Conservative stances in progressive disguise: Xie Wuliang 謝無量 (1884-1964) and the periodization of the first History of Chinese Women’s Literature (1916)

In 1916 Xie Wuliang published a "History of Chinese Women’s Literature", the very first of its kind. Its macrostructure was characterized by a threefold periodization apparently imitating an imported Western model, which was embedded in a linear and teleological vision of time. After placing the book in both the ideological context of women’s writings and the historiographical practice of Chinese literary periodization, this paper performs a textual analysis of the "History" to assess the principle(s) underlying such periodization, as well as its consistency and results. Thus it sheds light on Xie Wuliang’s twofold target of creating a coherent narrative of women’s literature as a consistent subject evolving through time, and implicitly advocating a conservative, moralistic view of women’s education as a key to steering the position and roles of women in China’s present and future.