How does traditional Chinese culture define the status of women?

The status and rights of women in traditional Chinese culture

The status of traditional Chinese women in the family and society is, to put it bluntly, no status. Correspondingly, there are no rights but only obligations. Since status and rights are so closely intertwined, it is often difficult to make a more precise division, so let's put them together.

(a) Men and women are born unequal

The birth of a boy is called "Jangzhang's joy"; the birth of a girl is called "Jangwa's joy". "Jang" is a beautiful jade, and "Wa" is a primitive spindle.

This is a clearly discriminatory description. From the very beginning, "making tile" fixes women in the role of "internal affairs" and restricts their range of activities, thus facilitating the further control of women's minds and the manipulation of their bodies.

(B) traditional culture, women do not have independent identity

"Li Ji - suburban characteristics" clearly stipulates that: "*** jail and food, the same inferiority and superiority, so the woman has no title, from the title of the husband, sitting in the teeth of the husband." These words first hypocritical affirmation of the husband and wife "with the same dignity and inferiority," and then a turn of the pen, pointing out that women do not have a title, "from the husband's title," only, and even the arrangement of the seat must be based on the husband's status.　　

It can be said that "women have no title" this dirty idea flooded, filled with scholars to promote the canon.

"A woman is a woman who is ambushed by a man." Mengzi - Teng Wengong next: "...... no violation of the husband. To be obedient is correct, and the way of a concubine and a woman." Ban Zhao: "Husband, heaven; heaven is certainly not to be violated, and husband is certainly not to be escaped." The husband as the sky, can not be violated, visible women's status has been lowly to what extent! In addition, there are a large number of widely circulated sayings, such as "marrying a chicken follows the chicken, marrying a dog follows the dog", "marrying a husband follows the husband, husband death follows the son" and so on.

All these things show that under the authoritarianism of "husband is the wife's law", traditional women have been reduced to men's subordinates.

(3) Women's Independence in Traditional Culture

Li Ao once said that traditional Chinese women's personalities have been absorbed by patriarchal power and husband's power, and there is no independent personality to speak of. This is a very correct assertion and not at all unjust. It is written in the twentieth biography of the Song Dynasty: "Rituals, women have the righteousness of the three subordinates, but not the way of self-exclusivity."

What is a "woman without a title, from the title of the husband", what "woman, ambush in the people also", what "no violation of the husband", and the "History of the Song Dynasty - Rites of passage": "and women have no permanent rank, each set by the husband's family, the husband's death to the son as the second." In Ming History - Biography of Women: "A woman's behavior is not out of the boudoir." All are expressions of traditional women without independent personality.

(4) Women in traditional culture do not have the right to property and inheritance

Women do not have independent identity, accordingly, naturally lost the right to property and inheritance.

The Book of Rites - Internal Rules: "The wife has no private goods, no private savings, no private property, and does not dare to take any private leave, nor does she dare to have any private dealings with them." Not only that, but if a wife receives a gift from her mother's family, she must "accept it and offer it to her aunt and uncle". This is the first time that a woman's family has ever been involved in a marriage," he said!

Sima Guang also said: "All for the children of women, do not have to save private property, salaries and homes, all the parents of the aunt and uncle. When used, then please and use it; do not dare to private leave, do not dare to private with."

While it was common for women, especially those in large families, to store private property, the amount was often small, and there was no "legal" basis for it. The second point is very important, it determines that women have "private property" in fact, but not have the "right". There is no protection for such property.

Since there is no right to property, there is no right to inherit. The family's property rights are usually in the hands of the father and brother, and women do not have the right to participate in the management of the property, nor do they benefit from the inheritance. What's even worse is that even if a woman with official status dies, according to the "Sui Book - Rituals", her "coffin shall not be placed in the gold, silver and jewelry". It can be seen that the woman even died without property!

(5) Women in traditional culture are the private property of men

Women not only do not have the right to property and inheritance, but they are also the private property of men, and this has been the case since the time of the betrothal.

The Book of Rites: "When a woman is betrothed, she is tasseled." This means that a woman was to hang a necklace after her engagement to show that she had belonged to something. This is like wearing an engagement ring today, very normal. But it goes on to say, "No one will enter its gates unless there is a great cause." It stipulates that if there is no big deal, people (mainly men) should not go and bother her, and she should not be asked to go out to play. It seems that once a woman is betrothed, her status and personality are the man's, and for the benefit of men, she should be "protected" from "defilement".

Ancient marriage is very focused on each other's property. Zhao Yi of the Qing Dynasty said of ancient marriages: "All marriages are not a matter of money, compete for more or less, not strange." This kind of economic relations rely on the maintenance of marriage, can also be used to side to prove that women are men's private property.

We can also prove that women are subordinate to men with the "wife storage" mentioned earlier. Storage, also raise, Confucius cloud: "only small people and women are difficult to raise also." Chinese women are relying on "foster", then it is male private property, history books, "sold his wife and children" records abound. Not only that, the great Ming law also stipulates that "women who commit adultery, the law from the marriage sale". Being cuckolded by the man to maintain their "dignity", can even be promoted to human traffickers, the wife as a cheap goods sold, take the money to go to the wine to drown their sorrows!

(F) Women in traditional culture do not have the right to remarry

The right of women to remarry is gradually lost.

While Confucianism repeatedly advocated widowhood for women before the Song Dynasty, it did not cause much reaction and achieved little. In the Guanzi, it is written, "Take a widow or widower and combine them, give them a field and a house and make them a family." This shows that the government not only did not prohibit women from remarrying, but also provided incentives. The Historical Records of the Han Dynasty (《史记》-外戚世家》) also clearly records the historical fact that Princess Pingyang remarried Wei Qing, and the marriage was done openly and honestly on the order of the Emperor. Chen Ping's wife, a famous minister of the Han Dynasty, "tasted five married husband always die", and the people did not therefore have contempt for her, and do not think that she "khuo husband". The Tang Dynasty remarried 27 princesses, of which 24 married twice, three married three times. Zhou Zu of the Five Dynasties even married four widows. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, remarriage was also very common, and many ministers' mothers had remarried, such as Fan Zhongyan's mother, who had married his widowed daughter-in-law to Wang Tao, a student of his, as a continuation of the marriage.

The above historical evidence proves that women's remarriage has a long history, and has always been a custom generally recognized by the society. It was Roy Cheng, a corrupt scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, who pushed the idea of not marrying again to the extreme. His "motto" was: "Starvation is a small thing, but losing one's honor is a big thing." In the head of this corrupt scholar, women's lives are not as important as a vague so-called "honor"! But this kind of high-profile anti-marriage guy, the Qing dynasty song forgiveness revealed his old bottom: "his niece is still by the positive uncle presided over again suitable."

Despite the suspicion that Cheng Hao was "just talking for a while", this idea of "keeping up with the times" gradually became orthodox. The Southern Song dynasty was incapable of recovering the Central Plains and resisting foreign invasions, but the oppression of women was more powerful than one another, and the "merit" was immense! This is the "ritual" specific, universal, authoritarian performance.

(7) Women in traditional culture do not have the right to education

Of course, women do not have the right to education is not absolute. Women of the aristocracy had the right to education, and there was no shortage of talented women. In addition, to accept the female red ah, housekeeping ah and other education is not only the right, but also simply a duty. However, the traditional concept of "a woman's lack of talent is a virtue" is not just lip service. Though women's honor and housekeeping are considered education in a broad sense, they are only women's ethics and are far from being considered "talents". Only accepted the orthodox Confucianism, can be called. Otherwise, any of your first-class women's red is just a woman's business, not worth mentioning. Generally speaking, women are not qualified to enjoy a formal, organized Confucian education; at best, she only needs to have a cursory knowledge of literature and ink to suffice.

This aspect of depriving women of their right to education fully exposes the contradictory notions of the ancients, as well as their discriminatory ideas and hypocrisy about ethics and morality. According to Confucianism, human nature is inherently good, and Mencius did not put a qualifier such as gender in front of these four words. However, in the traditional concept, women are born to be a scourge. In that case, what kind of human nature is good? At least, half of the people are not good! Precisely because women are born to be a scourge, and study is the monopoly of social resources to become rich, the natural way to deprive women of the right to education. However, does Confucianism not preach that its own set of principles can sensitize all people? Why then are women still not allowed to take their place in education? Is this not a contradiction? In fact, to put it bluntly, political and cultural rights must be monopolized by men, and resources must not be "****ed". In this way, they can better utilize and toy with women.

In such an environment, ignorance and ignorance buried many excellent women, they would have produced much more than the current literati, politicians, militarists ...... However, they were all stifled by the bureaucratic politics, by the center of male power stifled. Even those who occasionally came out on top, such as Li Qingzhao, were subjected to enormous and cumbersome pressures during and after their lives.

Obligations and Fate of Women in Traditional Chinese Culture

With no status and no rights, it is all about obligations, and this is how traditional Chinese women are. Let's take a peek at the so-called "Seven Exits".

(1) The so-called "Seven Outfits"

The "Seven Outfits" are a product of the patriarchal system, and were designed for utilitarian purposes, such as maintaining social stability, political peace, family normality, and the succession of heirs.

The "Seven Exits" are from the "Dai Dai Li Ji - Ben Ming Xie", which reads as follows, with a brief commentary:

1, disobedience to parents to go. Daughter-in-law not filial piety, do not serve parents-in-law constitute the elements of divorce. This may seem reasonable, in fact, because there are only five broad words, the so-called obedience and disobedience to no standard, can be left to the husband's family to do a rambling interpretation. Therefore, even though a daughter-in-law is filial, if she is disliked by her in-laws, she will still be expelled. This was the case with Jiao Zhongqing and his wife in "Southeast Flight of the Peacock", and Tang Wan, the wife of the great poet Lu You in the Southern Song Dynasty, also saw her mother-in-law as a bad influence on her, resulting in a tragedy that has lasted through the ages. On the other hand, men who are not affectionate often use this sign to cover up their own selfish desires. What in-laws in front of the "scolding dog", did not pour water in time for the in-laws to quench their thirst ...... can be a man to break off the marriage contract justified reasons.

2, no son to go. The ancients believed that "unfilial three, no later for the big". If the specifics of the situation, taking into account the historical background, there is no need to criticize. But the worst thing is that the traditional culture is practiced completely "one-wayism". In other words, if you can't have a son, the blame lies squarely on the woman, and it's the man's responsibility to find a new means of reproduction.

3, the obscenity of the anonymous go. A wife who commits adultery constitutes an element of divorce. Not only divorce, the woman who commits adultery will also be punished by detention, or caning, or imprisonment, or exile. Even if the husband was caught in the scene of adultery killed, also deserved. According to the Daming Law: "If a woman commits adultery, the law will be sold from the marriage." Adultery does not only mean a woman's initiative to commit adultery with others, and adultery. Qing law stipulates that if the woman let the abuser succeed, although the abuse shall be punished for adultery, not only to "go to the clothes to be tortured", and "and from the husband to marry and sell". Therefore, the history of a certain woman to say "obscene and anonymous" out of it, is to be specifically analyzed.

4, jealousy. Jealousy is human nature, men are jealous all day long. But the strange thing is that the men themselves can look at the money red, look at the beauty of salivation, jealousy, but never allow women to have the same rights. Tang Taizong tasted reward two women and Fang Xuan Ling, Fang's wife to death, Fang was compromised. To the Song Dynasty is not so polite, "Song History - consort biography": "Hushu order Yuan rejoice wife to jealousy to give death, so that the close minister Yu Tongzhi write "jealous woman record."

5, malady go. Wife suffering from malignant disease, the husband can expel her from the house, not to mention humane or not, the so-called "malignant disease" is also no standard, by the man manipulation. What is a "malady"? Does a sore on the back count? Originally, there were also the "three no-goes" in response to the "seven no-goes", but when a woman has an "evil disease", the "three no-goes" are meaningless. "The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty.

6, more words to go. This is a real "trouble comes out of the mouth", as a wife must always be careful, or else the husband to catch the words, there is a danger of being repudiated. In the Book of Han - Chen Ping's Biography, it is written that Chen Ping's elder brother Chen Bo "abandoned his wife" because his sister-in-law had a few words for him. This is really the best illustration of "wife as clothes, brother as hand and foot"!

7, theft to go. Because the traditional women do not have the right to property, inheritance, shall not store private property, so "wife in the husband's home is simply in the position of a slave, she has to keep the goods for the master, if the care is not enough to cause the loss, or trespassing on their own to damage the husband's family and others' ownership, can be added to the crime of 'antithetical'."

This is the best illustration of "wife as clothes, brothers as hands and feet". "

An analysis of the Seven Ways can lead us to the following conclusions:

First, the Seven Ways are all "unidirectional". For example, the woman is the target of the parents' disobedience, and there is no requirement at all for the man to be obedient to his parents-in-law. Jealousy and talkativeness aside, the so-called "lewdness and anonymity" is a complete one-way morality. Since women are required to be chaste and keep their virginity, men should do the same. However, the fact is that a husband can have a concubine, visit prostitutes, cheat on his wife, or be a cuckold, but a wife cannot file for divorce because of this.

Secondly, except for "childlessness," the rest of the articles are broad and have no general scope, and the power of interpretation and operation belongs to men, so they have gradually evolved into a tool for men to play with women. In particular, the "many words", which is purely based on rumors, can be used effectively as a basis for a husband to repudiate his wife. There are a lot of men who take advantage of trivial matters to expel their wives.

Thirdly, the "seven outlets" led directly to the miserable fate of women. For example, if you were abandoned for being "lewd", you would not be able to get a foothold in society. It is not only "lewdness" that makes it difficult for a woman to survive as long as she is repudiated - no matter what the reason is - and what awaits her is often death.

(2) Traditional culture of women as trophies

War is a man's "sport", and women often bear the brunt of the victims of war, and the history of this "ancient civilization" can not be out of the ordinary.

"Han Book - Chen Shu Xiangji biography": "After a few days, Yu Nai Tu Xianyang ...... collected its treasures, slightly women and east." Not only the official army; "peasant insurrectionary army" also repeated similar behavior. For example, "Song History - the former emperor of the abolition of the book" "(thieves) wantonly feast garden mausoleum, planning to excavate. They killed the innocent, and the women." The Qing Dynasty history - Taizu Benji ":" Ding Wei, into the attack on the Dorothee Department, defeated, Duoer Jiha talk Batulu was created to escape, won his wife, killed Taiji Guru, captured ten thousand twelve hundred people still."

There are robbed will be robbed back. Ming history - tazu benji ":" is the search of the army looted women longitudinal return home, the people are very happy." Even to snatch back the side of the theory, the heart is nothing more than this is my property, my woman, how can you be snatched away?

(3) Women in traditional culture are used as "weapons"

"The beauty plan" is familiar to everyone. In addition, there is also the method of "aversion to victory", that is, "the Chinese superstitious belief that curses can be used to subdue other people, so as to win". The "aversion to victory" was used on the battlefield not only with chicken blood, dog's head, dog's feces and urine, but also with women.

Ming Shi - Li Xi biography: "women naked to raise a fan, throwing cattle, sheep and dog head for aversion to victory." Similarly, "Ming History - Li streak biography": "for the three zhang building Lin Cheng, with women, chickens and dogs anaesthetics."

Looks like these women are considered to be a success, in fact, "aversion to victory" for the superstition product, is the same as the use of inauspicious things imposed on the enemy, so that their bad luck. It is clear that women are regarded as "evil weapons", and this has not changed.

(4) traditional culture, women are referred to as the "bogeyman"

Ancient China has always been a centralized system, that is to say, all power is held by men, all resources are held by men, all beings are led by men, and all the heavenly grounds are "invented" by men, no women at all. ", there is no woman to intervene in the part. In that case, the responsibility for the destruction of the country and the death of the family should be borne by men. But just as all the centralizers will not admit their own mistakes, the male monopoly of the world never admit their own stupidity, they must find a scapegoat to maintain the legitimacy of their own centralized power. This scapegoat is women.

This concept of women being the scourge can be said to have a "long history". Yi Chuan": "women Zhuanzheng, the country is not quiet; female chicken male song, the Lord does not honor. Therefore, the room thought that they are also in the account carry on." Han Shu - Geography Zhi VIII: "The king is weak and the woman is strong, for the yin multiplied, then the month and out." The Book of Han - Five Elements Zhi ":" Wife is not smooth positive, this is called trespassing Yang ...... woman trespassing the country is called ha." "Ming History - Consort Legend": "Ming Taizu identify the previous generation of women's scourge, the establishment of the outline of the discipline, the first strict internal teaching." This is to say that the family government, the state shall not be trespassing for women, otherwise the family state is in trouble, so we must take precautions.

The Book of the Zhou - Lianzhuan sixth: "Now the female master of the dynasty, the government to the near habits. Thieves and robbers have arisen, and the sea is boiling." Song History - Clothing and Demons: "He Yan served in a woman's clothes and lost his family." The Ming Dynasty - Xi Zong this year: "women temple steal handle, indiscriminate reward obscene punishment, loyal and Liang miserable, hundreds of millions of centrifugal, although I want to not die, how can I get it." This is the terrible results of women in politics. Even men wearing women's clothes have to die, so women are really a scourge!

(E) the traditional culture of women's lifelong festival, widowhood or martyrdom

Since the Southern Song Dynasty Cheng Zhu theory flourished, the social trend is more and more confined. The prominent manifestation of this is the surge in the number of women who have been abstaining from sex. The data will not be repeated. I want to point out that the feudal society, women have no status, lack of survival channels, dead husband is already very poor, the corrupt Confucian want her to keep a lifetime of widowhood, really inhumane! It should be pointed out that, do not allow remarriage is not limited to married women, as long as you are engaged to be married, even if the fiancé died, you are still not allowed to remarry, or spit on you can be drowned! This kind of thinking also proves the assertion that "traditional women are the private property of men".

If a woman is raped, her only recourse is to die. Such as the history of the Ming Dynasty: "Guangzu, a scholar to offer the father also, was executed, the thieves to make the kneeling. Shouted: 'I have been reading, stop knowing loyalty and righteousness.' Then cursed. Thieves killed, crushed his body. Wife Wu together with a sister, a woman and offer advice to his wife Lee went to the well to die. Concubine Li Fang pregnant, the thieves cut open the abdomen and pick the fetus died. The second son of the fixed decision, Sun Rixi scolded the thieves died, the only dedication to the survival. Refugee **** one hundred and three people, the city women's death of thirty-seven people, martyrs eight people. Yingzhou loyalty and martyrdom, called the only Sheng Yun."

(F) traditional culture of women suffered insults and have no door to complain

"Han Shu - Xiao Wangzhi biography": "Yang Zhai light warrior Zhao Ji, Li money more guests, to gas fishing and eating cocoon, to the adulterous women". The Ming history - food and goods Zhi a ":" tube Zhuang official school recruit group small, called Zhuang head, accompanied by when, occupying the land, convergence of wealth, dirty women." According to the Ming law, the Qing law, if the woman was raped by the rapist, all counted as and adultery, adultery punishment! If there is a law, what else is there to say?

These facts show that the status of Chinese women in traditional culture is lowly, the rights are missing, the obligation is endless, the fate is miserable.

Therefore, the development of Chinese history to the present day, Chinese women have formed their own set of ways of doing things, especially in the treatment of men and women in marriage, but also a lot of foreigners do not understand; I once asked a foreigner living in China for 8 years of young man, why do not look for a Chinese girl as a wife, his answer is basically the same as our statement, he said: with Chinese girls get along with He said that he was too tired to get along with Chinese girls, and that they had too many conditions attached to them, and once he heard these conditions, he couldn't figure out if they really loved him. And then look at some of the Chinese and foreign marriage announcements, that is completely different, Chinese women no matter what age to get married, the first requirement is "successful career, good economic foundation, car, house, stable high income", etc., and foreign women to get married, the main emphasis is on the two aspects of the message "Love, interest and value of life", this is China's thousands of years of traditional culture of Chinese women caused by a serious sense of crisis, in their bones formed a man can not be relied on, they are subordinate, therefore, in their consciousness, the first is the problem of survival, and then is love, so the material is always on the first, even if they do not lack of The material basis or even a good material basis; love, always placed in the second place, and even take up the lover for the "management", love as a pure commercial behavior.

Speaking of which, perhaps someone will refute my friend, said foreigners still like Chinese women, yes, very much like, racial differences in the generation of curiosity! But in the end, Chinese women married most of the elderly foreigners, why the foreign old man is willing to marry Chinese women! One is to satisfy the curiosity of the young, secondly, they are older life experience to their own grinding out enough patience, three is the accumulation of a number of material basis, because there is a material basis, Chinese women are willing to marry an aging foreigners, however, the final end, 80% of them are divorced to end ......

This is the abominable traditional The fact is that the Chinese government has not yet adopted a policy of "one country, two systems", and "one country, two systems", and "one country, two systems".