According to the existing textual research, this sentence first appeared in Chen Jiru's book An De Lao Ren Yan in the late Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, this sentence probably wasn't originally written by Chen Jiru, because the book is a collection of epigrams and quotations, which records the life experiences that Chen Jiru learned from "elders" in various places during his study tour.
Chen Jiru (1558~ 1639), whose name is Zhong Chun, was a writer, calligrapher and painter in the Ming Dynasty. The picture shows the portrait of Chen Jiru painted by Xu Zhang in Qing Dynasty.
Then why did the "elder" say that? There are some answers in the book. First of all, "a woman without talent is virtue" is accompanied by the first half sentence, which means "a man with virtue is talent"; Then, Chen Jiru also commented on this sentence: "Women are literate, but those who can understand the righteousness are virtuous, but they are rare; Others like reading Quben novels, fanning the flames, and even dancing with the law, making ugly deeds. Instead of this, it is better to be illiterate and keep quiet. "
That is to say, "elders" (including Chen Jiru) think that the disadvantage of women's literacy is that they are provoked by evil spirits and vilified by Qu Ben's novels. Considering the time when he said this sentence, it is easy to understand what the so-called "scandal" means.
Confucianism has always had a "morality-oriented" cultural tradition, and both men and women attach importance to morality. Traditional women's education is headed by "female morality", and so is the Ming Dynasty. In the mission of the imperial court, the norms of women's virtue and cultivation are often put in the first place. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, Empress Renxiao Xu wrote Internal Training, in which the chapter "Virtue" wrote: "Quiet and carefree, dignified and sincere, is also the virtue of women. Honor and kindness, kindness and obedience, and virtue. "
Queen Ren Xiaowen, the daughter of Xu Da, the founding hero of the Ming Dynasty, was the queen of Judy, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
"Internal Strength" by Empress Renxiao Xu
However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the social commodity economy continued to develop, the population mobility was strengthened, and the social atmosphere was gradually opened, which had a great impact on traditional ethics. At this time, people's understanding of "female talent" has also changed. Women begin to admire talents, while men appreciate talented women. Ye, a writer in the Ming Dynasty, wrote in the preface to Wu Ji: "A husband has three immortals, one virtue, one merit and one word. And women also have three qualities, morality, talent and color. " It is also called the three immortals of women with virtue, talent and color.
In this atmosphere, "talented woman culture" began to appear, especially in the south of the Yangtze River, which was prominently manifested in the association between Qinhuai literati and famous prostitutes in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Mr. Chen Yinque mentioned in Liu Biezhuan: "He and his contemporaries were friends with Wuyue Party and men and women in the name of poetry and calligraphy." At that time, the friendship between literati and famous prostitutes was passed down as a romantic story. For example, Mao Bijiang and Dong Xiaowan, and Li, and Li's deeds in The Four Gentlemen of the Restoration Society.
Kong's Peach Blossom Fan depicts the love story with Li.
It is worth noting that this is the reason why literati associate with famous prostitutes, mainly out of appreciation of the talents of famous prostitutes. For example, Ma Xianglan is famous for his "graceful posture", but he is good at drawing orchids. Wang He, a 70-year-old celebrity, is already "57 years old". Drinking and dancing for decades is a golden event.
"Millennium Beautiful Pictures" in Ming Dynasty
However, because "talented women" are often represented by famous prostitutes, it is inevitable that some people, such as "elders", will associate literary talent with prostitution in brothels, saying that prostitutes who write poems are "obscene words" and ruin their virtue. Coupled with the respect for women's talents in the novels of talented women and beautiful women, the stories of loving talented women frequently occur, which also makes people feel that infatuation with literary talent and expressing their temperament will lead to adultery and incest.
With both ability and political integrity, it is a natural choice for these people to choose virtue over talent. It can be said that "women without talent are virtuous" is a rebound after the development of "women with talent" challenges the Confucian tradition of "taking morality as the foundation". Moreover, this rebound is not only aimed at "female talents", but also at "male talents". The implication of "virtuous people are talents" is that no matter how talented people are, if they lose their virtue, they will not be real talents.
However, although the word "elder" is widely circulated, it does not represent the mainstream public opinion in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
On the one hand, people who admire talented women will certainly not be changed by these two sentences. For example, Yuan Mei, a famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, criticized this statement as a suppression of women's talents and advocated respecting women's literary talents. In his view, "The Saint and Guan Yu, Ge Tan and Juan Er are all women's poems." Also accept female disciples and teach poetry. During the Qianlong period, there were more than 40 disciples, and their works were compiled as Selected Poems of Suiyuan Female Disciples. Under his influence, ancient female literature reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty.
Selected Poems of Suiyuan Female Disciples
On the other hand, orthodox Confucianism is unwilling to agree with this sentence. In their view, although this sentence despises "talented women", it is too dead to say it. We should emphasize the importance of having both ability and political integrity, correct it and restore orthodox women's education.
Zhang Xuecheng (1738~ 180 1) was a historian and thinker in Qing Dynasty.
For example, Zhang Xuecheng, a great historian, quoted the Record of Women's Studies in the Book of Rites in Zhou, which Confucius admired most, and proved that the saying of "no talent" was not the original intention of the sages from the perspective of textual research on Confucian orthodoxy. He believes that women's four virtues and orthodox poetry are authentic classical women's studies, and "poetry must be ethical." In contrast, "women's studies today have been defeated by poetry". In his view, women can have literary talent, but the premise is to study women's education, observe women's morality and control talents with virtue.
As for this sentence, it stands out. Together with "foot-binding" and "three obedience and four virtues", it is regarded as the label of China's traditional society, which is the result of constant emphasis by feminists from all walks of life since the May 4th Movement. The May 4th revolutionary thought with "oppression-liberation" as its core needs to set up a model of traditional society suppressing women. After stripping away the context and background of the times, the sentence "women are virtuous but not talented" is undoubtedly a perfect "enemy".
Girls' schools in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China
We all know the end of this movement: the revolution and its thoughts won the final victory, and the influence of "women without talent is virtue" reached the peak of history. Could the "predecessors" who said this have predicted it themselves?