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Abstract
Lumu, a private act of mourning ritual, grew into a cultural phenomenon with considerable appeal in the seventeenth century. The era saw a range of activities that placed lumu at the center of the neo-Confucian call for moral cultivation, and lumu was a focal point of acting out Confucian virtue. This paper details the cases that centered on three preeminent men—Feng Shaoxu, Sun Qifeng, and Fang Yizhi. It demonstrates that, whether by promoting it through public lectures, staging ceremonies by the hut, enacting it collectively and cross-generationally in the family, or commemorating it with poetry, essay, and painting, the staunch Confucian elite in the seventeenth century identified a common cause for action. Lumu was not just an act of mourning or filial piety; it was perceived as a preferable tool for perfecting moral cultivation and for exhibiting the moral strength of an individual or a family at a time of perceived moral decline. The extreme challenge represented by a relentless routine lay at the very center of its appeal—lumu projected the image of an ultra-filial son in a way that other filial deeds did not.
Notes
1 Fang Zhaoying and Du Lianzhe comp, Zengjiao Qingchao jinshi timing beilu fu yinde (Inscriptions of listings for jinshi degree holders of the Qing dynasty, augmented and appended with index) (Beiping: Harvard-Yenching xueshe, 1941), 11.
2 Xu Chengyao, She shi xian tan (Leisurely conversations about matters concerning She county) (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 2001), 1025.
3 Qu Dajun, Qu Dajun quanji (Complete works of Qu Dajun, (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1996), 755.
4 For a historical study of filial piety tales, see Keith Knapp, Selfless Offspring: Filial Children and Social Order in Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005).
5 One exception was gegu 割股 or gegan 割肝—cutting a piece of flesh or liver from one’s own body to make medicinal soup for the cure of a sick parent or other family members.
6 In addition to Knapp’s Selfless Offspring, Major works on filial piety include Norman Kutcher, Mourning in Late Imperial China: Filial Piety and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Maram Epstein, “Writing Emotions: Ritual Innovation as Emotional Express,” Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China, vol. 11, no. 2 (2009): 155–96; and Lü Miaofen, Xiao zhi tian xia: “Xiao jing” yu jinshi Zhongguo de zhengzhi yu wenhua (Governing the world with filial piety: the Classic of Filial Piety and the politics and culture of modern China) (Taibei: Lianjing chuban gongsi, 2011). Kutcher notes, quite correctly, that the lumu practice “may have enjoyed a brief resurgence during the late Ming period,” but the point is not elucidated. Kutcher, Mourning in Late Imperial China, 94.
7 See Biographies of Qu Dajun by Zhu Xizu and Li Jingxin, in Ou Chu and Wang Guichen, eds., Qu Dajun quanji (Complete collection of Qu Dajun’s works), 2106, 2110.
8 “Mourning by heart” differed from the regular mourning ritual in that it focused on the spiritual rather than the physical aspect of the observance.
9 Sima Qian, “Kongzi shijia 孔子世家,” Shiji (The records of the grand historian), (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959), 1945. It appears that Zigong had already lived in the hut while observing the three years of “mourning by heart.”
10 Wang Fuzhi, Liji zhangju (Commentary on the Book of Rites), (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2002), vol. 98:548. Women, however, are exempt from these rules.
11 Ibid., 368.
12 Ban Gu, Baihu tongyi (Comprehensive meanings as discussed in the White Tiger Hall), (Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1983), Wenyuange siku quanshu edition, xia.
13 Wang Fuzhi, Liji zhangju, 548.
14 Ibid., 382.
15 Sun Xidan, Liji jijie (Collected Commentaries on the Book of Rites) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2002), 103:821.
16 Wang Fuzhi, Liji zhangju, 405. For a discussion of the mourning ritual banning sexual intercourse, see Weijing Lu, “Abstaining from Sex: Mourning Ritual and the Confucian Elite,” Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 22, no.2 (2013): 232–54.
17 Ruan Yuan, Shisanjing zhushu (Commentaries on the thirteen Confucian classics) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 1161.
18 Ming Qing Ningyang xianzhi hui shi (Ming-Qing Gazetteers of Ningyang county, collected and annotated), compiled and annotated by Ding Zhao (Ji’nan: Shandong sheng ditu chubanshe, 2003), 1026.
19 Fan Ye, Hou Han shu (History of the Later Han dynasty) (Beijing: Zhongghu shujue, 1965), 2159–60.
20 For an overview of the imperial jingbiao history, see Mark Elvin, “Female Virtue and the State in China,” Past and Present, 104 (1984): 111–52. An example of jingbiao bestowed up a man for his virtue of practicing lumu is discussed below in Sun Qifeng’s case.
21 Ying Zhang, “Politics and Morality during the Ming-Qing Dynastic Transition (1570–1670)” (PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 2010).
22 I have been informed by Cong Zhang that, during the Song, lumu events were commemorated with collections of poems, but visual commemoration such as in the form of tuce did not appear to exist.
23 See Li Yong’s preface to Feng Shaoxu wenji (Collected works of Feng Shaoxu) (Taibei: Xin Wenfeng chuban gongsi, 1999), 50:539. Feng’s collected works was prefaced by about a dozen prominent scholars across China, a testimony to his social standing.
24 Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:577.
25 See Chen Jiru’s preface to Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:568.
26 At least three essays Feng wrote start with the sentence “The way of Yao and Shun is no more than practicing filial piety and brotherly love.” Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:619–20.
27 Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:619. One li is a third of a mile.
28 Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:620.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 See Pan Chengzhang, Songling wen xian (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 2000), shi, 7:81–82.
36 Ming Qing Ningyang xianzhi hui shi,1026.
37 See Xie Guozhen, Ming mo Qing chu de xuefeng (The academic culture of the late Ming and early Qing) (Beijing: Beijing renmin chubanshe, 1982), 16.
38 Sun’s nianpu indicated that his second brother was five years older, which would put the age of his oldest brother in the 30s. Tang Bin, Zhengjun Sun xianshengnianpu (Yearly records of Sun Qifeng) (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 1999), 665–66.
39 A metaphor for brotherly love, the phrase is made famous in a story about the Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 713–55) and his brothers who shared a long pillow and a big quilt for sleep. See Sima Guang, Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive mirror for aid in government) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), 6701.
40 Zhengjun Sun xiansheng nianpu, 614.
41 Sun’s grandmother died less than a year after his father’s death.
42 The emotional aspect of filial practice is the subject of an insightful study by Epstein, “Writing Emotions.”
43 Sun Zhengjun (Qifeng) nianpu [Yearly biography of Sun Qifeng], (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 1999), 310.
44 Sun Zhengjun (Qifeng) nianpu, 313.
45 The term used by Sun was “bao Liu ri duan 報劉日短,” referring to the famous letter by Li Mi 李密of the Jin dynasty, in which he declined the invitation from the court to serve, saying that there was not much time left for him to wait upon his aging grandmother who had raised him. In his use, Sun Qifeng was referring to his mother, not grandmother.
46 Sun Zhengjun (Qifeng) nianpu, 313. Also see Sun Qifeng, Suihanju nianpu (Suihanju Yearly records), (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 1999), 7.
47 Zhengju Sun xiansheng nianpu, 634.
48 For recent scholarship on Fang Yizhi and an evaluation of Fang’s historical significance, see Luo Chi’s preface to Qian Wanggang, Fang Yizhi zhuan (Biography of Fang Yizhi), (Hefei: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 2008). For an account of Fang’s life in English, see Willard J. Peterson, Bitter Gourd: Fang I-chih and the Impetus for Intellectual Change (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979). Of the issues that fascinate historians is how Fang ended his life. Disputing the view that he died of illness, Yu Yingshi, for example, argues that he committed suicide as a loyalist of the fallen Ming. See Yu Yingshi, Fang Yizhi wanjie kao (An empirical study of the late years of Fang Yizhi’s life), (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2004).
49 Ye Cang, “Fang Mingshan xiansheng xingzhuan 方明善先生行狀,” Tongcheng Fangshi qidai yishu (Bequeathed writings of seven generations of the Fangs from Tongcheng), 1/1a.
50 Fang Yizhi, Fushan wenji qianbian (Collected works of Fang Yizhi, first volumes) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2002), 186.
51 Chen Jisheng, “Fang Dali zhuan,” Tongcheng Fangshi qidai yishu, 1/2a.
52 Fang Yizhi, Fushan wenji, qianbian, 186.
53 Chen Jisheng, “Fang Dali zhuan.”
54 Zheng Sanjun, “Fang Zhenshu xiansheng muzhiming 方貞述先生墓誌銘,” Tongcheng Fangshi qidai yishu, 1/2a.
55 Luo Chi, Fang Yizhi pingzhuan, 24. Also see Fang Yizhi, Fushan wenji, 375.
56 Ren Daobin, Fang Yizhi nianpu [Yearly records of Fang Yizhi] (Hefei: Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe, 1983), 12, 195.
57 Ibid., 71–73.
58 See Epstein, “Writing Emotions,” for a discussion of filial piety as an emotion. She argues that “emotional self-expression mattered even to strict Confucian ritualists during the Qing” (161).
59 Jimmy Yu, Sanctity and Self-inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500–1700 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 34. Yu offers an excellent account of the historical circumstances that gave rise to a violent, “performance-based” morality culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. See Yu, Sanctity and Self-inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500-1700, chapter one. Also see Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commence and Culture in Ming China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); Kai-wing Chow, The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China: Ethics, Classics, and Lineage discourse (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), chapter one, and Weijing Lu, True to Her Word: The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008), 36–44.
60 Kai-wing Chow, for example, shows that the elite practice of Confucian ritual in early Qing was to “show their defiance of Manchu authority” and their Chinese cultural identity. Chow, The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China, 44. Norman Kutcher demonstrates that the trauma of the dynastic fall brought intellectuals together to “forge to a China-wide system of mourning rites.” Kutcher, Mourning in Late Imperial China, 73.
61 See Epstein, “Writing Emotions,” 168, and her forthcoming book, Orthodox Passions.
62 Zhang Tingyu, et.al., “Zhang Juzheng liezhuan (Biography of Zhang Juzheng),” Mingshi (History of the Ming dynasty) (Beijing: Zhonghu shuju, 1974), 5647.
63 Zheng was accused of beating his mother. The alleged unfilial behavior was seized by his political enemy and Emperor Chongzhen and ultimately led to his execution. See Ying Zhang, Politics and Morality during the Ming-Qing Dynastic Transition (1570–1670), chapter 3.
64 Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:619, 620. Yan was a Ming dynasty lower degree holder from Changan (Feng’s hometown), Shaanxi, who performed lumu for his parents for three years. It was reported that when he dug the tomb to bury his father, he found three hundred ounces of silver. He used the money for the co-burial of his parents. See Shaanxi tongzhi (General gazetteer of Shaanxi) (Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan 1983), Wenyuange sikuquanshu edition, 62.
65 Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:619.
66 Ibid., 50:619–20.
67 Fang Yizhi, Fushan wenji, 186.
68 Ibid.
69 Feng Shaoxu wenji, 50:679.
70 For the late Ming craze for extreme behavior in the name of morality, see Zhao Yuan, Ming Qing zhi ji shidafu yanjiu (A study of the Confucian literati in the Ming and Qing) (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1999); Lu, True to her word, chapter one, and Yu, Sanctity and Self-Inflicted Violence in Chinese Religions, 1500–1700.
71 Zhang Chao, You meng ying: Ming xian quan shi shu (Dream shadows: A book of exhortation by the famously virtuous) (Hankou: Sanhuan chubanshe, 1991), 52.
72 Zhang Mu, Su liu shixue chao (A manuscript of Tracing the origins of historical learning), Siku quanshu cunmu congshu (Ji’nan: Qilu shushe, 1997), zi, 21:986. On the faithful maiden cult, see Lu, True to Her Word.
I am grateful for the comments and suggestions from Cong Zhang and the journal’s two anonymous reviewers. I have also benefited from a panel discussion during the 2011 AHA annual meeting where I presented a draft of this paper.
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Weijing Lu
Weijing Lu is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of True to Her Word: The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 2008), and the guest editor of a special issue on China for the Journal of the History of Sexuality (May 2013). Her current research focuses on family and marital practices of the seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries.
Correspondence to: Weijing Lu, Department of History, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive MC 0104, La Jolla, California, 92093-0104, USA. Email: [email protected]