CEAS 209
College of East Asian Studies
Wesleyan University
Fall 2014
From the Goddess to the Feminist: Women in Chinese Literature and Visual Culture
Time: T/R 1:10pm-2:30pm
Location: Fisk 210
Instructor: Yingzhi Zhao
Office Hour: M/W 1pm –2:30 pm & by appointment
Office: Fisk 307
Email: yzhao03@wesleyan.edu
Phone: 860-685-3389 (Office)
Course Description:
This course examines representations of women in Chinese literature and visual culture. It is
organized around several Chinese cultural tropes of women and their historical contexts: from
the goddess, the court lady, the literary gentry woman, the courtesan, and the female knighterrant in pre-modern Chinese culture, to the modern “new woman” and feminist. It also explores
major themes associated with women in Chinese literature and culture: the relationship between
gender and political power, self and society, individual and tradition, humans and the numinous
realm. Tropes that persist through different periods will be used to chart changes in literary
history. Students are encouraged to think about how these feminine tropes are formed in literary
and pictorial conventions, as well as how they are reinvented over time.
Additional sessions to be arranged for screening of film
Student responsibilities and Grading Percentage:
1) Class Participation (15%): attend lectures and screenings regularly; give at least one oral
presentation on a primary text or a painting in lectures;
2) Online postings (15%): post a weekly response (200 words) on the course website before each
lecture (due Monday midnight and Wednesday midnight);
3) Two writing assignments (40%): midterm paper (5-6 pages) and final paper (10-12 pages) on
given topics.
4) Final exam (30%): the exam will include a combination of short definitions with short and
long essay questions.
Required Book:
 Stephen Owen, An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911.
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Where to find the reading:
 Items marked with*are available in JSTOR.
 If not otherwise indicated, primary texts are from Stephen Owen, An Anthology of
Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911.
 Readings and paintings are uploaded on Moodle.
Syllabus
Week 1 9/2 Introduction to the course
 General introduction to dynasties and important dates in Chinese history
 Tropes of women in Chinese literature and art
 Male literati’s invention of women vs. women’s self-invention
Week 1 9/4 The Ambiguous Divine Woman (I)
 The encounter with the goddess
 Fu rhetoric and the feminine principle
 The inward turn of the topos of the ambiguous divine woman
Primary Texts:
Song Yu (attributed), “The Poetic Exposition on Gaotang”
Cao Zhi (192-232), “The Goddess of the Luo”
Anthology, pp. 189-203.
Critical Readings (Optional):
David Hawkes, “The Quest of the Goddess,” in Cyril Birch, Studies in Chinese Literary Genre
Wai-yee Li, Enchantment and Disenchantment, chapter 1
Week 2 9/9 The Ambiguous Divine Woman (II)
 Female images as political and moral symbols
 Female images as objects of visual appreciation and sexual desire
Paintings:
Attributed to Gu Kaizhi, Admonition of the Instructress to Palace Ladies, Tang copy of a 4 th- or
5th-century work. British Museum, London
Attributed to Gu Kaizhi, Nymph of the Luo River, 13th-century copy of a 6th-century work. Palace
Museum, Beijing
Critical Readings:
Baozhen Chen, The Goddess of the Lo River: A Study of Early Chinese Narrative Handscrolls,
PhD dissertation, 1987, chapter 2
Wu Hung, The Double Screen, chapter 2
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Week 2 9/11 Neglected Palace Ladies
 Banished Beyond the Border: Wang Zhaojun (2nd century B.C.)
 Slandered Virtue: Concubine Ban (1st century B.C.)
 Gazing at one’s own image and lamenting one’s fate
Primary Texts:
Women
Writers
of
Traditional
China,
(Google
eBook,
http://books.google.com/books?id=xRNnUSpDyYC&pg=PA17&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
pp.
17-21)
Paintings:
Su Hanchen, A Lady at her Dressing Table on a Garden Terrace, 12th century. Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston
Traditionally attributed to Wang Shen (1036-89), Ladies before an Embroidered Dresser, (?)
13th century. National Palace Museum, Taipei
Music:
Zhaojun’s Lament, played on the Chinese zither (guzheng)
Autumn Thoughts at the Dressing Table, played on guzheng
Han Palace by Autumn Moonlight, played on guzheng
Song of the Frontier, played on guzheng
Critical Readings:
David Knechtges, “The Poetry of an Imperial Concubine: The Favorite Beauty Ban,” in Oriens
Extremus 36 (1993): 127-144.
Ellen J. Laing, “Chinese Palace-Style Poetry and the Depiction of A Palace Beauty,” The Art
Bulletin, LXXII/2 (June 1990), 284-95.
Week 3 9/16 The Ballad of Mulan
 Mulan in premodern times: Shifting identities versus filial piety and loyalty
 Mulan in the twentieth century
Primary Texts:
Anthology, pp. 241-3.
Xie Bingying, War Diary (selected passages)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (optonal)
Critical Reading:
Joseph Allen, “Dressing and Undressing the Chinese Woman Warrior.” Positions 4.2 (1996):
343-79
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Week 3 9/18 The Legend of Yang the Prized Consort (719-756) (I)
 The An Lu-shan Rebellion and the execution of Yang
 The conflict between love and duty
Primary Texts:
Du Fu (712-770), “Lament by the River” Anthology, p. 422.
Anthology, pp. 441-58.
Bai Juyi (772-846), “Song of Lasting Pain”
Chen Hong (early 9th century), “An Account to Ho with the ‘Song of Lasting Pain’”
Du Mu (803-852), “On Passing by Huaqing Palace”
Li Shangyin (ca.813-ca.858), “Dragon Pool,” “Stirred by Something at Mount Li”
Painting:
Zhang Xuan (713-741), Lady Guoguo on A Spring Outing, Liaoning Provincial Museum, China
Attributed to Zhou Fang (ca. 730-800), Court Ladies Adorning their Hair with Flowers, (?) 10th
century. Liaoning Provincial Museum, China.
Attributed to Emperor Huizong (1082-1135), Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Critical Reading:
Robin Wang, Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture, 421-32.
Week 4 9/23 The Legend of Yang the Prized Consort (719-756) (II)
 The Thousand-Autumn Festival
 Chang’e on the moon and female voice
 Emperor Xuanzong visiting the moon palace
Primary Text:
Hong Sheng (1605-1704), The Palace of Lasting Life, selected acts, Anthology, pp. 973-1091.
Critical Reading:
*Eugene Wang, “Mirror, Moon, and Memory in Eighth-Century China: From Dragon Pond to
Lunar Palace,” in Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 9 (2005): 42-67.
Week 4 9/25 Talented Women from the Tang and Song Dynasties I
 Yuan Xuanji and Li Qingzhao
 Virtue and talent
 Gender boundaries and Gender discontent
Primary Texts:
Shishuo xinyu (5th century), “Xian yuan” (trans. Richard Mather, “Worthy Beauties” in A New Account
of Tales of the World)
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Yu Xuanji (842-72), “Selling Tattered Peonies,” “Visiting the Southern Tower of Chongzhen Temple”
Anthology, pp. 509-10
Li Qingzhao (1084-ca.1151), “Free-Spirited Fisherman,” “Epilogue to Records on Metal and
Stone” Anthology, 580-82
Critical Reading:
Stephen Owen, “The Snares of Memory,” in Remembrances: The Experience of the Past in
Classical Chinese Literature, 80-98.
Week 5 9/30 Li Qingzhao—China’s Greatest Woman Poet
 Song lyric and female image
Primary Texts:
Li Qingzhao’s selected song lyrics
Critical Readings:
Stephen Owen, “Meaning the Words: The Genuine as a Value in the Tradition of the Song Lyric,”
Voices of the Song Lyric in China, pp. 30-69.
John Timothy Wixted, “The Poery of Li Ch’ing-chao,” Voices of the Song Lyric in China, pp.
145-68.
Week 5 10/2 Romantic Heroines I
 Romantic Culture and “Yingying’s Story”
 Story of the Western Wing
Primary Texts:
Yuan Zhen (779-831), “Yingying’s Story,” Anthology, pp. 540-49.
Paintings:
16th and 17th century illustrations of Story of the Western Wing
Critical Readings:
Stephen Owen, “Conflicting Interpretations: Yingying’s Story,” in The End of Chinese ‘Middle
Ages,’149-73
Wang Shifu (14th century), Story of the Western Wing (Google eBook, pp. 1-15)
http://books.google.com/books?id=Hxn1ZBMT9mIC&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=o
nepage&q&f=false
Week 6 10/7 Romantic Heroines II
 Love vs. Confucian virtues
 Passion and the return of the soul
 Dream and illusion
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Primary Texts:
Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), The Peony Pavilion, selected acts, Anthology, pp. 880-96.
Screening in class:
Kunqu opera, “Waking Suddenly from Dream” from The Peony Pavilion
Critical Reading:
Tina Lu, Persons, Roles, and Minds: Identity in Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan, pp. 1996.
Week 6 10/9 Fox Spirits and Ghosts
 Tang Tales of Fox Spirits
 Liaozhai’s Records of Wonders
 The poetics of ghosts
Primary Texts:
Shen Jiji (fl.ca.800), “Ren’s Story,” Anthology, pp. 518-26
Pu Songling (1640-1715), “Lianxiang,” “Xiaocui,” “Blue Maid,” Anthology, pp. 1103-20
Critical Reading:
Judith Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale, (Google
eBook,
pp.
15-41)
http://books.google.com/books?id=0g0sFoF7HSMC&pg=PA15&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=o
nepage&q&f=false
Week 7 10/14 Courtesan as a Cultural Ideal I
 The fall of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and cultural nostalgia
 Late Ming courtesans and the female knight-errant
 Late Ming courtesans’ portraits in the mid and late seventeenth century
Primary Text:
Kong Shangren (1648-1718), Peach Blossom Fan, selected acts, Anthology pp. 942-72
Critical Reading:
*Waiyee Li, “The Representation of History in the Peach Blossom Fan,” JSTOR
Week 7 10/16 Courtesan as a Cultural Ideal II
Midterm Paper due
Painting:
Fan Qi and Wu Hong, Kou Mei’s Portrait, 1651. Nanjing Museum, China
Critical Readings:
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Wai-yee Li, “The Late Ming Courtesan: Invention of a Cultural Ideal,” in Writing Women in
Late Imperial China, 46-73.
James Cahill, “Beautiful Women and the Courtesan Culture,” in Pictures for Use and Pleasure,
149-198.
Yingzhi Zhao, “Small Shadow in Slushy Snow: Kou Mei’s Portrait and Cultural Memory”
Week 8 10/23 Women Writers of Late Imperial China
 The genealogy of emotion
 Emotion and woman writer
 Phantasies of androgyny
Primary Texts:
“The Story of Xiaoqing” (Ellen Widmer, trans.), in “Xiaoqing’s Literary Legacy and the Place
of the Woman Writer in Late Imperial China,” pp. 151-5.
Wu Zao (1799-1863), Image in Disguise, in Under Confucian Eyes, 239-250.
Critical Reading:
Katherine Carlitz, “Desire, Danger, and the Body: Stories of Women’s Virtue in Late-Ming
China,” in Christina Gilmartin et al. eds., Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State
(1999), 101-124.
Susan Mann, Precious Records, chapter 4 “Writing,” pp.76-120.
Week 9 10/28 Twelve Beauties in The Story of the Stone (The Dream of the Red Chamber)
 Discourses on idealized women
 Love, desire, and sexuality
 Love and loss in the garden
Primary Texts:
Cao Xueqin (1715?-1763), The Story of the Stone, trans. David Hawkes, selected chapters
Critical Readings:
Yu Ying-shih, “The Two Worlds of The Dream of the Red Chamber,” in Renditions 2 (1974): 522
Waiyee Li, Enchantment and Disenchantment, chapter 5
Week 9 10/30 Twelve Beauties in Visual Culture
Paintings:
Anonymous, Yongzheng’s Twelve Beauties, before 1723. Palace Museum, Beijing.
Critical Reading:
Wu Hung, “Beyond Stereotypes: The Twelve Beauties in Qing Court Art and the Dream of the
Red Chamber,” in Writing Women in Late Imperial China, chapter 12
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Week 10 11/4 Cross-dressing Girls, Women’s Education, and the Queer Movement
 Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai: The Butterfly Lovers
Primary Text:
The Butterfly Lovers
Critical Reading:
Ronald Altenburger, “Is it Clothes that Make the Man? Cross Dressing, Gender, and Sex in PreTwentieth Century Zhu Yingtai Lore.” Asian Folklore Studies 64:2 (205): 165-205.
Week 10 11/6 The Modern Rewriting
 Zhu Yingtai as a champion of women’s education
 Modern rewriting and movie adaptations
Primary Text:
Chu T’ien-hsin, “A Story of Spring Butterflies,” in Angelwings: Contemporary Queer Fiction
from Taiwan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003, pp. 75-93.
Critical Reading:
Siu Leung Li, “Un/queering the Latently Queer and Transgender Performance: The Butterfly
Lover(s),” in Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera, pp. 109-136.
Week 11 11/11 Tales of Desire and Transgression
 The White Snake in classical and vernacular fiction
 The lure of the femme fatale
Primary Texts:
H. C. Chang, “Madam White,” in Chinese Literature: Popular Fiction and Drama, 205-261.
Lillian Lee, The Green Snake
Critical Readings:
Ting Nai-tung, “The Holy and the Snake Woman: A Study of the Lamia Story in Asian and
European Literature.” Fabula 8 (1966): 145-191.
*Eugene Y. Wang. “Tope and Topos: The Leifeng Pagoda and the Discourse of the Demonic,”
in Writing and Materiality in China, 488-522.
Week 11 11/13 The White Snake and Salome
 The rediscovery of the animal in the human: Lillian Lee’s The Green Snake
 Revolutionary Terror: Geling Yan’s White Snake
Film Screening:
Tsui Hark, The Green Snake, 1993
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Primary Text:
Geling Yan, “White Snake” in White Snake and Other Stories. San Francico, Aunt Lute Books, 1999. pp.
1-64.
Week 12 11/18 Early Twentieth Century Feminists
 Female Literacy and Political Reform
 Feminism and Nationalism
 The Beheaded Feminist: Qiu Jin (1879-1907)
 Lu Bicheng’s (1883-1943) travel and song lyrics
Primary Texts:
Qiu Jin, “Mr. Ishii of Japan Seeks a Matching Verse,” “On the Yellow Sea” Anthology 1150-1
Qiu Jin, selected lyrics, in Wilt Idema and Beata Grant, The Red Brush: Writing Women of
Imperial China, 765-808
Critical Readings:
Shengqing Wu, Modern Archaics, chapter 5.
Yan Haiping, Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination, 1905-1948, 12-32.
Week 12 11/20 Female Stardom
 The “industry” of making women stars
 The suicide of Ruan Lingyu and tabloid sensationalism
 Gender politics of performativity
Screening in class:
Cai Chusheng, New Woman (starring Ruan Lingyu, 1935)
Film screening:
Stanley Kwan, Center Stage (aka Ruan Lingyu, 1992)
Critical Reading:
Kristine Harris, “The New Woman Incident: Cinema, Scandal, and Spectacle in 1935 Shanghai,”
in Sheldon H. Lu, Transnational Chinese Cinemas, 272-302
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” in The Norton
Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 1167-86
Week 13 11/25 Eileen Chang (1920-1995) versus “White-Haired Girl”
 The policy and practice of wartime writing in Shanghai (occupied by Japanese),
Chongqing (KMT wartime capital), and Yan’an (CCP wartime capital);
 Propaganda literature; Mao Zedong’s “Talks in Yan’an” and its impact
 The phenomenon of Eileen Chang in Shanghai; collaboration and resistance in everyday
life during wartime
Primary texts:
Eileen Chang, “Love in a Fallen City,” “Red Rose, White Rose,” in Love in a Fallen City
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Screening in class:
Wang Bin and Shui Hua, White-Haired Girl (clips)
Critical reading:
Leo Lee, Shanghai Modern, chapter 8
Week 14 12/2 Presentation on final paper
Week 14 12/4 Review
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