Abstract
The case study concerns the construction of the image of the beloved and the justification of the process of falling in love in European and Chinese texts. Analogies seem to confirm the universals in the human affective field: the sight is catalyst for love, in the sequence starting from the apparition of an image to the falling in love both in European and Chinese literatures. But behind this similar phenomenon different are explanations, ideological justifications and mythical references. Late Medieval and Renaissance European poetry developed a representation of love process which became a kind of conventional motif in the rhetoric of love. This rich tradition linking love to sight as a channel for falling in love, and to the glance as a vehicle for seduction could be traced back to Plato (Phaedrus) and Aristotle’s optical theory. From Chrétien de Troyes to Dolce stil novo poets and later eyes may have a double catalyst function, according to intromissional and extramissional theories. These two elements of the image and its re-construction by memory and rumination can be found in the Chinese legend of the man of letters who falls in love by contemplating a female image painted on a screen, from the story “Zhu Ao” 朱敖 to Feng Menglong’s Zhenzhen 真真 and Pu Songling’s “Wall Fresco” (Huabi 畫壁), but the image can play various roles, like in the case of Phoenix Sprite 鳳仙. Thus, in front of various analogies, the elaboration of the philosophical, cosmic and physiological explanations follow different ways: in Medieval and Renaissance Europe the phantasma plays an important role, in a dialectical tension between body and soul. In late Ming-early Qing tales, the fantasmatic process, which involves imagination and memory is rather associated with the concept of the illusory nature of passions and desires and the cultivation process within the Neo-Confucian and Buddhist doctrines.
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Notes
Cf. Ciavolella (1976) and Ferrand (1994). The conception of the physiological basis of passions was resumed in the seventeenth century, by Jacques Ferrand’s classic essay, Traité de l'essence guérison et de l'amour: it tries to solve the contradiction between free will and determinism, distinguishing two stages, a pre-pathological and hence ethical (for which apply preventive measures), and a post-pathological, and then medical (for which apply the treatment), but they are closely interlinked. According to the prevailing medical doctrine of the time, he identifies in the combustion of humours due to the heat generated by passions the origin of those harmful vapors that permeate the organism, obscuring the mind, corrupting the imagination and confusing the reason. This physiological process, however, is accompanied by a psychological one, that derives from the fixing of desire on the object: its image, after being captured by the sensory organs (eyes, in general), once it is idealized by the fantasy, is etched in the mind, causing a loss of contact with reality.
In Greek literature a clear antecedent can be found in “The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon”, by Achilles Tatius in the second century. It contains an explicit reference to the love wound through the eyes: "I suddenly saw a maiden on her left, who blinded my eyes, as with a stroke of lightning, by the beauty of her face. […] Directly 1 saw her, I was lost: for beauty wounds deeper than any arrow and strikes down through the eyes into the soul; the eye is the passage for love's wound." (Achilles Tatius 1917, Book I, 3–4, p. 15). Furthermore, one should not forget Epicurean thought and simulacra (idol-images) in Lucretius’ poem: (De rerum natura IV, 1058–1272).
Grimbert (2005, p. 127).
Biernoff (2002, p. 59) examines the role of the glance in love and demonstrates that in Medieval French romance love strikes both males and females through eyes.
Cf. Stewart (2003, pp. 41–50). Stewart’s study examines the importance of sight in relation to the imagination, and the representation of gazing in late-Medieval love poetry, from the late twelfth to the early fourteenth centuries (Chrétien de Troyes, the poets of Sicilian school, Cavalcanti, Dante). The volume focuses on how subjectivity and gender roles are constructed by the use made by poets of contemporary optical theories. The allegory of Cupid and his arrows, passing the eyes into the heart, is traced back to the Aristotelian optical theory. It explains also the paradox in the Medieval French poetry and the Sicilian School of the reversal of gender roles and the subjugation of male as a pretext for the poet's self-exploration. Alexander of Aphrodisias (ca 2nd–3rd centuries) identified arrows with the lover’s sight (Agamben 1993, pp. 124).
Cf. Stewart (2003).
Cf. Nelli (1974, p. 351).
Boncompagno da Signa (1996, pp. 40–41).
Cavalcanti, Rime XXXI, “O tu, che porti negli occhi sovente”, ending with “The first [arrow] is one of disquieting pleasure,/The second of desire filled with longing/For the great joy that the third wound brings. (A. S. Kline’s translation).
“vèn da veduta forma che s'intende”, Cavalcanti, Rime XXVII.
“De simil tragge—complessione sguardo che fa parere—lo piacere—certo:” (Cavalcanti, Rime XXVII). English transl. by Jefferson B. Fletcher (1910, p. 426).
Cavalcanti, Rime XIII.
Cavalcanti, Sonnet V, cit. by Maria Luisa Ardizzone (2002, p. 20).
The passive condition is described with various metaphors. For instance it can be compared with the condition of the prisoner: "E s'eo no agio aiuto/d'Amor che m'ave e tene in sua pregione,/non so che corte mi faza rasone" [if I do not receive help from Love, who keeps me enslaved, I do not know which court can do me justice]. Quoted in Russell (1980, p. 369).
On the role of light in the Divina Commedia, see Akbari (2004, pp. 138–177).
Petrarch, "Scattered verses", CXII,11.
Cf. Baldwin (1991, pp. 797–819).
Jacopo da Lentini, “Maravigliosamente”.
Jacopo da Lentini, Rime, XIX; cf. Agamben (1993, p. 82). See also “Or come pote sì gran donna entrare” (How can my woman enter my eyes, Sonetti XXII). Agamben (1993, pp. 79–82) quotes Lai de l’ombre (The reflected image, verses 882, 893). by J. Renart and some verses by Jacopo da Lentini, one of the chief exponents of the Sicilian School. For the last lines reference is made to Galletti and Chiorboli (1958, vol. I, p. 42).
Boccaccio (1929, p. 76).
Ibn Al-Haitam (965–1040), known in the west as Alhazen, and considered to be the greatest Muslim doctor and one of the greatest researches of optics for all times, was one of the best commentators of Galen and Aristotle. He discovered that light does not originate from the eye but enters the eye: lens is the receptive organ of sight and with retina is the center of vision, and the impressions that it receives are transferred to the brain by the optical nerve, allowing it to create visual images. He mediated between the intromission theory that maintained that all visible objects give off eidola perceived by the eye, and the extramission theory that claimed that sight works by beams of light emitted by eyes towards things. For a general survey see also the chapter “The Psychology of Sight”, in Collette (2001, pp. 1–31). For an emblematic later example, cf. Leone Ebreo’s description of the power of sight: “solamente i raggi de gli occhi con uno solo guardo sogliono fare, cioè, il mutuo amore, & la reciproca affettione” (the rays of the eyes normally accomplish with a single glance: mutual love and reciprocal affection) (1565: 105). And it follows: “che se la splendida bellezza tua non mi fusse intrata per li occhi, non mi harebbe possuto trapassare tanto, come fece, il senso, e la fantasìa: & penetrando sino al cuore….” (p. 107, “if your radiant beauty had not entered through my eyes it could not have perforated my perception and imagination as deeply as it did: it couldn’t either have penetrated my heart …”. Tr. by Bacich and Pescatori (Leone Ebreo 2009).
Cf. Agamben (1993, p. 123). On the role of pneuma and fantasy, ibidem, pp. 105–129.
Italian text cited by Agamben (1993, p. 123), English translation by A.S. Kline (online http://www.brindinpress.com/pivb5420.htm).
Akbari (2004, pp. 114–137). She notices “Throughout his works, Dante moves between different models of vision: he uses an extramission model based on Plato’s theories when he wishes to stress the power of the seeing subject, and intromission models such as those of Albertus Magnus and Witelo when he wishes to stress the power of the object seen” (p. 116).
Ardizzone (2002, pp. 19–20). Stewart (2003), in her survey of Medieval optical theory and a discussion of the relation of sight to imagination in late Medieval poetry, distinguishes the Stoic-Galenic-Platonic optical theory that regards sight as an active function and the Aristotelian-Averroistic theory that considers sight as a passive reception of the forms of objects. Chrétien de Troyes, reflecting Aristotelian optical science, in Cligés equates the beloved's image to Cupid's arrow as it penetrates the lover's eyes and heart. She underlines the syncretic practice of Cavalcanti. See also Cline (1971, pp. 262–298) that considers Chrétien’s Cligès and the Roman d'Enéas as a witnesses of the influence of Arab ideas on the role of eyes in the process of falling in love: Aristotelian optical theory came back to Europe through Averroes, widespread in Arab culture, especially Arab erotic literature (p. 296). For Akbari (2004, p. 122) Cavalcanti used the Platonic extramission theory because it is the fiery beam that causes damage to the heart of the lover and creates the burning heat of passion.
Boccaccio (1964). canto 1, strofa 29.
Boccaccio (1929, p. 147, canto 1, strophe 29).
Dante. Vita nuova, 2.9.
Cit. in Akbari (2004, p. 117).
See Akbari (2004, pp. 116–125). Akbari mentions Dante’s gaze of another lady, after the death of Beatrice. Dante however considers that his attraction to the “gentil donna” (gracious lady) is a betrayal of his superior love for Beatrice. So he blames the wantonness of his eyes looking for simulacra, and opposes the image coming from a real lady against the image from inner eye.
Cornish (2009, p. 865) explains: “Whatever Beatrice is—whether the Church or a real girl who lived and died in Florence (or both)—she also represents the reconciliability of love, even sensual love, with reason—which is itself an anti-Cavalcantian theme. In the very beginning of the Vita nuova Dante had remarked that the most amazing thing about the overpowering, debilitating effect of this young woman on her trembling lover was that her image never suffered love to rule over him without the faithful counsel of reason. It is precisely this harmonious concord between love and reason that seems to have been at the root of the poet's own discord with his poet-friend Guido Cavalcanti who defined love as an irrational, destructive passion.”
Ferrand (1610, cap. IV, pp. 29–31; online http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b86268170/f1.double.shift). See also footnote 2.
However we should not forget, as Steadman (1998, p. 75) notes, on the footsteps of Edgard Wind, “the Neoplatonic tradition of the Italian Renaissance was essentially an eclectic tradition, combining traditions allegedly derived from Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Hermes with the negative or mystical theology of pseudo-Dionysius and the Neoplatonic philosophers of late antiquity, it associated them also with the topos of the arcane wisdom concealed in pagan religious mysteries and myths, and with belief in the esoteric ‘mysteries’ hidden in the Scriptures.”
Cf. Balas (1995, p. 114). Cf. also, in Ficino’s commentary, the two lights human souls are equipped with are one natural and the other supernatural. For Lorenzo de’ Medici there were three kinds of beauty: the beauty of soul, perceived by mind; the beauty of body which delights the eye; the beauty of voice which delights the ear. Ibidem, p. 147. The contemporary masterpieces like the sensuous nudes painted during the Renaissance like Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" reflected the Neoplatonic ideals elaborated by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. Cf. Gardner (1914, pp. IX–XXVII, https://archive.org/details/platonickdiscour00picouoft).
Ariosto 1755, Canto 7, p. 84.
Cf. Agamben (1993, p. 81). Jacopo da Lentini explains how a woman can enter the eyes: like light passes through glass, so her figure and not the person penetrates into heart through eyes (no la persona, ma la sua figura). See also ibidem, pp. 84–104.
Hennessey (2011, pp. 1–4) demonstrates how artistic, literary and visual representations of images merged the natural world with the human body and were created and developed from the hybridization of the three doctrines (sanjiao).
An essay by the eighth-century Daoist and poet Wu Yun 吳筠 on the mind's realization of the Dao, “On Mind and Eyes” (Xinmu lun 心目論), points out the ambivalent power of eyes: “It may pursue tranquility but will only give rise to new agitation; it may push out defilements but will only stir up deeper dregs. The eyes understand that the active pursuit of immortality is counter-productive. It is far better to withdraw into quietude and merge with the invisible and inaudible, find peace in emptiness and openness.” (Kohn 1998, p. 145). The essay starts with the opposition of the mind and the eyes, as the sensory involvement of people in the world, especially by the eyes, are harmful to immortality. Next, it establishes mind and eyes in dialogue and ends with mind and eyes as the most essential starting points for mystical practice: “The eyes, far from the negative disturber of the peace that literature tends to make them out, in this text turn around to look inward and focus their penetrating vision on the mind. From a sense organ centered on the world, they have become the eyes of the soul which look inward ‘to find its true state, to correct its mistakes, to cleanse away its impurities’” (ibidem 144).
Cf. Jinhua Jia (2016, pp. 458–461).
Yueji 樂記, Record of Music, transmitted as a chapter of the Confucian Classic Memory of Rites, Liji 禮記, 7.
Here a centuries-old debate is evoked, on consonance between internal experience and visual reality, emotions and image (qing-jing 情景) and their interaction, which concerns the aesthetics and literary criticism. It may also refer to the creative process in the mind of the poet with the spontaneous arousal of emotions in front of a scenery or a special thing. Contemporary neurosciences have elaborated the concept of mindscape on the creative power of mind in front of a scenery (Lingiardi 2017). However this relationship is relevant too, as it refers to particular events or objects capable of evoking a situation or feeling experienced in the past, or a person met a long time before.
James Liu (1975, pp. 16–62). Another vein that here we have no space to discuss is the cosmic tradition with the interpretation of the heavenly figures and earthly forms (“In the heavens figures are formed, and on the earth bodies are formed. Changes and transformations are there manifestations” 在天成象, 在地成形, 變化見矣) from the Classic of Changes (Yijing 易經, Xici I 繫辭上), which does not concern only the practices of divination, but also language and communication (cf. Arrault 2002, pp. 318–322).
Muzhai youxueji 牧齋有學集, 48 有學集卷四十八, 5, cit. in Wu Hongyi 吳宏一 & Ye Qingbing 葉慶炳, (1981, I, p. 58).
See for instance “eyes enjoy all colours and images” 目好之五色 (Xunxi 荀子, Quanxue 勸學, 18; Shiji, Lishu 禮書, 2). For Xunzi, senses make distinctions, and generate desires; thus love is only indirectly involved.
The story "Zhu Ao" is told in Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (334:15b–16a, in Biji xiaoshuo daguan, book 4: 352–353). The protagonist has the same surname as the main character of Pu Songling’s "Wall Fresco". Besides this sentimental trend, a naturalistic interpretation is explicitely expressed at the beginning of the late Ming novel JinPingMei cihua, after the initial poem: “passions and sexual attraction are two terms, one is essence and the other the function: the splendour of beauty is admired by eyes, while passion is perceived by heart. Passion and attraction nurture each other, while heart and eyes reciprocally feel them”. 情色二字乃一體一用。故色絢于目、 情感于心、 情色相生、 心目相視。
In the West, see the psychologist Louis Alfred Maury’s dream of 1865, as described by Sigmund Freud ("The Interpretation of Dreams", 1913 ed., ch. 1). He dreamed "that he was about to be guillotined, and woke up to find that a lath from the head of the bed had fallen and was pressing upon his neck”.
Feng Menglong tells the story under the title Zhenzhen 真真, in the subsection of Qingshi (9: 254) dealing with illusions arising from paintings (Huahuan畫幻); he takes it in toto from “Extensive Records of the Taiping Era”, (Taiping guangji, 286: 28, 1983, vol. 4 p. 255). In Europe, the legend of Pygmalion, recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, was taken up in more dramatic fashion in the Roman de le Rose, which points out the morbid nature of this love, lying somewhere between narcissistic fetishism (it is no accident that the Narcissus story, another allegory of a fol amour for an image, is used as a pendant at the beginning of the poem) and a grotesque religious-idolatrous pathos (Le Roman de la Rose, lines 20821–21032; Agamben 1993, pp. 73–77; Fleming 1969). Note however that, as Agamben observes (1993, pp. 97–98), the significance of the Narcissus myth in medieval times did not so much involve love of the self, but rather the illusion of falling in love with a reflected image, a shadow which was taken for a real being. For China, a legend recorded by Li Ruzhen may recall Narcissus to some extent: the pheasant is extremely fond of its plumage, and so often looks at itself in the water to admire its image; its vision clouds over and it falls into the water and dies (Jinghua yuan, 20:93; this legend is recounted in "The treatise on all topics", Bowuzhi 博物志, third century). For three feminine images, cf. Honglou meng, 68:875, 97:1256 and 5:54.
Pu (1978) Liaozhai zhiyi, 8.
Wang (1981) Xixiangji 西廂記, 2.4 第二本第四折[越調·鬥鵪鶉].
Pu (1978) Liaozhai zhiyi, The Eighth Prince, 6.
Cu wo maoling 促我茂龄: it shortened my life of its springtime.
Pu (1978) Liaozhai zhiyi, Clay Statue, 5.
See the beginning of the fifth tractate on love (Erós), in The Six Enneads, by Plotinus (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/plotinus/p72e/part3.5.html).
Tang Xianzu (1962) (Mudanting, “Peony pavilion”, 2:1094).
Precedents can be found in Daoist legends, as the motive of the widower who thinks of his dead wife and turns to a Daoist who can unite the living and the dead, in the zhiguai story of the Soushenji 搜神記, Yinling daoren 營陵道人. Cf. Hsieh (2007, p. 189).
The heroine of "Karmic Bonds of Reincarnation" (Zaishengyuan 再生缘) by the female author Chen Duansheng 陳端生 (1751–1796 ca.) transgresses the boundaries that mark of sexual chastity for women, and moreover fulfills social aspirations for independent self-realisation and a career. Cf. Zou Ying (2012).
Pu (1978) Liaozhai zhiyi, A Girl of Waving 9:1223–1224.
Cf. Agamben (1993, p. 98). In his essay (pp. 71–155) Agamben analyses, starting from the Roman de la Rose, the role of the love for an image, expressed in the allegories of Narcissus and Pygmalion.
Agamben (1993, pp. 105–145).
Feng (1983), 16:6.
Cao and Gao (1998) Honglou meng, ch. 4, 6, 21, 22, 24, etc., and ch. 6, 40, respectively.
Cf. Ling (1985) Erke pai’an jingqi 14:293.
Le (1978) Ershilu, 4189.
Lu Changchun (1983) Xiangyinlou bintan, 1:2. And again in the third story of the "Ancient and modern tales", “Wu Shan lowered his head to throw the girl an intense look, and she in turn watched him intently with her magnificent eyes” (Wu Shan di zhe tou jun na xiao furen, zhe xiao furen yi shuang junqiao yan qu zhe Wu Shan 吳山低著頭晙那小婦人, 這小婦人一雙俊俏眼覷著吳山 (Feng 1991a, b. Gujin xiaoshuo, 3:183). And we find a similar case in Pu Songling: "a young girl […] was looking at Wang, sending him seductive glances filled with love; so elegant was she, and lovely of bearing that she seemed like a fairy. Wang was a man of honest and upright principles, but he was so struck by the sight of the girl that he felt himself lost”… xiaonü… wangjian Wang qiubo pingu, meimu han qing, yidu xianwang, shi shenxian ye. Wang su fang zhi, zhi ci wang ruo shi 小女 …望見王秋波頻顧,眉目含情, 儀度嫻婉, 實神仙也. 王素方直, 至此惘然若失 (Pu (1978) Liaozhai zhiyi, Yatou, 5:600).
Feng (1986) Qingshi 18:550.
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Santangelo, P. The lover’s eye: image and love in medieval-renaissance Europe and late imperial China. Int. Commun. Chin. Cult 5, 173–195 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40636-018-0117-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40636-018-0117-6