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Yu Xuanji

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In this Chinese name, the family name is 鱼 (Yu).
Yu Xuanji
Yu Xuanji
Yu Xuanji
Bornc. 840
Diedc. 868 (aged 28)
Cause of deathExecution
NationalityChinese
Other namesYouwei
Huilan
Occupation(s)Poet, Nun
Known forPoetry
Notable workFragments of a Northern Dreamland
SpouseLi Yi (married c. 856-c. 859)

Yu Xuanji (simplified Chinese: 鱼玄机; traditional Chinese: 魚玄機; pinyin: Yú Xuánjī; Wade–Giles: Yü Hsüan-chi, c. 840 – c. 868), courtesy names Youwei (Chinese: 幼薇; pinyin: Yòuwēi) and Huilan (simplified Chinese: 蕙兰; traditional Chinese: 蕙蘭; pinyin: Huìlán),[1] was a Chinese female poet and Daoist nun during the late Tang dynasty that was born in Chang'an. Along with Xue Tao, she was one of the foremost poets of the Tang dynasty.

Biography

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Little information is available about the relatively short life of Yu Xuanji.[1] She was born or grew up in Tang capital Chang'an.[2] She was a concubine or a lesser wife to an official named Li Yi (simplified Chinese: 李亿; traditional Chinese: 李億; pinyin: Lǐ Yì) at 16, separating three years later because of Li's primary wife's dislike of Yu.[3] Likewise,she is also considered a courtesan.[3][4][5] Scholar Jinhua Jia, however, contends that the label of courtesan is a misunderstanding derived from information added in later editions to slander her.[6]The Sanshui Xiaodu(三水小牘) refers to Yu Xuanji as "the daughter of Chang'an Lijia". "Li" means the neighborhood, and "Lijia Nu(裡家女)" literally means "the daughter of the people in the neighborhood", that is the daughter of an ordinary market family. The Taiping Guangji(太平廣記) and several subsequent works quoted the Sanshui Xiaodu, all of which called her "Lijia Nu". However, a version of the Sanshui Xiaodu reprinted in the 19th century changed "Lijia Nu" to "Changjia Nu(倡家女)", meaning a prostitute or courtesan. This later change is not supported by any earlier evidence and was probably changed by someone who was prejudiced against Yu Xuanji. The "Li" in "Lijia Nu" is interpreted as "Beili(北里)", which means the red-light district of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty. However, the Tang people never used "Lijia Nu" to refer to prostitutes in the red-light district. Instead, the term "Qili(戚裡)" was used to refer to the urban area where the royal family and other aristocratic officials lived, the term "Qili Nu" was used to refer to women from royal or aristocratic families. "Lijia Nu" and another similar term "Li Fu(裡婦)" were used to refer to women from ordinary families. The more reliable chronological description of Yu Xuanji's life and deeds shows that she had never been a courtesan in her life. Her basic identity was first a concubine of a literati and then a female Taoist Nun. What is more important is not whether she had been a courtesan or prostitute, but that this identity has given her moral criticism significance.[7]

She had a "painted boat" on the Wei River.[3] Yu later took her vows and became a Daoist nun at the Xianyi guan (咸宜觀, Abbey of Universal Benefit).[3] Daoist nuns were at the time known for their sexual freedom[8] [9] During her time as a nun she travelled frequently and her travels influenced her writing.[8] Yu had a reputation for being sexually adventurous and is recognised by some as China's first openly bisexual female.[8]

She was a fellow of Wen Tingyun, to whom she addressed a number of poems. Apart from names and dates in her poems, the tabloid-style Little Tablet from the Three Rivers, (三水小牘), gives the only purported facts about her life. These are however salacious in detail: it reports she had an affair with Wen Tingyun, lived a scandalously promiscuous life, and was executed by decapitation[3] at the age of 28[10] for allegedly strangling her maid, Luqiao, to death.[3] This account is considered semi-legendary, and may be a reflection of the traditional distrust of women who were strong-willed and sexually independent.[11]

Poetry

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Yu Xuanji is distinctive for the quality of her poems, including many written in what seems to be a remarkably frank and direct autobiographical style; that is, using her own voice rather than speaking through a persona. In her lifetime, her poems were published as a collection called Fragments of a Northern Dreamland, which has been lost. The forty-nine surviving poems were collected in the Quan Tangshi,[3] mainly for their freak value in an anthology that also included poems from ghosts and foreigners.[12]

English translations

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Published in 1998, her work was translated by the team of David Young and Jiann I. Lin.[13] In the 2000s, her work was translated by Stephen Owen and Justin Hill.

Name

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Her family name, Yu, is relatively rare. Her given name, Xuanji, means something like "Profound Theory" or "Mysterious Principle,"[1] and is a technical term in Daoism and Buddhism. "Yòuwēi" means something like "Young and Tiny;" and, Huìlán refers to a species of fragrant orchid.[10]

Media

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In 1984 the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong made a film about her life entitled 唐朝豪放女 (An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty), starred Pat Ha and Alex Man.[14]

In 1988, the Asia Television Limited in Hong Kong filmed an anthology drama series about her life, titled 歷代奇女子 (Those Famous Women in Chinese History), starred Bonnie Ngai, Pat Poon and Kingdom Yuen

Yu Xuanji is the subject of the 1915 short story Gyogenki by Japanese author Mori Ōgai.[15] She was the nun in Robert van Gulik's 1968 "Judge Dee" novel Poets and Murder.[16]

Justin Hill's Somerset Maugham Award award-winning novel Passing Under Heaven reimagines Yu Xuanji's life.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Yu, Xuanji (1998). Young, David (ed.). The clouds float north: the complete poems of Yu Xuanji; bilingual edition. Wesleyan poetry. Hanover: Wesleyan Univ. Press. pp. ix–x. ISBN 978-0-8195-6343-9.
  2. ^ Young & Lin 1998, p. ix, citing the Guoyu Cidian..
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Cahill, Suzanne (2002). "Material Culture and the Dao Textiles, Boats, and Zithers in the Poetry of Yu Xuanji (844-868)". In Kohn, Livia; Roth, Harold David; Bowdoin College (eds.). Daoist identity: history, lineage, and ritual ; [this volume is the result of a three-day conference, held at the Breckinridge Conference Center of Bowdoin College in York, Maine, May 29 - June 1, 1998]. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai'i Press. pp. 102–114. ISBN 978-0-8248-2504-1.
  4. ^ Chang, Kang-i Sun; Saussy, Haun, eds. (1 January 2000). Women writers of traditional China: an anthology of poetry and criticism (Nachdr. ed.). Stanford, Calif: Stanford Univ. Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-8047-3231-4.
  5. ^ Minford, John, ed. (2000). Classical Chinese literature: an anthology of translations. Vol. 1: From antiquity to the Tang Dynasty. Vol. 1 (1 ed.). New York: Columbia Univ. Press. p. 972. ISBN 978-962-996-048-3.
  6. ^ Jia, Jinhua (2018-03-13). Gender, Power, and Talent: The Journey of Daoist Priestesses in Tang China. Columbia University Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-231-54549-5. This later emendation is not supported by any evidence from earlier editions and was likely made by someone with a bias against Yu Xuanji. However, it has led some scholars to mistakenly identify Yu as a courtesan.
  7. ^ "Is Yu Xuanji a courtesan or prostitute?". Archived from the original on 26 September 2024.
  8. ^ a b c Olivia Bullock (艾文婷) (21 October 2014). "Badass Ladies of Chinese History : Yu Xuanji". The World of Chinese. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  9. ^ Chang, Saussy & Kwong 1999, p. 67.
  10. ^ a b Young & Lin 1998, p. ix.
  11. ^ Chang, Saussy & Kwong 1999, p. 66.
  12. ^ Young & Lin 1998, p. x.
  13. ^ Young & Lin 1998, p. iii.
  14. ^ Kohn & Roth 2002, p. 102.
  15. ^ Mori 1991, p. 185.
  16. ^ Lee & Wiles 2014, p. 571.
  17. ^ "Passing Under Heaven". Justin Hill. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2019.

Sources

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