Women In China During The Long

Women In China During 'The Long Eighteenth Century';

During the 18th Century women in China continued to be subordinated and subjected to men. Their status was maintained by laws, official policies, cultural traditions, as well as philosophical concepts. The Confucian ideology of 'Thrice Following'; identified to whom a women must show allegiance and loyalty as she progressed throughout her life-cycle: as a daughter she was to follow her father, as a wife she was to follow her husband, and as a widow she was to follow her sons. Moreover, in the Confucian perception of the distinction between inner and outer, women were consigned to the inner domestic realm and excluded from the outer realm of examinations, politics and public life. For the most part, this ideology determined the reality of a woman's live during China's 'long eighteenth century?'; This is especially true for upper class women.

The philosophical idea of yin and yang is found throughout Chinese culture, literature, and social structure. The idea is that the world is made up two opposite types of energy which must be kept in balance with one another. Neither is greater than the other, or more important than the other. In respect to gender, yin is female and yang is male. Yin is private life within the family and yang is public life outside the family. Men were to focus on public life and outside affairs and support the family while women were to focus on private life and support the men.

For many men resisting the pressures of scholarly careers, women appeared as guardians of stability, order and purity. The woman's quarters, secluded behind courtyards and doorways deep in the recesses of the house offered a refuge from world of flux, chaos, and corruption. Women nurtured and tutored men when they were young, tended them when they became sick, and cared for them when they grew old. When a man holding office faced devastating financial losses or difficult political decisions, only his wife's disinterested advice and frugal savings could save his career. Although a man might often be called away to duty or might die prematurely, he could count on his wife or widow to care for his aging parents and his vulnerable children. (Mann 50)

Ideally, women and men were to share in a partnership with the ultimate purpose of mutual support and prosperity for the family as a whole. From a modern American p...

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...ways to learn the arts of passion and to express their emotions. Hints about homosexual attraction among women, especially within the same family compound, suggest that it was not considered abnormal or unhealthy. Young girls might have an opportunity to observe married women within the same household (wives or concubines) who were sexually attracted to one another; in fact, a wife might select a concubine for her spouse with her own sensibilities in mind. (Mann 60)

An upper-class married woman in High Qing Jiangnan could expect to bear children throughout her fertile years. The risks and burdens of childbearing may have made the advent of a concubine a source of relief rather than jealousy or turned widowhood into a time of respite rather than loneliness. (Mann 62)

Stories and biographies of faithful widows remind us time and again that the learned woman who survived her husband must not celebrate her longevity.

She knew from her classical studies that she was the wei wang ren, 'the person who had not yet died.'; Having survived her spouse, she was required to rear his sons and support his parents, but on no account could she revel in her passage to old age alone. (Mann 67)