Research On The Emotional History Of Female Mourning Poems In Qing Dynasty

The current development of the history of emotions has become a craze in the West,while the study of the history of emotions in Taiwanese academia has likewise accumulated some results.Since the former has rarely ventured into the non-Western world and the latter has mostly focused on the history of men’s emotions,the study is centered on women’s emotions.Based mainly on Mc Gill University’s database of Ming and Qing women’s writings and Harvard University’s database of Chinese biographies through the ages,we collect and organize mourning poems written by women in the Qing dynasty.In addition to the main material,we also cover genealogical and family traditions,women’s books on Confucian gender ethics,and discussions of emotions in Confucian texts,notebook novels,and Chinese medical texts.First,the social background of the rise of female mourning poetry in the Qing Dynasty and its basic appearance are discussed.The background of female mourning poetry in the Qing Dynasty is reviewed,including the commercial society,civic culture,and female education in the Qing Dynasty.The overall appearance of female mourning poetry in the Qing dynasty is summarized,and its historical value is observed.Second,the emotions between husband and wife in Qing Dynasty women’s mourning poems are explored.We use Confucian texts and literati notes to trace the emotional discourse system of the time,and use the classical texts of Qing dynasty female mourning poems as clues to explore the background of their intellectual production and the process of shaping emotions.Again,we examine the emotions between siblings in Qing Dynasty women’s mourning poems.The emotional examples of mourning for siblings in Qing Dynasty women’s mourning poems are briefly outlined,with Dantoo Bao’s as an example highlighted;on this basis,the emotional expressions between siblings are examined,including both the establishment and loss of emotional connections.Next,the emotions between women are analyzed from a gender perspective.Statistical analysis is conducted on the gender of female mourners in the Qing dynasty,the types of relatives,the number of authors,and the number of works;women are also placed in the Confucian gender system,and the similarities and differences between the Confucian ideal order and women’s real emotions are compared;on this basis,different types of female emotional relationships are discussed: sister,bosom friend,mother and daughter,and master and servant.Finally,the characteristics and functions of women’s emotions in the Qing Dynasty are examined.The physical representation of women’s emotions in the Qing Dynasty is discussed from the viewpoints of Chinese medicine and cognitive philosophy of "embodiment";Reddy’s concept of "emotional sanctuary" is adopted to explain women’s choice of spirit invocation and mediumship in the Qing Dynasty.The concept of "emotional sanctuary" is used to explain the reasons why women chose to invoke spirits and help mediums in the Qing Dynasty.The conclusions point out that emotions and their expressions are the products of social culture and are gradually acquired in the process of social interaction.The influence of this cultural shaping is particularly prominent in the conjugal emotions of Qing dynasty women.Specifically,from a horizontal perspective,the emotional world of Qing dynasty women included at least conjugal emotions in the family,sibling emotions,and emotions between women from a gender perspective.From a vertical perspective,it ranges from individual emotions and family emotions to the broader social emotion level,and even couples the influence of gender factors on emotions.Based on this,it is essential to understand the relationship between gender and emotion in specific contexts.