Wang, Robin R., ed. Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period through the Song Dynasty. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2003. 449 pp.

by Ding-Hwa Hsieh

This anthology of translated Chinese texts, edited by Robin R. Wang, is a welcome addition to the increasing volume of literature on women in China and also a needed sourcebook for the teaching of women and gender. It "illustrates and explores Chinese perspectives on women and gender, cosmology and human nature, as well as women's social roles and virtue" (ix). The selections start with the earliest writings dated around 1200 B.C.E and end in the Song dynasty (960–1279 C.E.), a period when images of virtuous women became pervasively associated with obedience and domesticity under the revival of Confucian ideals.