Struggle, Expectation And Call: A Study Of Women's Educational Thoughts In The Book Of Songs

The Book of Songs is the first anthology of verse in China,it is rich in content and is a powerful historical material for studying the life of the people of the Western Zhou Dynasty and even the three generations.About one-third of The Book of Songs has more or less relations with the women of that time,and it covers many aspects of education content and thoughts such as labor production,marriage,funeral,and moral education of female.Under the condition of relative shortage of historical materials in pre-Qin period,it undoubtedly provided us with an important window into the life of women at the time.Of course,the contents of The Book of Songs are all literary works,but because of this,these contents may be more vivid,lively,and lifelike than regular historical materials,which is more rare and more important for new history.The study takes The Book of Songs as the starting point,uses historical research methods,document analysis methods and other methods,and combines with the contents of the early Chinese etiquette works-The Rites of Zhou,Rites and Book of Rites to study the education content and expectations of women in The Book of Songs from the three dimensions of society,family,and the personal relationship between men and women.What’s more,the article also combines with feminist theory to study women’s appeals to society,family,and the personal relationship between men and women.This research strives to objectively and rationally restore education content and thoughts of female in The Book of Songs in order to reveal the true face of female education at that time.This article is divided into five parts:The first chapter introduces the development background of The Book of Songs and briefly describes the evolution of education thoughts of female from the clan society to the Western Zhou Dynasty.The development of female education from the clan society to the Western Zhou Dynasty has undergone a fundamental change.With the emergence and establishment of the "patriarchy",women from having a respected and noble status gradually to being vassals of men,and education thoughts of female have undergone an evolutionary process from simple to polite.The second chapter explains the social education thoughts of women in The Book of Songs.The influence of society on female education is mainly carried out through folk customs,including clothing,marriage custom and sacrifice of female.By transform social traditions,the purpose of social education of women is mainly to conform to etiquette and law,and to be a woman with both beauty and virtue.Combining with the background of society demanding men’s expedition and severe taxation at that time,under the social oppression and imprisonment,women’s demands for society were mainly reflected in the contradiction between thought and grievance,loyalty and chastity.The third chapter studies the family education thoughts of women in The Book of Songs.Family education is the main way for women to educate,and mother is the most important teacher for women.Due to the low level of productivity and the narrow scope of women’s activities,the content of family education mainly includes labor education and marriage education of female.By teaching women,the family hopes that women would keep their place and be virtuous wives and mothers.In addition,women long for the understanding of their families and the freedom of marriage,and they desire their husband’s loyal love and reasonable status in family.Chapter four explores the education thoughts of personal relations between men and women in The Book of Songs.First of all,personal education is reflected in the respective aesthetic ideas of men and women.Secondly,men hope to find a woman who is enthusiastic and suitable for marriage;women can show a spirit of defending their personality when facing violence,they can bravely pursue when they meet someone they like,and they can call for freedom from the bottom of their hearts when facing all kinds of oppression.The fifth chapter is the summary,reflection and enlightenment of education thoughts of female in The Book of Songs.Through thinking about the deeds of Xuan Jiang,Wen Jiang,Qi Jiang and Confucius’ "deletion of poems",and combining with the local matchmakers who organize blind meetings for unmarried young people in the middle of spring in The Rites of Zhou,it can be found that the times of The Book of Songs are not far away from the clan society,and the social atmosphere and ideas are more open and more free,it is not like the traditional etiquette of later generations which completely constrains and constrains thoughts and behaviors of female.Through an in-depth study of education thoughts of female in The Book of Songs,it is found that women can still pursue equality and call for freedom under the oppression of social etiquette,and women still desire to be independence and expect to bloom their lives even though they are under the constraints.Therefore,the views on female education in ancient China cannot be generalized,it needs to be viewed objectively and rationally,and we should criticize and inherit the excellent education content and thoughts of female in The Book of Songs.