For those who know chinese history: scholars this one's for you?

Question

In what ways would Ban Zhao's lessons support Chinese patriarchy?

Also: What are some beneficial primary sources to have to understand how close Ban Zhoa's lessons were to the time?

Answer 1

In what ways would Ban Zhao's lessons support Chinese patriarchy? Er, in every way imaginable. Ban Zhao offered women seven lessons:

1. Humility (the female is the weaker of the two genders and thus, the more humble)

2. Husband and Wife (the sole role of a woman as a wife is to serve her husband)

3. Respect and Caution (a wife is a yin to the husband's yang)

4. Womanly Qualifications (the ideal wife must behave, speak, look, and work as is expected of a married woman)

5. Whole-hearted Devotion (a wife must be devoted to the husband, meaning, she is to tolerate concubines and is not to re-marry after the husband's death)

6. Implicit Obedience (a wife must be obedient towards the husband's parents)

7. Harmony Between Younger In-laws (a wife must contribute to maintaining the harmony in the husband's siblings' relationships, which in practice means that the wife is supposed to make sure that her sisters-in-law remain submissive to their husbands if they are married and to her husband and brothers-in-law if they are not)