Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
In the Han dynasty, women contributed to social order by demonstrating the womanly behavior of virtue, which was comprised of humility, obedience to the husband, humanity, gentleness, and deliberation. The support for this statement stems from literary artifacts and connections between Confucianism, the wifes responsibility for the marital unions purity in Chinese culture, and the concept of Yin. In Chinese culture, the family is considered the foundation of society because it transmits intrinsic values that support societys inner harmony. The building blocks of traditional Chinese family morality are derived from Confucianism. The Chinese believed that marriage was a combination of morality and responsibility, making the wifes role crucial. Being respectful, gentle, friendly, and pleasant was seen as the wifes most important duty because her true inner essence was Yin. The wifes first and foremost duty was to obey her husband and parents, maintain order in the home, and bear children. The Admonitions for Women and Mencius Mother illustrate the role of female virtuousness in maintaining strict order and supporting appropriate relationships between generations, whereas The Fengs Letter demonstrates how the absence of virtue ruins society.
Reading the Admonitions for Women, one can see that women were expected to be virtuous, which can be explained as the absence of egoistic interests or the willingness to promote ones own position and challenge the existing order of things. The behavior of virtue included humanity, courtesy, obedience, humility, gentleness, and other attributes inherent in women and required of them. The Confucian ideal of women was the virtuous wife who would demonstrate obedience and would never question the male-dominated distribution of power in an ideal society, which fits with the qualities emphasized in Admonitions (Ebrey and Walthall 51). The text emphasizes the importance of relatives and the womans humility. Women then held a very low position: She was humble and modest, and must consider it her chief duty to obey others (Zhao 822). In ancient times, the importance of virtue rose to unprecedented heights and was sometimes contrasted with talent. The book Admonitions for Women demonstrates that a good woman needs no talent (Zhao 823). As Chinese society developed, the standards became stricter and stricter. As a daughter-in-law, a woman was expected to obey her husbands family without complaint (Zhao 823). As a wife, she was expected not to be jealous of his mistresses; as a mother, she was expected to teach her children the right way to live. As a stepmother, she was expected to love her husbands children as her own. In poverty, a woman was not allowed to show discontent; in wealth, she was enjoined to remain a thrifty and diligent hostess. All these manifestations of virtue supported the maintenance of social order by making the womans place in relation to older and younger generations, as well as the husband, strictly determined.
The Mother of Mencius demonstrates the protagonists behavior as an intelligent and gentle woman who is virtuous enough to fulfill her duties as a woman and teach others to do the same. The mother is sensible, moderately strict, and kind to her son, which supports her in setting the right example for the boy, thus revealing the womans virtuousness in obedience to social norms rather than the desire to challenge them. The mother spreads the norms of female virtuousness by reacting to interpersonal conflict with her feminine virtuous wisdom, which helps her contribute to social order by preventing the destruction of others marital unions. Specifically, when Menciuss wife comes to her and asks her to send her home because her husband has been acting strangely after seeing the girl dressed wrong, Mencius mother gives sound advice to her son ( The Mother of Mencius 73). She showed what a relationship with her mother-in-law should be. Menciuss mother is an example of a true benefactor; her actions were designed to raise a real man. The mothers determination to raise her child with a solid understanding of the norms of behavior for the two sexes and the expectations of men and women accepted at the time would be understood as her contributions to the stability of social order.
The Fengs Letter describes the exact opposite of a virtuous woman. As opposed to the aforementioned definition of female virtuousness centered on obedience and humility, Fengs wife is angry, ruthless, unhelpful, and lazy, and the husbands directions have no impact on her perspective ( The Fengs Letter 74). The woman described in this letter is incapable of regret, tenderness, and virtue. Refusing to put others first, which is crucial to virtuousness, the characters wife turns out to be incapable of work. It disrupts the family order by challenging the traditional distribution of housework between family members. In violation of cultural norms, her husband and children try to do all the work around the house, making the family challenge social order by serving as an example of a social deviation that should not exist. The husband believes that as long as this woman lives in his house, there will never be happiness and good fortune ( The Fengs Letter 74). Failure to behave virtuously undermines the family order and, therefore, the social order. The family will never be happy if the woman behaves in this way. In this work, the wife does not set an example of virtue-based behavior for her children and the husband and values her own interests higher than the familys and societys, thus disrupting social order.
Works Cited
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Anne Walthall. East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Cengage Learning, 2013.
The Fengs Letter. Translated by Lily Hwa.
The Mother of Mencius. Translated by Nancy Gibbs.
Zhao, Ban. Admonitions for Women. Translated by Patricia Ebrey.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.