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Notes
1 Elena Suet-Ying Chiu, Bannermen Tales (Zidishu): Manchu Storytelling and Cultural Hybridity in the Qing Dynasty (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2018), pp. 183–92.
2 For the Chinese text of Ye Shuting’s version see Guan Dedong 關得棟 and Li Wanpeng 李萬鵬, eds., Liaozhai Zhiyi shuochang ji 聊齋志異說唱集 (A collection of prosimetric versions of [stories from] Liaozhai’s Records of the Strange; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1983), pp. 82–91.
3 Cf. Joan Judge, “The Culturally Contested Student Body: Nü Xuesheng at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” in Performing “Nation”: Gender Politics in Literature, Theater, and the Visual Arts of China and Japan, 1880–1940, eds. Doris Croissant, Catherine Vance Yeh, and Joshua Mostow (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 105–32.
4 The anachronistic use of modern terms in adaptations of traditional stories should of course be distinguished from the use of modern terms in newly composed ballads on contemporary events in which such terms are quite appropriate.
5 The history of Minnanese ballads (gezaice 歌仔冊) can be traced back at least to the eighteenth century. The texts are generally written in seven-syllablle lines. Over time the Minnanese character of the language becomes more and more pronounced. For general introductions to the genre see for instance Du Jianfang 杜建坊, Gezaice qigu: yuyan, wenxue yu wenhua 歌仔冊起鼓:語言文學與文化 (An introduction to Minnanese ballads: Language, literature and culture; Taipei: Taiwan shufang, 2008); Shi Binghua 施炳華, Taiwan gezaice xinshang 台灣歌仔冊欣賞 (An appreciation of Minnanese ballads from Taiwan; Tainan: Shi Binghua, 2008); Shi Binghua, Gezaice xinshang yu yanjiu 歌仔冊欣賞與研究 (Minnanese ballads appreciation and research; Taipei: Boyang, 2010); and Zeng Ziliang 曾子良, Taiwan gezai silun 臺灣歌仔四論 (Four discussions of Minnanese ballads from Taiwan; Taipei: Guojia, 2009). For an anthology of Minnanese ballads in English translation see Taiwan Literature English Translation Series Nos. 31–32 (2013), edited by Kuo-ch’ing Tu and Robert Backus, main contributor Wilt L. Idema.
6 The Chinese term laoshu 老鼠 may be translated both as “rat” and as “mouse.”
7 Wilt L. Idema, “Animals in Court,” Études chinoises 34.2 (2015): 245–89; Wilt L. Idema, “A Tale without Shape or Shadow: The Wedding, the War, and the Court Case of the Mouse and the Cat in Traditional Chinese Popular Literature,” in Texts and Traditions, Essays in Honor of the 75th Birthday of Victor H. Mair, ed. Haun Saussy (Amherst NY: Cambria Press, 2018), pp. 81–116.
8 Shang Lixin 尚丽新 and Che Xilun 车锡伦. Beifang minjian baojuan yanjiu 北方民间宝卷研究 (A study of popular precious scrolls from Northern China; Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2015), pp. 542–44.
9 Archibald Little, trans. The Rat’s Plaint (Tokyo: Hasegawa; Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1892); George Carter Stent, “The Rat and the Cat in Hades,” in his Entombed Alive and Other Songs, Ballads, etc., From the Chinese (London: William H. Allen, 1878), pp. 115–35.
10 Xi Yingying 席迎迎, “Laoshu gao mao gushi de liuchuan” 老鼠告猫故事的流传 (The transmission of the story The mouse accuses the cat), Xiandai yuwen 现代语文2017.12: 108–10. For an English translation of an adaptation of the tale as a “precious scroll” from Western Gansu, see Wilt L. Idema, The Immortal Maiden Equal to Heaven and Other Precious Scrolls from Western Gansu (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2015), pp. 355–96.
11 For the Chinese text of Xinbian Mao shu xianggao, see Wu Shouli 吳守禮, ed., Qing Daoguang Xianfeng Minnan gezaice xuanzhu 清道光咸豐閩南歌仔冊選注 (Minnanese ballads of the Qing Daoguang and Xianfeng eras, selected and annotated; Taipei: Wu Zhaowan, 2006), pp. 123–26 (type-set edition) and 90–94 (reproduction). For an English translation see Idema, “Animals in Court,” pp. 265–70.
12 Written as 鴉片仙 the term refers to an opium addict.
13 For a survey of neologisms of the late Qing and the early Republic, arranged by source, see Lydia H. Liu, Translingual Practive: Literature, National Culture and Translated Modernity--China, 1900–1937 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. 265–378.
14 Chen Yiyuan 陳益源 and Ke Rongsan 柯榮三, “Chunhui shufang suocang Minnanyu gezaice gaikuang yu jiazhi” 春暉書房所藏閩南語歌仔冊概況與價值 (Minnanese ballads in Minnan language in the collection of Chunhui shufang – an overview and their value), Chengda zhongwen xuebao 38 (2013): 93–140; Su Yurong 蘇余榕, “‘Maoshu xianggao’ zhuti zuopin yanjiu—yi Taizhong Ruicheng shuju Zuixin maoshu xianggao ge wei zhu” 貓鼠相告主題作品研究—以台中瑞成書局最新貓鼠相告歌為主 (Research on works on the theme of The mutual accusations of cat and mouse, focusing on The newest Mutual accusations of cat and mouse by Taizhong’s Ruicheng shuju; MA Thesis, National Taiwan University of Education, 2011).
15 The text of this edition is included in the Minnanyu suqu changben gezaice quanwen ziliaoku 閩南語俗曲唱本歌仔冊全文子料庫 (Full-text database of Minnan language songbooks, the Minnanese ballads), one of the databases maintained by the Academia Sinica.
16 Li Shuru 李淑如, “Mao shu xianggao zuopin zai minjian suqu zhongde diwei yu jiazhi,” 貓鼠相告作品在民間俗曲中的地位與價值 (The place in popular songs of works on the mutual accusations of the mouse and the cat and their value), in Taiwan minsu xue qingnian lunji 臺灣民俗學青年論集 (Collected articles by junior scholars on Taiwanese folklore), ed. Yang Yujun 楊玉君, Hong Yingfa 洪瑩發, and Wen Zonghan 溫宗翰 (Taizhong: Fengrao wenhuashe, 2016), pp. 151–70. On xiedou violence see for instance Lucien Bianco, “Early Twentieth-Century Xiedou,” Chinese Studies in History 33.2 (1999–2000): 42–91; Harry J. Lamley, “Hsieh-tou: The Pathology of Violence in Southeastern China,” Ch’ing shih wen t’i 3.7 (1977): 1–39; and Harry J. Lamley, “Hsieh-tou Violence and Lineage Feuding in Southern Fukien and Eastern Kwantung,” Newsletter for Modern Chinese History 3 (1987): 43–60.
17 In traditional China the month was divided into three ten-day weeks. The “first fifth” refers to the fifth day of the first week of the month. The day was divided in twelve hours, each twice the length of modern hours. Mao referred to 5 a.m. - 7 a.m., you to 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
18 In Ch. 80–83 of the sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji 西遊記), Bottomless Pit is the dwelling of the Gold-Nosed White-Furred Old Mouse Demon who tries to wed and bed the holy monk Xuanzang.
19 The hour of chou is 1–3 a.m., the hour of wei is 1–3 p.m.
20 On the activities of litigation masters (informal legal advisors) in late imperial Chinese society, see Melissa Macauley, Social Power and Legal Culture: Litigation Masters in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998).
21 Outside the office of a district magistrate a drum would be displayed on which people who felt they had suffered an injustice could beat to attract his attention.
22 Nanguan 南管 refers a musical tradition that is widely popular in Minnanese communities. Here it refers to the song books of nanguan arias. Jinqu 錦曲 (brocade songs) is another designation for Minnanese ballads.
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Notes on contributors
Wilt L. Idema
Wilt L. Idema (b. 1944) obtained his Ph.D. from Leiden University in 1974. He taught at Leiden University (1970–1999) and Harvard University (2000–2013). His research has mostly focused on traditional Chinese vernacular literature. He has published widely on early Chinese drama (with Stephen H. West) and on Chinese women’s literature (with Beata Grant). In recent years he also has completed several volumes of translations of traditional Chinese song narrative and prosimetric literature. His most recent publications include The Resurrected Skeleton: From Zhuangzi to Lu Xun (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015); Passion, Poverty, and Travel: Traditional Hakka Songs and Ballads (Hackensack: World Century, 2015); The Metamorphosis of Tianxian pei: Local Opera under the Revolution (1949–1956) (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2015); The Immortal Maiden Equal to Heaven and Other Precious Scrolls from Western Gansu (Amherst NY: Cambria Press, 2015); Records of the Three Kingdoms in Plain Language (with Stephen H. West; Indianapolis: Hackett, 2016), and Two Centuries of Manchu Women Poets (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017).