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Maternal devotion: the symbiotic relationship between mothers and sons in Yi Jian Zhi

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Maternal devotion: the symbiotic relationship between mothers and sons in Yi Jian Zhi

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Content MATERNAL DEVOTION:
THE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTHERS AND SONS IN
Y IJIA N Z H 1
by
Jean Lin
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(East Asian Languages and Cultures)
August 1995
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UNIVERSITY O F S O U T H E R N CALIFORNIA
T H E G R A D U A TE S C H O O L
U N IV E R SIT Y PA RK
LO S A N G E L E S . C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
This thesis, w ritten by
3 V ^ i n U ’n
under the direction of Thesis Com m ittee,
and approved by all its m em bers, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the D ean of The
Graduate School, in pa rtia l fulfillm ent of the
requirements fo r the degree of
M A S T E R O F A R T S
— d . —✓
Dtan
Pat, August 14, 1995
THESISyCOMMITTE;
f Chairman
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Acknowledgments
I wish to express my gratitude to Professors George Hayden, Bettine
Birge and John Wills for their guidance and comments. I especially want to
thank Professor Hayden for his meticulous effort in checking my creativity
in pinyin spellings and chasing down elusive classical references.
To Miriela and Dawn - thank you for the idea-bouncing sessions, hot
meals and late night scavenges in your refrigerator. To MG and Jerry,
thank you for your encouragement at every step. And finally, to Matt, for
all your love, friendship and support.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
-1 -
Hong Mai and Yi Jian zhi
- 3 -
Evolution of the Zhiguai as a Narrative Genre
- 7 -
Historical Setting to Family Relationships
-15-
Mother-Son Relationships in the Yi Jian zhi
-25-
Conclusion
-44-
Appendix of Translations
-46-
List of Works Cited
- 6 6 -
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Introduction
The Confucian dictum of the "three submissions" (sancong) required a
woman to define herself in roles important to the perpetuation of a patriline - as
daughter, wife and mother. These three obligations meant performing domestic
duties, attending to the needs of their husbands and elders, and bearing and
raising male descendants. Most importantly, "it was in the fulfillment of this last
obligation, bearing sons as a means to assure the continuity of the family line, that
a woman's position and authority in the family largely hinged."1
According to this system, it is easy to assume that women were passive
members of Chinese households who were willingly degraded and mistreated as a
whole by Confucian patriarchy. What, however, has been left relatively
unexplored is the role that women played in perpetuating the patriarchal system
and, possibly, their own subordination.
Women were not merely helpless victims but rational players who actively
sought to maximize rewards within their confined environments. In traditional
literature, Confucian literati have too often stigmatized ambitious women as
connivers who offend all social and moral order. This paper will discuss the
portrayal of the women who were revered by Confucian scholars: their mothers.
1 will examine the perception of motherhood by exploring family relations
in stories from Hong Mai's Yi Jian zhi. This includes translations of fourteen
stories which contain the character mu f§: in their title. This analysis will focus
1 Sharon Shih-jiuan Hou in "Women's Literature," in William Nienhauser, ed., The Indiana Companion to
Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 19S6),
pp. 175-176.
1
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on the intimate bond between mother and sons, the emotional threads that sealed
this bond, and their relevance in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Chapters two and three provide background on Hong Mai and the genre of
zhiguai as a historical source. The fourth chapter concentrates on specific
Southern Song conditions. The fifth chapter integrates the analysis of the
fourteen stories with theory and other Song documents.
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C-O
Chapter One
Hong Mai and Yi Jian zhi
Hong Mai (1123-1202), z/Jinglu MWL, hao Rongzhai , was
a prominent historian and official of his day. During his career, he served as an
official in the capital for ten years, in the provinces for twenty years, nurtured a
trusted friendship with Emperor Xiaozong for the greater part of his career,
compiled official histories, composed classical quatrains and wrote several
lengthy collections of casual writings.
Bom to an illustrious family in Poyang (Boyang, Jiangxi),1 Hong Mai in
childhood lost contact with his father Hong Hao (1088-1155), who was
condemned by the Jin court to exile in Northern Manchuria for ten years for his
pro-Song sentiments. Hong Mai lived with his mother until her death, when he
moved in with a maternal uncle and received a classical education with wide
exposure to Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist texts.2 Eventually, he followed his
family's literati legacy by passing the jinshi examinations in third place in 1145.
He and his brothers Hong Kuo an expert in philology and Hong Zun
> an expert in numismatology who wrote the pioneering work Ouan Zhi
ms (History o f Coins), were known as the "Three Doctors Hong."3
1 For all the Sung city names in this paper, the modem names will follow in parenthesis. When city names
remain unchanged, only the province name will be indicated.
2 Milena Dolezelova and William H. Nienhauser in William Nienhauser, The Indiana Companion to
Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), pp. 457-458.
3 Ting Ch'uan-ching, A Compilation o f Anecdotes o f Sung Personalities (Taipei, Taiwan: Taipei Paper
Manufactury Press, 1989), pp. 649 - 654.
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CO
His professional accomplishments easily establish him as the most
successful of the three Hong brothers. Though his official career was erratic, it
was nonetheless prestigious and far-reaching. After graduating as a jinshi, he
held a series of minor posts until he was sent by Emperor Gaozong 'n 1162
to negotiate with the Jin for the restoration of Song territories. Although
unsuccessful, he won praises from the next emperor Xiaozong (1163-1190)
and formed a long friendship based on their love of classical quatrains and
political knowledge.4 During this time, he began to collect stories of marvels and
anomalies on his travels and wrote them down in a short and concise form
known as biji — casual jottings — which would later form the first parts of the Yi
Jian zhi.
He spent most of the next fifteen years as a provincial administrator in
parts of modem Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, where he built bridges, schools and
artificial lakes, restrained feuding clans from cruelty and vendetta, and
supervised famine and drought relief. Between periods of provincial
administration, Hong Mai composed poetry and collected stories at his rural
home in Jiangxi.5 In 1186, he returned to the capital, where he achieved his
highest position as Han-lin Academician and Examination Director.6 From the
age of sixty-nine until his death at eighty, Hong Mai returned to Jiangxi where he
devoted his time to compiling the YiJian zhi and classical quatrains.
4 Ibid., p. 653
5 Chang Fu-jui in Herbert Franke, ed., Sung Biographies (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH,
1976), pp. 469-478.
6 Dolezelova, p. 458.
4
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Ranging from casual jottings to official documents to supernatural tales.
Hong Mai stood out as the most prolific writer of his time. Of the numerous
compilations of fiction that were published during this time, YiJian zhi became
the most popular. Although only about half of the original 420juan are extant,
this collection is only second in proportion to the Taiping guangji.1 These stories
were collected from 1161-1198, and issued in 41 installments from 1157-1202 in
separate editions published in areas of modern Fujian, Sichuan and Zhejiang.
The sources of these stories reflect the same broad geographical range.s
Although he did not personally write all the stories, he took care to write prefaces
for each installment.9
In its stories, Yi Jian zhi captured the voices of those who were not
traditionally represented in literature. In the preface to one installment, an
unnamed individual attacks Hong Mai, saying," [these tales] do not necessarily
come from contemporary lords and gentry, but more often from poor people,
errant monks, mountain travelers, Daoist practitioners, blind sorcerers, village
women, low-ranking clerks, and foot soldiers."1 0 This work is not merely fiction
but also ranks as literature and history1 1 and is, according to Chang Fu-jui, "le
7 Taiping Guangji [Extensive Gleanings o f the Reigti o f the G reat Tranquillity] by Li Fang
(925-996) et at The aim was to collect fictional narratives and it began in March 977 and took
eighteen months to complete. Nienhauser, p. 744.
8 Valerie Hansen, Changing Gods in a M edieval China, 1127-1276 (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1990), p. 17-19.
9 He Zhuo "Introduction" in YiJian Zhi W f& fi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), pp. 1-3.
10 Hansen, p. 19.
1 1 He, p. 3.
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precurseur de toute la literature romanesque et de nouvelles en langue vulgaire...
c'est surtout un miroir fidele de la societe des Song."1 2
By choosing Yi Jian zhi as the title of his collection of anomalies, Hong
Mai clearly placed his work within this genre of zhiguai narratives. The name Yi
Jian originates from the following passage in The Liezi of the fourth century BC:
Among fish, there is one whose breadth is several thousand //. Its
length can be surmised from that. Its name is kun. Among birds,
there is one called peng. Its wings are so broad they cover the
clouds in the sky. The size of its body can be surmised from that.
How have generations known that such creatures exist? The
Great Yu traveled and saw them, Bo Yi recognized and named
them, and Yi Jian heard of and recorded them. (Liezi 5:6a)1 3
Evidently, Yi Jian was not a personal witness to these strange creatures. Rather,
he adopted the role of the recorder of these fantastic tales as Great Yu and Bo Yi
saw them. Hong Mai fashioned himself after Yi Jian as a recorder of strange
tales, taking down the voices of people from all social backgrounds.
12 Chang Fu-jui, "Les Themes dans le Yi-Kien Tche," in C1NA 8 (1964):51-55.
13 This translation was taken from Hansen, p. 18 - 19.
6
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Chapter Two
Evolution of the Zhiguai as a Narrative Genre
Though the recording of marvelous stories has thrived since the Six
Dynasties, the genre was first identified with the term zhiguai in the twentieth
century by Lu Xun in The History o f Chinese Fiction. In explaining the roots of
zhiguai, he writes:
Shamanism was widespread in ancient China and during the Chin
[Qin]and Han dynasties there was much talk of spirits and saints,
while the end of the Han dynasty saw a great increase in shaman
worship so that superstition was rife. Then Hinayana Buddhism
came to China to spread by degrees. Since these various
religions had much to say about spirits and miracles, the fourth,
fifth and sixth centuries produced many works dealing with the
supernatural.1
In literal translation, zhi means "to record" and guai means "anomalies."
Thus, zhiguai is a practice of writing that is devoted to recording strange events.
While the stories predominately focus on supernatural events, there are others
that cover unusual stories about common people. Stories can range from
encounters with ghosts to karmic retribution to ominous dreams to bizarre events.
The term zhiguai originates in Zhuangzi in fourth century B.C. in the
selection Xiaoyao You -- "The Carefree Excursion." Burton Watson
translates this passage as follows:
A man named Ch'i-hsieh [Qi Xie] was a collector of strange tales.
Ch'i-hsieh said: 'When the roc [bird] travels to the southern
ocean, it flaps along the water for three thousand //, and then it
1 Lu Hsun, A B rief H isiory o f Chinese Fiction, Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang, trans. ( Beijing: Foreign
Language Press, 1959), p. 45.
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soars upon a whirlwind to a height of ninety thousand //', for a
flight lasting six months.2
Like Yi Jian in Liezi, Qi Xie is noted for the same role as recorder of strange
tales.
The genre involves the recorder as overtly as it involves the subjects of the
stories. For example, the Zhuangzi passage not only alleges a strange bird, but
also says that this specific individual Qi Xie knew of this bird and wrote the
information down. Similarly, in Liezi, Great Yu, Bo Yi and Yi Jian functioned in
specific roles as witness, identifier and recorder respectively of strange creatures.
Clearly, mention of wondrous creatures in these works requires, if not the actuai
witness in every case, at least the name of the recorder as a vital ingredient.
This has several implications. First, the recorder assumes responsibility
for registering the story. Then, it follows that he not only assumes responsibility
but is also free to insert his subjectivity in the telling of the story. In other words,
by putting his name to the story, the recorder suggests that he has filtered the
story through subjective writing. He essentially tells his audience that the story
has changed by the time it arrives at their eyes. He does not refute anyone's story,
but he refrains from claiming anyone else's voice but his own. The transmission
of history automatically absorbs the propensity for personalization and
fictionalization.
The Taoist concept of relativity also plays a part. In the passages, two
types of living species meet, and, as far as we know, one of them writes down the
2 Wm. Theodore deBary, et al., ed., Sources o f Chinese Tradition, Volume 1, (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1960), p. 64. For an interpretation in Chinese, see Li Jian Guo 2j£3H[l§, "Zhiguai xulue
iStla&Sif?-” in (Indian xiaoshuo xiqu [ Ancient Novels, Plays an d Songs] (Tianjin: Tianjin
renmin chuban she, 1982), p. 121.
8
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story of the encounter. Giving names to both types of creatures puts them on an
equal scale in regard to life. One creature's exoticism only matters when placed
on a scale of relativity to the other's existence. In short, they give meaning to
each other. By setting the story to paper, via the scale of relativity, the recorder
extends this approach to the reader, immediately drawing him into this standard
where he must decide where he belongs in this ambiguous model.
Looking for the "voice" becomes problematic when one tries to distinguish
the voices of the subjects from those of the tellers and recorders. Looking for the
voices of mothers in the stories of the Yi Jian zhi, I found even more filters. First
of all, no mother ever told or wrote down the stories. Instead, a close male
relative (such as son or brother) usually wrote or told the story to Hong Mai, as
denoted by a postscript at the end of the story. If the stories came to him orally,
Hong Mai would sometimes verify them, then record them. Furthermore, Hong
Mai wrote the stories down in the classical language with which he was trained
to write.
During the Six Dynasties (AD 317- 589), many authors of zhiguai
collections assumed this prescribed role as "the recorder" and commonly affixed
the tenn zhiguai to their own names in the title of their works (i.e. The Zhiguai o f
Mr. X). Works from this time such as Kongshi zhiguai (Kong's Recording o f
Strange Tales) and Caoshi zhiguai (Cao's Recording o f Strange Tales) reflect
this trend.3 These trained historians wrote collections of strange stories as some
modem journalists specialize in reporting on supernatural events.
3 Li, p. 116.
9
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According to DeWoskin, the proliferation of the term zhiguai in titles does
not mean that the works themselves defined a concrete genre of writing in the Six
Dynasties. The defining parameters for this sort of narrative were vague at most,
for it seemed to be the most convenient place to include everything that did not fit
anywhere else.
Still, one could draw a few conclusions about zhiguai's style, if not its
subject. Typically, zhiguai writing was characterized by brevity, simplicity and
directness. Y. W. Ma and Joseph Lau define zhiguai tales as ones that "give a
brief account of a supposed happening... covering only one episode."4 Other than
that, the presentations and topics can vary' from a one-line jotting about a ghost, to
a story' of several pages that covers almost anything unusual.
What we would call "fact" and "fiction" blended; the recorders themselves
believed in the tales. During this time, zhiguai tales were either written down by
Buddhist and Taoist monks for didactic purposes or by scholars for literary
pleasure.5 Many scholars perceived the tales as truth and jotted them down for
the sake of history. Lu Xun elaborates on this in The History o f Chinese Fiction,
The fourth, fifth and sixth centuries produced many works
dealing with the supernatural. Some were written by scholars,
others by religious devotees. Though the scholars differed from
the professed Buddhists and Taoists whose aim was to spread
fneir religion, they were not writing fiction either. The men of
that age believed that although the ways of mortals were not
those of spirits, none the less spirits existed. So they recorded
these tales of the supernatural in the same way as anecdotes
4 Y. W. Ma and Joseph Lau, Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations (N ew York: Columbia
University Press, 1978), p.xxi.
5 For examples o f selected stories, see Moss Roberts, trans. and ed., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1979).
10
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about men and women, not viewing the former as fiction and the
latter as fact."
The iines are blurred between fact and fiction, history and literature.
Although historical narrative predates zhiguai, this iatter genre is
discernible as the medium where the earliest private writing is manifest.7 Official
histories and religious stories have long flourished in China.8 However, from
Shang Dynasty oracle bones to war documents, writing was apparently reserved
for religious or state functions with social utility in mind. Private, personalized
writing was restrained until after the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220, when
political conditions provided a creative haven for literary development.
The fall of the Han and subsequent disorders opened the way for foreign
invasion of north China. Political disarray and chaotic leadership dominated for
three and a half centuries until the end of the sixth century. This period saw
radical social and cultural changes:
Buddhism poured in from the West, and other barbarian
influences from the North further excited the cultural and
intellectual ferment of the times. Out of this climate came
remarkable cultural achievement, in philosophy, natural science,
literature, graphic arts, and music. The Six Dynasties... was well
illuminated by the presence of intellectual and artistic giants.'7
6 Lu Hsun, p. 45.
7 Kenneth DeWoskin. "The Six Dynasties Chih-Kuai and the Birth o f Fiction." In Andrew Plaks, ed„
Chinese Narrative: C ritical an d Theoretical Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977), pp. 21
2 2 .
8 For a detailed description regarding the differences between "fact" and "fiction" in official histories, see
DeWoskin, pp. 23-27.
9 DeWoskin, p. 21.
i
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The imperial government's instability freed up reins of political obligation for
writers. They now could redirect their focus toward pleasure and enjoyment.
According to Kenneth DeWoskin, another factor that aided zhiguai
proliferation in the Six Dynasties lies in the demographic backgrounds of the
literati. The Eastern Jin court (317-420) moved to present-day Nanjing, a move
which brought about a concentration of literary scholars in the south for the first
time. The court recruited officials from local areas, and this translates into the
intimate familiarity with local regions that appears clearly in their official writings.
In general, supernatural tales derived from local culture and were collected by
individual families. Therefore, zhiguai may be the logical product that resulted
from the timely intersection of literary, political and local cultures. DeWoskin
states th at"... a massive infusion of folk, possibly oral, materials here... [centered
on] the literary tradition."
The terse and direct zhiguai tales blossomed into elaborate romances in the
reunified empire of the Sui-Tang Dynasties (589-907). Chinese scholars
traditionally praise the Tang Dynasty as the most glorious historical period for its
military prowess, literary renaissance and religious development.1 0 The court’ s
openness toward foreign countries and tolerance of Buddhist growth helped to
foster major literary trends that laid the structure for later genres.
Yan Shi, in Tang Song chuanqi xuan (Selections o f
Marvelous Tales from the Tang and Song), notes three main developments. First,
secular folk tales began to preface oral Buddhist didactic teachings in order to
J0 Patricia Ebrey, The Inner Quarters (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1993), p. 1. See also John
Fairbank, China: A New History (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1992), pp. 78-79.
12
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attract secular audiences. Such story-telling required an imagination and artistry
that had not been previously presented to such a large audience. Second, story
telling stretched beyond Buddhist didacticism, and the oral adaptation of classical
tales became popular. Finally, itinerant scholars recorded folk stories from
different regions that added elements of exoticism, adventure and romance to
their travel recordings.1 1
Unlike those in the Six Dynasties, writers in the Tang were consciously
writing fiction. Writers coined a new name for this genre — chuanqi (marvelous
tales) — to separate from non-romantic prose. Entertainment took first priority as
moral confines were loosened.1 2
This trend split into two types of literary expression in the Song: a
popularization of theater and songs in the vernacular, and a movement to collect
fiction into encyclopedias. Of the latter, most notable is the Taiping guangji
which amassed works of fiction, anecdotes and unofficial histories (977-981).1 3
Numerous collections of supernatural tales came after this first mammoth
compilation.
Of all Song zhiguai collections, Yi Jian zhi was probably the most famous.
Its author's political preeminence and its massive quantity of four hundred and
twenty juan earned immediate notice. Its wide distribution was also due to the
invention of wood-block printing and availability of good cheap paper which
1 1 Yan Shi § 5 . "Introduction" in Tang Song chuanqi xitan [Selections o f M arvelous Tales
from the Tang and Song] (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chuban site, 1964), pp. 5-6.
12 Lu Hsun, p. 111.
1 3 Lu Hsun. p. 124
13
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lowered the cost of printing. Private publishing thus became common in urban
centers.1 4 Unfortunately, of the original manuscript, only two hundred and six juan
survive.
Hong Mai's main objective in collecting stories for Yi Jian zhi changed over
time. Although he took great pains to verify facts when he was young, he
emphasized quantity as time passed. Consistency and veracity became less
important. Although he took great pains to verify certain stories, toward the end of
his life, he was in "...such a hurry to finish the work before he died that he
sometimes wrote as many as ten books in fifty days. And when he was sent tales
from old tomes with some slight modifications -- occasionally he received several
volumes of these - he included them as they were without further editing. Since he
aimed at quantity he could not do justice to these tales of marvels."1 5 In this way,
Hong Mai was successful, perhaps unintentionally, in documenting the voices of
various social groups, other than his own.
In this chapter I have attempted to raise key questions about the nature of
zhiguai as a genre and have presented a brief history of its development from its
birth in the Six Dynasties to the Song. The zhiguai developed after the
disappearance of political barriers that came with the fall of the Han Dynasty and
flourished in the writings of literary historians from the Six Dynasties on. Their
involvement has made the presence of the recorder equally as important as the
subject or transmitter of the tales. I will attempt to address the voice of the
subject in the next chapter on the perception of motherhood.
14 Hansen, p. 10.
1 5 Lu Hsun, p. 129-30.
14
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Chapter Three
Historical Setting to Family Relationships
Scholars have noted the Song Dynasty as a major point of change in the
status of Chinese women. During the preceding Tang Dynasty, elite women
enjoyed legal rights to land ownership, social mobility, divorce and remarriage.
Following the Song Dynasty, Chinese women suffered social and legal
conventions of foot binding, widow chastity cults and reduced property rights. It
is logical to assume that women in the Song experienced fundamental changes in
terms of rights and power.
The Song Dynasty represents a period of conflicting developments in
Chinese history. Throughout the entire dynasty, the empire endured constant
threat of foreign invasion; nonetheless, it flourished. Technological, industrial,
political, commercial and urban expansions all spurred the empire toward
"modem" progress. The size and populations of the Song capitals Kaifeng and
Hangzhou superseded any city in their day. Printed books were widely circulated
while modem canals transported unprecedented amounts of harvested rice from
rural to urban centers.
Paradoxically, these social and economic changes led to restrictions of
women's control over property and mobility. As their range of choices decreased,
women did not stop being influential. During this period, a woman's economic
security and public recognition became increasingly identified with her son's
professional success and local reputation. I will take the reader through a brief
discussion of Song societal trends and their contribution to family dynamics.
1
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c n
The Song Dynasty saw unprecedented urban concentration. Though
Kaifeng was "only four fifths the size of the Tang capital, Changan, [it] was
thrice that of ancient Rome. In 1021 the population was about 500,000 within
the walls. Including the nine suburbs, it totaled roughly a million. By 1100 the
registered households totaled 1,050,000 persons. Adding the army made about
1.4 million."1 By 1100, at least four other urban centers — Hangzhou, Suzhou,
Fuzhou, Raozhou -- surpassed the capital area in population.2 The population of
the Southern capital Hangzhou totaled roughly two million, which made it the
biggest city in the world at that time and unsurpassed until the twentieth century.5
Situated on the Bian River, the Northern capital was assured of food
supply due to convenient waterways. Furthermore, early Song emperors
sponsored the introduction of new strains of early-ripening rice that sustained the
growing population.4
Industry and commercialization first grew to meet the demands of the
urban government. Iron and coal industries advanced for the building of ships,
agricultural implements, and weapons and the new currency of coins. By the last
quarter of the eleventh century, mints produced an average of 10,000 tons of iron
per year.5
1 John Fairbank, China: A New H istory (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1992), p. 89.
2 E.A. Kracke, "Sung Society: Change within Tradition," F ar Eastern Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 2.,
p. 482.
3 Fairbank, 1992: 92.
4 Ho Ping-ti. "Early-ripening Rice in Chinese History," Economic History Review, 9 (1956-57),
pp. 200-201 and 206-207.
5 Robert Hartwell, "A Revolution in the Chinese Iron and Coal Industries During the Northern Sung, 960-
1126 AD.," The Journal o f A siatic Studies 21 (1961-62), pp. 153-155.
1 6
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Small cities and towns arose everywhere as enclosed markets disappeared,
giving space to various shops, warehouses, booths, inns, taverns, teahouses and
pleasure grounds.6 In these colorful towns, people mixed to make trade and listen
to storytellers and actors. From this a new society rose.
The old aristocracy noticeably faded. The prior Sui and Tang Dynasties
were characterized by an elite aristocracy who lived off rural tax-free estates.
These aristocratic families maintained their elite status through intermarriage and
nepotism. Official posts were procured through recommendation, and these
families enjoyed roughly one-half to three-fifths of government appointments.7
Reformers within the government struck at the old aristocracy through the
implementation of the dual tax system in 780. It transferred the basis of taxation
from heads to land area and the power to collect from the families to the
government. This created two changes: it freed up tenant farmers from landed
servitude and allowed a somewhat freer market for private land. A number of
medium and small farms appeared, and scattered parcels of land became the
norm.K
The aristocracy's fading control over land was paralleled in government.
Tang government had instituted six ministries - personnel, administration,
finance, rites, army, justice and public works -- and an early version of the
6 Etienne Balazs, "Chinese Towns," in Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1954), p. 72-76.
7 Fairbank, 1992: 83.
8 Peter J. Golas, "Rural China in the Song," in Journal o f Asian Studies, vol. 34, no. 2 (February, 1980),
pp. 291-325.
1 7
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examination system, but it was not until the Song that this examination system
was used as a chief tool for recruiting bureaucrats.9 Early Song emperors set up
prefectural schools as a new method to recruit talented scholars. It created an
extended bureaucracy made up of jinshi degree holders. Intellectual
accomplishment, rather than birth, became a growing method of producing
qualified leadership. The early Song took about thirty percent of its bureaucrats
from the examinations, in contrast to only fifteen percent at the height of the
Tang.1 0
This proliferation of scholars was largely supported by the spread of
printed literature and education. Although paper had been invented by the
second century, wood-block printing did not appear until the Tang. Wood block
printing allowed multiple copies of books on cheap and durable paper made of
plant fiber. For the first time, entire Buddhist and Classical canons were widely-
published and circulated. Aside from educational texts, "there also appeared
books on agriculture, medicine, and divination, collections of anecdotes and
stories, individual authors' prose and poetry, religious tracts and treatises, and
reference guides that served the needs of local magistrates, candidates for the
examinations, and anyone who wished to compose elegant letters."1 1 A classical
education and success in examinations became the new criteria for social
mobility and local prestige.
9 Fairbank. 1992: 78.
10 Fairbank, 1992:94.
1 1 Patricia Ebrey, The Inner Quarters: M arriage and the Lives o f Chinese Women in the Sung Period
(Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1993), p. 3.
1 8
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Over the three hundred years of the dynasty, achievement in the
examinations actually became less important than merely participating in them.
Official yin privilege through recommendations became important, although
passing the examinations still held most prestige.1 2 John Chaffee has shown that
as examinations became less important as a means to getting appointment, more
candidates actually participated.1 3 However, since passing the examinations were
too difficult for most students, the means of gaining status changed to
accommodate a literati's rise in local society.
Rather than on passing the examinations, local prestige rested on getting a
classical education and attending the examination. Smaller numbers of scholars
passed, but the literati class grew. A candidate's turn at the examination became
a perfunctory, but essential, adjunct to the more important criteria of his family's
wealth, power and connections in his native region.1 4 Usually, it added prestige
to his household's already thriving political economy. Family organization
became increasingly important as the Song progressed.
With the changes in government came Confucian reformers. Northern
Song officials such as Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang all decried
the corruption and ineffectiveness of government. Though they differed in their
1 2 Richard Davis, "Political Success and the Growth o f Descent Groups: The Shih o f Ming-chou during
the Sung." In Ebrey and Watson, ed., Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940
(Berkeley: University o f California, 1986), pp. 62-94.
1 3 John Chaffee, The 'lhorny Gates o f Learning in Sung China: a Social History o f Examinations
(Albany: State University o f New York Press: 1985).
1 4 Robert Hymes, " Marriage, Descent Groups, and the Localist Strategy in Sung and Yuan Fu-chou." In
Ebrey and Watson, ed.. Kinship Organization in Late Imperiul China, 1000-1940 (Berkeley: University o f
California, 1986), pp. 95-136.
19
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views and approaches, all agreed that the government was in dire need of more
enlightened and w'ise leadership, and they looked to the past for examples of sage
governments. One school, led by Ch'eng I, advocated individual moral learning
for self-cultivation. The ideologies of this school were synthesized by Zhu Xi
only after the fall of the Northern capital.
Zhu Xi (1130-1200) elaborated on subjects from metaphysics to daily
moral codes. John Fairbank simplifies Zhu Xi's philosophy in the following
passage.
Zhu Xi's cosmology asserted a dualism, that the great immutable
principles of form (//') gave shape to he material stuff (qi) that,
when shaped by li, creates existent reality. Behind this duality,
however, is the Dao, the Way, the vast energizing force that
pervades the universe and all things in it. Only through
disciplined self-cultivation could a man get some understanding
of the Way and in pursuit of it form his character.1 5
Zhu Xi also went so far as to clarify codes for dress, ritual and record keeping.
Inevitably, for family organization, this also reinforced a differentiation in gender
roles. Zhu Xi encouraged women to stay in the inner quarters {nei) and men to
practice self-cultivation in the community (wai). Neo-Confucian philosophers
also criticized remarriage of widows as a cause of family breakup.1 6 They
fervently believed that social reform began first with family reorganization.
From the Tang into the Song, women enjoyed strong property rights, both
movable and immovable. Daughters were customarily guaranteed a dowry at
15
Fairbank, 1992: 98.
16 Bettine Birge, "Women and Family in Sung Dynasty China (960-1279): Neo-Confiicianism and Social
Change in Chien-chou, Fukien" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1992), p. 35.
20
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marriage. Common law called for daughters to inherit half as much as their
brothers. A woman could bring liquid and land assets with her into a marriage,
hold it as private property in the household, and still take it away with her into a
second marriage. If she was widowed, she could sometimes take some of the
land inherited from her deceased husband away with her. Her private property
was kept out of family division among brothers.1 7
Court cases from the thirteenth century debated a woman's right to private
property and a daughter's right to inheritance.1 8 Although the courts repeatedly
ruled in favor of a woman's right to private property, her right was apparently
being questioned and challenged. If people respected a woman's right to own
immovable assets, mothers would not need to bring their step-sons or brothers-in-
law to court, nor daughters their brothers.
Fan Zhongyan (989-1052), the first important Confucian reformer and
statesman of the Northern Song, was the first to set up a charitable estate in 1049.
As Denis Twichett describes, "...the gift was invested in an inalienable trust
property of over 3,000 mou held in the name of the clan, the income from which
would provide a permanent reserve for charitable purposes."1 9 He aimed to
provide education for his own lineage members as well as save the lineage's
widows and orphans from destitution. This dissuaded widows from remarrying,
which would result in taking away the lineage's heirs and assets. Many literati
17 Ibid.: 79-135.
18 Ibid.: 205-261.
19 Denis Twichett, "The Fan Clan's Charitable Estate. 1050-1760." In Nivison and Wright, ed..
Confucianism in Action (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959), p. 119.
21
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families found building a permanent income for posterity an appealing concept
and eagerly imitated the Fan estate.
A "lineage" is defined by James Watson as:
A corporation in the sense that members derive benefits from
jointly-owned property and shared resources; they also join in
corporate activities on a regular basis. Furthermore, members of
a lineage are highly conscious of themselves as a group in
relation to others whom they defines as outsiders. A lineage is
not, therefore, a loosely-defined collection of individuals.2 0
Lineage membership affected not only entitlement to material benefits but also
interpersonal dynamics that were defined by a rigid hierarchy of social positions.
In his study of literati in Jiangxi, Robert Hymes has shown that the
emphasis in making marriage alliances shifted from a national to a local level.2 1
Linda Walton has shown the vital necessity of affinal ties to the formation and
perpetuation of the Lou charitable estate (1157-1162). In the establishment of
matri lateral (marrying mother's brother's daughter) marriages, affinal ties
prevented the breakup of the Lou estate. Furthermore, she argues that the jinshi
degree, by itself, meant little if not incorporated into a complex system of local
hierarchy.2 2
Though a woman's status in a household was typically fixed within a
hierarchy, a woman of low status could hope to enjoy privileges equal to those of
the wife if she gave birth to a son by the master. A boy's status depended on that
20 James Watson, "Chinese Kinship Reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research,"
China Quarterly 92: 594.
21 Hymes, 1986: 95-136.
22 Linda Walton, "Kinship Marriage and Status in Song China: A Study o f the Lou Lineage o f Ningbo.
c.1050-1250" in Journal o f Asian Studies 18:1 (1984).
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of his father, not his mother. A patriiineal iineage further emphasized this status.
Therefore, a concubine's son shared the same status as the wife's son. A mother
of a lowly position could seek informal recognition in this area for bearing an heir
even if she herself could do little to change her formal rank. The following
example illustrates a mother's benefits from raising a male heir.
When Fan Zhongyan set up his charitable estate, he also made up a set of
house rules. The first rule elucidates the allocation of rice to those who have
been recognized by a branch of the lineage:
One pint of rice per day may be granted for each person whom a
branch has certified to be one of its members.2 3
Obviously, being a member of a branch had its material benefits. Moreover,
lineage membership was selective. One must be "certified."
Rule number three shows that, by bringing up a potential heir into
adulthood, even a lowly ranked maidservant could acquire the material benefits
of a lineage member.
Female servants may receive rice if they have bome
children by men in the lineage and the children are over
fifteen or they themselves are over fifty.
Therefore, by bearing the master's son, a woman of low position in the rigid
household can hope to receive membership benefits upon her son's adulthood.
Hypothetically, if a maidservant gets pregnant at the age of fifteen, she can
enjoy certain lineage privileges at age thirty as long as she raises her child safely
^ P atricia Ebrey, ed., Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook (N ew York: Maxwell Macmillan International:
1983), p. 155.
24 The age o f adulthood was commonly set at fifteen. See Patricia Ebrey, Chu Hsi's Family Rituals
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 35-37.
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into adulthood.2 4 However, if she fails to bring him into adulthood or refrains
from sexual relations with the master until a later time, she has to wait until she
reaches fifty before partaking of the lineage's rice.
A concubine could also hope for material security through bearing a son.
Fang Hui (1227-1307) was the son of a concubine of a banished official. Soon
after Fang Hui's father died, one of his father's friends sent him and his mother to
the Fang home, where they were eventually set up with thirty mou of land,
surviving barely above subsistence. Unfortunately, the economic security proved
illusory as the concubine was ultimately forced to leave the estate as Fang Hui
stayed. This seemed to be not uncommon for concubines who were brought in
from other areas.2 5
35 Patricia Ebrey, "Concubines in Sung China" m Journal o f Family History, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1-24.
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Chapter Four
Mother-Son Relationships in the Yi Jiatt zlti
In this section, I will examine mother-son relationships in fourteen stories
of the Yi Jiart zhi. These fourteen were chosen because they all contained the
character mother — mu (fg:) in the title (see appendix). Of the 2,692 stories that
are extant in the Yi Jian zhi, eighteen contain the character mu. Two were utterly
unintelligible, one was about a mule mother, and another about a queen of a
ghostly kingdom. Thus, 1 was left with fourteen clearly written stories that dealt
with human beings.
The pictograph mu fg:1 depicts a pair of female breasts that are turned so it
stands upright like a human being. A "mother", thus, is one who nourishes
through nursing. The pictograph implies a young mother nursing her newborn
infant. This evokes little surprise since women have been idealized in relegated
roles as daughter, wife and mother since the earliest classics.2
Contrary to the literal definition of mu, none of the mothers of these
fourteen stories are nursing. In fact, all of the sons are grown men. Nursing
mothers or mothers of young children pervade throughout the Yi Jian zhi, but the
character mu is not associated with a young nursing mother. This incongruence
’The pictograph mu in co m es from the pictorial portrayal o f a woman's breasts with milk for her child.
From 4 3 t — B M zM JP lbf ( A mother is one who tends [to the young]. Following the
shape? o f the [pictograph o f the] pregnant female , [the mother mu ffj:] takes the form o f a pair o f
breasts.) See Wang Menghua T t ^ ig . Shuo w en jie zi sh iya o [Explanations o f
Selections from The Etym ology o f Words] (Jilin: Jilin jiaoyu chuban she, 1990), pp. 315-316.
2 For a further discussion on perception o f women in classical canons, see Richard W. Guisso, "T hunder
Over the Lake: The Five Classics and the Perception o f Woman in Early China" in Historical
Reflections/Reflexions Historiques (Youngstown, N.Y.: Philo Press, 1981).
25
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in definition and appiication suggests that a mother permanently occupied a
position of nurture -- in advisement and guidance. The first contact between
infant and mother defines the mother-son relationship for life.
The Yi Jian zhi represents a unique source of history in its personalization
and honesty. First of all, the stories possess little didactic content. Hong Mai
collected these tales in a loose fashion, accruing some from travels and others
from aggressive soliciting. Secondly, in many of the stories, Hong Mai went to
great lengths to verify the facts through researching public documents like census
and examination records. Fictionalization was kept to a minimum. Finally, many
stories came from either sons or brothers of the mothers in the stories. The
storytellers' names appear at the end of the stories to indicate their relationship.
This personalization retains a certain sense of intimacy. Both attitudes and facts
command importance.
This analysis deals with the dynamics within the mother-son relationship
by treating mothers and sons as individuals as well as looking at the mother-son
relationship as a social unit by examining how it relates to the world external to
the relationship.
According to Yue Daiyun, women in traditional Chinese literature can be
classified into three paradigms: as the object of lust, as the virtuous wife and
mother, or as the martial heroine. Providing a moral and educational
environment for her child essentially characterized the integrity of the good
mother. Historical examples abound.’
3 Yue Daiyun "Chuantong wenxue he dangdai wenxue zhongde Zhongguo funu"
[Chinese Women in Traditional and Contemporary Literature]
Zhongguo dianji vu wenhua r p \ H [Chinese Classics and Culture], no.3. 1994: 45-50.
26
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Every Chinese child knows the stories of the following honorable mothers:
the mothers of Mencius (372-289? B.C.) and Yue Fei (1103-1141). In order to
provide Mencius with an environment that would nurture his virtues and mind,
his mother moved three times — from a house near a cemetery to one near a
marketplace and finally to one near a school house where he learned virtue and
propriety. General Yue Fei, the leading fighter in Song resistance to the Jin, was
murdered for refusing to follow the appeasement plan. Now he stands as the
model of Chinese patriotism, and his moral character is attributed to his mother's
influence in early development.
Mothers are credited as the direct cause of their sons' moral characters and
professional success. In an idealistic Confucian world, leadership and virtue
accompany each other. So, whether the son becomes a philosopher, general, or
any other socially prestigious person, the mother automatically partakes in his
glory. When her son succeeds, society puts her up on a pedestal.
This mother-son bond seems to have been the most crucial relationship in
the perpetuation of the Chinese household. Patricia Ebrey has said that "...in
premodem China, it was the parent-child tie that was viewed as central to
personal happiness and social order... [the mothers'] sons would stay at home, so
they might end up living twice as long with their sons as they had with their
husbands."4
Marjorie Wolf, in her studies of Taiwanese families, sheds light on a
woman's dependency on her uterine family. She notes that both parents felt a
4 Patricia Ebrey, Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives o f Chinese Women in the Sung Period,
(Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1993), pp. 8-9
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stronger attachment, and gave more dedication, to the child than to each other.
This was especially important for the women. Women in a certain village had
little control over their ascribed roles as daughter, wife and daughter-in-law, so
they co-opted the loyalty of their sons in order to build security in a household of
strangers.5
Throughout this section, I will cite Marjorie Wolfs observations of
Chinese family dynamics in joint households to compare with those of the family
relationships from the Yi Jian zhi stories. She gathered these observations from a
Taiwanese family in the 1950's who lived in a corporate arrangement. The
following passage describes the Ong family's household and residence.
At present the Ongs occupy two large houses, side by side....
Although on most days they would appear to be five separate
families who happen to share sections of two adjoining
farmhouses, on one particular day in May the men of all five
families gather in the central hall of the older house to perform
the ceremonies of respect for their most distant ancestor on the
anniversary of his death. The three families that now occupy the
old house shared a stove and a common purse until the end of
World War II.6
Both models include elements of sharing landed corporate assets, ancestral hall,
and ancestor worship rituals.
- Marjorie Wolf, "Child Training and the Chinese Family", in Arthur W olf ed., Studies in Chinese Society
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 197S).
6 Marjorie Wolf, Women an d the Family In Rural Taiwan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972).
pp. 15-16.
23
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Patterns o f Mutual Dependency
From these stories in the Yi Jian zhi, mothers appear to suffer from great
powerlessness, isolation and daily threats of danger. Marjorie Wolf shows that
in a Taiwanese household, a new bride has little status, suffers the stigma of an
outsider to the household, and must bear daily taunts and criticisms from her
aloof husband and his family. For the household, the son she bears will represent
the progeny of the next generation. But to her, he brings emotional security.
He is the first bit of security she has felt since she entered the
family. He is the defense against her mother-in-law and sisters-
in-law... she [will] build toward a future family environment that
will not be hampered by mothers-in-law or be dependent on
husbands. No matter what is involved in her current status, the
whole quality of her future life depends on the strength of the ties
she develops with her son.7
Wolf is describing young mothers and newborn sons in this passage. But if this
first impact of a mother's relationship to her son occurs at such a profound level,
it will undoubtedly define their lifelong relationship. The Yi Jian zhi stories
reflect this pattern.
Sons seemed to be a mother's only source of comfort. In desperation,
mothers often looked to sons for help. In Rujiao's Deer Mother, a mother appears
to her son in a dream, tells him that she has reincarnated as a deer and must suffer
the daily threats of hunters and beasts.
Because I had not done any good deeds during my entire life, I
have been reincarnated as a deer. I live only a short distance
from you in the nearby mountains. Tomorrow moming I shall be
pursued and hunted by eagles and dogs, and you can come out to
’ Wolf: 1978, p.227.
29
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see me. When you see me, redeem me with money; make sure
you do not forget this.*
In loneliness and insecurity, she seeks sympathy from her son. In this case, her
world is desolate and dangerous and he is her only reliable source of help.
In another story, Ye Wuzhong's mother asks him for help from the
afterworld where she suffers the abuse of bullies. Like Ru Jiao's mother, Ye
Wuzhong's mother communicates with him through a dream.
Later, in a dream Ye's mother appeared to him and said, "I’ m
grateful for the clothing you have sent to me, but because I am
old and weak, the outfit was snatched by a ruthless and fierce
thug." Her face was full of sadness. Ye woke and wept
miserably.
He solicited [Taoist Priest] Guoqi again, and asked him to
draft a written order to command the deities of the sacrifices as
well as the regional deities to clarify, obtain and return the
clothing. He also called for immediate retribution for the crime.
On that night his mother appeared in his dream again and said, "I
am grateful to Priest Cheng for making sure that my clothing has
been rightfully returned and for granting my desires. Please thank
him forme."9
Like Ru Jiao, Ye Wuzhong is able to give his mother comfort and safety with
tools that he alone can provide.
Instructor Yang's deceased mother sought solace for her floating spirit
through her son's professional achievements. Having died away from home, her
impoverished family could not bring her corpse back. Thus, her corpse remains
unburied and her soul a floating spirit. Her only chance of proper burial depends
on her son's passing on the examinations. Achieving that will mean gaining
8 Hong Mai ifrjS- Ru Jiao's D eer M other in Yi Jian zhi H j& f e He Zhuo , ed. (Beijing: Zhonghua
shuju clmban, 1981), p. 984.
9 Ibid., Ye Wuzhong's Mother, p. 1422.
30
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physical and economic mobility to send her coffin home. So, she appears to her
son's grader and pleads persistently for a decent grade. The grader stubbornly
refuses to grant such favoritism, but after much entreating, he finally concedes.
After the story is passed on to the emperor's ears, both grader and son receive
generous rewards. At last, her spirit rests peacefully.1 0
In his book "JtijlS (Shi fan) Precepts fo r Social Life, J c 0 k Yuan Cai
(1140-1195) paints a rather despondent fate for mothers with immoral sons.
Though there must have been some filial sons, Yuan Cai writes that "many men
today indulge in pleasure and gambling.... Sons must have their mothers'
signatures to sell family property, but there are sons who falsify papers and forge
signatures. Mothers have no control in this matter.... For women, these are grave
misfortunes, but what can they do about them?"1 1 Women with irresponsible sons
had little support elsewhere. Regardless of their sons' moral characters, women
still occupied the duties of teaching virtuous behavior.
Like the example about Mencius' mother, these stories eagerly laud the
wise mother who provides moral guidance. In The Dream o f Lu Xiong's Mother,
a mother receives a portent of her son's upcoming success in the examinations
during his period of anxious waiting.
Lu Xiong, a native of Shaowu (near modem Jianzhou,
Fujian), was the son of Lu Kui, Palace Editor. In the twenty-first
year of the Shaoxing reign (1151), he attended the examinations
of the Southern Palace.1 2 One night, his mother, Madam Fan,
10 Ibid., Instructor Yang's Mother, p. 1236.
1 1 Patricia Ebrey, trans.. Family and Property in Sting China: Yuan Tsai's Precepts fo r Social f,tfe
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 220.
12 Unofficial reference o f the Ministry o f Rites $§p|3, which administered the examinations.
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dreamed of several people carrying a coffin to the main hall who
said, "this is her ladyship's mother." She wailed and woke up.
She told this to her husband [Kui] saying, "People say that
dreaming of coffins portends receiving an official title. If this is
about our third son,1 3 it probably represents a good omen that he
will graduate in the examinations. If it is about you, perhaps it
represents the joy of an official promotion.1 4 As things stand
now, my mother is deceased. Could this be a good omen?" Kui
was unable to comprehend this immediately.
At dawn, Kui left the house to look at the results. Upon his
return, he wore a joyful expression on his face, and called to his
wife from a distance, "I'll explain the meaning of your dream last
night. What was your mother's family name?" Madam Fan
realized with a start that her mother's family name was Xiong.
Then she knew that her son Xiong must have been selected in the
examinations, and the result followed accordingly. (Lu Xiong's
account)1 5
In this story, Madam Fan's dream acts as a source of revelation; she can access a
reserve of esoteric knowledge that is remote from Lu Xiong, even though the
information affects his life profoundly.
The theme of the helpful mother repeats in The Dream o f Pan Mengqi's
Mother. It opens with a son who is studying anxiously for examinations when his
mother starts to receive messages in a dream. At first, both mother and son
dismiss these dreams. However, when they recur three times. Pan Mengqi's
mother begins to interpret them, he then starts to take them seriously. After this
first group of dreams, the son begins to receive the messages himself. The
dreams contain advice to change his examination subject and the characters in his
1 3 Lu Xiong was the third son. (original note).
14 "Coffin" j^and "official title" are homophones.
1 5 Hong Mai The Dream o f Lu Xiong's Mother. p. 114.
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CO
given name. After some indecision, he follows the esoteric advice and smoothly
passes the examinations.1 6
In another story, Yang’ s Mother Serves Zhenwu, a newly graduated scholar
is saved from death by his mother's prayers. Just before he leaves home to serve
as an instructor in another region, Yang falls into severe iapses of fever and
delirium. In hallucinations he encounters a giant who splits his head with a
sword. Soon afterwards, he wakes up and recovers to learn that his mother had
been chanting hundreds of scrolls to this exact deity, Zhenwu, during his
sickness. Her prayers to the deity had in fact saved his life. She lives out the rest
of her life even more piously than ever and dies at a ripe old age of eighty-four.1 7
Clearly, the sons perceive their mothers as a source of help and knowledge. She
has access to a supply of forbidden knowledge.
The mother's role as the wise advisor is compromised by the broker role
she assumes. She is not painted as actually having control over the knowledge
that she transmits. She is neither the source of knowledge nor the lucid decoder.
Rather, she acts as a bridge between her son and a body of higher knowledge.
She is his medium and her role is essential to his success. In the two previous
stories, they translate into health and career achievement.
Song documents validate this picture of influential mothers as the main
force behind their sons' moral and intellectual guidance in early life. In his
mother's funerary inscription, Neo-Confucian scholar Chen Yi speaks of his
mother's potent influence over his and his brother's childhood. He portrays his
16 Ibid., The Dream o f Pan Mengqi's M other, p. 1356.
17 Ibid.. Yang's M other Serves Zhenwu, p. 1538.
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mother as a strict disciplinarian who loved him deeply and motivated him and his
brother to study for official careers.1 8 Yuan Cai also credits mothers with strong
influence, but he blames them as the source of irrational love that spoils sons and
makes them into disrespectful adults. He says that the mother is "usually the
source of unreasonable likes and dislikes" and fathers must instill strong control
over both mother and son in the child's early life.1 9 Whether the mother is being
praised or blamed for their sons' characters, sources identify mothers as the major
cause for their sons' moral development. A pattern of mutual dependence results
from a mother's connection to her son.
While they give moral guidance, mothers rely on their sons for economic
well-being. This theme is depicted in varying degrees in the following examples.
These range from reaping small rewards from the material benefits accruing from
their sons' careers to gaining safety from a horde of bandits when one son
volunteers to take his mother's place in death.
At the minimum, mothers seem to automatically receive the fringe benefits
from their sons’ careers. For example, in The Piling Monk's Mother, a dissolute
monk, though lewd and devious, takes care of his mother by moving her into the
monastery where he lives. He is an abbot in his fifties who "was respectful and
attentive to his mother, and because there was no one to take care of her at home,
he temporarily set her up in a small room in the monastery."2 0
18 Ebrey: 1993, pp. 183 - 185.
19 Ebrey: 1984. p. 189-190.
20 Hong Mai The Piling M onk’ s M other, p. 1408.
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In another story, the court automatically bestows the title of "Honorable
Mother" upon Madam Zou when the emperor decides to promote scholars with
mothers over seventy years old. The following passage conveys this point.
Some days later, the emperor's mother celebrated her birthday.
To commemorate this occasion, written amnesties were sent to
prefectures which ordered all officials with mothers over the age
of seventy to ascend to the court for promotions. Since Jiao was
already a prefectural nominee, he qualified for this promotion.
Furthermore, by Deyi's calculation of the gengzi cycle of years,
Madam Zou was eighty-two years old at the time. Therefore, the
court promoted Deyi and bestowed Madam Zou with the title of
"Honorable Mother."2 1
It appears that if a woman could raise her son into adulthood, she could expect to
enjoy direct benefits associated with his career.
In Fan Zhongyan's lineage, the house rules held a similar motivation for
women. Female servants who bear children and raise them to adulthood could
receive rice like a certified member of the lineage. Female servants in the Song
lived with a fixed social status in the household. It was rarely, if ever, changed
within the household. However, their son's entrance into adulthood could secure
their the material benefits of the household.
The messages from the Yi Jian zhi stories and Fan Zhongyan's household
resonate: raising a son into adulthood brings material and social rewards to the
mother. In Jiao’ s Mother's Precious Coins, this particular mother receives a
public title from the emperor with her son's promotion. Every man's promotion
raises his mother's status.
21 Ibid., Jiao's M other's Precious Coins, p. 1290.
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In addition to economic well being, sons provided emotional security for
their mothers. Like Instructor Yang and Rujiao's mother (deer mother), many
women looked to their sons for emotional protection throughout their lives. A
woman might have been physically married to her husband, but she was
emotionally married to her son. Wolf writes, "the descent lines of men are bom
and nourished in the uterine families of women, and it is here that a male
ideology that excludes women makes its accommodations with reality."2 2
Because uterine families fasten connections in emotion and dependence, they rise
and fall with every new generation.
Intimacy and tenderness seal this attachment. Loving sons protect their
mothers at all costs. During the fall of the Northern Sung, opportunistic bandits
pillaged villages everywhere. Hong Mai describes Ke Congshi's "painful alarm"
at the thought of his mother's death and his offer to take his mother's place as a
bandit's hostage.
Painfully alarmed at the thought of his mother's wrongful death,
Ke Congshi went to the leader of the bandits, made a polite bow,
and said, " Only I can Find where the villagers hid their valuables.
My mother truly does not know where they are hidden. I am
willing to take my mother's place as your prisoner and join in
your search for the jewels." The bandits thus exchanged his
mother for Congshi.2 3
He cannot bear the thought of his mother's pain, so he lies to the bandits in order
to exchange places with her. He is deeply bound to her by affection and
gratitude.
22 Wolf: 1978 p. 229.
23 Hong Mai Willing to Take His Mother's Place in Death, p. 1805.
36
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Converse to affection and trust, patterns of anxiety and fear seem to be at
least as binding. As shown in the examples above, mothers occupy a position of
authority over their sons in the field of moral development. When the sons
follow obediently, the stories end well for them, but should they disobey or curse
their mothers, divine retribution befalls the son with harsh punishments. Mothers
do not administer direct punishment, but a son can avoid divine retribution if he
obeys his mother. She is a source of both comfort and anxiety.
In the son's mind, his mother's powers can transcend human boundaries.
In several of the Yi Jian zhi stories, mothers move conveniently between the
worlds of the living and the dead. Jiang Bao's mother, for example, comes back
from the dead to protect him from harmful ghosts who threaten his life.
A villager of the name Ma Shujing had a servant called Jiang
Bao. One night, on his way home, he encountered a man clothed
in white. They walked together to the bank of a river, and the
stranger invited Bao to bathe with him in the water. After Bao
had already taken off his clothes and about to enter the water, he
suddenly heard a voice calling his name. The sound came from
far away. As he gradually approached and listened, he discerned
the sound as his deceased mother's voice.
In a loud and urgent tone she said, "The one who is walking
with you is not a virtuous person, you definitely should not bathe
with him." After the warning, his mother arrived, hauled him on
her back and forded the water to the bank. Happening upon a
local inhabitant's dwelling, she tossed him off onto the ground in
the middle of some bamboo groves. The inhabitant heard a sound
from outside his home. He came out to check and saw Bao alone.
His mother and the white-clothed man had both disappeared.
(Account o f Shujing's younger brother Deng)24
24 Ibid., Jiang Bao's D eceased Mother, p. 31.
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Though her powers are extraordinary, he son's awe is appeased by the security
that he has in his mother's constant love and protection.
Wei Liu and Dong Xingzhi's mothers both return to life after death to give
reports from the other side. Wei Liu and his friend Shi Wu plotted to steal a
neighbor's cow. When Shi Wu was the only one caught, Wei Liu let his friend
suffer all the punishment. Later, as Wei's mother lay dying, she delivered a
message to Wei Liu from the underworld.
In Poyang (Boyang, Jiangxi) there was a villager by the name
of Wei Liu who lived five li north of the city walls. His family
was exceedingly poor, so he hired himself out as a laborer.
During the tenth summer of the Chunxi reign (1183), he
conspired with his neighbor, Shi Wu, to steal the Chai
household's cow in the middle of the night. Wei happened to
arrive first, and used a short spear to stab the cow to death. Chai
sensed that something was wrong. Holding his staff, he came
outside of the animal's fence while Wei promptly stole away. Shi
arrived shortly after, and consequently suffered Chai's painful
flogging. He died several days after returning home. Because his
death originated from a robbery attempt, his wife did not dare
report his death to the officials. There was no one else who knew
of Wei's crime, and he thought himself free from punishment.
During the following year, Wei's mother died from illness,
but suddenly recovered life that night. She told her son, "You
and Shi Wu once had designs on Chai's cow. Shi died but you
escaped. Although, in the human world, you have not been
exposed, you must stand witness in the afterworld. This you
cannot avoid." After these words, she passed away.
After another three days, Wei died.2 5
Dong Xingzhi's mother, a devout Buddhist, claims that meeting the
Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy, in the afterworld brought her another chance to live
on earth although she had already descended to the underworld.
2 :1 Ibid., Wei Liu’ s Mother, p. 776.
38
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In Rao prefecture, Dexing County (Jiangxi), Changfeng
village, lived a scholar named Dong Xingzhi. In the twelfth year
of the Chunxi reign (1185), his mother Madam Li was afflicted
with an abdominal disease which also plagued many in the
village. Madam Li's disease grew worse by the day. On the ninth
day of the seventh month, she stopped breathing in the middle of
the night. The family gathered to keep watch of the corpse,
weeping bitterly. All the preparations for dressing and covering
the corpse were finished. At that time, the weather was quite hot,
so they planned to encoffin her as soon as dawn arrived. At the
break of dawn, Madam Li seemed to give a stretch and yawn.
The family helped to prop her up as she began to tell her story.
She said, "I had just begun to descend into the underworld
when I noticed that 1 was surrounded by several li of flat lands
and wild plains... I presumed that I had died so I told myself, 'I
have observed and recited the Kuanyin Scriptures2 6 for thirty
years without negligence, now that I have suddenly entered the
Record of the Dead, if the Goddess of Mercy has divine powers,
then I am still fortunate.’
Then loudly I yelled the name of the Guanyin Goddess of
Mercy about one hundred times, when I felt as if someone had
taken hold of my left shoulder with her right hand....
She [said], 'Your life is over, but because you were endowed
with goodness and purity, I came to help you. You should rush
back; do not delay a second longer. We shall meet again in
another five years.'... Then, I immediately woke as if it was a
dream. To my surprise my body was on this bed."2 7
Another form that "mother's powers" is manifest through shape changing.
After Chen Chengxin's family encoffines his mother's corpse, she comes back to
life — but in the form of a sow! Terribly horrified, they nailed her back up and
buried her in a hurry, but not without obstructions from sudden rainstorms.
26 > s an excerpt from the Lotus Sutra. This section proclaims Guanyin's power o f mercy in
the human world. Ding Fubao T " ® ® . Foxue dacidian [D ictionary o f Buddhist Literature/
(Beijing: wenwu chubanshe, 1984), p. 1491,
27 Hong Mai D ong Xingzhi’ s M other, p. 921.
39
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In Changzhou (Jiangxi), Wuxi County there was a villager
named Chen Chengxin. Originally selling pigs for a living, he
later became very wealthy. His mother, in all her life, was
particularly good at raising pigs. In the fourth year of Shaoxing
(1134), she passed away. On the seventh day after her death,
while her family was preparing Buddhist rituals for her burial,
they suddenly heard sounds emanating from the coffin. Thinking
that she had come to life again, they were overjoyed and
immediately took an ax to split open the coffin. Alas, she had
already transformed into an old sow. In haste, they resealed it.
The next day, they invited the [priest] from the Changzhou
Taiping Temple. The master priest bestowed his holy words, and
[the family] thereupon prepared for burial. At that time, the
weather was sunny. But as soon as the funeral procession left the
gates, copious rains poured down and the cortege could not
proceed and all went back. When the family reached the grave
pit, the water had already filled the pit. Finally, they used stones
to press the coffin down in the grave.2 8
"Mother" is depicted as so powerful a human being that divine retribution
can take place without any of her involvement. Xu Cheng's eye is gouged out by
a leaping branch after he calls his mother a liar behind her back.
Xu Cheng, a farmer in the town of Jinxi (near Fuzhou, Jiangxi),
went home from farming one day and asked his mother for his
meal. His mother told him, "You may take and eat the food from
the pot." He then went to the stove and found that all the pots
were totally empty. In anger he screamed," It's not as if you're
blind, you must have told me deliberate lies!"
Immediately, he went outside to cut firewood when a branch
suddenly leapt up and poked him straight in the eye. It
completely gouged out one eye. He fainted right away and
eventually stayed bedridden for days. Now he is Xun Dingchen’ s
servant. Even after the confession of his crime, he could never
regret enough.2 9
28 Ibid., Chen Chengxin'sMother, p. 56.
29 Ibid., Xu Cheng Goes Against His Mother, p. 997.
40
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For the son, anxiety always looms over affection, creating contradictory ties of
fear and love. For his mother, this translates into a double insurance to guarantee
control over her son.
Mothers also stood between the son and the unknown. Her role as the
medium protected the son. That she could be somewhat safely connected to the
unknown made her all the more awesome. Marjorie Wolf mentions a similar
pattern in her studies on Taiwan. The formula is identical save one element.
Instead of mothers' serving as the medium between the son and the "unknown",
the mother mediates between the son and the father. In Wolfs model, the "father"
replaces the "unknown."
Nonetheless, the sons of these Yi Jian zhi stories could unconditionally
rely on their mothers for protection. That the mothers were so extrasensorily
powerful seem to fasten the bond even more tightly. Jiang Bao and Lu Xiong's
mothers are fitting examples. It made her both awesome and dependable.
Mothers, similarly, rely on their sons - but for human needs like economic well
being and emotional comfort.
In this section, I have presented a model of interdependence between
mothers and sons for economic and emotional security. Whether they are infants
or adults, sons can bring great rewards to a new woman in a large household.
Mothers who succeed in securing strong ties to their sons seal it with gratitude
and affection, as well as anxiety and fear. As Yuan Cai expresses it, women
without these ties were left miserable and lonely. Their uterine family was their
primary tie to rewards. Without it, they faced danger and isolation.
Out of the fourteen stories, ten have dates, all of which are in the second
half of the twelfth century. Out of these ten, six are set in literati environments;
41
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five of which refer to anxiety over the examinations. They are The Dream o f Lu
Xiong's Mother, Ye Wuzhong's Mother, Instructor Yang's Mother, The Dream o f
Pan Mengqi's Mother, and Yang's Mother Serves Zhenwu. Although Hong Mai
collected various voices from diverse backgrounds, the "mother" stands out as a
major fixation to examination candidates.
That mothers have always been responsible for their children's education
could be a possible reason for this fixation. However, prefectural examinations
and early education stand worlds apart. If a young man really wanted to pass the
examinations, he would be much more intelligent to solicit advice from either his
father or some other male figure who had already undergone this experience.
In the Southern Song, a new class of literati arose from marriage strategies
between jinshi degree-holding families and wealthy local families. The imperial
government began to recruit more widely and democratically during this time.
Participation in the examinations became a new status symbol that was woven
into a complex hierarchy of local prestige. For many locally influential families,
this was probably their first chance to produce an examinations candidate.
This process was closely intertwined with family restructure into large
households. Wives have traditionally been praised for efficient household
management. Besides serving their in-laws and husband's family, participating in
ancestral rites, overseeing the concubines, managing the servants, and producing
heirs for the family line, wives had to manage the household account. In most
literati households, communal funds were paltry, and a wives had to take care of
her duties with the greatest frugality.
In the Southern Song, as the world became more restrictive around them,
women sought new means to ensure some economic and emotional security in
42
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their lives. Neo-Confucian doctrine limited their access to the public world, but it
also consolidated their influence inside the home. Bettine Birge has argued that
they often became the controllers of finances in the household, and were widely
applauded for such management.3 0 Building upon the strong bonds that they
already shared with their sons, they rose in the household with their sons' public
achievements.
30 See an extensive discussion on this topic in Bettine Birge, "Women and Property in Sung Dynasty China
(960-1279): Neo-Confiicianism and Social Change in Chien-chou, Fukien" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia
University, 1992), chapter four.
A
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C O
C hapter Five
Conclusion
From my analysis of fourteen Yi Jian zhi stories, I have found that the
mother-son relationship took great importance in Song society. This is verified
through other Song historical documents and Marjorie Wolfs theories on modem
Taiwanese families. I will summarize the main themes below.
First of all, mothers seem to suffer great isolation and powerlessness. This
puts them in a situation where they must find someone to depend on for
emotional comfort. Modem and historical sources have painted a woman's
relationship to her husband as secondary to that with her son. Thus, it is no
surprise that this theme of dependency should appear so frequently in the Yi Jian
zhi stories. If she married into a household where she is the newest member, she
would naturally form stronger attachments to her children than to anyone else.
Her bond to her uterine family is the solution to loneliness in a household of
strangers.
A good mother is wise and provides moral guidance. She helps her son
make moral decisions by giving him esoteric knowledge. This help can range
from merely passing on a message from a dream to coming back from the dead to
rescue him from death. This advice, which she alone is able to give, is essential
to her son’s well-being.
She is powerful. She can change physical form, speak with the afterworld
and move between life and death. These powers place her in a position of
admiration and authority to her son. However, because she never assumes the
role as the controller of supernatural powers but rather as the broker between
44
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"this world" and "the other world," she does not intimidate her son, and draws
him closer instead. A son can always rely on his mother's powers for protection.
In turn, sons provide their mothers with physical well-being and emotional
security. These bonds are sealed with affection in love, but always under the
loom of anxiety and fear. If a son failed his mother, then he must answer not only
to her, but also to divine retribution. Though Hong Mai never intended to collect
stories based on their didactic content, filial piety overtones strongly appear in
this section.
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Appendix: Selected Translations from YiJianzhi
1. Jiang Bao's Deceased Mother
m m t m
p. 31
2. Chen Chengxin's Mother
m m m
p. 56
3. The Dream of Lu Xiong's Mother
m m m
p.114
4. Wei Liu's Mother p. 776
5. Dong Xingzhi's Mother p. 921
6. Ru Jiao's Deer Mother p. 984
7. Xu Cheng Goes Against his Mother
m m m
p. 997
8. Instructor Yang's Mother
m m m
p. 1236
9. Jiao's Mother's Precious Coins p. 1290
10. The Dream of Pan Mengqi's Mother p. 1356
11. The Piling Monk's Mother
gwss
p. 1408
12. Ye Wuzhong's Mother
m & t m
p. 1422
13. Yang's Mother Serves Zhenwu
mmm
p. 1538
14. Willing to Take his Mother's Place in Death p. 1805
Notes:
1. All the page numbers refer to the 1981 edition (He Zhuo ed.).
2. For geographical names within the stories, modem city names immediately
follow the Sung names in parentheses. In cases where the city name remains the
same, only the modem province name is indicated.
4b
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Jiang Bao's Deceased M other
A villager of the name Ma Shujing had a servant called Jiang Bao. One
night, on his way home, he encountered a man clothed in white. They walked
together to the bank of a river, and the stranger invited Bao to bathe with him in
the water. After Bao had already taken off his clothes and about to enter the
water, he suddenly heard a voice calling his name. The sound came from far
away. As he gradually approached and listened, he discerned the sound as his
deceased mother's voice.
In a loud and urgent tone she said, "The one who is walking with you is
not a virtuous person, you definitely should not bathe with him." After the
warning, Jiang Bao's mother arrived, hauled him on her back and forded the
water to the bank. Happening upon a local inhabitant's dwelling, she tossed him
off onto the ground in the middle of some bamboo groves. The inhabitant heard a
sound from outside his home. He came out to check and saw Bao alone. His
mother and the white-clothed man had both disappeared. (Account of Shujing's
younger brother Deng)
47
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Chen Chengxin’s M other
In Changzhou (Jiangxi). Wuxi County there was a villager named Chen
Chengxin. Originally selling pigs for a living, he later became very wealthy. His
mother, in all her life, was particularly good at raising pigs. In the fourth year of
Shaoxing (1134), she passed away. On the seventh day after her death, while her
family was preparing Buddhist rituals for her burial, they suddenly heard sounds
emanating from the coffin. Thinking that she had come to life again, they were
overjoyed and immediately took an ax to split open the coffin. Alas, she had
already transformed into an old sow. In haste, they resealed it.
The next day, they invited the [priest] from the Changzhou Taiping
Temple. The master priest bestowed his holy words, and [the family] thereupon
prepared for burial. At that time, the weather was sunny. But as soon as the
funeral procession left the gates, copious rains poured down and the cortege
could not proceed and all went back. When the family reached the grave pit, the
water had already filled the pit. Finally, they used stones to press the coffin down
in the grave.
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The Dream o f Lu Xiong's M other
Lu Xiong, a native of Shaowu (Fujian), was the son of Lu Kui, Palace
Editor. In the twenty-first year of the Shaoxing reign (1151), he attended the
examinations of the Southern Palace.1 One night, his mother, Madam Fan,
dreamed of several people carrying a coffin to the main hall who said, "this is her
ladyship's mother." She wailed and woke up.
She told this to her husband [Kui] saying, "People say that dreaming of
coffins portends receiving an official title. If this is about our third son,2 it
probably represents a good omen that he will graduate in the examinations. If it is
about you, perhaps it represents the joy of an official promotion.3 As things stand
now, my mother is deceased. How is this a good omen?” Kui was unable to
comprehend this immediately.
At dawn, Kui left the house to look at the results. Upon his return, he
wore a joyful expression on his face, and called to his wife from a distance, "I'll
explain the meaning of your dream last night. What was your mother's family
name?" Madam Fan realized with a start that her mother's family name was
Xiong. Then she knew that her son Xiong must have been selected in the
examinations, and the result followed accordingly. (Lu Xiong's account)
1 Unofficial reference to the Ministry o f Rites which administered the examinations.
2 Lu Xiong was the third son. (original note).
3 Note: "coffin" fjsfand "official title" 'g’are homophones.
4 9
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In Poyang (Boyang, Jiangxi) there was a villager by the name of Wei Liu
who lived five li north of the city walls. His family was exceedingly poor, so he
hired himself out as a laborer. During the tenth summer of the Chunxi reign
(1183), he conspired with his neighbor, Shi Wu, to steal the Chai household's
cow in the middle of the night. Wei happened to arrive first, and used a short
spear to stab the cow to death. Chai sensed that something was wrong. Holding
his staff, he came and stood outside of the animal's fence while Wei promptly
stole away. Shi arrived shortly after, and consequently suffered Chai's painful
flogging. He died several days after returning home. Because his death
originated from a robbery attempt, his wife did not dare report his death to the
officials. There was no one else who knew of Wei's crime, and he thought
himself free from punishment.
During the following year, Wei's mother died from illness, but suddenly
recovered life that night. She told her son, "You and Shi Wu once had designs
on Chai's cow. Shi died but you escaped. Although, in the human world, you
have not been exposed, you must stand witness in the afterworld. This you
cannot avoid." After these words, she passed away.
After another three days, Wei died.
50
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Dong Xingzhi's Mother
In Rao prefecture, Dexing County (Jiangxi), Changfeng village, lived a
scholar named Dong Xingzhi. In the twelfth year of the Chunxi reign (1185), his
mother Madam Li was afflicted with an abdominal disease which also plagued
many in the village. Madam Li’ s disease grew worse by the day. On the ninth
day of the seventh month, she stopped breathing in the middle of the night. The
family gathered to keep watch over the corpse, weeping bitterly. All the
preparations for dressing and covering the corpse were finished. At that time, the
weather was quite hot, so they planned to encoffin her as soon as dawn arrived.
At the break of dawn, Madam Li seemed to give a stretch and yawn. The family
helped to prop her up as she began to tell her story.
She said, "I had just begun to descend into the underworld when I noticed
that I was surrounded by several li of flat lands and wild plains. I entered a city
and heard boisterous sounds from crowds around me. However, my vision was
impaired and I could see nothing. I presumed that I had died so I told myself, '1
have observed and recited the Kuanyin Scriptures1 for thirty years without
negligence, now that I have suddenly entered the Record of the Dead, if the
Goddess of Mercy has divine powers, then I am still fortunate.'
Then loudly I yelled the name of the Guanyin Goddess of Mercy about one
hundred times, when I felt as if someone had taken hold of my left shoulder with
her right hand. Merely thirty steps later, gradually all around me was as bright as
is an excerpt from the Lotus Sutra. This section proclaims Guanyin’ s power o f mercy in
the human world. Ding Fubao T $ § £ S ’ Foxtte Jacidian [D ictionary o f Buddhist Literature j
(Beijing: wenwu chuban she, 1984), p. 1491.
51
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day. There was a woman2 whose body was covered by stringed pearis; she
shined with radiance and smelled of flowers. Furthermore, she wore a grand and
solemn countenance. 1 knew that this was one of the forms of the bodhisattva-’ so
I appealed to her for help.
She replied, 'Your life is over, but because you were endowed with
goodness and purity, I came to help you. You should rush back; do not delay a
second longer. We shall meet again in another five years.'
When I had hardly made a bow in thanks, she had already risen into the
sky. The distance between us grew greater and greater as she went toward the
western horizon. Looking from far away, I could see the banners in front of her
as they shone in brilliant gold. It shook my heart and startled my eyes. Then, I
immediately woke as if it was a dream. To my surprise my body was on this
bed."
Thereafter she lived in health, happiness and peace. Five years later, in
the eighth month of the first year of Shaoxi (1190), she passed away while sitting,
free from illness. (Dong Xizhi is said to have written his own account of this matter)
2 In the sutras, bodhisattvas were not identified as either male or female, but both. However, during the
Sung, Kuanyin began to appear in female form. Ibid., p. 1493 and Patricia Ebrey, Inner
Quarters: M arriage an d Lives o f Chinese Women in the Sung P e r io d (Berkeley: University o f California
Press. 1993). p. 37.
3 As indicated in Buddhist sutras, Guanyin could transform her physical form into thirty-three incarnations.
Ding, p. 1493.
i
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Ru Jiao’s Deer Mother
In Tai prefecture, Linan County (Hangzhou, Zhejiang), there was a
Buddhist monk named Ru Jiao who lived in the temple of a rich family named Li
in the old city. His mother, Madam Yeh, lived with his elder brother in a village
called Beicun. Jiao often went to visit them. In the spring of the thirteenth year
of the Chunxi reign (1186), his mother passed away.
During the memorial service of the following year, Jiao set up pious
sacrifices and then returned to the monastery to complete his mourning. In a
dream his mother came. In tears she said, "Because I had not done any good
deeds during my entire life, I have been reincarnated as a deer. I live only a short
distance from you in the nearby mountains. Tomorrow morning I shall be pursued
and hunted by eagles and dogs, and you can come out to see me. When you see
me, redeem me with money; make sure you do not forget this." Jiao woke up in
despair and sadness.
Dawn barely broke before he led several servants to wait outside the
monastery. That morning there were indeed hunters chasing a deer, which ran
straight into the monastery. Jiao exchanged five thousand cash with the hunters
for the deer, kept it and fed it.
Three years went by. One night, Jiao once again dreamed of his mother,
who said, "I have made enough restitution for my karma. To have avoided the
mouths and stomachs of animals and men is all due to the effect of your filial
piety." When Jiao rose in the morning, the deer had already died inside the
railings. Jiao buried the deer corpse on the side of his mother's grave. Since
then, the villagers have called it the "Grave of the Deer Mother."
53
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Xu Cheng Goes Against his M other
Xu Cheng, a fanner in the town of Jinxi (near Fuzhou, Jiangxi), went
home from farming one day and asked his mother for his meal. His mother told
him, "You may take and eat the food from the pot." He then went to the stove
and found that all the pots were totally empty. In anger he screamed," It's not as if
you're blind, you must have told me deliberate lies!"
Immediately, he went outside to cut firewood when a branch suddenly
leapt up and poked him straight in the eye. It completely gouged out one eye. He
fainted right away and eventually stayed bedridden for days. Now he is Xun
Dingchen's servant. Even after the confession of his crime, he could never regret
enough.
54
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Instructor Vang's M other
A Mr. Yang, ofZizhou (Zizhong, Sichuan), government accountant, died
in office. Unable to return home, his family temporarily stayed in Linan County,
Dasheng Lane (Hangzhou, Zhejiang). After a few years, his wife Madam Cao
also died, and both their bodies were temporarily stored at Zanye Temple. They
had one son named Guang, who studied diligently and received the local
administrator's recommendation for the examinations. During the wiau year of
the Chunxi reign (1178), he attended the metropolitan examinations for the jinshi
degree.
After the test, the west wall of the examinations hall happened to be struck
by strong wind and rain, and several zhang (one zhang=141 inches) fell down.
Gao Lu, the grader of the examination papers, was an instructor from Linan. On
this night, as he sat in the front end of the room grading test papers, he suddenly
saw an old woman appear in the candlelight. He guessed that she was in her
fifties as she approached and bowed. With a strong Sichuan accent, she said, "I
am only an old woman from Zizhou, and my humble son participated in the
examinations. The paper which you are presently grading is his, and I hope you
will put it in the pile of the tests that pass. If you bless this destiny, my floating
spirit will finally repose in the west."
Gao said, "Your son's writing is prosaic at most, so it's improbable that his
essays will be selected." But, after her continual pleading, he finally conceded to
passing her son. Then, with a start he realized [the bizarre circumstances of the
situation] and asked her, "How did you get in here?"
55
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She replied, "I have been walking back and forth outside the walls for
several days, but I always saw the gold-armored deities surround the walls. There
was no path for me to enter. Just now when the wind and rain struck down the
walls, all the gods hid for safety. I came through a crack in the wall, and I don't
dare stay long." She immediately disappeared.
Gao began to get frightened. He was unable to sleep all night. On the next
day, he took the examination paper to his superior, examinations consultant
Zheng Shaoqing, and told him the old woman's appeal. Zheng accepted the
examination paper and added him to the list of graduates by giving him the
lowest grade.
When they ripped the seal open, the paper indeed belonged to Yang
Guang. The court further praised Yang and made him an instructor in Peizhou
(modem Peiling, Sichuan) and specially transported the two coffins back to
Zizhou. Instructor Gao was promoted to be the magistrate of Dexing (Jiangxi).
That was where he told me this story. I checked the examination records to
verify these details, but found no Yang Guang listed in that particular year. 1
suspect that this was not his real name.
5b
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Jiao's Mother's Precious Coins
In Poyang (Boyang, Jiangxi), lived Jiao Deyi, zi Jifu. His mother. Madam
Zou, was always kind and spoke little. She never gossiped. She only worshipped
Buddha with all her heart. She bore only one son whom she had destined for a
literati career. Teachers and friends often visited, and although the family was
poor, they never turned away the needs of others.
During the spring of the twenty-third year of Shaoxing (1153), Jiao was in
the parlor when suddenly something fell from nowhere into the comer of the
room where he was sitting. It jumped around without stop. He bent over, picked
it up and looked at it, and found them to be three coins from the Chongning reign
(1102-1107). Happily he said to himself, "I once heard that Madam Zhang caught
a pigeon with a copper hook in its mouth. She wore the hook at her waist and
after that, several generations of her descendants were blessed with prosperity.
How do I know if this isn't the same sort of good fortune?" Then he promptly tied
them to his sash, stringed the coins firmly, and never took them off even for a
moment. In the winter of the tenth year of the Chunxi reign( 1183), the coins
suddenly stuck out and leapt under a small table. [On another day], he felt
around his waist for them and found nothing there. Thinking that someone had
untied his sash and stolen the coins, he suspected and feared everyone around
him. His moods fluctuated between extremes, and no one could predict his
behavior.
Some days later, the emperor's mother celebrated her birthday. To
commemorate this occasion, written amnesties were sent to prefectures which
ordered all officials with mothers over the age of seventy to ascend to the court
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for promotions. Since Jiao was already a prefectural nominee, he qualified for
this promotion. Furthermore, by Deyi's calculation of the gengzi cycie of years.
Madam Zou was eighty-two years old at the time. Therefore, the court promoted
Deyi and bestowed Madam Zou with the title of "Honorable Mother." Jiao took
this as a compensation for the loss of his coins.
Two years later, on a winter's day, he suddenly felt that the coins were
nearby. He exhausted all human energy and effort searching for them, but still
could not find them. Once again, he fell into great despair. That night, he felt
especially depressed. Towards dawn, he asked his son and wife to prepare all his
toiletries, washed his hands and feet and clasped his hands as he bowed in the
four directions. He counseled his sons and grandsons to study diligently, then sat
in the lotus position, concentrated deeply and passed away.
When she was in her thirties. Madam Zou suffered from a respiratory
illness that brought about very serious attacks. Since then, she has worn coins
into her old age, altogether for thirty-three years. Concurrently, her former
disease seemed to have disappeared. Her senses were intact, her step was strong
and she could even thread a needle under candlelight. Sometimes, she sat up
until late at night. Even those bom after her could not do so much.
58
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The Dream of Pan M engqi's M other
A scholar of Pingjiang (Hunan), Pan Mengqi did not originally go by this
name. One autumn, in the year renzi (1192) of the Shaoxi reign, his mother
dreamed of a deity who planted a yellow flag at their door. On the flag was the
character pan ((§f ) with a smaller character yi (J§) on the side of it. She woke up
and told her son about this dream.
He dismissed it by saying, "It's only a dream, and dreams are hardly
reliable."
The next night, his mother had the same dream once again, but he still
would not call it anything but a dream. This happened for a third night. She was
an intelligent person, and said, "Could this portent be a message telling you to
change your name to yiV
Pan said, "Since the character is off-centered and small, it would not be
suitable for a name. Rather, I think that it's telling me to change the classics of
my examination subject." All along, Pan had studied poetry, but because of this
dream he bought books like Commentary on the Yi Jing (Book o f Changes)
which explain the main points. He studied attentively with a teacher and grew
more studious as time went on.
At the prefectural examinations, the judges selected most of his essays,
and he gradually became more confident. When the autumn examinations in the
year of yimao (1195) of the Qingyuan reign (1195-1201) arrived, he worried that
his command of the Yi Jing was not up to examiners' standards, and registered
once again for examinations on verse.
59
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After he had already submitted his examination papers, the deity appeared
in his dream and said, "The last time I planted the flag to indicate your name.
They/ character refers to your examination classic." He awoke and changed his
name to qi flag), and once again competed in the examinations on the Yi
Jing.
That night, he dreamed of the deity again, who said, "You should used the
qi ( ^ ) character from the idiom jiao long wei qi )' i* 1 Y our name.
Only the element jin (Jx) will do. "2
Pan was now filled with amazement. He followed the deity's instructions,
and additionally attached the character meng (dream) to his name to make
Mengqi. With the Ministry's recommendations, he graduated in the examinations.
(The above three dreams were told by Instmctor Zhu)
'According to Ouan Tarigsi dicmgu c id ia n ftr f^ ^ l& $ jftl& , ed. Fan Zhilin et al. (Hubei: Hubei
cishu chubanshe, 1989), p. 787, ejifftf in this passage means a banner with small bells attached, used by
feudal lords on which were painted entwined dragons. The allusion to Zhou L i may simply be a
way to identify the graph. But, the dragons may also be auspicious.
2 By Southern Song, qi jjt and q ity ] were homophones meaning "flag, banner." But in old Chinese and
Early Middle Chinese through the Sui Dynasty, they had different pronunciations.
See Hanzi guyin .vAot/ce [Handbook o f Ancient Chinese Pronunciations] (Beijing: Beijing
daxue chuban she, 1986), p. 73.
60
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The Piling1 Monk's M other
In a certain temple in Changzhou (Jiangsu), there lived an abbot in his
fifties. He was respectful and attentive to his mother, and because there was no
one to take care of her at home, he temporarily set her up in a small room in the
monastery. One day, he said that his mother had suddenly died. The weather
was hot and humid, so they immediately prepared the corpse for burial. They
carried the coffin to the gardener's shed, dug a grave and wept through the night.
They planned to bury her the next morning.
At the same temple lived Judge Zhang, a temporary resident who was
dismissed from Xinan (Shexian, Anhui). There was also a sing-song girl who
accompanied him named Zhao Shouer. Zhao had all the feminine beauty and
accomplishments, and Zhang could not satisfy all her desires. On this night, she
suddenly disappeared. [Zhang] thought that she had run away, and went through
the township officials (similar to modem police) to set up a reward for her
capture.
The younger disciples said, "We saw the abbot, Riyan, from Huizhou
(Anhui) speak with Shouer. Shouer often used the pretext of visiting the monk's
mother when she was really visiting him. We suspect that he abducted her, and
lied about his mother’ s death."
Three days later, someone came forth to report that the monk's mother was
not dead after all. He reported that the monk had taken advantage of the dusk
1 Piling is another name for Changzhou.
61
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hour to sneak Shouer into the coffin, then called the morticians and gave it over
to them. The authorities investigated the story, and found that it was true.
The monk and the sing-song girl were brought to the prefectural court.
Prefect Mo Boxu locked them up in jail and sentenced them to severe
interrogation. The monk was sentenced to a beating, lost his Buddhist diploma
and became a common citizen. Shouer begged to be exempt from punishment and
be assigned to service as an officially registered entertainer. Because she was
superior to the general run of prostitutes, the legal clerk of the prefectural court
also made an appeal for mercy on her behalf. The Prefect turned it down and
finally beat her. Over ten people altogether, morticians and servants, were
implicated and punished.
The sing-song girl was delivered to a middleman, and then entered the
household of a staff assistant, eventually bearing three children. For the rest of
her life she took up the duties of a domestic housewife, and I got to know her
well during my days at Huizhou. (Account of Zhao Miaozhi)
62
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Ye W uzhong's M other
One year after his mother's death. Ye Wuzhong happened upon Leping
(Jiangxi) resident Zhong Demao's household while they were beginning to
perform ritual sacrifices for the dead. Zhong generously let others participate to
make their own sacrifices, so Ye bought paper clothing [to send to his mother in
the underworld] and approached the altar. The head priest Cheng Guoqi said
prayers and burnt it [to transport it to the underworld].
Later, in a dream Ye's mother appeared to him and said, "I'm grateful for
the clothing you have sent to me, but because I am old and weak, the outfit was
snatched by a ruthless and fierce thug." Her face was full of sadness. Ye woke
and wept miserably.
He solicited Guoqi again, and asked him to draft a written order to
command the deities of the sacrifices as well as the regional deities to clarify,
obtain and return the clothing. He also called for immediate retribution for the
crime. On that night his mother appeared in his dream again and said, "I am
grateful to Priest Cheng for making sure that my clothing has been rightfully
returned and for granting my desires. Please thank him for me." From then on,
Cheng's Taoist magic became famous.
63
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Yang's Mother Serves Zhenwu
A resident of the Min state (Fujian), Yang Yizhi, hao Yuanli, passed the
examinations in the guiwei year of the Longxing reign (1163). He was assigned
as record keeper in Qingliu (Fujian). However, before he went to the place of
appointment he contracted a disease that gave him hot and cold spells which
turned worse in a few days. His mother, Madam Guo, was devastatingly worried
about him. All her life she had worshipped and served [the local deity] Zhenwu.
Now, as she sat miserably on her bed, she recited several hundred rolls of chants.
In his feverish delirium, Yuanli saw a man with a large body and wild hair
and brandishing a sword. The giant leapt down toward him and struck his head
with a sword. Yuanli wasn't quick enough to avoid the blow, but his headache
began to go away. After the giant poured water over him and sweat began to
pour out, the giant suddenly disappeared.
The next day, he recovered to normal health and told all to his mother.
His mother exclaimed, "It's the Holy Protector Zhen who saved you!" After a few
days, he indeed was cured,. From then on, his mother became even more pious.
She would devote her entire day to worship, sometimes to the point that she
would forget to sleep and eat. She died at age eighty-four. Yuanli did not
become a deep believer, and the supernatural events accordingly ceased.
1 Zhenwu is the Taoist deity o f the North, also called Xuanwu and Xuantian ShangJi
According to Sou-shen j i by Gan Bao o f the Jin Dynasty, he was a transformation o f
Yuanshi HjUfp, Taiji (Supreme Ultimate). He is also described as the son o f the king o f Jinle Yuan
in supreme antiquity, bom with extraordinary features, who perfected the occult Taoist arts for
forty years on Wudang Mountain (Hubei) jS iltlij then ascended into he sky in broad daylight. See
Huang, Ling, et al , JinpingM ei Dacidiem (Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 1991), p. 849
64
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W illing to Take his Mother's Place in Death
Ke Congshi lived in a northern township of Wen prefecture (Zhejiang) in
a village called Qingyuan. During the Jianyuan period of the Sung (1127-1131)'
great numbers of bandits rose up everywhere. No one was spared in their path.
Thus, the entire village of Qingyuan abandoned their homes to take shelter on
Mt. Meng. Before long, the bandits arrived [at Mt. Meng] and most were killed.
Some were not killed. Determined to find the villagers' hidden valuables, the
bandits tried to extort such information from their prisoners. Congshi's mother
was among those captured.
Painfully alarmed at the thought of his mother's wrongful death, Ke
Congshi went to the leader of the bandits, made a polite bow, and said, "Only I
can find where the villagers hid their valuables. My mother truly does not know
where they are hidden. 1 am willing to take my mother's place as your prisoner
and join in your search for the jewels."
The bandits thus released his mother for Congshi. He led the bandits in a
search of several places, but came across nothing in any of them. Finally, the
bandits realized that they'd been duped so they shot many arrows at him, none of
which penetrated his body. When the bandits asked why he had lied, Congshi
admitted that, fearing his mother's unnatural death, he had purposely designed the
plot in order to die in her place.
1 This period in Sung Dynasty was marked by the Jurchen capture o f the Northern Capital and the
dynasty's move to the south. The capital was established at Nanjing in 1127. It later moved to Hangzhou.
See Wolfram Eberhard, A History o f China (Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1969), p.225-227.
6
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cn
The bandits sympathized with his filial piety and released him.
66
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Yue Daiyun "Chuantong wenxue he dangdai wenxue zhong de
Zhongguo funu" [Chinese Women
in Traditional and Contemporary Literature]. In Zhongguo dianjiyu
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71
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Asset Metadata

Creator Lin, Jean (author)

Core Title Maternal devotion: the symbiotic relationship between mothers and sons in Yi Jian Zhi

School Graduate School

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program East Asian Languages and Cultures

Degree Conferral Date 1995-08

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

Tag history, Asia, Australia and Oceania,literature, Asian,OAI-PMH Harvest,sociology, individual and family studies,women's studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-741

Unique identifier UC11337783

Identifier 1376478.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-741 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 1376478.pdf

Dmrecord 741

Document Type Thesis

Rights Lin, Jean

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