EALC 275: Masterpieces of East Asian Literature Lecture #27: The Song of a Faithful Wife, Ch’unhyang Dec. 2, 2013Ch’unhyang’s story 春香傳Parts I &IICh’unhyang’s story 1 • Originated in oral performance (p’ansori) -- P’ansori: performed by one singer, who both narrates the story and provides the voice of every character, and one drummerCh’unhyang’s story 2 • The story was written down in many different versions, both in hangûl and Chinese, with different degrees of relationship to the oral tradition • Earliest datable version: a Chinese poem from the 18th century • Our version is set in Choson dynasty during the reign of King Sukchong (1674-1720)Ch’unhyang’s story 3 • MAJOR CHARACTER TYPES: • 1. The beautiful and talented daughter: Ch’un-hyang (p.268) • 2. The talented scholar with ambitions to become a civil official: Yi Mong-nyong, son of the governor (p.268) • 3. Mother: Wol-mae, a kisaeng • 4. Maid: Hyang-dan Fits the character types of the “talented scholar-beauty romanceOur heroine: Ch’unhyang • In what ways is this story different from the Record of the Western Chamber? • Chunhyang’s mixed heritage and ambiguous status: -- she is the daughter of a kisaeng and an official • Kisaeng: professional female entertainers and prostitutes who served the official class • Hence, Chunhyang could be considered as a member of this entertainer class and treated as someone of lower social status. • Wol-mae prays for a child, the result? (pp.267-268) • Raises her daughter to become a wife in an official family.Ch’unhyang’s dilemma • This story revolves around the dilemma of Ch’unhyang’s ambiguous social status. • What decides her status: her parentage, or her behavior? • How does a woman of mixed parentage prove her worth, in contrast with a man? (hints: think about the title)Springtime RomanceThe romance 1 • Ch’unhyang’s spring romance with the son of the local governor, Yi Mong-nyong. There are important symbolic settings and Romantic Motifs: 1- The double-seventh holiday: the one time of the year when the constellations, Herder-boy and Weaver-girl, are allowed to meet. 2- The Magpie bridge: A bridge named after the mythical magpies that formed a bridge to allow the two to cross over the milky way. 3- Heng-O: The goddess of the moon, banished there forever for stealing a potion of immortality from her husband Houyi. 4- Kwanghal-lu: The pavilion where the couple first meets named after an imaginary palace on the moon (Guanghan gong 廣寒宮) where Heng-O resides forever. Both myths evoke romantic, yet tragic lovers: two people separated by an unimaginable gap. Star-crossed lovers. Romeo and Juliet.The romance 2 • First meeting • Yi Mong-nyong actually orders Ch’un-hyang to meet him, treating her like a common kiseang at first: • The servant went on: “Although her mother is a kiseang, Ch’un-hyang is very proud and says: ‘I am no kiseang.’ She spends all her time thinking of flowery poetry and embroidery and writing. She is just like a girl of good family.” • The boy chuckled, called his valet, and said to him: “I hear she’s a kisaeng’s daughter. Go and fetch her here at once.” (p.271) • Yi Mong-nyong shifts from social status to talent.The romance 3 • First meeting • Ch’un-hyang defends herself as a decent girl: • Ch’un-hyang answered: “I see what you mean, but today is Tano. Am I the only person outside? Plenty of other girls have been here swinging. And that’s not all; granting what you say is true, I am not a girl to be ordered about. Decent girls are not to be sent for in this way, and even if they are they have no reason to go. You have no right to talk to me like this.” • Valet: “I beg your pardon. The young master sent me back again. He said that the reason why he wants you to come and see him is not that he thinks you are a kisaeng, but that he has heard that you write very good poetry.” (p.271)The romance 4 • Yi Mong-nyong visits Ch’un-hyang’s home: • Symbolism of pine and bamboo: • “There between the pine pavilion and the bamboo grove you can just see Ch’un-hyang’s house.” (p.272) • Traditionally an image for a man of unyielding principles • Ch’un-hyang’s oath, invoking two of the five cardinal relationships: • “ ‘A loyal subject cannot serve two kings, and a faithful wife cannot honor two husbands.’ I have read this in an old book. You are from a noble family, but I am a woman of the people. After we have plighted our troth, if you put me away because of my low birth, I shall neverthelss be bound to remain faithful to you, and have to spend the rest of my life grieving in a lonely room…Do not make me do this.” (p.272)The romance 5 • Yi Mong-nyong’s Love Sickness: • A Satire of the Young Man trying to Study the Confucian Classics Constantly Distracted by Thoughts of Love: • “Then he picked up Mencius: “ ‘Mencius went to see King Hui of Liang, and the king said: Sir, since you have not counted it far to come here, a distance of a thousand li’….. He must have gone to see Ch’un-hyang!” (p.273) • Making-fun of the serious Confucian student • Love-sickness also an indicator of the male lover’s sincerity of feeling in a “Talented Scholar-Beauty” Romance.The romance 6 • Seduction of a Moon-lit Night: • The oral story teller includes many racy love songs exchanged by the lovers to describe their love-making: • Bell and a clapper (p.280) • Mortar and a pestle (p.280) • Two grindstones (p.280) • Compares Ch’un-hyang to the Peony (p.280) • A poem with rhyme words punning with chong 情 or “love” (p.281) • Piggy-back riding game and poem with many suggestive examples.(pp.282-283) • Humor and Virtuoso Performance by the oral-story tellerThe romanceParting 1 • Yi Mong-nyong’s father is reappointed to the capital in Seoul. • Yi Mong-nyong tells his mother about his unofficial marriage to Ch’un-hyang: • “I dared not tell my father about you, and when I told my mother she was angry beyond words. She said that if a gentleman’s so comes to the provinces with his father, then goes out and takes a mistress, and the fact gets known at court, he never stands a chance of being accepted. There is nothing for it. We must be parted.” (p.284)Parting 2 • Ch’un-hyang is crushed. • “Last year at Tano, it was. You held my wrist and we went