Gender Identity and Literati Identity in Late Imperial China

This thesis investigates the relative gender relations and gender dynamics in two erotic novels about Wu Zetian —Ruyijun Zhuan如意君传 from the Ming Dynasty and Konghejian Miji 控鹤监秘记from the Qing Dynasty. By analyzing the different narratives of sexual activities in the two novels, this thesis proposes a new perspective on reading erotica works in late imperial China, which could be a reflection of the subcurrents of the political, social, and ideological contexts of the respective time periods. This thesis focuses on the historical context of the Ming and the Qing Dynasties that implicitly led to the differences and continuities in the construction of literati scholars' male identity, which was in turn mirrored in the constructions of sexual dynamics in the two erotica works.