- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226857923
- eISBN:
- 9780226857954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226857954.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter, which examines the conception of male beauty in late Imperial China, discusses key terms to clarify the conceptualization of homoerotic desire and the connoisseurial criteria of male ...
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This chapter, which examines the conception of male beauty in late Imperial China, discusses key terms to clarify the conceptualization of homoerotic desire and the connoisseurial criteria of male beauty current during this period. It explains that normative homosexual relations in the late imperial period were a cross-age and cross-class phenomenon where the younger partner was usually a servant or a prostitute while his patron was a member of the decent folk. In this relationship, the relative sexual roles of the partners were fixed. The boy played the receptive role, while the older partner played the insertive role in anal intercourse.Less
This chapter, which examines the conception of male beauty in late Imperial China, discusses key terms to clarify the conceptualization of homoerotic desire and the connoisseurial criteria of male beauty current during this period. It explains that normative homosexual relations in the late imperial period were a cross-age and cross-class phenomenon where the younger partner was usually a servant or a prostitute while his patron was a member of the decent folk. In this relationship, the relative sexual roles of the partners were fixed. The boy played the receptive role, while the older partner played the insertive role in anal intercourse.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226857923
- eISBN:
- 9780226857954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226857954.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is the relation between masculinity and homosexuality in late Imperial China. The book considers gender and sexuality as intertwined ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is the relation between masculinity and homosexuality in late Imperial China. The book considers gender and sexuality as intertwined phenomena, and explores ideas on, and representations of, both homosexual and homosocial relations, and the areas in which the two intersect or overlap. It highlights the prominence of male homosexuality in late Imperial erotic fiction and suggests that this was consistently fed by the visible presence of male prostitution.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which is the relation between masculinity and homosexuality in late Imperial China. The book considers gender and sexuality as intertwined phenomena, and explores ideas on, and representations of, both homosexual and homosocial relations, and the areas in which the two intersect or overlap. It highlights the prominence of male homosexuality in late Imperial erotic fiction and suggests that this was consistently fed by the visible presence of male prostitution.
Emily Baum
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226580616
- eISBN:
- 9780226580753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226580753.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter discusses how madness was understood and treated in late imperial China. Arguing that madness was considered a simultaneously biological, social, supernatural, and moral issue, it shows ...
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This chapter discusses how madness was understood and treated in late imperial China. Arguing that madness was considered a simultaneously biological, social, supernatural, and moral issue, it shows how the insane were cared for by a range of healers, including literati physicians, herbalists, shamans, and faith healers. The chapter begins with a discussion of Qing dynasty legal codes, which mandated that the insane be confined within the home. The remainder of the chapter explores different modes of understanding, explaining, and treating the mad condition during the late imperial period. Practitioners of Chinese medicine traced madness to biological, environmental, gendered, and emotional causes. Supernatural healers posited a relationship between madness, demonic possession, and the displeasure of deceased ancestors or gods. Finally, many families attributed the onset of madness to social causes, such as financial insecurity, heartbreak, or the pressure of preparing for the civil service examinations.Less
This chapter discusses how madness was understood and treated in late imperial China. Arguing that madness was considered a simultaneously biological, social, supernatural, and moral issue, it shows how the insane were cared for by a range of healers, including literati physicians, herbalists, shamans, and faith healers. The chapter begins with a discussion of Qing dynasty legal codes, which mandated that the insane be confined within the home. The remainder of the chapter explores different modes of understanding, explaining, and treating the mad condition during the late imperial period. Practitioners of Chinese medicine traced madness to biological, environmental, gendered, and emotional causes. Supernatural healers posited a relationship between madness, demonic possession, and the displeasure of deceased ancestors or gods. Finally, many families attributed the onset of madness to social causes, such as financial insecurity, heartbreak, or the pressure of preparing for the civil service examinations.
BONNIE S. McDOUGALL
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199256792
- eISBN:
- 9780191698378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256792.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter provides a brief sketch of letter writing in China and Western countries, with particular attention to published letters, love-letters, and letters in literature. It was this background ...
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This chapter provides a brief sketch of letter writing in China and Western countries, with particular attention to published letters, love-letters, and letters in literature. It was this background from which Lu Xun and Xu Guangping drew for their own practice. The discussion summarizes the major characteristics of letters in pre-modern China, as well as the features associated with Western letter writing which differ from older Chinese letters. When Chinese writers and readers looked westwards in the early twentieth century, they quickly assimilated almost all of these features. Of particular relevance to the letters written and then published by Xu Guangping and Lu Xun are the porous borders between personal and open letters, between love-letters and other kinds of intimate confessions, and between authentic and imagined letters.Less
This chapter provides a brief sketch of letter writing in China and Western countries, with particular attention to published letters, love-letters, and letters in literature. It was this background from which Lu Xun and Xu Guangping drew for their own practice. The discussion summarizes the major characteristics of letters in pre-modern China, as well as the features associated with Western letter writing which differ from older Chinese letters. When Chinese writers and readers looked westwards in the early twentieth century, they quickly assimilated almost all of these features. Of particular relevance to the letters written and then published by Xu Guangping and Lu Xun are the porous borders between personal and open letters, between love-letters and other kinds of intimate confessions, and between authentic and imagined letters.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226857923
- eISBN:
- 9780226857954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226857954.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the concept of friendship in relation to love between men in late Imperial China. It argues that the very concept of love circulating in late Ming culture was fundamentally ...
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This chapter examines the concept of friendship in relation to love between men in late Imperial China. It argues that the very concept of love circulating in late Ming culture was fundamentally influenced by the chivalric ideal of friendship between two men and that the egalitarian homosocial model of male friendship played a crucial role in shaping the generic concept of romantic love, irrespective of the gender of the lovers involved. The chapter also details the intellectual context of the rise of the so-called cult of love in the late Ming period.Less
This chapter examines the concept of friendship in relation to love between men in late Imperial China. It argues that the very concept of love circulating in late Ming culture was fundamentally influenced by the chivalric ideal of friendship between two men and that the egalitarian homosocial model of male friendship played a crucial role in shaping the generic concept of romantic love, irrespective of the gender of the lovers involved. The chapter also details the intellectual context of the rise of the so-called cult of love in the late Ming period.
Carsten Herrmann-Pillath
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198829911
- eISBN:
- 9780191868368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829911.003.0028
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter approaches China’s sequence of transformations in the ‘short’ twentieth century between the collapse of empire 1911 and World Trade Organization entry in 2001 against the background of ...
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This chapter approaches China’s sequence of transformations in the ‘short’ twentieth century between the collapse of empire 1911 and World Trade Organization entry in 2001 against the background of discussing the nature of the Imperial from which this arduous and violent process started out. During that period, immense political efforts were directed at tackling the perceived legacy of social and cultural impediments to economic modernization and building national strength, though with radically different means, such as switching from Maoism to reform policies in 1978. The chapter analyses core features of change such as the role of the rural sector, the weak penetration of society by formal bureaucratic institutions of the state, and the interaction between institutional change and transformation of social structure. After detailing major aspects of recent economic reforms, the key conclusion is that throughout the twentieth century until present times, economic transformation remains inextricably intertwined with the secular process of modern state building.Less
This chapter approaches China’s sequence of transformations in the ‘short’ twentieth century between the collapse of empire 1911 and World Trade Organization entry in 2001 against the background of discussing the nature of the Imperial from which this arduous and violent process started out. During that period, immense political efforts were directed at tackling the perceived legacy of social and cultural impediments to economic modernization and building national strength, though with radically different means, such as switching from Maoism to reform policies in 1978. The chapter analyses core features of change such as the role of the rural sector, the weak penetration of society by formal bureaucratic institutions of the state, and the interaction between institutional change and transformation of social structure. After detailing major aspects of recent economic reforms, the key conclusion is that throughout the twentieth century until present times, economic transformation remains inextricably intertwined with the secular process of modern state building.
Grace S. Fong
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824831868
- eISBN:
- 9780824869175
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824831868.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This book addresses the critical question of how to approach the study of women's writing. It explores various methods of engaging in a meaningful way with a rich corpus of poetry and prose written ...
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This book addresses the critical question of how to approach the study of women's writing. It explores various methods of engaging in a meaningful way with a rich corpus of poetry and prose written by women of the late Ming and Qing periods. The book treats different genres of writing and includes translations of texts that are made available for the first time in English. Among the works considered are the life-long poetic record of Gan Lirou, the lyrical travel journal kept by Wang Fengxian, and the erotic poetry of the concubine Shen Cai. Taking the view that gentry women's varied textual production was a form of cultural practice, the book examines women's autobiographical poetry collections, travel writings, and critical discourse on the subject of women's poetry, offering fresh insights on women's intervention into the dominant male literary tradition. The texts translated and discussed here include documents written by concubines—women who occupied a subordinate position in the family and social system. The book adopts the notion of agency as a theoretical focus to investigate forms of subjectivity and enactments of subject positions in the intersection between textual practice and social inscription. Reading the life and work of women writers reveals surprising instances and modes of self-empowerment within the gender constraints of Confucian orthodoxy. It argues that literate women in late imperial China used writing and reading to create literary and social communities, transcend temporal-spatial and social limitations, and represent themselves as the authors of their own life histories.Less
This book addresses the critical question of how to approach the study of women's writing. It explores various methods of engaging in a meaningful way with a rich corpus of poetry and prose written by women of the late Ming and Qing periods. The book treats different genres of writing and includes translations of texts that are made available for the first time in English. Among the works considered are the life-long poetic record of Gan Lirou, the lyrical travel journal kept by Wang Fengxian, and the erotic poetry of the concubine Shen Cai. Taking the view that gentry women's varied textual production was a form of cultural practice, the book examines women's autobiographical poetry collections, travel writings, and critical discourse on the subject of women's poetry, offering fresh insights on women's intervention into the dominant male literary tradition. The texts translated and discussed here include documents written by concubines—women who occupied a subordinate position in the family and social system. The book adopts the notion of agency as a theoretical focus to investigate forms of subjectivity and enactments of subject positions in the intersection between textual practice and social inscription. Reading the life and work of women writers reveals surprising instances and modes of self-empowerment within the gender constraints of Confucian orthodoxy. It argues that literate women in late imperial China used writing and reading to create literary and social communities, transcend temporal-spatial and social limitations, and represent themselves as the authors of their own life histories.
Ho-fung Hung
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231152037
- eISBN:
- 9780231525459
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231152037.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The origin of political modernity has long been tied to the Western history of protest and revolution, the currents of which many believe sparked popular dissent worldwide. Reviewing nearly one ...
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The origin of political modernity has long been tied to the Western history of protest and revolution, the currents of which many believe sparked popular dissent worldwide. Reviewing nearly one thousand instances of protest in China from the eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, the book charts an evolution of Chinese dissent that stands apart from Western trends. The author samples from mid-Qing petitions and humble plaints to the emperor, revisiting rallies, riots, market strikes, and other forms of contention rarely considered in previous studies. Drawing on new world history, which accommodates parallels and divergences between political-economic and cultural developments East and West, the author shows how the centralization of political power and an expanding market, coupled with a persistent Confucianist orthodoxy, shaped protesters' strategies and appeals in Qing China. This unique form of mid-Qing protest combined a quest for justice and autonomy with a filial-loyal respect for the imperial center, and the author's research ties this distinct characteristic to popular protest in China today. The book makes clear, the nature of these protests prove late imperial China was anything but a stagnant and tranquil empire before the West cracked it open. In fact, the origins of modern popular politics in China predate the 1911 Revolution. The book establishes a framework that others can use to compare popular protest among different cultural fabrics, and fundamentally recasts the evolution of such acts worldwide.Less
The origin of political modernity has long been tied to the Western history of protest and revolution, the currents of which many believe sparked popular dissent worldwide. Reviewing nearly one thousand instances of protest in China from the eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, the book charts an evolution of Chinese dissent that stands apart from Western trends. The author samples from mid-Qing petitions and humble plaints to the emperor, revisiting rallies, riots, market strikes, and other forms of contention rarely considered in previous studies. Drawing on new world history, which accommodates parallels and divergences between political-economic and cultural developments East and West, the author shows how the centralization of political power and an expanding market, coupled with a persistent Confucianist orthodoxy, shaped protesters' strategies and appeals in Qing China. This unique form of mid-Qing protest combined a quest for justice and autonomy with a filial-loyal respect for the imperial center, and the author's research ties this distinct characteristic to popular protest in China today. The book makes clear, the nature of these protests prove late imperial China was anything but a stagnant and tranquil empire before the West cracked it open. In fact, the origins of modern popular politics in China predate the 1911 Revolution. The book establishes a framework that others can use to compare popular protest among different cultural fabrics, and fundamentally recasts the evolution of such acts worldwide.
Beata Grant
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832025
- eISBN:
- 9780824871758
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832025.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored ...
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The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as “the reinvention” of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of “classical” Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. This book brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first to provide a detailed view of their activities, and to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of “discourse records” (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The book is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contribution of Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.Less
The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as “the reinvention” of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of “classical” Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. This book brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first to provide a detailed view of their activities, and to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of “discourse records” (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The book is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contribution of Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.
Tobie Meyer-Fong
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804754255
- eISBN:
- 9780804785594
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804754255.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter highlights one man’s efforts to honor his deceased mother in writing. As a boy of eight, Zhang Guanglie witnessed his mother’s murder during the Taiping occupation of Hangzhou in 1861. ...
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This chapter highlights one man’s efforts to honor his deceased mother in writing. As a boy of eight, Zhang Guanglie witnessed his mother’s murder during the Taiping occupation of Hangzhou in 1861. In his “Record of 1861,” he both uses and challenges the conventions used in official commemoration for the war dead. His idiosyncratic and fragmentary book documents his deeply personal search for consolation. The chapter also deals with the role of publishing and newspapers as a medium for the formation of new types of post-war community.Less
This chapter highlights one man’s efforts to honor his deceased mother in writing. As a boy of eight, Zhang Guanglie witnessed his mother’s murder during the Taiping occupation of Hangzhou in 1861. In his “Record of 1861,” he both uses and challenges the conventions used in official commemoration for the war dead. His idiosyncratic and fragmentary book documents his deeply personal search for consolation. The chapter also deals with the role of publishing and newspapers as a medium for the formation of new types of post-war community.
Janet Theiss
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520240339
- eISBN:
- 9780520930667
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520240339.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Looking beyond the familiar trappings of the cult of female chastity — such as hagiographies of widows and chastity shrines — in late imperial China, this book explores the cult's political ...
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Looking beyond the familiar trappings of the cult of female chastity — such as hagiographies of widows and chastity shrines — in late imperial China, this book explores the cult's political significance and practical ramifications in everyday life during the eighteenth century. This book examines a vast number of laws, legal cases, regulations, and policies to illustrate the social and political processes through which female virtue was defined, enforced, and contested. Along the way, it provides rich details of social life and cultural practices among ordinary Chinese people through narratives of criminal cases of sexual assault, harassment, adultery, and domestic violence.Less
Looking beyond the familiar trappings of the cult of female chastity — such as hagiographies of widows and chastity shrines — in late imperial China, this book explores the cult's political significance and practical ramifications in everyday life during the eighteenth century. This book examines a vast number of laws, legal cases, regulations, and policies to illustrate the social and political processes through which female virtue was defined, enforced, and contested. Along the way, it provides rich details of social life and cultural practices among ordinary Chinese people through narratives of criminal cases of sexual assault, harassment, adultery, and domestic violence.
Weijing Lu
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758086
- eISBN:
- 9780804786782
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758086.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book examines the broad cultural, social, and gender meanings of the “faithful maiden” cult in late imperial China (1368–1911). Across the empire, an increasing number of young women or ...
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This book examines the broad cultural, social, and gender meanings of the “faithful maiden” cult in late imperial China (1368–1911). Across the empire, an increasing number of young women or “faithful maidens,” defied their parents' wishes and chose either to live out their lives as widows upon the death of a fiancé or killed themselves to join their fiancé in death. The book analyzes the familial conflicts, government policies, ideological controversies, and personal emotions surrounding the cult. Concentrating on the dramatic acts of spirit wedding and suicide, the faithful maidens' unique code of conduct, and the extraordinary life journey of “virgin mothers,” the author documents the ideological, psychological, cultural, and economic aspects of these young women's mentality and behavior, and the implications of this behavior for their families and the broader society. The book's narrative of the faithful maiden cult interweaves late imperial political, cultural, social and intellectual history, thus providing a window onto the history of the late imperial period.Less
This book examines the broad cultural, social, and gender meanings of the “faithful maiden” cult in late imperial China (1368–1911). Across the empire, an increasing number of young women or “faithful maidens,” defied their parents' wishes and chose either to live out their lives as widows upon the death of a fiancé or killed themselves to join their fiancé in death. The book analyzes the familial conflicts, government policies, ideological controversies, and personal emotions surrounding the cult. Concentrating on the dramatic acts of spirit wedding and suicide, the faithful maidens' unique code of conduct, and the extraordinary life journey of “virgin mothers,” the author documents the ideological, psychological, cultural, and economic aspects of these young women's mentality and behavior, and the implications of this behavior for their families and the broader society. The book's narrative of the faithful maiden cult interweaves late imperial political, cultural, social and intellectual history, thus providing a window onto the history of the late imperial period.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226857923
- eISBN:
- 9780226857954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226857954.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the so-called hybridization of the male protagonists in homoerotic fiction in late Imperial China. It analyzes several Qing fictional narratives including Cao Qujing's Nonsense ...
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This chapter examines the so-called hybridization of the male protagonists in homoerotic fiction in late Imperial China. It analyzes several Qing fictional narratives including Cao Qujing's Nonsense and Xia Jingqu's Humble Words, suggesting that their male protagonists are anti-libertine, defenders of traditional Confucian values, and the inspirers of a cultural renewal. The chapter suggests that the critiques of masculinity running through eighteenth-century fiction took different directions and that different models of masculinity in turn generated different attitudes toward homoeroticism.Less
This chapter examines the so-called hybridization of the male protagonists in homoerotic fiction in late Imperial China. It analyzes several Qing fictional narratives including Cao Qujing's Nonsense and Xia Jingqu's Humble Words, suggesting that their male protagonists are anti-libertine, defenders of traditional Confucian values, and the inspirers of a cultural renewal. The chapter suggests that the critiques of masculinity running through eighteenth-century fiction took different directions and that different models of masculinity in turn generated different attitudes toward homoeroticism.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226857923
- eISBN:
- 9780226857954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226857954.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter, which examines the concept of the so-called libertine masculinity in late Imperial China by analyzing pornographic novels of the period, traces the rise and decline of the narrative ...
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This chapter, which examines the concept of the so-called libertine masculinity in late Imperial China by analyzing pornographic novels of the period, traces the rise and decline of the narrative trope of the libertine and highlights the changing standards of masculinity from the late Ming to the mid-Qing periods. It describes the protagonists and the narrative of several pornographic fictions including A Crazed Lady, The Plum in the Golden Vase, and A Libertine's Story.Less
This chapter, which examines the concept of the so-called libertine masculinity in late Imperial China by analyzing pornographic novels of the period, traces the rise and decline of the narrative trope of the libertine and highlights the changing standards of masculinity from the late Ming to the mid-Qing periods. It describes the protagonists and the narrative of several pornographic fictions including A Crazed Lady, The Plum in the Golden Vase, and A Libertine's Story.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226857923
- eISBN:
- 9780226857954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226857954.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the depiction of male romance in pornographic fiction of late Imperial China. It explains that male love had a central place in the 1792 romantic classic The Red Chamber Dream, ...
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This chapter examines the depiction of male romance in pornographic fiction of late Imperial China. It explains that male love had a central place in the 1792 romantic classic The Red Chamber Dream, which had a profound influence on the mid-nineteenth century male romance Precious Mirror for Ranking Flowers. The chapter argues that these two homoerotic fictions are linked by the notion of egalitarian love, which was influenced by the ideals of chivalric homosociality.Less
This chapter examines the depiction of male romance in pornographic fiction of late Imperial China. It explains that male love had a central place in the 1792 romantic classic The Red Chamber Dream, which had a profound influence on the mid-nineteenth century male romance Precious Mirror for Ranking Flowers. The chapter argues that these two homoerotic fictions are linked by the notion of egalitarian love, which was influenced by the ideals of chivalric homosociality.
