The Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the key period for the establishment of China's institutional civilization. It was the changes of these two dynasties that completed the transition from the advanced stage of the patriarchal system (Shang Dynasty) to the paternal era (marked by the establishment of Zhou rites). Since then, in order to consolidate and strengthen the dominant position of men, a series of creeds of patriarchal ethics have emerged, which not only regulate society, but also bind women. The overall low status of women is not only because of the male rule maintained by this patriarchal ethics, but also because of this patriarchal ethics.
First, women are economic vassals of a patriarchal society. In the patriarchal society, women lose the ownership of family property and have to rely on marriage or blood relationship to be attached to men and become slaves of the family. In ancient times, there was a saying that "men called Ding and women called Kou". In feudal times, the number of "Ding" in a family was used to distribute land and pay taxes, excluding women. This system of "planning the future" is the most typical example of women's lack of economic status. Women also have no private property in the family. The Book of Rites says that "children are selfless in wealth, livestock and equipment; Don't dare to take a private vacation, don't dare to be private. " In other words, the woman has no property before marriage, nor does she have private property as a wife and daughter-in-law after marriage, and even the property ownership brought by the woman from her family has been deprived. Some women are forced to go out to work for family reasons, but they are still discriminated against by men, so they are called "three aunts and six grandmothers". Sometimes women even become the targets of men's business, such as being sold as handmaids, wives, child brides, prostitutes, and falling into the most miserable situation, all because women can't be independent economically. Swallow up women's economic power, make it a sex slave and reproductive tool for men, and become a powerful weapon for feudal patriarchal clan system to restrain women.
Second, women are excluded from politics. Since the emergence of class society, "Gan Kun is in the right position" has become the theoretical basis for regulating men and women. "Women are inside and men are outside; The righteousness of men and women, the righteousness of heaven and earth. " "... the male is responsible and the female is responsible ... This mode of division of labor has great influence on both sexes. ..... Men have increased their' talents' in the fierce social competition, and successful people have created their own' history' and become the owners, wives and slaves of wealth and power. Women living in it have to succumb to the life scope and established role set by men and reduce their status to a secondary subordinate position, thus forming a forbearing experience that women have no right and a short-sighted prejudice that women are incompetent, thus becoming women themselves. Women are imprisoned at home, serving others and doing housework, and even the queen of the ruling class is forbidden. Not only that, the feudal era also preached the "female disaster theory", that is, the traditional theory believed that trusting women and making them pre-government would inevitably lead to disaster, and even trusting women and making them pre-government a disaster. No matter domestic economy or national politics, it is regarded as a creed and a warning, making it the only theoretical weapon to limit women's pre-government. In short, in this patriarchal society, all women's basic political rights have disappeared.
Third, the traditional female education is permeated with feudal ethics from beginning to end. Confucianism is the ideological cornerstone of feudal society in China, so traditional female education aims at implementing Confucian patriarchal ethics. Before the Han Dynasty, there was feudal women's education that enslaved women. Female teachers despise intellectual education and think that "women are only allowed to know a few hundred words of rice fish for the first time, and reading more is beneficial and harmless", while some actually think that "women can read more and teach obscenity". It is this view that "a woman without talent is virtue" that deprives women of the right and opportunity to learn cultural knowledge, so that their talents can not be developed and their abilities can not be cultivated, so that they can not stand on their own feet. On the contrary, female teachers attach great importance to moral education, especially feudal patriarchal ideology and ethics. Liu Xiang's Biography of Women in the Western Han Dynasty and Ban Zhao's Women's Commandment in the Eastern Han Dynasty have become models for discussing women's issues. In addition, The Analects of Confucius and The Scholars later advocated such dogmas as "Three Obediences and Four Virtues", "Men are superior to women", "A husband should be obedient to his wife" and "Starvation is a trivial matter, dishonour is a major one". "These so-called women's education, women's education in feudal society, are not real women's education, but real enslavement education. Indoctrinate women with the moral code of servile obedience, put spiritual shackles on them, bind women's words and deeds, limit their development, make women conscious followers and martyrs of feudal ethics, and make them content with long-term oppression and slavery. " Ban Zhao, a famous woman in the Han Dynasty, continued to write Hanshu for her brother Ban Gu, who was a female Confucian Sect. However, it is such a talented woman who wrote the Seven Commandments of Women, which became the declaration of suppressing women in later generations, laid the theoretical foundation of women's education, created a model of exhorting women to teach, and was even listed as the first of the four women's books in the late Ming Dynasty. Later, after the emergence of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, virgins and martyrs who married or did not marry martyrdom emerged one after another. This is the greatest success of traditional female education and the greatest misfortune of traditional female education.