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CULTURAL TRADITIONS IN CHINA PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Lynn Peppas | 32 pages | 01 Mar 2012 | Crabtree Publishing Co,Canada | 9780778775911 | English | New York, Canada China - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette The family head was generally the senior male, but if a man died before his sons were grown, his widow would serve as family head until they were of age. The law codes of the imperial period enforced monogamy and provided a variety of punishments for bigamy and for promoting a concubine to the status of wife. Men could divorce their wives on any of seven grounds, which included barrenness, jealousy, and talkativeness, but could do so only if there was a family for her to return to. There were no grounds on which a woman could divorce her husband, but divorce by mutual agreement was possible. Much was written in Han times on the virtues women should cultivate. It also contained cautionary tales about scheming, jealous, and manipulative women who brought destruction to all around them. Another very influential book was written by Ban Zhao, a well-educated woman from a prominent family. Her Admonitions for Women urged girls to master the seven virtues appropriate to women: humility, resignation, subservience, self-abasement, obedience, cleanliness, and industry. By the end of the Han period, the Confucian vocabulary for talking about women, their natures, their weaknesses, and their proper roles and virtues was largely established. The durability of these ways of thinking undoubtedly owes much to continuities in the family system, which from Han times on was patrilineal, patrilocal, and patriarchical, and allowed concubinage. Yet, because of the practice of concubinage, even if a wife bore sons, her standing could be undermined if her husband took concubines who also bore sons. Thus, so long as the family system continued without major change, women would continue to resort to strategies that seemed petty or threatening to men, and not until a woman became a grandmother was she likely to see the interests of the family in the same way men in the family did. To most of those who left written record, however, the problem did not lie in the family system, but in moral lapses. Thus, moralists held up models of self-sacrificing women for emulation, women who adhered to principles of loyalty, chastity, and faithfulness, often at great personal cost. By Song times, historical sources are diverse enough to see that women undertook a wide range of activities never prescribed in Confucian didactic texts. It is often said that the status of women began to decline in the Song period, just when Neo-Confucianism was gaining sway. Foot binding seems to have steadily spread during Song times, and explanations for it should be sought in Song circumstances, but widow chastity had very little specific connection to the Song, the idea predating the Song and the exaggerated emphasis on it developing much later. Mothers bound the feet of girls aged five to eight, using long strips of cloth. The goal was to keep their feet from growing and to bend the four smaller toes under to make the foot narrow and arched. Foot binding spread gradually during Song times but probably remained largely an elite practice. In later centuries, it became extremely common in north and central China, eventually spreading to all classes. Women with bound feet were less mobile than women with natural feet, but only those who could afford servants bound their feet so tight that walking was difficult. By contrast, the idea of widow chastity was not new in Song times. By the early Qing period , the cult of widow chastity had gained a remarkably strong hold, especially in the educated class. Childless widows might even commit suicide. At the same time that widow chastity was becoming more prevalent, more and more women were learning to read and write. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a surprising number had their poetry published. Women with poetic talents figure prominently in the great eighteenth-century novel, The Dream of Red Mansions also called Story of the Stone. Although the male hero, Baoyu, is a young man of great sensitivity, several of his female cousins are even more talented as poets. The young unmarried women, however, may have been able to acquire literary educations as good as the boys, but they had even less control over their fates than he had. Foot binding, widow chastity, parental control of marriage, and concubinage have all been eliminated. It should always be kept in mind, however, that a great many women were able to fashion satisfying lives under the old system. Are you an educator or education professional looking for professional development resources? Read about our online courses! Women in Traditional China. Additional Background Reading on Asia. Visualize the World. Museum resources and educational resources that help students develop visual literacy and a better understanding of the world. China Learning Initiatives. The Three Teachings. How Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism complement one another. The new power centres were reluctant to see the process continue and therefore refused to allow further segmentation and subinfeudation. Thus, the feudal system withered and finally collapsed. Simultaneous with the demise of feudalism was a rise in urbanization. Minor fortified cities were built, radiating out from each of the major centres, and other towns radiated from the minor cities. From these cities and towns orders were issued, and to them the resources of the countryside were sent. The central plain along the Huang He was the first to be saturated by clusters of cities. This is probably the reason why the central states soon reached the maximum of their influence in the interstate power struggle: unlike the states in peripheral areas, they had no room to expand. The period of urbanization was also a time of assimilation. The non-Zhou population caught in the reach of feudal cities could not but feel the magnetic attraction of the civilization represented by the Zhou people and Zhou feudalism. The bronze inscriptions of the Xi Zhou period — bce refer to the disturbances of the barbarians, who could be found practically everywhere. They were the non-Zhou groups scattered in the open spaces. The barbarians in inland China were forced to integrate with one or another of the contenders in the interstate conflicts. Their lands were annexed, and their populations were moved or absorbed. The strength of the large states owed much to their success at incorporating these non-Chinese groups. By the time of the unification of China in the 3rd century bce , there was virtually no significant concentration of non-Chinese groups north of the Yangtze River valley and south of the steppe. Bronze pieces attributable to non-Zhou chiefs in the late Chunqiu period show no significant difference in writing system and style from those of the Chinese states. Zhou civilization was not assimilated so easily in the south, where the markedly different Chu culture flourished. For some centuries, Chu was the archenemy of the Chinese states, yet the nobles of the Chu acquired enough of the northern culture to enable their envoy to the courts of the north to cite the same verses and observe the same manners. The Chu literature that has survived is the fruit of these two distinctive heritages. To the north were the nomadic peoples of the steppe. As long as they remained divided, they constituted no threat; however, when they were under strong leaders, able to forge a united nomadic empire challenging the dominance of the Chinese, there were confrontations. Chinese Culture, Tradition, and Customs — Penn State University and Peking University Chinese Food. Chinese Tea. China's Traditions Eating and Drinking in China. Lucky Numbers and Colors. Ancient Marriage Customs. Chinese Zodiac Signs. China's Heritage China's national heritage is both tangible and intangible, with natural wonders and historic sites, as well as ethnic songs and festivals included. Chinese Religions. World Heritage Sites. Chinese Architecture. Chinese Language. Chinese Ethnic Groups. Chinese Ancient Currency. China's Festivals China has several traditional festivals that are celebrated all over the country in different ways. Chinese Spring Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival. Dragon Boat Festival. Sisters' Meal Festival. Tibetan New Year. Shoton Festival. Learning Chinese Chinese is reckoned to be the most difficult language in the world to learn, but that also must make it the most interesting. Chinese Characters. Chinese Writing. Learning Chinese. Chinese Sayings. Symbols of China Every nation has its symbols, but what should you think of when it comes to China? You might conjure up images of long coiling dragons, the red flag, pandas, the Great Wall… table tennis, the list goes on… Chinese Dragons. National Symbols. Distinguishing features of Chinese painting and calligraphy include an emphasis on motion charged with dynamic life. According to Stanley-Baker, "Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time and rhythm in shifting space its main ingredients. The Zhou dynasty is often regarded as the touchstone of Chinese cultural development. Concepts covered within the Chinese classic texts present a wide range of subjects including poetry , astrology , astronomy , calendar , constellations and many others. Many Chinese concepts such as Yin and Yang , Qi , Four Pillars of Destiny in relation to heaven and earth were theorized in the pre-imperial periods. By the end of the Qing dynasty, Chinese culture would embark on a new era with written vernacular Chinese for the common citizens. Hu Shih and Lu Xun would be pioneers in modern literature. After the founding of the People's Republic of China , the study of Chinese modern literature has gradually been increased over time.

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