Introduction - Can Confucianism Come to Terms with Feminism?

from The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender edited by Chenyang Li

This introduction, written by volume editor Chenyang Li, introduces the scholarly relationship between Confucianism and feminism over time. It raises questions such as:

• Until now, feminism has attacked Confucianism one-sidedly. Why haven't Confucianists sufficiently addressed feminist issues? How can Confucianists come to terms with feminism?

• How do we define Confucianism, Confucian China, and feminism?

• What is the difference in perspective on women between early Confucian texts and later post-Han Confucian texts?

• Has the Confucian attitude toward women been solely degrading/repressive, or ambivalent/complacent or empowering in some way?

• How has the "distinction between husband and wife" in the "Five Relationships" been interpreted over time? What is the relationship with the concept of 內外 Nei-Wai and the "Three Bonds"? And how have these interpretations led to the oppression of women?

• Were women solely victims of oppression by men? What extent of agency or power did they have? Is the power really that of a parent (mother) rather than a woman? Does the household power a wife wields on a daily basis make her equal to her husband?

• Is Confucian oppression of women a necessary implication of its general philosophy or a later addition based on sexist interpretations of the philosophy?

• What are the common grounds between Confucianism and feminism?

By drawing upon excerpts from ancient and contemporary scholarly texts, the author presents various approaches to answering these questions.

The author draws the conclusion that addressing the issue of Confucian and feminist concerns is important. Confucianism has oppressed women which is not excusable nor acceptable. However, there is some limited room in Confucianism for women's moral and personal growth and that there is common ground between Confucianism and feminism which ought to be explored. The author hopes that the articles in the volume provoke further discussion on the issue of how Confucianism can come to terms with feminism.

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Key Concepts

Unless otherwise notes, these definitions/translations are drawn from the reading directly

• The Five Relationships (from Mencius)
  • Love between father and son
  • Duty between ruler and subject
  • Distinction between husband and wife
  • Precedence of the old over the young
  • Trust between friends
• The Three Bonds (from Han Fei Zi)
  • Ruler has authority over minister (subject)
  • Father has authority over son
  • Husband has authority over wife
• Nei-Wai 內外 내외
  • External and internal
• Jen or ren 仁 인
  • "Jen (wren): human heartedness; goodness; benevolence, man-to-man-ness; what makes man distinctively human (that which gives human beings their humanity)."
• Feminism
  • A movement that strives for sex equality between men and women
• Confucianism
  • A rough translation for rujia (儒家 유가), or the "family/school of the literati"
• Confucian China
  • China after the institutionalization of Confucianism (i.e. Han and later)

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Summary

1

• There is a lack of scholarship of feminist concerns by contemporary Confucian scholars and this is detrimental to the cause of Confucianism
  • Why? Possibly inadequate sensitivity or short-sightedness

• "In this volume, feminism is understood broadly as a movement that strives for sex equality between men and women."
• The relationship between Confucianism and feminism is one-sided with feminists critiquing Confucianism, but there is a need to come to terms with Confucianism and build a relationship between the two.

2

• Is Confucianism defined as the institutional practices beginning from the Han Dynasty? Or does it also include the earlier core teachings of Confucius and Mencius?
• There is no direct translation in English for Confucianism (as discussed in class)
• Author used Confucianism in the book as a rough translation for rujia (유가), or the "family" or "school of the literati"

• Gender segregation started early in Confucian history
• Confucius and Mencius had mixed attitudes toward women - not obviously oppressive nor advocates for gender equality
• Mothers had equal status as fathers in relation to children
• Five example passages:
  • Story of King Wu's ten ministers
    • One of the ten ministers was a woman, so there were only actually nine ministers = Women are useless in politics
  • Story of Confucius' visit to Nanzi, the wife of Duke Ling of Wei
    • He visited even though his disciple was displeased with it, suggesting he was meeting her for political purposes = Women have political power
  • Analects passage stating women 여자 are hard to rear
    • How to interpret 여자? All women? Or just young girls/maids
  • Mencius' distinction between husband and wife in the Five Relationships
    • This distinction is not made explicit, but scholars interpret is as the realm of the husband is 외 and the wife is 내.
  • Mencius says mothers teach daughters about marriage and how women must obey their husband's will by being respectful and diligent.
    • Doctrine or common practice?

• Confucius and Mencius may be seen as accomplices rather than inventors/advocates of minimizing women, as argues by Terry Woo

• Later, Han Confucian master Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BCE) argues yang is superior to yin and men are always yang while women are always yin, therefore men are superior to women.
• Degradation of women became extreme in neo-Confucianism of Song and Ming Dynasties.
• Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi (1130-1200) advocated for the "Three Bonds" which was not in Confucian classics but another text.
  • Ruler > minister, father > son, husband > wife in regards to authority
• Neo-Confucian Cheng Yi (1033-1107) said a widow starving is a lesser matter than losing integrity (by remarrying), though this is not the case for widowers
• Ming Dynasty: "chaste widowhood," footbinding were institutionalized
• We can say women have been oppressed and victimized in China after the Han Dynasty with the institutionalization of Confucianism

3

• Model of the oppressed Chinese woman, "Xiang Lin's Wife" by Lu Xun
• Were they forever victimized by men?
• What agency and contributions did they have and made?
• Oppression is certain, but to what extent?

• Distinction of men as women - interpreted as 내-외
  • Division of labor rather than superior and inferior
• Lin Yutang argues this division of labor was necessary
  • Harmony rather than subjugation of relationships
  • "The deprivation of women's rights outside the home is 'unimportant' compared with their position within the home"
  • Women were oppressed less by men and more by other women - mothers-in-law
• Thomas Taylor Meadows (British civil service interpreter in China 1850-64)
  • Though wives are "a passive instrument," mothers are revered and powerful
• Richard Guisso
  • Age is more important than gender; Mothers are revered even if their son's are emperors.
  • This power is why Chinese women have accepted their status for so long

• However, this power is that as a parent, not as a woman
• Still not as powerful as men in society

• Lin was not a chauvinist, but pointed out the complexities of the relationship between feminism and Confucianism
• There were also female rulers of China: Lu Hou (241-180 BCE), Wi Zeitian (624-705) and Ci Xi (1835-1908)
  • So not merely a matter of men oppressing women

4

• "Women in Confucian China have been able to participate in social and moral functions inf society to a certain extent"
• Questions to raise:
  • "Is it accurate that the Confucian attitude toward women has been solely degrading and repressive?"
  • "Is Confucian oppression of women a necessary implication of its general philosophy?"
  • Are there enough common grounds between Confucianism and feminism to that they may render support to each other in pursuing their causes?
• Ancient China, while not fair, left some room for women's moral cultivation and social participation

• Revealing the "evils" of Confucianism as a means to reform
• Yet scholars have shown women were not mere victims of oppression
  • Studies primarily on elite women
• Confucianism not merely antiwomen
  • No importance to birth of social background, everyone could improve through education and self-cultivation, possibility of the rules of propriety changing over time, etc.
• Great power to influence family affairs
• Were women continuing this tradition of their own will or because of patriarchy?
• Elite women of the High Qing era "enjoyed 'remarkable satisfaction and gratification'" as writers, which explains why they "did not heed calls for social change"
• Assumptions of who the audience of Chinese philosophy is

5

• How much room can Confucianism extend for women? Through philosophical analysis?
• Similarities between Confucianism and feminism?

• Chenyang Li
  • jen and care-share (see care ethics) and tender aspects of human relatedness
  • Advocated humans as socially connected, not disinterested, separate individuals
  • "situational, personal judgment, character-building, instead of rule-following" - flexibility
  • Gradations of caring based on relationships to the person

• How could such care-oriented ethics oppress women?
  • Oppression was a later add-on
  • Sexist interpretations of jen like those of ancient Athens that denied women political rights and racist interpretations of Christianity denying blacks brother and sisterhood.

• Henry Rosemont
  • The lack of distinction between the ethical and socio-political/economic is a strength of Confucianism

• Terry Woo
• Because feminism is about rights and individual choices, while Confucianism is about duty and self-cultivation they are at odds
  • But they do share equal opportunity to learning and an attitude of openness and flexibility

• Tu Wei-ming
  • "The Five Relationships" and "Three Bonds" are not of the same spirit
  • "The Five Relationships" is about mutuality and division of labor
  • The wife is equal to the husband because of the power she wields on a daily basis

6

• Summary of book chapters

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Scholars Referenced

• Chenyang Li
• Xiong Shili
• Mou Zongsan
• Liang Shuming
• Terry Woo
• Confucius
• Ambrose Y.C. King
• Mencius
• Xun Zi
• Dong Zhongshu (Han, 179-104 BCE)
• Zhu Xi (1130-1200)
• Cheng Yi (1033-1107)
• Lu Xun
• Lin Yutang
• Thomas Taylor Meadows
• Richard Guisso
• Hu Shi
• Priscilla Ching Chung
• Li Yu-ning
• Dorothy Ko
• Susan Mann
• Lisa Raphals
• Henry Rosemont, Jr.
• Tu Wei-ming

Texts Referenced

• Analects
• Mencius
• Mo Zi
• Guan Zi
• Han Fei Zi
• Chun Qiu Fan Lu - Dong Zhongshu
• Yi Shu - Cheng Yi
• Yi Lei - Zhu Xi
• My Country and My People - Lin Yutang
• "Women's Place in Chinese History" (1931) - Hu Shi
• "Historical Roots of Changes in Women's Status in Modern China" (1992) - Li Yu-ning
• Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventheenth-Century China (1994) - Dorothy Ko
• Sharing the Light: Representations of Women and Virture in Early China (1998) - Lisa Raphals
• "The Confucian Concept of Jen and the Feminist ethics of Care: A Comparative Study" (1994) - Chenyang Li
• "Classical Confucian and Contemporary Feminist Perspectives on the Self: Some Parallels and Their Implications" (1997) - Henry Rosemont, Jr.
• "Probing the 'Three Bonds' and 'Five Relationships'" (1998) - Tu Wei-ming

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