Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter of Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan
The Gendered Concepts of Nei 内/Wai 外 and the Way of Women (Fu Dao 婦道)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2020.8.3.281-302Keywords:
womanhood, Confucian ethics, Lienü Zhuan, Liu XiangAbstract
Enquiring into the first chapter of Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan 列女傳, this paper points out the consolidation of the spatial distinction of nei/wai and the ethical construction of womanhood in the Former Han period. In this analysis we will underline the “in-between” position of women depicted by the author and consider their position as based on a metaphorical—but sometimes even physical—threshold. It highlights six categories in Liu Xiang’s work that help us understand a traditional vision of woman that is reviving in modern times. Even today, the Way of Women (fu dao 妇道) is one of the principles on which social harmony is based; breaching the Way of Woman leads to disruptive consequences both within the family and outside, within society.
Downloads
References
Allen, Clement Francis Romilly. 1891. Shi King. The Book of Chinese Poetry. London: Kegan, Trench, Trübner&Co.
Barlow, Tani. 2004. The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
Birrell, Anne. 1993. Chinese Mythology: An Introduction. London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Cahill, Suzanne. 1986. “Performers and Female Taoist Adepts: Hsi Wang Mu as the Patron Deity of Women in Medieval China.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 106 (1): 155–68.
Chen, Dongyuan 陈东原. [1937] 1998. Zhonggui funü shenghuoshi 中国妇女生活史 (Chinese Women Lifes’ History). Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House.
Chen, Ju 陈驹, Jianping Wang 王建平, and Xining Zhang 黄依林. 1992. Chuantong nüzi mengdu xinbian 传统女子梦读新编 (Traditional Readings for Women). Guangxi: Guangxi Jiaoyu Chubanshe.
Chinese Text Project. (n.d.). Accessed January, 2020. http://ctext.org.
Croll, Elizabeth. 1995. Changing Identities of Chinese Women: Rhetoric, Experience, and Self- Perception in Twentieth-Century China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Ebrey, Patricia. 2002. Women and the Family in Chinese History. London: Routledge.
Evans, Harriett. 2002. “Past, Perfect or Imperfect: Changing Images of the Ideal Wife.” In Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities, edited by Susan Brownell, and Jeffrey N. Wasserstorm, 335–60. London: University of California Press.
Fracasso, Riccardo, ed. 2008. Quindici donne perverse - Il settimo libro del Lienü Zhuan (Fifteen Perverse Women-The Seventh Book in Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan). Vicenza: Angelo Colla Publishing House.
Hershatter, Gail. 2007. Women in China’s Long Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hinsch, Bret. 2003. “The Origins of Separation of the Sexes in China.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 123 (3): 595–616.
Indraccolo, Lisa, ed. 2011. Precetti per le donne e altri trattati cinesi di comportamento femminile (Precept for Women and Other Chinese Texts on Women’s Conduct). Torino: Einaudi.
Kinney, Anne Behnke. 2014. Exemplary Women of Early China-The Lienu Zhuan of Lu Xiang. New York: Columbia University Press.
–––. n.d. Traditions of Exemplary Women. Accessed November 8, 2019. http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/xwomen/intro.html.
Ko, Dorothy. 1994. Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth Century’s China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
–––. 2001. Every Step a Lotus: Shoes for Bound Feet. Berkeley: University of California Press.
–––. 2005. Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Lee Yao, Esther. 1983. Chinese Women: Past and Present. Mesquite, Tex.: Ide House.
Legge, James, ed. 1871. The Chinese Classics, vol. IV: The She King or the Book of Poetry. Hong Kong: Lane, Crawford & Co.
Lieberman, Sally Taylor. 1998. The Mother and Narrative Politics in Modern China. Charlottesville, London: University Press of Virginia.
Liu, Xiang. 2008. Biografie di donne. Introduzione, traduzione e note a cura di Carmen Coduti (Biographies of Women: Introduction, Translation and Notes by Carmen Coduti). Rome: ISIAO.
Mair, Victor, ed. 2001. The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.
Mou, Sherry. 2004. Gentlemen’s Prescriptions for Women’s Lives: A Thousand Years of Biographies on Chinese Women. New York: An East Gate Book.
Rosenlee, Lisa. 2006. Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Sun, Xiao 孫曉. 1988. Zhongguo hunyin xiaoshi 中國婚姻小史 (History of Chinese Marriage). Beijing: Guangming ribao chubanshe.
Ule, Andrej. 2019. “Harmony as an Ethical and Political Idea.” Asian Studies 7/23 (1): 115–28.
Vervoorn, Aat. 2004. “Friendship in Ancient China.” East Asian History 27: 1–32.
Wang, Robin. 2003. Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin through the Song Dynasty. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hacket Publishing Company.
Zito, Angela, and Tani Barlow E. 1991. “Theorizing Woman: Funü, Guojia, Jiating (Chinese Woman, Chinese State, Chinese Family).” In Body, Subject and Power in China, edited by Angela Zito, and Tani E. Barlow, 1–20. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Sabrina Ardizzoni
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published (print and online) in journal Asian Studies by Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
- Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
