This is more of a speculative post, unpacking several ideas I encountered in the book "The Culture of War in China" that I reviewed earlier this week.
The first Manchu Emperor, Hung Taiji stated, "What I fear is this: That the Children and Grandchildren of later generations will abandon the Old [Manchu] Way, neglecting shooting and riding, and enter into the Chinese Way". On the surface the Manchu way is associated with masculinity while the Chinese way is associated with femininity and softness. However there is more to this notion than meets the eye. The notion of what constitutes masculinity is an interesting one, as the Western perceptions of masculinity differ quite markedly from Eastern conceptions and even in the West the traditional definition of masculinity has been under attack. I intend to explore this in greater depth in upcoming posts this year.
However, in traditional Chinese theory wu, i.e. martiality, the military principle corresponded to the dark, female, potentially violent side, while wen, civilization corresponded to the bright, masculine side. There are parallels here with the modern psychology of the unconscious where desires and emotions, if repressed are liable to express themselves in violent ways. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
The literary scholar Kam Louie also noted, in traditional Chinese culture wen-wu is a continuum along which masculinity can be correlated with class [and this] was never questioned in traditional times. Those with more wen belonged to a higher class, but having minimum wu is better than none at all. And to be a really powerful man, it is essential to have both wen and wu. In gender terms, those without wen or wu, the women, have no political power [until the twentieth century].
And thus there was the expectation that Wende and Wugong would mutually produce and reproduce each other in a dialectical relationship.
It was my birthday recently and on my wish list were some of the cufflinks from Patinova, and I would have liked to mix and match so that I had one Wen cufflink and one Wu cufflink. Ah well, maybe next year.
The first Manchu Emperor, Hung Taiji stated, "What I fear is this: That the Children and Grandchildren of later generations will abandon the Old [Manchu] Way, neglecting shooting and riding, and enter into the Chinese Way". On the surface the Manchu way is associated with masculinity while the Chinese way is associated with femininity and softness. However there is more to this notion than meets the eye. The notion of what constitutes masculinity is an interesting one, as the Western perceptions of masculinity differ quite markedly from Eastern conceptions and even in the West the traditional definition of masculinity has been under attack. I intend to explore this in greater depth in upcoming posts this year.
However, in traditional Chinese theory wu, i.e. martiality, the military principle corresponded to the dark, female, potentially violent side, while wen, civilization corresponded to the bright, masculine side. There are parallels here with the modern psychology of the unconscious where desires and emotions, if repressed are liable to express themselves in violent ways. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
The literary scholar Kam Louie also noted, in traditional Chinese culture wen-wu is a continuum along which masculinity can be correlated with class [and this] was never questioned in traditional times. Those with more wen belonged to a higher class, but having minimum wu is better than none at all. And to be a really powerful man, it is essential to have both wen and wu. In gender terms, those without wen or wu, the women, have no political power [until the twentieth century].
And thus there was the expectation that Wende and Wugong would mutually produce and reproduce each other in a dialectical relationship.
It was my birthday recently and on my wish list were some of the cufflinks from Patinova, and I would have liked to mix and match so that I had one Wen cufflink and one Wu cufflink. Ah well, maybe next year.
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