Women in Early Imperial China

(Paperback, Second Edition)

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After a long spell of chaos, the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE220 CE) saw the unification of the Chinese Empire under a single ruler, government, and code of law. During this era, changing social and political institutions affected the ways people conceived of womanhood. New ideals were promulgated, and women's lives gradually altered to conform to them. And under the new political system, the rulers' consorts and their families obtained powerful roles that allowed women unprecedented influence in the highest level of government. Recognized as the leading work in the field, this introductory survey offers the first sustained history of women in the early imperial era. Now in a revised edition that incorporates the latest scholarship and theoretical approaches, the book draws on extensive primary and secondary sources in Chinese and Japanese to paint a remarkably detailed picture of the distant past. Bret Hinsch's introductory chapters orient the nonspecialist to early imperial Chinese society; subsequent chapters discuss women's roles from the multiple perspectives of kinship, wealth and work, law, government, learning, ritual, and cosmology. An enhanced array of line drawings, a Chinese-character glossary, and extensive notes and bibliography enhance the author's discussion. Historians and students of gender and early China alike will find this book an invaluable overview.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION Hinsch's lucid framework and thorough bibliography make this the first place to send students [of] Chinese women's history... CHOICE PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION Hinsch's book, focusing as it does on the complexity of social roles that women play in different social contexts, offers a fresh and different perspective on the life of women in early imperial China. A fitting new additionto the volume of recent scholarship on the status of Chinese women... China Review International PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION Hinsch's book, focusing as it does on the complexity of social roles that women play in different social contexts, offers a fresh and different perspective on the life of women in early imperial China. A fitting new addition to the volume of recent scholarship on the status of Chinese women. China Review International PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION Hinsch's lucid framework and thorough bibliography make this the first place to send students [of] Chinese women's history. CHOICE

Author Bio

Bret Hinsch is professor in the Department of History, Foguang University, Taiwan.