| Literary representations of Yang Kuei-fei (Yang Yu-huan, Yang T'ai-chen; 717-755) reflect both traditional Chinese prejudice against and sympathy for beautiful women who played a part in history. For about fourteen years Yang was the favorite consort of T'ang Hsuan-tsung (685-761; r.712-756). Because his reign ended with the rebellion of An Lu-shan, official historiography as represented by the Tzu-chih t'ung-chien blames her as a major cause of the rebellion and would have us believe that she had an affair with An. Yet the emperor's evident love for Yang even though he had no choice but to punish her with death to appease his army has also made her a tragic figure of romance in Chinese literature.; This dissertation examines Yang Kuei-fei as a character in history (Chapter 1) and studies the more important literary works about her from the middle T'ang (ca. 756) to the early Ch'ing (1688). While relying upon historiography and literary tradition in assessing the character of Yang, most of these works, as with those written later, also had to meet the inherent demands of the genres or subgenres to which they belong, so that we find in them a variety of literary images affecting our understanding of the historical beauty and her love for the emperor.; Semi-historical works dating from the T'ang and Sung, principally the "Tale of Everlasting Sorrow", the "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", the pi-chi records, the Unofficial Biography of Yang T'ai-chen, and the "Biography of Mei-fei" are examined in Chapter 2.; Chapter 3 examines Rain on the Wu-T'ung Tree, a Yuan tsa-chu play by Po P'u and Tales from the T'ien-pao Era: A Chu-kung-tiao Narrative by Wang Po-ch'eng. Chapter 4 discusses three ch'uan-ch'i operas: two dating from the Ming, Story of the Bright-colored Brush and Tale of the Startled Wildgoose; and The Palace of Eternal Youth, by the Ch'ing playwright Hung Shend. |
