Mouse vs Cat in Chinese Literature Read online

  40 On the introduction of Yama into China, see Faure (2013).

  41 Rebirth as an animal was understood as a punishment for sins committed during one’s lifetime as a human. The sufferings one would undergo as a domestic animal at the hand of the human owner were seen as a form of repayment for the debts one had incurred toward that person in an earlier existence (Ohnuma 2017, 5–23). As we will see, such “normal” sufferings were distinguished from acts of exceptional cruelty.

  42 Teiser (1994). While multiple animals appeal to King Yama, their complaints are directed not against humankind in general but against their individual tormentors.

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  The Chinese tradition does not know a collective complaint to a divine authority by all animals against humans as we find in the Arab tradition ( Epistles of the Brethren of Purity 2009), nor is there any text to parallel Ando Shoeki’s (1702–1762) Hōsei monogatari, in which all animals gather to condemn the behavior of humans (Hunter 1992).

  We also find no Chinese parallel to the medieval text in which man is ordered to prove his superiority over animals in a disputation with a donkey. See Turmeda (1984).

  43 Dudbridge (1995, 60–61).

  44 For a general description of the legal system in late-imperial times, see Sprenkel (1962).

  For the role of the private specialists in legal procedure, the so-called litigation masters, who would draft accusations and counteraccusations on behalf of their clients, see Macauley (1998).

  45 For a full translation of this text and an extensive discussion, see Spring (1993, 82–93).

  Liu Zongyuan’s composition “has been regarded from early on as a straightforward allegory written to express his own frustrations after his banishment” from court (88).

  By the Qing dynasty, many people who were not otherwise vegetarians refused to eat beef because of the services of the ox to humankind (Goossaert 2005).

  46 Sui Shusen (1964, 1:319–21); Tanaka (1983, 251–68). From the thirteenth century we also have the Yang su yuan by Zeng Rui. In this song set, a butchered sheep describes in detail how people dine on its flesh, but it does not explicitly address King Yama (Sui Shusen 1964, 1:519–21). For a comparative study of these pieces in the voice of animals, see Tanaka (1969, 74–87).

  47 Wang Senran (1997, 211–12); Zhang Guixi and Zhang Wei (2013, 291–302).

  48 For a preliminary survey of the regional distribution of the story, see Xi Yingying (2017).

  49 Stent (1878, 115–35), “The Rat and the Cat in Hades”; Little (1891).

  50 For a detailed survey of this theme in world literature, see the epilogue.

  51 For weddings, see Guan Dedong (1960, 19–21). For funerals, see Stent (1878, 101–10),

  “The Illness, Death, and Funeral Obsequies of Mr. Locust; With a Slight Account of the Battle at His Grave.”

  52 Ding Yaokang (2008). In this text the debate is framed as a dream vision.

  53 The contemporary Taiwanese female performer Yang Xiuqing included in her repertoire “The Great War between the Flies and the Mosquitoes” (Huying dazhan wenzai ge). Chen Yikai (2000, 134–46).

  54 Schonebaum (2016, 81–109).

  55 Cf. Lefkowitz (2014, 11): “On the one hand, in granting animals the power of speech, fables become fantastic, obvious fictions; on the other hand, . . . fables also depend on implicit assumptions about how real animals behave in the real world.”

  56 This work is concerned with the treatment of animals in literature, and its approach is therefore different from that of the history of animals.

  57 Pasquet (1993).

  58 In Japan, however, a handbook on breeding rats was published as early as 1775 (Carroll 2015, 92). Traditional lore about mice and rats is also a large part of a number of volumes in recent series devoted to the twelve birth-year animals. Each occurrence of the year of the rat also stimulates publishers to bring out books that collect information about rodents, and some of these also may include a chapter devoted to their archenemy, the cat, which is not one of the twelve birth-year images.

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  59 The compilation of this huge work had been initiated by Chen Menglei (1651–1723 or later). The section on animals has been conveniently reprinted (see Jiang Tingxi et al.

  1998).

  60 Lu Xun (1976, 5–16). On Lu Xun’s attitude toward animals (including mice and cats), see Capehart (2016), Jin Xinlai (2010), and Sun Kecheng (2007).

  61 The story of the selection of the groom is nowadays often included in collections of Chinese fairy tales. The story also has been repeatedly adapted for children’s theater and puppet theater.

  Ch a p t e r 1: T h i e v i ng R ats a n d Pa m pe r e d C ats

  1 B. Watson (1993b, 179; translation slightly adapted).

  2 Sterckx (2002, 65).

  3 Cf. B. Watson (1993a, 385).

  4 Waley (1996, 88–89).

  5 Legge (1971b, 4:55; translation adapted). The silkworm is proverbial for its voracity.

  Zhu Xi (1130–1200) in his commentary suggests that the big rat stands not for the ruler but for his oppressive officials.

  6 Yang Fan and Wang Ying (2014) summarizes this debate.

  7 Kong Yi (1985).

  8 Liu Yuqing (1988). If the rat is the image of everything that is sneaky and evil, there is of course no more effective curse than a negative comparison to a rat, as we find in the song “Look at the Rat” in the “Airs of Yong,” of which the first stanza in the translation of Arthur Waley reads: “Look at the rat: he has a skin. / A man without dignity, / A man without dignity, / What is he doing that he does not die?” (Waley 1996, 43).

  9 Chen Jiansheng (1993); Li Jinkun (1994); Tan Buyun (1995); Xu Jianhua (1990).

  10 Ma Changyi (1998a, 161).

  11 Chen Yixin (2001, 4:306).

  12 See, for instance, “Judgment for the Dismemberment of a Rat” by You Tong (1618–

  1704). For the Chinese text, see You Tong, Xitang wenji Xitang zazu erji, j. 6, 26a–b ( Xuxiu siku quanshu, 1406:355). For an English translation, see Idema (2015a, 287–89).

  13 This story is quoted in Quhai zongmu tiyao (1959, 3:2080) in its discussion of Zhu Suchen’s Shiwu guan.

  14 Guo Yingde (1997, 1:641–44). For his subplot involving the thievish rat that inadvertently serves as a matchmaker, Zhu Suchen appears to have been inspired by a story that circulated widely and also was adopted as a novella by his contemporary Li Yu (1611–ca. 1679). See Chan Hing-ho (2006, 132–36). When the play was revived in the 1950s, this subplot was taken out (Chu Su-chen 1957). The modern face painting of Lou the Rat shows a mouse covering its nose and provides it with whiskers (Zhao Yongqi 2008).

  15 Ji Li (2015, 201).

  16 Shan Man (1996, 29–30), quoting “The Mouse and the Five Grains” as narrated by Zhu Fuzhen and recorded and edited by Ye Yusun, in Zhongguo minjian wenxue jicheng Zhejiang sheng Tongxiang xian juan, 4.

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  17 On folktales in the rice-growing areas, see Ma Changyi (1998b, 13–21). For an example of one such story quoted by the mouse in its statement before King Yama, see Chen Hongbin (2009, 551–59).

  18 Ma Changyi (1998a, 174–78). A very similar tale is already told by Herodotus (ca. 484–

&nb
sp; ca. 425 BCE) about the victory of the Egyptian pharaoh Sethos over the invading army of Sennacherib (Carroll 2015, 47).

  19 Ma Changyi (1998a, 191–97); Shahar (2015, 152–73).

  20 On the transformation of Vaishravana in China, see Shahar (2015, 153–58).

  21 Huo Xudong et al. (1992, 858–60).

  22 Lin Changhua (2008).

  23 Pu Songling (2000a, 2:1033).

  24 Lin Changhua (2008); Sawada (1986, 398–400).

  25 Pu Songling (2000a, 1:198–99).

  26 This series is known in the West as the “Chinese zodiac.”

  27 In traditional China, the day was divided into twelve hours. When Western clocks were introduced in China, the twenty-four hours that make up the day in the West were called “small hours” ( xiaoshi).

  28 The cat is not included in this set of twelve animals.

  29 Liu Xianting (1943, 27–28). Liu Xianting lived from 1648 till 1695.

  30 Shan Man (1996, 23), quoting “The origins of the sequence of the birth-year images”

  collected by Zhang Suoxing, in Zhongguo minjian wenxue jicheng Dongming minjian gushi juan (internal publication) (1990, 15–16).

  31 Shan Man (1996, 17–19), quoting “Cat and Mouse” collected and edited by Yu Zhaofu, in Zhongguo minjian wenxue jicheng: Henan Yushi juan (internal publication) (1990, 198–200).

  32 Ho (2016); Peintinger (2001, 399–406).

  33 In a well-known fable by Liu Zongyuan, a man born in the year of the rat allows rats the free run of his house and the rodents end up destroying everything. When he leaves, the next owner of the house buys cats, which kill off the vermin. See Liu Zongyuan (1972, 344). Also see the translation and discussion of this text by Hartman (1982, 68–70) and by Spring (1993, 68–71).

  34 Peintinger (2001, 396n27, 397n30).

  35 For analyses of stories about tigers, see Hammond (1991; 1992–93; 1995; 1996). For the tiger as a subject in Chinese painting, see Sung (2009, 137–70). The cat is occasionally called the “tiger’s uncle,” and some folktales claim that the tiger was taught his hunting skills by the cat. The only trick the cat did not teach the tiger was how to climb high trees, an ability that saved the cat’s life when the tiger wanted to kill his teacher.

  36 Jiang Tingxi et al. (1998, 521:2a2).

  37 Jiang Tingxi et al. (1998, 521:2a2).

  38 The second-century translator An Shigao in one of his translations of Buddhist sutras uses the expression “house cat” ( jiamao), but this expression may well have been chosen to describe a situation that was common in South Asia but not yet in China (Barrett and Strange, forthcoming).

  39 Jiang Tingxi et al. (1998, 521:48). Also see Spring (1993, 58–59). Shu Yuanyu was one of the capital officials who lost his life in the Sweet Dew Incident of 835, a failed attempt This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:04:51 UTC

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  of some members of the civil bureaucracy to break the hold on power of the palace eunuchs. One may safely assume that the “rats” in this essay stand for the eunuchs and their supporters inside and outside the imperial palace.

  40 Mo has to be understood in opposition to ben (root, origin, beginning) and therefore not only means “end/final phase of development” but also has the connotation of

  “degenerate.”

  41 Dong Hao (1961, j. 767, 24a–25a [10092–93]). This text is also translated in Spring (1993, 53–54); Spring provides a discussion of this text (54–56). In a late ninth-century essay titled “Keeping Wildcats” (Xumao shuo) by Yang Kui, the pampered wildcat eventually escapes, never to return (Dong Hao 1961, j. 867, 16a–b [11456]; Spring 1993, 56–58).

  42 For a general discussion of ninth-century essays on cats and wildcats, see Li Limin (2006).

  43 Liu Xu (1975, 2170). The account of Empress Wu’s cruel treatment of her female rivals would appear to be inspired by the tales of the cruel treatment by Empress Lü (d. 190 BCE) of Lady Qi, the favorite concubine of her late husband, Liu Bang (d. 195 BCE). When Empress Lü was haunted by the ghost of Lady Qi, it appeared in the shape of a blue dog.

  44 Fu Ting (2012); Lu Xiangqian (2006). Later readers saw in this an omen that the imperial house of the Tang, surnamed Li, would eventually expel the Wu family, as happened in 705 (when the aged empress Wu abdicated) and 710 (when her nephew Wu Sansi was killed).

  45 Qian Yi (1958, 76).

  46 Li Fang (1960; 1940).

  47 Puji (1984, 139). See also Barrett (1998, 15) and Grant (2017, 76–77).

  48 Barrett (2010).

  49 Barrett (1998); Müller (2009). One may wonder to what extent this legend, as was already suggested by Isobe (1983, 219–26), may have been inspired by paintings of traveling monks accompanied by a tiger. Several anecdotes testify that some monks looked on tigers as cats, and some tigers in paintings of monks look very much like cats. See also Feltham (2012). Xuanzang’s own works do not hint at any special affinity to cats, but he is said to have once compared an Indian ascetic covered in ashes to “a cat in a chimney corner” (Barrett 1998, 15–16).

  50 Both The Book of Odes and The Records of Rites are counted among the Five Classics.

  51 Huang Han (2015, 21).

  52 This custom is still observed locally.

  53 Quoted in Isobe (1983, 215).

  54 Imamura (1986, 222–26). The contract is written out as a spiral, starting from the center and surrounding a picture of a cat.

  55 Yijing, trans., Genbenshuo yiqie youbu binaye poseng shi, quoted in Liu Shouhua (2012, 176–77). For a detailed discussion, see Liang Liling (2010, 251–80). On the non-Buddhist version of the tale in the Panchatantra, see Visnu Sarma (1993, 290–98).

  56 In folktale studies, tales of this type are classified as AT 113B. For Chinese versions, see Ding Naitong (2008, 13–14), Gu Xijia (2014, 17), Jin Ronghua (2007, 1:40–41), and Ting (1978, 31). The story was also popular with some of China’s national minorities.

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  197

  Qing, see, for instance, Fubai Zhuren, Xiaolin, in Wang Liqi (1957, 220); Huayan qule tanxiao jiuling, in Wang Liqi (1957, 427); and Xiaodehao, in Wang Liqi (1957, 464).

  57 Jiang Tingxi et al. (1998, 521:45b2). From the Song dynasty onward we no longer find essays on catching wildcats and using them against rodents.

  58 Huang Tingjian (1967, 293). “A cricket-snatcher” describes a kitten.

  59 Huang Tingjian (1967, 293).

  60 Quoted in Shan Man (1996, 91–92).

  61 Tian Ruheng (2012, 450–51). For an alternative translation of this poem, see Barrett (1998, 10), who comments: “Black Roundels is an old synonym for cat, and . . . rats in ancient times were believed to metamorphose spontaneously into quails during the spring.”

  62 Ding Chuanjing (2003, 2:835), quoting Lu You, Laoxue’an biji.

  63 Meng Yuanlao et al. (1962, 290). The high prize lion cats could fetch resulted also in elaborate scams: dyed cats were passed off as rare breeds (Hong Mai 1981, 3:1372). An elaborate description of such a scam in chapters 6 and 7 of the seventeenth-century novel Xingshi yinyuan zhuan suggests that these scams were still practiced in Ming-dynasty Beijing (Xizhousheng 1984, 1:84ff.). For an English translation of this episode, see P’u (1995, 77–86).

  64 In China, the lion cats are also designated as Persian cats, but they are obviously quite different from the breeds that are called Persian cats in the West.

  65 The first painter to specialize in cats, a certain He Zunshi (Master Who), was active in the tenth century.r />
  66 For examples of cat paintings from the Song dynasty, see M. Geng 2008. From the Ming and Qing we also have cat paintings by Zhu Zhanji, Shen Zhou (1427–1509), and Bada Shanren. Zhu Yizun (1629–1723) in his Jingzhiju shihua records the case of a late-Ming district magistrate who was fascinated by cats catching butterflies: “When Wang Dousheng served as magistrate of Rugao he obsessively loved cats. When he saw how beautiful their postures were as they tried to snatch butterflies from the air, he ordered the local population to catch butterflies. Those who had committed a crime were allowed to redeem themselves with butterflies” (quoted in Wang Chutong [1798] 1995–99, 2:10a).

  67 For an example from Taohuawu, near Suzhou, see Pommeranz-Liedtke (1961, plate 24).

  68 Spring (1993, 64–65).

  69 Liu Xu (1975, 3438).

  70 Jiang Tingxi et al. (1998, 521:49b2–3), quoting Xusi bian. Pu Songling in his Liaozhai zhiyi included one item on a ferocious foreign mouser that displayed its talents inside the imperial palace during the Wanli reign (1573–1619) (Pu Songling 2000b, 2:1764–65).

  71 For a reproduction of a rare nineteenth-century example of a xiangmao jing contained in a woodblock edition of the Liuchu xiangfa, see Wu Shouli (2006, 132–34); for a critical edition, see 167–71.

  72 Ma Changyi (1998a, 139).

  73 Ma Changyi (1998a, 139).

  74 In the ninth century the well-known bureaucrat Niu Sengru (779–847) already had composed his essay “Reproaching My Cat” (Qian mao), in which he complained about his cat’s refusal to catch mice despite its rich treatment. Critics read in this essay an attack on his political rival Li Deyu (787–849).