WOMAN IN CHINESE LITERATURE THE Chinese symbol for man is a picture of a human biped, and this symbol includes woman. A Chinese female says, equally with a Chinese male, 'I am a man.' If it is necessary to emphasise sex, another word is added to 'man,' for men as well as for women, in order that the gender may be clear. One of the oldest allusions in Chinese literature to women is the much-exploited verse of the Odes which tells us that when a girl is born she should be couched upon the ground in token of humility, have a tile to play with in token of the weight which will some day hold the distaff, and indulge in no thoughts beyond her cookery and a constant desire to spare her parents pain. Such was the simple view of woman's sphere which appealed to the ballad-writer of China nearly three thousand years ago. In the Book of Rites, a comparatively modern compilation, dating only from the century before the Christian era, but embodying the precepts and practices of earlier centuries, we find explicit regulations as to the daily life of women, many of which are in full force at the present day. Therein we are told that men and women should not sit together, nor use the same clothes-horse, towel, or comb, nor pass things to one another, lest their hands should touch. Even at sacrifices and funerals a basket should be used by the woman as a receptacle for things handed by and to her. Brothers- and sisters-in-law must not ask one another questions, not even, so says one commentator, as to the state of each other's health; the brothers of a girl who is betrothed may not sit on the same mat with her, nor eat out of the same dish. In ancient times it was not etiquette for a woman to stand in a chariot; this, says one commentator, was in order to make a distinc tion between men and women. But another commentator, a descendant of Confucius, gives a more kindly reason: 'Woman has a delicate frame; she cannot stand in a chariot. Men stand, but women sit.' They sat on the left hand of the driver, next to the hand which was occupied with the reins. This, we are told, was a measure of precaution, lest the driver should put his arm around the lady's waist! The life of a woman was divided under three phases, known as the Three Obediences'; while young she was to obey her father and elder brother, after marriage she was to obey her husband, and after her husband's death she was to obey her son. She was to put up her hair at fifteen and to be married at twenty-the age has been lowered in modern times-choice of a husband resting entirely in the hands of her parents, aided always by a third person to carry communications between the two contracting families. So say the Odes: How do we proceed in splitting firewood? Without an axe it cannot be done. Without a go-between it cannot be done. Passing into her husband's family and taking his name at marriage, the wife is henceforth to wait upon his parents with the same devotion that she has shown towards her own. At cockcrow she must be up and ready with warm water and towels beside her father- and mother-in-law's bed; together with many other similar observances which still exist on paper, but have long since fallen into desuetude. There are five classes of men to whom a Chinese girl will not be given in marriage; viz., to the son of a rebellious family, to the son of an immoral family, to a man who has been convicted of a criminal offence, to a man with a loathsome disease, and to an eldest son who has buried his father, i.e. the son being of an age at which he could have already contracted a marriage before his father's death. There are seven reasons which justify divorce; viz., bad behaviour towards father- and mother-in-law, no children, adultery, jealousy, loathsome disease, garrulousness, and stealing. But there are three conditions under which the above seven reasons fail to justify divorce ; viz., if the wife has no home to go to, if she has twice shared the period of three years' mourning for a parent-in-law, and if she has risen with her husband from poverty to affluence. We read in the Rites that a married woman is called fu, to denote her submission (fu' to submit') to her husband; but the Po Hu T'ung, a work of the first century A.D., tells us that the wife is called ch'i, to denote that she is the equal (ch'i, 'level') of her husband. The latter book also says that a woman cannot hold independent rank of her own, but that, in the quaint Chinese idiom,' she sits according to her husband's teeth' (seniority). In Chinese numeration the odd numbers are regarded as female, and the even male; not because they are so absolutely, but because the female and male principles predominate, with varying percentages, in the odds and evens, respectively. Seven is the female number par excellence, containing, as is supposed, a larger percentage of the female principle and a smaller percentage of the male principle than any other unit. At seven months, according to the Su Wên, an ancient medical work, a girl begins to teethe; at seven years her milk teeth fall out; at fourteen she reaches puberty; at twenty-one she cuts her wisdom teeth; at twenty-eight her bones are hard, her hair is at its longest, and her body is in full vigour; at thirty-five her face begins to tan and her hair to fall out; at forty-two her face is withered, her complexion has gone, and her hair is grey; at fortynine comes the change of life and the first years of old age. The earliest Chinese work devoted to women's affairs, entitled Advice to Women, is by the distinguished lady who flourished in the first century A.D., and carried to its conclusion her father and brother's history of the first Han dynasty when death had removed the latter in A.D. 92. In her preface the authoress, Lady Ts'ao (née Pan Chao), modestly asserts that she was born without intelligence, but enjoyed the favour of her father and the teachings of her mother until she was fourteen years old, now forty years ago, when she took up the dust-pan and broom in the family of the Ts'aos.' 'Boys,' she adds, 'can shift for themselves, and I do not trouble my head about them; but I am grieved to think how many girls enter into marriage without any preparation whatever, and entirely ignorant of what is becoming to a wife.' The Lady Ts'ao arranges her advice to girls under appropriate headings, such as humility, husband and wife, general deportment, etc. Be humble and respectful; put others in front and yourself behind; do not boast of your successes, nor excuse your failures; bear contumely and swallow insult; be always as though in fear and trembling. A wife should be as the shadow and echo of her husband. Woman's energies have a fourfold scope: behaviour, speech, appearance, and duties. For right behaviour, no great mental talents are needed; for right speech, no clever tongue nor smart repartee; for right appearance, no great beauty; and for right duties, no special cunning of hand. In simplicity, in purity, in a sense of shame and of propriety, will right behaviour be found. In choice of language, in avoidance of bad words, in seasonable and not too prolonged talk, will right speech be found. In thorough cleanliness of apparel, and in regular use of the bath, will right beauty be found. In undivided attention to spinning and weaving, without laughing and playing, and in seeing that food and wine are properly served, will right duties be found. These four offer scope to the energies of woman; they must not be neglected. There need be no difficulty, if only there is determination. A philosopher of old said, 'Is goodness really so far off? I wish for goodness, and lo! here it is.' A highly educated woman herself, the Lady Ts'ao pleaded for education for her sex, and a return to the practice of ancient days when girls between the ages of eight and fifteen were taught the same subjects that were taught to boys. Yen Chih-t'ui, a famous scholar and statesman who flourished A.D. 535-595, left behind him a work entitled Family Instructions, which has come down to us intact. Let the wife (he says) look after the cooking and attend to the ceremonial connected with wine and food and clothing. She should not interfere in the government of the State, nor meddle with the family affairs. If she is clever and talented, acquainted with the conditions of ancient and modern times, then she should be employed as an aid to her husband, supplying that in which he may be deficient; but there must be no crowing at dawn in the place of the cock, with all the sorrow that this entails. Yen complains that in certain parts of the Empire 'women's equipages block the streets, silks and satins throng the public offices and temples, while mothers and wives beg posts for their sons and promotion for their husbands." In another place he points out that the varied products of the loom have proved a curse to the female sex, and he quotes the old saying: There is no thief like a family of five daughters.' On the other hand, he strongly denounces infanticide, cases of which he quotes as occurring in the family of a distant relative of his. There,' he says, if a girl is born, she is immediately carried away, the mother following with tears and cries, but all of no avail; truly shocking!' This is perhaps the earliest recorded protest against a crime which seems to have been always practised more or less in all countries, but not more in China than elsewhere, as the following argument will show. Every Chinaman has a wife; high officials and rich merchants often have two or three concubines; the Emperor is allowed seventytwo. If, then, female children are destroyed in such numbers as to constitute a national crime, it must follow that girls are born in an overwhelmingly large proportion to boys, utterly unheard of in any other part of the world. Between A.D. 785 and 830 lived five remarkable sisters named Sung, all of whom possessed considerable literary talent, and especially the two elder ones. They refused to marry, and devoted themselves to literature, being finally received into the Palace, where in due course they all died natural deaths, with the exception of the fourth Miss Sung, against whom charges of accepting bribes were trumped up, the result being that she was forced to take silk-in other words, to strangle herself. The eldest sister wrote a book called Discourses for Girls, based upon the famous Discourses of Confucius. It is in an easy style of versification, and is generally suited to the comprehension of the young. When walking, do not look back; When talking, do not open wide your lips; When sitting, do not rock your knees; When standing, do not shake your skirt; When pleased, do not laugh aloud; When angry, do not shout; Do not peep over the outside wall; Do not slip into the outer court; With a man not of the family The authoress then proceeds to inculcate submission and obedience, filial piety, diligent performance of household duties, etc., etc., coupled always with a certain amount of book-learning, not so much as might perhaps have been expected from such a literary lady. Miss Sung was at no great interval followed by one Madam Chêng, who produced a Filial Piety Classic for Girls, in imitation of the semicanonical work which has come down to us from about the first century B.C. This lady boldly embraces in her injunctions all classes, from the Empress and Imperial concubines down to the peasant woman of the village. 'Strike a bell in the palace,' she says in warning, ' and the sound will be heard outside.' Virtue, she points out, is a question of environment: If a child is surrounded by good influences, he will be good; if by evil influences, he will be evil. Even before birth his education may begin; and, therefore, the prospective mother of old, when lying down lay straight, when sitting down sat upright, and when standing stood erect. She would not taste strange flavours, nor have anything to do with spiritualism; if her food were not cut straight she would not eat it, and if her mat were not set straight she would not sit upon it. She would not look at any objectionable sight, nor listen to any objectionable sound, nor utter any rude word, nor handle any impure thing. At night she studied some canonical work, by day she occupied herself with ceremonies and music. Therefore her sons were upright, and eminent for their talents and virtues; such was the result of ante-natal training. In China too, as in the West, prospective mothers are warned not to eat hare's flesh, nor even to see a hare, lest she, as in the striking lines by Mr. Yeats, looking on the cloven lips of a hare Bring forth a hare-lipped child. From what has been already said, it might be supposed that the ordinary Chinese wife would hardly be able to call her soul her own— a condition of affairs altogether at variance with the real position of women as seen in China at the present day. The following extract, however, from an article by a writer of the T'ang dynasty (618-906), named Yü I-fang, and entitled 'A Charm against the Black-Hearted,' would seem to suggest that Chinese women more than a thousand years ago knew very well how to take care of themselves, and successfully held their own, as they still continue to do, against the brutality of men. If the wife does not rule, the family can be properly governed, just as a State can be properly governed if the Minister does not rule the Prince, and the Empire can be properly governed if the Prime Minister does not rule the Emperor. For if husband and wife occupy their proper places, the Empire will be correctly organised; and if families are correctly organised, the Empire will be at peace. The Lun Yü teaches us that women and servants are difficult to deal with; if you are familiar with them, they lose their respect for you; if you are distant to them, they lose their tempers. The Book of History tells us that for the hen to do the crowing at dawn brings ruin upon the family. The Book of Changes warns us that the wife's |