Women of Later Han

Abstract

Though Confucian teachings might require them to subjugate themselves to the interests of their husband and his family, women of the Han period had a degree of personal autonomy, with rights to property, divorce and remarriage, and some capacity for independent action. At the head of the state, moreover, an empress dowager held regency power during an imperial minority. Despite their formal freedoms, however, in practice most women found their fate and fortune subordinated to the interests of men; and while all people were under constant threat of disease and death, a woman faced particular danger in time of childbirth. Based on accounts from the Hou Hanshu of Fan Ye and other sources, the present study considers some aspects of this situation.

張磊夫

儘管儒家教義可能要求她們屈服於丈夫和家庭的利益，但漢時期的婦女享有一定程度的個人自主權，財產擁有權，離婚和再婚權，以及一些獨立行動的能力。此外，在國家統治的層面，皇太后在皇帝年幼期間握有攝政權。然而，儘管她們享有形式上的自由，在實踐中，大多數婦女的命運卻屈從於男人的利益；雖然所有人都經常遭受疾病和死亡的威脅，但婦女在分娩時面臨的危險尤為重大。據范曄的⟪後漢書⟫和其它資料的敘述，本研究探討了這一情況的某些方面。

Keywords:

• Han China
• women
• behaviour
• moral teachings

關鍵詞：:

• 漢帝國
• 婦女
• 行為
• 道德教育

Notes on Contributor

Formerly reader in Chinese at the Australian National University, Dr Rafe de Crespigny is now an adjunct professor in the Centre for China in the World at that University. Recent publications include A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD) (2007), Imperial Warlord: A Biography of Cao Cao 155–220 AD (2010), and Fire over Luoyang: A History of the Later Han Dynasty 23–220 AD (2016), all published by Brill, Leiden – Boston.

Notes

* Renderings of official titles in this article are those used by de Crespigny, Biographical Dictionary [deC 2007], based upon the system established by Homer H. Dubs and Hans Bielenstein. There is an account of the administrative structure in deC 2007, pp. 1216–1236, and a comparative listing at pp. 1236–1241.

1 SoS 69.1819–1834 has the major biography of Fan Ye, with a shorter version in NS 33.848–856. Bielenstein 1954, pp. 14–15, has an account of Fan Ye and his Hou Hanshu; there is an entry in Knechtges – Chang 2010, pp. 218–222 [by Knechtges]; and particular aspects are considered by Egan 1979 and Eicher 2016.

2 The phrase lienü 列女 has varied renderings and interpretations, including “exemplary,” “worthy,” “virtuous,” “categorized” and “arranged.” I leave it in transcription.

3 HHS 84/74.2781: 賢妃助國君之政, 哲婦隆家人之道, 高士弘淸淳之風, 貞女兗明白節. The list is rendered slightly differently by Mou 2004, p. 76, and by González 2009, pp. 115–116 with a variant in note 8. The categories, however, are clear. Appendix D of Mou 2004 has a useful table at pp. 240–241.

4 Twitchett 1962, p. 27.

5 E.g., deC 2007, pp. xi–xii.

6 Hinsch 2009, p. 104, citing Twitchett as above, and referring also to Holmgren 1981.

7 Further details of the Liang family power are discussed below at note 68.

8 HHS 10B.438; deC 2007, pp. 454.

9 HHS 10B.444: 毎宫人孕育, 鮮得全者; deC 2007, pp. 456–457.

10 HHS 34/24.1179–1181; deC 2007, pp. 775–776.

11 Ban Zhao’s biography is at HHS 84/74.2784–2792. The number in brackets – e.g., [5] – shows the order in which the biography appears in HHS 84/74.

Shishu was the style name (zi 字) of the Lady Ban’s husband; his personal name (ming 名) was Shao 壽. Swann 1932 has a full account of Ban Zhao’s life and work; more recent essays are deC 2007, pp. 8–10, and Lee – Stefanowska 2007, pp. 103–106 [by Wong Shiu-hin]. Ban Biao was the father of Ban Gu 班固, compiler of Hanshu, and was involved in that work; another son, Ban Chao 班超, became a leading general in central Asia: HHS 40/30A.1323–1330, 40/30A-B.1330–1386 and 47/37.1571–1586.

12 HHS 84/74.2800–2803; deC 2007, pp. 28–29.

13 HHS 84/74.2796; deC 2007, p. 646. Ma Lun was a daughter of the scholar Ma Rong 馬融; her sister Zhi 芝 was also known for learning.

14 HHS 84/74.2794–2795 and 2799–2800; deC 2007, pp. 41 and 885–886. There is confusion about Shuxian Xiong, for the local history Huayang guo zhi and the gazetteer Shuijing zhu tell an identical story of a woman named Xian Luo 先絡, and have a very similar account of a Lady Huang Bo 黃帛: deC 2007, pp. 745 and 342.

15 HHS 84/74.2795; deC 2007, p. 630. In a later incident, she was herself killed by bandits.

16 HHS 84/74.2796–2797; deC 2007, p. 1097.

17 HHS 84/74.2781–2782; deC 2007, p. 337.

18 HHS 84/74.2782–2783; deC 2007, p. 799.

19 HHS 84/74.2799; deC 2007, p. 1114.

20 HHS 84/74.2797; deC 2007, p. 333.

21 HHS 84/74.2798–2799; deC 2007, p. 925. The lady’s father Xun Shuang 荀爽, however, a celebrated scholar-official, emphasised the union of husband and wife, so the precise attribution is doubtful (HHS 62/52.2052).

22 HHS 84/74.2798; deC 2007, p. 354.

23 HHS 84/74.2784; deC 2007, p. 1094.

24 HHS 84/74.2792–2793; deC 2007, pp. 1019–1020.

25 HHS 84/74.2793–2794; deC 2007, pp. 420–421.

26 HHS 84/74.2783–2784; deC 2007, p. 690. The Lady’s biography in HYGZ 10B.153 records her personal name. Her husband Jiang Shi 姜詩 was celebrated for his devotion to his mother – including his rejection of his wife – and later became a worthy official; he is mentioned in HHS 84/74 and has his own biography in HYGZ 10B.148, see deC 2007, p. 377.

27 Kinney 2014, pp. xxxiii–xxxiv.

28 Each section has fifteen biographies, with an eighth collection of fifteen supplementary accounts, possibly incorporated later by Ban Zhao, see Kinney 2014, pp. xlix–l. This is more organised than Fan Ye’s much smaller collection of seventeen.

29 HHS 84/74.2786–2792; Swann 1932, pp. 82–89.

30 HHS 84/74.2790 and 2791; Swann 1932, pp. 87–88 and 97 note 51.

31 Bohu tong is translated by Tjan Tjoe Som 1949–1952. See also note 38 below.

32 See the bibliographic reconstruction of Yao Zhenzong 1936–1937, pp. 2385–2386.

33 Hulsewé 1985, p. 139 item D 56.

34 Considering the situation under Han, Hulsewé 1986, p. 89, notes an indication that infanticide was not normally treated as murder, but was commonly punished by forced labour rather than by death.

35 Kinney 1993 discusses this question. As in her note 31, Bielenstein 1967, pp. 15–16, presents female infanticide as a major factor in the steady state of Chinese population from Han through Tang. See also deC 2016, pp. 264–265 note 120, quoting Bielenstein and arguing against Chü T’ung-tsu 1972, p. 24. Beard 2015, pp. 315–316, notes that the abandonment of new-born children is well attested in Rome at the same period, with indications that girls were less wanted than boys, partly on account of their dowries. On modern times see Ho Ping-ti 1959: p. 58 has a graphic description of parents drowning their new-born daughter; pp. 58–59 has a table of sex ratios in various provinces: in all cases boys outnumber girls, sometimes more than 130 to 100; the normally expected proportion at birth is 107 to 100. At pp. 274–275 Ho Ping-ti notes the pressure of population on economic resources in the early nineteenth century, and contemporary proposals for female infanticide as a means to ease the problem.

36 Beard 2015, p. 316.

37 Shorter 1983, pp. 18–19.

38 Bohu tong 9.1b-2b; Tjan Tjoe Som 1949–1952, pp. 245–246. On the domination of the conference by New Text Confucianists and the general disregard of its decisions, see Tjan Tjoe Som 1949–1952, pp. 163–164, and deC 2016, pp. 107–108 and 127–128. HHS Annals record the capping of each emperor who came to the throne as a minor. Emperor He 和, son of Emperor Zhang 章, was twelve sui when he was capped in 91 (HHS 4.171; deC 2016, pp. 127–131).

39 HHS 10A.400.

40 HHS 10A.418; deC 2016, pp. 142–142.

41 HHS 10A.415 and 416. See also at note 68 below.

42 At the beginning of Nüjie, Ban Zhao remarks that she herself had married at fourteen sui, see Swann 1932, p. 82.

43 E.g., Shorter 1983, pp. 98 and 241. Chapter 5 discusses “Pain and Death in Childbirth” and Chapter 6 “Infection after Delivery.” At p. 74 he lists different presentations of the foetus: in one sample 93% were normal; 3% were breech (feet, knees or hips) and probably soluble; 4% (traverse or with the face presenting badly) are seriously difficult to deal with. See also Lee Jen-der 2005, pp. 218–221, and – on classical Greece and Rome – Demand 1994, pp. 71–78, and Beard 2015, p. 314. Rousselle 1992, p. 298, suggests the risk was five or ten percent for each birth, but she misreads her authorities.

44 Shorter 1983, pp. 183–188, and see Stuart 1911, pp. 59 (Avena fatua [Qiaomai 雀麥]) and 207–208 (Hordeum vulgare [Damai 大麥]).

45 Needham 1974, p. 286. The citation is to a sixth-century text, but both mercury and cinnabar (mercury sulphide HgS) were used as medicine during Han: e.g., Needham 1980, pp. 184–185.

46 Hopkins 1965, pp. 134–135.

47 Dean-Jones 1994, p. 172, and Hopkins 1965, p. 140 with note 47.

48 Van Gulik 1951, p. 34; on the origins of that work, see his p. 21.

49 Yates 2005, pp. 155–156 note 94. In note 95 Yates refers also to mercury as a means to end pregnancies: cf. note 45 above.

50 Hopkins 1965, pp. 140 and 143.

51 The locus classicus is the story of Onan, who spilled his seed upon the ground rather than impregnate his late brother’s widow, and was punished by God for this failure to consummate the levirate: Gen. 38:9–10. Hopkins 1965, pp. 143–144, cites disapproval of this practice by Jewish rabbis and by St Augustine. (Identification of “the sin of Onan” as masturbation is a modern misinterpretation.)

52 Van Gulik 1951, pp. 7–8.

53 Lo – Li 2010, p. 382, citing the medical text from Mawangdui identified as MWD 4.

54 SGZ 5.156; deC 2010, pp. 34–35, but cf. Cutter – Crowell 1999, p. 90. Zhao Feiyan 趙飛燕, consort of Emperor Cheng 成 of Former Han, had been a dancer and singer, but in a private household (HS 97B.3988).

55 Bohu tong 9.5a-6a; Tjan Tjoe Som 1949–1952, p. 251; see also Huang – Goldin 2018.

56 Wilbur 1943, p. 163, citing HHS 73/63.2360, and 75/65.2439, suggests that Yuan Shao 袁紹 – as immediately following – was the son of his father by a concubine who had formerly been a slave. In further complication, Yuan Shao was later adopted by his uncle, elder brother of his father, and thus became the senior male of his family in that generation, see deC 2010, pp. 19 and 60.

57 Holders of noble fiefs were more restricted. The marquis Liu Chang 劉敞, a member of the imperial clan, sought to replace his principal wife with a concubine but was ordered to restore his spouse to her proper place and her son to the succession (HHS 82/72B.2730; deC 2007, pp. 491–492). Emperors, however, faced no such restrictions.

58 See deC 2007 sub voce.

59 See deC 2010, pp. 411–416.

60 Hinsch 2005, p. 80, discussing van Gulik 1961/2003, claims that he over-emphasises the incidence of lesbianism. Information, however, is too slight for any judgement.

61 SGZ 5.156–157; Cutter – Crowell 1999, pp. 91–92.

62 Hsia 1968, pp. 201–202, quotes Katherine Anne Porter’s description of Lady Chatterley’s Lover as “a long, grey, monotonous chain of days, lightened now and then by a sexual bout,” and applies it firmly to the celebrated novel Jinpingmei 金瓶梅 (Golden Lotus).

63 More detailed accounts of the system are in deC 2007, pp. 1216–1219, and deC 2016, pp. 108–116.

64 The biography of the Lady Dou is in HHS 10A.416–416; her personal name is not recorded.

65 An indication is given by Cai Yong, who describes how court was held in time of regency. The dowager was enthroned on the right of the imperial dais, facing west, and the young sovereign took place opposite her. Two copies were prepared of any document, and each received their copy. (The presence of a very young emperor was presumably symbolic rather than real.) In his Introduction to the Chapter on the Eunuchs, however, Fan Ye remarks that much of their influence came from control of communication with a regent dowager, secluded in the women’s apartment (HHS 78/68.2509). Formal court appearance was one thing, but regular intimate access was more valuable.

66 Some believe that empress dowagers were obliged to govern through their male kinsmen, and Bielenstein 1980, p. 152, identifies the office of general-in-chief (da jiangjun 大將軍) with active regency power. This interpretation is mistaken.

67 The biography of Dowager Deng is at HHS 10A.418–430; deC 2007, pp. 121–128. Her government is discussed by deC 2016, pp. 169–207. A scholarly woman, she was a close friend of the Lady Ban Zhao, see note 11 above.

68 Accounts of these women are in deC 2007 sub voce; deC 2016 has accounts of these events at pp. 215–225; pp. 239–244, 270–273, 281–294 and 303–309; pp. 362–368; and pp. 437–447.

69 On two occasions in 145 and 146, when Liang Ji and his sister the Dowager were choosing a child emperor, the Grand Commandant (taiwei 太尉) Li Gu, highest official of the bureaucracy, urged that a mature man of the imperial house be appointed. Liang Ji faced him down in court, however, the majority acquiesced and Li Gu was dismissed. His candidate was later compelled to kill himself, and Li Gu was executed: deC 2016, pp. 273 and 281.

70 Loewe 2010, p. 299.

71 Bielenstein 1980, pp. 107–108.

72 In 121 Emperor An enfeoffed his former wet-nurse Wang Sheng as Lady of a county in Henei 河內, and in 133 Emperor Shun enfeoffed his former wet-nurse Song E 宋娥 in the same commandery (HHS 46/36.1558, and 61/51.2022). In 159 the mother of Deng Mengnü 鄧猛女, second empress of Emperor Huan, was named Lady of Chang’an, and in 181 the mother of the Empress He of Emperor Ling was granted a county in Nanyang (HHS 10B.444 and 449).

73 On double tax applied to large households, see Ch’ü T’ung-tsu 1972, pp. 4–9 and 252. Established by Qin at the initiative of the minister Shang Yang 商鞅 in 359 BCE, the levy was maintained through Former and Later Han, being abolished only in the mid-third century by the newly-established Jin 晉 dynasty (SJ 68.2230 and JS 30.925; Ch’ü T’ung-tsu 1972, p. 252).

74 Holmgren 1985, pp. 4–5, citing Ch’ü T’ung-tsu 1972, pp. 271–272 and 283. The first example relates to Zhuo Wenjun 卓文君, wife of the poet Sima Xiangru 司馬相如 of Former Han (SJ 117.3000–3001 and HS 57A.2530–2531; Loewe 2000, pp. 751–752), the second to Huan Shaojun (note 17 above). See also note 82 below. The term “dowry” may be loosely used for such property transferred at the time of marriage, but it is clear that the woman held ownership: it was a marriage settlement rather than a dowry. See notes 77 and 97 below, and note 4 to D 149 in Hulsewé 1985, p. 169.

75 Swann 1932, p. 87, Bohu tong 9.5a; Tjan Tjoe Som 1949–1952, p. 251.

76 The “Seven Reasons for Divorce” are enumerated by the Woman of Distinction, wife of Bao (Su 蘇) of Song (Song Bao nü zong 宋鮑女宗) in Lienü zhuan 2.7; Kinney 2014, pp. 88–89, cited by Nylan 2010, p. 275. The last of the list offers contrast to the marital promise of the Christian tradition “in sickness and in health”; though this obligation too has often been honoured in the breach, see, e.g., Shorter 1983, p. 9.

77 HHS 81/71.2684; Chü 1972, pp. 303–304, deC 2007, p. 408.

78 DGHJa 14.1b; deC 2007, p. 13.

79 HS 64A.2791; Chü 1972, p. 276. See also the case of the Lady Xiahou: HHS 68/58.2230; deC 2007, p. 883.

80 Likewise, in the 18th and 19th centuries in the West it was not unusual for a man or a woman to outlive two or three wives or husbands.

81 See note 12 above, also Chü 1972, p. 320, and deC 2010, p. 343 note 29.

82 E.g., Ch’ü T’ung-tsu 1972, pp. 42–44 and 267–269; the wife of Sima Xiangru, as in note 74 above, was also a widow.

83 Holmgren 1985, p. 5. See also note 74 above.

84 Lishi 15, pp. 10b-13a.

85 See notes 17 and 18 above.

86 SGZ 25.704. Two of the lady’s sons had previously been killed by rebels; this one was probably not her own.

87 JS 31.948; deC 2007, pp. 1039–1040.

88 HHS 10B.450; deC 2007, p. 798.

89 DeC 2007, p. 1144, citing Sanfu juelu.

90 HHS 21/11.755–756; deC 2007, p. 442.

91 HHS 33/23.1137–1146; deC 2007, p. 1157.

92 SGZ 1.16; deC 2007, p. 18.

93 HHS 81/71.2692–2693; deC 2007, p. 1094.

94 DeC 2010, 199–200.

95 SGZ 37/Shu 7.956–957; deC 2007, p. 688.

96 E.g., SGZ 12.376 and Hulsewé 1955, p. 112. See also Nylan 2010, p. 272.

97 Hulsewé 1986, pp. 533–534, and id. 1985, p. 169 item D 150.

98 HHS 31/21.1108; deC 2007, pp. 757–758.