Transcript Marketing - Department of History, CUHK

Confucianism And Women
Readings
Confucianism and Women:
Ching, Julia, Chinese Religions, “Morality and Rituals:
Confucianism as Religious Humanism”, pp 53-67; “Love or the
Law”, pp 69-84.
OR
Li, Chenyang, The Tao Encounters the West, “How a Care
Ethics Could have Oppressed Women”, pp 108-114.
1
Confucianism and Women
Introduction
What is Confucianism?
– The Historical Confucius
– Development of Confucian Thought
– Confucianism and women
 Confucian Society
– Separation of the Sexes
– Education for women:
 The Four Classics
 Other Important Texts
 Women Under Confucianism
 Summary


2
Introduction


During the Shang dynasty (1,600-1,100 B.C.E.) women still
assumed military and administrative roles.
– Archaeological diggings and oracle bones showed that some
women were:
 Military leaders
 Keepers of state archives
 Agricultural administrators.
 Diviners
 Supervisors of rituals
The role of women changed through time.
– Changes were due to:
 Changing status of women in ancient religion.
 Development of rational philosophy such as
Confucianism.
3
What is Confucianism?
Confucianism 孔学/孔教 is traced back to Confucius 孔子
(c.551-479 B.C.E.) who lived during the Zhou dynasty.
 It is a philosophy and a religion.
– It is thought of as a philosophy, as:
 Confucius and those who came after him tried to find a
rational/reasonable (not spiritual) answer to the questions
regarding life’s meaning and order in society.
 It emphasized personal and government morality,
correctness of social relationships, justice, compassion,
and sincerity.
– It is thought of as a religion as Confucius had faith in Heaven
and wanted to do the Will of Heaven 天.

4
The Historical Confucius



Confucius was a native of a small state of
Lu (Shandong); his family was not rich.
He lived during the time known as the
Spring and Autumn Period 春秋 (early
period of the Zhou dynasty) when the
states fought against each other.
He was convinced of his ability to restore
the world's order and traveled for 10
years visiting many states looking for, but
never finding, a ruler who would use his
advice.
– The highest office he held at the age
of 50 was a kind of police
commissioner for only about a year.
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The Historical Confucius (2)
In old age, he devoted more time to
teaching while occupying himself with
music and poetry and occasionally
conversing with rulers or ministers.
– He died at the age of 70 and became
influential after his death.
 The only materials available on Confucius
is the Analects 论语:
– Put together 100 years after his death.
– Written as conversations between him
and his disciples.

6
The Historical Confucius (3)

In summarizing his life, Confucius said:
– At 15 I set my heart on learning (to be a sage圣人)
– At 30 I became firm
– At 40 I had no more doubts
– At 50 I understood Heaven’s will.
– At 60 my ears were attuned to Heaven’s will.
– At 70 I could follow my heart’s desires without stepping
over the line.
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Development of Confucian Thought
During the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.), Confucianism
was made a state sponsored philosophy.
– It dominated Chinese thinking for about 2,000 years.
– Throughout the 2,000 years Confucianism evolved and
changed as the values of society changed.
 The major scholars in the development of Confucian thought
were:
– Mencius (c.372-289 B.C.E.), Xunzi, Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒
(179-104 B.C.E.), and Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200).
 Confucius had emphasized personal and government morality,
correctness of social relationships, justice, compassion and
sincerity.

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Development of Confucian Thought (2)

Mencius lived about 100 years after the death of Confucius (d.c.479 B.C.E.)
and taught that basic human nature is good and that men have the potential
of becoming sages 圣人.
– The example he gave is that if a child falls into a well, one would
immediately want to save him;
– He lived during the Warring States Period 戰國時代 (Later Zhou dynasty)
and went from state to state looking for a ruler that would take his advice.
– The rulers thought him to be impractical teaching benevolence and
compassion 仁 when they were struggling for survival and “might was
right”.
– The Book of Mencius is a collection of stories and conversations with
Mencius and dates from the second half of 4 B.C.E. and is regarded as a
Confucian classic.
 Song dynasty included as one of the Four Books – Great Learning
(大學), Doctrine of the Mean (中庸), The Analects (論語). The
Mencius (孟子).
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Development of Confucian Thought (3)

Xunzi 荀子 was a contemporary of Mencius and had served as a
magistrate for the state of Qi 齐 for a brief period。
– He believed that there is evil in men and only education can
train his nature to be goodness.
– His book, Xunzi, contains not only his teachings but those of
his disciples as well.
 His disciples, Li Si 李斯 (c.280-208BCE) and Han Feizi
韩非子 (c.280-233BCE)’, developed the school of
thought called “Legalism” 法学.
– Li Si was a prime-minister for the Qin dynasty and
drafted the edict ordering the burning of the books
and the live burial of 460 Confucian scholar.
 Legalism focused on strengthening the political power of
the ruler, of which law is only one part.
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Development of Confucian Thought (4)

Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 of the Han Dynasty was the one most
responsible for blending the yin-yang doctrine into Confucianism.
– Yin and Yang originally meant two natural forces that are
mutually complementary.
 He believed that the “yang” – the male force – is superior
and “yin” – the female force -- is inferior.
 He said that the husband is “yang” and the wife is “yin”.
 The man is, therefore, superior to the wife even if he is
from a humble family and she is from a noble family.
– Later this was interpreted as women having to follow the
father in youth, the husband in their adulthood, and their
sons when widowed.
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Development of Confucian Thought (5)

Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200 C.E.) was the most important thinker
of Neo-Confucianism lixue 理學 which was developed during
the Song dynasty (960-1279) but can be traced back to the Tang
(618-907) dynasty.
– His book, Family Rituals 朱子家禮, charged the woman as
the primary care taker of the ancestral shrine.
– The rituals were time-consuming and burden-some but
important to the Neo-Confucian household.
 These duties tied women even closer to home and family
through her duties to the ancestral shrine.
– This book with its strict and detailed rituals of a
Confucian family was adopted as the Confucian
standard authority by the Song.
 Around the same time, foot-binding became
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popular.
Confucianism and Women


Confucius said that he was a “transmitter of values” and the
society he lived in was patrilineal and patriarchal.
– He wanted society to restore the ideal values of the early
Zhou dynasty and to return to earlier times when the country
was not at war.
– Like most philosophies, it has paid little attention to women;
however, Confucius and Mencius never taught that women
were inferior.
Since he was teaching harmony of relations, he felt that each
person performed a different role and that a woman’s role was
that of a mother.
– Both Confucius and Mencius believed that if the government
were to practice ren 仁 -- take good care of its people, there
would be no crime or poverty.
13
Confucianism and Women (2)


Neither Confucius nor Mencius wrote much about women.
– Confucius was quoted as saying women nüzi 女子 and petty
people 小人 are difficult to deal with and so it was
interpreted to mean that women were similar to “petty
people”.
 Many historians now say that the interpretation was
wrong.
 They point to the fact that when Confucius spoke of
women elsewhere in the text he used the word (fu: 妇);
whereas he used nüzi 女子 to refer to young girls/maids
女子.
 Therefore, did he mean women were difficult to deal with
or did he mean young girls or maids were difficult?
There is no evidence in the writings of either Confucius and
Mencius that they advocated oppressing women.
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Confucianism and Women (3)



For Confucians, women were valued for the continuation of the
family, allowing fulfillment of obligations to ancestors and future
prosperity.
The most sexist thing Mencius wrote was:
– “ The father teaches sons the way of good men; the mother
teaches daughters about marriage. When the daughter is sent
to the wedding, the mother would say “[after getting married],
you must be respectful and diligent and not go against your
husband’s will. Woman’s way is to obey.”
The lower status of women seems to have correlated with the
belief that the man’s position is outside the home while the
wife’s position is inside the home.
– To some historians it only means the division of labor and
not the inferiority of women.
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Confucianism and Women (4)



The submissiveness of women is also reinforced by teaching the
three follows/obediences sancong 三从 and the four virtues side
四德.
The three follows/obediences are:
– To follow/obey her father as a child;
– To follow/obey her husband as a wife;
– To follow/obey the son as a widow.
The tradition developed from the dress code for mourning
services used by women.
– As a child, a woman dressed according to the father’s rank;
– After marriage, she dressed according to her husband’s;
– In widowhood, she dressed according to her son’s rank.
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Confucianism and Women (5)

The four virtues side 四德: virtue, speech, appearance and
needlework were further defined by Ban Zhao, the Han historian
(only female in Chinese history) as:
– Women’s moral virtue 妇德: A woman must be modest in
behavior; during her leisure time, she must protect her
virtue – to control herself, to maintain a sense of shame and
must to follow certain ways in action and at rest.
– Women’s speech 妇言: She must choose what words to say
and not use coarse language; to think first, then to speak and
not tire others.
– Women’s appearance 妇容: She must clean the house, wash
away the filth and keep her clothes and ornaments clean. She
must bathe regularly in order not to look disgraceful.
– Women’s work 妇工: “She must concentrate on sewing and
weaving and should not joke around; she should neatly
prepare the wine and food for serving guests.
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Confucianism and Women (6)


The position of women became lower under neo-Confucianism
(Song-Ming) when a neo-Confucian scholars felt that poor
widows should not remarry as it is a small matter to starve to
death but a larger matter to lose integrity.
– But it was alright for the widower to remarry as only women
had to observe chastity.
During the Ming dynasty, “chaste widowhood” became an
official state institution.
– Women who kept their widowhood were officially honored
and their families exempted from official labor service.
– Tremendous pressure was put on young widows not to
remarry and to follow their husband in death.
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Confucian Society



In Confucian society the family was considered the most
important institution – even the nation is considered to be a
family (国家).
– The family was an economic, social and political unit.
Filial piety was the most important moral obligation for children
and children-in-law and so reverence and obedience for seniors
was important.
The separation of the sexes and each had different
responsibilities:
– Women were responsible for work inside the house;
– Men were to be responsible for work outside the house.
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Confucian Society: Separation of the Sexes



The concept of separate functions for the different sexes
developed early in Chinese society and was accepted by both
Confucius and Mencius.
Mencius said that there were five human relationships in society:
– Between father and son there should be affection.
– Between ruler and minister there should be righteousness
– Between husband and wife there should be attention to
their separate functions.
– Between elder and younger brothers there should be order.
– Between friends there should be good faith.
The Inner Regulations section of the Liji 礼记 (The Book of
Rites) compiled during the Warring Kingdoms period of the
Zhou dynasty lists the moral obligations and behavior of each
family member on the basis of sexual differentiation:
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Separation of the Sexes (2)
– Propriety starts with making correct distinctions between
husbands and wives or between men and women.
– A house should have front and back apartments.
– Men should live in the front apartment and women in the
back apartment.
– Going into the back apartment should be made difficult.
– Between the front and back apartments there should be many
doors which are guarded.
– Men should not casually go into the back apartment and
women should not go to the front apartment.
– When men go to the women’s rooms at night they must
bring lamps; if there are no lamps they should not go.
– When women go out of their rooms, they should cover their
faces and bring lamps at night; if there are no lamps they
should not go out.
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Separation of the Sexes (4)
– Men and women do not share a well and do not share a
bathroom.
– They can share sitting mats but they cannot share bedding mats.
– They do not lend or borrow things from each other; they do not
share clothes.
– On the road, men walk on the right side, women on the left.
– Women should not let men hear their conversations and men
should not let women hear their conversations.
– Men and women could only hand instruments directly to each
other at ancestral worship or at funerals.
 When men have to hand instruments to women, women
should receive them in bamboo baskets;
 If there is no bamboo basket, both men and women need to
first kneel down, put the things on the ground and then pick
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them up from the ground.
Confucian Society
Education for women: The Four Classics




Men studied the Four Classics -- The Great Learning 大學，The
Doctrine of the Mean 中庸，The Analects of Confucius 論語/论语，
The Mencius 孟子 and family regulations.
Women had their own Four Classics:
By the Qing dynasty, the Four Classics for women were moral
handbooks on correct behavior:
– Lessons for Women女戒 by Ban Zhao.
– The Analects for women 女论语 by two Song sisters.
– Instructions for dwellers in the Inner Chambers 内训.
– A Prompt Record of Lessons for women 女范捷录。
They also had to study other texts such as Book of Piety for
Women and family regulations -- first of their own birth families
and then that of the family they have married into.
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Confucian Society
Education for women: The Four Classics (2)


The first Classic, Lessons for Women 女戒 was written by Ban
Zhao who completed the Dynastic History of the Former Han
after her brother’s death and went on to tutor the Empress and
Palace ladies.
– It was written when she was about 60 years old; it was written
for her granddaughter who was about to be married. It dealt
with the proper behavior of women in a large Confucian
family.
The Analects for women女论语 was written during the Tang
dynasty by two sisters surnamed Song who were gifted scholars
and were summoned into the palace. The book stressed the
chastity of women.
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Confucian Society
Education for women: The Four Classics (3)


Instructions for dwellers in the Inner Chambers 内训 was
written by an Empress of the the Ming dynasty. It was written
for the instruction of princesses and includes a chapter on how
to serve the emperor.
A Prompt Record of Lessons for women 女范捷录 was written
by a widow during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) who had been
given an official honor by the court, at the age of 90, for her 60
years of widowhood. Her son compiled her work together with
the other three.
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Confucian Society
Education for women: Other Important Texts

Book Of Filial Piety for Women closely parallels the original
Book of Filial Piety 孝经.
– It was written by Ms. Zheng in Song/Tang, wife of an official.
– She wrote it for her niece who was about to marry a Prince.
– The primary goal of the book is to expand the message in the
“Book of Filial Piety” to girls and women.
– It presents filial piety as the most important virtue and that
women who never leaves their homes can exert a moral
influence through her influence within the household by
transforming others.
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Confucian Society
Education for women: Other Important Texts (2)
The family regulations were instructions on the correct behavior
of different members of the family. An example:
– Except for the girls under 8 and daughters-in-law who have
not been married more than three months, all women in the
house should be taught to read the moral guidebooks for
women and the Lienü Zhuan (Biographies of Virtuous
Women) so that they will understand womanhood.
– They should not write, and they should not be allowed to
study the classics and literature.
 These moral guidebooks were read until recent history; example
can be found in the novel “Family” Jia 家 by Ba Jin 巴金 in
1931 – a little girl had her feet bound by her old-fashioned
mother was forced to read the Four Classics for women.

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Women under Confucianism


In the Confucian social order, human relationships tended to be
hierarchical (ranked) and fixed.
– The superior partners – rulers, fathers, husbands – exercises
more right and privilege while the inferior partners are more
submissive.
Women lived in a Confucian patriarchal system and so were
given a subordinate role.
– Her most important responsibility was to produce a male heir
to carry on the lineage – there are three forms of behavior
that are unfilial; to have no children is the greatest 不孝有三
无后为大. (若不懂得顺从父母的意思，违背父母的心意，陷害父
母于不义，是为一不孝; 当父母亲年老，为人子，若因家里没钱，
无法侍奉父母亲，使其三餐无法温饱、生病无钱看医，或者无功
名，不能考秀才进士求得一官半职，为家扬名吐气，是为二不
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孝。)
Women under Confucianism (2)
The more Confucian a society was the more subordinate a
woman’s role was.
 Women usually enjoyed more freedom during periods when the
country was not united, was under alien rule, or under the
influence of Daoist and Buddhist teachings.
 Despite traditional oppression, the Chinese woman has achieved
a place in the family, in society, and in history.
– She has managed family estates and ruled empires;
– She has contributed to literature and the fine arts;
– She has taught and molded her sons to contribute to society.

29
Women Under Confucianism (3)

Studies of women’s writings in the Ming show that literate gentry
women in the 17th Century were not oppressed or silenced.
– The senior male had legal rights over family property;
 Fathers maintained authority over women and children;
– The senior female was the defacto household manager and had
opportunities to influence family affairs.
 The mother is the educator of children
– The degree of the woman’s power depended on her social
position, type of task, personal skills and one’s position in the
life cycle.
 Discussion Question:
– What is the woman’s life cycle and what are the
responsibilities during that period? Contrast with the
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man’s life cycle.
Women Under Confucianism (4)

Studies of women’s writings in the Qing (1683-1839) also show
that these women enjoyed satisfaction and gratification.
– They used writing as a means to preserve their values, to
express their feelings such as celebrating their admiration and
lamenting their loss.
– Analysis of textual materials of women in traditional China
finds that the women were shown as intelligent, politically
astute, and ethically virtuous -- directly countering the image
of women as a victim.
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Summary


The role of women in Confucian China was defined through
their relationships with men – as daughters, wives, mothers or
widows.
In theory, men were to:
– Have full control over the lives and activities of their women
determining the training and treatment of their daughters
– Able to mistreat and divorce their wives at will and shunning
widows as outcasts and socially useless.
– Wives could be divorced for the seven reasons.
– Concubines and maids had no property rights.
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Summary (2)

The poem of Fu Xuan (217-278– end of the Han dynasty) in a
6th century collection expresses his sympathy to women by
saying:
– Bitter indeed it is to be born a woman.
– It is difficult to imagine anything so low! ….
– A girl is raised without joy or love,
– No one in her family really cares for her.
– Grown up, she has to hide in the inner rooms,
– Cover her head, be afraid to look others in the face.
– And no one sheds a tear when she is married off,
– All ties with her own kin are abruptly severed….
– Her husband’s love is as aloof as the Milky Way,
– Yet she must follow him like a sunflower the sun.
– Their hearts are soon as apart as fire and water,
– She is blamed for all and everything that goes wrong.
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Summary (3)

This unhappy picture is that of women who lived by the
Confucian ideal. But:
– It does not always reflect reality as Chinese women had a
great deal of freedom and responsibility.
– Women in the lower classes had to work outside the home,
not only running households but also working in agriculture
and business.
– They interacted freely with men and were not restricted to
their own homes.
– Some in the entertainment world had opportunities to
develop their literary, musical and artistic talents.
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Summary (4)

Women in the upper classes functioned as political and
intellectual agents educating their sons and giving advice to their
husbands thus influencing policy making.
– These women carried out their responsibilities in their
husband’s clan but also maintained close relations to their
natal/birth homes cementing alliances.
– They developed women’s networks that carried weight in the
community.
– Mothers were the object of Confucian virtue of filial piety
which demanded respect and obedience from her sons.
– Confucians also acknowledged the importance of yin and
honored their mothers who ruled the household.
– Their mothers had educated them and had helped shape their
worldview.
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The Impact of Religion
Reading:
Ching, Julia, Chinese Religions, pp85-118 (2 chapters on Daoism)
Despeaux & Kohn, Women in Daoism, Ch. 1-5 pp 244-251

Paul, Diana Y., Women in Buddhism, “Introduction”,
“Conclusion”.
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