Work / monument · text
Lessons for Women
Lessons for Women, also translated as Admonitions for Women, Women's Precepts or Warnings for Women, is a work by Ban Zhao, the Han dynasty female intellectual who lived from 45 or 49 to 117 or 120 CE, written for her daughters. The small book, of only seven chapters, describes the status and position of women in society and sets out the four virtues a woman must keep: womanly virtue, speech, manner and merit. Each is defined by restraint, so that a woman should not distinguish herself in talent and intelligence nor outdo others in skill. As one of the Four Books for Women it had wide circulation in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, and many women had its sections memorised.
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lessons for Women. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lessons-for-women
- MLA
- “Lessons for Women.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lessons-for-women. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Lessons for Women.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lessons-for-women.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lessons for Women’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lessons-for-women (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻