Bret Hinsch. Women in Early Medieval China. Asian Voices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. xx, 211 pp. Hardcover $110.00, ISBN 978-1-5381-1796-5. Paperback $36.00, ISBN 978-1-5381-5832-6. E-book $34.00, ISBN 978-1-5381-1797-2.

Abstract

Bret Hinsch. Women in Early Medieval China. Asian Voices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, . xx,  pp. Hardcover $., ISBN -- --. Paperback $., ISBN ----. E-book $., ISBN ----. Women in Early Medieval China is an addition to the series of women in Chinese history that Bret Hinsch has published over the past two decades. As in his other books, Hinsch aptly situates women’s lives and gender discourse in their concrete social and political contexts—here, the period between the fall of the Eastern Han in the early third century and the founding of the Tang dynasty in the early seventh century, an era that historians call “the age of division” or “the age of disunion.” During this period, the north and the south developed distinct cultures, steppe customs influenced societies under the northern regimes, and the intellectual and religious landscapes flourished and diversified. Coinciding with the decline of a powerful central government and the collapse of previous social order, elites began to form larger families in order to protect common clan interests; there was a decline in Confucian learning; female chastity, although not commonly practiced, was rhetorically associated with male loyalty to a regime. Women in Early Medieval China introduces those changes as background to a vivid depiction of changes in the rhetorical, political, and social dimensions of women’s lives over this period. The eight chapters of Women in Early Medieval China cover significant aspects of women’s history during this time period: family, mothers, politics, work, religion, learning, virtue, and ideals. Chapter  delineates the changing family systems in the north and the south and their impact on women. Elite families became significantly larger and more complicated, prompting reconsiderations of family ethics. Marriage customs among northern and southern elites differed regarding remarriage, the status of concubines’ sons, and the ideal qualities of marriage partners. Elite families tended to marry within a circle of families of equal status, while marriages of daughters to lower status but richer families coincided with a new emphasis on the virtues of daughtersin -law. More writings were produced on female filial piety and spousal relations. Chapter  focuses on the intensified mother–son bond, the emerging cult of motherhood, and the growing interest in filial piety toward mothers. Chapter  introduces the ways in which women participated in politics (generally through Review©  by University of Hawai‘i Press becoming an empress or empress dowager) and how different regimes, especially the Tuoba clan, took measures to prevent that. Some empresses of both the north and the south defied the odds to become powerful figures in their own right. Hinsch also mentions several other kinds of women, such as nursemaids, Buddhist nuns, and princesses, who played a role in the palace and were close to power. Chapter  covers women’s property rights and various types of labor and economic activities in which women engaged, including housework, textile production, childcare, healing and care in the home, commerce, entertainment and sex work, as well as serfdom and slavery. In highly militarized societies, especially those in the north, women were also expected to be able to fight. Chapter  explores new roles and opportunities for women in the burgeoning Buddhist and Daoist institutions, after briefly discussing old and new elements about female deities, ghosts, shamans, and ritualists. Chapter  surveys the topic of women’s learning. During this era, women’s education was not considered inappropriate, but lacked a clear purpose and tended to be less systematic than men’s education. The most educated women were daughters of elite men. Southern women read histories and ancient texts and composed poetry, while northern women focused on practical skills. Some women were praised for their eloquence and wit. Maternal instruction and women’s advice on “character evaluation” were also appreciated. Chapter  traces how the Six Dynasties became “a critical phase in the evolution of female ethics” as a result of the interaction of several historical factors: “the decline of Confucian learning, influx of steppe culture, and the rise of Buddhism and Daoism” (p. ). Focuses of this chapter include adultery, remarriage, jealousy, and female chastity: Hinsch argues that “[t]he early medieval era marks a turning point for chastity” (p. ) in intellectual discourse...