materials or with introductions to librarians and scholars in Japan, Taiwan and China-the order reflecting that in which the research was carried out. Professor Kazuo Enoki of the Toyo Bunko provided introductions to a number of scholars, of whom Kanehide Onoye and Tanaka Issei of Tokyo University were especially helpful. I am also grateful to Professor Teruaki Iida of Tenri University, who gave me permission to copy a number of rare books and helped ship the copies to America. Mr. Yukio Fujino of the International House of Japan Library and Ms. Sakae Edamatsu of the National Diet Library have also been of great assistance. In Taiwan my research was expedited by the introductions of Professor Chang Weijen of Academia Sinica. In China, Professors Wu Xiaoling and Xiong Deji of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zhou Qiang and Chen Xizhong of Peking University, and Guo Songnian of the Peking University Library have provided many favors, as have the late Zhao Jingshen of Fudan University and Xu Fuming of the Chinese Academy of Theatre Arts, Shanghai. Mr. Lin Chen of the Chunfeng Publishing Company, Shenyang, and the staffs of the Luda Library (Talien), the Peking Library, the Shanghai Library, the Shoudu Library (Peking), and the Fudan and Peking University Libraries have also gone out of their way to assist me. Mr. Howard Nelson of the British Library is another who gave permission to copy rare materials. I must also mention the staff of the Library of Congress Chinese Collection, especially Robert Dunn and Mi Chu Wiens. They and the staff of the East Asia Collection, Yale University Library are responsible for helping me locate and reproduce the illustrations in this volume. Special thanks go to Eugene Wu of the Harvard.Yenching Library for timely and unfailing assistance both at Harvard and via letters of introduction, in China and Taiwan. George Potter, Tim Conner, and the entire Harvard.Yenching Library staff have also expedited my efforts in countless ways. 1-min ChiangJin of the Brown University Library Gardner Collection has answered many questions and located many sources for me over the years. I am grateful, finally, to Sharon Rafferty for typing the manuscript, in several different drafts.

The project received financial support from the Fulbright and Danforth fellowship programs, as well as from the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China. Thanks also to the many friends and teachers who have lent support and assistance, especially Yu-shih Ch'en, Alice T'ien, Kyunghee Jin, Richard Sens, Madeline Levine, Steven Levine, Merry White, Alice Valentine, Sachiko Ide, Yoshimitsu Ide, Susan Blader, Margaret Decker, Evelyn Sturmer, Carolyn Widmer, and Irene Liu. Thanks finally and most profoundly to my family, Eric, Ted, and Matt, who have borne the brunt of this undertaking and whose pride in it nonetheless has been a great source of strength.

Abbreviations Used in the Text and Endnotes DMB

ECCP HHSC NHCC

Goodrich, L. Carrington and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography. New York and London, Columbia University Press, 1967, 2 vols. Hummel, Arthur W., ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen reprint, 1967. Chou Ch'ing-yun p.fj~ 1; , Hsun-hsi shihcheng ;;l"tt~tt.JB57. Wang Yueh-chen~j_ 8 {~ , Nan-hsun chen-chih cf7lt-4J. ,8. 1863.

54

For novels quoted:

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A refers to Lo Kuan-chung f and Shih Nai-an ~kf/{- , Shiu-hu ch'uan-chuan 1}'- )if~{1j-. Taipei, Wan niench'ing, 1971. B refers to Chin Sheng-t'an p'i-k'ai Kuan-hua t'ang yuan-pen Shui-hu chuan '"t-11) Qi.. -t"l:L et. t(, ;f. Jl

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Tokyo, Mainichi, 1978. _ Morohashi Tetsuji ~ ~~J:A:. Dai Kanwajiten-}( 7l-f.o ~f~. Taipei, reprint edition, n.d. . Oba Osamu ~·t", ed. Hakusai shomoku ~~ ~! I§ , 2 vols. Osaka, Kansai daigaku tozai gakujutsu kenkyujo, 1972. Ogawa Tamaki , ) • Jll ~£. :f~'l· "Sankoku e~~ no Mo ~hosan hihxo r-~13./o Ri ..l-1 ~f ;¥.- t. ~ .it. ~~ ~ • Ritsuo hon E- ~ 7'1e $,;. 17) ~ Chugoku shosetsu shi no kenkyu