Family and Women In Early China

     Ancient Chinese culture placed a tremendous amount of importance on the interactions and duties owed by family members to one another. As China moved from the reign of the Western Zhou to the 'Warring States' period the role and importance of women began to decline. Nowhere is the change in social status more evident then when the writings in The Book of Songs are compared with the later writings contained in the The Analects of Confucius. When reading through the poems of the former the voice of the woman is given an equal weight and she often displays an open passion for her male lover. It reads much like the ancient Biblical book The Songs of Solomon using colorful metaphors to describe each other. This is in stark contrast to the way Confucius described, or often completely ignored, women in the social environment of his times. The purpose of this paper is to show the difference in the importance of women when comparing the poems of The Book of Songs and the words of wisdom from The Analects of Confucius.

     The poems of The Book of Songs were combined over an estimated 400 year period during the Zhou dynasty. The first poems were sung in the Zhou courts as early as 1000 B.C., but the current version was put together somewhere around 600 B.C. Eva Sternfeld in A Stone Age Matriarchy: The Yangshao Culture states that, "Chinese researchers believe chiefly on the basis of the burial evidence, that the Yangshao culture was matriarchal." The Yangshao culture, which lived prior to 1766 B.C., lived in small communities in central China and lived of the production of millet. Based on archaeological evidence from that period of time it appears that womens burial plots were larger and decorated more elaborately than their male counterparts indicating the possibility of a matriarchal society.

     As Chinese culture moved toward the period of the Shang, the role of women seems to have diminished slightly as men began to take charge of the kingdom. Conrad Schirokauer in A Brief History of Chinese Civilization states, "Kingship was hereditary, but intergenerational succession from older to younger brother was as frequent as intergenerational inheritance, usually from uncle to nephew." It is apparent from this passage and a study of the rulers of this time that the leadership of society was firmly patriarchal in nature. What is not as apparent from the limited writing of this period is what role women played, but extrapolating from the later writings during the Zhou period it can be assumed they still held a prominent role in society.

     During the reign of the Zhou dynasty the culture of the Chinese becomes more vivid and descriptive. The best source material available to observe the role of women in society is The Book of Songs. Throughout this famed work there are beautiful poems describing the interactions and feelings between a man and a woman. The woman was able to freely express her desires and feelings toward her husband with passion and authority. A brief portion of the poem Southern Hill from The Book of Songs gives a great example of this as it reads;

"When we plant hemp, how do we do it?

Across and along we put the rows.

When one takes a wife, how is it done?

The man must first talk with her father and mother.

And once he has talked with them,

No one else must he court.

When we cut firewood, how do we do it?

Without an axe it would not be possible.

When one takes a wife, how is it done?

Without a match-maker he cannot get her.

But once he has got her,

No one else must ever approach."

     In this sonnet there are specific duties that the potential husband is required to perform before he is able to take his bride. Once he has completed the traditional tasks he is able to court his future bride, but she is given such an important place in his life that he must never approach another woman in the same manner.

     Your Black Coat in the same book give an example of the passion and forwardness a woman felt comfortable in expressing when it states the following;

"How well your black coat fits!

Where it is torn I will turn it for you.

Let us go to where you lodge,

And there I will hand your food to you.

How nice your black coat looks!

Where it is worn I will mend it for you.

Let us go where you lodge,

And there I will hand your food to you.

How broad your black coat is!

Where it is worn I will alter it for you.

Let us go to where you lodge,

And there I will hand your food to you."

     Even a woman in western society of the early twentieth century would have blushed at the presumptive nature the author takes on inviting herself back to the mans house and tend to him.

     Even the male of this period showed a love and respect for the woman that is not apparent in the later teachings of Confucius. Once again returning to The Book of Songs we find the poem A Splendid Woman which contains the following excerpt;

"Hands white as rush-down,

Skin like lard,

Teeth like melon seeds,

Lovely head, beautiful brows.

Oh, sweet smile dimpling,

The lovely eyes so black and white."

     It is plainly obvious that this writer did not think of his woman as a possession, but yet a thing of beauty that he was fortunate enough to behold.

     This equality among the sexes began to disappear as China entered the 'Warring States' period and Confucius began to change the role and status of those in the family unit. No longer do we read about the woman in a loving manner, rather if she is mentioned at all, it is as the possession of the man. The once poetic driven codes of life were now largely bound by the wandering teachings of the great philosopher Confucius. A great way to understand the change in family structure and the importance of women during this period is to look directly at the source, The Analects of Confucius.

     The new status of women is plainly obvious in the following short paragraph from Confucius, "The Master said:"Women and underlings are especially difficult to handle: be friendly, and they become familiar; be distant, and they resent it."^"

The philosopher refers to women as if they were some sort of stray animal that one should not feed or ignore lest it attacks. While this is one of the few mentions of a woman, unless she is mentioned in conjunction with her husband as 'parents', the remainder of Confucius' work was dedicated to the relationship and duties of the son.

     In The Analects of Confucius the author clearly pays homage to the Zhou and 'The Poems', but clearly ignores their focus on women. The is apparent in the following paragraph;

"The Master said: "Little ones, why don't you study the Poems?

The Poems can provide you with stimulation and with observation,

with a capacity for communion, and with a vehicle for grief.

At home, they enable you to serve your lord. Also, you will

learn there the names of many birds, animals, plants and trees.""

     Confucius confirms the importance of The Book of Songs in the ancient Chinese life, but once again fails to speak of the importance and natural relationship between a man and woman. In fact, in the following he shows disdain for the all too human feeling of lust when he wrote, "A gentleman must guard himself against three dangers. When young, as the energy of the blood is still in turmoil, he should guard against lust." This is in stark contrast to the desires demonstrated in The Book of Songs he claims to venerate.

     The Book of Songs and The Analects of Confucius are important works that shed light on the life and beliefs of the ancient Chinese. They also show how the attitudes and beliefs about the importance of a woman changed and began to decline. The Analects of Confucius played a major role as the work of the philosopher gained respect shortly after his death. No longer was the woman a beautiful being to respect and cherish. Instead, she became a possession which by many was even to be considered a curse when born. The speed of which women lost their role is amazing when compared to other cultures. In fact, as many cultures of this time period began to place more importance on women, the Chinese went in the opposite direction and remained this way virtually to this day.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Another Example of Why Government Bailouts Dont Work: Case Involving Argentina!

            The International Monetary Fund is one of the most controversial international institutions of our time.  It has been accused of anything from bailing out rich investors to forcing countries to open up to foreign companies.  In “Argentina and the Fund: From Triumph to Tragedy” by Michael Mussa another flaw is made apparent, and that is the IMF’s ineptness in enforcing its own policies.

            The Argentine crisis of the late nineties and early 21^st century was a clear example of the complex nature of international trade.  As was mentioned in the reading, I do believe that sovereign default is a necessary occurrence in capitalism.  While I do think that Mussa was a little biased toward the fund, he did make clear some of the shortcomings that occurred in the IMF’s policies.  One of the main flaws that nearly jumped off the page was the continued lending by the Fund even when there was little hope that the help would change the course that the country was headed in.  With all the knowledge that resides at IMF headquarters you would think that a red flag would have been raised before lending the additional billions of dollars.

            One idea I don’t think Mussa dealt with effectively is that of corporate inertia.    The pride that was initially felt with the ‘triumph’ of the Funds efforts in Argentina must have solidified its purpose in the minds of its directors, but I’m sure that changed once things began to take a turn for the worst.  With Argentina facing possible insolvency and the restructuring of its debt the directors of the fund were probably willing to throw as much money at the problem as was necessary, because if their efforts failed there would be questions as to usefulness of the fund.  So as happens in many companies, the executives will do just about anything to prove their necessity and legitimacy. 

            Since the fund was Mr. Mussa’s former employer it is understandable that he maintains a little bias in favor of the Fund, but many readers of his work will ask the question of whether its existence is necessary.  In my opinion it is not.  Countries of the world need to enact more effective fiscal and monetary policies, and if they fail to do so there should not be the parachute that is the fund there to save them.

Jeffrey Brandon Lee

Irish Potato Famine: Early Racism In America

The Great Famine, The Blight, or whatever one chooses to call it, the potato famine in Ireland was one of the worst tragedies to hit Europe during the 19^th century.  Unprecedented widespread starvation, disease and subsequent migration to various countries changed the lives of a vast number of Irish people.  The destitute situation at home left Irish landowners with little other choice but to provide passage for the starving peasants to other countries where opportunities were more plentiful.  Traveling to this new land of ‘Milk and Honey’ was as treacherous, if not more so, than the situation they had fled.  Dark, confined, cramped and unsanitary conditions were what faced these underfed migrants.  If one was lucky enough to survive the diseased and malnourished voyage across the Atlantic there were more and longer lasting challenges ahead for him.  The frail and vulnerable condition upon arrival of these passengers left them at the mercy of the newly savvy entrepreneurs of America.  New York was a large and bustling city during this time where people of all classes were given the opportunity to change their economic status in life.  This combination of desperate Irish immigrants just wishing to enjoy a meal and the profit seeking ‘native’ Americans led to a disastrous situation.  Irish immigrants were rushed off boats and herded into overpriced slums, and this is where the American perception of the Irish really begins.  The condition of the Irish upon arrival in New York led them to accept anything that was available to them.  Unfortunately, these people were already despised for their Catholic faith, but once they were forced into the filthy, disease filled, drunken areas, a new and even more negative perception emerged about the Irish which would last until recent times.

September 1845 brought with it an economically and socially destructive force that would ravage Ireland like never before.  Phytophthora Infestans was its scientific name, but most remember it as ‘The Blight’.  It was a fungus so destructive that it was able to almost completely rot the potato and turn it into a ‘black, squelchy, stinking mess’ within days.[i]  With potatoes being Ireland’s main food staple this was needless to say a cause for alarm.  Initially, the fungus was found to have only affected certain areas and only to a limited extent, but that was soon to change.  The very next year, naval Captain Mann stationed in County Clare distressed:

The first alarm was in the latter part of July, when the potatoes showed

symptoms of the previous year’s disease; but I shall never forget the change

in one week in August.  On the first occasion, on an official visit of inspection,

I had passed over thirty-two miles thickly studded with potato fields in full

bloom.  The next time the face of the whole country had changed; the stalk

remained bright green, but the leaves were all scorched black.  It was the

work of a night.[ii]

This reoccurrence of fungus combined with the economic policies then embraced by Ireland and England created a situation of mass starvation.

            During the 19^th century, England and Ireland were energetically pursuing laissez-faire economic policies. This attitude of letting the market correct itself was wholly embraced by Ireland’s Lord John Russell who was ‘ruling’ from Westminster.  During the famine, Russell believed that by ending many of the country’s controls on food prices and leaving poor relief up to the individual counties the economy and production levels would return to normal.[iii]  This decision and the fact that food was being exported out of areas where there was starvation outraged Irish peasants.[iv]  With food becoming ever more scarce the poor and starving were left with few options.

            During this period landlords were under increasing pressure due to certain clauses within the Poor Laws.  One such clause stated that tenants owning land worth less than 4 pounds were not required to pay the poor rate, but that the owners of the land would be liable for this amount.[v]  This created a great financial burden for large estate holders.  Many found that it would be more profitable to offer a small amount of money to aid in emigration than to continue paying the poor rate.  With the small farmers (who by in large were unable to pay rent on time) off their land, the land was often turned into more profitable export crops.  R. Dudley Edwards in The Great Famine: Studies in Irish History 1845-52 states clearly the landlords dilemma, “If the estate were to be run on business lines, a drastic clearance seemed essential; and the total cost of sending the ‘surplus’ to America was considerably less than the expense of maintaining them for a single year as paupers.”[vi]  Although this may seem callous, many landlords felt justified in their actions.  As poor relief began to fail and became more restricted, many that were without land and had little money, chose to emigrate.  This led to an experience, which would leave these Irish in a more precarious and destitute situation than they had fled.

            19^th century shipping was needless to say not a luxurious experience, but to a mass of starving people it must have at first seemed bearable.  With the flood of emigrants rushing to the ports in 1847, many ships made slight alterations in order to accommodate the Irish passengers.  Unfortunately, even with international standards on the living conditions of passengers in place, many ship captains chose to ignore them in order to turn a larger profit.  The captain of the ‘Sarah and Elizabeth’ gives a clear example of this when he packed 260 people onto 36 births far exceeding the regulated limit. The result of this greedy behavior was tragic.  Fever and disease spread quickly until justice was finally served when it claimed the life of the captain as well.[vii]  Passengers became more susceptible to illness due to a lack of adequate food and clean water.  While ships were required to provide at least three meals a day and water rations, many would scarcely provide two with a ‘little putrid water’.[viii]  Lacking clean living conditions or medical facilities, the condition of the surviving immigrants upon arrival in New York was a sickening sight indeed.

            Pre-famine New York City was quickly beginning to emerge as one of the world’s economic powerhouses, and by 1840 it was already the largest city in the union with a population over 391,100.[ix]  Many of the city’s inhabitants were strong believers in the Protestant faith and had an equally strong dislike for Catholics.  When news arrived in the city about the famine many attributed the country’s miseries to its’ Catholic faith.  Allegedly written by John Mitchell, in response to Dr. Whateley, the following correctly describes American attitudes regarding Catholic Ireland:

            Oh, Bishop! And tell your flock that the deadliest crime a nation can commit

            is to abdicate its nationhood, to set strangers to guard its gates, strangers to sit

            on its judgement-seats, strangers to train up its youth, strangers to rule its

            church.  Tell them that until they shall repent of this sin, and amend it, the hand

            of God shall be heavy on their land; the famine shall waste them….[x]

This widely shared negative sentiment about the Irish would be a crucial factor in how ‘native’ Americans would respond to the flood of desperate and ill Irish immigrants arriving in New York and other port cities.

            Despite the anti-Catholic atmosphere that permeated throughout New York City many Irish chose this as their new home.  History has shown that somewhere around 75% of Irish immigrants that came to the Americas ended up settling there, and 50% of this number arrived in New York.[xi]  This large influx of Irish entering the ports began to raise many new fears.  One such fear was that of disease.  Ships were regularly arriving with passengers suffering from severe outbreaks of typhus and other ship related diseases.  David H. Bennett in The Party of Fear: The American Far Right from Nativism to the Militia Movement clearly states the anxiety felt as follows, “The initial response of the Americans was, understandably, fear that the diseases the immigrants carried would ravage port cities and spread across the country.”[xii]  Facing this crisis the New York legislator decided that the initial quarantine system needed to be overhauled to make its requirements for entry more stringent.  This new system was to be headed by ten commissioners who were charged with providing a hospital, transportation assistance, and a staff of emigration officers to help ease the transition for the immigrants.[xiii]  Although this was an attempt to make things a little easier on the immigrants who were allowed to enter, many ‘natives’ still found ways to take advantage of the newcomers.  ‘Runners’ were a notorious breed of businessmen during this period that lurked about the docks waiting for their next victim.  When ships arrived ‘runners’ would surround the boats, with armed guards at times, and  ‘cajole’ the helpless Irish emigrants to stay at their bosses’ housing establishments, where they would be further exploited.  Many of these unsavory landlords became very wealthy by charging ‘three to four times the contract price’.[xiv]  This type of exploitation made the predicament in New York even worse for the Irish. 

            Once the Irish were given a chance to settle in New York City many chose to go away from their rural farming roots and endure the city life.  There are several reasons for this urbanization of the Irish.  One main factor was that the new immigrants were simply not educated enough in large-scale farming to be productive farmers.  Before arriving at the port of New York the majority had raised primitive crops such as potatoes and other roots.  Also, the lack of capital to buy such land prevented many from pursuing this avenue of enrichment.[xv]   .  This massive influx of immigrants into the New York City area created many economic problems for the ‘native’ inhabitants.  Housing had already been scarce before the famine, but with the great tide of immigration looking for housing, prices and availability became an enigma.  This helped to legitimize the fear in the minds of the indigenous people that these new immigrants would lower the standard of living for all, which would be ‘the greatest calamity which the folly of man could bring upon the land’.[xvi]  This attitude toward the Irish immigrants, ‘….increased feelings of loneliness and intensified the search for community….’ Which led many to view the Irish as clannish and thus further alienated them from society.[xvii]  This alienation, combined with a desire to go back to way things used to be, led large numbers of Irish to live with their own people in overcrowded slums.  R. Dudley Edwards discusses the consequences of such decisions when he states, “….mortality rates were highest amongst the Irish, who were particulary prone to the diseases occasioned by dirt, overcrowding or alcohol, and to pauperdom or lunacy.”[xviii]  These housing structures were sometimes just hovels dugout from underneath homes and many were filled with up to a foot of water.  This deplorable situation was needless to say a large factor in how native-born Americans viewed the Irish.

            After an immigrant secured a place to live the next thing that concerned him was where was he going to find employment.  With farming not an option in the city, and the majority not possessing any skills, many were forced to take jobs in mining, heavy industry, and other unskilled positions.  These jobs were generally in the form of ‘labour camps’ where the work was hard and the whiskey cheap.[xix]   This environment and availability of alcohol caused more hardship for the Irish.  The Irish had already been known for their excessive drinking, and now faced with hardship their drinking increased, and the ‘native’ perception of the immigrants worsened.  Nativist feelings were beginning to become outright hostile toward the new arrivals.  Signs were being placed in windows that read “None need apply but Americans” and politicians were calling for tariffs and taxes on immigrant workers.[xx]  With feelings of resentment rising the indigenous people of New York and other New England cities began to channel their feelings in secretive ways.

            With the perceived threat of the job taking, drunk, dirty, and worst of all Catholic Irish immigrants invading their Protestant homeland, many natives chose to join secret societies with the aim of combating this problem.   Gathering together in these secret societies helped kindle the fire of Nativism in Americans.  One of the most popular of these organizations was the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, which was formed in New York City in 1850.  In order to join this fraternity one was required to be ‘twenty-one, a Protestant, and a believer in God, willing to obey without question the dictates of the order.’  This society became a political force and had the sole purpose of making life as difficult as possible for any foreign-born Catholics.  Members were not allowed to vote for, employ, or profit from these individuals.[xxi]  By using methods such as these Protestants of New York City made it virtually impossible for the Irish to assimilate and created a greater need for community among the immigrants.

            The mid-nineteenth century was a tragic period for the Irish people.  The famine had wiped out over a million inhabitants of their homeland and left those remaining in poverty.  Desiring a chance to live, many boarded overcrowded, overpriced, and filthy boats and set sail for America.  The voyage across was a treacherous one, which took the lives of many.  The mass of immigrants who survived the voyage arrived in such a pitiful state they became the prey of the ‘natives’.  They were forced into filthy living conditions where they were charged outrageous prices, which must have led many to drink even more.  The jobs they received were of the lowest sort since many had little or no skills at all.  Despised for their faith many were persecuted and discriminated against when looking for work or public office.  If not for the sheer amount of immigrants coming into the cities it is hard to imagine the natives imagining them as being such a grave threat.  And if the Irish were to have arrived in better health and more financially stable they would have had more leverage in dealing with the anti-Catholic Protestant natives.  A healthy, slow but steady, migration of Irish Catholics to New York City and other ports would have helped alleviate the negative perception of the Irish, which lasted for decades after their arrival.

Jeffrey Brandon Lee