Shuāng Fēng Qí Yuán 雙風奇緣
The Strange Fate of the Twin Winds by 雪樵主人 (撰)
About the work
Shuāng Fēng Qí Yuán 雙風奇緣 (The Strange Fate of the Twin Winds) is a Qīng-dynasty historical romance attributed to Xuě Qiáo Zhǔrén 雪樵主人 (Master of the Snowy Woodcutter), the same pen name as the author of the much longer KR4k0226 Shuāng Fèng Qí Yuán 雙鳳奇緣. The present text (KR4k0227) survives in the Kanripo corpus as only juàn yī 卷一 (Volume One), comprising approximately 8 visible huí, and is thus either a fragment of a longer work or only the first installment of a projected multi-volume novel. The title character fēng 風 (wind) differs from the fèng 鳳 (phoenix) in KR4k0226 — a distinction of one stroke — suggesting either a textual variant, a copyist error, or a deliberately distinct title.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The narrative of Shuāng Fēng Qí Yuán is essentially identical to the opening of KR4k0226 Shuāng Fèng Qí Yuán: Hàn Emperor Yuán 漢元帝 dreams of a beautiful woman at the Mid-Autumn Festival, dispatches the corrupt minister Máo Yánsòu 毛延壽 to find her; Máo travels to Yuèzhōu 越州, where he encounters the governor Wáng Zhōng 王忠 and his daughter Wáng Zhāojūn 王昭君 (also called Hào Yuè 皜月). The first chapter text is preserved verbatim or near-verbatim in both KR4k0226 and KR4k0227. The source file for KR4k0227 (8,389 lines) is roughly one-quarter the length of KR4k0226 (32,257 lines), consistent with it being only the first juàn of a work whose subsequent volumes have not been preserved in this corpus.
The relationship between the two texts is uncertain. Possibilities include: (1) KR4k0227 is an earlier, shorter recension of the same work that was later expanded into KR4k0226; (2) KR4k0227 is a fragment surviving only in one volume while KR4k0226 represents the complete text; (3) the difference in the second character (fēng 風 vs fèng 鳳) is a scribal error in one copy. Given that the chapter headings and content in Chapter 1 are nearly identical in both texts, the most parsimonious explanation is that these are two textual witnesses to the same underlying composition, with KR4k0227 preserving only the first juàn.
The author Xuě Qiáo Zhǔrén 雪樵主人 remains unidentified. See further the entry for KR4k0226.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- See also: KR4k0226 Shuāng Fèng Qí Yuán 雙鳳奇緣 — the full-length version.
- 王昭君 — Wikipedia