What does "three obedience, four virtues, three posts and five permanent members" mean?

Three obedience and four virtues are the code of conduct and moral norms used to restrain women in China's ancient feudal society, which are collectively called "three obedience and four virtues". Confucian ethics and codes regulate women's morality, behavior and cultivation all their lives according to the principle of "internal and external differences (that is, social division of labor between men and women)". "Three obedience" means that a woman does not marry from her father, but from her husband, and her husband dies; "Four virtues" refer to women's virtue, women's words, women's appearance and women's merits.

Sangang Wuchang

Three cardinal guides: the monarch is the minister's cardinal guide, the father is the son's cardinal guide, and the husband is the wife's cardinal guide; The five permanent members: benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith. The moral norms between people advocated by feudal ethics.

Extended data:

The "Four Virtues" were originally the cultivation and accomplishment of the four necessary qualities of court women-morality, speech, tolerance and skill, which included the four traditional educational contents of "women's studies", so Confucianism called it "four teachings" and also called "four lines". Originated from the education of women in the court, it belongs to "Yin Li" (the etiquette that women abide by) and "Yin Duty" (the responsibility that women bear), and soon expanded to the upper-class families to undertake the cultivation of women's roles.

When the girl was ten years old, she was educated by a female teacher at home-teaching "gentle delivery, obedience" (morality, speech, forbearance, pliancy and obedience), holding hemp (spinning hemp thread, ancient clothes were mostly hemp, ge and silk), treating silkworm cocoons, weaving and making clothes, and learning a series of jobs (work, weaving, sewing and preparation) three months before marriage. After the training is completed, a sacrificial ceremony will be held to make the woman obedient.

It can be seen that "four virtues" serve the morality of "three obedience". The "four virtues" were later summarized as requirements for all women. According to Zheng Xuan's explanation, "women's virtue is chastity, women's words are rhetoric, women's capacity is gentle delivery, and women's work is diaosi." Later generations have been making new explanations.