The Aesthetics of the Three Obediences: Murasaki Shikibu and Asian Women's Responses to the Code of Feminine Conduct

• Author / Creator

  Masumitsu, Kazuko

• Abstract
  All the three ancient sacred scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism,
  the Laws of Manu, the Lotus Sutra and the Book of Rites, demonstrate that the
  three obediences were once the prescribed code of woman’s conduct for South
  and East Asian women, as follows:
  Her father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in
  youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never fit
  for independence.
  (The Laws of Manu Ch. IX. 3) 1
  A woman obeys her parents in childhood, her husband in marriage
  and her son in widowhood, and she remains chaste.
  (listed in Buddhist sutras including Lotus Sutra, qtd. in Mochizuki
  Buddhist Great Dictionary 望月仏教大辞典 1542-1543)
  The wife should follow and obey her husband. The woman obeys
  her father in childhood, her husband in marriage and her son in old
  age.2 (The Book of Rites 礼記)
  The woman is bound by the three obediences.3 (Ch. “Blue Trousers
  藤袴.” The Genji Vol. 3. 328)
  These ancient Chinese and Indian manuscripts indicate that their women were
  expected to observe the three obediences. The three obediences, written in
  Chinese as 三従 and pronounced as sanjyū in Japanese and sankon in Chinese,
  1 In the English translation of the Laws of Manu by George Bühler. All the additional phrases in
  parentheses are listed.
  2 My translation.
  3 My translation.
  were once a familiar phrase in East Asia, including Korea and Vietnam. The
  presence of the same code of women’s conduct in the Tale of Genji also implies
  that the author, Murasaki Shikibu, wrote her work during the period when
  Japanese noblewomen were equally bound by that code. This recognition is the
  major inspiration for the first exploratory study of Pan-Asian womanhood under
  the three obediences within the field of comparative literature. This dissertation
  will trace back the development, evolution and effect of the three obediences on
  womanhood in India, China and Japan; then, it will re-read the Tale of Genji in
  the frame of the three obediences.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Buddhism
  • Hinduism
  • The Three Obediences
  • Asian Women
  • Confucianism
  • Murasaki Shikibu

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3FQ51

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.