Similar Biographies of Exemplar, Classic of Filial Piety, Book of Han, Analects, Book of the Later Han | ||
Lessons for Women (Chinese: 女誡; pinyin: Nǚjiè; Wade–Giles: Nuchieh), also translated as Admonitions for Women, is a work by the Han dynasty female intellectual Ban Zhao. As one of the Four Books for Women, Lessons had wide circulation in the late Ming and Qing dynasties. Ban Zhao made the "Admonitions for Women" for her daughters
Contents
Outline
Lessons outlines the four virtues a woman must abide by, proper virtue, proper speech, proper countenance, and proper conduct. The book itself describes the status and position of women in society. It is a small book and many women had the sections memorized. The book contains only 7 chapters as outlined below.
Precepts for Women
Ban Zhao also wrote on the four desired "Precepts for Women" which were intended to guide women in society. These precepts were: womanly virtue, womanly speech, womanly manner, and womanly merit.
"“There are four edifying behavioural characteristics for women: the first is womanly virtue (fude), the second is womanly speech (fuyan), the third is womanly manner (fuyong), and the fourth is womanly merit (fugong).What is womanly virtue? She does not distinguish herself in talent and intelligence. What is womanly speech? She does not sharpen her language and speech. What is womanly manner? She does not seek to be outwardly beautiful or ornamented. What is womanly merit? She does not outperform others in her skills and cleverness.”