An Analysis of Li Yu’s Idea of “Love”
An Analysis of Li Yu’s Idea of “Love”
Reading Li Yu is an experience full of wonders. Not that his works are uncommonly amusing and entertaining for my stereotype of classical Chinese literature; I do enjoy his relatively independent literary approach—however mundane and vulgar it is said to be—from the orthodox literature tradition of his time (Zhang et al., 2008: 2), but it is the less independent part of him that I find most intriguing: that marriages are for the parents to decide, that love is contingent on appearance and , that love does not need to be exclusive, etc. All these values he has taken for granted without questioning are simply mind blowing for readers of today.
This is how I realize that Li Yu does not share our understanding of love today, although his short stories, among myriad other diverse literature works throughout the history, are often misleadingly categorized as “love stories”. In fact, “love” (ai qing) is a term that Li Yu has never heard of. As Zhang (1995: 128) points out, expressions such as “ai qing” (love), “lian ai” (love affair) or “wo ai ni” (I love you) did not appear in China until 1900-1918. He argues that it was from then that the western idea of love fused with the Chinese tradition to form today’s concept of “romantic love” (lang man ai qing) (ibid.: 121, 128). Therefore, it is unthinking to put Li Yu’s works together with Lu Xun’s under the modern theme of love; and it is important to differentiate Li Yu’s idea of love in order to understand his works as well as the changes of the notion of love through time.
In contrast to the modern notion of romantic love that postulates personal freedom, marriage is subject to parental decision for Li Yu. In both Homing Crane Lodge (hereinafter referred to as “Crane”) and A Tower for the Summer Heat (hereinafter referred to as “Summer”), the marriages of the young people are decided by the parents. In the account of how Pearl and Jade marries Duan and Yu, or, in the modern sense,
Reading Li Yu is an experience full of wonders. Not that his works are uncommonly amusing and entertaining for my stereotype of classical Chinese literature; I do enjoy his relatively independent literary approach—however mundane and vulgar it is said to be—from the orthodox literature tradition of his time (Zhang et al., 2008: 2), but it is the less independent part of him that I find most intriguing: that marriages are for the parents to decide, that love is contingent on appearance and , that love does not need to be exclusive, etc. All these values he has taken for granted without questioning are simply mind blowing for readers of today.
This is how I realize that Li Yu does not share our understanding of love today, although his short stories, among myriad other diverse literature works throughout the history, are often misleadingly categorized as “love stories”. In fact, “love” (ai qing) is a term that Li Yu has never heard of. As Zhang (1995: 128) points out, expressions such as “ai qing” (love), “lian ai” (love affair) or “wo ai ni” (I love you) did not appear in China until 1900-1918. He argues that it was from then that the western idea of love fused with the Chinese tradition to form today’s concept of “romantic love” (lang man ai qing) (ibid.: 121, 128). Therefore, it is unthinking to put Li Yu’s works together with Lu Xun’s under the modern theme of love; and it is important to differentiate Li Yu’s idea of love in order to understand his works as well as the changes of the notion of love through time.
In contrast to the modern notion of romantic love that postulates personal freedom, marriage is subject to parental decision for Li Yu. In both Homing Crane Lodge (hereinafter referred to as “Crane”) and A Tower for the Summer Heat (hereinafter referred to as “Summer”), the marriages of the young people are decided by the parents. In the account of how Pearl and Jade marries Duan and Yu, or, in the modern sense,
References: Lee, L. (1973) The Romantic Generation of Modern Chinese Writers, Cambridge: Havard University Press Li, Yu (1992) A Tower for the Summer Heat, New York: Ballantine Books Lu, Xun (1990) Diary of a madman and other stories, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press Zhang, Canhui 张灿辉 (2008) “比较《罗密欧与朱丽叶》与《梁祝》的爱情观”, 二十一世纪, 1995年8月号, 120-9, retrieved at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/issue/a rticles/030_95102.pdf Zhang, Chunshu et al. 张春树、骆雪伦 (2008) 明清时代之社会经济巨变与新文化，上海：上海古籍出版社