Emotional Sensitivity in Ming and Qing Society, Essay Example

Introduction

Ming vernacular stories represent the social life of China during Qing and Ming dynasty. These stories revolve around emotions of various forms and consider emotions as the basis of life on earth. Qing/emotions are considered as the reason behind virtue and fascination. Still there exists a tension between emotions and virtue. Thus vernacular stories portray qing/emotions as the only true factor based on which relations and life is built. This paper tries to explore the role of emotions in social life of China during Ming and Qing dynasty as expressed in vernacular stories.

What is the role of qing/emotions in the Ming vernacular stories?

Jiang Xingge Reencounters his Pearl Shirt is one of the most famous vernacular stories on Ming dynasty. It reflects the realistic life of people during Ming dynasty. This story revolves around various emotions of love, marriage and friendship. These are the most common emotions that take place during interaction among people. Jiang Xingge Reencounters his Pearl Shirt also depicts the destiny that follows the actions of a person. Revenge and its after effect is also narrated beautifully in this realistic fiction.

Preface and Jiang Xingge Reencounters describes various social issues that prevailed in Ming dynasty. These rich tapestry of issues are described through various emotions of different characters. According to Dorothy (1994), girls of Ming and Qing period considered fictional characters as role models and they used to socialize themselves by following such characters. Love is the most important and strongest emotion that “Jiang XinggeReencounters his Pearl Shirt “pictures. Though it might feel that the story is written with stereotype characters and is highly fantasized, this clearly shows the life of rich women and people surrounding her. The beauty of the story lies in the method in which characters interfere with each other and how emotions are handled by the author under various situations. Love of Sanqiao to her husband and lover is different and though she falls in love with Chen Dalang, her love for Xingge never fades. It is because of her true love for him that she requests her second husband, the district magistrate to forgive him and returns to him as his second wife. Magistrate is forgiving Xingge on Santiago’s request as he understands the deep love that exists between them.

This story explores the role of emotions in social life during Ming dynasty and helps to understand the attitudes of men and women at that time. It shows how love, friendship, anger, revenge and forgiveness rule the life of people during that period. Various factors like gender relations, sex and justice is also explained beautifully. Love is considered with such height and importance that the district magistrate was ready to forgive a person who was accused of committing a murder. It can be considered as a window of Chinese traditions during Ming dynasty and mirrors the complexity of contemporary society in China that is still in existence.

Women of Ming and Qing dynasty used to read books for edification and usually women were so intensified by the fantasy that they became obsessed for books. Stories provided women with so much emotional support and hence most women during that time used to get solace for real life imperfections through fantasies of books. Through fiction books women created their own dream world where intellectual stimulation joined hands with religious and emotional gratification. This is evident from the fact that Du Li-niang, the heroine of The Peony Pavilion became young women alter ego for generations (Dorothy, 1994)

Feng Meng-Lung considers emotions or ch’ing as the basic factor leading to all happenings on earth. According to him

“Had heaven and earth had no ch’ing they would not have produced the myriad of things”.

He further states that it is due to ch’ing that life has never extinguished and ch’ing is not false or empty. Ch’ing never extinguishes and this is why there is life on earth. The myriad of things are joined by ch’ing. Ch’ing brings joy and happiness to all. Thus emotions are considered as the only aspect that holds people together and saves life from being extinguished on earth (Mowry, 1983).

People of Ming dynasty mostly acted according to emotions and this is evident from the fact that Xingge divorced Sanqiao when he came to know about her relationship with Chen. Even then he presented her with sixteen trunks of wedding present during her second marriage. Sanqiao was so embarrassed by his kindness and understood that even then he loves her. They loved each other so much that Sanqiao asked her husband to forgive Xingge and returned to him as his second wife. Xingge was not punished by Magistrate only because he understood the love between him and Sanqiao (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000). He too is acting on emotion. Thus Xingge Reencounters his Pearl Shirt is a story written on the basis of importance of emotion in personal life of people who lived during Ming dynasty.

What is the relationship between qing/emotions and virtue?

Women of Ming and Qing dynasty used to read books and they also used to derive future expectations from fiction. They were emotionally so affected by fictions that they used to view their own images in such fictional stories. At times they even tries to construct a world according to their wish. Women were usually addicted to books that this became a devotion to literary and intellectual pursuits. Like minded women readers began to connect with each other and a fictional world of characters appeared which was felt truer than actual life (Dorothy, 1994). Thus reading effected the character and to an extent the virtues of women of Qing and Ming society. At the same time men were also having certain virtues and most of them were physical in nature. They were not restricted from movement. This is why men were allowed to travel for months and years for business purpose. It was very common in Chinese society to inherit fathers business and do the same and it is what Xingge also did. He inherited his father’s business and for collecting due amounts he started his travel (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000).

“Xingge reencounters his Pearl Shirtis”is a vernacular story that portrays the relation between virtue and emotions during Qing and Ming dynasty. Xingge’s wife Sanqiao is a woman with all such virtues in the beginning of the story. When Xingge leaves for collecting his trading credits he dictates to servants how to look after her. Sanqiao is surrounded by servants for all needs and is kept like a bird in a golden cage, which she never feels bad. She uses only back wing and is never even thinking of using front wing. She uses front wing due to her maids urging and even then she is looking out only from behind the curtains. She is also like other women who are ready to keep all virtues demanded by society. She accidently meets Chen Shang and mistakes him for Xingge, but like a women of virtue she ignores him. But Chen Shang is so attracted to her that he finds a way to approach her. He finds Granny Xue who describes Sanquio as chaste in her character for she never ever came out after Xingge left. On getting enough money Granny Xue plans carefully to get Chen Shang and Sanqiao together. (Feng, Yang &Yang 2000)

Here Granny Xue is exploiting Sanqiao’s emotions over virtue and succeeds in that. Chen Shang is also driven by emotion over his virtues as he is already married but is attracted by the beauty of Sanqiao. Granny Xue is also not supposed to do such an act of uniting a married woman and man for she knows that Sanqiao is a chaste. It is her lust for money which is another emotion that has overtaken virtue that makes her do this. Emotions are portrayed to override virtue throughout this story at many other instances. It is due to overriding emotions that Xingge divorces Sanqiao and Sanqiao asks her second husband to forgive Xingge. This story strongly shows the role of emotion among both men and women and how it overrides virtue. The physical ordeal of virtue is broken by emotion and all the characters are forced to act according to emotion. In this story emotion appears on its own and at times from motivation of others.

Virtue and emotions are so closely related that often emotions hurt virtue in many ways. In Entry 27 – Wang Ts’ung-shih’s wife, official returns the wife of Wang when he understands that she was mistakenly carried away by a villain and was sold to him as concubine. He also approves his mistake and says that he has committed a grave mistake by taking his colleague’s wife as concubine. Here we can see that virtue of the official was hurt by an emotion to have a concubine. Virtue of Wang’s wife is also hurt by the emotion and the emotion of official has also hurt Wang for a long term of five years. Wang remembers her wife and every aspect of her cooking and is crying over that and this shows that he is emotionally carried over by her thought. It is his virtue that he is remembering his wife even after five years and is ready to pay the amount back to official. Thus both virtue and emotions are interrelated and it can at times hurt virtue while at times it helps to keep virtues alive (Mowry, 1983). This story makes a strong statement against the virtues that existed in Ming and Qing dynasty of China which is often overridden by emotions. Emotions are considered to have more impact on both and women of China even during a period when virtues are given too much importance.

Is there a necessary tension between virtue and emotions?

Virtue is something that is imposed over persons by society. During Ming and Qing dynasty women and men of China were supposed to follow several virtues like chastity. Virtue and emotions are controversial in character and so there is a conflict between these two. It is this conflict that restricted Sanquio from being influenced by words of Granny Xue. Sanquio was a follower of chastity and even then she became attracted by Granny Xue’s words and underwent emotion to let Granny Xue sleep with her (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000).

Emotions possess two features that make it difficult to integrate with virtue. One is the non-deliberate character and other is the partial nature. This is this character of Sanquio’s emotion that allowed Xingge to start his travel. Even though this is likely to create tension, it is important to have some emotions for someone who keeps morality. Emotions are usually focused on a very narrow area and at times are based on a single object and expresses only personal perspective. Emotions are often evaluated by persons who are interested in it. Emotions can attract our attention and hence might feel oblivious to others. Emotions are also driven by various factors like evaluation, motivation and cognition. Emotions are also spontaneous in nature. Love at first sight is one such occasion where emotion shows its spontaneous nature. Emotion is considered as the factor that drives the universe and the basis of all moral behavior (Mowry, 1983). It is due to these characters that people who read stories are influenced by characters. Emotional attraction was higher during Ming and Qing society and this was prominent among women who often fanaticized their real life to stories and characters (Dorothy, 1994).

Virtues evolve over long time and are usually part of custom or norms of a society. It is not personal in nature and is not spontaneous in nature. Virtues help both men and women to gain respect from others and thus acceptance in society. Virtue is usually imposed on persons but they unknowingly accept it and obey to it as among women readers of Qing and Ming society. Virtues usually do not cause any harm and helps the person to lead a happy and satisfied life until they undergo any motivation to act according to his or her emotions. This is what happened to women of Qing and Ming society who used to read fictions and tried to create a life according to their wish. Persuasive power of Qing cult is depicted in The Peony Pavilion and this cult is the hallmark of urban culture of seventeenth century Joanna (Dorothy, 1994).

In Xingge Reencounters his Pearl Shirt this conflict of emotions and virtue is clearly depicted. Sanqiao is happily married and leads a happy life until she is motivated to behave according to her emotion by Granny Xue. Her only concern was the return of her husband and she was ready to obey his orders and leave inside the house with chaste character. Even Granny Xue says that she never does something demanded by Chen Shang, until he offers her great price. It is the emotion of lust that overrides her virtue of not uniting two married persons which is against moral of society. Chen Shang when he sees Sanqiao thinks about his wife and remembers that she is not that bad. But the beauty of Sanqiao attracts his so much that he forgets his virtue and searches for methods to get to her. Xingge before his trip makes sure to keep Sanqiao as comfortable as possible to help her keep her virtue. He is afraid of nearby youngsters that he asks her not to look through front door to avoid any undue attention. He is so attracted to her that on hearing her betrayal from Chen Shang he comes back to give her a divorce. But he is so carried by emotion that he gifts her with sixteen trunks of gifts during her second marriage. Sanquio is also carried by emotions and forgetting her virtue she asks her second husband the district magistrate to forgive Xingge and not to punish him for accused murder. Virtue of district magistrate is to award punishment to those who has committed crime. But he too undergoes emotional stress to avoid punishment to Xingge and to let his wife remarry her love. Whole story is a conflict between emotion and virtue and this conflict is depicted at every point. All the characters of this story are undergoing emotional stress over virtues at various situations and are acting under emotion only (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000). Thus the whole story narrates the overriding role of emotion over virtue and how virtue is difficult to follow during Ming and Qing dynasty in China.

How do you explain the fascination with qing/emotions in late Ming society?

Virtues were of great value in Ming society, but in its late stage fascination began to override virtue and emotion began to play a great role. Both men and women of Ming society were holding virtues and for men virtue was restricted to physical. Women were under safe custody of father before marriage and were married away when they were really young. Sanquio and Xingge got married at the age of eighteen and this is an example of early marriage custom that existed in China during Qing and Ming dynasty. Both men and women were not restricted from second marriage but women were not allowed to have two husbands or relation with a man other than husband during those days. These cultural characters are clearly narrated in Xingge Reencounters his Pearl Shirt (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000).

One of the most important virtues of women during this stage was chastity, but men were allowed for second marriage and to have a concubine. Though women were also allowed to remarry they were to commit suicide if they were widowed. Only divorcees had the freedom of second marriage. After marriage women were kept inside their house and were not allowed to move freely in society. They were restricted from seeing other women and hence fascination never played any role in Ming society for women (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000).

As men had the freedom to move in society they were always fascinated by other women and often had the freedom to act according to their emotions and fascination. This is what happened with Chen Shang when he met Sanquio (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000). Still fascinations of men were also restricted by virtues. In Ming dynasty virtues were given so much importance that filial piety was important to both men and women. But for women chastity was the most important virtue and this became foundational virtue for women. It became a cult during Qing dynasty.

During late Ming society writers began to explore the concept of Ch’ing as a man’s spontaneous or innate value and this was considered equally important to his social responsibilities. Love is considered as the progressive force in universe (Mowry, 1983). Men were fascinated by beauty of women and had the freedom to marry more than once. They also tried to gain any thing that fascinated them and it was not considered as a guilt or fault and was not punished. Chen Shang’s was fascinated by Sanqiao’s beauty and tries every means to meet her. He is acting according to emotion and is not restricted by any kind of virtue. His only fascination is to make love with Sanqiao and this he expresses clearly on his first visit to her. Chen Shang says that he have fulfilled his life dream and will have no regrets when he dies. This shows that he was not in real love with Sanqiao and was only fascinated by her beauty. He was acting only on the basis of emotion and he went far too to satisfy his emotion. He bribed Granny Xue by spending large amounts and valuable gifts and waited for seven months just to satisfy his emotion that originated from a fascination. Sanqiao on the other side is not at all fascinated by the look of Chen Shang when she saw him for first time. But she became really fascinated by the words of Granny Xue and allows her to sleep with her. Here she is acting according to her emotion and it is against the virtue that she is supposed to keep in Ming society (Feng, Feng, Yang, & Yang, 2000).

Fascination was also limited to men and women were not even allowed to have any kind of fascination during this period. Women were not to be emotional and were not to act against the virtues they were supposed to possess. Though Xingge and Sanquio were fascinated by their love for each other emotions were not capable enough to hold Xingge back at home. He had to travel for business purpose and it was at this stage that Sanquio underwent physical fascinations and emotions. In Xingge Reencounters his Pearl Shirt social practices of Ming dynasty is depicted clearly. It also narrated various kinds of fascination and emotions created by such fascinations among men and women of the time.

Conclusion

Ch’ing was considered as the most important factor that controlled human actions during Ming and Qing dynasty. Vernacular stories clearly show that emotions played a very important role in molding the characters of people in Ming and Qing society. Emotions were considered as the foundation of life. Emotions also helped in the formation of virtue and fascination. At the same time ch’ing also played a great role in creating friction in society. Thus emotions are considered as the basic factor affecting character formation of people of Ming and Qing society. Vernacular stories describe social life during Ming and Qing dynasty through a series of ch’ing characters.

References

Dorothy, K. (1994). Teachers of the inner chambers: women and culture in seventeenth-century China. California: Stanford University Press.

Feng, M.-l., Feng, M., Yang, S., & Yang, Y. (2000). Stories old and new:a Ming dynasty collection. Washington: University of Washington Press.

Mowry, H.-y. L. (1983). Chinese love stories from “Ch’ing-shih”. Archon Books.