Words of Seduction, Lines of Resistance: Writing and Gender in Zheng Xi's Dream of Spring (1318)

Author: de Pee, Christian

Source: NAN Nü, Volume 9, Number 2, 2007 , pp. 247-283(37)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

This article contains a full, annotated translation of A Dream of Spring (Chunmeng lu), written in 1318 by Zheng Xi (1324 jinshi). In A Dream of Spring, Zheng Xi, despite being married, accepts a matchmaker's request to submit a poem to the family of Miss Wu. In the ensuing correspondence with Miss Wu, Zheng Xi uses his masculine literary prerogative to compromise her chastity, which she struggles to defend by the more stringent conventions of feminine composition. The analysis of this fourteenth-century story supplements studies of gendered subjects in the literature of the late Ming and Qing dynasties.

Keywords: WRITING; GENDER; POETRY; YUAN DYNASTY; CHASTITY TRANSLATION

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/138768007X244352

Affiliations: 1: University of Michigan

Publication date: 2007-11-01