Inventing Familial Agency from Powerlessness

Ban Zhao'sLessons for Women

Bibliographic Data

ID5796889
AuthorsLin-Lee Lee (National Kaohsiung Normal University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume73
Issue1
Pages47-66
Publication date2009-02-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWestern Journal of Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1057-0314 • E-ISSN: 1745-1027
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10570310802636318
OpenAlexW2050279923
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited28

For centuries Chinese women have been trained to Sanchung Side or "Three Obediences and Four Virtues," as set forth in Nüjie, (Lessons for Women), written in 106 CE by Ban Zhao, , 1 There are inconsistencies in extant scholarship on the year when Ban was born. The earliest date given is around 45 CE. All Chinese names in this essay follow the convention that the surname is presented first, the given name second. I choose to use pinying system for Chinese names in this article except for well-accepted names like Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Fang-liang, and Mao Fu-mei, among others. during the East Han Dynasty. 2 Sanchung originates from the Book of Rites, suggesting that a woman obey a father or elder brother before marriage, a husband after marriage, and a son after entering widowhood. Side refers to Ban's womanly virtue, womanly words, womanly appearance, and womanly work. This essay reinterprets the oldest extant and most important female conduct manual in Chinese in order to question the traditional view that Ban silences Chinese women. It argues that Western feminists' approach to the idea of agency is not appropriate to understanding Chinese women's agency. It delineates a different concept of agency, based on Lessons for Women, forged out of the powerlessness of individual women, which is familial, communal, indirect, and conferred by others. In addition to expanding rhetorical scholarship on agency, I demonstrate that Ban's embedded concepts of familial agency are well illustrated by the 20th-century Taiwanese First Lady Chiang Fang-liang, a Russian Communist who married Chiang Ching-kuo, eldest son and heir of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who followed Ban's precepts to transform her perilous situation into an honored and respected life role

Agency (philosophy) · Art · China · Extant taxon · Literature · Political science · Rhetorical question · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Virtue · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philippine History and Culture