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Nüxue 女學

Jun 20, 2011 © Ulrich Theobald

Nüxue 女學 "Lessons for girls" is the earliest Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) textbook for girls. It was written by Lan Dingyuan 藍鼎元 (1680-1733), courtesy name Yulin 玉霖, style Ren'an 任菴 or Luzhou 鹿洲, and is 4-juan long, corresponding to four chapters.

All chapters are enriched with quotations from ancient books demonstrating how a wife could be perfect in the Confucian sense. Yet the book also stresses that learning was an indispensable factor for the education of a girl. A women without proper knowledge could not fulfill her duties in the right way. Only when educated in the right way a wife would be able to serve her husband, to look after her sisters-in-law, to abstain from jealousy, to manage the household economically, and to educate her children in the right way.

Table 1. Contents of the Nüxue 女學
婦德 Fude The virtue of a woman
婦言 Fuyan The words of a woman
婦容 Furong The appearance of a woman
婦功 Fugong The skills of a woman
Sources:
Ren Fang 任芳 (1995). "Nüxue 女學", in Lu Leshan 盧樂山, ed. Zhongguo nüxing baike quanshu 中國女性百科全書, Vol. Hunyin jiating 婚姻家庭 (Shenyang: Dongbei daxue chubanshe), 73.