<p>It usually means a female who is older than 30（I mean not a girl or a young woman） and married.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-03T22:17:29.203Z
songyuanyao's comment so be the answer.
Pete C.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-01T03:13:47.597Z
2014-10-01T03:13:47.597Z
Ping Tang
<p>You can call a married woman “妇人”，but you know ,in my daily life ,I just call anybody who looks in her thirties and more or looks like married “妇人”,and accroding to the modern Chinese dictionary,“妇人”or “妇女”just mean woman who is older than a certain age whether she's not married or not，but acrroding to baidu，“妇人”means married woman in the past. For a writer like 沈从文 and a book written in the old times,“妇人” can have many meanings.I think you must connect the poilt to decide which meaning it is.In your example(I found the original passage),it does means married woman because “丈夫” was mentioned before.But sometimes “妇人” just means woman or an image of those poor women who struggle to live their lives.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-03T15:16:32.657Z
Right, and some of Shen Congwen's stories are set among the Miao people of Hunan, where he was from.  I remember reading one about a hunter who abused his wife - women's rights were one of his themes if I'm not mistaken.
neubau
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-03T12:40:11.557Z
2014-10-03T12:40:11.557Z
Bristin
<p>I've been trying to figure out a translation for "妇人“ from the story 《丈夫》 by 沈从文. He used 妇人to refer to women， but I'm not sure if  it is ironic that it also means "married women" an accident, or if at the time of writing 1933 妇人 just mean woman.</p>

<p>Ex sentence. </p>

<p>于是这妇人就毁了</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-11T16:48:43.670Z
Like Frau in German, or Madame in French, the word conveyed a woman old enough to be married in a culture where such a woman was assumed to be married.  These things are changing now, In Chinese, and German, and French, but that is how it was.
Colin McLarty
<vocabulary>
Does 妇人 mean wife or simply woman？
# Does 妇人 mean wife or simply woman？

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-10-01)

I've been trying to figure out a translation for "妇人“ from the story 《丈夫》 by 沈从文. He used 妇人to refer to women， but I'm not sure if it is ironic that it also means "married women" an accident, or if at the time of writing 1933 妇人 just mean woman.

Ex sentence.

于是这妇人就毁了

**Tags:** vocabulary

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Like Frau in German, or Madame in French, the word conveyed a woman old enough to be married in a culture where such a woman was assumed to be married.  These things are changing now, In Chinese, and German, and French, but that is how it was.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-10-01. Score: 3

It usually means a female who is older than 30（I mean not a girl or a young woman） and married.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: songyuanyao's comment so be the answer.  

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### Answer by username_4 on 2014-10-03. Score: 1

You can call a married woman “妇人”，but you know ,in my daily life ,I just call anybody who looks in her thirties and more or looks like married “妇人”,and accroding to the modern Chinese dictionary,“妇人”or “妇女”just mean woman who is older than a certain age whether she's not married or not，but acrroding to baidu，“妇人”means married woman in the past. For a writer like 沈从文 and a book written in the old times,“妇人” can have many meanings.I think you must connect the poilt to decide which meaning it is.In your example(I found the original passage),it does means married woman because “丈夫” was mentioned before.But sometimes “妇人” just means woman or an image of those poor women who struggle to live their lives.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Right, and some of Shen Congwen's stories are set among the Miao people of Hunan, where he was from.  I remember reading one about a hunter who abused his wife - women's rights were one of his themes if I'm not mistaken.  

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