Male Friendship in Ming China [1 ed.] 9789047419587, 9789004160262

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MALE FRIENDSHIP IN MING CHINA

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MALE FRIENDSHIP IN MING CHINA edited by

MARTIN W. HUANG

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2007

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The content of this volume is a reprint of volume 9, issue 1 (2007) of Nan Nü, Men, Women and Gender in China.

ISBN 978 90 04 16026 2 © Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.

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CONTENTS Harriet T. Zurndorfer, “Foreword” .......................................................

1

Martin W. Huang, “Male Friendship in Ming China: An Introduction” ............................................................................................................

2

Anne Gerritsen, “Friendship through Fourteenth-Century Fissures: Dai Liang, Wu Sidao and Ding Henian” ............................................

34

Joseph S. C. Lam, “Music and Male Bonding in Ming China”..............

70

Kimberly Besio, “A Friendship of Metal and Stone: Representations of Fan Juqing and Zhang Yuanbo in the Ming Dynasty” ................

111

Martin W. Huang, “Male Friendship and Jiangxue (Philosophical Debates) in Sixteenth-Century China”...............................................

146

Martin W. Huang, “A Selected Bibliography of Secondary Sources”

179

Harriet T. Zurndorfer, “Index” ...............................................................

185

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NAN NÜ

Nan Nü 9 (2007) 1

www.brill.nl/nannü

Foreword It is once again with great pleasure that the NAN NÜ Board of Editors offers another special theme issue. This theme number, the fourth to appear since the journal’s founding nine years ago, is edited by Martin W.  Huang. The papers published here originate from a panel presentation ‘Male Friendship in Ming China’ organized by Professor Huang for the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). The panel speakers, who wrote from different disciplinary perspectives, including history, musicology, and literary studies, focused on the practices and changing representations of male friendship during that dynastic era. As Professor Huang has noted in his Introduction to this issue, male friendship and the concept of masculinity are topics that gender historians of China have just begun to research in depth and to debate upon. Given the importance men in late imperial China assigned to the scrutiny and judgments of other men, one would like to know more about the development of male gender identity in this context. With the support of Paul Ropp who served as discussant for the panel presentation, Professor Huang and the other panel participants, Kimberly Besio, Anne Gerritsen, and Joseph Lam, kindly accepted the journal’s invitation to publish their research in this special issue. The NAN NÜ Board of Editors thanks the contributors, and especially Professor Huang for his guidance and commitment to the production of this issue. We also extend our appreciation to the anonymous readers of the papers printed here. These scholars generously gave their time and insight; their input has certainly enriched the final versions of these essays. We thank all these individuals for helping to keep alive what one may now term a NAN NÜ tradition, that is, to provide a forum for newly developed studies and research, not yet published in monographs or collected essays. We hope our readers will enjoy this issue and benefit from the authors’ scholarship. Harriet T. Zurndorfer © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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DOI: 10.1163/138768007X171696

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NAN NÜ

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www.brill.nl/nannü

Male Friendship in Ming China: An Introduction Martin W. Huang

(University of California, Irvine)

Abstract This introduction provides a historical and theoretical context for the four articles on Ming male friendship. It reviews relevant scholarship and tries to show how the four articles contribute to a better appreciation of the complexities of friendship as it was theorized and practiced by Chinese males in Ming China. Keywords friendship, Ming dynasty, gender, Chinese masculinity, Confucianism

Friendship was an ambiguous concept in late imperial Chinese culture. In orthodox Confucianism, friendship was a relationship unsanctioned by the core Confucian values prioritizing state and family, and as such it was viewed with suspicion and often considered a potential threat. This is probably why among the so-called “five cardinal human relationships” (wulun 五倫; that is, those between ruler and minister, father and son, brothers, husband and wife, and friends), friendship was traditionally deemed the least essential. In household instructions (jiaxun 家訓; a genre of prescriptive literature very popular in late imperial China) friends, as family outsiders, were usually presented as a threat to domestic harmony. In imperial political discourses, personal friendship was often considered a major element of factionalism (pengdang 朋黨) within the   The eighteenth-century novel Qilu deng 歧路燈 by Li Lüyuan 李綠園 (1707-90) was circculated for a long time in the form of hand-copied manuscript with a copy of the novelist’s own “household instructions,” Jiaxun zhunyan 家訓諄言 attached. This jiaxun-like novel is about the dire consequences a gentry family suffers after the son befriends wrong people. For a discussion of the novel as an elaborate fictionalized jiaxun, see Martin Huang, “Xiaoshuo as ‘Family Instructions:’ The Rhetoric of Didacticism in the Eighteenth-Century Chinese Novel, Qilu deng,” Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies n.s. 30.1 (2000): 67-91.

)

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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DOI: 10.1163/138768007X171704

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imperial bureaucracy. And yet for an educated male, who was supposed to distinguish himself by mastering Confucian learning, passing the government-sponsored examinations, and advancing a career in the bureaucratic world, networks of friends remained indispensable. Friends were equally if not more important for those excluded from the imperial bureaucracy since they were one of the main sources of help in finding career alternatives. The tension between suspicion toward and indis­ pensability of friendship constitutes an intriguing paradox in Chinese social and cultural histories. Ever since the establishment of the elaborate civil service examination system by the imperial government in the Tang dynasty (628-907) as the main and, later, virtually the sole avenue through which government officials were recruited, passing the examinations became one of the most important goals for almost all educated males in imperial China. For many, friendships and connections with peers (tongxue 同學 and tongmen 同門) cultivated when studying together in preparation for the examinations, bonds formed (tongnian 同年or tongbang 同榜) when they passed the examinations in the same year, and their relationships with the chief examiners (zuozhu 座主) and co-examiners (fangshi 房師) became crucial factors in their future careers. The late Ming scholarofficial and writer Xie Zhaozhe 謝肇淛 (1567-1624) complained that acquaintance based on studying under the same teacher or passing the examinations during the same year was not true friendship but relationship of convenience. The seventeenth-century savant Gu Yanwu 顧炎武 (1613-82) bitterly denounced the thousand-year-old examina­ tion system itself as one of the main sources of the rampant factionalism and nepotism that were corrupting social morality and undermining the proper functioning of the government. Criticisms like these, though justified, also point to the absolute indispensability of “connections” in the careers and lives of late imperial Chinese men. Whether these connections could be considered friendships is a question worth further exploration. )   See Zhu Ziyan 朱子彥 and Chen Shengmin 陳生民, Pengdang zhengzhi yanjiu朋黨政治 研究 (Shanghai: Huadong shifan daxue chubanshe, 1992). )   Xie Zhaozhe, Wu Zazu 五雜組 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 2001), “Shibu er” 事部二,

14:289-90. )   Gu Yanwu, “Shengyuan lun” 生員論, Tinglin wenji 亭林文集 (Sibu congkan ed.), 1:83.

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To better understand the ambivalence and ambiguities associated with friendship in traditional Chinese culture, a brief look at its early history is in order. Historians of early Chinese culture have pointed out that the Chinese character you 友, usually considered the equivalent of the English word “friend,” was actually a much broader concept referring to one’s kinsmen within a lineage (zuren 族人) during the Western Zhou dynasty (eleventh century BCE-771 BCE), a time when human relation­ ships were largely conceived of in terms of blood relations based on common ancestries rather than nuclear families, which had yet to take shape as the basic social units. You as an ethical concept was understood to be “the brotherly way” (youti zhi dao 友悌之道; here “brothers” actually were one’s kinsmen rather than male siblings within a nuclear family) as articulated in expressions such as “being nice to one’s brother is you” (shan xiongdi wei you 善兄弟為友). “The brotherly way” con­ stituted the central ethical precept regulating almost all important male human relations, including those between rulers and subjects and between fathers and sons. It was only during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BCE) that you, with nuclear families emerging as the basic social units, began to denote friends, namely, males with common interests and aspirations (tongzhi yue you 同志曰友), who, however, were not one’s family members. The early Warring States period (475-221 BCE) witnessed the for­ mulation of the important Confucian ethical concept of wulun in Mencius (ca. 371-289 BCE), in which the relationships between father and son and between brothers became two different categories separated from that of you. However, for Mencius, you still served as an important ethical model in his political theories: the ideal relationship between a   Zha Changguo 查昌國, “You yu liang Zhou junchen guanxi de yanbian” 友與兩周君臣關 係的演變, Lishi yanjiu 歷史研究 5 (1998): 94-109. My brief account of the early history of you below is largely based on this essay. See also Zhu Fenghan 朱鳳瀚, Shang Zhou jiazu xingtai yanjiu 商周家族型態研究 (Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe, 1990), 306-11, and Wang Lihua 王利華, “Zhou Qin shehui bianqian yu ‘you’ de yanhua” 周秦社會變遷 與‘友’的衍化, Jiangxi shehui kexue 江西社會科學, 10 (2004): 48-53. )   Gu Pu 郭璞 and Xing Ping 邢昺,“Shixun” 釋訓, Erya zhushu 爾雅注疏 (Beijing: Beijing )

daxue chubanshe, 1999) , 4:112.   Xu Shen 許慎, Shuowen jiezi zhu 說文解字注, anno. Duan Yucai 段玉裁 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1988), 116. )   Wu Chengshi 吳承仕, “Wulun shuo zhi lishi guan” 五倫說之歷史觀, in Wu Chengshi, Wu Chengshi wenlu 吳承仕文錄 (Beijing: Beijing shifan daxue chubanshe, 1984). )

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ruler and his ministers should be like that between two good friends. Sometime before China was united under the rule of the Qin Empire, pragmatic legalist thinkers such as Han Fei 韓非 (ca. 280-ca. 233 BCE) began to emphasize the hierarchical distinctions between a ruler and his ministers by redefining the interests of you as “private and selfish” (si 私) and those of the ruler as “public and unselfish” (gong 公).10 The preci­ pitous decline of the status of you in early Chinese political theories as outlined above was in part caused by its gradual separation from kinship as well as politics. This separation arose with the emergence of the nu­­ clear family as the basic social unit and the establishment of a centralized imperial government, whose effective rule depended on strict hierarchy and unconditional loyalty to the emperor. However, the separa­tion process was never consistent or complete. The awareness of the different early overlapping conceptualizations of you and their in­consistencies should help us better appreciate the complexities of male friendship as it was theorized and practiced during the later historical periods. In terms of its political nature and ambiguity as a relationship, male friendship defies any attempt to categorize it as either “public” or “private.”11 In traditional China, many men believed friendship was more or less a masculine relationship in that it was largely perceived to be a male privilege.12 To have many male friends was often considered an important   Zha Changguo, “You yu Liang Zhou junchen,” 105-6.   Zha Changguo, “You yu Liang Zhou junchen,” 108. 11)   Here I have in mind the long-standing controversies surrounding pengdang 朋黨 (fac­ tionalism) in the history of Chinese imperial politics and the attempts on the part of the scholar-officials, such as Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007-72), to fan off accusations of factionalism by appealing to the concept of junzi 君子 (gentlemen) versus xiaoren 小人 (petty persons). Namely, groups of the like-minded formed by junzi were always for the sake of the Way (dao 道), representing the common interests of the public (gong 公) or “righteousness” (yi 義), whereas the factions formed by xiaoren were always motivated by “profit” (li 利), the personal interest of the selfish individual (si 私). For discussions of Ouyang xiu’s famous theory of junzi versus xiaoren and the factional fighting in Song imperial politics, see Xiao Qingwei 蕭 慶偉, Bei Song xinjiu dangzheng yu wenxue 北宋新舊黨爭與文學 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2001), especially, 34-7, and Shen Songqing 沈松勤, Nan Song wenren yu dang­ zheng 南宋文人與黨爭 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2005), especially, 269-85. 12)   This by no means suggests that in traditional China women did not pursue friendships or did not have friends. In fact, scholars of Chinese women history have demonstrated that female friendship played important roles in the lives of many women. See Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chamber (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 203-9, 212-43, 266-74, 29193, and Ellen Widmer, The Beauty and the Book: Women and Fiction in Nineteenth-Century China (Cambridge, MA:. Harvard University Asia Center, 2006), 183-200. )

10)

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badge of masculinity since it bespoke a man’s ability to travel and meet other men outside his family and beyond his hometown, thus a manly accomplishment,13 whereas a woman was required by Confucian norms to be confined within the boundary of the household. The domestic domain was largely gendered as feminine space, the outside world as masculine space.14 There is a close affinity between the concept of you 友 (friends) and that of you 遊 (travel) as reflected in common expressions such as jiaoyou 交遊 (as a noun it means “friends and associates” and as a verb “socializing and making friends”). To make friends was to move beyond the compound of one’s home and to travel afar. In fact, tracing and identifying “friends and associates” (jiaoyou kao 交 遊考) have long been an important part of the biographical studies of many male historical figures. Few, however, have attempted to move beyond biographical facts towards a more sophisticated understanding of the complicated roles played by friendship in Chinese culture and society.15 Even fewer have tried to look at those roles from the perspective of gender analysis. In the field of Chinese studies, serious examination of men as gendered beings is just beginning to be attempted. Almost all the monographs on this subject were published in the new millennium. Among these studies, 13)   Compare the remark by the famous scholar-official Wang Daokun 汪道昆 (1525-1593) that da zhangfu dang you tianxia shi 大丈夫當友天下士 (a true man should befriend all the gentlemen under Heaven), as stated in his essay “Ming gu Guangwei jiangjun qingche duwei jinyi wei zhihui qianshi Yin ci gong zhuang” 明故廣威將軍輕車都尉錦衣衛指揮僉事尹次 公狀, Wang Daokun, Taihan ji 太函集 (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 2004), 42:906. This matter is further discussed in my article in this issue. 14)   Compare Lisa Raphals’s discussion of the bipolar concept of neiwai 內外 (the inner versus outer, or feminine versus masculine) in her Sharing the Light: Representations of Women in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), 195-235. Of course, such Confucian gender norms of spatial boundaries were frequently violated, and there were many cases where a woman under certain circumstances traveled extensively and thus had the opportunity to befriend other women from other regions. However, a majority of female friendships were cultivated within family circles or through correspondences (two female friends might seldom see or never met each other). A comparison of male and female friendships is a very interesting issue, which is, however, beyond the scope of this introduction. See also Susan Mann, “Introduction: Forum on the Male Bond in Chinese History and Culture,” The American Historical Review 106.5 (2000), 1600-14, and especially p.1612. 15)   The book by Hou Li 侯力 and Yang Xiaowen 楊曉文, Sishi tonghuai:pengyou zhi qing yu jiaoyou zhi yi 斯世同懷:朋友之情與交友之義 (Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1998), though containing useful information, is intended for general rather than scholarly audiences.

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Kam Louie’s Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Gender and Society in China (2002) is probably the most ambitious.16 Louie proposes a new paradigm based on the concepts of wen 文 (which he translates as “cultural attainment”) and wu 武 (translated as “martial valor”) as an alternative to the yin-yang model widely relied upon by scholars of Chinese gender studies. Thus he offers a conceptual framework within which the ques­ tion of how masculinities are constructed in Chinese culture may be more fruitfully investigated. In comparison, other studies are more empirical in their approaches as well as more specific in their coverage. In her book Masculinity Besieged? Issues of Modernity and Male Sub­ jectivity in Chinese Literature of the Late Twentieth Century (2000),17 Xueping Zhong examines male subjectivities and male anxiety in literature and films produced in post-Mao China, demonstrating how male intellectuals, marginalized by the state, tried to reassert their mas­ culine identities. Song Geng’s Fragile Scholar: Power and Masculinity in Chinese Culture (2004) focuses on the representation of caizi 才子 (usual­ly translated as “talented scholar”) in traditional fiction and dra­ma.18 A central issue explored in both Paul Rouzer’s Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early China (2001) and my Nego­ tiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China (2006) is the complicated roles assigned to the feminine “other” in the negotiating process of literati’s gender identity in traditional China.19 In our different ways, we attempt to answer the questions of why many male literati were inclined to present themselves as “women,” and how such inclination contributed to their self-image as men. Rouzer explores the specific ways in which early Chinese male authors “wrote both about and as women.” Focusing on the Ming-Qing period and drawing on diverse sources, I examine the gender implications of a series of masculine models in relation to the 16)   Kam Louie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Gender and Society in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). 17)   Xueping Zhong, Masculinity Besieged? Issues of Modernity and Male Subjectivities in Chinese Literature of the Late Twentieth Century (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000). 18)   Geng Song, The Fragile Scholar: Power and Masculinity in Chinese Culture (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004). 19)   Paul Rouzer, Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early Chinese Texts (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001) and my Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006).

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feminine, such as zhongchen 忠臣 (royal minister), shen­gren 聖人 (sage), yingxiong 英雄 (hero), and haohan 好漢 (stalwart or strongman). In addition to these monographs, the volume edited by Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, titled Chinese Femininities/Masculinities and Fe­­mi­ ninities: A Reader (2002), contains several articles on Chinese masculini­ ties, among which Matthew Sommer’s “Dangerous Males, Vulnerable Males, and Polluted Males: The Regulation of Mas­culinity in Qing Dynasty Law” is the most relevant.20 It examines how masculinity was conceptualized in Qing laws designed to regulate sexual behavior. The editors’ introduction is very helpful in providing a detailed overview of the state of gender studies in this field. Apparently absent in these studies of Chinese masculinities is any substantial effort to examine the important issue of male friendship. Our understanding of Chinese men’s gender identity will remain incomplete if the issue of how they perceived and conducted themselves in relation to other men is not adequately explored. In a patriarchal society such as that of traditional China, masculinity was mostly likely a homosocial enactment: what mattered most to a man was the scrutiny and judgments of other men. There are several exceptions to the general lack of scholarly articles on male friendship. Joseph McDermott’s seminal article “Friendship and Its Friends in the Late Ming” is probably one of the earliest serious attempts to tackle this question.21 The forum “The Male Bond in Chinese History and Culture” published in The American Historical Review (2000) is a collaborative effort by several China scholars to examine three kinds of male bonding in China.22 Norman Kutcher’s “The Fifth Relationship:   Mathew Sommer, “Dangerous Males, Vulnerable Males and Polluted Males: The Regulation of Masculinity in Qing Dynasty Law,” in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities: A Reader (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 67-88; see also Sommer’s Sex, Law, And Society in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 114-65. Mention should also be made of Zuyan Zhou’s Androgyny in Late Ming and Early Qing Literature (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003); some may have reservations about the usefulness and historical validity of the concept of androgyny as Zhou has employed in the study. 21)   Joseph McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends in the Late Ming,” in Zhongyang yanjiu yuan jindai shi yanjiu suo 中央研究院近代史研究所, ed., Jinshi jiazu yu zhengzhi bijiao lishi lunwen ji 近世家族與政治比較歷史論文 集 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiu yuan Jindai yanjiu suo, 1992), 67-96. 22)   Forum on “The Male Bond in Chinese History and Culture,” The American Historical Review, 106.5 (2000): 1600-66. 20)

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Dangerous Friendships in the Confucian Context” explores the deep an­­ xiety over the dangers of friendship exhibited in Confucian dis­courses.23 Adrian Davis’s “Fraternity and Fratricide in Late Imperial China” focuses on the tensions among the male siblings within a family.24 Lee McIsaac’s “‘Righteous Fraternities’ and Honorable Men: Sworn Brotherhoods in Wartime Chongqing” examines male bonding in secret societies.25 In her introduction to the forum, Susan Mann argues eloquently about the importance of the study of male bonding in Chinese history and culture. She characterizes the three articles in the forum as attempts to de­famil­ iarize and reexamine Confucian norms governing human relation­ship in male culture.26 Among the three articles in the forum, Kutcher’s “Fifth Relationship” is probably most directly related to our concerns here. In many ways, it is best to read this article in juxtaposition with McDermott’s “Friendship and Its Friends in the Late Ming.” The two address very different aspects of the Confucian conceptualizations of friendship, and the wide range of views they examine reminds us of a simple but very important fact: Con­ fucianism was by no means a monolithic ideology, and our under­ standing of Chinese male friendship has to be carefully historicized. The period McDermott covers is more specific, namely, the last century of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), when friendship appears to have been granted unprecedented legitimacy in the writings of many influential Confucian thinkers and activists. He is interested in “those writings which see in the type of human relationship [friendship] a moral basis for criticizing Chinese imperial rule.”27 He detects in these writings “a realignment and expansion of traditional moral focuses away from the family and state during the last century of the Ming rule, as the moral attractions of friendship opened up new ways for neo-Confucians to criticize and change their political traditions.”28 These late Ming pro­   Norman Kutcher, “The Fifth Relationship: Dangerous Friendships in the Confucian Context,” The American Historical Review 106.5 (2000): 1615-29. 24)   Adrian Davis, “Fraternity and Fratricide in Late Imperial China,” The American Historical Review, 106.5 (2000): 1630-40. 25)   Lee McIsaac, “‘Righteous Fraternities’ and Honorable Men: Sworn Brotherhoods in Wartime Chongqing,” The American Historical Review 106.5 (2000): 1641-55. 26)   See Mann, “Introduction,” 1603. 27)   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 68. 28)   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 70. 23)

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moters of friendship tended to find their support in Mencius’s ideal of a ruler-minister relationship based explicitly on the model of friendship while ignoring Han Fei’s opposite view, the need to separate the private interests of a friend from the public interests of the state. Moving away from the “friendly” world of McDermott to Kutcher’s “Fifth Relationship,” we enter a rather hostile world where friendship was considered potentially subversive and therefore needed to be tightly controlled. According to Kutcher, friendship was deemed potentially dangerous by many Confucians because it was a relationship that offered possibilities for equality, thus posing a threat to the strictly hierarchical Confucian social order. The vastly different fates of friendship in these two very different worlds explored by McDermott and Kutcher under­ score the complexities of the issue of male friendship in traditional China. Kutcher is certainly right in emphasizing the general Confucian an­­ xiety over friendship, although there are significant exceptions, especially during periods such as the late Ming. McDermott argues that some late Ming Confucian thinkers and activists such as Gu Xiancheng 顧憲成 (1550-1612) celebrated friendship precisely because they believed it to be less conducive to the kind of hierarchy inherent in the other four relationships.29 Both McDermott and Kutcher deal almost exclusively with friendship discourses in traditional China, whereas the question of how friendship was practiced during this period remains largely unexplored. This issue, however, is the focus of the art historian Craig Clunas’s recent book Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470-1559.30 In this study Clunas reconstructs for us the intricate social networks sur­ rounding the famous Ming calligrapher and painter, Wen Zhengming 文徵明 (1479-1559), for whom the term “friends” could refer to a great variety of people: schoolmates, neighbors, fellow villagers, peers, su­­ periors, teachers, pupils, patrons, clients, and even kinsmen. In fact, the mutability of Wen’s concept of you often compels Clunas to place the term “friends” in quotation marks in discussing this scholar-official   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 81-2. For a different reading of Gu Xiancheng’s view, see my article in this volume. 30)   Craig Clunas, Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470-1559 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004). 29)

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artist’s social networking, highlighting the significant gaps between the broadly conceived notion of you in Ming China and the much narrower concept of friendship in modern theories, which tend to emphasize intimacy, equality, and the private.31 Here the observations made by Alan Bray, a historian of English male friendship, may be pertinent: “To the inhabitants of seventeenth-century England the ‘friend’ was readily a patron (or a client), a landlord, or creditor or debtor, someone who would use influence on your behalf, obtain a payment, or settle a dispute.” 32 Elsewhere, Bray reminds us that “the principal difference between the friendship of the modern world and the friendship . . . in the traditional culture [is that in the latter] friendship was significant in a public sphere. In modern civil society friendship has not been perceived to be a public matter, or more precisely ought not to be so.”33 It appears that several centuries ago the English and Chinese conceptualizations of friendship were relatively close.34 As “debts” in the title of Clunas’s book suggests, in Ming China friendship was often conceived of in terms of a man’s social obligations in his relationships with other men. A closely related issue, which Clunas examines at some length, is the role of gift exchange and reciprocity.35 Having received a gift, one was socially obligated to return the favor in the form of another gift. Reciprocity, which was always an important component in Chinese conceptualization of friendship, is largely an act of fulfilling one’s social obligations.36   For discussions of the rise of the modern concept of friendship in the West, see Alan Silver, “Friendship in Commercial Society: Eighteenth-Century Social Theory and Modern Sociology,” The American Journal of Sociology 96.6 (1990): 1475-1504, and Alan Silver, “Two Different Sorts of Commerce”—Friendship and Strangership in Civil Society,” in Jeff Weinstraub and Krishan Kumar, eds., Public and Private in Thought and Practice: Perspectives on a Grand Dichotomy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997), 43-74. 32)   Alan Bray and Michael Rey, “The Body of the Friend: Continuity and Change in Masculine Friendship in the Seventeenth Century,” in Tim Hitchcock and Michele Cohen, eds., English Masculinities 1660-1800 (London & New York, Longman, 1999), 65. 33)   Alan Bray, The Friend (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 2. Bray’s point on the public dimension of friendship in seventeenth-century England is certainly relevant to our study of friendship in late imperial China. 34)   For a discussion of the exchange of views on friendship between late Ming literati and some of the Italian Jesuits, see Giovanni Vitiello, “Exemplary Sodomites: Chivalry and Love in Late Ming Culture,” Nan Nü 2.2 (2000): 207-57, and especially, 248-53. 35)   Clunas, Elegant Debts, 83-5 and 113-40. 36)   In his studies of the famous seventeenth-century thinker and calligrapher, Fu Shan 傅山, Bai Qianshen (白謙慎) has also explored the implications of the burden of social obligations on a literati artist. See his Fu Shan’s World: The Transformation of Chinese Calligraphy in the 31)

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An interesting topic McDermott, Kutcher, and Clunas all dwell on is the relationship between “friends” and one’s family members and kinsmen. McDermott argues that the area of the Lower Yangzi delta of Ming China was particularly accommodating to the conditions and requirements of friendship because the region lacked a recent history of strong lineages,37 a view shared by Clunas in his discussions of Wen Zhengming, who was from that locale.38 Whether or not the structure of a strong lineage was necessarily less conducive to friendship is a complex question. As McDermott acknowledges, parts of Jiangxi, where the social structures were dominated by large lineages, also witnessed the popularity of literati clubs and the flourishing of gentry friendship.39 I tend to believe that strong lineage might be a double-edged sword as far as friendship is concerned: It may prevent a man from cultivating friend­ ships with others from other regions, but, at the same time, close relationships with the male members within the lineage might draw him away from the confined space of his own nuclear family, thus creating more spaces as well as more possibilities for relationships outside the immediate confines of the household. In fact, in the life of He Xinyin 何 心隱 (1517-79), one of the great late Ming promoters of friendship discussed in McDermott’s article, lineage and friendship did not appear to have been antagonistic at all. He Xinyin’s unprecedented championing of friendship was closely related to his effort to built a utopian com­ munity based on lineage structure. For him, in breaking away from one’s own jia 家 (nuclear family)—which he regarded as one of the main origins of human selfishness—the pull of the common interest of a lineage could be an important factor. This becomes especially significant if we recall that prior to the Spring and Autumn period, the concept of you referred to kinsmen within a lineage and could mean “fraternity” as articulated in the important concept of xiaoyou 孝友 (filiality and fraternity) in Confucian family ethics. Here you means “fraternity” rather than “friendship.” Seventeenth-Century China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003) and his Chinese book Fu Shan de jiaowang he yingchou:yishu shehui shi de yixiang ge’an yanjiu 傅 山的交往和應酬:藝術社會史的一項個案研究 (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2003). 37)   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 71. 38)   Clunas, Elegant Debts, 51. 39)   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 71.

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Acknowledging the complex roles played by family in the Ming conceptualization of friendship, McDermott observes: “Family ties in the Lower Yangzi delta may have been less restrictive, family organization much simpler, and family obligations far fewer than in southern Anhui, Kiangsi, or Fukien. But, the individual male was born into and reared in a network of family ties that assured him of ‘family friendships’ rarely spoken of in the Ming accounts of friendship. These friendships were widely assumed by members of gentry families and constituted the bedrock for the ‘social networks’ we are only now beginning to understand.”40 Here the boundaries between an “achieved relationship” (friendship) and an “ascribed relationship” (kinship), as often drawn by modern anthropologists, become difficult to maintain.41As Clunas’s discussion of Wen Zhengming’s close friendship with Qian Tongai 錢同 愛 (1475-1549) illustrates,42 one of the most common ways of solidifying and authenticating a friendship between two adult males in late imperial China was having one’s child marry the child of the other. Here the distinctions between “friendship” and “kinship” were meant to be overcome. The case of Wen Zhengming, which was by no means unique in late imperial China, is a poignant reminder that in studying the history of Chinese male friendship we have to be constantly mindful of our own historical bias, not to mention the substantial differences between theory and praxis even within a particular historical period. To further complicate the matter, in traditional friendship discourses, the behaviors of a good friend, as McDermott has pointed out, are often valorized in terms of the common understanding of the obligations of family members.43 For example, to show appreciation to one’s friend is to treat him like one’s own brother. The highest honor one could bestow on a friend who has done one a big favor (such as saving one’s life or giving one a rare opportunity for great success) is to respect that friend as if he were one’s own parent, as suggested in the phrase “parents who have given one the second chance of life” (chongsheng fumu 重生父母). That is, the appreciation of friendship is dependent on Confucian family   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 92.   David Konstan, Friendship in the Classical World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 1. 42)   Clunas, Elegant Debts, 57. 43)   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 91. 40) 41)

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rhetoric for articulation, a fact that has fairly complicated implications. On the one hand, the tendency to promote friendship by appealing to the Confucian family model could sometimes be detrimental to the enterprise of friendship itself by allowing it to be co-opted as a friend becomes a family member. Kutcher observes this from a slightly different angle: “One way in which Confucians reinforced the hierarchy of friendship was by stressing that it should be modeled on the inherently hierarchical fraternal bond.”44 On the other hand, this close parallel and compatibility assumed between friendship and family relationships such as the fraternal bond were considered by some to have the potential to undermine the stability of the family. Alarmed by such potential, many conservative defenders of the Confucian family were concerned that when one treated a friend as a brother, the position of a real brother was likely to be usurped by a fake or fictive one, a scenario that posed serious threat to the core Confucian values that emphasized the interests of family and kinships. A frequent complaint about the dangers of friend­ ship during the late Ming was that more and more men were pursuing friendship at the expense of their relationships with their male siblings (bo gurou er zhong jiaoyou 薄骨肉而重交友).45 The Ming scholar-official Wu Linzheng 吳麟徵 (1593-1644) once cautioned: “If one treats his friends better than his brothers, this is like favoring the flower petals at the expense of the roots of the plant. One should never behave like this.”46 The controversial thinker Li Zhi 李贄 (1527-1602), for example, was accused of pursuing friendship with no regard for his family and kinsmen (qi renlun 棄人倫), and his eventual tragic death might be related to such accusations.47

  Kutcher, “Fifth Relationship,” 1622.   “Fengsu” “風俗”, in Shuntian fuzhi 順天府志 (Wanli ed.), 1.13b. 46)   Wu Lingzheng, Jiajie yaoyan 家誡要言, reprinted in Zhijia geyan, Zeng ‘Guang xianwen’, Nüer jing: zhijia xiuyang geyan shizhong 治家格言, 增廣賢文, 女兒經: 治家修養格言十種, anno. and intro. by Zhu Li 朱利 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1999), 10. The fragile fraternal bond is the subject of Adrian Davis’s “Fraternity and Fratricide in Late Imperial China.” 47)   Li Zhi, “Fu Deng Shiyang” 復鄧石陽, Fenshu 焚書, 10, in Fenshu, Xu Fenshu 焚書 續焚 書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975). For a detailed discussion of the conflict between family obligation and devotion to friends in Li’s life, see Martin Huang, “Passion for Friends: Li Zhi’s Tragedy” (Paper presented at the Symposium on “Passion and Pleasure in Chinese Literature,” The University of Chicago, May 27-28, 2006). 44) 45)

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The paradox is that for friendship to thrive, a man had to free himself from the restrictive structure of the Confucian family, and yet, at the same time, the values of friendship could be appreciated only in terms of models based on this very Confucian institution. In other words, the value of a true friend could only be authenticated or articulated when that friend was accepted (at least symbolically) as a kinsman or a family member. None of these scholars, McDermott, Kutcher, and Clunas, explores the question of male homosexual relationships.48 Any serious study of male friendship has to come to grips with the intricate relations between the homosocial and the homosexual. In her classic study Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick views male-male relationships as a continuum between the homosocial and the homosexual rather than simply a binary of straight/gay.49 This model of a homosocial-homosexual continuum might also be useful in examining the male-male relationships in traditional China. While no one would characterize this continuum as seamless, the transition from the homosocial to the homosexual in a male-male relationship in traditional China could be quite drastic and sometimes even traumatic, given that almost all male homosexual relationships were explicitly hierarchical. The partner who played the passive role (the penetrated) was often “reduced” to being a “woman” and, accordingly, he was usually expected to behave like a woman, following the Confucian moral prescriptions for women.50 Troubled by McDermott’s reluctance to   For lack of a better term, I use terms such as “homosexual” with hesitation, fully aware of its inadequacy in discussing many cases of male bonding in traditional China. Scholars of Western sexual history have argued that “homosexual” was a concept “invented” when those involved in same-sex love were singled out and identified as members of a “third gender,” a result of the increasingly strong homophobia in Europe beginning from the eighteenth century. In late imperial China, people with inclinations toward same-sex passion were never considered belonging to a “third gender,” and there was no gender category of “homosexuals” in pre-twentieth-century China, as understood in its modern sense. For a more detailed discussion of this issue, see my book Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China, 14852. 49)   Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985). 50)   I have explored the gender implications of what I have called “active and passive lovers” in same-sex relationships in my Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001), 176-205; see also Sommer, “Dangerous Males, Vulnerable Males, and Polluted Males.” 48)

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include homoeroticism in his discussion of late Ming friendship by characterizing them as two separate strands, Giovanni Vitiello is one of the few who have attempted to discuss homoeroticism in the large context of homosociality in late Ming culture. In his recent article “Exemplary Sodomites: Chivalry and Love in Late Ming Culture,” Vitiello is quite persuasive in contending that the late Ming “romantic ideology [qing 情 or love] provides the over-arching structure that allows a homosocial bond to become homosexual.”51 His discussions have shed light on the important question of the possible roles played by the late Ming cult of qing in the quick ascendance of the status of friendship during that period.52 Some late Ming friendship enthusiasts did imitate the rhetoric of the promoters of qing despite the fact that friendship, as a topic of ethical discourse, was more likely to feel the constraining effect of Confucian orthodoxy, while the enterprise of qing, given literature as its main domain, often found itself in a more “friendly” environment. However, in celebrating the transformative power of qing, Vitiello, it seems to me, sometimes tends to ignore the heterosexual gender inequality almost always reproduced and sometimes even reinforced in many of these homoerotic relationships once a homosocial bond becomes homosexual. While sharing his view that McDermott might have been a bit too simplistic in refusing to see homosociality and homosexuality as integral parts of a continuum, I would hesitate to embrace the conclusion Vitiello reaches in his reading of the seventeenthcentury collection of stories Bian er chai 弁而釵 (Cap and hairpin as well) that the homosocial and the homosexual “are here fully conflated categories.”53 The four articles assembled here, originally presented at the panel on “Male Friendship in the Ming Dynasty” at the annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies in San Francisco (April 6-9, 2006), are an effort of interdisciplinary collaboration among four scholars in the fields of history, musicology, and literary studies to explore how male friendship was theorized, practiced, and represented in Ming China.   Giovanni Vitiello, “Exemplary Sodomites,” 232.   Qing, which has been translated variably as “love,” “passion,” “feeling,” is a loaded term in Chinese cultural history. For a discussion of late Ming revalorization of qing, see my book Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China, 23-56. 53)   Vitiello, “Exemplary Sodomites,” 234. I return to this matter in my comments on Joseph Lam’s article in the issue. 51) 52)

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Why Ming China? Besides the obvious reason that all four con­trib­ utors to this volume are students of Ming culture, during the Ming dynasty (especially the last century of this dynasty) friendship appears to have been celebrated with unprecedented enthusiasm. Some of the boldest statements and most sophisticated theories of friendship were produced in this period, as McDermott and Vitiello have already demonstrated to a certain extent. The second half of the Ming dynasty saw an explosion of friendship discourses as well as the rise of a cult of friendship among many educated males.54 Friendship became such an important issue during the late Ming that it was even once chosen as an essay topic in the civil service examinations.55 As some of the contributors to this issue contend, the late Ming might be considered the golden age of Chinese male friendship. From a chronological view, among the four articles in this theme issue, Anne Gerritsen’s article deals with the earliest period, the Yuan-Ming transition in the late fourteenth century. She shows how friendship was practiced before the arrival of the golden age of friendship during the late Ming, a historical period the other three articles examine at considerable length. Among the three figures Gerritsen concentrates on, two were Yuan loyalist poets, Dai Liang 戴良 (1317-83) and Ding Henian 丁鶴年 (1335-1424). Their friendship seems to have been strengthened by their shared loyalty to the fallen Yuan dynasty despite their different ethnic backgrounds: Dai was a Han Chinese whereas Ding was of Central Asian origin. On the other hand, their shared loyalist sentiments apparently did not prevent them from befriending those who actively participated in the new regime, such as Wu Sidao 烏 斯道 (fl. late fourteenth century). Gerritsen looks at how these three fourteenth-century literati became friends despite the ethnic and political divides among them. Both Dai and Wu wrote biographies of their friend Ding, celebrating his identity as a Confucian gentleman. Both authors demonstrated their readiness and ability to cultivate what Gerritsen calls “friendship over differences.” For Dai and Wu, Ding, a   Compare my article in this issue and McDermott’s discussions of several late Ming books devoted to the topic of friendship, such as Guangyou lun 廣友論, in his “Friendship and Its Friends.” 55)   See Zhong Xing’s 鍾惺 (1574-1625) lengthy examination essay on friendship, reprinted in his Yinxiu xuan ji 隱秀軒集 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1992), 24.444-45. 54)

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man of different ethnicity, became “one of us” thanks to their shared cultural values and their common Confucian upbringing. Dai’s biography of Ding is the portrait of a man of utter moral integrity. As its title suggests, this is a biography of a high-minded gentleman (gaoshi zhuan 高士傳). One of the qualities associated with his biographical subject that Dai admired most was his disinterest in officialdom and wealth, a quality not unrelated to their shared claim as Yuan loyalists, who staked their reputations on refusing to switch loyalty to another regime. In contrast, Wu’s biography, as its title Ding xiaozi zhuan 丁孝 子傳 (The biography of Ding, a filial son) clearly indicates, concentrates almost exclusively on Ding’s filiality. As someone who might have felt vulnerable to the accusation of lacking moral integrity for serving in the new regime, Wu’s exclusive focus on the more apolitical virtue of filiality was probably not an innocent decision. By “friendship over differences” Gerritsen does not mean that their differences disappeared as a result of their friendships but rather that they became friends despite the differences. Furthermore, there are also differences within the friendships among the three. Because of their shared political stance, Ding appeared to be much closer to Dai than to Wu. There are more exchanges between Ding and Dai recorded in their extant collected writings. For example, Ding expressed his gratitude to Dai for writing his biography, while in several of his poems, Dai compared Ding to the famous Six-Dynasty recluse poet Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 (ca. 365-427). The comparative reading of the biographies of Ding by Dai and Wu helps us appreciate the relationships among the trio in terms of how the two authors reconstructed their images of a common friend. Gerritsen then turns to several pieces written by Ding and Wu on a painting by Dai Liang to see how the latter was in turn viewed by the other two. During the turbulent years of the violent Yuan-Ming transition, trying to remain loyal to the collapsing Yuan regime and to avoid being enlisted for service by the anti-Yuan forces, who were occupying his hometown, Dai was forced into exile. Traveling and sojourning in other regions, to alleviate his homesickness, Dai Liang always carried a painting of his hometown mountains, titled “Jiuling shanfang tu” 九靈山房圖 (A painting of the studio on the Jiuling mountains) and hung it in the bedrooms where he stayed during his exile. The painting became an important focus of exchanges between him and his friends, a mobile “site” where friendships

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with people in different regions were initiated, consolidated, and inscribed as Dai invited them to write colophons on the painting or compose poems or essays using the painting as a topic. These friends included Yuan loyalists such as Ding Henian as well as people like Wu Sidao and Tang Zhichun 唐之淳 (1350-1401), who would later become an important official in the newly established Ming government.56 The painting, as the site of literati friendships and cultural exchanges, served as a bridge over the political divide between Confucian loyalism and pragmatic political expediency. While the painting was an eloquent testimony to Dai Liang’s determination to remain a Yuan loyalist, the diverse political orientations of the friends invited to interpret and celebrate it, ironically, point to the compromises Dai made to survive as a loyalist and the network of friendships he needed to remain culturally relevant in an age of rapid political change.57 Thriving on commonality, friendship also means accepting differences. At the beginning of this introduction, I pointed out the affinity between friendship and travel. In the late fourteenth century, many had to travel for a different purpose—to flee the raging war or escape pressures to change one’s political allegiance. Such forced movement, ironically, also gave rise to more opportunities as well as new necessities of friendship. Substantial parts of the lives of Ding Henian and Dai Liang were spent in traveling and sojourning away from their hometowns, and the roles played by you (travel) in the formation of their networks of you (friends) cannot be overestimated. Gerritsen points out that many educated Han Chinese males were deprived of opportunities to take the civil service examinations due to the policy of the Yuan government and the disruption of normalcy caused by the war. For many of them, friendship became an important means for performing their masculinity. Such appropriation of friendship would be attempted again in a somewhat different situation in the late Ming when many who did not succeed in the examinations began to   See the nianpu 年譜 attached to Dai Liang’s Jiuling shanfang ji 九靈山房集 (Siku quanshu ed.; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1987), 10a-b. 57)   Compare Paul Ropp’s comments on Gerritsen’s presentation at the AAS panel: “It is my impression that quite a number of elite males maintained their personal friendships across political lines, because they all knew how fraught with danger any one choice could be, to serve or not to serve a new dynasty. No one could afford to be too self-righteous when all the moral choices were in one way or another ambiguous and potentially dangerous.” 56)

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turn the pursuit of friendship into a career, a last resort to lay claim to membership in the cultural elite. This is the case of the commoner scholar, Gu Dashao 顧大韶 (b. 1576), whom I examine in my article in this issue. Besides the exchange of poetry, another kind of writing these literati friends often exchanged among themselves was biographies of chaste women, most of which were authored by themselves. Such exchange took on added significance during a time when an old dynasty was being replaced, often violently, by a new one. Gerritsen notes that Ding Henian’s elder sister, Yue’e 月娥, thanks to her choosing death over the possibility of being violated by the soldiers, was a subject (or an object) of celebration by male literati authors. Writing about Ding Henian’s chaste sister became an important aspect of Wu Sidao’s friendship with Ding despite their different political stances. The celebration of chaste women again would become an important part of the male literati’s effort to come to terms with their deeply bruised male egos when man­ hood was often equated with nationhood during the violent Ming-Qing transition more than two hundred years later. In Wu Sidao’s biography of Yue’e, we encounter few signs of anxiety or guilt over his decision to serve in the new regime, probably an “unchaste” act in the eyes of those more conscious of the Confucian virtue of political loyalty. By the time of the Ming-Qing transition in the mid-seventeenth century, such moral self-assurance, however, became much more difficult to maintain in male literati discourses on chaste women. Writing about these female “others” often became occasions of self-interrogation with regard to their own failures as male subjects of a conquered nation. Female chastity and political loyalism became inseparable.58 After the fall of the Ming dynasty, “friendships over differences” formed between yinmin 遺民 (those who insisted on their allegiance to the already toppled monarchy) and erchen 貳臣 (collaborators who switched their allegiance to the new regime) continued to thrive, further complicating our understanding of male homosociality, which was conditioned and sometimes even dis­ torted by political turmoil.59 58)   This is an issue discussed extensively in the first four chapters of my book Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China, especially, 72-86. 59)   See Xie Zhengguang 謝正光, Qingchu shiwen yu shiren jiaoyou kao 清初詩文與士人交友 考 (Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 2001).

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While Gerritsen’s study focuses on the exchanges among three friends in fourteenth-century China mainly in the form of writing poems, biographies, essays, colophons, Joseph Lam’s explores music as the contact between men friends in his article “Music and Male Bonding in Ming China.” Lam investigates how music served as a catalyst for male bonding in the last two centuries of the Ming dynasty. He proposes the broad term “musiking” to describe all the cultural activities associated with music. The legend about Yu Boya 俞伯牙 refusing to play music after the death of his friend Zhong Ziqi 鍾子期 because he believed Zhong was the only one who could understand and appreciate his music was one of the most famous Chinese friendship stories. It gave currency to the term zhiyin 知音 (the one who really understands the sound/music, or soul mate). Compared with another equally popular term, zhiji 知己 (some­ one who really appreciates and knows one), originally used to describe the explicitly hierarchical relationship between a patron/master and his client/retainer,60 zhiyin is more likely to refer to more egalitarian friendship , although the two terms are often interchangeable.61 Indeed, as Lam suggests, in the legend of Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi, friendship is situated “outside the institutional sites, such as the court, the home, and the entertainment quarters, where participants’ interactions were defined by social-political hierarchies.” However, this ancient legend of egali­ tarian friendship is mentioned at the beginning of his article as an ideal too high and too pure for later men to live up to, because, as Lam demonstrates subsequently, very few lived outside those institutional sites. Lam’s last example about the passionate love affair between the literatus Qi 祁 and his catamite and their common devotion to music may, at first glance, come close to this ideal of zhiyin, but their sexual relationship turned out to be anything but egalitarian. Lam begins his discussion of musiking and male bonding with the case of two sixteenth-century scholar-officials’ intellectual friendship   Sima Qian 司馬遷, “Cike liezhuan” 刺客列傳, Shiji 史記 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1972), vol. 8, 2519. 61)   For discussions of the early histories of these terms, see Eric Henry, “The Motif of Recognition in Early China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47 (1987): 5-30, and Paul Rouzer, “The Life of the Party: Theorizing Clients and Patrons in Early China,” Comparative Literature 58.1 (2006): 59-69; see also my discussion of Gu Dashao’s view on the differences between “friends” and “retainer/guest” in my article in this issue. 60)

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developed through their mutual interest in music theories, although such friendship was not purely intellectual as other more utilitarian factors probably played some role. It took Ji Ben 季本 (1485-1563) almost twenty-five years to have his book on music theory published because it took him that long to find someone who could really appreciate, as well as convince himself of, the merit of his music theory. Compared with the case of Ji Ben, the role of musiking in the social life of Yan Cheng 嚴澂 (1547-1625) was even more important. Yan was reputed to be the founder of the famous and influential Yushan school of qin 琴 (seven-string zither) in Changshou 常熟 in what is now part of Jiangsu province. Like other literati clubs such as shishe 詩社 (poetry club), qinshe 琴社 (qin club) was another form of assembly where networks of literati friendship thrived, in this case, through participants’ common love for music. Yan Cheng’s impact as a leader of the Yushan school was enhanced by the fact that he came from a very prominent family and his father Yan Ne 嚴訥 (1511-84) was once the Grand Councilor during the Jiajing reign (1522-66). Yan Cheng and his musiking comrades “operated as a social and artistic group of elite men: in addition to socializing with one another, they played the same repertory of qin works, subscribed to the same aesthetics, and lived in the same Changshou area,” pointing to the subtle relationships among musiking, male friendships, and local identities. Lam here raises a very important question about the roles played by “local identity” in a Chinese man’s friendships with other men, an issue closely related to the implications of clan and lineage that I have previously touched on. The last part of Lam’s article is about musiking in same-sex love between an obsessed literati connoisseur of art, Qi Zhixiang 祁止祥 (  juren 1627) and his catamite Ahbao 阿寳. Lam emphasizes the unique role played by musiking in the bonding between the two and the transgressive nature of their love, calling our attention to the emotional and erotic component of music as it helped shape the special bond between them. His discussion is based on an account by Zhang Dai 張 岱 (1597-ca. 1684), who, a connoisseur of art himself, also enjoyed the company of catamites, though probably not as obsessively as Qi. Significantly, Qi’s love for Ahbao is largely presented in terms of literati connoisseurship. Zhang mentioned that Qi had a fixation on many things, including calligraphy, chess playing, and opera. When Zhang was

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introduced to Ahbao by Qi, the way Zhang responded is revealing: “This is a fairy bird from the Western Paradise. Where did you get him?”62 Here Ahbao was apparently admired as a pet or a piece of art, something collectable by a connoisseur.63 No matter how passionate Qi was in his love for Ahbao (Qi gave up his money, property, and even his family for him), the latter remained a desired object, while Qi, as a desiring subject, was his “owner.” Lam is certainly on firm ground when he characterizes their apparently unequal relationship as a kind of male bonding, although it should greatly complicate our understanding of friendship if we are to consider them friends. This leads us to a central issue in the study of male-male sexual relationship in traditional China: Almost all the available evidence suggests such relationships were strictly hierarchical.64 If we rely on the modern concept of friendship, where equality is one of its defining qualities, then the relationship between these male lovers could hardly be considered friendship. On the other hand, given that equality was not   Zhang Dai, “Qi Zhixiang pi” 祁止祥癖, in Zhang Dai, Tao’an mengyi Xihu mengxun陶庵 夢 憶西湖夢尋 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1982), 39. 63)   For discussions of literati and their relationships with male actors (often female impersonators) in terms of connoisseurship, see Sophie Volpp, “The Literary Consumption of Actors in Seventeenth-Century China,” in Lydia Liu, Ellen Widmer, and Judith Zeitlin, eds., Writing and Materiality in China: Essays in Honor of Patrick Hanan (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003), 153-83; Wu Cuncun, Homoerotic Sensibilities in late Imperial China (London and New York: Routlege Curzon, 2004), especially, 116-58; and my book Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China, 141-42. 64)   There might be some exceptions in a limited sense, where hierarchy does not receive much emphasis; see, for example, “Qingxia ji” 情俠記 from Bian’er chai and “Pan Wenzi qihe yuanyang zong” 潘文子契合鴛鴦塚 from Shi diantou 石點頭, two collections of stories produced during the seventeenth century. For discussions of these two stories, see Giovanni Vitiello, “Exemplary Sodomites,” 228-37; for a different reading of Bian er Chai, see my book Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China, 176-83. While both Vitiello and I have emphasized the strategy of qing adopted to legitimate “same sex love,” I am much more hesitant than Vitiello in characterizing many cases of “male-male sexual passion” as relationships among equals. In her book Homoerotic Sensibilities in Late Imperial China (85110), Wu Cuncun argues that the views on male-male sexual passion on the part of two other influential eighteenth-century literati figures, the poet Yuan Mei 袁枚 (1716-97) and the painter Zheng Xie 鄭燮 (1693-1765), were sometimes capable of challenging the “bound­ aries” between the penetrated and the penetrator. However, though less rigid, hierarchy is nevertheless an integral part of the kind of relationships practiced or envisioned by Yuan Mei and Zheng Xie, and, furthermore, their views were often expressed or presented for their intended shocking effect, thus calling attention by default to the overwhelming dominance of the more rigid “norms.” 62)

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always regarded as a central element of friendship in traditional Chinese culture, we might want to avoid an either/or approach in examining the intricate relationship between the kind of male-bonding described here and what was usually considered friendship in traditional China. Another case of male-male sexual love touched on by Lam should help us to better appreciate the gender implications of the bonding between Qi and Ahbao in terms of the possible distinctions between male friendship and male homosexual passion in traditional China. In a story titled “The Tower of Gathered Refinement” by Li Yu 李漁 (1611-71), two good friends, Jin Zhongyu and Liu Minshu, who are both married, share a catamite lover, Quan Ruxiu 權汝修. When Quan, out of loyalty to his two male lovers, refuses a relationship with the son of a powerful official, he is subjected to cruel revenge, castration by a eunuch. Before this tragedy, however, the three live in perfect harmony: Jin and Liu take turns sleeping with Quan. Instead of any jealousy between them, their friendship seems to have been strengthened precisely because of their common love. Or, in the words of the narrator, the “body” of the catamite becomes the physical site where the corporeal interactions between Jin and Liu are being enacted (budan cunian busheng, fanjie tawei lianluo xinghai zhi ju 不但醋念不生, 反借他為聯絡形骸之具).65 The story’s deliberate juxtaposition of male friendship with male-male sexual passion highlights the assumed distinctions between these two kinds of male bonding, the former between two men who are more or less socially equal and the latter between two socially superior men and a younger man from a significantly lower social stratum. While emphasizing the good education both Jin and Liu received, the author does not say anything about Quan in this regard (we infer that he has little education). If this is a story about deep attachment among three male friends, the reader may wonder why there is no mention of any sexual relationship between Jin and Liu. The author’s silence is revealing: we are supposed to conclude that their friendship involves absolutely no sex. If it did, the status of one of them, the passive partner or the penetrated, would have been lowered to that of a catamite. Consequently, the friendship between two men of equal social status (it is emphasized that they used to be tongxue) would have been turned into a hierarchical   Li Yu, “Cuiya lou” 萃雅樓, in Shi’er lou 十二樓; reprinted in Li Yu quanji 李漁全集 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji chubanshe, 1992), vol. 9, 130.

65)

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sexual relationship between a man and his “woman” (the penetrated).66 In most cases, sex between two males either leads to inequality or deepens the inequality that already exists, thus replicating the rigid gender inequality in a heterosexual relationship, because a man who has been penetrated will be reduced to being a “woman” (having lost his original status as man). The castration Quan suffers at the hands of the eunuch takes on special symbolic meaning: once penetrated (penetration amounts to castration) he becomes a “woman.” Although friendship between a man and a “woman” (or his “woman”) is possible, such friendship has to be quite different from that between two males. Needless to say, male friendship is only possible between two men, while Quan is obviously no longer a man once he is penetrated (castrated).67 A conclusion we can tentatively draw is that in traditional China friendship between two men in male-male sexual relationship was possible but in most cases substantially or qualitatively different from that between two males who were not sexually involved with each other. We should be mindful of these subtle differences in terms of their important gender and social implications. The two papers described so far concentrate on friendship praxis. Kimberley Besio’s article ushers us into the world of literary represen­ tation. She looks at changing representations of male friendship in several dramatic and fictional works from different historical periods in order to explore how such representations were shaped by literary conventions and historical contingencies. The literary texts she examines are different renderings of the famous story about the deep bond between Fan Juqing 范巨卿 and Zhang Yuanbo 張元伯, first recorded in two fifth-century texts: Hou Hanshu 後漢書 and Soushen ji 搜神記 (In search of the supernatural). Fan and Zhang become close friends   See Mathew Sommer, “Dangerous Males, Vulnerable Males, and Polluted Males” and my book Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China, 176-205. In an idealized malemale sexual relationship in traditional China, the penetrated or the passive partner was often expected to behave like a “virtuous wife” in relation to his male lover as exemplified in some of Li Yu’s stories and Pian’er chai. Here again, “Pan Zhiwen qihe yuanyang zhong” from the seventeenth-century collection of stories Shi diantou, which is about the passion between two tongxue, might be one of the relatively rare exceptions. 67)   In his reading of Bian er chai (“Exemplary Sodomites,” 235-36), “equality” is a word Vitiello repeatedly uses to characterize this collection of homoerotic stories. Such characterization is, in my opinion, quite problematic, except in the case of the story “Qingxia ji.” 66)

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when they are schoolmates studying in the National University. Before returning to their hometowns, Fan promises Zhang that he will visit him in two years. Two years later he shows up as promised and they pledge to meet again in another two years. Unfortunately, Zhang becomes ill, and before he dies, he insists to his family that Fan will attend his funeral. A thousand miles away, through a dream, Fan learns of Zhang’s death as well as his dying wishes. He travels without stop to attend Zhang’s funeral and plants a tree near Zhang’s grave. A play based on this story was produced during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) under the title Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu 死生交范張雞黍 (Friends in life and death, Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet). The play basically follows the same plot line with one significant addition, a subplot about how Wang Zhonglüe 王仲略, a schoolmate of the two, tries to present someone else’s essays as his own in order to get a high official position from the government. Consequently, the loyalty and honesty that characterized the two friends Fan and Zhang is now being contrasted with Wang Zhonglüe’s dis­ honesty and betrayal of his friend. This contrast between true friendship and false friendship continues to receive attention in later dramatic versions of the story produced in the Ming. In the play, interestingly enough, the name of the official who finally commends Fan to the imperial government for his exemplary deeds is Diwu Lun 第五倫 (literally, the fifth relationship), reinforcing the play’s central theme of friendship.68 However, the most radical rewriting of this story is found in the two versions of a Ming vernacular story, one partially extant from the sixteenth-century anthology titled Liushi jia xiaoshuo 六十家小說 (Sixty short stories), compiled by Hong Bian 洪楩 (fl. sixteenth century), the other in Feng Menglong’s 馮夢龍 (1574-1646) Yushi mingyan 喻世 明言 (Illustrative stories to instruct the world; also known as Gujin xiaoshuo 古今小說, Stories of old and new). As Besio notes, except for some verses, the two versions are basically the same. Here, instead of being fellow students in the imperial university, Fan and Zhang become close friends because Zhang has saved Fan’s life after the latter becomes   Diwu Lun was the name of a historical figure (d. 85 A. D.), a high official from the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220). However, this fact does not necessarily alleviate the ironic effect of this name here. 68)

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seriously ill in an inn on his way to the capital. After a full recovery under Zhang’s attentive care and before returning to their hometowns, Fan promises Zhang that he will visit him in two years. However, Fan has been so preoccupied with business that he does not recall his pledge until it is almost too late. Believing that the soul can travel much faster than the body, Fan commits suicide by slitting his throat so that his soul can reach Zhang on the day promised. In his encounter with Fan’s soul, Zhang realizes what Fan has done and travels to Fan’s hometown to attend his funeral. Then, moved by Fan’s devotion, Zhang commits suicide in order to be buried next to his friend. As can be seen from this summary, the friendship between Fan and Zhang takes on a much more radical form (double suicides) and is much more intense, probably reflecting the heightened friendship fervor during the late Ming. Zhang’s saving Fan’s life initiates a cycle of reciprocity. To show his gratitude, Fan pledges to visit Zhang and pays respect to Zhang’s mother in two years. To reciprocate Fan’s loyalty and his willingness to die rather than violate the trust of a friend, Zhang commits suicide in exactly the same manner, slitting his own throat, thus literally enacting the famous saying wenjing jiao 刎頸交 (a friendship so deep that one is willing to commit suicide by slitting one’s own throat for the sake of his friend). Besio observes that this enhanced emphasis on reciprocity is unique to the Ming vernacular story, and Feng Menglong seems to be particularly interested in reciprocity. The suicides by both friends also dramatize the tension between friendship and family obligations, a conflict apparently not given much attention in the fifth-century texts nor in various dramatic rewritings. In the vernacular story, between his family (wife and children) and his friend, Fan chooses the latter, a choice repeated by his friend Zhang. Before his suicide, Fan repeatedly complains about his wife and children as burdens that have prevented him from doing what he really wants to do (studying and being with his friend). According to Fan, he is so busy making money as a merchant in order to provide for his family that he almost fails to keep his solemn pledge to Zhang, who has saved his life. In turn, when Zhang commits suicide for the sake of his friend, he obviously chooses to neglect his responsibility for his aging mother and his younger brother (although the fact that he has a brother should alleviate his guilt over being unfilial since his mother has another son to take care of her). Feeling uneasy about Zhang’s choice, the story’s narrator launches a careful apology for the seemingly unfilial act: “How

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could Zhang neglect his own family members for the sake of a friend? This is all because Zhang feels in his heart so much the weight of loyalty and friendship (qi wei youpang qing gurou? Zhiyin shinyi po zhongchang 豈為友朋輕骨肉?只因信義迫中腸),”69 as if the author anticipates an accusation, common among some of his more conservative contem­po­ raries, that it is wrong to consider friends more important than family. Another significant change in the Ming vernacular story that Besio notes is that instead of a scholar, Fan, though well-educated, is now a merchant, probably reflecting the rapid commercialization and the rising status of merchant class in late Ming society. Here the distinctions between scholars and merchants are not that significant. However, the story’s attitude toward merchants is nevertheless ambivalent: on the one hand, Fan Juqing, as a merchant, is shown to be an exemplary friend in that he is willing to die to fulfill his pledge; on the other, Fan expresses regret that his pursuit of profits (doing business) has almost turned him into someone incapable of honoring his promise to a friend. The vernacular story seems to acknowledge the legitimacy of a merchant’s claim of membership in the cultural elite, but, at the same time, it also betrays a deep anxiety over the possible erosion of the literati tradition of friendship under the pressure of commercialism prevalent during the late Ming. Such anxiety over profit-seeking is also reflected in the author’s deliberate decision to make sure that an act of selfless friendship is not rewarded with high office as Zhang was in the original fifth-century texts, as Besio has insightfully pointed out. However, all the renditions of the Fan-Zhang story are unanimous in their emphasis on the importance of a man’s need to keep his word or a man’s trustworthiness (xin 信), a key aspect of masculinity in traditional China.70 Mainly focusing on friendship discourses, my article “Male Friendship and Jiangxue (Philosophical Debates) in Sixteenth-Century China”   Feng Menglong, “Fan Juqing jishu shengsi jiao” 范巨卿雞黍生死交, in Feng Menglong’s Yushi mingyan (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju), 243. Probably reflecting Feng Menglong’s awareness of the tension between friendship and family obligations, this apology is absent in an earlier version of this vernacular story collected in Liushi jia xiaoshuo (dated approximately between 1541-1551), which is also known as Qingping shantang huaben 清平山堂話本; see the facsimile reprint (Beijing: Wenxue guji kanyin suo, 1987), 221. 70)   Cf. McDermott’s observation in “Friendship and Its Friends,” 95: “Chinese writers have over the centuries preferred to define friendship in terms of the virtue of trust, not equality.” 69)

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attempts to answer the question of how certain unique friendship practices shaped friendship theories during the sixteenth century. It examines possible reasons behind the quick ascendance of the status of friendship in the second half of the Ming dynasty, offering a quite different intellectual and cultural context for the “friendly world” McDermott previously explored. The commercialization of the Ming economy and the resultant enhanced social and geographical mobility created new needs as well as new possibilities for friendship: the blurring of traditional social boundaries (such as those between literati and merchants) tended to make Ming society relatively less hierarchical,71 thus more conducive to the cultivation of friendship among different social groups (a fact also reflected in the Ming vernacular story of the bond between Fan and Zhang examined in Besio’s article). The increasing sophistication of the contemporary communication systems (transporta­ tion, mailing, and so forth) afforded much easier access to people in distant areas and greatly expanded the social spaces beyond the family where male homosocial relationships were likely to have been cultivated. After all, a man’s desire and ability to have many friends (you) are directly contingent upon his ability to travel (you) and opportunities for ex­changes with other men. McDermott’s contention that the increasing awareness of friendship was in part a result of “discontents within the family” is corroborated by my findings: Many friendship promoters emphasized the need to move beyond the confines of the family in order to spend more time with friends for the sake of spiritual enlightenment.72 McDermott is certainly justified when he cautions that “it would be incorrect to conclude that the espousal of friendship ties often entailed the outright rejection of family ties.” 73 However, at the same time, as my article demonstrates, it is also true that during the second half of the Ming dynasty more people were compelled to confront the consequences of the rising tension between these two kinds of ties.

  For a study of the impact of commercialization of late imperial economy on Confucian ethics, see Yu Yingshi 余英時, Shi yu Zhongguo wenhua 士與中國文化 (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1987), 441-579. 72)   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 94. 73)   McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 77. 71)

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A related phenomenon in sixteenth-century China was the pro­lifera­ tion of literati associations, not only shishe and qinshe but also wenshe 文 社 (literary clubs or essay clubs) and jianghui 講會 (assemblies of philosophical debate). These helped to create many different social spaces relatively independent of state and family, the two most powerful in­stitutions where friendship was most likely to be viewed with suspi­ cion.74 In these social groupings where hierarchy tended to be less emphasized, literati from low social strata (such as low examination degree holders) could find more opportunities to mingle and network with scholar-officials. Never before had many so-called commoner poets (buyi shiren 布衣詩人), such as Xie Zhen 謝榛 (1499-1579), Shen Mingchen 沈明臣 (fl. mid-sixteenth century), and Wang Zhideng 王穉 登 (1535-1612), achieved prominence on the national literary scene. Besides their poetic skills, a common factor contributing to the reputation of many of these poets was their perceived devotion to their friends or loyalty to their former patrons/benefactors. They were widely admired for their chivalry: risking their own lives and careers to protect or rescue a friend in distress or defend the reputation of a former patron/ benefactor now in disgrace. In fact, for these poets, friend-making became the most important part of their “career moves,” and for many it literally became a career after the normal channel of career success via the civil service examination was proven to be beyond their reach.75 For Xie Zhen, “poetic networking” (using his poetry to befriend important people and to seek patronage) simply became his livelihood, while   For studies of literati associations in late imperial China, see Xie Guozhen 謝國楨, Ming Qing zhiji dangshe yongdong kao 明清之際黨社運動考 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1935), Ono Kazuko 小野和子, Minki tōsha kō : Tōrintō to Fukusha 明季党社考:東林党と 復社 (Kyōto: Dōhōsha Shuppan, 1996; Chinese edition, Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2005). Both of these studies focus on the close connections between late imperial politics and literati associations. The most comprehensive study on this topic to date is He Zongmei 何宗美, Mingchu Qingmo wenren jieshe yanjiu 明末清初文人結社研究 (Tianjin: Nankai daxue chuban­she, 2003); see also his more recent Gong’an pai jieshe kaolun 公安派結社考論 (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 2005). 75)   See Qian Qianyi 錢謙益 (1582-1664), “Xie shanren Zhen” 謝山人榛, “Shen Jishi Mingchen” 沈記室明臣, and “Wang Jiaoshu Zhideng” 王校書穉登, in Qian Qianyi, Liechao shiren xiaozhuan 列朝詩人小傳 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1983), 423-24, 49697 and 481-82. For more detailed discussions of how these commoner poets used poetry as a vehicle for social networking to cultivate ties within the elite circles, see Zhang Dejian, 張德 建, Mingdai shanren wenxue yanjiu 明代山人文學研究 (Changsha: Hu’nan renmin chuban­ she, 2005), 133-70 and 210-32. 74)

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participation in poetry clubs was probably one of the most effective means of such networking. Whereas popular literati clubs such as shishe, qinshe, and wenshe became the social domains where networks of literati friendship thrived, it was mainly through jianghui (assemblies of philosophical debate), I argue, that friendship achieved the kind of Confucian legitimacy that it had never been able to acquire before. Jianghui was popular among a different sector of the large literati community, with most of its participants being neo-Confucian thinkers and activists associated with the so-called School of Heart/Mind or Xinxue 心學 founded by Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472-1528). Compared with literati clubs such as shishe, jianghui was a much more “sacred” form of literati gathering, where, instead of leisured aesthetic activities such as poetry composition, the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment and Confucian sagehood was the central activity. Influenced by the practices of lecturing and debating in Buddhist monasteries, jianghui became a hotbed for semi-religious fellow­ ships among many neo-Confucian scholars and activists. In this communal space where participants often lived together to debate and pursue Confucian moral learning, what was often emphasized was the absolute indispensability of friends in the process of moral selfcultivation. In his discussion of Chinese male friendship, Kutcher deplores that neo-Confucians had drained the emotional content of friendship by insisting that friendship was only to serve the goals of the individual’s learning of the Confucian way.76 This might be true up to a point. However, such neo-Confucian rhetoric could also help to legitimize friendship, thus greatly elevating its status. In fact, this was exactly what many Ming neo-Confucians did in their promotion of friendship. One of their effective defense strategies was to contend that one could not achieve ultimate Confucian sagehood in isolation and without the help of like-minded friends. Never before in Confucian discourses had the indispensability of friendship been so eloquently argued. On the one hand, the “draining of emotional contents” might well be the price one had to pay to promote friendship during a time when the modern notion   Kutcher, “Fifth Relationship,” 1620. By “neo-Confucians,” Kutcher is mainly referring to people such as Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200) from the Song Dynasty. 76)

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of friendship for the sake of friendship would have been simply inconceivable in the minds of many. On the other hand, emphasis on the moral efficacy of friendship did not necessarily lead to the draining of emotional content, as I try to show in my discussion of the late Ming scholar Gu Dashao. In his promotion of friendship, Gu Dashao, probably inadvertently, pushed the late Ming cult of friendship to its ultimate Confucian limits when he contended that friendship was an even more authentic relationship than that between father and son. One may wonder whether some of these late Ming figures were as radical in their social practices as in their rhetoric examined in my article, although it seems certain that the boldness and innovation exhibited in their friendship discourses was unprecedented. What qualifies the late Ming period as the golden age in the history of Chinese male friendship was not the fact that late Ming Chinese males were necessarily more friendly or more willing to make friends than those from other historical periods, but that their sheer eagerness to discourse on friendship and their bold and innovative rhetoric elevated friendship to a moral high ground that it had never occupied before. There obviously are many important issues associated with male friendship that have not been discussed or fully explored in the articles assembled in this theme issue. For example, given the indispensable role played by poetry in the social lives of educated males and the enormous amount of poetry produced in late imperial China, a careful examination of the homosocial implications of poetry is essential to a better under­ standing of male friendship in this period. Another important question is how a man’s relationship with another man was conditioned by factors such as kinships and local identities. Also, we have largely confined our discussions to male friendships among elite members of the society (Lam briefly discusses the relationships between a literatus and his catamite), while homosocial bonds among the non-elite are certainly a question that deserves careful scrutiny. Although the issue of male friendship versus male-male sexual passion has been touched upon briefly by some of our contributors, far more studies are needed on this subject, especially since there are still many substantial gaps in our knowledge of the latter due in part to limited sources. So far almost all the available written sources tend to suggest that male-male sexual relationships in traditional China were strictly hierarchical. To what degree do these sources reflect

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the historical reality as well as the selective nature of the strategies adopted by those who authored the sources? To answer such questions, we need to do more archival research and, at the same time, to be constantly aware of the mediated nature of all the sources as well as the possibilities of our own historical bias.77 The study of male friendship requires diverse approaches and collaboration among scholars from different disciplines. It is our hope that this collaborative attempt can serve as a good start that will lead to more substantial and more con­ textualized studies of Chinese male friendship in the near future.

  For example, is it possible that a male-male sexual relationship appears even more uncomfortably hierarchical in our eyes because we are being confronted with the situation that a woman’s subordination in a heterosexual relationship with a man, which we have long come to expect in a patriarchal society such as that of traditional China, is now being brought upon a man in a homosexual relationship with another man? 77)

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NAN NÜ

Nan Nü 9 (2007) 34-69

www.brill.nl/nannü

Friendship through Fourteenth-Century Fissures: Dai Liang, Wu Sidao and Ding Henian Anne Gerritsen

(Warwick University)

Abstract This essay analyzes one set of male bonds—the relationships between three men in the Yuan-Ming transition—to understand the range of meanings assigned to the practice of friendship in the fourteenth century. Through the exchange of writings, the three men constructed a friendship based on shared cultural ideas that was more valuable to them than the ethnic, regional, and political differences between them. At a time when the violence and disruptions associated with the Yuan-Ming transi­tion and the lack of access to examinations and the civil service created a crisis in masculinity, these friendships allowed them to create a space where masculine values could be shared and expressed.

Keywords male friendship, loyalism, ethnicity, Yuan, Ming

Introduction Relations between men in imperial China, in so far as we can know them today, were to a significant extent shaped by the setting in which they occurred: Men passed the civil service examinations together, served in office together, and shared kinship links. Such relationships on the   I would like to thank Martin Huang for taking the initiative in organising the original AAS panel in which these papers were first presented, and Harriet Zurndorfer for making their publication possible. Bettine Birge, Beverly Bossler, Peter Ditmanson, Maram Epstein, Martin Huang, Paul Ropp, and Harriet Zurndorfer all offered extensive and extremely valuable comments on earlier versions, for which I am very grateful. The pertinent views of the anonymous reviewer greatly helped me in reshaping the paper. All remaining errors are, of course, entirely my own responsibility. )   This point is not new, of course. This aspect of relations between men has already been made, for example, by Susan Mann. See Susan Mann, “Introduction: The Male Bond in Chinese )

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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DOI: 10.1163/138768007X171713

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whole had clearly defined contexts within which they were established and given meaning. Relationships between men beyond these defined contexts we often describe as “friendships,” although thus far little work has been done to establish what meanings such “friendships” may have held in theory and practice. The studies in this issue all seek to further our understanding of the changing meanings assigned to friendships between men in imperial China and the multiple ways in which such friendships were performed. History and Culture,” The American Historical Review 105 (2000):1600-14. Mann suggests that “the family system, the civil service examination system, and patterns of male sojourning,” which form the main structures of human action in late imperial China, ensured that men mostly spent their time in all-male environments. Mann, “The Male Bond,” 1603. )   Joseph McDermott’s article, entitled “Friendship and Its Friends in the Late Ming,” is one of very few studies that seek to engage with the question of male friendship in Ming China. Joseph McDermott, “The Friendship and Its Friends in the Late Ming,” in Zhongyang yanjiu yuan jindai shi yanjiu suo 中央研究院近代史研究所, ed., Jinshi jiazu yu zhengzhi bijiao lishi lunwen ji 近世家族與政治比較歷史論文集 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiu yuan Jindai yanjiu suo, 1992), 67-96. Norman Kutcher also discusses this subject in some depth. See Kutcher, “The Fifth Relationship: Dangerous Friendships in the Confucian Context,” The American Historical Review 105 (2000):1615-29. The gendered aspect of such relationships and the question of masculinity in Chinese history has, until recently, not been studied as much as it has outside of the China field. One of the first studies was the forum entitled “Gender and Manhood in Chinese History” published in 2000 in The American Historical Review. The forum contains two overview studies by Susan Mann and Robert Nye, and three case studies by Norman Kutcher, Adrian Davis, and Lee McIsaac. The American Historical Review 105.5 (2000). It was followed by several important studies, such as Kam Louie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); the reader edited by Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002); Song Geng, The Fragile Scholar: Power and Masculinity in Chinese Culture (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004), and most recently Martin Huang, Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: Hawai’i University Press, 2006). )   One caveat needs to be established at the outset. The extant sources for fourteenth-century China are by no means as rich as they are for either earlier or later periods. The understanding of “friendship” I apply in this paper is of necessity somewhat broader than it might be for other periods. For the purposes of this paper, I understand this concept to mean a relationship between men evidenced in the exchange of writings, although I am acutely aware of the difficulties in understanding “friendship” across such temporal, spatial, and cultural distances. In the Western European context, some interesting work on friendship has been done using literary texts. Lorna Hutson, for example, has analysed sixteenth-century English writings to form a picture of a changing meaning of “friendship.” She argues that in the English context, friendship may have started out as “a code of faithfulness,” a regulatory and economically defined relationship expressed in exchanges of gifts and hospitality, but transformed during the sixteenth century under the influence of humanism and print culture to a relationship generated in the exchange of persuasive writings and rhetoric. See Lorna

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Rather than seeking to define the idea of friendship, this essay analyzes one set of male bonds in an attempt to understand the possible range of meanings assigned to the practice of friendship in the fourteenth century. To do this, I will look at the relationships between three men in the Yuan-Ming transition: a writer and poet from Jinhua 金華 prefecture (Zhejiang province) who refused to serve Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 (r. 1368-98), the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, and remained loyal to the Yuan dynasty until his death in 1383; a poet of Central Asian origins, who was thirty-three years old when the Yuan fell and lived until the end of Yongle’s 永樂 reign (1403-24); and a fourteenth-century man from Ningbo 寧波 prefecture (Zhejiang province) who served Zhu Yuanzhang as local magistrate. The “fissures” from my title should be clear: These three men grew up in different regions, had different ethnic backgrounds, and made very different political choices. And yet, from their writings we know that there were ongoing links between these men. Through the exchange of writings in a variety of genres, these men established intimate bonds. It is the nature of the bonds between these three men across the fissures of the fourteenth-century terrain, and the implications of those ties for our understanding of friendship and gender, that I am interested in exploring. The fourteenth-century context and the traumatic ruptures of the transition from Yuan to Ming are especially relevant for this discussion not only because the fourteenth century has thus far received less scholarly attention than the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but also because the fourteenth-century context provides a significant historical contrast to the environment of the mid- to late Ming. During the wars of the Song-Yuan transition, the political instability of the Yuan dynasty, and the war-torn and bandit-rife chaos of the Yuan-Ming transition, elite men had few opportunities to travel widely and establish social networks (you 遊) or to engage in the leisurely pursuits of, say, “musiking” or philosophical debate. Moreover, under Yuan rule, both entering and Hutson, The Usurer’s Daughter: Male Friendship and Fictions of Women in Sixteenth-Century England (London: Routledge, 1994). )   As will become clear from the discussion below, I am not suggesting that the relationships between these three men were exclusive or exceptional. )   For a discussion of the meaning of travel (you 遊) for the establishment of social contacts and friendships (you 友), see the introduction to this issue by Martin Huang. ‘Musiking’ is the term used by Joseph Lam for the wide variety of meanings, activities and interactions

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passing the civil service examinations were more difficult for Han men than they had been during the Song, and than they would become during the early Ming. Pathways to government service for men without Mongol or semu 色目status, the designation used by the Mongols for a wide range of Western and Central Asian elites in China, were highly limited during this period. With such restrictions on examinations and government service and on the cultural life of elite men, there were precious few social spaces within which male relationships and friend­ ships among men that hailed from different parts of China could be forged in the years before the Ming government was fully established. In contrast, in the late Ming environment of commercialization, social and geographic mobility, and the rise of individuals’ moral autonomy, “a cult of friendship” would arise. During the more politically stable and commercially developed later centuries of the Ming, there were far more opportunities for men to travel and interact than during the Yuan, as the papers by Joseph Lam and Martin Huang amply illustrate. The social and economic developments of the late Ming seem to have created a social and cultural landscape within which the celebration of male friendships could flourish in ways that were far less visible in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. Nevertheless, of course male relationships were also established and maintained in that period of disruption and uncertainty, and I think it is relevant to ask how they fit into the story. associated with the production and consumption of music. See the article by Joseph Lam in this issue. For an excellent introduction to the chaos and disruptions of the fourteenth century, see Paul J. Smith’s masterly study of the fourteenth-century diary of Kong Qi 孔齊 (ca. 1310-after 1365). Paul J. Smith, “Fear of Gynarchy in an Age of Chaos: Kong Qi’s Reflections on Life in South China Under Mongol Rule,” Journal of the Social and Economic History of the Orient 41.1 (1998):1-95. )   Pathways to government service available in the late Yuan are discussed in more detail below. For a discussion of the civil service examinations under the Yuan, see Benjamin Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), especially 29-38. For a discussion of pathways to Ming government, see John Dardess, A Ming Society: T’ai-ho County, Kiangsi, in the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), especially 139-69. )   The opportunities for forging male bonds during the Song-Yuan-Ming transition—located, for example, in academies and expressed through intellectual lineages—will be discussed in further detail below. Here I only wish to point to the contrast with the late Ming, when socio-economic, intellectual, and cultural changes created far more opportunities for male bonding than were available in the fourteenth century. )   McDermott’s study engages mostly with the last century of the Ming, for which he notes “a heightened interest in the value of friendship.” McDermott, “Friendship and its Friends,” 68.

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Three Men The oldest of the three was Dai Liang 戴良, born in 1317 in Pujiang 浦 江 county in Jinhua prefecture, where he studied with such illustrious Jinhua men as Liu Guan 柳貫 (1270-1342), Huang Jin 黃溍 (12771357), and Wu Lai 吴萊 (1297-1340).10 After the fall of the Song to the Mongols, Pujiang county hosted gatherings of Song loyalist poets and became associated with Song loyalist sentiments.11 As John Langlois has eloquently explained, however, this Song loyalism was not so much an expression of anti-Mongol sentiment as “an impetus of dedicated service to the prevailing regime, no matter what it happened to be.”12 Scholars from Pujiang, and more generally from Jinhua, were committed to the intellectual ideals and cultural values of the Confucian tradition, and they were willing to go so far as to “reformulate” the role of the scholar in order to safeguard the tradition under the new political circumstances of Yuan rule.13 When Zhu Yuanzhang arrived in the 1350s, these same Jinhua scholars took it upon themselves to initiate Zhu in the statecraft teachings of the Confucian tradition.14 Loyalism, in other words, for these Pujiang loyalists did not yet have the resonances of a service to one   For a biography of Dai Liang in English, see the entry by John D. Langlois, Jr. in Luther Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368-1644 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976) [hereafter DMB], 1234-37. The biographical information provided here is largely based on this account, supplemented by the details in the nianpu 年譜 included in his literary collection. See Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji 九靈山 房集 (Wenyuange Siku quanshu ed.; Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1983-86), vol. 1219, nianpu: 1a-11b. On the significance of thinkers like Liu Guan, Huang Jin, and Wu Lai, see John D. Langlois, “Political Thought in Chin-hua under Mongol Rule,” in John Langlois, ed., China under Mongol Rule (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 137-85. 11)   Langlois, “Political Thought in Chin-hua,” 159-64. Loyalist poetry gatherings in Pujiang are also discussed in Sun Keguan孫克寛, Yuandai Jinhua xueshu 元代金華學術 (Daizhong: Donghai daxue chubanshe, 1975). For Yoshikawa Kōjirō, a collection entitled ‘Moon Springs Poetry Society’ (Yuequan yinshe 月泉吟社) edited in Pujiang county, forms the main example of Southern Song loyalist poetry. See Yoshikawa Kōjirō, Five Hundred Years of Chinese Poetry, 1150-1650 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 67-9. See also Fang Yong 方勇, Nan Song yimin shiren qunti yanjiu 南宋遺民詩人群體研究 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2000), 79-80. 12)   Langlois, “Political Thought in Chin-hua,” 163. 13)   Langlois, “Political Thought in Chin-hua,” 185. 14)   On the role of Jinhua thinkers in the founding of Zhu Yuanzhang’s Ming regime, see Langlois, “Political Thought in Chin-hua,” and John Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983). 10)

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regime only nor the parallels with the chaste woman’s commitment to one husband only, that loyalism gained later, particularly during the traumatic transition from Ming to Qing. Dai Liang served for a time as headmaster of an academy in Pujiang, and when Zhu Yuanzhang’s troops established control over Jinhua prefecture in 1358, Dai briefly served in the Jinhua prefectural school.15 His connection with Zhu Yuanzhang did not last long, however, and from 1361 onwards, Dai rejected the emergent Ming government, maintaining his loyalty to the Yuan. This decision had far-reaching consequences; he tore himself away from the circle of Jinhua intellectuals that had surrounded him all his life and embarked upon the lonely pursuit of the life of a hermit. It was a departure from the path chosen by the vast majority of his fellow Jinhua men, whose close ties to the first emperor of the Ming are well-known.16 The men from Jinhua had provided him until then with a strong community of fellow-minded intellectuals and had inspired in him strong feelings of a local, Pujiang, identity.17 Despite this divergence of political choices, Dai Liang’s contacts with fellow Jinhua men like Song Lian 宋濂 (1310-81) and Wang Wei 王褘 (1323-74) remained, as evidenced in their prefaces to Dai Liang’s literary collection, but he refused to follow them in their support for Zhu Yuanzhang’s regime, and, regretfully, he left his native area.18 He spent some of the next years living and writing in the Siming 四明 Mountains 15)   For the precise details, see Yan Xuanjun 晏選軍, “Dai Liang nianpu” 戴良年譜, Hunan renwen keji xue yuan xuebao 湖南人文科技學院學報 89 (2006):83-8. 16)   For a detailed study of the connection between the Jinhua scholars and Zhu Yuanzhang, see Xu Yongming 徐永明, “Wuzhou wenren yu Zhu Yuanzhang” 婺州文人與朱元璋, Zhong­ guo dianji yu wenhua 中國典籍與文化 3 (2002):10-20; and Xu Yongming 徐永明, Yuandai zhi Mingchu Wuzhou zuojia qun yanjiu 元代至明初婺州作家群研究 (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui Kexue chubanshe, 2005). See also Langlois, “Political Thought in Chin-hua;” and Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy, 131-289. 17)   The creation of a local, intellectual tradition specific to Wuzhou 婺州 ( Jinhua) prefecture during the Yuan dynasty, and Dai Liang’s contributions to the creation of that tradition, are discussed by Chen Wenyi 陳雯怡 in her paper “The Rise of Localism? – The Construction of a ‘Wu Tradition’ in the Yuan Dynasty” (Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, 2005). 18)   Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, yuanxu: 1a-4b. Texts by Jinhua men like Song Lian, Su Boheng 蘇伯衡 (1329-ca.92), Hu Han 胡翰 (1307-81), and Wu Chen 吳沉 (fl. early Ming), written after his death and included in the final juan of Dai’s literary collection, also testify to these ongoing contacts. Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, 30.

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in Ningbo, even travelling by boat from Ningbo to Shandong to join the regional government of pro-Yuan militarist Kökö Temür (Kuokuo tiemu’er 擴廓帖木兒, ?-1375).19 Zhu Yuanzhang continued to try to enlist Dai in his service, but to no avail, and in 1383, Dai Liang died a famous, if isolated, Yuan loyalist.20 The second man was known as Ding Henian 丁鶴年 (1335-1424). Ding had a Central Asian background, but both his father and his grandfather served the Yuan government. Ding’s father served for a time in Wuchang 武昌 in Huguang, where Henian and his four brothers grew up. When his father died in 1346, Ding spent three years in mourning, dedicating himself to the study of the Classics, apparently under the capable guidance of his older sister, Yue’e 月娥 (before 1335-60). The arrival of soldiers in the area forced Ding to flee Wuchang, and he ended up, for a time at least, in the Siming Mountains. He died at the great age of nearly ninety, and was buried in the Muslim cemetery in Hangzhou.21 The third man was Wu Sidao 烏斯道 (fl. 1376-80), a man of moderate family background, born in Cixi 慈奚 county in Zhejiang. His teacher in his younger days was the monk Zushan 袒闡 who also came from Cixi.22 Wu initially made a name for himself as a literary figure, and later,   On Kökö Temür, see for example, Edward L. Dreyer, Early Ming China: A Political History 1355-1435 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982), 53-62. 20)   According to Langlois, there is some doubt as to whether Dai Liang committed suicide. No contemporary account mentions suicide, although Qian Qianyi 錢謙益 (1582-1664), perhaps shaped by the context of the Ming-Qing transition, suggests that he “most likely took his own life.” See DMB, 1236. Yuan loyalism was, perhaps as one might expect, much less common than Song loyalism had been. Frederick W. Mote, “Confucian Eremitism in the Yüan Period,” in Arthur F. Wright, ed., The Confucian Persuasion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960), 202-40. According to Mote, Yuan loyalists “attained no prominence either in their own time or later.” Mote, “Confucian Eremitism,” 239. 21)   This account is largely based on Ding Henian’s biography in DMB, 1288-89. A more detailed biography of Ding Henian in English can be found in Chen Yuan, Western and Central Asians in China under the Mongols, translated and annotated by Ch’ien Hsing-hai and L. Carrington Goodrich (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), 98-110. There is a certain amount of unresolved confusion over the many editions of Ding Henian’s writings. His poems appear in no less than eighteen different editions, some claimed to date from the Yuan, others from the Ming and Qing dynasties. On the controversies, see Chen, Western and Central Asians, 155-62. See also Dao Fu 導夫, “Ding Henian shiji zhuyao banben xulu” 丁鶴年詩集主要版本敘錄, Ningxia daxue xuebao 寧 夏大學學報 24 (2003): 58-63. I have used the Siku quanshu edition of his works, entitled Henian shiji 鶴年詩集 (Wenyuange Siku quanshu ed.), vol. 1217. 22)   DMB, 1314-18. In 1372, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Zushan as an envoy to Japan, where he was 19)

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after a recommendation secured him a local government post in a Jiangxi county, he also gained a reputation as a benevolent magistrate.23 These three men formed very different relationships. Dai Liang and Ding Henian became friends in Siming. Dai Liang arrived there around 1368, determined not to serve Zhu Yuanzhang; Ding Henian by then had already been there for two years.24 We know that Ding Henian left the area for Wuchang in 1379 and that Dai Liang died in 1383, but it would seem that for the decade or so between 1368 and 1379, the two men became extremely close. They shared their loyalty and commitment to the Yuan, as well as the bitterness and hardship of their lives as exiles. The poems, prefaces, and letters they exchanged testify to the bond between them, and allow us to gain insight into the textual manifestation of that relationship. Wu Sidao was born in the same area and lived in Siming until 1376, when he set off for his county magistrate posting in Yongxin 永新 county in Jiangxi. Wu Sidao and Ding Henian knew each other in Siming and kept in touch, even after Wu Sidao left for Jiangxi and Ding Henian returned to Wuchang. Joseph Lam writes that “a male bonding can only occur when the participants have something, such as music, to share or do together,” and that men relate more easily to each other “the more the participants of a male bonding are similar in one or more ways.”25 Clearly Dai Liang, Ding Henian, and Wu Sidao found common ground. They were all of the scholar-official class, and they formed connections of an intellectual, rather than aesthetic or erotic nature, in contrast to some of Lam’s case studies. Rather than being based on similarities, however, the relation­ ships between these men were formed despite the obvious differences among them. While they remained separated by the ethnic divide between Han Chinese and members of the Central Asian diaspora, and by the political divide between those who chose to serve the Ming and those who refused, and by the regional distinctions between men from received favorably by the authorities in Kyoto. Despite their success, relations with Japan broke off between 1383 and 1387. See Dreyer, Early Ming China, 119-20. 23)   Wu Sidao’s writings have been preserved; they are entitled Chuncaozhai ji 春草齋集, and have been included in the Siku quanshu (Wenyuange Siku quanshu ed.), vol. 1232. Wu Sidao’s ‘poetry talks’ (shihua 詩話) have been included in Wu Wenzhi 吳文治, ed., Ming shihua quanbian 明詩話全編 (Nanjing: Jiangsu Guji Chubanshe), 188-91. 24)   DMB, 1236 and 1289. 25)   See the article by Joseph Lam in this issue.

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different parts of the country, these men knew and admired each other. The literary writings exchanged among them, in so far as we have access to them today, will form the basis of my analysis.26 Friendship and Ethnic Differences We know a little bit more about Ding Henian than I have outlined above, but not a great deal more. Ding’s ancestors hailed from Central Asia, with a great-grandfather coming to China as a merchant under Khubilai Khan in the late thirteenth century. Ding’s grandfather, ‘Sams‘d-Din, served as daruhachi (overseer) in Jiangxi, and his father, a man named Jamal al-Din, served in Huguang.27 The modern scholar Chen Yuan 陳垣 carefully analysed the available sources, and ascertained that Ding, who merely identified himself as “Henian of Xiyu 西域” was indeed, as Chen put it, “a member of an important family of the Moslem faith.”28 Nevertheless, the two most informative and most readily available biographical sources for Ding Henian, namely “Biography of a lofty gentleman” (Gaoshi zhuan 高士傳) composed between 1368 and 1383 by Dai Liang, and “Biography of filial son Ding” (Ding Xiaozi zhuan 丁孝子傳), composed after 1379 by Wu Sidao, stress his identity as a Confucian gentleman.29 The identity of the so-called semuren 色目 人 was legally and institutionally distinct from the Mongols, from the residents of the northern territories known as Hanren 漢人, and from the Han-Chinese residents of the Southern Song territories known as   For this analysis, I have relied on the editions of their writings that were included in the Siku quanshu. Of course these are by no means unproblematic editions, but since the aim of this paper is neither an exhaustive analysis of these men’s works nor a comprehensive biographical study of these individuals, I have chosen the most readily available editions. 27)   DMB, 1288. The daruhachi, a post held by Mongols or semu, served as co-incumbent with a Chinese official at various levels throughout the bureaucracy. 28)   Chen, Western and Central Asians, 101. The evidence Chen draws on includes the observation that Ding Henian was a Muslim by the Hangzhou poet Qu You 瞿佑 (13411427), who knew Ding in Hangzhou; the use of the surname Ding, which contemporaries at the time noted was a surname often used by Muslims, who had the element ‘ding’ in their transcribed names, such as his grandfather ‘Sams-‘d-Din (transcribed as shan-si-ding 苫思丁) and his father Jamal al-Din (transcribed as zhi-ma-lu-ding 職馬祿丁); and his mother’s burial without a coffin in accordance with Islamic practice, which will be discussed below. Chen, Western and Central Asians, 101-104. 29)   “Gaoshi zhuan” is included in Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, juan 19. Ding Xiaozi zhuan is included in Ding Henian, Ding Henian ji 丁鶴年集 (Changsha: Shangwu chubanshe, 1941), 1-2; and in Wu Sidao’s collected writings, Chuncaozhai ji, juan 2. 26)

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Nanren 南人, although by the fourteenth century many semu were educated in Chinese.30 A close reading of these two biographies reveals friendships that are built on shared cultural ideals. The cultural ideals that unify these men do not extinguish the ethnic differences between them, on the contrary, the ethnic differences that might have separated them serve to strengthen and lend support to the powerful appeal and resilience of these cultural values. To begin with Dai Liang’s Gaoshi zhuan, the reader initially has no indication that the “lofty gentleman” (gaoshi 高士) that forms the subject of the biography is anything other than a Confucian gentleman. The very first line immediately clarifies Dai Liang’s use of the term gaoshi: “Alas! One so rarely encounters a scholar of lofty integrity (gaojie zhi shi 高節 之士)!”31 The locus classicus for the term gaoshi is interesting; it is used in the Mozi, where a gaoshi is defined as someone who treats his friend as he would treat himself, and his friend’s relatives as if they were his own.32 The term can also refer to a hermit, a man who has chosen not to serve in government. Dai Liang’s reference to Ding Henian as a lofty gentleman (gaoshi) appears throughout Dai’s writings and forms a key to the relationship, encompassing both the sense of a close friend and the lofty integrity of the hermit. For Dai Liang, Ding is the kind of friend who would treat the wife and children of his friend exactly as he would his own wife and children, as we see in this revealing anecdote: “ViceDirector Ma Ziying 馬子英, who never randomly recommended others, once said: ‘I have many friends. But there is only one person, namely Henian, to whom I would entrust my wife and children.’”33 But Ding is also the lofty gentleman who chose to spend his old age withdrawn from society (shuainian bidi 衰年避地), living “in remote places” (hengmen zhi xia 衡門之下).34   The term semuren literally means “people of varied categories.” See, for example, Elizabeth Endicott-West, Mongolian Rule in China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Council on East Asian Studies, 1989). 31)   Dai Liang, “Gaoshi zhuan,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:1a. 32)   Mo Zi (fl. 479-438 bce), Mozi 墨子, “Jian’ai xia” 兼愛下. The full quote reads: Wu wen wei gaoshi yu tianxia zhe, bi wei qi you zhi shen, ruo wei qi shen, wei qi you zhi qin, ruo wei qi qin, ranhou keyi wei gaoshi yu tianxia 吾聞為高士於天下者，必為其友之身，若為其身， 30)

為其友之親，若為其親，然後可以為高士於天下。

  Dai Liang, “Gaoshi zhuan,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:5b.   The phrases occur in a poem entitled “For Henian.” Dai Liang, “Ji Henian” 寄鶴年, Jiuling shanfang ji, 25:2a.

33) 34)

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.

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To return to Dai’s Gaoshi zhuan, the prologue continues with two lengthy quotations, one from the Book of Changes (Yijing 易經) about the Way of the Gentleman (junzi zhi dao 君子之道) and one from the Analects (Lunyu 論語) about the Way of the Mean (zhongyong zhi dao 中庸之道).35 Both illustrate the values associated with the junzi, values hard to attain and maintain at difficult times, explaining the rare occurrence of scholars of such high standards as Ding Henian. If the Book of Changes and the Analects are there to provide a certain, obviously Confucian standard, then Ding Henian clearly measures up to it. Up to this point in the text, Dai has provided no further information about his subject, but his next sentence, the start of the biography proper, leaves no doubt about Ding’s background: “Henian was a man from the Western Regions” (Henian xi yu ren ye 鶴年西域人也).36 Suddenly, the fact that the generation of his great-grandfather had already left that part of the world is not relevant any more; even though Ding Henian was born and raised in Wuchang, he was a man “from the Western Regions.” His Central Asian background is emphasized by the inclusion of the exotic-sounding transcriptions of the names of the great-grandfather and his younger brother, the grandfather, and the father. An interesting bit of background is provided about the great-grandfather, A-la-bu-dan 阿喇 卜丹: At that time, the ancestral emperor [zu huangdi 祖皇帝, Khubilai, r. 1260-95] was seeking land in the West [xun di xi tu 徇地西土]. The army had run out of provissions, whereupon he [the great-grandfather] rode to the military headquarters and offered them his own supplies. … As a reward [the emperor] bestowed him with an office.37

A-la-bu-dan considered himself too old to take up the invitation to serve, but his son and his grandson would both go on to serve as daruhachi. The elaborately transcribed names and the atmosphere of military campaigns in the remote west conjured up in this anecdote clearly work   The quote from the Book of Changes comes from the Xici zhuan shang 繫辭傳上 (Ap­pended Statements, first commentary), section 9. The Lunyu quote is from chapter 13, Zilu 子路, section 21. 36)   Dai Liang, “Gaoshi zhuan,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:1b. 37)   Dai Liang, “Gaoshi zhuan,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:2a. 35)

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to enhance the identity of Ding Henian as “a man from the Western Regions,” in fact, as “other,” as non-Han. Despite that identity as “other,” or perhaps because of it, Dai Liang cites anecdotal evidence that counters that otherness. We learn that the father, when his tenure as Wuchang daruhachi came to an end, was invited by the locals to make Wuchang his “Tongxiang” 桐鄉, after the Han dynasty governor of Tongxiang, who ruled the area so well that the locals built a shrine in his honor afterwards.38 And we learn that when Mr. Wuchang 武昌公, as he came to be known, died, his son Henian adopted Chinese rather than Islamic mourning practices: It was their custom to have only a short period of mourning, wine being the sole item prohibited. Henian took this to be not the ancient practice (gu zhi 古制), so he continued in mourning clothes for three years. He did not drink wine for eight years.39

Dai Liang clearly does not try to hide the semu identity of the subject of his biography, but at the same time, he is signalling to his reader that when we come to measure this man, it should be along a familiar, that is, Confucian yardstick, rather than a Central Asian one. It was, as Dai tells us, Henian’s own desire: “I wish to do my utmost to become a Confucian scholar” (wu yu fen shen wei rusheng 吾欲奮身為儒生).40 By all ac­counts, he succeeded, as the rest of the biography testifies. Henian was respected by the locally resident scholars (zhuru 諸儒), one of whom, a scholar from Jiangxi, even wished to take him home and marry him to his daughter. Although we do not know exactly in which year Dai Liang wrote Ding’s biography, we do know that Ding read it. In response, Ding composed a set of four poems and sent them to Dai Liang, carefully indicating that they were written “for the gentleman who once wrote my biography” (xiansheng chang wei zi zuo zhuan 先生嘗為子作傳).41 The reference to Ding as exemplar of the lofty gentleman appears not only throughout Dai’s works but also in Ding’s writings, and clearly Ding

  Chen, Western and Central Asians, 99, footnote 110.   Dai Liang, “Gaoshi zhuan,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:2b. I have followed and slightly amended the translation by Chen Yuan. See Chen, Western and Central Asians, 99. 40)   Dai Liang, “Gaoshi zhuan,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:3a. 41)   Ding Henian, Henian shiji, 2:14b. 38) 39)

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endorsed Dai’s image of himself as the scholarly gentleman with lofty integrity as portrayed in the biography.42 When Wu Sidao, the third of the three men of my title, came across Ding Henian, he, too, was struck by the combination of Ding Henian’s ethnic difference and cultural likeness. Wu wrote a biography of Ding Henian, significantly entitled “Biography of filial son Ding (Ding Xiaozi zhuan 丁孝子傳).”43 Wu’s intentions are clear: Here is the biography of a man known for his filiality. The story narrated by Wu in this biography is a moving one. Ding was the son of his father’s concubine, née Feng 馮, from whom he became separated when Wuchang came under attack in 1352. More than twenty-five years later, when he was living in a retreat in the Siming mountains in Zhejiang, Ding returned to Wuchang to find the grave of his mother. He searched for months without success, but eventually a dream led him to the right place. He found a depression in the land, where indeed her bones had been buried, without a coffin but covered with some wooden planks. He reburied her remains in a coffin, built a cottage nearby, and lived there until the end of his life. Clearly the main focus of the biography is Ding’s embodiment of filiality. He performs his duties as son well beyond what could be expected of him and thereby serves as an inspiration for others. As we saw in Gaoshi zhuan, however, the creation of a Confucian identity in the text is built on Ding’s identity as “other.” Here, too, Ding is introduced as “a man from the Western regions” (Xiyu ren 西域人).44 Again the names of father and grandfather are given, in a slightly different transcription: A-

  In Dai’s works, see for example the end of the preface for Ding’s poetry, where he writes: “Ding Henian’s high integrity (qing jie 清節) and his admirable behaviour (junxing 峻行) I have already fully discussed in Gaoshi zhuan, so I do not need to discuss them again here.” Dai Liang, “Henian yin gao xu” 鶴年吟稿序, Jiuling shanfang ji, 21:3a. In a postface written by Dai Liang for the poems of Ding Henian’s older cousin Ma Yuande 馬元德 (jinshi, 1364), Dai writes of Ding’s “lofty standards” (gaofeng 高風). Dai Liang, “Ti Ma Yuande bozhong shi hou” 題馬元德伯仲詩後, Jiuling shanfang ji, 22:9b. In Ding Henian’s works, see for example the phrase “Alone, I retreat from the southern suburbs and become a loftly gentleman/ Together we appreciate that in the Eastern Hills are men of true nobility” (du tui nan guo wei gaoshi, gong zhi dong ling shi gu hou 獨推南郭為高士, 共識東陵是故侯), a stanza in a poem Ding sent to Dai Liang. Ding Henian, “Fengji Wang Xuanwei jian cheng Jiuling xiansheng” 奉寄王宣慰兼呈九靈先生, Henian shiji, 2:14b. 43)   Wu Sidao’s text is included in Ding Henian, Ding Henian ji, 1-2. Part of a different edition of the same text is included in translation in Chen, Western and Central Asians, 244-5. 44)   Wu Sidao, “Ding Xiaozi zhuan,” in Ding Henian, Ding Henianji, 1. 42)

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lao-ding 阿老丁 and Zhi-ma-lu-ding 職馬祿丁, underscoring Ding’s heritage. The clearest indication of the otherness of the family background is the description of the original burial site where his mother had been laid to rest. It is a rather gruesome tale: [Henian] found a flat bit of soil that was sunken. Henian thought to himself: “I did hear that when my mother was buried, she was not given a coffin. They put down some earthen bricks and covered her with the planks of an [old] ship. When human remains and planks decompose, then [the level of the soil would drop down] in this manner.” At this point he was almost able to open up [the grave] and look inside. He laid out wine and meat as offerings, and when his sacrifice was finished, he opened up the grave. Indeed, he saw that the planks still had their pine knots, and the earthen bricks were also still intact. This he thought very good. Fearing that there might be other graves at this same site, he bit [himself ] to draw blood over the bones to provide proof. After a while he wiped it away, and found that the bloodied bone throughout had changed to the color of madder, and this he could use as evidence [that these bones belonged to his mother]. His mother had one tooth still in her face [which looked] as if it had been lacquered. Seeing this, he had even more evidence.45

Wu Sidao’s point here, of course, is to show the extent to which Henian actually practiced the traditions he had made his own: His sacrifice of wine and meat, his smearing of blood on the bones, and his reburial of her bones in a coffin are all important Chinese rather than Muslim practices. Despite that, the image of the dutiful Confucian son is projected onto the image of a Muslim man’s concubine who was buried quickly, placed onto some bricks and under discarded knotty pine planks, a practice perhaps not unknown but certainly strange to Wu Sidao. It seems to me that the man conjured up in Dai Liang and Wu Sidao’s accounts is, indeed, a man well-versed in Confucian practices but a Central Asian nevertheless. These accounts perhaps get us no closer to how Ding Henian saw himself, but they do point at a friendship established across what is constructed as cultural difference, whether we call that an ethnic difference or not. Of course Ding Henian was not the only Muslim who adopted Confucian practices and was respected for his cultural values by   Wu Sidao, “Ding Xiaozi zhuan,” in Ding Henian, Ding Henianji, 1.

45)

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southerners (Nanren). Men like Yu Que 余闕 (1303-58), a Tangut official and local reformer under the Yuan; Sa-du-la 薩都剌, referred to by Dai as Sa Tianxi 薩天錫 (1308-88), also a semu; and Ma Zuchang 馬 祖常 (1279-1388), an Önggüd, all wrote poetry in Chinese, and Dai Liang appreciated their familiarity with “the Middle Kingdom.”46 Dai saw their ability to write poetry as evidence of the great transformative powers of the dynasty (wo chao wang hua 我朝王化).47 Dai’s relationship with the Muslim Ding Henian was not exceptional among the social contacts Dai maintained; Dai especially admired Yu Que and was deeply moved by his death in 1358 in one of the by then so common local attacks by rebel bands.48 But throughout his writings, Dai refers to these men only sporadically and never exchanged personal writings or devel­ oped intimate bonds with them. The admiration of Wu for Ding, and especially the friendship between Dai and Ding, constructed over the ethnic differences between them, is significant for its depth of feeling. Ethnicity mattered but did not prevent the development of a bond. Similarly, the different political choices they made mattered. As we will see, the bond between Dai and Ding was clearly strengthened by the political choice, loyalty to the Yuan, that they both made. Friendship and Political Difference To evaluate the political choices these three men made in the face of Yuan collapse and Ming establishment, we need, briefly, to reflect on the relevant context of regime change and loyalty as witnessed during the loss of the north to the Jurchen in 1127, the end of Jin rule in 1234, and

  Dai Liang wrote: “The achievements of the three gentlemen in their time were great. The scholars of the realm all appreciate their words.” See Dai Liang, “Henian yin’gao xu” 鶴年吟 稿序, Jiuling shanfang ji, 21:2b. Yu Que, jinshi of 1333, was not only a famous poet, but also an active reformer of local policy, notably in Jinhua where he encountered Dai Liang. On Yu Que’s reforms in Jinhua, see John Dardess, “Confucianism, Local Reform, and Centralization in Late Yüan Chekiang, 1342-1359,” in Hok-lam Chan and Wm. Theodore de Bary, eds., Yüan Thought: Chinese Thought and Religion under the Mongols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 327-74, especially 333-34. Yu Que’s works, entitled Qingyang xiansheng wenji 青陽先生文集, are extant. Sa-du-la had other Han-Chinese friends, such as the musician and Daoist painter Leng Qian 冷謙 (1310-71). DMB, 802-3. 47)   Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, 21:2a. 48)   DMB, 1234-5. 46)

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the end of the existence of the Song regime in 1276.49 The traumas associated with the loss of the north in 1127 have been well documented, but of course the loss of the north was to some extent compensated by the preservation of Song rule, albeit in truncated form, in the south, where “most leading literati families” moved.50 Nevertheless, large numbers of literati also remained in the north and maintained their identities under Jurchen rule.51 The Jin clearly commanded loyalty—as Herbert Franke writes, “there were defectors and opportunists, but a surprisingly great number of leaders and soldiers, Jurchen and Chinese alike, remained faithful to the bitter end.”52 That loyalty does not, how­ ever, seem to have translated into the performance of Jin loyalist practices by Chinese literati once Jin rule had fallen. For that, Jin rule had been too brutally established and too short-lived. The end of Song rule, however, did engender widespread loyalist sentiments. The battle against the Mongols was hard-fought, a great many people lost their lives, and many literati mourned the loss of their dynasty. Richard L. Davis’s eloquent discussions of Song loyalism in Wind Against the Mountain, and the famous heroics of resisters against Mongol rule such as Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 (1236-83), have brought Song loyalism to the forefront of our minds.53 More recent research,   After the Jurchen captured the Song capital in 1127, fighting continued between Jurchen and Song forces until 1142. Hoyt Cleveland Tillman and Stephen H. West, “Introduction,” in Hoyt Cleveland Tillman and Stephen H. West, eds., China under Jurchen Rule: Essays on Chin Intellectual and Cultural History (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 3. 50)   Tillman and West, “Introduction,” 3. 51)   See Peter K. Bol, “Seeking Common Ground: Han Literati under Jurchen Rule,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47.2 (1987):461-538. See also the studies in Tillman and West, eds., China under Jurchen Rule. 52)   Herbert Franke, “The Chin Dynasty,” in Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett, eds., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 215-320 (see page 265). 53)   Richard L. Davis, Wind Against the Mountain: The Crisis of Politics and Culture in Thirteenth-Century China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Council on East Asian Studies, 1996). For a review of Davis’s work, see Paul J. Smith, “Review of Wind Against the Mountain: The Crisis of Politics and Culture in Thirteenth-Century China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 58.2 (1998):603-14. Davis’s study suggests that heroic displays of martyrdom were widespread, and that “incalculable numbers of southern men and women willfully laid down their lives.” Davis, Wind Against the Mountain, 24-5. Smith finds these numbers inflated, and suggests instead that “most Song generals, local elites, officials, students, and commoners submitted to the Mongols to save their families and their communities, more 49)

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however, suggests that we have to be careful in our assessment of Song loyalism. As the excellent studies by Jennifer Jay and others have de­­ monstrated, representations of Song loyalism have been shaped to some extent by later authors who turned biographies into hagiographies and created myths of widespread resistance to suit their own agendas. On the whole, Jay contends, “loyalist martyrdom was atypical of the overall Song response.”54 The breakdown of Song rule and the establishment of a Mongol regime, once seen as major disruptions in the narrative of Chinese history, have more recently taken on the more gentle guise of a “Song-Yuan transition.”55 Scholars like Peter Bol and Robert Hymes associate the social transformations of the period more with the end of Northern Song activist and centralist state policies and the start of the “localist turn” than with the invasion of Mongols in Han-Chinese ter­ ritory.56 Song loyalism was more a sentiment than a code of practice and more an intellectual ideal than a matter of life and death. As such, it was very different from the loyalist sentiments expressed by literati after the fall of Ming rule in 1644.57 Relatively quickly, those who saw themselves as Song loyalists took on posts in the Yuan government or at least en­­ often than not taking office under the Yuan when the chance was offered.” Smith, “Review,” 611-12. 54)   Smith, “Review,” 604. See also Jennifer W. Jay, A Change in Dynasties: Loyalism in Thirteenth-Century China (Bellingham, WA: Center for East Asian Studies, 1991), and Jennifer W. Jay, “Memoirs and Official Accounts: The Historiography of the Song Loyalists,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 50.2 (1990):589-612. 55)   The term “transition” is used, for example, in Paul Jakov Smith and Richard von Glahn, eds., The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003). 56)   For a discussion of the cyclical pattern of periods of centralist activism followed by a turn towards localism, see Peter K. Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’ and ‘Local Identity’ in Later Imperial China,” Late Imperial China 24.2 (2003):1-50. The work by Robert P. Hymes has also chronicled the transition of centralist concerns to a localist outlook, first in social and marital strategies in Statesmen and Gentlemen: The Elite of Fu-Chou, Chiang-Hsi, in Northern and Southern Sung (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), and then in religious practices in Way and Byway: Taoism, Local Religion, and Models of Divinity in Sung and Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). My own work on temples and locality in Jiangxi province also chronicles continuities rather than disruptions during the transition from Song to Yuan rule. See Anne Gerritsen, Ji’an Literati and the Local in Song-Yuan-Ming China (forthcoming). 57)   See also the introduction to this issue by Martin Huang on the differences between Song, Yuan, and Ming loyalism. On the links between Song and Ming loyalism, see Zhao Yuan 趙

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couraged their sons to do so.58 Even students of famous Song loyalists accepted posts under Yuan rule. Those who saw themselves as “left-over subjects” of the Song (yi min 遺民) soon recognized that they could, for all intents and purposes, combine Song loyalism with Yuan subjecthood.59 None of the literati who had lived through the collapse of Song rule and the establishment of the Yuan regime in 1276 were still alive when Zhu Yuanzhang created his Ming state in 1368, although their ideals had been transmitted.60 It was most likely the continuity of Song loyalist ideals, combined with the ideal of loyalty to one regime that inspired loyalists to the Yuan like Dai Liang.61 Dai Liang was not alone; Yang Weizhen 楊維楨 (1296-1370) considered himself to be a Yuan loyalist, as did Tao Zongyi 陶宗儀 (ca. 1316-ca. 1402).62 But Dai Liang was one of very few southern Chinese men to refuse all Zhu Yuanzhang’s advances and certainly an exception in Jinhua. It made Dai feel, to a certain extent, a lonely, isolated man.63 The choice by Dai Liang and Ding Henian to stay loyal to the Yuan government and to refuse to entertain any substantial contacts with Zhu Yuanzhang takes on a greater significance in this context. The bond between these men was surely strengthened by this shared loyalty. Indeed, the many texts these two men exchanged testify to the strength 園, Ming Qing zhiji shidafu yanjiu 明清之際士大夫研究 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1999), especially 269-88. 58)   Take the Song scholar Liu Chenweng 劉辰翁(1232-1297), for example. Liu was a protégé of Jiang Wanli 江萬里 (1198-1275), and Liu was deeply moved when Jiang drowned himself. Liu Chenweng never served again, and spent over twenty years at home in Luling 廬陵, Jiangxi. That loyalist sentiment, however, did not prevent him from encouraging his son, Liu Jiangsun 劉將孫 (b.1257), to seek office under the Yuan, and from maintaining personal connections with Yuan officials, as his collected works testify. Xuxi ji 須溪集 (Wenyuange Siku quanshu ed.), vol. 1186. See also Jay, A Change in Dynasties, 167-173, and Fang Yong, Nan Song yimin shiren, 92. 59)   This was the case, for example, for Dai Liang’s teachers Huang Jin and Liu Guan. They themselves had been students of Fang Feng 方鳳 (1240-1321), one of the famous Song loyalist poets from Pujiang, and despite their admiration for their teacher, Huang and Liu both served the Yuan. On Fang Feng, see Fang Yong, Nan Song yimin shiren, 78-82. 60)   Jay, A Change in Dynasties, 257-59. 61)   See Yan Xuanjun 晏選軍, “Dai Liang kao lun” 戴良考論 in Zhongguo wenxue yanjiu 中國 文學研究 73 (2004):49-53. 62)   Jay, A Change in Dynasties, 259. 63)   Dai Liang expresses his sense of isolation and his lack of deep connections in “Tou zhiji shu,” 投知己書, Jiuling shanfang ji, 10:8a-10a. The text discusses Dai’s longing for true friends and the frustrations over the difficulties he has experienced in finding true friends.

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of feeling between them. For Dai Liang, Ding Henian exemplified the cultural ideal of a gentleman who rates scholarly pursuits and learning more highly than rewards and social standing. In Dai Liang’s eyes, Ding was like the poet Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 (365-427), who preferred a life of solitude and farmwork over a meaningless administrative posting.64 Dai made the comparison of Ding with Tao Yuanming explicit in several of the texts they exchanged. Dai sent Ding a set of seven poems composed after Tao Yuanming’s famous series of seven poems “Ode to the impoverished scholar” (Yong pinshi qishou 詠貧士七首), expressing their “shared ambitions” (tongzhi 同志).65 Dai also composed a fu (賦) for Ding Henian in which he vividly described Ding’s solitary existence in the vocabulary of Tao Yuanming: Approaching old age, he lived a humble life among lakes and rivers,66 Living as a hermit in the wilderness, he rarely welcomed guests. His feelings were the same as Tao Yuanming’s from Lili, His appearance resembled Ding Lingwei from Liaodong.67 投老江湖生事微, 隱身草澤接交稀. 情同栗里陶彭澤, 形似遼東丁令威.

The poem ends with a stanza that describes the depth of their shared feelings: 64)   In Feng Menglong’s 馮夢龍 (1574-1646) vernacular story, “The Chicken-and-Millet Dinner for Fan Juqing, Friend in Life and Death,” discussed by Kimberly Besio, Feng refers to the flower associated with “the quintessential unappreciated scholar Tao Yuanming,” the chrysanthemum. See the article by Besio in this issue. For a brief introduction to Tao’s life and work, see, for example, Stephen Owen, ed., An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996), especially page 225. 65)   Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, 24.12b-14a. 66)   “Among lakes and rivers” is a quote from Tao Yuanming. It appeared in his poem Yu Yin Jin’an bie 與殷晉安別 (“Taking leave from Yin Jin’an”). The full line reads: “Those with talents do not become hermits, among the rivers and lakes many live in poverty” (liang cai bu yin shi, jiang hu duo jian pin 良才不隱世，江湖多賤貧.) Over time, the “rivers and lakes” came to refer to the “private domain” that lies “beyond the control of the government.” See the brief discussion of this in Huang, Negotiating Masculinities, 104. 67)   Ding Lingwei was said to be a man from Liaodong who lived during the Han dynasty. He studied the Way at Lingxu 靈虛 Mountain, and when he had become an immortal, he transformed into a crane. He flew home to Liaodong, one thousand years after he had left and perched on a high column. When a youth attempted to shoot him with his bow and arrow, he flew up and spoke the words: “There is a bird, a bird named Ding Lingwei; having been away from home for a thousand years he only returns now. The city and its outskirts are as before, but the people have all changed. Why not study to be an immortal, as the grave tombs keep piling up?” The tale is attributed to Tao Yuanming.

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Living in the wilderness east of the walls,68 I share the same bitterness, How many times have we visited each other, talking into the evening’s light?69 牆東野客心同苦, 幾度相從話夕暉.

Poems like these, exchanged between these two men, reveal the depth of the anxiety over their political choices. As in Tao Yuanming’s experience, the choice is between serving and reclusion, but also between losing and preserving one’s integrity.70 The ongoing hardship and real danger that were the inevitable result of the choice Ding and Dai both made, brought these two men closely together. Wu Sidao, on the other hand, gratefully accepted the opportunity to serve Zhu when it was offered to him.71 Wu Sidao’s initial experience of government occurred during the late Yuan, at the local level, in his native county Cixi. As John Dardess has shown in his 1982 study of late Yuan local reform in Zhejiang, Wu was part of a group of local advisers to the Cixi magistrate, who instigated a number of important fiscal, social, and moral reforms under their guidance.72 This group, which included not just Wu Sidao and his brother but also a descendant of one of Lu Jiuyuan’s 陸九淵 (1139-93) disciples and a descendant of the Song imperial house, was bound together by their interest in political theories and activist local policies. Under the instructions of the group, the Cixi magistrate implemented not just fiscal reforms, but also organizational reforms aimed at reducing the power of clerks and increasing impartial contributions from all levels of society. They even offered helpful tips to the magistrate such as placing a sealed suggestion box in the county school and wearing a “stern expression” when consulting the clerks.73 The “reform era” in Cixi came to an end when the area came under attack in 1358, and the Cixi magistrate surrendered to Fang Guozhen 方國珍   “East of the walls” (qiang dong 牆東) is a common expression for the residence of a hermit.   Dai Liang, “Yi Henian you fu” 憶鶴年有賦, Jiuling shanfang ji, 17.6a. 70)   On these issues in Tao Yuanming’s life, see Charles Yim-tze Kwong, Tao Qian and the Chinese Poetic Tradition: The Quest for Cultural Identity (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, 1994), especially 21-49. 71)   As John Dardess has shown, the “recommendation route into Ming government was an important channel of opportunity for roughly the first century of Ming rule.” Dardess, A Ming Society, 142. 72)   Dardess, “Confucianism, Local Reform, and Centralization,” 327-374. 73)   For a detailed discussion of the group and its attitudes and proposals, see Dardess, “Confucianism, Local Reform, and Centralization,” 342-50. 68) 69)

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(1319-74), who competed with Zhang Shicheng 張士誠 (1321-67) and Zhu Yuanzhang for control over this area until he was defeated by the future Ming founder.74 When Wu Sidao went to Yongxin to take the post of county magistrate in 1376, these earlier experiences of local govern­ment may well have informed his own practices. Interestingly, when Wu Sidao wrote a piece about Dai Liang, that political difference remains entirely undiscussed. What does emerge, however, is the regional difference between the two men. Wu Sidao records a conversation he once had with Dai Liang when his friend came to show him a picture of his house in the Jiuling Mountains. “What is the reason for you showing me this?” asked Wu.75 The answer, dutifully recorded by Wu, is a lovingly told description of Dai Liang’s native Pujiang, and specifically the remote Jiuling Mountains where the Dai family had their home.76 Dai conjures up a vivid image of soaring moun­ tains covered with “different types of pine, bamboo, plum, and cassia trees,” where even those who have the benefit of walking sticks and sandals are not spared some physical distress in their ascent.77 It is not merely the scenic beauty that moves Dai, but also the emotional bonds that tie him to this place: The gravemounds of my ancestors and my father and brothers are all there. I, howeever, have travelled across the rivers and stayed in the lands of Qi 齊 and Lu 魯. When the military troubles occurred I crossed the great sea and went east to Si­ming. … For a long time now I have thought about returning to my old cottage, to see the mulberry trees, sweep the gravemounds, make peace with my father and brothers, and bring the younger generation together when they have free time from

  The exact details of these restless years are readily available in a multitude of Englishlanguage materials, including F.W. Mote, “The Rise of the Ming Dynasty, 1330-1367,” in F.W. Mote and Denis Twitchett, eds., The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty: 1368-1644 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 11-57; Dreyer, Early Ming China; John Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983). 75)   Wu Sidao, “Jiuling shanfang ji” 九靈山房記, Chuncaozhai ji 1:50b. 76)   John Langlois’s biography of Dai Liang in DMB suggests that it was Dai Tang 戴堂, the son of Zhejiang Imperial Commissioner Dai Zhao 戴昭 (825-82) who migrated from Chang’an to the foot of Jiuling Mountain. DMB, 1234. The nianpu for Dai Liang included in the Wenyuange Siku quanshu edition of Jiuling shanfang ji confirms this. Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, nianpu: 1a. 77)   Wu Sidao, “Jiuling shanfang ji,” Chuncaozhai ji, 1:50b. 74)

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their studies. [I want to] pick flowers in the mountains and fish in the rivers, to roam around and sing to the end of my days.78

The references to the military troubles and Dai’s journey across the sea are interesting. We know that Dai had left Pujiang when the area came under attack in 1357 and that, although he briefly served Zhu Yuanzhang when the latter had taken Jinhua prefecture in 1358, he spent the following years more or less in hiding. He spent time in Suzhou, Ningbo, Shandong, the Siming Mountains in Zhejiang, and finally Nanjing, where he died. His decision not to return to Pujiang must have been largely driven by political motivations; he clearly chose not to be associated with the activist thinkers from his native Jinhua who became so closely involved with Zhu Yuanzhang’s Ming regime.79 Thus he spent his days longingly looking at his pictures of the Jiuling Mountains that hung in his bedroom without ever going home. It is precisely in the political choice that lies at the heart of these emotions that the difference between Dai and Wu is located. Dai chose to distance himself from the political connections between his home­ town and the new regime, willingly suffering the pain of exile. Wu made different choices; he left his home behind to serve in Zhu Yuanzhang’s new state structure, taking with him his Cixi experiences in local governing. Their friendship exists in the face of those differences. As we saw in the case of ethnic difference, these men are connected through a bond based on shared cultural values that allows for political difference. Wu does not try to hide the difference in their political choices: Since the gentleman has a good grasp of the Way and is broadminded, he surely knows that heaven, earth, and the myriad things are all contained within the self. The Jiuling Mountains go with him wherever he resides. Why should they need to be fixed to one place, as if coated in lacquer?80

By suggesting to Dai that he is “broadminded,” accepting the immanence of all things, Wu is indirectly encouraging Dai to let go of his attachment   Wu Sidao, “Jiuling shanfang ji,” Chuncaozhai ji, 1:50b.   Much has been written about the political connections between the Jinhua thinkers and Zhu Yuanzhang’s regime. See, for example, Langlois, “Political Thought in Chin-hua under Mongol Rule,” and Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy, passim. 80)   Wu Sidao, “Jiuling shanfang ji,” Chuncaozhai ji, 1:51b.

78) 79)

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to the old regime. Moral values are located within the self and remain so regardless of the political regime. The meaning of the Jiuling Mountains painting—Dai’s attachment to his old home as well as the moral values that his old home represent to him—is not lost when he moves on but is contained within the self. Just so, Wu suggests, when he switches his loyalty to the new Ming government. The sentiment is echoed in two poems sent by Wu to Ding Henian at the time of Ding’s return to Wuchang in search of his mother’s grave. Wu’s poems are inspired by two noteworthy sites in Wuchang: one the summer residence of Sun Quan 孫權 (182-252), who proclaimed himself the ruler of Wu 吳 in Wuchang in 229, the other the library (dushu tang 讀書堂) built by military leader Tao Kan 陶侃 (259-334). In an after­ word, Wu explains the significance of the latter building: It was located in the mountains not far from Wuchang, near the site where Tao Kan found a copper Guanyin on the sand, after which it became a Buddhist temple. After that had fallen into disrepair, Ding Henian’s father was buried here, and Henian built a small hut by its side. Wu’s poem reveals some of his responses to Ding’s decision to return to Wuchang: You travelled up the Yangzi suddenly to return home, To precisely this place where heroes read their books. The myriad spirits rush about, protecting your father’s grave, yet you built a thatched hut near the lofty trees. 君溯長江忽歸去，正是英雄讀書處。百靈奔走護先丘，就結茅堂倚高樹。81

Ding is travelling against the current, not just of the river, but of society; while everyone else is lending their support to the government, as indeed Sun Quan and Tao Kan had done, Ding is physically and spiritually turning away from society. Wu seems bewildered by Ding’s choice, unable quite to share Ding’s desire to cut himself off from their life in Siming: You stay there, among lofty clouds, withdrawn from official life, As before leisurely composing poetry.

  Wu Sidao, “Fu de Wuwang bishu gong Tao Kan dushu tang ershi song Ding Henian gui Wuchang” 賦得吳王避暑宮陶侃讀書堂二詩送丁鶴年歸武昌, Chuncaozhai ji, 2:7a-8a. This quote is on 8a. 81)

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Throughout history, both those frustrated and successful in life have che­rished the same styles. There is no need to be ashamed before our ancestors, your face all red. 且訪雲間入林下，依舊從容詠風雅。古今窮達貴同風，莫愧前人面如赭。82

It is an implicit critique of Ding’s choice to remain loyal to the old, without exploring fully what Wu Sidao has decided is the moral backbone of the Ming government, the new. As he writes at the end of the first poem: You have chosen to return home to visit, to retrace your steps. Do not bemoan that of old, fortunes rise and fall. 君今歸去訪遺跡，自古興亡休嘆息。83

Ding’s return home is like a slap in the face to Wu: By retracing his steps he is walking away from the Ming government and the promise it holds out. Wu, the pragmatist, has already switched loyalties and would like Ding to do the same. Ding’s response, however, is clear in its refusal to bend: Clutching my stick, I sigh in my daily activities, My heart longing for the distant past. 扶杖日行吟, 悠然太古心.84

The poem Ding sent to Wu Sidao seeks to appeal to the heritage they both share, the Odes and “this culture of ours” (大雅消沉久, 斯文感慨 深).85 The sadness caused by their loss, as Ding sees it, is what motivates his refusal to bow to political demands, while Wu stresses the precedent for the choice he has made. The political difference is undoubtedly relevant and the cause of a certain distance between the two men. Never­ theless, what keeps the men together is the shared territory between them: the literary styles they both cherished (gui tongfeng 貴同風). Despite the difference in political interpretation, the shared appreciation   Wu Sidao, “Fu de Wuwang,” Chuncaozhai ji, 2:8a.   Wu Sidao, “Fu de Wuwang,” Chuncaozhai ji, 2:7b. 84)   Ding Henian, “Ci Wu Jishan xiansheng jianji yun” 次烏繼善先生見寄韻, Henian shiji, 1:6a-b. 85)   Ding Henian, “Ci Wu Jishan,” Henian shiji, 1:6b. 82) 83)

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of poetic compositions and styles is what united these men and nourished the bond between them. From the biographical descriptions these men wrote for each other, then, it would seem that they themselves regarded their relationships and their similarities as stronger than whatever political, ethnic, or regional differences we as outside observers might recognize between them. Or, put in a slightly different way, these three men created for posterity a record of friendships that cancelled out social, political, and ethnic difference. Formulating it in this way suggests that somehow this friend­ ship was a construction, a representation. With the paucity of sources available, we venture out on slightly thin ice with that statement. Nevertheless, I suggest that reading the record of their friendship in this way is helpful, because it forces us to ask an important question: Why is it that the relationships between these three men were constructed in this way? Gendered Readings To understand why the friendship between these men was constructed as a social connection that is more significant than, say, the bond shared between men of semu status or between men who had made similar political choices, we need to take account of the gendered nature of these relationships. I will argue that friendship connections between late Yuan and early Ming men created a space where alternative masculinities could be established and developed.86 To illustrate this, we need to take a brief look at the social and cultural spaces within which masculinities were negotiated in Yuan and early Ming China. One could argue that participation in the examination system was one of the ways in which men could “perform” their masculinity.87 As a pathway through life it was exclusively available to men and therefore presented straightforward opportunities not only for signalling masculinity to the wider world, but

  Martin Huang’s choice to refer to “masculinities” rather than “masculinity” in Negotiating Masculinities is significant, and I have followed his suggestion that there is no “overarching definition of ‘Chinese masculinity’.” Huang, Negotiating Masculinities, 9. 87)   For example, in his study on masculinity, Kam Louie sees participation in the civil service exams as “a respected part of the masculine image.” Kam Louie, Theorising Chinese Mas­cu­ linity, 19. 86)

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also for creating lasting bonds with other men.88 For much of the Yuan dynasty, however, the examinations were suspended, and when they were reinstated in 1315, the quotas were weighted heavily in favor of men with Mongol or semu classifications.89 It had, thus, become much harder during the Yuan dynasty to use participation in the examination system as an expression of masculinity and a domain for male bonding. Similarly, appointment in the state civil service, once the most obvious goal to aim for and a significant arena for the development and performance of male friendships, was heavily restricted. During the Yuan dynasty, Han men, as others have shown, had far fewer options open to them in terms of their careers and their public roles. As Robert Hymes and Peter Bol have pointed out, during the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties, literati largely turned away from the central government and turned their attention to local networks.90 Han men of the Yuan dynasty often found alternative modes of employment; they became private tutors, heads of academies and schools, members of poetry circles, and doctors.91 For those men who chose to stay loyal to the Yuan after the fall of its government, that situation continued during the early years of Ming rule. Dai Liang wrote approvingly of the wide-ranging activities of his friend Ding, who had refused all invitations to serve. “He remained at Siming, for a time eking out a living in a small place by the sea tutoring children, and for a time staying at a Buddhist monastery, selling medicines to provide for himself.”92 The admiration he feels for his friend is based in part on the way in which he personally engages with this wide range of practical solutions for daily life:   See also the Introduction to this issue by Martin Huang for a discussion of the significance of the examination system for the creation and development of ongoing male bonds. 89)   By 1333, for example, only two percent of all officials were jinshi degree holders. John Dardess, “Shun-ti and the end of Yüan rule,” Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, 564. 90)   Hymes, Way and Byway; Bol, “The ‘Localist Turn’.” 91)   On poetry and membership of poetry circles as significant alternative male occupation during the Yuan dynasty, see Yoshikawa, Five Hundred Years of Chinese Poetry, 1150-1650, especially 66-101. On the medical profession as alternative occupation, see Robert P. Hymes, “Not Quite Gentlemen? Doctors in Sung and Yuan,” Chinese Science 8 (1987):9-76. Ding Henian earned his living for a time by selling medicine, and Dai Liang was well-known for his medical expertise. On this aspect of Dai Liang’s life, see Angela Ki-che Leung, “Medical Learning from the Song to the Ming,” in Paul Jakov Smith and Richard von Glahn, eds., The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003), 374-98. 92)   Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:4a. 88)

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Henian is very intelligent. If he just passes his eyes over something he is reading, he can recite it perfectly. He is good at writing poetry and particularly skilled at regullated verse in the style of the Tang. His prose writing has vitality, and he is wellversed in the theories of mathematics, breathing exercises, and herbal medicine, especially because his learning is based on personal practical action.93

If one of the main avenues for the performance of manhood, namely, the civil service examinations and official service, was closed off during this time, then other avenues had opened up. Dai conjures up an image here of a man of non-Han background who found other ways of being and perfected those, too. In the friendship that was given concrete form in the biography written by Dai for Ding when Ding was still alive, Dai creates a space for Ding not only to be a man in alternative ways to the traditional pathways of examinations and government, but to perform that role in a superior way. The bond between the two men serves to endorse these alternative ways of being a man. In their writings, they signalled their status as gentlemen both to each other and to the wider world. In these exchanges between men, however, it remains difficult to see how gender difference was constructed and understood during the YuanMing transition. For this we need to look more closely at the encounters between male and female.94 Martin Huang’s recent book, Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China (2006) reveals the extent to which male gender identities were negotiated through writing about gender and the role of women in society.95 As it happens, all three men, Dai, Ding and Wu, wrote about women. And as Beverly Bossler points out in   Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:5a.   Looking at encounters between male and female is, of course, not the only way to approach masculinity and to understand the construction of gender identities. The recent study by Bettine Birge, for example, suggests our understanding of Yuan dynasty gender identities should take account of patterns of female inheritance. Her important work suggests that the combination of neo-Confucian ideologies and Mongol practices, in particular the levirate, led to the formulation of stricter prohibitions on the remarriage of widows and female ownership of property. In other words, one might say that Birge detects a deterioration in the status of women from the Yuan dynasty onwards. See Bettine Birge, Women, Property, and Confucian Reaction in Sung and Yüan China (960-1368) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). See also the extended review of her work and the scholarship on the issue by Joseph McDermott, “Women of Property in China, 960-1368: A Survey of the Scholarship,” International Journal of Asian Studies 1.2 (2004):201-222. 95)   Huang, Negotiating Masculinities, especially chapters 2 and 4. 93) 94)

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an important piece entitled “Gender and Empire: A View from Yuan China,” this was, in fact, not unusual.96 She writes, “texts honoring faithful women became a popular form of literati discourse in the Yuan.”97 As Bossler demonstrates, from the mid-twelfth century onwards, when Song China came under attack first from the Jurchen and later from the Mongols, men display increasing enthusiasm for writing narratives of loyal women resisting the invasion of their bodies, their moral integrity mirroring loyal military officials’ defense of territorial boundaries. Writing biographies and poems about faithful wives and heroic women, Bossler shows, increased dramatically during the Yuan.98 One of the reasons why faithful wives inspired poetry in male writers is, she suggests, the social function of writing such texts.99 She sees the exchange of writings about faithful wives and loyal women between men as ways to “assert and affirm personal social networks.”100 It is this final assertion that I would like to examine a little more closely in the context of the writings exchanged between Dai Liang, Ding Henian, and Wu Sidao. Indeed, all three men wrote about faithful wives and loyal women.101 One of the women they shared an interest in was the elder sister of Ding 96)   Beverly Bossler, “Gender and Empire: A View from Yuan China,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34.1 (2004):197-223. 97)   Bossler, “Gender and Empire,” 214. 98)   Bossler, “Gender and Empire,” 205-6. 99)   Bossler, “Gender and Empire,” 211. 100)   Bossler, “Gender and Empire,” 212. 101)   Wu Sidao, for example, wrote the biography of Loyal Woman Qiu (Wu Sidao, “Qiu jiefu zhuan” 丘節婦傳, Chuncaozhai ji, 2:17b-19a), the biography of Loyal Woman Zhang (Wu Sidao, “Zhang jiefu zhuan” 張節婦傳, Chuncaozhai ji, 2:20b-21b), and an inscription for the shrine of Lady Tan, who had been brutally murdered at the hands of Mongol invaders in Yongxin 永新 county, Ji’an 吉安 prefecture, in Jiangxi province, where Wu served as magistrate (see Wu Sidao, “Tan jiefu citang ji” 譚節婦祠堂記, Chuncaozhai ji, 1:12a-14a). He also wrote a series of poems for Lady Tan and for several other women. See Wu Sidao, “Cai jiefu shi” 蔡節婦詩, Chuncaozhai ji [1629; a 1986 microfilm of this text, produced by the National Central Library (Guoli zhongyang tushuguan 國立中央圖書館) ] in Taiwan, is available in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, U.K.), 1:6b. The poem for Lady Tan can be found in Wu Sidao, “Tan jiefu shi” 譚節婦詩, Chuncaozhai ji (1629) 4:11b. On Wu Sidao’s interest in Lady Tan, see also my article entitled “The Story of Chaste Lady Tan: The Meaning of ‘Local’ in Song-Yuan-Ming China” (unpublished manuscript). Ding Henian’s works include a poem written for the mother of a friend, and other works dedicated to faithful women. See Ding Henian, “Li luan pian” 離鸞篇, Henian shiji, 2:3a-b; Ding Henian, “Hu jiefu” 胡節婦, Henian shiji, 2:3a-b; Ding Henian, “Le jiefu” 樂節婦, Henian shiji, 2.3b. Dai Liang was said to be deeply moved by the death of his older sister, who had taught him until he was eight, when she married and moved away, but he stayed close to her until her death. See Dai Liang’s

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Henian, a woman known as Yue’e. Yue’e would enter official history by featuring in the first listed biography in the chapter on women in the Mingshi, but that very brief biography was almost entirely based on the much fuller account of her life written by Wu Sidao.102 From his account we learn that Yue’e had gained her education along with her brothers in the household and had shown great aptitude for learning from an early age. She married a certain Ge Tongfu 葛通甫 (fl. 1360), from Wuhu 蕪 湖 in Taiping 太平prefecture.103 After she had arrived in his family, she served her elders and cared for the young, strictly following the ritual prescriptions. The senior female, Lu 盧, regarded the virtue of Yue’e as even greater than her own. One day she addressed the wives and daughters: “I would like you wives and daughters to be taught. You have never received any instruction.” Yue’e accepted her order [to teach]. Since previously they only humbly partook of pastimes like sewing and needlework, she had to teach them the Way of Women [fu dao 婦道], so she drew on the [examples of ] martyred women of old [gu lie nü 古烈女] to illustrate [the Way of Women] to them. All of them were transformed under her guidance.104

Once again, as in the biography he wrote for her younger brother, Wu Sidao expresses his full admiration for the way in which this woman of Western Asian descent not only mastered moral instruction and Classical learning, but also transmitted her learning to the women in her husband’s family, probably using the old stalwart of female moral instruction, the Lienüzhuan 列女傳 (Biographies of exemplary women).

nianpu included in Jiuling shanfang ji, nianpu: 1a-b. For Dai Liang’s writings about loyal women, see for example, the grave inscription for Chaste Lady Wei in Dai Liang, “Wei jiefu” 衛節婦, Jiuling shanfang ji, 14:15b-17a; the biography written for Chaste Lady Wang in Dai Liang, “Wang jiefu zhuan” 汪節婦傳, Jiuling shanfang ji, 27:5a-6a; or the muzhiming written for Chaste Lady Tang in Dai Liang, “Tang jiefu Jiang shi muzhiming” 唐節婦姜氏墓誌銘, Jiuling shanfang ji, 29:21b-23a. 102)   Ding Yue’e’s biography is the first biography in the ‘Biographies of famous women’ (lienü 列 女) chapter, juan 301 in the Mingshi 明史 (1739, reprint, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989). Her biography is also included in juan 245 of the Xin Yuanshi (1920, reprint, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1988). For a brief study of Yue’e, see Ding Hong 丁宏, “Huizu funü renwu zhuanlüe” 回族婦女人物傳略 Heilong jiang minzu congkan 黑龍江民族叢刊 (1994):62-5. 103)   Wuhu county is located on the Yangzi river, roughly 90 km up river (i.e. south) from Nanjing in Taiping prefecture. It would have been relatively straightforward to travel down river along the Yangzi from Wuchang where Yue’e was born, to Wuhu county. 104)   Wu Sidao, Chuncaozhai ji, 2:16a.

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While she used the exemplary lives of women to enlighten the wives and girls in her new family, she herself would go on to become a moral example. When the area came under attack from roaming bandits, the women in the family sought refuge inside the city walls. Yue’e sighed: “I was born in a family of generations of officials. Would they have sufffered at the hands of dogs and pigs?” So she clutched the girl she had borne and drowned herself in the river. The other wives and daughters were all shocked. They exclaimed: “Our tutor’s death has ensured she is at peace with rightness. Can we now ever live happily?” So they followed her to their deaths in the river. None of these nine [women] had any offspring. … At the time of their deaths the heat of the summer was most intense, and for seven days they did not sprinkle water on them, yet the color of their faces was as if they were still alive. All of the locals marvelled at this.105

The ten women were buried together, and a stone was placed by their grave with the inscription “Grave of Ten Martyrs” (shi jie mu 十節墓). Yue’e’s brother Henian finally placed a wooden plaque by the grave with an inscription telling of their heroic deed. Strikingly, the text reveals close parallels with another description of a martyred woman in Wu Sidao’s writings, the record of the shrine for Lady Tan. Wu Sidao had come across the dilapidated shrine for Lady Tan on his first tour of Yongxin, immediately upon his arrival there as magistrate in 1376. He had restored the building and composed a text. This is his description of her death a hundred years earlier, at the hands of Mongol soldiers in 1277: The northern army suddenly entered the city, and great chaos in the city ensued. The people all grabbed their belongings and fled. The woman [Lady Tan] held the child she was nursing and together with her parents-in-law quickly ran to the Hall of the Sages at the County School. Soldiers then arrived there en masse, killing and raping people. This chaste woman was not afraid to resist the soldiers who wanted to rape her. The woman spoke angrily: “My parents-in-law have been killed by you. I will guard my body with my life and will not allow you [to do this]. How could I let my body be defiled because of my desire to live?” As she did not give in, the solddiers became angry, and they killed her and her child.106   Wu Sidao, Chuncaozhai ji, 2:16b.   Wu Sidao, “Tan jiefu citang ji” 譚節婦祠堂記, in Chong Tianzi 蟲天子, ed., Xiangyan congshu 香艷叢書 (reprint; Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1994), 1657-58.

105) 106)

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Here too, the women take refuge inside the city walls, but the walls provide no protection, and the soldiers enter their safe haven, as they then seek to invade their bodies. Here too, the woman speaks out in defiance, establishing her superior morals and fighting spirit. The similarities between the two incidents and the two texts place them in a slightly different perspective. It is not merely one individual case that Wu Sidao is interested in here, but a set of cases. Much of this confirms Bossler’s arguments. Here, too, it is literary men who write about women, rather than men known as moralists.107 They write poems about faithful women, although not exclusively so. And indeed, there is a certain mechanical quality to the writings, with their stock phrases, that suggests poetry written less “for other connoisseurs to savor” and more ”to fulfil the obligations of literati social life,”108 although as Bossler herself suggests, gentlemen and scholars also ‘savored’ the tales of heroic suicides as they wrote, exchanged, and published them.109 This final thought is worth exploring further. Almost all of the faithful widows and female martyrs Wu writes about are described in standard phrases: They are intelligent (conghui 聰慧) and introspective or quiet (jingyou 靜幽), they take their studies very seriously, and they reveal their high moral calibre as soon as they join their husbands’ families. The focus of the narratives then shifts, however, from mind and morals to violence and body. It is as if the wheel suddenly spins, pivoting around the central figure of the marauder as he makes his (physical) entry. This pivotal moment in the first instance creates the impression of a set of binary opposites: between female and male, between civilized (wen) and military (wu), between inside and outside (with the weak city walls that fail to keep the invaders out symbolizing China’s weakness as it gave up to the various non-Han invaders), between moral and amoral, between human and beast. In the next instance, however, it is clear that these binary opposites fail to capture the complexity of the situation. In the case of Yue’e, for example, the female, the civilized, the insider, is at the same time herself also a non-Chinese, the “outsider,” who has acquired these qualities despite her background. Moreover, the masculine here 107)   Wu Sidao, Dai Liang and Ding Henian all had reputations based on their literary writings. On Dai Liang as a literary figure, see, for example, Yan Xuanjun, “Dai Liang kao lun.” 108)   Bossler, “Gender and Empire,” 212. 109)   Bossler, “Gender and Empire,” 215.

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stands for the brutality of the invader, who forces his way in. Masculinity, in other words, is here based on associations with the military, with the amoral, with the beastlike qualities the women identify in them. So where does it leave the Han Chinese male reader? His absence from the story is significant in itself, as implicitly the absence of husbands or brothers is what has left these women unprotected and vulnerable. He either identifies himself with the feminine, the woman taking her life to avoid rape, or with the masculine, the marauding invader. The former would be the natural choice, based on a long history of male identifi­ cation with female loyalty, but that identification only serves to highlight the shortcomings of that male reader, who clearly has not had the cour­ age to choose that same moral highground but has instead chosen to live. The latter—association with the brutal masculinity of the invader—is clearly problematic, too, not so much because it is inconceivable that there is a titillating dimension behind this focus on bodies and on the physical and sexual breaking down of barriers, but because it throws masculinity into question.110 What does it mean to be a man, and what outwardly acceptable ways of behaving as a man are presented in such tales? Davis’s discussion of masculine behavior after the fall of the Southern Song suggests that the virility of the nomadic invaders generated a sense of crisis among the Han Chinese in the north and the Nanren in the south. He purports that Han men committed suicide in large numbers, in part to demonstrate their loyalty to the Song, and in part to assert their masculinity in heroic behavior.111 Paul Smith, who takes issue with 110)   Some interesting work has been done on gender and ethnicity in the Qing context. Angela Zito’s book, Of Body and Brush, for example, discusses the masculinity of the Manchu ruling minority in contrast to Han ideals of filiality and literacy. Angela Zito, Of Body and Brush: Grand Sacrifice as Text/Performance in Eighteenth-Century China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), especially 13-64. Earlier, Robert van Gulik had already pointed to the contrast between the martial masculinity of the Manchu’s and the Han scholarly ideal. Robert van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey of Chinese Sex and Society from ca. 1500 B.C. till 1644 A.D. (Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1974), 245-62. See also Brownell and Wasserstrom, “Introduction: Theorizing Femininities and Masculinities” in Brownell and Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities, 19. Much less has been done on gender and ethnicity in the earlier, Mongol-Han encounter of the Song-Yuan transition. An exception is Song Geng, “Wax Spear-head: The Construction of Masculinity in Yuan Drama” Tamkang Review 30.1 (1999):209-54. 111)   Davis, Wind Against the Mountain, 21.

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Davis’s views, sees a different male response to Mongol invasion; the diarist Kong Qi 孔齊 (ca. 1310-after 1365) paints a picture of a world where gender roles were subverted and men lamented their loss of authority and control to usurpatious women.112 Dai Liang, loyal to the Yuan, chose not to commit suicide, and neither do his writings betray anxiety over the increasing powers of women. Rather, the writings about women by Dai Liang, Ding Henian, and Wu Sidao confirm Bossler’s suggestion that for men, moral action was located in the production of texts. Dai Liang clearly had the moral highground when he wrote, “The relationship between a woman and her husband is the same as the relationship between a scholar and his ruler: s/he serves only one until the end,” but Wu had no compunction in writing about the chastity and suicides of the women he admired without any expression of guilt over his own choice to serve more than one government.113 Moral acts like committing suicide were the domain of women, while men shared “the production, circulation, and appreciation” of texts about exemplary loyal women.114 As we saw in the exchanges of writings about women, through such texts men established and maintained social networks of men. While other avenues of masculinity were perceived to be problematic or even closed off, when traditionally male-dominated spaces such as the examinations and civil service were heavily curtailed, friendship during the late Yuan and early Ming years remained an important avenue for the construction and performance of masculinity. Writing about women, furthermore, served not only to cultivate male bonds but also to explore the meanings of masculinity and manhood. When Wu Sidao wrote down the conversation he had with Dai Liang about the painting of the Jiuling Mountains in Dai’s native Pujiang, Wu sought to affirm the significance of their—male—connection over the differences that might have stood between them. Dai’s longing for home stresses his status as a sojourner in Siming and his refusal to go home and join his fellow Jinhua men in their support for Zhu Yuanzhang stresses his status as a political refugee, but in his friendships—or so Wu seems to want to impress upon Dai—he has something that overcomes those   Smith, “Gynarchy in an Age of Chaos,” 83.   Dai Liang, “Tang jiefu Jiang shi muzhiming,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 29:23a. 114)   Bossler, “Gender and Empire,” 211-215. 112) 113)

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differences. Ding Henian, who did not feature in the conversation between Dai and Wu, inscribed the Jiuling Mountain scroll with a poem of his own and makes a similar point: Separated for ten years from the hometown in your dreams, this painting is so life-like, is it real or not?115 The fresh water in the black pool is refilled when spring returns, the study near the floating clouds by evening appears even loftier. Zhang Han assessed his circumstances, and decided to go home, Guan Ning hid from unrest for so long he forgot to return home. If one understands the significance of being a hermit in a man’s life, then the forested mountains are covered everywhere in wild greens. 題九靈山房圖 夢裡家山十載違; 丹青咫尺是耶非. 黑池新水春還滿; 書閣浮雲晚更飛. 張翰 見機先引去; 管寧避亂久忘歸. 人生若解幽樓意; 處處林丘有蕨薇.116

It is a poem about distance, about being exiled from one’s home, and about the choices one can make about returning home or not, as Zhang Han 張翰 and Guan Ning 管寧 did.117 The final couplet, however, is the crucial one. In understanding why one chooses to reside in a “hidden building” (youlou 幽樓), that is, to live the life of a hermit, one has to see that wherever there are mountains, there are “wild greens” to provide sustenance.118 It is the universality of place that Ding stresses. As Wu puts it: “The Jiuling Mountains go with him wherever he resides. Why should they need to be fixed to one place?”119 Both seem to be creating a space for alternatives, where the old constants such as one’s home and kinship connections and, implicitly, the rank and status that Dai is rejecting by living the life of the hermit, no longer matter. It is within   The reference is to Emperor Wu of the Han (r. 141-87 bce), who asked “Is it real or is it not?” when he saw the likeness of his deceased Lady Li 李夫人. 116)   Ding Henian, Henian shiji, 3:5b-6a. 117)   Zhang Han, a general of the state of Wu during the Western Jin (265-316), was once reminded of his home and its edible delicacies while he was on campaign, and decided on the spot to leave the quest for fame and high honors behind and return home. Guan Ning (158241) lived in Wei when the Han dynasty fell, and retreated to the mountains for more than 30 years. 118)   The “wild greens” (juewei 蕨薇) refer to the story of Bo Yi 伯夷 and Shu Qi 叔齊, hermits of the late Shang, who chose to eat wild greens rather than the grains of the Zhou dynasty, and starved to death. 119)   Wu Sidao, “Jiuling shanfang ji,” Chuncaozhai ji, 1:51b. 115)

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this separate space that morals matter and where friendship can blossom. It is as if both Wu Sidao and Ding Henian are reassuring Dai Liang that there is a value in this position, this “fifth relationship,” despite its ap­­ parent marginality and despite its potential for threat to the other Confucian relationships.120 The issue, thus, is not to create a different set of values, but to create a different space where these shared values can flourish. This also helps to explain the emphasis on friendship overcoming differences, be they political, ethnic, or regional, as we discussed at the beginning of the paper. When Dai Liang and Wu Sidao write their biographies of Ding Henian, they construct a Confucian identity for him. They do not ignore his Central Asian background, but their value judgment of Ding rests on his ability to be a Confucian gentleman. It is as a Confucian gentleman that Ding outdoes their other friends, as the only man among Dai’s friends to whom he would entrust his wife and children.121 In terms of trustworthiness, Ding ranks higher than his other friends, especially in the gender-sensitive task of a man looking after women and children. In terms of poetry, too, Ding Henian is judged along Chinese cultural standards. In his poetry “the phrases and style are very similar to Du Zimei 杜子美 [Du Fu 杜甫, 712-770] while the wording and implied meanings have all benefited from the great poets of our dynasty.”122 As Dai sees it, the men of the far west have all “left behind their bows and horses, studying the Book of Poetry and the Book of History, so that they became known for their poetry in their generation.”123 Precisely because of his Central Asian background, Ding’s exemplary role as Confucian gentleman has the power to inspire others. The implied contrast between the two styles of manhood, the Central Asian horseback hunter and the sinified poet, is clear, as is Dai’s relative judgment of the two. The realm where the cultural differences are greater is decreased in favor of the space where they are the same: men who share an appreciation of poetry and Confucian values.   Norman Kutcher, “The Fifth Relationship,” 1615-29.   Dai Liang, Jiuling shanfang ji, 19:5b. 122)   Dai Liang, “Henian yin gao xu” 鶴年吟稿序, Jiuling shanfang ji, 21.2a-b. According to Chen Yuan, Dai Liang wrote this preface for Ding Henian’s poems in 1366. Chen Yuan, Western and Central Asians, 293. 123)   Dai Liang, “Henian yin gao xu,” Jiuling shanfang ji, 21:1b. 120) 121)

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Conclusion The fourteenth-century terrain that shaped the lives of these three men, Dai Liang, Ding Henian, and Wu Sidao, was full of obstacles; their options were limited, and they were confronted with fighting, unrest, and political upheaval. Their backgrounds were very different, and the personal and political choices they made were different. Yet in their writings, they created a male bond that sought to overcome these differences. They constructed a friendship based on shared cultural ideals that was more valuable and more powerful than the ethnic, regional, and political divisions among them. To understand why this might be the case, I suggest, we have to look at the ways in which gender identities were constructed during this time of fragmented and shifting realities that characterized the Yuan-Ming transition. Men wrote profusely about women during this period, in particular about loyal women. Men wrote and exchanged descriptions of loyal women that displayed a fascination with the female body, with the violence it encountered, and with the moral values that remained intact when the physical body was destroyed. This occupation with writing about women suggests these men shared a sense of the ideal of femininity: chastity, loyalty, and a disdain for the physical body. From the writings explored here, however, it is much less clear what ideals of masculinity at this time entailed, especially at a time when in the confrontation with the non-Han male, northerners and southerners had fewer options available to them. Women’s bodies could be constructed as sites of moral action, but while men’s bodies were physically excluded from traditionally male realms such as the examinations and civil service posts, masculinity was far more difficult to define. I have proposed here that male friendships offered one answer to this crisis of masculinity: Friendship provided a space within which values of masculinity were shared and expressed; friendship between gentlemen created a space within which the fissures of the fourteenthcentury terrain were levelled out.

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NAN NÜ

Nan Nü 9 (2007) 70-110

www.brill.nl/nannü

Music and Male Bonding in Ming China Joseph S.C. Lam

(University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

Abstract Making friends and making music are two fundamental activities through which people construct their personal identities and social relationships in their historical, cultural, and engendered times and spaces. To probe such activities as revealing facets of Ming history and culture, this essay presents three case studies of Ming men making music and bonding with male friends. To highlight the expressive, cultural, and social significance of music, this essay postulates that music catalyzed male bonding in Ming China by providing a tool, a site, and a process for Ming men to express and negotiate their masculine desires, identities, and roles. Keywords music, men, male bond, Ming dynasty

Introduction Traditionally, China has celebrated men’s deep and genuine friendship with the musical legend of Yu Boya 俞 伯 牙and Zhong Ziqi 鍾 子 期 from the Chunqiu (770 BCE-476 BCE) period. When Boya played qin 琴 (seven-sting zither）music to describe lofty mountains or flowing waters, the legend reports, Ziqi would promptly and accurately grasp his friend’s expressions. Through music, the two developed a lifelong bond, and thus, when Ziqi died, Boya broke his qin into pieces, swearing that )   Miao Tianrui 繆 天 瑞 , Ji Liankang 吉 聯 抗, and Guo Nai’an 郭 乃 安, eds. , Zhongguo yinyue cidian 中 國 音 樂 詞 典 (Beijing: Renmin yinyue chubanshe, 1985), s.v. “Boya 伯 牙.” For historical descriptions of the legend, see “Benwei 本 味 ” in Ji Liankang, ed., Lüshi chunqiu zhongdi yinyue shiliao 呂 氏 春 秋 中 的 音 樂 史 料 (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1983), 45-46; and “Boya” and “Zhong Ziqi,” in Zhu Changwen 朱 長 文, Qinshi 琴 史 (Siku yishu congshu ed.; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1991), 16-17.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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DOI: 10.1163/138768007X171722

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he would never play again. No one would understand him and his music as Ziqi did, Boya lamented (Illustration 1). Read from gender, social, and musical perspectives, the legend provides many clues for understanding music and male friendship in tra­ ditional China. By establishing Boya and Ziqi as irreplaceable part­ners, the legend puts their firm relationship outside institutionalized sites of the court, the home, and the entertainment quarters, where participants’ interactions were defined by social-political hierarchies, intellectual and ideological concerns, heterosocial practices, and econ­omic and productive necessities for individual and familial living. By focusing on music as the element that connects two men outside blood and utilitarian relationships, the legend highlights the role of music as a social glue and raises many questions about its nature and functions. If music is a catalyst, for instance, how does it promote male bonding? What kinds of bonds result, and what do they tell about the individuals, their masculinities, and gendered societies? To probe these issues of music and male bonding, this paper presents three case studies from late Ming China. Such a case study approach is, needless to say, a research convenience and a reflection of the available data. Though recognized as a significant subject for inquiry in Ming history and culture, music and male bonding presents numerous diffi­ culties for analysis and thus has yet to be comprehensively investigated )   For music and performance theories, see Marvin Carolson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (New York: Routledge, 1996), and Richard Schechner, Performance Theory (New York: Routledge, 1988). For three representative works on masculinity in general, see Peter Lehman, Running Scared: Masculinity and the Representation of the Male Body (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993); Michael S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner, Men’s Lives, (third edition; Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995); and Stephen M. Whitehead, Men and Masculinities (Cambridge: Polity, 2002). For current studies on Chinese masculinities, see Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Femininities Chinese Masculinities: A Reader (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002); Martin Huang, Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006); Kam Louie, Theorising Chinese Masculinity: Society and Gender in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). For an anthropological discussion of Chinese friendship and social relationships, see Alan Smart, “Expressions of Interest : Friendship and Guanxi in Chinese Societies,” in Sandra Bell and Simon Coleman, eds., The Anthropology of Friendship: Enduring Themes and Future Possibilities (New York: Berg Publishers, 1999), 119-36. See also Joseph McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends in the Late Ming,” in Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo 中央研究院近代史研究所, ed., Jinshi jiazu yu zhengzhi bijiao lishi lunwen ji 近世家族與政治比較歷史論文 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindai yanjiusuo, 1992), 67-96.

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Illustration 1. “Musiking Men”; Zhang Lu 張 路, “Tanqintu” 彈 琴 圖. From Haiwai Zhongguo minghua jingxuan: Mingdai 海 外 中 國 名 畫 精 選 明 代 (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1999), 82.

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by China specialists. As ubiquitous as music was in Ming men’s lives, most descriptions of their homosocial music activities are sketchy. This is why the three cases presented here are so fascinating and revealing in terms of historical facts and theoretical issues. With relatively brief but clear narratives, records of the cases vividly describe the music participants and their music products and activities. In addition, the records illustrate not only the ways music intersected with male friendship in the historical context of the late Ming, but also the ways in which music constituted a distinctive mode of discourse for men to negotiate their manhood. For example, music as a means of selfcultivation and governance—the musical concern in the first case analyzed here—is something that late Ming men could argue about in their philosophical debates, a friendly practice that Martin Huang examines in his contribution to this special issue. As a mode of discourse, Ming men’s use of music to communicate their emotions and desires is, in principle, no different from their manipulation of words to describe male identities and cultural values, a topic that Anne Gerritsen discusses in her essay. And when the written texts are libretti—literary works that Kim Besio addresses in her essay, works meant to be performed with singing, dancing, and playing of musical instruments—the overlap between music and writing, the most recorded mode of discourse for Ming men, could not be more obvious. However, if there is anything that distinguishes Ming men’s musical discourses from those of their words and actions, it is the notion that music allows them to express something in their cultural, intellectual, psychological, and emotional being that words can hardly communicate. Yueji 樂 記 (Record of music), a seminal document in Chinese music history, clearly registers such a notion: When people are stimulated, they express their responses through words, and when words cannot fully express their intentions and feelings, they sing and dance.

  Charles Seeger, for example, argues that music is a distinctive mode of communication. See his “Speech, Music, and Speech about Music;” and “On the Moods of a Music Logic,” in Studies in Musicology, 1935-1975 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 31-44, and 64-101. )   See the “Shiyi 師 乙” passage in “Yueji 19” in the Liji 禮 記 , in Qian Bocheng 錢 伯 城, ed., Baihua shisanjing 白 話 十 三 經 (Shanghai: Xinhua shuju, 1996), 1267. )

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The case study approach adopted also reflects the need to understand musical and male bonding as complex and variable phenomena. As will become clear, each individual case of musical and male bonding involves not only differing male roles and identities but also diverse elements of musical objects, performances practices and sites, aesthetics, and other contextual particulars. Until a critical number of samples have been collected and examined, and until their salient commonalities and differences can be comprehensively established, it is premature to construct a generalized view about musical and male bonding in Ming China. Analyzing the three representative cases and related data with current perspectives on music, Chinese masculinities, and operational principles of male bonding, it is reasonable, however, to postulate that Ming music catalyzed male bonding by providing a tool, a site, and a process for Ming men to musically express and negotiate their masculine desires, identities, and roles in their historical and cultural times and places. Ming Music and Musiking Dominated by elite males, marked by gender and class boundaries, and developed like a conglomerate of distinctive but interrelated traditions and subtraditions, Ming music culture operated according to historically, culturally, socially, and musically established practices of the period.  Thus, yayue 雅 樂 (state sacrificial music or civilizing music) and its theories were court, Confucian, and masculine concerns. Qin music and   For a discussion of Ming music culture as a complex of traditions and sub-traditions, see Joseph S. C. Lam, “Imperial Agency in Ming Music Culture,” in David Robinson, ed., Culture, Courtiers and Competition: The Ming Court (1368-1644) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, in press). )   For representative surveys of Ming music culture, see Feng Wenci 馮 文 慈 , “ Xiqu yishu di you yige huangjin shidai” 戲 曲 藝 術 的 又 一 個 黃 金 時 代 , “Pinzhong fansheng di yinyue yishu ”品 種 繁 盛 的 音 樂 藝 術 , and “Minjiang wudao di fazhan yu ‘wuxue’ di shouchuang”民 間 舞 蹈 的 發 展 與 舞 學 的首 創 , in Zhonghua wenmingzhi: Mingdai 中 華 文 明 史: 明 代 (Shijiachuang: Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe, 1994), vol. 8, 667-748; and Chen Yichun 陳 奕 純, Liu Shiwen 劉 士 文, and Yuan Bingchang 袁 炳 昌, Zhongguo Mingdai yishushi 中 國 明 代 藝 術 史, in Zhongguo quanshi 中 國 全 史 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1994), vol.80, 164-84. See also Joseph S. C. Lam, “Ming Music and Music History,” Ming Studies 38 (1997): 21-62. )   Historically speaking, yayue was either narrowly defined as the ritual songs created for and performed during state sacrifices, or broadly understood as music that served as a means of )

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shiyue 詩 樂 (poetic songs) were genres that scholar-officials claimed to be theirs. Processional music, which was often played with wind and percussion instruments, made sonic markers that the court and privileged males had their male servants perform to announce their presence and status as they traveled from one place to another (Illustration 2). Most religious music that accompanied Buddhist or Daoist rituals performed inside public temples or shrines was provided by male clergy and musicians for their male clients.10 In addition to the above masculine music, Ming China enjoyed many other genres that men and women, elite and commoners, collectively produced and consumed. These included many types of operas, popular songs, folk songs, instrumental playing, and other vernacular expressions. This collective and essentially heterosocial production and consumption of music was, however, neither gender-blind nor class-blind. As document­ed, most elite men operated as patrons, authors, critics, con­ self-cultivation and governance. Translating yayue as “civilized/civilizing music” underscores the ways in which the term implicates Confucian orthodoxy and orthopraxy of music and their political and social ramifications. The civilized self and the civilizing power of music are subjectivities and moral-political concerns that anchored the actions of the elite and musical Ming men discussed in this essay. Yayue has been commonly translated as “proper music” or “refined music.” For a description of Ming state sacrificial music in action, see Joseph S. C. Lam, State Sacrifices and Music in Ming China: Orthodoxy, Creativity, and Expressiveness (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998). )   Qin music is essentially a tradition of instrumental solo music. In late Ming China, songs with qin accompaniment were, however, commonly sung. For a standard survey, written in English, of the qin music tradition, see Robert Hans van Gulik, The Lore of the Chinese Lute: An Essay in Ch’in Ideology (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1968). Shiyue features simple melodies set to lyrics taken from the Classic of Poetry. Since Zhu Xi published a set of twelve ritual songs in his Yili jingchuan tong jie 儀 禮 經 傳 通 解, which subsequently became exemplars of the genre, Confucian scholars in Ming and Qing China composed and sang many of such songs in their schools. For a discussion of Zhu Xi’s ritual songs, see Rulan Chao Pian, Sonq Dynasty Musical Sources and Their Interpretation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967), 9-10, and 154-73. )   In imperial China there was a tradition of processional music, namely music that was performed en route the elite’s official traveling. Such processional music, however, was less discussed as yue 樂 (music) but more as paraphernalia of elite and official journeys (lubu 鹵 簿) during which the social status of the persons in transit had to be clearly announced. Due to a lack of data, Ming male commoners’ music and music activities will not be specifically discussed in this case study of elite Ming men’s music and male bonding. 10)   For surveys of Chinese Buddhist and Daoist music, see Yuan Jingfang 袁 靜 芳, Zhongguo hanchuan fojiao yinyue wenhua 中 國 漢 傳 佛 教 音 樂 文 化 (Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue, 2003); and Pu Hengqiang 蒲 亨 強, Daoyue tonglun 道 樂 通 論 (Beijing: Zhongyang yinyue xueyuan chubanshe, 2004).

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Illustration 2. “ A Musical Procession”; Illustration for a 1606 printing of Yuchuji 玉 杵 記; from Zhou Wu 周 蕪 ed., Zhongguo guben xiqu chatuxuan 中 國 古 本 戲 曲 插 圖 選 (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin meishu chubanshe, 1985), 123.

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Illustration 3. “Women Musicians Performing for a Male Patron”; Illustration for a 1635 printing of Yuanyangtao 鴛 鴦 絛, from Zhou Wu 周 蕪 ed., Zhongguo guben xiqu chatuxuan 中 國 古 本 戲 曲 插 圖 選 (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin meishu chubanshe, 1985), 288.

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noisseurs, and master musicians, while socially low musicians, male or female, served as entertainers, actors, actresses, and music servants (yuegong 樂 工) (Illustration 3). Only a small number of commoner musicians, many of whom were female courtesans, were able to climb the social ladder and become artistic and social partners of elite men. Their socially low origin was, however, never forgotten. There is no doubt that commoner musicians made up the rank-andfile of composers and performers in Ming China; nevertheless, they had little control or ownership of the music they produced and performed for their patrons. They could, for example, neither dictate the value of the musical compositions that they created nor resist the meanings superimposed on their performances by the musical and male elite. The gendered and class differences in Ming music culture were particularly acute for female musicians and music. While female musicians were indispensable for musical performances inside palatial mansions or entertainment quarters, they were often marginalized.11 And while women musicians were often touted as talented singers or gifted performers on the lute (pipa 琵 琶) and zither (zheng 箏), they were seldom admired and described as music masters or teachers. The only genres of music that Ming females were allowed to dominate or to own appear to be limited to baoquan 寶 卷 (precious volumes) and other religious and private songs that they sang in their inner quarters.12   The marginalization of female musicians and music, or to be more precise, their marginalization in historical Chinese music sources, is a complex problem that cannot be address here: while there is ample evidence that female musicians and music were ubiquitous in historical China, there is currently a relative lack of verifiable music data and scholarly studies on their biographies, repertories, and performances. For a discussion of historical and historiographical issues concerning Chinese female musicians and music, see Joseph S. C. Lam, “The Presence and Absence of Female Musicians and Music in China,” in Dorothy Ko, JaHyun Kim Haboush and Joan R. Piggot, eds., Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 97-120. For historical surveys of female musicians and their institutions in Tang and Song China, see Kishibe Shigeo 岸 辺 成 雄, Tōdai ongaku no rekishiteki kenkyu 唐 代 音 樂 の 歷 史 的 研 究 (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1960-61); see vol. 1, pages 332-54, and 467-69; and vol. 2, pages 145-80. For a general history of Chinese female musicians/entertainers, see Xiu Jun 修 君 and Jian Ji 鑒 今, Zhongguo yuejishi 中 國 樂 妓 史 (second ed.; Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 2003). For a chronological and documentary study of jiayue 家 樂 (male and female musicians/entertainers employed in private households), see Liu Shuiyun 劉 水 雲, Ming Qing jiayue yanjiu 明 清 家 樂 研 究 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2005). 12)   For a historical and literary study of baoquan, see Daniel L. Overmyer, Precious Volumes: 11)

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It was in such a gendered and hierarchical Ming China that music catalyzed male bonding. To effectively probe this process, music needs to be examined as a product, a site, and a process of human interactions and expressions. Only with both broad and specific examinations of music in these distinct but interrelated levels does its role as a social catalyst become clear. As a sonic product—that is, a musical work or a musical performance—music exists as a self-contained object defined by audible and identifiable sounds with which musicians and audiences negotiate sonic, non-sonic, and mixed features/meanings of music.13 Unlike graphic representations or printed words, such as Dai Liang’s 戴 良 (1317-83) painting of his hometown mountain, which Gerritsen discusses in her essay, or the printed editions of the story about Fan Juqing 范 巨 卿 and Zhang Yuanbo 張 元 伯 that Besio analyzes,14 a musical work is distinguished by its sonic existence, which is aural and ephemeral. This condition leads to the non-sonic existence of music in the forms of musical notation and words that can be verbally and graphically represented, preserved, and discussed. This is why and how, in addition to its sonic existence and meanings, music always involves non-sonic and mixed meanings, and why music can be examined through tangible objects centuries after the performed sounds have vanished. The musical works of Ming China, for example, have sonically An Introduction to Chinese Sectarian Scriptures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999). 13)   Sonic features/meanings of music are those that are expressed and understood as and through sounds, while non-sonic ones are those that depend on words and visuals to have their meanings communicated and understood. Mixed features/meanings of music are those that cannot be clearly classified as either sonic or non-sonic. In this essay, I will use the terms of sonic, non-sonic, and mixed to refer to specific feature/meanings of music; otherwise, I will use the terms of music/musical. Sonic and non-sonic features/meanings of music are clearly different from one another: the former exists through sound production and aural perception, and can hardly be translated into words or other media without loss/change of meanings; the latter defines and describes sonic components of music with words and other visual aids, which cannot, however, be taken as sound substitutes. How and to what extent sonic, non-sonic, and mixed features/meanings music differ and overlap with one another is a complex topic that has no definitive answers. To investigate how music works as a catalyst of people’s subjectivities and actions, however, the three levels of musical features/meanings needs to be specified as much as possible. For studies on the relationships between music and words/speech, see the references in note 3. 14)   See Anne Gerritsen, “Friendship through Fourteenth-Century Fissures: Dai Liang, Wu Sidao, and Ding Henian” (intra.); and Kim Besio, “Dreams of Friendship: Representations of Fan Juqing and Zhang Yuanbo in the Ming Dynasty” (intra.).

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vanished over the centuries, leaving only sketchy textual and notated representations. They are now primary evidence of Ming musical works, and they reveal, albeit incompletely, what the works were, and how and what they signified to their contemporary practitioners. In other words, by reading and interpreting representations of Ming musical works in their historical and social contexts and alongside related historical sources, one can historically “hear” Ming musical works and performance and attempt to probe the ways they promoted male friendship. As a process, music operates as a sequence of activities that produce and consume musical works, generating meanings and communications that involve not only sonic elements but also those that are subjective, associative, historical, cultural, and social in nature. This is why music involves much more than composition, performances, and listening to musical works, and constitutes a mode of human discourse. Intellectual discussions of music and musical meanings, for instance, generate a wide range of non-sonic/verbal meanings of music that can be circulated and negotiated with or without direct reference to performed and heard musical sounds. These discussions and meanings, however, always depend on musical sounds imagined and implied, or heard and remembered. Experienced musicians can always “hear” the music they discuss even when it is not performed and no physical sounds are produced. Through their extended engagement with their art, musicians can promptly recall vivid memories of musical works and activities that they have preserved in their minds and bodies. And as they discuss sonic, non-sonic, and mixed features/meanings of music, they engage in a dynamic process during which they musically express and negotiate their individual desires, historical and cultural memories, and social practices which, needless to say, define their gendered identities and social roles. To examine this dynamic process as it was manifest among men of the late Ming is to analyze music and masculinities in action, and to see how music catalyzed male subjectivities and relationships. As a site, music creates particularized contexts for its participants to musically and socially engage with one another. In this sense, a musical site is comparable to the alternative sphere of philosophical debates that Martin Huang proposes.15 As music is performed, heard, or discussed, 15)   See Martin Huang, “Male Friendship and Jiangxue (Philosophical Debates) in SixteenthCentury China” (intra.).

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and as musical features and meanings are generated and negotiated, it forces the participants to take actions deemed necessary in specific physical spaces and times. The performance of a Ming emperor’s processional music can, for example, transform a public road or waterway into an imperial site where the emperor’s presence is announced and where his authority weighs on his subjects. Illustration 4. By the same token, should a ritual song honoring Confucius be accidentally or deliberately sung in an entertainment establishment, such as a brothel, a dissonant site results. To dissolve that dissonance, people operating in that site have to stop either the music or their pleasurable cavorting; most people cannot simultaneously engage in mutually exclusive activities. Only if they are deaf can they ignore the song and the dis­so­ nance it brings. To highlight the ways music singularly and collectively operates as an object, a site, and a process, and to facilitate analysis of the meanings and communications that people musically produce, consume, and negotiate in specific times and places, this paper will label the purposeful and interactive engagement with music as musiking: to “musik” is to negotiate musically.16 Musiking is a discourse that people flexibly and strategically negotiate with one another, manipulating music as an object, a site, and a process of not only musical compositions, improvisation, performance, listening, interpretation, negotiation, teaching, learning, and other related activities, but also of supporting deeds of musical production and consumption, which include but are not limited to the manufacturing   My term “to musik/musiking” is inspired by, but is different from Christopher Small’s “musicking”; see his Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening ( Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1998). “To musik/musiking” underscores a theoretical need to broadly examine music as a nexus of peoples’ expressions and interactions in particular times and places. When music is studied primarily through musical works, a traditional approach in Western/ westernized musicology, discussions tend to focus on the musical object and its composers and performers. When music is studied as an expression of something nonmusical, such as a particular political ideology or social condition, however, music is often taken as a means to an end, a strategy that is taken by many musicologists and ethno­musi­ cologists; as a result, musical particulars of works, sites, and processes are often marginalized. I find neither approach satisfactory, and thus propose the analytical concept of “musiking.” My proposition also reflects my understanding that while traditional Chinese often listen to music as individual compositions, they also tend to understand it in historical, biographical, social, moralistic, and cosmological terms. In other words, the theoretical concept of “musiking” facilitates historical examination of Chinese music, loosening the grip of contemporary and westernized musicological methods. 16)

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Illustration 4. “A Musical Boat Procession of the Emperor” Chujing tu 出警圖, from Wu Zhao 吳釗, Zhuixun xiqu di yinyue zong ji: tushuo Zhongguo yinyueshi 追 尋 逝 去 的 音 樂 縱 跡﹕ 圖 說 中 國 音 樂 史 (Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe, 1999), 308-9.

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and handling of musical instruments, writing and publication of music theories and narratives, and preparation and use of notated scores of musical works. As a theoretical concept, musiking provides a com­pre­hen­ sive and elastic framework to examine all kinds of musical ex­pressions, activities, and meanings, which the musicians manipulate to negotiate their diverse subjectivities and needs. Realizing the distinction, effective­ ness, pleasure, and art of musical discourses, Ming men actively employed music as one of the available modes of discourse to help construct their masculinities and promote bonding with their friends. They would not, however, use music exclusively, as they would not use only words to express the complex and multifaceted realities of their dynamic lives. Male Bonding Music can only be a catalyst and not a cause of male bonding because such a social connection is not a simple result but a complex and specific set of relationships between male individuals. As Norman Kutcher writes, friendship between men in traditional Chinese society constitutes one of their five bonds, one that is, however, distinctive and potentially dangerous.17 Different from the bonds between fathers and sons, rulers and ministers, husbands and wives, and older and younger brothers, male friendship is voluntary, negotiable, situational, and not inherently concerned with maintenance of the Chinese state-family (guojia 國 家). As such, male friendship may or may not contribute to the moral and social well-being of the participants, an ambiguity that led some Confucians to attempt to promote the utilitarian functions of male bonding at the expense of its emotional and personal elements.18 This is, however, not always feasible because the reasons for and types of male bonding diversely and ambiguously overlap, resisting simplistic and hermetic categorizations.19 For the convenience of discussing music   Norman Kutcher, “The Fifth Relationship: Dangerous Friendships in the Confucian Context,” The American Historical Review 105 (2000): 1615-29. See also Martin Huang, Negotiating Masculinities, 189-91. 18)   For samples of Ming dynasty teachings on the making of friends, see Dong Jianmei 董建梅, ed., Xianxian jiaxun 先 賢 家 訓 (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 2004), 210, 218, and 221. 19)   For two sample discussions of the reasons and types of bonds in England and Ming China, see Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, 17)

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as a social catalyst in male bonding in Ming China, however, three prominent types are heuristically identified and discussed in this essay. The first type concerns a bonding that is intellectual and elitist, one that is fundamental to elite Ming men who pursued their masculinities as scholar-officials, people who would participate, in one way or another, in intellectual debates of the time. Ming men are always defined by their thoughts. The second type refers to an aesthetic and social bonding that allowed elite patrons, artists, and performers to form local and artistic communities, networks that allowed them to construct and perform their identities in specific times and spaces. Ming men are always defined by their localized arts and networks. Operating as music societies or schools (liupai 流 派), these networks are comparable to poetry societies, charitable organizations, and other institutions that promoted comradeship among Ming men who shared similar pursuits. As Ming men were social and expressive beings living in particularized contexts and coping with specific problems, they needed such comrades and institutional supports to confirm their selves and to address the challenges they faced. The third type marks a personal and intense bonding that expresses the participants’ subjective and emotional being, one that is particularly representative of late Ming China.20 As individuals, late Ming men not only negotiated their manhood through careers and moral ideals but also through emotional and intimate connections with those they loved. After all, they lived in a world noted for its pursuit of qing 情 (desires and emotions).21 Together the three types illustrate the wide spectrum of male bonding and masculinities that Ming men negotiated in their public and private lives, as intellectual and emotional beings. The three types of male bonding also heuristically suggest the following operational principles, which, it should be emphasized, seldom Gender, and Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), and Matthew Fryslie, “The Historian’s Castrated Slave: The Textual Eunuch and the Creation of the Historical Identity in the Ming History” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 2001). 20)   The first two types of musical and male bonding, I would argue, are not specific to late Ming China. Whether such bonding would manifest differently in early and late Ming (15501644), two periods that are intellectually, culturally, and socially quite distinct from one another, is an issue that needs to be further investigated. 21)   See Martin Huang, “Sentiments of Desire: Thoughts on the Cult of Qing in Ming-Qing Literature,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), 20 (1998): 153-84.

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function in isolation—and this is why male bonding in Ming China and elsewhere resists simplistic analysis and characterization. First, male bonding can only occur when the participants share something that they find rewarding. That something can range from idealistic aspirations to sagehood, to seeking refuge from the mundane state and family, to the need for psychological and emotional support, to indulgence in sensual pleasures and other entertainments. Commonality among male friends, it should be noted, can be so deep-rooted that it offsets critical differ­ ences among the friends. As Gerritsen argues, Dai Liang, Ding Henian丁 鶴年 (1335-1424), and Wu Sidao烏斯道 (fl. 1376-80) constructed “a friendship based on shared cultural ideals that is more valuable and more powerful than the ethnic, regional, and political divisions between them.”22 Second, the more similar participants in a male bonding are in one or more ways, the easier they relate to one another; men of similar social classes, intellectual and political aspirations, aesthetic preferences, and personal needs tend to befriend one another. And as they bond, they influence one another, so that they become more similar—or their differences become adjusted and their relationship stronger and more satisfying. This is perhaps why despite their intellectual differences, Luo Hongxian羅洪先 (1504-64) and Wang Ji王畿 (1498-1583), as Martin Huang describes, could remain friends.23 Third, men who actively pursue male friendship for specific purposes would tend to seek out friends whom they consider “higher/senior” in one way or another. Oftentimes, participants in such purposeful bonding would travel far beyond their hometowns to search for the higher/senior and thus worthy friends who would help them advance. To reciprocate, the lower/junior partners would present the higher/senior partners with gifts or honors. Once the utilitarian goal was reached, however, the bonding between the partners could end. Unlike the “true” friendship that the stories of Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi or Fan Juqing and Zhang Yuanbo idealize, those based on utilitarian bonds did not involve permanence or posthumous fame for the participants. Fourth, the more the participants of a male bonding resist heterosocial norms, the less their masculinities conform to those of the heterosocial   Anne Gerritsen, “Friendship through Fourteenth-Century Fissures.”   Martin Huang, “Male Friendship and Jiangxue.”

22) 23)

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society at large. This tension is clearly underscored by some late Ming jiangxue 講 學 (philosophical debates) activitists’ apologies, as noted by Martin Huang, for neglecting their wives and families “due to their being away so often and so long.”24 Fifth, whenever male-to-male sex is involved, the bonding between two men is not only homosocial but also homosexual.25 As such, it is a relationship that affects the participants’ personal and social identities so critically that they might voluntarily or involuntarily retreat from or challenge the heterosocial and heterosexual society at large. Needless to say, retreat appears to be the solution most preferred. Retreat, however, can take many forms, ranging from the participants’ keeping their male sexual relationship secrets to themselves, to their staying away from heterosocial and heterosexual sites. Whatever actions homosocial and homosexual bonds generate, they critically impact the constructed masculinities of the participants and how they are perceived as males by the society at large. Intellectual and Elitist Bonding: Ji Ben and Wang Ting Applying the aforementioned concepts of musiking and operational principles of male bonding to analyze the way Ji Ben 季 本 (1485-1563) befriended Wang Ting 王 廷 (1504-89), it is clear that their friendship appeared to be intellectual and elitist in nature and clearly promoted by music. Ji Ben (z. Mingde 明 德 ; h. Pengshan 彭 山) is a minor figure in Ming history and culture.26 As a student of Wang Shouren 王守 仁 (1472-1529) and a scholar affiliated with the renowned Yuelu 嶽 麓 Academy in Changsha 長 沙 in Hunan Province, he authored eleven books containing some 120 chapters, discussing topics that ranged from agriculture and astronomy to music and poetry. As an official who was appointed, in 1539, a prefect of Changsha, he had a long and eventful   Martin Huang, “Male Friendship and Jiangxue.”   For a study on homosocial and homosexual relationships, see Giovanni Vitiello, “Exemplary Sodomites: Chivalry and Love in Late Ming Culture,” Nan Nü 2.2 (2000):207-57, and see pages 253-57. 26)   Zhang Yuanbian 張 元 忭, “Changsha shou Ji Pengshan xiansheng benchuan 長 沙 守 季 彭 山 先 生 本 傳,” in Jiao Hong 焦 竑, ed. Guochao xianzhenglu 國 朝 獻 徵 錄 ( Taibei: Mingwen shuju, 1991), 89:27-31a. For Ji’s involvement with civic activities and implementa­ tion of Wang Shouren’s teachings, see Kandice, J, Hauf, “The Community Co­venant in Sixteenth Century Ji’an Prefecture, Jiangxi,” Late Imperial China 17.2 (1996): 1-50, and see page 29. 24) 25)

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career distinguished by his quest for truth and generosity toward his friends. Wang Ting of Nanchong 南充 is also a minor Ming figure, whose life is briefly described in the Mingshi 明 史 (Ming history).27 The bonding between Ji and Wang was predicated on the former’s lifelong interest in music theory, an intellectual musiking that he launch­ed as a student at the national university in Nanjing. As reported by Ji himself, 28 in 1505 he discussed music with the then Chancellor (ji­jiu 祭 酒 ) Zhang Mao 章 懋 (js.1466) and found the latter’s music explanations deficient. To satisfy his own intellectual and musical curiosity, and to address what he complained of as his peer’s marginaliza­ tion of music theory as an esoteric subject of scholarship, Ji launched a lifelong process of studying, discussing, and writing about music and music theory. Soon, Ji produced a music treatise that he called Lülü suanfa 律 呂 算 法 (Calculations of the twelve absolute pitches) and published it with a preface written by the senior scholar-official Yang Lian 楊 廉 (1452-1525).29 Then Ji revised the monograph and renamed it Yuelü zuanyao 樂 律 纂 要 (A treatise on the essentials of music theory). The treatise did not win Ji many friends, and as a result he became discouraged, doubting whether music theory really explained the fundamental use of ritual and music as a means of self-cultivation and governance. He then abandoned his treatise in a storage box, waiting for the right opportunity to discuss it with people who understood music. That opportunity came in 1539, when Wang Ting was temporarily dispatched by government fiat to Changsha.30 Welcoming Wang, Ji learned that his visitor was not only interested in matters of ancient music but also familiar with the Song scholar-theorist Cai Yuanding’s 蔡 元 定 (1135-98) Lülü xinshu 律 呂 新 書 (A new treatise of music theory), the classic reference for music discussion in Ming China and the 27)   Tan Zongying 談 宗 英 , Jie Yongjian 解 永 健, and Wang Shengliang 王 聖 良, eds., Zhongguo lishi dacidian: Mingshi 中 國 歷 史 大 詞 典: 明 史 (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 1995), 53; and Zhang Tingyu 張   廷 玉. ed., Mingshi 明 史 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 214: 5664. 28)   Ji Ben, “Yuelü zuanyao zixu” 樂 律 纂要自 敘, in Yuelü zuanyao 樂 律 纂要, (Xu siku quanshu ed.; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995), vol. 113, 252-53. 29)   Tan Zongying, Jie Yongjian, and Wang Shengliang, eds., Zhongguo lishi dacidian: Mingshi, 205. 30)   Ji Ben, “Yuelü zuanyao zixu,” 252.

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text that prompted Ji himself to study music theory.31 Thus, Ji promptly showed Wang his own music treatise, and the latter responded en­thusias­ tically, commenting that its insights would help promote Cai’s theories and recommending its publication. As a result, Ji published the treatise and furthered his studies of music theory. In 1554, he published another music treatise, Lülü bieshu 律 呂 別 書 (A supplementary treatise on music theory.)32 Ji and Wang promptly befriended one another, which not only transformed two strangers into musiking partners but also allowed them to negotiate their Confucian ideals, masculine identities, and civilizing roles of scholar-officials in their specific time and place in Changsha. That music effectively catalyzed the process is apparent. First, their intellectual musiking, which probably involved more theoretical discus­ sions than actual performances and listening to musical works, provided an object, a site, and a process through which they could bond. It was in that site and during their discussions of musical features and meanings that they got to know one another. And as they realized that they shared the same intellectual interest in ancient music and music theory, sub­ scribed to the same Confucian ideology of using ritual and music as a means of self-cultivation and governance, and engaged in the same scholarly and official practice of expounding their ideas in writings, they became close to one another. It was a development with much to gain and little to lose for both Ji and Wang, two socially and politically com­ patible scholar-officials. Describing Wang as a ming yushi 名 御 史 (famous censor), Ji took him to be a socially esteemed court official who would make a worthy and beneficial friend. Wang’s friendly support, after all, encouraged Ji to reactivate his study of music theory and to publish his music treatises, a development that helped build Ji’s legacy as a Ming theorist. Wang must also have been pleased by such a result. By patronizing Ji, he found a way to soothe his pride after having been dispatched from the capital, demonstrate his elevated social status and   Cai Yuanding, Lülü xinshu, (Siku quanshu ed.; Taibei: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1980?). For a survey of Ming music theory, and the canonized role Cai’s work played in Ming music theory, see Joseph S. C. Lam, State Sacrifices and Music in Ming China, 75-97. For a musicological discussion of Cai’s treatise, see Rulan Chao Pian, Song Dynasty Musical Sources and Their Interpretation, 7-9. 32)   Ji Ben, Lülü bieshu (MSS, Beijing University Library). 31)

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erudition, and cultivate a social relationship (guanxi 關 係) that might come in handy for future needs.33 The friendship between Ji and Wang, however, was not without emotional elements driven by deep cultural-social values. In his preface to Ji’s treatise, Wang extolled the author.34 Unlike those scholars who could hardly understand Cai’s theories, Wang wrote, Ji studied music theory broadly and contemplated the issues deeply; thus he was able to collect convincing data and formulate persuasive arguments to explain the forms and principles of music more meticulously than Cai had done. Highlighting Ji’s manly abilities and scholarship, Wang’s recommenda­ tion reveals his admiration for Ji. This was reciprocated by Ji. In his own preface to the same treatise, Ji described Wang as an inquisitive and supporting senior official.35 A famous court official, Ji reported, Wang was a scholar who believed in ancient traditions, investigated matters large and small, grasped the merits of Ji’s treatise, and recommended its publication. By graciously acknowledging Wang’s encouragement, Ji made clear his indebtedness to him. This mutual admiration between Ji and Wang was, however, restrained, an indication that the two probably had not become bosom friends who shared emotionally intense and long-lasting ties. Ji’s music treatise of 1554, for example, does not mention Wang, a silence that suggests that the two Ming scholar-officials’ friendship was essentially intellectual and elitist, a relationship that invites further analyses of the cultural and social connections among Ming music, male bonding, and masculinities. That Ji and Wang shared a similar interest in music theory was no accident. They were both scholar-officials, roles that required them to understand music and discuss it as a means of governance and selfcultivation. Otherwise, they could not effectively serve as leading court scholar-officials, esteemed traveling censors, or effective local administra­ tors, who would, on the one hand, urge their emperors to benevolently rule the empire with exemplary ritual and music, and on the other hand,   Guanxi is a traditional Chinese concept of social relationships, including those shared by friends. For a standard discussion of the topic, which scholars working outside China have recently termed as guanxiology, see Mayfair, M, Yang, Gifts, Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1994), and see pages 610, and 109-45. 34)   Wang Ting, Yuelü zuanyao xu, in Ji Ben, Yuelü zuanyao, 251. 35)   Ji Ben, “Yuelü zuanyao zixu,” 252. 33)

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apply the same means themselves in governing commoners under their jurisdiction, transforming the latter’s traditions and customs. Thus, when Ji and Wang discussed music theory in Changsha, they not only bonded as musiking friends, but also collaborated as scholar-officials, the role they desired and played as elite men of the time. When they favorably commented on each other’s erudition and eagerness to master ancient, and thus legitimate, means of governance, they authenticated not only each other’s performance as scholar-officials but also their public man­ hood. And when they published their comments as treatises and prefaces, they perpetuated their performance and authentication through words and books. Such intellectual and public performance of official roles and mas­ culinity, needless to say, was historically, culturally, and socially grounded. In Ming China, elite men were supposed to serve family and state by studying the Confucian classics, passing the imperial examinations, and launching careers as scholar-officials. That was the ladder they could climb to the top of their male hierarchical world to become legitimate and powerful leaders who would guide not only commoners but also emperors. As their musical writings demonstrate, Ji and Wang aspired to do just that when they intellectually musiked together, probing the nature of music, harnessing its transformative power, and manifesting their views to their superiors and subordinates through the publication of Ji’s music treatise. Intellectual musiking in Ming China was thus male, social, and po­­ litical. As a matter of fact, Ji and Wang could hardly discuss music theory in Changsha as merely musical and academic exercises. The year they met and musiked together, 1539, fell right into the period of the 1530s and 1540s when Emperor Shizong 明 世 宗 (r. 1522-67) actively revised court ritual and music, stimulating a wave of discussion among Ming scholar-officials. When Ji worked on his third treatise in the early 1550s, he could hardly ignore the fact that a number of educated and elite men had published and presented their music treatises to the court. And quite a few of them, such as Zhang E 張 鶚 (fl.1506-66) and Li Wencha 李 文 察 (fl.1530-50) attracted imperial attention and were summoned to the court and given official positions.36 Whether Ji approved or disapproved   See Joseph S.C. Lam, State Sacrifices and Music in Ming China, 75-120. See also Zhang E, Dacheng yuewu tupu大 成 樂 舞 圖 譜(MSS, Naikaku toshokan, Tokyo, Japan); and Li

36)

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of these theorists and their theories and career moves is not known, but it is clear that he musiked in a historical context where music, mas­ culinity, and politics were tightly interrelated. It is because of such interrelations that music made a most convenient and expressive discourse of Ming manhood. This is apparent when Ji’s reactions to negative and positive reviews of his music theories are probed through the lenses of the male life cycle and expectations.37 When Ji found Chancellor Zhang’s musical explanations deficient, he was challenged to find his own explanations, which could match or even surpass what was then known. When Ji successfully formulated his own explanations, he could rise up to his superiors and establish his own manly voice, an achievement that all prominent male scholar-officials in Ming China managed to achieve. To establish one’s manly voice, how­ ever, requires peer approval: In other words, Ji needed approval from Master Yang Lian and other authorities. Thus, it is no accident that Ji found Yang’s lukewarm support discouraging; it did not deliver the approval that he needed to authenticate his theories and achieve his own voice. Furthermore, Ji felt rejected when Yang commented that his theories were previously unknown (weizhi you 未 之 有 ) and implied that his musiking might be impractical (yuguo 迂 闊 ).38 To resist such a rejection, Ji had no choice but to conduct more research, produce a more convincing version of his treatise, and hope that someone in the future would find his theories meaningful and convincing. When that someone did not promptly show up, Ji became discouraged and began to doubt the merits of his own music scholarship, leaving his music treatise in storage. Thus, when Wang visited Changsha in 1539 and convinced Ji that his music treatise was meritorious and worthy of publication, the latter felt valorized as a musiking scholar-official and as a man with his own distinctive voice—Ji finally found the psychological and emotional authentication that he desired from his peers. Until 1539, however, Ji had to rely on his many intellectual and public acts to confirm his status Wencha, Lishi yueshu liuzhong 李 氏 樂 書 六 種 (Xu sikuquanshu ed.; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995), vol. 114, 1-308. 37)   For theories on life cycles, see Robert Coles, ed., The Erik Erikson Reader (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001). 38)   Ji Ben, “Yuelü zuanyao zixu,” 252.

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as a Confucian gentleman and benevolent local official. It was these efforts, however, that earned him many friends and admirers in Changsha, a reputation and legacy that Zhang Yuanbian張 元 忭 (153888), a noted Ming scholar-official, eloquently reported.39 Ten years after Ji’s death, Zhang wrote that male leaders and students of Changsha had built a temple to honor the scholar-official and bought land to produce resources needed for his memorial rituals. They remembered Ji for being a man who generously promoted the young and directly rebuked friends who erred. They loved Ji for his simple but masculine gestures. Even though Ji did not indulge in wine drinking with friends, Zhang noted, Ji liked to enjoy bean beverages with those who shared his aspirations (tongzhi 同 志). Together they would take boating trips during which they tirelessly discussed theories and sang songs throughout the day, musiking their masculinities and Confucian values and bonding with one another. Aesthetic and Social Bonding: Yan Cheng and His Qin Friends Such intellectual and elitist bonding is, of course, only one among innumerable possibilities of male friendship in Ming China. One such possibility, and one that was more aesthetic and social in nature, is the friendship that Yan Cheng 嚴 澂 (1547-1625) cultivated with his qin comrades in early seventeenth-century Changshou 常 熟 county in Jiangsu province.40 Yan, the son of Yan Ne 嚴 訥 (1511-84), a former grand councilor (daxueshi 大 學 士)41 and the leader of the Yushan school (Yushan pai 虞 山 派) of qin music of the region, was once a magistrate of Shaowu 邵 武 prefecture in the province. Yan’s historical fame, nevertheless, lies solely in his leadership of the qin music school; his editing of the notated score of its repertory; namely, the Song­ xianguan qinpu 松 弦 館 琴 譜 (Anthology of qin music of the Studio of Pines and Strings) of 1614; and his authorship of an essay that

  Zhang Yuanbian, “Changsha shou Ji Pengshan xiansheng  benchuan,” 89: 27-31a.   Xu Jian 許 建 , Qinshi chubian 琴 史 初 編 (Beijing: Renmin yinyue chubanshe, 1982), 125-27; Zhang Huaying 章華 英 , “Yushan qinpai yanji虞 山 琴 派 研 究,” (MA thesis., Zhongguo yishu yanjiuyuan, 2002); and Zhu Xi 朱 晞, “Zhongping Yan Tianchi 重 評 嚴 天 池,” Zhongyang yinyue xueyuan xuebao 中 央 音 樂 學 院 學 報 3(2003): 46-52. 41)   For Yan Ne’s biography which does not mention Yan Cheng, see Mingshi 193:5116-17. 39) 40)

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manifests the aesthetics of the school.42 As stated by Yan in the essay, the Yushan school esteemed solo and instrumental qin music which featured clear, soft, restrained, but far-reaching sounds (qing 清, wei 微, dan 淡, yuan 遠).43 As such, Yushan qin music sharply contrasted with either the didactic qin songs of the Zhejiang Qin School or the florid compositions of vernacular qin performer-entertainers of the time.44 It was a contrast that highlighted the personal, creative, and emotional dimensions of the localized friendship and masculinities that Yan and his qin comrades shared, a fact vividly demonstrated by Yan’s manifesto in the anthology. As Yan noted, they operated as a social and artistic group of elite men: In addition to socializing with one another, they played the same repertory of qin works, subscribed to the same aesthetics, and discussed it together. Living in the same Changshou area, they musiked locally and as relative equals. Although Yan occupied center stage as the leader of the Yushan school, he did not lord it over any of the members but bonded with them as male musicians and friends. Their anthology makes no reference to female qin musicians, whose presence in Changshou cannot be denied, 45 nor suggestions that some members developed intimate feelings for one another. In other words, the equali­ tarian and non-sexual bonding between Yan and his friends generated such a mutual trust that it allowed the friends to collect, engrave, and publish Yan’s notated music as an anthology without his direct in­volvement. Furthermore, the bonding prompted Yan to playfully chide the friends for having the nerve to request a preface from him. In the preface to the anthology, Yan asked whether the friends were trying to use the published music compositions/anthology to find new mu­siking

  Yan Cheng, Songxianguan qinpu, in Zhu Changwen, Qinshi, wai shizhong 琴 史，外 十 種 (Siku yishu congshu ed.; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1991), 81-138. 43)   Yan Cheng, “Fu Qinchuan huipu xu “附 琴 川 彙 譜 序 in Songxianguan qinpu, 80-81. 42)

  For a description of   Zhejiang qin songs, see Xu Jian, Qinshi chubian, 130-31.   While information on individual female qin music masters, such as Sizong’s 田 貴 妃 (imperial concubine Tian) is scarce, there are ample references on late Ming females performing qin music. See, for example, Shen Defu’s 沈 德 符 (1578-1642) descriptions of Yangzhou courtesans in his Wanli yehuo bian 萬 曆 野 獲 編 (reprint; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), 23:597. For a musical biography of a Qing dynasty female qin master, see Liang Shaoren 梁 紹 壬, “Qinniang 琴 娘 ,” in Zhu Zirui 朱 子 銳, ed, Qinqishuhua: Mingqing xianqing xiaopin shangxi 琴 棋 書 畫: 明 清 閑 情 小 品 賞 析 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 2001), 253-54.

44) 45)

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partners, the way Boya befriended Ziqi.46 This playful interaction between Yan and his friends was possible only because they befriended one another as male and musical comrades and trusted one another completely. Only among musicians who know the music they produce and consume together (zhiyin 知 音), only among friends who regularly sing and harmonize (changhe 唱 和) together, and only among friends who know who they really are (zhiji 知 己), Yan’s question tickles their genuine friendship and musicality, both of which were nurtured by their extensive and frequent social interactions and by their emotional and loyal support of one another. Had Yan harbored intimate feelings for particular members of the artistic group, or occupied a social position higher or lower than the friends, the question could easily have been heard as an utterance of jealousy, condescension, or insecurity. In addition, Yan’s question effectively tickled because it was firmly anchored in his musical aspiration, masculinity, and localized identity. The autobiographical statements in Yan’s qin essays,47 for example, are nothing but records of his development as a male musician and invol­ untary leader of an artistic and social group. Since childhood, Yan wrote, he often took ill, and thus avoided the noises of loud horns or vulgar tunes; emulating sophisticated scholar-officials like Ji Kang 嵇 康 (22363) and Ruan Ji 阮 籍 (210-63), he practiced qin music in his own studio, forgetting the mundane world and the passing of time. Having learned twenty-two masterpieces of qin music from master musicians in the capital, and having practiced the repertory in Changshou, Yan reported, he had the music notated. The scores were treasured, but he generously shared them with his friends, which enabled them to compile the anthology for publication. The anthology is not merely a notated memory aid for performance. Presented as tablatures, traditional qin notation can hardly be sight-read   Yan Cheng, “Fu Qinchuan huipu xu 附 琴 川 彙 譜 序, ” 80.   Three of Yan Cheng’s qin essays are now available. The first is his preface for the Songxianguan qinpu (page 80). The second is the 1604 essay entitled “Fu Qinchuan huipu xu 附 琴 川 彙 譜 序, ” which is published in the Songxianguan qinpu ( pages 80-81). The third is the 1602 version of the second essay: Yan Cheng, “Cangchunwu qinpu xu” 藏 春 塢 琴 譜 序, in Yan Cheng, He Ning 郝 寧, and Wang Dingan 王 定 安, eds, Cangchunwu qinqu 藏 春 塢 琴 譜 , in Qinqu jicheng 琴 曲 集 成 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987), vol.6, 450-51. The last essay includes references to Yan’s musiking with two musical eunuchs, information that was cut out in the second essay. See Zhu Xi, “Zhongping Yan tianchi,” 50. 46) 47)

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or understood as a graphic aid for performing qin compositions. The publication is, in fact, an assertion that the musical gentlemen of Changshou were different from the other men who lived around them. Yan and his friends, the anthology declares, authentically musiked with qin compositions, employing stylized performance techniques that produced clear, soft, restrained, and far-reaching sounds, sounds that the didactic songs from Zhejiang and vulgar tunes of entertainers in their neighborhood could never match. This declaration of Yan’s masculine, artistic, and localized self is musically embodied in Yushan qin compositions, which feature distinc­ tive aesthetics, creative expressions, well-balanced musical structures, and idiomatic performance techniques, all evidence of sophisticated musical aesthetics and performances and developed artistic identities. Thanks to the publication of the Songxianguan qinpu, Yushan qin compositions have been preserved, and many are still frequently performed and heard—and anyone listening to the music will experience a musical communication that words cannot comprehensively describe. An illustrative example is the simple but representative piece “Liang­ xiao yin” 良 宵 引 (Serene evening) (Illustration 5).48 If the rhythms, melodies, dynamics, and timbres of the piece evoke a vivid sense of elegance and serenity to any audience, then and now, its collective message was unmistakable to Yan, his friends, and anyone who knows the conventions and symbols of the genre. To begin, the pro­grammatic title of the piece is a revealing and crucial hint—traditionally qin music titles constitute musical-intellectual guides for performers and audiences to decipher the sonic, non-sonic, and mixed meanings of the music being labeled, performed, heard, and negotiated. Performing and listening to “Liangxiao yin” with its programmatic associations, Yan and his qin friends would undoubtedly notice all the musical references to their artistic and privileged musiking, a process that the Changshou gentlemen claimed as their own, in a different category from anything produced by didactic or vulgar musicians of the area.   See Illustration 5 for a score of the piece in Western staff notation. Representative sound recordings of the piece include: Su Sidi, “ Tune for a Pleasant Evening,” in Qin Music on Antique Instruments (Department of Music, University of Hong Kong, 1998; HKU-001,) and Lin Youren, “Ode to the Fine Night,” in Music for the Qin Zither (Nimbus Records, LC5871). 48)

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Illustration 5. “Liangxiaoyin.” From Guqin quji 古 琴 曲 集 (Beijing: Renmin yinyue chubanshe, 1982), 225.

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It is most likely that they would associate the clear and ringing har­ monics in the opening and closing passages of the piece with the sounds of jade accoutrements that they wore, and it is an easy stretch of interpretation that the purity of the harmonics is linked with the clear moon hanging high in the sky. The deep and rhythmic passages in the middle of the piece would, however, provide a sonic contrast. Would Yan and his friends decipher such passages as echoes of elegant but masculine acts? They or anyone familiar with qin music symbolism and conventions probably would.49 By tracing the introduction, continuation, trans­for­ mation, and return (qicheng zhuanhe 起 承 轉 合) of the theme of the piece, and by identifying performance techniques labeled as “crane chicks chirping and dancing” (kunji mingwu 鵾 雞 鳴 舞) and “colorful butterfly floating on flowers” (fendie fuhua 粉 蝶 浮 花),50 Yan and his musical buddies would promptly find themselves inscribed in the musical composition (Illustration 6). They would not only recognize the creative and expressive skills with which they composed and performed the piece, but also notice how the music echoed their intellectual and literary practices: Qicheng zhuanhe is, after all, a fundamental concept of structure in Chinese literature—for the Changshou gentlemen, music and words were probably inseparable. Experiencing the subtly nuanced rhythms and melodies that came out of the plucked strings, the longchi 龍 池 (dragon pond) and fengzhao 鳳 沼 (phoenix pool)—that is, the sound holes of qin instruments51—and realizing their sonic, non-sonic, and mixed signals, Yan and his musical partners would easily locate the musical site that they designed for themselves. Illustration 7.

49)   For a late Ming description of qin history, aesthetics, performance practices, and organological features, see Hu Wenhuan 胡 文 煥, Wenhuitang qinpu 文 會 堂 琴 譜, Qinqu jicheng 琴 曲 集 成 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987), vol. 6. 50)   For a short analysis of the piece, see Xu Jian, 143. “Colorful butterfly floating on flowers” instructs how qin performers should use their fingers to lightly touch qin strings to produce harmonics. “Crane chickens chirping and dancing” refers to the performance technique of a qin performer using his right hand index and middle fingers to execute a series of seven fast notes; see measures 21-23 in Illustration 5. For more annotated pictograms of performance techniques in qin sources contemporary to Yan’s anthology, see Hu Wenhuan, Wenhuitang qinpu 3:174-82. 51)   Longchi and fengzhao are, respectively, the names of the two sound holes on the bottom board of the qin instrument. For a current description of qin organological features and their symbolic meanings, see Liang Mingyueh and Joseph S. C. Lam, “Qin,” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 28 October 2006), http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu.

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Illustration 6a. “Two Qin Performance Instruction Pictograms: a. ‘Crane Chicken Chirping and Dancing’ and b. ‘Colorful Butterfly Floating on Flowers.’” From Hu Wenhuan, Wenhuitang qinpu: 3.175 and 182.

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Illustration 6b.

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Illustration 7. “Top and Bottom Views of a Qin”; Qin by Joseph S.C. Lam; Photograph by Chris Dempsey. Many organological features of the qin carry specific meanings. Notice, for example, the top and convex sound board (top view) of the qin which symbolizes heaven; the flat bottom sound board (bottom view) which signifies earth; the mother-of-pearl and jade inlaid frets and jade decoration in the head of the instrument (top view), which suggest connoisseurship and luxurious life styles; the different sizes of the sound holes (bottom view)—the dragon pond is bigger than the phoenix pool.

100

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Yan and his friends were not alone in their ability to create musical sites where they manipulated musical objects to negotiate their manly needs and desires. Had it been atypical, qin music would not have been such a cherished tradition of Ming elite men, and music would not have been such a powerful catalyst for their male bonding. Yan and his friends had many contemporary counterparts, who included, for example, Zhang Dai 張 岱 (1597-1679) and his qin friends in Shaoxing 紹 興.52 True to his reputation as a playboy, a connoisseur of qin and theatrical music, and a historian, Zhang left vivid descriptions of his musiking and bonding with his qin comrades. To master qin music, Zhang declared, one must practice constantly, and, implementing what he professed, he formed a qin music club with his friends. Meeting three times every month, they would practice until all could play with flowing finger and hand movements, producing music like ancient qin masters did. Zhang was particularly proud that when he and three other members of the club—Fan Yulan 范 與 蘭, Yin Ertao 尹 爾 韜 (ca.1600- 78), and He Zixiang 何 紫 翔, who all had learned well from Wang Benwu 王 本 吾, the local qin master and teacher—played as a perfectly coordinated ensemble, producing sounds that seemed to have been plucked by a singular hand.53 Such a performance was impressive. It not only demonstrates Zhang and his friends’ excellent musicianship, but also their masculine control of skills that lesser men could hardly acquire. Above all, however, it attests to the bonding that connected their male sensibilities and dexterous fingers— unless musicians can communicate with one another intimately, they can hardly play and sing together as one voice. Personal and Erotic Bonding: Qi Zhixiang and Ahbao When Zhang announced his joy and pride in musiking with his qin friends, he was telling something that all experienced musicians know: When people perform music together in perfect coordination, they   Zhang Dai, “ Shaoxing qinpai 紹 興 琴 派”, and “Sishe 絲 社,” in Tao’an mengyi 陶 庵 夢 憶, Tao’an mengyi “Xihu mengxun” 西 湖 夢 尋 (Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe, 2006), 2:41

52)

and 3:57.   Among these four late Ming qin musicians, Yin Ertao is famous for his musiking for Emperor Sizong. See Xu Jian, Qinshi chubian, 128-29.

53)

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experience a sonic communication and a musical bonding that is sensually intense and emotionally affirming. And if this bonding is imbued with sexual attraction, it can be overhelming. This is probably what happened between Qi Zhixiang 祁 止 祥 (juren 1627) and his handsome musician/boy lover (luantong 孌 童) called Ahbao 阿 寶 (Little Treasure).54 As described by Zhang Dai, Qi was a fanatic playboy of many indulgences and a connoisseur of painting, calligraphy, soccer, drum and gong music, and operas.55 In 1642, Qi showed Ahbao to Zhang when Zhang visited Qi in Nanjing. Finding Ahbao enchanting, like an “angel from the Western Paradise,” Zhang promptly asked Qi where he acquired such a boy. How Qi answered is not known, but how he musiked with Ahbao is vividly reported by Zhang. Having mastered the art of operatic music by investigating every tone and word of the arias he enjoyed, Qi taught Ahbao his own art. Ahbao promptly learned, and they musiked together and to each other’s desire. In 1645, when Nanjing collapsed, Qi and Ahbao fled the city together. On the way, they encountered bandits who robbed Qi of all his possessions. He willingly gave up everything, including his life, but he would not let go of his Ahbao, his little treasure. In the following year, Qi and Ahbao fled from the city again. Traveling, they lost everything they took with them, and, as a last resort, Ahbao sang along the roads, begging for food to sustain Qi. Eventually they returned home, but they stayed only half a month. Then Qi departed with Ahbao, leaving his wife and family behind. The intense musiking and bonding between Qi and Ahbao was more emotional and musical than sexual and utilitarian. This is particularly true for Qi, who had easy access to many other boy musicians and had to give up much to love Ahbao. What Qi gained, however, was a musical protégé and a partner who could perform whatever music he desired— 54)   Qi Zhixiang, whose formal name is Zhijia 豸 佳, was probably born shortly before Qi Biaojia (祁 彪 佳 1602-1645), his congdi 從 弟 (first cousin). The latter was a famous Ming martyr, scholar-official, bibliophile, and theatre patron. Noted for his paintings and an artistically gifted son of the Qi clan of Shaoxing, Qi Zhixiang survived the Ming-Qing transition. For a survey of his biographical data, see Qi Biaojia, Yuanshantang Mingqupin jupin jiaolu 遠 山 堂 明 曲 品 劇 品 校 錄, edited by Huang Tang 黃 棠 (Shanghai: Shanghai chubanshe, 1955), 296-98. See also Liu Shuiyun, Ming Qing jiayue yanjiu, 563. For an analysis of the emotional bonding between Zhi and Ahbao, see Sophie Volpp, “ MingQing Views of Male Love, ” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 61 (2001): 77-117, and pages 114-16. 55)   Zhang Dai, “Qi Zhixiang  pi 祁 止 祥 癖,” Tao’an mengyi, 4:105-6.

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Qi had obviously developed Ahbao into a master singer whom Qi, the fanatic connoisseur of operatic arias, desired. Musiking together, their artistic, emotional, and sexual relationships grew stronger and stronger. In the end, they resisted heterosexual norms, so much so that they had to retreat from the institutionalized site of Qi’s family. This was definitely not something that a family-oriented and careerminded elite male in late Ming China would routinely do. While many of them would pursue beautiful and musical boys for aesthetic and sexual gratification,56 few indulged the way Qi did. He pushed beyond what the heterosexual society at large would have tacitly tolerated—as long as men loyally served the state by performing their official duties, and filially married wives to procreate children to continue the family line, their indulgence with handsome boys would be conveniently ignored. As Zhang’s report on Qi demonstrates, Qi’s indulgence was extreme, and his homosexual masculinity could hardly be ignored. Whether Qi’s wife and children protested against his indulgence is not known. What is clear is that his bonding with Ahbao begs the question on the relationships between music, masculinities, and homosexuality.57 If Qi found Ahbao desirable because the latter was physically beautiful and musically talented, what role did music play in that masculine subjectivity and homosexual relationship? An answer resides in the fact that music embodies and projects desire, sexual and otherwise, a fact that late Ming authors like Li Yu 李 漁 56)   For representative studies on Chinese homosexuality, see Brett Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve: the Male Homosexual Tradition in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Matthew H. Sommer, Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 114-65; Sophie Volpp, “ Classifying Lust: The SeventeenthCentury Vogue for Male Love,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 61.1 (2001): 77-118. For Chinese studies of homosexuality in Ming China, see Wu Cuncun 吳 存 存, Mingqing shehui xingai fengqi 明 清 社 會 性 愛 風 氣 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2000), 114-226, and 282-84; and Zhang Zaizhou 張 在 舟, Aimei di licheng: Zhongguo gudai tongxinglian shi 曖 昧 的 歷 程 : 中 國 古 代 同 性 戀 史 ( Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji, 2001), 200-311. For a fictional description of late Ming male prostitution, see Zuizhu jushi 醉 竹 居 士, Longyang yishi 龍 陽 逸 史 (Zhongguo lidai jinhui xiaoshuo jicui haineiwai zhencang miben ed.; Taibei: Shuangdi guoji chubanshe, 1996), vol. 3, series 6. 57)   The questions about homosexuality and music are poignant. For example, one questions why Zhang Dai, a musical connoisseur who also confessed his love for handsome boys, described the homosexual and musical affair between Qi Zhixiang and Ahbao the way he did. For a fascinating discussion on Zhang Dai and his reminiscing of late Ming people and events, see Philip Kafalas, In Limpid Dream: Nostalgia and Zhang Dai’s Reminiscences of the Ming (Norwalk, CT: Eastbridge, 2006), especially Ch. 3, 28-43.

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(1610-80) and Feng Menglong 馮 夢 龍 (1574-1645) extensively reported. In his novel Cuiya lou 萃 雅 樓 (The house of gathered refinements),58 Li fictionally described Quan Ruxiu 權 汝 修 as a hand­ some and musically talented young man. To evoke Quan’s physical beauty and sexuality, Li detailed the young man’s handsome face and creamy skin tone. To project the ways he sexually excited Yan Shifan 嚴 世 藩 (?-1565), one of his many admirers, Li noted how Quan could expertly and elegantly (ya 雅) play many musical instruments. As Quan’s admirers witnessed his playing, needless to say, they heard not only exquisite sounds but also an eroticism that only a handsome musiking boy/man can deliver. This conflation of music, male body, and eroticism was aesthetically grounded. In his Xianqin ouji 閑 情 偶 記 (Occasional notes of leisure thoughts), Li claimed that the best musical sounds and expressions came from the mouths of talented young male musicians. 59 Citing the traditional wisdom that music performed with stringed instruments is not as good as music played with bamboo instruments, and that bamboo music was not as good as vocal music, Li asserted that among all performances of vocal music, male singing was the most expressive and thus the most desirable. An aesthetic view specific to late Ming China, Li’s claim underscores an undeniable late Ming reality: Elite men of the time aestheticized and desired a handsome young man’s singing voice. That voice was beautiful and expressive, and it provided a pleasurable diversion away from the state and the family. It might even lead to physical liaisons that satisfied sexual desires. If so, it was no accident that some elite Ming men bonded with Ahbao and his like, a bonding that underscores music’s power to bring people together by providing a tool, a site, and a process to connect.60As the erotic songs in Feng Menglong’s   Li Yu 李 漁 , Cuiyalou in Tao Xunruo 陶 恂 若, ed. , Shierlou 十 二 樓 (Taibei: Sanmin shuju, 1998), 109-28. See page 111 for Li’s description of music playing among Quan and his lovers, a description that can easily be read as love-making. See page 121 for Li’s description of Quan’s music playing as evidence of his eroticism. For an interpretation of the Quan story as a discourse of connoisseurship and male love, see Sophie Volpp, “ Ming-Qing Views of Male Love, ” 109-10. 59)   Li Yu, “Gewu 歌 舞,” in Hu Mingwei 胡 明 偉, ed., Xianqing ouji (Lidai biji jinghua ed.; Beijing: Yanshan chubanshe, 1998), 126. 60)   For representative musicological studies on music, gender, and eroticism, see Derek B. Scott, “Erotic Representation from Monteverdi to Mae West,” in Derek B. Scott, From the Erotic to 58)

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collection of guazhi’er 掛 枝 兒 (Hanging branches) demonstrate, 61 musical eroticism can be artistically produced and pleasurably consumed at both intellectual and sensual levels. If the lyrics of an erotic song can implicitly or explicitly communicate sexual innuendos or describe sexual acts, its musical performance can easily mimic sounds of love-making. For example, the song “Tingchang” 聽 唱 (Listening to singing),62 states: “The more one listens to songs about love, the more excited and frustrated one becomes.” The song “Tingxiao” 聽 簫 (Listening to the flute) frankly notes that the moaning and melancholic sounds of the long vertical flute echo sounds of love.63 The song “Gu” 鼓 (Drum) is explicitly erotic, even pornographic, in the sense that its lyrics contain an obvious pun. Only the most innocent would read it as a mere description of drumming; all others who have had sexual experience and who can tell rhythmic and pitch differences would hear it as sonic love-making.64 The aesthetic pleasure and the erotic power of the song rest on the fact that its audience can either voyeuristically enjoy its music as a sonic representation of something erotic and desirable, or sonically engage with the sexual act musically projected. And if the audience and the performers are the same persons, their engagement with the music can easily transform into sexual foreplay—in other words, the object, site, and process of their musiking are both musical and sexual.

the Demonic: On Critical Musicology Theories (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 132; Susan Cusick, “On Musical Performances of Gender and Sex,” in Elaine Barkin and Lydia Hamessley, eds, Audible Traces: Gender, Identity and Music (Zürich and Los Angeles: Carciofoli Verlagshaus, 1999), 25-48; and Susan McClary, “Construction of Gender in Monteverdi’s Dramatic Music,” in Susan McClary, Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1990), 235-52. 61)   Feng Menglong, Guazhi’er, in Liu Ruiming 劉 瑞 明 annotator, Feng Menglong mingeji sanzhong zhujie馮 夢 龍 民 歌 集 三 種 注 解 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1005), vol. 1, 1-306. 62)   Feng Menglong, Guazhi’er, vol. 1, 79. 63)   Feng Menglong, Guahi’er, vol. 1, 202. 64)   Feng Menglong, Guazhi’er, vol. 1, 240. The lyric reads: “ Huahua guer shuibu hao 花 花 鼓 兒 誰 不 好 (Who doesn’t like flower drums)? Fanzhuanlai 番 轉 來 ( They can be held this way), fuzhuanqu 覆 轉 去 (or that way), leishang qianzao 擂 上 千 遭 (and be played a thousand times); lianpianpi nongchu duoban qiangdiao 兩 片 皮 弄 出 多 般 腔 調 (with two skins, they make many kinds of tunes). Yihuier shi jinban 一 會 兒 是 緊 板 (Sometimes their music is fast), yihuier manmanqiao 一 會 兒 慢 慢 敲 (at other times, it is one slow beat by another). Nongde pihuan ye 弄 得 皮 寬 也 (When the skins are rendered loose), dinger zhanzhan xiao 釘 兒 漸 漸 小 (the drum strokes become fewer and fewer).”

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This is perhaps one of the reasons why Qi became so totally enamored of Ahbao. His bonding with the young musician/lover was, on the one hand, an expressive and sophisticated act of musiking, and, on the other hand, a passionate love affair. In the sense that without the element of music, the affair between Qi and Ahbao could not have developed the way it did, music definitely catalyzed their homosexual bonding. That such bonding involves not only sex but also the participants’ identities is apparent. When Ahbao learned and performed every musical expression that Qi taught him and wanted him to perform, they musically satisfied one another, mirroring their musical selves. And when Ahbao reciprocated Qi’s love with loyalty and devotion, it sealed their personal and social bonding, impelling Qi to abandon his wife and children—a private retreat and at the same time a public challenge to the heterosexual and heterosocial society at large. Concluding Remarks Significantly, Qi’s action took place during the turbulent transition period from the Ming to the Qing. Had Qi and Ahbao lived in a more peaceful time when heterosexual norms operated at full force, could they have bonded so completely and retreated so smoothly? Without their experience of fleeing together from bandits and rebels, Qi and Ahbao might not have had the opportunities to test and seal their bond. Had Qi’s familial and other social obligations not been weakened by the wars, Qi might have wanted to keep the status quo, continuing to musik from the privileged position of an elite man. How Qi would have bonded with Ahbao in a different time or space is, however, a theoretical question that cannot be factually answered. What the question underscores is the fact that musiking males do not meaninglessly or randomly bond in historical or social vacuums. This is to say that music alone did not bring Ming men together. Music only catalyzed their bonding when they already shared or desired something in common, be it Confucian ideology, aesthetic aspiration, a sense of local solidarity, official duty, or merely lust. It is clear that male musiking and bonding in late Ming China generated companionship and networks that elite men of the time needed to negotiate their masculine identities and roles. If their rela­ tionships with their mothers, wives, concubines, courtesans, and

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daughters confirmed their male identities and roles in their hierarchical and heterosocial world, their relations with male friends helped them perform their masculinities in their homosocial spaces. These perfor­ mances included studying the Confucian classics, committing their ideas into words, passing examinations, serving the state, building networks of friends, and even indulging with handsome boys. Ji Ben, for example, needed a Wang Ting to revive his drive to pursue music theory. Late Ming men needed male and musiking friends; even those who had unlimited access to all kinds of human and material resources, namely, Ming emperors like Wuzong 武 宗 (r. 1506-22), Shenzong 神 宗 (r. 1573-1620), and Xizong 熹 宗 (r. 1621-28), needed eunuch/homo­ sexual/male companionship and musiking services.65 It was a need driven by the ways in which music distinctively expressed their masculinities. Homosocial musiking differed from heterosocial and female musiking as the male physical voice naturally sounds different from the female. While traditional Chinese musicians did and still do sing transexually,66 connoisseurs can always tell, or claim to be able to tell, the musical differences that define the musicians’ gendered body and art. In other words, through their musical discourses, Ming men could tell what was male and what was not. The musiking of state sacrificial music and its Confucian theories in Ming China was, for instance, always male; the music provided a comprehensive tool, site, and process for elite Ming men to exclusively perform their manhood as Confucian and moral scholar-officials. 67 To ensure that such musiking remained a   On the musical agency of Ming emperors and palace eunuchs, see Joseph S.C.Lam, “Imperial Agency in Ming Culture.” See also Shen Defu, “Wuzong zhubi 武 總 諸 嬖;” “Shijun 十 俊;” “Jinzhong yanxi 禁 中 演 戲;” and “Zhengde ergezhe 正 德 二 歌 者;” in Wanli yehuobian, 21:543; 21: 548; buyi 1: 798; and buyi 3:891. For historical and poetic records of Ming emperors’ musiking, see Qin Zhenglan 秦 徵 蘭 , Tianqi gongci yibaishou 天 啟 宮 詞 一 百 首 and Shi Menglan 史 夢 蘭, Quanshi gongci—Ming ji Ming buyi 192 shou 全 史 宮 詞 明 及 明 補 遺 192 首, in Ming gongci 明 宮 詞 (Beijing: Beijing guji chubanshe, 1987), 17-42 and 159-216. Whether handsome boys and eunuchs acted as or were considered “males” in late Ming China is, needless to say, an issue that needs to be investigated in future studies. 66)   Male and females roles in Peking Opera, for example, can be sung by either male or female performers. As long as the performers deliver the music in its appropriate and engendered styles, the conflict between the sex of the performers and the gender of the music they perform entail no aesthetic problem. 67)   Female involvement in state sacrificial music and its theory was rare and atypical. For a discussion of an Ming empress’s involvement with state sacrificial music, see Joseph S. C. 65)

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male act; furthermore, female encroachment was stopped. Similarly, when a nominally male genre, such as qin music, was performed by female musicians, their performance was assessed differently, if not negatively. For example, Shen Defu 沈 德 符 (1578-1642) and other male writers of the late Ming devalued female courtesans’ qin music playing, commenting that they could usually play a few simple qin pieces to please their clients; more typically, they played pipa and zheng to air their female laments.68 With such controlling acts, late Ming men intellectually promoted male and homosocial musiking at the expense of heterosexual musiking, especially instances that involved elite males and lowly female courtesans. As argued by Confucian moralists, female musicians were always dangerous and undesirable: They could always charm their male masters with their female voices/bodies and exquisite performances, dissipating the masters’ aspirations to excel and depleting their energy to perform their male duties. The danger intensified, the moralists would assert, when the lowly female musicians penetrated their male patrons’ worlds by becoming their sexual partners, household maids, concubines, and even wives. Once installed inside the family, the moralists warned, the female musicians would induce jealousy and disharmony in the inner quarters, and even produce sons whose existence complicated the trans­ Lam, “Ritual and Musical Politics in the Court of Ming Shizong,” in Evelyn Rawski, Rubie Watson, and Bell Yung eds., Harmony and Counterpoint: Ritual Music in Chinese Context (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 35-53. 68)   There are numerous historical and literary descriptions of women playing the pipa to express their female sentiments, suggestions that in imperial China women musiked differently from men. A seminal and poetic sample of such descriptions is Bai Juyi’s 白 居 易 “Pipaxing 琵 琶 行.” A most well-know prose description is Pan Jinlian’s 潘 金 蓮 playing of the pipa to express her longing for Xi Menqing 西 門 慶 in chapter 38 of Xiaoxiaosheng 笑 笑 生, Jin ingmei 金 瓶 梅 (Zhongguo gudian mingzhu ed., reprint; Taibei: Sanmin shuju, 1996), 45964. Among many late Ming and early Qing poetic descriptions of Chinese women’s pipa musiking, one can cite the following quatrain from Wang Yuchang 王譽 昌, Chongzhen gongci 186 shou 崇 禎 宮 詞 186 首, in Zhu Quan 朱 權 et. al, Ming gongci 明 宮 詞 (Beijing: Beijing guji chubanshe, 1987), 85-86. Its text reads: “Jinlou hongwen cufengcheng 金 鏤 紅 文 蹙 鳳 成 (The golden and red inlaid on the pipa makes the shape of a phoenix); jiayu qianzhi ziqiqing戛 於 纖 指 自 凄 清 (when played by [a woman musician’s] delicate fingers, it makes clear and melancholic tunes). Kezhi baoyue huaifengzai可 知 抱 月 懷 風 在 (Listening to them, one] learns sentimental feelings [that the musician] held inside her bosom), zuicheng liangzhou huosuosheng最 稱 梁 州 濩 索 聲 (and realizes how [the music] compares to the [expressive] sounds once featured in the [now lost] compositions from the [northwestern and faraway] lands like Liangzhou).”

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mission and preservation of the patron’s family reputation and wealth. Taking the danger of female musicians seriously, moralists in Ming China strove to strategically banish them from elite men’s intellectual and public lives, creating an illusion that female musicians and music hardly existed.69 With the same strategy, they also glossed over late Ming men’s socializing with handsome boy musicians (xiao guanren 小 官 人; xiaochang 小 唱). The moralists’ theoretical banishment of female musicians and handsome boy musicians, however, could not cover up their ubiquitous presence in late Ming China. Ironically, it is the attempted cover-up that exposes many of the particularized contexts and historical meanings of musical and male bonding in late Ming China. As described in the beginning of this essay, Ming music and music culture developed along a distinctive trajectory that the founders of the empire intentionally and accidentally helped shape. To encourage his sons and senior officials to enjoy their lives and to divert their attention away from state affairs, Ming Taizu 明 太 祖 (r. 1369-99) sent them music scores and dramatic librettos. As a result, the palaces of Ming noblemen became centers of Ming music culture, musiking sites where male masters dominated. To entertain his officials and help them socialize with one another, Ming Taizu built them entertainment quarters (jiulou 酒 樓) where music and wine flowed.70 To educate the Ming people, Taizu and his son, Chenzu 明 成 祖 (1403-25), promoted Neo-Confucianism, creating an intel­ lectual tradition that shaped Ming men’s minds. It was in that context that Cai Yuanding’s treatise became a required reading for Ming scholarofficials, especially those who found matters of ancient ritual and music fundamental to their scholarly pursuits and official duties. Xuanzong 宣 宗 (r. 1426-36), the fifth Ming emperor, banned female courtesans from scholar-officials’ public parties, thus accidentally opening the door for boy musicians/entertainers to enter the world of elite Ming men.71 Wuzong, the tenth Ming emperor and a playboy   Female musicians were ubiquitous, but were “banished” from intellectual and theoretical discussions of music among males. See Joseph S. C. Lam, “The Presence and Absence of Female Musicians and Music in China,” 97-120. 70)   Shen Defu, “Jian jiulou 建 酒 樓,” in Wanli yehuobian, buyi 3: 899. 71)   Shen Defu, “Xiaochang 小 唱,” and “Jin geji 禁 歌 妓,” in Wanli yehuobian, 24:621; and buyi 3:900 69)

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famous for his musiking with both male and female performers, actively brought regional and entertainment music to the capital, setting the stage for it to blossom in the late Ming. It could have blossomed earlier but for Wuzong’s unexpected death . He died young and heirless, sending his throne to his cousin, Shizong, a strong-willed and egoistic emperor who manipulated court ritual and music to assert his own genealogical identity. In the process, Shizong launched a reform of court ritual music and generated a productive development of Ming music theory. During Shizong’s reign, Jiangnan 江 南 rapidly developed as a cultural and economic center of the Ming empire. By the time his grandson, Shenzong, sat on the Ming throne as the Wanli 萬 曆 emperor, the area was not only the richest part of the empire but also a vibrant nexus of theaters, songs, and instrumental music. It was there during the years of the late Ming that elite male patrons, amateur and professional musicians, male and female, musiked together, propelling Ming musical culture to a dazzling state of artistic creativity and diversity. It was no historical accident that Ming music catalyzed Ming men’s bonding with their friends. Music was a fundamental tool, process, and site for them to continuously and effectively negotiate their masculine desires, identities, and roles.

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NAN NÜ

Nan Nü 9 (2007) 111-145

www.brill.nl/nannü

A Friendship of Metal and Stone: Representations of Fan Juqing and Zhang Yuanbo in the Ming Dynasty1

Kimberly Besio (Colby College)

Abstract This essay examines representation of male friendship in Ming vernacular literature through an analysis of works that retell the story of two late Han friends, Fan Juqing and Zhang Yuanbo. Throughout the Ming, versions of the tale were produced in a variety of literary genres including a zaju play and a vernacular short story. Both the drama and the short story are extant in multiple editions, providing us insights into how they were interpreted by various literati editors. The durability of the friendship between Fan and Zhang—an essential aspect in all depictions of their story—is vividly evoked by the phrase that characterizes their relationship in dramatic literature: “a friendship of metal and stone.” The late Ming editions of the play and the short story underline the two friends’ unbending commitment to their friendship through a variety of textual and paratextual additions and emendations. In the hands of these late Ming literati editors the two friends Fan and Zhang thus become heroic figures worthy of eternal respect.

Keywords Ming dynasty, male friendship, zaju drama, vernacular fiction, literati

Introduction “Fan Zhang gu miao” 范張古廟 An ancient shrine in Huaichu town, weathered by successive wind and rain. The pine and cypress trees are as always,   My thanks go to Harriet Zurndorfer, the authors of the other essays in this issue, and especially to Martin Huang for their support and constructive criticism. Paul Ropp’s discussion of this paper enriched my analysis, and my colleague Ankeney Weitz pushed me to clarify my prose. I would particularly like to thank the anonymous reader of Nan Nü for a meticulous reading of my translations which greatly increased their accuracy. 1)

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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DOI: 10.1163/138768007X171731

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A fragrant reputation passed down for all generations. From the five relationships they selected the good, The two men were proclaimed virtuous. The promise of a meeting over chicken-millet went deep, Even though time was fleeting and the road was far. A friendship of metal and stone made good on its prior pledge, True-hearted feelings held fast. Their legend has been passed down in the pages of history for a thousand years. Time passes, water flows, But the bright moon ever shines on their heroic spirits. 古祠堂淮楚城連風雨凋零。 松柏依然。 百世流芳。 五倫擇善。 二子稱賢。 雞黍會訂深期敺馳道遠。 金石交復前盟誠懇情堅。 簡冊留傳。 陳跡千年。 逝光陰流水滔滔。 照英靈明月涓涓。2

This verse, published in the Ming qu 曲 (drama-song) collection Cilin zhaiyan 詞林摘艷 (Plucking beauty from a forest of verse, 1525) recalls the story of Fan Juqing 范巨卿 (ca. 25-220 CE) and Zhang Yuanbo 張 元伯 (ca. 25-220 CE), two friends whose devotion was such that even death couldn’t keep them from honoring their promises to each other. The origins of the tale of Fan and Zhang lie well before the Ming dynasty. A biography of Fan Juqing, which details his friendship with Zhang Yuanbo, is found in the dynastic history Hou Hanshu 後漢書.3 The history relates how Fan Juqing once honored a promise to visit Zhang Yuanbo; Zhang later appears to Fan in a dream requesting that Fan come to Zhang’s interment to say a final goodbye, and Fan accordingly makes the journey to the gravesite. This account of friendship between literati was in circulation from the late Han on, but the story of Fan and Zhang was apparently viewed with heightened interest during the Ming dynasty.   Zhang Lu 張祿, comp., Cilin Zhaiyan ( Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書 ed.; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995-99), 1740: 27. 3)   Fan Ye 范曄, Hou Hanshu 後漢書 (reprint; Beijing, Zhonghua shuju, 1965) 9:81.2676-77. 2)

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The song cited above, “Fan Zhang gu miao,” is just one of a number of literary representations of the Fan and Zhang story which appeared in the Ming dynasty. Throughout the Ming, versions of the tale were produced in a variety of literary genres including a zaju 雜劇 play and a vernacular short story. Both the drama and the short story are extant in multiple editions, providing us insights into how they were interpreted by various literati editors.4 These Ming vernacular texts thus provide particularly abundant resources for an exploration of how the reading of a single story might have been shaped by Ming debates concerning male friendship. As editorial emendations caused the works to become more complexly inflected by contemporary elite concerns, connections between the two men’s friendship, their identity as literary men, and their heroic integrity became more numerous and more central. The representations resulting from these editorial emendations have an aspect in common with the practices and prescriptions of friendship discussed in the other papers in this issue. Like the friendship between Dai Liang, Wu Sidao, and Ding Henian discussed by Anne Gerritsen, the “musicking” among male literati described in Joseph Lam’s paper, and the conceptualization of friendship in the late Ming philosophical writings studied by Martin Huang, this story of friendship provided an arena in which an idealized masculine literati identity could be constructed and contemplated. The focus of this essay will be on the zaju drama Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu 生死交范張雞黍 (Friends in life and death, Fan and Zhang Chicken-millet), first published in a Yuan edition around 1350 and reprinted in multiple Ming editions, and a huaben 話本 (vernacular short story) that appeared in two major Ming collections. The various extant editions of the drama and the short story are summarized in the chart below.

4)   For a discussion of this issue in zaju see Stephen H. West, “Text and Ideology: Ming Editors and Northern Drama,” in Paul Jakov Smith and Richard von Glahn, eds.,The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003) 32973; for Feng Menglong’s short stories see Shuhui Yang, Appropriation and Representation: Feng Menglong and the Chinese Vernacular Short Story (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, 1998.)

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K. Besio / Nan Nü 9 (2007) 111-145 ca. 1350-1633 Complete Zaju Play Texts

ca. 1350

Xinkan sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu 新刊死生交範張雞黍 (Newly cut, life and death friendship, Fan and Zhang Chicken-millet) Yuan 元刊 edition5

1595 (transcribed ca. 1618)

Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu 死生交范張雞黍, Xijizi 息機子 edition pre­served in Zhao Qimei’s 趙琦美 (1563-1624) private collection6

1615-16

Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu, in Yuanqu xuan 元曲選 edited by Zang Maoxun 臧 懋循 (1550-1620)7

1633

Life and Death Friendship, Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet, Leijiang ji 酹江集 (Libation to the River Collection) edition from the two-part anthology known collectively as the Gujin ming ju hexuan 古今名劇合選 (Famous plays old and new) edited by Meng Chengshun 孟稱舜 (1599-after 1684)8

1517-66

Excerpts of the zaju in drama-song collections

1517

Shengshi xinsheng 盛世新聲 (New sounds for a magnificent age) Song sets of Acts 2 and 3

1525

Cilin zhaiyan Song sets of Acts 2 and 3

1566

Yongxi yuefu 雍熙樂府 (Music bureau poetry of the Yongxi period) Song sets of Acts 1, 2, and 3

Mid-sixteenth century-1620

Short story texts

Mid-sixteenth century 1620

Life and Death Friendship, Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet, in Liushi jia xiaoshuo

六十家小説 (Sixty short stories) edited by Hong Pian 洪楩 (active mid-sixteenth

century)9

Fan Juqing jishu sisheng jiao 范巨卿雞黍死生交 (Fan Juqing’s Chicken-millet life and death friendship) in Gujin xiaoshuo 古今小説 (Stories old and new) edited by Feng Menglong 馮夢龍 (1574-1646)10

  Edition of reference is Xu Qinjun 徐沁君 ed. and annotator, Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshi zhong 新校元刊雜劇三十種 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 584-617. 6)   Zhao Qimei apparently drew on his official and personal connections to transcribe and collate a large collection of zaju plays. For more on Zhao’s collection see Sun Kaidi 孫楷第, Shu Yeshiyuan jiucang gujin zaju 述也是園舊藏古今雜劇 (Shanghai: Shanghai chubanshe, 1953). On page 88 of his study, Sun has identified this manuscript as one of four that Zhao transcribed from a printed text that he borrowed from his friend Yu Xiaogu 于小穀. This manuscript is undated, but two others in this group of four have colophons appended indicating that Zhao transcribed them in the fourth and sixth month of the 45th year of the Wanli (1573-1620) reign period (1618). This manuscript has also been revised by a later owner of the collection He Huang 何煌 (1668-1750?) who notes in a colophon dated 1730 that he has revised the existing text and added 12 songs based on a Yuan text. Edition of reference is Yang Jialuo 楊家駱, ed., Quanyuan zaju erbian 全元雜劇二編 (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1988), 2: 601-64. 7)   Edition of reference is Yuanqu xuan 元曲選 (reprint; Taipei: Zhengwen shuju, 1970), 950-70. 8)   Edition of reference is Yang Jialuo, ed., Quanyuan zaju erbian, 4: 1853-1930. 9)   Edition of reference is Hong Bian, ed., Qingping shantang huaben 清平山堂話本 (reprint; Jiangsu: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1994), 316-25. 10)   Edition of reference is Feng Menglong, ed., Yushi Mingyan 喻世明言 (reprint; Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1965.) 239-245. 5)

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The sheer number of these texts attests to a heightened interest in friendship during the Ming; further, the editorial apparatus11 within which these texts were imbedded mirror the valorization of friendship seen in other works authored and read by late Ming literati.12 The play and the short story develop the tale of Fan and Zhang in somewhat different directions, thus the textual development of each will first be considered separately. Further insights into the meaning of Fan and Zhang’s friendship within the play and the short story can be gained by comparisons with other representations of male friendship in these genres. These comparisons suggest that to the late Ming editors who reproduced these vernacular works, Fan and Zhang’s reciprocal acts of friendship constitute a moral heroism that assured the place of the two men in history as surely as success in the examinations or on the battlefield might have. The Anecdote in Dynastic History and Classical Fiction Before examining the changes wrought upon the story in Ming vernacular texts it will be useful to first look at its original form. The plot of all the vernacular works that relate the friendship of Fan and Zhang are based on a historical incident recorded in the Hou Hanshu. The story also appears in the collection of anecdotes on strange occurrences, Soushen ji 搜神記 (In search of the supernatural), accredited to Gan Bao 干寶 (active ca. 219-417). Both classical texts have the same plot. Fan Shi 式 (called Juqing) and Zhang Shao 劭 (called Yuanbo) were class­ mates at the Imperial Academy and close friends. When they are both about to return home Fan promises Zhang that in two years’ time he will visit Zhang on a specific date. Two years later, Zhang, confident that Fan will honor his promise, makes preparations for his visit. And sure enough, to the surprise of Zhang’s mother, Fan does arrive as promised.   I use this term so as to include not only editorial additions and emendations, but also illustrations, front matter, and marginal commentary. 12)   Joseph P. McDermott, “Friendship and its Friends in the Late Ming,” in Zhongyang yanjiu yuan Jindaishisuo 中央研究院近代史所, ed., Family Process and Political Process in Chinese History (Taibei: Academia Sinica, 1992), 67-96; Martin Huang’s essay in this issue, and Christopher Leigh Connery, The Empire of the Text (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998), 111-12 all discuss the unprecedented attention and importance accorded friendship in the prose writing of late Ming literati. 11)

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Some time after this incident Zhang sickens and dies. Fan learns of Zhang’s death through a dream: [Fan] Shi suddenly dreamt he saw [Zhang] Yuanbo. [Zhang] dressed in formal headdress with hanging tassels, and with sandals hastily thrown on, called out to him: “Juqing, I died on such-and-such day and am to be buried at such and such a time when I shall return to the Yellow Springs forever. How can we meet again before you forget me?” 式忽夢見元伯玄冕垂纓屣履而呼曰：“巨卿，吾以某日死，當以爾時葬，永 歸黃泉。子未我忘，豈能相及？”13

Upon awakening Fan dresses in mourning clothes and hurries off to attend the funeral. He arrives after the funeral has already begun to find the other mourners in a quandary. The cart bearing the coffin has been pulled to the gravesite but has suddenly refused to move. However, after Juqing arrives and speaks a few words to his departed friend it moves easily. As can be seen from the excerpt quoted above, the story is told in a relatively matter of fact manner; description is mainly confined to outwardly observable phenomena and direct speech. Nevertheless, this spare narrative of reciprocal acts of faith clearly evokes the deep friendship shared by Fan and Zhang. The Ming texts I will be focusing on further expand upon the emotional potential of this story. The drama and the short story each augment the classical account with additional details and incidents. While these amplifications resulted in two rather different versions, the core elements of the story as presented in the Hou Hanshu and the Soushen ji—that is, the promise of a visit, making good on that promise, the dream meeting, and the miracle of the coffin—are central to both the drama and the short story. Further, both the drama and the short story bring into even sharper focus the exceptional fidelity of the two friends, to each other and to an idealized and heroic literati identity. The Yuan edition of  ‘Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet’ All editions of the zaju drama based on the story of friendship between Fan Juqing and Zhang Yuanbo, Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet, consist of   Hou Hanshu, 9:81.2677; I am greatly indebted to an anonymous reader for Nan Nü for this translation.

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an introductory demi-act called a xiezi 楔子 (wedge) and four acts.14 In the xiezi Fan Juqing, the play’s lead singer, is leaving for home after a period of time in the capital as an imperial college student. He introduces his friend, Zhang Yuanbo, who is also returning home. The friends are joined by two classmates who have come to see them off, Wang Zhonglüe 王仲略, the son-in-law of a high official, and Kong Zhongshan 孔仲山, a seventeenth-generation descendent of Confucius. Fan Juqing promises that in exactly two years’ time he will visit Zhang Yuanbo to pay his respects to Zhang’s mother. He assures Zhang that there will be no need to prepare anything fancy, a simple meal of chicken and millet will do. In Act 1, Fan makes good on his promise. On his way to Zhang’s home Fan sings at length about the contemporary corruption of literati ideals. Fan arrives at Zhang’s house and finds that Zhang has prepared for his visit. In the songs Fan sings after his arrival he expresses triumph that he has proven himself a man of his word and gratitude to Zhang for believing in him. Act 2 features songs first directed to Diwu Lun 第五倫, an official who has sought him out. Fan sings of his disenchantment with presentday officialdom. Fan’s songs then portray his dream experience and his struggles to accept the death of his friend. In the songs of Act 3, Fan first describes his journey to Zhang’s funeral, and upon arriving, he recites his eulogy for Zhang, thus persuading the coffin to move. Act 4 takes place after Fan’s period of mourning for Zhang; Fan looks forward to taking up an official position, but at the same time expresses his sorrow that his worthy friend, Zhang Yuanbo, will never have a chance to serve in government. There is an additional subplot within the play that is unique to the drama. This subplot concerns Fan and Zhang’s other two companions at the Imperial Academy, Wang Zhonglüe and Kong Zhongshan.15 As is the   As is usual with Yuan editions, divisions between the acts are not indicated in the text; however, the songs fall into a two-song combination and then four sets each in its own mode, see Q uanyuan zaju erbian 2: 1825-52 for a facsimile of the original Yuan text. Modern annotated editions of the Yuan texts follow the Ming convention of marking divisions off in the text. 15)   Kong Zhongshan appears at a later point in Fan’s biography in the Hou Hanshu. The passage in the history recounts a meeting between Fan (then an official) and his classmate Kong who had fallen on hard times and taken a position as a member of the watch. This meeting appears to have been the inspiration for a scene in Act IV of the play, when Fan discovers Kong among Diwu Lun’s retinue. See Hou Hanshu, 9:81.2678. 14)

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case with all Yuan editions, the dialogue in the Yuan edition of Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet is confined to the spoken lines of the lead singer and stage directions for the other characters. Thus, the exact details of this subplot are difficult to determine on the basis of the Yuan edition alone. However, Fan Juqing’s spoken lines and his references in the songs of Act 1 and Act 4 indicate that Wang becomes a high official through betrayal of Kong and that this injustice is righted in the final act. I will discuss this subplot in more detail when I take up the Ming editions below. In all editions of the play the friendship of Fan and Zhang, represented by two phrases used repeatedly—“life and death alliance, friendship of metal and stone”—is the central preoccupation of the songs in Acts 2 and 3. As mentioned above, these two song sets were also published separately in three drama song collections of the early and mid-sixteenth century, thus suggesting that this portion of the play was especially popular. Comparison of these song sets and the Yuan edition reveals a few differences in wording within the individual songs, but no changes in the number of songs or their order in Act 2, and only one change in Act 3.16 While the song sets of Acts 1 and 4 were quite extensively altered in the Ming editions of the play, those of Acts 2 and 3 remained largely the same. In all editions of the play the songs in Acts 2 and 3 are clearly the emotional high point of the drama and thus are worth examining in some detail. In the songs of Acts 2 and 3, Fan Juqing’s dream of Zhang Yuanbo is presented as both a manifestation and convincing proof of the extraordinary nature of their friendship. The dream sequence in Act 2 is introduced by a song describing Zhang’s arrival. The first two lines of the song express Fan’s worry over his friend: “For three straight months, no letter of reassurance, in the midst of an uneasy state of mind” 平安信斷 連三月，正心緒不寧貼. 17 We can see a similar connection in another Yuan edition play, Xishu meng 西蜀夢 (A dream in Western Shu.)18

  Another difference seems to be more use (or more likely, just more consistent notation) of padding words within the songs. For example, in the Act III song set the address “xiongdi 兄 弟” (brother) is added to the beginning of seven different lines in all three of the collections. 17)   “Ma Yulang 罵玉郎,” Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 597. 18)   Edition of reference is Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 1-17. 16)

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The plot of Xishu meng concerns an incident from the Three Kingdoms story cycle. This story cycle is much more sprawling and complex than the tale of Fan and Zhang, but the steadfast friendship shared between Liu Bei 劉備, King of Shu, and his two sworn brothers, Zhang Fei 張飛 and Guan Yu 關羽, constitutes a major thread within the cycle. In Xishu meng the souls of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu (both recently dead, although this fact is as yet unknown to Liu) visit Liu Bei in a dream. Similar to the lines quoted above, Act 1 of Xishu meng sets the stage for the meeting by describing Liu Bei’s constant worry over his friends in vivid detail. The song “Hun Jianglong” 混江龍 is a good example of this description: He calls out, “Dear brothers, Zhang and Guan.” He wordlessly hangs his head, the tears course down in two tracks. Sometimes they seem right before his eyes, Other times, their names rise to the tip of his tongue. Burning with anxiety, he frequently pounds his fists on the flying-phoenix throne. Constantly falling, tears of pain dampen his coiling-dragon robe.

Every day he, solitary, mounts the dragon tower, And gazes out toward Jingzhou with sighs, Toward Langzhou in sorrow. 喚了聲關，張仁弟， 無言低首淚雙垂。 一會家眼前活現， 一會家口内掂提。 急煎煎御手頻捶飛鳳椅， 撲簌簌痛淚常淹袞龍衣。 每日家獨上龍樓上， 望荊州感嘆， 閬州傷悲。19

These lines, as do the lines cited above from Fan and Zhang, describe a relationship of extraordinary depth. And in both plays the intense emotion of one friend prefigures the dream appearance of the other(s). In Fan and Zhang Fan’s songs delineate how difficult the dream encounter is for both parties. In the tune “Caicha ge” 采茶歌 Fan sings that his friend shrinks away from contact:   Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 1. At that time Guan was stationed in Jingzhou 荊州, and Zhang was stationed in Langzhou 閬州—thus Liu is constantly looking toward where he believes his friends to be.

19)

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I am just about to go forward a bit, When he urgently holds me back. He draws back his sleeve to cover his face. He stumbles, hollowly sobbing to himself. Without words he lowers his head, sighs with feeling, moans in sorrow. 我恰待向前些， 他把我緊攔截。 折回衫袖把面皮遮， 自攧自推空自哽咽， 無言低首感嘆傷嗟。20

These lines describe what seems to be an intangible, and yet almost impermeable, barrier between the two men. In Xishu meng we see a similar obstruction between the living and the dead in a dream visit that Zhang and Guan pay Liu Bei—portrayed in Act 4 of the play. The singer in this act is Zhang Fei, thus the songs provide the imagined viewpoint of the dead. As in Fan and Zhang, Zhang Fei’s songs underline the great difficulty with which such a meeting is accomplished. Zhang Fei sings of trying to get into Liu Bei’s quarters: In the past, a true door guard on seeing us would respectfully cross his hands across his breast. Now, on seeing a paper judge, we hesitate, start and stop. It turns out that a ghost has less freedom than a mortal man! We stand in front of the cinnabar steps, unable to control our mingling tears. Not a single acquaintance is to be seen. 往常真戶尉見咱當胸叉手， 今日見紙判官趨前退後， 元來這做鬼的比陽人不自由！ 立在丹墀内， 不由我淚交流， 不見一班兒故友。21

In this song we see the difficulties of communication between the living and the dead. Zhang Fei’s former physical prowess has been nullified by death and thus does him no good as a ghost. His strong emotional connections to Liu are what allow him some contact, but only briefly, and only in the liminal world of the dream.   Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 597.   “Tang Xiucai 倘秀才,” Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 4.

20) 21)

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Similarly, in Fan and Zhang, the connection between the end of Zhang Yuanbo’s life and a major change in his friendship with Fan is made particularly clear in the song “Wu yeti” 烏夜啼: For the two of us to meet again would be like dragging the bright moon from the water. Our brotherly feelings cut off in a single stroke. Instruct me as to the matters of your heart, No need to talk endlessly, Just stay for a short while. All the while it was nothing but the butterfly that broke Zhuang Zhou’s dream upon his pillow, The time is midday, not midnight. 咱兩個再相逢似水底撈明月， 弟兄情一筆勾絕。 把平生心事叮嚀說， 不必喋喋， 少住些些。 元來破莊周一枕夢蝴蝶， 正日當卓午非夤夜。22

As can be seen from this song, even as the ability of the two friends to temporarily overcome the obstacles between the living and dead affirms the strength of their commitment to each other, the description of their meeting also emphasizes that death has fundamentally altered their relationship. As he does in the first few lines of this song, throughout Act 3 Fan repeatedly mourns the finality of Zhang’s death. Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet and Xishu meng are very different plays, and their coupling in this essay is for the purpose of my analysis, not necessarily something that Yuan or Ming readers would have thought to do.23 Fan and Zhang is a play about two literati friends and their aspirations for office; it concludes with a celebration of Fan’s official success. Xishu meng is about three famous heroes whose ambition is to   Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 598.   The thirty extant Yuan play texts are individual texts that were apparently collected together by a Ming aficionado. See Zheng Qian 鄭騫, “Yuan Ming chaokeben Yuanren zaju jiuzhong tiyao 元明鈔刻本元人雜劇九種提要,” reprinted in Jingwu cong bian 景午叢編 (Taibei: Taiwan Zhonghua shuju, 1972), 1: 422-32; for connections between this cache of Yuan texts and Ming collectors see Iwaki Hideo, “Genealogy of Yuan-ch’u Admirers in the Ming Play World,” Acta Asiatica 32 (1977): 14-33. 22) 23)

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reunite China under Liu Bei, and the play ends with violent images as Zhang calls upon Liu Bei to revenge his death and that of Guan Yu. What is more, the fates of these two plays in the Ming also differed— while Fan and Zhang was published in multiple versions during the Ming, Xishu meng is only extant in a Yuan text. In both plays however, friendship between men provides a venue for moral action, and these moral actions are an important part of what defines them for posterity. Further, viewed as a pair, the fates of these two sets of friends illustrate Confucian hopes and fears regarding friendship.24 In Fan and Zhang friendship is posited as an alternative way to display virtue in the face of a failed political system. A Dream in Western Shu, on the other hand, portrays the pivotal moment in the Three Kingdoms story cycle when Liu Bei’s friendship with Zhang and Guan transforms from an asset to his political ambitions to a liability and he is forced to choose between loyalty to his sworn brothers and his filial duty to establish himself as emperor.25 And finally, both plays drew on prevailing theories about communications between the dead and the living to evoke the power of friendship.26 In Fan and Zhang the extraordinary strength of the two men’s friendship is further highlighted by the events in Act 3 when Fan addresses his dead friend and succeeds in moving the coffin when a group of neighbors had failed. In the Yuan edition two songs mention this miraculous expression of Zhang Yuanbo’s will. In the song “Shangma jiao” 上馬嬌 Fan sings: Even with a whole region’s worth of men, Or the strength of ten thousand oxen, There is no way that the axle of this little cart will turn. People say that your heroic soul has been restlessly waiting for me. Your ambition has now been repaid,   See Martin Huang’s introduction to this issue; also Joseph McDermott, “Friendship and its Friends,” and Norman Kutcher, “The Fifth Relationship: Dangerous Friendships in the Confucian Context,” The American Historical Review, 105.5 (2000): 1615-29. 25)   For more on this conflict in the Ming novel Three Kingdoms, see Moss Roberts’s Prologue and essays by Constantine Tung, Dominic Cheung, and Jiyuan Yu, in Kimberly Besio and Constantine Tung, eds., Three Kingdoms and Chinese Culture (Albany: SUNY Press, forthcoming 2007). 26)   Stephen Greenblatt refers to this phenomenon as “the circulation of social energy.” See his Shakespearean Negotiations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 1-20. 24)

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So for the time being restrain this sign you have sent to the world. 休道人一州， 力萬牛， 百般的拽不動輿車軸。 人道你英魂耿耿將咱候。 你志已酬， 你將靈聖暫時收。27

In a later song Fan sings: “For my sake you were unwilling to go to the grave” 你為我不肯上墳丘.”28 However, the Yuan edition does not contain a song which describes Fan actually getting the hearse to move. All later editions of the play beginning with the song sets in the three mid-sixteenth-century song collections include an additional song “Liu ye’er” 柳葉兒: With such glory given to your ancestors and support to your descen­dants, Your whole spirit moves with alacrity, I will myself pull the hearse. And, because on one hand the spirits will aid me, And on the other your ghost pushes it forward, You and I, the two of us, will go clunkingly along to the grave. 呀見如今光前絕後。 虛飄飄水上浮漚。 我親身把靈車扣。 一來是聖靈祐。 二來是鬼推軸。 我與你哈刺刺拽到墳頭。29

Earlier in the act, Fan has assured Zhang that he will care for Zhang’s mother, wife, and son in his stead. He has also vowed that should he gain official success he would see that Zhang be recognized as well. He refers to these promises in the first line of this song. With these lines Fan causes the hearse—that a group of strong men couldn’t budge just moments before—to move. And yet, as he candidly admits, he relies not on his   Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 603.   “Sheng hu lu 勝葫蘆,” Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 603. 29)   Shengshi xinsheng (1517, reprint; Shanghai: Commercial Publishing, 1955) 6; some modern editions of the Yuan text insert this song. See, for example, Ning Xiyuan 寧希元, ed. Yuankan zaju sanshi zhong 元刊雜劇三十種 117, note 112 which inserts the song from Yongxi yuefu. The editor argues that it is vital to the play’s development of emotions. 27) 28)

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physical strength to allow him to accomplish this but on the power of moral action: Fan’s sincere and public acknowledgement of his friend’s virtue persuades Zhang to give up his earthly ties. In a sense then, this scene in Act 3 is the counterpart to the scene in Act 1 when Fan arrives at Zhang’s home as promised. In that scene Fan sings: “If I had not made a chicken-millet oath then, who would know today that I am a man of my word?” 當初不因雞黍約，今朝誰識志誠人。30 Acts of friendship provide both men an avenue through which their integrity can be recognized. In later editions of the play, and even more so in the short story, we will see more specific claims that actions of loyal friendship constitute moral heroism. Fan and Zhang on the Ming Court Stage—The Xijizi Edition When we turn to variations between the Yuan edition of Fan and Zhang and the Xijizi edition we find that the most obvious alterations take place in the wedge, Act 1, and Act 4. Many of these alterations are typical of what has been noted regarding other Ming editions of Yuan plays. For instance, a character representing the emperor (jia 駕) appears in the wedge in the Yuan kan 元刊 edition but not in any of the Ming editions. This is in accord with an early Ming proscription against the emperor appearing on stage.31 Another typical difference is that there are more songs in the Yuan edition of Fan and Zhang than there are in later editions. In Act 4 the disparity is particularly notable—the three Ming editions that we have for comparison have approximately half the songs of the Yuan edition. Stephen West, basing his findings on Sun Kaidi’s assertion that all Ming commercial editions were derived from palace editions, ties these typical alterations to the exigencies of Ming court performance. West suggests that in the imperial troupe, comprising an all-star cast, there would have been a push for parity between the actors with spoken parts and the singer. 32 This seems a viable explanation for the changes we see in   Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 591.   The situation regarding the appearance or non-appearance of an emperor figure is actually somewhat complicated. See Tian Yuan Tan, “Prohibition of Jiatou Zaju in the Ming Dynasty and Portrayal of the Emperor on Stage,” Ming Studies, 49 (2004): 82-111. 32)   Sun Kaidi, Shu Yeshiyuan jiucang gujin zaju, 113; Stephen West, “Text and Ideology: 30) 31)

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this play. At the same time this expansion of roles worked to highlight the superior qualities of Fan and Zhang’s friendship. In the Xijizi edition some of the derision heaped more generally on officialdom in the songs of the Yuan text is displaced specifically onto the character of Wang Zhonglüe. This edition fleshes out the details of the subplot concerning Wang and Kong Zhongshan. In the wedge, as Kong Zhongshan says his goodbyes to his two friends Fan and Zhang he mentions that he has written a “long policy statement of ten thousand words” (wanyan changce 萬言長策) and is looking for an opportunity to present it to the emperor, Fan suggests that he entrust their classmate, the well-connected Wang Zhonglüe with the statement. Wang reveals in Act 1 that he has actually presented the plan as his own, and as a result has attained a high position for himself. In Act 4, Fan Juqing discovers that one of the soldiers in the retinue sent to see him to the capital is his old friend Kong Zhongshan. Kong, wronged by Wang, has been reduced to this humble position in order to support himself. Fan quickly relates Kong’s story to Diwu Lun, the minister who has brought Fan to the Emperor’s notice, and Diwu Lun just as quickly metes out appropriate justice. Kong too is granted a position, and Wang is punished. The spoken lines of Wang Zhonglüe are replete with malapropisms and cheerfully unrepentant admissions of both unlettered ignorance and villainy and thus would have provided a meaty role for a comic actor in the imperial troupe. This expanded role certainly met the needs of good stagecraft by providing comic relief from the intense emotions expressed by Fan; at the same time, Wang’s comic role diminishes his moral status. This low moral status is reflected in another difference between the Yuan edition wedge and later editions. In the Yuan edition Fan introduces Wang before he introduces Kong; in all the later editions Fan introduces Kong first. Wang’s perfidy reflects a problem that is clearly a central concern of the songs in all editions of the play beginning with the Yuan edition and is further expanded upon in the more complete dialogues of the late Ming editions. That is, officials are gaining office by means of their wealth and family connections rather than through their virtue. This Ming Editors and Northern Drama,” Ming Qing xiqu guoji yantao hui lunwen ji 明清戲曲國 際研討會論文集 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan, 1998), 237-83, and in particular, 251-53.

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problem, represented by the phrase cailang dang dao 豺狼當道 (wolves block the road), is the reason that Fan, Zhang, and Kong, clearly men of unquestionable virtue and thus ability, have been frustrated in their pursuit of officialdom. In the Yuan edition this phrase appears once in a song from Act 2.33 Beginning with the Xijizi edition of the play, and in the two later editions the phrase occurs four times—twice in the dialogue of the first act and in the dialogue and the song of the second act. The first occurrence of the phrase in the dialogue is particularly interesting for the contrast it creates. Zhang Yuanbo’s mother describes her son’s friendship with Fan Juqing as having “sentiment as durable as metal or stone, from beginning to end without alteration, poverty won’t shift their hearts, neither life nor death will alter their integrity.”34 She then immediately goes on to explain that the reason that Fan and Zhang had left the capital was that “wolves blocked the road.”35 In her monologue Zhang’s mother thus unequivocally parallels Fan and Zhang’s “life and death” friendship of “metal and stone” with the conduct of their contemporaries—which is sadly lacking in moral integrity. In the wedge, Act 1, and Act 4, Wang and his betrayal of Kong is accorded attention equal to the friendship of Fan and Zhang, and his self-serving expediency contrasts with Fan and Zhang’s fidelity. Further, the play implies that Wang’s behavior, although reprehensible, is the more common. In discussing the imperial examination system as a primary site for male bonding in late Imperial China, Susan Mann notes that it “sustained both the bonds that engaged men as comrades and the conflicts that set them at odds as competitors.”36 While examination success is not an issue in this play, appointment to office is, and in the comradeship between Fan and Zhang and the cut-throat competition exhibited by Wang toward Kong, we see reflected both male bonding and male rivalry. In this play we can also see that the pervasiveness of rivalry is a large part of what makes Fan and Zhang’s comradeship so appealing.

  “Liangzhou diqi 梁州第七,” Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 596.   Quanyuan zaju erbian, 2:616. 35)   Quanyuan zaju erbian, 2: 616-17. 36)   Susan Mann, “The Male Bond in Chinese History and Culture,” The American Historical Review 105.5 (2001): 1600-14, and especially, 1605. 33) 34)

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The Late Ming Editions of Zang Maoxun and Meng Chengshun Zang Maoxun’s title for his collection was Yuanqu yibaizhong 元曲一百 種 (One hundred Yuan plays), and in his preface he attested to their authenticity as Yuan works, but modern scholarship has shown that Zang was actually an activist editor who regularly amended the texts to suit his taste.37 In contrast, Katherine Carlitz has aptly characterized Meng Chengshun’s anthology Gujin mingju hexuan—which consisted of two parts, the Liuzhi ji 柳枝集 (The willow branch collection) and the Leijiang ji—as “a competitive homage to Zang’s collection.”38 Whereas Zang preferred to gloss over his editorial activities, Meng called attention to Zang’s revisions by his evaluations of them in his commentary. In his edition of Fan and Zhang, included in the Leijiang ji, Meng Chengshun often referred to Zang’s emendations in his eyebrow comments, sometimes indicating that he was following Zang, at other times providing reasons for rejecting Zang’s emendations. Both the Yuanqu xuan and the Leijiang ji are very high-end publications. Accord­ ing to their prefaces, the plays which comprise these collections were carefully selected and collated. As mentioned above, the Leijiang ji also includes Meng’s comments in the upper margins. Fine wood-block prints illustrate the plays in both anthologies. These two editions of Fan and Zhang were designed to appeal to a literate and cultured audience; they also reflect responses to the play of two fellow members of this cultural elite—those of Zang Maoxun and Meng Chengshun.   Zang’s preface has been translated by James Crump in his essay, “Giants in the Earth: Yüan Drama as Seen by Ming Critics,” in J.I. Crump and William P. Malm, eds., Chinese and Japanese Music Dramas (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies,, 1975), 1-38. For Zang’s activism see among others, Zheng Qian, “Cong Yuanquxuan tan dao Yuanben zaju sanshizhong 從元曲選談到元本雜劇三十種” in Jingwu Congbian, 1: 400-407; Zheng Qian, “Zang Maoxun gaiding Yuan zaju pingyi 臧懋循改訂元雜劇平議,” in Jingwu Congbian 1: 408-421; Stephen H. West, “A Study in Appropriation: Zang Maoxun’s Injustice to Dou E,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 111 (1991): 283-302; and Wilt L. Idema, “Why You Have Never Read a Yuan Drama: The Transformation of Zaju at the Ming Court,” in S.M. Carletti, M. Sacchetti and P. Santangelo, eds., Studi In Onore Di Lionello Lanciotti (Naples: 1996), 765-89. For a nuanced discussion of how Zang’s preface reflects his attempts to reshape the zaju genre see Patricia Sieber, Theaters of Desire: Authors, Readers, and the Reproduction of Early Chinese Song-Drama, 1300-2000 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 101-22. 38)   Katherine Carlitz, “Printing as Performance: Literati Playwright Publishers of the Late Ming,” in Cynthia J. Brokaw and Kai-wing Chow eds., Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 267-303. 37)

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For example, that the theme of prevalent crass opportunism in contrast with traditional ideals of moral integrity was integral to Zang Maoxun’s reading of the play is suggested by his addition of two lines to a verse recited by Diwu Lun as he exits at the end of Act 2: For this generation making friends requires gold; If the gold isn’t sufficient the connection isn’t deep. Not until Juqing personally buries Zhang Yuanbo Will there be manifested an enduring heart [that reflects a] life and death [friendsship]. 世人結友須黃金 , 黃金不多交不深。直待巨卿親葬張元伯 , 方表悠悠生死 心。39

Meng Chengshun rejected without comment the rather clumsy editorial intervention attempted by the first two lines of this verse in his own edition of the play. While from the point of view of literary aesthetics Meng was on firm ground, these lines do provide us with fascinating insight into Zang’s feelings about the significance of the friendship between Fan and Zhang, as they establish a clear contrast between friendships based on expediency and that of Fan and Zhang. Addi­ tionally, Diwu Lun’s words in the Zang edition counter, at least in some measure, Fan’s mourning over the brevity of Zhang’s life. Fan and Zhang might die, but “life and death friendship” will live on in people’s memory. Further, their acts of friendship will earn them a renown more commonly gained in venues such as the battlefield or the examination hall. In another alteration, also rejected without comment by Meng, Zang rewrote the first song of the play to emphasize Fan and Zhang’s identity as both scholars and heroes. The song in the Yuan kan, Xijizi, and Leijiang ji editions of the play: Style and substance in equal measure—a great Ru scholar. Passionate about righteousness, grave and dignified—a fine gentleman. Friends for many years, Approaching the point where we go our separate ways home, We clasp hands and hesitate. 文質彬彬一大儒， 義烈堂堂美丈夫，   Yuanqu xuan, 962.

39)

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為朋友數年餘， 臨歧歸去， 執手謾躊躇。40

And in the Yuanqu xuan: We have always been passionate about righteousness, grave and dignified—real men. And more: together at the Imperial Academy we jointly pursued Ru scholarship. Gathered as friends for many years, Today, approaching the point where we go our separate ways home, Our feelings are depressed, our minds restless and uneasy. 俺本是義烈堂堂大丈夫。 況同在成均共業儒。 聚首數年餘。 今日個臨歧歸去。 情憫默意躊躇。41

In Zang’s version, Fan describes his moral qualities before his identity as a scholar. And these qualities make him a “real man” (da zhangfu 大丈 夫) rather than just a “fine gentleman” (mei zhangfu 美丈夫). This rearrangement makes it clear their friendship is based on their shared moral qualities, which has in turn led to their joint pursuit of Confucian (Ru 儒) scholarship. Fan’s erudition is also evident in his use of archaic terms such as cheng jun 成均 for Imperial Academy, and jushou 聚首, which I have translated as “gathered together as friends” rather than the simple wei pengyou 為朋友, “[to be] friends” of the other editions. While Meng Chengshun might have rejected some of Zang’s emendations of the text, his marginal notes indicate a similar association of Fan and Zhang with literati identity. In his introductory note to the play, Meng reviews what is known of the author of Fan and Zhang—that is, the playwright Gong Tianting 宫天挺 (zi Dayong大用 1265?-1330?). Meng provides an abbreviated quote from the Lugui bu 錄鬼簿: “The Lugui bu records Gong Dayong, named Tianting, as a well-known man of Kaizhou. He was open and clear about what was in his heart.   “Shanghua shi 賞花時” Xinjiao Yuankan zaju sanshizhong, 586; Quanyuan zaju erbian, 2: 602-03; 2: 1858. 41)   Yuanqu xuan, 950 . 40)

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His chanting of essays were unmatched by others” 錄鬼簿載宮大用 名天挺, 大名開洲人。胸次豁然, 吟詠文章, 人莫能敵。42 Gong is thus classified as a man whose strong emotions are expressed through his scholarship. In a note to the first song of Act 1, Meng likewise comments: “These lines are those of an official, but every word is direct and vigorous” 一篇大頭巾語然語語爽健.43 Both the playwright and his characters are characterized as scholars and yet also exceptionally strong in spirit—the friendship of Fan and Zhang is at once a product and a manifestation of this strength.44 Comparisons of the illustrations to Fan and Zhang in the Yuanqu xuan and Leijiang ji further reveal Meng’s association of the play with a literati aesthetic. Both collections include two illustrations of the play and chose precisely the same moments to capture visually: the “chickenmillet” meeting and Fan reciting the eulogy at Zhang’s grave (Illustrations 1-4). The illustration of the chicken-millet meeting in the Yuanqu xuan (Illustration 1) is a literal representation of the scene. Fan is paying his respects to Zhang’s mother, with Zhang bowing to Fan at her side. The chicken and the millet are laid out on a table in the background. The rural setting is suggested by the thatching of the roof of the cottage and the bamboo fence in the foreground. The setting is quite different in the Leijiang ji illustration (Illustration 3). In this image the focus is less on ritual and more on the camaraderie of literary men. Fan, Zhang, and Wang are pictured drinking and eating together at a covered table, their wine glasses raised in a toast. The scene is set in a formal hall with high ceilings partially blocked by a screen. The lines of the balustrades and the trees in the background suggest a formal garden in the rear. While the illustration in Yuanqu xuan is more faithful to the events in the play, the 42)   Quanyuan zaju erbian, 2: 1855-56. For the original quote, see Ma Lian 馬廉 who collated and annotated, Lugui bu xin jiaozhu 錄鬼簿新校注and Xu lugui bu xin jiaozhu 續錄鬼簿新 校注 in Yuan ren zaju gouchen 元人雜劇鈎沉 (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1964), 101; it reads: “My father was friends with him, so I often got to wait upon them, and I have seen him chant out his feelings. The strength of his writing and elegant essays are unmatchable by others 先君與 之莫逆, 故余常得侍坐, 見其吟詠。文章筆力, 人莫能敵。 43)   Quanyuan zaju erbian, 2: 1863. 44)   For a similar equation of the heroic to literati values to form a distinctive type of masculine self-definition see Martin Huang’s discussion of the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms in his book, Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996), 89-103.

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Illustration 1. Yuan qu xuan illustration of Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu, Act 1.

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Illustration 2. Yuan qu xuan illustration of Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu, Act 3.

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Illustration 3. Lei jiang ji illustration of Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu, Act 1.

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Illustration 4. Lei jiang ji illustration of Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu, Act 3.

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illustration in Leijiang ji invokes a visual connection between literati aesthetics and values and a pivotal moment in the play. The Short Story The vernacular short story “The Chicken-and-Millet Dinner for Fan Juqing, Friend in Life and Death” sheds further light on the meaning that this tale had for literati editors and readers of vernacular literature in the Ming dynasty. The plot of the short story diverges from the drama and the classical anecdote. While the play and the anecdote assume the longstanding friendship of the two men, the short story depicts their first meeting. In the short story the two men meet on the road to the capital on their way to take the examinations. Zhang Yuanbo, the son of a farmer and the central narrative focus in this version, stops at an inn one night and is disturbed by the sound of cries from a neighboring room. He makes inquiries and discovers that the sounds are from a scholar who has fallen ill. This scholar turns out to be Fan Juqing, a merchant who, like Zhang, had hoped to take the examinations. On the basis of their shared aspirations Zhang devotes himself to nursing Fan back to health—and as a result both men miss their chance to take the examinations. The two men pledge an oath of brotherhood and remain together for half a year before finally parting and heading for home. The day of their parting happens to be the ninth day of the ninth month, Chongyang 重陽, and as they drink a last cup of wine together Fan pledges that he will visit Zhang, his mother, and his brother on that very day the next year. As in the play, Zhang pledges in turn that he will have a meal of chicken-millet waiting for him. However, the vernacular story differs from the classical and dramatic versions in that Fan forgets his promise once he gets back home and is caught up in his merchant business. He only remembers his promise on the morning of Chongyang, too late to make the journey. Determining that the only way that he can make good on his pledge is as a ghost, he thereupon cuts his throat, first requesting that his wife wait to bury him until after Zhang Yuanbo arrives. Fan confesses all this to Zhang Yuanbo when he appears before him as a spirit on the night of Chongyang. Thus, in the short story it falls to Zhang to maintain the veracity of a dream visit in the face of the doubts of his brother and mother. Zhang makes the journey to Shanyang, Fan’s home, and arrives just in time to persuade the coffin to move and to

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recite a funeral ode to his friend. Following this, Zhang pulls out a sword and slits his own throat. The two friends are buried together, and beside their tomb a Xinyi zhi ci 信義之祠 (shrine of loyalty) is erected. The vernacular short story therefore multiplies the reciprocal acts of the original classical short story many times over, and the ramifications of this reciprocity are taken to the extreme as both men end up giving up their lives in the name of friendship. The significance and appeal of this variation on the Fan and Zhang story becomes more apparent when we compare the two extant editions of the vernacular short story. As mentioned earlier, the vernacular short story appeared in the Ming story collections, the Liushi jia xiaoshuo edited by Hong Pian and published in the mid-sixteenth century, and Gujin xiaoshuo edited by Feng Menglong and published in 1620. The Liushi jia xiaoshuo edition is incomplete; what remains of the text begins during the dream meeting between Fan and Zhang. The portion of the text that does survive is essentially the same as the text of the Gujin xiaoshuo, but the poems that punctuate the Gujin xiaoshuo version are absent in the earlier text. Patrick Hanan classifies the story as belonging to the “middle period” which he defines as having been written between approximately 1400 and 1550.45 In a later work Hanan identifies the author of this story and its companion story, “Yang Jiao’ai si zhan Jing Ke” 羊角哀死戰荊軻 (Yang Jiao’ai kills himself to fight Jing Ke), as “evidently a member of the literati who compromised with the huaben form in language and narrative method but hardly at all in its attitudes and beliefs.”46 Similarly, Feng Menglong’s adaptation of the two stories emphasizes their genre identity by adding poetry and prose commentary in the voice of a storyteller, and yet the morality expounded on by the putative storyteller dovetails with that of Feng and his literati contemporaries. The pairing of “Fan Juqing” with “Yang Jiao’ai” in Liushi jia xiaoshuo is, as Timothy Wong notes, “understandable since the two stories show an almost perfect identity of structure and theme.”47 “Yang Jiao’ai” tells 45)   Patrick Hanan, The Chinese Short Story: Studies in Dating, Authorship and Composition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973), 131-32. 46)   Patrick Hanan, The Chinese Vernacular Story (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), 57-8. 47)   Timothy C. Wong, “Morality as Entertainment: Altruistic Friendship in the Ku-chin hsiaoshuo,” Tamkang Review 13.1 (1982): 55-69, and in particular, 59.

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the tale of two figures from the Spring and Autumn Period, Yang Jiao’ai and Zuo Botao 左伯桃. Both “Fan Juqing” and “Yang Jiao’ai” include a meeting scene where the two friends recognize each other as fellow scholars. In each story the plot builds on an escalating series of reciprocal acts. Finally, both stories conclude with the two friends giving up their lives for the other and with descriptions of the temple dedicated to them which, in the words of the storyteller/narrator of “Yang Jiao’ai,” “has never been short of worshippers making offerings of incense.”48 In sum, the two stories are so similar it seems that one or both must have been written or revised with the other in mind. Feng Menglong included “Yang Jiao’ai” in the Gujin xiaoshuo col­ lection as well. However, he broke up the pair, and he grouped “Yang Jiao’ai,” retitled “Yang Jiao’ai she ming quan jiao” 羊角哀捨命全交 (Yang Jiao’ai throws away his life in fulfillment of a friendship) with yet another friendship story, “Wu Bao’an qi jia shu you” 吳保安棄家贖友 (Wu Bao’an abandons his family to ransom a friend). “Wu Bao’an” is Feng’s own adaptation of a classical story into a vernacular story.49 With the exception that the friendship of the two men is first established in letters rather than through a face-to-face meeting, the plot of “Wu Bao’an” also closely resembles both “Fan Juqing” and “Yang Jiao’ai.” The plot consists of a series of reciprocal acts of friendship and concludes with a description of the temple dedicated to the two men. Feng Meng­long chose to include both “Fan Juqing” and “Yang Jiao’ai” in his collection and further to construct yet another story with a parallel theme and structure. These editorial choices reveal Feng’s own fascination with the theme of “life and death” friendship.50 Other aspects of the editorial apparatus provide more information about Feng’s interpretation of the stories. For example, Feng paired “Fan Juqing” with a story titled “Shi Hongzhao longhu junchen hui” 史弘肇龍虎君臣會 (Shi Hongzhao   Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang, trans. “Yang Jiao’ai Lays Down His Life For the Sake of Friendship” in Stories Old and New (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2000), 133-42, 141. 49)   For Feng’s authorship of this story see Hanan, The Chinese Vernacular Story, 110-11. For a side-to-side comparison of the classical and the vernacular see Cyril Birch, trans., Stories from a Ming Collection (New York: Grove Press, 1958), 121-49. 50)   This is pointed out by both Patrick Hanan, The Chinese Vernacular Story, 111; and Timothy Wong “Morality as Entertainment,” 62. 48)

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and the meeting of dragon and tiger, lord and vassal) which relates several incidents from early in the career of Liu Zhiyuan 劉知遠 (895948), emperor of the Later Han, and his General Shi Hongzhao. In this rather loosely organized story characters base their emotional connec­ tions on expediency; alliances among men are formed on the basis of future potential rather than recognition of moral worth. This pragmatic view of friendship is perhaps best expressed in the poem which concludes the story: Make friends only with strong and worthy men; Keep away from the feeble and the weak. The strong rise to fame when their time does come, But the weak fail in every endeavor. 結交須結英與豪 勸君莫結兒女曹。 英豪際會皆有用， 兒女柔脆空煩勞。51

Shuhui Yang suggests that Feng’s positioning of “Fan Juqing” imme­ diately after this story might have been meant “either to question its ostensible moral message or intensify its irony.”52 If Feng saw the values of “Fan Juqing” as in counterpoint to the rather crude careerism of “Dra­ gon and Tiger” this too would imply Feng’s valorization of the relationship between Fan Juqing and Zhang Yuanbo. A comparison of the stories of “Fan Juqing” and “Yang Jiao’ai” in the Liushi jia xiaoshuo with the stories in the Gujin xiaoshuo reveals that the poetry which punctuates the prose in the Gujin xiaoshuo edition—most likely added by Feng—also contributes to a valorized reading of the protagonists’ friendship.53 The opening poem of both stories contrasts loyal friendship, such as that of the stories’ protagonists, to false friend­ ship. “Fan Juqing” begins: When planting trees, plant not the weeping willows; In making friends avoid the fickle ones. Willows cannot withstand the autumn wind;   Yang and Yang, trans., Stories Old and New, 278; Feng Menglong, Yushi Mingyan, 234.   Shuhui Yang, Appropriation and Representation, 84-85. 53)   For an ascription of the poetry to Feng see Patrick Hanan, The Chinese Short Story, 124. 51) 52)

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Ties with the fickle easily form and break. Witness how yesterday’s letter speaks of the past, But today when you meet, you know not each other. Such friendships live shorter than the willows, Which at least return with the spring breezes. 種樹莫種垂楊枝， 結交莫結輕薄兒。 楊枝不耐秋風吹， 輕薄易結還易離。 君不見昨日書來兩相憶， 今日相逢不相識？ 不如楊枝猶可久， 一度春風一回首。54

This poem focuses on the contrast between false and true through a comparison of willow trees and friends; it concludes with the sardonic comment that false friendships are even more frail that the willow, which at least returns according to a natural cycle. In all three of the stories Feng included in the Gujin xiaoshuo there is also a strong sense of nostalgia—all are set in the distant past. The differences between friendships of the past and friendships of the present are asserted most unequivocally in the opening poem of “Wu Bao’an”: Men of old made friends of the heart; Men of today know friends but by face. Friends of the heart share life and death; Friends by face share not poverty. The thoroughfares teem with men on horses; Social visits go on with never a pause. The host brings out his wife to the guests; Toasts go around with brotherly goodwill. But a clash of interests, let alone true peril, Suffices to turn friendships sour. Consider instead Yang and Zuo of yore, Still praised in the annals, friends unto death. 古人結交惟結心， 今人結交惟結面。 結心可以同死生， 結面那堪共貧賤？

  Yang and Yang, trans., Stories Old and New, 281; Feng Menglong, Yushi Mingyan, 239.

54)

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140

K. Besio / Nan Nü 9 (2007) 111-145 九衢鞍馬日紛紜， 追攀送謁無晨昏。 座中慷慨出妻子， 酒邊拜舞猶弟兄。 一關微利已交惡， 況復大難肯相親？ 君不見當年羊左稱死友， 至今史傳高其人。55

In this poem too we see a contrast between the untrustworthiness of ordinary—in this case modern—friendships and the loyalty to the death of the literati heroes of these stories. Like the illustration of the chicken-millet meeting in Leijiang ji, Feng Menglong calls on tropes commonly associated with literary men to underscore the story’s affiliation with literati values. In the vernacular short story, the date of Fan and Zhang’s parting—and thus of the promised meeting over chicken-millet—is Chongyang, a festival tradi­ tionally celebrated by literati gathering together to share wine, poetry, and fellow feelings.56 Feng calls attention this coincidence with a poem: With chrysanthemums floating in their wine, They pledge to meet again in one year’s time. By the forked road they linger, hating to part; Hand in hand, they stand with sad tears streaming. 手採黃花泛酒卮， 殷勤先訂隔年期。 臨歧不忍輕分別， 執手依依各淚垂。57

Chrysanthemums have traditionally been associated with Chongyang and also with the quintessential unappreciated talent Tao Yuanming 陶 淵明 (ca. 365-427). One year later, on the day of Fan’s promised visit, Zhang’s preparations once again summon up these associations.   Yang and Yang, trans., Stories Old and New, 143; Feng Menglong, Yushi Mingyan, 121.   In the play, the date of the friends’ parting is specified as the fifteenth day of the ninth month rather than nine/nine. For more on the connections between literati friendship and Chongyang, see A.R. Davis, “The Double Ninth Festival in Chinese Poetry: A Study of Variations upon a Theme,” in Tse-tsung Chow ed., Wenlin Studies in the Chinese Humanities (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968) 45-64. 57)   Yang and Yang, trans., Stories Old and New, 283; Feng Menglong, Yushi Mingyan, 240. 55) 56)

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On the day of the festival, he rose bright and early and swept clean the main hall, in the middle of which he placed a chair for his mother and, to the one side, a chair for Fan Juqing. Having filled the vases with chrysanthemums and lit the incense sticks on the table, he called his brother to help him kill the chicken and get the meal ready in Juqing’s honor. 是日蚤起，灑掃草堂，中設母座，旁列范巨卿 位，遍插菊花於瓶中，焚信香於桌上，呼弟宰雞炊飯，以待巨卿。58

Zhang’s preparations are recalled precisely—down to the detail of the chair for the mother, the chrysanthemums in a vase and the burning incense—in one of the two illustrations to this story (illustrations 5 and 6). The two illustrations depict the same moments (or nearly the same) as those depicted in the play illustrations discussed above. In illustration 5 we see the meeting between Fan and Zhang. In this image the building in which the two men are sitting lies somewhere between the rustic hut of the Yuanqu xuan illustration, and the formal hall of the Leijiang ji illustration. The visual details of the Gujin xiaoshuo illustration reflect exactly the incident as it is described in the short story. The figure representing Fan Juqing has lifted his arm, and his sleeve dangles in front of his face. This gesture suggests two movements described in the narrative, both of which prefigure Fan’s admission that he is a ghost. As Zhang first addresses him Fan shields his face with his sleeve. When Zhang places the chicken, millet, and wine before him, “Fan was seen fanning the aroma toward his nose, without taking any of the food and wine.”59 The illustration in the short story collection, with its similar setting and distinctive details thus reminds us of the ways in which the plot of the short story differs from the play. Feng further celebrates the unique twist of the short story in his editorial comment after Fan confesses that he is a ghost: “What can be of greater importance than death? For whatever they do, men of heroic mettle have in mind not what lies immediately under their eyes but what will last for generations to come.”60 With this comment we are reminded of the similar conclusions of all three of the friendship stories in Gujin xiaoshuo. In these stories the men are not rewarded for their acts of selfless friendship by high position in this world—such a denouement would, in fact, call their integrity into question. Rather, the three pairs of men acquire status   Yang and Yang, trans., Stories Old and New, 285.   Yang and Yang, trans., Stories Old and New, 285. 60)   Yang and Yang, trans., Stories Old and New, 285. 58) 59)

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Illustration 5. Gujin xiaoshuo illustration of Fan Juqing jishu sisheng jiao.

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Illustration 6. Gujin xiaoshuo illustration of Fan Juqing jishu sisheng jiao.

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for eternity as figures of veneration. And all three of these stories resemble the late Ming writings on friendship by Gu Dashao that Huang discusses in that they push valorization of friendship to its ultimate limits by raising friendship above the other four cardinal relationships. Conclusion In this essay I have analyzed representations of the story of Fan and Zhang in three different genres: historical prose, drama, and vernacular fiction. By way of conclusion let us look more closely at the Ming representation of the story this paper began with, the sanqu 散曲 “Fan Zhang gu miao.” In the song we see many of the same values expressed in the drama and the short story. The plot of the story as it is related in the drama and the short story is referred to in the middle part of the song: “The promise of a meeting over chicken-millet went deep, /Even though time was fleeting and the road was far. /A friendship of metal and stone made good on its prior pledge, /True-hearted feelings held fast.” The beginning and the end of the poem are concerned with contrasts between the passing of time—“successive wind and rain”; “time passes, water flows”—and the enduring nature of the repute that Fan and Zhang’s commitment to friendship has afforded them (“A fragrant repu­ ta­tion passed down for all generations”; “Their legend has been passed down in the pages of history for a thousand years”). In the last line we see an association of this pair not only to friendship and a fame that lives on, but to the heroic—“the bright moon ever shines on their heroic spirits.” This song thus also presents the view that it was their devoted friendship that made Fan and Zhang heroic figures and earned them the respect of posterity. All of these works—the classical anecdote, the play, the story, and the song—were in circulation during the Ming dynasty, and a scholar steeped in classical learning and with an interest in vernacular forms, someone such as Feng Menglong, for instance, might well have been acquainted with all four of these versions of the story. Each of the narrative genres had its own unique stance on the significance of the friendship to the main characters’ official careers. In the history, Fan’s dream of Zhang is just one interesting story in the career of an official known for his capacity for friendship. In the drama Fan and Zhang’s extraordinary friendship is instrumental in Fan’s eventual accession to

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high office and in Zhang’s posthumous recognition. With the short story we see a purposeful choice on the part of the characters—for friendship over office—and this choice leads to their deification. One point of similarity that the short story and the play share, and that differs from the classical anecdote, is that their joint aspiration for official position is the basis for the two men’s friendship. In the play, the two men have been fellow students in the Imperial Academy. In the short story the first thing that Zhang notices as he enters Fan’s room are the books that identify Fan as a fellow scholar. While the figure of Wang Zhonglüe is absent from the short story, we have seen that, at least in Feng Menglong’s iteration of the story, the fickleness of ordinary friendship is raised in the opening poem as a contrast to the constant friendship of Fan and Zhang. Thus in both vernacular pieces false friendship highlights the true friendship of Fan and Zhang. And the commitment of the two men to each other and the ideal of friendship becomes a heroic stance for which they are recognized and celebrated. In these works while the spiritual bond of Fan and Zhang is manifested through a dream, their friendship—or at any rate the repute that their friendship afforded them—proves infinitely more enduring.

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NAN NÜ

Nan Nü 9 (2007) 146-178

www.brill.nl/nannü

Male Friendship and Jiangxue (Philosophical Debates) in Sixteenth-Century China Martin W. Huang

(University of California, Irvine)

Abstract This article focuses on the significant rise of the status of friendship in sixteenth-century Chinese cultural discourses and the relevant roles played by the jiangxue (philosophical debating) activities on the part of many members of the popular neo-Confucian movement of the School of the Mind. It seeks to demonstrate how the practices of jiangxue helped construct a special cultural and social sphere where male friendships could flourish with great freedom and where friendship was granted the kind of Confucian legitimacy it had never enjoyed before. The article also explores the resultant tensions within the important Confucian ethical concept of wulun (the five cardinal human relationships) as it was being contested and re/negotiated during that time.

Keywords friendship, family, neo-Confucianism, philosophical debates, five cardinal human relattionships

Friendship received unprecedented attention during the second half of the Ming dynasty (approximately 1500-1644). Some late Ming literati thinkers and writers even went so far as to explicitly insist that friendship should be the most important relationship among the “five cardinal human relationships” (wulun 五倫). For example, finding the other four cardinal human relationships deficient in one way or another, the   See Joseph McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends in Late Ming,” , in Zhongyang yanjiu yuan Jindai shi yanjiu suo 中央研究院近代史研究所, ed., Jinshi jiazu yu zhengzhi bijiao lishi lunwen ji 近世家族與政治比較史論文集 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiu yuan Jindai shi yanjiu suo, 1992), 67-96; and Lü Miaofen (Miaw-fen Lu) 呂妙芬, Yangming xue shiren shequn: lishi, sixiang yu shijian 陽明學士人社群: 歷史、思想與實踐 (Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiu yuan Jindai shi yanjiu suo, 2003), 295-325. )

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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controversial thinker and activist He Xinyin 何心隱 (1517-79) insisted that friendship was the most fulfilling. He proposed that while the most fundamental cosmic movement was the interaction (jiao 交) between Heaven and Earth, that interaction found its greatest fulfillment in the friendship between two men (jiao jin yu you 交盡於友). Here friendship was granted a mysterious power of transcendence. The writer Zhu Tingdan 朱廷旦 (fl. 1624) considered friendship to be the foundation for the other four relationships: The ruler-minister, father-son, husband-wife, and older brother-younger brother relationships are serious matters. But a man’s spirit is cramped by these four relationships, while it is extended by the friendship relationship. It is like spring water moving amongst the flowers or wind and thunder moving within the primal breath (yuanqi 元氣). Unless there are friendships, the [other] four relationships cannot be fixed.

Given such passionate, almost hyperbolic rhetoric, it is probably not too much of an exaggeration to characterize as a cult this seemingly sudden enthusiasm for friendship among many literati. The reasons behind this cult were necessarily complex. This article is a preliminary attempt to examine some of the factors that might have contributed to the rise of this cult and their impact on the theories and practices of friendship in late imperial China. Among the five cardinal human relationships, only friendship is a relationship that a man was supposed to cultivate outside the structural confines of the family and state, the two institutions most sanctified in orthodox Confucianism. Consequently, friendship, without the sanc­ tions afforded by these two powerful Confucian institutions, was particularly vulnerable to criticism and suspicion. Given such “un­­ friend­ly” environments, in order to flourish, friendship needed to find an alternative sphere. Such a sphere, I would argue, was indeed created in the form of literati assemblies known as jianghui 講會 or jiangxue 講學 (philosophical debates) that were very popular among many members of

  He Xinyin, “Lunyou” 論友, He Xinyin ji 何心隱集 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960), 28.   Zhu Tingdan, comp., Guangyou lun 廣友論 (1626 ed.; original copy in Sonkeikaku Bunko, Tokyo), 1:2a. Translation from McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends,” 77.

) )

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the School of the Mind or Xinxue 心學, a neo-Confucian movement that took sixteenth-century China by storm. In her recent studies of jianghui activities of the Xinxue School, Lü Miaofen examines the roles played by friendship in the formation of literati associations during the sixteenth century. Looking from a different angle, I would contend that the heightened enthusiasm for friendship during this period could only be adequately accounted for within the context of  jianghui, which was popularized by the widespread intellectual movement known as the School of the Mind. Almost all those Ming literati who highly valorized friendship were in one way or another closely associated with philosophical debates, including even those apparently critical of the teachings of the School of the Mind, such as Gu Xiancheng 顧憲成 (1550-1612), one of the most influential members of the so-called Donglin 東林 (Eastern Grove) political movement at the turn of the seventeenth century. It is probably reasonable to assume that there must be something unique about this Ming phenomenon of philosophical debates that rendered itself so conducive to this unprecedented valorization of friendship. Jiangxue became an important intellectual activity among the literati of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) when shuyuan 書院 (acad­ emies) began to flourish in many parts of the country mainly through the efforts of the influential neo-Confucian philosophers such as Zhu Xi )   For an overview in English of the Xinxue School of the late Ming, see Willard Peterson, “Confucianism in Late Ming Thought,” in Denis Twitchett and Frederick W. Mote, eds., Cambridge History of China, volume 8, part 2: The Ming Dynasty,1368-1644 , (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 708-88. Here I translate both jianghui and jiangxue (which are sometimes used interchangeably) as “philosophical debates;” the former term appears to have often been used as a noun to emphasize the “debates” as a collective activity or an institution, whereas the latter term was more likely to be employed as a verb to refer to the participation in debate by an individual (a particular act). Peterson (722) translates jiangxue as “discoursing on learning” (a more literal translation). For a discussion of some other related terms such as huijiang 會講 (literally, meeting and debating) in the context of the history of private academies during that period, see Li Caidong 李才棟, Jiangxi gudai shuyuan yanjiu 江西古代書院研究 (Nanchang: Jiangxi jiaoyu chubanshe 1993), 318-20. )   See Lü Miaofen, Yangming xue shiren shequn, 295-325; and her dissertation, “Practice as Knowledge: Yang-ming Learning and Chiang-hui in Sixteenth-Century China” (Ph. D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1996), 222-307. )   For a study in English of the role of the Donglin movement in late Ming politics, see John Dardess, Blood and History in China: The Donglin Faction and Its Repression, 1620-1627 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002).

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朱熹 (1130-1200). Whereas shuyuan could be considered private or, at least, semi-private academies (as differentiated from the public schools directly sponsored and controlled by the government), where educational and other intellectual activities including philosophical debates took place, jianghui refers specifically to the gatherings for philosophical debate among the literati regardless of whether they were members of a particular academy. In other words, philosophical debates were often held at, though by no means confined to, academies, since they could be held in other places such as Buddhist monasteries and sometimes even Taoist temples. The locale and format of jianghui and its flexibility as an institution are significant factors we should look into in our attempts to account for the unique nature of the friendships formed among its literati participants. I shall seek to demonstrate below that the popular practice of philosophical debates during that time helped construct a special cultural and social sphere where friendship could flourish with great freedom and was granted the kind of Confucian legitimacy it had never enjoyed before.

Friends from Afar In traditional China, traveling afar was often considered a sign of one’s manliness as expressed in common sayings such as “A true man has a lofty ambition that reaches the four corners of the earth” (zhangfu zhi zai sifang 丈夫志在四方). Traveling afar also enabled a man to have more opportunities to befriend other men in different places. This is probably why Confucius famously proclaimed: “Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?”  An important factor contributing to the rising cult of friendship during this period was the popularity of travel (you 游). In the second half of the Ming dynasty, the world of the Chinese empire appeared to have become considerably smaller with the increasing mobility of

  Li Guojun 李國均, Wang Bingzhao 王炳照, and Li Caidong, eds., Zhongguo shuyuan shi 中國書院史(Changsha: Hu’nan jiaoyu chubanshe, 1994), 129-394. )   See, for example, Lai Zhide 來知德 (juren 1552), Zhouyi jizhu 周易集注 (Siku quanshu )

ed.; Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1987), 5:9a.   Yang Bojun 楊伯峻, trans. and anno., “Xue’er” 學而, in Lunyu yizhu 論語譯註 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 1. )

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people.10 During the sixteenth century, the opportunities for traveling long distances and receiving friends from afar increased dramatically thanks to the increasingly sophisticated communication and transpor­ tation systems (partly a result of the commercialization of the Ming economy) as testified to by many extant route books and commercial travel guides from the period.11 Many areas not so accessible before could now be reached with relative ease, and more people were able and willing to travel to distant places. Some of them were finding out that travel itself could be an undertaking of pleasure rather than merely an un­pleasant but necessary experience of having to reach a certain destination. Travel even became a vogue among a significant group of literati.12 In a word, the worlds far beyond the confines of one’s own family compound and native village were becoming more visible as well as more accessible. Wang Yangming 王陽明 (1472-1528), the founder of the School of Mind of neo-Confucianism, repeatedly professed that he had an obsession with “mountains and water” (shanshui pi 山水癖).13 In their chronological biography of Wang Yangming, Qian Dehong 錢德洪 (1496-1574) and others attributed their mentor’s great successes in enlightening many of his disciples to their shared experiences of traveling and sightseeing.14 Jianghui activities were closely associated with traveling since a sig­ni­ ficant number of them were conducted in academies or other places such as monasteries in remote scenic mountains; one had to be constantly on   Steven Miles has an interesting discussion of a sense of new frontier shared by many during this period, see his “Strange Encounters on the Cantonese Frontier: Region and Gender in Kuang Lu’s (1604-1650) Chiya” Nan Nü 8.1 (2006):115-55. 11)   Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 173-189; and Chen Xuewen 陳學文, Ming Qing shiqi shangye shu ji shangren shu zhi yanjiu 明清時期商業書籍及商人書之研究 (Taipei: Hongye wenhua shiye youxian gongsi, 1997). 12)   Timothy Brook, “Communications and Commerce,” in Denis Twitchett and Frederick W. Mote, eds., Cambridge History of China, volume 8, part 2: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, 624-26; and Zhou Zhenhe 周振鶴 , “Cong Mingren wenji kan wan Ming lüyou fengqi jiqi yu dilixue de guanxi” 從明人文集看晚明旅遊風氣及其與地理學的關係. Fudan xuebao 復 旦學報 1 (2005): 72-78; for a study of the famous travel writer Xu Xiake 徐霞客 (Xu Hongzu 徐弘祖; 1587-1641) see, Julian Ward, Xu Xiake (1587-1641): The Art of Travel Writing (Richmond : Curzon, 2001). 13)   See Wang Yangming’s poems in juan 20, Wang Yangming quanji 王陽明全集 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1992), 725, 751 and 768 14)   Qian Dehong, Nianpu 年譜, in Wang Yangming quanji, 1236. 10)

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the move to participate in jianghui in different regions. Many mem­bers of the Xinxue School spent a considerable part of their lives traveling and attending jianghui. Those who championed friendship most were often those jiangxue activists who traveled widely. Wang Ji 王畿 (1498-1583), one of Wang Yangming’s most important disciples, proudly recalled that “I did not let a day go by without participating in an assembly of philo­ sophical debate (wuri bu jiangxue 無日不講學), and I did not let a day go by without gathering together with comrades coming from the four corners of the earth (sifang tongzhi 四方同志).”15 Elsewhere Wang Ji considered himself lucky for having visited so many places and made so many friends from different regions throughout his life: I love traveling and I have visited almost half of the places under Heaven. I have been to all those well-known mountains, deep caves and famous scenic areas that ordinary people wished all their lives to visit but could not. . . . Although my main purpose is to make friends rather than enjoy beautiful mountains and water, I can’t help thinking that I am extremely lucky. Thinking back now, I wonder whether the Creator has become jealous of me because I might have enjoyed too much.16

Here traveling and making friends were considered two inseparable intellectual endeavors. Wang Ji’s enthusiasm for travel and jiangxue was also noted by the seventeenth-century historian Huang Zongxi 黃宗羲 (1610-77) in a biographical sketch of Wang in his monumental historical study of Ming neo-Confucianism, Mingru xuean 明儒學案 (Records of Ming Confucian scholars): “During the forty years after he had with­ drawn from officialdom, there was not a single day during which Wang Ji did not participate in philosophical debate; the [participants] of the debates in the two capitals as well as in the regions of Wu, Zhu, Min, Yue, JiangZhe all respected him as a close kin [good friend].”17 The modern biographers of Wang Ji have come up with maps tracing in detail

  Wang Ji, “Wangshi Chunyi Zhangshi Anren aici” 亡室純懿張氏安人哀辭, in Wang Longxi quanji 王龍溪全集 (Taipei: Huawen shuju, 1970), 20:81a (1533). 16)   Wang Ji, “Zisong changyu shi erbei” 自訟長語示兒輩, in Wang Longxi quanji, 15:17b-18a (1065); see also Wang’s similar sentiment about sightseeing and jiangxue expressed in “Daoshan ting huiyu” 道山亭會語, 2:3b (162). 17)   Huang Zongxi, Mingru xue’an, juan 12, in Huang Zongxi quanji 黃宗羲全集 (Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji chubanshe, 2004), vol. 7, 259. 15)

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Wang’s jiangxue activities across many regions.18 For many Ming neoConfucians such as Wang Ji, it was not enough to befriend merely those living close by, one had to befriend the best gentlemen under Heaven (you tianxia zhi shanshi 友天下之善士) as Mencius (ca. 371-289 BCE) had exhorted.19 During the last one and a half centuries of the Ming dynasty there were more opportunities, as well as need, for men to be away from their families, whether being an official in the capital or stationed in another region, a merchant doing business far away, a tourist exploring new scenic spots, or a pilgrim journeying to a sacred site. For our purpose, the most interesting cultural phenomenon accompanying this travel boom was the emergence of a new concept of travel as reflected in the birth of a unique type of writing within the genre generally known as youji 游記 (travel records). Achieving unprecedented popularity during the six­ teenth and seventeenth centuries, this kind of travel writing, which I would call “spiritual travelogue,” is usually a detailed account of a journey (sometimes in the form of a journal). Unlike a typical travel record, its focus, however, is on the author’s own intellectual encounters with comrades and friends in various regions visited during the journey, al­though information on scenic spots and geographic areas are duly provided. It concerns itself with the mental process of transformation its author went through as the physical movement of the journey unfolded. In a word, the spiritual travelogue captures the unique late Ming fusion of travel experiences in two different and yet closely related realms, the physical and the spiritual—debating and exchanging views with friends and comrades along a journey across many regions and intellectual territories.20 Luo Hongxian 羅洪先 (1504-64), another important figure in the development of the School of the Mind in the post-Wang Yangming era, 18)   See, for example, the map printed at the beginning of Fang Zuqiu’s 方祖猷Wang Ji pingzhuan 王畿評傳 (Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 2001). 19)   See Yang Bojun 楊伯峻, trans. and anno., “Wanzhang zhangju xia” 萬章章句下, Mengzi yizhu 孟子譯註 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 251. More on this point below. 20)   Unfortunately, in the recent study Zhongguo youji wenxue shi 中國游記文學史by Mei Xinlin 梅新林 and Yu Zhanghua 俞樟華(Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 2004), no mention is made of such “spiritual travelogue” during the Ming, although the discussions of the travel writings of some Song neo-Confucians are of some help (137-146); their focus, however, is on their literary values.

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was the author of many such travelogues. Like Wang Yangming, Luo also acknowledged that he had an obsession with mountains and water (shanshui pi 山水癖).21 At the same time, for Luo, you or travel was often triggered by anxiety over not having enough friends.22 In other words, the main purpose of travel was to make new friends as well as visit old ones. In his biographical study of Luo Hongxian, the modern Chinese intellectual historian Wu Zhen 吳震 uses the three travelogues by Luo as milestones to mark the three important stages in the development of Luo’s philosophical views. The first two travelogues are titled Dongyou ji 冬游記 (The travel record of the winter)and Xiayou ji 夏游記 (The travel record of the summer; 1548); the third also bears the title Xiayou ji but is dated 1554. Wu draws our attention to the overall importance of jianghui as well as you or huiyou 會游 (traveling and participating in philosophical debates) and to how inseparable these activities were in the Ming intellectual world.23 These travelogues detail the journeys Luo undertook and his debates with many other important fellow followers of Wang Yangming such as Qian Dehong, Wang Ji, and Nie Bao 聶豹 ( 1487-1563). As meticulously documented in these travelogues, Luo’s relationship with Wang Ji was particularly revealing: The evolution of Luo’s philosophical views was in many ways also a gradual process of critiquing Wang’s views as the two debated with each other on numerous occasions. Despite their substantial differences and constant arguments, Luo and Wang remained good friends. In exploring the importance of travel in the Ming intellectual world, it is also worth noting that Luo had close associations with merchants (some of his kinsmen and his family servants were involved in trade).24 This might be related to his inclination toward travel, as such associations in general might have contributed to the overall popularity of travel during the second half of the Ming dynasty. Furthermore, in addition to   Luo Hongxian, Nian’an wenji (Siku quanshu zhenben ed. Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1970-1982), 11:16a. 22)   Luo Hongxian, Nian’an wenji, 17:4b-5a. 23)   See Wu Zhen, Nie Bao, Luo Hongxian pingzhuan 聶豹, 羅洪先評傳 (Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 2001), 192-230. Huiyou is a term Chen Lai 陳來employs in his essay “Ming Jiajing shiqi Wangxue zhishi ren de huijiang huodong” 明嘉靖時期王學知識人的會 講活動, in Chen Lai, Zhongguo jinshi sixiang shi yanjiu 中國近世思想史研究 (Beijing: Shangwu yingshuguan, 2003), 338; 24)   Wu Zhen, Nie Bao, Luo Hongxian pingzhuan, 176-77. 21)

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being a formidable neo-Confucian thinker, Luo was also an accomplished cartographer. One of the maps published by Luo was reprinted in the popular route book, Yitong lucheng tuji 一統路程圖記 (The comprehensive illustrated route book; dated 1570) .25 As is the case with the collected works of many jiangxue enthusiasts, words such as “the four corners [of the earth]” (sifang 四方) and “boat” (zhou 舟; a main vehicle of transportation in southern China) abound in Luo’s collected writings Nian’an wenji 念菴文集 (Writings from the hut of no selfish thoughts),26 reflecting its author’s expanded vision of the Ming empire and his own wide travel experiences.27 Friendship and the Diversification of the Xinxue School Before moving on to explore in detail the possible tensions between friendship and a jiangxue enthusiast’s familial obligations, another important factor we have to take into consideration is the implications of the fragmentation and diversification of the School of Mind during the post-Wang Yangming era. When Wang Yangming and others founded the School of the Mind during the early sixteenth century, philosophical debates became one of the main vehicles through which they spread their teachings. Compared with the situation of the Southern   Timothy Brook, “Communication and Commerce,” 660-661, and Timothy Brook, Geographical Sources of the Ming-Qing History (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, 1988), 5. For a discussion of Luo Hongxian’s achievements as a cartographer, see Zhou Jianping 周建平 and Ye Xinjian 葉新建, “Zoulun Luo Hongxian Guangyu tu tui Zhu Siben de Yudi tu de jicheng he fazhan” 芻論羅洪先廣輿圖對朱思本的輿地圖的發展和繼承, Nan­chang daxue xuebao 南昌大學學報 30.1 (1999): 72-6. 26)   Nian’an is Luo Hongxian’s hao 号or style; for its possible meaning, see Hu Zhi 胡直, “Nian’an xiansheng xingzhuan” 念菴先生行狀, in Hu Zhi, Henglu jingshe canggao 衡盧精舍 藏稿 (Siku quanshu zhenben ed.), 23:4b. 27)   In Luo Hongxian’s Nian’an wenji, the word sifang appears altogether 43 times and the word zhou appears 124 times; in Wang Yangming’s collected works Wang Wencheng quanshu 王文成全書, sifang appears 109 times and zhou 222 times; see the electronic texts of these two works available in the online Siku quanshu (http://siku.ad.sdsc.edu; Xianggang : Dizhi wenhua chuban youxian gongsi and Zhongwen daxue, 1999). Many “spiritual travelogues” in the style of Luo’s Dongyou ji were written by other jiangxue activists (though some of them were not necessarily followers of Wang Yangming’s teachings). For studies in English of some of these travel writings, see Pei-yi Wu, The Confucian’s Progress: Autobiographical Writings in Traditional China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 93-141; and Rodney Taylor, The Cultivation of Sagehood as a Religious Goal in Neo-Confucianism: A Study of Selected Writings of Kao P’an-lung: 1562-1626 (Missoula, Mont. : Scholar’s Press, 1978). 25)

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Song dynasty, the number of private academies in sixteenth-century China increased dramatically. Furthermore, jianghui became almost a mass movement, attracting men from backgrounds of far greater variety, although the literati (including those holding governmental posts) remained its main participants.28 The format of jianghui could be quite flexible. What was particularly significant about such debates was that the teacher-student model prevalent in government-sponsored schools and many private academies was now replaced in a jianghui with a model of peer-debating, thus the term huiyou 會友 (a friend belonging to the same association or a debating friend) was often used to refer to the participants in the debating assembly. The relationships among the participants of the debate became more equal. Not without pride, Wang Ji repeatedly called attention to the fact that he was one of those who first suggested that since jianghui was an assembly of those who came together to pursue the Way (dao 道), if there was a hierarchical order of any sort in a jianghui, it should be based on seniority (xu nianchi 敘年齒) rather than people’s official ranks.29 Precisely because jianghui was an assembly of philosophical debating among peers who could sometimes hold very different views, its milieu was characterized by a spirit that was more tolerant of differences and even dissent. Two huiyou could have very different views on important issues, and yet they were still debating friends (such as the case of Wang 28)   For general studies of jianghui activities of the members of the School of the Mind, see Lü Miaofeng, Yangming xue shiren shequn, and Wu Zhen, Mingdai zhishi jie jiangxue huodong xinian: 1522-1602 明代知識界講學活動系年:1522-1605 (Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 2004). Historians of shuyuan have noted that during the sixteenth century there appeared many academies (huijiang shi shuyuan 會講式書院) characterized by their focus on “philosophical debating” rather than “teaching” which differentiated them from other academies. See, for example, Li Caidong, Jiangxi gudai shuyuan yanjiu, 323; Deng Hongbo 鄧洪波, Zhongguo shuyuan shi 中國書院史 (Shanghai: Dongfang chuban zhongxin, 2004), 298-99 and 339-340; and Li Guojun, Wang Bingzhao and Chen Caidong, eds., Zhongguo shuyuan shi, 537-38. 29)   Wang Ji, “Xingbu Shanxi si yuanwailang tezhao jinjie chaolie dafu zhishi Xushan Qianjun xingzhuang” 刑部陜西司員外郎特詔進階朝列大夫致仕緒山錢君行狀 and Wang Ji, “Zhongxian dafu Duchayuan youqian duyushi Zai’an Wanggong mubiao” 忠憲大夫都察院 右僉都御史在菴王公墓表, Wang Longxi quanji, 20:5b (1382) and 20:68a (1507). In fact, this emphasis on seniority was also the common practice in many shishe 詩社 (poetry clubs) beginning from the Song dynasty (960-1279); see Ouyang Guang 歐陽光, Song Yuan shishe yanjiu conggao 宋元詩社研究叢稿 (Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996), 42.

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Ji and Luo Hongxian mentioned above).30 This tolerance of differences and the unique fellowship formed in heated debate can also be related to the fragmentation of the Xinxue School in the post-Wang Yangming era and the resultant diversity among his followers. The fragmentation and diversity might have helped cultivate an atmosphere of intellectual pluralism where, with the death of the undisputed leader Wang Yang­ ming, each of his disciples felt entitled to fashion his own under­standing of the teachings of their common teacher.31 This diversifying of the Xinxue School might have contributed to the ever-increasing popularity of jianghui and its spirit of free debate, an environment conducive to intellectual debating and comradeship. Whereas all the participants of the debate shared allegiance to the teachings of Wang Yangming, thus considering each other friends and comrades, they were also ready to appreciate each other’s different understandings of these teachings, nurturing an unprecedented tolerance of dissent in part because there was no absolute authority figure to enforce intellectual uniformity within the large and diverse Xinxue community.32 All these developments may have been factors behind the rise of unique friendships among the jianghui participants, who often addressed each other as tongzhi you 同 志友 (a friend who is, at the same time, also a comrade).33

  Peterson observes in “Confucianism in Late Ming Thought” (727) that Wang’s “disciples were critical of each other, but they did not become sectarian rivals” and that “they corresponded, appeared together, and had over-lapping circles of friends, disciples, and students.” 31)   Compare Peterson’s observations on what he has called “a proliferation of versions of ideas stimulated by Wang’s teachings” (“Confucianism,” 709) or “proliferation of interpretations” (718-28). For a discussion of the fragmentation of Xinxue during the post-Wang Yangming era and historians’ different interpretations of this fragmentation, see Qian Ming 錢明, Yangming xue de xingcheng yu fazhan 陽明學的形成與發展(Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 2002), 106-57. 32)   There were also darker sides of the divisions and disputes among the followers of Wang Yangming. In his recent study Wangxue yu wan Ming de shidao fuxing yundong 王學與晚明 的師道復興運動 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wanxian, 2003), Deng Zhifeng 鄧志峰 explores the tensions between those who belonged to what he calls “zaichao Wangxue” 在朝王學 (those followers of Wang Yangming, who served in the government) and those did not serve in the government . In fact, some of Wang Yangming followers, who were important governmental officials, played a significant part in the deaths of other fellow followers such as He Xinyin and Li Zhi 李贄(1527-1602). 33)   Feng Congwu 馮從吾 (1557-1627), Gaunxue bian 關學編, in Shaoxu ji 少墟集 (Siku quanshu zhenben ed.), 20:15a and 20:51b. 30)

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Friends and the Alternative Sphere Historians of academies in pre-modern China have long noted the similarities between the organizational principles of academies and those of Buddhist monasteries and the latter’s possible influence upon the former. 34 Like most Buddhist monasteries (and probably Daoist temples as well), many academies were located in scenic areas distant from the mundane world since they were supposed to be a realm where students could concentrate more on studies or other spiritual undertakings. Such otherworldliness associated with the academies where jianghui were often held would become even more pronounced during the sixteenth century when many of the prominent followers of Wang Yanming in the School of the Mind became more religious in their ideological orientations and in the specific ways they practiced self-cultivation. A large number of them were increasingly preoccupied with existential issues such as the meaning of life and death, issues which, although central to Buddhism, many orthodox Confucians were reluctant to confront.35 The format of jianghui, like the lecturing in many private academies, was also influenced by the religious debates held in Buddhist monasteries.36 Many jianghui functioned as sacred sanctuaries for friendship, the fertile ground for semi-religious fellowships among their participants, who often lived there to study, debate, and sometimes even worship together (worshiping the Confucian masters in the past) for a con­ 34)   John Meskill, Academies in Ming China: A Historical Essay (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1982), 10-11, 45-46 and 90; and Li Guojun, Wang Bingzhao, and Li Caidong, eds., Zhongguo shuyuan shi, 9, 42-43, 57, 140-67. For discussions of the different but related functions of Buddhist monasteries in the context of “literati lay Buddhist associations” during the late Ming, see Timothy Brook, Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late Ming China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Council on East Asian Studies, 1993), 103-19. 35)   Peng Guoxiang 彭國翔, Liangzhi xue de zhankai: Wang Longxi yu zhong wan Ming de Yangming xue 良知學的展開: 王龍溪與中晚明的陽明學 (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2004), 437-510. 36)   The early Ming Confucian scholar-official Liu Qiu 劉球 (jinshi, 1421) insisted that the Confucians should learn from the Buddhists when it came to the effective use of lecture to spread their teachings (Liangxi wenji 兩谿文集 [Siqu quanshu ed.] 17:9a-10a). See also Meskill, Academies in Ming China, 14 and Li Guojun, Wang Bingzhao and Li Caidong, Zhongguo shuyuan shi, 140 and 161. Linda Walton discusses how the “sacred space” was appropriated by academies during the Song dynasty in her book Academies and Society in Southern Sung China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), 96-104.

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siderable period of time away from their families. A shuyuan of significant size usually had many zhaishe 齋舍 (studies that also functioned as bedrooms) often equipped with kitchen and toilet facili­ties. These studies formed separate self-contained spaces independent from the outside world (presumably a student would be less likely to be distracted in such an environment).37 Phrases such as xinsu 信宿 (spending consecutive nights), lianta 聯(連)榻 or lianchuang 連(聯)床 (literally, sleeping in the same bed or combining two beds into one; this term can also metaphorically refer to the deep attachment between two friends), and huisu 會宿 (many sleeping together) abound in the accounts of philosophical debates. Wang Ji described his meetings with his jiangxue friends in this way: “Despite the hot summer, I went westward to meet you. We stayed together day and night and, sleeping in the same bed, we debated with each other to seek enlightenment (chenxi xiangchu lianzhuang zhengwu 晨夕相處, 聯床證悟).”38 Elsewhere Wang told us that during his stay in the famous Bailu dong shuyuan 白鹿洞書院 (White Deer Grotto Academy) they spent several nights together, and he participated in debate with many gentlemen from the Academy (jujiang xinsu 聚講信宿).39 Luo Hongxian used similar terms in his account of one of his meetings with Wang Ji: “We confided in each other while sharing a bed for consecutive nights (lianta xinsu 聯榻信宿).” 40 Another jiangxue enthusiast, Luo Rufang 羅汝芳(1515-88). described his experience of philosophical debate by employing similar phrases albeit in a more exaggerated fashion: “By day we drank while sharing the same table and by night we slept together by sharing the same bed (zouyin lianxi, yewo lianta 晝飲聯席, 夜臥聯榻).” 41   Yang Shenchu 楊慎初, ed., Zhongguo shuyuan wenhua yu jianzhu 中國書院文化與建築 (Changsha: Hu’nan jiaoyu chubanshe, 2002), 68 and Yang Busheng 楊布生and Peng Dingguo 彭定國, Zhongugo shuyuan yu chuantong wenhua 中國書院與傳統文化 (Chang­ sha: Hu’nan jiaoyu chubanshe, 1992), 160-61. 38)   Wang Ji, “Bie Zeng Jiantai manyu zhailüe” 別曾見臺漫語摘略, in Wang Longxi quanji, 16:21b (1150). 39)   Wang Ji, “Chongxiu Bailu shuyuan ji” 重修白鹿書院記, in Wang Longxi quanji, 17:7a (1203); for the use of the term huisu , see “Fenle shuo” 憤樂說, in Wang Longxi quanji, 8:23b (562). 40)   Luo Hongxian, “Songyuan zhiyu” 松源志語, Nian’an wenji (Siku quanshu zhenben ed.) 18.41a. For similar use of the term xinsu in accounts of Wang Yangming’s jiangxue activities, see “Nianpu fulu yi” 年譜附錄一 , Wang Yangming quanji, 1348 and 1365. 41)   Luo Rufang, Xutan zhiquan 旴壇直詮, juanshang 卷上, in Xutan zhiquan Lüzi jielu 旴壇 37)

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Even on Chinese New Year’s eve, arguably the most important holiday for family reunion, some jiangxue enthusiasts chose to celebrate the festival with comrades and friends in a jianghui away from home so that their philosophical debates could continue uninterrupted.42 The extant accounts of jiangxue festivities suggest that for many Ming neo-Con­fu­ cian activists jianghui were indeed an alternative sphere that was seriously competing with jia 家 (family) for their devotion and time. What was emphasized in these accounts was the communal nature of such jiangxue experiences. The benefits of qunju 群居 (communal living) when it came to one’s moral advancement was something quite a few jiangxue activists often referred to.43 A jianghui participant was supposed to devote himself to the intellectual and spiritual exchanges with his comrades completely oblivious to the outside world of daily routines and petty concerns. Leaving one’s home to stay or even live in an academy where jiangxue were conducted was also a movement from the secular to the sacred. If chujia 出家 (literally, getting out of the family) was a term coined to refer to joining a Buddhist order, then lijia 離家 (leaving or being away from the family for a long time) often became a necessary reality for many participants of jianghui. 44 直詮,呂子節錄 (Taipei: Zhongguo zixue mingzhu jicheng bianyin jijin hui, 1978), 1203. So far I have not found any specific evidence that would enable me to give a definite answer to the question whether there was significant number of homosexual affairs taking place in such communal environment. However, in the regulations of the famous Donglin academy authored by Gu Xiancheng, among the “nine harmful things” (jiusun 九損 ) that one should avoid, the first was the behavior “inappropriate intimacy” (bini xiawan 比昵狎玩). “Yuangui” 院規, in Yan Jue 嚴瑴, ed., Donglin shuyuan zhi 東林書院志, reprinted in Zhao Suosheng 趙 所生 and Xue Zhengxing 薛正興, comp., Zhongguo lidai shuuyuan zhi (Nanjing: Jiangsu jiaoyu chubanshe, 1995), vol. 7, 80. John Meskill, in Academies in Ming China (152), observes that these prohibitions “sounded like a summing up of the faults that had weakened the reputation of academy men earlier.” 42)   Wang Ji, ed., “Li Shiquan xiansheng Jiazi jichu” 劉獅泉先生甲子紀除, Fuzhen shuyuan zhi 復真書院志 , juan 7, quoted in Deng Hongbo, Zhongguo shuyuan shi, 311; see also Li Caidong, Jiangxi gudai shuyuan yanjiu, 329-30. 43)   Zhang Huang 章潢 (1527-1608), “Weixue cidi” 為學次第, quoted in Mao Deqi 毛德琦, ed., Bailu dong shuyuan zhi 白鹿洞書院志, 6.9b-10a; reprinted in Zhao Suosheng and Xue Zhengxing, comp., Zhongguo lidai shuyuan zhi, vol. 2, 98-99. In fact, despite his favorable view of the communal environment of jianghui, Zhang, at the same time, also sensed the possible danger associated with this “movement” away from family, namely, some radical Xinxue followers’ tendency to pursue otherworldly friendships at the expense of family relationships (yiqi renlun, jilü fangwai    遺棄人倫,結侶方外). 44)   In his defense of one of his friends’ taking Buddhist tonsure, Li Zhi, a jiangxue enthusiast himself, contended that even Confucius, though never formally renouncing family (chujia)

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The implications of jia or family indeed became problematic in many jiangxue discourses when the need to establish a communal environment for spiritual enlightenment through intellectual exchanges and debates among the like-minded became an undisputed priority. Some of the jianghui enthusiasts even went so far as to argue that spending substantial time with friends away from one’s family was absolutely necessary for one’s spiritual well-being. Wang Ji once confessed: I stayed home for a long time, enjoying the company of my relatives and kin and indulging myself in intimate relationships with the members of my household. I tried to cultivate my moral mind, and yet at the same time I had to deal with the daily routines. Consequently, I allowed myself to be hindered without even realizing it. As soon as I left home and started traveling (lijia chuyou 離家出遊), I felt completely refreshed. In my exchanges with various scholar-officials I focused on nothing but this task [jiangxue], and in socializing with friends I talked about nothing but this question [moral cultivation]. When I was able to concentrate day and night, lazy thoughts and vain hopes had no chance to creep into my mind, while the mundane and vulgar (shiqing sutai 世情俗態) were completely blocked out. Of course, my spirits could thus focus much better. . . . A man should have ambitions that reach the far four corners between Heaven and Earth (tiandi sifang wei zhi 天地四方為志) rather than be content staying home.45

In Wang Ji’s mind, jia was a place where the daily and the mundane would lull a man into a state of moral paralysis. Furthermore, Wang Ji insisted that being with one’s friends was the best way to prevent those “feelings of easy contentment and lazy thoughts” (yan’an daiduo zhi qi 晏安怠惰之氣) from creeping into one’s mind.46 Both “feelings of easy contentment and lazy thoughts” and “the mundane and vulgar” in the previous quotation were apparently associated with the daily routines of family life that one must seek to break away from in order to engage in serious moral self-cultivation and bring all under Heaven into order.47 as Buddha Sakyamuni had done, traveled everywhere throughout his life, trying to seek soulmates for ultimate salvation (qiu chushi zhiji 求出世知己) for the sake of all under Heaven. Li Zhi, “Shu Huang’an er shangren shouce” 書黃安二上人手冊, in Li Zhi, Fenshu 焚書 3:132; reprinted in Fenshu, Xu Fenshu 焚書, 續焚書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975). 45)   Wang Ji, “Tianzhushanfang huiyu” 天柱山房會語, Wang Longxi quanji, 5:22a-b (38182). 46)   Wang Ji, “Liudu huiji” 留都會記, Wang Longxi quanji, 4:17a (309). 47)   For similar negative references to the concept of shiqing 世情 by Wang Ji, see his “Shuixi huiyue tici” 水西會約題詞 and “Huaiyu shuyuan huiyu” 懷玉書院會語, Wang Longxi

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That is to say, family could become an impediment on one’s spiritual journey towards achieving transcendence and ultimate sagehood. Despite his uneasiness with some of Wang Yangming’s teachings and especially those of his more radical followers, Gu Xiancheng, an active participant in jiangxue activities himself, was even more blunt in his emphasis on the importance of spending time with one’s comrades away from family. He explicitly characterized family (jiating 家庭) with its cozy and indulging atmosphere as a place where one could easily experience moral degeneration (zui yi duoluo 最易墮落) while insisting that jianghui provided the best nurturing environment where one was least likely to be plagued by the vulgar and petty concerns of the outside world (fanqing sutai 凡情俗態). 48 This anxiety over the negative influence of jia could be related to Wang Yangming’s teachings about the perfect moral state one should aspire to, namely, wanwu yiti 萬物一體 (forming one body with all things): The mind of a sage regards Heaven, Earth, and all things as one body. He looks upon all people of the world, whether inside or outside his family, whether far or near, all with blood and breath (xueqi 血氣), as his brothers and children. He wants to secure, preserve, educate, and nourish all of them, so as to fulfill his desire of forming one body with all things.49

What is emphasized here is the need to move beyond one’s self and the confines of one’s family. When commenting on the Confucian classic Daxue 大學(Great Learning), Wang Yangming agreed with earlier Confucian scholars’ interpretation of the title of this classic as meaning “the learning of great man,” but he went on to define the great man in the following way: “The great man regards Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things as one body. He regards the world as one family and the country quanji, 2:3a (161) and 2:17b (190). 48)   Gu Xiancheng, “Erhuo” 二惑, “Yuangui,” in Yan Jue, ed., Donglin shuyuan zhi; reprinted in Zhao Suosheng and Xue Zhengxing, Zhongguo lidai shuyuan zhi, vol. 7, 79. 49)   Wang Yangming, Chuanxi lu 傳習錄, Wang Yangming quanji, 54; Wing-tsit Chan, trans., Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yangming (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), 118. See also Lü Miaofen, Yangming xue shiren shequn, 314-18 for a brief discussion of the relationship between the theory of “forming one body with all under Heaven” and the pursuit of friendship among the jiangxue activists.

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as one body. As to those who make a cleavage between objects and distinguish the self and others, they are small men.” 50 From the above one could infer that for Wang Yangming a selfish “petty person” was someone who refused to regard the world as one family because he insisted on the distinctions between self and others and between people within his family and those without. To be a great man, in Wang Yangming’s view, one had to avoid being constrained by the interests of one’s own family. Taking a step further than his teacher, Wang Ji traced the origin of selfish desire to a man’s attachment to self and family (youshen youjia 有身有家) and to the selfish need to “fatten up one’s self and family” (feishen runjia 肥身潤家).51 Wang Ji argued that in order be able to form one body with all things one must expand the concept of jia to include everyone under Heaven. To justify the importance they attached to friends, many jiangxue activists liked to refer to Mencius’s famous remark on friendship: “The best gentleman in a village befriends all the good gentlemen in a village; the best gentleman in a country befriends all the good gentlemen in the country; the best gentleman under Heaven befriends all the good gentlemen under Heaven.”52 After associating selfish desire with the petty concerns with one’s self and family, Wang Ji slightly reworded this remark by Mencius and proposed a new and much expanded notion of family: “The best gentleman in a village regards the entire village as his own family; the best gentleman in a country regards the entire country as his own family; the best gentleman under Heaven regards all under Heaven as his own family.” 53 By doing so Wang Ji effectively associated Mencius’s shanshi 善士 (the best gentleman) with the need to move   Wang Yangming, “Daxue wen” 大學問, Wang Yangming quanji, 968; Chan, Instructions for Practical Living, 273. 51)   Wang Ji, “Huaiyu shuyuan huiyu,” Wang Longxi quanji, 2:16a-7b (187-190). For a discussion of Wang Yangming’s theory of “forming one body with all things” in the context of the development of Song-Ming neo-Confucianism, see Chen Lai 陳來, You wu zhi jing: Wang Yangming zhexue de jingshen 有無之境:王陽明哲學的精神 (Beijing: Renmin chuban­ she, 1991), 258-76. 52)   See, for example, Luo Hongxian, “Xie Luo Zheng’an gong” 謝羅整菴公 , Nian’an wenji, 2:33b, Feng Congwu, “Du Mengzi xia” 讀孟子下, Shaoxu ji, 3:51a-55a and Gu Xiancheng, “Lize yan” 麗澤衍, Donglin shuyuan zhi, 3.6b, in Zhao Suosheng and Xue Zhengxing, Zhongguo lidai shuyuan zhi, vol. 7, 206; see also Mencius, “Wanzhang zhangju xia,” Mengzi yizhu, trans. and anno. by Yang Bojun (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 251. 53)   Wang Ji, Wang Longxi quanji, 2.16a-16b. 50)

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beyond the confines of one’s own jia to embrace all under Heaven as members of one’s own family. The most radical reconceptualization of jia in terms of the need to embrace all people under Heaven was probably proposed by He Xinyin, a controversial activist within the School of the Mind. Echoing Wang Yangming’s idea of “forming one body with all things,” he elaborated on the Confucian concept of ren 仁 (benevolence or humanity) to underscore the need to move beyond one’s immediate family: For the humane man there is nothing not kindred to him. He enlarges his feeling of kinship relative to all, and sees kinship not only in the relation of father and son but in all relations worthy of the feeling of kinship, to the extent that all who have blood and breath (xueqi 血氣) are considered his kin, beyond which the feeling of kinship can be enlarged no further. Such a feeling of kinship enables him to broaden his dwelling place to encompass the dwelling places of all-under-Heaven, thus enabling him to manifest humanity.54

Putting his ideas into concrete actions, He Xinyin launched a series of clan reform programs in his hometown, trying to pool together and then redistribute resources within the clan on a collective and egalitarian basis. He was convinced that this was the most effective way to combat parochialism and selfishness, which he associated with people’s obsessions with the interests of their own jia. One of He Xinyin’s reform attempts was the establishment of the clan school named Juhe tang 聚和堂 (The Hall of Gathering and Harmony). The school was meant to be an educational as well as communal living environment where a student was required to reside away from his family. According to He, one of the main advantages of such a boarding school was that a youngster, in a communal environment away from his family and family tutors (siguan 私館 ), would be less likely to be bothered by selfish thoughts (sinian 私念).55 Like Wang Ji, He Xinyin argued that the self (shen 身) and family (jia 家) had to be assimilated into what he sometimes called hui 會 (association).56 Elsewhere he named this special hui as Kongzi jia 孔子家 or Zhongni jia   He Xinyin, “Shuoren” 說仁, He Xinyin ji, 28; English translation from Ronald Dimberg, The Sage and Society: the Life and Thought of Ho Hsin-yin (University of Hawaii Press, 1974), 75. 55)   He Xinyin, “Juhe shuaijiao yuzu liyu” 聚和率教諭族俚語, He Xinyin ji, 68. 56)   He Xinyin, “Yuhui” 語會, He Xinyin ji, 28-29 54)

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仲尼家 (Confucius’s family), a kind of communal association where the traditional nuclear family structure was deliberately abolished. One of the most important functions of this hui was intellectual debating.57 According to Geng Dingxiang 耿定向 (1524-96), an important con­ servative figure in the Xinxue school of neo-Confucianism, when He Xinyin was asked why he disregarded himself and was even willing to have his own family destroyed (huijia wangqu 毀家忘軀; since he spent his family fortune on projects such as the Hall of Gathering and Harmony), he replied: “Wang Yangming proposed the concept of innate knowledge (liangzhi 良知), but he only paid attention to mind, not shen 身 (body/self ); Wang Yangming’s disciple, Wang Gen 王艮 (14831540), emphasized the importance of shen, and yet he failed to pay enough attention to jia.” This is why He Xinyin attempted “to gather together those like-minded friends to form a Confucius’s family (juyou yi cheng Kongshi jia 聚友以成孔氏家).”58 He Xinyin arrived at the remark­ able conclusion that while the other four cardinal human relationships were all wanting in one way or another, only friendship excelled in enabling full communications and interactions among men, as men­ tioned at the beginning of this article.59 He Xinyin’s radical revalorization of friendship alarmed many conservatives, and he was accused of pursuing friendship at the expense of the other four cardinal human relationships.60 In his study of He Xinyin, Ronald Dimberg argues that He “represents a significant departure from the belief which grew up within Confucianism during and after the Han Dynasty that filial piety is the root of all virtue.” 61 Of course, departing from the orthodox Confucian belief that filial piety is the root of all virtue does not necessarily mean that He Xinyin was consciously disputing the virtue of filial piety itself. Probably no one among the jiangxue activists would question the   He Xinyin, “Yuanxue yuanjiang” 原學原講, He Xinyin ji, 15; see also “Deng Zizhai shuo”

57)

鄧自齋說, 48.

  Geng Dingxiang, “Lizhong sanyi zhuan” 里中三異傳, Geng Tiantai xiansheng wenji 耿天 臺先生文集 (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1970), 16:27b (1628).

58)

59)   He Xinyin, “Lunyou,” He Xinyin ji, 28. This is a view to be further developed by others as we will see below. 60)   As referred to by Li Zhi in his passionate defense of He Xinyin, “He Xinyin lun” 何心隱論, Fengshu, 3.90. 61)   Dimberg, The Sage and Society, 117.

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fundamental Confucian ethical logic that only a filial son could be a loyal minister or a true friend, a logic that refused to confront the un­avoidable conflicts between filiality and loyalty. However, the tensions between the need to form one body with all things under Heaven and the time-honored Confucian insistence on graded love (one should love one’s parents more than those of others and so forth) must have been aspects of a personal experience shared by many of these Confucian thinkers and activists, although very few were willing to openly confront the implications of such conflicting demands. 62 Given the sanctity of family in orthodox Confucian thinking, it is still quite remarkable that some Xinxue thinkers such as Wang Ji and espe­ cial­ly He Xinyin went as far as they did in promoting friendship, sometimes even at the expense of the other four cardinal human re­la­ tionships. Notwithstanding their reluctance to confront the possibility that one’s filiality toward parents could sometimes be in conflict with one’s loyalty to the throne or to one’s friends, many jiangxue enthusiasts had to come to terms with the consequences of such conflicts. For example, Luo Hongxian was accused by others of being unfilial when he did not suspend his jiangxue activities and continued to receive his friends during the mourning period for his deceased father.63 After all, Luo once declared in his famous “Dongyou ji” that “My parents gave me my body whereas it was my friends who helped me to fulfill my humanity; if I lack humanity then neither my spirit nor my body is authentic.” 64 At the age of sixty and without a son, when urged by others to take a concubine so that he could continue his family line, He Zhi 賀沚 (dates unknown), a disciple of Wang Shihuai 王時槐 (1522-1605; a jiangxue activist and follower of Wang Yangming’s teachings), declined. He argued that he had to devote himself to the spreading and transmitting 62)   See Chen Lai, You wu zhi jing, 268-273 for a discussion of Song-Ming neo-Confucian thinkers’ attempts to distinguish their concept of ren from Mozi’s 墨子 notion of jian’ai 兼 愛 (universal love), which Mencius had criticized. For Mencius’s critique of Mozi, see Mencius, “Teng wengong xia” 滕文公下 , Mengzi yizhu, trans. and anno. by Yang Bojun, 155. 63)   Wu Zhen, “Luo Hongxian lüe nianpu” 羅洪先略年譜, Nie Bao Luo Hongxian pingzhuan, 338-39. 64)   Luo Hongxian, Nian’an wenji, 5:17b-18a; also quoted by Hu Zhi in his “Nian’an xiansheng xingzhuan,” Henglu jingshe canggao, 23:8a-b.

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of the teachings of his mentor, a duty he considered even more important than the obligations of filiality to his father and loyalty to the throne. He Zhi chose to reside in the Xiyuan 西原 Academy so that he could devote himself completely to jiangxue while regarding his own home as only a guest house (shi qi jia ru keshe 視其家如客舍).65 In referring to their deceased wives in their memoirs, quite a few jiangxue activists felt the need to apologize for neglecting their families due to their being away so often and for so long.66 Luo Hongxian once returned from a long time away to find that his wife had passed away half a month earlier. Luo felt guilty for not being able to bid his wife a final farewell.67 In his eulogy for his wife, he made a specific reference to the fact that during the thirty-five years of their married life, for most of the time, he was either away pursuing learning or serving in various govern­ mental offices and that even when home he was often sick. Consequently, he lived with his wife (sleeping in the same bed) for only a few years (yu zi jushi zhe buguo shunian er 與子居室者不過數年耳) and, apparently, his wife did not complain at all.68 In a neo-Confucian’s eulogy for his deceased wife, such reference to her failure to complain about the lack of opportunity for conjugal pleasure due to the husband’s long absence or his disinterest in sex was often meant as a tribute to her wifely virtue. Wang Ji was even more explicit on this matter in his memoir about his wife: “My wife knew that I was not that interested in sex (dan yu yu 淡   Luo Dahong 羅大紘 (jinshi 1586), “He Dingzhai xiansheng qishi xu” 賀定齋先生七十 序, Ziyuan wenji 紫原文集, 5:15a-17a, reprinted in Siku jinhuishu congkan 四庫禁毀書叢 刊 (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 2000), vol. 139, 620-621; the case of He Zhi was also

65)

discussed by Lü Miaofen, Yangming xue shiren shequn, 132.   See, for example, Wang Ji, “Wangshi Chunyi Zhangshi Anren aici,” Wang Longxi quanji, 20:81a (1533), and Luo Hongxian, “Dian wangshi Zeng Ruren” 奠亡室曾孺人, Nian’an wenji 17:48b-49a; see also Lü Miaofen, “Funü yu Mingdai lixue de xingming zuiqiu” 婦女與 明代理學的性命追求, in Luo Jiurong 羅久蓉, ed. , Wusheng zhi sheng III: Jindai Zhongguo de funü yu wenhua, 1600-1950 無聲之聲 III: 近代中國的婦女與文化,1600-1950 (Taipei: Zhongyan yanjiu yuan jindai shi yanjiu suo, 2003), 148-50 and her book Yangming xue shiren shequn, 309-10. Such regrets of neglecting one’s family could also be found in the late Ming controversial thinker, Li Zhi. The conflict between familial obligation and passion for friendship as exhibited in Li Zhi is an interesting and complex topic, see my paper “Passion for Friends, Li Zhi’s Tragedy” (Paper presented at the Symposium on “Passion and Pleasure in Chinese Literature,” University of Chicago, May 27-28, 2006). 67)   Luo Hongxian, “Yu Liu Renshan” 與劉仁山, Nian’an wenji, 4:17b; see also Wu Zhen, “Luo Hongxian lüe nianpu,” Nie Bao Luo Hongxian pingzhuan, 355-56. 68)   Luo Hongxian, “Dian wangshi Zeng Ruren,” Nian’an wenji, 17:48. 66)

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于慾), and she gave up bedchamber pleasure (ge chuangdi zhi ai 割床第 之愛) without any complaint.”69 To show his devotion to his friends, another jiangxue enthusiast, Zhou Rudeng 周汝登 (1547-1629), claimed that he would not mind at all abstaining from sex for a long period just in order to be with his friends more often: Throughout my life, I have derived great happiness from friendship and benefited tremendously from friends. When I was studying for the examinations, we eight or nine people grouped together, becoming really close friends. I would not mind neglecting the matters on the farm for an entire year so long as we could often get together in study; I would not mind abstaining from bedchamber pleasure (bujin fangshi 不近房室) for half a year so long as I could see my friends every day.70

A central message implied in these references to bedchamber pleasure seems to be that such pleasure was important to a woman and, therefore, the willingness to give it up was considered a strong testimony to that woman’s wifely virtue. On the other hand, sex somehow appeared to be detrimental to Confucian manhood. A man with “the aspiration of the four corners of the earth (sifang zhi zhi 四方之志),” such as Wang Ji, was not supposed to take much interest in sex, since manliness was often associated with what was beyond the family (wai 外) whereas femininity was associated with what lay inside the family (nei 內).71 However, in traditional China, besides his wife (or wives) and children, a man’s parents were an even more important part of his family. While leaving a wife at home and showing little interest in conjugal pleasure were acceptable or even celebrated by some as an act of man­ liness, leaving parents to travel afar proved to be much more contro­ versial. Confucius was believed to have said: “While your parents are alive, you should not go too far afield in your travels. If you do, your whereabouts should always be known.” 72 That same Zhou Rudeng, who,   Wang Ji, “Wangshi Chunyi Zhangshi Anren aici,” 20:82a.   Zhou Rudeng, “Ti youren shuzha” 題友人書札, Dongyue zhengxue lu東越證學錄 (Tai­ pei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1970), 9:6a (697). 71)   The view that the lack of interest in sex was a hallmark of a man’s manliness was quite prevalent in traditional Chinese literature; see my book Negotiating Masculinities in Late Imperial China, 93-95, 107-109 and 166; see also my discussion in the Introduction to this issue. 72)   Yang Bojun, trans. and anno. , “Liren” 里仁, Lunyu yizhu 論語譯註 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 40; D. C. Lau, trans. The Analects, 74. 69) 70)

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as we have seen, once claimed that he would sacrifice almost everything (including conjugal happiness) for the opportunity to be with his friends had a much more cautious view as to whether one could leave his parents to travel afar to pursue learning and friendship. He basically argued that a man mustn’t travel afar unless it was something planned with the blessing of the parents; the need to be filial to his parents (shunqin 順親) remained his most important obligation.73 The Rethinking of Wulun Many Ming neo-Confucian thinkers attempting to elevate the status of friendship among the five cardinal human relationships tend to find their support in Mencius, who proclaimed that “father and son should not demand goodness from each other [bu zeshan 不責善; for fear of the sacred father-son relationship being strained]” and that “it was for friends to demand goodness from each other.”74 That is to say, rather than one’s father, a man’s friends were those to whom he should turn if he hoped to improve himself morally, thus the ultimate justification for the need of friends. Wang Yangming, in one of his letters to his disciples, asked them to supervise his younger brothers because he believed that “due to the deep attachment between father and son and between brothers, demanding goodness of each other among one’s family members is more difficult. Such tasks should be entrusted to teachers and friends.”75 For another jiangxue activist, Lü Kun 呂坤 (1538-1618), however, no one, not even a teacher, could be more effective in “demanding goodness” of a person than his friends: Friendship is a very important relationship and this is why it is grouped together with other important relationships, such as those between a ruler and his minister and between father and son, to constitute the so-called “five cardinal human relationships.” It would be difficult for a man to have great successes in life without friends. A prince is someone who rules people with regulations and laws; a father,

  Zhou Rudeng, “Ti yishi you” 題一室游, Dongyue zhengxue lu, 9:22b-23b.   Yang Bojun, trans. and anno., “Lilou” 離婁, Mengzi yizhu, 178 and 200; D. C. Lau, trans. Mencius, 125 and 135 75)   Wang Yangming, “Yu Qian Dehong Wang Ruzhong” 與錢德洪王汝中, Wang Yangming quanji, 6.224. 73) 74)

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who loves his children, finds it difficult to always demand goodness of his son; brothers cherish harmony and they would not want to hurt each other’s feelings by debating; women have to do chores at home and cannot follow their husbands and keep an eye on them all the time; to persuade his father to correct his mistakes, a son, though willing to argue, would not risk the blame of being unfilial; in the presence of a teacher, one tends to control oneself and conceal one’s shortcomings; at home, being intimate and loving, people usually avoid talking about serious topics. Only with friends does one spend so much time every day unlike seeing a teacher only for a limited period of time; only with friends can one speak freely without many taboos as one would have in the presence of one’s father or brothers. . . . This is why friendship is what the other four cardinal human relationships rely on!76

Lü Kun here is not challenging the Confucian insistence on the need for graded love, but he seems to be suggesting that a friend plays probably the most crucial role in creating a morally edifying environment for a man, thus the importance of friendship as one of the five cardinal human relationships. Lü Kun’s friend, Gu Xiancheng, offered an even more persuasive argument about the importance of friendship in the context of the five cardinal human relationships. After attempting to justify jiangxi 講習 (philosophical debates; more literally, debating and practicing) by finding support in the Confucian classic Book of Changes, Gu asks: Why only emphasize the importance of jiangxi among friends? This is because all other four cardinal human relationships such as those between ruler and minister, father and son, husband and wife, and between older brother and younger brother, respectively, cover only one single area of human interactions, whereas friendship could aid human interactions in all areas. The moral obligations between ruler and minister, the love between father and son, the distinctions between husband and wife, and the order of seniority between brothers are ethical concepts that deal with each specific area of human relationships, whereas jiangxi covers all of these areas. Besides, human affairs could be so complicated that there often are topics that one would find difficult to talk about with one’s superiors, one’s parents, brothers, and wife but easy to discuss with one’s friends. Human feelings could be so subtle and vary so much that one often could not seek understanding from one’s superior, one’s parents, brothers, and wife, and yet only one’s friend could show deep undersstanding since he is likely to be more attentive to specific situations.   Lü Kun, “Lunli” 倫理, Shenyin yu 呻吟語, in Wu Chengxue 吳承學 and Li Guangmo 李 光摩, eds., Shenyin yu, Caigen tan、菜根譚(Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2000), 35-

76)

6.

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  By now we can conclude that without friends all other four human relationships could not be fully fulfilled. Without jiangxi true friendship could not be cultivated. Furthermore, what is emphasized in ruler-minister relationship is reverence; what is emphasized in relationships between father and son, husband and wife, and older brother and younger brother is attachment. With such emphases, bias is unavoidaable. When bias arises, problems are bound to happen. This is where friendship comes into play: it enables these relationships to become fully successful. When a ruler and his ministers become friends, they can discuss issues fruitfully. When father and son become friends, the son is being properly educated while the father is also receiving sound suggestions from his son. When husband and wife become friends, they enjoy a loving relationship. When brothers become friends, they live in perfect harmony.77

Here Gu Xiancheng is basically arguing that friendship is important because true friendship is the model everyone should emulate in their dealings with other kinds of human relationships. Precisely because of such perceived moral efficacy of friendship, Gu Xiancheng even asserted elsewhere: “A man is going to regress (morally) if he spends too much time with his wife (or wives) and children while spending too little time with his friends.”78 Just as one begins to wonder how much further friendship could be promoted within the rhetorical limits of the Confucian ethical discourses that were supposed to sanctify state and family almost exclusively, here came Gu Dashao 顧大韶 (b. 1576), a relatively obscure late Ming scholar, who, in fact, went even much further. Gu Dashao authored a group of five essays under the title “Daring Words” (fangyan 放言), with each focusing on one of the five relationships,79 a fairly elaborate and 77)   “Lize yan,” Donglin shuyuan zhi, 3.6b-7a, in Zhao Suosheng and Xue Zhengxing, Zhongguo lidai shuyuan zhi, vol. 7, 206. Portions of this quoted passage are also translated by McDermott in his “Friendship and Its Friends,” 81-2. My translation is, however, substantially different because I do not see in the original text the kind of strong sense of equality as McDermott has apparently seen. Personally, I believe McDermott has probably made Gu Xiancheng’s view on friendship more “modern” as well as “Western” than it actually was. 78)   Quoted in Zhu Tingdan, Guangyou lun, 1:8b. 79)   The term fangyan could be found in “Weizi” 微子, Lunyu, which D. C. Lau translates (as a verb) as giving “free reign to words” (The Analects, 151); see also Yang Bojun, Lunyu yizhui, 197. Elsewhere, Gu Dashao used the phrase fangyan zifei 放言自廢 (writing and talking without constraints while choosing the life of withdrawal) to characterize himself, in “Da Weng Ziceng meizhang shu” 答翁子澄妹丈書, Bingzhu zhai gao 炳燭齋稿 (a 1840 manuscript copy reprinted in Siku Jinhuishu congkan), vol. 104, 540. Gu Dashao apparently had in mind Zhu Xi’s use of this phrase in the latter’s comments on the section of “Weizi” in

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systematic attempt to rethink the entire Confucian ethical concept of wulun. In the second essay, which is on friendship, he wrote: Father is someone to whom you owe [your] body while a friend is someone to whom you owe [your] heart. The body, if it does not die prematurely, can live no longer than one hundred years. When it dies, the father and son relationship will cease to exist. However, the heart is something that lasts forever, and it will never die. Mingjiao 名教 [Confucian teachings on social order and rituals] give priority to the relationship between ruler and minister. For the sake of righteousness, one could disregard mingjiao because, if a ruler is not righteous, one could choose not to serve him. Renqing 人情 (common sentiments and social conventions) give priority to the relationship between father and son. If sentiments and conventions are disregarded, one would have to return one’s bones to one’s father and one’s flesh to one’s mother. Zhenxin 真心 (genuine heart) is what makes one give priority to friendship. As far as heart is concerned, it cannot be duplicated. This is why friendship is the most essential among the five cardinal human relationships (wulun zhi gang 五倫之綱). . . . The body that one owes to another person will eventually perish, whereas the heart that one owes to another person will never die. We can prove this with some common examples: When one feels frustrated in dealing with the ruler-minister relationship, one would sometimes turn to confide in friends; when one feels frustrated in relationships with one’s father and brothers, one would sometimes turn to confide in friends; one would discuss with friends those innermost thoughts or private feelings that one even might not want to talk about with one’s own wife. The fact that friendship is the most important human relationship should become obvious by now. Someone might say if this is indeed the case—that one’s brothers are not as important as one’s friends—then this may be the view that ancient people criticized. This is absolutely not what I have been trying to argue.80 I am only suggesting that friendship transcends the concept of five cardinal human relationships (chao wulun 超五倫) and it is actually what helps to fulfill these relationships (cheng wulun 成五倫). I am not suggesting that it is a force that disrupts these relationships.81 Lunyu; see Zhu Xi, Lunyu zhang ju jizhu 論語章句集註 (Shanghai and Hefei: Shanghai guji chubanshe and Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe, 2001), 218. 80)   In fact, according to his friend, Qian Qianyi 錢謙益 (1582-1664), this was exactly what Gu Dashao argued elsewhere. See Qian Qianyi, “Gu Zhonggong zhuan” 顧仲恭傳, Chuxue ji初學集, juan 72, in Qian Zhonglian 錢仲聯, ed., Qian Qianyi quanji 錢謙益全集 (Nanjing: Fenghuang chubanshe, 2004), 1611. 81)   Gu Dashao, “Fangyan er” 放言二, Bingzhu zhai gao, 530-531; see also his view on the differences between you 友 (friend) and ke 客 (retainer/guest), “Youke bian” 友客辨, Bingzhu zhai gao, 528-529. Gu Dashao argued (529) that one’s relationship with ke or retainer/guest (also known as menxia ke 門下客) was a relationship between an employer and an employee, whereas one’s relationship with a friend was based on shared views and aspirations. A retainer was invited to stay in one’s jia like a guest, and was provided for in

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By associating friendship and the relationships between father and son and between ruler and minister with zhenxin, renqing, and mingjiao, respectively, Gu Dashao is proclaiming that friendship is the most important because it possesses the ultimate power of transcendence (it never dies since it comes from the heart) that the other two traditionally important relationships do not have. Elsewhere, Gu suggests that the ruler-minister relationship starts with yi義 (righteousness) but is finally fulfilled in terms of li 利 (self-interest and profit) and that it is almost a contractual relationship that one could choose to terminate if it fails to work out in terms of li and yi. It is not a life-long relationship as that between father and son since the latter is a relationship that does not end until one dies (one owes one’s body to his father),82 whereas friendship simply defies life and death. Here we are reminded of the late Ming rhetoric of the cult of qing 情 (passion or feelings) as found in the writings of Gu’s contemporary, the famous dramatist Tang Xianzu 湯顯 祖 (1550-1616).83 Gu Dashao further defines friendship as a voluntary relationship of one’s own choice that is based on mutual trust (keze er buke fu 可擇而不 可負) in sharp contrast to the relationship between ruler-minister and, to a lesser degree, the relationship between husband and wife, because both of these relationships are motivated by self-interest: A ruler and his minister come together due to the consideration of their respective selfinterests (yi li he 以利合), whereas husband and wife become bound with each other thanks to mutual physical attraction (yi se he 以色合).84 Unlike the other relationships, friendship, based on one’s “genuine heart,” is an act of volition. One could discuss with a friend what he would hesitate to talk about with one’s superiors, brothers, and even wife. Friendship provides one with unique opportunities for the kind of return for his service, whereas friendship was a relationship based on mutual understanding between two individuals that had little to do with jia (you qi ren ze wang qi jia 友其人則忘 其家). 82)   Gu Daoshao, “Fangyan yi” 放言一, Bingzhu zahi gao, 529. Elsewhere in Bingzhu zhai gao (“Shou Fangmu mu taifuren bashi xu” 壽房母某太夫人八十序, 609), Gu Dashao dwelled on the tensions between filiality and loyalty, a topic not many Confucians were eager to explore. 83)   For a discussion of the late Ming cult of qing, see my book Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001), 23-56. 84)   Gu Daoshai, “Fangyan si” 放言四, Bingzhu zhai gao, 533.

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emotional fulfillment otherwise unavailable. This is why Gu argues that friendship transcends other relationships. Consequently, the hierarchical order traditionally assumed in the concept of wulun is now being deliberately inverted, with friendship becoming the most important and the ruler-minister relationship the least authentic.85 Remarkably, in his promotion of friendship, Gu Dashao has done much more than explicitly questioning the authenticity of the ruler-minister relationship in comparison with the other relationships in the wulun. According to him, even the sacred father-son relationship is found lacking when compared with friendship, since the former it is limited by life and death. His qualifying remarks at the end of the passage quoted above only belie the radical nature of his painstaking effort to rethink the concept of wulun. Gu Dashao is otherwise un­­ apologetic in his overall friendship rhetoric. Unlike Lü Kun or even Gu Xiancheng, Gu Dashao does not feel the need to defend friendship by appealing to its function of “demanding goodness” (zeshan 責善; that is, its effective role in moral cultivation). Friendship is celebrated for its own sake. It is the most important among the five cardinal human relationships simply because it comes from the heart, and thus is the most natural and authentic. This is why friendship does not even need the help of ming jiao for its fulfillment as the relationships between ruler and minister and between husband and wife apparently do.86 Gu Dashao has presented here an unprecedented “ontology” for friendship, perhaps pushing the late Ming cult of friendship to its ultimate limits.87 After ‘Jiangxue’ So far I have mainly focused on the role of jiangxue in the rise of the status of friendship in late Ming culture. Gu Dashao, however, happened   We can find echoes of this view in the writings by the more prominent Donglin figure Chen Longzheng 陳龍正 (1585-1645). Chen argued that there was an element of self-interest in both ruler-minister and husband-wife relationships. See “Renqing xia” 人情下, “Xueyan xiangji shi’er” 學言祥記十二, Jiting quanshu 幾亭全書, 15:3b; reprinted in Siku jinhuishu congkan, vol. 11, 39. 86)   Gu Dashao, “Fangyan si,” Bingzhu zhai gao, 533. 87)   Another person trying to push the limits was Li Zhi (see my paper “Passion for Friends”), of whom Gu was apparently an admirer since he edited and wrote a preface to a collection of Li’s essays; see Gu Daoshao, “Wenling ji xu” 溫陵集序, Bingzhu zhai ji, 546. 85)

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to be someone not actively involved in jiangxue activities. Here it might be fitting to conclude the article with a closer look at Gu’s personal life to explore the possible reasons for his rather daring attempts to “push the envelope” on the issue of friendship during a time when the jiangxue movement was already beginning to lose its momentum. Among all the important Ming figures whose views on friendship I have discussed so far, Gu Dashao was most likely the only one who failed to acquire degrees in the civil service examinations beyond that of a xiucai 秀才 (licentiate).88 He would probably have remained more obscure had he not had a famous twin brother Gu Dazhang 顧大章 (1576-1625). Gu Dazhang was one of the widely celebrated Six Martyrs (liu junzi 六君 子), who were persecuted to death by the henchmen of the notorious eunuch Wei Zhongxian 魏忠賢 (1568-1627).89 I could not find any direct evidence suggesting that Gu Dashao was actively involved in the jiangxue movement, although his brother Gu Dazhang was usually considered a Donglin member by virtue of his strong opposition to Wei Zhongxian. However, Gu Dashao’s teacher, Guan Zhidao 管志道 (15361608), a member of the Taizhou school of Xinxue neo-Confucianism, was a jiangxue activist.90 Reading through Gu Dashao’s extant works,   He Xinyin was another exception. However, unlike Gu Dashao, He Xinyin, a utopian activist, never cared much about examination success. Completely devoted to the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, Xinxue neo-Confucians such as Wang Ji were not particularly interested in examination successes either. In fact, Wang Ji took the examinations for the jinshi degree only after he was told by his mentor Wang Yangming that a jinshi degree would aid the spread of the Xinxue among people; see Fang Zuqiu, Wang Ji pingzhuan, 20-21. The sons of Wang Gen, following their father’s instructions, even refused to take the examinations. See Gong Jie 龔杰, Wang Gen pingzhuan 王艮評傳 (Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 2001), 151. Unlike these Xinxue activists, Gu Dashao’s setbacks in the examination halls were a major source of frustration in his life. The bitter disappointment became even more difficult for him to swallow because he would have passed the provincial examination not for the bizarre reason that he did almost too well: the chief examiner wanted to place Gu second while the co-examiner was so impressed and so adamant about his being placed first that he would have Gu retake the exams next time rather than “wrong” him with a second place; see the preface to Gu’s collected writings by his student, Qian Luchan 錢陸燦, “Bingzhu zhai ji xu” 炳燭齋集序, Bingzhu zhai gao, 504. 89)   Gu Dashao provided a detailed biographical sketch of his twin brother Gu Dazhang in his memoir “Xianxiong Shanxi ancaisi fusi ceng Taipu si shaoqing cenke fujun xingzhuang” 先 兄陜西按察司副使贈太僕寺少卿塵客府君行狀, Bingzhu zhai gao, 591-96. 90)   Gu Dashao wrote an essay in honor of the eightieth birthday of Guan Zhidao’s wife, in which he praised his teacher for his deep attachment to his wife and his pursuit of friendship with his comrades. This, according to Gu, was a relatively rare case of “not neglecting the husband88)

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Bingzhu zhai gao 炳燭齋稿 (Manuscript from the Studio of Candlelight) and Bingchu zhai suibi 炳燭齋隨筆 (Random notes from the Studio of Candlelight),91 I could find few references to jiangxue or to those philo­ sophical issues, such as sagehood and self-cultivation, that fasci­nated many Ming neo-Confucian thinkers.92 In this regard, Gu Dashao was quite different from many of the literati promoters of friendship mentioned so far. In his biography of Gu Dashao, the scholar-official and poet Qian Qianyi 錢謙益 (1582-1664) emphasized Gu’s achievements as a scholar of Confucian classics (jingxue 經學).93 As a late Ming enthusiast of friendship, Gu Dashao anticipated the changing intellectual milieu at the turn of the seventeenth century: many were gradually turning away from the speculative and abstract thinking of the Xinxue neo-Confucianism to more pragmatic scholarship, a new trend that was to dominate the Chinese intellectual world of the next two centuries or so. For many literati frustrated in the examination halls, such as Gu Dashao, seeking friendship from the like-minded almost became a viable career alternative to officialdom.94 Qian Qianyi characterized Gu Dashao wife relationship” among the Ming neo-Confucians, since these two kinds of relationships often appeared to be in conflict with each other (an issue we have already explored above). See Gu Dashao, “Shou Guanmu Chen taifuren bashi xu” 壽管母陳太夫人八十序, Bingzhu zhai gao, 603. 91)   Bingchu zhai suibi is reprinted in Xuxiu Siku quanshu 續修四庫全書(Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995), vol. 1133. 92)   In Chen Ding 陳鼎, Donglin liezhuan 東林列傳 (Siku quanshu ed.), a brief biographical sketch of Gu Dashao is attached to the biography of his brother Gu Dazhang. Chen Ding wrote that Dashao was known for his neo-Confucian learning (yi lixue ming 以理學名; 3:21a) and yet, his extant works Bingzhu zhai gao and Bingzhu zhai shuibi provide little evidence to validate this claim. However, Chen Ding (3:22b) also made known that Bingzhu zhai gao was in part the result of the author’s own careful selection, and that the rest of his writings were probably burned by himself late in his life. According to Gu Dashao’s disciple, Qian Luchan, Bingzhu zhai gao was based on the twenty-four pieces selected by Gu himself (in fact only 23 collected in this work) as well as some other pieces his son collated from various sources (“Bingzhu zhai ji xu,” Bingzhu zhai gao, 504). Even if Gu Dashao had written on these issues, we could probably infer that he apparently did not want himself to be remembered as a neo-Confucian. The late Qing printed edition of Gu Zhonggong wenji 顧仲 恭文集(N. P., Guexue fulunshe 國學扶輪社, 1909) was probably based on a similar earlier printed edition, which must also have been the source text for the 1840 manuscript edition Bingzhu zhai gao since the former contains virtually the similar pieces although occasionally there are missing characters and changed wordings. 93)   Qian Qianyi, “Gu Zhonggong zhuan,” Chuxue ji, juan 72, in Qian Qianyi quanji, 1610-19. 94)   Zhu Tingdan, Gu Dashao’s contemporary, was another enthusiast of friendship whose

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as “indiscriminate in making friends” (jiao bu zeren 交不擇人). Qian specifically pointed out that in interpreting the Confucian classic Shijing 詩經 (Book of poetry) Gu insisted that friendship was more authentic than the other four relationships, such as those between father and son or between brothers.95 Obviously, for Gu Dashao, seeking friendship became a career in itself. Appreciation from friends could help com­ pensate for what he had failed to achieve in career. In his biography, Qian Qianyi quoted one of Gu’s long poems in full and discussed in detail his scholarship because Qian was concerned that Gu, a great scholar, might otherwise be completely forgotten by posterity.96 This is an example in which a friend testified to Gu’s scholarly achievement despite his failures in the examinations and being overshadowed by his twin brother. Qian and others mentioned that Gu Dashao might have been constantly bothered by the painful fact that he had always to live in the shadow of his famous brother. In contrast to the very handsome Dazhang, who passed the metropolitan examinations and became a high official and finally died a national martyr, Dashao, who seldom dressed cleanly, was a failure in almost every way in which his twin brother was a frustrations in the examination hall might be a key factor in his heightened interest in the issue of friendship. Zhu compiled an anthology titled Guangyou lun 廣友論 (On expanded friendship), which was made of observations and anecdotes on friendship culled from various sources. Zhu suffered repeated setbacks in the examinations and twice he had to be content with being a fugong 副貢 (tribute student) respectively in 1624 and 1627. See “Kegong” 科 貢, in the Jiashan xianzhi嘉善縣志 (1892 ed.), 16:20a-b; reprinted in Zhongguo defang zhi congshu 中國地方志叢書(Taipei: Chengwen chubanshe, 1970), 302; Zhu later became a disciple of Kao Panlong 高攀龍 (1562-1626), an important Donglin figure; see the biographical sketches of Zhu Tingdan, in the “Wenyuan” 文苑 section of Jiashan xianzhi 嘉 善縣志 (1677 ed., Nanjing Library), 9:5a-b, and in the 1892 edition, 24:8b (page 459). For discussions of Zhu Tingdan and his views of friendship as reflected in Guangyou lun, see McDermott, “Friendship and Its Friends in the Late Ming.” McDermott, however, refers to Guanyou lun as Guangyou lu. McDermott (“Friendship and Its Friends,” 88), I think, is also wrong in saying that Zhu won his jinshi degree in 1624, because it was in that year Zhu was granted the status of fugong after failing to pass the provincial examinations. Zhu Tingdan’s repeated examination setbacks were also pointed out by his friend Li Chenyu 李陳玉, who was the magistrate of Jiashan county (Zhu’s native place) from 1634 to 1640, in his preface to another work by Zhu Tingdan, Daojian lu 擣堅錄 (microfilm copy of the 1634 edition, in the Rare books National Library Peiping. Washington D. C.: the Library of Congress Photo duplication Service). 95)   Qian Qianyi, “Gu Zhonggong zhuan,” 1611. Gu Dashao acknowledged that he liked to befriend those usually considered by others to be eccentric and unconventional; see his “Shou Ye Maoan qishi xu” 壽葉茂菴七十序, Bingzhu zhai gao, 607. 96)   Qian Qianyi, “Gu Zhonggong zhuan,” 1619.

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success.97 We have enough reason to suspect that in Gu Dashao’s case, friends offered more in terms of psychological and emotional support than moral self-improvement as so often was promoted in typical Confucian defense of friendship (a rhetoric shared by many jiangxue activists as we have already seen). Gu Dashao argued that Confucius had to seek solace from the company of his friends thanks to his frustrations in dealing with ruler-minister and husband-wife relationships (namely, at that time, few states were interested in Confucius’s service, and his wife was far inferior in terms of virtue and talent; Confucius did not marry again after the death of his wife).98 For Gu, having appreciative friends was almost an existential need. This may help explain at least in part why Gu Dashao was so unapologetic in his promotion of friendship and put so much emphasis on its unique capacity for emotional ful­ fillment. With the diminishing popularity of the Xinxue school of neoConfucianism and the waning enthusiasm for the pursuit of sagehood, Gu Dashao attempted to legitimate friendship in a different way. What motivated him to seek friends was not the appeal of sagehood but his desperate need for intellectual recognition and emotional companion­ ship. It is true that among educated males at that time, the case of Gu Dashao as an examination failure was by no means unique, and yet, few among those having suffered setbacks in the examinations were as innovative in promoting friendship as he was. The combination of his frustrated life experience and the particular intellectual milieu of his times helped fashion his friendship theories. In other words, in em­­ phasizing the role of his frustrated life and in noting his differences from other Ming neo-Confucians in terms of his bold views on friendship, I should also point out that living at a juncture when the popularity of jianhui was just beginning to wane and when another kind of literati association, wenshe 文社 (literary clubs or, more specifically, essay clubs),

  According to Qian Qianyi (“Gu Zhonggong zhuan, 1611) and Chen Ding (Donglin liezhuan, 3.21a.), Gu Dashao often looked at his own reflection in the mirror and asked himself: “Gu Zhonggong, are you just like this?” See also Gu Dashao’s own “Ziti xiang zhan” 自題像贊, Bizhu zhai gao, 601. 98)   Gu Daoshao, “Shou Guanmu Chen taifuren bashi xu” , Bingzhu zhai gao, 603. 97)

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was about to reach the peak of its popularity,99 Gu Dashao probably could not have celebrated friendship with such audacity without the unprecedented Confucian legitimacy and the alternative sphere friend­ ship found as a result of the jiangxue movement. Gu was associated with many members of the last generation of jiangxue enthusiasts (such as his teacher Guan Zhidao) so that he was familiar with and probably in­­ fluenced by their friendship rhetoric, and yet, at the same time, he was also detached enough from them to develop his different views on various intellectual issues based on his own experiences. The significance of Gu Dashao as a transitional figure and the innovativeness of his views on friendship have to be appreciated in the context of the post-jiangxue era. Friendship was about to assume an even more prominent and more practical role in the lives of a large group of literati who were trying, on an unprecedented scale, to exert their influence on national politics as well as local affairs through elaborate networks of friends.100   If jianghui was an assembly for philosophical debate, popular among the Ming neoConfucians, wenshe was a term usually referring to those essay clubs where literati were engaged in more leisured cultural activities such as honing examination essay writing skills. Much less philosophical than jianghui, some of the essay clubs became increasingly political during the early seventeenth century when the famous Fushe 復社 (Restoration society) emerged on the national political scene. Not much has been written about the intimate relationship between jianghui and wenshe. To the best of my knowledge, the only exception is He Zongmei 何宗美, Mingmo Qingchu wenren jieshe yanjiu明末清初文人結社研究 (Tianjin: Nankai daxue chubanshe, 2001), 122-129. He Zongmei argues that by the late Ming the distinctions between these two kinds of literati associations were becoming less clear. Indeed, many literati participated in both jianghui and various essay clubs. I tend to think, however, that jianghui was probably superceded by wenshe as the more favored form of assembly among the literati during the early seventeenth century, as the School of the Mind movement was losing its momentum. There was evidence that Gu Dashao was actively involved in wenshe activities; see Gu Dashao “Ti Hualin she cao” 題華林社草, Bingzhu zhai gao, 554. In the case of Zhu Tingdan, many of his prominent contemporaries such as Chen Longzheng and Qian Shisheng 錢士升 (1575-1652) addressed themselves as shedi 社弟 (club brothers) in their prefaces to his Guangyou lun and Daojian lu, testifying to the popularity of wenshe at that time as well as to the value of friendships formed in such literati assemblies. 100)   Some of Gu Dashao’s students were key members of the influential literati association Fushe. Qian Luchan, “Bingzhu zhai ji xu,” 504. For a general discussion in English of the Fushe and late Ming politics, see Atwell, William. “From Education to Politics: the Fushe,” In Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed., The Unfolding of Neo-Confuciansim (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), 333-68. In his book Ming Qing wenren jieshe yanjiu, He Zongmei contends (177) that the development of the Fushe was in fact a process through which its members gradually expanded their networks of friends. Personal friendships had a crucial role in the formation of the Fushe. Literati friendship and wenshe are a complicated topic that has to be explored on another occasion. 99)

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A Selected Bibliography of Secondary Sources Martin W. Huang

(University of California, Irvine)

Atwell, William. “From Education to Politics: The Fushe,” in Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed., The Unfolding of Neo-Confuciansim (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), pp. 333-368. Black, Alison. “Gender and Cosmology in Chinese Correlative Thinking,” in Caroline Walker Bynum, Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman, eds., Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), pp. 166-195 Bai, Qianshen 白谦慎. Fu Shan de jiaowang he yingchou: yishu shehui shi de yixiang ge’an yanjiu 傅山的交往和應酬:藝術社會史的一項個案研究 (Fu Shan’s socializing activities: a case study in the social history of art) (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2003). ———. Fu Shan’s World: The Transformation of Chinese Calligraphy in the SeventeenthCentury China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center 2003). Bossler, Beverly. “Faithful Wives and Heroic Maidens: Politics, Virtue, and Gender in Song China,” in Deng Xiaonan 鄧小南, Gao Shiyu 高世瑜 and Rong Xinjiang 榮新 江, eds., Tang Song nüxing yu shehui 唐宋女性與社會 (Women and society in Tang and Song China) (Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 2003), pp. 751-84. ———. “Gender and Empire: A View from Yuan China,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34.1 (2004): 197-223. Bray, Alan. The Friend (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003). Bristow, Joseph. Effeminate England: Homoerotic Writings after 1885 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995). Brook, Timothy. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Cambridge, MA: Council on Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1993). Brownell, Susan and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds. Chinese Femininities/Chinese Masculinities: A Reader (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). Carlitz, Katherine. “The Daughter, the Singing-Girl, and the Seduction of Suicide,” Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in Early and Imperial China 3.1 (2001): 24-44. ———. “Shrine, Governing-Class Identity and the Cult of Widow-Fidelity in MidMing Jiangnan,” Journal of Asian Studies 56.3 (1997): 612-640. Carter, Philip. Men and the Emergence of Polite Society, Britain 1660-1800 (Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 2001). © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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Chen Baoliang 陳寶良. Mingdai ruxue shengyuan yu defang shehui 明代儒學生員與地 方社會 (Confucian students and local society in Ming China) (Beijing: Shehui kexue chubanshe, 2005). Clunas, Craig. Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470-1559 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004). Dardess, John W.. Blood and History in China : The Donglin Faction and its Repression, 1620-1627 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002). Davis, Adrian. “Fraternity and Fratricide in Late Imperial China,” The American Historical Review, 106.5 (2000): 1630-1640. Elman, Benjamin. A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000). Fei Chengkang 費成康, ed. Zhongguo de jiafa zugui 中國的家法族規 (Chinese family and clan rules) (Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 1998). Fei Siyan 費絲言. You dianfan dao guifan: cong Mingdai zhenjie lienü de bianshi yu liuchuan kan zhenjie guannian de yange hua 由典範到規範:從明代貞節烈女的辨 識與流傳看貞節觀念的嚴格化 (From the exemplary to the prescriptive: the increasingly rigid views on female chastity in Ming dynasty) (Taipei: Taida chuban weiyuanhui, 1998). Furth, Charlotte. “Androgynous Males and Deficient Females: Biology and Gender Boundaries in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century China,” Late Imperial China 9.2 (1988): 1-31. Guo Shaoyu 郭紹虞, “Mingdai de wenren jituan” 明代的文人集團 (Literati associations in Ming dynasty), in Guo Shaoyu, Zhaoyu shi gudian wenxue lunji 照隅室古典文學 論集 (Collected writings on classical literature from the Studio of Zhaoyu) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1984), pp. 518-610. Guo Yingde 郭英德. Zhongguo gudai wenren jituan yu wenxue fengmao 中國古代文人 集團與文學風貌 (Literati associations and literature in traditional China) (Beijing: Beijing shifan daxue chubanshe, 1998). Hall, David L. and Roger T. Ames, “Confucian Friendship: The Road to Religiousness,” in Leroy S. Rouner, ed., The Changing Face of Friendship (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), pp. 79-94. He Zongmei 何宗美. Gong’an pai jieshe kaolun 公安派結社考論 (Studies on the literary clubs of the Gong’an school) (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 2005). ———. Mingmo Qingchu wenren jieshe yanjiu 明末清初文人結社研究 (A study of the literati associations in late Ming and early Qing China) (Tianjin: Nankai daxue chubanshe, 2003). Henry, Eric. “The Motif of Recognition in Early China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47.1 (1987): 5-30. Hinsch, Bret. Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univeristy of California Press, 1990). Hitchcock, Tim and Michèle Cohen, eds. English Masculinities, 1660-1800 (London and New York: Longman, 1999). Hou Li 侯力 and Yang Xiaowen 楊曉文. Sishi tonghuai:pengyou zhi qing yu jiaoyou zhi yi 斯世同懷:朋友之情與交友之義 (Life-long friends: sentiments, righteousness and friendship) (Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1998).

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Mann, Susan. “Introduction” to AHR Forum on “The Male Bond in Chinese History and Culture,” The American Historical Review 106.5 (2000): 1600-14. ———. Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century (Stanford: Sanford University Press, 1998). Meskill, John. Academies in Ming China: A Historical Essay (Tucson, The University of Arizona Press, 1982). Meyer-Fong, Tobie. Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003). ———. “Packaging the Men of Our times: Literary Anthologizing, Friendship Networks, and Political Accommodation in the Early Qing,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 64.1 (2004): 5-56. Min Jiayin 閩家胤, ed. Yanggang yu yinrou de bianzou: liangxing guanxi yu shehui moshi 陽剛與陰柔的變奏:兩性關係和社會模式 (The variations of the unbending of the yang and the softness of the yin: gender relationships and social patterns) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1995). Ono Kazuko 小野和子, Minki tōsha kō : Tōrintō to Fukusha 明季党社考 : 東林党と復 社 (A study of late Ming literati associations: The Donglin movement and the Resoration Society) (Kyōto: Dōhōsha Shuppan, 1996; Chinese edition, Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2005). Ouyang Guang 歐陽光. Song Yuan shishe yanjiu conggao 宋元詩社研究叢稿 (Collected studies on the poetry clubs in Song and Yuan China) (Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe, 1996). Ownby, David. “Approximations of Chinese Bandits: Perverse Rebels, Romantic Heroes, or Frustrated Bachelors?” in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, eds., Chinese Feminities/Chinese Masculinities, pp. 226-250. Qian Qianyi 錢謙益. Liechao shiji xiaozhuan 列朝詩集小傳 (Biographical sketches of the poets of the Ming dynasty) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1983). Raphals, Lisa. Sharing the Light: Representations of Women in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998). Rocke, Michael. Forbidden Friendships: Homosociality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence (New York and Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press, 1996). Ropp, Paul. “Bibliography,” Nan Nü 3.1 (2001): 143-152. ———. “Passionate Women: Female Suicide in Late Imperial China—Introduction,” Nan Nü 3.1 (2001): 3-21. Rouzer, Paul. Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early Chinese Texts (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001). ———. “The Life of the Party: Theorizing Clients and Patrons in Early China,” Comparative Literatre 56.1 (2006): 59-69. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985). Silver, Allen. “Friendship in Commercial Society: Eighteenth-Century Social Theory and Modern Sociology,” The American Journal of Sociology 96.6 (1990): 1475-1504. ———. “‘Two Different Sorts of Commerce’—Friendship and Strangership in Civil Society,” in Jeff Weinstraub and Krishan Kumar, eds., Public and Private in Thought

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www.brill.nl/nannü

Index A-la-bu-dan 44, 47-48 Ahbao 22-24, 101-104, 106 Besio, Kim 25-26, 28-29, 73, 79, 111 Bian er chai (Cap and hairpin as well) 16 Bingchu zhai suibi (Random notes from the Studio of Candlelight) 175 Bingzhu zhai gao (Manuscript from the Studdio of Candlelight) 175 Bol, Peter 50, 59 Bossler, Beverly 60-61, 64, 66 Bray, Alan 11 Brownell, Susan 8 Cai Yuanding 87-89 Carlitz, Katherine 127 Chen Yuan 42 Chenzu (Emperor) 109 Cilin zhaiyan (Plucking beauty from a forest of verse) 112, 114 Clunas, Craig 10-13, 15 Confucius 81, 117, 164, 167, 177 Cuiya lou (The house of gathered refinemments) 104 Dai Liang 17-19, 38-45, 47-48, 51-56, 5961, 66-69, 79, 85, 113 Dardess, John 53 Davis, Adrian 9 Davis, Richard L 49, 65 Daxue (Great Learning) 161 Dimberg, Ronald 164 Ding Henian 17-19, 40-48, 51-53, 56-57, 59-61, 63, 66-69, 85, 113 Ding xiaozi zhuan (The biography of Ding, a filial son) 18, 42 Ding Yue’e 20, 40, 62 -64 Diwu Lun 26, 125, 128 Dongyou ji (The travel record of the winter) 153 Du Fu 68 Fan Juqing 25-29, 79, 85, 111-113, 115-130, 135-141, 144-145 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007

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Fan Juqing jishu sisheng jiao (Fan Juqing’s chicken-millet life and death friendship) 114 Fan Yulan 101 Fang Guozhen 53 Feng Menglong 26-27, 104, 114, 136-140, 144-145 Franke, Herbert 49 Gan Bao 115 Gaoshi zhuan (Biography of a lofty gentlemman) 42, 44 Ge Tongfu 62 Geng Dingxiang 164 Gerritsen, Anne 17, 19, 21, 34, 73, 79, 85, 113 Gong Tianting 129 Gu Dashao 20, 32, 170-178 Gu Dazhang 174 Gu Xiancheng 148, 161, 169-170, 173 Gu Yanwu 3 Guan Ning 67, 130 Guan Yu 119, 120, 122 Guan Zhidao 174, 178 Gujin mingju hexuan (Famous plays old and new) 114, 127 Gujin xiaoshuo (Stories of old and new) 26, 114, 136-141 Han Fei 5, 10 He Xinyin 12, 147, 163-165 He Zhi 165 He Zixiang 101 Hong Pian 26, 114, 136 Hou Hanshu 25, 112, 115-116 Huang Jin 38 Huang, Martin W 2, 7, 28, 32, 37, 60, 73, 80, 85-86, 113, 146 Huang Zongxi 151 Hymes, Robert 50, 59 Jay, Jennifer 50 Ji Ben 22, 86-92, 107 DOI: 10.1163/138768007X171768

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186

Index / Nan Nü 9 (2007) 185-187

Ji Kang 94 Jin Zhongyu 24 Khubilai Khan 42 Kökö Temür 40 Kong Qi 66 Kong Zhongshan 117, 125-126 Kutcher, Norman 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 Lam, Joseph 21, 37, 41, 70, 113 Langlois, John 38 Leijiang ji (Libation to the River Collection [of Life and Death Friendship, Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet]), 114, 127-128, 130, 140-141 Li Wencha 90 Li Yu 24, 103-104 Li Zhi 14 Lienüzhuan (Biographies of exemplary women) 62 Liu Bei 119, 120, 122 Liu Guan 38 Liu Minshu 24 Liu Zhiyuan 138 Liushi jia xiaoshuo (Sixty short stories) 26, 114, 136, 138 Liuzhi ji (The willow branch collection) 127 Louie, Kam 7 Lu Jiuyuan 53 Lü Kun 168-169, 173 Lü Miaofen 148 Lülü bieshu (A supplementary treatise on music theory) 88 Lülü xinshu (A new treatise of music theory) 87 Lunyu (Analects) 44 Luo Hongxian 85, 152-154, 156, 158 Luo Rufang 158 McDermott, Joseph 8-10, 12-13, 15-17, 29 McIsaac, Lee 9 Ma Ziying 43 Ma Zuchang 48 Mann, Susan 9, 126 Mencius 4, 10, 152, 162 Meng Chengshun 114, 127-130 Mingru xuean (Records of Ming Confucian scholars) 151 Mingshi (Ming history) 62, 87

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Nian’an wenji (Writings from the hut of no selfish thoughts) 154 Nie Bao 153 Qi Zhixiang 21-24, 101-103, 106 Qian Dehong 150, 153 Qian Qianyi 175-176 Quan Ruxiu 24-25, 104 Quan Tongai 13 Rouzer, Paul 7 Ruan Ji 94 Sa Tianxi 48 Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky 15 Shen Defu 108 Shen Mingchen 30 Shengshi xinsheng (New sounds for a magnnificent age) 114 Shenzong (Emperor) 107, 110 Shi Hongzhao 138 Shijing (Book of poetry) 68, 176 Shizong (Emperor) 90, 110 Shujing (Book of history) 68 Sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu (Friends in life and death, Fan and Zhang Chicken-Milllet), 26, 113-114, 124-130 Smith, Paul 65 Sommer, Mathew 8 Song Geng 7 Song Lian 39 Songxianguan qinpu (Anthology of qin mussic of the Studio of Pines and Strings) 92 Soushen ji (In search of the supernatural) 25, 115-116 Sun Kaidi 124 Sun Quan 56 Tang Xianzu 172 Tao Kan 56 Tao Yuanming 18, 52, 140 Tao Zongyi 51 Vitiello, Giovanni 16-17 Wang Benwu 101 Wang Ji 85, 151-153, 155-156, 158, 160, 162-163, 165-166 Wang Shihuai 165 Wang Ting 86-91, 107

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Index / Nan Nü 9 (2007) 185-187

Wang Wei 39 Wang Yangming (Wang Shouren) 31, 86, 150-154, 156, 161-163 Wang Zhideng 30 Wang Zhonglüe 117, 125-126, 130, 145 Wasserstrom, Jeffrey 8 Wei Zhongxian 174 Wen Tianxiang 49 Wen Zhengming 10, 13 West, Stephen 124 Wong, Timothy 126 Wu Lai 38 Wu Linzheng 14 Wu Sidao 17- 20, 40-42, 46-47, 54-55, 57, 62-64, 66-69, 85, 113 Wu Zhen 153 Wuzong (Emperor) 107, 110 Xianqin ouji (Occasional notes of leisure thoughts) 104 Xiayou ji (The travel record of the summer) 153 Xinkan sisheng jiao Fan Zhang jishu (Newly cut, life and death friendship, Fan and Zhang Chicken-Millet) 114, 116-122, 128 Xishu meng (A dream in Western Shu) 118122 Xizong (Emperor) 107 Xie Zhaozhe 3 Xie Zhen 30 Xuanzong (Emperor) 109 Yan Cheng 22, 92-95, 97, 101 Yan Ne 22, 92 Yan Shifan 104 Yang Jiao’ai 137-138 Yang Lian 87 Yang Shuhui 138 Yang Weizhen 51

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187

Yin Ertao 101 Yijing (Book of changes) 44, 169 Yitong Lucheng tuji (The comprehensive illlustrated route book) 154 Yong pinshi qishou (Ode to the impoverished scholar) 52 Yongle (Emperor) 36 Yongxi yuefu (Music bureau poetry of the Yongxi period) 114 Yu Boya 21, 70-71, 85, 94 Yu Que 48 Yuanqu yibaizhong (One hundred Yuan plays) 127 Yueji (Record of music) 73 Yuelü zuanyao (A treatise on the essentials of music theory) 87 Yushi mingyan (Illustrative stories to instruct the world), see Gujin xiaoshuo Zang Maoxun 114, 127-129 Zhang Dai 22, 101, 102 Zhang E 90-1 Zhang Fei 119-120 Zhang Han 67 Zhang Mao 87 Zhang Shicheng 54 Zhang Yuanbian 92 Zhang Yuanbo 25-29, 79, 85, 111-113, 115126, 128, 130, 135-16, 140-141, 144145 Zhao Qimei 114 Zhi-ma-lu-ding 47 Zhong, Xueping 7 Zhong Ziqi 21, 23, 70-71, 85, 94 Zhou Rudeng 167 Zhu Botao 137 Zhu Tingdan 147 Zhu Xi 148 Zhu Yuanzhang 36, 38, 39, 40-41, 51, 54-55, 66, 109

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