El salario mínimo

In the traditional Chinese view, “The Dao [Way] of husband and wife is closely connected to yin and yang, connecting one to the gods and ancestors. It illustrates the great meaning of heaven and earth, and lays the foundation for human relationships.”³⁹ There is no doubt that Confucians pinned great importance on the husband and wife relationship. Not surprisingly, large numbers of Confucians composed various family manuals or instructions to prescribe the Dao (Way) of husband and wife. Women were the intended audience of most of these instructions. Chen Hongmou’s Sourcebook collects instructions written in different dynasties. To summarize the fundamental instructions that cross all dynasties, a wife should be obedient to her husband, but when her husband does something morally wrong, the wife should admonish him and prevent him from going astray; the wife should produce a male heir for her husband’s lineage as befitting her wifely duty, but when she cannot, she should not be jealous when her husband takes a concubine in order to produce a male heir, and she should treat the concubine’s children as her own.⁴⁰ Taking the requirements listed in Chen Hongmou’s Sourcebook as criteria, we turn to a

38 Peng Shaosheng, Yi sheng jue yi lun, XZJ 104: 150a14-17.

39 Ban Zhao, Nü jie, quoted in Chen Hongmou, Jiao nü yi gui, XSK 951.2: 65a.

40 Song Ruohua, Nü lun yu, quoted in Chen Hongmou, Jiao nü yi gui, XSK 951.1: 2-14 and 2: 1-3.

discussion on whether or not women in the Shan nüren zhuan fit these criteria, and whether their Buddhist practices reinforce or undermine the accepted norms of behavior for wives.

The first example is Mrs. Wang, the wife of Wang Ji (1498-1583). Wang Ji was one of the most prominent followers of Wang Yangming, and an active advocate of the syncretism of Buddhism and Confucianism. According to Peng’s account, Mrs. Wang had been well educated in the Confucian Classics before her marriage. After she married Wang Ji, she often gave him sagacious career suggestions. When her husband was offered a piece of land appropriated from a Buddhist temple by a friend, she persuaded him to decline it because it was unethical to accept an offer such as this. Mrs. Wang also bought a concubine for her husband since she could not produce a male heir. She treated the sons of the concubine as her own. Mrs. Wang chanted the Jin’gang jing (Diamond Sūtra) every day and worshiped Guanyin bodhisattva with great piety.

As evidence of her piety and virtue, she often dreamed of miraculous signs. At some point, Mrs.

Wang asked her husband if there was any difference between the “innate knowledge of the good” promoted by Wang Yangming and her husband and enlightenment promoted by the Buddha. Her husband replied, “The innate knowledge of the good is the enlightenment of one’s mind. The Buddha is enlightened. That is to say, the innate knowledge of the good is the Buddha. There is no difference. . . .” She was awakened by these words. She died peacefully at the age of seventy (Shan nüren zhuan 2: 5b-6a).

Mrs. Wang is thus held up as an exemplary role model in both the Confucian and Buddhist senses. Measured by the wifely ways prescribed in Chen Hongmou’s Sourcebook, Mrs.

Wang meets every requirement: she gave proper suggestions to her husband so that her husband could avoid moral misconduct. She was not jealous but rather purchased a concubine for her husband, and she treated the concubine’s sons as her own. Her virtues parallel those found in

exemplary women highly praised by Confucian moralists. Yet her devotion to Buddhism and her peaceful death imply that her actions were not only motivated by Confucian moral codes, but were also motivated and rewarded by her devotion to Buddhism. The question she poses to her husband and her awakening to the similarity between the innate knowledge of the good and enlightenment suggest her effort to reconcile Buddhism and Confucian values. Peng Shaosheng exactly mirrors her husband’s claim that there is no difference between Buddhism and Confucianism in his writings, namely, that Buddhism and Confucianism do not contradict each other but are in every way compatible. Moreover, left unsaid but certainly implied is that the innate knowledge of the good (also known as enlightenment, to which Mrs. Wang was awakened) does not derive from Ming Neo-Confucianism but rather traces its roots back to the Buddha himself. In China, where a long textual lineage is the basis of authority, this is another way of declaring that Buddhism is superior to Confucianism as it can be traced back not just to Confucius but even further back to the Buddha.

Another story about a Mrs. Zhang is even more telling about how Buddhism can help a woman to give sagacious suggestions to her husband.

Zhang Furen (Mrs. Zhang), a native of Shaowu, was the daughter of Minister Huang Lu and the wife of Academician of the Dragon Diagram Hall, Zhang Gen. She was precocious [as a child] and was able to read and fully understand hundreds of pages of the Classics in a single day. She had a special interest in Buddhist and Daoist texts. When she married Mr. Zhang, she served her parents-in-law with great sincerity and managed the house servants with benevolence. She never showed her emotions in an excessive way. In middle age, she favored Buddhism and expressed her detachment to worldly [gain and fame]. She prepared a clean and quiet room for herself. Every day, Mrs. Zhang sat in the room to enjoy the pleasures of Chan Buddhism. Mr. Zhang was a very upright and frank person. When he encountered something [not fair], he would criticize it without fear.

[Because of this,] he was not popular among his colleagues. Mr. Zhang was forced to resign from his position and was deprived of power and privilege for ten years, but Mrs.

Zhang was at ease with [her husband’s position] and never talked about worldly fame and material gain. Later, when Mr. Zhang was promoted to the position of Fiscal

Commissioner, Mrs. Zhang cautioned him, “In Buddhism, among the six pāramitās,⁴¹ wisdom is the root of the other five. If you want to benefit the world, you cannot achieve this goal without knowing skillful means [Skt: upāya, C: fangbian].” Mr. Zhang accepted her suggestion to behave in a more skillful way. But later he was removed from his position, again due to his frankness. Mrs. Zhang told him, “[Among the six perfections], you still need improvement in patience.” After Mr. Zhang’s resignation, Mrs. Zhang’s will to leave this world became stronger and stronger. Once she dreamed of a golden man ten feet tall [i.e., Amitābha Buddha]. She was happy [with this auspicious sign] and gave detailed instructions to her children. The next morning, she bid farewell to her siblings and in-laws, saying, “I will die in my dream without bothering people with illness. . . .”

The next day, she saw to it that the servants prepared medicine and food for her husband as usual. After a short while, she lay down and passed away, facing the West and her fingers forming a mudra [Buddhist hand gesture], which was too firm to be loosened.

(Shan nüren zhuan 1: 17b-18a)

Mrs. Zhang fits the Confucian criteria of a good wife: she always gives good career advice to her husband, supports and comforts her husband when he experienced vicissitudes in his career, and takes care of her husband even at the moment before her death. What differentiates Mrs. Zhang from other Confucian exemplary women or from the wife of Wang Ji in the previous story is that the advice she gives to her husband is based entirely on Buddhist doctrines, not on the Confucian Classics. Another noteworthy point in this story is how Mrs. Zhang relates Buddhism to the ups and downs in her husband’s political career. Her Buddhist belief enables her to face her husband’s disgrace with dignity and behave like a supporting wife, who never talks about fame and material gain with her husband. She does not complain or show resentment, which is often found in stories of wives of disgraced officials. Her husband’s second resignation in fact reinforces her Buddhist beliefs and motivates her to practice even more diligently. The prediction of her death as well as the westward positioning of her body and her hand gesture at the moment of death are signs of her high spiritual achievement and rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Amitābha Buddha. In this story, the praiseworthy speech and behavior in the daily life of Mrs.

41 The six pāramitās (C: liu bo luo mi) refer to the six perfections of bu shi (giving or charity), chi jie (observing the precepts), ren ru (patience), jing jin (diligent progress), chan ding (meditation) and bo ruo (wisdom).

Zhang originates from her understanding of Buddhist doctrines and her Buddhist practices, and explicitly proves that women can play their gender role well under the guidance of Buddhism.

In the Qing dynasty, detractors challenged Buddhism in two seemingly contradictory ways. On the one hand, they faulted Buddhist practices for providing opportunities for men and women to mix together, leading to sexual leniency, an issue to which I return later in this chapter.

On the other hand, they disapproved of the celibate lifestyle advocated by Buddhists. The sentiments in the letter written by Yang Tiaohua to her fiancé quoted above were shared by most of the Confucian detractors against Buddhism, namely, celibate clergy and even certain lay practitioners, by renouncing family life and thereby discontinuing the family line, left aged parents and ancestral shrines unattended and the family without male heirs. In fact, Peng Shaosheng himself lived a celibate life after he converted to Buddhism. From his writings, we know that his choice was met with displeasure from his family since he had only two daughters without a son to carry on his lineage.⁴² Therefore, as a result of his commitment to his Buddhist beliefs, Peng found himself involved in all kinds of disputes on all fronts. In addition to the previously mentioned criticism he received from the Confucian literati with whom he socialized, he had difficulties reconciling his religious practices with his family role from within his family as well. Although his wife—a pious Buddhist—supported his decision to live a celibate life, his clan did not like the idea. In traditional Chinese society, to have a male heir to carry on the lineage was the major responsibility of all married men and women. Letters to a nephew and to a friend indicate that he was under great pressure to do so. In defense of his celibate lifestyle, Peng

42 Peng Shaosheng, Er lin ju ji 3: 10a.

insisted that a Buddhist treats the children of others and all sentient beings as his own and therefore it was unnecessary to have his own son.⁴³

The responsibility to produce a male heir to continue one’s husband’s lineage was even greater for women. Sexual liaisons for women outside of marriage were considered a grave sin and severely condemned by the Confucian moral code, however a married woman’s abstinence from sex with her husband was also highly discouraged by Confucian ethics, as it was considered an unfilial act when a woman was unable or unwilling to produce a male heir for her husband’s family. The story of Tao Shan (1756-1780) in the Shan nüren zhuan illustrates what a woman should do if she finds herself in a situation in which her Buddhist practices were in conflict with her wifely duty. What is particularly noteworthy about this narrative is that it is not culled from an earlier biographical source but rather is taken from Peng’s own family history. Tao Shan was the wife of Peng Xiluo (1758-1806), the nephew of Peng Shaosheng.

Tao Shan’s courtesy name was Qingyu. . . . Her mother Feng Shi [Madam Feng] was a pious Buddhist. . . . She [Tao Shan] was intelligent and well educated, and composed a lot of poems in her teens. She and her younger sister Tao Ren studied together, and they often exchanged their poems with each other. . . . After her younger sister died, Tao Shan’s will to renounce the world became stronger. She gave up writing poems and devoted herself to the Da bao en jing (Great Sūtra of Repaying Benevolence).⁴⁴ Admiring the Tathāgatha’s ascetic practice, she made a vow to terminate transmigration.

She copied the Da bao en jing, Jin’gang jing and A mi tuo jing (Amitābha Sūtra or Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra)⁴⁵ with her graceful calligraphy. . . . At the age of twenty-three, she married Xiluo of the Peng family. Every day, she preached Buddha’s teachings on suffering and emptiness to her husband’s family members. She chanted Amitābha Buddha’s name throughout each day. Her wish to abstain from sex caused discord in the Peng clan. Acquiescing to the demands of her husband’s family, she began to ‘cultivate the wifely way’ and became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she did not stop her Pure Land practices. She also read the Fahua jing (Lotus Sūtra),⁴⁶ Shou leng yan jing (Śūraṅgama Sūtra)⁴⁷ and Huayan jing. Her interpretation of these sūtras suggested she

43 Peng Shaosheng, Yi xing ju ji 2: 26a.

had a good understanding of Buddhist doctrine. Her poems in response to my poems on recluse meditation revealed her understanding of the non-obstruction of principle and phenomena. . . . She preached Buddhism as a great master. In the winter, upon the birth of her son, she fell ill. Predicting her death, she sent for her mother and invoked the name of Amitābha Buddha. When her mother arrived, she told her, “The great monk is coming and I am going to the West!” (Shan nüren zhuan 2:35a-36b)

This narrative is bittersweet. In modern feminist terms, Tao Shan’s death can be seen as the result of not following her own convictions and not taking control of her own body. Of course, this is not what Peng (or any traditional Chinese) takes from this story. Rather, for Peng, it upholds fulfilling one’s wifely duty to produce an heir and implies that Buddhist asceticism is appropriate only after a woman has fulfilled that duty. A good Buddhist laywoman does not escape from this most sacred of secular responsibilities. Tao Shan is rewarded for her devotion to Buddhism in the form of predicting her own death and gaining rebirth in the Pure Land, the details about which I return to in chapter five.

In a letter to Peng Shaosheng’s friend, Wang Jin, Yuan Mei ridiculed the ascetic lifestyle of Buddhists:

I asked Peng Chimu [Shaosheng] if Buddhism prohibits sex, to which he replied, “Yes.”

[I asked] if Buddhism prohibits killing, to which he answered, “Yes.” [I asked] if everyone can become Buddha; he again answered, “Yes.” I said, “If that is the case, then in forty or fifty years there would be no human beings. Who would build Buddhist temples? Who would worship the Buddha? Who would chant Buddhist sūtras? Wouldn’t it mean that, if Buddhism became more popular, the Buddhist dharma would disappear [on its own]? [If that is the case,] there was no need for Zhou Wuzong (Emperor Wu of the Zhou, 543–578) to have destroyed Buddhist temples, or any need for Han Yu (768–

824) to have burned Buddhist texts. If Buddhism is left to its own devices or has its own way, then Buddhism will come to its end on its own.” Chimu did not answer my questions.⁴⁸

Yuan Mei is asking the same question and employing the same logic as critics of Buddhism have done through the centuries (and which baffle undergraduates each term). Namely, the more

48 Yuan Mei, “Da Wang Dashen shu,” YQJ 2: 647.

Buddhism becomes popular, the more followers it has; the more followers it has, the more people will adopt a celibate lifestyle. Consequently, the procreation of future generations will come to an end, which would ultimately lead to the decline of Buddhism (if not the entire world).

Although Yuan Mei claims that Peng was left defenseless and defeated in the face of his questions, Tao Shan’s story, about Peng’s own relative, included in his Shan nüren zhuan can serve as a retort to Yuan Mei. Lay Buddhists can practice Buddhism as well as produce heirs to carry on their familial line and the lineage of the dharma. Through Tao Shan’s story, Peng suggests that one’s devotion to Buddhism does not contradict the Confucian ethical code and thus it is not necessary to separate the two. Rather, Tao Shan’s rebirth in the Pure Land proves that fulfilling one’s secular responsibilities while remaining committed to Buddhism only hastens one’s reward in the afterlife.