by Christine G.

Created on: April 15, 2010

Nu shu ("women’s writing) is a written Chinese language used solely by women, and kept secret from the men.  There is no account of it in historical records or local annals.  It appears to have been confined to Jiangyong County in Hunan Province.

Women were not allowed to read and write, and were excluded from the activities of men. From the time their feet were bound at the age of seven until their marriage at age seventeen, they remained with other female family members in an upstairs room with a single window, with occasional visits with "sworn sisters", other girls in the village who had their feet bound at the same time and retained a special relationship until marriage.  Sworn sisters would compose marriage books for each other, recording their hopes and good wishes for their friends' future lives.

After marriage, their situation was not much better.  The young wives were bullied by their mothers-in-law, and could attain prestige and fulfilment only by giving birth to sons.  Visits away from home were rare. Nu shu was a lifeline allowing women to record their lives and thoughts, and keep in touch with other women.

 No one knows how this extraordinary literary code began. The popular story is that a young girl from Hunan Province was chosen to become the emperor’s concubine. The life of privilege that she envisioned turned out to be one of loneliness and treacherous pitfalls of palace intrigue. She invented nu shu to tell her mother and sisters the truth about her life.

The appearance of nu shu is much different from the heavy, boxy characters of written Chinese. It is long, slim and frail, like mosquito legs, perhaps based on embroidery motifs. Unlike the Chinese pictograms, nu shu characters are phoenetic and therefore much less numerous and easier to learn.  Women of different regions invented their own characters to accommodate the local dialects.

Women broke through their isolation by writing letters, stories, and poems. Often messages were were hidden in embroidery, in weaving, and in paintings on fans. Nu shu compositions – biographies, stories, poems, and songs – were often exchanged as gifts. Girls learned nu shu from their mothers, grandmothers and sworn sisters.

Few nu shu documents have survived. Most were burned at women’s gravesites, so that the words would accompany them into the afterworld. Pieces that were kept for family heirlooms were destroyed by Japanes

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>