Marionette Plays from Northern China

Fan Pen Li Chen, Fan Pen Li Chen

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781438464855
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Asiatische Literarische Sammlungen

Marionette puppet theater has a rich and ancient history in China, extending back to the Han dynasty and reaching its heyday in the Qing dynasty. While this art form is nearly extinct in northern China today, a handful of troupes in Heyang County in Shaanxi Province, which claims to be the birthplace of marionette theater, continue to perform skits and scenes from Heyang's earlier, broader marionette theater repertoire. In this book, Fan Pen Li Chen has collected and translated rare transcriptions of some of the most popular of these plays. Her insightful translations include a rich variety of genres and highlight memorable characters that range from manipulative aristocrats, poor Confucian scholars, and a woman warrior to Baldy Guo, the iconic clown of puppet theater. As the only work in English about the puppet theater of northern China, these translations provide valuable information about the history, religion, social roles, and popular culture of that region. Detailed introductions and annotations for each play, as well as an extensive bibliography, are also included.

PART I

POST-MIDNIGHT SKITS

Post-Midnight plays (houbanye xi 后半夜戏), also known as extra or additional plays (shaoxi 捎戏) or ribald plays (saoxi 骚戏), are comical skits traditionally performed after midnight, when women, children, and elderly men have left. Their performance is no longer restricted to post-midnight viewing. These plays are known for their bawdy content and treatment of topics from daily life, with a clown and a young female in the lead roles. Post-Midnight plays are found in a variety of theatrical media (including marionette theater, shadow theater, and human-actor minor operas (xiaoxi 小戏).1 They may be related to lascivious skits, part of ancient religious masked nuo 傩 performances.2

Although “Lai Baozi,” the first selection, is an excerpt from a play (rather than a complete skit of its own), such comical excerpts are frequently performed as stand-alone skits. Sexual content in the Post-Midnight skits may have originally been employed to promote fertility. Under Confucianism traditionally and Communism in contemporary times, however, “lewd plays” were condemned. Consequently, few Post-Midnight Plays have ever been transcribed, and those that I found and collected have been entirely purged of explicit sexual content. “Baldy’s Wedding Night,” the second selection translated here, was bowdlerized (not surprisingly) by the government troupe that performed it. An unscripted version of the play by a private troupe in rural Heyang would probably have been studded with hilarious sexual innuendos and double entendres. “Peddling Notions,” the third skit included here, is likely the most popular skit of this type at present.

1. For translations of Post-Midnight shadow plays, see Fan Pen Chen, Visions for the Masses, and “All Three Fear Their Wives (Sanpaqi 三怕妻): A Post-Midnight Play.”

2. See the introduction of Fan Pen Chen, “All Three Fear Their Wives (Sanpaqi 三怕妻): A Post-Midnight Play,” for more information on this genre.

Lai Baozi (赖包子)

Introduction

Lai Baozi is a character peculiar to the marionette theater of Heyang 合阳. The locals consider him a descendant of Baldy Guo (Guo Tu 郭秃), a renowned clown puppet character also known as Master Guo (Guo Lang 郭郎 and Guo Gong 郭公), who came to represent puppetry itself (from the Northern Qi dynasty (550–557) of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period onward). As mentioned in the Introduction to this book, Duan Anjie 段安节 (ca. 894) noted that marionette song-and-dance shows performed during the Tang were always led by a bald clown puppet known as Guo Lang.

Playing the roles of numerous lesser characters, Lai Baozi emerged as a beloved clown in many Heyang marionette plays. Below, the excerpts from one play and two skits describe the humorous exploits of Lai Baozi. The first selection shows Lai Baozi as a messenger in the play Loyalty, Filial Piety and Virtue (zhongxiaoxian 忠孝贤). The second selection is an extended monologue by Lai Baozi, as the servant of an official in the skit “Visiting Turtle Mountain” (youguishan 游龟山), who relates to investigators the events leading to his master’s demise. The reference to Lai Baozi’s pigtail may indicate that this tale was created during the Qing dynasty. In the last selection, Lai Baozi tries to wriggle out of the consequences for his theft in “Stealing Turnips” (wamanqing 挖蔓菁).

Basically a lowly clown figure, Lai Baozi may cheat and steal, but he is not an evil character. His misdemeanors are lessened by his foolish nature and his anxious desire to impress others. Despite his attempts at self-aggrandizement, Lai Baozi inevitably fails to garner respect. In the first selection, he is a pompous, but very lowly civil servant. In the second excerpt, he relies on the status of his master to lord it over an old man, but ends up being sorely punished for his actions. The tale itself and the language used in this second skit, however, prevent us from being sympathetic to Lai Baozi; not only does he deserve his punishment, but his descriptions of his own sorry condition are more comical than sorrowful. In the third selection, Lai Baozi is a clever little rogue. He weasels out of being punished for theft by expounding on the ridiculous topic of farting. But despite his attempts to sound erudite, the topic itself and the content of his exposition reveal him as the ultimate clown that he is.

Lai Baozi as the Messenger in Loyalty, Filial Piety and Virtue1

MESSENGER: Doo, doo … stop! (Sings.)

I, the messenger, am by nature quick-tempered,

Sticking a flag around my neck, I represent the authority.

From the beginning of the year to the end, I receive a salary,

Just for making announcements for the government.

I’m a messenger from the capital. My lord, the Prize Candidate,2 just received an official appointment at the capital. He just ordered me to return home to report the good news and deliver the certificate. Now that I’m on my way, I’ll have to give this horse of mine a few more whips. Everyone, duck from my path! I, a messenger from the...