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WOMEN'S ROLE IN THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF ALCOHOL IN HAN CHINA AS REFLECTED IN TOMB ART FROM SICHUAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Hajni Elias
Hajni Elias*
Affiliation:
Hajni Elias, 薛好佩, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge; email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Pictorial brick tiles and stone carvings from the Eastern Han period show women engaged in the production of alcohol, and early histories and literary sources provide an insight into women's role in brewing, drinking, and selling alcohol in shops and in the market. Preparation of alcohol for ritual ceremonies, banquets, and daily consumption is listed among the many household duties for which women were responsible. It was women's work (nüshi 女事), as was the production of textiles, which assigned women with an economic role but also gave them a moral identity in the social sphere. However, women's mastery of brewing—mentioned but rarely elaborated—upon, did not connote feminine virtues in the same way as weaving. Through a close examination of artistic representations that show women engaged in the making of alcohol on the estate and in a workshop setting in the southwest (present-day Sichuan province), this article aims to examine the role women played in alcohol production and their contribution to the economy of both their household and the region in early Imperial China.

提要

提要

漢代畫像磚、石展示了婦女在釀酒生產中的畫面，早期歷史文獻也為了解婦女在酒肆、市集參與釀造、飲用、販賣活動提供了洞見。為祭禮、宴飲和日常消費這類活動備酒，是漢代婦女所承擔的重要家務勞動責任。釀酒與紡織一樣皆屬「女事」，不同的是，紡織不僅賦予婦女經濟生產的角色，也賦予她們一種社會道德認同。而善於釀酒的女性—儘管有所提及卻很少詳加說明—卻沒有如善於紡織的女性那樣被標榜「女德」。本文詳加檢視迄今西南（今四川）地區所遺留的展現婦女在自宅或商舖造酒的石刻藝術品，旨在探討古代中國女性在釀酒生產中的角色和她們對家事活動以及地方經濟的貢獻。

Keywords

Eastern Han Dynastywomenalcoholtomb artSouthwest Territories東漢時代婦女釀酒墓葬藝術西南地區
Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 43 , September 2020 , pp. 247 - 284
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Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Study of Early China and Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

A shorter version of this article was presented at the Yale-NUS College, Needham Institute and University of Cambridge International Conference on Philosophy and Technology in Early China in Singapore, August 2017. I wish to thank my supervisor, Roel Sterckx, for his support that led to the writing and publication of this research. I am also grateful to all the people who read this article, including my two anonymous reviewers of Early China, and provided invaluable comments and suggestions. In addition, my thanks, as always, also goes to my family for their continuous support. Any remaining errors and mistakes are, of course, my own responsibility.

References

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4. See Guisso, Richard W. and Johannesen, Stanley, eds., Women in China: Current Directions in Historical Scholarship (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1981), 48Google Scholar, who note that the Classics have little to say of women as persons, but deal almost entirely with idealized life-cycle roles of daughter, wife, and mother, and that there is a natural and immutable difference between male and female that is part of the cosmic order. Regarding women’s legal rights in early China, see Raphals, Sharing the Light, 226, who mentions women receiving property from their fathers and participating at court during the Han. Legal documents excavated at Zhangjiashan 張家山, Hubei province, and examined in Barbieri-Low, Anthony and Yates, Robin, Law, State and Society in Early Imperial China (Leiden: Brill, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, provide ample evidence of court cases involving women.

5. Nixon, Lucia, “Gender Bias in Archaeology,” in Women in Ancient Societies, ed. Archer, Leonie J., Fischer, Susan, and Wyke, Maria (London: Macmillan, 1994), 19Google Scholar.

6. Bray, Francesca, Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 177–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7. See Wen, Gao 高文, Zhongguo Ba Shu Handai huaxiang zhuan daquan 中國巴蜀漢代畫像磚大全 (Hong Kong and Macao: GangOu International Publishing Company, 2002), 20Google Scholar; Lim, Lucy, ed., Stories from China’s Past: Han Dynasty Pictorial Tomb Reliefs and Archaeological Objects from Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China (San Francisco: Chinese Culture Center, 1987), 103Google Scholar; and Bagley, Robert, ed., Ancient Sichuan: Treasures from a Lost Civilization (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum in association with Princeton University Press, 2001), 286–87Google Scholar.

8. The “inner” and “outer” spheres are clearly defined in texts such as the Li ji jiaozhu 禮記校注 (Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 2004), 12.57 (“Nei ze” 內則), which instructs saying, “Men should not speak of [what belongs to] the inside [of the house], and women should not speak of [what belongs to] the outside [of the house]” (男不言內, 女不言外).

9. Bray, Technology and Gender, 175. See also Raphals, Sharing the Light, 216, 226, who shows how the physical separation of men and women, and the relegation of women and women’s work to the inner quarters, including the question of women’s ability to engage in occupations outside the home, in reality was far more relaxed than early texts, such as the Li ji, make us believe. Women had greater mobility than literalistic interpretations of the Five Classics would suggest. Thus, Raphals calls into question the nei-wai picture that early texts present.

10. Milburn, Olivia, “Palace Women in the Former Han Dynasty (202 BCE–CE 23): Gender and Administrational History in the Early Imperial Era,” Nan nü 18.2 (2016), 201–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. The Lienü zhuan 列女傳, also known as Gu lienü zhuan 古列女傳 (Ancient Traditions of Illustrious Women), is a collection of biographies of exemplary women in ancient China. Compiled by Liu Xiang 劉向 (79–8 b.c.e.), the original work consisted of seven sections with fifteen biographies per section, in total 105 biographies. See Kinney, Anne B., Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lienü Zhuan of Liu Xiang (New York: Columbia Press, 2014), viCrossRefGoogle Scholar, who notes that it is the earliest extant Chinese literature we know that is solely devoted to the moral education of women.

12. Hinsch, Women in Early Imperial China, 28–29.

13. For studies on the Wu family shrines see Hung, Wu, The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chinese Pictorial Art (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Fairbank, Wilma, “The Offering Shrines of the ‘Wu Liang Tz’u’,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 6.1 (1941), 1–36Google Scholar; and James, Jean M., “The Iconographic Program of the Wu Family Offering Shrines (A.D. 151–ca. 170),” Artibus Asiae 49 (1988), 39–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Although jiu 酒 is typically translated as “wine” in current scholarship, in this article we shall use the term “alcohol” for jiu. In early China jiu designated a type of fermented brew, primarily made from rice or millet, and not the wine made from grapes familiar in the West. See Bray, Technology and Gender, 477, who mentions that alcohol fermented from millet was an important feature of Shang ceremonial. For a detailed explanation of the brewing process see Hsing-Tsung, Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” in Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 6, Biology and Biological Technology, ed. Needham, Joseph (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 153–55Google Scholar, and Sterckx, Roel, “Alcohol and Historiography in Early China,” Global Food History 1 (2015), 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Grapes (putao 蒲陶) are first mentioned in Sima Xiangru’s poem Shanglin fu 上林賦, see Shi ji 史記 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1959), 123.3173–74Google Scholar, where it is noted that Central Asian grapes were planted and nurtured as a treasured rarity in the imperial palace’s estate and that in the Shanglin Park there was a residence named Grape Lodge. As far as we know, grapes were not grown in general, thus we cannot include it in the process of making alcoholic beverages at this point in history. See Knechtges, David, Wen xuan or Selections of Refined Literature. Volume 2: Rhapsodies on Sacrifices, Hunting, Travel, Sightseeing, Palaces and Halls, Rivers and Seas. Xiao Tong (501–531) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 92–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15. See for example a rubbing from Henan depicting a hunter on horseback aiming his arrow at a tiger illustrated in Guoxin, Li 李國新, Han huaxiang zhuan jingpin shangxi 漢畫像磚精品賞析 (Guizhou: Daxiang, 2014), 89Google Scholar.

16. Shi ji, 129.3277.

17. Compiled in Xiao Tong’s 蕭統 (c. 501–531 c.e.) Wen xuan 文選. See Knechtges, Wen xuan or Selections of Refined Literature, 73–114.

18. Fengsu tongyi jiaoshi 風俗通義校釋 (Tianjin: Renmin, 1980), 2.74Google Scholar (“Zheng shi” 正失); translation in Michael Nylan, Ying Shao’s “Feng Su Tung Yi”: An Exploration of Problems in Han Dynasty Political, Philosophical and Social Unity, Ph.D. dissertation (Princeton University, 1982), 388.

19. See Bartholomew, Teresa Tse, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2012), 43–44, 108Google Scholar. See also Makoto, Inoi 家井眞, “Shikyō ni okeru sakana no kōshi to sono tenkai ni tsuite, 詩經に於ける魚の與詞とその展開に就いて,” Nippon Chūgoku gakkai hō 日本中国学会報 27 (1975), 34–47Google Scholar, on the symbolism of fish in the Shi jing 詩經.

20. Huayang guo zhi, 3.133.

21. The Qimin yaoshu jiaoshi 齊民要術校釋 (Beijing: Nongye, 1982), 56.406Google Scholar, mentions how, “[People] often tie a macaque monkey [on a pole] for guarding the horse. [This] causes the horse not to be frightened, [and helps it] to avoid harm and to dispel many kinds of diseases” (常繫獼猴於馬坊, 令馬不畏, 辟惡, 消百病也). The proverb “bi ma wen” 弼馬溫, which may be translated as “to help the horse ward off plague” refers to this ancient custom. See Zhang, “Chengdu Zengjiabao Han mu huaxiang yishu tanwei,” 61. See also the story of the Shu mythical ape that is also called “mahua” 馬化 or the ape that “transforms or revives horses” in the Soushenji 搜神記 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1957), 12.93Google Scholar. Hung, Wu, “The Earliest Pictorial Representations of Ape Tales,” T’oung Pao 73 (1987), 86–112Google Scholar, examines early pictorial depictions of the ape tale from Sichuan.

22. The Huayang guo zhi, 3.153, mentions the government office in charge of silk production, known as the “Brocade Office” (Jinguan 錦官), located south of Chengdu, with its site determined by the river flowing next to the city wall. It explains as follows: “Its road is to the west of the city wall, which in ancient times was the ‘Brocade Office’. [If] the Jin brocade is washed in the Jin River, then it will become bright [in coloration]. [But] if washed in other rivers, then it won’t be good. In ancient times [this place] was assigned the name ‘the native place of brocade’” (其道西城, 故錦官也. 錦江織錦濯其中則鮮明, 濯他江則不好. 故命曰錦里也). The Shuijing zhushu 水經注疏 (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji, 1989), 33.2754Google Scholar, similarly describes how brocade rinsed in the Jin River becomes especially beautiful, and no other river is suitable for producing Sichuan’s special cloth.

23. For information on the Laoguanshan excavation of the model looms see Zhao Feng, “The Earliest Evidence of Pattern Looms: Han Dynasty Tomb Models from Chengdu, China,” Antiquity 2017.91, 356, 360–74.

24. There is mention of wild cats in early writings, for example the Li ji records people making offerings to the spirit of wild cats who devoured rats and field mice (迎貓, 為其食田鼠也). See Li ji, 11.185 (“Jiao te sheng” 郊特牲).

25. Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 153–55.

26. Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 177–78.

27. Written by Jia Sixie 賈思勰 (fl. 6th century c.e.), the Qimin yaoshu 齊民要術 (Essential Ways for Living of the Common People) is the most comprehensive extant classical nongshu 農書 or agricultural treatise. Written in the early sixth century, most probably in the years 533 to 544, it contains ninety-two chapters divided into ten fascicules, providing a practical guide on general aspects of farming knowledge and for the improvement of rural life in general. For a detailed introduction and analysis see Sheng-han, Shih, A Preliminary Survey of the Book of Ch’i Min Yao Shu (Beijing: Science Press, 1962)Google Scholar. The Qimin yaoshu describes in detail the making of nine varieties of ferments and records the brewing of thirty-seven kinds of alcohol plus a further two “medicated” alcohol made by soaking herbs in ready-made alcohol. See Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 169.

28. See Li ji, 6.125 (“Yueling” 月令); tr. Legge, James, “The Li Ki,” in The Sacred Books of the East. Vol. 28, ed. Müller, F. Max (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1885), I. 303Google Scholar, which records as follows: “Orders are given to the Grand superintendent of the preparation of liquors to see that the rice and other glutinous grains are all complete; that the leaven-cakes are in season; that the soaking and heating are cleanly conducted; that the water be fragrant; that the vessels of pottery be good; and that the regulation of the fire be right. These six things have all to be attended to, and the Grand superintendent has the inspection of them, to secure that there be no error or mistake” (乃命大酋, 秫稻必齊, 麴蘗必時, 湛熾必潔, 水泉必香, 陶器必良, 火齊必得, 兼用六物. 大酋監之, 毋有差貸).

29. Lun heng zhushi 論衡注釋 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1979), 5.42Google Scholar (“Xing ou” 幸偶).

30. While we do not have any information on the deceased, as the tomb was looted with no inscription or material culture left to identify the owner, the exceptional quality of the stone reliefs on the two rear walls, and the size and layout of the tomb suggest that it probably belonged to a family with considerable wealth.

31. See Sterckx, Roel, The Animal and the Daemon in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), 77, 144Google Scholar, for examples on how hunting regulations were observed during the Han dynasty, and how ritual codes stipulated that animals killed out of season were not to be sold on the markets. See also Chengzhong, Pu, Ethical Treatment of Animals in Early Chinese Buddhism (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2014), 102–4Google Scholar, for official restrictions on killing animals in early China.

32. Han shu 漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1962), 24.1121Google Scholar (冬, 民既入, 婦人同巷, 相從夜績). See also the story of 徐吾, Xuwu in the Lienü zhuan buzhu 列女傳補註 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1938), 6.121Google Scholar, who is too poor and cannot afford any candles, and so pleads with a group of women in her village to join their weaving group so she can share their light.

33. See Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 176.

34. Yang Aiguo 楊愛國, “Han huaxiangshi zhong de paochu tu” 漢畫像石中的庖廚圖, Kaogu 1991.11, 1023. See also Wang Youpeng 王有鵬, “Shilun woguo zhengliujiu zhi qiyuan” 試論我國蒸餾之起源, Sichuan wenwu 1989.4, 30.

35. This scene has been originally identified as the making of tofu. See Chen Wenhua 陳文華, “Doufu qiyuan yu heshi” 豆腐起源與何時, Nongye kaogu 農業考古 1991.1, 245–8, and Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 302–16. However, more recently some scholars believe it depicts alcohol brewing rather than the making of tofu as originally thought. See Ji, Sun 孫機, “Doufu wenti” 豆腐問題,” in Xunchang de jingzhi 尋常的精緻, ed. Hong, Yang 楊泓 and Ji, Sun 孫機 (Liaoning: Liaoning jiaoyu, 1996), 292–96Google Scholar, and in Sun Ji 孫機, “Handai you doufu ma” 漢代有豆腐嗎, Zhongguo wenwubao 中國文物報 1998.12, 6.

36. Gao Wen, Zhongguo Ba Shu Handai huaxiang zhuan daquan, 93, pl. 91. See also Lim, Stories from China’s Past, 141, for a detailed description of the scene.

37. See Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 156. The Shuowen jiezi kaozheng 說文解字考正 (Beijing: Zuojia, 2004), 14.589, describes lao as: “Lao: [a type] of alcoholic liquor with lees” (醪: 汁滓酒也).

38. See Gao, Zhongguo Ba Shu Handai huaxiang zhuan daquan, 20; Lim, Stories from China’s Past, 103; Bagley, Ancient Sichuan, 286–87.

39. See Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 217–21; Bagley, Ancient Sichuan, 286–87.

40. See Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 209, and 211–12, for an illustration of a line drawing of the distillation process. The Chuzhou bronze steamer was filled with water in the bottom, fermented mash on the grating in the middle, and cold running water on the top. As the steam from the boiler rises, it heats the mash and carries alcohol vapor with it to the cooled, domed ceiling. The steam and alcohol vapor condense, the liquid runs down the sides of the dome to the annular gutter where it is carried by the side tube to a collecting bottle. For a full explanation of the process of distillation see Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 208.

41. Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 214.

42. See Rawson, Jessica, ed., Mysteries of Ancient China (London: British Museum Press, 1996), 199–200Google Scholar, where the two figures seated under the extended roof of the workshop are misidentified by the author as men. Their hairstyles and clothing suggest that we are looking at two female figures and not men. See a female figure on a mural unearthed from an Eastern Han tomb at Xianyang, Henan province, illustrated in Zhongguo chutu bihua quanji 中國出土壁畫全集 (Beijing: Kexue, 2012), vol. 5, pl. 89Google Scholar, wearing a similar red robe as the figure on the top right on this brick tile, which still retains traces of red pigment. Rawson further notes that the man shown on the top left is transporting a wine chest on a wheelbarrow. The square form of the container indicates that it was more likely used for transporting solid material such as qu or the starter cake, rather than liquid. Furthermore, Rawson (p. 201) identifies a very similar container as “a heavy box” rather than a “wine chest” suggesting that it is not clear what this type of container was used for.

43. Zhang, “Chengdu Zengjiabao Han mu huaxiang yishu tanwei,” 64.

44. Gao, Zhongguo Ba Shu Handai huaxiang zhuan daquan, 23. On this pictorial brick tile we see the alcohol seller attending to a customer standing in front of the counter. Behind the customer, whose clothing suggests that he is an official of means, a figure of a young worker or servant is shown pulling a wheelbarrow loaded with a square covered box. Another male figure dressed in a simple clothing of short trousers, appears to be carrying a single jar attached to a pole on his shoulder. He is approaching the shop perhaps on the instructions of his master to purchase alcohol as we read in Wang Bao’s 王褒 (c. 84–c. 53 b.c.e.) humorous slave contract. The contract tells the story of Wang Ziquan 王子泉, from Shu 蜀, who instructs a slave called Bian Liao 便了to purchase alcohol for him from the market. Bian Liao refuses on the grounds that when his master purchased him he was only contracted to guard his tomb and not to buy alcohol for his clan members and guests. See Wang Qitao 王啟濤, “Wang Bao ‘Tong yue’ yanjiu” 王褒 ‘僮約’ 研究, Sichuan shifan daxue xuebao 四川師範大學學報 (Shehui kexue ban 社會科學版) 2004.31.6, 75.

45. Huang, “Fermentations and Food Science,” 219.

46. Li ji, 12.209 (“Nei ze” 內則).

47. You 攸 here is a variant for you 悠, meaning “to be distant.” See Jinshi wenzi bianyi 金石文字辯異 (Taipei: Taipei xinwenfeng, 1977), 5.11 (“Xia pingsheng. You” 下平聲.尤).

48. Lienü zhuan, 1.17.

49. Zheng Xuan’s 鄭玄 (127–200 c.e.) annotation of the Li ji, 25.378 (“Ji tong” 祭統) suggests that qi 齊 is a variant of zi 粢 which refers to a type of cake made of millet offered at ritual ceremonies.

50. A complete citation of the Nüjie is included in the biography of Ban Zhao in the Hou Han shu, 84.2789. Ban Zhao in the Nüjie urged girls to master the seven virtues appropriate to women: humility, resignation, subservience, self-abasement, obedience, cleanliness, and industry. She includes “womanly work” (nügong 女功) amongst the four attributes expected from women of all classes, along with womanly virtue, womanly speech, and womanly conduct. See Bray, Technology and Gender, Swann, Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China, and Wing, “Technology, Commentary and the Admonitions for Women.”

51. The Li ji, 37.465 (“Jian zhuan” 間傳), mentions li 醴 as the beverage served to mourners at the final sacrifice. When mourners commence to drink alcohol they take li first and when they commence to eat meat they consume dried meat first (始飲酒者先飲醴酒. 始食肉者先食乾肉). See also Poo, Mu-chou, “The Use and Abuse of Wine in Ancient China,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 42.2 (1999), 132–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52. On the offering of li 醴, the Li ji, 37.465 (“Jian zhuan” 間傳); tr. Legge, “The Li Ki,” 1885, II. 387, records, “In the mourning rites for a parent, when the sacrifice of repose has been presented, and the wailing is at an end, [the mourners] eat coarse rice and drink water, but do not take vegetables or fruits. At the end of a year, when the smaller felicitous sacrifice has been offered, they eat vegetables and fruits. After another year, when the greater sacrifice has been offered, they take pickles and sauces. In the month after, the final mourning sacrifice is offered, after which they drink the must and spirits. When they begin to drink these, they first use the must; when they begin to eat flesh, they first take that which has been dried” (父母之喪, 既虞卒哭, 疏食水飲, 不食菜果; 期而小祥, 食菜果; 又期而大祥, 有醯醬; 中月而禫, 禫而飲醴酒. 始飲酒者, 先飲醴酒. 始食肉者, 先食乾肉).

53. The term chemo 澈漠 appears only in this passage and suggests the process of the purification of alcohol from zao 糟 or dregs.

54. Lienü zhuan, 2.29–30.

55. For example, the phrase “shen jiujiang” 審酒漿 is interpreted by Kinney, Exemplary Women of Early China, 19, as to “strain the wine,” and the phrase “che mo jiu li” 澈漠酒醴 simply as to “purify wine” (p. 33).

56. See Raphals, Sharing the Light, 227, who notes that women performed sacrifice directly or supervised it, usually, but not always, within the home. There were women experts in sorcery, divination, medicine, and teaching. For more information on women’s participation in ritual sacrifices see Hinsch, Women in Early Imperial China, 135–37.

57. Hinsch, Women in Early Imperial China, 137.

58. Hou Han shu, 13.535 (女工之業, 覆衣天下).

59. Huainan hongjie jijie 淮南鴻烈集解 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1989), 11.376Google Scholar (“Qi su” 齊俗) (農事廢, 女工傷, 即饑之本而寒之原也). For the translation of this passage see Major, John S., Queen, Sarah A., Meyer, Andrew Seth, and Roth, Harold D., transl. and eds., The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 427Google Scholar.

60. See Hinsch, “Textiles and Female Virtue,” 174.

61. See Sheng, “Women’s Work, Virtue and Space.” See also Bray, Technology and Gender, 183.

62. Sheng, “Women’s Work, Virtue and Space,” 10–11.

63. See also Hinsch, “Textiles and Female Virtue,” 170–202.

64. Yantie lun jiaozhu 鹽鐵論校注 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1992), 1.4Google Scholar (“Ben yi” 本議) (古者之賦稅於民也, 因其所工, 不求所拙. 農人納其穫, 女工效其功).

65. Huangdi neijing lingshu yishi 黃帝內經靈樞譯釋 (Shanghai: Shanghai kexue jishu, 1986), 18.166Google Scholar; Huainanzi jiaoshi, 17.1834 (“Shui lin xun” 說林訓); tr. Major, Queen, Meyer and Roth, The Huainanzi. A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China, 694.

66. Poo, “The Use and Abuse of Wine in Ancient China,” 127.

67. See Gao, Zhongguo Ba Shu Handai huaxiang zhuan daquan, 4, 8, 9, 10, for images of pictorial brick tiles unearthed from tombs in Sichuan which depict women engaged in the various works on the fields.

68. Hou Han shu, 83.2768–69.

69. Shi ji, 117.3000; tr. Watson, Burton, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty. Vols. I–II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), II. 261Google Scholar.

70. The poem is included in the Yutai xinyong 玉臺新詠 (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou goji, 1991), 1.13–4Google Scholar. See also Birrell, Anne, New Songs from a Jade Terrace (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982), 42Google Scholar; and Knechtges, David and Chang, Taiping, eds., Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 1662Google Scholar. Birrell (p. 354) notes that the guard officer in the poem refers to the cavalry brigade patrolling the imperial palace called the yulin 羽林 but the man featured in the poem is a slave.

71. Birrell, New Songs from a Jade Terrace, 42.

72. Shi ji, 8.343; tr. Watson, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty, I. 51–52. See also Han shu, 1A.2.

73. Liexian zhuan 列仙傳, in Le Lie-Sien Tchouan, ed. Kaltenmark, Max (Beijing: Université de Paris Publications du Centre d’études sinologues de Pékin, 1953), 44.142Google Scholar (陽都女者, 市中酤酒家女, 眉生而連, 耳細而長, 眾以為異, 皆言此天人也).

74. Liexian zhuan, 66.180 (作酒常美, 遇仙人過其家飲酒, 以素書五卷為質).

75. Hou Han shu, 11.477 (母家素豐, 貲產數百萬, 乃益釀醇酒 … 少年來酤者, 皆賒與之, 視其乏者, 輒假衣裳). See also Lee, Lily Xiao Hong and Stefanowska, A.D., eds., Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women (London: M.E. Sharp, 2007), 178–79Google Scholar.

76. Hou Han shu, 11.477.

77. See Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State and Society in Early Imperial China, 1394–1416 of case record 4.22.

78. See Johnson, Janet H., “The Legal Status of Women in Ancient Egypt,” in Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven, Women in Ancient Egypt, ed. Capel, Anne K. and Markoe, Glenn E. (New York: Hudson Hill, 1997), 175–86, 215–18Google Scholar; Johnson, Janet H., “Women, Wealth and Work in Egyptian Society of the Ptolemaic Period,” in The Last Thousand Years, Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur, ed. Clarysse, Willy, Schools, Antoon and Willems, Harco (Leuven: Peeters en Departemen Oosterse Studies, 1998), 1393–1421Google Scholar; and Johnson, Janet H., “Social, Economic and Legal Rights of Women in Egypt,” in The Life of Meresamun, ed. Teeter, Emily and Johnson, Janet H. (Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2009), 82–97Google Scholar.

79. For a brief biography of Lu Kuang see Loewe, Michael, A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (221 BC–AD 24) (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 416Google Scholar.

80. Han shu, 24B.1182.

81. Sterckx, “Alcohol and Historiography in Early China,” 5.

82. See Han shu, 6.204, which records that in the third year of Han Wudi’s tianhan 天漢 reign period (98 b.c.e.) the government first introduced a monopoly on alcohol sales (初榷酒酤).

83. Shi ji, 10.417; tr. Watson, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty, I. 289. Pu 酺 was an imperially authorized period of empire-wide celebration, generally connected with imperial amnesty, that allowed the population to indulge in food and drink, for five days. Order of social grading or orders of honor, for men carried with them allocation of land of varying sizes and dwelling houses. See Nylan, Michael and Loewe, Michael, eds., China’s Early Empires (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 297–8Google Scholar, for an explanation of the orders of honor (jue 爵).

84. Yu Kunqi 于琨奇, “Ci nüzi bai hu niu jiu jie” 賜女子百户牛酒解, Zhongguo lishi wenwu, 1999.01, 37–45, 38, 60.

85. Ebrey, Patricia and Walthall, Anne, East Asia. A Cultural, Social and Political History (Boston: Wadsworth, 2013)Google Scholar, explain how during the Han dynasty, both the administrative structure of the centralized state and the success of Confucianism helped shape the family system and women’s position in it. Han laws supported the authority of the family head over other members, who was generally the senior male, but if a man died before his sons were grown, his widow would serve as family head until they were of age. See also Barbieri-Low and Yates, Law, State and Society in Early Imperial China, 112, 822 and 852, who explain how women were able to become heads of a household as recorded in the legal texts unearthed from Zhangjiashan tomb no. 247.

86. Shi ji, 12.476 (賜民百戶牛一酒十石). One shi is equivalent to 19.968 liters. See Loewe, Michael, Problems of Han Administration: Ancestral Rites, Weights and Measures, and the Means of Protest (Leuven: Brill, 2016), 166Google Scholar.

87. See Yu Kunqi’s analysis of the possible meaning of the phrase “women of one hundred households [received] oxen and alcohol” (女子百戶牛酒), in early texts. Yu suggests that the women mentioned were those who were the head of their family. If 200 liters of alcohol was gifted to one hundred households then each household received 2 liters, which had a monetary value of approximately 8 coins. See Yu, “Ci nüzi bai hu niu jiu jie,” 41.

88. Sheng 升 was a measure of capacity, equivalent to 10 ge 合 and to one-tenth of a dou 斗 or peck. The modern equivalent of one sheng is 199.687 cc and one dou is 1.996 liters, as listed in Loewe, Michael, Records of Han Administration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), vol. 1, 161Google Scholar.

89. Han shu, 7.224.

90. Jiuzhang suanshu zhushi 九章算術注釋 (Beijing: Kexue, 1983), 7.244 (今有醇酒一斗, 直錢五十; 行酒一斗, 直錢一十).

91. The connection between the purity of alcohol one consumes and one’s wisdom is raised in the “Rhapsody on Alcohol” (Jiu fu 酒賦), attributed retrospectively to Zou Yang 鄒楊 (fl. c. 154 b.c.e.). The poem opens as follows: “The clear makes wine; The turbid makes sweet brew; The clear is wise and enlightened; The turbid is dull and stupid.” See Knechtges, David R., Court Culture and Literature in Early China (Aldershot: Variorum, 2002), 438–39, 237Google Scholar; and Sterckx, “Alcohol and Historiography in Early China,” 26.

92. Shi ji, 129.3274 (夫用貧求富 … 此言末業, 貧者之資也 … 佗雜業不中什二, 則非吾財也).

93. Sterckx, “Alcohol and Historiography in Early China,” 2.

94. Shi ji, 32.1510 (公與婦人飲酒於檀臺).

95. See Gao, Zhongguo Ba Shu Handai huaxiang zhuan daquan, 93, pl. 91.

96. Yanzi chunqiu jiao zhu 晏子春秋校注 (Shanghai: Shijie shushe, 1935), 1.9Google Scholar; tr. Milburn, Olivia, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 167–68Google Scholar.

97. See Lixiang, Xin 信立祥 and Weichao, Yu 俞偉超, eds., Zhongguo huaxiang zhuan quanji: Sichuan huaxiang zhuan 中國畫像磚全集⋅四川畫像磚 (Chengdu: Sichuan meshu, 2006), pl. 85Google Scholar.

98. Sterckx, “Alcohol and Historiography in Early China,” 1.

99. See Sterckx, “Alcohol and Historiography in Early China,” 5.

100. Sterckx, “Alcohol and Historiography in Early China,” 22.

101. Raphals, Sharing the Light, 234.

102. Raphals, Sharing the Light, 226.

103. Johnson’s study of women in ancient Egypt shows a number of parallels with female representations in early China. She notes how in ancient Egypt not only did women’s identity not depend on the jobs they held but, rather, in many situations any role they played in public life was downplayed. See Johnson, “Women, Wealth and Work in Egyptian Society of the Ptolemaic Period,” 1421.