Working Women in Ancient China

Did ancient Chinese women work? Weren't they restricted from getting an education and forced to stay at home?

That is only partially true because ancient Chinese society was very different from nowadays. A typical family had multiple generations living together with dozens, even hundreds of people in the same household. In the agricultural society, they need to be fully self-sustainable. Each family produced all the food (rice, wheat, meat, poultry) and necessities (fabrics and clothes). Each person had a role in this "family factory." So technically speaking, most women worked in their "family factory." They usually did not come out to work unless they lost their family support.

It was more than men working in fields growing crops and women staying at home preparing food. Women need to learn how to raise silkworms, collect silk, and turn them into fabrics. They made threads from cotton and then incorporate them into cloth to make everyday wear for the family. Those women good at needlework can sell their pieces to wealthy families. Some became professional seamstresses or artists.

The first empress of China, Leizu, who lived ~4,000 years ago, was the wife of the Great Yellow Emperor. Leizu discovered the secret of silkworms. She taught Chinese people how to collect mulberry leaves to feed silkworms and collect silk from them. She was a role model demonstrating that women can be great inventors.

Those girls born in well-educated families were encouraged to study music, art, and literature. After marrying men in the same social class, they would understand, communicate, and assist their husbands. They also learned how to manage a big family (sounds like a C.E.O position?).

Some women ended up working for the royal family. Ban Zhao (49 A.D. - 120 A.D.) was born in a family of historians. After her father passed away, the emperor recruited her to compile the book "Hanshu (a.k.a The Book of Han)." During that period, the emperor frequently arranged for her to give lectures to his wives. She taught history to male students so that they can assist her work. Those students finished the compilation of "Hanshu" after Ban Zhao died.

Ban Zhao was just one of the many women educators in Chinese history. Cai Wenji (177 A.D. - 249 A.D.) was famous for her music, calligraphy, and Chinese literature. She helped Lord Cao Cao recover more than 400 ancient articles that disappeared during the war because she memorized them. She taught calligraphy to a male student Zhong Yao, who later established Kai Shu, the standard Chinese writing style. The most famous Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi (303 A.D. - 361 A.D.), started calligraphy training with Lady Wei (272 A.D. - 349 A.D.) when he was seven years old.

There were four famous female physicians in Chinese history, Bao Gu (4th century), Zhang Xiaoniang (11th century), Yi Jia (2nd century), and Tan Yunxian (16th century). These talented women learned medicine from their families, then applied them to save many, many lives.

Remember the Mulan story? Although Mulan is a fictional figure, there were indeed some well-known female warriors in China's history. Princess Pingyang (~590 B.C. - 623 B.C.) led an "Army of the Lady," helping her father and brothers to establish the Tang Dynasty. She had a grand military funeral like a high general. Liang Hongyu (1102–1135) in Song Dynasty was a master of martial arts. As a woman with incredible strength and master of archery, Liang worked as a general in her husband's army fighting the Jurchen.

Thus, ancient Chinese women were not only allowed to work; they were respected and remembered for their achievements!

Photo Credit: "Women Reading" by Yu Lan, Qing Dynasty. https://www.dpm.org.cn/collection/paint/228745.html