Mouse vs Cat in Chinese Literature Read online

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  75 The translation is based on the annotated edition in Huo Xudong et al. (1992, 941–44).

  76 Quoted in Shan Man (1996, 95).

  77 Shen Qifeng (1985, 20–21).

  78 Sun Sunyi (1819, j. 7, 14b). The poem is also quoted in Shan Man (1996, 93), who attributes it to “the woman poet Wang Zhiying” and claims Yuan Mei’s Suiyuan shihua as his source.

  79 Feng Menglong (1985, 811).

  80 Shen Qifeng (1985, 21).

  81 Bobis (2006, 189–239); Rogers (2013, 49–68).

  82 De Groot (1967, vol. 5, bk. 2, 609). De Groot discusses the sixth-century case of cat worship and Empress Wu’s fear of cats by translating the primary sources in extenso.

  83 Doran (2015). The medical literature of the Tang dynasty listed remedies against diseases caused by cat demons.

  84 Huntington (2003, 127–70); X. Kang (2005). The cult also shows considerable similarity to the cult of the Wutong in southern China (Cedzich 1995; von Glahn 1991).

  85 The Sevens refer to the Buddhist ceremonies conducted on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, twenty-eighth, thirty-fifth, forty-second, and forty-ninth days following a person’s death, for the benefit of his or her soul, so he or she may easily pass the courts of the underworld judges.

  86 Quoted in Shan Man (1996, 88–89).

  87 E Chongrong (2010; 2016, 208–37); Gai Jiaze (2014); Geng Yingchun (2015); Liang Yan (2011); Liu Yongqing (2004); Shi Yumei (2012); Tai Wenze (2016); Wang Wei and Lu Juwen (2009); Xie Lihong and Jin Xiaofang (2012); Yang Wei (2007).

  88 Shan Man (1996, 89), quoting Chu Renhuo, Jianhu miji, j. 1.

  89 Huang Han (2015, 18) (also quoted in Shan Man 1996, 89–90).

  90 Roy (2006, 467).

  91 Roy (2006, 467).

  92 Roy (2006, 471).

  93 The novel itself draws attention to the similarity between the manner in which Pan Jinlian trains her cat to maul the boy and the way in which, two millennia earlier, Tu’an Gu had trained a mastiff to kill his rival Zhao Dun, a story that is retold at the beginning of the thirteenth-century play Zhaoshi gu’er (West and Idema 2015, 49–111).

  94 “Frost-like Brow” was one of the favorite cats of the Jiajing emperor (r. 1522–1566).

  Upon its death, it was buried in a grave that was marked by a stele inscribed with the words “Grave of the Curly-Haired Dragon.”

  95 Huang Quan (903–965) is famous as a painter of birds, plants, human figures, and landscapes.

  96 When the cat of his patron also nursed the kittens of another cat that had died, Han Yu (768–824) wrote an essay in which he explained that the cat’s behavior was a result of his patron’s overflowing virtue.

  97 When the favorite cat of Lady Gu, the favorite consort of a certain Zong Bo, died and the lady was inconsolable, Zong Bo had the cat buried in a coffin made of aloe wood (Wang Chutong [1798] 1995–99, j. 3, 4a).

  98 The “Right Commander” is the official Wang Xizhi (303–361), who is one of China’s most famous calligraphers. He learned how to move his wrist by observing the way his This content downloaded from 129.174.21.5 on Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:04:51 UTC

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  geese turned their necks. The Buddhist monk Zhi Dun (Daolin) (314–366) admired horses for their “supernal excellence” ( shenjun).

  99 Li Fuyi (614–666) was a fawning minister who was instrumental in the rise to power of Empress Wu Zetian. Because his face was inscrutable, he was nicknamed “Li the Cat.”

  100 This is another reference to Wang Xizhi. When still a boy, he had a stutter, so many people paid no attention to him, but when he had turned thirteen and visited Zhou Kai, the latter was so impressed by him that he served him some of the main dish, broiled bull’s heart, before turning to the seated guests.

  101 This allusion is based on a conversation between a visitor and the Chan master Caoshan Benji recorded in the Wudeng huiyuan: “‘What is the most precious object in the world?’ ‘The head of a dead cat is most expensive.’ ‘Why is the head of a dead cat most expensive?’ ‘No one can set its price’” (Puji 1984, 790). In later Buddhist poetry, “a dead cat’s head” became a symbol for the ultimate truth.

  102 Sun Sunyi (1819, j. 7, 16a–b). This poem is also included in several anthologies of women’s poetry. For another translation of this poem, see H. Yang (2017, 65–67).

  103 Sun Sunyi (1819, j. 7, 15b–16a).

  104 Pasquet (1993).

  Ch a p t e r 2: T h e W h i t e Mouse a n d t h e F i v e R ats

  1 Xie Siwei (2006, 6:2683).

  2 Xie Siwei (2006, 6:2830).

  3 Sterckx (2002, 81, 174). Elsewhere it is stated that moles become quails (Sterckx 2002, 169) and that “snakes and rats turn into fish and turtles” (201).

  4 Chen Jue (2010).

  5 Pu Songling (1989, 3:1374–78).

  6 Li Fang (1960, 3586).

  7 Dudbridge (1970, 72–73, 94–96).

  8 For a full translation of these four chapters, see Yu (1983, 4:70–138). Xuanzang may be a holy monk, but he “has to constantly work against the idea of sexuality and make an effort to abstain from it” (H. Sun 2018, 97). In chapters 72–73 Xuanzang is entangled in the web of the seven passions spun by spider demons, and in chapters 93–95 he is “near capitulation . . . to the sexual designs of the Jade Hare Demoness”

  (Plaks 1994, 276).

  9 Yu (1983, 4:98–99). Tathagata is a designation of the Buddha.

  10 The location of part of the action of this episode at a Lamaist monastery is probably related to the fact that Vaishravana and his jewel-spitting mongoose were widely venerated in Tibetan Buddhism.

  11 Beijing Shi Xiqu Biandao Weiyuanhui (1959); Zeng Bairong (1989, 397–98).

  12 Su Zongren (2008). A dan is an actor or actress who specializes in the performance of female roles. Traditionally, female roles in Peking opera had been performed by men, but from the 1920s actresses became increasingly prominent.

  13 This scene will have been borrowed from the account of Xuanzang’s meeting with seven spider demons in chapters 72–73 of The Journey to the West.

  14 Su Zongren (2008).

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  15 Wang Shucun et al. (1989, plate 175). The print was acquired in 1896–97. For the following translation, I rely on the Chinese text as transcribed by Hu Chunyan (2013, 214–15) and Peng Mu (1999, 94–95).

  16 The Yellow Springs are a common reference to the underworld.

  17 Li Jing.

  18 To show someone the white of one’s eyes means to give someone a disdainful look.

  19 The translation of this line is tentative.

  20 Animals that take on human shape rarely take on the features of specific individuals, but the five rats are not unique in this ability. In chapters 37–40 of The Journey to the West, the bodhisattva Manjusri’s lion kills a king, assumes his shape, and takes over both his kingdom and his wife; when he fights Sun Wukong he assumes the shape of Xuanzang, but only the true Xuanzang knows the secret spell for tightening the hoop around Sun Wukong’s head by which he can control his unruly disciple. In chapters 93–96 the Jade Rabbit in the moon takes on the shape of a princess and in that guise tries to wed Xuanzang, until she is forced by Sun Wukong to show her true shape.

  21 Jade is in the Chinese tradition associated with the c
olor white, not green.

  22 Wumingshi (2008, 526–28).

  23 An Yushi (1995, 274).

  24 Zhou Shaoliang (2009, 93–97); Pan Jianguo (2015).

  25 Idema (2010b) provides full translations of these texts.

  26 For a recent account of the development of the legend of Judge Bao, see the introduction in Idema (2010b, ix–xxxiv) and the scholarship cited there.

  27 Hanan (1973, 242); Lévy (1971, 126–27; 1979, 548–52); Feng Menglong (2005, 622–34).

  Lévy (1971) also discusses the quintuple nature of the rats, suggesting the influence of the Wutong.

  28 The “Western Ocean” in the title of The Popular Exposition refers to the Indian Ocean.

  In this novel, the five repentant rats serve in human shapes as officers in the army of Zheng He and are in charge of the grain stores of the fleet. A full translation of this chapter is included in Lévy (1971, 139–45). For an English translation of “The Jade-Faced Cat,” see Hayden (1978).

  29 Lévy (1971, 115–46). See also Yamamoto (2003).

  30 For an English translation of the Minnanese ballad on this topic, see Anonymous (2013b).

  31 Pan Jianguo (2008).

  32 Pan Jianguo (2015).

  33 Shi Yukun and Blader (1998); Shi Yukun and Yu Yue (1997).

  34 For a full translation of the cihua on this theme, see Idema (2010b, 67–104).

  35 An Yushi (1995, 265–74).

  36 On the discovery of this novel, see Hanan (1980). Because of its late discovery, the novel is not mentioned in earlier studies of the development of the legend of Judge Bao.

  37 A li roughly corresponds to one-third of a mile.

  38 The Eastern Capital refers to Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song dynasty.

  39 Luoyang had the status of Western Capital during the Northern Song dynasty.

  40 The Book of Odes and The Book of Documents are two of the Five Classics, the bedrock of traditional education.

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  41 A cangue was a wooden device made of two boards that were fastened around the neck of a prisoner or a criminal. The hole for the neck would be barely big enough to allow one to breath. Cangues came in different sizes and weights and were used to secure prisoners and to put criminals on display.

  42 “Disaster incense” may be burned when in danger to alert one’s friends up in heaven.

  43 “Mountains and rivers” refer to the empire; “temple and millet” refer to the imperial sacrifices in the ancestral temple and at the altar of the earth.

  44 Peacock blood was thought to be extremely poisonous.

  45 The Buddha’s preaching is often compared to the roar of the lion. The lion also served as the mount of the bodhisattva Manjusri. From the Han dynasty, stone lions served to protect graves and buildings against demons of all kinds. From the Tang dynasty, the lion dance became popular in China; it, too, served to protect both houses and communities. But as lions are not native to China, the Chinese depictions of lions tend to be quite fanciful.

  46 Gatha refers to Buddhist verse(s). Here it indicates a magical formula.

  47 Di Qing (1008–1057) started out as a common soldier, but rose through the ranks to the highest positions of the realm. He, too, became a figure of legend.

  Ch a p t e r 3: A W e ddi ng a n d a Cou rt C a se

  1 For a convenient list of local dates, see Song Zhaolin (2007, 42–43).

  2 Dong Xiaoping (2012); Li Pengyan and Zun Shikai (2014); Liu Shouhua (2002, 66–76); Ma Changyi (1997b; 1998a, 224–300); Zhu Jingwei (2016).

  3 In the Hanshu this event is recorded as follows: “In the Ninth Month of the first year of the reign-period Yuanfeng (80 BCE) of Emperor Zhao there appeared in Yan a brown rat dancing with its tail in its mouth in the main gate building of the princely palace.

  When the prince went over to have a look, the rat kept on dancing as before. The prince had his servants offer it wine and dried meat as sacrifice, but it kept on dancing as before without stopping, and it died after one full day and one full night. . . . At that moment Prince Ce of Yan was planning to rebel, and this was an image of his approaching death. That same month the case was discovered and the prince was executed. Jing Fang’s Commentary on the Changes states, ‘When one is to be executed without mercy, demonic rats dance in the gate’” (Ban Gu 1970, 4:1374).

  4 Fang Xunshi (n.d., j. 6).

  5 Qian Yong (1979, 420–21). The story is also quoted in Ma Changyi (1997a, 14–15). Also see Ma Changyi (1998a, 331–38).

  6 Oxherd and the Weaving Maid, both celestial stars, are constant lovers even though they meet each other only once a year (on the night of the seventh of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, when magpies make a bridge across the Heavenly River

  [the Milky Way]).

  7 More important than the precise identification of “millet ears” ( su’er) is the fact that the name of the plant can also be understood as “quickly get sons” ( su’er).

  8 Feng Xun (n.d., j. 18).

  9 Hummel (1943–44, 2:505–6).

  10 Zi designates the hour of midnight (11 p.m.–1 a.m.).

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  11 The shoe that serves as sedan chair for the bride is a small lady’s shoe. As long as Chinese women bound their feet, such small shoes were highly charged erotic objects that

  “flirtatiously suggested concealment, mystery and boudoir pleasures” (Levy 1990, 51).

  More innocently, the word xie meaning “shoe” also is homophonous with the word xie meaning “together, togetherness” (Ye Chunsheng 2011).

  12 Quoted in Ma Changyi (1998a, 340–42). An even longer ballad on the custom of the marriage of the mouse by a certain Wang Yanmei appears to have been lost.

  13 In a children’s song included in Jin Bo (2012, 94–96), the groom-to-be is a young rooster.

  14 Zhang Daoyi (1998, 78–79), quoting Zhongguo geyao jicheng: Jiangsu juan (1998). The song hails from Guannan; it was told by Li Liangxue and was recorded by Wang Cai on May 10, 1987.

  15 Ji Xianlin (1991); Zhong Jingwen (1993). See also Nomura (1993).

  16 Visnu Sarma (1993, 325–31). In folktale studies, this story is classified as AT 2031.

  17 Chinese versions are listed in Ding Naitong (2008, 356–57), Gu Xijia (2014, 263), Jin Ronghua (2007, 2:649–51), and Ting (1978, 242–43). See also Dong Xiaoping (2012), Jiang Yuxiang (2006), Li Pengyan and Zun Shikai (2014), and Zhu Jingwei (2016).

  Curiously enough, the earliest Chinese versions of this type of story concern the naming of a cat, which is given more and more grandiloquent names until someone suggests it should be called a “mouse cat.” For one version of this anecdote, see Jiang Tingxi et al. (1998, 521:49b3–50a1), quoting from Xianyi bian, a compilation of the sixteenth-century scholar Liu Yuanqing.

  18 Chen Xin (2004, 2:1120–22). One also encounters stories on the marriage of the mouse in which the mouse is murdered by other parties. In one folktale of “the mouse acquires a bride” from Shanxi, the mouse is killed by an imperial princess. The story may be summarized as follows. When a foreign nation offers two huge candles in tribute, it becomes clear these are actually bombs when the mouse chews away the wax. The grateful emperor assigns the mouse to the first place of the twelve birth-year animals and allows it free run of the palace. After many years the mouse acquires the ability to take on human shape, passes the examinations as top-of-the-list, and is given a princess as bride. The princess discovers that her husband leaves their bed each night after midn
ight. When she spies on him she discovers that he takes on his original shape again and with other mice acts out the marriage of the mouse. The next night, when her husband has fallen asleep, the disgusted princess strangles him and flees back to the imperial palace. Her father initially refuses to believe her, but when he accompanies her to her home, he sees a large dead rat in her bed. Since then the tenth of the First Month each year is the day to celebrate “the mouse acquires a bride” (Zhu Jingwei 2016, 69).

  19 Pu Songnian (1986, 107–11). For reproductions of an extensive selection of New Year prints and papercuts, see Zhang Daoyi (2009, 74–94). The popularity of this kind of print also resulted in prints of wedding processions featuring other animals, for instance, frogs (Wang Shucun et al. 1989, 186, plate 186).

  20 Rudova (1989, plate 102).

  21 In Chinese popular legend this is a common punishment for a divine woman who has actively pursued her sexual desire.

  22 Zhang Daoyi (2009, 92–94); Gao Jiyan (1991, 72, plate 44).

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  23 Zhang Daoyi (2009, 94). Perhaps “Xiyang” in the title of this print should be understood as synonymous with xiyu (the western regions, i.e., Central and South Asia).

  24 Yu Ping and Ren Ping (1993). In this work the bride herself has chosen the groom. The Chinese text of the ballad is accompanied by a rhymed English translation from the hands of Yu Yaoqin.

  25 These were part of the personal collection of Dr. Wang Qiugui and published by the Taiwan Museum of Art ([Wang Qiugui] 1991).

  26 Li Yuelan (2013).

  27 A cat hunting a mouse is part of the Southern Song relief of the Wheel of Life at Mount Baoding in Dazu, but there is no suggestion that the animals had appeared before King Yama (Sørensen 2016, 148).

  28 Li Yan and Li Shanchan (2017, 443–46). Lin Mingde (1980, 17–44) includes this tale as an anonymous work and does not specify its source. In his introduction (11), he explicitly allows the possibility that anonymous tales in classical Chinese from Korea may originally have been composed in China. Cho and Bouchez (2002, 229–30) briefly discuss this text without crediting it to Im Che.