Constructing women's identity using women's script (nushu) in late imperial china

This paper focuses on nushu women’s script tradition that was developed in Jiangyong county, China and the popular stories all across China that have been translated into nushu script, as well as correspondence between sworn sisters. The goal of this paper is to shed the light onto Jiangyong women’s point of view on the sociocultural and historical circumstances based on how it is reflected in nushu. The main objectives of this paper are analysis on some of the most important aspects of imperial Chinese society: cofucianism and woman’s placing in regards of Confucian ideology of sancong; widow’s fidelity cult that spread and reach its zenith during Qing dynasty, at the same time when the nushu emerged as well as women’s education issue and the condition of the women who were practising nushu as seen from their own point of view. After analyzing these aspects it is possible to conclude that Jiangyong women’s identity as reflected in nushu is heterogenous: women who practised nushu seem to be influenced by han values such as Confucianism which implies that Jiangyong women did not actively seek to change social order and would rather adapt, as well as those of ethnic yao minority - the need to exist outside of their roles which allowed them only to stay at home and be regarded as daughters, wifes or mothers as based on sancong concept. In order to expand their social horizins they relied on sworn sisterhood community and nushu. This paper could be useful for scholars who are concerned with widowhood cult in Qing dynasty studies and the studies that focus on women’s literature in imperial China