Cu hulu (Chinese: 醋葫蘆), known in English as The Jealous Wife,[1] is a Chinese novella written in the Ming dynasty by an unknown author.
| Original title | 醋葫蘆 |
|---|---|
| Language | Chinese |
Publication date | Early 17th-century |
| Publication place | China (Ming dynasty) |
| Media type |
| Cu hulu | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 醋葫蘆 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 醋葫芦 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | vinegar calabash | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Plot
editHaving unsuccessfully tried for 40 years to conceive with her henpecked husband Cheng Gui (成珪), Dushi (都氏) finally permits him to have a concubine. Unfortunately, Cheng finds a woman with an "impenetrable vagina".[2] After discovering that Cheng is having an affair with their maidservant, Dushi flogs her to apparent death.[3] However, the woman survives and Cheng arranges for her to stay with his friend.[3] She subsequently gives birth to a boy, while Dushi is cheated of her money by her godson and sent to Hell. Dushi eventually repents and makes amends with her maidservant.[3]
Publication history
editComprising twenty chapters, the novella was written by an unknown author using the pseudonym "Fucijiao zhu" (伏雌教主), variously translated into English as "Bishop of the Women-Taming Sect",[1] "Master of Female Submission",[4] "Master of the Doctrine of Subduing Women",[5] or "The Founder of the Teaching on Capitulation to Women",[6] while the "Moon-Heart Master of the Drunken West Lake" (醉西湖心月主人) wrote a preface to Cu hulu.[7] The novella was published sometime between 1639 and 1640 by the publishing house Bigeng shanfang (筆耕山房).[4] An original edition is housed in the National Archives of Japan.[5]
Analysis
editThe title of the novella, Cu hulu (醋葫蘆), literally means "Calabash of Vinegar", recalling a Chinese expression for being jealous: "eating vinegar" (chī cù 吃醋).[8] The protagonist of Cu hulu is a shrew whose surname, Dù (都), is a homophone for the Chinese word for jealousy (妒 dù).[3] According to Yenna Wu, the "elaborate descriptions of tortures in the underworld" in Cu hulu were inspired by similar scenes in Stories to Caution the World by Feng Menglong.[9] Keith McMahon suggests that the author intended for Cu hulu to be an "attack on polygamy".[10]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ a b Wu 1988, p. 371.
- ^ Moore 2013, p. 447.
- ^ a b c d Wu 1988, p. 372.
- ^ a b Vitiello 1994, p. 41.
- ^ a b McMahon 1995, p. 303.
- ^ Lomová 2003, p. 272.
- ^ McMahon 1987, p. 229.
- ^ McMahon 1995, p. 75.
- ^ Wu 1999, p. 51.
- ^ McMahon 1995, p. 81.
Bibliography
edit- Lomová, Olga (2003). Recarving the Dragon: Understanding Chinese Poetics. Charles University in Prague. ISBN 9788024606910.
- McMahon, Keith (1987). "Eroticism in Late Ming, Early Qing Fiction: The Beauteous Realm and the Sexual Battlefield". T'oung Pao. 73 (4). Brill: 217–264. doi:10.1163/156853287x00032. JSTOR 4528390. PMID 11618220.
- McMahon, Keith (1995). Misers, Shrews, and Polygamists: Sexuality and Male-female Relations in Eighteenth-century Chinese Fiction. Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822315667.
- Moore, Steven (2013). The Novel: An Alternative History, 1600―1800. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781623565190.
- Vitiello, Giovanni (1994). Exemplary Sodomites: Male Homosexuality in Late Ming Fiction. University of California Press.
- Wu, Yenna (December 1988). "The Inversion of Marital Hierarchy: Shrewish Wives and Henpecked Husbands in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Literature". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 48 (2). Harvard-Yenching Institute: 363–382. doi:10.2307/2719314. JSTOR 2719314.
- Wu, Yenna (1999). Ameliorative Satire and the Seventeenth-century Chinese Novel, Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan-marriage as Retribution, Awakening the World. E. Mellen Press. ISBN 9780773479562.