5-15 Report for Week 3

Reading Journal – What did I read this week?

• “Fu Hao, earliest female general, Shang Dynasty”
  • Summary
    • An article about a royal military leader, general, feudal vassal, and strong woman named Fu Hao. She was a militarist in Shang China, one of the only females to be one, which was written in oracle bones. Fu Hao is a strong woman and her history is now taught to women in China, as she is used to show women that they are strong and free. However, even though she does act as a strong figure in the past, she does not change the fact that oppressed women exist still.
  • Information
    • I personally loved this article, as it showed me that strong women did exist in Shang China. I was glad to hear of her and her story reminded me of Mulan. As written in the article, “Fu Hao will forever illuminate the Shang Culture with her feats of daring, courage, and skill” (Peterson, Hong 16).
  • Connection
    • Since this was part of the first readings, I can not connect it to past readings.
  • Classification
    • Excerpt from the book, Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century
• “Divination in Early China”
  • Summary
    • This was a reading on the History and types of divination in China. Divination is a spiritual practice, which was celebrated by China and written on oracle bones, which where tortoise shells. There was also The Yijing which was a manual for finding out one’s personal divinations. It consisted of 64 Hexagrams which could be consulted by casting yarrow sticks and basing hexagrams upon what they received.
  • Information
    • I was a bit confused about the yarrow sticks’ significance at first, but now I see how they were used to consult the Hexagrams in the Yijing. This process was very interesting to me and comparable to horoscopes.
  • Connection
    • Since this was part of the first readings, I can not connect it to past readings.
  • Classification
    • Website Article/Chapter
    • https://open.muhlenberg.pub/chinasmagicalcreatures/chapter/the-classic-of-changes-yijing/

• “The Royal Consort Fu Hao of the Shang, circa 1200 BCE”
  • Summary
    • This reading is a biographical portrait of Fu Hao, written by Minna Haapaner after she studied many of the primary sources about Fu Hao. The chapter we read consists of diary-like excerpts in the narration of Fu Hao, including citations from original inscriptions as well as Haapaner’s own speculative reconstructions. The product was a very fun to read account of what famous female militarist Fu Hao’s life was like.
  • Information
    • I really enjoyed this piece, for it almost felt as if I was reading a novel about the strong warrior Fu Hao. I thought the writing style was very comprehensive and enjoyable to read, especially the bits describing Fu Hao’s family and life stories.
  • Connection
    • Since this was part of the first readings, I can not connect it to past readings.
  • Classification
    • Excerpt/Chapter from the book The Human Tradition in Premodern China
• I also took a look at this website to find out some more information on the discovery of Fu Hao’s Tomb! https://www.medievalists.net/2018/12/queen-priestess-general-the-legendary-life-of-fu-hao/digital-camera/
  • Below is an image from the website of Fu Hao’s tomb! So cool.

To-Do List – What to do next week?

• Figure out WordPress a bit more and try to customize my sites better
• Focus on taking good annotations in hypothesis, as it helps me a lot when looking back at the articles I read so I can do good on my 5-15 reports

Any Questions so far?

I do not have any questions so far, and am enjoying the readings we have already done. Last class was a bit overwhelming, and I found it very difficult to stay focused because it was very technology-oriented. I try my hardest with technology but find that I still can’t quite grasp some aspects of it, so last class just confused me a lot and I feel as though I didn’t take away as much from it as I wanted to.