True to Her Word: The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial China - Hardcover

Lu, Weijing

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804758085 ISBN 13: 9780804758086

Verlag: Stanford University Press, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

This path-breaking book examines the broad cultural, social, and gender meanings of the "faithful maiden" cult in late imperial China (1368–1911). Across the empire, an increasing number of young women or "faithful maidens," defied their parents' wishes and chose either to live out their lives as widows upon the death of a fiancé or killed themselves to join their fiancé in death. The book analyzes the familial conflicts, government policies, ideological controversies, and personal emotions surrounding the cult. Concentrating on the dramatic acts of spirit wedding and suicide, the faithful maidens' unique code of conduct, and the extraordinary life journey of "virgin mothers," Lu documents the ideological, psychological, cultural, and economic aspects of these young women's mentality and behavior, and the implications of this behavior for their families and the broader society. The book's narrative of the faithful maiden cult interweaves late imperial political, cultural, social and intellectual history, thus, providing a new window onto the history of the late imperial period.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Weijing Lu is Assistant Professor in History at the University of California, San Diego. She has published many journal articles in English and Chinese; this is her first book.

Weijing Lu is Assistant Professor in History at the University of California, San Diego. She has published many journal articles in English and Chinese; this is her first book.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

True to Her Word

The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial ChinaBy WEIJING LU

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2008 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-5808-6

Contents

List of Illustrations........................................................................................ixAcknowledgments..............................................................................................xiChronology...................................................................................................xvIntroduction.................................................................................................1Part One. History............................................................................................191. Moral Heroism and Craving for Extremes: The Ming Period (1368–1644).................................212. Putting Young Heroines in the Spotlight: The Seventeenth Century..........................................493. The State and the Social Webs of Exaltation: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries......................68Part Two. Choices............................................................................................1014. Dissuading the Resolute: The Families of Faithful Maidens.................................................1035. Dying for an Ideal: The Choice of Suicide.................................................................1296. A Young Life, a Long Journey: Living as a Faithful Maiden.................................................167Part Three. Ideology.........................................................................................2117. Old Rituals and New Questions: The Faithful Maiden Debate.................................................213Conclusion...................................................................................................247Appendix: Faithful Maidens Reported in Qinding da Qing yitong zhi (Siku quanshu edition).....................257Character List...............................................................................................261Notes........................................................................................................269References...................................................................................................315Index........................................................................................................335

Chapter One

Moral Heroism and Craving for Extremes The Ming Period (1368–1644)

IN HIS ESSAY denouncing the faithful maiden practice, Mao Qiling (1623–1716), a leading scholar of his day, charged that the practice was never recorded in the Six Confucian Classics, the twenty-one histories, or any other writings that were worth mentioning by cultivated men, so it bore no authority in history. Many of Mao's contemporaries did not share his position, but even the eminent scholars who spoke highly of faithful maidens agreed with his observation about the scarcity of early records on the subject. Faithful maidenhood was a new phenomenon, they claimed, one that separated their own time from that of the ancients, and one that had suddenly surged forward out of obscurity.

Indeed. Even though scattered precedents found their way into historical records, faithful maidenhood did not appear to have offered young girls much appeal before the thirteenth century, nor had it attracted attention from the state and the literati. Significant signs of change marked the thirteenth century as a turning point in the discourse on the faithful maiden practice, paving the way for the faithful maiden cult to grow. However, the faithful maiden phenomenon would not have grown into an empirewide cult had it not been for the special conditions of the Ming era. During the Ming, the practice both evolved into a cult amid a cultural fascination with extraordinary behavior in the name of morality and corresponded closely with the Confucian elite's anxiety over moral deficiency and the surge of moral heroism in the political realm. The rise of the faithful maiden cult thereby underscores a close correlation between the changes in the so-called women's quarters and in the political and cultural realms, illuminating young women as actors who shaped the culture of their time.

Zhen and Zhennü: The Linguistic Origin

"Zhennü" (literally, "a zhen woman"), translated in the context of this study as "faithful maiden," was not a late imperial concept. It predated the Ming by more than two thousand years, originally with a wider application. The key character, zhen, as it first appeared in oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang dynasty (sixteenth–eleventh centuries BCE) and in the Book of Changes, means "to divine." In most Zhou (eleventh century–771 BCE) through Former Han (266–8 BCE) texts its usage had been expanded to encompass the moral attributes of a human being: upright, appropriate, unbending, and consistent. A gender-neutral attribute, zhen was applied as much to men as to women. But how zhen was manifested in action was gender specific. In the Mao Commentary on the Book of Songs, the oldest existing authority on this Confucian classic (dated to the third century BCE), a zhennü is described as a woman who would not marry someone who did not suit her or who would not submit to a vicious man.

The classic textbook of women's moral education in imperial China, Biographies of Exemplary Women (Lienü zhuan) by Liu Xiang (77?–6 BCE), provides us with another venue to analyze the gendered meanings of zhen and zhennü in its time. In this text, exemplars praised for their zhen disposition include widows who rejected remarriage and wives who refused to leave husbands who were ill with a terminal disease or who neglected them. However, the attribute of zhen was also associated with actions taken under other circumstances. Lady Zhenjiang, the consort of King Zhao of Chu, for example, declined to leave her terrace though threatened by floods, as she had agreed with the king that she would answer only to a summons that came with the king's identification tally. "A principle for a zhennü is not to breach an agreement, and the brave should not fear death," she declared. When the messenger came back with the king's tally, the terrace had already collapsed and she had been carried away by the currents and drowned (see Figure 1.1). In another example, a woman known for her zhenyi (uprightness and constancy) attribute refused to carry out her wedding because her fiancé's family had not completed the appropriate rituals for the marriage. The frustrated family sued her, and she ended up in jail. But she still would not change her mind. It is the way of a zhennü that she "prefers to die rather than agree to a marriage that fails to complete even just one of the rituals" (yi li bu bei, sui si bu cong).

The essence of zhen is thus to uphold moral principles or to fulfill promises made according to these principles, firmly, single-mindedly, and consistently, or to use Liu Xiang's words, to be "concentrated and steadfast" (yi zhuanyi wei zhen). A zhennü was a woman of profound moral rectitude who put her principles before her own life, refusing to bow to intimidation or threat. A fifth-century case in which the state of the Northern Wei (386–556) bestowed the honorific title of zhennü on a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0804758085
• ISBN 13: 9780804758086
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 347
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande