Hero's wine, mortal's tears

Author: Wang Yiting
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1996-07-01
Features: The initial form of Chinese long novels is the "storytelling" ballad, perhaps there were also "telling of cavalry" ballads, but they have not been passed down. The existing works such as New Compendium of the Five Dynasties in Plain Speech, Remnants of the Great Song in Xuanhe, The Story of Wu Wang's Conquest of Chu in Plain Speech, Postscript to the Story of the Seven States in Plain Speech, The Story of Qin's Conquest of the Six States in Plain Speech, Continuation of the Han Dynasty in Plain Speech, and The Story of the Three Kingdoms in Plain Speech from the Song and Yuan dynasties all belong to the category of "storytelling." They are the precursors of long novels. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the "storytelling" in the goulan and wasi entertainment venues was divided into four categories, two of which were "storytelling of historical books" and "telling of cavalry." The "storytelling of historical books" narrated the rise and fall, struggles, and battles of past dynasties in historical books. The aforementioned ballads all belong to this category, as they solidified oral literature into written form, becoming China's early long novels. The "telling of cavalry" focused on military affairs, with cavalry symbolizing the invasions of ethnic minorities. Unlike the "storytelling of historical books," it dealt with contemporary events. The ballads in this category likely addressed the resistance against the Liao and Jin dynasties. However, due to the suppression of the subjugated and complacent Southern Song rulers, few works in this genre have survived. Nevertheless, later works such as The Legend of the Heroes of the Central Restoration and The Yang Family may have originated from it.