繪圖囘郎寳卷附新刻七七寶卷・知過必改 - WUL16

From Chinese Religious Text Authority


繪圖回郎寶卷

hui tu hui lang bao juan
Huituhuilangbaojuan.png
別名 Other Titles: 宣講勧善民間故事 · 繪圖回郎寶卷, 回郎寶卷
有關人物 Associated Persons:

出版地區 Place(s) of Publication: 上海

版式 Format: 石印版

出版者 Publisher(s): 惜陰書局

出版年 Publication Date:

載於 Located In: Waseda University Library 文庫19 F0399 0066 0006

Cite as 引用為: "CRTA 繪圖囘郎寳卷附新刻七七寶卷・知過必改 - WUL16"


The current edition “Hui lang bao juan 回郎寶卷" in the Waseda online collection is a one-volume story about filial piety and the Buddhist idea of cause and effect (因果). During the year of famine, Cao Wenzheng 曹文正 killed his own son so that he could make soup for his mother. After the story spread to the emperor, he was considered example of a filial son and was appointed as an official. The soul of his son reincarnated and was born again to the couple. He was called “Hui lang 回郎”, signifying the returning son.

This Waseda version includes a version of 新刻七七寶卷 after the end of 回郎寶卷. 七七寶卷 talks about the drastically different experience between a good person and a bad person during the first seven days after their death. In the end, the way for salvation is to follow Buddhism. Then it follows with 七七卷偈, which talks about wealth, capability, fame, martial skills are all of no use in the face of death. None of those gold and jade, beautiful wife and concubines, sons and daughters will of any help on the day of your death. It’s better to start practice Buddhism the early the better. 七七卷偈 is a short verse of seven characters per phrase.

After 七七卷偈, it follows with 知過必改. This is a lesson of morality contains lists of good and bad behaviours. Two pages long, 知過必改 is of four characters per phrase.



別名 Other Titles

The title page gives the title as 繪圖回郎寶卷. “宣講勸善民間故事” was placed at the top of the title page and a picture of 普門大士 （觀世音菩薩 Avalokiteśvara）. On the center of each page（版心), the shortened title in this edition is 回郎寶卷.

出版地區 Place(s) of Publication

The location given on the title page is Shanghai 上海.

出版年 Publication Date(s)

There is no date on the title page.

有關人物 Associated Person(s)

內容 Contents

  • 封面 Title Page
  • 序「世風不古…」
  • Illustration of main characters: 回郎，曹安人（error of 王安人 as wife of 曹员外 and mother of 曹文正），曹员外，曹文正，三娘
  • The opening of the baojuan starts with 開卷宣揚，信受奉行，先排香案，後舉讚文.
  • 回郎寶卷（p.1-p.13)
  • 新刻七七寶卷 上洋三元堂兑（p.11-p.13)
  • 七七卷偈（p.13)
  • 知過必改（p.13-p.15)

序跋等 Prefaces and Postfaces

註疏 Commentary

Authorship

There is no explicit authorial attribution within the text. We can see the name of the publisher is 上海惜陰書局 in both the title page and the cover page. “陈國翔書” written in the cover page was likely an attribution of the calligrapher of the titles on the title page. We can see on the cover page that it also indicated two addresses: one as publisher: 上海閘北顺徵路二十六號內；another as the vendor：上海四马路山东路口 .

Themes

This story is about filial piety. It is likely a Buddhist Baojuan as “南无阿弥陀佛” are frequently used at intervals. At the beginning of the story, it states very clearly that it happened during “大明年间" in “松江府华亭县离城十里白沙村”. Since 华亭县 was established during Tang dynasty, it’s certain 大明 here refers to Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

The main protagonist Cao Baiwan 曹百万/曹员外 and his wife surnamed Wang 王氏/王安人 do not have offspring at age of thirty-nine despite being wealthy. In praying for a son to continue the familial line, Cao then started to donate money to build bridges and make offerings to the Buddhist monks. The next year, Lady Wang miraculously got pregnant and gave birth to a son, whom they named Cao San 曹三. When Cao San aged 6, his father died. Cao San’s mother found a teacher for Cao San, who gave him a new name as Cao Wenzheng 曹文政. When Cao Wenzheng aged 16, his mother tried to arrange marriage for him. Wenzheng declined and expressed his wish to continue to serve his mother till the end, after which Wenzheng vowed to become a monk in a monastery. Lady Wang did not agree to this, saying if you become a monk who will pay respect to your ancestor's tombs? She suggested Wenzheng to marry the filial daughter of Mr Zhou 周员外. To be a filial son, Wenzheng married the daughter, Zhou 周氏/周三娘. They both served Lady Wang 王氏 with absolute dedication. Zhou gave birth to a son, whom they named Huilang 回郎. Three years later, a famine struck and the whole family had little to eat and were close to starvation. Wenzheng came up with the idea of killing his son to feed his ailing mother. Lady Zhou was horrified and suggested they sell their son to a neighbor instead. It didn’t work out. Eventually, Wenzheng killed his son Huilang and made soup for his mother Lady Wang. Drinking the soup, Lady Wang asked to see her grandson and share the soup. Wenzheng then finally confessed he had killed Huilang to make the soup for her.

The local court heard the story and passed it to the emperor. Impressed by the show of extreme filial piety, the emperor sent food to the whole locality which is suffering from the famine. Wenzheng was summoned to the court where the emperor offered imperial appointments as high officials. Wenzheng declined and expressed the only wish to serve his mother. He was then appointed as a local official in his hometown so that he could be close to his mother. Despite the sorrow, Zhou was pregnant again and gave birth to a son. The babe was able to speak very soon and explained that he was in fact the reincarnation of Huilang. Zhou then led the babe to see his mother Lady Wang. She was so happy that she laughed to death on seeing her grandson again.

When little Huilang turned 7, his mother Lady Zhou got seriously ill due to the sadness caused by the death of Lady Wang. No medicine, prayer or divination seemed to work. Huilang cut his own flesh to save his mother. Lady Zhou recovered after drinking the soup made from Huilang's flesh. People who heard this story all attributed the filial piety of Huilang to lady Zhou herself was filial to her mother-in-law Lady Wang. 玉皇大帝 heard this story and sent 太白星君 to investigate what is this all about. It turned out that Huilang was once a celestial deity who escaped into the human world. 玉皇大帝 would have punished him by a thousand cuts. That’s why the first reincarnation of this deity as Huilang experienced such horrible death in the human world. In any case, now he is appreciated for his filial piety shown, he can now return to his celestial post. Cao Wenzheng was also once a celestial deity representing the filial piety and Lady Zhou was a celestial fairy serving the Queen mother 王母娘娘. The story goes that they two met and fell in love on the banquet of the immortal peach 蟠桃会 organized by the Queen mother. As punishment, they were both sent to the human world to experience the human sufferings. Now due to their filial piety demonstrated, they are both recalled into their original celestial positions. [End of 回郎寶卷]


參考文獻 Bibliography

電子全文 Digital Fulltext

絵図囘郎宝巻 : 一巻坿新刻七七宝巻・知過必改 / □・闕名撰

有關書刊 See Also and Parallel Texts

功德榜 Contributors

Qijun, xinshuCHEN, YangYangLan

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