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Approaching Jokes and Jestbooks in Premodern China

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Abstract

The chapter aims to critically introduce the concept of humour and discourses around it in China at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Chinese intellectuals started to reconsider their native literary and cultural legacy with respect to the Western tradition. It then illustrates how collections of humorous anecdotes were classified and evaluated in premodern China, in order to explain the relationship between humorous texts and the literary canon and to highlight problems of classification of the textual material (i.e., how to understand the ‘genre’ of jestbook). This chapter will first clarify the terminology, identify the primary sources in which to look for the texts under discussion, and highlight certain methodological problems. It will then offer an overview of the first two jestbooks transmitted, Xiaolin 笑林 (Forest of Laughter, third century CE) and Qiyan lu 啓顔錄 (Record of Bright Smiles, fifth–sixth centuries), as case studies, to examine their humorous content in relation to their cultural background.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a critical approach to this period, see Dolezelova-Velingerova and Wang, ‘Introduction’.

  2. 2.

    The earliest History of Chinese literature, Zhongguo wenxue shi 中國文學史 (History of Chinese literature), by Lin Chuanjia 林傳甲 (1877–1922), dates to 1904 (printed in 1910).

  3. 3.

    See Owen, ‘The End of the Past’.

  4. 4.

    Lin, ‘Introduction’, xxxi. See also Hu, ‘The Confucian Politics of Appearance’.

  5. 5.

    For a detailed account of Lin Yutang’s enterprise, see Qian, Lin Yutang and China’s Search for Modern Rebirth, 96–125. See also Rea, The Age of Irreverence, 132–58.

  6. 6.

    Chey, ‘Youmo and the Chinese Sense of Humour’, 3; Qian, Lin Yutang and China’s Search for Modern Rebirth, 103.

  7. 7.

    Laughlin, The literature of leisure, 103–38.

  8. 8.

    Qian Suoqiao (Lin Yutang and China’s Search for Modern Rebirth, 96) affirms that: ‘the discourse of humor in modern Chinese literature and culture was very much a bilingual practice of cross-cultural translation’.

  9. 9.

    Zhou Zuoren published his first collection of jokes, the Kucha’an xiaohua xuan 苦茶庵笑話選 (A selection of jokes from the bitter tea studio), in 1933.

  10. 10.

    A second wave occurred between the 1950s and the mid-60s.

  11. 11.

    For a seminal account of this movement see Hung, Going to the People.

  12. 12.

    Collections of jokes are defined as such in both Nienhauser, The Indiana Companion, 78, and in Wilkinson, Chinese History, 414.

  13. 13.

    On the bibliographical chapters see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 940–44.

  14. 14.

    Kern, ‘The Han construction of Warring States textual lineages’, 61.

  15. 15.

    The ‘Zi’ 子 category encompassed texts divided according to different intellectual lineages such as the ‘Ru jia’ 儒家 (Confucian tradition) and ‘Dao jia’ 道家 (Daoist tradition).

  16. 16.

    Allen, ‘Narrative Genre’, 283.

  17. 17.

    Wu, ‘From Xiaoshuo to Fiction’.

  18. 18.

    For an overview of Chinese traditional encyclopaedia and collectanea see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 955–64; Tian, ‘Literary Learning’.

  19. 19.

    See Kurz, ‘The Compilation and Publication’, 46.

  20. 20.

    Wilkinson, Chinese History, 650.

  21. 21.

    See Luo, The Drunken Man’s Talk, xvi, 53–57.

  22. 22.

    See Harbsmeier, Language and Logic, 26–29, 44–46.

  23. 23.

    See Lévy, ‘Notes bibliographiques’, 85, n. 46.

  24. 24.

    Chen, Zhongguo xiaoshuo xushi moshi de zhuanbian, 169. Wu’s preface is translated and discussed in Rea, The Age of Irreverence, 19.

  25. 25.

    For a description of other titles, see Rea, The Age of Irreverence, 22. For an overview of premodern jestbooks, see Baccini, ‘Forest of Laughter and Traditional Chinese Jestbooks’.

  26. 26.

    This is especially true for collections created before the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). During the Ming merchants were also readers of xiaoshuo, see Wang, ‘Lun Ming Qing shiqi’, 35.

  27. 27.

    Sanguo zhi, 21. 603, n. 1.

  28. 28.

    A well-known anecdote records that in order to impress Handan Chun, Cao Zhi recited ‘thousands of words from humorous works’; see Qian, Spirit and Self, 35.

  29. 29.

    Wu, Written at Imperial Command, 24.

  30. 30.

    Lu Xun provided the most extensive collection of fragments in his Gu xiaoshuo gouchen 古小説鉤沉 (Ancient anecdotes retrieved, 1912).

  31. 31.

    For a description of the main features of numskull tales, see Luomala, ‘Numskull Clan and Tales’, 160–61.

  32. 32.

    On these allegorical tales, see Els and Queen, Between History and Philosophy.

  33. 33.

    The ruling elite of the Norther dynasties were of Tabgach (Tuoba) ethnicity.

  34. 34.

    Davies, ‘Fooltowns’, 11–14.

  35. 35.

    Davies, ‘Fooltowns’, 12.

  36. 36.

    Davies, ‘Ethnic humor, hostility, and aggression’, 418.

  37. 37.

    For a presentation of the sociopolitical situation, see Holcombe, ‘Was Medieval China Medieval? (Post Han – Mid Tang)’.

  38. 38.

    On the Philogelos see Hansen, Anthology, 272–76.

  39. 39.

    Taiping guangji, 262. 2052.

  40. 40.

    Taiping yulan, 946. 4201.

  41. 41.

    The story is recorded in the Decameron, VIII.3.

  42. 42.

    For an example of a study in folklore which involves Chinese tradition see Ding Naitong, ‘A Comparative Study of the Three Chinese and North-American Indian Folktale Types’.

  43. 43.

    Wang, Lidai xiaohua ji, 288.

  44. 44.

    On this collection see Lutz Bieg, ‘Laughter in China’ and Zhao Jingshen, ‘Zhongguo xiaohua tiyao’, 52–54.

  45. 45.

    Gu, ‘Zhongguo zuizao de xiaoshuo jia: Handan Chun’, 79.

  46. 46.

    See for example the stories: ‘The stupid son in law’ 呆婿 or ‘Ice drink’ 凍水, in Feng Menglong’s Xiaofu; Hsu, Feng Menglong’s Treasury of Laughs, 175–76.

  47. 47.

    One of these stories may be found in Baccini, ‘Forest of Laughter and Traditional Chinese Jestbooks’, 247.

  48. 48.

    Qian, Spirit and Self, 135.

  49. 49.

    Taiping yulan 371. 1713; a variant is recorded in Taiping yulan 968. 4294.

  50. 50.

    This story is recorded in the ‘Unofficial biography of Wu Zhi’ 吳質別傳, recorded in Pei Songzhi’s ’裴松之 (372–451) commentary on the Sanguo zhi 三國志 (Records of the Three Kingdoms), 21. 609. See Qiao Xiaodong, ‘Handan Chun Xiaolin yu “Xiaolinti” wenti duli de shifan yiyi’, 158.

  51. 51.

    Hu Shiying, Huaben xiaoshuo gailun, 11.

  52. 52.

    See, for example, anecdote no. 18 and no. 21 in this Shishuo xinyu chapter; Liu, Shih-shuohsin-yü, 441–42.

  53. 53.

    In the Shishuo xinyu, chapter 25, story no. 7, we find the poem ‘Touze Qin Ziyu’ 頭責秦子羽 (Qin Ziyu’s head reproaches him), in which the head of Zheng Xu is compared to a pestle; Liu, Shih-shuohsin-yü, 435.

  54. 54.

    The text was compiled during the Jin 金 dynasty (1115–1234) by Wang Pengshou 王朋壽.

  55. 55.

    On this topic see Hung, Going to the people, 107–34.

  56. 56.

    The nursery rhyme reads as follows: ‘It is usual to find naughty children, but the one of the Zhao family is the most extraordinary, he has put plums into his grandfather’s navel, the old man was so worried that he was almost about to die’ 小孩淘氣平常有, 惟獨趙家最出奇, 祖父肚臍種李子, 幾乎急殺老頭兒. See Zhong, Zhong Shuhe sanwen, 381.

  57. 57.

    See Barmé, An Artistic Exile, 286–87.

  58. 58.

    Wang Liqi in his Lidai xiaohua ji collected six different editions of the Qiyan lu from different encyclopaedia and collectanea.

  59. 59.

    Dong, Qiyan lu jianzhu, 7.

  60. 60.

    Zhu, Qiyan lu chengshu kao, 140.

  61. 61.

    These stories, along with others from the Taiping guangji, are translated in Otto, Fools are Everywere, 18, 86, 147, 162–63, 182–83; Shi Dongtong’s name is translated literally as ‘Moving Bucket’ (dongtong). The anecdote about Shi Dongtong confronting traditional scholars is analysed in He, ‘Talking Back to the Master’, 246–47.

  62. 62.

    See Assandri, ‘Inter-religious Debate’, 18–19.

  63. 63.

    Dong, Qiyan lu jianzhu, 20.

  64. 64.

    Dong, Qiyan lu jianzhu, 58.

  65. 65.

    Beiqi shu, 33. 447.

  66. 66.

    Plaks, ‘Riddle and Enigma’, 232.

  67. 67.

    For more on this topic, see Lü, Power of the Words.

  68. 68.

    Liu, Shih-shuohsin-yü, 313–14 (story no. 1, 2, 3), 425 (story no. 24).

  69. 69.

    Dong, Qiyan lu jianzhu, 68.

  70. 70.

    Qian, Spirit and Self, 211.

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  1. Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy

    Giulia Baccini

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  1. Department of English Studies, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Daniel Derrin

  2. Department of History, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Hannah Burrows

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Baccini, G. (2020). Approaching Jokes and Jestbooks in Premodern China. In: Derrin, D., Burrows, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Humour, History, and Methodology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56646-3_10

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