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Hsiao-wen Cheng, Divine, Demonic, and Disordered: Women without Men in Song Dynasty China, University of Washington Press, 2021. 244 pgs.

I did not find this book an easy read, as it is a dense academic work intended primarily for the dedicated gender studies scholar, I presume, and it assumes a reasonable degree of prior knowledge of the subject. That said, I still regard this book as a major contribution to Asian gender studies and to the development of the study of female sexuality in China. It also offers valuable insights into present-day discussions about gender and so-called “normalcy” in China, as well as into how history has addressed female sexuality more generally. Above all, it raises important questions about how sexuality and women in China were traditionally viewed through the analysis of several texts.

This book includes a variety of writings from the Song dynasty (960–1279), including medical texts, religious treatises, fiction, and anecdotes, discussing women who were considered “strange” because their sexual bodies did not belong to men. These women refused to marry, were deemed “unmarriageable”, or were married but denied their husbands sexual access. Scholars in the Song period sought to understand why these women behaved in ways that departed from the expected roles of “wife and mother”.

Why study women in the Song dynasty? It was a time of technological, economic, and cultural achievement and change, despite military challenges that would ultimately divide the kingdom. The roles of different social groups can therefore be studied in light of broader societal transformations. What follows is a brief outline of each chapter.

Part 1, “Reconfiguring Gender, Sexuality, and Illness”, examines medicine and illness in relation to gendered identity. Chapter 1, “‘Husbandless Women’ in Medicine”, primarily analyses discussions by two Song dynasty physicians. Prior to the Song, few medical texts addressed female sexual desire, focusing instead on reproduction without reference to sexuality. Sexuality had previously been discussed only in “bedchamber” texts. Chen Ziming, one of the writers analysed in this chapter, redefined “manless women” to include various types of unmarried women, emphasising their sexual inactivity rather than marital status. Confucian classics were invoked to support his theories on female sexuality and desire, intertwining them with the principles of heaven and earth. In particular, Chen’s theory of guafu (寡妇, widowhood) became prominent. He combined Confucian classics with medical texts and elevated the link between sex, desire, and procreation to a higher level. In Chen’s work, women’s sexual desire for men became natural.

Chapter 2, “Ghost Intercourse in Medical and Daoist Contexts”, explores the contradiction between the notions that “women without men will become sick” and that “young widows should remain chaste”. It examines intercourse with ghosts in both medical and Daoist contexts, analysing how “bedchamber” texts connected heterosexual inactivity with ghostly intercourse. The discussion of bu yu jian ren (“does not want to meet people”) reveals a concern in the Song dynasty about women losing interest in men. This was not necessarily in the modern sense but reflected a belief that a woman’s “manless” condition was strange and required explanation within the patriarchal, Neo-Confucian social structure of the time.

Part 2, “Inconvenient Female Sexuality and Multivocal Narratives”, addresses so-called “disordered” women by examining recurring motifs in narratives about enchanted women, such as seclusion, indifference to one’s husband, and excessive self-adornment. Chapter 3, “Enchantment Disorder and Pre-Song Tales”, investigates “enchantment disorder” (meibing 魅病), a term applied to women who were “manless” or whose sexuality was “inconvenient” to patriarchal society. Chapter 4, “Enchanted Women in Song Anecdotes”, draws attention to the characteristic “multivocalness” of Song dynasty stories, namely, the coexistence of multiple, often conflicting, voices and perspectives regarding women’s lives and roles. This ambiguity in portrayal contrasts sharply with the seemingly rigid official Neo-Confucian ideology of the period.

The final part of the book focuses on female celibacy. Part 3, “Gendered Identities and Female Celibacy”, includes Chapter 5, “Gendered Practice and Renunciant Identity”, which examines renunciant identity and emphasises the inseparability of being and practice, shen (身, body) and xi (習, habits). Chapter 6, “Meanings of Female Celibacy”, highlights the unique aspects of female celibacy, constructions of sexuality, and the thoughts of celibate women. This analysis is intertwined with developments in Daoism and Buddhism, especially concerning how religious leaders cooperated with the family system by refraining from encouraging women to join the monastic clergy.

One of the book’s most interesting ideas is its recognition of the conceptual differences between a sexual rite and the modern notion of sexuality. For instance, what the author calls “compulsory heterosexuality” did not apply to premodern China. The book raises new questions about normalcy, desire, sexuality, and gendered identities beyond those of wifehood and motherhood. The discussion of women could also be seen as pointing to a major advancement for Song dynasty women, a new social mobility facilitated by urbanisation and commercialisation. The author further develops this theme to include uncertainty and bewilderment surrounding sexuality and celibacy.

Divine, Demonic, and Disordered concerns nonconforming women in a society where options beyond the expected roles of wife and mother were limited, and where evidence rarely provides straightforward answers about women’s nonconformity to gender norms in the Song period. Examining women whose actions were often beyond the comprehension of their contemporaries also underscores the limitations of our knowledge about some women’s lives today.

How to cite: Eagleton, Jennifer. “Women without Men: Rethinking Sexuality & Normalcy in Imperial China—Hsiao-wen Cheng’s Divine, Demonic, and Disordered.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 3 Nov. 2025, chajournal.blog/2025/11/03/without-men.

Jennifer Eagleton, a Hong Kong resident since October 1997, is a close observer of Hong Kong society and politics. Jennifer has written for Hong Kong Free Press, Mekong Review, and Education about Asia. She has published two books on Hong Kong political discourse: Discursive Change in Hong Kong (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) and Hong Kong’s Second Return to China, A Critical Discourse Study of the National Security Law and its Aftermath (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). Her poetry has appeared in Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, People, Pandemic & ####### (Verve Poetry Press, 2020), and Making Space: A Collection of Writing and Art (Cart Noodles Press, 2023). [All contributions by Jennifer Eagleton.]

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