Androgyny in Late Ming and Early Qing Literature

Acknowledgments

During my graduate study I became fascinated with the emerging trend to apply feminist theory in the exploration of Chinese literati identity, which was starting to reorient Western scholars’ perspectives in Ming-Qing study. Out of this interest I launched into a full-scale gender study of canonical works for my dissertation, which ultimately evolved into the present volume . From the inception of this study to its completion, I got ceaseless inspiration , encouragement, and assistance from Professor Robert Hegel, to whom I owe a profound debt of gratitude. Hegel continued to read my writings and guide my research following my graduation; as an exemplary mentor he develops bonds to his students that are lifelong. I am also deeply indebted to Professor Beata Grant, who proved the advantage for me of her selection as a member of my dissertation committee by oVering numerous stylistic suggestions for this project. Grant not only kindly helped me during my graduate study, she continued to send me materials after my graduation to help develop my final schoolwork into a book. While writing this book I benefited from the assistance of a number of scholars in the field: John Ziemer’s suggestions on an early version of the manuscript guided me to further contextualize my discussion of Chinese culture, thus setting directions for substantial expansion and revision; Joanna Handlin Smith helped me with the judgement on Lü Kun; David Rolston oVered useful suggestions concerning its publication. The two readers at the University of Hawai‘i Press gave me valuable and insightful suggestions , bringing my attention to new perspectives on the phenomenon of ana c k n o w l e d g m e n t s drogyny and preventing a number of errors. Professor Paul Ropp kindly discussed with me a number of the controversial issues in current gender study that are related to the arguments presented in this book. The Chinese scholar Lin Chen sent me his seminal study on scholar-beauty romances, which helped me to circumscribe the scope of this genre in the current study. It was a pleasure to work with my editor at the University of Hawai‘i Press, Pamela Kelley, whose sound suggestions, along with Karen WellerWatson ’s meticulous copyediting, improved the book in many ways. Of course, I am solely responsible for any remaining errors. Over the years I have had support from several institutions, without which I would not have been able to complete this book. The East Asian libraries of the University of Chicago, the Indiana University, and the University of Kansas provided me with summer travel grants for 1999 and 2000. Library staV at various institutions rendered me warm support, among them Tony Chang (Washington University), David Hickey (University of Florida), Li Guoqing (Ohio State University), Martin Heijdra (Princeton University), and Vickie Doll (University of Kansas). Two chairmen at the University of Florida, Averhan Balaban and Chauncey Chu, gave me both moral and financial support during the years when I was revising the manuscript. So did Neil Donahue, my third chair at Hofstra University. I thank Brill Press for permitting me to use in a diVerent version a portion of my essay “Chaos and the Gourd in The Dream of the Red Chamber,” published in T’oung Pao. The completion of this book also involved contribution and sacrifice by nearly every member of my family. My three sisters, Zhou Yin, Zhou Weizhen , and Zhou Weimin, either helped me acquire books in China or served as my liaison with the Chinese scholar Lin Chen. In the last few years of his life, my father painstakingly combed bookstores in Beijing in search of scholar-beauty romances that had gone out of print by the mid-1990s, when I needed them badly; the twenty-five volumes of that genre that he secured for me proved instrumental in my composition of chapter five of this book. Jing, my daughter, read the final version of the manuscript before I sent it to the press; she saved me from committing several errors and oVered many stylistic suggestions. Last but not least I am indebted to my wife, Surong, who shared with me the frustration during the period when I was expanding and revising the earlier versions of the book, with my academic career at its lowest ebb. The book is dedicated to the memory of my parents, who nurtured in me a love for literature, and cultivated in me a spirit to aspire and to strive. x Acknowledgments ...