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Venerable ancestors: strategies of ageing in the Chinese novel The Story of the Stone

1999; Elsevier BV; Volume: 354; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(99)90264-7

1474-547X

Dore J. Levy,

Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving

Veneration of the aged (laonian, "venerable in years") is a cliché of traditional Chinese culture. Although the association of age and virtue reaches into dim antiquity, this convention was first articulated by Confucius (551-479 BC) with the worship of ancestor spirits mediated by shamans. The spirits of a family's ancestors were aware of human affairs and could be called upon in due season and in times of crisis for protection from harm and mediation in cosmological matters, thereby making the transfer of such veneration to living elders a logical step.1Mote FW Intellectual foundations of China.in: Knopf, New York1971: 31-32Google Scholar, 2Waley A Three ways of thought in ancient China.in: George Allen and Unwin, London1939: 96Google Scholar Confucius set the model for this authority of elders by his own example, explaining that the accumulation of knowledge and experience was the basis of respect: "The Master said, At fifteen, I set my heart upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground. At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven. At sixty, I heard them with a docile ear. At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart, for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right."3Confucius Analects II.4.in: Waley A The analects of Confucius. George Allen and Unwin, London1964: 88Google Scholar In Confucius' eyes, however, age alone did not automatically confer virtue: "The Master said, Respect the young. How do you know that they will not one day be all that you are now? But if a man has reached forty or fifty and nothing has been heard of him, then I grant there is no need to respect him."4Confucius Analects IX.22.in: Waley A The analects of Confucius. George Allen and Unwin, London1964: 143Google Scholar According to Confucius, age could not be taken at face value: whereas age implied the chance for the necessary experience, virtue was demonstrated by action. The strict deference to age in and of itself as a sign of moral authority and virtue was codified by Mencius (372-289 BC), who systematised Confucian thought for home, government, and society two generations after the Master's death. The writings of Mencius are explicitly political, and so veneration of parents was a model for the veneration of the king, and essential to the stability and prosperity of the state: "Of services which is the greatest? The service of parents is the greatest… The substance of humanity is to serve one's parents; the basis of righteousness is to obey one's elder brothers."5Mencius de Bary T Sources of Chinese tradition. Vol. 1. Columbia University Press, New York1960: 98Google Scholar Respect for a hierarchy based on seniority was a natural expression of the essential goodness of human nature, which, when allowed to find its proper expression, ensured the stability of society and the state. In principle, each household was a microcosm of the world, and following correct principles would contribute to the prosperity of all. It is no surprise, then, that the Chinese family is a frequent model for society as a whole, especially in fiction. The Story of the Stone (Shitou ji), also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou meng), by Cao Xueqin (1715?-63), is the most esteemed work of prose fiction in the tradition.6Cao X Shitou ji.in: Hawkes D The story of the stone. Vol 1. Penguin, London1973Google ScholarCao X Shitou ji.in: Hawkes D The story of the stone. Vol 2. Penguin, London1977Google ScholarCao X Shitou ji.in: Hawkes D The story of the stone. Vol 3. Penguin, London1980Google Scholar, 7Cao X Shitou ji.in: Minford J The story of the stone. Vols 4. Penguin, London1982Google ScholarCao X Shitou ji.in: Minford J 15th edn. The story of the stone. Vols 4. Penguin, London1986Google Scholar A mammoth narrative in 120 chapters, it is valued as a compendium of Chinese culture, focusing on the life of two branches of a wealthy gentry family, the Jias, who owe their noble rank to the favour won by two glorious ancestors for outstanding service to their Manchu overlords under the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). During the Qing, members of the Chinese aristocracy could attain great wealth and influence, yet they remained subject to the absolute authority of the ruling Manchus. In the novel, the present generation of Jia males are not as talented as their forebears, and the family fortunes are definitely in decline. Tracing the Jias' collapse in the present generation, the narrative describes the inevitable conflict between ideal patterns of social, political, and personal conduct, and the impossibility of implementing them in the actual patterns of everyday life (8Levy DJ Ideal and actual in The Story of the Stone. Columbia University Press, New York1999Google Scholar, p 7-26). Even while dominated by foreigners, Qing China was very much a Confucian society, associating successful ageing with moral virtue and the favour of heaven. An elder who survived to the age of 60 in good health was an exemplar, to whom the younger generation had to defer. In The Story of the Stone, the Rong-guo branch of the Jia household is ruled by an all-powerful widowed matriarch, the formidable Grandmother Jia. Freed from the domination of her husband, Grandmother Jia overrides the authority of her two sons, who as the eldest males in the household should in fact exercise authority over her. In social terms, then, age is power.9Levy Jr, MJ The family revolution in modern China.in: Harvard University Press, Cambridge1949: 127-133Google Scholar This cachet transcends even social status, because the Jias extend the respect for old age and experience not just to members of their own clan but also to the retainers who have grown old in the service of their masters. Such members of the household feel it is their right and duty to arbitrate family standards. One such servant, 80-year-old Big Jiao, saved his master's life in battle when both were young. Although the current generation regards him as an unruly old drunkard, in his own eyes he drinks to escape from the spectacle of their relentless dissolution, he remonstrates with them as a responsible elder ought to do, and when they try to hush him wails that he is going to the ancestral temple to weep before his deceased master's tablet. Big Jiao's age and moral status put him beyond discipline, and the Jias must either suffer his tirades or pension him off to one of the family farms. The inversion of conventional authority patterns as they relate to the matriarch, Grandmother Jia, illustrates a fundamental contradiction of filial piety: on the one hand, younger family members are expected to respect and defer to their elders; on the other hand, as soon as her husband has died, a mother is supposed to defer to the authority of the new head of household, her eldest son. As the only surviving member of her generation, one who moreover remembers the glory days of the Jias' early ennoblement, Grandmother Jia demands deference from all members of the household. Her age and absolute good health confirm her right to this deference, because longevity and health are signs of the favour of heaven. Her authority cannot be challenged by anyone, because even her sons are inhibited in exercising their proper authority by the strict rules of respect due to the aged in general and to aged parents in particular.10Hsiung P Constructed emotions: the bonds between mothers and sons in late imperial China.Late Imperial China. 1994; 15: 87-117Crossref Google Scholar The nominal head of the family is Grandmother Jia's second son, Jia Zheng. He is torn between two strict Confucian duties: to please his mother and show her respect on the one hand, and the larger duty to prepare his only surviving son, Bao-yu, to meet his social obligations to carry on the family line and bring glory to its name. Jia Zheng's attempts in both endeavours are often frustrated not just by the interference of his mother, who dotes on the boy and shields him from his father's authority, but also by his own scrupulous and literal-minded zeal to adhere to ideal Confucian patterns of personal conduct (ref 8, pp 31-32). Grandmother Jia often exploits these scruples of Jia Zheng's to manipulate his authority and strengthen her own control. A good deal of the success of Grandmother Jia's ageing seems to come from her power both to indulge her emotional inclinations and to protect her own interests. Rather than become dependent on her sons and their rather feckless wives for her support and daily care, she carefully trains and protects her own staff and favours a clever granddaughter-in-law, Xi-feng, whom she supports in taking over most of the household management.11Ebrey P The inner quarters: marriage and the lives of Chinese women in the Sung period.in: University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles1993: 114-130Google Scholar When her older son, Jia She, casts a lecherous eye on Faithful, Grandmother Jia's most intimate body-servant, the old lady quashes the attempt in no uncertain terms: "Tell him that if he wants to be a dutiful son, he'll be doing more for me by leaving me my Faithful, to serve me during the few years that yet remain, than if he were to come over and wait on me in person, morning, noon and night" (ref 6, vol 2, p 429). The chain of implications is both reasonable and ironic: the opportunity and capacity to take care of oneself improves the chances of a healthy and vigorous old age, which brings the assumption that the elder has received the favour of heaven and demands veneration, which allows a strong-minded person like Grandmother Jia to exercise complete control over her own care and to enforce her desires. Although much attention is given to Grandmother Jia's scrupulous personal hygiene, including her belief in the virtues of fasting when she is indisposed, she herself sees her age and health as the result of her personal virtue and self-awareness.12Bray F Technology and gender: fabrics of power in late imperial China.in: University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles1997: 218-223Google Scholar Unlike most women of the time, she is not coy about medical matters and refuses to conceal herself behind a curtain when a doctor comes to take her pulse: "I'm old, too, woman–old enough to be his mother, I shouldn't wonder. What have I got to fear from him at my age?" (ref 6, vol 2, p 328). Grandmother Jia's good health finally receives a fatal blow when the family is subjected to a raid by the Embroidered Jackets, a terrifying branch of the Manchu secret police. Eschewing all support, she prays to the Buddha: "The blame for all these misfortunes must rest on my shoulders, for having failed to teach the younger generation the true principles of conduct…. May I alone be permitted to carry the whole family's burden of guilt! And may the sons and grandsons be forgiven! Have pity on me, Almighty Heaven, and heed my devout supplication: send me an early death that I may atone for the sins of my children and grandchildren!" (ref 7, vol 5, p 134). This offer of personal sacrifice, to take responsibility for her descendants' faults and to atone for them by casting away her life, is the matriarch's trump card. Although, objectively speaking, a woman of 82 anywhere in the world in the 18th century would hardly be expected to live much longer, all members of Grandmother Jia's household would have faith that her store of moral capital, manifest by the favour of heaven in granting a healthy old age, could preserve her for years to come. Far from making an empty sacrifice, the matriarch is offering to place all her accumulated virtue and privilege in the balance against her descendants' failings, to provide them with a clean slate and a chance to make a fresh start.13Mann S Precious records: China's long eighteenth century.in: Stanford University Press, Stanford1997: 204-207Google Scholar Whatever her shortcomings "for having failed to teach the younger generation the true principles of conduct" (ref 7, vol 5, p 134), she now provides them with a model of authority, responsibility, and dedication that cannot fail to inspire them to do honour to her legacy. Soon after the family's debacle, Grandmother Jia actually slips into her final illness, which starts as a typical indisposition after a birthday party. She and Faithful are the only ones who can imagine her end. Even a Buddhist nun, renowned for her insight, offers the usual platitudes when consulted on the matter: "A person as charitable and virtuous as yourself, Lady Jia, will surely live to a ripe old age. … At your age the important thing is to relax and not worry so much" (ref 7, vol 5, p 187). Grandmother Jia knows better: "The last doctor I saw said it was because I was letting myself get too overwrought. But you know perfectly well that no one dares to rub me the wrong way! I don't think that doctor really knew what he was talking about" (ref 7, vol 5, p 187). She dies peacefully, surrounded by her devoted family, to whom she has been able to deliver her final admonitions. A good death is also a reward for virtue. Grandmother Jia is prepared for the ultimate sacrifice by both the Confucian rationalist tradition, which respects life while attempting to detach from fear of death, and the Buddhist tradition of exercising compassion to accumulate good karma for a better rebirth. Grandmother Jia's death evokes a favourite jataka–a sacred tale of one of the innumerable lives of the Buddha before his final incarnation and enlightenment. In this tale, the prince who is destined to be the Buddha many incarnations later is touched by the plight of a starving tigress and her cubs, and so throws himself from a cliff to provide for her. This act of human self-sacrifice out of pity for an animal illustrates the reach of Buddhist compassion: all living beings–human beings and tigers and beetles and hummingbirds and slimy eels–are bound on the wheel of reincarnation to suffer until they awaken to the vanity of existence and so achieve liberation through enlightenment (Figure 1, Figure 2). In Confucian terms, Grandmother Jia boldly accepts the proper authority and responsibility of an elder; in Buddhist terms, she shows her compassion and can take comfort in the thought that her virtue should aid her to a better rebirth.14Tu W Embodying the universe: a note on Confucian self-realization.in: Ames RT Self as person in Asian theory and practice. State University of New York Press, Albany1994: 177-186Google Scholar Although the family is devastated by her death, there is no question that they mourn a heroine.Figure 2The Buddhist wheel of rebirth of the soul–the cycle of metempsychosisShow full captionBy a Chinese artist. Taken from Superstitions en Chine by Henri Dote (vol VI, 1914).View Large Image Copyright © 1999 Mary Evans Picture Library By a Chinese artist. Taken from Superstitions en Chine by Henri Dote (vol VI, 1914). Not every elder in the Jia family provides such an example. One of the most telling signs of the family's decline is the inability or refusal of the eldest males to take up their necessary positions as heads of the household, leaving the field wide open for a strong personality like that of the matriarch. The proper head of the Ning-guo branch of the family, Jia Jing, is actually a member of the generation below Grandmother Jia. Long before the novel begins, he has abdicated his family responsibilities and obligations in favour of joining a bizarre Taoist sect and devoting his life to the pursuit of physical immortality. Although philosophical Taoism advocated transcendence of fear of death through acceptance of humanity's place in the organic cycle of nature, throughout Chinese history theorists of alchemy and mystical hygiene borrowed from Taoist rhetoric to legitimise their occult practices.15Schipper K Duval K The Taoist body. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles1993: 26-32Google Scholar Jia Jing's affiliation is derided by society: "He spends all his time over retorts and crucibles concocting elixirs, and refuses to be bothered with anything else … He refuses outright to live at home and spends his time fooling around with a pack of Taoists somewhere outside the city walls" (ref 6, vol 1, p 74). For a person of Jia Jing's family background to descend to the superstitious pursuit of physical immortality puts him literally beyond the pale–he removes himself from family and state to spend his old age trying to cheat death. Jia Jing comes to a predictably unpleasant end: after years of ingesting cinnabar (mercuric sulphide) and other lethal substances, he ends up cooking his internal organs into a solid mass. The doctors summoned by the family deliver this verdict: "That death was due to edema and corrosion following ingestion by the deceased of some toxic metallic substance in pursuance of his Taoist researches" (ref 6, vol 3, p 240). Jia Jing's associates protest: "It wasn't toxic. … It was an infallible secret formula, but it needed to be taken in the right conditions. We told him that he wasn't ready for it, but he wouldn't believe us. … We must rejoice that he has cast off the corrupt garment of flesh and left this sea of misery behind him" (ref 6, vol 3, p 240). Although these two assessments seem at cross-purposes, metaphorically they are the same: Jia Jing put himself outside of the conventions and authority of his community, and so brought about his own destruction. No school of Chinese thought countenances such behaviour, and Jia Jing's midnight demise is a warning to all. In the 20th century, ideologically based social upheavals have dealt a severe blow to the Chinese tradition of veneration for age, but the greatest threat to that tradition is modernisation itself. In traditional Chinese society, beyond the symbolic value of the assumption of the favour of heaven, the experience of the oldest generation had much practical use and application, and its transmission was vital to the success of the community. Modernising societies, however, face unknown futures: knowledge of how things were done in the past may be Of no use, and a system which privileges old people on the basis of that knowledge may be a positive impediment to progress. With this in mind, the fact that China, like so many modernised societies, faces an unprecedented boom in its aged population makes this conflict between old ideals and new realities even stronger. In pre-modem China, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist modes of thought placed ultimate responsibility for the individual in the hands of the individual, to live a good life in harmony with the community. This cultural assumption still persists in the modem era, but even the most deep-seated, flexible, and materially beneficial conventions of pre-modem society can be powerless against the unforeseen stresses of modernisation. It remains to be seen whether the traditional Chinese view of ageing can survive this test.