Women in Ming China

Bret Hinsch is professor of history at Fo Guang University, Yilan, Taiwan. He is the author of Women in Ancient China, Women in Early Medieval China, Women in Early Imperial China, Women in Imperial China, Masculinities in Chinese History,and Women in Song and Yuan China.

Hinsch…provides a fine summary of the status and behavior of women in the Ming period. He describes the restraints imposed on women, including bound feet and obedience to fathers, husbands, and sons, by Neo-Confucianism, the era's dominant philosophy. His portrait of women's life cycles reveals the limitations placed on women, given their lack of choice in mates and mobility, and society's demands that widows be chaste. Although increased literacy and greater access to education among elite women created opportunities for female writers and artists, the government and even the works produced by women themselves prescribed restraints on their roles and conduct. Challenges to such limitations were met by "historians [who] convinced literati to associate female power with dynastic decline" (p. 136). Thus even women at the Ming court were powerless... [T]he book is clearly written and accessible to the general educated reader. It offers a nuanced portrait of women in a critical transitional period of Chinese history. Recommended. General readers through faculty.

• Chronology of Dynasties Introduction 1 Family 2 Power 3 Wealth 4 Education 5 Religion 6 Virtue 7 Chastity 8 Image Conclusion Glossary Notes Bibliography Index