In The Analects, Confucius briefly describes women and their role within Chinese society. Although the information on women within The Analects is short, one can gain extensive knowledge about women and their placement in this society. Confucius and many Confucian believers held the belief that women were of low moral order and in order to be virtuous, they needed to follow this order. This essay will review Confucius’ thoughts on women and raise questions about his views as seen in The Analects and other readings. First, one must realize that China has strong patriarchal views, so many statements by Confucius about women, or lack thereof, is a tradition that has existed before Confucius. An example of this can be located in Ban Zhao’s Admonitions …show more content…
Mencius’ mother accepts and embraces the role that women should play in Chinese society. She constantly informs her son of laws that his wife should carry out. For example, she states, “A woman’s duties are to cook the five grains, heat the wine, look after her parents-in-law, makes clothes, and that is all!” It is mentioned multiple times that superior men praised Mencius mother for teaching the right philosophies to her son. Once again, Confucius was dead but his teachings were still strong within China. It is also important to note that these superior men did respect her, but they still believed she was inferior. Mencius mother is the perfect example of what a Confucian scholar would dub a virtuous woman. Therefore, the only way for a woman to be labeled virtuous was if she followed the social/moral order and set in place by the …show more content…
In his writings, a person can find two or three instances where he mentions women. This in itself can led people to believe that Confucius is taking a patriarchal stance. In reality, it would be correct to assume that he approves of this view. First, Confucius is living in a society that has already established a deep sense of male dominance. Therefore, it is possible that he is trying to appeal to the masses because he wants his views to spread throughout the country. One has to keep in mind that during his period and in the distant future the majority of intellectuals are male. This can only mean that the few views he does have in The Analects on women could be false statements. Furthermore, if his statements on women were theoretically false would this have changed the views on women within
Yan Zhitui states that, "women take charge of family affairs, entering into lawsuits, straightening out disagreements, and paying calls to seek favor...the government offices are filled with their fancy silks." (Differences between north and south, 111). Yet, even in the Qing dynasty women were still restricted by and expected to uphold more traditional ideals, especially in the public eye. So, in the end, through her virtue, Hsi-Liu’s two children we able to become upright. Here, there is a split between what a woman is supposed to be according to old Chinese tradition, and the realities facing women in Tancheng. The loss of her husband, and economic hardship had forced His-Liu to behave in a different way, as if she were usurping the power from the eldest son so she could teach the two boys a lesson about being good family members. While she still maintains the ideals of bearing children, and being loyal to her husband, even after he dies, out of necessity she is forced to break from Confucian ideals of being only concerned with the domestic issues. This too put her at odds with the more traditional society around her, as the villagers pitied her sons, but vilified the Hsi-Liu for being so strict with them (Woman Wang, 65). Had she remarried, she would have been looked down upon even more because she would had broken her duty to remain faithful to her deceased
Ban Zhao wrote Lessons for a Woman around the end of the first century C.E. as social guide for (her daughters and other) women of Han society (Bulliet 167). Because Zhao aimed to educate women on their responsibilities and required attributes, one is left questioning what the existing attitudes and roles of women were to start with. Surprisingly, their positions were not automatically fixed at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Ban Zhao’s own status as an educated woman of high social rank exemplifies the “reality [that] a woman’s status depended on her “location” within various social institutions’ (167). This meant that women had different privileges and opportunities depending on their economic, social, or political background. Wealthier noble women would likely have access to an education and may have even been able to wield certain political power (167). Nevertheless, women relinquished this power within the family hierarchy to their fathers, husbands, and sons. Despite her own elevated social status, Ban Zhao still considered herself an “unworthy writer”, “unsophisticated”, “unenlightened’, “unintelligent”, and a frequent disgrace to her and her husband’s family (Zhao). Social custom was not, however, the only driving force behind Zhao’s desire to guide women towards proper behavior.
Many cruel things were done to women in ancient china that are considered unfathomable in other countries. According to Confucius women weren’t equal to men because they were unworthy or incapable of literary education. This was as much as he mentioned women because it was such a natural idea to him that there was no need to mention it, as other early Chinese writers and theorists thought. Women were only considered property and had to obey their brothers and fathers no matter what. Fathers also despised their daughters to the point where instead of being named they were considered daughter number one and daughter number two, etc. Once the woman was married instead of being property to her brother and father, she was now property to her husband and mother in law, whom also despised the girl. It was also common for a husband to have three or four wives. If a woman’s husband were to die she was unable to remarry, sometimes causing women to commit suicide due to no food or income. If a woman were to remarry then her skin was peeled of her bones until she died.
A society that compels one of its members to choose between slave-like subservience and death is eminently unjust, and Wei Ming depicts 1930s China as such a society. Chusheng depicts every injustice inflicted upon Wei Ming as either absurdly misogynistic or sexually depraved, portraying these as the logical results of a Confucian system that mandates women’s lifelong subservience to men. While New Woman suggests no solutions or specific reforms that might provide redress for this social ill, it makes one thing very clear: Women deserve the respect and autonomy accorded to their male counterparts, and a social structure that rejects this truth must not go
To begin with, women in both societies were titled as “good wife and mother,” who were almost forbidden all of public affairs. They were excluded from literacy, politics, and business, which were all men’s affairs. Women were not allowed to contact with other men to show filial piety. The responsibilities of women
In traditional Chinese culture, women were inferior to men. They were not allowed to make any decisions concerning their families. Their only purpose in life was to stay home and take care of the households. "A woman's duties are to cook the five grains, heat the wine, look after her parents-in-law, make clothes, and that's all! ...she must follow the `three submissions.' When she is young, she must submit to her parents. After her marriage, she must submit to her husband. When she is widowed, she must submit to her son. These are the rules of propriety." ("The Mother Of Mencius", p.34) That's the principle that was followed in traditional China. Some of the examples of this are discussed in this essay.
The early part of the novel shows women’s place in Chinese culture. Women had no say or position in society. They were viewed as objects, and were used as concubines and treated with disparagement in society. The status of women’s social rank in the 20th century in China is a definite positive change. As the development of Communism continued, women were allowed to be involved in not only protests, but attended universities and more opportunities outside “house” work. Communism established gender equality and legimated free marriage, instead of concunbinage. Mao’s slogan, “Women hold half of the sky”, became extremely popular. Women did almost any job a man performed. Women were victims by being compared to objects and treated as sex slaves. This was compared to the human acts right, because it was an issue of inhumane treatment.
There, in almost all the stories in this chapter, is a strong focus on what the woman has done for a male ruler, husband, or relative. Following traditional Confuciean ideas “women’s roles were primarily kinship roles: daughter, sister, wife, daughter-in-law, mother, and mother-in-law,” (Ebrey, Women in Traditional China) you can see this reflected in the fact that each of the stories starts out by saying who the woman was related or married
There are several common themes running through the primary work of compiled sayings attributed to Confucius: emphasis on gentlemanly conduct, pursuit of humbleness among fellow man, and a search for a proper ruler who is in accordance with “the Way.” Running throughout the entire book of “The Analects”, Confucius makes reference to many characteristics that a gentleman should possess. Even beginning in the first chapter of Book One, Confucius is attributed with saying, “Is it not gentlemanly not to take offence when others fail to appreciate your abilities?” Other characteristics Confucius attributed to gentlemanly conduct include studying the rites and “The Odes”, humbleness, lack of desire for places of position, unbending in moral conduct, and many other factors. By laying out a basis upon which a gentleman should act, Confucius establishes a standard to measure the quality of all men. Setting a standard implies that there are men above and below this set, desired point, and the word standard also indicates a measure of quantitative or qualitative value. By creating such a standard, Confucius is immediately able to begin causing social reform and progress. However, this progress, though achieved through concentration on social values, never reaches the capacity to which Confucius desires it to reach. Several sayings within The Analects indicate that Confucius is unable to see an accumulation of all desire...
/ This is called the mysterious female. / The gateway of the mysterious female / Is called the root of heaven and earth. / Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there, / Yet use will never drain it.” (Tao. Book One, VI) This moment of appreciation of the female nature, categorized by Taoists as Yin and being symbolic of receptive nature, recognizes the dichotomy between Yin and the male equivalent, Yang, representing a more active nature, and as a result classifies the two as parts of a mutual whole where one can only exist with its opposite. This view garners a respect towards the female nature, which as the “root of heaven and earth” because the valley spirit, in this case, is one who acts as a mother figure for the earth as the valley with which we can always take and gather nourishment while “use will never drain it.” This contrasts greatly with Confucian views of women, where Confucius has moments of pure sexism such as, “‘In one’s household, it is the women and the small men that are difficult to deal with. If you let get too close, they become insolent. If you keep them at a distance, they complain,” (An. Book XVII, 25) showing that Confucianism, despite its proclamations of equality, remains unaware of its blatant disregard for what is equal by nature. Confucianism does not
After the discrediting of confucianism women were more free in the mostly Buddhist societies of the Sui, and Tang Dynasties. After the fall of the Tang there was a big decrease in women’s rights. This is because of the Song revived Confucian ideas which led to patriarchal restrictions on women’s rights. This led to a revival of Han Dynasty type ruling causing nasty notions of submission towards women making men dominant. Due to confucianism it also called up the separation between men and women. Women were seen as distractions to men’s life and if a widow would remarry, but they would have to walk pass two courtyards as a way of shame. The most compelling expression of patriarchy happening during the rule of the Song Dynasty was the act of foot binding. Foot binding involved tight wrapping of young girls feet which broke the bones of the foot and caused intense pain, and all it was for was to make their feet more visually appealing to men by making them look smaller. This shows how deeply patriarchy affected women as they were forced to be under men and were seen as toys to please
The influence of women's moral education started early in the history. Chinese early moral education of women was about obedience and staying lower in position, and of course, other morally favorable behaviors such as being honest and humane. In the palace, older female servants trained the younger ones how to behave properly in front of the emperor, in order to avoid torture and death. They were not allowed to look straight into the nobles' eyes while talking to them; they also could not turn their...
In addition to displaying the poetic prowess that the Japanese had attained by this time period, the Genji Monogatari also demonstrates how politics and gender ideals were adopted from the Chinese. In order to analyze how gender ideals in the Heian society were formulated and how they were expressed in the Genji Monogatari, it is necessary to have an understanding of the Chinese society from which they were derived. The Chinese works often alluded to in the Genji Monogatari are primarily from the Tang dynasty period of China(618-907AD), which formed the basis of the flourishing of Japanese culture during the Heian period.3 Therefore, an analysis of Heian gender ideals must begin from the Tang dynasty court-life culture. At the center of Japanese and Chinese politics and gender roles lies the teachings of Confucius. The five relationships () of Confucius permeated the lives of all within the Heian and Tang societies.4
The Analects of Confucius’ meaning, that peace can be found in the darkest of times is
What is trying to be said here, in my eyes is that no matter what if we have people who are wise