Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives: A Thousand Years of Biographies of Chinese WomenAs far back as the first century BCE, Chinese dynastic historians - all men - began recording the achievements of Chinese women and creating a structure of understanding that would be used to limit and control them. To men, these women became role models for their daughters and wives; to the few literate women readers, they became paradigms for their own behavior. Thus, although these biographies are descriptive by nature, they actually became prescriptive. Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives is an enlightening source for studying Chinese women of the Imperial era as well as for understanding Chinese womanhood in general. By contextualizing these biographies, the author shows us these women not just as the complaisant, calm-eyed, delicate figures that adorn Confucian texts, but also as the products of the Confucian tradition's appropriation of women. |
Contents
Women in the Confucian Tradition | 5 |
Summary of the Book | 20 |
Hou Han | 76 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Admonitions for Women Ban Gu Ban Zhao's behavior Bei shi biogra Biographies of Women Biography title chap chapter chaste chastity Chen Chinese clan classic concubine Confucian Confucian tradition Daoism death discussion Dong Duke dynastic histories emperor empresses eulogy exemplary father Feng filial daughter gender historians Hou Han shu husband imperial in-laws introduction Jiang Jin shu jing Jiu Tang king later learning Li ji Liang Liezhuan literary Liu Xiang's Lienü loyalty marriage married moral mother mutilation names obedience official histories paradigms parents parents-in-law political prescience principles remarry righteousness role ruler Sanguo zhi sexuality Shi ji Shi jing social Song sons Sui dynasty suicide Tang dynasty theme tion Wang Wei shu widow chastity wife wives woman womanly virtues Women's Biographies women's lives Xian Xiang's Lienü zhuan Xiao Xin Tang shu Xuan Yuan Zhao Zhou Zuo zhuan