| Chapter 6: | New and Old Elements on the Centrality of Self |
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regards them as expressions of love for oneself: “[in the cases of] the chrysanthemums of Tao Qian, the plum flowers of Lin Bu, and the stones of Mi Fu, they do not mean a love for chrysanthemums, plums, or stones, but rather the love for oneself” (陶之菊,林之梅,米之石,非愛菊梅與石也。 皆吾愛吾也).76 In “Personal Jottings from My Little Window” (Xiaochuang Ziji 小窗自紀), Wu Congxian 吳從先 (d. 1640) claims that:
Throughout life what one cannot free oneself from is wildness, and what one cannot cure is an obsession. According to Tang Xianzu, man cannot be exempt from infatuation, and in the opinion of Yuan Hongdao, man cannot be free of obsession; therefore it is unnecessary to give over one’s right infatuations and to cure one’s reasonable obsessions.77
Similarly, Zhang Chao 張潮 (1650– ; d. before 1711), famous for his obsessions with flowers, birds, fishes and insects, writes that “[l]ike flowers cannot exist without butterflies and mountains cannot lack springs […], so human beings cannot lack in obsessions”; any obsession is seen as an elegant ornament or a natural endowment which adds flavor to the character of a person, thereby making them special.78
For many writers, the search for one’s authentic self was not in conflict with the search for authentic feelings. It is not by chance that the seventeenth century is considered the golden age of autobiographical writings, in which the Neo-Confucian practice of self-cultivation became well-established in the writing of moral texts, daily records, chronicles, biographies, travel journals, and xiaopin 小品 essays.79 Scholars such as Zeng Jing 曾鲸 (1564–1647) and Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (1558–1639) were well aware of the affinity between portraiture and biography. They were the expression of a growing strong sense of self-awareness, documented by narrative and visual representation of individual identity. The retreat from a government career was often idealized by a recluse identity.80 Thematic and stylistic allusions of portraits projected the literati’s position in a venerable recluse lineage, like in Zeng Jing’s paintings; the combination