Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Li is embodied by deference to ancestors. It inspires the family to achieve success
through hard work, thrift, and deferred gratification of marriage and material acquisitions.
Many in the West attribute the current prosperity of Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong,
Japan, and China to the influence of Confucius and his teachings.
WOMEN IN IMPERIAL CHINA
In China women have traditionally been subservient to men. The Yin attributes of cosmo-
logy (all things dark and evil) reinforce that subservience. Foot binding was its most pain-
ful form. In the tenth century, foot binding was a mark of the aristocracy. Women with tiny,
bound feet could not be expected to do hard work or move about quickly. By the fourteenth
century, it had spread to other social classes. “It became so widespread that western observ-
ers in the nineteenth century found it almost universal, not only among the upper classes
but throughout the farming population.” [212]
Foot binding began in childhood. The ideal was a foot not longer than three or four
inches. Toes were forced under the sole to make the foot narrower. And the foot was made
smaller by forcing the big toe and heel closer, “so that the arch rose in a bowed shape.” [213]
In this way, the arch was broken and the foot could bear no weight. Tiny feet became an ob-
ject of erotic desire, and girls with normal feet could not expect an advantageous marriage.
Marriage itself was far from a matter of mutual love. Marriages were arranged by families
and marriage brokers. Often the bride saw her husband for the first time at the wedding ce-
remony. If she were ugly or deformed and if he could afford it, he was free to take a second
wife. If the situation were reversed, as was often the case, and the husband were old, the
bride had no such privilege.
Despite women's place in the social order, China's history is also illuminated by rich
and powerful women. In the second millennium BCE, one of the wives of the emperor “was
an active participant in politics. She had a domain of her own, including a walled town, and
could mobilize three thousand warriors at her personal command.” [214]
 
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