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= The Fortunate Union: Front Matter =
''From: The Fortunate Union, a Chinese Romance. Translated from the Chinese Original by John Francis Davis (London, 1829)''

''Note: This text was digitized via OCR from the original 1829 print.''

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== Title Page ==

THE FORTUNATE UNION,

A ROMANCE,

TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE ORIGINAL,

WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A CHINESE TRAGEDY.

By JOHN FRANCIS DAVIS, F.R.S.

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, AND OF THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION COMMITTEE, &c.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND, 1829.

== Dedication ==

TO SIR GEORGE THOMAS STAUNTON, Bart. LL.D. F.R.S.

THIS VERSION OF A WORK, WHICH HE HAS ALREADY PERUSED IN THE ORIGINAL, IS WITH MUCH ESTEEM INSCRIBED, BY HIS VERY FAITHFUL FRIEND AND SERVANT, THE TRANSLATOR.

== Preface ==

PREFACE.

—

Tue following translation was the amuse-
ment of some leisure hours in the country
which it describes. The perusal of the origi-
nal work, entitled Haoukewchuen, or ‘ A tale
of the fortunate, or appropriate union,’ had
impressed the translator with a good opinion
of its merits; and, after finishing the two first
chapters on trial, he was encouraged to proceed
towards a complete version of the Romance, with
the addition of such notes and explanations as
his long personal acquaintance with the people
might qualify him to afford. The illustrative
parts have derived advantage from the able
assistance of the Rev. Dr. Morrison; while
some botanical notes were the contributions of
Joun Reeves, Esq. of the East-India Com-
pany’s service, F.R.S. and L.S. a gentleman
well versed in the natural history of China.

The Haoukewchuen seems to relate to the
period when the Ming, or last native dynasty,
occupied the throne, previously to the Manchow
Tartar conquest: but, with the exception of

some

viii PREFACE.

some changes in their dress and coiffure, the
Chinese are at this moment, in every respect, the
identical people which our work describes.—
The very great number of typographical errors
in the original, almost inseparable from the
mode in which their books are printed,* were,
in the first instance, carefully revised and cor-
rected by a competent native.

It is nearly seventy years since Dr. Hugh
Percy, Bishop of Dromore, edited from a
manuscript, partly English and partly Portu-
guese, and dated more than a century ago,
what was little better than a copious abstract
of our romance, and without the poetical pas-
sages, under the title of the ‘ Pleasing History.’
In this (commencing, it will be perceived,
with the very title), much was mistranslated,
much interpolated, and a great deal omitted
altogether. One notable instance of omission
is the heroine’s visit to the tombs and the pavi-
lion, in the fourth chapter. Any Chinese scho-
lar who thought it worth his while to compare
the ‘ Pleasing History,’ with the Haoukew-

chuen,

© It is ecarcely necessary to mention that each page is stereotyped on
a block of fine-grained wood ;—any slip of the carver’s instrument is there-
fore frequently left uncorrected, as the correction involves, either the in-
sertion of a new piece of wood, or the commencement ab initio of a new
block.

PREFACE. Ix

chuen, could not fix upon a better portion of
the work than the five memorials in the seven-
teenth chapter of the original.* These, in the
Chinese, are excellent specimens of composi-
tion in that particular line, but in the misnamed
version they have scarcely been attempted.
The ‘ Pleasing History’ speaks of a penknife +
among a people who have no pens—makes a
delicate lady talk of ‘‘ her enemies being sacri-
ficed, and their flesh offered to appease her
resentment’’t—-represents the hero entering into
debate with his attendant concerning his own
marriage {—with many other the like instances.
The most remarkable case, however, is where the
Editor, misled by his manuscript, accuses the
Chinese author of ‘ an affectation of modesty’"—
whereas, the original is so outrageously the re-
verse, that we could not do otherwise than sup-
press the passage altogether, towards the end of
the third chapter. In justice, at the same time,
to the Haoukewchuen, it must be observed that
this passage, and another short one, are the
only untranslateable specimens throughout the
work.

But

* The real divisions of the romance are, without any adequate reason,
confounded in the ‘ Pleasing History,’
+ Pleas. Hist. vol. ii. p. 61. $ Vol. ii. p. SI. § Vol. ii. p. 198.

Xx PREFACE.

But it would be absurd to detract from the
merit of Dr. Percy’s labours on account of the
imperfection of his materials, or to deny that
he most ably edited, and very correctly illus-
trated (except where his version misled him)
what certainly was, at the time when it ap-
peared, by far the best picture of Chinese man-
ners and society that we possessed. He was
naturally puzzled by some parts of his manu-
script, and expresses his surprise in notes at a
number of incongruities, which, on a reference
to the original, are not found to exist.

In the Haoukewchuen we see the most singu-
lar people on earth, (self-insulated as they are
from all the rest of the world), pourtrayed by
a native hand in almost every variety and con-
dition of human life.

Quicquid agunt homines—votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus—nostri est farrago libelli.

The interest and bustle of the scene, the
spirit of the dialogue, the strong delineation
and strict keeping of all the characters, joined
to the generally excellent moral that is con-
veyed throughout, may serve to impress us
with no unfavourable sentiments in regard to
Chinese taste. The story commences with an
act of generous devotion on the part of the
hero, and the gratitude of the person whom he

obliges

PREFACE. xi

obliges becomes the ultimate occasion of his own
triumph over the combinations of his enemies.
The profligate, the malicious, and the base,
when they have exhausted all the resources of
ingenuity, meet with their just reward ;—while
rectitude, prudence, and courage carry their
possessors not only unharmed, but glorious,
through every trial. In the rival is exactly
pourtrayed the reckless audacity of a young
minion of wealth and power:—and the low
devices of the uncle, ‘spite of the craftiness of
the fox, and the slipperiness of the fish (to both
of which he is compared) serve but to multiply
his mortifications and defeats.

It may be proper to observe, that in the hero
and heroine are accurately described the prin-
ciples of the Confucian sect of philosophy,
—a sect which in its professed admiration of
virtue, and in its high tone of self-sufficiency
and pride, assimilates somewhat to the ancient
Stoics. Many of the precepts which the disci-
ples of Confucius are in the habit of repeating,
cannot be surpassed in wisdom and practical
excellence. They talk of ‘ treating other men
according to the treatment which you would de-
sire at their hands’—of ‘guarding the thoughts,’
as the sources of action, &c.;—but in common
with every other scheme of doctrines merely

human,

xii PREFACE,

human, theirs exhibits much that is exceptionable
both in principle and practice. Revenge, or the
lex talionis, was in some cases enjoined by Con-
fucius himself,—and humility (though this virtue
seems to have been inculcated by their sage) is
not a distinguishing trait of his disciples. Com-
bining within their own body all the talent and
intellect of the state, and certainly almost all
the virtue that is to be found in the country,
they look with great contempt on the supersti-
tious votaries of Buddha and Laoukeun. The
translator received the following very just opi-
nion of them from a gentleman whom thirty
years residence at Peking had qualified to
judge. ‘‘ The lettered class possessing a great
ascendancy over the people, the policy of each
successive dynasty has fully availed itself of
their services :—and it is without doubt to this
concentration of talent that China owes her
wealth, her peace, and her prosperity.”

As we often find in our own favourite fic-
tions, a number of the names in similar Chinese
works have a reference to the characters of
those who bear them. Thus the hero of the
Fortunate Union is named from iron (quasi
Ironside) ; the heroine is pingsin, ‘ icy-hearted ;’
—a term, however, which in her country means
chaste, and not what we should call cold heart-

ed,

PREFACE. xiii

ed. Her father’s designation literally means
‘ dwelling in singleness of purpose,’ which
sufficiently expresses his inflexible character—
and so of many other appellatives. The indi-
vidual personages are occasionally known un-
der different names. In our translation, how-
ever, it has been thought advisable to adhere
to one only for each, as a means of preventing
perplexity, and avoiding the unnecessary mul-
tiplication of ill-looking and worse-sounding
exotic words. The use, too, of those copulatives
disjunctive, called hyphens, has been forborne,
as they serve rather to separate than unite the
syllables of names, which by-the Chinese are
pronounced as much like single words, as any
polysyllables in European speech. In regard
to titles of honour, the translator was obliged
to make use of equivalents from our own lan-
guage. Laouyay, the ordinary address of a
magistrate in China, is sufficiently expressed
by our common term ‘ worship ;’—and the Chi-
nese title Zajin (literally magnate) is pretty
nearly rendered by ‘ lordship’ or ‘ excellency.’
The higher terms of respect, being less familiar
and vulgar, may be occasionally used with a
sparing hand ;—but to tack such household ap-
pendages as ‘ mistress’ and ‘ miss’ to foreign
names like the Chinese, can only be attended

with

Xiv PREFACE.

with a ridiculous effect, and certainly does not
convey a just impression of the original.

The ‘ Fortunate Union’ may be considered
as a more faithful picture of Chinese manners,
inasmuch as the hero espouses but one wife.
It is not strictly true that their laws sanction
polygamy, though they permit concubinage. A
Chinese can have but one 7%e or wife, properly
so called, who is distinguished by a title, es-
poused with ceremonies, and chosen from a
rank of life, totally different from his 7séé, or
handmaids, of whom he may have as many or
as few as he pleases; and though the offspring
of the latter possess many of the rights of legi-
timacy, (ranking however after the children of
the wife,) this circumstance makes little dif-
ference as to the truth of the position. Even
in the present romance, the profligate rival aims
at effecting his union with the heroine, only by
setting aside his previous marriage with her
cousin as informal. Any Chinese fiction, there-
fore, (and of these there are many,) which des-
cribes a man espousing two wives, is in this re-
spect no truer a picture of existing manners, than
in respect to any other silly or amusing extrava-
gance which it may happen to contain. These
observations are not hastily made, being the

result of careful examination and enquiry, and
derived

PREFACE. XV

derived in China from native authorities ; and
the present work affords sufficient corroboration,
were any required. The resolution of the scho-
lar Hanyuen to suffer death, rather than allow
his daughter to be degraded to the rank of a
handmaid, even to a noble; and the attempts
of the same noble, towards the conclusion of
the story, to espouse the heroine Shueypingsin
as his wife, because he had just lost his former
spouse, afford abundant confirmation. In fact,
the wife is of equal rank with her husband by
birth, and espoused with regular marriage ce-
remonies ; possessing, moreover, certain legal
rights, such as they are:—the handmaid is
bought for money, and received into the house
nearly like any other domestic. The principle
on which Chinese law and custom admit the
offspring of concubinage to legitimate rights
is obvious—the importance which attaches in
that country to the securing of male descen-
dants. It is plain that the 7se and the 7séé
stand to each other in very much the same
relation as the Sarah and the Hagar of the Old
Testament, and therefore the common expres-
sion first and second wife, which the translator
himself has used on former occasions, in imita-
tion of his predecessors, is hardly correct.

The reader will observe many remarkable

points

xvi PREFACE.

points of resemblance between the ‘ Fortunate
‘Union’ and our own novels and romances at
the present day. Every chapter is headed by
a few verses bearing some relation to its con-
tents, and appropriate lines are occasionally
introduced as embellishments to the story.
Care has been taken to give a correct version of
these poetical passages, as well as to explain
the remote allusions which they frequently
contain. A prose translation of poetry is con-
fessedly objectionable, and rhyme sometimes
imposes trammels which may interfere with
the strictness of the sense. A middle course
was therefore adopted, and recourse had to
blank verse, which, while it admits all that is
desirable on the score of fidelity, is less crab-
bed and uninviting than mere literal prose.
That the student of Chinese, however, might
be able to avail himself of the translation in
reading the original, a perfectly literal prose
version of the poetical passages has been printed
as an Appendix at the end of the last volume.
In these may be observed some of the prin-
cipal points noticed in the translator’s ‘Trea-
tise on the Poetry of the Chinese,’—parti-
cularly that of parallelism, which in numerous
instances is as apparent as such a feature can

be rendered out of the original language.
The

PREFACE. Xvil

The scattered poetry of the Haoukewchuen
does not comprise above four hundred lines in
the aggregate: but to represent adequately the
meaning of these in a literal, aad their spirit in
a metrical version, gave the translator nearly
as much trouble as ai] the rest of the work.
Except in some highly sustained dialogues,
the prose parts convey the tone of ordinary
conversation or narrative, and to any person
daily accustomed to speak the language of the
country, there is little more than the trouble of
writing down the meaning. .

Sufficient aids exist, even in Europe, for the
elucidation of prose compositions; but until a
dictionary of Chinese poetry (at present a great
want) shall have been compiled, the subject
must be considered as almost out of the reach
of European scholars. The frequent and
remote allusions, which in some measure con-
stitute the beauty of their poetry, are hardly
to be seized by those who are unacquainted
with the most popular tales, traditions, or
fancies of the Chinese, and, at the same time,
unsupplied with all the means of original in-
formation. It is therefore, perhaps, unfortunate
that Professor Remusat, of Paris, should have
chosen for translation the novel of Yu-keaou-
le, (or, as he writes it, Iu-kiao-li,) which is full

XVili PREFACE.

of verse. To notice a single instance at the
commencement of the Fourteenth Chapter, he
has mistaken the name of the fair and impru-
dent damsel Wunkeun (in allusion to one of the
commonest stories in China,* and bearing an
evident reference to the subject of the chapter)
for the title of some male personage. Instead
of giving the proper name, he translates the
two words that compose it, and renders the
same by ‘‘the Prince of letters ;” a character
and a sex the most unsuited to the runaway
fair one, whom he, for the first time, dignifies
with such a title. There is, however, nothing
surprising in this,—and other instances might
be. noted, were it a gracious task to find
fault, and were Chinese criticism likely to in-
terest English readers. But it is singular that
M. Remusat should have misunderstood the
meaning of lines so simple as the following :

REABART
in 7 BD AS w

‘ Mais ce n’est pas le mérite et la renommée qui re-
muent le monde,
* Est-il bon de recevoir ainsi l"hospitalité en tous lieux ?”

The very opposite is the sense of the original :
‘If

» See note to Appendix, vol. ii. p. 251, et passim.

PREFACE. xix

‘ If talent and reputation did not move (or affect) the
whole empire,

‘ How could he every where have met with such a re-
ception ”

There is much greater satisfaction, however,
in bearing testimony to the more general correct-
ness of the translation from the prose. In effec-
tive knowledge of the ‘fanguage, M. Remusat
seems to be without a rival in France; and
his tone and language, in speaking of his
own works, or those of others, entitle his ob-
servations to respect. He does not, with an
’ absurd and blind fury (the motive of which
is obvious) decry those advantages which
are inseparable from a residence in China
itself :—advantages which have enabled Dr.
Morrison to achieve his dictionary, that co-
lossal labour of utility, which is an honour at
once to himself and to his country,—and which
has met with its due praise from competent
judges. It is of the author of this dictionary
that M. Klaproth, after declaring that the book is
“« very troublesome in use,” and “‘ full of faults,”
adds the following extraordinary observation :—
“* Tf, indeed, he is really the author of the work
which he has published.” —But Dr. Morrison
knows perfectly well how to estimate M. Kla-
proth’s remarks.

Such

xx PREFACE.

‘Such attacks might well remain unnoticed ;
and the translator himself has accordingly treat-
ed with invariable disregard the liberal obser-
vations and inuendos with which M. Klaproth
(in his own peculiar style and language) has
long thought it necessary to favour him—more
especially as M. de Sorsum and M. Remusat
deemed it worth their while to edit in French
those very translations * (trifles as they were)
which excited our critic’s irritability. But the
resolution of the committee to reprint the Chi-
nese tragedy in octavo at the end of the ro-
mance, affords him a convenient opportunity
(without which he should have been silent) to
notice briefly some extracts which he has read
from M. Klaproth’s observations upon that
drama, and in so doing he craves the reader’s
pardon for being dull. Our critic finds fault
with the name Hanchenyu ; but had he a prac-
tical acquaintance with the people, he would
have known that Hanchenyu and Chenyu are the
appellations which the Chinese, (who are not
fond of more than three syllables in a proper
name) constantly apply to that person in their
frequent repetitions of the story, whether in

drawings,

© Concerning one of these M. Remusat observed, ‘ M. Davis, en le
publiant, a donc rendu un véritable service aux amis de la littérature
Asiatique.'

PREFACE. xxi

drawings, conversation, poetry, or prose. He
seems tobe unaware that they usually make use
of a single syllable of foreign names, with the
addition of some adjunct; and that, could he
speak enough of the language to talk to a
Chinese about Hoo-han-ye-chen-yu, he would
not be much more intelligible than the lady who
affects to be dumb in a certain well-known
French comedy. It may seem tedious to dwell
on such a subject ;—but the translation itself
disproves the insinuation, that the translator
took the first syllable of the Tartar name ‘‘ dans
le sens de s’appeler.” It says, ‘‘ 1 am Han-
chenyu,” not “‘ Iam called,” &c. The heroine
Chaoukeun is also called Mingfei and Wong-
tseang ; but this would have been a miserable
reason for lumbering our version with a string
of harsh-sounding words, tending only to pro-
duce confusion, and revolt the reader: and
whatever anachronisms (of little consequence
in a work of imagination) the original may
contain, the translation is quite in accordance
with the popular Chinese version of the story.
The only real oversight, in the case of Wei-
keang, has been corrected in the present edition.
M. Klaproth has contrived to enliven so dull

a topic by a little entertainment. ‘‘ M. Davis
traduit, Z met a maiden, daughter of one Wong-
chang,

Xxii PREFACE.

chang, ‘ J’ai trouvé une demoiselle, fille d'un
Wang tchhang.’ Mais Wang tchhang n’est pas
un titre; c’est lenom propre, &c.”” Our critic
may well be excused if he is not one perfect
English scholar ; but he should at least be able
to understand what he pretends to condemn.

A real master of Chinese literature has pro-
nounced, that ‘‘ the dramatic works of the
Chinese are certainly less calculated, on the
whole, than their novels, to reward the labour
of the translator.”* So much has been given
of the Sorrows of Han, as appeared likely to
be read or endured. It was thought that a plain
and sufficient reason had been advanced for
inserting only some of the operatic passages,
of which pére Premare, in his version of the
“* Orphan of Chaou,” had before given none.
M. Klaproth, however, hints as usual that this
was (peut-ctre) because the translator did not
understand them. Be it so ;—but what curious
reason will he next discover for so opposite a
course, as the insertion of a double version,
metrical and literal, of a// the poetry in the
ROMANCE?

* Sir George Staunton.

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