| The Qin and Han dynasties were an important time of transition from fragmented institutions to a unified empire. Among these many changes were shifting concepts of woman's ideal roles, capabilities, and even basic essence. Many of the perceptions of female nature formulated or popularized during the early Chinese empire endured with the imperial system down to its demise in the twentieth century.; The study of woman in early China has previously centered on two main approaches. Many scholars in Asia have interpreted women's early history according to the Marxist theory of ancient matriarchy. Yet scholarship since Engels has convinced most Western scholars to reject this theory, and it is being increasingly questioned in Asia as well. A second method focuses on ascertaining woman's "position" in society. Yet any unitary appraisal of woman's social position ignores the enormous complexity and diversity of the early empire, as well as the multiplicity of female roles.; This study focuses on the construction of the category "woman" in early imperial China. Various conceptions of woman are examined according to the areas of female experience most easily reconstructed from surviving information. This investigation progresses through some important zones of female experience, from the concrete to the abstract: body, kinship, wealth and work, law, government, learning, ritual, religion, and cosmology.; There was no widespread consensus on many of the basic questions regarding woman's essence, capabilities, and permissible social roles. The resulting debate is examined according to five major points of contention: seeing woman as distinct/inferior, personified/reified, fertile/polluted, regulated/dominated, and cultivable/uncontrollable. |
