Crossing the Gate: Everyday Lives of Women in Song Fujian (960-1279)

Description

In Crossing the Gate, Man Xu examines the lives of women in the Chinese province of Fujian during the Song dynasty. Tracking women’s life experience across class lines, outside as well as inside the domestic realm, Xu challenges the accepted wisdom about women and gender roles in medieval China. She contextualizes women in a much broader physical space and social network, investigating the gaps between ideals and reality and examining women’s own agency in gender construction. She argues that women’s autonomy and mobility, conventionally attributed to Ming-Qing women of late imperial China, can be traced to the Song era. This thorough study of Song women’s life experience connects women to the great political, economic, and social transitions of the time, and sheds light on the so-called “Song-Yuan-Ming transition” from the perspective of gender studies. By putting women at the center of analysis and by focusing on the local and the quotidian, Crossing the Gate offers a new and nuanced picture of the Song Confucian revival. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Gates in and out of the Jia The House Gate (Men 門) and Lane Gate (Lü 閭) The Middle Gate (Zhong Men 中門) Gate Titles for Mothers 2 Women on Journeys Vehicles Traces Conclusion 3 Women in Local Communities Inner Affairs (Nei Shi 内事) and Outer Affairs (Wai Shi 外事) Women and Household Economy Women and Local Welfare Women and Public Projects 4 Women and Local Governments Women’s Participation in Local Administration Women and Governmental Structures Women and Lawsuits Women Under the Administration of Local Governments Gender Consideration in Local Governments’ Public Projects Conclusion 5 Women and Religion Laywomen in Confucian Eyes Personal Practices Religious Communication with Relatives and Outsiders Religious Excursions Buddhist Funeral 6 Women and Burial Tomb Structure: From Single Chamber to Multichamber Joint Burial: Partition Wall and Passageway From Inner/Outer to Left/Right The Problem of One Man, Many Wives Funerary Accessories from Seven Multichamber Tombs Three Late Southern Song Tombs Mural Tombs Conclusion Epilogue Appendix: Bibliography of Excavation Reports of Song Tombs from Fujian Notes Bibliography Index