Analects of Confucius

1. How does gender affect the way one relates to law? To kin? To community?

First is the female’s interaction with law during the mid 17th century T’an-Ch’eng. This interaction is best seen in the last two chapters of the book describing the story of Woman Wang and the trial that occurred after her death. It seems that females had very little influence on the law. The way punishment was handed out was at the discretion of men, and in most cases, the husband of whom the woman was married to. For example, when Woman Wang ran away, and before long returned back home, Jen did not carry out what the law said could have been done. Unlike society today, the whether or not the law was carried out was completely by choice of the husband. Instead of following the law, Jen decided to carry out his own justice. Ironically, the most interaction with the law that Woman Wang had was after she had died. While the truth had been revealed about her murder, Jen was let off with a lighter punishment due to the fact that Jen had not opted to allow punishment of the wife as mandated by the law at time. This shows that the woman’s interaction with the law was completely through the husband. Even when Jen killed her, Huang Liu-Hung found it somewhat justified that he killed her in his own method even though it was something that was punishable by law. Even so, punishment was severe to Jen, as it seems that Huang Liu-Hung had to demonstrate that vengeance was by no means justified even if the wife had commit grave wrongs in the eyes of the public. Even so, the husband’s way of punishment was understandable in the eyes of Huang Liu-Hung and so he was allowed to have a hope of living, albeit with shame. The man had the jurisdiction to punish or not, but it had to have been through the law to be completely legal, although some amends seem to be able to be made. In either case, it was clear that women had almost no power over the law, and only when the woman was dead was any effects on action seen. Perhaps it was the fear of an angry ghost as mentioned. It seems only the power of death can a woman have any leverage on the law, just as one woman used this power to keep her inheritance.

The law also mandated family in order to encourage filial piety, but because of the attitude, perhaps by necessity due to the terrible circumstances of the times, many of these laws backfired. These examples are best seen in the chapter “The Widow.” The Widower’s sacrifices often had to do with family. In