This week I read a short story about Chinese culture from the 1800s. Now the Chinese were not much involved with the Romantic Era, but this story sounds strangely romantic. It's called "Sunset" from Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. The Story is about a gentleman named Jin
who lived a life without joy and meaning. He became a tutor, but he remained depressed. "Late at night, when his pageboy and servants has dispersed, he was in the habit of pacing up and down in his study, a lonely, irresolute figure, his mood frequently one of profound melancholy" (Pu 427). On one such night as Jin paced, a visitor knocked on his door. He beheld a beautiful, young woman. Feeling bewitched, Jin let the young woman, Sunset, inside where they made love. The young girl wore a beaded bracelet that lit her path back home. Sunset continued visiting Jin at night. Jin questioned her identity, but she never answered him. Finally, one night he disclosed a dark family secret to Sunset. He revealed that a Wutong-Spirit possessed his niece. Sunset said that she was able to rid her of this spirit, and her servant tried to kill the spirit, but instead castrated the spirit. When Sunset's father, the Golden Dragon King, learned of this event, Sunset was no long able to visit Jin. During her final farewell, Sunset left Jin with a way to stay young and promised to see him again in thirty years. The story concludes with Jin crossing a river thirty years later as Sunset drew nigh to his boat. However, as she approached, she shrank smaller and smaller until she disappeared leaving Jin without a second chance to love his youthful lover.
I compared the story with William Blake, one of the major poets and painters of the Romantic Era. In his poem "Ah! Sunflower," Blake employs romantic elements found also in "Sunset. The natural image of the sunflower signifies humanity's desire for the perpetual knowledge and the promise it affords for the future. "Ah Sunflower, weary of time, / Who contests the steps of the sun; / Seeking after that sweet golden clime / Where the traveler's journey is done" (Blake 1-4). This first stanza discusses humanity's want to know the future. In "Sunset," Jin grew melancholy because he was not in balance with nature and destiny. He craved balance. Just like the sunflower, Jin also "grew weary of time." He sought the "golden clime." Jin remained young after Sunset departed in hopes of the "golden clime." Time ceased for their love; however, they interrupted the balance of nature, intellect and spirituality because Sunset has a spiritual being castrated out of the desire of her love, so they never finished their "traveler's journey."
