Article Writing Homework Help

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on how are female gender and identity constructed in the works of classical chinese literature. A female was raised in a family aware of the fact that she will get married and live in another household. She was brought up to become a stranger’s wife and a daughter-in-law. In a Chinese female’s life, marriage was the most significant occurrence. Marriage was regarded as the transfiguration from a girl to womanhood (Ember & Melvin 365).

In his book The Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature, Mair (2000) brings out the Confucian idea of a woman as a person who is cautious and intelligent. From the script about autumn floods, a woman is seen as an individual who understands fundamentals. She is someone who knows the happenings. therefore, she is not hurt by events. It implies that the value of a woman is in the level of integrity she holds. She is a force that is relied on to safeguard against extreme dangers. The text states ‘she who has ultimate integrity will neither be burned by fire nor drowned in water’. In addition, a woman is a person who has the potential to assess risks and determine whether she is in danger or safe. She is somebody who holds her peace in times of prosperity and misfortunes. The text concludes ‘integrity lies in heaven. From this perspective, the Confucian doctrine is seen to place a woman in the position of having a divine relationship that enables her to have integrity. This implies that women with integrity were respected in the society for their potential to maintain harmony and enforce rules of families. From the perspective of divine connection, a woman was expected to purify, arrange and cleanse in preparation for the food and wine offerings to the ancestors (Mair chapter 17).

However, a woman was seen as weak sex compared to a male in Chinese society. The three rituals performed on a girl child on the third day after birth was aimed at defining her role in the society.