Research On Female Teaching Books Compiled And Circulated By Rulers Of Ming Dynasty

In the feudal ethical society of China, there had appeared a largenumber of female education books which were focused on molding"understanding wife and loving mother" as well as "dutiful daughterand chaste wife ". The female education books had been originatedfrom the Confucian classics—Family Rules of Book of Rites,further shaped by Liu Xiang’s Female Biography and Ban Zhao’sFemale Rules in Han Dynasty. After many years of development, itreached the silver age in Ming Dynasty. The society of Ming Dynastyhad built a strong atmosphere of moral education of women, therulers placed great importance on women’s morality cultivation,they were actively participating in compilation and circulation offemale education books. The female teaching books which werecompiled and circulated by the emperors and empresses of MingDynasty had been more widely spread and caused more profoundsocial influence which played a significant role in female civilizingsystem.There were lots of female education books left by the history.However, the female moral education thought were highlycoordinated with each other, which were about "women are inferior to men","the three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues","the three obediences and the four virtues","adhere to thechastity" and other feudal ethical codes of the Confucians allthrough. The women’s moral education thoughts were complicated,including looking after parents, taking care of husband and childrenand so on. In one woman’s life, she will play three kinds of roles,daughter, wife and mother. Therefore, the female teaching bookscompiled and circulated by rulers of Ming Dynasty are aroundwomen’s three roles as well, strongly trumpeting chastity, filialpiety, feminity and so forth. The rulers intend to domesticatewomen into good daughter, wife and mother who always live up tothe feudal ethical codes. Chastity was violently advocated in MingDynasty, there was a general insistence that women had a must tostick to chastity. Thus, the emperors and empresses had attachedimportance to building women’s chastity concept, and the femaleeducation books compiled and circulated by the rulers alsopreached chastity a lot. So, this paper takes the transmission andinfluence of chastity of Ming Dynasty for example, in order to verifythe rulers’ thought upon women’s moral education as well as itstransmission and influence.There is a saying that man should learn from the past, this paper,through sorting out the female education books compiled andcirculated by the emperors and empresses of Ming Dynasty, verifiesthe rulers’ thought upon women’s moral education as well as itstransmission and influence in order to find some female educationthought which are still useful today.