From the chaotic cosmos were yin and yang separated;
From emanate force and amorphous form were they moulded and shaped.
With Fu Xi as ruler were the divine and the human distinguished.
Thus began male and female, ruler and ruled.
The family's dao is regulated and the ruler's dao stabilized.
Feminine virtue honours yielding, holding within codes of moral behaviour;
Submissive and meek is the female's proper role within the household.
Having assumed matrimonial robes, she should reverently prepare the offerings;
Dignified and grave in deportment, be a model of propriety.
(Quoted in Shane McCausland, First Masterpiece of Chinese Painting: The Admonitions Scroll [New York: George Braziller, 2003]. p. 39.)

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