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Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century China

Online ISBN:
9780520930667
Print ISBN:
9780520240339
Publisher:
University of California Press
Book

Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century China

Published online:
22 March 2012
Published in print:
1 October 2005
Online ISBN:
9780520930667
Print ISBN:
9780520240339
Publisher:
University of California Press

Abstract

Looking beyond the familiar trappings of the cult of female chastity — such as hagiographies of widows and chastity shrines — in late imperial China, this book explores the cult's political significance and practical ramifications in everyday life during the eighteenth century. This book examines a vast number of laws, legal cases, regulations, and policies to illustrate the social and political processes through which female virtue was defined, enforced, and contested. Along the way, it provides rich details of social life and cultural practices among ordinary Chinese people through narratives of criminal cases of sexual assault, harassment, adultery, and domestic violence.

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