Women in Chinese Learned Culture: Complexities, Exclusivities and Connecting Narratives (2014)
(Early Paragraphs) One of the more common stereotypes about women in Chinese history is that they were `victims' of tradition, or Confucian patriarchy. The problem with such labelling is that it denies the complexity of the ideological and cultural forces that shaped learned culture in China and women's place therein at various points in time. To be sure, the official Chinese historical record itself does not proffer much textual evidence about women except, as the dynastic histories indicate, their role as trouble-makers: `seductive or menacing figures who usurp power from legitimate male rulers or corrupt vulnerable young emperors'.1 Moreover, it seems evident that from earliest times, according to both archaeological and inscriptional data, the political and economic status of most women in Neolithic and Shang China (c.1600--1045 BCE), as represented in burial practices and religious testimonies, was inferior to that of most men.2 Nevertheless, such documentation does not seal the historical fate of women's access to the Chinese learned world. The historical record indicates a much more complex and ambiguous situation. It should be noted that both men and women had restricted access to the principal written medium, wenyan, also known as `classical Chinese', which emerged around the fourth and third centuries BCE.3 Only those individuals who could read and write in this difficult language had a way into the learned world. Classical Chinese is extremely concise and compact -- the language makes extensive use of literary and cultural allusions which often only an educated person might comprehend. It is impossible to say exactly what percentage of the Chinese population was literate at this time. But given the difficulties of recording on the earliest writing materials of bamboo and silk, it is safe to say that until the invention of paper sometime around the first century of the Common Era, very few men and even fewer women could read and write
...MoreArticle Zinsser, Judith P. (2014) Forum: Women and Learned Culture: Introduction. Gender and History (pp. 1-4).
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