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5. The Pure and the Natural
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
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Chapter Five The Pure and the Natural Man models himself on the earth; The earth models itself on heaven; Heaven models itself on the way; And the way models itself on ziran (that which is so on its own). (LZ, 25:103)1 To attain loftiness without constraining the will. . . . This is the virtue of the sage. (ZZ, 15:168) At the center of the value structure of the Stone lies the concept of purity, which stands as a prominent spiritual goal for the main protagonists . Understanding this nuanced concept is essential to grasp Cao Xueqin’s artistic vision. The narrative strikes us with its ambivalence, most evident in the attitude to purity seen in the nun Miaoyu’s characterization . On the one hand, a song performed in chapter 5 that conveys the authorial judgment on the twelve beauties in Jinling compares Miaoyu to a “white spotless jade” (wuxia baiyu 無瑕白玉; H, 5:52), implying unqualified affirmation of her spiritual purity; on the other hand, the prophetic verses that also carry the author’s judgment question the nature and outcome of her purity in a tone tinted with satire: “Have you achieved purity with all your yearning for purity?” 欲潔何曾潔 (H, 5:48). The negative turn in the nun’s characterization in the sequel underscores her unbridled desire and further compromises her purity. This latent ambiguity in the narrative carries over into Western appraisals of purity in the novel. Western scholarship in general is 1 The translation here is modified from Henricks, trans., Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching, p. 77. 216 Daoist Philosophy and Literati Writings in Late Imperial China ambivalent on the issue of purity in the novel. In his seminal study of the two worlds in the Stone, Yu Yingshi famously observes that the purity of the garden world is built on an impure base and will ultimately return to impurity.2 Similarly, in her award-winning study of the novel, Jing Wang takes Miaoyu as “the best embodiment of the liminal ambivalence of the jie [purity] metaphor,” for her “desire for cleanliness and otherworldliness already contains within itself the seeds of their opposites.” 3 Examining the novel from a feminist perspective, Louise Edwards sees in Miaoyu’s characterization an “instructive display of the link between the pure and the polluted, the virgin and the whore.” 4 In a recent study, Lene Bech also puzzles over the nun’s obsession with purity and simultaneous association with a manifest desire.5 She asserts that the ideal of purity “embodied by Daiyu is an illusion” and that Baoyu “cannot have purity isolated from impurity.” 6 These citations point to a general trend in Western scholarship to underscore the inherent paradox of purity in the novel. This chapter seeks rather to demonstrate its underlying coherence. As the following discussion will indicate, purity in the Stone often carries different meanings in different contexts. A close look reveals that the narrative, in fact, assumes different attitudes to this multifaceted concept as it is related to different characters, ranging from mild satire (as in part of Miaoyu’s characterization) or unfeigned regret (as in the portrayal of Li Wan) to hearty admiration (as associated with Baoyu, Daiyu, and in some aspects of Miaoyu). Just as the novel as a whole syncretizes values from the three discourses, so does the notion of purity that lies at its core. Its inherent complexity defies one-dimensional interpretation. To tackle this issue, I will take the approach of philosophical analysis. Spiritual purity as an ideal is shared by all the three discourses of Chinese philosophy, yet each attaches its own values to this seemingly common goal. While purity is generally expressed in Chinese texts by 2 Yu Yingshi, Honglou meng de liangge shijie, p. 58. 3 Wang, The Story of Stone, pp. 137, 129. 4 Edwards, Men and Women in Qing China, p. 65. 5 Bech, “Flowers in the Mirror,” p. 112. 6 Ibid. [3.236.19.251] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:31 GMT) 5. The Pure and the Natural 217 a group of synonyms, such as qing 清, jing 淨, jie 潔, chun 純, su 素, and gao 高, they often connote different meanings in their specific subcontexts . Moreover, the different meanings of purity in the three discourses were subject to appropriation and transformation during the late imperial period. Such pluralism is further complicated in the novel by the diversity of characters with whom this concept is associated . Since each character is endowed with distinctive philosophical leanings, purity in different characters may not...