Textual Representations of the Sixteenth-Century Chinese Drama Yuzan ji (The Jade Hairpin)

• Issue: Volume 20, Number 2, Oral Tradition
• Author(s): Andrew Lo
• Download: Download PDF
• Citation: http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/20ii/lo

eCompanion

Pan has the love poem in his hand. The Buddhist sutra, symbolizing the illusory nature of the world, lies on the table to the left. (Anonymous 1987:315).

In the illustration, she is actually facing the reader, and it is Pan who unties her gown. (Gong 1984:116-17).

The chess scene, Act 10. The official Zhang Xiaoxiang is trying to seduce Miaochang verbally while playing the elegant game of weiqi. This is a rare depiction of a man and woman who are not from the same family playing weiqi together.

The first column of characters on the top right gives pronunciations of characters. The next two columns on the top right give the pronunciation and meaning of a character. The illustration is of Act 19. (Gao 1954:10b-11a).

Gao Lian’s Yuzan ji (The Jade Hairpin; see Gao 1954:no. 14, juan xia, 12b). This is a Qing period edition of the Jigu ge edition in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The text is from Act 19.

This is the title page, and the scene of the couple with their eyes closed invites the reader to enter a gentle and soft realm (wenrou xiang). (Retired Scholar Jing 1984:series 1, vol. 2, p. 3).

A scene from Act 19 of The Jade Hairpin. (Retired Scholar Jing 1984:78-79).

Pan is kneeling down to apologize for his late arrival (Act 21). Note the similarity with Figure 4, where Pan is kneeling down after the sexual union to say that he will never forget Miaochang (Act 19). (Huang W. 1984a:series 1, vol. 4, pp. 42-43).

This is the title page. "The eight accomplished musicians" refers originally to those from the court of the Eastern Han period (25-220; see Fan 1973:3125-27), but here they have been transformed into eight beautiful female musicians. (Huang Wenhua 1984b:series 1, vol. 5, p. 1).

This is the title page. Note that a price of 0.12 taels of silver has been stamped on top. (Cheng 1984:series 1, vol. 6, p. 1.)

Starting at the fifth column from the right, the arias are from Act 19 of The Jade Hairpin. A circle around a character indicates a closed vowel. See, for example, the 11th, 13th, 14th, and 16th characters in column six from the right. In column seven an oval shaped like a white teardrop next to the fifth character indicates a nasal sound. (Zhou Z. 1984a:series 2, vol. 13, pp. 708-9).

See Zheng 1988:vol. 4, p. 17.