Thoughts Of Women’s Liberation In Tan Sitong’s Ren Xue

In traditional Chinese society, the women had been stigmatized assubservience to the men for the restriction of feudalism. Therefore, themale-dominated culture caused the women to stay in an inferior position both inmarriage and in society, even to lose their independence, making them almostdisappear. But in modern society, with the development of society and economy,and the widespread use of advanced culture, the relationship between men andwomen has change from male dominance to equality. However, there still existinequality between men and women in ideology, marriage and family, workingfield, because of the constant restriction of traditional gender culture andconservative ideology. As a result, it is an urgent issue for our society to promotewomen’s emancipation and realize the real equality between men and women.Since modern times, in order to save our nation in peril, a group of advancedthinkers began to advocate constitutional reform and modernization, including thewomen’s liberation, which was put forward as an excellent representative of theideological enlightenment. As an important aspect of the reformists, Tan Sitongpointed out directly that the root cause of the women’s oppression is the decadentfeudal order, which really symbolized the enlightenment in women’semancipation. The author will explore Tan’s thoughts about women’s liberation onthe basis of careful reading Tan’s Ren Xue, analysis of historical data and researchof documents.The first part focuses on the social background of Tan’s women liberationthought and will explore the source of his theory and the philosophy foundation.The article will reveal the relationship between Tan’s thought and his family, hissocial and cultural background. To clarify his thought source, Tan’s basicphilosophical framework will be analyzed, that is Ren----unobstructed----equal,and Tan put unobstructed at first to break the inequality, and ether is the root ofhumanity.The second part of the article is centered on Ren Xue, and explore furtherTan’s women liberation thoughts from ethics. Also, this part expounds the mainidea of his women liberation thoughts: criticizing the feudal laws, flaying thedominance of husband to wife, breaking the traditional concept of female subordination. Meanwhile, Tan tried to establish a set of new ethics withcouple’s friendship and equality and freedom in marriage, Tan advocatedmonogamy but against bigamy. He thought marriage should be autonomous, notarranged. He also suggested simple marriage without demanding dowry. On theother hand, he strongly opposed to women foot-binding, which abused womenand served as the real course of nation’s poverty. Therefore, he set upno-foot-binding organization and drove no-foot-binding movement to set thefemale body free. Besides, Tan proposed the conservative sexual morality underfeudalism. He approved reasonable human desires and advocated sex research tobreak the sexual ignorance and eliminate the harm to women.The last part mainly discusses the influences of Tan’s women liberationthoughts on the next generations. His thoughts have a deep effect on modernsociety. In modern society, if we want to keep the equality between men andwomen, women should strengthen subject consciousness and improve self-valueat first. At the same time, the authority should put some relevant measures intoeffect to guarantee the equality. Above all, the combination of emotional freedomand the responsibility is perfect for the harmonious marriage, which is a good‘Ren’ state for ethics.