Embroidery, Writing, Leaning Against The Rail:Study Of Female Intellectuals In Jiangnan Region In The Middle Of Qing Dynasty

Female writers came in to being as a group in history of Ming and Qing Dynasty. After the prostitutes’literature in late Ming Dynasty, female writing reached another climax. In the period of Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang, with the prosperity of commodity economy, the expanding publication and printing industry, and changing trend in social culture, the society in Jiangnan region fostered a large number of female intellectuals with both intelligence and virtue, who were obsessed with reading and writing.This thesis aims at exploring the different meanings to society and female intellectuals and revealing their wisdom by analysing three activities——embroidery, writing and leaning against the railing.Thanks for the background in mid-Qing Dynasty and the culture in Jiangnan region, female intellectuals emerged in large numbers in Jiangnan region.Embroidery was a must for females from upper class. There is social expectation to females, such as quietness, femininity, elegance, virtue and so on. As to the female intellectuals themselves, it existed two states——tiring embroidery and delightful embroidery, which become a way to express female intellectuals’feeling. Besides, they had some social communication relying on embroidery.The female intellectuals’literature world included three activities——handwriting, reading and writing. Firstly, we have an acquaintance with the attitudes of males to females’ writing. In the three activities, female intellectuals experienced two states——confusion and satisfactory. As a intellectual feedback, females ran their household effectively, showing wisdom in dealing with outer world and inner heart.Leaning against the railing was another chamber activity. In this chapter, we will respectively feel males’expectation and female intellectuals’mental activity when leaning on the railing.In general, female intellectuals found a good joint between social expectation and individual thoughts, which promotes the realization of both social and personal value. During the procedure of behaving chamber activities, it manifests female intellectuals’ wisdom and proper behavior.