Didactic Vernaculars: Moral Values and Literary Genres in Early Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

This panel investigates the interplay between vernacular literary genres and moral values in early modern China. Fiction and drama were used to disseminate Confucian and Daoist morality among specific audiences. At the same time, the genres themselves were influenced by these moral and religious values as writers, editors, and commentators refashioned works in accordance with them. More than simple entertainments on the one hand or pure didacticism on the other, these vernacular works represent dynamic dialogues between the moral and the literary.

Alexander demonstrates how the “maverick philanthropist” Yu Zhi (1809-1874) created didactic vernacular works for widespread consumption in order to disseminate Confucian morality even as he condemned popular novels and dramas. Liu Chiung-yun argues that the Qing play The Rock with Shadows of Blood (Xie Yingshi), often considered an artistic failure, is actually a sophisticated renegotiation of the Confucian value of loyalty intended for urban audiences. Gregory examines the critic Jin Shengtan’s discussion of the Confucian canonical texts the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean within his commentary to The Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan), and demonstrates the intimate connection between Jin’s moral and literary stances. Liu Peng argues that Feng Menglong’s (1574-1646) reworking of Quelling the Demons (Pingyao zhuan) was done not only for reasons of literary aesthetics but also in order to introduce a Daoist goddess as a moral agent framing the narrative.

Together, these papers shed light on how vernacular literary forms both expressed and were informed by moral values.

Area of Study

• China and Inner Asia

Session Organizer

• Scott W. Gregory, University of Arizona

Chair

• Scott W. Gregory, University of Arizona

Individual Presentations

• Bringing Demons Under Control: Moral Agency in Feng Menglong’s San Sui pingyao zhuan - Peng Liu, Columbia University

• Tactical Deployment of Vernacular Literature in Wartime Jiangnan (1853-1864) - Katherine Alexander, University of Chicago

• The Trouble with Loyalty: Eunuchs, Prostitutes and Barbarians in The Rock with Shadows of Blood - Chiung-yun Evelyn Liu, Academia Sinica

• The Art of Subtle Phrasing Has Been Extinguished: Neo-Confucian Outlaws in Jin Shengtan’s Water Margin - Scott W. Gregory, University of Arizona

Discussant

• Rania Huntington, University of Wisconsin-Madison