Literature and Cultural History of Pre-Modern East Asia

     4:40pm | Harper Memorial | Room 145

     Xu Peng

      (PhD Candidate, University of Chicago)

“The ‘Misplaced’ Book: Kunqu Singing in the Late-Ming Print Culture”

Abstract:

The paper attempts to trace the emergence of the tradition of judging singing by bookish standards in late Ming China.  It argues that the universal acceptance of such standards in the singing society ultimately resulted in the transformation of Kunqu, a musical genre originating in the Suzhou area, into a learned music.  I will first look at the moment of the famous Kunqu singing style reform, allegedly led by a Wei Liangfu 魏良輔 (? – mid sixteenth century), and show how Wei’s pedagogy, best exemplified by his thesis (pref. 1547), was circulated within a literati singing-coterie.  Seeing Wei’s reform as the first wave which advocated the primacy of the text in Kunqu singing, I will then examine the second tide, which came along with the publication of Kunqu song books and the emergence of a community of professional Kunqu singing teachers.  At last, I suggest that the literati’s psychological impetus behind their advocacy of the bookish way of singing lies in their desire to transform Kunqu from a local music style into a nationwide popular form.