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FOUR STUDIES / Rudolf G. Wagner
China's "Great Leap Forward" of 1958-1961 was
a time of official rejoicing over the achievements of
Communism, but it was also a time of human-
generated famine and immense suffering. Growing
dissent among intellectuals stimulated creativity as
writers sought to express both their hope for the
success of the revolution and their dissatisfaction
with the Party's leadership and policies.
But the uneasy political climate and the state's
;
control over literature prevented writers from
directly addressing the compelling problems of the
'.
time. Rather, writers resorted to a variety of sophis-
'
ticated and time-honored forms for airing their
grievances, including the historical drama. In this
^
important new book, Rudolf Wagner examines
i
three historical dramas written and performed
between 1958 and 1963 in an effort to decode their
hidden political and cultural meanings. He pursues
dark allusions and double entendres as he situates
the plays in the context of the historical materials
they used and the contemporary political, legal, and
social issues they indirectly addressed. He concludes
with a broad survey of the politics of the historical
drama in China during the last fifty years, suggest-
.
ing further avenues of inquiry into the relationship
;
between literature and the state.
The resulting analysis provides a fascinating
reading of the plays themselves. It also offers a new
The
Contemporary
Chinese
Historical
Drama
Copyrighted material
The
Contemporary
Chinese
Historical
Drama
Four Studies
Rudolf G. Wagner
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley
•
Los Angeles
•
Oxford
This volume is sponsored by the
Center for Chinese Studies,
University of California, Berkeley
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
Oxford, England
© 1990 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wagner, Rudolf G.
The contemporary Chinese historical drama: four studies / Rudolf G. Wagner.
p.
cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-520-05954-9 (alk. paper)
1.
Chinese drama—20th century—History and criticism.
2.
Historical drama,
Chinese—History and criticism.
3.
Politics and literature—China.
I.
Title.
PL2393.W34
1989
895.1'20514'09—dc 19
88-38075
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
123456789
For C.
Copyrighted material
Contents
Introduction
ix
Chapter 1
1
A Guide for the Perplexed and a Call to the Wavering:
Tian Han's Guan Hanqin^ (1958) and the New Historical
Drama
Chapter 2
80
Tian Han's Peking Opera Xie Yaohuan (1961)
Chapter 3
139
Monkey Kin^ Subdues the White-Bone Demon:
A Study in PRC Mythology
Chapter 4
236
The Politics of the Historical Drama
Glossary
325
Bibliography
333
Index
353
vii
Introduction
These studies are part of a larger project exploring methods of inter-
preting contemporary Chinese literary texts. As a general guideline, I
have followed two rules in attempting to reconstruct the horizon of
understanding within which these texts operate and from within which
their logic can best be understood. First, follow every lead. And second,
focus on the fringe rather than on the center.
For someone removed from these texts, in terms of both time and
cultural location, there is no a priori way to decide what form of com-
munication the text in question may be adopting. What
is being com-
municated may
in some cases be
identical with
the surface
text.
In
others, it might be discovered only if the text is read against another text,
be it a political guideline or social and political reality as seen by the
author, or only
if
it
is read against another literary product by the
audior himself or others. Or, it might take all of these forms at the same
time. Thus anything that points toward an entrance into the subtext,
even if it is in the form of minute changes in the illustrations that often
accompany the texts, may help in giving access to this realm. In the case
of the texts studied in this volume, the political situation at the time
when they were written, the former experience of the authors with the
uses of history, and, in many cases, the authors* own explicit statements
make
it clear that writers, censors, and readers
all shared the assump-
tion that these texts must be deciphered in order for their hidden mean-
ing to be discovered. What might seem odd in a literary study—for
ix
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X
Introduction
instance, the utilization of agricultural statistics and mortality rates, or
the introduction of the internal ruminations of political leaders, or dis-
quisitions on certain historical dates, even the introduction of Mwquoted
historical records of persons alluded to in the texts—may give access to
hidden meanings. To attend to such clues
is all part of this
still incom-
plete attempt to follow every lead. Our most obvious lacuna today is
the lack of information concerning the actual performance of the plays
and public reaction to them.
I have tried my best to handle these prob-
lems with the available printed material, but there is no question that
interviews with actors and directors, censors and spectators who actual-
ly saw the performances, and witnessed the public's reaction to
it,
would have been of great value.
The second guideline for my study, to focus on the fringe, has both
an economic base and a theoretical superstructure. Even the simple
topic of historical drama comprises an incredible wealth of material. To
focus on this totality would mean to drown in material and be forced to
resign oneself to a descriptive endeavor. By keeping the entire body of
material in mind but focusing on a very few pieces for a detailed study,
I
could achieve research economy on the one hand and gain insights into
the entire body of material on the other. The texts selected for study
here are not the core pieces of the genre, but
its fringe. To take as the
center of my study Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, for instance, would
have meant to throw myself into a battle in which the entire leadership
of the country seems to have joined. Misinformation, falsification, and
suppression of information are much more likely in such a core piece
than they are in the pieces studied here like Guan Hanqing or Sun
Wukong sanda baigujing. The structure of these latter pieces is clearer
and more easily discernible. Thus, to go for the fringe in the analysis of
the center is not only economical; there are also good reasons to do so.
To explore the relationship between the fringe and the center,
I have
added a study of the topoi common to the new historical drama that
make them a distinctive group of texts. The enterprise of these studies is
thus a hermeneutical one.
As the studies all deal with the historical drama, some words may be
said as to the place of the historical drama in the group of texts domi-
nating the intellectual field and political attention between 1958 and
1966. These were years of a multifaceted crisis in China. The common
aspirations that had held the leadership together before 1949 had faded
to a point where the leadership had become fragmented with infighting
and where political intrigue had become a primary occupation. The
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Introduction
xi
already-weak Chinese
legal system was further eroded by the rapid
collectivization after 1955, which had eliminated individual property
rights. The final collapse came in mid-1957, with the Anti-Rightist cam-
paign, when three to four hundred thousand people, mostly younger
members of the elite, were shipped off from their homes and jobs for
reeducation in the poorest areas of the country, without either trial or
1^1 redress. It was an ideal occasion for weak characters to get rid of
their challengers and for strong characters to bruise their heads. By
1959, the subsequent economic experiment of the Great Leap landed,
through an inextricable interaction of political, ideological, and natural
factors, in what scholars now call the greatest famine in Chinese history.
And this with a leadership so cut off from realities that they thought
China was going from one bumper harvest to the next, and massively
increased grain purchases in the midst of the disaster.
The Communist government had
discontinued
the
old
imperial
institution of the censor, with his duty to remonstrate with the highest
leader. Sun Yat-sen had included a modernized form of this institution
in his constitution under the name of the Control Yuan, but after 1949
no institution remained that had the duty of loyal remonstrance and
conunanded the respect due to those who take on this heavy burden.
Nevertheless, many leaders of the intellectual community saw them-
selves in this censorial tradition, especially in times of crisis when dis-
agreements among the highest leaders left some leeway for those further
down the ladder. But even though they were concerned with the "social
fabric coming apart," they were
in most cases also partisans of one
faction of the center or another, a circumstance that made much of their
criticism both partisan and hypocritical. Given the
political climate
at the time, they did not use straight language but relied on a variety
of sophisticated and time-honored forms of remonstrance. They "dis-
covered" that the Ming-dynasty official Hai Rui, who became a role
model for many since the late fifties, was not simply a sti£F-necked judge
who would proffer his head to the next villain to come along, but also
a wily politician, a man who was aware of political realities and devised
tactics to take them into account without compromising "the aspira-
tion of his life." From Hai Rui and others they learned indirect forms of
discussing contemporary problems.
First, remonstrance came in the form of historical scholarship. His-
tory has always served in China as a depository of precedents in the light
of which the present was discussed. During the period in question, a
passionate debate raged concerning the evaluation and reevaluation of
Copy righled material
xii
Introduction
such controversial historical figures as the third-century general Cao
Cao, whom popular literature depicted as a crafty arch-villain, and the
empress Wu of the Tang dynasty, the hen in the cock's place whose
reputed murder and sex outrages had been described with glee and
detail in many a yellow book. The discussion about their merits allowed
for a sophisticated treatment of the strengths and weaknesses, the popu-
lar perception and the factual features of the number-one leader at the
time, Mao Zedong himself. The writing of biographies of such staunch
remonstrators as Hai Rui of the Ming or Judge Bao of the Song dynasty,
studies of the "international relations" with the Northern ("Soviet")
tribes during the Zhanguo period (475-221
B.C.), or the evaluation of
such "revolutionary" leaders as Li Zicheng of the Taiping rebellion in
the middle of the nineteenth century, who was said to have caved in
after his imprisonment—all these were forms of indirectly dealing with
the present. There was nothing conspiratorial in this. The top leaders
frequently initiated the debates, which, even though they were orga-
nized by the Propaganda Department of the Party, offered rich material
for the indirect treatment of contemporary problems, and all sides made
use of this opportunity.
Second, zawen, the historical or miscellaneous essay as a form of
remonstrance, became most popular after the beginning of a second Hai
Rui wave in 1961. Written by historians like Wu Han, journalists like
Deng Tuo, and cultural leaders like Liao Mosha, these zawen essays
were linked with Lu Xun's use of zawen during the thirties. Most of
them dealt with history, from which they proceeded to draw general
conclusions, both
historical events and conclusions being as a
rule
direcdy linked to the present. Two such series were Deng Tuo's Evening
Chats at Yanshan (Yanshan yehua, March 1961—September 1962, in
Beijing wanbao) and (pseud.) Wu Nanxing's (Wu Han, Deng Tuo, and
Liao Mosha) Three Family Village, which appeared in the Beijing Party
committee's journal Frontline (Qianxian) between October 1961 and
July
1964. They were
imitated
or
reprinted
in
other
parts
of the
country.
Third, remonstrance has taken the form of historical drama. "New
historical dramas" {xinbian lishiju) have been written since the turn of
the twentieth century, and were written under Conmiunist guidance in
Yanan since the early forties. After
1 949, a number of Peking operas
and works in other styles had been adapted to the educative purposes
of the Party. The new historical plays were to confront the "peasant
masses" with the feudal tyrants; the rewritten historical pieces dealt
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Introduction
xiii
with moral issues but not with court intrigue. A third group, to which
Guo Moruo's Qu Yuan (Chongqing, 1942) belongs,
fell into disuse, as
it operated on a "united front" theme against the foreign aggressor, a
situation no longer relevant after 1949 when united front policies were
abandoned. The new historical drama, as well as the adapted and rewrit-
ten pieces that were staged after 1958, dealt with the court, with the
intrigues between two factions, one correct and one villainous, and
with an ensuing crisis of the nation. The hero, the remonstrator, would
ma huang (curse the emperor) and,
if necessary, da huang (trounce the
emperor).
Altogether
this group
of
texts may comprise
a hundred
pieces. Both the critics of the Great Leap and the critics of these critics
made use of the historical drama. This book deals with some of these
pieces, taken from both sides of the political controversy of the Great
Leap years. The last chapter treats a larger part of them in a synthetic
manner. This work does not deal with all the texts; an entire group of
texts dealing with the problems of Sino-Soviet relations in the early
sixties is excluded, as are works dealing with the Tibetan uprising.
Fourth, there are dramas, films, and works on revolutionary history.
Factions and individuals within the leadership have discussed their rela-
tive merits through literary works, dramas, or films dealing with the
history of the Chinese revolution. A novel describing the "struggle in
the white areas" (areas under Guomindang control) inevitably has to
deal with Liu Shaoqi, who was in charge of the Party in these areas; a
film about the Pingjiang uprising would be seen as a
flattery for the
deposed minister of defense, Peng Dehuai, as he led this uprising; and a
novel about Liu Zhidan, dealing with the northern Soviet areas and not
the Jinggangshan area (under Mao Zedong), would be read as a subtle
reversal of verdict for the deposed Politburo member Gao Gang, who
happened to have been the leading man in the northern Soviet after Liu
Zhidan's death. It was with this last work, the novel Liu Zhidan, that
literary affairs took on their secret police side in 1962, and ended in the
hands of Kang Sheng, the man who had a complete network of agents
and prisons at his disposal, a network not only beyond the control of
any court but beyond the control of the Party itself. After 1962, Kang
persecuted an
"anti-Party clique"
that had
purportedly assembled
around this work.
All four forms of remonstrance interact with each other in multi-
farious ways, and often the same theme or person is dealt with in different
media. To this large body of material must be added the attempts to
direct public perception of the works through reviews, conferences.
xiv
Introduction
and propaganda directives; the rich body of Red Guard material with
its inside details about many of the personalities and works involved;
and finally the memoirs written
after 1978 by survivors and friends
of the dead. The relative density and cohesiveness of the material enable
us to extrapolate generally valid rules of analysis for the entire body
of material from a small fraction of this material; we rely on similar
phenomena in related fields for confirmation of their validity.
Research for these studies was conduaed first at the John K. Fair-
bank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University, where I
spent the first half of 1984 as a visiting scholar, and then at the Center
for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley. The magnani-
mous support given to me by both institutions is gratefully acknowl-
edged. Many scholars at both universities have encouraged me in pur-
suing these studies and have given their support by subjecting drafts of
the present work to their critical scrutiny. My special thanks are due to
Merle Goldman,
Cyril Birch, and Roderick MacFarquhar. Professor
Wu Xiaoling kindly shared his vast knowledge about Chinese operatic
tradition with mc and pointed out
historical
sources.
Sally Serafim
shouldered the formidable task of transforming my jolting Germanisms
into a fairly smooth English road. Sheila Levine and Betsey Scheiner, of
the University of California Press, also joined in the editing endeavor.
I
myself, and even more so the readers, owe many bows of gratitude to
them. E. Schneider, Marion Betz, and Renate Schulze were of great help
in finalizing the manuscript. As is customary and correct, responsibility
for any mistakes rests with me alone.
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ONE
A Guide for the Perplexed and
a Call to the Wavering: Tian
Han's Guan Hanqing (1958)
and the New Historical Drama
"When, in the twelfth century, the Jewish community had become so
dispersed that the transmission of the secrets of the Torah among the
initiated could no
longer be guaranteed,
the
rabbi Maimonides
set
out to write his Guide for the Perplexed,^ The book, according to Leo
Strauss's admirable study of the Guide,^ was to explain the secrets of
the Torah. By explaining
its secrets, however, Maimonides violated a
Stringent rule of this very body of laws and prescriptions—namely,
that
its mysteries should not be divulged to the uninitiated. Strauss
argues that Maimonides solved the problem by writing a two-layered
text. The
text's surface would
satisfy the common
spirit; however,
small contradictions, misquotes, and oblique parallelisms with other
texts would alert the initiated to the deeper message, which all too often
was the exact opposite of the proposition made on the surface. Writers
in socialist countries have faced similar problems when crafting their
texts, although their specific circumstances are certainly different. There
An early draft of diis chapter was presented at the Workshop on Contemporary
Chinese Drama and Theater in October 1984 in Buffalo.
I have greatly ben-
efited from su^estions and
criticisms, but above
all encouragement, from
Merle Goldman and Cyril Birch. The eminent Guan Hanqing specialist Wu
Xiaoling was kind enough to help me with some important historical references.
To them and many other friends and colleagues who have padendy borne with
me the slow development of the analysis, 1 bow in gratitude.
1. ben Maimon, Guide.
2.
Strauss, Persecution and the Art of Writing.
1
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2
Guan Hanqing and the New Historical Drama
are strict, state-enforced rules as to the structure and content of the
surface text; however, in times of crisis some writers have felt compelled
to articulate the realities of society in the face of a daydreaming state
leadership. They have crafted multilayered texts in an attempt to "speak
the truth" and survive
it.
In Maimonides's preface, he hinted at the
true method to be followed
in reading his Guide, to give the reader
some necessary guidance to find his way into the secret code.
Strauss gave his study of Maimonides's book a title that is mislead-
ing, to say the least: Persecution and the Art of Writing. The book deals
neither with persecution nor with the art of writing under the threat
of persecution. The misleading
title
is
for the knowing. As
Strauss's
preface indicates (without of course spelling
it out in any way), the
book deals on another level with deciphering contemporary writing
from Leninist states.^
Much has been written about several of the "new historical plays"
{xinbian lishiju) of the late fifties and early sixties in the People's Repub-
lic of China. Plays like Hai Rui Dismissed from Office {Hai Rui baguan)
by Wu Han, Xie Yaohuan by Tian Han, and Li Huiniang by Meng
Chao were said to be attacks by innuendo on the Party, its Chairman,
and
socialism
in
general. The
criticism
directed
against
these plays
marked the first open battle of the Cultural Revolution. Scholarly atten-
tion has been focused on the relationship of these texts to the dismissal
of defense minister Peng Dehuai at the Lushan Plenum in August 1959,
however, rather than on the literary aspect of the drama or even on the
historical plays written before Peng's dismissal.'*
Tian Han wrote the historical drama Guan Hanqing in the first half
of 1958.^
It is a play about Guan Hanqing, the Yuan dynasty play-
wright, as he sketches, writes, and stages the play Injustice Done to
Dou E (Dou E yuan),^ which itself is a historical play. Guan Hanqing is
thus a historical play about a playwright writing a historical play. It is
my first contention that it is also, like Maimonides's Guide, a "guide for
the perplexed," to educate the knowing in the secrets of reading histor-
ical plays, and as such it is at the same time, like Maimonides's Preface,
preface to the "new historical plays" of the coming years.
It will be
3.
Ibid., p. 3.
4. For a detailed discussion and bibliography see chap. 4, "The Politics of
the Historical Drama.*'
5.
Tian, Guan Hanqing. Juben ed.
6. Guan, Gantian dongdi Dou E yuan, pp. 847ff. There is an English trans-
lation by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang under the tide Snow in Midsummer.
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