For most of its history, China was a strictly patriarchal society. Confucianism, the worldview and ethical stance propagated by Confucius in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, was the guiding outlook of Chinese culture for more than two millennia. According to traditional Confucian ethics, women were expected to be chaste, demure, pleasant, and domestic. They were expected to be subservient to the men in their lives. Confucius believed that society should be centered on patriarchal relationships and familial obligations; consequently, women were supposed to support their husbands, fathers, and brothers without question. Women’s behavior was determined by the overlapping kinship roles they occupied as daughters, sisters, wives, daughters-inlaw, mothers, and mothers-in-law. Regardless of the role, Confucian scholars expected that women would agree with the wishes and support the needs of the men around them.