This essay will analyze the role of the female characters in Water Margin and Three Kingdoms. Although both these novels focus mainly on their male characters, the few glimpses of the female personalities reveal notable distinctions between the two novels if examined under Confucian perceptions. While Lady Sun is portrayed as a virtuous wife and Diao Chan an obedient daughter in the Three Kingdoms, Yan Poxi and Pan Jinlian offer stark contrasts in the Water Margin, for they are depicted as lustful and debauched individuals. However, if we were to remove our Confucian biases and use a more “modern” perspective, we see that females in both novels are subjugated in a male-dominated world and imprisoned in a strict “caste” system. Once they cross the boundaries and threaten the centre of this male world, which is the brotherhood, they immediately face retribution.
Diao Chan and Lady Sun are two of the most exemplary female characters in the Three Kingdoms. Therefore, they are ideal for analyzing female subjectivity because they are not only virtuous, but are the most developed among the female characters, with each spanning two to three chapters in length.[1] As an obedient Confucian daughter, Diao Chan surrenders her most valuable asset as a woman in traditional China, her chastity, in order to repay Wang Yun, who not only adopted her but also had her “trained in the arts of dance and song.”[2] Hence, she typifies filial piety because she is willing to sacrifice her body to achieve her father’s plot of exterminating Dong Zhuo in the “double snare.” Diao Chan is also the ideal subject, for she is not doing this simply to satisfy her role as a daughter, but she is ultimately sacrificing herself, in the words of Wang Yun, to save the empire and “all those who live under the Han.”[3] But Diao’s sacrifice is no small ordeal, for in the Confucian convention, chastity is not only defined as a sexual code of behaviour, but it is in fact the constitution of self-hood.[4] In fact, she degrades herself in the process, for in the Confucian context, which emphasizes “absolute sincerity,”[5] Diao Chan’s prostituting herself and use of deception negates acts of filial piety.
In the Neo-Confucian canon, the distinction between husband and wife is imperative in the marriage; more importantly, the woman is to be subordinated by the husband in such a relationship.[6] In this light, Lady Sun symbolizes the ideal Confucian female. As a loyal and devoted mate, she does not hesitate in following her husband, Liu Bei, flee the Riverlands by assuring him, “I have married you, and shall follow wherever Your Lordship goes.”[7] When Liu Bei is confronted with Sun Quan’s men, she selflessly shields him from danger, telling him, “Husband, you proceed. Zilong and I will hold the rear.”[8]
Yan Poxi and Pan Jinlian, who are depicted as the prototypical faithless and selfish “anti-Confucian” women, can therefore be considered the foils of Diao Chan and Lady Sun. In particular, Yan Poxi’s act of pouting and jerking her hand away from Mrs. Yan, who endeavours to mend her daughter’s deteriorating relationship Song Jiang, violates the Confucian codes of filial piety. Not only does she rebuff Mrs. Yan’s labours, she goes as far as showing contempt to her mother by “coldly” staring at her and stating, “Drink it yourselves” when ordered to serve wine for Song Jiang.[9] Such a display of insolence is a complete departure from Diao Chan’s filial selflessness.
However, Poxi’s more malicious crime is her simultaneous affairs with Zhang Wenyuan and Song Jiang. Especially in late imperial Ming China, her promiscuity is a fundamental infringement of the proper role for a woman, which stresses chastity for unmarried women.[10] Her infidelity is exceptionally immoral because she feels no remorse for her sin. In fact her feelings are quite open, as she calls Song “blackie,” and compares him a “slob” compared to “her Zhang.”[11] She is even bold enough in disclosing her affair to Song charging, “I suppose you’re angry because of me and Third Brother Zhang . . . well, there’s a difference all right, between you two.”[12]
Pan Jinlian accomplishes a similar act of defiance. Unlike Lady Sun, Pan has no compassion for her husband. In fact, she loathes Wu Da, and continually drives him from the house so that she and Wu Song can be alone. Far from showing subordination, she actually bullies and harangues her husband. At one point, she even scolds him “You imbecile! You moron!”[13] Her wickedness is so extreme that she poisons Wu Da so that she can continue her affair with Xi-men Qing. When her plan somehow goes astray, she “jumped on the bed and sat on him”[14] in order to suffocate him with her own hands.
Pan is also presented as a lusty woman who is fond of eyeing handsome men with strong physiques. Thus, when Wu Song enters the picture, she is immediately aroused, and her perversity is so outrageous that it is almost comedic, for her flirtation with Wu Song is so candid that it even makes him blush. She even attempts to arouse Wu Song by luring him into her lair and advancing the “courtship” by asking him outright, “If your heart responds, drink the rest.”[15] But when rejected by Wu Song, it does not take long before she finds a lover in Xi-men Qing, whose seduction scheme needs no elaboration, for Pan easily falls for him. In this light, her execution by Wu Song is irrefutable, for in a feudal society, adultery is justifiable by death.[16]
Yet if we were to remove these conventional Confucian biases, the actions and motives of these women do not seem so clear-cut. In examining the women’s situation under a twentieth-century critique, what becomes evident is that women are often exploited under this patriarchal tradition. In particular, Lady Sun’s sacrifices, though honourable, are made only in the interests of men. Although she appears to be a dominant and independent-minded young women, she is in fact being exploited by both Sun Quan and Zhuge Liang, and used as a “chess piece” for their strategic war games.
In fact, Lady Sun’s autonomy is limited within the male domain. Similar to Diao Chan’s fate, Lady Sun’s chastity is trivialized by Sun Quan, who uses her sexuality to lure Liu Bei into his snare. He fails to consider that he is jeopardizing his sister’s life; in fact, it takes a harsh reprimand from his mother to make him recognize the severity of his seduction scheme which “would leave her a widow before she ever was a bride. . . her life will be ruined.”[17] Zhuge Liang plays along with Sun Quan’s scheme, but uses Lady Sun’s sexuality to his advantage. For him, her chastity is a political entity. Consequently, whatever her heroic features may be, they are “contained” in Zhuge’s brocade bag.[18] In fact, he wants Liu Bei to indulge in his sexual desires with her, but once her “usefulness” is finished, Liu Bei is promptly advised in returning to Jingzhou.
Wang Yun similarly takes advantage of Diao Chan’s obedience as a daughter. In a strategic situation such as his, when the male realm of politics clashes with the female realm of chastity, Wang selects a female from a lower class. Because Diao Chan is adopted by Wang, and thus owes her life to him, she is conveniently chosen to solve his dilemma between morality and patriotism; hence, her chastity is expendable because of her class origins.[19] Hence, as a adopted daughter, Wang Yun is not afraid to use her as his sacrificial victim to degrade herself by performing the role of an adulteress who uses her sexuality in a double snare of Dong Zhuo and his half-son Lu Bu.
Despite their faithfulness and heroism, Diao Chan and Lady Sun’s function in the Three Kingdoms are mere sexual “baits.”[20] Once Dong Zhuo is killed, Diao Chan is finished for her usefulness, and thus she is immediately discarded and no longer mentioned from that moment onwards.[21] Lady Sun faces an even crueller ending. She is tricked into going back to the Wu kingdom to meet her dying mother Madam Wu with Liu Bei's son, Liu Chan. When Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei intercept their journey, Lady Sun is forced to relinquish Liu Chan, for Zhuge Liang foresees that it is Sun Quan’s ploy to regain Jingzhou. The recovery of Liu Chan destroys Sun’s plan to use the child as a hostage.[22] Sadly, not only does Lady Sun become permanently separated from Liu Bei and Liu Chan, she ultimately commits suicide.
There is also an element of sympathy for the women in Water Margin. Although their affairs may appear to be an offence in the eyes of a Confucian commentator, we can come to a different interpretation if we examine the conditions that women are forced to live under in the novel, particularly within the “context of rejection, marital unhappiness, and neglect.”[23] In particular, Yan Poxi and Pan Jinlian are confined within the house, which in the Confucian universe is the appropriate station for females. Not only are the women’s spheres of activity restricted to their house, they are entirely dependent upon men.
Yan Poxi’s sexuality is her “rice bowl,” for she is offered to Song Jiang not only as a mere “recompense” for his saving her life, but also because she needs a man who could provide for her.[24] After she murders her husband, Wu Da, the first words that comes out of her mouth to Xi-men Qing are, “Now my husband is dead, I have to depend on you for everything.”[25] Although Yan and Pan’s only roles in life are to serve their men, men are merely visitors in the world of women, for they come and go as they please. But most of the time, they come only to create havoc.[26]
Song Jiang initially indulges Yan Poxi with lavish gifts and nightly visits. Yet once her appeal fades, Song’s “visits grew less frequent.”[27] He comes and goes as he pleases, but Yan, who is only “eighteen or nineteen years old,” and at the prime of her age in passionate feelings, is left to her own solitude in the confines of her house. Hence, her affair with Zhang Wenyuan is more understandable in such circumstances. Unlike Song’s preference of martial arts over Yan, Zhang Wenyuan is attentive to her needs. In fact, Yan’s relationship with Zhang is permissible, for she is not married to Song Jiang.[28] Even Song realizes this fact, for he contends, “She’s not a real wife chosen by my father and mother.”[29] Since this is the case, if anyone is to be wrong, it should be Song for his committing sexual relations with an unmarried girl, and then discarding her after his appetite had been satisfied.
Although Pan Jinlian’s crime of adultery and murder appears indefensible, we must trace the origins of her life before coming to a definite judgement of her “morality.” Moreover, it is necessary to account for the role of the husband as well. Pan is married to Wu Da as a penalty for her resistance to her master’s attempted rape. Enraged, he marries her off to a bread-seller Wu Da “free, gratis, and for nothing.”[30] She is only twenty years old with a “bewitching beauty, arousing every sense with its soft fragrance” but is forced to spend the rest of her life with a man whom she regards as a repulsive “Three Inch Midget” who has an “an ugly face and ridiculous head.”[31] More lamentable is the fact that she is punished for a crime she never instigated. In this context, one cannot but feel sorry for Yan Poxi’s sorry state as a women living in imperial China. Hence, when Wu Song enters her life, she is immediately aroused by his impressive physique. Just like her master, who is interested in the matters of the flesh, it is unreasonable to expect Yan Poxi not to feel otherwise.
Although Wu Song claims his instructions for his brother’s confinement of Pan are necessary to prevent her from her potential promiscuities, closer inspection of his wording reveals that they are rather sadistic. Not only is Yan Poxi forced to deny her own sexuality, she is ultimately cut off from the outside world. Wu Song’s instructions for his brother to “lower the blind as soon as you get home, and bolt the door as early as possible,”[32] indicates the men of this world do not care about the women’s emotions. Rather than encouraging his brother to elevate his love and attention for his wife, he simply tells him to monitor his wife even more closely than before.
Pan is no longer treated as a wife. Rather she becomes a prisoner while Wu Da the warden. Under such merciless conditions, in which the wife is not only unhappily married to someone she despises but is also treated as a felon, it is difficult to expect her to remain faithful in such faithless marriage. In following through with his brother’s “golden”[33] advice, Wu Da compresses Yan Poxi’s world to an even smaller perimeter than before, for she is locked up in the house for the entire winter. In picturing the average size of a house of a peasant family in Ming Dynasty China, it is painful to imagine the claustrophobic existence that Pan is forced to endure, all due to the mistrust of men.
The Brotherhood
On a deeper, and perhaps more disturbing level, the core of this male world is the brotherhood, one in which the bonds are so intimate that it comes to the point of resembling misogyny.[34] It is particularly interesting that brotherhoods exist in both these novels. The trio of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei form one bond, while the 108 bandits of Mount Liang form the other union. In fact, protecting the brotherhood seems to transcend punishing immoral women for their violation of the Confucian codes of conduct. Instead the women are used as sacrificial victims in the men’s initiation before their entrances into the Marshes of Mount Liang fraternity.[35]
Not only do women have no place in the men’s heart, those who threaten the brotherhood ultimately suffer death by execution, and often in grisly detail. In this context, the beheading of Yan Poxi has little to do with her adultery with Zhang. He is not opposed to her affair; in fact, he accepts it and resolves that such a woman is not “worth losing sleep over.”[36] Hence, Song is more than happy to comply with Yan’s blackmail when she requests that he not intervene in her marriage to Zhang. He is even content at allowing her retain the house and all its furnishings. Instead, it is because she threatens the threatening by turning them into the authorities that makes Song Jiang panic.[37] Instead of denying his role of protecting Chao Gai and absolving his ties to the bandits, Song Jiang defends his future brothers to the end, even at the cost of committing a serious crime of murder.
Pan Jinlian accomplishes a similar act of adultery, but she goes one step further in that she murders her husband, the blood brother of Wu Song. Because she physically impairs the brotherhood, Pan faces an even more malicious death.[38] Yan Poxi is disembowelled as Wu Song, with “one slash of the knife opened her up [and] plunged both hands inside and tore out the heart and liver.”[39]
Unlike the men, women do not band together as a “sisterhood”; instead, they act as individuals.[40] Pan’s confession of her crime is an interesting contrast to Song Jiang handling of his felony. While he shields his brothers, Pan does not hesitate to point out her accomplice, Mrs. Wang in Wu Da’s murder. Her confession incites Mrs. Wang, who contends that Pan’s admission has “left her no chance” to concoct a lie to cover the crime.[41] In times of crisis, the women not only fail to protect their alliance, they ultimately turn on each other. As C.T. Hsia points out, men in contrast, show undying devotion for one another, so much so that it intimates a homosexual overtone, particularly during Song Jiang’s death, whereupon Liu Gui states eloquently, “In life I served you, and in death I’ll simply be an attendant-ghost in your command.”[42]
Similar tensions run throughout the brotherhood of Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu. Not only are women excluded from this exclusive circle, even Zhuge Liang faces discrimination. His close relationship with Liu Bei becomes a source of jealousy on the part of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, Liu Bei’s original sworn brothers. [43] Their hostility towards Zhuge resembles that of a wife who resents the new “concubine” who divides Liu Bei’s attention. Right from the outset, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu are against Liu Bei’s courting of Zhuge Liang. His promotion to Director General invites even further fury as his plans are constantly second-guessed by Zhang Fei, who at one juncture, chides Zhuge’s plan, “We all go to the slaughter, while you sit home, perfectly content and comfortable.”[44] When Liu Bei sides with his new general, Zhang Fei reluctantly submit, but “smiles coldly” replying, “We shall see,”[45] an ominous assurance of the tensions that would remain throughout the novel.
Liu Bei is equally loyal to the brotherhood, for he often relegates the importance of empire to secondary status whenever the brotherhood is threatened. Consequently, Liu Bei irrationally throws away his cause and goes against Zhuge Liang’s advice of launching an attack on Sun Quan when he learns of Guan Yu’s murder. With such solidarity of this brotherhood, it is not surprising that Lady Sun is so heartlessly exploited as bait by Zhuge Liang to preserve the Shu-Han dynasty, and more importantly, the brotherhood.
Against such a tight brotherhood, women do not stand a chance at penetrating into the men’s hearts in Water Margin and Three Kingdoms. Instead, they are marginalized. Even though in the Confucian context, Lady Sun and Diao Chan, represent the righteous wife and dutiful daughter, while Yan Poxi and Pan Jinlian are portrayed as shameless and debauched wives and daughters, removing our Confucian lens reveals that that females in the two novels are very much subordinated in the male universe and caged in a rigid caste-like organization. Although Confucianism elevates virtuous women to a superior reverence, the same principles can be simultaneously damning to the females, for they are punished if they do not concur with the system, which at its core is the brotherhood. Moreover, this essay has attempted to contend that perceptions are “malleable” according to the time period of its audience. While Yan Poxi and Pan Jinlian appear “villainous” in imperial China, they can also be empathized by modern audiences in the twenty and twenty-first centuries.
Works Cited:
Ye, Xianlong. “Notable Women during the Three
Kingdoms.” Romance of the Three
Kingdoms Frontier Discussion. <<http://www.3kingdoms.net/women.htm>>
(1999-2002)
Cheung, Samuel Hung-nin. “Structural Cyclicity in Shuihu Zhuan: From Self to Sworn
Brotherhood.” Chinoperl Papers. No. 15 (1990): 1-15.
Eber, Irene.
“Weakness and Power: Women in Water
Margin.” Women and Literature
in China. Ed. Gerstlacher, Anna. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1985: 3-28.
Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire: A History Of China To 1600. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 2000).
Hu, Ying. “Angling With Beauty: Two Stories of Women as Narrative Bait in
Sanguozhi yanyi.” Clear. No. 15 (December 1993): 99-112.
Hsia, C. T. Classic Chinese Novel. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
Owen, Stephen. “Introduction to Variety Plays: Guan Han-qing, Rescuing One of the
Girls (Jiu feng-chen). An Anthology of Chinese Literature. Ed. and Trans. Stephen Owen. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1996: 744-746.
Plaks, Andrew. The Four Masterful Works of the Ming Novel. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1987.
Novels Used for Citations:
Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms (Abridged Version). Trans. Moss Roberts.
Berkeley: Foreign Language Press/ University of California Press: 1999.
Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms (Unabridged Version). Trans. Moss Roberts.
Berkeley: Foreign Language Press/ University of California Press: 1999.
Shi, Naian and Luo Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount Liang, Part One: The Broken
Seals. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1994.
Shi, Naian and Luo Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount Liang, Part
Two: The Tiger
Killer. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1994.
Shi, Naian and Luo Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount Liang:
Excerpts of Chapters 21-
21. Trans. John and Alex Dent-Young. Renditions: A Chinese to English
Translation Magazine. No.40. (Autumn, 1993), 32-60.
[1] Hu Ying. “Angling With Beauty: Two Stories of Women as Narrative Bait in Sanguozhi
yanyi.” Clear. No. 15
(December
1993),p. 99
[2] Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms. Trans.
Moss Roberts. (Berkeley: Foreign Language Press/ University of
California Press: 1999),p.41.
[3] Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms. Trans.
Moss Roberts. (Berkeley: Foreign Language Press/ University of
California
Press: 1999),p.42.
[4] Hu Ying. “Angling With Beauty: Two Stories of Women as Narrative Bait in Sanguozhi
yanyi.” Clear. No. 15
(December
1993),p. 101-102.
[5] Stephen Owen. “Introduction to Variety Plays: Guan Han-qing, Rescuing One of the
Girls (Jiu feng-chen). An Anthology of Chinese Literature. Ed. and Trans. Stephen Owen. (New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1996),p.744-745.
[6] Hu Ying. “Angling With Beauty: Two Stories of Women as Narrative Bait in Sanguozhi
yanyi.” Clear. No. 15
(December
1993).,p.108.
[7] Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms (Unabridged Version). Trans.
Moss Roberts. (Berkeley: Foreign Language
Press/
University of California Press: 1999),
p.416.
[8] Ibid., p.418.
[9] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang: Excerpts of Chapters 21-21. Trans. John and Alex
Dent-Young.
Renditions: A Chinese to English
Translation Magazine. No.40. (Autumn,
1993), 35.
[10] Valerie Hansen. The Open Empire. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 2000).,p.387-389.
[11] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang: Excerpts of Chapters 21-21. Trans. John and Alex
Dent-Young.
Renditions: A Chinese to English
Translation Magazine. No.40. (Autumn,
1993).,p.36.
[12] Ibid.,p.44.
[13] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang: Excerpts of Chapters 21-21. Trans. John and Alex
Dent-Young. Renditions: A Chinese to
English Translation Magazine. No.40.
(Autumn, 1993), p.,34.
[14] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part Two: The Tiger
Killer. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young.
(Hong Kong: The Chinese University
Press, 1994).,p. 70.
[15] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part Two: The Tiger
Killer. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young.
(Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, 1994).,p.28.
[16] Cheung, Samuel
Hung-nin. “Structural Cyclicity in Shuihu
Zhuan: From Self to Sworn
Brotherhood.” Chinoperl
Papers. No. 15 (1990).,p.5.
[17] Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms (Abridged Version). Trans.
Moss Roberts. (Berkeley: Foreign Language
Press/ University of California Press: 1999), p.294.
[18] Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms (Abridged Version). Trans.
Moss Roberts. (Berkeley: Foreign Language
Press/ University of California Press: 1999),.p.106-107.
[19] Ibid.,p.103-105.
[20] Hu Ying. “Angling With Beauty: Two Stories of Women as Narrative Bait in Sanguozhi
yanyi.” Clear. No. 15
(December 1993),p. 104-105.
[21] Ibid., p.107.
[22] Ye, Xianlong. “Notable Women during the Three Kingdoms.” Romance of the Three Kingdoms Frontier.
<<http://www.3kingdoms.net/women.htm>> (1999-2002)
[23] Irene Eber. “Weakness and Power: Women in Water Margin.” Women and Literature in China. Ed. Gerstlacher,
Anna.
(Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1985),
p.13.
[24] Ibid., p.7.
[25] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part Two: The Tiger
Killer. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young.
(Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, 1994).,p.72.
[26] Irene Eber. “Weakness and Power: Women in Water Margin.” Women and Literaturein China. Ed. Gerstlacher,
Anna.
(Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1985),p.7.
[27] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part One: The Broken
Seals. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young.
(Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, 1994).,p.387.
[28] Irene Eber. “Weakness and Power: Women in Water Margin.” Women and Literature in China. Ed. Gerstlacher,
Anna. (Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1985).,p.15.
[29] Ibid., p.388.
[30] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part Two: The Tiger Killer. Trans. John and Alex
Dent-young. (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1994).,p.20.
[31] Irene Eber. “Weakness and Power: Women in Water Margin.” Women and Literature in China. Ed. Gerstlacher,
Anna. (Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1985).,p.13.
[32] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part Two: The Tiger
Killer. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young.
(Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, 1994).,p. 33.
[33] Ibid.,p.34.
[34] C.T.
Hsia. Classic Chinese Novel. (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1985)., 114.
[34] Andrew Plaks. The Four Masterful Works of the Ming
Novel. (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1987),p.405-
407.
[35] Samuel Hung-nin Cheung. “Structural Cyclicity in Shuihu Zhuan: From Self to Sworn
Brotherhood.” Chinoperl Papers. No. 15 (1990).,p. 5.
[36] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part Two: The Tiger
Killer. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young.
(Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, 1994).,p.36.
[37] Samuel Hung-nin Cheung. “Structural Cyclicity in Shuihu Zhuan: From Self to Sworn
Brotherhood.” Chinoperl Papers.
No. 15 (1990).,p. 5-6.
[38] Ibid., 6-7.
[39] Shi, Naian and Luo
Guanzhong. The Marshes of Mount
Liang, Part Two: The Tiger
Killer. Trans. John and Alex Dent-young.
(Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, 1994).,p.97.
[40] Irene Eber. “Weakness and Power: Women in Water Margin.” Women and Literaturein China. Ed. Gerstlacher,
Anna.
(Bochum: Brockmeyer,
1985).,p.8-9.
[41] Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms (Abridged Version). Trans.
Moss Roberts. (Berkeley: Foreign Language
Press/ University of California
Press: 1999).,p.95.
[42] C.T. Hsia. Classic Chinese Novel. (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1985)., 114.
[43] Andrew Plaks. The Four Masterful Works of the Ming
Novel. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987),p.435.
[44] Luo, Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms (Abridged Version). Trans.
Moss Roberts. (Berkeley: Foreign Language
Press/ University of California
Press: 1999), p.161.
[45] Ibid.,p.161.