Kong Shangren And Peach Blossom Fan, "a New Theory

Having the proverb in mind that "The overturning of the cart in front is a warning to the carts behind", the playwright Kong Shangren living in Qing Dynasty wrote in his masterpiece The Peachblossom Fan, or Taohuashan, a story of the love intermingled with joy and sorrow in order to express his interpretation of the rise and fall of a dynasty. The play, which could both be read like an ordinary book and acted out on the stage, reached the zenith in Chinese ancient chronicle plays. In the over three hundred years since its outcome, so many new prefaces to it, so much re-punctuating into it, so many comments on it have come forth in an endless stream that there came out many wonderful reviews and the papers of them on it fulfilled drawers. Among them there are some penetrating judgments and deep insights, but no consensus has been arrived at on the substance and artistic achievements of The Peachblossom Fan. And not enough attention was paid to Kong's late life and his writing during this time.This dissertation is to reappraise Kong and his The Peachblossom Fan from a different angle of view. Kong's Theory of Natural Emotion (Xingqing-shuo) put forth in Yangzhou greatly influenced his writing. His literary conceptions reflected in The Peachblossom Fan, and other essays and poems were the crystallization of his Theory of Natural Emotion (Xingqing-shuo). Kong played an important role to inherit the past and usher in the futureKong for the first time put forth the Theory of Natural Emotion (Xingqing-shuo) in his Collection of the Lake and Sea (Huhaiji), and regarded it as literal criteria. He thought the role of poems was to express one's natural emotion, as he said, "Poems are the voice of natural expression of emotion." Those delivering the poets' natural emotion are real poems. He made poems into two categories: The "Airs from the States" (or the Folk Songs, Feng) are to express emotions of the laborers away from hometown, of women missing his lovers, of out-dated seniors and losers. The Odes (Ya) are to sing the praises of the prosperous times. Though the Folk Songs and The Odes are in different categories, they share the same criteria whether or not they convey the author's real feelings. His theory was to the point of criticism of poetry without ignoring two groups of poets at that time, some of whom glorified the newly-founded Qing Dynasty, while others composed elegies for the perished Ming Dynasty. So Kong gained respects from both sides.At the same time, Kong pointed out that there were regular changes from Yuefu (or Music Bureau Ballads), to the ancient poems, Ci Poetry, Northern and Southern Operas, which were of natural emotion. "Emotion flows out of the text, however, voices root in the emotion. Those that can not be sung are writings without emotion." This kind of views is the origin of the magnetism of The Peachbllosom Fan. Though old melodies were still in use, the words were new, therefore, were strongly moving.Annals of Pingyang Prefecture (Pingyangfuzhi) and Annals of Laizhou Prefecture (Laizhaifuzhi), mainly written by Kong Shangren dismissed from office, were accomplished after Emperor Kangxi called for effort to compile local annals. So the two works were orthodox. Thinking highly of the role of local annals "to record the history, to help govern, to educate the people to be good," he took as criteria "to feel the right emotion and harmony" while compiling collections of essays and poems. His poems and essays in Annals of Laizhou Prefecture (Laizhaifuzhi) met the above requirements.This paper consists of five chapters.In chapter One, the author outlines the research into the substance of The Peachblossom Fan, structural composition, later processing of Kong's writings, and also raises questions on the previous research into Kong and his work, tell readers her new views and methods.Chapter Two covers Kong's life in Yangzhou and his activities involving literature. After another poet Wang Yuyang in Qing Dynasty, Kong became the leader of writing poems, promoting an upsurge of poems in Yangzhou. Moreover, Kong made himself a right guide to many schools in poem writing by his Theory of Natural Emotion. The theory put forth in Yangzhou was also Kong's writing guide. Anyway, Kong's life in Yangzhou was significant to himself, and to writing prosperity in Yangzhou, even to Chinese literature.While Kong tried to rehabilitate the cultural rupture between Ming and Qing dynasties with his poems and essays and his relevant activities, his The Peachblossom Fan in the form of legend offered lessons and references for practical politics by profoundly reflecting on the subjugation of Ming Dynasty. His aim was to reconstruct Qing Dynasty culture with the help of his thoughts, his profound knowledge of Yi Jing (I Ching). So in Chapter Three the author tries to appraise Kong and his work from the point of Yi Jing. Chapter Four focuses on the form of traditional operas. The forms and melodies of the tunes in The Peachblossom Fan made use of the old, but the words were new, in order to be novel and interesting. Sometimes tunes and dialogue are the same important, sometimes intermixed, sometimes the rhyme strong. That makes the writing beautiful both in words and in melody.Chapter Five covers Kong's compiling of Annals of Pingyang Prefecture (Pingyangfuzhi) and Annals of Laizhou Prefecture (Laizhaifuzhi), and his newly-found poems and essays. They are very important for us to understand Kong's thoughts in his late life, even in his whole life. The two annals were written in the upsurge of compiling local annals in Qing Dynasty. We find he thought highly of the role of local annals "to record the history, to help govern, to educate the people to be good." In addition, some Kong's compositions were newly discovered. We can feel Kong's natural emotion flow from the works.To study the above-mentioned parts of Kong and his works is to reveal that Kong proposed the Theory of Natural Emotion and adhere to it. Natural emotion differs in the "Airs from the States" (or the Folk Songs, Feng) from The Odes (Ya), but no matter what it is, composition should express natural feelings. If one fails to achieve his ambition, one should write the "Airs from the States" (or the Folk Songs, Feng) to express his ambition. If one succeeds, one should compose The Odes (Ya). His ideas had himself keep an eye on history and practical politics.Natural emotion delivered in his early poems and essays was to reconstruct cultural tradition, strived to carry forward it and open up new vistas for it. Kong held up his Theory of Natural Emotion to correct the wrong composing conceptions without real emotion. At the same time, he tried to convey natural emotion in his own writings, for example, in The Peachblossom Fan. In the two annals he mainly wrote, Kong paid more attention to zest and feelings themselves with less concerning the style or the value of the book. Though he did much contribution to interpret Confucianism, what he did more is to deliver his real feelings. As was expected, The Peachblossom Fan, made Kong himself immortal writer in Chinese literature.