Costume and Ritual:Demonstration of Rites of Women's "Three Obediences" in Zhou Dynasty

Women's "Three Obediences", namely, obedience to the father before marriage, obedience to the husband after marriage and to the son after the husband's death, first appeared in the Book of Ceremony and Ritual: Mourning. This book explained why married women should wear mourning for their deceased husbands but not for their deceased fathers; such explanation is filled with symbolism from a modern scholarly perspective. From the "Three obediences" to the symbolisms embedded in clothing at the time of mourning and wedding, one could even clearly observe the group structure and organizational principles and values that were reflected through the symbols of rituals as well as the interaction between these principal factors and individual emotions at the time of ceremony. Women's "Three obediences" were reproduced in the process of reconstruction of the symbols of rituals from generation to generation; such reproduction became part of a gendered system that was internalized as lived experience and guided women's behaviour.