Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives: A Thousand Years of Biographies of Chinese Women

Description

As far back as the first century BCE, Chinese dynastic historians - all men - began recording the achievements of Chinese women and creating a structure of understanding that would be used to limit and control them. To men, these women became role models for their daughters and wives; to the few literate women readers, they became paradigms for their own behavior. Thus, although these biographies are descriptive by nature, they actually became prescriptive. Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives is an enlightening source for studying Chinese women of the Imperial era as well as for understanding Chinese womanhood in general. By contextualizing these biographies, the author shows us these women not just as the complaisant, calm-eyed, delicate figures that adorn Confucian texts, but also as the products of the Confucian tradition's appropriation of women. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgments Explanatory Notes Chronology of Early Chinese Dynasties Illustrations for Biographies follow page 112 1. From The Biographies of Women to the Biographies of Chaste Women Introduction Women in the Confucian Tradition Summary of the Book 2. Appropriating Women Introduction Rectification of the Name The Formulaic Structure The Biographies Conclusion 3. Subjecting Women to Histories Introduction Hou Han shu (History of the Later Han Dynasty [25-220]) Jin shu (History of the Jin Dynasty [265-420]) Conclusion 4. Reinventing Women Introduction Wei shu (History of the Wei Dynasty [386-556]) Sui shu (History of the Sui Dynasty [581-618]) Bei shi (History of the Northern Dynasties [386-581]) Conclusion 5. Writing Virtues with Their Bodies Introduction The Paradigms: Chinese Womanhood of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) Interpreting the Inconsistencies: The Undercurrents in the Biographies 6. Conclusion: A Biography Tradition That Is Not Setting Examples: The Paradigm of Motherhood and the Separation of the Imperial and the Common The Reintroduction of Women: Gendering Virtues Official Honoring and Willful Oblivion: The Names of Women From Signs to Symbols: Writing Chastity with Their Bodies Toward a Coherent Reading of the Lienü zhuan Tradition Appendixes A.1: The Biographies of Women: Chapter Introductions A.2: The Biographies of Women: Chapter and Biography Titles A.3: The Biographies of Women: Biographies by Chapter B: Dates and Compilers of "Biographies of Women" Chapters in the First Nineteen Official Histories C.1: Introductions (Xu) and Eulogies (Zan) from "Biographies of Women": Chapters in the First Nineteen Official Histories C.2: Introductions (Xu) and Eulogies (Zan) from "Biographies of Women": Chapters in the First Nineteen Official Histories (in Chinese) D: "Biographies of Women" Chapters in Hou Han shu and Jin shu E: Comparison Among "Biographies of Women" Chapters in Wei shu, Sui shu, and Bei shi F: "Biographies of Women" Chapters in Wei shu, Sui shu, and Bei shi G: Comparison Between the Two Tang Histories' "Biographies of Women" Chapters H: Paradigms, Virtues, and Expressions in the "Biographies of Women" Chapters in the Two Tang Histories Glossary Bibliography Index