Four Sisters of Hofei : A History (9781439125878)

by Chin, Annping

  4The dramatist was Chang Feng-i (1527–1613). Six of his works are still extant.

  1Another woman writer, Liang Te-sheng, tidied up the story after Chen died. Quite predictably, everything ends happily in the extended version.

  2These were the sort of promptbooks Big Sister Kuo used in her t’an-tz’u performance.

  3A yamen was where a magistrate had his office and residence.

  1The actor and opera critic Hsü Ling-yun thought that these two roles are artistically demanding. In his view, only one other role could be their rival, the young scholar from the drama The Lute. (See his K’un-chü piao-yen i-te, p. 104.)

  2In T’u Lung’s original play, this scene is called “Taking Off the Boots and Holding Up the Inkstone.”

  1Erh-mao-tzu means “Second Kitten.” Lu Ying and her husband called their children by their diminutives. Daughters were kittens (mao-tzu). Sons were puppies (kou-tzu).

  2Rilke, “First Duino Elegy,” Mitchell’s translation, p. 155. Rilke, of course, believes that the dead do not need us to hold them back. In the elegy, he says: “In the end, those who were carried off early no longer need us: / They are weaned from earth’s sorrows and joys, as gently as children / outgrow the soft breasts of their mothers.” In another poem, he writes: “I have my dead, and I have let them go, / and was amazed to see them so contented, / so soon at home in being dead, so cheerful, / so unlike their reputation.” (“Requiem for a Friend,” Mitchell’s translation, p. 73.)

  3The Yang Pa-chieh in this song is not Yang Chia-chiang, the famous woman warrior from the southern Sung dynasty, who was called by the same nickname.

  4The first characters in the names Yuan-ho, Yun-ho, Chao-ho, and Ch’ung-ho all share the same radical, jen. Jen means a human being. In certain contexts, it also can mean “a person walking,” and it looks like two legs.

  5A yuan is a Chinese dollar, about forty cents in U.S. currency in 1964. It is difficult, however, to assess its purchasing power in China at the time.

  6Lu Ying had nine children, and Wei Chün-i had one. The Chang sisters always regarded their half-brother as a sibling.

  1During their courtship, Shen Ts’ung-wen would sometimes address Chao-ho as X X in his letters to her.

  2Three Knights-Errant was a modern play Kuo Mo-jo adapted from the Ming drama The Story of Hung-fu. (See chapter 8, p. 126.)

  3To be consistent with the romanization system I am using, this should be Pipi. Her name, however, is pronounced Bibi.

  4San-san is also the main character in a short story of the same title he wrote in 1931.

  5The fifth-century poet T’ao Ch’ien, in the preface, or prose account, to his poem “Peach Blossom Springs,” tells the story that around 221 B.C., a group of men and women, fleeing from tyranny, had settled in T’ao-yuan (Peach Blossom Springs). Because of this work, T’ao-yuan or T’ao-hua-yuan suggests an otherworldly existence in the Chinese imagination.

  6Thirty chang is about 100 meters.

  7Pai-tzu is the main character from a 1928 short story with the same title. Ts’ui-ts’ui is the female character in his novel Frontier City.

  8Ling Yen-ch’ih was the brother of Yuan-ho’s best friend, Ling Hai-hsia. A successful Shanghai banker, he had become a sort of guardian angel to the Chang family. Ling helped Yun-ho and her family move to Wuhan during the war and put up the money for Yuan-ho’s wedding expenses. He was also a collector and a man of refined taste. He and Ch’ung-ho shared a love for calligraphy.

  9Traditionally this is considered “women’s work.” The phrase has come to mean managing a household.

  10She uses the English word spoil.

  11Shen wrote this letter just before he and his friends left his brother’s house in April 1938 to get on the road again, heading toward Yunnan.

  12Hsiao-hu is their younger son and Hsiao-lung their older son. They are also called Hu-hu and Lung-lung.

  13Even though Shen is the second son, hence Second Brother, in his family, he is also the fourth child. So sometimes he refers to himself as “Fourth Brother.”

  14This opera is from the hsi-p’i tradition, a type of music that uses a lot of drums, gongs, and clappers. The story is from the history of the Three Kingdoms. Ts’ao Ts’ao, the prime minister of the Wei kingdom, asks a smart and talented man, called Mi Heng, to play the drum for his guests. By using Mi Heng as an entertainer, Ts’ao Ts’ao is hoping to humiliate him. Knowing that this is Ts’ao Ts’ao’s intent, Mi Heng strikes back. As he drums, he chants a long diatribe against the host. (See Hsi-tien, vol. 1, pp. 254–66.)

  15A linguist and a historian of China’s medieval period, Chen was, perhaps, the most respected scholar at the university.

  16Chu Tzu-ch’ing, a great stylist of the vernacular essay, was also a professor of Chinese literature at the university.

  17I have not yet found the story of this Indian prince and so could only approximate his name from the Chinese transliteration.

  18The term sheng-mu can mean a holy mother, a sage mother, an emperor’s natural mother, a goddess, or the Madonna.

  19This was January 31, 1949, the day the Communist troops moved into the city.

  20This is Chao-ho’s cousin from the fifth branch. To avoid confusion with her sister Ch’ung-ho’s name, I have romanized his as Chong-ho.

  21“Here” means Hunan. Shen was writing from Ch’ang-sha.

  22This Chang Ting-ho also appeared in chapter 7, p. 99.

  1The collection of commentaries is the Huang-ch’ing ching-chieh in 1,400 chüan (chapters).

  2This person was the radical scholar and early Communist Party member Ch’en Tu-hsiu.

  3This would be the fourth century. China’s best calligraphers lived during the Han and the Chin dynasties.

  4Wu-ling is the river that leads to the Peach Blossom Springs, which is a sort of earthly paradise. See note on p. 235.

  Anhwei chin-tai-shih (Modern history of Anhwei). Edited by Ong Fei et al. Hofei: Anhwei jen-men ch’u-pan-she, 1990.

  Anhwei hsien-tai ke-ming-shih tzu-liao ch’ang-pien (Sources in the modern revolutionary history of Anhwei). Hofei: Anhwei jen-men ch’u-pan-she, 1986.

  Birch, Cyril, comp. and ed. Anthology of Chinese Literature. New York: Grove Press, 1965.

  The Book of Lieh Tzu. Translated by A. C. Graham. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960.

  The Book of Songs. Translated by Arthur Waley. Reprint. New York: Grove Press, 1996.

  Boorman, Howard L., ed. Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. 4 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.

  The Cambridge History of China. Edited by Denis C. Twitchett et al. Vol. 11, part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

  Chaffee, John. The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History of Examinations. New ed. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1995.

  Chang Ch’ung-ho. Feng-cheng (Kite). Ch’iu-shui (Autumn flood), no. 20 (1988). Hong Kong: Ch’iu-shui wen-i ch’u-pan-she.

  ———. Peach Blossom Fish. Translated by Hans Frankel et al. Walla Walla, Wash.: Crab Quill Press, 1999.

  ———. Shan-mien (Fan). In Hai-wai hua-jen tsou-chia san-wen-hsüan (Selected essays of overseas Chinese writers). Hong Kong: San-lian shu-tien, 1983.

  ———. Wo-san-chieh-fu, Shen-erh-ke (My third brother-in-law, Shen Ts’ung-wen). Hai-nei-wai (Here and abroad), no. 28 (New York, November–December 1980.)

  Chang Ch’ung-ho and Hans H. Frankel, trans. Two Chinese Treatises on Calligraphy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

  Chang Chung-li. The Chinese Gentry: Studies on Their Role in Nineteenth-Century Chinese Society. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1955.

  Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng. Wen-shih t’ung-i (General principles of literature and history). 8 chüan. Taipei: Kuang-wen shu-chü, 1967.

  Chang Shu-sheng. Chang Ching-ta-kung (Shu-sheng) tsou-i (Memorials of Chang Shu-sheng). 8 chüan. Reprint. Taipei: Wen-hai ch’u-pan-she, n.d.

  Chang Tai. T’ao-an meng-i (Dreamlike remembrance of T�
��ao-an). Reprint. Taipei: Chin-feng ch’u-pan, 1986.

  Chang Tsung-ho. Unpublished diary, collected in the Chang family journal, Shui.

  Chang Yun-ho. Chang-chia chiu-shih (Tales from the Chang family). Chinan: Shantung hua-pao ch’u-pan-she, 1999.

  ———. Tsui-hou te kuei-hsiu (The Last of the gentry women). Peking: San-lien shu-tien, 1999.

  ———. Unpublished diary, 20 vols.

  Chen-chiang wen-shih tzu-liao (Sources on history and literature in Chen-chiang), no. 10. Chen-chiang: 1985.

  Ch’en Tuan-sheng. Hsiu-hsiang hui-t’u tsai-sheng-yuan ch’üan-chuan (Complete works of the Destiny of Rebirth, with illustrations). Shanghai: Shanghai kuang-i shu-chü, n.d.

  Chiang, Siang-tseh. The Nien Rebellion. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1954.

  Ch’ing-shih lieh-chuan (Biographies of figures from the Ch’ing). 80 chüan. Reprint. Taipei: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1962.

  Chou Ch’uan-ying. K’un-chü sheng-ya liu-shih-nien (Sixty years as a k’un-ch’ü actor). Shanghai: Shanghai wen-i ch’u-pan-she, 1988.

  Chu Hsi. Shih-ching chi-chu (Commentary on the Classic of Odes). Hong Kong: Kuang-chih shu-chü, n.d.

  Chu, Samuel C., and Kwang-ching Liu, eds. Li Hung-chang and China’s Early Modernization. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1994.

  Chuang Tzu. The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968.

  Ch’un-ch’iu ku-liang chuan-chu (Ku-liang commentary on the Ch’un-ch’iu Chronicle with Ke Shao-min’s subcommentary). 1867 edition. Reprint of 1927 reprint. Taipei: Taiwan Ta-t’ung shu-chü, n.d.

  Chung-kung tang-shih jen-wu-chuan (Eminent figures in the history of the Chinese Communist Party). Edited by Hu Hua et al. Hsi-an: Shan-hsi jen-min ch’u-pan-she, 1983.

  Coble, Parks. “Chinese Capitalists and the Japanese.” In Wartime Shanghai, edited by Wen-hsin Yeh. London: Routledge, 1998.

  Cohen, Paul A. Between Tradition and Modernity: Wang T’ao and Reform in Late Ch’ing China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.

  Confucius. The Analects of Confucius. Translated by D. C. Lau. London: Penguin Books, 1979.

  Eastman, Lloyd E. Throne and Mandarins: China’s Search for a Policy during the Sino-French Controversy, 1880–1885. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.

  Faigon, Lee. Chen Duxiu: Founder of the Communist Party. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.

  Fei-hsi Huai-chün jen-wu (West Hofei figures in the Huai Army). Edited by the Fei-hsi county wen-shih tzu-liao editorial board. Hofei: Huang-shan shu-she, 1991.

  Frankel, Hans. Wo he Shen Ts’ung-wen ch’u-tz’u hsiang-shih (My early encounters with Shen Ts’ung-wen) in Hai-nei-wai (Here and abroad), no. 28 (New York, November–December 1980).

  Fu, Poshek. Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration: Intellectual Choices in Occupied Shanghai, 1937–1945. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1993.

  Goodrich, L. Carrington, ed., and Chaoying Fang, assoc. ed. Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.

  Han Ying. Han-shih wai-chuan chi-shih (Han Ying’s commentary on the Classic of Odes). Peking: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1980.

  Hanan, Patrick. The Invention of Li Yu. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.

  Hershatter, Gail. Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

  Ho-fei shih-hua (History and stories of Hofei). Hofei: Huang-shan shu-she, 1985.

  Ho-fei wen-shih tzu-liao (Sources in Hofei history and literature). Edited by the Research Committee of Hofei wen-shih tzu-liao. Hofei: 1985.

  Hou Yü-shan. Wu-t’ai sheng-huo pa-shih-nien (Eighty years on the stage, an oral account). In Wen-shih tzu-liao hsüan-pien (Selected sources in history and literature), no. 25. Peking: Peking ch’u-pan-she, 1985.

  Hsia, C. T. A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, 1917–1957. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961.

  Hsiao K’o-fei et al. Liu Ming-ch’uan tsai Taiwan (Liu Ming-ch’uan in Taiwan). Shanghai: Shanghai She-hui k’o-hsüeh yuan, 1987.

  Hsi-tien (Anthology of Chinese drama). 4 vols. Edited by Ling Yin-kuan. Ti-i-wen-hua-she, 1976.

  Hsu Kai-yu, trans. and ed. Twentieth Century Chinese Poetry: An Anthology. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1963.

  Hsü Ling-yun. K’un-chü piao-yen i-te (From my experiences of performing k’un-ch’ü opera). Shanghai: Shanghai wen-i ch’u-pan-she, 1959.

  Hsün Tzu. Hsün Tzu chi-shih (Collected commentaries on the Hsün Tzu). Edited by Li T’iao-sheng. Taipei: Hsüeh-sheng shu-chü, 1979.

  Hummel, Arthur W., ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period, 1644–1912. 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1943.

  Hung Sheng. Ch’ang-sheng-tien (Palace of eternal youth). Peking: Jen-min ch’u-pan-she, 1980.

  I Ching. The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi. Translated by Richard John Lynn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

  The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. Compiled and edited by William H. Nienhauser, Jr., et al. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.

  Israel, John. Lianda: A Chinese University in War and Revolution. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1998.

  Keenan, Barry. “Lungmen Academy in Shanghai and the Expansion of Kiangsu’s Educated Elite, 1865–1911.” In Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600–1900, edited by Benjamin Elman and Alexander Woodside. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

  Kinkley, Jeffrey. The Odyssey of Shen Congwen. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1987.

  Klein, Donald, and Anne B. Clark, eds. Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921–1965. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971.

  Ku-chin (Past and present). 57 issues (March 1942–October 1944) in 10 bound vols. Reprint. Hong Kong: Lung-men shu-tien, 1968.

  Kuo-chü ta-ch’eng (Collected works of traditional Chinese opera). Edited by Chang Po-chin. Taipei: Taiwan Chung-hua shu-chü, 1970.

  Kuo Mo-jo [Guo Mo-jo]. Five Historical Plays. Translated by Feng Fu-min, Bonnie McDougall, et al. Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1984.

  ———. Kuo Mo-jo chü-tsou ch’üan-chi (Complete plays of Kuo Mo-jo). Vol. 1. Peking: Chung-kuo hsi-chü chu-pan-she, 1953.

  Legge, James, trans. The Chinese Classics. Vol. 4. Reprint. Taipei: Wenhsing shu- tien, 1963.

  Le-i Yearbook: 1932.

  Li Hung-chang. Li Hung-chang chia-shu (Family letters of Li Hung-chang). Reprint. Hofei: Huang-shan shu-she, 1996.

  Li Yü. Hsien-ch’ing o-chi (Casual expressions of idle feelings). 2 vols. Reprint. Taipei: Kuang-wen shu-chü, 1991.

  ———. Li-weng i-chia-yen. Collected in Li Yü ch’üan-chi. 15 vols. Reprint. Taipei: Ch’eng-wen chu-pan-she, 1970.

  Li-chi chu-shu (Classic of Rites). With commentary by Cheng Hsüan. SPPY edition. Reprint. Shanghai: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1936.

  Ling Hai-hsia. Unpublished memoir.

  Ling Yü. Shen Ts’ung-wen chuan (Biography of Shen Ts’ung-wen). Peking: Peking shih-yüeh wen-i ch’u-pan-she, 1988.

  Liu, Wu-chi, and Irving Yucheng Lo, eds. Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1975.

  Liu-shih-chung ch’ü (Sixty operas). 60 vols. Shanghai: K’ai-ming shu-tien, 1935.

  Lo Kuan-chung. San-kuo yen-i (Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Hong Kong: Kuang-chih shu-chü, 1950.

  ———. Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel. Translated by Moss Roberts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

  Lu O-t’ing. K’un-chü yen-ch’u shih-kao (A History of k’un-ch’ü opera performance). Shanghai: Shanghai wen-i ch’u-pan-she, 1980.

  Lu-chou fu-chih (Gazetteer of Lu-chou prefecture). 100 chüan in 4 vols., 1886 edition. Reprint. Taipei: Wen-ch’eng ch’u-pan-she, 1970.

  Mao Heng. Mao-shih Cheng-chien (Mao’s
commentary on the Classic of Odes with Cheng Hsüan’s subcommentary). 20 vols. Reprint. Shanghai: Chung-hua shu-chü, 1936.

  Mao Tse-tung nien-p’u (Chronological biography of Mao Tse-tung). 3 vols. Edited by P’ang Hsien-chih et al. Peking: Jen-min ch’u-pan-she, 1993.

  Mencius. Mencius. Translated by D. C. Lau. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1970.

  Mu Ou-ch’u. Ou-ch’u wu-shih tzu-hsü (My memoir at fifty). Collected in Shanghai-t’an, Shanghai-jen. Shanghai: Ku-chi ch’u-pan-she, 1989.

  Nivison, David. The Life and Thought of Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng (1738–1801). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1966.

  Owen, Stephen, ed. and trans. An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

  Pa-hsien-chih (Gazetteer of Pa county). Reprint. Taipei: Hsüeh-sheng shu-chü, 1967.

  Pan-jo hsin-ching wu-chia chu (The Heart Sutra with five commentaries). Compiled by Chih Hsü et al. Taipei: Hsin-wen-feng ch’u-pan, 1975.

  Perry, Elizabeth J. Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845–1945. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1980.

  Rilke, Rainer Maria. The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell. New York: Vintage Books, 1984.

  Roy, David Tod. Kuo Mo-jo: The Early Years. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971.

  Saich, Tony, ed. The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party: Documents and Analysis. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1996.

  Shen Ts’ung-wen (Sheng Congwen). Imperfect Paradise. Edited and translated by Jeffrey Kinkley et al. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995.

  ———. Shen Ts’ung-wen wen-chi (Literary writings of Shen Ts’ung-wen). Edited by Shao Hua-ch’iang and Ling Yü. 12 vols. Hong Kong: San-lien shu-tien, 1984.

  ———. Ts’ung-wen san-wen-hsüan (Selected essays of Shen Ts’ung-wen). Hong Kong: Shih-tai ch’u-pan, 1980.

  ———. Wu-ts’ung hsün-fu te pan-ma (The Untamable zebra). Peking: Chung-kuo ch’ing-nien ch’u-pan-she, 1996.

  Shen Ts’ung-wen and Chang Chao-ho. Ts’ung-wen chia-shu (Family letters of Shen Ts’ung-wen and Chang Chao-ho). Shanghai: Shanghai Yuan-tung ch’u-pan-she, 1996.