Spring Languor: A Typology of Women in Ming Dynasty Drama

Abstract

Spring languor (chunkun 春困) is a mode of emotional portrayal that drama from the Ming dynasty onward attached specifically to women. This important and typical image of classical Chinese literature has yet to receive systematic scholarly attention. Research reveals that an imagining of the female body lies concealed behind the image: the female body, confined within the inner chambers, is denied any outward capacity for action. The introverted, demure ideal of womanhood that male authors crafted in Ming drama is in fact a male society’s construction of the female subject. As a figurative image of “spring idleness,” “spring sorrow,” and “spring longing,” it reflects the aesthetic of women within a traditional, male-dominated society. An examination of the dramatic writing of women’s spring languor in the Ming thus discloses the gains and losses of the female image within the discursive context of male power in pre-modern China, and carries significant meaning and insight for understanding the observing perspective embedded in traditional Chinese literature and culture and the cultural connotations of women.