Women and Confucian cultures in premodern China, Korea, and Japan

XIII, 337 S. : Ill., Kt.

Publisher description: Representing an unprecedented collaboration among international scholars from Asia, Europe, and the United States, this volume rewrites the history of East Asia by rethinking the contentious relationship between Confucianism and women. The authors discuss the absence of women in the Confucian canonical tradition and examine the presence of women in politics, family, education, and art in premodern China, Korea, and Japan. Challenging the conventional notion of Confucianism as an oppressive tradition that victimized women, this provocative book reveals it as a modern construct that does not reflect the social and cultural histories of East Asia before the nineteenth century.

Inhalt: List of Illustrations and Tables -- Preface -- Notes on Conventions -- Comparative Time Chart for China, Korea, and Japan Introduction -- PART I. SCRIPTS OF MALE DOMINANCE: 1. The Patriarchal Family Paradigm in Eighth-Century Japan / Hiroko Sekiguchi; 2. The Last Classical Female Sovereign: Kōken-Shōtoku Tennō / Joan R. Piggott; 3. Representation of Females in Twelfth-Century Korean Historiography / Hai-soon Lee; 4. The Presence and Absence of Female Musicians and Music in China / Joseph S.C. Lam -- PART II. PROPAGATING CONFUCIAN VIRTUES: 5. Women and the Transmission of Confucian Culture in Song China / Jian Zang; 6. Propagating Female Virtues in Chosŏn Korea / Martina Deuchler; 7. State Indoctrination of Filial Piety in Tokugawa Japan; Sons and Daughters in the Official Records of Filial Piety / Noriko Sugano -- PART III. FEMALE EDUCATION IN PRACTICE: 8. Norms and Texts for Women's Education in Tokugawa Japan / Martha C. Tocco; 9. Competing Claims on Womanly Virtue in Late Imperial China / Fangqin Du and Susan Mann -- Part IV. CORPOREAL AND TEXTUAL EXPRESSIONS OF FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY: 10. Discipline and Transformation: Body and Practice in the Lives of Daoist Holy Women of Tang China / Suzanne E. Cahill; 11. Versions and Subversions: Patriarchy and Polygamy in Korean Narratives / JaHyun Kim Haboush Glossary -- Recommendations for Further Reading -- List of Contributors Index.