How Women in Ancient China Held on to Their Chastity

In ancient China, loyalty and filial piety were the most valued moral values. In the feudal society, where men were superior to women, the status of women was very low, and they were seldom valued by people and recorded in history books. But open a thick "Twenty-four Histories", from the "Later Han Dynasty" onwards, many dynasties have begun to make biographies of "women". The reason, very grand, said the virtuous consort of the king of the implementation of beautiful politics, understand the reasoning of the woman to make the family harmony, outstanding character to promote the elegant and simple style, chastity of the woman to make the distinctive purity of the integrity of the more notorious. It is also said that although the virtue of women lies in gentleness and softness, they rely on chastity and light to establish their virtue and fame in the world. Therefore, in one after another of the "women's biographies", the ancients are most fond of those who in order to adhere to their chastity, and sacrificed their own happiness, and even the life of the woman, the emperor did not sympathize with their survival in the world of hardship, and the sadness of the departure, or rewarded to build a shrine to sacrifice, or set up chastity, so that after their deaths The purpose is to teach the women of the world can also use chastity and purity of their own requirements. In fact, a chastity shrine and pagoda is a big mountain that presses on the heart of women, making them unable to turn over and take a breath for thousands of years. After reading the so-called deeds of their chastity, can't help but cover the scroll long sigh, sigh. A "biography" is an ancient Chinese women's history of blood and tears.　　Since the Han Dynasty, for the biography of women, but also most of the filial piety and fraternal duty first, husband and mother's best stories. Such as Cao E seeking father, Le Yangzi wife taught her husband to study, do not pick up the gold, Tao Kan mother taught her son clean, Chen infant mother advised son not king, Wang Ling mother taught her son to serve Han, Bo Zong wife to see the slightest knowledge. Therefore, in the "Ming History", "Biographies of Women", Liu Xiang made biographies of women, taking them as examples to be used as reference when dealing with the world, but not to unify their conduct. Fan Ye inherited his practice, and also collected those who had noble and excellent talents and behaviors into the book. Wei, Sui later, more absorbing affliction and dislocation, killing and martyrdom things. To the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang as a national policy, written into the rules and regulations, inspections of the school of the Governor Fang, a class of officials every year to the court to report their deeds. The big reward to make ancestral worship, the second best also set up a plaque in recognition, so there is a Ming generation, is the emergence of the most records of the female dynasty. This kind of characters written into the actual record and county records and other books, no less than 10,000 people, although some of them are famous for their literary skills, on the whole, the majority of the martyrdom. Because although from the Han Dynasty onwards to advocate "to filial piety rule the world", but the real "rituals" as the basic state policy, as a platform to educate the people, Zhu Yuanzhang is really a strong advocate. I remember last year to travel to Huangshan, Anhui Province, in Huining, Yixian County and other places, a lot of chastity plaques are established in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty, "the biography of women", are full of blood and tears of bitterness, read it is shocking.　　During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Fang, the Commander of Shandong Province, was executed for breaking the law, and his wife and children were confiscated as slave girls of the government. The relevant officials in the registration to extract them, the guardianship of the people to Tang Fang's wife Ding's borrow comb comb, Ding's comb thrown on the ground, the person picked up the comb comb, take back to Ding's, Ding's cursed not to pick up the family said: "this kind of people do not have the courtesy to be sure to insult me, can not die to preserve the integrity." So, in the sedan chair through a steep cliff, jumped out of the pool to die, clothes too thick to sink, she used her hands to tighten the skirt, with the current sank, this year only twenty-eight years old.　　Chuzhou Peng Wo sick can not get up, but can not rest assured that the beautiful wife, so, on the false sympathy and his wife Shi shook hands to say goodbye, said: "very tired of the disease, know that I must die. You have no son, choose a son-in-law to marry, don't keep a dead man and suffer yourself for nothing." Shi cried, "Don't you understand me? I wish to die before you." Peng Wo stopped her, and when Peng Wo died, Shi hanged herself. Another Wuhu supervisor Mu Bu's wife, Zhang, was married to Mu Bu at the age of eighteen. After four years, Mu Bu was so sick that he was about to die, and he looked back at Zhang, staring at his eyes and couldn't close them. Zhang cried and said, "Does my husband think I have second thoughts? If you have a son, you should honor your ambition and serve your master; this is the moral obligation of a wife. If I have no son, I will clean myself and die with my husband; this is the chastity of a wife." So she bathed and changed her clothes, closed the door and hanged herself. It was only after a day that Miao Bu died.　　Wang, a native of Cixi, was married to Chen Jia, who was ill, and his parents married her to comfort him. As soon as she entered the house, she served soup and medicine. Not long after, Chen Jia died. Wang was seventeen years old and was determined not to marry. Her mother-in-law advised her, "If you are widowed without a wedding, you have no name." Wang said, "After entering the Chen family, I have already served a gentleman, how can I say I have no honor?" The mother-in-law had her two daughters persuade her slowly. The daughter-in-law refused, cut her hair, and disfigured her appearance. Her mother-in-law tried to force her to do so and made things difficult for her, and her two youngest daughters bullied her like slaves and scratched her face when she was not well pleased. The woman said, "Don't force me to get married, but I'll be a servant girl." At night, she slept under her sister-in-law's bed and got rickets because of the humidity, and she said privately, "I know I can be spared now."　　Xiu Shui has a woman named Xiang Zhen, betrothed to Wujiang Zhou Ying Qi. She was good at women's red, could play the qin and sepulchre, and knew the biography of the "Lianzhu", and served her grandmother and mother with great filial piety. When she was nineteen years old, she heard that Zhou was sick, so she ate fasting, lit incense and oil lamps to worship the Buddha, and prayed silently. One day, she said to her wet nurse, "What should I do if my husband died before I got married?" The nursemaid said, "It is alright to remarry without becoming a wife." The woman said gravely, "Ancient sages had a sword to give to others and could not bear to let it go, let alone a body." When the news of the death came, her parents kept it a secret from her, but it was said that someone had come from Wujiang, and the woman had understood. The grandmother told her mother to go into the house and see what was going on, and the woman left her mother sitting down with a meek expression, and she went away reassured. At night when the maids were asleep, she got up alone and tied her hair with white silk thread, her clothes were white inside and out, and sewed her pants, and wrote on the desk in large letters, saying, "Go to my parents, I can't let you live a day of happiness, and I go to my death today for the sake of Chou Lang." And he hanged himself.　　Among the "Three Principles and Five Rules", the principle of the husband as the woman is the most respected by men of all times. Because they want to use this set of feudal rituals to bind and fool women, so that they can feel free to do whatever they want. In this way, men can on the one hand require the women at home to be chaste and dedicated, moral integrity, on the other hand, they can rest assured that they have a group of concubines, but also looking around for flowers. The ugly face of macho selfishness, clearly revealed. Women in ancient China, the feudal society not only deprived them of the right to live economically and forced them to have no way out politically, but also devoured their souls with feudal superstitions and feudal rites. Therefore, Mr. Lu Xun said in "Diary of a Madman" that every page of the history of feudal society is written "cannibalism", which means that feudal rites and the feudal system killed, suppressed human nature, and had the nature of cannibalism.