Empresses and consorts selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's commentary |
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| 1. | Chapter 1: Introduction |
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 | Empresses and consorts |  |
Chapter 1: Introduction
The notion of a "turning point" as applied to the history of Chinese women
seems to have been first used by Chen, Zhongguo funü shenghuo shi, 129,
in writing of the Song, and then been picked up by others, e.g., Ebrey, The
Inner Quarters, 6, whose work in fact suggests that perhaps it would be better
to think in terms of an ongoing series of course adjustments.
See, for example, Chen, Zhongguo funü shenghuo shi, 129-172, and
Reischauer and Fairbank, East Asia, 224-225. The issue of the relationship
between broader social and economic change and changes in the status of
women is discussed by Ebrey in The Inner Quarters, 5-6, and idem, "Women,
Marriage and the Family in Chinese History."
Ebrey, "Women, Marriage and the Family in Chinese History," 218-221, and
idem, The Inner Quarters, 199.
Ropp, "The Seeds of Change." Recent scholarship on women during the Ming-Qing
and the various interpretations arising from it have been nicely
summarized by Bernhardt, "A Ming-Qing Transition in Chinese Women's
History?"
Bernhardt, "A Ming-Qing Transition in Chinese Women's History?" 50-58.
Particularly interesting is Bernhardt's assertion that the declining legal position
of women represented the codification in law of social practice—a development
ideology.
Ebrey, "Women, Marriage, and the Family in Chinese History," 204-206, 223.
This point is underscored by two steles erected by the First Qin Emperor, setting
forth the ideology of the new dynasty. The first, erected in 21 B.C., underscored
the importance to stability of men and women performing their appropriate
functions (Sj, 6.252; Watson, Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty,
52). The second, erected on Mt. Guiji [OMITTED] (or Kuaiji) in 210 B.C., is
particularly interesting for the values it reflects:
Those who gloss over error in the name of righteousness,
women with sons who remarry, unchastely turning against
the dead—
Such conduct he bars at home and abroad, prohibits unlicensed
behaviour, so that men and women are pure and honest.
If a husband behaves in bestial fashion, killing him will incur no
guilt; thus are men made to embrace righteousness.
If a wife runs away and remarries, her sons shall disown their
mother; so all will be led to clean and upright conduct.
6.261-262)
The promotion of the virtue of filial piety (xiao [OMITTED]) by the Han state must
also have contributed to patriarchy, since it often—especially insofar as it
involved duty to one's ruler and bureaucratic sponsors and superiors—
emphasized obligations between males. See Nylan, "Confucian Piety and
Individualism in Han China."
Bao, "Yinyang xueshuo yu funü diwei;" cf. Guisso, "Thunder Over the Lake,"
49. On this same privileging of yang in literature and literary thought, see
Cutter, "To the Manner Born?"
O'Hara, The Position of Woman in Early China. See also Sung, "The Chinese
Lieh-nü Tradition," and Holmgren, "Widow Chastity in the Northern
Dynasties."
Sung, "The Lieh-nü Tradition," 70-71; Mann, "Grooming a Daughter for
Marriage," 212, 213; and Carlitz, "The Social Uses of Female Virtue in Late
Ming Editions of Lienü zhuan," 117-118, 123.
See Swann, Pan Chao, and Lee, The Virtue of Yin, 11-24. Swann, "A Woman
Among the Rich Merchants," while offering a translation of the widow's
biography, is primarily concerned with comparing Sj, 129 and Hs, 30, which
contain the biographies of rich merchants.
Goodrich, "Two Chapters in the Life of an Empress of the Later Han"; Swann,
"Biography of the Empress Têng."
Yang, "Female Rulers in Imperial China"; de Crespigny, "The Harem of
Emperor Huan"; Young, "Court Politics in the Later Han."
Examples include Dull, "Marriage and Divorce in Han China"; Liu, Handai
hunyin zhidu and "Shilun Handai hunyin guanxi zhong de lifa guannian"; and
Holmgren, "Imperial Marriage in the Native Chinese and Non-Han State."
An important recent contribution is Bret Hinsch's "Women in Early Imperial
China." Although we did not learn of Hinsch's dissertation until late in the
preparation of our manuscript, we have been grateful for the opportunity to
compare conclusions about the Han.
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