"Mencius" and Masculinities: Dynamics of Power, Morality, and Maternal Thinking (review)

In her latest book, "Mencius" and Masculinities: Dynamics of Power, Morality, and Maternal Thinking, Joanne Birdwhistell presents a fresh perspective on a classic text. She develops a clear and detailed argument for the necessity of understanding the Mencius as a text concerned with masculinity and explores the nature of the type of masculinity proposed by the Mencius. Through a careful analysis of imagery, agrarian connotations, and maternal practices, Birdwhistell argues that the new masculine ideal the Mencius calls for is, in fact, the result of extensive transgendering¹ of specifically female and maternal practices.

Birdwhistell begins by outlining her interpretive perspective and methodological concerns. Although most commentaries and studies of the Mencius have seen it as more or less gender neutral, Birdwhistell uses her background in feminist studies to examine the text, guided by issues of gender. She argues that, rather than being gender neutral, the Mencius is, in fact, a deeply gendered text. It was directed toward a specific group of men and uses gender as an important part of both moral and political discourse. According to Birdwhistell, "Chinese philosophy is a story about competing forms of masculinity" (p. 8). Because she is concerned with respecting the particularity of the situation surrounding the text, she is careful to point out that gender issues were not of interest to the many thinkers who have dealt with the Mencius in the history of the tradition; she is careful to develop the historical context in chapter 1. She believes, however, that certain historical clues, such as the exclusion of the mother-child relationship from Confucian ontology and the explicit prohibition for men against certain kinds of typically female behavior, tell us that "the early Confucian-Mencian thinkers were promoting an implicitly transgendered ideal" (p. 13). Birdwhistell reads the Mencius as an instructional text, showing a certain group of elite men a new way to behave.

Using the idea of a cultural landscape, Birdwhistell identifies several features of the text that point to gender and gendered behavior. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on two types of masculinity that the text explicitly argues against: Shen Nong's agrarian masculinity and King Hui's self-centered masculinity. She explicates passage 3A4, where two brothers are described as converting to a particular style of agrarian living, where even the ruler is expected to toil in the fields and weave clothes with the rest of the people. This agrarian masculinity is contrary to Mencius's ideal masculinity, because "men are, or should be, associated with an order based on clear distinctions, which apply to governing, social relations, farming . . . [and] women are associated with a lack of those very distinctions that make for proper order" (p. 49). The agrarian masculinity is rejected because it erases important distinctions between ruler and ruled, between nature and civilization, and between male and female behavior. Mencius does uphold a social hierarchy, and these sorts of distinctions are crucial to maintaining social order. The kind of masculinity presented by Mencius reinforces the idea of the gentleman as masculine, as contrasted with the commoner.

On the other hand, Mencius also discusses another challenge to his ideal masculinity, coming from men like King Hui. "Mencius rejects King Hui's self-centered masculinity because it denies the importance of particular personal relations within the family and the political arena" (p. 51). She continues, discussing the importance of understanding the relationality of personal identities, and the role this plays within Mencian ontology. Mencian thought requires interrelationality, and the self-centered masculinity of men like King Hui, by not acknowledging the importance of family and governmental relations, errs in the opposite direction from the agrarian masculinity. Birdwhistell argues that King Hui's masculinity is lacking certain maternal traits that would allow it to understand the importance of ren 仁 and family relationships, and because of this lack, manifests itself as militaristic...