Women’s and girls’ education prior to the mid-Former Han is difficult to trace. One of the earliest references to female education may be one found in the Zhouli (c. late fourth century-early third century B.C.), a prescriptive text that purports to describe the structure of royal government in the Zhou dynasty. This text lays out the bureaucratic duties of officials assigned to educate the royal women in both the “rites for women” (yinli) as well as in the virtues, speech, bearing and work appropriate to women. Zhouli, SSJZS, vol. 1, juan 7, p. 419b. For a discussion of the date and authenticity of the Zhouli, see Loewe, Early Chinese Texts, pp. 24-32 Although the Zhouli simply lists these subject headings and lacks specific content, the few available details suggest that the program was non-literary in nature. Numerous anecdotes from the Zuo zhuan also suggest that women in certain states followed a well-developed code of feminine behavior, but no texts (or even titles of texts) that lay out this code have been transmitted from the pre-Qin period. See, for example, Zuo Xiang, 30. Somewhat later, the First Emperor of Qin erected stone tablets excoriating, among other "vices," widow remarriage and female initiated divorce. See Shiji 6, p. 63 (210 B.C.).

When we come to the Former Han, particularly during the first half of this period when Sima Qian was active, there were still very few adherents to the behavioral norms as defined in canonical texts. Jack Dull, "Marriage and Divorce in Han China: A Glimpse at 'Pre-Confucian' Society," in David C. Buxbaum, ed., Chinese Family Law and Social Change in Historical Perspective, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978), pp. 23-74. Moreover, in Sima Qian's lifetime extant sources suggest that no special efforts were made at the Han court to educate girls in classical subject matter. Moreover, apart from a few scattered passages in ritual texts, there is no evidence that a special textual curriculum existed to instruct girls about their duties. See, for example, Liji, SSJZS, vol. 2, juan 28, pp. 243A-B. Also see discussion in Cutter, Robert Joe and Crowell, William Gordon, Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou’s Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi’s Commentary (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), pp. 3-46. Before the reign of Xuandi, the only instruction Han sources mention in connection with girls who planned to enter the imperial harem is training in dance and music; literacy and classical mastery does not figure among their accomplishments. The Shiji states that empress Dowager Dou (d. 135 B.C.), consort of Wendi and mother of Jingdi, was fond of the sayings of Huang-Lao and that she required the men in her family to read them. The biographical account of Dou's childhood does not mention education of any sort, furthermore, her brothers are described as humble and requiring teachers after they became connected with the imperial court. Empress Dowager Dou's learning was therefore probably acquired later in life. See Shiji 49, pp. 13-14. That she was literate at the end of her life is suggested by a proposal the grandee secretary, Zhao Wan, wrote in 140 B.C. requesting emperor Wu to forbid the practice of memorializing the grand empress dowager concerning government affairs. See Hanshu 6, p. 157. Zhao was sentenced and committed suicide. Another possibility, however, is that the empress dowager had someone read government documents to her. The Hanshu demonstrates that from ca. 110 to 105 B.C., in the reign of Wudi, Chinese princesses were sent to non-Chinese states in the west to foster diplomatic relations with the peoples who lived on China's borders. The various song lyrics and memorials these women composed constitute plausible evidence of their literacy. See, for example, Hanshu 96B, pp. 3903-3904.

But as classical learning began to assume increasing importance in the culture at large, we begin to see girls who were taught reading, writing, and history as preparation for their life at court. Wang Zhengjun, who first entered Xuandi's harem, was taught writing as well as music when her mother decided to enter her into the imperial court. Hanshu 75, p. 3155. In this case, her mastery of writing is not specifically linked to a particular text and appears to function as a polite refinement or class marker rather than as an emblem of the moral attitudes connected with canonical scholarship. One of the earliest references to a girl being trained in one of the five classics as preparation for life at court is dated to 74 B.C. When Xuandi came to the throne and the fifteen-year-old empress dowager Shangguan (the widow of Zhaodi) acted as the nominal head of government, Huo Guang asked the scholar Xiahou Sheng to instruct her in Book of Documents. Hanshu 98, p. 4015. By the reign of Chengdi (33-7 B.C.) we see records of women like Chengdi's first empress, Miss Xu, who was good at clerkly writing and who composed a long memorial to the emperor that is recorded in the Hanshu. Hanshu 97B, pp. 3974-3977. Another imperial concubine in Chengdi’s court, Ban Jieyu, had not only mastered the Odes, but was an accomplished poet as well. Hanshu 97B, pp. 3983-3984.

Illiterate girls could acquire not only literacy but some training in the classics at court. A female slave named Cao Gong, who had learned to read and write after entering imperial service, went on to master the Odes and instructed empress Zhao in the text. Hanshu 97B, p. 3990. Thus, from the reign of Xuandi onward, for the first time in the Former Han, literacy and classically-based education become features of upbringing for girls who were headed for the imperial court. In several cases, classical learning was also considered important enough that it was provided to women who had entered the palace without such training.

Ban Jieyu's biography mentions a number of texts (that are unfortunately no longer extant) whose titles strongly suggest that they were written specifically for the education of girls, i.e., The Modest Maiden (Yaotiao) and The Instructress (Nüshi). Another text, Emblems of Virtue (Dexiang) is also mentioned. See Hanshu 97B, p. 3984; translation by Watson, Commoner, p. 262. In an untitled poem Ban also describes other forms of instruction for girls:

I spread out paintings of women, made them my mirror, Looked to my instructress, queried her on the Odes; I was moved by the warning of the woman who crows, pained at the sins of lovely Baosi; I praised Huang and Ying, wives to the lord of Yu, Admired Ren and Si, mothers of Zhou. Hanshu 97B, p. 3985; translation by Watson, Commoner, p. 262.

Here, in addition to texts, Ban Jieyu mentions the contemplation of portraits of exemplary women as well as a female instructor who explained to Ban the historical and ethical significance of the Odes. Wang Yanshou (fl. A.D. 163) also describes murals that depict virtuous women and depraved consorts that he saw when visiting the "Hall of Numinous Brilliance" in Lu, a ritual edifice built by king Gong of Lu (r. ca. 154-129 B.C.), the son of emperor Jing by his concubine, Lady Cheng. "Lu Lingguang dian fu," Wenxuan juan 11, pp. 19-20; translation by David Knechtges, Wen xuan, vol. 2 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), p. 275. If these murals were an original part of this structure, then the use of such didactic art with the specific theme of exemplary women had begun in the reign of Wudi. The Han histories tell us that Wudi made didactic use of portraits of the duke of Zhou and the mother of Jin Midi. As for the texts that Ban studied, because they are no longer extant, we can say little about their content apart from noting the Confucian tone of their titles. We must therefore turn our attention to Liu Xiang's Lienü zhuan or Traditions of Exemplary Women, the earliest text designed specifically for educating girls that still survives.

The Lienü zhuan (ca. 18 B.C.) demonstrates well how much education for girls had expanded beyond the musical training mentioned in the biographies of imperial concubines who lived in the first part of the Former Han. It depicts, for example, women and girls in the role of the compassionate mother, faithful wife, dutiful daughter-in-law, selfless harem-mate, loyal subject, good neighbor, and devoted servant. The subjects addressed imply that a well educated girl needed to understand her duty to her family, community, superiors, and ruler—spheres that encompass not just the family but the state, and which include models for the humble as well as the elite.

We can speculate that the expanded curriculum for female education as well as the appeal to a female audience of diverse social background are linked to three factors: the particular nature of Confucianism that held sway in the second half of the Former Han, the well established practice of regarding the female population as a significant state resource, and the problems specific to imperial women that began to develop in the reign of Wudi and which culminated in the reign of Chengdi.

Before outlining this process we should note that there is a double limitation on early Chinese sources concerning girls. While I shall argue below that the state made good use of its female population and considered it a valuable asset, because women did not attend state schools and academies or, apart from a limited number of appointments, did not occupy official positions in the bureaucracy, historians devote more space to men and less attention to women. Gender bias therefore militates against the strong presence of both women and girls in the histories of the period. Furthermore, because the decisive events of history and culture tend to involve adult rather than child actors, information concerning children in traditional historical sources is far less extensive than that concerning adults. The meager information on women is thus further reduced if we focus only on underaged females. Nevertheless, in the sections that follow, the decision to supplement extant references to girls by utilizing the information early Chinese texts provide about women can be easily justified.

First, we can use records that discuss laws or moral precepts that sought to shape the behavior of women to understand the way girls envisioned the immediate future, the opportunities that were available to them, and the skills they needed to achieve their goals. Furthermore, as was the case for the first part of this chapter, we need to recall the fact that a girl attained adult status at age fifteen sui (fourteen by modern Western reckoning) or even earlier if she married before that age. We can therefore view state policies and ritual observances directed at women as also concerning individuals whom we, as modern Western observers, might still call girls. In fact, a number of Han commentators also felt that marriage did not automatically endow a girl with adult sensibilities. For example, Wang Ji (d. ca. 48 B.C.) noted the great number of infant deaths due to the incompetence of immature parents who had married too young, implying that although girls assumed adult responsibilities as wives and mothers, they were still essentially children themselves. Hanshu 72, pp. 3064-3065. Nevertheless, we should also view the smaller space devoted to girls in the historical record as evidence that girls, as a category of cultural attention, seem to have excited far less interest than boys. Thus, when we talk about children as a focus of Han cultural discourse, we must acknowledge that “children”often means boys.

The new stress on Confucian learning in female education reflects a conviction that was rapidly gaining currency in the later half of the Former Han, namely, that when the entire population engaged in self-cultivation, the empire would achieve an era of great peace. An early example of a memorial to the throne urging education of the entire populace as a means to laying the foundations of an era of great peace is that written by Gongsun Hong, chancellor (124-118 B.C.) to emperor Wu. See Shiji 121, p. 10; also see Dong Zhongshu's (ca. 179-104 B.C.) memorials in Hanshu 56, pp. 2501-2503, 2509-2513. In spite of the sweeping utopianism of his views, Liu Xiang, nevertheless, admitted that there would always be some people who could not be transformed. See, for example, Hanshu 36, pp. 1950-1951. For some thinkers, such as Liu Xiang, an essential part of this idea was that girls must understand and later fulfill their duties within the family and to the state. This view harkens back to texts as ancient as the Odes (ca. 1000-600 B.C.), which says of Zhou king Wen, that, "He conformed to the example of his ancestors,.../And his example acted on his wife,/Extended to his brethren,/And was felt by all the clans and States." Here, king Wen's queen serves as a vital element in the ever-expanding circle of the king's moral charisma. See Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. 4, pp. 446-447; Mao no. 240; "Qisi" in Da Ya. Early expositions of this idea are evident in other texts such as the Mencius (IA.12), the Zhongyong (chapter 12). Also see, for example, Chunqiu fanlu in SBCK, vol. 3, juan 12, pp. 7a-8b (chapter 53, "Jiyi"). Correlative cosmological thought may have also contributed to this agenda by way of the theories concerning "stimulus and response" (ganying), which construed all people and things as constituents in a cosmos where the disharmony of one element would disrupt the harmonic balance of the whole. Thus the Huainanzi, a compendium of Daoist thought compiled under the patronage of Liu An (d. 122 B.C.), records the story of a peasant woman from the state of Qi, whose cries against duke Jing of Qi reached Heaven and resulted in a violent storm which sent down thunderbolts that toppled the duke's tower and injured him. Huainanzi, in SBCK, vol. 22, juan 6, p. 1A [chapter 6, "Lanming"]. In his commentary to this passage, Xu Shen (fl. A.D. 100) believes that this account is an abbreviated version of a story about a young widow who refused to remarry in order to continue tending her mother-in-law. This anecdote demonstrates how even the injustice suffered by a humble peasant woman had the power to affect cosmic harmony. The success with which a number of pre-Han states engaged the entire female population to realize political objectives may have also inspired Confucian thinkers to consider the practical necessity of enlisting the efforts of women to help achieve their more utopian goals.

From one perspective, we can link the expansion of girls' education in the mid-Former Han to the evolution of a state activity rarely associated with women: warfare. In the late Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods warfare was no longer waged in chariots by urban aristocrats but increasingly included as combatants the entire male rural population in infantry armies. For a discussion of this process see Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, pp. 54-67. With the reforms of Qin ca. 359 B.C., the government " . . . achieved the total identity of civil administration and military organization toward which earlier reforms had tended and which became the ideal of legalist administrative theory." Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, p. 62. The strength of the state rested upon war and agriculture, which legalist thinkers defined as the only occupations appropriate to the common people. Efficient and practical, the Qin state utilized resources that earlier rulers had ignored. In addition to the male peasantry who could be made to work previously uncultivated land, pay taxes as household heads, perform conscript labor services, and extend the empire through military conquest, the Qin state also understood the value of women's contributions to Qin's power and wealth.

Two ways in which women labored for the Qin state were in military service and textile manufacture. A statement in the Book of Lord Shang demonstrates that the female population did not elude the notice of military strategists intent on utilizing every possible source of political strength: "A strong country knows thirteen figures . . . [among them] the number of . . . able-bodied women."Shangzi in SBCK, vol. 18, juan 1, p. 14a; translation follows J.J.L. Duyvendak, The Book of Lord Shang: A Classic of the Chinese School of Law 1928 rpt., (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), p. 205. In a strategy reminiscent of Ho Chi Minh's successful use of female youth volunteers in the U.S.-Vietnamese War, Shang Yang urged rulers to organize a women's militia in the event that enemy forces invaded a city:

Cause the able-bodied women, with abundant provisions and ramparts at their backs, to marshall themselves and await orders, so as to make, at the approach of invaders, earthworks as an obstruction, traps and pitfalls, to trigger the releasable bridges, to tear down the houses, to transport what is transportable, and to burn what is untransportable, so that the invaders are not able to make use thereof in their attack.For the decisive contributions of women soldiers in the Vietnam war see Karen Gottschang Turner with Phan Thanh Hao, Even the Women Must Fight (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997). Shangzi in SBCK, vol. 18, juan 3, p. 7b; translation based on Duyvendak, The Book of Lord Shang, pp. 250-251 with corrections concerning the "releasable bridge" by Robin D.S. Yates in Needham and Yates, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 6, section 30, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 364-367.

In light of the general paucity of references to women's participation in warfare in other contemporary sources, Shang Yang's statements suggest that women took part in combat only in times of military emergency. Women are more typically shown contributing to the state through the production of cloth.

The importance of textile manufacture is clear in a state where cloth was used as currency and thus as a means to pay fines and taxes.Cloth was used for cash in early China. See, for example, Han Feizi in SBCK, vol. 18, juan 11, p. 6a (chapter 32). For cloth-cash equivalents see Yates, "Social Status in the Ch'in," p. 228 and Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch'in Law, pp. 52-54. One workday of hard labor for a man paid eight cash without food; one bolt of cloth (2'2 X 40') was worth eleven cash. One man's large coat cost sixty cash. Also see Yang Kuan, Zhanguo shi (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1981), p. 83; and Xu Yangjie, "Hanjian zhong suojian wujia kaoshi," in Zhonghua wenshi luncong 3 (1981):180-183. For example, the Shiji biography of Lord Shang states that those producing large amounts of grain or cloth were excused from conscript labor duty.See Shiji 68, p. 8; Watson, Records of the Grand Historian, vol. 3, p. 93. The state may have also drafted women on an irregular basis for their sewing skills, such as the case of the 15,000 women the First Emperor of Qin sent to Yue to sew army uniforms.See Shiji 118, pp. 23-24; Watson, trans., Records of the Grand Historian, vol. 2, p. 375. Nonetheless, we must not conclude that the state's interest in conscripting female labor resulted in high status for women. Qin documents excavated at Shuihudi clearly state that the labor of one bondwoman or free woman who was skilled in embroidery was equivalent to that of one man, implying that the labor of other less skilled women was not regarded as equal to that of their male counterparts.See Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch'in Law, p. 62 [A 60]; Shuihudi Qin mu zhujian, p. 46. Moreover, skill in embroidery was so valued that the government prohibited female bond-servants engaged in this craft from being released from their servitude to the state. In this case, the high estimation of this feminine skill actually diminished a women's civil rights.Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch'in Law, p. 45; Shuihudi, p. 35. For a discussion of why women's participation in the workplace does not automatically confer high social status on women see Francesca Bray, Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), pp. 237-242.

In addition to weaving and fighting in times of military emergencies, early Chinese rulers also took women's reproductive labor into account. The earliest explicit discussion of encouraging early marriage and childbirth is found in the Guoyu (ca. 300 B.C.), where King Goujian of Yue (fl. ca. 496 B.C.) is said to have proclaimed that parents of girls still unmarried at age seventeen sui would be punished, while females who gave birth to both boys and girls would be rewarded with wine and meat.Guoyu, vol. 2, p. 635 [juan 20, "Yueyu," part 1]. While the historicity of this statement is doubtful it nonetheless suggests that a pronatalist perspective informed utopian visions of the late fourth century B.C. To my knowledge no extant source provides explicit evidence that the Qin state rewarded women who bore children. Nevertheless, several well known Qin policies indirectly suggest that women were encouraged to reproduce. We know, for example, that infanticide was prohibited under Qin law.See Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch'in Law, p. 139. The Qin law that required families with adult sons to establish separate residences (and thus separate families) may have included increasing the population as part of its more general agenda to supplement the amount of cultivated land and the tax base.Shiji 68, p. 8, p. 11; Watson translation, Records of the Grand Historian, vol. 3, pp. 92-94. Also see Ch'ü, Han Social Structure, pp. 252-253. Also see Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, p. 63. Nevertheless, the Shiji states that in 210 B.C., Qin Shihuang ordered the erection of a stone inscription that declared his virtues as ruler, such as the following: "Women with sons who remarry, unchastely turning against the dead--/Such conduct he bars." Translation by Watson, Records of the Grand Historian, vol. 3, p. 61; Shiji 6, p. 63. While this position on remarriage clearly contravenes a pronatalist agenda, it may have served to uphold other more crucial policies in the Qin state. The restriction against remarriage for women with sons may have been seen as helping to precluded men from accruing a power base (in addition to their own sons and male relatives) through remarriage.

Thus, scattered sources outlining policies concerning weaving, childbirth, and women's roles in warfare suggest that from late Warring States times onward rulers had become accustomed to viewing the general female population as an asset they could not afford to ignore. Moreover, as Nishijima Sadao has argued, a new feature of rulership introduced by the Qin state was that power now reached directly from the throne to each individual member of the population. Nevertheless, this form of imperial domination functioned effectively only when the people accepted that rule as legitimate.Nishijima Sadao, “Characteristics of the Unified States of Ch’in and Han.” Proceedings of the XIIe Congrès International des Sciences Historiques: Rapports, II (Vienna,1965):71-90. In an effort to bind the loyalty of his subjects, Han emperors made periodic dispensations to his subjects in the form or amnesties, ranks, and feasts. He presented gifts of meat and wine to all women in the empire, most often at the same time that ranks were bestowed on the men.See, for example, the bestowal Wendi made in 180 B.C. in Hanshu 4, p. 108. The effort to include women in these grants documents the importance the imperium attached to winning the allegiance (and productivity) of its female populace.

In the late Former Han the Confucian idealist Liu Xiang combined the practical measures of rulers who stressed maximum utilization of state resources with the Confucian notion that morally forming the entire population would lead to an era of Great Peace.Qin Shihuang also spoke of transforming the whole population, though he viewed the process as one accomplished by means of the law. See Shiji 6, p. 43. It is therefore not surprising that he took into consideration the whole female population when he compiled his Traditions of Exemplary Women.Liu Xiang also argued for a system of rites that would include the entire population and not just the nobility. See Hanshu 22, pp. 1033-1035; translated in Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, pp. 436-438. Similarly, 135 years after Qin Shihuang erected stone inscriptions stressing female morality, Han sources from the reign of Xuandi onward (r. 74-49 B.C.) begin to record governmental efforts to mould female behavior according to classical norms. These efforts ranged from presenting awards to "chaste wives" (widows who refuse to remarry) and obedient daughters, to enforcing at the local level sexual segregation in public places.See Hanshu 8, p. 264, Hanshu 89, pp. 3632-3633 (58 B.C.); Hanshu 12, p. 351 (A.D. 4). Also see Li Zhende, "Xi Han lülingzhong de jiating lunliguan," in Zhongguo lishi xuehui shixue jikan 19 (July, 1987):26-34. The First Emperor erected stone tablets excoriating, among other "vices," widow remarriage and female initiated divorce. See Shiji 6, p. 63; also see inscription on p. 34 written in collaboration with Ruists of Lu, praising men and women who are ritually correct and obedient.

In the early Former Han, we still see the state utilizing the female population's reproductive, military and labor potential in a manner that is almost identical to that of Qin: for example, in 204 B.C. Gaozu dressed two thousand women in armor to decoy Chu forces; in 200 B.C. Gaozu ordered that people who had children born to them were to be excused from labor service for two years; in 190 B.C. Huidi ordered that parents would have to pay five times the normal poll tax for unmarried girls age fifteen sui and older; in 191 B.C., Huidi conscripted 145,000 female and male subjects to help build the city wall of Chang'an; and in 167 B.C. empress Dou personally raised silk worms to produce cloth in order to encourage all women of the empire to engage in sericulture.Shiji 8, p. 51 (warfare); Hanshu 1B, p. 63 (new parents); Hanshu 2, p. 91 (age of marriage); Hanshu 2, pp. 90-91 (wall building); Hanshu 4, p. 125 (silk production).

Imperial edicts in the next two reigns indicate a shift away from the Qin-inspired utilization of the female population. The reigns of Wendi and Jingdi, the former in particular, are notable not so much for labor services women provided to the state but for the many charitable acts by imperial decree that benefitted the general female population. For example, in 180 B.C., on the day of Wendi's coronation the male head of each household was granted one step in noble rank while the women were presented with oxen and wine for feasting. In the same year Wendi abrogated the law which demanded that a criminal's wife and children be arrested and punished with him.Hanshu 4, p. 108; also see Dubs, History of the Former Han, vol. 1, p. 231, n. 2 for a discussion of the award made to female commoners; Hanshu 4, p. 110. In an extraordinary example of the civic participation of girls in the reign of Wendi, the Shiji recounts that in 167 B.C., when lord Chunyu, treasurer for the state of Qi, was accused of a crime and arrested, he cursed his five daughters saying, "I had the bad luck to sire you instead of sons, and now when trouble is upon me you are no use at all!"Shiji 10, p. 28; transaction by Watson, Records of the Grand Historian, vol. 1, p. 356. The youngest daughter, Tirong reacted by following her father to the capital and memorialized the emperor, begging him to do away with mutilating punishments. The second character in the daughter’s name is also pronounced ying. The emperor was so moved by her plea that he changed the law.Also see documentation of this incident in Hanshu 4, p. 125; 23, pp. 1097-1099 translated in Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, pp. 334-336. Though the Lienü zhuan abounds in examples of young women outside of court culture who influence state policy, the case of Tirong remains the sole example that has any historical basis. Nevertheless, her story, like the more famous tale of Hua Mulan, illustrates the pressures placed on girls from families without sons to assume what were normally male responsibilities.

To my knowledge, the first woman to be honored by the Han imperial government for her exemplary behavior was the mother of Jin Midi (d. 86 B.C.), whom emperor Wu praised for her ability to raise sons of high moral reputation. Wudi commissioned a portrait of her (ca. 110 B.C.) that was displayed in the Ganquan palace and may have served the same didactic function as the portraits of exemplary women from antiquity mentioned in Ban Jieyu's biography.Hanshu 68, p. 2960. The Ganquan or Sweet Springs Palace was first built by Qin Shihuang (see Shiji 6, p. 32) and enlarged by Han emperor Wu around 120 B.C. It was situated near Ganquan mountain, some three hundred li from Chang'an in the present-day county of Chunhua in Shaanxi province. Here Wudi constructed a number of buildings for sacrificial use and for communicating with immortals. The portrait was painted in the palace which housed the imperial entourage that accompanied Wudi on his visits to Ganquan. See Shiji 28, pp. 52-54.

Nevertheless, though the Han government in the reign of Wudi begins in this small way to reward female moral exemplars, before we proceed to a discussion of the blossoming of this trend it should be noted that as late as the end of the Former Han at least some girls may still have provided labor service for the state in conformance with the Qin model. For example, wooden slips excavated at Juyan that date to ca. 3 B.C. show that daughters ages seven to thirteen sui who accompanied fathers serving as soldiers in the central Asian frontier were designated shinü "employable girls" and were allotted grain according to age but perhaps also according to the value of their labor as well.See Loewe, Records of Han Administration, vol. 2, pp. 65-69, 86-89. Also see Yang Lien-sheng, Studies in Chinese Institutional History, pp. 109-112; and Yates, “Social Status in the Ch’in,” pp. 205-209. The term shinü is reminiscent of the category xiaonü "underaged female," a term preceding the personal names incised on Qin lacquer ware by the girls who made the vessels.Li Xueqin, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), pp. 469-470. The Han wooden slips tell us nothing beyond the age, name and grain allotment of these girls; unless further evidence comes to light, what services they performed (if any) must remain a mystery.For a study of how age correlates to rank, see Nishijima Sadao, translated by Wu Shangqing, Ershideng juezhi, (Beijing: Xinhua shudian, 1992), pp. 189-202.

Xuandi's reign is often characterized as a transition period when "reformist" principles, which followed the mores and institutions of the Zhou dynasty and emphasized education and moral transformation of the populace, began to direct imperial policy. These views, which are traditionally associated with Confucianism, form a contrast to the "modernist" principles that shaped the policies of the first part of the Former Han, stressing expansionist policies, maximum utilization of state resources and the use of laws as a means to social control.See, for example, Loewe, Crisis and Conflict, pp. 139-153. Though Xuandi himself is noted in the Hanshu as being somewhat skeptical of reformist views, the Confucian tone of many of his edicts is unmistakable.See Hanshu 9, p. 277; and Loewe, Crisis and Conflict, pp. 140-141.

For example, in 73 B.C., Xuandi commanded all officials of the commanderies and kingdoms ranking at two thousand piculs to shepherd and nurture the common people and to improve their morals through recitation of the Odes.Hanshu 8, p. 239; translation by Dubs, History of the Former Han, vol. 2, p. 207. This edict alluded to a statement found in the "Great Preface" of the Book of Odes, which claimed that by hearing the Odes, the people would become careful in their conduct."SSJZS, vol. 1, juan 1.1, p. 3B; Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 4, p. 35. Two imperial commands specifically targeted the female population. In 63 B.C., Xuandi honored the women who had saved his life by nursing him in the aftermath of the black magic affair of 91 B.C. when he was a mere infant. These women were given government salaries, houses, and precious objects.Hanshu 8, p. 257; 74, pp. 3144-3145. This edict is significant in that it extended down to the very lowest ranks of the female population to reward their service to the emperor. In 58 B.C., in conjunction with special honors Xuandi conferred on Huang Ba, the grand administrator of Yingchuan commandery, chaste wives and obedient daughters in Huang Ba's district were awarded gifts of silk.Hanshu 8, p. 264. This occasion marks the first time the dynastic histories mention female subjects who received state recognition for their high morals. The second occasion, honoring chaste wives alone, occurred in A.D. 1 during the reign of Pingdi under the regency of Wang Mang, when one exemplar was chosen from each village to receive tax-exempt status.Hanshu 12, pp. 351, 356.

Wang Mang, more than any other ruler of the period, was eager to promote Confucian rites and morals for women. In A.D. 2 Wang Mang claimed that the problems of the Han dynasty stemmed from the lack of imperial heirs and the heterodox nature of marriage practices. See Hanshu 99A, p. 4051. For a discussion of what constituted an orthodox marriage for a ruler, see note on this passage in Dubs, History of the Former Han, vol. 3, p. 155. An imperial edict of A.D. 3 also required the marriages of officials and all of their the family members to be performed according to the rites. See Hanshu 12, p. 355. Wang Mang also tried to conceal the fact that he had sired three children by household attendants during the time in which he was a marquis. See Hanshu 9C, p. 4166. For example, in A.D. 20, when Wang Mang heard that one of his officials punished men and women who did not walk on separate sides of the roads, he was delighted and instructed other officials to model themselves on this example.Hanshu 99C. p. 4164. In private life Wang Mang's wife affected the appearance of Confucian frugality by appearing in a short dress of coarse cloth and an apron so that she was frequently mistaken for a menial.Hanshu 99A, p. 4041. In contrast to earlier titles for women, such as “Beautiful Companion,” Wang Mang devised names such as "Baronetess Serving the Rules of Proper Conduct," "Baronetess Obedient to Virtue, and "Baronetess Cultivating Moral Principles" for the aristocratic ranks granted to women during his reign.Hanshu 99B, p. 4129; translation by Dubs, History of the Former Han, vol. 3, p. 322. Thus Wang Zhengjun (71 B.C.-A.D. 13), the teenager who had been taught music and reading after her parents decided to enter her into Xuandi's harem, died under Wang Mang's rule with the title Empress Dowager, Mother of Culture.Hanshu 99B, p. 4131; translation by Dubs, History of the Former Han, vol. 3, p. 331. For Zhengjun's background see Hanshu 98, p. 4015.