'It Was I Who Lured the Boy': Commoner Women, Intimacy and the Sensual Body in the Song Collections of Feng Menglong (1574-1646)

Abstract

This paper surveys bodily imagery and eroticism in Feng Menglong's 'Shan'ge' (Mountain songs) and 'Guazhi'er' (Hanging branch) collections. The direct simplicity and natural expression of desire in folksongs originating among commoners and courtesans caught the imagination of Feng Menglong and other members of the late Ming literati seeking to challenge orthodox strictures on life and imagination. This study argues that the contrasts between the contents of the songs and the signature of women in official forms of discourse cannot be dismissed as a simple reflection of differing rank or status but should persuade us to acknowledge an awareness of a doubled experience of female embodiment that separated marriage and passion.