Heroines of the Qing : exemplary women tell their stories / Binbin Yang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yang, Binbin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--China--History--18th century.

Women.

Women--China--History--19th century.

Women authors, Chinese--History.

Women authors, Chinese.

Women--China--Intellectual life.

Femininity--Social aspects--China--History.

Femininity.

Sex role--China--History.

Sex role.

Confucianism--Social aspects.

History.

Confucianism.

Virtue--Social aspects.

Virtue.

Power (Social sciences).

Social aspects.

Intellectual life.

China.

Power (Social sciences)--China--History.

Virtue--Social aspects--China--History.

Confucianism--Social aspects--China--History.

China--History--Qing dynasty, 1644-1912.

Physical Description:

xiii, 230 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2016]

Summary:

"This book draws from newly available sources of women's writings from late imperial China to present an alternative approach to the lives of 'exemplary women'--a category of women who were written into official dynastic histories for their unrelenting adherence to female virtue as defined by core Confucian family values. Despite the rich writing traditions about these women, their lives often remain clouded by larger moral and cultural agendas or distorted by the male authors who presented them according to their own emotional or commemorative needs. This book introduces an array of women from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who were powerful and active subjects of their own lives, and closely examines the rhetorical strategies they exploited for self-representation. This study highlights these female authors' skillful negotiation with--and appropriation of--the constrictive values of female exemplarity for self-empowerment. It draws on interdisciplinary sources to show how these authors crossed the boundaries of domains that were traditionally assumed to be closed to them--boundaries not only of gender but also of knowledge, economic power, and political engagement, as well as ritual and cultural authority"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Breaking the silence : cases of outspoken exemplary women

Visualizing exemplarity : women's portraits and paintings for self-representation

Staging family drama : genealogical writing as ritual authority

Enacting guardians of family health : from exemplary wife to reformer

Chinese character glossary.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780295995496

0295995491

OCLC:

932003512