 |
This novel not very known outside of China was written by a person called Yanbei Xianren 燕北閑人 or Wen Kang 文康 and published in 1878. Stories of heroes and fighters are very popular in China still today and of course have been in old China, spread around by storytellers that wandered from town to town. This novel is compounded of many small stories that spin around the couple He Yufeng 何玉鳳 and An Ji 安驥. When He Yufeng's father died from sorcery, she went to the woods to divide herself into 13 fighting girls. They help An Ji to free his father from jail and play as a matchmaker for him. Loyalty, piety, righteousness, love and heroism make out this novel that ends in a thorough familiar luck. It is a wishful freeing of social darkness in a time where arbitrary officers blame innocent people. With its rich language, this novel is very widespread and has many sequels.
Source:
Kao, Karl S.Y. (1998). "Erh-nü ying-hsiung chuan 兒女英雄傳", in William H. Nienhauser, Jr., ed. The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana University Press), Vol. 2, 26-31.
|
