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Allegory and satire in Li Ju-chen's "Ching-hua-yuan" ("Flowers in the Mirror").

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Allegory and satire in Li Ju-chen's "Ching-hua-yuan" ("Flowers in the Mirror").

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Content ALLEGORY AND SATIRE IN LI JU-CHENfS CHING-HUA YUAN (FLOWERS IN THE MIRROR) by Hsin-sheng Chang Kao A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Comparative Literature) May 1977 UMI Number: DP22533 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. IJMT Dissertation Publishing UMI DP22533 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 U N IVE R SITY O F S O U TH E R N C A L IF O R N IA THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES, CALI FORN1 A 9 0 0 0 7 T his dissertation, w ritte n by Hsin-sheng Chang Kao under the direction of h.^T... Dissertation C om m ittee, and approved by a ll its members, has been presented to and accepted by T he G raduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of requirements of the degree of D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y Dean D a t e . . 3 M . J J . . ill. DISSERTATION COMMITTEE Chairman Ph.x\ C * >7 7 K, I G ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could never have been completed had it not been for the assistance of several people whom it is my pleasure to thank. First, I am much indebted to the Chairman of my doctoral committee, Professor George A. Hayden, whose assiduous supervision of this work's initial draft has been valuable and whose constant guidance and inspiring criticism of every aspect of this work has been inestimable. My gratitude and appreciation will not end with the completion of this dissertation. I am also grateful to Professor Rosario P. Armato, whose willingness to share his views on theories of allegory and utopia has been illuminating. Finally, my wholehearted appreciation goes to Professor George Oakley Totten, III, whose un failing help during my research period and whose objective suggestions for the improvement of this dissertation have been valuable. TABLE OP CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................ii I I ■ Chapter i j I. INTRODUCTION .............................. 1 ! II. ALLEGORY.................................... 11 The Nature of LI Ju-chen's Allegory .... 11 Mythic Artifice and Demonic Temptation . . 19 The Quest and Spiritual Redemption .... 37 The Veil of History and Allegorical Dualism . .............................59 Moral Temptation and Didactic Allegory . . 73 III. SATIRE.................. 98 The Nature of LiJu-chen’s Satire ........ 98 The Hidden Order of Time Structure: A Satire on Perception .................. Ill On the Parody of Utopia: A Satire on Mankind................................128 The Double-edged Irony: The Female Personae............................145 | IV. CONCLUSION................................. 165 ! APPENDIXES......................................169 1 I i BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................... 175 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION i I i One and a half centuries after his death, Li Ju-chen : (1763-c. 1830) still remains an ambiguous figure and an i unexplored writer. He has played a dual role; though known as a phonetician, his talent as a novelist has re mained relatively undiscovered. Even during his career, the concepts behind his novel and his ambivalent attitude toward writing a novel remained unknown to the public. In the twentieth century, the relatively few critical studies ‘ I ! 1 1 of his only novel, Ching-hua yuan,-1 - have been strikingly l | insufficient. These studies, most of them articles seldom 1 I exceeding a dozen pages, deal with Ching-hua yuan in an ! oversimplified way and lead to only a partial understand- i ! ing of the novel. Some critics, such as Ch’ien Ching-fang j and Yuan Chun, choose to see him simply as an erudite and ! classical writer with a profound knowledge of mythical ^ - Ching-hua yuan j 100 chapters, 588 pages , (Hong Kong: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1974) . This edition is a \ reprint based on the Chieh-tzu yuan Edition /f) ), ; hereafter cited in the text as CHY. Translations are my i own. When a substitution is used, the source and transla- j tor will be indicated. For the biography of author Li Ju- ! chen ( j - i t )> see Appendix I. r 1 allusions;2 others, like Hu Shih, find in him the merits of a new vision, "/whose./ structure is very similar to that of Jonathan Swift."3 Students of phonetics dwell upon his linguistic innovations,^ while admirers of Ts'ao I i Hslleh-ch’in find Li Ju-chen’s work boring and primitive I and declare his plot and characterization deficient.5 The I Communist critic Hsu Shih-nien credits Li Ju-chen’s advoca- I ! cy of sex equalization and female emanicipation as con- [ sistent with Marxist theory and humanistic idealism, al though Li Ju-chen would no doubt have been shocked at 1 2See Ch’ien Ching-fang )> Hsiao-shuo ts1 ung I k'ao ( t \ s % )> 1 (1916), pp. 68-72; Sun Chia-hsun Uf. u . . ),^’ Hai-shu Ching-hua yuan ch’uan-shuo pien- ; cheng" ( V L H H t ) > Ch ’ ing-nien-chieh (4 JL 1 ), 4, No. 4 (Sepxember 19331/ nl pag. Another oiruicle I written by Sun is called "Ching-hua yuan pu-k’ao" | f l > % ), Hu Shih wen-ts’un (■£$ il) )> Bk • 1113 ! 7 (1928), pp. 58O-568. Also see Yuan Chun ( ^/Cjyjt- ' "Ching-hua yuan y(i chung-kuo shen-hua" 4 * I Yu-ssu ) , No. 5^ (November 1925), pp. I2b-±31- ' ! 3See Hu Shih ( ), "Ching-hua yuan ti yin-lun" i £1 id? ^ Hu Shih wen-ts 1 un, Bk. II, 4 1 (February-May 1923)s P- 1^3• ^Li Ju-chen was an expert on phonology, known specifi cally for his improvement of the traditional phonological theory. Chapter 27 of Ching-hua yuan elaborates his theory which was previously published in his other work, Yin-chien < 4 * l ), a work on Chinese phonology. i ^Most histories of Chinese literature tend to compare Ts’ao Hsueh-ch1 in's Hung-lou meng with Ching-hua yuan. Liu Ta-chieh ( ?ij 5 is one of these example. See I Liu, Chung-kuo wen-hsueh fa-ta shih ( ’ c j 3 j f ) iL $ & ) ; (Taipei: Chung-hua shu-chfi, 195(5), p. 1082. 2 these ideas.6 Another approach, represented by Li Ch'en- tung, exalts the novel's moral and political attitudes and its treatment of loyalty and sincerity.7 The criticism to date therefore tends to conveys biased and partial pic- j tures of Ching-hua yuan by overemphasizing certain aspects and underemphasizing others. 1 t ' To transcend these incomplete views and see the novel | as a whole, it is essential then to understand Li Ju-chen’e imaginative approach. C. T. Hsia, in his recent study of Ching-hua yuan, suggests that an active attempt to manipu late the reader is basic to Li Ju-chen’s approach: As a rule, the scholar-novelists are at once more serious and more playful in their attitude toward their medium than their professional brethren. They could be as didactic as they like, but they also indulge in the idlest of mystifications, the most improbable of allegoric fictions. Taking his ; cue from Ts’ao Hsueh-ch’in, Li Ju-chen appears to | take a particular pleasure in self-advertisement, about the unique story he is privileged to tell ) and the unique honor it has fallen upon him to be the chosen instrument of its telling /sic/. It would appear that, precisely because he was very fond of the novel he was writing, he had to insert authorial jokes of this kind for the amusement of his reader. In this respect, Li Ju-chen certainly, ^ ^See Hsu Shih-nien ), "Lueh-t’an Ching-hua yuan” ( W&- V *k j /o ), Chung-lcuo ku-tien hsiao-shuo p’ing-lun chi ( # .|. f # , % ) (Peking: Peking Publishing Co., 1957), p. 143. ; ^Li Ch’en-tung ( ) states that Ching-hua yuan I is a race-conscious novel in which the author implicitly • reveals his loyalty to the Han race. See Li, ”Ching-hua i yuan ti chia-chih" ( ) , Wen-hsiieh hsien- HjfiUfc } ( T a l p e l : hsiang ti hsin t’u-ching ( San-min shu-chd, 1970), pp. 126 3 if not all. of his predecessors in the tradition of the scholarly novel, shares a certain affini ty with the line of self-consciously "manipula tive" novelists in the West, stretching in time from Cervantes to Nabokov.” j In selecting and manipulating his materials to pre- ' sent his personal view of life, Li Ju-chen brings his 1 style, narrative, plot, patterns of imagery, and charac- j terization into a unified whole. In this sense, the study : of Ching-hua yuan's significance will be an appreciation i of the central theme and dominant form, the soul and body of the novel. i : The theme of Ching-hua yuan is Li Ju-chen’s clari- I fying some and refuting other controversial views con cerning the essential and timeless aspects of human life. : A contemplative and detached writer, he is concerned with j the conflict between the transitory and the eternal and • with the interplay of the material and the abstract, j rather than with merely carrying on conventional secular traditions. His novel of one hundred chapters is designed to include all the ways in which he himself attempts to construct and propound his own system of thought. To this end, Li Ju-chen uses the illusions of "the flower in the mirror" (ching-hua) and "the moon in the water" (shui- i 8C. T. Hsia, "The Scholar-Novelist and Chinese Cul ture: A Study of Ching-hua Yuan," Tamkang Review, 5, No. 2 (October 197*0 , pp"^~ 1-32. s f i 4 y{leh)9 as his metaphorical leitmotifs to express his pre occupation with the dualistic problem of appearance and reality, temporality and eternity. Li Ju-chen believes that human suffering lies in j man's incompatibility with nature and in his limited per ception toward life. He contends that spiritual salvation I j can be reached through ritualistic mortification, expia- | tion, invigoration, and final jubilation, the last of i which is clearly acknowledged as the religious goal of Taoism and epitomized in the Chuang Tzu's discussion of life's ephemerality and renewal. The duality of the eter nal and the temporal is dramatized in his novel's plot and characterization. Its heroine, the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers, is created so that she may be subjected to an ' 1 inexorable "cause" (or affinity, yuan),10 a consecrated j form of ritual. In his lengthy and detailed elaboration, ! this "cause" is the explicit reason for her banishment from the Taoist paradise, her spiritual regeneration during her voyage period, and the completion of her earth- I ly quest. This inexorable "cause" also functions in i 9Ching-hua ) and shui-yueh ). See CHY | ch. 1, p. 3- Because 'the -image of flower (hua, ) In. the I mirror (ching, ■ft ) Is only■a reflection of the true | object,, therefore the phrase ching-hua means Illusion. ' Shui-yileh, originally Is a Buddhist term (udakacandra in ! Sanskrit). It also connotes the Illusion of phenomena. I l^The word "cause" or "affinity" (yuan, ) will be , analyzed in detail In this dissertation. I 1 5 cooperation with the development of other characters as an explanation for the changeability of human life. As critic Yueh Heng-chftn says, Li Ju-chen uses his characters to make excursions in time and space, explain man's rela- | tionship to the universe, elaborate the mythic and psycho- I logical patterns of man's personality, and scrutinize the i : problem of the dehumanization of mankind.H i j In connection with Li Ju-chen's use of Taoist thought as the theme of Ching-hua yuan, we can place this novel among the scholar novels, in which authors voice their beliefs through dramatization.12 yet there is a distinct difference in quality and approach between Ching-hua yuan and other novels that propound revolutionary or, at the I 1 least, unconventional ideas. The intellectual ostenta- i ' tion, the stagnant lack of originality, and the veil of | traditional values, commonly seen in Chinese scholar | novels, have been re-examined and re-evaluated by Li Ju- chen. Very few novelists in nineteenth-century China -^See Yueh Heng-chlin ^ ), "P'eng-lai kuei- hsi: Lun Ching-hua yuan ti shih-cnieh-kuan" 1/iL Jf£ : i%> ) > Hsien-tai wen-hsueT ? i h v L l L k T, 49 (1973),1 ppT 103-104.. ^ i "T t I l2The t erm "the scholar novels" is used to apply to j novels in which authors attempt to display their scholarly ! erudition. Lu Hsun (. I k i j g . ) uses this term to apply to : Hsia Ching-ch' u's ( J ) Yeh-sou p'u-yen ( f f ^ ) j Ch'en Ch'iu's ( Yen-shan wai-shih ( j f e . . j, ) and | Li Ju-chen's Ching-hua yuan. See Lu, Chung^cuo nsiao-shuo ! shih-lueh ( ^ ) (Hong Kong: Chin-tai 1 t'u-shu kungJ-ssu, 1965TT PP • 198-210. 6 j could equal Li Ju-chen1s shrewd and uncompromising com- I ments and judgment. As Li Ch’en-tung suggests, if Li Ju- chen sometimes overcompensates and is unjust to certain groups of people, such as Confucian scholars, it is only i j that these hammer-like blows are like the attacks made by j all conscientious satirists who wish to come to terms with j truth. - * - 3 i i Like other satirists, despite his eccentricities, Li ! I Ju-chen manages to create a wide range of incidents to j expose the weaknesses and the ills of his own time. As i J part of his general theory of ideas, old beliefs, concepts. ! and values, including traditional Confucianism, are either i i disposed of or re-evaluated. New concepts and values and i new definitions of reality and existence replace the empty I space often left by the disposal of old ideas. i There is an obvious disparity between the presenta- ! tion of what he sees as the ultimate reality and his narrative explanation of this same vision. Li Ju-chen has been denigrated in many Chinese literary anthologies for I having succeeded as a philosopher but having failed as a novelist,-1 -^ arguing that his novel is supposedly incom plete and full of gaps and patches. By the same token, Li Ju-chen is supposedly incapable of developing certain ' -^See Li Ch’en-tung, pp. 128-129- i -^See Liu Ta-chieh, p. 1082. 7 episodes to their potential dramatic power. His charac ters’ actions have been said to lack a life of their own and thus to serve only to give lip-service to concepts.15 With these aspects of Li Ju-chen’s artistic strengths and weaknesses in mind, I intend to explore the complexity of his novel, as it is revealed in his allegory and satire. I i ; As I have mentioned, all too little has been written ' ■ on the subject of Li Ju-chen’s allegory. Scholars like i Ch'ien Ching-fang and Yuan Chun have attempted to place his allegory in a classical context. Their principal interest is to demonstrate the wide areas of mythical allu sion into which Li Ju-chen's imagination has been able to penetrate. Yuan Chun, for example, lists a number of classical works, such as Shan-hai ching and Shih-yi chi, I ! to hypothesize Li Ju-chen’s probable motives in posing i ! this or that allusion.-*-^ Ch'ien Ching-fang provides some ! | antiquarian trappings but overlooks Li Ju-chen’s own tren- I i chant comments on his allusive borrowings. ^ In general, l t i the core of these critics’ assessment is that Li Ju-chen I ! is an erudite classical writer whose work demonstrates the ! | relationship between literary ideas and cultural heritage. I 1 Although classical influence on Li Ju-chen’s use of I > 15see Meng Yao („Jl ^ )> Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih ( ' j * j f t ) * • » $jL ) (Taipei: Book World Co . , 1966), pp. 584-586 . ' -^See Yuan Chun, pp. 127-130. j l?See Ch'ien Ching-fang, pp. 69-72. j allegory Is Incontestable, these earlier scholars lead us no farther than toward a hunt for allusions. In order to avoid such a narrow approach to allegory, I shall address myself to several central considerations which will lead j to a perception of Li Ju-chenfs total achievement. First, what is Li Ju-chen’s concept of allegory? Second, what ( , role does allegory play in Ching-hua yuan's plot and theme? I I And third, to what extent does Li Ju-chen's reconstruction j of classical materials influence his narrative? This study will rely on modern theories of allegory and myth, as j found in the works of Stanley Edgar Hyman, Mircea Eliade, Northrop Frye, Joseph Campbell, and Philip W h e e l w r i g h t . ^ i : With regard to allegory, first, the dualistic problems ! arising from the conflicts between the characters' divine | and demonic natures will be examined. Second, the allego- I j rical quest and its relationship to Ching-hua yuan's theme i j will be analyzed. Third, the allegorical difference between good and evil will be examined. j The chapter on satire will review general critical i ; studies of Li Ju-chen's satire by Li Ch'en-tung, Yueh Heng- 1 chun, C. T. Hsia, Hsu Shih-nien and others. Modern western i i studies of satire by Alvin B. Kernan, David Worcester, i i i I -^Myth anf l Literature: Contemporary Theory and Prac tice , ed. John B. Vickery (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973)- This work is the most comprehensive referen ce in studying theories of: myth. It also includes articles tby those authors mentioned above. 9 Robert C. Elliot, Ronald Paulson and othersl9 will help in the analysis of the many layers of Li Ju-chen's satire. In this chapter our attention also will turn to Li Ju- chen 's exploration of the Chinese cultural climate, its : intellectual pretension, utopian concepts, and various dimensions of time. Li Ju-chen's gift for reconstructing ^ cultural, intellectual, and individual issues of nineteen- | th-century China is remarkable. Even more remarkable, and i even more rare, is his capacity to analyze the abstract issues of his time as if from a vantage point outside it. | The last chapter will appraise the major interpreta- l tions of this study on an objective scale and will demon- i j strate that Li Ju-chen's allegorical and satirical views ! are more significant and less understood than has hitherto I ■ been supposed. i i i i j I ^The theories and works of these scholars will be J cited constantly in the study of satire in chapter III. 10 CHAPTER II ALLEGORY The Nature of Li Ju-chen’s Allegory i To examine Li Ju-chen’s allegory will first necessi- i tate a return to initial definitions of this literary mode. The meaning of the term "allegory" has shifted through use in different contexts in different periods, j However, the common factor is that allegory includes both I ; the literal and the abstract. Allegory is always con- i : structed in two or more layers of meanings: the primary on . I ! literal meaning, and the secondary or abstract meaning.1 ! On the primary-literal level, narrative language is seen as merely words denoting images or statements which represent j -'-Angus Fletcher states that allegory always conveys ! "two large-scale meanings" and suggests "a peculiar double- ■ ness of intention." See Fletcher, Allegory: The Theory of J a Symbolic Mode (Ithaca and London: Cornell University j Press, 1970), pp. 7 and 70 * Edward A.' Bloom renders a more I detailed definition for allegory: "Allegory is a literary mode which consciously presents at one and at the same time at least two meanings: one may be designed as primary, or ! as a literal and figurative surface meaning. The other may 1 be designated as secondary, or as a meaning of abstract | significance; that Is, one with penetrating moralistic or I didactic intention." See Bloom, "The Allegorical Princi- ! pie," Journal of English Literary History, 18, No. 3 : (September 1951)5 PP• 163-190. I 11 a direct relationship among themselves.^ On the secondary-abstract level, the narrative language becomes more tacit than direct, and thus its images or statements stand for, or refer to, ideas which transcend empirical meaning. However, the secondary meaning is always extended 1 from and dependant upon the precision of the primary j meaning.3 Consequently, the interactions and correspond- i . j ences evoke an image-idea doubleness4 in both the theoret- l ! ical and the technical aspects. i ! Ching-hua yuan manifests this image-idea doubleness, j presented through classical metaphors, mythical images, > and even historical allusions. Li Ju-chen1s reconstruction of history and myth in the novel suggests his awareness i of the functional (primary and secondary) and esthetic t \ : (literal and abstract) theories of allegory. The heart j of allegory theory is that fictional reality is composed j of certain selected materials — mythical, historical, or, ! factual. These materials are neither objects nor entities 1 but are relations among objects and entities. From this I ■ view of fictional reality, Ching-hua yuanTs mythical < i p ^See Fletcher, p. 7; and Northrop Frye, Anatomy of | Criticism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957), p. 89. ^On the relationship between the primary and the secondary meanings, see Bloom, p. 166. ; 4See Fletcher, p. 18. t 12 j images and historical allusions can be understood as com- i ponents of Li’s allegorical propositions. The components’ essential purpose is to mirror and to convey a double perspective between thematic images and truth. In other | words, Li’s allegory embodies the "twice-told quality," in J , which, as Edwin Honig states, "the aspect of the tale I t ! indicates that some venerated or proverbial antecedent I j (old) story has become a pattern for another (the new) l story . ’ ’ 5 j The ingredients of the "antecedent story" in Ching- y i | hua yuan are Li's re-creations of Taoist legendary tales and the history of the T'ang (618-905) and the Chou (684- 705) Dynasties. He retells the old tales to form a new hypothesis and to reflect abstractly his personal judg- | ments. However, his hidden message in the novel is always ; ! dependent upon the literal meaning and the authority of i I | the myth and history 'from which the message rises. It can- | not, on the other hand, be fully explained in terms of ; myth and history alone. For both myth and history in I Ching-hua yuan are the extended metaphors of Li’s allegori J | cal intention.^ He aims to explore the relationship ^Edwin Honig, Dark Conceit: The Making of Allegory | (Providence: Brown University Press, 1972),, p. 12. i ^Colin Murray Turbayne defines an extended metaphor as i always evolving with a certain "transference from one sort ‘ to another, for short, of sort-crossing." See Turbayne, ; The Myth of Metaphor (Columbia: University of Southern i Carolina Press, 1971), pp. 12-13. I 13 between images and ideas, rather than to eject, for the sake of simplicity, either ideas of images from the arena. More explicitly, Li’s re-creation of Taoist myth in the first six chapters of Ching-hua yuan provides him the i means to present the allegorical relativism of human ex istence. Mythical characters are endowed with choice and I ' freedom, which involve judgment and will-power. With I I these, they can either reduce themselves to living in a deformed reality of bluff and blandishment, or they can will to transcend their weakness. In the encounter be- I ! tween Ch'ang 0 and the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers, the conflict of personalities reflects their either compatible strengths and the will of the stronger brings allegorical \ | victory. Although the mythical characters are little more I ^ than caricatures, their re-creation symbolizes dichoto- i ' ■ mized human nature. Angelic and demonic traits no longer i i need be thought of as separate entities but can be viewed ' as two polarities between which man lives and acts. These polarities are mediated again in Li’s allegori cal Interpretation of Chinese history. Between the seven th chapter and the last chapter most episodes in this work are apparently historical. The most obvious example is the panorama of personages in Empress Wu's court of the Chou Dynasty.7 The presence of "real" historical persons j ^Wu ) is her surname, Chao (§£ ) is her given name. According to the T’ang history, she was at first 14 (such as Hsu Ching-yeh, Lo Pin-wang, Li Hsiao-yi, and Shang-kuan Wan-erh)^ in an invented world not only conveys some factual information but also evokes historical events in the reader's mind. However, there is a crucial dis- j tinction between Ching-hua yuan and novels which are only historical. This novel differs from them not only by j : being based on an imaginary plot but also by using this i ! plot to interpret a certain period from perspectives dif- ! ; ferent from those of history, which matter-of-factly de- i | pends on actual sources. This novel's historical setting i i gives a typical mode of perception in which we are aware ■ of the secular world. The setting is not chosen at random. 1 Li’s distancing his story in time cannot be fully ex- ! ; plained in terms of coincidence alone. Instead, his his- j torical preference reflects his integrated imagination, i ! which is the essential prerequisite for writing allegory. I the concubine of Emperor T'ai-tsung (627-649). After his ! death, she became a Buddhist nun, a common practice at that | time. Years later Emperor Kao-tsung (650-683), the son of ; T'ai-tsung, divorced his own empress, Empress Wang, and ; made Wu Chao, or Wu Tse-t'ien ( - j j j C g i ] ), his empress in | 655- After the death of Emperor Kad-tsung, she deposed her | own son Chung-tsung. Later in 684, she changed the dynas- | ty's name to Chou (684-705) and made herself the first Empress of the Chou Dynasty and the only founding empress in Chinese history. Q J0After Empress Wu usurped the .thorne, Hsu Ching-yeh I ( J j L ), and Lo Pin-wang ( t e - A s - ), along with j other loyal T'ang officials, declared war against Wu and ! hoped to restore the T'ang Dynasty. They were defeated by j Wu's general, Li Hsiao-yi ( 4 - J f ). Also see CHY, ch. 3, pp. 14-15. 15J I As in Spenser's allegorical Tudor house, in Li's Chou court, headed by Empress Wu, traditional private and pub lic values are either openly violated or totally replaced in consequence of the authority residing in the female, j the sex generally recognized elsewhere as intellectually , zero.9 Unlike his antecedent and contemporary colleagues l . who deny the import of females,- * - 0 Li discusses the demonic I | aspects of all human beings, regardless of sex, and chal- I j lenges the conventional obstacles to human progress in j general. By doing this Li operates on a higher moral j level than his colleagues in his allegorical re-interpre- ■ tation of Chinese history. ' In Allegory and Courtesy in Spenser: A Chinese View, j H. C. Chang finds a highly moral statement in Ching-hua yuan: "The story is essentially one of temptation. Its great merit is that it is a story of ordinary life i | 9see Hu Shih, pp. 1 1 9 -1 6 8 ; Ch'en Wang-tao ( ?JLilll_ ), | "Ching-hua yuan ho fu-nu wen-t'i" ( £Xjj£j M l -kti-tS-ir- If ), j NlFch' ing-nien y{ieh-k' an ) , 1* Jo. 3'TMarch | 1934), pp. 7-I8; C. T. Hsia, W- 1-32. 10The pathos of Chinese female's suffering can be seen, for example, from Li Ai-ku ( ), the heroine in Chen Ch'iu's Yen-shan wai-shih. j 1" * ' ¥ u Shuang-vi ( ), "Ching-hua yuan chi ch'i- ), Ming Ch'ing hsiao-shuo chiang- j hua ( pfi ~ J £ ? . ) > £#. i 'f i . ) (Shanghai: Shanghai shu-chu, 1^8) , p. 90; Hu Shih, p. 138. 16 temptations which occur from day to d a y ."12 Certain aspects of this day-to-day quality do relate to Li's fic tional characters. However, Chang fails to mention that Li expands far beyond the confines of daily temptation, j In fact, Li views man from the standpoint of a detached l .‘ ^Satirist, seeing man as the embodiment of moral incongrui- j ■ ty between virtue and vice. Virtue can be directed toward | transcendence of the self, as in the case of T'ang Ao and J t T’ang Hsiao-shan, and vice toward self-destruction, as in that of Empress Wu and her four notorious nephews. The diversity and suggestiveness of human potentialities, as pointed out by Hu Shih,13 suggest that the author uses i i virtue and vice to develop an allegorical tension that in i | context itself furnishes a forceful moral unity. As in I | the morality plays of the Middle Ages, in Ching-hua yuan I I certain characters represent man’s various moral states. i * 1 u \ For example, Empress Wu's four nephews, n who guard four ] passes — the Pass of Wine (Yu-shui kuan), the Pass of Lust (Pa-tao kuan), the Pass.of Wealth (Mu-pei kuan), and ~^H. C. Chang, Allegory and Courtesy in Spenser: A Chinese View (Edinburgh: The Edinburgh University Press, ! 1955), P- 5. j 13see "Ching-hua yuan ti yin-lun," pp. 138-150. j l^Wu Szu-ssu (^ ai . ' ) , Wu Wu-ssu ( ^\ 3./^' ), Wu | Liu-ssu ( ^ ■> Jg, ), and Wu Chf i-ssu ( ) • 17 the Pass of Wrath (Wu-huo kuan)15 — represent vulgarity and ugliness In the form of Intoxication, lust, greed, and anger. The allegorical significance of these four moral ] states is not relevant to the empirical morality by which * many of us live today. Li's dogmatic treatment of these I I moral states, moreover, virtually rejects the very detach- i 1 ment that he advocates in the novel. His use of type I figures and one-dimensional persons as personified ab- stractions exhibits his preference. There is a question as to whether Li's characters can be held responsible for t | themselves, inasmuch as they personify virtue and vice. i i Li never answers this question directly, except by men- ' tioning that virtue is always in accordance with ultimate | reality and vice with ignorance. On the whole, Li's alle- l gory affirms only moral means and ends. Consequently, as we shall see, he avoids realistic fates for the characters and disposes of them allegorically instead. !5Yu-shui kuan ( dD ), Pa-tao kuan ( Z7 $) ) , Mu-pei kuan ( *-8. i i ) ), and Wu-huo kuan ( - x . m ) are the names of the passes in which the Wu brothers are in charge. The allegorical significance of these passes are discussed in this dissertation, pp. 75 — 97 - 18 Mythic Artifice and Demonic Temptation The narration of the events of the Queen Mother of the West’sl6 birthday celebration at K'un-lun Mountain,T7 | which opens the first chapter of Ching-hua yuan, sets the ! two-sided mythical pattern: divine and demonic. The I | divine and the demonic elements suggest a tension which ! can be interpreted on a subjective as well as an objective level. On a subjective level, the author removes the fictional descriptions from the sphere of experience to a place where abstractions dominate. By so doing, he pre- ] sents a confrontation between Ch'ang 0^8 and the Fairy of j a Hundred Flowers.19 On the objective level, the divine 1 l^She is also called Hsi-wang-mu (y t f ? j£. ). Hsi- j wang-mu is the Western Royal Mother in Chinese mythology. I For details, see E. T. C. Werner, A Dictionary of Chinese ■ Mythology (New York: Julian Press'^ 1961), pp. 163-164. l^K'un-lun shan ( ) is a Taoist legendary 1 site. It is believed that^Hsi-wang-mu's palace is located ; at that mountain which is "1,000 li /about 333 miles./ in j circuit; a rampart of massive gold surrounds its battle- i ments of precious stones." See Werner, p. 163. I l^Cht'ang 0 ), according to Chinese legendary j tales, steals from'her husband (Hou Yi,/* iff ) the nectar ; of immortality and flees to the moon. Later she is called the Goddess of the Moon. However in Ching-hua yuan, Ch'ang 0 is described as living near Hsi-wang-mu1s palace | rather than in the moon. She also bears another name, j Heng 0 ; ^9pai-hua Hsien-tzu ( & 3" )• The Chinese character pai ( ) not only denotes the meaning of "hun dred," but also connotes the collective sense of "all," or 19 and demonic elements represent the moral paradox of good and evil, which not only provides the thematic core of the novel, but also becomes the analogical base for later development of the work in the narrative of the redeemed i i quests of the Fairy's reincarnation as T’ang Hsiao-shan.21 Many of Li’s legendary allusions in the novel are ( ■ drawn from the mythological story of the Queen Mother. | However, Li does not describe her as we find her in Shan- hai ching. There she is portrayed as an ugly monster, who "with a leopard's tail and tiger’s teeth, nevertheless j looks like a human being — hair dishevelled, voice stri dent. She is in charge of the furies and avenging spirits of heaven."21 Neither does Li depict her as she is de- i | picted in the Mu T'ien-tzu chuan, a supreme sovereign whom ' "entire." Thus the name of Pai-hua Hsien-tzu implies that i she is in charge of all flower species. Hereafter she | will be referred to as the Fairy in the text. ; \ I 20rpiang Hsiao-shan ( J% x \s iU ) is the incarnation of | the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers. Later, under her father/s : instruction, she changes her name to T'ang Kuei-ch’en I fzj. & ). See CHY, . ch. 47, p. 346. The literal meanings I or both names signify the author's thematic intentions and ‘ plot developments. For instance, the name "Hsiao-shan" | means the "Little P’eng-lai Mountain" which is the goal i of her first quest. "T'ang Kuei-ch’en" includes the i meaning "the chaste subject of the T'ang Dynasty," which ' the heroine exemplifies through the second half of the ! novel. ; 21por details, see the original in the chapter "Hsi- ! shan ching" (yS ? 1 * ) of Shan-hai ching ( ) ! (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1965). 20 the legendary King Mu of Chou visits.22 Instead, the account of Li's Queen Mother is similar to that in Liu An’s Hual-nan Tzu^3 or in Pan Ku’s Han Wu-ti n e i - c h u a n . ^ 4 The free adaptation of the classical Chinese mythology is richly suggestive and has its own purpose. The superfi- - cial account of the glamorous party given in the Queen Mother's honor makes the reader at first react to the characters indifferently. However, Li immediately plunges into the core of his theme, and the reader discovers a special pathos in the argument between the Fairy and Ch'ang 22por details, see the original in Mu T'len-tzu chuan 3f ' J J i ' ) (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1965)» p3 87 I % 23piu An ( -jT ) is reputed to be the author of Huai- nan Tzu ( ) . An enthusiastic devotee of Taoism, Liu An not only embellishes the Queen Mother story with Taoist colors but also elaborates the concept of immortali ty. For instance, the Taoist tone can be found in the description df Hou YI and Ch'ang 0's yearning for ever lasting life: "Hou Yi had asked Hsi-wang-mu for an elixir. Heng 0 stole it and went up to the moon." See the chapter "Lan-ming hsiin" (*5 , % ^lj ) of Huai-nan Tzu (Shanghai: Commercial Press, Tyo5) ,' p. 44. v/ 2^Pan Ku ) is reputed to be the author of Han Wu-ti nei-chuan ( & j j t j ). The Taoist motif of immortality Is again emphasized. For example, the Queen Mother's appearance is embellished with Taoist metaphors and modifiers, and Emperor Wu-ti's pleading for the elixir of immortality is closely associated with the Queen Mother's supernatural power. For details, see Han Wei Liu- ch'iao hsiao-shuo hsilan-chu ( 5 * P i i h i O I r y - (Hong Kong: Wan-li shu-tien, 1^59)j P- 18. Also see Ydan ), Chung-kuo ku-tai shen-hua ( j (Shanghai: Commercial Press,1957), PP• 2*-25. Yuan 1 states that the evolution of the account of the Queen Mother is a good example of the metamorphosis of myth it- 1 self. 21 0. The latter, according to the myth, has stolen her husband's elixir and gained Immortality. This discovery prepares the reader to anticipate Li's real thematic management, which is far different from merely superficial ; relationships. The argument is provoked by Ch'ang 0, the Goddess of < the Moon. In order to please the Queen Mother, she sug- : gests that the Fairy of a Hundred Birds25 and the Fairy of a Hundred Animals26 order all of their subordinates to sing and dance in unison at the Jasper Pond27 in honor of the Queen Mother. Ch'ang 0 is so determined to ingratiate herself with the Queen Mother that she forgets that the i Fairy of a Hundred Flowers' celestial influence on her I ; flowers is bound by the seasonal laws. Everything has its j ■ proper nature. If an object is not in accord with its i i I | nature, then disaster will come to it. The Fairy of a j Hundred Flowers, who thoroughly comprehends her responsibi lity and commits herself to her role, refuses Ch'ang 0's i | request, explaining: j l 25pai-niao Ta-hsien ( ), who is in charge ; of all birds. I j 2°Pai-shou Ta-hsien ( ), who is. in charge i of the entire animal kingdom. ! 27Yao-ch'ih ). This elegant place usually is the site for the celestial feast given by the immortals, I called the Feast of Peaches, P'an-t'ao hui ( ) , or ! P'ang-t'ao sheng-hui ( ). See Werner, p. 164. i 22 I Under my charge, each flower has a definitely scheduled season to bloom, and it Is not like singing or dancing, that can be ordered at any time. Right now, Sister Moon's proposal has put me in a real dilemma. Moreover, as far as flowers are concerned, the Supreme Deity's I ordering and supervision of flowers are extreme- ; ly strict and detailed. Flowers scheduled to bloom must submit a month in advance their pro posed designs, and any change in the number of their petals and the shade of their colors must | await His Majesty's decision. i i j Her acknowledgement of seasonal changes emphasizes her i interdependency with natural law. Tension and conflict result, for which personal animosity is the real cause. Early there is mention of Ch'ang 0's deceitful personality; ( in chapter 3 she is described as an angry and sarcastic lady who possesses the elixir of immortality. Her connec- l j tion with immortality reflect her history: a history of ! covetous desire for eternal life and immense indulgence in i t i | self-gratification. The innocent Fairy, unaware of Ch'ang j 0's destructive potential, takes pride in provoking her i | hostility by referring to the incident of stealing the i elixir of immortality. The incident is not by any means a secret. However, the Fairy's mentioning it at a public gathering makes her vulnerable to the allegorical danger that Ch'ang 0 represents. With a human body and a divine capacity, Ch'ang 0 incorporates both human baseness and supernatural power. Without the Fairy's single-mindedness, 28CHY, ch. 1, p. 5. 23 Ch'ang 0 can be driven by any insidious force within her to destructive violence. She is designed for an allegori cal purpose: the demonic function. This function at ; first operates in Ch'ang 0's challenge to the Fairy and l subsequently throws considerable light on the Fairy's weakness: her naivete and her refusal to take prudent l account of Ch'ang 0's destructive charm and force. In I : some legends, the demonic is described as an intermediary I , between man and god and thus ambivalent, having both angelic and evil natures.^9 j As the quarrel rapidly comes to its climax, Ch'ang | 0’s intentional ingratiation yields to her instinctive impulses. She moves from being a n g e r e d 3 0 to acting angri ly 31 and finally comes to embody the concept of anger. j ! Chapters 2 and 3 contain this progression; each step repre-l i sents an interruption of the harmony assumed to be charac- I ; teristic of the Taoist paradise. The opposition between t Ch'ang 0 and the Fairy becomes more explicit and conse- i quently converts the birthday celebration into a contest. ! 29.The word "demon" etymologically derives from the 1 Greek word daiomai which means to divide or to distribute, j The demonic characteristic is loosely synonymous with that of a fallen angel, who embodies supernatural power as well J as inward force beyond human comprehension. An allegorical : demon plays an intermediate role between the divine and the j mortal and is generally known for his good or evil associa- I tions. For details, see Fletcher, pp. 25-69- 3°See CHY, ch. 2, p. 8. 31See CHY, ch. 3, p. 13- 24 Torn between emotional impulse and the necessity for ra tional restraint, the Fairy wavers between pride and duty. Her confrontation with the provocative Ch’ang 0 challenges her ability to perform her duty. Unfortunately, the Fairy I embraces the challenge more than she affirms the duty. I She surrenders to emotion, joining in an exchange of i curses in which Ch'ang 0’s anger is acted out. Ch'ang 0's ; role in the exchange is to represent the concept of anger and disharmony. The Fairy's role is more complex. In the exchange, she speaks of the story's eventual development, I which is later to be actualized by allegorical expansion into her future transmigration: Unless Ch'ang 0 were incarnated as empress and gave such an unreasonable command, no one would ! do that sort of thing. At that moment, if I were | foolish enough to let all flowers bloom at the ; same time, I would descend into the mundane world j to endure the sufferings of endless retribution without the slightest regret.32 j j Here the reference to such key words as "mundane world,"33 ! "endure the sufferings of endless retribution,"3^ and i i "without the slightest regret,"35 suggests her doom. The | ! forecast is confirmed by the Queen Mother: 32CHY, ch. 2, p. 9- 33Hung-ch' en ( . < ■ , * ). It also can be translated as the Red Dust. XX 3^Shou nieh-hai wu-pien chih-k'u )• 35yung-wu fan-hui ( I f 25 Truly, the girl’s discipline is shallow .... How could she know that many causes and effects that will happen in the future are the result of today's quarrel? The colored brush36 has just put a dot on her forehead and has revealed the scheme of her fate. Unfortunately, she seems to be still in her dream and unaware of Its signifi- j cance. This is her predicted fate, and nothing | can be done about it.37 i ! The Queen Mother's comment points out a spiritual dilemma ! which the author sees lying in wait for his heroine, the ! Fairy. The Queen Mother's prediction foreshadows the author’s thematic development: the Fairy's descent into the mundane world. There is a significant allegorical paradox within the context of the statement. The Queen Mother's revelation does not rebuke Ch'ang 0 as a danger to the Fairy simply because the former has shown her I ! vicious nature. Instead, Ch'ang 0 has been made an ! embodiment of negative and impulsive traits of mankind to | illustrate how, in reaction to the Fairy, they are trans- ; muted into the destructive and the dangerous. Therefore I I Ch'ang 0's real threat to the Fairy does not lie solely in r ; herself or in her provocations. Instead, Ch'ang 0's real ■ threat is in the abstractions of anger and self-indulgence I j that she embodies, which in turn draw the Fairy herself ; into a demonic world. | The Fairy is at the opposite pole from Ch'ang 0 and 36Ts' al-hao (.^5 ) » or the colored brush, belong i to K'uei-hsing ( _ fcfe i. ‘ > the Star-god of Literature. 37CHY, ch. 2, p. 9- 26 embodies the rawness of experience itself. Naively and eagerly receptive, she is the impulsive young woman for whom every involvement is so exciting that she has not learned to distance herself from entanglement. She is un- ; able to control the dark compulsions within herself. In ! Chinese mythology, the immortals are not remote or greatly j , different from ordinary human beings. They are not above ! love, hate, anger, and jealousy and are therefore not i j perfect. Endowed with human qualities, the Fairy is ex-' i periencing a series of mortal temptations and is con stantly in danger of succumbing to them. She needs self- ; awareness to overcome her natural instincts. Unfortunate- : ly, she is unable to comprehend this truth and "seems to ; be still in her dream," as observed by the Queen Mother. I : This observation suggests both the Fairy's attachment to i j the illusive and the unenlightened stage of her predicted l I fate. Early in the opening chapter, in a dialogue between i her and the Fairy of a Hundred Plants, her character is illuminated by the revelation of her potential attitudes toward temptation. On the third day of the third month, the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers, along with her friends, the Fairies of a Hundred Plants, and Grains, are en route to the Queen Mother’s birthday party, the Feast of Peaches. When they see radiance spreading from a cloud, the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers expresses her curiosity by saying: 27 I have heard that the Star-god of Literature is in charge of earthly literary events. Often recently I have seen the red light from his Dipper P a l a c e 3 8 spreading throughout the heavens. . . . Such a phenomenon points to an effulgence in the human arts. Alas! Our dis cipline is too shallow for us to know the time and place such an omen refers t o . 39 I ; This passage shows how easily the Fairy will succumb to ; temptations. Her admiration for the shining light sug- | gests her sensual longing for the mundane. The curiosity about earthly literary events reveals her weakening dis cipline, which yields to desire for things other than the j divine. The admission of her ignorance unveils her in- 1 I tellectual craving for the unknown. All these — the | emotional, sensual, and intellectual factors — in fact | sum up an ordinary human soul that, while imprisoned in a i divine body, craves for earthly experience. I The author's mixture of mythical figures along with. i ! allegory in this part of the work expresses the complexity i ! of his heroine's growth and experience. If also explores the intricate working of her fate. Unlike Bunyan’s alle- i gory, which is full of Christian admonishments, Li’s alle gory is a rational inquiry into the domain of human weak- j ness and its manifestation. Since the Fairy's craving is I I i 3®Tou-kung ). It is believed, that the palace : is located at the constellation Dipper. See Werner, | p. 556. ! 39CHY, ch. 1, p. 2. 28 for knowledge, the temptation that she is about to plunge into is of the spirit rather than of the flesh. To Li, knowledge itself can bring not only spiritual gratification but also emotional pain. For knowledge I j implies intellectual complexity that is directly linked 5 with the Fairy's future craving for earthly life. The i , desire for knowledge suggests the unresolved conflict ' between her immortality and her delusion that earthly re- I ; ality is glorious. She feels the need to see through to i the unknown, to the extent that she can no longer control her secret yearning. Much of the Fairy's inability to control her impulses, however, needs to be put in the proper context. In her dialogue with the Fairy of a Hun- I t ! dred Plants in the opening chapter, Li suggests her taste i F ! for the aesthetic use of knowledge through metaphors of 1 insubstantiality, metaphors of "the flower in the mirror" j and "the moon in the water." Both images convey illusory i and transient qualities that cannot be read explicitly, in that they mask not only the hidden meanings of real knowl- I edge but also the essential overtone. This overtone dis guises the truth of the novel's fundamental theme, the reality theme. The technical virtuosity with which Li handles this abstract theme has its origin in his own dis trust of intellectual curiosity. His frequent mention of 29 the metaphysical concept yuan,210 cause or affinity, and his even more frequent narrative returns to various phases of yuan, as I shall discuss later, are not surface fea tures in Ching-hua yuan. They correspond to Li's thought. Thus the dialogue of the Fairy and her friend underlines I the paradox drawn by Li. Without the perception of knowl- j edge as a spiritual burden, the Fairy is still unable to j justify her curiosity. Subsequently she plunges into the 1 victim role, to undergo future suffering and quest, j The allegorical nature of the Fairy's spiritual quest j is further emphasized by its setting in the garden of paradise. Li not only adorns the garden with traditional symbols of eternity and immortality, represented by immor tal peaches, immortal wine, and immortal music,121 but also j ' ! paves the way for the clashes between virtue and vice, i 3 I j innocence and knowledge. In the West, the concept of the garden of paradise is associated with the doctrine of ! CHY, ch. 1, pp. 2-3- Yuan connotes a favora- j ble opportunity or circumstance. However, it has nothing to do with human endeavor but is a product of phenomena. ! The author uses this word to describe circumstantial and ■ conditioning causes. For example, chi-yuan Okb >|c) stands for favorable circumstance or condition; fa-yiian the cause of Icarma; yu-yuan ), the opportunity; ch'en-yuan (jj ), the earthly-bound; and Ching-hua yuan, the title of the book, the cause of unreality or unreal phenomenon. For details, see this dissertation, pp. 52-57. J ^In the original, they are called hsien-t'ao ! hsien-lao ), and hsien-yueh ( T See~CHY. | ch. 1, p. 4. J W 'fiS - --- 1 9 Original Sin, the encounter and struggle with moral danger, and the eventual yielding and falling into the trap of Satanic temptation. Li’s garden, on the other hand, is a place with existential flux and meaning. Creatures en- j dowed with beastly, human, and divine natures are fated to i live in this heavenly environment. However, this univer- I i sal fate includes, a gradual increase of the negative and I i impulsive forces demonstrated by Ch'ang 0 and the Fairy. i t t ! At first, in terms of bitter aggressiveness, Ch'ang 0 is ! the possessor and the Fairy is the possessed. However, a i j gradual reversal of dark forces between, them takes place | as the story progresses. Ch'ang 0's attempt at revenge is I j less effective than the Fairy's own emotional defiance and I ' spiritual yearning. These bring her closer to the world j i ! of temptation. The shift suggests a betrayal of innocence; I j her questions, "What are the literary events listed in the ’ jade tablet? Is it possible for us to see the tablet?" I become "I'm wondering whether I might have any affinity i with this jade tablet?"^2 desire for knowing is the Fairy's initial rebellion against her universe. The gar den is no longer the garden of innocence. Nor is it a I world beyond realistic comprehension. Instead, it becomes ! the testing ground for the allegorical conflict of good j and evil. Therefore, the Fairy's involvement with Ch'ang i I 42CHY, ch. 1, p. 2. 31 0 foretells the loss of her Innocence, for Ch'ang 0 Is an emissary of the world of temptation. To a certain extent, the garden of paradise In Ching- hua yuan Is an enclosed virgin land. It is a place of I utter ignorance and self-isolation. Within it, the Fairy : has been removed from anxiety and sorrow and protected ; from seeing the world directly. But this Chinese "Eden" i J is so fragile that as soon as Ch'ang 0 provokes her, her I i j privilege of staying away from the pain of life dissolves. ! The Fairy can no longer maintain her self-control by suppressing her naive speculations. Instead she has to I accept the challenge, to play the role of victim, and to j ] plunge herself into the earthly world. I In casting the Fairy as victim, the author does not j i deviate from his allegorical assertion about the state of ! I her mind. To Li, every character can overcome his or her i i own obstacle by a strong will. For example, the Fairy's ! name, Pai-hua Hsien-tzu, means the fairy who is the repre- j sentative of all flowers. This name suggests that she is ! responsible for administering herself as well as her fellowers. Ironically, her sense of responsibility, dis cipline, and control manifests itself in the wrong direc- : tion, reaching a climax when she destroys every possible | chance for reconciliation with the ideal paradise to which | she has been born. Again it is excessive self-indulgence i 32 and competitive impulses that overcome the weak-willed Fairy. It is years *after the quarrel that the Fairy, feeling restless, visits her friend Ma Ku^3 and, in re sponse to Ma Ku's invitation to drink wine and compose poetry, suggests that they play chess Instead: Since good wine prolongs life and is very difficult to get, I’ll certainly accept some with due respect. When it comes to linking couplets, I can’t think of anything appealing about such a colorless, unemotional under taking. How much more exciting it would be to compete against each other with the black and white chessmen!^ At this point, her lack of inner restraint no longer corresponds to the picture of a divine fairy. The fascin ation of the chess game, the thirst to compete and to win, and the contempt for tranquillity — all these suggest her revolt against the divine existence and her tragic sinking into the abyss of the demonic world. What Li dramatizes centrally, then, is the Fairy's inevitable fall from grace, in a world where a figure like Ma Ku clearly sees the Fairy’s involvement with the chess game. The Fairy succumbs too much to her impulses of ir rationality and loses the real spirit of the chess 43Ma Ku ). The name is the same for the three] different historical women who attained Taoist immortality the first during the second century of the Han Dynasty, the second during the fourth century of the Hou Chou Dy nasty, and the third during the twelfth century of the Sung Dynasty, respectively. 44CHY, ch. 2, p. 10. 33 j competition. Ma Ku's criticism of her good friend’s j agitated temperament accumulates through Ma Ku's experi ence with her: "The conduct of your chess game is too mediocre. Whenever you are in the middle of the game and i realizing that the situation is not advantageous to you, you either seize the chessman or find an excuse to make a i j move."^5 This statement may be seen as Li's irony; what i | follows is the Fairy's merciless descent toward her pre- I I dicated nadir: The Fairy of a Hundred Flowers said: 'Should you win today, I have heard that there are many chess experts in the mundane world; I would go there to find a teacher, and invite him here.... 1 Ma Ku replied: * . . . from your mention of i descending into the mundane world to find a ! teacher, it seems that you have already devel- I oped a longing for the Red Dust. I am afraid i that someone on earth just might invite you to : play the role of a chess expert.'46 | With Ma Ku's prediction, the implication of the chess game I ! becomes even more explicit. The game connotes intellectu al challenge, whose outcome will be revealed only at the i j end. The contest needs knowledge as well as experience, i I which corresponds to the allegory of spiritual growth and moral descent. For at this point the Fairy's mind is not 45CHY, ch. 3, P. 12. CHY, Qh, 3^ pp> 12-13. 34 in a state of simplicity. According to F. Parvin Sharp- less, such a change from simplicity to complexity, togeth er with intellectual challenge, represents an.essential element of the myth of the Fall: . . . the Fall is an awareness of irrevocable Change, Growth, and Process, and especially , of the passage of Time. Maturity brings an inevitable sense of one’s life being lived and ! one’s knowledge being earned along the way, in ! change, in the midst of the passage of time, as j well as an awareness of flow and movement, both 1 in the 'stream* of ideas through the mind, and j in the movements from youth to age, birth to j death. But the Innocent lives in a timeless | world where the sunrise is always the same, where J each day repeats the events of the day before and consciousness is not changed.^7 I The Fairy’s change, as signified by the chess game, lies ! not in external reality but rather within herself. The t j process of this internalization parallels Adam’s story: i innocence, temptation, knowledge, rebellion, and punish- I j ment. The Fairy’s story serves as an allegory of both the i i mind and the heart. Her descent to self-assertion brings ! I suffering, as she bravely admits: l : Go back and tell your Mistress /Dh’ang QJ that i I once said that if I ever failed my promise I j would descend into the mundane world, and now • that it has happened, I will naturally undergo ; the suffering of my karma.^8 ! ^?F. parvin Sharpless, The Myth of the Fall: Litera- | ture of Innocence and Experience (Rochelle Park: Hayden | Book Company, Inc. , 197^0, P- ! 48CHY, ch. 6, p. 31. 35 Only by avoiding the excesses of her temperament and shunning self-gratification could she escape the suffering that ensues from her negligence. The tragic catastrophe, incarnation as a mortal being, seems to mock the limita tions of knowledge and ultimately to defy the grandeur of immortality itself. The Quest and Spiritual Redemption The title, Ching-hua yuan, suggests a major theme of the work. As has been mentioned, ching-hua, or ’ ’ the flower j in the mirror," is a metaphor for the conflict between ; appearance and reality. The mirror can reveal only the ; reflection of reality, not the substance. Early in the first chapter, Li Ju-chen presents this metaphor along with shui-yueh, or "the moon in the water." These represent the j distorted vision of the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers,^9 which condemns her to banishment from the garden of paradise, Hung-yen tung.50 Later, in chapter 47, these two terms appear again^l with a different purpose. That purpose is ! to show the progressive spiritual awareness of T'ang j Hsiao-shan, the secular name for the reborn Fairy of a I Hundred Flowers. The relationship between the first and i i the second appearance of these two metaphors correlates with the protagonist's change from downward to upward ^9see CHY, ch ., 1, p. 3, where the Fairy of a . Hundred Flowers laments: "If there is a lack, of cause which we cannot see, isn't it just like 'the flower in the mirror and the moon in the water?'' Then does th.e hope end in vain?" yen i: „ and fair complexion of the pretty woman. Later it becomes the synonym of ephemer al beauty. In Ching-hua yuan, Hung-yen tung is the resi- | dence for the beautiful fairies. ■ 51see CHY, ch. 47, p. 345. Hung-yen tung ( . Usually the term hung- 37 direction. Her journey takes the form of quest-romance with the expected allegorical accompaniment of perilous, heroic, pastoral, and utopian segments. T'ang Hsiao-shan is put to the tests of danger, struggle, suffering, and j revelation. These correspond with the significant stages ; of the quest pattern, according to Northrop Frye: "per ilous journey, crucial struggle, and the exaltation of the : hero." He further identifies the stages as conflict i (agon), death-struggle (pathos), and discovery (anagnorisis). I I I The quest pattern starts with the rebirth of the ! j Fairy into the mundane world in chapter 7* The treatment | of the story of rebirth is in the tradition of Chinese ; vernacular fiction,in which an author accentuates the ; significance of his main character through supernatural i revelation and dreams. The narration of T'ang Hsiao-shan's : birth includes self-conscious use of these traditions: Fortunately that year his wife Lin gave birth to : a baby girl. Before the delivery the house was I permeated with a rare fragrance. It was like I neither musk nor sandalwood. It seemed to be a ' flower fragrance and yet was not. For three days the fragrance changed itself constantly to a hundred different varieties. The neighbors all wondered at this strang phenomenon, and so called 52 See Frye, Anatomy of Criticism, p. 187* 53por example, the story of Monkey in Hsi-yu chi, or the Precious Stone (or Chia Pao-yu) in Hung-Lou meng. 38 this place Hundred.Fragrances Lane. Before the baby was born, Lin dreamt of climbing up a colorful precipice, and when she awakened the baby girl was born. So she called her Hsiao- shan. 54 The effect of Li's intentional allegory can be found in his protagonist's name, Hsiao-shan. In Chinese, hsiao-shan means "little mountain" and is the recurrent 1 abbreviation of "Little P'eng-lai Mountain" in Ching-hua yuan. Throughout the novel, the goal of T'ang Hsiao- shan' s quest is toward this "Little P'eng-lai Mountain," which is not only the name of her father's hiding place t f j but also the symbol of spiritual enlightenment. In 1 Chinese mythology, P'eng-lai Mountain Is the paradise for ! Taoist Immortals and the eternal residence of the mythical Eight Immortals. In Taoist religion, P'eng-lai Mountain \ j has much significance. It has been described as a place | devoid of any sensory delusion as well as sensuous illusion. In this work the reiteration of the name is closely related to different stages of the plot development | and thematic progression. In the episodes of mythical J setting in chapters 1, 2, and 4, "Little P'eng-lai 1 | Mountain" provides glimpses of an ideal picture of j spirituality: a self-contained place, undisturbed I 54chy5 ch. 7j p> 37- 39 | eternity, everlasting happiness, and ultimate reality.55 Later when T'ang Hsiao-shan's father, T'ang Ao, decides to stay there, the motif of "Little P'eng-lai Mountain" is exploited for its value as object of his spiritual aspira- I j tion toward an inner liberation. To the father this is the highest reality, as is shown by his inscription on a ' stone tablet on the evening before he renounces the world: i ; Drifting along with the waves, many I years have gone by, Fortunately this life has not been spent in vain. Only now have I arrived at the Original Source, How can I forsake it and sail on?5° ; The meaning of the "Original Source" has been gradually ' developed throughout the novel, until it is finally ' revealed at the climax of T'ang Hsiao-shan's quest. The j abstract implication is substantiated in concrete mani- I j festation: "magnificent terraces, jade caves, golden palaces, and jasper ponds."57 As the Red Cross Knight in The Faerie Queene recognizes the New Jerusalem, T'ang Hsiao-shan recognizes "Little P'eng-lai Mountain." With | i an almost religious awe she feels "as if reaching an I CHY, ch. 1, p. 1: "This is the place of immortal gathering together. ... In all the four seasons the ( flowers never fade, throughout the eight festivals the ■ grasses ever remain green. There are other good things ■ then, immortal fruits, auspicious trees, good grains, and j lucky rice. It is difficult to list each of them." | 56CHY, ch. 40, p. 282. I --- j 57chy, ch. 49j p. 358. 40 Immortal sphere., where all desires are extinguished. "58 Through various presentations of "Little P’eng-lai Mountain," Li provides an almost complete synopsis of the cyclical plot of his heroine’s quest. "Little P'eng-lai ! Mountain" embodies the veiled truth in the beginning, ' serves as a contrast to the mocking illusions of "the i flower in the mirror" and "the moon in the water" in the ! middle, and finally symbolizes the goal of T'ang Hsiao- shan 's spiritual pursuit. Its recurrence demonstrates the extent of the author’s vision of his protagonist's quest, j Therefore it is not surprising to find that Li arbitrarily i j changes T’ang Hsiao-shan's name into T'ang Kuei-ch'en ) j right after her glimpse of the New Jerusalem-like mountain I I in chapter 47. In the quest, the author’s intention, like | j that of allegorists in general, is direct and simple.59 The allegorical name provides a sketch of the character's potential and offers, a foreshadowing of the plot. I I 58CHy3 ch. 46, p. 339- I ! 59p]_ehcher states: "With allegory the problem of j intention seems far simpler than with either a mimetic art, I where nature suffices of itself to please and 'entertain' I the audience, or a mythic art, where some question arises ! about the existential certainties of common experience and ' where a higher reality is pressed upon the reader in the j form of some cardinal underlying question about existence itself." See Fletcher, p. 322. 41 ! Since T'ang Hsiao-shan's birth name signifies Li’s thematic intention, her progress in the quest becomes an artistic medium, a device allowing Li to elaborate on various subjects with which he is familiar. In this | respect, the journey episodes in Ching-hua yuan can be ( compared with Dante's Divine Comedy or Swift's Gulliver's i ! Travels. These voyages become an analogical basis for i I I subjective observation, comment, criticism, or even i I satire; the author can arbitrarily manage his material on I 1 both the cognitive and emotive levels without spoiling i " j the structural unity. In Ching-hua yuan this advantage | manifests itself in the handling of the story of T'ang Ao's ! travels abroad which eventually lead to his liberation, j T'ang Ao's renunciation of the mundane suggests that i voyage in itself is an uplifting influence which can | : change one's attitude toward life and remove the chance of 1 f n reverting to one's old self or returning home again. : Furthermore, his story, from an allegorical point of view, initiates the motive for his daughter's leaving home, and thus introduces the archetypal departure theme. Usually departure is the first step toward change. The change here implies a twofold meaning. On the physical i I level, it indicates a moving from one place to another, and ! ^Fletcher, p# 152. k2 J ~ on the spiritual level it indicates a transformation from i one state to another. Joseph Campbell names this the "call to adventure" which transfers and summons the quest hero "from within the pale of his society to a zone un known. "6l Departure involves a dynamic progress, either . moving upward toward the completion.of a given mission or j I bringing about the disintegration of the mission. T'ang : Hsiao-shan's departure falls into the former category and / j signifies an upward movement toward her spiritual libera- J tion. However, her quest for her missing father is made j difficult by the nature of the world into which she is ; born and through which she must move, as described in her j poem: | Desolate are pines and chrysanthemums, pale the | autumn moon. | Remote is P'eng-lai Mountain, lonely the ! traveler's s t a r .62 Though I regret that I am not a man, s By shrinking the globe,63 I can find him; it is worth the try.64 ^Joseph Campbell, A Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968) , pT 5 * 8 . ! 6 > 2The traveler's star (k' e-hsing, H ) is also | called the new star (hsin-hsing, )§ ), one of the meta- j morphic stars (pien-hsing, ) [ "Tits main trait is its j sudden change of light. Consequently, it symbolizes un- I certainty or unpredicability. In this poem, the traveler's : star is used to reflect the drifting wanderer, T'ang Hsiao- shan herself. I 63shrinking the globe (suo-ti, Jlft ) is a hyperbolic ! term used to exaggerate the eagerness of T'ang Hsiao-shan : to locate her father's whereabouts. ! 64qhy} ch> 4os p. 284. i 4 3 Moved by filial piety, T'ang Hsiao-shan resolves to face unknown obstacles. Guided by Lin Chih-yang, To Chiu- kung,^5 and supernatural protectors, she embarks on her wanderings. i Comparable to the spiritual advisers in the novel of Bildungsroman, Lin Chih-yang and To Chiu-kung’s appearance i j in Ching-hua yuan serves to stimulate investigation of the | complexity of reality which from time to time has in- t trigued T’ang Hsiao-shan. However, their function and significance are limited to only the human level. In the i j divine sphere, the supernatural guides, disguised as i various Taoist nuns and priests, take on dramatic power and shape T’ang Hsiao-shan’s religious redemption. I ■ Through the device of deus ex machina, the supernatural { ! 1 guides’ intervention reminds us of the protecting figures s j of Beatrice and the Virgin in Dante's Divine Comedy, ; Gretchen in Goethe's Faust,^ or Kuan-yin in Wu Ch’eng-en’s I Hsi-yu chi. Their being disguised indicates their sub servant relationship to thematic development. For 6 5 Lin Chih-yang ( ) is T’ang Hsiao-shan’s uncle. To Chiu-kung ( % -faj ) is Lin Chih-yang’s traveling companion. ? f t f \ DDCampbell lists many supernatural guides that are embodied in female figures. For instance, Helen of Troy in Goethe's Faust and the virgin in. Christian saints' legend a r y - ' tales .are supernatural..guides: He .attributes: this protecting force to the "protection of the Cosmic Mother." i See Campbell, p. 71. i I ! 44 instance, the first revelation of T’ang Hsiao-shan's divine nature is through the speech of the Fairy of a Hundred Plants, who disguises herself as a mad Taoist nun: I am P'eng-lai Mountain's Fairy of a Hundred Plants, Who lived with you for countless years. ; Pitying your banishment into the world, I have traveled over the seas and j Bring you the magic plant°7 to renew our ! former ties.68 | The image of the magic plant is associated with P'eng-lai Mountain. Unfortunately this revelation of divinity does not have any effect on T'ang Hsiao-shan, for she has been deprived of the capacity to remember her previous i | existence. Later, in chapter 5 1 , a similar revelation i j occurs when T'ang Hsiao-shan and her crew, forced to anchor ( | at an unknown harbor, suffer terribly from hunger. She j encounters a diseased-looking Taoist nun who comes to beg j for food. Her request denied, the nun sings the following I j song: J I am P'eng-lai Mountain's Fairy of a Hundred Grains, ' Who lived with you for countless years. ; Pitying your banishment into the world, I have traveled over the seas and I r 67it is believed that the magic plant (ling-chih, J' I -f ) grows in the celestial sphere. Bring you the clear-intestine grain^9 to renew our former ties.70 T’ang Hsiao-shan is shaken by the familiarity of the song and tries to seek its hidden meaning by engaging herself in metaphysical conversation with the Taoist nun: ’Please tell me,1 asked Kuei-ch.’en /Hsiao-shan/, ’why are you nuns also Interested in sight seeing? ’ ’Boddhisattva, you must know that once you have seen the sights, you can complete the whole achievement. . . ,' the Taoist nun answered. ’Kuei-ch' en unconsciously nodded her head and then said, *1 see. Then please tell me where you come from.’ 'I come from the Cave of Looking Back on Reunion Mountain.72« After hearing this, Kuei-ch’en suddenly remembered a phrase in her father’s poem: ’In order to meet, you will hve to look back and recall,’73 and she was moved to ask, ’Immortal nun, where are you going now?’ ^The clear-intestine grain (ch’ing-ch’ang, 'J k ftp ) has been mentioned in Shih-i chi. It is described as? ""In 69 B.C., there was a country located east of Lo-yang, which willingly brought as tribute the clear-intestine rice /ch' ing-ch ’ ang tao, J to Emperor Hsuan-ti of the Han Dynasty. He who eats one grain of this rice will not feel hungry for years. Also see Yuan Chun, p. 130. 7°CHY, ch. 51, p. 376. ^7lKuan-kuang ( ) and kung-hsing yuan-man ( 'A& ^ | 72Hui-shou £Ung ( Ks) ) an<3 Chu-shou shan 1 tU ) • | 73it ls a seven-word phrase from T’ang Ao’s poem to i his daughter: "Chu-shou han-hsu hui-shou-yi" ( "fg - s T T ; ? , S e e n H Y * c h - p - 3 5 9 • ! 46 'I am going to the Cave of Supreme Happiness on the Island of Divine Ascent.74’ Kuei-ch’en thought, ’Can it be that after one has seen the sight and looked back, one finds such a reward? I’ll ask her one more question.’ She then asked: ’Immortal nun, this Cave of Supreme Happiness may very well be on the Island of Divine Ascent, but where is all this from a geographical point of view?’ ’In the heart-field,’ replied the Taoist nun.75 The Taoist nun's reference to "heart-fi'eld" (the m i n d ) 76 has a serious religious overtone.77 In China both heart and mind are considered to be the karmaic source of mental activity. The Impurity of the mind can bring about illusion and, consequently, desire. In Buddhist teaching, especially that of the Hua-yen and■T’len-t’ai Schools, the 75qhY, ch. 51, pp. 376-377. i 7 6Hsin-ti (i^** j) , meaning mind or soul, is con- i sidered to be the source of man's cognitive activities. According to the Buddhist interpretation, the heart has various functions and interpretations. For details, see ! William Soothill and Lewis Hodour, eds., A Dictionary of I Chinese-Buddhist Terms (Taipei: Chung-kuo fo-chiao y(leh- k’an she, 1968), pp. 149-151* 77in Ching-hua yuan, religious terms may be both Buddhist and Taoist. This is a common practice among novelists after the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, j Liu Ts'un-yan attributes the cause of this mixture to the I practice of simultaneous observance of Confucianism, ; Taoism, and Buddhism in China. See Liu, Buddhist and Taoist Influence on Chinese Novels, Vol. I: The Author ship of the Feng-shen yen-i (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrasso- ' | witz, 1962), p7 vii. 47 highest achievement of the mind is the reaching of a Buddha-mind (fo-hsin), 7^ which can free man from ideas of creation and extinction (wu-sheng-hsin)79 and from dis crimination between the relative and the absolute. The Taoist nun tries to enlighten T'ang Kuei-ch'en that the | mind is the most dangerous and disturbing factor In I I determining one's ultimate achievement (kung-hsing). It ! is implied that the cause of T'ang Kuei-ch'en's banishment i from heaven is her failure to control the impulsive mind and to recognize evil's temptation. The nun's references to "sight-seeing" (kuan-kuang), "Reunion Mountain" (Chu- i shou shan), and "Cave of Supreme Happiness" (Chi-lo tung) not only form puns on the concepts of "enlightenment," I "redemption," and "ultimate reality," but also point out I : ironically T'ang Kuei-ch'en’s ignorance and blindness. t ■ The Taoist nun's replies convey the problem of the nature t ■ of seeing (kuan). This is not the ordinary visual seeing ' of worldly objects as mentioned by T'ang Kuei-ch'en, but the spiritual seeing of the ultimate nature of things, the "enlightenment" (kuang). On the whole, the nun’s responses embrace nothing but paradoxes which attempt to set T'ang Kuei-ch'en free from the dualism of appearance 7 8po_hSin ( ' $ 1^7 Aik' ) . I 7'9wU-shehg-h:sin ( jffL ) . 48 and reality. However, because T'ang Kuei-ch'en can neither revert back to the surface meaning nor attempt to reach the truth that lies behind it, she has to continue her journey on earth. ; In this way, Li expands T'ang Kuei-ch'en's quest from i the search for her missing father to the sphere of self- ! ! searching. The design of the journey falls into two parts I 1 that correspond to the symmetrical rhythm found in most ' Rn ‘ ritualistic allegory. u In the first part we are shown i I thirty strange countries and islands, both particular and I j s y m b o l i c . 8 - * - The emphasis in these episodes falls upon the i cosmological isolation and religious progress of T'ang Ao. i | The second part also has a symmetrical rhythm and is 1 centered first on T'ang Kuei-ch'en's search for T'ang Ao j ; I j and then on her search for herself, the search for her ! state of mind. Her change of motivation, along with her ! ■ change of names, indicates the exchange of emotive for i j religious temperament. Her pious love for her father is { i contingent upon an emotion which conspicuously excluded 1 ! any spiritual element. The religious temperament manifests ; ^ F l e t c h e r calls this rhythm "ritualistic." In addi- j tion, he mentions that "allegories are designed in such a | repetitive pattern." See Fletcher, pp. 172-173* 1 i ^T'ang Ao, Lin Chih-yang, and To Chiu-kung spend nine j months visiting thirty different countries. See CHY, ! ch. 38, p. 269* itself as she lessens her emotional tension and anxiety. The dramatic shift between T'ang Kuei-ch'en's two roles is elaborated in the culminating episode, her en trance into the Mound of the Flower in the Mirror (Ching- j hua chung) and into the Village of the Moon in the Water (Shui-yueh ts’un.) . There she is instructed both to "change l 1 her name to Kuei-ch'en," and to glance over the glorious : land of p a r a d i s e . 82 Immediately thereafter comes the i episode of gradual revelation at the Pavilion of the Weeping Beauty (Ch'i-hung t'ing).83 T'ang Kuei-ch*en learns about the prophecy of her fate at the Imperial Ex- | aminations and about her present need for spiritual : i regeneration. She also finds out about her history as the I Fairy of a Hundred Flowers and the cause of her degrada tion. In the analyses of these layers of her existence, secular, religious, and mythical aspects appear through i j allegorical couplets and metaphorical riddles which suggest the author's ambiguity of intention. The four-line verse inscribed on the jade tablet conveys the nature of this ambiguity: Boundless, boundless this emptiness, A thing which approaches absurdity. 1 82CHY, ch. 47, pp. 346-347. 83Ch'i-hung t1 ing ). Also, see CHY, ch. 48, p. 348. J 50 In the age of T’ang to meet up with T’ang, You will roam over vastness far and wide.84 After reading it, T’ang Kuei-ch'en comments: It is now the T’ang Dynasty, and my surname happens to be T’ang. Now that I have seen this tablet with my own eyes, it must mean that I am supposed to transmit its content throughout my native land.85 Apparent T’ang Kuei-ch’en can interpret only the last two lines. The most important information, however, is in the first two lines, in which the riddle of "absurdity" ' (huang-t’ang) is explored from various angles. The first I | line suggests an enormous space of uncultivated wilder- | ness, an analogue to the chaotic age (hun-tun)86 before j the mythical Creation. The second line, on the basis of J the first, views all things as absurd (t’ang). The re- I I petition of the words huang and t’ang intensifies their ! effect. Li’s attitude toward the human race in this poem ‘ is cynical and pessimistic. Most of his characters are l trapped in their distorted visions of reality and con- sequently engage themselves in futile effort and endless o h . U8 , P . 357 : j l Y, ch.. 48, p.. 358. 86 ' Huri-1un (iJ- j*^, ) . According to Chinese, mythology , the chaotic period existed before the formation of the Cosmic Matter, t ’ al-i ( . — ■ ) which consists of the yin ( ^ and yang I ' f t - j f r ) • Change in the Cosmic Matter (or yirr and yang) creates the differences between the four ! seasons. 51 involvement. In conjunction with the concept of absurdity in Ching-hua yuan, reference to the concept yuan (cause, affinity) emerges as the most frequently recapitulated j j motif and deserves further discussion and analysis. The ( word yuan connotes inference, or its consequence. It also | connotes circumstantial or conditional cause in existen- I j tial phenomena; it is diametrically opposed to the self- | contained and independent nature of the fundamental cause. Early in chapter 1, y{lan is emphasized by the Fairy of a Hundred Plants: i Since we can get a preliminary glimpse of these i phenomena, how can you say that there is no I cause (yuan) behind it? Probably in the near \ future, one of us will have the chance to parti- \ cipate in them.87 I ■ I : Later in the novel, references to the motif of the "cause" i j are made either overtly or indirectly. The most effective example can be drawn from the mysterious comment made by the diseased-looking Taoist nun in chapter 51: Our meeting each other today must be due to ! some cause. Not only does a cause exist, but I this cause must derive from a previous life, i And because of this cause from a previous life, we have come to produce an excellent cause. And because of this excellent cause, we might also continue our former cause. And because of this former cause, we will produce a cause for all of us. And once we have a cause for all of us, we 87CHY, ch. 1, p. 3. 52 can conclude our earthly cause.^8 The Taoist nun does not discuss these various aspects of cause in detail, but her sequential arrangement of these j metaphysical qualities parallels the movements of T’ang 1 Kuei-ch’en's journey. The episode which parallels "a lack j of cause," for example, concerns the talent Yin Jo-hua.89 : In the revelation episode in chapter 48, she is unable to I | read an engraved tablet, while her friend, T’ang Kuei- i i j ch'en, claims that the characters there are only ordinary ones. Then T’ang explains: Since I have an affinity with the tablet, I | can read it at a glance. You have no affinity i with it, and so its writing has turned into ! the archaic seal script.90 ; This episode calls to mind a similar passage In chapter i 54, where Lin, T'ang Kuei-ch'en's mother, also remarks i that Li Hung-wei and Lu Tzu-hsuan's91 acquaintance with T'ang Kuei-ch'en is due to the machinery of cause or I i t no j yuan.9^ ! 88chy, ch> 51j p- 377, 89yin Jo-hua ( ) is the heir-apparent of the I Country of Women (Nu-er kuo, -*• fc. lil > • i 90chy, ch. 48, pp. 355-356. , 9lBoth Li Hung-wei ( % t&L. ) and Lu Tzu-hsuan ( ) come from the Black-tooth Country. i 1 1 > --- i 92gHY, ch. 54, p. 402: "Surprisingly, these two ; nieces did not despise you and were willing to accompany ! you back here. How could that happen if there is no ! cause?" In the parallelism of yuan to T’ang Kuei-ch’en’s quest, the treatment of various dimensions of yuan is allegorical on the first level. First, in chapter 1, "having cause" (yu-yuan) and "a lack of cause" (wu-yuan) I I are the parallels to the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers' : temptation. Both concepts are mentioned again in the ! episode of T’ang Kuei-ch'en’s sickness in chapter 4493 anc L j again are mentioned as the explicit cause for her banish ment in chapter 51-9^ Secondly, yuan is the parallel to the source of spiritual regeneration and refers directly to T'ang Kuei-ch’en's voyage. For instance, in her visits I t to the Eastern-mouth M o u n t a i n 9 5 and the Gentlemen's i , Country96 in chapters 44 and 45, she suspects the existen- ! ce of "former cause" (chiu-yuan), "previous cause" j | (ch'ien-yuan) and "transforming cause" (h u a - y u a n )97 in i j conjunction with the revelation of her divine nature ! before her fall. The "former cause" is actually an exter- nalization of T'ang Kuei-ch'en's past and future. Thirdly, i j 93see C H Y , ch. 44, p. 324. j 94See C H Y , ch. 51, p. 377. 95Tung-k'ou shan (jjL. & )• See C H Y , ch. 44, p. 325- | 96chun-tz.u kuo j|) ) . See C H Y , ch. 45, p. 331. 97Hua-yuan See C H Y , ch. 44, p. 323- 54 j in conjunction with her success in the Imperial Examina tions, yuan is treated as an enlightened source for T'ang Kuei-ch'en's spiritual liberation. In this respect, Li's 1 approach is somewhat different from his previous manage- | ment of the yuan motif. The divine intervention in her ; fall and redemption is brought to light in chapter 88.98 The cause of the fall and redemption are examined objec- I ; tively by both the demonic and the divine groups of i characters: i In the midst of their predicament, there came from heaven a red beam of light which shone directly on the Frozen Jade Pavilion. When the I light came near, out of it stepped an extremely beautiful maiden. The wind subsided when the ! red light appeared, and the young ladies were | frightened. Purple Silk, Purple Jade, Purple . Caltrop, Purple Cherry, Beautiful Hibiscus and j Jade Moonlight took their swords from their J scabbards and stood in readiness. The beautiful i girl, who held a dipper and a writing brush in i her hands, said to Aunt Wind and the Lady of the j Moon, 'You are in charge of the wind and the moon, i Why are you interfering in literary affairs? Is ' this behaviour becoming to the stars of heaven? J I am in charge of the literary affairs of the talented girls. May I ask if you realize your mistake? If you do, leave here at once and we ! will save ourselves a lot of trouble. If not, I you will bitterly regret it.' i The Lady of the Moon said, 'I am settling a pri vate quarrel. What does it have to do with you?' ! The beautiful girl was furious, and was going to | answer back in no uncertain terms, when the slave girls announced, 'There is a Taoist nun outside 98CHY, ch. 88, pp. 662-666. 55 who wishes to come in.' Before the slave girls had finished talking, the nun was already inside, and made her greetings to the beautiful girl. Then she said to the Lady of the Moon and Aunt Wind,. ’Please go back. These flower-spirits have almost served their terms on earth, and we shall soon see each other again in heaven. You had your misunderstanding, but a great deal of time has passed since then. Why pursue it? . . . I hope that we shall be able to live peacefully together, and that you will forget past differ ences. If you cannot do that, can you not wait for the flower-spirits to return to their origi nal forms before taking up the quarrel? I am afraid that the rest of the stars will not think well of you for rushing down here and carrying on like this.’ Aunt Wind nodded and said, ’Your treatise is quite correct, and I shall not argue with you. I only came because she wanted me to. I shall obey you and make my exit.’ The Lady of the Moon said, ’I quarrelled with her and had her sent to earth as a punishment. In stead since she arrived she has had a good time, and has travelled everywhere. I was not happy, so I came here to see her especially. However, since the Immortal has spoken, I shall forget the past, and never bring it up again. Heaven be witness, if I go back on my word, I shall gladly be sent to earth myself!’ So saying, she and the girl in blue went away. The girl who had stepped out of the red light also disappeared.99 The beautiful maiden is none other than the wife of the God-star of Literature, K'uei-hsing, who in chapter 1 99Fiowers in the Mirror, trans. Lin Tai-yi (Berkeley and Los' Angeles: University of California Press, 1965), pp. 247-248. For the original text, see CHY, ch. 88, pp. 665-666. 56 records the fate of the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers' earth ly journey. The maiden's reappearance symbolically signifies the completion of the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers' redemptive journey. This point is reiterated by the 1 Taoist nun who serves as a peace-maker. Her mention of j their having "almost served their terms on earth,"100 qs I | immediately followed by her prediction that they will "see I • | each other again in heaven. "101 reference to I "earthly-bound cause" (ch'en-yuan) has contextual as well as structural significance. The completion of "earthly- I | bound cause" parallels the end of the Fairy of a Hundred j Flowers' earthly quest and marks the completion of the i ! divine plan which has been well established in the I I beginning chapter. i j In this sense, the real victory of T'ang Kuei-ch'en's | journey is revealed at the end of chapters 88, 89, and 90. j She has endured throughout the perilous "trials of the seven emotions,"102 but now her trials are at an end. No retribution will ever fall to her lot again. Her spirit ual redemption helps her not only to pay back the debt for 100CHY, ch. 88, p. 666. I 1(^ Ibid. i Op See CHY, ch. 49, p. 360. The seven emotions (ch' i-ch' ing, tljk ) include pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy, hate, desiref and love. See Soothill, p. 12. 57 "the false move she m a d e " 1 0 3 in the Taoist paradise but also to solve the problem of the appearance-reality dual ism. In conjunction with the conclusion of T'ang Kuei- ch 'en's enlightenment, the Immortal Taoist nun sums up the cause and effect of this dualistic problem in chapter 90: Its mystery is hard to comprehend. However, according to my limited understanding, human beings involve themselves in all sorts of planning and calculating, fighting for gains and competing for power. In fact, all marvels and Illusions, life and death are nothing but a game of chess. But because people cannot see through this trap, they become its victims.104 j I 103CHY, ch. 49, p. 360. l0iiCHY, ch. 90, p. 689. 58 The Veil of History and Allegorical Dualism The account of Empress Wu and her Chou Dynasty conveys Li Ju-chen’s own interpretations of the past, l j revealed through the reconstruction and elaboration of j seventh century materials and expressing his likes and dis- j likes among the personages in the Chou court. Li sees | historical fiction as an application of the significance of past events to all human concerns. That is to say, in historical fiction, Li proceeds from the matter-of-fact existence of his characters to their implicit larger mean ing. These characters, though they lived in the tradition al past, are plausible representatives of human beings in | general and in all ages. I ' With Empress Wu's birth, Li narrates the fall of I 1 Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (589—617) and the rise of the T’ang Dynasty (618-905), binding events together j through the supernatural operation of justice and retribu- ! tion and the balance of yin and yang. In his commentary 1 on the changing of dynasties, the principle that events : work toward an equilibrium becomes paramount: i Previously, Emperors T’ang T'ai-tsu and T’ang j T'ai-tsung were ministers of the Sui Dynasty. Later they usurped the throne from Emperor Yang. ; And this is attributed to the Mandate of Heaven, j However, because they slaughtered their enemies ! and indulged in vice . . . , the spirit of Emperor Yang accused the two T’ang emperors in the court 59 of the nether world. . . . The court judge felt that, rather than let Emperor Yang be reincar nated to take his revenge which would have pro duced another unresolved life-and-death case, it would be better to order a celestial demon to descend in order to disturb the House of the T' ang.105 I 1 t ! According to Li, Empress Wu is the incarnation of the i j celestial demon, the Heart-moon Fox,106 Wft0 "was directed j to be born as a T'ang emperor in order to disrupt the harmony between yin and yang and thus close the case between the Sui and T'ang Dynasties."107 This passage not ! only includes providential intervention and vengeance for } ! the sinful acts committed by the T’ang founders but also ■ brings out the problem of royal lineage in conjunction i ! with Chinese historical legality. The polarizing yin and j I yang thus represent two sets of values. The element of i ' yin, crystalized in the role of Empress Wu, is not < i sanctioned by either the authentic government or the loyal I ! officials. It represents only an aberration of history. i j The element of yang, as embodied by Emperor Chung-tsung, ! | symbolizes the sense of responsibility and appropriateness ! of the traditional government, which brings stability to t j the people. Accordingly, the thesis and the antithesis of i i !05chy, ch. 3, P- 13. j lO^Hsin-yueh Hu 1Q7CHY, ch. 3, P. 13. 60 I yang and yin imply the allegorical difference between right and wrong. The role of Empress Wu, in the eyes of the sovereign of the T’ang Dynasty, is obviously a wrong one. She treacherously usurps the T’ang throne and there- j by violates the sanctified succession to it.-*-08 With the death of Emperor Kao-tsung, Emperor Chung-tsung should be I i the one to have the dominant power over the whole Chinese ! i kingdom, because he is the only legitimate heir to the traditional power set up by his ancestors in 6l8.109 This chaotic political period leads Li toward inquiry i | into the complexity of history and its implicit moral I i authenticity. Li’s sense of the past complements the way he perceives events. This perception in turn complements ' his theory of dualistic problems, carefully defined by him; ; I | in the beginning of this novel. Thus, historical events and personages add layers of meaning to the complicated i „ j allegorical scheme of Ching-hua yuan. | As has been mentioned, Li's first historical allegory focuses on the personification of Empress Wu. Her mali cious and hypocritical temperament mirrors the moral decadence and corruption in the world which she controls 109ECmperor Kao-tsung was the son of Emperor T’ai-tsung j and Empress Wu. He was deposed by his own mother in 684. j I After the defeat of his mother's Chou Dynasty, he assumed the throne in 705. 61 and dominates. The first sign of her moral degeneration is through the image of wine. Inflamatory, producing impulsive passions, wine is dangerous. This danger creates and complicates Li's fictitious universe. | Just as Empress Wu was planning to go to Upper- I grove Park, a little eunuch came over to report ' to her. j : 'I have been at Upper-grove Park, where the ; situation is the same as here. According to my , humble observation, since the flowers are not i aware of your Highness' arrival, they are not ; able to bloom to please you. Anyway, I have just | conveyed your intention to them. If your High- : ness would personally give them the order, then | all of the flowers would bloom by tomorrow as a j matter of course.' I Listening to this, she suddenly felt a trembling within herself as if she were remembering some-...' thing that had happened in the past. Trying to think it over, she still could not figure it out. ! ' Then she nodded her head repeatedly and said: 'Very well then! Anyway, it is too late now. I : will extend my beneficence to let them bloom by j tomorrow.' « i i I ... After giving the matter some thought, she drunkenly held the brush pen and wrote four lines ' on a slip of paper: | I'll visit the Upper Park tomorrow; j Quickly report this to Spring. Flowers have to bloom in the night; Don’t wait for the urging of the morning wind.^--'-^ Li's treatment of this edict, written by an :V intoxicated Empress, obviously is an open distortion of 110CHY, ch. k3 p. 18. 62 history.m Li's use of historicity, as revealed by the incident, is purely allegorical. The existence of Empress Wu, accordingly, initiates two allegorical sub-plots. It establishes Emperor Chung-tsung as an authentic heir whose j subsequent succession justifies the military interventions ! led by Hsu Ching-yeh, Lo Pin-wang, Wei Ssu-wen, and their i i sons. It also provides a logical reason for the incarna- 1 IT ! tion of one hundred different flowers on earth. These two I 1 sub-plots are parallel to and intermingled with each other. In their ramifications Li's interpretation of the l | historical context is justified. i , The defenders of the T'ang throne are represented by Hsu Ching-yeh and Lo Pin-wang who "gathered heroes from outside the court . . . and drew up a declaration to over throw Empress Wu."H2 Their solemn yet premature decision i unfortunately is doomed. Their relatives are condemned : and humiliated. Their sons (like Hsu Ch'eng-chih and Lo i : Ch'eng-chih) have to hide abroad in obscurity: Later Hsu Ching-yeh was killed by his own general, Wang No-hsiang, who cut off Hsu's head and sub mitted it to the Chou army. Most of Hsu's followers were caught. His brother, Hsil Ching- kung, led family members overseas. No one knew lUfhe existence of this four-line poem is officially recorded. However, Empress Wu's purpose in writing the poem was quite different from the reason given by Li. 112CHY, ch. 3, p. 14. 63 the whereabouts of Lo Pin-wang. Fortunately Lo's father, Lo Lung, escaped with his grand daughter abroad.113 Their defeat, though temporarily -diminishing hope for Emperor Chung-tsung’s regaining the throne, rapidly moves I i the novel toward a greater realm, the unknown. At this j ! point history becomes partly figurative and partly allego- I I rical. The account of Empress Wu’s usurpation shifts its 1 thesis from legal incongruity to the synthesis of moral imperfection. The quests by T’ang Kuei-ch’en are intro duced as the antithesis of Empress Wu’s moral deficiencies. 1 The difference between Empress Wu and T’ang Kuei-ch’en is the polarity of the negative and the positive aspects of yin. T’ang Kuei-ch’en’s earthly virtues and integrity are synonymous with the bright side of the yin principle, ! which Li compares to Pan Chao’s Female Ordinances, in 1 the opening chapter of Ching-hua yuan: I j According to T-s ’ ao Ta-ku’s Female Ordinances, . Women should have four qualities: female virtue, ; female speech, female appearance, and female 1 accomplishment. These four, closely related to | women chastity, are essential. ! During the pilgrimage, T’ang Kuei-ch’en’s actions and perceptions exemplify particular intentions of the author. 113qhy, ch. 3, pp. 14-15. -^--^Nu-chieh (rjjT ) • H^CHY, ch. 1, p. 1. 64 For instance, T'ang Kuei-ch'en's actions reflect the essence of woman's virtue, namely, piety, chastity, and achievement; and her perceptions echo Li's sermons on ■ j “ j I spiritual growth and salvation. i ! j In terms of historical allegory, Empress Wu's corrupt I domain is further reinforced by the political and military » | involvement of the Wu Brothers. During the first year of I J her reign, the war between the Chou and the T'ang armies j breaks out. The sides contest with each other for control i of the capital, Ch'ang-an, and its suburban satellites. | When the T'ang army is defeated, Empress Wu, convinced ( that rebellions might penetrate her capital again, builds I I j four "passes" or gates (kuan) outside the Great Wall to : prevent invasion. After the completion of these passes, I she assigns their government to the Wu Brothers.This i i act is the crucial step in their rise to corrupt power in ( ; the Chou Dynasty. The destructive potential of each is i I disguised in the allegorical names of the four passes, j J -XDLi reveals T'ang Kuei-ch'en's spiritual significan- ! ce through the inscription in the stone tablet in ch. 48, I and the One-thousand-word poem (Ch'ien-tzu shih,-4- Jl ) in ch. 89. For details, see ch. 49 > P• 359 and cn. 89, p. 670. 117CHY, ch. 3, p. 15. H^The northern pass is assigned to Wu Szu-ssu, the western pass to Wu Wu-ssu, the eastern pass to Wu Liu-ssu, and the southern one to Wu Ch'i-ssu. Ibid. 65 r which by a combination of their elements form the names "Pass of Wine," "Pass of Lust," "Pass of Wealth," and "Pass of Wrath."119 Obviously these names are equivalent to the earthly temptations: the temptations of wine | (chiu), lust (se), wealth (ts'ai), and wrath (ch*!). These names are linked with man’s fall. I ! Wine, lust, wealth, and wrath are associated with I j man's lack of will power and his excessive sensual grati- I fication. Their order in this novel carries meaning. Wine comes as the first among the four-*-2* " * because of the author's belief that wine can confuse the mind and arouse i the sensual appetite: i j ... Wen Hsiaol^l reflected for a long time ! and said to himself, 'Just as well to give way j to my capacity and drink.a few more bowls. I'll [ start .being abstinent again tomorrow'. And so ; he said to the wine-seller, 'I told you just | then to serve up according to the items on the ^In the Chinese original, the characters yja ( ^ i and shui ( *)<_ , or ^ ) constitute the word for chiu (?/§) ) or wine. Similarly, the characters pa ( E j ) and tao form the wore! for se ( ) or lust. Using the same method, mu (j^O and pei (^ ) compose the character ts1ai (3 d f ) or wealth j wu (j^, ) and huo ( 'k ) make up the word ch'i ( jL ) or wrath. Ibid. --------- #»%V ------- 120Li's sequential logic is revealed through Yu Ch'eng-chih ^ w^ 1° states that the Pass of Wine is the easiest pass^to victory. Next to it is the Pass of Wrath. See CHY, ch. 96, p. 73^. ! 121wen Hsiao < J L , JN ) is the younger brother of Wen j Yun (jL % ) • 66 tablet. Why do you come to ask again?' So the wine-seller placed another thirty bowls before him.122 The four carnal sins live only within those characters who lose spiritual vision and become captive to them. For ( instance, during the period of the pilgrimage T'ang Ao and : T'ang Kuei-ch'en are never put to such a test. Instead, I I j Lin Chih-yang and To Chiu-kung are tested through trials i in the Country of Women in chapters 33 and 34^^ and in Black-tooth Country in chapters, 16, 17, and 18.12^ The T'angs are admitted to the realm of the spiritual at the ! beginning of the novel and, consequently, are immune from i | these temptations. Li makes a distinction between spirit- J ual and carnal temptations: the spiritual temptation is i i 1 associated with quest for spiritual perfection, while the I : carnal one is linked with lower desire for earthly i ; pleasure. This distinction is maintained in the trials of i ' some incarnated flowers and their earthly husbands as told ! j by the disguised Taoist nun in her One-thousand-word poem ’ 1 P P I - ‘ -^This passage is quoted from H. C. Chang's Allegory ! and Courtesy in Spenser, p. 32. For the original text, see CHY, ch. 97, "p. 7^3. 123Lin Chih -yang's adventure in the Country of Women is a merciless satire on the issue of inequality between men and women. See CHY, chs. 33 and 34, pp. 235-242. i ? 4 J -^ This refers to the incident In which To Chiu-kung engages In an intellectual debate with two talented girls, Li Hung-wei and Lu Tzu-hsuan. See CHY, chs. 16, 17, and 18, pp. 108-126. 67 I in chapter 90.125 i Those with a thirst for spiritual perfection are like incarnated flowers. The descriptions of the flowers tend to be conceptual in nature; their qualities of moral | immutability and poetic excellence shed some light on Li's i , interpretation of myth and history and their inter- ' relationships. The salient trait of history, its factual | basisj distinguishes it from myth. ^ Myth is always j j associated with the essence of reality firmly rooted in J man's daily existence.- * - 27 In short, history represents i particularity, while myth, universality. The juxtaposi tion of history and myth in the world of Ching-hua yuan is i j ironical. For instance, to Li, the Chou Dynasty's short- ! lived fate suggests the ephemerality of history itself. | He also singles out the Dynasty's weakness in comparison l'25The passage in the One-thousand-word poem reveals ' the destructive aspects of wine, lust, wealth, and wrath. | See CHY, ch. 90, p. 685. ! - * - 2^See Avrom Fleishman, The English Historical Novel I (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins Press, 1971), I p. 3- Referring to the historical novel, Fleishman says, ! "The presence of a realistic background on the action is a 1 widespread characteristic of the /historical/ novel. . . ." j Also see R. P. C. Hanson, Allegory and Event (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1959), pp. 262-263• 127see Micea Eliade, Myth'and Reality, trans. Willard ! R. Trask (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1968), p. 5. j Eliade defines myth as: "an extremely complex cultural ! reality . . . ," or "myth tells how ... a reality came : into existence. ..." 68 to the wholesome reality embodied in his mythical figures.12® The characteristics of these figures are analogous to the allegorical meanings of their names.129 Each name conveys an abstract quality which is a part of I the complex texture of Li’s moral universe. For example, ! the qualities of truth, profoundity, purity, virtue, J ■ chastity, nobility, grace, glory, fragrance, charm, and ■ the completion of virtue are respectively reflected in and i j maintained throughout the lives of Shih Yu-t’an, Ai Ts'ui- fang, Pien Su-yun, Ch’en Shu-yuan, T’ang Kuei-ch'en, Ch'ien Yu-ying, Meng Yu-chih, Chiang Yfieh-hui, Mi Lan-fen, i Tung Hua-tien, and Pi Ch'uan-chen.130 The moral impera- | tive revealed through these richly connotative names ; complements the weakness of the historical figures. The i ' moral imperative is the salient trait that makes ideal I human beings different from historically unredeemed : creatures. Unlike some historical works which glorify ■ great heroes, Ching-hua yuan dissociates itself from the I 12®Mythical tales or characters usually can reveal | the constructive elements in life. Eliade calls this "a j vital ingredient of human civilization." See Eliade, j p. 20. j ' 12^in chapter 48, Li Ju-chen reveals the allegorical 1 significance of these incarnated flowers. For details, ; see CHY, ch. 48, pp. 349-355. i ' 130Th eir Chinese names are: » ji- -£■ 5L- / I yf £ k o 69 j grandeur of the past.131 Instead, Li views the past as background for his moral criticism. This approach some times leads him to reduce his historical personages to types, such as those represented by the Wu Brothers. At i other times this approach causes him to draw back from the . foreground of history and examine human existence from a ■ longer perspective, as in the voyage episode.-*-32 Hj_s ' moral criticism and philosophical perspective cannot always : be reconciled. Ideal characters often cannot fit properly Into the given historical situation; they have either no control or offer no significant contribution. The Incar- I i nated flowers are created only to be moral examples and. i j are one-dimensional characters. Their lack of complexity i makes their responses to historical experience as un- i : convincing as is their human idealism. Li deliberately • mingles these mythical characters with historical person- | ages. The existence of the imaginary characters in a j realistic past reflects a tentative reconciliation between i ; the ideal and the temporal in Li’s attitude toward ] history.133 He tries to transform his moral concept into i ■ ^iThis is one of the reasons that Ching-hua y.uan ■ has been praised by the Communist critics. See Hsu Shih- j nien, p. 157* | 132gee -j^g chapter on "Satire" in this dissertation ! for details. ! ; 133This approach is very similar to George Lukacs’ | description of "the inner and the outer" significance of 7 0 a theory of actuality. This aim is advanced by the co existence of idealism and realism. The idealism and the temporal, according to Li, are analogous to the relationship between recurrent reality j and mere appearance. He touches upon this analogy in the j closing verse of the last chapter: i The Mirror’s light reflects the really ; talented man, , Its varieties all found in history. I If you wish to know the complete reflection from the mirror, Please wait for the operation of the future cause.134 The phrasej "the mirror’s light reflects" signifies the temporal, while "the complete reflection" stands for the ideal. Man’s complex nature accords with the very idea of historical manifestation. In the encounter between the ideal and its various temporal manifestations, history enters into the realm of dualism. - * - 3 5 History is no longer an entity but a reflection which can reveal the historical novel. See Lukacs, The historical Novel, trans. Hannah and Stanley Mitchel (London: Merlin Press, 1974), p. 127. , »13kHY, ch. 100, p. 722:, ' i l l / ^ * 3 . - 5 s t t $ * ) % i - S p r . % . ‘h'A d- if, f ~ v f > , a ^ s f L s i . The combination of these three underlined characters forms the title of this work, Chlng-hua yuan. 135>phaS is the functional purpose of the historical novel. See Lukacs, p. 333* 71 human struggles and values. 136 jn Ching-hua yilan the Chou Dynasty and Its personages are part of the secular aspects of human existence; by contrast, the spiritual visions are j revealed through the incarnated flowers. The secular and i j the spiritual, the past and the present, are drawn ; together and co-exist in a cosmos which provides a basis I for Li’s historical interpretation of human phenomena, the i ; phenomena of the dualistic conflict between reality and I : appearance. l-^Lukacs, pp. 333-334. Moral Temptation and Didactic Allegory The Passes of Wine, Lust, Wealth, and Wrath presented in Ching-hua yuan's last five chapters elaborate a central ; moral theme by relating to the four corresponding tempta- ! tions. These four temptations represent a stage of onto- j logical struggle between good and evil in human experience. t | The majority of Chinese traditionalists agree that within j the nature of man both good and evil arise from the I j pluralistic postulate of the moral system. Neither exists i ! without the other. - * - 3 7 That is, there is a continuous i i | association and correlation between good and evil, which ! are reciprocally defined.^38 jn ching-hua yuan, the i 137confucianism has ruled out the extreme interpreta- 1 tions of the later divergent Confucian trends, represented i by Mencius and Hsun Tzu. Mencius believes that man has i "innate knowledge" of good and "innate ability" to behave j well, and considers that evil is the result of man's i inability to reject external influence. Hsttn Tzu, a | naturalistic Confucian, challenges Mencius' moral theories i and forms his own interpretation: human nature is evil, j He states in Hsun Tzu that man is not born with innate I virtues; instead he has to strive for them. However, ! controversy has arisen from the ambiguity of each philoso- i pher's subjective interpretation and intention. The lack of absolute resolution eventually led to the rise of Neo- Confucianism during the Sung and Ming Dynasties. 138ch' en I , 1033-1107), Chu Hsi ( % - k , 1130- 1200), and Wang Yang-ming ( _■£ j p j j l f 9 / | 3 1472-1529) take up and carry on both Mencius and Hsun Tzu's interpretations of human nature and analyze these two aspects. For reference, see Wing-tsit Chan, trans. and comp., A Source Book in I Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp) 567-568, 600-601, and 686-689. 73 deployment of these temptations gives the reader another Insight into LI Ju-chen's preoccupation with the dualistic problem, essence and Its diverse existential manifesta tions. The manifestations of evil in Ching-hua yuan are analogues to the four passes outside the Great Wall. Li’s classification of these four vices and his sequential narration of their manifestations echo Chinese classical tradition. Early in Hou-Han shu, wine, lust, and wealth are recognized as the sources of man's corruption.139 Hua-ch'uan e-tz’u elaborates: "Wealth is J the trap for one’s degradation; lust, the axe for en- j dangering one's body; wine, the drug for poisoning one’s intestine. Abstinence from these three vices can elimi nate disaster."140 Li's portrayal of three of the passes t i in Ching-hua yuan, then, is rich in historical precedent. I For the fourth vice, wrath, Li may owe his inspiration to i several Sung and Ming predecessors: Chou Tun-i, Chang 1 Tsai, and Lu Hsiang-shan^1 among them. They attribute : 139Hou-Han shu ( ) states: "At one time Yang ; Pien proclaims without embarrassment, 'I will not be | deluded by three evil elements: wine, lust, and wealth.'" ' See Hou-Han shu chi-chieh jl. ( S j £ )> 2 (Shanghai : ! Commercial Press, 1968) , p. 1911> . 1 l^The author of Hua-ch’uan e-tz'u ( # *) > ls j the early Ming historian Wang I (_£ ) . For the original! text, see Hua-ch’uan e-tz’u, 1 (Shanghai: Commercial | Press, 1968), p. 968. . 1^1Chou Tun-i ( jf] J>U£3L 1017-1073)Chang Tsai ( , 1020-1077), and Lu Hsiang-shan » 1039-1093) ■ 7 4 human baseness to the misuse of one's temper. Wrath not only hides the true spirit of mankind but also creates a gulf between the yin and yang elements. In the Pass of Wine episode, Li's aim is to change I : the image of wine from the traditionally static one into something dynamic and vital. The word "wine" is richly ! ! embellished with concrete and physical attributes.-*-^ | Moreover, mythological similes and historical allusions, -^3 mingled with classical comparisons and implicit s y m b o l s , ^4 transform the Pass of Wine into an j intoxicant world with emotional, physical, and mental i tension and complexity. The chief victim of its tempta- | tion is Wen Hsiao, an impulsive and emotional youth and | the embodiment of the human experience in a tempting i ! world. Li's first description of Wen Hsiao gives the j first hint of the terror of his destructive impulse: I Wh0] _ e Pass of Wine is constructed to reflect ■ the concept of Intoxication. The elaboration of hazardous i landscapes in chapter' 96 is a good example. See CHY, | ch. 96, p. 737- 1 - * - * * Mythological similes used by Li include the j legendary Shen Yu ( ) for self-restraint (ch. 97, | p. 7^6), I Ti ( as a wine-maker (ch. 97, p. 747), and Tu K’ang (ijL Jj|) as a wine deity (ch. 96, pp. 738- 739; ch. 97, p. 74T) • Historical allusions, include the | Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove ( Yjf % , ch. 96, p. 737), Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju ( - g r ) 9 ch"96, p. 740), ! and Juan Fu ( % > ch- 97, p. 743). 1 1 1^4^ number of classical comparisons and symbols, > such as Huan-po ( ft ik ), Hung-yu ( A t- ) > Tsao-ch’iu , (*t>P ), and Huang Chiao ( - j | ), are used to explore I ’Stop bragging. Old Dog /Wen Hsiao here refers to Wu Szu-ssu1457! You just wait and see me break your dog formation.’ Just as Wen Hsiao was about to mount his horse to pierce into the formation, Wen Yun immediate ly shouted: ’Fifth Brother, don’t be too hasty! It is late now. We will deal with him tomorrow.’ Therewith he gave the order to beat the gong to ; recall the troops to the camp. ! Wen Hsiao said, ’Today Wu Szu-ssu lost many horses I and men, and his ardour is dampened; I was just I trying to use this chance to break his Yu-shui i Formation. Why did you call the troops back i instead?'146 i Wen Hsiao's outburst, as pointed out by the author, comes from his lack of forbearance,147 j_en.l48 This moral flaw is manifested in his encounters with other characters and ! { in his reactions to temptation. Wen Hsiao's flaw is not i | fixed; he is still capable of development. However, his f % j moral defeat results from his imperfect will power, which | gives rein to his self-indulgence and his appetite for i i ; wine. i * To depict this moral flaw, Li at first relies on the the various destructive attributes of wine. See CHY, ch. 96, p. 738 and ch. 97, p. 743. Szu-ssu XL" ) is in charge of the Pass of Wine, Yu-shui kuan. l^CHY, ch. 96, p. 736. l^See CHY, ch. 97, p. 745: "Those who were killed in the formation caused their own deaths by their weak will power. That is the way it is. How could those deaths be blamed on others?” 148jen ( ) . 76 j historical Seven Sages of the Bamboo. Grove,1^9 famous for their excessive indulgence in wine and their eccentric life styles. Li singles out the Seven Sages’ drunkenness, and the didactic result is that their fondness for wine ] turns out to be an allegorical expose of moral degenera- i tion. Their excessively free spirits are transferred into | Li’s own words: ! Along the road there was bamboo grove. Within | it there were seven men, dressed in Tsin Dynasty i costume and absorbed in an informal drinking feast. The fragrance of the wine directly and repeatedly struck the senses. However, Wen Hsiao overheard a youth in a white gown saying, ’Why such a vulgar smell all of a sudden? Can it be that some ill-bred fellow is coming over here to spy on us?’ ! Aware that the youth was sneering at him, Wen Hsiao wanted to fight back a little. However, I glancing over them, he saw that the seven were | all profligate and supercilious.150 i | In Li’s allegory, there is no suggestion either that t j intoxication is beyond human control or that wine might be i a source of artistic inspiration. In the beginning of the i t j wine episode, Wen Hsiao learns the historical background ! -*-^9The, Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove include Hsi K’ang (4^b jjk ) , Juan Chi (fj(_, ), Shan T’ao (J* ), Hsiang Hsiu ( f a n Liu. Ling ( ), Juan Hsien ( 0 ^ ), and Wang Jung (j£_ ) of the Tsin Dynasty (265- 419). They were well versed in literary and philosophical subjects. They were also well known for their unconven- ! tionality, wit, and unrestrained indulgence. For many years they liked to meet in the bamboo groves near Lo-yang ( ) , enjoying wine-drinking and merrymaking, and i engaging in sophisticated "Pure Talk" (ch ’ ing-t ’ an, |jj^). | 150chy, ch. 96, p. 737. I I I 77 j of the temptation. Later comes a progressive revelation, indicated in part by Wen Hsiao’s experiences and in part by the alle gorical metaphors drawn from historical passages. In the | midst of wine’s fragrance, Wen Hsiao finds himself standing figuratively between the attraction of Ch'ing- I ! chou’sl51 best wine and the pleasure rendered by Huan- I ; pol52 and between wine’s common allusion, Hung-yu,153 and wine’s dirty dregs, Tsao-ch’iu.154 wen Hsiao finds that wine is beginning to appeal to him, and it soon becomes a strong temptation. A poem in chapter 96 illustrates its i attraction: I ; After you are relaxed and content from three cups j of wine, ; Then the flavor of a deep, sweet sleep lingers : on.155 | The lines parody the attraction of intoxication. Derisive ^lch’ ing-chou i r k -Hf ) connotes the meaning for the 1 best wine. i ! 152j|uan -po, or Earl of Pleasure, is another name for J wine. Chiao-shih i-lin ( At- . ) states: "Wine is 1 Huan-po, who expels sorrow and invites pleasure." For the J original, see Chiao Kan’s [ ) Chiao-shih i-lin 1 (Shanghai: Commercial Press*, "ly65), p. 137- j j ^^Hung-yu is a kind of wine. ! !5^Tsao stands for sediment, ch ’ iu for mound. Tsao- ! ch'iu here means that a high mound is formed by distiller's I sediments. i J 1 5 5 CHY, ch. 96 , p. 738 . This poem was originally j written by Su Shih (^ W - | humor occurs again in the context of another wine shop, I where Wen Hsiao fails to identify the bartender's surname tu as the surname of the famous wine-maker, Tu K ' a n g , ^6 i whose name connotes wine. The mistaken allusion accentu- j : ates Wen Hsiao's ignorance. He unknowingly devalues the I importance of the celebrated wine-maker of the Chou ' Dynasty, and fails to understand the well known historical I ! allusion. i Wen Hsiao, a hopeless figure, wavers between various aspects of wine's temptations. Whether in good or evil i j circumstances, he is led in the wrong direction by his t impulses. Self-indulgent and amusing historical person- : ages, like Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju and Juan Fu, appeal to him and increase the seriousness of wine's hold on him as he i j wanders from one place to another. The feature common to | Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju and Juan Fu is that their lavish ! indulgence in wine is unparalleled in Chinese literary history. Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju trades his sparking and 156Tu (£t ) is the same surname of the famous wine maker of the Chou Dynasty, Tu K'ang. Tu K'ang, who invented a method of making wine, is worshipped as the Chinese Bacchus. However, judging from the context, apparently Wen Hsiao is not acquainted with the tradition al lineage of wine. He attributes the character tu to tu-chueh’s ( ) tu, and consequently refers the ! character to another meaning, to get rid of. See CHY, ch. j 96, pp. 738-739. i 79 expensive feather robe!57 to a wine-seller in exchange for a pot of wine; Juan Fu, the grand nephew of the eccentric Juan Chi, sacrifices his golden sable hat,^8 the symbol of his office, for the hope of quenching his thirst. The lack of self-restraint of Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju and Juan Fu complements the novel's parallel pattern of temptation. The end of this episode comes with the final defeat of Wen Hsiao's will power. The two previously mentioned temptations serve as a warning to him of the possibility of his being overcome by his impulses. They illustrate wine's seductive power rather than its potential destruction. However,, in the final portion of Wen Hsiao's experience in the Pass of Wine, the tone changes. The dangers of his unrestrained emotion and will toward self- destruction are revealed: . . . Wen Hsiao took the powdered tablet on which there were listed more than one hundred wine varieties, all of them famous wines from different places ever since ancient times. Glancing over it thoroughly once, he said, 'I want to try every kind of wine. If they are tasty, I will naturally patronize you in the 157 a "su-shuang ch'iu" ) was an expensive outer garment made of the featners of a rare bird. It is recorded that Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju (179-117 B.C.), a talented and prolific rhyme-prose writer of Han Dynasty, was fond of wine. Once in Ch'eng-tu he sold his expensive garment j to a wine-seller in exchange for a pot of wine. See Han Wei Liu-ch'ao hsiao-shuo hsuan-chu, p. 85- 158chin-tiao ( ) was ,a Tsin Dynasty official hat trimmed with expensive golden sable. 80 future. However, could you allow me to have a few bowls on credit today?’ The wine-seller shook her head and explained: ’These days, customers are always afraid to pay their money back later. Therefore our humble ; shop has never allowed customers to buy on credit. I A while ago, that man, Mr. Juan, brought along i his sable hat to trade for wine. Just look at 1 him and you will understand.' ! Wen Hsiao took out his treasured sword and said: ; ’Well then, just take this sword with you as a 1 mortgage.’159 t | Now, Li concludes the lesson with an awesome scene: . . . the wine-seller placed another thirty bowls before him. Again Wen Hsiao drank them all in one | breath. This sent on a few times more, and he had i already drunk a bowl of each of the hundred and 1 ten odd kinds of wine on the tablet: and.he felt the sky whirling and the earth revolving. He stood up and, trailing his silver spear, left the wine shop. He had not walked many steps when he fell on the ground and lost his senses. . . .160 ; The ending of Wen Hsiao's horror story, reflecting t ! Li's disgust toward over-indulgence, is in accord with the I | Chinese virtue of abstinence. A Taoist nun says that i i abstinence can overcome the potential danger of wine.1^1 I ! We should note that the concept of "self-destruction,"162 159CHY, ch. 97, P- 742. -^^See this dissertation, p. 67. 161CHY, ch. 97, p. 745. l62Tzu-chu 'See CHY, ch. 97, p. 745. 81 the opposite of abstinence, is not an innate vice. The Taoist nun’s reference to "self-cultivation" and stoic "contemplation," sanctified by the statue of Diety Yu,1^ shows the way for the unenlightened characters of Ching- j hua yuan to achieve self-transcendence. This is also the . way to achieve religious self-extinction in communion with j the sacramental P’eng-lai Mountain.^64 ' H. C. Chang observes that in the last five chapters of Ching-hua yuan the moral allegory expresses "the theme through incidents in the story alone. "-^5 Consequently these chapters only illustrate the allegory rather than ' embody "temptation in its various forms."166 Chang's I i statement seems to ignore the existence of the twofold f ; allegory applied consistently in Li's work: the simul- i ! taneous existence of literal and figurative allegory which i I gives the novel different layers of consonance between objective or extrinsic facts and subjective or intrinsic I | i63chy, ch. 97, p. 746. | lb^This is a recurrent motif in the final five i chapters of this novel. j i65h . C. Chang, p. 76. ! l66Ibid. 82 interpretations.-*-^7 in Ching-hua yuan, the extrinsic facts elucidate the concrete object or situation, the intrinsic ones the abstraction of inner reaction or inner struggle. This twofold approach ultimately produces . clusters of meaning, extending from Li's applications of t classical allusions, metaphors, or analogies. It is not I i true, as Chang says, that incidents and allusions in I Ching-hua yuan merely serves "for no more than identifiea- | tion of the abstract quality concerned" and that "the i historical and legendary figures do not play an active part in the story."168 Qn the contrary, these allusions i assume the function of "the expanding analogy,"165 which 1 includes both allegorical illustration and representation. : Honig tells us that allusion ; . . . sums up the myth or doctrine from which j the correspondence is drawn, and focuses it j briefly but memorably. In this way the allusion j confirms what the reader may already suspect is ; true of the character's situation. Any by ^^7see John Erskine Hankins, Source and Meaning in Spenser's Allegory (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1.971), i p. 21. Hankins calls this twofold method "the internal I and the external allegory." He elaborates this method further: "In moral allegory Spenser’s method is twofold. A character may be an exe'mplum or a type of particular virtue or a particular vice. But he may also be the virtue or vice itself as it presents itself within the soul of the individual man; or he may be a faculty of the soul capable of being influenced by virtue or vice, or by affection and perturbations, the preliminary stages of vice." I j C. Chang, p. 76. } i^Honig, pp. 115-129. indicating the writer’s bias, it also stresses the usefulness of that supposition, in all its implications, throughout the fiction.170 The allegorical methods employed by Li thus have both intrinsic and extrinsic qualities. In the preceding 1 story of Wen Hsiao, each implicit or explicit description I ! corresponds to man's experience. Thus the action is i i prefigured in the vulnerable human soul, where it produces an internal reaction in Wen Hsiao. The historical allu sions to the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, Ssu-ma j Hsiang-ju, and Juan Fu, represent literally man's indul- I j gence toward wine] the mythical allusions to I Ti, Tu j K'ang, and Diety Ytt, reflect both negatively and positive ly the extremes of wine's potential for man. All of these j allusions are part of the twofold allegory. i j In other words, the intrinsic and extrinsic corre- ! spondences reinforce one another in Li's portrayal of the ; Pass of Wine. In the extrinsic allegory, first, the i historical and mythical allusions are used to classify wine's effect on man: self-restraint is opposed to indul gence. If wine is sought in self-indulgence, discord or even self-destruction will result; if wine is rejected in self-restraint, victory will be the reward. Secondly, ■ * -■70Ibid, p. 115- 84 within or outside various wine shops, bartenders’ names and the varieties of wines are introduced as external exemplications of wine’s danger. Thirdly, Wen Hsiao’s ] susceptibility to wine determines his outward demeanor and behavior. ; In the intrinsic allegory, wine' affects Wen Hsiao's I I impulsive and irascible qualities, which cause his down- ; fall after prolonged exposure to wine. His internal | struggle is described in a point-by-point account of what i t | goes on inside his mind: his partial power to overcome i j temptation and his inability to make sound moral judg- ! i ments. His frequenting of various wine shops, his tasting I J of various wines, and his lack of self-restraint are ! pictured as internal warfare between his appetites and his reason. As a character, he is thus designed to illustrate the didactic allegorical lesson that one should not | surrender to appetites or impulses. His final defeat signifies the failure of his inner strength. In like manner, the Passes of Wrath, Lust, and ! Wealth accrue levels of meaning. In the Pass of Wrath in j chapter 98, both external illustration and internal I representation of the concept of anger are disclosed through its victim, Lin Lieh,171 during the period when 17lLin Lieh ( ). The character lieh connotes fierceness, fervency, burning, or violence. Therefore, in 85 he wanders from the entrance, temptation, to the exit, destruction. Lin Lieh takes up where Wen Hsiao leaves off, with an irrational and intense compulsion reflected by his j name: a burning, violent, impetuous, and ardent disposi- ! tion. The initial setting itself has symbolic potential. ; The distinction between the atmospheres outside and inside [ | the pass emphasizes the opaqueness of the Pass of Wrath. Floating clouds, spreading fog, and wafting haze, for 1 j instance, ally to compose a picture of the temptation, j The implication is that a vapory mask conceals the real ; danger of the pass and foreshadows Lin Lieh's eventual J surrender to the insubstantiality symbolized by these phenomena. When the mists fall back, Lin Lieh starts to I , experience various manifestations of abstract wrath. Li I j draws his source from the myth of Kung K u n g ,172 whose ! violent anger causes him to knock off part of Pu-chou ! Mountain:^73 an allegorical sense, Lin Lieh's name conveys a fervent j temper, a weakness causing submission to the dictates of ! any irrational faculty. | 172j^ung Kung -I* ) . This legendary hero was a violent and rebellious^ man. After he lost the battle against Chu Jung ( i t a* ), who taught mankind to use fire, : Kung Kung knocked his head against Pu-chou Mountain and i broke a column of stone which supported the vault of j heaven. See Werner, pp. 23^-235. i 173pu_CKou shan ( j- * ), Unrounded Mountain. j : See Werner, p. 235. i 86 From a distance Lin Lieh saw a gigantic man standing beneath the mountain, who for no apparent reason jumped up with a thunderous rage, gave a shout, and then rammed his head straight into the mountain. A cacophony like a peal of thunder rang in his ears. When he looked up again, half of the mountain had fallen away.17^ I ' Kung Kung's action externalizes internal rage and illus- I ! trates its destructive potential. The effect is augmented i through evolving connections and multiple allegorical I ! patterns to follow. For instance, correspondence is I ! established between the inner nature — abstract wrath — and the outer manifestation — its attributes. Before we go further, one point has to be made clear. i i i The word ch*i does not denote wrath exclusively. It also means material forces which are constantly undergoing I change. From the time when the I ching was written to the I | periods when Sung-Ming Neo-Confucian doctrines flourished, i ; theories about ch * i were not fixed. However, one quality i of ch'i that stands untouched is that it serves as a I j contrast to the transcending principle of the universe, I i II li. In Ching-hua yuan, chT i is associated predominantly with anger and suggests irrationality. For instance, the 17^CHY, ch. 98, p. 7^9. 87 I account of Chu Hai’s "iron blood"175 pictures the I frightening force emerging from an internal anger in response to an outside assault, a tiger's threat. In this case, the hot blood coming out of his eyeballs is an | allegorical externalization of the ruffled temper Inherent within Chu Hai’s soul. I i | The allegorical reality of anger can be found in the i meat-dumpling-shop episode, in which characters based on the negative polarities of anger are related to events and i j objects. The gap between subject and object is abolished, j The distance between allegory and reality disappears. Everything there represents an Impulse in the human heart. When Lin Lieh steps into the shop, he Is allegorically led into self-imprisonment: ! ! There were many convicts sitting along both | sides, all of them manacled and chained, I emaciated and filthy, and each one sighing and j m o a n i n g . 176 ! These convicts are manacled because their souls are. Im- . prisoned in anger. At the doorway to this shop, Lin Lieh. • | smells a fragrance of steaming cakes. Allegorically, j steam signifies anger, ch'i. His physical presence in the 1 I ; -*-75ch_u. Hai ( . ). He was a native of Wei during i the Warring States period. It was recorded that his anger ! could frighten tigers,. This anger, manifested through the ! hot blood coming out of his eyeballs, is also called "iron I blood" (t' leh-hsueh, ). See CHY, eh. 98, p. 750. I 176CHY, ch. 98, p. 751. I I 88 cake shop makes explicit the abstraction. The reader is exposed to both the cause and the effect of his temper. Lin Lieh himself becomes the victim of unrestrained anger. This anger ultimately leads him to a feverish death.^77 I We are reminded of the convicts* comment that wrath* which i ■ is symbolized by the "steaming basket," and which causes J man’s pain and suffering, can be avoided only by I "forbearance" and "patience."178 ; Both the Pass of Wine and the Pass of Wrath are the i instruments of Li’s "deceptive" method. The substitution of historical allusion for narration, the frequent admis sion of mythical imagery into description, and the repeat ed elaboration of dramatized landscapes for background ! elevate the story to a level where reality reinforces i abstraction. | Allegory appears in a similar farm in the Pass of j Lust and the Pass: of Wealth. In the opening section of the i j Pass of Lust, borrowing from a long list of voluptuous I j women in history, Li exploits the tension provoked by the 17-7-CHY, ch. 98, p. 752: "Suddenly Lin Lieh's nameless fury ignited the vicious fire inside the formation. Steam from all four sides immediately struck his mouth and nostrils. He fell down and lost consciousness." 17'8'CHY, ch. 98, p. 751: "If one only were equipped with the word 'forbearance,' no matter what, even disaster could be truned into good fortune." 89 female's physical allure. The tension, as Yang Yen1^ experiences it, leads to his fall. Allusions to Mao Ch'lang and LI Chi-^O suggest the loss of reason brought about by carnality. The opening scene depicts seductive j charm in the person of the celebrated courtesan Hung- j fu,l82 j _ n a house of prostitution as symbolized by willow lanes and flower streets ,182 an(j in the peony. 183 Li's j stress on defiled sensuality asserts his physical position. Sensuality between man and woman creates an emotional and physical isolation and prevents one from recognizing spirituality, as signified by the author's prescription, j 179yang Ye ). The character yang stands for j masculinity, yen, overflow or abundance. Thereupon, Yang Yen's name allegorically embodies the concept of sensuali- { I ty. I ! i | l8oMao Ch'iang ) and Li Chi (*$-*£ ). Both | of them were famous for their beauty. These two original- | ly were described by Chuang Tzu: "Mao Ch'iang and Li Chi are women of supreme beauty. When the fish sees them it , dives deeply into the water; when the bird notices them, I it soars high in the sky." See Chuang Tzu (Taipei: San- ! min shu-chfl, 1963)5 p. 15. l^lRung-fu She was Yang Su's concubine. After meeting Li Ching* ), she left Yang Su's . residence and joined Li. See Tu Kuang-t'ing's ( aLjJL ) "Ch'iu-jan-k'o chuan" ( j&j ), T' ang-jen hsiao-shuo , ( fk A-'KijL, ) (Hong Kong: ^Chung-hua shu-chu, 1966) , pp. j 17H-184. ; 182Hua-chleh ( i L m ) and 1 iu~hs 1 ang (>}^p ) • Both , of them symbolize the residential area for prostitutes in J China. See Wang Shu-nu ( J L ) , Chung-kuo ch ' ang-c hi ! ^ ^ (ShanShai: Sheng-huo shu-tien, 1935)5 I do3Shao-yao {'JJ ). Li uses this term to allude to i a loose woman. See Wang Shu-nu, p. 22. .90J I the "spiritual medicine."184 por ^ , the potential danger of such blindness lies in the contrast between delusion and real content. Surface beauty and physical attraction always appear together in the Pass of Lust, although they ; may deceive as to their real content. Both of them are ( ephemeral, the opposite of the spiritually eternal. The l » : contrast of these opposites dominates the narration in i ; chapter 98 and refers back to the visual distortion in the j opening of his work. Li’s long list of short-lived | celebrities reflects earthly shadows and merely represents 1 j perceived objects, rather than apprehended truth. On the j allegorical level, the moral polemic is based upon two processes: internal perception and external manifesta- 1 tion. The collision between Yang Yen's inner action and i | the beautiful females' outer appearances brings about an j experience purely physical and excludes thought. Accord ing to Li, this is the source of human weakness and the cause of a degraded empirical life. Mistaking illusion 1 ! for truth, Yang Yen falls into moral as well as allegori- . cal error and overlooks the distinction between truth,and ! illusion. i j After denying the worth, of short-lived physical J beauty, the author feels a need to go beyond it to a | l81iLing-yao (^ ). I I 91 ! spiritual realm. As the temptations move from lust to wealth, Li makes a further distinction between the in trinsic and the extrinsic, as in the Pass of Wine, moving i j from dependent material perception to independent i j spiritual awareness in chapters 99 and 100. In the Pass , of Wealth, Li's purpose is not merely to Identify greed j with Chang Hung,1^5 its victim, or to Imply that money is ! the only source of destruction. What he is really inter- I ested In, as revealed through the mouth of Chang Hung, is the difficulty in differentiating between.material and i spiritual things. Li mentions that some people do regard money as the most important matter in life; this Is due to man's subjectivity and ignorance of life's actual j significance.1^ on the allegorical level the characters ! 1 introduced at the Pass of Wealth suggest spatio-temporal i views of wealth.1^ Wealth implies the sin of avarice, j The difference between the previous three passes and this i one is that now Li constructs a material cosmos and i j pretentiously elevates It to the level of absolute reality: i -1-85Chang Hung C " j j h fox. )• 186chy, ch. 99j p. 757: "Corpses lay around the ladder, and their white bones piled up like a mountain. All of these people had tried to seize this object /the coir}/ and had died prematurely for it." l87These characters include Wang Lao (_3L ) and six teen other servants. See CHY, ch. 99, pp. 758-759- i I 92 wealth as the ultimate entity. The fall of Chang Hung is treated both contextually and structurally: LI reveals the moral lesson through symbolic and literal settings. He accepts the traditional attitude that prosperity is an end-product of the journey "upward," a reward for success- I ful achievement, as shown by his references to "ladder- : climbing" and "things not of this world."1^9 Once this i | idea has infiltrated man’s mind, abdication from spiritu- i ! ality becomes inevitable: Proceeding ahead, Chang Hung suddenly saw a big coin blocking his way. The coin hung there, radiating a golden light. . . . Beneath it were, row after row, millions of people who went back and forth, all intent on seizing the coin. Look- ing at them closely, he found intellectuals, peasants, laborers, and merchants; the Three Religions and the Nine Classes were all represented there.190 ; To reveal this frightening truth in the physical terms of f I ; his material cosmos, Li relies again on multiple layers of ! 189qhy, ch. 99, P- 757: "Climbing up the ladder, he ! found himself in front of the hole in the coin. Creeping | through it, he saw there were lustrous pavilions, jade eaves, golden halls, and jasper ponds everywhere. On the gound the road was paved with green jade, and along both sides of the road the wall was made of chrysoprase: the j phenomenal richness and excellent■scenery were things not ! of this world." i ; 190CHY, ch. 99, p. 757. money imagery.191 The narration of the temptation is follow by a reference to "lustrous towers and jasper chambers" and "painted rafters and vermilion railings," I j material objects which are also spatial images of the ; concept of wealth. The moral fall then parallels the fall | that Shun Yu-fen had once experienced in the Kingdom of | Huai-an.1^2 i j Chang Hung’s temptation actually occurs in a climate of spiritual barrenness. In the Pass of Wealth the narra tions point to the material aspect of moral fall. Con- j sequently, all characters there reveal their material i existence as distinguished from their moral absence. The whole pass represents an abnormal reality unaffected by the processes of normal existence. The descent of Chang j Hung into this "paradise" is depicted through increasingly j frequent images of brightness and dizziness: gold, gems, i silver, and pearls.193 The disparity between him and his I I i 19lEvery character’s name alludes to an old Chinese | coin. The. names of Wu—fen (J i. f t ), Ssu-wen ), j Pao-huo ) , Weng-hua ( . # JP ) , Pan-liang ( Jt- ), j and Huo-ch’uan (*jjr ) are sron1 examples. Also see H. { C. Chang, pp. 8 5 • I 192gee T’ang-jen hsiao-shuo, pp. 85-92. i 1 " . ; 1 9 ' 3 ' Chin' yin chu pao ( ^ $$L 5L ). CHY, ch. 99, , P. 758. 1 i 94 J surroundings first shortens and then disappears.19^ There is no gap between the perceiver and the perceived; Chang Hung and the jade building are one. Everything in this Pass of Wealth assumes a materialistic identity; thus the i | negative aspect of wealth is truly felt. Chang Hung’s I relationship with the material objects and the characters 1 becomes internalized. The characters' names and persona- j lities are ontologically identical, and both are money. I The servants' announcements of their names announce their personalities. Yen Sheng’s name-L95 depicts his dislike of j visitors. Ching Wen,-*-96 on the other hand, cares only for i refined seafood; Pi Lun,1^? transportation; and Pai ; H s u a n , 1 9 8 White powder. All of these names are names of f j ancient Chinese coins. Like coins, they have a copper like smell, which leads to Chang Hung's suffocation and i ! breakdown: i I j I -*-9^ as soon as Chang Hung enters into the "lustrous | towers and jasper chambers," he actually becomes part of j the Pass of Wealth. I - * - 9 5 Yen Sheng )• The character yen stands for ! dislike or aversion. Ching w e n ( J k l f v j L ). The word ching refers to the j whale; Li uses this name to refer fish in general. i 197pi gun ). The character lun stands for j wheel in particular or transportation in general. | -*-98paj _ Hsuan ( ' t ] '\A^ ). Since the word pai stands , for whiteness, it refers to white powder in this context. 95 One day, taking out a mirror, Chang Hung looked into it and saw only his hoary face and frosted temples. Suddenly he remembered when he once climbed up the ladder and drilled a hole through the coin. In a twinkling of an eye, it was as if what had happened sixty years ago now reappeared. When he first came here, he had been energetic and vigorous. But j now, to his surprise, he was aged and senile. ; Life was just like a spring dream. If he had ( known earlier that a hundred years would end ! like this, he could have seen through many ; things that he had done. It was useless to talk ! about it now. Instead he retraced the old path j and took a look at the place where he had ; climbed the ladder years before. When he reached the hole in the coin, he put his head through it to look outside. Unexpectedly, the hole gradual ly shrank and entrapped his neck, and he could move neither forward nor backward.^99 The shock of the ending reveals Li’s intent and bring the ! reader back to the theme of Ching-hua yuan: illusion, j The dream device here makes Chang Hung’s internal thoughts i appear as external acts. The objects and personages in i I the Pass of Wealth, having no intrinsic values, are the i ! results of the mind, which imposes its own interpretations ! upon them. Chang Hung’s thoughts and the material things merge: perception and cognition become one. This is the i i ! root of man’s illusion, comparable to the doubleness of j ; "the flower in the mirror" and "the moon in the water" ; paradoxes. | | On the literal level, then, the representations of i j moral deficiencies in the four passes may differ in matters 199CHY, ch. 99, pp. 762-763. 96 of detail, but their approaches parallel each other, and their underlying principles are the same. Li states his view of man's moral fall as a discordant note in the spiritual harmony of the universe in the introduction of each pass. The human trials, embodied implicitly or explicitly in these passes, reveal the author’ -s view as to the plurality of earthly beings. His placing human weak ness into four arbitrary categories makes it possible to deal with all sorts of discrepancies in the human race. We can not help but admire Li'-s multi-faceted use of metaphor and allegory.. 97 t CHAPTER III SATIRE The Nature of Li Ju-chen’s Satire j If Wu Ching-tzu’s Ju-lin wai-shih satirizes the I --------------- ! Chinese culture of the eighteenth century, Li Ju-chen's i ii Ching-hua yuan can likewise be regarded as a ’ ’satirical anatomy" of the nineteenth century.-1 - Like Wu, Li explores ; the turmoils of the cultural climate in which he lives. Like Wu's analysis and ridicule of the isolation felt by the intellectual class, "the scholar,"2 Li depicts a | sterile and denatured culture that places itself above the) • > ; common and practical concerns of life. j ^Li Ch’en-tung states that Ching-hua yuan attempts to ; attack the suppressed political and intellectual atmos- ! phere, and to ridicule the distortion of reality beneath ! the Chinese social superstructure. See Li Ch’en-tung, i pp. 133-134. Hsu Shih-nien says that Ching-hua yuan is i the product of Li Ju-chen’s reaction.against the suffo— i eating intellectual climate in the Ch’ing Dynasty. See j Hsu Shih-nien, p. 157. ! 2The Scholars is the English title of Ju-lin wai-shih ; in Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang's translation. Wu’s 1 satire in Ju-lin wai-shih is directed against the deterio- 1 ration of the literati. Their shallow pride In their j knowledge leads them to misdirect their attention from I intellectual commitment to worldly gain. For the Yang’s ; translation, see The Scholars (New York: Grosset and j Dunlap, 1972). 98 | Li’s Ching-hua yuan satirizes mankind through critical analysis of its judgment and principles from the perspec tives of time and timelessness. Li contemplates his characters from different viewpoints. His concept is con- ! sistent with that of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, who postualte ! an ultimate reality that has various non-differentiated i 1 aspects.3 However, Li is even more imaginative than his Taoist predecessors in focusing his attention on this reality from three points of view. Prom the first view point, he sees his characters as a combination of mortal and immortal qualities which are irreconcilable and self destructive. Prom the second, he perceives his characters’ i * individuality as lost in an infinite intellect rather than as harmonious with it. The third viewpoint involves a j ; I theory of perceptual changes. His satire expands the i ' reader’s awareness. It has that symbolic subtlety and ] power that previously was attained only by the Tsin j writers' "Pure Talk" (ch ' ing-t’an) ^ and the literary tale i | 3Thls concent is also known as the equalization of all ; things (ch'i-wu, ) . This equalization makes one see everything from .a point of view that transcends relativity J and the distinctions between right and wrong, good and ! evil. See Chuang Tzu, pp. 6-18. ! ^Ch’ing-t 'an Is a kind of sophisticated meta physical conversation which directly aims to attack the idolizing of authority or to strike a blow against admiration for Confucianism. Some of these conversations were collected under Liu I-ch'ing’s ( _ * , ! , 40 3—4^4) i Shih-shuo hsin-yu (_£_ i ' L $ fr } • 99J ! (ch * uan-ch11) of the T'ang.5 This chapter will analyze Li's satire and its implications. Li's satire is comprehensive and multi-faceted. It is comprehensive because it utilizes his reason as the criterion for judging issues to be positive or negative or. ; as W. H. Auden puts it, for judging "between the true and I j the false, the moral and the i m m o r a l . Li expresses his j | satire in episodic incidents or loosely knit symbols. The I ! methods he uses include sensory imagery, burlesque, in- I v i vective, and exaggeration.< Some of these magnifying ^Ch' uan-ch' i (ilp^ ) literally means "marvels trans mitted." Many ch' uan-^ch' i stories, .for instance the stories of Li Wa ) . Huo Hsiao-yu ( or Ts'ui Ying-ying offer a satirical criticism of i life during that perioa. Every comment or surface meaning j I conveys a detached and controlled indictment of human ' folly, pretension, or hypocrisy. P' u .Sung-ling's (; 1 s j i , 1640-1715) Liao-chai chih-i ( ) is* the distant descendant of T'ang ch'uan-cn'l. i ^In regard to whether "moral norms" are essential to j satire, Auden states: "Satire presupposes conscience and ; reason as the judges between the true and the false, the ' moral and the immoral, to which it appeals." W. S. Anderson elaborates that Auden's statement "does not j specify" the satirist as "the agent of conscience and , reason." In other words, Anderson believes that satire | does appeal "to the audience's conscience and reason, but J it does not necessarily prescribe the standards or compel i the judgment." See "Norm in Satire: A Symposium," j Satire Newsletter, 2, No. 1 (Fall 1964), pp. 4-5- I | ?To the satirist, burlesque is "a kind of extended i simile" which "aims at exposing a discrepancy in the j strongest possible light." See David Worcester, The Art i of Satire (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 19^0), ; p. 42. Satire of invective is also called derision. ; Worcester states that this kind of satire is used to : "circumvent mankind's prejudice against naked rage." Ibid, ; p . 4i. and diminishing devices suggest a Chinese Swift.^ Secondly, Li’s satire is many-faceted and operates as the background to his sensibility. His literary imagination, intuitive insight, sensitive feelings, and conceptual I | power all contribute to the satire. "In regard to its , contemporary attitudes and human sentiments," Hsu Shih- t I | nien writes, "Ching-hua yuan is a multipronged instrument i j for criticism."9 Ching-hua yuan is a record of Li’s j ability to connect parodies1* - * and ironies.11 ^In regard to magnifying and diminishing devices, Alvin B. Kernan’s The Plot of Satire (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1965) ls an excellent reference book. Kernan describes the magnifying tendency as "a fondness ofr amplification, sheer multiplication of words and indiscriminate amassment of vast numbers of sounds. ..." (pp. 37-38). In regard to the diminishing j ; tendency, Kernan says: "... reduction of life to its | ; grossest constituents has taken many forms, but the two ! most persistent directions It has followed are the dimin- ■ ishing of the vital to the mechanical and the spiritual ; to the vulgarly material " (p. 53)* ^Hsu Shih-nien, p. 164. i 1 ( - ) Gibert Highet states that parody is an essential | requirement for satire. He defines it: "as Imitation ; which, through distortion and exaggeration, evokes ! amusement, derision, and sometimes scorn." See Highet, | The Anatomy of Satire (Princeton: Princeton University 1 Press, 1962), p. 69. ! j iiThe nature of irony is versatile. It "may appear as j a minute trope of rhetoric ... It may inform a I brilliant style ... it may become a habit of thought . . ; . .” See Worcester, p. 75- t 1 101 Chinese satire derives its meaning from ridicule (f e n g )-*-^ a n d remonstrance (chien), ^ and is the meeting- point of stimulation (tz'u)^^ and criticism (p1i) . ^ The Chinese satirists use satire to "influence the subordinate" I i and "criticize the superior." Their purpose is not to arouse anger or hatred, but to stimulate the awareness'of I 1 the reader at the expense of the•ridiculed object. In i | this sense, Chinese satire has usually been written with j ~^Feng (JSL, ori^-i ) denotes a sense of satirizing or I ridiculing. As the "Great Preface" ( j ) in Shih-ching states, "The superior uses feng to influence the i subordinate, the subordinate employs feng to criticize the superior." There are many similar satirical passages ■ contained in various ancient sources, such as Li-chi : )* Tso-chuan ), Kuo-yu ( jjQ g g ) and I T z u (-$ - d- } • j -^Qhien ( ) conveys the meaning of admonition. Some Han didactic poetry, some T’ang love stories, and some Ming novels of manners can be grouped into this i category. ^ Tz *u (j&f) ) means to stimulate, to incite, or to awaken the insensitive. ' j ) blends criticism and evaluation. In many Chinese satirical works, criticism far outweighs j evaluation. The preference for criticism is due to the I fact that criticism can shock its reader more deeply than | can evaluation. I 102 a "moral norm"-1 -^ centered on reform of or attack against human vice or folly. If reform Is achieved through satire and Incitement (feng-tz'u), It Is because the satirist Is able to present the discrepancy between real and false j evaluation of social or individual iniquities. In other words 3 the values and significance of Chinese conventions ! ■ are re-examined through the value systems of the Chinese ! satirists, for whom devotion to ultimate truth is regarded as the highest goal. - * - 7 Like other Chinese satirists, Li is thematically j traditional and revolutionary at the same time. In Ching- hua .yuan, he consciously reveals his philosophical, moral, 1 R social, and political preferences, ° and transforms his fictional value systems based upon "contemporary tradition j ! and convention" into "detached" concepts.^9 There are i i I i ^Many scholars believe "moral norm" is the essence , of satire. Northrop Frye states: "moral norm is inherent ■ in satire." He also mentions that "it is the reader who is ! responsible for ’putting in’ the moral norm, not the satirists." However Leonard- Peinberg voices his objection by saying that many satirists employ certain criteria not for the purpose of "morality" but for the purpose of "appropriateness," for "social acceptability." See "Norm in Satire: A Symposium," p. 9- l^Gibert Highet states that most satirists are idealists by nature and are inclined to set up an ideal as "an exemplar to copy." For details, see Highet, p. 4. I ^®See Wu Shuang-yi, pp. 88-91- Also see Nancy J . P.' I Evans^ "Social Criticism in the Ch’ing: The Novel Ching- I hua yuan," Paper on China, 23' (Cambridge: Harvard i University Press, 1970), pp. 52-66. I | !9see Li Ch'en-tung, p. 135; and Hsu Shih-nien, p. 167- 103 intensifications of prevailing Chinese socio-political problems. There are conventional views ridiculed to the point of absurdity. By scrutinizing Chinese value systems and their cultural sources, Li reveals himself and inti- j mates revolution through the norm of satire. i In this chapter, we shall first discuss Lifs satire i on man’s various perspectives of time, temporality and I 1 eternity. Different perspectives affect his characters’ , response to their personal life and determine their open- I ness or lack of it, and their awareness of Li’s theme. Openness correlates with Li's view of eternity because this attitude eventually leads his characters to find their fulfillment in the transcendent realm where ’ ’ the ; flower in the mirror" and "the moon in the water" resolve | their oppositions. Lack of openness parallels Li’s view of temporality whose provincial and limiting outlook stems ■ from emotional instability and intellectual myopia. Li j proclaims that his non-differentiation between past, I ' | present, and future is based upon the Taoist equalization | of opposites; human life, to him like the year, has its j seasons and its growth and decay. Li describes various j passages of time in mythical, earthly, and religious | guises in order to reflect his interpretations of I temporality and eternity. In the initial paradoxes, "the I flower in the mirror" and "the moon in the water," the j concepts of temporality and eternity become the measuring 104 rods for his characters’ involvement. The Fairy of a Hundred Flowers is made to enter directly into the theories presented and into the paradoxes constructed by Li. The I Fairy is criticized for oscillating between human curiosity I Jthat challenges and divine endowment that controls, between j her yearning to experience a worldly life and a divinity’s ;attempt to freeze her into immortality. i j It is not accidental, then, that Li chooses the Fairy j of a Hundred Flowers to illustrate the presence of eternity |in a temporal setting, thus showing that temporality con- i jtains the seed for the regaining of eternity. In short, I j the Fairy embodies Li’s metaphysical abstractions: she jrepresents Li’s concept of divinity, the extension of his I | cloudy dreamworld, and ultimately the exemplification of | future spiritual salvation in its fullness. Through her, i ! Li is able to renew the cyclical time that carries him i through the continuous flow of illusion, his characters’ unawareness and blindness.Through her, Li can also ! challenge the equation of Immortality and perfection. To I i him, the so-called immortals will never be perfect or | ! consistently transcendental,, hence, not quite immortal. ! | In time of emotional crisis, for instance in the cases of f I i I 1 20See CHY, ch. 1, p. 3: "At this moment everyone is I In a vague and misty phase. There Is no use to talk about ; it." I I i 105 Ch'ang 0 and the Fairy, they even muddle and drift through their celestial kingdom without realizing that they are divine or that there is a conflict between analytical reason and impulsive subjectivity within themselves. By this demythologizing of popular Taoist legends, Li attempts j to erase the distinction between the divine and the human. I I As human beings are constantly touched by changes, so are l i , the immortals affected by the mutations of the universe. ! As a matter of fact, Li gives these immortals such an j imperfect nature that their existence in Ching-hua yuan seems absurd.21 Impossibility and absurdity are further accentuated in Li's attempt to depict the utopian world existing out- ] side China. His utopias are more flexible than the rigid and orthodox society in which he lives. His theories of ■ utopia have undoubtedly been influenced by ancient classics I and mythology in a general way, but he shows more aloofness to prototypes than affinity for them.^ jn hj_s references to the myth-like voyages abroad, everything becomes an expansion of man's nature. The correlation between these 21yueh Heng-chun states that it makes no sense what soever to speak of justifying the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers' life without making any reference to the author itative Supreme Deity. However, since the Supreme Deity | never intends to give any sense of justification in a j pattern humanly conceived, the Fairy'.s life will forever j be rationally incomprehensible. See Yften Heng-chftn, p. 96. 22see Hsu Shih-nien, p. 157. 106 expansions of human nature and Li’s statements marks Ching-hua yfian’s utopias as thematic rather than pragmatic. Like other literary journeys used as vehicles for examining the world and its inhabitants, Li’s traveling episodes I offer socio-political, moral, material, and religious ■probabilities about the nature of man and his thought. The I ifantastic journeys are formulated in terms of disclosure and, consequently, are directed toward the exposures of i ills and the caricaturing of human situations. Thus they become not so much comedy to be laughed at but tragedy for which the response can finally be only acceptance. Li groups his fictional men within various countries i i i on the basis of like natures. Singled out for the highest J | praise are the Gentlemen’s Country and the Black-tooth ! Country, the models of moral discretion, intelligence, and I ! ! dedication to socio-political perfection. As we shall see, ! ... • the kinship between the individual and society in Ching-hua ■ yuan reveals the synthesis which binds them together: men are associated with society’s mores and its correlative j rights. By these the utopian reality, the product of the | contact between men and their society, is reached. How1 - i i I ever, the very difficulty of holding firmly to such a I reality, makes utopia a futile goal. Li’s distrust of human endeavor is involved in this strife. His magnifica- i tion of its negative aspects, as shown in the White-face i i j Country and the Scholars’ Country, reveals his doubt as to L_________________ 107 the validity of pursuing "the impossible as a long-run possibility," an inherent feature of utopianism.^3 For instance, in their traveling episodes, neither T'ang Ao nor T’ang Hsiao-shan ever tries to grasp the presence of , this thematic reality; rather, they hurriedly enter and ! leave each country in turn, without showing attachment to t i any. In this sense, Li's utopias are descriptive rather ' than prescriptive, reflecting both his dissatisfaction I with the old world in which he lives and his reluctance to I | abandon it. t j The female personae in Ching-hua yuan reflect Li’s » I j other criticism of society, a kind of negative introspec- i tion upon the human situation in general. In the descrip- i ! ! tions of the Chou court or the female civil examinations, I i 1 or in the depictions of the adventures of the hundred I j Flower-incarnated girls or of the Country of Women, women justify and generate the course of action, unify structural i elements, and reveal human conflicts and hidden sentiments. | Most of all, the female personae provide an effective f ' shift which enables the reader to rediscover Li’s satiri- i ! cal interpretation of human existence. As Li Ch'en-tung i | declares, the superiority of the female-centered novel lies ^¥re<± Polak, The Image of the Future (New York: ; Oceana Press, i960), p. 426. Polak’s definition of utopia is "the art. of the impossible as a long-run possibility, of visionary planning for a non-political society based on i human altruism and solidarity." * j 108 I in the assertion that truth can be comprehended only through the indirect reflection of the abstract inter relation between man and woman. Harmony lies somewhere between the human propensity to struggle for agreement and the desire to have discourse with one another.^ in Li’s ! never ending contest between man and woman, he arbitrarily ! brings into the glamorous Chou palace two types of female, ! as represented by Empress Wu on the one hand the Lu Tzu- j ; hsuan on the other. They embody concepts differing from the traditions of Chinese culture. Considered either as representatives of a reversed order opposed by conservative i Chinese, or as representatives of a utopian society opposed by pragmatic Chinese, these two female personages abide in a discriminative world. In this world the forces 1 i of inhumanity and human conscience reject each other, i ; denying not only the interchange which produces equality ' but any alternative compromise as well. The reversed ! hierarchy is notably ’ ’against the principles. j In general, these female, personae are examined In i j terms of their historical and symbolic positions, rather than in terms of their psychological or biological depth, i That is, in order to express more clearly the strong and ! Lj[ Ch'en-tung, pp. 134-135. j 25Yu-II pu-shun ( ) implies that Empress I Wu's position is against common principles and traditional l patterns. See CHY, ch. 4, p. 19. I ! 109 weak points of their roles in the historical and symbolic context, Li’s female cosmos is set against the background of male-dominated Chinese tradition, and thus against the i | whole social structure. The contrast acts as a means of ! questioning where woman fits into his picture. Also ( examined is the reversal of the domestic relationship ; between man and woman, a relationship that Li satirically i j envisions as unequal in the male-centered society. In this regard, Li still belongs to the Chinese tradition. Most of his female characters are not considered as ideals or models. Nor does Li intend to change China through ■ these characters. In fact, Li’s female characters can be j just as tyrannical as men. On the basis of this attitude, I : Li makes Ching-hua Yuan a strong satire on discrimination j ! I ; and segregation, such as that in the Country of Women, the i ; term conveying his tacit ridicule of man’s egoistic and ; false image of himself, the image of "the flower in the ; mirror’ ’ or ’ ’the moon in the water.” 110 The Hidden Order of Time Structure: A Satire on Perception In the episodes of "the Village of the Moon in the ' Water" and "the Pavilion of' the Weeping Beauty,"26 Li Ju- ! chen develops the philosophical distinction between ; reality and appearance, the eternal and the temporal. He i demonstrates a notion that beyond the worldly, beyond the shifting veils of the seasons, beyond the earthly changes appearing in Ching-hua yuan, there is a reality more stable and far more enduring. This reality is symbolized j by the P’eng-lai Mountain.27 in these episodes, Li demon- I strates a fundamental connection between his own thought and the doctrines of T a o i s m .28 The connection is evidenced by Li’s emphasizing that | all awareness of existence is grounded in transcendence . rather than in worldliness. Li makes the point subtly | through words carved on a stone wall: i j In order to meet, you /T’ang Hsiao-sharj7 will have to look back and recall The summit of P’eng-lai is your homeland.29 | 26see CHY, chs. 47-29, pp. 343-363- | 27See CHY, ch. 47, p. 347- i j 28rpLis refers to the Taoist theory of equalization. : 29chy, ch. 49, p. 359. This is the heart of Li’s approach to the theory of reality. One needs this theory to make a thorough analysis of the inscription. First the word ' ’ homeland’ ’ is used to designate one's final goal. That is to say, "homeland" | calls T’ang Hsiao-shan's attention to the fact that she ^ should "recall" her past existence as an immortal who i j lived in a place where "the flowers never fade . . . the [grasses ever remain green," a place called P'eng-lai i Mountain.30 Second, the phrase "to look back and recall the summit of P'eng-lai" presupposes an "other" realm beyond T’ang Hsiao-shan’s immediate existence in the secular world. To put it another way, to be aware of "the I | summit of P'eng-lai" implies awareness of a permanent place, the reality of which T’ang Hsiao-shan's earthly j I ; knowledge and rational perception cannot comprehend. This j reality transcends the difference between "permanence" ; [ (ch'ang) and "change" (pien) . ° Third, the phrase "to ; meet" indicates that a spiritual reward waits for T’ang | Hsiao-shan on the condition that she essays "to look back J and' recall" and that she tries to detach herself from | earthly reality, reality Li criticizes as nothing but I "emptiness" and "absurdity."32 i ! 3°See CHY, ch. 1, p. 1 ! 3 1 I b l d . | 32See CHY, chi 48, p. 357- 112 Within the context of the inscription, Li makes it clear that he is advocating an approach that will lead T’ang Hsiao-shan beyond the limits of earthly reason to an awareness of her own ability to recall the past into the j present. By focusing on "p’eng-lai" as a future "home- ; land," Li thus echoes the Taoist concept of the passage of I i ! time as perpetually integrating both "permanence" and 1 ■ "change."33 i : The idea that "permanence" can ever move toward i I "change" and that "change" can ever succeed "permanence" ( j is a paradox itself, which cannot be grasped by reason alone. Theoretically, the paradox is that the passage of time as a dynamic and perpetual process can transcend the demarcation between the temporal and the eternal. The- i : matically, the paradox is that the passage of time should f i be viewed circularly, the sequence of past, present, and ! i , future moving not in a linear direction but rather moving in a harmonious circle. Supporting his argument, Li uses i ; the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers to illustrate his hidden ! paradox of time structure. Ironically, though, this time ; structure is not perceived by his heroine. Her particular i temporal experiences, be they in the mythical realm, in J the Red Dust, or in the middle of her religious quest, | become a satire, a satire on man's limited perception and I i ! 33see Lao Tzu (.Taipei: Hua-lien ch’u-pan she, 1967) 3 p. 86. 113 slowness In "seeing through life and death*"3^ in comprehending that linear time is not sufficient to grasp the Taoist truth of ultimate reality. To be more precise* the Taoist truth of the j circularity of time can be understood in connection with I our heroine’s circular life span. The concepts of past, ' present, and future* which are indicated by her three different names, the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers, T’ang Hsiao-shan, and T’ang Kuei-ch’en, are linked with the mythical, the secular, and the spiritual stages of her inner existence respectively. Li's satire concentrates I ! upon his heroine’s limited perception: in each separate ; existence, she is presented as totally unaware, of the i ' breadth, extension, and duration of this many-faceted time ! flow. In the mythical realm, the satire on time structure is complicated by two elements, namely the limited scope of the.Fairy of a Hundred Flowers' perception and the gradual growth of her curiosity as expressed in her yearn ing for things other than divine. The first is the irony of the negation of the Fairy’s original name, Pai-hua Hsien-tzu, a name identifying her with seasonal change and 14 This is one of the examples of Taoist theory of equalization of life and death as the succession of day and night. See Chuang Tzu, p. 9. 114 making her a symbol of nature itself, elevated above mortal problems and not subject to worldly laws. The second is the Fairy’s own inquisitive and impulsive personality, a personality which drifts toward- temptation and self- i i i satisfaction at the expense of future retribution. The I I combination of these two elements creates the pathos of ’ the Fairy’s fate, which not only negates her previous i 15 ; identity but also erases her divine status. In his discussion of the Fairy’s personality in the prologue of Ching-hua yuan, Li singles out one incident which not only illustrates the Fairy's weakness as men- I ! tioned above, but which also provides a reason for the j Fairy's eventual transmigration from the mythical realm to [ the mundane one. This incident concerns her growing | attraction to earthly events and her dissatisfaction with 1 "immortal contrivance" (hsien-chl) 36 and "contrived cause" i (ehi-yuan),37 as mentioned by her friend, the Fairy of a I Hundred Plants.3^ As we have mentioned previously in I i r I ~ I ^gee CHY, ch. 2, p. 9- I --- 36Hsien-chi ). See CHY, ch. 1, p. 2: "This tablet contains an immortal contrivance." ^^Chi-yuan ( jf-ILt )• Ibid.: "At this moment, the contrived cause is still premature." 38see CHY, ch. 1, p. 2. 115 "Mythic Artifice and Demonic Temptation," the Fairy prefers to visit the Red Dust rather than to stay in the Taoist paradise because she feels that she might have an "affinity" with-vthe jade tablet on which is written a I "glimpse of these /earthly7 phenomena."39 I The Fairy's reaction toward the attraction of earthly . things is literally to give herself up to the temptation t and subsequently to try to free herself from that which is divine in order to grasp the seemingly glamorous earthly events dominated by the linear time and temporality. In chapter 2, the Queen Mother states that the Fairy's ! personality is a real dilemma from which the Fairy is "too i ignorant" to extricate herself unless she undergoes earthly I sufferings:^ She must experience the sufferings of the "seven emotions" as eventually shown in the episode of "the Pavilion of the Weeping Beauty. ! Li's mockery of the Fairy's narrow perception can also apply to all the other characters in the novel. As the central focus of the novel, the satire on the Fairy furnishes a general theme: the ignorance of the divine creatures toward their roles in the cycle of life. With ! 39See CHY, ch. 1, p. 3- ^°See CHY, ch. 2, p. 9. I i *1See CHY, ch.' 49, P- 360. 116 the emphasis on the images of "the flower in the mirror" and "the moon in the water," we discover that the Fairy lives in a time scheme conceptually based on an illusion: She has been led from the eternity of cyclical time to the narrowness of the linear time, the time of earthly life. Li’s satire on the theory of time is seen again through the prophetic word chi, "contrivance."^ The complexity of this word can be fully realized only by exploring its symbolic and mythical overtones. Chi represents the incomprehensibility of the universe to the rational mind, and can be translated as "contrivance," "secret," "motive," "root," "scheme," "potentiality," or j "fundamental cause." The best illustration of the use of j this word in the novel is in T’ang Hsiao-shan’s explana- I I tion to Yin Jo-hua in chapter 49: "Now since you cannot I ! perceive anything on the tablet, at least it proves that the immortal secret /or contrivance/ cannot be revealed."^3 ! Critic Yueh Heng-chun notes that the main purpose of j 1 this immortal secret is to reveal the illusory while 42iphe character chi is the root of every cause which springs from an unexplainable source. 43CHY, ch. 48, p. 356. 117 concealing the actual. Yueh writes, "In the novel, he /Li/ repeatedly warns us that what we have been shown are all illusive manifestations. Like a self-mocking magician, he freely plays with the idea, and readily unveils his | magic world.Here the words "illusory," "actual," and ! "unveils" suggest that the Fairy's frame of mind cannot ; comprehend the changes brought on by the never-ceasing | j evolving of time, changes dominated secretly by the stream I of chi. The Fairy's ignorance is pointed out to her by the Fairy of a Hundred Plants: 'You need not worry. I have discovered that : in the near future those who have been banished \ will be scattered from heaven either in the | T'ang empire or abroad. Someday unquestionably | we can reunite at a certain place. However, i you will have to visit various countries and : await the expiration of your time on earth. I When that time comes, the Queen Mother certainly will ask us to come to fetch you to the Jade Pond and thus to settle the case. This is the immortal contrivance /hsien-chi/ which we over- | _ heard. Be sure not to reveal it to anyone.1^5 j A casual reading of this passage might lead the I j unwary reader into thinking it no more than a consolation. I But here, though some conventional devices, such as pre- j dieting the future, are used, Li actually attempts to I i ! combine the three aspects of time past, present, and | future. The interaction among the three asserts that the ^See Yueh Heng-chun, p. 100. **5CHY, ch. 6, p. 32. 118; Fairy is part of the stream of becoming. In this sense, the Fairy lives in three different time coordinates. She herself is the focal point of the ever-changing cycles of time. Hence in the mythical world, the Fairy encounters the aspects both of temporal change and permanence; in the mundane world, T’ang Hsiao-shan is fated to live through machinations of worldly cause and effect, as signified by the phrase "earthly-bound cause"; and in her spiritually redemptive journey, T'ang Kuei-ch’en learns of the eternal continuity of time, which defies all earthly changes as well as any wilfull attempts to influence its circularity, i Furthermore, no matter whether it serves as "immortal I j contrivance," or "original contrivance," the satirical i ■ nature of chi also has its thematic functions. It ridi- 1 ! cules the blurred visions of Li’s other characters. The ' best illustration can be found in Lin Chih-yang’s inability i j to perceive the illuminations rendered by immortal inter- | ventions. In chapter 46, for example, after he has‘heard i . . . j and discussed the Taoist nun’s repeated revelations about I ■ the nearby paradise, he still uses his worldly criteria to measure ultimate reality when he admits, "I don’t know I what kind of scheme /chi-kuan/^^ is concealed there. i j Lin Chih-yang’s clouded vision results from his ignorance i I | ^ Chi-kuan ) implies a calculating and ! contrived scheme. ' ^ 7CHY» ch- P- 338. ! 119 I of ultimate reality. To him, the dimensions of time are I strictly regulated, and thus he is already blind to the timeless rhythms of Li’s thought. Another aspect of Li’s satire is manifested through i the device of dreams in which he compares the difference I , between a differentiated concept of time and a nondiffer- I j entiated one. Li employs dreams to depict both the back- I ward and forward flow of time, disclosing not only elements j of the past, present, and future, but also of life and anything enduring. Life is merely a part of delusion, ! according to T’ang Ao: J 'You /fo Chiu-kung/ are quite right. Worldly | fame or prosperity is actually a trap for the j soul . . . Once he closes his eyes, one j realizes that . . . everything is but a waste J of one's calculations. It is like a spring ; dream.'50 Li's use of this dream metaphor reflects his concern I about human perspectives. To him, life is a distortion of j man's image of himself in time. The division of time, as j subjective attitude toward life. The gulf between what man death. As T'ang Ao states, in the Sonless Country,^ life is but "a spring dream"^9 which has no correspondence to shown by most of his characters, is caused by man's 48. Wu-chi kuo See CHY, ch. 16, pp. 106- ! 108. ^9chun-meng '^T )• See CHY, ch. 16, p. 107 5 0 - r - K - f a 120 really is and what man thinks he is is widened by man’s yardstick of worldly gain and fame. In other words, the unity of time is interrupted by man-made measurements or boundaries. The awareness of past and future can be j furthered only by the dream experience, rather than by actuality. I i For example, after moving the story to the mundane i I j world where the Fairy is incarnated as T’ang Hsiao-shan, i j Li suddenly discards his realistic treatment and shifts to J the description of T’ang Ao’s dream of revelation at the j Temple of the God of Dreams (Meng-shen kuan).^1 This i I episode, a brief narration of T’ang Ao’s enlightenment, includes nine metaphors of "dream” (meng),52 four motifs | of "affinity" (yuan) ,53 ancj five accounts of rejecting ■ "the Red Dust" (hung-ch’en).5^ The interjections of the t ■^Meng-shen kuan ^ ) * ^ee CHY, ch. J s p. 39* | 52These nine repetitions of the same character, meng j (dream), are: "As if in dream," "good dream and bad ■ dream," "The Temple of the God of Dreams" (p. 39)s j "actually it was a dream," "that was the old man I had met in my dream," "pondering upon the scene in the dream," "coincidently dreamed this dream again," and "the God of Dreams said it a while back" (p. 40). 5 3 The repetitions of the character yuan (affinity or cause) are: "To unite a good cause," "you actually have a former cause," "there must be a strange cause behind it," and "if I would meet an immortal cause" (p. 40) . ! ^ Four rejections of hung-ch,’en, the Red Dust, are as j following: "Therefore there arose a thought of discarding | the Red Dust" (p. 38), "now I see through the Red Dust," I "unless it meant to leave the Red Dust" (p. 39), "all were banished into the Red Dust," and "Already I had seen through the Red Dust" (p. 40). 121 dream motif interrupt the tenor of the novel’s realism. The interruptions tend to define moods, and they function to provide the Taoist revelation necessary to advance the j theme. In fact, the Instructions revealed in T’ang Ao’s j dream, to bring back the twelve incarnated flowers and to , pursue the unfettered freedom of tao55 are the nucleus of ! Ching-hua yuan’s theme, around which many events and I j characters, including T'ang Hsiao-shan herself, revolve. The dream motifs are expanded with a great deal of complexity. First of all, a dream functions as a pre liminary discourse upon the event that follows It. Such a dream usually emerges as a parody exposing the limited j human vision behind the facade of each incident. For j Instance, in chapter 73 dream is employed as a means of i ! predicting T’ang Ao’s fateful encounter with "twelve ! famous flowers. ”56 Because he cannot see t.he truth beyond I the dream's immediate implication, T'ang Ao ignores the | i dream's revelation. It is not until he hears the name of I i j 55See CHY, ch. 7, p. 40. j i ^ ^ k f t e r T’ang Ao passes the civi^examinations, he is | ranked as number three, t’an-hua ( tfts h ti ); see CHY, ch. 7,! i p. 38. This title literally means "to find out flowers," J which tells why he goes abroad. In ch. 8 , p. 44, Lin ! Chih-yang makes the same implication: "He sent you to search for the news of the flowers." 122 Yin Jo-hua,57 that he realizes: The God of Dreams stated that I had to search constantly for the twelve famouf flowers abroad. Until now I have not been able to find any. However, every girl whom I have met has the name of a flower or plant.5° ; His admitting his own ignorance discredits T'ang Ao more 1 ironically than any other literary device could do. He : has no knowledge that his dream is more than illusion. j The reader realizes that it functions as an illumination of coming events. In a second function, the dream metaphor comments on I a preceding incident, disclosing more of its circumstances | or echoing its theme. An example is the dream-like episode l | in chapter 48.59 On the jade tablet, the revelation of ; the concealed meaning of T'ang Hsiao-shan's name, "Dream- i j within-dream," Meng-chung-meng, ^ 0 is intended to make her ■ i I ! earthly existence abstract. The mockery of "Dream-within- ; dream" can be interpreted first as an effort to strip away ' 57yin Jo-hua's first name means "flower-like." This j implication reminds T'ang Ao of other girls' names. For ’ instance, an.instance in ch. 31, p. 265: "To Chiu-kung j asked about her name and realized that the heir-apparent ( was Yin by surname and Jo-hua by given name. Hearing the ! word 'hua' /TlowerJ7, T'ang Ao suddenly remembered the | message illuminated in his dream." t ! 58chy, ch. 38, p. 266. I 59see CHY, ch. 48, p. 355- 6°Meng-chung-meng ' j * ). See CHY, ch. 48, p. 349: "The Talented Girl Number Eleven, who is in charge of a hundred flowers and who is also named 'Meng-chung-meng,' is T’ang Kuei-ch'en." 123 the significance of T’ang Hsiao-Shan’s motivation, which is to find her ’ ’earthly" father, T’ang Ao, and then as an explication of her secular vision that life itself is a jpassing dream. Despite all her talents, during the first ! part of her voyage abroad T’ang Hsiao-shan's mind is still : rigidly dependent on her ’ ’ past" memory of her missing ! father, and she lives with an earthly and self-planned i ! "future." Her devotion to literature, art, and physical I exercise^ ironically reflects the vanities of most mortal beings. Her emotional attachment toward her father makes her unable to feel the flaws in human perception. Con- | sequently, these block her capacity to perceive things j beyond. The vast gulf between the paradise of P’eng-lai i Mountain and the tomb-like Village of the Moon in the Water: ! I suggests the distance between eternity and time-bound | fatality. Similarly, in the next chapter T’ang Hsiao-shan j asks a white-haired woodcutter about the whereabouts of her father: 'I have come for no other purpose than to ask the way. A person from our celestial T'ang entered this mountain two years ago. Does he live in the village ahead? I would like to seek your guidance and would be eternally grateful for it.’ The woodcutter responded: ’Is it possible that the one you are asking for is T’ang Yi-t’ing of Ling-nan?' 61CHY, ch.‘ 7, P. 37- 124 Highly excited now, Hsiao-shan said: fHe is precisely the one I am asking about. Old Master, how is it that you know him?T The woodcutter replied: ’We have always lived together. Why should not we know each other?'°2 i The woodcutter reveals many things about himself that j T’ang Hsiao-shan cannot comprehend, and therefore she gets i ! lost in the deceptively simple dialogue. The woodcutter, ; modelled after the Taoist image,63 is actually himself j T’ang Hsiao-shan’s father, who hints at his own identity i by saying, ”We have always lived together." However, T’ang Hsiao-shan’s responses are dominated by facts and filled j with memory. Operating on the basis of her old relation- i J ship with her newly liberated father, her efforts only > j expose her spiritual blindness. The woodcutter suggests 1 ; this by saying, "After reading this family letter and I looking at the scenery of the Village of the Moon in the jWater ahead, you’ll understand its meaning."62* He thereby ! accentuates T’ang Hsiao-shan’s ambivalent and dreamlike ' state. j The lack of communication between T’ang Ao and his j daughter indicates the futility of striving foh any mundane- i relationship. To the author, there is an innate capacity 62CHY, ch. 47 s p. 346. j, 63Ch ’ iao-fu )• The imagery of wood, mu (/fsO, is a recurrent motif in Lao' Tzu and Chuang Tzu. 621 CHY, ch. 47, p. 346. 125 in man to change his mundane limited conception of time- duration to one of timelessness. Li's use of the dream device eases the doubt and ambivalence caused by this process of changing. Because dream always takes place somewhere beyond the realistic world, it leads man to a ( spiritual flight from worldly preoccupations. In chapter i 7, T'ang Ao’s disillusionment with the boring process of j life, his abandonment to lethargy, and his yearning for I i j earthly renunciation are in fact paving the way for these I 6S J fortifying functions of dream. J As the dream comes and j goes, it furnishes a spiritual liberation from the world \ of the Red Dust and carries T'ang Ao beyond secular i | involvement. Because of the dream, he can comprehend life I 1 i as equivocal, involving deprivation and tragic unconcern, j i ! i This is the same disillusionment with human life that is | j found in Chuang Tzu: "When one dreams, one is not aware j of dreaming. In his dream he even can interpret his dream. Only after he wakes does he realize he has dreamed. Eventually there will be a great enlightenment, and'then he will comprehend life is a great dream. The significance of this statement lies in what is beyond the horizon of earthly temporality. Similarly, ! j T'ang Ao's and To Chiu-kung's comparisons of life as i t i 65See CHY, ch. 7, pp. 38-39- ; 66por -the original, see Chuang Tzu, p. 16. i I 126 ! "spring dream" and death as "sleep" in the Sonless Country I j convey a non-differentiating wisdom that can free man from attachment to life's illusion, as symbolized by "the | flower in the mirror" and "the moon in the water."- The j process of spiritual regeneration is intrinsically related , to the union of these two opposing views of time: i | temporality and eternity. Through the Fairy's manifesta- i I tion, Li unveils the hidden time structure of temporality as part of and preparation for the coming of spiritual eternity. The Fairy's interrelated past, present, and ! future mock the concept of the self-enclosed existence ; itself. Therefore, the up-lifting movement from tempo- i rality to eternity through Ching-hua yuan's one hundred | chapters depends solely upon the characters' spiritual | growth and awareness of the dissociation of time. Only j J with that awareness will the differentiated temporal i rhythms disappear. And only then will the non- : differentiated flux of eternity emerge. i i i i j i i i 127 The Parody of Utopia: A Satire on Mankind As we have mentioned, T'ang Ao's dream in chapter 7 I l 1 reveals Li Ju-chen's satirical interpretation of the 1 mundane world. In that dream, T'ang Ao is made to symbol- 1 ically forsake his cultural heritage: he abandons the : earthly dungeon of the Red Dust and wishes to experience ; the freedom of being a "heavenly immortal."^7 In the next chapter, accompanied by Lin Chih-yang and To Chiu-kung, T'ang Ao leaves the world and visits countries abroad whose names can be found only in the classical works of Huai-nan Tzu, Shan-hai ching, Po-wu chih, or Hsuan-chung chi.68 Countries such as the Gentlemen's Country or the ! | Black-tooth Country are names which denote certain classi- | cal utopian concepts, as will be shown later. Li's ; utopias in general are not by any means elusive and tran- ! scendent paradises, untouched by dissatisfaction and j despair as is T'ao Yuan-ming's portrayal In T'ao-hua yuan | chi. Rather, his utopias are a means of presenting various 1 interpretations of the world and its inhabitants, which he I | ^ T' ien-hsien )• See CHY, ch. 7, p. 39- ( f . ^The name of Huo-yen shan (Flaming-fire Mountain, %t3 i U ) in chapter 27, for example, derives from Hsdan- chung chi ( ), whose authorship is attributed to Kuo P'u ( ^ 276-324). 128, then proceeds to idealize or to satirize. To Li, the use of utopia as a literary device was an advantageous choice: it could be pursued without objection in the censorious atmosphere of nineteenth-century China and was not subject ! to accusations of non-comformity. However, T'ang Ao's search for utopia in Ching-hua I | yuan raises some puzzling questions. Why does T'ang Ao t I have to seek it abroad? Why does he have to abandon his I I human individuality and his earthly gains in order to get there? The God of Dreams refers to the reason for this search as the "former cause" (su-yuan),^9 whereas T'ang Ao calls it the "heavenly cause" (t'ien-yuan).^0 Apparently, | i frustrated with his literary career, Li tries to find his i i ; ideal metaphor by elaborating on the discrepancy between : merit and demerit, success and failure, in Chinese society.: Before launching the voyages, Li says little about utopias, beyond casually mentioning the chance of T'ang Ao's finding the famous twelve flowers: i | I don't know the names of these twelve famous I flowers mentioned by the God of Dreams. Un fortunately I forgot to ask about that in I detail. However, when I travel abroad in the 69see CHY, ch. 7, p. 40 : "You basically have this j former cause." j ^See CHY, ch. 8, p. 4*1: "Brother-in-law, coincident- | ly you have planned such a trip. This is really a co- i incidence of heavenly cause. I whole-heartedly hope you | would take me with you." 129 near future, I'll constantly watch for them. In case I meet some fine flowers, I’ll cultivate them assiduously. I might even come across an immortal cause.71 It is suggested that there is a possibility that T’ang Ao will find these flowers when he mentions a possible I i encounter with the ’ ’immortal cause /or opportunity/’ ’ ; (hsien-yuan). The term "immortal cause" is important I J thematically for its finality: it is this "immortal cause’ 1 ! that generates an ending to T’ang Ao’s search for an j eternal h o m e , 72 an untainted land with none of the vices i I ; of Chinese tradition and civilization. j Rejecting an imperfect tradition and searching for an ideal one form the basis of Li’s utopianism. Li is not a ; "natural utopian," like Thomas M o r e .73 Rather, Li is a i skeptical utopian who neither totally undermines the i 71chy} ch. 7, p. 40. 72See CHY, ch. 40, p. 282. 73h . W. Donner considers Thomas More’s Utopia to ! convey "the optimism of its author and the high hopes | entertained by the humanists for the peaceful solution of ! the tangled problems of the day." It Is in this sense that More is called a natural utopian, a loose name used to contrast the modern skeptical utopian writers, for example, Herbert G. Wells, George Orwell, or Aldous L. Huxley. For details, see Donner, Introduction to Utopia (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1945), p. 107 ATso see the chapter of "The Shape of Utopia" in Robert C. Elliott’s The Shape of Utopia: Studies in a Literary Genre (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1970), pp. 25-49. 130 value-systems of Chinese tradition nor ignores the aura of unreality of most utopias. Herbert G. Wells represents the skeptical utopian when he talks about the more un realistic Utopians, ! There must always be a certain effect of hard- 1 ness and thinness about Utopian speculations. I Their common fault is to be comprehensively ; jejune. That which is the blood and warmth and ; reality of life is largely absent; there are no ; individualities, but only general people. In j almost every Utopia . . . one sees handsome but i characterless buildings, symmetrical and perfect [ cultivations, and a multitude of people, healthy, ; happy, beautifully dressed, but without any personal distinction whatever. . . . This j burthens us with an incurable effect of unreality, | and I do not see how it is altogether to be escaped. It is a disadvantage that has to be : accepted.74 Wells' comment helps us to understand Li's narration ; of the exotic voyage. T'ang Ao's journey is a fictional. i I device for the accomplishment of many diverse tasks. The I I ! countries visited by T'ang Ao are created by Li to fulfill ; his thematic purposes. The statements in these voyage ; chapters display Li's particular social, political, and i i I philosophical views. To show how he deals with these i ! issues, we will examine the characteristics of the coun- | 9 \ tries visited by his main characters. ^Herbert G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (London: Nelson, : 1905), p. 20. I 131 The first, the Gentlemen's Country,75 is a reflection of Li's secular utopia.76 There T'ang Ao witnesses various qualities of an ideal community and its inhabit- ! ants; their mutual respect, their rejection of institu- . I I tions, and their contempt for sacramental indulgence j parallel the ancient Golden Age ruled by the Three Sage | E m p e r o r s .77 T'ang Ao, unable to form a theory of a perfect state, innocently inquires about the meaning of the name "Gentlemen's Country." However, his question does not produce a response. Indirectly, To Chiu-kung tells him that the name probably derives from hao-jang pu- ; cheng,78 a practice characteristic of the highest level of i | humanity, an innate ability to do good to others. 7^The name has two possible sources: Po-wu chih and | Shan-hai ching. Yuan Chttn states that "Po-wu chih states j that the people in the Gentlemen's Country wear hats and carry swords . . . yield to others and are not fond of dispute f ) The description in Shan-hai ching is similar." See Yuan Chun, p. 128. 7^Li claims that this country's customs and communica tion patterns are identical with those of China. See CHY, ch. 11, p. 66: "Their robes, hats, and speech are all similar to those of the T'ang Dynasty." 77yao (fo), Shun ( ) , and Yu (y$n ) are said to be j Sage Emperors in the Chinese Golden Ages.. Mencius idolizes I them as the perfect models in a moral institute in China, i See Mencius, 3A:1, 3B:9, and 5A:1. i ! 78nao -jang pu-cheng ^ i l l T ) means that one is : fond of yielding to others (hao-jang) and not fond of ■ dispute (pu-cheng). See CHY, ch. 11, p. 66. 132, Such a virtue is illustrated by the following commer cial custom: In terms of purchasing things, only the seller fixes the price, and the buyer asks for a ! bargain. Now although the seller charges a - certain amount of money, the buyer does not press for less. Instead the latter even asks to be charged more. This kind of communication ( I have never heard of before.79 | Such an exchange between the customer and merchant is one I of the reversals of normality that T'ang Ao, To Chiu-kung, and Lin Chih-yang witness. The exaggerations revealed in these "unconventional” events satirize traditional Chinese I I j habits. T'ang Ao finds it difficult to adjust to this I | country's customs because he is conditioned by his own 1 j standards. T'ang Ao lives in an era that favors "non- : essentials,” as symbolized by the paradoxical anecdote of ; the "bird's nest soup and n o d d l e s , an era of un- I j wholesome indulgence that cannot be alleviated by habitual i I forms of thought that prevail In Chinese society and human I relationships. Therefore, the practices against choosing i a good burial place for the deceased, against extravagant : spending for the celebration of the birth of a child, and 79CHY, ch. 11, p. 66. fin K ouBird's nest soup (yen-wo, vh ) i-s the name of an expensive soup served usually at a formal banquet. How ever, In the Gentlemen's Country, this soup is as in expensive as cheap noodles. See CHY, ch. 12, p. 80. 133 against senseless and superstitious religious sacrifice ridicule the tastes of a static society, such as nineteen th century China. In connection with this travel episode, Wu Chih-ho ■ and Wu Chih-hsiang®^ express the idea that an ideal socie- ■ ty constantly evolves. A utopia is an open and harmonious society aimed at actualizing ideals and overcoming social i immobility. The Wu brothers are aware that unsuitable i cultural patterns, ideas, and social attitudes can delay . the development of an open society. Their objections to the old practices of polygamy, foot-binding, fortune- i telling, and divination show that the closed Chinese society represses any discontent through the domination of a narrow-minded leader. Therefore, an ideal, society in i which each person is effectively free to develop his or ! her potential is another aspect of Li’s utopia. In the Black-tooth Country, Li Hung-wei and Lu Tzu-hsuan person!- O p fy these ideals. Lu Tzu-hsuan says: I 8lThe combination of the last syllables of Wu Chih-ho ; ( ^ ) an^ Wu Chih-hsiang’s ( \ ) names ' conveys a meaning of "harmony,” or ho^-hsiang (jr# ), ; which is the characteristic trait of the Gentlemen’f c Country. See CHY, ch. 11, p. 69. See Hsu Shih-nien, p. 162. After all, knowledge can be obtained through truly hard work. Then discussions will be based naturally upon sources. If dependent upon only floating vision and elusive shadow, having no substantial ideas, one will naturally follow waves and ripples and have no definite goal to pursue.83 ' Lu Tzu-hsuan1s statement attacks the problem of the rectification of names, cheng-ming, which has been dis- ' R i - t i cussed since the time of Confucius. H By secular stand- k j artd, To Chiu-kung and T’ang Ao are ’ ’knowledgeable" 1 Confucian intellectuals, yet their command of classics cannot defend them from the epistemological and phonetic challenges wielded by these two gifted teen-aged girls. j The devotion of Li Hung-wei and Lu Tzu-hsuan to literary t j works helps them to achieve a unique thoroughness. Their : depth of knowledge points up by contrast the shallowness i of the intellectual milieu, as exemplified by To Chiu-kung 1 and his contemporaries. The Balck-tooth Country is purely utopian in an intellectual sense. The ugly appearance of its inhabitants with their black skin and black teeth8^ 83CHY, ch. 18, p. 125. 8^The discussions on the rectification of names ( . j E . _ xls> ) has occurred since Confucian time. Later Mencius and Hsfln Tzu elaborate on this in their works. Both Confucius and Mencius discuss this problem from an ethical point of 1 view, while Hsun Tzu explores it through the theories of | epistemology and logic. ; 85See CHY, ch. 16, p. 108: "The people are not only 1 ink-black all over their bodies, but even their teeth are j black." I I 135 does not affect their clear and incisive minds. As openly acknowledged by To Chiu-kung, the conflict between appearance and substance fools man. Li also explores the sterile pursuit of undigested cultural tradition and refinement. As Lu Tzu-hsuan sees I : it, one's secular heritage should constantly be challenged j for its purity and essence. That is to say, non-essentials I | should be replaced by things of true substance, as shown by these two girls' mastery of the essence of the c l a s s i c s ^ in contrast with T’ang Ao and To Chiu-kung’s rote memoriza tion. This mastery of essence is also what Li seeks for I I in the reformation of Confucianism. To support this argu ment, he creates the Scholars’ Country to show the flaws I and deficiencies that hamper the progress of a utopian ! jproject. Li favors a substantial education as the force to ■ direct man toward spiritual purification and the regenera tion of community. However, he disapproves of all forms of i | ”pseudo’ ’-civilization which impede the formation of utopia. This is illustrated in the beginning of the journey to the ! Scholars’ Country: i The three of them /![”ang, Lin, and Tq/ walked onto the main street. They noticed that the people all wore scholar’s scarves and green gowns. And some of them wore blue garments. Even ®^Both Li Hung-wei and Lu Tzu-hsuan are the author’s spokesmen on Chinese phonetics.. 136 merchants dressed in the scholarly style, elegant and refined, without businessmen’s mannerisms.8 < Immediately, the scene shifts from this ’ ’refined" appear ance to the actual ignorance of the inhabitants. As put by Lin Chih—yang in his ignorance, They all said, ’We have heard of only Lao Tzu but never of Shao T z u .88 We don’t know when this Shao Tzu was published and what its content is. ...' I thought that since there is a work entitled Lao Tzu, certainly there should be a Shao Tzu. Because you two constantly talk about Ch’ien-Han shu and Hou-Han shu,89 and Wen Tzu and Wu Tzu,90 when I mentioned Lao Tzu, I un consciously spoke out the name of Shao Tzu. I thought that to add one more book might make it sound better.91 Lin Chih-yang’s false knowledge of classical works epitomizes the intellectual blindness of the Confucian scholars In this country. Apparently Lin Chih-yang 8 7CHY, ch. 23, p. 161. 88The words for lao (old, ) and shao (young, ' J / ' ) are used adjectively by Lin Chih-yang to modify the noun, tzu ( _J. ) . 89ch’ien-Han shu (or Early Han Book, ) and Hou-Han shu (or Later Han Book, ) are historical records about the Han Dynasty (2 Oh a . Cf.-220 A.D.) 9°The authorship of Wen Tzu ( ) is attributed to Wen Tzu (jM- . J, a disciple of Li Tan ) or Lao Tzu. Wu Tzu (^\, 3- ) is also known as Sun Tzu shih- san p’ien ( ^ ) written by Sun Wu (^ ^ ) . 91CHY, ch. 23, pp. 164-165v 1 3_7J believes that the titles of classical works are always parallel, as in the examples of Ch'ien-Han shu and Hou-Han shu. He then picks up this parallelism and applies it in the fabrication of Shao Tzu as a counterpart to Lao Tzu. This amusing incident is repeated again later in the Intellectually Excellent Country92 when Lin Chih-yang pro foundly impresses an old scholar by saying that he is ''imbued with poetry and canon, even Lao Tzu and Shao Tzu."93 In later years, according to Li's close friend, Sun Chi-ch'ang,94 Li Ju-chen suffered setbacks in his literary c a r e e r .95 These disappointments may be one of the reasons j for the satirical attack on the "illiterate" elite and ( their affluence.96 The false values In the White-face | C ountry97 provide examples of how the £lite acquired their | affluence and how they can live extravagantly without any ! 92chih-chia kuo ( I S ) ) . 93CHY, ch. 31, p. 227. ' 94gun chi-ch'ang (-jfs gj ), one of Li Ju-chen's life-long friends, read the manuscript of Ching-hua yuan j when Li was still alive. See "Ching-hua yuan ti yin-lun," I p. 119- 95ibid. 96see CHY, ch. 24, pp. 169-170. 97pai-min kuo ( ^ i€) ). For details, see Yuan Ke, p. 248. 138 background of knowledge. The embarrassing faux pas that they commit, for example, pronouncing yang as Hang and chlao as hslao,98 not only Illustrate phonetic errors but also reflect the literary climate that prevails. As signified by the very word pal (blank or Indeterminable)99 in the name White-face Country, the boundary between truth and falsity there is seen as "indeterminable," the hand some scholars representing the hollow intelligentsia whom Li despised all his life. Accepting the fact that the secular world is full of pretensions and contradictions, Li remains hopeful that perfection can be achieved through the reformation and unification of man's cultural and social relationships, j This depends upon the restoration of the original good in : human nature. In stating the difference between man and j • animal in chapter 10, Li points out that evil is not innate but is due to man's failure to avoid external influences. The practice of good by man can affect even animal responses toward him, as shown in the following passage: 98This refers to the episode when, the students in the White-face Country read erroneously: "Yang is Tiang, chiao is hslao" ('£ j t? ’> 7- ^ See' CHY, 5E7T2, PTT3F. O f tt, --- 99lhe original character pal ( ^ ) has the meaning of blank, empty, or indeterminable, the protrayal of the shallow inhabitants in the White-face Country. 139 ' Tigers and leopards never dare to eat a human being and even are afraid of him. . . . Those who eat man must mistake the man for beast. Therefore, when tigers and leopards spot him, unaware of his humanity, they consider him as only a beast. Thus they eat him.100 i ! This allegory of human versus beast suggests that human ' nature can be degraded into that of a beast. This kind of i | degradation can be considered as an indication that innate 1 nature has to be carefully cultivated and preserved. An incident in the Dark-hip Country-1 -^ is similar; T’ang Ao's humanity in saving the lives of mermaids^®2 ps recipro cated when he and his companions are saved from a fire in , the Flaming Country. Lj_n Chih-yang's commentary may ! give some insight: | 1 I have seen people who, having received other's help, never acknowledge the kindness afterward, j In contrast, the fish is never ungrateful. In | view of this fact, ungrateful people are of j much lower than the fish or turtle.10^ ; Another aspect of utopia is seen in the Country of ! 100CHY, ch. 10, p. 45. [ -^P^Yuan-ku kuo ( ) is also called Hsuan-ku : kuo ( “JJ I f \ ). For details, see Yuan Ke, pp. 251, 255; and Yuan Chun, p. 129- Also see CHY, ch. 26, pp. 185-186. i t 102Jen-yu ). For further information, see Yuan Ke, p. 67; and Yuan Chun, p. 130. 103Yen-huo kuo (Jjfi. ^ )• See CHY, ch. 26, pp. 184-185- For details, see Yuan Ke, p. 262. 104qhY, ch. 26, p. 185. 140 Women where the ludicrous and farcial reversal of actual conditions in China satirize the male-dominated world. As Hu Shih puts it, "The Country of Women provides the idealistic Li an excuse and justification for a utopia for women. "105 Li's pblar-image denial of the equality of the sexes is a device of irony often used in satire. Kernan writes : . . . it is true that nearly all satire makes use of irony — ranging from the broadness of sarcasm to the extreme understatement of litotes — to such a degree that it is now very nearly impossible to think of satire without thinking of irony. The satirist never seems to attack directly but always pretends not to be doing what in fact he is doing. He praises what he loathes, speaks with enthusiasm of utopias which he proves to be wastelands, creates pleasant little tales about the beasts and never seems to notice that his animals are reductions of human beings.106 I t , It is in this sense Li's Country of Women ridicules ! Chinese men, who become little better than Swiftian I Yahoos. Li's women-dominated world mocks that human vision which can force people into a rUler-subject mold. Instead of transcending the distinction between the sexes, Li's women end up applying the same tyrannical policies to men as have traditionally been their fate. The result is 105uching-hua' yuan ti yin-lun," p.. 142. 106Kernan, pp. 81-82. 141 ! scenes in which women mortify men. What is particularly ludicrous is that men are encouraged to indulge themselves in the isolated world of domestic affairs. Men wear women’s clothes, perform household chores, raise children, i i beautify their looks with rouge and powder, coil their , hair, and even bind their feet. They are thoroughly ridiculed by Li’s playful vision. Perhaps this is why Hu i Shih calls it a fascinating female utopia. Li's male I inhabitants serve only as background figures; insignifi cant and depraved, they are totally denied dignity: When they /’ I"ang and Tq/ walked farther, | they saw that there were also "women" on the ! street. Their bahavior and appearance were exactly like those in other places. Their tiny bound feet were revealed under their skirts. While walking along, their waists swung to and ; fro. . . . Dodging and evading, their bashful looks were pitiful.107 I | This is how individuals can be humiliated and insulted by I j the opposite sex. The disclosure of Lin Chih-yang’s | experience as an imperial consortia in the Country of i j Women is a moral lesson for the reader. Further, in the j Country of Women, Li's satire is focused on the very ; fallacy of utopia itself. The women's abuse of power i ; attacks pseudo-utopianism. In summary, Li's views of utopia are contained in 107CHY, ch. 32, p. 233- lo8CHY, chs. 33-35, pp. 236-249. 142 four related dimensions: the socio-political, the moral, the non-acquisitive, and the religious. In the socio political realm, the Country of Women provides an excel lent fable, in which humanity is arbitrarily divided into | two extremes based on sexual difference. Such an artifi- j cial division reflects a very human refusal to compromise i ; or to recognize social and political evolution toward i , equality. This society, in which women are superior, I ] suggests that unless a change takes place, man cannot I emancipate himself from a limited world view. Secondly, in the moral aspect, the Gentlemen's and the Scholars’ Countries contrast different attitudes toward moral j issues. The highest level of moral awareness is found in j Li’s concept of a perfect future; the good and evil of ! ; human nature, as exemplified by these two countries’ i inhabitants, correspond respectively to progress or retro- i | gression in the actualization of a utopian kingdom on | earth. Thirdly, Li sees the acquisition of material goods I as a human weakness which blurs man’s vision so that he I I ; cannot perceive the truth and beauty of a utopian society. The accumulation of property In the White-face Country provides a commentary on man’s practicality, which views worldly values as absolute rather than relative. It regards the static present as more significant than the 143 I future. Lastly, the religious path Is seen as the most desirable way to attain utopia. In T'ang Ao's attraction toward the eternal P'eng-lai Mountain, Taoist religion Is closely intertwined with images of a perfect future. i j Religion enhances man's awareness of and response to an I ultimate reality which regards individuality as the 1 passing "to" and "from" time and timelessness. This j reality in turn transforms the individual ego Into an j impersonal one. Looking at all the scenery on Little i P'eng-lai Mountain, T'ang Ao declares, "Now I have climbed this mountain, I feel that I have discarded not only the worldly vanities but also all things meaningless. And so, I am reluctant to leave and do not even desire to re-enter ! ! into the Red Dust again."109 His intention to leave the j mundane world behind and remain in a Taoist paradise I I reveals the attraction of such an Ideal place, untainted i 1 by the deluded vision of "the flower in the mirror" or i ! "the moon in the water." Li's affirmation of such a I utopia does not, however, attempt to provide a final i . solution to the problems of human society. His utopia is i i part of his satire on mankind, not a vision of a remedy for its ills. 1°9chy, ch. 40, p. 281. 144 The Double-edged Irony: The Female Personae We have already discussed the concept of utopia In Li Ju-chen’s satirical analyses of moral, socio-political, 1 and religious theories. Another side to Li Ju-chen’s j satire, however, is his treatment of his female personae, I j whose presentation is based upon four aspects pertaining i to women: secular power, materiality, moral ethics, and spirituality. Li Ju-chen’s analyses of these female dimensions are significant since they were neglected by male-oriented Chinese society^ In this section we shall i { examine his female personae in the mythical realm, the j realm of the Red Dust, and the narrative of T'ang Kuei- I j ch'en’s religious redemption. First, in discussing the various roles of his female i characters, Li draws a parallel between classical sources, I ! such as Pan Chao's Female Ordinances, and the perfect I woman. Li applies classical texts to both his mythical and earthly female figures. The most illustrative quota tion he employs is an allusion from Female Ordinances: perfect women always have a "pure heart like icy snow," nC I and they "respectfully obey various ordinances." Li j H^For details, see Hsu Shih-nien, p. 161; Li Ch’en- j tung, pp. 133-13^J and Wu Shuang-yi, p. 90. I ; 111CHY, ch. 1, p. 1. t ! __________________________ 145 austerely echoes Pan Chao by saying that women should possess the "four virtues." Therefore, he feels that he should "truthfully" record their actions and "justifiably" j praise them.-^2 ; Li knows that by praising the virtues of women, the ( imperfections of men can be ridiculed. -^3 Fr0m his opening ; acknowledgement of Female Ordinances, however, Li seems i j reluctant to assert dogmatically that the world's social [ structure must be modelled after female perfection. Rather, Li implies through his references to Pan Chao's work that the perfect female cosmos can be attained only by male i ' standards. Li, then, values obedience over perfection, as ; exempiified in his emphasis upon Pan Chao's work.**-^ As a l ; matter of fact, Li's interpretation of woman's nature is I | consistent with his assumption of male domination in a world of action and achievement. In the mythical world, | for instance, although Li uses many female characters to describe what seems to be the grandeur of a female-centered mythical paradise, they are ironically subordinated to one 112Ibid. j ^-^see Hsu Shih-nien, p. 161. ! ^^This point is also noted by C. T. Hsia. See "The j Scholar-novelist and Chinese Culture," p. 16. 146 invisible authority, "the Supreme Deity, "H5 a symbol of male domination in Chinese mythology. Thus, whether Li speaks of the fate of the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers in relation to mythical phrases such as "cause and effect" | (yin-kuo), "destiny" (ting-shu), or "original contrivance" (yuan-chi), or whether he speaks of his female figures, i the Queen Mother of the West, the Star-goddess of Litera- i j ture, Ch'ang 0, Yuan Nu, Chih Nu, Ma Ku, Ch'ing Nu-erh, or J I t I t -i -i j Yu Nu-erh,1- - 1 -0 his emphasis is on a hierarchical system | modelled after the existing male-dominated social struc- j ture governed by the authoritarian and omnipotent Supreme i j Deity. As is honestly admitted by the Fairy of a Hundred I Flowers, Whenever I am humbly carrying out a mission, I am following the Supreme Deity's order. If He does not order me. to do something, then I dare not but refuse even the earthly emperor's command. Hierarchy and tradition are also reflected in the realm of the Red Dust. Here Li's female characters fall into three major groups. In the first group are those -lie x ^The Fairy of a Hundred Flowers' fate has been determined by this invisible Supreme Deity in the mythical paradise, while her earthly redemptive journey has been j guided by the invisible T'ang Ao. In view of these facts, the realm of Ching-hua yuan does not go far beyond con ventional dogma of masculine superiority. ^--^See CHY, ch. 2, pp. 9-10. 117CHY, ch. 2, p. 8. 147 female characters who are followers of traditional Chinese theories, as in Pan Chao's Female Ordinances and Su Hui's Hsuan-chi Tapestry.Shih Yu-t'an, Pi Ch'uan-chen, Shao Hung-ying, Lin Shu-hsiang, T'an Hui-fang, and Yang Me- j hsiang-1 -1^ personify female passive roles and exemplify JL/ H^See the original design of Su Hui' s Is,* ) n -t- » 17 ( \ • ~~T~ Hsuan-chi t'u nmnM, b --------------------------------.. \ m m m ". — • ~ I S | H^Their Chinese names are ^ >% £>* £\ , S? fi j* ■ * * * ’if 1,7 ’M £ f • * ** ' 148 Li’s fixed ideas of morality. In this group, as we shall discuss later, Li's idolization of female perfection is conditioned by conventional opinion about women. Many of his satirical elaborations on woman’s virtues cannot be j defended from a female viewpoint, and some of the female ■ i P n ' morale commitments seem out of place. Within this i ; group are no clear distinctions between the position he < ! takes with regard to his exemplary female characters and | his traditional male attitudes concerning female obedience, j chastity, and filial piety. J Within the realm of the Red Dust, Li creates the Country of Women first to praise the ideal qualities i embodied by its inhabitants and then to attack the dark ■ side of that society. In describing women’s "intelligent 1 mind and ingenious nature"121 he writes : j With those imbecilic men, . . . you can talk t until your tongue is sore and it won't do any good, but these /female./ workers understand I everything you tell t h e m .122 I I I 1 * IPO j -^^Hsia comments that many of Li's heroines "would in t the course of the novel reaffirm by word or deed the pre- i cepts of Pan Chao." See "The Scholar-novelist and j Chinese Culture,"p. 7. In regard to this, Hsu Shih-nien ! states, "Li Ju-chen still cannot discard completely the fetters of feudal thought." See Hsu, p. 164. 121CHY, ch. 36, p. 256. ! 122Ibid. 149 ! Within the context of this comparison, women are constructive and fruitful and provide the life-force for society. The ideal country, in fact, is "actualized" j through their involvement.1^3 Li demonstrates that female I nature can, however, become destructive when it is dis- ( torted and corrupted in an activity willfully against j morality. We can find examples of such distortions of f ; female nature in the ruthlessly inhuman treatment of the imperial concubines and consorts of the female "King" (kuo-wang) in the Country of Women. In the foot-binding episode, Lin Chih-yang pleads with the imperial maids: I beg you 'Brother,' for my sake, please go and tell your 'King': I am a married man. How can I serve as an imperial consort? Just like the traveling scholars who for years did i not participate in annual examinations, my j two big feet have already been used to reck- , less indulgence. How can you bind them up? i All I ask is to be released as soon as possible. : Then even my wife would be grateful.124 i j Lin's appeal to the imperial maids almost exactly mirrors I j the pleas of women in the real world. Lin's allusion to ! the female "King’s" inhumanity toward men is a comment on i | Chinese social and political systems. The error of sexist 123instances in the canal-repairing and water- controlling episode in chapter 36 demonstrate women’s productive abilities. They take less than ten days to complete the project. See CHY, ch. 36, p. 256. 12HCEY3 ch. 33 3 p. 237. 150 j domination is satirically magnified: "It is better for you to return to feminine attire rather than to pretend to be m a s c u l i n e . When the author removes the mask from the female ’ ’King," we see her as example of a world per- j meated with pretension. , Concluding that even a woman's nation can be founded l [ on pretension and arbitrary principles, Li shifts his i | emphasis to a rigid and absolute code of moral ethics. To him the continuation of the spiritual life into some higher sphere is influenced for good or evil by action { here on earth. T'ang Kuei-ch’en's movement toward the i ; immortal planet, for example, depends upon the success of { t her earthly fulfillment of female loyalty, piety, and chastity. Li confirms his fondness for loyalty, piety, j chastity, and righteousness again in chapter 82. These i i | become the moral values which everyone is supposed to | seek. Li condemns subjective feelings and opposes emotions I and desires. The one hundred incarnated flowers, for i I example, are characters with no depth, yet their names j signify Li's moral preferences. In fact, in the following i examples, we shall see that the one hundred incarnated i ; 125CHY, ch. 35, p. 249. - ^ - 2^See CHY, ch. 82, p. 612: "In regard to human life, ! the most important elements are loyalty, piety, chastity, ; and righteousness." i t i I 151 flowers’ whole lives are dominated by Li’s fixed ideas.^^7 First we find Li’s description of the significance of Shih Yu-t'an, the first name carved on the jade tablet and the first successful candidate in the female civil i examinations given by Empress Wu.^^8 Yu-t’an combines t j "quest" (t ’an) and "seclusion" (yu.), connoting a sense of i "solitary withdrawal" from active participation in I : reality. Shih Yu-t'an’s importance in the novel is | closely linked with the anecdote of Su Hui’s embroidered j Hsuan-chi Tapestry. In the Former Ch’in Dynasty, when Su Hui's husband deserts her and lives with an attractive concubine, Su Hui withdraws into seclusion, embroidering t | the Hsuan-chi Tapestry which she eventually sends to her [ husband as a token of compromise. The tapestry is thus : i . identifiable with her resignation to male domination. The j linking of Shih Yu-t’an to this tapestry and the praising i j of her scholastic achievements in chapters 41 and 62-^9 ! are examples of Li's high regard for female loyalty and i I chastity. Critics like Hsu Shih-nien and C. T. Hsia point I j 127<Yhe jade tablet in chapter 48 reveals such ideas, in which Li attempts to idealize his one hundred female heroines. Their roles in Ching-hua yuan for the most part are abstract concepts. 128See CHY, ch. 48, p. 349. i29The organic connection between Shih Yu-t'an and the Hsuan-chi Tapestry has been emphasized by Li. In this sense Shih Yu-t'an and Su Hui become "allegorical" figures, representing a symbolic union of Confucian virtue and submission. 152 out that Li does not contradict the Confucian supposition of male privilege and masculine dominance over women.^30 The cult of female chastity is'mentioned again in the One- thousand-word poem in chapter 90^31 and is satirized in the suicide episodes of the same chapter. -*-32 Ch’uan- j chen,^33 the last on Li’s list of the one hundred virtuous girls, confirms that these suicides can be justified because "the husbands have been murdered at the battle- t I front, the marriages broken off, and women forced to ! become widows. "-*-3 ^ Apparently Pi Ch'ftan-chen is Li’s I spokesman, her approval of the suicides in order to pre- : serve a "thorough chastity" (ch’uan-chen) leaves no room , for argument. At this point Li's moral criteria supersede his humanity. | 130see "The Scholar-novelist and Chinese Culture," : p. 7. i 131See CHY, ch. 90, p. 686. j -*-32see CHY, ch. 98, pp. 752-75^. In these episodes six young wives (Shao Hung-ying, Lin Shu-hsiang, Yeh Ch’iung-fang, Yang Me-hsiang, Tai Ch’iung-ying, and T’an Hui-fang) kill themselves in their loyalty to their late husbands and to preserve their chastity. ; ^SThe original character of ch'uan ( ) stands for ] thoroughness or completeness and chen ( ) for chastity j or honesty. Pi Ch'uan-chen’s role in this work is another j concealed reinforcement of Li’s moral preferences. 13Hchy, ch. 90, p. 686. 153 The assumption that chastity or loyalty sanctifies Li's female heroines is illustrated again through T'ang Kuei-ch’en's name. The first mention of this name occurs between the Village of the Mirror in the Water and the Pavilion of the Weeping Beauty. She askes the hidden ; meaning of this ambivalent name and is told that it j "actually refers to a chaste subject of the T'ang Dynasty i . and reminds you not to forget your own roots.”135 Prom i the Confucian point of view, kuei stands for youthful j femininity or virginity, thus in a general sense, for i I chastity. Ch'en is associated with subordination, depend- ! ence, or inferiority, a hierarchical term which connotes I j the fulfilling of the interests of a Confucian community i . i ; or state. The combination of kuei and ch'en goes signifi-i 1 i t cantly further than the implication of Pi Ch’uan-chen's i | name; Li’s intention in branding his heroine with this new | name is to make her a direct warning to his "female" (kuei] I ! leader, Empress Wu, and her "subjects" (ch'en), who usurp i | the T'ang Dynasty. This meaning of "t’ang kuei-ch'en" is j ; recognized by Empress Wu in chapter 66: "About T’ang Kuei-ch’en’s name, if it was given recently, it is ■ ^ ^ I n t e r e s t i n g l y enough, Yin Jo-hua’s reply singles out T'ang Kuei-ch’en’s future role in the civil examina tions given by Empress Wu. The element of "chaste subject’ ! (kuei-ch’en, if] ) represents a concealed challenge to [ Empress Wu’s legitimacy. 154 j wrong."136 This comment focuses on the central meaning of i I I the name, a name that denies the legitimacy of the Chou Dynasty and unveils Li’s moral idealism. Because the j name is bestowed by T’ang Ao, it becomes the embodiment of I T'ang Ao’s hopes before he enters immortality. The name , also serves Li’s purpose of enlarging T’ang Kuei-ch'en’s ■ later role in the second part of the .novel. However, ' T’ang Kuei-ch’en’s own comprehension of her "loyal" and i "pure" appellation comes slowly and passively. The first hint comes from the gifted lady scholar, Lu Tzu-hsuan; she proclaims that T’ang Kuei-ch'en and the other girls should 1 j play functional roles to improve and preserve the con- 1 | structive elements of the government. -*-37 lu Tzu-hsuan’s t j statement has a satirical overtone that implies T'ang 1 I Kuei-ch’en and the other girls should grow in awareness i and transform their impotence into action. -^38 T'ang Kuei- 1 ; ch’en reluctantly agrees and announces that she will take ^-36chy, ch. 66, p. 488. Empress Wu's words bring the i reader near to the hidden meaning of T'ang Kuei-ch’en's , name. What differentiates T'ang from the other ninty-nine | girls is her embodiment of the moral commitments to pre- ; serve one’s integrity and to restore the T’ang Dynasty, j By "wrong" Empress Wu means "disrespectful." ! 137This statement conveys a utopian stress on action S and limitless development of women’s potentialities. See CHY, ch. 68, pp. 504-505. 138lbid. 155 ! Lu Tzu-hsuan1s advice as to the goal of her efforts.139 Lu Tzu-hsuan and her followers, in their belief that women should serve functional roles, are representative of | the second group of Li's female dramatis personae. Lu's | remarks and her devotion to the heir—apparent of the j Country of Women, Yin Jo-hua, exhibits Li's concern for | political matters. In her choice of meaning of female i j "subject" (ch'en) rather than female "minister" (ch'en),1^0 j Lu plunges herself into restoring the regularities of ; society and looks for women with similar political Ideals, i If T'ang Kuei-ch'en's earthly existence reflects the efficacy of loyalty and chastity, then Lu Tzu-hsuan's i reference to her future devotion to Yin Jo-hua reveals the j j importance of righteousness. With reference to the con- ' cept of righteousness, Lu insists upon the need for self- | lessness and self-realization and for social and political, I rather than individual, ethics. Her proposed socio- i political reforms designed for the Country of Women are not ; particularly related to female stereotypes. Although the I I I 139ibid. | l^The original character, ch' en ( ), can be used | either in the connotation of submission, e.g., ch'en-shun I (to submit, £ > • ) * ), ch'en-fu (to become subject to, | ); or statesman, ta-ch' en (a high official,^; £. )i or | minister., ch' en-hsiang (prime minister, g ^ ). Lu's I statement evokes a variety of meanings of ch'en. See CHY, ! ' ch. 68, p. 505- 1 ! | j 156 reforms do involve female awareness, they actually trans form the "subordinated" (ch’en-fu)1^1 female sex into what C. G. Jung calls "an androgynous whole.”1^2 This humanism attempts to penetrate the. causes of an unequal j social order and is not. concerned primarily with personal ] gain or loss. Lu recognizes female ability as opposed to I | female- attractiveness and appeal. She sees woman’s I | potential in a field traditionally dominated by the male. ! Her purpose is to make women aware of their own interests I j and capabilities. i i | However, Li’s advocacy of female involvement in j socio-political matters is still not sincere and ultimate- j ly not in conflict with his own Confucian stand. Rather, 1 it is another satire of his own convention. Behind the I fajade of Lu’s earnestness, Li does not believe that Lu’s innovations can improve the lives of Chinese women, nor is . -he convinced that these innovations can be actualized in China. In other words, although he observes that the reforms have value, he does not propose that they can be I j pursued or even can be appreciated in the Chou Dynasty or I i l4lpor the meaning of ch’en-fu, see note 140. j — — — — — — — I 1^2Barkar, a Warren elaborates that "’Androgynous’ j means having both feminine and masculine characteristics. I This psychological union of.opposites is a goal that Jung | calls ’the individuation process.'" See Warren,. The ! Feminine Image in Literature (Rochelle Park: Hayden Book, Inc., 1973), p. 3. 157 in Confucian China. When Empress Wu says to Lu Tzu-hsuan, Yin Jo-hua, Li Hung-wei, and Chih Lan-yin, "you are foreigners, "1^3 the reader can sense that Li is not sincerely enthusiastic about the reforms. He is an author- i i i itative scholar viewing a conventional world. These four ! girls are labelled as "foreigners" and are judged by the i I ! policies of conventional government. Ideal policies like Lu's are less practical and applicable than the author cares to elaborate. Li's satire, however, is effective precisely because these four girls are not bound by any of j the political restraints of their female counterparts, ! . i subjects (ch’en) of Chinese traditional conventions: Lu's I ; statements cannot induse her Chinese female friends to I ! change. This satire shows that idealism in theory does ' ' not always correspond to ethics in practice. i J Along with his double-edged satire on the light side i of the realm of politics, Li also delves Into the dark i I | side of power as wielded by Empress Wu, a figure repre sentative of the third group of Li's female dramatis i i n ! personae. Though tangential to Ching-hua yuan's story- I I line, Empress Wu’s role is central to Li's basic concerns i i J-UHal -wai chih-j en ( ). Li's use of this phrase to describe these four girls reflects his own chauvinism. He seems to say.that foreigners should not be allowed to live in China. See CHY, ch. 68, p. 503. i 233. in the novel. She draws a connection between mythical and earthly existences, between yin and yang, and between the concepts of incarnation and degeneration.-1 - ^ We have already noted that she is introduced as the incarnation of | Hsin-yueh Hu, a name that apparently refers to her rela- , tionship with Ch’ang 0 and reflects Ch’ang O's revengeful I | heart (hsin), her place of residence, the moon (yueh), and i j her scheme (hu) to outwit the Fairy of a Hundred Flowers. I To the conservative Chinese loyal to the T’ang Dynasty, she is absurd and a demonic tyrant, unrestrained by any of the standards that shape an authentic dynasty. She is | ] portrayed by words such as "wine" (chiu), "gamble" (tu). "drunk" (tsui),445 or as being arrogant ("I ascended the I j throne as a woman. How many have done that since ancient ! times?"). 1.^6 she is a symbol of "reversing the sequences" j (shih-hsu tien-tao) and "violating the principles" (yu-li ( • — — . . . . ; pu-shun). 447 Chang Wen-sung says, "Wu is. already full of j l ^ S e e C H Y , ch. 3 , pp. 1 3 - 1 4 . | l45see CHY, ch. 4, p. 17. j li|6Ibid. 4^^Shih-hsu tien-tao ( 9^ ) . This phrase I reflects the ironical attack on Wu’s role. She is an eternal destructive force, always countering normal : sequence. See CHY, ch. 4, p. 19. For yu-li' pu-shun ), see this dissertation, p. 109- 159 iniquity," and "her days can be counted."148 Empress Wu also represents the opposite pole of Chinese traditional female characters. The most ambitious and dashing woman in Chinese history, her prestige and flair rivaled that of her first husband, Emperor T'ai- I tsung. She also plays a pre-eminent role in devising and I I ! implementing zealous programs of social improvement for ! j women that would reshape China. Her innovative "Twelve Decrees" for women in chapter dictate basic princi ples for the benefit of suppressed women: to provide sanatoriums for old and poor women, to release court 1 ladies after five years' service, to build female clinics I J to help the needy, and to provide funeral services for ; those who left no money behind, etc.^^O As these pro- j posals for women's welfare are brought forth, the reader j cannot help but admire the foresight and thoroughness of , Empress Wu's unprecedented programs. - L^l T'ang Ming, T'ang ; Kuei-ch'en's uncle, admits "how fortunate it is to live i ; in such an era," an era when he can witness such a I j gracious proclamation. 1^2 However, the reader begins to I i l I l48See CHY, Ch. 57, p. 426. : 1 ^^En -chih shih-erh-t' iao ( a - 1’ . $ ; ). See CHY, ' ch. 40, p. 284. * ~~r~ | 150see CHY, ch. 40, pp. 285-286. i ^Isee CHY, ch. 40, p. 284. I --- 1521^ . 160 notice a paradox linking Empress Wu with Su Hui' s tapestry. The paradox becomes more explicit after the announcement of the proclamation, revealing how the author uses Empress Wu to achieve his own purposes, j Li's reference to Wu's appreciation of the Hsuan-chi | Tapestry suggests his conservative intentions. He de- I ; scribes Empress Wu's "fondness" for it, noting that she is "constantly glancing over it. . . . Extremely excited, she personally wrote a preface for it right away."'1 '3’ 3 Li places her now in support of conventional society, where woman's submissiveness is reviving because of Empress Wu’s [ preface. As a consequence, and in opposition to her i previously constructive proposals, Empress Wu is now seen not as a real "monarch" (t'ien-tzu), but as a "false j queen" (wei-hou) , her throne having been obtained ! through her two marriages, the first to Emperor T’ai-tsung ■ and the second to T’ai-tsung and Empress Wang's son, ' Emperor Kao-tsung, a notorious manifestation of "mis- i placing yin and yang" (ts'uo-luan yin-yang), as predicted ' by the court judge in the opening of the novel. This ] 153CHY, ch. 40, p. 287. j -*-5^Li Ch'en-tung notices that Empress Wu has never | been referred to as "t'ien-tzu" ( ± 4- ) in Ching-hua I yuan. To Li Ju-chen she merely serves as the head of a I pseudo-dynasty, Wei Chou ( t* >U ). See Li Ch'en-tung, | p. 131. 161 ! image of "misplacing yin and yang" helps the reader to understand why Empress Wu must be overthrown. In describing the final days of Empress Wu, Li's j morality takes the shape of loyalty to Chinese tradition. ! By renouncing Empress Wu's reign, Li frees himself from | any attachment to his female characters and to the i incarnations of the mythical spirits and affirms what are i i to him the essential and worthwhile aspects of Confucian j orthodoxy: loyalty, filial piety, chastity, and righteous- i j ness. Once having explored women's suffering and suppres- I | sion in his account of the Country of Women, Li refuses to I carry the matter through by advocating a thorough reform i { in male attitudes toward women. He vacillates between praise for ordinances reinforcing feminine standards and i scorn for Empress Wu's dynasty when she offers advanced , proposals that accord well with her female subjects. By i employing the ups and downs of Empress Wu's career as a ; I ■ thread of his plot, Li is able to express his mutually i ! contradictory ideas. These include an assertion of male j J dominance over all creatures, an inquiry into the female j psyche, a statement of the need for female participation l I ; in religious purification, the belief that this religious ! . action can free females from worldly pain, and his con- f | elusion that women, whose dark (yin) and changeable (pien) nature allows them only to seek a place In a Taoist paradise, cannot and should not become Involved In earthly affairs. These ideas become apparent in the contrast between T'ang Kuei-ch'en with Empress Wu. The role played | by T'ang Kuei-ch'en is an affirmation of Li's moral con- t j cepts and at times reveals his sentiments. i ; The major distinction between T'ang Kuei-ch'en and j Empress Wu is that T'ang Kuei-ch'en's ultimate goal is the i extinction of her earthly life in order to obtain spirit ual salvation, which is an intensification of transcenden tal asceticism in Taoist theory. Empress Wu, on the other ; hand, exults in the pleasures of living on earth in order | to cast herself in the monarchical role, a role carrying i 1 authority that traditionally represents the fraudulence j ' i (wei) and betrayal (tsuan) endemic in "misplacing yin and i | yang." Li exhibits a strong dislike toward Empress Wu’s i | immorality. T'ang Kuei-ch'en, on the other hand, is a decent lady (kuei-nu) whose sole reason for living in the mundane world is to manifest chastity (kuei) or, more i j precisely, to endure extreme asceticism, to humble herself i 1 (ch'en), and to renounce self. While Empress Wu's cruelty I | reflects desire for revenge motivated by personal reasons, I j T'ang Kuei-ch'en's decision to relinquish selfhood ex presses negation of desire, a recognition of the worthless ness of worldly striving. Empress Wu enjoys indulgence as 163 a means to equal Emperor Yang-ti’s notoriety, symbolized by metaphors of ’ ’death" and " h e l l . " 1 - ^ T'ang Kuei-ch’en, on the other hand, discounts earthly achievement. By this device of opposing two polar extremes, Empress Wu and T’ang Kuei-ch’en, Li completes the third | group of his female dramatis personae. Empress Wu, as a ; "false queen," embodies both the ridiculousness of absolute ; female domination and the meaninglessness of female contri- j bution without male guidance. T’ang Kuei-ch'en, as the j "chaste subject of the T’ang Dynasty," has thematic i significance in the human context and represents transcend ence in the divine context. As the "form" and "content" i of Ching-hua yuan, she transmits meanings and values ; i j relevant to but not limited by Li’s partial perspectives, j In her is a potential, symbolized by yuan, that causes her to be repudiated by the celestial, to fulfill the secular ! challenge, and to regain the lost paradise. Thus for T’ang Kuei-ch’en, one of the chosen few, the barrier between suffering and salvation can be removed only by adhering to the operation of yuan. The majority of females, how-: ever, without the blessing of yuan, will forever wait in vain for liberation. Li’s Ching-hua yuan shows a light, ! and yet. that light Is out of reach, a tragic protest against the workings of the human cosmos. CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION In Ching-hua yuan, Li Ju-chen's thematic vision j focuses on the dualism between transitory illusion and ' ultimate reality, which are carefully blended in his i i formulae of "the flower in the mirror" and "the moon in i | the water." He disregards the temporal mode of perception I and goes beyond the limits of measurable earthly time to i rise above life’s ephemerality. This study first attempts i * ! to examine Li Ju-chen’s non-chronological merging of time: t 1 i j | past, present, and future. This merging fragments the j : story line and causality, as do the non-sequential connec- ' tions between one episode and the next. The most notable I j instance of this is the confrontation of the main char- ! acters in the opening scenes, in which the normal time sequence is violated. As is elaborated in the sections | "Mythic Artifice and. Demonic Temptation," "The Quest and | Spiritual Redemption," and "The Veil, of History and j Allegorical Dualism" in the chapter on allegory, the | opening scenes in Ching-hua ydan contain four time 1 dimensions, which extend the realm of Li Ju-chen’s novel t * i | from history to legend and from earthly to mythical i associations. I - 165 With regard to this transcendence of the time-bound human world, this study attempts to show that Li's characters are no longer the measure of all things. It is not man's specific physical make-up and his specifi- I cally human intelligence that provides the standard by i which to measure the spiritual significance of that which. ; Li- is. advocating. Implied throughout the novel Is the : abnegation of any humanly or rationally contrived pattern of existence. This is because both the human and the rational world fall within that common frame of reference which Is the earthly order, and within that order are j hierarchy, numeration, reason, and measurements by worldly i values. In the value-free domain, Li makes his characters f 9 ^ regress to a form of life in which finite chronological j moment and temporal existence become trivial. If anything! i i in the novel is beyond rational challenge, It is Li's free j combination of the mundane, mythical, and spiritual levels, Li's thematic perception underlines and transcends the non-sequential order of Ching-hua yuan's style and i structure. This non-sequential order produces allegory. We have seen the allegory in Ching-hua yuan to be a combina tion of tacit and explicit literary devices, a "twice-told j quality" which explores both the transitory and eternal i nature of Li's fictional reality. The analyses introduced . in the sections "Mythic Artifice., and.Demonic Temptation," "The Veil of History and Allegorical Dualism," and "Moral Temptation and Didactic Allegory" build a vantage point from which to appreciate the intensity and gravity of Li's "twofold" disclosure. As is true of some Western alle- i gories, Ching-hua yuan explores divine-demonic relations, I 1 r,- — HITT T-1 ■ ■ , historical-mythical parallels, and human-spiritual asso- i ! ciations. To appreciate what Li has done with these formulae, we approach them from three viewpoints. First, i the experiences of the divine and the demonic are seen to interact as two phases of the same nature rather than of separate factors. Li's concept of the higher dimensions of reality, such as the divine, the moral, and the spiri- ! tual, is mediated through the lower dimensions, such as ! physical experiences centering on the demonic and the i j | i lustful. Second, Li's characterization is found to be ! contextual. His one-dimensional characters, named for i I I concepts, unfold levels of theme and exemplify each i i I fibtional situation. Finally, Li's allegory is viewed as r j directly relating to the heart of the human condition, i ; The Four Passes discussed in "Moral Temptation and Didactic 1 Allegory" give Li an opportunity to make various comments ! on man in general. i ■ These observations on Li's allegory view human ; existence as full of errors and misconceptions. This view I i also guides the overall argument in our chapter on satire. I s Li's Taoist transcendental truth is opposed to the i 167 traditional Confucian claim that an ideal society is achieved through worldly elements, and satire is the vehicle to convey the contrast. Li satirizes his charac ters', narrow perception, emotional instability, and ! « : intellectual shallowness. The satirical elements make ( clear that Li takes an anti-dualistic stance toward the : concepts of time, utopia, and man. Li has at his command | a variety of satirical methods. Whether on the Black- I tooth Country, the Scholars' Country, or the White-face Country, the meaning of each satire arises from and plays a part in Li's unifying vision. I In this dissertation I have attempted to concentrate I i I on allegory and satire in the hope of helping the reader ! , to appreciate Li's novel. It is by no means a trivial approach to try to spiritualize Li's thought by bringing ! his "flower In the mirror" and "moon in the water" into i union with the transcendental ideal of Taoism. 168 APPENDIXES Li Ju-chen's Biography Li Ju-chen ( ^ I ^ ) was born at Ta-hsing ( , in present day Hopei Province) in 1763. His courtesy name, j or tzu, was Sung-shih )• His family was middle- I class, and he was the second of three sons. ! In 1782, Li Ju-chen moved to Hai-chou ( , in i | present day Kiangsu Province), where his elder brother, Li ! Ju-huang ( ^ ) was serving as Salt Receiver ( t ■£) k ). Li Ju-chen lived in Hai-chou for about twenty 1 ! years. During that period he benefited immensely from his i j studies in phonetics, philology, and prosody under Ling I T'ing-k'an ( / t o t . 1757-1809). In Hai-chou he also was; 1 befriended by some well known phoneticians, such as Hsu j j Ch'iao-lin ('flf ijf)), Hsu Kuei-lin ( ) , Hsu Chun ), Hsu Chien ), and Wu Chen-po ( | Later both Hsu Ch’Iao-lin and Hs.il Kuei-lin became his t 1 j brothers-in-law. j In 1801, Li Ju-chen was appointed Assistant Magistrate ) and moved to Honan, where he stayed for.about 1 j four years. During that period the Yellow River flooded, | and Li Ju-chen witnessed the suffering of the people who i lived along the riverside. The canal-repairing episode in I chapters 35-36 of Ching-hua yuan was based on his actual 1 : j experience there. In 18053 he completed Yin-chlen ( /flL ) in six volumes and won himself a fair reputation as a scholar of phonology for his Innovative improvements in traditional I phonological theory. His Yin-chien contains thirty-three J initial sounds and twenty-two final sounds, a radical i departure from the conventional theory of forty-two ini- | tial sounds and thirteen final sounds. I , Five years later, the first edition of Yin-chien was printed. His good friend, Wu Chen-hsiang ( wrote an epilogue to praise Li's accomplishment. A few years later, Yu Hsing-lin (^J" ), another famous ■ phonetician, wrote four colophons for Yin-chien. Li j included the epilogue, the colophons, and a preface J written by Li Ju-huang, along with his own epilogue, in : the reprint edition of Yin-chien, edited by his nephews, , Li Shih-ao ( ) and Shih-hsiang In 1817, his Shou-tzu p'u ( )* & sophisticated j manual on chess, was published. He planned to write a j . JL work on dialectology called Kuang-fang-yen ( J p ^ ) but unfortunately never finished it. Li Ju-chen spent the next few years writing Ching-hua yuan. Sun Chi-ch'ang ( ± ® ), a scholar friend, wrote I that Ching-hua yuan was the result of "ten odd years' 1 labor." Hsu Ch'iao-lin also mentioned that the novel was 1 ( the fruit of more than ten years' devotion and 171 concentration. We do not know the exact date of the com- I pletion of this novel. However, Li Ju-chen’s brother-in- J law, Hsu Kuei-lin, who died in 1821, stated that he had i read the manuscript of Ching-hua yuan. It is therefore t i believed that the novel was completed around 1820. Modern critics such as Hu Shih believe that it was completed i i probably around 1825, while Sun Chia-hsun and Liu Ts’un- ; yan consider the date to be a few years earlier, j The first printed edition of Ching-hua yuan appeared j in 1828. This edition is also known as the Chieh-tzu yuan j (Mustard Seed Garden, ) Edition. In l8295 Mai Ta- 1 p'eng ( $ k fife ), a scholar from Kwangtung, made a re- 1 ! print from this edition. The special significance of this 1 1 edition, known as the Kwangtung Edition, lies in the 108 t illustrations drawn by Hsieh Yeh-mei ( ) , an artist from Mai Ta-p’eng's home town. 1 j During his life time, Li Ju-chen neither enjoyed | material prosperity nor passed any imperial examinations I j higher than that of hsiu-ts1ai. His novel reflects his ! own ideas, his frustration, his bitterness, and his spirit- | ual solutions. His concern with social, political, and 1 ; cultural reforms in his novel was matched by his personal I j interest in these subjects. He died poor at an old age 1 1 around 1830. 172 Chronology of Important Dates in Li Ju-chen's Life 1763 1782 1793 1795 1801 1804 1805 1810 1814 1816 1817 1820 1828 1829 Li Ju-chen was born in Ta-hsing. Li Ju-chen’s brother, Li Ju-huang, received an official position at Hai-chou; Li Ju-chen joined him there, and started a long period of studying phonetics and philology under Ling T'ing-k’an. Ling T'ing-k'an passed the imperial examinations and was given a new official position. Li Ju-chen ended the long period of studying under Ling T’ing-k’an when the latter moved to Chihli. Li Ju-chen was transferred to Honan as an Assis tant Magistrate. Li Ju-chen visited Li Ju-huang at Kiangsu, where the latter had been appointed as an official Salt Receiver. LI Ju-chen completed Yin-chien, six volumes; LI Ju-huang wrote a preface for It. The first edition of Yin-chien was printed; Wu Chen-hsiang wrote an epilogue. Li Ju-chen stayed at Tung-hai; Yu Hsing-lin wrote four colophons for Yin-chien. Li Ju-chen added Yu Hsing-lin’s colophons to his Yin-chien; wrote an epilogue for his own Yin- chien. Shou-tzu p’u was printed. After this, precise information about Li is either unavailable or not authenticated. LI completed Ching-hua yuan, 100 chapters. The Chieh-tzu yuan Edition of Ching-hua yuan was printed. The Kwangtung Edition of Ching-hua yuan was printed, with 108 illustrations drawn by Hsieh Yeh-mei. 173 1830 Li Ju-chen probably died in this year. BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Important Editions of Ching-hua- yuan (Given in Chronological Order): Chieh-tzu yuan Edition ( 4 * SI ) of Ching-hua yuan, 1828. Original text preserved in Peking University Library. Kwangtung Edition ( ]% T ) of Ching-hua yuan, 1832. Original text preserved in British Museum Library. Tien-shih chai Edition ( ) of Ching-hua yuan, 1888. Text prefaced by Wang T’ao ( ). Shanghai Ya-tungt ) Library . Edition ( £ ) of Ching-hua yuan, 1932. Taiwan Ta-tung shu-chu Edition ( o ) of Ching-hua yuan, 196-4. Text prefaced by Hu Shih ( Taiwan Commercial Press Edition (£'3 ) of Ching-hua yuan, 1968. ' * Hong Kong Chung-hua shu-chu Edition Ching-hua yuan, 1965; reprinted edition, 1974. This edition is a reprint based on the Chieh-tzu yuan Edition and is the most easily available one. 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Asset Metadata

Creator Kao, Hsin-sheng Chang (author)

Core Title Allegory and satire in Li Ju-chen's "Ching-hua-yuan" ("Flowers in the Mirror").

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Comparative Literature

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag language, literature and linguistics,OAI-PMH Harvest

Format dissertations (aat)

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c24-355155

Unique identifier UC11279571

Identifier DP22533.pdf (filename),usctheses-c24-355155 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier DP22533-1.pdf

Dmrecord 355155

Document Type Dissertation

Format dissertations (aat)

Rights Kao, Hsin-sheng Chang

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA