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Women in Medieval China

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This is one of the most famous poems in the collection. ... Most of these are long poems (choka) with envoys in the tanka form. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Women in Medieval China


1
Women in Medieval China
  • Fall of the Han empire led to a period of
    political and social unrest as generals
    established themselves as warlords over various
    regions. Non-Chinese tribes invaded, there
    followed the Period of Division.

2
Stability Regained
  • The Sui rulers from northern China reunified the
    empire in 589 the Tang dynasty followed,
    reigning from 618-907.
  • In the massive unrest, many retreated from the
    ideal and practice of public service that
    Confucius advocated. The increased danger to
    individuals in daily life is reflected in the
    poetry of this time.

3
Other influences
  • Buddhism arrived in the first century CE,
    probably along the Silk Road trade route.
  • Four Noble Truths of Buddhism
  • 1) all life is suffering
  • 2) suffering has a cause
  • 3) suffering can be eliminated
  • 4) the path toward this goal is eight-fold,
    involving wisdom, morality, concentration

4
Debate
  • Between Confucius emphasis on public engagement
    social ethical responsibility and Buddhisms
    focus on the individual renunciation of wordly
    duties and rewards.

5
Court Life Poetry
  • All court appointees had to have been trained in
    the liberal arts including producing and
    analyzing poetry.
  • Poetry permeated court life - one wrote poems for
    leavetakings and homecomings, even for daily life
    occasions such as not finding ones friend at
    home - you left him a poem about it.

6
Women in Early China
  • Readings for this are both didactic texts
    designed to show women how to behave properly and
    literary works composed by or about women as key
    protagonists.
  • These span a thousand years of time, and spring
    from and speak to a spectrum of social classes.
  • Given the patriarchal social structure, not much
    literature written by women survives however,
    there was a deep-seated belief that women could
    influence a nations prosperity or adversity.

7
Liu Xiang
  • Categories reflect womens roles of daughter,
    wife, mother, with the mother having the greatest
    power.
  • The mother of Mencius, the first Confucian, sets
    him straight. Consider how she relates her
    priorities to her son. Compare with St.
    Augustines mother Monica.

8
Ban Zhao
  • Lessons for Women a conduct book
  • Portrait of women naturally unintelligent, need
    to yield to others, respect others, and put
    themselves last. Stay in ones proper place!
    Guard your sexual virtue, be modest speak
    circumspectly, be clean, be industrious in
    womens work. Be subordinate to all in the
    family, especially in-laws.
  • But she advocates education for women, to be put
    to use in the household.
  • What motivations/fears can you see behind her
    advice?

9
Yuan Cai Precepts for Social Life
  • 1000 years later than Ban Zhao more constrained
    lives for women because of Confucian
    interpretations of proper sexual behavior and
    relations.
  • His guidelines for his own family respond to a
    widespread disregard for the fate of women in the
    social unit, esp. those without male protectors.
    He is very aware of womens vulnerabilities in
    this system, when men dont fulfill their
    responsibilities.

10
Tang Man
11
Voices of Women
  • Willow Bough - upper class woman poet nature
    imagery shared with male poets
  • Midnight Songs - attributed to a courtesan of
    uncertain virtue mercantile values
  • Themes intimate relationships between a woman
    and her lover

12
A Peacock Southeast Flew
  • This poem shows the real power mothers-in-law
    could have over their sons wives. Mother-in-law
    says the wife is not subservient enough.
  • Mother-in-law makes her sons wife leave and
    return to her family her family pressures her to
    remarry. She drowns herself her husband hangs
    himself when he learns her fate.
  • Both genders have trouble following the rules.

13
The Battle of Mulan
  • Here is a poem about a girl who, for her family,
    disguised herself as a man in order to fight in
    place of her father.
  • In return for her service, she asks not for a
    place at court but for a camel to return home.
  • Once home, she put off her male clothing and put
    on her old clothes. Thus garbed, she revealed
    herself to her old army comrades.

14
The Manyoshu (Collection of Myriad Leaves)
  • CNE/ENG 120
  • 10/25/04

15
The Manyoshu
  • Culture Japanese
  • Time c. CE 750
  • Author various aristocrats
  • Genre poetry
  • Themes love, family, myth/history, nature, death

16
Types of Poetry
  • 3 main poetic categories
  • zoka miscellaneous poems (excursions, seasonal
    topics, etc)
  • somon exchanges - erotic love, family
    relationships.
  • banka poems re death, elegies
  • 2 main poetic forms tanka (5 lines in a
    5-7-5-7-7 syllabic pattern most common type) and
    choka (varied length, alternates 5 7 syllable
    lines, closing with 3 lines in a 5-7-7 syllabic
    pattern)

17
Rhetorical Figures
  • Pillow-phrase (formulaic epithets placed before
    words as modifiers, words of praise, description,
    or unknown/obscure meaning used before place
    names or terms of special significance) help the
    rhythm of the line.
  • Preface-phrase consists of 2-3 measures and
    introduces the main topic of the poem, often
    through a pun or metaphoric association. These
    are often unique to each poem.

18
Rhetorical Figures, continued
  • Binary measures These are influenced by Chinese
    poetic rhetoric, used most often in long (choka)
    poems.
  • They set up a spatial or temporal framework for
    the poem
  • day/night, morning/evening, spring/autumn,
    land/sea, heaven/earth.

19
Historical Periods of the Anthology (c. 702-785)
  • First Period covers poetry produced before the
    Jinshin War (672). Poets Yuryaku, Jomei,
    Princess Nukata
  • Second Period From after the Jinshin War to the
    move of the capital to Nara (710). Poet
    Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
  • Third Period Spans 710-733. Poets Yamabe no
    Akahito and Yamanoue no Okura.
  • Fourth Period ends in 759, the date of the last
    poem of the collection.

20
Emperor Yuryaku
  • First poem of the anthology is attributed to him
    (unlikely). His clan, the Yamamoto came to rule
    all of Japan.
  • Origin an old courtship song, combines themes of
    courtship and power.
  • Pillow-phrase so full of the sky modifies the
    place name Yamamoto.

21
Emperor Jomei
  • A land-viewing ritual the lord climbs a
    mountain to look over his land and to affirm its
    prosperity and his power over it.
  • Compare with Gilgameshs pride in the walls of
    Uruk.

22
Princess Nukata
  • This is one of the most famous poems in the
    collection.
  • Nature imagery used to express the ephemeral
    nature of life birth vs. death. Transitional
    nature of spring and autumn.

23
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
  • Held to be the greatest poet of the collection.
    Possibly a courtier.
  • Most of these are long poems (choka) with envoys
    in the tanka form.
  • His poems can be divided into private and
    personal poems.

24
The Ruined Capital of Omi
  • I29-31, poem re passing by the ruined capital of
    Omi (compare later with Tale of the Heike)
  • Purpose (?) an attempt to ritually pacify the
    spirits of dead courtiers from the war re
    succession.
  • What do you make of the juxtaposition of the
    ruins and springtime?

25
When Parted From His Wife
  • II 135-137
  • Poem of separation from beloved
  • Imagery of the sea, rocks, seaweed, autumn
    (yellow leaves), moon.
  • His wifes movements are likened to movements in
    nature.

26
On the Death of His Wife (II207-209)
  • May be fictional.
  • As he shed tears of blood in his grief following
    the death of his wife
  • Lines 1-15 his love erotic desire (tangling
    vines)
  • Lines 16-31 messenger arrives with news of
    wifes death (setting sun, autumn leaves).

27
Yamabe no Akahito
  • Also perhaps a lower-ranked courtier.
  • Influenced by Hitomaros poetry.
  • Famous for his description of landscape.
  • III317-318, first mention of Mt. Fuji in the
    poetic tradition.

28
Envoy re Mt. Fuji
  • Going out on Tago Bay,
  • When I look
  • It is pure white
  • On the high peak of Fuji,
  • Snow is falling.
  • One of the most famous poems in Japanese literary
    tradition.

29
Yamanoue no Okura
  • Again, perhaps a lower ranked courtier.
  • Spent 10 years in the Tang court in China, in an
    embassy.
  • Made governor of Chikuzen, where he organized a
    poetic circle.
  • He is an idiosyncratic poet, heavily influenced
    by Chinese poetry and its themes/imagery.

30
V 802-3, A Poem of Longing for His Children
  • Uses natural imagery to evoke emotion
  • Eating good things makes him think of and long
    for his children.
  • No natural treasure (gold, silver, jewels) can
    equal the treasure of children.

31
Next class
  • Japanese Courtly Women (pp. 313-334) waka
    poetry, the Kagero Diary and Sei Shonagons
    Pillow Book.
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