Maandag, 18 juli 2005A Mulan in the YijingTrackbacks
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Harmen,
You have done a very interesting and detailed analysis of the word,'Hou'.
What comes to mind, is that somewhere down the line, people may have simplified writing or typing of the Chinese word,'Hou', not unusual to say the least,as it should have appeared in 'Zuhou'(Lords and Princes) to that of 'Wanghou'(Queen) as both 'Hou' has the same pronunciation. (The Chinese word for 'behind' is also pronounced the same way. It is not usual nowadays to see the 'Hou' (as in Queen)used for the word,'behind'.)
The Zuhou were given large tracts of land (later turned into states) by the Zhou emperors to help rule the country. Consequently the Zuhou wield power over the people of these states during the Spring and Autumn, Warring States periods. One has not seen such power in the hands of Queens until the Han period starting with the wife of Liu Pang, the first Han emperor. The Han princes given lands were the sons, brothers or nephews of Liu Pang. And his Queen was assertive and powerful under the circumstances by putting all her relatives into positions of power in the Han court.
Therefore I agree with Steve Marshall that the usage of the words, "Queen or Royal Bride" in Hexagram 44 is incorrect.
I also found the article very interesting - thanks, Harmen!
I'm not qualified to comment on the etymology, but Margaret did tell us that there is evidence archeologically and on bronzes of queens having power to issue orders 'to the four quarters' in Shang and early Zhou times.
Hi Hilary,
During my research on the characters 'gou' and 'hou' I have not found references to queens who did have the power to issue orders. We do know however that among the so-called 'fu', another category of women, there where women in high positions, they were rewarded land, and they had very much the king's concern. But the 'fu' were not queens, as far as I know.
You refer to the 'Image' text of the Ten Wings, a (much) later added layer which I am not bothering myself with (yet); as far as I'm concerned it stands too far from the original Yi text. It is possible that 'hou' means 'queen' in the Image text, but as we have seen the title 'hou' was equally well applied to male persons. 'Hou' also appears in the Image of 11 and 24; at 24 it is said that around the Winter Solstice the 'hou' does not inspect domains. As far as I know inspection of the domains/borders was only done by the king himself. The Image of 11 also gives me the impression that the 'hou' was a male person. But more research has to be done about this.
It seems that during the Shang dynasty women were allowed high positions in the government of the kingdom, but when the Zhou took over there influence was very much deminished to almost nothing. Could this be because women got the blame for the decline of the Shang dynasty?
The 'fu', or at least the character, is also mentioned in the Yi. It would be interesting to see in what context, and if it can shed some light on the position of the 'fu' in ancient China.
Best wishes,
Harmen.
Thanks for your comments Allan, much appreciated. I very much enjoy your weblog.
Best,
Harmen.
I am as well, not qualified to refer to the etymology.
However, the small section referring to possible shamanistic desire to connect with or be possessed by the spirit of a particular woman ruler or "woman in power" makes sense to me for different reasons.
However, I'll confine my comments presently only to the idea of the shaman being told the woman is "too strong" .
In religion and practice when shamans (or other appropriate cultural term) use divination to connect and even "become" (be possessed by) a particular spirit or god--the god or spirit in question takes over the person for the time period;it is often referred to for example in Voduon as being "ridden"- by as in how one rides a horse.
If the woman's spirit is "too strong" then the diviner would be overcome, even unable to come back or recover.
This may not sound important in this research-however, in my utilization of th I Ching for several decades, the hexagram #44 often is a warning to avoid a situation or person which would not only be dangerous or regrettable, but would cause us to be caught trapped, and taken over.
As a metaphor for life-threatening or ill-fated result due to addiction, and/or a situation which will soon become too much for the resources and strength of the querent to handle, this metaphor makes a lot of sense,both when there is an actual woman or person involved or not..
I realize this is only one meaning I'm discussing, but I thought it important to mention this one first as it was not given much discussion and I found the connection exciting as per my knowledge of #44 .
Hi Harmen, the article is interesting, and etymologically it sounds like very complex matter. but what if the addition of nu is continuously and indicator of matriarchal inclination in previous dysnasties? then the addition would naturally mean indicator of female authority in all characters involved, much as the modern addition of nu to characters still is an indicator of gender. bij putting it in category of gender issues as you do, maybe you close it up too much and then make it an unneccesary complexity in repsect to modern cultural isses which did not play a role in that time. chinese treaditonal gender used to be a selection of three: paterfamilias, mother and children. for a man only child or pater familia was open, for a woman only child or mother. this characgter seems not a gender issue, but an authority issue. woudl it interseting for you to investigatwe that cultural aspect in addition.
I don't see how 女 as 'an indication of matriarchal inclination' naturally would mean an 'indicator of female authority in all characters involved'. First, seeing 女 as such is not backed up by what we know about the use of this character - there are so many characters were 女 does not indicate 'matriarchal inclination' that it is hard to sustain this assumption. Second, in my opinion you have to look at the context in which this character is used. Third, as the variant texts of the Yijing show, the emphasis with 姤 seems to be on its pronounciation, not on the components of which it is made up.
I'm only examining the character from an etymological perspective, thereby also looking at the context in which it is used. That is part of the culture we are dealing with. That is not 'making it an unneccesary complexity', it is just what comes up during my research. It is known that the position of women shifted dramatically during the Zhou dynasty. Since the Yijing is supposed to be written at the beginning of that era, we should keep that in mind.
I do not believe the character deals with authority issues, as I have shown in my article. By examining the words through their origin, and investigating their usage in other ancient texts, I am trying to sketch a picture of the usage of it and how this may fit the text of the Yi. You, on the other hand, seem to speculate and work with assumptions. I try not to do that, however hard this may be. I would like to see your assumption that 'the addition of nü is continuously an indicator of matriarchal inclination in previous dynasties' backed up.
Hi Harmen, your article is so interesting! Though not majored in etymology, I am attracted by your interpretation. But I also have some different ideas towards some explanations. If you'd like, we may exchange ideas via e-mail.
P.S.: I am a translator in Beijing. When in university, my major is English Phonetics and Phonology.
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In The Elemental Changes, p.330, Michael Nylan says: "Bridles" and "horns" are the names of the characteristic hairstyles once given female and male babies in imperial China; baby girls sported two small braids (or bridles) while the boys' hair was dressed in a single ponytail worn at the top, called the "horn." Would a woman wear the hairstyle of an infant?
I don't agree that the jiao hairstyle is solely reserved for baby boys. The Hanyu Da Cidian specifically describes it as
古時未成丁者的髮飾。頭頂兩側束髮爲髻,形如牛角,故稱。
"In antiquity the hairstyle of a boy who has not yet grown up. The hair on each side of the head was twisted in a bun, and the two were coiled together in the shape of a horn, hence its name."
It was the hairdo of a boy before he became a man, it was not just reserved for babies.
Even so, the sexuality in the hexagram implies a sexually mature person, not a child. Rather than a tomboy, I think the woman is a Jezebel like the concubine Bao Si who brought down the Western Zhou (Whincup, p.13).
The text does not talk about sex or anything related to it, so if you see it in the hexagram it is your personal interpretation, just like the conclusions you derive from it.
Well... there is (or isn't) fish in the trap - which, just to add a layer, Steve Marshall says is likely an omen for a marriage. There's a wrapped, growing melon and something falling from its source in heaven, and if that doesn't evoke pregnancy I'll eat my yarrow stalks. And there's the horn.
Maybe my imagination is just much more active than yours...
It is possible to see every line in the Yijing as a metaphor - I don't follow that road. And if you start thinking, "it must have that meaning", well, then everything is possible. So chew your yarrow stalks carefully.
Perhaps you enjoyed the movie too much and have selected such evidence as supports your conclusion? You omit gou as sexual intercourse and the symbolism of 包有魚 (pregnancy) and of 杞 willow/medlar (sex). That the appended text of hexagram 44 is related to sex is hardly a personal interpretation. It is the consensus of translators and that part of Chinese tradition available to me. That the situation in the text is an official competing with the meddling in state affairs of a woman with influence over the ruler is my interpretation.
If circumstances permit, may I have your view on the translation of 杞 as 'medlar' by Legge and Blofeld?
I do not "omit gou as sexual intercourse", as I said in the article, the only source that explains gou like that is the Shuo Wen. We have no other texts that explains gou as such. You talk about symbolism, I talk about meaning. '包有魚' might just mean what it says and nothing more. About 杞: The Hanyu Da Cidian sees it as 枸杞, 'Chinese Wolfberry', 杞柳, a sort of willow also known as 紅皮柳, 'red skin willow', and 狗骨, 'lit. 'dog's bone'. Lu Deming describes it in his Shiwen as 樗, the Chinese name for Ailanthus altissima. So far I don't see 'medlar' here.
It's certainly possible to see every line in the Yi as a metaphor. Either 44.2 and 44.4 are meant to be understood metaphorically, or else these lines are only ever relevant to divinations about catching fish.
True, there is a leap here from meaning 'in the text' versus meaning 'in a reading'. I'm only making the obvious point that the lines were written with metaphor in mind.
I'm new to the I-Ching (about 3 years). Twice I came across hex. 44 for the same person. The second time, lines 4 and 5 moved. Didn't understand it at the time and generally forgotten abou it. However, the meaning became very clear later when events have passed. Line 4 about 'no fish in the tank, misfortune' - turned out she had a miscarriage early on in the marriage. Line 5: she had a baby daughter the second time round.
Can I just say, with regard to the hairstyle issue, boy/girl, that anthropology reports quite a few instances in pre-industrial ethnic societies where for example chief's are being dressed as women in the context of rituals of reproduction in order to evoke fertility for the village/city as a whole. One could call that ritual gender and I wonder whether there are such gender inversion refering such ritual instances in the Yijing
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