The Song Era Women Analysis

When we think of the woman's role in Chinese society, we often look to the Neo-Confusion ideas of womanhood. The time when all women in China had the feet bound. When women were expected to be loyal, to there father or husband. There were times in Chinese societies when women had greater freedoms. If you examine stories from before the Song era, you can see some of these freedoms. Some of these powerful stories include; The woman warrior (Mulan) and The Xiang queens. Susan Mann believes that these are a few reoccurring stories that define women's roles in Chinese society. These stories were written before the time of the bound foot, and display a powerful image of women.
Foot binding began in The Song Era. It was the process of tightly wrapping the feet of young
girls in bandages to prevent growth. By the time a girl turned three years old, all her toes but the first were broken, and her feet were bound tightly with cloth strips to keep her feet from growing larger than 10 cm, about 3.9 inches. The practice would cause the soles of feet to bend in extreme concavity.It gave women the small feet that many man desired. The women all wore very small "lotus shoe". Mother feared that if their children didn't take part in this ritual it was often impossible to find a husband in the future. Foot binding caused many problems physically for the women. The women who had their feet bound were more likely to fall, less able to squat and less able to rise from a sitting position in their older years. The combination of the lower hip bone density, along with the fact women with bound feet were more likely to fall, put these women at an extremely high risk for hip fractures. This often kept women from leaving the home. That is why many believe it was the Neo-Confucian assertion of male dominance. It insured that women would hold their role in society as the "Homemaker and mother," to bear sons to keep paternal family line. Having such a low social and familial status, women could not even imagine holding a place within the political realm.
During the Neo-Confucian revolution women had to remain virgins if not married, faithful if married, and chastity if widowed. Men could have premarital sex and concubines if they could afford them. A woman was required to obey her father before marriage, her husband during marriage, and her sons in widowhood. Women had no say at all in to whom their marriage partner would be, being expected to comply unconditionally with their parents or brothers' arrangements. Women could not divorce their husbands, or remarry. If a woman outlived her husband, she was permitted to marry only once in her lifetime. On the other hand, a husband could divorce his wife. It was not frowned upon for men to remarry if their wife had died or became unfaithful.
During this time women were portrayed as chaste and loyal. Susan examines the paintings of the burial tomb from the Han Dynasty. The images of the wife in the tomb all came from stories from Liu Xiang. The images that were chosen were only from to sections from Liu Xiang's stories, chaste and obedient, and chaste and righteous. The deiced man was trying to send a strong massage to his widow and sons. To be loyal and obedient to him, even after his death.
During this period, it was not unlikely that women heard or read the story of Yang Guifei.
The story of Yang Guifei was that of a scheming seductive woman. She was a concubine that Emperor Xuangzong took a strong liking too. This helped get her relatives into powerful positions. Rumor began to slander her faithfulness to Xuangzong, so he took her on a retreat, while he was pledging his love for her; Al Lushan led a revolt to found a new dynasty. Although Xaungzong stopped the revolt, he was not able to protect Yang Guifei from being killed. He was so upset by the death of yang Guifei that he could not continue to be Emperor. While this story shows the power of a woman, it portrays them in a negative way. A strong woman has the power to crumble a whole dynasty. This story was changed later to make the women look even more scandalous. The later versions included a second woman, Meifei. The two women got into drunken fits of rage or fights over the Emperors attention. Many historians believe that this story comes at the turning point of Chinese history for women, coming from a time of freedom from the Tang Dynasty to the time of male dominance of the Song Dynasty and
Neo-Confusionism.
Yves Bonnefoy said, "Ancient Chinese mythology includes several female figures that play a more important role in its beliefs than one would expect from such a patriarchal society" (1). Bennefoy attributed the female character to an evolutionary stage where women had much more important position, possibly a primal matriarchy society. Take a closer look at the Tang Dynasty; it was a much more open-minded time. Women were still prejudiced, but offered many more opportunities in society. They were able to be educated the same as men; women also had the chance to learn history, politics, and military skills. Women could own land, thus making them independent. They could conduct business, or even take part in leisurely games with men. A couple wishing to divorce on mutual consent were not to punished. Records show that it was not unusual for women to divorce or remarry at this time. A widow was not considered "unchaste" if she remarried. The divorce policy shows not only the Tang women's equality within marriage but also the general open-mindedness of the Tang. The Tang even had a woman emperor, Wu Zetian. The empress took great care to select talented people and put them in important positions, unlike the story of Yang Guifei, where she packed her relatives in to powerful positions. Wu Zetian also encouraged and supported female participation in politics. Wu Zetian was very familiar with the former emperor's main priorities, many of which she followed, for example, his stress on agriculture, reducing tax, practicing a peaceful foreign policy, and widely soliciting advice and suggestions.
Two stories from about this time in history show women with power, but with a much lighter mood. The previous story portrays women as seductive and scheming. The two following stories portray women as powerful or strong. The story of The Xiang Queens demonstrates china's dualistic culture. Yin and Yang. Women are complementary, or in a balanced position to men. A strong woman could be the cause of a weak ruler's success. Opposed to a scheming seductive woman could be the cause of a vulnerable ruler's downfall. The Xaing queens help there husband Shun pass his fathers test of his loyalty and strength. Shun is working on a granary, while his father lit it on fire. He was saved because his wives told him to wear his bamboo rain gear, which worked as a parachute as he jumped of the burning building. The second thing he was asked to do was deepen a dry well. As Shun dug, his father tried to bury him alive. He was saved because his wives warned him to dig a tunnel to escape. The last thing his father tried to do was kill him by alcohol poisoning, again Shun was saved by his wives who gave him medicine be for he drank so he would not become ill.
The second story is the original Mulan. This takes place at the turn of the 5th century. Mulan's father has been summoned to serve in the military. Her brother is too young to go in his place. Therefore, Mulan goes to fight for her father. She fights for twelve years along side all the men, never revealing that she is a woman. Upon returning the army servants are given cash prizes for fighting. Mulan asks for only a camel so she may return home to her family. She goes out dressed up in an old dress and confronts her soldier friends. They are amazed that she fooled them for so long. The story ends with a two lines about a male and female "running as fast as they can, at such a moment neither can tell whether the other is male or female. Just as soldiers fighting in a war will be oblivious to such distinctions while they are bent on saving their lives." Over time, the stories became romanticized and the meanings were less apparent.
The story of The Xaing Queens was changed over time to the wives of Shun committing suicide after Shun dies. The two wives throw themselves into the river and drown to be with there dead husband. It was changed to portray women as loyal and obedient. The story of Mulan was changed also. The original story was of a brave and clever heroine who steps in to a mans world to achieve great things. It was changed to Mulan getting married, to portray obedience to her husband. The later stories also focus on her loyalty to family. Stories through out history are constantly changing as the time changes. It helps people to relate to the stories. Stories cannot be evidence enough to prove Bennefoy's idea.
David Keightley opposes Bennefoy's idea of matriarchy. There is no evidence to prove the idea of matriarchy. "From at least the late Neolithic…the political and economic status of most women in china was inferior to men" (3). Studying graves of Neolithic societies in China, David found sites where only men were buried. Women were not giving formal burials. It might have been a religious tradition to bury men only, but that just proves the idea of patriarchal societies. The most common type of burial traditions found were women buried with men. Again, display patriarchal ideas as early as the Neolithic age.
Susan Mann believes that we focus too much on the idea of Foot binding. There are other roles that woman have had in Chinese society. She wants us to see the whole picture, not just the narrow view we tend to look in on. Women held equal roles as men during the Tang Dynasty. There was even a Woman emperor. Even though we are familiar with some of these stories, she wants us to look at them for their original meanings, not the romanticized versions. In conclusion, to say our view of Chinese women is skewed would be correct. When thinking of women in China the first idea the comes to mind is the bound foot. The many years of suffering the women have had in a male dominant society. After examining the stories, one can see that women have held some power in previous times. One cannot draw a conclusion on just stories alone. That is what they are, stories. They may be based on factual events, but they are changed as they passed from generation to generation. Similar to the telephone game, sometimes you end up with the same message that you started with. Many times the message is changed so much that it hardly resembles the original at all. The evidence shows that the culture has been based on patriarchies from as early as the Neolithic period.