The traffic in concubines flourished in Ming-Qing Jiangnan as a result of large scale interactions of political and socioeconomic contexts. How women were situated within the system is central to this study, which revolves around two major arguments. First, the traffic in concubines as a means for disaster relief during difficult times was legitimized as a benevolent policy. Second, women were not necessarily the victims of the commercialized market in concubines. To study concubinage in general and individual concubines in the market system in Jiangnan, the following issues command attention: the political and socioeconomic conditions fostering concubinage, the market system of women, the roles of brokers, the value indicators and resultant prices, the transaction procedures for the sale of women with specific contents of contracts, the effects of the market system on the concubines'lives, and the regulations of law and the judicial practice in penal cases.
The law was recorded in Daminglü jijie fuli $G2063 (ed. by Yao Siren , Taibei: Xuesheng shuju, 1970), juan 6, pp. 9a-10a. Ming official Fan Yongluan, Surveillance Commissioner of Henan province, emphasized this law was also effective on gentry class (official, government staff, and elite) (Shizong shili , 1577 edition, Taibei, Academia Sinica: Institution of History, 1965, juan 152, p.1; juan 160, p.1); also see Lei Mengling (Jiajing period), Dulu suoyan (Taibei: Xuesheng shuju, 1986), juan 28, p. 343. Late Qing scholar Shen Jiaban in Shen Jiaban weike shujicuan (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1996, p. 348) pointed out that this law, included in the early Qing Code, was abolished by the Emperor Qianlong when the court revised the main Code in 1740.
2.
The growth of commercialization, the pervasive use of woodblock printing, the increasing elite and merchant class, the spread of women's education, and the vibrancy of women's culture continued without interruption from late sixteenth through eighteenth centuries (Jonathan Spence and John Wills, eds., From Ming to Ch'ing: Conquest, Region, and Continuity in Seventeenth Century China. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979).
3.
Patricia Ebrey , "Concubines in Sung China" ( Journal of Family History, 11(1986 ), pp. 1-24); and The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), chap.12; Kusano Yasushi, "Sodai doboku hisho mondai no ippan" (Tokyo: Seishin, 1974); Maria Jaschok, Concubines and Bondservants: The Social History of a Chines custom ( London: Zed Books, 1988); Rubie Watson, "Wife, Concubines, and Maids: Servitude and Kinship in the Hong Kong Region, 1900-1940" (in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society , eds. by Rubie Watson and Patricia Ebrey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
4.
Meng Ke (d. 281), Mengzi (Taibei: Xinxing shuju, 1979), "Lilou," pt. II, p. 5a. See Liji (in Shisanjing zhushu , 1812 edition, Taibei: Yiwen shuju), "Jiyi" (Significance of Worship) and "Jifa" ("Principles of Worship").
5.
Kun Gang ed., (Qinding) daqing huidian shili ( ) $G2063 (Guangxue dition, Taibei: Xinwenfeng chubanshe, 1976), juan 726, p. 2a; juan 732, pp.1a-5b. A special judicial precedent dated from the Yongle reign (1403-1424): Yue Jian was about to be excused for the crime of homicide. His parents pleaded for mercy before Bao Yu, the magistrate of Ziyang province: "We are both over seventy. Our only son is now in prison and will soon be executed. He just got married [before he broke the law], but did not have enough time to beget a son." Yue Jian was therefore allowed to have his wife move into the jail before he was executed (Zhou Mi , Zhongguo xingfashi . Beijing: Lianzhong chubanshe, 1985, p. 312).
6.
Shen Defu (1578-1642), Wanli yehuo bian buyi (Teibei: Weiwen chubanshe, 1976), juan 3, p. 897.
7.
Wang Qi (1565-1614), Baishi huibian (in Biji xiaoshuo daguan . Taibei: Xinxing shuchu, 1976, sect. 3, vol.4), juan 45, p. 14.
8.
Hengyang weishi wuxiu zupu , juan 1, p. 47 (cited from Liu Ts'u-jung , Mingqing shiqi jiazu renkou yu shehui jingji bianqian $G2359 (Taibei: Academia Sinica: Institution of Economy, 1992). Huo Tao (1487-1540), Huo Weiya jiaxun (in Hanfenlou miji , Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1967, vol. 1), juan 1, p. 4. Zhengshi jiaxun , juan 167 (in Congshu jicheng , Shanghai: Shangwu chubanshe, 1937); and Xu Sanchong jiaze by Xu Sanchong (in Minsu congshu , vol. 1, ed. by Lou Zikuang . Beijing: Beijing University, 1979).
9.
Liu Ts'ui-jung, Mingqing shiqi jiazu renkou yu shehui jingji bianqian, pp. 46-47, also see chap. 3.
10.
Steven Harrell , "The Rich Get Children: Segmentation, Stratification, and Population in Three Chekiang Lineage, 1550-1850" (in Family and Population in East Asian History, eds. by Hanley Susan and Arthur Wolf.Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), pp. 81-82, 108-9.
11.
Li Yu (1611-ca.79), "Xianqing ouji " (in Li Yu quanji , Taibei: Chengwen chubanshe, 1970, vol. 3), juan 3, p. 45b.
12.
Jiang Dunfu , "Suiyuan yishi " (in Yuan Mei (1716-1798), Yuan Mei quanji . Jiangsu: Guji chubanshe, 1993, vol. 8), p. 15.
13.
Xu Deshi$G3706 (Ming) "Jingxi Lusima xunzhonglu " (in Chenhu yishi , Jingtuo yishi . pp. 26-27 (collected in Mingqing shiliao huibian , ed. by Shen Yunlong $G4230$G5770, Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1967, sect. 3 vol. 5). 14. Ji Yun, (1724-1805), Yuewei caotang biji (Sichuan: Bashu shuju, 1995), pp. 253-54.
14.
Xu Ke (1869-1928), Qingbai leichao (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984), vol. 7, pp. 3494-95.
15.
In Ming and Qing Codes, liangmin referred to the good commoners without criminal history or above the "baseless class". Servants, slaves, entertainers, prostitutes, and government "runners" (messengers, jailers), as well as certain regionally defined groups such as beggars in Jiangsu and Anhui, and the "lazy people" in Zhejiang were denigrated as "baseless" people (Daminglu jijie fuli, juan 6, pp. 30a-32b, 33a-37a; Daqing lüli huitong xincuan $G2063 (ed. by Yao Yuxiang and Hu Yangshan , Tongzhi edition. Taibei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1987), juan 9, pp. 25a-26a, 36a-36b; Taiwan sifa renshibian, , pp. 139-45 (in Taiwan lishi wenxian congkan , ed. by Taiwan yinhang jingji yanjiushi . Taibei: Taiwansheng wenxian weiyuanhui, 1994). "Baseless" men and their immediate descendants for three generations were not allowed to take the civil service examinations for government office or to obtain office through purchase. The 1771 law further forbade intermarriage between "baseless" people and good commoners (Bodde and Morris, Law in Imperial China: Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1967, pp. 240-43).
16.
"Yanfenjuan ," the stories of entertaining women (in the collection of Qingdai biji xiaoshuo leibian , ed. by Chen Lin . Hefei: huangshan chubanshe, 1994), provides comprehensive Chinese sources of entertaining women in Ming-Qing period, while Writing Women in Late Imperial China (eds. by Ellen Widmer and Kang-I Sun Chang, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997) studies courtesan culture and the intellectual and romantic relationship between well-known courtesans and prominent literati.
17.
Liu Rushi , Liu Rushi ji (ed. by Zhou Shutian and Fan Jingzhong . Hangzhou: Zhongguo meishu xueyuan chubanshe, 2002), p. 184.
18.
Ibid., p. 128.
19.
Genealogies and other documents show that divorce, though easy in theory for the husband, was comparatively rare in Ming and Qing societies. Both law and custom protected a wife from being easily divorced. The divorce law required seven conditions with three limitations for a husband to divorce his wife, and the breaking of the marriage bond was rarely used to the full extent. Divorce was rejected even more stringently than it had been in previous periods as a result of Neo-Confucian required female virtue placing heavy social pressure on men not to divorce their wives. Divorce was considered highly scandalous, and it was immoral for a man to draw up a divorce document for someone else. This concept is illustrated by stories such as the one involving two elites who were traveling to the capital to take the metropolitan examination. On the way, one of them wrote a divorce document for an old couple. He was therefore punished by the lord of Hades. He failed the examination, and his misfortune even descended to his family and descents. Such stories from the Song period were often adopted in the Ming and Qing times to warn people not to get divorced or to help others get divorced (Hu Shi , Xingshi yinyuan zhuan . Taibei: Lianjing chubanshe, 1986, pp. 66-71).
20.
The major studies on Liu Rushi's life include Sun Kang-i Chang, The Late-Ming Poet Ch'en Tzu-lung: Crises of Love and Loyalism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991); Ellen Widmer, "The Epistolary World of Female Talent in the Seventeenth-Century China," Late Imperial China, 10.2(1989): 1-43; and Chen Yinque , Liu Rushi biezhuan (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1980).
21.
Pan Tze-yen, The Reminiscences of Tung Hsiao-wan (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguang, 1931), pp. 151-52.
22.
Well-to-do merchants and officials in Jiangnan competed to show their wealth as reported in the following sources: Qian Yongsheng (1759-1844), Conghua (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979), p. 17; Chen Kangqi, (Qing), Liangqian jiwen sibi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1990), pp. 113-14; Yu Anqing (late Qing). Shuichuang chunyi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984), pp. 39-40; also see Craig Clunas, Treatise on Superfluous Things (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), chaps. 2 and 6. The late Qing scholar-official Li Ciming (1828-1894, a native of Zhejiang) served in the central government between 1854 and 1894. His diary, Yuemantang riji (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1919) reveals the daily life of a metropolitan official during the reigns of Tongzhi (1862-1889) and Guangxu (1875-1904). To maintain his status and establish connections, Ciming rented a residence with more than twenty houses and a splendid garden (annual rent was 39 percent of his yearly income), maintained a household of at least ten servants, frequently engaged in social dinner parties, regularly visited theaters and operas, and was a generous patron of singers; moreover, he took concubines. Without an heir at age thirty-eight, he spent around 400 foreign yuan (1 foreign yuan was around 960 to1,000 wen, and 1 silver tael was around 1,280 to1,333 wen in 1865) to have a singer as concubine, and later took two more concubines. He could barely afford his expenses and even had to pawn his clothing for survival. According to Zhang Zhidong (1837-1909), metropolitan officials needed at least 1 gold tael per day to maintain a respectable life style (Zhang Zhidong , Zhang Wenxiang gong quanji . Teibei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1970, juan 7). In average, Ciming's annual income as chamberlain for attendant ranked 6a was around 600 silver taels (primary salary 175 silver taels plus 2,000 bushels rice, and additional compensations), and increased to around 700 silver taels during the reign of Guangxu (his primary salary was 397 silver taels). Whereas Qing metropolitan officials' incomes were in general higher than those of the Song dynasty, Ciming suffered from serious deficit due to his luxurious life style and high cost of living in Beijing (Zhang Dechang , Qingji yige jingguan de shenghuo . Hong Kong: Zhongwen daxue, 1970, pp. 51, 60-64). The official ranks and their incomes in Tang, Song, Ming and Qing governments are recorded in Huang Huixian and Chen Feng , eds., Zhongguo fenglu zhidushi (Wuhan: Wuhan daxue chubanshe, 1996).
23.
Xie Zhaozhi (1592-1607), Wuzazu $G2449 (in Biji xiaoshuo daguan, sect.8 vols. 6-7), juan 4, pp. 25b-26a.
24.
Ding Rouke (1840-?), Liuhu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2002), juan 6, pp. 367-68. See more information about Hu Xueyan's bankruptcy in Liu Tizhi $G6639 (1879-1963), Yicilu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1988), pp. 85-89.
25.
Gu Yanwu (1613-1682), Tianxia junguo libingshu (in Biji xiaoshuo daguan), juan 32, pp. 24a-24b.
26.
Gu Yanwu, Rizhilu (Taiwan: Zhonghua shuju, 1984), juan 10; Sheng Kang ed., Qing jingshi wenbian (Shanghai: Baoshanzhai, 1901), juan 37, 39; Fu Yiling , Ming Qing fengjian tudi suoyouzhi lungang (Shanghai: Renmin chubanshe, 1992), pp. 77-79, 103, note 78. Lloyd E. Eastman, Family, Fields, and Ancestors: Constancy and Change in China's Social and Economic History, 1550-1949 ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 75-78; Huang Ray , Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth-Century Ming China ( New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974), pp. 306-23.
27.
The major modern studies of tenant-servants in Jiangnan include Ye Xianan . Mingqing Huizhou nongcun shehui yu dianpuzhi $G2359 (Anhui: Renmin chubanshe, 1983); Fu Yiling, Ming Qing fengjian tudi souyouzhi lungang, pp. 74-85. Jame Watson, "Transaction in People: The Chinese Market in Slaves, Servants, and Heirs" (in Asian and African Systems of Slavery, ed. by James Watson, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
28.
The data are based on the resources in Fu Yiling, Ming Qing fengjian tudi suoyouzhi lungang, chap. 5.
29.
The poor suffering from heavy taxes and corruption in Jiangnan was often reported in Ming and Qing sources. Hai Rui (1514-1587), the magistrate in Jiangnan from the Jiajing into the Wanli (r. 1573-1620) reigns, investigated people's complaints in Jiangnan. He pointed out that people were required to pay extra taxes (Hai Rui, Hairuiji , Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981, pp. 75, 154, 165). Other sources include Shizong shilu, juan 176; (1420-1474), Shuidong riji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), pp. 37-38; and Chen Qiyuan (1811-1881), Yongxianzhai biji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989), pp. 141-48. Modern scholars' studies include the Ming system of tax collectors by Liang Fangzhong , Zhongguo lidai tiandi tianfu tongji $G917 $G917 (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1980); and Huang Ray, Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth-Century Ming China, pp. 98-100. Also see Li Wenhai and Xia Mingfang , eds. Zhongguo Huangzheng quanshu (Beijing: Guji chubanshe, 2002).
30.
Eastman, Family, Fields, and Ancestors, p. 4
31.
Shi Chengjin , Qiewenzhai wenchao , juan 11 (in Siku quanshu zhenban , Taibei: Shangwu chubanshe, 1974-82). See the discussion of Jiangnan economic disaster and human traffic in Wei Qingyuan , Wu Qiyan , and Lu Su , Qingdai nubi zhidu (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue, 1984), pp. 34-35.
32.
Shi Chengjin, Qiewenzhai wenchao, juan 20.
33.
Xu Ke, Qingbai leichao, vol. 5, p. 2496.
34.
Ouyang Yu (Qing), Jianwen suolu (selected in Qingdai biji xiaosuo liebian, "Shixiangjuan ," pp. 521-22.
35.
Xu Ke, Qingbai leichao, vol.11, p. 5289.
36.
Shouma, a term in the poem by the Tang poet Bai Juyi, was used to name the young prostitutes trained with special skills. By the Ming times, this term was reserved for the highly priced girls for sale in the Jiangnan market (Xie Zhaozhi, Wuzazu, juan 8, p. 7a). The houses of "thin horses" are discussed in Wu Chichang (Qing), Kechuan xianhua (Hebei:Renmin chubanshe, 1985), pp. 310-12. An early Qing writer, Li Yu, in his writing on leisure pleasure, "Xianqing ouji" (juan 3, pp. 46a-46b; juan 6, p. 7a), explained in great detail his program for training women, which can be taken as an ideal representation of the education for Jiangnan women commodities. Another Qing scholar Jin Zhi (1663-1740), a native of Yangzhou, also described the education of women entertainers, including playing chess and music instrument, composing poetry, and painting (Jin Zhi , Buxia daibian . Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1982, juan 5, p. 92).
37.
Wu Chichang, Kechuan xianhua, pp. 310-12.
38.
Zheng Xie (1693-1765), Zheng Banqiao zhi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), p. 35. Shen Defu, Wanli yehuobian, juan 23, pp. 597-98. Also see Xie Zhaozhi, Wuzazu, juan 8, p. 7a.
39.
Wu Chichang, Kechuan xianhua, pp. 88-90. Also see the information regarding "black and white ants" in Ouyang Yu's "Hebaiyi " in his Jianwen suolu, pp. 521-22; and Gong Wei (1704-), Chaolin bitan (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), p. 96.
40.
Zhang Dai (1597-1679), Taoan mengyi (Taibei: Hanjing wenhua shiye youxian gongsi, 1984), juan 5, pp. 12b-14b. This source was completely translated by Hsieh Bao Hua in "The Acquisition of Concubines," Research on Women in Modern Chinese History (Taibei: Institution of Modern History, Academia Sinica 1 (1993): 125-200), pp. 147-50. The selected citation here was revised.
41.
Official Zhao Juntai (mid-Qing) was looking for a concubine in Suzhou. He hesitated to make an offer to Ms. Li because of her unbound big feet, even though he was impressed by her pleasant appearance. The broker asserted that Ms. Li was educated and a talented poetry composer. To tease her, Zhao asked Ms. Li to compose a poem about bound feet. With anger she wrote, "There was no three inches shoes in the ancient time; Goddess Guanyin has naked natural feet. Who made the custom of binding feet? The unrespectable men initiated it." Zhao was embarrassed and did not make an offer (Yuan Mei quanji, vol. 3, p. 111).
42.
The price of concubines in Zhejiang and Jiangsu was reported by Ouyang Yu in his "Hebaiyi" in Jianwen suolu (pp. 521-22). The cost of living in Ming period is discussed in Mingshi guanjian by Huang Miantang (Shangdong: Qilu chubanshe, 1985, pp. 346-72). See the price of rice and land from Kangxi to Qianlong in Qian Yongsheng, Conghua (pp. 27-28); the price of rice from Tongzhi to Guangxu in Lu Ciming's Yuemantang rhiji is discussed by Zhang Dechang's Qingji yige jingguan de shenghuo. Both Qian Yongsheng and Lu Ciming were natives of Jiangnan. According to Robert B. Marks's study, "Rice Prices, Food Supply, and Market Structure in Eighteenth-Century South China" (Late Imperial China 12, no.2 (1991): 64-116), the price of rice in Lingnan (Guangtong and Guangxi) area was relatively lower than that in Jiangnan.
43.
Gong Wei, Chaolin bitan, juan 4, p. 96.
44.
Daminglü jijie fuli, juan 6, pp. 3a-4b; and Daqing lüli huitong xincuan, juan 9, pp. 1b-2a. See cases in Dupian xinshu by unknown Ming author (in Mingqing shanban xiaoshuo congkan , ed. by National Zhengzhi University. Taibei: Tianyi chubanshe, 1985), pp. 10-15.
45.
Tang Zheng (1631-1705), Qianshu, "Cunyan" (Xingjiang: Qingshaonian chubanshe, 1995); and Li Qing , Zheyu xinyu (in Xuxiu siku quanshu , $G917 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1995), juan 1, pp. 25a-25b.
46.
Giving a woman confiscated from a criminal's family to an official as merit awards was practiced during the dynastic history. In the Ming and Qing law of "join responsibility" (lianzuo), if a man committed a primary crime of treason, rebellion, or certain offenses labeled perverse, his wife, concubines, sisters, and daughters would be confiscated by the government and then granted to meritorious military officials (Daminglü jijie fuli, juan 1, pp. 4b, 90a-90b; Daqing luli huitong zincuan, juan 22, pp. 1a-3b). In the reign of Ming Emperor Shenzong, on hearing that the rebel Yang Yinglong's daughter-in-law, well known for her beauty, was confiscated, several officials and imperial relatives competed to acquire her as a concubine. The official in charge of this affair let all the candidates draw lots since he could risk offending anyone who asked for his favor (Shen Defu, Wanli yehuobian, juan 18, p. 462).
Chen Qi and Ying Jie , eds., (Qinding) Hubu zeli ( ) $G2063 (Hong Kong: Fuchi shuyuan, 2004), juan 4. See cases in Xuzeng xingan huilan (eds. by Bao Shuyun and Zhu Qingqi , 1886 edition. Taibei: Chengwen chubanshe, 1968), juan 3, pp. 8b-9a; and the discussion in Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China, pp. 169-70.
51.
Chen Hang (1785-1826) in his poetry collection, Jianxuezhai shicun (Hubei: Jiaoyu chubanshe, 2002, p. 19), described the tears and cries the parents and sold children shared when they were separated by the buyers during natural calamities in Henan province. The parents begged the buyers to feed the hungry children. The general circulars is recorded in Xingan huilan (ed. by Bao Shuyuan and Zhu Qingqi), juan 20, p. 7a.
52.
Yang Yifan and Tian Tao , eds. Zhongguo zhenxi falu dianji xubian , Tangmingqing sanlu huibian (Heilongjiang: Renmin chubanshe, 2002), vol. 8, pp. 337-38.
53.
(Qinding) Daqing huidian shili, juan 156.
54.
Official matchmakers were women with an official post as early as in the Western Zhou dynasty (1050-771 BCE). They were recruited on the basis of recommendations from officials in their local communities, and they were required to learn the laws related to their assignments. They transferred female criminals, issued childbirth certificates, regulated the marriage system, and enforced appropriate punishments for offenders who violated prohibitions against assigning identical surnames or marrying during parents' mourning or imprisonment. They also served as respectable marriage brokers for upper-class families, and were ranked according to the social status of their clients (Yi Ruolan , Sangu liupuo-Mingdai funü yu shehui de tansuo -- $G2359 . Taibei: Daoxiang chubanshe, 2002, pp. 70-81). The official post of a Ming and Qing official matchmaker and her authority over the marriage system was much limited; she was paid by the local government to guard and transfer female criminals before they were executed and to sell the criminal women or the women confiscated from the criminal families.
55.
Yang Yifan and Tian Tao eds., Zhongguo zhenxi falu dianji xubian, vol. 8, p. 475.
Xu Jinlong $G5770 (Ming), ed., (Xinke yejia xincai) wanbao quanshu ( ) (1586 edition, Taibei: Academia Sinica: Institution of History), juan 12, p. 4.
58.
Taiwan sifa renshibian, p. 406.
59.
The punishment for selling a woman to be a wife, concubine, or daughter for profit was one degree less severe than that for selling her to be servant or prostitute. Nevertheless, it was legally acceptable for the husband or the parents-in-law to sell his adulterous wife or concubines; or a wife, acting on her husband's behalf, to sell an adulterous concubine (Daminglü jijie fuli, juan 6, pp. 6b-8b; juan 18, pp. 53b-61b; Daqing lüli huitong xincuan, juan 7, pp. 28a-30b; juan. 9, pp. 8a-9b). Also ee Li Hanzhang , ed., Daqing lüli huiji bianlan $G2063 (Taibei: Chengwen chubanshe, 1975), juan 26.
60.
The Ming and early Qing punished the deceased husband's relatives who forced his concubine to remarry, if she committed suicide: ninety blows for the wife as second degree relative, eighty blows for the parents-in-law or grandparents-in-law; and the penalty for the concubine's nonmourning relatives was more sever. Yet such violations not often became judicial cases until the victim went to authorities or committed suicide (see examples in Xingan huilan, juan 9, p.16a; Xuzeng xingan huilan, juan 3, pp. 16a-17a, 8b). In 1831 in Anhui: after the husband departed, the family's property was divided between the widowed wife and the concubine and their sons. The unhappy wife sold the concubine by force in order to have the latter's share of property. The concubine transferred to the buyer accused the wife. The penalty for the crime of "selling a second degree junior relative by force" was one hundred blows plus life exile three thousand miles and was one degree lighter if the victim did not loose her chastity because the remarriage ceremony was incomplete (Xuzeng xingan huilan, juan 3, p. 16b-17b). The detailed contents of the laws are translated by Matthew H. Sommer in his article "The Uses of Chastity: Sex, Law, and the Property of Widows in Qing China" (Late Imperial China, 1996, vol. 17, no.2, pp. 77-130), pp. 119-22. 62. Daqing lüli huiji bianlan, juan 10; Hu Xingqiao and Zheng Youtian , eds., Tuli cunyi dianzhu $G2063 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin gongan daxue chubanshe, 1994), pp. 217-21.
61.
Hubu zeli, juan 3 and 26.
62.
Song Xiangrui , ed., Daqinglu jizhü (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1993), juan 4, pp.17b-19a; Hubu zeli, juan 1.
63.
Lei Luqing , Zhongguo fazhishi (Taiwan: Shangwu yishuguan, 1972), pp. 524, 613; Daqing huidian (ed. by Kun Gang, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991), juan 53; Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China, pp. 63, 173-83, chap. 5; Su Yigong , Mingqing lüdian yu tiaoli $G2063 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2000), pp. 197-243; Zhang Jingfan , Qingdai minfa zonglun (Beijing: Zhengfa daxue chubanshe, 1998), pp. 266-70.
64.
The prohibition on taking a wife or concubine during the mourning periods for either parents, grandparents, or any terms of imprisonment for these relatives was rigorously enforced in concubinage: sixty blows for taking a concubine while either grandparents or parents were in prison, eighty blows for the same crime committed during the mourning terms for either of them, and eighty blows for selling a wife or daughter off as another man's concubine during a mourning term (Daqing lüli huiji bianlan, juan 10; Daqinglü jizhu, juan 6, pp. 7b-9a; Lei Mengling, Tulu suoyan, juan 28). A Case from Shandong in 1829: a widowed wife's remarriage during the mourning period for her departed husband attracted a group of brigands to abduct her for sale. They risked a lighter penalty for offending a stained woman if they got caught. The local authority was pleased by widow's self-sacrificing filial piety, approving her in-law arranged remarriage to relieve family poverty. The offenders were sentenced for abducing a "good" woman to sell. The verdict was supported by the Board of Punishments (xingan huilan, juan 39, p. 10a).
65.
Xuzeng xingan huilan, juan 3, p. 15a.
66.
Xingan huilan, juan 8, pp. 6a-6b.
67.
Xingan huilan, juan 20, pp.12b-13a.
68.
Janet M.Theiss's Disgraceful Matters: Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), which is based on the reviews of several rape cases involving sexual assault or harassment, points out that women themselves insisted that suicide was necessary to demonstrate their unstained virtue and to claim their dignity. Women suicide to protect public morality is also discussed by Vivien W. Ng , "Ideology and Sexuality: Rape Laws in Qing China " (Journal of Asian Studies46, no. 1 (1987): 57-70).
69.
Daminglu jijie fulu, juan 22, pp. 1a, 3a, 6b; Daqing lüli huitong xincuan, juan 28, pp. 2a-2b. Children brought an accusation of the wrongdoing of their parents or grandparents, or a wife or concubine accusing her grand parents-in-law or parents-in-law, would be punished, Such an accusation, if false, the offender was punished by strangulation; even if true, it brought one hundred blows of heavy bamboo plus three years' servitude, while those being accused would be spared without punishment unless they committed murder or rebellion. However, the wife severely beaten by the husband was permitted to accuse him (Xutongdian , Qianlong edition, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1935, juan 108).
