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HIS 104-A02 History of East Asia

Pre-modern China: writing assignment

Expectations from Women

How were women expected to contribute to social order in the Han dynasty?

The women in the Han dynasty were considered at the lower end of the family hierarchy

and were, not expected to play public roles. The ideal role for a woman was to take care of a

large household, which includes taking care of children, childbearing, and performing household

duties like cooking and cleaning. In this period women, throughout her wife would show

obedience to everyone, first to their father before marriage, then their husband, and then their

elder son.

In Admonitions for Women, Ban explained that women have different behavior. Like

Womanly Virtue is one of the womanly behaviors, which means a woman who takes good care

of the family, one who shows her children the right path, who shows great compassion towards

her kids, and chooses her kids over herself. This behavior of Womanly Virtue is best known

because women know how to “model each act on the best usage” (Ban). This behavior also fits

with the ideal Confucian behavior because during that time women were not allowed to be a part

of any discussion unless it was related to their children or their household. The women at that

time were capable of loyalty towards her family, courage, devotion but also, intrigue and
selfishness. The contribution of this kind of behavior had an impact on society. The people now

considered women for asking advice and were not letting them feel inferior to men.

In the writing “The Mother of Mencius”, Liu clearly explained her concern towards her

son. She wanted her son to study in a proper and educational environment and her concern led

her to move from a place near a cemetery to a marketplace in town and then finally near a

school. This was because she wanted her son to have a proper upbringing. She sacrificed many

things so that her son could get a proper education. Once her son said he didn’t want to study

further. His mother replied in such a way that Mencius not only forgot about giving up studies

but also worked harder in his studies. Also, when Mencius grew older and decided to work at

some other place, he asked his mother first as she was getting older to travel in which she replied

that a woman has to submit herself three times first when she is young, she must submit to her

parents, second when she is married, she should submit herself to her husband and when she is

widowed, she must submit herself to her elder son (Liu). Regardless of being old and taking

advantage of her son to stay with her, she asked him to do what he thinks is right because

somewhere she knows that she has taught well to her son and he won't fail her. This kind of

behavior made the superior men think and they observed Mencius’ mother as a proper cause

for women.

In the letter of Feng’s which he wrote to his brother, he mentions the bad behavior of his

wife. He mentions that his wife has “no manner of a good wife and does not possess a virtue of a

good mother” (Feng) and the reason behind saying this was the behavior of his wife towards

him, their children, their servants, and outsiders. Feng described that his house would always be

messy, she also mistreated the servants and when they fall ill his daughter had to do the kitchen

work like cooking and his son would clean the dirty work, but his wife wouldn’t move from the
bed. She used to act so aggressively he couldn’t even make a joke around her. She used to

threaten people, and always believe wrong as something right. This is complete opposite

behavior than one should behave towards her family, her servants, and other people from one.

This type of behavior leads people to hate them, and society does not approve of such habits

because for many reasons mostly unnatural and unlikely for a mother to show no affection

towards her children. Then because of her behavior society might neglect her and would start

excluding her family and, they might judge her family just because of her behavior.