Bret Hinsch has made a number of contributions to the history of gender and sexuality in China, primarily for the ancient and pre-modern eras. His latest book, Women in Ancient China, details the process of growing sexual inequality as it unfolded. This book is a useful synthesis of English and Chinese sources on positions and statues of women during the formative epochs of Chinese history.

Asian Perspectives

Women in Ancient China addresses Chinese women’s history from the Neolithic to the Eastern Zhou periods, tackling such aspects of female experience as marriage conventions, divorce, motherhood, religious belief, funerary rites, and modes of political engagement. Hinsch (history, Fo Guang Univ.) deftly employs both textual and material evidence to reconstruct a “simulacrum of the past” that sidesteps anachronistic tendencies such as the “myth of matriarchy,” which the author considers pervasive in the field, as she writes in the introduction. She seeks to illustrate that despite this misplaced emphasis on an imagined, poorly evidenced matriarchy, women nevertheless were dynamic and important figures in early Chinese society. Hinsch makes a major contribution by broadening the body of knowledge about historical figures with newly relevant detail. Most historians are familiar with the royal consort Fu Hao, whose artifact-laden tomb was unearthed in 1976. Hinsch extends the narrative, highlighting Fu Hao's contemporary Fu Jing, a figure whom oracle inscriptions describe as a powerful state administrator. This book is an excellent resource for those in gender and East Asian studies.



Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Choice Reviews

With Women in Ancient China, ... Bret Hinsch undertakes the almost impossible task of summarizing for the general reader what is known about the condition of Chinese women from Neolithic times to the unification of China in 221 bce. ... In compressing so much detailed information into a manageable format, in covering so many different aspects of the lives of women in ancient China in an accessible way, Women in Ancient China represents a remarkable scholarly achievement.

Journal of the American Oriental Society

This is a fine account of the condition of women in ancient China from the emergence of an agricultural way of life to the end of the Bronze Age. Bret Hinsch has assimilated a remarkable amount of information from both archaeological literature and paleographic analyses, incorporating it into a concise and coherent social history of early China.

Li Feng, Columbia University

With this richly documented volume, Bret Hinsch extends his noted work on women in traditional China all the way back to the Stone Age. His even-handed inquiry and treatment of sources will appeal to readers in many fields and make the book especially suitable for the classroom.

Paul R. Goldin, University of Pennsylvania

Hinsch fills a huge gap by examining women’s lives in the formative stage of Chinese civilization. His survey is comprehensive, deft, and accessible to undergraduates. Its erudition also makes it an excellent reference work for scholars and graduate students interested in early Chinese women’s history.

Yiqun Zhou, Stanford University