Ban Zhao
Ban Zhao | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ban Zhao, as painted by Gai Qi, 1799 | |
| Born | AD 45 or 49 |
| Died | 120 (aged 70–71) China |
| Spouse | Cao Shishu |
| Parent | Ban Biao |
| Relatives | Ban Chao (brother) Ban Gu (brother) |
| Ban Zhao | |
|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Cáo Dàgū |
| Middle Chinese | |
| Middle Chinese | /d͡zɑu dɑiH kuo/ |
Ban Zhao (
Family
.jpg)
Ban Zhao was born in Anling, near modern Xianyang, Shaanxi province. At age fourteen, she married a local resident named Cao Shishu and was called in the court by the name as Venerable Madame Cao (曹大家). Her husband died when she was still young. She never remarried, instead devoting her life to scholarship.[4] She was the daughter of the famous historian Ban Biao and younger sister of the general Ban Chao and of historian Ban Gu. She was also the grandniece of the notable scholar and poet Consort Ban.
Work
Ban Zhao contributed greatly to the completion and transmission of
Ban Zhao also wrote the Lessons for Women. This treatise on the education of women was dedicated to the daughters in Ban Zhao's family but was circulated immediately at court. It was popular for centuries in China as a guide for women's conduct.[5]
Some modern interpretations of Lessons for Women claim that it is a founding text of Confucian feminism.[6] One study asserts that it establishes a "different concept of agency ... forged out of the powerlessness of individual women, which is familial, communal, indirect, and conferred by others."[7] Others, however, have argued that Ban Zhao's assertions of the value of a woman's mediocrity and servile behavior in Lessons for Women are incompatible with feminism and that attempts to present her as a feminist are misplaced.[8] Since her text presents a woman's main task as submission to a husband or father and dismisses the significance of women's intelligence or talent, this has been seen as a Confucian endorsement of injustice against women.[9]
She taught
In 113, Ban Zhao's son Cao Cheng (曹成) was appointed an official in Chenliu Commandery. Ban accompanied him to Chenliu and wrote about the journey in Dong Zheng Fu (東征賦), which has survived. After her death, her daughter-in-law, née Ding, gathered her works in the three-volume Collected Works of Ban Zhao, but most have been lost.[12]
Legacy
Ban Zhao crater on Venus is named after her.
Family
See also
- Book of Han
- Pamphile of Epidaurus, a contemporary female Greco-Roman historian of Roman Egypt
Notes
- ^ Wang 2003, p. 177
- ^ Perkins 2000, p. 25
- ^ Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History By Susan L. Mann page 88
- ^ Bennet Peterson 2000, p. 99
- ^ Donawerth 2002, p. 14
- .
- S2CID 144813841.
- JSTOR j.ctt1wn0qtj.11.
- JSTOR 41675091.
- ^ a b Bennet Peterson 2000, p. 102
- ^ Donawerth 2002, p. 14
- ISBN 978-0-7656-4182-3.
References
- Bennet Peterson, Barbara (2000). Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century. M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
- Hinsch, Bret (2014). "Ban Zhao". In Brown, Kerry (ed.). Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography. Vol. One. Berkshire. pp. 222–235. ISBN 978-1933782-66-9.
- Donawerth, Jane (2002). Rhetorical Theory by Women Before 1900. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 337. ISBN 978-0-7425-1717-2.
- Perkins, Dorothy (2000). Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture. New York, N.Y.: Roundtable Press. ISBN 0-8160-2693-9.
- Wang, Robin (2003). Images of women in Chinese thought and culture: writings from the pre-Qin. Hackett Publishing Company.
- Zhao, Ban. "Excerpts From Admonitions for Women".
External links
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