- Lienü zhuan
The Lienü Zhuan (zh-cpw|c=列女傳/列女传|p="Liènǚ zhuàn"|w="Lieh nü chuan"; "Biographies of Exemplary Women") was a ca. 18 BCE book compiled by the famous
Han Dynasty scholar Liu Xiang. It includes 125 biographical accounts of women exemplars in early China, taken from Chinese histories like theChun Qiu ,Zuo Zhuan , andShiji . The "Lienü Zhuan" served as a standardConfucianist textbook for the moral education of women in traditional China for two millennia.The idealized biographies are divided into eight "juan" (卷 "scrolls; chapters"), including the eighth addendum from an unknown editor, as shown below.
Chapter Chinese Translation 1 母 儀 傳 Matronly Models 2 賢 明 傳 The Worthy and Enlightened 3 仁 智 傳 The Benevolent and Wise 4 貞 順 傳 The Chaste and Obedient 5 節 義 傳 The Principled and Righteous 6 辯 通 傳 The Accomplished Speakers 7 孽 嬖 傳 Depraved Favorites 8 續 列 女 傳 Supplemental Biographies This book follows the "lièzhuàn" (列傳 "arrayed biographies")
biographical format established by the Chinese historianSima Qian . The word "liènǚ" (列女 "famous women in history") iscognate with "liènǚ" (烈女 " women martyrs"), which Neo-Confucianists used to mean "woman who commits suicide after her husband's death rather than remarry; woman who dies defending her honor".The online Chinese Text Initiative at the
University of Virginia provides an outstanding e-text edition of the "Lienu Zhuan", including both digitized Chinese content and images of aSong Dynasty woodblock edition with illustrations by Gu Kaizhi 顧凱之 (ca. 344-405 CE) of the Jin Dynasty. The English translation is forthcoming.References
*Carlitz, Katherine. (1991). "The Social Uses of Female Virtue in Late Ming Editions of "Lienu Zhuan"." "Late Imperial China" 12.2: 117-48.
*O'Hara, Albert Richard, tr. (1945). "The position of woman in early China: according to the" Lieh nu chuan, "The biographies of Chinese women". Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press. 1955 reprint. Hong Kong: Orient Publishing Co. 1980 reprint. Westport, CT: Hyperion Press.
External links
* [http://etext.virginia.edu/chinese/lienu/browse/Lienu.html Lienu zhuan] , University of Virginia E-text
* [http://jakala.dyndns.org/www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Diverse/lienuezhuan.htm Lienuzhuan] , ChinaKnowledge (mirror)
* [http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/xwomen/ Traditions of Exemplary Women: Liu Xiang's Lienü Zhuan] , Anne Behnke Kinney
* [http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks/PM-China/ch11.htm Chapter 11: Women & Men in Society] , Gregory Smits, Topics in Premodern Chinese History
ee also
*
Gender studies
*Historiography
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