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Ambivalence towards women is evident in the construction of many of the Chinese language characters. Ancient records of their etymological development support the impression that devaluation of the woman, conspicuous in language structure, is associated with a taboo, as of a deity, and with a fear that the woman is potentially dangerous.
The origins of Chinese characters were described extensively in ancient dictionaries. The scholar Hsu-Shen compiled these in the Shuo-wen, which he completed around 200 A.D. However there are disagreements among some authorities who are unwilling to accept the validity of the etymology. Referring to this in their introduction to Analysis of Chinese Characters, Wilder and Ingram state:
The author of the great Chinese English dictionary, Mr. Giles, has not hesitated to express most trenchantly his contempt of etymology as it has been applied to Chinese characters. He says, “much of the etymology of the Shuo-wen is childish in the extreme,” and that the phonetic principle of combination is the only one of which we can pretend to know anything. Notwithstanding the ridicule heaped upon it, scholars like Chalmers, Chalfant, Wieger and others have continued to pursue the fascinating study of the origin of these symbols and have given us most interesting results … The student of these pages may often consider the etymology suggested fanciful and the logic of the combination farfetched, but the following consideration should be borne in mind. They are the products of the Chinese fancy and imagination and to some extent show the workings of the Chinese mind.” (p.iii)