¹ The subject may seem somewhat remote from the scholarly interests of Walter Simon as represented in his publications. But if my generation gained any perception of the rich potential of colloquial Chinese as a literary instrument, it was through the pioneer work of our ‘good (old) teacher “indefatigable in teaching men”’ (Chinese sentence series, 125).

² Masaru, AokiChung-kuo chin-shih hsi-ch'ü-shih translated Ku-lu, Wang, Shanghai, Commercial Press, 1936, 94–101 and 108–111Google Scholar. The birth of the ‘Lute’author, Kao Ming (Tse-ch'eng) , took place about 1300, and he died shortly after the establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368, according to the biographical appendixes in the P'i-p'a-chi t'ao-lun supplement to Ghü-pen monthly (Peking, People's Press), 1956Google Scholar. Wang Kuo-wei's attribution of ‘Thorn’ to Chu Ch'üan (d. 1448), sixteenth son of the Ming founder, is generally accepted. The two plays are the first and second of the Liu-shih chung-ch'ü ‘Sixty plays’ put out by Mao Chin in the late Ming period. Their enduring popularity is attested by the inclusion of 26 scenes from ‘Lute’ and 19 scenes from ‘Thorn’—far more than from any other play—in the Ch'ien-lung period anthology Chui-pai-ch'iu . The fine edition of ‘Lute’ with the commentary of Ch'en Chi-ju (Mei-kung) (1558–1639) was reissued by Wen-hsüeh Ku-chi K'an-hsing-she , Peking, 1954.

³ Of his attempts to abstain from the examinations, to resign from office, and to resist the forced second marriage: in the prologue, the play's title was announced as San-pu-ts'ung p'i-p'a-chi .

⁴ Liang Hung's gift to Meng Kuang in Han times.

⁵ I am not sure that Wu-niang is not, rather inappropriately, identifying herself with a deserted Courtesan at this point. The ‘cold moon’ strongly suggests this. But I would think she is also expressing fears of her absent husband's infidelities. Later (scene 30) Madam Niu will use the same phrase when she guesses—wrongly—that a favoured courtesan is the cause of Po-chieh's distractedness: .

⁶ is contrasted with in Po Chii-yi's ballad Ch'in-chungyin .

⁷ Modern critical monographs on ‘Lute’ include Mei-k'an, TungP'i-p'a-chi chien-shuo , Peking, 1957Google Scholar, and Ti-hua, Chang, P'i-p'a-chi k'ao-shn Taipei, 1966Google Scholar. A clear and helpful summary of the numerous suggestions for a roman á clef interpretation of ‘Lute’ is contained in the essay by Hajime, Yagisawasymposium Chūgoku no meicho published under the auspices of the Institute of Chinese Literature, Tokyo University, 1961Google Scholar.

⁸ We see also that as the scene develops the struggle in Wu-niang's mind finds expression in ever plainer language, after the richer opening. Very similar considerations hold for the characterization of Tou O in Act I of Kuan Han-ch'ing's play.

⁹ cf. Hawkes, D. (tr.), Ch'u tz'ü, Oxford, 1959, 39Google Scholar,

‘Sweet pollia I've plucked in the little islet

To send to my far-away Beloved’.

¹⁰ refers to the marriage contract, when bride and groom twisted strands of their hair together on the evening of the wedding. Now, each thread of hair has become a separate sorrow.

¹¹ e.g., following ‘Lute’, she uses the phrase ‘father-in-law and mother-in-law’, though in her case the mother-in-law is a widow.

¹² Ch'en Chi-ju contemptuously dismisses Po-chieh's self-defence. His commentary reads: ‘If there really were these “three compulsions”, why couldn't you yourself be a little more “compelling”?… If you're going to have to wear the hemp girdle (of mourning), that's even more reason to return home.… If you're afraid of the Ox (Premier Niu) then you're worth less than a dog.… Utter rubbish’. (This last his comment on Po-chieh's fear that Premier Niu will not release him.) On Po-chieh's plan to wait until the completion of his tour of duty before returning home, Ch'en's comment is ‘You'd better prepare a letter to Yama (King of Hades) if you want them to wait till your tour is up before you return’.

¹³ : the song furnishes a wry commentary, as it were, on Tu Fu's celebrated ‘Only see new wife smile,/Not hear old wife weep’.

¹⁴ ‘Sky cold, wild geese crossing, ready to let tears fall,/Sun setting, gibbons howling, fearing a broken heart’, from ‘Ascending the tower of ten thousand years’.

¹⁵ To 230 different tunes: computation by An, Jenin Chung-kuo ku-tai hsi-chü-chia Hong Kong, 1963Google Scholar. Jen An's modest essay on ‘Lute’ in this volume offers valuable critical insights.

¹⁶ The classic diet of filial piety, cf. Li, T'an-kung-hsia ‘If you do all in your power to please your parents, though you must sustain them with beans and water, this is filial piety’.

¹⁷ The ‘three unfilial acts’ are failure to sustain the parents while living, failure to bury them at their decease, and failure to sacrifice to them after burial.

¹⁸ An ellipsis for the phrase ‘dividing the mirror fragments’, metaphor for the separation of husband and wife.

¹⁹ For convenience I am rendering as ‘zither’, as ‘koto’, as ‘lute’.

²⁰ The Han Emperor Wu-ti repaired a string with luan-bird glue: the act is particularly appropriate as a symbol for remarriage in that like the phoenix, the fabulous luan-hird itself (which danced before the mirror—pp. 233–4, above) is symbolic of conjugal felicity.

²¹ Refers to the making of winter clothes—Po-chieh is thinking of Wu-niang, preparing these for his parents against the approaching cold weather. He ends the scene with the line

‘In one place and another th e winter clothes are still unfinished’.

²² In Wang-chiang-t'ing , end of Act III, ‘these ruffians know how to sing a Southern-style duo’, cf. Crump's, paper, ‘Craft and convention in Yuan opera’, in Birch, C. (ed.), Studies in Chinese literary genres, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973Google Scholar. Cf. also the character in the ‘Eight Immortals’ yuan-pen who sings ‘My gifts are not as th'others own / Yet right for me—for I'm the clown’ (Crump, , ‘Elements of Yuan opera’, Journal of Asian Studies, XVII, 3, 1958, 428Google Scholar). Professor Crump mentions also in correspondence that in Act in of Hu-tieh meng a minor character suddenly adds an aria of his own to the tan's song-set. When questioned, ‘What's the idea of your singing ?’ he replies, ‘Oh, that's all right, it's only the “tail of the song ()”’. Such elements, Professor Crump agrees, ‘argue the presence of a dependable group of aficionados’ (who will see the point when stage or musical conventions are exposed).

²³ Yü-lien's stepmother is an interesting exception and like Madam Niu's father in ‘Lute’ a genuine ease of character development. Cf. ‘Thorn’ 42, which shows the stepmother thoroughly chastened and repentant.

²⁴ I n contrast, Wu-niang in ‘Lute’ is far from uncomplaining, and on several occasions (e.g. scene 20) applies the rough edge of her tongue to her absent husband. Before revealing her identity to Madam Niu in scene 35 she announces her intent to wear twelve years' mourning: three years for each of her husband's parents and six years more for the faithless Po-chieh himself!

²⁵ For this useful term cf. Heilman, Robert Bechtold, Tragedy and melodrama, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1968Google Scholar.

²⁶ Scene 21, Wu-niang eating husks, is followed by the scene of indolent dawdling by the lotus-pool of the Niu mansion; in scene 27 Wu-niang's fingers bleed as she builds the tomb, in 28 Po-chieh and Madam Niu lavishly celebrate the moon-watching of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

²⁷ cf. Lü T'ien-ch'eng , Ch'ü-p'in , quoted in Aoki, , op. cit., 97Google Scholar.

²⁸ Her comment is saved from complete generality by the ‘duckweed and mugwort’ allusion. These humble herbs, which I have rendered above as ‘pot herbs’, represent the minimal offering of food by the poorest in fulfilment of filial obligation.

²⁹ loc. cit. Again, he has support from earlier critics, whose dissatisfaction led to guesses that the last eight scenes were from another hand.

³⁰ The high tide of these discussions rolled over Peking in 1956, in conjunction with a performance of the complete play by the Hunan company. The discussions are recorded in the Chü-pen monthly and in the supplement mentioned above, p. 228, n. 2.

³¹ I-pai, Chouin his informative Chung-kuo hsi-chü-shih , Shanghai, 1954Google Scholar, discusses surviving evidence, but Tung Mei-k'an's study cited above (p. 232, n. 7) provides more extensive citations from Peking opera, ‘precious scrolls’ , and Hunan opera. Ts'ai Po-chieh is less sympathetically treated in the folk tradition—in the Peking opera Hsiao-shang-fen he is struck dead by thunderbolts—and Kao Ming's motivation is thus seen as the defence of Po-chieh against the charge of unfilial conduct. Again, it is this defence, enforcing the exploration of all aspects of Po-chieh's dilemma, which establishes the ‘tragic dividedness’ of the protagonist and the tragic quality of Kao Ming's play.

³² Risking the accusation of ‘gnawing the text and chewing the characters’ .