China Blog Post

In the the passage written by Ban Zhao, titled "Lessons to Women", Zhao outlines the proper way for women to behave.  She emphasizes that women should be submissive and serve their husbands and their families.  Her passage relates easily to Fu Xuan’s poem “To Be a Woman” as in the poem he describes how a woman is thought to be less important than the men and the way they are expected to submit to men and how girls aren't as valued as men, even when they're first born they aren't celebrated the way boy babies are celebrated.  Zhao also mentions this in her piece when she mentions, "Now to lay the baby below the bed plainly indicated that she is lowly and weak, and should regard it as her primary duty to humble herself before others."  This idea contrasts greatly with the image that Fu Zuan gives us of boys when he says, "Boys stand leaning at the door/ Like Gods fallen out of Heaven."

The poem from Liu Xijun, “Lament,” is also a piece that shows the suppressed state of women at this time, and accents parts of Zhao's essay quite effectively.  Xijun talks about being married off into a strange land, and Zhao mentions that she was married and sent to serve in her husband's home when she was fourteen years old.  Xijun's last lines are, "O to be a yellow snow goose/floating home again!"  She longed to go home to be with her family, but Zhao seems not only content there with these strangers, but she seems to feel it is so much her duty that she wouldn't even want to be anywhere different.

All three of these sources show that women were oppressed and taught that they should be submissive and weren't worth as much as the men, but interestingly enough, Zhau's attitude toward the situation was opposite of the two poems.  She didn't seem to feel like there was anything wrong with it, it was just the way the world for her was and those were the duties she felt were important, while Xijun and Zuan felt bad for the women in their society.