Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a comprehensive study of faithful maidenhood in late imperial China from the vantage points of state policy, local history, scholarly debate, and the faithful maiden's own subjective point of view.
Trade Review"Marshaling an impressive array of original archival documents, Lu Weijing gives a finely nuanced presentation of that highly wrought figure in late imperial China, the Faithful Maiden. Her book places this veritable cult of extreme female chastity in the contexts of cultural and intellectual debates of the time and is a valuable addition to the scholarship on womens lives and on Chinese history." -- Hu Ying, University of California * Irvine *
"Lu's book contributes to a growing body of recent scholarship that problematises earlier perspectives on the victimisation and insignificance of women in imperial China. . . [H]er book offers compelling evidence . . . [O]ffers a woman-centered narrative of late imperial history." -- Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley *
China Perspectives *
"Lu brings us to a deeper understanding of how women generally in late imperial China responded to society in ideological, psychological, cultural, and economic terms . . . Dealing with abundant resources, including writings by the 'faithful maidens' themselves, as well as vivid illustrations, chronological tables, and maps, while at the same time maintaining academic rigor, this book is nonetheless friendly to both non-specialists and experts interested in women, family, society, and the interactions among them in late imperial China." -- Qianyue Zhang *
Frontiers of History in China *
"One of the most important, and challenging, tasks that social historians face is to explain behavior that seems mystifying or even appalling to modern readers. Weijing Lu has addressed such an issue in her excellent new book,
True to Her Word: The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial China." -- Ann Waltner * University of Minnesota,
Journal of Social History *
"Lu greatly enriches our knowledge of the disturbing, intriguing phenomena of engaged young women swearing lifelong fidelity to, or committing suicide in honor of, their sick, deranged, or dead fiancs. In so doing, she illuminates the ideological and social complexity of the period and brings into focus broad gender issues that extend well beyond the subject under investigation." -- Joan Judge * York University *
Table of ContentsPart One. History 19 1. Moral Heroism and Craving for Extremes: The Ming Period (1368-1644) 21 2. Putting Young Heroines in the Spotlight: The Seventeenth Century 49 3. The State and the Social Webs of Exaltation: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 68 Part Two. Choices loi 4. Dissuading the Resolute: The Families of Faithful Maidens 103 5. Dying for an Ideal: The Choice of Suicide 129 6. A Young Life, a Long Journey: Living as a Faithful Maiden 167 Part Three. Ideology 211 7. Old Rituals and New Questions: The Faithful Maiden Debate 213
