THE WOMEN OF CHINA
_Y. B. A._
The schools for native girls at Foochow and Yen-ping interested us
greatly, even when we first came to China, but we could not appreciate
then as we did later the epoch-making step toward civilization of these
institutions.
How much the missionaries are able to accomplish from a religious
standpoint is a question which we do not wish to discuss, but no one
who has ever lived among them can deny that the opening of schools
and the diffusing of western knowledge are potent factors in the
development of the people. The Chinese were not slow even in the
beginning to see the advantages of a foreign education for their
boys and now, along the coast at least, some are beginning to make
sacrifices for their daughters as well. The Woman's College, which
was opened recently in Foochow, is one of the finest buildings of the
Republic, and when one sees its bright-faced girls dressed in their
quaint little pajama-like garments, it is difficult to realize that
outside such schools they are still slaves in mind and body to those
iron rules of Confucius which have molded the entire structure of
Chinese society for over 2400 years.
The position of women in China today, and the rules which govern the
household of every orthodox Chinese, are the direct heritage of
Confucianism. The following translation by Professor J. Legge from the
_Narratives of the Confucian School_, chapter 26, is illuminating:
Confucius said: "Man is the representative of heaven and is supreme
over all things. Woman yields obedience to the instructions of man
and helps to carry out his principles. On this account she can
determine nothing of herself and is subject to the rule of the
three obediences.
"(1) When young she must obey her father and her elder brother;
"(2) When married, she must obey her husband;
"(3) When her husband is dead she must obey her son.
"She may not think of marrying a second time. No instructions or
orders must issue from the harem. Women's business is simply the
preparation and supplying of drink and food. Beyond the threshold
of her apartments she shall not be known for evil or for good. She
may not cross the boundaries of a state to attend a funeral. She
may take no steps on her own motive and may come to no conclusion
on her own deliberation."
The grounds for divorce as stated by Confucius are:
"(1) Disobedience to her husband's parents;
"(2) Not giving birth to a son;
"(3) Dissolute conduct;
"(4) Jealousy of her husband's attentions (to the other inmates of
his harem);
"(5) Talkativeness, and
"(6) Thieving."
A Chinese bride owes implicit obedience to her mother-in-law, and as
she is often reared by her husband's family, or else married to him as
a mere child, and is under the complete control of his mother for a
considerable period of her existence, her life in many instances is one
of intolerable misery. There is generally little or no consideration
for a girl under the best of circumstances until she becomes the
mother of a male child; her condition then improves but she approaches
happiness only when she in turn occupies the enviable position of
mother-in-law.
It is difficult to imagine a life of greater dreariness and vacuity
than that of the average Chinese woman. Owing to her bound feet and
resultant helplessness, if she is not obliged to work she rarely stirs
from the narrow confinement of her courtyard, and perhaps in her entire
life she may not go a mile from the house to which she was brought a
bride, except for the periodical visits to her father's home.
It has been aptly said that there are no real homes in China and it is
not surprising that, ignored and despised for centuries, the Chinese
woman shows no ability to improve the squalor of her surroundings. She
passes her life in a dark, smoke-filled dwelling with broken furniture
and a mud floor, together with pigs, chickens and babies enjoying
a limited sphere of action under the tables and chairs, or in the
tumble-down courtyard without. Her work is actually never done and a
Chinese bride, bright and attractive at twenty, will be old and faded
at thirty.
But without doubt the crowning evil which attends woman's condition
in China is foot binding, and nothing can be offered in extenuation
of this abominable custom. It is said to have originated one thousand
years before the Christian era and has persisted until the present
day in spite of the efforts directed against it. The Empress Dowager
issued edicts strongly advising its discontinuation, the "Natural Foot
Society," which was formed about fifteen years ago, has endeavored to
educate public opinion, and the missionaries refuse to admit girls
so mutilated to their schools; but nevertheless the reform has made
little progress beyond the coast cities. "Precedent" and the fear of
not obtaining suitable husbands for their daughters are responsible for
the continuation of the evil, and it is estimated that there are still
about seventy-four millions of girls and women who are crippled in this
way.
The feet are bandaged between the ages of five and seven. The toes are
bent under the sole of the foot and after two or three years the heel
and instep are so forced together that a dollar can be placed in the
cleft; gradually also the lower limbs shrink away until only the bones
remain.
The suffering of the children is intense. We often passed through
streets full of laughing boys and tiny girls where others, a few years
older, were sitting on the doorsteps or curbstones holding their
tortured feet and crying bitterly. In some instances out-houses are
constructed a considerable distance from the family dwelling where the
girls must sleep during their first crippled years in order that their
moans may not disturb the other members of the family. The child's only
relief is to hang her feet over the edge of the bed in order to stop
the circulation and induce numbness, or to seek oblivion from opium.
If the custom were a fad which affected only the wealthy classes it
would be reprehensible enough, but it curses rich and poor alike, and
almost every day we saw heavily laden coolie women steadying themselves
by means of a staff, hobbling stiff-kneed along the roads or laboring
in the fields.
[Illustration: A Chinese Mother with Her Children]
[Illustration: Chinese Women of the Coolie Class with Bound Feet]
Although the agitation against foot binding is undoubtedly making
itself felt to a certain extent in the coast provinces, in Yün-nan
the horrible practice continues unabated. During the year in which we
traveled through a large part of the province, wherever there were
Chinese we saw bound feet. And the fact that virtually _every_ girl
over eight years old was mutilated in this way is satisfactory evidence
that reform ideas have not penetrated to this remote part of the
Republic.
I know of nothing which so rouses one's indignation because of its
senselessness and brutality, and China can never hope to take her place
among civilized nations until she has abandoned this barbarous custom
and liberated her women from their infamous subjection.
There has been much criticism of foreign education because the girls
who have had its advantages absorb western ideas so completely that
they dislike to return to their homes where the ordinary conditions of
a Chinese household exist. Nevertheless, if the women of China are ever
to be emancipated it must come through their own education as well as
that of the men.
One of the first results of foreign influence is to delay marriage, and
in some instances the early betrothal with its attendant miseries. The
evil which results from this custom can hardly be overestimated. It
happens not infrequently that two children are betrothed in infancy,
the respective families being in like circumstances at the time. The
opportunity perhaps is offered to the girl to attend school and she
may even go through college, but an inexorable custom brings her back
to her parents' home, forces her to submit to the engagement made in
babyhood and perhaps ruins her life through marriage with a man of no
higher social status or intelligence than a coolie.
Among the few girls imbued with western civilization a spirit of revolt
is slowly growing, and while it is impossible for them to break down
the barriers of ages, yet in many instances they waive aside what would
seem an unsurmountable precedent and insist upon having some voice in
the choosing of their husbands.
While in Yen-ping we were invited to attend the semi-foreign wedding
of a girl who had been brought up in the Woman's School and who was
qualified to be a "Bible Woman" or native Christian teacher. It was
whispered that she had actually met her betrothed on several occasions,
but on their wedding day no trace of recognition was visible, and the
marriage was performed with all the punctilious Chinese observances
compatible with a Christian ceremony.
Precedent required of this little bride, although she might have been
radiantly happy at heart, and undoubtedly was, to appear tearful and
shrinking and as she was escorted up the aisle by her bridesmaid
one might have thought she was being led to slaughter. White is not
becoming to the Chinese and besides it is a sign of mourning, so she
had chosen pink for her wedding gown and had a brilliant pink veil over
her carefully oiled hair.
After the ceremony the bride and bridegroom proceeded downstairs to the
joyous strain of the wedding march, but with nothing joyous in their
demeanor--in fact they appeared like two wooden images at the reception
and endured for over an hour the stares and loud criticism of the
guests. He assumed during the ordeal a look of bored indifference while
the little bride sat with her head bowed on her breast, apparently
terror stricken. But once she raised her face and I saw a merry twinkle
in her shining black eyes that made me realize that perhaps it wasn't
all quite so frightful as she would have us believe. I often wonder
what sort of a life she is leading in her far away Chinese courtyard.