Women During The Han Dynasty

Women living during the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty lived in a society where gender roles were strictly imposed. The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty existed in two distinctive time periods, but the roles of women were indistinguishable between the pair. The Han Dynasty existed from 206 BCE-220 CE, while the Roman Empire lasted from 27 CE-476 CE. The treatment women received in the Han and Roman societies were all based on gender and stereotypes. Women’s roles in marriage, domestic life, and society in the Roman Empire and Han China portrayed their limited freedom and voice.

In both the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire, women were seen as delicate figures and had limited political freedom. Women in Han China were required to be accompanied and led by a male, whether

She is significant in Chinese history because of her writings and teachings of the “Admonitions for Women” using a Confucian approach to define appropriate behavior (Gregory p. 123).

Task 1: The decline/ fall of the Han Dynasty was around 189 to 220 A.D. What was happening was the dynasty was falling apart. Lots of different groups were fighting for the role of the leader.Which completely destroyed the Han dynasty. Also the families were struggling which did not help either. That is how the Han dynasty declined.

In present times, the idea of gender, and gender roles is a prevalent part of our society. These gender roles are guidelines for men and women on how they should behave, wear, and what jobs they are allowed to do. This concept of these roles are not just in today’s times. In fact, since the time of Medieval Europe and Confucian China, the idea of gender and the rules and regulations of it have been an important aspect of life. In the societies of Medieval Europe and China, the challenged gender roles were too powerful to be broken.

The Tang Empire lasted 618-907 CE (Reading 8), which was enough time to bring many changes in how the monarchy and society dealt with gender roles. Over the years that this empire held power, most of the time women were put back in society as being not important. They were put back because the main religion in the Tang Empire was Confucianism, which was enforced throughout the Tang period. In the Tang Dynasty, women were deprived of power in society, which were enforced by societal beliefs caused by Confucianism.

Have you ever heard the fascinating Chinese story “The Story of Miss Li”? This short story is about two main characters. One being Miss Li, a beautiful young Prostitute, and a young man of great wealth and power. Soon in the story Miss Li finds the young man and convinces him to marry her. Unfortunately, two years later they spend all of their money and end up having nothing to their name. So, Miss Li, tricked the young man and left him with nothing to his name. years pass and the young man was very sick and almost dead, he runs into Miss Li one more time. Miss Li felt so terrible that she did this to him that she took him in and cared for him. Soon, she became an ideal Confucian woman and led him back to great wealth in power by helping him learn “the five texts” and making sure he was ready to take the Civil Serves Examination. Even though Miss Li was not what most Chinese call a proper woman, later became an ideal Confucian woman and wife by following the Admonitions for Women and the Analects for Women.

First of all, the Imperial Examinations were biased against women. At this particular point in time, women were considered to be worth close to nothing. The author of China's Examination Hell: The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China says “a man who had no sons was considered to be childless.” (Miyazaki, 1976, p. 13). In other words, the female gender weren’t even considered people, lower than a person on the social scale. Women were expected at stay at home and care for the children. The idea of working was preposterous, let alone help run a country. Because of the fact that women were not born men, they were denied all the opportunities men had. From the day a baby girl was born, the entire family would go into a state of depression.

Though authored possibly centuries apart, the Confucian Analects and court historian Ban Zhao's Lessons for a Woman have far more similarities than they do differences. The truth is that when considered in the context of their societies, the two texts actually serve to complement each other, and do so quite successfully.

The role of the woman has said to serve a humble and very significant aspect in tradition and ritualistic beliefs in Chinese culture in pre-modern times. Traditionally, woman were to stay loyal to the man they were married to and were required, by custom, to stay in the household of “the-in-laws” as a sign of respect to the family. We consider the words loyalty, respect, and submission a numerous amount of times when analyzing the women’s role and how it pertains to Chinese culture when we read about it in articles, newspapers, and novels. In the piece, “No Name Woman,” Maxine Hong Kingston insists on clarifying the ignorant notion that women were always acquiescent to the word of the man. Kingston reflects on her adolescent fascination about the aunt she never knew by engaging in heavy discussion to examine the for that not all women shared those values. Using the story of a speculated aunt that the narrator was told she had by her mother, Kingston asserts that even if the story of her aunt may not be factual, the message of the piece is to communicate that women were both obedient and strictly submissive in Chinese culture.

In Lessons for Women, Ban Zhao discusses what she believes are the qualifications for an ideal woman, ideal man, and also an ideal marriage. Lessons for Women reflect Confucian attitudes by stressing the importance of humility, obedience, and performing your role in society. Ban Zhao believes an ideal woman should always do what is right and never boast about it. If a woman makes a mistake she believes they should accept it and not deny it. Ban Zhao believes a woman should have four qualifications. They are womanly virtue, womanly words, womanly bearing, and womanly work. Ban Zhao believes a woman should live in purity and always serve her husband. She believes a woman should avoid vulgar language. Ban Zhao says an ideal woman should keep the

The screen painting named Women in a Palace was created in the late 17th century of the Qing dynasty. This screen painting displays the tragic events that would be foul Wang Zhaojun one of the four beauties of China. Since she would be delivered to Xiongnu a barbarian chieftain by Emperor Yuan to make peace and order between them. This painting was probably a dedication to her because of the struggle she will lead in the future. Further more this painting displays the emotions of the painting through the colors, the message that is trying to reveal through the scale of the screen painting, and the effort put into every detail of the painting.

Yangban or the ruling class seemed to be following the Confucian codes of conduct more closely than other classes. Yangban families were usually landowners; therefore yangban women would not usually be engaged in any work outside of home. However, new Neo-Confucian ideology demanded that women stay confined at home, abiding by the adage ‘men outside, women inside’. Seclusion of female line to women’s chambers, referred to as anpang, enunciated further deepening of segregation of the genders. Anpang, or the inner rooms of the house, were well hid from the sight from the street and public.

Traditional Chinese society was patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal. In this male dominated society, sons were preferred to daughters, and women were expected to be subordinate to their fathers, husbands, and sons. Because marriages were arranged, young women and men had virtually no voice in the decisions on their marriage partner, resulting in loveless marriages. Once married, it was the woman who left her family and community and went to live with her husband’s family, where she was subordinate to her mother-in-law. In some cases, female infants were subjected to a high rate of infanticide, or sold as slaves to wealthy families. Men were permitted to take as many wives as they wished and bound feet, which

For example, he cared much about being respectful and loyal to one’s parents. Also, he defended that women must be obedient towards their husband, and men must protect their wives. Another Confucian family ritual is to value children, and to care about the word of the elderly women in family. These are the examples of Confucian family rituals, and these rituals were already existed in Chinese family system before Confucius, too. Confucius expressed these traditions in a clear and impressive way. As a result of this, the Confucian family rituals have reached up to the present day , and they are still being complied today. Women and men are still expected to be respectful and protective, children are still highly valued, and elderly are still powerful within in the family today in China. In conclusion, the family system of China today was organized by Confucius, and his teachings of family rituals are the rituals that has been used before Confucius, by the time of Confucius, and after him up to