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金雲翹傳

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Text ID
KR4k0156
Date
1641–1710
Dynasty
清

Jīn Yún Qiào Zhuàn 金雲翹傳

The Story of Jin, Yun, and Qiao by 青心才人 (撰)

About the work

Jīn Yún Qiào Zhuàn 金雲翹傳 (“The Story of Jin [Chónglǐ 金重], Yún [Qīng 雲青], and Qiào [Wáng Cuìqiào 王翠翹]”) is a vernacular romance novel (cáizǐ jiārén xiǎoshuō 才子佳人小說) in 20 huí, attributed to the pseudonymous late-Míng or early-Qīng author 青心才人 (Qīngxīn Cáirén, “Talented Person of Pure Heart”). The novel tells the story of Wáng Cuìqiào 王翠翹, a talented and virtuous young woman who, driven by filial piety, sacrifices herself by entering into a succession of unwanted unions — with a procuress’s client, then with a pirate chieftain — while her destined lover Jīn Chónglǐ 金重 awaits her. After fifteen years of suffering, trials, and moral steadfastness, she is finally reunited with Jīn Chónglǐ. The work is of exceptional comparative literary importance: it is the principal Chinese source for Nguyễn Du’s 阮攸 great Vietnamese verse-narrative Truyện Kiều (金雲翹傳, 1820).

Tiyao

No tiyao found in source.

Abstract

The preface (xù 序), attributed to 青心才人 himself, frames the story in terms of the Confucian concept of xìng 性 (moral nature) and qíng 情 (feeling), arguing that Cuìqiào’s repeated bodily humiliations do not destroy her inner virtue — “her body is defiled but her heart is intact” (shēn rǔ ér xīn miǎn 身辱而心免) — and that she should be understood as “淫而貞” (“licentious in appearance yet chaste in essence”). The author develops a sophisticated argument about the moral rehabilitation of a woman who has been forced into prostitution and concubinage: her conduct constitutes filiality (xiào 孝), not immorality.

The novel is set in Míng-dynasty Jiāngnan and follows Wáng Cuìqiào through a trajectory familiar from earlier Chinese fiction: secret courtship with a poor scholar Jīn Chónglǐ, forced sale into prostitution to save her imprisoned father, rescue and recapture by a series of powerful men including a military official and then the pirate chief Xú Míngshān 徐明山, and eventual liberation and reunion. The work is generally dated to the Shùnzhì–Kāngxī period (1644–1710) on stylistic grounds, although some scholars propose a late-Míng origin (Chónghé–Shùnzhì, 1640s). The pseudonymous author Qīngxīn Cáirén 青心才人 has not been identified.

Relationship to Vietnamese literature. The novel became the primary source for the Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Du 阮攸 (1766–1820), who transformed it into the 3,254-line verse narrative Truyện Kiều (also called Đoạn trường tân thanh / Kim Vân Kiều truyện). Nguyễn Du substantially reworked the plot, elevated the characterization of Thúy Kiều (= Cuìqiào), and gave the story a distinctively Vietnamese philosophical and aesthetic character. The Truyện Kiều is considered the national literary masterpiece of Vietnam. The Chinese novel thus occupies a unique place in trans-regional literary history.

Translations and research

  • Hanan, Patrick. 1981. The Chinese Vernacular Story. Harvard University Press. Discusses cáizǐ jiārén fiction and its late-Míng / early-Qīng contexts.
  • Holmgren, Jennifer, and Alyce Martinson. 1983. The Jin Yun Qiao zhuan as a source for the Vietnamese Kim Vân Kiều. In Papers on Far Eastern History 27: 1–37. Direct study of the Chinese-Vietnamese textual relationship.
  • Nguyễn Du 阮攸 (1766–1820). Truyện Kiều (Kim Vân Kiều truyện). Many modern editions and translations; English translation: Huỳnh Sanh Thông, tr. The Tale of Kiều. Yale University Press, 1983 (rev. edn.).
  • Doleželová-Velingerová, Milena. 1988. Jin Yun Qiao zhuan and its Vietnamese adaptation. In Česko-vietnamské kulturní styky. A comparative study.

Other points of interest

The novel is the crucial link between Chinese cáizǐ jiārén fiction and Vietnamese national literature. The title’s three characters — Jīn 金 (for the hero Jīn Chónglǐ 金重), Yún 雲 (for a secondary female character, Yún Qīng 雲青), and Qiào 翹 (for the heroine Wáng Cuìqiào 王翠翹) — function as abbreviated proper names, a titling convention found in other Qīng romance novels.

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