班昭《女诫》再解读

Rereading of Ban Zhao's "Indoctrination of Daughters"

《女诫》是一篇写给“诸女”的“家训”。由于“家训”类作品“拟想读者”对于作者的价值选择形成了强有力的制约,这类作品往往倾向于强调个人对社会规范的顺应,以教导子女全身远祸。因此,这类作品不可能表达作者的理想人格。把《女诫》当作女教的圣典是对这部作品的误读。

Ban Zhao's famous article 'Indoctrination of Daughters' is usually regarded as a classic work of woman's education. However, through close reading, we can find that it is just an article of 'Family Indoctrination', in which kind of works, authors always give some advices, usually on how to ward off risks to their children. And for that purpose, this kind of works hardly expresses an ideal personality. Therefore, we can see that it is misreading to regard 'Indoctrination of Daughters' as an expression of ideal personality of woman.