Chinese Women & Families


 * Empress Wu -> Set the high-point for public women in power
 * Also represented a source of fear for women-in-power

The Family, the Basic Social Unit

 * Basic unit of Chinese Society
 * As early as neolithic it was very important
 * By Shang dynasty -> worship of ancestors had been established
 * The most unfilial act you can commit is to not have a son
 * Sons are MOST important


 * Stem family -> parents, their children, and a married child with his wife and own family
 * Extended family -> five generations at the same time is highly sought after
 * Great-grandfather > grandfather > father > son > grandson
 * Very hard to achieve b/c of emotional tensions/biology
 * If you achieved this though, you would receive a reward from the Emperor


 * Clans ->
 * All the men in a family living together
 * Sharing common land/space
 * All subservient to a single elder figure
 * Ocassionally, all the men in a Chinese village have the same name
 * Land/Farm in common
 * Temple in which worship of ancestors/lineage could take place
 * Also a common school for educating the boys of the family

Women in the Family

 * Women were very powerful within families
 * Often exerted great power thru their men

Rules for Women

 * One word: SUBMISSION
 * General idea for women in power is that they should yield to men, and others

Ban Zhao
"Always let her seem to tremble and to fear."
 * Wrote rules for women
 * In Han Dynasty

Cosmology and Roots of Women's Place

 * Yin/Yang
 * Yin represented women -> yielding nature
 * Yang is men -> rigidity
 * So Women's submissiveness comes out of their nature as Yin

Three Submissions

 * 1) Submission to father (early in life, father could decide her role)
 * 2) Submission to her husband and his family (mother-in-law in particular had a great deal of power of the wife)
 * 3) Submission to her son (more enjoyable and respectable)

Women's Work: The Inner Sphere and the Seclusion of Women

 * Women's work was domestic interior
 * Men's work outside the home in government or fields
 * Seclusion of women to prevent adultery
 * Indication of elite social staus

Footbinding

 * Begins in the 10th century
 * Could take about 10 years to do
 * Limited the woman's mobility (therefore seclusion and lack of access to adultery)
 * Small feet were beloved in this society
 * And were desired BY women as a status symbol