Twice ToldFang Chengpei, preface to Leifeng Pagoda (Leifengta chuanqi), winter 1771
- Language
- Chinese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 24 September 2026
Fang Chengpei (方成培) of Xin’an rewrote the stage play Leifeng Pagoda in the xinmao year of the Qianlong reign, which scholars give as 1771. His version gives Madam White a son and ends with her release. In this preface he says what he found and what he changed.
雷峯塔傳奇，從來已久，不知何人所撰。其事散見吳從先《小窗自紀》、《西湖志》等書，好事者從而摭[?]拾之，下里巴人，無足道者。歲辛卯，朝廷逢璇闈之慶，普天同忭，淮商得以恭襄盛典。大學士大中丞高公語鹺[?]臺李公，令商人於祝報新劇外，開演斯劇，祗候承應。余于觀察徐環谷先生家，屢經寓目，惜其按節氍毹之上，非不洋洋盈耳，而在知音緒[?]閱，不免攢眉，辭鄙調譌，未暇更僕數也。因重為更定，遣詞命意，頗極經營，務使有裨世道，以歸于雅正。較原本，曲改其十之九，賓白改十之七。《求草》、《煉塔》、《祭塔》等折，皆點竄終篇，僅存其目。中間芟去八齣。《夜話》及首尾兩折，與集唐下場詩，悉余所增入者。時就商酌，則徐子有山將伯之力居多。既成，同人謬相許可，欲付開雕。余笑曰：「不能獨出機杼，徒爾拾人牙慧，世有周郎，必不顧之矣。」吳子鳳山曰：「吾家粲花撰《畫中人》，本于范駕[?]部之《夢花酣》；《療妒羹》取諸《風流院》，實[?]擅出藍之譽。夫臭腐可化神奇，黃金點於瓦礫，而何蹈襲之嫌？且原本所在多有，識者自能辨也。」遂為點校行之。是塔實吳越王妃所建，又名黃妃塔，旁有白蓮寺，嘉靖時燬于火。宋禪師鎮壓白蛇事，其有無蓋不足論云。
乾隆辛卯冬月，新安方成培仰松甫識。
Translation
The play Leifeng Pagoda has been around for a long time, and nobody knows who wrote it. Its story turns up here and there in books such as Wu Congxian’s Xiaochuang ziji and the West Lake gazetteer, and busybodies picked it up from them. It was common entertainment, not worth talking about.
In the xinmao year the court celebrated a happy event in the empress dowager’s palace, the whole land rejoiced, and the salt merchants of the Huai region were allowed to contribute to the great festivities. The Grand Secretary and censor-in-chief, Lord Gao, told the salt commissioner, Lord Li, to have the merchants stage this play, in addition to the new plays written for the celebration, and to hold it ready to perform for the court. I saw it several times at the house of the intendant Xu Huangu. On the stage it certainly filled the ears, but anyone with an ear for music who looked at it could only frown: the words were crude and the tunes wrong, too many faults to list.
So I revised it again. I worked hard on the wording and the meaning, so that it would do some good to the world’s morals and come back to elegance and correctness. Compared with the original, I changed nine tenths of the sung lines and seven tenths of the spoken ones. In scenes such as “Seeking the Herb”, “Refining the Pagoda” and “Offering at the Pagoda” I rewrote the whole scene and kept only the title. I cut eight scenes from the middle. “Night Talk”, the first and last scenes, and the exit poems made of lines from Tang poets are all additions of mine. I often consulted my friend Xu Youshan, who helped the most.
When it was done, my friends were kind enough to approve it and wanted to have it cut for printing. I laughed and said: “I could not weave my own cloth; I only picked up other people’s leftovers. If there is a Zhou Yu in the world, he will not give it a glance.” Wu Fengshan said: “Canhua of my family wrote The Person in the Painting on the model of Fan’s Dream of Flower Intoxication, and took The Soup for Curing Jealousy from The Romantic Academy, and he truly earned the praise of the pupil who outdoes the teacher. What is rotten can be turned into something wonderful, and rubble can be turned into gold; why worry about borrowing? Besides, copies of the original are everywhere, and those who know can tell the difference.” So I corrected it and had it printed.
The pagoda was in fact built by the consort of the king of Wuyue, and it is also called Consort Huang’s Pagoda. Beside it stood the White Lotus Temple. It burned in the Jiajing reign. As for the Song monk holding down a white snake, whether it happened or not is not worth arguing about.
Recorded by Fang Chengpei, styled Yangsong, of Xin’an, in the winter months of the xinmao year of Qianlong.
Notes
- The xinmao year of the Qianlong reign is Qianlong 36. Balivet (2020) and Wu Jieying (2012) give it as 1771, and Balivet notes the play was printed the following year.
- 璇闈之慶 is a celebration in the empress’s or empress dowager’s quarters. Guo Yingde, as reported by Balivet (2020), connects Fang’s revision with performances for the eightieth birthday of the Qianlong emperor’s mother.
- The key admission is about 求草, 煉塔 and 祭塔 (“Seeking the Herb”, “Refining the Pagoda”, “Offering at the Pagoda”): Fang rewrote them “and kept only the title”. The scenes of the herb and of the son’s offering at the pagoda were already in the acting version before Fang touched it.
- [?] marks a character we could not read with confidence. 鹺臺 (salt commissioner) is our reading of a worn character; 緒閱 makes poor sense and the second-to-last character before 閱 may be misread; 摭拾 (“pick up”), 駕部 (an official title) and 實擅 are likely readings. None of them changes the sense of the passage.
- 周郎 is Zhou Yu, the Three Kingdoms general who, in the old saying, turned his head whenever a musician played a wrong note.
- Fang repeats the “Consort Huang” name for the pagoda; Eugene Wang (2003) argues that no consort of that name existed.