Category: Chinese Women

Wu Zetian was only one woman emperor of ancient Central Nation. She was born in AD 624 in Bing Zhou where was in modern-days Shanxi Province. At the age of 14, she was selected to be a Cairen which was a title of a lower concubine in the period of Tang Tai-Zong who was the…

In the moral principles of ancient China, a woman should be loyal to her husband. As a daughter, she should filially respect her parents. If a woman’s husband and her father had conflict, what would she do? In 697 BC, Zheng Li-Gong (鄭厲公), the monarch of the Zheng State, wanted to kill his prime minister…

Yue Yangzi (樂羊子) lived in Henan in the Eastern Han Dynasty. One day, he walked outside and saw a piece of gold on the road. He thought that someone lost it, but since no other one saw it, so he pocketed it with an overjoyed and nervous mind. At home, he showed the gold to…

This story took place in Gai State of the Spring-Autumn Period, a country in modern-days Shandong Province. A tribe of Rong Nationality captured this state, and killed the monarch. In order to take advantage of the ministers of Gai State, the chief of the tribe ordered, “If a man dare to kill himself, his wife…

Nan Zi was the daughter of the monarch of Song State, and became the second wife of Wei Ling-Gong who was the monarch of Wei State. She was very beautiful, and she was dissolute. Wei Ling-Gong loved her profoundly, and satisfied all hopes of Nan Zi. Nan Zi wanted to meet her elder brother Gongzi…

This story took place in the times of Jin Wu-Emperor (晋武帝) which was the first emperor of the Western Jin (西晋) Dynasty. In the Hejian (河间) Jun (郡) where was in modern-days Hebei Province, a pair of young persons loved each other, and they privately promised to marry each other. Later, the young man was…

This story took place in 541 BC in the Zheng State. The Zheng State was a country in the Spring-Autumn Period in modern-day Henan Province. There was a man called Xuwu Fan. His younger sister was beautiful. Two nobles, Gongsun Chu and his elder cousin Gongsun Hei, loved her. In ancient China, a grown man…

The Song of Mulan is a famous ballad about a heroine. In this ballad, this heroine is called Mulan. But nowadays people always call her Hua Mulan. This girl is so famous that Walt Disney produced an animated cartoon in 1998 and a live-action movie in 2020 about her story. Mulan has been an important…

Mencius was a great Confucian thinker in the Warring-States Period. He was famous for his people-based thoughts. His excellent thoughts likely benefited from the enlightening of his mother. “Biographies of Women” (列女傳), a book written by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty, records four stories about Mencius’ mother. Mencius was born in the Zou…

Traditional ideas assume disasters are brought by women. So the ends of many dynasties are always regarded as women’s fault. The end of Xia Dynasty was because of Moxi, the wife of Jie who was the last king of Xia; the end of Shang Dynasty was because of Da Ji, the wife of Zhou who…