Nüfan jielu 女範捷錄 (www.chinaknowledge.de)

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Jun 20, 2011 © Ulrich Theobald

Nüfan jielu 女範捷錄 "Quick guide for all rules for girls" is a short handbook for the conduct of girls written by the late Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) female writer Miss Liu 劉氏, wife of Wang Jijing 王集敬. It is part of the so-called "Four books for girls" Nü sishu 女四書.

The book is divided into 11 chapters. The book first presents the general outlines of female conduct and then describes all various aspects of this conduct, depending on the social position and the actual situation. These different facets of female behaviour are clarified by excellent examples from the past. As part of the Nü sishu, the Nüfan juelu was quite widespread in former times.

Table 1. Contents of the *Nüfan jielu* 女範捷錄
統論	Tonglun	Introduction
後德	Houde	The virtue of a wife (lit. "the person behind")
母儀	Muyi	The conduct of a mother
孝行	Xiaoxing	Filial piety
貞烈	Zhenlie	Sincerity
忠義	Zhongyi	Loyalty
慈愛	Ci'ai	Benevolence
秉禮	Bingli	Keeping to propriety
智慧	Zhihui	Wisdom
勤儉	Qinjian	Sparingness
才德	Caide	Competence

Sources:

Kornicki, Peter & Nguyễn Thị Oanh (2009). "The Lesser Learning for Women and Other Texts for Vietnamese Women: A Bibliographical and Comparative Study", International Journal of Asian Studies, 6 (2): 147–169.

Liu Shuying 劉淑英 (1997). "Nüfan jielu 女範捷錄", in Men Kui 門巋, Zhang Yanjin 張燕瑾, ed. Zhonghua guocui da cidian 中華國粹大辭典 (Xianggang: Guoji wenhua chuban gongsi), 283.

Su Guoxia 蘇國霞 (1995). "Nüfan jielu 女範捷錄", in Lu Leshan 盧樂山, ed. Zhongguo nüxing baike quanshu 中國女性百科全書, Vol. Hunyin jiating 婚姻家庭 (Shenyang: Dongbei daxue chubanshe), 75.