Was there no humour or general concept of humour in China before 1923? That was when the Chinese writer, translator and inventor Lin Yutang 林語堂 (1895–1976) claimed that “orthodox Chinese literature did not allow for humorous expression, so the Chinese people did not understand the nature of humor and its function”.¹ Whileyoumo幽 默 is now standard usage in everyday Chinese, having replaced other earlier neologisms, what has happened to the faculty of “humorous expression” and its social functions since then? Did they emerge under Lin’s care and did they survive subsequent massive social changes intact, or were...

All thinking and writing about humour sooner or later confronts issues of terminology and concepts relating to this complex form of human behaviour. In English, “humour” has shifted its meaning considerably down the centuries. Other times have privileged words such as “jest”, “mirth”, “wit” and even “the comic” (borrowed from the French expressionle comique, meaning the essence of what is amusing) above “humour” as the general term for things related to laughter and amusement. The most important antecedent to present day usage is the ancient medical “theory of the humours”, where the Latin wordhumoresdenoted the four primary...

This chapter argues that there is a physical basis for humour according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), in which humour — that is, those funny stories or jokes that make one break into smiles or laughter — is linked with the emotion of happiness or joy. This makes humour a function of the operations of what I will call the “endogenous heart”,¹ and I will outline why this should be so in TCM and explore the clinical consequences that flow from conceptualizing humour in this way. To some extent, such an understanding of humour may be compared with European theories in classical...

In considering the Confucian concept of proper humour, this chapter makes three arguments. First, its rationale is the same as that underpinning Confucian regulation of human emotions, since humour was seen as deriving from a basic human passion, delight (le樂). Second, the Confucian touchstone of propriety is “the mean”, embodied by the Confucian Rites (li禮).¹ Third, in accordance with the spirit of the Rites, proper humour should be moderate, private, tasteful, useful and benign.

The concept of proper humour is termed “classical Confucian” because it derives predominantly from the 13 Confucian classics (shisan jing十三經). Although not necessarily...

About 20 years ago, an important article was published by Christoph Harbsmeier concerning the sense of humour displayed in some of the canonical texts of classical Chinese philosophy, such as theLunyu論語 (Confucius’sAnalects), theMengzi孟子 (Works of Mencius), theHanshi waizhuan韓詩外傳, theZhanguo ce戰國策, theLüshi chunqiu呂氏春 秋, theHanfeizi韓非子 and theZhuangzi莊子.¹ Harbsmeier did not, however, include the Daoist text theLiezi列子 in his discussion; nor has it since been addressed, despite the richness of its ironic devices and its vividly humorous character sketches. In this chapter, I focus on...

To write about humour inShishuo xinyu世說新語 (A New Account of Tales of the World, hereafterShishuo),¹ one must first examine the appropriateness of applying such a modern Western concept to a work compiled in medieval China. The Chinese termyoumo幽默, a transliteration of the English word “humour”, has come to mean both anything that amuses or entertains and the various amused reactions to such stimuli. Did humour in either of these senses exist in ancient China? More specifically, can we tell whether early medieval Chinese people had humour and enjoyed it? Accepting the most general interpretation of...

Since humour in China dates back to ancient times, it is naturally to be found in most periods and forms of Chinese art and literary texts, including scripts from classical Chinese drama. Of the latter, the most famous are the comedies from the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). These pieces are known chiefly from surviving texts,¹ and although there is a strong performance tradition, there is little evidence about the precise circumstances of their original production. They represent an astonishing mastery of comic art that still remains popular.

In China, dramatic performances of what is usually called opera rather than drama...

If one were to poll people on any Chinese street as to which isthegreatest Chinese novel of all times, the chances are most would sayHonglou meng紅樓夢, orShitou ji石頭記 (as it was originally titled, hereafterHLM), known in English asThe Dream of the red chamberorThe Story of the stone.¹ This work is an eighteenth-century 120-chapter novel by Cao Xueqin 曹雪芹 (1715–63/64) and Gao E 高鶚 (1738?–1815?) that first circulated in hand-transcriptions among Cao’s relatives and friends (see Figure 8.1 for a page from the earliest such extant edition, the 1754...

TheLunyu banyuekan論語半月刊 (Analects Fortnightly) first appeared in 1932 in Shanghai with the stated aim of promoting humour, and its instant success resulted in the following year being declared “The Year of Humour” in literary circles. The highly charged political climate of the time is discussed in detail by Qian Suoqiao in Chapter 10 of this volume, together with an account of the aims and objectives of the journal’s chief editor, Lin Yutang 林語堂. In response to the barrage of criticism as well as excitement stirred up by his ideas about humour and his magazines, Lin published “Lun youmo”...

One of the most important phenomena in the Chinese cultural scene of the 1930s was the introduction ofyoumo幽默 (humour) by Lin Yutang 林語堂, who founded the Analects School of writers (Lunyu pai論語 派). The launching of the journalAnalects Fortnightly(Lunyu banyuekan論語半月刊, hereafter referred to asLunyu論語 orAnalects), in 1932 to introduce and promote humour in Chinese culture was so successful that humour suddenly became the talk of the town — or, in Lu Xun’s words, “Bang! Everybody everywhere is suddenly talking aboutyoumoand writingxiaopin小品 (“little-taste”, or short and familiar) essays.”¹ In...