Fēihuā Yàn Xiǎng 飛花艷想
Flying Flowers and Amorous Imaginings by 樵雲山人 (撰)
About the work
Fēihuā Yàn Xiǎng 飛花艷想 (Flying Flowers and Amorous Imaginings) is a Qīng cáizǐ jiārén 才子佳人 (scholar-beauty) vernacular novel in 18 huí, attributed to the pen name Qiáoyún Shānrén 樵雲山人 (“Mountain Man of the Woodcutter’s Cloud”), identified in the embedded tiyao as Liú Zhāng 劉璋. An author’s preface (zì-xù 自序) is dated “in the year jǐyǒu, in the chrysanthemum month (júyuè), in the second half of the month” (歲在己酉菊月末望), which corresponds to the eighth month of Kāngxī 8 (1669). The novel also circulates under the alternative titles Yuānyāng Yǐng 鴛鴦影 (from the Dàoguāng 2 [1822] and Dàoguāng 15 [1835] editions) and Mènghuā Xiǎng 夢花想.
Tiyao
The source file contains an embedded tiyao note (bibliographic summary), followed by an author’s preface (fēihuā yàn xiǎng xù 飛花艷想序).
The tiyao reads (translated): “A qīngdài [Qīng dynasty] novel in 18 huí; also titled Mènghuā Xiǎng 夢花想, Yuānyāng Yǐng 鴛鴦影, and Huàn Zhōng Chūn 幻中春. Signed ‘compiled and arranged by Qiáoyún Shānrén 樵雲山人’; Qiáoyún Shānrén is Liú Zhāng 劉璋. There is an authorial preface dated jǐyǒu (己酉), chrysanthemum month, second half of the month, indicating this is Kāngxī 8 (1669). The text does not elide the character xuán 玄 [the taboo character for the Kāngxī emperor’s name], suggesting it was carved before the Kāngxī reign or in its early period. The story narrates how the prefect Xuě 雪太守 selects a son-in-law through a poetry competition; the young scholar Liǔ Yǒuméi 柳友梅 of Shānyīn County (Shàoxīng), Zhèjiāng, composes two poems (Chūnjuī 春閨 and Chūnjiāo 春郊) and wins the affections of the prefect’s daughters, Xuě Ruìyún 雪瑞雲 and Méi Rúyù 梅如玉. After various adversities caused by slanderous enemies, Liǔ Yǒuméi passes the examinations at the top (tànhuā 探花, third place), rises to Grand Secretary, and is ultimately reunited with Xuě Ruìyún and Méi Rúyù, also marrying the village girl Lǐ Chūnhuā 李春花 and the maidservant Zhāoxiá 朝霞 [four wives in total]. This book not only closely imitates the plot and main characters of Yù Jiāolí 玉嬌梨, but in many passages directly copies its text. However, its ending — a talented man taking four beautiful wives and concubines — departs far from the authentic romantic spirit of Yù Jiāolí. Chapter Six contains a dream sequence with mildly erotic content, which bears considerable resemblance to the famous scene of Jiǎ Bǎoyù’s first sexual encounter in Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢 [though of course Fēihuā Yàn Xiǎng predates Hónglóu Mèng]. Extant Qīng woodblock editions survive; those of Dàoguāng 2 (1822) and Dàoguāng 15 (1835) bear the title Yuānyāng Yǐng, with textual variants.”*
Abstract
Fēihuā Yàn Xiǎng is a representative example of the cáizǐ jiārén 才子佳人 novel genre that flourished in the early to mid Qīng dynasty. Its central schema — a brilliant scholar wins the love of multiple beautiful and accomplished women through his poetry, is separated from them by adversity and slander, and is finally reunited after examination success — is the standard template of the genre. The author Liú Zhāng 劉璋 (pen name Qiáoyún Shānrén 樵雲山人) was a Qīng literatus; no detailed biography survives. Multiple homonymous persons named Liú Zhāng 劉璋 appear in CBDB, but none can be confidently identified with the author of this novel on the basis of available evidence.
The author’s own preface, signed at Jú Yào Xī 菊藥溪 (the place name is partly cut in the woodblock), presents the novel as a work that combines the soaring of flowers (fēi 飛) with the arousing of imaginings (xiǎng 想), and that while celebrating literary talent and feminine beauty, ultimately brings all to the proper Confucian conclusion of loyalty and filial piety (quán bì guī jīng, xié bì guī zhèng 權必歸經，邪必歸正).
The relationship of Fēihuā Yàn Xiǎng to Yù Jiāolí 玉嬌梨 (probably by Shèng Míngkuī 盛明揆, c. 1640s–1650s) is that of derivative imitation: the embedded tiyao frankly acknowledges direct textual borrowing. The erotic dream sequence in Chapter Six has attracted scholarly notice for its resemblance to the initiation scene in Hónglóu Mèng, though Fēihuā Yàn Xiǎng (1669) clearly predates Hónglóu Mèng (c. 1750s).
Translations and research
Lévy, André. 1981. Inventaire analytique et critique du conte chinois en langue vulgaire. Paris: Collège de France. (Bibliographic entry.)
No substantial secondary literature in Western languages specifically on this novel located.