A Surrogate Hero: Generic Innovation and Reinventions of Masculinity in Naihe Tian

Abstract:Despite being one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the seventeenth century, Li Yu's (1611–1680) contributions to chuanqi drama reflect a genre in decline. Onstage, it had largely dissolved into the performance of extracts, due to its sprawling plots composed around suites of arias. Consequently, chuanqi composition grew out-of-touch with performance. By contrast, Li Yu's own playwriting, directing, and drama criticism were mainly focused on performability. Naihe tian disrupts the stale conventions of the performance of masculinity both onstage and off. Offstage, elite masculinity was hemmed-in by the narrow pathway to officialdom through rote Confucian learning and exam success. Conversely, roles for elite women had expanded with growing acceptance and recognition of their literary and artistic talents.Naihe tian's most outrageous parody of elite masculinity is in casting a clown (chou) in the role of the male lead, opposite a succession of refined and beautiful wives. Conventionally, chuanqi dramas require two plotlines, the primary a domestic drama, and the secondary a venue for the political and professional aspirations of the hero. This paper will focus on how, owing to the fact that the "hero" is a complete buffoon, his social commitments are realized by his servant.Prohibitions regarding theater had long been aimed at enforcing standards of gender and social status onstage and among theatergoers. Offstage, the ability of the merchant class to perform scripts of elite culture provoked anxiety surrounding the blurring of social boundaries, heightening the restrictiveness, and scrutiny around literati masculinity. Casting the servant as hero frees him to strike out in provocative ways unimaginable for the conventionally bloodless sheng role type. In service to his master and the public good, his heroism peaks in the seduction and beheading of the bandit queen, challenging frameworks of status and masculinity under the guise of fanciful entertainment.