Linda Cooke Johnson

In Chinese historiography, the “conquest dynasties” are those founded by barbarians from the north. We’re here concerned with the Liao (916-1125) founded by the Kitan nomads of the eastern steppes, and the Jin (1115-1234) founded by the Jurchen from the Manchurian forests.

Cooke Johnson repeatedly describes Kitan and Jurchen women as “warrior women”, and the publisher description makes it sound like their martial exploits is what the book is primarily about. As it turns out, however, most of the page-count is about more peaceful aspects of women’s lives, and I don’t think “warrior woman” is a very good description of the military roles (some) Kitan and Jurchen women did assume. Of the three women who gets their own sections in the “Warrior Women” chapter, two were Liao empresses dowager who lead armies as part of their role as political leaders, and the third a Jin rebel/bandit leader who fulfilled a similar role at a less elevated level. It’s not clear any of them actually fought themselves. There was certainly no question of women making up a numerically significant proportion of Liao or Jin armies.

The rest of the book deals with more typical women’s history topics, like marriage patterns, attitudes to sexuality, and family life. The general impression is that Kitan and Jurchen women lived freer lives than their Chinese sisters, though this wasn’t so in all respects; in particular northern customs were harsh on widows.

I was annoyed by a brief but badly confused summary of Qara-Khitai history. Otherwise I didn’t really notice any errors of consequence. The book is to be recommended if you’re interested in Chinese and Inner Asian social history. Just don’t expect it to be primarily about warrior women in any sense.… (altro)

This book is a study of of how women of two northern border regions, the Liao (the Khitan, linguistically linked to the later Mongols) and the Jin (the Jurchen, the ancestors of the later Manchu), differed from their southern neighbors, the women of Han China, but also includes accounts of women of Chinese ancestry who lived in these regions (known as the Haner) and the Bohai (a tribe aligned with the Jurchen, founders of the Jin Dynasty). It includes such topics as sexuality, marriage practices, widowhood, education, and Buddhist interests, as well as the recorded 'women of virtue' and 'warrior women' whose names are known to us.

As one of the very few books that covers this topic, it is an important work and a book that needs to be read to understand that these women lived lives that only in some very specific ways reflected that they were, at some point, members of the ruling dynasties of China. In many ways they lived freer lives (pre-maritial freedoms, including access to education, independence, influence) in other ways, more restricted lives (expectations at widowhood). There are extensive helpful footnotes and references, and an excellent Bibliography, Glossary, and Index.

However, the constant changing back and forth between the women of the two focus groups was at times confusing, and I personally would have preferred a different organization--by ethnic identity rather than subject (marriage, sexuality, education). Grouping them by topic blurred the differences between these two ethnic groups, which I prefer to think of as separate 'peoples' in China's long history. The author herself notes the difficulty in approaching the work topically and the last chapter is devoted to a more chronological review of the topics, but you'll need to keep your names and geographies clear in your head as you read as they often shift paragraph to paragraph.

Much research was obviously involved, for which the author must be admired given the scarceness of such material, and she very ably includes textual, tomb and pictorial references; no doubt this affected the final organization, which is more academic than some readers may have wished. I also would have appreciated a tighter construction: we are told what we will be told, then told it, then there is a summary of what we were told, then another final review of what we were told. However, there are sufficient small surprises in some of the summaries to warrant their careful reading--for example, the shortfall of Khitan tomb artifacts as opposed to Jin tomb artifacts to illuminate the subject matter--and most importantly, the reason why. It was these two points (organization and repetitiveness) that reluctantly decided my 3-star as opposed to 4-star rating--because in terms of research, it should have the stronger rating.

A final note: I would have loved to have heard more of the author's voice as revealed in the final sentences when she wonders "What did their contemporaries and subsequent Chinese women make of the warrior women of the Liao and Jin? … Perhaps today's cinematic crouching tigers, hidden dragons, and flying daggers are faint echoes of a tenth-to-thirteenth century past."… (altro)

On the 'barbarian' dynasties Liao and Jin, created by northern tribal peoples, the Khitan and the Jurchen. More about Liao, for Jin quickly took on Chinese culture and values. Even in Jin, though, observers from Song China noted the barbarisation of society: women freely on the streets, while Song kept them at home. In emergency, Jin women remembered they were tribal and actively involved themselves in war.

Liao society kept northern values to the end. The sexes weren't segregated; girls rode, shot and studied with boys. Daughters weren't a future loss but a gain, and weren't unwelcome. The custom was for the wife to be older than the husband, often a fair bit older. Single women existed. Virginity before marriage was not an issue.

The Liao Emperor throws a feast when his mother kills a bear. An empress commands the army at Liao's crucial victory over Song. Women participated in politics and war.

And it was catching. In Jin, a woman who has no barbarian about her, she's Han Chinese, followed the example she was given and led a bandit army, for a career in the three-way wars between Jin, Song and Mongols.

In this age, foot-binding was coming into general practice in Song. The author sees a crack-down, a reaction against barbarian habits, once China was for the Chinese again.

This book is written in such a way that those new to Liao and Jin -- perhaps here with an interest in women in history -- have a sufficient introduction. It should present no difficulty to a general reader. Although much of the material on Liao (except for archaeology) can be found within the 1949 opus, Wittfogel's" History of Chinese Society: Liao" -- inexplicably, this is the first English book on the subject.… (altro)