Dōu Shì Huàn 都是幻
All is Illusion by 瀟湘迷津度者 (撰)
About the work
Dōu Shì Huàn 都是幻 (All is Illusion) is a Qīng vernacular novel attributed to the pen name Xiāoxiāng Mítú Dùzhě 瀟湘迷津度者 (“The Ferryman Who Crosses the Misty Ford of the Xiāo and Xiāng Rivers”). The work is divided into two self-contained parts: Méihún Huàn 梅魂幻 (The Illusion of the Plum Soul, 6 huí 回) and Xiězhēn Huàn 寫真幻 (The Illusion of the Portrait, 6 huí 回). The first part is set in the Yǒnglè reign of the Míng dynasty and involves twelve enchanted plum trees in the imperial garden, a supernatural narrative of rebirth and romantic entanglement. The second part concerns a scholar (chíshēng 池生) who falls in love with a painted portrait. A postface (píngyǔ 評語) is signed by “Mǐnshān Àishí Zhǔrén” 閩山愛石主人, who comments on the themes of illusion and reality.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
The source file contains no preface or postface by the author Xiāoxiāng Mítú Dùzhě. A brief evaluative comment (píng 評) appended after the final chapter of Xiězhēn Huàn is signed by “Mǐnshān Àishí Zhǔrén” 閩山愛石主人, a different figure, who reflects on the theme: human life — fame, wealth — is all illusion (huàn 幻), and one ought not to take it seriously.
Abstract
Dōu Shì Huàn is a lesser-known Qīng vernacular novel combining supernatural romance with Buddhist-Daoist reflections on illusion. The title — “All is Illusion” — is the thematic keynote of both parts. The first part (Méihún Huàn) opens with the Yǒnglè emperor (r. 1403–1424) naming twelve extraordinary plum trees in his imperial garden after twelve beauties; the narrative then follows the souls (hún 魂) of these plum trees through reincarnation and romantic adventures involving a dragonking’s court, a prince-consort, and a female strategist. The second part (Xiězhēn Huàn) is a shorter tale of a young scholar who falls in love with the portrait of a woman and eventually wins her in real life, with the motif of painted beauty coming alive (a trope found also in Yùjiāolí 玉嬌梨 and several Sānyán 三言 stories).
The pen name Xiāoxiāng Mítú Dùzhě evokes both the Xiāo and Xiāng rivers of Húnán (associated with elegiac poetry) and the Buddhist imagery of a ferryman who ferries people across the waters of illusion to enlightenment. The identity of this author is unknown. The text survives in a Qīng woodblock edition; the dating is uncertain, but the Yǒnglè-period setting of the first part and the general stylistic features suggest composition within the Qīng dynasty, perhaps seventeenth or eighteenth century. A postface signed by “Mǐnshān Àishí Zhǔrén” 閩山愛石主人 (a Fújiàn sobriquet) suggests a possible connection to Fújiàn literary circles.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.