EAST 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Battletech, Foot Binding, Separate Spheres
15 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
Women, Gender, and Literature in the Ming and Qing
*Ming and Qing are often discussed together in terms of influence
Women and Gender in the Late Imperial Period (14th -20th C.)
• 2 main questions:
o In what ways did women challenge or resist traditional gender norms?
o In what ways did they reinforce traditional gender ideology?
• Dorothy Ko, Talet, Virtue, ad Beauty: Reritig Woahood
o How we understand footbinding vs dominant Western interpretation
Confucian Gender Ideology: Doctrine of Separate Spheres
• Inner sphere: domestic sphere
o Confined to realm of household and responsible for domestic affairs ('women's work':
cooking, sewing, child-raising)
• Outer sphere: public and social
o public office, politics, literature, etc
• Spheres become more separated in this time; especially compared to Song dynasty
• Two aspects of this separation:
o Physical separation
o Functional distinction
• Photo of building: The Inner Quarters
o Where women are secluded within their own household; men are not allowed to enter
Women and Gender in Confucian Society
• Thrice Following (sancong 三從): father, husband, son
o Women are dependent on their father, their husband, and then their son
• Book of Rites: The oa follos [ad oeys] the a:—in her youth, she follows her father and
elder brother; when married, she follows her husband; when her husband is dead, she follows her
so. Blak 7
• Woaly irtue: oediee ad hastity
o Loyal to her husband's family
o These ideas remain strong in the late imperial period
Women and Gender in the Late Imperial Period (14th -20th C.)
In what ways did women challenge or resist traditional gender norms?
In what ways did they reinforce traditional gender ideology?
• Literary education, writing, and publication
o Women engaging in something that was traditionally reserved for men (part of public
sphere)
o Publication: women's words were not supposed to leave the inner quarters. When they start
publishing, it challenged the boundaries of inner and outer
o But this also reinforces the boundaries and traditional gender roles in a way
• Beauty: footbinding
o Restricts women's movement and involvement in society
o Not simple; there are complex motives behind this
• Late Imperial Period: New conception of womanhood
o talent (cai 才), virtue (de 德), beauty (mei 美)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
O Readig Drafts of My “ister’s Work
By Zhang Wanying (trans. Susan Mann)
Ephemeral life is like water flowing:
Suddenly we have been separated by death all these years.
Tears well up as an early autumn begins.
A distant ghost dreams and draws me in,
A crane flies, set off against the moon,
A flower falls, suffused with golden sunlight.
On this day under the western window
In a quiet moment I recite your catkin verses.
• Poem: social context, family context, woman-woman element
• “igifiae of Woe’s Writigs
• Education
• Voice and publication
o Comes mostly from elite women; gives them a voice
• Socialization, Communication, and Networks
o Allows women to communicate with family members (especially maternal family lines)
o Networks not based on kinship = broader social network for women founded on literary
exchange and cultivation
o Challenges boundaries of inner and outer; women make self-expression public
Q: Challenging the inner/outer division? Or reinforcing it?
• Reinforces ideological principles
Woe’s literary eduatio
• Early Model: Ban Zhao 班昭 (c. 48-c. 120)
o moral instructress
o Wrote a foundational text about women's virtue (very conservative: about obedience and
limiting voice to the inner quarters)
• Woe’s Eduatio
o mother-son: civil service examination
• Focus on educating their sons
• Education within patriarchal framework/Confucian roles. The role of women's
education was part of their role as a mother/wife
• Only taught daughters so that they could teach their husbands/sons when it was time
o husband-wife: companionate marriages
• Wife had to be suitable companion trained in literary arts
• Women were able to use poetry for self-expression instead of just using it to educate
their sons, but the goal here was to be a good companion for her husband (goal
wasn't to be an author in her own right)
• Woe’s perspeties:
o Tesio etee Woe’s ork ad literary study ale atiity
Alterate odel: Willo Catki
Xie Daoyun 謝道韞, (ca. 4th C)
• Adept at poetic language and writing
• Wrote poems better than male family members
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Women, gender, and literature in the ming and qing. *ming and qing are often discussed together in terms of influence. Women and gender in the late imperial period (14th -20th c. : 2 main questions: In what ways did they reinforce traditional gender ideology: dorothy ko, (cid:862)tale(cid:374)t, virtue, a(cid:374)d beauty: re(cid:449)riti(cid:374)g wo(cid:373)a(cid:374)hood(cid:863, how we understand footbinding vs dominant western interpretation. Inner sphere: domestic sphere: confined to realm of household and responsible for domestic affairs ("women"s work": cooking, sewing, child-raising, outer sphere: public and social, public office, politics, literature, etc. Women and gender in the late imperial period (14th -20th c. ) Literary education, writing, and publication: women engaging in something that was traditionally reserved for men (part of public sphere, publication: women"s words were not supposed to leave the inner quarters. Late imperial period: new conception of womanhood talent (cai ), virtue (de ), beauty (mei ) (cid:862)o(cid:374) readi(cid:374)g drafts of my ister"s work(cid:863)
