In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

54 Chapter 2 From the Margin to the Center The Literary Vocation of Concubines A deeply entrenched social institution in the history of China, the practice of concubinage reaches back to at least the Zhou period (eleventh-third century B.C.E.), for which a system of ranked consorts to kings and princes was recorded in the Zhou li (Rites of Zhou).1 Women were procured as concubines for a variety of purposes, such as entertainment, and sexual, reproductive, and other services in the patriarchal family system. From our modern perspective, concubinage was unquestionably a deep-rooted form of female subordination in imperial China. Its long history and customary acceptance are demonstrated by its practice well into the twentieth century. In contemporary China, it was not until the marriage laws instituted by the People’s Republic in 1950 that the lingering practice was eradicated. In colonial Hong Kong, concubinage was not prohibited legally until as recently as 1971.2 The widespread practice of concubinage in the late imperial period ironically brought about the visibility of literary production by women whose status was subordinate and marginal in the family and social hierarchy. Therefore, by exploring the literary vocation of concubines, I intend to articulate the potential for constructing subject positions in the intersection between social subjugation and textual practice. Through their engagement with writing, how might these women have compensated for, written against, resisted, or overturned the marginality and subordination associated with concubinage? Given that their personhood was negated on the social and ritual levels, can their literary pursuits suggest a subjectivity conceptualized on premises other than the social? I believe some could, and in this chapter I want to explore how, in and through the repeated act of writing, they communicated literary identity, authority, alternative subject positions, and self-fulfillment . Thus, by reading the textual productions of concubines, this chapter aims to illustrate agency and subjectivity rendered visible by literacy of a socially subordinate class of women. After a broad overview of the historical practice of concubinage in its linguistic, social, and cultural dimensions, I turn to examine the rising From the Margin to the Center 55 literary production of concubines from the seventeenth century on. I discuss the significance of the Xiefang ji (Anthology of Gathered Fragrances, preface 1785), a vast collection of women’s poetry from the mid-seventeenth century on compiled by Wang Qishu (1728–1799), who gave important space to recording the lives and writings of concubines as a social category. The second half of the chapter closely analyzes the literary collection of Shen Cai (b. 1752), a talented concubine whose poetic practice problematizes any simple relation between subjection and agency. The Social and Cultural Inscription of the Concubine The original logic of concubinage was to serve the needs and demands of the patrilineal descent line. As conceived and practiced in Chinese culture, a man was expected to produce male offspring, through the reproductive duty of his wife, to carry on the family line and to carry out the proper worship and sacrifices to his ancestors . Although in legal and ritual contexts from late Warring States times on, a man could marry only one wife, his legal and official wife (monogamy), in practice he could have in addition one or more concubines (poly­gyny). While there were men throughout the imperial period who acquired concubines for the express purpose of producing male progeny, often at the insistence of concerned parents or a childless wife, others exploited this custom to pursue their desire for pleasure, sexual gratification, entertainment, the display of wealth and social status, or even just for plain domestic service. The attitude of the principal wife regarding this practice ranged widely between forms of acceptance and complicity, and those of opposition. Historically, there were class and possibly regional patterns and variations in the practice of concubinage. The practice spread among the scholar-official class in the Song period (960–1279) and, by the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911), not only men from elite or wealthy families took concubines, but even ordinary men of modest means might keep a concubine or two for productive and reproductive functions.3 Male attitudes towards this practice also varied. Some thought it entirely natural, while others remained happily married to a single wife, and a minority opposed its practice and spoke strongly against it, such as the scholar Yu Zhengxie (1775–1840), an early promoter of women’s rights.4 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the...

Share