That between husband and wife, for example, like that between male and female, was not only a relationship of inequality, but of servitude. In this type of culture, the relations between the sexes were compassed within the precincts of philosophy and the concept of sexual difference embraced within the system of the Confucian world view. The male was defined as qian , or heaven, and the female as kun , or earth. The relationship between men and women was defined as one of yin and yang , with corresponding relationships of male domination and female submission, and of honoring the male and disparaging the female. Therefore, a woman's status has always been determined with reference to men.
Women bow to men.
This meant that the husband was heaven and the wife should submit to him, safeguard his interests and fulfill his needs. This unequal relationship between men and women lasted several thousand years in China and even today still influences our thinking and behavior. The arrival of Protestant Christianity in China in 1807 precipitated a crisis in the ancient nation with its thousands of years of feudal culture and influenced the advancing course of modern Chinese history. When missionaries brought the Christian gospel to China, they brought Western culture at the same time, for example, respect for women, equal education rights for women, the proposal that all are equal before God. Such thinking brought hope to women who had been fettered by traditional culture and who found themselves on the bottom rung of society.