Liu Yi and the Dragon Princess: A Thirteenth-Century Zaju Play by Shang Zhongxian

by David Hawkes (Translator)

This is an adaptation of the thirteenth-century zaju play Liu Yi Chuan Shu, which was itself based on an eighth-century fairy tale about a failed examination candidate's encounter with a shepherdess in distress who turns out to be the youngest daughter of the Dragon King of Lake Dongting. The young man's help is rewarded with riches, immortality and marriage to the beautiful princess. It is a wish-fulfillment fantasy written with charm and a certain ironical edge.

This adaptation consists of the freely-translated lyrics of the zaju with new, original dialogue, including an on-stage narrator. There is a long introduction with synopses of the Chinese text of the zaju and the original story it was based on. There is also an appendix explaining the use of "padding words" in zaju.

120 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2003

About the author

David Hawkes is a Professor of English Literature at Arizona State University and a distinguished scholar in literary criticism, economic thought, and early modern literature. He is the author of several influential books and has edited critical editions of classic literary works.
Hawkes studied at Oxford University, earning a B.A. in 1986, before continuing his postgraduate education at Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1992. At Oxford, he was a student of the literary critic Terry Eagleton and engaged in socialist-feminist scholarship with Oxford English Limited. At Columbia, he worked under Edward Said and contributed to alternative and underground journals in New York’s Lower East Side.
His academic career began at Lehigh University, where he taught from 1991 to 2007 before joining Arizona State University as a full professor. He has also held visiting positions at institutions in India, Turkey, and China. Hawkes has received prestigious fellowships, including a year-long National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library and the William Ringler Fellowship at the Huntington Library.
A prolific writer, Hawkes' works explore themes of economic criticism, ideology, and the intersections of literature, magic, and finance in early modern thought. His books include Idols of the Marketplace (2001), The Culture of Usury in Renaissance England (2010), and Shakespeare and Economic Criticism (2015). He has also edited editions of Paradise Lost and The Pilgrim’s Progress. His recent works, The Reign of Anti-logos (2020) and Money and Magic in Early Modern Drama (2022), continue his exploration of the relationship between literature, philosophy, and economics.
Hawkes' scholarship is widely recognized for its critical engagement with ideology and material culture, offering fresh perspectives on the intersections of literature, politics, and economic systems.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting translation of a Yuan play, Liu Yi and the Dragon Princess. The 13th century play was based on a Tang dynasty supernatural tale about a young man who helped a woman who turned out to be a Dragon Princess, originally he turned down marrying her (in one version cause he thought the way it was offered was too coarse, in the other cause he thought she was too ugly). But then he changed his mind and the two were eventually married. David Hawkes, gave an outline version of both the play and the original story, contrasting the two. He also gave a short history of this type of drama, and how it was performed. His translation of the text wasn't supposed to be exact but rather his aim was to write a translation that would be performed and interesting to an English speaking audience. The story still maintained much of the original. At the end he had given examples of songs in the same style (tune) as songs in this play, and showed how he had translated them, with their original Chinese, their literal interpretation and the full translation, which was very interesting to see.

The book gave good background on the type of drama as well as the story itself and an interesting translation. Definitely one I'd recommend.