The scholarship and social lives of women in late 18th and mid-19th century China : a case study of the female writing group Bicheng xianguan nü dizi = 清代中期之女性學術活動與交際網絡 : 以碧城仙館女弟子為核心

Abstract

Chen Wenshu (1771-1843), one of the main advocators of women’s education in the Qing Dynasty, founded the “Bicheng xianguan” and recruited female followers (nü dizi). Composed of around fifty writing women from various backgrounds, the group founded by Chen was significant to the history of women’s literature in China, yet it has received inadequate attention from scholars. This thesis thus examines the group to explore the social networks and academic activities of women writers in late 18th and mid-19th century China.

The research comprises ten chapters that can be divided into three parts. The first part analyses the reasons behind the establishment of the writing group and the formation process. The research chronicles Chen’s role and involvement and carefully investigates the backgrounds – such as family clans, native places, talents, publications, and so on – of each of the female writers. In this way, this research helps to prevent their deeds from being buried in history.

The second part of the work discusses the social communities and networks of the women writers. This research argues that the discourse on female education had become more open-mined by this period and illustrates how the social networking and values of a woman’s family played a crucial role in supporting her to receive education. The thesis also describes how homosociality provided female writers with friendship and mutual mental support and contributed to promoting women’s writing group.

The third part of this thesis illustrates the details of the diverse and innovative academic activities in which the nü dizi engaged. It was discovered that Chen embraced critical thinking and encouraged his female followers to express themselves freely in academic discussions or on sensitive identity issues. This had a great impact on the content and genre of women’s literary work in the Qing Dynasty.

This work aims to draw the scholarly attention to Bicheng xianguan nü dizi that is deserves. It highlights the importance of the group in terms of the development of women’s literature and scholarship, and also presents a larger picture of the social networks of women writers in late 18th and mid-19th century China.