Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 04-15-08
Ban Zhao /Pan Chao
/Cao Dagu (c.48-bef. 120 CE)
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"OF COURSE YOU HAVE TO BE CIRCUMSPECT!"
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Ban Zhao (old spelling: Pan Chao) was born in the provinces to a family of scholars that had been involved for three generations with the Chinese emperor's court. Zhao had two elder brothers, twins at least 13 years older than she: Ban Gu, who would become a courtier poet and the major author of Han shu, a history of the first 200 years of Han dynasty China; and Ban Chao, who would become a general, winning important battles on China's northwest frontier.
Her father, a well-known scholar who had begun the Han shu, died when Zhao was about eight years old. She was married when she was 14, had several children, was widowed "early," and never remarried. Her husband's family name was Cao, so her court name would become "Cao Dagu" (Venerable Madame Cao).
By 76 CE, Zhao's brother Chao had become a soldier, and her mother and her brother Gu were in the capital, where Gu was attached to the emperor's court as a historian and editor. Zhao, nearly 30, apparently soon joined them (it was unusual that a widow would leave her husband's family). Gu was working on the Han shu; scholars see it as "likely that [Zhao] was already an active contributor to the project in the 70s & 80s" (Wills, p.94).
In 89, there was a new emperor, a child, so rule fell to his mother, Dowager Empress Dou, and to her family; Ban Gu became closely associated with them. In 92, the Dou family was accused of treason: the men of the family committed suicide; the empress lost her power; and the family's friends, including Gu, were executed. But no action was taken against the other Bans: Chou was a victorious general (and safely far away); Zhao was a mere woman (though the assignment of her son to a distant post in 95 has been seen by some as an exile which she shared).
By 97, however, Zhao had been called back to the capital to complete the history left unfinished at Ban Gu's death. According to a biography of Zhao written in the 400s: "Emperor He summoned her to the Library at the Easter Hall so that she could continue [Ban Gu's] work and complete it" (Idema & Grant, p.34), and to teach other scholars how to read this new text. Because the Han shu is an important work to historians of China, the question of how much Zhao contributed to it (substantial writing? editing and polishing?) has been debated --- sometimes hotly --- for 1900 years. From internal evidence, the translator Nancy Lee Swann believes that Zhao is responsible for about one-fourth of the whole (p.65).
Besides working on the Han shu and tutoring at the imperial library, Zhao also became a teacher to the leading women of the court, particularly a teen-aged girl, Deng, who had come to court in 96. Zhao taught Deng astronomy and mathematics as well as history and the classics. In 102, the emperor dismissed his current empress and promoted Deng to that role. When he died in 106, he was succeeded by a child who soon died and was followed by another child; through these reigns Dowager Empress Deng was regent. Ban Zhao's influence with the empress was apparently great; a contemporary wrote about one court problem, "At a word from mother Ban the whole family resigned" (Swann, p. 236). We don't know the year of Zhao's death but we know that it was before 120, for the Empress, who died in that year, had gone into mourning for her (rare treatment for a commoner).
After her death, her daughter-in-law collected Zhao's written work, which the biographer of the 400s described as including "Narrative Poems, Commemorative Writings, Inscriptions, Eulogies, Argumentations, Commentaries, Elegies, Essays, Treatises, Expositions, Memorials, and Final Instructions, in all (enough to fill) 16 books" (Swann, p.41). Apparently, Zhao also "annotated" an earlier work, Lienu zhuan (Lives of eminent women, 79-8 BCE). The extant works whose attribution is sure include one long poem, Dongzheng fu (Traveling Eastward); fragments of three short poems; two memorials (letters to the throne); and the much quoted survival manual, Nujie (Precepts for my daughters).
In the first centuries after Zhao's death, it was her contributions
to Han shu, her scholarly writing, and her poetry that
were most praised. It wasn't until the 800s that Nujie
became the work with which she was most identified. It came to
be used in China as an argument for women's accepting their low
place in society. Zhao certainly accepted the Confucian teachings
(except on the education of women), but Nujie seems most
of all to be very practical advice written for her daughters
so that they could survive in their husbands' family homes.
One passage from Zhao's biography is intriguing: "Zhao's
younger sister-in-law, Cao Feng-sheng, likewise talented and
cultured, wrote essays which are worth reading, in which she
took issue with Ban Zhao" (Swann, p.41). What did Zhao's
sister-in-law take issue with? Did it have to do with Nujie?
Was that work too narrow-minded? too broad-minded? Or was
the disagreement with one of Zhao's other writings? The sister-in-law's
essays are lost.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Dongzheng fu (Traveling Eastward)
Two memorials (letters to the throne)
Needle and Thread
Nujie (Precepts for my daughters)
Information about:
Works attributed in part to Ban Zhao.
Other helpful primary sources.
Secondary sources.
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1. Translations:
(a) The opening 11 lines of Ban Zhao's earliest extant poem, the 84-line "Traveling Eastward" (Dongzheng fu), on her trip with her son to his post in a distant province ("the seventh year of Yung-ch'u" is the year 113 CE). At another site, the last section of the poem (the "Gongchao" of the last line is a man praised by the sage Confucius for "wanting little"). In both, the translation is by Nancy Lee Swann (for more of the poem, see below, under "In print").
(b) Ban Zhao's poem, "Needle and Thread," (with two lines omitted); the translation is by Richard Mather and Rob Swigart.
(c) Three-fourths of the way down the page, John E. Wills' complete version of the poem given just above, "Chill autumn gleam of steel," with Wills' comments on Ban Zhao (for yet another, and quite different, version of the poem, see "In print"; for information on Wills' book, see under "Secondary sources").
(c) After an introduction by Alfred J. Andrea, most of Nujie, here called Lessons for a Woman, translated by Swann. Caution: although no indication is given, this online version is seriously incomplete: of the work's seven chapters, the online version omits all of Chapters 5 and 7 and most of Chapter 6. Also, it uses but does not identify Swann's interpolated clarifications, and it omits Swann's indispensable notes. (For an another version of some passages, including those from sections omitted here, see "In print.")
2. Essays, etc:
(a) "A Millennial Family: the Ban Clan Makes its Mark," a 1999 article on Ban Zhao's family, by Chang Chin-ju, translated by David Mayer.
(b) Zhang Mingqi's 1985 essay, "The Four Books for Women: Ancient Chinese Texts for the Education of Women," translated by Gary Arbuckle and Rosemary Haddon, which shows how later Chinese writers used (and misused?) Ban Zhao's Nujie (here called "Admonitions for women").
(c) An abstract and the opening of Sherin Wing's 2003 article "Technology, Commentary, and the Admonitions for Women" (for more on Wing's article, see "Secondary sources").
3. Reviews (for excerpts from Swann, see "In print"; for information on the study's treatment of Ban Zhao, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Michael McKenny on the 2001 edition of Nancy Lee Swann's 1932 Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China, the only translation of Ban Zhao's complete works; McKenny gives a detailed description of the book's contents.
(b) Soliman Lawrence on Paul Rakita Goldin's 2005 study, After Confucius: Studies in Early Chinese Philosophy.
4. An essay on Lienu zhuan (the work which Ban Zhao apparently "annotated" and updated), by Anne Behnke Kinney. From the same site, a woodblock-printed edition, with pictures and text, of the last section of Lienu zhuan, "Supplemental Biographies," to which Ban Zhao is believed to have contributed. One of the 20 women described, "Ban, Favorite Beauty," was Zhao's great-aunt. (For information on a translation of Lienu zhuan, see under "Works attributed in part to Ban Zhao.")
5. A link to the text of The Chinese Book of Etiquette and Conduct for Women and Girls, entitled Instruction for Chinese Women and Girls, By Lady Tsao (c.1900), by Mrs. S. L. Baldwin, definitely not an accurate translation of Nujie, but an example of what was available under that title in China in the late 1800s. Swann puts Baldwin's version among works that "claim to be translations" and politely calls them "free interpretations of the Chinese text" (2001, p.55). You can also download the work as a PDF file.
6. A 1700s painting by Chin T'ingpiao of Ban Zhao working on the Han shu, with court women looking on.
7. For historical background:
(a) An essay on Han period thought, by Richard Hooker, useful on Ban Zhao's times.
(b) Links to translations, by Charles Muller, of two works attributed to Confucius: Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean; they will help you understand Ban Zhao's view of life.
(c) For the Chinese view of women in the centuries before Ban Zhao, brief books from the classic, Li ji, translated by James Legge (1885): Book 10, "Pattern of the Family," and Book 41, "Meaning of the Marriage Ceremony."
(d) Finally, for a consideration of women's relationship to Confucianism, a 2005 conference presentation by Joseph A. Adler, "Daughter/Wife/Mother or Sage/Immortal/Bodhisattva? Women in the Teaching of Chinese Religions."
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Dongzheng fu (Traveling Eastward); Two memorials (letters to the throne)
[Nancy Lee Swann's 1932 study gives translations (and some originals) of all of Ban Zhao's extant works. The study shows impressive scholarship, and it gives helpful notes --- which most who quote Swann's translations ignore. The notes explain conventional phrases and give literal translations, which frequently suggest alternative meanings. Susan Mann's brief preface to this 2001 reprint describes the history of Nujie in China. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Swann, Nancy Lee. Pan Chao: foremost woman scholar of China
(Michigan classics in Chinese studies; no. 5). Ann Arbor: Center
for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, c2001. (xxi,
179 p.: ill., maps).
LC#: DS748.16.B35 S93 2001; ISBN: 0892641509
Originally published: New York: The Century Co, 1932. Includes
bibliographical references and index.
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"But by effort we can go forward...."
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[Throughout the excerpts, parentheses indicate Swann's clarifications; also, Ban family names have been changed from old to new spelling. First, from "Dongzheng fu" (Traveling Eastward), Ban Zhao's earliest extant work. Nearly 50 years old, Ban Zhao went with her son to his minor post in the provinces; one brother had been executed, another was on the frontier, and she had no way of knowing if she would ever see the capital again. She worked to overcome her depression by thinking of Confucius and his teachings. See online for the end of this poem:]
It is the seventh year of Yung-ch'u;
I follow my son in his journey eastward.
It is an auspicious day in Spring's first moon;
We choose this good hour, and are about to start.
Now I arise to my feet and ascend my carriage.
At eventide we lodge at Yen-shih:
Already we leave the old and start for the new.
I am uneasy in mind, and sad at heart.
Dawn's first light comes, and yet I sleep not;
My heart hesitates as though it would fail me.
I pour out a cup of wine to relax my thoughts.
Suppressing my feelings, I sigh and blame myself:
I shall not need to dwell in nests, nor (eat) worms from dead
trees.
Then how can I not encourage myself to press forward?
And further, am I different from other people?
Let me but hear heaven's command and go its way.
Throughout the journey we follow the great highway.
If we seek short cuts, whom shall we follow?
Pressing forward, we travel on and on;
In abandonment our eyes wander, and our spirits roam....
Secretly I sigh for the Capital City I love, (but)
To cling to one's native place characterizes a small nature,
As the histories have taught us....
When we enter K'uang City I recall far distant events.
I am reminded of Confucius' straitened activities
In that decadent, chaotic age which knew not the Way,
And which bound and awed even him, that Holy Man!
In fact genuine virtue cannot die;
Though the body decay, the name lives on....
I know that man's nature and destiny rests with Heaven,
But by effort we can go forward and draw near to love.
Stretched, head uplifted, we tread onward to the vision.... [pp.113-16]
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"From the point of view of the dynasty...of the people...."
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[Back in the capital, working on the Han shu and teaching at court, in 101 Ban Zhao wrote a letter to Emperor He asking that her surviving brother, Chao, be permitted to return home from central Asia, where he had served since 73. She had apparently tried to get help from "the great ministers at court"; now she goes to the top. Her argument, based on the safety of the state, was successful. This is part of the letter:]
When Chao first went (beyond the frontier), he dedicated himself, body and life (to his work), in the hope of accomplishing a small service in order to demonstrate his devotion.... Often wounded by metal weapons, he did not flee from death itself. Relying upon the divine power of the Throne, he has attained a prolonged life in the sandy desert until now there have accumulated thirty years.
.... He is now seventy; decrepit, old, and ill; head without a single black hair; both hands powerless; ears and eyes no longer keen; and able to walk only by leaning upon a staff....
Now the barbarian tribes are stubborn by nature, and rude to the old. Chao, moreover, from morning to evening expects death. If it is a long time before he is relieved, (your handmaiden) fears that there will be a springing up of conspiracies to incite a spirit of rebellion and disorder.
Now all the great ministers at court care only for things of the moment, but no one of them is willing to plan for the future. Should trouble arise among the barbarian soldiers, Chao's physical strength would not be able to follow the wishes of his heart. And it may happen that from the point of view of the dynasty the work of several generations would be injured; and from the point of view of the people the strenuous labors of a faithful official would be lost....
In behalf of Chao (your unworthy subject) dares face death in order to beg commiseration for him. She pleads for his release during the remaining years of his life, that he may return alive and see again the Imperial Court. Thus the state will never have disturbances on the frontiers, and the Western Regions will not have troublesome revolts. [pp.74-75]
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"They may never again gain the name and fame."
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[From a 107 letter written to Empress Deng (de facto ruler since the death of her husband, He). Deng's four brothers, unpopular at court because of their arrogance, made a pro forma request to leave the capital when their mother died, apparently assuming that the request would be denied. Ban Zhao urged the empress to take them up on their offer by speaking of their future reputation --- and by extension, Deng's. The brothers left the court:]
(Your Majesty) opens the gates to the four quarters of the empire, takes knowledge of all events in the four directions.... Your handmaiden Zhao is both stupid and old, (but she is fortunate) to happen (to live in this) prosperous and brilliant age, and dares not but reveal her inmost self, if only to render (the minutest service--a proportion of) one to ten-thousand.
Your handmaid has heard it said that there is no virtue greater than the custom of yielding place (to others)....
[Zhao lists examples from Chinese history of those who have, for good reason, given up or declined high positions and, in doing so, earned fame; then:]
At this time (Your Majesty's brothers), the Four Uncles, maintaining their loyalty and filial piety, seek to retire (from office), but because the frontiers are not yet peaceful, (Your Majesty) is opposed and will not grant permission. (If the Four Uncles be not allowed to retire, ...then your unworthy subject) sincerely fears that they may never again gain the name and fame for yielding place....
Because (your handmaiden) has come to this conclusion, she ventures at the risk of her life (to write this opinion to Your Majesty). [pp.76-77]
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Needle and Thread; Nujie (Precepts for my daughters)
[Wilt Idema's and Beata Grant's survey /anthology of Chinese women's writing before 1911 includes a substantial section (pp. 17-42) on Ban Zhao. It includes complete translations by Idema and Grant of all the extant works except the fragments of the poem "The cicada," and it provides explanatory comment on most. Because the book is a survey. the authors cannot give the detailed notes that make Swann's older book still essential. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The red brush: writing women of imperial China / Wilt Idema
and Beata Grant (Harvard East Asian monographs; 231). Cambridge:
Harvard University Asia Center, c2004. (xvi, 931 p.; 26 cm)
LC#: PL2278 .I344 2004; ISBN: 067401393X
Includes bibliographical references and index
------------------------------
"It rejects the corrupt."
------------------------------
["Needle and Thread." Idema and Grant point out that the Chinese word for "needle" also means "admonition," and see these lines, apparently part of a longer poem, as praise for those who dare criticize their superiors. The phrase "buckets and baskets" refers to officials who can't be trusted to carry out important tasks:]
Forged from the hardest essence of autumnal metal,
Its shape, marvelously small, is straight and sharp.
Its nature is to penetrate and then slowly advance,
A single connection linking all manner of things.
Truly the miracles worked by needle and thread
Extend far and wide, although they have no source!
It rejects the corrupt, compensates for mistakes,
It is as pure as the fleece of the whitest lamb.
Buckets and baskets count for nothing at all---
But this is inscribed on stone, taken into the hall! [pp.30-31]
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"I am afraid that you may lose face."
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[From the 800s Ban Zhao would become known chiefly for Nujie. It is a practical survival manual written for her daughters so that they could avoid divorce, which would be for a married woman --- and for her family --- the ultimate disgrace. From the introduction:]
As a man my son will be able to take care of himself, and I will no longer have to worry about him. But I am concerned about you, my daughters, who are about to be married. Because you have not been immersed in instruction and censure and know nothing of the proper behavior for women, I am afraid that you may lose face with your husband's families and bring shame upon you ancestors.
The illness I suffer from is serious and persistent and my life may be over any day. Whenever I think about you all, I become sad and depressed. In my leisure time I have written Precepts for My Daughters in seven chapters. My daughters, each of you make yourself a copy; perhaps it will be of some use and benefit to you. Do your very best once you have left home! [p.36]
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"Divorce and dishonor will be unavoidable!"
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[The end of Chapter 1, after a description of the "three things" a wife must do --- be modest, complete her tasks, supervise the preparation of ancestral rites:]
I have never known anyone to worry that their good name would not be known and that they might suffer divorce and dishonor if they were perfect in these three things. But if you fail in any of these three things, there will be no good name to be spread, and divorce and dishonor will be unavoidable! [p.37]
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"Cannot we simply make this the general rule?"
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[The belief that boys should be taught to read the classics (no easy task, since the language in which they were written was now unfamiliar) was becoming widespread during this period. Zhao argues that if the family (and therefore the state) is to live according to the precepts taught in the classics, girls need to know then as well. Interestingly, in Chapter 2's argument for the education of women, Zhao gives a new reading of the Rites (the classic Li ji); when that work spoke of education, it referred only to males (a fact the scholar Zhao surely knew):]
I have noticed that the gentlemen of today understand only that a wife must be governed and that one's dignity must be preserved, and for this reason they instruct their sons and test their reading ability. But they completely ignore the fact that a husband and master must be served and ritual duties must be performed.
Does not instructing only the sons and not the daughters betray a total ignorance of the different norms governing the one and the other? According to the Rites, children should be taught to read and write when they are eight years old, and at fifteen they should be sent to school. Cannot we simply make this the general rule? [pp.37-38]
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"...flippant in all your actions...always flitting from
one thing to another."
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[The following brief excerpts are from those sections not available online. In Chapter 5 Zhao quotes from a lost work, Nu xian. A wife had first to make her husband accept her:]
...[T]he Charter for Women says:
Succeed in pleasing the one man
And you are forever settled.
Fail in pleasing the one man
And you are forever finished.
Judging from this, you have to win his heart; however, you should not try to win it with "flattering charms" and "illicit intimacies." There is truly nothing more important than complete devotion and proper demeanor.... [p.39]
[After describing what her daughters should do, Zhao vividly describes what they should not do --- at least not all the time:]
But if you are light and flippant in all your actions; are always flitting from one thing to another; leave your hair in a tangle and neglect your appearance while at home but are all charm and beauty when you go out; if you say what you should not be saying, watch what you should not be watching---this is what is called being incapable of complete devotion and proper demeanor. [pp.39-40]
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"If your husband loves you, but...."
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[The opening of Chapter 6 repeats the above lines quoted from Nu xian, and then continues. In Zhao's China, mariage was not between two independent individuals but between two families. The love of a husband was not enough to secure a wife's position:]
But how can you afford to lose the sympathy of your parents-in-law? Among living beings, some are separated by affection, and some are torn apart by duty. Now if your husband loves you, but your parents-in-law disapprove of you, he is duty-bound to divorce you. [p.40]
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"Those who think they can afford to lose... are stupid indeed!"
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[It was not only the parents-in-law that needed to be won over. Chapter 7 moves on to speak of relationships with those in the wife's own generation:]
Your ranking and evaluation, whether of praise or blame, all depend on your brothers- and sisters-in-law, so you cannot afford to lose the sympathy of your brothers- and sisters-in-law. All those who think they can afford to lose the sympathy of their brothers- and sisters-in-laws and are incapable of living in harmony with them to save their marriage, are stupid indeed! [p.40]
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"...to obtain their help."
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[Zhao then focuses on women, the wife's sisters-in-law:]
Now the wives of the husband's elder brothers and his younger sister are equal in status; while there may be no bond of affection, they have become close relatives by duty. Now a pure and gentle, modest and obedient person will by adhering to duty be able to create a deep friendship and to extend affection to obtain their help.
As a result, her excellence and beauty will be brilliantly displayed, her faults and defects will be concealed and hidden, her parent-in-law will cherish and commend her, her husband and master will laud and praise her, and her reputation will shine in town and village, its great glory extending to her father and mother.
[And after describing the fate of a wife who does not live according to the above:]
This is the root of glory or dishonor, the basis of fame or infamy. Of course you have to be circumspect! [p.41]
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[In his 1974 study, Robert Hans Gulik gives his translation of Nujie (pp.98-103), though without the help that Swann gives the reader. The whole book is an interesting overview of the roles of women during various stages of Chinese history. And a bonus for those who thought studying Latin would have no practical benefit: when Gulik quotes from Chinese sex manuals, "all realistic passages have been put in Latin" (p.xiv); here "realistic" means "sexually explicit" (In a revised 2003 edition "all Latin has for the first time been translated into unambiguous English.") (See the 2003 edition's table of contents online.):]
Gulik, Robert Hans van. Sexual life in ancient China: a preliminary
survey of Chinese sex and society from ca.1500 B.C. till 1644
A.D. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974. (xvii, 392 p., [15] leaves of
plates: ill. (some col.); 27 cm)
LC#: HQ18.C6 G8 1974x; ISBN: 9004039171
[2003 edition revised by Paul R. Goldin: ISBN: 9004126015]
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Works attributed in part to Ban Zhao
[There is no complete English translation of Han shu. This selection, translated by Burton Watson, includes passages from Chapter 97, which tells the stories of early court women; Ban Zhao may have contributed to these sections:]
Pan, Ku. Courtier and commoner in ancient China; selections
from the History of the former Han. Translated by Burton Watson.
New York, Columbia University Press, 1974. (282 p.)
LC#: DS748 .P3 1974; ISBN: 0231037651, 0231083548
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[Most of Liu Xiang's Lienu zhuan, here translated by Albert Richard O'Hara, was written a century before Ban Zhao's birth. However, the last part, Book 8, contains supplementary biographies added after Liu Xiang's time. Until the 1100s bibibliographies listed Ban Zhao as "annotator" of the whole work, and scholars believe that she wrote some or all of those supplementary biographies:]
Liu, Hsiang. The position of woman in early China according
to the Lieh nu chuan, "The biographies of eminent
Chinese women" / [edited] by Albert Richard O'Hara. Westport,
Conn.: Hyperion Press, 1981. (xii, 301 p.)
LC#: HQ1767 .L5813 1980; ISBN: 0830501126.
Reprint of the 1945 ed. of the editor's thesis published by Catholic
University of America Press, Washington, D.C., which was issued
as v. 16 of the Catholic University of America studies in sociology.
Bibliography: p. 286-288. Includes index.
=========================================================================
[This collection by Deborah Sommer has translations of substantial passages from older Chinese works that contributed to Ban Zhao's view of life; it also gives Swann's translation of "Lessons for Women," though without Swann's notes. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Chinese religion: an anthology of sources / edited by Deborah
Sommer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. (xxiii, 375
p.)
LC#.: BL1802 .C5477 1995; ISBN: 0195088948, 0195088956
Translated from Chinese. Includes bibliographical references
(p. 361-367).
-----------------
[The print version of James Legge's translation of Li ki that is available online:]
Li chi: book of rites. An encyclopedia of ancient ceremonial
usages, religious creeds, and social institutions. Translated
by James Legge. Edited with an introd. and study guide by Ch'u
Chai and Winberg Chai. New Hyde Park, N.Y., University Books
[1967] (2 v. illus.)
LC#: PL2478 .G4
"Except for the new material added by the editors, the text
of this edition is that published by Oxford University press
in 1885 as volumes XXVII and XXVIII of The sacred books of the
East and also designated as parts III and IV of The text of Confucianism."
Bibliographical footnotes.
=========================================================================
[Paul Goldin's study includes a chapter "Ban Zhao
in Her Time and in Ours," which summarizes and comments
on recent critical views (including Chinese-language studies)
of Nujie. Quoted passages are given in Goldin's own translation.
(See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Goldin, Paul Rakita. After Confucius: studies in early Chinese
philosophy. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, c2005. (x,
266 p.)
LC#: B126 .G65 2005; ISBN: 0824828429
Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-259) and index
--------------------
[Xia Xiaohong's essay in this collection, "New Meanings
in a Classic: Differing Interpretations of Ban Zhao and Her Admonitions
for Women in the Late Qing Dynasty," looks at the changing
interpretation of Nujie by Chinese women writers of the
late 1800s and early 1900s: Ban Zhao's views were first praised,
then condemned, and finally seen as an inevitable product of
Confucianism.
(See the book's table of contents online.):]
Holding up half the sky: Chinese women past, present, and future
/ edited by Tao Jie, Zheng Bijun, and Shirley L. Mow; foreword
by Gail Hershatter; translated by Amy Russell. New York: Feminist
Press at the City University of New York, 2004. (xxxvi, 313 p.)
LC#: HQ1767 .H643 2004; ISBN: 1558614664, 1558614656
Includes bibliographical references (p. [303]-306)
----------------------
[Sherin Wing's article looks at Nujie as both a
commentary on the classics (especially Li ji, the book
of rites, and Li shi, the book of history) and an instructional
treatise (the "technology" of the article's title refers
to "techniques"). After describing the role of Confucian
commentary in the peaceful period during which Ban Zhao lived,
Wing gives a close reading of the work's seven sections, which
she sees as "a useful guide in negotiating a complex social
world" (p.61). (See
the issue's table of contents online; you can download a
PDF file of the Wing article.):]
Wing, Sherin. Technology, Commentary, and the Admonitions
for Women. Journal of International Women's Studies, 5:1
(2003), 42-66.
LC#: HQ1101 .J675; ISSN:1539-8706
----------------------
[Lisa Ann's Raphals' study includes a section (pp.236-46)
on the Nujie, which discusses the work's relation to earlier
and later descriptions of a woman's role and which considers
Ban Zhao's purpose in writing it. Raphals gives the original
and her own translation of several passages. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Raphals, Lisa Ann. Sharing the light: representations of women
and virtue in early China (SUNY series in Chinese philosophy
and culture) Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press,
c1998. (xxiii, 348 p.: ill.)
LC#: HQ1767 .R36 1998: ISBN: 0791438554, 0791438562
Includes bibliographical references (P. 309-332) and index
---------------------
[John E. Wills' book has a useful chapter on Ban Zhao, based on Nancy Swann's study. Some quotations are from Swann, others are translated by Wills. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Wills, John E. Mountain of fame: portraits in Chinese history.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1994. (xvi, 403
p.: ill., maps)
LC#: DS734 .W63 1994; ISBN: 0691055424
Includes bibliographical references (p. [381]-388) and index.
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[In this collection, the essay "Confucianism" by Theresa Kelleher discusses the position of women in Confucian society; Kelleher describes both the influences on Ban Zhao and her influence in later periods. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women in world religions / edited by Arvind Sharma; introduction
by Katherine K. Young (McGill studies in the history of religions).
Albany: State University of New York Press, c1987. (xii, 302
p.)
LC#: BL458 .W583 1987; ISBN: 0887063748, 0887063756
Bibliography: p. [267]-281. Includes index
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Updated 04-15-08