End Of The Qing Dynasty Women Virtuous Concept Study

Many honorable academic achievements and collections on women history inlate Qing Dynasty have come forth under the guidance of the traditional"May 4th"view of woman history,which are very valuable and significative.However,an undeniable fact is that from the perspective of"May 4th"view ofwoman history,the rich,vivid women history full of opportunities and difficulties inlate Qing Dynasty has always been naratived as a a linear liberation history thatconsists of one after another movement in order to mobilize woman,such asabstaining footbinding,establishing women schools and promoting women's right.Gender value often presents the narration of modernity and westernized values,andhas relation with industrialization and democratization agenda.Moreover,it is oftenrelated with Chinese-style revolution,being as a symbol of the Chinesemodernization or revolution.This dissertation does not intend to rewrite the"May 4th"view of womanhistory,but to investigate the real and vivid history theme hiding in the movements ofwomen liberation from the perspective of"May 4th"view of woman history.Manyaspects of gender culture in late Qing Dynasty (mainly from 1897 to 1907)arerevealed from the view of society-culture history.This dissertation mainly focuses onthe following problems:①The several statements of gender discourse in late QingDynasty.②power relationship in the construction of gender culture in late QingDynasty and the interaction between conception construction and society reality.The basic viewpoints of this dissertation are as follows:1.The several statements leading gender discourse authority in late QingDynasty are as follows:the western missionary Lin Yuezhi's female role viewcharacterized by western ability and wisdom and Christianism morality;The Japaneseeducator Utako Shimoda's female education idea of Gentle Wives and Kind Mothers'Doctrine,relying mainly on eastern womanly virtue while Christianism moralitysubsidiary;the reformist Liang Qichao's developing womanly wisdom and newwomanly virtue;revolutionary Jin Yi advocated exploiting womanly talents andchanging womanly virtue;Government's illumination of knowledge and keepingfeudal ethical rules;Folk consensus were against western ability and wisdom,reaffirmed the position of feudal ethical rules,recognized exploiting womanly talentsand emphasized on virtue. 2.The essence of gender culture construction was an operation of power relations.Firstly,from the perspective of gender power relations,the gender cultureconstruction advocated by male elites in late Qing Dynasty is the same as thetraditional"正女"and"训女"advocated by scholar-bureaucrat,and its main aim is tomaintain and consolidate man' authority.Secondly,as a tool of symbol power competition,gender culture construction ispolitical.The original intention of different groups participating in gender cultureconstruction is not to liberate women,but to meet to their private political needs.Their gender expressions are also behalf on their political position.Their genderexpressions along with their political opinion become symbol systems representingtheir political interests respectively to compete for symbol dominion over society.Especially with the concem for female problem in society,the problem of gender as apublic discourse resource may increase constructor's symbolic power in thecompetition of social culture right and change their relative positions.3.The social conception always reflects on the mode of production and life style.Different groups in late Qing Dynasty deconstructing and rebuilding the genderconcept were naturally related with the political tendency of thinking change all overthe nation under the stimulation of national crisis,and were also based on thedevelopment of shanghai social customs.The competitive theory constructions andpractices accelerated the civilization of social customs,and promoted to destroytraditional gender concept further.