Yes, women in ancient times had to conform to the three Confucian moral injunctions － obey your father, obey your husband and obey your son － and the four virtues － morality, physical charm, propriety in speech and efficiency in needlework. Marrying and giving birth to a son was the sole meaning of their lives, and the "leftover women" who married very late, were an embarrassment to their families.

Then your dad's pretty open-minded. Chinese men are often affected by ancient traditional thinking. Even to this day, a lot of people still believe in ''three submissions and four virtues" for women. The so-called three submissions are ''the woman obeys her father when she's young, her husband when she's married, and her son after her husband dies." You can easily imagine the social status of women in ancient times.

Come to think of it, women's fate was really terrible in ancient times. The good news is that as society developed, the status of modern women has already changed in a major way. Men and women have become more equal. But recently, a new phrase has become popular: ''The new three submissions and four virtues." Have you heard of it?

The ''three submissions" are: you need to obey your wife's orders; you need to follow your wife when she goes out; and you need to follow blindly when your wife says something wrong. The four virtues are: you need to buy whatever your wife wants; remember your wife's birthday; you need to buckle down and take it when your wife is in a rage; when your wife hasn't come back, you need to wait for her.