Women In The Tang Dynasty

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WOMENS RIGHTS From the beginning of the Tang dynasty, in China, in 618 on to the Song dynasty, in China, in 960, the status of women in the beginning was looking good for a change, but that hope for more rights ceased when their status went on a downward spiral. In the beginning of these eras there were many rights in jobs, traditional customs, and they had freedom of religion. In the middle of these eras the Chinese men changed their minds about religion, jobs, and traditional customs. Finally, at the end of the Song dynasty women lost most of their rights in jobs, freedom of religion, and they had no choice whether or not to participate in the new customs for women. In the beginning of the Tang dynasty…show more content…
Being a Daoist Priestess shows us that men weren’t the only type of human beings able to hold a place of power. By women obtaining property shows us that women could work for themselves and were independent from men. During this time women were quite happy with their rights, but the smile will soon be wiped off their faces because their rights just keep dwindling down to nothing. During the middle or end of the Tang dynasty and beginning of the Song dynasty women’s rights were at there “peak” and started to decline slowly. The Tang dynasty declined due to loss of communication throughout the empire, generals and officials gaining too much power, and revolts causing the empire to be weak and open for attack. The Tang soon fell then the Song dynasty came about fifty years later. During the Song dynasty men began to change their minds about religion, customs, and jobs. Many of the Song rulers began to think that Buddhism was allowing the women to have too many rights so they tried to change the religion back to Confucian beliefs; which lowered women’s rights. Instead of not having…show more content…
Although the status of women did not decline the brutal and evil ways of their husbands made life unbearable. Women still lost their job rights, were having their feet binded, and the religion was still Confucian. From the beginning of the Tang dynasty all the way down to the Song dynasty there was a major decline in the status of women; especially in religion, customs, and jobs. In the beginning, women had plenty of rights because the Buddhist belief system allowed women to have many rights but once the Song dynasty came in all that changed when the rulers changed the religion to a Confucian based system. Also, women were able to obtain high jobs such as an empress but toward the end of the Song dynasty few women had jobs because of their lack of education. The final and last thing that gives proof of the decline of the status of women is the binding of feet, because this just shows us that all respect for a woman in any way was lost. Women’s rights dwindled down to nothing allowing them to do minimal things and not succeed in what God intended them to
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