The Role Of Communism In The Confucian Patriarchal Family

Furthermore, instead of arranged marriages that only benefited the patriarchal head, intellectuals pushed for marriages based on love which would create happy and productive citizens . In addition, based on her mother’s experience, Bao Qin rejects arranged marriages and intends to only marry for love . After hearing of two concubines who drug Cousin Hu’s mother to feign adultery and gain the favour of her husband, Bao Qin is enraged by the historic “powerlessness of women, [the] barbarity of age-old customs, cloaked in tradition .” With the broad shift from tradition as well as her own personal experience, Bao Qin rejects traditional gender roles and seeks to create her own. Furthermore, as China became divided into separate spheres of influence and opened to international markets, British and American industrialization brought new ideas of opportunities for women, challenging established gender relations . With new economic opportunities and education, women could become self-reliant, broadening their choices and their role in society. Consequently, after disobeying her parents’ command to attend Mr. Liu’s funeral, Bao Qin was able to support herself by enrolling in a new teacher training department . Reducing patriarchal control, industrialization allowed children to head to schools and factories, no longer needing to rely on their parents for education and work . As a result, while foreign

Because of his efforts and the ripple-effect they created, Chinese women, who make up 49 percent of the Chinese population and 46 percent of the labor force, have obtained a higher proportion of management than women in many Western countries (Hu). While those who possess anti- communist sentiment continue to focus on societal restrictions, it is more important to recognize the benefits of the ideological underpinnings on which communism was founded and enabled to strive for equality so quickly. The newly established Constitution of the PRC and the Marriage Reform Law swiftly demolished China’s strict social structures and allowed women to escape traditional mentalities (Hu). In doing so, unprecedented progress in achieving equality was made under the communist reign, faster and more efficiently than can be touted by even today’s most democratic and free

Tang, Song, and Abbasid Dynasties Although the Tang dynasty came before the Song dynasty, not all of its culture stayed within the country. The Tang, Song, and Abbasid dynasties were very similar in some ways with each other, however with the achievements of the Abbasid dynasties, they became very different. From their differences socially, to their similarities culturally, these three dynasties played a very large part in today's country of China.

When one compares villages like the Loushui village in soutwest China to the United States, one can notice cultural and societal differences between these places. While the United States is a patriarchal society, where the father is the head of the family, the villages are a matriarchal society The Mosuo women are believed to part of the last matriarchal society in China. Even as an agricultural society, women are out in the field working, but some stay inside to help with the children. Back in U. S’s agricultural times, the men did all the working while the women took care of the children and did all the household work. The Mosuo women do take care of the children in these societies, but the women’s family help as well. While in the United

While the last section pointed out the positives aspects of Confucianism there were also negative aspects of it as well. One can say in early Confucianism, personal freedom and individuality were none existent. Early Confucianism focused mainly on solidarity, community, and importance of hierarchy. Even before the Qing dynasty which took place from 1644 to 1912 Confucianism was used as a tool to keep the lower class of China in line. However, it was during Qing dynasty radical change occurred in china which eventually led to the criticism of Confucianism.

When the Communists came to power in 1949 they denounced Confucianism. Whereas the Communists emphasized struggle, conflict and perfection in the future, Confucianism insisted upon cosmic and social harmony, moderation and the glories of the past. The Communists viewed Confucianism as being part of China's feudal past and the Communists when they ascended to power wanted to rid Chinese society of anything that resembled traditional values. The Communist regime preferred that the Chinese people look forward. 2. How has Confucianism been able to survive the presence of Communism in China?

Confucianism is a time enduring philosophy that has stood up to invading clans, war, resentment, enforcement and infringement of new philosophies, and eventually, revival. For almost 80 years, up until the late 1970’s, Confucianism and its ideas and values have been all but wiped away from China. Though effort was made to remove Confucianism for good from China by the Communist leader Mao Zedong in 1949, the ideas and values were so deeply embedded into peoples mind and the culture that even suppression could not keep it out of the culture and practices. The main factor that has brought Confucianism back into the limelight in China and other East Asian countries is the recent

Confucianism now lost much of its influence in the 20th and 21st century Confucianism was an ethical-sociopolitical way of teaching. “Ban Zhao's Lessons for Women” clearly demonstrated the roles of women in society and dictated the roles and customs of women. One of the traditions was that if a baby would be born and it if it had been a girl that it must be placed under the bed in order to signify her submission and role in society. “The Three Submissions” were defined by Confucianism and stated that women had to submit to men for the rest of their lives. The primary role of women was: childbearing, raising the children, and house chores such as cooking and cleaning.

One of the most influential people during classical China was Confucius and his belief system of Confucianism. There are many reasons why Confucianism rose among the other belief systems to become one of the superior and most widespread in classical China. First and most obviously, Confucianism made its success with the birth of Confucius in 551 BCE who is the author and creator of all the content in Confucianism. More seriously now, knowing the fact that Confucius and Confucianism was created during the Zhou dynasty the reasons for Confucianism at that time seemed mandatory. During the Zhou dynasty, the Chinese government was incredibly weak due to the numerous betrayals and the instability of the alliance system created by the Zhou leaders.

In traditional Chinese culture, women were inferior to men. They were not allowed to make any decisions concerning their families. Their only purpose in life was to stay home and take care of the households. "A woman's duties are to cook the five grains, heat the wine, look after her parents-in-law, make clothes, and that's all! ...she must follow the `three submissions.' When she is young, she must submit to her parents. After her marriage, she must submit to her husband. When she is widowed, she must submit to her son. These are the rules of propriety." ("The Mother Of Mencius", p.34) That's the principle that was followed in traditional China. Some of the examples of this are discussed in this

Briefly referring back to the article on the history of Chinese women, “Women’s roles were primarily kinship roles: daughter, sister, wife, daughter-in-law, mother, and mother-in-law. In all these roles, it was incumbent on women to accord with the wishes and needs of closely-related men: their fathers when young, their husbands when married, their sons when widowed” (Ebrey). Her research confirms that women in China needed to conform to men’s needs and desires. This ideal goes back to at least Confucian times. According to an in-depth book on Chinese history “Confucian values placed women as strictly subordinate to men, and this was reflected in traditional society.

Women have had changing roles in every society for centuries. Depending on the country, some women have had a harder time achieving equality. One of these countries is China. These women have faced such obstacles as foot binding to concubines. Until the twentieth century women were not considered equals in their society.

One way that some people tried to deny the sexist behavior in China is saying that women actually have more power than men. They supported this idea by saying that women can control their sons or husbands which directly reflects on controlling Chinese society. This argument is invalid because, although women did have some sort of control over their sons and husbands, it was not the kind of control that would affect their career or important decisions. The kind of control that they had was within the family. For example, if they wanted something to be done within the family and they knew they did not have the power to do it, they would try to use their husbands or sons as an excuse. However, this did not have a great effect on the important issues of their husbands and sons. Even if they were going to use the males as an excuse, the males have the ultimate decision and control of whether they will listen to the wife or disregard her wishes.

Chinese women, if a commoner, were required to follow the social system which endowed sexual monopoly of the husbands over the wives, whereas the situation of their Japanese counterparts is similar in that the praising of indentured prostitutes who supported their families was a discourse to help strengthen the patriarchal status system in early Tokugawa period. Certainly, the society changed over time and so was the position of women within it. This is clearly seen in the expansion of sex trade in Japan since the eighteenth century and the “emancipation” edict of jian status in 1723 in Qing China. However, this does not mean that women were freed from the gendered social cage. As Sommer contends, the edict reinforced the gendered stratum, implicated in that as all women were categorized as commoners, they were ultimately evaluated by their sexual history . In the Japanese case, Stanley argues that Japanese prostitutes were never really autonomous in economic terms. This accusation of being economic autonomous agents by the local elites and peasants precisely evidences the patriarchal anxiety to maintain the gendered order

These beliefs about the roles did not come out of nowhere. Confucius, the teacher of the religion of Confucianism, taught that women's roles were to look after the men in their families. Most did not question his teachings and continued to live with these “rules”. Not only the fact that they believed women were inferior to men and should stay at home, "people believed that women were both morally and intellectually inferior to men and thus needed men's control and guidance" (Tsai). While men were valued for their hard work and getting the money, women were disparaged because they “couldn’t live” without a man’s work.