Hǎo Qiú Zhuàn 好逑傳
The Fortunate Union compiled by 名中教人 (編)
About the work
Hǎo Qiú Zhuàn 好逑傳 is a popular Qīng-dynasty romance novel in eighteen chapters, attributed to the pen name Míngzhōng Jiàorén 名中教人. The title alludes to Shījīng 詩經 Zhōunán 周南 “Guānjū” 關雎: hǎo qiú 好逑, “a good mate.” The novel tells the story of the upright scholar Tiě Zhōngyù 鐵中玉 and his chaste relationship with Shuǐ Bīngxīn 水冰心, structured around tests of virtue, wrongful accusations, courtroom battles, and the eventual union of two people of exceptional moral character. It stands as a representative example of the Qīng “才子佳人” (cáizǐ jiārén) romance tradition, but with an unusually strong emphasis on heroic chastity and moral probity over romantic sentiment.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. (Not a WYG text.)
Abstract
Hǎo Qiú Zhuàn 好逑傳 is attributed to the pseudonymous author Míngzhōng Jiàorén 名中教人. The pen name is a riddling phrase that has been variously interpreted; no scholar has definitively identified the author’s true identity. The text’s opening situates its story in “the former dynasty” (qián cháo 前朝) at Dàmíng-fǔ 大名府 in Běizhílì 北直隸, a conventionally vague historical framing characteristic of Qīng popular fiction.
The novel’s protagonist Tiě Zhōngyù 鐵中玉, a handsome but steely-tempered scholar who “looks like a beautiful woman but has an iron character,” defends the chaste young woman Shuǐ Bīngxīn 水冰心 from harassment by a series of corrupt and lecherous antagonists across eighteen chapters of courtroom intrigue and adventure. The climax involves a famous episode in which the hero and heroine, lodged under the same roof for an extended period, maintain complete propriety — a celebrated demonstration of moral heroism by both characters.
The work was composed in the Kāngxī or early Yōngzhèng era; a firm date has not been established, and the range 1683–1750 is a working bracket based on the work’s position in the Qīng vernacular fiction canon. It became famous in Europe through an early English translation, making it one of the best-known Chinese novels in the West during the eighteenth century. Thomas Percy (of Reliques fame) published the first English translation as Hau Kiou Choaan (1761), based on a Portuguese intermediary version; James Legge also later translated portions. The novel was also translated into French, German, and other European languages.
Translations and research
- Percy, Thomas, tr. Hau Kiou Choaan, or The Pleasing History. 4 vols. London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1761. (First English translation; pioneering work of Chinese fiction in European languages.)
- Kinkley, Jeffrey C. “The West’s China: Thomas Percy’s Hau Kiou Choaan.” T’oung Pao 68 (1982): 54–88. (Study of the Percy translation and its reception.)
- Hanan, Patrick. The Chinese Vernacular Story. Harvard University Press, 1981. (Survey of the cáizǐ jiārén tradition to which Hǎo Qiú Zhuàn belongs.)
Other points of interest
Hǎo Qiú Zhuàn is one of the earliest Chinese novels to have been translated into English (1761), making it historically significant in the history of intercultural literary exchange. Thomas Percy’s translation predates most European awareness of other major Chinese novels.