Chinese history's name list of famous women is all too short. From antiquity to the last imperial dynasty, woman's plate was in the home. She was deprived of formal education. Why should she master anything beyond the level of needlework, cooking and child care? Only courtesans might have other requirements. This doesn't mean that women were adjudged of no importance. As stipulated in the Book of Changes, which is between 3,000 and 4,000 years old, good family relations were the basis of world peace and harmony. The Chinese have never been unaware that a well-regulated family depends on the wife as well as the husband.
China does have a number of prominent women, however, and a few of them will be presented in this article. The roles they played were important in Chinese history and culture. These ladies also were personalities in their own right and their stories are as fascinating as those of any heroines in the West.
Lei Tsu was the wife of the fabled Yellow Emperor, Huang Ti, who is supposed to have lived about 5,000 years ago. China and the world are said to be indebted to her for the cultivation of silkworms, the processing of their output into thread and fabric, and for the embroidery that is still one of China's folk art glories. The very name Lei Tsu is revealing of the Empress's gifts. Lei conveys the three elements of woman, field and silk. The character for Tsu means ancestor. One might suspect that Lei Tsu received her name ex post facto - after the invention of silk making rather than before.
The story goes like this: While strolling through the imperial gardens, the Empress saw a worm spinning itself into a shell and got the idea of unraveling the Cocoon into a continuous thread of silk. She then went on to invent the loom and initiated and supervised the raising of silkworms and the weaving of silk fabrics. All this was more than 2,600 years before Christ.
At the least, the Empress came to be the patroness of the silk industry, just as the Emperor was the patron of agriculture. She presided at spring rites to honor the Goddess of Silkworms and picked the first mulberry leaf of the year. Court activities ceased while the imperial ladies devoted themselves to raising silkworms. At the end of the silkworm season, the women sent their Cocoons till the Empress and there was a feast of celebration.
Silk carried China's fame to Rome and the known world of the time. The Huns of the north were repelled during the reign of Emperor Wu (140-88 B.C.) and a corridor opened to the west of the Yellow River in present Kansu province. Chinese power was extended into what is now Sinkiang and parts of Central Asia. The great Han general Pan Ch'ao garrisoned the Western Regions for 30 years and sent emissaries to Central Asian countries and as far as the Persian Gulf. This was the wondrous silk route. The caravans started in Changan of Shensi and passed through the corridor to Afghanistan, Iran and Asia Minor. Persian merchants were the middlemen who put the precious silk in the hands of Roman ladies-and reaped a towering profit.
Without any doubt, a woman began it all-even if she was some simple country maid rather than the beautiful Lei Tsu.
Mencius (372-289 B.C.?) was China's second greatest philosopher-teacher-writer. Only Confucius ranks higher. Mencius fixed the Confucian concepts of humanity, justice and the goodness of human nature on the Chinese people. His education and his accomplishments are largely attributable to his mother, Lady Chang.
There are two stories about Lady Chang, the paragon of motherly virtues. His father, died when Mencius was a child and he lived with his mother near a cemetery. Observing the funeral processions that often passed in front of his house, young Mencius liked to imitate professional mourners who lamented the dead. He dug holes in a pretense of grave digging. Perceiving the cemetery had a bad influence on the child, Lady Chang moved to the center of the city. The new house was adjacent to a commercial quarter and Mencius played at business transactions. He spread out his belongings and bargained with other children. Lady Chang moved again, this time close to a school. Mencius now observed the rites and etiquette of the time and learned the ceremonies and sacrifices. He imitated masters and pupils and this was the permanent influence of his life.
One day Lady Chang learned that Mencius was a truant. When he came home early, she cut the threads spread on her loom. When Mencius asked her why, she replied: "Like weaving, learning requires patience and assiduity. Giving up study before acquiring knowledge is like cutting the threads before weaving them into cloth." Mencius understood the error of sloth and applied himself to study for the rest of his life.
In the time of the Emperor Yuan of Han, the Chinese frontiers of the north were frequently penetrated by the Huns. To appease these ferocious barbarians, the Chinese court sometimes sent beautiful girls to the chieftains as gifts.
Emperor Yuan sent a girl of extraordinary beauty from his own household. The sad fate of Wang Chao-chun has inspired a great number of poems and dramatic verses. This is a quatrain written for the lovely exile.
The wind is cold on the snow of the Celestial Mount.
I take my cithara and play on horseback.
My song finished, I forget that tl1e moon is shining on the Blue Lake.
I contemplate it as if I were still dwelling in the Palace of the Han.
The Record of the Historians by Sse-Ma Ch'ien (145-86 B.C.) is the model for dynastic histories and the first of its kind. But it stops at about the first century before Christ. An ambitious scholar named Pan Piao planned to carry the record on from that point. He died while still collecting materials. A scholarly son, Pan Ku, took up his father's unfinished task. Before its completion, he became involved in a political intrigue, was thrown into prison and perished. So Emperor Ho entrusted the work to Pan Ku's gifted sister, Pan Ch'ao, who brought the history down to the Christian era.
This lady historian was also the preceptress of the Emperor's court ladies. She wrote seven chapters of moral maxims for them.
Women of ancient China stayed indoors. When they went out, they were carried in a sedan chair with curtains tightly drawn. They were not to be looked upon by the hoi polloi.
In the 5th century A.D. lived a heroine named Hua Mu-lan. She was a daughter of perfect filial piety and a good housekeeper. She sat by the window weaving and her parents liked to listen to the loom. One day the loom was silent and they heard their daughter sighing.
"Of what are you thinking?" her mother asked.
Mu-lan said she had seen the order levying troops and her father's name thereon. She had no brother old enough to go to war and wanted to disguise herself and take her father's place.
Touched by her devotion, the parents consented. She bought a horse, a saddle and other equipment.
In the morning she said farewell to her parents. In the evening she stopped on the bank of the Yellow River. The following day she set off again and spent that night on the bank of the Black River. Now she could hear the neighing of the barbarian horses in the Yen Mountains.
After 10 years and hundreds of battles, Mu-lan returned and presented herself before the Emperor. Twelve times he offered her gold and high office. Mu-lan didn't want to be a minister. She asked only a camel to carry her home once more.
The Tang dynasty was strong and prosperous. Its second sovereign, the Emperor T'ai Tsung, was an able leader and talented administrator.
In his reign, the Chinese Empire was extended to Mongolia in the north, Sinkiang in the west, the northern part of Korea in the east and the northern part of Vietnam in the south. Chinese political power reached as far as India.
However, T'ai Tsung was short-tempered. He did not like to be contradicted. Ministers who dared counsel him faced execution.
Fortunately, he was abetted by a wife of extraordinary perspicacity. Queen Chang Sun saved many faithful ministers who were indispensable to the progress of China.
Li Ch'ing-chao, China's most celebrated poetess, was born in Chinan, Shantung province, in 1081. Her education was more extensive than that of the average girl.
At 20, she was married to Chao Ming-ch'eng, a student at the Imperial Academy. The couple lived happily together. She joined her husband in collecting ancient manuscripts and works of art. Each new acquisition was an occasion for celebration. If a book, they would read, correct and classify it. If a painting, they would unroll and enjoy it together. If a vase, they would examine and admire it.
Every evening after dinner, they poured a cup of jasmine tea. Then they pointed to the bookshelf. Each asked the other in what volume and on what page a specific subject was to be found. Every right answer won a cup of tea. They enjoyed themselves immensely and sometimes the tea was spilled.
Li Ch'ing-chao's happiness did not last long. Chao Ming-ch'eng had to leave for distant regions on official missions and died prematurely.
So it is that sensitivity and melancholy are the predominent qualities of Li Ch'ing-chao's poetry. Her style is sober and her expression original.
Her first period is that of the young bride. At that time she wrote delicate, graceful verses. The second period is that of separation, when she composed her best poems. These are melancholy but illuminated by hope. The third period is that of her widowhood. The following poem is an expression of her anguish.
Andante
Searching, searching,
Seeking, seeking,
Alone, alone,
Solitary, solitary
Sad, sad,
Grieved, grieved,
Mournful, mournful.
The season is now warm, now cool,
The most difficult to bear.
Two or three cups of light wine
Resist not the rapid evening wind.
The wild geese pass by
And grieve my heart,
For they are old acquaintances.
The soil is loaded with yellow chrysanthemums.
Withered and spoiled,
Who cares to pluck them?
Alone I wait by the window.
How can the day get dark?
At dusk, the fine rain on the plane tree
Falls drop by drop, drop by drop.
To express all this,
Can the mere word "sadness" suffice?
Ch'iu Chin was a lady revolutionist. Born in 1874 to a bourgeois family in Shaohsing, Chekiang province, she took part in conspiracies against the Manchu regime. As director of the Ta T'ung School in Hangchow where the revolutionaries held their meetings, Ch'iu Chin was arrested after an unsuccessful insurrection and condemned to death.
Ch'iu Chin, the first woman revolutionist of China, joined the Tung Meng Hui (predecessor of the Kuomintang) while in Japan, where this photo was taken. (File photo)
She was brought before the judge, given a writing brush and ordered to write down the names of her comrades. Instead, she wrote a line of verse in which her family name Ch'iu-which means autumn-was repeated.
Autumn wind and autumn rain grieve me to death.
This revolutionary-poetess was put to death. This is one of her patriotic verses:
In front of wine
Willingly I would give up a thousand ounces of gold for a good sword,
Fain would I give my zibeline robe in exchange for wine.
But I set the highest value upon my ardent blood
Which, when shed, would have the force of blue waves.
Since establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, women have been emancipated. They have equal rights and use them. No profession or occupation is closed to them. Under the leadership of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese women are making outstanding contributions in social affairs. Among the organizations they have established are the School of Orphans of Servicemen, Moral Endeavor Society, Chinese Women's Troop Comforting Association, Women's Advisory Committee for the Promotion of the New Life Movement, Association for Protection of Wartime Children, Friends of Wounded Soldiers' Association, Central Women's Working Association and Chinese Women's Anti-Aggression League.
Despite all these out-of-home activities, Chinese women are the same devoted wives and mothers they always have been. Recognition will be accorded to the modern women of Taiwan on Chinese Women's Day March 8.