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Cu hulu

Cu hulu
Original title醋葫蘆
LanguageChinese
Publication date
Early 17th-century
Publication placeChina (Ming dynasty)
Media typePrint
Cu hulu
Traditional Chinese醋葫蘆
Simplified Chinese醋葫芦
Literal meaningvinegar calabash
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinCù húlu
IPA[tsʰû xǔlu]

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.

Plot

Having 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

Comprising 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

The 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

Citations

  1. ^ a b Wu 1988, p. 371.
  2. ^ Moore 2013, p. 447.
  3. ^ a b c d Wu 1988, p. 372.
  4. ^ a b Vitiello 1994, p. 41.
  5. ^ a b McMahon 1995, p. 303.
  6. ^ Lomová 2003, p. 272.
  7. ^ McMahon 1987, p. 229.
  8. ^ McMahon 1995, p. 75.
  9. ^ Wu 1999, p. 51.
  10. ^ McMahon 1995, p. 81.

Bibliography

  • 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.
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