Oneshot (2/2)
Later, Liu checked the jade and found there was a cut in it fro several centimeters deep Froenerously
In the eighth year of the Yuanhe reign period (813), Liu was called froo with him She said, ”From now on I ander the es But I ireed After that he gradually lost track of Yinniang’s whereabouts
When Liu died at his post as co her donkey, wept bitterly in front of his coffin, and left
During the Kaicheng reign period (836-840 CE), Liu Changyi’s son, Liu Zong becazhou On a plank road on the way to Shu heShe looked the sahted to see him She still rode her white donkey as before She said to Liu Zong, ”Calamity awaits you, sir You should not take up this post” She took out a pill and told him to s it She said, ”Next year, quickly abandon your post and return to Luoyang It’s the only way to avoid thisdid not take her words to heart and offered her a gift of silk, but Yinniang would not accept it She instead got drunk with hi did not quit his post and sure enough did die in Lingzhou
After this, no one ever saw Yinniang again
Still fro
In the course of the development of xia and wuxia literature, it's hard to overstate the significance of ”Nie Yinniang” 聶隱娘 Written so China's cos” was one of the first stories to depict ht scene, which lossed over or merely implied Many stock ele a drug to dissolve a body, physical transformations, the use of pills to enhance one's ability, etc, started with this story It, along with the other xia tales of the Tang dynasty, can be seen as the predecessors to ould eventually becoender roles in the story was also striking and ahead of its time
Attributed to Pei Xing (825-880), ”Nie Yinniang” has been traditionally cited as one of the stories in his collection Marvelous Tales 傳奇 This collection, no longer extent in its original forenre, as tales of strange anddynasty are non generally as chuanqi 傳奇
Pei Xing riting during the latter part of the Tang dynasty, a time of internecine strife and political instability In its early days, the Tang was one of the most, if not the most, populous and h still a patriarchal society based on Confucian ideology, the Tang was the most liberal and least oppressive period for woreat, thanks to the Silk Road which extended fro'an to Persia, and even on to Ro this period, and the arts flourished, particularly poetry But the An Lushan Rebellion of 755 CE brought an end to the so-called ”Golden Age” of China
An Lushan 安祿山 was a玄宗 (713-756) He was eventually put in charge of three strategic regions in the Hebei area, far froin, An Lushan was a foreigner, as weredynasty Because of various reasons I won't go into here, he revolted against the Tang court in Deceh the rebellion was eventually put down for good in 763, the Tang was never the saain A shoddy census system and lack of records (because many were destroyed when An Lushan sacked the capital) means it's ie, and , with the result that the cultural center of the empire shi+fted to the south, where it has remained until today
The Tang government was decentralized and its military weak and spread too thinly These factors were part of the cause of the rebellion in the first place, and it only got worse afterward Several regions of the e their own leaders based on hereditary succession and only reporting the na court for approval In short, the northeast part of China was overrun with several regional warlords, and this would continue until the end of the Tang dynasty in 907 CE This chaotic situation was Pei Xing's reality, and also the setting of ”Nie Yinniang”
Nie Yinniang in the story was the daughter of Nie Feng, a high-ranking general in Weibo 魏博, an administrative circuit in what is now southern Hebei and northen Shandong provinces Although the commander of Weibo is not named, based on the other names mentioned in the story it must have been set around the time Tian Ji'an 田季安 was military commissioner there, which would mean the story would be set somewhere between 796 and 812 CE
The nun who shows up and kidnaps Yinniang is specifically a Buddhist nun 尼姑, which is interesting Buddhision in China, and was sometimes looked upon my the literati, ere Confucianists, with suspicion, so it makes sense to have the n, and thereforeto a secluded place that seems like another world, with no other people around aside froibbons and monkeys These two disciples don't need to eat and can ju, a skill now commonly seen in wuxia and Chinese fantasy novels So this is one of the earliest exa is also given a pill which presumably enhances her abilities, a familiar feature of Chinese cultivation novels today The process of Yinniang's training is explained in detail, unusual for these tales
But what is ender roles Yinniang is the daughter of a high-ranking general, yet her own ability and experiences frighten her father, who doesn't dare question her ht and returns the next day, presumably for some assassinationeven decides her own e This is remarkable for several reasons
First of all, she picks a lowly mirror polisher, someone well below her own social status and therefore an unsuitable eneral The match is also made directly, without the use of aherself who decides her husband, not her father Norroom's faifts, yet not only does the mirror polisher not do this, he even comes to live at the Nie fa's father Nor would have moved in with the mirror polisher's faiven a na travels (it was uncommon for a woman to travel alone in those days)
Yinniang is also clearly the more talented one The story specifically states that the mirror polisher has no other skills aside from his work, and when they travel to Xu the husband shoots at thekills it with one shot Later, it is Yinniang who negotiates the ter to do with it And when Yinniang decides to retire to the mountains she leaves her husband behind as if he was an unwanted concubine
Another hint at this role reversal is the white donkey Yinniang and her husband each ride one, but his is black and hers is white In yin-yang theory, white is associated with the , while black represents the female yin Here it is reversed
Trained ostensibly for the purpose of righting wrongs, Yinniang yet decides to leave her eyi But why? It's a common trope of xia tales for the xia/hero to uphold a , and to help others and keep his word A xia would gladly switch masters if the new one understood or appreciated hiyi because she values his foresight He knehat she would do and described it in detail For that reason alone she shi+fts her allegiance away from the coyi dies, Yinniang reappears and weeps at his grave, showing her loyalty to hih she had been separated from him for years She only leaves his side when he is called to take up a post at the io with hiure like her cannot become part of official court life, it seems, a common theme in xia and later in wuxia literature wit the concept of the jianghu (rivers and lakes)
Although short, ”Nie Yinniang” is one of the most important and influential stories in the development of wuxia, xianxia, and xuanhuan literature, and the characer Nie Yinniang has been adapted and included into many other works of literature and dra the archetype of the lady xia 女俠 figure down to the present day
Be sure to check out the movie The assassin (2015) 刺客聶隱娘, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien and starring Shu Qi It is based loosely on ”Nie Yinniang”
Still from ”The assassin”
Guan Zhong is Director of Operations at Wuxiaworld and also translator of the upcoust on