The Heian period was a pinnacle of ancient literature development in ancient Japan from 794 to 1185 CE. Women in the Heian period played a significant role in literature, which emerged with many famous writers, such as Murasaki Shikubu, the author of The Tale of Genji and Sei Shonagon, the author of The Pillow Book.
At the same time, China went through the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 CE), a chaotic war period and the Song dynasty (960 to 1279 CE) describe the Song dynasty as you did for Tang by calling the Tang dynasty chaotic. The Tang dynasty was the most vibrant, open and interactive dynasty throughout Imperial Chinese history. There was the first female emperor, Wu Zetian, in China which leveled up the social status of women by enacting benefit…show more content… Most of them practiced monogamy (pg.220). Although the relationships were unstable with men during the Heian period, polygamy gave an opportunity to women to have a massive amount of free time to pursue literature (pg.200).
In the Tang dynasty, the laws of marriage were sophisticated. One of the laws allowed the free pursuit of marriage instead of forcing marriage by family and rank. Moreover, it was illegal to have more than one wife for normal people. Polygamy was practiced only in the upper-class society. Wives and consorts lived in different places or palaces. On contrast, it was disallowed to supplant the principal wife in Japan, but not in ancient China (pg.225). In this case, the social status of women in the Heian society was higher than that of in China.
(Tell/state what region you are talking about) Moreover, a man could be promoted to a higher social status by marrying a woman from an upper-class family. A phenomena described in Heian literature as “wife-battle” (pg.208). It also happened in Chinese society. A wife-battle was a situation where men competed with each other in order to marry a woman with wealth and higher-ranking family. In both societies, ancient and today, wealth determines people’s social hierarchy. Women with high social status and wealth can marry a man and live in her family instead of in a man’s
