Canary in the Cage Interactions between Women and Gardens in Ming and Qing Dynasties Master’s thesis, 45 credits Author’s name: Gu Yun Name of supervisor: Gudrun Andersson Semester: Spring 2020 HISTORISKA INSTITUTIONEN Abstract: This paper attempts to find out the relationship between women and gardens which has been neglected in the past through the research on the historical materials related to women. Since the middle and late Ming dynasty, the emergence of a large number of Jiangnan gardens have coincided with the emergence of a large number of female poets in the late Ming and Qing dynasties in terms of time and region. It is not difficult to find designs full of female colors in typical Ming and Qing gardens, and the works of female poets always take the garden as the writing object, it seems that garden and woman had influence each other in that period. This paper tries to reproduce the interaction between women and gardens in Ming and Qing dynasties from three aspects: the limitation of women's exploration of space outside the garden, the possible influence of women on the garden, and the connection between the garden and the emergence of poetess. 1 Contents: 1 Introduction: .......................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Sources and method: ................................................................................................................ 4 1.2 Previous research ....................................................................................................................... 8 2 Restricted female space ...................................................................................................................... 11 2.1 Middle door as the separation of internal and external space: ......................................... 12 2.2 Rebellious Jiangnan woman ................................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Women need to hide themselves when going out: ................................................ 15 2.2.2 Only go to local and public spots: ............................................................................ 16 2.3 Beauty in painting: chaste woman in fantasy: ..................................................................... 17 Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 24 3 Influence women could have on gardens: ....................................................................................... 26 3.1 Taoist gardens for women to enjoy: ..................................................................................... 26 3.1.1 The view of equality between men and women in Taoism helps women to exert influence on gardens: ...................................................................................................... 27 3.1.2 Flowers planted in gardens for women: ....................................................................... 29 3.2 Gardens constructed at the rear of residences: ................................................................... 32 3.3 The trend of building gardens in Jiangnan: ......................................................................... 37 Summary: ............................................................................................................................................. 40 4 More gardens, more talented women: .............................................................................................. 42 4.1 The scenery of gardens stimulated women to write poems: ............................................ 42 4.1.1 Reason for men willing to educate women: ............................................................ 43 4.1.2 Women compare themselves to flowers in poetry: ................................................ 44 4.2 Talented women had larger social circle and wider social space: .................................... 46 4.2.1 Jiaoyuan poetry club .................................................................................................... 47 4.2.2 Yuan Mei’s female disciples: ...................................................................................... 49 4.3 Limitation of writing poetry based on garden scenery: ..................................................... 50 4.3.1 Confucian scholar’s criticism on the ethos of women writing poetry: ............... 50 4.3.2 Talented women's works are of low literary value: ................................................ 51 4.4 Liberation or Burden .............................................................................................................. 53 4.4.1 Beautiful ideal, cruel reality ........................................................................................ 54 4.4.2 Asking for high walls .................................................................................................. 55 Summary: ............................................................................................................................................. 56 5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 58 Appendix: ..................................................................................................................................................... 60 Bibliography: ................................................................................................................................................ 61 2 1 Introduction: In Wei, Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (220-589), private gardens started to emerge in Jiangnan1, the richest region locates at lower Yangtze River of China. During the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, with the initial economic development of Jiangnan, the quality and quantity of private gardens were improved and began to surpass other areas in China. Due to the suppression of Han nation’s culture by the Mongols in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), and Ming dynasty’s (1368-1644) founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang’s (1328-1398) forbidden on constructing gardens, Jiangnan garden culture declined for a time. In the middle of Ming dynasty, extravagance began to be in vogue, and the culture of private gardens became extremely rich. In the Qing dynasty (1636-1912), although it was also under the control of the non-Han nationality, the garden culture was not hit as much as in the Yuan dynasty. On the contrary, it was appreciated by the emperors of the Qing dynasty and had an impact on the imperial garden style in Beijing.2 Garden is often regarded as a space designed for male scholars from the history materials about it, or perhaps it is because people take it for granted that ancient women had no rights in all aspects of their lives and could not enter gardens, so they could not have a direct impact on gardens and gardens cannot be regarded as women's spaces. However, as most common form of the gardens in this period were residential gardens,3 it was possible for women to enter gardens as long as the garden of their residence belonged to inner space, and gardens can also be found some feminine design, as if women had influenced the garden in a subtle way. According to the theory of Linguistic Relativity, language has an effect on our thinking.4 The space created by people can also be regarded as a kind of language.5 As a space, gardens could also influence women as long as women can enter gardens. We can find that, coincidentally, the emergence of a large number of female poets in the Ming and Qing dynasties, took place at almost the same time and same region as the increase in the number of gardens. Landscapes and natural scenes are the eternal theme of poems written by male poets, while female poets are more likely to express their emotions through the scenery of gardens, perhaps because their passion for writing poems is also ignited when women are more likely to enter gardens easily. In this thesis, I hope to reproduce the interaction between women and gardens through the study of historical data with women as the main characters. 1 In most cases, Jiangnan region includes Zhenjiang, Yingtian (Nanjing), Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou. 2 Gu Kai, Jiangnan Sijia Yuanlin 江南私家园林 (Beijing, February 2016), pp. 3–8. 3 Zhang Jianyu, ‘Suzhou Zaoqi Zhaidi Yuanlin Guanxi Kao 苏州早期宅地园林之宅园关系’, in ‘Suzhou Zaoqi Zhaidi Yuanlin Guanxi Kao 苏州早期宅地园林之宅园关系’ (Beijing, 2007), pp. 95–109. 4 Sapir, Edward., Language: An introduction to the study of speech. (Boston, 1955), sec. 1. 5 Lawson, Bryan, Language of Space (Jordan Hill, 2001). 3 Since the purpose of my research is to rediscover the relationship between women and gardens during the Ming and Qing dynasties, I raise the following research questions: What kind of influence women could have on gardens? Whether there is a relationship between gardens and the rise of poetess in Ming and Qing dynasties？ My hypothesis is although gardens were mainly men’s space in Ming and Qing dynasties, women could enter gardens under certain circumstances and influence the location and design of gardens, making the gardens more possible for them to enter and enjoy; the space of gardens enriched the emotion of women and encouraged them to write poems, the trend of constructing gardens during this period contributes to the emergence of talented women. 1.1 Sources and method: Although