Mencius and Masculinities

Looks at the Confucian classic Mencius from a feminist perspective and uncovers the "maternal thinking" within the work. In this innovative work, Joanne D. Birdwhistell presents the first gender analysis of the Mencius, a central text in the Chinese philosophical tradition. Mencian philosophy, particularly its ideas about the processes by which a man could develop into a cultivated gentleman, was important to the political thought of China's long imperial order. Through close textual readings, B