Precious Records: Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century

by Susan L. Mann

This first book-length study of gender relations in the Lower Yangzi region during the High Qing era (c. 1683-1839) challenges enduring late-nineteenth-century perspectives that emphasized the oppression and subjugation of Chinese women. Placing women at the center of the High Qing era shows how gender relations shaped the economic, political, social, and cultural changes of the age, and gives us a sense of what women felt and believed, and what they actually did, during this period. Most analyses of gender in High Qing times have focused on literature and on the writings of the elite; this book broadens the scope of inquiry to include women's work in the farm household, courtesan entertainment, and women’s participation in ritual observances and religion. In dealing with literature, it shows how women's poetry can serve the historian as well as the literary critic, drawing on one of the first anthologies of women's writing compiled by a woman to examine not only literary sensibilities and intimate emotions, but also political judgments, moral values, and social relations. After an introductory chapter that evaluates the historiography of Chinese women, the book surveys High Qing history, charts the female life course, and discusses women's place in writing and learning, in entertainment, at work, and in religious practice. The concluding chapter returns to broad historiographic questions about where women figure in space and time and why we can no longer write histories that ignore them.

Genres: History, China, Academic, Feminism, Gender, 18th Century, Nonfiction

343 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Susan Mann retired from the History Department in June, 2010, after nearly 30 years of teaching in the UC system, first at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1982-1989) and then at UC Davis.

Reviews

[Kulsoom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and helpful. Always wondered about Chinese women ever since I learnt about foot binding.

[J Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easier read than Ko. Referring to Ko a lot

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely interesting, feminist-theory inspired book on the place, role and status of women in china in the 18th C. Can 't have been easy then :(

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

read the chinese translation. love the part of elite women and religion