Hóng Fēng Zhuàn 紅風傳
Tale of the Red Wind by Anonymous (無名氏)
About the work
Hóng Fēng Zhuàn 紅風傳 is a short Qīng-dynasty popular novel in 15 huí 回 (chapters), written in a sung-and-spoken (shuōchàng 說唱) style typical of popular narrative traditions. The author is anonymous. The work is unrelated to Hónglóu Mèng 紅樓夢 despite the superficial resonance in its title; the “red wind” (hóngfēng 紅風) refers to the supernatural wind summoned by a demon (yāojing 妖精) — a centipede spirit (sōuyán jīng 蚰蜒精) — that abducts the heroine Jiāng Xiùyīng 江秀英 on behalf of the Jade Emperor.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The text opens under the Dàoguāng reign (道光皇爺) and sets its action in the Jiājìng 嘉慶 and Dàoguāng periods (early-to-mid nineteenth century), with the opening verses explicitly marking the Jiājìng 14th year (1809) as the moment when the centipede demon is dispatched by heaven. The hero of the story is Jiāng Bǎiwàn 江百萬, a zhōngshū official with posts in Shāndōng, whose daughter Xiùyīng 秀英 is abducted by the demonic red wind and transported from Hóngdòng County 洪洞縣 in Shānxī to Sūzhōu in Jiāngsū. The subsequent narrative follows various heroes — Cáo Yīng 曹英, Liú Qīng 劉青, Liú Yì 劉義, and Róng Yùqīng 榮玉卿 — in efforts to rescue the young woman, culminating in an imperial audience, rewards, and marriages arranged by imperial decree.
The text is written in a distinctive prosimetric form (shuōchàng tǐ 說唱體) with verse passages alternating with prose narrative, clearly intended for popular performance or reading aloud. Many verse passages are cast in seven-character lines (qīyán 七言). The narrative style — third-person “official” narrator addressing a collective “列位明公” audience, and characters who speak in verse as well as prose — is characteristic of the northern popular storytelling tradition (píngshu 評書 / dàgǔ 大鼓 sphere). The plot is a straightforward tale of abduction, heroism, and imperial justice, without any overt connection to the Hónglóu Mèng theme.
Authorship is anonymous; the text gives no preface or colophon identifying author or date. The explicit mentions of “道光皇爺” and the Jiājìng era, and the prosimetric style, suggest composition in the first half of the nineteenth century, probably in the Dàoguāng period (1821–1850). The Kanripo file is 1696 lines long and covers 15 chapters.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
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