Qīngpíng Shāntáng Huàběn 清平山堂話本
Huaben Stories from the Qīngpíng Shāntáng Studio by 洪楩 (著)
About the work
The Qīngpíng Shāntáng Huàběn 清平山堂話本 is one of the most important surviving pre-Féng Mènglóng collections of vernacular huàběn 話本 short stories, edited and printed by the Míng publisher Hóng Piǎn 洪楩 from his Qīngpíng Shāntáng 清平山堂 studio in Háng-zhōu during the Jiājìng period (1522–1566). The Kanripo text presents the surviving stories in 4 juǎn. The collection is crucial for the study of the huàběn genre because it predates Féng Mènglóng’s editorial transformations and preserves stories in a form closer to their original oral-performance or early-manuscript states.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
Hóng Piǎn 洪楩 was a Jiājìng-period Hángzhōu publisher who operated the Qīngpíng Shāntáng 清平山堂 woodblock printing studio. The collection as it survives is a fragment: the original appears to have comprised sixty stories grouped into six collections (pǐn 品), of which only a portion has survived. The stories preserved in the Kanripo text include “Liǔ Qīqīng Shī-jiǔ Wán Jiānglóu Jì” 柳耆卿詩酒玩江樓記 (on the Sòng poet-lyricist Liǔ Yǒng 柳永) and other tales set variously in the Sòng and earlier periods, many featuring officials, merchants, and romance plots involving sing-song girls.
The content of the Qīngpíng Shāntáng Huàběn is heterogeneous: it includes romantic tales, crime-and-justice stories, supernatural accounts, and historical anecdotes. The narrative style is distinctive: the stories open with an rùhuà 入話 (introductory verse and anecdote to set the thematic stage), followed by the main tale (zhènghuà 正話), a structure characteristic of oral performance scripts (shuōhuà 說話) adapted for the page. Unlike the later Sānyán collections, the Qīngpíng Shāntáng stories have received less heavy literary revision and thus preserve more features of the oral shuōhuà tradition — making them a primary source for the study of how oral performance narratives were textualized in the Míng.
Hóng Piǎn’s life dates are unknown. CBDB records no entry for 洪楩. He appears to have been an educated collector and publisher rather than a creative author; his role is editorial and commercial. The studio name Qīngpíng Shāntáng 清平山堂 (Studio of the Clear Flat Mountain Hall) identifies the physical printing establishment. The text circulated in limited numbers; the collection was rediscovered and reconstituted from partial surviving copies in the 20th century.
The Kanripo text presents 4 juǎn of surviving stories, beginning with the Liǔ Yǒng tale in juǎn 1. The first tale opens with a seven-syllable poem praising female beauty and quickly establishes the narrative voice and setting characteristic of the huàběn mode.
Translations and research
- Hanan, Patrick. The Chinese Short Story: Studies in Dating, Authorship, and Composition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973. (Detailed analysis of the Qīngpíng Shāntáng Huàběn as a pre-Sānyán source.)
- Hanan, Patrick. The Chinese Vernacular Story. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.
- Lévy, André. Inventaire analytique et critique du conte chinois en langue vulgaire. Paris: Collège de France, 1978–1981.
- Yau, Shun-chiu. “Les Contes du Pavillon de la Montagne du Calme Pur: une anthologie de contes en langue vulgaire du XVIe siècle.” Unpublished dissertation. (Study of the collection.)
Other points of interest
The Qīngpíng Shāntáng Huàběn is the largest surviving collection of early-Míng vernacular stories preceding the Sānyán compilations. Its stories were among the sources drawn on by Féng Mènglóng when compiling the Sānyán, sometimes reworked substantially and sometimes carried over with modest revision, making the collection an invaluable control text for source-critical studies of the huàběn genre.
Links
- Wikipedia: Qingping Shantang Huaben