_full_journalsubtitle: Men, Women and Gender in China _full_abbrevjournaltitle: NANU _full_ppubnumber: ISSN 1387-6805 (print version) _full_epubnumber: ISSN 1568-5268 (online version) _full_issue: 2 _full_issuetitle: 0 _full_alt_author_running_head (change var. to _alt_author_rh): 0 _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (change var. to _alt_arttitle_rh): A Pictorial Autobiography by Zeng Jifen (1852-1942) _full_alt_articletitle_toc: 0 _full_is_advance_article: 0 NAN N Ü A Pictorial AutobiographyNan By Nü Zeng 19 (2017) Jifen 263-315 (1852-1942) 263 brill.com/nanu A Pictorial Autobiography by Zeng Jifen (1852-1942) and the Use of the “Exemplary” in China’s Modern Transformation Binbin Yang The University of Hong Kong [email protected] Abstract Zeng Jifen (1852-1942), a daughter of the distinguished Qing official Zeng Guofan (1811- 72), incorporated rich visual materials into her self-edited nianpu or chronological autobiography (1931; 1933) for the purpose of modelling the “ancients’ practice of incor- porating pictures and texts concurrently.” The effect was a pictorial autobiography that launched a social critique through an exemplary life story and the art of “praise and blame” inherent in the Chinese biographical and artistic traditions. In highlighting the mechanisms Zeng employed to construct her personal history and engage in conversa- tions on familial and national levels across several decades, this study illuminates her ongoing efforts to capitalize on her family heritage and the Confucian ritual tradition for social and political reform. During the process, what may appear to be her tenacious grip on the ritual restraints on women, as previously interpreted, initiated a sea change in women’s education and expanded the authority of women from the domestic sphere to the nationalist state. Keywords Zeng Jifen – pictorial autobiography – the “exemplary” – social and political reform – women’s education Introduction Zeng Jifen 曾紀芬 (1852-1942) was the sixth daughter of Zeng Guofan 曾國藩 (1811-72). She married Nie Qigui 聶緝槼 (1855-1911) in 1875, and like him came ©Nan koninklijke Nü 19 (2017) brill 263-315 nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/15685268-00192P03Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 12:58:33PM via free access 264 Yang from one of Hunan province’s most powerful gentry families. Both the Zengs and the Nies played key roles in China’s political and economic transformation at the turn of the twentieth century, and provided a crucial driving force for national industrialization in the following decades. Having put down the Taip- ing Rebellion in 1864, Zeng Guofan became part of the leadership of a series of reforms focused on the military, industry, and foreign relations, and generally referred to as the Self-Strengthening Movement or Ziqiang yundong 自強運動. His eldest son Zeng Jize 曾紀澤 (1839-90) received solid training in both the Chinese classics and Western learning, and served as a diplomat to Britain, France, and Russia during the 1870s and 1880s.1 Nie Qigui, on the other hand, directed the Jiangnan Arsenal (Jiangnan zhi- zhao zongju 江南製造總局) in Shanghai during the 1880s. Developed as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement, the Arsenal was a major site for the manu- facture of modern arms and ships, and for the translation of Western knowl- edge and technologies. In 1904 Nie Qigui pooled his political and economic resources to establish the Futai 復泰 Company, with his third son Nie Qijie 聶 其傑 (1880-1953) acting as manager. In 1909 Nie Qijie became the major stock- holder of the New Huaxin Cotton Mill (Huaxin fangzhi xinju 華新紡織新局) and expanded it into the New Hengfeng Cotton Mill (Hengfeng fangzhi xinju 恒豐紡織新局). Seizing the “golden opportunity” offered by the withdrawal of foreign capital during and following World War I, Nie Qijie purchased and de- veloped textile, iron, and agricultural industries on a grand scale. In 1920 his career as the leading “national industrialist” peaked when he was elected as Chairman of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce.2 1 For a brief history of the Self-Strengthening Movement and China’s foreign relations during the late nineteenth century, see Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, sixth edition (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 261-312. For Zeng Guofan’s leadership in the Movement, see pages 267, 278-79, and 283. For Zeng Jize’s contributions as a diplomat, see pages 322-24. Also refer to the roles that Zeng Guofan played in the emergence of the modern firm in China: David Faure, China and Capitalism: A History of Business Enterprise in Modern China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006), 49-50. 2 For a brief introduction of Nie Qijie and his family enterprises, see Zhang Zhigao 張志高, ed., Haishang mingren lu 海上名人錄 (Shanghai: Shanghai huabao chubanshe, 1991), 157-58. Faure lists the Hengfeng Mill among the privatized government enterprises that grew into modern firms during the late Qing and early Republican periods. See Faure, China and Capitalism, 45-46. For more detailed discussions of the Nie family in relation to the rise of the gentry-merchant class, see: Wellington K.K. Chan, Merchants, Mandarins and Modern Enterprise in Late Ch’ing China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press East Asian Center, 1977), 9; 55-58; 89-92. Marie-Claire Bergère, The Golden Age of the Chinese Bourgeoisie, 1911-1937, Janet Lloyd, trans. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 45; 71; 74; 124-78. DownloadedNan fromNü Brill.com10/04/202119 (2017) 263-315 12:58:33PM via free access A Pictorial Autobiography By Zeng Jifen (1852-1942) 265 Familial ties to these key figures in modern Chinese history offered Zeng Ji- fen the vision of engaging with the seismic changes occurring at this time. Raised as a guixiu 閨秀 (translated variously as gentry woman, genteel lady, or, literally, talent from the inner quarters) and well-trained in traditional female virtues and domestic skills, Zeng Jifen at the same time had the opportunity of learning about the world from her father Zeng Guofan. She also studied West- ern knowledge with her eldest brother Zeng Jize.3 In 1903 she adapted Jiazheng xue 家政學 (Domestic science) by the Japanese female educator Shimoda Uta- ko 下田歌子 (1854-1936) for the use of Chinese readers. She specified the pur- pose of her publication as training Chinese women on practical domestic skills as part of a larger scheme of strengthening the Chinese families and, in turn, the Chinese nation. Hers was among the earliest adaptations of Shimoda’s work in China.4 Scholars have shown that Zeng Jifen played a vital role in creating cohesion within the Nie clan in Shanghai, and sustaining the family enterprise during the financial crises of the 1920s.5 She headed weekly “family meetings” during 1926-27, which she and her son Nie Qijie intended to use as a means of incul- cating kinship values among family members. In 1927, Nie Qijie published a collection of the minutes of these meetings at the Nie family press.6 In 1931, Zeng dictated her life experiences to her son-in-law Qu Xuanying 瞿宣穎 3 Qu Xuanying 瞿宣穎, Xu 序, in Zeng Jifen, Chongde laoren bashi ziding nianpu 崇德老人八 十自訂年譜 (hereafter, Chongde nianpu) (Shanghai: Nieshi jiayan xunkanshe, 1933), 2:2a. Also see Zeng Jifen’s own account of her education: Zeng Jifen, Chongde nianpu, 6b. 4 Zeng Jifen, Xu, in Zeng Jifen, Nieshi chongbian Jiazhengxue 聶氏重編家政學 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang guanshuju, 1903), 1b-2a. The Nanjing Library has two copies of this work. For discus- sions of the introduction of Jiazheng xue into China and the crucial role Shimoda played in educating overseas Chinese female students, as well as in shaping educational reforms for Chinese women, see Joan Judge, “Talent, Virtue, and the Nation: Chinese Nationalisms and Female Subjectivities in the Early Twentieth Century,” American Historical Review 106.3 (2001): 765-803. See particularly pages 773-94. Also see Huang Xiangjin 黃湘金, “Cong jianghu zhi yuan dao miaotang zhi gao – Shimoda Utako Jiazheng xue zai Zhongguo” 從江湖之遠到廟 堂之高—下田歌子《家政學》在中國, Shanxi shida xuebao 山西師大學報 34.5 (2007): 88-92. 5 Zhou Lin 周琳 and Li Xujia 李旭佳, trans., Jindai Zhongguo shangye de fazhan 近代中國商 業的發展 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang daxue chubanshe, 2010), 141-42. This work is a Chinese trans- lation of Faure, China and Capitalism. In addition to the original contents, the translated version incorporates a number of essays by Faure. Here I cite from “Qingmo Minchu Zhongguo xiandaihua qiye de zichan kongzhi” 清末民初中國現代化企業的資產控制. See pages 134-54. 6 Nie Qijie 聶其傑, Nieshi jiating jiyihui jilu 聶氏家庭集益會記錄 (Shanghai: Nieshi jiayan xunkanshe, 1927). Nan Nü 19 (2017) 263-315 Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 12:58:33PM via free access 266 Yang (1894-1973), and directed her sons to join him in compiling her chronological autobiography, Chongde laoren bashi ziding nianpu 崇德老人八十自訂年譜 (A self-edited chronological autobiography of the Elderly Lady who admires vir- tue, completed at the age of eighty; hereafter referred to as Chongde nianpu). Publications of this work and its amended version in 1931 and 1933, respec- tively, at the Nie family press in Shanghai honored Zeng’s eightieth birthday. The circulation of this work was not limited to the Nie clan or family networks. Rather it reached a more general reading public through sales agencies, includ- ing the distribution department of the Dagong Bao 大公報 (The Public) in Tianjin and publishing houses in Beijing and other cities.7 In her hand-copied preface (see Figure 1), Zeng Jifen introduces herself as the central figure coordinating a collaborative family project featuring crucial records of her life: When I was a child I regularly received instructions from my late father the Illustrious and Upright. As I grew older and experienced hardships, I meticulously followed these instructions and dared not cross boundaries. All of a sudden I find myself reaching the age of eighty.