Male anxiety and female chastity: a comparative study of Chinese ethical values in Ming-Ch'ing times 9789004083615

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
List of Illustrations (page vii)
Acknowledgements (page ix)
Preface (page xi)
Glossary (page xv)
I Moral Indoctrination and Imperial Encouragement (page 1)
II Social, Economic and Demographic Conditions (page 14)
III Sudden Prevalence of the Cult of Female Marital Fidelity in the Late Ming Period (page 39)
IV Regional Differences in the Occurence of Female Self-Immolation (page 70)
V Scholars' Frustration and Roundabout Way of Emotional Expression (page 90)
VI Emotional Vulnerability of Females (page 114)
VII Widespread Nature of the Cult of Female Marital Fidelity in the Ch'ing Period (page 126)
Appendix: Self-Mutilating Behavior of Ko-ku (page 149)
Abbreviations (page 162)
Bibliography (page 163)
List of Chinese Characters (page 170)

Citation preview

MALE ANXIETY AND FEMALE CHASTITY

TPOUNG PAO )

REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE SINOLOGIE

DIRIGEE PAR | JACQUES GERNET er E. ZURCHER

Professeur Professeur

au Collége de France a | Université de Leiden

| MONOGRAPHIE XIV T’IEN JU-K’ANG

, MALE ANXIETY AND FEMALE CHASTITY

A Comparative Study of Chinese Ethical Values in Ming-Ch’ing Times

REGIO

= Hes

& fen £

MALE ANXIETY AND FEMALE CHASTITY A Comparative Study of Chinese Ethical Values in Ming-Ch’ing Times

BY

TIEN JU-K’ANG

sus EG)

LTRS

E.J. BRILL LEIDEN - NEW YORK + K@BENHAVN + KOLN 1988

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tien, Ju-k’ang. Male anxiety and female chastity.

(T’oung pao. Monographie, ISSN 0169-832X; 14) Bibhography: p. Includes index. 1. Ethics, Chinese. 2. China—Social conditions—

960-1644. 3. Chastity. 4. Anxiety. I. Title. II. Series: Monographies du T’oung pao; v. 14.

BJi17.T44 1987 303.3772 87-27639

ISBN 90-04-08361-8 (pbk.)

ISSN 0169-832 ISBN 90 04 08361 8 © Copyright 1988 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission from the publisher PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS BY E. J. BRILL

CONTENTS List of Illustrations ...............cc cece cece c eect eee ettetteeeeseeees VII Acknowledgements ......... 00.00 ccccccce cece eee cee ee teen ee eae eee eeenneeee ees IX

Preface 2.00... cece eee eee eee eee eee e eee eee e eben teee eens XI

GIOSSALY oie cette ttn tte eettttttttttttttetstsesss = XV I Moral Indoctrination and Imperial Encouragement.......... 1 II Social, Economic and Demographic Conditions............... 14 III Sudden Prevalence of the Cult of Female Marital Fidelity in the Late Ming Period.............. ccc eee eee cece eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeee 39

IV Regional Differences in the Occurrence of Female SelfImmolation ............ cece cece cece eee e rece eee eeeeeeeetseseresseeseeeees LQ

V_ Scholars’ Frustration and Roundabout Way of Emotional EXXPYeSSION 2.2... eee cece cece eee e cece ectetetsttttttttttteeseessee GIO

VI Emotional Vulnerability of Females.............................. 114 VII Widespread Nature of the Cult of Female Marital Fidelity in the Ch’ing Period............. cece eee cece eee ene eect ee etttetsssssssees 126

Appendix: Self-Mutilating Behavior of Ko-ku ........................ 149 Abbreviations 1.0.0.0... 0. ccc cece cece eee ee eettetteteeteeeertstssesessseees 162 Bibliography ....... 00... cece cece cece e eect eee ettetttttttetstsestesesesereeees 163

List of Chinese Characters...............cccceeeeeeeee eee eeessestsseeeeses 170

BLANK PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Woman from gentry family practices ko-ku to cure her ailing fatherin-law (Tuen-shth chat hua-pao Bi{ iF ¥en, Shanghar (1884-1893), hereafter’ TSCHP, vol. mao 9) 10, p. 39, no. 166, ninth moon of 1888) 2. Modern drawing of frustrated and impoverished scholar Wang Yuhui, who encouraged his daughter to die by starvation after the death

of her husband. (See Chapter III, note 35) (Ru-lin waz shih tL, Peking, 1985 ed., p. 465) 3. “‘Emblem from the Throne’’ in 1890, for a filial daughter-in-law (TSCHP vol. szu if 4, p. 2, no. 292, second moon of 1892) 4. Betrothed maiden of Fu-chou hangs herself in public (TSCHP vol. yu Pf 6, p. 45, no. 234, seventh moon of 1890) 3. Concubine of a Manchu general swallows pieces of gold to end her life (TSCHP vol. she # 3, p. 19, no. 387, ninth moon of 1885) 6. Mrs. Jao sheds blood by cutting herself to save her husband from a serious illness; her virtuous act attracts attention from heavenly deities (TISCHP vol. tang J 6, p. 45, no. 42, fifth moon of 1885)

7. An old man prevents a baby from being drowned and is richly rewarded afterwards (TSCHP vol. i #l] 12, p. 89, no. 515, second moon of 1898) 8. Young woman being killed by a bandit while trying to stab him with a pair of scissors (TSCHP vol. shen #3 2,-p. 16, no. 221, third moon of 1890)

9. A female ghost demanding the life of the owner of a small sugar refinery who has seduced her and had her strangled by her father (TSCHP vol. shen 9, p. 72, no. 225, fourth moon of 1890) 10. A young widow sold as a concubine by her in-laws ((SCHP vol. tang JT 12, p. 95, no. 46, sixth moon of 1885) 11. A recently widowed young woman about to give birth to a son is seen by her mother-in-law to be guarded by two patron deities (TSCHP vol. ping A 12, p. 93, no. 34, twelfth moon of 1885)

12. Undiciplined militiamen seize a young woman while angry bystanders watch the scene (TSCHP vol. keng fi 4, p. 31, no. 76, fourth moon of 1886) 13. Pilgrims to the sacred mountain Chiu Hua Shan, 85 km. from Shehsien, where Ti-tsang wang, a superior of Yama, is worshipped (TSCHP vol. ping FW 11, p. 93, no. 34, twelfth moon of 1885)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS , I wish to express first of all my profound thanks to Mrs. Linda Sagaser Kao. Her valuable advice and assistance in editing my manuscript were indispensible to the publication of my book. At a crucial time when my writing was on the verge of being given up halfway for lack of material (financial) support, she managed to arrange a subsidy to keep it going. Her help imbues the manuscript in many other ways at all stages, from initial typing to microcomputerization. Words are inadequate to convey my heartfelt gratitude to her.

I am greatly indebted to Professor E. Zurcher who has given me encouragement and counsel for the printing of this book. He has even kindly undertaken the laborious work of proofreading for me amid his tremendously busy academic tasks in order to obviate the inconvenience of distance between Shanghai and Leiden. To him I express my deep appreciation. Others who have given sympathetic guidance to my venture are Dean

Alison P. Casarett, Professor and Mrs. Sherman Cochran, Professor Norman L. Farberow, Professor Paula Brown Glick, Professor Sir Edmund Leach, Dr. David K. Reynolds, and Professor Wang Gungwu. Their helpful kindnesses are gratefully acknowledged. Mr. John G. Ackerman, Editor-in-Chief at Cornell University Press,

has made a moderate and balanced judgement together with many helpful comments about a manuscript destined to be published elsewhere. Professor Gordon M. Berger, Professor Eugene Cooper, Professor Wolfram Eberhard, Professor James Lee, Professor Susan Mann, Professor Frederic Wakeman, Jr., and Professor John E. Wills, Jr. have

greatly benefited. |

also made comments on the early draft of my writing from which I I am very much obliged to all the libraries for their inestimable services

to me in my research. They are: Library of the Faculty of Letters, and the Historical Library, at Kyoto University; A. B. Olin Library at Cor-

nell University; The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.; East Asiatic Library of the University of California at Berkeley; Library of the

University of Southern California, Library of Sinologisch Instituut,

Leiden University; Shanghai Library; and the Library of Fudan University. I am indebted to Mr. Chang Yutian-lung of She-hsien Middle School

for supplying the valuable photographs and to Mr. Liu Ssu-ywan, Historical Geography Institute of Fudan University, for drawing the map.

x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Appreciation is due to The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., whose grant enabled me to continue my research at Cornell University. My thanks

are also due to the Division of Social Sciences of the University of Southern California, whose subsidy helped me in completing the final version of the manuscript. Finally, I owe a special debt of thanks to my wife Ruth for her unfail-

ing support and constant encouragement in helping me regain my strength of will, lost during the ten catastrophic years in China, not to mention her important contribution to the completion of this book.

PREFACE

This study is an attempt to document the effects of moral, legal, religious, and other cultural determinants on the cult of female marital

fidelity in its historical context by focussing in particular on their correlation with the sudden increase in suicide by widows and betrothed

maidens in observance of this cult during the late Ming period (1567-1644).

Clinging to life is generally recognized as a fundamental human instinct, as manifested by the existence of universal moral precepts which praise arduous struggles for survival and hairbreadth escapes from great

danger. Yet, this fact does not preclude the occurrence of situations where circumstantial considerations within the prevailing morality demand precisely the opposite action, that is, they mandate or advocate

the act of self-destruction. Since suicidal behavior does run directly counter to simple instinctive reasoning, the aiding or abetting of an act of suicide must necessarily be vindicated, or ‘‘whitewashed,’’ by appeal to some other conventional and accepted imperative. The Hindu custom of suttee is often cited as an example. In this ritual suicide, a wife performs public self-immolation by cremating herself on her deceased husband’s funeral pyre. But how prevalent the practice of

suttee really was in India and what its interpretive explanation might have been is very difficult to know today due to insufficient historical statistics and other factual materials. On the other hand, a similar practice of this perverse phenomenon of institutionalized suicide also occurred in China, particularly during the Ming-Ch’ing period, 1368-1911. By examining the development of this inhumane institution in Chinese culture while keeping in mind its cross-cultural nature, we hope to clarify

what is perhaps the most neglected subject in contemporary social behavioral research.! Female suicide at the death of a husband or fiancé is in total contradiction to the Confucian dictum, ‘‘Do not do to others that which you do not wish to be done to yourself.’’ ‘This formulation in its application to actions governing relationships of loyalty was perhaps the result of a long history of political oppression and social turbulence which had a deep

effect on Chinese culture. The duty to make sacrifices for the sake of ' Gibbs, Jack P., Suzczde, New York, 1968, p. 36. Gibbs, Jack P., ‘‘Suicide,’’ in Con-

tote sonal Problems, edited by Robert K. Merton and Robert Nisbet, New York,

XII PREFACE one’s superior, whether it be political sovereign or social master, 1s regarded as a special characteristic of Oriental societies. However, except for some cases at the end of the Ming Dynasty which might be attributed

to the Reign of Terror of the Manchu conquerors, in fact, not many Chinese moral exponents really realized the ideals of personal sacrifice themselves. At the end of the Sung Dynasty (960-1127), when this code of ethics began to gain popular momentum, those preferring death to submission to conquest by the Mongols were exclusively ‘‘the military and commoners; not a single didactic scholar was included.’’? Even upon the downfall of Manchu rule in 1911, the mass of literary officials, Manchu and Han alike, voluntarily surrendered without resistance. ‘Those devoted subjects who did die for their sovereign included a few women, too.* The actual commission of self-sacrifice for the sake of faithfulness or loyalty, as will be seen in this study, was a moral duty assigned only to females. Evidence shows, though, that throughout the process during which a female elects to commit suicide, temporal and individual considerations play a far more important role than moral orientation. Morality cannot be regarded as an a priort imperative shepherding and channeling old and new customs through the process of change. Instead, the designation ‘‘moral’’ tacked onto a specific suicidal behavior 1s always arbitrary, assumed afterwards either by persons related to the perpetrator as personal justification for themselves, or by others to encourage ideal patterns of behavior which in fact occur only rarely, e.g, lifelong celibacy for widows, and loyalty for men. Moral sanction indeed may have an influence in inducing the persons involved to reach their decision, but it is not

the fundamental factor prompting suicidal behavior. The important points involved in evaluating suicide and society from a moral standpoint

are on the one hand, how society morally justifies suicide, and on the other hand, how suicide after having been morally justified affects society. It 1s with both of these broad questions that our inquiry is ultimately concerned.

More specifically, this study shows that a sudden increase in the number of females committing suicide in China during the Ming Dynasty, ostensibly in observance of marital fidelity, can be linked to contemporary moral, legal, religious and other cultural determinants, and varies directly in magnitude with the increase in number of male scholars experiencing the bitterness of repeated failure in the official 2 Mao Ch’i-ling, ‘‘Ch’ung-k’o yang chiao-shan chi hsu,’’ in Hsi-ho wen-chi; Yuan Mei, ‘‘T’sai yu Chi-yuan shu,’’ in Hsiao-ts’ang shang fan wen-chi, chuan 19. 3 Wang Tsu-she, ‘‘Chang Shu-jen chuan,’’ in Wen-chen wen-chi, chuan 10.

PREFACE XII examinations. In this latter respect, female suicide is shown to be evidently related to male anxiety through a psychological mechanism of vicarious morality. By praising the suffering and tribulations of females who did faithfully submit to the prevailing code of values, males considered themselves as sharing in their fulfilment of moral duty, and in fact regarded this transfer of virtue to themselves as equally moral. Such a mechanism thus enabled them to enjoy the satisfaction of identifying with a traditional ethical value system while at the same time being free both from the obligation to strictly adhere to its more difficult demands, and from any frustration or anxiety caused by social or moral pressure

to conform. No explanation can otherwise account for the distressing display where thousands of people watched with gratification and excite-

ment while a female hanged herself. Male anxiety is thus related to female chastity.

This correlation can be amply substantiated and verified with historical statistics, case studies, and reference to long-standing regional cultural traits. Furthermore, a relationship has been empirically detected between the incidence of female suicide and the flourishing of folk beliefs

in vindictive ghosts who roam the countryside punishing those with moral failings. These two correlations, though not themselves mutually

or causally linked, may at least throw a different light on the circumstances surrounding this specific form of suicide which has traditionally been assumed to be morally induced. The main sources used in this study are 166 local histories of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), supplemented by post-Ming local histories of all major regions of China for comparison. The imperfection of materials in the local histories, especially those after the Ming, is carefully treated.

Exaggerated statements in the sources are, of course, difficult to evaluate, but in this work such exaggerations may be taken as markers indicating those features of female suicide which Ming contemporaries

felt to be important and required formalization into standards of behavior. As we will show, the formalization is evident in striking fashion in the local histories of certain regions only and it is our intention to try to explain their regional variation.

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GLOSSARY

Chang: a unit of length equal to 3 1/3 meters Chien-hsien: _ title of studentship, sold by the government in the late Ming to entitle the holder to minor official appointment

Ch’ih: a unit of length equal to 1/3 meter Ch’ing: a unit of area equal to 100 mou or about 195 acres Chin-shih: holder of the final imperial examination degree Chu-jen: holder of the second degree gained by passing the provincial examination

Ko-ku: the practice of a filial devotee’s cutting off a piece of flesh from his or her body for an ailing parent to eat as a specially blessed and restorative medicine

Li: a unit of length equal to about 1/3 mile

Lu-mo: to dwell in a hut near the tomb of a parent

Mou: a unit of area equal to about 1/6 acre

P’ai-fang: memorial arch

Sheng-yuan: holder of the first degree in the examination

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CHAPTER ONE

MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT The observance of lifelong widowhood and the committing of suicide after the loss of a spouse or fiancé were both common practices among females in China and occurred with high frequency throughout Chinese history. However, it is striking to note that such cases began to suddenly occur in increasing numbers in a specific historic period and in certain geographic regions. Moral Corrective of the Ming

Archaeological findings and ancient written records show that the custom

of burying a number of living persons, especially slaves, with the deceased was sometimes practiced in China. This is not, however, evidence of widow self-sacrifice. In the dynastic histories before the Ming period, only one case is cited during the T’ang Dynasty where one of the

wives of Emperor Wu-tsung (reigned 841-846) took her life willingly after his death since she had previously promised to follow His Majesty into the next world.! ‘The general presumption that excessive conformity to the ethical codes concerning marital fidelity was introduced and propagated by important exponents of Confucian morality such as Ch’eng Yi (1033-1107) and Chu Hs1 (1130-1200) of the Sung Dynasty is somewhat exaggerated. Ch’eng’s motto, ‘‘Incurring disgrace (i.e., to lose virtue) is more serious than starving to death,’’ might have been well-known even by the masses, but there is no evidence to show that it had ever motivated the act of widow self-sacrifice to any degree of fanaticism. Of the seventyfour eminent women listed in the dynastic history of the Sung, only one

can be said to have been honored on that account. During the Yuan Dynasty, another ethnic group, the Mongols, were the ruling elite and did not subscribe to the practice of human sacrifice.” Female suicide after ' Hsin T’ang-shu, chian 77, lieh chuan 3. * The ethnic groups living on the northern border of China were also recorded as having practiced human sacrifice. The earliest record is from the country of Fu Yu during the period from 25 B.C. to 220 A.D. The practice then was to entomb the living with the dead, sometimes burying as many as hundreds of people. (Hou Han-shu, chuan 85, lich chuan 75.) The Liao (907-1125) and the Chin (Juchen) (1115-1235) had this type of custom, too. (Liao-shih, year of 1017; ‘Ta-chin-kuo chih, chuan 39.) Later, the Manchus were widely known to have indulged in this ritual until the middle of Kang-hsi’s reign (1662-1723). (Wang Shih-chen, Ch’ih-pei ou-t’an, chtian 1, t’an ku; Li Le, Chienwen tsa-chih, chuan 2, 20.)

2 MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT

the death of a spouse or fiancé as a widespread phenomenon actually started from the Ming. The Mongol Empire was the first nomad dynasty to conquer the whole

of China, shattering the native traditional ethical code which had con-

strained Chinese society for more than a thousand years previous. Orthodox Confucians understandably regarded their rule as one of the darkest periods of moral decadence. Chu Ytan-chang, the first emperor of the succeeding native Chinese Ming Dynasty, decried with disgust the

moral turpitude of his subjects with their traditions corrupted by the intermingling of Mongol customs. Not only their outer style of dress, even use of personal names, ways of greeting, as well as the marriage system and relations among family members, had degenerated into Mongol practices. Chu Ytian-chang utterly detested the Mongols’ levirate marriage system and the practice of a stepson’s marrying his father’s lesser wife if she became a widow. Indeed, he was vehemently

averse to all forms of marital infidelity. He once pointed out, ‘The capital is overcrowded with people and full of knavery. ‘Therefore, not many young women living there are faithful to their husbands. What they desire is that their husbands be away from home day and night, or even not to return home at all for months or years so they can have complete freedom.’’* Chu Ytian-chang regarded the elimination of all these immoral customs and the revival of traditional Chinese ethical values as essential steps towards the reinstitution of good government. He issued a series of imperial edicts soon after founding the Ming Empire in 1368. In the third month of 1368, he asked the higher Court officials to issue the ‘‘Admonition for Women’’ and claimed that its promulgation was prerequisite to ruling the kingdom.° As with other emperors of former ethnic Chinese dynasties, Chu Yuan-chang set up as statutes the rewarding of filial sons, obedient grandsons, faithful husbands and virtuous

wives for their being ‘‘prominent above all others in purpose and in action.’’® The first emperor did this in a most solemn and serious way. The edicts commemorating the first few cases which concerned con3 Ming t’ung chien, chtian 1; Kuo-ch’ao tien-hui, chiian 104. ‘‘After the destruction of the Sung, and as a result of more than eighty years under the rule of the Yuan, the Chinese people, in language, dress and food, utensils and ceremonies, were almost Mongolized. At present the northern people, irrespective of the difference in generation, sleep in the same room, which is disgustingly execrable and barbarous. When meals are ready, (the daughter-in-law) disrespectfully shouts to her father-in-law to sit down on the ground and take his meal. (Huang Tsung-hsi, Ming-wen shou-tu, part 1, chuan 6, Fang Hsiao-ju, cheng su; Ta-ming fu chih, 1445 edition, chtan 3.) * Yu-chih ta-kao, 1579, no. 34; Wang Chih, t’i Yen-shih san chieh-fu chuan hou and Wang Ching, Shu chieh-fu shih-shih chuan hou, (in Huang-ming wen-heng). ° ‘T’ai-tsu kao-huang-ti shih-lu, 1418, Hung-wu yiian-nien san-ytieh hsin-wei shuo. 6° Hung-wu li-chih, 1579.

MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT 3

cubines of nobles who committed suicide after the death of their Lord Dukes were written by the Emperor himself.” In Chu Yuan-chang’s time, the names of those women who had been thus rewarded for their virtue were also listed in the Veritable Records (the Imperial Chronicle) and given equal importance with other significant political events. Upon the death of Chu Yuan-chang, thirty-eight of his forty concubines were said to have committed suicide.® Under the direction of the empress of the second emperor Ch’eng-tsu (reigned 1403-1424), the tract Nez-hsun (Discourse Upon Women) was compiled in 1405, in which the practice of self-immolation was strongly encouraged and conventional methods for performing it were specifically described.? At Ch’eng-tsu’s death more than thirty concubines commit-

ted suicide. A contemporary Korean envoy noted that these wretched victims, some of them Koreans, were first entertained with a grand feast, and then led wailing to a hall where they were made to stand on wooden beds with cords dangling from above with which to hang themselves.!° According to the chronicles of the Ming Dynastic History (Ming-shih), only two consorts sacrificed themselves at the death of the third emperor, Ren-tsung, who died young and reigned only one year (1424-1425). At

the death of the fourth emperor Hsuan-tsung (reigned 1426-1436), ten concubines ended their lives to be buried with him. Such funeral sacrifice was required not only of the concubines enjoying imperial favor who had

borne him no heir, but also of those who belonged to the hereditary princes of the first rank. Later records reveal that notification to a lord’s favorites that it was necessary to perform this final act of devotion in his

service consisted merely of sending them a piece of red cloth at the moment of his death.'! It was not until 1464 that this ritual of the immolation of members of the imperial family began to be curtailed.” However, as late as 1547, an instance is still cited in connection with the death of Prince Ch’en. His principal wife, together with six concubines, offered themselves for sacrifice.!° This revival of the cult of female marital fidelity marked a new moral epoch in Chinese history. Nevertheless, it was not necessarily true that Chu Yuan-chang’s resolution, however firm, was able to transform the existing degenerated morality and restore traditional, orthodox Chinese ” Nan-chi chih, 1534 edition, chian 6. 8 Chao I, Erh-shih-erh shih tsa-chi, chtian 32; Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1976 edi-

tion, p. 391. 9 Nei-hsun; Ming-shih, chtian 113, hou fei 1. 10 Choson wangjo sillok (Yio sillok), 1973 edition, chuian 2. 11 Shen Te-fu, Wan-li yeh-huo-pien supplement, chuan 1. '2 Ch’en Chien, Huang-ming t’ung-chi, chiian 5. ‘3 Ming-shih, chuan 116, lich chuan 4, Chou-ting wang su.

4 MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT

modes of conduct overnight. If his ordinance prohibiting use of the Mongols’ dress and language proved unsuccessful even within a period of over one hundred years,!* how could one expect improvements in the prospects for female virtue to be inspired by imperial edicts! Marital fidelity as a virtue motivating behavior, either in practice or in principle, is Inevitably influenced by the social environment and thus its expression ~ occurs in varying forms over time and location. ‘Taking this premise as the basis of investigation, we have found that the reemergence of the cult of female marital fidelity during the Ming period can be correlated with several concurrent social trends: 1) the increasing disproportion in the male:female ratio in the population due to sexually biased infanticide, 2) the emerging role of widows as temporary protectors of their family’s property in the midst of a society convulsed by rapid economic development, 3) the perpetration of an intrinsic deep moral sense to a level of

fanaticism by an anxious and frustrated class of literati, and 4) the decline of the orthodox Buddhist religion and spread of popular belief in ghosts.

The mutual correlation of these various factors accounts for the fact that during the first one hundred years of Ming rule, lifelong widowhood and female suicide were actually not particularly remarkable features of social life. Their increasing prevalence from isolated cases such as those cited above can be likened to the proverbial snowball which grows in size as it rolls down the snow-covered slope. The development of these cults over time is described below. Awarding of Official Distinction

In the late Ch’ing Dynasty, some foreign missionaries were very much _ amazed to see the veritable ‘‘forest’’ of monumental gateways, or ‘‘p’aifang,’’ in certain parts of China. They were so densely packed in the city of Ch’tian-chou, Fukien, that a Chinese historian referred to the distance between them as not more than three ch’ih.'!° This visual phenomenon, ‘4 A petition submitted by an official in Chekiang described, ‘‘In the year of 1468 in Peking and its environs, the men invariably wore pointed fur caps with the rim folded up, called Hu (barbarian) cap, while the women wore sable caps covering the forehead in front and with the sides hanging down to the shoulders, called Chao-chtin style (Chaochun was a concubine of Emperor Yiian-ti who had been bestowed upon the Khan of the Hsiung-nu as a mark of imperial regard in 33 B.C.). In addition, it became a new fashion for boys and girls to adopt the Hu way of imitating the sound of different birds and animals, like scoundrels, while playing. This adulteration of the Chinese language was especially widespread in Shantung, Shansi, Honan and Shensi.’’ Consequently, an edict was issued to eliminate this Hu practice with very severe punishment. (Huang-ming t’1ao-fa shih-lei-tsuan, 1531-1533, chuan 22.) 'S Lo Ch’ang-p’ei, Chu-hsi tui yu Min-nan feng-su te ying-hsiang, Chung-shan tahsueh yu-shih yen-chiu so chou-k’an, chuan 1, no. 4, p. 92.)

MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT 5

in addition to the accounts found in official records (which were frequently exaggerated or fabulous tales), would give the impression that the fidelity of widows to their deceased spouse was probably encouraged because of the enticement of official honor and distinctions to be granted. However, analysis shows that, at least in the cases of the Ming Dynasty,

this is not so. Not only were the expenses involved in seeking official recognition enormous, but the required procedures were so cumbersome and exacting that it actually made those eligible for them hesitate about applying for such honors. In the early Ming, official distinction granted to filial sons, obedient grandsons, righteous men’® and virtuous women was accorded only to ‘‘pu-1’’ (scholars without a graduate title), commoners and women of low rank, and did not apply to government officials, military officers, literati with titles, yamen clerks or wives of officials.17 By virtuous females was

meant those who met their death resisting outrageous attack, and those who observed lifelong widowhood. Cases of the former could be easily verified by investigating officials. The latter was further restricted to those over sixty years of age still alive and whose widowhood began before the age of thirty.1® Since the circumstances surrounding widows would be more or less similar, and especially since the real intention of bringing distinction was “‘to reward a single woman in order to educate the whole country,’’!® the official procedures involved in selecting the most worthy candidates were bound to be very restrictive. According to an enactment of 1393, a widow who wished to request official distinction should first ask the village elders to bring her situation to the attention of the county magistrate, who would then put her case before all her neighbors and the senior people in her village to ascertain if they would guarantee her reputed virtue without reservation. Then the petition would be sent up level by level through the prefectural and provincial authorities to the Board of Rites, which, after due consideration would refer it back to the provincial, prefectural and county authorities

again for verification. In the meantime, the Court of Censors in the capital would be informed of this petition and would give instructions to

the provincial judge concerned to separately verify the case.?° If the ‘6 Those returning precious things dropped by others, contributing from one’s own resources to assist the frontier forces, subscribing to relief funds, and so on. 17 Ta Ming hui-tien, 1587 edition, chtian 79, li-pu; Ming hui-yao, 1887 edition, chuan 14, ching-piao. 18 Ta Ming ling, 1579 edition, hu-ling; Li-pu chih-kao, 1620 edition, chuan 64. 19 Li Ao, Kao-min-nt pei, Li wen kung chi, chuan 12. 20 Ta Ming hui-tien, 1587 edition, chiian 79, li-pu; Hsing-hua fu chih, 1503 edition, chiian 45; Ho Ch’iao-yiian, Min shu, 1630 edition, chtian 143. The verification was said to have been a very serious matter. Lin Ts’uan, a well-known filial son of the T’ang

6 MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT

authorities all along these channels attested to the authenticity of the case, the Minister of the Board of Rites would finally accept it, put it together with all similar cases from every part of the country and submit them all to the Emperor for approval. This would be done once a year in the winter in a solemn ceremony attended by the Emperor himself and all the Board officials.24 However, this was still not the felicitous conclusion of the story, because the Emperor might, through any sudden whim, completely reverse the decision reached. Such a repetitive and unwieldy proceeding, even if everything went smoothly, would unquestionably take many years to complete. And as a consequence, it turned out many times to be physically impossible for widows to live that long, and they died in the period during the long journey of official documents. In this way, the case would then be regarded as having been terminated, for no official distinction would be granted to a deceased person. One commentary pointed out that as far as obtaining official distinction was concerned, ‘‘merits were evaluated by the village elders, the

consensus for approval or disapproval being muddled up by money, which was as powerful as god.’’?? Chu Ytian-chang himself admitted that the village elders of the Ming were not all decent people.?’ The intimida-

tion and bribery involved in official rewarding often frightened poor widows into interceding with the village elders to hide their situation and not to let them be known by the yamen underlings. Otherwise, their virtue would bring them calamity instead of blessing. Here is an example: Widow Li said, “‘Not long ago, the provincial literary chancellor sent a messenger down to investigate the state of wifely fidelity and filial piety in our district. That messenger, with his official dispatch in hand, came to my front gate and said, ‘Madam, you are indeed in distressing cirumstances. If you would give me 500 coins, only a trifle to you, I would report your case to the superior authorities, and then official distinction and material reward will all come to you.’ I declined his offer politely, saying to myself that I wanted nothing other than to observe my vow of fidelity. Besides, how could a poverty-stricken widow as myself have such a big amount of money to seek for a vain title from official circles?’’?4 period, observed the rite of lu-mu very reverently. Heaven was so moved by his devotion that it sent white birds to perch nearby and produced sweet dew to cover the area of Lin’s hut. In 793, when the superior official came to investigate, the dew appeared to be very thin. The local people were seized with panic, fearing punishment for giving false reports. Lin cried to Heaven for help, wondering why this Heavenly-sent dew should become a curse instead of a blessing. As the story went, dark clouds suddenly gathered and spread sweet dew which lasted for quite a while. At the same time, the white birds returned and took up their perches. For these miracles, Lin T’s’uan was handsomely rewarded by the

Emperor Te-tsung. (Hsin T’ang shu, chiian 195, lich chuan 20.) 21 Fu-chou fu chih, 1579 edition, chiian 32. 22 Kuang-tung t’ung chih, 1602 edition, chuan 61. 23 ‘Yu-chih ta-kao hsi-pien, 1386 edition, no. 8. 24 Liu-an chou chih, 1584 edition, chtan 6; Ho-chien fu chih, 1540 edition, chiian 7 & 25.

MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT 7

The Yung-lo Emperor even employed the method of hiring secret police to verify one case of a faithful widow. It is recorded: Widow Wu’s case. When Wu’s husband died, their son was only ten months old. Wu remained a widow, working hard to raise her son. When her virtuous behavior was reported to the Court, the Yung-lo Emperor gave

instructions to the Censor to verify the case. As he was unable to find anything significant to report, the Censor sent someone pretending to be a beggar to rent an empty room next door to Wu’s house in order to watch her activities closely every day. But he still could not find anything special. One day, Wu ordered her son to dig up the earth in her back yard. At mealtime, Wu brought her son’s meal and put it on the ground outside the gate of her back yard. When her son discovered it, he stooped down to pick it up, but then stopped realizing it had been placed there by his mother. He knelt down and ate his meal on his knees. The Censor reported this incident to the Emperor who was very much astonished at this ritual behavior. Consequently, official distinction was granted to her as suggested. Wu lived to the age of eighty-six.?®

In the year 1465, the ordinance concerning the rewarding of widows was made even more restrictive. It provided that if any village elder or official concerned gave false information as to the widow’s age’® (e.g., recommending someone less than sixty years of age, or purposely decreasing her reported age at the time of her husband’s death to below thirty), those

implicated would be criminally punished if the truth were ever later discovered. ?’

As mentioned above, during the first one hundred years of the Ming, the cult of marital fidelity was not accepted as common practice. In 1460 when the compilation of the Ta Ming I-t’ung Chih (Official Geography

of the Ming Empire) was completed, the section on virtuous females, which mainly concerned those who had observed lifelong widowhood and

those who had died in self-defence against outrageous attacks collected from various local histories all over the country, does not contain as many cases as one might expect. Noteworthy is the fact that this section is left out altogether for many big places, indicating that the increasing importance of female marital fidelity in evidence elsewhere in the country

had not yet merited their attention when these local histories were compiled. 25 Wu-hsien chih, 1642 edition, chuan 10. 26 A village elder offered to connive with Widow Chin in lying about her age. He told

her that an applicant’s age at the onset of widowhood was limited by the Court to thirty—over thirty was inadmissible—but that it would not be difficult for him to decrease her age by one year. Chin declined to do so, saying that she would be ill at ease if she did. (K’un-shan hsien chih, 1538 edition, chuan 13.) 27 "Ta Ming hui-tien, 1587 edition, chuan 79.

8 MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT

Hsing-hua prefecture of Fukien was well-known for adhering to Chu ‘Hsi’s doctrine as well as for having a high percentage of successful candidates in the imperial examinations. But in a period of about one hun-

dred years after the reign of Chu Ytian-chang, the local authorities, apprehensive of the numerous verificaton tasks involved, never submit-

ted any application to the Court for official distinction of faithful widows.”® ‘The declining number of petitions for the decoration of fidelity

worried the Court officials. In 1469, the provincial authorities were reminded by an edict that any widow sixty years of age or over, without blemish on her reputation, should be recommended as a candidate for decoration.” From that time on, many more distinctions were conferred than in the previous period. In old China, the bureaucratic gentry of the higher ranks enjoyed the privilege of having a title of honor conferred on their wives, children, parents and grandparents, which was equivalent to their own. However, they valued the distinction of ‘“‘faithful’’ widow more than any standard title, if there happened to be such a one in the family. Before 1612, in Ch’tan-chou prefecture of Fukien, 147 mothers received routine titles as a result of their sons’ merits, while only twenty-one women received an insignia of merit conferred by the Emperor for marital fidelity.*° The Court foresaw the possible intrigue inherent in application procedures and rivalry for such merit, and therefore throughout the Ming Dynasty a prohibition against applying for the decoration of faithful widow on behalf of women from families of the bureaucracy was in force and often became an issue of contention within the Board of Rites.*! But,

in effect, no matter how tight this restriction might have been made, there were always loopholes in the system, and supposedly impossible cases could be turned into possible ones by careful manipulation.*? The most unusual case was that of a concubine of K’o Ch’ien, a recipient of the highest degree in the imperial examination of 1451.°° Although from the Ming until the Ch’ing Dynasty it was taboo to grant a full honor to a concubine of the Emperor or anyone from official circles no matter how 28 Hsing-hua fu chih, 1503 edition, chtitan 45. 29 Huang-ming t’lao-fa shih-lei-tsuan, chuan 22. 30 Ch’tan-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chtan 15 & 22. 31 ““While serving in the capital, I heard with my own ears an argument between Minister Wu and his colleagues over a case concerning a certain high offical’s request for honoring his mother as a chaste widow, which Wu rejected. When someone else tried to use his influence on behalf of the same widow, Wu answered angrily, ‘She has already been honored through her son’s official distinction. Why ask for more!’’’ (Fu-chou fu chih, 1529 edition, chtian 32.) $2 Yu-yao hsien chih, 1899 edition, chiian 25. 33 "Ta Ming 1-t’ung chih, 1461 edition, chian 77.

MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT 9

virtuous,** nevertheless, we discovered with astonishment that in 1505 a p’ai-fang had been erected for her, though none had been built for the principal wife nor for any of the other concubines who had also shared a life of widowhood with her after K’o’s death. The only explanation can be the fact that she had given birth to a son who later became the private secretary of a great minister of the time.*°

For commoners, bringing distinction on one’s mother was a formidable task requiring strong motivation, resolution, and material resources. The local history of Pu-t’ien, Fukien, states that it was Ch’eng Ling, a scholar without a graduate degree, whose conduct became the first exemplary model for the whole community for doing all he could to request that the title of a faithful widow be bestowed on his mother, and spending almost all his family fortune in the process. After three years of struggling while his petition was being referred back from the Board of Rites for verification once again, he finally won the local officials’ consent to erect a p’ai-fang in the middle of the busiest street—the first ever built in that district to perpetrate the memory of a virtuous widow. It was also recorded that since that time the common people of Pu-t’ien began to follow Ch’eng’s example by striving for this family honor. In Ch’uanchou, another scholar without a degree struggled for thirty-one years for

this recognition to be conferred on his mother, causing the loss of his eyesight. When the testimonial of merit was finally granted, his sight was miraculously restored.*°® °* A good example is the case of Hsu Ying-k’uei of the late Ch’ing Dynasty. He was Governor-General of Fukien in 1897, and in 1898 he and Li Hung-chang signed the Sino-British agreement for the lease of the Hong Kong New Territories to the British Government. Hsti was born to a concubine of his father, who died after he had just passed the imperial examination. Hsti’s request to let his mother’s coffin pass out through the main entrance of the house for the funeral procession was repeatedly refused by the

principal wife. All the relatives also regarded Hsti’s request as against tradition and advised him to give it up. At last, Hsti raised this question, ‘‘Will my own coffin be allowed to pass through the main entrance after my death?’’ The principal wife answered in the affirmative, ‘‘Yes, of course it will. You were an embryonic dragon, nurtured temporarily in a dog’s belly. Moreover, you are a high government official.’’ Hsu then sat on top of the coffin and ordered the bearers to carry it out through the main entrance.

Thus, the principal wife was defeated and could do nothing about it. (The Koh Clan Geneaology, Singapore, 1963, pp. C62-63.) °° Hsing-hua fu chih, 1503 edition, chuan 9 « 15. The only concubine rewarded by the Ming Court was as late as 1604. (Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1756 edition, chtan 69.) °° Ch’uan-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chtan 22. Actually, any fervor for having a symbol with which to show off one’s family’s virtuousness only began to appear twenty years after Ch’eng Ling’s success. Merely eleven p’ai-fang for fidelity were erected intermittently in 1468, 1473, 1475, 1476, 1479, 1482, 1487, 1491, 1494, 1496 and 1501 from a total of 264, the rest being awarded for other reasons. They were all concentrated within

this short period of thirty-three years. (Hsing-hua fu chih, 1503 edition, chiian 9; Lu Jung, Shu-ytian tsa-chi, 1494 edition, chian 12; Huang-ming t’ung-chi, chuan 6.)

10 MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT

These p’ai-fang arches erected in front of residences to mark their owners with distinction have had a long history in China. In the early Ming, they were conferred by the Court only to persons of rare virtue. From about 1426 on, this honor gradually began to be granted to suc-

cessful candidates who had passed the provincial or the imperial examination. It was not until after the 1470’s, that p’ai-fang increasingly became conspicuous decorations for illustrious officials. Since they were for the most part made of stone, with the cost ranging from 30-100 taels of silver, apparently only the well-to-do families could afford to build them. For successful candidates of the examinations, the construction expenses were paid by the local government from a tax specifically levied for this purpose.*” In contrast, the p’ai-fang for virtuous widows had to be paid for by their own families, an amount which was generally quite beyond the capacity of common families at that time. Special commentary in local histories was given to those filial devotees who saved for many years to meet the required amount of 100 taels of silver to build a p’ai-fang for their mothers in accordance with the instructions of the imperial edict.*® In one year, a certain district attempted to erect a p’aifang for a widow, but then had to abandon the plan due to a famine.*? There are also records which show that in some cases, although imperial favor had been bestowed, erection of the p’ai-fang had to wait for the

proper opportunity.*° Thus, although a total of 7,783 p’ai-fang are recorded in the 106 local histories of the Ming, only 218 were in honor of virtuous women, a negligible number of less than three percent. In Wen-chou prefecture of Chekiang, where the greatest number of p’aifang are recorded, only seventeen out of a total of 392 were erected to commemorate marital fidelity.*! In Ch’tan-chou prefecture, where p’aifang were the most densely concentrated of any area in China as noted above, only four of 210 belonged to that category.*? °7 Chen-chiang fu chih, 1596 edition, chiian 7; I-hsing hsien chih, 1590 edition, chuan 4. In Nan-ch’ang, silver paid to these successful candidates for p’ai-fang expenses was specially melted down into a single block worth 80 taels. It was then placed in a box beautifully wrapped in paper with gold characters conveying best wishes, and presented by the host of a special feast given for the occasion. (Nan-ch’ang fu chih, 1919 edition, chuan 60.) General accounts of local governments bestowing money amounting to 30 taels to cover the expenses of building p’ai-fang for widows appear as late as 1531. (Li-pu chih-kao, chuan 64.) In 1604, only one case is recorded in a local history of 30 taels of silver being received for building a p’ai-fang for a widow. (Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chuan 25.) °§ Hai-yen hsien t’u-ching, 1624 edition, chtian 14. °9 Hu-kuang t’ung chih, 1591 edition, chtian 70. 40 "T’ai-chou chih, 1633 edition, chiian 6. #1 Wen-chou fu chih, 1605 edition, chian 3. #2 Ch’uan-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chiian 5.

MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT 11

Another form of imperial decoration, the simplest one, was the ch’inmen, the so-called ‘‘Emblem from the Throne.’’ This consisted of two rectangular wooden tablets painted silver, with two Chinese characters written in red on each, which were hung lengthwise on either side of the double doors of the main entrance to one’s home.*? Yet simple as this was, poor families were still financially unable to request one, since only the rich could afford the expense of building the big elaborate double front doors on which the imperial gift would hang. According to the local

history of Wu-hsien, present-day Soochow, four widows pleaded earnestly not to be decorated with imperial honors because their poor family circumstances made them financially unable to accept it.** From the middle of the Ming, especially after the period of Chia-ching

(1522-1566) noted for its growing industries and prosperous big merchants, the desire to eulogize the virtues of widowhood increased steadily to the point where it was extremely fashionable for commoners to strive to be celebrated for publicizing their mother’s honor, and for officials to seek fame as moral advocates.*® The case of widow Ho fully illustrates this new trend. Mrs. Ho Leng of Liu-an, Anhui, became a widow when she was twenty-six and six months pregnant. After the posthumous birth of her son, she was utterly destitute and hardly able to provide anything for the child except by working very hard at needlework. Her distressing condition and persistence in leading a widow’s life despite suffering and trial were universally recognized throughout her district. Her son Ho Chin grew up and became a scholar, but he continually failed to pass the prescribed examinations, and thus had a hard time, too, earning a living. Yet he devoted all his life to ensuring that his mother’s noble virtue would be acknowledged as widely as possible. After many earnest entreaties, he persuaded some eminent scholars to write a collection of poems and essays entitled, ‘“‘In Remembrance of Mother’s Bitter Widowhood.’’ The local magistrate also led his subordinates, along with teachers and students of the district academy, to visit Ho’s family and presented them with a tablet of honor, a sheep and a jar of wine (items commonly given as presents in ancient and also Ming times) to show their respect and admiration for someone who had observed lifelong marital fidelity. However, even after all these demonstrations, the magistrate still procrastinated in forwarding the case to the capital for imperial confirmation and recognition.*®

In 1525, there were natural calamities all over the country. ‘The Chiaching Emperor interpreted this as an omen warning that the pent-up feel*3 Wu-hsien chih, 1642 edition, chtian 52. 4 Thid.

*S Lu-an fu chih, 1612 edition, chtian 13; Shang-ytian hsien chih, 1593 edition, chuan

11; Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chuan 35. | *6 Tiu-an chou chih, 1584 edition, chuan 13.

12 MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT

ings and grievances of his subjects, including unrecognized ‘“‘hidden’”’ virtues, should be immediately brought out in the open and redressed.*’ As a result, edicts were subsequently issued continuously in order to ease the restrictions on the conferring of official distinction on widows, and to reprimand local officials for their ill-advised obstruction in the forwar-

ding of reports of such cases to the Court. The prohibition against deceased widows being honored was repealed and the endlessly redundant proceedings for verification were simplified.*® It was at this time that Ou-yang Te, a follower of the great Ming philosopher Wang Yang-

ming (1472-1529) and a shrewd bureaucrat himself, was appointed magistrate of Liu-an. Ou-yang wisely took up Widow Ho’s case in response to the imperial edict. His supplication on her behalf eventually had a very successful outcome and he became quite famous at that time. Ou-yang’s memorial to the throne regarding Widow Ho was a masterpiece, showing competent official attention to the requirements, as well as presenting justifiable reasons to make the case irrefutable. His wellknown rhetorical argument is: ’’Mrs. Ho’s decision to remain a widow was made at a time when she did not have the slightest idea whether her

child would be delivered safely, whether it would be a boy or a girl, whether it would grow up to adulthood, or whether that child would respect her with filial reverence later on.’’ When the memorial reached the Board of Rites, the minister involved was overwhelmed by this faultless dispatch, saying to himself that this widow should be honored without any need for verification. Although no case could be totally exempted from these confirmation procedures, fortunately this one passed through smoothly without any hindrance. As the

magistrate pointed out, Mrs. Ho was the first widow in Liu-an to be honored by imperial decree since the founding of the Ming Dynasty 1957 years previous. This was recorded in the Veritable Record of the district as an important event. Thereafter, other families began to follow suit.*° Following the Court’s approval of this case, successive magistrates of the

district made efforts to have her son Ho Chin also honored by the Emperor as a filial devotee. From the time this idea was first initiated (by a magistrate who later became the Minister of the Board of Civil Office) until its final realization, Widow Ho’s grandson had spent thirty years ceaselessly rushing about pleading his father’s case.

Widow Ho had died at the age of 91. The local history states that during his mother’s illness, Ho Chin had even tasted her stool to ascer*7 Hang-chou fu chih, 1579 edition, chtian 89. *8 Li-pu chih-kao, chuan 64.49. Lu-chou fu chih, 1575 edition, chuan 1 ® 13. *9 Lu-chou fu chih, 1575 edition, chuijan 1 « 13.

MORAL INDOCTRINATION AND IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT 13

tain the chances for her recovery,°° and after her death he spent three years living in a hut by the side of her grave. It was said his filial devotion

affected the nearby honeybees to such an extent that they gathered in swarms and made their honeycomb near her grave. It was after the receipt of a petition from the then presiding magistrate emphasizing this incident of the honeybees as evidence of the purity and sincerity of Ho Chin’s actions that in 1580 the imperial testimonial of

filiality was finally conferred on him. This situation of having two imperial favors bestowed on one single family was indeed rare. In recognition of this, all symbols of imperial favor were provided by the local authorities; a p’ai-fang and a memorial shrine were erected, and the locality where Ho’s family lived was specially renamed in memory of the virtues they had exemplified. According to one account, the widow’s grandson even went to Hangchow to entreat the favor of a retired court minister to write an essay for the memorial shrine. And this long story does not stop here. Another twenty years later, two of widow Ho’s greatgrandsons still had not given up the constant endeavor to make their family’s honor even greater.*! The above cases of Pu-t’ien and Liu-an suggest that the cult of lifelong widowhood came into prominence as late as the middle of the Ming Dynasty. ‘This can further be substantiated by the wealth of evidence recorded in other local histories. One might argue that this rise in the number of cases of females observing marital fidelity could have been due

to the relaxation of the Court’s restrictions,®°? or the more prolific publication of local histories in the late Ming period, or some other fac-

tors. However, the fact that there is significant variation in the geographical distribution of cases implies that such uniform influences were not a major factor in the growing prominence and popularity of the cult of lifelong widowhood or widow suicide. Before attempting to offer

any further explanation, however, it is necessary to first review the broader historical background from which this social abnormality arose. °° According to old Chinese belief, if one wants to know the real condition of one’s ailing parents, one must taste the patient’s stool. If the taste is bitter, there is still hope for recovery. If it happens to be sweet, there is much occasion for worry. One of the twenty-four well-known filial votaries did try it. °! Liu-an chou chih, 1584 edition, chiian 6 & 7. °2 In the early Chia-ching period, local authorities were allowed to award cases other than those in conformity with the fixed official regulations. In 1550, the Board of Rites gave instructions to the local governments to give reasonable rewards to filial daughtersin-law who were not included in the Board’s regular categories. In 1551, the local govern-

ments could also award those who died from cutting portions of their liver in order to heal their parent’s illnesses, a practice which was not permissible according to the statutes

of the Empire. (Li-pu chih kao, chtian 64.)

CHAPTER TWO

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS Social Impulse to Commit Surcide

‘The common assumption that the honorability of suicide was a part of traditional life in China inspired by Confucius is not well grounded. On the contrary, the great sage vehemently condemned the cult of human sacrifice with the words, ‘‘Those who first took the initiative in making wooden images for burial with the dead will be without posterity.’’! Con_ fucius placed great emphasis on living a joyful life and opposed senseless death. He believed that making likenesses of human beings for burial with the dead might eventually give rise to the rite of burying living persons with the dead. Unfortunately, as with the doctrine of filial piety where Confucius’ words in the original texts of his Analects were continuously borrowed and

interpolated through successive generations by different authors to suit their own purposes, his insistence on the importance of loyalty also fitted in very well with the interests of absolute political rulers. A good example

is the story of Po I who resolved not to give allegiance to the Chou Dynasty, declaring that he would not sustain his life with “‘the grain of Chou.’’ He thenceforth relied on gathering wild seeds in the recesses of Shou Yang mountain for sustenance. He was praised by Confucius as well as by Mencius for his ‘‘incorruptibility’’ in refusing to perform any action which would bring stain upon his integrity. However, this popular story as 1t is known today can be shown to be not entirely true according to the historical facts.? It has been repeatedly embellished over a period of more than two thousand years by all the famous masters of the Period of the Warring States (475-221 B.C.) and by eminent politicians and well-known figures in the world of letters in subsequent dynasties, each

for his own individual purpose.? ‘These numerous commentaries, although in fact some were critical of the moral value said to be illustrated, eventually laid the groundwork for the emergence in later 1 James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1960, pp. 133-134. 2 Liang Yu-sheng, Shih-chi chih-i, chan 27, Po-i chuan k’ao pien. 3 As a rough statistic, more than thirty authors including the Ch’ien-lung Emperor of the Ch’ing Dynasty wrote special treatises or essays about this legend or commented on it in their general writings. These are authors such as Chuang-tzu, Lao-tzu, Mo-tzu, Han Fei-tzu, Huai-nan-tzu, Wang Ch’ung, and others.

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 15

generations of the attitude that suicide was an honorable act, a development for which Confucius and Mencius should hardly be made responsible.

Despite the general disapprobation associated with Confucian philoso-

phy, incidents of suicide were not uncommon in ancient times. Under certain circumstances, it was considered an honorable ritual for males, from men of high rank down to the knights errant, to perform. Prior to the T’ang Dynasty when self-execution as a form of capital punishment had not yet been incorporated into the legal system, suicide was regarded as an alternative choice of action which allowed people of high rank to

avoid the humiliation of public punishment. When a statesman faced disgrace or general defeat, he could be granted, as he himself much preferred, the freedom to kill himself in order to escape the shame of public condemnation at the hands of an executioner. What most cut the great Chinese historian Ssu-ma Ch’ien (145 or 135 B.C.-?) to heart at the time

of his sentencing was his failure to obtain the judge’s permission to execute himself rather than having imposed on him the humiliating punishment of castration.*

The rite of self-execution was performed solemnly, similar to the Japanese hara-kiri suicide. After receiving the official proclamation of permission to commit suicide, the condemned person would drop down on his knees facing the north, thank the Emperor for his gracious pardon, and then cut his own throat with the sword handed to him.° In ancient records, the terms used to signify male suicide were ‘‘cutting one’s own throat,’’ ‘“‘self-cutting,’’ ‘‘self-stabbing,’’ ‘‘self-injuring,’’ and ‘‘selfexecution.’’ The most common methods, hanging and drowning, were used exclusively by common people, particularly common women® who, as Confucius remarked with pity, committed ‘‘suicide for the sake of small fidelity in a stream or a ditch without anyone’s knowledge.’’” But as time passed, the accepted methods of suicide by slashing with a knife

or stabbing with a pointed instrument gradually decreased among males’and eventually suicide became something feminine, with the high frequency and honorability of suicide ultimately becoming the province of females. * Han-shu, 62, lieh chuan 48, Ssu-ma Ch’ien chuan. ° Han-shu, 48, lieh chuan 18, Chia-i chuan.

© Shih-chi, 112, heh chuan 52, Chu-fu yen; Han-shu, 64, lieh chuan 34, Chu

Mai-ch’en. ’ James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol. 1, pp. 282-283. ® During the Second Opium War, when Cha Pu, a port in Chekiang, was captured by the British, twenty-four male officials and commoners committed suicide; only one of them died by stabbing himself, the rest cast themselves into wells. (Tao-kuang jen-yin cha-p’u hsun-nan lu, 1844.)

16 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

Suicide is a very complex issue and cannot be treated lightly or casually. As one Ming Dynasty commentator pointed out, ‘‘Individuals kill themselves for a number and variety of motives. One does it in certain circumstances, another in the name of righteousness; someone else does it for posthumous fame, still another for hatred and revenge. All seem inevitable, but quite unnecessary.’’? As has been found in other cultures, early Chinese writers and officials who dealt with the subject of

suicide were primarily concerned with its desirability and morality. Before any official rewards were bestowed on someone who had commit-

ted suicide, the intention and particular situation had to be carefully assessed according to a prescribed legal procedure, and the consequences

of both the suicide and reward considered. Anecdotes by foreign missionaries of the past century are exaggerated.!° Throughout the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, only those who observed lifelong widowhood were eligible for the official rewards designated for females. Female self-destruction was not included in the fixed regulation and was only accepted under exceptional criteria in individual cases according to their merits. In 1688, an edict was issued forbidding forever the rite of self-immolation by widows, from royal consorts down to the common woman. ‘Those who resolve to do so (commit suicide) should come to the Board of Rites, or the authorities concerned, to state her case and to await the petitioning to the Throne for such consideration.’’ The reason given for the general prohibition was, ‘‘self-immolation of widows is similar in nature to the rites of cutting off portions of thighs and livers for healing ailing parents. Official encouragement will set examples for

others to imitate and lead to fanaticism, the result of which is bound to

injure more lives, which is contradictory to the principle of humanitarianism.’’!! This prohibition was repeatedly emphasized and enforced until 1736. Thus, in Ming and the early Ch’ing times, female self-immolation, although not defined as a penal offence, was morally condemned. At no time did the Throne officially recognize and commend the Chinese equivalent of Hindu suttee performed by widows. If this was indeed the official position, what then accounted for the alarming prevalence of suicide among young widows in certain parts of ? Ch’en-ch’teh chi, part I, pp. 152-153. '0 For example, no record can be found to verify that a woman was posthumously awarded a commemorative tablet for killing herself after she discovered that a thief had taken refuge under her sleeping couch. According to what can be found in the record, a case of this kind concerning a widow of twenty-two did occur in Ch’tian-chou. Her late husband’s younger cousin crept into her room and hid under her bed. She caught him in the act by lighting a lamp. She informed all the relatives and cried bitterly, ‘‘The dog dared affront me!’’ Then she hanged herself. But the record says this case was not

rewarded. (Ch’uan-chou fu-chih, 1763 edition, chuan 70.) ,

11 Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chian 305. }

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 17

China? Before examining all the factors related to this cruel practice, some of the facts need to be clarified: 1) What characterized the moral conduct of an average woman before and during the Ming and Ch’ ing times when the cult of fidelity was reinforced? 2) What important socioeconomic situation made the suicide of widows inevitable? Moral Standards and Moral Conduct

The forced analogy equating female fidelity with male loyalty was a special feature of moral preaching in China. The maxim, “‘A loyal minister does not serve two lords, neither may a faithful widow marry

a second husband’’ was used by both sexes as moral exhortation. Throughout Chinese history, as a general rule morality has been vigorously propagated whenever immorality was actually prevailing. Whenever the interests of the ruling class were threatened by foreign invasion, or the ideal pattern of Han cultural life was deteriorating as a

result of alien contamination, the cults of fidelity and loyalty were elaborately prescribed and held up to glorify the steadfast purity of the fairer sex and at the same time to ridicule men for their pitiful lack of courage. The proselytizing, biographical sketches of females who had

committed suicide to save their honor in times of calamity became standard models in the dynastic histories even earlier than those biographies in praise of filial sons. It would be interesting to know what percentage of average women had actually earnestly put into practice the moral doctrine perhaps factitiously lauded. Wouldn’t some really prefer to drag out ‘‘an ignoble existence’’ especially at a time when the lofty standard of female virtuousness was standing a severe test? In 1449, when bandits approached the border of Lin-cheng and Po-lu counties of Kwangtung province, eighteen women were seized and detained for two nights before they were ransomed by their families. One of the local gentry deplored very much this manifestation of moral turpitude where women would accept their defilement and return to society. Information given in the local history describes the general situation as deplorable. During those troubled years of banditry which brought devastation to quite a number of counties in Kwangtung, ‘“‘hundreds and thousands’’ of women suffered the same terrible fate. But they all managed to swallow their shame and humiliation and cling to life, except for one young married woman, twenty years of age.!* Her virtue was so rare that she was decorated with high honors. In 1572 when a rebellious group of soldiers headed by Cheng Lu cap12 _Kuang-tung t’ung chih, 1602 edition, chian 26.

18 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

tured the county of Tan in Kwangtung, two hundred women were taken prisoner, but only one young widow of twenty-two refused to submit to their outrage and thus was murdered.'? In 1549 when Japanese pirates ravaged the coastal area of Fu-chou, about seventy women were carried

off and kept prisoner, of whom only one woman was conspicuously recorded as having taken her own life rather than submit to any taint on her person.'* Thus, as the above cases indicate, the cult of fidelity was not a convincing dogma widely accepted, but was rather a comparatively rare occurrence among women.

This helps to explain some of the contents of the proselytizing biographical sketches. A story about a young maiden who was seized by bandits in 1512 appeared in two different texts. The main motif was her refusal to let the bandits, who tried to please her because of her beauty, put a silk cape around her shoulders and she scolded them exclaiming that it would defile her dignified body. Eventually they killed her. Noteworthy is the comment given by the bandits. In the version in the county history, it simply records that the bandits, after killing her, praised her as a “‘true faithful maiden.’’!° In the prefectural history, there is a little

more embellishment. It states that after giving praise to the girl as a ““true faithful maiden,’’ the bandits said to the other captured women,

‘All of you are like bitches who can be beckoned to come nearer.’’ Accordingly, all the literati and military personnel who submitted to the bandits during this rebellion were criticized and judged as incomparable to this member of the weaker sex.'® This story, with its moralistic intent, was held up as an example for the people to follow, but it also reveals the more general moral conduct of that time. The institution of marriage was much valued in China because it was regarded as a foundation of human relationships. When Chu Hsi was

first appointed magistrate of T’ung-an, Fukien, in 1155 at the age of twenty- five, he noted with horror the moral turpitude among certain sections of the people there. ‘‘Men live openly with someone who is not their

wife or concubine’’ or ‘‘secretly run away with someone, without a matchmaker or wedding ceremony.’’!”? The former was called ‘‘ku-an’’, 13 Ibid., chuan 61. Similar incidents can be found everywhere. (See: Shan-hsi t’ung chih, 1892 edition, chiian 79, lieh-ni 18.) During a period of about thirteen years after 1560, several thousand women in Yung-an county, Kwangtung, were captured by rebels, but only five of them took their lives afterwards, among whom four came from the families of gentry. (Yeh Ch’un-chi, Shih-tung chi, chian 10, Yung-an hsien lieh-nu chuan lun.) 14 Fu-chou fu chih, 1578 edition, chuan 32. 15 Liu-an chou chih, 1584 edition, chuan 6. 16 Jju-chou fu chih, 1575 edition, chuan 11. 17 Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chian 26.

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 19

(“‘ku’’—to care for), and the latter, ‘‘t’ao p’an’’— rebellious escape.'® Of

special interest was the fact that all those immoral incidents, according to Chu Hsi’s statement, were not solely due to the poverty of the common people, for they were also followed by the rich, as well as by the literati.’? From the middle of the Sung Dynasty, the customary moral standards propagated by Chinese scholars were unquestionably more rigorous than ever before. The precepts for females, written approximately during the Yung-lo period (1403-1423) by the noted orthodox

moralist T’s’ao ‘Tuan (?-1434), threw into glaring light the hideous punishment elders imposed on their clan women for committing the crime of unchastity. For example, the punishment prescribed for a maiden convicted of indecent behavior was to lock her up in a stable, leaving only a knife and a length of rope for her to kill herself. In cases where parents refused to permit the carrying out of the given sentence, the unwilling mother should be divorced and the unconsenting father

should be expelled from the village. Moreover, his name should be removed from the clan geneaology and he should be forbidden to enter the ancestors’ temple whether alive or dead. This deprivation would be in force until he repented and agreed to let his daughter end her life.?° But no matter how oppressive the moral imperative might have been, the people’s conduct during the Ming period was far from morally perfect. The Yuan and Ming Dynasties had been a period of literary ossification. Plays and novels were permitted only if they propagated the ideal, prescribed moral virtues, while those spreading stories about love affairs were Officially forbidden.?! Nonetheless, the more oppressive the restrictions were, the more the people hungered for emotional gratification. For

example, around the year 1535 in Ch’ao-chou, an area which was *8 In 1948, the author found this custom still practiced among some Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian countries. These two characters originally formed a compound verb meaning “‘to care for.’’ But after 800 years’ time, although the first character remained the same, the second was corrupted by different homophonic substitutions. Some interpreted it as caring for ‘‘trousers’’; others as for ‘‘a pair of worn shoes.’’ ‘9 Chu-tzu ta-ch’tan, Chu-tzu nien-p’u, chtian 1, part 1. 20 Yeh-hsing chu, KCTSCC, chiian 325.21. *1 According to the Yuan Codes, those who sang indecent songs in market squares would be whipped forty-seven lashes, while the elders of the transgressor’s village, instigators and neighbors would be given twenty-seven lashes each. (Shih-lin kuang chi, Chi wu, chiian shang, Chu t’iao-ko.) In the early Ming period, actors or actresses dressed up in costumes for performances were forbidden to play the roles of emperors, empresses, loyal ministers, noble statesmen, former sages or worthies. Offenders would be punished with a hundred heavy blows. Heads of families, officials and commoners alike who gave permission to act such roles would receive the same punishment. This did not apply to those who dressed up and performed as fairies, righteous males, virtuous females, filial devotees and submissive grandsons, with the intention of propagating reform. (Ta Ming lu chiang chieh, 1610, chuan 26, Hsing-lt tsa-fan.)

20 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

claimed to have faithfully inherited and handed down the doctrines of the

ardent moralist Han Yu (786-824) (a process parallelled in the other coastal states of Tsou and Lu with the doctrines of Confucius and Menclus), people from the higher classes down to the plebeians derived pleasure day and night from listening to the local operas which glorified elopement and freedom in marriage in defiance of parents’ traditional authority.2* Some of these operatic programs have been continuously performed and enjoyed by the people for many hundreds of years and have become a symbol of cultural identification for the Hokkien-speaking Overseas Chinese in various parts of the world.?3 The following record

reveals what impact these local operas representing the hopes and despairs of the people had. It states: Reportedly it was the custom in Ch’ao-chou to sing operas of other provinces in Ch’ao-chou dialect which invariably incited lustful desire in the hearts of the onlookers, often resulting in several cases of fallen maidens in a single night. Moreover, the wealthy families, being self-complacent and devoid of any sense of shame, even brought in actors for this disgraceful intemperance. A custom like this is vulgar indeed and it greatly offends public decency. Prohibitions have been repeatedly proclaimed, but have proven to be fruitless because of obstruction from those with power and influence. Now it has been decided that those who keep actors will be driven from their residential area. The elders of the villages are permitted to turn informer when obscene plays are being performed in their regions. Punish-

ment will be dealt on actors committing the crime; those (actors) who belong to a different district will be banished from the area, and the local ones will be forced to go back to farming in the countryside. ‘Those women who run away clandestinely will be brought to the court and a telltale mark will be put on the entrance of their families’ houses branding the family as one with an eloper. Only in this way will the people most likely begin to be circumspect in their deeds, and the degeneration of custom may be more or less reformed.**

The local history does not record whether this intended prohibition was actually carried out with any effectiveness. It seems unlikely because some other sources disclose that elopement induced by theatrical performances also happened a hundred years later in Tai-ts’ang, a prefecture famous for its prosperity and literary eminence. Whenever a travelling troupe was performing, cases of elopement occurred within a radius of 22 Kuang-tung t’ung chih, 1560 edition, chtian 20. 2° In Singapore, many Hokkien-speaking Chinese like to see the film ‘‘The Tale of Ch’en San and Wu Niang’’ (Ch’en No. 3 and the Fifth Maiden) twenty or thirty times successively when it is on show. (Singapore Teochou (Poit Ip) Huay Kuan’s Golden Anniversary

Souvenir Publication, Singapore, 1980, p. 276.)

** Kuang-tung t’ung chih, 1535 edition, chtian 14. Another local history of Ch’aochou commented that even in 1779 the opera of Ch’en San still constituted a great menace to public morals. (Chieh-yang hsien chih, 1779 edition, chiian 7.)

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 21

three to four li around that area.*° It is very difficult to verify the truth of this last statement. Some of the remarks evidently require further scrutiny. For example, the Grand Secretary Yin-chih (1427-1511), commenting on the appropriateness of authorizing widows to select their own

heirs, claimed that, ‘‘Nowadays, few widows are really virtuous. If we let them select the ones they love the most, they will all select their paramours.’’*°The Grand Secretary’s comment is clearly overexaggerated, but it is on such misogynistic premises that moral standards become formalized. Contradictory Interpretations

The above empirical examples, although fragmentary and temporally and geographically scattered, illustrate the fact that the long- established moral standards did not always exercise a decisive governing influence

over the people’s inclinations as might be expected. It appears that morality cannot be regarded as an a priori imperative channeling old and

new customs throughout the process of change. Instead, it is no more than a rationalization provided by either the persons directly involved or

the immediate eye witnesses to justify their various respective nonethical, but essential, concerns. The approval or disapproval of the eye witnesses, moreover, had a strong influence in prompting the persons involved to reach their decisions. The cases below indicate that one and the same social fact could have different, contradictory interpretations. a)Maiden Tou was a native of Tan-t’u; both of her parents were dead. She did not know that the person to whom she had been betrothed was one of her family’s servants until the wedding day. With no other way out, she 5 'T’ ai-ts’ang chou-chih, 1642 edition, chtan 5. Moralists of the Ch’ing Dynasty also strongly condemned the T’an Huang (ballad-singing) of Kiangsu and Chekiang provinces for corrupting public morals. It was stated, ‘‘Once ten small T’an Huang plays were performed and nine out of ten widows sought to marry a second husband.”’ In certain places, within two months following several days of T’an Huang performances, fourteen widows who had already maintained a solitary life for many years suddenly decided to remarry. One of them, with a son twenty years of age and well-known for her fidelity, unexpectedly engaged the aid of a matchmaker to seek a second husband. She simply walked away, ignoring her son’s bitter, tearful remonstrances. (YU chih, Te-i lu, part IT, chuan 11.) In 1845, during a month’s run of T’an Huang plays in a certain town of western Chekiang, six widows remarried and one unmarried girl of twenty-three from an official family eloped with the family’s head servant. Commentators frankly admitted that the official rewarding of hundreds to thousands of faithful widows and chaste maidens as an attempt to provide exemplary influences was simply unable to overcome the seductive temptation of a few T’an Huang plays. Unless the obscene plays were prohibited, two or three actors and actresses could make the Imperial Codes awarding fidelity and chastity of no avail whatsoever. (Liang Kung-ch’en, Ch’tan-chieh lu, p’ien 5, chuan 6.) 26 ‘Yin Chih, Chien-chai so-chui lu.

22 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

committed suicide by casting herself into a well. The magistrate admired her integrity very much and a stone tablet was erected in her memory on the near side of the mountain Fu-tso.?’ b)Maiden Hung was betrothed to Ying, a former servant of her family. After the death of her father, her clan members petitioned the magistrate to have the engagement broken off because of the difference in social status.

| Her brothers also maintained that a marriage should not be arranged between a noble woman and a person of low birth. But maiden Hung, still in her early teens, insisted that the betrothal should not be annulled because

the decision had been made by her father. She said it was better to be faithful to the one to whom she was betrothed than to marry another of noble origin. Sometime later, her fiancé Ying was taken to prison for rob-

bery. Hung then cut her hair and resolved to Jead a life of celibacy. Henceforth, she stayed in her upstairs room, devoting her entire life to waiting upon her widowed mother for seven years without ever coming downstairs. She died at the age of twenty-three.”®

According to Chinese convention of the time, the marriage alliance of a maiden with a family servant was inadmissible. In the second case cited above, even though maiden Hung did not want to comply with the convention, nonetheless she also had every reason to do as she did, and thus still gained the reputation of a virtuous maiden. Perhaps it is because we do not fully know what the complex circumstances were which led to the above betrothals that the outcome appears to lead to entirely different determinations. The differing interpretative judgements are therefore not of much relevance to the moral standards themselves, but are closely related to a number of non-moral considerations. Sometimes the situa-

tion was further muddled with conflicting claims from other family members. If that happened, even public opinion found it difficult to openly declare an indisputable stand. For example, should a female obey her parents, be faithful to her husband, or to her fiancé? Illustrations are given below. Mrs. Li was twenty-four when her husband died. She wanted to commit

suicide, but was afraid of the consequences which would involve her mother-in-law, so she went back to her natal family and hanged herself

there. Her father was so furious with this action that he decided to burn her corpse. Several hundred mourners were all in tears.?9 After her husband Ts’ai’s death, Mrs. Wang was under great pressure from her mother-in-law to remarry. She took her own life by drowning in a river. The T’s’ai clansmen detested such action, and they deliberately left her coffin on the bank of a river so it would putrefy quickly. It so happened there was a severe drought in the district that year and the magistrate, in accordance with the public’s requests, moved her coffin to a better place. Then

rain began to fall.%° ,

27 Nan-chi chih, 1534 edition, chtian 26. 28 Hui-chou fu chih, 1699 edition, chtian 16. 29 Yen-chou fu chih, 1614 edition, chuan 17. 30 Hu-kuang tsung-chih, 1591 edition, chtian 70.

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 23

It is ironic to learn in the above two cases that the fury unleashed on those honoring the cult of fidelity came from the widow’s natal family in one case, and from the husband’s family in the other. Sometimes the feeling

of disapproval was so strong that even public opinion and decisions of officials were unable to cope with it. One such instance happened in N1hsing, Chekiang. Maiden Ch’en was betrothed to a young man Wang. Not long afterwards, her father decided to break the marriage promise because Wang’s family was getting poorer. The young maiden finally took her own life. During the years of Chia-ching (1522-1566) a sheng-yuan, Wan Shih-an, and others reported this virtuous act to Hu the District Examiner of Scholars and he approved the suggestion that official distinction be granted to maiden Ch’en. The members of her father’s clan, however, objected to this decision. ‘The reason given was that since her father was a salaried graduate of their district examination, if she were rewarded for this reason it would undoubtedly bring discredit to her father for his breach of promise. This proposal therefore was abandoned.?!

As seen by the ambiguity in the moral judgements of the last three cases, these females evidently committed suicide not because of their orthodox

moral beliefs, but rather because they felt the exertion of non-moral pressures from factors which had made their past lives unbearable and undoubtedly would make their future lives so as well. Consequently, suicide came to be contemplated as the only way to free themselves from oppression. It seems paradoxical that throughout Chinese history the glorification of lifelong widowhood existed side by side with the custom of compelling

widows to remarry whether it was by natal families, or by marital families, or sometimes by both. This latter seemingly immoral practice was already prevalent from the seventh century onward, but was particularly rife during the Ming and Ch’ ing periods. The legal codes of these times reveal the original situation and its successive development. In the

T’ang code, no one except her own parents and grandparents was allowed to interfere with a widow’s determination to devote her life to solitary widowhood after the prescribed mourning period had passed.°? This indicates that remarriage under certain conditions was current prac-

tice and acceptable, and that no severe punishment was necessarily enforced. ‘The code of the late Ming was much more severe than that of

eight hundred years earlier. By then the punishment for compelling a 31 J-hsing hsien chih, 1590 edition, chiian 8. 32 Hstleh Ytin-sheng, T’ang Ming lu, chtian 13, part 2. The edict of 627 decreed that widows and widowers, after the expiration of their prescribed term of mourning, should all get married. (IT’ang hui-yao, chtian 83.)

24 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

widow to remarry had been extended to include even her own parents and grandparents, as well as her husband’s family, and the penalty for those involved was a thrashing of eighty heavy strokes.*? The legal sentence for causing a widow’s death was punishment in a manner comparable to the penalty for pressing any person to commit suicide, namely, the culprit was to be sent to a distant military station for service. After making a comparative study of the respective statutes

of the T’ang and Ming Dynasties from a purely judicial point of view, Hsteh Yun-sheng, the well-known Ch’ing Dynasty scholar of jurisprudence, was puzzled why the Ming statutes suddenly became so severe in this respect.3* Of course, one may say that it was due to the need for strengthening the cults of chastity and fidelity, and for the protection of female integrity during that period. However, a closer inquiry into the problem shows that it was the seriousness and frequency of this female tragedy that compelled the State to take action against it. One of the edicts during this period attributed the remarriage of widows under compulsion to the practice of infanticide which led to disruption in the institution of marriage: In 1526, official decoration was bestowed on Widow Wu of An-fu, Kiangsi. After her husband’s death, Wu resolved not to marry again. A soldier, Fu Tun, accompanied by a group of his soldier cohorts, forced her to wed him. In defiance, she took her life by hanging herself. When this was reported to the Throne, Fu Tun was sentenced to death. At that time, there was also a custom in Kiangsi of killing baby girls, and as a result, there were not enough females for the males to marry at their proper age. It gave the local officials a great deal of trouble to deal with this problem. After this particular case, the governor asked for an imperial decree prescribing severe

punishment for those practicing infanticide. Imperial permission was granted.°%° 33 [bid. 34 Thid.

35 Kuo-ch’ao tien-tsuan, chuan 227. This was the first case of a man’s being executed for cdusing a widow to take her own life because of his forcing her to remarry (with him)

against her will. Four years later in 1530, Lin Kuan, a military camp leader of Wuch’ang Military District, compelled Widow Chou to be his concubine and pressed her to accept his betrothal presents, so she took her own life. The methodology of traditional Chinese law was often based on analogy, rather than on logical analysis, which characterized contemporary Western legal systems. The initial sentence passed on Lin Kuan by the local judge was death, a decision based on the consideration that the end result of this transgression was analogous to that of the offences of rape and first degree murder, crimes which demanded the death sentence. However, when the case was sent to the provincial censor for confirmation, the initial sentence was revised. The new decision was that this case should not be compared with instances of rape or murder, because if the initial sentence were to be executed, the soul of Widow Chou would feel ashamed, as she had determined to devote her entire life to widowhood. A verdict like this, considering her to have been murdered by a rapist, would surely do damage to her reputation. There-

fore, this case ought to be judged in conformity with the traditional, established

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 25

The practice of killing baby girls unquestionably had repercussions upon

the institution of marriage, but its correlation with the problem of widow’s self-immolation needs further elucidation. Infanticide in China

The incidence of infanticide was recorded in China as early as the third century B.C. by Han Fei-tzu (d. 233 B.C.), the well-known Legalist and a fellow disciple with Li Ssu (d. 208 B.C.) of the teachings of Hsun-tzu. It

was the custom in pre-Ch’in China that the birth of a boy would be rejoiced and congratulated, but a new-born girl would be killed. ‘The interpretation Han offered for this practice focussed on considerations of

future incommodity, or more generally, the calculation of long-term interests. It is noteworthy that this great Legalist referred to this custom very indifferently without any trace of indignation, even emphasizing it as an example of utilitarianism.*°

In the History of the Former Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-24 A.D.) the custom of female infanticide is attributed to the parents’ fear of their

example—Lin Kuan should pay the mortuary expenses (officially fixed at ten taels of silver) and be sent to a distant military station for service. Thereafter, the punishment for those who forced virtuous widows to remarry which resulted in their deaths should be dealt with as this case recommended. (Ta Ming lu, Ta Ming lt shu fu-li, 1567 edition, chuan 21; Hstieh Yiin-sheng, Tu-lii ts’un-i, chian 70.) °° Han Fei-tzu wen, liu fan. The desire to limit the population was advocated by Han Fei-tzu. He observed, ‘‘In ancient times people were few, but wealthy and without strife; the government gave no rewards or punishments because people were self-controlled. People at present think five sons are not too many, and each son has five sons also; and when the grandfather is still living there are twenty-five descendants. Therefore, there are more people and less wealth; they work hard and receive little. Even if the govern-

ment uses twice as much reward and twice as much punishment, strife cannot be prevented...If the population is small, good relationship is bound to exist.’’ (Han Fei-tzu,

wu tu.) In present-day China, female infanticide has still been reported in some rural areas, especially under pressure of the recent regulations to have only one child per couple in order to limit population growth. Moreover, the misogynistic attitude of past historical periods still lingers on in the minds of some men. It was recently reported in the People’s Daily that fifteen women from Ho county in Anhui province have asked for a ‘‘second liberation.’’ They are being called ‘‘disagreeable persons’’ because they have never given birth to a son, in contrast to those ‘‘perfect persons’? who are mothers of boys. At weddings, ‘‘perfect persons’’ are asked to make or arrange the bed for the newly-wedded cou-

ple, to accompany the bride as maids of honor or to welcome the bride as guides. ‘‘Disagreeable persons,’’ on the other hand, are not allowed to touch the bedding and should keep themselves away when the bride enters the groom’s house for the first time. If a woman gives birth to a boy, there will be much feasting, congratulations, presents from relatives and friends, and even display of fireworks in neighboring villages. If a girl is born, however, the mother will be scolded and humiliated from the moment the baby utters her first cry. (People’s Daily, February 23, 1983.)

26 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

future inability to provide the girl with a proper dowry.°’ However, another source from the sixth century A.D. indicates that it was not in fact due to impoverishment; some wealthy families with several concubines also cruelly killed baby girls after their birth with no regard for the mothers’ wailing and begging for mercy.*® The extent of infanticide varied in different times and places. From the

Northern Sung (960-1127) onward, it was alarmingly common in the southern part of China especially in the regions along the banks of the Yangtze River. This may be interpreted as a consequence of the shift of demographical and economic centers from the north to the southeast, which resulted in the provinces along the Yangtze River and Fukien becoming very densely populated areas. In the fifth month of 1109, an edict was issued imposing a heavy penalty of banishment to military stations one thousand li away for service on those who committed infan-

ticide in Fukien. Many in this province were apt to kill or drown newborn infants without distinction by sex as soon as the official taxes and corvee regulations had been periodically fixed, in order to avoid an increased reassessment on their lot. Six months after the edict had been issued, the Minister of the Board of War requested that this prohibition be extended in its scope of enforcement to encompass all the provinces along the Yangtze River, from the present Szechwan right down to the coast.*° ‘The well-known poet Su Tung-p’o gave a detailed account of the continued prevalence of infanticide in the area of the present Hunan and Hupeh provinces in approximately 1079: The commoners of Yueh and O regions customarily want to rear only two boys and one girl. Newborn babies after that will be killed. They particu37 Han-shu, 72, lieh chuan 42, Wang Chi chuan. An atrocious happening occurred in 1691, in Ch’ia-shan, Chekiang. Ch’en, by nature a very cruel woman, and her husband T’s’ao had four children, two boys and two girls. One day, hearing the sound of loud music, Ch’en went out for a look and saw a very sumptuous trousseau procession passing by. It suddenly occurred to her that if she were to provide such trousseaux for her daughters, what would be left for her sons? Ch’en, therefore, decided to put to death the younger of the two daughters, then only seven years of age, by locking her upstairs to let her die of starvation. However, a maid, who was the girl’s wet nurse, took pity

on her and secretly fed her. Finding the girl still alive after half a month, Ch’en discovered the secret help she was getting. She got so angry that she drove the maid out of the house and enforced the blockade to her daughter’s room. The whole family paid

no heed to the little girl’s screaming day and night. When she heard people eating downstairs, she tried every means to beg them for food. She even tried to gnaw a thin part of the floor to make a hole to peep through, with cries which were too horrible to bear, but her parents enjoyed their meals as if nothing were going on. When at last the girl had died of hunger, they found she had totally eaten off her cotton-padded jacket. : A year later, Ch’en’s whole family, it was said, died of throat trouble, as a punishment. (Hst. Ch’ing, Hsin-cheng lu, chian 15.) 38 Yen-shih chia-hstin, chih-chia pien. 39 Sung hui-yao, chtian 21,777; Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao; Hu-k’ou k’ao.

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 27

larly detest having girls and do not spare them, thereby creating a situation where there are more bachelors than marriageable girls. They often drown the newborn baby with cold water. The parents, unable to bear this, usually close their eyes and turn their backs while pressing the baby down in a tub,

letting it struggle and whimper until it dies. If the infant happens to be rescued by someone and survives for about ten days, then the parents will refuse to give up the child for adoption. It shows after all, that human instincts still exist, but are unfortunately distorted by customs. ‘There is a story about a person named Chin Kuan-heng, a native of O, who has passed the imperial examination and is now a magistrate. Before his birth, his uncle dreamed that a small boy was pulling his gown and seemed to be begging him for something. The same dream occurred the next evening, indicating its urgency. He was puzzled at first, but then recollected that his

sister was soon to give birth to an unwanted child, so he hurried to his sister's house and found the baby already immersed in a tub full of water. It was from such a critical situation that Chin Kuan-heng was saved.*®

In 1112, thirty-three years after the above-mentioned edict, a scholar without a graduate title submitted a memorial to the capital pointing out the lingering existence of old customs, specifically the openly homicidal

crime called ‘‘weeding out of children’’ occurring in the southeast regions of the Empire—killing boys and girls when there were too many.

The memorial enumerated the regions of Hui-chou and Hsien-ch’en prefectures in the present Anhui province as the worst affected regions; the next were a part of Kiangsu, and then certain areas in Kiangsi and Szechwan.*!

When heavy land taxes and corvee were levied based on the number of adult human heads in thickly inhabited, but impoverished, regions, the victims were not just girls. In areas where domestic arts and enter-

tainment services such as cooking, singing and embroidering were specialized economic activities, girls were valued much more than boys, because a grown daughter could always command a price, as in Lin-an (the present Hangchow) during the Southern Sung.** Likewise, maidens #0 ‘Tung-p’o chi, chtan 30, Yu Chu-o-chou shu i shou. A report of 1845 by a missionary stated that four different modes of infanticide were practiced in Amoy, Fukien: 1) drowning in a vessel of water; 2) pinching the throat; 3) suffocating by means of a wet cloth held over the mouth; 4) choking by placing a few grains of rice into the mouth of the infant. If sons were alternately interspersed with daughters in a family, the people esteemed it good luck, and were not accustomed to murder the female children. A villager who had had eight children, all daughters of whom he had murdered five, told the missionary his personal feelings about infanticide. He said he always had compunctions of grief for ten days after murdering a child and that both he and his wife wept very much at the time, grieving at their misfortune of having female offspring. (George Smith, Consular Cities of China, London, 1847, pp. 393, 394.) #1 Sung hui-yao, chiian 21,777. *2 Yang-ku man-lu, chan 422. As a current critic pointed out in the People’s Daily, Peking, April 2, 1983, ‘‘Since the initiation of Shao-hsing opera in Chekiang, the characters of which are exclusively made up of females, many baby girls have been saved in Shao-hsing and Hsing-hsien. When a baby girl is born, the father often says, ‘Don’t drown her. Let her grow up to sing in the opera!’”’

28 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

in Canton with special skills in cooking were competitively chosen as brides by the poor as well as by the rich families.** This discrimination in favor of females also applied to slave girls in Fukien; if legitimate children were born to them, only the girls could survive, the boys were to be killed.** In general, however, it was baby girls who were the unfor-

tunate victims, due to the inability of the poor to feed an extra mouth, and the ruinously expensive burden for the rich of providing a dowry to marry them off. A more humane, and also common way to get rid of baby girls was to immediately give them away to their future husbands’ families. Although this usually meant a miserable life of servitude for the girls thereafter, and was regarded as not very reputable for the parents’ names; nevertheless, it was better than brutal killing shortly after birth,

which, alas, had been given social sanction. Evidently, female infanticide gradually became rampant during the Ming and Ch’ing times in the densely populated provinces. In 1484, a sub-director of studies in Wen-chou of Chekiang reported to the Court the seriousness of infanticide in three western prefectures of that province, and requested that a proclamation be issued ordering stringent prohibitions. ‘The Board of Censors forwarded this report to the Emperor

together with additional information that this evil custom had already polluted the whole of Chekiang, Kiangsi, Fukien and Nan Chih-li (the latter province covering approximately the present Kiangsu and Anhui provinces). After being informed of the severity of the situation, the Emperor could not but acknowledge the failure of the government to eradicate inhumane customs which controlled people to such an extent that they would be led to act in ways completely contradictory to the teachings regarding the sanctity of human life, and to the natural bond between parents and their children.*° Despite occasional instances of apparent condonement by some schools

of thought such as the Legalists represented by Han Fei-tzu mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, infanticide has in fact been constantly condemned throughout Chinese history. Numerous exhortative books

and tracts have been published as moral correctives and various penalties, although in general ineffectively carried out, have been imposed by successive dynasties. During the Sung Dynasty, the crime of infanticide was considered analogous to, and punished as, premeditated filicide.*® In the legal codes of the Yuan Dynasty, the punishment was *3 ‘T’ou-huang tsa-lu, chuan 422. 44 "Te-fu, Min-cheng ling-yao, 1767 edition, chuan 2. *5 Kuo-ch’ao hsien-chang lei-pien, chuan 25. 46 Tbid., note 39.

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 29

to confiscate half of the family’s property.*” In the Ming, the statutes of the successive rulers from 1500 to 1585 invariably made this an offence punishable by servitude on a military station one thousand li away from

home.*® Many individuals also spared no personal effort, whenever possible, to reform this degenerate custom.*? Nonetheless, all these *7 Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao, Yuan hsing-fa chih, Hu-hun men. *8 Kuo-ch’ao hsien-chang lei-pien, chuan 25. The Ch’ing was the only dynasty which except for the 1742 official ‘‘Encouragement of the Establishment of Founding Institutions’’ which was issued as a partial remedy (An-hui t’ung chih, 1876 edition, chuan 3), did not specifiy what penalty was to be imposed on those guilty of this crime. An edict of 1697 only declard, ‘“Those who break this prohibition will be severely punished.’’ (Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chian 753.) *9 ‘The well-known Chia Piao of the middle of the second century A.D. devoted his strongest endeavors to the forbidding and elimination of infanticide when he was magistrate of Hsin-hsi (the present Hsi county in Honan). As heavy a penalty was imposed on perpetrators of infant murder as on those convicted of any other homicide. One day, two criminal cases occurred in the district; a robber murdered someone in the southern part of the county, and a woman killed her baby in the northern part. While Chia Piao was preparing to examine the cases, his subordinates suggested that priority should be given to the case of robbery. The magistrate was indignant at this suggestion, saying that it was normal for robbers to kill someone, but the crime of infanticide was in defiance of nature itself. Therefore, he went to the northern part first for the examination. The effect of Chia’s open moral indignation was to induce the robber to give himself up. Within several years’ time, thousands of babies were saved in Chia’s district. People regarded him as a local patriarch and established the custom of calling all newborn children ‘‘Chia’s son’’ or ‘“‘Chia’s daughter.’’ (Hou-han shu, lieh chuan 57.) When Wang Chun, a famous statesman of the Chin Dynasty (265-316 A.D.), was prefect of Pa (the present Szechwan), he saved several thousands of babies from death by imposing heavy penalties on those committing infanticide, and by at the same time reducing taxes and corvee based on head count. Later, Wang prepared to launch an expedition to conquer the middle sections along the Yangtze River. By this time, many of the babies he had saved had grown into fit soldiers. Before leaving for the battlefield, they were reminded by their parents, ‘‘Prefect Wang saved your lives. You must fight for him until death!’’ (Chin-shu 42, lieh chuan 12.)

In the early period of Hui-tsung’s reign (1101-1115), Ya Wei was appointed magistrate of Shun-ch’ang in Fukien where children after the third child were killed, without distinction by sex, because of local customs which imposed heavy burdens on child-rearing. In order to reform this degenerate practice, Yu Wei invited all the influential elders to come to his yamen. After serving them personally with wine, he circulated a tract he had prepared in advance, imploring the elders to urge their villagers to stop the practice of infanticide. This did prove effective and in a few years’ time, thousands of babies were saved, each of the names they were given having some connection with

Yu to express the families’ gratitude. Several years later, after he was no longer magistrate there, YU passed through Shun-ch’ang on official business and several hundred children came out to welcome their saviour. (Wang Te-ch’en, Chu shih, chtian 3.) From 1659 to 1661, Magistrate Chang Chuo-shih through strong exhortative measures saved some ten thousand baby girls in Hsiao-kan, Hupei. (Hsiao-kan hsien chih, 1882 edition, chan 5, 13, « 21.) However, at present, Hsiao-kan still has an overwhelmingly high number of young boys relative to the number of girls. The sex ratio between the

0-5 years of age group of boys and girls is 182:100; that of the 0-3 years of age group, | 384:100; and that of the 0-1 year of age group, 503:100. (Soczology Journal, vol. 4, Shanghai, 1982, p. 21.)

30 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

endeavors were entirely inadequate in proportion to the magnitude of this abominable problem. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty when population growth began to accelerate rapidly, the incidence of infanticide likewise began to gain momentum in the densely inhabited regions, especially Fukien where even the wealthiest families killed baby girls after the second one.°° The following is an account from Fu-ch’ing county of Fu-chou prefecture in about 1625: The killing of newborn baby girls is the most horrible custom of this county. A survey by households reveals that it is practiced by almost every family. After giving birth to a baby, the mothers are often in a semiconscious state and are afraid of touching cold water. The husbands are not allowed, nor willing, to enter the delivery room and the sisters-in-law are mostly nervous and scared, so the midwife is always the only person with her wits about her who can do whatever she likes. Since she has no flesh-and-blood ties

with the baby, she can lay her murderous hands on the newborn infant without a flinch. When a baby is born, the midwife holds it in her hands for examination. If it is a girl, she just throws her into a tub and asks the mother, ‘‘Keep it or not?’’ If the answer is ‘‘No,’’ she calls for water and holds the baby upside down by the feet, dipping her head into the water. A healthy and strong infant will struggle and scream, so the midwife will have to press the baby’s head down firmly until her feeble cry dies away. All the while, the mother is lying on the bed, helpless and heart-broken, bursting into tears. When the baby is motionless and dead, the midwife rises from her stool, tidies her dress, and asks for food and wine and her

payment of money. Then she leaves the house in a triumphant mood, striding along with buoyant steps.°*!

As one commentator lamented, ‘‘According to normal humanheartedness, we do not nip a sprouting bud, nor disturb a hibernating insect, because they receive favor for growth and development from | Heaven and Earth. Why are innocent babies, no different from wriggling worms, not given a chance to survive, but condemned to be slaughtered through no fault of their own? We are terrified by those who embrue their hands in blood; for tigers do not kill their cubs for food and cows 50 Ch’tan min shih-hua, chuian 7. 51 Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1871 edition, chtan 35. The local history of Nan-ch’ang, the provincial capital of Kiangsi, records a story called ‘‘Just Recompense for Infanticide.”’ In 1747 a child was born to a childless couple, the husband Wang being already sixty years of age. In the darkness, the child was taken to be a girl, and as they had continually done many times before, Mrs. Wang asked the midwife to have the infant drowned. The next morning it was discovered that the infant was in fact a boy, killed mistakenly due to the blurred vision of the mid-wife in the dim light of the oil lamp. Wang and his wife wept bitterly almost to death. People attributed the outcome of this sad incident to divine recompense for the couple’s repeated killing of baby girls. Not long afterwards, Wang died without an heir. (Nan-ch’ang hsien chih, 1750 edition, chian 52.)

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 31

have instinctive love for their calves. Even animals are naturally endowed with affection for their offspring. Why can not human beings, with their superior and refined qualities, match these dumb creatures in this respect?’’°? The incomprehensibility of this custom is made even stronger by the fact that this callous brutality was also committed by the families of sheng-ytian°? who would certainly be expected to strictly adhere to the principle of human-heartedness, the key concept of Confucius. Forced Remarriage of Widows

The disproportionate ratio of the sexes resulting from female infanticide

undoubtedly led to a shortage of marriageable women at a later date. Some estimates of the situation in Fukien are quite alarming. During the period between 1649-1659 in Chien-ning prefecture, nearly half of the male population were said to be bachelors. Later, in 1743, in the county of Te-hua, of ten male adults, six or seven remained unmarried.°* There is a saying in China: ‘‘When something is scarce, it is precious.’’ This

however, did not apply to the situation of women in China. The ‘“preciousness’’ of females led to their being treated as assets for exploitation, no matter what their status, as maidens, wives, or widows. Anyone would agree that the only way out was to commit suicide, as the women did in those wretched cases described above. The following is an incredible account: T52. Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1871 edition, chuan 57. 53 Ibid., chuan 58.

°* Ibid., chuan 57. One might also be prompted to ask what other social problems could have arisen as a result of a situation such as this. Perhaps this is the key to an explanation of the many peculiar abnormalities of Fukien in comparison with other provinces in China. For instance, it was said that nine out of ten wandering monks all over China came from Fukien. (Fu-chou fu chih, 1754 edition, chtan 24, quoted passage from

Huang Kan.) This phenomenon was similarly reported in only one other province, Szechwan, another very densely populated area. (Tseng Feng, Yuan tu chi, chuian 17; Ch’en shih, chuan 3.) No nuns, however, could be found in Shao-wu prefecture where female infanticide was widespread. (Shao-wu fu chih, 1900 edition, chuan 9.) Prolonged deprivation of contact with the female sex may also explain the prevalence of homosexuality, called “‘sworn brotherhood,’’ in Fukien, especially in Ch’tuan-chou and Chang-chou prefectures. (Wan-li yeh-hu-pien, 1619, chtan 24, Nan-se chih-mi; Wu-tsa-tsu, 1661, chuan 8; Min-cheng ling-yao, 1767, chiian 3.) In the criminal codes of the Ch’ing Dynasty, the crime of sodomy was analogous to that of forcing something into somebody’s mouth, and was punishable by one hundred heavy blows. (Ta Ch’ing lu, hu lu.) In 1838, the offenders were punished by one hundred heavy blows in addition to carrying a cangue for one month. (Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1871 edition, chan 55.) But in Fukien, the custom of being ‘‘sworn brothers’’ was still something that could be boasted about in public, rather than being considered shameful. (Min-cheng ling-yao, chuan 3.)

32 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

Mrs. Kung was married to T’s’eng Shih-cho, an inveterate gambler, who had lost all his family possessions in gambling. The only thing left in the house that was worth any money was his wife’s skirt. One day when his wife

was pounding unpolished rice in a stone mortar by stamping a wooden pestle with her feet, this hardened gambler pretended to go and turn over the rice for her, but instead put their baby in the mortar. Terrified about hurting the baby, his wife had to stand still and let her husband take off her skirt. Even after such a horrible experience, Mrs. Kung still had to endure her situation and go about the daily chores. Soon afterwards, T’s’eng sold his wife for some money, thus forcing her to commit suicide by hanging herself.°°

The custom of selling or mortgaging one’s wife was rather common in Chekiang and some districts in Fukien, especially in Fu-an and Te-hua.°®

In the latter district, the money paid was only several taels of silver in 1743,°’ no more than one-tenth of the value of the betrothal presents required for a proper marriage for the poor.°® If this could happen to a woman with a husband, one can easily imagine what would happen to a helpless widow. If the avariciousness came only from the members of the marital family,°? a widow faced with a dim future could possibly pin her forlorn hopes on the natal family for help. But if all failed, the prospect of marrying a man of low status, or being worse than a concubine, would give her no alternative but death. Such a case made the Ch’ienlung Emperor very furious indeed. As the edict itself points out, it was not an extraordinary case, but an event of common occurrence. An Imperial Edict of the ninth year of Ch’ien-lung (1754). In the memorial submitted by the Governor of Shansi requesting that official distinction be

granted to a virtuous girl, Han K’ai-chieh, it states, ‘‘K’ai-chieh was betrothed to Wang Chao-wen. After Wang’s death, she refused to be betrothed to anybody else. But in view of the fact that the never-married son-in-law had been dead for a long time, her parents asked a matchmaker to betroth their daughter to another family, which resulted in K’ai-chieh’s death by hanging.’’ (According to Ch’ien-lung’s judgement), after examin°° Chang-chou fu chih, 1625 edition, chuan 35. °° Chang Shen, Chung-kuo hun-yin fa tsung-shu, Shanghai, 1935, p. 36. °7 Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1871 edition, chtian 58. In 1977, the author saw a government proclamation prohibiting the tyrannizing of women. A case concerning the mortgage of

a woman happened in Te-hua. After her husband was sentenced to two years of imprisonment, the woman was mortgaged to someone else for a period of two years by her husband’s elder brother, who received a downpayment of 200 yuan, and then 100 yuan for each year of the contract. 58 Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chiian 20.

°9 ’*Matrimony is customarily based on wealth. The rich spend several hundred dollars for betrothal presents, the poor at least one hundred. Even to marry a widow will cost one hundred to two hundred dollars, which would always be divided between her late husband’s parents, brothers and clan brothers.’’ (Ch’iung-shan hsien chih, 1911 edition, chuan 2.)

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 33

ing the details of this matter, it is apparent that K’ai-chieh’s original intention was to remain unmarried all her life without any wish of dying. Her

death was the result of her parents’ avariciousness for another lot of betrothal presents. After their daughter’s death, the parents have requested an official decoration, hoping that with the award they will get money to build an arch to commemorate her chastity and purity in an amount which would far exceed the mortuary expenses. Moreover, it is uncertain that the money granted would be actually used to erect an arch as prescribed. If this

were the case, the generous Code of the State would only satiate her parents’ greed, having no benefit for the preservation of public well-being, and instead nourishing the practice of fraud. If a virgin who has sworn not to marry anyone after the death of her betrothed has sacrificed her life in

the cause of duty, she should be rewarded by the bestowing of a tablet issued by the Governor and sent to her house for display. This will be sufficlient to comfort her virtuous soul in the other world, without the necessity of the Governor’s submitting a special memorial requesting official distinction and erection of a commemorative arch. Henceforth, if similar cases happen in other provinces, the authorities concerned should act in accordance with this resolution. °°

In the above edict, the Ch’ien-lung Emperor seems to have touched the heart of the problem, that is, for what underlying reasons and for what intended purposes an arch of commemoration was to be built, disentangling some of the non-moral interests and motivations which clouded the moral ideals believed by the people for centuries past. Nonetheless, this notoriously autocratic ruler of the Ch’ing Dynasty really had no idea of the extent of the corruption of his bureaucratic machine which had inflicted so much misery on the widows of China. After reviewing the evil

customs of the region as written in the records, Wang ‘Tsu-she, general compuer of the local history of ‘Tai-ts’ung prefecture, generalized the situation as follows: The custom of forcing widows to remarry is brought about by local villains whose involvement in this dirty work will not cease even at the risk of their

lives. Their participation in this outrageous conduct is made possible through their secret connection with the wicked yamen clerks and runners.

If the villains are to be punished, the wicked yamen clerks and runners should first be penalized in order to deprive them of protection. Then the local people should be clearly informed about the official regulation, which is: “‘If a widow intends to marry again after the expiration of the full period

of mourning, she can go back to her natal family and wait for a suitable arrangement. If she has no natal family to go back to, the matrimony should be directed by her parents-in-law or relatives. ‘Those who arrange

remarriages for widows not in accordance with the regulation are punishable by severe measures.’’ ‘This is in fact simply a matter of rectification, the effectiveness of which hes solely with the officials concerned and

their unremitting execution of the regulation. 60 ‘Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chan 403.

34 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

In the early 1860’s, when the bandits in Kwangtung had just been pacified, a yamen runner Wang thwarted the regulation and committed the above-mentioned crime in league with a local villain. After careful inquiry, Magistrate Li immediately arrested Wang and had him executed on the spot. Li’s decisive action brought this kind of evil practice somewhat under control. Now, twenty years later, it has made a comeback.®!

The pressure to remarry was an important factor leading to suicide among widows in China. From 1368-1612, there were 166 faithful widows enumerated in the local history of Ch’tan-chou prefecture in Fukien; among the fifty-eight widows who had committed suicide, eight

were said to have occurred after forced remarriage, while another twenty-four of them were described as having been under compulsion to

marry again, but they all rejected this and instead took their lives as adherents of marital fidelity.®? From 1368-1457, there were nine cases of widows’ suicide in Shao-hsing prefecture, Chekiang, all of them having been forced to remarry.®?

Since widows who committed suicide were mostly childless, it may perhaps lead to the false impression that widows with children could escape the terrible fate of being forced into remarriage against their will. On the contrary, widows with children could not lead a peaceful life either. Upon the death of their husband, widows with children were customarily asked to exercise managerial rights over the family’s property until their sons reached maturity. Yet the performance of this function would always be obstructed by other members of their clan, involving sinister intrigues or even murderous schemes. It was under these circumstances that the successful continuance of widowhood was so highly respected. Property Problems Involved

According to the civil codes of the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, a childless widow was entitled to look after her late husband’s portion of the family property on the condition that a boy of the same generation in the family as her children would have been, chosen by the elders of the clan, be adopted by her. In the case of her remarriage, however, her 61 Wang Tzu-she, Wen-chen wen-chi, 1906 edition, chtuan 2, Chou-chih yu-lun. 62 Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chiian 22. If the dowry had been a big sum of money, the natal family would insist on the restitution of the dowry when their daughter died without an heir. (Ku Yen-wu, Ting-lin wen-chi, chuan 5, Hua-yang Wang-shih tsung-tz’u chi.) In the case of suicide, the natal family always seized the opportunity to coerce the husband’s family into doing what they wished, including the return of the dowry. (Ch’ang-lo hsien chih, 1869 edition, chtian 20.) 6§ ‘Ta Ming 1-t’ung chih, 1460 edition, chtan 45.

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 395

original marital family had the right to put her late husband’s property, as well as her own original dowry, at their own disposal.®* As a result,

a widow’s property, however small, was always the envy of other members of the family and a very complicated matter for a helpless widow to deal with. Thus it was for this reason, the greed for property, that families of the upper middle class in certain areas wanted to get rid of a widow by forcing her into remarriage, regardless of whether she had a son or not. In Hui-chou during the middle of the Ming Dynasty, two separate cases are

recorded of pregnant young widows being forced, right after the husband’s death, to abort their babies in order to facilitate remarriage arrangements. In one case the pressure came from the natal family, and in the other, from the marital family.®° Therefore, in fact the virtue of fidelity for widows of upper middle class families lay not only in the endurance of lifelong celibacy, but also in the perseverance in the struggle with relatives for the preservation of her late husband’s possessions and the protection of her children. In the 1763 edition of the local history of Ch’tan-chou, the idea of selecting model widows was based on the following principle: If a widow could resist resolutely the pressure to con-

tract a second marriage, or surmount the ardors of self-preservation when all those about her coveting her inheritance had broken into open hostility, then and only then would her story be given in more detail.®®

The case concerning a widow in Fu-an, Fukien, in the early Ming period typifies the bitter suffering of the unfortunate widows. Widow Ch’en Su-chieh was literate. Her husband died when their only son was just seven years old. Her husband’s elder brother, longing fervently for the property allocated to her fatherless son, repeatedly tried to force her to remarry, but was always met with Ch’en’s tearful refusal. When the poor widow first became aware of her brother-in-law’s sinister intentions, she wrote down a list of her family’s property and put it secretly between the leaves of a book. Then she shaved her hair to become a nun, to prove her determination never to marry again. Nonetheless, her brother-in-law still

did not leave her in peace. Eventually, under the pretext of visiting her parents, Ch’en committed suicide by drowning herself in a big stream. All the local people lamented her death, but the county officials knew nothing about it. In 1483, Ch’en’s property list was discovered by her grandson who brought it to the county magistrate to prove that his grandfather’s property had been usurped by this granduncle. Hence, Ch’en’s fidelity and intelligence came to be known by all.°’ 6 ‘Ta Ming lu; Ta Ch’ing lu, hu lu; Jonathan D. Spence, The Death of Woman Wang, New York, 1978, pp. 71-72. 65 Hui-chou fu chih, 1566 edition, chtiian 20. 66 Ch’uan-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chtan-shou fan-li. 67 Fu-an hsien chih, 1884 edition, chtian 27.

36 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

Why did Widow Ch’en not go to the magistrate’s yamen herself to peti-

tion for help and protection when she was alive? This question will

undoubtedly be raised by Western readers. The code of the Ming Dynasty might possibly answer this question satisfactorily: Females are forbidden to appear before the court to accuse others concern-

ing marriage, cultivated land, property, and so on. It should be done by entrusting themselves and their case to someone to act on their behalf. Only childless widows are permitted to appear in the court.®

This restriction alone put Widow Ch’en in a very desperate position, not to mention the additional crime which would have been committed by having a junior member of the family suing a senior member in court. Even if Widow Ch’en had succeeded in doing so, the result would not have been very helpful to her case because official orders were usually ignored.®? Between 1522 and 1566 in Chekiang, the provincial examiner of schools granted ten mou of arable land to an impoverished widow who had been deprived of her property by a powerful relative. To her dismay,

not long afterwards, this ten mou of land was also taken by that relative. ’”°

What avenues existed for a resourceful widow to follow in fending for her

own security? From the Ming records, it seems that there was a common practice for childless widows to “‘voluntarily’’ submit their possessions to the ancestral halls of their late husbands’ families.’1 This would effectively forestall its being taken away by powerful relatives, and perhaps her being forced to remarry as well. As a widow she had to be much more submissive than other females in order to remain in widowhood.’? Sometimes she could seek refuge in her natal home if she were lucky enough to have one. Otherwise, she would be completely at the mercy of power68 ‘Ta Ming ling, Huang Ming chih-shu, Kyoto, 1937. 69 In the early Wan-li reign (1573-1620), a young widow was compelled to move out of her house by her late husband’s nephew, a scholar without a degree, who wanted to sell the house for money. She wept bitterly and expressed her desire to die. Her neighbors became worried and reported the case to the magistrate who gave orders that half of the house should be reserved for her. This nephew, however, did not heed the official instruction, but went ahead and sold the house for one hundred taels of silver. He gave her thirty taels to fulfill whatever obligation he had to her and drove her out of the house. (Ch’ient’ang hsien chih, 1609 edition, Chi-hsien.) A powerful relative became interested in a widow’s house and planned to seize it by force. The poor widow had no other way to resist than to bury her husband’s coffin in the house temporarily. The relative sent his men to dig out the coffin by breaking down a wall at night. Having no more excuses to refuse, the widow could only let the house be taken. (Ming ch’ao fen-sheng jen-wu k’ao, 1622 edition, chtian 37, Yang wu-lieh chuan.) 70 Yu-yao hsien chih, 1889 edition, chuan 25. 71 She-hsien chih, 1935 edition, chtiian 11. 72 K’ai-hua hsien chih, 1631 edition, chtian 5.

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 37

ful relatives, and even the safety of her own and her children’s lives would be at stake.” In their desperation, widows also had recourse to a more drastic means to express their resolution to remain a widow, entirely acceptable accord-

ing to the social institutions of the times, yet still short of resorting to violent suicidal death. Cutting off the hair and disfiguring the body were usually the methods used. The most common way was to chop off*one or two fingers in the presence of family members to prove their deter-

mination. Such acts have a long history in China and have been described in local histories in various versions and magnitude of embellishment. Once one or two fingers were chopped off, the pressure to remarry or suspicion of the widow’s sincerity in her devotion to her husband’s

memory would be lessened. Widows who performed this kind of disfigurement were called ‘‘Mo-chih Niang’’ (Madame Short of Finger).’* A certain American-Chinese professor’s mother-in-law, it is said, did this to convince her parents-in-law of her resolution to remain a widow, thus enabling her to retain her eligible share of her late husband’s property. _ Figures given in the local history of Lu-an in Shansi show that the continuance of widowhood there was also closely related to the existence of rightful heirs. From 1368-1612, 101 virtuous widows were enumerated in that prefecture. Among them, eighty-nine had sons of their own, and

only twelve were without heirs (of these twelve, actually three had daughters who were not regarded as heirs).’° With no heir to care for and no property to protect, it seemed there was less necessity to remain a widow. Morally, it was not compulsory for a childless widow to follow her husband into the other world. Nevertheless, ‘‘It is a common belief that a childless woman should end her life after her husband’s death.’’’® From the above accounts, it may be safe to suggest that the prevalence of lifelong widowhood and female suicide in China during the Ming and ’ A widow of nineteen had a son three months old when her husband died. Her sisterin-law instigated a plot to have an old maid kill the baby with a needle. Fortunately, immediate treatment saved the baby. Therefore, this young widow gave up all of her possessions except the house she lived in to ensure the safety of her child. (Ch’tan-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chtiian 69.) Another widow’s son was poisoned by her sister-in-law because the widow refused to carry Out an arranged contract to remarry. (Fu-an hsien chih, 1884 edition, chuan 27.) To guard against an influential relative’s plot to seize her property, a widow first sent her baby son to her natal family and then prepared to face the threat alone. One night she was stabbed by this relative, but was fortunately saved by another widow relative. (Ta Ming i-t’ung chih, chtian 42.) 74 Shan-hsi tung chih, 1892 edition, chtian 180. 7” Lu-an fu chih, 1612 edition, chian 13. 7° Ming-shih, chtan 302, lieh nui 2.

38 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS

Ch’ing times cannot be interpreted solely as manifestations of the traditional moral ideas promoted by the neo-Confucianist Chu Hsi (11301200) in the middle of the Sung Dynasty. Although deeply rooted in the

underlying soil of Chinese culture, yet we have seen that the cult of marital fidelity varied in scope and in intensity in response to specific socio-economic conditions during different eras, only to culminate in the Ming-Ch’ing period. This process of development, especially after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, will be dealt with in the following chapters.

CHAPTER THREE

SUDDEN PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARTTAL

FIDELITY IN THE LATE MING PERIOD Quantitative Assessment

There is no doubt that the cult of marital fidelity became unprecedently

more prevalent in the Ming Dynasty. The compilers of the official dynastic history of the Ming calculated the number of virtuous women to be 274, excluding those already recorded in the local histories which

amounted to several tens of thousands. ‘The women included were usually collected from those whose names had been submitted with recommendation by local officials. By virtuous women was meant those who a) observed lifelong widowhood, b) committed suicide for the sake

of marital fidelity at the death of a spouse or fiancé, or c) committed suicide or were murdered preserving their chastity in refusing to submit to rebels. The number of virtuous women of various dynasties before the Ming are as follows: Dynasties Years of Reign Number of Virtuous Women

Later Han ( 25-419) 200) 34 17 Chin ( 265Northern Dynasties ( 386- 581) 34 Sui ( 581617) 15 T’ang ( 618906) 47 Sung ( 960-1279) 40 Liao (1115-1234) 6

Chin (1115-1234) Yiian (1206-1367) 22 99 Total 314

This table shows that in the dynastic histories, the number of virtuous women in the Ming Dynasty was greater than 85% of all the preceding dynasties added together. Other statistics have been taken from Ku-chin T°u-shu Chi-ch’eng (Imperial Collection of Books of All Ages), a compendium which in addition to the official dynastic histories, includes a wide variety of gazetteers and all available biographical sketches. ‘These show that the number of virtuous women during the Ming rose to 35,829 of

whom 27,141 were lifelong widows and 8,688 had either committed suicide or had been killed by rebels because of their refusal to submit. The ratio is about 3:1 The compilation of Ku-chin T’u-shu Chi-ch’eng

40 PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

(KCTSCC) was completed in 1725, eighty-one years after the founding of the Ch’ing Dynasty or approximately one third of its entire rule. At that time, the number of virtuous women of that dynasty recorded was 12,323 Of these 9,482 were lifelong widows and 2,841 had committed suicide or had been killed. The ratio, again, is about 3:1. We can see from the following two tables listing the numbers of lifelong

widows and numbers of female suicides and murders collected in KCTSCC, that over a span of approximately 2800 years, those of the Ming represent 72.9% and 71.5% of the total, and those of the Ch’ing 25.5% and 23.4% respectively. ! During the Ch’ing Dynasty, the limitation on the minimum number of years required to qualify as a virtuous widow was decreased again and again, eventually to six years. Subsequent to this relaxation of the requi-

rements, abuses of every kind of the system of official decoration appeared, and as a result, in later periods the number of virtuous widows

| increased all over the country.? Consequently, the local histories, from the provincial down to the county level, were full of names of virtuous widows. In the dynastic histories, the ratio of volumes of records of virtuous females to total volumes increased with time—1:496 in the Sung, 1:105 in the Yuan, and 1:27.7 in the Ming. However, the proportion 1s of even greater magnitude in the Ch’ ing local histories. For example, in Anhui this name list filled as many as sixty of the 350 volumes of total content. These enormous figures are apparently inflated by repetition and miscalculation. It would take a considerable amount of time to verify just their accuracy, not to mention their reliability. Indeed, a great deal of effort has been expended in attempting to recompute the figures in some of the provincial local histories. However, in most cases we have failed in this endeavor due to the tremendous amount of time involved. Only for Shansi province do we have some rough idea of the general situation during that period. During the years 1644-1892 of the Ch’ing

Dynasty, there were 39,723 lifelong widows (2,741 with complete biographical sketches and 36,982 with only names listed), and 1,954 females who had committed suicide or had been killed for various reasons.’ Here, the ratio between lifelong widows and those who died 1s about 20:1 From the magnitude of this ratio, it can probably be said that despite the widespread observance of the cult of marital fidelity in the Ch’ing, the rate of widows committing suicide as a form of honoring this observance substantially decreased after the middle of the dynasty. ' Tung Chia-tsun, Li-tai chieh-fu leh-ni te t’ung-chi, Hsien-tai shih hstieh, chuan 3, no. 2, pp. 1-4. 2 Wen-chen wen-chi, 1906 edition, chtian 2. $ Shan-hsi t’ung chih, 1892 edition, chian 162-180.

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“RD ~ & 3S g |» ~ S| Ss‘= | 3 oS © S 5 S on 1> I oO © - During the period 1386-1609 in Hu133 Hai-ch’eng hsien chih, 1760 edition, chuan 14. 34 In the later years of the Ch’ing Dynasty, the popular method in Shansi was to drown oneself in a large earthenware vessel for holding water. (Shan-hsi tung chih, 1892 edition, chiian 180-181.) The custom in Honan was to have a double-size coffin made for a deceased man, large enough to place his widow’s body, too, alongside his after she had committed suicide. (Honan t’ung chih, 1555 edition, chan 67.) 35 The particular passage in the novel gives an account of an incident involving a frustrated and impoverished scholar Wang Yii-hui. One afternoon when Wang was chatting with his old acquaintance Ya Yu-chung, another man came in and addressed Wang. The story continues: ‘““Mr. Wang,’’ he said, ‘‘Our young Master is very ill, and the young Mistress asked me to invite you over. Can you set out at once?”’ ‘This man comes from my third daughter,’’ said Wang to Yu. ‘“‘My son-in-law is ill, and they want me to go there.”’ ‘In that case, I’ll leave you now,’’ said Yu Yu-chung. ‘‘I will take your manuscripts to show my brother, and return them when he’s read them.’’ So saying, he took his leave. The porter, who had eaten, too, put the manuscripts in his empty basket and shouldered

this load back to town.

Mr. Wang walked six or seven miles to his son-in-law’s house and found the young man seriously ill. A doctor was there, but no drugs were of any avail. A few days later, his son-in-law died and Wang mourned bitterly for him, while his daughter’s tears must have moved both Heaven and Earth. When her husband was in his coffin, she paid her respects to his parents and her father. ‘‘Father,’’ she said, ‘‘Since my elder sister’s husband died, you have had to support her at home. Now my husband has died, will you have to support me, too? A poor scholar like you can’t afford to feed so many daughters.”’

the grave.”’ , ‘‘What do you want to do?”’ her father asked. |

‘‘T want to bid farewell to you and to my husband’s parents, and follow my husband to

PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 57 When the dead man’s parents heard this, their tears fell like rain. ‘‘Child!’’ they cried, ‘“You must be out of your mind! Even ants and insects want to live—how can you suggest such a thing? In life you’re one of our household, in death you’ll be one of our ghosts. Of course we’ll look after you, and not expect your father to support you! You mustn’t talk like that!’’ “*You are old,’’ said the girl. ‘‘Instead of helping you, I should just be a burden to you, and that would make me unhappy. Please let me have my own way. But it will be a few days before I die. I’d lke you, Father, to go home and tell my mother, and ask her to come so that I can say goodbye to her. This means a lot to me.”’ ‘“Kinsmen,’’ said Wang Yu-hui to his son-in-law’s parents, ‘‘Now that I think this over, I believe that since my daughter sincerely wants to die for her husband, we should let

her have her way. You can’t stop someone whose mind is made up. As for you, Daughter, since this is the case, your name will be recorded in history. Why should I dissuade you? You know what you must do. I’]] go home now and send your mother over to say goodbye to you.’’ Her parents-in-law would not hear of this, but Wang Yu-hui insisted. He went straight home, and told his wife what had happened. ‘‘You must be slipping into dotage!’’ she protested. “‘If our daughter wants to die, you should talk her out of it instead of egging her on. I never heard of such a thing!’’ ‘*Matters like these are beyond you,’’ retorted Wang. When his wife heard this, the tears streamed down her cheeks. She immediately hired a chair and went to reason with her daughter while her husband went on reading and writing at home as he waited for news of his child. In vain did Mrs. Wang argue with her daughter. Each day the girl washed and combed her hair, and sat there keeping her mother company; but no bite or sup passed her lips. Though the old folks begged and implored her using all the wiles they could think up, she simply refused to eat. After fasting for six days she had no strength to get up. The sight of this nearly broke her mother’s heart, and she fell ill herself and had to be carried home and put to bed. When three more days had passed, torches appeared at the second watch and some men came to knock at their door. ‘‘Your daughter fasted for eight days,’’ they announced. ‘‘At midday today she died.’’ When the mother heard this, she screamed and fainted away. When they brought her round, she would not stop sobbing. Her husband walked up to her bed. “‘You’re a silly old woman!”’ he said, ‘‘Our third daughter is now an immortal. What are you crying for? She chose a good death. I only wish I could die for such a good cause myself.’’ He threw back his head and laughed. ‘‘She died well!’’ he cried. ‘‘She died well!’’ Then, laughing, he left the room. Yu Yu-ta, district director of education, was amazed when he heard of this the next day and could not help but be sad. After buying incense and three sacrificial offerings, he went to pay his respects before her coffin. This done, he returned to the yamen and ordered his clerk to draw up a petition requesting the authorities to honor this devoted widow. His younger brother helped to draft the petition which was despatched that same night. Then Yu Yu-chung took offerings and sacrificed before the coffin. When the college students saw their tutor show the dead woman such respect, a great many of them

also went to sacrifice. ‘1 wo months later, the authorities decreed that a shrine should be

made and placed in the temple, and an archway erected before her home. On the day that she was enshrined, Mr. Yu invited the magistrate to accompany the retinue which escorted the tablet of the virtuous widow into the temple. All the local gentry in their official robes joined the procession on foot. After entering the temple and setting the shrine in its place, the magistrate, college tutors and Yu each performed sacrifices. Then the gentry, scholars and relatives sacrificed; and last of all, the two families sacrificed. ‘The ceremony lasted all day, and they feasted afterwards in the Hall of Manifest Propriety. The other scholars urged Wang to join the feast, declaring that by bringing up such a virtuous daughter he had reflected glory on his clan. But by now Wang was beginning to feel quite sick at heart, so he declined to join them. After feasting in the Hall of Manifest Propriety, the others went home.

98 PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

chou, ninetyfive widows and seventeen betrothed maidens committed suicide. ‘The methods used are summarized below.%® Jumping from Swallowing

50 34 10 2 2 1 13

Hanging Fasting Powsoning Heights Gold Drowning Unknown

Although hanging still ranks first, fasting is prominently higher than the remaining methods. According to KCTSCC statistics on suicides by virtuous women compiled by Tung Chia-tsun, fasting comprised 0.5% of all such suicides in the Sung Dynasty, 0.04% in the Yuan Dynasty,’’ but

30.0% in the Ming Dynasty. It would be wrong to view this sudden increase in cases of suicide by fasting as mere padding of the figures. On the contrary, it in fact provides evidence that a new social context was involved.

In the Orient from time immemorial, fasting has been resorted to by individuals to call attention to their grievances, much as the political hunger strike is now used in recent times worldwide. The principal force of this ploy lies in its appeal to other people’s conscience—to their unwill-

ingness to be the cause of someone’s death. The choice of starvation rather than a more instant way of death is based on the calculation that extenuating circumstances, indeed, the desired results, will come about sooner or later. In the usual situation, widows or betrothed maidens whose fiancé had died found themselves helpless and dreading the pro-

. spects for the future before them of unkind treatment or poverty, and abjectly decided not to survive their loved one. However, if some personal consolation and support were given to them at this point, their great emotional stress would naturally be alleviated.** Evidence shows, however, that instead of receiving timely help from others, in particular from parents, the poor females were often in fact induced to cut short their lives sooner. ‘Iwo instances are given below as examples: Widow Wang was the wife of Kuo Wen-hstieh of T’ung-ch’eng, Anhul. When Wang’s father came to offer sacrifice at Wen-hstieh’s funeral, he found his daughter weeping bitterly. Consoling her not to be so overwhelmed with grief, her father said, ‘‘There are still three alternatives for 36 She chih, 1609 edition, chuan 8. 37 "Tung Chia-tsun, Li-tai chieh-fu lieh-nt te t’ung-chi, p. 4. 38 Chiang Yu-chen of T’s’uan-chou, Kwangsi, was married at the age of seventeen. Two years later she became a widow without a child, so she resolved to cut short her life. Her parents-in-law were very concerned and decided to help her overcome the emotional shock. They arranged to ask Chiang’s sister-in-law to put her own lovely baby into Chiang’s arms saying, ‘‘Is it possible for the baby to look after his Aunty?’’ Chiang was overjoyed to see the baby. Very soon, the baby was adopted by her and the family lived happily ever after. (Kuang-hsi t’ung-chih, 1599 edition, chtan 30.)

PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 59

you to choose.’’ Wang stopped sobbing and asked, ‘‘What?’’ Her father answered, ‘‘First, you can follow the deceased into the other world, to be virtuous. Second, you can remain in widowhood to serve your parents-inlaw, to be filial. Third, you can do as the common people do.’’ Hearing this advice, Wang locked herself up in her room and starved to death in ten days.° Widow Kuo had made up her mind to commit suicide for her husband. Her father-in-law sent a messenger to inform her natal family. When her mother came to visit her, she wept compassionately, but, being a woman who understood well the importance of duty, she soon felt happy about her daughter’s resolve. She said, ‘“‘If you could do that, my son-in-law has indeed had a worthy death.’’ Five days later, Kuo died of starvation.*®

As far as we know, the longest fasting period on record in China is forty-

four days. This was reached by Widow Hsteh. During her long period of abstinence, no one came to remonstrate with her or to console her, except some women who in fact came to express their admiring sympathy

and praise her good actions. The would-be felo-de-se, although very weak and thin, was still clear-minded and able to receive them after tidy-

ing herself. She also managed to talk in a quiet, easy manner. Presumably seeing that there was no possibility of extenuating circumstances ever intervening, she hanged herself soon after their visit.*’ The actual details of this case are not known. Perhaps her fasting was carried out and prolonged by the drinking of water. In general, the starvation period of the thirty-four cases of She-hsien cited in the table above was not very long, ranging from five to seventeen days.**

In Ch’tian-chou from 1644-1763 during the Ch’ing Dynasty, eight females died of starvation, while ten women tried fasting first, but soon gave it up and took their lives by other methods.*? ‘The reason for this change of tactics was probably either because of their impatience with having to endure the long period of suffering, or their inability to bear °° Lieh-fu Wang shih chuan, KCTSCC, chiian 325. *0 Shan-hsi t’ung chih, 1892 edition, chiian 180. *1 Hui-chou fu chih, 1566 edition, chian 20. Widow Hsteh’s record of forty-four days’ fasting in 1549 could even be considered the highest on record worldwide, for the

longest hunger strike by an Irish woman prisoner in 1923 was forty-three days. (Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 7, 1932, p. 554.) A similar case also appeared in

Ch’en-chou, Szechwan. Widow Chia hanged herself after a period of more than forty days of ineffective fasting. (Ta Ming i-t’ung chih, 1460 edition, chtian 65.) 42 She chih, 1609 edition, chiian 8. *3 Ch’uan-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chian 69. A widow in Fu-chou attempted a first time to cut her throat, but was rescued by relatives and the knife snatched away. The second time, she tried to slit her throat with broken ceramics and a metal bracelet, but again without success. At the third attempt to commit suicide, she tried to hang herself, but was too weak to do so. She cried, ‘‘Why is it so difficult to dispose of one’s life?’’ Finally, she died of starvation after eighteen days of fasting. (Fu-chou fu chih, 1754 edition, chuan 67.)

60 PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

the derision of others. From the story of a certain betrothed girl, we can see this point. Maiden Tuan-niang, aged sixteen, went to her betrothal home to prepare for suicide. After starving herself for several days, she felt very weak. With the exhortations of her intended parents-in-law, she was persuaded to drink some water, but still refused to eat. She was entrusted to the care of an old lady who waited on her night and day. After ten days, the old lady tired of this work and began to remonstrate with her saying, “You are very

young and unmarried. Why should you trouble yourself to such an extent?”’

‘‘T have been affianced to my future husband. Why do you say I am not married?’’ retorted ‘Tuan-niang. In an outburst of anger, the old lady remarked scathingly, “‘If you really want to die, why drink water? You know water can keep you alive!”’ Then the maiden refused to drink and died six days later. In admiration of her virtue, the magistrate offered sacrifice in person before her coffin.**

The agony of death by starvation is terrifying. At the last stage of the excruciating coma, it is described that the sufferer clutches her straw mat with both hands and tears it to shreds. In one certain case, the family was

unable to bear the pitiful sight of their young starving daughter any longer and prayed to the ancestors to hasten her death. A virtuous maiden in another case lapsed into delirium at the door of death, crying for some snow—conceivably a cry for humanity.* Suzcide of Betrothed Maidens

Evidence documenting the social impulse for suicide by betrothed maidens does not appear in the ancient Classics, in the Dynastic Histories, nor in literary writings before the Ming Dynasty.*® In the Lz Chi, Book of Rites, whose compilation actually postdates Confucius, it 1s written that when disciple Tzu Ssu asked Confucius about the funeral ceremony involving betrothed couples, Confucius affirmed that for a fiancée’s death, the affianced male should wear ch’i-ts’ui (the second

degree of mourning), and for a fiancé’s death, the affianced female should wear chan-ts’ui (the deepest degree of mourning). In both cases, #4 Fu-an hsien chih, 1884 edition, chuan 27. *5 J-hsien chih, 1776 edition, chian 16; Ma Jung-tsu, Li-pen wen-chi, chuan 9. *6 Mao Ch’i-ling, Hsi-ho ho-chi, Chin shih-ni shou-chieh hsii-ssu wen. Ch’ing scholar Chiao Hstin (1763-1820) attributed the self-immolation of betrothed maidens to

the practice of early betrothal in the late Ming and Ch’ing period. The earlier the betrothal, the more likely that a greater number of unforeseen events would occur. (Chiao Hsun, Tiao-ku chi, chuan 8, Chen-nu pien.)

PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 61

mourning should be delayed until after the funeral.*” As noted above, Confucius appears to have never given thought to condoning human sacrifice. Even the most uncompromisingly strict Confucianist, Chu Hsi, from whose teachings all the oppressive measures towards females are generally supposed to have originated, in fact still advocated the original Confucian doctrine, but was uncertain of its feasibility.*8 Hence, no false accusation can be placed on the Confucian creed, even as interpreted by

Chu Hsi. There is, unfortunately, no way of knowing when or how the suicide of betrothed maidens originated. At least we know that the first betrothed maiden to remain in celibacy, which she did for forty years, was granted

official distinction by the Court in 1425, fifty-seven years after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. The then-reigning Emperor Hsiiantsung said to the Minister of the Board of Rites, ‘‘It is common practice for a woman to remain a faithful widow after her husband’s death. This

maiden, who was merely betrothed, was able to maintain her chastity with determination and therefore should be designated a chaste maiden. This deed being difficult to attain, she is deserving of official decoration.’’*9 Nevertheless, this was regarded as an exceptional case and not to be taken as a precedent. In the history of the Ming Dynasty, there are five other cases of the self-sacrifice of betrothed maidens, but none of them was rewarded with decoration by Imperial Order.°*°

However, within the Imperial Clan, the situation was different. As early as 1426, a pretty young maiden named Kuo, aged nineteen, who had been selected to be the prospective duchess of one of the grandsons of the Emperor’s twenty-third son, took her life by hanging when the duke died prematurely. Emperor Hstian-tsung admired this virtuous deed and sent an officer to Honan where his great-grandson had been granted rights to feudal land to offer sacrifices.°! Seven years later, Duke Chu Yu-tun (enfeoffed as duke from 1425 to 1439, also in Honan), grandson of the first Ming Emperor’s fifth son, wrote an opera called ‘“Chaste Maiden Chao United with Her Betrothed After His Demise,”’ which took as its main theme the story of a virgin who committed suicide for the sake of her deceased fiancé to whom she had been engaged even *7 Li-chi, Tseng-tzu wen. #8 Chu-tzu ta ch’tan, wen 63. *9 Kuo-ch’ao hsien-chang lei-pien. °° Chin shih-nu shou-chieh hsin-ssu wen. As late as 1579, the law of the great Ming still proclaimed that the Court’s rewarding of virtuous females for conjugal fidelity was restricted to widows. Maidens’ cases were left at the discretion of local authorities. (Ta Ming lu fu-li chien-shih, 1612 edition, chtan 6.) °! Ho-nan t’ung chih, 1555 edition, chiian 47, part 2.

62 PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

before her birth. It was the first play of its kind appearing in China.°*’ Considering its popularity at that time and thereafter, this opera written by Duke Chu to edify his audience undoubtedly lent great impetus to the spreading of that evil institution of suicide by betrothed maidens in the early Ming. The Duke’s proselytizing influence on all women, married or betrothed, can also be seen from other subsequent events. ‘The principal wife of one of his brothers committed suicide in the late 1420’s. When he died in 1439, his own wife the Duchess, and six ladies of high rank sought their own death in order to follow him into the other world to console and serve him.°*? In about 1454, and then again in the 1480’s, two other imperial concubines in Honan followed suit when their Lords, Duke Chu’s clan brothers, died.** Evidently, the didactic influence of the

Ming Royal House cannot escape the charge of at least partial respon-

sibility for the prevalence of the cult of marital fidelity in Honan province. The suicide of betrothed maidens elsewhere was no less dramatic than

that committed on platforms in Fukien. The various versions of the Chinese opera ‘‘Maiden Ch’ing Hstieh-mei Expresses Condolence on the Death of Her Fiancé’’ always moved the audience to tears in the old days. Sixty years later, I can still recall the lasting impression that the uncontrollable sobbing of the female audience made when I saw the opera as a small boy. In the early period of the Lung-ch’ing reign period (1567-1572), there occurred in She-hsien the case of Maiden Fang Sheng-ying which was later recorded in various documents, including Kuang Lieh-Nu Chuan (The Extended History of Virtuous Females). Fang was betrothed to Wang Feng-shih, a cousin of her mother’s family, when she was very young. Wang died when Fang was fifteen years old, before they were married. Upon hearing the news of his death, the young girl cut off her hair and was determined to die by starvation. At their wit’s end, her parents begged her intended mother-in-law to come and help dissuade her. Fang then cried and beseeched the old lady to take her home with her so she could offer sacrifice before the tomb of her fiancé and wait upon her for life. Finally, the mother-in-law had to give in to her request. On the day of her departure, the young maiden wore the deepest mourning garments, bade farewell to her parents, and rode in a covered cart to the tomb of her betrothed where several thousand spectators had gathered. Several hundred old and young members of her deceased fiancé’s clan came 52 Aoki Masaru, Shina kindai gikyoku shi, Tokyo, 1931, p. 211. 53 Chia hsien chih, 1859 edition, chian 9; Ming-shih, chiian 118, lieh chuan; Nanyang hsien chih, 1874 edition, chtian 1 & 7. °¢ Ho-nan t’ung chih, 1555 edition, chtian 65, part 1.

PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 63

out to welcome her in tears, weeping bitterly. Upon the cart’s arrival at the tomb, it was discovered that the young maiden had already ended her life by strangulation inside.>°°

In the Ch’ing Dynasty, for some of the big families the ceremony of receiving a betrothed daughter-in-law after the death of her intended mate was quite ritualized. A personal account of a participant in one of these ceremonial occasions in 1806 gives a description of the event as follows:

The maiden arrives in a dress made of coarse cloth. The parents-in-law, wearing the prescribed mourning garments, receive her in the hall. Placing herself in the junior position facing the north, the maiden pays her respects to her parents-in-law who are seated in a position facing the south. They return the salutation and address the maiden by saying, ‘‘We, the parents of Ting (the deceased fiancé’s family name), venture to offer our respects to you, virtuous maiden, for your unforgettable remembrance of our son. Please face the south.’’ Then they kneel down before the maiden, lamenting sorrowfully. At the same time, all the brothers and servants of the deceased young man also prostrate themselves on the ground, crying so piteously as to be unable to get up. After this, the maiden changes to the

deepest degree of mourning garment and goes to her fiancé’s coffin, kowtowing and wailing with excessive grief. When the ceremony is over, the maiden is shown to the room where her fiancé formerly lived.°®

Thereafter, there were usually two alternatives for the virgin “‘widow’’ to choose. One was to die, the other to live a life of loneliness and silent suffering for many years to come. The chance of either being the one chosen was about fifty-fifty.

It is very difficult to account even psychologically for the sudden emergence of this inhuman institution among young maidens. In some cases, the betrothed maiden might have seen her would-be groom in a fleeting glance,®’ or have heard something told about him°® before his 55 Liu Kuang-t’u, Kuang lieh-nt chuan; Liu Shih-i, Hsin-chih lu chai-ch’ao, Chi-lu hui-pien, 1617 edition, chuan 216; She chih, 1609 edition, chiian 8. °° Liu Feng-lu, Shu Ma chen-nu, Liu li-pu wen-chi. ‘7 Maiden Yang Ching-niang was engaged to Hu Ssu when she was very young. Being impoverished, Hu responded to the call to join the army. Before his departure, Hu came to say goodbye to Ching-niang’s father and exchanged a few words with him at the door. By chance, Yang caught a glimpse of him. The next year when the obituary notice of his death came, Ching-niang wept bitterly and resolved never to be engaged again. The people of her district, admiring her fidelity, rushed to hire matchmakers to ask for her hand in engagement. Yang’s father secretly accepted someone’s betrothal presents. When Yang learned about it, she stealthily went to the place where Hu’s mortuary stone tablet had been erected to mourn for him, and then took her life by hanging herself. She died at the age of seventeen, on the 27th day of the eighth moon, 1577. (I-wu hsien chih, 1640 edition, chuan 15.) °8 Maiden Lin’s fiancé was very proud. He used to tell people that he would not get married until he had passed the elementary examination. Due to overwork and exhaustion, he contracted some disease and died. The young maiden Lin ended her life after the announcement of his death. (Chang-chou fu chih, 1776 edition, chuan 35.)

64 PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

untimely death. Under these circumstances, her intention to die might

be more or less understandable. On the other hand, many young maidens had never had the opportunity to see or know about their flancé, in which case their unnecessary death is not easy to explain. Probably, it was due to their disillusionment with a future which had once held the prospects of a happy marriage, whether real or imagined, and which was now empty—a particularly disheartening feeling since happy conjugal

unions were difficult to attain at that time. 3

Dr. R. M. Ross of Kerr Hospital in Canton listed several subjects that his Chinese mental patients would talk about during their insane ramblings. “‘Delay, disappointment, or abuse in the matter of their betrothal, and-thoughts about the death of their prospective bridegrooms appear to be most frequent among maidens who were patients.’’°? Specific ways of thinking generated within a moral-bound society may be considered as one of the motivating factors involved in this type of self-destructive behavior. The phenomenon of suicide, however, is a very complex problem. Any single variable taken alone is not of overriding significance in reaching the decision to commit self-immolation as the case below from the late Ming shows. After the death of her betrothed, Maiden Huang of Ying-shan, Hupeh, went to her intended mother-in-law’s house to serve her until she died. When the older woman did die, she then returned to her natal home. Subsequent to her father’s death, Huang declared that her only wish now

was to follow her father into the other world to be united with her betrothed and parents-in-law.

Her brothers rejected her intention vehemently. They argued, ‘‘Your wish to die for father is simply an outward sign to others that your brothers are incapable of supporting you and you want us to suffer the consequence of not obeying father’s wishes. If you wish to die for your betrothed, it is

too late now. Moreover, there is no moral imperative for you to die for father. It will only bring blemish on the name of your brothers for not being able to look after you.”’ Maiden Huang retorted, ‘“‘I just want to do my duty. There is no alternative for me. I have often been told that a woman’s expression of her virtuousness lies in obedience. I could be treated as a woman, because I am

betrothed, or as my father’s child, because I am not married. Therefore, I have the duty to die either for my father or for my betrothed. At present, I am bereft of the three possibilities for obedience (according to the Confucian dictum, “A woman obeys man: in her youth she obeys her father; when she is married she obeys her husband; when her husband is dead she obeys her son’), therefore, I am seeking death as the proper solution. This is the best support you can give me. Why should you be blamed?’’ °° R. M. Ross, ‘‘The Insane in China, Examination Hints,’’ China Medical Journal, Vol. 34, pp. 514-518.

PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 65

When the news reached the magistrate, he came personally to dissuade the maiden from dying and expressed his wish to adopt her as his daughter. Maiden Huang rejected this offer firmly saying that to be helped by others would certainly indicate that her former intention of committing suicide

was indeed due to resentment against her brothers. Consequently, the maiden died by starvation.®°

From the circumstances revealed in this biographical sketch, there was obviously no cause for the maiden’s death. The reasons given by her were rather unjustifiable and sophistic, while her brothers’ arguments were logical, reasonable and to the point. We have no way of knowing the actual circumstances. In our view, the real reason for Huang’s death might have been left out or embellished by the biographer. It is worth

noting the outcome of this case. One hundred years later, someone pretending to be the descendent of Maiden Huang’s betrothed family petitioned for official distinction for her and it was granted. A greatgrandson of Huang’s natal family discovered this pretense and sued him

for fraud. But the officiating magistrate, although quite aware of the applicant’s imposture, still maintained the original decision. This was indeed a very sensible judgement, because as the local history commented, without an impostor like this petitioning for her commemoration, Huang’s act of committing suicide would appear to have been with-

out an appropriate reason and of dubious virtue. In addition to the role of the spectators as instigators in the suicide of females, an attempt has also been made to assess the personal interactions between the felones-de-se, the family concerned and the witnesses involved. Heart of the Problem: Motwation or Cause

It has been widely acknowledged in China that the motivation for the act of female suicide must originate from within the females’ own inner will

and innate knowledge, and therefore they and their act deserved approval and applause. A great number of commentaries in the local histories constantly exclaim with admiration that a female, without benefit of access to the Classics, could have attained such an accomplish-

ment. During the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, countless eulogistic articles were written and printed to bestow praise on virtuous devotees, but not a single one of them cast any doubt on the worthiness of their unnecessary death. We can see from this how tightly was this spiritual shackle clamped on the Chinese mind. °° Chu Shih-hsiu, Huang chen-nii chuan, Mei-ya chu-shih wen-chi.

66 PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

According to recent psychological explanations, suicides can be viewed

as frantic pleas for help from other people. Those who attempt suicide almost invariably entertain the fantasy of being rescued.®! This generally means a conscious or unconscious expectation. In the cases of the suicidal

females in Hui-chou as described above, the fact that they adopted a method of dying slowly by inches indicates their anticipation of help from

others and the possibility of an alternative course presenting itself. Statistical figures from the six counties of Hui-chou (including She-hsien) show that the later the period, the greater the incidence of the adoption

of this lingering and easily intercepted method of suicide. It is worth noting the situation in the county of Chi-hsi, where the cult of female self-

immolation became prevalent only in the Ch’ing Dynasty after it had already been widespread in other regions for a long time. Eventually fasting became the major method adopted there.®? This reveals the increasing indecision and wavering in the conviction to end one’s life, and the desperate calling out for intervention. Fasting as a Percentage of Female Marital Suicides in the Six Counties of Hut-chou Prefecture

Fasting Total Suacides %

1566-1644 1644-1837 Total 1566-1837 Fasting

She-hsien 50 83 133 413 31% 32% Hsiu-ning 34 38 72 236 Wu-yuan 11 19 30 95 32%

Ch’i-men 1 923 59 74% 15% I-hsien 178 17

Chi-hsien 2 55 57 71 80 % Total 105 213 318 897 35 %

As the above figures indicate, 35% of the females who committed suicide in Hui-chou in the periods 1566-1644 and 1644-1837 preferred to endure

the agony of protracted death rather than to choose a more violent and instant method. This choice can be interpreted as an indication of their anticipation of eventually getting help. If timely response had been given °t A. L. Kobler and E. Scotland, The End of Hope: A Social Clinical Study of Suicide, New York, 1964; V. W. Jensen and T. A. Petty, ‘‘The Fantasy of Being Rescued in Suicide,”’ Psychoanalytical Quarterly, vol. 27, 1958, pp. 327-339. 62 Hui-chou fu chih, 1837 edition, chian 13, part 1-4. The common method of committing suicide among females of I-hsien for reasons other than maintaining one’s virtue was not fasting, but drowning. According to Vingya (Buddhist belief), self-destruction by starvation is exempted from condemnation. ((Hsiao-chi) K’a-pa-t’o-lo trans., Shanchien-lu p’i-p’o-so, chtian 11.) But no evidence shows that this belief had any connection with Chinese females’ choosing suicide by fasting. (I-hsien san chih, 1869 edition, chtian

8, part 1, and chuan 11.)

PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 67

to this hope, many lives would inevitably have been saved. From one of the earlier cases, we can see that a little bit of ordinary and reasonable advice from someone with recognized prestige was able to delay the death of Widow Hsieh for eighteen years. Hsieh married a paralyzed husband when she was eighteen. Seven years later, her husband died (1513). She wished to resort to taking her own life, but the close watch of her husband’s family prevented her from doing so. She refused to pay attention to any consolation offered, saying, ‘‘None of you is familiar with the doctrine. I am disappointed. I shall ask my paternal first cousin to make a decision for me.”’

This cousin, named Shu-jen, was a scholar without a degree and he worked sedulously, cultivating himself to follow in the Sages’ footsteps. On one occasion when Hsieh visited her parents, Shu-jen was invited to come and answer the question of the advisibility of Hsieh’s intended death. Shujen said slowly and with composure, ‘““To be faithful to one’s husband is

the right conduct. Why should you be so indecisive about death for a righteous cause? However, has it ever dawned on you that there is also the existence of your grandmother-in-law and parents-in-law? They are all advanced in age. If you are able to serve them, your husband would cer-

tainly be much gratified.’’ Hsieh began immediately to do what she

should... (After several years, all her in-laws passed away and) Hsieh asked her cousin again, ‘‘I have dutifully followed your teaching to serve my parentsin-law. Now they have all departed and left me alone. Is it time for me to follow my husband into the other world?’’ Her cousin answered, ‘‘Certainly, but you still have to wait for your mother.’’ Hsieh gave her promise accordingly. Later on, her mother also died. The same question was raised again by the widow. Thereupon Shu-jen replied, ‘‘Daily service and burying the dead have already exhausted you. If you decide to stay alive, you would feel no qualms towards your deceased husband.’’ Hsieh said resolutely, ‘‘No! No! Our former talks on / (norms of good behavior) were right. Why is it different now?’’ On the morning of the fifth day of the first moon, 1549, Widow Hsieh bade farewell to the members of her family and decided to die by starvation. After forty-four days’ fasting, she still tried to receive women guests who, admiring her virtuous act, had come to offer their con-

dolences. (Presumably seeing that no alternative course was likely to appear), she hanged herself that very night.°

There is nowhere to check or to verify whether or not the recorded dialogue actually took place. It is certain, however, that plenty of other precepts which carried an equally strong moral conviction could have been found to rescue Hsieh from death after her mother had passed away if her cousin had earnestly wished to save her. Why he did not do so is a point of great concern to us all. °° Hui-chou fu chih, 1566 edition, chiian 20.

68 PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

Custom and morality are not identical. The author is inclined to a view of moral relativism and regards the particular moral temper of a society as no more than a transient force arising and operating within the context of that certain special social setting. The designation of “‘moral’’ tacked on to certain customs is always arbitrary, made by persons who either sincerely claim, or purposely pretend, to uphold an absolute high

moral standard. Suicidal behavior is a common feature of human life; however, the moral evaluation of its expression varies with the times and

with the society. At no time does Athenian law, for example, define suicide as a penal offence. On the other hand, from 1554 until 1960, selfdestructive behavior was declared a criminal act in England and Wales. Because of the relative natural longevity of females as compared with males, and the reluctance of males to marry previously married women,

more widows than widowers throughout the world remain in their celibate state.® As just mentioned, self-destructive behavior has been in existence in all human cultures at all times, and there is nothing particularly alarming or unusual about suicide among Chinese women,® especially childless widows. The problem in China, unlike the case in Western societies, lies

in the process by which a moral sanction of its performance became intensified, and a rigid and inhuman institution for its practice as a cult became established.

We have no intention of underestimating the influence of Chu Hsi (1130-1200), the authoritative formulator. of Neo-Confucianism which, as claimed by some scholars, was the decisive factor in the degradation of females’ status in China. Yet, no direct connection can be ascertained. Statistics of the preceding section indicate clearly that the cults of chastity

and fidelity came into being three hundred years after Chu Hsi propagated his doctrines. Moreover, whatever might have been presumed as 6 In the United States, three out of four wives survive their husbands. In 1960, there were approximately 4,259,000 widows, but only 1,500,000 widowers. (Encyclopedia Ameria, vol. 28, 1981. pp. 747-748.) 6° During 1612-1617, Lung-yen county in Fukien had a rate of suicide for reasons of revenge alone of several scores per year out of a population of about 31,209 (Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1871 edition, chuan 58; Chang-chou fu chih, 1567 edition, chtian 21.) In about 1674, Tan-hsien county in Shantung had records of suicide cases for reasons of revenge which listed at least one every day the year round. Its population in 1763 was 370,238 (Huang Liu-hung, Fu-hui ch’tian-shu, 1850 edition, chuan 15; Hsu hsiu t’anch’eng t’ung-chih, 1805 edition, chtiian 3.) These rates seem rather high. Around the 1680’s, a writer noted in an essay that in Hsiu-ning, Hui-chou, for females to end their lives was a matter of no greater import than throwing away worn-out brooms. They did it either because of quarrels between mothers and daughters-in-law, or because of abusive language between neighbors. (Hsiu-ning hsien chih, 1692 edition, chtian 7. Liao T’eng_ kuei, Hsiu-fu hsin-hsi chiao-chi.)

PREVALENCE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 69

indicating a positive correlation between Chu Hsi’s short sojourn as magistrate at T’ung-an and the prevalence of misogynistic customs, such as head-veiling and foot-binding in Chang-chou,® concrete evidence, nevertheless, proves otherwise. Chu Hsi’s doctrines were accepted as the standard commentaries on Confucian thought by the Ming Court, and therefore his influence would not have been confined to any one region alone. The unevenness in geographical distribution of the manifestation of the cult of female marital fidelity which is being investigated here thus calls for further elucidation. °° It was said that Chu Hsi was shocked by the freedom of women in Fukien. He gave orders that all females’ feet be bound to the extent of disfigurement, making it very difficult for them to go about and thus preventing them from eloping. Because their feet were so small, Fukien women had to lean on canes wherever they went. Therefore, whenever there were social gatherings for women, the canes were said to pile up like a forest. (Hu P’u-an, Chung-hua ch’tan-kuo feng-su chih, book 2, Shanghai, 1923, chuan

5, p. 71.)

CHAPTER FOUR

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF FEMALE SELF-IMMOLATION The various theories which attempt to account for female self-destructive behavior are generally hypothetical in nature, because they are based on an insufficient number of cases for use as verification — sometimes none at all. It is impossible to deduce from them any tenable explanation of

cause. The only empirical study possible is to establish a relationship between suicide rates and certain sociological and psychological factors,

e.g., demographic features, residential areas, economic status, etc. In this chapter, we report the results of a comparative study of three prefec-

tures, Hui-chou in Anhui province, Ch’tian-chou and Chang-chou in Fukien province. We examine the sudden increase in female suicides in these three areas together with several other selected factors which are found to be correlated with the rate of suicide. Finally, we ascertain which correlates are universal, and which are unique to these three regions. It is hoped that this inductive inquiry will provide a clue to fur-

ther understanding of the peculiar human problem of female suicide within the context of Chinese culture. Comparative Study

Our investigation reveals that in the three regions of Hui-chou, Ch’tanchou and Chang-chou where public ostracism of widows who remarried was renowned and the high frequency of female self-destruction particularly conspicuous, certain definite characteristic features can be observed in common.

1. They were all densely populated and there was not enough arable

land to support the population. It was a great hardship for the inhabitants just to seek out a living. Hui-chou prefecture is situated amidst lofty mountains, tightly sealed off from the rest of the regions in the province of Anhui. She- hsien county in particular towers above the hilly parts of Hui-chou. It was reported that almost three-fourths of the cases of female self-immolation in Shehsien occurred in the steep mountainous recesses of the western district, which is about 80 kilometers wide. In the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties,

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 71

this area consisted of about one hundred villages with an estimated population of at least 80,000, a density of about 1,000 persons per square kilometer. !

Ch’uan-chou, although reputed to be a big prefecture, actually comprised an area only two to three-tenths the size of most prefectures in the

central part of China, with one-third of its counties on the mountain peaks completely isolated from the city area. Chang-chou is bounded by a range of hills behind and the sea in front, and in the Ming and Ch’ ing

period had only 20-30 percent of its land cultivable. It used to be a remote region where the inhabitants toiled all year round making barely enough to pay for taxes and maintain a living for six months.’ This common characteristic, a very conspicuous feature of the natural geography of She-hsien (Hui-chou) and the coastal area of Fukien, was repeatedly pointed out by the well-informed scholar, Hsieh Chao-che

(1567-1624), in his encyclopaedic compilation Wu-tsa-tsu (Five Miscellaneous Notes).

2. Infanticide. The inability to accept any more mouths to feed led to an acquiescent, resigned attitude toward the practice of infanticide. Fukien’s notoriety

for perpetrating this abhorrent practice was described in an earlier chapter. However, in fact Hui-chou was traditionally regarded as the region where infanticide was most rampant south of the Yangtze during the Ch’ing Dynasty.* 3. Prevalence of commercial activities and occupation as travelling merchants. Because of the barren soil in the terraced fields, labor expended in farm-

ing in She-hsien was double that of other regions, while the harvest received was less than half an ordinary yield and only provided one-tenth

of normal annual consumption. Consequently, in addition to devoting themselves to certain fine handicraft arts famous in China in the old days, the inhabitants also had to trade along the banks of the Yangtze River on a scale ranging from big wholesale dealers to petty peddlers. The numbers of people leaving this region to earn a living elsewhere were ’ She chih, 1609 edition, Chiang-yti 3, I-wu 6. 2 Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chuian 3. > Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chiian 8; Hai-ch’eng hsien chih, 1633 edition, chuan 5. * Ch’en Mei, Liu-ch’ing hsin-chi, 1708 edition, chtian 21.

72 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

recorded as having reached seventy percent of the local population, and ninety percent of the local population’s income was drawn from outside the county.5 Traders from Hui-chou, particularly from She-hsien, were called Hsin-an merchants and together with traders from Shansi they carried on a great deal of the business in the commercial world during the Wan-li period (1573-1620), monopolizing the market in rice, salt, tea, cotton, silk, iron, and many other commodities. The leading merchants often accumulated capital amounting to over one million taels of silver. Those with two to three hundred thousand taels were considered as middle class.® Since there was no arable land of any worth in their own

home settlements in She-hsien in which to invest, the Hsin-an merchants, once they had become rich, would in general relocate their entire

families and settle down in other places, always digging up their forefathers’ skeletons and reburying them in their new settlements. ‘The ones who stayed on in She-hsien, therefore, were mostly peasants, handicraftmen, small or middle merchants, and scholars.’ Likewise, the inhabitants of Fukien, under the pressure of overpopulation, had to seek a living outside their own province. Besides trading in various commercial centers in China, they also emigrated to the nearby

Philippine Islands to try their luck there. The existence of a Chinese

settlement in Luzon was recorded long before the arrival of the Spaniards. In the early seventeenth century, the Chinese in Manila were estimated to be as numerous as thirty thousand, with 90% of them coming from Ch’tuan-chou and Chang-chou.® A flourishing trading business was established between Manila and the coastal cities of Fukien. The Chinese dealers not only supplied silk and other costly wares, part of which were destined originally for New Spain and Europe, but also provided the Spanish colony with the dexterous and

useful services of physicians, artisans and servants.? There were not many commodities to be exported from Manila, and consequently the Chinese took back millions of silver pesos to China annually in the 17th

century, making pesos the sole medium of transaction in Fukien and ° Hui-chou fu chih, 1566 edition, chuan 8; Wang Shih-chen, Yen-chou shang-jen ssu-

pu kao, 1614 edition, chtan 61, tseng ch’eng chtin wu-shih hst 50. 6 Wu-tsa-tsu, chuan 4. ? Hui-chou fu chih, 1699 edition, chiian 2. ® Ho Ch’iao-yuan, Ming-shan ts’ang, wang-heng chi, lu-sung; Chang Hsieh, Tung hsi yang k’ao, 1617 edition, chan 15. Two Philippine women, the second wife of a deceased man and his daughter-in-law married to his principal wife’s son, practiced the cult of lifelong widowhood in Hai-ch’eng county in the latter part of the 18th century. They were living together, one aged seventy-two and the other fifty-nine, when the local history was compiled in 1762. (Hai-ch’eng hsien chih, 1762 edition, chtian 24.)

x19 S38 Blair and J. A. Robertson, The Philippine Islands 1493-1898, vol. 7, pp.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 73

Kwangtung, and giving great impetus to economic development in China during the later Ming period. The flourishing port of Yiieh-kang in Chang-chou was even called ‘‘small Soochow-Hangchow’”’ at that time.'? Not until after the successive massacres of 1603 and 1639 did the inhabitants of these two prefectures, especially those of Chang-chou, prefer to migrate to other Southeast Asian countries besides the Philip-

pines. In the massacre of 1603, it was reported that the number of Chinese killed was more than twenty thousand, the vast majority of whom were people from Hai-ch’eng in Chang-chou.!!

4. Thrifty living and stinginess. One special feature of Hui-chou should not be omitted—the reputation of its people for thrifty living and stinginess, which could probably be interpreted as an inevitable consequence of becoming economically successful. T’o the outside world, thrift to the point of penny-pinching would

logically seem to be prerequisite to accumulation of riches and thus merely the fact of wealth becomes sufficient reason to justifiably or not attract this characterization. Thus, perhaps it was precisely due to its remarkable rise to prominence in spawning successful entrepreneurial activities during the early stages of accumulation of commercial capital

in China that Hui-chou became known for its thrifty living and stinginess. This attribute of the prefecture was satirized by Wu Chingtzu in his novel ‘“The Story of Confucian Scholars,’’!? well-known to Chinese readers, and is also documented by records in the local histories.

‘“‘Customarily, the rich eat only congee three times a day. They even begrudge the preparation of maize in entertaining guests. Neither riding horses nor ducks nor geese are kept by the wealthy... The country women

are able to manage their family meals without fish or meat for several months. In certain parts of the prefecture, the female weavers work diligently day and night. Their achievement after a month’s work usually 10 Ch’tan Han-sheng, Chung-kuo ching-chi shih lun-ts’ung, Hong Kong, 1972, p. 444; Hai-ch’eng hsien chih, 1633 edition, chtian 15. '! Hai-ch’eng hsien chih, 1762 edition, chian 18. ‘2 It describes a rustic, wealthy man of Hui-chou named Yen Ta-yti conducting his final business as he lay on his deathbed. ‘‘Lying there at the point of death, Yen Ta-yu raised two fingers and refused to breathe his last. His nephews and servants made various wild guesses as to whether he meant two people, two events, or two places, but he always shook his head. His wife then stepped forward and said, ‘‘I’m the only one who can understand you. You’re worried because there are two wicks in the lamp—that’s a waste of oil. If I take out one wick, everything will be all right.’’ Turning her words into action, she removed one wick. All eyes were fixed on Mr. Yen who nodded his head, let fall his hand, and breathed his last.’’

74 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

surpasses that of other ordinary weavers’ work done in forty-five days.’’3 However, whereas thrifty living, frugality and the prudence of females noted in Hui-chou could be similarly found in some other regions such as Shansi province where the accumulation of commercial capital also became predominant in the Ming-Ch’ing period, such characteristics were not recorded in the two prefectures of Fukien, Ch’tan-chou and Chang-chou. 9. Jealous wives. She-hsien was notorious for its jealous wives. In the 1609 edition of the local history, there is a special biographical section calling attention to this distinctive local feature. When commenting on the virtuous females of this region, Wang Shih-chen (1526-1590), a famous figure in the world

of letters, stated that both marital fidelity and female jealousy were rooted in the same psychological need, but expressed under different circumstances. According to Wang’s explanation, ‘‘For a woman, practicing the principle of marital faithfulness herself is fidelity, but requiring her spouse to do likewise is jealousy.’’!* But female jealousy, as other evidence shows, does not necessarily correlate with marital fidelity. We should first of all identify what connotation this complex feeling had in connection with special historical socioeconomic settings. Barren soil and the attendant hardships of maintaining a livelihood forced the females of She-hsien to be industrious and thrifty in managing the affairs of the family. As a result, the wife’s sav-

ings together with her dowry and contributions from her family, if possibly available, became one of the major methods of accumulating a trading capital.!° Since the wives thus added their monetary share to

their husbands’ entrepreneurial success, their status was invariably bound to improve, and consequently, any tendency toward despotic power on the part of their husband could be met with challenge. Concubinage and male sexual indulgence were thus impeded. This was why the accusation of wifely jealousy arose. Jealous wives in this sense were not found in Ch’tian-chou or Changchou, the other two regions under investigation, but were observed in neighboring Ch’ang-lo and Fu-ch’ing districts of Fu-chou prefecture, where female suicide also suddenly became rampant in the late Ch’ing 13 She-hsien chih, 1771 edition, chtan 1, feng-tu; Hui-chou fu chih, 1566 edition, chuan 2; 1699 edition, chuan 2. 14 She chih, 1609 edition, lieh-nut, chuan 8. 1S Fuju Hiroshi, Shin-an shonin no kenkyu, ‘Toyo Gakuho, vol. 36, no. 1-4.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 79

period (see Chapter VII).'® Another inconsistent case is Pu-ch’eng of Chien-ning prefecture, also of the same province of Fukien, where no case of female self-immolation was recorded, but which was said to have been famous for jealous wives.?!’

6. A relatively high proportion of examination candidates and scholars successful in obtaining degrees. In the Ming-Ch’ing period, these three regions not only had more provincial examination candidates than had any other province, but they also were famous for the high ranking of those candidates who ultimately succeeded in passing the imperial (chin-shih) examinations. Looking at

the total number of successful candidates in chin-shih examinations during the entire Ming Dynasty on the provincial level, we find that

Anhui, where Hui-chou is located, ranked tenth, with Chekiang, Kiangsu, Kiangsi and Fukien following in order of precedence over the other provinces.!8A closer investigation of these numbers at all levels of administration down to the county, shows that Hui-chou was among the

seventeen selected regions (5 provinces, 11 prefectures, and 1 subprefecture) cited for their significant showing in the distribution of successful candidates in the whole southern part of China. She-hsien, the leading county of Hui-chou, ranked fourth from the top and left some of the well-known counties of Chekiang and Kiangsu, such as Wu-hsien and Ch’ien-t’ang (present-day Hangchow) behind. The social position of the Hui-chou scholars who were closely associated with the cult of fidelity

and chastity will be dealt with shortly. ‘6 Wu-tsa-tsu; chuan 8; Fu-ch’ing hsien chih, 1747 edition, chuan 5. Hsieh Chao-che used the tenth century name Fu-t’ang in Wu-tsa-tsu to designate the administrative division covering both Ch’ang-lo and Fu-ch’ing. (See: Ku Tsu-yi, Tu shih fang-yti chi-yao, Fu-ch’ing.)

‘7 Wu-tsa-tsu, chuan 8. The women of Fu-ch’ing were described as being able to dispose of their dowries by themselves. It is a point worth noting. The fact that general economic improvement initially resulted in a rise in women’s status within a rigidly patriarchal form of the extended family system can possibly be cited as one of the causal factors linked with females’ self-destructive behavior—e.g., anger at losing this new

status. But as far as historical records indicate, the women of Fukien province had actually acted as commissioners in the market and had operated shops and stalls as early as the Southern Sung period (1127-1279). The males are depicted as being stupid and

ignorant in accepting their humiliation in the face of the presumptuousness of the females. (Ch’en P’u, Shih-t’ang hsien-sheng 1-chi, chan 16, Ku-t’ien nu.) During that earlier period, there were not many cases of suicide, in particular female suicides per-

227. |

formed in observance of marital fidelity, indicating that the improvement in social and economic position of women was not closely related to suicidal behavior at that time. '8 Ho Ping-ti, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China, New York and London, 1962, p.

76 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

At this point, the crucial question is which of the above factors can be said to be in direct correlation with the sudden increase after the middle of the Ming Dynasty in the number of females practicing the cult of selfimmolation in these three regions? The number of major characteristics which they held in common led us to reflect on the possibility that many other similar features were probably also present in these regions. The overall situation 1s summarized as follows:

Female Densely Infan- Prevalence Thrifty Jealous High

Self- Populated/ __ ticide of Commer- ___Living/ Wives Propor-

Immolation cial Actition of inHardships vities and nessStingiScholars Livelihood Travelling

A B C D E F G Hui-chou + + + + + + + Merchants

Ch’uan-chou ++ ++ + ++ + -- -- + Chang-chou + The above table can be simplified to:

Hui-chou: A+B+CQGQ+D+E+ F+G Ch’ tian-chou A+B+CGQ+#+D + G

Chang-chou A+B+C+#+OD + G

‘Thus, the sudden increase in the number of females committing suicide at the death of their husband or fiancé can be seen to have occurred in

conjunction with conditions featuring a high density of population, infanticide, and the growth of commercial capital, which resulted in thrifty living and the new role that females played in the accumulation of trading capital, as iulustrated in Hui-chou. However, these correlations, though indisputably evident, are by no means the causal explanations sought. They do no more than provide some hints to direct our further analysis. These six social phenomena were common occurrence in traditional China. However, they were not ubiquitous, nor were they immutably static over time within a given region. Therefore, we shall examine some other regions to test the validity of these correlations found in Hui-chou, Ch’tan-chou and Chang-chou to see if their occurrence elsewhere also produced an effect on suicidal behavior among females, either positively or negatively. Otherwise, it would be unreliable to simply accept them and depend on these correlations thus far observed as a guide for our further analysis.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 77

Regional Variation

1. Density of Population.

2. Infanticide. These two features are too commonly found throughout China to be of any value as special factors in a comparative study.

3. Thrifty Living. 4. Jealous Wives. Since both of these factors are unverifiable in other regions, they will therefore not be used as constant factors for comparison. 5. Prevalence of Commercial Activities and Travelling Merchants. Since economic improvement is generally regarded as one of the great achievements of the Ming, and since, moreover, the merchants of the three regions mentioned played such a prominent part in this develop-

ment, might it be assumed that the growth of commercial activities occurred concurrently with the increase in female self-destruction for the sake of virtue? The evidence tends toward a negative answer when this hypothesis is tested using the case of Ch’ ang- chih, the famous mercantile county in Shansi.

During the Ming-Ch’ing period, Hui-chou merchants carried great weight in the commercial world in the southern part of China, and Shansi merchants held sway in the north. It was reported that the big Shansi merchants from P’ing-yang, Tse-chou and Lu-an prefectures (Ch’ang-chih being the leading county in Lu-an) were the wealthiest people in the country. Having any less than several hundred thousand taels of silver in one’s possession could not be considered as richness.!% They were, according to one account, even wealthier than their counterparts from Hui-chou.?°

Following the pattern of Hui-chou, the necessity of accumulating trading capital in a region where the yearly agricultural yield was insuffi-

cient for maintaining a livelihood required thrifty living.?! However, 19 Wang Shib-hsing, Kuang-chih-i, chuan 3. 20 Wu-tsa-tsu, chuan 4. 21 Lu-an fu chih, 1659 edition, chiian 9. A popular tale widely circulated in Shansi at that time recounted the meager habits of the region. Once, before leaving home a trading merchant of southern Shansi provided his mother with a jar of 2-3 catties of vegetable oil for her daily cooking and lighting needs. When he returned home three

78 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

when Ch’ang-chih is put under closer investigation, the results reveal that prosperity in trading did not necessarily coincide with a prevalence of any cult of marital fidelity and chastity. Only seven women committed

suicide at the death of their husbands in Ch’ang-chih during the entire Ming Dynasty, a figure which is not any larger than the average number for the great majority of counties at that time. ‘‘Worst of all,’’ continues the commentary in the local history, ‘‘The people of Ch’ang-chih even engaged in the shameless practice of paying ransom for captured females to return home.’’*? (According to traditional moral standards, captured women should commit suicide to preserve their purity from any stain.) 6. Number and Success of Scholars. Further study also shows that Ch’ang-chih produced thirty-six chin-shih

and 167 chu-jen in the Ming period, average numbers for an ordinary county, but about one-fourth the number of chin-shih, and less than from half to one-fifth the number of cht-jen of the counties selected from these

three prefectures of Hui-chou, Ch’tian-chou and Chang-chou where female suicidal behavior was so prevalent. (See table below, page 000.) This difference leads us to reflect further on the role that local scholars might have played in connection with the cult of female self-immolation, and to select other regions for testing. In the Ming Dynasty, Chi-an of Kiangsi and Shao-hsing of Chekiang were two leading prefectures with unusual academic prowess, producing 1,000 and 977 chin-shih respectively.*° Since prefectures are often comprised of seven or eight counties, each varying from one another in every aspect including success of their scholars in the examinations, we have selected from each of these two prefectures one county particularly prominent in academic achievement for comparative study.

Yu-yao county of Shao-hsing, and T’ai-ho county of Chi-an were among the top four counties nationwide during the Ming period for their unusual record in producing successful candidates in both the provincial and imperial examinations, ranking below only Ch’in-chiang of Ch’tanchou and Nan-ch’ang county of Nan-ch’ang prefecture in Kiangsi. However, in the former, Yu-yao, only seven females committed suicide for virtuous reasons during the entire Ming Dynasty, including one widow years later, he found that more than half of the oil still remained in the jar. His mother had used only an incense stick at night for weaving instead of lighting a lamp; and for cooking, she had used only a cotton swab to oil the pan against sticking. The people of Shansi nicknamed oil jars used in such a thrifty manner as ‘‘polsoning Jar’’ to satirize the fright experienced at having to open it. (Shan-hsi wen-hsien, no. 3, 1974, p. 71.) 22 Tu-an fu chih, 1659 edition, chtian 9. *3 Ho Ping-ti, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China, op. cit., pp.h?*°246.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 79

who, furious at her neighbor’s slanderous charge of stealing a chicken, took her life by starvation, fasting for more than ten days.**Likewise, T’ai-ho had only eight such cases. Apparently in these two counties, there was no connection between the males’ academic success and the females’ suicidal behavior. The two hypotheses just tested above, namely, that commercial pros-

perity necessarily coincided with a prevalence of the cult of marital fidelity, or that a high literacy rate represented by the existence of numerous successful scholars always occurred simultaneously with the popularity of this cult, have proven individually to be negative. However, what would we find if the two factors coexisted in a given situation,

as they did in Hui-chou, Ch’tian-chou and Chang-chou? This new premise will be tested in Fu-ch’ing county of Fu-chou prefecture in Fukien. In Ming times, although Fu-chou prefecture, with Fu-ch’ing as one of its ten counties, was distinguished for its preeminent rate of successful

examination candidates, yet it was in general an impoverished region. ‘“Hampered by the inconvenience of its location for trading, poverty is widespread. Fu-ch’ing is the only place that is richer than the other nine counties because of its being endowed with salt from the tide, and its having the opportunity for overseas trading.”° At the same time, sixtythree cases of suicide by chaste or faithful females were enumerated in the local history of Fu-ch’ing, a figure which was greater than the total number of forty-seven for the other nine counties together. Considering the mutual proximity of these ten counties, the striking contrast is sufficient to show the correlation between female suicide and the factors of

academic success in conjunction with established economic improvement.?”® ** Yu-yao hsien chih, 1849 edition, chtian 25. 29 Main shu, 1579 edition, chian 9. *© ‘The hypothesis that a very high rate of academic success together with flourishing commercial activities constitute the necessary conditions to cause a rise in the number of female suicides performed in observance of marital fidelity does not appear to be verified, however, by the presentation given in the local history of Nan-ch’ang county. This seemingly contradictory observation requires further explanation. Nan-ch’ang county, site of the provincial capital of Kiangsi, held one of the leading positions among all counties of China for the success of their candidates in the imperial examinations during the Ming period, followed, as mentioned earlier in the text, by Yuyao county of Chekiang and Chin-chiang county of Fukien. At the same time, this county was described in the local history as being a region of little arable land, with unproductive soil, where engaging in farming alone was insufficient to take care of one’s livelihood and to pay taxes. Consequently, the inhabitants wandered to other places all over China as traders and artisans, and even drifted away to foreign countries, sending back earnings to support their families. It was common for members of a family to be separated from each other when they were young and reunited again when they were white-haired.

80 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

This correlation can also be verified inversely by examining four other counties of Hui-chou prefecture, which had a total of six counties under its jurisdiction. Besides She-hsien and Hsiu-ning which are used as our constants for comparison, the other four counties, Wu-yuan, Ch’i-men, I-hsien and Chi-hsi, invariably had a much smaller number of virtuous females recorded in the local gazettes. ‘This phenomenon was also accompanied by the absence of flourishing commercial activities, whereas all other conditions were the same. ‘The general account of these counties as reported in the local gazettes is as follows:

Wu-yuan: Chu Hsi’s old hometown; repeatedly bestowed with honors by the Ming and Ch’ing Emperors as a holy place equal to the birthplace of Confucius. Here the number of successful candidates in provincial and imperial examinations was higher than that of Hsiu-ning and She-hsien, and its public morality was reputed to be higher, too, but the inhabitants were said to be unskillful in trading.?’ While staying away from home, people from this region always tried whenever possible to live together and to call their settlkement ‘‘Nan-ch’ang Street.’’ (Nan-ch’ang fu chih, 1588 edition, chuan 3.) Evidently, the circumstances of this county closely paralleled those of the three regions under investigation. However, Nan-ch’ang had only about eighteen cases of female suicide for reason of marital fidelity during the Ming period, as recorded in the various local histories. This would seem to place the above presumption in dispute. But, further study reveals that the recording of only a small number of female suicides was in fact the result of discretionary decisions by the compilers. In local histories written during the late Ming, an extensive collection of female suicides was generally emphasized. However, in Nan-ch’ang as well as in some other counties of Kiangsi where the thought of Wang Yang-ming (1472-1528) had a strong impact, the compilers adopted a different principle of compilation. They stressed an individual’s “‘intuitive-awareness’’ as the criterion for judging his or her morality, and held all excessive cults which were incongruous with Confucian ideas in low esteem. This different approach led them to intentionally decrease the numbers of females who had committed suicide for the sake of marital fidelity as well as filial males. Only women who had been awarded by the Court were listed. Those who had not been officially rewarded were required to first seek a guarantee from relatives and neighbors, and then to give public notification soliciting general approval. As a result, quite a number of females who had committed suicide for marital fidelity were eliminated. The same was

true for filial males. For example, the 1750 edition of the Nan-ch’ang local history claimed to have retained the names of only three filial sons who had practiced ko-ku, and left out twenty-five who had been recorded in previous histories. This lack of complete figures in the local history of Nan-ch’ang has prevented the use of this county for comparative studies despite its similarity in nature to the other regions. (Nan-ch’ang fu chih, 1588 edition, Fan leh; Nan-ch’ang fu chih, 1750 edition, Fan lieh, chuan 34; Chi-an fu

chih, 1578 edition, chian 24; Chi-an fu chih, 1660 edition, Fan leh; Chiang-hsi t’ung chih, 1880 edition, tsung mu.) 27, Wu-yuan hsien chih, 1757 edition, chuan 4.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION om

Ch’i-men: Some of the inhabitants of this rather remote and isolated

county were engaged in trading, mostly in pawnbrokerage, but due to short-sightedness and _ selfcontentment, their total acquisition was always limited.”®

I-hsien: A sparsely populated county capable of feeding its inhabitants. During the Ming period, farming and studying were two major professions of this county. People did not have to rely on trading for a livelihood. Restaurants

| and teashops could not be seen. Only at the junction of highways could one find some place to have a cup of tea. As no full-dressed customers ever visited them, they could hardly be called shops.??

Chi-hsi: This smallest and most sparsely inhabited county of Huichou had very poor soil in comparison with that of Wuyuan. Although situated near She-hsien and Hsiu-ning which were prosperously engaged in commercial activities, Chi-hsi was closed in by lofty mountains which hampered its inhabitants from carrying on any trading.°*°

Therefore, from the above accounts it is evident that even though decorations of honor had been bestowed on Wu-ytian as the hometown of Chu Hsi in order to popularize his conformist moral ideas among the masses, this moral propagation alone, accompanied by no simultaneous social-economic development, did not affect very much the spreading of the cult of female suicide there. Moreover, in the cases of I-hsien and Chi-hsi, the absence of female self-immolation in the Ming times is also shown to be concomitant with a lack of thriving commercial activities. Apparently, this is a variable which is significantly associated with the sudden growth of female self-sacrifice in the three specific regions of She-

hsien, Ch’tan-chou and Chang-chou. The preceding analysis leads us to the opinion that the prevalence of

female suicide in certain areas can be related to the psychological response of Chinese scholars of the Confucian school to certain special social conditions in which they found themselves. ‘This connection can be understood from the fact that scholars actually served as transmitters of

thought and morality, a group from whom a distorted meaning of chastity and fidelity could be ultimately conveyed to the commoners. According to the biographical sketches available in the local gazette of Chang-chou, faithful widows and chaste betrothed maidens, whether liv28 Ch’i-men hsien chih, 1873 edition, chiian 5.

29 T-hsien chih, 1812 edition, chtian 3. ,

3° Chi-hsi hsien chih, 1756 edition, chian 1; 1810 edition, chuan 1.

82 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

ing or dead after having committed suicide, were mostly from scholar-

official families. There were altogether 153 entries recorded. Those eighty-five where family background was noted can be classified as follows: Parents, parents-in-law, or

husband designated with scholar titles: 59

Descendants with official titles: 10

Total 85 Husband’s family described as impoverished

commoners: 12

Husband designated as plebeian: 4

From these records, we learn that more than three-quarters of the virtuous females came from scholar-official families.*! This finding is also

in conformity with a statement in the local history of She-hsien, Huichou, that three-quarters of the virtuous females in that county came from the western district which was described, with perhaps some embellishment, as the center of a concentration of ‘‘government officials, merchants, ladies and young fops.’’ The virtuous deed of females from

this district who committed suicide for the sake of marital fidelity was

attributed to the enlightenment and civilization found there, where ‘‘lady-like reserve and maidenly quietness were nurtured and the males were more interested in having their names published on the list of successful candidates. More virtuous females were produced here. Perhaps the other three districts (south, north and east) might have actually had quite a number, too, but unfortunately, the absence of scholarship in the males allowed the females’ chaste (and faithful) deeds to sink into oblivion.’’** ‘This commentary also testifies that the increase of virtuous females is closely connected with scholarly attainments. The cult of marital fidelity which prevailed upon females to commit suicide appeared at first among scholar-official families, and was later adopted by commoners. ‘This can be illustrated by two typical cases. 1. In 1591, a maiden in Ch’tan-chou named Sun, after learning about the death of her fiancé, went alone to the mortuary to mourn and to offer sacrifices, bringing along her betrothal presents as proof of their engagement. A fortnight later she ended her life by hanging, leaving a note in a pocket of her dress requesting that no male should come near her and no female should take off her clothes.

When the news of her self-immolation spread, a widow named Peng of the same city followed suit. Mrs. Peng’s painter husband had 31 Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chtian 25. 32 She chih, 1609 edition, Feng tu, lieh nu.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 83

died some time earlier and this impoverished widow had been in a state of desperation, refusing to end the wailing ceremony she had been carrying on day and night. She originally had had no intention of committing suicide, it seemed, until news of Maiden Sun’s suicidal act was broadcast.°*°

2. When the news of Mrs. Wu’s taking her own life while her husband was still at the point of death was publicized in She-hsien, Widow Yao also decided to die for her deceased husband, a laborer by profession. She declared, ‘‘I am quite willing to follow in the steps of young Lady Wu.’’ This chain reaction of suicidal behavior received comment in the local history. ‘‘In a fashionable society, everyone takes novelty for granted.’’4 In their role as transmitters, the scholars evidently had a great effect on the dissemination of the practice of female suicide to commoners. The next question to be answered is, ‘‘What made the scholars of these three regions under discussion so concerned about female chastity and fidelity that they spared no effort in transforming these humanistic Confucian principles into such an inhuman institution?’’ In order to elucidate this

point, a short account will be given on the degeneration of the Ming scholars in the later period of the dynasty. Frustration of Scholars

Ever since the Sui Dynasty (581-618), the old Chinese examination system had been a unique Institution providing commoners with an open route to offical position, thus facilitating upward mobility, and supplying

the ruling dynasties with a pool of candidates from which they could select members for their governing body. Beginning around the middle of the Ming Dynasty, however, the dull and stereotyped ‘“‘four paragraph essays’’ became the curriculum and basis for examinations. At the same

time, there occurred a great increase in the number of candidates, resulting not only in stiffer competition on all levels, but also in a breakdown in the integrity of the testing, and engendering great dissatisfaction and open resentment among would-be - scholars throughout China. In those regions where the examination system was by tradition particularly valued as the golden, but narrow, gate to pro-

motion, these despondent feelings were more pronounced. In this respect, Hui-chou, Ch’uan-chou and Chang-chou were most affected by these trends. 93 Ch’tan-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chiian 22. 5# She chih, 1609 edition, lieh ni.

84 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

This upward mobility through the series of examinations was by no means a smooth passage. The lucky ones were sifted out from thousands of less fortunate aspirants. The chances for success, by a rough estimate, were | to 10 for the elementary examinations,*° 1 to at least 100 for the

most competitive provincial examinations, and 1 to 30 for the final examinations held in the presence of the emperors.*° Hence, the prospect for a commoner to gain the second title of cht-jen through the provincial

examinations was | to 1,000; the probability for a first degree shengyuan to be successful in the final imperial selection was 1 to 3,000. Altogether, the normal chance for any beginner to get the highest degree was | to 30,000. ‘Tough competition resulted inevitably in bitterness over repeated failures. Behind the triumphant celebration of any one single success, thousands of others lamented their misfortune.

This sense of frustration often found expression in two alternative actions, one externally directed and one internally. At a time when the ruling dynasty was rapidly deteriorating, especially towards its end, frustrated scholars were apt to take advantage of the political confusion to rise up in armed rebellion. Several such examples can be cited in Chinese history. In the waning years of the T’ang Dynasty, Huang Chao, a scholar who had failed repeatedly in examinations, rose furiously

in revolt. It was recorded by an Arab traveller that one hundred and twenty thousands Arabs, Persians and Jews were killed when the rebellious army captured Canton in 879.3”? But because of his own bitter

experience, Huang Chao was sympathetic towards the scholars. He issued strict orders to his soldiers not to disturb the scholars, and even released all those captives who claimed to be such. By one account, as his army of insurrection was sacking Fu-chou, Huang Chao gave orders not to set fire to the house of a collator named Tung Pu, saying that he was a scholar. Niu Chin-hsing and Li Yen were two scholars who supported Li Tzuch’eng’s rebellious uprising which succeeded in capturing Peking in 1644 and forcing the last emperor of the Ming to hang himself at the foot of Coal Hill near the palace. Because of their failure to attain the highest degree of chin-shih, Niu and Li, who were holders of the chu-jen degree only, forbade soldiers to molest scholars of the same degree as theirs while at the same time showing no mercy toward high officials who had 35 Chang Chung-hi, The Chinese Gentry, Studies on Their Roles in Nineteenth Century Chinese

Society, Seattle, Washington, 1955, p. 92; Chien-wen tsa-chih, chuan 3, no. 123. 36 Shang Yen-liu, Ch’ing-tai k’o-chii k’ao-shih shu-lu, Peking, 1958, pp. 13-19; Chuang Ch’tan, Liu-ho hsien k’o-chu t’i-ming pei-chi; Ming-wen shou-tu, chian 25. 37 Al-Mas’udi, Kitab Muruy al-Dhahab wa Ma adin al Jawhar, vol. 1, Paris, 1962, p. 125; Gabriel Ferrand, Voyage du Marchand Arabe Sulayman en Inde et Chine Redigé en 851; (Sutvt

de Remarques par Abu Zayd Hasan vers 916), Paris, 1922, pp. 75-76.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 85

secured their offices by virtue of possessing the higher degree which Niu and Li had repeatedly failed to obtain.*®

The other alternative action taken by scholars as a result of their frustration was directed internally. Rather than manifesting their bitter sense of frustration in aggressive acts, would-be scholars repressed these feelings, which then lay in the subconscious parts of their mind, later emerging in the form of vicarious enjoyment or satisfaction at seeing or hearing of the sufferings experienced by others. The increase in female

suicide can be accounted for as a result of this type of reaction to traumatic experience.

For a scholar such as Wang (see Chapter III, note 35), a widow’s suicide in order to preserve marital fidelity provided relief for his own pent-up emotions by allowing him to express pity and awe toward another, thus bringing some compensation for his own bitterness at repeated failure in the examinations. This need was fulfilled within the channels of socially respected convention, without requiring any commitment on his part. As Wang remarked, he only wished he could die for such a good cause himself. It is indeed a selfish cry of desperation. The erratic actions of one individual whose tortured mind disturbs his or her reasoning and twists the emotions, are understandable. But for a whole society to accept as moral, and as an undisputed social norm, a practice which arose based on the degeneration of human reasoning is hardly conceivable.

The poem below starkly conveys the terror and cruelty of this deplorable institution in Fukien.?9

Fukien custom leaves alive after birth only half the number of baby girls born; Lucky survivors desire to be virtuous females. Daughters should die after their husband’s death; Poisoned wine is ready in cups and cords await on beams. A daughter clinging to life withstands great pressure, Broken hearts are full of grievances; Death occurs at last amid clansmen’s cheers, Official distinction is bestowed to glorify the clan’s name for a thousand years. °8 Chao I, Erh-shih-erh shih cha-chi, chtan 20. Hung Hsiu-ch’uan, leader of the T’aip ing Rebellion (1849-1864), who nearly overthrew the rule of the Ch’ing government,

was a commoner in Kwangtung and had repeatedly failed to pass the elementary examination. His repeated failure in qualifying as a licentiate accounted for his leadership of this revolutionary uprising. °° Yu Cheng-hsieh, Kuei-ssu lei-kao, chiian 13.

86 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

A 3-chang high archway is erected as the sun rises; At night, the deceased begs to come back to earth. To explain how the frustration of scholars caused the inhuman practice

of female suicide to become so rampant in these three regions 1s ultimately the crucial problem awaiting an answer. To elucidate this perplexing question, our detailed analysis will focus on the stultification of the examination system in the late Ming times and its consequences for frustrated scholars under certain specific circumstances. The Rise of Frustrated Scholarship

We shall now quantify two of the factors singled out—increase in numbers of frustrated scholars and increase in number of female suicides—in the three regions of our study. From figures available in the local history of She-hsien in Hui-chou,

it is clear that the high rate of female self-immolation for reasons of fidelity began during the Ming period from 1502 to 1566, and reached a climax thereafter. In the early Ming period, 1368-1502, there were no cases. The first figure of twenty women appears in the 1566 edition of the local history. The succeeding numbers are: 95 in the 1609 edition, and 191 by 1644.*° In Ch’tan-chou, a total of forty-eight females received official distinc-

, tion for self-immolation at the death of their betrothed partners or | husbands during the whole period of the Ming. ‘The available materials of the 1612 edition of the local history shows the following time distribution:*! Number of Widows Committing Suicide

Reign* for Fidelity Hung-wu (1368-1398) I

Ch’eng-hua (1465-1487) 1 Cheng-te (1506-1521) 1 Chia-ching (1522-1566) 23

Unknown 6 Total 48

Wan-li (1573-1644) 16** * Intervening reign periods not listed here are recorded as having 0 cases. ** Figure is actually as of 1612 when local history was completed. 40 Hui-chou fu chih, 1566 edition, chitan 10; She chih, 1609 edition, lieh nu; Shehsien chih, 1935 edition, chuan 11. 41 Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chtian 22.

DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 87

The same tendency can be found in Chang-chou as documented in the records of the local gazettes. ‘There were altogether fifty-one females cited

for their virtue in self-immolation which are associated with a specific

time period—fourteen during the reign periods from Huang-wu to Cheng-te (1368-1521), and thirty-eight from Chia-ching to T’1en-ch’1 (1522-1628).* Since late Ming is usually considered to be after the Chia-ching period (1522-1566) and female suicide was particularly rampant then, we have divided the history of the Ming into two parts, the first covering 13681566 (hereafter cited as Period A), and the second covering 1567-1644 (hereafter cited as Period B). Our investigations reveal that in the three regions under discussion, there is a distinctly prominent, positive correlation between the proportionate increase in the number of female suicides and the proportionate increase in the number of scholars obtaining the title of chu-jen. The more chu-jen, the more suicides, and vice versa. This quantitative index, perhaps somewhat simple and mechanical, 1s merely an indication of the extent of the direct relationship between the proportionate increase in female suicides and the increase in number of

chu-jen scholars. However, it has its limitations and shows in fact negative correlation in the case of Fu-ch’ing (5) where the difference in number of females committing suicide between the two periods is not as prominent as in the other three regions (1, 2, 3).*3 The reason for this

is probably attributable to the fact that during the late Ming period, scholars often falsified records of their permanent domicile in order to circumvent the regulations imposing fixed quotas on the number of successful candidates who could be accepted for the government examinations from particular regions. This will be verified in Chapter VII. The direct relationship between the proportionate increase in the number of female suicides and the number of scholars might be explained in the following manner. As noted before, the prospective odds for a commoner to gain the second title of chu-jen was approximately 1:1,000. Since successful candidates at all levels were selected according to a fixed quota system, an increase in the number of allotted sheng-yuan also meant an increase in the number of those holding the first degree who would then #2 Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chiian 25. *% ‘The time distribution of female suicides 1s:

Hung-wu (1368-1369) 2

Chia-ching (1522-1566) 16 Lung-ch’ing (1567-1572) 2

Wan-li (1573-1620) 18 T’ien-ch’i (1621-1627) 4 Ch’ung-chen (1628-1644) 21

(Fu-ch’ing hsien chih, 1747 edition, chtan 17.)

88 DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION

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DIFFERENCES IN THE OCCURRENCE OF SELF-IMMOLATION 89

fail the provincial examinations. And even should these quotas at the provincial level have been increased, there would likewise have been more competitors in the final imperial examination. Although failure was common everywhere, the feeling of frustration was much more profound in the three regions under investigation since there were ten times more

people placing their hopes on the slender chance of upward promotion. Recurring disappointment because of repeated failure in the examinations engendered a personal wrath in Chinese scholars which in turn then created a desire to identify with the weaker sex in order to gratify, either

consciously or subconsciously, an unwarranted sense of moral superiority. This perverted emotion is fundamentally a natural human expression of misogyny, coated with Chinese cultural heritage. Such a marked personality trait was nurtured by a rigid and repressive social system and requires deeper analysis.

Sources

1. Hui-chou fu chih, 1827 edition, chtiian 9, part 3, and chuan 13, part 1 & 3. 2.She-hsien chih, 1935 edition, chuan 11, 12, 13, 14. 3.Hsiu-ning hsien chih, 1695 edition, chuan 5 & 6. 4.Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chiian 69. 5.Chin-chiang hsien chih, 1763 edition, chuian 8. 6.T’ung-an hsien chih, 1929 edition, chuan 15. 7.Chang-chou fu chih, 1877 edition, chuan 19. 8.Lung-ch’i hsien chih, 1762 edition, chuan 13 « 80. 9.Chang-p’u hsien chih, 1700 edition, chuan 12. 10.Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chuan 71, part 1. 11.Su-chou fu chih, 1883 edition, chian 64, hstan chu 6. 12.Yu-yao chih, 1779 edition, chuan 33. 13.Yu-yao hsien chih, 1899 edition, chuan 19 « 25. 14.Shang-yti hsien chih chiao-hsu, 1899 edition, chuan 4 & 16. 15.Hang-chou fu chih, 1922 edition, chtan 109 & 155. 16.Ch’ien-t’ang hsien chih, 1893 edition, chuan 17. 17.Chi-an fu chih, 1660 edition, chuan 6 «& 7. 18.Fu-ch’ing hsien chih, 1602 edition, chuan 8.

| CHAPTER FIVE SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND ROUNDABOUT WAY OF EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION Roundabout Way of Emotional Expression

The complexity of the human psyche remains a vast area for exploration, even more so when differences between cultural and national groups are considered. In this chapter, we will discuss the traditional Chinese way of dealing with frustration and emotional suffering, and how this correlates with the cults of female marital fidelity. Psychiatrists have reported that a great majority of Chinese from all classes, except the highly Westernized elite, who seek help in psychiatric outpatient clinics, always complain of a physiological dysfunction in conventional cultural terms, such as ‘“‘shen-k’uei’’ (kidney weakness) or ‘““huo-ch’i ta’’ (excessive internal hot energy), without disclosing any individual, strongly felt emotion. This has been regarded as one of the effects Chinese culture has upon individuals’ psychological responses to

environmental stress. Such a phenomenon has fascinated many psychiatrists,’ but no satisfactory explanation has yet been given. Indirect or roundabout expression of emotional turbulence, it seems, has

had a long tradition in China. Historically, when a Chinese scholar was frustrated by political reverses or failure in the civil examinations, he would never acknowledge that he was unhappy or show any fury in public, but would instead often allow his mind to fantasize or daydream that a member of the fairer sex

was suffering—perhaps a beauty in disgrace, a cast-off imperial concubine, a neglected court lady, a lonely maid-of-honor in a dull harem, a wife of a soldier on duty at the frontier pass, an aged prostitute, or a grieving widow. Since it would be impossible for a male to create such scenarios based on personal experience, he had to give free rein to his imagination in order to develop every minute detail, trying to make the story appear true to life. Whatever the resulting external setting or circumstances of the plot, the emotional tonality did come from his inner soul. It was suggested by the literary critics of old in China that a successful composition of this kind could only be derived from one’s own ' Arthur Kleinman and Tsang-Yi Lin, Normal and Abnormal Behaviour in Chinese Culture,

Dordrecht, 1981, pp. xiv, 257, 334-336.

SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION 91

deep grievance and suffering, and that those whose life was plain, smooth

sailing would never be able to produce anything more than a poor imitation.?

In the Ming period, more than thirty thousand virtuous women were listed in the Veritable Records of the Dynasty and local histories, many of whom were later made prominent through additional literary description.’ It appears evident that without promotion from scholars, the cult of marital fidelity and chastity might not have become so prevalent. But how can we account for the surge of scholarly literary activity focussed on adulation of this cult which occurred during the Ming times? As noted in Chapter III, inspiration from Chu Hsi’s doctrines does not prove to have been the immediate direct cause, nor were the emperors of the time powerful enough to accomplish such effective propagation. The traditional view offered as plausible explanation was that the scholars wrote to glorify the steadfast purity of the fairer sex, and at the same time to ridicule men for their pitiful treachery. However, Yu Cheng-hsieh (17751840), a lberal-minded Chinese scholar, questioned this interpretation one hundred years ago, arguing that, ‘‘Men’s reproval of themselves for disloyalty is quite adequate; women’s fidelity brings no credit to men whatsoever.’’* Clearly, some other purpose was served by this focus on women’s virtue, namely, the vicarious soothing of academic frustration in one’s career. The ruthless despotism which characterized the political environment in China climaxed in the Ming Dynasty and provided a favorable climate for scholars to direct their own anger and frustration toward perpetrating in women the distortion of an originally deep moral sense to successive levels of fanaticism. For two thousand years, voices of dissent were consistently countered with severe punishment. In the Chin Dynasty (221-

207 B.C.), even a casual remark about the ancient Classics which deviated from the Court’s inclination would subject the speaker to the death penalty. Consequently, any form of grumbling or critical murmuring had to be expressed in a carefully circuitous and euphemistic way in order to protect one’s life. It has been claimed that the literary rhymed form of prose of the early Han Dynasty (fu) is the formalized historical

legacy of making statements by indirection.’ If a man had some * Li Chiu-chang, Li-tai kung-tz’u, 1600 edition, chian 1, Wang Kuei-tz’u; Yang Chiang, Fen-shih lun, ming-wen shou-tu, chuan 10. ° Ming-shih, chiian 301, lich chuan 189, lieh-nii chuan hsii. * Kuei-ssu lei-kao, chtan 13, chen-nu shou. ° Hellmut Wilhelm, ‘“The Scholar’s Frustration: Notes on a Type of Fu,’’ in Chinese Thought and Institutions, edited by John K. Fairbank, University of Chicago Press, 1957, p. 314; ‘‘One type of Fu in particular voices the frustration of the scholar who is prepared for official service, but failing to ‘meet the proper time,’ remains unemployed by his imperial master.’’ (Jbid., p.'')

92 SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

grievance against the sovereign, he had to express it using the metaphor

of an unfortunate maid-of-honor longing for her lord, veiling his real feelings with a lexical sleight of hand. Because there had never been any

significant reprieve from the constant oppressiveness of successive imperial rule over a long period of history, and because individuals must

have outlets for their pent-up emotions, the device of venting one’s lamentations vicariously in the guise of an imagined unfortunate woman

was repeatedly adopted up through the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.

Beginning with the first Emperor’s own intense suspicion of all intellectuals, which quickly spread throughout the Court and ultimately

_ resulted in the infamous abuse of power by the eunuchs, no other Chinese dynasty treated scholar-officials with such ruthlessness and cruelty as did the Ming. It was Emperor Chu Yutian-chang who first instituted the literary inquisition which brought death upon a writer, his family members, relatives, and friends for just one allegorical remark which alluded to the Emperor’s early life as a monk; careless penning of the characters “‘tonsure’’ or “‘shining bald pate’’ might cause the execution of an entire clan. In addition, references to the women of the Palace, previously a most conventional subject, was also condemned as implying the secret and licentious life of the Emperor. The foremost Ming poet, Kuo Ch’i (1336-1374), according to speculation, was put to death on that

account.® ‘This vigorous persecution led to the stagnation of literary

creativity. The motif of the lonely pining woman, although still prevalent, became cut and dried,’ without any imaginative symbolic associations. In its place, the death of a grieving woman, whether real or imagined, appeared as a new theme. Under such tyrannical rule, scholar-officials were thus free to release their feelings of injury and other pent-up emotions by writing about the tragic suicides of females, or the brave martyrdom of heroines. No doubt these pieces were didactic in nature; but as almost all women in imperial

China were denied an education and consequently illiterate, then for whom were they written? Obviously, they were not written for others to read, but to alleviate the male author’s own miserable state of mind. ‘The death of a widow or the martyrdom of a heroine, however great or noble

the act, was a disaster happening to other people. To write about his heroine’s self-destruction, or her willing submission to destruction by others, gave the writer as much relief from tension and anxiety as if he were present at a spectacle of public suicide in real life. The literary © Kao Chi chuan, Ming-shih, chian 285, heh chuan 173, wen-ytan 1. ” Ku Chi-yuan, Shih lun, ming-wen shou-tu, chiian 9.

SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION 93

creator sympathized with his female protagonist, identified with her, and

ultimately upheld the moral importance of her actions by sharing her courageousness with her, being unable to cope with his own damaging emotional conflicts alone. The specific psychological aspects of this issue can be clearly illustrated from the circumstances surrounding the writing of the ‘‘Supplementary

Stories of Famous Women’’ (Kuang Lieh Nt Chuan), a book which gave much greater prominence to the practice of female suicide than had previous literature, and which enjoyed great popularity in China during

the late Ch’ing Dynasty. This work was compiled by Liu Meng-t’u (1784-1824) just before his death. Liu is described as having had a very

miserable life. His father died when he was only six months old. His mother, a widow after four years of consummated marriage, threw herself from a height, but was fortunately rescued. At the age of fourteen,

Liu was regarded as one of the four eminent disciples of one of the famous masters of the literary world in the Ch’ing period. He became a licentiate the year following this association which won him the reputation of being a prodigy. Unfortunately, after that he repeatedly failed in the provincial examination, and had to continuously seek teaching jobs in order to support his mother. Because of the agonizing bitterness of his failures, he was given to sighing tearfully and wishing that he could die

at an early age. His own reason for this wish was that other preceding worthies had often achieved their success by middle age, and he did not wish in his later years to bear the contempt of having led a fruitless life. He predicted in a poem to his friend in 1815 that his death would come in ten years, which later came to be true; Liu died in 1824 at the age of forty-one. One hundred and four days after his death, when his coffin was brought home, his wife committed suicide by knocking her head against the coffin first, and then hanging herself.® Verification for the proposition that a melancholy psychological condition often gives rise to an exaggerated and distorted notion of female vir-

tue can be found in many cases of well-known historical figures in the world of letters. As early as the T’ang Dynasty when prose writing in

praise of virtuous females began to appear, the writers invariably belonged to the type of scholar-offficial who had experienced great political frustration. Li Ao, who wrote the famous prose work ‘“Tablet in Memory of Maiden Kuo,’’ was said to have become a chin-shih in 797, but was then unsuccessful in his official career. His melancholy anx1ety was deeply repressed, without any chance for release. He had a very harsh and blunt manner, even towards the Prime Minister.? ® Kuang lieh-nt chuan, hsu-pa. ° Hsin T’ang shu, chiian 177, lieh chuan 102; Li Wen kung chi, chtan 12, Kao min nu pel.

94 SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

Szu K’ung-t’u, writer of the well-known ‘‘Biographical Sketch of a Chaste Woman,’’ was described as not being in his right mind and as

behaving abnormally. He had his grave prepared and on fine days invited his friends to drink and compose poems in it. He ended his life by starvation when the last T’ang emperor was assassinated.!° Evidence shows, however, that a scholar-official in great mental distress actually did have other alternatives. He could either express his own emotion explicitly, or, he could reflect on his psychological conflict more objectively and reject the rigid Confucian ethical code which engendered It. It was by no means inevitable that he fancy other people’s disasters for compensation and relief. ‘The case of the great T’ang poet Po Chu-1 will illustrate this point. Po’s poems are regarded as genuinely realistic and personal, seldom allusive or conveying an effect indirectly. It is well known that after his demotion in official rank he made friends with some

noted monks and believed in the Buddhist ideas of salvation.’ He became the only T’ ang poet who took a sympathetic view of women, and

he vehemently condemned the inhuman institution of women’s selfimmolation. When he was a magistrate, a lawsuit came before him concerning a son’s disobeying his father’s will that his favorite concubine be

sacrificed after his death. The son defied his father’s order and even allowed the concubine to be remarried. His reason was that he was unwilling to let his father be connected with evil conduct. Our great poet was entirely in favor of the son’s righteous action and wrote a solemn

judgement accordingly.'? Unfortunately, breaking free from the longstanding abnormal state of mind fostering such misogyny was not easy in China. Embracing the Buddhist ideas of the impermanence of life, or the Taoist doctrince on noninterference, enabled some Ming scholars such as Li Chih (1527-1602), Yang Shen (1483-1559), and Yuan Hung-tao (1568- 1610) to shake off to a certain extent the degenerating, established ethical code, but they were never as yet audacious enough to cast doubt upon the irrational cult of female marital fidelity. Throughout the Ming

period, we know of only one person, the most courageous and brave statesman Yang Chi-sheng (1516-1555) who, conscience-striken on the eve of his own execution, made a testament allowing his concubine to marry again, as she had suffered a great deal and had no child of her own.’ As for the rest of the renowned scholar-officials, they invariably clung to their narrow conceptions of morality. ‘© Hsin T’ ang shu, chuan 194, leh chuan 119; Ssu-k’ung piao-sheng wen-chi, chian 4, lieh-nu chuan. 11 Hsin T’ang shu, chtian 119, lieh chuan 44. 12 Pai-shih ch’ang-ch’ing chi, chian 67, P’an wu-shih tao. 13 Yang Chi-sheng, fu-1 ch’ien-i-hsi i-chu, Yang Chung-min kung chi, chian 4.

SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION 95

Astonishingly, even outstanding scholars such as Huang T’sung-hsi

(1610-1695) and Ku Yen-wu (1613-1682) whose contributions to philosophic thought revitalized the intellectual world in China for more than several hundred years after their deaths, were without exception

themselves deeply injured by psychic trauma. Their psychological responses to environmental stress were exactly the same as ordinary _ scholars faced with frustration, notwithstanding their profound intellectuality. Huang’s and Ku’s cases confirm our proposition that the practice of female suicide was propagated, consciously or unconsciously, by males in a state of anxiety, and that the odds of their doing so often increased

by their having a family background with a ‘‘death tendency,’’ e.g., having relatives or mates who had committed suicide or who had met

with violent, tragic deaths. If both of these factors occurred ‘simultaneously, rational thinking would be completely distorted when damaging emotional conflicts arose, and a supposed saint would behave as one of the masses. In one of his elegies, Ku Yen-wu lauded his foster mother as a very special person who embodied all the principal Confucian virtues. She had come to the Ku family at the age of sixteen as a bereaved virgin after the death of her fiancé, one of the Ku sons. ‘Ten years later, she adoped Ku Yen-wu, her brother-in-law’s newborn baby, and she served her parentsin-law for almost forty years. On one occasion, she severed one of her little fingers and decocted it with some herbs for her ailing mother-in-law to drink as a special blessed medicine, which proved to be effective. In 1645, when the Manchu army approached Ch’ang-su where Ku’s family

was seeking refuge, Ku Yen-wu’s foster mother, unwilling to give allegiance to the Manchu rulers, resolved to take her life by inches, and died after fifteen days of starvation. At the point of death, she instructed Ku not to serve the Manchus in any official capacity.'* The actions of Ku’s foster mother in the above account might be acceptable as normal human conduct subscribing to the principles of political integrity, and the

sacrifice of life was performed by the zealot herself without any encouragement from others. But in another case eulogized by Huang Tsung-hsi which is described below, we are totally perplexed. From the late Ming until the early Ch’ing, Huang was regarded not only as an outstanding scholar, leading Chinese thought and scholarship to break and throw off the shackles of old dogma, but also as a faithful loyalist of the Ming sovereign, participating in guerilla warfare to resist the Manchus for many years. Modern writers have gone even further and acknowledge him as a forerunner of the reform and revolutionary 14 ‘Ting-lin i-chi, Hsien-pi wang shuo-jen hsing-chuang.

96 SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

movements of the last century.!° Nevertheless, Huang T’sung-hsi’s conceptions of morality were filled with many paradoxes. Despite his liberal

views on politics and economics, he ironically lent full support to the cruel practice of female self-immolation. ‘The appalling story of his participation in a certain case is as follows: In 1676, at the age of twenty-five, Widow T’sao of Hai-ning, Chekiang, was in great despair over her husband’s death and decided to commit suicide.

She first tried to poison herself with an arsenic liquor mixed with other medicine, but this only caused severe pain in the abdomen without fatal result. The next day when her deceased husband’s body was about to be put into the coffin, Mrs. Tsao, afraid to miss the appropriate date for dying, hastely swallowed some small fragments of smashed copper coins, which also proved ineffective. Since her family members began to take precautionary measures to prevent her death, the intended felo-de-se then pretended that she had decided not to end her life in the immediate future; but then while the others were fast asleep, she seized the opportunity and drank a large quantity of bittern water which made her scream and writhe in agony. Shortly afterward, however, she detoxicated herself by vomiting. After these successive failures to achieve death, the chaste widow made up her mind to die by starvation. Yet after twenty-two days of fasting, her countenance and mental activities still didn’t appear to have changed much, and therefore she could not help but slip out of the house one night after midnight and throw herself into a pond nearby. When a family member discovered her, she seemed to have been already dead, but later she revived after a quilt had been thrown over her body. Widow Tsao said entreatingly to her parents-in-law that their kindness, instead of doing her any benefit, only added to her suffering. It was at this juncture that Huang Tsung-hsi happened to be lecturing at a nearby academy. When the news of the chaste widow’s being at the

point of death reached them, one of his students suggested that their political association!® should praise and award this pure and undefiled deed in time to let the self-immolator herself know about it before she died. Con-

sequently, Huang together with more than twenty other students paid a visit to Widow ‘T’sao’s father-in-law to express their admiration for her noble behavior. Hearing that the widow had been rescued from drowning, Huang then felt uneasy, fearing lest their visit might actually hasten the death of the felo-de-se, and in a change of heart, he told her father-in-law of their opinion, that to remain a widow all her life would not be regarded as inferior to the act of suicide. In fact, Huang’s visit did have a great impact in strengthening T’sao’s resolution to kill herself. One and a half months later, Widow Tsao arranged to have a very solemn death, bidding farewell to her family members first. It was recorded that Tsao was very composed amidst all the relatives choked with sobs. She refused to eat for 15 W. T. deBary, ‘‘Chinese Despotism and the Confucian Ideal: A Seventeenth Century View,’’ in Chinese Thought and Institutions, op. cit., pp. 198-208.

16 This political movement was called Fu-she, organized by scholar-officials in southern Kiangsu to oppose the corruption of eunuchs and other high-placed persons.

SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION 97

about a fortnight, during which period no one made any effort, it seemed, to persuade her to keep on living, as they had done before. Ultimately, she took her life by hanging.

One month afterward, when Huang came back from a neighboring county, I’sao’s father-in-law told him that the widow’s only regret was not to have been able to pay her respects to Master Huang before her death.

Her funeral was attended by the magistrate, and the spectators who gathered around were said to number in the several thousands. According to the elegy written by Huang, Widow 'T’sao’s ‘‘repeated attempts to die for the sake of marital fidelity should be viewed as unprecedented. Each attempt gave people an added stimulus. The more attempts she made to

end her life, the more luminous and intense the brilliance of her moral splendor shone. Her repeated failures to accomplish this conjugal suicide can be said to have been intentionally planned by Heaven with the aim of demonstrating that Earth is still permeated with an atmosphere of high moral principle.’’?’

It seems that this terrible suicide must have actually given Huang Tsung-

hsi feelings of exaltation and delight, rather than depression and displeasure. Yet such cold-hearted emotions and imperturbable state of mind are in total contradiction to his philosophic ideas. How can we account for his strange paradoxical behavior? No doubt this unnatural, unexpected response has a traceable correlation with some preexisting disturbance in his emotions. Indeed, Huang’s anger with the blatant corruption of late Ming Court politics, his lamentation over his father’s violent death in the prison where he had been incarcerated because of his opposition to the notorious and dictatorial eunuch Wei Chung-hsien, and his contempt towards all those defected Ming scholars, might well be interpreted as the cause of such disturbances. What we would like to explore now in greater depth is the manner in which the channeling of released pent-up emotions led to the promotion of female suicide. With the preceding general survey as our premise, we ‘shall now test its validity and mechanism of operation in the three regions where female suicide prevailed most significantly—Hui-chou, Ch’uanchou and Chang-chou. Setbacks Befalling Restless Scholars

In the preceding chapter, we observed that the increase in the number of cases of female suicide varied directly with the increase in the number of scholars obtaining the title of chu-jen. We shall now try to go into more detail as to when and how the custom of widow suicide was inflamed into

fanaticism, and the role played by the scholars. 17 'T’ang lieh-fu ‘T’s’ao-shih mu-chih ming, Nan-lei wen-ting, ch’ien chi 8.

98 SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

Ku Yen-wu listed the overproduction and superfluity of scholars in the

late Ming period as one of the factors for the decline and fall of the dynasty. By his estimate, there were about half a million sheng-ytian in the whole country at that time. This multitude of restless scholars, among whom could be found both the genuine and honest as well as the deceitful

and scheming, intermingled to form a specific social stratum which caused untold trouble and sowed the seeds of disaster for the Ming Dynasty.*®

Since the Wan-li period (1573-1620), the growth of commercial capital

increasingly provided the means to support the pursuit of scholarship, and the local tradition of regarding academic success as the conduit to official promotion was greatly intensified. ‘These three regions in par-

ticular had a superabundance of scholars. Because of the lack of a coherent body of material depicting the situation in the three regions individually, we shall give a general description of them taken as a whole.

Normally, in regions where not many people were competing in the examinations, the academic uphill struggle picked up momentum after achievement of the first degree, the bottleneck and cut-throat competition starting precisely at the next stage—obtaining the intermediate degree. In these three regions, however, because of the great number of people taking part in the contest, disappointment and frustration started from the very beginning. A reminiscence of the years 1573-1620 in Chin-chiang, the prefectural city of Ch’tan-chou, gives a vivid account of the flourishing scholastic activities at that time. A scholar who wanted to pursue his studies often rented a small room in one of the two big temples in the city, costing one

tael of silver per year. The verandas of the Confucian temples, the shrines in memory of sages and worthies, and the temples in the outlying areas were all used as private tutorial schools operated by older scholars. In fact, all available public rooms, not to mention the private institutions of the big clan villages, were used for studies.

In the yearly examinations, the eligible students from Chin-chiang were always more than ten thousand in number, in contrast to only about five thousand before 1566. About seven to eight thousand of them would succeed in passing the preliminary test, and only two to three thousand would be selected in the second round. Those who were finally able to win the first degree of sheng-ylan were merely one hundred to one hundred sixty persons of the original ten thousand. The chance of gaining this first degree was therefore about one out of seventy.1? Comparing this 18 Sheng-yuan lun, T’ing-lin wen-chi, chtian 1. 19 Wen-ling chiu-shih, Ch’tan-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chuan 20.

SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION 99

with the ratio of about one out of thirty in Chin-chiang before 1566,?° we can see how intense the competition was during the Ming Dynasty. One limiting constraint on the numbers of candidates was the use of a quota system. However, two of the provincial literary chancellors serving from 1735-1743 agreed that even if their quota of candidates admitted to the provincial examination were to be increased three times, it would still

be insufficient to accommodate all the qualified candidates of just Ch’tan-chou prefecture alone.?! During the period 1453-1615, Fukien had approximately seventy counties and subprefectures, but the fixed

quota for the whole province, every three years, was no more than ninety. Thus, the great majority of scholars in Ch’uan-chou, with Chin-

chiang as the leading county, were doomed to disappointment and failure. We can clearly imagine the comparable situation of She-hsien in Hui-chou, and of Lung-ch’1 in Chang-chou. Every three years, thirty to fifty chu-jen from She-hsien attended the imperial examination in Peking, with an average of four becoming successful candidates.?? Generally speaking, about one person out of every three thousand holders of the first degree in this county had the good fortune to pass the final examination. Those who joined in the competition for the first degree would also be no less than ten thousand people. These three levels of examination were the three major ordeals in the lives of scholars of the Ming-Ch’ing times. Failure to gain the first degree deprived one of the minimum qualification to be called a scholar; lack of success in attaining the intermediate degree would cause one to lose the opportunity to be selected for official service; inability to pass the final examination, especially in the late Ming period, would dash forever the

hope for continued promotion in one’s career. This route through the examination system was so long, especially since one could repeatedly take part in the triennial examinations as often as one wished, that it was not uncommon for someone to devote thirty or forty years of their life to preparation and testing. The problem which then arose was how someone could spend such a length of time without some form of economic

support, a luxury generally unattainable for the great majority of scholars. ° Ch’tan-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chtan 20, Teng I-hsiang, T’ung-an hsien chih hsu. In about 1601, the quota for each county was increased to sixty to seventy persons. (See: Chien-wen tsa-chih, 1601 edition, chtian 3, no. 123.) *1 Wen-ling chiu-shih. Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chtian 20. 22 She chih, 1609 edition, kung-shih, chin-shih. It is very hard to give an accurate estimate. For instance in 1544, more than eighty chti-jen from Ch’tian-chou competed in the imperial examination in Peking, but none succeeded. (See: Chin-chiang hsien chih, 1765 edition, chtan 8; Ichisada Miyazaki, China’s Examination Hell: The Civil Service

we of Impertal China, translated by Conrad Schirokauer, New York, 1976, p.

100 SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

Furthermore, traditional scholars despised manual labor. ‘They would rather claim to be able to endure poverty with contentment, and styled themselves in pride as han-ju or p’in-ju (poor scholars). The situation of

scholars in these three regions was especially distressing. ‘There, superfluous scholars lacked an outlet via a secondary occupation, such as the moyu (legal experts hired by officials as their private secretaries) of Shao-hsing prefecture,?? which might make the ranks of the completely unemployed less congested. Even worse was the dialectical barrier which prevented the scholars of these three regions from seeking teaching jobs

away from their home town. The scholars from Ch’tan-chou and Chang-chou, as documented in the local histories, were unable to communicate with the directors of local academies from other provinces.** By

one estimate, about 60-70% of them did manage to learn to speak another dialect when posted away from home, but the remaining 30-40% were never able to accomplish that.?°A scholar-official from the Changchou area had to give up his appointment as magistrate in another region because of the difficulty of conversing with his subjects.?® The situation was no better in Hui-chou where the inhabitants of its six counties could not even understand each other, and this factor became the main impediment for these scholars after embarking on their official careers. It was

suggested by various magistrates that the gentry families teach their children to speak Mandarin when they were young in order to remove this obstacle to future officialdom.?’ Thus, if one were able to successfully squeeze through the first narrow gate of the examination system, and obtain the first degree, there was still an unpredictable and long journey ahead, stretching on to thirty years or more as one tried one’s luck to reach the triumphal arch, knowing full well that failure to do so would not be in the least surprising. In 1873 in Honan province, there were thirty-five ninety-year-old hsiu-ts’ai (first degree holders) and thirty-eight eighty-year-olds all struggling hard to pass the provincial examination. Apparently, they had undergone that ordeal continuously for more than seventy and sixty years respectively.?°

But whatever the final outcome, success or failure, the poor scholars inevitably had to eke out a living in the meantime if they wished not to 23 James H. Cole, ‘“The Shaoxing Connection, A Vertical Administrative Clique in Late Qing China,’’ Modern China, vol. 6, no. 3, July 1980, pp. 317-326; Cheng Tienting, Ch’ing-tai te mu-fu, in Ming-Ch’ing shih kuo-chi hstieh-shu t’ao-lun hui lun-wen chi, Peking, 1982, pp. h'8°226. 24 Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1871 edition, chtan 58. 2° Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1871 edition, chuan 57. 26 Mei chih, 1605 edition, chuian 5. 27 Hui-chou fu chih, 1699 edition, chuian 2. 28 She chih, 1609 edition, sui kung; Ch’ien Min-su kung tsou-1, 1874 edition, chtian 5.

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relinquish the battle of competition, and continued to hold optimistically to that slender hope for the best. The only occupations open to them were either teaching in a village school, or employment as a family tutor. Since the pay for such posts was so low as to hardly keep the wolf from the door,

it was no wonder that one old scholar named Yang Chen of Ch’tanchou, at one time the private tutor of the well-known official and overseas

merchant Lin Hsi-yuan (ca. 1480-ca. 1560), starved to death together with seven members of his family during the famine years of 1546-47 because he refused to accept charity gruel from the community soup kitchen for the sake of preserving his dignity.?9 This mass of restless, unemployed scholars, instead of leading their

solitary individual lives, preferred to congregate and form various organizations, acting as leaders of their communities, busily engaging in

local political and social activities, commenting on and criticizing people’s behavior, conducting lawsuits, concerning themselves with the public welfare, moulding public opinion, and so on.?° For example, in the prefectural seat of She-hsien, there was the Tou-shan Hui (Associa-

tion of Tou Mountain); in the western district was Nan-shan Hui (Association of Southern Mountain); and some big clans had similar organizations as well. ‘‘“The associations have a long history, about one hundred and fifty years, and their aim is said to be to make progress in moral conduct and to urge scholarly attainment. They all have meeting

places, with leaders and permanent staff, regulations, rituals, conferences, and periodic assemblies. All the associations have produced many eminent scholars who have become well-known everywhere.’’?! The big clans of Ch’tian-chou also had their own schools, set up under the guidance of old scholars, to compete with the prefectural city schools for inculcation of public morality and scholarship. Scholars of Chang-

chou, it was said, had their organizations, too. According to the local history, ‘‘Although the scholars there were mostly poverty- stricken, yet they preferred to plough with tongues (to teach) at home as a means of livelihood, and did not like to travel far away to be private secretaries of officials. ‘They devoted themselves to the Classics with single-minded ardor and were quite content with their frugal lives. ‘They were very keen

in setting up literary clubs to meet other like-minded scholars and to strive for moral perfection. The bigger clubs consisted of several tens of 29 Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chtian 59. 0 ‘The first emperor loathed the intermeddling of scholars in activities beyond their scholarly duty. He issued strict orders forbidding such meddling which were engraved on stone tablets and erected on the grounds of every government school. (Ta Ming huitien, 1587 edition, chuan 78, li-pu 36.) 51 She chih, 1609 edition, feng-t’u.

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members, while the smaller ones had only a little over ten.’’**? The scholars of She-hsien, dwelling in the mountainous rural areas and seldom visiting the city except on the occasions of the examinations, founded their literary clubs to strengthen the Confucian ethical code among themselves.** It was in the congregation of these great numbers of pathetic scholars that pent-up emotions of anger and frustration, seeking a common outlet in self-serving behavior, eventually moulded and

distorted their conceptions of morality into increasingly narrow and bigotted interpretations. These were then transmitted and gained widespread recognition among the populace. In the preceding chapters, it has been shown that without the existence of frustrated scholars, the cult of female marital fidelity would not have developed to the great extent that it did. Apparently, at first it was only customary for these scholars to bring to light the hidden or forgotten female virtues as moral examples.** When the first Ming emperor set up statutes for the rewarding of virtuous wives, the procedure required a written petition, making the services of the scholars indispensible. Eventually, it became a legal provision that unless the petition were drawn up by a sheng-yuian and endorsed by the director of the local school, the request urging the Court to grant a woman honor in recognition of her fidelity (to her husband) would not be considered.*° Even after official decoration had been granted, those who could then make the event a

spectacular show were also the tutors and sheng-yuan of the local academy. The cases given in Chapter I fully illustrate the roles they played in aggrandizing the cases of these suffering females for their own gratification, even composing numerous poems and essays specifically for that purpose. Formalization of Female Suicide

The vogue of glorifying females’ self-destructive behavior in moralistic exegeses seems to have prevailed during the Chia-ching period (15221566) as noted before. In the year 1460, when the noted scholar-official

Ch’eng Ming-cheng’s comprehensive collection of literary writings having a connection with Hui-chou (Hsin-an Wen-hsien chih) was pub32 Chang-chou fu chih, 1776 edition, chtian 48. 33 She-hsien chih, 1771 edition, chuan 1. 34 Hai-yen hsien t’u-ching, 1622 edition, chtian 15. 35 In 1725, Emperor Yung-cheng noticed that there were hardly any petitions for granting posthumous honors on the wives of soldiers, and attributed this to the fact that there ‘‘was not the slightest relation between scholars and soldiers.’’ Without the scholars’ propagation, women’s virtues would never have been publicized. (Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shihli, chtuan 403, li-pu, feng-chiao.)

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lished, no prose in praise of females who had committed suicide was included. In this 120-volume massive work which took thirty years to complete, only thirty-four virtuous women were included in a total of 353 biographical sketches, twenty-two before the Ming and twelve during the

Ming, of whom none was recorded as having committed suicide for marital fidelity. Even in the genealogy of Ch’eng’s clan, for which Ch’eng Ming-cheng specifically wrote a preface emphasizing how essential the chronicling of females’ virtue was, it is astonishing to note that during a period of 153 years, from 1368 to 1521, of 453 biographical sketches selected from a total of approximately ten thousand clan members

including women who had married out of the clan, only four were records of chaste widows, and none of these had committed suicide for the sake of marital fidelity.2® Later on in 1575 when Wang Tao-k’un, a

high official with great literary fame at that time, published his work called Fu-mo (Pledgling Writing), he expressed his admiration for fiftysix local figures, seven of whom were female clan members who had com-

mitted suicide and who lived within a radius of sixty li from his residence.*”? ‘The time distribution of their deaths is as follows: 1529 Widow Married into Wang Clan 1553 Widow Married into Wang Clan 1556 Widow Female member of Wang Clan 1561 Widow Married into Wang Clan 1565 Widow Married into Wang Clan 1567-70 Maiden Betrothed with Wang Clan 1567-70 Widow Married into Wang Clan

It is worth noting that even during the early period of Chia-ching when female suicides began to appear in greater numbers, the practitioners were largely widows. The self-immolation of betrothed maidens was still not popularly accepted as a feminine virtue or model of moral behavior. For example, between the years 1541 and 1543, a betrothed maiden of Hui-chou aged twenty committed suicide after her fiancé’s death because both her own parents and her parents-in-law were compelling her to

become engaged again. After her death, her fiancé’s family then immediately brought suit in the prefectural court demanding the return

of the betrothal present. The prefect, Hu, was astonished by the maiden’s ‘“‘faithfulness to a fiancé whom she had never seen, and her death on account of her parents’ obstinate determination. She was certainly a chaste maiden.’’ She did not, however, receive any official reward.?° °° Ch’eng Min-cheng hui-chi, Hsin-an wen-hsien chih, 1460 edition, chiian 98-99; Hsiu-ning yu-t’ien ch’eng-shih pen-chih pu, 1530 edition. °7 Wang Tao-k’un, T’ai-han fu-mo, 1590 edition, chtan 11; T’ai-han chi, 1591 edition, chuan 29. 38 Hui-chou fu chih, 1566 edition, chian 20.

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A similar case happened in Chang-chou. In 1541, Japanese pirates were raging along the coast of Fukien, burning, looting and killing wherever they went. Their life in upheaval and filled with desperation, a woman of twenty-nine and her daughter of fourteen threw themselves into a well. It was said they did this so that the husband named Ch’en Mou-hsing would have more time to attend to his grandmother aged ninety-four, who had remained a widow since her twenties. Since Ch’en

was a poor scholar, the magistrate assisted him with all the mortuary expenses, although no official distinction was granted from the Court. Thirty years later, in connection with the reprimanding of the Fukien officials by the Chief Censor for their negligence in reporting cases of female virtue, Mrs. Ch’en’s case was brought up again. The graves of the two suicide victims were repaired and an elegy was written by the provincial literary chancellor. In view of his wife’s and daughter’s tragic

deaths, poor scholar Ch’en, after more than forty years’ of repeated failure in the provincial examination, was eventually chosen on the basis of merit as a candidate for a minor offical appointment in 1581.°° Stull, no imperial decoration was granted to these two virtuous females. In contrast to the political decadence and confusion rocking China as a whole, the booming commercial prosperity of the three regions of Huichou, Ch’tan-chou and Chang-chou reached its climax precisely during the Wan-li period (1573-1620). The bustling climate in She-hsien was described as ‘‘the season between the summer solstice and the beginning of autumn. (However) the polarization of wealth was so prominent that

one out of a hundred became rich, while nine out of ten became impoverished. The poor naturally were unable to hold their own against

the rich, and the small minority of wealthy people gained complete dominance over the populace.’’ At the mercy of the power of a handful of nouveaux riches, the miserable predicament of thousands of frustrated scholars worsened. Not only was the competition in examinations stiffer, but the recommendation system almost came to a stop, and the purchasing of the academic title of chien-sheng, which entitled the holder to

minor official appointments, increased. Moreover, corruption in the examination system made it increasingly difficult for pecuniarily poor

scholars, however brilliant in scholarship, to be accepted by the examiners.*? Under such circumstances, those who gained titles, especially the top honors, were invariably semi-illiterate young men from °° Chang-chou fu chih, 1573 edition, chiian 26, Nan-chin hsien; Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chian 24 & 25; Chang-chou fu chih, 1877 edition, chtan 10, chih-kuan 2;

Chang-chou fu chih, 1877 edition, chian 25, huan-chi; Ming-shih, chtian 227, lieh chuan 115, Sung I-wang chuan. *0 Ai Nan-ying, Ch’ien-h shih-chtian tzu-hsti, Ming-wen shou-tu, chiian 38.

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gentry families. A few scholars with a more rebellious spirit openly revolted against this established order. Among the notorious leaders of pirates after 1540, several came from She-hsien and their background was described as ‘‘disappointed students.’’*! ‘The most powerful corsair of She-hsien origin was said to have been driven to rebellion by ‘‘his dissatisfaction with the civil examination system, which only accepted priggish pedants without considering the enrollment of great men such as he.’’*? ‘Those who were more upright and submissive had to seek refuge in distorted Confucian ethical codes to allay their painful emotional conflict and diffuse their repressed anger. Amidst the political deterioration and social degeneration of the late Ming, the thought of Wang Yang-ming (1472-1528) began to contest the authority of the school of Chu Hsi. Chu Hsi believed in relying on the writings of ancient sages as a short cut to extending knowledge, whereas Wang Yang-ming held that one could trust the individual’s ‘‘intuitive awareness’ in his exercise of moral judgement. Thus, the conflicting contentions of Wang and Chu’s doctrines were fundamentally based on two different views of man’s nature, the former valuing spontaneous and natural individualism, and the latter subscribing to conventionalism in intellectual life. In China as a whole the school of Wang Yang-ming eventually gained decisive ascendancy in the late Ming over Chu Hsi’s older philosophical tradition. However, it is interesting to note that the three regions under survey all continued in their steadfast claim to be the native place of Chu Hsi and remained under the domination of Chu’s rigid teachings and his wearisome, prescribed rules of propriety.*? Yet, according to the comprehensive and systematic review of schools of philosophical thought made by Huang Tsung-hsi in his Ming-ju Hstieh-an (Collection of Biographies of Eminent Confucian Scholars of the Ming Times), of the 205 famous thinkers included in the volume who belonged to eleven different schools, only a handful originally came from Huichou, Ch’tian-chou or Chang-chou, and the rest had no geographical connection whatsoever with these three regions. For whatever reason, the scholars of Hui-chou adhered specifically to the Neo-Confucianism of Chu Hsi, flaunting themselves as followers of Hsin-an metaphysics, or the Hui School.** The distorted form of ConfuClanism enforced by the various scholarly organizations there called for the cultivation of a puritanic lifestyle. Every house was surrounded by a #1 'T’s’ai Chiu-te, Wo pien shih-lueh. 42 She chih, 1609 edition, tsai-chi. #3 Hui-chou fu chih, 1699 edition, chtian 2. ** Huang Tsung-hsi, Ming-ju hsueh-an; Chao Chi-shih, Chi-ytan chi so chi, Fan yeh chi, Hsin-an li hstieh.

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high wall and the decoration of the halls was simple and solemn. While travelling within the region for a whole day, one would not see signs of people loafing around, or hear the sounds of laughter.*® ‘This rigid social environment eventually became fertile soil in which the practice of female

suicide germinated and flourished. An account of the historical circumstances surrounding the process of collecting material for the compilation of the local history of Wu-hsien in Kiangsu published in 1642 provides us with an opportunity to view another aspect of the above observations on the prevailing philosophical climate. While preparing material for inclusion, the editor-in-chief, a frustrated sheng-yuan named Wang Huan-ju, was particularly worried about the lack of enough material on chaste females. Sending out a plea for additional submissions, he wrote, ‘“The testimonials of merit conferred by the Court to honor women’s fidelity and virgins’ purity have been issued in accordance with the ordinance of the First Emperor, and the Veritable Records of the Empire have never had omissions in the entering of the names of those who have been honored. However, the

material of the local history of Wu-hsien is found wanting (in such names), and even the local history of Soochow prefecture chronicles very

few. It is wished, therefore, that well-informed scholars should supply more material for this work.”’ Nevertheless, not many scholars, it turned out, were enthusiastic or

diligent about doing this. Eventually after a long search, only an estimated 20-30% of the final total number was actually collected. ‘These

were all accepted without verification, whether true or legendary. The number of lifelong widows came to eighty-six, cases of female suicide in observance of marital fidelity eight, and eight died in refusing to submit to rebels or bandits.*® Taking into account the long history of academic success and commercial prosperity of Wu-hsien, which was not at all inferior to She-hsien, it is hard to offer any explanation for this, except that the number of chu-jen was decreasing (see table in Chapter IV, page 000) and consequently, for the various reasons noted above, did not feel particularly pressed or eager to propagate an inhuman institution such as the cult of female suicide. The Importance of the Cult of Female Suicide in She-hsien

In She-hsien, however, the situation was quite the contrary. When Hsieh Pi, a scholar exceptionally well-informed in history though he had never *° Wu Shu-jen chuan, Mei-ts’un chia ts’ang kao, chuan 52.

; *6 Wu-hsien chih, 1642 edition, pien-li, chuan 42; Wu-hsien chih, 1877 edition, chuan

| 63, ming-huan.

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secured a degree in the government examinations, was asked to edit the first history of She-hsien (published in 1609), over a thousand copies of petitions requesting the granting of insignia of merit to virtuous females were found in the magistrate’s yamen.*”? Comparing the number of virtuous females of She-hsien recorded in the two editions of the Hui-chou prefectural history published in 1502 and 1566, we see that the rate of occurrence had suddenly increased as much as ten times within just those slightly over fifty years. Since it was required by regulation that a shengyuan draft the original petition, this meant that several hundred sheng-

yuan had been involved in such endeavors, again reinforcing the significance of this distinctive feature of She-hsien where there was an abundance of scholars in contrast to the other regions such as Wu-hsien. Surprisingly, Hsieh Pi, who was a haughty, but bitterly disappointed scholar who travelled everywhere as a retainer of nobility and celebrities,

seems to have used this job as an outlet, whether consciously or unconsciously, to purge his repressed anger and frustration, and to calm his restlessness. He chose to be lodged in a building which had formerly been a temple of the city god, and to place himself under the surveillance of Hades. From Hsieh’s point of view, the significance of a local history lay in its commemoration of outstanding personages among whom the

chaste females were of paramount importance. After careful examination , of these over one thousand petitions, he was perplexed as to what the explanation could be for their great number, as well as how to find a solution to deal with them all. There was no evidence to support his putting full trust in their authenticity, yet it would certainly be hard-hearted to throw doubt upon them for lack of it. As it was impossible to do any kind of verification, he resorted to appealing to the souls of the chaste females now in the other world for aid, either through conscious spiritual communication in séances, or through unconscious contact in dreams. Fur-

thermore, since he had faith in his impartiality, but doubt in his infallibility, he secretly prayed to the city god to oversee his work, to punish him for injustice, and at the same time to protect him from any misfortune or accident which would prevent him from finishing this piece of work. To the great surprise and astonishment of the whole city, Hsieh accomplished his writing after a period of only several months. He then formally invited all the celebrities to accompany him in offering sacrifice

in the new temple of the city god, where he publicly announced the accomplishment of his work, stressing that it had been constantly witnessed by all the ghosts concerned. *® *7 She chih, 1609 edition, ts’ao ch’uang tzu hst. *8 [bid.

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In this curious topographical record, virtuous females were greatly eulogized, the rate of their numerical increase carefully documented, and the proceedings of each incident meticulously embellished. ‘There were also detailed descriptions written with a sympathetic tone of rebellious

pirate leaders. But contrary to what was usually found in other local chronicles, it had a tight-lipped attitude towards the other male personages of the area. Very few biographical sketches were written for recognized public figures; the virtue of filial devotees who practiced koku and lu-mo was more or less appreciated, but was then qualified by appended comments of incredulity; no place was given for the newlyarisen men of wealth; and there was no unquestioned placement of trust

in solitudinarians or hermits. What the editor reproached himself the most for was the fact that he had not been able to devote enough attention to scholars who had failed their examinations, were consequently soon forgotten and had faded into oblivion. The whole work was written in a

form of free style with a very bitter and sarcastic tone of expression. Hsieh himself admitted that the writing of this history offered him immense satisfaction from beginning to end, that he was totally bewitched by it, and felt he had to keep on writing non-stop.*? One might say

that what Hsieh had composed was not so much a local history in the

usual sense, as the literary manifestation of an agitated scholar’s aggressive reaction against his unsupportive, at times adverse, environment. Two well-known collections of biographies of virtuous females published in Hui-chou provide more evidence of how writings of this kind can be correlated with the authors’ own setbacks in real life. The first,

‘“Hsin-an Nu-hsing Chen’’ (Verification of Hsin-an Females’ Man-

nerisms), was written by Wang Hung-tu, an excellent painter and calligraphist who held no degree and who maintained a livelihood as a private tutor. He was also asked in about 1690 to help edit the revised history of She-hsien, particularly the section on landscapes, a collaboration which absorbed his energies for pursuing local historical anecdotes; fortunately it was a collaborative effort, for if left to follow his inclinations

entirely on his own, he probably would have produced another separate curious version similar to the previous one edited by Hsieh Pi ninety years earlier.°° The second collection, ‘‘Hsin-an Nu-hsing Lu’’ (Collection of Hsin-an Females’ Virtuous Ways), was compiled by Ch’eng Yun-p’eng during the K’ang-hsi period (1662-1722) of the early Ch’ing Dynasty. Ch’eng #9 Tbid., 1935 edition, chuan 7.

°° She-hsien chih, 1935 edition, chuan 7, p. 15a, b.

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was an exceedingly ambitious scholar who liked to talk about the art of governing an empire with both right and might, and who used to ride alone to regions beyond the borders searching for the origin of the great rivers. His extensive knowledge, however, never won him any academic success, and once to his annoyance, the report on his investigations on how to regulate the Yellow River was forcibly taken by an unscrupulous official who then submitted it to the Director General of the Yellow River in order to obtain claim to this merit falsely. In his later years, Ch’eng humbly declined any recommendation for official appointment, pleading senility, and lived alone in an isolated village. But he still spared no effort in collecting materials on virtuous females from all the poor, remote mountainous districts never heard of by outsiders. Whenever he heard reports of an actual case occurring, he would rush to that spot for confirmation, carrying his provisions with him in his big sleeves. Eventually he completed a book of twenty volumes about the virtuous ways of the females in Hsin-an.*! At the present time, this is a very rare book, and perhaps might be altogether no longer extant. Fortunately, a preface to it written by Shen I-k’uei, a very successful prefect of Hui-chou during the years 1626-1629, is still separately recorded in the local history. From this preface one can see how differently a successful scholar-official such as Shen reacted towards the practice of female suicide. It states:°? If a poor village woman happens to kill herself, or determines to remain in widowhood, it is merely a trifling matter because her action concerns the affairs of females only. To bestow some good words (for a case such as this)

once in a while is very easy to do, but to write about the same theme as many as several hundred times, each having its own special features and novelty, and still remain free of the odious smell of staleness, is indeed a tremendous work.

The above account reveals that a detached moral sense finds expression voiced differently by frustrated and non-frustrated scholars. The former enjoy other people’s catastrophes because they may associate them with their own misery, while the latter take pleasure in others’ tragedies with a sense of objective gratification that events have taken their course, even presuming the right to make extraneous, uncomplimentary comments. In Ch’eng’s own words, his intention of collecting unrecorded deeds of virtuous females was to display for all the unrecognized ‘‘hidden’’ virtue of others in order to vicariously fulfill his own long-cherished wishes. But, to the prefect Shen who had steadily risen to eminence without any 51 Tbid., p. 14b.

°2 Shen I-k’uei, Hsin-an nti-shi cheng hsti, She-hsien chih, chtian 15.

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obstacle,°? Ch’eng’s work was simply a piece to be valued for its literary

accomplishment, an achievement due precisely to the failure of this frustrated scholar in his offical career.5* Thus, the prefect enjoyed reading Ch’eng’s writing, but paid no heed to those several hundred of his female subjects who had ended their lives in such tragic ‘‘virtuous’’ ways.

The differences in the points of view of frustrated and non-frustrated

scholars can be seen more clearly in the critical comment of the magistrate of She-hsien, Chang T’ao, on Hsieh Pi’s way of chronicling virtuous females in the local history. Chang disagreed with Hsieh that the females in She-hsien were unique and that their deeds, therefore, should be publicized with elaborate praise. In Chang’s opinion, some glorifica-

tion was necessary, but exaggeration was inappropriate, even for the purposes of literary embellishment. In addition, he disapproved of Hsieh’s way of deliberately setting aside the more well-known names, while sparing no effort to portray obscure events, and he suggested that these be left for later discussion.*°This difference in attitude, each with its separate justification, again reflects the distinct discrepancies in the emotional state between the frustrated and non-frustrated scholars. A Weighty Personage in the Development of the Cult of Female Sutcide in Ch’uan-chou

In an earlier section of this chapter, accounts have been given illustrating

how the practice of female suicide was propagated by outstanding scholars such as Huang Tsung-hsi and Ku Yen-wu. Another description of the active role played by Ho Ch’iao-ytian (1558-1632) in influencing

the prevalence of this cult in Ch’tian-chou during the Wan-li period enables us to further scrutinize the point under discussion. Ho, a native of Chin-chiang, the prefectural city of Ch’uan-chou, was a famous scholar-official as well as a historian. He was successful through the highest level in the civil examinations, but subsequently had a very °$ Hui-chou fu chih, 1827 edition, chtian 7, part 1, Chih-kuan chih, Chin hsien kuan; Chang-chou fu chih, 1877 edition, chiian 33, jen wu 6. 54 Ihid., note 52. 55 She chih, 1609 edition, lich ni. Another well-known collection, Chzeh-fu Chuan (Biographies of Chaste Women) published in 1761 by Yang Hsi-fu, a powerful and wealthy director-general of grain transport, provides one more example. Being a very successful official, Yang had no need to drown any anxiety by sympathizing with wretched widows in their suffering. Yet despite his good intentions, he could not disguise his supercilious view towards females. He commented that ‘‘widowhood is merely an ordinary virtue,’’ and ‘‘since ancient times, intelligent and smart women seldom defend their chastity. Those who remain unmarried after their husband’s death are invariably of a quiet and uncommunicative type of personality.’’ (Chieh-fu chuan, chiian 6 & 12.)

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tortuous life. In 1558, two years after passing the final examination, he was suddenly forced to return to Ch’tan-chou because he had protested the demotion of the leader of the Tung-lin Movement for opposing the notorious eunuch, Wei Chung-hsien. Back at home, he built a few mud

rooms and subsisted on a diet mainly consisting of wheat and sweet potatoes which he threshed and dug up himself. He was so poor that he was unable to prepare thick porridge regularly or to have adequate bedding in the winter. Yet, he and another scholar, Li Kuang- chin, were respected as examples of impeccable personal conduct and leaders of public opinion.

They exerted at first an almost imperceptible infuence on the inhabitants, but which gradually eventually resulted in an organized movement with very strong social pressure called ‘‘ch’ing-i’’ (honest advocates). ‘This was at the time when reverence of teachers and tutors was at its height. A teacher could order his ill-behaved student, even one who was a married sheng-yiian, to go down on his hands and knees for flogging. The local scholars and gentry families were particularly afraid of doing anything wrong which might be passed on to the ears of either of those two outstanding scholars. According to the local history, news of any unconventional or disapproved activity would soon be spread far and wide throughout the city. For example, if a maid servant in her late teens were incidently seen out in the streets, sneers would be heard and the scandal talked about everywhere. ‘The lot of other females can well be imagined.

One year before his death, at the age of seventy-three, Ho Ch’iaoyuan summed up his life experiences in a composition, “‘‘How to Restrain One’s Anger,’’ which gives testimony as to how he dealt with his implacable anger and chronic insomnia over a period of more than thirty years. He explains why he believed in planchette writing, how he was able to communicate with fairies, and why he indulged in wine; he habitually enjoyed getting stone drunk with some of the old farmers in the village, inuring himself to liquor so effectively that on occasions such as the seasonal festivals and New Years Eve, he could finish several hundred cups of wine without becoming intoxicated. In 1608, his elder son Chiu-chuan (which means deep anxiety from sorrow), a sheng-yuan and likewise a heavy drinker, died suddenly at the age of thirty. Shortly afterwards, Chiu-chuan’s only son, a very young boy, also died. In despair at these tragic deaths, Chiu-chuan’s wife, named Wang, decided to end her life. As the local history recorded it, she asked permission of her father-in-law, Ho, and begged him to grant her a date for leaving the world. She hanged herself thirty days later. Before she went up to the noose, she folded her hands across her breast in the traditional way and

112 SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

begged the family that, although her husband’s younger brother did not have a son at the time, when he did, they select one to be adopted as her husband’s heir. Her hands remained in that folded gesture, it was said, even after her death. According to the description in the local history, this daughter- in-law of Ho Ch’iao-ytian probably hanged herself in public, 1.e., ta-t’ai. It 1s almost impossible to conceive how a scholar of such extensive learning as Ho could have given his assent for a member of his family to die in

such a cruel way. We do not have any knowledge of what happened during that period of thirty days from the time the poor widow begged permission until the suicide actually took place—persuasion, preparation, or both, we cannot tell. But one point is certain, such powerful social pressure had been built up by that time, that even a courageous scholar such as Ho, who had dared because of his moral convictions to offend the Court in earlier years, would still yield to misinterpreted concepts of morality along with the rest of the mediocre frustrated scholars

because of his own intense emotional conflicts.°° From somewhat incomplete statistics, we know that Ho Ch’iao-yuan wrote at least eight flattering epitaphs for females who had committed suicide in Chin-chiang county alone.°’It is no wonder that the 1612 edition of the local history of Ch’uan-chou prefecture, of which Ho was one of the editors, was so enthusiastic about advocating the cult of observing marital fidelity by

committing suicide. ‘hereafter, his style of description and flowery language could be found in almost all the well-known local histories in

Fukien. It was under such tutelage and incitement that the inhuman institution of female suicide became a social norm. As a result, to abet a person in carrying out self-sacrifice, rather than being condemned as a criminal act, became in fact a great virtue. We have shown that the championing of female suicide thus became

an avenue of emotional escape for frustrated scholars in response to special environmental stress. What made such an adjustive psychological

mechanism possible was the cultural acceptance of a detached moral sense—a value system which provided both the security of having a °6 ‘The increasing restlessness of the poor scholars may also be related to the widespread condition of economic deterioration, as indicated by the skyrocketing prices of goods and services after the middle of the Wan-li period. For example, the payment for hiring a cook to prepare a banquet was 2-3 fen (1/100 tael) of silver in the 1590’s; was raised to 2 ch’ien ('/10 tael) in 1602-1603; to 3 ch’ien 3 fen in 1628-1629; and in 1634 was raised to 1 tael of silver. (Wen-ling chiu-shih, Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chuan 20.)

°? Ho Ch’iao-yuan, Ching-shan ch’tian-chi, 1641 edition, chuang, hsing-shu; Ch’uan-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chtian 22; 1762 edition, chtian 20, feng-su; chtian 66, Ming lieh chuan.

SCHOLARS’ FRUSTRATION AND EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION 113

strong traditional ethical code with which to identify, while at the same time sanctioning the discharge of one’s built-up feelings of frustration and anxiety engendered by adherence to that code by praising the selfinflicted suffering and catastrophes of others who were faithfully obeying that code themselves. Some commentaries on the local histories do provide a rationale for the cult of female suicide. One stated, ‘‘Men are granted the right to submit, or to rise and leave at will; to choose when to adhere to principles, and when to seek an expediency as determined by their own conscience. However, the moral code governing women 1s fixed and has no elasticity. Women’s affairs should not be made parallel with men’s.’’°® Since the philosophical construct of this argument 1s based on the J-ching (Classic of Changes) which defines the feminine as submissive in nature, there is no ground left for debate. °§ Ying-t’ien fu chih, 1577 edition, chian 31.

CHAPTER SIX

EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES In the preceding chapters we have come to a better understanding of - some sociological factors which correlated with the cult of female suicide

in certain regions of China during the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties. However, one crucial question still remains to be answered. Clearly, no scholar, however restless or frustrated, 1s able to abet a female in killing herself unless she 1s already inclined and prepared to do so. Therefore, we shall next examine further what the special mental disposition was which made these individual women prone to suicide. One’s own ideology of death and the afterlife is of great significance in promoting or inhibiting self-destructive behavior by influencing the decision-making process. Father S. J. Krose believes that Catholicism

deters one from committing suicide because its beliefs inspire in adherents a fear of punishment beyond the grave.' In our view, the sudden increase in the incidence of female suicide in the three regions under discussion is related to the flourishing in the late Ming of a folk belief that in the nether world the dead woman’s vengeful ghost would be better able to persecute her enemy than if she were living on earth. The emotional vulnerability of females can be seen as an important psychological causal correlate of female suicide. Spiritual Ballast

Confucianism has as its primary function the harmonizing of social rela-

tions and has never provided answers to questions concerning things beyond the secular world, nor has it offered any inspiration or consolation to individuals when their lives happen to be in crisis. As Chi Yun (1724-1804), one of the most well-informed scholars of the Ch’ing Dynasty, commented, ‘‘Confucianism is like food, indispensable to life; without it for one day, one would feel hungry; without it for many days, death will occur. Whereas Buddhism, being as good as medication, can be employed to get rid of ill-will and hatred, to shake off anger and anx1ety, at important junctures of life or death, at moments of joy or sorrow,

proving to be much more effective than Confucianism.’’? Because of 1 Halbwachs, M., Les Causes du Suicide, Paris, 1930, p. 51. 2 Chi Yuin, Hsiao hsia lu, chuan 4.

EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES {15

these reasons, Buddhism was able to consolidate its ground in China at a time when the Chinese were inflicted with suffering and insecurity, yearning for some emotional release apart from the often implausible

rationale of Confucianism which until then had governed their lives exclusively.

Evidence indicates that Buddhism in its earliest form opposed the act

of self-destruction.? Buddha himself set down the canon forbidding monks to commit suicide.* It was recorded that Kung-ti, the last emperor of the Western Chin (reigned 419-420) who devoted the later years of his life to Buddhism, melted down millions of coins to cast a statue of Bud-

dha sixteen feet in height, and then went by foot to the temple a long distance away for its unveiling ceremony. When he was forced to end his life by poisoning, the emperor refused to take the venom which had been

prepared saying that a Buddhist who commits suicide would not be reborn into the human realm again. He was eventually killed by the usurper of his throne.’ A similar case also occurred in 452. A loyal minister in the (Liu) Sung Dynasty (420-479), unwilling to drink the poison offered because of his Buddhist beliefs, was put to the sword.® However, like Confucianism, the original intent of Buddhist teachings

could not escape the fate of being interpolated and misrepresented through transmission over time and locale. Apart from supplying food for philosophical enquiry to thoughtful

scholars, and polemic to ardent xenophobes, Buddhism and _ its popularized notions of heaven, hell and the omnipotent force of Karma have much to offer the simple and realistic Chinese people. People of every social stratum have striven to gratify their emotional cravings by adopting and clinging to elements of this alien belief—emperors dream-

ing of and embarking on quests for immortality, generals seeking to explate their past crimes, the wealthy hoping to continue their sumptuous life in the next world, and the poor praying for a new turn in the life to come. The most powerful notion of Buddhist belief which made the Chinese people submit to its precepts in fear and trembling is the supposed life of terror in Hades. The original Buddhist canon, translated into Chinese in the ‘I’ang Dynasty, conveys a general idea of the successive levels of hells. Their vivid depiction by Yen Li-pen (c. 600-674) later prompted 3 Yu Cheng-hsieh, Fo-chiao ko-yen, Kuei-ssu lei-kao, chuan 12. * Giles, H.A., The Travel of Fa Hsien (339-414 A.D.) or Records of Buddhistic Kingdoms,

Cambridge University Press, 1923, p. 52; (Hsi-chin) Fa Chi trans., Pi-ch’iu pi o-ming yu tzu-sha ching; (Hsiao-chi) k’a-pa-t’o-lo trans., Shan-chien-lu p’i-p’o-so, chiian 11. > Chin-shu, ti-chi 10, kung-ti; Nan-shih, chiian 28, lieh chuan, Ch’u Yu-chih chuan. © Sung-shu, chuan 68, lieh chuan, P’eng-ch’eng Wang I-k’ang chuan.

116 EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES Hu Ying, a Sung scholar, to attribute the ingenious ways of inflicting torture and suffering under the reign of Empress Wu (685-704) to an earthly

imitation of the horrors in these imaginary paintings of Hades.’ The mass popularity of later Chinese versions of this terrifying nether world, and the belief in the capability of ghosts to retaliate against their enemies

of the previous life was, as far as we an ascertain at present, largely accomplished through theatrical performances of the Sung Dynasty such as the dramatic stories of thé notable Wang K’uei and Mu Lien. In the

former story, after having achieved the highest honors in the palace examination, Wang K’uei suddenly became ungrateful for the great help which his mistress had given him during his former days of poverty. She soon committed suicide. Later, Wang was put to death by the ghost of his former mistress in revenge for his heartless treatment.® In the latter play, Mu Lien, one of Buddha’s disciples, descended into hell to rescue his avaricious mother from incessant torment. In these performances, the

punishment meted out in hell was vividly portrayed, and each of the

, numerous horrible ghosts were depicted with its distinguishing dreadful appearance and special expertise in torture tactics.” ’ (T’ang) Hstan Chuang trans., Hsiao-ch’eng ta-chi ti-tsang shih-lun fa, (T’ang) Tsang Ch’uan narrated, Fo-shuo ti-tsang p’u-sa fa-hsin yin-ytian shi-wang ching; Ku Yen-wu, Jih-chih-lu, chtian 30, T’ai-shan chih-shen; C.P. Fitzgerald, The Empress Wu, University of British Columbia, 1968, pp. 149-150. One Ch’ ing official of the Board of Punishment estimated that about two-fifths of the tortures described could be found in this world. (Yu-h chih-pao ch’ao, Lu T’ing-t’ung, Tu Yu-h fu-chi.) 8 Meng Yuan-lao, Tung-ching meng-hua lu, chuan 8; Cheng Chih-chen, Hsin-pien Mu Lien chiu-mu ch’tan-shan hsi-wen. Due to the popularity of this play during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279), the well-known scholar Chou Mi, in 1095, had to throw light upon the falsehood of this seemingly historical story. (Chou Mi, Ch’i-tung yeh-yu, chuan 6, Wang K’uel chuan.) Even at present, this play is still being staged in China, mostly in Szechwan province. 9 The play of Mu Lien is essentially a dramatic panorama of the nether world. It was at first prevalent in a vast area surrounding Hui-chou which covered both Anhui and Chekiang provinces, and then gradually spread to the Ch’tan-chou area. Performances usually started in the late afternoon, after dusk, and went on until the next morning. It became especially popular during the alarming years when the rate of suicide by hanging was unusually high. Tiao-ssu ghosts (ghosts of people who had died by hanging) were then believed to be the most malicious type of ghosts which could only be exorcised and driven away by performance of this particular play. The climax of the drama, according to descriptions, was during the act in which two ghosts of men who had committed suicide, one by hanging and the other by drowning, were driven away by a divine figure as they were fighting each other over a substitute they both claimed as victims for revenge. (Lu Hsun, Ch’ieh chieh t’ing tsa-wen fu-chi, nu-tiao.) We wonder what kind of emotional satisfaction could have been drawn from this dramatic spectacle of the nether world with its whole crowd of assembled ghosts? The general effect was described by one spectator. ‘‘Everybody was terrified and trembling, and all looked deathlike under the dim light...some females even fainted.’’ (Chang Tal, T’ao-an meng-i, chuan 6. Chung-hua ch’tan-kuo feng-su chih, hsia p’ien, chuan 5, pp. 24-26.) Presumably the dramatic representation of this pseudo-hell, besides fulfilling some didactic purpose, might conceivably have had some prognostic significance to cer-

EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES 117

Shades, denizons of the underworld, are projections cloaked in obscurity of the luminous, visible and intelligible things of this world. The notion of ghosts represents man’s imagining of the unfinished or unfulfilled part of the living. The hope for restitution of right in the underworld by the retaliation of ghosts can be said to have resulted from the oppressiveness of traditional Chinese society which left no channel open to meet the social and psychological needs of people while alive in this world.'° ‘The process of appropriating these Buddhist beliefs into Chinese society occurred gradually, reaching its full development in the Ming Dynasty, especially in its later period. A relevant question now arises. During the Sung Dynasty when the factors we have identified as closely related to the rise of female suicide

in the Ming had already begun to emerge, 1.e., business trading appeared to be booming, the civil examination presented keen competi-

tion, and moreover, strict adherence to marital fidelity was strongly advocated by Neo-Confucianists, why was it that the emergence of this new belief in ghosts and hells did not promote the cult of female suicide } at that earlier time? In our view, the strong influence of a new wave of orthodox Buddhist beliefs which entered China at that time should be regarded as the most significant factor for consideration. It has generally been recognized that in the Sung period, Buddhism in

its orthodox form once again flourished in China after the period of disunity of the Five Dynasties which had followed the fall of the T’ang.

In Fu-chou prefecture in Fukien, for example, 1625 temples were recorded in 1054. Monks were appointed as administrators of the welfare

services sponsored by the government. During the Sung Dynasty in Chin-chiang county alone there were twenty-six monks all of whom contributed a great deal in technical fields and in raising funds for construction work in the southern part of Fukien.'!As long as the orthodox Buddhist belief remained influential among the populace, its doctrine against

suicide naturally continued to be able to arrest any thoughts of selfdestruction. Thus, there appears to be a correlation between the act of self-destruction and the prevalent special forms of popular belief. YU Cheng-hsieh (1775-1840), a scholar with progressive views who was saddened by the tain spectators, providing a preview of future death. In the K’ang-hsi dictionary compiled in 1716 A.D., which contains 47,021 Chinese characters, there are altogether 198 characters with the radical for ghosts, of which 57 name various types of ghosts, 31 are undecipherable in meaning, 62 are variant forms, and 48 are adjectives or names of constellations.

‘0 Huang Chih-chi, Chien-wen chi, 1903 edition, chtian 7, p. 14. ‘) Fu-chou fu chih, 1754 edition, chtian 6, part 1; Chin-chiang hsien chih, 1765 edition, chuan 2 & 15.

118 EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES increase in number of suicide cases occurring in his times, suggested that the Buddhist objection to self-destruction be propagated along with other

moral tracts by posting them up in printed tabloid form everywhere.’ This clearly indicates the seriousness of the problem, and the fact that no other available remedy seemed to offer any effective solution except the

revival of the offical sanction of Buddhist doctrine. In fact, the simultaneous decline of orthodox Buddhism and the spreading of a popular belief in ghosts during the Ming period prepared the foundation for a rise in suicidal behavior. Restrictions on Monks and Empathy with Ghosts

The first Ming emperor, Chu Yiian-chang, was the only emperor in Chinese history who through his personal experience of having been a monk for several years was intimately and thoroughly acquainted with orthodox religious belief. This powerful emperor, wildly arrogant and with perhaps a tendency toward paranoia, had ambitious designs on controlling the worlds beyond his earthly realm. He enacted laws restricting

the development of the religious sector; the erection of new temples, monasteries and shrines was prohibited, and only a very limited number

of official diplomas was granted each year to monks. Many scattered Buddhist temples and Taoist monasteries were amalgamated and concentrated in the cities.‘? Even the fees paid to priests for chanting liturgies 12 Tbid., note 2.

‘3 Ta Ming lu, chuan 4; Ta Ming hui-tien, 1587 edition, chuan 104, h-pu 62; Kuoch’ao hsien-chang lei-pien, chian 25. The restriction on the construction and power of temples did not affect all places in China uniformly. It has been proved that it affected the monks in Ch’tan-chou and in Chang-chou particularly severely. All the temples in these regions had originated from donations of large tracts of land by triumphant generals of the Five Dynasties period (907-960), who in their later years turned to ‘‘religious works’’ with the sanguine thought that they might expiate the violence of their past slaughters in battle. (Huang Yu, Hui-ming ssu chi, Yung-ch’un hsien chih, 1526 edition, chuan 9.) Subsequently, the temples in Fukien, as pointed out by Lin Hsi-yuan (ca. 1480-ca. 1560), became in fact the means to short-cut the way to becoming rich. (Lin Hsi-yuan, Lin Tz’u-yai hsien-sheng wen-chi, chtian 2, Wang Cheng fu-yen.) Once someone had attained the status of monk, his whole family could rely on him for their livelihood. (Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chtian 8.) Furthermore, since there was an old tradition exempting monks from corvee and from all taxes on their land, (except for, in some cases, a minimal tax), a long-standing feud was carried on for centuries between the monks and the local gentry. (Jézd., chuan 8, t’ien-fu k’ao.) The prohibitive laws of Chu Yuan-chang and successive Ming emperors deprived these monks of all their traditional exemptions and various special favors, and at the same time, gave the local powerful gentry the opportunity to misappropriate the temples’ properties. In 1452, the maximum amount of property allowed any temple (counted in amount of cultivated land lent out) was limited to sixty mou. (Ta Ming hui-tien, 1587 edition, chuan 104.) By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the cultivated land owned by K’ai-

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were Officially stipulated.‘ The thousands of city gods within the empire were reorganized by means of imperial edicts, and were reinstated by being bestowed with the official ranks of the Ming hierarchy. Magistrates were required to make sacrifice twice a year and pay homage to them at

the beginning and middle of each month. Important matters of the region had to be reported without fail. A newly appointed magistrate had

to first take an oath before the city god before attending to official yuan Temple of Ch’tan-chou and lent to tenant farmers had shrunk to only one-seventh its original size. (Ch’tan-chou K’ai-ytian-ssu chih, 1927 edition, t’ien-fu k’ao, pp. 175182.) Thus, the bestowal of land on which it was said the building of temples in Fukien initially depended, later, as shown above, came to be a source of calamity threatening their existence. (Nan-an hsien chih, 1671 edition, chiian 20.) During the years of the Wan-li reign (1573-1620), K’ai-yuan Temple mentioned above, famous throughout China since the T’ang Dynasty, was no longer recognizable as a place of worship. Most of its affiliated temples had been desecrated and subsequently appropriated into the villas of rich gentry, or dwellings of commoners, totalling about 120 in number. Some parts of the main buildings had been rented out as private schools.

Worst of all, from 1564-1594, the temple was turned into a smelter and powdermanufacturing factory. (Ch’tan-chou K’ai-ytian-ssu chih, 1927 edition, chien-chih, pp. 3a-4a.) The temples in Chang-chou met with a similar fate. ‘‘Not only are Buddhist priests eating meat and monastic orders degenerating, but even villas are built amid holy places and the sanctuaries are turned into markets.’’ (Chang-chou fu chih, 1628 edition, chuan 33, fang-wai chih.) These deplorable conditions stood in contrast to the situation in other big cities where temple worship was still flourishing and respected, and were attributed by Li T’ing-chi of Chin-chiang, the Grand-Secretary at that time, to ‘‘relaxation of moral restriction,”’ implying avariciousness on the part of the gentry and a narrow scope of reasoning on the part of scholars. These traits evidently predominated to such an extent that ‘‘to refrain from scraping the gilt off the face of a Buddhist idol, as ridiculed in the theatrical plays, was regarded as the most generous alms-giving at that time;’’ and the prevailing opinion among scholars went so far as to advocate the taking over of all Buddhist temples because of their heterodox nature. (Ch’uan-chou K’ai-yiian-ssu chih, pei chi, pp. 20b-21a.) Some

scholars even suggested that, “‘If the government orders were to become uniform throughout the land, it would be an excellent opportunity to turn temples into dwelling houses and to put them under civil administration.’’ (Liu-an chou chih, 1584 edition, chuan 4.) Some commentators also cited Ch’ti-fu as an example for emulation, since neither Buddhist temples or Taoist monasteries had been built there for 1500 years in reverence to Confucius and his philosophy. (Ying-t’ien fu chih, 1577 edition, chuan 23; T’ung-ch’uan chou chih, 1619 edition, chtian 5.) In K’un-shan, Kiangsu, official orders were repeatedly issued to the people to demolish

sanctuaries and small temples, without need of any further authorization. It was remarked that if sufficient monetary compensation had been granted to the old and poor displaced monks and friendly assistance extended to help them settle elsewhere, then no one would have complained about the seizure of these religious buildings or their disposition for public use. However, in fact all properties were ultimately handed over to power-

ful families for use as dwellings, burial grounds and gardens, and the compensation awarded the monks was no more than one-tenth the real value. (K’un-shan hsien chih, 1576 edition, chuan 4; Huang Hsing-tseng, Wu-feng lu.) 4 Shih-shih chi-ku lu hsti-chi, Ch’in lu ts’e, Hung-wu erh-shih-ssu nien shen-ming fochiao pang ts’e.

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business.'° In no other Chinese dynasty were religious affairs conducted by such rigorous bureaucratic means and did the rule of the nether world and secular government mingle so much.

It is ironic that this authoritarian ruler assumed so strict an attitude with the deities in the heavens, and yet on the other hand, perhaps due to the massive slaughter he witnessed in his struggle to seize power, was

lenient and sympathetic with the numerous nameless and intangible wandering ghosts. These were divided into twelve categories’® by imperial decrees drafted by Chu Yuan-chang himself. In 1370, three years after his ascension to the throne, the emperor ordered that li-t’ai (altars for praying to malicious spirits) be built throughout the empire, from the capital down to every village.'’? Thereafter, millions of these

altars appeared all over the country. In Ch’ang-chou (present-day Soochow) in Kiangsu alone, it was estimated that there were 741.18 The rites at these altars were performed nationwide three times a year

and their proceedings imperially prescribed. Every detail of the ceremony including the offical speeches for the different administrative levels, from the capital to the villages, was standardized by the Board of Rites. Higher provincial officials were to make sacrifices to the local god of the province first before beginning any ceremonial rites at the altars, in order to solicit his collaboration as supervisor in assembling the ghosts. In consideration of the difficulty of accommodating millions of ghosts at one time, it was arranged that the rites of various levels be performed at separate times.!° Chu Yuan-chang was very proud of his achievement. It was said in the official record of speeches that under his rule the governing of his human subjects as well as the pacifying of the myriad spirits were all very well

regulated.*° The emperor’s propagation of such practices greatly 1S Kuo-ch’ao tien-hui, chtian 104, li chih; Yeh Sheng, Shui-tung jih-chi, chuan 30. ‘6 ‘These were ghosts of people who had met their deaths by 1) fire or flood; 2) building collapse; 3) turmoil of war; 4) suicide at being compelled to give up property or wives; 3) plague; 6) starvation; 7) wild beast and poisonous snake bites; 8) fighting on the battlefield; 9) hanging oneself in desperation; 10) wrongful execution without ever having been rehabilitated; 11) any cause, but without having left an heir; 12) any cause, but without having had a burial with proper rites. (Hsing-hua fu chih, 1503 edition, chuan 21.)

‘7 Kuo-ch’ao hsien-chang lei-pien, chuan 25. 18 Ch’ang-chou hsien chih, 1598 edition, chtian 3. It is interesting to note that city gods were asked on these occasions to select from among all those who had been condemned to execution, those who were innocent and had been wrongly executed for rebirth in the celestial empire, and to discriminate against the wicked ones who by some fluke had died a natural death before the actual execution could take place. The latter were to be designated barbarians for rebirth beyond the bounds of the Empire. (Hsinghua fu chih, 1503 edition, chtan 21.) 19 Hsing-hua fu chih, 1503 editin, chuan 21. 20 Lbid.

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increased the reported occurrence of ghosts. In 1378, Marquis Chu Liang-tsu reported, ‘‘In the open fields of An-tong (present Lien-shu1) and Shu-yang counties (northeast of Kiangsu), several hundred ghosts

appeared at night either standing in line or scattered about. When attacked they suddenly disappeared. The inhabitants were very frightened.’’?! Reports continued to be brought forth; ghosts were draw-

ing water from the wells, or they were throwing stones at human beings.?2 Since Chu Ytian-chang was serious about hearing of these incidents, all the reports were asked to be submitted for his information. As a result, ministers were frequently rebuked for their skeptical views

on ghosts, and offerings to the ghosts were granted directly by the emperor himself to compensate for the negligence of the officials in his service who were not making any as they should. Imagine how all this must have affected the superstitious masses! The rites performed at the li-t’ai were gradually abandoned after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Obviously, such prescribed rites which had been invented and enforced solely at Chu Yuan-chang’s whim were not only contradictory to conventional Confucianism, but also unsuitable for meeting the individual needs of the masses. Human beliefs come voluntarily and cannot be mandated or directed by official instruction. In the record of Ch’ang-chou, by the 1590’s the altars of the prefecture were totally in ruin and ninety percent had been converted into dwellings for squatters. But once a demon gets free, it is not easily forced back into the bottle again! And so it was, too, with the numerous wandering ghosts invented by Chu Yiian-chang and the villagers. To meet the needs of emergencies and emotional crises, a great number of small shrines, called ‘fan,’’ were unlawfully spread out everywhere to replace the abandoned li-t’ai.23 During the period 1572-1575, Hui-an, one of the counties of Ch’tian-chou prefecture and also prominent for female suicides, had 591 shrines of various sizes in an area of eighty li, about 320 kilometers, in circumference. ** 21 Kuo-ch’ao hsien-chang lei-pien, chtan 25. 22 Kuei-shen yu-wu lun, Yu-chih chi, Chin-ling fan-sha chih, chuan 1. 23 Ch’ang-chou hsien chih, 1598 edition, chtian 30; I-hsing hsien chih, 1590 edition, chuan 6; Feng Ying-ching, Ching-shih shih-yung pien, 1603 edition, chuan 17. The lit’al was preserved in the northern part of Shansi, for example around Ta-t’ung, until the Ch’ing Dynasty. The reason for this given by the local commentators was that in this region many more people died on the battlefield and were left without proper burial than in other places, and this rite was the only form of sacrifice that could be quickly arranged. (Shan-hsi t’ung chih, 1892 edition, chan 99.) At present, one-tenth of the temples in Taiwan are for the worship of ghosts of li, and their annual ceremonial offerings surpass

those of city gods and Koxinga. (Shen P’ing-shan, Chung-kuo shen-ming kai-lun, Taipei, 1979, p. 139.) 24 A few years ago when government policy towards religious worship was somewhat relaxed, a large number of small shrines sprang up all over Ch’ang-chou. However, since

122 EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES

These shrines appeared in various forms in different regions and usually had divine pantheons composed of a mixture of Buddhist and Taoist divinities and ghosts?° created and replaced at will. The idols were generally very small, not more than fifteen inches in height, and the halls

inexpensive to erect. Consequently, a shrine could be set up whenever and wherever necessary and became a convenient and easily accessible place of worship for the inhabitants. However, these shrines often met with swift orders for their destruction from the more orthodox officials. But then, as soon as these officials had left the area, all the shrines would

immediately be restored and even new ones built.° Ideology and Sutcide

The existence of a particularly strong fetishism toward Buddhism in the three regions under discussion can be seen as follows: 1. The chronicling of Buddhist and Taoist temples in all local histories

during the Ming had quite distinctive features as to editorial arrangement and appended commentary. This section of the history was typically very brief and treated as insignificant in conformity

with Court orders. The added commentary was invariably derogatory. ‘his particular characteristic was notably more prominent in the local histories of the three regions under investigation.?’ August of 1983, vigorous prohibition by the government has caused many of these newly built shrines to be converted into schools, nurseries, youth clubs and recreation rooms. Those by the roadside and on the fields have been turned into rest houses and shelters for the people. (People’s Daily, October 12, 1983.) It is interesting to note that in 1553, 420 years ago, Yeh Ch’un-chi, the magistrate of Hui-an, did the same to 551 shrines by forced administrative measures, turning 221 of them into local schools and the remainder into rest houses. In his own, he recorded the sarcastic remarks of the inhabitants, that as soon as he had left the city gate, all the ghosts came back to the shrines. (Shih-tung

chi, chuan 3, Hui-an cheng-shu, chtian 9, kung-tu 2.) 29 "T’ai-p’ing fu chih, 1531 edition, chtian 11.

26 Shih-tung chi, 1575 edition, chian 3; Hui-an cheng-shu, Chin-hsieh ch’i-t’iao; Chung-hua ch’tan-kuo feng-su chih, shang p’ien, chttan 4, Fu-chien erh, p. 24. 27 In general, four types of unfavorable commentary can be distinguished: 1. Contumelious. Buddhism labelled as ‘‘the ghostly way,’’ and monks as ‘‘bald pates.”’

2. Begrudgingly tolerant. Buddhism and Taoism styled as ‘‘the two clans,’’ and all their temples, although on principle repugnant, treated as historical relics and scenic spots, and on these merits, worthy of preservation. 3. Purposeful disregard. No comment given. 4. Rueful resentment. The restoration of Buddhist temples contrasted with the shabbiness of Confucian temples; lamentation for the inefficaciousness of Confucianism, while Buddhism still attracted worshippers. The results of a survey of 73 local histories show that their commentaries can generally be classified as: Contumelious, 17; Tolerant, 23; Disregard, 27; Resentment, 6.

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2. How belief in ghosts had insinuated itself into the minds of females, and what the effect of this was, were also explicitly recorded in the histories of these regions. She-hsien and Hsiu-ning are situated adja-

cent to Chiu Hua Mountain, the central place in China for revering : Ti-tsang Wang, overlord of the nether world, and is also famous for its performances of the ghost-play ‘‘Mu Lien’’.*® Ch’tan-chou and Chang-chou, similar to communities throughout Fukien province, particularly idolized Wu-ch’ang, whose sole appointed task was to obey orders from Yama to summon people from the other world.”® It was recorded in 1609 that the frequent and stealthy intrusion of female shrine-keepers (fu-po) into the secluded quarters of women from big families was threatening She-hsien with a great menace.°° Hsieh Chao-che, one of the most informed scholars of the late Ming, pointed out that this popular belief in ghosts was very prevalent in the southern part of the Yangtze River, especially in Fukien. Daily elaborate sacrifices exclusively offered by females, who took great care that none of the ghosts would be neglected, simply resulted in 28 China’s sacred mountain Chiu Hua Shan, the central place for worshipping Titsang Wang, is about eighty-five kilometers from She-hsien. Through a process of transformation, Ti-tsang Wang first came to be identified as superior to Yama and to the other judges in the courts of the nether world. Later, he was called Mu Lien, the figure who had already gained much popularity for the deliverance of his mother from the hell of hungry ghosts. (Arthur Waley, Ballads and Stories from Tun-Huang, New York, 1960, pp. 216-235.) In the late Ming, Hui-chou produced fine actors who performed this long play which lasted three days and nights, and whose spectacular dramatics, according to one account, attracted as many as ten thousand and more spectators. (T’ao-an meng-1, chuan 6.) A frustrated scholar named Cheng Chih-chen of Hui-chou had rearranged the play into this long drawn-out story of 104 acts and included characterizations of all the horrible ghosts of popular belief. Cheng was said to have had a very promising start, having won his first degree at an early age. However, the style of his essays did not fit the fashion, and for thirty years he repeatedly failed in the provincial examination. Eventually, he had to stop trying his luck and he devoted himself to the rewriting of this play in order to morally edify the community. It is recorded that his version of the play was so popular and successful that even as the platform was still in the process of construction, the viewing ground was already crowded with spectators. ‘“Those from far away carry their own provisions. Inhabitants of the environs are afraid of being late. The rich contribute to the fund, and the sick begin to get up.’’ As demand for copies of the script was so great, with people coming from a very long distance to get them, it had to be sent out to Hui-chou for printing in 1582. This version of the script preserved the complete acts of the long play as it was known in the Ming period; it was continuously reprinted in

other provinces as well. (Hsin-pien Mu Lien chiu-mu ch’tan-shan hsi-wen, hst, hou-hst.) 29 Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chian 16; Sheng Hsti-kung, Fu-chien sheng ip ieh, Shanghai, 1927, p. 94; Chung-hua ch’tian-kuo feng-su chih, hsia p’ien, chian 5, pp. 62-62. 30 She chih, 1609 edition, ssu-kuan.

124 EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES an increase day by day in the number of those among them who died

by their own hand with their shoes on (heng ssu).*! Thus, it appears that before the Ming Dynasty, the emphasis on and strict adherence to the original Buddhist canon, which claimed that banishment to the Hell of Suicides with no possibility of saving release would be the lot of those who destroyed their bodies, proved to have had some restraint on self-destructive behavior. However, later, moralists of the Ming Dynasty began to propagate a belief that those who committed suicide for reasons of filial piety and marital fidelity were exempted from the torment of hell. The infernal regions became the home only for those ghosts who had been wrongly murdered or otherwise been put to death, a place to bide their time until their grievances could be avenged and wiped out. ‘There they waited for the enemies of their previous existence to join them, when their anger against them could be finally released by witnessing the harrowing torture of their malefactors.*? This newlydeveloped description of hell began to be prevalent between 1573-1644.

A general survey shows that twelve popular tracts propagating this notion were all published during this period.*? The fluidity of popular beliefs, like a wild horse without bridle, can plunge the rider in any direc-

. tion,** and eventually, with this change in attitude toward the fate of 51 Wu tsa-tsu, chuan 6; ‘‘Heng ssu’’ (unnatural death), according to the ancient interpretation of Li-chi, is also used to describe those committing suicide because of their inability to defend themselves against false accusations, and those who had fatally exposed themselves to danger, e.g., crossing water without using bridges or boats. (Lichi, T’an-kung shang, Cheng chu.) | 32°’ At the right of the ninth court, stands the city of suicides. It is commonly said that all those who met a tragic death are confined in that city. This is not true. This city of suicides is a place of torments. Those who have been unjustly put to death suffered enough in the upper world; how could they still be punished in the infernal regions?”’ ‘“When the soul of a man who died prematurely arrives there, it is not confined in that city, but it may wander at will, waiting till the murderer is cited. ‘Then this soul follows him, delights in his torments and thus satisfies its resentments without having to make the least effort. When it has satisfied its vengeance, it is reincarnated. This city 1s destined

for those who committed suicide without a sufficient reason. Those who committed suicide through motives of fidelity, of filial piety, of love of chastity or justice, or those died on the battlefield are not brought there.’’ (Yu-li chih-pao ch’ao, in L. Weiger, Moral Lenets and Custom, Ho Kien Fu, part I-III, 1913, pp. 183-185.) 33 ‘Ting Fo-pao, Fo-chiao ta tz’u-tien, Shanghai, 1929, p. 1486. Chiao-chu p’o-hsieh hsiang-pien, Tokyo, 1973, p. 6; Lu Hstin, Chao-hua hsi-shih, Wu-ch’ang hou-chi. 34 ‘The appropriation by the Chinese of the Buddhist belief in a city in the nether world populated solely by the ghosts of people who had died by suicide must have had an important influence on the impulse toward self-destructive behavior. Otherwise, Yu Chenghsieh would not have made the suggestion to revive the earlier Buddhist prohibition. His specific idea was to popularize a particular moral tract which described a message supposedly received in 1668 from this city of suicide ghosts. In it, Yama reported that he was greatly annoyed at the behavior of humans in the world above who regarded life so lightly that they would take it at will, and had therefore restored his order for incessant

EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY OF FEMALES 125 those performing “‘righteous’’ self-immolation, more and more wretched widows began to choose a ‘‘virtuous’’ death, rather than endure a life of suffering on earth. punishment of these ghosts, forcing them to reenact their suicide daily at a given time using the same method they had used in committing the original act, hanging, drowning, etc. (Yang Shih chuan, Kuo-pao wen-chien lu, Wang-ssu ch’eng sung-hsin.) In 1920, someone compiled a new moral tract called ‘‘Tung Ming Pao Chi’’ which began to propagate once again this message from Yama. It stated that those who held their lives so cheaply as to take it by their own hands without Yama’s Writ would be sent to the ‘‘Factory of Hunger and Thirst’’ in the First Court for torment. There, they were denied permission to eat the sacrifices offered, and had to suffer hunger and thirst for countless years. However, if they behaved well and did not victimize others, inducing them to commit suicide and become their substitutes, there would still be a possibility of their being reborn into this world again. (Tung Ming chih, shang, Shanghai, 1920, chuan 2, no. 14, pp. 69-71.)

CHAPTER SEVEN

WIDESPREAD NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY IN THE CH’ING PERIOD Schemes and Whims of Manchu Rulers

The cult of female chastity and fidelity seems to have gained even greater

momentum during the Ch’ing Dynasty. The Manchu regime, being an alien conqueror confronted with fierce resistence from the Southern Chinese, tried from the very beginning to adopt and to propagate the traditional Confucian ethical code. On the one hand, they used it to publicly demonstrate to their Han Chinese subjects their benignity and refinement, and on the other hand, they sought to secure their subjects’ fidelity by appealing to this code and equating in a forced analogy the cult of female marital fidelity with traditional male loyalty. In 1644, one month after the first Emperor Shun-chih ascended the throne, an edict was issued extolling the cult of chastity and fidelity as a matter of great importance to the reign, and reinstating the practice of erecting arches and enshrining tablets in temples in order to perpetuate the memory of virtuous widows and maidens as examples for the people to follow.! As further encouragement, the minimum number of years required to qualify for the designation of virtuous widow was decreased edict by edict. Furthermore, in 1656, the expenses for erecting such arches, which had hitherto in the Ming period been privately provided by the families concerned, were designated by the statute to be funded from unspent stipends of the local academy.” Thereafter, the countryside of China, as some contemporary foreign missionaries observed, began to

be dotted with fine stone arches, and some cities became veritable ‘‘forests’? of monumental arches. The construction of the special memorial temples enshrining the tablets of virtuous women was an honor

1 Che-chiang t’ung-chih, 1736 edition, chuan 100, feng-su hsia. 2 Ta Ch’ing hui-tien, chtan 54. 3 "The arches were generally erected in front of the houses where the deceased women

had lived. However, if the house had been rented, if the deceased had been a servant in another’s home, or if her family were unworthy of being honored, e.g., her mother-inlaw was a brothel-keeper and had caused her death, then the arch in her memory was placed before her grave. In 1759, it was further prescribed that the construction must be completed within three months or the funds would be reappropriated by the authorities. (Ta Ch’ing hui-tien, chian 30; Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chtian 403, feng-chiao.)

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 127

which greatly exceeded the erecting of stone arches, and they, too, began to appear everywhere.* In general, though, this official promotion of the cult of marital fidelity applied only to the observation of lifelong widowhood. Suicide was not encouraged. ‘he Manchus themselves had actually had a long tradition

of human sacrifice which they had tried to control. In 1636 while they were still in Manchuria, an order was issued permitting only the selfsacrifice of the principal wife for her husband’s death and prescribing that honors be conferred. If his maidservants were compelled to take their lives for sacrificial purposes, then the principal wife would be put to death. Penalty would also be inflicted on the brothers of the deceased, if self-immolation of the maidservants were not prevented, even if it had been of their own accord.® In 1652, Emperor Shun-chih revived the old Manchu tradition of human sacrifice apparently to consolidate their

ethnic identity, claiming: ‘‘The Manchus are always simple and unadorned, and consider virtuousness as their duty.’’ Very impressive ceremonies were prescribed to decorate the wives and concubines of hereditary princes who chose death in order to follow their lords to the other world.® This inhuman practice continued in the imperial clan until approximately the early 1660’s.’ Publicly, in their role as dynastic rulers, the Manchus initially prohibited the practice of female suicide at the death of a spouse or fiancé by an order promulgated in 1688, but it was ignored and official distinction continued to be conferred. In 1728, it was again discouraged with

the proclamation that imperial awards would not be_ granted indiscriminately. In fact, the Emperor did not deny any of the petitions received, saying that it was an act of showing special favor.® In 1735, Emperor Yung-cheng (reigned 1723-1735) was very much annoyed to receive more than a score of petitions within a few days all begging for

the award of insignia in recognition of female suicide, and he reprimanded the local officials for not having effectively dispersed his * An arch was merely a public exhibition of official decoration, whereas a tablet enshrined in a temple meant there would be sacrifices performed before it twice a year by local officials. Hence, virtuous females among the lower ranks of society, e.g., released slave women, concubines and their children, maid servants, young girls under the age of ten, and even the wives of constables (because their husband’s status was rated as that of servant) could be posthumously honored only by the erection of arches; they were not allowed to have tablets enshrined in their memory. (Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chtian 403, feng-chiao.)

° Ku-chin t’u-shu chi-ch’eng, chttan 768.

° ‘Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chian 403, feng-chiao. ’ Ch’ih-pei ou-t’an, chuan 1; Ch’ing shih-kao, chian 264, Chi Yuin chuan. ° ‘Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chian 403, feng-chiao.

128 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

edict to the masses even after seven years had elapsed. [ronically, two years later, the procedure for petitioning for Court distinction was even simplified, eliminating the necessity for having the petition document drafted and endorsed by a sheng-yuan and providing for the thirty taels of silver granted for the building of the p’ai-fang to be handed directly to the family right at Court to avoid confiscation by middle officials. In

the winter of the same year that Ch’ien-lung (reigned 1736-1795) ascended the throne, one of his proclamations then completely nullified the original prohibition.® Despite his proclamation sanctioning female suicide, and unlike the first three Manchu rulers who although they had forbidden the practice were in fact only mildly concerned over the increase in female suicide among their subjects, Ch’ien-lung himself showed a personal contempt

for this cruel and hypocritical practice. His attitude was easily transparent beneath his stolid exterior demeanor. ‘This otherwise ruthless and haughty emperor of the Ch’ing knew quite well that the paralleling of male political loyalty with female marital fidelity was merely a ploy and understood clearly the responses of his subjects and officials to this policy. He was particularly resentful of the officials’ being so lavish with Court distinction and overly generous with the official coffers in rewarding these so-called virtuous females. It was discovered in 1749 that in

Kiangsu province alone, more than two hundred females, both living and dead, had been rewarded that year by the Court. The governor of that province even suggested that restrictions be made. Otherwise, besides the large amount of money which would be expended for building

arches, there would be physically no more room left in the temples to enshrine all the accumulated tablets. From then on, official erection of p ai-fang was granted only to brave females who had committed suicide; those women who observed lifelong widowhood were simply decorated by local officials with a horizontal wooden tablet on the entrance of their homes and their names were engraved on a communal p’ai-fang of the district after their death.!° Five years later (1754), the power of rewar-

ding female suicide was transferred to the provincial governors, as illustrated in the case of the bereaved maiden Han K’ai-chieh who com-

mitted suicide in resistance to her parents’ arrangements to have her betrothed again (see Chapter II).'!! Thereafter, the situation is confused because the statutes no longer drew a clear distinction between selfimmolation for marital fidelity and ordinary suicidal behavior. 9 Lbid. 10 [bid. 11 [bid.

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 129 Under the Shadow of Arches

During the Ch’ing Dynasty, the whole notion of female purity became

gradually distorted to such an extent that it was completely unreasonable. ‘The following eulogy to a chaste woman named Shih of T’a-hsin county near the present Peking will illustrate the situation as it existed then. Mrs. Shih had been married to her husband Yi-feng for many years and had two children. One day in 1775, Shih went back to her mother’s home

to celebrate her sister-in-law’s birthday. As Shih was feeling slightly indisposed, her mother called a physician, the husband of Shih’s niece, to come and feel her pulse. Back at home again that evening, Shih showed the

prescription to her husband, who became very annoyed and wanted to know about this matter in detail. She told him that the examination was conducted in the inner chamber in the presence of her mother and sister-in-

law. Yu-feng rebuked her for breaking the rules governing female propriety. He reminded her that to his knowledge a woman should conceal her

face from others’ sight, especially males, when going out.!? Yu-feng’s rebuke struck her dumb. The next day she was even more deeply hurt when informed that her husband had reported the whole matter to his father. The day after that, she suggested to Yu-feng that he attend some social engagement, and asked her old maidservant to take the children out for some candies. She then hanged herself. She was thirty-three years of age.1!9

The well-known, long-standing debate whether it was permissible for a man to use his hands in rescuing his sister-in-law from drowning was "2 According to the ‘‘Record of Rites,’’ the segregation of sexes was enforced starting at the age of seven. When going out, women of upper class families would ride in a sedan-

chair with the blinds drawn. Commoners would cover their head with a piece of cloth and be escorted by males of the family. (Chang-chou fu chih, 1776 edition, chtian 5, kueik’un.) In the 1940’s, umbrellas with long fringes, called ‘‘hiding one’s shame,’’ were used for women going out in some of the counties in the southern part of Yunnan. One legend describes how a Court physician was called to examine a royal lady who had fallen ill. In order to avoid touching her hand, a silk thread was tied to her wrist and then passed through a hole in a partition. The physician would prescribe medicinal herbs after study-

ing the tremor of the thread. This is of course sheer imagination. To the author’s knowledge, in cases of desperate illness, a woman’s pulse was felt through a curtain. The local histories of the Ming period contain records of a great number of widows who preferred to die rather than be inspected by a physician, or even their own father. In some cases, their last dying wishes were to let no male touch their body. After the big flood in 1717 in She-hsien, a special pamphlet was published to commemorate the virtuous behavior of the womenfolk. For example, the female head of one family ordered the ten women in her family to sew their upper garments and skirts together with strong stitches. As a result, several days later none of the corpses of this family was found in the nude. Another fine grandmother forbade five women and girls of her family to board a rescue boat because the upper bodies of the crew were naked. (She-hsien chih, 1935 edition, chtian 16, tsa-chi.) ‘8 Chu Yuin, Ssu-ho wen-chi, chtan 15, Lieh-ntt Shih-shih ai-tz’u ping-hst;; Chi-fu t’ung-chih, 1884 edition, chtian 251, lieh chuan 59.)

130 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

started by Mencius (c. 371-289 B.C.) and then actively revived beginning with the Sung Dynasty. This controversial issue epitomizes the dilemma faced when forced to decide between observing an ethical taboo

and performing a humanitarian act in response to an exigent need. In this instance, how could Mrs. Shih let a male physician touch her hand when it certainly was not a question of an emergency?!‘ In justifying her being styled as a virtuous woman, her eulogist was often forced to draw irrelevant parallels with incidents involving eminent women of history in order to prove that her seeing a physician should not be regarded as a breach of principle. This example briefly illustrates the tediousness of the moralizing on female suicidal behavior which we find during the Ch’ing Dynasty. The underlying reality to the official policy and sophistic moralizing described above was that a sharp increase in social problems during the Ch’ing led to an even more widespread occurrence of female suicidal behavior throughout China. First, there was an increase in the number of forced remarriages of widows, one of the consequences of the continu-

ing practice of female infanticide which significantly decimated the

population of marriageable women while the number of eligible bachelors continued to rise. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the total population in the southern part of China was already double that of the north, its growth especially concentrated along the lower Yangtze River. The total number of households in Soochow, Sung-chiang and Ch’angchou, three prefectures of the present-day Kiangsu province, even sur-

passed that of some entire provinces, such as Fukien and Szechwan.’ After enjoying still another century of peace and plenty, the total population of China hit a record high of 307,460,000 in 1792, the middle of the Ch’ing Dynasty.’® The disproportionate ratio between the sexes resulting from the practice of female infanticide was also exacerbated accordingly. During the

K’ang-hsi period (1662-1722), the magistrate of one thinly populated county of Hunan was greatly surprised to find that the poor inhabitants had to invent all sorts of schemes just in order to get married.'’ This simple observation only hints broadly at the worsening situation. According

to an earlier account given by Ku Ytian-wu, in the remote regions of Hunan the difficulty males faced in finding a marriage partner was ‘4 In the 1720’s, when someone handing a piece of meat to Widow Juan accidently touched her hand, she immediately cut off her finger. (Chiang-nan t’ung-chih, 1736 edition, chuan 180, Lu-chou fu.) 1S Ch’ien Mu, Kuo-shih ta-kang, pp. 530-531. '© Wang Ch’ing-yun, Shih-ch’t yu-chi, chtian 3, chi ting-o; Kuei-ssu lei-kao, chian 12, ti-ting yuan-shih. 17 Liu-ching hsin-chi, 1708 edition, chian 21, kao-shih.

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 131

already a serious problem toward the end of the Ming Dynasty. ‘‘A wite

purchased from her former husband would always cost thirty taels of silver. After a while, the former husband would often sue the buyer for more money. Such cases, called ‘asking for extra,’ comprised six or seven

out of every ten lawsuits in the magistrate’s court. One can often see males of thirty or forty marrying females of sixty or seventy. Anyway, they are still better off than those who die of old age without ever having contracted a matrimony.’’!® The ‘‘preciousness’’ of females, as pointed out earlier, led to their being treated as assets for exploitation. Widows became prizes to be quarrelled over, targets of compulsion and forceful seizure.'9 The greediness of the parents or parents-in-law for money from selling the poor widows to gangsters or cripples?° made death inevitable for the poor victims. Second, there were social repercussions caused by relaxation of the

heretofore strict segregation between the sexes. As a result of rapid urbanization during the late Ming period, the rigid tradition of confining females within their own enclosed apartments became increasingly ditficult to enforce. Women of the middle class were said to have been able

to burn incense in temples or shrines, and then sleep there for several nights, an unprecedented freedom.*! Mixing with the opposite sex and drinking tea in tea-shops were also prevalent pasttimes among the common womenfolk in Kiangsu.?? Consequently, cases of women committing suicide (or being killed) in resisting attempted rape increased.’ ‘8 Ku Yen-wu, Ming-chi shih-lu, fu-lu yu-yang sui-pi. 19 Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chuan 3, Ting chung-ch’eng jih-ch’ang kao-yu. 20 Ibid.; Ch’en Wen-kung kung feng-su t’iao-chien; Ch’en Hung-mou Hsitn-su i-kuei, chuan 4. 21 Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chiian 3. 22 "Ting Jib-ch’ang, Fu-wu kung-tu, chtan 5, Chin fu-nt shang ch’a-kuan. 23 "The most important testimonial one could provide in an appeal to establish the virtue of a woman killed while resisting attempted rape was to prove that she had never contracted remarriage. If she had done so, the case would not even have been considered. At first, if a rape were reported, no matter under what circumstances, no award would be granted to the victim, although the rapist would be punished. In 1802, in response to a petition from the well-known scholar-official Chi Yun which pleaded for recognition of poor women murdered while suffering molestation, the Court decided to reward only those cases in which more than two rapists were involved. If it involved only one rapist, the Board of Rites and the Board of Punishments should then examine the circumstances more carefully (for instance, to find out whether the women had been tied up or not, and so forth) and submit their report to the Emperor for final sanction. A later decree stated

that a female committing suicide immediately after having been raped (rather than during) would receive merely half of the award to which she would have been entitled (e.g., only fifteen taels of silver instead of the thirty taels required for the expenditures of erecting a p’al-fang). If she died one day after the rape, the posthumous award would be reduced to nothing. (Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-h, chuan 403, feng-chiao; Ch’ing shih kao, chuan 320, Chi Yun chuan.)

132 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

Suicide in indignation against the insult inflicted by another’s lewd dalliance came to be considered a great virtue, and met with official sanction largely after the beginning of the Ch’ing Dynasty.**

This type of impulsive suicide has long puzzled Western observers” and inevitably provoked their comment as a peculiar pattern of social behavior.?©° However, these cases were not isolated. In 1846, five women in Shantung and six in Honan took their own lives in indignation against having had what they considered obscene liberties taken with them. ‘The next year eight similar cases occurred in Honan alone.”’ All these deaths were really senseless ones if we inspect their embellishing descriptions:

having quarrelled with another woman; indignation at one’s younger sister having been insulted by obscenities; having received a love letter | from a relative; and even having heard a discourteous remark from someone. Some cases really sound incredible! For example, while a village woman named Wang was walking along a raised path through the fields, a person passing by used his hand to push her a little bit in order

to make his way past because of the narrowness of the path. Wang felt mortified at this humuliation and took her life by hanging.?® As we have stated before, in broad terms, suicide can be interpreted as a form of response or means of retaliation against one’s enemy in this world, or in the next, whether abstract or concrete, especially when no ** In the early Ming Dynasty, a heavy penalty had been imposed for the crime of lewd dalliance which resulted in a female’s death. After 1466, this crime was made analogous to the crime of beating and cursing, and the punishment likewise commuted to a lighter sentence. (Ku-chin t’u-shu chi-ch’eng, chtan 767, p. 35.) In the Ch’ ing legal codes, this crime was at first punishable by the death penalty. Not until 1796 was the distinction made between lewd dalliance with hands, and molesting with obscene language. The

punishment for the latter was mitigated accordingly. (Ta Ch’ing hui-tien, chiian 129, hchu chien men.) 79 “Tt is called ‘‘samsonitic’’ suicide, namely suicide for the purpose of becoming a ghost and in that form to punish another person, or suicide in order to bring another person into serious difficulties.’’ (Wolfram Eberhard, Guilt and Sin in Traditional China, University of California Press, 1967, p. 95. *° Margery Wolf, ‘“Women and Suicide in China’’, in Women in Chinese Society, Stanford University Press, 1975, p. 112 *7 ‘Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chian 850, hsing-pu tuan-yu. *® Chiang-nan t’ung-chih, 1736 edition, chuan 177; Chi-fu t’ung- chih, 1884 edition, chuan 278, lich chuan 86, lieh-nii 34. A chaste woman named Li went back to her natal home in Hangchow after her husband’s death. When her carriage entered the city gate, a guard rolled up the window blind for routine checking. Seeing her looking sickly pale,

the guard said contemptuously, ‘‘I pity you. What kind of disease is making you so skinny?’’ Regarding this remark as a disgrace to a woman of a celebrated family, Li resolved not to take any food upon reaching home. She died twenty days later. Even the biographer himself found a death such as this unjustifiable because the moral principle required of a female was only to defend with death the defilement of her body, but not to die for discourteous language. (Wu Te-hstian, Ch’u- yueh lou wen-chien hsi-lu, chuan 9.)

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 133

formal or official support is forthcoming, even after repeated petitions.?9

In many cases humiliation and scolding from the family hastened the decision to commit suicide. ‘Iwo edicts were issued, one in 1759 and the

other in 1765, to caution parents against this disastrous course of action.°°

_ The attitude of the authorities during the Ch’ing reflected the pervasive degradation of integrity throughout officialdom. Under their rule, a lawsuit involving a person’s life was a windfall for avaricious officials and grasping underlings. It was stated that when an unnatural death was reported to the yamen, the clerks and constables on duty that day would immediately receive congratulations from their colleagues, together with wine, delicacies and firecrackers, for the case would be automatically assigned as their responsibility. Those on duty were bound to pay these colleagues back ten times the value when they had extorted enough from the persons involved.*! If a dead person was not allowed to be placed in a coffin and buried but had to wait for an inquest, then the family was doomed to bankruptcy. To hold an inquest alone would cost the relatives

of the deceased, the persons responsible for the death, unwitting neighbors and sometimes even the inhabitants of nearby villages several tens of taels of silver. It was indeed a terrible revenge on all the people

concerned! According to the amazing experience of one upright and competent magistrate, once he began to decide all cases of suicide on the spot without bringing in any extraneous or irrelevant people to court for

inquiry, the number of cases of women making light of their life decreased drastically from several scores per year to two or three.*? 9 "Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chuan 403, feng-chiao. 3° During a spring festival in the 1710’s, the undergarments of Chiu, a girl of thirteen, could be seen by the spectators when she was swinging high on a swing. After receiving a severe scolding from her parents, Chiu committed suicide by hanging herself. On the

tablet of her grave, she was styled as a virtuous maiden. (Hst' K’un, Tun-chai sui-pi, part 1.) On November 14, 1981, a woman teacher of a junior primary school in Tung-kuang county, Hopeh, hanged herself from the lintel of the front entrance to the house of the party secretary of her brigade. He had refused under some pretext to punish a certain villager named Cheng who had insulted and beaten her because she had defended the integrity of her students against his false charges of stealing. It is a classic case in the traditional pattern. (Guangming Ribao, Peking, August 13, 1982.) $1. Fu-wu kung-tu, chiian 30. 82 Wen-chen wen-chi, chtuan 2, Chou-chih yt-lun. In 1859, the expenses for holding an inquest were officially fixed by the magistrate of Shanghai at 28,289 copper coins, equivalent to about 14 taels of silver. (Te-i-lu, part II, chian 8.) Evidently, the amount extorted must have been several times higher than that. In the middle of the Ch’ing, the cruel exaction was said to have been as high as several hundred to a thousand taels of silver for rich families. (Min-ch’ing hsien chih, 1921 edition, chian 8.) In 1868, it was set by the governor of Kiangsu at 9,564 copper coins, equivalent to about five taels of silver. This amount was to be paid from the magistrate’s salary, because it was too heavy a burden for the villagers. (Fu-wu kung-tu, chiian 34; Nan-feng Liu Lien-fang hsien-

sheng yi-shu, 1830 edition, chtan 1.)

134 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

Faced with a disturbing increase in such unnecessary deaths, the governor of Hunan made a request that the suicide of females committed

in a moment of weakness be distinguished from true self-sacrifice in observance of marital fidelity performed with full moral conviction. But he was subsequently reprimanded by Emperor Ch’ien-lung for selfishly

trying to secure merit for himself as a Buddhist by reducing the incidences of female self-destruction. Suicidal behavior, Ch’ien-lung declared, was a very complicated matter involving all sorts of extenuating

circumstances, and therefore it was difficult to draft a decree which would cover all cases. Moreover, the provision for imperial distinction was designed to encourage virtue as well as to castigate vice. Thus, the Emperor showed very little concern for the real situation and was confident that he could disentangle all the complexities with his own keen insight. Once the policy of the Court was made public, particularly the decree granting local higher officials a free hand in rewarding virtuous females,?? such official awards became widespread and were impossible to control. Immediately after the establishment of the Chia-ching reign, Manchu rule began to show signs of decline. During the increasingly frequent armed rebellions, when whole towns or counties were in danger of being taken, reports of maidens and women killed by the sword, or committing

suicide in panic or in desperation while trying to resist defilement, received much more attention than ever before. Since their names were collected many years after the actual event had occurred, there was no way of verifying the real situation. Figures were generally very high—

several thousands in a single county. As it was impossible, both logistically as well as economically, to erect so many p’ai-fang at the same

time, the only way to perpetuate the memory of their virtuousness was

to build a large communal one, and have all their names engraved together on the pillars.** After the IT’ ai-p’ing Rebellion (1854-1872), the

province of Anhui claimed to have had more than one hundred seventy thousand of its inhabitants killed by revengeful soldiers. ‘Their names in the records show that more than half of these victims were female.%° The 33 "Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chtan 403, feng-chiao. 3¢ Ibid. A woman who drowned herself during the rebellion at the end of the Ming was awarded for her virtuous act in 1845, exactly 200 years later. (Kan Hsi-shih, Pai-hsia soyen, chuan 9.) 35 An-hui t’ung-chih, 1876 edition, fan-li, chiian 266-334; Yu Lu ed., An-hui chung-i chieh-lieh piao, 1853-1860 edition, chtian 1146. The sex and social class distinction of victims can be seen from the following table:

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 135

names of females victimized during the Nien Rebellion (1853-1868) in

Hopeh were listed one after the other in as many as eighty-three volumes. °°

War has certainly raged in China and elsewhere in the world many times throughout history, but it was only during the Ch’ing Dynasty in China that the weaker sex, whether slaughtered by their own hand or that of others in the midst of turmoil and chaos, were so hypocritically memorialized. However, since these suicides and murders resulted from circumstantial causes outside the concerns of marital fidelity, they do not fall within the category of suicide we are discussing here, and apart from this mention of their increasingly large numbers, we will not deal with them further. The Last Episode of Human Tragedy

The names of lifelong widows usually occupied several volumes of the various local histories during comparable years of the Ch’ing Dynasty. Almost all the editors found it very wearisome to deal with this particular record, as did the readers. As the name lists grew longer and longer, people started to complain about the indiscriminate enumeration. For example, up until the late Ch’ing period, excluding those who had died during rebellions, the total number of virtuous females of Ch’ang-shu and ChaoNumbers Killed or Committing Suicide During Ch’ing Dynasty Rebellions in Chiang-tu County, Kiangsu No

Social Class 1835 1856 1858 1859 1860 1863 Date Total

Civil Officers 4 64 39 Military Officers2916* 20

Yamen Secretaries 21 10318 9 40 Soldiers 27 291

Militia 48 26 74 Gentry 174 78 | 253 Males:

Scholars 469 17 4 490

Servants 78 1 79 from Gentry Families 187 11 2 200

Commoners/Monks/Taoists 1436 27 3 10 1,476

Females:

Scholar Families 441 36 1 15 493

Maid Servants 36 36 Totals 4062 318 316 ii 2 1 62 4,772 Commoner Families 1100 104 2 1 2 45 1,254

*on battlefields Source: Chiang-tu hsien hsu-chih, 1883 edition, chiian 6-10

36 Chi-fu t’ung-chih, 1884 edition, chtian 245-286.

136 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

wen (present-day Chang-chou, Kiangsu province) amounted to 15,616.°’ However, when the respective editors made inquiries about which of the names could or should be omitted, no one dared point out any of them.*® It was believed that the disembodied spirits of the widows and maidens who had committed suicide were wont to retaliate by bringing death on

those who deprived any of them, whether intentionally or unintentionally, of the official honors for which they claimed qualification.

The editor of the local history of Ching-chiang county, Kiangsu, related one anecdote which he professed was from his own observation. Five scholars were assigned to the section on chaste women. Three of them, because of some shared personal prejudice, purposely collaborated

in leaving out two of the names which had been enumerated in the previous edition. One day when the five of them went together to the temple of the city god for a stroll, the three who had perpetrated this gross injustice saw the spirits of these two females making an appeal to the city

god. Soon afterwards, they contracted the plague and died. The other two had not seen anything at all and, of course, nothing happened to them. This anecdote was told in minute detail as if it had been a real occurrence, probably with the aim of pointing out the solemn duty of a historian towards chaste females.*?

A similar anecdote was recorded in the local history of Wu-yuan county, Hui-chou. In 1754, when the work of compilation was in progress, the name of one female who had taken her life by starvation was almost left out through innocent negligence. The spirit of this woman wearing a mourning garment appeared in full daylight in the temple where the work of checking missing names was going on.*° Eventually, these individual incidents added up to assume the importance of moral conviction that it was an unpardonable sin to erase the reputation of a virtuous female.*! One record told of a person who called into question the truth of a story concerning a woman refusing to submit to rebels, which led to the cutting off of his posterity.*2 Likewise, a high Manchu official’s having been executed for military defeat was attributed to his having withheld assent to some petitions that testimonials of merit be conferred on faithful widows.*? These stories further prompted the °7 Ch’ang-chao ho chih-kao, 1883 edition, chtian 35-39; Wu-chin yang-hu ho-chih, 1909 edition, chuan 7; Keng-shen hstin-nan lu, 1876 edition. 38 T-hsien chih, 1766 edition, fan-li. 39 Ching-chiang hsien chih, 1569 edition, i-li. #0 Wu-yuan hsien chih, 1757 edition, chtian 39, t’ung-k’ao. #1 Wen-ch’ang ti-chtin yin-chih wen. #2 Shu-yuan tsa-chi, chuan 12. *3 ‘Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chtian 403, feng-chiao; Ch’ien Mei-hsi, Lu-ytian ts’unghua, chuian 17.

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 137

editors of the Ch’ing local histories to reach a unanimous view that an all-inclusive, liberal enumeration was better than risking any consequences of omission. As a result, a large number of names of virtuous

throughout China. | females was transmitted and preserved intact in the local histories

This enormous number of names can be subdivided and classified into three separate categories: 1) those whose decoration was granted by the Court, 2) those whose distinction was awarded by local officials, and 3) those who were discovered by editors during compilation of local histories specifically for inclusion in them. However, none of these categories can be meaningfully scrutinized any further. In the first place, the number

of years required for qualification as a virtuous widow gradually decreased. Originally requiring a minimum twenty years of widowhood, beginning from before the age of thirty until death after fifty, the time was reduced to fifteen years in 1723, ten years in 1823, and eventually to only six years in 1871.** It became an easily attainable status. ‘Today, any country in the world would be able to draw up a long list of names of ‘‘virtuous widows’’ with such qualifications if they wished to do so. Secondly, abuse of the procedures for granting distinctions by the local

officials reached such an extent that its credibility is very doubtful. It became a custom from the early Ch’ing Dynasty that when a local official

was about to resign from office or be transferred to another post, his clerks and servants would beg for a sample of his calligraphy and seal

imprinted on a piece of paper, which could then be mounted on a horizontal tablet. Later on, these samples of calligraphy would often be presented to relatives as official insignia for the household, without the

official’s authorization. In some cases, the officials themselves indiscriminately presented pieces of their calligraphy in decorative style to others with the aim of getting some gain in return. Hence, it was suggested by some that a mere horizontal tablet could not be accepted as designation of official distinction.* Third, as early as 1644 when the Ch’ing Dynasty was established, the

first Emperor Shun-chih had issued an edict reprimanding the higher provincial officials for their inattentiveness to procedure by neglecting to carefully verify petitions for official decoration. It seems rich families could always obtain permission to erect p’ai-fang through bribery.*® T'wo

hundred thirty-four years later, the situation had become even worse. ** "Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chian 403, feng-chiao; P’eng P’ei-t’ang, Hsien-ch’u kuang-yin, chtian hsia. *5 Hui-chou fu chih, 1699 edition, chtiian 15. *© An-hui t’ung chih, 1877 edition, chiian 31, feng-su; Che-chiang t’ung-chih, 1836 edition, chtian 100, feng-su hsia.

138 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

Petitions were full of stereotyped stories or fantastic inventions taken from fictitious novels.*? Because of these three disqualifying factors, we will bypass these enormous numbers of virtuous widows in our present consideration.

There is no doubt that ostracism of remarried widows became unprecedently more virulent in the Ch’ing Dynasty. ‘Though not legally

forbidden, remarriage of widows was considered to be disgustingly degrading. A widow who was remarrying was not allowed to go out through the main entrance or ride in a sedan chair near the house of her former husband’s family. In certain regions, the only way of getting out

of his house was to break through a wall, or to rent a temple for the preliminary nuptial ceremony. The time of the wedding had to be after dusk or at night and without music. Those who happened to pass the wedding procession should spit on the participants to exorcize the misfortune sure to be brought on them. Even a sordid merchant, it was said, would feel ashamed to act as witness for a marriage contract of this sort, and customarily only pseudonyms were used. No neighbor would let a remarried widow enter his house. The seats on which she had once sat had to be cleansed of the filth by burning paper money used for idol worship. She had to go about barefoot, covering her head and face, often followed by children shouting jeers and throwing pebbles. *® However, whatever the social ostracism against all widows might have been, it seems the number of females committing suicide did not increase

accordingly as might be expected. As indicated in Chapter V, under Ming Dynasty rule the ratio of those observing lifelong widowhood to those who died by suicide or murder was 3:1. This ratio increased to 20:1 in Shansi during the Ch’ing Dynasty. The same increase also appeared in She-hsien and Hsiu-ning of Hui-chou, one of the three regions where the practice of the cult of marital fidelity had been so rampant during the

late Ming period. She-hsien & Hstu-ning Number of Number of Females Committing Suicide Lifelong

Dynasty Widows Total Widows Maidens

Ming 668 Ch’ing 9,639299 330270 286 29 44

| Source: She-hsien chih, 1935 edition, chiian1ie12... Hsiu-ning hsien chih, 1823 edition, chtian 16.

*7 ‘Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chiian 403, feng-chiao. | *8 Hsiu-ning hsien chih, 1695 edition, chiian 1, feng-su; Nan-ch’ang fu chih, 1919 edi-

tion, chan 9; Lai-yang hsien chih, 1935 edition, chtan 3, part II.

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 139

In calculating ratios, we have taken yearly averages. The cases of female suicide during the Ming occurred mostly in the later period (1567-1644), a total of seventy-seven years, while those of the Ch’ing Dynasty covered a comparable period of 120 years (1644-1764). ‘This trend of an increas-

ing ratio of widows to females committing suicide can be seen almost everywhere in China. The following table shows the situation in the Chin-chiang/T’ung-an region of Ch’tian-chou. Chin-chiang & T’ung-an

Number of Number of Females Committing Suicide Lifelong

Dynasty Widows Total Widows Maidens

Ming 105625 =: 125 11 Ch’ing 98 114 64 34

Source: Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chuan 69 & 70. Chin-chiang hsien chih, 1763 edition, chuan 8.

Despite this trend toward an increasing ratio of lifelong widows to females who had committed suicide, still, the rate of suicide remained high and continued to be positively related to the superfluity of scholars in all three regions investigated. The same situation was found in Wuhsien and in Ch’ang-chou, two districts which now make up the presentday Soochow, where the numbers of chu-jen and females committing suicide were increasing sharply throughout the Ch’ing Dynasty. This area was a prefectural capital and traditionally known for its extravagant life and literary attainment. Astonishingly, in the late Ming the academic glory of this county suddenly dropped to a low ebb, and at the same time

the number of cases of suicide by widows and maidens also became negligible. However, once the scholars attending the provincial examina-

tions started to become successful again and their numbers boomed, female suicide likewise rebounded and became prevalent again. ‘This relationship in our three regions and these two districts of Soochow can be summarized as follows: No. of Female Suicides — Scholars with Title of Chi-jen

Ming Ching Ming Ching

Counties/ 1567-1644 1644-1764 1567-1644 1644-1764 Prefectures (77 years) (120 years) (77 years) (120 years) She-hsien &

Hui-chou 299 330 521 887 Hsiu-ning/

Chin-kiang &

T’ung-an/

Ch’ tan-chou 115 98 514 668

140 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY No. of Female Suicides Scholars with Title of Chu-jen

Ming Ch’ ing Ming Ch’ing

Counties/ 1567-1644 1644-1764 1567-1644 1644-1764 Prefectures (77 years) (120 years) (77 years) (120 years) Lung-ch’i &

Chang-p’u/

Chang-chou 42 66 342 269 Wu-hsien & Ch’ ang-chou/

Soochow 28 95? 310 604

Sources: Hui-chou fu chih, 1827 edition, chtan 9, part 3; chuan 13, parts 1, 3. She-hsien chih, 1935 edition, chuan 11, 12, 13, 14. Hsiu-ning hsien chih, 1695 edition, chiian 5, 6. Ch’tian-chou fu chih, 1763 edition, chiian 69. Chin-chiang hsien chih, 1763 edition, chuan 8. T’ung-an hsien chih, 1929 edition, chuan 15. Chang-chou fu chih, 1877 edition, chtian 19. Lung-ch’1 hsien chih, 1762 edition, chtan 13, 80. Chang-p’u hsien chih, 1700 edition, chtian 12. Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chtan 71, part 1. Su-chou fu chih, 1883 edition, chiian 64, hsing chu 6.

Increase in the Number of Female Suicides in the Wu-hsien Area

Evidence shows that some of the frustrated scholars of these eight coun-

ties continued to be the chief advocates of the cult of female marital fidelity. As mentioned earlier, in the 1640’s when the local history of Wuhsien was compiled, lack of sufficient material on virtuous females was

regarded as the major shortcoming of this work, causing it to fail to measure up to the grand name of this well-known place. In 1825, an edict was issued encouraging the local authorities to supply names of men and

women who had been killed or had committed suicide for virtuous causes, but whose deeds had been previously overlooked in the official records, so that they might be enshrined in temples to impress upon the minds of posterity the value of moral behavior.*® In response, scholars made an earnest effort to thoroughly search for names of all likely chaste and faithful women, tracing back in history to the Ming and even Yuan Dynasty, in order to apply for official recognition on their behalf. Eventually this deplorable deficiency in the previous versions of the local

history of Wu-hsien was amended by adding several hundred newly discovered names. Chiang Chao-hsing, a restless sheng-yuan who relied for his livelihood on a stipend from the local academy, did his utmost to collect the names of three hundred obscure virtuous females, appending a detailed narration of their circumstances for each. Posthumous honors were granted to *9 Ta Ch’ing hui-tien, chuan 30, Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih li, chan 403, feng-chiao.

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 141

them accordingly. He himself was described in the chronicles as being a filial son, irrefutably demonstrated by his having once cured his mother’s eyes of a covering of white film by licking them constantly, and in later years, by his engaging a Taoist priest to exercise various charms for the longevity of his mother.°° Another poor student, Wang Chin, was brought up by his widowed mother and was said to have been a great talent at the age of sixteen when he could write an essay of several hundred words very quickly. However, he was unable to pass the preliminary examination until he was thirtyone years of age, and did not receive any further degree. This frustrated

scholar lived plainly and frugally all his life either by teaching or by recelving allowances from the local academy. He is remembered for his

compilation of the ten volumes of ‘‘Record of the Temple in Commemoration of Chaste Females of Ch’ang-chou and Ytan-ho Counties.’’°! The supplementary record to these volumes recounting the history of this memorial temple was compiled by another distressed scholar named Ku Chen-tao who never achieved any official degree, but

who spent his life making known the virtuousness of females. It was through his continuous efforts that several tens of chaste and faithful females were finally awarded recognition by the Court.*? It seems that

unlucky scholars and miserable females had parallel fates. This unconscious identification must certainly have motivated the frustrated scholars and whetted their eagerness for bringing to light the concealed virtues of their female counterparts.

During the Ch’ing Dynasty, the number of virtuous females of all types increased. In the Wu-hsien area, besides the 295 females who com-

mitted suicide in observance of marital fidelity, of whom 241 were widows and fifty-four betrothed maidens, there were fifteen filial daughters who also chose death in order to follow their parents to the other world, and 388 betrothed virgins who observed lifelong celibacy rather than seeking death.°? The socio-economic conditions which existed °° ‘Tung-shan hsiao-chen chieh-lieh pien; Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chtian 68, lieh chuan 7. 51 Ch’ang-ylian chieh-hsiao tz’u chih; Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chian 66, lieh chuan 4. °2 Ch’ang-yuan chieh-hsiao tz’u hst-chih; Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chtan 68, lieh chuan 6. °> Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chan 71-74. A great number of filial daughters committed suicide after their father’s or mother’s death during the Chia-ch’ing period (17961820). According to the local history of Ch’ang-shu/Chao-wen, the figure is as high as

eighty. After distinguishing between actual cases and those having such dubious statements as ‘‘immediately died of grief or spitting blood,’’ those who really did die by their own hands come to twelve. The local history of Wu-chin/Yang-hu gives only a long list of names of filial daughters without any description, so there is no way of determining the actual number of deaths by suicide in this region.

142 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

in Wu-hsien were very similar to those in neighboring Ch’ ang-shu/Chao-

wen (present-day Ch’ang-shu) and Wu-chin/Yang-hu (present-day , Ch’ang-chou) and statistics on numbers of virtuous females in these two areas are cited below to illustrate this point. Betrothed

Surcides Suscides Maidens Filtal

of of Observing Daughters

Lifelong Married Betrothed Lifelong Living or

Area Widows Widows Maidens Celibacy Dead Wu-chin/Yang-hu 9,811 206 66 327 521 Ch’ang-shu/Chao-wen 6,381 281 86 282 354 Sources: Wu-ching Yang-hu ho-chih, 1879 edition, chtan 7-15. Ch’ang-chao ho chih-kao, 1904 edition, chiian 35-39.

Notwithstanding the undoubted existence of flaws in these numbers, they

do point out the tendency toward large numbers of betrothed maidens who remained celibate, which can be seen as a common feature in places where the cult of female fidelity was prevalent. A closer analysis of the underlying situation in the Wu-hsien area might furnish an explanation for this new phenomenon. The death of a fiancé, as commentators pointed out, always confronted the fiancée’s family with two thorny problems—the first, how to return

intact the betrothal gifts received,°* and the second, how to arrange another engagement for their daughter, a difficult undertaking because of the superstitious belief that a girl in such a situation was fated to bring death to anyone contracting matrimony with her. The only alternatives

for the poor girl were either to end her life straightaway, or to remain a ““virgin widow’’ living with either her natal or affianced family. This region, Wu-hsien, was also well-known as the place to select concubines, a reputation which might also be accounted for because of its producing sO many such virtuous females.%° Among the cases of virtuous females committing self-sacrifice in Wuhsien, a number of them might also be said to have been purely ordinary suicides, without any moral motivation or significance as an example of model behavior. For example, one young woman was compelled by her °* In the case of a fiancée’s death, the boy’s family was entitled to the return of the gifts they had offered. However, according to the custom of the Wu-hsien area, if the girl’s parents were powerful enough, they could compel the boy to perform the rite of leaping over his fiancée’s corpse and then having her buried in his family grave, which would signify that the marriage obligation had been fulfilled and return of the gifts was no longer required. (Chou Chen-ho, Su-chouhfeng-su, Peking, 1928, p. 22.) °° Liu I-chih, Chiang-su she-hui chih ch’u-kao, cited from Wang P’ei-shang, Chiangsu sheng feng-t’u chih, part II, Shanghai, 1938, p. 379.

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 143

violent-tempered mother-in-law to find a missing chicken, with the implication that she should either return home with the chicken or not at all. The woman, after searching and calling in vain for the chicken the whole night, finally drowned herself. Her name had long been forgotten since it had happened before the Ch’ien-lung period (1736-1795). When official distinction was granted to her in 1848, she was designated as the ‘‘woman calling for chicken.’’*®

In Wu-hsien, as well as in more than one thousand other counties all over the country, this work of searching and seeking out the names and circumstances of neglected virtuous females went on repeatedly in 1837,

1839, 1847, and 1871.°’ These were times when the stability of the Ch’ing regime was in a very precarious state, and consequently, in order

to bolster the morale of the whole country the rulers had no other recourse but to count on the fidelity of their females. Besides the general correlation with overall political conditions, the practice of female suicide in observance of marital fidelity in Wu- hsien also appears to be concomitantly related with the two variables which we have been examining closely, anxiety and frustration of scholars, and popular belief in spirits of the dead. The correlation between ebb and flow in the academic success of local scholars, and the ups and downs of the numbers of females whose lives ended in unnatural death can be seen from the table on page 000 above. Wu-hsien also had the reputation of being at the top of the list of areas in China where idolatry was rampant. According to an investigation conducted in the 1930’s, the total number of temples and shrines in Wu-hsien county at that time was 1,218, the highest number of all the counties of Kiangsu province.*® There were many tributaries of riverways flowing through the Wu-hsien area, and in the Ch’ing period, when people wished to burn incense to certain unlawful idols in their shrines, a continuous line of small boats, sometimes stretching as far as twenty li, could often be seen along the °° Wu-hsien chih, 1933 edition, chtan 74, part IT. 57 [bid., chuan 71, part I. These general searches depended largely on applications from descendents of the females to be honored. In 1835, Wu-hsi/Chin-kuei (present-day Wu-hsi, Kiangsu) had 1,289 new names collected. (Te-i-lu, part II, chuan 13.) In 1842, the new names with imperial approval registered in I-hsien, Hui-chou prefecture, Anhui, amounted to 3,957. The classification is as follows:

Virtuous Females - not officially rewarded in the old records 1,915

Virtuous Females - dead, names newly collected 719

Virtuous Females - living 1,323 Source: I-hsien san chih, 1868 edition, chuan 15, section 3. °§ Chiang-su sheng feng-t’u chih, volume II, p. 384.

144 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

waterway. [he idols of malicious spirits were even transported by boat from family to family for worship.°? From the above, we have some idea

of how rampant the belief in spirits was in Wu-hsien. We have also mapped the correlation between number of chu-jen and number of female suicides in the regions of Ch’ang-shu/Chao-wen and Wu-chin/Yang-hu, the neighboring counties of Wu-hsien which were economic and cultural centers in the Ming and Ch’ ing periods. It proves to be highly positive in the case of Wu-chin/Yang-hu. Wu-chin and Yang-hu Counties of Ch’ang-chou Prefecture, Kiangsu cyumber 586

“00 395 350 Chii-jen

300 211 250 248 / \ 334

200 ! i!/t\‘\\ i, /1t \\\

/\

100 / aoli \2 150 Female suicides / \

50 26/ ry we

Years AD chi ae 1700 1800 1900

Source: Wu-chin Yang-hu hsien chih, 1906 edition, chiian 7-15, 19.

Unfortunately, no such verification of our hypothesis can be made for the situation in Ch’ang-shu/Chao-wen due to incomplete data, particularly in the time of occurrence. In the Ch’ing local history of these counties, of a total 288 female suicides chronicled, 177 are undated and pro-

vide no recognizable clue to suggest in which dynasty they occurred. Since comparison of these figures with number of chu-jen requires arrangement in comparable chronological time periods, this omission prevents any verification. °° Ku Chia-yui, Heng-shan chih-lieh, 1805 handwritten copy, chiian 6; Ch’ang-chao ho chih-kao, 1904 edition, chtian 48.

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 145

We have also tested this hypothesis for verification using documented conditions in Chang-lo and Fu-ch’ing counties of Fu-chou prefecture, Fukien province, where the rate of female suicide during the Ming was high as noted before, and during the Ch’ing also increased steadily.°° These findings again afford probable, though not irrefutable, proof affirming the correlation between females’ destruction of their own life and the wounded feelings of males.®! Ch’ang-lo County of Fu-chou Prefecture, Fukien Number

400 Fi 360 / f!/ \\

/ 426

;

/|

250 // '| 150 a 430 / 1 / | 100 57 //Z 81] '| \ \ 50 / t 0 2 --- 3\

1| 200 Chii-jen/i 1 /{' 300 296 Female suicides / \

/ 258 |

167

20,"

Sources: Ch’ang-lo hsien chih, 1503 edition, chijan 6; 1763 edition, chuan 8; 1869 edition, chtian 17; 1918 edition, chtian 29. 60 ‘The increase in the number of female suicides in Ch’ang-lo can be seen as follows: Number of Female Suicides

Dynasty Period Widows Maidens Total

Ming 1368-1644 9 3-12

Ch’ing 1644-1763 131 36 = 167 1763-1869 348 72 =420

1869-1918 2 1 3

Sources: Ch’ang-lo hsien chih, 1503 edition,

chian 6; 1763 edition, chuan 8; 1869 edition, chuan 3, 17; 1918 edi-

tion chuan 29, part II. 61 Ch’ang-lo hsien chih, 1869 edition, chuan 3; 1918 edition, chuan 16.

146 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

The widespread occurrence of female suicide in Fu-ch’ing county started at a point when there was a short period of decline in academic success

in the late Ming Dynasty. We interpret this as the result of scholars’ misstating their original place of domicile in the examinations. Evidence

from later periods has proven with fair certainty the validity of our explanation. For example, after 1744 when this deceitful practice was sternly forbidden by the Emperor Ch’ien-lung, the number of chu-jen increased sharply, corresponding to the pattern of increase in the number of female suicides. Fu-ch’ing County of Fu-chou Prefecture, Fukwen Number

‘i

250 238

252

een 7225 Chi-jen 93 ;

150 7 100 /

/

152 /

1 127,

/ The beginning of forbidding

/ to falsify domicile of f) origin in examination

°° 46

Female suicides /

/

/

0 __--48 Years A.D. during the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties

Sources:Fu-chien t’ung chih, 1935 edition, chtian 12-13. Fu-ch’ing hsien chih, 1672 edition, chtan 8; 1747 edition, chtan 16-1’. Fu-chou fu chih, 1754 edition, chuan 40, 70.

Why the occurrence of female suicide increased abruptly in these two

counties of Ch’ang-lo and Fu-ch’ing, when in other nearby regions where it had been previously widespread the rate of occurrence generally tended to go downwards at this time, is a point for questioning. There is some evidence to suggest that the ability of the populace to emigrate might partly account for this discrepancy. The inhabitants of neighbor-

ing Ch’tan-chou and Chang-chou prefectures had started to settle throughout Southeast Asia as early as the late Ming, while emigration from Ch’ang-lo and Fu-ch’ing even on a small scale did not take place

NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY 147

until the beginning of this century.®? The outlet that such exodus pro-

vided not only alleviated population pressure, but it also must have affected the socio-economic outlook of the native place. ‘This explanation

might provide as well a reason for the striking difference in number of female suicides during the Ch’ ing period in inland Hui-chou and coastal Ch’uan-chou. The former shows steady increase and the latter a gradual decrease.

In general, the circumstances surrounding the committing of suicide by females became more cruel in the Ch’ing Dynasty than in any of the previous dynasties. In 1850, a young girl of thirteen in Lien-chiang, Fu-

chou, was forced by her father and elder brother, a young student, to hang herself in public to demonstrate her fidelity to her deceased fiancé.®° There is record of an unmarried ‘‘widow’’ at the age of seven in Changshu.®* In 1817, a girl of twelve was made to remain a virgin widow when her fiancé died at the age of nine. The heads of both families were grand

ministers at Court.® The life of females was clearly regarded as expen-

dable in gratifying males’ detached sense of morality. Were the numerous fine stone arches erected during the Ch’ing Dynasty symbols of praise, or of stigma, one can hardly tell. Glancing back over the preceding survey, we can present the following

summary of our findings. The cult of female suicide which evolved during the late Ming and Ch’ing period as an extreme form of the observance of the Chinese virtue of marital fidelity was not introduced by important exponents of Confucian morality, nor is there any evidence to indicate any direct influence from imperial encouragement of the early Ming emperors. The preservation of female chastity and purity as a virtue motivating behavior, either in practice or principle, was inevitably modified by social environment, and expressed in constantly varying forms in tandem with existing social conditions. Specifically, two social characteristics, male anxiety engendered by severe competition in the official examinations, and a preponderance of superstitious, idolatrous beliefs derived from Buddhism, are found to be closely interconnected with the prevalence of these cruel forms of ritualized female suicide in specific regions in China. The origin of this untold misery of the Chinese female can thus be traced to being the product of a vicious cycle of social2 In 1947, there were 1,453 Fukien commercial firms in Hong Kong. Only twenty were from Ch’ang-lo, and thirteen from Fu-ch’ing. But those from Fu-chou municipality amounted to 396, from Chin-chiang (Ch’tan-chou prefecture) 224, and from Lung-ch’1 (Chang-chou prefecture) 85. (See: Hong Kong min-ch’iao shang-hao jen ming lu, Hong Kong, 1947.)

63 Chian-wen chi, chtian 10, p. 4. |

°¢ ‘Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-, chuan 404, feng-chiao. °° Ch’ang-chao ho chih-kao, chuan 39, lieh-nii 6.

148 NATURE OF THE CULT OF FEMALE MARITAL FIDELITY

psychological anomie experienced by their male counterparts. In resorting to an expedient reworking of ethical codes to assuage their own misery, these men condemned, often fatally, the lives of their female partners.

APPENDIX

SELF-MUTILATING BEHAVIOR OF KO-KU Early Concepts of Filial Prety

According to Confucius, filial piety, the root of all virtue, is inborn in all mankind. The essence of this primal virtue is none other than to honor

and obey one’s parents while they are alive, to sacrifice to them reverently after their death, and to adhere to their guidance throughout one’s whole life. Filial obedience demands acting in complete accord with

the principles of intellectual reason, without contradicting natural, instinctive emotions. Thousands of stories have illustrated the praisewor-

thy conduct of filial sons and daughters. The following story can be regarded as characteristic and in conformity with Confucius’ teachings. Wang Ding-ming, a native of Hui-an, was a very filial son from a poor family. He eked out a living by selling paper money burnt for the use of the dead. He divided his daily earnings into two portions, one for the maintenance of his own immediate family, and the other for providing his parents with meat and wine. Since his father suffered from rheumatism and was unable to walk, Ding-ming made it a custom to go to his father’s bed-

side every morning to inquire if he had slept well, and if the older man wished, to carry him to meet his friends. His father was fond of playing chess. ‘I’o make him happy, Ding-ming often secretly slipped some money to the other players, begging them not to exasperate his father with their skill.

Once his father was invited by a community organization to a social gathering, but he declined because of his disability. Ding-ming, however, _ persuaded his father to attend. Before the time appointed for the party, he went to the dining hall, found the seat assigned to his father and carefully hung a curtain behind the seat in order to shield off any draft which might cause his father discomfort. Later, as the feast drew to an end, Ding-ming waited outside the door. He had already hired someone to help carry his

father home in a sedan chair. The old man was so happy with all these special arrangements that he almost forgot his invalidity. Hearing of this incident, the county magistrate praised Ding-ming for being a good filial son, constantly attentive no matter whether eating or walking to the welfare of his father. The magistrate even personally visited the Wang family to convey his commendation along with some material reward.!

1 Ch’tan-chou fu chih, 1612 edition, chiian 22.

150 APPENDIX The above story generally typifies Confucius’ explanation of filial devo-

tion. The major point of emphasis is the spontaneity of tolerant and patient filial obedience and gratitude quietly expressed in the daily routine of common life.

However, no great sage is able to prevent his name from being appropriated and his ideas from being interpolated by posterity. Confucius did not escape this fate either, and over many generations the expression of the virtue of filial devotion gradually shifted from inward

affection to outward demonstration, eventually deteriorating into extremism. The Emergence of Filial Devotees

From the death of Confucius in 479 B.C. until 265 A.D., no special biographical sketches of particularly mentioned filial devotees are included in the first four of the twenty-five Chinese dynastic histories, which were written during this period. Even after the reign of the Han Emperor Wu-ti (140-87 B.C.), when Confucius’ way of life and principle of government came to be elevated as state orthodoxy to such an extent that the posthumous titles of all the emperors thereafter are prefixed with

the word ‘‘Hsiao’’ (filial piety), there is still an absence of biographies specifically commemorating filial devotion. However, this does not necessarily mean that there were not many prominent filial devotees worthy of being enumerated. Nor is it plausible, as some Confucianists have stated, that the acceptance of Confucius’ teaching in ancient times

among the general population rendered propagation unnecessary. Rather, the explanation lies in the specific socio-political situation of the Han Dynasty. Confucianism as a philosophy originated as an attempt to restore the declining power of rightful rulers and to defend rightful kingdoms against internal usurpers as well as alien invaders. ‘The exhortation to respect

one’s sovereign and drive out barbarians, first declared in the Ch’unch’iu (Spring and Autumn Annals), served traditionally as one criterion of the common ethical identification of Han Chinese. It served to create an ‘‘in-group,’’ adding strength to the sense of superior moral standards among its ethnically homogeneous members, in contrast to their percep-

tion of the backwardness of alien groups, and ultimately led to the mobilization of the Han people’s dynastic energies against outsiders. Throughout the long span of Chinese history, characterized by periodic unification and disruption, whenever a new ruling elite consolidated the

government after a period of disunity and unrest brought on by devastating incursions of non-Han tribes, a movement to revive Con-

APPENDIX 151 fucius’ ethical values was always vigorously advocated. In the case of the

Han Dynasty, however, its first rulers quickly succeeded the Ch’in’s supreme position, and were able to maintain a relatively stable situation in confronting and holding off alien intrusion. Thus, the need to resort to ethnic identity as a unifying force was not as imperative as during the establishment of succeeding dynasties. This may partially account for the absence of biographies of filial persons in the dynastic histories of that period. However, beginning with the Chin Dynasty (265-419), the dynastic histories began to record Biographies of the Filial. Their appearance very likely resulted from the specific historical context of this period. After the tragic loss of the whole of North China to the Huns (311-316), who then inflicted great disunity and misery upon China for almost three hundred years, there arose among the Han Chinese an uncontrollable longing for

the past glory of their rule, of which Confucius’ filial devotion was unquestionably an indelible symbol. Commentaries to the Chin History

pointed out, ‘““The appearance of unfilial behavior calls forth the necessity for the Filial.’’? And yet, the number of biographies specifically designated as those citing filial devotees during the long period of over 1103 years from the beginning of the Chin to the end of the Yuan (a total of 378 biographies) is not as large as the number of such biographies in the Ming times. # biographies

Chin Dynasty (265-419) 154 years 12 Southern Dynasties (420-589) 169 years 30 Northern Dynasties (386-581) 195 years 20

Sui Dynasty (581-617) 36 years 12

T’ang Dynasty (618-907) 289 years 29 Sung Dynasty (960-1279) 319 years 74

Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) 97 years 201

| Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) 276 years 656 Nevertheless, the significance of these 378 biographies is indisputable and lies not in the actual numbers recorded, but in their contents. All the biographical sketches are very short, hyperbolically anecdotal

and with a generally didactic intent. It is impossible, not to mention unnecessary, to verify their authenticity and authorship. However, even taking for granted the fact that they have been greatly overexaggerated and even falsified, there is still no reference to the extreme filial act of

bodily sacrifice. Six types of filial virtue are described in these 378 biographies: 1) reverently serving one’s parents while they are alive; 2) 2 Chiang-yin hsien chih, 1619 edition, chiian 17.

152 APPENDIX observing the rites of mourning and entombment and displaying the most properly grievous manner at the death of one’s parents; 3) keeping watch over one’s parents’ graves for a long period; 4) taking revenge on enemies for killing one’s parents; 5) finding one’s parents after separation over a great distance; 6) identifying one’s parents’ corpses despite

myriad hardships, or bringing back one’s parents’ coffins from thousands of miles away. Ko-ku

The most notorious self-mortifying filial rite in Chinese history is ko-ku, the practice of a filial devotee’s cutting a piece of flesh from his or her own body for an ailing parent to eat as a specially blessed and restorative

medicine. The origin of this cannibalistic practice has been generally ascribed to Pen T’s’ao Shih Yu (Repairing Omissions of Chinese Materia Medica) published by Ch’en ‘T’s’ang-chi in 739 A.D. which listed human flesh as an effective medicine for the physical and mental decay of senility as well as for consumption, thereby seeming to promote this medical cannibalism in China. This general belief was later repudiated, however, by

Li Shih-chen, author of the well-known ‘“‘Compendium of Materia Medica’’ in the 16th century. Li maintained that ko-ku was practiced long before the publication of Ch’en’s book and that the mistaken inter-

pretation that Ch’en was advocating this inhumane practice was the result of Ch’en’s oversight in not specifically denying its efficacy or reliability. Further evidence shows that ko-ku was actually the earlier sinification

of the Buddhist rite of bodily sacrifice. During the years of disunity during the Chin, Northern and Southern Dynasties when North China was ruled by aliens, the Han people were continually tormented by feelings of insecurity and helplessness. Although they longed to return to the days when their sovereigns ruled under the Confucian philosophy, they

became increasingly dubious of its rationality and sought emotional release in superstitution and austerity. This occurred at the same time that a new wave of Buddhism flowed into China and left a significant influence on its people. From this point on, the newer Mahayana Bud3 Ch’ien I, Nan-pu hsin-shu, chiian hsin; Li Shih-chen, Pen-t’sao kang-mu (Compendium of Materia Medica), erh-shih-erh, chiian 52. There was a vague belief that flesh had excellent therapeutic value. In 712 A.D., an edict was issued forbidding the slicing of flesh from criminals’ bodies after their execution. (Chiu T’ang shu, pen chi 2, Hstiantsung shang, Hsien-t’ien erh nien jen-ch’en.) We are also told that the flesh of corpses was used for medicinal use by soldiers who would slice off various portions from them. (T’ai-p’ing yu-lan, chuan 549, li-1 28.)

APPENDIX 153 dhism began to replace the older Hinayana form in East and Inner Asia.+

Mahayana Buddhism condones both ascetic practices and bodily sacrifice. During the ordination ceremony, singeing of the head, burning

off a finger, or even cutting off a limb were common practices. Its precepts ordain that for the sake of rescuing creatures from imminent death, *“Thou shalt give thy flesh to satisfy the hunger of wild beasts.’’® To reconcile Buddhist practices with Chinese traditional thought, and perhaps even with the specific purpose of refuting criticism of the Bud-

dha’s running away without his parents’ permission as being unfilial behavior, three Buddhist canons on filial devotion were translated, one

in the Northern Wei period (404-425) and two during the T’ang Dynasty. These three tracts also preached the doctrine that it is a great virtue to save parents from critical illness, and that to cut one’s own flesh every three hours daily to serve one’s parents is still insufficient to repay their hard labor in nurturing one’s life for a single day.® Because of its propagation in these translations, ko-ku was invariably

associated from the T’ang until the Sung Dynasty with Indian austerities, e.g., amputation of an arm, nipple or ear, copying the Buddhist canons with one’s own blood instead of ink, branding the head with burning incense sticks, nailing hooks on the body for hanging lamps, and drawing blood from the chest as offering to the gods to save parents or

relatives from illness, all of which had been unprecedented in Chinese history.’ Ko-ku means literally to cut a piece of flesh from the thigh. This might have been so in the beginning. A case with rather detailed description in

the Southern Sung Dynasty indicated the cutting was on the thigh because from the filial devotee’s seated and twisted posture his family discovered what he was doing.® However, later it exclusively meant the flesh of either arm. How it could have been done a thousand years ago when cutting instruments and medical knowledge were so rudimentary is quite beyond imagination.° * Ch’en Wen-ti (reigned 560-567), Miao-fa lien-hua ching ch’an wen, Kuang hung ming chi. ° (Sui) She-na chueh-to kung ta-mo chi-to t’ien-p’in trans., Miao-fa lien-hua ching, chuan 1; (Pei-Liang) Fa-sheng trans., P’u-sa t’ou-shen ssu o-hu, ch’i-t’a yin-yuan ching; (Yao-Ch’in) Chiu-mo Lo-shen trans., Fo-shuo fan-wang ching. ®° (Yuan-Wei) Hui Chueh et al., trans., Hsien-yi yin-ytan ching; (T’ang) Pan Jo et al., trans., ‘Ta-ch’eng pen-sheng hsin-ti-kuan ching; (T’ang) Shih-i Nan-to trans., Tafang kuang fo hua-yen ching pu-ssu-i fo ching-chieh fen.

” Sung-shih, chian 456, leh chuan 215. 8 Yung-lo ta-tien, chuan 10,813, ko-ku chiu-mu. ° According to traditional performances of the Peking Opera, the filial daughter practices this rite at night with a censer on a small table and medicinal herbs boiling in a pot on a charcoal stove nearby. She kneels down and prays, grips her arm firmly with her

154 APPENDIX About fifty-five years ago when I was a young boy, out of mere curiosity and on different occasions, | persuaded two old ladies over eighty years of age known for their having honored the virtue of ko-ku to describe how they performed this rite. One of them, an old maid, said she did it by tying up her skin with a piece of string, but then refused to give further details. It is my conjecture that a needle and thread must have been inserted into the skin. The other woman, a great grandmother in a collateral branch of my family, consented to tell me the whole procedure on the condition that I should later propagate her noble act when I became famous in the world of letters.1° Her method was to first raise a portion of the skin of her left arm by pinching it with a pair of eyebrow tweezers controlled by a sliding bar and then tying it off with a piece of string held tightly between her teeth. She then cut the raised flesh swiftly teeth, tears off the flesh from her arm, and then decocts it with the herbs for her ailing parent to drink. Cases where death resulted are often found in historical documents. The mortality rate was rather high in certain records. In one region during the Ch’ing Dynasty, among a total of ninety-seven women who practiced ko-ku, eight were said to have died from infec-

tion. (Hui-chou fu chih, 1839 edition, chan 13, part 1.) One of these eight, it was said, fearful that in the summer heat the smell of her bloody flesh would be detected by others, washed her wound continuously with warm water, which ultimately caused her death. ({éid., part II.) During the period 1621-1627, a boy mistook the word ‘“‘thighs’’ for ‘‘abdomen”’ because of dialectical differences in pronunciation, and he died of hemorrhage. (Ch’i-men hsien chih, 1873 edition, chtan 29.) In the records of Hui-chou prefecture during the Ming Dynasty, boys and girls ranging in age from nine to fifteen were rewarded for their filial virtue. For example, a certain Ying family had four young sons. Seeing their mother suffering from consumption, the boys were overwhelmed with grief and cried day and night. One night, the two older boys obtained a small knife and asked the third brother to cut off a piece of flesh from their arms as a blessed cure for their mother. The third son cried, ‘‘Mother belongs to us all. It’s unfair to leave me out. Our youngest brother is too small. He can be left out!’’ When the youngest son heard about this, he insisted that his flesh should be cut off first, otherwise he would scream and let everybody know what they were doing. So, in the silence of the night, they took turns quietly cutting off flesh from each other’s arms. The next morning, their mother felt much better after drinking the broth made from the flesh of her children. When their father discovered what had happened, he scolded them so furiously that all the passers-by wept with compassion. (Hui-chou fu chih, 1699 edition, chuan 15.) There is mention in another Chinese document of a child filial devotee in 1213, a boy nine years of age. It recounts that when the magistrate examined the case, the boy still had his baby teeth. (Hsien-ch’un Lin-an chih, chuan 70, hsiao-kan shih-i.) The youngest mentioned child filial devotee was a boy of seven in the Ch’ing Dynasty. (Ta Ch’ing hultien shih-li, chuan 406, li-pu, feng-chiao.) However, a Buddhist canon claimed to have been translated during the late Han (25-220) recorded that a young prince of seven sustained his parents lives with his own flesh when they were surrounded by enemies by cutting pieces of flesh from his body. (Ta fang-pien fo pao-en ching, chtian 1.) This has been suggested generally as the origin of children’s ko-ku. 10 At the age of twenty-two she had cut off the flesh of her left arm in the hope of healing her husband who was suffering from incurable dysentery. But it proved ineffective and she remained a widow thereafter.

APPENDIX 1595 with a pair of small sharp scissors. After this operation, she used incense ashes to stop the bleeding and covered the wound with Chinese plaster. She contended that this method seemed to be the best for filial sons and daughters.?? Ko-ku in Early Chinese History

Despite the condemnation of a few scholars, ko-ku met with general acceptance within official circles from the very beginning. In the early T’ang Dynasty, when the first case occurred in the capital environs, an imperial testimonial of merit was conferred by erecting a high platform made of clay in front of the filial son’s front gate.1? Exemption from tax

and corvee, besides material reward, were also granted to afford the devotee ample time and favorable conditions in which to serve his parents. The presiding magistrate, very proud of this event happening in his district, often asked his colleagues in neighboring areas, ‘‘Are there any such filial paragons in your county?’’ It was all this jealous competi-

tion which led Han Yu to raise his protests.’ The first two Sung emperors, T’ai-tsu and T’ai-tsung, set the example of rewarding filial devotees who cut their thighs or livers to remedy their parents’ illnesses.'!* Later in 1110, Hui-tsung issued an imperial edict ‘These two old ladies’ method of operating on their arms was similar to a case recorded in She-hsien, Anhui, in the late Ch’ing Dynasty. (She-hsien chih, 1935 edition, chuan 13.)

'2 Before 939 A.D., the front gate erected in honor of a filial devotee was rather impressive, having a big doorway decorated with fancy designs and ornamental pillars, and the front approach being lined with two rows of trees. After that date, the original construction was changed to simply erecting two big clay platforms painted white and red, one on each side of the gate, with the approaching path lined with trees. (Wu-tai hui-yao, chuan 15, hu-pu; Hsin Wu-tai-shih, chtian 34, i-hsing chuan; Chao I, Kai-yu ts’ung- k’ao, chiian 27, ch’in-men fang-shih.) ‘3 Hu-jen tui, Ch’ang Li hsien-sheng wai-chi, chtian 4. ‘* In addition to ko-ku, there were quite a number of cases of ko-kan—cutting off a piece of liver. This practice became popular from the twelfth century onwards. It is a

mystifying problem and impossible to comment on here, due to its being quite inconceivable as far as is within my knowledge. Some narrative concerning ko-kan appears to be completely out of order physiologically. For example, it says in the Ming Dynastic History that Chang Yt-chen’s mother-in-law was seriously ill. She tried various

well-known medical preparations in vain. A magician happened to come along and claimed that human liver could cure the illness. Thereupon, Chang slit open the left side of her chest, reached inside with her left hand, and felt some membrane resembling cotton. She continued reaching deeper into her body until her hand was in up to the wrist. Then she cut off a portion of her liver about two ts’o in length. She said the operation was not very painful. After drinking the potion made from this human liver, her motherin-law soon recovered. Curiously, in the same paragraph, another woman is also described as reaching her liver by cutting into the left side of her chest. (Ming-shih, chiian 301, lieh chuan 189, lieh nu.) The belief that the human liver is located on the left side of the body was men-

156 APPENDIX recognizing the merit of ko-ku and distinguishing it from other Buddhist bodily sacrifices. The edict proclaimed, ‘‘Although the setting on fire of arms, singeing of hands, cutting off of flesh, burning off of fingers and the mutilation of fingers or even the whole arm ‘under the influence of

a state of delusion’ must be heavily punished, and officials who deliberately ignore this prohibition must be dealt with as criminals, those who cut their thighs or livers for the sake of curing their parents will not be condemned.’’?® There were 74 devotees recorded in the Biographies of the Filial during

the Sung Dynasty. Among them, seven people cut their thighs, two their nipples and one his liver. ‘They occurred during the years after Chu Hsi’s commentary.!® One sketch of a filial son described him as a devoted Buddhist who kept a fire burning in his palm for a long time with the hope that by doing so his mother’s sufferings might be eased. Once he performed a rite in front of a statue of Buddha by piercing two holes in both of his thighs and burning the wounds with oil as lamps for a whole day tioned three times in another single record. (Hui-chou fu chih, 1827 edition, chuan 12, part 4.) Yet unless this was simply cutting off a piece of skin from the left side of the body, no explanation can be given here as to how ko-kan could have been practiced. A short sketch of a filial devotee Hu Pan-lung of the Yuan Dynasty described ko-kan as ‘‘with a small knife, he cut off a piece of skin from the left side of his chest and got a piece of

fat...’ This does seem physiologically possible. (Yuan-shih, chtian 198.) According to some sources, after this type of operation to extract the liver or a portion of it had been performed, some medical men would be summoned to sew up the wound with metal fasteners. (Ch’o-keng lu, chuan 2; Hui-chou fu chih, 1827 edition, chtian 12, part 4.) Some people condemned this as a fabulous act and absurd practice in serving one’s parents (Fu-chou fu chih, 1529 edition, chuan 27), but most compilers and readers for hundreds of years had no doubt of its authenticity and at least two practitioners received testimonials of merit conferred by Emperor T’ai-tsu in 1393 for their filial devotedness demonstrated in this way. (Ming-shih, chuan 296, heh chuan 184.) As far as we know, ko-ku and ko-kan were very serious matters for the court officials, especially in conferring official distinction. Those submitting false and inaccurate reports were punished. As early as 860 when a boy of nine practiced ko-ku to heal his father, the governor who examined the boy’s wound gave a detailed description, measuring the original opening and the remaining scar as 1 ts’o and 3 fen, and 1 ts’o and 4 fen respectively. (Nan-pu hsin shu, chtan 10.) In the Southern Sung period, it was even recorded that a filial devotee cut his way into the left shin bone, drawing out the marrow to cure his sick mother, with effective results. (Yen-chou fu chih, 1614 edition, chuan 9.) ‘S Sung hui-yao, chuan 21,777, hsing-fa chin-ytieh. ‘6 Chu Hsi, whose commentaries on the Confucian Classics were officially regarded as the definitive interpretation, endorsed ko-ku favorably, but with reserve. He stated, ‘*Ko-ku is of course not the right thing to do. However, if one does it with sincerity, it may be considered as such.’’ (Ta Ch’ing hui-tien shih-li, chtian 403, feng-chiao.) Evidently, Chu Hsi did not speak of ko-ku with condemnation, nor did he have any intention of attempting to arrest its spread among the populace. Yet some critics claimed that ‘‘owing to Chu Hsi’s reserved comment, the practice of ko-ku was thereafter completely arrested.’’ (She chih, 1609 edition, hsiao-yu 11.) That statement seems to have been rather premature.

APPENDIX 157 and night. He also copied several chapters of canons with his own blood.*”

The most detailed descriptions of ko-ku can be found in the documents of the Southern Sung. The following is one of the legal decisions on such a case: On the 18th of the fourth moon, Chiang Ying cut his thigh to save his mother from a serious disease, which proved to be effective. A report from the official of the subprefecture stated that his office had reached a decision that honorable distinction should be conferred on Chiang Ying for cutting

his thigh to heal his mother. Chiang Ying was then summoned with a notice-tablet to the office of the subprefect to receive the reward for which he was eligible—a certain amount of fine silk and flour, which had been converted into an equivalent value consisting of 5 kuan paper money (1 kuan = 1 string of 1000 cash) together with 5 sheng of rice and a bottle of wine.

These being the facts of the case, the judicial magistrate signed the following decision, ‘‘Ko-ku is not the right way to demonstrate filiality. Nevertheless, the decision to sacrifice one’s body for the sake of one’s mother is enough to stir up the customs of our times. Thus, besides receiving rewards, Chiang Ying is entitled to join the army of this prefecture as soon as there is a vacancy left by the death of one of its limited number of soldiers. Because of Chiang Ying’s devotion to his mother, the authorities

concerned should supply him with adequate provision to care for his parents. If he wishes to be registered in the military profession (with the benefits of exemption from tax and corvee), he can apply by petition and his case will be considered as an exception. From recent reports, there are many cases of mothers’ having grievances against their sons for having suffered injuries from them, a situation which causes us great distress. This judicial testimonial is intended to stimulate virtue. Readers should take note of this exhortation.’’!®

Those committing ko-ku were mostly common people such as the abovementioned Chiang Ying. An analysis of twenty-nine cases of the T’ang Dynasty shows that twenty-five of them were commoners, one a lower level clerk, and the other three noncommissioned officers. No literati or gentry are found. This characteristic was prominently noted in the com-

mentaries of the Yuan. They remarked that ko-ku seemed to have deviated from the ancient dictum of not injuring one’s body inherited from parents. Nevertheless, it was far better than to let them (the common people) indulge in assault and battery, which both impaired one’s body and committed a crime at the same time.'? Apparently, in the eyes 17 Sung-shih, chuan 456, lieh chuan 215. 18 Yung-lo ta-tien, chuan 10,813, ko-ku chiu-mu. 19 Hsin T’ang shu, chuan 245, hsu. At first the Mongol rulers prohibited ko-ku, kokan and burying one’s child alive for the sake of one’s parents. (Ta Yuan sheng-cheng kuo-ch’ao tien chang, 1908 edition, li-pu 6, chtan 33.) But in 1270, the court began to

158 APPENDIX | of the Mongol ruling elite, ko-ku could be used as a safety measure to channel the Han subjects’ outward aggression into more submissive activities. In 1394, ‘T’ai-tsu, founder of the Ming Dynasty, bestowed awards on three common folks who had performed ko-ku. One of them was granted an official position as Master of Ceremonies in the Court of Ceremonial

Worship, the only post the court officials were able to invent for an illiterate commoner.*° But the next year, in a fit of rage, this notorious absolute ruler of the Ming suddenly forbade ko-ku and other similarly excessive filial activities to be included in the list of deeds which merited imperial recognition. T’ai-tsu’s fury was in fact touched off by a case of human sacrifice. A

certain Mr. Chiang of Shantung province at first failed to cure his mother’s illness by cutting a piece of flesh from the side of his own chest.

He then prayed in the temple at T’ai Shan Mountain, pledging that he would offer his son in propitiation if his mother were cured of her illness. When his mother did recover, Chiang killed his three-year old son as he

had promised. This cruel-hearted incident was reported to the Court. T’ ai-tsu became furious and ordered Chiang whipped one hundred times and exiled to Hainan Island for committing this crime.?! After further

consideration, the Board of Rites issued a new regulation: ‘‘No relax the prohibition by saying, “‘It is not forbidden, but no reward will be given to those practicing ko-ku.’’ Later in 1325, official attitude changed to be in favor of ko-ku. Five pieces of thin silk, two goats and one ch’ing of arable land were given to devotees who cut off portions of their thighs for parents or relatives. (Shih-lin kuang chi, jen chi, chtian 1.) ‘Thus the practice of ko-ku became more prolific than during the Sung period. Ch’iu Yuan (1247- 1326), a well-known man of letters, listed five cases in a small market town near Hangchow where he was born. (Ch’iu Yuan , pai- shih, chih-hsiao, in Shuo-fu, chuan 21.) The practice of burying a child alive for the sake of one’s parent first appeared in the (Liu) Sung period of the Southern Dynasties (420-478). ‘‘Due to poverty, Kou Shih-tao had to serve and provide for his stepmother by doing hard manual labor. After his wife gave birth to a son, Kou and his wife agreed that no matter how hard they both worked, it was already difficult for them to support his mother, and now an extra mouth to feed would make it worse. Eventually, with tears in their eyes, they buried their infant son alive.’’ (Sung hst,, heh chuan, chtian 51.) This story afterwards had many versions, widely circulated in China and the countries of East Asia. Perhaps this barbarous expression of filial piety seemed too unacceptable to readers, and subsequently, a later-dated version of this story has a satisfactory ending. It was said that when Kou started to dig in the ground, he discovered a pot of gold inscribed with the words, ‘“This is the reward from heaven to a filial son.’’ (Sou-shen chi, 1575 edition, chtuan 19; Lu-chou fu chih, 1575 edition, chan 19.) Some Ming scholars strongly argued that even if the child had been saved, the intention of the heartless parents was still inexcusable from the point of view of Confucian morality. (See: Fang Hsiao-ju, Kuo-chi lun; Li Wei-chi, Kuo-chti hsiao lun, in KCTSCC, chtian 322 « 323.) 20 Ming-shih, chuan 296, leh chuan 184. 21 "Ta Ming hui-tien, 1587 edition, chtian 79, li-pu; Kuo-ch’ao hsien-chang lei-pien, 1578 edition, book 2, chuan 15; Kuo-ch’ao tien-hui, 1634 edition, chtian 127, li-pu 25.

APPENDIX 159 testimonial of merit will hereafter be bestowed by the Emperor on anyone who practises ko-ku or lies on the ice?? for the sake of his parents. But for those who undertake these practices as the last resort in order to save their parents from illness, the Court will still allow them to carry out their intention.’’ Thus, ko-ku went on without the Court’s official sanction. The result was that of 656 cases of acts of filial devotion recorded in the Ming Dynasty, only five cases of ko-ku are included.** The main expression of virtue then shifted from ko-ku to lu-mo—to dwell in a hut by the grave of a parent.?# Detached Moral Sense

The preceding survey shows that the Chinese concept of filial piety has its roots in a specific philosophical and cultural soil, while its varying expressions over time have been causally conditioned by ever-changing socio-economic circumstances. Filial submission in the original, pure Confucian sense is based on genuine affection, having no requirement to serve one’s parents with overly elaborate formalities or unreasonable asceticism. As a result of subsequent unsettled periods in Chinese history caused by periodic alien intrusions and warlordism, the ruling Han elite felt a strong imperative to reestablish a Confucian polity. It is against this

background that the biographical sketches of the filial first began to appear in the Chinese dynastic histories, where they were described as a type of ascetic able to undergo unnecessary discomfort and suffering, or were even portrayed as pardonable manslaughterers. It was for this *2 ‘This practice started with Wang Hsiang of the Chin Dynasty. He lay naked on the ice covering a brook in order to catch two carp to serve his stepmother. But from the Yuan Dynasty onward, the custom changed to lying on the ice in the winter to pray for blessings for one’s ailing parents. It was recorded in the Yiian Dynastic History that this ascetic rite lasted between a fortnight and one month (Ytian-shih, chan 197, lieh chuan 84.) *3 In the early years of the reign of the Yung-lo Emperor (1403-1424), three filial sons

were still rewarded for ko-ku. (Ming-shih, chiian 296, lich chuan 184; Kuo-ch’ao tienhui, chuan 104, li-chih.) ** ‘The earliest case of lu-mo was recorded by Ssu-ma Ch’ien (145 or 135 B.C.-?) in the Shih Chi (Historical Memoirs). After Confucius’ death, Tzu-kung joined the other pupils in mourning their master for three years. Tzu-kung then built a hut for himself beside the grave and stayed there another three years. (Shih-chi 17, K’ung-tzu shihchia.) Both ko-ku and lu-mo were significant manifestations of filial piety in China. The latter rite must be performed in the most ascetic and sorrowful manner, and distinctions were bestowed on those who could observe it beyond normal human endurance. We have records of someone spending twenty-seven years, or sometimes even their whole life, in lu-mo. In the Sung Dynasty, the famous filial son Ch’eng Tao-chou of Hunan lived beside his mother’s grave for more than four years. Every day he made five glazed bricks, and wailing pitifully with each step, took them to her grave to build a tomb. Hundreds of people came daily to watch this ritual ceremony and all were moved to tears. It took him four years to erect a tomb 3 chang high, and then he died of fatigue (Ch’ang-sha fu chih, 1534 edition, chtian 5.)

160 APPENDIX same reason that the notorious rite of ko-ku, observed mainly by commoners and officially sanctioned for a time, could nourish itself as a parasite on the originally vigorous host of the traditional Chinese virtue of filial piety. The flourishing of local chronicles during the Ming period gives us an

excellent opportunity to discover general attitudes toward ko-ku in various places. A survey of 166 sources containing this kind of information for the middle to the end of the Ming Dynasty, at the provincal level down to the counties, shows that except in a few places, ko-ku invariably met with general official approval. Since only scholars were expected to

observe the Confucian dictum, ‘‘One’s body, with hair and skin, 1s transmitted from one’s parents; one should not allow it to be injured in

any way,’ the act of ko-ku was viewed as an expression of filial devotedness for the uninformed masses, to be admired and sometimes pitied, but with not much relevance to academic scholars. One source gives an account of a visit paid by members of the elite to a practitioner of ko-ku. They all expressed their admiration and astonishment that this could be done without endangering one’s life.2° Another source commented that a brave act such as this, if properly inculcated with the ideas of the Classics, could unquestionably be cultivated as an expression of loyal sentiment toward the sovereign.?© One commentary argued that although ko-ku was not an act of devotion in strict conformance with the orthodox principle of filial piety, yet how could illiterate commoners be blamed for not being acquainted with the written prescriptions for adequate virtue??” Once a member of the elite secretly attempted the rite of ko-ku, but was later ashamed and never let anyone know how he did it.”® Of these 166 sources, only She-hsien county in Hui-chou prefecture of Anhui province, Chi-an prefecture of Kiangsi province, and Wen-chou prefecture of Chekiang province, had a significant number of devotees of this kind. Years # of Ko-ku Devotees

She-hsien County 1368-1644 86 Chi-an Prefecture 1368-1585 22

Wen-chou Prefecture 1368-1605 36

Sources: She chih, 1609 edition, lieh-ni, kung shih, chin shih She-hsien chih, 1939 edition, chtian 13, 14, 15 Chi-an fu chih, 1585 edition, chtian 7, 16 Wen-chou fu chih, 1605 edition, chiian 10, 12 °° Hsiang-yin hsien chih, 1554 edition, chiian hsia; Ching-chiang hsien chih, 1569 edition, chiian 3. 26 Yen-yu ssu-ming chih, 1320 edition, chiian 5. 27 Liu-an chou chih, 1584 edition, chtian 6. 28 Juu-an fu chih, 1609 edition, chtian 13.

APPENDIX 161 It seems that the number in She-hsien increased during the late Ming period (1573-1644), from nine in the first 200 years to sixty-seven cases in the last seventy, a trend which corresponds with the pattern of increase in number of deaths of widows and betrothed maidens in this county whose husbands and fiancés had died.?9 In the Ch’ing Dynasty (1644-1911), the practice of ko-ku, although laughed at by illiterate peasants,*° was very prevalent in She-hsien, the total number of devotees reaching 534—229 males and 305 females. Worthy of note is the fact that of these 229 males, thirty of them were scholars holding the first degree.*! How is the correlation between the

increase of ko-ku devotees and of suicides of widows and betrothed maidens to be explained? If ko-ku is conceptualized as self-mutilation, a mild form of self-destructive behavior, and suicide as the severe ultimate form,**? the correlation and its significance is more clearly and easily

understood. Partly because of the unreliability of the local historical records of the Ch’ing Dynasty and partly because of lack of cases in other locations for comparative study, we shall leave this last point for further analysis by other social scientists. 29 She-hsien chih, 1827 edition, chtan 12, part 4. 3° ‘Tiao-ku chi, chuan 8, yi-hsiao lun. 31 She-hsien chih, 1827 edition, chuan 12, part 4; 1935 edition, chuan 12-14. 32 David Lester, ‘‘Self-Mutilating Behavior,’’ Psychol. Bull. 78, 1972 119-128.

ABBREVIATIONS

1) CHTTC Chung-hua ta-tsang-ching ARE

2) CLHP Chi-lu hui-pien #¢@g#a

3) HTTJPHTC = Hsin-tsuan ta jih-pen hsti tsang-ching PAK A AGRE

4) KCTSCC Ku-chin tu-shu chi-ch’eng #SHM2ZER

5) PCHSTK Pi-chi hsiao-shuo ta-kuan 2¢/)#A

6) SKCSCP Ssu-k’u ch’tian-shu chen-pen UH#@#YA

7) SPPY Ssu-pu pel-yao PUL (i 8) SPTK Ssu-pu ts'ung-k’an [UA Fl

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Yu Yueh &i#, Hui-tsul pien @Hfe

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LIST OF CHINESE CHARACTERS 171

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172 LIST OF CHINESE CHARACTERS

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