Lisa Raphals is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Chair, Asian Studies Program, Bard College. She is the author of Knowing Words: Wisdom and Cunning in the Classical Traditions of China and Greece.

• List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments Note on Transcription Abbreviations Introduction: Gender and Virtue Women As Intellectual and Moral AgentsThe Differentiation of Men and WomenContents1. Women As Agents of Virtue and Destruction Women and Ministers: Ties That BindFemale Virtue and the Dynastic CycleThe Lienü zhuanThe Intellectual Virtue StoriesHeroization2. Women As Prescient Counselors InstructionSage IntelligenceBenevolent Wisdom and PrescienceSkill in Argument and AdmonitionIntellectual Virtue Stories in Other Warring States and Han WorksBiographical FormulaeTwo Modes of Thinking?Conclusions3. Demonic Beauties and Usurpatious Regents Warring States Legends of Destructive WomenEmpress LüVirtuous and Vicious Consorts of Han Cheng DiConclusions4. The Textual Matrix of the Lienü zhuan Lienü zhuan Stories in Warring States SourcesThe Lienü zhuan Text and Its Attribution to Liu XiangConclusions5. Talents Transformed in Ming Editions Ming PublishingShifting VirtuesIllustrated EditionsConclusions6. Yin and Yang Yin-Yang As Two of Six QiYin-Yang As (Ultimate) PolarityCorrelative CosmologyConclusions7. Yin-Yang in Medical Texts The Fifty-two Ailments and Mawangdui Medical LiteratureThe Twenty-five Cases of Chunyu YiThe Huang Di neijingConclusions8. Nei-wai : Distinctions between Men and Women Zhou Norms in the Changes and OdesCorrect Distinction between Men and Women Defines CivilizationConclusions9. Nei-wai in Ritual Texts and Social Practice Subordination of WomenMonogamy and Marriage ChoicePhysical Separation of Men and WomenNames, Ranks, Titles, and Social IdentityIntellectual Distinction between Men and WomenConclusions10. Instruction Texts Ban Zhao's Admonitions for WomenThe Decline of the "Learned Instructress" MotifThe Rise of Instruction TextsConclusionsAfterword Appendix 1: The Lienü zhuan Chapter TitlesDateable Incidents in the Life StoriesAppendix 2: The Intellectual Virtue Stories Synopsis of the Intellectual Virtue StoriesThe Learned Instructress MotifAppendix 3: Vicious and Depraved Women The Destructive Women of Lienü zhuan 7Biographies of Empress LüBiographical Formulae in the Lienü zhuan, Shi ji, and Han shuAppendix 4: The Textual Matrix for the Lienü zhuan Chronology of Lienü zhuan EditionsProvenance of the Lienü zhuan Intellectual Virtue StoriesAppendix 5: Ming Transformations The Intellectual Virtue Stories in Ming EditionsThe Gui fan Reclassification of the Lienü zhuan Intellectual Virtue StoriesAppendix 6: Yin-Yang in Warring States Texts Appendix 7: The Medical Cases of Shi ji 105 Summary of the Twenty-five CasesTreatment Methods and Outcomes of the Twenty-five CasesAppendix 8: Occupations and Activities Appendix 9: Traditional Reign Dates Bibliography Primary Sources and CollectaneaSecondary SourcesIndex

"This book challenges several widely held paradigms concerning women in traditional China that are in dire need of the kind of nuanced and sustained reassessment present throughout the work. It is a fine piece of scholarship." — Sarah A. Queen, Connecticut College