LI Yu

LI Yu (李漁; Lǐ Yú) 1611–1680 was a Chinese playwright, novelist and publisher. He was born 19 years after Michel de Montaigne died and five years before William Shakespeare died. Montaigne wouldn’t have known about Shakespeare because Shakespeare’s first play was written between 1589 and 1594 and Montaigne died in 1592. However, we do know that Shakespeare read Montaigne. There’s a book.

The book review goes on to say that the Florio Translation is “one of the masterpieces of English prose” and “provides a remarkable new experience of not just two but three great writers who ushered in the modern world.” LI Yu probably didn’t know of Montaigne, Shakespeare or Florio but, in his own way, was to usher in the modern world in China spanning the change from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.

Internal dynasty changes in China were always major events but China’s relationship with the rest of the world was also changing.

• In 1602, the Dutch East India Company began shipping Chinese ceramics to Europe.
• In 1624, the Dutch East India Company established the state of Dutch Formosa.
• In 1684, the first of Thirteen Factories where foreigners were allowed to live and trade, were established near Guangzhou.

LI Yu was born in Jiangsu province (across the Yangtze from Shanghai) but the collapse of the Ming dynasty was messy and the warring only calmed down when LI Yu was 35. He was 41 in 1652 when he settled in Hangzhou to establish himself as an author, producer and playwright. His first successes were with erotic literature but later works critiqued social conventions and Confucian ideals. It looks like society in mid-17th century Hangzhou was fairly liberal. The titles are evocative.  Priceless Gems, Twelve Towers, Errors Caused by the Kite, The Fragrant Companion, House of Gathered Refinements and The Carnal Prayer Mat. In 1662 and now 51 years old, Li moved to Nanjing and his writing moved into art, history and everyday life and in doing so become less Shakespeare and more Montaigne. Some titles are A Brief History of the Old and New, New Aid for Governance and Discussions of the Past. Themes included governance, leisure, and architecture.

I learned about LI Yu from Leisure Notes (1671) which is on the surface about his theory of drama but he uses this topic to say that having new, aesthetic enjoyment in everyday life is essential to personal cultivation. LI used humour and irony to express his observations on human behaviour and everyday living. He kept it light. He said he chose Leisure Notes as the title so the book wouldn’t be seen as academic or pretentious. He says these are thoughts one has when one has the time to think. There’s an excellent biography and synopsis here, from which I have taken the following excerpt.

The Xianqing ouji, with a length of 16 juan, includes 8 chapters on playwriting (Ciqu 詞曲), performance (Yanxi 演習), exquisite ingénues (Shengrong 聲容), residences (Jushi 居室), furnishings and fine things (Qiwan 器玩), food and drink (Yinzhuan 飲饌), horticulture (Zhongzhi 種植), and health maintenance (Yiyang 頤養).

The playwriting section contains six subsections, namely structure (jiegou 構結), writing arias (cicai 詞采), prosody (yinlü 音律), dialogue (binbai 賓白), comic elements (kehun 科諢), and dramatic structure (geju 格局). It discusses dramatic literature and proposes valuable principles such as “establishing a central theme”, “reducing distractions” and “tightening narrative threads”, all of which emphasise a clear theme and rigorous structure of theatre plays. The performance section has five subsections: play selection (xuanju 選劇), modulation (biandiao 變調), teaching arias (shouqu 授曲), instructing dialogue (jiaobai 教白), and departing from bad practices (tuotao 脫套). It discusses theatrical performance and emphasises the effects of stage presentation. The chapter “Exquisite ingénues” comprises four subsections, namely posture selection (xuanzi 選姿), modifying appearance (xiurong 修容), managing attire (zhifu 治服), and skill practice (xiji 習技). These parts discuss the arts of the artists’ dresses and personal adornments.

The dwelling chapter has the five subsections: buildings (fangshe 房舍), windows and railings (chuanglan 窗欄), walls (qiangbi 牆壁), hanging scrolls and plaques (lianbian 聯匾), and rockeries (shanshi 山石). This part covers methods of building and arranging a home. The chapter “Furnishings and fine things” speaks about design and manufacture (zhidu 制度), and the arrangement (weizhi 位置) of tables and desks, chairs and stools, beds, cupboards, baskets and boxes, antiques, censers and vases, screens and scrolls, tea services, wine accessories, bowls and plates, lamps and candles, and stationery. The chapter on food and drink details vegetables (shushi 蔬食), grains (gushi 穀食), and meat (roushi 肉食. The chapter on horticulture explains the cultivation of trees (muben 木本), vines (tengben 藤本), herbs (caoben 草本), assorted flowers and leafy plants (zhonghui 眾卉), and bamboos and various trees (zhumu 竹木).

The final chapter on health maintenance guides the reader to “enjoy himself” (xingle 行樂), end worries (zhiyou 止懮), regulate the diet (tiao yinchuo 調飲啜), moderate sexual desires (jie seyu 節色慾), prevent illness (quebing 卻病) and treat illness (liaobing 療病). Much of the book’s content is based on the author’s personal experience.

And this site has the full text in Chinese but the link will take you straight to the Dwellings chapter. Just so you can get some idea of his voice, this is a translation of the Buildings subsection in the Dwellings chapter. [I’m using the right-click translator in Chrome.] Li Yu is less preachy than Palladio who, from 1508–1580, was more or less a contemporary of Montaigne.

In construction, extravagance is most taboo. Not only should commoners uphold frugality, but even royalty and high officials should strive for it. The design of dwellings should value refinement over extravagance, novelty and elegance over delicate embellishment. Those who merely admire opulence do so not out of love for it, but because they lack originality and innovation; they have nothing else to offer but opulence, and thus use it to fulfill their obligations. For example, if two people are given two new garments to wear, one elegant and novel, the other dazzling and plain, will the observer’s eye be drawn to the plainness or the novelty? Brocade and silk are undoubtedly expensive, and everyone has seen them. A simple robe, even if slightly new in design, will attract attention because it is something unseen before. All that I have said pertains to inexpensive and labor-saving matters; even if there is some expense, it is less than a hundredth of the cost of elaborate carvings and ornamentation. Moreover, as the old saying goes, “When farming, ask the servants; when weaving, consult the maids.” I am a poor scholar, only familiar with matters of modest means. If one wishes to display wealth and status, and surpass others in splendor, then there are old methods. New methods are unseen by others, and even if one speaks of them in fragments, it is difficult to fully understand; therefore, drawings and models are necessary. However, some can be drawn, and some cannot. Nine out of ten cannot be drawn, while only one out of ten can. Understanding what exists and what does not is a matter of keen insight.

The depth of the eaves:
Regardless of the quality of a dwelling, its primary function is to provide shelter from wind and rain. Often, there are painted beams and carved pillars, magnificent buildings and jade railings, yet they are only suitable for enjoying the sunshine, not for sheltering from the rain. This is either due to excessive openness or excessive steepness. Therefore, pillars should not be too long, as they become a conduit for rain; windows should not be too many, as they become a haven for drafts. The ideal is a balance of open and closed spaces, with appropriate lengths. Furthermore, there are poor scholars whose houses are spacious but have limited space. They wish to build deep eaves to block wind and rain, but suffer from darkness; they wish to install long windows to allow light, but worry about the gloom. To resolve this dilemma, there is a method of adding a movable eave. What is a movable eave? It involves installing a separate wooden canopy under the tiled eaves, with pivots at both ends, allowing it to be raised or lowered. When it’s sunny, support it from the outside so the front faces down to block the eaves; when it rains, support it upright so the front faces up to catch the dripping water. This way, I can utilize the heavens, and the heavens cannot hinder me.

In this subsection titled Chairs and Stools, Li invents a cool stool for summer and a heated chair for winter. This tells me he is a person who sees something in need of improvement or inventing to respond to some previously unnoticed inconvenience.

There are three types of seating: chairs, stools, and benches. In terms of their construction, modern furniture is superior to ancient furniture; geographically, northern furniture is inferior to southern furniture. The wooden furniture of Yangzhou and the bamboo furniture of Suzhou are arguably the best of both worlds, and I cannot add anything more! However, two methods are lacking, which I have created to supplement them: a cool chair and a cool stool. When I write in winter, I feel the cold, and my inkstone freezes. I would like to set up many braziers and charcoal to warm the whole room, but this would not only be expensive, but also cause dust to easily accumulate on the desk, turning it into a world of ashes in no time. If I only set up two stoves, one large and one small, to warm my hands and feet, then I would be warming my limbs but not my body, thus dividing my body into winter and summer, affecting my senses and mind. I could call myself a lonely and rebellious subject. The design of the cooling chair is the result of meticulous planning and comprehensive preparation. The manufacturing method is illustrated below. This single object serves the purpose of several, and its benefits extend far beyond simply protecting against the cold. In the sweltering heat of summer, when the glue is melted and gold is refined, pressing it with the hand feels like being in a hot furnace; how much more so can wood produce such a thing? The cooling stool is similar to other stools, but its surface must be hollow, like a square box. The sides and bottom are inlaid with putty, and a square tile is placed on top. This tile must be fired in a kiln; Jiangxi and Fujian are the best, followed by Yixing. Each region should gather a few like-minded people, pool their resources, and hire someone to carry it; the cost is not much. First, fill the stool with cool water and cover it with a tile, ensuring the bottom is submerged. The water will be as cold as ice. Change the water when it gets hot. Only a few scoops of water are needed, and the effort required is minimal. The stool is not intended as a chair because in summer it is kept away from everything, minimizing exposure to heat, and its open design allows for ventilation. If it were a chair, the upper part must be made of wood, with additional support on the sides and back to protect the body. This design is easy to understand, and illustrations are unnecessary.

He advises people that decorative items in a room should not be too plentiful and it is better that they be simple and well-made rather than expensive. He advises people to regularly move them around to different positions. This seems like good advice, probably because I more or less arrived at the same conclusions. Another time, Li is sitting at a table and thinking it would be a good idea if tables had drawers. If they did, he reasons, one could put things like brushes in them and then one wouldn’t have to wait for a servant to go fetch one. I think it was this sentence more than anything else that endeared me to the writing and thinking of Li Yu. He just wanted life to be simple, have aesthetic enjoyment, and for things to be nice. I like this guy.

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