Rereading Women in the Classic of Poetry in Light of the Other Chinese Classics

• In Event: The Political Status of Women in Chinese and Greek Classics

Abstract

Women in the Chinese Classic of Poetry (dating probably from between 1000 and 600 BCE, compiled around the 4th century BCE), are portrayed in conventional ways as wives and mothers. Marriage, grief for sons gone for battle, and a focus on specifically female work like weaving, are running themes in this poetry anthology. But, in laments by women about their lots as wives and as mothers, also arise glimpses, not only of women’s difficult lot, but also of agency and independence. In this paper, I analyze these laments and, combining them with insights from the other Five Chinese Classics (primarily the Classic of Rituals), I will show that women, even as they appear in the more literary writings, belie the conventional account of Confucian patriarchy. Indeed, these Classics women hold much more social and political power—the traditional Confucian hierarchy notwithstanding—than the received wisdom suggests.

Author

• Loubna El Amine, Northwestern University