Research Proposal on Chinese Literature

I.Proposed Research Topic: Comparative perception of Women in Chinese literature

II.Purpose(s): This research proposal examines various modes of perception of women in Chinese literature in two periods – Yuanshou era during the reign of Emperor Han Wudi of Western Han Dynasty (122 BC – 117 BC) and Kaiyuan period during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (713 AD – 741 AD). Through a wide range of materials including poetry, fictions, essays and drama of these two eras, this research essay seeks to explore perspectives on issue relating to women such as how the image of women changed throughout Chinese history, what factors contributed to these changes and why women became a literary subject for Chinese society in Imperial China.

III.Significance of the research: Our group aims to see how gender equality has changed throughout Chinese imperial history. Furthermore, we aim to find historically the reasons on the paradigm shift of such changes through Chinese literatures.

IV.Background: Chinese literatures played an important part in defining a family and traditional women. The book of changes or Yi Jing illustrates the role of women and family during a Confucianistic dogma emphasized by the state. Submission seems to be main theme in glorifying and defining the ideal women in Chinese literature. As such, women are often seen as submissive, loyal and often look down upon. This act of suppression is completely undermining the function of women. Throughout life, women were subjected to the 三从四德 (San Cong Si De) or three submissions, which stipulated that she follows the wishes of her father, submitting herself to her husband and obeying her son. In contrast, the definition of women’s roles and family changed drastically during the Tang Dynasty. Confucian ideas were somewhat dismissed and women became equal. The idealization of Chinese women seems to change in terms of ideology between these two great dynasties. In conclusion we want to prove that this concept is not fixed or rigid but rather a process of synthesizing many factors which contributed to such transformation of perception on women in Chinese literatures.

V.Methodology: An in-depth analysis of various Chinese literatures will be conducted on our part, to identify the perception of women living during these periods. This empirical research will be guided generally by the interpretive perspective on our part which focuses on correlating these meanings and perspectives of writers that lived during the era mentioned above. Certainly, these meanings will be negotiated and discuss which resulted in different perceptions of women.

VI.Conclusion: We hope to disprove argument that Chinese civilizations do not undermine the gender equality. We also hope to get a moral understanding behind these didactic texts designed to show women how to behave, perception of women living in that era and literary works composed by or about women as key protagonists and antagonists varies throughout these two eras.

VII.References: Our sources will be divided into two – primary and secondary sources. In primary sources, biography, prose and translated ancient texts will be use when necessary. In secondary sources, books, journal articles and citation of reputable internet material will be used. Books and articles cited while doing the research will be listed in a bibliography at the end of the essay as shown below.

1.Chung Eva, Lau Joseph, S.M. Hegel, Robert E, Paradoxes of Traditional Chinese Literature (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press,1994) p. 263

2.Daniel Hsieh, Love and Women in Early Chinese Fiction (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, c2008) p. 331

3.Donald Holzman, Chinese Literature in Transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Aldershot, Great Britain; Brookfield, Vt., USA: Ashgate, 1998) p.189

4.Li Yu-Ning, Images of Women in Chinese Literature (Indianapolis, Indiana: University of Indianapolis Press, 1994) p. 222

5.Wendy Larson, Women and Writing in Modern China (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1998) p. 267

6.Zheng Enbo, Zheng Qiulei, Chinese Literature (Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House, 1999) p. 191