THREE WAYS TO READ A LOVE LETTER IN LATE MING

Abstract

Epistolary guides from late Ming, ca. late-sixteenth century to early-seventeenth century, furnish model letters and vocabulary to enhance skills in writing that were deemed necessary for the conduct of daily life, but generally omit qingshu, the love letter. In a recent study of Chinese epistolary literature, Zhao Shugong observes that the absence of the genre is striking. Particularly in light of the nuance of sentiment in letters of social intercourse, on human nature, or discoursing on various subjects, the lack of amorous epistolary writing confounds the expectation that the genre of qingshu would capture a still greater range and depth of feeling. However, there are a few seventeenth-century literary miscellanies that are entirely devoted to qingshu, which add commentary and summarize the lessons one might draw from them. The format and content of these miscellanies suggest that the ubiquity of epistolary guides in the early-seventeenth century fed into the creation of a new kind of fiction in letter form.