ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the 1631 novella Guzhang Juechen 鼓掌絕塵 (Clap your hands and rid yourself of dust, GZJC), a 40-chapter collection of four mid-length stories. Despite enjoying some popularity in its own time, its place in the history of Chinese narrative has so far been neglected. The study begins by examining Chapter XXVI, dedicated almost entirely to the historical figure of eunuch/tyrant Wei Zhongxian 魏忠賢. Although Wei appears as a mostly one-dimensional character, his megalomania constitutes the paramount example of parody and satire in GZJC. The study then focusses on humour at the micro-level, analysing exaggerations, double entendres, comic naming (e.g., a maidservant called Chougu 醜姑, “the ugly one”) and the folly-and-consequence moments which dominate the collection, especially its third story. The final part is dedicated to humour at a macro-level, based on the minimal extant critical literature on the text, as well as on more general studies on humour. Here, contrasts between narrating voices, between registers, and even between sections of the same text are studied to reveal how different humorous results are achieved. The chapter concludes with a consideration of how in general humour interacts with narrative texts, and how huaben writers had to explore new forms when the genre passed its heyday.
