Women's Role in the Production and Sale of Alcohol in Han China as Reflected in Tomb Art From Sichuan

Abstract

Pictorial brick tiles and stone carvings from the Eastern Han period show women engaged in the production of alcohol, and early histories and literary sources provide an insight into women's role in brewing, drinking, and selling alcohol in shops and in the market. Preparation of alcohol for ritual ceremonies, banquets, and daily consumption is listed among the many household duties for which women were responsible. It was women's work (nüshi 女事), as was the production of textiles, which assigned women with an economic role but also gave them a moral identity in the social sphere. However, women's mastery of brewing—mentioned but rarely elaborated—upon, did not connote feminine virtues in the same way as weaving. Through a close examination of artistic representations that show women engaged in the making of alcohol on the estate and in a workshop setting in the southwest (present-day Sichuan province), this article aims to examine the role women played in alcohol production and their contribution to the economy of both their household and the region in early Imperial China.