[DPU]⇒ Read The Peach Blossom Fan New York Review Books Classics K'ung Shangjen Chen Shihhsiang Harold Acton Cyril Birch Judith T Zeitlin 9781590178768 Books

The Peach Blossom Fan New York Review Books Classics K'ung Shangjen Chen Shihhsiang Harold Acton Cyril Birch Judith T Zeitlin 9781590178768 Books

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The Peach Blossom Fan New York Review Books Classics K'ung Shangjen Chen Shihhsiang Harold Acton Cyril Birch Judith T Zeitlin 9781590178768 Books

Classic in Chinese literature. It's very poetic, so you have to really focus to grasp the meaning, but it's a MUST READ if you study Asian history/literature/philosophy.


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The Peach Blossom Fan New York Review Books Classics K'ung Shangjen Chen Shihhsiang Harold Acton Cyril Birch Judith T Zeitlin 9781590178768 Books Reviews

Classic Chinese play that references very old history. Written in the manner of Shakespeare, but understandable (no old English references). Strange ending that made me feel left up in the air.
First of all, I should point out that I did not read this edition, but rather the original University of California Press edition. But since it is the same translation, only with a different introduction, I feel it is acceptable to review it here.

Actually, I have two reviews, one for those familiar with Chinese literature and one for those who are not. For those what are familiar with Chinese literature, I don't have to say much other than that this is probably one of the best works of classic Chinese drama ever produced, (the only contender I can think of being perhaps The Peony Pavilion), and incredible well translated at that. Although it is in English, it actually reads with a Chinese flavor, and you know how difficult that is to accomplish. And although ordinarily I do not favor the use of Wade-Giles in naming, in this case it actually enhances the effect of being grounded in the past. Well worth reading, because as you no doubt know, for all the pages the Chinese have put to print through the millennia, when it comes to classic Chinese literature the pickings are sadly few.

For those not familiar with Chinese literature, let me point out that, yes, it is really not much of a stretch to compare this work to one of the second tier (which is still an extremely high level indeed) works of Shakespeare. Bearing in mind that Chinese drama has some pronounced differences with Western drama. The most noticeable being that Western drama is intended to be viewed all in one sitting. Not so for Chinese drama. It is generally very lengthy, and if performed in its entirety would have to extend over several days and perhaps up to a week. In fact, much classic Chinese drama up until modern times has likely never been performed in its entirety, most acting companies performing only segments tailored to particular audiences. The reason I mention this is that in reading this you will find much repetition, especially at the beginning of scenes when one of the principle characters in that scene will give a lengthy introduction detailing his past activity in the drama up to the present point, and to a Western reader these repetitions might seem overdrawn and boring. Just bear in mind that for the way these dramas were actually performed, such introductions were necessary. And in fact, once you get the hang of it, you actually find these introductions helpful, as classic Chinese drama tends to contain many more characters than your average Western drama. So just bear with it. (And actually this translator has done a magnificent job of paring these introductions down to a manageable size). As for the rest, like any other work of well crafted literature, you can just sit back and enjoy. In spite of what I just said, it does read fast. I highly recommend it.
This translation is obviously better than nothing if you cannot read Chinese, but it is far from perfect.

There is an exchange in Scene 11, for instance, in which Tso (no relation to the chicken) tries to excuse himself of responsibility for the poor behavior of the soldiers under his command. In response, Liu throws his cup to the ground and tries to shift the blame for the action from himself to his hands in order to humorously point out that, in the same way that it is ridiculous for someone to claim they have no control over their own hands, it is ridiculous for a general to claim he has no control over his men.

Here it is in Birch's translation
[Liu dashes his teacup on the floor]
Tso [angrily] Your manners are extraordinarily offensive. Why did you break that cup?
Liu [laughing] I had no intention to break it, but in the heat of the moment it fell from my hand.
Tso Do you mean that your mind cannot control your movements?
Liu If the mind were a good general, the hand could not have made a mistake.

And here is the original
(摔茶锺于地下介)(小生怒介)呵呀！这等无礼，竟把茶杯掷地。(丑笑介)晚生怎敢无礼，一时说的高兴，顺手摔去了。(小生)顺手摔去，难道你的心做不得主么。(丑)心若做得主呵，也不叫手下乱动了。

Tso's reaction to Liu breaking his cup in the original is "这等无礼，竟把茶杯掷地", which (idiomatically) would be something like, "What manner of discourtesy is this, that you would go so far as to toss your cup to the ground?" This is the sort of decorous language that is very characteristic of classical Chinese. So I have absolutely no idea why Birch translates this line as, "Your manners are extraordinarily offensive. Why did you break that cup?" These are extremely plain sentences that would be at home in a children's book but which do not convey the tone of a 17th century kunqu play. Then, Birch translates Liu's response, "怎敢无礼, 一时说的高兴，顺手摔去了" as "I had no intention to break it, but in the heat of the moment it fell from my hand," when it is really more like, "How could I dare be discourteous? A moment of excited speech and the cup followed a toss of my hand." "Heat of the moment" is just too vernacular. I can only speculate as to why Birch decided to strip away most of Kong Shangren's style and leave only the bare bones of each line.

What I find most annoying in this scene, though, is Birch's translation of the line, "心若做得主呵，也不叫手下乱动了" as merely "If the mind were a good general, the hand could not have made a mistake." In the original Chinese, Liu uses the word "手下", to refer to the cup he has just thrown. Taken literally, "手下" means "hand-beneath", so it is as though Liu is calling the cup "the thing that was beneath [or held in] my hand". But taken figuratively (as it usually is), "手下" is the Chinese word for "subordinates" (as in, the people beneath your hand, or the people under your charge). The whole point of Liu throwing his teacup, then, is to draw a pun between his "hand", which should be subordinate to his mind, and Tso's "hand-beneaths" which should be subordinate to Tso, the general. This pun is perhaps untranslatable, but you would think Birch could have at least put in a note pointing it out.

In Chinese, these lines (and the ones that follow) are meant to be quite comical (Liu is a 丑, or a "clown" character), but it does not fully come across in Birch's translation. It's almost as bad as if you translated, say, Falstaff's "let not us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty" into Chinese as, "Don't say that we people who work at night are stealing daylight".

More charitably speaking, I would say that this translation is useful for at least allowing English speakers to see the form and structure of this famous work, even if its content has not been perfectly preserved, so that from a literary perspective it is still possible to see how Kong Shangren develops his plot and characters and how he divides acts and scenes.
Classic in Chinese literature. It's very poetic, so you have to really focus to grasp the meaning, but it's a MUST READ if you study Asian history/literature/philosophy.