Technology, commentary and the admonitions for women.

Abstract

The following is an analysis of the Admonitions for Women (Nu Jie) by the Later Han Dynasty scholar, Ban Zhao. It examines the historical context for its composition, applying not only one literary template, that of the instructional text, the technological treatise, but also Confucian Commentary. Through this process, the Admonitions emerges as a sophisticated philosophical tract that combines not only several literary traditions, but applies them to a new, unique audience: elite women. In so doing, Ban Zhao challenges assumptions of women's roles, expectations of women, and enlightens her readers as to what might be really happening among her contemporaries. Thus, this treatise comprises not only Ban Zhao's ideals for women, but indicates what they were not doing (hence the necessity for her tract). Finally, literary, philosophical and historical contextualization offers a new look at many gendered readings of the material, in effect re-contextualizing in a more nuanced and layered approach.

Key Words: Women in the Han Dynasty, Literary Analysis, Chinese Philosophy

Introduction

 
   "I, the unworthy writer, am unsophisticated, unenlightened, and by 
   nature unintelligent, but I am fortunate both to have received not 
   a little favor from my scholarly Father, and to have had a cultured 
   mother and teachers upon whom to rely for a literary education as 
   well as for training in good manners. More than forty years have 
   passed since at the age of fourteen I took up the dustpan and the 
   broom in the Cao family [her husband's family]. During this time 
   with trembling heart I feared constantly that I might disgrace my 
   parents, and that I might multiply difficulties for both the women 
   and the men of my husband's family. Day and night I was distressed 
   in heart, but I labored without confessing weariness. Now and 
   hereafter, however, I know how to escape from such fears." (1) 

In this quotation, taken from a translation of the introduction to Ban Zhao's Nu Jie (hereafter NJ) or Admonitions for Women, we can see several assumptions and supposed inevitable social structures at work: there is an emphasis on servitude, avoidance of shame, and a distinct whiff of oppression. In fact, much analysis of women in the Later Han Dynasty (25-189 BCE) by Western scholars revolves around this assumption of already formulated oppression. (2) I would like to rectify this interpretation by adding certain contextual, rather than relying solely on translating the text. Instead I will situate this work in its contemporary context, between social, political and philosophical forces as they intersect with two literary genres. This will offer an alternative reading of this work and hopefully expand our understanding of elite Han women.

Toward this end, I will examine the historical context of the Later Han Dynasty, addressing specific cosmological, philosophical, political and social concerns as they converged upon elite writers such as Ban Zhao. I will propose that this trans-genre (3) addresses the social roles of both women and men (because as we will see, men and women formed a complementary, rather than strictly hierarchical, unified construct) on several levels: as couples, members of a large kinship organization and by extension, important members of a community. Additionally, by combining two literary genres, the technical treatise (4) and commentary and directing this work towards a new audience--women--Ban Zhao created a new genre that would be reworked constantly throughout Chinese imperial history. (5)