Shi Yukun
| Shi Yukun | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 石玉崑 | ||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 石玉昆 | ||||||||
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| Zhenzhi (style name) | |||||||||
| Chinese | 振之 | ||||||||
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| Wenzhu Zhuren (possible pen name) | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 問竹主人 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 问竹主人 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Bamboo-Inquiring Master" | ||||||||
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Shi Yukun (fl. 19th century) was a Qing dynasty storyteller and the author of the wuxia classic novel The Three Heroes and Five Gallants (later renamed to The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants by Yu Yue).
Biography
Not much is known about him, but it is known he was from Tianjin and mostly performed in Beijing between 1810 and 1871. His performances, accompanied by sanxian (lute) playing, would attract audience of thousands.[1] One transcript of another storyteller's oral narratives, contained this reference of Shi (translated by Susan Blader):[2]
Let's just take Third Master Shi Yukun as an example. No matter what, I cannot outdo him in storytelling. At present, he no longer makes appearances. But, when he would go to that storytelling hall, he would tell three chapters of a story in one day and collect many tens of strings of cash. Now today his name resounds in the nine cities and there is no one who has not heard of him. I, myself, collect only one or two strings of cash a day for my storytelling, and what can they buy these days?
In addition to the story that eventually became The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants, he told at least 2 other stories, Fengbo Pavilion (風波亭, about events after Yue Fei's death) and Black Rock Mountain (青石山, a supernatural tale featuring fox spirit).
Rare for a public storyteller, he was literate and is believed to be the same person as the one behind the pen name Wenzhu Zhuren ("Bamboo-Inquiring Master"), who first edited the original transcript of his storytelling for publication, which eventually became The Three Heroes and Five Gallants.
The novel's sequels The Five Younger Gallants (小五義), and A Sequel to the Five Younger Gallants (續小五義) claimed him as the author, but as Lu Xun pointed out, "these works were written by many hands... resulting in numerous inconsistencies."[3]
In popular culture
Shi Yukun is a character in two fictitious television comedy-dramas, both set in the Qing dynasty:
- The Strange Cases of Lord Shih (施公奇案), a 1997 Taiwanese TV series. Case 11, "Odd Happenings in Examination Halls" (考場怪譚) stars Hou Kuan-chun as Shi Yukun (even though Lord Shih or Shi Shilun (1659–1722) could not have been a contemporary of Shi Yukun). In this story, Shi Yukun was a righteous scholar who was helped by 5 chivalrous beggars named Lu Fang, Han Zhang, Xu Qing, Jiang Ping and Bai Yutang.
- Thirteen Sons of Heaven Bridge (天橋十三郎), a 2004 Chinese TV series, starring Xu Zheng as Shi Yukun, a soft-spoken, physically weak but very righteous scholar forced to perform sanxian-playing and storytelling on Heaven Bridge, the bazzar of street performers in Beijing. To seek justice, he gradually befriended 12 talented people, mostly acrobatic performers, namely Ding Zhaolan, Ding Zhaohui, Ouyang Chun, Ai Hu, Zhan Zhao, Zhi Hua, Shen Zhongyuan, Lu Fang, Han Zhang, Xu Qing, Jiang Ping, and Bai Yutang — hence the series title of "thirteen sons" (even though Ding Zhaolan and Ding Zhaohui were women in the story). The series also featured minor characters named Gongsun Ce, Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long and Zhao Hu, and many other characters vaguely referencing those in the novel. The series ends with many of Shi's friends tragically killed fighting a rebellion and Shi dreaming of their return in opera costumes, rejoicing wildly on his side.
References
- ↑ Deng & Wang, p. 13.
- ↑ Blader 1998, p. xxi.
- ↑ Lu Hsun; Yang Hsien-yi (trans.); Gladys Yang (trans.) (1964). A Brief History of Chinese Fiction (2nd ed.). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN 1135430608.
- Blader, Susan (1998). Tales of Magistrate Bao and His Valiant Lieutenants: Selections from Sanxia Wuyi. The Chinese University Press. ISBN 962-201-775-4.
- Deng Shaoji; Wang Jun; (trans. Wen Jingen) (1997). "Preface". The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants. Chinese Literature Press. ISBN 7-5071-0358-7.
External links
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