The Daughter has a good friend who is a historian, like... I mean, a real historian who travels to archaoelogical sites in China and Japan for her research, and reads ancient Chinese and ancient Japanese fluently... and teaches a module on The History of the African continent to African students from Africa.
That sounds to me a dream job.
This child did rather poorly at her A levels (which amongst the peers in her class simply meant that one of her many subjects... and ONLY one... was not a distinction). She was devastated. At that time, it seemed as if the world was at an end. No one understood why her strongest subject was not a distinction. We all finally concluded that her brilliance was such that her understanding of the subject went outside of the 'A' level marker's marking scheme.
Life went on, as life is wont to do.
She obtained a PSC scholarship to study at NUS, her favourite subject. When most people in your class ended up in Oxbridge or an Ivy League, this option is painfully disappointing.
Within 1 year, the entire History faculty (I imagine) had decided that this young one represented the future of their faculty. Even I thought she was brilliant, and would make important contributions to her field. So, the faculty made up their own scholarship just for her, and went and bickered with the PSC to have her transferred to them. I would imagine that they said to the PSC, "You have plenty others to fill your pipeline of human resources. This one is perfect for us. There is no other, in her generation, like her."
So, the child left for Cambridge to do her Masters.
With Covid19 raging in the USA, she is back here continuing her PhD research by reading ancient Chinese and Japanese military correspondence. Wah... imagine that! She gets to read the equivalent of MI6, FBI and Secret Service correspondence, from the ancient times. She watches Game of Thrones, and instead of hiding her head in her pillow like I did, she huffs, "That is wrong military strategy! You will lose the war you morons!"
At lunch, I saw the need to impress The Historian.
Me: I do history research too, you know.
The Historian: Oh... really? What are you studying?
Me: I watch C-drama on Wu Zetian, Yang Guifei, Wei Yingluo and Xiao Yanyan.
The conversation segued to Confucius and his nefarious impact on gender equality throughout East Asian history.
Before the 1949 Maoist revolution, women were only ever wives, concubines, or prostitutes. Female oppression stemmed from Confucian beliefs about gender roles in society where wives were to be subservient to their fathers before marriage, their husbands after marriage and their sons, when their husbands were deceased. Women made deep obeisance to their husbands, and not the other way around. Concubines had even fewer rights than wives. They were kept as mistresses by men for sexual services or to produce children. Men were polygamous (permitted one wife and an unlimited number of concubines), but women were allowed only one husband. Men held the power within the family and had greater freedom compared with women. These norms were upheld by mothers against their own daughters. Women's education only aimed to teach them these restrictive norms as laws under heaven.
4 comments:
Dr
Would like to check if there is any link or cite(citation) for your comment below
"Thanks to Confucius, it was alright to bury a man's living wives and concubines with him, when he died."
Regards
No citation. This a blogpost, not an academic paper.
My view is that since Confucius advocated that women are subject to men, the Confucian framework gave too much power to men, and gave men far too much power. Power corrupts. Men (and women) are weak. So, the men of ancient China simply used the Confucian framework to justify the burial of living wives and concubines. After all, those were women subject to the man who had died. Of course, they would have to accompany him in death.
You can disagree. It is not my job to prove to you that I am right. I just state what I think. Why do I need to justify my thoughts with a citation. I think butter is delicious. Need a citation too?
Dr Pet
You have every right to your opinion and deductions on your blogspot. your blog your rules.
Just ask for the link or cite if applicable . in order to clarify whether any particular evidence or link for the particular comment for better understanding.
Duly noted and appreciated your reply
Thanks
Hee! I am not a Confucian scholar. I am just musing on why pre-Mao China, women were worth so little... please don't take this post as a reference.
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