Tales of the Marvelous:

The Jade Guan Yin

This story comes from an extant huaben 'story roots', a text used by storytellers complete with pictures to help them remember the sequence. Can you trace the roots of storytelling beginning with the teaching practices of the Buddhist monks? What two factors were instrumental in the rise of written fiction for a wider audience?

In this story can you correlate the verses with the prose that surrounds them?

What techniques of good storytelling are evident here?

Is there any message the writer/teller might have for her or his audience? Note that if there were one it would be one that they would support (think perhaps of modern theory on horror and its uses).

A Record of the Land of the Blessed

This story is based almost equally in Chinese Confucian tradition and Buddhism; can you pick out elements of both?

How is it also a ghost story? Does it have a message?

The Wolf of Chung/Zhung Shan

This is such an old story the marvel of it is in how many distant cultures it can be found. Do you recognize it? How is it made particularly Chinese here?

Chinese Novels:

There are six main novels which we will mention in class, they are: The Marsh Heroes (also known as All Men are Brothers, The Water Margin and Outlaws of the Marsh); Monkey or Journey to the West; The Dream of the Red Chamber; The Romance of the Three Kingdoms; The Golden Lotus, and The Scholars. We will look at the texts for the first three of these.

From The Marsh Heroes: The Plot Against the Birthday Convoy

What is the story of the novel, The Marsh Heroes, that contains this excerpt? How does this incident relate to the rest of the novel?

The main themes or symbols of the novel are: the world of marginal characters inhabited by the heroes of the marsh, the symbols of the Inn and the Road, and the Code of honor that they follow. Can you see any of these in the excerpt we read?

What social commentary can you find in the story of a highway robbery? Give examples.

In keeping with the idea of social satire, much of the book and this excerpt are meant to be funny; give examples of a couple of incidents.

Consider some of the characters depicted here: the burly Juan/Ruan brother fishermen, the once-demoted commander Yang Chih/Zhi who is trying to make an impression, the wily failed scholar Wu Yung/Yong, Alderman Ch'ao/Chao Kai/Gai, and of course Liu T'ang/Tang our bandit capo. What can you say about any of them?

What social customs can you see described here? For example, p.467 mentions the host-guest table and chair arrangement, which you can see echoed in pictures of Nixon and Mao (side by side facing front with a table between).

Monkey or Journey to the West:

What is the background story of the book from which this chapter is taken? Consider the historical record as well as the larger book and its origins.

The whole of Journey to the West is an Allegory; The Monk, Pigsy, Sandy, and Monkey all stand for some facet of humankind. What are these?

In the case of Monkey himself, can you describe his character, which is not at all one sided?

Is there any social commentary here? In addition, what is the religious message? Do you think the author was serious about both, one, or does he mean merely to entertain?

How is the comedy achieved and can you give what you think is the best example of it?

More Stories of the Marvelous:

The Rakshas and the Sea Market

This story makes comment on both the subjective nature of beauty and, perhaps, the Chinese reaction to foreigners; it also is concerned with truth in feelings. Discuss.

What do you think of the love story in the center of the piece? Obviously it is fantasy and meant to be so but it does perhaps transcend that. In light of the author's comment at the end, how does this part of the story fit with the rest?

Ying-ning

What circumstances of life make our hero particularly susceptible to what happens here?

How do you react to the character of Ying-ning? Give examples.

The commentary of the author at the end of this story is actually a comment on Ying-ning but then veres into mention of wildflowers. What is he saying?

Three Ghost Stories

What is the common setting for all three of these stories? Does any one of them remind you of a ghost story you know? What of their literary merit?

The Country of Women from Flowers in the Mirror:

This excerpt comes from a book not unlike Gulliver's Travels, what is the surrounding story?

What Chinese institutions and customs are being satirized and strongly questioned here?

Is it effective? Give examples from the text you thought got the point across particularly well.

Novels continued:

The following are some characteristics of Chines fiction writing; read them through and then see if you can find examples of them in the stories and parts of novels we have read: Chinese fiction differs from that of the west in demanding a kernal of truth embedded in every story. Novels usually reflect the san jiao Three Teachings: Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism but without drawing distinctions among them, which can make for interesting, though never 'ideologically pure' results. It accepts life warts and all and regards human life as containing the potential for both self fulfillment and self destruction; it this the fiction reflects the marketplace sensibility from which it sprang. It is also very frank on matters of the body and its reactions. At this stage there is no 'post-modern' angst to be found though tension often comes from the pull between the individual and the society that surrounds her or him, worked out in settings from the romantic to the military.

The Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng)

What is the story of the whole novel? Remember there is a framing narrative that involves a Daoist and a Buddhist priest.

Have you any comments on the world depicted here? What is the financial and legal situation in the Chia/Jia Family household? Can you give some examples?

In this excerpt how are the san jiao (Three Teachings) of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism depicted?

What of Pheonix?! Looking at just this excerpt, how do the women of the novel compare to the men? Where does the power seem to lie, the intelligence?

Can you describe a small part of the plot of this excerpt that you noticed in particular? Is there any scene that you saw very clearly?

How would you contrast the two heroines, Ying Ying from the Romance of the Western Chamber, and Black Jade from the Dream of the Red Chamber?

What of the other characters, Bao Yu or the maids, how does Bao Yu measure up as a hero, how do you react to the maids are any of them at all like Hongniang (Ying Ying's maid)?

Film: Raise the Red Lantern

There is much to discuss in this film. Beginning with the cinematography, what atmosphere does the director create by his choices of settings and colours how is it achieved?

How is the Master of the house depicted?

Describe the dynamics of the household through the interrelations among the wives. With whom are you sympathetic? Does that change as the film progresses?

Although this is set in the 1930s and depicts a remnant of old China discredited by the Communists, what hidden commentary might be taken from this movie. (There is always a political side to any Chinese work, often three or four. Here, the director needed to be extremely cautious.)