Qīngfēng Zhá 清風閘
The Qingfeng Sluice-Gate by 浦琳
About the work
Qīngfēng Zhá 清風閘 is a Qīng-dynasty chapter novel of 32 huí by 浦琳 Pǔ Lín (style name Tiānyù 天玉), a Yángzhōu storyteller. Composed in the vernacular oral storytelling (pínhuà 評話) tradition of the Yángzhōu region, the novel is set in the Sòng dynasty (Rénzōng reign 仁宗) and follows the merchant family of Sūn Dàlǐ 孫大理, whose unjust death and the subsequent moral rehabilitation of his hapless son-in-law Pí Fèngshān 皮奉山 form the central narrative. The embedded 提要 (preserved in the Kanripo source file) provides the primary evidence for authorship and historical context.
Tiyao
[Source text: 奉孝軒刊本, embedded 提要 in the Kanripo file]
The Fèngxiào Xuān block-printed edition bears no attributed author. A preface follows, signed by “Méixī Zhǔrén” (梅溪主人) at the Fèngxiào Xuān. Lǐ Dǒu’s 李斗 Yángzhōu huáfǎng lù 揚州畫舫錄, chapter 9 (“Xiǎo Qínhuái lù” 小秦淮錄), records that Pǔ Lín, style name Tiānyù 天玉, had a withered right hand (called “quánzǐ” 扌必子 [Pǔnzǐ]). Having long absorbed the oral storytelling tradition and finding that the standard story collections were too familiar to audiences, he decided to base a new work on his own experiences, using the fictional name Pí Wǔ 皮五, composing it into the Qīngfēng Zhá narrative.
The story is set in the Sòng dynasty during the reign of Emperor Rénzōng. A timber-merchant of Tāizhōu in Zhèjiāng, Sūn Dàlǐ 孫大理, travels with his younger brother Wénlǐ 文理 and their families towards Jiāngnán. At the river mouth the brothers become separated. Sūn Dàlǐ’s family ends up in Dìngyuǎn County, where they are helped by the innkeeper Wáng Xiǎosān 王小三 and eventually establish a small wine-shop. Later Sūn Dàlǐ becomes a county scribe and builds a house by the Qīngfēng Sluice-gate, living in comfort. When his wife Tāng-shì falls fatally ill, he remarries — a widow named Qiáng-shì 強氏. Sūn Dàlǐ then takes in a beggar child, Xiǎo Jì 小繼, as an adopted son. But Xiǎo Jì commits adultery with Qiáng-shì, and together they plot to murder Sūn Dàlǐ, bringing on the condemnation of all their neighbors. Qiáng-shì then marries off Sūn Dàlǐ’s daughter Xiào Gū 孝姑 to the ne’er-do-well Pí Fèngshān 皮奉山. Pí drinks, gambles, and ignores Xiào Gū, who is left hungry and cold and attempts to end her life — but is saved by the ghost of her father Sūn Dàlǐ. The ghost also warns Pí Fèngshān in a dream, and from that point Pí Fèngshān’s fortunes reverse: he wins at gambling, a ball of fire falls into his courtyard that, when excavated, yields five jars of silver. Pí Fèngshān becomes wealthy, builds a garden, opens a pawnshop, buys official rank, and begets a beloved son — all good fortune follows. Meanwhile Sūn Wénlǐ, separated at the river mouth, prospers as a timber-dealer in Jiànpíng County, but his associates Láng Fēng 郎豐 and Máo Shùn 毛順 murder Wénlǐ and his wife to steal his money. The upright magistrate Bāo Zhěng 包拯 (Judge Bao) then makes a tour of Jiāngnán, secretly investigating Fèngyáng County. The ghosts of the Sūn brothers cry out for justice; Xiào Gū presents her case in court. Bāo Gōng, with his penetrating perception, separately punishes Láng Fēng, Máo Shùn, Xiǎo Jì, Qiáng-shì, and Pí Fèngshān, while to repay his good fortune Pí Fèngshān builds a shrine to Bāo Gōng. Thereafter Pí and Xiào Gū do good deeds and come to a virtuous end.
The work depicts the coldness and warmth of human relationships and has much to commend it in this regard, though its prose style is somewhat plain and unpolished. Lǐ Dǒu’s Yángzhōu huáfǎng lù praises Pǔ Lín’s Qīngfēng Zhá for capturing the voice and breath of the runaway underclass women of the moment — those who heard it were first convulsed with laughter and then felt their hair stand on end — calling it a unique mastery. Yú Yuè 俞樾 remarked: “I once read this book; there was nothing especially fine about it. I would not have thought that it captivated audiences at the time. Could it be that the subtlety of its oral tone cannot be caught on the written page?” (Cháxiāng shì cóngchāo 茶香室叢抄, juan 17; note by Gù Qīng 顧青).
Abstract
Qīngfēng Zhá is one of the rare Qīng novels to have a documented authorial connection: the Yángzhōu huáfǎng lù (completed ca. 1795, published 1797) by Lǐ Dǒu 李斗 records the oral performer Pǔ Lín’s role in composing the work. The preface in the Kanripo text is signed “Méixī Zhǔrén” and dated to the fifth month of a Jiāqìng jǐmǎo year (嘉慶己卯, 1799), establishing that the block-printed Fèngxiào Xuān edition was produced in 1799. The work was presumably composed somewhat earlier, in the final decades of the eighteenth century, concurrent with Pǔ Lín’s active performing career.
Pǔ Lín (fl. late 18th century) was a professional pínhuà storyteller of the Yángzhōu school, a tradition that produced numerous major fiction works. The novel’s Yángzhōu vernacular flavor and its social milieu of small merchants, corrupt women, and moral karma reflect the concerns of the lower urban classes. The involvement of Judge Bāo (Bāo Zhěng 包拯, historical figure 999–1062) as final adjudicator is conventional in the gōng’àn genre.
The work is discussed in the scholarly literature on Qīng vernacular fiction, particularly studies of the Yángzhōu storytelling tradition.
Translations and research
- Lǐ Dǒu 李斗, Yángzhōu huáfǎng lù 揚州畫舫錄 (completed ca. 1795, pub. 1797), j. 9, sub “Xiǎo Qínhuái lù” — the primary biographical source for Pǔ Lín.
- Yú Yuè 俞樾, Cháxiāng shì cóngchāo 茶香室叢抄, j. 17 (note by Gù Qīng 顧青) — comments on the work.
- Gǔ Bǐngyuán 顧炳元 and others: discussions in studies of Qīng vernacular fiction from the Yángzhōu region.
No substantial monograph-length secondary literature located.