Volume 301 Biographies 189: Exemplary Women 1

婦人之行，不出於閨門，故《詩》載《關雎》、《葛覃》、《桃夭》、《芣苜》，皆處常履順，貞靜和平，而內行之修，王化之行，具可考見。其變者，《行露》、《柏舟》，一二見而已。劉向傳列女，取行事可為鑒戒，不存一操。範氏宗之，亦采才行高秀者，非獨貴節烈也。魏、隋而降，史家乃多取患難顛沛、殺身殉義之事。蓋挽近之情，忽庸行而尚奇激，國制所褒，誌乘所錄，與夫裏巷所稱道，流俗所震駭，胥以至奇至苦為難能。而文人墨客往往借俶儻非常之行，以發其偉麗激越跌宕可喜之思，故其傳尤遠，而其事尤著。然至性所存，倫常所系，正氣之不至於淪澌，而斯人之所以異於禽獸，載筆者宜莫之敢忽也。

A woman's conduct was not meant to extend beyond the domestic sphere. The Book of Songs therefore celebrates such poems as "Guan Ju," "Ge Tan," "Tao Yao," and "Fu Yi," all of which show women living in their everyday roles with propriety, chastity, quiet grace, and harmony — through which one can trace both the cultivation of private virtue and the workings of royal moral transformation. Departures from this norm — such as "Xing Lu" and "Bo Zhou" — appear only once or twice. In his Biographies of Exemplary Women, Liu Xiang chose stories that could serve as examples and warnings, rather than holding up one fixed model of conduct. Fan Ye adopted the same approach, also gathering accounts of women distinguished by talent and character — not valuing chastity and heroic sacrifice alone. From the Wei and Sui dynasties onward, historians tended to record chiefly stories of women who endured hardship and destitution, or who gave their lives in sacrifice for duty. In recent times, ordinary virtue had come to seem unremarkable while the sensational and extreme were admired. What the state honored, what gazetteers recorded, what neighbors praised in the streets, and what common people found shocking — all treated the most extraordinary and agonizing deeds as the highest achievements. Scholars and writers often seized on these unconventionally heroic acts to give voice to grand, impassioned, and emotionally stirring ideas — which is why such stories spread especially widely and these deeds became especially famous. Yet the deepest human feeling, the bonds of moral obligation, the righteous spirit that keeps society from decay, and what distinguishes humanity from beasts — none of these should be lightly dismissed by any historian who takes up the brush.

明興，著為規條，巡方督學歲上其事。大者賜祠祀，次亦樹坊表，烏頭綽楔，照耀井閭，乃至僻壤下戶之女，亦能以貞白自砥。其著於實錄及郡邑誌者，不下萬余人，雖間有以文藝顯，要之節烈為多。嗚呼！何其盛也。豈非聲教所被，廉恥之分明，故名節重而蹈義勇歟！今掇其尤者，或以年次，或以類從，具著於篇，視前史殆將倍之。然而姓名湮滅者，尚不可勝計，存其什一，亦足以示勸雲。

When the Ming dynasty was founded, regulations were drawn up requiring regional education commissioners to report such cases to the throne each year. In the most notable cases, the state granted temples and sacrifices; in lesser ones, memorial arches were raised with painted pillars and inscribed plaques that lit up entire neighborhoods — so that even women from poor families in out-of-the-way places could uphold chastity and integrity as their standard. More than ten thousand such women were recorded in the Veritable Records and local gazetteers. Although a few became known for literary achievement, chastity and heroic sacrifice were by far the most common themes. Alas! How abundant this was. Was this not because moral teaching had reached every corner of the realm, shame and honor were clearly defined, and women therefore held reputation and integrity dear and met duty with courage! Here I have selected the most notable cases, arranged partly by chronology and partly by category, and set them out fully in this chapter — nearly twice as many as appear in earlier histories. Yet countless others have vanished into oblivion; to preserve even a tenth of them should be encouragement enough.

○月娥劉孝婦〈（甄氏）〉諸娥丁氏〈（石氏）〉楊氏〈（張氏等）〉貞女韓氏〈（黃善聰）〉姚孝女〈（蔡孝女招遠孝女）〉盧佳娘〈（施氏）〉吳氏〈（畢氏）〉石孝女湯慧信義婢妙聰徐孝女高氏孫義婦梁氏馬氏義姑萬氏〈（陳氏）〉郭氏〈（幼谿女）〉程氏王妙鳳〈（唐貴梅張氏）〉楊泰奴〈（張氏）〉陳氏〈（秀水張氏歐陽金貞）〉莊氏〈（唐氏）〉王氏〈（易氏）〉鐘氏四節婦宣氏〈（孫氏）〉徐氏義妾張氏龔烈婦〈（江氏）〉範氏二女〈（丁美音）〉成氏〈（興安二女子）〉章銀兒〈（茅氏）〉招囊猛淩氏〈（杜氏）〉義婦楊氏史氏〈（林端娘）〉汪烈婦竇妙善石門丐婦賈氏胡氏陳宗球妻史氏葉氏胡貴貞孫氏江氏〈（嚴氏）〉

○ Yue'e; Liu the Filial Wife (Lady Zhen)〉 The E Sisters; Lady Ding (Lady Shi)〉 Lady Yang (Lady Zhang and others)〉 The Chaste Woman Lady Han (Huang Shancong)〉 Yao the Filial Daughter (Cai the Filial Daughter; Zhaoyuan the Filial Daughter)〉 Lu Jianiang (Lady Shi)〉 Lady Wu (Lady Bi)〉 Shi the Filial Daughter; Tang Huixin; the Righteous Maid Miaocong; Xu the Filial Daughter; Lady Gao; Sun the Righteous Wife; Lady Liang; Lady Ma; the Righteous Aunt Lady Wan (Lady Chen)〉 Lady Guo (The Youxi Girl)〉 Lady Cheng; Wang Miaofeng (Tang Guimei; Lady Zhang)〉 Yang Tainu (Lady Zhang)〉 Lady Chen (Lady Zhang of Xiushui; Ouyang Jinzhen)〉 Lady Zhuang (Lady Tang)〉 Lady Wang (Lady Yi)〉 Lady Zhong; the Four Chaste Wives; Lady Xuan (Lady Sun)〉 Lady Xu; the Righteous Concubine Lady Zhang; Gong the Martyred Wife (Lady Jiang)〉 The Two Daughters of the Fan Family (Ding Meiyin)〉 Lady Cheng (The Two Girls of Xing'an)〉 Zhang Yin'er (Lady Mao)〉 Zhao Nangmeng; Lady Ling (Lady Du)〉 Yang the Righteous Wife; Lady Shi (Lin Duanniang)〉 Wang the Martyred Wife; Dou Miaoshan; the Shimen Beggar Woman; Lady Jia; Lady Hu; Chen Zongqiu's Wife Lady Shi; Lady Ye; Hu Guizhen; Lady Sun; Lady Jiang (Lady Yan)〉

月娥，西域人，元武昌尹職馬祿丁女也。少聰慧，聽諸兄誦說經史，輒通大義。長適蕪湖葛通甫，事上撫下，一秉禮法。長姒盧率諸婦女，悉受其教。太祖渡江之六年，偽漢兵自上遊而下，盧曰：「太平有城郭，且嚴兵守，可恃。」使月娥挾諸婦女往避之。未幾，寇至，城陷，月娥嘆曰：「吾生詩禮家，可失節於賊邪！」抱幼女赴水死。諸婦女相從投水者九人，方盛暑，屍七日不浮，顏色如生。鄉人為巨穴合葬之故居之南，題曰十女墓。娥弟丁鶴年，幼通經史，皆娥口授也。後通甫與盧皆死於寇。

Yue'e came from the Western Regions. She was the daughter of Zhima Luding, who had served as prefect of Wuchang under the Yuan dynasty. From childhood she was bright and quick-witted. Whenever she heard her elder brothers reciting the classics and histories, she immediately understood their meaning. When she came of age she married Ge Tongfu of Wuhu. In her dealings with superiors and inferiors alike, she adhered strictly to propriety. Her elder sister-in-law Lu led the other women of the household, and all of them looked to Yue'e for guidance. In the sixth year after the Founding Emperor crossed the Yangtze, the armies of the false Han advanced from upstream. Lu said, "Taiping has walls and a strong garrison — we can take refuge there." She sent Yue'e to escort the women there for safety. Before long the enemy arrived and the city fell. Yue'e sighed and said, "I was born into a family steeped in the classics — how could I surrender my honor to bandits!" She took her infant daughter in her arms and drowned herself in the river. Nine other women followed her into the water. Though it was the height of summer, their bodies did not rise to the surface for seven days, and their faces looked as lifelike as before. The villagers dug a large communal grave south of their former home and buried them together, marking the site as the Tomb of the Ten Women. Yue'e's younger brother Ding Henian mastered the classics and histories as a boy — all through lessons Yue'e taught him by word of mouth. Later both Tongfu and Lu were killed by the bandits.

劉孝婦，新樂韓太初妻。太初，元時為知印。洪武初，例徙和州，挈家行。劉事姑謹，姑道病，刺血和藥以進。抵和州，夫卒，劉種蔬給姑食。越二年，姑患風疾不能起，晝夜奉湯藥，驅蚊蠅不離側。姑體腐，蛆生席間，為嚙蛆，蛆不復生。及姑疾篤，刲肉食之，少蘇，逾月而卒，殯之舍側。欲還葬舅冢，力不能舉喪，哀號五載。太祖聞之，遣中使賜衣一襲、鈔二十錠，命有司還其喪，旌門閭，復徭役。同時甄氏，欒城李大妻，事姑孝。姑壽九十一卒，甄廬墓三年，旦暮悲號，亦被旌。

Liu the Filial Wife was the wife of Han Taichu of Xinle. Taichu had served as a seal-keeper under the Yuan dynasty. At the start of the Hongwu reign, they were relocated to Hezhou by official decree, and the whole family set out together. Liu served her mother-in-law devotedly. When the old lady fell ill on the journey, Liu drew her own blood and mixed it with medicine for her to take. When they reached Hezhou, her husband died. Liu planted vegetables to provide food for her mother-in-law. Two years later, her mother-in-law was stricken with paralysis and could no longer get up. Day and night Liu tended her with broth and medicine, shooing away mosquitoes and flies and never leaving her side. Her mother-in-law's body was rotting and maggots bred in the bedding. Liu would bite them away, and they stopped appearing. When her mother-in-law's illness turned critical, Liu cut flesh from her own body for the old lady to eat. The mother-in-law rallied briefly, but died a month later and was buried beside the house. She wished to return her remains for burial at her father-in-law's tomb, but lacked the means to conduct the funeral and wailed in grief for five years. The Taizu heard of it and sent a palace envoy with one suit of clothing and twenty ingots of paper money, ordering the authorities to return the remains for proper burial, honoring her household with an official commendation, and exempting her from corvée labor. At the same time there was Lady Zhen, wife of Li Da of Luancheng, who served her mother-in-law with filial devotion. Her mother-in-law lived to ninety-one and died. Zhen kept vigil at the tomb for three years, weeping morning and evening, and she too received an official commendation.

孝女諸娥，山陰人。父士吉，洪武初為糧長。有黠而逋賦者，誣士吉於官，論死，二子炳、煥亦罹罪。娥方八歲，晝夜號哭，與舅陶山長走京師訴冤。時有令，冤者非臥釘板，勿與勘問。娥輾轉其上，幾斃，事乃聞，勘之，僅戍一兄而止。娥重傷卒，裏人哀之，肖像配曹娥廟。

Zhu E the Filial Daughter was a native of Shanyin. Her father Shi Ji served as grain head in the early Hongwu period. A cunning tax evader falsely accused Shi Ji to the authorities. Shi Ji was sentenced to death, and his two sons Bing and Huan were also punished. E was only eight years old. Day and night she wailed and wept, and with her maternal uncle Tao the district elder she traveled to the capital to plead their injustice. At the time there was a regulation that those claiming wrongful conviction would not be granted an inquiry unless they lay upon a bed of nails. E rolled upon it until she nearly died. Only then was the matter heard. Upon investigation, only one brother was sentenced to frontier service. E died of her grievous wounds. The townspeople mourned her and placed her portrait in the shrine to Lady Cao E.

唐方妻，浙新昌丁氏女，名錦孥。洪武中，方為山東僉事，坐法死，妻子當沒為官婢。有司按籍取之，監護者見丁色美，借梳掠發，丁以梳擲地，其人取掠之，持還丁。丁罵不受，謂家人曰：「此輩無禮，必辱我，非死無以全節。」肩輿過陰澤，崖峭水深，躍出赴水，衣厚不能沈，從容以手斂裙，隨流而沒，年二十八，時稱其處為夫人潭。

The wife of Tang Fang was a daughter of the Ding clan of Xinchang in Zhejiang, named Jinnu. During the Hongwu era, Fang served as administration commissioner of Shandong. Convicted under the law, he was put to death, and his wife and children were to be confiscated as government bondwomen. The authorities took them according to the registry. A guard saw that Ding was beautiful and borrowed a comb to arrange her hair. Ding threw the comb to the ground. The man picked it up, combed her hair again, and handed the comb back to her. Ding cursed him and refused, saying to her family, "These men are without propriety and will surely dishonor me. Only death can preserve my chastity." While being carried in a sedan chair past Yin Marsh, where the cliffs were steep and the water deep, she leaped out and threw herself into the water. Her clothes were thick and she could not sink; calmly she gathered her skirt with her hands and drifted with the current until she drowned. She was twenty-eight, and the place came to be known as Lady's Pool.

鄭煁妻石氏。煁，浦江鄭泳孫也。洪武初，李文忠薦諸朝，屢遷藏庫提點，坐法死。石當遣配，泣曰：「我義門婦也，可辱身以辱門乎！」不食死。

The wife of Zheng Chen was of the Shi clan. Chen was the grandson of Zheng Yong of Pujiang. In the early Hongwu period, Li Wenzhong recommended him to the court. After repeated promotions he became director of the treasury depot, but was convicted under the law and put to death. Shi was to be sent away for reassignment. Weeping, she said, "I am a wife of the House of Righteousness — how could I dishonor myself and thereby dishonor the clan!" She starved herself to death.

楊氏，慈谿人，字同邑鄭子來。洪武中，子來父仲徽戍雲南。明制，子成丁者隨遣，子來亦在戍中。楊年甫十六，聞子來母老弟幼，請於父母，適鄭養姑，以待子來之返。子來竟卒戍所，楊與姑撫諸叔成立，以夫從子孔武為嗣，苦節五十余年。其後，鄭煥妻張氏，嫁未旬日；泰然妻嚴氏生子一蘭，方孩抱；栻妻王氏事夫癇病，狂不省人事，服勤八年弗怠；三人皆楊氏夫族，先後早寡，皆以節聞。萬歷中，知府鄒希賢題曰鄭氏節門，以比浦江鄭氏義門雲。

Yang was a native of Cixi and was betrothed to Zheng Zilai of the same district. During the Hongwu era, Zilai's father Zhonghui was garrisoned in Yunnan. Under Ming regulations, sons who reached adulthood were sent along with their fathers, and Zilai was also among the garrison. Yang was only sixteen. Learning that Zilai's mother was elderly and his younger brothers still children, she asked her parents' permission to marry into the Zheng family and care for her mother-in-law while awaiting Zilai's return. Zilai ultimately died at the garrison. Yang and her mother-in-law raised the younger brothers-in-law to maturity, taking Kongwu, her husband's younger cousin, as heir. She maintained her chaste widowhood for more than fifty years. Thereafter there was Lady Zhang, wife of Zheng Huan, who had been married less than ten days; Lady Yan, wife of Tairan, who gave birth to a son named Yilan while he was still an infant in arms; Lady Wang, wife of Shi, who nursed her husband through epilepsy so severe that he was delirious and insensible, serving him diligently for eight years without slackening; All three belonged to Yang's husband's clan, were widowed early one after another, and were all known for their chastity. During the Wanli reign, prefect Zou Xixian inscribed the phrase "Gateway of Chastity of the Zheng Clan" to compare them with the House of Righteousness of the Zheng clan of Pujiang.

貞女韓氏，保寧人。元末明玉珍據蜀，貞女慮見掠，偽為男子服，混跡民間。既而被驅入伍，轉戰七年，人莫知其處女也。後從玉珍破雲南還，遇其叔父贖歸成都，始改裝而行，同時從軍者莫不驚異。洪武四年嫁為尹氏婦。成都人以韓貞女稱。其後有黃善聰者，南京人。年十三失母，父販香廬、鳳間，令善聰為男子裝從遊數年。父死，善聰習其業，變姓名曰張勝。有李英者，亦販香，與為伴侶者逾年，不知其為女也。後偕返南京省其姊。姊初不之識，詰知其故，怒詈曰：「男女亂群，辱我甚矣。」拒不納。善聰以死自誓。乃呼鄰嫗察之，果處子也。相持痛哭，立為改裝。明日，英來，知為女，怏怏如失，歸告母求婚。善聰不從，曰：「若歸英，如瓜李何？」鄰裏交勸，執益堅。有司聞之，助以聘，判為夫婦。

The chaste maiden Han was a native of Baoning. At the end of the Yuan, Ming Yuzhen held Sichuan. Fearing she would be seized, the chaste maiden disguised herself in men's clothing and mingled among the common people. Before long she was conscripted into the army and fought for seven years, and no one knew she was a maiden. Later, returning with Ming Yuzhen after the conquest of Yunnan, she met her uncle, who ransomed her back to Chengdu. Only then did she change back to women's dress, and her fellow soldiers were all astonished. In Hongwu 4 (1371) she married and became a daughter-in-law of the Yin clan. The people of Chengdu called her Han the Chaste Maiden. Thereafter there was Huang Shancong, a native of Nanjing. At thirteen she lost her mother. Her father sold incense between Lushan and Fengyang and had Shancong travel in men's dress with him for several years. When her father died, Shancong mastered the trade and changed her name to Zhang Sheng. There was a Li Ying who also sold incense. He was her companion for more than a year without knowing she was a woman. Later they returned together to Nanjing to visit her elder sister. Her sister at first did not recognize her. Questioning her and learning the reason, she reviled her in anger, "Mixing men and women in the same company — you have shamed me deeply." She refused to take her in. Shancong vowed she would die before yielding. Her sister then summoned a neighbor woman to examine her, and she proved indeed to be a virgin. They embraced and wept together, and immediately restored her to women's dress. The next day Ying came. Learning she was a woman, he was downcast as if bereft and returned home to tell his mother and ask for her hand in marriage. Shancong refused, saying, "If I marry Ying, what of the melon-and-plum reproach?" Neighbors and townsfolk all urged her, but she grew only more resolute. The local authorities heard of it, assisted with the betrothal gifts, and officially united them as husband and wife.

姚孝女，余姚人，適吳氏。母出汲，虎銜之去，女追掣虎尾，虎欲前，女掣益力，尾遂脫，虎負痛躍去。負母還，藥之獲愈，奉其母二十年。後成化間，武康有蔡孝女，隨母入山采藥。虎攫其母，女折樹枝格鬥三百余步。虎舍其母，傷女，血歕丈許，竹葉為赤，女亦獲全。後招遠有孝女，不知其姓。父采石南山，為蟒所吞。女哭之，願見父屍同死。俄頃大雷電擊蟒墮女前，腹裂見父屍。女負土掩埋，觸石而死。

Yao the Filial Daughter was a native of Yuyao and married into the Wu clan. When her mother went out to draw water, a tiger seized her and carried her off. The daughter pursued and grasped the tiger's tail. As the tiger tried to advance, she pulled harder until the tail came off, and the tiger, writhing in pain, leaped away. She carried her mother back, treated her with medicine until she recovered, and supported her mother for twenty years. Later, during the Chenghua reign, in Wukang there was Cai the Filial Daughter, who accompanied her mother into the mountains to gather herbs. A tiger seized her mother, and the daughter fought it with a broken tree branch for more than three hundred paces. The tiger released her mother but wounded the daughter. Blood spurted more than a zhang, turning the bamboo leaves red, yet the daughter also escaped unharmed. Later in Zhaoyuan there was a filial daughter whose surname is unknown. Her father was quarrying stone on South Mountain when he was swallowed by a python. The daughter wept and wished to see her father's corpse and die with him. In a moment great thunder and lightning struck the python, which fell before the daughter. Its belly split open, revealing her father's corpse. The daughter carried earth to bury him and, striking a stone, died.

盧佳娘，福清李廣妻。婚甫十月，廣暴卒，盧慟絕復蘇，見廣口鼻出惡血，悉餂食之。既殮，哭輒僵仆，積五六日，家人防懈，潛入寢室自經。後其縣有遊政妻倪氏殉夫，亦然。又有施氏，滁州彭禾妻。正德元年，禾得疾不起，握手訣曰：「疾憊甚，知必死。汝無子，擇婿而嫁，毋守死，徒自苦也。」施泣曰：「君尚不知妾乎！願先君死。」禾固止之，因取禾所嘔血盡吞之，以見誌。及禾歿，即自經。

Lu Jianiang was the wife of Li Guang of Fuqing. They had been married barely ten months when Guang died suddenly. Lu swooned and revived. Seeing foul blood issue from Guang's nose and mouth, she licked it all up. After the encoffining, whenever she wept she would stiffen and collapse. After five or six days, when the family's vigil slackened, she stole into the bedchamber and hanged herself. Later in the same county, Ni, wife of You Zheng, followed her husband in death — the same story. There was also Lady Shi, wife of Peng He of Chuzhou. In the first year of Zhengde, He fell gravely ill and could not rise. Taking her hand in farewell he said, "My illness is grievous; I know I must die. You have no son — choose a husband and remarry. Do not keep vigil unto death, wasting yourself in vain suffering." Shi wept and said, "Do you still not know your humble wife! I wish to die before my lord." He firmly tried to dissuade her, but she then took all the blood He had vomited and swallowed it whole to show her resolve. When He died, she hanged herself at once.

吳氏，潞州廩生盧清妻。舅姑歿於臨洺，寄瘞旅次。清授徒自給，後失廩，充掾於汴，憤恥發狂死。吳聞訃，痛絕，哭曰：「吾舅姑委骨於北，良人死，忍令終不返乎！」乃寄幼孤於姊兄，鬻次女為資，獨抵臨洺，覓舅姑瘞處不得，號泣中野。忽一丈夫至，則清所授徒也，為指示，收二骸以歸。復冒暑之汴，負夫骨還。三喪畢舉，忍餓無他誌。學正劉崧言於知州馬暾，贖其女，厚恤之。年七十五乃卒。後有畢氏，河間鄧節妻。年饑，攜家景州就食，舅姑相繼亡，節亦尋歿，俱槁葬景州。氏年三十三，無子女，獨歸里中，忍饑凍，晝夜紡織，積數年，市地城北八里莊，獨之景州，負舅姑及夫骨還葬。

Wu was the wife of Lu Qing, a stipend student of Luzhou. Her husband's parents died at Linming and were provisionally interred at an inn along the way. Qing supported himself by teaching. Later he lost his stipend and served as a clerk in Bianliang, where shame and humiliation drove him mad and he died. When Wu heard the news she swooned in grief and wept, "My husband's parents left their bones in the north, and now my husband is dead — how can I bear to let them never return!" She entrusted her young orphan to her elder sister and brother, sold her second daughter for funds, and traveled alone to Linming. Unable to find where her in-laws had been interred, she wailed and wept in the open wilds. Suddenly a man arrived — one of Qing's pupils — and showed her the way. She gathered both sets of remains and returned home. Again braving the summer heat she went to Bianliang and brought back her husband's bones. When all three funerals were complete, she endured hunger and held no other ambition. District Confucian director Liu Song spoke to prefect Ma Tun, who redeemed her daughter and gave her generous relief. She lived to seventy-five before she died. Later there was Lady Bi, wife of Deng Jie of Hejian. During a famine year she took her family to Jingzhou to seek food. Her husband's parents died in succession, and Jie soon followed. All were given rough burials in Jingzhou. She was thirty-three and without children. Alone she returned to her hometown, enduring hunger and cold while spinning and weaving day and night. After several years she purchased land at Bali Village north of the city, traveled alone to Jingzhou, and carried back the bones of her in-laws and husband for reburial.

石孝女，新昌人。繈褓時，父潛坐事籍沒，系京獄。母吳以漏籍獲免，依兄弟為生。一日，父脫歸，匿吳家。吳兄弟懼連坐，殺置大窖中，母不敢言。及女長，問母曰：「我無父族何也？」母告之故，女大悲憤。永樂初，年十六，舅氏主婚配族子。女白母曰：「殺我父者，吳也。奈何為父仇婦？」母曰：「事非我主，奈何？」女頷而不答。嫁之日，方禮賓，女自經室中。母仰天哭曰：「吾女之死，不欲為仇人婦也。」號慟數日亦死。有司聞之，治殺潛者罪。湯慧信，上海人。通《孝經》、《列女傳》，嫁華亭鄧林。林卒，婦年二十五，一女七歲。鄧族利其居，迫使歸家，婦曰：「我鄧家婦，何歸乎？」族知不可奪，貿其居於巨室。婦泣曰：「我收夫骨於茲土，與同存亡，奈何棄之。」欲自盡，巨室義而去之。婦尋自計曰：「族利我財耳。」乃出家資，盡畀族人，躬績纴以給。

Shi the Filial Daughter was a native of Xinchang. While still in swaddling clothes, her father Yin was implicated in a covert matter and his household was confiscated. He was imprisoned in the capital. Her mother Wu escaped punishment through an omission in the registry and relied on her brothers to live. One day her father escaped and returned, hiding in the Wu household. Wu's brothers, fearing implication, killed him and disposed of his body in a great pit. The mother dared not speak. When the daughter grew up she asked her mother, "Why have I no father's kin?" Her mother told her the reason, and the daughter was stricken with great grief and rage. In the early Yongle period, at sixteen, her maternal uncle arranged her marriage to a clansman. The daughter told her mother, "Those who killed my father are the Wu clan. How can I become the wife of my father's killers?" Her mother said, "The matter was not my decision — what could I do?" The daughter nodded but gave no answer. On her wedding day, even as she was receiving guests in ceremony, the daughter hanged herself in her chamber. Her mother looked up to heaven and wept, saying, "My daughter died because she would not become the wife of her enemies." She wailed in grief for several days and then died as well. When officials learned of the affair, they prosecuted those who had killed Yin. Tang Huixin was a native of Shanghai. She had mastered the Classic of Filial Piety and the Biographies of Exemplary Women, and married Deng Lin of Huating. When Lin died, his wife was twenty-five and they had a daughter of seven. The Deng clan coveted her home and tried to force her back to her natal family. The wife said, "I am a wife of the Deng household — why should I leave?" Finding they could not force her, the clan sold her home to a wealthy family. The wife wept and said, "I gathered my husband's bones on this soil; I have pledged to live and die here — how can I abandon this place?" She was ready to take her own life; moved by her integrity, the wealthy family withdrew the purchase. The wife soon reasoned to herself, "The clan wants nothing but my property." She then brought out her household assets and gave them all to the clan, supporting herself by spinning and weaving with her own hands.

歲大水，居荒野沮洳中。其女適人者，操舟來迎，不許。請暫憩舟中，亦不許，曰：「我守此六十年，因巨浸以從汝父，所甘心焉，復何往！」母女方相牽未舍，水至，湯竟溺死。

In a year of great flood she lived in the wild marshlands. Her married daughter came by boat to take her in, but she would not allow it. When asked to rest briefly in the boat, she still refused, saying, "I have kept watch here for sixty years. To follow your father in the great flood is what my heart accepts — where else would I go?" Mother and daughter still clung to each other, unwilling to part. The floodwaters rose, and Tang drowned.

義婢妙聰，保安右衛指揮張孟喆家婢也。永樂中，調兵操宣府。孟喆在行。北寇入掠，妻李謂夫妹曰：「我命婦，與若皆宦門女，義不可辱。」相挈投井中，妙聰亦隨入，見二人俱未死，以李有娠，恐水冷有所害，遂負之於背。賊退，孟喆弟仲喆求三人井中，以索引嫂妹出，而婢則死矣。

The righteous maid Miao Cong was a servant in the household of Zhang Mengzhe, commander of the Bao'an Right Guard. During the Yongle reign, troops were mobilized for training at Xuanfu. Mengzhe was away on campaign. Northern raiders swept in to plunder. His wife Li said to his younger sister, "I am a wife bound by fate, and you and I are both daughters of official families — we cannot suffer disgrace." Hand in hand they threw themselves into a well; Miao Cong followed them in. Finding that both women were still alive — and because Li was pregnant, fearing the cold water might harm the child — she bore Li on her back. When the raiders withdrew, Mengzhe's younger brother Zhongzhe found the three in the well and pulled his sister-in-law and sister out with a rope; the maid was dead.

徐孝女，嘉善徐遠女也。年六歲，母患臁瘡。女問母何以得愈，母謾曰：「兒吮之乃愈。」女遂請吮，母難之。女悲啼不已，母不得已聽之，吮數日，果愈。

Xu the Filial Daughter was the daughter of Xu Yuan of Jiashan. At the age of six, her mother suffered from leg ulcers. The girl asked her mother how the sores could be cured; the mother said offhand, "If my child suckles them, they will heal." The girl then asked to suckle the wounds; her mother was reluctant to allow it. The girl wept without cease; at last the mother yielded. After several days of suckling, the ulcers indeed healed.

高氏女，武邑人，適諸生陳和。和早卒，高獨持門戶，奉翁姑甚孝。及宣德時，翁姑並歿，氏以禮殯葬，時年五十矣。泣謂子剛曰：「我父，洪武間舉家客河南虞城。父死，旋葬城北，母以刺木小車輞識之。比還家，母亦死，弟懦不能自振。吾三十年不敢言者，以汝王母在堂，當朝夕侍養也。今大事已畢，欲舁吾父遺骸歸合葬。」剛唯唯，隨母至虞城，抵葬所，冢累累不能辨。氏以發系馬鞍逆行，自朝及夕，至一小冢，鞍重不能前，即開其冢，所識車輞宛然。遠近觀者鹹驚異，助之歸，啟母窆同葬。

A woman of the Gao clan, a native of Wuyi, married the licentiate Chen He. He died young; Gao alone kept the household and served her parents-in-law with exemplary filial devotion. During the Xuande reign her parents-in-law both died; she buried them according to ritual. She was then fifty. Weeping, she said to her son Gang, "In the Hongwu period my father took our whole family to live as guests in Yucheng, Henan. When he died he was buried north of the city; my mother marked the grave with a small wooden cart-wheel rim. By the time we returned home, my mother had also died. My younger brother was timid and could not support himself. For thirty years I did not dare speak of this, because your grandmother was still alive and I had to attend her day and night. Now that the great obligations are fulfilled, I wish to exhume my father's remains and bring them home for joint burial." Gang assented and followed his mother to Yucheng. At the burial grounds mounds lay one upon another and none could be identified. The lady tied her hair to a saddle and walked against the horse's direction from morning till evening. At one small mound the saddle suddenly grew heavy and the horse would not advance; she opened the tomb, and the familiar wheel-rim was there. Onlookers near and far were astonished. They helped her return home, opened her mother's tomb, and buried the couple together.

孫義婦，慈谿人。歸定海黃誼昭，生子湑。未幾夫卒，孫育之成立，求兄女為配。甫三年，生二子，湑亦卒。時田賦皆令民自輸，孫姑婦相率攜幼子輸賦南京，訴尚書蹇義，言：「縣苦潮患，十年九荒，乞築海塘障之。」義見其孤苦，詰曰：「何為不嫁？」對曰：「餓死事極小，失節事極大。」義嗟嘆久之，次日即為奏請，遣官偕有司相度成之，起自龍山，迄於觀海，永免潮患。慈谿人廟祀之塘上。

Sun the Chaste Wife was a native of Cixi. She married Huang Yizhao of Dinghai and bore a son named Xu. Before long her husband died. Sun raised the boy to maturity and found a wife for him in her elder brother's daughter. After only three years two sons were born, and then Xu also died. At that time land tax had to be delivered in person. Sun and her daughter-in-law together took their young sons to pay tax in Nanjing and petitioned Minister Jian Yi, saying, "Our county suffers terribly from tidal floods — nine years of famine in ten. We beg that a sea dyke be built to hold them back." Seeing their destitution, Yi asked, "Why do you not remarry?" They replied, "Starving is a very small matter; losing one's chastity is a very great one." Yi sighed in admiration for a long while. The next day he memorialized the throne at once, sent officials with local authorities to survey the site and complete the work, from Longshan to Guanhai — forever freeing the county from tidal disaster. The people of Cixi built a shrine to her on the dyke.

梁氏，大城尹之路妻。嫁歲餘，夫乏食出遊山海關，賣熟食為生。又娶馬氏，生子二，十余年不通問。氏事翁姑，艱苦無怨言。夫客死，氏徒步行乞，迎夫喪，往返二千里，迄扶柩攜後妻二子以歸，裏人嘆異。

Lady Liang was the wife of Yin Zhilu of Dacheng. After little more than a year of marriage, her husband, lacking food, went to Shanhai Pass and sold prepared food to make a living. There he took another wife, surnamed Ma, who bore two sons. For more than ten years no word passed between them. Lady Liang served her parents-in-law through hardship without a word of complaint. When her husband died abroad, she walked on foot, begging alms to fetch his coffin — two thousand li there and back — and at last escorted the bier home with his second wife and two sons. Her neighbors marvelled.

余佈妻馬氏，吳縣人。歸五年，夫死無子，家酷貧。姑欲奪其誌，有田二畝半，得粟不以與婦，馬不為動。姑潛納他人聘，一夕鼓吹臨門，趣治妝，馬入臥室自經死，幾上食器，糠乞尚存。

Ma, wife of Yu Bu, was a native of Wuxian. Five years after her marriage her husband died without sons, and the household was desperately poor. Her mother-in-law tried to force her to abandon her vow of widowhood. The family had two and a half mou of fields, but the grain harvested was withheld from her — Ma remained unmoved. The mother-in-law secretly accepted another man's betrothal gift. One evening music and drums came to the gate, urging her to prepare her bridal dress. Ma went to the bedroom and hanged herself. On the table her bowl still held the bran she had begged.

義姑萬氏，名義顓，字祖心，鄞人，寧波衛指揮僉事鐘女也。幼貞靜，善讀書。兩兄文、武，皆襲世職，戰死，旁無期功之親。繼母曹氏，兩嫂陳氏、吳氏，皆盛年孀居。吳遺腹僅六月，姑旦暮拜天哭告曰：「萬氏絕矣，願天賜一男，續忠臣後。我矢不嫁，共撫之。」已果生男，名之曰全。姑喜曰：「萬氏有後矣。」乃與諸嫠共守，名閥來聘，皆謝絕之，訓全讀書，迄底成立。全嗣職，傳子禧、孫椿，皆奉姑訓惟謹。姑年七十余卒。姑之祖斌及父兄並死王事，母及二嫂守貞數十年，姑更以義著。鄉人重之，稱為四忠三節一義之門。

The righteous aunt Wan, personal name Yizhuan, courtesy name Zuxin, a native of Yin, was the daughter of Zhong, assistant commander of the Ningbo Guard. From childhood she was chaste and quiet, and skilled at reading. Her two elder brothers Wen and Wu both inherited hereditary posts and died in battle, leaving no close collateral relatives. Her stepmother Lady Cao and her two sisters-in-law, the Ladies Chen and Wu, were all widowed in the prime of life. Lady Wu's posthumous child was only six months along. Morning and evening the aunt bowed to Heaven, weeping and praying, "The Wan line is cut off — may Heaven grant a son to carry on the loyal minister's line. I swear I will not marry; together we shall raise him." Before long a son was indeed born, and they named him Quan. The aunt rejoiced and said, "The Wan line has an heir now." She then joined the other widows in keeping the household. Eminent families sent marriage proposals — all were declined. They trained Quan in letters until he came of age. Quan succeeded to the hereditary post; his son Xi and grandson Chun all obeyed the aunt's instruction with scrupulous care. The aunt died in her seventies. The aunt's grandfather Bin, her father, and her brothers had all died in the king's service; her mother and two sisters-in-law kept chastity for decades; the aunt was still further distinguished for righteousness. The villagers held them in high esteem, calling their household the gate of four loyal ministers, three chaste widows, and one woman of righteousness.

後有陳義姑者，沙縣陳穗女。年十八，父母相繼卒，遺二男，長七歲，次五歲。親族利其有，日眈眈於旁。姑矢誌撫弟，居常置帚數十。族兄弟暮夜叩門，姑燃帚照之，亟啟戶具酒食款。叩者告曰：「吾輩夜行滅火，就求燭耳。」自此窺伺者絕意。及二弟畢婚，年四十五乃嫁，終無子。二弟迎歸，母事之。

Later there was Chen the Righteous Aunt, daughter of Chen Sui of Shaxian. At eighteen her parents died in succession, leaving two younger brothers — the elder seven, the younger five. Relatives coveted their property and watched them day and night with greedy eyes. The aunt vowed to raise her brothers and kept several dozen brooms ready at all times. When clansmen knocked at the door at night, the aunt would light a broom to illuminate them, then open the door and set out wine and food to receive them. The callers would say, "We were traveling at night with our lamps out and came only to ask for a light." After that, those who had been watching for an opportunity gave up the idea. Only after both brothers had married did she marry herself, at forty-five. She had no children. Her two brothers welcomed her home and served her as they would a mother.

郭氏，大田人。鄧茂七之亂，鄉人結寨東巖。寨破，郭褓幼兒走，且有身，為賊所驅。郭奮罵，投百尺巖下，與兒俱碎亂石間，胎及腸胃迸出，狼籍巖下。賊據高瞰之，皆嘆曰：「真烈婦也！」瘞之去。同時有幼溪女，失其姓名。茂七破沙縣，匿草間，為二賊所獲。遇溪橋，貞女曰：「扶我過，當從一人而終。」二賊爭趨挽，至橋半，女視溪流湍急，拽二賊投水中，俱溺死。

Lady Guo was a native of Datian. During the rebellion of Deng Maoqi, the villagers built a stockade at East Cliff. When the stockade fell, Guo fled with an infant in her arms; she was also pregnant and was driven along by the rebels. Guo cursed them fiercely and threw herself from a cliff a hundred feet high. She and the child were shattered on the rocks below; the fetus and her entrails burst forth and lay strewn at the foot of the cliff. The rebels looked down from above and sighed, "A truly heroic woman!" They buried her and departed. At the same time there was a girl of Youxi whose name is lost. When Maoqi captured Shaxian she hid in the grass and was seized by two rebels. At a stream bridge the chaste girl said, "Help me across, and I will give myself to one of you forever." The two rebels rushed forward, each vying to support her. Halfway across the bridge she saw how swift the current was, seized both men, and pulled them into the water. All three drowned.

程氏，揚州胡尚絅妻。尚絅嬰危疾，婦刲腕肉啖之，不能咽而卒。婦號慟不食二日。懷孕四月矣，或曰：「得男可延夫嗣，徒死何為？」答曰：「吾亦知之，倘生女，徒茍活數月耳。」因復食，彌月果生男。明年殤，即前語翁姑曰：「媳不能常侍奉，有娣姒在，無悲也。」復絕食，越二日其姑撫之曰：「爾父母家二百里內，若不俟面訣乎？」婦曰：「可急迎之。」日飲米沈一匙以待。逾十有二日，父母遣幼弟至，婦曰：「是可白吾誌。」自是滴水不入口，徐簡中奩簪珥，令辦後事，以其余散家人並鄰嫗嘗通問者，復自卜曰：「十八、九日皆良，吾當逝。向曾刲肉救夫，夫不可救，以灰和之置床頭，附吾左腕，以示全歸。」遂卒。

Lady Cheng was the wife of Hu Shangjiong of Yangzhou. When Shangjiong fell gravely ill, his wife cut flesh from her wrist and fed it to him, but he could not swallow it and died. The wife wailed in grief and ate nothing for two days. She was four months pregnant. Someone said, "If you bear a son you can continue your husband's line — why die for nothing?" She replied, "I know that — but if I bear a daughter, I would only drag out a shameful life for a few months." She therefore began to eat again. A month later she bore a son. The next year the child died in infancy. She then said to her parents-in-law, "I cannot attend you forever; your younger sons' wives are here — do not grieve." She again stopped eating. After two days her mother-in-law comforted her, saying, "Your parents' home is within two hundred li — will you not wait to bid them farewell?" The wife said, "Send for them at once." Each day she drank one spoonful of rice water and waited. After more than twelve days her parents sent her younger brother. The wife said, "This will suffice to make my resolve known." From then on she refused all food and drink. She calmly sorted the hairpins and earrings in her dressing case, arranged her final affairs, gave what remained to her family and to neighboring women who had once called on her, and cast the lots again for herself, saying, "The eighteenth and nineteenth are both good days — I shall die then. I once cut flesh to save my husband, but he could not be saved. Mix it with ashes and place it at the head of the bed, and attach it to my left wrist — a token that I return to him whole." And so she died.

王妙鳳，吳縣人。適吳奎。姑有淫行。正統中，奎商於外。姑與所私飲，並欲汙之，命妙鳳取酒，挈瓶不進。頻促之，不得已而入。姑所私戲紾其臂。妙鳳憤，拔刀斫臂不殊，再斫乃絕。父母欲訟之官，妙鳳曰：「死則死耳，豈有婦訟姑理邪？」逾旬卒。

Wang Miaofeng was from Wu County. She was married to Wu Kui. Her mother-in-law was licentious. During the Zhengtong era, Kui went away on business. The mother-in-law was drinking with her lover and wished to force Miaofeng as well; she ordered her to fetch wine, but Miaofeng took the bottle and refused to go in. Pressed again and again, she had no choice but to go in. The mother-in-law's lover playfully seized her arm. Enraged, Miaofeng drew a knife and struck at her arm; the first blow failed to sever it, and only the second cut it clean off. Her parents wanted to take the matter to court. Miaofeng said, "If I must die, then let me die — what sense is there in a daughter-in-law bringing suit against her mother-in-law?" Within ten days she was dead.

唐貴梅者，貴池人。適同里朱姓。姑與富商私，見貴梅悅之，以金帛賄其姑，誨婦淫者，百端勿聽，加箠楚勿聽，繼以炮烙，終不聽。乃以不孝訟於官。通判某受商賂，拷之幾死者數矣。商冀其改節，復令姑保出之。親黨勸婦首實，婦曰：「若爾，妾之名幸全，如播姑之惡何？」夜易服，自經後園梅樹下。及旦姑起，且將撻之。至園中乃知其死，屍懸樹三日，顏如生。

Tang Guimei was from Guichi. She married a man surnamed Zhu from the same district. Her mother-in-law was carrying on with a wealthy merchant. When he took a liking to Guimei, he bribed the mother-in-law with gold and silk. The mother-in-law tried every persuasion to make the young wife submit — she refused; she beat her with rods — she refused; she even subjected her to burning torture, and still she refused. At last the mother-in-law sued her in court for unfilial conduct. A certain assistant prefect took the merchant's bribe and had her beaten nearly to death on several occasions. The merchant hoped she would abandon her resolve; he had the mother-in-law bail her out again. Kinsfolk urged her to tell the whole truth. The wife said, "If I did, my own name might remain unstained — but how could I expose my mother-in-law's shame?" That night she changed her clothes and hanged herself from a plum tree in the rear garden. At dawn the mother-in-law got up, intending to beat her. When she went into the garden she found her dead. The body hung from the tree for three days, her face still lifelike.

其後，嘉靖二十三年，有嘉定張氏者，嫁汪客之子。其姑多與人私，諸惡少中有胡巖者，最桀黠，群黨皆聽其指使。於是與姑謀，遣其子入縣為卒，而巖等日夕縱飲。一日，呼婦共坐，不應。巖從後攫其梳，婦折梳擲地。頃之，巖徑入犯婦。婦大呼殺人，以杵擊巖。巖怒走出，婦自投於地，哭終夜不絕，氣息僅屬。詰旦，巖與姑恐事泄，縶諸床足守之。明日召諸惡少酣飲。二鼓共縛婦，槌斧交下。婦痛苦宛轉曰：「何不以利刃刺我。」一人乃前刺其頸，一人刺其脅，又椓其陰。舉屍欲焚之，屍重不可舉，乃火其室。鄰裏救火者蹋門入，見嚇然死人，驚聞於官。官逮小女奴及諸惡少鞫之，具得其實，皆以次受刑。婦死時年十九。邑故有烈婦祠，婦死前三日，祠旁人聞空中鼓樂聲，火炎炎從祠柱中出，人以為貞婦死事之征雲。

Later, in the twenty-third year of the Jiajing reign, a woman of the Zhang clan of Jiading married the son of a migrant worker surnamed Wang. Her mother-in-law kept many lovers. Among the local ruffians, one Hu Yan was the boldest and most cunning, and the whole gang did his bidding. He then plotted with the mother-in-law to send her son into the county town as a conscript, while Yan and his companions caroused day and night. One day they summoned the wife to sit with them; she refused. Yan grabbed her comb from behind; she snapped it and threw it to the floor. Before long Yan went in and assaulted her. She screamed that she was being murdered and struck Yan with a pestle. Yan fled in a rage. The wife collapsed to the ground and wept all night without stopping, barely clinging to life. At dawn, fearing exposure, Yan and the mother-in-law tied her to the bedposts and stood guard. The next day they called the ruffians together for a drinking bout. At the second watch they bound her fast and beat her with mallets and axes. Writhing in pain, the wife cried, "Why not stab me with a sharp blade?" One man stabbed her in the neck, another in the ribs, and a third struck her in the groin. They tried to lift the corpse to burn it, but the body was too heavy to move, so they set the house ablaze. Neighbors fighting the fire broke down the door and found the ghastly corpse; horrified, they reported it to the magistrate. The magistrate arrested the young maidservant and the ruffians and questioned them. The whole truth came out, and each was punished in turn. The wife was nineteen when she died. The district had long maintained a shrine to chaste women. Three days before her death, people near the shrine heard music in the air and saw flames burst from its pillars — taken as an omen of the chaste wife's martyrdom.

楊泰奴，仁和楊得安女。許嫁未行。天順四年，母疫病不愈。泰奴三割胸肉食母，不效。一日薄幕，剖胸取肝一片，昏仆良久。及蘇，以衣裹創，手和粥以進，母遂愈。母宿有膝攣疾，亦愈。後有張氏，儀真周祥妻。姑病，醫百方不效。一方士至其門曰：「人肝可療。」張割左脅下，得膜如絮，以手探之沒腕，取肝二寸許，無少痛，作羹以進姑，病遂瘳。

Yang Tainu was the daughter of Yang Dean of Renhe. She was betrothed, though the wedding had not yet been held. In the fourth year of Tianshun her mother fell gravely ill with an epidemic and could not recover. Three times Tainu cut flesh from her breast to feed her mother, but to no avail. One evening at dusk she cut open her breast and took out a piece of liver, then collapsed in a faint for a long while. When she came to, she bound the wound with cloth, mixed porridge with her own hands, and fed it to her mother, who then recovered. Her mother had long suffered from a crippling knee ailment; that too was cured. Later there was a Lady Zhang, wife of Zhou Xiang of Yizhen. Her mother-in-law fell ill, and a hundred remedies failed. A Daoist adept came to their door and said, "Human liver can cure it." Zhang cut beneath her left ribs, found a membrane like cotton fluff, and reached in until her hand sank to the wrist. She took out a piece of liver about two inches long without feeling any pain, cooked it into a broth for her mother-in-law, and the illness was cured.

陳氏，祥符人。字楊瑄，未嫁而瑄卒。女請死，父母不許，欲往哭，又不許。私剪發，屬媒氏置瑄懷。汴俗聘女，以金書生年月日畀男家，號定婚帖。瑄母乃以帖裹其發，置瑄懷以葬。女遂素服以居。亡何，父母謀改聘，女縊死。後五十三年，至正德中，瑄侄永康改葬瑄，求陳骨合焉。二骨朽矣，發及定婚帖鮮完如故。葬三年，岐谷、丫瓜產墓上。

Lady Chen was from Xiangfu. She was betrothed to Yang Xuan, but before the wedding Xuan died. The girl begged to die; her parents refused. She wished to go and mourn him, and they refused that as well. In secret she cut off her hair and had the matchmaker place it in Xuan's coffin. In Bian it was the custom, when betrothing a daughter, to give the groom's family a slip recording her birth date in gold ink — the betrothal contract. Xuan's mother wrapped the contract around the hair and placed both in Xuan's coffin for burial. The girl thereafter lived in plain white mourning dress. Before long her parents planned to marry her to someone else; she hanged herself. Fifty-three years later, during the Zhengde reign, Xuan's nephew Yongkang reburied him and sought Lady Chen's remains to join with his. Both skeletons had crumbled to dust, but the hair and betrothal contract were still perfectly preserved. Three years after the burial, twin gourds sprouted on the tomb.

張氏，秀水人。年十四，受同邑諸生劉伯春聘。伯春負才名，必欲舉於鄉而後娶。未幾卒，女號泣絕發，自為詩祭之。持服三年，不逾閫，不茹葷。服闋，即絕飲食，父母強諭之，終不食，旬日而卒。年二十，舅姑迎柩合葬焉。又有江夏歐陽金貞者，父梧，授《孝經》、《列女傳》。稍長，字羅欽仰，從梧之官柘城。梧艱歸，舟次儀真，欽仰墜水死。金貞年甫十四，驚哭欲赴水從之，父母持不許。又欲自縊，父母曰：「汝未嫁，何得爾？」對曰：「女自分無活理，即如父母言，願終身稱未亡人。」大聲哀號不止。及殮，剪發系夫右臂以殉。抵家，告父母曰：「有婦，以事姑也。姑既失子，可並令無婦乎？願歸羅，以畢所事」。」父母從之。後父知廣元縣，姑病卒，女乃歸寧。有諷他適者，曰：「事姑畢矣，更何待？」女曰：「我昔殮羅郎時，有一束發纏其手，誰能掘冢開棺，取發還我，則易誌矣。」遂止。生平獨臥一樓，年六十余卒。

Lady Zhang was from Xiushui. At fourteen she was betrothed to Liu Bochun, a student from the same district. Bochun had a reputation for literary talent and insisted on passing the provincial examination before they wed. Before long he died. The girl wept until her hair fell out and wrote a poem of mourning for him herself. She mourned for three years without crossing the threshold or eating meat. When the mourning period ended she stopped eating and drinking altogether. Her parents pleaded with her, but she would not eat, and within ten days she was dead. She was twenty. Her parents-in-law received her coffin and buried her beside him in a joint grave. There was also Ouyang Jinzhen of Jiangxia. Her father Wu taught her the Classic of Filial Piety and the Biographies of Exemplary Women. When she was older she was betrothed to Luo Qinyang and accompanied her father to his post at Zhecheng. When Wu entered mourning and returned home, the boat stopped at Yizhen; Qinyang fell into the water and drowned. Jinzhen was only fourteen. Weeping in shock, she tried to throw herself into the water after him, but her parents held her back. She tried to hang herself. Her parents said, "You are not yet married — how can you do this?" She answered, "A woman in my place has no reason to live. Even as you say, I wish to spend my whole life as one who has not yet died — a widow in name if not in law." She wailed aloud without stopping. At the encoffining she cut off her hair and bound it to her husband's right arm to accompany him in death. When she reached home she told her parents, "I am a wife now — my duty is to serve my mother-in-law. She has lost her son — would you leave her without a daughter-in-law as well? Let me return to the Luo household and finish what remains of my duty." Her parents agreed. Later her father was appointed magistrate of Guangyuan County. When her mother-in-law died, she returned to her parents' home. Some suggested she marry again, saying, "Your duty to your mother-in-law is done — what are you waiting for?" She said, "When I encoffined Master Luo, I bound a lock of hair around his hand. Unless someone digs up the grave, opens the coffin, and returns that hair to me, I will not change my mind." And so they said no more. She lived alone on an upper floor all her life and died in her sixties.

莊氏，海康吳金童妻。成化初，廣西流寇掠鄉邑，莊隨夫避新會，傭劉銘家。銘見莊美，欲犯之，屢誘不從。乃令黨梁狗同金童入海捕魚，沒水死。越三日不還，莊求之海賓，屍浮岸側，手足被縛，腫腐莫可辨。莊以衣識之，歸攜女赴水，抱夫屍而沒。翼日，三屍隨流繞銘門，去而復還。士人感異殯祭之，然莫知銘殺也，後梁狗漏言，有司並捕考，處以極刑。

Lady Zhuang was the wife of Wu Jintong of Haikang. In the early Chenghua era, bandits from Guangxi raided the region. Zhuang fled with her husband to Xinhui and went to work in the household of Liu Ming. Ming found Zhuang beautiful and tried to force himself on her; he tempted her again and again, but she refused. He then sent his henchman Liang Gou out to sea with Jintong to fish, and Jintong drowned. Three days passed with no sign of him. Zhuang searched the shore and found a corpse floating there, hands and feet bound, swollen and rotted beyond recognition. Zhuang recognized him by his clothes, went home, took her daughter, and drowned herself in the water, clasping her husband's corpse as she went under. The next day three corpses drifted past Ming's gate with the tide, receding and returning again. Local scholars, awed by the omen, gave the bodies proper burial and rites, though no one yet knew Ming had murdered him. Later Liang Gou let the truth slip; the authorities arrested and interrogated them all and sentenced them to death.

唐氏，汝陽陳旺妻，隨其夫以歌舞逐食四方。正德三年秋，旺攜妻及女環兒、侄成兒至江夏九峰山。有史聰者，亦以傀儡為業。見婦、女皆艷麗，而旺且老，因紿旺至青山，夜殺之。明日，聰獨返，攜其婦、女、幼侄入武昌山吳王祠，持利刃脅唐。唐曰：「汝殺吾夫，吾不能殺汝以復仇，忍從汝亂邪？」遂遇害。賊裹以席，置荊棘中。明日，徙蓑衣園，賊又迫環兒，臨以刃。環兒哭且詈，聲振林木，賊亦殺之，瘞糞壤中而去。其年冬至，賊被酒，成兒潛出告官，擒於葛店市，伏誅。

Lady Tang was the wife of Chen Wang of Ruyang; she traveled with him, earning their keep through song and dance. In the autumn of the third year of Zhengde, Wang took his wife, their daughter Huan'er, and his nephew Chenger to Jiufeng Mountain in Jiangxia. A man named Shi Cong also made his living with puppet shows. Seeing that mother and daughter were both beautiful while Wang was already old, he lured Wang to Qingshan and murdered him by night. The next day Cong returned alone, brought the wife, daughter, and young nephew into the King Wu Shrine on Wuchang Mountain, and threatened Lady Tang with a drawn blade. Lady Tang said, "You murdered my husband. I cannot kill you to avenge him — how could I endure submitting to your violence?" She was then killed. The bandit wrapped her in a mat and left her among the brambles. The next day they moved to Suoyi Garden. The bandit again pressed Huan'er, holding a blade to her throat. Huan'er wept and cursed until her voice shook the forest. The bandit killed her as well, buried her in dung and mud, and went his way. That winter solstice the bandit was drunk. Chenger slipped out to report him to the magistrate. Cong was seized at Gedian market and put to death.

王氏，慈谿人。聘於陳，而夫佳病，其父母娶婦以慰之。及門，即入侍湯藥。未幾，佳卒，王年甫十七，矢誌不嫁。姑張氏曰：「未成禮而守，無名。」女曰：「入陳氏門，經事君子，何謂無名？」姑乃使其二女從容諷之。婦不答，截發毀容。姑終欲強之，窘辱萬狀。二小姑陵之若婢，稍不順即爪其面，姑聞復加箠楚。女口不出怨言，曰：「不逼嫁，為婢亦甘也。」夜寢處小姑床下，受濕得傴疾，私自幸曰：「我知免矣。」鞠從子梅為嗣，教之。成化初領鄉薦，卒昌其家。後有易氏，分宜人，嫁安福王世昌。時世昌已遘疾，奄奄十余月，易事之，衣不解帶。世昌死，除喪猶縞素。姑憐之，謂：「汝猶處子，可終累乎？」跪泣曰：「是何言哉？父母許我王氏，即終身王氏婦矣。」自是獨處一樓，不窺外戶四十余年。方世昌疾，所吐痰血，輒手一布囊盛之。卒後，用所盛囊為枕，枕之終身。

Wang was a native of Cixi. She was betrothed to the Chen family, but her fiancé Jia fell ill; his parents brought home a bride to comfort him. As soon as she entered the gate she began attending to his medicines and broth. Before long Jia died. Wang was only seventeen, and she vowed never to marry. Her mother-in-law Zhang said, "To remain chaste when the marriage rites were never completed — that has no standing." She replied, "I entered the Chen family's gate and served a husband. How can you call that nameless?" The mother-in-law then sent her two daughters to coax and counsel her. The young wife made no reply. She cut off her hair and disfigured her face. The mother-in-law still tried to force remarriage on her, subjecting her to every kind of humiliation. The two sisters-in-law treated her like a servant and bullied her relentlessly; at the slightest offense they scratched her face, and when the mother-in-law heard of it she beat her as well. She never voiced a word of complaint and said, "If you do not force me to remarry, I am content even to serve as a maidservant." At night she slept on the floor beneath her sister-in-law's bed. The damp gave her a hunched back, and she told herself with private relief, "Now I know I am spared." She raised her nephew Mei as heir and tutored him. At the opening of the Chenghua reign he passed the provincial examination and in time made the family prosper. Later there was Lady Yi of Fenyang, who married Wang Shichang of Anfu. By then Shichang was already gravely ill. For more than ten months he lingered near death, and Yi never left his side day or night. After Shichang died she continued wearing unadorned white even after the mourning period ended. Her mother-in-law took pity on her and said, "You are still a maiden in spirit — must you burden yourself for life?" Kneeling and weeping, she said, "How can you speak such words? When my parents betrothed me to the Wang family, I became a Wang wife for life." From then on she lived alone on one upper floor and for more than forty years never so much as glanced outside. During Shichang's illness she would save every drop of phlegm and blood he coughed up in a cloth pouch. After he died she made that pouch her pillow and slept on it for the rest of her life.

鐘氏，桐城陶鏞妻。鏞以罪被戍，卒於外。鐘年二十五，子繼甫在抱，負鏞骨四千餘里歸葬。乃斷發杜門，年八十二以節終。繼亦早卒，妻方氏年二十七，子亮甫二歲。其兄憐之，微叩其意，方以死誓。景泰中，亮舉鄉試，業於太學，卒。妻王氏年二十八，妾吳氏二十二，皆無子，扶櫬歸葬。貧不能支，所親勸之嫁，兩人哭曰：「而不知我之為節婦婦乎！」乃共以紡績自給。越二十六年，縣令陳勉以聞，詔旌三代。人稱之曰四節裏。

Lady Zhong was the wife of Tao Yong of Tongcheng. Yong was banished for a crime and died in exile. Zhong was twenty-five. Her son Jifu was still an infant in her arms. She carried her husband's bones more than four thousand li home for burial. She then cut her hair and shut herself indoors. At eighty-two she died, having kept her vow to the end. Ji also died young. His wife Lady Fang was twenty-seven, and their son Liangfu was two. Her elder brother took pity on her and tactfully sounded her out about remarriage; Fang vowed she would die before remarrying. During the Jingtai reign Liang passed the provincial examination and studied at the Imperial Academy, but then died. His wife Lady Wang was twenty-eight and his concubine Lady Wu was twenty-two. Neither had borne a child. Together they escorted his coffin home for burial. Too poor to support themselves, their relatives urged them to remarry. Both women wept and said, "Do you not know that we are wives in a house of chaste widows?" They then supported themselves together by spinning and weaving. Twenty-six years later Magistrate Chen Mian reported the case to the throne, and an imperial edict honored all three generations. People called their lane the Lane of Four Chaste Widows.

宣氏，嘉定張樹田妻。夫素狂悖，與宣不睦。夫病，宣晨夕奉事。及死，誓身殉。時樹田友人沈思道亦死，其婦孫與宣以死相要，各分尺帛。孫自經，或勸宣曰：「彼與夫相得，故以死報，汝何為效之？」宣嘆曰：「予知盡婦道而已，安論夫之賢不賢。」卒縊死。

Lady Xuan was the wife of Zhang Shutian of Jiading. Her husband had always been violent and unreasonable, and he and Xuan did not get along. When her husband fell ill, Xuan attended him day and night. When he died she vowed to die with him. At that time Shutian's friend Shen Sidao had also died. His wife Sun and Xuan pledged to die together and each cut a length of silk cloth for the purpose. Sun hanged herself. Some tried to dissuade Xuan, saying, "She and her husband were devoted to each other, so she died with him — why should you do the same?" Xuan sighed and said, "I know only to fulfill my duty as a wife. What does it matter whether the husband was worthy or not?" In the end she hanged herself.

徐氏，慈谿人，定海金傑妻也。成化中，傑兄以罪逮入京，傑往請代。瀕行，徐已有身，傑謂曰：「予去，生死不可知，若生男善撫之，金氏鬼庶得食也。」已而悔曰：「我幾誤汝，吾去無還理，即死，善事後人。」徐泣曰：「君以義往，上必義君，君兄弟當同歸，無過苦也。即如君言，妾有死耳，敢忘付托乎？」已果生男，無何兄得還，傑竟瘐死。徐撫孤慟曰：「我本欲從汝父地下，奈金氏何？」強營葬事。服闋，父母勸他適，截發斷指自誓，食淡茹苦六十余年，視子孫再世成立，乃卒。

Lady Xu was a native of Cixi and the wife of Jin Jie of Dinghai. During the Chenghua reign Jie's elder brother was arrested for a crime and taken to the capital. Jie went to offer himself in his brother's place. As he was about to leave, Xu was already pregnant. Jie told her, "When I go I may not return. If you bear a son, raise him well so that the Jin ancestors may at least receive offerings." Then he reconsidered and said, "I almost misled you. I will not return. When I am dead, serve those who come after me well." Xu wept and said, "You go for righteousness; the emperor will surely respond in kind. Your brothers will return together — do not grieve too much. Even if it happens as you say, I would die rather than fail you — how could I forget what you have entrusted to me?" In time she bore a son. Before long the elder brother was released and returned, but Jie died in prison after all. Xu held the orphaned boy and wept, "I meant to follow your father to the grave — but what would become of the Jin clan?" She forced herself to arrange the funeral. When the mourning period ended her parents urged her to remarry. She cut her hair and severed a finger to bind her oath, and for more than sixty years lived in austerity and hardship. She lived to see her sons and grandsons prosper through two generations, and then died.

義妾張氏，南京人。松江楊玉山商南京，娶為妾。逾月以婦妒，遣之歸。張屏居自守，楊亦數往來，所贈千計。後二十余年，楊坐役累，罄其產，怏怏失明。張聞之，直造楊廬，拜主母，捧楊袂大慟。乃悉出向所贈金珠，具裝，嫁其二女，並為二子娶婦，留侍湯藥。逾年楊死，守其柩不去。既免喪，父母強之歸，不從，矢誌以歿，終身不見一人。

Lady Zhang the faithful concubine was a native of Nanjing. Yang Yushan of Songjiang was trading in Nanjing when he took her as a concubine. After little more than a month his principal wife's jealousy drove him to send Zhang home. Zhang lived alone and kept herself chaste. Yang still visited from time to time, and his gifts over the years numbered in the thousands. More than twenty years later Yang was ruined by corvée obligations, lost everything he owned, and in despair went blind. When Zhang heard the news she went straight to Yang's home, bowed to the principal wife, seized Yang's sleeve, and wept bitterly. She then brought out all the gold and jewels he had given her over the years, provided dowries for his two daughters, found wives for both sons, and stayed on to nurse him. A little more than a year later Yang died. She kept vigil over his coffin and would not leave it. After mourning ended her parents tried to force her home, but she refused. She vowed to keep faith until death and for the rest of her life received no visitor.

龔烈婦，江陰人。年十七嫁劉玉，家貧，力作養姑。姑亡，相夫營葬。夫又亡，無以為斂。裏有羨婦色者，欲助以棺。龔覺其意，辭之。既又強之，龔恐無以自脫，乃以所生六歲男、三歲女寄食母家。是夜，積麥稿屋中，舉火自焚，抱夫屍死。又江氏，蒙城王可道妻。夫貧，負販糊口，死不能斂。比鄰諸生李雲蟾合錢斂之，卜日以葬。及期，率眾至其家，闃然無聲，廚下燈微明，趨視之飲食畢具，蓋以待舁棺者，婦已縊死竈旁矣。眾驚嘆，復合錢並葬之。

Gong the Chaste Wife was a native of Jiangyin. At seventeen she married Liu Yu. The family was poor, and she supported her mother-in-law through hard labor. When her mother-in-law died she helped her husband arrange the funeral. Her husband died in turn, and they had no means to bury him properly. A neighbor who coveted her beauty offered to provide a coffin. Gong understood his intent and refused. When he pressed her again, Gong feared she could not escape him. She sent her six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter to live with her mother. That night she piled wheat straw in the house, set it ablaze, and burned herself to death while embracing her husband's corpse. There was also Lady Jiang, wife of Wang Kedao of Mengcheng. Her husband was poor. He peddled goods for a living, and when he died the family could not afford a proper burial. A neighboring licentiate named Li Yunchan collected funds for a coffin and set a day for the burial. When the day arrived he led the mourners to their home. All was silent. A lamp burned dimly in the kitchen. They rushed to look and found food and drink laid out, evidently prepared for those who would carry the coffin. The wife had already hanged herself beside the stove. The mourners were stunned. They collected money again and buried husband and wife together.

會稽範氏二女，幼好讀書，並通《列女傳》。長適江，一月寡。次將歸傅，而夫亡。二女同守節，築高垣，圍田十畝，穿井其中，為屋三楹以居。當種獲，父啟圭竇率傭以入，余日則塞其竇，共汲井灌田。如是者三十年。自為塋於屋後，成化中卒，竟合葬焉。族人即其田立祠以祀。

Two daughters of the Fan clan of Kuaiji loved to read from childhood and both mastered the Biographies of Exemplary Women. The elder married into the Jiang family and was widowed after only a month. The younger was betrothed to the Fu family when her fiancé died before the wedding. The two sisters vowed to remain chaste together. They built a high wall around ten mu of fields, dug a well inside, and made a three-room house to live in. At planting and harvest their father would open a small hole in the wall and let hired laborers in. On all other days they sealed it shut and drew water from their well together to irrigate the fields. They lived this way for thirty years. They prepared their own graves behind the house. They died during the Chenghua reign and were buried together there. The clan built a shrine on their land to honor them.

又有丁美音，漵浦丁正明女。幼受夏學程聘，年十八將嫁，學程死，美音誓不再嫁。父母曰：「未嫁守節，非禮也。何自苦如此？」美音嚙指滴血，籲天自矢。當道交旌之，賫以銀幣約百金，乃構室獨居，鬻田自贍，事舅姑，養父母。鄉人名其田為貞女田。

There was also Ding Meiyin, daughter of Ding Zhengming of Xupu. From childhood she was betrothed to Xia Xuecheng. At eighteen, just before the wedding, Xuecheng died. Meiyin vowed never to marry another. Her parents said, "To remain chaste without ever having married is not proper ritual. Why torment yourself like this?" Meiyin bit her finger until blood dripped, then called upon Heaven to witness her vow. The local authorities jointly honored her and presented silver worth about a hundred taels. She built a room and lived alone, sold fields to support herself, cared for her parents-in-law, and provided for her own parents. The villagers named her field the Field of the Chaste Maiden.

成氏，無錫人，定陶教諭繒女，登封訓導尤輔妻也。輔遊學靖江，成從焉。江水夜溢，家人倉卒升屋，成整衣欲上，問：「爾等衣邪？」眾謝不暇。成曰：「安有男女裸，而尚可俱生邪？我獨留死耳。」眾號哭請，不應。厥明，水退，坐死榻上。

Lady Cheng was a native of Wuxi, daughter of Instructor Zeng of Dingtao and wife of Assistant Instructor You Fu of Dengfeng. Fu went to Jingjiang to study, and Cheng accompanied him. The river burst its banks in the night. The household scrambled onto the roof in panic. Cheng straightened her garments before climbing up and asked, "Are you all dressed?" Everyone cried that there had been no time. Cheng said, "How can men and women be stripped bare and still go on living together? I alone will stay behind to die." The crowd wept and begged her; she gave no answer. At dawn the flood withdrew. She was found seated dead upon the couch.

後崇禎中，興安大水，漂沒廬舍。有結筏自救者，鄰裏多附之。二女子附一朽木，倏沈倏浮，引筏救之，年皆十六七，問其姓氏不答。二女見筏上男子有裸者，嘆曰：「吾姊妹倚木不死，冀有善地可存也，今若此，何用生為！」攜手躍入波中死。

Later, during the Chongzhen reign, a great flood struck Xing'an and swept away homes. Some lashed together rafts to save themselves, and many neighbors clung to them. Two girls clung to a rotting log, sinking and surfacing by turns, until a raft pulled them aboard. Both were sixteen or seventeen. When asked their names, they would not answer. When the two girls saw naked men on the raft, they sighed, "We sisters held to this log and lived only in hope of reaching some proper place. Now that we face this—what is the point of going on?" Taking each other's hands, they leaped into the waves and drowned.

章銀兒，蘭谿人。幼喪父，獨與母居。邑多火災，室盡毀，結茅以棲母。母方疾，鄰居又火，銀兒出視，眾呼令疾避。銀兒曰：「母疾不能動，何可獨避。」亟返入廬，欲扶母出，烈焰忽覆其廬，眾莫能救。火光中，遙見銀兒抱其母，宛轉同焚死，時弘治元年三月也。

Zhang Yiner was a native of Lanxi. He lost his father as a boy and lived alone with his mother. Fires ravaged the district until their home was destroyed. He built a thatched hut to shelter his mother. His mother was ill when fire broke out next door. Yiner stepped outside to look, and the crowd shouted for him to run. Yiner said, "Mother is too ill to move. How could I flee alone?" He rushed back inside to help his mother out, but flames suddenly engulfed the hut, and no one could save them. Through the flames they saw Yiner from afar, holding his mother in his arms as the two writhed and burned together. It was the third month of the first year of Hongzhi.

義妹茅氏，慈谿人。年十四，父母亡，獨與兄嫂居。其兄病痿臥。值倭入縣，嫂出奔，呼與偕行。女曰：「我室女，將安之！且俱去，誰扶吾兄者！」賊至，縱火，女力扶其兄避於空室，竟被燔灼並死。

The righteous maiden Mao was a native of Cixi. At fourteen she lost both parents and lived with her elder brother and sister-in-law. Her elder brother was paralyzed and bedridden. When Japanese raiders entered the county, her sister-in-law fled and called for her to come along. The girl said, "I am an unmarried girl—where would I go! And if we all flee, who will support my brother!" The raiders came and set fires. The girl strained to support her brother and hide with him in an empty room, but in the end they were burned together and died.

招囊猛，雲南孟璉長官司土官舍人刁派羅妻也。年二十五，夫死，守節二十八年。弘治六年九月，雲南都指揮使奏其事。帝曰：「朕以天下為家，方思勵名教以變夷俗。其有趨於禮義者，烏可不亟加獎勵。招囊猛貞節可嘉，其即令有司顯其門閭，使遠夷益知向化，無俟核報。」

Zhao Nangmeng was the wife of Diao Pailuo, a steward in the native chieftain's household of Menglian Chief's Office in Yunnan. She was twenty-five when her husband died, and she preserved her chastity for twenty-eight years. In the ninth month of the sixth year of Hongzhi, the regional military commissioner of Yunnan reported her case. The Emperor said, "I take all under Heaven as my home and am now seeking to uphold the norms of moral teaching and transform barbarian customs. Those who turn toward ritual and righteousness—how can we fail to reward them at once? Zhao Nangmeng's chastity is worthy of praise. Order the local authorities at once to honor her gate and household, so that distant peoples may better know to turn toward civilization—without waiting for further verification."

張維妻淩氏，慈谿人。弘治中，維舉於鄉，卒。婦年二十五，子四歲亦卒。其兄諷之改圖，婦痛哭嚙唇，噀血灑地，終身不歸寧。舅姑慰之曰：「不幸絕嗣，日計無賴，吾二人景逼矣，爾年尚遠，何以為活？」婦曰：「恥辱事重，餓死甘之。」乃出簪珥為舅納妾，果得子，喜曰：「張氏不絕，亡夫墓門且有寒食矣。」後舅病瘋，姑雙目瞽，婦紡績供養，二十年不衰。後有杜氏，貴池曹桂妻。年二十四，夫亡，遺腹生女，悲苦無計。日諷姑為舅納妾，果生一子。產後，妾死，杜以己女托於族母，而自乳其叔。逾年翁喪，勸者曰：「汝辛苦撫孤，寧能以叔後汝乎？」杜曰：「叔後吾翁，異日生二子，即以一子後我夫，吾誌畢矣。」後卒如其言。

Lady Ling, wife of Zhang Wei, was a native of Cixi. During the Hongzhi reign, Wei passed the provincial examinations and then died. The wife was twenty-five; their four-year-old son died as well. Her elder brother hinted that she should change course. The wife wept until she bit her lips and spat blood on the ground, and she never again returned to her natal home. Her parents-in-law tried to comfort her: "Our line is cut off, and day by day we have no one to rely on. We two are pressed by old age, and you are still young—how will you live?" The wife said, "Disgrace weighs more heavily than death. I would gladly starve." She sold her hairpins and earrings to obtain a concubine for her father-in-law. A son was born. She rejoiced, "The Zhang line is not cut off. My dead husband's tomb will yet know the Cold Food Festival." Later her father-in-law was stricken with paralysis and her mother-in-law went blind in both eyes. The wife spun and wove to support them, and did not flag for twenty years. There was also Lady Du, wife of Cao Gui of Guichi. She was twenty-four when her husband died. She bore a daughter after his death and was overwhelmed with grief, with no way forward. Day after day she urged her mother-in-law to obtain a concubine for her father-in-law, and a son was indeed born. After the birth the concubine died. Du entrusted her own daughter to a clanswoman and nursed her husband's younger brother herself. A year later her father-in-law died. Those who counseled her said, "You have toiled to raise this orphan—can you truly let your uncle succeed in your place?" Du said, "Let my uncle succeed my father-in-law. When he bears two sons in time, one will be made heir to my husband—then my purpose will be fulfilled." In the end it came to pass exactly as she had said.

義婦楊氏，王世昌妻，臨漳人。弘治中，世昌兄坐事論死。世昌念兄為嫡子，請代其刑。時楊未笄，謀於父母宗族曰：「彼代兄死為義士，我顧不能為義婦邪？願訴於上代夫死。」遂入京陳情，敕法司議，夫妻並得釋。

The righteous wife Yang, wife of Wang Shichang, was a native of Linzhang. During the Hongzhi reign, Shichang's elder brother was condemned to death for a crime. Shichang, knowing his brother was the eldest son, asked to die in his place. Yang, not yet of age, consulted her parents and clan: "He would die in his brother's place as a man of righteousness—could I not be a righteous wife? I wish to petition the throne to die in my husband's place." She went to the capital and stated her plea. An edict ordered the judicial authorities to consider the matter, and husband and wife were both released.

史氏，杞縣人。字孔弘業，未嫁而夫卒。欲往殉之，母不許。女七日不食，母持茗逼之飲，雙蛾適墮杯中死，女指示曰：「物意尚孚我心，母獨不諒人邪！」母知不可奪，翌日制素衣縞裳，送之孔氏。及暮，辭舅姑，整衣自經死。白氣縷縷勝屋上，達旦始消。又有林端娘者，甌寧人，字陳廷策。聞廷策訃，寄聲曰：「勿殮，吾將就死。」父曰：「而雖許字，未納幣也。」對曰：「既詐矣，何幣之問？」父謹防之。曰：「女奚所不可死，顧死夫家韙耳。」父曰：「婿家貧，無以周身。」曰：「身非所恤。」又曰：「婿家貧，孰為標名？」曰：「名非所求。」遂往哭奠畢，自克死期，理帛自經，三拱而絕。陳故家青陽山下，山下人言婦將盡時，山鳴三晝夜。

Lady Shi was a native of Qixian. She was betrothed to Kong Hongye, but before the wedding her fiancé died. She wished to go and die with him, but her mother would not allow it. The girl fasted for seven days. Her mother held out tea and pressed her to drink; two moths chanced to fall into the cup and died. The girl pointed and said, "Even these creatures understand my heart—does Mother alone not understand me!" Her mother knew her resolve could not be changed. The next day she made a plain white upper garment and hemp mourning skirt and sent her to the Kong household. At dusk she took leave of her parents-in-law, straightened her garments, and hanged herself. Wisps of white vapor rose above the roof and did not fade until dawn. There was also Lin Duanniang of Ouning, betrothed to Chen Tingce. When she heard of Tingce's death, she sent word: "Do not encoffin him—I am coming to die." Her father said, "Though you were promised in marriage, the betrothal gifts have not yet been exchanged." She replied, "Since the promise was made, what need to ask about gifts?" Her father guarded her closely. She said, "Where may a woman not die? Only to die at her husband's house is fitting." Her father said, "The groom's family is poor—there is no means to clothe you properly." She said, "My person is not what I care about." He again said, "The groom's family is poor—who would raise a monument to your name?" She said, "Renown is not what I seek." She went, wept and made offerings, fixed her own day of death, arranged a silk cord and hanged herself—three convulsions and she was dead. The Chen family home stood below Mount Qingyang. People below the mountain say that as the wife neared her end, the mountain roared for three days and nights.

汪烈婦，晉江諸生楊希閔妻也。年二十三，夫死，無子，欲自經。家人防之謹，不得間。氏聞茉莉有毒能殺人，多方求之，家人不知也，日供數百朵。逾月，家人為亡者齋祭，婦自撰祭文，辭甚悲。夜五鼓，防者稍懈，取所積花煎飲之，天明死。

The chaste wife Wang was the wife of Yang Ximin, a licentiate of Jinjiang. She was twenty-three when her husband died. Having no son, she wished to hang herself. Her family guarded her closely, and she found no opportunity. The lady heard that jasmine was poisonous and could kill. She sought it by every means, while her family, unaware, supplied her hundreds of blossoms each day. After more than a month, the family held a memorial service for the dead. The wife herself composed the sacrificial text—its words were deeply mournful. At the fifth watch of the night the guards slackened. She brewed the flowers she had saved and drank them, and was dead by dawn.

竇妙善，京師崇文坊人。年十五，為工部主事余姚姜榮妾。正德中，榮以瑞州通判攝府事。華林賊起，寇瑞，榮出走。賊入城，執其妻及婢數人，問榮所在。時妙善居別室，急取府印，開後窗投荷池。衣鮮衣前曰：「太守統援兵數千，出東門捕爾等，旦夕授首，安得執吾婢？」賊意其夫人也，解前所執數人，獨輿妙善出城。適所驅隸中，有盛豹者父子被掠，其子叩頭乞縱父，賊許之。妙善曰：「是有力，當以舁我，何得遽縱。」賊從之。行數里，妙善視前後無賊，低語豹曰：「我所以留汝者，以太守不知印處，欲藉汝告之。今當令汝歸，幸語太守，自此前行遇井，即畢命矣。」呼賊曰：「是人不善舁，可仍縱之，易善舁者。」賊又從之。行至花塢遇井，妙善曰：「吾渴不可忍，可汲水置井傍，吾將飲。」賊如其言，妙善至井傍，跳身以入，賊驚救不得而去。豹入城告榮取印，引至花塢，覓井，果得妙善屍。越七年，郡縣上其事，詔建特祠，賜額貞烈。

Dou Miaoshan was a native of Chongwen Ward in the capital. At fifteen she became the concubine of Jiang Rong of Yuyao, a principal officer in the Ministry of Works. During the Zhengde reign, Rong served as acting prefect while holding the post of vice-prefect of Ruizhou. The Hualin rebels rose in revolt, raided Ruizhou, and Rong fled. The rebels entered the city, seized his wife and several maidservants, and demanded to know where Rong was. Miaoshan was in a separate room. She hurriedly took the prefectural seal, opened the rear window, and cast it into the lotus pond. She dressed in fine clothes and came forward: "The prefect has led several thousand relief troops out the east gate to capture you. Any day now you will lose your heads—how dare you seize my maidservants?" The rebels took her for the prefect's wife. They released those they had seized earlier and carried Miaoshan alone out of the city in a palanquin. Among the servants being driven along was a man named Sheng Bao, father and son, both taken captive. The son kowtowed and begged for his father's release, and the rebels agreed. Miaoshan said, "That man is strong—he should carry my litter. Why release him so soon?" The rebels complied. After several li, Miaoshan saw no rebels ahead or behind and whispered to Bao, "I kept you because the prefect does not know where the seal is—I wanted you to tell him. Now I will have you sent back. Please tell the prefect: from here on, wherever you meet a well along the road ahead, there my life will end." She called to the rebels, "This man is poor at carrying—release him again and find someone better." The rebels again complied. When they reached Huawu and came to a well, Miaoshan said, "I am unbearably thirsty—draw water and set it beside the well. I will drink." The rebels did as she said. Miaoshan reached the well's edge and threw herself in. The rebels were startled, could not save her, and departed. Bao entered the city and told Rong to recover the seal. He led them to Huawu, searched for the well, and found Miaoshan's body. Seven years later the prefecture and county reported the matter. An edict ordered a special shrine built and conferred the title Chaste and Heroic.

石門丐婦，湖州人，莫詳其姓氏。正德中，湖大饑，婦隨其夫及姑走崇德石門市乞食。三人偶相失。婦有色，市人爭挑之。與之食不顧，誘之財亦不顧。寓東高橋上，不復乞食者二日。伺夫與姑皆不至，聚觀者益眾，婦乃從橋上躍入水中死。

The beggar woman of Shimen was a native of Huzhou; her surname is not clearly known. During the Zhengde reign, Huzhou suffered a great famine. The woman followed her husband and mother-in-law to Shimen market in Chongde to beg for food. The three were accidentally separated. The woman was attractive, and men in the market contended to harass her. Offer her food and she ignored it. Tempt her with wealth and she ignored that too. She lodged on East High Bridge and for two days did not beg for food again. When neither her husband nor her mother-in-law appeared, the crowd of onlookers only grew larger. The woman then leaped from the bridge into the water and died.

賈氏，慶雲諸生陳俞妻。正德六年，兵變，值舅病卒，家人挽之避，痛哭曰：「舅尚未斂，婦何惜一死。」身服斬衰不解。兵至，縱火迫之出，罵不絕口，刃及身無完膚，與舅屍同燼。年二十五。

Lady Jia was the wife of Chen Yu, a licentiate of Qingyun. In the sixth year of Zhengde, a military mutiny broke out. Just then her uncle-by-marriage fell ill and died. Her family urged her to flee for safety. Weeping, she said, "My uncle has not yet been encoffined—why should I grudge a single death?" She wore the heaviest mourning garments and did not remove them. When the soldiers arrived, they set fire to force her out. She cursed without cease as blades cut her body until not a patch of skin was whole. She perished in the flames together with her uncle's corpse. She was twenty-five years old.

鄞縣諸生李珂妻胡氏，年十八歸珂。閱七年，珂死，遺男女各一，胡誓不逾閾。鄰火作，珂兄珮往救之，曰：「阿姆來，吾乃出。」珮使妻陳往，婦以七歲男自牖付之，屬曰：「幸念吾夫，善視之。」陳曰：「嬸將何如？」紿之曰：「取少首飾即出。」陳去，胡即累衣箱塞戶，抱三歲女端坐火中死。

Lady Hu was the wife of Li Ke, a licentiate of Yin County. She married him at eighteen. Seven years later Ke died, leaving one son and one daughter. Hu vowed never to remarry. A fire broke out next door. Ke's elder brother Pei went to rescue her, saying, "When you come out, Aunt, I will too." Pei sent his wife Chen. The widow handed her seven-year-old son out through the window and entrusted him, saying, "Please remember my husband and care for him well." Chen said, "Sister-in-law, what will you do?" She deceived her, saying, "I am just fetching a few pieces of jewelry and will come out right away." After Chen left, Hu piled clothing chests to block the door, held her three-year-old daughter, and sat upright in the flames until she died.

陳宗球妻史氏，南安人。夫死將殉有期矣，尚為姑釀酒。姑曰：「婦已決死，生存豈多日，何辛苦為？」曰：「政為日短，故釀而奉姑。」將死，告舅曰：「婦有喪，幸毋髹棺。」遂縊。

Lady Shi was the wife of Chen Zongqiu and a native of Nan'an. Her husband had died and the day she would follow him in death was already set, yet she still brewed wine for her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law said, "Daughter-in-law, you have already resolved to die—how many days of life can remain? Why go to such trouble?" She said, "Precisely because my days are few, I brew wine to serve you." When she was about to die, she told her uncle-in-law, "I am in mourning—please do not lacquer the coffin." Then she hanged herself.

葉氏，定海人。許聘慈谿翁姓，而父母俱歿，遂育於翁。年十四，翁資產日落，且失其姑，舅待之如奴，勞勚萬狀，略無怨色。舅以子幼，欲鬻之羅姓者，葉恚曰：「我非貨也，何輾轉貿易為？」日哽咽垂涕。既知不可免，偽為喜色，舅遂寬之。夜月上，紿諸姒曰：「月色甚佳，盍少猶夷乎？」趨門外良久。諸姒並勸曰：「夜既半矣，盍就寢。」遂入，及晨覓之，則氏已浮屍於河矣，起之色如生。

Lady Ye was a native of Dinghai. She was betrothed to a man surnamed Weng of Cixi. As both her parents had died, she was raised in the Weng household. At fourteen, the Weng family's assets dwindled day by day, and her aunt-in-law also died. Her uncle-by-marriage treated her like a slave. She toiled in countless ways, yet showed scarcely a trace of resentment. Because his son was still young, the uncle wished to sell her off to the Luo family. Ye said in indignation, "I am not merchandise—why should I be passed about in trade?" Day after day she choked back tears. Once she knew there was no escape, she feigned a glad expression, and her uncle relaxed his guard. When the moon rose at night, she deceived her sisters-in-law, saying, "The moonlight is lovely—shall we linger a little?" She went outside the gate and stayed a long while. The sisters-in-law all urged her, "The night is already half gone—shall we not go to bed?" She then came in. When they searched at dawn, Lady Ye's body was already floating in the river. When it was raised, her color was as though she were still alive.

胡貴貞，樂平人。生時，父母欲不舉，其鄰曾媼救之歸，與子天福同乳，欲俟其長而配焉。天福年十八，父母繼亡，家甚落。貴貞父將奪以姻富家，女曰：「我鞠於曾，婦於曾，分姑媳，恩母子，可以饑寒棄之邪？」乃依從姑以居，蓽舍單淺，外人未嘗識其面。其兄乘天福未婚，曳以歸，出視求聘者金寶笄飾。女知不免，潛入房縊死。

Hu Guizhen was a native of Leping. At birth her parents wished not to raise her. A neighbor, Old Woman Zeng, rescued her and took her home. She nursed her together with her son Tianfu, intending to marry the two when they grew up. Tianfu was eighteen when his parents died one after another, and the household fell into great decline. Guizhen's father was about to take her away and marry her into a rich family. The girl said, "I was raised by the Zengs; as a wife I belong to the Zengs. In role we are mother-in-law and daughter-in-law; in affection we are mother and son. How can I be cast off for hunger and cold?" So she went to live with a paternal aunt. Her thatched hut was crude and sparse, and outsiders never once saw her face. Her elder brother, taking advantage of Tianfu's unmarried state, dragged her home and displayed the gold, jewels, and hair ornaments offered by suitors. Knowing there was no escape, she secretly entered a room and hanged herself.

孫氏，吳縣衛廷珪妻。隨夫商販，寓潯陽小江口。寧王陷九江，廷珪適他往，所親急邀孫共逃。孫謂兩女金蓮、玉蓮曰：「我輩異鄉人，汝父不在，逃將安之？今賊已劫鄰家矣，奈何？」女曰：「生死不相離，要當為父全此身耳。」於是母子共一長繩自束，赴河死。

Lady Sun was the wife of Wei Tinggui of Wu County. She followed her husband in trade and lodged at Xiaojiangkou in Xunyang. When the Prince of Ning captured Jiujiang, Tinggui happened to be away. Their relatives urgently urged Sun to flee with them. Sun said to her two daughters Jinlian and Yulian, "We are strangers here, and your father is absent—where would we flee to? The rebels have already looted the neighbor's house—what is to be done?" The daughters said, "In life or death we will not part—we must preserve our bodies intact for Father's sake." Thereupon mother and daughters bound themselves together with one long rope and went into the river to die.

江氏，余幹夏璞妻。正德間，賊至，抱方晬弟走，不得脫。賊將縛之，曰：「誠願與將軍俱，顧吾父年老，惟一弟，幸得全之。」賊以為信，縱令置所抱兒，出遂大聲罵賊，投橋下死。

Lady Jiang was the wife of Xia Pu of Yugan. During the Zhengde reign, bandits arrived. She fled carrying her one-year-old younger brother but could not escape. As the bandits were about to bind her, she said, "I truly wish to go with the general, but my father is old and I have only this one brother—please spare him." The bandits believed her, released her, and let her set down the child she was carrying. Once outside, she loudly cursed the bandits and threw herself beneath the bridge to her death.

後隆慶中，有高明嚴氏，賊掠其境，隨兄出避，遇賊，刃及其兄。女跪泣曰：「父早喪，孀母堅守，恃此一兄，殺之則祀殄矣，請以身代。」賊憫然為納刃。既而欲汙之，則曰：「請釋吾兄即配汝。」及兄去，執不從，竟剖腹而死。

Later, during the Longqing reign, there was Lady Yan of Gaoming. When bandits raided her district, she fled with her elder brother, encountered the bandits, and a blade struck her brother. The girl knelt weeping and said, "My father died early; my widowed mother keeps steadfast vigil. She relies on this one brother alone—if you kill him, our ancestral offerings will end. I beg you to take my life instead." The bandits were moved and sheathed their blades. Later, when they wished to defile her, she said, "Release my brother and I will marry you." After her brother had gone, she steadfastly refused. In the end she cut open her belly and died.

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