Transcript Widow Chastity - Department of History, CUHK

Momadic Influences on China
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Mongolorization of China
 Institutional Racism
 Ignoring infrastructure for agriculture
 Change of marriage system
 Change of control of woman’s property
 Widow suicide
Manchu impact on China
 Banning of prostitution
 The Role of Women under the Manchu
 Manchu women
 Manchu Marriage Patterns
 Control of Imperial Consorts
Mongolorization of China
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Earlier nomadic rulers of northern China had not forced their
practices on the Han population but the Mongols were a
minority in Yuan China.
 Mongols: 1 million
 Western and Central Asians: 1 million
 Northern Chinese: 10 million
 Southern Chinese: 60 million
To protect Mongol superiority traditions and lifestyles, they
implemented:
 Institutional Racism
 Change of Chinese practices to Mongol practices resulting in
widow suicides.
 Marriage system from polygamy to levirate
 Change of control of woman’s property
Mongolorization of China: Institutional Racism
and Ignoring infrastructure for Agriculture
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Institutional Racism
 Hring of foreign officials (preferably non-Han).
 Easier exams for the non-Hans for civil service.
 Banning the marriage of Manchu and Han families who were
not part of the banner system.
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Han women can be taken in as concubines but Manchu must avoid
taking women from Chinese elite families – to prevent the Chinese
families from using marriage to access social prestige and power.
Ignoring infrastructure for agriculture:
 Flood control and irrigation
These two resulted eventually in rebellions (together with numerous
succession problems)
Mongolorization of China: Change of marriage
system
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All widows who remarried had to do so according to the levirate
system:
 Difficult for Chinese wives:
 Considered incest – remarriage to husband’s family
members; intergenerational marriages.
 Principal wives who were widowed cannot become
concubines – cannot remarry the person of he was man
married as Chinese can only have one principal wife.
To make it easier for Chinese, Mongols amended laws requiring
widows to only remarry unmarried brothers of deceased husband.
 Widows need not remarry if her husband has taken her
family name – to carry on her family line.
 If she and her family members can form a tax unit;
Mongolorization of China: Change of control of
women’s property
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Dowry was made part of the husband’s family property.
 Widow is without resources to return to family or to remarry.
 To protect women:
 They cannot be divorced without cause.
 Widow may only remarry with her family’s consent.
Ming and Qing dynasties kept the law on control of women’s
property by the husband’s families (but not the laws on the
remarriage of widow according to the levirate system).
 Desperate widows, without resources, throughout the
following dynasties killed themselves.
 Widow suicide rationalized as “chastity” -- Widow chastity
was emphasized as a virtue during the Ming.
Mongolorization of China: Widow suicide
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Original concept of widow suicide:
 Serving husband after death:
 When applied to rulers whereby wives, officials and loyal
followers were buried with them, -- get rid of former
powerful ruling elite.
 When applied to commoners – impoverished women who
cannot survive for economic or family reasons.
Widow suicide not emphasized in China until after
Mongolorization.
Mongolorization of China: Widow Suicide
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Widow suicides were not written up as examples of female virtue
in Biographies of Women in early Chinese history.
The official histories from the Six Dynasties to the Tang dynasty
included stories of women who endured hardship and
committed suicide for righteous causes, such as resisting rape,
but not widow suicides.
The Biographies of Women in the official Song history only
included two suicides of widows following the death of their
husbands.
The section in the Yuan history listed 48 with the suicides
sometimes coerced by their superiors.
400 were listed in the Ming history -- selected from among
more than 30,000 model women mentioned in the Ming shilu
实录(Veritable Records) as well as in the local gazetteers of
the time.
Mongolorization of China: Widow Suicide (2)
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During the Qing dynasty, it was felt that widow suicides was out
of control and not due to “chastity” but to:
 Despair;
 Fear of being married off by her in-laws;
 Loss of security of her children as members of their father’s
family;
 The prospect of an inferior marriage as she was a widow and
her personal humiliation and moral failure;
 Fears of loneliness, of hardships, of unwillingness to face the
burdens of caring for a dead husband’s aging parents, abusive
in-laws;
 Hope that as a wandering ghost their spirit can return to take
revenge on the living persons who had made their lives
miserable.
Mongolorization of China: Widow suicide (3)
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Emperor Yongzheng (1728) of the Qing called for a stop to the
use of death to avoid responsibilities.
 He said that a widow had two important responsibilities -caring for her husband’s parents and rearing her children or
adopted heir.
After 1728, the pattern of suicide changed.
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The reported number of suicide dropped.
Women committed suicide after she had fulfilled her responsibilities of
caring for her parents-in-law and her children.
The widows who lived to serve the deceased husband’s parents
and raise the heir would slash their faces with knives or cut off
their fingertips to show their loyalty and that they are resisting
remarriage.
Manchu impact on China
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Forcing the wearing of Manchu style clothing and hair style.
 Revolutions against this enforcement were put down.
Foot-binding: Manchu tried banning it but gave it up three years
later:
 Difficult to enforce.
 Manchu found small feet attractive and Manchu women
began wearing shoes that looked like they had bound feet.
 Footbinding was finally forbidden by law towards the end of
the dynasty as the Chinese population no longer found it
socially acceptable and asked for laws to forbid it.
Widow suicide: Reduced the number and changed the pattern of
widow suicide.
Banning of Prostitution
Manchu Impact on China: Banning of Prostitution
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Banning of prostitution – both kinds
 State Managed:
 Women were provided for the military since early Chinese
history – yuehu 乐户 music households.
 They were the wives or daughters of criminals who were
forced to serve as part of the penalty of the crimes of
their men.
 They were captive women.
 Their status was hereditary.
 Private: they were from poor families -- wives or daughters of
poor men, divorced women, discarded concubines.
The Role of Women under the Manchu: Manchu
Women
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Manchu women had greater freedom and authority.
They were forbidden to bind their feet and walked in public
places, rode horses, practiced archery and participated in hunts.
Women were occasionally active on the battlefield: a few were
even named banner lieutenant during the conquest.
They held key roles in religious performances at court.
Manchu and Mongol nobles of both sexes had the right to
divorce.
 Princess Hexiao—youngest daughter of Qianlong — dressed
in man’s clothing, practiced archery and accompanied her
father on hunts – killing a deer on at least one occasion.
 The proud emperor was recorded as saying that if she had
been a boy he would have made her heir.
The Role of Women under the Manchu: Manchu
Marriage Patterns
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The Manchu practiced cross-generational marriages within the
levirate system – the levirate system was later banned due to
Chinese influence.
For political purposes, the early Manchurian emperors took
wives descended from the Mongol Great Khans, so that their
descendants would also be seen as legitimate heirs of the
Mongolian Yuan dynasty.
The imperial family only married with banner families.
All Manchus, not only the imperial family, were forbidden to
marry Han Chinese who were not in the Eight Banners.
 Han Chinese, not from banner families can be taken in as
concubines.
 Anyone who disobeyed would be punished and any offsprings
expelled from the lineage.
The Role of Women under the Manchu: Manchu
Marriage Patterns (2)
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The recruitment of women into the palace was done every three years
through drafting of daughters of officials in the banners.
 With the exception of specific individuals, every eligible girl, 13 to 14 sui,
from these families had to appear in Beijing for the recruitment before her
marriage.
 After 1653 young girls between 13-14 had to be presented to the
palace in Beijing before they could be betrothed.
 Some were immediately chosen to be wives or consorts for the
princes or the emperor.
 Others served in the palace for a five-year term.
 Those who caught the emperor’s eye would be promoted into the
harem.
Palace maids, selected through a separate draft, might be promoted into the
harem – 16% of imperial consorts were originally palace maids.
The Role of Women under the Manchu: Manchu
Marriage Patterns: Control of Imperial Consorts
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Palace regulations made it almost impossible for an imperial
consort to remain close to her natal kin.
 Visits home were rare and demanded that her parents and
grandparents prostrate themselves before her.
 Imperial permission was needed for meetings with parents
when a woman was pregnant or when her parents were elderly.
 Special permission was needed for them to send servants to
their family homes.
 They were forbidden to give or receive anything from family
members.
Their families could not give gifts to other palace women.
 Motherhood usually brought promotion but the title of
empress was usually conferred on her by the son after he
becomes emperor.