Woman Warrior-Elements of Confucianism

CONFUCIAN ANALECTS QUOTES

"The Superior Man is all-embracing and not partial. The inferior man is partial and not all-embracing."

"The Five Relationships are applied to three thousand offenses, but none of them is greater than that of being un-xiao. Those who coerce their lords have no regard for superiors; those who reject the Sages have no regard for law; those who reject xiao have no regard for parents. That is the road to great chaos.”

"Disorder is not sent down by Heaven, it is produced by women."

"Those who cannot be taught, cannot be instructed. These are women and eunuchs."

"A woman should look on her husband as if he were Heaven itself, and never weary of thinking how she may yield to him."

SCHOLAR XIAO MA ON THE ANALECTS

 "Women always have been fighting for a way out of the Confucian shadows."

THE WOMAN WARRIOR QUOTE

"You must not tell anyone," my mother said, "what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born." 

Modern Confucian Chinese Women

                Confucianism is an ancient Chinese religion which emphasizes restoring traditional morality. Confucius lived in late 6^th century when war was rampant and sin was everywhere. He believed in the innate goodness of human beings. However, like John Locke, Confucius believed that his violent culture was corrupting society, and could only be fixed from the inside out. Thus, Confucius stressed a return to ancient values of community. Stressing the worth of collective over individual happiness is a key feature of Confucianism. It informs believers’ fundamental basic morality and world view.

                Xiao, or filial piety, is a central Confucianism component, and is seen as the substance of society.  It refers to a type of familial devotion unlike any found in Western communities. Xiao includes within it a hierarchy of the five principle relationships which comprise Confucian societies. It was believed that if each individual submitted to his or her stipulated role, then society would operate harmoniously. Thus, that which is good for humanity dictates proper conduct for individuals. In this relationship system, women are subordinate: submissive to fathers, husbands, brothers, and the collective community.

                Confucianism is an ever present ideology in The Woman Warrior, especially the “No Name Woman” story. This tale describes the horrific death of Kingston’s aunt, and reflects the Confucian value which subverts women’s individual freedom for the sake of community.  The villagers savagely attacked No Name for bearing a bastard child long after husband’s departure. They believed her selfish actions brought disgrace to the community as a whole, which would breed social discord: “The frightened villagers, who depended on one another to maintain the real, went to my aunt to show her a person, physical representation of the break she had made in the ‘roundness’” (Kingston 12).  No Name’s behavior opposed the prescribed role of traditional Confucian women. She did not put communal values or Confucian teachings above her personal prerogative. Such an ostensibly wayward woman disgraced Kingston’s village, and they disciplined her selfishness.  “The villagers punished her for acting as if she could have a private life, secret and apart from them” (Kingston 13). From our Western view this attack is barbarous and unwarranted. But from the Confucian lens which sees only the whole, No Name’s betrayal was unforgivable: “After the villagers left… the family broke their silence and cursed her….’Death is coming. Look what you’ve done. You’ve killed us. Ghost!’” (Kingston 14). But in evil hour No Name plucked, she ate: And the community as a whole felt the wound; one which would fester and sore unless sutured with Confucian-style vengeance.

Modern Chinese Exhibition of Xiao Value