Reading the Admonitions for women, chose one of the following questions and answer it as an initial post (and be sure to comment on classmates who have answered questions of their own):

• What does Ban Zhao tell us about the status of daughters-in- law? How has she escaped from the fears of such servitude?
• According to Ban Zhao, what rules of propriety should govern a marriage?
• What does Ban Zhao consider the principal duty of a husband? of a wife?
• How and why are they complementary parts of the natural order of the universe?
• What sort of education does she advocate for women, and what ist its purpose? Why are we able to infer that her daughters also received at least a rudimentary education in Confucian literature?
• In what way and why does Ban Zhao advocate a departure from tradition?
• What does her claim to lack of intelligence suggest? Do you think she was sincere in this claim?
• What was there about Ban Zhao's essay which has caused it to be so highly regarded by Confucian scholars over the following centuries?
• Would it be correct to call Ban Zhao a feminist?