Passion
is a very strong force in Chinese history. Whether in historical-non-fiction or
entertaining works of fictional drama, passion is blatantly evident. Passion,
as the author Wu Jianren said, “When applied to a ruler, it is loyalty; when
applied to parents, it is filial piety; when applied to children, it is
parental love; and when applied to friends, it is true fellowship.” [3, pg.
103]. In our readings we’ve seen many examples of passion such as the
passionate love from Dihua in Sea of
Regret as she takes care of her ill betrothed and the burning passion of
the Spirit Boxers during the boxer rebellion.
We’ll
begin with a look at the historical-non-fiction side of things. In 1898, Kang Youwei
and his party (including Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong,) were passionate about
reform. Kang put forward the “10,000 word petition” advocating massive reforms.
After he met with the young Guangxu Emperor in January 1898, the “Hundred Days’
Reforms” officially began 11 June, 1898. Unfortunately, in September 1898,
Empress Cixi engaged a coup d’état effectively ending the Hundred Days’ Reforms,
regaining control of the nation, and sending Kang Youwei and his party fleeing.
Tan Sitong was unable to escape and was martyrized [1, pg. 199].
The
next impassioned historical event is the Boxer Uprising in the 1890s, which
occurred soon after the end of the Hundred Days’ Reforms. Often, this uprising
is labeled as a rebellion, but, according to “A Concise History of China”, the
Boxers never rebelled against the Qing, and in 1900 the court actually declared
support for the Boxers [1, pg. 200]. The “Boxer” name is derived from the group
calling themselves the “Spirit Boxers”, which professed the simplest ethical principles
– ‘respect your parents, live in harmony with your neighbors’ [1, pg. 201].
Some events that can be regarded as causing the arise of the movement include
the flooding of the Yellow River in 1898, an extensive drought 2 years later,
the rise of western imperialism, and increasing amounts of banditry in the area
[1, pg. 201]. The Boxers simply wanted to preserve their religion, their
customs, and in general their way of life; Christianity and foreigners were
imposing their own beliefs and customs onto the people.
Lu
Xun, author of Diary of a Madman, had
the desire of “healing people”. Lu Xun watched as his father’s health slowly
declined even as he was being treated by an ‘herbal doctor’. This sparked his
interest in medicine; he studied western medicine techniques in Japan in the
early 1900’s around the time of the Russo-Japanese war. After viewing slides of
Chinese spies being decapitated, and noticing how lifeless and dull their eyes
were, he decided he no longer wanted to be “a healer of the body” and instead
wanted “to mend their spirits”. Xun considered literature the best way to mend
the spirit, and thusly became a writer. His first short story was published in
1918 and he also was a founding member of the League of Leftwing Writers in
1930 [2, pg. 7].
Many
writers during these time periods also infused their works with passion. As
mentioned earlier, Dihua from The Sea of
Regret was a very passionate character. After her engagement to her
childhood friend Bohe, she became a devoted wife-to-be that was intent on
following all traditional customs even during the frantic times of the Boxer
Rebellion. Her passion to remain a “pure and traditional betrothed” caused her
to lose sleep and worry endlessly about Bohe after he was separated from Dihua
and Miss Bai (Dihua’s mother) [3]. Dihua loved her mother dearly and took care
of her while she was ill as they waited for Bohe, but eventually they had to
continue their journey [3, Ch. 4]. Also in this story, the character Gelin
(Bohe’s father), was a government worker and refused to leave his post until
the very end. This passionate loyalty to state, however, cost him his own life
as well as the life of his wife [3, pg. 171].
In
Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman, the
younger of two brothers is racked with madness. He declares with strong
conviction that the people of the village are cannibals and are eagerly waiting
for him to die so that they might eat him. His passion is inerrably true, in
his own eyes. He even begins to suspect that his own brother is in league with
the villagers and has the intention of handing him over to them [4, pg. 39]. His
final moment of madness was an outcry “Save the children…” [4, pg. 41]; he
believed that even though the adults of the entire village were “lost” to
cannibalism, the children could be raised and taught better, and that was his
last passionate cause, to save the children from the fate of their parents.
In
A Slave-Mother, the impoverished
mother/wife is rented off to produce a son for the hsiu-tsai. She takes the
intiative to care for him even as she is mocked and insulted by the usually
kind Ta-niang (wife of the hsiu-tsai). Even though the slave-mother was taken
from her home, taken unto by another man, and treated poorly by his wife, she
passionately pours her love and care onto her second son. After returning home
her love switches to her first son, who now, after 5 years, originally no
longer recognizes her. But even that does not cause her passionate love to
falter [5].
Passion is everywhere. Everyone has
passion for something. Passion is not singularly an emotion of love. Passion is
the drive, the desire, the unending motivation to do something, to change
something, to know more, to better oneself.
Works Cited
[1] A Concise History of China [Online]. pp.
198-205
[2] L. Luo. (2013). The New
Cultural Movement [PowerPoint].
[3] W.
Jianren. The Sea of Regret [Online].
pp. 103-205
[4] L.
Xun. Diary of a Madman. Honolulu:
Univ. of Hawaii Press. pp. 21-41.
[5] J.
Shih. A Slave-Mother. [Online]. pp.
208-219.
