"Women in Eighteenth-Century China and Beyond / Series on Chinese Studies Abroad: Zhui Zhen Lu"

Author: (USA) Martha S. Elman
Translator: Ding Yizhuang et al.
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: This is a work of research on gender relations in the lower Yangtze region of the Qing Dynasty during the 18th century and its surrounding period (1683-1839). It adopts a unique perspective that places women at the center of this era. Through an analysis and description of the life experiences, poetry writing, labor, religious activities, and leisure activities of women in the Jiangnan region during this period, it elucidates the profound impact of gender relations on the economic, political, social, and cultural transformations of the time. It emphasizes the irreplaceable value of women's history and gender relations in historical research.
Excerpt: Introduction Research on the history of Chinese women has only just begun in many places outside China, and a treasure trove of works by Chinese women is still waiting to be explored by scholars worldwide. This book only briefly narrates the feelings, beliefs, and actions of these women during a brief period in history. The most important historical materials I used come from the works of female writers, primarily poetry. I also used some common materials written by men: biographies, epigraphs, local historical records, and official documents. These texts related to women and gender relations appear not only in the pragmatic writings of officials for managing local affairs but also in academic articles by men on rituals, art, and literature. By comparing these common, male-written historical materials with women's own works, we open a new window into the world of Chinese women. Among these diverse historical materials, biographical epitaphs are the most abundant. There are already thousands of published biographies of Chinese women. We can find them in local historical records, in the collected epigraphs and biographies in scholarly anthologies, or in short narratives, where the authors often write about the women they love and admire. The women highly praised in these works are mostly the grandmothers, mothers, aunts, nieces, and stepmothers of the authors or their close relatives, as well as those revered in the West or considered saints for their virtue (female Taoist nuns or Buddhist nuns), and some heroic women known for their bravery (such as avenging their fathers or rescuing their mothers from the jaws of danger). By the late empire, that is, the period broadly defined as the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, the so-called "Biographies of Exemplary Women" in fact recorded only the deeds of (women who died resisting violence or committed suicide to refuse dishonor) or widows who remained virginal for life.