Using newly discovered and excavated texts, Constance A. Cook and Xinhui Luo systematically explore material culture, inscriptions, transmitted texts, and genealogies from BCE China to reconstruct the role of women in social reproduction in the ancient Chinese world. Applying paleographical, linguistic, and historical analyses, Cook and Luo discuss fertility rituals, birthing experiences, divine conceptions, divine births, and the overall influence of gendered supernatural agencies on the experience and outcome of birth. They unpack a cultural paradigm in which birth is not only a philosophical symbol of eternal return and renewal but also an abiding religious and social focus for lineage continuity. They also suggest that some of the mythical founder heroes traditionally assumed to be male may in fact have had female identities. Students of ancient history, particularly Chinese history, will find this book an essential complement to traditional historical narratives, while the exploration of ancient religious texts, many unknown in the West, provides a unique perspective into the study of the formation of mythology and the role of birthing in early religion.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: A Chu Text 1. Words and Images Chu Ancestral Names and the Word for Birth A Lost Word for Birth Suggestive Images 2. Controlling Reproduction: Fertility Prayers Zhou Fertility Prayers in Bronze Inscriptions A Warring States Prayer Preserved on Bamboo Strips 3. Mothers and Embryos Embryonic Transformation 4. Controlling the Pregnant Body Time and Divination Curses, Stars, and the Gendered Cosmos Sequestering A Question of Thorns 5. Divine Origins and Chu Genealogical History Gender-Bending 6. The Traumatic Births of Non-Zhou Ancestral Founders Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index