Women's Roles In Ancient China

1. How could a woman be involved in war and military service in ancient China?

1. Having served in the Marines myself, I was interested in learning learn about the roles of Ancient Chinese women in the military. I learned that women had been excluded from military power in early imperial times. Consorts were able to gain generalships for their male relatives. In addition they were kept from the battlefield In the Han dynasty the site of warfare shifted. After China became unified only civil wars of popular uprising were fought within China. Consequently, officials, were then forced to develop local logistical support, frequently from females. 1831 12}

Local uprising created a place where women could become involved. The Red

Eyebrow revolt in 22 C.E provides a good example of this. Mother Lu led one of the most important branches of this bloody uprising. In this uprising, led by her vendetta against the people who executed her son, she utilized her kinship role as mother, to gain support for the rebellion. The rebels seized the county capital, and captured, then beheaded the administrator, who had ordered the execution. Consequently, these rebels , then merged with other rebellions. {2} 1839. How were women like this able to gain support? Hirsch says, “Their legitimacy as leaders of rebellion derived from their kinship roles as mother or wife, not from their individual merits. Vengeance was considered an expression of righteousness, and hence a highly virtuous cause” {3}

2 How was anti-female rhetoric used to control women?

The continual struggle for power between consort and officialdom motivated the enemies of imperial ladies to develop rhetoric that justified excluding women from government. [3} 2041. Female influence, which was predicated upon kinship roles. The principal roles were those of wife and mother. Therefore Attempts were made to diminish these roles by putting a woman’s inherent femininity over social roles. A woman was a female first and a mother second. This empowered rhetoricians to contend that women were “intrinsically evil and untrustworthy. [4]. 2043

Furthermore, Han officials were especially adept at rhetoric and used hyperbole to criticize and restrict the power of consorts and their interference in state affairs. Han historians commenced blaming women for the downfall of each dynasty. [5] 2063. With the passage of time, this rhetoric of woman as evil heightened to the point where women were caricatures. Mo Xi a beauteous consort of Emperor Jie was reputed to have led the dynasty to its ruin due to her overindulge and extravagance. It was claimed that she allowed the common people starve while they hanging meat, from trees, as decoration. [6]

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Women’s names were sullied by popularizing a negative image of powerful women this rhetoric proved to be effective and long lasting. Consequently, The best that their rivals could do was to popularize a negative image of powerful women. Stereotypes of evil women in government continued for a very long time.

3 How do rituals help to define women’s societal roles?

Early imperial China, ritual placed the individual within larger social, religious, and cosmological conceptual systems. Through ritual performance, the individual assumed appropriate roles within the community. [7] 2455 Ritual c helped t- categorize people not as individuals, but as members of a greater society. They helped to define and individuals place me the world. This, in tur helped women to form an individual performing rituals helped them to solidify their place in society

Rituals were a way for a women to appropriately express her female identity. Women distinguished themselves from men and defined her kinship roles. Female status during rituals was more defined by social status then with gender. Elite women sometimes even had advantages over men. Rituals therefore embodied specific views of model female behavior. [8[2513

Marriage was perhaps the most important ritual a woman could undergo. It symbolized the transition of a woman from her natal home, to her married one. It represented a shifting of allegiances. Marriage was believed to fundamentally transform a women and marked the beginning of new societal roles.

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Participation In sacrifices were also important to female identity. Hirsch says,
Female participation in the sacrifices of early China gave women important roles within the religious and cosmological schemes used to envision and organize the world.” Religious sacrifices were performed through gendered roles that located female identity within a broader context and gave meaning to a woman’s sense of self. [10]
Although women had a role in observing all types of ritual, their participation was limited. This reflected a woman’s status in a patrilineal family. [11] One exception to this rule, is the rituals that surrounded death. Women were responsible for carrying out elaborate funeral mourning rites including displaying an appropriate amount of grief. So important was the female role in death rituals that a man who had no wife, could to properly mourn someone. This gave him the duty to be married at all times. [12] 2661 A the sacrificial system perpetuated the patrilineal views of the ideal female. Though women had a necessary place is the social and cosmic order, their roles were generally less important than men.
4 what were the three cosmological abstractions that influenced gender constructs in Ancient imperial China?
Cosmology became an effective way to express anti- female rhetoric. It reinforced the Dualistic system of gender. The three cosmological abstractions were Heaven/Earth, quin/kun and yin/yang.
Initially heaven was genderless. Over time it became overtly masculine as earth became decidedly feminine. Terms that established kinship rules were used. “Heaven and Earth are the father and mother of the myriad Things” [12] 2876. This statement associated heaven/earth with patrilineal kinship. What these roles show is inequality. These pairs are unequal, and thus, it could be argued that society itself should be based around unequal relationships
This idea is reinforced in quin/kun. These two ideas represented the relationships of men and women. Confucian tests gave this idea great weight in its argument. Hirsch states”. Rhetorical conventions encouraged the educated elite to display their erudition by quoting the Classic of Changes at every opportunity.44 In this manner, Qian and kun became abstract analogues to many binary social concepts, including dichotomized gender [13] 2910 Although complimentary quin/kun interacted as inferior and superior. This idea was used to argue that women should be treated as inferiors.
The last of these 3 cosmological elements in yin/yang initially also viewed as equal compliments, over the time balance of power shifted to men. Yin/yang theory was use to criticize privileged female, often princesses. The rhetoric was later uses to expand this criticism to all women involved in government. [14]3058. Over time, yin gradually changed from a positive element to a negative one and this change helped to shift the balance of power to men