Confucian Cultures of Authority

Virtue (de), Talent (cai),and Beauty (se): Authoring a Full-fledged Womanhood in Lien

Virtue 德 ( (de), Talent 才 ( (cai), and Beauty 色 ( (se): Authoring a Full-fledged Womanhood in Lienüzhuan 列女傳 (Biographies of Women) Robin R. Wang The prominent Han Confucian scholar Liu Xiang 劉向 (79–8 bce) compiled 125 biographies of women, from legendary times to the Han dynasty, to evoke and commemorate an ideal of womanhood. Since this ground-breaking effort, the stories of lienü 列女 (exemplary women) have permeated all aspects of women’s lives throughout Chinese history. From such stories was gradually fashioned a celebrated, sustainable, and enduring tradition, the so-called lienü tradition.1 This lienü tradition provides an opportunity to explore the ongoing social construction of female identity and gender roles within concrete social contexts. This essay will embark on a philosophical analysis of these stories to demonstrate how the authority of woman was constructed, comprehended, and contested in the early Chinese thought and culture. This endeavor will focus on three distinctive and culturally significant contexts relating to womanhood: virtue 德 (de), talent 才 (cai), and beauty 色 (se). It is important to notice that biography is always determined by an act of representation as well as by an act of construction. Liu Xiang defines and constructs a normative standard for women (what ought to be the case) through stories of women claiming to be descriptive of real lives (what is the case). Three consistent and interrelated themes run through this essay: What kinds of virtues2 are to be celebrated? How are these virtues related to broader social values? That is, what is the link between the virtues for women and the values generally promoted by Confucian tradition? Finally, could Liu Xiang’s narratives still author for us an intellectual space where we can contribute to the development of 93 94 Robin R. Wang gender identities appropriate to an era of globalization? These themes will verify that there is a strong convergence between the Confucian ideal of becoming human and Liu Xiang’s construction of womanhood: women are valued and praised for their cultivated dispositions and rational abilities and are given a privileged position in shaping the person, family, and state. It is the consistency between the Confucian ideal and Liu Xiang’s discourses that explicates how and why women regarded them as authoritative and thus actually assumed the beliefs and practices sanctioned in them as their own. By suggesting how these biographies may be analyzed philosophically, one hopes to show the relevance of the Lienüzhuan to contemporary deliberations of gender equality and personal identity. It is not easy to map out systematically the particular female virtues exhibited throughout these 125 stories. Liu Xiang’s own attempt was to order them into seven chapters/categories. Six of these exemplify desirable virtues, namely, maternal rectitude 母儀 ( (muyi), sagely intelligence 賢明 (xianming), benevolent wisdom 仁智 (renzhi), chaste obedience 貞 順 (zhenshun), pure righteousness 節義 (jieyi), and rhetorical competence 辯通 (biantong). The last chapter is called “The Vicious and Depraved” 孽嬖 ( (niebi) and gives cautionary tales against the vices of women. Each category is supported by fifteen to tewenty stories. To make the most sense of Liu Xiang’s intention, I have arranged a section of the stories into three perspectives: first, virtue (de), which is inclusive of Liu’s reflections on maternal rectitude (muyi), benevolent wisdom (renzhi), chaste obedience (zhenshun), and pure righteousness ( jieyi); second, talent (cai), which is comprehensive of his consideration on sagely intelligence (xianming) and rhetorical competence (biantong); and finally, beauty (se), which is a broad but brief presentation of the relevant portions of his illustrations of rhetorical competence (biantong), coupled with an acknowledgment of the cautionary tales taken from the final chapter. Consistent with the requirements of this arrangement, the majority of the stories examined here will be taken up in the first section on women’s virtue. Each section, nevertheless, may add to our appreciation of how women author their own authentic humanity through the conscious appropriation of their own minds, actions, and experiences. Part One: Virtue (de) as the Foundation of Womanhood Virtue (de) is the most important element of a human being in the Chinese intellectual tradition. Confucius, seeking to model it in his own life, acknowledges the magnitude of virtue for realizing one’s own Virtue (de), Talent (cai), and Beauty (se) 95 humanity. “The Master said, ‘I set my heart upon the Way, base myself on virtue (de), lean upon benevolence (ren) for support and take my recreation in the arts.’” (Analects 7:6). It is de that makes someone...