1. The traditional theme of the “mutual accusations of the cat and the mouse” in Chinese oral performance

Mice and rats have a long history in Chinese literature, and from as early as the Spring and Autumn Period they have been vilified as harmful to food production. They have been used for satirical purposes by literary figures across the dynasties. In Shijing 詩經 (The Book of Songs), rats serve as a metaphor for the avaricious rulers (Zhou Reference Zhou2010: 144–5). In the Tang dynasty, Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846) once depicted a flying mouse as a metaphor for a social climber, satirizing that “before it could fly to the sky, it was already devoured by a bird of prey” (Yu Reference Yu2013: 177). The earliest record of cats being natural enemies of mice dates back to the Han dynasty. Liji 禮記 (The Book of Rites) shows that “people in the ancient times … divined the spirit of cats, because they ate mice” (Che Reference Chen2004: 185). Han-dynasty picture stones first portray a cat near a barn, “the earliest graphic record that people used cats to eradicate the mice in barns in the Han dynasty” (Li Reference Li1985). Domesticated cats became increasingly common after the Tang dynasty. In Jiu Tangshu 舊唐書 (The Old Book of Tang), there is a record of domesticated cats as early as 778 (Liu Reference Liu and Xiangmin1995: 861). In the Song dynasty, the famous poet Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅 (1045–1105) even wrote a poem for the cat, comparing it to the Han General Zhou Yafu 周亞夫 (d. 143 bce) who strictly fulfilled his duty: “Trading a basket of fish for the hire of a cat, the mouse holes on my four walls are empty” (Huang Reference Huang, Lin, Yongxian and Ronggui2001: 1179). Since then, cats and mice have been inextricably linked to the daily lives of ordinary people. As they were often at odds with each other, people imagined their relationship in the fable of the “mutual accusations of the cat and the mouse”, and constantly modified it to suit the socio-cultural situations of different times.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, oral performances began to develop the theme of cat and mouse. According to Meng Fanshu 孟繁樹 (Reference Meng1985), there was an oral performance during this period called Laoshu gao limao 老鼠告狸貓 (The Mouse Accuses the Cat). In this story, the mouse is eaten by the cat when looking for food. The mouse insists that he is a law-abiding and innocent victim, and accuses the cat in King Yama’s court of taking his life. King Yama orders his ghostly runners to take the cat’s soul to the underworld, and the cat enumerates all the sins of the mouse, claiming that killing him is necessary to eradicate evil. After listening to its defence, King Yama decides that the cat is justified in killing the mouse and that the mouse deserves to suffer. The 1897 edition of the qinqiang 秦腔 (local opera in Shaanxi), entitled Laoshu gao mao 老鼠告貓 (A Mouse Accuses a Cat), was derived from this oral performance. It had more characters played by various role types, such as the mouse’s wife, King Yama’s wife and ghostly runners, and was more complex in plot and richer in content.

In the Qing dynasty, the baojuan 寶卷 (precious scroll) also contained a rich body of texts on the theme of cat and mouse, but the story was often interwoven with other literature, such as The Journey to the West and The Cases of Judge Bao. At King Yama’s court, the mouse often began by recounting the stories of the mouse stealing oil from the Buddha’s lamp, the mouse demon eating the flesh of the Tang Monk, and five mice causing havoc in Luoyang. Different mice, to be sure, but because these stories were famous, other forms of oral performance often used their plots as “modules” for better audience acceptance. Depending on the time and place of publication, different editions often had additions and deletions to the original texts, and the outcomes also varied. According to Xi Yingying 席迎迎 (Reference Xi2018: 7–10), from the reigns of Emperor Jiaqing 嘉慶 (Aisin Gioro Yongyan 愛新覺羅·颙琰, r. 1796–1821) and Emperor Daoguang 道光 (Aisin Gioro Minning 愛新覺羅·閔寧, r. 1821–50) onwards, there were at least three types of the baojuan in North China. The first is the handwritten manuscript of Laoshu gao limao 老鼠告狸貓 (The Mouse Accuses the Cat), which ends with the reconciliation of the two parties. The second is the Hexi baojuan (a type of baojuan in the Hexi area of Gansu) of Laoshu baojuan 老鼠寶卷 (Precious Scroll of the Mouse), which in contrast ends with the cat’s victory and the mouse’s failure. The third is also a handwritten manuscript, entitled Wuying zhuan 無影傳 (A Tale without Shape or Shadow). It is also discussed by Wilt L. Idema because it does not limit the narrative to the confrontation of the two parties at King Yama’s court. Before the traditional trial plot of accusation and judgement, this version begins with the cat’s attack on the wedding procession of the mice, which leads to a full-scale war that finally ends with the total defeat of the mice.Footnote ³

In the dagu shu 大鼓書 (big drum recitative), the story of cat and mouse also included the plots of The Journey to the West. In the Xinke laoshu gao limao 新刻老鼠告狸貓 (Newly Block-Printed the Mouse Accuses the Cat) collected in the Fu Sinian Library 傅斯年圖書館 (No. KuI 16–311), the main scene was also the mouse’s visit to the Palace of King Yama. The mouse claims that due to his small stature he has no choice but to steal food to make a living, and draws on The Journey to the West to make his point:

Most versions of the legal case of the mouse/rat against the cat assume that their audiences are acquainted with the stories of The Journey to the West and The Cases of Judge Bao, and have the mouse claim descent from these ancestors (Idema Reference Idema2013: 117–40). In contrast to the triumph of the cat in other versions, this author shows clear sympathy for the mouse. Although the cat also accuses the mouse of crimes such as biting the official documents, books and Buddhist scriptures, stealing the new rice offered to the Buddha, and chewing through the slates of the wall, King Yama does not sentence the mouse to any serious punishment, but simply sends the cat and the mouse back to life. It is noteworthy that King Yama has two different versions of judgement: some texts end with the defeat of the mouse, with King Yama ordering the cat to catch as many mice as he can, while in others he orders the two to live in harmony. This difference in fact reflects the different socio-psychological perspectives of the areas of creation and circulation. That is to say, in some places the story was simply seen from the perspective of the cat being the natural enemy of the mouse, while in others it embodied the authors’ sympathy for the mouse.

In the composition and reception of the story of cat and mouse, the manuscripts created for oral performance revealed the cultural tension between intellectual-officials and peasant society. Oral performance was an effective channel through which the “Great Tradition” of the elite could exert its influence on the “Little Tradition” of ordinary people; it often aimed to educate the audience through local customs and traditions. At the same time, however, the morality promulgated by the elite class was often mixed with criticism of the social reality of the lower classes. For example, in the Yanluo panduan maoshu quanzhuan 閻羅判斷貓鼠全傳 (The Complete Story of King Yama’s Judgement of the Cat and the Mouse, 8–9), now collected in the Institute of Oriental Culture at the University of Tokyo, the text described in detail the scenes in hell when the cat enters the Ghost Gate Pass because of the accusation of the mouse. Through these complex depictions of punishment in hell, the author aimed to advise people to behave beneficently. However, the text also showed that hell is a dysfunctional dystopia. According to his vivid portrayals of the scenes in hell, the author’s purpose was to “advise the people to chant Buddhist classics and behave beneficently, lest they suffer many bitter punishments in the underworld”. Intentionally or not, however, the lyrics also revealed the injustice of the underworld. Although “the little cat chanted Buddhist classics and did charity in life, he would not win the lawsuit in the underworld without money. Inside and outside the yamen, yamen runners and petty officials all need money” (The Complete Story of King Yama’s Judgement of the Cat and the Mouse, 8–9). It turns out that hell is not necessarily better than this world. The corrupt yamen runners, with whom people often had to deal in everyday life, were still subject to derogatory evaluations as avaricious and shameless.

Similar depictions of injustice can also be found in the lianhua lao manuscript entitled Haozi gao limao 耗子告狸貓 (The Mouse Accuses the Cat). When the cat enters the underworld, there are some lyrics as follows:

These texts describe the scene in hell, but on a higher level they are certainly projections of the social reality, especially that experienced by ordinary people of lower socio-economic status. The traditional theme of cat and mouse underwent obvious variations when it was transformed into the oral performance form in Fujian and Taiwan, which not only reflected the cultural psychology of local folk society, but also showed the influence of current events in the early twentieth century.

2. The variations of the theme of the “mutual accusations of the cat and the mouse” in Fujian and Taiwan

As a popular form of oral performance in Fujian and Taiwan, Hokkien ballads are commonly written in Hokkien and consist mainly of seven-character sentences that vividly embody the local customs and folk culture of the area (Pan Reference Pan and Shizhong2017: 229). There are two known extant versions of Hokkien ballads on the theme of cat and mouse: one is the lithographic edition of the Huiwentang Bookstore in Xiamen, entitled Zuixin maoshu xianggao quange 最新貓鼠相告全歌 (The Newest Version of the Complete Song of the Mutual Accusations of the Cat and the Mouse (MACM)), and the other is the letterpress edition of the Ruicheng Bookstore 瑞成書局 in Taichung, entitled Zuixin maoshu xianggao ge 最新貓鼠相告歌 (The Newest Version of the Song of the Mutual Accusations of the Cat and the Mouse). The plot and layout of these two editions are almost identical, with the most obvious difference being that the Huiwentang edition has 32 more lines of text than the Ruicheng edition, affording critical evidence about MACM’s authorship and place of publication. The end of the Huiwentang edition reports that “if you want to know who composed this ballad, it was Aphien sien from Xiamen” (借問此歌誰人編, 正是廈門鴉片先) (MACM 1914: 5a; Idema Reference Idema2018: 56). In the Hokkien language, sien 先 is an abbreviation for sien sinn 先生 (Mr/sir), which is commonly used to address people engaged in certain professions or with certain skills (Douglas Reference Douglas1873: 413), and thus Aphien sien 鴉片先 (or Yapian xian in Mandarin Chinese) literally means “Mr Opium”. Notably, in Hokkien, the pronunciation of sien can also be written as sien 仙, a derogatory term referring to drug addicts. As the two siens were often confused, the pseudonym Aphien sien also refers to the author’s identity as an “Opium addict”.Footnote ⁴

Given the low social status of artists in traditional China, we have extremely limited information about the real name and identity of this Aphien sien. However, it is clear from the above text that s/he is a Xiamen-based artist, and that the Ruicheng edition in Taichung was based on the Huiwentang edition in Xiamen. The Ruicheng Bookstore, located in Taichung, was founded in 1911 by Hsu Ke-Sui 許克綏 (1892–1983). In its early years, Ruicheng imported various books from Mainland China, including Hokkien ballads and fiction. After the Sino-Japanese War broke out in September 1931, the import channel was cut off, forcing the Ruicheng Bookstore to limit its business to reprinting old books, represented by Hokkien ballads (Lai Reference Lai2004: 22). Published in 1933, MACM was one of these reprinted Hokkien ballads. The 32 lines that were missing from the Ruicheng edition were probably intentionally removed, as they contained the author information and book advertisements of the Huiwentang (“The new ballads of Huiwentang are many, if you want to hear one, come here and buy” 會文新歌真多款, 大家卜聽來去拴). Furthermore, the two editions also differ in other details. For example, the Huiwentang edition refers to the mouse as niautshu 鳥鼠, the Hokkien word for mouse, while the Ruicheng edition uses otshu 烏鼠, which lacks one stroke and is probably a typographical error due to the similarity of the two characters.

The story of the Hokkien ballad MACM is fundamentally different from all the other forms of oral performance in China. It departs from The Journey to the West and adds a series of new plots that reflect modern life. MACM revolves around three conflicts between cats and mice, who fight over food. Because of their smaller size, the mice often come off worse in their confrontations with the cat. One day in the South Market, a mouse is almost killed by a cat. In order to stop this suffering, he distributes leaflets and invites other mice to attend a conference, to discuss solutions to the situation. As a resolution of the conference, the mice elect a representative, who goes to the territory of the cat and proposes the following:

The cat considers the mouse representative’s proposal fair, responding that in return the mice should also behave themselves and only look for food within their own borders. The mouse representative returns to report the agreement, and the mice almost die of joy, for they will not feel intimidated by the cat in the future. The second conflict, however, follows not long after. A mouse enters a newly built mansion to look for food. As he is eating sweet potatoes in the mansion hall, a cat jumps down from the top of a closet and tries to seize the mouse, cursing him for crossing the border line into the cats’ territory. The mouse is defeated by the cat and flees the mansion; the mice then send a second representative to the cat. At the conference, both the cat and the mouse defend their actions. The cat claims that the mouse had not kept within the agreed borders, and the mouse counters that he had only been looking for food when the cat suddenly jumped out for no reason. Thinking that neither party was entirely right or wrong, the Chairperson demands that the mice stay in their own place and that the cat should not waste energy pouncing upon them.

Soon after, however, a mouse meets a cat in front of the door, where they argue and fight. Despite the help of his fellows, the mouse is defeated by the cat and suffers severe casualties. Despite the Chairperson’s attempts to mediate, this time both parties refuse to listen and threaten to take the case to court. After the souls of the dead cat and mouse arrive in the underworld, the mouse prepares a professional plea, and the cat also loudly complains of injustice. At King Yama’s court, the mouse tearfully declares that the mice have been bullied by the cat over a prolonged period of time:

King Yama then turned to the cat for an answer, and the cat protested that it was the mouse who had crossed the border in the first place. Since he was employed by his master, he had to be a loyal servant and seize the mouse.

After listening to their pleas, King Yama concludes that “There is little to choose between both parties: everybody here has irrational points”. While the Ruicheng edition ends with this sentence, the story of MACM is not finished. Su Yu-Rong (Reference Su2011: 60) notes that “the end of the Taichung Ruicheng Bookstore version of MACM is very short, and it seems unfinished”, but she does not know the reason for this because the original edition from the Huiwentang was not at that time available. According to the Huiwentang edition, there are 32 more lines of text; the main sentences are cited as follows:

These 32 lines of text complete the “unfinished” Ruicheng edition, so that we can see how King Yama judged the case. At the end of the story, King Yama does not impose severe punishment upon cat or mouse, but only warns them not to fight any more. Then, the ghostly runners bring them back to life. Notably, before the Huiwentang edition was discovered, most existing scholarship was based primarily on the text of the Ruicheng edition, which was produced and circulated in Taichung in 1933. This, of course, influenced their judgement of the social, cultural and political connotations of MACM. For example, Su Yu-Rong had to rely on the Ruicheng edition to conclude that MACM reflected the armed confrontations, ethnic conflicts, and self-government movements in Taiwan in the 1930s. On the basis of the newly discovered Huiwentang edition, however, we can relocate MACM to its original context of the Xinzheng reforms in the early twentieth century and reveal its connotations.

3. Understanding MACM in the self-government movement in the early twentieth century

According to the advertisements on the back cover of the existing publications of the Huiwentang Bookstore, the date on which Aphien sien wrote MACM was no later than 1914. Almost all the books of Hokkien ballads produced by the Huiwentang had advertisements for its recent publications on the back cover, which clearly indicate the date of publication of its new books. After examining all the back-cover advertisements of the Huiwentang from the 1870s onwards, we find that there was no mention of MACM in the advertisements before 1913. After 1914, a number of the Huiwentang publications such as Zuixin mouhai qinfu qingzhu sian ge 最新謀害親夫青竹絲案歌 (The Newest Ballad of Murdering One’s Husband) and Zuixin Dashun zuotian ge 最新大舜坐天歌 (The Latest Ballad of Great Shun Dominating All Under Heaven) began to include advertisements for MACM. Therefore, it can be concluded that MACM’s publication occurred no later than 1914.Footnote ⁵

According to its time of publication, the term zizhi 自治 (self-government or self-governance), which often appears in MACM, refers to the local self-government movement from the early twentieth century onwards. Under internal and external pressure, the Qing court launched the Xinzheng reforms in January 1901, and local self-government was an important part of the new policies. In 1909, the Qing court promulgated the Chengzhenxiang defang zizhi zhangcheng 城鎮鄉地方自治章程 (Statutes of Local Self-Government for Cities, Towns and Villages) and the Chengzhenxiang defang zizhi xuanju zhangcheng 城鎮鄉地方自治選舉章程 (Statutes of Election for Local Self-Government for Cities, Towns and Villages), which were modelled on the shichōsonsei 市町村制 (Municipal System, or the Organization of Cities, Towns and Villages). The local self-government policies of Japan relied on a two-tier system of “government rule” and “self-governance”. In the late Qing, this was admired as an effective solution to China’s social dysfunctions, and the intellectuals “who discussed the affairs of the country all considered local self-government as the basis for the establishment of the nation-state” (Liu Reference Liu and Shangsi2001: 934).

Fujian Province actively participated in the local self-government movement.Footnote ⁶ As early as November 1908, the Fujian Law and Politics Academy 福建法政學堂 set up a self-government institute to train students. After the Qing court promulgated the “Statutes” in 1909, Fujian immediately formulated a plan, commanding the foundation of institutes at all levels within one year (The Eastern Times 1909: 5). At the same time, Fujian carried out a household census to confirm the eligibility of voters, in order to elect representatives to discuss official business on behalf of the people (The Eastern Times 1909: 5). In early 1910, Fujian Province issued the “Statute of Research Institutes for Local Self-Government of All Areas” (各屬地方自治研究所章程), in order to clarify the purpose, qualifications, staff structure, division of duties, and curricular systems of institutes for local self-government (The Eastern Times 1910a: 9). In August, Fujian drew up a detailed schedule for the organization of local self-government, a four-year plan for local self-government from 1909 to 1912 (The Eastern Times 1910b: 9; The Eastern Times 1910c: 9). With the support of both the government and the private sector, by the time Aphien sien composed the Hokkien ballad of MACM, local self-government institutions had been gradually founded throughout the province (Fincher Reference Fincher1981).

Profoundly influenced by the atmosphere of self-government in Fujian, MACM portrayed the operations of the council in a way that reflected the democratic system of the early twentieth century. For example, the two parties convene a huiyi 會議 (conference) to discuss an issue of concern, the zhuxi 主席 (Chairperson) strikes the bell to attract attention, calm the uproar and announce the disbanding of the conference, and the daibiao 代表 (representatives) reach an agreement after negotiations. After the promulgation of the two “Statutes” in 1909, each prefecture and county founded a council in which the “representatives” elected by secret ballot were referred to as yiyuan 議員 (councillors). Each electorate (a county, for instance) also elected a yizhang 議長 (Speaker) and a fu yizhang 副議長 (Deputy Speaker) from councillors, for a term of three years. When conferences were convened, the Speaker was the Chairperson, and if the Speaker did not attend the conference, the Deputy Speaker would act on his behalf (Qian Reference Qian2017: 237–8).

Furthermore, the cat-and-mouse conflict reflected the dispute over the demarcation of borders when the self-government policies were extensively carried out in the mid-1910s. Demarcation of areas was undoubtedly the foundation of local self-government, and in MACM, the three conflicts were all about huajie 畫界 (lit. “drawing the line”) fanjie 犯界 and qinjie 侵界 (lit. “crossing the border”). For example, in the first conflict, the mouse pleads with the authorities to “draw a dividing line between us” (MACM 1914: 1a). After negotiation, the outcome was that they should “practise self-government within their own borders” and “convene a conference in case of any issue” (MACM 1914: 1b). The reason for the second conflict was that the cat claimed that the mouse had “crossed the line” and “invaded the cat’s border” (MACM 1914: 2a). So when the Chairperson intervened, his attention was focused on “whether there was a stone marker erected at the border” (MACM 1914: 2b). In the third conflict, where the mouse presses its suit against the cat at the court of King Yama, their dispute was also about whether the mouse had crossed the border line.

At the time, prefectures and counties carried out extensive demarcation of administrative areas, and many conflicts arose because the borders lacked clarity. Like King Yama, who tried to mediate the conflict at the cost of violating constitutional principles, in reality the conference chairpersons often failed to solve practical problems, or even created new ones. In this sense, while the local self-government movement was primarily aimed at reducing the contradiction between the elite class and the ordinary people, the result was far from satisfactory. The anti-Qing rebellions across the country exposed the predicament of the Xinzheng reforms at the grassroots level.

As a result, when the policies of local self-government were abolished by Yuan Shikai 袁世凱 (1859–1916), who temporarily became President after the abdication of the last emperor, the Xiamen artist Aphien sien composed MACM as a timely response and an expression of dilemmas. On 3 February 1914, Yuan Shikai issued the Tingban defang zizhihui ling 停辦地方自治會令 (“Decree on the Suspension of Local Self-Government Councils”), in order to terminate the operation of the self-government system (Liu Reference Liu and Shangsi2001: 935). While Yuan’s pretext for abolishing the local self-government councils in each province was that they “control finances, resist taxes, intervene in litigations and obstruct administration”, his ambition also led him to undermine the democratic system and cast a shadow on the newly constructed nation-state. The fact that MACM was composed at this crossroads shows that Yuan Shikai’s behaviour attracted widespread public attention, and reflected the controversies in Chinese society over self-government.

4. Current events and animals as metaphors in Hokkien ballads

Responding to current events is one of the characteristics of Hokkien ballads. According to Tseng Tzu-liang 曾子良 (Reference Tseng1990: 31–4), the social news of certain times and places is one of the most important categories of Hokkien ballad. Among them, Ko Jung-san 柯榮三 (Reference Ko2008: 39) focuses in particular on those about lawsuits. In addition to social affairs, Hokkien ballads also discuss major political events that caused a stir at the time. In the late Qing, oral performance satisfied the curiosity of ordinary people, and naturally displayed a bipolar identity. On the one hand, its text expressed dissatisfaction with the evil deeds of officials, and on the other, it played an official role in exhorting and educating the people (Pan Reference Pan2022: 46).

These current events often appear as political metaphors in Hokkien ballads. For example, in the spring of 1911, the Wendetang Bookstore 文德堂書局 in Xiamen, published The Newest Ballad on Wang Zhaojun’s Life in the Cold Palace (最新王昭君冷宮歌) and The Newest Ballad on Wang Zhaojun’s Peace-Making Marriage (最新王昭君和番歌) on the basis of Xiuxiang shuangfeng qiyuan 繡像雙鳳奇緣 (The Miraculous Fate Destiny between Two Phoenixes), a Qing novel. These two ballads described how Emperor Yuan (Liu Shi 劉奭, r. 48–33 bce) of the Han dynasty married Wang Zhaojun 王昭君 (c. 54–19 bce) to the Huns for temporary peace. This Hokkien ballad transformed this Han-dynasty story into a political metaphor for current events. Before Zhaojun left the Han court:

The later part of the ballad mentions the effect of Western-style education, overseas students, the military, the police, the railways, mining and banks, all of which were constructed or created during the Xinzheng Reforms. However, the original text of the fiction did not contain these new terms. The ballad then attributed the failure of the reforms to the obstruction of a Li Xiang 李相 (Minister Li), apparently an allusion to Li Hongzhang 李鴻章 (1823–1901) and fiercely criticized his conservatism. Because of the cession of Taiwan in 1895, the disappointment experienced by the people of Fujian and Taiwan was expressed in artistic creations. This shows parallels with the ballads about Zhaojun, Xinkan minzhu ge 新刊民主歌 (The Newly Block-Printed Ballad of Democracy, 690) which also satirized Li Hongzhang and his son. Notably, The Newest Ballad on Wang Zhaojun’s Peace-Making Marriage also mentioned the establishment of a constitution and the policy of local self-government. These terms showed the artists’ focus on the local self-government movement in the late Qing, which was also central to MACM.

Compared to other Hokkien ballads about current events, a key feature of MACM is that the protagonists are all animals. Using anthropomorphism to approach social reality was a tradition that oral performance inherited from Tang-dynasty literature. The Dunhuang manuscripts included two Yanzi fu 燕子賦 (Odes to the Swallow), which depicted the conflict between the swallow and the sparrow. In this story, the swallow’s nest is occupied by a sparrow; when the swallow tries to fight, he is hit by the sparrow and injured. The swallow brings a case to the phoenix, king of the birds, who imprisons the sparrow. The sparrow is only released when he atones for the crime with the title of “Pillar of State” (上柱國) and reconciles with the swallow.Footnote ⁷ The Odes uses the disputation between the swallow and the sparrow as a metaphor for the social reality of the Tang dynasty, vividly depicting the litigation and penalty of the time (Chen Reference Chen2007: 46). Although the protagonists of MACM are different from those of the Odes, and King Yama became their judge in the underworld, the two stories embody a similar narrative structure and political metaphor. Wilt L. Idema’s (Reference Idema2019: 253–84) collection of Chinese folk literature shows a variety of such cases: in the Yuan dynasty there was a story in which a slaughtered buffalo pleaded with King Yama. Later, there were more underworld lawsuits involving animals, for instance that of the louse against the flea.

The metaphorical use of animals to discuss current events is a narrative tradition in Hokkien ballads. During the Daoguang reign, Donghai liyu ge 東海鯉魚歌 (The Carp Ballad of the East Sea) depicted the love of the Dragon King of the East Sea for a female carp. He wanted to take her as his wife by force, causing a public uproar and mutiny among the aquatic animals. This ballad was a metaphor for the armed confrontations and mass rebellions in Fujian during the Qing dynasty (Zheng Reference Zheng1998: 16–23). Later, in 1935, there was Po tianluo diwang hying wenzi dazhan ge 破天羅地網戶蠅蚊仔大戰歌 (The Battle Ballad of the Household Fly and Mosquito in Breaking the Heavenly and Earthly Net), which depicted mosquitoes and flies fighting each other over trivial matters. Both turned to their friends for help, eventually leading to the war of animals. Judging by the date of its publication, this ballad was meant as a metaphor for the conflict between nations since the First World War. Like the cat and the mouse in MACM, the Dragon King, carp, flies, and mosquitoes in these ballads have both animal and human characteristics, and the anthropomorphic forms of the animals can be isomorphic with human emotions and attitudes, eliciting readers’ empathy. Aphien sien, as a representative of Hokkien ballad artists, often used a playful attitude in oral performance, making it easier to gain the approval of the audience and influence their political attitude towards current events in a vernacular cultural context.

The use of animals as metaphors for current events in Hokkien ballads is often embedded in the folk customs of Fujian and Taiwan. For example, at the end of MACM, King Yama warned the cat and the mouse not to fight anymore, declaring that “if the mouse acts the bandit, he’ll be sawn in two; if the cat kills a mouse, he’ll be hung from a tree” (Idema Reference Idema2018: 55). King Yama’s judgement is deeply rooted in the folk customs of Hokkien culture, where “a dead cat is hung from a tree, and a dead dog is floated downstream” (死貓掛樹頭, 死狗放水流). According to Taiwan guanxi jishi 台灣慣習記事 (Records of Taiwanese Customs):

In this sense, the author’s stance on current events is more easily accepted by the public through the use of animals as metaphors than through simple political sermons.