{"product_id":"9781910736579","title":"Instructions for Chinese Women and Girls","description":"\u003cp\u003eLittle known today, \u003cem\u003eInstructions for Chinese Women and Girls \u003c\/em\u003ehas a storied place in Chinese history as the first educational text for women and a standard reference for them from the first century AD all the way into the nineteenth. Polymath author Ban Zhao was perhaps China’s greatest female scholar. A writer, historian, mathematician, and astronomer, she was also a tutor to the ladies of the imperial court and a close confidant of Empress Deng. Although Ban Zhao completed a monumental historical tome on the Western Han dynasty, she would be best remembered for this slighter work – a short handbook of female etiquette in which she advises submissiveness in order to achieve household harmony. A kind of women’s \u003cem\u003eArt of War\u003c\/em\u003e, there is more yielding than winning in the guidebook, but at least Ban Zhao was a pioneer in asserting that girls should be educated.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eInstructions for Chinese Girls and Women\u003c\/em\u003e is an easy, enjoyable read. It contains passages preaching subservience that will make the modern reader cringe and\/or laugh, but there is interesting nuance there for readers with an open mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe husband commands, the wife obeys;\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eYet let there be mutual grace and love;\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are timeworn, universal complaints:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe present generation’s children are very bad;\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThey have learned nothing.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd there are humorous warnings against immoral immodesty:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eImitate not those rude women who with confusion eat, drink, and talk;\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDrinking wine until crazy, they shamefully vomit their food;\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn this state going home, before reaching their house, many shameful, rude acts will they do.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis Camphor Press edition has illustrations and a new introduction from Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of the memoir \u003cem\u003eGood Chinese Wife\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Camphor Press Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47043866427632,"sku":"9781910736579","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781910736579_p0.jpg?v=1763628328","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781910736579","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}