“Ren’s Story”, “Ying-Ying’s Story”, and “Du Tenth” are Chinese love stories that show the relationship between passionate love and conformation to social norms. These stories show the traditional roles of men and women from the past of China and how love is sometimes blinded by things such as money, control, and the want to be accepted in society. Although from a different time and culture, the moral lessons and themes from these stories can be compared to the Greek story “Bacchae”, where a half-man, half-god gives the power to the women of the village to unite and fight against the oppressions that tradition has placed upon the role of women. It is found that the women in each of the Chinese love stories have the power and influence of “Bacchism”.
“Bacchae” is a story that blurs the hierarchy of gender and shows the power of women that unite and fight against the barriers in their way. In this story, Dionysus is a half-man, half-god from the Greek era that brings changes of liberation to the women of Greece. All of the women from Thebes vanish and flock to Dionysus to engage in drinking, ecstasy, and liberating themselves against their social norms, calling this new-found culture/religion “Bacchism”. The men of Greece see Dionysus as a threat and want to defend that old system of women serving a domesticated role. Pensius, the king, plays the role of honor and defender of discipline. He wants to fight and maintain the traditional hierarchy of society and sees the change of the woman’s role as danger, especially since his own mother has joined with the other women and Dionysus. With this, he sends his messenger men to capture his mother and jail the rest of the women. This proves to be a foolish decision when the women become violent and attack the men in a ritualistic manner. After this, Pensius attempts to trick Dionysus and the pack of women by dressing up and posing as a woman. At the end of the story, his true identity is found out and his own mother kills him and puts his head on a stick. Although this ends the story with a gory twist, it proves to the readers that the women of Thebes valued their independence and freedom. In fact, their emotions changed from harmonious to violent when the threat of forcing them back to patriarchal society was upon them.
In “Ren’s Story”, Ren is a beautiful enchanting woman whose extraordinary beauty entices men to the point where they lose control over themselves. There are two sides of Ren; one is a beautiful woman and the other is submissive. The beautiful woman side of her encompasses so much power, like “Bacchiem”, that it is considered as a danger to the patriarchal society. Yet, her compassionate and selfless ways also prove her to be considered as a good wife to any man. In the story, Zheng is enchanted by Ren and they fall in love. Zheng’s friend, Wei, also finds himself drawn to Ren’s beauty and wants her for himself. However, Ren mysteriously bewitches other women to please Wei to distract him from her and points Zheng in the right direction to find money for her and him to marry. She attempts these sincere acts to help them regardless that both Zheng and Wei want to capture her to be their love, thus binding her from any other man to have her. Ren is very powerful because of the control she has over men with her beauty, but also very weak because of her selfless acts. Ren’s death was foreseen by herself before she, Wei, and Zheng departed on a journey so she and Zheng could be together. Yet, she went along anyway. It is apparent that Ren fights to be accepted in the patriarchal society and to be accepted by her love of Zheng. However, her efforts proved as a failure when she dies at the end of the story. Here, Ren chooses not to act violently like the women from Bacchae have in order to conquer her domestication. She fights instead with her sincere attempts at love.
In “Ying-Ying’s Story”, the character Zhang meets Ying-Ying and falls in love immediately. At first, Ying fights him. However, Ying’s maid, Hong-niang, plays an important role in the story as a warm-hearted matchmaker by transferring poetry between the two lovers. Zhang wants Ying, yet she makes him feel uneasy because of her beauty. Again, beauty is viewed as a powerful threat against men; Zhang is scared of the control it has over him, as “Bacchism” made the men of Thebes feel threatened. Their love seems perfect yet Zhang will not propose to her. Throughout the story, ying’s attitude towards their love seems confusing and indecisive, which also can be seen as a power. First, she does not like Zhang. Then, she pursues after their love boldly. Finally, she falls deeply in love but then accepts that he will not marry her. Ying passively sacrifices herself to love and makes no complaints regardless of how it hurts her not to be with him. At the end of the story, they never meet again and Zhang is scornful of Ying. Although, Ying has abandoned the typical role of a passive woman and pursues after Zhang, it is ironic that she is the one who suffers while Zhang spreads tales of her “monstrous” ways. What was once considered beautiful to him is now considered evil to society. Ying’s beauty and forwardness makes her a danger to patriarchal society just like Ren. And, like Ren, she too chooses not to combat against her domestication but instead allow Zhang to go on with his life, disrespecting their love. She showed her powerful side in the beginning of the story, by her harmonious beauty and indecisive behavior. Unlike, the Bacchae women she has conformed to the traditional role of being a passive woman.
In “Du-Tenth”, Du-Tenth and Li Jia have an authentic and pure love; however this is threatened by Du-Tenth’s madam who must be paid $300 in order to set her free from the brothel. Although Li comes from a wealthy family, he has spent all of his money vicariously and tries to beg his friends for money so that he and Du can marry. After Li can not find any money, Du gives him the last of her savings and with that, he is able to come up with the rest. Du did not tell Li about the money at first because she wanted to test his love for her to make sure it was real. With this, Du is given her independence from the madam. As a wedding gift, Li’s sisters give Du a box of jewels and money. The jewel box empowers Du; she now controls her own fate, although Li thinks that she can not save herself and worries himself of his father’s disappointment with his new bride and their lack of money. Li’s action is understandable: he battles with the honor of his family and his love for Du. At the end of the story, Li is convinced by a stranger, Sun Fu, into giving up Du for $1000. He justifies this with having enough money to please his father with his return. Du comes to realize the intent of his decision and, as a result, dumps the priceless jewels from the box into the river. This is a symbolic measure, which proves this character differs from Ren and Ying in the previous stories. By giving up the jewels she has made herself powerful. Du is seen as the property of men due to lack of money, but now has her own free will and authority to do as she pleases. Du shows that she is more individualistic than Ren and Ying by fighting against the Madame of the brothel, throwing away the jewels, and finally committing suicide she proves that she overcomes the patriarchal barrier and sets herself free form all that binds her.
Out of the three Chinese love stories, Du-Tenth has proved to show more similarities to the spirit of the Bacchae women. Where as Ren and Ying-Ying were powerful in the beginning of the story, they showed their weakness at the end; Du-Tenth showed her passive conformity to the idea of love and traditional role of a woman in the beginning, she allowed the readers to see her true strengths towards the end of the story. Du-Tenth, although empowered by the jewel box, which symbolized her economic freedom, she chose to throw it away, thus destroying the bind of money, power and respect. Such a passive-aggressive act proved her to be just as violent and determined as the Bacchae women of their own fate.
