Ancestral Halls and Living Rooms: Gendered Spaces and Power Practices in Late Qing Hunan Gentry Families: A Study Centered on the Zeng Clan of Xiangxiang

Xuan Zhang

doi:10.47297/wsprolaadWSP2634-786546.20260703

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Ancestral Halls and Living Rooms: Gendered Spaces and Power Practices in Late Qing Hunan Gentry Families: A Study Centered on the Zeng Clan of Xiangxiang

Volume 7, Issue 3

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Ancestral Halls and Living Rooms: Gendered Spaces and Power Practices in Late Qing Hunan Gentry Families: A Study Centered on the Zeng Clan of Xiangxiang
Ancestral Halls and Living Rooms: Gendered Spaces and Power Practices in Late Qing Hunan Gentry Families: A Study Centered on the Zeng Clan of Xiangxiang
Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610066, China
Vol. 7, Issue 3, Pages: 209-215(2026)
Online First：04 August 2026，

Published：30 June 2026
DOI：10.47297/wsprolaadWSP2634-786546.20260703
Accepted：

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Xuan Zhang.Ancestral Halls and Living Rooms: Gendered Spaces and Power Practices in Late Qing Hunan Gentry Families: A Study Centered on the Zeng Clan of Xiangxiang[J].Research on Literary and Art Development,2026,07(03):209-215.
DOI：

Xuan Zhang.Ancestral Halls and Living Rooms: Gendered Spaces and Power Practices in Late Qing Hunan Gentry Families: A Study Centered on the Zeng Clan of Xiangxiang[J].Research on Literary and Art Development,2026,07(03):209-215. DOI： 10.47297/wsprolaadWSP2634-786546.20260703.

摘要

Abstract

The notion that "men manage external affairs while women manage domestic affairs" is often regarded as a natural division of labor in traditional Chinese society; however

this view obscures the power disparity between the "external" and the "internal." Taking the Zeng family of Xiangxiang

Hunan (the family of Zeng Guofan) during the Late Qing Dynasty as a case study

this research examines the operation of gender power within traditional gentry families by focusing on the spatial symbols of the "ancestral hall" and the "parlor."The ancestral hall served as the sacred center of patriarchal authority

strictly restricting women's access; the parlor

meanwhile

was the everyday space where women managed household affairs. Existing research often discusses these two spaces separately—either focusing on the institutional oppression represented by the ancestral hall or examining women's active practices within the parlor. This paper attempts to bring them back into the same frame

posing a central question: How did women

excluded from the ancestral hall

develop informal power strategies within the parlor?Through a close reading of private documents such as Zeng Guofan's Family Letters and Zeng Jize's Diary

this study finds that although women of the Zeng family (such as Lady Ouyang and Guo Yun) were barred from the ancestral hall

they accumulated significant practical influence in spaces such as the living room and inner chambers by managing landholdings

maintaining kinship ties

and educating their children.Traditional gender order was not a unidirectional structure of oppression

but rather a dynamic system composed of both rigid constraints and flexible strategies. This study integrates two academic strands through the spatial duality of "ancestral hall—parlor

" providing a more nuanced micro-case study for understanding gender relations within late Qing gentry families.

关键词

Keywords

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