Guan Hanqing

Overview

A foundational figure of Yuan zaju drama, honored as the “Sage of Qu,” and traditionally ranked first among the Four Great Masters of Yuan qu. His representative works include The Injustice to Dou E and Saving the Courtesan.

Biography

Guan Hanqing was born in the late Jin period. His exact birth year cannot be established, although scholars generally place it around 1230. He came from a hereditary medical household. Under the social hierarchy of the Yuan dynasty, such households were grouped among the artisan households. Their status was not high, but their living conditions were appreciably better than those of ordinary commoners. This background allowed Guan Hanqing to receive a relatively good education in an age of recurrent warfare and limited educational access. The upheaval of north China during the transition from Jin to Yuan had a profound effect on the concerns of his later writing.

Traditions differ over Guan Hanqing's native place, naming Xiezhou (present-day Yuncheng, Shanxi), Dadu (present-day Beijing), and Qizhou (present-day Anguo, Hebei). Lu Gui Bu records him as a “man of Dadu,” while Xijin Zhi calls him a “man of Yan.” The Qing scholar Yao Xie, in Jinyue Kaozheng, cited Yuanshi Leibian as identifying him as a native of Xiezhou. These differences reflect the mobility that characterized his life. After the Yuan unified the country, his family background in medicine led the government to register him in a medical household. In practice, he was a relatively low-ranking medical practitioner close to ordinary people, while playwriting and performance were additional occupations and means of earning a living.

After the Mongols conquered Jin, Guan Hanqing moved to Dadu, present-day Beijing, to make a living. Yuan Dadu was a world-famous commercial center. The traveler Marco Polo described the city's prosperity by saying that the costly rarities and goods imported there surpassed those of any other city. It had a large population, imposing residences, and people gathered from distant regions. It was in this environment that Guan Hanqing began to devote himself to theatrical activity.

Talented and unconventional, Guan Hanqing frequented entertainment quarters in Dadu, where he wrote zaju and even appeared on stage himself. He presided over the Yujing literary society and maintained close relations with qu writers Wang Heqing, Yang Xianzhi, Fei Junxiang, Liang Jinzhi, and others, with whom he discussed wording and revised works. He was deeply involved in the commercial theater districts and knew a number of well-known performers. He is also said to have had ties with the playwright Wang Shifu; the two may have jointly completed parts of Romance of the Western Chamber, with Guan's sanqu piece “The Sixteen Episodes of Cui and Zhang,” to the tune pattern Zhonglü Putianle, cited as evidence.

Guan Hanqing described his own attitude toward life in the suite “Refusing to Grow Old,” to the tune pattern Nanlü Yizhihua: “I am a copper pea that cannot be steamed soft, boiled tender, hammered flat, or fried apart.” He also called himself “the leader of all gallants under Heaven, the foremost rogue in the world.” These witty, forceful, self-confident, self-mocking, and self-delighting statements are important evidence for the study of his life and thought. Xijin Zhi Jiyi: Minghuan described him as naturally free-spirited, widely learned and accomplished in writing, quick-witted, cultured, and unmatched in his age.

After the fall of the Southern Song, many northern playwrights and performers moved south in search of a livelihood. Guan Hanqing likewise traveled to Yangzhou, Hangzhou, and other places, continuing his artistic activities. The prosperity of the south left a deep impression on him. After performing and traveling in Hangzhou, he praised the city as “the brocade country beneath Heaven, the elegant place within the seas,” celebrating its scenery and urban life. In his sanqu suite “Scenes of Hangzhou,” to the tune pattern Nanlü Yizhihua, he wrote of streets extending for many li, countless multistoried buildings, and scarcely any idle land.

In Yangzhou, Guan Hanqing met the celebrated zaju performer Zhu Lianxiu and wrote “To Zhu Lianxiu,” which praised the beauty of Yangzhou and likened her appearance to that of an immortal. He also became acquainted with Zhu Lianxiu's disciples Sai Lianxiu and Yanshan Xiu, as well as the performers Hou Shuaiqiao, Heigoutou, and Shunshi Xiu, who addressed him respectfully as “uncle.” These relationships broadened his experience and supplied vivid human material for his plays.

Guan Hanqing died during the Dade era of Emperor Chengzong of Yuan, around 1300. His late work The Injustice to Dou E was written after about 1291, the 28th year of the Zhiyuan era. In the fourth act, Dou Tianzhang holds an office connected with the Lianghuai judicial surveillance administration. According to the “Treatise on Offices” in the History of Yuan and the Nancun Chuogeng Lu, the anchasi were renamed suzheng lianfang si in 1291. This indicates that the play was composed after that year and belongs to Guan Hanqing's later period.

Major Activities

Guan Hanqing was a foundational figure of Yuan zaju drama. He is said to have written more than sixty plays in his lifetime; Fu Xihua's modern Complete Catalogue of Yuan Zaju lists sixty-seven titles attributed to him, of which eighteen survive. His plays cover a wide range of subjects and dramatic forms: tragedies and comedies, heroic stories and love stories, women's family problems and courtroom cases. Most of them engage closely with social reality, depicting a broad range of life, exposing social contradictions, sympathizing deeply with people who suffer, and combining ideological concerns with artistic form.

His zaju can be divided roughly into three groups.

The first group consists of courtroom plays. These expose political darkness and the brutality of those in power, confront sharp social contradictions, and celebrate popular resistance. Examples include The Injustice to Dou E, The Butterfly Dream, and Lu Zhailang. The most representative is The Injustice to Dou E, often ranked among the great tragedies of world drama. It tells of the vulnerable widow Dou E, who is persecuted by the corrupt official Taowu, falsely accused of poisoning her father-in-law, and publicly executed. Her wrongful conviction carries broad symbolic significance. Through the claim that a human life concerns both Heaven and Earth, the playwright raises the general problem that officials fail to apply the law justly, leaving common people unable to speak for themselves, and forcefully condemns the abuses of the feudal order.

The second group consists of marriage and love plays. These mainly depict the lives and struggles of lower-class women, emphasizing their courage and resourcefulness and affirming women's agency in choosing marriage partners. Examples include Saving the Courtesan, Wangjiang Pavilion, The Golden Thread Pond, Tiao Fengyue, and The Moon-Worship Pavilion. Saving the Courtesan is especially representative. It tells of the courtesan Song Yinzhang, who loves the poor scholar An Xiushi but marries the wealthy merchant Zhou She out of desire for material comfort, only to suffer continual abuse. The courtesan Zhao Pan'er pretends that she wishes to marry Zhou She and devises a plan to rescue Song Yinzhang. The play sympathizes with marginalized courtesans and scholars while exposing the hypocrisy and brutality of officials and merchants.

The third group consists of historical plays. By creating heroic figures, these works celebrate heroes and give them the mission of rescuing the people, expressing Guan Hanqing's criticism of social darkness and his longing for heroic renewal. Examples include Meeting with a Single Sword and Dream of Western Shu. Meeting with a Single Sword is the most accomplished of these. Drawing on the biography of Lu Su in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, it tells how the Wu statesman Lu Su invites Guan Yu to a banquet in order to demand the return of Jing Province, and how Guan Yu attends the meeting armed only with his sword. The play creates an image of an upright and fearless hero. Although Guan Hanqing's historical plays drew on historical biographies, they went beyond them: his purpose was not simply to reproduce historical fact, but to use historical subjects to incorporate substantial contemporary concerns and express the spirit of his own age.

About forty-nine sanqu pieces by Guan Hanqing survive, although one count gives fifty-seven. They are rich in subject matter and fresh and vigorous in tone, with considerable artistic value. They describe urban prosperity and performers' lives, travel and separation, and the expression of personal ambitions. Works on romantic relations are especially numerous. His depictions of women's psychology are subtle, while his writing on separation and longing is vivid and moving. His style is bold, pungent, and humorous; his language is colloquial, lively, and natural, closely matching the character of qu poetry. He frequently uses direct descriptive techniques and is skilled at landscape writing and vivid metaphor.

The suite “Refusing to Grow Old,” to the tune pattern Nanlü Yizhihua, is witty and seasoned, written with sweeping force and filled with self-confidence, self-mockery, and self-delight. It is one of the outstanding works of Yuan sanqu. It portrays the circumstances of an artist's life and gives voice to the aspirations of a commoner playwright who chooses to remain alongside courtesans and literary-society talents at the lower levels of society, resisting pressure and frustration without ceasing until death.

Guan Hanqing mastered the formal resources of Yuan zaju and achieved distinction in character creation, the handling of dramatic conflict, and theatrical language.

In characterization, his plays give priority to strong central protagonists. Few earlier Chinese playwrights created so many distinctive artistic figures. Even among courtesans, Zhao Pan'er, Song Yinzhang, Du Ruiniang, and Xie Tianxiang have sharply different personalities. Likewise, Zhang Gui, a middle-ranking official, and Li Si, an artisan, respond very differently when both suffer the seizure of their wives under the oppression of Lu Zhailang.

In dramatic conflict, Guan Hanqing was skilled at distilling emotionally powerful situations: an innocent widow unjustly executed while Heaven and Earth respond with uncanny signs; a lone hero overawing his enemies; a husband forced to endure sending his wife to be seized by a powerful man; a mother sacrificing her biological son to preserve her former husband's child; and a maid abandoned by the man she loves and then compelled to negotiate his marriage. These plots are legendary in color while remaining rooted in social reality.

In language, Guan Hanqing was an outstanding master. He absorbed vivid popular speech and fused it with refined classical poetry, creating a style that is lively, fluent, and true to the natural character of qu. He is an outstanding representative of the plain and authentic school of Yuan qu, achieving the ideal that people speak in the language of their region, events retain their natural character, settings do not overflow their bounds, and language does not rely on artificial ornament. The authenticity of his dramatic language is especially visible in individualized speech suited to each character's identity. Rather than seeking novelty or ornate embellishment, he created a distinctive popular, fluent, and vivid style.

Guan Hanqing spent much of his life around Dadu, present-day Beijing, but also traveled to places such as Bianliang and Lin'an, present-day Hangzhou. After the fall of the Southern Song, he traveled south to Yangzhou and Hangzhou and continued his artistic activities. In Hangzhou he praised the city as “the brocade country beneath Heaven, the elegant place within the seas”; in Yangzhou he wrote “To Zhu Lianxiu.” These journeys enriched the material of his writing and promoted exchanges between northern and southern theatrical cultures.

While presiding over the Yujing literary society, Guan Hanqing maintained close relations with qu writers Wang Heqing, Yang Xianzhi, Fei Junxiang, Liang Jinzhi, and others, with whom he discussed wording and revised works. He also had ties with the playwright Wang Shifu and is said to have jointly completed parts of Romance of the Western Chamber with him. He associated with famous zaju performers including Zhu Lianxiu, Sai Lianxiu, Yanshan Xiu, Hou Shuaiqiao, Heigoutou, and Shunshi Xiu. Together these relationships formed a core network within the theatrical world of Yuan Dadu.