Biography of Cheng Danruo
Suoshi Publishing House (2022 Revised Edition)
(Excerpt)
In the previous chapter, we examined Cheng Danruo’s early years. She came from an ordinary background, and her family did not leave behind enough historical materials. We only know that she was a native of Datong, Shanxi, and that she came to the Chen family to escape the chaos of war.
Then came the seventeenth year of Taiping, when she suddenly followed the famous Confucian scholar Yan Hongzhi to the capital. What happened during that period is indeed worth careful investigation, but it must be emphasized that the claim of her being a concubine is entirely baseless and does not conform to reality.
It would have been impossible for the Chen family to give a relative’s daughter to Xie Xuanying, as treating a free person as a lowly one violated the law, and judging from the collected works left by Xie Xuanying, the love between the two absolutely did not arise under unequal circumstances.
As for the claim that she disguised herself as a man, it first appeared in the drama Si Meiren and is a fabricated plot. Its source may be Xie Xuanying’s Siyi Ji – “In March, new clothes were cut, yet Dan-niang wore a light red robe, which was my old garment… A husband and wife like this, a lifetime without regret.”
However, the original text only says that she wore a man’s Daoist robe, not that she disguised herself as a man. Presumably, like “Xie-lang’s blue garment,” this belonged to the romantic playfulness between husband and wife, rather than there being any incident of a woman disguising herself as a man.
…
In short, regardless of what happened before, what can be confirmed is that in the autumn of the seventeenth year of Taiping, Cheng Danruo first set foot in the capital.
By this time, her status had already changed somewhat. Although being an “adopted daughter” did not fundamentally change her position, it did provide her with the possibility of staying in the capital.
At that time, what was the situation in the capital?
In this year, Emperor Shizong was thirty-seven years old and had no sons, and the seemingly calm court was turbulent beneath the surface. Professor Lv, a famous researcher of Xia history, has a very interesting claim – “Everyone’s life is closely related to politics, and Xie Xuanying’s marriage especially so.”
Indeed, according to the Treatise on Utmost Emotion, we can confirm that he had once been betrothed. Why did the marriage not succeed? Why did he later marry Cheng Danruo, when the difference in their origins was so great? The political implications are very much worth considering.
…
But there is one point that perhaps many researchers have overlooked.
In the seventeenth year of Taiping?, Cheng Danruo was merely an orphan girl with no relatives to turn to. Just think: a fifteen-year-old orphan girl, whose life had nothing to do with politics – could she really have already possessed her later ambitions at that age? That would be far too extraordinary.
Yet if one says that it was love that prompted her to do so, there is no historical evidence to support it at all.
Unlike Xie Xuanying, in this year he wrote Autumn Thoughts, in which one line reads, “When will the jade pool bear its spiritual fruit, so that I may share the heavenly syrup and taste it on a winter night?” This is considered a work of longing.
“Heavenly syrup” means pomegranate, and Danruo is another name for pomegranate. “Winter night” undoubtedly refers to himself; otherwise, thinking of an autumn pomegranate on a winter night would really be somewhat incoherent.
Therefore, at this time, Xie Xuanying very likely harbored feelings of admiration, but what about Cheng Danruo?
Did she admire this beauty whose name was recorded in the histories? By all reason, it seems only natural, but after textual research, the editor believes that perhaps another possibility also exists.
Only by thoroughly clarifying this point can one understand Cheng Danruo’s choices in the future.
Notes:
[1] Siyi Ji, one of Xie Xuanying’s collected works, mainly recounts the married life between him and Cheng Danruo. It is summarized by four “ones” – “one lifetime, one heart” – and is thus named.
[2] Treatise on Utmost Emotion, an essay by Xie Xuanying discussing his views on love, in which he proposes the thesis that “marriage does not begin without emotion, and emotion does not reach fulfillment without marriage.”
[3] “Xie-lang’s blue garment”: an idiom, originating from the title heading of Si Meiren. The original line reads, “When emotion reaches its utmost, it is like the bright moon; longing for the beauty, one often wears blue garments.” Later it specifically refers to a man’s longing or admiration.
