Gold inscriptions and the female culture of the Yin and Zhou dynasties

Author: Cao Zhaolan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: From the gender equality in primitive society to the gender inequality in feudal society, how did all these changes occur under what circumstances? How did the transformations take place? Were they abrupt or gradual? What were the roles of women in this evolutionary process? What kind of female culture was popular at the time? What were the living conditions of women in different social classes? How were the connections between these phenomena? Etc. The Shang, Zhou, and Spring and Autumn periods were key times when female power declined and male power rose and evolved. The author attempts to depict the female culture of the Shang and Zhou dynasties primarily using bronze inscriptions, supplemented by oracle bone inscriptions and traditional literature. The aim is to reconstruct the true environment of women's activities during this period from multiple perspectives—political, economic, social, and family/marital—and to explore the trajectory of changes in women's status, as well as the social roots of gender issues. This book will be divided into three chapters: the Shang Dynasty, the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The stages and timelines of cultural development and evolution are not entirely synchronized, so some materials cannot be treated uniformly but must be balanced for descriptive convenience, especially in terms of the connections between events.