Description
Book SynopsisIn the West, love occupies center stage in the modern age, whether in art, intellectual life, or the economic life. We may observe a similar development in China, on its own impetus, which has resulted in this characteristic of modernity—this feature of modern life has been securely and unambiguously established, not the least facilitated by the thriving of literature about qing, whether in traditional or modern forms.
Qiancheng Li concentrates on the nuances of a similar trend manifested in the Chinese context. The emphasis is on critical readings of the texts that have shaped this trend, including important Ming? and Qing?dynasty works of drama, Buddhist texts and other religious/philosophical works, in all their subtlety and evocative power.
Trade ReviewThe power of qing or strong emotion is a major theme in late imperial Chinese literature—some writers asserting that it can transcend even life itself. Qiancheng Li surveys a number of seventeenth?century philosophical, religious, and literary texts to elucidate the metaphysical aspects of emotional attachment and of sexual desire in particular. Through his broad and penetrating reading, Li demonstrates incontrovertibly how, to seventeenth?century writers, qing and religion were inextricably linked. To those writers, qing could bring enlightenment, and certainly Li’s study enlightens its readers to new levels of complexity in major literary works of that period.
Transmutations of Desire sets a major new milestone in the study of traditional Chinese culture.""- Robert E. Hegel, Washington University in St. Louis;
""This book brings to a significantly new level the study of qing, a key concept in intellectual discourses of the late Ming which reverberated throughout the subsequent Qing period in Chinese literature. Herein we learn how, presented with the tension between passionate attraction as a fundamental force in life and religious (especially Buddhist) emphasis on release from attachments as an ultimate spiritual goal, authors of, and commentators on, the era’s most important works of drama and long fiction developed a multi?dimensional metaphysics of qing. Thereby they transmuted desire from a hindrance to spiritual fulfillment into its necessary complement.""- Lynn A. Struve, Indiana University Bloomington;
""In many areas, Professor Li’s new study mainly on dramatic works has demonstrated the kind of sophistication and rigor I wish I had been able to achieve in my Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China exclusively on fictional works. He has convincingly argued that we could not properly understand various “transmutations” of desire without an adequate understanding of their “scriptural foundation.” His study has significantly enriched our understanding of not only several well?known classics like
The Peony Pavilion and
Peach Blossom Fan but also very important but little?studied works such as those by the dramatist Jiang Shiquan from the eighteenth century.""- Martin W. Huang, University of California, Irvine;
""
Transmutations of Desire takes on one of the most crucial tensions in late imperial Chinese literature, desire and its renunciation. Bringing into dialogue four of the most celebrated plays as well as several understudied ones, their commentary and reception history, Buddhist scripture, Western theoretical approaches to love, and ultimately the novel Honglou meng, Qiancheng Li has given us a rich and rewarding intertextual study. With its focus on drama, it is an indispensable complement to his earlier monograph
Fictions of Enlightenment, which explored the interplay of religion and literature in the realm of narrative.""- Rania Huntington, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Abbreviations and Citations
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 Transmutations of Desire
- Qing (Desire) and Religions
- Origin of Desire: Transvaluation of Value
- The yin and yang, and the Dao
- Between xing (Nature) and qing (Feeling/Desire)
- The Ultimate Expression of qing
- The Full Course of Desire: The End of qing, or Its Transmutation
- Chapter 2 Mudan ting: The Theater of the Mind
- The Meaning of qing in Tang Xianzu
- Immateriality and the Theater of the Mind
- Indestructibility of Pleasing Forms and Desire (Seqing nanhuai)
- Pursuing the Dream: The Aftermath and Consequence
- The Self?Portrait 85
- Death and Resurrection
- Transcending qing
- Chapter 3 Between Union and Separation: Xixiang ji and the Tragic
- “Meng youchun” (Dreaming of a Spring Excursion)
- “Yingying zhuan” (Yingying’s Story)
- Xixiang ji (The Western Wing)
- Ming Commentary Traditions on Xixiang ji
- Jing Shengtan’s Recension: An Anatomy of qing
- The Tragic: Form and Vision
- The Imperfect World: Feng Menglong’s Vision of the Tragic
- Jin Shengtan’s Tragic Vision
- Chapter 4 Changsheng dian: Qing, Death, and Redemption
- Hong Sheng’s Purist Revision of the Yang Yuhuan Saga
- Qing: Between Life and Death
- From Life to Death
- Qing’s Repentance (qinghui) and the Remedy of Regrets (buhen)
- Ambiguities of qing
- Chapter 5 Taohua shan: The Inadequacy of qing and the Metaphysical Solution Revisited
- Qing and Exterior Values
- The Inadequacy of qing
- The Peach Blossom Fan
- Metaphysical Solution Revisited
- Concluding Remarks
- Chapter 6 Jiang Shiquan and Xu Xi: Justifications of qing and the Metaphysical Frame
- After Taohua shan: Jiang Shiquan on Tang Xianzu
- “Dreams” Reenacted
- Yu Ergu as the Ideal Reader and the Female Readership of Mudan ting
- Convergence of Dreams
- Metaphysical Solutions: Subject and Structure
- Xu Xi: Life, Desire, and Life?Writing— By Way of Conclusion
- Chapter 7 Honglou meng: Qing and Visions of the Tragic
- Honglou meng and the Late Ming Legacy
- The Imperfect World and the Cosmic Dimension of qing: Significance of the Nüwa Myth
- Yiyin (Lust of Mind) and chi (Folly)
- Du Liniang and Jia Baoyu, Fidelity and Promiscuity: Qing Independent of Its Objects
- Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu: The Sense of the Tragic
- Two Visions of the Tragic: The 80?Chapter and 120?Chapter Versions
- Tensions between qing and Its Opposite: The Metaphysics and Dialectics of kong, se, and qing Revisited
- Epilogue: Qing and Talents for qing Writing
- Bibliography
- Index
