ABSTRACT This article highlights the salient educational insights concerning the roles and identities of women from four Confucian classics known as the Four Books for Women (Nü sishu). Written by women, the texts collectively challenge three prevailing gendered social norms: the deprivation of education for girls, the necessity of the wife to obey her husband all the time, and the assumption of the moral inferiority of women. Correspondingly, the authors argue for the right of girls to schooling, the need for the wife to remonstrate with her husband, and the potential of women to become moral exemplars and sages. The authors legitimise their arguments by drawing on selected Confucian teachings pertaining to gender mutuality, normative behaviours, innate moral nature and self-cultivation. Going beyond the traditional roles of women as wives, mothers and daughters-in-law, the texts envisage women as educated and ethical role models who complement the men in advancing the Way.

中文翻译：

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挑战性别规范：儒家经典的教育见解

摘要本文着重介绍了有关四位儒家经典著作（关于女性的四本书）中有关女性角色和身份的重要教育见解。这些文本由妇女撰写，共同挑战了三大流行的社会性别规范：剥夺女孩的教育，妻子必须一直服从丈夫，以及假定妇女的道德自卑。相应地，作者主张女孩受教育的权利，妻子与丈夫进行示威的必要性以及妇女成为道德榜样和贤哲的潜力。作者通过借鉴有关性别互助，规范行为，天生的道德本性和修养的儒家教义使他们的论点合法化。超越了妇女作为妻子的传统角色，