Women and the Family in Chinese History

2480 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects Of Traditional Families

Women and the Family in Chinese History

By Patricia

The price paid by women in ancient china: Foot binding and Concubines

Georgiana Grecea

WHO 2001

Professor: Peterson

November 1st, 2013

When it comes to traditions, customs and beliefs, one of the most mysterious civilizations in the world is considered to be ancient China. Through their values and cultural lifestyle they have succeeded for many years to make us wonder and want us to know more about their beliefs and traditions in their lives. Many of the traditions of this culture are not fully understood even today. In ancient China, women lived in the shadow of the men such as: their father, husband and even their son. Traditionally, the women in China were expected to obey. There were expected to obey blindly the male presence in their lives.

As part of their tradition, and as early as Song period (960-1276) , was the practice of foot biding. Having perfect feet assured families that their daughter will be able to marry. In many cases some women were married by their families for money. Money played an important role in society in ancient China when it came to women, marriage and social status. Some women also choose to live their lives as a concubine in order to secure a better life and position in society.

Zhou Guizhen is 86 years old and she is one of the survivors of foot binding. She says that she regrets doing it and that at the time there was no choice, because no one would marry you if your feet weren’t small. She also talks about the fact that young bones are easier to manipulate because the bones are softer and they do break easily.

Foot binding was banned in 1912.

The ancient Chinese women were extremely well educat...

... middle of paper ...

...ge.

16. —. Emperor Ningzong of Song. March 13, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Ningzong_of_Song.

17.—. Empress Han. September 23, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Gongshu.

18. —. Empress Yang (Song Dynasty). September 23, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Gongsheng.

10.—. Foot binding. November 9, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding.

3.—. Four Beauties. November 15, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Beauties.

20. —. The Traditional Chinese Family & Lineage. June 3, 2000. http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin/familism.html.

8. WGS Presentation on Women's Bodies- Chinese Feet Binding. Performed by N/A. N/D.

12, 13. Peter. 15 pictures of traditional Chinese clothes in Song and Tang Dynasties. November 29, 2012. http://www.chinawhisper.com/15-pictures-of-traditional-chinese-clothes-in-song-and-tang-dynasties/.

Show More
Related

  • First Draft: Chinese Eunuchs in the Mid to Late Qing Dynasty

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinese eunuchs were the original gate-keepers of the imperial palace, menial servants in the imperial harem, and messengers between the emperor, his concubines, and the imperial court. The Chinese inscriptions combing the graphs for ‘male reproductive organ’ and for ‘knife’ have been found on oracle bones dating from about 1300 BCE.1 The context of the inscriptions generally indicates that the castration of captured prisoners of differing ethnicities existed at this early date.2 The word for eunuch, taijan , often connotating a pervert, first appeared in the Chinese language about one thousand years ago.3 Eunuchs were deemed suitable candidates for the emperor’s close aides and attendants because they possessed both a masculine physique and a feminine docility. More important, however, was the use of men deprived from their reproductive power and sexual desires was thought to safeguard the moral purity and sanctity of an emperor’s private chambers.4 Throughout the three-thousand year old institution, the number of eunuchs in the imperial palaces varied between less than 100 in the early years, to more than 100,000 in 1620, roughly 1% of the population.5 The extent, role, and nature of the eunuch presence in Chinese history varied according to specific social and political backgrounds throughout the long existence of the political institution, but identifying some recurring themes of eunuch activities is useful towards reconstructing the social history of eunuchism in China. It is apparent, however, that as imperial power and autocracy increased, the use of castrated men to fill various male jobs in the palace gradually became a necessity.

    Read More

  • Patriarchy in India, China, Greece and Rome

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...c. 4). This is an example of one of the seven unequal relationships in Confucianism. Much of the social structure of classical China was based on Confucian ideals (Doc. 3). In Greece the relationship between a husband and wife also very unequal due to her young age and lack of education. Alone a woman had no political rights and limited legal powers therefore is was necessary for a husband to provide for his wife much like a father would (Doc. 6) A woman would learn house hold management and eventually produce heirs. These two similar systems of social roles was not a benevolent system. It did not take into account the welfare of individuals, particularly woman who had little power to leave in a bad marital situation. However by insuring that people know their place, which kept them in line, classical societies were more prosperous and able to run more smoothly.

    Read More

  • Chinese Dynasty Essay

    1716 Words  | 4 Pages

    To conclude, I find the Chinese Dynasty particularly interesting as these dynasties are what created China, and are very important in Chinese history. Of course there are many more Chinese Dynasties such as the: Tang dynasty (618-906 CE), Song dynasty (960-1279), Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) and Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) which all led to the People's Republic of China which came about in 1949.

    Read More

  • The Joy Luck Club

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    Much like to their parents and elders, Chinese girls were supposed to be quiet and obedient to their husbands and mothers-in-law. Girls were supposed to respect, and not openly question the decisions that were made in the household. These women were taught to always ask what the husband wants and to ignore their own wants and needs. Chinese wives were there mainly to provide the mother-in-law with grandsons.

    Read More

  • Foot Binding In Chinese Culture

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    We, as humans, face the most difficult challenges: conformity. We inadvertently aim to be what we see depicted in the environment around us. In many instances, we do so under extreme circumstances without regard to the consequences. Around the globe, different beauty practices of enduring violence and pain, mutilation and self-mutilation can be found in almost every culture. In the Chinese culture, binding one's feet are done in order to achieve a certain length. Foot binding has disappeared from modern-day China, but it was once accepted and a promoted practice among many Chinese women. The origin of such culture, beauty practice is somewhat a mystery; there are many theories as to why women began to bind their feet. The reasons why women began binding their feet are not the only field of importance, why it became popular for women to bind their feet, how and why it became accepted in the Chinese culture and the consequences due to these practices are considered as well. Foot binding was known as a cultural practice that represented femininity and eroticism through physical and mental violence. In this cultural practice, it is believed that foot binding speaks multiple languages; seduction, eroticism, virtue, discipline and sacrifice. Both mother and daughter mutilated their feet in hopes of fulfilling

    Read More

  • Women In Early Confucianism

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the beginning of early Confucianism, women in early China suffered oppression. Unfortunately, the religion holds much responsibility for the sexism. Confucius’s answers for the Chinese people’s way of living consisted of sexual discrimination and segregation towards females. Women in China were urged to meet the expectations outlined in Confucian ideals. Such concepts were mainly limited to the men. Thus, Confucianism defined gender expectations. Confucianism stimulated the inequality of women in Chinese culture.

    Read More

  • First Draft: Chinese Eunuchs in the Mid to Late Qing Dynasty

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    While it may not be shocking that Western audiences had distaste for the practice of Eastern castration practices, it is a bit more surprising that, despite evidence of the use of eunuchs in China for over a period of 3,000 years, their reputation in China was no more positive. Throughout its history, Chinese historians have made eunuchs the objects of shame and disdain, all the while categorizing them as guilty of greed and female traits that made them susceptible to their weaknesses.27 Yet, while Chinese historians of late Qing often linked eunuchs to the decline of dynasties of the past, indulgence, and corruption, they more often than not seemed to regard eunuchs as necessary to the function of the palace and imperial court, no matter what their qualms with them may have been.28

    Read More

  • Bound For Beauty Essay

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    Under the guise of making themselves attractive to men, Chinese women endured painful foot-binding rituals that left them scarred for life. We may view such a cultural practice as extreme but are twenty-first century women any less bound to androcentric ideas of what is attractive than our forebears? Foot-binding in ancient china was designed to make women dependent on their men and proved to be a symbol of male ownership that restricted women to their homes, since women whose feet were bound could not venture far from home without an escort or the help of servants.

    Read More

  • The Song Dynasty

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... Song times was sometimes blamed on Neo-Confucianism. Foot-binding also began during the Song Dynasty. This is the practice of binding the feet of girls with long strips of cloth to keep them from growing large. Moms wanted them to be judged more beautiful.

    Read More

  • Pre-Modern Confucianism in China

    2004 Words  | 5 Pages

    The role of the Chinese family in pre-modern China included thoughts centered on Confucian thought and methods. The Chinese family followed different methods of Confucian thought and the division of family responsibilities in China developed because of it. The original text of Confucius that dictated the roles of filial piety in China did not specify gender dichotomy but the implications led Chinese scholars to distinguish the position of men following filial values from women. Pre-Modern China had the dominative power of dozens of dynasties. Confucianism developed ideologically during the Spring and Autumn Period (722-476BC) as an intellectual movement. Although Confucianism’s beliefs stem from the thought of acceptance involving humanities right to learn and grown through personal understanding and knowledge of outside influences there is a division between the male and female tasks in filial piety. The woman’s place in pre-modern Chinese society always depended on the male figure in the household unless the woman held an elder position. In most cases, women under Confucian control had little direction in life that men did not manage. In this paper, I will discuss the relationship among self, community, society, and the state as well as the gender relations and definitions of public and private spaces between men and women in China.

    Read More

  • Dorothy Ko's Article: The Body As Banning In Seventeenth-Century China

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    In her article "The body as attire," Dorothy Ko (1997) reviewed the history about foot binding in seventeenth-century China, and expressed a creative viewpoint. Foot binding began in Song Dynasty, and was just popular in upper social society. With the gradually popularization of foot binding, in the end of Song Dynasty, it became generally popular. In Qing Dynasty, foot binding was endowed deeper meaning that was termed into a tool to against Manchu rule. The author, Dorothy Ko, studied from another aspect which was women themselves to understand and explained her shifting meaning of foot binding. Dorothy Ko contends that “Chinese Elite males in the seventeenth century regarded foot binding in three ways: as an expression of Chinese wen civility,

    Read More

  • Civilizations of Ancient China and East Asia

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...her in laws. The easiest way to do this was to have a son. Foot binding also started during the Song Dynasty.

    Read More

  • Footbinding: Domination or Choice?

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although no definite reason or person has been identified as responsible for the birth of footbinding, there are a few theories. One deals with the Shang dynasty's last empress' malformed feet. Some say she had club feet, bound them in attempts to distil beauty from malformation, and convinced her "spouse to make the compression of feet obligatory for young girls" (Levy, 37). Another scenario involves the Mongols attempting to impair the health of the Chinese women in order to weaken the Chinese. Still another theory, and possibly the most credible, involves the Chinese women attempting to attain greater appeal. Footbinding was not started by women for want of greater self control, nor did it originate from foreign powers. Well bound feet brought honor to the girl's family. Binding feet was even thought to improve other parts of the feminine figure. Footbinding increased attraction by males, which led to a better match. Overall, all the main reasons for binding one's feet, or one's daughters' feet, arise from masculine desires and wants.

    Read More

  • Chinese Footbinding

    3513 Words  | 8 Pages

    Ko, Dorothy. "The Body As Attire: The Shifting Meanings of Footbinding in Seventeenth-Century China". Journal of Women's History. Winter 1997, Vol.8:4.

    Read More

  • Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior By Amy Chua Summary

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” is an excerpt from Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, a Yale Law professor. In this excerpt the author explains why Chinese children tend to be more successful in life and expresses her dislike towards Western parenting. The first idea Chua explains is a list of activities her daughters are allowed to do and not do in order to focus solely on academic progress. Second, the author demonstrates the contrast in mindset between Chinese mothers and Western mothers by explaining how Chinese mothers feel differently than Western mothers in regards to academic success and learning. Furthermore, she describes how Chinese mothers can demand things from their children. Finally, they can also say

    Read More

More about Women and the Family in Chinese History

Open Document