Qīngdài Gōngtíng Yànshǐ 清代宮廷豔史
Scandalous History of the Qing Imperial Court by 許嘯天 (撰)
About the work
Qīngdài Gōngtíng Yànshǐ 清代宮廷豔史 is a sprawling Republican-era historical novel by 許嘯天 (Xǔ Xiàotiān), one of the most prolific writers of the gōngtíng yànshǐ 宮廷豔史 (palace scandalous history) genre. The Kanripo text preserves the first part (dì yī bù 第一部), comprising at least 268 chapters (huí 回). The narrative covers the entire sweep of Qīng history beginning with the Manchu origins and the romantic-martial adventures of the early Aisin Gioro lineage, the wars against Ming China, the founding of the Qīng dynasty, the conquest of China Proper, and continuing through the reigns of the early Qīng emperors. Notable episodes in the table of contents include the story of Chén Yuányuán 陳圓圓 (the famous beauty courted by Wú Sānguì 吳三桂, whose defection admitted the Manchu armies), the death of the Chóngzhēn Emperor 崇禎帝, the romantic entanglement of Dōěrgǔn 多爾袞 (Dorgon), and the establishment of the Qīng in Beijing.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
許嘯天 (Xǔ Xiàotiān) was one of the most prolific writers of popular historical fiction in the Republican era, particularly in the gōngtíng yànshǐ 宮廷豔史 subgenre. In addition to Qīngdài Gōngtíng Yànshǐ, his works in the Kanripo corpus include KR4k0322 Tángdài Gōngtíng Yànshǐ 唐代宮廷豔史 (Scandalous history of the Tang imperial court). The gōngtíng yànshǐ formula combined romantic-erotic content with historical narrative: female figures (consorts, palace ladies, famous courtesans) serve as the structural center of the narrative, around which the military and political history of the dynasty revolves. Chén Yuányuán 陳圓圓 — the beautiful actress whose romance with Wú Sānguì and “capture” by the rebel Lǐ Zìchéng 李自成 triggered Wú’s defection to the Manchus — was a central figure in the Qīng-founding narrative tradition, immortalized in the poem Yuányuán Qǔ 圓圓曲 by Wú Wéiyè 吳偉業 and in countless later fictions.
The novel’s opening focuses on the prehistoric and legendary origins of the Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria (the Jiànzhōu 建州 region and the Chángbái Mountain origin myth), before moving into the narrative of Nǔrhāchì’s military campaigns and the founding of the Later Jin (Hòu Jīn 後金). The chapter titles, in conventional twin-couplet duì’ōu format, signal both romantic and martial content in each episode.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located on this specific novel.
- Wakeman, Frederic, Jr. 1985. The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China. 2 vols. University of California Press. Authoritative scholarly account of the Qīng conquest period depicted in the novel.
Other points of interest
許嘯天 was among the most commercially successful authors of gōngtíng yànshǐ fiction in the Republican period. His works were widely read and reprinted and are now of historical interest as documents of Republican-era popular culture and historical imagination.