• Acknowledgments Note to Readers Introduction 1. Breaking the Silence: Cases of Outspoken Exemplary Women 2. Visualizing Exemplarity: Women's Portraits and Paintings for Self-Representation 3. Staging Family Drama: Genealogical Writing as Ritual Authority 4. Enacting Guardians of Family Health: From Exemplary Wife to Reformer Conclusion Chinese Character Glossary Notes Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)9780295995496 20180611

Heroines of the Qing introduces an array of Chinese women from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who were powerful, active subjects of their own lives and who wrote themselves as the heroines of their exemplary stories. Traditionally, "exemplary women" (lienu)-heroic martyrs, chaste widows, and faithful maidens, for example-were written into official dynastic histories for their unrelenting adherence to female virtue by Confucian family standards. However, despite the rich writing traditions about these women, their lives were often distorted by moral and cultural agendas. Binbin Yang, drawing on interdisciplinary sources, shows how they were able to cross boundaries that were typically closed to women-boundaries not only of gender, but also of knowledge, economic power, political engagement, and ritual and cultural authority. Yang closely examines the rhetorical strategies these "exemplary women" exploited for self-representation in various writing genres and highlights their skillful negotiation with, and appropriation of, the values of female exemplarity for self-empowerment.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780295995496 20180611

• Acknowledgments Introduction Chronology 1. The Maternal Models 2. The Worthy and Enlightened 3. The Sympathetic and Wise 4. The Chaste and Compliant 5. The Principled and Righteous 6. The Accomplished Rhetoricians 7. The Depraved and Favored 8. Supplemental Biographies Notes Works Cited Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)9780231163095 20180530

In early China, was it correct for a woman to disobey her father, contradict her husband, or shape the public policy of a son who ruled over a dynasty or state? According to the Lienu zhuan, or Categorized Biographies of Women, it was not only appropriate but necessary for women to step in with wise counsel when fathers, husbands, or rulers strayed from the path of virtue. Compiled toward the end of the Former Han dynasty (202 BCE-9 CE) by Liu Xiang (79-8 BCE), the Lienu zhuan is the earliest extant book in the Chinese tradition solely devoted to the education of women. Far from providing a unified vision of women's roles, the text promotes a diverse and sometimes contradictory range of practices. At one extreme are exemplars resorting to suicide and self-mutilation as a means to preserve chastity and ritual orthodoxy. At the other are bold and outspoken women whose rhetorical mastery helps correct erring rulers, sons, and husbands. The text provides a fascinating overview of the representation of women's roles in early legends, formal speeches on statecraft, and highly fictionalized historical accounts during this foundational period of Chinese history. Over time, the biographies of women became a regular feature of dynastic and local histories and a vehicle for expressing and transmitting concerns about women's social, political, and domestic roles. The Lienu zhuan is also rich in information about the daily life, rituals, and domestic concerns of early China. Inspired by its accounts, artists across the millennia have depicted its stories on screens, paintings, lacquer ware, murals, and stone relief sculpture, extending its reach to literate and illiterate audiences alike.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780231163095 20180530
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.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780231536080 20180530

• Introduction / Joan Judge and Hu Ying
• pt. I. Methodological and philosophical reflections : probing silences, questioning interiority
• Biographical sources and silences / Susan Mann
• Getting a life : the production of 1950s women labor models in rural Shaanxi / Gail Hershatter
• pt. II. Biography as cultural project
• The Lienü zhuan tradition and Wang Zhaoyuan's (1763-1851) production of the Lienü zhuan buzhu (1812) / Harriet T. Zurndorfer
• Lienü versus Xianyuan : the two biographical traditions in Chinese women's history / Nanxiu Qian
• Faithful maiden biographies : a forum for ritual debate, moral critique, and personal reflection / Weijing Lu
• Exemplary time and secular times : Wei Xiyuan's Illustrated biographies of exceptional women and the late Qing moment / Joan Judge
• Gender and modern martyrology : Qiu Jin as Lienü, Lieshi, or Nülieshi / Hu Ying

• pt. III. Alternative "biographical" sources
• Epitaphs and fiction
• Women's epitaphs in Tang China (618-907) / Ping Yao
• Fantasies of fidelity : loyal courtesans to faithful wives / Beverly Bossler
• Lovers, talkers, monsters, and good women : competing images in mid-Ming epitaphs and fiction / Katherine Carlitz
• Private materials
• Empress Xiang (1046-1101) and biographical sources beyond formal biographies / Patricia Ebrey
• Life and letters : reflections on Tanyangzi / Ann Waltner
• In her own voice?
• The biographical and the autobiographical in Bo Shaojun's One hundred poems lamenting my husband / Wilt L. Idema
• Women as biographers in mid-Qing Jiangnan / Ellen Widmer
• Beyond rewriting life history : three female interviewees' personal experiences of war / Yu Chien-ming
• Epilogue : how to read Chinese women's biography / Joan Judge and Hu Ying
• Appendix A. Traditional Chinese genres of biographical material
• Appendix B. The Lienü tradition in dynastic histories
• Appendix C. The Xianyuan tradition in the Shishuo ti works.

Clear, coherent, richly documented, and highly persuasive. I know of no other source devoted exclusively to the topic of Chinese women's biographies, and I am confident that this book will have a ready audience in the China field and beyond. -Paul Ropp, Clark University In addition to Liu Xiang's Lienu zhuan, the Urtext of Chinese women's biography, this rich trove of essays explores previously unexamined biographical genres and mines literary texts for their biographical potential. It will be of great value to scholars interested in women's history, life-writing, and biography, both in the China field and in comparative contexts. -Grace S. Fong, McGill University.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780984590902 20160606

• Explanatory Notes Chronology of Chinese Dynasties 1. Introduction: From the Biographies of Women to the Biographies of Chaste Women 2. A Confucian Appropriation of Women: An Explication of Liu Xiang's Lienu Zhuan 3. Subjecting Women to Histories: Foregrounding Classes 4. Reinventing Women: Genderizing Virtues 5. Writing Virtues with Their Bodies: Interpreting the Inconsistencies 6. Conclusion: A Biography Tradition That Is Not.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)9780765608673 20160528

As far back as the first century BCE, Chinese dynastic historians - all men - began recording the achievements of Chinese women and creating a structure of understanding that would be used to limit and control them. To men, these women became role models for their daughters and wives; to the few literate women readers, they became paradigms for their own behavior. Thus, although these biographies are descriptive by nature, they actually became prescriptive. Gentlemen's Prescriptions for Women's Lives is an enlightening source for studying Chinese women of the Imperial era as well as for understanding Chinese womanhood in general. By contextualizing these biographies, the author shows us these women not just as the complaisant, calm-eyed, delicate figures that adorn Confucian texts, but also as the products of the Confucian tradition's appropriation of women.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780765608673 20160528

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Editors' Introduction Guide for Students and Teachers 1. Biography of the Daoist Saint Wang Fengxian by Du Guangting (850 - 933) Translated by Suzanne Cahill This biography of an important Daoist female saint of the mid-ninth century chronicles her life from childhood through her spiritual self-cultivation, culminating in her ascension to heaven. 2. Biography of the Great Compassionate One of Xiangshan by Jiang Zhiqi (1031 - 1104) Translated by Chun-fang Yu The earliest documentary evidence of the legend of Miaoshan, this stone inscription shows how the local story of a Chinese princess became identified with a universal Buddhist deity, the Bodhisattva Guanyin. 3. The Book of Filial Piety for Women Attributed to a Woman Nee Zheng (ca. 730) Translated by Patricia Buckley Ebrey The excerpt from this classic appears opposite corresponding passages from the original Book of Filial Piety to highlight the differences gender makes in the text and its messages. 4. Funerary Writings by Chen Liang (1143-1194) Translated by Beverly Bossler These three funerary odes describe how the funeral tablets of Chen Liang's mother's family came to be in his care, how his mother and her sister decided to marry their children together, and how his sister sustained her natal household during a period of family calamity. Along with the commemorative biography that follows, they open important windows on domestic life and family values during the period following the fall of the Northern Song. 5. "The Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing (1251 - ?) Translated by Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein This description of minority peoples from a Yuan dynasty official's record of his experiences in Yunnan province illustrates how views of gender relations and especially sexual practices served as a measure of the level of civilization among non-Han populations. 6. Selected Writings by Luo Rufang (1515 - 1588) Translated by Yu-Yin Cheng In these writings scholar and philosopher Luo Rufang celebrates women who pursue intellectual and philosophical interests. He also champions the virtue of motherly nurturance and love, which he considered as important as the central Confucian virtues of filial piety and brotherly respect. 7. Final Instructions by Yang Jisheng (1516 - 1555) Translated by Beverly Bossler Composed in prison, these notes instruct Yang's wife and sons how to get along without him. His foremost concerns are three: that his family not become the subject of ridicule, that his sons get along with one another, and that his wife--who had already proven herself the moral conscience of the family--not commit suicide. 8. "Record of Past Karma" by Ji Xian (1614 - 1683) Translated by Grace S. Fong This autobiographical essay by the woman poet Ji Xian , with its powerful descriptions of dreams, visions, and personal illness, is unusually self-revelatory of the tensions between her personal religious desires and her obligations to her family. 9. "Letter to My Sons" by Gu Ruopu (1592 - ca.1681) Translated by Dorothy Ko Having seen to it that both sons married capable and learned wives, Hangzhou poet Gu Ruopu, virtuous widow and matriarch of the Huang family, decided to divide the family property and establish separate households for them. In this letter Gu outlines her support for the Confucian ideal of familism, but admonishes her sons to recognize women's indispensable roles in the male-centered kinship system. 10. Personal Letters in Seventeenth-Century Epistolary Guides Translated by Kathryn Lowry The large number of epistolary guides and collected letters published in the late Ming include models for letters to family members as well as a few examples of love letters and provide a unique view of the social universe of that period. The love letters translated here show how this genre can be read as a sort of epistolary fiction and raise questions about how people might have consulted letter-writing manuals for reasons beyond social etiquette. 11. Letters by Women of the Ming-Qing Period Translated by Yu-Yin Cheng These short letters, written in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, reveal the erudition and wit as well as the spiritual and aesthetic sensibilities of highly educated upper-class women. 12. Selected Short Works by Wang Duanshu (1621 - after 1701) Translated by Ellen Widmer These short selections from the works of one of the earliest anthologists of women's writings display the extraordinary range and breadth of her learning, while revealing her personal, aesthetic, and scholarly sensibilities. 13. Two Ghost Stories from Liaozhai's Records of the Strange by Pu Songling (1640 - 1715) Translated by Judith T. Zeitlin The ghost story, authored by men and narrated from the male point of view, is one of the privileged spaces in Chinese literature for exploring fantasies of gender and sexuality. Such tales often involve a passionate affair between a young scholar and a beautiful female ghost who possesses a surprising degree of corporeality. The two late imperial tales translated here share two related themes: the power of love to triumph over death and the cosmic power of male generativity. 14. Two Biographies by Zhang Xuecheng (1738 - 1801) Translated by Susan Mann These biographies by one of the most distinguished scholars of the Qing period breathe life into views of women that are sometimes dismissed as mere conventions or stereotypes. In both texts we see, through men's eyes, how women took responsibility for setting the standards to measure and criticize men's behavior. 15. Poems on Tea-Picking Translated by Weijing Lu These poems about women at work, written mostly by men and spanning the dynasties from Tang through Qing, display the varied meanings of women's work in the poetic imagery of elite writers and point to the ways in which women as literary subjects supplied a ceaseless range of possibilities for inventive poets over time. The poems also show the subtle relationship between poetry as social criticism and poetry as aesthetic performance in the culture of the late imperial elite. 16. Drinking Wine and Reading "Encountering Sorrow": A Reflection in Disguise by Wu Zao (1799 - 1862) Translated by Sophie Volpp In this dramatic tableau the playwright casts herself as the sole speaker. She poses before a portrait of herself cross-dressed as a male scholar and sings to the portrait a sequence of lyrics describing her frustrations as a woman of talent. The text concludes that none but her cross-dressed self-image is a match for the writer herself. Hangzhou poet and official Chen Wenshu, a noted patron of female writers, wrote a collection of poems celebrating this work. 17. A Brief Record of the Eastern Ocean by Ding Shaoyi (fl. 1847) Translated by Emma Jinhua Teng During his eight-month stay in Taiwan in 1847 Ding Shaoyi wrote the Brief Record, which treats sixteen topics, among them: taxes, schools, coastal defense, local products, "savage" villages, "savage" customs, and marvels. When he returned to Taiwan in 1871 he appended new material to each item in his original account. The passage translated here is Ding's 1871 supplement to his original entry titled "Savage Customs." 18. The "Eating Crabs" Youth Book Translated by Mark C. Elliott This anonymous bilingual text, in Manchu and Chinese, reflects the complex ethnic picture in late imperial China, particularly in and around Beijing. Youth books were a form of oral performance very popular in the Qing capital. In this particular one, the story is told of a hapless Manchu bannerman and his shrewish Han Chinese wife who run afoul of a pot of feisty crabs. Glossaries and References Contributors Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)9780520222762 20160528

These translations of eighteen classical Chinese texts from the mid-ninth century (Tang dynasty) through the late nineteenth century (Qing dynasty) offer a comprehensive collection of primary sources focusing on gender issues in medieval and late imperial China. The book's title reflects the sometimes ironic relationship between Confucian viewpoints and women's visibility in Chinese historical documents. The texts, written by both men and women, show that Confucian values and scholarly practices produced a rich documentary record of women's lives.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780520222762 20160528

• Editorial conventions-- Abbreviations-- Maps-- Introduction: genealogy and titles of the female poet-- Part I. Poetry: 1. From ancient times to the six dynasties (222-589)-- 2. Tang (618-907) and five dynasties (907-60)-- 3. Song dynasty (960-1279-- 4. Yuan dynasty (1264-1368)-- 5. Ming dynasty (1368-1644-- 6. Qing dynasty (1644-1911)-- Part II. Criticism: 7. Female critics and poets-- 8. Male critics and poets-- Appendixes-- Notes-- Bibliography-- Index of names.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)9780804732314 20160528

This anthology of Chinese women's poetry in translation brings together representative selections from the work of some 130 poets from the Han dynasty to the early twentieth century. To measure the development of Chinese women s poetry, one must take into account not only the poems but also the prose writings prefaces, biographies, theoretical tracts that framed them and attempted to shape women s writing as a distinct category of literature. To this end, the anthology contains an extended section of criticism by and about women writers. These poets include empresses, imperial concubines, courtesans, grandmothers, recluses, Buddhist nuns, widows, painters, farm wives, revolutionaries, and adolescent girls thought to be incarnate immortals. Some women wrote out of isolation and despair, finding in words a mastery that otherwise eluded them. Others were recruited into poetry by family members, friends, or sympathetic male advocates. Some dwelt on intimate family matters and cast their poems as addresses to husbands and sons at large in the wide world of men s affairs. Each woman had her own reasons for poetry and her own ways of appropriating, and often changing, the conventions of both men s and women s verse.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780804732314 20160528

This first book-length study of gender relations in the Lower Yangzi region during the High Qing era (c. 1683-1839) challenges enduring late-nineteenth-century perspectives that emphasized the oppression and subjugation of Chinese women. Placing women at the center of the High Qing era shows how gender relations shaped the economic, political, social, and cultural changes of the age, and gives us a sense of what women felt and believed, and what they actually did, during this period. Most analyses of gender in High Qing times have focused on literature and on the writings of the elite; this book broadens the scope of inquiry to include women's work in the farm household, courtesan entertainment, and women s participation in ritual observances and religion. In dealing with literature, it shows how women's poetry can serve the historian as well as the literary critic, drawing on one of the first anthologies of women's writing compiled by a woman to examine not only literary sensibilities and intimate emotions, but also political judgments, moral values, and social relations.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780804727433 20160528

A portrait of life for women during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD), which records how they served their parents, reared their children and coped with husbands and in-laws. Although the custom of footbinding increased, improvements were apparent in women's marriage and property rights.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)9780520081581 20160528