The enticing thatched hut: courtesans and gendered bodies in Jiangnan pictorial spaces (14th-17th century)
Why was the “thatched hut” (caotang 草堂, a Chinese symbol of reclusion or eremitism) enticing? How were the two seemingly conflicting and opposing concepts - desire (enticement) and withdrawal (yin 隱, reclusion, “hiding”) - entangled and represented in pre-modern Chinese paintings? This dissertation...
Salvato in:
| Autore principale: | |
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| Natura: | Book/Monograph Tesi |
| Lingua: | inglese |
| Pubblicazione: |
Heidelberg
2023
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| DOI: | 10.11588/heidok.00034136 |
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | Resolving-System, kostenfrei: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-341363 Resolving-System, kostenfrei: https://doi.org/10.11588/heidok.00034136 Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/34136 Langzeitarchivierung Nationalbibliothek, kostenfrei: https://d-nb.info/1414756321/34 
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| Note sull'autore: | vorgelegt von Yizhou Wang ; Erstgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Sarah E. Fraser [und eine weitere Gutachterin] |
| Riassunto: | Why was the “thatched hut” (caotang 草堂, a Chinese symbol of reclusion or eremitism) enticing? How were the two seemingly conflicting and opposing concepts - desire (enticement) and withdrawal (yin 隱, reclusion, “hiding”) - entangled and represented in pre-modern Chinese paintings? This dissertation focuses on the representations and self-representations of courtesans in paintings that emerged and were produced in the cultivated Jiangnan region of southeast China from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth century. It starts with the Yuan-Ming transition, covers the entire Ming dynasty (1368-1644), and ends with the Ming-Qing transition. Courtesans, mingji 名妓, were high-class prostitutes or female entertainers accomplished in the arts and literature, yet belonging to the jianmin 賤民, “mean people,” social category. I examine the varied trans-regional visual representations of courtesans through the lens of gender. This research originated from an initial interest in exploring and justifying the legitimization, production, and reception of the images depicting the “unfaithful” and controversial women in the context of the Confucian society that highly valued the female virtue of chastity. It aims at illuminating two central questions: First, how and why did the courtesan as a subject become favored in Ming dynasty paintings, especially in the “genteel ladies” (shinü 仕女) or “beautiful women” (meiren 美人) painting genre that originated in the Tang dynasty? Second, how and why did the courtesan as a person with her own subjectivity and as a female artist become a compelling presence and embodiment in Ming paintings? The dissertation is generally arranged chronologically, and it is divided into three parts according to the locality of four Jiangnan cities including Kunshan, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, and to the different spaces, from mountains to the city and from the land to the water. Part I deals with the male-authored paintings about courtesans by the Jade Mountain circle in Kunshan during the Yuan-Ming transition. Part II includes case studies of paintings about courtesans or courtesan-and-scholar interactions by the “Zhe School” painter Wu Wei and the “Wu School” artist Tang Yin, produced in the urban space of two metropolises, Nanjing and Suzhou, respectively. Part III focuses on the flourishing female agency in the paintings by male and female artists who sojourned and made paintings in and around Hangzhou during the Ming-Qing transition. Through case studies in six chapters, I argue that since the late Yuan period throughout the Ming dynasty, Chinese male literati and artists became increasingly enthusiastic about projecting their self-identity onto the paintings featuring the representations of courtesans; conversely, in the late Ming and early Qing period of successive crises and drastic changes, the courtesan or courtesan-concubine artists and the gentry women who were abducted and became controversial under social surveillance associated their self-image with the male-dominated trope and ideal of withdrawal (from bureaucratic engagement), as part of their gendered transformative process of self-empowerment, self-fashioning, and identity shifting. The dialectical relationship and power dynamics, between courtesans and male elites, and between debasement and empowerment, are among the major issues for investigation in this research. In terms of research approaches and sources, understanding literature as an important form of agency, this dissertation engages with a wide range of visual and textual primary materials including different forms of paintings, calligraphy inscriptions, woodblock illustrations, sketch drawings, literature (poetry, fiction, travelogues, diaries, essays, etc.), and local gazetteers. It employs an interdisciplinary approach combining art history with gender studies, literary studies, cultural history, and ecocriticism. It also provides insights into Chinese urban history. |
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| Descrizione fisica: | Online Resource |
| DOI: | 10.11588/heidok.00034136 |