本文是一篇Essay代写范文，题目为：Woman’s Status and its Influence on Spousal Relationship in China，这篇Essay主要讨论了中国女性的地位及其对夫妻关系的影响。在很长一段时间里，中国女性被视为男性的下级，受到儒家诸如孝道和贞操等规定的限制，这导致她们在夫妻关系中的地位较低。理想的夫妻关系还将女性置于照顾老人和孩子的角色，这不仅包括简单的夫妻关系，还包括与大家庭的关系。包办婚姻也导致了女性受到的待遇比男性少。女性地位是影响中国夫妻关系的一个主要因素。随着历史上女性社会地位的提高，中国的夫妻关系也随之发展成为一种更加健康的关系。
1.Introduction
Spousal relationship is a great component of Chinese culture throughout history and it is a distinctive relationship compared to that in the western societies.One of the features that distinguishes a Chinese spousal relationship from a western one is how women are treated in the relationship.Moreover,the spousal relationship in China is largely based on the status of women in marriage.To elaborate,in the traditional Chinese society,the constraints for women’s behaviors were fundamental for the ideal spousal relationship.On contrast,women’s social status has improved,meaning women become equals to men in marriage as stated in Marriage Law of PRC,thus the spousal relationship has also changed accordingly.In this essay,I will discuss the spousal relationship in the Chinese culture from the perspective of woman’s status,which is the defining factor of said relationship.
配偶关系是中国历史文化的重要组成部分，与西方社会相比，它是一种独特的关系。中国配偶关系与西方配偶关系的一个特点是如何对待女性。此外，中国的配偶关系在很大程度上是一种关系。从妇女的婚姻地位入手，阐述中国传统社会对妇女行为的制约是建立理想夫妻关系的根本，而相比之下，妇女的社会地位有所提高，即《中华人民共和国婚姻法》所规定的妇女在婚姻中与男子平等，夫妻关系也因此得到了改善。因此，本文将从女性地位的角度来探讨中国文化中的夫妻关系，这是这种关系的决定性因素。
2.Confucian Constraints for Women
Confucianism made great contributions to restricting women’s behaviors in the Chinese history and it became fundamental for women’s status in a spousal relationship.This philosophy emphasis on a concept of filial piety in its classic The Book of Filial Piety,which includes advice and regulations for one’s behaviors in front of honourable figures,such as seniors and governing officials.This book was originally applied to a wide range of audience,including both male and female genders.However,a derivation of this book was composed later,around 730 AD,specifically designated for women,entitled The Book of Filial Piety for Women.In this book,females were“told to cultivate Confucian virtues like filial piety,faithfulness,loyalty,diligence,trustworthiness,and sincerity,and warned against such evils as scheming,selfishness,and sensual indulgence.”(Ebrey,2001)These gender-specific rules suggest that women were required to exceed exceptions for men simply because of their gender,and in addition to that,they need to treat their husbands as superiors as that is what the concept of filial piety entails.In the book,there are more detailed requirements for a wife some of which may sound unreasonable;for example,a woman should agree with what her husband says regardless if he is correct on the subject.This revels that women were not allowed to have opinions and once again,were considered as inferiors to men in a marriage.
儒学在中国历史上为限制妇女的行为做出了巨大的贡献，它成为妇女在配偶关系中地位的基础，这一哲学在其经典著作《孝书》中强调了孝的概念，其中包括在尊敬的无花果面前对一个人的行为提出建议和规定。例如老年人和政府官员。这本书最初适用于广泛的受众，包括男性和女性。然而，这本书的一个派生后来编写，大约公元730年，专门为妇女指定，题为《妇女孝道书》。在这本书中，女性“被告知要培养儒家精神。像孝顺、忠诚、忠诚、勤奋、值得信赖和真诚这样的周二，并对诸如阴谋、自私和肉欲放纵等邪恶行为发出警告。”（Ebrey，2001年）这些性别特定的规则表明，女性仅仅因为性别而被要求超过男性的例外，除此之外，她们还需要对待自己的丈夫。作为上级，这就是孝道的概念所要求的。在这本书中，对妻子有更详细的要求，有些要求听起来可能不合理；例如，一个女人应该同意她丈夫所说的话，不管他在这个问题上是否正确。这表明，女人不被允许发表意见，并且再一次，是C。被认为是婚姻中男人的下级。
Chastity is another important aspect of Confucianism in spousal relationship in terms of women’s status.It is similar to many characteristics of filial piety but it is more strict and voluntary than that.It is considered a virtue also exclusive to women.It suggests that women not only were not supposed to be engaged in sexual activities before marriage,but also should be loyalty to their husbands even after the husbands had died.This chastity cult is linked with neo-Confucianism,starting from the Song dynasty(1127-1279).The statement of“to starve to death is a small matter,but to lose one’s chastity is a great matter”was made by Chen Yi(Ebrey,2003),declaring that a woman’s virtue is much more important than her life.Later in the Ming dynasty(1368-1644),in Fuzhou,Fujian Province,the widows,who had followed the Confucian philosophy since they were girls,would starve themselves to death instead of remarry(Ebrey,2009).This action is greatly encouraged by the society,including their families,whose reaction was to display“banners or arches proclaiming their virtue”(Ebrey,2009).This cult of chastity suicide has continued for hundreds of years hereafter;even after May Fourth Movement,suicides of women to preserve chastity were still romanticised in literature by Lu Xun and Mao Zedong,among other writers(Ropp,2001).This chastity cult is deeply engraved in people’s mind including women’s.They also profoundly believed that their lives did not weigh more than their chastity,labelling themselves as objects rather than human beings.
贞操是儒家在夫妻关系中妇女地位的另一个重要方面，它与孝道的许多特点相似，但它比孝道更为严格和自愿，它被认为是一种美德，也是女性独有的美德，它表明女性不仅不应该在婚前从事性活动。到了老公，也应该忠于自己的老公，即使老公死了。这种贞节崇拜与新儒家思想有关，始于宋朝（1127-1279）。陈毅（Ebrey，2003）发表了“饿死是件小事，失去贞节是件大事”的声明，宣称女人的美德比她的生活更重要。在明朝后期（1368-1644年），福建福州的寡妇，从少女时代就开始遵循儒家哲学，她们宁愿饿死也不愿再婚（Ebrey，2009年）。这一行动受到社会，包括她们的家人的极大鼓舞，他们的反应是展示“禁令”。纳尔斯或拱门宣扬他们的美德”（埃布里，2009年）。这种对贞操自杀的崇拜在此后的几百年里一直持续着；甚至在五四运动之后，鲁迅和毛泽东等作家的文学作品中仍将自杀妇女来维护贞操浪漫化（罗普，2001年）。这种贞操崇拜深深地刻在人们的内心深处。包括妇女在内，他们还深刻地相信，她们的生活并不比贞洁更重要，他们把自己标记为对象而不是人。
3.The Ideal Spousal Relationship
Women’s inferior status is also revealed in the ideal of a spousal relationship in the Chinese history.In the traditional Chinese society,an ideal spousal relationship depends greatly on how the wife behaves.This is revealed in personal letters between husbands and wives from the seventeenth century.In these letters,the husband was away and he reminded the wife to take care of his parents,their children,which is not unusual even in a modern context.Furthermore,he further asked her not to“make our parents complain that you are unfilial”or“our children suffer for lack of instruction.”(Lowry,2001)The wife is positioned as a caretaker of the elderly and children,and that is extremely important in making marital relationship a functional one.In the wife’s response to the letter,she repeated what her husband asked her to do,agreeing that she would serve them well when he was not here.Similarly,women in this period voluntarily play the role of an ideal wife,whose character is based on an unequal gender situation.
The ideal spousal relationship is also based on utilitarianism in the Chinese culture and this led to the result that the basis of a marriage is having a child and continue the family line instead of love.Conjugal relations have not been the focus among all relations in China.In Confucian philosophy,it is listed as the fourth important in five relations in total,which are respectively ruler-minister,father-son,elder brother-younger brother,husband-wife,and friend-friend(Pimentel,2000).In addition,men therefore is regarded as a link to the ancestor and the descendants.This further resulted in the gender preference when a family was expecting a baby,as they would believe that having a boy is protecting the family line and a girl would eventually married into another family,which made her an outsider.Marriages were also commonly arranged by parents with the help from intermediates.The wife was selected by them using criteria listed earlier in this essay,such as her virtue,trustworthiness,etc.The marriage is arranged for the benefits of the entire family.To be specific,the parents were most concerned about if the wife would serve the elderly well and if she had the ability to bear enough babies.Again,women were considered as caretakers in the family,with an additional role of a birthing instrument.Not only they were valued less than males from birth,they were also put into the position of furthering the family line by providing babies.
Western Chamber,a play written in the Yuan dynasty(1271-1368)by Wang Shifu,provides a female character who is unafraid to pursue true love in a traditional Chinese context.The story involves Cui,the female protagonist,falling in love with Zhang,a young scholar.Their love was not approved by Cui’s parents,and they were punished because they were contacting each other without the parents knowing.Cui’s mother offered Zhang a condition for them to get married,which is for Zhang to succeed in the exam of the central governing official.The story ends in a happy ending with the two lovers getting married.However,the story was considered immoral at the time,and later was forbidden to circulate.This reveals that the liberation of the female gender is not widely accepted at the time,and the idea of marriage based on love was also most uncommon.Although the story implies that there is a realisation of gender equality and marital relationships with love,it was still not widespread and even forbidden for a long time.
4.Spousal Relationship in the Modern Society
In the modern context,women’s status in a spousal relationship has not improved until the execution of Marriage Law of PRC in 1950.As mentioned earlier,May Fourth Movement did not change how the society viewed woman or how women evaluated themselves—an object subordinated to chastity.The chastity cult still exists in both society and literature.In 1950,Marriage Law of PRC legally states that the two parties in a marriage are equal.However,this cannot guarantee actual gender equality or marriage quality in spousal relationships.It cannot eliminate the discrimination in one single step but given time and patience,it is not an impossible mission.
Research is carried out on how the marriage quality is in urban China compared to western standards.The results of Pimentel(2000)suggest that there are many aspects of different of Chinese spousal relationships from western ones.The interaction between spouses outside the family is considered important by western standards,but not in the Chinese perception.Although in modern society,people are free to choose their spouses,Chinese people reacted that they did not date often compared to the western culture.The reason behind these is the culture that nurtured China,including Confucianism.In addition,the research also shows that even though the two parties in a marriage is stated to be equal in legal documents,the gender difference still lies between the husband and the wife.Therefore,it is not likely that this gender difference will disappear in a very short of time but as people are getting happier in their spousal relationships,it is reasonable to expect this will lead to equality.
5.Conclusion
In this essay,I investigated the status of females in spousal relationships through the Chinese history.For a long time,they were treated as inferiors to males,restricted by Confucian regulations such as filial piety and chastity.This has resulted in their lower status in a spousal relationship.The ideal of spousal relationships also put women into the position of caretakers who are supposed to serve the elderly and the children,which involves more than a simple husband-wife relationship but also a relationship with a larger family.Arranged marriages have also contributed to the fact that women were treated less than males.In the modern society,women were legally pronounced as equals to men in marriage in 1950.
In conclusion,women’s status is a major factor influencing Chinese spousal relationships.As the social status of woman improves in history,the spousal relationship in China has developed into a more heathy one consequently.
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