In a periodical published in Shanghai, Dr. Faber, a well-known scholar,
writes (1891) a paper on the status of women in China. He refers
especially to the theoretical position assigned to women by the Chinese
Classics. These lay down the different dogmas on the subject:
“1.—Women are as different in nature from man as earth is from heaven.
“2.—Dualism, not only in body form, but in the very essence of nature,
is indicated and proclaimed by Chinese moralists of all times
and creed. The male belongs to _yang_, the female to _yin_.
“3.—Death and all other evils have their origin in the _yin_, or
female principle; life and prosperity come from its subjection
to the _yang_ or male principle; and it is therefore regarded as
a law of nature that women should be kept under the control of
men, and not be allowed any will of their own.
“4.—Women, indeed, are human beings, (!) but they are of a lower state
than men, and can never attain to full equality with them.
“5.—The aim of female education, therefore, is perfect submission, not
cultivation and development of mind.
“6.—Women cannot have any happiness of their own; they have to live
and work for men.
“7.—Only as the mother of a son, as the continuator of the direct line
of a family, can a woman escape from her degradation and become
to a certain degree her husband’s equal; but then only in
household affairs, especially the female department, and in the
ancestral hall.
“8.—In the other world, woman’s condition remains exactly the same,
for the same laws of existence apply. She is not the equal of
her husband; she belongs to him, and is dependent for her
happiness on the sacrifice offered by her descendants.
“These are the doctrines taught by Confucius, Mencius, and the ancient
sages, whose memory has been revered in China for thousands of years.”
And now, what wonder that Chinese civilisation and progress is, and
remains, fossilised, inert, dead?