Women and Confucian Cultures

by Dorothy Ko, JaHyun Kim Haboush (Editor), Joan Piggott (Editor)

Representing an unprecedented collaboration among international scholars from Asia, Europe, and the United States, this volume rewrites the history of East Asia by rethinking the contentious relationship between Confucianism and women. The authors discuss the absence of women in the Confucian canonical tradition and examine the presence of women in politics, family, education, and art in premodern China, Korea, and Japan.

What emerges is a concept of Confucianism that is dynamic instead of monolithic in shaping the cultures of East Asian societies. As teachers, mothers, writers, and rulers, women were active agents in this process. Neither rebels nor victims, these women embraced aspects of official norms while resisting others. The essays present a powerful image of what it meant to be female and to live a woman’s life in a variety of social settings and historical circumstances. Challenging the conventional notion of Confucianism as an oppressive tradition that victimized women, this provocative book reveals it as a modern construct that does not reflect the social and cultural histories of East Asia before the nineteenth century.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Japan, Asia, Read For School, Womens

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Dorothy Ko (Chinese 高彦頤) is a Professor of History and Women's Studies at the Barnard College of Columbia University. She is a historian of early modern China, known for her multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional research. As a historian of early modern China, she has endeavored to engage with the field of modern China studies; as a China scholar, she has always positioned herself within the study of women and gender and applied feminist approaches in her work; as a historian, she has ventured across disciplinary boundaries, into fields that include literature, visual and material culture, science and technology, as well as studies of fashion, the body and sexuality.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

various essays by upper crust academics examining women in China, Korea and Japan. some translated.

I found the first two essays a headache to comprehend, but the other essays a breeze. essay topics include music in Confucian China, the last female ruler of Japan, the first indicators of Confucian influence in Japan, women in the Confucian home and more. to be honest, I skimmed the few essays about Korea because Korea isn't really high on my totem pole of interests.

probably an excellent resource for research projects in history or maybe women's studies.

[Catarina PBatista · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable book ~ On my quest to understand the role of women in nowadays South-East Asia I have tried to educate myself in what it meant to be a woman in Pre-modern or ancient eras in that same location. This book has highlighted not only the role of these women, but also how they used Confucius 'Philosophy' (which was (still is) the reality at the time) to change their circumstances and enhance their situations in a Patriarch society that would expect them to be one thing only.
I have to say that I paid more attention to the Korean texts by Hai-sun Lee and JaHyun Kim Haboush, since those are more related to my interests.

I quote bellow one sentence that for me was the resume of this book in a whole (at least for me):

"Given the complexity of discursive and social practices, it should come as no surprise that Confucianism, while constricting the lives of premodern East Asian women, was also to a limited extent an empowering force." - JaHyun Kim Haboush

[anakoluty]

przeczytane (do licencjatu):
CHAPTER SIX "Propagating Female Virtues in Choson Korea" by Martina Deuchler

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The editors' job is to try to pull together a story of how Confucianism affected women in pre-1900s China, Korea and Japan. What makes the task difficult for them and the authors whose works they employ is that the only easy ways to define the boundaries they have are geography and, to a lesser extent, time. As for Confucianism, that is more easily defined by what it isn't than by what is, although the editors and authors note the importance of the five relationships and bonds for their purposes. It is gender that is the most elusive parameter to work with. "Woman" and "female" mean different things depending on both the location and the socio-economic class the individuals in question find themselves in. Despite those limitations, the authors present a story, however incomplete, of the ways in which women's roles and lives were shaped by what we now refer to as Confucianism.

While it can be said that Confucianism emphasized order and hierarchy, it was not a monolithic philosophy in premodern Northeast Asia or even in one country at any one time, just as "liberal" and "conservative" are not today. It is also important to see Confucianism as a process as opposed to a decree, especially as it relates to the treatment of women. While most will agree that women generally lost privileges, this happened neither overnight nor to the same extent in each country. As the chapters on Japan illustrate, women in Japan tended to have more agency than their Korean and Chinese counterparts. It was not uncommon to see women teach or run businesses as well as households. It was also not unheard of for men to live in the residences of their wives' families- or for unmarried women to have children and live in their natal home.

The process is more immediate in Korea, home of the noted Neo-Confucian revolution of the New Choson period. At the end of the preceding Koryo era, women were allowed enough social and economic freedom that not only did we see men living in their wives' homes, we also saw marriage entered into and exited freely. Many of these freedoms were legislated away during the early years of the Choson period and the children of the "primary" wife were favored to the point that relations between wives, mothers-in-law and children were inevitably strained. Interestingly, this was worsened by the continuing importance (left over from the Koryo period) of the lineage of both the mother and father in the determination of social status of children and, indirectly, whether a son could be seated during the national exams.

Given the title, it may be odd that the chapter I found to be the most resonant with modern times was "Daoist Holy Women of Tang China". Daoists were in the minority during this period and there was never a large percentage of women in the ranks of officiants. However, they did exist, and those who practiced stood as a stark counterpoint to the prevailing Confucian-Buddhist norms about female behavior. Suzanne E. Cahill argues that what Daoist women were trying to do was achieve spiritual enlightenment and release by, in part, reversing biological functions and consequences. While mortal women may have been relegated to marriage, childbearing and eventual death, these women sought to avoid the last by, in part, avoiding the other two. (The best possible outcome was to alight to heaven- a la Jesus?- or to escape from the shell of one's corpse). Even eating was eschewed, either altogether or in favor herbs and "special foods". It was impossible to read this chapter and not reflect on the current popularity of yoga, vegetarianism and raw foods- and possibly "healthy living" in general- as a path to self-improvement.

The chapter on female musicians and music in China was another favorite of mine. It did an excellent job of articulating the power of music in general. I would have liked to have seen more on this subject, particularly as it relates to the other two countries. The chapter on female virtue and the cult of suicide among widows and even "widowed" teenage fiances was also among my favorites.

This is not a comprehensive picture of what it meant to be a woman in Northeast Asia during the premodern era. There are significant holes, and because many women were unable to leave a direct record, some questions about the subject may never be answered. Regardless, this is still a worthy read, if only to provide some shading to what otherwise looks like a black and white story of female oppression in one part of world history.