It is well-established that women in Song China (and broadly speaking, in premodern China) were expected to become mothers. Women were expected to give birth, preferably to sons, and were in charge of their children’s upbringing. In many elite families, mothers were also tasked with educating their sons and daughters. Overall, motherhood was the ultimate social expectation placed on women, and the path to motherhood, which sometimes could be perilous, equally drew the attention of scholars who composed different medical treaties to address issues related to pregnancy.
In this world where motherhood was anticipated and venerated, it also became the driving force behind women’s religious practice. On the one hand, the desire to experience motherhood motivated women to pray and make offerings to different deities as they wished to become pregnant. This desire also motivated the shared religious practice of husbands and wives. On the other hand, the desire to avoid motherhood motivated some young women to join the Buddhist or Daoist monastic orders where they could remain celibate and childless. Similarly, texts about religious adepts indicate that the rejection of motherhood was a defining factor for these women who wanted to dedicate their lives to spiritual cultivation. Interestingly, some adepts also acted as healers who were often called upon to deal with pregnant women and mothers, so motherhood still remained part of their religious path, albeit indirectly. To sum, even for female religious practitioners who chose to remain childless and were viewed as others since they did not follow the traditional path for women, their otherhood was defined in relation to motherhood.
Once women became mothers, their religious practices and experiences were often related to their maternal role. For instance, anxieties vis-à-vis their children’s wellbeing motivated women to turn to religious specialists and solutions. At the same time, motherhood also offered women the opportunity to act as religious educators——some textual evidence indicates that women passed down their religious proclivities and beliefs to their children. Women’s religious devotion was occasionally praised in the writings of famous Song literati but the praise was often conditioned on them fulfilling their domestic responsibilities, including being good mothers.
Drawing on a variety of sources including "Record of the Listener" by the scholar Hong Mai (1123–1202), a collection of strange (zhiguai) accounts, tomb epitaphs, and Miscellanies written by Song literati, this paper will demonstrate that women’s outlooks regarding the idea of motherhood, whether positive or negative, informed their religious practices and choices. It will also show that interactions between religious specialists and women often concerned issues related to maternity. Likewise, it will show how women’s religious pursuits were motivated by maternal anxieties. Overall, this paper seeks to underscore how motherhood——as a social expectation and a social role——frequently shaped women’s religious lives.
This paper will demonstrate that motherhood, as a social expectation and a social role, greatly shaped Chinese women’s religious lives in the Song (960–1279) . Because women’s life trajectories in pre-modern China were shaped by the expectation of motherhood, their religious practices and experiences were often informed by it—either by the need to fulfill it or the desire to escape it. The longing to experience motherhood motivated women to pray to different deities, while the desire to avoid it catapulted young women to become monastics. Similarly, solitary religious adepts also chose to reject motherhood. In addition, the religious practices and experiences of mothers were sometimes related to their maternal roles. Drawing on different sources such as the Record of the Listener, tomb epitaphs, and Miscellanies written by Songliterati, this paper seeks to underscore how motherhood, as a defining factor in Song women’s lives, regularly informed their religious choices.