Jǐngwù Zhōng 警寤鍾
The Bell That Awakens by 雲陽嗤嗤道人 (撰)
About the work
Jǐngwù Zhōng 警寤鍾 (“The Bell That Awakens [from Sleep]”) is a vernacular moral-didactic novel (zhānghui xiǎoshuō 章回小說) in 16 huí, attributed to the pseudonymous Qīng author 雲陽嗤嗤道人 (Yúnyáng Chīchī Dàorén, “The Snickering Daoist of Yúnyáng”). The work belongs to the quànshàn 勸善 (moral exhortation) tradition of Qīng popular fiction: it narrates cautionary tales warning against the vices of greed, family discord, and the influence of unscrupulous women, framed as a bell’s pealing that “wakes” the morally sleeping reader. The novel is set in Jiāngxi 江西 (first chapter establishes the setting in Jí’ān Prefecture, Lóngquán County 江西吉安府龍泉縣) and unfolds through stories of fraternal conflict over family property, bad marriages, rascally matchmakers, and karmic retribution.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
Each chapter of Jǐngwù Zhōng is introduced by a set of vernacular verses (xiǎocí 小詞) in a named qǔpái 曲牌 (tune pattern) before the prose narrative begins — for example, the first chapter opens with verses to the tune 《寄駝梁》. This lyric-prose structure is characteristic of a sub-genre of Qīng popular fiction that sought to combine entertainment with Confucian social instruction. The narrative covers sixteen linked episodes: fraternal conflict (第一回: a bald-headed stepbrother abused), fraudulent matchmaking, a maidservant’s misplaced desires, bought examination success, chivalric revenge, ghost-driving, thief-catching reversals, karmic retribution for greed, and a final return to divine order (第十六回: 明歸神亙古千秋, “Illuminating Return to the Divine for a Thousand Autumns”).
The pseudonymous author Yúnyáng Chīchī Dàorén 雲陽嗤嗤道人 — the “Snickering Daoist” or “Mocking Daoist of Yúnyáng” — cannot be identified from independent sources; the Yúnyáng 雲陽 sobriquet may indicate a Jiāngsū or Jiāngxī geographic affiliation. No CBDB record has been found. The work was not recorded in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書. A mid-to-late Qīng date is probable given the genre and style.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- Wikipedia (zh): 清代小說