Abandoned Women and Boudoir Resentment: The Construction of the Feminine Voice in Early Medieval Chinese Literature

Author: Qiulei Hu

Publisher: Brill

Publication year: 2023

Abstract:

This book studies the formation of the male-constructed conventional voice of women in Chinese literature from the 3rd to 6th century. It highlights specific moments during which the feminine voice became recognized, accepted, and stabilized, including the shift of focus from the performative to the textual in female representations; the formation of a male literary community; the popularity of romanticized historical narratives; and the emerging sense of literary history. This study emphasizes the historicity of the feminine voice and strives to question and challenge established notions about textual stability, authorship, the literary canon, and literary history.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1 A New Type of Gaze and the Rise of the Feminine Voice

Chapter 2 Longing for a Worthy Match: Jian’an Writing about Women and the Beginning of a Poetic Tradition

Chapter 3 Gender, Genre, and Historical Narrative

Chapter 4 Is It a Man or a Woman Speaking? Mapping Gender in Early Texts

Chapter 5 Neglected Voices of Early Medieval Women Writers

Epilogue: Creating the Voice of an Other

TOC Journal of Chinese History, Special Issue on 'The State and Migration in Chinese History' -- Volume 5 - Issue 2 - July 2021

Journal of Chinese History, Special Issue on 'The State and Migration in Chinese History' -- Volume 5 - Issue 2 - July 2021

Link here

Special issue articles

Introduction

“THE STATE and MIGRATION IN CHINESE HISTORY”

Anthony J. Barbieri-Low

Early Imperial and Early Medieval China

Coerced Migration and Resettlement in the Qin Imperial Expansion

Anthony J. Barbieri-Low

State-Induced Migration and the Creation of State Spaces in Early Chinese Empires: Perspectives from History and Archaeology

Maxim Korolkov, Anke Hein

War Captives, Left-Behind Wives, and Buddhist Nuns: Female Migrants in Early Medieval China (4th–6th Century CE)

Wen-Yi Huang

Late Imperial China

Rethinking Qing Manchuria's Prohibition Policies

Jonathan Schlesinger

Where Diasporas Met: Hunanese, Cantonese, and the State in Late-Qing Guangxi

Steven B. Miles

Modern China

Together in the Same Boat: Exiled Nationalist State and Chinese Civil War Exiles in 1950s Taiwan

Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang

Transform the Land, Train the Youth: Water and Soil Conservation Teams and State-Induced Migration in mid-1960s China

Micah S. Muscolino

Reluctant and Illegal Migrants in Mao's China: Civil Defense Evacuation in the Tianjin Region, 1969–1980

Jeremy Brown

The Empress in the Pepper Chamber: Zhao Feiyan in History and Fiction

Author:
Olivia Milburn

Publication Date:
May 2021

Publisher: 

University of Washington Press

Abstract:

Zhao Feiyan (45–1 BCE), the second empress appointed by Emperor Cheng of the Han dynasty (207 BCE–220 CE), was born in slavery and trained in the performing arts, a background that made her appointment as empress highly controversial. Subsequent persecution by her political enemies eventually led to her being forced to commit suicide. After her death, her reputation was marred by accusations of vicious scheming, murder of other consorts and their offspring, and relentless promiscuity, punctuated by bouts of extravagant shopping.

This first book-length study of Zhao Feiyan and her literary legacy includes a complete translation of The Scandalous Tale of Zhao Feiyan (Zhao Feiyan waizhuan 趙飛燕外傳), a Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) erotic novella that describes in great detail the decadent lifestyle enjoyed by imperial favorites in the harem of Emperor Cheng. This landmark text was crucial for establishing writings about palace women as the accepted forum for discussing sexual matters, including fetishism, obsession, jealousy, incompatibility in marriage, and so on. Using historical documentation, Olivia Milburn reconstructs the evolution of Zhao Feiyan’s story and illuminates the broader context of palace life for women and the novella’s social influence.

Table of Contents:

The Empress in the Pepper Chamber
The Scandalous Tale of Zhao Feiyan
Zhao Feiyan's Biography in Historical Sources
Interpreting The Scandalous Tale
Gendering Empress Zhao
Concluding Remarks

[Dissertation] Everyday Stress, Exceptional Suffering: Bioarchaeology of Violence and Personhood in Late Shang, China

Author:
Daniela Wolin

School:
Yale University

Submitted:
2018

Abstract:
The Late Shang period (ca. 1250-1050 BCE) of China is a unique context where archaeological features and artifacts, human skeletal remains, and a coeval writing system (inscribed oracle bones) document the practice of ritual sacrifice, which claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people. Although thousands of human skeletons from sacrificial and non-sacrificial contexts have been systematically excavated over the past 90 years at the urban settlement of Yinxu 殷墟 in Anyang city, Henan province, osteological analyses of direct and indirect violence have only been published for a small fraction of these remains.

My dissertation uses a bioarchaeological framework to study the intersection of violence, gender, and ritual practices during the Late Shang period of northern China. Through the study of human osteology, contextualized with mortuary analysis and oracle bone inscriptions (OBI), I explore how violence in Late Shang society was a culturally constructed and ritually meaningful practice, that was mediated through social identity. To explore how violence influenced the lived experiences of people during this time, I collected osteological data from various locales at Yinxu, including both royal and neighborhood areas.

A spectrum of different types of violence were occurring simultaneously, ranging from exceptional performances of violence – warfare, captivity, and human sacrifice – to small-scale "everyday" and structural violence among the general population. For the residential neighborhood of Yinxu Liujiazhuang 殷墟劉家莊, an overall low prevalence of trauma indicative of interpersonal violence was identified at this site, suggesting that integrative mechanisms, such as religion, feasting, communal ritual activities, and sacrifice, may have promoted social cohesion among the general population. A slightly higher percentage of healed trauma on the skulls of females, however, is suggestive of gender-based violence. Oral pathologies and osteological indicators of health and nutritional stress, while limited, also point toward differences in diet and susceptibility to disease. These results were compared to two regional settlements in Shangdong province: Jinan Liujiazhuang 濟南劉家莊 and Tengzhou Qianzhangda 滕州前掌大. Low levels of trauma were also observed in these collections, however, variation in the prevalence of oral pathologies between Yinxu and Jinan Liujiazhuang indicate differences in diet between these regions.

My analysis of sacrificial victims from royal and residential areas at Yinxu demonstrated that many of the skulls of decapitated victims displayed healed trauma in addition to direct evidence of perimortem beheading. These lesions document a process of physical abuse that likely began at the time of initial confrontation and continued throughout captivity until the individuals were chosen to be ritually decapitated. Through these interactions, personhood was (re)constituted as the Shang captors imposed new social identities on them both in life and in death. Osteological evidence of nutritional deficiencies and mechanical stress suggest that captives may have been forced to carry out taxing labor until the time they were selected for ritual sacrifice.

By focusing on trauma and paleopathology, my research highlights the range of lived experiences among the men and women of Yinxu. This study challenges past reconstructions that see males as the sole perpetrators and recipients of violence and encourages scholars to integrate gender theory into future research. Finally, as one of few anthropologically-oriented studies on violence in the Late Shang that utilizes bioarchaeological methods and theory, this dissertation demonstrates the importance of incorporating all lines of evidence – including human skeletal remains – into reconstructions of ancient societies in order to construct a rich and diverse narrative.

Modeling Peace: Royal Tombs and Political Ideology in Early China

Author:
Jie Shi

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Publication date:
March, 2020

Abstract:
Among hundreds of thousands of ancient graves and tombs excavated to date in China, the Mancheng site stands out for its unparalleled complexity and richness. It features two juxtaposed burials, of the first king and queen of the Zhongshan kingdom (dated late second century BCE). The male tomb occupant, King Liu Sheng (d. 113 BCE), was sent by his father, Emperor Jing (r. 157–141 BCE), to rule the Zhongshan kingdom near the northern frontier of the Western Han empire, neighboring the nomadic Xiongnu confederation. Modeling Peace interprets Western Han royal burial as a political ideology by closely reading the architecture and funerary content of this site and situating it in the historical context of imperialization in Western Han China. Through a study of both the archaeological materials and related received and excavated texts, Jie Shi demonstrates that the Mancheng site was planned and designed as a unity of religious, gender, and intercultural concerns. The site was built under the supervision of the future royal tomb occupants, who used these burials to assert their political ideology based on Huang-Lao and Confucian thought: a good ruler is one who pacifies himself, his family, and his country. This book is the first scholarly monograph on an undisturbed and fully excavated early Chinese royal burial site.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part I
1. The Embrace of Body and Soul
2. The Union of Husband and Wife
3. Integration of Ethnic Han and Non-Han
Part II
4. The Public King
5. The King of Peace
6. The King Under the Gaze
Conclusion

Women in Tang China

Author:
Bret Hinsch

Publication date:
November 11, 2019

Publisher: 
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Abstract:

This important book provides the first comprehensive survey of women in China during the Sui and Tang dynasties from the sixth through tenth centuries CE. Bret Hinsch provides rich insight into female life in the medieval era, ranging from political power, wealth, and work to family, religious roles, and virtues. He explores women’s lived experiences but also delves into the subjective side of their emotional life and the ideals they pursued. Deeply researched, the book draws on a wide range of sources, including standard histories, poetry, prose literature, and epigraphic sources such as epitaphs, commemorative religious inscriptions, and Dunhuang documents. Building on the best Western and Japanese scholarship, Hinsch also draws heavily on Chinese scholarship, most of which is unknown outside China. As the first study in English about women in the medieval era, this groundbreaking work will open a new window into Chinese history for Western readers.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1 Marriage

2 Mothers

3 Government

4 Wealth

5 Religion

6 Learning

7 Virtue

8 Love

Conclusion

Chinese Funerary Biographies: An Anthology of Remembered Lives

Editors:
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Ping Yao, Cong Ellen Zhang

Publisher:
University of Washington Press

Publication date:
January 2020

Abstract:
Tens of thousands of epitaphs, or funerary biographies, survive from imperial China. Engraved on stone and placed in a grave, they typically focus on the deceased's biography and exemplary words and deeds, expressing the survivors' longing for the dead. These epitaphs provide glimpses of the lives of women, men who did not leave a mark politically, and children―people who are not well documented in more conventional sources such as dynastic histories and local gazetteers.

This anthology of translations makes available funerary biographies covering nearly two thousand years, from the Han dynasty through the nineteenth century, selected for their value as teaching material for courses in Chinese history, literature, and women's studies as well as world history. Because they include revealing details about personal conduct, families, local conditions, and social, cultural, and religious practices, these epitaphs illustrate ways of thinking and the realities of daily life. Most can be read and analyzed on multiple levels, and they stimulate investigation of topics such as the emotional tenor of family relations, rituals associated with death, Confucian values, women's lives as written about by men, and the use of sources assumed to be biased. These biographies will be especially effective when combined with more readily available primary sources such as official documents, religious and intellectual discourses, and anecdotal stories, promising to generate provocative discussion of literary genre, the ways historians use sources, and how writers shape their accounts.

Table of Contents:

Three short eastern Han funerary biographies : epitaphs for Ma Jiang (34-106), Wu Zhongshan (ca. 92-172), and Kong Dan (fl. 182) / translated by Ping Yao and Patricia Ebrey

A Chinese general serving the Northern Wei state : entombed epitaph for the late Wei dynasty overseer of military affairs, Sima Yue 司馬悅 (462-508) / translated by Timothy Davis

A twice-widowed Xianbei princess: epitaph with preface for the Great Enlightenment Temple nun surnamed Yuan (475-529) 元純陀 / translated by Jender Lee 李貞德

Authoring one's own epitaph : self-authored epitaph / by Wang Ji (590-644) ; Inscription dictated while near death / by Wang Xuanzong (633-686) ; translated by Alexei Kamran Ditter

Wives commemorating their husbands : epitaph for Cao Yin (fl. 7th century) / by Madame Zhou (fl. 7th century) ; Epitaph for He Jian (686-742) / by Madame Xin (fl. 742) ; translated by Ping Yao

A married daughter and a grandson : entombed funerary inscription for my daughter the late Madame Dugu (785-815) and entombed record for my grandson (803-815) who died young (Quan Shunsun, 803-815) / by Quan Deyu (759-818) ; translated by Anna Shields

A nun who lived through the Huichang persecution of Buddhism : epitaph for Daoist nun (Zhi Zhijian, 812-861) / by Zhi Mo (fl. 860) ; translated by Ping Yao

An envoy serving the Kitan Liao Son of Heaven : epitaph for Han Chun (d. 1035), court ceremonial commissioner / by Li Wan (fl. 1012-1036) ; translated by Lance Pursey

Epitaphs made widely available : funerary biographies for three men of Luzhou: Liang Jian (d. 1042), Wang Cheng (d. 1042), and Chen Hou (1065-1123) / translated by Man Xu

A friend and political ally : funerary inscription for Mr. Culai (Shi Jie, 1005-1045) / by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) ; translated by Cong Ellen Zhang

Preserving a father's memory : funerary inscription for Chao Juncheng (1029-1075) / by Huang

Tingjian (1045-1105) / translated by Cong Ellen Zhang

A gentleman without office : epitaph for the scholar residing at home Wei Xiongfei (1130-1207) / by Wei Liaoweng (1178-1237) ; translated by Mark Halperin

Wives and in-laws : funerary inscription for [my father-in-law] Mr. Zou of Fengcheng (Zou Yilong, 1204-1255) and funerary inscription for [my wife] Madame Plum Mansion (zou Miaozhuang, 1230-1257) / by Yao Mian (1216-1262) ; translated by Beverly Bossler

A clerk promoted to official under the Mongols : funerary inscription for Mr. Su (Su Zhidao, 1261-1320), director of the left and right offices of the branch secretariat for the Lingbei region / by Yu Ji (1271-1348) ; translated by Patricia Buckley Ebrey

A Mongol rising to the defense of the realm : epitaph for grand guardian Sayin Idaqu (1317-1365) / by Zhang Zhu (1287-1368) / translated by Tomoyasu Iiyama 飯山知保

A merchant aspiring to gentlemanly virtue : funerary biography of the gentleman residing at home Cheng Weiqing (1531-1588) / by Wang Shizhen (1526-1590) ; translated by Yongtao Du

A Ming general turned warlord : the General Mao Wenlong (1579-1629) / by Mao Qiling (1623-1716) ; translated by Xing Hang

A brother remembers his sister : the epitaph of my sister Madam Fang (1600-1668) / by Qian Chengzhi (1612- 1698) ; translated by Martin Huang

A Chinese bannerman expert in waterworks : epitaph for Jin Fu (1633-1692), director-general of river conservancy / by Wang Shizhen (1634-1711) ; translated by R. Kent Guy

A woman determined to die : epitaph for the joint burial of Scholar Wu (1666-1687) and his martyred wife Madame Dai (1666-1687) / by Mao Qiling (1623-1716) ; translated by Jolan Yi

A wife's sacrifices : a living epitaph of my wife Madame Sun (1769-1833) / by Fang Dongshu (1772-1851) ; translated by Weijing Lu

A wife's moving tribute : epitaph for Zeng Yong (1813-1862) / by Zuo Xijia (1831-1896) ; translated by Grace S. Fong

The Cambridge History of China Volume 2: The Six Dynasties, 220–589

Editors:
Albert E. Dien & Keith N. Knapp

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Publication date:

2019

Abstract:

The Six Dynasties Period (220–589 CE) is one of the most complex in Chinese history. Written by leading scholars from across the globe, the essays in this volume cover nearly every aspect of the period, including politics, foreign relations, warfare, agriculture, gender, art, philosophy, material culture, local society, and music. While acknowledging the era's political chaos, these essays indicate that this was a transformative period when Chinese culture was significantly changed and enriched by foreign peoples and ideas. It was also a time when history and literature became recognized as independent subjects and religion was transformed by the domestication of Buddhism and the formation of organized Daoism. Many of the trends that shaped the rest of imperial China's history have their origins in this era, such as the commercial vibrancy of southern China, the separation of history and literature from classical studies, and the growing importance of women in politics and religion.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Part I. History:
1. Wei   Rafe de Crespigny
2. Wu   Rafe de Crespigny
3. Shu-Han   J. Michael Farmer
4. Western Jin   Damien Chaussende
5. Eastern Jin   Charles Holcombe
6. The Sixteen Kingdoms   Charles Holcombe
7. Cheng-Han State   Terry F. Kleeman
8. Northern Wei   Scott Pearce
9. Eastern Wei-Northern Qi   Albert E. Dien
10. Western Wei-Northern Zhou   Albert E. Dien
11. The Southern dynasties   Andrew Chittick

Part II. Society and Realia:
12. The art of war  David A. Graff
13. Foreign relations  Charles Holcombe
14. The Northern economy  Victor Cunrui Xiong
15. The Southern economy  Liu Shufen 劉淑芬
16. Agriculture  Francesca Bray
17. The history of Sogdians in China  Rong Xinjiang 榮新江
18. Northern material culture  Shing Müller
19. Southern material culture   Annette Kieser
20. Women, families, and gendered society  Jen-der Lee 李貞德
21. Local society Hou Xudong 侯旭東

Part III. Culture, Religion and Art:
22. Confucian learning and influence   Keith N. Knapp
23. Qingtan and Xuanxue   Y. K. Lo
24. Buddhism   John Kieschnick
25. Daoism   Stephen R. Bokenkamp
26. Popular religion   Robert Ford Campany
27. The world of prose literature   Antje Richter
28. The world of poetry   Cynthia Chennault
29. Art and visual culture   Wu Hung 巫鴻
30. Music   Bo Lawergren

How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context: Poetic Culture from Antiquity Through the Tang

Editor: 
Zong-qi Cai

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Publication Date: 
February 2018

Abstract:

How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context is an introduction to the golden age of Chinese poetry, spanning the earliest times through the Tang dynasty (618–907). It aims to break down barriers—between language and culture, poetry and history—that have stood in the way of teaching and learning Chinese poetry. Not only a primer in early Chinese poetry, the volume demonstrates the unique and central role of poetry in the making of Chinese culture.

Each chapter focuses on a specific theme to show the interplay between poetry and the world. Readers discover the key role that poetry played in Chinese diplomacy, court politics, empire building, and institutionalized learning; as well as how poems shed light on gender and women’s status, war and knight-errantry, Daoist and Buddhist traditions, and more. The chapters also show how people of different social classes used poetry as a means of gaining entry into officialdom, creating self-identity, fostering friendship, and airing grievances. The volume includes historical vignettes and anecdotes that contextualize individual poems, investigating how some featured texts subvert and challenge the grand narratives of Chinese history. Presenting poems in Chinese along with English translations and commentary, How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context unites teaching poetry with the social circumstances surrounding its creation, making it a pioneering and versatile text for the study of Chinese language, literature, history, and culture.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Cultural Role of Chinese Poetry, by Zong-qi Cai

Part I: Pre-Han Times

1. Poetry and Diplomacy in The Zuo Commentary(Zuozhuan), by Wai-yee Li

2. Poetry and Authorship: The Songs of Chu (Chuci), by Stephen Owen

Part II: The Han Dynasty

3. Empire in Text: Sima Xiangru’s “Sir Vacuous/Imperial Park Rhapsody”(“Zixu/Shanglin fu”), by Yu-yu Cheng and Gregory Patterson

4. Poetry and Ideology: The Canonization of the Book of Poetry (Shijing) During the Han, by Zong-qi Cai

5. Love Beyond the Grave: A Tragic Tale of Love and Marriage in Han China, by Olga Lomová

Part III: The Six Dynasties

6. Heroes from Chaotic Times: The Three Caos, by Xinda Lian

7. The Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, by Nanxiu Qian

8. The Poetry of Reclusion: Tao Qian, by Alan Berkowitz

9. The Struggling Buddhist Mind: Shen Yue, by Meow Hui Goh

[Dissertation] Women During the Han Dynasty Through the Lens of Excavated Materials

Author:
Pattira Thaithosaeng

School:
University of Pennsylvania

Degree date: 
2018

Advisor: 
Goldin, Paul R.

Abstract:

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the life of Han women on the basis of excavated materials through four themes, namely, convict-labor, motherhood, sexual partners, and the afterlife. The sources include the Shuihudi, Zhangjiashan, and Mawangdui manuscripts along with visual representations and tomb artefacts. I argue that women were always the subject of concern either by the state or their partners. Female criminals constituted a crucial part in the government’s labor force. They were expected to effectively produce offspring and raise the future population with some benefits in return under the principle of filial piety. Sexual relationships between men and women were systematically regulated by the state, while individual men focused on improving health during sexual intercourse and women received pleasure as a by-product. Only in the afterlife would the rules be more relaxed, with life as depicted inside the tomb as evidence. Excavated materials have produced a more nuanced image of Han women, as they offer new insights to our understanding of gender and sexuality during the early periods, for which we previously lacked the resources to study.

中国ジェンダー史研究入門 (Introduction to gender history in China)

Editors:
小浜 正子・下倉 渉・佐々木 愛・高嶋 航・江上 幸子

Publication date:
2018

Publisher:
京都大学学術出版会 Kyoto University Press

Abstract:

中国の長い歴史とともに変化したジェンダー秩序の変遷過程をダイナミックに描く。社会の父系化、ジェンダー規範の強化、そして社会主義をへて改革開放の大変動まで。家族、労働、ナショナリズム、身体、ＬＧＢＴなど今日的な研究視点を網羅し、中国ジェンダー史研究の全体像を初めて伝える。初学者から隣接分野まで必携の研究入門。

Table of Contents:

遺跡地図

はじめに―中国史におけるジェンダー秩序　（小浜正子）
１．ジェンダー史とジェンダー主流化
２．中国女性史から中国ジェンダー史へ
３．中国ジェンダー史共同研究と中国ジェンダー史のいくつかの論点
４．残された課題
５．本書の構成

第一編　通時的パースペクティブ

Ⅰ期　先秦～隋唐　古典中国―父系社会の形成

はじめに　（下倉　渉）

第１章　考古学からみた先秦時代のジェンダー構造　（内田純子）
はじめに
１．墓葬資料の扱い
２．副葬工具にみられる性差―新石器時代の男耕女織の起源
３．初期王朝時代（商代）の文字資料と女性
４．考古学からみた商王とその妻―王陵区大墓と婦好墓の比較
５．殷墟の族墓地の男女墓の分析
６．西周から春秋・戦国期にかけての変化
７．青銅器と装身具にみられる女性の役割
―西周から春秋・戦国期にかけての変化
８．女性の寿命、生涯と身分
９．男耕女織と絹生産
10．先秦時代のジェンダー構造の変化過程

第２章　父系化する社会　（下倉　渉）
はじめに
１．異父の兄弟姉妹と舅甥の関係
２．「公主」の歴史
（1）六朝から明清まで
（2）漢代の公主について
おわりに

第３章　中国の文学と女性　（佐竹保子）
はじめに
１．先秦（紀元前）
２．漢代
３．魏晋南北朝
４．唐代
５．宋代の李清照
おわりに

第４章　唐代の家族　（翁育瑄、三田辰彦訳）
はじめに
１．門閥貴族研究と唐代の家族・親族
２．女性史研究と唐代の家族・親族
３．礼制・法制研究と唐代の家族・親族
おわりに

コラム1　史料紹介―敦煌文書にみる妻の離婚、娘の財産相続
（荒川正晴）

コラム2　則天武后とその後　（金子修一）

Women in Early Medieval China

Author:
Bret Hinsch

Publication date:
October 1, 2018

Publisher: 
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Abstract:

This important study provides the only comprehensive survey of Chinese women during the early medieval period of disunion, which lasted from the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty in 220 AD to the reunification of China by the Sui dynasty in 581 AD, also known as the Six Dynasties. Bret Hinsch offers rich descriptions of the most important aspects of female life in this era, including family and marriage, motherhood, political power, work, inheritance, education, and religious roles. He traces women’s lived experiences as well as the emotional life and the ideals they pursued. Building on the best Western and Japanese scholarship, Hinsch also draws heavily on Chinese primary sources and scholarship, most of which is unknown outside China. As the first study in English about women in the early medieval era, this groundbreaking book will open a new window into Chinese history for Western readers.

Table of Contents:

Introduction 

1 Family 

2 Mothers 

3 Politics 

4 Work 

5 Religion 

6 Learning 

7 Virtue 

8 Ideals 

Conclusion: An Awakening of Female Consciousness 

Women in Ancient China

Author:
Bret Hinsch

Publisher:
Rowman & Littlefield

Publication Date:
June 2018

Abstract:

This pioneering book provides a comprehensive survey of ancient Chinese women’s history, covering thousands of years from the Neolithic era to China’s unification in 221 BCE. For each period—Neolithic, Shang, Western Zhou, and Eastern Zhou—Bret Hinsch explores central aspects of female life: marriage, family life, politics, ritual, and religious roles. Deeply researched, the book draws on a wide range of Chinese scholarship and primary sources, including transmitted texts, inscriptions, and archaeological evidence. The result is a comprehensive view of women’s history from the beginnings of Chinese civilization up to the beginnings of the imperial era. Clear and readable, the book will be invaluable for both students and specialists in gender studies.

Table of Contents:

List of Figures

Introduction

Chapter One: The Myth of Matriarchy

Chapter Two: Neolithic Era

Chapter Three: Shang Dynasty

Chapter Four: Western Zhou Era

Chapter Five: Eastern Zhou Era

Epilogue: The Myth of the Evil Woman

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History

Editor：
Paul R. Goldin 

Publisher:
Routledge

Publication Date:
May 2018

Abstract:

The study of early China has been radically transformed over the past fifty years by archaeological discoveries, including both textual and non-textual artifacts. Thanks to the huge fund of new data provided by archaeology, historians are now keenly aware that traditional accounts of the period are inadequte because they are partisan, prescriptive, and incomplete. Excavations of settlements and tombs have demonstrated that most people did not lead their lives in accordance with the rituals canons, while previously unknown documents have shown that most received histories were written retrospectively by victors, and present a correspondingly skewed and anachronistic perspective.

This handbook provides an authoritive survey of  Chinese history from the Stone Age to A.D. 220. It is the first volume to include not only a comprehensive review of political history, but also detailed treatments of topics that transcend particular historical moments, such as warfare, cities, literature, and science. The contributions from doyens in the field and up and coming scholars reflect the cutting edge research that is redefining the study of Early Chinese history.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: What Is Early Chinese History?, Paul R. Goldin

Part I: Chronology

1. Main Issues in the Study of the Chinese Neolithic, Gideon Shelach-Lavi

2. Of Millets and Wheat: Diet and Health on the Central Plain of China during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, Kate Pechenkina

3. The Bronze Age before the Zhou Dynasty, Robert Bagley

4. The Western Zhou State, Li Feng

5. The Age of Territorial Lords, Chen Shen

6. The Qin Dynasty, Charles Sanft

7. The Former Han Empire, Vincent S. Leung

8. The Latter Han Empire and the End of Antiquity, Wicky W.K. Tse


Part II: Topical Studies

9. The Old Chinese Language, Axel Schuessler

10. Writing, Luo Xinhui; tr. Zachary Hershey and Paul R. Goldin

11. The Spirit World, Jue Guo

12. Religious Thought, Ori Tavor

13. Political Thought, Yuri Pines

14. Food and Agriculture, Roel Sterckx

15. Warfare, Wicky W.K. Tse

16. Currency, François Thierry

17. Women in Early China: Views from the Archaeological Record, Anne Behnke Kinney

18. An Overview of the Qin-Han Legal System from the Perspective of Recently Unearthed Documents, Kyung-ho Kim and Ming-chiu Lai

19. Literature, Stephen Durrant

20. Art, Wang Haicheng

21. "Medicine" in Early China, Miranda Brown

22. Mathematics, Karine Chemla


23. Astronomy, David Pankenier

Gender, Power, and Talent: The Journey of Daoist Priestesses in Tang China

Author:
Jinhua Jia

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Publication Date:
March 2018

Abstract:
During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the adoption of Daoism as the de facto state religion opened the possibility for Chinese women to play an unprecedented role in religious and public life. Women from imperial princesses to the daughters of commoner families could be ordained as Daoist priestesses and become religious leaders, teachers, and practitioners in their own right. Some achieved remarkable accomplishments: one wrote and transmitted influential texts on meditation and inner cultivation; another, a physician, authored a treatise on therapeutic methods, medical theory, and longevity techniques. Priestess-poets composed major works, and talented priestess-artists produced stunning calligraphy.

In Gender, Power, and Talent, Jinhua Jia draws on a wealth of previously untapped sources to explain how Daoist priestesses distinguished themselves as a distinct gendered religious and social group. She describes the life journey of priestesses from palace women to abbesses and ordinary practitioners, touching on their varied reasons for entering the Daoist orders, the role of social and religious institutions, forms of spiritual experience, and the relationships between gendered identities and cultural representations. Jia takes the reader inside convents and cloisters, demonstrating how they functioned both as a female space for self-determination and as a public platform for both religious and social spheres. The first comprehensive study of the lives and roles of Daoist priestesses in Tang China, Gender, Power, and Talent restores women to the landscape of Chinese religion and literature and proposes new methodologies for the growing field of gender and religion.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
1. The Rise of Daoist Priestesses as a Gendered Religio-Social Group
2. Destiny and Power of the Ordained Royal Women
3. Religious Leadership, Practice, and Ritual Function
4. Liu Moran 柳默然 and the Daoist Theory of Inner Cultivation
5. Longevity Techniques and Medical Theory: The Legacy of Hu Yin 胡愔
6. The Yaochi ji 瑤池集 and Three Daoist Priestess-Poets
7. Unsold Peony: The Life and Poetry of the Priestess-Poet Yu Xuanji 魚玄機
Conclusion
Appendix: Du Guangting and the Hagiographies of Tang Daoist Women

The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender

Editor:
Ann A. Pang-White

Publication Date:
April, 2016

Publisher: 
Bloomsbury Academic

Abstract:

Covering the historical, social, political, and cultural contexts, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender presents a comprehensive overview of the complexity of gender disparity in Chinese thought and culture.

Divided into four main sections, an international group of experts in Chinese Studies write on Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist approaches to gender relations. Each section includes a general introduction, a set of authoritative articles written by leading scholars and comprehensive bibliographies, designed to provide the non-specialist with a practical and broad overview. Beginning with the Ancient and Medieval period before moving on to Modern and Contemporary approaches, specially commissioned chapters include Pre-Qin canonical texts, women in early Chinese ethics, the yin-yang gender dynamic and the Buddhist understanding of the conception of gender. Considering why the philosophy of women and gender dynamics in Chinese thought is rarely confronted, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Chinese Philosophy and Gender is a pioneering cross-disciplinary introduction to Chinese philosophy's intersection with gender studies.

By bridging the fields of Chinese philosophy, religion, intellectual history, feminism, and gender studies, this cutting-edge volume fills a great need in the current literature on Chinese philosophy and provides student and scholars with an invaluable research resource to a growing field.

Birth in Ancient China: A Study of Metaphor and Cultural Identity in Pre-Imperial China

Editors: 
Constance A. Cook and Xinhui Luo

Publisher:
SUNY Press

Publication Date:
November, 2017

Abstract:

Using newly discovered and excavated texts, Constance A. Cook and Xinhui Luo systematically explore material culture, inscriptions, transmitted texts, and genealogies from BCE China to reconstruct the role of women in social reproduction in the ancient Chinese world. Applying paleographical, linguistic, and historical analyses, Cook and Luo discuss fertility rituals, birthing experiences, divine conceptions, divine births, and the overall influence of gendered supernatural agencies on the experience and outcome of birth. They unpack a cultural paradigm in which birth is not only a philosophical symbol of eternal return and renewal but also an abiding religious and social focus for lineage continuity. They also suggest that some of the mythical founder heroes traditionally assumed to be male may in fact have had female identities. Students of ancient history, particularly Chinese history, will find this book an essential complement to traditional historical narratives, while the exploration of ancient religious texts, many unknown in the West, provides a unique perspective into the study of the formation of mythology and the role of birthing in early religion.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: A Chu Text

1. Words and Images

2. Controlling Reproduction: Fertility Prayers

3. Mothers and Embryos

4. Controlling the Pregnant Body

5. Divine Origins and Chu Genealogical History

6. The Traumatic Births of Non-Zhou Ancestral Founders

Conclusion

Women in Imperial China

Author:
Bret Hinsch

Publisher:
Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield

Publication Year:
2016

Abstract:
This accessible text provides a comprehensive survey of women’s history in China from the Neolithic period through the end of the Qing dynasty in the early twentieth century. Rather than providing an exhaustive chronicle of this vast subject, Bret Hinsch pinpoints the themes that characterized distinct periods in Chinese women’s history and delves into the perception of female identity in each era. Moving beyond the traditional focus on the late imperial era, Hinsch explores how gender relations have developed and changed since ancient times. His chronological look at the most important female roles in every major dynasty showcases not only the constraints women faced but also their vast accomplishments throughout the millennia. Hinsch’s extensive use of Chinese-language scholarship lends his book a fresh perspective rare among Western scholars. Professors and students will find this an invaluable textbook for Chinese women’s studies and an excellent supplement for courses in gender studies and Chinese history.

Table of Contents:
Major Chinese Dynasties
Preface
Chapter 1: Ancient Beginnings: Prehistory, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties
Chapter 2: Womanhood under Empire: Qin and Han Dynasties
Chapter 3: Order Out of Chaos: The Early Medieval Era
Chapter 4: An Era of Effervescence: Tang Dynasty
Chapter 5: The Great Transition: Song Dynasty
Chapter 6: Explorations and Restraints: Ming Dynasty
Chapter 7: Pondering Possibilities: Qing Dynasty
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

[Dissertation] Divorce and the Divorced Woman in Early Medieval China (First through Sixth Century)

Author:
Tang Qiaomei

School:
Harvard University

Year:
2016

Abstract:

This dissertation consists of two parts: a cultural study of divorce in early medieval China and a literary study of the divorced woman as represented in various early medieval Chinese writings, including literary and historical writings, legal, ritual and medical texts, and tomb epitaphs. 

A comparison between the rites, norms and regulations prescribed for women in ritual classics, and women’s lived experiences as recounted in historical writings, shows a greater discrepancy between norm and practice in the early medieval period than in later periods. Normative prescriptions were generally not followed by women of this period, and women enjoyed a more relaxed social and familial environment than their late imperial counterparts. The gap between norm and practice was extended into many areas of familial and social life, including marriage and divorce. An examination of actual divorce cases reveals that neither the Seven Conditions (qichu 七出) nor the Three Prohibitions (sanbuqu 三不去) were strictly adhered to when divorce took place. Divorce happened to people from all levels of society, and could be initiated by both men and women for reasons outside of the Seven Conditions and the Three Prohibitions. Divorce was not regarded as a social taboo in early medieval China.

The unstable social and political environment that characterizes the early medieval period gave rise to some ritual deviations and anomalies, among which was the two-principal-wives (liangdi 兩嫡) phenomenon. Debates and discussions on this marital predicament anchored on the issue of divorce, that is, how should the martial status of the two wives be defined? A thorny
case of a sixth-century liangdi dilemma reveals that during the long divide between north and south, the contestation between wives for the principal wife status mirrored the contention for cultural supremacy and political legitimacy between northern and southern elite.

Generally speaking, divorced women were not stigmatized in early medieval China, and remarriage was an acceptable recourse for them. Historians appeared to be indifferent to her plight, and tended to write of the divorced woman only to help tell the story of the man who divorced her. In contrast, in poetic writings, the divorced woman was not viewed only in relation
to her ex-husband. She was instead a disconnected, isolated figure, and her emotions took center stage. This comparison reveals that the image of the divorced woman in early medieval China reflects both the mindset of the men who formulate her in writing, as well as the constraints imposed by each writing genre.

則天武后

Author:
氣賀澤保規 (Kegasawa, Yasunori)

Publisher:
講談社

Publication Date:
2016. 11.10

Abstract:
秦の始皇帝に始まる二千年余にわたる中華帝国の歴史にその名を刻む唯一の女帝・則天武后（武則天）。男性中心秩序の古代社会に己の才覚と知力で挑み、至尊の座にまで登りつめた女性は、何を目指し、また何が彼女を生み出したのか－－。大唐帝国繁栄の礎を築いた冷徹にして情熱的な生涯とその時代を、学術的知見に基づいて鮮やかに描き出す。

Table of Contents:

はじめに
第一章　則天武后の生卒年
第二章　隋末の動乱と唐の決起
第三章　玄武門の変
第四章　唐太宗と貞観の治
第五章　太宗の後継問題
第六章　武照の出生と武士かく
第七章　武照、太宗の後宮へ
第八章　高宗朝の女の争い
第九章　武昭儀、皇后の座に
第十章　二聖と垂簾の政
第十一章　武后政治の新展開
第十二章　武后とその一族
第十三章　高宗の崩御
第十四章　李敬業の反乱
第十五章　酷吏と告密の恐怖政治
第十六章　怪僧薛懐義
第十七章　武周政権への最終コーナー
第十八章　武周革命
第十九章　武周朝の朝士──狄仁傑
第二十章　武周朝の終焉
第二十一章　武后残影
おわりに
則天武后関係年表
則天武后評伝・文学書一覧
講談社学術文庫によせて

解　説　　上野　誠