李依卓。〈洪水與女妖：清代武戲《泗州城》的異質疊合與文化張力〉。《民俗曲藝》232 (2026.6): 7–49。
Li Yizhuo. “Flood and Female Demon: Heterogeneous Composition and Cultural Tension in the Qing-Dynasty Martial Drama Sizhou City.” Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore 232 (2026.6): 7–49.
Abstract
《泗州城》是流行於清末京劇舞臺上的一齣神魔武戲，講述了女妖水母遭意中人欺騙，為復仇水淹泗州城，終被觀音降伏的故事。該劇以民間「降水母」的神話母題為基礎，衍生自歷史上淮河流域泗州地區自中古以來日益頻仍的水患。而康熙年間，昔日繁華的水陸都會泗州城在累月的暴雨中徹底為洪水淹沒，啟發了「降水母」傳說在清代的再度編創。本文從洪水災害史、地方神話、以及《西遊記》、《躍鯉記》等通俗小說戲曲中梳理脈絡，揭示《泗州城》如何在多重文本與媒介的異質疊合下，逐步形成其具有張力的敘事結構與表演效果。劇中由武旦行當擔綱的的主角水母既承載災異記憶，又具備人性情感與復仇倫理。在矛盾敘事與武戲表演美學的共同作用下，水母的呈現不僅未引導觀眾認同降妖之正當性，反而激發觀眾對這一角色的喜愛與共情。本研究透過「文化語境—表演呈現—文本結構」三維分析框架，闡明《泗州城》在整合文化史與舞臺藝術的過程中對道德敘事的模糊與消解，從而為武戲的體裁研究提供一個具方法論意義的個案。
Sizhou City is a popular martial drama
about deities and demons staged in late-Qing theatre of Peking Opera. It tells
the story of a female demon named Water Mother (Shuimu), who, after being
deceived by her lover, floods Sizhou City in revenge and is ultimately subdued
by the Bodhisattva Guanyin. This play is based on the mythological motif of
“subduing the Water Mother,” which originated during increasingly frequent
floods in the Sizhou region of the Huai River basin from at least the medieval
era. During the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1661–1722), Sizhou City, a once-prosperous transportation hub, was
completely submerged by floods after months of torrential rain, inspiring a
renewed adaptation of this motif. This article traces the drama’s context
through the history of flood disasters, local mythologies, and popular works of
fiction and drama such as Journey to the West (Xiyouji) and The
Leaping Carps (Yueliji). It reveals how Sizhou City, through
the heterogeneous composition of multiple texts and media, gradually formed a
unique narrative structure and performance effects. The protagonist Water
Mother, played by the martial female role-type wudan, carries the memory
of natural calamities while also embodying human emotions and the ethics of
revenge. Under the combined effect of contradictory narratives and the
aesthetics of martial-arts performances, the portrayal of the Water Mother does
not guide the audience to identify with the legitimacy of subduing the demon,
but instead inspires their affection and empathy for this character. Through a
three-dimensional analytical framework of “cultural context-performance presentation-textual” structure,
this study elucidates how Sizhou City blurs and dissolves moral
narratives in the process of integrating cultural history and stage performance
art, thereby providing a methodologically significant case for the genre study
of premodern Chinese martial dramas.