Kuàishì Zhuàn 快士傳
The Tale of the Admirable Man
by 徐述夔 (撰)
About the work
Kuàishì Zhuàn 快士傳 (The Tale of the Admirable Man) is a vernacular fiction novel in 16 juàn (volumes, each named rather than numbered with huí), written by 徐述夔 Xú Shùkuí (d. 1763). The novel presents itself as the story of a heroic “admirable man” (kuàishì 快士, lit. “a man who makes the heart glad/swift”) who moves through a world combining chivalry, romance, official life, supernatural events, and moral exempla. The preface within the text explicitly announces the novel’s ambition to transcend the standard categories of popular fiction — neither pure romance, nor moral philosophy, nor supernatural tale — by unifying them in the portrait of a single exceptional protagonist.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The novel was composed by Xú Shùkuí 徐述夔 (CBDB 63199; death date 1762, i.e., Qiánlóng 27), a Jiāngxī or Jiāngsū-area writer of the mid-Qīng period. CBDB gives his death year as 1762 (Qiánlóng 27), and the Qīngdài Rénwù Shēngzú Niánbiǎo (cited in the CBDB note) gives the same — meaning the novel must have been completed before that date. The birth year is unknown.
The table of contents lists 16 juàn with paired chapter-headings, each naming a structural episode. The opening prologue (shuō pínhuà de 說平話的, “for the storyteller to tell”) self-consciously addresses the audience’s expectations: the author declares his intention to write about neither romances, Daoist/Buddhist supernaturalism, wealth, moral philosophy, grand military heroes, nor courtesans and temples in isolation, but rather about a kuàishì (“admirable, lively, upright man”) who encompasses all these things yet manages to delight the reader’s heart.
Xú Shùkuí is historically notable not primarily for this novel but for the posthumous literary inquisition (wénzì yù 文字獄) that destroyed his family after his death. During the Qiánlóng reign, his son Xú Shísān 徐食三 was implicated (along with others) in a case based on verses and writings attributed to Xú Shùkuí that were alleged to contain seditious allusions to the fallen Míng dynasty and anti-Manchu sentiments. The case resulted in the posthumous desecration of Xú Shùkuí’s remains and the execution of his descendants. The Kuàishì Zhuàn itself may have circulated in manuscript before the inquisition and survived only outside China.
The novel’s inclusion in the Kanripo corpus suggests it was preserved through Japanese or other non-mainland channels; the text appears to derive from a complete printed or manuscript recension.
Translations and research
- Goodrich, L. Carrington. 1935. The Literary Inquisition of Ch’ien-lung. American Council of Learned Societies. (For the historical background of the literary inquisition that affected Xú Shùkuí’s family and the cultural context of this novel’s survival.)
No dedicated scholarly study of this novel located. No English translation found.
Other points of interest
The Kuàishì Zhuàn is closely linked to the wénzì yù theme documented in KR4k0165 Kāng-Yōng-Qián Jiān Wénzì Zhī Yù 康雍乾間文字之獄. Xú Shùkuí’s case belongs to the same wave of Qiánlóng-era literary persecution, though it postdates the cases recorded in that collection.
Links
- Wikipedia — Literary Inquisition (China) (background on wénzì yù)