Confuciansim (Essay Sample)

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Introduction
The main teachings of Confucians are basically based on the teachings of the Chinese sage Confucius, but one thing about this teaching is that they are not solemnly from Confucius, but a collection of superstitions and philosophies even from other philosophies. These teachings have heard a lot of impact on the people of China as well as people from East Asia. Confucianism is at times referred to as a philosophy and at times also as a religion. The teachings as we know them today are just a recollection, so they might at times not be accurate. Though there are many benefits brought about by Confucius teachings there are also quite a number of negative influences that are brought about by the teachings. Most notably is the effect that this has on women. My main argument is that Confucius teachings have a great effect on the positions of men and purports the insubordination of women. This paper aims to analyze the movie Red Sorghum with the Idea of Presenting forth the idea that it supports the concept of Confucianism on the insubordination of women.
Ideally, the Chinese did not have the idea of subordinating women, but the expansion of the Confucius teachings has brought about this idea. Confucianism was adopted in the Han dynasty that ruled during (206 B.C.E-220 CE) and became a state doctrine. It was also incorporated into the education system and become the part of the education. In the dynasties that followed, varied interpretations were fostered by Confucianism and these interpretations are the ones that reinforced male domination not to mention patrilineal customs. According to the interpretations of Confucians, at every level and structure in the society women are supposed to be under men, or occupy a lower level than men. The Movie Red sorghum brings out this concept. But before looking at the way the movie shows this lets first look at the summary of the movie.
Summary of the movie
The movie is based much on the controversial novella by MuoYans. The story begins with the preparation of the marriage of Jiuer who is young girl getting married to a man that is thirty year older than her. The procession is interrupted by the Palanquin –bearers who want to have a time of fun with the bride. The team is waylaid by a bandit in a mask, but killed by the palanquin-bearers. The wedding night does not end with a marital consummation because the bride defends herself with a scissor. Ideally the bride is not ready for the marriage and she is just forced to get married to this old man. This situation forces her to stay at her parents’ home for three days as that is what the customs require. On the day of her return to her husband’s house she is waylaid and kidnapped by "my grandma" who takes her deep into the sorghum field. In the field, she happily acquiesces and they make love. On the return to the lepers winery she is greeted with the news that he has been killed mysteriously. She recovers from this shock and convinces the laborers to stay back with her and run the winery. The grandpa of the narrator comes back to claim Jiuer, but he is beaten and thereafter thrown into the vat. He remains groaning in this vat for the next three days. In the meanwhile Jiuer is kidnapped by another local bandit that asks for a ransom of 3000 pieces of silver. Grandpa recovers and swears to get his revenge for the kidnap, but he is unfortunately disgraced himself. He remains in the winery repairing it and lays a clam for Jiuer and nine years pass. There are many other things that happen in this movie, but that is not my major concern. I would like to focus on some of the themes in this movie that happen to support the idea of subordination of women.
Themes that tend to support the subordination of women
I tend to agree with many of the critics that say that the movie is a libidinal gesture and a piece of sensationalism to the ugly truth. The movie out rightly shows an indulgence in forthrightness and boorishness and at the same time supports the defiance of the refinement, civility and inwardness of the traditional Chinese virtues. The movie tends to support the issue of desire rather than love, sexuality, but not marital bliss. In a great way the movie transgresses some of the basic societal codes and out rightly tents to support the subordination of women. By purporting the issues mentioned the movies tents to recognize the might of men in getting what they want from a woman, regardless of the feeling of the woman and the social values of the woman. This seems to be the idea supported by the Confucianism that women always occupy a lower position to men and that men should always have their way.
Red Sorghum seems to support or rather propose a powerful version of Chinese masculinity. The movie tends to unconsciously create quite a powerful masculine world with the presence of the women being limited. This concept as overtly presented in the movie is not right at all. The idea of a society that has a powerful male and a weak female should not be allowed to prevail in the society. Though the movie does not get this idea consciously to the minds of the viewers, in quite a subtle and unconscious way this point is driven into the minds of the viewers. Even looking back at the old documentaries, stories and legends, the roles of women and men at many times could overlap. The idea proposed by the supporter of masculinity that there was division of labor and that women were to remain in the house while men stayed outside, or that men ploughed while women weaved does not hold much water. This is simply because in some legends song stories and even legal cases show women participating in quite a variety of activities such as widows running inns, women that spend their time chanting sutras, midwives delivering babies, girls that learned to read amongst many other things. It is not possible to say then that women only remained in the house. If this is therefore the case, there is no reason whatsoever why they should be subordinated. There is no need to put women in a lower position and deny them the chance to make their own choice as it is depicted in Red Sorghum.
The movie foregrounds the main problems that are brought about by drinking. The Red sorghum connotes one main image, which is the material that is used to make wine. This comes out through the mirror of the landscape full of red sorghum. Looking at the Chinese history heavy drinking is often associated with heavy transgression of the decorum, or an act of defying conventions, a way of achieving autonomy, not to mention a route toward visionary intensity that leads to transcendental possibilities that result of poetic ecstasy. It also depicts the time when there is condemnation of spiritual degradation and also the overindulgence into social irresponsibility (Wang). This seems to be the theme that overrides the entire movie.
In the movie Red latent the Author presents a scenario that I can describe as the feminism or rather the Confucian matrix. In this movie the women are to be kept in a Sanheyuan where they should be kept from the harshness of the world. The idea of keepi...