281
Women on the Threshold in the First  
Chapter of Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan:  
The Gendered Concepts of Nei 内/Wai 外  
and the Way of Women (Fu Dao 婦道)
Sabrina ARDIZZONI*25
Abstract
Enquiring into the first chapter of Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan 列女傳, this paper points 
out the consolidation of the spatial distinction of nei/wai and the ethical construction 
of womanhood in the Former Han period. In this analysis we will underline the “in-be-
tween” position of women depicted by the author and consider their position as based on 
a metaphorical—but sometimes even physical—threshold. It highlights six categories in 
Liu Xiang’s work that help us understand a traditional vision of woman that is reviving in 
modern times. Even today, the Way of Women (fu dao 妇道) is one of the principles on 
which social harmony is based; breaching the Way of Woman leads to disruptive conse-
quences both within the family and outside, within society.
Keywords: Womanhood, Confucian ethics, Lienü Zhuan, Liu Xiang
Ženske na pragu v prvem poglavju Liu Xiangove knjige Lienü Zhuan:  
spolno opredeljeni koncepti nei 内/wai 外 in pot žensk (Fu Dao 婦道)
Izvleček
Avtorica na osnovi preučevanja prvega poglavja Liu Xiangove knjige Lienü Zhuan 列女傳 
(Biografije zglednih žensk) obravnava konsolidacijo prostorskega razlikovanja med nei in 
wai ter etično konstrukcijo ženskosti v obdobju dinastije Zahodni Han. Poudari položaj 
žensk »v in med« ter ga obravnava na osnovi metaforičnega – včasih celo fizičnega – praga. 
Članek nadalje osvetli šest kategorij v Liu Xiangovi knjigi. Te pripomorejo k razumevanju 
tradicionalnega pogleda na ženske, ki se ponovno oživlja v sodobnem času. Tudi danes je 
namreč pot ženske fu dao 妇道 eno osnovnih načel, na katerem temelji družbena harmo-
nija, kršitev te poti pa vodi k motečim posledicam tako v družini kot v širši družbi. 
Ključne besede: ženskost, konfucijanska etika, Lienü Zhuan, Liu Xiang
* Sabrina ARDIZZONI, Adjunct Professor of Chinese Language and Cul-
ture, Chinese Language and Literature, University of Bologna, Italy.
 E-mail address: sabrina.ardizzoni@unibo.it
DOI: 10.4312/as.2020.8.3.281-302
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282 Sabrina ARDIZZONI: Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter...
Introduction
This paper focuses on ethical differences between men and women in the specific 
textual tradition of Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan 列女傳. The theory underlining the 
study is that the social ethical discourse built on the concept of “moral person-
hood”, starting from at least the Western Han Xi Han 西漢 dynasty (206 BCE–
9 CE), is based on a principle of inequality. 
More specifically, the social construct of womanhood, based on total subordina-
tion to men, is embodied in the Confucian prescription of the san cong si de 三
從四德—Three Obediences and Four Virtues—and in the idealized figure of 
daughter, wife and mother, belonging not only to Confucian scholarly tradition, 
but to a complex cultural heritage deriving from a stratified tradition disseminat-
ed through different channels and coming from multiple directions. As stated by 
Elizabeth Croll (1995, 2): “In China the rhetoric of both equality and inequality 
were derived from a set of well-known texts, which were reiterated time and 
again. ... text was translated into the oral via folk adage, homily and story.”
The Han 漢 (202 BCE–220 CE) re-collection and re-interpretation of pre-Han 
traditions on woman as a social construct pursued an ideal and subjugated wom-
anhood, centred mainly on the Confucian literati school. Within this tradition, the 
emphasis on intra-familial roles, the social position “inside” the household and 
performative chores, are the frameworks that shape the idealized ethical wifehood 
and motherhood (Evans 2002) that have been transmitted throughout the centu-
ries, until the modern era. It is commonly stated that classical texts, from the Han 
dynasty onwards, emphasized the social role of woman as a wife and a mother. 
Women, as mothers and wives, had the function of educating children, both for 
material and moral life, and guiding their husbands in their social roles. Even in 
modern times, the maintenance of social harmony is based on this Way of Wom-
en (fu dao 妇道), and breaching it has disruptive consequences both within the 
family and outside, within society (Lieberman 1998; Ebrey 2002; Barlow 2004; 
Rosenlee 2006; Hershatter 2007). 
Following these statements, in this paper we enquire into the classical texts in 
order to answer the following questions: 
1. Has the gendered social womanhood always been represented as that of a 
“subordinate subject”, or are there examples of women occupying more active 
roles, more prominent positions in Chinese society? 
2. Is it plausible to point out an “in-between” position of women construct in 
classical texts?
3. Can Liu Xiang’s Lienü Zhuan be considered a key text in the shaping of the 
“woman on the threshold”?
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283Asian Studies VIII (XXIV ), 3 (2020), pp. 281–302
Method
The main texts we are examining, beside Liu Xiang’s 刘向 (79–8 BCE) Exempla-
ry Women’s Biography (Lienü Zhuan 列女傳),1 are classical and ideological sources 
which the historian drew from for the compilation of this work. The 104 women 
Liu Xiang described in the book come from mythological sources, historical ac-
counts, popular traditions, and philosophical concepts that at that time were mov-
ing towards a crystallization of the idea of a gendered ren 人 as a social construct 
grounded on an ethical base.2
In order to analyse the social pattern of ideal womanhood we focused on six main 
topics that are embodied by the different women depicted by Liu Xiang:
1. The gendered concepts of nei 内 and wai 外: women on the threshold
2. The mother: “my kin” vs. “your kin”
3. The relation with in-laws and the role of peacekeeping within the family and 
outside
4. Daily life: warp and loom as a symbol of morality in the narrative of women
5. Daily life: pregnancy and foetal education
6. Daily life: death and mourning
The Author and the Work 
The Lienü Zhuan 列女傳3 written by Liu Xiang 刘向 is the first literary col-
lection of biographies especially focused on women. Liu Xiang was the literatus 
who in 26 BCE had been appointed by Emperor Han Cheng Di to work on the 
recovery of the books lost in Qin Shihuangdi’s burning of books in 213 BCE. The 
LNZ initiated the lienü 列女 (“exemplary women”) historical tradition as a part of 
the official dynastic history; it stated the necessity of recording the “Biographies 
1 Henceforth LNZ. Kinney (2014) provides and integral English translation of Liu Xiang’s Lienü 
Zhuan. An Italian complete translation by Carmen Coduti was released in 2008 by ISIAO—
Collana “Il Nuovo Ramusio”. A comprehensive bio-bibliography of Liu Xiang was published by 
Riccardo Fracasso in 2008.
2 In pre-modern China, women do not have a position prior to or beyond familial relations. They are 
conceived within the hierarchical kinship/social ritualized dimension. To borrow Angela Zito’s and 
Tani Barlow’s words, “The fu exists within the kin world of reciprocal inequality” (Zito and Barlow 
1991, 260).
3 Quotations from the original text come from https://ctext.org/lie-nv-zhuan/zh. Therefore, page 
numbers are not provided, but the line numbers are reported. Integral original versions, with im-
ages of original editions and source texts of the LNZ as well as of Zuozhuan, and others mentioned 
here, are hosted in Kinney’s website Traditions of Exemplary Women. http://www2.iath.virginia.
edu/xwomen/intro.html. Accessed November 8, 2019.
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284 Sabrina ARDIZZONI: Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter...
of Women” sections in the dynastic histories, from the Hou Han Shu 後漢書, of 
which it was a part, to the Xin Tang Shu 新唐書, to the Historical Annals until the 
Republican Period. According to Ban Gu 班固 (32–92 CE) in the Han Shu, the 
main aim of Liu Xiang’s book was that of instructing the Emperor (Mou 2004, 
9–10). 
The original text, known as Gu Lienü Zhuan 古列女傳, is divided into seven 
books, each one (except the first, the first chapter of which is missing) reporting 
fifteen cases of women standing as examples of virtuous or evil conduct. An addi-
tional 8th chapter is included in the extended version known as Xu Lienü Zhuan 
續列女傳. All of these collect 104 biographies of women of different social sta-
tuses, from peasants to imperial wives, dating from the mythological emperors to 
the Spring and Autumn Period (770–5 BCE).
The first six books depict positive virtuous models, whereas the last reports ex-
amples of evil and parasitic women who can harm the family and the state. To-
gether they provide the earliest categories of Confucian moral values with regard 
to women: 
1. 母儀傳 Muyi (Maternal Rectitude)
2. 賢明傳 Xianming (Enlightenment and Intelligence)
3. 仁智傳 Renzhi (Benevolence and Wisdom)
4. 貞順傳 Zhenshun (Purity and Deference)
5. 節義傳 Jieyi (Chastity and Righteousness)
6. 辯通傳 Biantong (Skill in Argumentation)
7. 孽嬖傳 Niebi (Evil and Parasitic) 
The earliest introduction and annotated version of the Gu Lienü Zhuan was writ-
ten by the hand of Ban Zhao 班昭 (45–117 CE), the first known female historian, 
who, together with her brother Ban Gu 班固 (32–92 CE) and father Ban Biao 
班彪 (3–54 CE), wrote the official dynastic history of the Former Han, the Han 
Shu 汉书. She is also the author of the first book of instructions for women, the 
Nüjie 女戒.4
According to Chen Dongyuan ([1937] 1988, 45), we may consider the LNZ, 
together with Ban Zhao’s Nüjie, the oldest books on the ethical foundations for 
women. He considers Liu Xiang and Ban Zhao’s theorization on women as an 
internal construction of Lifa 禮法, the Confucian system. 
4 Original version in Chen, Wang, and Zhang 1992, 4–18.
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285Asian Studies VIII (XXIV ), 3 (2020), pp. 281–302
The ideological aim of the text was that of constructing the social categories of 
gendered moral personhood.
The First Book: Maternal Models
In the Chinese classical ethical system, the woman subject is defined inside a 
kinship relation. Rosanlee (2006, 5) suggests that “the process of ritualization 
within the kinship system coincides with the process of genderization”. And 
moreover: “Familial, kinship roles are the focus point in the discussion of gen-
der” (ibid., 47).
This is the reason why the starting point of our analysis is the description of 
“maternal models”. The first book of the LNZ, “Maternal models” (Muyi 母儀), 
contains fourteen accounts of women who are taken as positive examples of a 
“virtuous mother”. 
1. 有虞二妃 Youyu erfei   The two wives of Youyu.
2. 棄母姜嫄 Qi mu Jiang Yuan  Jiang Yuan, mother of Qi. 
3. 契母簡狄 Xie mu Jian di Jian Di, mother of Xie.
4. 啟母塗山 Qi mu Tushan Tushan, mother of Qi.
5. 湯妃有㜪 Tang fei Youshen Youshen, wife of Tang.
6. 周室三母 Zhoushi san mu The three mothers of the House of Zhou. 
7. 衛姑定姜 Wei gu Ding Jiang Ding Jiang, the Lady of Wei.
8. 齊女傅母 Qi nü bomu   The tutor of the woman of Qi.
9. 魯季敬姜 Lu Ji Jing Jiang Jing Jiang, of the Ji lineage of Lu.
10. 楚子發母 Chu Zifa mu  The mother of Zifa of Chu.
11. 鄒孟軻母 Zou Mengke mu The mother of Mengke of Zou. 
12. 魯之母師 Lu zhi mu shi The mother instructor of Lu. 
13. 魏芒慈母 Wei Mang zi mu The benevolent mother of Mang of Wei. 
14. 齊田稷母 Qi Tianji mu The mother of Tianji of Qi.
Among these women there are mothers of deities ( Jiang Yuan 姜嫄, Jian Di 简狄, 
and Tushan 涂山) coming from the mythological tradition, empresses, concu-
bines and common people, such as Mencius’s mother (Zou Mengke mu 邹孟轲母). 
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In the following section we will highlight the six conceptual categories we identify 
in the fourteen accounts.
The Categories
We will analyse how Liu Xiang is shaping a new genderized womanhood, in line 
with the traditional discourse on women, while keeping an open door to women 
on the threshold. 
(1) Women beyond the nei and the Importance of the Threshold
In the 12th chapter of Liji 禮記, Neize 內則 (NZ), the separation of nei/wai (in-
side/outside) is stated in the following terms: 
Men stay on the outside, women on the inside.
男子居外，女子居内。(NZ, 57)
Likewise, the spatial separation of the sexes is thus defined: 
At seven, boys and girls do not sit at the same table, do not eat together.
七年，男女不同席，不共食。(NZ, 77)
In the accounts in the first chapter of Liu Xiang’s work, the concept nei appears 19 
times in reference to women; this indicates how the nei/wai dichotomy becomes 
fundamental to Liu Xiang’s ethical discourse. 
The first occurrence we observe here is that in the episode of Jing Jiang, of the Ji 
lineage of Lu (No. 9 Lu Ji Jing Jiang 魯季敬姜). She instructs us on the difference 
between nei 内, the “inside”, translated here as “the inner quarters”, and the wai 
外 the “outside”, or the “public life”.
Jing Jiang is talking to Kangzi, a Minister of Lu, related to her by marriage (she 
was his paternal great-aunt). It is worth noting that during this dialogue she is 
standing inside and he outside the door, thus the threshold becomes a border that 
neither one is allowed to cross:
“Haven’t you ever heard these words? The Son of Heaven and his noble 
men administrate public affairs at court; from high rank officials to low 
rank officials, they all administrate their duties in the outer chambers, and 
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the domestic affairs in the inner chambers. Beyond the inner chambers, 
women decide their own works. Superiors and inferiors are all alike (in 
this respect). The outer court is where you carry on the duties assigned by 
the ruler, the inner court is where you manage the affairs of the Ji lineage, 
I wouldn’t dare say anything about either of them.” When Kangzi arrived, 
she opened the door, and told him these words, neither one trespassing 
the threshold. 
子不聞耶？天子及諸侯合民事於內朝，自卿大夫以下合官職於外
朝，合家事於內朝，寢門之內，婦人治其職焉。上下同之。夫外
朝子將業君之官職焉，內朝子將庀季氏之政焉，皆非吾所敢言
也。康子嘗至敬姜，䦱門而與之言，皆不踰閾。(LNZ 1,9,13)
Jing Jiang draws the line between the two realms: she states the rules of fu dao 
妇道 (the Way of Women) talking from inside beyond the threshold, acting as a 
link between the two worlds. This threshold makes her step in and out, and in fact 
represents her knowledge.
Jing Jiang is wife, mother, mother-in-law, and counsellor of generals, and she also 
marks the line of the threshold: she is an active subject with a positive influence in 
society, bringing about change for the better.
In the episode of the Three Mothers of the House of Zhou (No. 6 Zhoushi san mu 
周室三母), speaking about Tai Si, mother of Wen, the author tells us that: 
King Wen rules the wai, the outside; the Mother of Wen (Tai Si) rules 
the nei, the inside. 
文王治外，文母治內。(LNZ 1,6,5)
This is a very sharp statement. Liu Xiang had just specified that she knew the 
“Way of Women”, thus stating an inherent relation between nei/wai separation 
and the fu dao:
Entering the country, Tai Si took good care of Tai Jiang and Tai Ren,5 
from dawn to dusk engaged in diligent work, to pursue the right Way of 
Women. 
及入，太姒思媚大姜、太任，旦夕勤勞，以進婦道。(ibid.)
5 The other two mothers in the court are described as follows: Tai Jiang was the mother of Wang Ji, 
she was able to guide, and was good at moral teachings; Tai Ren was Wang Ji’s wife and King Wen’s 
mother, and she was good at the pre-natal education of the children. Tai Si was King Wen’s wife 
the mother of King Wu, and she was called “cultured mother”.
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Mencius’ mother (No. 11) also traces a very strong line on nei/wai boundaries:
The mother of Mencius said: “A woman’s li is to cook five cereals, to make 
wine with fermented rice, to take good care of her husband’s parents, to 
weave clothes and garments. Thus, she has to regulate the inner cham-
bers, but she doesn’t have to think about the outside.” 
孟母曰：「夫婦人之禮，精五飯，审酒漿，養舅姑，縫衣裳而已
矣。故有閨內之脩，而無境外之志。(LNZ 1,11,8)
In the final sentence, we read:
The nobleman says that the mother of Mencius knows the “Way of 
Women” (fu dao). 
君子謂孟母知婦道。(ibid.)
The physical separation between the realms of nei and wai is the first rule in the 
construction of the fu dao 妇道. 
It is in the Zuozhuan (ZZ)6 that we find the distinction between nan/nü as coin-
cident with the spatial collocation in the wai/nei: women belong to the “inside” 
(nei 内), that is the domestic area of competence, clearly mapped with material 
references.
Here is the example of the ladies Mi and Jiang, the wives of Wen, Earl of Zheng 
in the Zuozhuan: 
In the morning of bingzi, the ladies Mi and Jiang, the wives of Wen, Earl 
of Zheng, went to congratulate the Viscount of Chu at the marsh of Ke, 
when the Viscount made the bandmaster Jin display to them the captives 
and the ears of the slain. The noble man says that this is contrary to li. A 
woman, when escorting or meeting a visitor, does not go beyond the gate; 
when seeing her brothers, she does not cross the threshold. The business of 
war does not involve women.
丙子晨，鄭文夫人芊氏，姜氏，勞楚子於柯澤，楚子使師縉示之
俘馘，君子曰，非禮也。婦人送迎不出門，見兄弟不踰閾。戎事
不邇女器。(ZZ, Duke Xi, Year 22)
6 The Zuozhuan is a collection of narratives in the form of a commentary to the stories in the Spring 
and Autumn Annals Chunqiu 春秋. It was written in the fourth century BCE and, like the Shi-
jing, is considered the earliest literary appearance of woman as a social construct (Mair 2001, 196; 
Rosenlee 2006, 97). “The general purpose of the Zuozhuan is to demonstrate the normative pat-
terns of human conduct on a grand historical canvas.” (See also Goldin in Wang 2003, 73)
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A very important step in the construction of the ethics of womanhood is repre-
sented by the work of Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (179–104 BCE). He, as revital-
izer of Confucianism from a holistic perspective, categorized the five relations of 
the social hierarchy (wulun 無論) as father-son, ruler-minister, husband-wife, big 
brother-little brother, and friend-friend. In the cosmic order that corresponds to 
the natural interaction between Heaven (Tian 天) and Mankind (Ren 人), every 
subject has its own proper space. Dong Zhongshu thought that the forces of Yin 
and Yang regulated the relation between genders, and thus assigned Yin/woman, 
to the inside—nei 内—and Yang/man, to the outside—wai 外.
While putting women in the nei, and men in the wai, the LNZ gives life to an 
intermediate position: that of the woman located “on the threshold”; women that, 
thanks to their knowledge, can advise, change, and have an active role in their realm, 
thus directly or indirectly influencing the outside. Standing on the threshold, good 
mothers and wives act as sage counsellors for their sons or husbands, no matter 
their age or rank. The mother of Zifa of Chu (No 10.: Chu Zifa mu 楚子發母) 
scolded her son, a general, for being too proud and selfish in directing his soldiers:
Today, you, my son, are the general; while troops and officers share raw 
cereal to eat, from morning to dawn you keep meat and high quality ce-
reals all for yourself, how can it be? ... My son is not my son, I won’t let 
him in my house!
今子為將，士卒并分菽粒而食之，子獨朝夕芻豢黍粱，何也？...... 
子非吾子也，無入吾門。(LNZ 1,10,2)
Order is restored only after the son has begged for his mother’s forgiveness. 
Zifa asked for mother’s forgiveness, so she let him in. 
子發於是謝其母，然後內之。(LNZ 1,10,3)
In the final statement, the comment says:
The nobleman says that Zifa’s mother is good indeed at teaching. 
君子謂子發母能以教誨。(ibid.)
The moral lesson, here, seems to address mankind as a whole, the ethical ren, and 
not only the woman or her son. In reality, she is also a “woman on the threshold”, 
standing on a position between nei and wai. 
In another case, the mother of Tian Ji of Qi (No. 14 Qi Tianji mu 齊田稷母) gave 
her son a powerful lesson. Tian Ji was prime minister in Qi, but he was corrupt. 
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When his mother asked him, he admitted that he had accepted money from lower 
functionaries. Hearing this, she got very angry and reprimanded him: 
... For an official to serve the king is as for a son to serve the father. He 
uses all his strength, all his capacity to show his loyalty and faithfulness 
to the king, without deceiving; he follows orders at the cost of his own 
life; he is incorruptible and just—this will avoid any calamity. Now you 
have acted against these rules, you departed from loyalty. For an official 
to serve the king without loyalty is like a son who is not filial towards his 
father. Treasures obtained from disloyalty, I do not want! A son who is 
not filial, I do not want! Son, go away!
...夫為人臣而事其君，猶為人子而事其父也。盡力竭能，忠信不
欺，務在效忠，必死奉命，廉潔公正，故遂而無患。今子反是，
遠忠矣。夫為人臣不忠，是為人子不孝也。不義之財，非吾有
也。不孝之子，非吾子也。子起。(LNZ 1,14,1)
Also in this case order is restored after the son asks for forgiveness. The moral les-
son is a general ethical prescription. In the moral vision of Liu Xiang, the link be-
tween the sage mother and her son is that of guidance on one side, and obedience 
on the other. Women, as mothers, have the possibility of acting as “active agents”, 
playing a fundamental role in spreading messages of wisdom, stepping out of an 
ideal “threshold” that draws the lines of an ethically based society. 
(2) The Adoptive Mother: “My Kin” vs. “Your Kin”
As stated before, in the Chinese classical ethical system the female subject is de-
fined inside a familial/kinship relation. Nevertheless, in LNZ, in two cases, ma-
ternal virtue is also extended to adopted children. We are dealing here with “The 
benevolent mother of Mang of Wei” (No. 13 Wei Mang ci mu 魏芒慈母) and “The 
tutor matron of the woman of Qi” (No. 8 Qi nü fumu 齐女傅母). 
The benevolent mother of Mang of Wei carefully watched not only over her own 
three sons but also over her husband’s deceased first wife’s three sons. These are 
the words that Liu Xiang puts in her mouth:
As a second mother, I am like a mother; being a mother and not being 
able to love others’ children, would this be kindness? To care only for your 
own children and be biased against others, how could I take my place 
in this world? Even if our love is not mutual, how could I ever forget 
righteousness? 
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繼母如母，為人母而不能愛其子，可謂慈乎！親其親而偏其假，
可謂義乎！不慈且無義，何以立於世！彼雖不愛，妾安可以忘義
乎！(LNZ 1,13,2)
We can see here a direct link to the fact that, given that a woman’s personal suc-
cess in her career and moral rectitude mirrors her own virtue as an exemplary 
mother, it is not natural birth that gives her the possibility to express her virtue, 
but the social action of educating children. In the future development of moral-
ity and women, fertility becomes more important, and infertility is increasingly 
considered unacceptable. In the LNZ, however, in the mother-son relation, the 
educational aspect is more important than the biological one.
(3) The Relation with In-Laws and the Role of Peacekeeping within  
the Family and Outside
These mothers are dedicated both to their sons and daughters, and to their in-
laws. Ding Jiang, a Lady of Wei (No. 7 Wei gu Ding Jiang 衛姑定姜) is one of 
them. When Ding Jiang’s son died without children, after making sure that the 
daughter-in-law had completed the three-year ritual mourning period, Ding 
Jiang sent her back to her home. The story tells the sorrow of the departure of the 
two ladies, and the final sentence is as follows: 
The nobleman says: Ding Jiang was a loving mother-in-law; she went 
beyond (her duty) and attained great kindness. 
君子謂定姜為慈姑過而之厚。(LNZ 1,7,1)
This story is particularly important if we consider that in the Ming-Qing period 
not only was a widow’s marriage banned, but a widow’s chastity and her physical 
sacrifice, sometimes even leading to death, were highly praised and considered a 
honour for the whole community.7
Bearing womanly virtue, they bring harmony and peace in the house. Of Yousheng 
Consort of Tang (No. 5 Tang fei Youshen 汤妃有㜪) it is written:
7 The first appearance of the celebration of widows’ chastity is in the Hou Tang shu 後唐書. In the 
LNZ of the Ming dynasty there are 233 examples of women committing suicide after their hus-
band’s death. According to Lee Yao (1983, 80) the total number of widows committing suicide 
during the Ming dynasty was 8,688, and 27,141 women were said to have mutilated themselves 
after their husband’s deaths. See also in Sun 1988.
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292 Sabrina ARDIZZONI: Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter...
When Youshen became the wife of Tang, she gathered together and led 
the wives of all ranks, in women’s chambers there was order, none of them 
was jealous towards another; this is how she helped the king’s success. The 
nobleman says that the consort was enlightened and brought about order. 
有㜪之妃湯也，統領九嬪，後宮有序，咸無妒媢逆理之人，卒致
王功。君子謂妃明而有序。(LNZ 1,5,2)
(4) Daily Life: Warp and Loom as a Symbol of Morality in the Narrative  
of Women
Everyday life for women was divided between devotion to their houses’ males and 
their only allowed activities: weaving and cooking. Powerful statements on the 
division of labour between men and women are already to be found in the Shijing 
詩經, but it is only with Liu Xiang that the loom embodies the woman’s world of 
significance in a gendered society. 
The division of labour was normative: men took care of ploughing, women 
worked on the loom. As Hinsch (2003, 599) states: “Women’s matters (Nüshi 
女事) or women’s work (Nügong 女工) referred only to cloth making while nor-
mative men’s work consisted of growing grain”. This form of economic organi-
zation yielded a successful society, and from very early on the loom assumed a 
metaphorical meaning.
The teaching from the Daya section of the Shijing quoted in the story of Jing 
Jiang says:
The Shijing says: “A wife is not involved in public affairs, she confines 
herself to her spinning and weaving.”8
《詩》曰：“婦無公事，休其蠶織”。
8 The original poem in the Shijing is: 
	 鞫人忮忒、譖始竟背。豈曰不極、伊胡為慝。如賈三倍、君子是識。婦無公事、休其蠶
織。
 Legge (1871, 561–62) translates this as follows: “They beat men down, hurtful, deceitful. Their 
slanders in the beginning may be falsified in the end, But they do not say [that their words were] 
very wrong; [They say], What evil was there in them? As if in the three times cent per cent of traffic, 
a superior man should have any knowledge of it; so a woman who has nothing to do with public 
affairs, Leaves her silk-worms and weaving.” This translation is not at all clear, as stated also by as 
Allen (1891, 445–46): “The last four lines of this stanza are most incomprehensible.” He suggests: 
“Does not the wise man know that a woman has nothing to do with public affairs? Shall she leave 
her silk-worms and weaving?” It has been transmitted in Chinese tradition as a statement on nan 
nü zhi bie 男女之别 (man-woman separation) in terms of labor division.
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293Asian Studies VIII (XXIV ), 3 (2020), pp. 281–302
Liu Xiang goes on: 
It means that a woman’s occupation is spinning and weaving. If she does 
not pursue this occupation, she is not practicing li. 
言婦人以織績為公事者也。休之非禮也。(LNZ 1,9,8)
The equivalence between loom-work for women and li 禮 “ritual” is a strong defi-
nition of feminine “moral personhood”.
Both Mencius’s mother and Jing Jiang use the loom as a metaphor of their moral 
teaching:
When Wenbo served as Minister in Lu, Jing Jiang told him, “I will tell 
you how the essentials of ruling a country can be found in [the art of 
weaving]: everything depends upon the warp! The ‘temple’ is the means 
by which the crooked is made straight. It must be strong. The temple 
can therefore be thought of as the general. The reed is the means by 
which one makes uniform what is irregular and brings into line the un-
ruly. Therefore the reed can be thought of as the director. The ‘hairpin’ is 
the means by which one organizes the coarse and dense fibres [that have 
become entangled]. The hairpin can therefore be thought of as the capital 
grandee. That which can maintain connection without losing control of 
[the threads] moving inward and those moving outward is the batten. 
The batten can be thought of as the great envoy. That which pushes and 
goes out and which pulls and comes back is the heddles. The heddles 
can be thought of as the commander of the populace within the passes. 
That which manages [the threads] in numbers great and small is the 
warp-spacing reed. The warp-spacing reed can be thought of as the clerk 
of the capital. That which fulfils a key role, travels a long way, is exact, 
upright, and firm is the cloth-beam. The cloth-beam can be thought of as 
the prime minister. That which unrolls without limit is the warp-beam. 
The warp-beam can be thought of as the Three Excellencies.” Wenbo 
bowed twice and received her teaching.9
文伯相魯。敬姜謂之曰：「吾語汝，治國之要，盡在經矣。夫幅
者，所以正曲枉也，不可不彊，故幅可以為將。畫者，所以均不
均、服不服也，故畫可以為正。物者，所以治蕪與莫也，故物可
以為都大夫。持交而不失，出入不絕者，捆也。捆可以為大行人
9 Translation in Kinney 2014, 13. Given the technicality and complexity of this passage, I retain here 
Kinney’s translation.
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294 Sabrina ARDIZZONI: Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter...
也。推而往，引而來者，綜也。綜可以為關內之師。主多少之數
者，均也。均可以為內史。服重任，行遠道，正直而固者，軸
也。軸可以為相。舒而無窮者，摘也。摘可以為三公。」文伯再
拜受教。(LNZ 1,9,5)
And there’s more. The Mother of Meng Ke of Zou (No.11 Zou Mengke mu 鄒孟
軻母) uses the popular story of cutting the thread of her loom to show her son the 
importance of continuity and endurance in the activity one is devoted to.
When Mencius was still young, still pursuing his studies, he came back 
home. His mother was weaving the loom. She asked: “How is your in-
struction?” He answered: “As it was before.” So, Mrs. Meng cut the thread 
with a knife. The son was startled and asked her the reason of this act. She 
said: “The interruption of your studies is like me cutting my own loom 
work. The nobleman acquires his status through studying, asks questions 
to broaden his knowledge. This is why we came to live in this quiet place, 
to stay away from bad influences. But now, this happens, so you won’t 
be able to stay away from humble positions, and it will not be easy to 
keep calamities away. It is like a woman who is weaving or cooking, but 
halfway abandons her job. How can a woman weave garments for her 
husband and sons, or be sure they have enough food? If women abandon 
their position and men abandon their moral education, if they don’t be-
come thieves, they might become slaves!
孟子之少也，既學而歸，孟母方績，問曰：“學何所至矣?”孟
子曰：“自若也。”孟母以刀斷其織。孟子懼而問其故，孟母
曰：“子之廢學，若吾斷斯織也。夫君子學以立名，問則廣知，
是以居則安寧，動則遠害。今而廢之，是不免於廝役，而無以離
於禍患也。何以異於織績而食，中道廢而不為，寧能衣其夫子，
而長不乏糧食哉！女則廢其所食，男則墮於脩德，不為竊盜，則
為虜役矣。”(LNZ 1,11,3)
The loom is, therefore, not only the main occupation in the ideal woman’s daily 
life, but also a means of communication, in which an alphabet of significance is 
housed. 
(5) Daily Life: Pregnancy and Foetal Education
The gender role of woman as educator is prior to the birth event. The book talks 
about “foetal instruction”, tai jiao 胎教. This means that a wise woman knows 
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295Asian Studies VIII (XXIV ), 3 (2020), pp. 281–302
how to instruct her son when he is still in her womb, and only this knowledge will 
ensure a virtuous progeny. 
The story of Tai Si in “The three mothers of the house of Zhou”, gives women 
directions for pregnancy:
In ancient times, a pregnant woman with child would not lie on her 
side as she slept; neither would she sit sideways or stand on one foot. 
She would not eat food with odd flavours; if the food was cut awry, she 
would not eat it; if the mat was not placed straight, she would not sit on 
it. She did not let her eyes gaze on odd sights or let her ears listen to de-
praved sounds. At night she ordered blind musicians to chant the Odes. 
She spoke only of proper things. In this way she gave birth to children 
of correct physical form who excelled others in talent and virtue. Thus, 
during pregnancy, one must always be cautious about [external] feelings. 
If one is stimulated by good feelings, then [the child] will be good. If one 
is stimulated by evil feelings, then [the child] will be evil. 
古者婦人妊子，寢不側，坐不邊，立不蹕，不食邪味，割不正不
食，席不正不坐，目不視於邪色，耳不聽於淫聲。夜則令瞽誦
詩，道正事。如此，則生子形容端正，才德必過人矣。故妊子之
時，必慎所感。感於善則善，感於惡則惡。(LNZ 1,6,4)
Besides practical advice on pregnancy, the book also contains two accounts of su-
pernatural pregnancies. Two exemplary women gave birth to two mythical sons:10 
Jiang Yuan gave birth to Hou Ji11 (No. 2 Qi mu Jiang Yuan 棄母姜嫄), and Jian Di 
became the mother of Xie (No. 3 Xie mu Jian Di 契母簡狄). The first one became 
pregnant after she stepped on a giant’s footprint. When she became aware of her 
pregnancy, because her belly was swollen, she tried to get rid of the baby:
The mother of Ji, Jiang Yuan, was the daughter of the Marquis of Tai. 
In Yao’s time, while walking, she came upon a giant’s footprint; being 
curious, she placed her foot in it, and when she returned she found out 
she was pregnant. She began to grow larger and often felt nausea, so she 
called in priests who could help her get rid of the baby through divination 
and sacrifice. In the end the baby was born. Thinking that it was of evil 
omen, she abandoned the baby boy on a narrow path, but cows and goats 
did not trample on it. Then she brought it to a forest, but woodcutters 
10 This case is mentioned here, not for its moral value, but to highlight the incursion from a legendary 
world into the pragmatic historical world, a feature that will survive in subsequent literary tradition.
11 Hou Ji is the god of agriculture and the founder of Zhou people (see Birrel 1993, 54–56).
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296 Sabrina ARDIZZONI: Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter...
picked him up and sheltered him in a straw bedding. So she took him 
back, and put him on ice, but birds shielded him with their wings. 
棄母姜嫄者，邰侯之女也。當堯之時，行見巨人跡，好而履之，
歸而有娠，浸以益大，心怪惡之，卜筮禋祀，以求無子，終生
子。以為不祥而棄之隘巷，牛羊避而不踐。乃送之平林之中，
後伐平林者咸薦之覆之。乃取置寒冰之上，飛鳥傴翼之。(LNZ 
1,2,1)
The birth of Ji is not only a magical one, as it also tells the story of an unwelcome 
baby and the numerous efforts the “virtuous” mother makes in order to get rid of 
him.
Jian Di, mother of Xie, became pregnant by accidentally swallowing an egg while 
she was taking a bath:12
In Yao’s times, she went with her sisters to bathe in the waters of the 
Xuanqiu. A black bird flew overhead and released an egg that she was 
holding with her claws. It was multi-coloured and very beautiful. Jian 
Di and her sisters vied to gather it, Jian Di picked it up and put it in her 
mouth. By mistake, she swallowed it, subsequently giving birth to Xie.
當堯之時，與其妹娣浴於玄丘之水。有玄鳥銜卵，過而墜之。五
色甚好，簡狄與其妹娣競往取之。簡狄得而含之，誤而吞之，遂
生契焉。(LNZ 1,3,1)
The rational pruning of traditional tales that characterized the historical approach 
of Sima Qian in the past, and of Liu Xiang in this historiographic phase, does 
not keep the author from accepting supernatural events and reporting them as 
historical facts. The urgency of the moral message is stronger than that of rational 
evidence. 
(6) Daily Life: Death and Mourning
We already mentioned Ding Jiang 定姜. When her son died, just after marriage, 
without children, she allowed her beloved daughter-in-law to go back to her fam-
ily. But, before that, she wanted to be sure that she had observed the three-year 
mourning period. In the same chapter she was very concerned after her husband’s 
death because Kan, the son of one of her husband’s concubines, took his father’s 
throne, but did not excel in mourning etiquette.
12 Mentioned by Birrel 1993, 256.
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297Asian Studies VIII (XXIV ), 3 (2020), pp. 281–302
After she had finished weeping, Ding Jiang, upon seeing that Kan wasn’t 
sorrowful and did not make the ritual offerings of food and drink, sighed 
and said: “This man will be the ruin of the state, and before that even of vir-
tuous people. And Heaven will smite the country with great  calamities! ...”
定姜既哭而息，見獻公之不哀也，不內食飲，嘆曰：「是將敗衛
國，必先害善人，天禍衛國也！...” (LNZ 1,7,3)
This story is recorded to praise Ding Jiang, but the moral aim of leading the king 
to practice proper mourning rituals is clear: the construction of the “moral per-
sonhood” in this book is aimed at women and men alike. Women’s social/ritual 
construction is instrumental to the education of men. This recalls the tradition of 
the Zuozhuan. 
The already mentioned Jing Jiang, wife of the Count of Mu, mother of the Count 
of Wen, is another bearer of a message of mourning etiquette. Jing Jiang is the 
woman of whom Confucius says: “She knows the difference between men and 
women” (仲尼謂敬姜別於男女之禮矣). The chapter on her is mainly related to 
her mourning her husband first, and only afterwards her son. 
The Count of Mu first died, Jing Jiang observed the ritual.
穆伯先死，敬姜守養。(ibid.)
When the Count of Wen died, Jing Jiang admonished his concubines: “I 
heard that for a man who loves the inside (nei 内), women are willing to 
die, and for a man who loves the outside (wai 外), his officials are will-
ing to die. Today my son died prematurely, I don’t want to hear that he 
favoured the inner quarters, that would humiliate his women. So I invite 
you, in the mourning you should not become emaciated, not ruin your-
self in shed tears, not beat your breasts, not release your sorrow, but wear 
reduced mourning clothing, not increased, follow the li, and be tranquil; 
this is the right way to remember my son.
文伯卒，敬姜戒其妾曰：「吾聞之，『好內，女死之；好外，士
死之。』今吾子夭死，吾惡其以好內聞也，二三婦之辱。共祀先
祀者，請毋瘠色，毋揮涕，毋陷膺，毋憂容，有降服，毋加服，
從禮而靜，是昭吾子。(LNZ 1,7,11)
When Jing Jiang was in mourning, in the morning she wept for the Count 
of Mu, her husband, in the evening she wept for the count of Wen, her son.
敬姜之處喪也，朝哭穆伯，暮哭文伯。(LNZ 1,7,12)
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298 Sabrina ARDIZZONI: Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter...
The actions related to the mourning of one’s male family members are highly 
ritualized: the expressions of sorrow for the death of the beloved are replaced by 
social signs, like clothing and a tranquil attitude. 
Conclusions and Further Implications
In this paper we analysed the main patterns of ethical “womanhood” within the 
narrative tradition included in the first book of Liu Xiang’s LNZ. 
By way of conclusion, and answering the introductory questions, we can state 
that the tradition of defining ethical rules through examples of virtuous women 
is confirmed by Liu Xiang. He, in the process of adopting a more rigid pattern 
of defining the social being, inherits the historical tradition of the wen from the 
Shijing (that he places within his own text) to the philosophical texts of the Chun-
qiu schools; from historical texts, such as Zuozhuan and the Shiji, he derives the 
moral aim of the narration through exempla; but, keeping in mind the priority of 
the moral aim, in pruning the contents of tradition he deliberately fails to mark a 
distinct line between “real” facts and “legendary” narratives. Moreover, he acquires 
new concepts from Dong Zhongshu, mixing Tian 天 and Ren 仁 in Li 禮. 
Nevertheless, the pre-Han textual tradition showed more differentiation in the 
exempla of women. The LNZ, in building a theoretical/ethical framework on 
moral personhood, highlights a proactive role of women in the family and society. 
Among the categories originally introduced, the physical separation between men 
and women may be considered the most important one. In the LNZ it is very well 
articulated, and marks the different fields of action of the two subjects in the new 
gendered society. In fact, Liu Xiang allows some women to stay on the threshold: 
the boundaries seem to be still flexible and not rigidly prescriptive. 
The women that he values as models for the construction of the social ethical 
system he is building are not entirely subjugated, but have specific areas of action, 
given by their being part of a relational net within the family, attentive disciples 
of li, and, most of all, educable and educated. We can see them as women on the 
threshold, materially and virtually standing on a border line, between the nei and 
the wai. 
This notwithstanding, the apparently contradictory framework depicted by him 
leaves room for future speculations towards a more reclusive and subjugated po-
sition of women within the more and more oppressive family rules that crystal-
lize after Sima Guang 司馬光 (1019–1086), and even more in Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 
(1130–1200) 12th century. 
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299Asian Studies VIII (XXIV ), 3 (2020), pp. 281–302
In line with general studies on Chinese traditional ethics (Ule, 2019; Vervoorn, 
2004, among others), our analysis confirms that even though the narration on 
womanhood in Chinese ethics includes some exempla about extraordinary women 
professing their subjectivity outside the family and clan borders, the main trend, 
from the LNZ on, was that of shaping an increasingly subjugated model of social 
agent. Liu Xiang’s discourse appears to crystallize this trend on women’s ethics. 
In his work, a semantic shift occurs in the category of fu dao, or fu li, originally 
addressing the marriage status or the marriage performance. It seems to coincide 
with the knowledge and wisdom these women show. A wisdom that allows them 
to speak aloud, even though only from their quarters, the inner chambers, thus 
positioning them on the threshold. But, the questions are: where does this wisdom 
come from, and how does one acquire it? The answers are not specified. 
One woman tried to answer this question, Ban Zhao (49–120 CE). She was the 
first author (a woman literata) who made a philological study of LNZ; in her in-
troduction to the didactic text Nüjie 女诫, she wrote: 
But what now anguishes me is that my daughters can be proper persons, 
that they won’t make mistakes due to the fact that they have not received a 
gradual education, and they have never heard about the rites of women! ... 
但伤诸女方当适人，而不渐训诲，不闻妇礼，惧失容它门，取耻
宗族。吾今疾在沈滞，性命无常，念汝曹如此，每用惆怅。间作
《女诫》七章，愿诸女各写一通，庶有补益，裨助汝身。去矣，
其勖勉之！
In the first chapter, Ban Zhao takes the metaphor of the loom, not only to say that 
weaving is the main productive activity of a virtuous woman, but also to express 
the way an infant girl learns her position in the family: 
In ancient times, three days after her birth, 
the girl slept under the bed and played with the loom weighs.13
古者生女三日，卧之床下，弄之瓦砖
Her work was namely that of trying to empower women through knowledge, the 
knowledge of fu li and fu dao that had been praised several times in the LNZ; 
furthermore, it helped define women’s social role and give them an increasingly 
definite position. 
13 This comes from the Shijing (Xiaoya): “When a daughter is born, she will be made to sleep on the 
floor, she will be swaddled, she will get a loom-spool to play with.” 
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300 Sabrina ARDIZZONI: Women on the Threshold in the First Chapter...
Ban Zhao herself was a “woman on the threshold”, giving the right instructions to 
other women so that they could fit properly in a system that was leading towards 
ever more tragic experiences. As we know, especially in the Ming-Qing Period, 
the boundaries around women’s bodies became tighter and tighter; further philo-
sophical interpretation of the wen became more and more detrimental to defining 
women’s social position, impacting greatly on their everyday lives.14 At the end of 
the Ming dynasty the saying Nüzi wu cai bian shi de 女子無才便是德, “A woman 
with no talent is a virtuous one”, was so widespread that the entire education dis-
course seemed to lose all value.15 
The impact of Liu Xiang’s work was thus a keypoint in the construction of morals 
with regard to women, an important building block in Chinese ethical discourse. 
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