Paolo Santangelo, "Two Key Treatises on Love and Their Different Approaches to the Concept of Love :...

Paolo Santangelo

TWO KEY TREATISES ON LOVE AND THEIR DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPT OF LOVE:

QINGSHI LEILÜE 情史類略情史類略情史類略情史類略 AND DE AMORE*

In the history of mentality or anthropological history the role of emotions is overwhelming. I am going to examine the values attributed to the concept of “love” comparing two classics of world literature, the Qingshi leilüe, abridged into Qingshi, “History of Love” (the full title being “The History of Love Categorization Sketch”),1 and the well known mediaeval treatise in Europe, the “Book of the Art of Loving Nobly and the Reprobation of Dis-honourable Love” [Liber de arte honeste amandi et reprobatione inhonesti amoris by André Le Chapelain (Andreas Capellanus, 1150-1220) of about 1185, hereinafter referred to as De amore].2

It is needless to say that here we use the term “love” in a broad way: it is itself a generalization in Western culture, that we arbitrarily apply also to an-

* An earlier version of this paper has been presented in occasion of the commemoration of

Prof. Jaroslav Prusek, in Charles University, October 19, 1996. Later on, this topic has been de-veloped in the ambit of my research on emotions in China, with the contribution of the CCK foundation.

1 I do not intend to give a presentation of this work, which has already been studied by other scholars, from Patrick Hanan to Hua-yuan Mowry. Cf. P. Hanan, 1973; Hua-yuan Li Mowry, 1983. However the translation of “love” for qing 情 may appear reductive; this meaning in its widest sense is the most fitting in this case.

2 Andreas Capellanus, French writer on the art of courtly love, best known for his three-volume treatise. He is thought to have been a chaplain at the court of Marie, Countess of Cham-pagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine. He wrote his book on love at Marie's request. For the original latin text see E. Trojel 1892 (repr. München, 1972), and the Italian version edited by Salvatore Battaglia, n.d.. See also Andrea Cappellano 1992.

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other polysemous term, qing 情3. However, both terms share a common se-mantic field, and thus it is useful to try to compare and find similarities and differences which do not only depend on linguistic characters, but also on dif-ferent cultural approaches. In other words, we try to compare how the aspects concerning “love” are treated, represented, conceived and evaluated in the two works, as meaningful elements of two different cultures and realities.

Furthermore, obviously European late Medieval society was far different from late Ming Chinese society. Nevertheless, what we want to focus on is the long term ideological tools adopted and elaborated by each culture. I would like to stress the divergent trend of intellectual assumptions and the approach to love sentiments in the two cultures in this field.

Concerning love, in the late Medieval Europe the Troubadours elaborated the concept of courtly love, transferring religious values to mundane love, which was extolled above morality and institutions. Such ideal of course was élitarian, and related to an aristocratic society; for most of population – quot-ing Lawrence Stone – “there was no sense of domestic privacy, and interper-sonal relations within the conjugal unit, both between husband and wives and between parents and children were necessarily fairly remote”4. This cult how-ever was moreover carried on by the Romantic movement, with the great transformations reflecting the historical experiences of European culture: we may mention some phenomena like the establishment of the nuclear family, late marriage and the beginning of the so called 18th century “sexual revolu-tion” and “affective individualism”, that involved the nature of conjugal and parent-child relationships, courtship practices, attitudes toward sex, and the

3 Worthy to be mentioned is an article on the differences between the modern concept of

“love”, aiqing 爱情, and qing 情, see Song Geng 宋耕, “Cong ‘Qingshi, Qingwailei’ kan ‘qing’ de benzhi” 从 ‘情史, 情外类’ 看 ‘情’ 的本质, in Gu Meigao, Huang Lin eds. 2002, pp. 330-353, especially pp. 340-345. The article singles out the main characters of the homosexual love in traditional China, on the ground of the chapter on this love in the Qingshi, and stresses the different approach of yin-yang instead of female-male dichotomy (pp. 347-348). On the mean-ings of qing, see the volume by Halvor Eifring 2004. On the philosophical perspective some es-says have appeared dealing with their stand of Neo-Confucian thinkers on qing. See for instance Martin Huang 2001, pp. 23-56; Anthony Yu 1997, pp. 80-108; Paolo Santangelo 1999, pp. 184-316, and the paragraph “The Ethos of Qing in the Late Ming Period”, in Richard Wang’s article 1994.

4 Cf. Lawrence Stone 1977, pp. 408-409.

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relative importance of privacy and individualism in the family context.5 A tragic and sublime conception of love is common to the conflict passion-marriage of the courtly love and to the ambivalence of the Romantic synthe-sis, which tried to combine the primacy of passions and institutions, love and free marriage, spiritual love and intimacy.6

If we move to the last period of Ming dynasty, Chinese society experi-enced great economic and social developments especially in the area of South-Eastern China, owing to a series of internal and international factors. Spread of commercialisation, the acceleration of money and goods circula-tion, and the increasing social mobility, in concomitance with the decadence of the bureaucratic system and the relaxation of political control, influenced positively the intellectual life. In this period, the golden age of fiction, among the new trends, several writers contributed to the success of an entertainment literature, where human sentiments and love were the main themes.

The “History of Love” or Qingshi, attributed to Feng Menglong7 and compiled in about 1630, consists of an anthology of tales and stories, most of which are short and borrowed largely from previous collections, biographies and historical works. It is not actually a treatise in the modern meaning, and indeed can be considered a composition similar to “miscellanies of fiction and anecdote” (biji xiaoshuo 筆記小說).

Thanks to the encyclopaedic structure of the work, it nevertheless pre-sents a kind of “documentation” of the representation in the imaginaire col-lectif (collective imagination) of the reactions, actions and manifestations re-lated to love in its various forms. It not only offers the reader a classificatory

5 Cf E. Shorter 1976. For Lawrence Stone (1977, p. 22) the four key features of the modern

family are “intensified affective bonding of the nuclear core at the expense of neighbours and kin; a strong sense of the individual autonomy and the right to personal freedom in the pursuit of happiness; a weakening of the association of sexual pleasure with sin and guilt; and a grow-ing desire for physical privacy”.

6 The mutual consent of the couple, distinct from the parents’ approval, is an important ele-ment which is strictly bound to the Christian influence: a fundamental role was played by the church’s concept of the sancrament of marriage against different approches by political powers and heretical sects. Cf. G. Duby 1978, D.O. Hughes 1978, pp. 262-96, Jean Louis Flandrin 1979, Jack Goody 1983. An analogous concept is rather missing in Chinese tradition.

7 However Qingshi should not be considered as the only product of the editorial and com-mentary work by Feng Menglong: as other anthologies it is probably the final result of a previ-ous growth by accretion.

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model and thus a semantic framework for the term qing, but also the full range of the many different attitudes to this concept at the time, and above all the ideology of the movement of the cult of feelings, through the comments of the author within, but also in particular, at the end of the various chapters. The “History of Love” is a work that is representative of the movement of writers, publishers and thinkers who championed the so-called “cult of love”.

A fundamental text in the history of European culture, De amore provides a synthesis of Western thinking on the subject, at the dawn of modern times. It codifies the whole doctrine of courtly love, and spans practically all the elements of the cult. It represents an attempt to reconcile the pagan spirit of the model of Ovid’s ars amatoria with the needs of Christian morality, at the same time superseding mediaeval misogynist literature. The author appeals to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, at the same time drawing extensively on traditional Latin, Arabic and courtly literature. He makes use of various dif-ferent traditional literary forms - dialogue, teaching by precept, casuistry, the metaphor of the journey to the underworld and the chivalrous novel.

Several fundamental differences are immediately apparent: these differences reflect both the method used in the two works and the diversity of approach adopted by the latter-day imperial Chinese civilisation and in Europe over the past thousand years. André Le Chapelain sets out to write a theoretical and practical treatise on the above passion, using various classical and mediaeval literary and rhetorical forms. The first of his three books comprises a theoretical section on love, on those who are subject to it, on the ways in which it manifests itself and on conquest, as well as a section containing examples in the form of a dialogue between the courter and the woman of different conditions. The second volume, which has the same structure as the first, starts off with a theoretical elaboration of the maintenance of love, its decline and its end. It then goes on to present a practical case history of stories and anecdotes before concluding with the ‘commandments of Love’. This passion appears in all its power and ubiquity, and the practical tips suggested include stratagems for seduction and techniques for avoiding errors and deception. The love treated is often of the adulterine kind, although maintained at a level of a sophisticated interplay of desire and flattery: “What is love if not a boundless and lustful desire for furtive and concealed embraces?” (Quid enim aliud est amor nisi immoderata et furtivi et latentis amplexus concubiscibiliter percipiendi ambitio? 1:166).


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And yet this entire lay and ‘pagan’ conception is ultimately overthrown and retracted through the reprobation of love, Reprobatio amoris, in book three, in which it is the religious and moral concerns which prevail: here every crime is traced back from love, and its negative effects on spiritual as well as mundane life is stressed with a misogynist attitude. For instance, not only in fact love is dangerous for marriage (Amor enim inique matrimonia frangit …[3:382], and is blamed as the origin of every kind of crimes (nullius criminis notatur excessus, qui ex ipso non sequatur amore [3:376]), but is considered menacing even reputation and prestige in this world (Amor enim non solum facit homines coelesti hereditate privari sed etiam huius saeculi penitus subducit honores [3:378])

The contradiction between the first two parts and the third one is clearly the mirror of the two different ideologies that the author accepts with detachment, keeping them independent and separated: Christian orthodoxy and aristocratic worldliness. Love may be an adventure, play, divertissement and seduction under the subtle and psychological perspective of the young nobles of Southern Europe, but, sub specie aeternitatis, is just an illusory temptation, dangerous even for mundane life. On the whole, the courtly idea of love as nobility of character is combined with its unrestrained celebration as an instrument of communication and seduction and the prudent ultimate moral condemnation.

Moreover, the Chinese editor of the Qingshi in most of the comments ap-pearing at the end of the various chapters, refers to himself as “the Historian of the passion of love says” (Qingshi shi yue 情史氏曰). He thus sees himself as the continuer of Sima Qian and the other authors of the biographies of the dynastic stories in which the ‘objective’ presentation of the facts - in this case the texts of the stories ordered by category - are separated from the direct sub-jective commentary of the historian, at the end of the several monographs.8 In

8 Cf. Denis Twitchett, in Wright and Twitchett eds., 1962, p. 33. Cf. also what M. Kau Hom

1979, pp. 107-35, has written with reference to the comments of Pu Songling 蒲松龄 to the sto-ries of Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋志異. In note 10, p. 195 Kau Hom adds: “[...] I have done a study on the Sanyan 三言 collection and found that in order to make these 'unorthodox' writings appeal-ing and acceptable, the approach of historiography at a certain level is evident in the stories. The writers did so not only as a means of imitating the 'standard' writings of history, but also as a device to convince the reader of the accountability of fictional coincidences in the story. Also, it was used to prove, even though it might seem comical to our modern eye, that their stories were not fabrications. The writers tried to convey that the story was possibly real and true by employ-

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this way, Feng Menglong, as well as becoming part of the prestigious Chinese historiographical tradition, restores a degree of balance between the over-whelming narrative apparatus and the brevity of his critical comments. Worth of note is the language he uses: the literary Chinese with its severe, laconic and elliptical style.

If we examine the 24 chapters, further subdivided into numerous subsec-tions, of which the Qingshi is composed, we find that the categories are actu-ally anything but uniform, like even sentiments which bind father and son or lord and subject: in the first place, qing includes the various forms of sexual love, but also cases of emotional attachment which can exceed and transcend sexuality: heterosexual love, qing’ai 情愛,9 and homosexual love, qingwai情外;10 affection or attachment involving even non humans, such as spirits and ghosts.11 Several chapters display examples concerning the circumstances and conditions that accompany the birth or expression of this feeling: in this case we speak of predestination or affinity (qingyuan 情緣), clandestine or illicit affair (qingsi 情私), unpleasant (qinghan 情憾), illusory (qinghuan 情幻), re-quited relation (qingbao 情報), or else of the metamorphoses produced by love (qinghua 情化).12 The writer identifies also the stages, such as the ever-burgeoning buds of love (qingya 情芽), or the consequences, such as the de-generations (qinghui 情穢), the dangers (qinglei 情累), or else certain atti-tudes, for instance, chastity (qingzhen 情貞).13 The work is filled with exam- ing structural techniques borrowed from accepted historical writings.” Feng Menglong occa-sionally calls himself “The Lord of passion” (qing zhuren 情主人).

9 Qingshi, 6:162-181; the other chapters deal mainly with love between men and women. 10 Qingshi, 22:756-777 11 Qingshi, 8:196-224 (qinggan 情感 “emotional reaction”), 10:270-308 (qingling 情靈

“miracles of love”), 19:558-631 (qingyi 情疑 “dubious loves”), 20:632-694 (qinggui 情鬼 “love of ghosts”), 21:695-755 (qingyao 情妖 “extraordinary loves”). In this way, Feng Menglong ex-tends the meaning of qing to cover also Buddha’s mercy and the protection of the spirits (19:631). For an example of love involving even beings that are inanimate and non-feeling by definition, such as stones, see also Pu Songling, Liaozhai zhiyi, Shi Qingxu 石清虛, 11:1575-79: in the relationship that grows up between Xing Yunfei, a collector of rocks and a stone; moved by the man’s obsession with it, the latter requites his feelings to the extent that it allows itself to be smashed to smithereens rather than betray Xing.

12 Qingshi, respectively 2:37-67, 3:68-99, 8:196-224, 9:225-269, 16:468-498, 11:309-21. 13 Qingshi, respectively 15:445-467; 17:499-537, 18:538-557, 1:1-36


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ples of how the sages, moralists, officials, philosophers, generals and even monks and hermits were unable to avoid having passions (wei mian you qing

免有情). The Qingshi may thus be considered as a reflection on the phe-nomenon of love and as the widest-ranging attempt in traditional China to trace back the origins of the reproductive drive, and then to sweep over the whole range of its cultural forms, including the purely hedonistic ones, and its various superstructural re-elaborations.

The two works share above all a fundamentally positive attitude towards this sentiment, viewed as a manifestation of nature; its vital force in Feng Menglong is expressed in the metaphor of the budding of a plant, ya 芽, to which chapter 15 is dedicated (qingya), and in the cosmic concept of “vitality”, shengyi 生意.

For André Le Chapelain (in the first two volumes of his treatise) love bears morality within itself insofar as it is identified with the virtues, and in particular, with honesty (morum probitas) and noblemindedness (nobilitas).14 This comparison introduces an element of innovation in the history of the representation of this passion. As in the conception of the Dolce Stil Novo, the style of a group of 13th-14th-century Italian poets, love is gentleness and noblemindedness, generosity and selflessness. Nobility is no longer a mark of birth but denotes a particular inner refinement: “love confers beauty upon the coarse and ignorant, and ennobles even the humblest...” 15 . It therefore transcends all social hierarchies. It is impossible to attain this privileged state of mind only when material conditions such as constant overwork or poverty are a hindrance, as in the case of peasants (and it would be of no advantage, adds the author cynically, to train them in the art of loving, as this would reduce their productiveness).16

14 Andreas Capellanus [Trojel ed. 1892], 1:12, 28 (1992, pp.16-17, 22-23, 98, 12); see also D'Arco Silvio Avalle, “Due tesi sui limiti di amore”, in Capellanus [Cappellano] 1992, pp. 189-200.

15 1:12 “amor horridum et incultum omni facit formositate pollere, infimos natu etiam morum novit nobilitate ditare… quam mira res est amor, qui tantis facit hominem fulgere virtutibus tan-tisque docet quemlibet bonis moribus abundare”: love makes beautiful what is ugly and un-adorned, love enriches those of humble origin with honesty and noblemindedness … Oh, what a splendid thing is love! It illuminates man with so many virtues and endowes him with so many sound morals).

16 «L’amour “fine” – writes Duby – pratiquée dans l’honestas, fut présentée en effet comme l’un des privilèges du cortois. Le vilain était exclus du jeu. » Georges Duby 1988, p. 80.

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For Feng Menglong, inner morality is the primary virtue of man, society and the universe: “the son will have love towards his father, and the subject will have love towards his lord” (子有情於父,臣有情於君 Qingshi, Preface). Here we can see how qing corresponds respectively to the two cardinal virtues of xiao 孝 and xin 信.

The Basic Principles of qing according to the Qingshi and De Amore

Let us now examine what Feng Menglong considered to be the fundamental concepts related to qing:

1) it is taken as the measure of all things, because love is the basic rule which is common to all beings;17

2) it is acknowledged to have a transcendent dimension, common to all human beings, spirits, gods and all other beings, even inanimate things;18

3) emphasis is laid on its dual creative and destructive potential; while it is indeed true that, thanks to it, the myriads of things and beings in the universe continuously reproduce (無情不生一切物..生生而不滅。Qingshi, Preface), it is also deemed to be the cause of great misfortune (情猶水也,慎而防之,過溢不上,則雖江海之洪,必有溝澮之辱矣… 有奇淫者必有奇禍。);19 See comments to chapters 6 and 7 that warn the reader to be careful of dangers which may come from passions: “death and disasters 有死亡滅絕之事 (6:181), or “Outside, other people may be damaged, while inside, oneself may be injured; at least a life may be destroyed, but a kingdom may be also overthrown.” Wang yi qiang ren, lai yi zei ji, xiao ze juanming, da er qingguo 往以戕人﹐來以賊己﹐小則捐命，大而傾國 (7:195).

17 See for instance the comment: 萬物生於情, 死於情. 人, 千萬物中处一焉. 将以能言, 能衣冠, 揖讓, 遂為之长. 其實覺性与物不異. . . 生在而情往焉. 故人而無情, 雖曰生人, 吾直

謂之死矣. “All beings originate from love, and end for love. Man is considered the first among the myriad of things, because he is able to talk, to clothe himself and to perform all good man-ners and rites, then he is superior to all of them. However, as matter of fact, human nature is not different from other beings. ... Wherever there is life, there is love. Therefore, I would frankly say that people without love, although they are called living persons, are dead.” (23:793)

18 On love that transcends life and death, see 10:308; on inanimate things 11:320; chapter 20 concerns ghosts, 21 monsters and the spirits of birds, animals, plants and objects, and 23 non-human beings that are capable of love.

19 Qingshi, 17:536-7.


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4) love and passions can and must be domesticated [ 私情化公… 善讀者可以廣情. Qingshi, Preface], but cannot be eradicated. It is also stated that it is wrong any wish to eliminate love, as well it would be to say that plants do not need to have sprouted (…草木可不必芽, 15:467). See the sentence “Any time vitality stirs, plants begin to sprout: and love is vitality in man. Thus, who is able to stop its sprouting? Even sages like King Wen and Confucius were endowed with love ...” 草木之生意動而爲芽,情亦人之生意也. 誰能不芽者? 文王孔子之聖也而情。Qingshi, Qingya, 15:467

5) a distinction is thus made between passion and pure sexual desire; 情近于淫, 而淫實非情報 Qingshi, 7:187. In 17:537 the writer warns those who are extraordinarily lustful that must face extraordinary calamities. 有奇淫者必有奇祸.

6) a “true” love is identified, which is likened to a thread joining up all things in the universe which, in many respects, brings the moral requisites of Confucian virtue into line with those of Buddhist compassion (佛之慈悲, 仙之設度, 神祗之坊德濟物, 無適非情);20 For Confucian virtues we already have seen some examples. “Then, even Buddha’s mercifulness and compassion, as well as the sage’s humanness and righteousness will be useless” 佛亦何慈悲,聖亦何仁義.Qingshi, Preface).

7) it is therefore the basis of morality, the spirit that infuses vitality (shengyi 生意) into the teachings of the Classics themselves; indeed it is the spirit that allows proper behaviour to be sincere (cheng 誠); it is the living soul of the ethical principle.21 Its cult becomes a religion of life and social coexistence. Indeed, this passion represents vitality (ren zhi shengyi 人之生意 ) in every man, like budding plants, starting from the great sages of antiquity, as we have seen in the example at item 4 .

20 19:631, and next note. 21 “In matters concerning loyalty, filial piety, chastity and heroism, the behaviour of people

who act according to moral principles only is necessarily forced. The behaviour of those who act according to their sentiments and love is necessarily sincere. In the relation between husband and wife, which is the most intimate relation, if husband is lacking in love, he cannot be a good husband. If wife is lacking in love, she cannot be a virtuous wife. Vulgar Confucians know only how principles restrain passions, but who does know how sentiments are the support of princi-ples?” 自來忠孝節烈之事, 從道理上做者必勉强. 從至情上出者必真切. 婦其最近者也. 無情之必不能為義 , 無情之妇必不能為節婦. 世儒但知理為情之範,处孰知情為理之维

呼! Qingshi, Qingzhen 1:30。

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8) Feng Menglong intuitively grasps the difference between physical and animal nature and the nature of man, perceiving the importance of the cultural element and its effect on the human species, modifying and enhancing the impulses themselves. Unlike animal instinct, which changes according to the season, in men –says Feng Menglong– feelings are immortalized in poetry and music, by means of which the intensity of a moment can be passed on to the following generations: “Love is what makes the birds sing in spring and the insects produce their autumn sounds; however, this love is not free, as it is influenced by the seasons: also love passes with the passing of the seasons. Man is a different matter: he modulates his emotions through the verses of poetry and the harmony of song; therefore, the song or lament of a single day can be immortalized and passed on for hundreds and thousands of genera-tions. The same is true of emotional feelings recounted in passionate stories and published in written texts. The later generations are thus able to recite these poems and sing these songs, rewrite the stories, and thereby relive the feelings and passions. (xiangjian qi qing 想見其情)”. 鳥之嗚春, 蟲之嗚秋, 情也. 迫於時而不自已.時往而情亦遁矣. 人則不然, 韻之爲詩協之爲詞,一日之謳吟歎詠, 垂之千百世而不廢. 其事之關情者, 則又傳爲美談, 筆之小牘,後時誦其詩, 歌其詞, 述其事, 而想見其情. 22

There is no lack of contradictions in both texts, although at different lev-els: book three of the European mediaeval treatise is devoted to the condem-nation of love on the basis of the Christian moral doctrine and the reasoning underlying western misogynist tradition; Feng Menglong’s comments abound in recommendations concerning the dangers represented by passion, which is sometimes identified with the suffering and concerns of life and with the folly of infatuation (chi 癡), a cause of misfortune for oneself and others.23 How-ever, the analogies go no further. While André Le Chapelain starts from a precise definition of that feeling and illustrates its development and manifes-

22 Qingshi, Qingji, 24:815. With regard to the awareness of the cultural element, compare this

passage with the famous saying by Beaumarchais that “to drink without feeling thirst and to love whatever the season is what distinguishes man from the beast”.

23 Qingshi, 5:161; 7:194-95. However, in the preface, he calls himself “crazy of love” (qing-chi 情痴) with the meaning of a strongly compassionate and sympathetic man. From this pas-sage it is clear how polysemantic are these crucial terms such as qing and chi. For the various meanings of qing and chi in the Hongloumeng, see Saitô Kiyoko 1987, pp. 409-24, as well as in Pu Songling, Yagi Akiyoshi 1986, pp. 81-98.


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tations, which are given ample treatment in the theoretical parts of books one and two, in the Qingshi it is the anecdotal part which prevails - as it is com-posed of short stories -, with the theoretical part being limited to the foreword and short comments. For André Le Chapelain love is an innate passion that feeds on the sight and constant thought of the person of the other sex, with whom one desires above all to have sexual intercourse and, in such intimacy, concordantly to realize all its precepts. Passion does not spring from any ac-tion but “proceeds from the sole thought that the mind conceives before the sight […] the more you think of that woman, the more you burn with love” (ex sola cogitatione, quam concipit animus ex eo, quod vidit, passio illa pro-cedit [...] quotiens de ipsa cogitat totiens eius magis ardescet amore, 1:6-8). Or ….”love is an innate passion that arises from the sight and immoderate thought for a person of the other sex” (amor est passio quaedam innata pro-cedens ex visione et immoderata cogitatione formae alterius sexus, 1:4).

For Feng Menglong, “qing consists of that active, formless motion that we suddenly experience without actually being aware of it”. Its dynamism could but be compared with the wind, as we shall see in the following:

It may have the characteristics of the wind, and so be transformed pre-cisely into wind, in that it, like passion, is tirelessly agitated in all direc-tions.24

It is on this vitalistic and ethical basis that Feng Menglong grounds his cult of passions.

For André Le Chapelain this feeling is not limited to pure sexual pleas-ure; the obvious aim of the sublimation of the instincts is not their contain-ment but rather the elevation of the libido to a state of refined eroticism, to which only a privileged minority can aspire. His final aim is the cult of de-sire.25 He sets himself the goal of identifying the rules governing love on at

24 有風之象, 故其化為風, 風者周施不舍之物,情之屬也 Qingshi, Qinghua (Metamorphosis of love), 11:320.

25 See the following two cases of easy love: “… mulieris, in qua facilem petitae rei conces-sionem cognoveris, amorem tibi non expedit postulare.” and “.. naturaliter sicut equus et mulus ad Veneris opera promoventur, quemadmodum impetus eis naturae demonstrat” (It is better not to look for the love of a woman when you know it is easily offered … [Peasants] just follow their instincts like horses and mules) 1:270-272 (Cappellano 1992, pp. 17-18, 116-22) Or “amoris enim cita et festina largitio contemptum parit amantis et optatum diu vilescere facit amorem” (2:234, and also 2:242, 246, 282), and “Facilis perceptio contemptibilem reddit amorem, difficilis eum carum facit haberi.” (2:358, Easy possession debases love, while its dif-

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least four different planes: instrumental, teaching the art of the rhetoric of se-duction; social, recommending the rules of “courtesy”, i.e. prudence, which are made to derive from women; metaphysical, describing the totalizing laws of passion, with its superiority over the differences of status and the institu-tions, but also with its frailness and transience; and religious, illustrating the moral degenerations of this passion and thus condemning love and women (book three).

Feng Menglong merely presents the variety, the power and the complex-ity of love in its physical essence and its dual valence - creative and destruc-tive. In fact, there is a metaphysical elaboration, which provides some ideo-logical justification of its cult championed by the writer: above all he devel-ops the ancient concept of predestination, based on the principle of heavenly retribution, although accompanied by a series of cosmological references: he sets this feeling at the basis of the life of the universe and social relations. In this cult of love, Feng Menglong actually surpasses André Le Chapelain him-self, claiming that “the earth grows old, the heavens collapse and yet love is not extinguished”: 地老荒, 此情不泯 . 26 And again, echoing Tang Xianzu:

“Man is born for love and dies for love, while love does not depend on man either for its birth or its death. In life, passion can lead to death and after death passion may resuscitate the dead. Therefore, even though the form can no longer return to life, love ultimately does not die. It is capable of bringing to completion after death the desires one wished to achieve be-

ficult gratification increases its value). In particular cf. André Le Chapelain when he describes peasant love, for which he make a clear distinction between animal love and culturized love. On the cultivation of desire see also 1:212-246, for the distinction between pure and mixed love. “Pure” love is neither platonic love nor chastity because includes any kinds of effusions with the exception of the copulation, while the “mixed” love allowes the complete sexual satisfaction but is short-lived and may be dangerous (“Et purus quidem amor est, qui onimoda dilectionis affec-tione duorum amantium corda coniungit. Hic autem in mentis contemplatione cordisque consis-tit affectu; procedit autem usque ad oris osculum lacertique amplexum et verecundum amantis nudae contactum, extremo praetermisso solatio … Amor enim iste sua semper sine fine cogno-scit augmenta. … Mixtus vero amor dicitur ille, qui omni carnis delectationi suum praestat ef-fectum et in extremo Veneris opere terminatur. … Hic enim cito deficit et parvo tempore durat, et eius saepe actus exercuisse poenituit. ..).

26 Qingshi, Qingling, 10:297. Italics mine. In fact also the former part of the sentence, the set phrase 地老荒, means that love outlasts even heaven and earth.


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fore birth, and to crown in the subsequent existence the shattered hopes of the preceding one. This love is truly miraculous!”27

人生死於情者也.情不生死於人者也.人生而情能死之,人死而情又能

生之.卻令形不復生,而情終不死.乃舉生前欲遂之願,畢之死後;前生

了之願,償之來生.情之爲零,亦甚著呼!. . .

Furthermore, Feng Menglong creates one of the rare examples in Chinese literature on the absolutization of this sentiment which leads to the transcending of its physical basis. He makes a distinction between the moral nature and heroism of true love and pure sexual desire, and goes so far as to identify the sublimation of instinct with the folly of amorous passion. In this way, on the one hand, the eversive potential of sexuality is practically neutralized by the eversive potential of excess and, on the other, its undue idealization leads to the annihilation of its true essence. I find emblematic the story about a certain Wang, a timber merchant from Luoyang who had agreed to being emasculated in order to be allowed to visit the woman he loved. In his commentary to the story, he writes: “reciprocated love (xiang ai) is based on pleasure. As he has been castrated, what does he go and see her for? Ah! He did it in the name of love (qing). In fact love is akin to lust (yin), although lust is actually not love.... At its height love does not fear death, and thus not even castration. Therefore it may be called love even though it is mere obsession and infatuation.” 相愛本以爲歡也. 既淨身矣, 安用見爲? 噫! 是乃所以爲情也. 情近于淫, 而淫實非情 ...情之所極, 乃至相死而不悔, 況淨身乎! 雖然, 謂之情則可, 謂之非癡則不可.28

For Feng Menglong, true love (zhenqing 真情)29 is moderate, sincere, he-roic and above all steadfast, and should not be confused with the hypocritical moralism (jia daoxue 假道學) of vulgar Confucianists (shiru 世儒), nor even with lust (yin 淫) which is not a genuine sentiment,30 nor with unbounded passion.31 On the contrary, according to Le Chapelain, the “true love” (verus

27 Qingshi, Qingling, 10:308. And in the chapter on the ubiquity of love (23:793) he writes:

“All things are born of love and die for love. Man is but one of an infinite number of beings....” 28 Qingshi, 7:187. 29 Qingshi, 1:31. 30 Qingshi, 1:31 and 7:187.

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amor) is passion, i.e. the immoderate craving for a furtive and clandestine lustful intimacy, including jealousy.32

However, the greatest difference between the two works is certainly the relation between feelings on the one hand and society and mundane interests on the other: André Le Chapelain delights in juxtaposing the autonomy and sincerity of passion with social differences, wealth and marriage itself. When expressing the concept of courtly love, the author indeed denies that true love is actually possible within institutional constraints: indeed passion feeds on jealousy and its very illicitness;33 therefore paradoxically he goes on: “it is a fact that love cannot exist between husband and wife ... love cannot assert its power between spouses …however great is the affection between husband and wife, it cannot take the love’s place .. Thus, so great is the distance be-tween conjugal affection and lovers’ liaison” (inter virum et uxorem amorem sibilocum vindicare non posse … quamvis omnimoda coniugati dilectionis af-fectione iungantur, eorum tamen affectum amoris non posse vice perfungi… Tantum igitur distare constat inter omnimodam coniugatorum affectionem et amantium obligationem … 1:166-168). Of course we should avoid any exces-sive generalization. It is possible that the discipline and cultivation of desires of this play, a kind of dangerous “jeu éducatif” – as Duby notices – could

31 Qingshi, 6:181. Also in other works, such as the anthology of short stories entitled “A bag

full of wisdom” (Zhinang 智囊), written in 1628, Feng Menglong claims that human feelings are an asset that nevertheless needs the guidance of wisdom indifferently in men of letters and in common people (cf. Harada Suekiyo 1937, pp. 48-53).

32 “Quid enim aliud est amor nisi immoderata et furtivi et latentis amplexus concupiscibiliter percipiendi ambitio? Sed quis esse possit, quaeso, inter coniugatos furtivus amplexus, quum ipsi se adinvicem possidere dicantur et cuncta sine contradictionis timore suae voluntatis desideria vicissim valeant adimplere? … ipsius amoris substantia, sine qua verus amor esse non potest, scilicet zelotypia …. Zelotypia invenitur ab omni inter amantes amoris commendata perito et inter coniugatos in universis mundi partibus reprobata … inter coniugatos sua non poterit amor iura cognoscere… quia vera inter eos zelotypia inveniri non potest … Qui non zelat, amare non potest” (1:166-168, 170, 180).

33 Capellanus, 1:166-180. And again: “Nam amantes sibi invicem gratis omnia largiuntur nul-lius necessitatis ratione cogente (1:180, In fact lovers freely exchange everything each other, without being pressed by any duty) … Sed quum sciam, inter virum et uxorem posse nullatenus esse amorem, … extra nuptialia mihi foedera postulare cogor amorem (1:200, But as I know that any love cannot exist between husband and wife, … I am forced to look for extra-conjugal love)”. In 2:322 he distinguishes between maritalis affectus et coamantium vera dilectio. See also the 31 golden rules listed in 2:356-358. This tradition was to continue in Romanticism: cf. also Stendhal (De l’amour, 1822) 1990, pp. 289-96.


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also have supported the feudal order, through the ritualisation and legitimisa-tion of sexual and sentimental dissatisfactions. But notwithstanding such so-cial and political functions of the “educational” rules, Duby confirms the “fantasies adultériennes de la fine amour”, that contains the seeds of “les aventures de la liberté”.34 Of these ideas and the danger of the play consists the “eversive” element attached to this concept of love, compared with the concepts presented by Feng Menglong.

Conversely, for Feng Menglong, society, institutions, personal interest, and morality all coincide with true love through the action of retribution and the predestination of marriages, so that “The relationship between husband and wife is the most intimate of all social relations” 婦其最近者也 (1:30). While this sentiment is also conceived as an individual need of the lovers, it remains in harmony with social requirements. Its strength stems not from the juxtaposition but rather from this harmony with the social order. Qing for Feng Menglong is also a “correspondence of loving sense”, although this link has been derived from various concepts relating to retribution and destiny.35

Love and Morality in “De Amore” and in Qingshi

In its effort to ritualise sexual relations between genders, André Le Chapelain’s work places the “amour fine” not only above society and the in-stitutions, but also above morality. This is demonstrated by the first and sec-ond books dealing with this passion out of wedlock, and with adulterine and religious love. However, to achieve this, the “cult” that he celebrates is sup-plied by a refined code that cultivates and regulates the erotic desire, and has to be nourished by all the rhetoric and the ‘courtly’ allegorical baggage that dresses “profane love” up in the symbology of “sacred love”. The new social ethics calls for “honesty of mores”, “noblemindedness”, dedication, generos-ity, courage, in order to achieve nobility of the spirit; but, conversely, it is the sentiment that allows the soul to be refined and made gentle. Love finds its justification in good, but at the same time is also a source of good: “Probity only makes people worthy of love” (2:358, Probitas sola quemque dignum

34 Duby 1988, pp. 75-82, 47. 35 Qingshi, Qingbao, 16:468-98.

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facit amore). And furthermore it is identified with Woman, “the source of all good” (causa/origo bonorum), thus linking up also with the chivalrous con-ception of woman’s dominion over man and the idealization of male’s de-sires.

In his first commentary to Qingshi, Feng Menglong repeats his conception of the moral foundations of true sentiments: chastity (zhen 貞) paradoxically becomes the virtue of concubines and courtesans, as their faithfulness is unquestionable proof of the sincerity of their feelings (zhenqing 真情), which cannot be overshadowed by other reasons as in the case of the legitimate wife. True sentiment is that which endures in time without losing its strength: “make people know that love can last long and stable” 使人知情之可久.36 As already mentioned, except in a few cases justified by special circumstances, this sentiment does not run counter to social rules. With reference to the few examples of love affairs out of wedlock, such as those described at the beginning of chapter 13, Feng Menglong comments: Illicit and clandestine desires between men and women ... are like the re-

flection of flowers in a mirror or of the moon on water, the illusory shad-ows of imagination.37

男女私願...鏡花水月猶屬幻想之依稀

Sometimes Feng Menglong tries to find a homogeneous morality among the different cases presented in the tales he has collected, but this is not easy. For instance, under the chapter on “clandestine relation” (Qingsi 情私) he compares three romantic stories whose different ends seem to be in contradic-tion with each other. In Liu Yaoju 劉堯舉 ,38 the protagonist is a young scholar who, during his way for the provincial capital where he is going to take part in the civil service examination, is attracted by the daughter of a boatman; after finishing the examination, he comes back to the boat and se-

36 Qingshi, Preface, and 1:30-31; for Feng Menglong cf. also the short stories 10, 24, 31 e 32

of Jingshi tongyan 警世通言, and for Ling Mengchu, no. 25 of the Paian jingqi 拍案驚奇 and nos. 2 and 12 of Erke Paian jingqi 二刻拍案驚奇, which highlight the paradoxical fidelity of several courtesans. Also the expression zhenqing xiang’ai 真情相愛 exists to express “true love”.

37 Qingshi, Qinghan, 13:381. 38 Qingshi, 3:87-88.


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duces the girl, leaving her with the mutual promise of marriage. But, in fact he has failed his examinations as the retribution for his incorrect behaviour, and, notwithstanding his good will and his determination to marry her, he never finds the girl after passing the examinations. In the “Graduate Mo” (Mo juren 莫舉人),39 although the scholar seduces a girl who has been already be-trothed to another family and escapes with her, he does not face any bad con-sequences: his career is splendid and his two sons also will rise in the ranks. In Pan Yongzhong 潘用中,40 the young protagonist and a next-door girl are secretly in love with each other, and can only exchange poems. At last, they are able just to bribe a woman, asking her to make their go-between. Later, however, the couple is separated, but then both become seriously sick, until their parents allow their marriage. Therefore all the stories have a happy end, with the exception of the first one: why Liu Yaoju’s seduction is so severely punished, while the scholar Mo and Pan Yongzhong are lucky? The punish-ment of Liu Yaoju for his seduction of a boat-girl, at first sight can be ex-plained on the basis of the lack of parents’ approval. In his comment, Feng compares the Liu Yaoju’s situation with two other characters of different sto-ries, Pan Yongzhong and the student Mo. Surprising may appear the happy end is the result of Mo’s story, although Mo is judged as a shameless rough and rude in his conduct (老臉撒泼). Feng is most sympathetic with Pan Yongzhong and his lover Miss Huang, because of the couple’s mutual affec-tion, and he is glad that Heaven allows them, despite their suffering, to finally join together. Less positive is the image of the student Mo, as is considered by the writer not worthy of the love of his mistress. As a matter of fact, stu-dent Mo successfully seduces his girl, and then he gets an examination de-gree. Liu was too irresponsible if compared with Pan, but his behaviour was not worse than Mo’s. This contradiction is not explained but the writer ex-presses some doubts on the perfect function of the doctrine of retribution. What Feng complains, is that heaven is not so fair with Liu, who was roman-tic and loyal with the boat-girl, and proposed her a marriage. So, what he blames here it is not the immoral behaviour but the unfair destiny. The Heaven’s punishment for Liu, thus, depriving him of the official degree, is considered excessive. Summing up, the power of parents for any engage-

39 Qingshi, 3:82-83. 40 Qingshi, 3:85-87.

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ments of sons and daughters is considered arbitrary and a patriarchal authori-tarianism, against the orthodox opinion. 41

Moreover, passion must not be excessive, that is, it must not lose its con-nection with the principle.42 In the empassioned foreword, probably written by Feng Menglong, qing is equated with compassion, liking, benevolence, and sensitivity to one’s fellow man. In short, three significant concepts are expressed:

a) through qing-emotion, things and beings in the universe reproduce;43 b) its presence brings closer those who are far away, and its absence

makes alien even those who are close by44; c) it is compared with a thread linking up all things in the universe, like a

piece of string threaded through a set of coins: 萬物如散錢, 一情爲線索 Qingshi, Preface)..

From this last point and several examples given in the Preface itself, posi-tively the term qing seems to be interpreted in a very similar meaning to that of Confucian virtues of humanness and righteousness, as well as Buddhist compassion, which is not lacking in vitalistic connotations in the neo-Confucian conception:45 according to Feng Menglong it implies the attitude

41 Qingshi, 3:88. 42 “How to easily talk about love with people who do not understand the equilibrium between

passions and principle?” (彼參乎情理之中者,奈之何易言情也). Qingshi, Qinglei, 18:557. 43 See for instance the passage in the Preface, quoted at the beginning of note 14, 23:793 in

note 25 and 18:557. 44 Cf. the similar concepts expressed in the ethical elaboration of Lü Kun 呂坤 (1538-1618),

Shenyin yu 呻吟語 (Groanings) 1975, 1, Lunli 理 6a, and by Tang Zhen 唐甄 (1630-1704) . See transl. by Jacques Gernet, in Tang Zhen, 1992, pp. 23-24.

45 See the quotation from Qingshi, Preface, in note 15. Not only Confucius, Xunzi and Men-cius had identified the virtue of humanness with respect for and benevolence towards mankind (Lunyu, 12, 22; Mencius, 4, b, 28, 7, a, 46; also Homer Dubs, [1928] p. 167, repr. 1972, p. 263), analogous concepts can be found also in the other schools of thought (cf. Zhuangzi jishi 1970, 12:3a [219]; Mozi [Zhuzi yinde 墨子, 諸子引得], 65:40.2; J.J.L. Duyvendak 1963, p. 226; Liao Wen Kuei [tr.], 1959, p. 171; cf also Mei Yi-pao 1974, pp. 152-53 and Heiner Roetz 1993, pp. 126-33. On the concept of “humanness” in ancient China, see the latter volume, pp. 119-48). Particulary among the early Neo-Confucians, such as Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032-1085), the virtue of humanness (ren) is equated with “vital impulse” and in this case no clear distinction can be made between instinct-feeling and virtue. See also Zhu Xi who, although very prudently, am-biguously identifies the virtue of humanness with the principle of love (ai zhi li 愛之理) on the basis of the notion of productive power of the mind of the universe: “The mind of the universe


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linking man to all the other beings, as well as self-respect and compassion for others’ misfortunes; it is expressed even in the animal and vegetable worlds through dedication and sacrifice.46 Perhaps the difference between the two terms lies in the fact that qing is a direct spontaneous expression of the reac-tion of the mind, while ren is the manifestation of moral principle. “If one was without love, how could he experience and understand the feelings of human beings? - the comment on Knightliness (情俠) chapter notes - The feelings and social relations of those who are not against human sentiments are really very deep. [...] If love is not effective, the sense of justice and right-eousness is not encouraged, and our behaviour will not be extraordinary.” 己若無情, 何以能體人之情 ? 其不拂人情者, 真其人情至深者耳 ...情不至, 義不激, 事不奇.Qingshi, 4:132 )

But then why does Feng Menglong refer to the process of production and reproduction of the universe?47 If he anchors qing to the dominant social val-ues, he does not limit his elaboration to a more or less superficial repetition of moral and philosophical established concepts. He elaborates, on the contrary, a very sophisticated notion, that includes the vital and elementary drives of beings. The Ming writer considers the term qing less a philosophic-metaphysical concept than one concerning above all the relation between man and woman, and to be based directly on the generative and dynamic concep-tion of love between the two sexes, as extolled by the heterodox thinker Li

corresponds to its creative and productive activity. At the time of their birth, man and other the other creatures receive the mind of the universe as their own mind”. (Renshuo 仁說, “Treatise on the virtue of humanness” Zhuzi wenji 朱子文集 (Zhu Xi’s Collected Works, Congshu jicheng), 13:466, Zhuzi yulei 1986, 8 vols.), 95:2424; cf also Chan Wing-tsit 1989, pp. 184-96). If we bear in mind the absence of any matter-spirit dichotomy, as well as the fundamental mo-nism of the Neo-Confucian conception (beyond the contrast between “monists” and “dualists” in the debate on li-qi 理氣 relationship) by which the principle becomes real only if incorpo-rated in the psychophysical substance and nature itself is materialized through the emotions, from the standpoint of ideological coherence we must acknowledge that unorthodox thinkers like Li Zhi 李贄 (1527-1602) took Neo-Confucian thinking to its extreme consequences. It is also true however that these conclusions clashed with the needs of the social order, such as hier-archic order and sexual control.

46 Qingshi, 23:778-93, where animals and plants play an important role in the field of love, ei-ther because they display feelings similar to those of human beings, or because of a specific positive function exerted vis-à-vis a human couple, or else by the power of suggestion and exci-tation.

47 Qingshi, 18:557.

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Zhi as the foundation of the universe. The champions of this theory suc-ceeded in attaining an understanding of the essence of desire, which is uncon-trollable by the will although part of a current circulating throughout the uni-verse and the cause of its constant transformation.

Moreover, the Qingshi attributes to this sentiment the same power of Confucian virtues and at the same time exculpates qing, drawing the distinc-tion between love and the misuse thereof. In the second preface, signed by Zhanzhan waishi 詹詹外史,it is stated that “love begins with the male-female relation” and then “flows abundantly to the king-subject, father-son, elder-younger brothers, and friends relationships”: 情始於男女 ... 流注於君臣, 父子兄弟, 朋友之間, 而注然有余乎 Qingshi, Second Preface). By analogy, the editor also rejects the current historical opinion whereby the crimes of evil kings were blamed on the ruinous influence of some beautiful concubine.48

48 Qingshi 6:181. Also some Feng Menglong’s vernacular stories contain numerous refer-

ences to the proverbial danger of female wiles. For instance Gujin xiaoshuo 1991, 3:175-76, 6:281; in the first few pages of “Han Five sells love at the New Bridge” 新橋市韓五賣春情, as many as five cases of love with fateful repercussions on the state are cited: between the Zhou sovereign, king You, and his favourite, Bao Si 褒姒 , the duke Ling of Chen and Xia Ji, the em-peror Chen Houzhu and Zhang Lihua, emperor Sui Yang and his concubine Xiao, and the em-peror Ming of the Tang and Yang guifei. For other negative female portrayals, cf. Jingshi tongyan 33 e 38) Cf. also another late Ming collection, Dou-peng xianhua, 1984) 2:12-20 (Fan Shaobo shui zang Xi Shi 范少伯水葬西施). A different attitude, akin to that expressed by Feng Menglong in “History of Love”, can be found also in Lü Kun (1536-1618); after examining several historical cases, the latter came to the conclusion that it was men and not women who should be held responsible, as the model was made incarnate in man, and his companion could only follow his example. Cf. Lü Kun, Guifan tushuo 閨範圖說 (Illustrated regulations for the women’s quarters), 1998, 1:13b-14b. Lin Yutang 1935, pp. 127-50, again takes up and develops these concepts, revealing the evil light in which traditional Chinese historiography has shown women having conquered a degree of political power or who in any case held a rank close to the authority of the state, such as the empress Wu or the beautiful concubine Xi Shi. These con-cepts, however, although implying a negative and transgressive meaning, or indeed precisely for this reason, imbue the idea of love with a stronger tension: see for example the speech by Zhao Xiang to his lover Feiyan (Xingshi tongyan 38). Again, in “Paradise-Inferno of sensuality”, de-scribed by Li Ruzhen 李汝珍 (1763-1830) at the end of his novel, the author asks the question: “How can a pretty girl cause harm?” (Jinghua yuan, 1979, 98:499), meaning that it is love in itself that is extremely dangerous. And the end of the hapless Yang Yan 陽衍 seems to confirm the saying that “a comely maiden’s smile”, yixiao 一笑, or “female charms”, nüse 女色, can cause the “ruin of the city and the collapse of the state” (qing cheng qing guo 傾城傾國).


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Cult of Love and its Religious Implications in “De Amore” and in Qingshi

Another element shared by the two works is the fact that both contain an elaboration of the worship of certain states of mind that we may simply call as the “cult of love”. In “De Amore” this belongs to the school that goes by the name of “courtly love” and is part of the process in which this passion is considered as a product sublimated by the instincts. The sublime art of love is thus contrasted with the vulgar giving free rein to the instincts experienced by animals, by the uncouth and in wedlock, and becomes a complex interplay midway between the illicit and desire. Thus, love becomes the absolute and highest value. The first and the ninth of the golden rules which end the second volume of “De Amore” state that marriage is not entitled to limit love, and that love follows only the reasons of the heart (2:356, Causa coniugii ab amore non est excusatio recta. … Amare nemo potest, nisi qui amoris suasione compellitur).

Feng Menglong follows a different approach. In his foreword he writes, that: “I intend to establish the religion of love in order to educate all living beings: that the son might love his father, the subject his king, and so on in every kind of relationship ...” The spread of this religion will “make people know that love can last long and stable” and will mean that the “insensitive becomes sensitive, and selfish feelings will be transformed into moral feel-ings (wu qing hua you, si qing hua gong), while from the remotest villages love will flow unimpeded throughout the world ...” 我欲立情教, 教誨諸衆生,子有情於父,臣有情於君, 推之種種相 ... 使人知情之可久, 於是乎無情化有,私情化公,庶鄉國下,藹然以情相與 (Qingshi, Preface, p. 1) . At the end of chapter 19, Feng Menglong recalls how the compassion of Buddha, the work of the immortals or the protection of the spirits are pre-cise manifestations of this sentiment.49 The introduction to Qingshi contains a summary of all the main arguments extolling qing, from cosmological and vi-talistic references to its social utility. Elsewhere Feng Menglong goes as far as to assert the affinity of qing with spirits and divinities.50 In this case the

49 佛之慈悲, 仙之設度, 神祗之坊德濟物, 無適非情 Qingshi, Qingyi, 19:631. The passage has been already quoted. See footnote 19.

50 Qingshi, 8:224. Cf. also the note by Dan Minglun但明伦 to Pu Songling’s story Xiaocui 小翠 (1978, 7:1008) which raises the question of whether passion (duoqing 多情) is the cause or consequence of the immortal condition, and Pu Songling’s commentary to the short story

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term is used in the broad sense, including also sensibility in general, and ex-presses the intuition that existence corresponds to consciousness and con-sciousness to emotional life: therefore all phenomena exist (or have meaning) to the extent to, and according to the way in which they are perceived by the mind. It is not irrelevant that Feng Menglong was ready to be locked up in the cycle of life and death, according to the traditional concept influenced by Buddhism, if qing was what drove the cycle.

The conception developed within the frame of this “cult of emotions” may be reminiscent of that of love for the ancient Greeks or during the Ren-aissance, as a world generating force or universal constraint,51 without how-ever a like appeal to the absolute, to the eternal. In this text, therefore, qing corresponds to the “will to live” and “vitality” (shengyi) common to all living creatures, including Confucius and all the great sages of mankind. “It is wrong” claims Feng Menglong, “for anyone to believe that only sages do not indulge in passions (qing), while no one knows that true sages never abandon them” 人知惟聖賢不溺情, 不知惟真聖賢不遠於情.52 Passion does not deceive man; rather it is man who allows himself to be deceived. Even if love is short-lived and doomed to die like the seasons, it is natural and unrestrain-able like the regular rebirth of buds and blossoms each spring. Indeed, “the Royal Way is based on human social experiences and sentiments (renqing);

Xiangyu 香玉 (1978, 11:1555). The term duoqing derives from its use in poetry, starting in the Tang era (especially from Bai Juyi 白居易). For Wang Wei 王維 it corresponds to youthful en-ergy and vitality, while for Han Yu 韓愈 it is the generosity and sensibility of who enjoys the company of his drinking companions and who writes poems in his spare time. Bai Juyi uses the term a good eighteen times, often referring to himself with a degree of narcissistic pleasure. Also Su Dongpo 蘇東坡 attributes it to the peculiarity of his own character, which arouses mirth in people and causes him to go grey prematurely. [cf. Hokari Yoshiaki 1991, pp. 1-29].

51 For the Greeks, cf. Zeller Eduard, Mondolfo Rodolfo 1966, and for the Renaissance con-ception, consider for example the conspiratio omnium in unum, according to Pietro Bembo (Asolani, Ferrara, 1505, 1,2) or the “heroic furore” and “heroic love” of Giordano Bruno De gli eroici furori, [1585], 1925, p. 339). Cf. also S. Filippini 1988, pp. 78-84. Note that the term “he-roic” derives from the expression used in the field of medicine (amor hereos) and perhaps also from a demoniac image of Eros, both having undergone radical semantic inversion during the late Middle Ages (cf. G. Agamben1993, pp.130-45).

52 Qingshi, 15:455. For the intellectual climate and importance attributed to passion cf. Chen Wanyi 1988, pp. 297-307; see also his other work 1985.


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without an understanding of them one cannot become king or emperor.” 王道本乎人情, 不通人情不能爲帝王.53

In the Qingshi, revisiting an ancient legend, Feng Menglong compares the intensity of this feeling to the passion of love, and captures the vertigo of the infinite in the finiteness of the individual existence:

In ancient times there was a woman whose temperament led her to love nature. She passed her days looking out of the window until she became heartsick. She died and was cremated, but her heart was left behind, as solid as a stone. The fact astonished a Persian who considered the heart ex-tremely precious and purchased it. One day, having been asked about its usefulness, it took it the next day to a workshop for examination. When he returned to the shop, he found the heart cut into numerous sheets, each of which gleaming like jade and, like a fine painting, depicting landscapes with mountains, rivers, trees and other vegetation. “It is truly precious”, exclaimed the Persian. “Priceless!” When the spirit focuses on inanimate objects (wuqing zhi wu) such as mountains and rivers in a landscape, their forms are imprinted upon it. How much greater is the mutual correspon-dence between two beings who love each other (liang qing zhi xiang gan)?54

Qingshi contains a delightful description of the dream, which underlines its unreal nature, its belonging to the unconscious, its personal and private na-ture, its close relations with heavenly souls (hun 魂), and its connections with the kindling of passion.55 In a commentary to Qingshi, it is claimed that every

53 Qingshi, 15:455-67. Cf. also Hongloumeng 1972, 111:1402. 54昔有婦人性好山水, 日日監窗環視, 遂成心疾。死而焚之，惟心不化，其堅如石。有

波斯胡一見驚賞，重價購去。問其所用，約明日至肆中驗之。及至肆，已鋦成片，每片

皆光潤如玉，中有山水樹木，如細畫然。波斯雲:‘以爲寶帶，價當無等’。山水無情之

物，精神所注，形爲之留，況兩情之相感乎, Qingshi 11:312. 55 With regard to unreality, it is written that the dream creates what does not come to pass,

and that which cannot be experienced in reality (事所有，夢能造之 ...其不驗，夢也。.. Qingshi, 9:265). With regard to the unconscious, “The intention or the desire that has not yet been realized”, it is written, “can begin in the dream” (意所設,夢能开之 ibidem). With re-gard to the private nature of the dream it is also pointed out that “the others cannot know my dream; only I perceive it”(人不能知我之夢而我自知之, ibidem). As far as relations with the heavenly souls and the passions are concerned, the author remarks that “The dream is a wander-ing of celestial souls” and that only some men do not dream, because they have extinguished their passions, whereas in general the number of dreams is proportional to that of the emotions (....夢者，魂之游也 ...至人無夢，其情忘，其魂寂。下愚亦無夢，其情蠢，其魂枯。常

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love affair, from a chance encounter to married life, is necessarily the result of destiny. This emotion thus seems to be considered to lie beyond total hu-man control, as “destiny is decided by heaven, and also the feelings are im-perceptibly affected” 緣定於 , 情亦隱受其轉而不知矣.56

Sometimes destiny is made to include what western authors have defined as the “irrational” or “subjective” in love; it is stated that when “affinity” (yuanfen 緣分, or “predestined” love) exists, neither beauty nor ugliness nor pettiness has any further importance: to a lover’s eyes even tiles and bricks may appear as gold and jade: 緣在不問好醜也, 瓦可爲金玉，緣在不問良賤也.57 Another analogy of the relationship between destiny and the above passion may be identified in the tradition of “love potions”, although chunyao 春藥 and meiyao 媚藥 are actually more like aphrodisiacs. Of much greater importance is the role played by these magic potions in the West where they permitted the suspension of moral responsibility, as in the case of Tristan and Isolde. In mediaeval tales, the magic potion indicated that the two lovers had lost control of themselves, and were bound by a magic power which placed them beyond the authority of society and the church, as well as of personal responsibility. This deresponsibilization and the loss of reason were attributed to the potion even when powerful pressures were brought to bear to break off a relationship, as in the case of the passion of the Venetian noble Domenico Contarini for a woman of the people, the Greek Gratiosa.58 In the West, in addition to magic potions, there was also the Averroist conception of love as a fateful natural force, stronger than the human will, which was reproved by the Church, as in the case of André Le Chapelain，whose book has been pro- 人多夢，其情雜，其魂清 ibidem). Chen Shiyuan 陳士元 explains the phenomenon as the “overflowing of passions” (Mengzhan yizhi 夢占逸旨, “Treatise on oneiromancy”, 2:13). For an anthropological study of the emotions that emerge during dreams, based on samples taken in Taiwan in 1964 and 1965, cf . Wolfram Eberhard 1971, pp. 69-76; in order of frequency the emotions reported were fear, love, hate, jealousy and shame.

56 Qingshi, 2:66, and also 11:320, where the passions are compared with the wind. 57 “If it is destiny, no question is made on beauty or ugliness: tiles and bricks may be taken

for gold and jade, because if it is destiny, no question is made on goodness or baseness.” Qing-shi, 2:66.

58 According to Court documents of the archives of the Avogaria of Venice, the noble Domenico Contarini became crazy of love and lost his self-control after drinking a potion pre-pared by Gratiosa with wine, cock’s heart and menstrual blood. For a description of this epi-sode, which occurred in around 1480, see Guido Ruggiero 1988, pp. 57-60.


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hibited. In other words, whereas in the western texts the subjective and irra-tional aspects of love are highlighted, in the Chinese writings these are often considered to be related to “objective” relationships.59

Another typical example is that of the maiden betrothed successively to two young men; in order for her to be with her beloved (the first betrothed) without going directly against her father’s will, her soul takes on human like-ness and flees with the first betrothed, while her body remains, sick, at home. This is the case of Zhang Qianniang, first promised to her cousin, Wang Miao, and then to another young man. Custom has it that only the first be-trothal is valid, which also coincides with the sentiment binding Qianniang to Miao, thus rendering it legitimate. When her father promises the maiden to one of his private secretaries, Miao takes off on a long journey in desperation, while Qianniang falls ill. But, during his flight, Miao miraculously meets his betrothed, who explains that she has fled to join him so that they can be to-gether. After living together for five years, during which they have two chil-dren, the couple decides to return to their parents to ask forgiveness for run-ning away. Then there is a coup de théâtre: “On their arrival, Miao went ahead alone to the house of her uncle, to beg forgiveness. He however ap-peared astonished as his niece had been sick in bed in the women’s quarters for many years; what nonsense was this? You can see for yourself in the boat, replied Miao. Puzzled, her uncle sent a servant to see what it was all about. The latter saw that it was indeed Qianniang in the boat, who calmly asked af-ter his master’s health. The astonished servant rushed back to report to his master. On hearing the news, the bedridden maiden jumped gaily out of bed, made herself up and got dressed; with a smile, and without saying a word, she went out towards her double; they then merged into a single body wearing the clothes of both of them”.60

59 Also in the West, the force of passion may be linked with the idea of fate and destiny.

However, such a conception is often associated with an awareness of the absurdity and irration-ality of the relationship. Cf. Denis De Rougemont 1977, pp. 59-100; Jérôme-Antoine Rony 1980, pp. 23-28.

60 Qingshi, 9:238. This tale is repeated in the Tang collection of chuanqi entitled “Tales of the separation of the soul from the body” (Lihunji 离魂记). But see also Wu Xingniang 吴兴娘, again in Qingshi, 9:242-45, found in “The hairpin of the golden phoenix” (Jinfengchaiji 金凤钗

记) by Qu You 瞿佑 (Jiandeng xinhua 剪灯新话, 1981, 1:24-28, and in Paian jingqi, 1982, 23:403-15: the daughter of a rich family is betrothed to Cui Xingge when they are both still children. But then her betrothed’s family moves and the girl falls ill and dies during the young

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The use it makes of such miracles confers upon love’s passion a power that transcends the limits of human existence, as well as those of time and space, cancelling out the very distinction between dream and reality, between life and death. This feature was not however a novelty during the Ming period, but is found also in previous periods of mediaeval China, from the genre of the mirabilia (zhiguai 志怪) of the Six Dynasties to the Tang tales (chuanqi 傳奇).

Positive and Negative Aspects of Love in the Qingshi One commentary to Qingshi compares emotions and love to water, as the

first neo-Confucians thinkers did; in this case, however, the metaphor does not represent a pure literary device or philosophic allusion, but realistically endeavours to maintain all the positive and negative characteristics of the element. Like water, emotions are vital and beneficial, provided they are constantly controlled by canals and dams; furthermore there is no generalized and objective danger level as any such limits are dependent upon personal capacities. 61 Like water, passion can become an overwhelming and devastating element when left to its own devices or man allows himself to be dominated by it:

The emotions (qing) produce love (ai), and love produces the emotions. Love and emotions reciprocally reproduce each other without end, and so death and disaster may ensue. [...] But in half of the cases, the cause comes from a bad use of love, and, very strange, this leads men to blame emotion as a scapegoat. [...] If we stop to emotions and love, they become like food and drink in daily life [...]62

man’s prolonged absence; her spirit (hun 魂, jingling 精零, lingxing 零性) then enters her sis-ter’s body, borrowing its “corporeal essence” (jingpo 精魄), and appears before Cui Xingge, with whom it lives for one year; in the end it imposes marriage on the young man on the sister.

61 See the sentence already quoted: 情猶水也, 慎而防之,過溢不上,则雖江海之洪，必有溝

澮之辱矣 ...Cf. Qingshi, 20:536-7. 62 情生愛, 愛復生情, 情愛相生而不已，则必有死亡滅絕之事 ...亦半由不善用愛，奇奇

怪怪，令人有所借口以为情尤... 使止于情愛，亦匹之日用飲食。。。Qingshi, 6:181. Compare this passage with what Aristotele says in “Nicomachean Ethics”, 3, 2, criticizing the equating of virtue with indifference, and where a distinction among various ways and times is made.


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Feng Menglong does not discriminate against homosexual love, which he treats extensively, in some cases extolling its heroic devotion. Qingshi con-firms the diffusion of both misogynist and homosexual matters at a time when Ming China was at its zenith. According to these conceptions, the woman’s main function should be childbearing, while sexual pleasure was reserved for males alone; taking these ideas to their extreme conclusion, Feng Menglong remarks paradoxically, if men were capable of bearing children women would become redundant. 63 Feng Menglong himself, in the chapter on homosexuality in Qingshi presents a case history of fifteen categories that fit the various cases of heterosexual love and sings the praises of the true sentiment, fidelity, chastity, heroism and steadfastness that may spring from it.64 Furthermore, passion can obsess a man who is incapable of dominating it, and degenerate into anxiety and worry, like the crazy infatuation sometimes triggered by a love affair.65

In one of his commentaries to the Qingshi, Feng Menglong cites three different cases in which this sentiment is source of regrets and sorrows: in the first case, the lovers can never fulfil their sentiments and longings, so that it would have been better had they never met. In the second case, the sentiments of a more fortunate couple are formerly fulfilled, but, since their union is not based on a good choice, their reciprocated love is a failure from the outset and belongs to the confuse world of illusions and dreams, like flowers re-flected in the mirror or the moon on the water. In the third example, the mar-riage is happy and man and woman live in harmony, but beauty and youth vanish soon, or one of the two dies prematurely, leaving the other in sorrow-

63女以生子, 男以取樂, 下之色, 皆男勝女. 羽族自凤凰, 孔雀, 以及雞雉之屬文彩並

屬於雄. 犬馬之毛澤亦然. 男若生育, 女自可廢 Qingshi, 22:777. 64 The chapter is subdivided into the following sections: 1) chastity, 2) illicit and clandestine

love, 3) passionate love, 4) infatuation and insane love, 5) deep feeling, 6) metamorphosis, 7) unhappy union, 8) unfaithfulness, 9) hate, 10) unstable love, 11) retribution, 12) degeneration, 13) dangerous love, 14) evil spirits, 15) prodigious ghosts (22:756-77)

65 人生煩惱思虑種種,因有情而起 Cf. Qingshi, 7:194-5. And the same comment warns that from the sages’ point of view all love cases are madness and infatuation (...自達者觀之, 凡情皆

癡也,男女抑矣); not only, but several examples of the destructive and dramatic conse-quences are quoted in order to demonstrate the danger of excess in passions (....往以戕人, 來以

賊己; 小则捐命, 大而倾国. 癡人有癡福,惟情不然,何哉?).

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ful solitude.66 The unfortunate love affairs, due mainly to accidents or human action, are concentrated in chapters 13 and 14.

Reversal and Deregulation of the Roles in Qingshi and “De Amore”

André Le Chapelain, as we have seen, contributed to the codification of new behavioural rules in the relations between a young gentleman and a no-ble lady. Either functional or not to the aristocracy of his time, his new code – that has attempted to transfer into the field of the erotic play the rules adapted by the Church moralists to marriage67 – developed the males’ imagery in dealing with the other gender, and introduced a refined interplay between men and women with its own rules, different from those of society and Church. André Le Chapelain has to cope with an ascriptive type of hierarchi-cal structure, and with a family structure based on the families strategies. He perceives love as having the power to break through such barriers, and create new spaces of freedom and new mental disciplines.

Also Feng Menglong lives in a society where marriage is a the result of the policy and diplomacy of families at least in the upper strata, and in which a very rigid distinction is drawn between status based on function or sex; at the same time however Chinese society enjoyed greater mobility, with any differentiations being linked more to merit than to birth. This mobility was made easier not only by the theorically universal access to the state examina-tions, but also by the great economic and social changes, especially in the rich provinces of the South-East. However, Feng Menglong too is well aware of the subversive role of love passion on the maintaining or changing of social positions and relations, notwithstanding the influences of the great families and clans, and the general marriage system, with its pervasive rules for “ra-tional” family alliances and interaction. His open attitude in this aspect, can be seen in a comment concerning the actual role of women inside the family: “if a concubine cultivates a wifely love she may be considered on a par with a wife; if a courtesan behaves like a concubine, she may be considered on a par

66 Qingshi, 13:381. 67 Duby 1988, p. 79.


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with a concubine” 妾而抱婦之志焉婦之可也娼而行妾之事焉妾之可也 (1:31).

Again, in chapter 6, concerning the “knightliness of love” (qingxia 情侠), in the story about Yan Rui嚴蕊, the author contrasts the intellectual superior-ity and sensitivity of a courtesan with the pedantry and moralism of the very father of neo-Confucianism, Zhu Xi 朱熹 (Hui’an 晦菴).68

Lastly, Feng Menglong displays great admiration for Xie Ximeng 謝希孟, a disciple of the celebrated neo-Confucian thinker, Lu Xiangshan 陸象山 (1139-1193), praising him for his free and spontaneous, albeit dissolute, be-haviour. Xie Ximeng is classified among the “foolish” (kuang 狂) as he acted without self-interest: at one stage he built a pavilion and made a present of it to his courtesan, accompanied by a dedication, with the same naturalness with which, at a certain stage, having perceived the vanity of worldly things, he had abandoned everything right in the middle of his intense life.69 Feng Meng long rediscovered and reappraised Xie Ximeng’s reply to Lu Xiangshan:

“The extraordinary and splendid energy of the universe is always concentrated in the woman and not in the man” 地英靈之氣,不鍾於男子,而鍾於婦人.

This was a kind of sacrilegious and subversive statement as it referred to the neo-Confucian cosmological conception and subverted its universal na-ture. The latter was known to be understood as a hierarchy based on the pu-rity of the energy that each being possessed. According to this moral and so-cial hierarchy animals, for example, came before plants and minerals; men, who were superior to all other beings, were divided into men of letters, peas-ants, etc., and women were given a lower status than men, and thus possessed a less pure energy. Zhu Xi was simply recording the prevailing ideas concern-ing the inferior nature of the woman’s intellectual and moral condition when he described her passionate limits even in the virtue of humanness, comparing this weakness of hers to the violence of anger in the man of inferior condi-

68 Qingshi, 4:111-12. 69 Qingshi, Qinghao 情豪 (Magnanimity), 5:154, 161. This text is taken from the “Guide to

the Western Lake”, Xihu youlan zhiyu 西湖遊覽志餘 [1547] 1963, juan 16), by Tian Rucheng (1500?-1563?). A similar, although somewhat abbreviated, text is included by Xie Zhaozhe in “Miscellanea of five offers “ (Wuzazu [Wanli period] 1978, vol. VIII], 16:4529-30.

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tion.70 This hierarchy of status reflected that of morality which placed princi-ple before desires and that feared the eversive potential of passion.71 Xie Xi-meng’s “paradoxical” reply was, however, contained in an edifying story which ended with the ultimate conversion of the hero. In this story, despite his master’s repeated reproaches concerning his relations with a courtesan, Xie allegedly made a gift to her of a little house with the suggestive name of Pavilion of the Mandarin Ducks, i.e. of Love, accompanying the gift with a dedicated poem. At the request of his master, whose moral rigour in no way diminished his interest in literary compositions, Xie replied with the above-cited words, which apparently represented the text of the dedication. The tale goes on to describe the silence of the indignant master and the disciple’s final illumination and abandoning of the courtesan.72

André Le Chapelain, despite the pre-Renaissance endeavour to supersede the constrast between mind and matter, body and soul, remains within the Platonic imprint. Feng Menglong sticks to a monistic conception, occasion-ally attaining the abstraction of love in order to emphasize its sublimation. There also manifest the other great difference concerning a contrast between individual-inner forum-sincerity and society-outer forum-formality, in west-ern civilization, and the harmony between man and society in Chinese cul-ture. In order to extol the value of love, Le Chapelain contrasts it with social

70 In answer to a disciple’s question as to whether the undue fear displayed by women in cop-

ing with various situations was due to the partiality of their psychophysical nature (qi pian 氣偏), Zhu Xi replied that their humanness sprang solely from their sentiments of love (furen zhi ren zhi liu cong ai shang qu 婦人之仁只流從愛上去). In a further passage, he compared the unbounded love of a woman’s humanness (furen zhi ren shi buneng ren qi ai 婦人之仁是不能

忍其愛) to the violence of the rage characterizing the courage a man of base condition. Cf Zhuzi yulei 4:57 and 45:1164-65. See also the passage in which Zhu Xi allows that a woman can un-derstand the mind, as this is easy to understand, but excludes the possibility of her grasping the conception of Mencius (ibidem, 59:1403-4).

71 For the sake of example, in Jinsilu 近思錄 it is asserted that: “Between a man and a woman there is a difference in value and between husband and wife an order of priority. This is a con-stant principle. If we pursue our passion, we give free rein to our desires and are conditioned by pleasure; man, as he is at the mercy of his desires, will lose his strength of character and the woman, giving herself over to pleasure, will forget her subordinate position. There misfortune will reign and there will be no advantage”. And the very difference between yin and yang could be intepreted as a constrast between the splendour of virtue and the impureness of desire (Cf. Ethan Kasoff 1982, pp. 81-82).

72 Cf. Qingshi, Qingxia, 4:132, Qinghao, 5:154.


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rules and institutions, while the editor of Qingshi reconcile it with marriage and society.

In the Qingshi the term qing is extended to cover a wide meaning ranging from love in its various acceptances to sensitivity and emotional life, and the collection represents the deepest reflection ever made on the phenomenon of love in traditional China; it is certainly the widest-ranging attempt to trace back the origins of this emotion to the reproductive instinct and at the same time to tame it within the frame of traditional morality, to then embrace all its forms ranging from pure hedonism to its various cultural expressions as developed in Chinese culture.

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