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Cu hulu

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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

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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

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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

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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, (), is a homophone for the Chinese word for jealousy ( ).[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

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Citations

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  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

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  • 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.