Sexuality, masculinity and politics in Chinese culture: The case of the 'Sanguo' hero Guan Yu

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 835-859

  Louie, Kam ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND   (Australia)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 11444270053     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X99003558     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. For example James J. Y. Liu, The Chinese Knight-Errant (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967); Cui Fengyuan, Zhongguo gudian duanpian xiayi xiaoshuo yanjiu (A Study of Classical Chinese Short Stories on Knight-Errantry) (Taipei: Lianjing chuban shiye gongsi, 1986).
2. For example James J. Y. Liu, The Chinese Knight-Errant (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967); Cui Fengyuan, Zhongguo gudian duanpian xiayi xiaoshuo yanjiu (A Study of Classical Chinese Short Stories on Knight-Errantry) (Taipei: Lianjing chuban shiye gongsi, 1986).
3. Zhou Zhongming, Zhongguo de xiaoshuo yishu (The Art of Chinese Fiction) (reprinted Taipei: Guanya wenhua, 1990), pp. 25-37.
4. Liu, p. 204. Neither Liu nor Cui, for example, mention sex in their books.
5. In the West, recent images are those such as Grass Hopper in the Television series Kung Fu and in China, the most enduring models are those such as the sexless Lei Feng. Such interpretations of the Chinese male hero seem to have direct equivalents in literary criticism.
6. It is of course very difficult to give a precise definition of 'hero', especially when we are dealing with different cultures. For the purposes of this paper, it refers to the variety encapsulated in the Chinese terms yingxiong and haohan. I do not mean the 'talented scholar' (caizi) kind created by authors such as Cao Xueqin and Li Yu, nor the 'moral' kind in Alan Berkowitz, 'The Moral Hero: A Pattern of Reclusion in Traditional China', Monumenta Serica, Vol. 40, 1992.
7. See, for example, Keith McMahon, Misers, Shrews and Polygamists: Sexuality and Male-female Relations in Eighteenth-century Chinese Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995); Tani E. Barlow (ed.), Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993); Louise Edwards, 'Gender Imperatives in Honglou meng: Jia Baoyu's Bisexuality,' Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews, No. 12 (1990), pp. 69-81, and the Special Issue on women in Late Imperial China, Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 1992), and modern sex in Positions, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Winter 1994).
8. See, for example, Keith McMahon, Misers, Shrews and Polygamists: Sexuality and Male-female Relations in Eighteenth-century Chinese Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995); Tani E. Barlow (ed.), Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993); Louise Edwards, 'Gender Imperatives in Honglou meng: Jia Baoyu's Bisexuality,' Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews, No. 12 (1990), pp. 69-81, and the Special Issue on women in Late Imperial China, Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 1992), and modern sex in Positions, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Winter 1994).
9. See, for example, Keith McMahon, Misers, Shrews and Polygamists: Sexuality and Male-female Relations in Eighteenth-century Chinese Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995); Tani E. Barlow (ed.), Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993); Louise Edwards, 'Gender Imperatives in Honglou meng: Jia Baoyu's Bisexuality,' Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews, No. 12 (1990), pp. 69-81, and the Special Issue on women in Late Imperial China, Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 1992), and modern sex in Positions, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Winter 1994).
10. See, for example, Keith McMahon, Misers, Shrews and Polygamists: Sexuality and Male-female Relations in Eighteenth-century Chinese Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995); Tani E. Barlow (ed.), Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993); Louise Edwards, 'Gender Imperatives in Honglou meng: Jia Baoyu's Bisexuality,' Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews, No. 12 (1990), pp. 69-81, and the Special Issue on women in Late Imperial China, Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 1992), and modern sex in Positions, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Winter 1994).
11. See, for example, Keith McMahon, Misers, Shrews and Polygamists: Sexuality and Male-female Relations in Eighteenth-century Chinese Fiction (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995); Tani E. Barlow (ed.), Gender Politics in Modern China: Writing and Feminism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993); Louise Edwards, 'Gender Imperatives in Honglou meng: Jia Baoyu's Bisexuality,' Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews, No. 12 (1990), pp. 69-81, and the Special Issue on women in Late Imperial China, Vol. 13, No. 1 (June 1992), and modern sex in Positions, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Winter 1994).
12. Keith McMahon, Causality and Containment in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Fiction (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988).
13. should note here that in this paper, homosexuality, bisexuality and heterosexuality are terms describing erotic behaviour between people only, with none of the modern pathological connotations attached to these terms. I fully agree with David Halperin's view that these terms were constructed completely differently in antiquity. David M. Halperin, 'Sex Before Sexuality: Pederasty, Politics, and Power in Classical Athens,' Martin Bauml Duberman et al. (eds), Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1991), p. 48.
14. See, for example, K. J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality (London: Duckworth, 1978).
15. Bret Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Homosexual Tradition in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
16. In some circles, for example, for men to hold hands would be seen as a sexual act.
17. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), p. 1.
18. Confucius, The Analects (trans. D. C. Lau) (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979), p. 148.
19. For the sake of clarity, I will use Sanguo when I refer to the novel and Sanguo for all texts including the novel which relate to the cycle of stories about this period.
20. This is illustrated in the publication of these two novels under the title Yingxiong pu (The Register of Heroes). See discussion of this in Andrew Lo, 'Structure and Meaning in Ying-hsiung p'u - An Interpretive Study of the San-kuo and Shui-hu Narratives in the Context of Chinese Historiography.' Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1981.
21. For an indication of Mao Zonggang's views, see the translation of his 'How To Read' essay on the Sanguo in David L. Rolston, How To Read the Chinese Novel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 152-95.
22. He Manzi, 'Zai pingjia Sanguo yanyi de wenxue chengjiu yiqian' (Before Evaluating the Literary Achievements of the Romance of Three Kingdoms), Sanguo yanyi xuekan (Journal on Romance of the Three Kingdoms), 1985, No. 1, p. 154.
23. Sedgwick, p. 2.
24. R. H. Van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974), pp. 278-9.
25. Robert Ruhlmann, in his survey of heroes in traditional fiction, singles out Guan Yu for a separate discussion. Ruhlmann, 'Traditional Heroes in Chinese Popular Fiction', Arthur Wright (ed.), The Confucian Persuasion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960), pp. 141-76. Also, Xie Pengxiong begins his book on men in literature with a chapter on Guan Yu. Xie, Wenxue zhong de nanren (Men in Literature) (Taipei: Jiuge chubanshe, 1992), pp. 11-18.
26. Robert Ruhlmann, in his survey of heroes in traditional fiction, singles out Guan Yu for a separate discussion. Ruhlmann, 'Traditional Heroes in Chinese Popular Fiction', Arthur Wright (ed.), The Confucian Persuasion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960), pp. 141-76. Also, Xie Pengxiong begins his book on men in literature with a chapter on Guan Yu. Xie, Wenxue zhong de nanren (Men in Literature) (Taipei: Jiuge chubanshe, 1992), pp. 11-18.
27. Li Xifan, 'Lüe lun Sanguo yanyi li de Guan Yu de xingxiang' (A Brief Discussion of Guan Yu's Image in Three Kingdoms), Henansheng shehui kexueyuan (ed.), Sanguo yanyi yanjiu lunwen ji (Collected Essays on the Three Kingdoms) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991), p. 408.
28. He is often placed alongside Confucius in temples as the wu (military) god with Confucius the wen (civil) god. See discussion of him in Huang Huajie, Guan Yu de renge yu shenge (The Human and Godlike Characteristics of Guan Yu) (Taipei: Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan, 1967).
29. A discussion of Guan Yu's titles can be found in Gordon Victor Ross, 'Guan Yu in Drama: Translations and Critical Discussions of Two Yuan Plays', unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1976, pp. 19-25.
30. This description of the power of the dragon is a very old one. See, for example, the Han definition in Shuowen jiezi zhu (Annotated Shuowen jiezi) (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 1981), p. 582.
31. The association of the dragon with male sexuality is very common, vividly illustrated in the title of the book on the history of Chinese sexuality, Eric Chou, The Dragon and The Phoenix (London: Corgi Books, 1973).
32. In many martial arts (wuxia) novels such as Ernü yingxiong zhuan, we do find cases where the small win over the big and strong, but in such cases, the winners are often women, and even when men are involved, the size reversion seems to suggest that largeness is reserved for powerful men.
33. Qin and Han law required the shaving of beards and hair as punishment for serious offences. Having a shaven head and wearing an iron collar seemed to have been signs of unforgivable criminality. See A. F. P. Hulsewé, 'Han-time Documents', T'oung Pao, Vol. XLV, 1957, pp. 36-7. The emphasis on Guan Yu's beard could therefore be seen in historical terms as an exaggerated projection of his indestructable virtue and masculinity.
34. Zhu Yixuan, Liu Yuchen (eds), Sanguo yanyi ziliao huibian (Compilation of Reference Materials on The Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (Guangzhou: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 1983), pp. 735-6.
35. For one version of this story, see Qiu Zhensheng, Sanguo yanyi zongheng tan (Random Notes on The Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (Taipei: Xiaoyuan chubanshe, 1991), pp. 46-7. The Heavenly Queen Mother is supposed to have retained her youthful vigour by sexual vampirism - sucking the yang essence out of her young male sex partners. It is therefore possible that her 'water' contains this yang essence. See Van Gulik, p. 158.
36. See, for example, the Greek parallel in Dover, pp. 133-4.
37. In the novel, it is Liu Bei who bestows the sword on Guan Yu. This is a significant innovation as it confirms Liu Bei's imperial (dragon motif) legitimacy as well as his right to confer political and sexual power.
38. For a discussion of Diao Chan's fate, see Liu Zhijian, 'Sanguo yanyi' xinlun (A New Discussion ofRomance of the Three Kingdoms) (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 1985), pp. 93-6.
39. For a discussion of the Diao Chan/Guan Yu episode in zaju, see Jiang Xingyu, 'Zhan Diaochan kaozheng', in Zhongguo xiqushi gouchen (Henan: Zhengzhou shuhuashe, 1982), pp. 240-4.
40. Luo Guanzhong, Sanguo yanyi, Vol. 1 (Taibei: Guiguan tushu, 1988), p. 177.
41. See The Story of Hua Guan Suo [trans. Gail Oman King] (Arizona State University: Center for Asian Studies, 1989).
42. G. T. Hsia, The Classic Chinese Novel (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), p. 106.
43. See the discussion in Kam Louie, 'The Macho Eunuch: The Politics of Masculinity in Jia Pingwa's "Human Extremities" ', Modern China, 1991, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 163-87.
44. In Yuan Shao's wife Lady Liu, for example, we have one of the most needless sadistic murders in the novel: she kills Yuan's five consorts, shaves their heads, tattoos their faces and mutilates their bodies and kills their whole families. See Luo Guanzhong, p. 281.
45. Both Yang Xiong and Wu Song are known for their orgiastic killings. For example, the former slices his own wife up into pieces and the latter for the gruesome slaying of the famous Golden Lotus.
46. The expression 'Guan Yunchang du Chunqiu' (Guan Yu reads the Spring and Autumns Annals) indicating that Guan Yu was a staunch Confucian scholar has become a popular dictum. Tan Liangxiao, Zhang Dake (eds), Sanguo renwu pingzhuan (Critical Biographies of Characters from the Three Kingdoms) (Taipei: Shuiniu, 1992), p. 177.
47. Moss Roberts (trans. and ed.), Three Kingdoms: China's Epic Drama by Lo Kuanchung (New York: Pantheon Books, 1976), p. 303.
48. For a translation of this episode, see James Legge, The Ch'un Tsew with The Tso Chuen (1935; rpt Taipei: Southern Materials Center, 1985), pp. 81-2. This story makes the popular dictum that Guan Yu was well-versed in the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals) much more significant, as the Zuozhuan and Chunqiu are normally read as one book.
49. As late as 1985, Chinese critics continue to highlight this episode. See Liu Zhijian, 'Sanguo yanyi' xinlun, p. 128.
50. Luo Guanzhong, Vol. 1, p. 459.
51. Other critics have also taken such an interpretation of Guan Yu's actions at this point. See, for example, Paul Kimlicka, 'The Novel San Kuo chih Tung-su yen-i as Literature: Uses of Irony by its Author Lo Kuan-chung', Unpublished M.A. thesis, Indiana University, 1986.
52. For example, Liu Bei's outburst at Guan Yu's death, and his wanting to take revenge at the cost of his kingdom.
53. Of course, it could be argued that homosocial desire was so much part of the lives of traditional scholars that it was never taken as a problem needing discussion. If this is the case, modern interpreters have certainly failed in making this point explicit.
54. Yuan Mei, 'Double Blossom Temple', Censored by Confucius: Ghost Stories by Yuan Mei (Kam Louie and Louise Edwards ed. and trans.) (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 206-8. It is interesting that in the 'jottings' of less tolerant scholars of the Qing period, explicit homosexuality is seen as vile and Guan Yu the God is the one to condemn it. See, for example, Vivien W. Ng, 'Homosexuality and the State in Late Imperial China', in Duberman et al., pp. 86-7.
55. Yuan Mei, 'Double Blossom Temple', Censored by Confucius: Ghost Stories by Yuan Mei (Kam Louie and Louise Edwards ed. and trans.) (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 206-8. It is interesting that in the 'jottings' of less tolerant scholars of the Qing period, explicit homosexuality is seen as vile and Guan Yu the God is the one to condemn it. See, for example, Vivien W. Ng, 'Homosexuality and the State in Late Imperial China', in Duberman et al., pp. 86-7.
56. Not to mention more specifically homosexual romances like the Bian er chai and Yichun xiangzhi. See McMahon's discussion of these in his Causality and Containment, p. 69.
57. The expression 'peach orchard pledge' (taoyuan jieyi) is commonly used to refer to forming brotherhoods and other acts of loyalty. It is also the title of a popular zaju play describing this episode.
58. Wolfram Eberhard, Dictionary of Chinese Symbols (Singapore: Federal Publications, 1990), pp. 227-8. 'Sharing the peach', like 'cutting the Sleeve', also refer to homosexual behaviour. See Eric Chou, pp. 21-3.
59. It is significant that the source of this phrase is the Sanguo zhi. It is absent at the corresponding point in the novel (immediately after the brothers joined forces).
60. Both tong chuang and tong ta mean sharing the same bed. Han Feizi, however, had already referred to the term tong chuang as one of the eight vices because it entailed being sexually bewitched by women and young boys.
61. For examples of the use of 'tong ta' throughout history, see Luo Zhufeng (ed.), Hanyu da cidian (The Great Chinese Dictionary), Vol. 3 (Hong Kong: Sanlian chubanshe), p. 122.
62. Luo Guanzhong, Vol. 1, pp. 321-2.
63. Ibid., p. 347.
64. See, for example, Su Shi's poem, 'Tune: "The Charms of Nian-nu"', trans. Ch'u Ta-kao, in Cyril Birch (ed.), Anthology of Chinese Literature (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967), p. 361.
65. In fact the term 'tong ta', used for so many couples in the novel, is not used for Guan Yu's relationship even with Liu Bei.
66. Michel Foucault, The Use of Pleasure, trans. Robert Hurley (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987), p. 20.
67. Ibid.
68. It should be noted here that in the context of the story cycle, Guan Yu is never the most powerful politically. His influence and god-like status were bestowed on him posthumously. In popular iconography, Guan Yu is usually portrayed in the company of his two subordinates Guan Ping and Zhang Jie. This grouping mirrors the trio Liu, Guan and Zhang, but it is the former icon which dominates the popular imagination, thus displaying the superiority of Guan Yu over Liu Bei among the populace.
69. Some critics such as Andrew Lo prefer to see the title 'to mean a playing out of the various implications of moral principle'. See William H. Nienhauser, Jr (ed.), The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1986), p. 669. Yi is so central to historical romances of this sort that many later novels also take yanyi as part of the title.
70. For a detailed discussion of the uses of zhong and yi in the Sanguo, see Gao Mingge, Sanguo yani lungao (On The Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (Shenyang: Liaoning daxue chubanshe, 1986), pp. 185-215.
71. Zhu Yixuan, Liu Yuchen (eds), p. 116.
72. Mao Zonggang, 'Di yi caizi shu' (Number One Work of Genius), published under the title Sanguo yanyi de zhengzhi yu molüe guan (Politics and strategy in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (Taipei: Laogu wenhua shiye, 1985), p. 130.
73. See Qiu Zhensheng, Sanguo yanyi zongheng tan, pp. 111-13.
74. Mao Zonggang, p. 129.
75. Zhou Zhaoxin, Sanguoyanyi kaoping (Evaluation and Criticism of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1990), p. 169.
76. For a discussion of Guan Yu's tragic delusions of grandeur, see Andrew Plaks, The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), pp. 406-13.
77. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men, p. 15.
78. Keith McMahon in Causality and Containment in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Fiction correctly points out that fiction can be 'noisy' (p. 12) compared to more orthodox literary genres. However, in this paper, we are contrasting a literati novel with texts which show even less 'containment'.