A Study On The Chinese Women's Liberation Movement Under The Influence Of Western Ideas In The Late Qing Dynasty And Early Republic Of Chin

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China,the introduction of Western ideological trends had a great impact on China’s politics,economy,and culture.The Chinese women’s liberation movement sprouted in the wave of western learning spreading to the east,and then grew into a social revolution.Although early women’s clothing must comply with the feudal dress code,women still had a great deal of autonomy.Later,with the development of the Song Dynasty’s Neo Confucianism,women’s clothing became more conservative,and clothing firmly concealed their bodies.Before foot binding,women and men wore similar shoe decorations.When foot binding became a fashion,women suffered the pain of cutting their feet for the sake of beauty;Men,on the other hand,use the tradition of foot binding in the name of feudal ethics to confine women within the confines of their families.After the Opium War,missionaries witnessed the bad habit of Chinese women binding their feet and refuted the fact that binding their feet was contrary to human ethics and violated God’s love for their children.Therefore,they promoted the Chinese women’s foot liberation movement through means such as newspaper promotion,establishment of anti foot binding associations,and establishment of schools.The Chinese anti foot binding movement takes European and American women as examples,and uses newspapers to promote the idea that foot binding is harmful to maternal health,leading to racial weakness and hindering national prosperity.Traditional Chinese women have not really had a systematic school education.The place for women’s education is limited to the family,and the teaching content mainly focuses on moral education for women,supplemented by labor education.After Cheng Zhu’s Neo Confucianism took over the orthodoxy of Confucianism,the moral requirements for women became even more stringent.However,there has been a claim that ’a woman without talent is virtuous’ regarding the requirements for women’s talent and education,resulting in most women being illiterate and lacking in knowledge.In order to spread religious teachings,missionaries took the lead in establishing women’s schools in China,teaching women’s religious teachings and basic natural science knowledge.Afterwards,a complete women’s education system was established from early childhood to university.Under the influence of missionaries,Chinese scholars of insight established women’s schools run by the Chinese people,following the experience of their predecessors.Women’s education has gradually shifted from being mainly run by the private sector to being advocated by the government and jointly run by the government and the people,and China’s self run women’s schools are becoming increasingly prosperous.Chinese women find it difficult to have a say in the patriarchal family,whether before or after marriage.The "Three Cardinals and Five Constants" encompass all the survival rules of women.Women have neither the right to choose marriage nor the right to divorce and remarry,and are trapped in their families for life under the constraints of feudal ethics.Chastity has not only become an ethical and moral requirement for women,but also a rule directly related to their life and death.In modern times,the idea of freedom and equality in the West was introduced into China,which challenged the traditional concept of "men are superior to women" and also broke the barriers of male and female isolation.Advanced intellectuals strive to refute the feudal and backward concept of marriage and love,and enthusiastically promote the free and independent marriage and love system in the West.They encourage women to dare to socialize,have the courage to decide on their own marriage,and break free from family barriers.Traditional Chinese women were bound by feudal ethical norms and not only had to endure the pain of foot bound skin,but also had to endure the spiritual barrenness of lack of talent and intelligence.Women are trapped within the confines of their families,unable to travel and socialize freely,and unable to participate in national affairs and social governance.At a time when the Western feminist movement was constantly on the rise,feminist ideas were introduced into China with Westerners and international students.The spirit of Western women’s independence and autonomy,as well as their efforts to pursue gender equality and participate in national affairs,greatly impacted Chinese intellectuals at that time.They took Western women as the benchmark and advocated that women should participate in work and the social revolution.After Marxism was introduced to China,Chinese intellectuals made full use of Marxist principles to conduct new analysis of the Chinese women’s liberation movement and put forward new suggestions for the development of the women’s movement.With the development and growth of the women’s liberation movement,Chinese women have finally freed themselves from the punishment of foot binding and have a healthy and complete body.The promotion of women’s education has given women the same educational rights as men.Women went from being illiterate to studying abroad.After completing their studies,they became active in various sectors of society,actively advocating for women’s rights and establishing women’s schools,continuing to contribute to the Chinese women’s liberation movement.This article examines the development of the Chinese women’s liberation movement in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China from the perspective of the spread of Western learning to the east,and clarifies the relationship between Western thought and the Chinese women’s liberation movement.Attempt to analyze the impact of Western thought on the women’s liberation movement,as well as the characteristics of the women’s liberation movement during this period.