Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing

Representations of flooding disasters in late-imperial Chinese narratives typically include a context of water mythology that frames the events within a logic of heavenly retribution for either collective or individual wrongdoing. This might be viewed as a strategy of coping with the communal crisis due to the disastrous event. The novel Xingshi yinyuan zhuan (Marriage Destinies to Awaken the World), written in the late-Ming, early-Qing transitional period by an unknown author calling himself Xi-Zhou Sheng, includes an elaborate description of a flooding disaster set in central Shandong. It is explained as the punishment for carelessness and wastefulness in dealing with local water resources. It involves Xu Xun, a prominent Daoist figure of water mythology, which further adds to the ambiguities of the novelistic representation. The present discussion concludes that the topical elements predominate and that it would seem unlikely that the description referred to an actual historical flooding event. The episodes nevertheless can meaningfully be understood in the context of a contemporarily perceived social and cultural crisis.