Reading Music and Eroticism in Late Ming Texts - Assignment Example

Précis and Critique of Article Article Précis and Critique: Reading Music and Eroticism in Late Ming Texts Article Précis The erotic expressions in the late Ming society were articulated such that only the targeted audience would understand them, and thus such expressions are opaque to anyone who has no knowledge of the Ming erotic-musical practices (Lam, 2010). Thus, whether taking the form of literary writing, memoirs, topical reports or poems, the Ming texts only give sketchy references in relation to the erotic music and musical activities that occurred is this society, through alluding to female seductive and eroticized sounds, without any solid mentioning of the specific acts (Lam, 2010). Nevertheless, the fictional and the factual reports and other written texts of the Ming culture highly differ in the manner in which they report the eroticism of the Ming society. While the factual/historical texts only alludes to the existence of erotic emotions, impulses and practices within this society, the fictional texts provide for the expression of erotic musical impulses and emotions in revealing and great details (Lam, 2010). However, the understanding of the Ming erotic culture is made difficult one major factor. The historical/factual texts only provides limited references to the erotic practices, emotions and impulses, while the fictional and informal texts provides a detailed account of the existence and expression of erotic practices, emotions and impulses in this society, making the reader confused on what to believe (Lam, 2010). Thus, owing to the reigning confusion, the concept of Ming erotic musical can be understood well through the application of the concept of muisking (Lam, 2010). The concept of musiking is well understood through focusing on the ways the late Ming courtesans sang and performed their music before the clients. Through understanding the sexual needs of their clients, the Ming courtesans would play their music in a manner that was explicitly employing distinctive sounds that would announce their availability for sex, while at the same time negotiating the performance in such a way that it would arouse the feelings of the targeted clients and fill the client with sexual desires (Lam, 2010). Thus, through musiking, the parading of expressive erotic sexual intentions and desires became the art of the late Ming musical cultures, where only the individuals who were well acquainted with this culture would understand the expressions, suggestions and negotiations of sexual and carnal objectives. Article Critique The argument to the effect that the erotic-music culture of the Ming society is a highly complex subject to understand is convincing, considering the fact that the author presents the concept of musiking as the most applicable concept for creating understanding on the erotic musical culture of the Ming. The author of the article holds that understanding the erotic musical culture of the Ming is highly complex, since the information provided by both the historical/factual and late Ming texts are minimal, while at the same time not being readily comprehensible (Lam, 2010). The available evidence has indicated that the late Ming society would keep their erotic and sexual matters in great privacy, which then means that understanding them would not be easy. Further, to the people who are not familiar with the Ming culture, understating the Ming musical and erotic culture is hard, owing to the fact that the existing factual references are opaque to a larger extent (Lam, 2010). On the other hand, the fictional and the informal references are many and greatly detailed, such that they give a wide range of information in relation to the manipulation of the late Ming music for erotic expression. However, the main problem associated with the fictional and informal references is that their credibility and reliability is in doubt, owing to the fact that such references might be exaggerated or imaginary (Lam, 2010). The author’s evidence in relation to the argument; that only the application of the concept of musiking can be able to create a full understanding of the erotic musical culture of the Ming, is based on the comparison of the factual/historical Ming texts on the one hand, and the fictional/informal texts on the other hand, as a way of showing the complexity of understanding music and eroticism in the Ming culture (Gulik, 2004). The Ming society is a highly conservative cultural society, where erotic impulses, desires or emotions are not expressed openly, but through highly concealed methods that are only understandable to the people who are versed with this society and its culture (Lam, 2010). In this respect, music plays a central role in the expression of the erotic desires, impulses and emotions, but the convergence of music and words in the Ming cultural society is an area that has only been researched by a few (Lam, 2010). The major factor that makes it necessary to study the convergence of words and music in the Ming culture is the fact that the erotic-musical culture of the Ming society no longer exists, such that it is difficult to understand this erotic musical culture from studying music. The strength of the central argument emanates from the fact that the existing references are comparable in the nature of information they offer in relation to the musical culture of the Ming (Lam, 2010). The fictional and informal late Ming texts have been considered as an important source of historical social and cultural evidence, enabling a more understanding of contemporary Ming society. For example, Chen Qinghao has argued that; although the fictional references might be unreliable and undependable, the Ming erotic fiction has “preserved a wealth of data on sex customs and subjectivities of the time” (Lam, 2010). However, the authors assumptions is that the high amount of the fictional late Ming text makes them reliable, which is farfetched, since the fact that the fictional sources could be imaginary or highly exaggerated cannot be ignored. In addition, the author has a high bias that favors the collaboration of the fictional late Ming references. This is because, the author holds that the fictional late Ming texts cannot be ignored, due to the fact that they provide a highly collaborated account of the expression of erotic feelings and desires through musical performance (Lam, 2010). Thus, while there is a great need to study both music and words in order to understand how music was being applied in the Ming cultural society to express erotic impulses and desires, two major factors make the study of the Ming erotic-musical culture a big challenge. First, the issue of scanty, opaque and less detailed historical/factual records makes it difficult to venerate fully into the concept of erotic musical culture of the Ming society, since the available factual texts do not openly relate the music culture of the society with eroticism (Lam, 2010). Secondly, while the historical and factual documents related to the erotic-musical culture of the Ming society are opaque and scanty, the fictional and informal accounts of the same are highly detailed, revealing suggestive information on the existence of erotic-musical culture in the Ming society (Lam, 2010). Further, such informal and fictional documentation of the erotic-musical culture of the Ming is well collaborated, such that the fictional records can easily reference one another, making it hard to ignore them. Thus, it is the conflict between these aspects that highly complicates the understanding of the Ming musical culture. Nevertheless, while appreciating the fact that understanding the erotic-musical culture of the Ming is a major challenge, most especially to the people who are not well acquainted with the Ming culture, the existence of a great number of fictional late Ming texts is suggestive of a high possibility that the texts could be an accurate reflection of the Ming culture of music. Additionally, the fact that the limited factual Ming text references that exist do not contradict the accounts given by the fictional texts, also points to the possibility of the fictional accounts of the erotic-musical culture of Ming being accurate(Gulik, 2004). Therefore, the question that remains an answered is; why then should the subject of the erotic-musical culture of the Ming be considered complex, yet the available large amounts of the late Ming texts provide sufficient account of the culture? References Gulik, R. H. (2004). Erotic colour prints of the Ming period: With an essay on Chinese sex life from the Han to the Ching dynasty, B.C. 206-A.D. 1644. Leiden: Brill. Lam, J.C. (2010). Reading Music and Eroticism in Late Ming Texts. Nan Nü 12, 215-254. Read More