Exemplary women of early China : the Lienü zhuan of Liu Xiang / Anne Behnke Kinney, translator and editor.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-300) and index.
Translations of selcted chapters from Lienüzhuan 列女傳.

The maternal models -- The worthy and enlightened -- The sympathetic and wise -- The chaste and compliant -- The principled and righteous -- The accomplished rhetoricians -- The depraved and favored -- Supplemental biographies.

"In early China, was it correct for a woman to disobey her father, contradict her husband, or shape the public policy of a son who ruled over a dynasty or state? According to the Lienü zhuan, or Categorized Biographies of Women, it was not only appropriate but necessary for women to step in with wise counsel when fathers, husbands, or rulers strayed from the path of virtue. Compiled toward the end of the Former Han dynasty (202 BCE-9 CE) by Liu Xiang (79-8 BCE), the Lienü zhuan is the earliest extant book in the Chinese tradition solely devoted to the education of women. Far from providing a unified vision of women's roles, the text promotes a diverse and sometimes contradictory range of practices. At one extreme are exemplars resorting to suicide and self-mutilation as a means to preserve chastity and ritual orthodoxy. At the other are bold and outspoken women whose rhetorical mastery helps correct erring rulers, sons, and husbands. The text provides a fascinating overview of the representation of women's roles in early legends, formal speeches on statecraft, and highly fictionalized historical accounts during this foundational period of Chinese history. Over time, the biographies of women became a regular feature of dynastic and local histories and a vehicle for expressing and transmitting concerns about women's social, political, and domestic roles. The Lienü zhuan is also rich in information about the daily life, rituals, and domestic concerns of early China. Inspired by its accounts, artists across the millennia have depicted its stories on screens, paintings, lacquer ware, murals, and stone relief sculpture, extending its reach to literate and illiterate audiences alike."--Publisher's Web site.

JapSin I, 8
Gu Zhouli 古周禮.
Manuscript, twenty-two folios, written in the standard script in fairly good calligraphy. Bamboo paper in one ce. 21 x 15 cm.

The Latin inscription on the title page reads: “Textus originalis libri cheu-li seu Rituum Imperii cheu.”

The Zhou Li, known also as Zhou Guan 周官 “Offices of Zhou” or Zhou Guan Jing “Canonical offices of Zhou,” was actually a description of the constitution of the Zhou dynastic government. It has practically nothing to do with rites, as the title suggests. It was composed of six neatly organized sections, each dealing with a major component of the Zhou dynastic government: the Office of Heaven 天官, or the Prime Ministry; the Office of Earth 地官, or the Office of Education and Social Welfare; the Office of Spring 春官, or Office of Rites and Ceremonies and Protocol; the Office of Summer 夏官, or the Department of Defense and Security; the Office of Autumn 秋官, or the Department of Justice and Punishment; and the Office of Winter 冬官, or the Department of Public Works and Economic Production. In its present form, the last chapter is missing and replaced by a curious document entitled Kao gong ji 考工記 or “A Record of Researches on Manufacture.”
The Zhou Li has been translated by William Raymond, The Ceremonial Usage of the Chinese (Chow lé), (Gingell, London, 1852) and Edouard Biot, Le Tcheou-li ou rites des Tcheou (Paris, 1851/Peking, 1939).

For another version, see Jap-Sin I, 34/37, 4/1–4/2 (Zhouli zuanzhu).
Source: Albert Chan, SJ, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 6-7.