Zhang,Yu.Interfamily Tanci Writing in Nineteenth-Century China:Bonds and Boundaries

Research has shown that thecainü才女 (talented women) orguixiu闺秀 (gentry women) tradition in late imperial China boosted a large amount of female writers and readers in the literary realm,debunking the previously male-centered belief of a male-only literature in late imperial China.1For example,see Ellen Widmer,The Beauty and the Book:Women and Fiction in Nineteenth-Century China (Cambridge,Massachusetts and London:Harvard University Asia Center,2006); Dorothy Ko,Teachers of Inner Chambers:Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China (Stanford:Stanford University Press,1994); Grace S.Fong,Herself an Author:Gender,Agency,and Writing in Late Imperial China (Honolulu:University of Hawai’i Press,2008); Susan Mann,The Talented Women of the Zhang Family (Berkeley,Los Angeles,London:University of California,2007); etc.While poetry bycainügained scholarly attention much earlier due to its orthodox format,female-authoredtanci弹词 fiction as the most popular literary genre among women in late imperial China has also recently started to gain scholarly attention.2For example,see Widmer,The Beauty and the Book; 胡晓真：《才女彻夜未眠：近代中国女性叙事文学的兴起》，台北：麦田出版社，2003年［ HU Siao-chen,Cainü cheye wei mian:Jindai Zhonggong nüxing xushi wenxue de xingqi (Talented Women Burning the Midnight Oil:The Rise of Female Narrative in Early Modern China),Taipei:Maitian Press,2003］；鲍震培：《清代女作家弹词小说论稿》，天津：天津社会科学出版社，2002年 ［Bao Zhenpei,Qingdai nü zuojia tanci xiaoshuo lungao (Research on Tanci Novels Written by Women Writers in the Qing Dynasty),Tianjin:The Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences Press,2002］; Li Guo,Women’s Tanci Fiction in Late Imperial and Early Twentieth-Century China (West Lafayette,Indiana:Purdue University Press); etc.Scholars such as Sheng Zhimei have all agreed that this is a gendered popular literary genre for women,but research from the perspective of gender studies has still been limited.Most scholars strategically choose sometancifiction to argue for a female perspective and women’s subjectivity,but there is no apparent connection between their chosentancifiction or their authors.Yu Zhang’s new book puts thesetanciinto an interfamilial context,allowing us to closely examine how these female writers and their works could directly affect each other.In this book,we see not only women’s literary talents and gendered social criticism,but also a social and literary network between women and their families which formed these works.

The introduction sets the stage for the whole book,giving detailed background and introducing the themes in the book.This chapter first illustrates the brief history oftancias a genre and scholarship on this genre:tancias a genre was viewed as a women’s genre before the twentieth century,but there was also criticism on women reading them at the same time; since the May Fourth Movement in the early twentieth century,tancihave been reevaluated—from seeing their potential as women’s educational tools in the early twentieth century to rediscovering women’s subjectivity in recent years.Zhang also points out the missing pieces in the research:while recent scholars all celebrate this genre as women’s own voices,they have neglected male-authoredtancifiction and the connection betweentancifiction as a genre and other popular fiction genres of the time,such as licentious fiction (xiaxie xiaoshuo) and Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies literature.

After this overview,Zhang argues thattancifiction should also be examined in a larger context of China’s modernization,particularly the modernization of Chinese literature.Zhang points out that the three selectedtanciwritten in mid-to late nineteenth century has shown considerably less “narrating self ” than previous works,signifying a transition to modern literature.Moreover,although the modern concept of subjectivity has yet to form,the modern construction of time and space—in this case,China in relation to the world—has started to surface.Furthermore,tancifiction as a gendered genre invites a thorough research on female subjectivity,especially when juxtaposing female-authoredtanciwith male-authored ones like this book does,at the dawn of Chinese modernity.Therefore,Zhang indicates that her research will concentrate on “two interrelated concepts:bonds and boundaries.”3Zhang,Interfamily Tanci Writing in Nineteenth-Century China,xxvi.She examines bonds by exploring family networks,genre connections,and the relationship between China’s tradition and modernity.Meanwhile,she also studies the constantly changing boundaries which are challenged and transgressed intancifiction.

Chapter 1 provides readers with a generational family network of Zheng 郑-Zhou周 (Yan 严)- Ma马 of the authors of the threetanci:Zheng Zhenhua 郑贞华 ofMeng ying yuan梦影缘 (Dream,Image,Destiny,1843,hereafter MYY),Zhou Yingfang 周颖芳 ofJing zhong zhuan精忠传 (A Biography of Dedication and Loyalty,1895,hereafter JZZ) and Judaoren橘道人 ofYu xuan cao娱萱草 (A Draft for Entertaining My Mother,1894,hereafter YXC).Zhang has done extensive archival research through local gazetteers,family genealogies,poetry collections,and miscellaneous writings to map out the picture of the interfamilial relationships between the three authors,arguing that they “were connected not only by kinships,but also by shared knowledge and intertexuatual dialogues entangled within their readings and writings.”4Ibid.,2.According to Zhang’s research,the three authors’ lives were intertwined with the Qing Dynasty’s chaos and decline in the nineteenth century:Zheng Zhenhua,a typical talented Qing woman,whose father released Hong Xiuquan,committed suicide when the Taiping Rebels took over Hangzhou; Zhou Yingfang,Zheng’s daughter,held an opposite opinion to her mother,valuing chaste widowhood over martyrdom after experiencing her mother’s suicide during the Taiping Rebellion and her husband’s death during the Miao rebellion; Judaoren,whom Zhang identifies as Ma Ruixi,who was Zhou’s nephew (first cousin once removed),through archival research,served as a military consultant and then the Qing counselor in Italy.The archival research not only maps out the familial relationship among the three authors,but reveals their attitudes towardtanciwriting:while the two female authors proudly chosetancifiction as a female genre,taking leadership among women and identifying themselves as literati,the male author displayed frustration in writing this gendered genre even though he claimed his writing was to entertain his mother.After tracing their lives and writings,Zhang suggests that this familial network indicates that a shared community of womanhood andjiaxue家学 (the family tradition of inherited learning) was crucial in women’s education.What is interesting here is to see how women gained power by maintaining and expanding their social network based on their family.Zhang then further paints a picture of a women’s social network throughtancicirculation and consumption by reading,writing,and commentatingtancifiction.

Chapters 2 and 3 analyze Zheng Zhenhua’s MYY from a gender studies approach.In Chapter 2,Zhang argues that Zheng replaces male definedqing情 (passions) with the “sublimeqing,” filial piety.5Analyzing Mudan ting,Honglou meng and Xiaoqing,Judith Zetlin,Li Wai-yee,Maram Epstein and Ellen Widmer all argue that qing (情，emotions),rather than li (礼，rituals),was appreciated and pursued by literati and there appeared the cult of qing during the Ming and the Qing.See Li Wai-yee,Enchantment and Disenchantment:Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature (Princeton:Princeton University Press,1993); Maram Epstein,Competing Discourses:Orthodoxy,Authenticity and Engendered Meanings in Late Imperial Chinese Fiction (Cambridge MA:Harvard University Asia Center,2001); Judith Zeitlin,“Shared Dreams:the Story of the Three Wives Commentary on the Peony Pavilion,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 54 (1994):127—79; Ellen Widmer,“Xiaoqing’s Literary Legacy and the Place of the Woman Writer in Late Imperial China,” Late Imperial China 13,no.1 (1992):111—55.Using current research,Zhang first suggests that the cult ofqingis a male-centered narrative,and then demonstrates Zheng’s opinion that “the masculineqingdiscourse was socially improper and morally unacceptable in reality” through tragic stories of women who are obsessed withqingin MYY.In this way,the female author challenges the male-centered ideology and fantasy ofqing.However,Zheng does not discard the notion ofqingaltogether,but replaces it with filial piety,which Zhang calls “sublimeqing.” Zheng agrees with the cult ofqingin terms of the authenticity and applies it to filial piety,and elevates it to the highest priority.In this way,Zhang argues that Zheng empowers her female characters,giving them new authority in their marriages,particularly enhancing women’s subjectivity in marriage and emphasizing their connections to their birth families.In this sense,this “sublimeqing” challenges two of the Five Cardinal Relationships in Confucian orthodoxy—a woman’s relationship with her parents overpowers her duties towards her husband’s parents and loyalty towards the emperor.Moreover,Zheng questions the traditional filial piety which puts men’s filial duties on women’s shoulders and challenges it by creating asexual marriage which does not produce male heirs for her protagonists.However,Zhang also points out some vagueness which reduces Zheng’s criticism on the patriarchal system in this gentry woman’s work.

Chapter 3 looks at other ethical standards in MYY.First,Zhang delves into social bonding in MYY.She argues that male friendship is treated in a “chastely erotic” tone,fulfilling women’s fantasies while revealing their lack of knowledge and language about it.What Zhang really focuses on is female friendship and mentorship.She argues that Zheng uses women’s poetry clubs to foster women’s friendship and mentorship within and beyond the family,a real reflection of Zheng’s life and the cultural practice in Jiangnan elite families.These women’s poetry demystifies male fantasy of women’s poetry clubs as inHonglou meng红楼梦 (Dream of the Red Chamber),establishing a real female space in literature and in real life.Since these women value their own friendship which grants them agency over family life,it can be viewed as a resistance to the Confucian gender system.

Because Zheng Zhenhua commits suicide in face of a national disaster,Chapter 3 also focuses on how Zheng views women’s martyrdom in MYY.Strikingly,ten out of twelve female characters who are flower spirits die by their own choice.These women choose to commit suicide for various reasons,such as proving their chastity,resisting marriage,declaring innocence,etc.Taking control of their own bodies,their decision in death should be viewed as the ultimate agency women held in late imperial China.While Zheng celebrates women’s martyrdom by treating women’s death as “a promise of intellectual and spiritual fulfillment,” Zheng also realizes that not every man understands or sympathizes with women’s choices of suicide,depicting a real world of gender inequality.6Ibid.,80.

Chapters 4 and 5 turn to Zhou Yingfang,Zheng’s daughter,and hertanci,JZZ.Chapter 4 uses approaches of gender studies to closely read Zhou’s rewriting of the famous Yue Fei story.Although Yue Fei had already been established in Chinese literature as a masculine hero of dedication and loyalty before Zhou’s time,Zhang argues,Zhou’s rewriting of the hero provides a female perspective and creates a female space.In this female-authoredtanci,Yue Fei is no longer a mere military hero,but also a scholarly,sentimental man.More importantly,this hero not only belongs to the outer sphere,but also has strong bonds with his family.Zhou expands Yue Fei’s story into the domestic space,creating ideal familial relationships of the military hero,including with his children,with his wife,and with his mother (filial piety is also emphasized,just as in Zhou’s mother’stanci).On the other hand,women in thistanciare not marginalized.Zhou redefines and promotes her own vision of female virtues,including strength,endurance,beauty,and management skills.She creates a utopian domestic space for women through important events in their lives,such as banquets,weddings,pregnancies,and childbirth.These domestic details build a female space where the female author and readers can share their “feminized knowledge which ［carries］ social,personal and emotional significance in women’s lives.”7Ibid.,118

Chapter 5 is a study on the reception of Zhou’s JZZ.As Yu Zhang points out,JZZ experienced various nationalistic interpretations in various historical contexts after its completion in 1895 and its publication in 1930s.During the anti-Qing revolutions,JZZ was viewed as an anti-Manchu text and its protagonist,Yue Fei,was elevated to a nationalistic hero since then,but Zhang reminds the readers that Zhou actually does not show any anti-Manchu sentiment in her work though intending it to be a political allegory.During the Japanese invasion in the 1930s,JZZ saw its prime in terms of its popularity.Intellectuals intentionally promoted non-elite cultures to enlighten the people and to save the nation,and JZZ,atancifiction about Yue Fei,fit perfectly in their agenda.Zhang explores major scholars’ opinions on JZZ during this time,including Zheng Zhenduo 郑振铎，Tan Zhengbi 谭正璧，Zhao Jingshen 赵景深 and Tao Qiuying 陶秋英.While the male scholars promoted JZZ for its nationalistic values,the sole female scholar Tao Qiuying did not include JZZ into her collection oftancifiction,but instead promote other female-authoredtancifor their literary and moral values.

Chapter 6 focuses on YXC,atanciby a male author,posing a contrast to the previous two by female authors.As Zhang argues,YXC displays Judaoren’s anxiety about his masculinity.Unlike Zheng and Zhou who are proud of thetancigenre,Judaoren is actually frustrated by it.While Judaoren,like Zheng and Zhou,celebrates filial piety in histanci,he treats it and family as a retreat from the dangerous external world,indicating his frustration dealing with his unsuccessful career and the changing reality.Judaoren creates thriving male characters and submissive female characters; even though transgender is included in the plot,the transgression is counteracted by a male voyeuristic gaze on the female body and the assertion of the superiority of the male body.Ultimately,YXC is still a male fantasy in which gender norms and patriarchal orders are (re)- affirmed.

What is noteworthy in YXC though is the new worldview Judaoren pictures.Although Judaoren blurs the time and space of thetancifiction,China is no longer the center of the world in YXC.Although China and its cultures are still portrayed as superior,it is also open and inclusive,accepting diverse ethnic groups and new knowledge such as natural sciences.Compared to the other twotanciwhich use China’s history as political allegories,this one actually reflects a rapidly changing world in the late nineteenth century from a male scholar’s perspective,suggesting the beginning of modernity of China.However,it still takes a nostalgic view of China’s glorious imperial past.

The epilogue of the book serves as the conclusion to the threetanci.Facing the national crises in late Qing China,all three authors use their works to imagine the solutions,agreeing “to reappropriate Confucian disorder,to reshape gender (roles),and to rebuild social order.”8Ibid.,185.They all promote family values,especially filial piety.The threetancialso all include the theme of immortality,and Zhang believes that religions serve as a means for the gentry class to deal with the stressful reality.Zhang finishes this book by providing some more information about the consumption oftancifiction in early Republican China,including their publication,their major audience,and their gendered authorship.

Overall,Yu Zhang’s new book opens two new territories of research ontancifiction:she puts the genre in an interfamilial context and studies their potential influences on each other; she also compares female-authoredtancifiction with male-authoredtancifiction.In terms of research methodologies,she combines archival research,gender studies,reception studies,and studies on Chinese modernity.In this sense,this monograph can truly be considered thorough and extensive.The only regret is the missing link of the direct evidence of these authors writing or commenting on each other’s works and how they were influenced by each other,but it is also limited by the materials the author,Yu Zhang,can find and access.I truly hope the missing links between differenttanciworks and their authors will be filled in future research.