Androgyny in Late Ming and Early Qing Literature

Chapter 6. The Peach Blossom Fan: An Ambivalent Hymn to Political Androgyny

The Peach Blossom Fan An Ambivalent Hymn to Political Androgyny The late Ming literati’s antagonism to the “concubine” identity was partly attributable to the lack of masculinity of the ruling clique, consequently gender features prominently in literary characterization when scholars turn to presenting the political conflict between the virilized subjects and the emasculated power center. So far we have only peripherally touched upon this issue, to which we now devote our close attention in the following study of the Fan. Unfolding romantic love against political turmoil, Kong Shangren ’s masterpiece presents the confrontation between two camps who hold diVerent stances in the face of the national crisis in the last days of the Ming dynasty. In the Ming and Qing, politics was regarded as a man’s vocation that called for courage, resolution, and virility; political attitude hence functioned as a barometer of human gender in Kong’s dramatic world. At a moment when the empire was ridden with internal conflict and devastated by an alien aggression, the nation was in dire need of a strong ruler, who was, however, pathetically missing from the scene. While those dominating the power structure wallowed in debauchery in disregard of their oYcial duty, a group of righteous Confucians rallying under the banner of Fu She, c h a p t e r 6 the Restoration Society, strove valiantly to purify the court. Politically alienated , these marginal Confucians, among whom a prominent figure was aptly a woman, Li Xiangjun, aspired to play active, masculine roles in politics. It is largely with this group of purists that the dramatist is spiritually aligned. The play sings a hymn, although with certain reservation, to their gender stance in a national crisis: their political activism and combative spirit as marginal subjects. On the symbolic level, the ideal gender stand of the protagonists, which we might term “androgynous,” is projected through a series of peach-related images that bespeckle the dramatic structure as marks of values. The ambiguity of the peach image with its multiple connotations and shifting gender import, deeply entrenched in Chinese culture and reverberating in Kong’s drama, points to the ambivalence in the dramatic celebration of androgyny in political action. This attitude mirrors the ambiguity of the dramatist’s identity when the bygone Ming order associated with his loyalist father1 and the nascent Qing regime headed by his patron , the Kangxi emperor, simultaneously appeal for his loyalty and solicit his commitment.2 The following study thus focuses on three gender-related areas: political stance, peach-blossom imagery, and the dramatist’s identity. A World of Inversion: Gender Switch between the Monarchy and the Demimonde The Fan unfurls before the approaching doom of the Ming regime; its bane lies in its very want of yang energy. By the time the play begins, not only has Chongzhen Emperor terminated his life by hanging himself from a tree like a woman, but Hongguang, the successor to the throne, appears to be no more “manly.” Although the royal heir does not tie a noose around his neck in the face of foreign invasion, he takes to his heels,3 as he explains, “Of all possible stratagems, the best is escape” (F 36.259).4 While on the throne, he indulges in sensual pleasure for lack of courage to face the crisis, slighting his duty and perverting his ordained identity as the “son of the heaven”;5 oV the throne, he beseeches his subordinates for a political haven and is eager to give up his crown in exchange for personal safety. A puppet manipulated by his courtiers while in power, he is reduced to a “jewel” in the pockets of the turncoats to barter for their career advancement. Such a feeble and feckless emperor personifies the eVeminate refugee regime of the Southern Ming over which he reigns. 128 c h a p t e r s i x In the dramatic world of the Fan, the perverse eVeminate identity of the ruling clique is most vividly projected in the characterization of its ranking oYcial Ruan Dacheng, the egocentric dramatist whose insatiable desire for rank and status has consumed his masculine will and reduced him to a feeble accomplice of the eunuch clique, politically the yin incarnate. Thus he humbly degrades himself to be the “godson of Wei, the godson of Ke;6 / to any family he will go” (F 3.27) for political patronage...