Ban Zhao: The Role Of Women In Ancient China

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The role of woman in various cultures has been often widely arguable. Women in Ancient Asia were consistently downtrodden and not socially accepted due to Confucian beliefs throughout the 4th to 12th century BCE. During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE- 220 BCE) China had an organized and centralized government which supported Confucianism. Many women became accustomed to and lived by these Confucian ideas in East Asia. A woman was to be a slave to her husband, take care of their families and perform household duties. Countries including Japan, Korea and China did not allow women to have any form of power in the government except for royalty. Compliance and conformity have been the backbone of the ideal woman role in various cultures around…show more content…
This book encouraged women to be more aware of their actions, bringing attention upon themselves during the Han dynasty. The role of a girl was to get married, become a wife and bear children, in hopes of having a boy to teach him to be the same as his father. The woman had slight to no freedom and were supposed to do all work without showing any weakness. In Ancient China, women were to behave themselves and always act in a certain manner. Zhao used the strategy of breaking down womanly ways into four qualifications to make her argument more convincing claiming that if a woman should follow these rules they will prosper and become a powerful, educated woman whom will never bring disgrace to her family. “A woman (ought to) have four qualifications: (1) womanly virtue; (2) womanly words; (3) womanly bearing; and (4) womanly work.” (Wang 184). A woman is to choose her words carefully and speak only when spoken too, always be clean, sew and weave, not to engage in gossip and take care of guests. These qualifications indicate the finest virtue a woman can have and should be followed at all
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