摘要

<正>In investigating gender roles,a number of Asian scholars from the Confucian-sphere see the basic categories of public and private,which originated in ancient Greece and flourished after the Industrial Revolution,as less appropriate than nei-wai内外(inner/outer) for examining gender systems in China and elsewhere in East Asia.1 Given that ancient China was permeated by Confucian culture,any discussion of nei-wai and gender in those times must refer to the concepts of jia-guo yiti家国一体(the identity of family and the state) and tonggou家国同构(isomorohism of family and the state) both frequently used by academics at