• Mistress and Maid (Jiohong ji) by Meng Chengshun
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Mistress and Maid (Jiohong ji) by Meng Chengshun

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Mistress & Maid, one of the greatest tragedies of Chinese drama, is here available for the first time in English. Acclaimed translator Cyril Birch presents the bittersweet tale of Bella, daught...
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  • 16 March 2001
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Mistress & Maid, one of the greatest tragedies of Chinese drama, is here available for the first time in English. Acclaimed translator Cyril Birch presents the bittersweet tale of Bella, daughter of the Wang family, her maid Petal, and the young scholar Shen Chun. After her father reneges on her marital pact, Bella refuses to renounce her love for Shen, with whom she has vowed to share "in life one room, in death one tomb." The subversion of both conventional morality and the arranged marriage through vivid drama and witty comic scenes makes this seventeenth-century play particularly innovative. Chinese critics have hailed it as essentially revolutionary for its depiction of youthful resistance to latter-day Confucian values, but as Birch notes in the introduction, "the glory of Mistress & Maid is the tender delicacy of the lovers' interactions." This depth of feeling also distinguishes the play from others of the "talent-meets-beauty" genre so prevalent during the late-imperial age.
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Price: $37.00
Pages: 394
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Series: Translations from the Asian Classics
Publication Date: 16 March 2001
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780231121699
Format: Paperback
BISACs:

LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / Chinese, DRAMA / Asian / General, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Asian / Chinese
Cyril Birch is Agassiz Professor Emeritus in the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author, editor, or translator of numerous books, including Scenes for Mandarins (Columbia) and The Peony Pavilion.

Introduction
Signposts of Romance
Cast of Characters
Scene 1: Legend
Scene 2: Leaving Home
Scene 3: Meeting with Bella
Scene 4: Evening Embroidery
Scene 5: In Search of a Beauty
Scene 6: Flower Poems
Scene 7: Response in Rhyme
Scene 8: Trouble from Tibet
Scene 9: Sharing the Lampblack
Scene 10: Hugging the Stove
Scene 11: Frontier Defense
Scene 12: Thwarted Rendezvous
Scene 13: Dispatching the Summons
Scene 14: Quiet Despair
Scene 15: Parting Vows
Scene 16: Defense of the City
Scene 17: Seeking a Cure
Scene 18: Secret Pact
Scene 19: The Portraits Delivered
Scene 20: Cutting the Sleeve
Scene 21: Sending the Matchmaker
Scene 22: The Match Opposed
Scene 23: A Drink with Courtesans
Scene 24: The Matchmaker Reports
Scene 25: Exorcism
Scene 26: Third Visit
Scene 27: The Slippers
Scene 28: Petal Scolded
Scene 29: Interrogation
Scene 30: Viewing the Portraits
Scene 31: Solemn Pact
Scene 32: Petal Tells
Scene 33: Reluctant Parting
Scene 34: Envoys Appointed
Scene 35: The Keepsake
Scene 36: The Road to the Examinations
Scene 37: Celebration
Scene 38: Return in Triumph
Scene 39: Bewitched
Scene 40: A Haunting Suspected
Scene 41: The Ghost Exposed
Scene 42: Master Shuai Proposes
Scene 43: Parting in Life
Scene 44: Wedding Rehearsal
Scene 45: Weeping on the Boat
Scene 46: Petal Questioned
Scene 47: Maiden's Passing
Scene 48: Joined in Death
Scene 49: United in the Tomb
Scene 50: Reunion with Immortals