Faraway Wanderers - Chapter 38

I wonder what would WKX's reaction would be if ZZS just went "yeah, alright let's get together". Also lengthy note at the end.

Thanks Emma P for proofreading!

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Notes

1. 清倌 (qing guan) "clear hire". An employee of a brothel who specializes in performances in different arts (music, calligraphy, composing poesy etc.). See further note below.

2. 浓墨重彩 "thick ink of heavy colours" idiom to be taken literally in context.

3. A bit of suspension of disbelief is required here. Throughout the novel, ZZS is said to take a number of things out of his "bosom" like he has some magically expanded pocket in there. One interview with the actors of the web-series actually makes fun of this.

4. 要么是心上少开了俩洞，要么就是开豁了. The original saying is WKX having either "too few openings" on his heart, or "one that is too large". In Chinese imagination, the traditional locus of the mind is the heart (e.g. psychology in Chinese is "the science of the heart"). "Lacking holes in the heart" means being dumb.

5. 风萧萧兮“二"水寒. Gu Xiang misquotes the famous line 风萧萧兮易水寒 or "Bleak is the gale that blows; freezing Yi Rivers’ flows". From a poem said to have been pronounced by Jing Ke, the tragic would be failed assassin of the future Shihuang Emperor as he set off on his perilous mission.

易 ("easy") is a homophone of "one", and Gu Xiang says "Er" which means "two" instead.

6. No detailed description of the costumes is given, but Gu Xiang seem to be wearing trousers (possibly under a short skirt as per previous chapters) because she is a jianghu/active woman. She also doesn't have bound feet which differentiate her from "ladies".

7. 仁义礼智 Four of the five Confucian virtues are cited: benevolence, righteousness, observation of the rites, and wisdom. The fifth one is 信 or faithfulness/loyalty.

8. 修罗 from Buddhist beliefs.

A note on prostitution in ancient China

I had an interesting discussion on this subject with a reader, so I thought I'd clarify something up.

The Chinese culture, like so many others, is historically patriarchal and male-centric. No official position (e.g. through imperial exams) was available to women and the only social statuses that were afforded them in feudal China followed the hierarchy below:

妻 - wife or official spouse of a man. Any man, even the emperor, could only have one wife.

妾 - concubine or official "side spouse" of a man. Concubines rank lower than the wife and are normally under their command, but they are recognized partners of a man who are wed to him in a formal ceremony. Their children rank lower than that of the official spouse (e.g. if the sons of the wife and a concubine are of the same age, the son of the wife is the 'big brother' and first heir).

婢 - maidservant or slave girl. Contractually belongs to a man and had little choice but to become his sexual partner if the man was so inclined.

姬 - performer/courtesan who belongs to an external entity, generally a brothel.

妓 - prostitute who generally belongs to a brothel.

All women who had a rank inferior to that of the wife were tradable goods.

Concubines, maids, courtesans and prostitutes could and were all bought into a household with money. Only the wife is married into the man's household while bringing in her own dowry.

In the case of a maid (generally sold at a young age), when she reached marrying age, she could either hope for her master to be generous and give her away, or for a man/her family to buy her out, or to become a concubine in his master's household (the latter being the highest honour she could hope for, as maids who are in a sexual relationship with their master can also remain simple "chamber servant" without the concubine title).

(Note that no direct equivalent of chattel slavery existed in China, and even "slaves" received compensation/salary for their work.)

When you hear of a female physician or shop owner etc., it means that they are either the daughter (who learned the craft from their father) or the wife of a physician/shop owner. Female "disciples" in kung-fu schools were rare.

Which lead to the interesting question of what prostitution consisted of in ancient China.

To answer, it is necessary to point out that the trade that is traditionally considered prostitution has its locus in the brothel (妓院/青楼 ) where 姬 and 妓 ("courtesans" and prostitutes) are both be found.

The distinction between a "courtesan" and a prostitute is a somewhat flimsy one as both their "end goal" is to be bought out of the brothel by a man, with the exception that the "courtesan" is generally recognized as having some other talents than only sexual intercourse. They are what the French would call a "cocotte" (see Nana by Emile Zola).

In Faraway Wanderers, it is implicit that WKX frequents "courtesans" and prostitutes alike because he is snob and rich enough.

The two types of courtesans and prostitutes he cites are "hua kuei" and "qing guan" which leads to the finer distinctions that exist amongst brothel employees.

A "hua kuei" (花魁 or "flower queen" - not to be confused with the Japanese oiran who share the same kanji) as cited in chapter 13 is a courtesan or prostitute that is famous for their beauty. A good example is found in 卖油郎独占花魁女 (The Story of the Oil Marchant Who Pursued the Hua Kuei Lady) from Xing Shi Heng Yan by Feng Menglong.

A "qing guan" (清倌) as cited in this chapter is a courtesan whose function in a brothel is to entertain guests with artistic performances, and whose sexual services are not directly purchasable/only purchasable for a higher price. A good example is Chen Yuanyuan who became Wu Sangui's lover.

For all intent and purpose, both courtesans and prostitutes are exclusively objects of the male gaze and desire and were exploited for their sexuality by a third party: the brothel.

Semantically, both qualify as prostitutes and I think the distinction when rendered in English is somewhat skewed as there are no directly equivalent terms (and may even arise from a puritanical sentiment that prostitutes=beurk which only glamourize the real condition of a "courtesan") so I'll use courtesan and prostitute interchangeably.

I'll finish this lengthy note by remarking that male prostitution is traditionally frowned upon. Although the practice exists (from the prostitution of very young children to flirtatious rapports between male opera singers and patrons as recorded by various tidbits in Chinese lit.) it is not institutionalized as with female prostitution and is less well documented.

The author seems to apply terms that are generally used on female brothel workers for WKX's partners and makes a tongue in cheek remark on this in chapter 13, when ZZS says that he had never heard of male "flower queens" before.

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