Masculine Fantasies and Feminine Representations in the English Translations of Premodern Chinese Poetry in Journals

Abstract

In premodern China, male literary circles were dominated by an atmosphere of men “dressing themselves as women,” or applying the feminine persona, in poetry creation. This phenomenon appeared in both shi and ci poetry, but mostly in later forms with regard to the nature of ci, as ci was considered relatively more delicate than shi poetry in terms of expression and poetic style. The irregular-line structures and the metrical characteristics of ci poetry would also be crucial factors in determining the feminine nature of such. According to Kang-i Sun Chang, “ci are from the beginning associated with women as performers and poetic personae, but the actual authors of ci were (insofar as we can be sure) as likely to be male as female” (qtd. Chang 1999, 4–5). Usually the feminine ci poetry was categorized as wanyue ci pai (“the delicate school”) in the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) in China. These poems were mainly written by male poets who at that time embraced a trend of creating poems with the themes of appreciating feminine beauty, natural scenery, still lifes, and the like. Themes could well touch on trivial objects such as fowers and snow, which might have been related to the idea of feng hua xue yue (a notion signifying trivial matters in one’s life, such as wind, flowers, snow, and the moon).