Winter 2007

HSTAS/WOMEN 457

Women in Chinese History to 1800

Instructor: Patricia Ebrey

Office hours: Wednesday 9:30 to 11:30, Smith 112A

Email: ebrey@u.washington.edu

This course on Chinese women’s history takes three distinct approaches to deepening our understanding of women’s lives in the past. To think about the ways basic features of Chinese society and culture provided the context in which women fashioned their lives, we look at gender ideology and the family system. To evaluate the degree to which women’s situations changed over time, we look at two periods, the Song dynasty and the early Qing dynasty. To consider how the availability of different types of sources shapes what the historian is able to say about women’s lives, we take the case of fiction as a source for understanding women’s history and look at one important eighteenth century novel.

Readings: a packet of articles plus 4 books to be purchased:

Ebrey, Patricia. The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period. (1993)

Mann, Susan, Precious Records : Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century (1997)

Cao Xueqin, The Story of the Stone, vol. 1 and 2.

Course requirements:

1.Reading all assignments before the session and active participation in the discussion, both online and in class. (20%)

2.A 3-page critical review of a listed article, summarized for the class at the appropriate time and turned in that day. (20%)

3.A 4-page critical review of a book on women in Chinese history summarized for the class at the appropriate time and turned in that day. (20%)

4.An 8-10 page critical essay examining a theme or element in the Story of the Stone in light of issues raised by authors we have read. Due on 3/6 (last day of class)

Online discussion: Everyone should post a one or two paragraph reaction to each of the readings by 9 PM the day before they are discussed. See the class website: http://faculty.washington.edu/ebrey/HSTAS457/

Week 1 1/9 Introduction Select articles and books to review

Week 2 1/16 Putting Women into History: Approaches

Smith, Bonnie G. 1991. “Gender, Reproduction, and European History.” American Historical Association Newsletter.

Gates, Hill. 1989. “The Commoditization of Chinese Women.” Signs 14.1.

Teng, Jinhua Emma. 1996. “The Construction of the ‘Traditional Chinese Woman’ in the Western Academy: A Critical Review.” Signs 22.1: 115-51.

Part 1: Continuities and Broad Cultural Orientations

Week 3 1/23: Gender in Chinese Culture: Yin-Yang, gods and ghosts, masculine and feminine

Inner Quarters, 21-44

Furth, Charlotte. 1986. “Blood, Body and Gender: Medical Images of the Female Condition in China.” Chinese Science 7:53-65.

Judith T. Zeitlin. 1997. “Embodying the Disembodied: Representations of Ghosts and the Feminine.” In Writing Women in Late Imperial China, ed. Ellen Widmer and Kang-I Sun Chang. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pp. 242-63.

Article reviews:

Harrell, Stevan. 1986. “Men, Women, and Ghosts in Taiwanese Folk Religion,” in Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols, eds. Caroline Walker Bynum, Stevan Harrell and Paula Richman. Boston: Beacon Press.

Sangren, P. Steven. 1983. “Female Gender in Chinese Religious Symbols: Kuan Yin, Ma Tsu, and the “Eternal Mother.” Signs 9.1:4-25.

Black, Allison H. 1986. “Gender and Cosmology in Chinese Correlative Thinking,” in Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols, ed. Caroline Walker Bynum, Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman. Boston: Beacon Press.

Birrell, Anne M. 1985. “The Dusty Mirror: Courtly Portraits of Woman in Southern Dynasties Love Poetry,” in Expressions of Self in Chinese Literature, ed. by Robert E. Hegel and Richard C. Hessney. New York: Columbia University Press

Reed, Barbara E. 1992. “The Gender Symbolism of Kuan-yin Bodhisattva,” in Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, ed. Jose Ignacio Cabezon. Albany: State University of New York Press. Pp. 159-80.

Wilms, Sabine. 2005. “Ten Times More Difficult to Treat:” Female Bodies in Medical Texts from Early Imperial China.” Nan Nü 7.2:182-215.

Lee, Jen-der. 2005. “Childbirth in Early Imperial China.” Nan Nü 7.2:216-286.

Jen-der Lee. 2003. “Gender and Medicine in Tang China.” Asia Major Third Series 16.2:1-32.

Huntington, Rania. 2000. “Foxes and Sex in Late Imperial Chinese Narratives.” Nan Nü 2.1:78-128.

Book Reviews:

Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin Gender in China’s Medical History, 960-1665. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Despeux, Catherine and Livia Kohn. 2003. Women in Daoism. Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press.

Paul, Diana. 1980. Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in Mahayana Tradition. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press.

Catherine Despeux and Livia Kohn. 2003. Women in Daoism. Cambridge: three Pines Press.

Schafer, Edward H. 1973. The Divine Woman:

Week 4 1/30 Confucian Paradigms and the Patrilineal Family System

Guisso, Richard. 1981. “Thunder Over the Late: The Five Classics and the Perception of Woman in Early China” In Richard Guisso and Stanley Johannesen, ed. Women in China. Youngstown, N.Y.: Philo Press.

Goldin, Paul Rakita. 2002. The Culture of Sex in Ancient China, ch. 2, “Women and Sex Roles.”

Inner Quarters, 45-60, 82-98, 114-130, 152-234.

Article Reviews:

Martin-Liao, Tianchi. 1985. “Traditional Handbooks of Women’s Education,” in Women and Literature in China, ed. Anna Gerstlacher, Ruth Keen, Wolfgang Kubin, Margit Miosga, and Jenny Schon. Bochum: Studienverlag Brockmeyer

Sung, Marina. 1981. “The Chinese Lieh-nü Tradition” in R.L. Guisso and Stanley Johannesen, ed. Women in China. Youngstown, N.Y.: Philo.

Kelleher, Theresa. 1987. “Confucianism,” in Women in World Religions, edited by Arvind Sharma. New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 135-59.

Hsiung, Ping-chen. 1994. “Constructed Emotions: The Bonds Between Mothers and Sons in Late Imperial China,” Late Imperial China 15.1:87-177.

Waltner, Ann. 1995. “Infanticide and Dowry in Ming and Early Qing China.” In Chinese Views on Childhood, ed. Anne Behnke Kinney. University of Hawaii Press. Pp. 193-217.

Book Reviews:

Raphals, Lisa Ann. 1998. Sharing the Light: Representations of Women and Virtue in Early China. SUNY Press.

O’Hara, Albert Richard. 1971. The Position of Women in Early China. Taipei: Mei Ya.

Hinsch, Bret. 2002. Women in Early Imperial China. Rowman and Littlefield.

Tung, Jowen R. 2000. Fables for the Patriarchs: Gender Politics in Tang Discourse. Rowman and Littlefield.

Week 5 No class

Part II: Women in Historical Change: Two Moments

Week 6 2/13 The Song Dynasty

Inner Quarters,1-6, 61-81, 99-113, 131-51, 250-71

Book Reviews:

Bray, Francesca. 1997. Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late

Imperial China.

Birge, Bettine. 2002 Women, Property, and Confucian Reaction in Sung and Yuan China: 960-1368. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chung, Pricilla. 1981. Palace Women in the Northern Sung, 960-1126 (Monographies du T’oung Pao, 12). Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Cass, Victoria. 1999. Dangerous Women: Warriors, Grannies, and Geishas of the Ming.

Article reviews:

Birge, Bettine. 1989. “Chu Hsi and Women’s Education,” in Neo-Confucian Education: The Formative Stage, ed. Wm. Theodore de Bary and John W. Chaffee. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Elvin, Mark. 1984. “Female Virtue and the State in China.” Past and Present 104:111-152.

Chaffee, John. 1991. “The Marriage of Sung Imperial Clanswomen,” in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, ed. Rubie S. Watson and Patricia Buckley Ebrey. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Yang, Lien-sheng. 1960-61. “Female Rulers in Imperial China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 23:47-61.

Deng, Xiaonan. 1999. “Women in Turfan during the Sixth to Eighth centuries: A look at their activities outside the home.” Journal of Asian Studies 58:85-103.

Chiu-Duke, Josephine. 2006. “Mothers and the Well-Being of the State in Tang China.” Nan Nü 8.1:55-114.

Leung, Angela Ki Che. 1999. “Women Practicing Medicine in Premodern China.” In Chinese Women in the Imperial Past: New Perspectives, ed. Harriet Zurndorfer. Leiden: Brill.

Bossler, Beverly. 2002. “Shifting Identities: Courtesans and Literati in Song China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 62.1:5-37.

Yao, Ping. 2002. “The Status of Pleasure: Courtesan and Literati Connections in T’ang China, 618-907.” Journal of Women’s History 14.2:26-53.

Idema, Wilt L. 1999. “Male Fantasies and Female Realities: Chu Shu-chen and Chang Yu-niang and their Biographers.” In Chinese Women in the Imperial Past: New Perspectives, ed. Harriet Zurndorfer. Leiden: Brill.

Wu, Pei-yi. 2002. “Yang Miaozhen: A Woman Warrior in Thirteenth-Century China.” Nan Nü 4.2:137-69,

Week 7 2/20 The Early Qing

Susan Mann, Precious Records

Article reviews:

Ropp, Paul S. 1976. “Seeds of Change: Reflections on the Condition of Women in Early and Mid Ch’ing.” Signs 2:5-23.

Rowe, William T. 1992. “Women and the Family in Mid-Qing Social Thought: The Case of Ch’en Hung-mou,” Late Imperial China

Paderni, Paola. 1995. “I Thought I would Have Some Happy Days: Women Eloping in Eighteenth-Century China,” Late Imperial China 16.1:1-32.

Paderni, Paola. 1999. “Between Constraints and Opportunities: Widows, Witches, and Shrews in Eighteenth Century China.” In Chinese Women in the Imperial Past: New Perspectives, ed. Harriet Zurndorfer. Leiden: Brill.

Ropp, Paul. 1997. “Ambiguous Images of Courtesan Culture in Late Imperial China.” In Writing Women in Late Imperial China, ed. Ellen Widmer and Kang-I Sun Chang. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pp. 17-45.

Handlin, Joanna F. 1975. “Lü K’un’s New Audience: The Influence of Women’s Literacy on Sixteenth-Century Thought.” In Wolf and Witke, Women in China.

Ellen Widmer, 1992. “Xiaoqing’s Literary Legacy and the Place of the Woman Writer in Late Imperial China.” Late Imperial China 13.1:111-55.

Carlitz, Katherine. 1994. “Desire, Danger, and the Body: Stories of Women’s Virtue in Late Ming China,” in Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State, ed. Christina K. Gilmartin, Gail Hershatter, Lisa Rofel, and Tyrene White. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Cahill, James. 2006. “Paintings Done for Women in Ming-Qing China?” Nan Nü 8.1:1-54.

Book Reviews:

Ko, Dorothy. 1994. Teachers of the Inner Chambers. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.

Ko, Dorothy. 2005. Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Footbinding. Berkeley: University of California Press.

T’ien, Ju-k’ang. 1988. Male Anxiety and Female Chastity: A Comparative Study of Chinese Ethical Values in Ming-Ch’ing Times. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Ropp, Paul S. 2001. Banished Immortal: Searching for Shuangqing, China’s Peasant Woman Poet. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Widner, Ellen and Kang-I Sun Chang, eds. 1997. Writing Women in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Special Issue of Nan Nü 3.1 (2001) on Widow Suicide.

Idema, Wilt and Beata Grant. 2004. The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center.

Theiss, Janet M. 2004. Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century China. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Part III. Sources for the Study of Women’s Lives: Fiction

Week 8 2/27: Women and Gender in the Dream of the Red Chamber, I

Volume 1 of The Story of the Stone

Book reviews:

Edwards, Louise. 1994. Men and Women in Qing China: Gender in the Red Chamber Dream Leiden: Brill.

Wu, Yenna. 1995. The Chinese Virago: A Literary Theme. Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.

Article reviews:

Yu, Anthony C. 1980. “Self and Family in the Hung-lou Meng: A New Look at Lin Tai-yü as Tragic Heroine, CLEAR,2.2: 199-223.

Wagner, Marsha. 1985. “Maids and Servants in Dreams of the Red Chamber: Individuality and the Social Order,” in Expressions of Self in Chinese Literature, ed. Robert E. Hegel and Richard C. Hessney. New York: Columbia University Press.

Wong Kam-ming, 1985. “Point of View and Feminism: Images of Women in Hongloumeng,” in Women and Literature in China, ed. Anna Gerstlacher, Ruth Keen, Wolfgang Kubin, Margit Miosga and Jenny Schon. Bochum: Brockmeyer

Waltner, Ann. 1989. “On Not Becoming a Heroine: Lin Dai-yu and Cui Ying-ying,” Signs15.1:61-78.

Cooper, Eugene and Meng Zhang. 1993. “Patterns of Cousin Marriage in Rural Zhejiang and in Dream of the Red Chamber.” I 52.1:90-106.

Miller, Lucien. 1995. “Children of the Dream: The Adolescent World in Cao Xueqin’s Honglou meng.” In Chinese Views of Childhood, ed. Anne Behnke Kinney. Pp. 219-47.

Week 9 3/6 Dream of the Red Chamber, II

Volume 2 of The Story of the Stone.

Paper Due