What was the status of ancient women in China?

Generally speaking, in ancient China, men had absolute dominance, and women's social status was very low. However, it is not accurate to simply think that women's status is low. Because filial piety is a core content of ancient society, and the focus of filial piety is filial piety to mother. Filial piety to parents, the status of mother is definitely higher than that of father. From this perspective, the status of women is very high.

In ancient China, the important bond of family relationship was blood relationship. The brotherhood of brothers comes from the blood relationship of compatriots, so the brotherhood is "kissing or not, breaking the bones and connecting the tendons." Husband and wife are related beyond blood relationship. Although Liu Bei said that "wives are like clothes and brothers are like brothers and sisters", it is widely criticized by the world. However, in traditional culture, brothers are brothers and sisters, which is not wrong. The close relationship between brothers is stronger than that between husband and wife, and it is indeed an undeniable fact.

Because the wife is not related by blood, in traditional culture, her family status is not high. The real establishment of a wife's position in the family will wait until the wife gives birth to a child and becomes a mother, then the blood relationship will be established.

So, we call our wife a wife, that is, when she is old, she will be a mother-in-law. Once a wife becomes a mother, because for her children, she is born from her mother's belly, so she has more direct and specific blood feelings. Therefore, in China's filial piety culture, there is a serious preference for the matriarchal line.