Ban Zhao and Christine de Pizan

Ban Zhao, a Chinese scholar and the first female historian and Christine de Pizan, France's first woman of letters have a lot in common. Both women were ahead of their time and gave women a voice that had long been silenced in a male-dominated-world.

Upon reading Ban Zhao's "Nujie" and the brief biography of her life, I couldn't help but to remember Christine de Pizan's infamous work "The Book of the City of Ladies" (1405). Despite the fact each text takes a different approach to women's roles in society, the parallels are evident.

Ban Zhao's "Nujie" emphasizes women's conduct and womanly duties. Her text is "exclusively intended for the education of Chinese women" and to guide women in "achieving domestic harmony".

Christine de Pizan's "The Book of the City of Ladies" praises women and sets as it's goal the restoration of women as the moral and intellectual equals of men. According to Barbara Tuchman, this is the "first work in praise and defense of women" campaigning to rehabilitate the female sex.

Both books are the first of their kind that offer a guide to womanly conduct and education. Both texts are intended for a female audience and were written for the sole purpose of educating women.

The main difference?

In my opinion Ban Zhao's "Lessons for Women" is a text of submission. Although, it does offer culturally significant advice on rituals and propriety, I found it offensive and demeaning. Chapter I discusses the topic of "Humility". It was bothersome to read that women in China were conditioned to feel subservient and inferior to men from birth! From the time a baby girl enters the world, Zhao advises women to follow tradition and "lay the baby below the bed [to indicate] that she is lowly and weak, ...and should practice labor and consider it her primary duty to be industrious." I have a problem with accepting or believing that our sex is lowly and weak. I agree with the idea that women should be hard-working, but only to liberate themselves from constraining roles. She also suggests women be selfless and put others' needs ahead of her own and that they ask not to be recognized for their good deeds. I don't see how women can rise above the constraints society has set for them if they aren't selfish once in a while or are given credit where credit is due. How can females become strong individuals if they allow to have their dreams and goals pushed aside and not be validated for the sake of someone else's dreams and wishes? Shouldn't it be a give and take, and not just take and take ALL the time? Where is the dignity in that?

I don't see how she can be so bold in offering her daughters advice when she labels herself "unworthy", "unsophisticated", "unenlightened", and "by nature unintelligent", "careless" and "stupid". What message is that sending her children? That as females, they are incapable of bettering themselves? She ends the first chapter by suggesting women be diligent. Not just hard-working, but basically servants, "Let a woman retire late to bed, but rise early to duties; let her not dread tasks by day or by night [or] refuse to perform domestic duties...finish completely, tidily, and systematically." Why? Because as females we are born into and confined to slavery?

Chapter II just gets worse by stating that a man who can't control his wife is "unworthy" of her love, and a woman who can't serve her husband is undeserving of a partner.

By the end of the seven chapters (I'm in shock), Ban Zhao has basically said that women should not gossip or enjoy silliness, that they should obey and never disagree with her parents-in-law despite their rationale, and that women should do whatever it takes to be and stay in favor with their brother and/or sisters-in-laws. I've had it with the slave mentally!

One of the only things she says that I agree with is that both women and men need to be educated in order to raise their children together.

Besides that thought, I found it extremely disturbing that she states and believes " the love of one man is the crown of a woman's life; to lose the love of one man is to miss the aim in woman's life". I guess Ban Zhao would have stopped in her tracks if she lived to see the large numbers on women taking charge of their own lives independent from a man's aid, eh?

Christine de Pizan was more confident and logical about the feminine cause. Because of personal experience---losing her father and husband at an early age---Pizan learned that women could not solely depend on a man to exist. She encouraged women to become educated and learn a trade to protect themselves from the inevitable and life's surprises.

Women need more encouragement and literature that will uplift them. And although Ban Zhao and Christine de Pizan tackle the feminine cause differently, they both are pioneers in the woman's movement and are highly respected.
[Edit by="rflores on Jul 28, 12:29:44 AM"][/Edit]