Subjugation of Demons

• Author: Luo Guanzhong, Feng Menglong
• Translator: Li Xixing (translated with the Introduction and Explanatory Notes)
• ISBN: 9780984117208
• Publisher: KF Publishing Company Group, USA
• Publication Date: Scheduled to be published in June 2010
• Language: English

 About the author:

Xixing Li graduated with an MA degree of the ancient history of China in Sicuan University in 1981 and worked in the museums in Xi’an, Shaanxi for 14 years. During this period he wrote and edited 15 books, in which 13 had been published, and published more than 60 essays in various magazines. He immigrated into New Zealand in 1996 and has been living in Auckland up to now. He graduated with another MA degree of Art history in Auckland University in 2000. He is now a freelance translator in the Chinese English pair.

Abridgment:

Introduction to Subjugation of Demons

Subjugation of Demons (Ping Yao Zhuan) is a famous Chinese classical fiction. Though with the historical nucleus of the short-lived rebellion of Wang Ze in the Song Dynasty in 1047, which only lasted sixty-six days, it is far more concerned with Taoist magic and sorcery than with history. So Lu Hsun acknowledges it as one of the earliest vernacular novels of the subject about mythology in China (A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, Translated by Yang Hsienyi and Gladys Yang (Dai Naidie) Foreign Language Press, Peking, 1976, P188).

Its original version of twenty-chapter was written in the fourteenth century, generally attributed to Luo Guanzhong (ca. 1330-1400). Luo was a novelist and dramatist, who played an important role in the development of Chinese popular fiction. His other two great works: “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” and “Outlaws of the Marsh” (the latter with co-authorship of Shi Nan’an) are translated into English in various editions and other languages. This translation of Subjugation of Demons is based on Feng Menglong’s forty-chapter expanded edition, The New Version of Subjugation of Demons, which earliest extant edition was published in 1620, the first year of the Great Prosperous (Taichang) Reign of Ming. Feng (1574-1646) is praised as the personification of popular Chinese literature (The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Edited and compiled by William H. Nienhauser, Jr. Indiana of University Press, Bloomington, 1986, P380). His three collections of short stories: Illustrious Words to Instruct the World, Comprehensive Words to Admonish the World, Lasting Words to Awaken the World, containing 120 stories in total, have a strong influence in China and in the Western as well.

Subjugation of Demons opens in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, with a white ape spirit, who follows the Mystic Goddess to study the Taoist Way and becomes a deity to keep the Confidential Library in Heaven. After stealing a magic book from the library, White Ape Deity goes back to his lair the White Cloud Cave and carves the text on the stone walls. One thousand five hundred years later, the protagonists: an old vixen spirit called St Aunt and her two children Naughty and Charmie appear. There are five chapters narrating how a hunter shoots Naughty with an arrow, how St Aunt goes to a certain physician called Semi-Immortal Yan and begs him for medicine. Accepting Yan’s suggestion, the three fox spirits decide to seek the Taoist Way from Immortals, but they are miserably separated from each other on their journey. The following six chapters tell us the adventure of another leading actor, Monk Egg, who is not born normally, but incubated from a goose egg. After three difficult attempts, he gets half the rubbings of the wall inscriptions from the White Cloud Cave, but he can’t read it. An old Immortal tells him that St Aunt can decipher it. So the monk finds her and studies magic with her and her son Left Naughty.

The story turns to St Aunt’s daughter Charmie, who is blown to East Capital by a gale of strong wind while she is on her pilgrimage to the West Sacred Mountain. Luckily, Zhang Luan, another great sorcerer, saves her. Charmie is killed when she ventures to the inner palace. Zhang helps her soul to be reincarnated in Proprietor Hu’s family as Hu Yong’er. When Yong’er is thirteen, her family suffers devastating conflagration. Her father, a millionaire, becomes a penniless man. St Aunt comes secretly and teaches Yong’er magic to conjure up money and rice to restore her family. The adventure of Yong’er, including her first mismatched marriage and how she is forced to escape from home, in seven chapters, leads the story to the climax.

The book then tells us the stories about Zhang Luan with his disciple Bu Ji, Master Cripple (Left Naughty) and Monk Pellet (Monk Egg). They use their magic to fight against corrupt officials and, even oppose Bao the Dragon Diagram, the so-called greatest judge. They perform very interesting comedies, such as Master Cripple teasing three traders, Monk Pellet making fun of Marshal Wang the Well-doer, etc.

The revolt of Wang Ze is unfolded in the last ten chapters. The first half of the ten tells us how Wang Ze marries Hu Yong’er and raises a revolt with the help of Master Cripple, Zhang Luan and other sorcerers. After the government troops under Liu Yenwei, prefect of Jizhou, are sent to quell them but are defeated, the rebels developed into a strong force and some leaders become corrupt with power and sinks into decadence.

The last five chapters describe how Wen Yanbo and his imperial army suppress the rebels. The reason that Wen wins does not depend only on his ability and his one hundred thousand troops, but because of the split of the demon gang. Monk Egg, Zhang Luan and Bu Ji leave Wang Ze, because they see that he lead a dissolute life, even worse than corrupt officials do. Later, Monk Egg, under the Mystic Goddess’s order, is disguised as an old monk Zhuge Suizhi, who helps Wen to break down the rebels’ magic. Two other key players in Wen Yanbo’s eventual victory are Ma Sui and Li Sui. Since the three men are all named Sui, this book was originally called “The Story of Three Suis Quelling Demons.” The “three Suis” is the episode of a riddle in the last three chapters.

Going along with the thread how the magic book spread out, Feng Menglong uses realistic style adroitly to weave religious philosophy, Confucian teachings and mundane concept together, providing a panorama of the lives of people at various levels in ancient China, vividly describing the urban scene of the Ming dynasty. He offers many distinct characters, such as powerful officials and noble ladies, rich proprietors and despotic squires, shrewd house stewardess and matchmakers, diligent traders and peddlers, monks and Taoists, charm sellers and beggars, yamen constables and runners, officers and soldiers in the army. He especially exposes corrupt officials, treacherous ministers and muddleheaded emperors. Though the author tries to convince the audience to believe the existence of supernatural, he ironically reveals how people worship witches and wizards blindly.

This book collects many stories about sorcerers and witches, some are good and some evil and some neutral. The good ones are such as Semi-immortal Yan, who offers free medicine for poor patients and Zhang Luan, who prays for rain to save the people from draught. The evil ones are such as Feng Pure Eye, who practises black art to murder others. Nun Xi is a self-assumed rainmaker. She with her followers, for the purpose of exploiting money, uses very cruel method to torture pregnant women. Palmer Stone, a wandering monk, even kills a pregnant woman to make the so-called ever-youth elixir. Some other examples, such as Du Seventh Sage and Hu Yong’er, as street-performers, display marvelous magic game for an audience.

Limited by the fact of Wang Ze’s rebellion and Chinese traditional historical viewpoint, this fiction has to end tragically, and the authors have to treat the protagonists as evil spirits and demons. But the narratives of the episodes actually describe them as positive characters. St Aunt, a respectable old woman and good mother, has devoted herself to the practice of the Taoist magic and pays stirring affection to her children. Before she has gained the Way, others, even the servants of noble households humiliate her. Hu Yong’er, a pretty and clever young girl, suffers from hunger and cold since she was a teenage. After she starts to learn magic arts, the others, even her natural father, treat her unjustly and drive her to escape from home. These two actresses are more successful literature figures than the heroines in “Outlaws of the Marsh.” Monk Egg, is brought up in a monastery and suffers from the bullying of other monks. He persists in seeking the Way and finally becomes a great sorcerer. He fights against evil sorcerers, punish avaricious men, teases officials but protects the poor and weaker people. Zhang Luan, an orphan, is once abandoned when he contracts disease at death’s door. A foreigner saves him and teaches him great magic. Zhang rescues Bu Ji and avenges him by killing a corrupt prefect, but he is not willing simply to kill the runners as is always done in “Outlaws of the Marsh.” Master Cripple is a funny and humorous character created by ancient Chinese storytellers. Most of his episodes in this book should amuse the readers.

The most successful character in this fiction is St Aunt. In the twenty-chapter version, St Aunt appears as the mystic protector of Yong’er, without origin and development. In the Feng version, St Aunt from a vixen spirit becomes the founder of a magic sect. The episodes about her start from Chapter 3, and are seen in chapters 4-7, 11-14, 18-22, 25, 28, 31-32, 38-40, in 21 chapters totally, far more than the references about the other leading actors, forming a complete thread of St Aunt’s story. In traditional Chinese fiction, a positive paragon of an old woman is seldom, at least before Feng’s version. She was described as an affectionate mother, an intellectual woman, a kindly religious teacher and a devoted learner of the Taoist Way. Following her ancestors’ prophecy, she longs to learn the magic of the White Cloud Cave. When Monk Egg has gained the Seventy-two Transformations of Earthly Fiends from the cave and brings the rubbings to ask her to teach him, she has the chance to learn the magic and lead the monk and her son to practise it together. She always admires the Thirty-six Transformations of Heavenly Spirits. When the Mystic Goddess has captured her and sends her to the Heavenly Court, one hundred and eight thousand heavenly foxes begged the Jade Emperor to pardon her. So the Jade Emperor exiles her to guard carved inscriptions on the stone wall in the White Cloud Cave, replacing the duty of White Ape Deity. It seems not a punishment but a desirable reward for her.

Since Feng’s version became popular, Lou’s twenty-chapter version stopped being issued. The extant twenty-chapter version is not intact. Some pages have gone missing, including the ending of the story. Feng’s version is at least triple the length of the Lou’s version. Feng not only added many episodes to the original one and rewrote some plots in detail, but also changed many places.

The remarkable change is the denouement of the protagonists. According to the original work, Monk Pellet, Zhang Luan and Bu Ji did not leave Wang Ze, and Zhuge Suizhi was another powerful monk, not a transformation of Monk Pellet. It was said that the official soldiers captured the three men with help of Zhuge Suizhi and Li Fish-soup. They were also punished to be dismembered with Wang Ze, Hu Yong’er and Left Naughty. But in the forty-chapter version, Zhang Luan and Bu Ji are arranged to leave Wang Ze and become hermits. Monk Pellet turns his weapon around to strike his rebelling comrades. After the demons are captured and the rebellion has been suppressed, he returns to Sweet Spring Monastery, in which he peacefully passes away, sitting cross-legged. Left Naughty and Hu Yong’er both are struck to death by thunderclap. Only Wang Ze is dismembered in the marketplace. Monk Pellet, Zhang Luan and Bu Ji are spared their punishment by the brush-pen of Feng Menglong. He even arranges for Left Naughty and Hu Yong’er to be punished to death by Heaven, not to be slaughtered by executioners’ knives.

This reflects that Feng Menglong heartily sympathized with these protagonists. He thinks that their rise to fight against corrupt officials is righteous. Though what they have done violated the law, they do not deserve to be punished to death, if they could give up vice and return to virtue. The book arranges Thunder God to strike Left Naughty and Hu Yong’er to death to fulfill the vow that White Ape Deity had taken in the White Cloud Cave. To arrange this ending for the two fox spirits negates Wen Yanbo’s military merits and the law of the Song Empire. They are actually learners of the magic of Mystic Goddess of Supreme Heaven. They are forced to support a rebel because the officials are really corrupt, the ministers treacherous and the emperor muddleheaded. So how could an unjust court have a right to judge them?

According to “The Biography of Ming Hao” in “The History of the Song Dynasty,” Zhang Luan and Bu Ji were both prefecture officials and supported Wang Ze to rebel. When Wen Yanbo arrived, the official army dug an underground tunnel to enter the town of Beizhou and Commander Wang Xin captured Wang Ze. Wang’s remaining followers defended themselves by a village house and were all burned to death. Wang Ze was sent to the capital in a cage and put to death by being dismembered. So Zhang Luan and Bu Ji were both dead when the rebellion was suppressed. Feng Menglong not only spares fictional characters, such as Monk Egg, Left Naughty and Hu Yong’er from justice, he has even saved the lives of Zhang Luan and Bu Ji, the two real rebelling heroes, with his pen in this novel.

To arrange the ending of the protagonists in this way is similar to some modern popular western novels. Keele, a professional hitman in James Pattinson’s “One-way Ticket” (UL Verscroft Leicester Large Print Edition 1998 By F. A. Thorpe (Publishing) Ltd. Anstey, Leicestershire, First published in Great Britain in 1997 by Robert Hale Ltd. London) called himself an eliminator. Because he held that the men “he eliminated were scum; they were no loss to humanity. And if he did not eliminate them, there was little doubt that someone else would. They were already booked for that last journey which was the ultimate one-way ride.” (P42) When the policemen were searching his house and found out the evidences pointing to the assassin, he successfully escaped under the policemen’s very eyes by driving his Jaguar. James tells us:

“He was still driving fast, though he felt that he had thrown off the pursuit, and he came to a bend and there was a tractor hauling a trailer loaded with bales of hay. The tractor had just come through a field gateway, and it and the trailer filled the entire width of the narrow road. Keele had no time to brake. The Jaguar hit the trailer and smashed its side. He had not been wearing the seat-belt and he was thrown forward by the impact. The steering-wheel crushed his ribs and his head struck the windscreen. The skull was crushed and Martin Keele as a living sensate being ceased to exist.” (PP263-264)

Though the victims he killed really deserve to die, what Keele had done was actually outside the law. Unwilling to arrange his protagonist hero to be arrested and brought to justice, James gives him an accidental ending. Is this the same idea that Feng Menglong arranged when Thunder God struck Hu Yong’er to death even when the official soldiers had captured her?

If a writer lived in China almost five hundred years before, shares the same idea to deal with the denouement of outlaws that a modern western writer uses today, how could anyone deny his work a remarkable tour de force?

Note
“Subjugation of Demons” has been translated into Japanese and German. This is the first translation into English. The manuscript of the whole translation is more than 400 16-mo pages and 223,000 words, with the exception of the introduction and footnotes. The translator Li Xixing is a Chinese scholar who immigrated into New Zealand in 1996. With two MA degrees, one is in Chinese ancient history gained from China and the other is in Art History from Auckland University, and strong experiences in writing and studying of Chinese traditional culture, he starts his career of literature translation in the Chinese English pair. In this translation, he has been at pains to try to capture the immediacy and wit of the original, especially the names, poems, couplets and proverbs.

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