Exemplary Women of Early China - The Lienu Zhuan of Liu Xiang

When should a woman disobey her father, contradict her husband, or shape the policy of a ruler? According to the Lienu zhuan, or Categorized Biographies of Women, it is not only appropriate but necessary for women to offer counsel when fathers, husbands, sons, and rulers stray from virtue. The earliest Chinese text devoted to the moral education of women, the Lienu zhuan was compiled by Liu Xiang (79--8 B.C.E.) at the end of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.E.--9 C.E.) and recounts the deeds of both virtuous and wicked women. Informed by early legends, fictionalized historical accounts, and formal speeches on statecraft, the text taught generations of Chinese women to cultivate filial piety and maternal kindness and undertake such practices as suicide and self-mutilation to preserve chastity and reform wayward men. The Lienu zhuan's stories inspired artists for a millennium and found their way into local and dynastic histories. An innovative work for its time, the text remains a critical tool for mapping women's social, political, and domestic roles at a formative time in China's development.

List of contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChronology1. The Maternal Models2. The Worthy and Enlightened 3. The Sympathetic and Wise 4. The Chaste and Compliant 5. The Principled and Righteous 6. The Accomplished Rhetoricians7. The Depraved and Favored8. Supplemental Biographies NotesWorks CitedIndex

About the author

Anne Behnke Kinney (PhD, Michigan) is Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Virginia. Her publications
include Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lienü zhuan of Liu Xiang (Columbia University Press, 2014), Representations of Childhood and Youth in Early China (Stanford University Press, 2005), and Chinese Views of Childhood (University of Hawai’i Press, 1995). She is the director of the digital research collection, Traditions of Exemplary Women and Book Review Editor for Early China.

Product details

• Authors: KINNEY, Anne Behnke Kinney, Xiang Liu
• Assisted by: Anne Behnke (Book Review Editor Kinney (Translation), Kinney Anne Behnke (Translation)
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.01.2014
• EAN: 9780231163088
• ISBN: 978-0-231-16308-8
• No. of pages: 384
• Series: Translations from the Asian Classics; Translations from the Asian Classics
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; China, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, HISTORY / Ancient / General, HISTORY / Asia / China, HISTORY / Women, Ancient History, Asian History, Gender studies: women, Ancient history: to c 500 CE, Gender studies: women and girls, BCE to c 500 CE, BCE period – Protohistory, women's studies; Chinese history