The documents provide information about traditional Chinese attitudes towards women's roles from ancient times through the 20th century. Document 1 discusses how Confucian texts emphasized women's subordination and obedience. Document 2 notes that while customs restricted women, they still had influence as mothers and wives. Document 3 explains that footbinding was meant to enhance femininity and status, not cripple women. Document 4 outlines how Confucian ideology confined women domestically and they became more educated in later centuries.
1. WORLD HISTORY SECTION II
Note: This exam uses the chronological designations B.C.E. (before the common era) and C.E.
(common era). These labels correspond to B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (anno Domini), which
are used in some world history textbooks.
Part A (Suggested writing time—40 minutes) Percent of Section II score—33 1/3
Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-9. (The
documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.) Write your answer on the lined
pages of the Section II free-response booklet.
This question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical documents.
Write an essay that:
␣ Has a relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents. ␣ Uses all of
the documents. ␣ Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as
possible. Does not simply
summarize the documents individually. ␣ Takes into account the sources of the documents and
analyzes the authors’ points of view. ␣ Identifies and explains the need for at least one additional
type of document.
You may refer to relevant historical information not mentioned in the documents.
1. Using the documents below analyze the Chinese attitudes towards the roles that women
play in ancient Chinese society.
Historical Back Ground: This is from the start of Chinese Society to around the 20th
Century.
Go On To The Next Page
2. Document One
Bentley, Jerry H., and Herbert F. Ziegler. "Productivity and Prosperity during the Former Han." Traditions &
Encounters A global perspective on the past. 3rd Edition . Vol. . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher
Education, 197. Print.
During the Han dynasty, moralists sought to enhance the authority of patriarchal family heads by emphasizing
the importance of filial piety and women’s subordination to their menfolk. The anonymous Confucian Classic
of Filial Piety, Composed probably in the early Han dynasty, taught that children should obey and honor their
parents as well as other superiors and political authorities. Similarly, Ban Zhao, a well-educated women from
a prominent Han family, wrote a widely read treatise entitled Admonitions for Women that emphasized
humility, obedience, subservience, and devotion to their husbands as the virtues most appropriate for women.
To confucian moralists and government authorities alike, orderly, patriarchal families were the foundations of
a stable society.
Document two
"Women of All Nations." Primary Source Media Documents: History Resource Center:
Modern World. Detroit: Gale, 1908. Gale World History In Context. Web. 6 Dec. 2010.Document URL
It is easy enough to catalogue a Chinese woman's clothes, to describe her appearance and the customs to which
she must conform, to explain her legal and social status and the duties she must fulfil. But, when we have done
all this, we have merely the shell; of the living, breathing woman we hardly catch a glimpse. Writers who
adopt this photographic method leave us with the impression that the Chinese woman is so hemmed in with
restrictions that she scarcely has a personality, that she is so brought up by rule that she can hardly have a soul
to call her own. Human nature, however, is the same all the world over, and there are reasons for believing
that, although etiquette not only enforces the seclusion of the Chinese woman but forbids even the mention of
a Chinese wife in society, yet women occupy, whether as mothers or wives, a position of great importance and
considerable influence in the Middle Kingdom. In any case, a Chinese woman would hardly agree with the
foreigner in his estimate of the indignity and helplessness of her position.
Go On To The Next Page
3. Document Three
Ko, Dorothy. "Footbinding." Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. Ed. Valerie Steele. Vol. 2. Detroit:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005. 106-109. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 Dec. 2010.
Footbinding was specific to and unique to traditional Chinese culture. Its various names conveyed its
multifaceted image in Chinese eyes: chanzu (binding feet) called attention to the mundane action of
swaddling the body with a piece of cloth; gongwan (curved arch) described a desired shape of the foot
similar to that of a ballerina in pointe shoe; jinlian (golden lotus, also gilded lilies) evoked a utopian
image of the body that was the subject of fantastical transformation. A related poetic expression of lianbu
(lotus steps) suggested that foot-binding was intended to enhance the grace of the body in motion, not to
cripple the woman.
The much-maligned practice has often been compared to corsetry as evidence that women were
oppressed in cultures East and West, modern and traditional. The comparison is apt albeit for different
reasons. The goal of both practices was to modify the female figure with strips of carefully designed and
precisely positioned fabric, and in so doing alter the way the wearer projected herself into the world.
During its millennium-long history, footbinding acquired various cultural meanings: as a sign of status,
civility, Han Chinese ethnicity, and femininity. But at its core it was a means of body modification, hence
its history should be sought from the foundational garments of binding cloth, socks, and soft-heeled
slippers.
Document Four
"Women, Status of." Encyclopedia of Modern China. Ed. David Pong. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 2009. 82-87. Gale World History In Context. Web. 9 Dec. 2010.
In the nineteenth century, the vast majority of Chinese women received no schooling and were
economically dependent on men. Their lives were circumscribed by patriarchal Confucian ideology,
according to which the ideal woman was confined within the private sphere, where she served, and was
subservient to, first her father and then her husband and his family. In the late nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, however, Confucian values and institutions eroded, radical new discourses on women emerged,
and major improvements in women’s status were achieved.
Document Five
"DBQintrosamples." Stone Bridge High School. Web. 9 Jan. 2010. <cmsweb1.loudoun.k12.va.us/
50912581611627/lib/.../DBQintrosamples.doc>.
Ex5: Women in Ancient China were looked down upon. The general idea was for them to be submissive to their
father, husband, and then to their son. They were there to do chores, such as cooking, cleaning, and tending to the
children according to Liu Hsang and Fu Xang. But according to Ban Zhao and also the Buddhist song found in the
caves at Dunhuang women have virtue and potential to become developed. The women should be admired for their
completed tasks, not just ignored.
Go On To The Next Page
4. Document Six
Allison, Amy. Life in ancient China. San Diego: Lucent, 2001. Print.
Suspect as the advice of diviners may have been, ultimately more destructive to the dynasty was the poisoning of
the atmosphere at court by the spread of factions, all plotting for power. The eldest son of the empress could
generally expect to be appointed heir apparent-that is , the person who would ascend to the throne when the current
emperor died. However the empress’s position (and that of her offspring) was far from secure. She could suddenly
be dismissed by order of the emperor or even handed poison and commanded to commit suicide. Succession, and
therefore the continuity of the dynasty, often depended on the ever-shifting relationships of the emperor and his
many wives and concubines.
Among these women, the competition to be appointed empress, or imperial consort, could be fierce and even
deadly.
Document seven
Seeger, Elizabeth. The pageant of Chinese history. New York: D. McKay Co.,
1962. Print.
When a little girl was six or eight years old the binding began. Her prettly little foot was bandaged with
strips of white cloth in such a way that the four small toes of each foot were bent in under the sole and the whole
foot was narrowed. She had to walk, of course, on the joints of these bent toes, and you can imagine how much it
hurt. Then the foot was also shortened by wrapping it in tight bandages that drew the ball of the foot nearly back
to the heel, bending the arch of the foot up like a bent bow.
Document eight
Bentley , Jerry H. "Early Society in East Asia." Traditions & Encounters. Ed. Emily Barrosse. 3rd ed. Boston, MA:
Lyn Uha, 2005. 123., . . Print.
Chinese society vested authority principally in elderly males who headed their households. Like its counter in other
regions, Chinese society took on a strongly patriarchal character- one that intensified with the emergence of large
states. During neolithic times Chinese men wielded public authority, but they won their rights to it by virtue of the
female line of their descent Even if it did not vest power and authority in women, this system provided solid reason
for a family to honor its female members. As late as Shang times, two queens posthumously received the high
honor of having temples dedicated to their memories.
Women occasionaly played prominent roles in public life during Shang times. Fu Hao, for example, the consort of
King Wu Ding whose tomb has thrown important the later Shang and Zhou dynasties, however, women lived
increasingly in the shadow of men. Large states brought the military and political contributions of men into sharp
focus. The ruling classes performed elaborate ceremonies publicly honoring the spirits of departed ancestors,
particularly males who had guided their families and led especially notable lives. Gradually, the emphasis on men
became so intense that Chinese society lost its matrilineal character. After the Shang dynasty not even queens and
empresses merited temples dedicated exclusively to their memories: at most they had the honor of being
remembered in association with their illustrious husbands.
Go On To The Next Page
5. Document Nine
Chinese Foot Binding (7). 2009.
flickriver. Web. 10 Dec. 2010.
Document Ten
Schafer, Edward H., and Time-Life Books. Ancient China. New York: Time-Life Books, 1967. Print.
Go On To The Next Page
