| Confucianism was developed rapidly in the West Han Dynasty, and the status of the women was connected closely with the ethical principals advocated by Confucianism. The study about the status of females in this period has a very important meaning on the aspect of understanding the declining of women status and the influence of feudal ethical codes on the behavior of females. Scholars have already studied the status of women and the variety of position in Han Dynasty, but still have no enough analysis about the changes and causes.The paper bases on the female figures in Historical Records and History of Han, tries to explain the status of females in Han Dynasty in three parts. The first one is about the position of females in family and society, and points out that they enjoyed a much higher social position compared with the females who suffered heavily from the feudal moral principles and ethics in other dynasties. The second part refers to the changing of the status. My opinion is that in the middle and later part of West Han Dynasty the society had a more and more harsh attitude towards the remarriage of women. The females not only lost the leverage in marriage but also showed the declining tendency in taking part into the politics, no matter the sense or the degree and the accessory. These proved the degrading of the status of females. The last section studies about the causes. The women in Han Dynasty enjoyed a higher status mainly because firstly the labor of the women occupied a comparatively important section in economic, and secondly theoptimistic and free social customs and spirits provided a large space for the women, and lastly the historic influences of the pre-Qin Dynasty was the natural reason for the phenomena. With the spreading of the Confucianism in all levels of society, the forming of feudal ethical codes and the concerning of the purity of women by the imperial government, the status of women declined after the middle and later periods of the West Han Dynasty.
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