Urban Commoners and the Pornographic Imaginary in the Early Qing

Abstract

As an example of eighteenth century pornographic fiction, the narrative of Guwangyan is not easily assigned to the usual genres or categories. While its depiction of sexual exploits outdoes most pornographic writings from the Ming and Qing, with men and women seeking sexual satisfaction through a panoply of extraordinary and obscene means, in its inclusion of many sex-free episodes set among urban commoners it is a very different kind of book to the more familiar late-Ming works such as Langshi or Xiuta yeshi to which it might be compared. Indeed, the main story-line of Guwangyan is a very Confucianism story of sublime love between a popular yet chaste blind prostitute and a poor scholar, yet this highly idealised thread stands in marked contrast to the more intriguing and amusing obscene passages throughout the novel. It is within this mix of humourous, perverse and obscene episodes that themes are developed which break free of those dominant in late-Ming pornographic works such as Ruyijun zhuan, Jinpingmei, and Rouputuan. Instead of the usual powerful emperors, indulgent literati, or wealthy merchants, we are taken down into a world of struggling gamblers, shrewd scoundrels, bumbling fools, unsatisfied housewives, and shameless prostitutes. This paper will consider why and how this literary attack on standard moral values and social hierarchy emerged, locating Guwangyan within an urban commoner pornographic subgenre that was symptomatic of defining cultural shifts taking shape in early modern China.