Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"No other work has so persuasively demonstrated the significance of chastity in High Qing political, social and cultural lives as Theiss's investigation has done. This is a particularly enlightening read." - Martin Huang, author of Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China; "Outstanding and timely, this book significantly advances our understanding of late imperial Chinese history on several fronts. Clear and lively, this is research of very high quality." - William T. Rowe, author of Saving the World"
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments A Note on Textual Conventions A Note on Dynasties and Reigns Introduction part one * The Chastening State: The Qing Chastity Cult in Ritual,Law,and Statecraft Prologue: A Chaste Barbarian Martyrs Herself on the Imperial Frontier 1. Defining Gender Orthodoxy for a Multiethnic Empire 2. Statecraft and Gender Order in the Qianlong Reign part two * Female Virtue and the Politics of Patriarchy Prologue: A Righteous Husband Plays the Politics of the Wifely Way 3. Enforcing Gender Order: Between the Ancestral Hall and the Yamen 4. Divided Loyalties: Natal Families and the Exercise of Patrilineal Authority 5. Adultery, Incest and the Multiple Meanings of Patriarchy part three * Mapping Chastity across Boundaries of Body,Mind,and Space Prologue: A Compromised Widow Sacrifices Her Body to Defend Inner Virtue 6. The Wages of Wanton Mixing: Violation and Gender Disorder 7. "Accommodating Sages": Gender Separation in Social Practice part four * "Being a Person": Female Humiliation and Social Power Prologue: Male Impropriety and Female Outrage Lead to a Tragic End 8. The Problem of Female Moral Agency 9. The Logic of Female Suicide Epilogue A Note on Archival Sources Notes Bibliography Character List Index
