“过年”

我在Paris 买了《中国古代风俗故事》这本书很有意思，我很高兴因为我看得懂。“过年”第一事。

过年

每年的农历正月初一是中国人最重要的节日- 春节。 过春节的时候，人们见面都要互相说一声 : “过年好“这就叫”拜年“。 为什么春节见面要说，“过年好“呢？

在很久很久以前，中国有一个美丽的小村子，那里的人们都非常善良，勤劳，他们过着和平幸福的生活。可是，不知从什么时候开始，有一只叫 “年”的妖怪闯进了小村子，它一道农历十二月三十日的晚上，就跑出来抢吃人们家里的东西，人们害怕极了，想尽了办法，都不能赶走这只“年”，就只好关紧家里的门窗，不敢发出一点儿声音，眼睁睁地看着它大摇大摆地走进小村子做坏事。人们对“年”又怕有恨，很多善良的人们无可奈何，只好离开了家乡。

小村子里的人越来越小了，田园荒芜了，飞禽走兽，花草树木也越来越少了。小村子不再美丽了。

转眼又到了十二月三十日晚上，小村子静悄悄的，这里的最后一户人家也打算马上就要搬走突然，远处传来了一声刺耳的叫声，那只此凶恶的“年”又闯进了小村子。它已经好几天都没有吃到东西了，饿得快要发疯了。它嚎叫着，瞪着血红的眼睛，挨家挨户得找东西吃。它从村头跑到村尾什么东西也没有找到，因为人们差不都走光了。“年” 不甘心，它发疯似的壮尻一家又一家的门，眼看着就要闯到最后这户人家了。

他们害怕极了，爸爸着急的对大家说“快跑，快跑！什么都不要拿了，‘年’就要来了！” 可是妈妈很心疼家里的东西，她慌慌张张的一边拿，一边跑。“年” 越跑越近了，小孩儿开始大哭起来。妈妈带的东西太多了，她几乎跑不动了。这是“年”听到了小孩儿的哭声，张着大嘴巴追了过来。爸爸又急又怕，他一把抢过妈妈怀里的东西 – 有被子，有米，还有一个大铜盆，通通扔到地上，铜盆落地，“哐当！”发出了很大声音。糟了，“年” 听到这么大响声，肯定会更快的追来！爸爸妈妈吓坏了，抱起小孩儿拼命的往村外跑。忽然，他们觉得后面没有了声音，爸爸的胆子大些，他停下来，悄悄回过头一看，他愣住了：只见那只“年”占阿自那个铜盆旁边，好像很害怕的样子，一栋也不敢动。

怎么回事？突然，爸爸明白了。他马上跑到附近的一个村子，叫来所有的人，每个人都拿着一个大盆，他们一边跑一边使劲儿的敲着盆，“当-当-当-“， 声音传得很远。果然像爸爸猜想的那样，“年”　听到这种声音，怕得不得了，以为来了比他更厉害的妖怪，它掉头就跑，跑哇跑哇，一直跑到很远很远的大山里，再也不敢回到这个小村子了。

这最后一户人家高兴极了，因为他们不仅没有离开家乡，还敢走了凶恶的“年”。他们想办法把这个好消息告诉给那些逃离了家乡的人，人们又都兴高采烈的回到了自己的家。他们见面的第一句话都是：“过年好哇！”意思是已经度过那一段可怕的日子了。人们又开始重新建设自己美丽的小村子。

为了防止“年”在闯进家乡，人们还模仿那敲盆的声音，发明了爆竹。每年农历的最后一天和第一天，人们都要放爆竹，互相拜年。还有最重要的是，别忘了拜年的时候说一声：“过年好！”　拜了年，说了“过年好“，　那么，这一年就会平平安安，快快乐乐。

The Bacchae and Other Plays by Euripides

Translated by John Davie, with introduction and notes by Richard Rutherford

Bill bought me this book before we went and saw Alan Cumming in the play so I would be familiar with the story. At first I found it very strange. I don’t know much about ancient Greece, picking up references here and there. Years ago in high school I took a mythology class (which was mainly Greek and Roman) and attempted the Odyssey and the Iliad. I read the play before we saw it, and I think I enjoyed it more for knowing the story and being able to recognise certain lines of dialogue. It helped me visualise the purpose of the chorus better for the rest of the plays in the book. It also seemed to be one of the most self contained stories, the others seemed to be very much snippets of life from within a greater story, the closest similarity I could find for this was the Three Kingdoms stories, where bits of the greater tale were played out individually against a great war.

There were two things that really struck me about the book. The first was the myth of “the history of western civilisation”. They seemed like such a strange and foreign civilisation to me. It was strange to see how very warlike they were, the debates about proper roles in society, the fear of the army, and the ultimate supremacy of the gods. Very, very different to anything I read before. The other thing that struck me was how very human the tragedies and the feelings of the characters were. I remember as a child reading about the man who had to sacrifice his daughter because she was the first thing he saw when he came home, and thinking how terrible and petty that was. I think it was always explained away as “well that’s just what happened in cultures where there was sacrifice”. But I think Euripides showed this was clearly not the case. In Ipegenia he portrayed the father as terrified and conflicted and doomed, a man who feared for the life of his family, who had no other choice. In this play it was not the gods who were the most dangerous, but the army who demanded what the profit said. It was interesting to see the characters in the play completely de-mystifying the Trojan War. The men did not wish to go, they did not wish to fight for what they considered a worthless woman, and they definitely didn’t want to sacrifice a good woman for the sake of a bad one. A theme that came up time and time again seemed to be about gender relations, the men acted because they wanted to remind women of their place, and couldn’t let the ones who acted out get away with it as then all women would start acting that way. It was interesting to see how fragile the men thought their position was, and what great lengths they went to reinforce it.

I think the Bacchae was my favourite of the plays (and not just because of Alan Cumming’s nudity). There seem to be two interpretations of the story, the danger of what happens when you let your women run wild, and the danger of what happens when you repress them. It was good to see a god so pivotal to the story, taking his place and acting among the humans. There was so much going on in the play, so many different ideas about religion, drinking and women, (my three favourite topics) that it was easy to see why it has been such a favourite for so long. I read it first and afterwards the other plays didn’t seem quite so good. The fact that the gods only intervened at the end to save the day and put things right seemed a bit contrived. But I did enjoy most of the other plays. Orestes I liked, partially because of being reminded of Sandman, but also because of the very human drama (or melodrama) of it. I enjoyed the debates within it. It also had a terribly dramatic ending with Oresetes threatening to burn down the city and kill everyone. Iphigenia at Aulis I mentioned earlier and I felt was the most human of the stories. I even almost felt sorry for Achilles in it. There he was the greatest hero of the age, and he wasn’t able to save the girl from the will of the army. Phoenician Women has some rather memorable moments, though according to the preface my favourite moment of the girl watching the army from the roof may actually not have been written by Euripides, but it was the story I was least familiar with and so was more confusing. Rhesus I found TERRIBLY dull. I quickly skimmed to the end. It was the only story without female characters, and their seemed to be no human drama; rather there was just a retelling of an event in the Trojan War. After I’d just about given up I went back to read the introduction for it, which said that many scholars were unsure if it was his work as it was of a much lower quality, or they thought perhaps it was just an earlier work. Either way I was glad to see that my opinion of it wasn’t the only one.

It was nice and a little bit strange to read something where I wasn’t concerned with the notes or the textual origins. Not worrying quite so much about which parts were the author and which were later editions was rather strange but freeing. It was an interesting read, once I got over the culture and stylistic differences it was really interesting to see the human drama play out, which is undoubtedly why it has been so popular for so long. I do not find Ancient Greece nearly as interesting as China but it is good to visit every now and then, and if I can find more good translations, I will probably read some more at some point.

Scenes for Mandarins: The Elite Culture of the Ming by Cyril Birch

I have read other translations by Birch, specifically the very large and very good, Literature (?) in two volumes and Stories from a Ming collection, so I was very pleased when I found this book in the second hand bookshop across from the British Library. Birch is writing for scholars and non-specialists alike to give an overview of some of the themes and stories of drama popular in the Ming. The introduction is written as if by a Mandarin telling a foreigner what he’d see. It was a nice convention but I am glad he didn’t keep it up throughout the whole book. One of the first things that is mentioned is that unlike Europe during this time, (Ming years) the actors were both men and women. Indeed, some households (or individuals) employed all women troupes. Plays were performed in small exclusive performance for the elite as well as in temples and teashops and were popular across all levels of society (6). The plays were written by scholars, often-based on pre-existing works or themes, and were highly stylised. The Chunqi (romance) plays were very long, often requiring many hours or even days to perform, by the Qing it became more common to perform compilations, favourite scenes (or songs) from particular plays. In his book Birch attempts to familiarise his audience with some of the more popular plays. The plays he discusses are, The White Rabbit plays, The Girl Washing Silk, The Plantain Kerchief, The Peony Pavilion, The Green Peony, and The Swallow Letter.

In ‘The White Rabbit’ plays he takes two different versions of the same play and analyses the differences behind them. Birch writes that the story has folk origins and compares the version he sees as closest to the original story written in the 13th or 14th century with a version written by Xie Tianyou, a late Ming dramatist. To start with the main character Sanniang, is a humble village girl who gets gentrified in later versions of the play (21). The most popular scene of this play, the central one that Birch discusses, is called “Baring the Babe”. Sanniang has been married to a young scholar who leaves her to go the capital to take the exams, she is left with her brother and sister in law, in the scene discussed she is heavily pregnant and having to turn the heavy millstone for them, the sister in law beats her for falling asleep at her task. Birch states that this is one of the saddest scenes in Ming drama, however, in the early version there are still examples of comedy, the sister-in-law is a clown character type who teases Sanniang for not being able to turn the millstone, stating that it is just a drum from the orchestra, and says her Buddhist rosary while beating the pregnant girl, both of which are missing from the later version. After discussing this scene Birch looks at the hero of the play, Liu Zhiyuan, (destined to become Emperor of China, of the short-fated later Han Dynasty ruling as Gaozu). He abandoned his wife for 16 year. He returned to his old village disguised as a thief and discusses her and the family’s misfortune with a shepherd boy, who in a humorous way tells of the woes of the family. Another difference between the earlier and later version is that of Liu’s two associates, in the earlier version they are portrayed as thugs, murdering innocents when getting into a temper, they are considerably more refined by the later version. This reminded me of similar discussions of Zhang Fei, Liu Bei and Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms, who do similar cruel acts that, become more refined and less dangerous as time passes. The focus of the story remains the deserted wife, Birch notes that even in the Ming and the Qing the plight of an abandoned women, treated though she was chattel, is seen as a great tragedy and is immensely popular amongst even elite audiences. Birch states how the theme of the story was that “loyalty and integrity were due not only between friends, but also between husband and wife in the hierarchy of Confucian relationships” (37). It was an interesting, and moving, story however on a purely personal level I prefer stories with a more supernatural element.

Next he looked at two different plays about the legendary beauty Xi Shi, The Girl Washing Silk, and The Plantain Kerchief. The first story set around 500 BCE is about a beautiful girl who is betrothed to a young man who decides that in order to save the kingdom she needs to be married off to the lecherous old king, the second is a story about the same girl set hundreds of yeas later after she has become an immortal, deceiving a young man into having sex with her so she will finally achieve true immortality. Birch translates several scenes from the first play, the one where the lover tells the girl her fate, the dancing lesson where the queen instructs her in the ways to seduce through dance, and gathering lotus where she laments her fate and has to submit to the passions of they tyrant. The play ends (in some versions) with her sailing off with her lover. The second play is much less tragic; Xi Shi disguises herself as a young man’s love in order to go to bed with him to steal his semen for her immortality pill. This leads to all sorts of confusion later when the lover thinks he actually has bedded his new wife before and she has no idea what is going on. It is a much lighter story and no real human drama, or lasting damage is done, thanks to the timely intervention of the go-between who is able to patch things up between the lovers.

The next play he discusses is the Peony Pavilion. I have read a dual language version of this story before and it is one of my favourites. After reading this version I discovered that Birch has written a complete translation of the play and I have to get it. It is a wonderful story, it starts when the main character dies of lovesickness after meeting the hero of the story in a dream and being seduced by him. She is no longer able to live but pines away, painting a picture of herself before she dies, to be placed with her coffin. The story has everything, ghosts, a trip through the underworld, and digging up a corpse. I can’t help but compare it with Romeo and Juliet where there death is the end of the story; here death is just the beginning, one that happens before the characters have even met in the real world. It really is a great romance, and one I need to read properly.

This is followed up with The Green Peony, which is another lighthearted tale. This one also has some resemblances to Shakespeare in that there is a bit of cross dressing and mistaken identity. Women are writing poetry for the men so they can win poetry competitions and marry the beautiful women. It is much more a comedy of manners than a proper romance, celebrating the literary nature of Chinese elite culture and the position of the bureaucracy. In the end the cheaters are unveiled, but it all ends happily. The last play is The Swallow Letter, which is another romance that involves the mix-up of painting of a beauty with that of Guan Yin. I have to say I do have a weakness for stories about beautiful maidens and scholars. And I greatly enjoyed the excerpts from these plays even if they weren’t as dramatic and moving as the Peony Pavilion.

It was a very enjoyable book. It gave a good feeling for Ming drama, and has definitely made me want to read more.

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