"Three Obediences and Four Virtues" is a normative requirement put forward by Confucian ethics for women's morality, behavior and self-cultivation all their lives in order to adapt to the stability of patriarchal clan system and safeguard the interests of patriarchal clan system-in-law (ethnic group), according to the principles of "different inside and outside" and "men are superior to women". The word "Three Congs" first appeared in the Confucian classic "The Book of Rites-A Biography of Sorrow" in Zhou and Han Dynasties. When discussing the year of mourning for a married woman (three years for her husband and one year for her father), she once said that "a woman has the meaning of' three obedience' and has no way of' special use', so she doesn't marry her father, but marries her husband and dies". As a daughter, wife and mother, a woman should obey a man. But women have been obedient for a long time, and the word "female" is the image of bending down and kneeling in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty (display font); There are hexagrams in the Book of Changes, which advocate that women obey and be single-minded and always serve their husbands. Later, women were asked to be martyred and chaste, and widows were restricted from remarrying.

The word "four virtues" can be found in Zhou Li Tianguan, which is an official position of teaching harem women, and is responsible for teaching harem women "Li Yin" and "women's duties" step by step, among which the "ninth wife" with higher official position is in charge of women's studies and teaches nine kinds of women's virtues, women's words, women's looks and women's merits. "At first, it was the category of women's education in the court, and later it was called" three obedience ",which became the standard of women's morality, behavior, ability and cultivation, that is," three obedience and four virtues "

Three obedience: don't marry from the father, marry from the husband, and the husband dies from the child.

Four virtues: female virtue, female speech, female appearance and female merit.