I was disappointed to read that...

I was disappointed to read that the “golden age” of the Song dynasty was not favorable to the Chinese women. While under the influence of steppe nomads, women lived less restricted lives. In the North, elite women of the Tang dynasty era were able to participate in social life with more freedom than before. Paintings and statues showed women riding horses, “while the Queen Mother of the West, a Daoist deity, was widely worshipped by female Daoist priests and practitioners” (Strayer, p.331). However, with Confucianism views coming back and rapid economic growth “seemed to tighten patriarchal restrictions on women and to restrictions on women and to restore some of the earlier Han dynasty notions of female submission and passivity” (Strayer, p. 331). Once again it was reminded that women were subordinates to men and that boys lead and girls followed. It is sad to read that women feminine qualities made them look weak. Moreover, women were seen as a distraction to men’s pursuits of contemplative and introspective life. What made me angry was that widow women although allowed to remarry were shamed if they did—“The remarriage of widows, though legally permissible, was increasingly condemned, for ‘to walk through two courtyards is a source of shame for a woman’” (Strayer, p. 331). It was sad how foot binding a very painful process for young women was seen as beautiful.