Testimony of a Confucian Woman: The Autobiography of Mrs. Nie Zeng Jifen, 1852-1942 (review)

598 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 Zeng Jifen. Testimony ofa Confucian Woman: The Autobiography ofMrs. Nie ZengJifen, 1852-1942. Translated by Thomas L. Kennedy. Edited by Thomas L. Kennedy and Micki Kennedy. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1993. Ii, 213 pp. Hardcover $35.00, isbn 0-8203-1509-5. Testimony ofa Confucian Woman is the remarkable record of the life ofNie Zeng Jifen, daughter of Zeng Guofan (1811-1872), notable official, early industrialist, and, according to his daughter and the editors of this volume, "a paragon of traditional Confucian virtues" (p. xxi). That such a man's daughter would be schooled to envision her life as unfolding within the traditional "three bonds"—as daughter , wife, and mother—is to be expected; what is remarkable is that her embracing and expression of these ideals remains unfaltering and graceful even as her years traverse the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, the fall of the Qing dynasty, and two world wars—years in which China's elite upper class moved from imperial bureaucratic to bourgeois society. Nie Zeng Jifen shifts her primary identity from marquis' daughter to governor's wife to Shanghai cotton entrepreneur's mother and finally to clan matriarch. Throughout the vicissitudes ofher life's journey, she never once wavers in her adherence to traditional views of filiality, hierarchical gender roles, and the responsibilities wrought by her family's social alliances. Sometime around her eightieth birthday, Mrs. Nie arranged her recollections for publication in the form of a nianpu, or year-by-year recording ofevents. In translating the resulting text, the editors have occasionally rearranged material for the sake ofclarity, usually by combining entries for events that developed over a long period oftime into fewer, more cohesive selections. They have also amplified geographical, historical, and cultural references and have integrated information from other published sources to render bodi general references and complex personal relationships coherent for the reader. In these cases, ample notation is provided in die extremely helpful prefatory and appended materials. Each chapter is preceded by a summary overview ofprevailing custom and political context for the recorded events, and the Translator's Afterword usefully discusses Mrs. Nie's autobiography in light of issues of cultural continuity and transformation during an era ofwrenching historical change. The editors are also careful to explain their decision to eschew the rigid formality of the original text: it would likely have posed unaccustomed obstacles of circumlocution or tedious repetition for the English reading audience. Whereas Mrs. Nie customarily refers to men by their rank y mversity Qr p0smumous honorary titles, the edited text identifies them in more familiar terms; for example, "my father" is used to identify Zeng Guofan rather than "the revered Mr. Wenzheng" (cultivated and upright one) (p. xvi). ofHawai'i Press Reviews 599 The introduction is particularly helpful in its historical outline and its discussion ofgentry-class life, with special attention to the role and concerns ofwomen in that class. In this regard, the editors are careful to point out what does notappear in Testimony, namely the discussion of such topics as footbinding or concubinage , which were not subjects for public comment or analysis by upper-class women despite constituting what were undoubtedly signal events in their lives. Readers hoping for revelations ofquiet anguish, repressed rebellion, or innerquarters intrigue will be disappointed. This is not to say, however, that this presentation ofMrs. Nie's "well-regulated life" (p. ix) is not without value for the study ofwomen in China. There is a wealth ofinformation, but it accumulates gradually, often subdy, beginning with the loving portrait sketched in the Foreword by granddaughter Hsin-i Fei: My grandfather died in 1911 when Grandmother was sixty years old. During the next thirty years the Nie family was centered on her. The children and grandchildren respected and loved her, not with awe but with affection, because she was kind and fair, gentle and amiable. To this day, long after she has passed away, the mere mention ofGrandmother brings pleasant memories to her grandchildren, who are now scattered all over the world, drawing them closer and dearer to one another, (p. ix) Jifen was sent out at an early age to...