It's fascinating how a formulaic proverb can condense complexities into a powerful image, easily passed on. And many cultures seem to have analogous distillations of important notions or perspectives or lessons. Sometimes they're enclosed in tales, fables, stories --and Kathleen found a nice example in her Blog posting on Gyunwoo and Jiknyo (the Herder and the Weaver, who turn out also to be the stars we know as Altair and Vega). The discipline of Folklore is a wonderful playground for more in that realm, and there's a vast array of material on Chinese, Japanese and Korean tales, stories, epics, etc.

East Asian societies generally (and China most specifically) seem to be especially prone to slogans and emblematic prescriptions (see Party Slogans, An ideological/cultural analysis of political slogans in Communist China, China's Public Advertising Culture, and Calligraphy in Modern China)

Seeking the Three Loyalties/Obediencies

When Chunhyang spurns just-appointed Governor Byun's demands that she become his concubine after the lovers have married, he sentences her to be clubbed ten times on the lower fibula. Byun counts out the number of each stroke. As the awful whack of oak on bone echoes, the victim redeems her suffering with a verse. After the first blow, she cries out "I have only one love. For only one man." To the second and third, she answers: "Two can never be," and then "I have three lives, and three loyalties: to my father, my husband, and my son." In another context, such lines might sound deferential to male primacy. Here they constitute radical defiance of it, as a teenager shames the Governor with the voice of outraged populist virtue. "Even if you tear me into four pieces," Chunhyang continues "and those four into four more, I still won't accept you." The underlying political subtext — that personal virtue is tied to public virtue — then becomes explicit: "So think of our country's five ethics." It's hard to imagine a moment that more fully illustrates poet Percy Shelley's claim that "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."...

A young villager instantly enrolls the tortured poet in the roster of Korea's heroic female martyrs — one who saved a king, another who killed an enemy general, a third who saved her husband from starving. A popular song chronicling Chunhyang's suffering and courage begins circulating....
(http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/revicontent_104.htm)

Chinese Confucian rites, called 'ye,' reached into almost every part of Chosôn's aristocratic elite. The lifestyle and behavior of Chosôn's elite were prescribed in painfully minute detail, and included all facets of life: court procedures, ceremonies, customs, language, music, and all principles governing human interaction.

The School of I, also known as Sôngnihak (moral and natural law) became the dominant branch of Confucianism during the Chosôn dynasty. This was essentially a theory of spiritual monism and that an all pervasive force was behind the universe called the Supreme Ultimate (T'aegûk) which is further divided into two relative opposites, the yin and yang.

Neo-Confucianism was primarily concerned with the regulation and harmonization of human relations through moral and ethical principles, as opposed to orthodox Confucianism which sometimes delved into metaphysical problems, such as the origin and nature of the universe, yet left the average scholar hanging when it came to practical explanations on how to live a good life.

A major book in Neo-Confucian thought is the Book of Self-Cultivation (Susinsô) published in Chinese in 1431, and Korean in 1481. It emphasizes Confucian virtues such as: self-control, loyalty, self-cultivation, and filial piety. Neo-Confucian ethics dealt with three cardinal principles, called samgang: 1) loyalty to ruler, 2) filial piety to parents, and 3) faithfulness, chastity, and fidelity. There were also five ethical norms, called oryun, which dealt with human relationships, such as: 1) righteousness and justice between rulers and ministers, 2) cordiality and closeness between parents and children, 3) distinction between husband and wife, 4) order between elders and juniors, and 5) trust between friends.

The three obediences of woman stated that before marriage, the woman was to obey her father; after marriage, the woman was to obey her husband; and lastly, after the death of her husband, the woman was to obey her son. Thus, according to the ways of samjong, a woman was not allowed to make her own decisions at any point in her life.

Confucianism, during the time of the Chosôn Dynasty, meant a rigorous regimentation of Korean women. Women only had status and authority in the "inner" or domestic spheres of society. Confucian ideology called for specific behaviors for women. Obedience was regarded as one of the highest virtues of women. Women were honored or dishonored according to how perfectly they carried out their roles of being a virtuous wife, obedient daughter-in-law, or chaste widow.

Ah. NOW I get it... see also General Survey of the Society During the Middle Ages from Korean Women's Development Institute

Buddhism and Confucianism had a deep impact on the lives of women during the Koryo era. Confucian teachings had already been introduced to the Three Kingdoms and such rules as the Samjong chido, or the three obediences (obedience to the father in childhood, obedience to the husband during marriage, and obedience to the son in old age), and women's strict adherence to chastity regulated women's behavior in ancient times. In Koryo, rule books on women's conduct from China including Yochik (Book on Rule of Conduct for Women) and Historical Writings on Women were read by upper class ladies. However, during the Koryo period, Confucianism was the basic ideology for governing the nation whereas Buddhism was regarded as a religious tool for cultivating the mind and therefore, for women who were not involved in politics, Buddhism deeply dominated their spiritual world. The ideal woman, according to Buddhist teachings, was a woman who showed filial piety toward her parents, obedience towards her husband, warm concern for relatives, a cultivated sense of virtue; and raised her children as a wise mother.

but there are other tempting bits:

Although three obediences originally referred to women's funeral clothing, determined by their fathers' rank before marriage, their husbands' after marriage, and their sons' during their widowhood, the Han Dynasty redefined the term as a code of behavior that was still determined by the same relationships.
(http://www.wellesley.edu/DavisMuseum/VillageWorks/Exhibition/Viewpoints/mou.html)

Biographies of Exemplary Women (Lienu zhuan)

the earliest extant book in the Chinese tradition solely devoted to the moral education of women. The book consists primarily of biographical accounts of women in early China who were noted for various virtues, though the final chapter concerns exemplars of feminine wickedness. After its composition the LNZ became the standard textbook for female education for the next two millennia, inspiring generations of Chinese women to cultivate not only traditional virtues such as filial piety and maternal kindness but lauding practices such as suicide and self-mutilation as a means to preserve chastity.

Jiang was the wife of King Zhao of Chu. One day the king departed for a trip and left his wife behind at the Jian Terrace. While he was away, the king heard that heavy rains were causing the river near the terrace to rise, so he sent an official to take Jiang to a safer location. In his haste, however, the official neglected to bring his seal of commission (a badge to indicate that he was on official business). When the official arrived and asked Jiang to come with him, she replied, "The king has an agreement with his palace ladies that if he sends a summons he must use a seal of commission. Now, you do not carry the seal with you, and so I dare not leave with you." The river is rising rapidly," protested the official, "I fear that it will be too late if I return to get the seal." Jiang replied at length: "I have heard it said that 'the duty of the chaste woman is to honor an agreement and that the brave do not fear to die. This is because they preserve the rule of chastity.' I know that if I follow you I shall live; if I remain I must die. But it is better to remain here and die than to pursue life by breaking an agreement and violating righteousness." The official left to go get the seal, but it was too late, and the flood waters carried Jiang to her death. "Ah!" exclaimed the king upon hearing the news "in preserving righteousness, you died for the rule of chastity. You would not trade your life for an improper act; you kept our agreement and maintained loyalty in order to perfect your chastity."1 He then bestowed on his deceased wife the honorary title "Jiang the Chaste."

and

Gaoxing was a widow, "glorious in her beauty and praiseworthy in her conduct." Her husband died when she was still young, but she refused to remarry despite many offers from distinguished noblemen of the region. Eventually the king himself heard of Gaoxing and sent a minister bearing betrothal gifts. Gaoxing replied:

My husband unfortunately died young; I live in widowhood to raise his orphans, and [I am afraid that] I have not given them enough attention. Many honorable men have sought me, but I have fortunately succeeded in evading them. Today the king is seeking my hand. I have learned that 'the principle for a wife is that once having gone forth to marry, she will not change over, and that she may keep all the rules of chastity and faithfulness.' To forget the dead and run to the living is not faithfulness; to be honored and forget the lowly is not chastity; and to avoid righteousness and follow gain is not worthy of a woman.

Suspecting the main reason the king and others pursued her was because of her physical beauty, Gaoxing took a mirror and knife and cut off her nose, disfiguring herself to do away with the pressure to remarry. The king praised her conduct and honored her with the title "Gaoxing" ("Lofty Conduct").
(http://www3.la.psu.edu/textbooks/PM-China/ch11_main.htm)

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Recall the rhetorical style of Kuan Chung the hydrological engineer as you read this extract from The Great Learning, the first of the Four Books (the Analects being the second). The main text reads

The Way of the great learning involves manifesting virtue, renovating the people, and abiding by the highest good. (...)
The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own States. Wishing to order well their States, they first regulated their families.
Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons.
Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts.
Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts.
Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge.
Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
Things being investigated, knowledge became complete.
Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere.
Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified.
Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated.
Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated.
Their families being regulated, their States were rightly governed.
Their States being rightly governed, the entire world was at peace.
From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.