and challenge to traditional social hierarchy. The pluralism and mixing of ideas is confirmed, for instance, by the promotion of studies on the Xiaojing in the late Ming (Miaw-fen Lu, “Religious Dimensions of Filial Piety,” 1–37), as well as the veneration for widow’s chastity in the same period—one may think of Feng Menglong’s theory of chastity as “genuine love.” Martyrdom is an embodiment of resistance and self-assertion, but its meaning depends on circumstances and culture. In a society where liberty and equality were evaluated in different ways than in modern times, the case of the self-sacrifice in defence of a widow’s chastity is challenging. This martyrdom was no less self-asserting than the heroine’s refusal to marry against her will.

144. Guarde-Paz, “Moral Dilemmas in Chinese Philosophy,” 93–94.

145. Lienüzhuan 4.14/40/2–3, cited by Guarde-Paz, “Moral Dilemmas in Chinese Philosophy,” 91. See note 122.

146. Lü Kun, Guifantushu, 425–445.

147. Another interesting case is presented by Elvin in his study on the “Bell of Poesy,” Qing shiduo 清詩鐸. Feng Jing’s 馮景 poem “Cutting off both ears” 割雙耳詩 (20: 711) extols the miraculous power of a widow’s fidelity in eighteenth-century Fujian with a happy conclusion: both ears regenerated themselves. (Elvin, “Unseen Lives, 174–175).

148. See the frequent term “reputation, name, honor” (for instance wanming quanjie 完名全節, 9: 198). An explanation detailing inner motivations can be found in another renowned precedent recorded in the commentary of “The Springs and Autumns”: in the year 505 BC, the sovereign of Chu was forced to flee with his family after being attacked by bandits, and Zhong Jian carried the princess to safety on his shoulders. The following year, when the king wanted his daughter to take a husband, the girl refused every proposal and stated that the only man she was willing to marry was Zhong Jian because Zhong had carried her on his shoulders—a girl was not supposed to come into contact with men. In this instance, it seems likely that her choice of the man with whom she had had fleeting physical contact was dictated by a sense of social decency rather than the wish to fulfil a secret love for Zhong. (See the Comments of Zuozhuan, the fifth year of Duke Ding; Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. V, 759–761). In the antiquity, there were analogous cases of apparent self-sacrifice of women that are in fact the painful affirmations of their “social dignity.” Examples can be found in Lienüzhuan, such as the Wife of Zhuang of Li (Li Zhuang furen 黎莊夫人), who decided not to abandon her wifely duties and remained with