Men and Women -- From the Series "Random Talk About Culture"

Author: Huang Ziping
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-05-01
Features: To compile a collection of over 100,000 words on the topic of "Men and Women" from the vast body of prose in this century, with a touch of cultural flavor, is undoubtedly a challenging yet highly interesting endeavor. Prose is a concept of a literary category, while gender is a concept of gender. Putting these two concepts together and considering whether there is any logical connection? Some feminist critics around the world have pondered the relationship between these two concepts, for example: "Gender (gender) and genre (genre) come from the same root, and their connection in literary history is almost as close as their etymology." Thus, discussions have centered on topics like "Novel and Women," pointing out that certain genres are more suitable for becoming a discourse space for "comprehensive female values," and so on. However, there are also feminist critics who disagree with this etymological approach to logical argumentation, arguing, "If you can prove that genre and gender are connected based on their shared etymology, you can also prove that Christians and cretins are connected, as they both derive from the Latin word 'christianus.'" Of course, the misuse of a method cannot prove that its effectiveness has completely failed within a certain scope: etymological connections are still connections, and they project a conceptually, ideologically, and historically quite intricate relationship. Avoiding fields like Latin, which we are extremely unfamiliar with, and looking back at our own Chinese "literary history" and "women's history," we can also discern that "genre differences" and "gender differences" are actually operating under the same cultural power mechanism. Ancient Chinese literary classification can be said to have emerged alongside the ethical and moral education system. The Rites of Zhou states: "Create six forms of speech to communicate between the upper and lower, near and far: one is for sacrifices, two for commands, three for edicts, four for meetings, five for prayers, and six for eulogies." In the Book of Rites, certain genres' scope of use were also regulated, such as "eulogy": "The lowly should not eulogize the noble, the young should not eulogize the old—this is the way of propriety. Only the Son of Heaven may eulogize the heavens. If feudal lords eulogize each other, it is not in accordance with propriety." To view genres merely as categories set up by literary historians for the convenience of their work, without recognizing the cultural power dynamics they contain, would be too naive. Between every era, genres always exist in an unspoken but either orderly or ambiguous "near and far" relationship, sometimes referred to as a "center-periphery" relationship. Even today, when we notice that almost all comprehensive literary journals rarely place "prose" or "lyric short poems" in the headline position, the above-mentioned unwritten "ethical" order between genres becomes evident. Sometimes we hear rumors that playwrights, at literary conferences, awkwardly find themselves "caught between two stools," unable to stand on equal footing with famous directors, leading actors, and celebrities in the "Drama Association," while also being pushed aside by novelists and poets in the "Writers' Association." Their call for the establishment of a dedicated "Drama Literary Association" clearly demonstrates the marginalized position of a certain genre within the contemporary cultural power mechanism. If we draw a parallel to other conferences where demands are made to set a certain percentage of female representatives, this analogy is somewhat reasonable. Similarly, "the difference between men and women" is not merely a division in a physiological or biological sense, but primarily a cultural and political division. As Simone de Beauvoir said, women are not born but made. It is not difficult to cite materials from Chinese classical texts to illustrate this point. The Outer Chronicles of the Universal Mirror records: "In ancient times, men and women had no distinction. Tai Hao first established marriage and betrothal, using couplets of hide as a ritual, to establish surnames, connect matchmakers, and uphold the foundation of human relationships, so that people no longer acted disrespectfully." The Book of Rites·Offerings to the Earth and the Special Sacrifices states: "Women are followers of men; in childhood, they follow their fathers and elder brothers; upon marriage, they follow their husbands; after their husbands' deaths, they follow their sons." The Book of Great Dai states: "Women are subordinates of men." The Shuowen Jiezi states: "A woman is one who serves." In two thousand years of patriarchal civilization, "the difference between men and women" was not just a distinction but also a hierarchy, a set of relationships defining superiority, inferiority, hierarchy, and the inside and outside. Thus, when we consider the concepts of genre categories and gender together, the historical subject acting as the same "divider" emerges, and the image of the all-powerful father figure stands prominently in the foreground of cultural history. More accurately, any division is carried out under the rule of "the Father's Law." Since "Men and Women" is an unavoidable and inevitable theme in literature, culture, ethics, and other fields, patriarchal society has determined the way, scope, style, and taboos of discussing it. Zhou Zuoren once discussed the division of Chinese prose into two categories: one for "carrying the Dao" and the other for leisure. In the former category, "men and women" could be discussed, but in a solemn and dignified manner, with a cultural form primarily akin to ethical textbooks. Patriarchal civilization did not even oppose talented women writing such works, such as Ban Zhao and Song Ruohua's The Way of Women and The Discourse of Women. However, more works involving "men and women" or "love and romance" could only be expressed through marginal forms such as poetry, legends, folk tales, and novels, which were at the edge of the discourse order. The historical unconsciousness pushed into the dark realm found release or weak expression in these latter discourses,ing, resolving, supplementing, and lubricating the operation of the entire cultural power mechanism. Now, it is relatively easy to clarify the "highly interesting" aspect of compiling this collection of prose. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese society underwent rapid changes. Correspondingly, the structural order of literary genres also experienced shifts such as "the center moving toward the periphery and the periphery moving toward the center." The dominant position of orthodox poetry and prose rapidly declined, and novels, once considered an "unrefined" genre, were elevated to the "supreme pinnacle of literature," tasked with the grand mission of "improving the masses" and "renewing the people of the nation." New poetry emerged through "trial" and finally "shouted from the edge of the earth." Drama was directly introduced from abroad, with no singing, only recitation, and the "civilized drama" evolved into the "movement of modern drama." During this period, the fate of prose was particularly unstable. It was neither like the novel, which rose from the grassroots and entered the imperial court, nor like new poetry, which completely broke away from traditional poetry and prose, nor like modern drama, which was purely an "import" with no connection to traditional opera (at least on the surface). To say, in the entire legacy of Chinese literature, the proportion of prose works is larger than that of poetry, novels, and drama combined. The very concept of "prose" itself is heterogeneous and ambiguous, capable of accommodating all kinds of genres, such as classical Chinese, official histories, and the eight-legged essay, which occupied more "central positions," as well as marginal genres like short essays, notes, letters, diaries, and travel writings. Therefore, when discussing the shift of prose in the structural changes of "20th-century Chinese literature," it cannot be generalized. Borrowing Zhou Zuoren's categories, we might crudely say that "Dao-carrying texts" moved from the center to the periphery, while "Zhi-carrying texts" moved from the periphery to the center. The complexities of the situation cannot be discussed here, such as how letters, diaries, and travel writings infiltrate novels or, conversely, how novels, in their grand march toward the "supreme pinnacle" of the genre structure, incorporate some marginal genres into the revolution. There is one thing that can be said: in the past, people used the term "wenzi" to generalize the above-mentioned diverse genres. However, at least, the "prose" in ancient literary theory, which referred to the prosaic style of writing in contrast to rhymed and parallel prose, was proposed as the translation of Western "Pure Prose," sparking a naming debate that lasted for quite some time. Zhou Zuoren called for "beauty prose," Wang Tongzhao advocated "pure prose," and Hu Menghua called it "chatter prose." Alternatively, Essays were translated as "" (literary sketches), or retained the old name of "" (miniature essays), or even combined them, as Yu Dafu said, "connecting the four characters of 'prose sketch' or 'sketch prose' to make the name unshakable and versatile." There are also new terms, such as "zawen" (), "zahan" (), "suixianglu" (), "suxie" (), "tongxun" (), and " bàogao wenxue" (), all falling under the banner of prose. The difficulty in naming only highlights the awkward position of prose. Throughout the development of 20th-century Chinese literature, it has always been caught between the center and the periphery, literature and non-literature, pure literature and "broad literature," elegance and vulgarity, the revival of tradition and foreign influence, and praise and exposure. Sometimes it might seem "versatile," but more often, it is "caught between the devil and the deep blue sea." In the first decade of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, and Yu Dafu all believed that compared to novels, new poetry, drama, and prose, the achievements were more remarkable. Yet, the reason for this remarkable achievement was precisely not due to their advocacy of anti-tradition, but rather because the traditional foundation they relied on was exceptionally rich and profound. However, soon after, when discussing the grand question of "Why has China not produced great literature," Lu Xun had to defend the role of "zawen" () and "zawenjia" (), arguing that writing "zawen" was just as "serious work" as creating great works like Russia's War and Peace. After Lu Xun's passing, calls for "reinvigorating prose," "reinvigorating zawen," and "It is the age of zawen" continued without interruption. The features of "scatter," "chaos," "small," and "casual" in prose illustrate its indeterminacy, lack of regulation, inclusiveness, and frequent exclusion by the mainstream. Rather than needing to defend and fight for a place, these characteristics are precisely the strengths of prose, allowing it to constantly question mainstream consciousness, focus on marginal gaps, and attend to the unconscious, interests, and passions ignored or suppressed by historical rationality, thereby potentially being closer to the truth of the historical cultural subject and its spiritual world. Of course, the shifts in the genre structure are only a part of the larger changes in the social, cultural, and ethical structures of the 20th century. Zhou Zuoren once believed, "The short essay is the pinnacle of literary development, and its flourishing must occur in an era when the imperial authority is disintegrating." In the early 20th century, with the collapse of imperial authority, paternal and marital authority also shook. During the May Fourth period, the most discussed hot topic was "filial piety" and "purity" ("It is a small matter to die, but it is a great matter to lose purity"). The difference between men and women was questioned not only in terms of hierarchy but also in terms of classification. "I am a 'person'!" Feminism was first raised as part of human rights. The young and women were treated as "children of humanity" rather than daughters-in-law or husbands-in-law, placing them on the same front against patriarchal culture. Women's liberation was never considered separately from the larger themes of "human liberation" (later followed by social liberation and class liberation), and was often overshadowed or even submerged by the latter. Like prose, which is unstable in the shifting genre order, 20th-century Chinese women found themselves in complex contradictions within the changing social structure. On one hand, women's social status had indeed undergone remarkable changes and had been recognized by the constitution and laws. On the other hand, the inequalities women faced are still visible everywhere, and in some aspects, they have even worsened (such as the long-distance trafficking of women). You might ask, can the liberation of society and class replace the liberation of women and their female consciousness, or does the unsatisfactory state of the latter prove that the former needs "fellow travelers to strive"? Another puzzling trend is that by the late 20th century, Chinese women seemed to emphasize "women are women" more than their Western counterparts, which also differed greatly from the starting point at the beginning of the century. A widely circulated interview might illustrate this issue. When asked about her understanding of "gender equality," an ordinary woman said, "You have to do the same heavy and dangerous work as men, wear the same ugly and messy clothes, and at the same time, they no longer give up their seats on the bus for you, and you still have to take care of all the household chores after work." It seems that women's liberation is not only full of poetry but also full of prose and. Interestingly, Mao Dun once wrote a short story titled Poetry and Prose, depicting the love and marriage lives of new youth and new women at the beginning of the century. Ding Ling's two famous essays, We Need Zawen and On March 8th, were published almost in the same period in the Liberation Daily. The so-called "zawen" is nothing more than discovering contradictions where they seem to be absent, and this "discovery" carries a cultural and literary meaning. Those who like to discover "isomorphism" everywhere might not be wise if they forcibly exaggerate the connections mentioned here. This preface merely attempts to provide a reading strategy to approach the heterogeneity and impurity of both the genres and topics in this collection. The earliest work in the collection is a previously unpublished essay by Cai Yuanpei, a former Qing dynasty scholar-official and later president of Peking University, titled The Marriage Contract Between Husband and Wife, in which the "ahead-of-its-time" awareness is almost as surprising as the old genre. In his early years, Lu Xun wrote long essays on reasoning based on the "universal moral law," and in his famous speech What Happened After Nora Left, he mentioned the issue of "economic rights." Later, he used hundreds of words in short essays to deliver a "fatal blow" to patriarchal civilization. Zhou Zuoren, however, consistently stood on the broad knowledge of anthropology, folk culture, and sex psychology, with little change in his style or views. Nie Jingu, who inherited the "Lu Xun style" and poured great passion into feminist issues, wrote the essay “A Virgin Can Also Be a Primary School Graduate”, which drew on newspaper materials. The strange calculation between the hymen and education level truly shocks, and such materials are not hard to find in many "personal advertisements" today. Xu Zhimo's speech quoted many viewpoints from Virginia Woolf's famous work A Room of One's Own, but it was undoubtedly interpreted and understood by a Chinese romantic male poet. Lin Yutang imitated Nietzsche's as the Sayings of the Master of the Universe, while Liang Shiqiu, in his Yashe Xiao Pin, made jokes about men and women without distinction. Yet, such jokes, coming from a man's pen, seemed impossible to be truly "without distinction." Zhang Ailing's On Women started with a British book, half-jokingly copying the "witty" remarks British gentlemen made about women, but in the end, she pointed out the shining image of women in her mind—the image of the Earth Mother. The group of more lyrical essays by writers such as Yu Dafu, He Qifang, Lu Li, and Sun Li, or discussing first love, expressing grief, or recalling old affections, reveal more of the most sincere emotions than the rational essays. Their style and emotions, as Zhou Zuoren would say, are "so old and so new," a mixture of the old and the new, difficult to distinguish. A considerable portion of the essays are about marriage and couples, among which the discussion about "wedding ceremonies" is particularly interesting. The ceremony, as it unfolds, reveals cultural changes. The typical "Sino-Western hybrid" long ceremony continues to persist in the 20th century, with its reasons worth pondering. The theme of mourning the deceased has long been a specialty of classical Chinese prose. Zhu Ziqing and Sun Li are two very different writers, yet their similarities and connections when writing on the same theme are thought-provoking. In a collection of essays on the theme of "Men and Women," the works by male authors constitute the majority, which is something the compiler of the book cannot do much about. Fortunately, there are two recent female writers whose works conclude the collection: one stands "outside" to discuss marriage, while the other narrates "household matters" in a gentle manner, both revealing new information from the 1980s and extending the topic to the present. Heterogeneous and impure, scattered and chaotic. The Soviet critic Mikhail Bakhtin had the theory of "polyphony" or "heteroglossia," which is particularly apt for evaluating 20th-century Chinese literature. As for the "prose" that discusses "men and women," it is even more so—genres, languages, ideas, and thoughts are all in constant flux, differentiation, and conflict within the flow of time and space, vivid and highly interesting. If you don't believe it, open the book and read it carefully.