Les conditions de vie des femmes dans la société traditionnelle chinoise

As in all the countries and eras, women have been regarded as inferior in China, especially before the beginning of the Twentieth Century. But it is noticeable that in the traditional Chinese society, the life conditions of women, without any ethnocentric consideration, has been even more difficult than in most of the countries around the world, especially those of the West.

Firstly, the position of the Woman in the traditional Chinese society for a long time is a result of the Confucius moral, which granted very little consideration to women. Indeed, according to the Chinese beliefs dating from the first millennium BC, and then introduced in into the teaching of Confucius and his disciples, the world was composed by two complementary and opposed elements: the Yin and the Yang. The first one embodies all things passive, weak, and dark, and has always been associated to women; the second element, on the total contrary, symbolizes everything which is strong, active and bright, and has always been represented by the men. Originally conceived as interacting as complementary, these two elements were very soon arranged in a hierarchical relationship juxtaposing superiority to inferiority, and goodness to evil. Confucius himself would have claimed that women are as different from men as Earth is from Heaven.