Peking Opera <i>The Orphan of Zhao</i> and Beyond: A Study of the Chinese Ideal of Loyalty

ZHENG Guo-he

doi:10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203401

Volume 3 Issue 4

Jan. 2021

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ZHENG Guo-he. Peking Opera The Orphan of Zhao and Beyond: A Study of the Chinese Ideal of Loyalty[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2020, 3(4): 605-635. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203401

Citation:

ZHENG Guo-he. Peking Opera The Orphan of Zhao and Beyond: A Study of the Chinese Ideal of Loyalty[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2020, 3(4): 605-635. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203401

ZHENG Guo-he. Peking Opera The Orphan of Zhao and Beyond: A Study of the Chinese Ideal of Loyalty[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2020, 3(4): 605-635. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203401

Citation:

ZHENG Guo-he. Peking Opera The Orphan of Zhao and Beyond: A Study of the Chinese Ideal of Loyalty[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2020, 3(4): 605-635. doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203401

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Peking Opera The Orphan of Zhao and Beyond: A Study of the Chinese Ideal of Loyalty

doi: 10.19857/j.cnki.ICL.20203401

ZHENG Guo-he^,

Ball State University

Received Date: 2020-08-06
Rev Recd Date: 2020-09-18

Abstract

Abstract

It has often been proposed by Chinese scholars that the ideal of loyalty is drastically different in the cultures of Japan and China: while it is relative to the moral virtue of benevolence in China, it is absolute in Japan. This paper examines the validity of this proposal as applied to China. Starting from an analysis of a Peking Opera entitled The Orphan of Zhao, this research indicates that, while the proposal seems valid when applied to the 1959 opera, it collapses when we look beyond that play. Evidence from several sources, including historical records, and the evolving stage of The Orphan of Zhao, shows the proposal to be faulty. Indeed,the proposal is not only faulty, but also prevents us from understanding the dynamics underlying the complicated and often intense interactions of history,literature, and politics in modern China. The most serious problem of the proposal,however, is its advocacy of stereotypical views of Chinese and Japanese cultures reflected in its claim that the different Japanese and Chinese ideals of loyalty are inherent and timeless, existing mysteriously in the national characters of the two peoples. In conclusion, the proposal amounts to a chūgokujinron—a Chinese counterpart of nihonjinron—and must be treated as such.
- Historiography,
- The Orphan of Zhao,
- Chū,
- shingura,
- Chinese ideal of loyalty,
- Japanese ideal of loyalty

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References(32)

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