Tung-chou lieh-kuo chih by Feng Menglong

First published:Xin Lieguo Zhi, Ming edition, after 1627; C’ing edition, after 1644

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical

Time of work: 770-220 b.c.e.

Locale: China

Principal Characters:

• King Yu-wang, the last king of the Western Chou dynasty
• King P’ing, the first king of the Eastern Chou dynasty
• Duke Huan of Ch’i, the first overlord
• Kuan Chung, or Kuan I-wu, a philosopher and statesman
• Duke Wên of Chin, an overlord
• King Chuang of Ch’u, an overlord
• Duke Hsiao of Ch’in, a powerful feudal lord
• Shang Yang, or Wei Yang, a statesman and political reformer
• Su Ch’in, a diplomat
• Chang I, a diplomat
• Ching K’o, an assassin
• Shih Huang-ti, “The First Emperor” of Ch’in and a tyrant

The Story

For hundreds of years, the kings of Chou ruled China. King Yu-wang (r. 781-771 b.c.e.) had a beautiful concubine whom he loved dearly. The woman, however, always looked depressed. The king would have paid any price to make her smile. One day, he lighted the fire beacon, a signal to announce the approach of an enemy. As the feudal lords with their troops hurried to the rescue, they found the king drinking with his concubine. They were forced to lead their troops back. The concubine enjoyed the practical joke so much that for the first time she gave a hearty laugh.

The Marquis of Shen, father of the lawful queen, resented the treatment of his daughter and grandson by the king, and he allied himself with the barbarians. Together they marched on the capital. The fire beacon was again lighted, but this time no rescuing troops appeared. King Yu-wang was killed and the beautiful concubine carried away by the barbarians.

The capital was also sacked and destroyed. When the heir-apparent, P’ing-wang, was raised to the throne, he moved the government to Loyang, a city to the east. This was the beginning of the Eastern Chou dynasty (770 b.c.e.). From that time on, the royal house was weakened, and several feudal states rose to unprecedented power. The territory in the west, the present province of Shensi, was given up to the state of Ch’in, which gradually aggrandized itself as a result of the conquest of the neighboring tribes of barbarians and became the force to reunify China centuries later.

The first feudal lord to attain imperial importance was Duke Huan of Ch’i (685-643 b.c.e.), who occupied the northeast of the present province of Shangtung. His prime minister, Kuan Chung, on whom the duke relied heavily, launched a program of economic reconstruction. With his people enjoying economic prosperity at home and placing full confidence in him, the duke began a series of diplomatic moves that successfully bound various other states by treaty. He became an overlord, the leader of the feudal lords, defender of the royal house, and protector of weaker states.

The great menace to the allied states, with the king of Chou as their nominal head, was Ch’u, occupying, roughly, the present provinces of Hupeh and Hunan, a mere viscountship in the south, generally considered barbarous but grown so formidable in its military strength and vast in its territory that its rulers defied the royal house and called themselves kings. The utmost Duke Huan of Ch’i, accomplished with regard to the potential enemy in the south, though he had chased the barbarians in the northeast up to the border of Manchuria during a military campaign to help the much harassed state of Yen, was to bring about a pact of amity. The smaller states, under the pressure of circumstances, were often compelled to choose between joining the allies led by Ch’i or paying allegiance to Ch’u.

The first severe blow to Ch’u was dealt by Duke Wen of Chin, another prince who had become an overlord. Nearly a thousand chariots of war on either side, each with its allies, were engaged in a battle at a place called Ch’engp’u (632 b.c.e.) and Ch’u was defeated. This was the first great battle in Chinese history, and it is said to have saved Chinese civilization. Chin (occupying the present province of Shansi) for two centuries remained a great state in the north, but the power of the duke was usurped by his hereditary ministers until he had as little authority over his retainers as did the king of Chou over the feudal lords. The retainers fought fiercely among themselves, and the houses of Wei, Han, and Chao emerged as the victors. These three retainers were recognized as hereditary feudal lords by the king, in 403 b.c.e. In 376, they divided among them the territory of Chin.

The power and prestige of Ch’u reached its zenith under King Chuang (613-591 b.c.e.), who defeated Chin. A hundred years later two other states in the south, hitherto obscure, extended their influence to the north. The first was Wu (currently Kiangsu) whose armies in one campaign reached as far as the capital of Ch’u (506 b.c.e.) but were forced to withdraw before the intervention of Ch’in from the northwest. Although it had also defeated Ch’i, the glory of Wu soon faded; it was conquered by Yueh (currently Chekiang) in 473; later, in 334, Yueh was annexed by Ch’u.

After endless internal disturbance within most of the states and wars among them, seven “great powers” were left: Ch’in, Ch’u, Ch’i, Wei, Han, Chao, and Yen. The smaller and weaker states gradually became extinct, swallowed by the larger powers. The authority of the royal house was now utterly disregarded. The potentates of the great powers followed the once-detested example of Ch’u to assume kingship in the fourth century b.c.e. It was an age of the test of strength, when each state had to fight with every possible resource—military, diplomatic, material, and ideological—for survival or, with luck, supremacy.

Of the seven, Ch’in was considered geographically unassailable. Having annexed a large territory in the west, it was ready to bid for supremacy in China. Under Duke Hsiao (361-338 b.c.e.), organization of the peoples, which had been remarkable, was further strengthened by the policies of the prime minister, Shang Yang. The foundations of a totalitarian empire had been laid.

After the military strength of Ch’in had struck such terror into the other states, their main problem was how to deal with the power in the west. At one time, an alliance of six was formed to contend against Ch’in, acting upon the strategy of the diplomat Su Ch’in, who also became the chancellor of the confederation. Su’s scheme, however, was obstructed by his former fellow student, Chang I, who was working for Ch’in. With crafty maneuvers, bribery, and threats, Ch’in succeeded in dividing the allies. In 317 Su Ch’in was assassinated.

The conquest of the six states by Ch’in was delayed by the efforts of the Four Statesmen of Ch’i, Ch’u, Chao, and Wei. Able administrators and diplomats, they also gained great fame as patrons who threw open their doors to the scholars and men of ability who were wandering throughout China seeking employment. Their popularity and ability enabled their states to hold out against Ch’in while they lived; after their deaths, none was able to stop the advance of the conqueror.

Ching K’o of Yen made a heroic attempt to assassinate the man then sitting on the throne of Ch’in in 227 b.c.e. His effort failed, however, and the king of Ch’in was crowned as Shih Huang-ti, “The First Emperor,” known to posterity as the builder of the Great Wall and the burner of the books, after the conquest of his six rivals in 220. The last “shadow” monarch of the Chou Dynasty died in 256.

Critical Evaluation:

Feng Menglong’s Hsin lieh-kuo chih dates from after 1627; it is based on an earlier account by Yü Shao-yü (fl. c. 1566) titled Lieh-kuo chih chuan. After 1644, Feng’s version was edited slightly by Ts’ai Yuan-fang (fl. c. 1736) and given the title Tung-chou lieh-kuo chih; this version may be regarded as definitive. The novel contains no fictitious figures. It tells of an important time in Chinese history: from the eighth to the third centuries b.c.e. This period includes the Chou dynasty and, most significantly, China’s unification under the tyrant Ch’in Shih Huang-ti. Feng was more of a collector and editor of stories than an original fiction writer. His works were issued under various pseudonyms, and it is only through the careful investigation of modern scholars that he has been identified as the author or editor of the works now attributed to him. His prolific career was cut short by the overthrow of the Ming dynasty, which cost him his life. Feng’s novel has never been fully translated into English.

Feng was a man of broad interests, a learned scholar, and a talented writer of prose, but he is known principally for his contributions to popular, vernacular literature as opposed to literature in classical Chinese. As a scholar, however, he was deficient enough in the writing of classical poetry that he never passed the state government examinations. He nevertheless specialized in the classic Ch’un-ch’iu (Spring and Autumn Annals) by Confucious (551-479 b.c.e.), and he published two books on the subject, which were well received by other scholars. He is best known for his three collections of vernacular short stories. He left a lasting mark on the Chinese novel.

In Chinese tradition, “history” (shih) and “fiction” (hsiao-shuo) have meanings that differ significantly from such concepts in the West. Chinese historiography developed so early (roughly the eighth century b.c.e., the time of Homer) that no trace of an epic tradition has been left. The historical consciousness was always strong. Hence very early history became one of China’s most important social institutions. Numerous accounts attest to this fact. To the Chinese, therefore, “history” means a faithful representation of external reality based on an official worldview. On the other hand, “fiction” to the Chinese does not mean “falsehood” but confidential gossip that has been overheard and is not very far from the truth. In this way Chinese fiction became an outgrowth of history; it tended to derive its characters, events, locales, plots, and themes from actual history.

The earliest examples of Chinese long fiction display these historical characteristics. For example, the San-Kuo chih yen-i (romance of the three kingdoms), which has been ascribed to Lo Kuan-chung (fl. 1364), presents semihistorical heroes against a background of authentic history—the kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu. The writing of the romance presented the author with two main problems: the balancing and harmonizing of characters and events; and the balancing and harmonizing of vernacular speech and classical Chinese prose. In this work the term “romance” means “expanded” or “heightened” and otherwise means much the same as it meant in medieval Europe—“militant,” “loyal,” “brave,” “heroic,” or “knightly.” The San-Kuo chih yen-i may be considered a preeminent example of the Chinese military romance. Feng’s Tung-chou lieh-kuo chih resembles Lo’s book in both character and quality. Feng’s “novel” differs little from authentic history.

Feng himself did not hold that the worth of a story depends on whether it is completely real or completely fictive. Rather, a story’s worth depends on a fair balance of the two if the story is to captivate the reader and establish credibility. Also, another measure of a story’s quality and value is whether it demonstrates a good social purpose. In other words, a good story is didactic.

Feng’s romance has the surface unity of chronology and class relationship. There is no central plot that unifies the whole but a series of separate stories that take place during the Chou dynasty in China from about 788 b.c.e. to about 221 b.c.e. and the reign of the First Emperor, Chin Shih Huang-ti. The stories themselves are connected simply by being about the political and military affairs of the Chinese feudal aristocracy. These stories are told in two ways: by an impartial, unseen recorder and by the dialogue of characters. Five aspects of the stories are given prominence: the extraordinary; crimes and punishments; dramatic irony; warfare; and moral fable. The totality of the stories suggests that there is a universal moral order that tends to prevail regardless of the evil doings of humanity—betrayals, fratricides, assassinations, executions, exiles, tortures, adulteries, and warfare. The novel implies that by a decree of heaven, retribution and balance of good and evil are brought about in the long run.

Bibliography

Feng Menglong. Tung Chou lieh-kuo chih. Tai-pei shih: Hua I Shu Chu, 1985. A selection of 23 chapters. In finely written Chinese script with beautiful colored illustrations.

Giles, Herbert A., trans. Excerpt from Lieh-kuo chih chuan, by Yü Shao-yü. In A History of Chinese Literature. New York: Grove Press, 1958. Useful for comparison.

Lu, Sheldon Hsiao-peng. From Historicity to Fictionality: The Chinese Poetics of Narrative. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994. Proposes that history is the ground of narrative and ties it inevitably to time and space as well as to ideology and relativity.