This article explores how, during the Ming-Qing era, women writers used the persona and poetry of the great Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340?-278 bce). In order to establish the authority of their own voices, marginalized female writers often identified themselves with the mainstream male tradition. The legacy of Qu Yuan became one of their favorite examples to follow. Qu Yuanâs sao-style poems, especially the long poem âEncountering Sorrow,â are classics in the Chinese literary canon. Qu Yuanâs high moral standard and his eventual suicide for a just cause earned him a reputation as a patriotic poet-statesman much respected by later generations. Ming-Qing women writers made use of Qu Yuanâs literary and moral authority to create their own personal, political, and intellectual voices. By doing so, they demonstrated their efforts to upgrade their status in literary and social arenas.â©
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Paul Rouzer, Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early Chinese Texts (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001), 136.
Laurence A. Schneider, A Madman of Châu: The Chinese Myth of Loyalty and Dissent (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 79â84.
Xie Wuliang, Zhongguo funü, 23. Translated in Kang-i Sun Chang and Haun Saussy, eds., Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 180â81. For more historical background on Ming widow chastity, refer to Katherine Carlitz, âShrines, Governing-Class Identity, and the Cult of Widow Fidelity in Mid-Ming Jiangnan,â Journal of Asian Studies 56.3 (1997): 612â40, and see pages 615â16, and her article âThe Social Uses of Female Virtue in Late Ming Editions of Lienü Zhuan,â Late Imperial China 12.2 (1991): 117â48, and see page 122.
Xie Wuliang, Zhongguo funü, 23. Translated in Chang and Saussy, eds., Women Writers of Traditional China, 180.
Carlitz, âSocial Uses,â 122. This Ming trend of prizing virtuous womenâs suffering continued and intensified in the Qing, spurring a cult of widow chastity. Susan Mann, âWidows in the Kinship, Class, and Community Structures of Qing Dynasty China,â Journal of Asian Studies 46.1 (1987): 37â56.
Xiaorong Li, âEngendering Heroism: Ming-Qing Womenâs Song Lyrics to the Tune Man Jiang Hong,â Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China 7.1 (2005): 1â39.
Wu Zao, âQiao ying,â 252. Translated in Idema and Grant, Red Brush, 688.
Wu Zao, âQiao ying,â 254. Translated in Idema and Grant, Red Brush, 691â92.
Wu Zao, âQiao ying,â 254. Translated in Idema and Grant, Red Brush, 691.
Sima Qian, Shiji, 84.5a, in Siku quanshu. This image also becomes the basis for paintings of Qu Yuan, see Ralph Croizier, âQu Yuan and the Artists: Ancient Symbols and Modern Politics in the Post-Mao Era,â Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 24 (1990): 25â50, and see pages 29â30.
Wu Zao, âQiao ying,â 255. Translated in Idema and Grant, Red Brush, 692.
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This article explores how, during the Ming-Qing era, women writers used the persona and poetry of the great Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340?-278 bce). In order to establish the authority of their own voices, marginalized female writers often identified themselves with the mainstream male tradition. The legacy of Qu Yuan became one of their favorite examples to follow. Qu Yuanâs sao-style poems, especially the long poem âEncountering Sorrow,â are classics in the Chinese literary canon. Qu Yuanâs high moral standard and his eventual suicide for a just cause earned him a reputation as a patriotic poet-statesman much respected by later generations. Ming-Qing women writers made use of Qu Yuanâs literary and moral authority to create their own personal, political, and intellectual voices. By doing so, they demonstrated their efforts to upgrade their status in literary and social arenas.â©
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 810 | 225 | 131 |
| Full Text Views | 317 | 13 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 245 | 37 | 3 |