When Women Ruled the Earth

Before my cancer, I was working on a web site and writing up an NEH grant to prove that in Asia, women were once rulers. I even presented papers on this at conferences.

Those Daring, Dying, Flying Women

Women in Asia suffer from oppressive political and social practices. Such practices find their creative voices in genres of strange takes about ghosts and the supernatural.

"The thriving eighteenth-century Chinese institutions of footbinding, sutte [dying with the husband], concubinage, chastity, and sanctions against remarriage all attest to  [Chinese ] women's subservient status. . . . Against this cultural background, it is surprising how all women are portrayed in Qing 'records of anomalies ' [like Pu Songling's Strange Tales] " (McCraw 32).

The supernatural became part of the Jian Hu or sword and sorcery tales involving martial arts, love, betrayals, and curses.

Ang Lee's Wo hu cang long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000) remains the greatest foreign box office hit of all time.  Some of my students in my kung fu films class commented that they liked how the women were the best fighters in the film and how it promoted feminist ideas, which they think is rare for Asian kung fu films.   What they didn't realize is that Asian lore has quite a few woman warriors. 

Indeed, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was not so big a hit in Asia (besides Taiwan) because it seems to be a story that audiences were all too familiar with.   In the final scene, Jen Yu (played by Zhang Ziyi) jumps off a cliff and flies to her death because of her mistakes.  Those daring, dying, flying women are a part of the powerful cult of the Asian matriarchy that needs some examination because we missed something whenever we allowed men to rule with absolute power.  See the final scene of Crouching Tiger.

Women  as warriors and spiritual beings demand respect. Though Jen Yu sacrifices her life for the death she inadvertently caused by her teacher, Master Li Mu Bai (played by Chow Yun-Fat),  karmic reactions will also occur for her death.  Her death will cause the rise of a vengeful ghost that men will have to face. 

"A woman may be reborn as a male in the next life." - - the Kishitigarbha Vow Sutra

The dead can return to haunt the living. Men often feared the suicide of women for their signification often had tragic consequences in their own lives.  They fear the ghosts and demons of the night who return with a voice that must be heard, for revenge is a powerful weapon that causes nightmares throughout the psyche of Asian men who did not respect the women they oppressed.  Though speaking of Japanese exorcism, the same can be applied to Chinese exorcisms, Yuki Miyamoto states,

"Spirit possession thus functioned as a channel by which those who did not otherwise have the means to be heard--often women--could find a voice " (142-3).  Furthermore, Miyamoto points out that in the West if anyone could talk to the dead, they became the dead as witches were often burned to death (143). 

In Asian culture, vengeful women must be respected.  The Hong Kong film Xiao ao jing hu zhi: Dong Fang Bu Bai (Swordsman 2 1992), portrays a very strong woman Dong Fan Bu Bia, Asia the Invincible  (played by Brigitte Lin). When she is double-crossed by Ling Wu Chung (played by Jet Li), we have another flying woman ending her life.  Even though Jet Li tries to save her (after he tries to kill her), she refuses to be saved because she has been betrayed by her love.  Who is she?  Watch the concluding scene:

Remember fox spirits practice, caibu, an act of  "sexual parasitism," the stealing of energy from males, specifically the semen (yang energy) and a way to keep their yin energy alive  (Huntington 86). When alive, men can oppress, control,  and even rape women. But in death, the oppression is reversed, women as ghosts can control, oppress, and even steal their manliness.  

In both Crouching Tiger and Swordsman II, the female protagonists, both Jen Yu, the hidden dragon,  and Asia the Invincible leaped into the sky falling toward their deaths.  Yes, they possessed the power to fly. Yes, as their last act, they chose to die by flight. 

Through such magic powers,  they also chose the moment of their demise and the agent of that end was flight.  That choice made their deaths a more potent poison to those who betrayed them. Even in death, their energy, spirit, and potential promise remain alive.  

As a  momentary eternal lingering or revengeful remembrance, the final act of those daring, dying,  flying women are captured in our mind's heart reminding us of what could have been by the promises of the cult of matriarchy: justice, peace, and love.   Instead, we are consumed by the promises and realities of the cult of patriarchy: wars, greed, and lust.  Long live the peaceful cult. 

Men did not always think they were in control of Asia. Thus, such was not always the case. Indeed, there remains strong evidence of a matriarchy that once ruled and of its recurring appearance in Asian history.  The ghost stories keep it alive.

End Note

1.  Actually Asia the Invincible, though played by a beautiful actress, Brigitte Lin,  is a man who was going through a sex change to become a woman as a way to become a powerful warrior. Ling Wu Chung discovered Asia in her/his final stages as s/he was becoming a female.  Men have too much yang, so some warriors have their penises removed as a way to be more powerful.  Men warriors practice yin techniques to become more powerful.  There is a reason that eunuchs are always the most powerful villains in kung fu films.  

Works Cited

McCraw, David, R.  "Stalking the Qing Ghost Story." Literary History, Narrative, and Culture: Selected Conference Papers. Ed. Wimal Dissanayake and Steven Bradbury. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. 25-39. 

Miyamoto, Yuki. "Possessed and Possessing: Fox-possession and discrimination against the wealthy in the modern period in Japan."  Culture and Religion 7.2 (July 2006): 139-154.

The Bodhisattva Kishitigarbha Vow Sutra. http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/2/ksitigarbha_sutra.htm opens in new window

 A version of this was originally presented to the class: Hum 4133 Women, Witches and Religion 12:30-1:45PM    Oct 07, 2008  LAR 239 at the University of Central Oklahoma, which was composed almost entirely of women. Imagine that.