A Study On Jiangnan Poetesses’ Social Images During Late Ming And Early Qing

During the period of Late Ming and Early Qing, the social image of poetesses inJiangnan is presented in multiple aesthetic aspects. In the family, they combined thecharacters of inheritor of family knowledge and traditional wives and mothers; as talentedwomen, they were both prominent poetesses and versatile artists; as women teachers, they hadchances to live more than in the inner quarters, some, instead of their husbands, even tookresponsibility of family subsistence. Manifold social images implied that poetesses needed tokeep balance between yet seek for further development in diverse aesthetic spaces: by mutualcommunication with other poetesses, establishing poetry clubs and publishing their works,they continually extended the boundary of literature space. Meanwhile, by shouldering familyduties, they showed loyalty to families and thus strengthen their ethical status.Aesthetic disputes were soon evoked. The main focus was on the divergence betweenpoetesses’ social images and ideal feminine beauty in Confucian concept. These images notonly aroused conflict between feminine virtue, talent and reputation, but also went againstThrice Following. But, the main issue in conflict was the exact factor that led to reconciliation.As the value basis of the whole Confucian system, traditional criterion to women wasconstantly changed: the flexible connotation of Thrice Following endowed poetesses withtraditional female virtue in another way, and the extension of private boundary explainedwriting and bread-earning as rational ways to fulfill family obligation.Explore from the particular aesthetic perspective, we could find that the causes ofpoetesses’ social images lay on the changed appreciation of feminine beauty. Living up tofeminine virtue was as essential as it always was, and talent was declared as a significantfactor to feminine beauty for the first time. Furthermore, war circumstances demandedwomen to be intelligent and adaptable. It also had a secret expectation that poetesses wouldbecome famous enough to help out with domestic economy.We could look further into the aesthetic environment which poetesses were in. Throughinheriting and alteration, the social tradition of valuing talent and the changes in academictrend of thought made joint effort to establish new context for women’s writing. On the aspect of social psychology, marginalized literati projected their own feelings to feminine aesthetics,while writers seized the flexibility of traditional criterion to display their talents.Based on studies above, we could try to probe into poetesses’ social images froma perspective of civil society. Urbanization and commercialization changed the genderperception, social environment and aesthetic concept of the society, therefore gave rise to these special poetesses in history.