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Mirror, Dream and Shadow: Gu Taiqing's Life and Writings a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Division of the University O

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MIRROR, DREAM AND SHADOW: GU TAIQING‘S LIFE AND WRITINGS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‗I AT MANOĀ IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES (CHINESE) May 2012 By Changqin Geng Dissertation Committee: David McCraw, Chairperson Giovanni Vitiello Hui Jiang Tao-chung Yao Roger Ames ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Prof. David McCraw for his excellent guidance, caring and patience towards my study and research. I really appreciate for his invaluable comments and insightful suggestions throughout this study. I also want to thank my dissertation committee members, Prof. Giovanni Vitiello, Prof. Hui Jiang, Prof. Tao-chung Yao and Prof. Roger Ames, for their intellectual instruction, thoughtful criticism and scholarly inspiration. I want to especially thank Prof. Tao-chung Yao for his guidance and support in my development as a teacher. I am also grateful to my husband, Sechyi Laiu, who helped me with proofreading and shared with me the pleasures and pains of writing. His patience, tolerance and encouragement helped me overcome the difficulties in finishing this dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my little sister. They have always mentally encouraged and supported me throughout my academic endeavors. ii ABSTRACT Gu Taiqing is one of the most remarkable and prolific poetesses of the Qing dynasty. This study attempts to present critical and comprehensive research on Gu Taiqing‘s writing so to unearth and illustrate Taiqing‘s own life and mentality, in order to enrich our understanding of the role that writing has played in the lives of the pre-modern women. Overall Taiqing‘s writing can be interpreted in terms of three categories: mirror, dream and shadow. This dissertation applies these three concepts to build up a theoretical framework as the three concepts bear rich meanings in both interpreting Taiqing‘s works per se and analyzing the relationship between Taiqing‘s writing and her life. This dissertation consists of three parts. The first part examines Taiqing‘s aspiration for ascending to the heavenly world, reluctance to leave the mundane world, and time consciousness and philosophical speculations. The second part focuses on analyzing Taiqing‘s writings, shi poems, ci poems and the novel Honglou meng ying. Taiqing‘s poems on traveling, the special imagery and poetic realms in her ci poems are explored in this work. The third part is a study of Taiqing‘s friendship with other talented woman within and beyond the Autumn Red Poetry Society. This part also addresses issues regarding women scholars and their endeavors to establish a type of immortality through words. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 PART I. THE ENDURING TENSION IN TAIQING‘S LIFE..................................... 18 Chapter 1. Aspiration for Ascending to the Heavenly World ................................ 19 Chapter 2. Reluctance to Leave the Mundane World ........................................... 34 Chapter 3. Time Consciousness and Philosophical Speculations ......................... 46 PART II. TAIQING‘S WRITINGS .............................................................................. 57 Chapter 4. Gu Taiqing‘s Shi Poems ...................................................................... 58 Chapter 5. Taiqing‘s Ci Poems .............................................................................. 73 Chapter 6. The Novel Honglou meng ying ......................................................... 101 PART III. SISTERHOOD IN THE FLOWER COUNTRY: TAIQING AND OTHER TALENTED WOMEN .............................................................................................. 112 Chapter 7. Within and Beyond the Autumn-Red Poetry Society ........................ 113 Chapter 8. The Women Scholars ......................................................................... 132 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 152 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Portrait of Gu Taiqing ..........................................................................................143 v INTRODUCTION Gu Taiqing (顧太清 1799-1877) is one of the most remarkable and prolific poetesses of the Qing dynasty and has always been the subject of intense scholarly interest. Her surname was originally Xilin (西林), and her ethic identity was a Manchu of the bordered blue banner. Her more widely recognized name, ―Taiqing,‖ is actually her Daoist name. Gu Taiqing has a shi anthology Tianyouge ji (天游閣集 Anthology of Heavenly Roaming Pavilion), a ci collection Donghai yuge (東海漁歌 Fisherman‘s Songs of East China Sea) and a novel Honglou meng ying1 (紅樓夢影 Shadow of Dream of the Red Chamber), a sequel to the masterpiece Honglou meng (紅樓夢 Dream of the Red Chamber). There has been some research on Taiqing‘s biographical background, life experience and her literary achievement on ci poems. However, research on Taiqing‘s shi poems is comparatively weak, and the distinctive images and poetic realms in her lyrics are rarely examined. Taiqing‘s philosophical speculations, her poetry society, the meaning and significance of her friendship with other talented women have also not been carefully studied. Moreover, little research has been conducted on her novel Honglou meng ying. Subsequently, there is substantial room for further research concerning Gu Taiqing‘s poetry. This dissertation attempts to present critical and comprehensive research on Gu Taiqing‘s writing so to unearth and illustrate Taiqing‘s own life and mentality, in order to enrich our understanding of the role that writing has played in the lives of the pre-modern women. Taiqing‘s writings will be interpreted in terms of three categories: mirror, dream and shadow. This dissertation applies these three concepts to build up a theoretical framework as the three concepts bear rich meanings in both interpreting 1According to Zhang Juling, Honglou meng ying was the first novel written by a woman. Zhang Juling, ―Zhongguo diyiwei nü xiaoshuojia Xilin Taiqing Chun de Honglou meng ying,‖ Minzu wenxue yanjiu, no. 2 (1997): 3-7, 18. 1 Taiqing‘s works per se and analyzing the relationship between Taiqing‘s writing and her life. There are three parts to this dissertation. The first part examines Taiqing‘s aspiration for ascending to the heavenly world, reluctance to leave the mundane world, and time consciousness and philosophical speculations. The second part focuses on analyzing Taiqing‘s writings, shi poems, ci poems and the novel Honglou meng ying. Taiqing‘s poems on traveling, the special imagery and poetic realms in her ci poems are explored in this part. The third part is a study of Taiqing‘s friendship with other talented woman within and beyond the Autumn Red Poetry Society. This part also addresses issues regarding women scholars and their endeavors to establish a type of immortality through words. Literature Review Existing literature from China and the United States on Gu Taiqing primarily consist of biographical studies, textual research on her works, reading and analyses of her lyrics, and on the characteristics and achievements of her lyrics. A biography by Zhang Juling2 concentrates on trying to resolve Taiqing‘s ―life mystery‖ by uncovering Taiqing‘s life experiences; however, this book stresses historical account at the expense of literary research and only briefly introduces Taiqing‘s literature. Some papers have dealt with the controversial issues about her life, such as the origins of her natal family, her nationality, and her affairs with Gong Zizhen (龔自珍 1792-1841).3 Other works convey brief appreciation and evaluation of her works on some aspects of her lyrics.4 2To improve readability, the Chinese characters for an author‘s name are absent if presented in the bibliography. 3Examples include Zhang Zhang, ―Baqi you cainü, Xilin yizhi hua: Ji Qingdai Manzu nü wenxuejia Gu Taiqing,‖ Wenxue yichan, no.3 (1996); Su Xuelin, ―Qingdai liangda ciren lianshi de yanjiu,‖ Wuhan daxue wenzhe jikan 1, no.3 (1930); Lu Xingji, ―Chenmeng bansheng chui duanfa, Qingge yiqu song canyang,‖ Yinshan xuekan, no.1 (March 2003); Liu Sufen, ―Wenhua yu jiazu: Gu Taiqing jiqi jiating shenghuo,‖ Xin shixue, no.1 (March 1996). 4See Jin Qicong, ―Manzu nüciren Gu Taiqing he Donghai yuge,‖ Manzu wenxue yanjiu, no. 1 (January 1982); Xu Hongquan, ―Yi Songren wei faru de Gu Taiqing ci,‖ Xinan daxue xuebao, no.5 (September 2008); Wei Yuanzheng, ―Shengji miao zai ben wu qi: Gu Taiqing ci richangxing shenmei tezheng,‖ 2 While Taiqing‘s novel Honglou meng ying was an important step toward joining feminine literary creativity with the xiaoshuo (小説, novel) genre,5 it has not received sufficient academic attention. Ellen Widmer dedicates one chapter to discuss Taiqing‘s Honglou meng ying in biographical and literary perspectives in
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