Epistolary Gentility of Literary Women in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Crises, Health, and Friendship in Ding Shanyi's Letters.

• Author: Cai, Danni

If it is convenient [for you to send] fish and wild geese, please be unstinting in sharing delightful messages. [phrase omitted]

INTRODUCTION: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, TEXTBOOK, AND GENTILITY

The longing for letters that were metaphorized as "fish" and "wild geese" is one of many epistolary formulae that once bore profound social implications for Chinese cultural elites. (2) Correspondence from the Double-Cassia Studio (Shuanggui xuan chidu [phrase omitted] hereafter Shuanggui xuan), a letter collection by Ding Shanyi [phrase omitted] (courtesy name Zhixian [phrase omitted] 799-after 1861), deserves special attention for revealing the sociopolitical dynamics that underlay elite women's epistolary gentility in late imperial China. While other literary collections by women of this period typically consisted of poems, Shuanggui xuan is exceptional in recording the life of its author through the epistolary genre. (3) As a conduit for transmission of information, Ding's letters recorded the day-to-day concerns regarding family and political crises borne by a gentlewoman in the mid-nineteenth century. Heretofore no full-scale study of Ding's life or letters has been conducted. (4) To fill this lacuna and, more importantly, to contextualize Ding's refined formulae, this paper will examine the subjects and language of Ding's letters. The comparatively large number of letters in Shuanggui xuan distinguishes it from other sources of women's letters, be they epistolary anthologies or letters in women's personal collections, and thus can enhance our knowledge of women's letter writing in mid-nineteenth-century China.

There are two longstanding problems with studies primarily based on a small selection of letters by individual women from different periods in epistolary anthologies that were published for commercial purposes. First, many anthologies appear to have selected women's letters based on the presence of certain dramatic topics, such as longing, self-lament, or heroic virtue, and hence generated certain stereotypical impressions of women's letter writing. This biased representation overlooks the diverse contents and emotional dimensions of women's letters and reinforces gender bias in epistolary scholarship. (5) Second, these anthologies included letters of dubious origins or those written by women whose historical identities remain unverified. However, the reliability of these anthologies as sources was rarely questioned. (6)

While recent studies of literary women's letters in late imperial China endeavor to demystify the lives of particular individuals by researching an extended scope of corresponding themes and range of addressees, the lack of reliable archival sources continued to hinder a comprehensive understanding of the epistolary world of educated Chinese women of this period. (7) In her edited volume of women's letters through the ages, Wang Xiuqin [phrase omitted] (1902-1934) included the preface of Ding's letter collection, which Wang titled Shuanggui tang chidu [phrase omitted] , and ten of Ding's letters. (8) Wang's selection offers a glimpse of Ding's literary talent but reveals little historical background of Ding's letter writing. The exact dates of Ding's forty-seven letters are unknown, but Ding probably wrote most if not all of them between 1852 and 1853, given that she maintained communication with different correspondents about certain contemporary issues, including recent official transfers of her husband and ongoing social unrest. While Shuanggui xuan recorded the increasing severity of the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864), it did not cover the most traumatic moments of Ding's life, such as the deaths of family members due to the war. Nevertheless, Ding's letters are noteworthy considering their autobiographical value. (9) Her firsthand accounts were filled with intricate details of the elites' lives in unstable times and opened a rare window into some intriguing aspects of the social world of the elite women.

In addition, a rigorous analysis of Shuanggui xuan, which was published and circulated as a textbook in the early twentieth century, will contribute to understanding epistolary conventions that were important in Ding's time but have mostly disappeared from view. (10) First appearing in the Collectanea of the Shenbao Publishing House (Shenbaoguan congshu [phrase omitted] [phrase omitted] ) in 1878, Shuanggui xuan was the only collection of women's letters in the subsequent collection (xuji [phrase omitted] ) of this collectanea and was reprinted, along with two other epistolary collections, in the series Collected Brocade of Letters (Chidu jijin [phrase omitted] ). (11) According to Rudolf G. Wagner, its publication was "courageous" since the art of letter writing was often associated with the "scholarly, literary, and official communication" of men and thus considered a male domain; nevertheless, there was no hint that Shuanggui xuan was for women only. (12) Chidu jijin was reprinted as Three New Compiled Letter Collections (Xinbian chidu sanzhong [phrase omitted] ) in 1882. (13) The success of Shenbaoguan congshu might have made Ding's letter collection famous and contributed to its reprint in 1907 as a textbook, Advanced Epistolary Textbook for Women (Gaodeng niizi chidu jiaoben [phrase omitted] [phrase omitted] ), the only known epistolary textbook based on letters written by an actual woman in the late Qing. Epistolary textbooks for women emerged in growing numbers since 1907. However, they consisted mainly of Active letters created for teaching purposes. (14) Shuanggui xuan illustrates the decorous correspondence in contemporary literary women's everyday life and shares many epistolary formulae with Correspondence from Autumn-Water Studio (Qiushui xuan chidu [phrase omitted] ), one of the most well-known epistolary collections in the late Qing and Republican periods that was reprinted as a textbook in great numbers. (15)

Although the textbook version of Ding's collection was likely motivated by personal connections (to be discussed further below), letters written by women of elite families such as Ding proved to be fitting exemplars for educating female students. The succinct evaluation of Ding's letters in the textbook was derived from two major works of literary criticism in ancient China with minor adjustments: Rhapsody on Literature (Wenfu [phrase omitted] ) and The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (Wenxin diaolong [phrase omitted] ). Ding's letters were considered exemplary in promoting the Chinese language (guowen [phrase omitted] ) since they conformed to the age-old standards of exquisite writing. (16) Compared to other sample letters fabricated by later male or female editors for teaching purposes, Ding's letters were regarded to be both authentic and sophisticated, thus serving as ideal pedagogic sources for women.

By focusing on Ding's letters, this paper also explores the role of letters in sustaining relationships between literary women, an understudied area of women's literary culture in late imperial China. Studies of the role of letters in forming and maintaining female friendships in Western societies demonstrate that women's letters notably indicated varying intensities of individual relationships and served to maintain a distinct and emotive female network. (17) Letters were also crucial to women's social interactions in late imperial China. Examining the process of compiling and publishing women's letters, Ellen Widmer argues that letters served as an effective way for talented women to support each other in literary or artistic creation, encouraged group publication projects, and were essential emotional sustenance for women experiencing difficult times. (18) She suggests that extant Chinese women's letters advance our knowledge of particular individuals and reflect women's writing culture as a whole. (19) Despite their importance, letters remain a relatively underexplored genre of sources in illuminating women's literary culture, which explores the function of writing as a distinctive self-presentation of women's various roles in the normative power structure of the patriarchal family and lineage hierarchy. In particular, the existence of women's literary communities suggests that educated women enjoyed the freedom of seeking companionship and intellectual fulfillment after they had attended to their wifely and motherly duties. (20)

Further inquiry is needed on how women applied certain stylistic and rhetorical techniques in their letters to convey intimate and supportive sentiments and promote female homosociality. Shuanggui xuan is invaluable in facilitating this line of inquiry for two reasons. First, only four of its forty-seven letters were addressed to male relatives. A large portion of Ding's letters was written to her geographically far-flung female friends. Apart from several letters conveying congratulations and consolations mainly for the sake of propriety, most of these letters served to maintain emotional bonds by sharing private thoughts and feelings. Second, although Ding's letters were similar to those of other literary women in late imperial China in encompassing a wide range of feelings, they were notable in their use of poetic allusions drawn from the corpus of Chinese epistolary culture to convey the writer's sentiments. (21)

The use of elevated sentimental expressions in Shuanggui xuan, however, complicates present-day interpretation of women's letters as transparent autobiographical records and carriers of historical fact, given the potential for strategic use of intimate, affectionate, and passionate language in correspondence. (22) A common set of gestures and tropes for expressing affection was also seen in letters between friends and colleagues in mid-Tang China; their rhetorical patterns were adapted and transformed from medieval etiquette manuals while keeping the "literariness" of letters in mind. (23) Although...