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Article Excerpt
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)
After examining each of these areas, I hope to show how together they explain not simply how Ban Zhao chose her subject matter, but its presentational format, its legitimacy and finally, its audience. Contextualizing the NJ in history, philosophy and genre, will thus offer insights into not only Later Han society, but Ban Zhao herself that extend beyond a patrilineal, patrilocal or patriarchal reading of the text. (6)
Confucian Commentary
Throughout the NJ there is a constant intersection of two literary traditions. Ban Zhao uses each alone and simultaneously to invoke literary and philosophical authority to justify the content of her work and its structure. In this section, we will see that Ban Zhao summons the authority of the Confucian Classics to support her subject matter: the techniques of a successful, elite woman as wife, daughter and mother.
If the technical treatise addresses the content of the work, then Confucian Commentary answers the question of its presentation. By invoking the scholarly authority of the Five Classics via literary commentary, Ban Zhao accomplishes two things: 1) she aligns herself with these authoritative figures, and 2) in so doing, ensures that her own writings will be viewed with similar authority.
To better understand the issue of legitimacy, however, we must evaluate the structure of philosophical commentary itself. Commentary's structure dictates it functions. Once determined, we will then discover how commentary builds credibility into its structure as well as how it invokes historical authority. Cabezon (7) and Gardeners (8) have both compiled thorough lists detailing commentary's qualities and purposes. While I defer to the expertise of these scholars, I believe that there may be two additional characteristics which elucidate commentary's function as a literary genre and as a social tool. First, Confucian Commentary is created during a time of relative institutional stability. (9) Secondly, commentary is prescriptive, and the author, as "teacher," highlights the necessary issues and behaviors for the commentary's target audience. This element, though alluded to by many scholars, has yet to be formally addressed.
The necessity of commentary rises out of people's tendencies to do the opposite of what is prescribed, in keeping with pleasing both ancestral spirits and the spirits of the wind. (10) Repeatedly we find that in the Confucian canon, what has been prescribed by imperial philosophers points to the exact obverse of actual activity. By aligning itself with the canon, commentary adds its voice, further delineating those behaviors which will keep both ancestors, spirits, and one's patrilineal kin, satisfied.
Institutional Stability
The literary characteristics of the Confucian canon are central to understanding social stability. It is important not to misread or essentialize this aspect as a literary trigger or as exclusive of institutional flux. Rather then approaching literary genre as singular and preclusive, it should be viewed as indicative of a social landscape incorporating individual elements which may conflict but also form a cohesive topos.
Therefore I propose that Confucian canonicity itself legitimized the beginning of a new ideology or institution. In so doing, it necessarily drew broader strokes for codes and regulations. Establishing and circumscribing the new institution from old ones, religious or secular, is a first-order task. In the Confucian tradition, the canon created a stable society based on strict social hierarchy. Specifically, these texts focused on the roles of ruler and nobility because these people possessed both power and right to construct social stability. Pragmatism dictated its ideology, notwithstanding the eloquence, with the focus trained on admonishing rulers towards lofty goals and away from infighting and war. Emphasis was on complementary hierarchies, yet ideological indoctrination was not an end in itself: it fostered political and military security. One constantly finds the Classics admonishing men to relinquish their personal power to a greater power: emperor and the society he protected. (11)
Successful philosophical indoctrination (demonstrated in this case by a peaceful state) results in institutional stability, a period within a given social institution that is not experiencing political upheaval, internally or externally. As such, the institution can be seen as occupying a temporal space dominated by ideological stability, if not stasis. And now the canon's meaning could be spread. No longer was the main audience primarily the ruler and his lord in turn. For commentary, the audience is enlarged to encompass not only social elites of the highest rank, but also local elites and officials who have direct contact with villagers (12) This cannot be done, however, until a foundation of ideology has been established.
Commentary attempts to elaborate upon and in effect, craft a new philosophy based upon the older ideal. The next generation of philosophers and politicians were free to enact more specific policies for the general population. Therefore, while contemporary philosophers studied under an accepted set of proscriptions and ideals, they also initiated a period of transition which both reflected and restructured the contemporary landscape. The timeline for such a process is flexible, spanning tens or even hundreds of years, (13) a process which attempts to regulate behavior through canonical ideology, explicating or consolidating its meaning.
Ironically, although the audience itself might be enlarged, commentary narrows the philosophical lens, thus exerting a tighter control on the public. Commentary tightens the ideological spectrum by ultimately forging a new philosophy. (14) In this way, institutions were vulnerable to drastic transformations through commentary which claimed to "clarify" the canon. Commentary interprets the canon to strengthen and build the institution, even if this points the institution in a new direction. I am not proposing a commentarial trigger, however. (15) Rather, we must concentrate on the social landscape which produced the commentary. This topos was comprised of a stable society with a base ideology in attendance.
By creating a new philosophy, the commentators assigned institutionality to the canons themselves: they were established yet vulnerable to external and internal transformations. The social hierarchy was established and the highest social ranks of men knew and were willing to accept their places. Thus, they were successfully indoctrinated by the Confucian canon. A crucial philosophical issue now was to maintain the social rankings, lest the subjects attempt rebellion. Confucian commentary was important because they responded to the base texts, clarifying and further indoctrinating their specified audience: the time had arrived for the lower elites to be taught their position. (18)
The Former Han provided Ban Zhao with the institutional and philosophical stability that allowed her to produce a second-order work of commentary. The Former Han philosophy focused on preventing a Qin redux by exhorting the nobility towards peaceful, obedient action. Ban Zhao and her Later Han counterparts refined this lofty yet vague ideology, by further specifying the conduct of a now peaceful and refined society.
Society, philosophically speaking, could now include other classes of men and women, as well. It is during prosperous times women could receive some philosophical attention as well. (16) Although women were always central to household organization, their duties were not addressed by philosophers concerned with unifying the state. (17) But a foundation had been laid, philosophically and in fact, allowing the philosopher's gaze to shift onto individual sectors responsible for maintaining society's strength and cohesion. Now that this was accomplished, women's responsibilities could be codified into a uniform set of guidelines. Those duties which were useful for men, which in turn supported the kinship organization.
Thus the Later Han Old Text Confucianists like Ban Zhao applied the Classics to local elites in their works because they could. The "luxury" of addressing local elite's and women's duties stemmed from the confidence that political and military battles that rended the state were not imminent. More time thus could be spent on these innumerable pillars of state.
Prescription
If what I proposed thus far is accepted, then we must also acknowledge that commentary possesses an inherent prescriptivity. That is, commentary attempts to catalogue specific meanings within the classic text. By choosing a set of issues from the base text to discuss, the underlying assumption is that although a classic text may be complete and compact, it is not necessarily clear. Clarity in this instance reflects the issues chosen for elucidation in the commentary: the base text is not precise and obvious on the issues the commentator deems important.
Let's approach this methodically. First, if the canon is transparent and straightforward on the commentator's chosen issues, then the chosen audience would naturally enact the desired lofty precepts. It is because this audience does not automatically behave properly (subjectively defined as it is by the commentator) that necessitates commentary. (18) This does not undermine the comprehensiveness of the text. Rather, the base text is merely lacking the type of explication for dullards or perhaps simply a less well-read audience. Hence these ideas must be made accessible. It rests upon the commentator to make relevant the social ideology of the Classics (Black 1986: 109).
If commentary functions prescriptively, then the commentator herself becomes a teacher and leader of this newly-defined tradition. This locates the commentator on a higher level of understanding. Gardener has said that commentary was undertaken by a certain class, one that was educated and part of an elite minority who demonstrated their superiority by writing commentary. (19) I would amend this and propose that this not only demonstrates intellectual superiority and cultivation, it is also only undertaken by a rarified member of the specified audience who has appointed herself as singularly capable of performing this
task. (20) I would further suggest that a high moral stance is also implied in those writing commentary, that they would consider themselves worthy of writing such an important work, one that not only redefines ideology but also potentially, society itself.
Furthermore, because commentators possess knowledge, cultivation and morality...
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