Abstract This article examines the high frequency of divorce among Kitan princesses during the Liao dynasty (916-1125), challenging the prevailing view that these separations reflected female autonomy. Through a philological analysis and a reconstruction of the socio-political background of each divorce, this study reveals that “disharmony” ( buxie ) was often a euphemism for politically motivated separations orchestrated by the emperor or the court. The rigid marriage system between the Yelü imperial clan and the Xiao consort clan limited marital flexibility, making divorce a strategic tool for realigning alliances. Clan and faction struggle in the first half of the eleventh century enabled the normalization of divorce, which then profoundly influenced memorial politics at the end of the period. In the historical records, however, these separations vaguely attributed to “disharmony” were misunderstood by later annalists, including the Yuan compilers of the Liaoshi , who saw them as moral failures of the Kitan regime.

Abstract Virtually all illustrations of the life of Confucius/Kongzi include a scene in which one of his parents performs a sacrifice on a hillside, and many versions also depict paranormal events associated with his birth. In most examples, the protagonist is the future sage’s young mother, Yan Zhengzai, but in a few cases she is joined or even replaced by his elderly father, Shuliang He. The variations among depictions of the events sometimes reflect different textual traditions, but social and cultural values also exert a significant influence on the pictorial treatments. As a case in point, this article analyzes a selection of Chinese examples dating from the fifteenth century to our own day, and Japanese examples from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Abstract This study examines references to women in the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn), a non-narrative history covering 722 to 479 BCE, and written from the perspective of the ancient state of Lu. The Chunqiu records use form, including naming conventions, phrasing, and patterned inclusion of information, to display the relative rank of the individuals mentioned therein. Records related to marriage are of particular interest, as are death and funeral records. Writing about gender in hierarchical societies, anthropologist Sherry Ortner proposed that the status of women is “more similar” to that of men at the same hierarchical level than to that of women at other levels. This claim is largely borne out by the Chunqiu records, but analysis is complicated by several factors. First, certain features of the records indicate that women were regarded as categorically different from men. Furthermore, the Chunqiu draws a distinction between women who married in and those who married out, and between primary and secondary wives; thus categories of women do not correspond neatly to categories of men. Ultimately, the Chunqiu uses form to display an idealized hierarchy, conveying a system of roles and relationships that is simpler and more regular than the reality, and in which individuals or situations that deviated from the ideals of that system tended to be distorted or hidden from view.