Pleasure and Pain
MARION S. LEE

In the Papp Collection, there are four pictorial works, in different
formats, that depict women (shinii hua, meiren hua)1 painted by three
notable artists: Fei Danxu (Xiaolou 1801/02-1850 ), Gai Qi (Yuhu waishi
1773-1828 ), and Gu Luo (Ximei, 1763-after 1837) .2 Artistic conventionsof
representation, together with titles, allusive poetic inscriptions, and
individual identifying names mark all the portrayed figures as historical literar y or artistic sub je cts, religious or mythological beings, fictional characters, or elite women. Women are portrayed as visualized
subjects drawn from text: poetry, chuanqi stories, drama, or vernacular
fiction. The sixty-year span, which brackets the reign periods of Jiaqing (Emperor Renzong reigned 1796-1820) and Daoguang (Emperor
Xuanzong reigned 1821-50), marks a high point in the development
of the genre with respect to its popularity and significance.' Together,
images of women signal the "rupturing [of] the limited thematic scope
of women of aristocracy" that characterizes earlier figuration in especially Tang and Song dynasties, as Shan Guoqiang observes.4 On the
one hand, from the sixteenth century forward, depictions of women
reflect the pervasive influence of printed books, frequently with illustrations , that include works of fiction in different genres.5 On the
other , pictorial images facilitate the "construction of typological forms
of women from different societal segments," thereby making visible a
range of feminine su bject-position s.6
Ambiguity Through Naming
Providing names to depicted figures and titles to paintings, verbal
inscriptions function as guides to "interpretive discou rse."7 They help
to both narrow the scope of interpretative possibilities and broaden the
anticipatory horizon of interpretation. Whether attached to a painting
at the time of production or recorded later in a colophon or catalog , a
title can turn a relatively simple image into one of ambiguous reference
and enhanced depth. Shifts in meaning emerge from the interplay
of visual representation and verbal ident ification of human subjects .
For instance, a personal viewing experience may encode an image by
143

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW

a collector or critic in a given title or commentary.• Or a feminine
audience may retroactively direct or shape female images through
later cartouches. I shall consider these aspects as I focus on the long
handscroll by Fei Danxu, entitled One Hundred Beauties (figure 1) .9
Claudia Brown and Ju-hsi Chou have provided in their catalogs
the following description of the painting.'0 The handsc roll, w
ic
h
carries two seals of Fei Danxu, measures seven hundred and ninetythree centimeters, or more than twenty-six feet long, and thirty-two
and half centimeters, or about a foot high. It portrays women attired
in elaborate robes. With attendants, they are engaged in leisure and
cultural activities: picking flowers, chasing butterflies , feeding deer,
brewing tea, doing embroidery, playing touhu and weiqi, tuning a qin,
reading, looking at the self in the mirror, painting , and viewing a dance
performance. The space for these activities is appropriately lux ur ious .
It flows around decoratively carved balustrades and low walls that
are interspersed by standing screens. The area is dotted by screens,
large platform -da is, tables, stools, rocks, trees, and potted plants, and,
toward the end of the scroll, a tent-like pavilion.
Done in "out line ink drawing" (baimiao), the brushwork is consistently steady and strong. That an earlier painting lies behind this
execution is indicated by the seal Xiaolou moben , "Xiaolou's traced
copy." Strikingly similar figural motifs are found among a set of twelve
earlier "draft sketches" (huagao) that bear Fei's seals and signature."
The two extant executions of female figures reveal both the artist's
practice of copying old paintings and the appeal of those faithful copies
to collectors.
The handscroll is also linked to other images that portray stories
and themes about women in palace settings, and which, in the words
of Craig Clunas, carry an "erotic cha rge." 12 They depict a physical intermingling with subjects of all genders that is contrary to the prescribed
praxis of gender separation in most societies in the imperial era. An
egregious example of this appears in a segment of the handscroll In
the Pala ce ( Gongzhong tu, an early twelfth-century, or later , copy of a
work by Zhou Wenju, active circa 940-975) , now at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.13 Among the court ladies , atendants,and one
girl, there is a young man shown in a kneeling position with his
thighs wrapped tightly round the left bent leg of the court lady of
generous proportions who is sprawled on the floor intimately next

144

PLEASURE AND PAIN

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Figure 1.
Fei Danxu (1802-50), One Hundred Beauties . Handscroll, ink
on paper , 32.5 x 793 cm. Tbe Roy and Marilyn Papp Collect ion. Photo by Craig Sm ith ,
courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum.

145

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW
14

to h i m.
The couple is a visual emblem of transgression and excs
which are iterated in textual descriptions of debauched practices at the
courts from Western Han dynasty forward, and which provoke in the
beholders moral indignation, lustful respon se, or flights of fantasy.
Inherent in paintings on this theme is the ideal spectator, configured as an emperor and, by extension , all dominant masculine
or masculinized subjects . Scopoph ilia, or the desire to obtain sexual
stimulation by looking , is among the component instincts of sexuality
(sexual drive) and, in Freud's psychoanalytic theorization , it is associated with the "instinct for knowledge ." 15 The desire to control is
linked to a young (male) child's compulsion to see and understand the
concealed bodily parts including genitalia. Although the instinct in
individuals is modified later by other factors in the constitution of the
eg o, it continues as the basis of erotic looking for masculine pleasure.
The Act of Beholding
In the case of the Papp handscro ll, the naturalized spectator is
joined and perhaps displaced, temporarily, by a female viewe r, the wellknown modern painter Li Zu y un , usually referred to as Li Qiujun (18991973) .' 6 Her presence is inscribed in the following passage, foundas the
opening commentary to the painting (figure 2):
My oldest brother Zuhan recen tly obtained in Suzhou the Hundred
Beautiful Women handscroll [Baimei ren tujuan], painted by Mr.
Xiaolo (Fei Da nxu] . Elegant ly beautiful, the figures flow easily.
Their presence seems to sparkle; tops and skirts flutter as if moving.
They are unseen in the world.
He (Zuhan] conceded them to be my fine companions in Ouxiang
guan. When the mount ing was done in the second month of jisi
year [ 11 th March - 91h April 1929], it came to me for inscription of the
frontispiece.
With such beautiful attraction before me, I cou ld n't but feel ashamed
of my ugly form. My oldest brother often kept my inaptness hidden
away, so as not to let the village woman ride the same chariot with
Xi sh i, 17 thereby causing turmoil and panic throughout the state.
Qiujun , the Woman Li Qiu 18

PLEASURE AND PAIN

The passage includes an encomium of the pain ting . The designated
title Hundred Beautiful Women alludes to the influential book New Songs
on the Hundred Beautie s with Illu strations and Biographies (Baimei xinyong
tuchuan), which was printed in the second half of the eighteenth
centur y.' 9 It comprises a hundred drawings of historical, religious , or

mythological subjects that are accompanied by individual biographical
accounts of different lengths, and an elaborate apparatus of commentarial writing.2° The prefaces, individual or collective poems (jiyong) ,
and colophons were composed by, in addition to the compiler Yan
Xiyuan, officials, poets and painters of both genders , and professional
literati. The most well-known among them is Yuan Mei (1716-1798,jinshi
1730). The artist of the illustrations is Wang Hui (Bo ch i ) , whom Yan
refers to as a painter who had worked in the inner court of Qianlong
emperor (reigned 1736-1795).
Li Qiujun's passage , which touches on familial relationships and
her personal response to the handscroll, contains a tightly packed
ambiguity. Zu han , her oldest brother, was an artist and successful
businessman .21 Qiujun warmly acknowledges Zuhan for his gift of
the handscroll and overall brotherly care. In addition , the passage
articulates a gesture of se lf-de precation . The "ugly form " ( x in ghui ) 22
connected to the metaphor for beauty , "jade mountain" ( yushan )23 in
the penultimate line, indicates simultaneous humilities for Qiuju n's
supposed lack of artistic accomplishment (calligraphic skill) and her
physical appearance.
This response of Qiujun injects a real human form into the idealized world of the painting. If we follow Lacan, the moment when a

Figure

2 .

Li Qiujun (1899-1973), frontispiece to the handscroll in figure

1.

The Roy and Marilyn Papp Collection. Photo by Craig Smith, court esy of Ph
oe n i x Art M use um .

147

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW

young child recognizes her/his own image in the mirror is critical for
the constitution of the ego. The reflected self is more complete than the
simple I. The mis-recognition projects the body outside of itself and the
alienated subject, introjected in return as an ego ideal, then engages in
preparation for identification with others. The mirror stage is the primordial matrix for the making of the self in the realm of the imaginary,
according to Lacan's theor iza tion .24 Homologous to a reflection in the
mirror, the women portrayed in the handscroll symbolize an imaginary moment of self-identification for Qiujun. The image that unfurls
with the long handscroll then seeks to define such ident ity in both the
represented object and the introjected subject of Qiujun. At the level of
narration, the conventional content of the handscroll is a constituent,
a refraction, of Qiujun's own story with its colorful turns and pathos
that were partially imposed by historical circumstance. She was from
an affluent Ningbo family that had relocated in Shanghai, socially wellconnected through the influence of native-place associat ions.25 Qiujun's
family situation freed her from the need to seek a livelihood, although
she sold paintings and took in women students.
From a relatively young age through art and art-related activities,
Qiujun began to be known as an active pain ter , curator, and donor. 26 In
1929, when the passage above was in scribed , she both exhibited in and
helped organize the First National Exhibition of Art held in Shanghai
under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. 27 Like some women
painters in the early Republican period, Qiujun led an unconventional
personal li fe . 28 She was never married. In middle age , she b
ecam
e
fascinated by the art of Zhang Daqian (Zhang Zhengchuan, 1899-1983)
and the two had a close personal relationship. Her feeling for Zhang
remained unrequited and he is rumored to have continued to honor
her, in spite of the belief that he had rejected a marriage proposal by
Qiujun's family. Qiujun lived for the rest of her life with her brother
Zuhan before committing suicide in the second half of the Cultural
Revolution (1966-1976).
The consideration of Li Qiujun 's imprint , as viewer /collector of the
ha ndsc roll, also leads us to the significance of the act of beholding
and of painting-the two linked roles are connoted by the embedded
depiction of three figures in the middle segment of the painting. One
woman is looking at herself in the mirror. Watching her closely is
another woman on her right , who is in the position usually occupied
by a male, according to naturalized expectation. Toward the other end

PLEASURE AND PAIN

of the same section is the painter standing in front of a six-fold screen ,
decorated with a landscape of mountain ranges. She is painting a sprig
of flowers on a hanging scroll placed on the table; the performative
gesture configures her to be homologous to the painter of the handscroll.
The trope of a male painting a beauty seated before him, or beholding a finished portrait, is a familiar one. Narrated in historical
stories, works of fiction, and paintings, its importance is embedded in
the common double-edged assumption. Beautiful women are rare, in
the words of Yuan Mei, as "the perfect Jade of Mr. He and the Sword of
Kunw u ." 29 These women "must rely on persons capable of recognizing
culture (wenshi) to make them manifest to the world,"' 0 because they
are dangerous unless contained by male culture. Such danger is merely
a projection of male desire and fantasy. Within this expressed desire,
unharnessed beauty would lead to the destruction and ruin of men
who are incapable of controlling desire through culture and ethics.
They include rulers and, by extension, the nation. In literary and
pictorial represen tations , such beauties are marked by their physical
presence, by their conspicuous absence, or by the substituted effigy
portraits.
Portraits of Iconic Beauties
A famous example is found in the stories of Wang Qiang, usually
referred to as Zhaojun, who became the feminine icon that defined the
relationships between China and its northern subject states. 31 Emperor
Yuandi of Former Han (reigned 48-33 BCE) "gave her " in marriage to
Huhanyue, the Khan of the Xiongnu in 33 BCE. Her biographical data
are recorded in the dynastic histories of the Former and Latter Han Dynasty.32 Zhaojun is described in the latter to have voluntarily assented
to the union, having been a neglected palace woman for many years.
When Yuandi met her prior to her depar ture, he wanted to keep her
but did not do so. In the later Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital
(Xijing zaji, fifth or sixth century CE), Zhaojun's story had evolved
into a different one. The circumsta nee that led her to the union with
the Khan was contingent on her portrait. Yuandi had commissioned
portraits of the numerous palace women who frequently paid large
bribes to the court painters. Wang Zhaoju n refused to do so and did not
receive an audience with the emperor until just before her departure.
Yuandi reluctantly kept his promise to the Khan and bade her farewell.

149

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW

As a result , after a full investigation, all the court painters were executed. Among them was a portraitist of great skill, Mao Yanshou.
The court pain ter 's role was expanded and re-figured to be the
central villain in the Yuan zaju play by Ma Zhiyuan (circa 1260-circa
1325) , Autumn over the Palaces of Han (Hangong qiu). Mao Yanshou was
instrumental in organizing a search for virgins to fill Yuandi 's palaces ,
albeit for selfish motives; "I'll have the Emperor see less of his Confucian ministers and indulge more in women and sex. Only then will
my favored position be secu re." 33 In the drama, Zha ojun 's backgroundwas
downgraded from a good family to a modest farming family in
Chengdu, Sichuan, that could not afford to bribe the painter. Rather
than reject her outright, the official/painter decided to "add some
blemishes " below Zhaojun's eyes in her portrait so "she will suffer all
her life " in the "cold palace ," as a feminine subject out of favor with the
emperor. Ten years after her arrival in the palaces, the two met when
her lute playing (pipa) attracted Yuandi's attention.
Zhaojun was made the imperial consort and, at her request , Yuandi
granted favors to her family. The emperor ordered Mao Yanshou arrested and beheaded but the latter had already escaped. He had taken an
unblemished portrait of Zhaojun that he presented later to Huhanyue.
The Khan then demanded the imperial consort in a marriage alli ance ,
with the threat otherwise of a military invasion. Zhaojun persuaded
Yuandi to sacrifice his love for the integral well-being of the state and
she accepted the arrangement in gratitude for imperial kindness and
favor. Her portrait in the Han palaces was involved in their reunion in
Yuandi's dream, following his viewing of it. " We have not held court
for a hundred days. Confronted now with this desolate nighttime scene,
I am overcome by vexation. I will hang up her portrait to relieve my
gloomy thoughts a little ." 34 At the time, Zhaojun was already deceased.She
had jumped into the Black Dragon River (Heilong jiang) between the
Han state and the northern borders, after she had exchanged Han
clothes for those of the Xiongnu and poured the libation of wine as
farewell to Yuandi and the Han state. 35
In his earlier farewell speech sung while sharing a drink with
Zha ojun , Yuandi asked rhetorically: "Today Zhaojun goes beyond the
border. When will she, like Su Wu, return to her native land ?" 36 Wang
Zha ojun 's subjectivity set her apart from the famous Western Han male
general who had lived among the Xiongnu for nineteen years before
returning as a patriotic hero. As the feminine icon that embodied the

150

PLEASURE AND PAIN
"liminal space" between the Han and the northern periphery (with
regard to shifting territorial claims and ethnic di ffe rences ) , Zhaojun
defined her identity when she committed ritual suicide. It was about
her refusal to cross the border, that is, be "stained" by the Khan, and
her heroism against the Xiongn u. 37 Her death was instrumental to n
a-tional
well-being and helped to reinstate the hierarchical relationship of
"uncle and nephew" between the Han state and the Xiongn u.38
Huhanyue returned Mao Yanshou "to the Han court for punishment!"
According to one suggestion , one segment of the long handscrolSpring
Morning in the Han Palaces (Hangong chunxiao), by Qiu Ying (1494- 1552),
depicts Mao Yanshou's performative act of painting the portrait of
Zhao ju n. 39 A corresponding moment is depicted in the Papp foldingfan by Gu Luo on another famous personage, Painting A Portrait of Yang
Consort (Yang Pei xiezhao tu) (figure 3). Yang Precious Consort (Yang
Gui fe i, Yang Yuhuan 719-756) was the consort of Emperor Xuanzong
(reigned 712-755), and her death by strangling beneath the slopes of
Mawei to the west of Xian helped restore peace to the state. The "waves
of unrest" observed in the "rocks and trees" on the painted fan,4° which
are rendered by Gu Luo in agitated brushwork with white high lights,
mark the specter of upheaval and turmoil caused putatively by Yang
Guifei's presence at the court. She was the foil of Wang Zhaojun in the
sense that her behavior and relationship with Xuanzong were defined
by moral transgression. Yang Guifei had been the secondary wife of

Figure 3. Gu Luo (1763-after 1837), Painting a Por trait of Yang (Pr ecious) Consort.
Folding fan, ink and color on paper , 18 x 57-1 cm. The Roy and Marilyn Papp
Collection. Photo by Craig Smith, courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum.

151

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW

Prince Shou, the eighteenth son of Xuanzong, before her elevation to
imperial consor t. 41 Her family members were granted high positions at
the court and government bureaucracies; her brother Yang Guozhong
was reviled in his tenure as the prime minister before his execution
just prior to that of his sister. Yang Guifei had also carried on an amour
with the treacherous An Lushan, of Turkic ethnicity and her adopted
son.
The female historical figure is the subject of numerous works of
fiction that include Bai Juyi's (772-846) famous Song of Everlasting Sorrow
(Changhen ge). 42 The evocative description of the love affair between
Yang Guifei and Xuanzong and its tragic end was the basis of the story
written by Bai's close friend Chen Hong (jinshi 805) that is collected
in the large encyclopedic compilation Extensive Records of the Reign of
Supreme Stability (976-983 Taiping guangji) .43 Yang Guifei was reviled
further because of her implication in the senile Xuanzong's fascination
with and fervent belief in the Taoist arts. Such an un-Confucian fetish
on the part of Xuanzong was thought by some historians to be one of
the major causes of the collapse of the ruling order in his reign.
A leaf in the Papp album, painted by Gai Qi and dated in accordance with 1799, also portrays Yang Guifei (figure 4). The title
"Conversion to Daoism of the Jade Realized One " (Yuzhen rudao )44
and the accompanying quatrain with seven-character lines, that
describes the painted subject's Daoist practice, was composed by the woman
poet-calligrapher Cao Zhenxiu (Moqin 1762-after 1822) .4 5 Yang Guifei's
temporary stay in a Taoist nunnery was a ploy by Xuanzong to
"purify" her from her status as wife of Prince Shou and to make her
his own imperial consort. In the storyline of the Song of Everlasting Sorrow
and the chuanqi story, a Taoist practitioner summons the soul of the
deceased Guifei. She reappears to pledge her love to Xuanzong by
returning half of the gifts given her earlier by the doting emperor, a
part of a golden hairpin and a leaf from the cover of an inlaid box.
She also promises to be reunited with him on the seventh day of the
seventh month, when magpies fly up to heaven and form a bridge so
that the Cowherd (Altai) and the Weaver (Vega) can cross the milky
way and be reunited. In the later zaju play, Autumn Nights of the Lustrous
Emperor of Tang: Rain on the Wutong Tree (Minghuang qiuye wutong yu) by
Bai Pu (1227-1306), the viewing by Xuanzong of the effigy portrait of
Yang Guifei precedes their brief reunion in his dream that is broken by
the sound of raindrops on the wutong tree. This episode is an allusion

152

PLEASURE AND PAIN

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Figure 4. Cao Zhenxiu (1762-after 1822) and Gai Qi (1773-1829),
Conversion of Yang (Precious) Consort to Daoi sm . Leaf from
Album of Famous Women, dated 1799. Album of 16 leaves, ink on paper,
paintings: 25 x 17.4 cm. The Roy and Marilyn Papp Collection. Photo by Craig
Smith, courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum.

to the earlier occasion on the seventh day of the seventh month when
the two pledged everlasting love under a wutong tree in the Palace Of
Eternal Life. 46
In the two plays, the deceased Wang Zhaojun and Yang Guifei
appear to the respective grief-stricken male beholders as painted
images. Feelings of loss and grief that are shared by Yuandi and Xuanzong are temporarily assuaged in their manifest dreams (figure 5). A
more complex line of development, which centers on the portrait of
the female protagonist, structures the well-known chuanqi play The
Peony Pavilion and Return of the Soul (Mudan ting huanhun ji) by Tang
Xianzu (1550-1617) .47
The protagonist Du Liniang (Bridal Du), sixten
years of age, painted the self-portrait before she died of love-sickness.
Entombed with her body, it was later found by Liu Mengmei (Willow
Dreaming of Apr icot), her dream-lover. After their passionate affair,
Liu was instrumental in Du Liniang's resurrection. Richard Vinograd

153

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW

Figure 5. Yuan Jiang (active circa 1680-1740), The Everlasting Sorrow.
Framed panel, ink and color on silk, 36 x 41.1 cm. The Roy and Marilyn Papp
Co ll e ct ion . Photo by Craig Smith, courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum.

Detail of Figure 5.

154

PLEASURE AND PAIN
comments that the concerned "portrait is a self-image that tries to fix
an already lost moment, impossible to recapture, of sexual awakening
in a dream ."48
In a recent litera ry study, Tina Lu suggests another line of enquiry
for the drama, one that is built around the issue of human identity ,
as an alternative to the conventional one centered on passion and
desire (qing) .49 According to Lu, the self-portrait, which is an idea lized
rendering of the painter's dream image , is one of four "versions" of
Du Liniang. The others are the girl before death, the ghost, and the
resurrected girl. This interpretative strategy considers the protagonist
as being without a "unitary identity." The schism between selves, as
explained in Lu's schema , figures in Du Linia ng 's artistic act of selffashioning and self-determination at the intersection of life and death .
Her portrait, the "centra l artifact" of the play, is a bodiless identity. In
some ways, it parallels Wang Zha ojun's ritual suicide in Autumn over
the Palaces of Han. Her suicide at the exact boundary that separates Han
from Xiongnu defines her identity as more than a marginal subject;
she disappears as a distinct physical ident ity, creating a symbol of valor
that denies her body and its subjugated standing in either male world,
Chinese or barbarian.
Epilogue
These stories bring life to the consideration of the act of beholding
and of painting by obliquely calling into the present the configuration
of female representation and its relationship to identity and polit ics.
The motif posits a gendered reader, just as it posits a female subject, but
complicates that image by evoking pain , in terms both of the pain f ul
memories and feelings of loss that preoccupied Yuandi and Xuanzong
on viewing the effigy portra its of Wang Zhaojun and Yang Guifei, and
of feelings of grief and tormenting pain "fel t" by the women in their
dying moments. It was also at these moments of self-abnegation that
they reveal their own subjectivity, Zhaojun and Du Liniang through selfdetermination, and Guifei, the iconic dangerous beauty contained by
strangling. Pain and disappearance define the subjectivity of these
women . But in the stories, their dea th is usually glossed over, or quickly
"acted out" (by Zhaojun in Autumn Over the Palaces of Han ), their
psychological pain repressed (with the exce ption of Du Liniang in the
Peony Pavilion), and great physical suffering unarticulated. The silent
treatment given to bodily pain "felt" by the women is revealing

155

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW

and indicative of its nature, according to the literary scholar Elaine
Scarry in her study on pain .50 Severe physical pain is directly expressed
only by "the sounds and cries a human being makes before language is
learned." Pain 's "resistance to language" is almost universal, observed
across systems of language in different cultures. In order for physical
pain to be diagnosed for medical treatment, or "shared" with others
in empathy, it has to be represented metaphorically in words, thereby
externa Iized and "objectified."
When the pictures of these female subjects are viewed together
with their literary representations, the images take on rich narrative
content. At the perceptual level, the visual portrayals of these women,
however, are quite conventional in that they elicit the scopophilic
pleasure of a naturalized masculine viewer. In the circumstance,
however, emanating from the pictorial representations are both masculine pleasure at the perceptual level and pain at the narrative level
"fe l t" momentarily by the female subjects. "Pleasur e" inheres in the
images and "pain" remains invisible to the eye, merely gestured toward
by the narrative subtext. Circulation of the images serves multiple
audiences, and any particular reading is contingent on the critical reception of the beholder, on his or her strategy for reading, and personal
context in which to place the stories about female subjects.

PLEASURE AND PAIN

Notes
1. I thank Yun-chiu Mei and Stephen West for discussions in the preparation

of the paper.
See Shan Guoqiang, "Gudai shinii hua suotan" (Desultory Remarks on
Ancient Genteel Women), Gugong bowuyuan yuankan, 1981:2, 44-45, for
the etymology of the terms. In contemporary usage, semantic differences
among such terms as shinii, meiren, and meinii hua are elided, and they are
usually translated as "beauties," "beautiful women." For a methodological
critique of the study of paintings of women, see Wu Hung, "Beyond
Stereotypes: The Twelve Beauties in Qing Court Art and the 'Dream of the
Red Chamber,"' Writing Women in Late Imperial China, Ellen Widmer and
Kang-I Sun Chiang, editors (Stanford, 1997), 306-365.
2. The four paintings of women in the Papp Collection are the long handscroll
One Hundred Beauties by Fei Danxu, the album of Famous Women that
comprises sixteen pairs of rectangular leaves (each with poetic inscription
and illustration) by Cao Zhenxiu and Gai Qi, the folding fan entitled
Painting a Portrait of Yang (Precious) Consor t, and the hanging scroll that
portrays Lin Daiyu Burying Fallen Blossoms . Both the fan and the hanging
scroll were painted by Gu Luo.
The Fei Danxu handscroll, the painted fan by Gu Luo, and the pair of
leaves that portray Yang Guifei from the album are reproduced in figures 14. The entire album is reproduced in Claudia Brown and Ju-hsi Chou,

Journeys on Paper and Silk: The Roy and Marilyn Papp Collection of Chinese
Painting ( Phoenix , 1998), 136-146. Lin Daiyu is reproduced in color in Claudia

Brown and Ju-hsi Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China's
Empire 1796-1911 (Phoenix, 1992), number 32. For additional information on
the Lin Daiyu and its painter Gu Luo, see Ju-hsi Chou's discussion in Brown
and Chou, Journeys, 150-153. For the important understanding of these
paintings by Fei Danxu and Gu Luo as images that anticipated practices
of the "Shanghai School" painters, see Claudia Brown, "Precursors of
Shanghai School Painting," Studies on Shanghai School Painting (Haipai
huihua yanjiu wenji) (Shanghai, 2001), 932-952.
3. He Ya n zhe , "Jiaqing Daoguang shiqi de shinii hua" (Paintings of Genteel
Women in the Reigns of Jiaqing and Daoguang), Meishi yanjiu 63 (1991:3), 5156; Nie Chongzheng, "The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)" in Three Thousand Years
of Chinese Painting (New Haven, 1997), Yang Xin, Richard Barnhart, and
others, 290-291.

157

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW
4. Shan, "Guda i," 47.
5. Shan Guoqiang has indicated that paintings of women from the sixteenth
century forward are characte ri ze d by the imbri catio n of "literary nature"
(wenxue xing) (Shan, "G udai ," 46-48}. For the significance of prints in the
Ming dynasty, see Cra ig Clu nas, Pictures and Visua!ity in Early Modern China
(Princeton, 1997), 29-41. Jonathan Hay discusses the influence of printed
books with illustrations on the practices of painters in the first half of
nineteenth century in "Pa inter s and Publishing in Late Nineteenth-century
Shangha i," Art at the Close of China's Empire, Ju-hsi Chou, editor, Pheebus
volume 8, 145-149.
6. Shan, "Guda i," 47.
7. John Fisher, "Entit l i ng," Critical Inquiry, 21 (1984), 292; see a lso Hin-cheung
Lovell, "A Question of Choice, A Matter of Rend it ion," Renditions, 6 (Spring
1976) , 63-69, for the import a nce of trans lat ion to the understanding of
painting titles.
8. For a persuasive explanation of the experiential effect of viewing with
respect to the schola r-amate ur mode of paintings from the early fourteenth
century forward, see Richard Vinograd , "Private Art and Public Knowledge
in Later Chinese Painting," Images of Memory: On Remembering and
Representation, Suzanne Kuchler and Walter Mel ion, editors (Washington,

DC, 1991), 176-245.
9. Fei Danxu was from Huzhou by the southern shores of Lake Tai in
northern Zhejiang province . From the late 1820s forward, he was a close
associate, at different times, of three influential figure s, Tang Yifen (17781853) , the talented, well-connected military official, Wang Yuansun (17941836) whose family in Hangzhou was famous for its li bra ry Zhenji tang, and
Jiang Guangxu (1813-1860} in Raining nearby with his notable publishing
house Biexia zhai. Fei's other friends included such painters as Zhang
Xiong (1803-1886} and Gu Luo (who was a native of Hangzhou) as well as
a number of educated professionals. The latter were engaged in tasks of
collecting, editing, and publishing epigraphical studies, comment ar ie s
to Confucian classics, compilations on local interest s, and contemporary
literary anthologies. Fei's oeuvre comprises poetry , calligraphy, and
pa i nt i ngs. He was noted for his male po rt ra i ts, i mage s of women, and the
illustrations in a popular morality book. For an i n format ive monograph on
the artist, see Huang Yongquan, Pei Danxu. Zhongguo huajia congshu series

( Sha ngha i: Renmin meish u chubanshe, 1962). For published sources on Fei,
see Chou, "Fei Dan x u," Claudia Brown and Ju-h si Chou, Scent of Ink: The
Roy and Marilyn Papp Collection of Chinese Painting (Phoenix, 1994), 132-133.

PLEASURE AND PAIN
10 .

Brown, "One Hundred Beauties," Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil,
94-95; Chou, "Fei Danxu," Brown and Chou, Scent of Ink, 132-141.

11. Xiang Yuan, "Fei Danxu de meiren hua" (Fei Danxu·s Pictures of Beautiful

Women), Yishujia number 99 (1983:8), 200-211. The reference is cited in

Brown and Chou, Scent of Ink, 132.
12. Clunas, Pictures and Visuality, 153. In his discussion of erotic images in the

Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Clunas points out that a number of critics in the
sixteenth and seventeenth century shared the belief that "spring pictures"
( ch unhua ) had emerged among practices at the courts of the Han (206 BCE211 CE). A well-known poetic work, albeit post-Han in date, that narrates
desire is the Rhapsody on the Luo Goddess (Luoshenfu) by Cao Zhi (192-232).
(For a recent translation, see Wen Xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature

by Xiao Tong, translated with annotations by David Knechtges, volume 3,

Princeton, 1996, 355-365.)
For discussion that yokes poetry to the iconography of palace women, see
Ellen Laing, "Chinese Palace-Style Poetry and the Depiction of a Palace
Beauty," Art Bulletin LXXII: 2 June 1990, 284-296 .
13. Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy

s'•-14'•

Century (New York, 1992), plate 5 on pages 34 and 35. The reproduced

segment with three others extant make up a copy o! the original painting
by Zhou Wenju that is referred to in later descriptions as In the Palace , or
Spring Morning at the Tang Palace (Tanggong chunxiao tu). The three other
segments are in the Villa I Tatti (Bernard Berenson collection), the
Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Fogg Art Museum.
For various discussions on both the dif!erences among the four segments
and of the reconstructed order of the original scroll. see Fong, Beyond
Representation, 34-39; Laurence Roberts, and others, The Bernard Berenson
Collection of Oriental Art at Villa I Tatti (New York, 1991), 27-31; Wai-kam Ho.

"Danyan jushi Zhang Cheng kaoliie binglun 'Mo Zhou Wenju Gongzhong
tujuan' bahou zhi 'Jun Sima yin' ji qita weiyin" (Examining the Identity of
Danyan Recluse Zhang Cheng with Discussion o! the "Adjutant Seal" and
other Fake Seals Posterior to the Colophon of the Copy of Zhou Wenju 's In the
Palace Handscro/1) Shanghai bowuguanjikan 4 (1987), 35-50.
14. The male figure has been identified as the "youthful Southern Tang ruler Li

Yu" who is viewing a painting. (Fong, Beyond Representation, 67, note 31.)
15. Sigmund Freud , Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, translated and revised

by James Strachey with a new introduction by Steven Marcus (New York,
1975), 60-72.
16. In "The Changing Face of Narrative in Early Chinese Painting: Three

159

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW
Milestones from the Metropolitan Museum ," Orientations 28/11 (December
1997), 20-26, Maxwell Hearn provides what may be considered the

normalized reading of a painting that depicts court women and their
attendants in a palace setting. Entitled Pala ce Banquet (Qiqiao tu), the large
hanging scroll, which is attributed to the tenth century, presents in a bi rd 's
eye view of the private chamber and its surroundings in an inner palace.
Hea rn 's suggested narrative, that is built on the assumed absence of the
imag i nar y e mpe ror, conceives the viewer to be a voyeur. The scene is
identified as the celebration of the seventh day of the seventh month, the
same festival that is highlighted in the stories and plays of Yang Guifei and
Xuanzong.
17- Xishi is surn amed Shi, also known as Yiguang. As an icon of female

beaut y, her h istorical existence remains doubtful although her name is
recorded in such early compilations as the Guanzi and Mozi. The reliability
of the standard account in Wuyue chunqiu (circa 40 CE) abo ut her role as
instrumental in the defeat by the Yue state by Wu is questioned by Zeng
Yongyi in "Xishi gushi zhin i" (Doubting the Record of the Xishi Story),
Zhongguo gudian wenxue yanjiu congkan, xiaoshuo zhi bu 1, Ke Qingming and

Lin Mingde, editors (Taipei: Juliu tushu, 1977).
18. The passage, inscribed on the frontispiece (yinshou), is preceded by four

la rge characters that Li Qiujun wrote in the seai' script "gong huo(?) yang
xing," whose overall meaning remains to be determined.
19. Zheng Zhenduo has indicated that the New Songs on the Hundred Beauties was

first printed in 1755 (Zheng Zhenduo, A Selected Collection of Chinese Ancient
Woodblock Prints, Zhongguo gudai mukehua xuanji, volume VI , reprint edition,

Be iji ng, 1985, for the reproduction of one of the i llu st rat ions, and Zheng's
comment is on page 83 in volume IX). The edition I have used is a replica
of the woodblock-reprinted edition, publ ish ed by Zhongguo shud ia n in
1998 in Beijing. It includes a preface by the compiler Yan Xiyuan dated in

correspondence with 1787, a 1790 preface by Yuan Mei, and a third 1792
prefatory essay by Yan that precedes the collective poems. These dated
essays would suggest the edition was printed in 1792, or sho rt ly after. If the
compil at ion was first printed in 1755 and reprinted in lat er times, as Zheng
Zhenduo sug gests, we could reasonably assume the later edition (s) contain
add ito na l commentarial material.
New Songs on the Hundred Beauti es had co u nte rpa rt s among the later

illustrated books that include Li Yaomeng, Pictures of A Hundred Buterflis(Li
Yaomeng baidie tu ) . Printed in 1827, the compilation could be the source of
butterfly designs that populated women 's robes, screens, and decorative

160

PLEASURE AND PAIN
panels in the nineteenth century (See the reproduction of an illustration
in Zheng, A Selected Collection, VII). Fiv e Hundred Famous Worthies of Wu with
Illustrations , Biogra phi es, and Encomia (Wujun wubai mingxian tu zhuanzan)

was compiled by Gu Yuan, and printed probably in 1825 (Zheng, A Selected
Collection, volume VII).

Jonathan Hay indicates New Songs on the Hundred Beauties and the
contemporaneous Poems to Famous Elegant Beauties of History (Lidai mingyuan
shici, printed in 1773) informed the later One Hundred Commented Pictures
of Beautiful Ladies (Xinzeng baimei tushuo , 1887), which was compiled by

Qiu Shouyan . The later compilation was, by turn, the probable model for
some of the drawings by Wu Jiayou (Youru ?-1893), who was the notable
illustrator of newspaper pictorials in late nineteenth-century Shanghai.
(Jonathan Hay, "Painters and Publishing," 148). Images from Wu's two
series that are entitled Pictures of A Hund red Beauties (Baimei tu) and The
Hundred Gorgeous Women of Shanghai (Hai shang baiyan tu) were published in
issues of the Pavilion of Flying Shadows Pictorial Newspaper (Feiying ge huabao)
from 1890 forward. The two series are reprinted in the Pictorial Treasury of
Wu Youru, Wu Youru huabao, reprint edition, Shanghai, 1983, volume I.
20 . In New Songs on the Hundr ed Beauties, the commentarial writing consists of

several sections: eight prefaces, a collection of song lyrics (ci) on some of
the hundred beauties, a long poem with a hundred rhyming lines of five
characters on the hundred beauties, a hundred quatrains with sevencharacter lines also on the beauties, and Yan 's 1792 preface to poems that
also refers to the illustrator Wang Hui. The prefatory material precedes the
main content, illustrations, and the biographical accounts of the hundred
beauties. The main body is followed by the elaborate postface apparatus
that comprises Ya n's preface to the collective poems, the poems, and four
colophons.
Among writers of the commentarial material is Shi Jirong (jinshi 1771),
an official at the courts of Qianlong and Jiaqing (Daqing j1fu xianzhe zhuan
compiled by Xu Shichang in Qingdai zhuanji congkan, Zhou Junfu, editor,
Taipei, 1985, volume 198, 424-426). Others include Xiong Lian, a famous
woman poet ( Qingdai guige shiren zheng/iie compiled by Shi Shuyi in Zhou,
Qingdai zhuanji , volume 25, 361-363), and the (male) painter Guan Tao.
21. Dated in accordance with 22 March 1929, Li Zuhan's colophon begins

with praise for Fei Danxu, whose artistic achievement surpassed his
antecedent Gai Qi. The passage ends with these lines, "In the silence of
night, I trimmed the light before unrolling and looking at it [One Hundred
Beauties] again and again.... Preoccupied by miscellaneous chaotic matters,

161

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW
I have not been able to benefit from making tracing and freehand copies
of paintings. When will I succe ed in le arn ing to paint ? For the mome nt, I
could only hold the scroll and heave a lon g sigh."
22. Xinghui translates to "physical form that is ugly." An example of its usage is in

a passage in the Jinshu , compiled in the ea rly seventh cent ur y. Wei Jie who
served at the Western Jin court and who was one of the grandsons of Wei
Guan was extraord i na ril y good -looki ng. Jie 's uncle, Wang Ji, who was quite
handsome himself, commented that whenever be saw the young Jie: "With
Zhuru ( Wei Jie) by my side, I feel ugly (Jue wo xinghui) ." Jinshu by Fang Xu a
nli ng, and others, reprint edition, Be ijing, 1967, volume 4, 1067.
23. Pei Kai (2 37-291) was a close friend of Wang Rong (234-305), one of the
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove . Pei was well-known for his pleasing
appearance. People in his own time used to say: "See i ng Pei Shuze (Pei
Kai) is like being next to the Jade Mountain that casts a li ght, as reflection,
on us ." ( Fang, Jinshu, 1048)
24 . Jacques Lacan, "The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I as
revealed in psychoanalytic exper ien ce," Ecrits: A Selection, translated by
Alan Sheridan (London, 1977), 1-7.
25. For an account of Li Qiujun's lif e, see Julia Andrews and Kuiyi Shen ,
"Traditionalism as a Modern Stance: The Chinese Women's Calligraphy and
Painting Society," Modern Chinese Literature and Cul ture, 11:1 (spri ng, 1999 ) ,
12-15.
26. Li Qiujun was also active in the organizations and assoc iat ions of artists.

She was among the six founders of th e Chinese Women Calligraphy and
Painting Society (Zhongguo nuzi shuhua hui) , established in Shanghai in 1934.
(The other five were Gu Qingyao 1901-1978, Chen Xiaocui 190 7-1968, Feng
Wenfeng 1900-1971, Gu Fei, and Yang Xuejiu.) In the same year, the
Association organized its first exh ibiti on, which showed for sale paintings
and calligraphy done by its members. The event was held at the influential
Nin gbo Club. Qiujun was involved in other organizations, such as the
influential Chinese Painter Association. Andrews and Shen , "Trad itiona lism
as a Modern Sta nce ," 6-11.
27. For another perspective on the i mpo rta nce of the First National Exhibition

of Art , with respect to the art of Xu Beihong, see David Der-wei Wang, "In
the Name of the Real," Chinese Art: Modern Expressions, Maxwell Hearn
and Judith Sm ith, edito rs (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art , 2001), 2959.
28. For brief biographical information on Li

Qiujun's contemporaries (Feng
Wenfeng, Wu Qingxia born 1910, and Yang Xueji u) , see Andrews and Shen,

PLEASURE AND PAIN
"Traditiona

lism as a Modern Stance ," 8-9 and 15-20.

29. Mr. He's Jade (Heshi zhi bi) was a unique piece of jade , and it is the subject
of a few historical sto ries . The one recorded in Han Pei zi is about the
importance of perspicacious persons to people of talent and rare beauty.
Bian He was a loyal subject in the Chu state. He presented the special but
unpolished jade to two success ive ru le rs, Liwang and Wuwang. Neither
believed him and, as pun ish ment, they amputated both of his legs. At the
succession of Wenwang, Bian He left the capital for the mountains with
his jade. A court official asked him the reason for his la ment ; he replied, lik
e the priceless jade that was mistaken for a worthless stone , he, as the
virtuous subject, had the reputation of being untrustworthy and deceitful.
The verbal exchange was reported to Wenwa ng who had the jade polished
and named it Mr. He's Jade.
The blades of the swords from Kunwu (Kunwujian), which is in Hami
county in Xi njiang , were unusually sharp . Zhou Muwang used a Kunwu
sword that had been presented to him to cut iron as effortlessly as if it were
mud.
30. Yuan Mei, the first Preface in New Songs on the Hundred Beauties, Xu
(Preface), 1-2.
31. Two studies have informed my account of the stories of Wang Zhaojun:
Daphne P. Lei , " Wang Zhaojun on the Border: Gender and Intercultural
Conflicts in Premodern Chinese Dra ma ," Asian Theatre Journal 13:2 (Fall,
1996), 229-237 ; the introduction to and tran slat io n of Ma Zhiyuan's "A Lone
Goose in the Autumn over the Palaces of Han," Stephen West and Wilt
Idema, Twenty-five Ch inese Dramas (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
forthcoming).
32. Hi story of the (Former) Han Dynasty (Hanshu, 206 BCE-8 BC) was compi le d in
the first century of this era, and the Hi story of the Latter Han Dynasty (Hou
Ha nshu, 25-220) in the fourth century. For citations to Zhaojun in both
historiographical compilations, see Lei , " Wang Zhaojun," 230-231.
33. West and Idema , Twenty-five, "A Lone Goose," the beginning Wedge.
34. West and Idema , Twenty-five, "A Lone Goose," Act Four.
35. For a typified representation of Zhaojun depicted at the border between
China and the Steppes , see the 1843 hanging scroll by Fei Danxu in the
Palace Museum in Beij in g. Zhaojun is shown in a Ch in ese robe beneath
an unusual fur headdress, standing beside her spir i ted horse. Holding her
pipa wrapped under a loose cover, she is turning her head to the lef t. Wild
geese are flying high above toward the same direction. Zhaojun's colorful
costume and cheerful facial expression posit a striking contrast with the

MYRIAD POINTS OF VIEW
somber dark background covered by patches of gray wash . (Chinese Art
Comprehensive Selections, Zhongguo meishu quanji , 11, Shanghai 1988, number
133, 49.)
36. West and Idema , Twenty- five , "A Lone Goose," Act Three. According to Hou

Han shu, after Khan Huhanyue's death, Zhaojun petitioned the Han court

for permission to return to China, but the request was denied. (Lei, "Wang
Zhaojun," 231.)
37. Lei, " Wang Zhaojun," 233-234.
38. West and Idema, Twenty-five, "A Lone Goo se," Act Three, and the

introduction to the play.
39. For a suggested reading of the pictorial segment, which putatively portrays

Zhaojun seated across from Mao Ya ngshou , made in the context of the
narration of Wang Zhaojun in Xijing zazi and Hang ong qiu, see Richard
Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self- Chinese Portraits, 1600-1900 (C a mbr idge :
Cambridge University Press , 1992), 15-16.
Spring Morning in the Han Palaces is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
For a good reproduction of the discussed section, see Wen Fong, James
Watt , and others, Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum,
Taipei (New York and Taipei, 1996), 400-40 1 , plate 203. The entire handscroll
is reproduced in black and white in Liu Fang ru , and others, Glimpses into
the Hidden Quarters: Pai nt ings of Women from the Middle Kingdom (Shinii hua zhi
mei) ( repr int edition, Taipei, 1987), 70-71.
40. Chou, "Painting a Portrait of Yang Guifei," Brown and Chou, Journeys, 154.
41. The introduction to and translation of the "Autum n Nights of the Lustrous

Emperor of Tang: Rain on the Wutong Tree ," West and Idema, Twenty- jive .
42. Li Fang, and others, Taiping guangji (reprint edition, Beijing, 1961) , X, 39984000; a recent translation of Changhen ge is in An Anthology of Chinese

Literature: Beginnings to 1911, edited and translated by Stephen Owen (New

York, 1996), 442-447.
43. Chen Hong 's Changhen ge chuan is in Li Fang, Taiping guangji, 4000-4001, and

a translation in Owen , Changhen ge, 448-452.
44. During her "pur i ficat ion" stay at the Supreme Realized Palace (Taizhen

gong), Yang Guifei was given the Daoist na me, the Supreme Realized One
(Taizhen). Her abode in the underworld is the Garden of the Jade Consort,
the Supreme Realized One (Yufei Taizhen yuan). Yuzhen is probably the
abbreviation of Yang Guifei's two given na mes, Yufei and Taizhen.
45. Cao Zhenxiu was a notable poet and calligrapher from a family known for
accomplishment in the arts. She was the oldest of three daughters of Cao
Rui , who was living in Suzhou after retirement from the Wa rden 's Office in

PLEASURE AND PAIN
the capital. Cao Zhenxiu was the wife of Wang Jisun (1735-1797), a teacher
and writer and a close friend of Gai Qi in Huating.
Cao Zhenxiu's quatrain poems, composed to be illustrated (tihua shi),
signal overall a predilection for the quotidian and a feeling

of

intimacy

toward female subjects. For an account of Cao Zhenxiu and her fa m il y,
see Molinjinhua compiled by Jiang Baoling and Jiang Chaisheng (1852)
(Shanghai: Shaoye shanfang, 1925), juan 2, volume 1, 6b. For the translation
of Cao Zhenxiu's quatrain, the state of the partial preservation of the
album, a brief account of Gai Qi's Uighur ancestry, and his relationship
with Wang Jisun, see Chou, "Gai Qi," Brown and Chou, Journeys, 136-146.
46. West and Ide ma , Twenty -five , "Autumn Nights," Acts Four and One .
47. The Peony Pavilion (Mudan ting), Tang Xianzhu, translated by Cyril Birch
(Bloomington, 1980.)
48. Vinograd, Boundaries, 16.
49. Tina Lu, Persons, Roles, and Minds: Identity in Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom
Fan (Stanford: Stanford University Press , 2001), 28-62.
50. Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985) , 1-59 and 161-181.