View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Oregon Scholars' Bank READING BODIES: AESTHETICS, GENDER, AND FAMILY IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHINESE NOVEL GUWANGYAN (PREPOSTEROUS WORDS) by QING YE A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2016 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Qing Ye Title: Reading Bodies: Aesthetics, Gender, and Family in the Eighteenth Century Chinese Novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words) This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures by: Maram Epstein Chairperson Yugen Wang Core Member Alison Groppe Core Member Ina Asim Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2016 ii © 2016 Qing Ye iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Qing Ye Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Languages and Literature June 2016 Title: Reading Bodies: Aesthetic, Gender, and Family in the Eighteenth Century Chinese Novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words) This dissertation focuses on the Mid-Qing novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words, preface dated, 1730s) which is a newly discovered novel with lots of graphic sexual descriptions. Guwangyan was composed between the publication of Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase, 1617) and Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber, 1791). These two masterpieces represent sexuality and desire by presenting domestic life in polygamous households within a larger social landscape. This dissertation explores the factors that shifted the literary discourse from the pornographic description of sexuality in Jin Ping Mei, to the representation of chaste love in Honglou meng. This dissertation can be divided into three parts. Part one: Chapter I and II introduce my main approach to interpret the text and the historical and aesthetic context of this novel. Chapter I introduces a large historical background of the late Ming and early Qing China and argues that the blurry boundaries between genres assigned by the May Fourth scholars do not fully satisfy the reading of Guwangyan. My reading scrutinizes the textual body of Guwangyan to explore the material body and body politics demonstrated in the fictional world. Chapter II explains the meaning of the title of the text, the author, commentator, and the commentary of Guwangyan. iv The second part, Chapter III and IV, illustrate a close-reading of the aesthetic body of the text. Chapter III proposes that Guwangyan is a well organized novel which has a carefully designed narrative structure and internal connections among chapters. Chapter IV demonstrates the importance of characterization in the novel. I argue that through a non-polarized yin-yang dichotomy, the text demonstrates the uncertainty, transformation, and development of the characters and explores their complicated inner world. The third part, Chapter V and VI, explore masculinity and the family of Guwangyan. The novel represents the male friendship and male same-sex relationship and how they can interact with men’s role in the public and private spheres. Chapter VI broadens the discussion of the family relationship in Guwangyan to establish a significant contrast between a realistic representation of political disasters and an idealistic description of community unity. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Qing Ye GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon McGill University, Montreal, Canada Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, East Asian Languages and Literature, 2016, University of Oregon Master of Arts, East Asian Studies, 2009, McGill University Bachelor of Arts, Chinese Language and Literature, 2000, Beijing Normal University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Ming-Qing Fiction in Chinese Literature Gender Studies PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures University of Oregon, 2009-2016 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Graduate Student Research Grant, Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon, 2014-15 Graduate Research Support Fellowship, Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon, 2013-14 PUBLICATIONS: Qing Ye, “Sexuality, Politics, and Sorrow: Reading the Rear Courtyard (Hou Ting) In Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in The Golden Vase),” Virginia Review of Asian Studies, Vol. 15, Fall (2013): 113-26. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express sincere appreciation to Professors Maram Epstein for her assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. In addition, special thanks are due to Professor Ina Asim, who always provided me with helpful input with her knowledge of the Chinese history. I also thank all my committee members for their insightful comments and suggestions. I wish to thank my parents who have been unconditionally supportive to me in my life, study and career. I also with to express my deepest appreciation to my husband and daughter who always been by my side. vii To my beloved husband, Zhiyong Meng, and daughter, Haiyi Meng. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Cultural Landscape of Eighteenth-century China ............................................ 03 1.2 From Aesthetics to Genre: The May Fourth Legacy of Reading Late Imperial Novels .......................................................................................................................... 12 1.3 Interpreting the Liteary Representation of Sexuality, Gender, and Poltics in Guwangyan .................................................................................................................. 21 1.4 Focus of this Study: the Aesthetics, Masculinity, and the Imaninary Family . 25 1.5 The Main Plot of Guwangyan .......................................................................... 30 1.6 The Outline of This Dissertation...................................................................... 37 II. THE TITLE, AUTHOR, COMMENTATOR, AND COMMENTARY OF GUWANGYAN ............................................................................................................. 39 2.1 The Title of Guwangyan .................................................................................. 39 2.2 The Biographic Background of the Author and Commentator of Guwangyan 44 2.3 The Overview of the Commentary on Guwangyan ......................................... 48 2.3.1 The Interpretative Commentary .............................................................. 50 2.3.2 The Compositional Commentary ............................................................ 54 2.3.3 Commentaries on Characterization ......................................................... 61 2.3.4 Jokes and Political Criticism in Lin Dunweng’s Commentary ............... 64 2.4 The Disappearance and International Circulation of Guwangyan ................... 66 III. THE AUTHORICAL MANIPULATION OF THE STRUCTURE IN GUWANGYAN: KARMIC RETRIBUTION, YIN-YANG SYMBOLISM, AND NUMEROLOGY ..... 70 3.1 Narrative Structure of the Chinese Novel during the Ming-Qing Transitional Period .......................................................................................................................... 71 3.2 Karma and Moral Logic in Guwangyan .......................................................... 77 ix Chapter Page 3.3 Yin-yang Symbolism in the Structure of Guwangyan ...................................... 85 3.4 Yin-yang Numerology and the Inernal Strucutre of Guwangyan ..................... 93 IV. CHARACTERIZATION BY YIN-YANG DICHOTOMY AND YIN-ZHEN CONTRAST IN GUWANGYAN .................................................................................. 103 4.1 The Importance of Characterization ................................................................ 106 4.2 Yin-yang Hybridity, Performativity, and Camouflage in the Characterization of Guwangyan .................................................................................................................. 112 4.3 Yin-yang Restoration of the Central Male Characters of Guwangyan ............. 123 4.4 Internal Struggle of the Female Protagonist .................................................... 137 V. MALE FRIENDSHIP AND HOMOSEXUALITY IN GUWANGYAN ................. 146 5.1 Male Friendship in Guwangyan ....................................................................... 150 5.1.1 Kinship and Political Criticism in the Scholar’s Friendship in Guwangyan .......................................................................................................................... 154 5.1.2 Transformable Male Bonding: from li to yi ............................................ 161 5.2 Homoeroticism in Guwangyan ........................................................................ 166 5.2.1 Satire of the Hypocrisy in the Male Homoerotic Relationship ............... 169 5.2.2 Parody of the Scholar’s Connoisseurship of Male Beauty ..................... 176 5.2.3 Channeling Homoeroticism into Heterosexual Marriage ....................... 180 5.3 Literary Twist of Heterosexuality, Homosexuality, and Homosociality ......... 184 VI. SENTIMENT, DAOISM, AND FAMILY CONTINUITY