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.