无声戏

by Li Yu, 李渔

《无声戏》的作者李渔是清代著名的剧作家和戏曲理论家，也是短篇小说的杰出作家，他的小说与戏曲有异曲同工之妙，尤以故事新奇见长。

Genres: China, Classics

222 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

Li Yu (Chinese: 李漁; pinyin: Lǐ Yú, given name: 仙侣 Xiānlǚ; style name: 笠翁 Lìwēng) (1610—1680 AD), also known as Li Liweng was a Chinese playwright, novelist and publisher. Born in Rugao, in present day Jiangsu province, he lived in the late-Ming and early-Qing dynasties. Although he passed the first stage of the imperial examination, he did not succeed in passing the higher levels before the political turmoil of the new dynasty, but instead turned to writing for the market. Li was an actor, producer, and director as well as a playwright, who traveled with his own troupe. His biographers call him a "writer-entrepreneur" and the “most versatile and enterprising writer of his time”.

Li is the presumed author of Ròu pútuán (肉蒲團, The Carnal Prayer Mat), a well-crafted comedy and a classic of Chinese erotic literature. He also wrote a book of short stories called Shí'èr lóu (十二樓, "Twelve Towers"). In his time he was widely read, and appreciated for his daringly innovative subject matter. He addresses the topic of same-sex love in the tale Cuìyǎ lóu (萃雅樓, "House of Gathered Refinements"). This is a theme which he revisits in the collection Wúshēng xì (無聲戲, "Silent Operas" i.e. "novels") and his play The Fragrant Companion. The painting manual Jieziyuan Huazhuan was prefaced and published by Li in Jinling.

Li was also known for his informal essays, or xiaopin (小品), and for his gastronomy and gastronomical writings. Lin Yutang championed Li and translated a number of these essays. Li's whimsical, ironic "On Having a Stomach" proposes that the mouth and the stomach "cause all the worry and trouble of mankind throughout the ages." He continues that the "plants can live without a mouth and a stomach, and the rocks and the soil have their being without any nourishment. Why, then, must we be given a mouth and a stomach and endowed with these two extra organs?" Lin also translated Li's "How to be Happy Though Rich" and "How to be Happy Though Poor", and "The Arts of Sleeping, Walking, Sitting and Standing", which illustrate his satirical approach to serious topics

Reviews

[Helmut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gar nicht so still

In seinem Vorwort erwähnt Übersetzer und ausgewiesener Li-Yü-Kenner Hanan, dass niemand eine Li-Yü-Geschichte mit der eines anderen Autoren verwechselt: Das kann ich bestätigen. Selbst der bereits sehr erdige Feng Menglong erreicht nie die ironische Spitze, die Li Yü seinen Geschichten verleiht. Immer kritisch gegenüber jedweder Konvention spart Li Yü nicht mit kleinen Gemeinheiten, die den gelehrten, starren Konfuzianern, die die Geschichten damals lasen, wohl die Haare zu Berge stehen ließen.

In der heutigen extrem übersteigerten Mediengesellschaft, in der alles erlaubt ist und selbst Themen, die vor 10 Jahren noch völlig tabu waren, im Nachmittagsfernsehen und auf dem Schulhof breitgetreten werden, ist Li Yü aber auf verlorenem Posten. Auch wenn ich mich schrecklich kulturpessimistisch anhöre: Durch diese jetzige allgegenwärtige und ständige Enttabuisierung wird der heutige westliche Leser kaum den Effekt nachvollziehen können, den Li Yü damals erreichte. Vor allem erreicht Li Yü sein Ziel nicht durch dumpfes Gekreische oder platte Witze unter der Gürtellinie - er ist sehr literarisch, kunstvoll und seine Kritik immer mit einem Augenzwinkern versehen. Dabei geht es in den Geschichten natürlich nicht nur um Tabubruch - sie sind gleichzeitig sehr lebensnahe und lebendige Bilder der damaligen Gesellschaft, die vielleicht wirklich hinter den Kulissen nicht so starr war, wie uns Pu Songling beispielsweise weis machen wollte.

Unverständlich für mich: Warum sind nur 6 der 12 Geschichten der "wusheng xi"-Sammlung hier übersetzt? Verdient nicht ein so großartiges Universalgenie wie Li Yü eine vollständige Übersetzung? Die Präsentation allerdings gefällt: Schönes weißes, sanftes Papier, klarer Kontrast, ein lesenswertes Vorwort. Die Reproduktion der Holzschnitte ist leider etwas klumpig geraten.

Wer die chinesischen Geschichtenerzähler wie Pu Songling, Feng Menglong oder Ling Mengchu mochte, kann hier unbesehen zugreifen und die humorvolle Respektlosigkeit Li Yüs in einer sehr zugänglichen und lesbaren Übersetzung genießen.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Li Yu was an outstanding, witty playwright and author whose writing does not come across as "classic" literature, thanks to the translations by Patrick Hanan and his cohorts. This collection of six stories ranges from bedroom farces to a grand romance in the Chinese opera tradition, to a tragic (and entirely sympathetic) homosexual love story. The common factor to all is the narrator's voice, saturated with wry humor. In his time, the mid-17th Century, Li Yu was a groundbreaker, not only in his writing about taboo and erotic topics (more common in Chinese fiction and theatre than you'd expect), but in the way he made them funny. That, and the translations, which merge Chinese vernacular (footnoted when needed) and a sprinkling of contemporary English idiom, give Li Yu's writing a surprisingly modern feel.

The stories aren't as compelling as his masterpiece comic erotic novel, The Carnal Prayer Mat, also translated by Hanan, but they are fun and quick to read.

[Lulu]

Li Yu’s earliest short stories [before the tower], which were first published in the mid-1650s (1656?) in Silent Operas (Wusheng xi) an illustrated collection of twelve stories + Silent Operas, A Second Collection (Wusheng xi erji), of six stories. With Du Jun’s help, Li Yu then published a combined selection called Silent Operas, A Combined Collection (Wusheng xi heji), which included seven stories from the first collection and five from the second, all under new titles. After around 1660 (or 1658?), he published Priceless Jade (Liancheng bi, E), a combined collection of twelve stories with an additional six “outer” stories (waibian 外編). Another early edition with nine of twelve stories extant (a different selection of six from the first collection and three from the second) exists under the title Silent Operas, A Combined Selection (Wusheng xi hexuan, D). Only one copy of each of the four extant printed versions exists (B is not extant).

https://archive.org/details/silentope...