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The book offered an interesting look at a few of the outstanding women in Chinese history. The first essay looked at the role of Ban Zhao who was a famous historian, Confucian and advisor to emperors. Ban Zhao wrote about a woman's place in Confucian society that was incredibly strict and subserviant, a position she herself did not adhere to, her book was considered quite controversial at the time, but was reintroduced in the Ming as a form of exemplarly behavior for women. Why she wrote it, when it clearly did not reflect the views she herself practiced remains a mystery.
The second essay looks at a woman scholar of the Xie clan, who excelled at literature and philosophical debate. Her family followed Taoist as well as Confucian scholarly leanings, they treasured the seven scholars of the bamboo grove. In this powerful elite family the daughter was not excluded from teachings on the basis of her sex, as Ban Zhao would have had her. Instead she was able to follow the Taoist teachings of remaining true to your own beliefs and embracing controversy and freedom.
The third chapter looks as the lives of the earliest nuns in China. This was a particularly useful and insightful chapter. Li drew mainly from original Chinese sources which she translated herself. She focused on the three different nuns and the founding of the original nunnery, no easy feat. She looked at the struggles they went through and the different paths of life they came from. She outlined the lives of the nuns and their increased freedom. How they were able to travel, argue scriptures, meet freely with monks, study and teach other monks and nuns. The only criticism was in her estimation of literacy rates she used reference to recitation of scriptures, which I believe was mainly an oral teaching that was recited from memory not necessarily from texts. Li was able to point out that Buddhism offered these women a much bigger opportunity to follow their own convictions and as an alternative to being wife or mother. What surprised me the most was how influential the nuns were in court, several were patronised by emperors, and the others mentioned were by high officials. Though she pointed out that it wasn't until the Song that any nuns were given an official position. While they remained a tiny minority of the general population, they seemed to have had a positive effect in the roles available to women at the time.
The last two chapters of the book I didn't read as they looked at different instances in modern China. They were probably as interesting and as well thought out as the chapters I did read, but alas at the moment I have to confine my reading to what will be useful for my essays.
The second essay looks at a woman scholar of the Xie clan, who excelled at literature and philosophical debate. Her family followed Taoist as well as Confucian scholarly leanings, they treasured the seven scholars of the bamboo grove. In this powerful elite family the daughter was not excluded from teachings on the basis of her sex, as Ban Zhao would have had her. Instead she was able to follow the Taoist teachings of remaining true to your own beliefs and embracing controversy and freedom.
The third chapter looks as the lives of the earliest nuns in China. This was a particularly useful and insightful chapter. Li drew mainly from original Chinese sources which she translated herself. She focused on the three different nuns and the founding of the original nunnery, no easy feat. She looked at the struggles they went through and the different paths of life they came from. She outlined the lives of the nuns and their increased freedom. How they were able to travel, argue scriptures, meet freely with monks, study and teach other monks and nuns. The only criticism was in her estimation of literacy rates she used reference to recitation of scriptures, which I believe was mainly an oral teaching that was recited from memory not necessarily from texts. Li was able to point out that Buddhism offered these women a much bigger opportunity to follow their own convictions and as an alternative to being wife or mother. What surprised me the most was how influential the nuns were in court, several were patronised by emperors, and the others mentioned were by high officials. Though she pointed out that it wasn't until the Song that any nuns were given an official position. While they remained a tiny minority of the general population, they seemed to have had a positive effect in the roles available to women at the time.
The last two chapters of the book I didn't read as they looked at different instances in modern China. They were probably as interesting and as well thought out as the chapters I did read, but alas at the moment I have to confine my reading to what will be useful for my essays.