A Study On The Women Of Citizen's Stratum In Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty is one of the societies reforming age in the history of Ancient China. And progresses are achieved in many aspects of the society, especially the thriving on the field of commodity economy. On such background, the citizen stratum comes forth and enlarges gradually. Breaking through the thought of "Men outside, while women at home", Women of citizen stratum take the lead in contributing to the social produce, commodity circulating and cultural and entertainment. As a new colony, what is the lifestyle and the characters of the Women of citizen stratum? Aiming to exhibit the actual image of the women of citizen stratum and veraciously reappearing and perfecting the bi-sexy society of the dynasty, standing on the history, using the concepts and methods of sociology and women study, this paper focus on the lifestyle and image of the women of citizen stratum in Song Dynasty according to the literary work.There are seven chapters in this thesis. The first chapter is a preface, which gives general definition to the citizen's stratum of Song Dynasty, reviews the research situation and elaborates the basic historical data used in and the research purpose.The second chapter briefly describes the social background on which the Song citizen's stratum lives in. On this basis, the author research into the composition and structure of the society and the women of citizen stratus and the floating of the society. The author point out that the women of citizen's stratum were divided into three levels, namely high, medium and low level, and marriage is the primary floating way.The third chapter talks about the family life of women in citizen's stratum of Song Dynasty from their housework, education and cultural entertainment and the family relationships. in the author's opinion, their family lives are colorful, which reflect unique social features of citizen's stratum in Song dynasty.The fourth chapter briefly introduces the social activities of women of citizen stratum of Song Dynasty from outside works, community activities, religious activities and others aspects. Compared with other dynasties and classes, social environment in which women of citizen's stratum lived is loose and open. Their social and economy activity has a large development and changes quickly along with the development of the commodity economy and prosperity. Their faces widely appear in public activities and operational activities. They have more space and freedom in social activities and social economic activity.The fifth chapter describes the social status of women of citizen's stratum of Song Dynasty and the women of citizen's stratum in Confucian meaning. The public status of citizen women in society is multeity and gradual-changed. Because the Confucianism, as a top cultural, has little impact to the thought and culture of citizen's stratum, thus it's has little effect on the women of citizen's stratum.Using the historical materials such as literary work, vernacular novels and epitaph and according to the single standard, the sixth chapter dissertate the women image from positive-negative aspect in order to bring back their social image at that time. In the author's opinion, the women images, regardless the positive or the negative, are all the reflection in the masculine-central consciousness and which embody the controlled and killed feminine independent personality. Although we might refine some life information about women at that time, because this images are all in concept, not in real life, this image shaped in the male-centered consciousness are not truly represent the real world of that dynasty.The last chapter is the conclusion which points out women of citizen's stratum takes shape and strengthens with a new kind identity in Song Dynasty which characterized by its widen activity space, multeitied lifestyle and social status and self-consciousness.