Study Of Female Literature In The Han Dynasty

It is in Han dynasty that the first peak of China's feminine literature arose. This essay aims at sorting out systematically some works of the female writers in Han dynasty, and the characters portrayed by the male writers in the same era. The female writer's works, making great breakthrough in their themes and types, usually have their distinguishing features, whereas the feminine literature created by male writers are immense in number and abundant in content, having portrayed such features as yearning wife, abandoned wife, widow, goddess, beauties, as well as the feature like CaiYan in real life. They reflect directly the political, economic, and cultural states of the women in Han dynasty, and indirectly that of these writers themselves. These works, at the same time, reflect from a specific aspect some developments in aesthetics and literature in that era. Take Han verses for example, the writers' attitude towards women has transformed from denial and depreciation to acceptance and appreciation, even admiration, which indicates the changes of women's ideas and the transformation of Han verses from stylization to individualization. The feminine literature in Han dynasty, with its excellent artistic skills and abundant content, is worthy of our reference and both its themes and artistic techniques leave us with aesthetic enlightenments.