Boudoir Tutor: the Culture of Talented Women in Jiangnan in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

The purpose of this book is to rewrite the discussion of traditional women's history based on the May 4th view of history. The huge socio-economic and cultural changes in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties promoted the prosperity of "talented women culture". Prominent among them are the rise of fang carvings, the emergence of mass readers, the renewed focus on emotions, the improvement of the visibility of courtesan culture, the promotion of female education, the increase in women's travel opportunities and the redefinition of women's characteristics. Therefore, this book believes that the Jiangnan ladies in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties were far from oppressed and voiceless. These women created a colorful and meaningful cultural existence in the male-dominated Confucian system. Through the cross-interaction of Confucian ideal theory, life practice and female perspective, the author reconstructs the social, emotional and intellectual world of these women through women's lives. This book proposes a new way of examining history. This approach is premised on a concrete understanding of how women live.