The Concepts On Women Of The Seven Leading Pre-Qin Philosophers

In the past the social status and living condition of the women in Pre-Qin era was concerned from the perspective of social history by researchers. However, for the Pre-Qin philosophers in such social background, their marital status and definite attitude towards women remains unknown to us. Hence it is really a valuable and interesting issue to reveal their human lives, to explore their ideas and opinions on women and to make these "divine sages" step down their altars.In this thesis, there are two parts divided to study the concepts on women of the seven leading Pre-Qin philosophers in the general background of Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.The first part is mainly concerning the social status of the women in the Spring and Autumn or Warring States periods when the seven leading Pre-Qin philosophers lived. The situation would be dissertated from three aspects: there were no voice or choice in the matrimony for them, who must obey " the command of parents and good offices of a go-between", and there was an obvious tendency of men's superior position with women's inferior position in the marriage, which constituted the main stream for women's social status in that era; all the activities of women were confined inside the home meanwhile all their rights were deprived except the rights of procreating and upbringing, they having no independent possession in the family; in the politics, in that era of declining ancient moralities, the shackles of restricting women loosed to some extent, and comparing to Western Zhou Dynasty, much more women participated in the political affairs and also gained richer experience which, however, were mainly limited to court conflicts.In brief, in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the mark of Zhou Rite was still apparent despite that moral decaying era. Under the binding of the ritual morality, the women only had an inferior position. The noble women always became the victims of the political marriage. However, influenced by the usual primitive customs, the concept of chastity was still unimportant and there was no such a concept of "being faithful to her husband to the end".The second part primarily discusses the concepts on women of the seven leading Pre-Qin philosophers, making Confucius, Mencius, Xun Zi, Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, Mo Zi and Han Fei Zi as our studying objects. And they should be divided according to four philosophical schools: Confucianism, Taoism, Moism and Legalism. The Confucianism represented the legitimate rights of the upper class in feudal society so that the women concepts of Confucians, who honored the Confucius and Mencius as their representatives, is a male-centered one that thewomen should obey the men absolutely. In various schools the Taoism is a peculiar one which shares some attention to the softness of women. From the thought of Lao Zi, we could still discover some hints of primitive female-worship which was overwhelmed by the patriarchy culture. Lao Zi the book is even considered as a philosophy of female by some philosophers. But as for Zhuang Zi, who had a Confucian idea on concept of women, did not inherit Lao Zi's concepts continuously. The Moism whose representative is Mo Zi, has a different concept between the previous two, which follows the traditional ritual but could also trail to the matriarchy of Shang Dynasty. Nevertheless, the Legalism, taking Han Fei Zi as their representative, concludes all the meaning of women into one word: "lust". They not only claim women a complete obedience to men but list women as one of "eight evils" such as thieves. As a pupil of Xun Zi, he totally succeeded to the most negative elements in the Confucianism.In short, in the background of Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. men's superior position with women's inferior position is absolutely the main stream of the concepts on women of the seven leading Pre-Qin philosophers while the exceptional hints of primitive female-worship relatively exists. Otherwise, as some contemporary scholars has a viewpoint that Confucius expresses a kin...