The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period.

• Author: Spring, Madeleine K.

At a time when gender studies are gaining increasing visibility in historical, anthropological, and literary research, Patricia Ebrey's book on female perspectives of Sung-dynasty family life is most welcome. Writing in a personal and engaging style, Ebrey draws mainly on primary historical and anecdotal sources to show how women of this era struggled within their roles as wife and mother when faced with externally imposed legal and ideological structures that governed all aspects of marriage and familial relationships. Whereas men controlled the public domains of government, trade, and formal education, the influence of women centered on the private realm of the home. Ebrey suggests that modern readers need to adopt a stance that accepts the position of women as active participants in the dynamics of life within the family rather than viewing women stereotypically as oppressed victims. This approach is refreshing; it allows the reader to look beyond the obvious restrictions that surround issues such as the exchange of dowries, wedding rituals, the wifely duties of daughter-in-law and household management, divorce, widowhood, remarriage, and concubinage.

The book is divided into fifteen chapters, plus an introduction and an extensive twenty-six page bibliography. The bulk of Ebrey's material is based on primary works from the Sung. She draws on material from two texts by Ssu-ma Kuang (1019-86) and one by Yuan Ts'ai (ca. 1140-ca. 1195) that offer advice on family relations and ethical issues. For patrilineal principles she turns to the writings of the major philosophers Chu Hsi (1130-1200) and Ch'eng I (1033-1107), and for accounts to balance these relatively abstract tracts Ebrey refers to anecdotal and literary traditions, such as the narratives compiled by Hung Mai (1123-1202) in his I chien chih and Jung-chai sui-pi. Ebrey rounds out the picture of Sung family life by careful reference to individuals whose lives are depicted in historical records, funerary biographies, collections of individual Sung writers, court rulings, local gazetteers, and commemorative handscrolls. Even in light of the admittedly male prejudices inherent in many of these sources and the biased representation of behavior vis-a-vis class level, Ebrey manages to achieve her desired "reasonable balance" that incorporates a constructive twentieth-century spirit of critical questioning while maintaining strict faithfulness to primary sources.

Ebrey identifies the three...