Recommended listening: Chinese Ancient Music
Story
The city of Taiyuan had reached a new era of peace. The Song Dynasty had reconquered it from the Liao Empire, and in 982 after fires and floods the city was rebuilt. All of this, however, while a vivid memory for the city's older residents, was mere history to the young lady who sat reading in Taiyuan on a sunny day in early autumn. Eleven years old was too young to remember anything but peace in the city on China's northern edge. The city was still abuzz with new construction projects, but she saw very little of these, spending most of her time at home. She was a daughter of the illustrious Zeng family and lived a life of comfort and study in the family home.
Above all other things, Miss Zeng loved to read. Upper-class girls in Song China were encouraged to read so that they could study Confucian texts and grow into virtuous women. While Miss Zeng surely would have read such didactic texts as the Ladies' Classic of Filial Piety, it was history that she loved best. Her grandson, the scholar Wang An-shih would later write of her in her family's epitaph that she was able to discuss history as well as any famous scholar of the age. Her daughter, Miss Wu, was Wang An-shih's mother, and she was famed for her love of study and excellent memory. While Confucian texts cautioned against women showing off their knowledge and some writers praised women who modestly hid their own writing from others, Wang An-shih's description of Miss Zeng makes it sound like her knowledge of history was far from hidden. Indeed, she passed on a love of study to her daughter, who in turn passed it on to her son Wang An-shih. The woman who would one day debate the finer points of Chinese history with male scholars had to start somewhere, and so here she is as a young girl, losing herself in stories of battles and emperors long gone.
But she wasn't alone as she sat absorbed in her books. By the turn of the eleventh century, cat fancying had taken off among the upper classes in China. In particular, new long-haired breeds were the latest fashion. These were called lion cats, or shimao, admired for their beauty more than their ability to catch rats. Cats were particularly popular among scholars, due to their ability to keep mice from eating books, and scholars would send them as gifts to each other. They debated the moral merits of the cat; they came to be seen as models of maternal love and filial piety, based on stories of cats suckling kittens who weren't their own. Paintings from the Song Dynasty show cats playing with children, peeking up at tables full of food, and scampering around the garden wearing red ribbons around their necks.
Miss Zeng's cat looks as if it has woken from its nap with aims of going out into the garden, perhaps to swat at the fish swimming in the pond. Upper-class Chinese homes had beautiful gardens, and some of the finest gardens from the Song Dynasty still survive today, such as the Canglang Pavilion in Jiangsu Province. Although women were somewhat limited in how often they might leave their property to go into the community, they loved to go out into their gardens, and many paintings show women admiring strange rock formations and gnarled trees on days when the weather was good. Perhaps Miss Zeng will later go out into the garden and play with her cat, but for now, she is happy to keep reading about days gone by.
Above all other things, Miss Zeng loved to read. Upper-class girls in Song China were encouraged to read so that they could study Confucian texts and grow into virtuous women. While Miss Zeng surely would have read such didactic texts as the Ladies' Classic of Filial Piety, it was history that she loved best. Her grandson, the scholar Wang An-shih would later write of her in her family's epitaph that she was able to discuss history as well as any famous scholar of the age. Her daughter, Miss Wu, was Wang An-shih's mother, and she was famed for her love of study and excellent memory. While Confucian texts cautioned against women showing off their knowledge and some writers praised women who modestly hid their own writing from others, Wang An-shih's description of Miss Zeng makes it sound like her knowledge of history was far from hidden. Indeed, she passed on a love of study to her daughter, who in turn passed it on to her son Wang An-shih. The woman who would one day debate the finer points of Chinese history with male scholars had to start somewhere, and so here she is as a young girl, losing herself in stories of battles and emperors long gone.
But she wasn't alone as she sat absorbed in her books. By the turn of the eleventh century, cat fancying had taken off among the upper classes in China. In particular, new long-haired breeds were the latest fashion. These were called lion cats, or shimao, admired for their beauty more than their ability to catch rats. Cats were particularly popular among scholars, due to their ability to keep mice from eating books, and scholars would send them as gifts to each other. They debated the moral merits of the cat; they came to be seen as models of maternal love and filial piety, based on stories of cats suckling kittens who weren't their own. Paintings from the Song Dynasty show cats playing with children, peeking up at tables full of food, and scampering around the garden wearing red ribbons around their necks.
Miss Zeng's cat looks as if it has woken from its nap with aims of going out into the garden, perhaps to swat at the fish swimming in the pond. Upper-class Chinese homes had beautiful gardens, and some of the finest gardens from the Song Dynasty still survive today, such as the Canglang Pavilion in Jiangsu Province. Although women were somewhat limited in how often they might leave their property to go into the community, they loved to go out into their gardens, and many paintings show women admiring strange rock formations and gnarled trees on days when the weather was good. Perhaps Miss Zeng will later go out into the garden and play with her cat, but for now, she is happy to keep reading about days gone by.
Artist's Comments
I came across Miss Zeng's story in a book called The Inner Quarters, and I immediately fell in love with the image of an 11-year-old girl studying history. It's been really fun to immerse myself in the Song Dynasty while researching this piece. In particular, Song Dynasty paintings of cats and women are full of great details. I was SO excited when I found out I could include a long-haired cat in Women of 1000 because I love my own long-haired cat, Loki! Miss Zeng is one of the most relateable women I've drawn in my series so that was really special too. I'm grateful to all my friends who have helped me when I was researching this - Christine, Isaac, Katie, and Yang. Miss Zeng's family epitaph is written in Classical Chinese which I've been having a hard time translating, but if we do manage to come up with more of a translation I will edit this page to fill out a few more details of her family! It's interesting that Miss Zeng's family was caught up in wars ultimately led by Empress Chengtian, though Chengtian herself might not have been involved in the wars in Taiyuan. Happy Year of the Rat! ~ January 24, 2020
Update: Thank you to my friend Yang Yang, who read Wang An-shih's text and let me know that Miss Zeng was his grandmother! The text has been updated to reflect this information. ~ May 18, 2020
Update: Thank you to my friend Yang Yang, who read Wang An-shih's text and let me know that Miss Zeng was his grandmother! The text has been updated to reflect this information. ~ May 18, 2020
Resources
Want to learn more about Miss Zeng, her cats, and the women of Song China? Here are some recommended resources.
The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period by Patricia Buckley Ebrey
I found Miss Zeng's story in this book, where her name is romanized as Miss Tseng. Her story appears in the section about upper class women's learning. The book gives fascinating insights into women's lives in this period of Chinese history, including the varied experiences of wives and concubines. If you have classical Chinese, you can read the original quotation from Wang An-shih here.
"Places and objects: Interpreting women's Space in Fujian during the Song Dynasty (960-1279)" by Man Xu
This PhD thesis looks in detail at the different spaces women occupied in the Song Dynasty. These include the home, the community, liminal places in journeys, and the tomb. I learned a lot of fascinating things about Chinese homes in this thesis, such as how the government would put plaques on people's gates if they'd exhibited an exemplary Confucian virtue! There is also a lot of interesting analysis about how the middle gate in a property was developed by philosophers into a gendered space, dividing men and women's spaces in a way which was not always followed in real life.
"Walking by Itself: The Singular History of the Chinese Cat" by Timothy H. Barrett and Mark Strange
Most of my information about cats in the Song Dynasty came from this great book chapter. The chapter goes through the various philosophical, superstitious, and religious associations cats have accrued throughout Chinese history. Of great interest to me was the discussion of the development of cat fanciers in the Song Dynasty!
"The "Ladies' Classic of Filial Piety" and Sung Textual Illustration: Problems of Reconstruction and Artistic Context" by Julia K. Murray
The point of this article is to analyze how illustrations were paired with chapters of the Ladies' Classic of Filial Piety in the Song Dynasty. However, to do this it includes lots of images of women in their homes and gardens which were very helpful for me! The text itself is one which Miss Zeng certainly would have read.
The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period by Patricia Buckley Ebrey
I found Miss Zeng's story in this book, where her name is romanized as Miss Tseng. Her story appears in the section about upper class women's learning. The book gives fascinating insights into women's lives in this period of Chinese history, including the varied experiences of wives and concubines. If you have classical Chinese, you can read the original quotation from Wang An-shih here.
"Places and objects: Interpreting women's Space in Fujian during the Song Dynasty (960-1279)" by Man Xu
This PhD thesis looks in detail at the different spaces women occupied in the Song Dynasty. These include the home, the community, liminal places in journeys, and the tomb. I learned a lot of fascinating things about Chinese homes in this thesis, such as how the government would put plaques on people's gates if they'd exhibited an exemplary Confucian virtue! There is also a lot of interesting analysis about how the middle gate in a property was developed by philosophers into a gendered space, dividing men and women's spaces in a way which was not always followed in real life.
"Walking by Itself: The Singular History of the Chinese Cat" by Timothy H. Barrett and Mark Strange
Most of my information about cats in the Song Dynasty came from this great book chapter. The chapter goes through the various philosophical, superstitious, and religious associations cats have accrued throughout Chinese history. Of great interest to me was the discussion of the development of cat fanciers in the Song Dynasty!
"The "Ladies' Classic of Filial Piety" and Sung Textual Illustration: Problems of Reconstruction and Artistic Context" by Julia K. Murray
The point of this article is to analyze how illustrations were paired with chapters of the Ladies' Classic of Filial Piety in the Song Dynasty. However, to do this it includes lots of images of women in their homes and gardens which were very helpful for me! The text itself is one which Miss Zeng certainly would have read.