In this essay, Author Mei Chun began with explaining a concept of the prosimetric form, which is the incorporation of verse in a prose narrative. It is also a distinctive generic feature of vernacular fiction in late imperial China. The content of this article is about examining the narrative significance of verse in Feng Menglong’s “The pearl Shirt Reecountered”. Many scholar regards verse in friction as a type of narrative redundancy or a sign or orality. However, Menglong has utilized verse space and prose space in the story.
The quick summary of Menglong’s “The Pearl Shirt Reecountered” is that Jiang Xingge and Sanqiao are a lovely couple. However, Sanqiao was seduced and ended up cheating with Chen Dalang while Xingge is away. When Xingge
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The verse often are paired lines of doggerel and regulated of five or seven characters. The first example “Clear brows and bright eyes, white teeth and red lips” (p. 29), Mei is saying verse only leave reader a vague idea of Xingge’s good look, which annuls the descriptive function of the verse and the verse’s descriptive claim is deceptive. The second example “Years ago amid tears she bade her husband farewell. Today, she cries with grief as she sees off her new love” (p.36), Mei is saying Menglong’s harshly word rebuked Sanqiao’s sincere love for her husband and the helplessness of her situation. His languages also moralist against and simply calling her a fickle woman. The third example “Husband and wife were originally birds in the same forest. When destiny determines each flies away” (p.36), Mei is saying Saoqiao is heartbroken and regretful, and even tried to commit suicide after her divorce. These three example conclude Menglong’s languages is hackneyed and low in literary because it quotes a set phrase dismissive of the true emotion between Xingge and Sanqiao. Feng Menglong’s content and method of his edification are different from traditional morality and Neo-Confucian ethics, but I’m still thinking, “The pearl Shirt Reecountered” is an interesting chapter to read because it is different from other books. I also thinks that Mei Chun doesn’t like Feng Menglong because he has two different perspectives in the prose and verse; she also mention Menglong too serious to be a mere joker because his book name was like Alarm the World or Awaken the