Virginia Review of Asian Studies
JING HUA YUAN AND ITS EQUAL BUT SEPARATE SEXUAL
IDEOLOGY
YING LIANG
BEIJING FOREIGN STUDIES UNIVERSITY
Abstract: The ambiguities in the novel Jing hua yuan concerning women’s issues
represented the culmination of eighteenth century feminism in the context of Confucian
and Daoism thought. Because of the conflict between Confucianism’s traditional
conservatism and the challenges to its oppressive ideology, even though the author Li
Ruzhen designed a women’s utopia, he showed ambivalence throughout his treatment of
sexual politics. Furthermore, because of the influence of Daoism, his utopia ended up
separated not only from patriarchy but also from the human world. The politics of female
emancipation he promoted is of an “equal but separate” kind.
Key words: gender reversal; female separatism; women’s utopia
Jing hua yuan 镜花缘 (“Reflections of Flowers in the Mirror” or as the English translation
has it “Flowers in the Mirror”) was written by Li Ruzhen 李汝珍 (c.1763 - c.1830). The novel
has been subjected to different interpretations in literary history. Among Li Ruzhen’s
contemporary intellectuals, critical opinion agreed that the book exposed social prejudices,
although some critics blamed the novel for containing didactic Confucian morality and ethical
codes. Critics of Li Ruzhen’s time basically focused on the depictions of strange overseas
foreign lands and the social realities and customs of China these foreign lands expose; therefore
the position of women in Chinese society was not among the concerns.
Following the collapse of Qing 清 (1644 to 1911) government, the outbreak of Wusi
yundong 五四运动 (“May Fourth Movement”) in 1919, and the influx of Western thought,
especially the ideals and goals of the Western women’s rights movement, a feminist approach to
Jing hua yuan took hold in the 1920s. In 1923 Hu Shi 胡适 wrote his famous essay “Ch’ing-hua
yuan de yinlun” 镜花缘的引论 (“Introduction to Jing hua yuan”) to put forward his feminist
reading of the book. He observed in the article that the focus of the novel is women’s questions;
the novel preached that “men and women should receive equal treatment, equal education, equal
opportunity for selection,” and equal opportunity for political participation (531). Hu remarked
that in thousands of years of Chinese history, Li Ruzhen was the first to seriously treat women’s
problems. Hu Shi predicted at the end of his essay that:
Li Ruzhen’s episode about the Nü’er guo 女儿国 (“Country of Women”) will surely
become immortal in the world history of women’s rights. And his ideas about women’s
chastity, education, and election will occupy a glorious position in the Chinese history
of women’s rights. (author’s translation)
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他的女儿国一大段，将来一定要成为世界女权史上的一篇永永不朽的大文；他对
于女子贞操，女子教育，女子选举等等问题的见解，将来一定要在中国女权史上
占一个很光荣的位置. (433)
Another literary critic, Lin Yutang 林语堂, in his essay “Feminist Thought in Ancient China”
supported Hu’s view and stated that the book is a powerful example of pioneer works which
advocate gender equality (127-150).1
Most studies on the novel’s treatment of women since then have followed Hu Shi and Lin
Yutang’s lead. Critics from the 1930s through 1990s, such as Lu Xun 鲁迅, Lin Taiyi 林太乙,
Xu Shinian 徐士年, Paul S. Ropp, Xie Jifang 谢继芳, Wolfram Eberhard, all read the novel as
motivated by feminist concerns.2
Partly because of the political climate in China and the global situation of the Cold War in
the world, the critical discourse changed significantly in the 1950s, when many critics either
disagreed with Hu Shi and his followers or accepted them with very much hesitation. For
instance, Ping Ping Lee argued that “Hu Shi failed to recognize the hidden masculine prejudice
and sexist bias encoded in Li Ruzhen’s treatment of Chinese women” (16). F. P. Brandauer, in
his “Women in the Ching-hua yuan [Jing hua yuan],” argues that Li Ruzhen’s theories of freeing
women develop around Confucian ethics and thus are not in line with modern feminism. In 1977
C. T. Hsia completely rejected any feminist interpretation. He pointed out that Li Ruzhen
accepted the Confucian assumptions of male privilege and dominance over women. Other critics
that dismiss reading the novel as a feminist work include You Xinxiong 尤信雄, Maram Epstein,
Ma Qian, Wu Qingyun, Zheng Huili.3
Lin’s article “Feminist Thought in Ancient China” was not accessible during my research. His ideas were quoted from
Brandauer, F.P. “Women in the Ching-hua yuan: Emancipation toward a Confucian Ideal.” Journal of Asian Studies 36.4 (1977):
647-660; Zhang Aidong’s “Critical Discourse on Li Ruzhen’s Flowers in the Mirror” page 18.
2 Lu, Xun. Zhongguo xiaoshuo shilüe 中国小说史略 (“A Brief History of Chinese Fiction”). Trans. Yang Xianyi and Gladys
Yang. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1976. Reprinted in 1982.
Lin, Taiyi 林太乙. Introduction. Flowers in the Mirror 镜花缘 (“Jing hua yuan”). Trans. Lin Taiyi. London: Peter Owen, 1965.
5-13.
Xu, Shinian 徐士年. Gudian xiaoshuo lunji 古典小说论集 (“Collected essays on traditional Chinese novel”). Shanghai:
Shanghai gudian wenxue chubanshe, 1956.
Ropp, Paul S. “The Seeds of Change: Reflections on the Condition of Women in the Early and Mid Ch'ing.” Signs 2.1 (1976): 523.
Xie, Jifang 谢继芳. “Jing hua yuan zhong de chuantong zhongguo shehui” 镜花缘中的传统中国社会 (“Traditional Chinese
society in Jing hua yuan”) Xiandai xueyuan 现代学苑 8.8 (1971): 13-19.
Eberhard, Wolfram. Dictionary of Chinese Symbols. Singapore: Federal Publications, 1990.
3 Epstein, Maram. “Engendering Order: Structure, Gender, and Meaning in the Qing Novel Jinghua yuan.” Chinese Literature:
Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) 18 (1996): 101-127.
You, Xinxiong 尤信雄. “Jing hua yuan de zhuzhi jiqi chengjiu” 镜花缘的主旨及其成就 (“Jing hua yuan’s theme and
achievement”). Li Ruzhen yan jiu ziliao 李汝珍研究资料 (“Research sources on Li Ruzhen”) Taibei: Tianyi chubanshe, 1981.
31-33.
Wu, Qingyun. Female Rule in Chinese and English Literary Utopias. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995. Wu argues that
the reference to Ban Zhao subverts the Confucian feminine virtues (chapter 4).
Ma, Qian. Feminist Utopian Discourse in Eighteen Century Chinese and English Fiction: A Cross Cultural Comparison.
Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate 2004.
Zheng, Huili. “The Appropriation of the Other in the Flowers in the Mirror.” MA thesis. University of Toronto, 2003.
1
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Previous work has either praised the book for being progressive for its time, or criticized it
for its failure to achieve contemporary standards of sexuality equality. In other words, they either
praised the discourse as revolutionary or criticized it as patriarchal. Scholars after the 1990s
seem to propose interesting variants on this debate. Stephen Roddy in 1998 claimed that “at the
very least the novel implies that the inversion of male-female relations does not necessarily lead
to unmitigated disaster” (172). He also believes that Li Ruzhen presents girls in the novel as
embodiments of learning, and juxtaposes girls with men who just aim at material gains. Ma Qian
argues that “the concept of gender role reversal is no longer new in today’s feminist utopian
fictions, but Li Ruzhen’s novel had no precedent in either China or the West” (160). But Ma
Qian also points out the temporary and illusory nature of the women’s utopia: “there is a dual
message in Li’s novel --- a feminist voice that advocates emancipation for women and a
patriarchal voice that confines women to Confucian ethics.… [I]t is the overwhelming power of
patriarchy that renders early feminist thought a utopian illusion” (161). Carlos Rojas uses the
novel, including its misogynist potential, to illuminate the representational process itself, instead
of what is represented:
Rather than merely treating the novel as a mimetic mirror of late Qing society
(“patriarchal” or otherwise), I propose to look beyond the mirror’s own visual image,
focusing instead on the mirror’s invisible “tain” responsible for the production of the
image in the first place, for insight into the relationship in society between
representation and both oppression and empowerment. (87) (emphasis in the original)
Contemporary scholars also see the novel as a social commentary on the intellectual milieu
of its time (Lee 14). They argue that the novel deals with the literati’s concerns through the
portraits of scholars, as well as the criticism of the civil service examination system. Some
scholars link the intellectual issues with women’s questions. For instance, Stephen Roddy
discusses the reversal of gender roles in the context of its treatment of literati concerns. Maram
Epstein’s essay “Engendering Order: Structure, Gender, and Meaning in the Qing Novel Jinghua
yuan” argues that the characterization of women reflects Li Ruzhen’s ambivalence toward the
literati’s place in society.
I would adopt the position that the ambiguities in the novel concerning women’s issues
represented the culmination of eighteenth century feminism in the context of Confucian and
Daoist thought. From the eighteenth century to 1911, both women’s utopian fictions and the
volume and intensity of feminist thought flourished. As a result, when Li Ruzhen was writing the
book, Confucianism began to develop a more liberal and enlightened aspect and began to
question itself about its traditional tenets of chastity, obedience, and subordination for women.
Confucian scholars also began questioning the morality of widow suicide, foot-binding, and
concubines. For instance, there were widespread debates on the rights and duties of widows,
regarding the rights of widows to remarry, widow suicide, and the suicide of betrothed widows.
Scholar Yuan Mei 袁枚 (1716-1797) and even Emperors such as Kangxi 康熙 (1662-1723) and
Qianlong 乾隆 (1736-1796) condemned the practice of foot-binding, on various grounds ranging
from aesthetic to humanitarian. 1796 even witnessed the appearance of Chen Duansheng 陈端
生’s women’s utopia Zai sheng yuan 再生缘 (“The Destiny of the Next Life”).
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So Li Ruzhen, as an enlightened Confucian scholar, challenged oppressive Confucian
ideology. He believed that women should receive equal treatment as men in life, sexuality,
general welfare, education, selection, and work. He designed a women’s utopia, based on these
equal treatment theories. Using dramatic satire and reversal of gender roles as his strategies, Li
Ruzhen launched a war against China’s patriarchy, particularly against its yin 阴 and yang 阳
order, and customs such as foot-binding and polygamy. His women appear mostly as fairies,
rulers, gifted scholars, and warriors in the novel.
However, because of the conflict between Confucianism’s traditional conservatism and the
challenges to its oppressive ideology, Li Ruzhen showed ambivalence and even contradictions
throughout his treatment of sexual politics. Furthermore, although Li Ruzhen is a Confucian
scholar, the philosophical and religious underpinning of the novel is Daoism. The Daoist concept
of separation from the present earthly world influenced the design of Li Ruzhen’s woman’s
utopia. His utopia ended up separated not only from patriarchy but also from the human world.
The politics of female emancipation he promoted is of an equal but separate kind.
1. Equality in sexual norms
One particular episode that exposes the unfair treatment of women tells of the visit of Tang
Ao 唐敖, a talented scholar, to the Nü’er guo 女儿国 (“Country of Women”). Li Ruzhen gives a
vivid and comical narration about what happens in this imaginary land. This episode occurs in
probably the best known chapters in Jing hua yuan, one in which women and men swap their
identities, functions, and activities as prescribed by traditional Chinese patriarchal mores. Men
are treated as the second sex. Women dominate men. Yin is over yang. The social roles are
totally subverted. Men call themselves women and women men. Women manage state affairs
outside the household. They become professors, lawyers, and senators. In contrast, men are
under the political control of women. They are sequestered within the house, doing domestic
chores such as needlework. They also raise children.
The sexual norms are also reversed. Men wear skirts whereas women wear hats and
trousers. Men appear delicate and shy. They bind their feet, pierce their ears, wear feminine
adornments, and powder themselves. They actually find their own bound feet most desirable.
Women in this country do not bind their feet or pierce their ears at all.
Li Ruzhen’s condemnation of patriarchal mores in this chapter is related to a deep belief in
the Confucian golden rule: Ji suo bu yu, wu shiyuren 己所不欲，勿施于人 (“what you do not
want done to yourself, do not do to others”). Li Ruzhen inverts the roles between men and
women and puts men through a typical female experience. He invites male readers to experience
how women suffer and compels his male audience to look at these customs from a victim’s point
of view.
In their struggle for equality, many utopian designs before 1800 had men and women
dressing the same or similar. The gender of the body was not a central issue. Besides, these
utopias wanted to offer some kind of uniformity such as wearing identical clothing. For instance,
in Thomas More’s Utopia: “As for clothes, these are of one and the same pattern throughout the
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island and down the centuries, though there is distinction between the sexes and between the
single and married” (69).
Afterwards the unique individual became more important in utopianism. Uniformity in
dressing disappeared. In the eighteenth century in the West the cultivation of appearance was
practiced mainly by the aristocracy. However, during the twentieth century sexual difference in
appearance started to be stressed. It became a marker of social asymmetry and power. After all,
clothing always indicates social status and position in a hierarchical society, especially in public
life.
Carlos Rojas has pointed out that a “particularly prominent Chinese thought” associates
“femininity with external appearance, and masculinity with internal content” (xx-xxi) (emphasis
in the original). To dress up means to lose your dignity. Dignity requires clothing that does not
draw attention to the body. Therefore a changed power relation comes with new meaning of the
gendered body. In women’s utopias women are liberated from the female ideal of beauty;
women are not used as sexual objects any more. Thus in the Country of Women in this novel,
men have to be the pretty ones. Their clothing draws attention to the male body that is associated
with sexuality. And women in this kingdom tell men whether the men look pretty or not.
Personal appearance becomes a domain of men.
A well known story which happened in this kingdom of women is Lin Zhiyang 林之洋
(“Merchant Lin)’s mishap. When he takes his wares to the royal palace, the female king falls in
love with him because of his good looks. The king proceeds to install him as her concubine. She
retains and imprisons him at her palace. Before their wedding, Merchant Lin is properly
womanized: he is perfumed, bathed, anointed, combed, powdered, rouged, and dressed in a skirt.
He is forced to wear bracelets, rings, a headdress, sash, and other ornaments. Despite his cries of
pain, his ears are pierced and feet bound. In all, he is beautified to become a charming object of
desire for the king. In a farcical light, the narrative highlights vividly the physical ordeal as well
as the mental anguish that Lin undergoes when he has his feet bound.
Besides equality in social customs such as foot-binding, Li Ruzhen also stressed sexual
equality and strict monogamy. But China practiced polygamy and concubinage for thousands of
years and did not ban the custom until 1949. Even though men can take as many concubines as
they want, women do not have such a right. A strict concern for chastity has been historically
applied much more consistently to the behavior of women than to that of men. Li Ruzhen argues
that, the same standard of chastity should apply to both sexes. In other words, there should not be
a double standard that favors men. The strategy Li Ruzhen uses to convey his ideas is again, sex
and gender role reversal and the Confucian philosophical posture: what you do not want done to
yourself, do not do to others.
When Tang Xiaoshan 唐小山 (“Tang Little Hill”) and her companions visit one particularly
grotesque land, Liangmian guo 两面国 (“Country of the Two-faced People”) in their journey,
they are captured by a local bandit chief. The bandit is childless so he decides to keep Tang Little
Hill and her two companions as his concubines. Enraged by her husband’s licentiousness, his
wife first seeks suicide, but then has him beaten almost to death. At that time, the pirate’s wife
utters a retort, in a passage which is a very often quoted. The core of her accusation is: you think
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only of yourself. If you can take concubines, why cannot I take male concubines? The morality
of this tale lies in switching to the perspective of women and transcending the sexual double
standards, a stance of which unprecedented in the classical Chinese novel.
2. Equality in education, selection, and work
Women-at-work is always one big issue in women’s utopias. In feminist history, East or
West, relatively very little theorizing has been done about the work sphere. Feminists have
largely focused on issues of sexuality, motherhood, and the domestic sphere, as if agreeing that
this terrain is still a central one for women. Politically, the Confucian order of yang over yin
barred women from power in the state. Traditional Chinese maxims have Nüzi wucai bianshi de
女子无才便是德 (“A woman without talent is virtuous”), and Toufachang jianshiduan 头发长
见识短 (“A woman’s hair is long but her vision and knowledge are short”).
But education is a civilizing force. Education and morality are inseparable concepts in
orthodox Confucian thinking. Under the guidance of this doctrine, women are allowed to read
books of selected moral and behavioral instructions, books appropriate for them, such as Nü si
shu 女四书 (“The Four Books for Women”) edited by Wang Xiang 王相 in 1624. Beginning as
early as the Song 宋 dynasty (960-1279) it was not uncommon for wealthy upper class Chinese
families to educate their daughters. During the Qing dynasty, some women formed literary
circles. But in these educational endeavors, the most fundamental and essential part still involved
writing poetry or reading morality books.
In this regard, Li Ruzhen shows his radical feminist thinking. He is keenly concerned with
the possibility of women fulfilling themselves through education and examinations. He
advocates equal education, equal rights of examination, and equal selection. In the novel he
makes Empress Wu Zetian 武则天 institute a special decree for establishing a new imperial
examination system for women. To successful female candidates, Empress Wu also makes
awards of public honors, degrees, and titles. Ma Qian observed that Jing hua yuan “extols both
women’s education and the educated women,” and it not only portrays many talented female
characters but also makes “women’s talent and learning socially recognized” (168). In this
regard, Jing hua yuan is totally different from previous Chinese works, because in Chinese
history, imperial examinations were not open to women in reality or in literary works. One
exception is in the popular drama, Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai 梁山伯与祝英台 (“Liang
Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai”), where the aristocratic girl Zhu Yingtai 祝英台 enrolls in a school.
But still Zhu has to take the disguise of a man to do this. In Jing hua yuan a hundred women
(flower spirits) appear in the examination site without hiding their identities and pass the
examination with honor.
To achieve sexual equality in both education and work, Li Ruzhen not only just makes
women attend imperial examinations and makes it a central mission in the novel, he proposes
equal opportunity for civil advancement between men and women. He asserts women’s abilities
in running affairs. Women should explore their potential to the fullest and serve in government
positions as men do. Li Ruzhen summons Yin Ruohua 阴若花 (“Flowerlike”) back to the
Country of Women and assigns her to succeed the throne. The three knowledgeable girls
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Flowerlike takes along with her become her guardian ministers. These four girls have all
achieved the top rank of cainü 才女 (“Talented Lady”) in the imperial examination.
Women in Jing hua yuan are talented in cultural arts, political capabilities, as well as
martial arts. Amazons appear throughout the novel, such as in the course of Tang Ao’s
adventures overseas and in Tang Little Hill’s journey. By the end of the novel, the talented and
noble girls are married to the Tang 唐 dynasty (618-907) loyalist rebels. They fulfill conjugal
piety, which is a Confucian expectation of virtuous wives, as well as actively support the military
campaigns against Empress Wu. These new wives, thirty five in total, form a female camp. They
take an important part in the battle. Without the women’s courage and strength, the loyalist army
would not be able to win the battle.
Many cultures have tales of women who donned the military garb and gone to war or joined
the hunt. Military maids also abound in Western narrative discourse. These strong and
exceptional women dress as men and adopt masculine traits to embark upon adventures. Their
motivation is often to escape from domestic boredom, gain employment in spheres normally
denied to women, realize love, or avenge the death of a relative. All in all, they reject hearth and
home because they desire to realize a lifestyle, romantic desire, or personal goal. In other words,
they rebel against restraints imposed on their sex or the individual by patriarchal society.
There is a sustained prevalence of the image of the woman warrior in Chinese culture as
well. During the period of the Zhan’guo 战国 (“Warring States”) (475-211B.C.), Sunzi 孙子, a
military commander, trained 180 court women to help conquer surrounding states. In a popular
legendary tale, Hua Mulan 花木兰 puts on man’s dress to join the army, because her aged father
can’t fulfill the mission. There are also historical tales of collective women warriors, such as
Yangmen nüjiang 杨门女将 (“Yang family women generals”) of the Song dynasty. Other very
well-known historical examples of women warriors include Liang Hongyu 梁红玉 (1102-1153),
Qin Liangyu 秦良玉 (1574-1648), Xianü shisan mei 侠女十三妹 (“Thirteenth Sister”), the
women of the Hongdengzhao 红灯照 (“Red Lantern brigades”), and the female battalions of the
Taiping Tianguo 太平天国 (“Taiping Rebellion”). In modern China, heroic women soldiers
played an indispensable role in defense of the nation and in support of the Communist army. In
contemporary China, fictions, drama, and poetry about women warriors are still popular. A
casual list of examples includes Gongfu 功夫 (“martial arts”) movies, Chinese media adaptations
of Hua Mulan4, TV series Yangmen nüjiang zhi nü’er dang ziqiang 杨门女将之女儿当自强
(“Yang family women generals: strong women episodes”) (2004), and Walt Disney’s movie
Mulan in 1998.
One dramatic contrast between Chinese and Western women warrior traditions is that in the
Chinese tradition, women act not in response to their own particular goals in life, except when
the ambitions involve with filial and loyal motives. For Chinese women warriors, the causative
and rationalizing moral principle is Confucian virtues of filial piety, loyalty to nation, and loyalty
to husband (Edwards 97). Such motives can justify a warlike or even aggressive behavior in
The adaptations include: Ming drama Ci Mulan 雌木兰 (“Mulan, a woman”); Ouyang Yuqian 欧阳予倩’s screenplay for
movies Mulan cong jun 木兰从军 (“Mulan joins the army”), released in 1939, directed by Pu Wancang 卜万苍.
4
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almost every instance in the novel that involves a martial girl, such as in the cases of Luo
Hongqu 骆红蕖 (“Red Lotus”), Lian Jinfeng 廉锦枫 (“Flowering Maple”), Ziying 紫缨 (“Purple
Cherry”), Yan Zixiao 颜紫绡 (“Purple Silk”), Yi Ziling 易紫菱 (“Purple Caltrop”), Zai Yuchan
宰玉蟾 (“Jade Moonlight”), Yan Ziqiong 燕紫琼 (“Purple Jade”), Tian Shunying 田舜英
(“Peaceful Blossom”), Xiuying 秀英 (“Fair Heroine”). Instead of being an opponent to the male
sex, Chinese woman warriors are utilized to aid men in their wars in honor of nation. They fight
alongside their husbands, thus showing their devotion to husbands and the nation.
This subordination of women is one of the reasons why some scholars argue that women
warriors in this novel do not pose a threat to the greater social order. I would argue that first,
official Confucian position always advocates the duties of women. Chinese women always
shoulder responsibility in family or national crisis, even in moments of patriarchal collapse.
According to the Chinese mythology, human beings on earth were made from mud by the
Goddess Nüwa 女娲. Pangu 盘古, a man, created the clearly differentiated worlds of heaven and
earth. Then a power structure and patriarchal civilization was constructed. Later on, wars started.
In a fit of anger, Gong Gong 共工 broke the pillar of heaven with his head. The sky collapsed,
flames spat up in the forests, and fierce animals came out of the forests to terrorize people’s
lives. The Goddess Nüwa was distressed to see her own creatures suffer and finally mended the
sky with molten colorful rocks. Because of Nüwa, human beings returned to enjoy a happy life
and the universe returned to its original order. Similarly, in Jing hua yuan women play an
important role during the height of the battle against the Empress Wu’s forces.
Second, Confucian teachings reconcile feminine behavior and talent with virtue. Womanly
virtues of filial piety and chaste loyalty are employed to rationalize heroic girls’ extreme
behavior and make the Amazons not threatening (Zheng 82). Their considerable physical skill,
feminine beauty, and morality complement and reinforce one another.
3. Equal and yet separate
Even though Li Ruzhen criticizes the prejudicial treatment of the female sex in traditional
Chinese society, his attitude toward the custom of foot-binding, polygamy, widow suicide, and
women’s selection is ambiguous. Though Li disapproves the practice of foot-binding, and
highlights his disapproval in the Country of Women episode, surprisingly he never openly
advocates abolition of this custom. There is no mention of foot-binding in Empress Wu’s
decrees. Although whether every flower spirit binds her feet or not is not specified in the text, we
know Tingting 亭亭 (“Purple Lily”) and Honghong 红红 (“Red Rose”) have beautiful bound
feet. Yin Ruohua 阴若花 (“Flowerlike”) was a prince in the Country of Women and because
women in that country don’t bind their feet, she didn’t bind her feet. But once she escapes from
her captivity in that foreign country and arrives in China, she is required to bind her feet
immediately. Yan Zixiao 颜紫绡 (“Purple Silk”), a notable woman warrior, also binds her feet!
How could she cover miles in a few minutes then? And Zhi Lanyin 枝兰音 (“Melody Orchid”)
endorses foot-binding for the sake of marriage. In other words, girl heroines can be intellectually
or martially formidable, but they need to be sensually charming.
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Li Ruzhen’s imperative on concubines is also ambivalent. The story of Su Ruolan 苏若兰5
in the novel is a typical example. Su Ruolan is a fourth century poet. She is beautiful and
talented, but short-tempered. She becomes jealous after her husband takes a singer as a
concubine. Unwilling to live together with the concubine, she refuses to go with her husband to
his new post. But she soon repents her jealousy and expresses her regret by embroidering a
composite poem on a piece of tapestry. The tapestry is a square pattern of 841 characters; each
line consisting of 29 characters. “The extraordinary literary craftsmanship of this tapestry is that
if you read this maze of characters backwards and forwards, up and down, in squares, in whirls,
diagonally and in a dozen other combination, you can get over 200 poems from it” (Zheng 82). It
is true that Li Ruzhen may use this tale as “a historical proof of the compatibility of talent and
virtue” (Zheng 82), but we still cast doubt on Li Ruzhen’s position on concubines since he uses
the tale as an exemplary text for all women. After all, it is a wife’s repentance for being jealous
of a concubine that prompts the embroidering. Besides, according to Empress Wu’s biographical
preface to Su Ruolan’s artwork, which the novel quotes, Su Ruolan’s literary talent is as
important as her morality. Furthermore, in the Heichi guo 黑齿国 (“Country of Black-toothed
People”), Duo Jiugong 多九公 (“Old Duo”) finds that Su Ruolan’s composite poem is written on
one side of Purple Lily and Red Rose’s fans. Another inconsistency used in the novel in
regarding to concubines is that the principal administrator of the imperial exam, Bian Bin 卞滨,
who is a model literati in the novel, has many concubines.
Li’s attitude toward other aspects of women’s roles in marital relations is equally
perplexing. In the last episode, six young male soldiers whom the flower spirits married or
betrothed are killed on the battlefield. To confirm their eternal conjugal fidelity, their wives
commit suicide without hesitation to preserve their integrity. The arts and morality these girls
demonstrated earlier through the novel seem to lead them nowhere but to the ultimate roles they
are going to play, i.e., virtuous wives (Zheng 89)!
As for equality in education and selection, Li Ruzhen’s vision basically limits this to letting
women imitate men. Within the existing imperial examination system, Li Ruzhen sets up a
separate and parallel subsystem for women. In other words, he only allows women to enter the
current system, rather than to compete with men within the system. Also, just because successful
candidates receive titles does not mean that they have equal rights in the political selection
process. They do not enter the same kind of government service as men (Brandauer 658-660).
Their political involvement is still minimal. Out of the hundred flower spirits, all of which win in
the imperial exam, only four talented women get posts --- to rule the Country of Women, not rule
in China. In other words, women do not compete with men for government posts either.
By Li Ruzhen’s time Confucian ethics, after over 1000 years of unchallenged dominance,
had penetrated into every stratum of Chinese society. “In motivation and outlook, Li Ruzhen was
always distinctively Confucian” (Brandauer 650). He reinstates conservative Confucian attitudes:
filial piety, chastity, and widow suicide in some parts of the novel. C. T. Hsia said: “the central
allegory of the novel is mainly designed to support a celebration of Chinese womanhood, with all
its beauty, virtue, and talent” (286).
5
Su’s story is dismissed in the English version probably because critics regard it as a tedious showcase of author’s erudition.
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Li Ruzhen is not only a Confucian but also a Daoist scholar. Daoism ultimately overrides Li
Ruzhen’s social conscience. Daoism also determines the politics of female separatism that the
novel plays. Li Ruzhen designs exemplary imaginary countries such as Junzi guo 君子国
(“Country of Gentlemen”) and Heichi guo 黑齿国 (“Country of Black-toothed People”). He also
imagines a reform to revive morality in China under the female sovereign of Empress Wu. But
Tang Ao and Tang Little Hill do not consider settling down in any of the best of all possible
worlds nor go back to their own society, China. Instead, after completing their destinies, they just
separate and isolate themselves from the stream of human life, and disappear into Xiao Penglai
小蓬莱 (“Little Penglai”), a deserted mythic island. Little Penglai is the final destination in the
Jing hua yuan. It is the ultimate separation in the novel, separated from any human-built society
however perfect it may be.
Daoism, while less influential in politics, had wide acceptance among the populace as well
as the literati throughout the imperial China. The title of the novel suggests an illusory Daoist
nature. The literary translation of the title is Jing hua yuan 镜花缘 (“the destiny of the flowers in
the mirror” or “the destiny of mirrored flowers”). Jing 镜 (“Mirror”) associates life with a dream,
which is a Daoist concept. Hua 花 (“Flowers”) refers to women. Yuan 缘 (“Destiny”) means a
divine mission designated for an individual or a group of people. Tang Ao’s destiny is the rescue
of the lost flowers. After being banished from the heaven, the destiny of the hundred incarnated
flower fairies is to complete their earthly destiny of displaying noble qualities and remarkable
achievements. Tang Ao’s worldly destiny is obviously auxiliary to the fairies’ destiny.
On another thinking, Jing hua 镜花 (“flowers in the mirror”) and Shui yue 水月 (“moon in
the water”), two common phrases in Chinese language, are metaphors of illusion and the
ephemeral external appearance. As a whole, the book can thus be seen as that the beauty and
glory of the women in the novel is just transient and momentary. The hundred flower spirits
eventually either die, or return overseas, or their fates are left unmentioned, though it is assumed
that when they die they will go back to their celestial setting. Dream stories as a rule have a
Daoist ending. After the hundred flower spirits have completed their mission, the feminist utopia
on earth ends. Carlos Rojas observed that the terms “flowers in the mirror” and “moon in the
water” also refer to gender fluidity:
The literary trope of the moon’s reflection in pool of water has, in the Chinese tradition, a
long history of being associated with themes of gender fluidity. For instance, one striking
example of this phenomenon can be found in the figure of the transsexual bodhisattva, Guan Yin
(Guan Yin was originally a male bodhisattva in the Indian Buddhist tradition, but somehow
become feminized when introduced into China) is conventionally portrayed as gazing at the
moon’s reflection in a pool of water. (35-36)
Indeed, the novel portrays gender fluidity, gender reversal, and a switch from mencenteredness to a women-centered world, which is unprecedented in Chinese literature. In this
regard, even though Li’s seemingly feminist ideology is limited in scope, even though Li Ruzhen
had all the limitations of his time, the novel’s contribution to Chinese women’s utopian literature
in particular and to late Qing Chinese utopian literature in general can not be canceled out,
particularly because of its utopian and political visions of a women-centered world.
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The paradise in heaven, the particular Country of Women abroad, and even Empress Wu’s
reign in China --- the only Chinese historical period under the rule of a female sovereign, one
mirroring the other, all confound the man-made law, and overthrow women’s subordination to
men. In the heaven, there is a celebration of hundreds of goddess and fairies. The goddess gather
to celebrate the birthday of Xiwangmu 西王母 (“Western Queen mother”) on Kunlun shan 昆仑
山 (“Mount Kunlun”) instead of the birthday of Yuhuang dadi 玉皇大帝 (“Jade Emperor”),
although it is Yuhuang dadi who banishes the fairies to the world. Even the wenquxing 文曲星
(“Star of Literature”) appears in female form for the occasion.
On earth, women get out of their shelters and engage in activities that are of large social
import. A hundred girls excel in examinations under Empress Wu Zetian’s rule. After the
women’s success at the exam, Li Ruzhen spent thirty chapters depicting their gathering. Critics
tend to see the discussion and activities of the girls over the get-together as the author’s showing
off his learning. But this long banquet sequence is also a female utopian space. Ma Qian
commented that the significance of the episode lies in the fact that “girls, not boys or men, are
chosen to display his own versatility and the knowledge he had gathered in the course of a
lifetime of study” (170). Men are totally absent from this scholarly banter. Discussions of
scholarly matter take place in exclusive female company. If we remember that the exotic
Country of women exists outside of China, the fairies’ gathering is in heaven, which is outside of
the world, Little Penglai is also out of the mundane world, then the women’s gathering after their
success at the exam, even if showing erudition, shows that women’s utopian spaces also exist
inside China.
Jing hua yuan contributes to the surge of progressive utopias which appear towards the end
of the Qing dynasty and greatly broadens the imaginations of traditional utopian thinking.
Traditional Chinese utopias are based on a Daoist ideal society found in pre-civilization. They
are primitive, secluded, pastoral, peaceful lands isolated from the earthly world. The settlers
often serve in the roles of fishermen, woodcutters, or herb-gatherers. “Taohuayuan ji” 桃花源记
(“Record of the Peach Blossom Spring”) typically portrays such a utopia. But starting from the
Han 汉dynasty (206 B.C.-280 A.D.) many Chinese literati had two different philosophies of life
--- Confucianism and Daoism. Whether to serve the government or live in the woods; whether to
choose action or not, consistently perplexed Chinese intellectuals. Around the end of the
nineteenth century, when China could no longer resist the surging tides of Western influence, the
personal wish of Chinese literati to live a serene life away from society ended. As a result, the
long tradition of Daoist utopian literature which served as a counter weight to Confucianism also
came to an end (Wang 20, 194-195).
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