Traditional China - Essay Example

Traditional china The government of China was different in the manner in which it administered ad watched the lives of the ordinary Chinese. There existed three policies in traditional Chinese society that governed the people; these policies included transfiguration, transaction, and transmission. The manner in which these policies differed as well as their main objectives and motives were discussed and evaluated by renowned people such as Hongyu Huang, Ling Hon Lam, and Lawrence Yin. In addition, the traditional Chinese society discriminated and oppressed women in all spheres of life because of the fact that they were conceived as the source of tribulations to their husbands in the family (Ebrey 36-37). Confucius and Mencius were the man people who endorsed the lowering of the women dignity about their social position. In traditional Chinese Society, the Ming dynasty is perceived as distinct from other dynasties due to the way it carried out is political, social and economic activities. A historian by the name Sima Qian described how patterns of dynasties were conducted and practiced in the past. His father mandated Qian with the role of compiling manuscripts of Chinese heroes before he died. The late Ming Courtesan or dynasty, these three laws or policies was used to enhance to ensure that the society stayed in harmony. The transmission law dealt with the courtesans describing a particular historical mode mediating itself in different genres and contexts. Concerning this law, Huang describes the manner in which Wu Weiye tried to allegorize a courtesan’s disaster in the invigorated poetry. During the eighteenth century, these explanations were accepted in the tales of the ancient Chinese Society (Brook 33-35). In addition, it also featured in the poetry that was recited by Qing. Wu Weiye is depicted as a powerful figure in Chinese writing because of the way he established himself in the office in his poet known as Meicun ti. The series of Wu’s long tales comprised of even syllabic lines that expressed Ming Qing family problems with focus on the tribulations and predicaments that faced people in the entire country. The Wu’s popular rhyme Ballad of Yuanyuan customarily construes the better cynicism against the entire turncoat that showed Wu Sangui compassion for the society. The other policy that shaped the Chinese society was the transaction policy, which called for economic exchange and distribution of cultural capital to ensure survival of the society. In their literature, the body and gawk was sandwiched between courtesans and patrons. In the Poem by Lawrence Yim Qianyi, he asserts how Qian Qianyi and Liu Rushi made nice and beautiful corpus known as exchange poem, which occurred at the beginning of their relationship in the late Ming dynasty (Ebrey 56). The poem is fascinating and interesting since it comprises of collection of Ming Qing’s customary and literary memories. Its role is not to get over the Qian-Liu legend but to investigate the intriguing parts of female’s body in their replaced poems. Lastly, the transfiguration policy focused to undercut the circuitousness of the need or desire and explanation of history by offering a radical subjectivity feature to a female creature or the intricacy of the subjectivity itself. In this law, Ling Hon Lam observes an obscure known as untalented where she defies her biographer’s narrative finality with the downfall of Ming dynasty. It is visible that the late Ming dynasty experience gender borders or disparity by skillfully portraying their culture via self-performance of their poems, loyalists and knights-errant. Interestingly, this suggested an aura image of, male species as powerful creatures in society whose is unchallenged in any situation and capable of holding to the globe around him without falling apart. In addition, the obscure courtesan called Xu Feng and a Chuanqi opera with a title called Xinghua Shan is aligned or attributed to her. She managed to get married to a humble and quiet family of Changshu and she is perceived as performing dismally like a lampoon of Liu because of her incompetence in poetry and over behaving before her patrons. It is discovered that the two biographies composed by Qian’s associates and other allies, describe the mysterious execution of Xu Feng as her own ferocious apparition, which corresponded with the submission of Nanjing and eventually led to her downfall (Huang 81). In traditional Chinese society, women were greatly oppressed because men were viewed as the central part of the family who held powerful position. For example, the forerunner to whom a Zhou or a Shang family king made sacrifices was his benevolent ancestors; his ancestor joined exclusively through men. It is argued that some women proposed to advance their own youngsters when their spouse had youngsters by several women. Clear evidence is in 697 BCE where a daughter belonging to one of the most authoritative minister in Zheng government, discovered from her husband that the head of state had ordered him to take her father’s life. Her mother advices that, all men in her city were potential husbands and that she only got one father influences her to tell the father about her husband’s plan. Her father gets furious and promptly kills the husband and when the ruler receives the message, he places the blame on the spouse for foolishly divulging in his wife. According to him, all women are the sources of problems to their husband’s moral standards due to their selfishness, manipulation capabilities, and intrigue values. Confucius estimated all sort of attitudes towards women such as loyalty, bravery and devotion as suitable to them because of their social position in society. He took for granted the ancestral rites and interrelated family virtues like filial piety where he hoped that practicing ritual would trigger everyone to learn to fulfill what he or she have to do. He expected women to play the role of kinship and for them to accord with the desires and needs of closely correlated men. However, Mencius supports Confucius by declaring that the most horrible of unfilial deeds, was a failure to get descendants, which in later centuries triggered the disappointment at the delivery of a daughter instead of a son. In the period after Confucius, writers took over the argument by discussing the sexual characteristics in terms of yin and yang. Women were yin and they were seen as soft, yielding, tranquil, inactive, reflective, and receptive, whereas men were yang with hard, dominating, aggressive, and active characteristic (Huang 89-93). The differences between men and women according to Yin and Yang emphasized that, these differences are aspects of the natural array of the universe and not part of the communal institution artificially made by human beings. The Yin theory suggests that, both forces complement one another but not in equal ways. Their natural relationship is the reason why men always lead and women follow and that if Yin would unnaturally acquire the upper hand, then the arrangement at both the cosmic and communal level would probably be threatened. According to Dardess (71-75), efforts were made in order to maintain the physical break up between the globe of men and the world of women because it was considered as a crucial step toward assuring that women would not dominate men. Confucian’s book, Book of Rites, emphasis on the value of segregation especially within the home. It says that a house ought to be split into an internal and an external section, with the woman given the inner part. In the book of poetry, known as “Women should not take part in public affairs” and that of document with a proverbial form called “When the hen announces the dawn, it signals the demise of the family” clearly demonstrates that women ought to devote themselves to weaving and tending silkworms but not to participate in authoritative matters. In Han times, both the victory of Confucianism and the governmental constitution of the centralized state helped shape Chinese family structure and the location of the women in it. Han policies supported the fact that family heads consisted of men with the authorities over the other family members. In addition, Men were allowed to divorce their wives on any of seven grounds, which included talkativeness, infertility, and jealousy. It was normal that when a woman got married, she had to move from her father’s household to that of her spouse’s parents. According to the progressive ancestral sacrifices through patrilineal successors, a wife was allowed to stand within her husband’s family depending on the conceiving of male heirs. Even if the husband practiced concubinage or had another woman outside the wedlock and the woman gave birth to sons, her position in the family could be weakened gradually if her husband took courtesans who also bore sons. When women became grandmothers, they were likely to enjoy the interests of the husband’s family in the same manner that the men in the family did (Mahony 66-68). In efforts to beatify themselves and as pleasure quarters, women were involved in foot binding. Mothers used to bind their girl-child within the age group of five to eight years with long strips of cloth. This was aimed at preventing their feet from enlarging as well as bending the four smaller toes in order to maintain a curved and narrow shape. In the subsequent centuries, the practice became widespread in Middle and North China consequently diffusing into all classes. Women who had their legs bound experienced difficulties in walking thus, they were less mobile as compared to those had normal feet. According to ban Zhao’s writing that stated that husbands had been obligated to remarry, however, women had been excluded from such practices. Therefore, there was proposals widow chastity. Based on Cheng Yi, a Neo Confucian philosopher, women chastity received much support. This was ascribed to the opinion that women would better give up their ghost due to starvation rather than losing their moral principles by getting into another marriage entanglement. In regards to this statement by Cheng Yi, women and t heir siblings were obliged to stay with their deceased spouse family in later centuries. Remarriage in women was not allowed in china. Evaluation of the succession-hereditary rule in China showed a regular pattern which rose and cut down with each dynasty fabricating a path of succession to the preceded dynasties as evaluated in the case by Sima Quin and Sima Tan, whose origin was the Ming China. It is worth noting that Sima Tina was an office bearer of Taishi which meant “grant historian” at the Wu emperor Law Court. According to history ever since Zhao, the officials sustaining the honor and other titles were expected to keep record of their progress records entailing giving advice and heavy phenomena on their interpretation. This is exemplified by a crucial outlook on matters at Han elite ethnicity. The designation was analogous to “grand astrologer.” Sima Tan was chiefly involved in dealing with a voluminous compilation of a manuscript that described his duties at the office such as creating records of all enlightened heads of state in addition to courteous, wise words and honorable man and the honest ministers who were ready to breath there last breath for duty. However, he had not yet finished it and that is why as he takes his last breath, he explained to his son, Sima qian, that even their ancestors belonged to the grand Historians for the residence of Zhou where they took chances of being renowned and eminent. Charge of the astronomical trend was exemplified in the period of Yu and Xia. Since Sima Tan emerged from a lineage of renowned ancestry, he therefore became one of the grand Historians to extend the work of his forefathers. Consequently, Sima Quin was taught to gauge whether he wanted to join the lineage of Grant Historians. This was aimed at progressing the desire of his father to write and give more additional information on the document that related to the burden of his office. Moreover, serving of one’s parents was out of filial piety, which was followed by serving the sovereign State. Lastly, it was expected that an individual would develop a name to move down through the ages for the magnificence of their parents. As a result, old cultures that had been discarded in the world and some at the virtue of extinction were brought back by Sima Qian. According to sima Qian, five sections emerged after division of the examined material. These included “Treatises,” “Memoirs,” “Basic Annals,” “Chronicles Tables,” and “Hereditary houses.” however, current researches have led to modification though current official historians still follow the classification. This is exemplified by changing of “Basic Annals” to “Imperial Annuals” because it concentrates on deeds of the officially sovereignty emperors (Brook 98). Based on Sima Qian work, Treatise is viewed as one of the most significant element of the work because it comprises of essays aimed at unraveling the past valuable topical subjects and institutional issues. On the other hand, the “Memoirs” were fabricated to narrate lives of most prominent people such as logician, politicians, and military commanders. Sima Qian developed the “Chronological Tables” to explain the table of time in regards to important events. On the other hand, “Hereditary Houses” being the largest section on feudal families, was excluded after the eradication of the enforcement system. Sima Qian established a thorough analysis of past events and deeds with their guiding principles behind their failures and success. Also, he evaluated the crumbling and escalation. He was motivated to investigate that pertains mankind and heaven in order to achieve the great assignment of one family. He reveals that his work will be subject to criticism in order to expound his knowledge on rural settings and great cities(Huang 111-113) It is established that there exist no unscrupulous association of loyalty between Li Ling of Han Chinese dtynasties and Sima Qian of Ming Chinese. Therefore, HAN Chinese dynasties never reappeared before Ming china, however, Sima Qian attempted an extraordinary approach of evaluating Li against the perception of treason. It is purported that Sima Qian documented his account in hope of repaying Han arrears. In conclusion, the traditional Chinese society held the belief that women had no place in public sphere because of their nature therefore; they were supposed to be submissive to their husbands. Sima Qian contributed a lot to the beliefs and attitudes of the Chinese people by influencing their social order and maintaining the notion that body was a distinct entity. Before his father died, he had promised him to protect and uphold the dignity of the Sima family and all other Chinese antiquities or heroes so that their legacy stayed from generation to generation. Many poets referred to Sima as a filial piety, which conforms to identity and fulfillment. Works Cited Brook, Timothy. The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. New York: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. Print. Dardess, John. Ming China, 1368D1644: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011. Print. Ebrey, Patricia. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge Illustrated Histories). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. Huang, Ray. 1587, A year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline. New York: Yale University Press, 1982. Print. Mahony, David. Traditional China: The Man and Society Project. Sydey: Methuen of Australia, 1977. Print. Mungello, Eliot. The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500-1800. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999. Print. Read More