This book is one of a series of books that Idema has edited and written on China’s most popular and influential tales. The legend of Dong Yong and Weaving Maiden together with the tales of Meng Jiangmu, the White Snake, and the romance of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai are the so-called “four greatest legends” in contemporary China. Originated and recorded many centuries ago, these tales still fascinate Chinese audiences through their enactment in literature, theatrical stage, film, folk art, and music today. They have been “hailed as the quintessence of Chinese culture” (ix). The focus and structure of this book is similar to that of other books in this series, an introduction followed by English translations of five historical texts of the legend of Dong Yong and Weaving Maiden. An appendix includes the pre-modern classic accounts and novelistic adaptations of this legend as well as its modern transformations into folktales and regional plays (only summaries are provided in this part). Through these texts, Idema aims to present the transformations and adaptations of the legend in the realm of oral literature and in the many genres of traditional popular literature (suwenxue) in pre-modern China.

The multi-faceted variants of the legend of Dong Yong and Weaving Maiden center on a dutiful son (Dong Yong) who sells himself into servitude in order to provide a proper funeral for his parents or mother. Weaving Maiden, an immortal descending from heaven, marries him and helps him to pay off his debt. The couple separates at the end as Weaving Maiden returns to heaven by her own will or by force. Modern variants, more often than not, intertwine with the tale types of 400A (Chinese subtype of ATU 400, including the “swan maiden” motif) and 313A1 (Chinese subtype of ATU 313A). This legend also has its variants among China’s ethnic groups and outside of China, such as in Japan and the Philippines.

In his introduction, Idema outlines the historical development of this legend from the early centuries of the first millennium to the present. In order to place this trajectory in a larger context of pre-modern Chinese oral and vernacular literary traditions, Idema also provides a brief overview of the elite and Buddhist discourses of filial piety in the first millennium, the development of the major theatrical genres that flourished from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth century, and the reformist and revolutionary appropriations of folklore in modern China. In Idema’s opinion, filial piety as the foundational virtue of imperial China greatly shaped the central theme of this legend that ran through varied texts in various historical periods. And the legend was largely transformed into a tale of romance when romantic love became the foundational virtue of modern China in the twentieth century. In spite of this incisive analysis, we see the co-existence of both themes in either pre-modern or modern texts, and some cosmological variants rather focus on the origin of two stars named Cowboy and Weaving Maiden. Thus, the understanding of these transformations still needs to be situated in more specific historical and social contexts.

The main body of the book consists of English translations of five influential historical texts of the legend. Idema includes a ballad in seven-syllable rhyming verse from Buddhist transformation texts (bianwen) discovered in Dunhuang in 1900 (dated from the ninth or tenth century); a set of songs contained in a Zaju play (a popular form of drama in northern China from 1250 to 1450); a vernacular story that derived from a xiwen play (a musical play in southeastern China from the thirteenth century to sixteenth century); the parting scene from an influential chuanqi play (a prestigious and widespread dramatic genre from the sixteenth century to nineteenth century) titled “Weaving Brocade”; and a long ballad composed in stanzas of two rhyming seven-syllable lines, which belonged to the genre of “pulling songs” (wange) also named “funerary drumming,” sanggu) or “filial songs” (xiaoge), popularly performed in the Hubei-Hunan area, southern China, and which was recorded from the final years of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Before each text, Idema gives a short introduction to its source and the historical context of the genre in which it appears. Though not explicitly stated by the author, the included historical texts, which come predominantly from dramatic literature, point to an interesting fact that is worthy of further research. As some China-based drama scholars have recognized, in contrast to the other tales in “four greatest legends,” this legend’s influence in pre-modern China was greatly attached to theatrical plays (local operas) rather than to literature (i.e., the Ming-Qing novels).

For folklorists, this book may be roughly regarded as a collection of the historical variants of a tale compiled and translated by a literary scholar. Yet, Idema’s work is a great asset to folklore research on Chinese folk narrative (or comparative folktale research) by selecting and making these important historical texts available in English. In China, scholarship on the historical transformations of this legend as well as other widespread tales has emerged and prospered in the disciplines of literature, drama, and folklore since the early-twentieth century (some important compilations in Chinese language can be found in this book’s bibliography and the author’s introductions to each story). But it is very challenging to find these sources in English. This book, as well as this series, bridges a gap with its rigorous data on the sources of these texts, its accurate translations, and notes on the allusions found in the texts.

Further, the book’s contribution extends to folk narrative research in China through including (and highlighting) certain variants which have been ideologically neglected or underplayed by some Chinese folklorists, such as Weaving Maiden’s love affair with a mortal lover and Weaving Maiden’s return to heaven without any pity for her husband or children.

For teaching Chinese folk narrative in undergraduate courses, the book is particularly helpful as a reader. Students without any prior knowledge of Chinese can work with the texts to understand Chinese oral and vernacular narrative traditions, including the mutual nurturing of oral and written narrative traditions, the variety and richness of the tales, and the wide discrepancies between their different adaptations. Students can further engage in reflexive thinking on these historical transformations and appropriations in specific historical contexts.

As a folklorist, I wish this book could be expanded to include the complete texts and more comprehensive sources of this legend in what Idema calls “mythology” (i.e., the variants where the tale is not about filial piety but describes Dong Yong and Weaving Maiden as two stars in heaven) and “modern folktales and regional plays” (for which only summaries are provided). These would be very useful to folklore studies and teaching. Yet, Idema’s focus, as a literary scholar, on the sources and adaptations in vernacular literature is quite understandable.

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[Review length: 1132 words • Review posted on May 25, 2010]