The Book of Songs and Women in Early China

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The Book of Songs and Women in Early China

• CNE/ENG 120
• 10/15/04

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The Book of Songs

• Culture Chinese
• Time 1000-600 BCE
• Genre lyric poetry
• Authors various
• Themes the importance - fragility of - human
  bonds, loyalty, solidarity, fertility timely
  action, balances/exchanges, how to live a good
  life (in an antiheroic world)

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305 Songs the Heritage of the Chou People

• This collection circulated among the aristocracy,
  but drew upon a wide variety of sources. Its
  diversity represents many levels of Chou society.
• Through the 5th c. the Book of Songs served as
  the basic educational text for the Chou upper
  class.

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Lyric Genre

• In contrast to the other cultures we have
  studied, ancient China produced no epic. Chinese
  literary tradition begins with lyric.
• By the 4th c., the Book of Songs was part of the
  canon of Confucian classics - it remained an
  essential part of Chinese education until the
  20th c.

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A Way to Speak

• The Chou Dynastys sense of its own authority
  depended on Heavens charge to rule, which was
  contingent upon ruling well and receiving the
  support of the common people.
• Confucius is said to have told his son that if he
  did not learn the Book of Songs he would have no
  way to speak. It gave words to feelings that
  would otherwise be hard or uncomfortable to
  speak.
• The songs were said to spring naturally from
  human feeling.

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Gods in the Book of Songs

• Here the gods are the collective ancestors, or
  Heaven they function as numinous mechanisms,
  enforcers of the natural and moral order.
• Unlike Greek, Roman and Mesopotamian gods, they
  almost never have favorites.

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Keep in mind

• Like all classical Chinese writing, these poems
  suppress grammatical subject and do not specify
  verb tense, gender, number, or case.
• Most poems are so brief that the situation they
  describe is sketchy at best.
• Lines from the poems were used to express
  political opinions obliquely but effectively.

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In-Class Assignment

• In groups, analyze the poems for their themes and
  imagery used to express them.
• Group 1 1, 41, 42, 45
• Group 2 76, 82, 94, 96
• Group 3 113, 119, 123, 143
• Group 4 154, 166, 189
• Group 5 245, 283

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Women in Medieval China

• Fall of the Han empire led to a period of
  political and social unrest as generals
  established themselves as warlords over various
  regions. Non-Chinese tribes invaded, there
  followed the Period of Division.

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Stability Regained

• The Sui rulers from northern China reunified the
  empire in 589 the Tang dynasty followed,
  reigning from 618-907.
• In the massive unrest, many retreated from the
  ideal and practice of public service that
  Confucius advocated. The increased danger to
  individuals in daily life is reflected in the
  poetry of this time.

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Other influences

• Buddhism arrived in the first century CE,
  probably along the Silk Road trade route.
• Four Noble Truths of Buddhism
• 1) all life is suffering
• 2) suffering has a cause
• 3) suffering can be eliminated
• 4) the path toward this goal is eight-fold,
  involving wisdom, morality, concentration

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Debate

• Between Confucius emphasis on public engagement
  social ethical responsibility and Buddhisms
  focus on the individual renunciation of wordly
  duties and rewards.

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Court Life Poetry

• All court appointees had to have been trained in
  the liberal arts including producing and
  analyzing poetry.
• Poetry permeated court life - one wrote poems for
  leavetakings and homecomings, even for daily life
  occasions such as not finding ones friend at
  home - you left him a poem about it.

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Women in Early China

• Readings for this are both didactic texts
  designed to show women how to behave properly and
  literary works composed by or about women as key
  protagonists.
• These span a thousand years of time, and spring
  from and speak to a spectrum of social classes.
• Given the patriarchal social structure, not much
  literature written by women survives however,
  there was a deep-seated belief that women could
  influence a nations prosperity or adversity.

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Liu Xiang

• Categories reflect womens roles of daughter,
  wife, mother, with the mother having the greatest
  power.
• The mother of Mencius, the first Confucian, sets
  him straight. Consider how she relates her
  priorities to her son.

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Ban Zhao

• Lessons for Women a conduct book
• She advocates education for women, to be put to
  use in the household.
• What motivations/fears can you see behind her
  advice?

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Yuan Cai

• 1000 years later than Ban Zhao more constrained
  lives for women because of Confucian
  interpretations of proper sexual behavior and
  relations.
• His guidelines for his own family respond to a
  widespread disregard for the fate of women in the
  social unit, esp. those without male protectors.

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Tang Man
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Voices of Women

• Willow Bough - upper class woman poet nature
  imagery shared with male poets
• Midnight Songs - attributed to a courtesan of
  uncertain virtue mercantile values
• Themes intimate relationships between a woman
  and her lover