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Abstract: Prejudice against women had existed in China long before Confucianism. However, it was Confucianism that turned the marriage system into bondage of women, treating them as possessions for their husbands. As the most influential school of thought in China, Confucianism was held as the dominant social ideology by almost every feudal dynasty from approximately 200 B.C.E. to 1911, when the Qing Dynasty was toppled, and by the nationalist government, which ruled the country from 1911 to 1949. As such, it has been the chief codifier of women's behavior in China. Confucius was not the first one to view women as, at best, subhuman beings. According to Yutang Lin (1935), a famous Chinese scholar, "The fundamental dualistic outlook, with the differentiation of the Yang (male) and the Yin (female) principles, went back to the Book of Changes, which was later formulated by Confucius" (137).
Keywords: Confucianism, social injustice, Chinese women.
A famous traditional Chinese cosmology, Book of Changes divides the world into two complementary elements: the Yin and the Yang. Yin refers to the feminine or negative principle in nature while Yang refers to the masculine or positive principle in nature. In the Chinese language, the Yin, literally meaning "overcast" or "shade," is often used to refer to the female, symbolized by the moon, standing for all things dark, secret, hidden, cold, weak, and passive; and the Yang, literally meaning "the sun" and figuratively referring to the male, standing for all things bright, open, overt, warm, strong, and active. Yin Jian is the world of the dead while Yang Jie is the world of the living. This sexual inequality is vividly illustrated in a song from the Book of Poems (approximately 200 BC): "When a baby boy was born, he was laid on the bed, and given jade to play with, and when a baby girl was born, she was laid on the floor and given a tile to play with" (qtd. in Lin, 1935:137).
Nevertheless, it was at the coming of Confucianism that the marriage system became the severe bondage of women and that the cult of feminine chastity became an obsession with men (Lin, 1935:138). Confucius, like many other great ancient sages, did not leave behind him many books for his descendants, but...