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Women in the Ching-hua yüan: Emancipation toward a Confucian Ideal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2011
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The Ching-hua yüan, the work of vernacular fiction by Li ju-chen (ca. 1763–1830) shows remarkable diversity in both narrative content and purpose. Critics have observed that it is encyclopedic in scope, and suggested that it reflects the wide range of interests and activities prevalent among scholars in early nineteenth- century China. The author's intention has been variously interpreted as private entertainment, display of erudition, or social criticism.
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References
1 Among readily available modern editions of the Ching-hua yüan [hereafter CHY ] are: 1) Shanghai: Ya-tung t'u-shu kuan, 1930; 2) Peking: Tso-chia ch'u-pan she, 1955 (based on the text of the first printed edition of ? 1828 now held by the library of Peking University); 3) Hongkong: Chung-hua shu chü, 1965 (a photo-reprint of the 1955 Tso-chia edition). For this paper 1 have used the Hongkong reprint [hereafter CHY (H)]. There have been numerous translations of portions of the work, the best known being the one by Lin Tai-yi under the title of Flowers in the Mirror (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1965Google Scholar). Although Lin covers the entire work, much is given in the form of brief synopsis rather than translation.
2 E.g., see Hsün, Lu, Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih-lüeh (Rpt. Hongkong: Hsin-yi ch'u-pan she, 1967), p. 267Google Scholar.
3 Hsü Shih-nien sees a stimulus for interest in overseas countries coming from increased trade with the West, and also the influence of the Man-chu literary inquisition leading to increased activity in textual studies; see “Lüeh-t'an Ching-hua yüan” in Chung-kuo ku-tien hsiao-shuo p'ing-lun chi (Peking: Pei-ching ch'u-pan she, 1957), p. 157Google Scholar. For a discussion of how the concept of physical immortality is reflected, see Peng-yoke, Ho and Wang-luen, Yu, “Physical Immortality in the Early Nineteenth-Century Novel Ching-hua-yüan,” Oriens Extremus, XXI, 1 (1974), pp. 33–51Google Scholar; and for a discussion of how knowledge of mathematics and science is reflected, see Wang-luen, Yu, “Knowledge of Mathematics and Science in Ching-hua-yüan,” Oriens Extremus, XXI, 2 (1974), pp. 217–36Google Scholar.
4 C. T. Hsia distinguishes between scholar-novelists who wrote primarily for private entertainment, (e.g., Wu Ch'eng-en, Tung Yüeh, Hsia Ching-ch'ü, Wu Ching-tzu, Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in, and Li Ju-chen) and professional novelists who wrote primarily for commercial gain (e.g., Kuan-chung, Lo, Ta-mu, Hsiung, Meng-lung, Feng, and Chu-jen, T'ien-hua-tsang); see “The Scholar-Novelist and Chinese Culture: A Study of Ching Hua Yuan,” Tamkang Review, V, 2 (Oct. 1974), pp. 2–3Google Scholar.
5 Lu Hsün, in his Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih-lüeh, discusses the CHY together with similar Ch'ing dynasty works written to “display erudition”; see chap. 25. Tan Cheng-pi follows the same scheme of analysis in his Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo fa-ta shih (1935; rpt. Taipei: Ch'i-yeh shu chü, 1973Google ScholarPubMed); see chap. 7, part III.
6 E.g., see Evans, Nancy J. F., “Social Criticism in the Ch'ing, the Novel Ching-hua yüan” Harvard Univ. East Asian Research Center Papers on China, 23 (1970), pp. 52–66Google Scholar.
7 Chinese Literature, Popular Fiction and Drama (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press and Chicago: Aldine, 1973), p. 405Google Scholar.
8 T'an-hua was the title given the third-ranked candidate in the palace examinations; hsiu-ts'ai designates a graduate of the first-level district examinations. In T'ang times there was a high-level examination called hsiu-ts'ai; but the context in which the term is used in the CHY indicates that, despite the T'ang setting, it is the later usage of the term that is meant.
9 For a translation of the episodes describing these attacks and a study of the allegory involved, see Chang, H. C., Allegory and Courtesy in Spenser, A Chinese View (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1955Google Scholar; rpt. Folcroft, Pa.: Folcroft Press, 1969). Chang has translated from the middle of chap. 96 through the middle of chap. 100.
10 For a critical review of four different approaches to the work's narrative structure, followed by an analysis based on Northrop Frye's concept of the “anatomy,” see Nylander, Robert, “The Anatomy of Li Ru-zhen's Jing-hua-yuan,” unpub. research paper, Univ. of Washington, 1974Google Scholar.
11 For example, the phrase li-li yu jen (“clearly there are people”) used in reference to talented girls, and the phrase yi-ping shih ch'i [CHY (H) reads chih] min mteh (“cause them all to vanish without a trace”) used in reference to forgetting such talented girls. See Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in, Hung-lou meng (rpt. Singapore: Shih-chieh shu chü), p. 1; and see CHY (H), p. 1.
12 It is true that in chaps. 7–40 of the CHY, the three male travelers (T'ang Ao, Lin Chih-yang, and To Chiu-kung) are given extensive narrative exposure, and it may be argued that the kind of comparison I am suggesting with the Shui-hu chuan is therefore inappropriate. In the context of the plot of the entire novel, however, these chapters are an integral part of the ongoing story of the flower girls, designed to introduce twelve of the more important members of the group. Although the superior nature of the twelve girls is shown as they are discovered on the journey, it is not until after chap. 40 that they and the others prove their talents in the examinations. Only certain members of the group are developed as individual personalities (this is true also in the Shui-hu chuan), and in most cases this occurs during the celebrations following the examinations.
13 The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1968), p. 105Google Scholar.
14 Ibid., p. 106.
15 Hsia cites (ibid., p. 106) Yen P'o-hsi, P'an Chin-lien, P'an Ch'iao-yün, and the wife of Lu Chün-yi as four “major examples of female wickedness,” and quotes a particularly gruesome account of torture and punishment from chap. 46.
16 That is, Pan Chao (born between A.D. 45 and 51), the wife of Ts'ao Shih-shu, who after the death of her husband was invited by the emperor to serve in the palace as a tutor for women.
17 For a text of the original, see Hou Han shu (Po-na ed.) [hereafter HHS], 84.6b-13a, where it is given in Pan Chao's biography. There are several translations available, probably the best known being the one by Swann, Nancy Lee, Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China (New York: Century, 1932) [hereafter PC], pp. 82–99Google Scholar.
18 HHS, 84.10a.
19 CHY (H), p. 1.
20 Note the full title of PC, Swann's book on her life and works.
21 Pan Chao was the daughter of Pan Piao and the sister of Pan Ku, author of the Han shu (the official history of the Former Han dynasty). Originally the work of compiling the history was begun by the father, but eventually the son inherited the work; he is known to have received considerable help from his sister. It is not clear just to what extent Pan Chao had a hand in actually writing the Han shu, though when her brother died she probably completed several unfinished sections of it and may even have edited or revised the entire work.
22 For a study of the traditional education of Chinese women, see Lewis, Ida Belle, The Education of Girls in China (New York: Teachers College, Columbia Univ., 1919), pp. 7–17Google Scholar.
23 A notable exception to this is C. T. Hsia (n. 4 above), p. 16; he quotes most of the prologue and makes use of it in his analysis.
24 “Ching-hua yüan te yin-lun” (orig. written 1923), incl. in Chung-kuo chang-hui hsiao-shuo k'ao-cheng (Dairen: Shih-yeh yin-shu kuan, 1943), pp. 513–60Google Scholar.
25 See Hsü Shih-nien (n. 3 above), p. 160; also Li Kuo, Ching-hua yüan chien-lun (Singapore:Ch'ing-nien shu chü, n.d.), p. 12, where the relevant passage is identical with Hsü's work (true also of other long passages). Also see Evans (n. 6 above), p. 58.
26 Su Wei regained the admiration and affection of her alienated husband by weaving, on a piece of satin, a palindrome verse that contained 840 characters in over two hundred poems and could be read in any direction. It was called “Hsüan-chi” (an ancient astronomical instrument) because of the shape of its design. For a reproduction of the palindrome, see CHY (H), p. 291; for a detailed explanation of its mysteries, see what follows it in chap. 41.
27 Note 7 above, p. 407. Those in distress are Lien Chin-feng, Szu-t'u Wu-erh, Yao Chih-hsing, Hsüeh Heng-hsiang, and Yin Jo-hua; those in forced exile are Lo Hung-ch'ü, Wei Tzu-ying, Hsü Li-yung, and Yin Hung-yü; the one who is ill is Chih Lan-yin.
28 CHY (H), p. 284.
29 For the Chinese text of the decrees from which the quotations below are taken, see CHY (H), pp. 285–87.
30 The five blessings are: shou (long life), fu (wealth), chien-k'ang (health), hao-te (love of virtue), and shan-chung (natural death).
31 Chaps. 32–37. The most recent and best translation is by H. C. Chang (n. 7 above), pp. 421–66.
32 Shih, Hu, “A Chinese Declaration of the Rights of Women,” The Chinese Social and Political Science Review, VIII, 2 (1924), pp. 105–07Google Scholar; also his 1923 article (n. 24 above), pp. 536–43.
33 For example, T'ing-t'ing and Hung-hung are described as having attractive eyes, hair, mouths, and “three inch lotuses”; CHY (H), p. no. Also Yin Jo-hua, who has been living in the Country of Women, has to have her feet bound when she goes to China; CHY (H), p. 258.
34 The practice of footbinding did not become widespread in China until the Sung dynasty; for a discussion of its “origins and presence,” see Levy, Howard S., Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom (New York: Walton Rawls, 1966), pp. 37–64Google Scholar.
35 For the Chinese text of the decrees, see CHY (H), pp. 285–87.
36 According to the “Nei-tse” of the ancient Confucian classic, the Li chi, “a girl marrys at twenty”; Legge (trans.), Li Ki, 10.2.37 (p. 479).
37 PC, p. 138.
38 HHS, 84.11b; for translation, see PC, p. 88.
39 Shao Hung-ying, Tai Ch'iung-ying, Lin Shuhsiang, Yang Mo-hsiang, T'an Hui-fang, and Yeh Ch'iung-fang; CHY (H), p. 770.
40 HHS, 84.9a; for translation, see PC, pp. 84–85. The reference to training at ages of 8 and 15 years is based on the detailed timetable for the training of children given in the “Nei-tse” of the Li chi; Legge (trans.), Li Ki, 10.2.32–37 (pp. 476–79).
41 See CHY (H), pp. 308–09.
42 Note 24 above, p. 531.
43 Ibid.
44 This occurs at the beginning of chap. 51; CHY (H), p. 373.
45 Note 24 above, p. 560.
46 See n. 32 above; this paper was first read before the Tientsin Rotary Club on 7 Feb. 1924.
47 Note 2 above, p. 265.
48 PC, p. 136; see also p. 94, n. 2 (last paragraph).
49 Tien Hsia Monthly, 1, 2 (Sept. 1935), pp. 127–49.
50 Note 1 above, p. 7.
51 “Ching-hua yüan shih-lun,” Hsin chien-she, 11 (Nov. 1955). pp. 55. 58.
52 See n. 3 above, pp. 161–62.
53 Chia-lin, Pao, “Li Ju-chen te nan-nü p'ingteng szu-hsiang,” Shih-huo yüeh-k'an, fu-k'an, I, 12 (Mar. 1972), pp. 12–21Google Scholar.
54 Young, Marilyn B. (ed.), Women in China: Studies in Social Change and Feminism (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, Univ. of Michigan, 1973). p. 246CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
55 For this quotation and those that follow in this paragraph, see n. 6 above, pp. 62–64.