Tan, Tian Yuan

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studieshttp://journals.cambridge.org/BSOAdditional services for Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies:Email alerts: Click hereSubscriptions: Click hereCommercial reprints: Click hereTerms of use : Click hereQingyun Wu: A Dream of Glory (Fanhua meng): A Chuanqi Play by Wang Yun. xxi, 279 pp. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2008. $39. ISBN: 978 962 996 309 5.Tian Yuan TanBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 72 / Issue 03 / October 2009, pp 581 ­ 582DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X09990206, Published online: 21 October 2009Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0041977X09990206How to cite this article:Tian Yuan Tan (2009). Review of Qingyun Wu 'A Dream of Glory (' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 72, pp 581­582 doi:10.1017/S0041977X09990206Request Permissions : Click hereDownloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/BSO, IP address: 212.219.238.14 on 29 Oct 2012QINGYUN WU:A Dream of Glory (Fanhua meng): A Chuanqi Play by Wang Yun.xxi, 279 pp. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2008. $39.ISBN: 978 962 996 309 5.doi:10.1017/S0041977X09990206The study of Chinese women playwrights in late imperial China has been a burgeon-ing field in the last few years. In the book under review Qingyun Wu presents acomplete translation of a chuanqi play by Wang Yun (1749–1819), a significantfemale playwright and poet who has attracted considerable critical attention bothin Chinese and Western scholarship.A Dream of Glory (Fanhua meng) is the first play by Wang Yun, who composed atotal of three chuanqi. The play tells an extraordinary story about a woman who fulfilsher wish to be a man in a dream, where “he” not only succeeds in the civil serviceexamination, but also falls in love with three beautiful women and marries all of them.In her introduction, Wu provides the reader with a general background to“Women playwrights and the eighteenth-century milieu for women’s writing”.She also compares the play with Zaisheng yuan (The Destiny of the Next Life), acontemporaneous tanci novel and a significant work of women’s literature. Theintroduction also explores the themes and issues in A Dream of Glory. Wu makesa distinction between “Cross-dressing and cross-gender” and explores the themeof lesbian desire in the play. The dream genre, a popular device among womenplaywrights of the Ming and Qing periods, is also discussed in relation to the play-wrights’ quest for self-identity. On textual matters, Wu introduces the reader to“Fanhua meng as a stage script” and also to its “Publication history and commen-tators’ response”. The introduction concludes with an assessment of “The value andinfluence of Fanhua meng”.It is clear from the above summary that the thirty-five page introduction is packedwith information. My one caveat is that in some instances one wishes for a fullerelaboration from the translator. For example, Wu refutes the opinion that Chinesewomen playwrights preferred drama to prose fiction because of the higher statusof drama, stating that this “does not really apply to Wang Yun” (p. 3). However,no explanation is given for why Wang chose the dramatic form over the tancinovel (a popular genre for many women writers) for her self-representation, andit remains unclear what writing drama meant to a female playwright like Wang.The section on “Lesbian desire and women-centered polygamy” is provocative,and it would be interesting to consider the contrast between this interpretationand the more conventional reading of the play presented in its postfaces writtenby the playwright’s father and son.The introduction is followed by two main parts. Part 1 is the full translation of theplay. It includes not only a translation of all the twenty-five scenes of the play, butalso its preface, two commentary poems, and two postfaces. This allows thereader to understand how the play was transmitted and read in the playwright’simmediate social circle. Appended to the translation is a bibliography whichincludes a useful list of “Women playwrights of the Ming and Qing dynasties”(pp. 193–5). Part 2 is the original Chinese text edited by the translator, whichmakes available the full text of the rare edition kept in the National Library ofChina. This is a major contribution because for a long time, scholars were underthe impression that only fragmentary excerpts of the play have survived. TheChinese text also includes marginal commentaries written by Wang Yun’s father,which are not translated in Part 1.R E V I E W S 581Based on the Chinese text provided in Part 2 of the book, below are mycomments on a few points where my understanding of the text differs from thatof the translator:p. 40: The lines 按紅牙則換羽移宮，自然合度 are translated as “Following thebeats of hongya, the performers change their cloaks and move from scene to scene;the stage action seems to be quite proper”. I think huan yu yi gong 換羽移宮 refersto the the change of musical modes, and ziran hedu 自然合度 describes how suchchanges are achieved smoothly and in compliance with the musical requirements.p. 68: the words 明妃西子 are translated as “Xizi, a Ming imperial consort”. Ibelieve it should be referring to Wang Zhaojun (Mingfei) and Xi Shi (Xizi).p. 93: the line 風流誰道白司馬 is translated as “Who says Sima is daring andromantic?” with a footnote explaining that “Sima” refers to Sima Xiangru. I think“Bai Sima” refers to Bai Juyi.p. 110: the four lines starting from “The jade cups are filled with shimmeringagate light” are translated as a ci poem written to the tune of Ji tang. (See the“Index of ci tunes” on p. 200.) The term Ji tang 集唐 is not a tune title and itmeans a pastiche of lines from Tang poems.p. 173: The footnote for “Chunyu” in line 1 points the reader to the ancientChunyu capital or the paragon daughter Chunyu Tiying. I think “Chunyu” hererefers to Chunyu Fen from the Tang classical tale “Nanke taishou zhuan” (AnAccount of the Governor of the Southern Branch).I should emphasize that the above comments are not intended to detract in anyway from the value of this work. A Dream of Glory is a most welcome additionto the translations of Classical Chinese drama and is a pleasure to read. It providesa lively and readable translation of a fascinating story about a woman’s self-representation and reflection on one’s gender in eighteenth-century China. Thisbook will be of interest not only to specialists in Chinese drama and gender studies,but also to any reader who wishes to learn more about women writers in lateimperial China.Tian Yuan TanDANIEL BRYANT:The Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483–1521) and His World.(Sinica Leidensia.) xxxii, 720 pp. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008. E179.ISBN 978 90 04 16817 6.doi:10.1017/S0041977X09990218A monograph on Chinese poetry of the Ming dynasty is long overdue. ProfessorBryant’s new book finally fills this gap, and also redresses the balance in the currentscholarship on Ming literature. He reminds us that, contrary to the dominant MayFourth interpretation which overemphasized the rise of vernacular literature in lateimperial China, “the dominant forms of writing in Chinese, right down to the begin-ning of the twentieth century, were poetry and prose in the Classical language”(p. 561). By focusing on the life and the world of the mid-Ming Archaist poetHo Ching-ming (He Jingming, 1483–1521), Bryant also aims to depart from theusual emphases given to the first and last few decades of the dynasty and onwhat happened in southern China. The resulting book is a scrupulous effort thatgreatly extends our understanding of the literary world of China in the north andin the mid Ming.582 R E V I E W S

Review of A Dream of Glory (Fanhua meng): A Chuanqi Play by Wang Yun, translated, with introduction and annotation, by Qingyun Wu

Tian Yuan Tan

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Qingyun Wu: A Dream of Glory (
                    Fanhua meng

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Review of A Dream of Glory (Fanhua meng): A Chuanqi Play by Wang Yun, translated, with introduction and annotation, by Qingyun Wu

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