...How unfortunate that I couldn't actually use that title when I submitted the paper. But ah, how good it feels to have an avenue for expressing the true depths of my perversity. Anyhow, come one, come all! 欢迎你.
I recently returned from living in China for 14 months. While there, I studied. I came to realizations about things. I had lots of sex. Actually, come to think of it, sex is precisely the thing my realizations were about. Because that's what everything is about, when you get down to it. And that in itself was my biggest realization. 哈哈. When I have the time, I will explain all my "realizations" to you in detail. But, for the time being, the following article will have to do.
Have you ever heard of "恨海" or "禽海石"? 这两本书连很多中国人都不认识. They both sprang up after 梁启超's calls for the "New Novel", 新小说, but each takes a different stance on the issue of traditional Chinese views of love and marriage within the context of a rapidly modernizing society (or at least one that was receiving plenty of influence from the West, whether it wanted to or not). Please read on...
In early 20th-century China, a general emphasis upon the aesthetics and structural characteristics of the novel shifted to interest in the novel as a “tool for moral renovation”. Such a shift reflects a desire amongst Chinese reformers of the time to resolve traditional values with a rapidly modernizing society. Liang Qichao, one of the most influential of these reformers, produced essays in which he expressed “his faith in the novel as a means for the production of new citizens with nationalist consciousness”. Qichao’s writings reflect a desire to conserve contemporary values, while simultaneously encouraging his fellow Chinese to consider the relationship between the individual and the nation, thereby modernizing modes of thought. Fu Lin’s The Stones in the Sea and Wu Jianren's The Sea of Regret present two opposing viewpoints on the role of organized marriage in the context of such calls for reform. While Fu tells his story through the eyes of a young man struggling against his society’s traditional concepts of morality, the romantic relationships of Wu’s main characters develop within a clearly delineated Confucian moral framework, embodying a completely different sort of “passion” than that between Fu’s characters, and also serving to mold Dihua into a paragon of Confucian morality. As a result, The Sea of Regret is a more fitting “tool for moral renovation”, and therefore a more successful literary work according to the standards of the period in which it was written.
Wu Jianren uses two techniques to create a clearly delineated Confucian moral framework. The first is a clear distinction between true passion and lechery as defined by Wu. The second is a clear relationship between the fates of his characters and their decisions in a series of moral “tests”. Wu begins by defining passion: “When applied to a ruler, it is loyalty; when applied to parents, it is filial piety; when applied to children, it is parental love; and when applied to friends, it is true fellowship. Clearly the cardinal virtues all derive from passion.” The word “infatuation”, meanwhile, is reserved for sexual passion, with “lechery” being the abuse of sexual passion.
Wu’s definition of passion is in stark contrast with the one presented in The Stones in the Sea, where Fu instead creates a distinction between “passion” and “lust”. This distinction is apparently not determined by whether or not a relationship’s existence in itself is compatible with traditional social mores, but rather by its consummation; the main character seems to take pride in the fact that his relationship with Aren is not consummated, while at the same time viewing his relationship with her as “above” the concept of lust. However, the relationship between the main characters in The Stones in the Sea would not fall under Wu’s definition of passion, as the love between them does not develop out of a moral responsibility to each other. Rather, it is a force that makes them treat the traditional values of their society as binds, and leads them to take steps to defy these values. These differences help demonstrate the extent to which The Sea of Regret judges the morality of its characters on the basis of whether or not their behavior is in accordance with the traditional values of their society.
The second technique Wu utilizes to delineate his moral framework is a series of moral “tests” in which his main characters must make decisions on the basis of their moral responsibility to those around them. The downfall of main character Bohe, seemingly brought about by Bohe’s failure to make the correct decisions in these situations, is in stark contrast with Dihua’s elevation to the status of moral paragon by the end of the novel. The vastly different fates of the main characters, if viewed as being the result of the characters’ decisions within these moral tests, create a moral “guide” of sorts, allowing Wu to shape conceptions of right and wrong within the world of his novel. Bohe’s first mistake is likely his failure to stay with his father, which triggers a series of events, including his subsequent separation from his family, along with the events in the medicine shop. When Bohe finally boards a boat to head south, the extent of his moral corruption becomes clear: “[Bohe] also reflected that he had told a monstrous lie and swindled someone out of eight chests, the contents of which were still a mystery to him. If they happened to be full of gold, silver, and jewels, he’d have struck it rich! At this thought, his spirits began to rise.” Thus, Bohe’s fate seems to have a direct connection with his own bad decisions. Fu’s ability to express this connection is limited in The Stones in the Sea, as Fu’s story is told, using a first-person narrative voice, through the eyes of a young man in love. Such a main character is likely not as able to understand the connection between his actions and the outcome of events, and is thus not as effective a vehicle as a third-person narrator in transmitting a moral message.
It is within this framework conception of right and wrong that Wu shapes Dihua into a symbol of Confucian morality. The love that Dihua feels for Bohe springs from her responsibility to him as his wife. It could be posited that Dihua falls in love not with Bohe himself, but rather with the idea of having Bohe as her husband. In one pivotal scene, the narrator describes how Dihua’s mind “dwelt on the fact that, although they were not yet married, she was – at her mother’s express command – sleeping in her fiancé’s bedding.” Once Dihua falls in love with this “idea”, she never abandons it, even choosing to enter a nunnery after Bohe’s death. This absolute devotion to her husband, stemming from her moral responsibility to him, makes Dihua representative of Confucian virtue. Dihua’s devotion to and love for her husband (or the ideal of marriage), in addition to this love’s development within a clearly delineated moral framework, allow The Sea of Regret to more effectively achieve its purpose, thereby making it a more successful work of literature.
That's all for now. Lates.
