Rúcǐ Jīnghuá 如此京華
Such Is the Capital by 李修行 Lǐ Xiūxíng (撰)
About the work
Rúcǐ Jīnghuá 如此京華 is a late Qīng/early Republican social novel in 48 huí 回, divided into an upper (shàng) and lower (xià) volume of 32 and 16 chapters respectively, by 李修行 Lǐ Xiūxíng. The story is set in Beijing’s entertainment and pleasure-quarter world during the final years of the Qīng and the opening of the Republic of China, and offers a panoramic satire of literati, officials, courtesans, actors, swindlers, and social climbers in the capital. The text runs to approximately 20,825 lines in the Kanripo edition.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The novel’s opening chapter makes unambiguous reference to the “Chinese Republic” (中華民國) and the “President” (大總統), while also evoking the chaos of the Gengzi year (庚子, 1900) — a dating anchor that places the composition in the early Republican era, probably 1912–1920, despite the catalog’s dynastic classification of 清. The catalog may reflect the author’s literati formation under the Qīng rather than the actual date of writing.
李修行 Lǐ Xiūxíng, style name Zǐqián 子乾, was a Shāndōng literatus. CBDB records him (id 358027) without birth or death dates. An earlier novel by him, Mèngzhōng Yuán 夢中緣 (KR4k0183), is prefaced (dated Guāngxù 11 / 1885) by “Liánxī shì” 蓮溪氏, who identifies Lǐ as a metropolitan-examination graduate who later became a village teacher. If this identification is correct, Rúcǐ Jīnghuá would represent his later work, written when Beijing’s social landscape had been transformed by the fall of the Qīng dynasty.
The novel is structured as a tableau of Beijing’s entertainment culture. The upper volume (32 huí) centers on the qīnglóu 青樓 (pleasure quarter) milieu and its literary patrons; the lower volume (16 huí) shifts to political satire involving parliamentary maneuvering and warlord-era corruption. Characters include the singing girl Shen Qingfen 沈挹芬 (upper vol., chaps. 3–13), the dilettante poet Li Buchun 李伯純, and a gallery of hypocritical officials. A recurring device is the juxtaposition of opera/song performances with ironically apposite political commentary.
The work belongs to the genre of qīnglóu xiaoshuo 青樓小說 (pleasure-quarter fiction) that flourished in the late Qīng transition period, alongside works such as Jiǔwěi Guī 九尾龜 and Haishang Hua Liezhuan 海上花列傳. Its satirical treatment of Beijing society under the early Republic gives it documentary value as a record of cultural transition. No modern critical edition has been located.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- Catalog meta:
data/catalogs/meta/KR4k.yamls.v. KR4k0211