Childbirth:

1. Description of theme:

The status of women in both the family and the state depended upon her ability to produce male offspring, and is therefore often linked to a woman’s social promotion or demotion. Miraculous events surrounding conception and birth also form an important element of this theme as a means to justify the social ascent of a woman and her natal kin.

2. Alternate terminology:

   birth
   conception
   nativity
   parturition
   procreation
   propagation
   reproduction

3. Related themes:

   fertility
   infanticide
   miraculous conception
   sterility

4. Biographies that employ this theme:

   1.2 Jiang Yuan
   1.3 Jian Di
   1.4 Tu Shan
   1.6 Mothers of Zhou
   

5. Essays that explicate this theme:

   Ritual Accounts of Birth

6. Related works that explicate this theme:

GREATER ODES OF THE KINGDOM
DECADE OF SHENG MIN
Sheng Min

ODES OF THE TEMPLE AND THE ALTAR
SACRIFICIAL ODES OF SHANG
Xuan Niao

ODES OF THE KINGDOM
DECADE OF WEN WANG
Si Qi

7. Images:

Fuxi, Nüwa and child