Book Details
SHARING THE LIGHT : REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN AND VIRTUE IN EARLY CHINA
Description
"Explores historical and philosophical shifts in the depiction of women and virtue in the early years of the Chinese state. Includes an examination of the history of yin-yang theories. Sharing the Light explores historical and philosophical shifts in the depiction of women and virtue in the early centuries of the Chinese state. These changes had far-reaching effects on both the treatment of women in Chinese society and on the formation of Chinese philosophical discourse on ethics, cosmology, epistemology, and self-cultivation. Warring States and Han dynasty narratives frequently represented women as intellectually adroit, politically astute, and ethically virtuous; these histories, discourses, and life stories portray women as active participants within their own society, not inert victims of it. The women depicted resembled sages, ministers, and generals as the mainstays and destroyers of dynasties. These stories emphasized that sagacity, intellect, strategy, and statecraft were virtues proper to women, an emphasis that effectively disappeared from later collections and instruction texts by and for women. During the same period, there were also important changes in the understanding of two polarities that delineated what now is called gender. Han correlative cosmology included a range of hierarchical analogies between yin and yang and men and women, and the understanding of yin and yang shifted from complementarity toward hierarchy. Similarly, the doctrine of separate spheres (inner and outer, nei-wai) shifted from a notion of appropriate distinction between men and women toward physical, social, and intellectual separation and isolation.""This book challenges several widely held paradigms concerning women in traditional China that are in dire need of the kind of nuanced and sustained reassessment present throughout the work. It is a fine piece of scholarship."" -- Sarah A. Queen, Connecticut College"
About Author(s)
Lisa Raphals is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Chair, Asian Studies Program, Bard College. She is the author of Knowing Words: Wisdom and Cunning in the Classical Traditions of China and Greece.
Content
Table of Contents, List of Illustrations, List of Tables, Acknowledgments, Note on Transcription, Abbreviations, Introduction: Gender and Virtue, Women As Intellectual and Moral Agents, The Differentiation of Men and Women, Contents, 1. Women As Agents of Virtue and Destruction, Women and Ministers: Ties That Bind, Female Virtue and the Dynastic Cycle, The Lienü zhuan, The Intellectual Virtue Stories, Heroization, 2. Women As Prescient Counselors, Instruction, Sage Intelligence, Benevolent Wisdom and Prescience, Biographical Formulae, Two Modes of Thinking?, Conclusions, 3. Demonic Beauties and Usurpatious , Regents, Warring States Legends of Destructive Women, Empress Lü, Virtuous and Vicious Consorts of Han Cheng Di, Conclusions, 4. The Textual Matrix of the Lienü zhuan, Lienü zhuan Stories in Warring States Sources, The Lienü zhuan Text and Its Attribution to Liu Xiang, Conclusions, 5. Talents Transformed in Ming Editions, Ming Publishing, Shifting Virtues, Illustrated Editions, Conclusions, 6. Yin and Yang, Yin-Yang As Two of Six Qi, Yin-Yang As (Ultimate) Polarity. Correlative Cosmology, Conclusions, 7. Yin-Yang in Medical Texts, The Fifty-two Ailments and Mawangdui Medical Literature, The Twenty-five Cases of Chunyu Yi, The Huang Di neijing, Conclusions, 8. Nei-wai : Distinctions between Men and Women, Zhou Norms in the Changes and Odes, Correct Distinction between Men and Women Defines Civilization, Conclusions, 9. Nei-wai in Ritual Texts and Social Practice, Subordination of Women, onogamy and Marriage Choice, Physical Separation of Men and Women, Names, Ranks, Titles, and Social Identity, Intellectual Distinction between Men and Women, Conclusions, 10. Instruction Texts, Monogamy and Marriage Choice, Physical Separation of Men and Women, Names, Ranks, Titles, and Social Identity, Intellectual Distinction between Men and Women, Conclusions, 10. Instruction Texts, Ban Zhao’s Admonitions for Women, The Decline of the "Learned Instructress" Motif, The Rise of Instruction Texts, Conclusions, Afterword, Appendix 1: The Lienü zhuan, Chapter Titles, Dateable Incidents in the Life Stories, Appendix 2: The Intellectual Virtue Stories, Synopsis of the Intellectual Virtue Stories, The Learned Instructress Motif, Appendix 3: Vicious and Depraved Women, The Destructive Women f Lienü zhuan 7, Biographies of Empress Lü, Biographical Formulae in the Lienü zhuan , Shi ji , and Han shuAppendix 4: The Textual Matrix for the Lienü zhuan, Chronology of Lienü zhuan Editions, Provenance of the Lienü zhuan Intellectual Virtue Stories, Appendix 5: Ming Transformations, The Intellectual Virtue Stories in Ming Editions, The Gui fan Reclassification of the Lienü zhuan Intellectual Virtue Stories, Appendix 6: Yin-Yang in Warring States Texts, Appendix 7: The Medical Cases of Shi ji 105, Summary of the Twenty-five Cases, Treatment Methods and Outcomes of the Twenty-five Cases, Appendix 8: Occupations and Activities, Appendix 9: Traditional Reign Dates, Bibliography, Primary Sources and Collectanea, Secondary Sources, Index
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