ASIAN 3337/6637 LOVE AND IDENTITY IN EARLY MODERN CHINA
Spring 2015
Suyoung Son
Office: RCK421
Office Hours: Monday 2:00-4:00pm and by appointment
Email: ss994@cornell.edu
Course Description: This upper-level course will explore the culture and society of early
modern China (roughly defined as covering the period from the sixteenth to the nineteenth
century) through literary and visual representations related to love and identity. Along with
major cultural and social transformations such as commercialization, the spread of literacy
and printing, and increased social mobility, early modern China in particular witnessed the
cult of love (qing). This unprecedented enchantment with love not only liberated inner
emotions but also involved in the redefinition of self and the cultural and social order.
Through a close reading of a variety of genres of texts, we will read major love stories as a
discursive practice for constructing individual and collective identities and observing how
these identities changed over time in relation to the shifting cultural, economic, social, and
political situations.
Required Text:
Shen Fu, Six Records of a Floating Life, trans. Leonard Pratt and Chaing Su-hui (N.Y.: Penguin
Books, 1983).
All the readings but the above book are available in pdf file in Blackboard.
Requirements:
1) Attendance and active participation in class discussions (10% of final grade): This is a
reading/discussion course, so students are expected to attend all classes, complete all assigned
readings before class, and actively participate in class with comments and questions.
2) Response paper (15%): Students will be required to write a one-page response paper after
close reading of a given text and submit it to our Blackboard site by 10 a.m. on the day of class
meetings.
3) Presentation (15%): Students will take turns giving a presentation and leading the class
discussion. They will take responsibility for presenting a couple of issues they think are
important to discuss in class and bringing up questions and insights for discussion by reading
classmates’ response papers. Students are exempted from submitting a response paper on the
day of their presentation.
4) A mid-term paper (25%): Students will be required to write a short paper of a close reading
of one or two texts that they select from the required readings (4-5 pages). Detailed
instructions for the paper will be given in class. Please note that late submissions will be
lowered one full grade.
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4) A final paper (35%): This will be an essay on a topic of each student’s choice to be
determined in consultation with the instructor (8-10 pages). Late submission will be lowered
one full grade.
Classroom Policy:
1) Students and faculty each have responsibility to respect and uphold University policies and
regulations pertaining to racial or ethnic discrimination, sexual harassment, assistance
available to handicapped, visually and/or hearing impaired, and the observation of religious
holidays. All students are advised to become familiar with the respective University
regulations and are encouraged to bring any questions or concerns to the attention of the
instructor.
2) All students are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of
Cornell. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic
dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. Students who are found to be
in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from
the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university
probation, suspension, or expulsion). Please review Cornell’s Code of Academic Integrity at
http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/aic.cfm.
3) No cell phone calls, text messaging, twittering, and web browsing are allowed during class.
Course Schedule
1/22 (TH)
Overview
1/27 (T)
Evelyn S. Rawski, “Economic and Social Foundations of Late Imperial Culture,”
Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, eds. David Johnson, Andrew Nathan
and Evelyn Rawski (Berkeley & Los Angeles: U of California Press, 1985), pp. 333.
1/29 (TH)
Martin Huang, “Sentiments of Desire: Thoughts on the Cult of Qing in Ming –
Qing Literature,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 20 (1998): 153-84.
Recommended:
William Rowe, “Social Stability and Social Change,” Cambridge History of China, vol. 9
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 473-562.
Timothy Brook, The Confusion of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China (Berkeley: U
of California Press, 1998).
Martin Huang, “The Debates on Qing in Late Imperial China,” Desire and Fictional Narrative in
Late Imperial China (Cambridge: Harvard Asia Center, 2001).
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I.
The Cult of Romantic Love
2/3 (T)
Feng Menglong, “The Oil Seller,” Falling in Love: Stories from Ming China, trans.
Patrick Hanan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006), pp. 21- 78.
2/5 (TH)
Feng Menglong, “The Courtesan’s Jewel Box,” The Courtesan’s Jewel Box, trans.
Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1981), pp. 24671.
2/10 (T)
Feng Menglong, “Jiang Xingge Reencounters His Pearl Shirt,” Stories Old and
New, trans. Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang (Seattle: University of Washington
Press, 2000), pp. 557-71.
2/12 (TH)
Pu Songling, “The Painted Skin,” Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, trans.
John Minford (N.Y.: Penguin, 2006), pp. 126-132.
2/17 (T)
February Break
2/19 (TH)
Pu Songling, “Lotus Fragrance,” pp. 211-28.
2/24 (T)
Pu Songling, “The Laughing Girl” and “The Magic Sword and the Magic Bag,”
pp. 152-67, 168-79.
2/26 (TH)
Movie: The Chinese Ghost Story (directed by Ching Siu-tung, 1987).
Recommended:
Hsu Pi-Ching, “Courtesans and Scholars in the Writings of Feng Menglong: Transcending
Status and Gender,” Nannü 2.1 (2000): 40-77.
Wai-yee Li, “Desire and Order in Liao-chai chih-yi,” Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love
and Illusion in Chinese Literature (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993).
Allan Barr, “Disarming Intruders: Alien Women in Liaozhai zhiyi,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic
Studies 49.2 (1989): 501-17.
Patrick Hanan, “The Making of The Pearl-Sewn Shirt and The Courtesan's Jewel Box,” Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 33 (1973): 124-153.
Shuhui Yang, Appropriation and Representation: Feng Menglong and the Chinese Vernacular
Story. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998.
Judith Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale. Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1993.
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II.
Gender and Conjugal Love
3/3 (T)
Xing Cijing, “Summary of the Journey from Qian,” Herself an Author: Gender,
Agency, and Writing in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 2008), pp. 167-68; Li Qingzhao, “Epilogue to Records on Metal and
Stone,” Anthology of Chinese Literature, ed. Stephen Owen (N.Y.: W. W. Norton
& Company, 1997), pp. 591-96.
3/5 (TH)
Grace Fong, “A Life in Poetry: The Auto/biography of Gan Lirou,” Herself an
Author: Gender, Agency, and Writing in Late Imperial China (Hawaii: U of
Hawaii Press, 2008), pp. 9-53.
3/10 (T)
Shen Fu, “The Joys of the Wedding Chamber,” Six Records of a Floating Life, pp.
25-51.
3/12 (TH)
“The Pleasures of Leisure,” pp. 55-69.
3/17 (T)
“The Sorrows of Misfortune,” pp. 73-97.
3/19 (TH)
“The Delights of Roaming Afar,” pp. 101-144.
Recommended:
Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chambers, Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), pp. 115-42.
Grace Fong, “Authoring Journeys: Women on the Road,” Herself an Author: Gender, Agency,
and Writing in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008), pp.
85-120.
Stephen Owen, “The Snares of Memory,” Remembrances: The Experience of the Past in Classical
Chinese Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), pp. 80-98.
Susan Mann, The Talented Women of the Zhang Family (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2007).
Keith McMahon, Polygamy and Sublime Passion (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2010).
MIDTERM PAPER DUE 3/20 (F) 5PM
III.
3/24 (T)
Love and Loyalty
Wang Xiuchu, “The Massacre of Yangzhou,” Voices from the Ming-Qing
Cataclysm, trans. Lynn Struve (New Haven: Yale UP, 1993), pp. 28-48.
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3/26 (TH)
Pu Songling, “Lin Siniang,” trans. Judith Zeitlin (manuscript)
Spring Break (3/28-4/5)
4/7 (T)
Pu Songling, “Gongsun Jiuniang,” trans. Judith Zeitlin, Renditions
(Autumn 2008), pp. 41-48.
4/9 (TH)
Mao Xiang, “The Reminiscences of Tung Hsiao-wan,” trans. Pan Tze-yen
(Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1931), pp. 3-29.
4/14 (T)
Mao Xiang, “The Reminiscences of Tung Hsiao-wan,” pp. 29-75.
4/16 (TH)
Mao Xiang, “The Reminiscences of Tung Hsiao-wan,” pp. 75-95.
Recommended:
Frederick Wakeman, “Romantics, Stoics, and Martyrs in Seventeenth-Century China,” The
Journal of Asian Studies 43.4 (Aug 1984): 631-65.
Wai-yee Li, “Women as Emblems of Dynastic Fall in Qing Literature,” Dynastic Crisis and
Cultural Innovation: From the Late Ming to the Late Qing and Beyond (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2005).
Judith Zeitlin, “Ghosts and Historical Time,” The Phantom Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in
Seventeenth-Century Chinese Literature (Honolulu: U of Hawaii Press, 2007), pp. 87-130.
Lynn Struve, Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993).
Wai-yee Li, “Heroic Transformations: Women and National Trauma in Early Qing Literature,”
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 59.2 (Dec 1999): 363-43.
Yasushi Ōki, “Mao Xiang and Yu Huai: Early Qing Romantic yimin,” in Trauma and
Transcendence in Early Qing Literature, eds. Wilt Idema, Wai-yee Li, and Ellen
Widmer (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2006), pp.231-48.
IV.
Obsession and Passion for Things
4/21 (T)
Jin Shengtan, “Thirty-Three Happy Moments,” The Importance of Living,
trans. Lin Yutang (N.Y.: The John Day Company, 1937), pp. 131-36; Li Yü, “The
Arts of Sleeping, Walking, Sitting, and Standing,” The Columbian Anthology of
Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair (N.Y.: Columbia UP, 1994), pp.
602-606; Zhang Chao, excerpts from “Sweet Dream Shadows,” The Importance
of Living, pp. 317-28.
4/23 (TH)
Pu Songling, “The Wonderful Stone” and “The Chrysanthemum Spirit,” Strange
Stories from a Chinese Studio, trans. Herbert Giles (N.Y.: Dover Publications,
1969), pp. 189-193; Selected Tales of Liaozhai (Beijing: Panda Books, 1981), pp.
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124-132.
4/28 (T)
Zhang Dai, “A Night Performance at Golden Hill,” “Plum Blossoms Bookroom,”
“Drinking Tea at Pop Min’s,” “Viewing the Snow from the Mid-Lake Gazebo,”
“Yao Chien-shu’s Paintings,” “Moon at Censer Peak,” “Liu Ching-t’ing the
Storyteller,” “West Lake on the Fifteenth Night of the Seventh Month,” “Wang
Yüeh-sheng,” “Crab Parties,” “Lang-hsüan, Land of Enchantment,” and “Preface
to Searching for West Lake in Dreams,” Vignettes from the Late Ming, trans.
Yang Ye (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999), pp. 86-98, pp.102-103.
4/30 (TH)
Movie: Rouge (directed by Stanley Kwan, 1987)
5/5 (T)
Student Presentation
Recommended:
Wai-yee Li, “The Collector, the Connoisseur, and Late-Ming Sensibility,” T’oung Pao 81 (1995):
269-302.
Judith Zeitlin, “Obsession,” Historian of the Strange (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993).
Patrick Hanan, “The Primacy of Pleasure,” The Invention of Li Yu (Cambridge: Harvard UP,
1988), pp. 59-75.
Philip A. Kafalas, “Preserving a Culture in Prose,” In Limpid Dreams: Nostalgia and Zhang Dai’s
Reminiscences of the Ming (Norwalk: EastBridge, 2007), pp. 54-84.
Stephen Owen, “Repetition: Of Small Pleasures in Idleness,” Remembrances: The Experience of
the Past in Classical Chinese Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986),
pp. 99-113.
Jonathan Spence, Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man (New York:
Penguin, 2008).
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