Volume 302 Biographies 190: Exemplary Women 2

歐陽氏〈（徐氏馮氏）〉方氏〈（葉氏）〉潘氏楊氏張烈婦〈（蔡氏鄭氏）〉王烈婦〈（許烈婦）〉吳氏沈氏六節婦黃氏〈（張氏）〉張氏〈（葉氏范氏）〉劉氏二女孫烈女〈（蔡烈女）〉陳諫妻李氏胡氏戴氏〈（胡氏）〉許元忱妻胡氏郃陽李氏吳節婦〈（楊氏）〉徐亞長蔣烈婦楊玉英〈（張蟬雲）〉倪氏彭氏〈（劉氏）〉劉氏二孝女黃氏邵氏婢楊貞婦〈（倪氏）〉楊氏丁氏尤氏李氏孫氏方孝女〈（解孝女）〉李氏項貞女壽昌李氏玉亭縣君馬氏王氏劉氏〈（楊氏）〉譚氏〈（張氏）〉李烈婦〈（黃烈婦）〉須烈婦陳節婦〈（馬氏）〉謝烈婦張氏〈（王氏）〉戚家婦金氏〈（楊氏）〉王氏李孝婦〈（洪氏倪氏）〉劉氏

The Ouyang Clan (The Xu Clan; the Feng Clan)]〉 The Fang Clan (The Ye Clan)]〉 Lady Pan, Lady Yang, and Chaste Wife Zhang (The Cai Clan; Lady Zheng)]〉 Chaste Wife Wang (Chaste Wife Xu)]〉 Lady Wu, Lady Shen, the Six Chaste Widows, and Lady Huang (The Zhang Clan)]〉 The Zhang Clan (The Ye Clan; the Fan Clan)]〉 The Liu Clan, the Two Daughters, and the Chaste Daughter Sun (The Chaste Daughter Cai)]〉 The Wife of Chen Jian, Lady Li, Lady Hu, and Lady Dai (Lady Hu)]〉 The Wife of Xu Yuanchen, Lady Hu, Lady Li of Heyang, and Chaste Widow Wu (Lady Yang)]〉 Xu Yachang, Chaste Wife Jiang, and Yang Yuying (Zhang Chanyun)]〉 Lady Ni and Lady Peng (The Liu Clan)]〉 The Liu Clan, the Two Filial Daughters, Lady Huang, the Maid of the Shao Clan, and Chaste Wife Yang (The Ni Clan)]〉 Lady Yang, Lady Ding, Lady You, Lady Li, Lady Sun, and the Filial Daughter Fang (The Filial Daughter Xie)]〉 Lady Li, the Chaste Daughter Xiang, Lady Li of Shouchang, the County Mistress of Yuting, Lady Ma, Lady Wang, and the Liu Clan (Lady Yang)]〉 The Tan Clan (The Zhang Clan)]〉 Chaste Wife Li (Chaste Wife Huang)]〉 Chaste Wife Xu and Chaste Widow Chen (Lady Ma)]〉 Chaste Wife Xie and Lady Zhang (Lady Wang)]〉 Lady Jin, Wife of the Qi Family (Lady Yang)]〉 Lady Wang and the Filial Wife Li (Lady Hong; Lady Ni)]〉 The Liu Clan

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列女二

Exemplary Women 2

歐陽氏，九江人，彭澤王佳傅妻也。事姑至孝。夫亡，氏年方十八，撫遺腹子，紡績為生。父母迫之嫁，乃針刺其額，為誓死守節字，墨涅之，深入膚裏，里人稱為黑頭節婦。

Lady Ouyang was a native of Jiujiang and the wife of Wang Jiafu of Pengze. She served her mother-in-law with exemplary devotion. When her husband died, she was only eighteen. She raised their unborn child and earned a living by spinning and weaving. When her parents urged her to marry again, she pricked her forehead with a needle to tattoo a vow to remain chaste until death, rubbed ink into the wound until the characters were fixed deep in her skin, and her neighbors called her the Black-Faced Chaste Widow.

又徐氏，烏程人。年十六，嫁潘順。未期而夫病篤，顧徐曰：「母老，汝年少，奈何？」徐泣下，即引刀斷左小指，以死誓。夫死，布衣長齋。年七十八卒。遺命取斷指入棺中。家人出其指，所染爪紅色尚存。

There was also Lady Xu of Wucheng. At sixteen she married Pan Shun. Before a year had passed, her husband fell gravely ill. Looking at Xu, he said, "My mother is old and you are still young—what will become of you?" Xu wept, then at once drew a knife and cut off her left little finger as a pledge unto death. After her husband died, she wore plain hemp and observed a lifelong abstinence from meat and wine. She died at the age of seventy-eight. In her final instructions she directed that the severed finger be placed in her coffin. When her family took out the finger, the red stain from her nail polish was still visible.

馮氏，宣城劉慶妻。年十九，夫亡，誓守節。其娣姒諷之曰：「守未易言，非咬斷鐵釘者不能。」馮即投袂起，拔壁上釘嚙之，剨然有齒痕。復抉臂肉，釘著壁上曰：「脫有異志，此即狗彘肉不若。」已而遺腹生子，曰大賢。長娶李氏，大賢又夭，姑婦相守至老。卒，取視壁釘肉，尚韌不腐，齒痕如新。

Lady Feng was the wife of Liu Qing of Xuancheng. At nineteen her husband died, and she vowed to remain chaste. Her sisters-in-law mocked her, saying, "Chastity is easier said than done—only someone who can bite through an iron nail can keep it." Feng at once flung up her sleeves, rose, pulled a nail from the wall, and bit it through, leaving clear tooth marks. She then cut flesh from her arm, nailed it to the wall, and said, "If I ever waver in my resolve, may this flesh be no better than that of dogs and swine." Later she bore a posthumous son named Daxian. When he came of age he married Lady Li, but Daxian also died young, and mother-in-law and daughter-in-law remained together until the end of their lives. When she died they took down the flesh nailed to the wall; it was still firm and uncorrupted, and the tooth marks looked as fresh as ever.

方氏，金華軍士袁堅妻。堅嗜酒敗家，卒殯城北濠上。方貧無所依，乃即殯處置棺，寢處其中，饑則出飲於濠。久之不復出，則死矣。郡守劉郤為封土祭之。

Lady Fang was the wife of Yuan Jian, a soldier of Jinhua. Yuan was addicted to wine and ruined the family; when he died his coffin was placed on the north bank of the city moat. Lady Fang was destitute and had nowhere to turn. She set up a coffin at the burial place and slept inside it, going out to drink from the moat when she was hungry. After a long while she did not come out again, and so she died. The prefect Liu Qie had a mound raised and offered sacrifice on her behalf.

又葉氏，蘭谿人。適神武中衛舍人許伸。伸家素饒於財，以不檢，蕩且盡，攜妻投所親，卒於通州。氏守屍，晝夜跪哭。或遺之食，或饋金，或勸以改嫁，俱卻不應。水漿不入口者十四日，竟死屍傍，年二十餘，州人為買棺合葬。

There was also Lady Ye of Lanxi. She was married to Xu Shen, a gentleman-attendant of the Divine Martial Central Guard. The Xu family had long been wealthy, but through his lack of restraint he squandered it all. He took his wife to seek refuge with a kinsman and died at Tongzhou. She kept vigil over his corpse, kneeling and weeping day and night. Some brought her food, some offered gold, and some urged her to remarry, but she refused them all. For fourteen days she took neither water nor food, and in the end died beside his corpse. She was a little over twenty, and the people of the prefecture bought a coffin and buried them together.

潘氏，海寧人。年十六，歸許釗，生子淮。甫期年，釗卒，既殮，潘自經。死已兩日矣，有老嫗過之曰：「是可活也。」投之藥，更蘇。釗族兄欲不利於孤，嗾潘改適，潘毀容自矢。族兄者，夜率勢家仆數十人誣以債，椎門入。潘負子，冒風雨，逾垣逸。前距大河，追者迫，潘號慟投於河。適有木浮至，憑以渡，達母家，遂止不歸。淮年十九，始歸。淮補諸生，娶婦生五子。潘年五十，宗人聚而祝，族兄者亦至。潘曰：「氏所以得有今日，賴伯氏玉成。」目淮酌酒飲伯，卒爵，北向拜曰：「未亡人，三十年來瀕死者數矣，而顧強生，獨以淮故耳。今幸成立，且多子，復何憾。」語畢入室。頃之宴徹，諸宗人同淮入謝，則縊死室中矣。

Lady Pan was a native of Haining. At sixteen she married Xu Zhao and bore a son named Huai. Just after their first anniversary Zhao died; once he had been encoffined, Pan hanged herself. She had been dead two days when an old woman passed by and said, "She can still be revived." She gave her medicine, and Pan came back to life. Zhao's cousin sought to harm the orphan and urged Pan to remarry, but she mutilated her face and bound herself by vow. That cousin led several dozen henchmen's servants in the dead of night, falsely charged them with debt, and battered down the door. Pan took her son on her back, braved wind and rain, climbed over the wall, and escaped. A great river lay ahead and the pursuers were closing in; Pan wailed in anguish and threw herself into the river. A piece of driftwood happened to float by; she used it to cross, reached her mother's home, and stayed there without returning. She did not return until Huai was nineteen. Huai enrolled as a licentiate, married, and had five sons. When Pan turned fifty, the clan gathered to celebrate; that cousin came as well. Pan said, "That I am where I am today is thanks to my elder clansman's having 'made it all come together." She signaled Huai to pour wine for the elder clansman; when he had drained his cup, she bowed toward the north and said, "As a widow, over the past thirty years I have been near death more than once, yet I forced myself to go on living — and only for Huai's sake. Now he has fortunately come into his own, and has many sons besides — what more could I want?" When she had finished, she withdrew to her room. Before long the feast was over; when the clansmen went in with Huai to thank her, they found she had hanged herself in her room.

楊氏，桐城吳仲淇妻。仲淇卒，家貧，舅欲更嫁之。楊曰：「即饑死，必與舅姑俱。」舅不能奪。數年，家益貧，舅謀於其父母，將以償債。楊仰天呼曰：「以吾口累舅姑，不孝。無所助於貧，不仁。失節則不義。吾有死而已。」因咽發而死。張烈婦，蕪湖諸生繆釜妻。年十八，歸釜。越四年，釜病，屬張善自托。張泣曰：「夫以吾有二心乎？有子則守志奉主，妻道也。無子則潔身殉夫，婦節也。」乃沐浴更衣，闔戶自縊。閱日，而釜乃卒。又蔡烈婦，松陽葉三妻。三負薪為業，蔡小心敬事。三久病，織纴供藥餌。病篤，執婦手訣曰：「及我生而嫁，無受三年苦。」婦梳洗更衣，袖刀前曰：「我先嫁矣。」刎頸死。三驚嘆，尋死。又鄭氏，安陸趙鈓妻。性剛烈，閨房中言動不涉非禮。某寡婦更適人，饋以茶餅。鄭怒，命傾之。夫戲曰：「若勿罵，幸夫不死耳。」鄭正色曰：「君勿憂，我豈為此者。」後鈓疾將死，回視鄭，瞪目不瞑。鄭曰：「君得毋疑我乎？」即自縊於床楣。鈓少蘇，回盼，出淚而絕。

Lady Yang was the wife of Wu Zhongqi of Tongcheng. When Zhongqi died the family was poor, and her father-in-law wanted to marry her off again. Lady Yang said, "Even if we starve, I will die together with my parents-in-law." Her father-in-law could not dissuade her. After several years the family grew still poorer; her father-in-law conspired with her parents to sell her to pay off debts. Lady Yang cried to heaven, "To burden my in-laws with my keep is unfilial. To offer no relief to their poverty is unkind. To lose my chastity would be unrighteous. Death is all I have left." She killed herself by swallowing hair. Chaste Wife Zhang was the wife of the licentiate Miu Fu of Wuhu. At eighteen she married Fu. Four years later, when Fu fell ill, he urged Zhang to look after herself. Zhang wept and said, "Does my husband think I am of two minds? If there is a son, to keep faith and serve one's lord is a wife's duty. If there is no son, to keep one's purity and follow one's husband in death is a woman's chastity." She bathed, changed her clothes, shut the door, and hanged herself. A day later Fu died. Also Chaste Wife Cai, wife of Ye San of Songyang. San made his living carrying firewood; Cai served him attentively and respectfully. When San was long ill, she wove to pay for his medicines. As his illness worsened, he clasped her hand in farewell and said, "Once I am dead, remarry — do not endure three years of hardship." She washed, changed her clothes, hid a knife in her sleeve, and came forward saying, "I will marry first." She cut her throat and died. San cried out in astonishment and soon died. Also Lady Zheng was the wife of Zhao Ren of Anlu. She was fiercely upright; within the inner chambers her words and conduct never touched impropriety. A certain widow remarried and sent tea and cakes as a gift. Zheng was enraged and ordered it thrown out. Her husband joked, "If you had not scolded her, I might not have died so soon." Zheng said gravely, "My lord, do not worry — would I ever do such a thing?" Later, when Ren fell gravely ill and was near death, he turned to look at Zheng, his eyes wide open, unable to close them. Zheng said, "Does my lord perhaps doubt me?" She immediately hanged herself from the bed frame. Ren revived slightly, turned to look again, shed tears, and died.

王烈婦，上元人。夫嗜酒廢業，僦居破屋一間，以竹篷隔內外。婦日塞戶，坐門扉績麻自給。夫與博徒李遊。李悅婦姿，謀亂之。夫被酒，以狂言餂婦，婦奔母家避之。夫逼之歸，夜持酒脯與李俱至，引婦坐，婦駭走且罵。夫以威挾之，婦堅拒，大被搒笞。婦度不免，夜攜幼女坐河干，慟哭投河死。是夜，大風雨，屍不漂沒。及曙，女尚熟睡草間。

Chaste Wife Wang was a native of Shangyuan. Her husband was a drunk who neglected his livelihood; they rented a single dilapidated room, divided inside and out by a bamboo screen. Each day she barred the door and sat at the threshold spinning hemp to support herself. Her husband kept company with a gambler named Li. Li was taken with the wife's beauty and plotted to violate her. Her husband, drunk, tried to win her over with reckless talk; she fled to her mother's home to escape. Her husband forced her to return; one night he brought wine and dried meat and came with Li, tried to make her sit down, and she fled in terror, cursing them. Her husband tried to coerce her by force; she firmly refused and was severely beaten. Seeing no escape, she took her young daughter one night, sat by the riverbank, wept bitterly, and threw herself into the river to die. That night a great storm blew; her body did not drift away and sink. At dawn her daughter was still sleeping peacefully in the grass.

又許烈婦，松江人許初女。夫飲博不治生。諸博徒聚謀曰：「若婦少艾，曷不共我輩歡，日可得錢治酒。」夫即以意喻婦，婦叱之，屢加箠撻不從。一日，諸惡少以酒肴進。婦走避鄰嫗家，泣顧懷中女曰：「而父不才，吾安能顏自存，俟汝之成民也。」少間，聞闔戶聲。嫗覘之，則拔刀刎頸仆地矣。父挈醫來視，取熱雞皮封之，復抓去。明旦氣絕，年二十五。

Also Chaste Wife Xu, daughter of Xu Chu of Songjiang. Her husband drank and gambled without earning a living. The gamblers gathered and plotted, "Your wife is young and fair — why not let us all enjoy her? Each day you could get money for wine." Her husband hinted as much to her; she rebuked him and was repeatedly beaten but would not yield. One day the ruffians brought wine and food. She fled to a neighbor's home, weeping as she looked back at the infant girl in her arms and said, "Your father is worthless — how can I go on living with my honor intact, waiting for you to grow up?" A moment later she heard the sound of a door closing. The old woman looked in and found she had drawn a knife, cut her throat, and collapsed. Her father brought a doctor; hot chicken skin was applied to seal the wound, but she tore it off again. By the next morning she was dead; she was twenty-five.

吳氏，永豐人，名吉姑。年十八，適寧集略。未一年，夫卒，六日不食。所親百方解譬，始食粥，朝暮一溢米。服除，母憐其少，欲令改適。往視之，同寢食三年，竟不敢出一語。歸謂諸婦曰：「此女鐵石心，不可動也。」

Lady Wu of Yongfeng was named Jigu. At eighteen she married Ning Jilüe. Before a year had passed her husband died, and she went six days without eating. Relatives tried every means to comfort her; she finally ate gruel — one dipper of rice morning and evening. When her mourning period ended, her mother pitied her youth and wanted her to remarry. She went to visit her; for three years they shared bed and meals, yet she never dared broach the subject. Returning home she told the other women, "This girl has a heart of iron and stone — she cannot be moved."

慈谿沈氏六節婦。章氏，祚妻。周氏，希魯妻。馮氏，信魁妻。柴氏，惟瑞妻。孟氏，弘量妻。孫氏，琳妻。所居名沈思橋，近海。族眾二千人，多驍黠善鬥。嘉靖中，倭賊入犯，屢殲其魁，奪還虜掠。賊深仇之。一日，賊大至，沈氏豪誓於眾曰：「無出婦女，無輦貨財，共以死守，違者誅。」章亦集族中婦女誓曰：「男子死鬥，婦人死義，無為賊辱。」眾竦息聽命。賊圍合，群婦聚一樓以待。既而賊入，章先出投於河，周與馮從之。紫方為夫礪刃，即以刃斫賊，旋自刃。孟與孫為賊所得，奪賊刃自刺死。時宗婦死者三十餘人，而此六人尤烈。

Six Chaste Widows of the Shen clan of Cixi. Lady Zhang, wife of Zuo. Lady Zhou, wife of Xilu. Lady Feng, wife of Xinkui. Lady Chai, wife of Weirui. Lady Meng, wife of Hongliang. Lady Sun, wife of Lin. They lived at a place called Shensi Bridge, near the sea. The clan numbered two thousand, most of them fierce, cunning, and skilled fighters. During the Jiajing reign, when Wokou raiders invaded, the clan repeatedly killed their leaders and recovered captives and plunder. The pirates deeply hated them. One day the pirates came in force; the Shen clan leaders swore to the assembly, "Do not send out the women; do not haul away goods and wealth — we will all defend this place to the death; whoever disobeys will be put to death." Lady Zhang also gathered the clan's women and swore, "Let the men die fighting; let the women die for righteousness — do not let the pirates dishonor us." All stood in awed silence and obeyed. As the siege closed in, the women gathered in one tower to wait. When the pirates broke in, Lady Zhang went out first and threw herself into the river; Lady Zhou and Lady Feng followed. Lady Chai sharpened a blade for her husband, then used it to hack at the pirates before turning it on herself. Lady Meng and Lady Sun were seized by the pirates; they snatched the pirates' blades and stabbed themselves to death. More than thirty clan women died that day, but these six were especially resolute.

黃氏，沙縣王珣妻。嘉靖中，倭亂，流劫其鄉。鄉之比鄰，皆操舟為業。賊至，眾婦登舟，匿艙中，黃兀坐其外。眾婦呼之曰：「不虞賊見乎？」黃曰：「篷窗安坐，恐賊至不得脫，我居外，便投水耳。」賊至，黃躍入水中死。時同縣羅舉妻張氏，從夫避亂巖穴間。賊至，張與妾及妾子俱為所獲。賊見張美，欲犯之，不從。至中途，張解發自縊，賊斷之。張又解行纏，賊又覺之，徒跣驅至營。賊魁欲留之，張厲聲曰：「速賜一死。」賊曰：「不畏死，吾殺汝妾。」張引頸曰：「請代妾，留撫孩嬰。」賊曰：「吾殺孩嬰。」張引頸曰：「請代孩嬰，存夫嗣。」賊令牽出殺之。張先行，了無懼色。賊方猶豫，張罵不絕口，遂遇害。投屍於河，數日屍浮如生。

Lady Huang was the wife of Wang Xun of Shaxian. During the Jiajing reign, in the Wokou troubles, raiders swept through their district. Their neighbors in the district all made their living on the water. When the pirates came, the other women boarded boats and hid in the holds; Huang alone sat out in the open. The other women called to her, "Are you not afraid the pirates will see you?" Lady Huang said, "If I sit safely inside the cabin, I fear that when the pirates come I will not be able to escape; I stay outside so I can throw myself into the water at once." When the pirates arrived, Lady Huang leaped into the water and died. At the same time, Zhang, wife of Luo Ju of the same county, followed her husband into rocky caves to escape the chaos. When the pirates arrived, Lady Zhang, the concubine, and the concubine's son were all seized. Seeing that Lady Zhang was beautiful, the pirates tried to violate her, but she refused. Halfway along the route, Lady Zhang let down her hair to hang herself; the pirates cut her down. Lady Zhang tried again, undoing her leg wrappings; the pirates caught her once more and drove her barefoot to their camp. The pirate chief wanted to keep her; Lady Zhang cried out sharply, "Grant me a quick death." The pirates said, "If you are not afraid to die, I will kill your concubine." Lady Zhang thrust out her neck and said, "Take me instead of the concubine—let her remain to care for the child." The pirates said, "Then I will kill the infant." Lady Zhang thrust out her neck again and said, "Take me instead of the child—preserve my husband's line." The pirates ordered her dragged out and executed. Lady Zhang went first, showing not a trace of fear. While the pirates still hesitated, Lady Zhang cursed them without cease—and was killed. They threw her body into the river; several days later her corpse rose to the surface, looking as if she were still alive.

張氏，政和遊銓妻。倭寇將至，婦數語其女曰：「婦道惟節是尚，值變之窮，有溺與刃耳，汝謹識之。」銓聞，以為不祥。婦曰：「使婦與女能如此，祥孰大焉。」未幾，賊陷政和，張度不脫，連呼女曰：「省前誨乎？」女頷之，即赴井。張含笑隨之，並死。

Lady Zhang was the wife of You Quan of Zhenghe. As the Wokou were about to arrive, she repeatedly told her daughter, "A woman's virtue lies in chastity alone; when disaster leaves no escape, there is only drowning or the blade—remember this well." When You Quan heard this, he took it as an ill omen. His wife replied, "If my daughter and I could act thus, what greater blessing could there be?" Before long, the raiders sacked Zhenghe; seeing no escape, Lady Zhang called repeatedly to her daughter, "Do you remember what I taught you before?" The daughter nodded and threw herself into a well. Lady Zhang smiled and followed her; both died.

又葉氏，松溪江華妻，陳氏，葉弟惠勝妻，偕里人避倭長潭。值歲除，裏嫗覓刀為幼男發弗得，葉出諸懷中。眾問故，曰：「以備急耳。」及倭圍長潭，執二婦，共系一繩。葉謂陳曰：「我二人被縶，縱生還，亦被惡名，死為愈。」陳唯唯。葉探刀於懷，則已失，各抱幼女跳潭中死。同時林壽妻范氏，亦與眾婦匿山塢。倭搜得眾婦，偕至水南，範獨與抗。或謂姑順之，家且來贖。答曰：「身可贖，辱可贖哉！我則寧死。」賊聞言，殺其幼女恐之，不為勛。曰：「並及汝矣。」厲聲曰：「固我願也！」賊殺之。

There was also Lady Ye, wife of Jiang Hua of Songxi, and Lady Chen, wife of Ye's younger brother Huishèng; together with their fellow villagers they fled the Wokou to Changtan. It was New Year's Eve; an old woman in the lane needed a knife to cut a young boy's hair but could find none—Lady Ye produced one from inside her robe. When the others asked why, she said, "Only for emergencies." When the Wokou besieged Changtan, they seized the two women and bound them together with a single rope. Lady Ye said to Lady Chen, "We two are captives; even if we survive and return home, we will be disgraced—it is better to die." Lady Chen agreed. Lady Ye searched inside her robe for the knife, but it was gone; each woman held her little daughter and leaped into the pool to their deaths. At the same time, Lady Fan, wife of Lin Shou, was hiding with the other women in a mountain hollow. The Wokou found the women and marched them to Shuinan; Lady Fan alone resisted them. Some urged her to submit for now—the family would surely come to ransom her. She answered, "A body can be ransomed—but can dishonor? I would rather die." When the pirates heard this, they killed her young daughter to terrify her, but she would not yield. They said, "You will die as well." She cried out sharply, "That is exactly what I wish!" The pirates killed her.

劉氏二女，興化人。嘉靖四十一年與里中婦同為倭所掠，系路傍神祠中。倭飲酣，遍視系中，先取其姊。姊厲聲曰：「我名家女也，肯汙賊乎？」倭笑慰之曰：「若從我，當詢父母歸汝。」女曰：「父母未可知，此時尚論歸耶？」倭尚撫背作款曲狀。女怒，大罵。時黃昏，倭方縱火，女即赴火死。已復侵其妹，妹又大罵。倭露刃脅之，不為動，曰：「欲殺，即殺。」倭欲強犯之，女紿曰：「吾固願從，俟姊骨燼乃可，否則不忍也。」倭喜負薪益火，火熾，女又赴火死。時同死者四十七人，二女為最。

Two daughters of the Liu clan, from Xinghua. In the forty-first year of the Jiajing reign, they were seized along with other village women by the Wokou and bound in a roadside shrine. The Wokou drank their fill, looked over everyone who was bound, and first took the elder sister. The elder sister cried out, "I am a daughter of a notable family—do you think I would let bandits defile me?" A Wokou smiled and tried to soothe her, "If you yield to me, I will ask your parents and send you home." The girl replied, "Who knows whether my parents still live—and at a moment like this you speak of sending me home?" The Wokou still stroked her back as if to coax her. The girl flew into a rage and cursed him loudly. At dusk the Wokou set a fire; the girl ran straight into the flames and died. They then turned on the younger sister; she too cursed them loudly. A Wokou drew his blade to threaten her; unmoved, she said, "If you want to kill me, then kill me." He tried to force himself on her; the girl feigned compliance and said, "I am willing—but only after my sister's bones are burned to ash; until then I cannot bear it." Delighted, the Wokou piled on wood until the flames leaped high; the girl ran into the fire again and died. Forty-seven died together that day; of them all, the two sisters were the most resolute.

孫烈女，五河人。性貞靜，不茍嬉笑。母朱卒，繼母李攜前夫子鄭州兒來。州兒恃母欲私女，嘗以手挑之，忿批其頰。一日，女方治面，州兒從後摟之。女揪發覓刃，州兒嚙其臂得脫。女奔訴於姊，觸地慟哭曰：「母不幸，父又他出，賊子敢辱我，必刃之而後死。」姊曲撫慰。乃以臂痕示李，使戒戢之。州兒不悛，紿李曰：「兒采薪，臂力不勝，置遺束於路。」李往取之，歸則戶扃甚嚴。從母舒氏亦趨至，曰：「初聞如小犢悲鳴，繼又響震如雷，必有異。」並力啟之，州兒死閾下，項幾斷，女亦倚壁死。蓋州兒誑母出，調女。女陽諾而使之閉門，既躡其後殺之也。又蔡烈女，上元人。少孤，與祖母居。一日，祖母出，有逐仆為僧者來乞食，挑之，不從。挾以刃，女徒手搏之，受傷十餘處，罵不絕，宛轉死竈下。賊遁去，官行驗，忽來首伏。官怪問故。賊曰：「女拘我至此。」遂抵罪。

Sun the chaste maiden was from Wuhe. Chaste and reserved by nature, she never laughed or jested lightly. After her mother Zhu died, her stepmother Li arrived with Zhou, her son from a previous marriage. Zhou'er, emboldened by his mother's presence, tried to seduce her; once he touched her with his hand, and she slapped his face in fury. One day, while she was at her toilet, Zhou'er grabbed her from behind. She seized her hair and searched for a knife; Zhou'er bit her arm and broke free. She ran to her elder sister, threw herself to the ground, and wept, "Mother is gone, and Father is away—this villain dares dishonor me; I will cut him down before I die." Her sister gently comforted her. She showed the bite mark on her arm to Li and asked her to restrain him. Zhou'er would not mend his ways; he tricked Li, saying, "I was gathering firewood but could not carry it all—I left a bundle on the road." Li went to fetch it; when she returned, the door was bolted shut. Her aunt Shu hurried over as well and said, "At first I heard something like a calf lowing in distress, then a crash like thunder—something is wrong." Together they forced the door open: Zhou'er lay dead below the threshold, his neck nearly severed; the girl sat dead against the wall. Zhou'er had tricked his mother into going out so he could molest the girl. She had pretended to yield and told him to bolt the door, then killed him from behind. There was also Cai the chaste maiden, from Shangyuan. Orphaned young, she lived alone with her grandmother. One day her grandmother went out; a disgraced servant who had become a monk came begging for food, tried to molest her, and she refused. He threatened her with a knife; she fought him bare-handed, suffering more than ten wounds, cursing him without cease until she died writhing beneath the stove. The assailant fled; when officials arrived to investigate, he suddenly appeared to confess. The officials were astonished and asked why. The man said, "The girl compelled me to come here." He was convicted and punished.

陳諫妻李氏，番禺人。諫，嘉靖十一年進士。為太平推官，兩月卒，其弟扶櫬歸。李曰：「吾少嫠也，豈可與叔萬里同歸哉！」遂不食死。

Lady Li, wife of Chen Jian, was from Panyu. Chen Jian passed the metropolitan examination in the eleventh year of the Jiajing reign. He served as magistrate of Taiping and died within two months; his younger brother escorted the coffin home. Lady Li said, "I have been a widow since I was young—how could I travel a thousand miles home with my husband's younger brother!" She then refused food until she died.

胡氏，會稽人。字同里沈袠。將嫁，而袠遘父煉難，二兄袞、褒杖死塞上，袠與兄襄並逮系宣府獄。總督楊順逢嚴嵩意，必欲置二子死，搒掠數百，令夜分具二子病狀。會順為給事中吳時來所劾，就檻車去，襄等乃得釋。自是病嘔血，扶父喪歸，比服闋始婚，胡年已二十七。逾六月，袠卒，胡哀哭不絕聲，盡出奩具治喪事。有他諷者，斷發剺面絕之。終日一室中，即同產非時不見。晚染疾，家人將迎醫，告其父曰：「寡婦之手豈可令他人視。」不藥而卒，年五十一。以襄子嗣。

Lady Hu was from Kuaiji. She was betrothed to Shen Zhi, a man of the same district. Just before the wedding, Shen Zhi's father was caught in a political purge; two of his elder brothers, Gun and Bao, were beaten to death on the frontier; Zhi and another brother, Xiang, were arrested and imprisoned at Xuanfu. The governor-general Yang Shun, eager to please Yan Song, was resolved to kill the two brothers; after hundreds of blows he ordered that, by midnight, medical reports documenting their fatal illness be submitted. When Yang was impeached by the supervising secretary Wu Shilai and led away in a prisoner cart, Xiang and the others were finally released. Zhi thereafter suffered from coughing blood; he escorted his father's coffin home and did not marry until mourning was complete—by then Hu was twenty-seven. Six months later Zhi died; Lady Hu wailed without cease and spent her entire dowry on the funeral. When anyone urged her to remarry, she cut her hair and disfigured her face to cut them off. She remained in one room all day and would not even receive her own siblings except at appointed times. In her later years she fell ill; when her family tried to send for a doctor, she told her father-in-law, "Can a widow's hands be seen by strangers?" She refused medicine and died, at the age of fifty-one. She adopted Xiang's son as heir.

戴氏，莆田人，名清。歸蔡本澄，年甫十四。居二年，本澄以世籍戍遼東，買妾代婦行。戴父與約曰：「遼左天末，五年不歸，吾女當改嫁矣。」至期，父語清如約。泣不從，獨居十有五年。本澄歸，生一子，未晬，父子相繼亡。清哀毀幾絕。父潛受吳氏聘，清聞之曰：「人呼女蔡本澄婦耳，何又云吳耶？」即往父家，使絕婚。吳訟之官，令守節，表曰寡婦清之門。時莆又有歐茂仁妻胡氏，守節嚴苦，內外重之。郡有獄久不斷，人曰：「太守可問胡寡婦。」守乃過婦問之，一言而決。

Lady Dai, from Putian, was called Qing. She married Cai Bencheng when she was only fourteen. After two years, Bencheng was conscripted for frontier service in Liaodong on account of hereditary registration; he bought a concubine to take his wife's place on the march. Qing's father struck a bargain with him: "Liaodong is at the ends of the earth; if you are not home within five years, my daughter may remarry." When the five years were up, her father told Qing of the agreement. She wept and refused; she lived alone for fifteen years more. Bencheng returned, and she bore a son; before the baby was a year old, husband and child died in succession. Qing grieved so deeply she nearly died of sorrow. Her father secretly accepted a betrothal from the Wu clan. When Qing heard of it, she said, "People call me the wife of Cai Bencheng—why should anyone now speak of the Wus?" She went at once to her father's house and made him break off the engagement. The Wus brought suit at the yamen; the magistrate ordered her to maintain chastity and erected an archway inscribed "The Gate of Widow Qing." At that time in Pu there was also Hu, wife of Ou Maoren, whose chaste widowhood was stern and arduous, and she was respected both within her household and beyond it. In the commandery was a case long unresolved; people said, "The governor should consult Widow Hu." The governor then visited the woman to ask her, and with a single word the case was decided.

胡氏，鄞許元忱妻。元忱為徐祝師養子，習巫祝事。胡鄙之，勸夫改業，且勸歸許宗。未果，而元忱疫死。氏殯之許氏廬，苫臥柩傍，夜擁一刀臥。裏某求氏為偶，氏毀面截鬢髮，斷左手三指，流血淋漓，某驚遁。族婦尊行抱持之，大慟，因立應後者，令子之。氏服喪三年，不浣不櫛。畢葬，乃為子娶婦。夫有弟少流移於外，復為返之，許氏賴以復起。

Lady Hu was wife of Xu Yuanchen of Yin. Yuanchen was an adopted son of the Xu shaman-priest family and had been trained in shamanic rites. Hu despised this life and urged her husband to change his occupation and to rejoin the Xu lineage. Before this could be achieved, Yuanchen died of pestilence. She laid out his body in a Xu clan hall, slept on straw beside the coffin, and at night slept clutching a knife. A certain man of Li sought her for marriage; she disfigured her face, cut off her side locks and hair, and severed three fingers of her left hand; blood poured freely, and the man fled in alarm. An elder woman of the clan held her in her arms and wailed greatly; she then established a male heir and adopted him as her son. She observed mourning for three years without washing or combing her hair. When the burial was complete, she found a wife for her son. Her husband had a younger brother who as a youth had drifted away; she brought him back, and the Xu clan thereby revived.

李氏，郃陽安尚起妻。尚起商河南，病亡。氏聞訃，盡變產完夫債，且置棺以待夫櫬歸，跪告族黨曰：「煩舉二棺入地。」閉戶將自縊，鄰婦欲生之，排闥曰：「爾尚有所逋，何遽死？」氏啟門應曰：「然吾資已盡，奈何？請復待一日。」乃紉履一雙往畀之，曰：「得此足償矣。」歸家，遂縊死。

Lady Li was wife of An Shangqi of Heyang. Shangqi traded in Henan and died of illness. When she heard the death notice, she sold all her property to settle her husband's debts, prepared a coffin to await his return, and kneeling told the clan, "I ask you to lower two coffins into the earth." She closed the door intending to hang herself; a neighbor woman wishing to save her broke in and said, "You still have outstanding debts—why hurry to die?" She opened the door and answered, "But I have exhausted my means—what am I to do? Please wait one more day." She then sewed a pair of shoes and brought them to pay the debt, saying, "With this the debt is fully repaid." She returned home and hanged herself.

吳節婦，無為周凝貞妻。凝貞卒，婦年二十四，毀容誓死，不更適，傭女工以奉孀姑。姑老臥病，齒毀弗能食。婦絕其兒乳以乳姑，冬月臥擁姑背以暖之，宛轉床席者三年。姑卒，哀毀骨立，年七十五終。又楊氏，清苑劉壽昌妻。年十九，夫卒，誓死殉。念姑病無依，乃不死。母家來迎，以姑老不忍去側，竟不歸寧。閱三十年，姑卒，葬畢，哀號夫墓曰：「妾今得相從地下矣。」遂絕粒。家人問遺言。曰：「姑服在身，殮以布素。」遂瞑。

Chaste Widow Wu was wife of Zhou Ningzhen of Wuwei. When Ningzhen died, the wife was twenty-four; she disfigured herself, swore to die rather than live, refused remarriage, and hired out as a seamstress to support her widowed mother-in-law. The mother-in-law was old and bedridden; her teeth were ruined and she could not eat. The wife weaned her own child so she could nurse her mother-in-law; in winter she slept embracing her mother-in-law's back to warm her, turning this way and that upon the bed for three years. When the mother-in-law died, she grieved until her bones stood bare; she died at the age of seventy-five. Also Lady Yang, wife of Liu Shouchang of Qingyuan. At nineteen her husband died; she swore to die with him. Seeing her mother-in-law ill and with no one to rely on, she did not die. Her natal family came to fetch her, but because her mother-in-law was old she could not bear to leave her side and never returned home for visits. After thirty years her mother-in-law died; when the burial was complete, she wailed at her husband's grave, "Your handmaid may now follow you underground." She then stopped eating. The family asked her final wishes. She said, "Mourning garb for my mother-in-law is still on me—bury me in plain cloth." Then she closed her eyes.

徐亞長，東莞徐添男女。添男為徐姓仆，生亞長四歲而死。母以亞長還其主，去而別適。比長，貞靜寡言笑，居群婢中，凜然有難犯之色。家童進旺欲私之，不可。亞長奉主命草豆田中，進旺跡而迫之，力拒獲免，因哭曰：「聞郎君讀書，有寡婦手為人所引，斧斷其手，況我尚女也，何以生為！」遂投江死。

Xu Yachang was daughter of Xu Tiannan of Dongguan. Tiannan was a servant of the Xu clan; he fathered Yachang and died when she was four. Her mother returned Yachang to the master and departed to marry elsewhere. When she grew up, she was chaste and quiet, rarely speaking or smiling; among the maidservants she had an austere bearing that none dared violate. A houseboy named Jinwang sought intimacy with her but could not. Yachang was ordered by her master to weed the bean field; Jinwang tracked her and pressed close; she resisted with force and escaped, then wept, "I hear the young master reads books—when a widow's hand was led astray by a man, an axe severed it; and I am still an unmarried girl—what reason have I to live!" She then threw herself into the river and died.

蔣烈婦，丹陽姜士進妻。幼穎悟，喜讀書。弟文止方就外傅。夜歸，輒以餅餌啖之，令誦日所授書，悉能記憶，久之遂能文。歸士進數年，士進病瘵死。婦屑金和酒飲之，並飲鹽鹵。其父數偵知，奔救免。不食者十二日，父啟其齒飲之藥，復不死。禮部尚書寶，士進從父也，知婦嗜讀書，多置古圖史於其寢所，令續劉向《列女傳》。婦許諾，家人備之益謹。一日，婦命於繐帳前掘坎埋大缸貯水，笑謂家人：「吾將種白蓮於此，此花出泥淖無所染，令亡者知予心耳。」於是日纂輯不懈。書將成，防者稍不戒，則濡首缸中死矣。為文脫稿即毀，所存《列女傳》及《哭夫文》四篇、《夢夫賦》一篇，皆文止竊而得之者。御史聞於朝，榜其門曰文章貞節。初，其兄見女能文，以李易安、朱淑真比之，輒嚬蹙曰：「易安更嫁，而淑真不慊其夫，雖能文，大節虧矣。」其幼時誌操已如此。

Chaste Wife Jiang was wife of Jiang Shijin of Danyang. From youth she was quick-witted and loved reading books. Her younger brother Wenzhi had just begun studying with an outside tutor. When he came home at night, she would feed him cakes and snacks and make him recite the day's lessons; he could remember them all, and in time he learned to write essays. After several years of marriage to Shijin, Shijin died of consumption. The wife mixed gold filings with wine and drank it, and also drank brine. Her father repeatedly discovered this and rushed to save her. For twelve days she ate nothing; her father forced open her teeth and poured in medicine, and again she did not die. Minister of Rites Jiang Bao—Shijin's paternal uncle—knowing the wife loved reading, placed many ancient illustrated histories in her bedroom and had her continue Liu Xiang's Biographies of Exemplary Women. The wife agreed; the family kept watch all the more strictly. One day the wife ordered a pit dug before the bed curtain to bury a great jar of water, and smiling told the family, "I shall plant white lotus here—this flower rises from the mud yet is unstained, so the dead may know my heart." Thereafter she compiled daily without slackening. When the book was nearly done, the watchers relaxed their vigil somewhat, and she drowned her head in the jar and died. Her writings were destroyed as soon as drafts were finished; the surviving Biographies of Exemplary Women, four Laments for My Husband, and one Rhapsody Dreaming of My Husband were all secretly obtained by Wenzhi. The censor reported it at court, and an archway was erected over her gate reading "Literary Fidelity and Chaste Constancy." Earlier, when her elder brother saw the girl could write and compared her to Li Yi'an and Zhu Shuzhen, she would always frown and say, "Yi'an remarried, and Shuzhen was discontent with her husband—though they could write, their great integrity was lacking." Even in youth her resolution was thus.

楊玉英，建寧人。涉獵書史，善吟詠。年十八，許字官時中。時中有非意之獄，父母改受他聘。玉英聞之，囑其婢曰：「吾篋有佩囊、布鞵諸物，異日以遺官官人。」婢弗悟，諸之。於是竊入寢室，自經死，目不瞑。時中聞訃，具禮往祭，以手掩之，遂瞑。婢出所遺物，付父母啟之，得詩云：「昆山一片玉，既售與卞和。和足苦被刖，玉堅不可磨。若再付他人，其如平生何！」又張蟬雲，蒲城人，許字俞檜。萬曆中，檜被誣系獄。女聞可賄脫，謀諸母，欲貨妝奩助之。母不可，曰：「汝未嫁，何為若此。」女方食，即以碗擲地，恚不語。入暮自縊死。

Yang Yuying was from Jianning. She read widely in books and histories and was skilled in poetry. At eighteen she was betrothed to Guan Shizhong. Shizhong was caught in an unjust case; her parents accepted another betrothal. When Yuying heard of it, she told her maid, "In my chest are a sachet, cloth shoes, and other things—on another day give them to Master Guan." The maid did not understand and questioned her. She then stole into her bedroom and hanged herself; her eyes would not close. When Shizhong heard the death notice, he went with full rites to mourn; he covered them with his hand, and they closed. The maid brought out the bequeathed items for her parents to open; they found a poem saying, "A piece of jade from Kunshan—once sold to Bian He. He suffered the cutting off of his feet in anguish—the jade is hard and cannot be ground away. If it were given to another man—how would that honor our shared life!" Also Zhang Chanyun of Pucheng was betrothed to Yu Hui. During the Wanli reign, Hui was falsely accused and imprisoned. The girl heard he could be released by bribery and discussed with her mother a plan to sell her dowry to help. Her mother refused, saying, "You are not yet married—why act thus?" While the girl was eating, she threw her bowl to the floor, angry and silent. At dusk she hanged herself.

陳襄妻倪氏。襄為鄞諸生，早卒。婦年三十，無子，家貧，力女紅養姑。有慕其姿者，遣媒白姑。婦煎沸湯自漬其面，左目爆出，又以煙煤塗傷處，遂成獰惡狀。媒過之，驚走，不敢復以聘告。歷二十年，姑壽七十餘卒，婦哀慟不食死。

Ni, wife of Chen Xiang. Xiang was a licentiate of Yin and died young. The wife was thirty, childless, and poor; she worked needlework to support her mother-in-law. Someone who admired her beauty sent a matchmaker to tell the mother-in-law. The wife boiled water and scalded her own face; her left eye burst out; she also smeared coal dust on the wounds until she had a hideous appearance. When the matchmaker passed by she fled in alarm and dared not mention marriage again. After twenty years the mother-in-law died in her seventies; the wife grieved and refused food until she died.

彭氏，安丘人。幼字王枚臯。未嫁，枚臯卒，誓不再適。濰縣丁道平密囑其父欲娶之。彭察知，六日不食。道平悔而止，心敬女節烈，後聞其疾革不起，贈以棺。彭語父曰：「可束葦埋我，亟還丁氏棺，地下欲見王枚臯也。」遂死。又劉氏，潁州劉梅女，許聘李之本。之本歿，女泣血不食，語父曰：「兒為李郎服三年，需弟稍長，然後殉。寄語翁，且勿為郎置槨。」遂盡去鉛華，教弟讀書，親正句讀。越一年，梅潛許田家。女聞，中夜開篋，取李幣，挑燈制衣，衣之，縊死。知府謝詔臨其喪，鄰里吊者如市。田家亦具奠賻，舉酒方酹，柩前承灌瓦盆劃然而碎，起高丈餘，繞檐如蝶墜。觀者震色。

Lady Peng was from Anqiu. From youth she was betrothed to Wang Meigao. Before marriage Meigao died; she vowed never to remarry. Ding Daoping of Weixian secretly told her father he wished to marry her. Peng learned of it and ate nothing for six days. Daoping regretted and stopped; he respected her chaste integrity, and later, hearing she was gravely ill and would not recover, sent her a coffin as a gift. Peng told her father, "You may bind reeds to bury me—return Ding's coffin at once; below ground I wish to meet Wang Meigao." Then she died. Also Lady Liu, daughter of Liu Mei of Yingzhou, was betrothed to Li Zhiben. When Zhiben died, the girl wept blood and refused food, telling her father, "Your daughter will mourn Li for three years; when my younger brother is grown a little, then I shall die with him. Tell the old gentleman not yet to prepare a coffin for him." She then put aside all cosmetics, taught her brother to read, and personally corrected his parsing of passages. After a year Mei secretly betrothed her to the Tian clan. When the girl heard, in the middle of the night she opened her chest, took out Li's betrothal gifts, sewed garments by lamplight, put them on, and hanged herself. Prefect Xie Zhao came to her funeral, and mourners from the neighborhood filled the streets like a market fair. The Tian family brought offerings and gifts as well. Just as they raised wine to pour a libation, the earthen basin before the coffin that caught the offering shattered with a sharp crack, flew more than ten feet into the air, and drifted around the eaves before falling like butterflies. The onlookers went pale with shock.

劉氏二孝女，汝陽人。父玉生七女，家貧力田。嘗至隴上，嘆曰：「生女不生男，使我扶犁不輟。」其第四、第六女聞之惻然，誓不嫁，著短衣代父耕作。及父母相繼卒，無力營葬，二女即屋為丘，不離親側。隆慶四年，督學副使楊俊民、知府史桂芳詣其舍請見，二女年皆逾六十矣。

The two filial daughters of the Liu family were from Ruyang. Their father Yu had seven daughters. The family was poor and worked the fields themselves. Once on the ridge between the fields, he sighed and said, "Daughters instead of sons—so I must keep to the plow without rest." When the fourth and sixth daughters heard this, their hearts were moved. They vowed never to marry, dressed in short work clothes, and took over the farming for their father. When their parents died in succession and they could not afford a proper burial, the two sisters turned their home into a burial mound and never left their parents' side. In the fourth year of the Longqing reign, Education Intendant Yang Junmin and Prefect Shi Guifang came to their home seeking an audience—and both sisters were already over sixty.

黃氏，江寧陳伯妻。年十八，歸伯。父死，母欲改節，氏苦諫不從。一日，母來省，女閉門不與相見，母慚去。後伯疾篤，黃誓不獨生。一日，姑扶伯起坐，黃熟視曰：「嗟乎！病至此，吾無望矣。」走竈下，碎食器刺喉不殊，以廚刀自刎死，年二十一。

Lady Huang was the wife of Chen Bo of Jiangning. At eighteen she married Bo. After her father died, her mother wished to remarry. Lady Huang pleaded with her earnestly but could not dissuade her. One day when her mother came to visit, the daughter shut the door and refused to see her. Her mother withdrew in shame. Later, when Bo fell mortally ill, Huang vowed she would not survive him. One day, as her mother-in-law helped Bo sit up, Huang looked closely at him and said, "Ah— the illness has come to this. I have no hope left." She ran to the kitchen, smashed a dish and stabbed at her throat without effect, then took a kitchen knife and cut her own throat. She was twenty-one.

邵氏，丹陽大俠邵方家婢也。方子儀，令婢視之。故相徐階、高拱並家居，方以策幹階，階不用，即走謁拱，為營復相，名傾中外。萬曆初，拱罷，張居正屬巡撫張佳胤捕殺方，並逮儀。儀甫三歲，捕者以日暮未發，閉方所居宅，守之。方女夫武進沈應奎，義烈士，負氣有力，時為諸生，念儀死，邵氏絕，將往救之。而府推官與應奎善，固邀飲，夜分乃罷。武進距方居五十里，應奎逾城出，夜半抵方家，逾墻入，婢方坐燈下，抱儀泣曰：「安得沈郎來，屬以此子。」應奎倉卒前，婢立以儀授之，頓首曰：「邵氏之祀在君矣。此子生，婢死無憾。」應奎匿儀去，晨謁推官。旦日，捕者失儀，系婢毒掠，終無言。或言於守曰：「必應奎匿之。」奎所善推官在坐，大笑曰：「冤哉！應奎夜飲於余，晨又謁余也。」會有為方解者，事乃寢，婢撫其子以老。

Lady Shao was a servant in the household of Shao Fang, a renowned swashbuckler of Danyang. Fang had a son named Yi, whom he entrusted to the maid to raise. Former chief ministers Xu Jie and Gao Gong were both retired at home. Shao Fang tried to win Xu Jie's favor with schemes, but Xu would have none of it. Fang then went to Gao Gong, who helped restore him to the chief ministership, making his name resound throughout the realm. Early in the Wanli reign, after Gao Gong was dismissed, Zhang Juzheng ordered Grand Coordinator Zhang Jiayin to capture and kill Shao Fang and take Yi into custody as well. Yi was only three years old. The arrest party, delayed by nightfall, sealed Shao Fang's house and posted guards. Fang's son-in-law Shen Yingkui of Wujin was a man of fierce loyalty and great strength, then a student at the imperial academy. He feared that if Yi were killed, the Shao line would be extinguished, and resolved to rescue the boy. But a magistrate's assistant who was Yingkui's friend insisted on keeping him at wine, and they did not part until the middle of the night. Wujin was fifty li from Fang's house. Yingkui climbed over the city wall and by midnight reached the Shao residence. He scaled the wall and found the maid sitting by lamplight, holding Yi and weeping: "If only Shen could come—I would entrust this child to him." Yingkui stepped forward without warning. The maid rose and placed Yi in his arms, then kowtowed and said, "The continuation of the Shao line is now in your hands. If this child lives, I die without regret." Yingkui concealed Yi and fled. At dawn he called on the assistant magistrate. The next morning the arrest party discovered Yi missing. They bound the maid and tortured her brutally, but she never said a word. Someone told the prefect, "Yingkui must be the one hiding him." The assistant magistrate who was Yingkui's friend was seated nearby and laughed aloud: "What an injustice! Yingkui drank at my house last night and came to see me again this morning." Just then someone pleaded on Fang's behalf, and the matter was dropped. The maid raised the child to adulthood.

楊貞婦，潼關衛人，字郭恒。萬曆初，客遊湖南，久不歸。父議納他聘，女不可，斷發自守。家有巖壁，穴墻居之，垂橐以通飲食，如是者二十六年。恒歸，乃成禮。又有倪氏，歸安人，許聘陳敏。敏從征，傳為已死。逾五十載始歸。倪守志不嫁，至是成婚，年六十一矣。

The chaste wife Yang, of Tongguan Guard, was betrothed to Guo Heng. Early in the Wanli reign, Heng traveled to Hunan as a visitor and did not return for many years. Her father considered arranging another match. The daughter refused, cropped her hair, and held to her vow. At home there was a cliff face. She hollowed out a cell in the rock and lived there, receiving food and drink through a pouch lowered from above—for twenty-six years. When Heng at last returned, they were married. There was also Lady Ni of Gui'an, betrothed to Chen Min. Min went off on campaign, and word came that he had died. More than fifty years passed before he returned. Ni had kept her vow and never remarried. They married at last—she was sixty-one.

楊氏，寧國饒鼎妻。鼎以單衣溺死湖中，楊招魂葬之，課二子成立，冬不衣袷。萬曆初，年八十，竟單衣入宅旁池中，端坐死。

Lady Yang was the wife of Rao Ding of Ningguo. Ding drowned in the lake wearing only a thin garment. Yang performed rites to summon his soul and gave him burial, raised their two sons to maturity, and wore no padded coat even in winter. Early in the Wanli reign, at eighty, she entered the pond beside her home dressed only in a thin robe and died sitting upright in the water.

丁氏，五河王序禮妻。序禮弟序爵客外，為賊所殺，其妻郭氏懷孕未即殉。及生子越月，投繯死。時丁氏適生女，泣謂序禮曰：「叔不幸客死，嬸復殉，棄孤不養，責在君與妾也。妾初舉女，後尚有期，孤亡則斬叔之嗣，且負嬸矣。」遂棄女乳侄。未幾，序禮亦死，竟無子女。氏年方少，撫侄長，絕無怨悔。

Lady Ding was the wife of Wang Xuli of Wuhe. Xuli's younger brother Xujue was killed by bandits while traveling. His wife Lady Guo was pregnant and could not yet die with him. A month after giving birth, she hanged herself. Ding had just given birth to a daughter. Weeping, she told Xuli, "Your brother died far from home, and his wife has followed him in death. If we abandon this orphan, the blame will be ours. I have just had a daughter, and there may be more children to come. If this orphan dies, your brother's line ends—and I fail his wife as well." She then set aside her own daughter and nursed the nephew instead. Before long Xuli died too, and in the end they had no children of their own. Though still young, Ding raised the boy to manhood without a trace of bitterness or regret.

尤氏，昆山貢生鏞女。嫁諸生趙一鳳，早死，將殉之，顧二子方繈褓，為強食。二子復殤，慟曰：「可以從夫矣。」痛夫未葬，即營窀穸。惡少年艷其色，訾其目曰：「彼盼美而流，烏能久也。」婦聞之，夜取石灰手挼目，血出立枯。置棺自隨。夫葬畢，即自縊，或解之，乃觸石裂額，趨臥棺中死。

Lady You was the daughter of Yong, a tribute student of Kunshan. She married the scholar Zhao Yifeng, who died young. She meant to die with him, but her two sons were still infants, so she forced herself to eat and live. When both sons died in infancy, she grieved: "Now I can join my husband." Her husband had not yet been buried; she immediately set about preparing his tomb. A vicious young man, taken with her beauty, mocked her eyes: "Those come-hither glances—she won't hold out long." When she heard this, she took lime that night and rubbed it into her eyes until blood ran and they shriveled at once. She kept a coffin ready beside her at all times. Once her husband was buried, she hanged herself. When someone cut her down, she dashed her forehead against a stone, then flung herself into the coffin and died.

李氏，王寵麟繼妻。寵麟仕知府卒，氏年二十餘，哭泣不食，經四十日疾革。知族人利其資，必以惡語傾前妻子，預戒家人置己棺中，勿封殮。眾果猬集，噪孤殺母。氏從棺中言：「已知汝輩計必出此也。」眾大慚而去，然後瞑。

Lady Li was the second wife of Wang Chonglin. Chonglin died while serving as prefect. Li was barely twenty. She wept and refused food until, after forty days, she lay near death. Knowing her kinsmen coveted the estate and would slander her stepson, she told her family in advance to place her in a coffin but leave it unsealed. The relatives crowded in as expected, shouting that the boy had murdered his mother. From inside the coffin Li spoke: "I knew you would stoop to this." The relatives slunk away in shame. Only then did she close her eyes for the last time.

孫氏，甌寧人。幼解經史，字吳廷桂。廷桂死，孫欲左喪，家人止不得，父為命輿。曰：「奔喪而輿，可乎？」入夜，徒步往，挾納采雙金雀以見舅姑。拜畢，奠柩側，遂不離次，期必死。吳家故貧，所治棺，取具而已。好事者助以美槚，孫視之曰：「木以美逾吾夫，非禮矣。」卻之。以槥櫝來，乃許。屆期縊死，書衣帶中云：「男毋附屍，女毋啟衣。」

Lady Sun was from Ouning. From childhood she knew the classics and histories. She was betrothed to Wu Tinggui. When Tinggui died, Sun wished to join him in death, but her family would not allow it. Her father ordered a sedan chair for her. She said, "Can one rush to a funeral riding in a sedan?" That night she went on foot, bearing the pair of golden sparrows from the betrothal rites to present herself to her in-laws. After paying her respects, she made offerings beside the coffin and never left the bier, determined to die. The Wu family was poor; the coffin they had prepared was barely sufficient. Sympathizers offered fine coffin wood. Sun looked at it and said, "Wood finer than my husband deserves violates propriety." She declined it. When a plain coffin was offered, she accepted. When the day came she hanged herself. In her sash she left a note: "Let no man cling to my corpse; let no woman lift my shroud."

方孝女，莆田人。父瀾，官儀制郎中，卒京師。女年十四，無他兄弟，與叔父扶櫬歸。渡揚子江，中流舟覆，櫬浮。女時居別舟，皇遽呼救，風濤洶怒，人莫敢前。女仰天大哭，遂赴水死。經三日，屍浮，傍父櫬，同泊南岸。又有解孝女，寧陵人。年十四，同母浣衣。母誤溺水，女四顧無人，號泣投水。俄兄紹武至，泅而得之，母女皆死。女手挽母甚堅，兄救母，久之復蘇。女手仍不解，兄哭撫之曰：「母已生，妹可慰矣。」乃解。

The filial daughter Fang was from Putian. Her father Lan, Director of Ceremonial Regulations, died in the capital. The girl was fourteen, with no other brothers. She and her uncle escorted the coffin home. Crossing the Yangzi, the boat capsized midstream. The coffin floated free. The girl was in another boat. Desperately she called for help, but the wind and waves raged and no one dared approach. The girl raised her face to heaven and wailed, then plunged into the water and drowned. Three days later her body rose to the surface beside her father's coffin. Both drifted to the south bank together. There was also the filial daughter Xie of Ningling. At fourteen she was washing clothes with her mother. Her mother slipped into the water. Finding no one nearby, the girl wailed and jumped in after her. Her brother Shaowu arrived moments later. He swam out and pulled them ashore—but mother and daughter were both lifeless. The girl's grip on her mother was iron-strong. The brother revived the mother, who after a long while came back to consciousness. The girl's grip would not loosen. Her brother wept and said, "Mother lives—little sister, you may rest now." Only then did she let go.

李氏，東鄉何璇妻。璇客死。李有殊色，父迫之嫁。遂以簪入耳中，手自拳之至沒，復拔出，血濺如註。姑覺，呼家人救，則已死矣。

Lady Li was the wife of He Xuan of Dongxiang. Xuan died far from home. Li was strikingly beautiful. Her father pressed her to marry again. She drove a hairpin into her ear, pushing it in with her fist until it disappeared, then pulled it out again. Blood gushed as if from a fountain. Her mother-in-law noticed and called for help, but Li was already dead.

項貞女，秀水人。國子生道亨女，字吳江周應祁。精女工，解琴瑟，通《列女傳》，事祖母及母極孝。年十九，聞周病瘵，即持齋、燃香燈禮佛，默有所祝，侍女輩竊聽，微聞以身代語。一日，謂乳媼曰：「未嫁而夫亡，當奈何？」曰：「未成婦，改字無害。」女正容曰：「昔賢以一劍許人，猶不忍負，況身乎？」及訃聞，父母秘其事，然傳吳江人來，女已喻。祖母屬其母入視，女留母坐，色甚溫，母釋然去。夜伺諸婢熟睡，獨起以素絲約發，衣內外悉易以縞，而紉其下裳。檢衣物當勞諸婢者，名標之，列諸床上。大書於幾曰：「上告父母，兒不得奉一日，今為周郎死矣。」遂自縊。兩家父母從其志，竟合葬焉。

The chaste daughter Xiang was from Xiushui. She was the daughter of the academy student Daoheng, betrothed to Zhou Yingqi of Wujiang. She was skilled in needlework, played the zither and se, knew the Biographies of Exemplary Women by heart, and served her grandmother and mother with extraordinary devotion. When she was nineteen and learned that Zhou was wasting away with illness, she at once began fasting, lit incense before the Buddha, and prayed in silence. The maidservants listened in secret and faintly caught her vowing to give her own life in his stead. One day she asked her wet nurse, "If I have not yet married and my betrothed dies, what am I to do?" The nurse answered, "You are not yet a wife—there would be no harm in breaking the engagement." The girl composed her face and said, "Men of old would promise even a sword to someone and could not bear to break their word—how much more binding is a pledge of one's own person?" When news of his death arrived, her parents tried to keep it from her—but before the messenger from Wujiang even arrived, the girl already knew. Her grandmother sent her mother in to check on her. The girl kept her mother sitting with her, her manner gentle and warm. Her mother left reassured. That night she waited until the maids were deep asleep, then rose alone. She bound her hair with white silk, dressed herself entirely in hemp mourning garb, and stitched her skirt closed. She set aside garments as tokens of thanks for each maid, labeled them by name, and laid them in a row upon her bed. On her table she wrote in large characters: "To my parents above: your daughter never served you even one day—and now she dies for Zhou." Then she hanged herself. Both families honored her wish and buried her beside Zhou in a joint grave.

李氏，壽昌人。年十三，受翁應兆聘。應兆暴卒，女盡取備嫁衣飾焚之，以身赴火，為父母救止。乃赴翁家，哀告舅姑乞立嗣，復乞一小樓，設夫位，坐臥於旁，奠食相對，非姑不接面。舅亡，家落，忍饑紡績以養姑。未幾，姑亦亡，鄰火大起，夜半達旦，延百餘家。鄰婦趨上樓，勸之避，婦曰：「此正我授命時也。」抱夫木主待焚。須臾四面皆燼，小樓獨存。

Lady Li was from Shouchang. At thirteen she was betrothed to Ying Zhao of the Weng family. Ying Zhao died suddenly. The girl gathered every garment and ornament prepared for her wedding and burned them, then threw herself into the flames. Her parents pulled her back. She went to her betrothed's home, pleaded with his parents to name an heir, and asked for a small chamber where she set up her husband's spirit tablet. There she lived, eating before his tablet, and would show her face to no one but her mother-in-law. After her father-in-law died the family fell on hard times. She went hungry herself while spinning and weaving to feed her mother-in-law. Soon her mother-in-law died too. A fire broke out next door and raged from midnight until dawn, spreading to more than a hundred homes. A neighbor rushed upstairs to urge her to flee. The widow said, "This is my moment to surrender my life." She clasped her husband's spirit tablet and waited for the flames. Within moments everything around her was reduced to ashes—but the small chamber stood untouched.

玉亭縣君，伊府宗室典柄女。年二十四，適楊仞。不兩月仞卒，號慟不食。或勸以舅姑年老，且有遺孕，乃忍死襄事。及生男，家日落。萬曆二十一年，河南大饑，宗祿久缺，紡績三日，不得一飧，母子相持慟哭。夜分夢神語曰：「汝節行上聞於天，當有以相助。」晨興，母子述所夢皆符，頗怪之。其子曰：「取屋后土作坯，易粟。」其日掘土，得錢數百。自是，每掘輒得錢。一日，舍傍地陷，得石炭一窖，取以供爨。延兩月餘，官俸亦至，人以為苦節所感。

The Lady of Yuting County was the daughter of Dian Bing, of the Yi Prince's line in the imperial clan. At twenty-four she married Yang Ren. Less than two months later Yang Ren died. She wailed in grief and refused all food. When others reminded her that his parents were elderly and she was carrying his child, she forced herself to live and see the funeral through. She bore a son, but the family's fortunes only worsened. In the twenty-first year of Wanli a great famine struck Henan. The clan stipend had long gone unpaid. After three days of spinning they had not a single meal. Mother and son clung to each other, weeping. Deep in the night she dreamed a voice saying, "Your steadfast fidelity has reached heaven—you will be helped." At dawn mother and son compared their dreams and found they matched perfectly. They marveled at it. Her son said, "Let us dig earth behind the house, make clay bricks, and trade them for grain." That day they dug—and found several hundred coins. After that, every time they dug they found money. One day the ground beside the house collapsed, revealing a cache of coal they used for cooking. For two more months they lived on this bounty; then the official stipend finally arrived. People took it as a reward for her steadfast fidelity.

馬節婦，年十六，歸平湖諸生劉濂。十七而寡。翁家甚貧，利其再適，必欲奪其志。不與飲食，百計挫之，誌益厲。嘗閉門自經，或救之，則系絕而墜於地死矣。急解之，漸蘇。翁又陰納沈氏聘，其姑誘與俱出，令女奴抱持納沈舟。婦投河不得，疾呼天救我。須臾風雨晝晦，疾雷擊舟，欲覆者數四。沈懼，乃旋舟還之。事聞於縣，縣令婦別居。時父兄盡歿，無可歸，假寓一學舍，官贍之以老。

Chaste Widow Ma was sixteen when she married Liu Lian, a licentiate of Pinghu. At seventeen she was widowed. Her husband's family was desperately poor and saw profit in forcing her to remarry—they would stop at nothing to break her resolve. They denied her food and drink and tried every scheme to break her—but her resolve only hardened. Once she shut her door to hang herself. When rescuers rushed in, the rope snapped and she crashed to the floor, apparently lifeless. They rushed to free her, and after a time she came back to consciousness. Her father-in-law secretly accepted a betrothal from the Shen family. Her mother-in-law coaxed her out on an errand, and maidservants seized her and put her aboard Shen's boat. She tried to throw herself into the river but could not. Desperately she cried, "Heaven, save me!" Suddenly wind and rain blotted out the daylight. Thunder struck the boat again and again; four times it nearly capsized. Terrified, Shen turned the boat around and sent her back. When the county magistrate learned of the affair, he ordered the widow to live apart from her in-laws. By then her father and brothers were all dead and she had nowhere to go. The magistrate lodged her in a schoolhouse and provided for her until the end of her days.

王氏，東莞葉其瑞妻。其瑞貧，操舟往來鄰境，一月一歸。婦紡績易食。萬曆二十四年，嶺南大饑，民多鬻妻子。其瑞將鬻婦博羅民家，券成，載其人俱來。入門見氏羸甚，問之，不饘粥數日矣。其瑞泣語之故，且示之金，婦笑而許之。及舟發寶潭，躍入潭中死。兩岸觀者如堵，皆謂水迅，屍流無所底。其瑞至，從上流哭數聲，屍忽湧出，去所投處，已逆流數十步矣。

Lady Wang was the wife of Ye Qirui of Dongguan. Qirui was poor and made his living ferrying goods to neighboring districts, returning home once a month. His wife spun and wove thread to barter for food. In the twenty-fourth year of Wanli a great famine struck Lingnan, and many sold their wives and children. Qirui arranged to sell his wife to a Boluo buyer. The contract was signed, and he brought the buyer home with him. When they entered, the buyer found the wife terribly emaciated—she had not eaten even gruel for days. Qirui tearfully explained why he had come and showed her the money. She smiled and agreed. When the boat put out from Baotan, she leaped into the water and drowned. Crowds lined both banks. Everyone said the current was too swift for her body ever to be found. When Qirui arrived and wept upstream, her body suddenly rose to the surface—already dozens of paces upstream from where she had entered the water, against the current.

劉氏，博平吳進學妻。楊氏，進性妻。進學疫死，既葬，劉夜匍匐縊於墓所。未幾，進性亦疫死，楊一慟幾絕。姑議嫁之，楊曰：「我何以不如姒。」遂縊死。

Lady Liu was the wife of Wu Jinxiang of Boping. Lady Yang was the wife of Wu Jinxing. Jinxiang died in an epidemic. After the burial, Liu crawled to the grave at night and hanged herself beside it. Soon Jinxing died of the same plague. Yang was so stricken with grief she nearly expired. When her mother-in-law proposed remarriage, Yang said, "Why should I fall short of my sister-in-law?" She hanged herself at once.

譚氏，南海方存業妻。生子三月，夫亡，悲號欲殉。母乃姑交止之，且諷改適。氏垂涕曰：「吾久不樂生，特念姑與兒耳。」哽咽流涕不止，二人不敢復言。及子七歲，遣就塾師，先令拜姑，微示付托意，竊自喜曰：「吾今可以遂誌矣。」一日，媒氏至，復勸改適，氏愈憤，中夜縊死。又張氏，臨清林與岐妻。夫亡，欲自縊，舅姑慰之曰：「爾死，如遺孤何？」氏以衣物倩乳嫗育其子，三月，知子安乳嫗，遂不食死。

Lady Tan was the wife of Fang Cunye of Nanhai. Three months after her son was born, her husband died. She wailed and wished to die with him. Her mother and mother-in-law together held her back, gently suggesting she might remarry. Through her tears she said, "I have long ceased to wish for life—I endure only for my mother-in-law and my son." She sobbed until neither dared press her again. When her son turned seven she sent him to school. First she had him bow to his grandmother, hinting that she entrusted the boy to her care. Secretly she rejoiced: "At last I may fulfill my resolve." One day a matchmaker came urging remarriage again. Tan's indignation only deepened—and in the depth of night she hanged herself. There was also Lady Zhang, wife of Lin Yuqi of Linqing. When her husband died she prepared to hang herself. Her in-laws pleaded, "If you die, what becomes of your orphaned child?" She left her child's garments with a wet nurse to raise the boy. After three months, satisfied that he was thriving, she stopped eating and died.

李烈婦，餘姚吳江妻。年二十，夫與舅俱卒，家酷貧，婦紡績養姑，己恒凍餒。有黃某者，謀娶之，賄夫族某使鉺其姑，未即從。某乃陰與黃及父家約，詭稱其母暴病，肩輿來迎。婦倉卒升輿，既及門，非父家也。姑亦尋至，布幾席，速使成禮。婦佯曰：「所以不欲嫁者，為姑老無依耳。姑既許，復何言。然妾自夫歿未嘗解帶，今願一洗沐。」又問：「聘財幾何？」姑以數對。曰：「亟懷之去。姑在，我即從人，殊赧顏也。」眾喜，促姑行，為具湯。湯至，久不出，辟戶視之，則縊死矣。其後，崇禎十五年，餘姚又有黃烈婦者，金一龍妻。夫早歿，黃截指自誓，立從子為嗣，與姑相依。熊氏子欲娶之，母黨利其財，紿令還家，間道送於熊。黃知勢不可挽，願搜括所有以償聘金，不聽，相持至夜深，引刀自刎未殞。其姑聞之，急趨視，黃曰：「婦所以未即死者，欲姑一面耳，今復何求。」遂剜喉以絕。郡邑聞之，斃熊氏子獄中。

Chaste Wife Li was the wife of Wu Jiang of Yuyao. At twenty, her husband and father-in-law died in succession. The family was desperately poor. She spun and wove to feed her mother-in-law while she herself went cold and hungry. A man named Huang sought to marry her. He bribed a clansman to win over her mother-in-law, but she would not yield at once. The clansman then secretly conspired with Huang and her father's family. They falsely claimed her mother had taken suddenly ill and sent a sedan chair to fetch her. The widow entered the chair in haste—but when it stopped, she found herself not at her father's house. Her mother-in-law arrived shortly after. They spread mats and rushed the wedding ceremony. The widow feigned acquiescence: "The only reason I resisted remarriage was that my mother-in-law is old and has no one to rely on. Now that she has consented, what objection can I raise? But since my husband died I have never unbound my sash. Allow me first to bathe." She also asked, "How much was the bride-price?" Her mother-in-law named the sum. She said, "Take it away with you at once. With my mother-in-law watching, I would be too ashamed to go to another man's bed." Delighted, they urged the mother-in-law to leave and prepared bathwater. The water was ready, but she did not emerge. When they forced the door, she was hanging dead. Later, in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Yuyao produced another Chaste Wife Huang, wife of Jin Yilong. Her husband died young. Huang cut off a finger to bind her vow, named a nephew as heir, and lived with her mother-in-law. A Xiong family son sought to marry her. Her mother's relatives, coveting her property, lured her home and smuggled her by a back road to the Xiong household. Huang saw she could not resist. She offered everything she owned to repay the bride-price, but they refused. The struggle lasted deep into the night until she drew a knife and cut her throat—but did not die. Her mother-in-law rushed in. Huang said, "I have lived only to see you one last time. Now I want nothing more." She gouged open her throat and died. When the authorities learned of the affair, the Xiong son died under beatings in prison.

須烈婦，吳縣人。夫李死，市兒悅其色，爭欲娶之。婦泣曰：「吾方送一夫，旋迎一夫。且利吾夫之死而妻我，不猶殺我夫耶！」市兒乃糾黨聚謀，將掠之。婦驚奔母，母懼不敢留。返於姑，姑懼知母。投姊，姊益不敢留，婦泣而歸。鄰人勸之曰：「若即死，誰旌若節者，何自苦若此？」婦度終不免，自經死。

Chaste Wife Xu was from Wu County. When her husband Li died, market youths who admired her beauty competed to marry her. She wept, "I have just buried one husband—must I take another so soon? And to profit from my husband's death by making me a wife—is that not as good as murdering him yourselves?" The youths banded together and plotted to abduct her by force. She fled in terror to her mother's house. Her mother, afraid, would not shelter her. She turned back to her mother-in-law—but her mother-in-law, too, was afraid to shelter her, knowing her own mother had refused. She sought refuge with her elder sister, but her sister, too, was afraid to take her in. Weeping, the wife returned home. A neighbor tried to persuade her: "If you die now, who will proclaim your virtue to the world? Why torment yourself like this?" Concluding that there was no escape, she hanged herself.

陳節婦，安陸人。適李姓，早寡，孑然一身，歸父家守志，坐臥小樓，足不下樓者三十年。臨終，謂其婢曰：「吾死，慎勿以男子舁我。」家人忽其言，令男子登樓舉之，氣絕逾時矣，起坐曰：「始我何言，而令若輩至此。」家人驚怖而下，目乃瞑。

Chaste Wife Chen was a native of Anlu. She had married a man of the Li clan and was widowed young. Alone, she returned to her father's house to uphold her widowhood. For thirty years she lived on a small upper floor, never once setting foot off the staircase. On her deathbed she told her maid: "When I die, see that no man carries my body." The family disregarded her warning and sent men upstairs to carry her down. Her breath had already stopped for some time when she sat up and said: "What did I tell you, that you have brought yourselves to this?" The family, stricken with terror, withdrew. Only then did her eyes close.

馬氏，山陰劉晉嘯妻。萬曆中，晉嘯客死，馬年二十許，家無立錐。伯氏有樓，遂與母寄居其上，以十指給養，不下梯者數十年。常用瓦盆貯新土，以足附之。鄰婦問故，曰：「吾以服土氣耳。」年六十五卒。

Lady Ma was the wife of Liu Jinxiao of Shanyin. During the Wanli reign, Jinxiao died far from home. Ma was about twenty, and the family was so destitute they lacked even standing room for an awl. Her husband's elder brother owned a tower, and she and her mother took refuge there. She supported them both by the labor of her own hands. For decades she never once came down the ladder. She kept a pottery bowl filled with fresh earth and pressed her feet against it. When a neighbor asked why, she said: "I do this to draw nourishment from the earth's vital energy." She died at the age of sixty-five.

謝烈婦，名玉華，番禺曹世興妻。世興為馮氏塾師，甫成婚，即負笈往。亡何病歸，不能起，婦誓不改適。曹族之老嘉之，議分祭田以贍。或謂婦年方盛，當俟襄事畢，令歸寧，婦佯諾。及期，駕輿欲行，別諸姒，多作訣語，徐入室閉戶，以刀自斷其頸。家人亟穴板入，血流滿衣，尚未絕，見諸人入，亟以左手從斷處探喉出之，右手引刀一割，乃瞑。

Virtuous Wife Xie, whose given name was Yuhua, was the wife of Cao Shixing of Panyu. Shixing served as a tutor to the Feng clan. No sooner was the marriage concluded than he set off with his book bundle. Before long he returned home gravely ill and could not rise from his bed. His wife vowed never to remarry. The elders of the Cao clan praised her resolve and proposed dividing sacrificial estate lands to provide for her. Some argued that she was still young and ought, once the funeral rites were complete, to be sent home to her parents for a visit. The wife pretended to agree. When the day arrived, a carriage was readied for her departure. She bade farewell to her sisters-in-law with many parting words, then slowly entered a room, shut the door, and severed her own neck with a knife. The family hurriedly bored through the door panel to reach her. Blood soaked her clothes, yet she had not died. Seeing them enter, she quickly reached with her left hand into the wound and pulled her throat free, then with her right hand drew the knife and cut again—only then did her eyes close.

張氏，桐城李棟妻。棟死無子，張自經於床。母救之，奮身起，引斧斫左臂者三。家人奪斧，抑而坐之蓐間，張瞆悶不語。家人稍退，張遽揜身出戶投於水。水方冰，以首觸穴入，遂死。」邑又有烈婦王氏，高文學妻。文學死，父道美來吊，謂王曰：「無過哀。事有三等，在汝自為之。」王輟泣問之，父曰：「其一從夫地下為烈，次則冰霜以事翁姑為節，三則恒人事也。」王即鍵戶，絕粒不食，越七日而死。又有戚家婦者，寶應人。甫合巹，而夫暴歿。婦哭之哀，投門外汪中死。後人名其死所為戚家汪云。

Lady Zhang was the wife of Li Dong of Tongcheng. When Dong died without an heir, Zhang hanged herself on the bed. Her mother cut her down. She sprang up, seized an axe, and hacked at her left arm three times. The family wrested away the axe and forced her to sit on the matting. Zhang sat dazed and would not speak. When the family withdrew a little, Zhang suddenly slipped out of the house and threw herself into the water. The water had just begun to freeze. She broke through the ice with her head and sank beneath it, and so died." In the same district there was also the virtuous widow Lady Wang, wife of Gao Wenxue. When Wenxue died, his father Daomei came to offer condolences and said to Wang: "Do not grieve beyond measure. There are three courses of action. The choice is yours." Wang stopped weeping and asked what he meant. The father said: "The first is to follow your husband into the grave—that is martyrdom. The second is to serve your parents-in-law with frost-like steadfastness—that is chastity. The third is the ordinary course of life." Wang immediately barred the door, stopped eating altogether, and died seven days later. There was also a woman of the Qi family, from Baoying. She had just shared the wedding cup when her husband suddenly died. The wife wailed in deep grief and threw herself into the pond outside the gate. Later generations named the place of her death Qi Family Pond.

金氏，通渭劉大俊妻。年十九，夫病風痹，金扶浴溫泉。暴風雨，山水陡發，夫不能動，令金急走。金號泣堅持不肯舍，並溺死。屍流數十里而出，手猶挽夫不釋云。又應山諸生王芳妻楊氏。芳醉墜塘中，氏赴水救之。夫入水益深，氏追深處偕死。

Lady Jin was the wife of Liu Dajun of Tongwei. At nineteen, her husband was stricken with paralytic illness. Jin supported him as he bathed in hot springs. A sudden violent storm sent mountain torrents rushing down. Her husband could not move and urged Jin to flee at once. Jin wept and clung to him, refusing to let go, and both drowned together. Their bodies were carried downstream for many li before surfacing; her hand still clutched her husband and would not let go. There was also Lady Yang, wife of Wang Fang, a licentiate of Yingshan. Fang, drunk, fell into a pond. Yang plunged into the water to save him. Her husband sank deeper into the water. Yang followed him into the depths and died with him.

王氏，山陰沈伯燮妻。議婚數年，伯燮病厲，手攣發禿，父母有他意。女問：「沈郎病始何日？」父曰：「初許時固佳兒，今乃病。」女曰：「既許而病，命也，違命不祥。」竟歸之。伯燮病且憊，王奉事無少怠。居八年卒，嗣其從子。更出簪珥佐舅買妾，更得子。逾年，舅姑相繼亡，王獨撫二幼孤，鬻手食之，並成立。

Lady Wang was the wife of Shen Boyie of Shanyin. Their marriage had been under negotiation for years when Boyie fell gravely ill, his hands crippled and his hair fallen out. His parents began to reconsider the match. The girl asked: "When did Master Shen's illness begin?" Her father said: "When we first pledged you to him, he was a fine young man. Now he is ill." She said: "The pledge was made, and then he fell ill—that is fate. To break a pledged match is ill-omened." She went through with the marriage after all. Boyie was gravely ill and failing fast. Wang tended him without the slightest slackening. After eight years of marriage he died. She adopted his younger cousin as heir. She sold her hairpins and earrings to help her father-in-law buy a concubine, and a son was born. Within the year her parents-in-law died in succession. Wang alone raised two young orphans, supporting them by the labor of her hands, and both grew to maturity.

李孝婦，臨武人，名中姑，適江西桂廷鳳。姑鄧患痰疾，將不起，婦涕泣憂悼。聞有言乳肉可療者，心識之。一日，煮藥，巘香禱竈神，自割一乳，昏仆於地，氣已絕。廷鳳呼藥不至，出視，見血流滿地，大驚呼救，傾駭城市，邑長佐皆詣其廬，命亟治。俄有僧踵門曰：「以室中蘄艾傅之，即愈。」如其言，果蘇，比求僧不復見矣。乃取乳和藥奉姑，姑竟獲全。又洪氏，懷寧章崇雅妻。崇雅早卒，洪守志十年。姑許，疾不能起，洪剜乳肉為羹而飲之，獲愈，余肉投池中，不令人知。數日後，群鴨自水中銜出，鳴噪回翔，小童獲以告姑。姑起視之，乳血猶淋漓也。其夫兄崇古亦早亡，姒朱氏誓死靡他，妯娌相守五十年云。

Filial Wife Li was from Linwu. Her given name was Zhonggu, and she married Gui Tingfeng of Jiangxi. Her mother-in-law, Lady Deng, was stricken with a phlegm disorder and near death. The wife wept in sorrow and dread. Hearing that a woman's breast meat could cure the illness, she kept the thought in her heart. One day, while boiling medicine, she burned incense and prayed to the stove god, then cut off one breast. She collapsed to the ground, her breath already gone. Tingfeng called for medicine but received no reply. He went out and saw blood covering the floor. Greatly alarmed, he cried for help. The whole town was shaken. The magistrate and his assistants all came to their dwelling and ordered urgent treatment. Soon a monk came to the door and said: "Apply the mugwort in the room to the wound, and she will recover at once." They did as he said, and she indeed revived. But by the time they went to find the monk again, he had vanished. She then took the breast meat, mixed it into medicine, and presented it to her mother-in-law, who was fully restored to health. There was also Lady Hong, wife of Zhang Chongya of Huaining. Chongya died early. Hong kept her widowhood for ten years. When her mother-in-law Xu fell ill and could not rise, Hong carved flesh from her breast, made it into broth, and had her drink it. Xu recovered. The remaining meat she threw into a pond, letting no one know. Several days later, a flock of ducks brought it up from the water in their beaks, crying and wheeling about. A young servant caught one and told the mother-in-law. Xu rose to look: the breast flesh was still dripping with blood. Her husband's elder brother Chonggu had also died early. His wife, Lady Zhu, vowed never to remarry. The two sisters-in-law kept each other's company for fifty years.

倪氏，興化陸鰲妻。性純孝，舅早世，憫姑老，朝夕侍寢處，與夫睽異者十五年。姑鼻患疽垂斃，躬為吮治，不愈，乃夜焚香告天，割左臂肉以進，姑啖之愈。遠近稱孝婦。

Lady Ni was the wife of Lu Ao of Xinghua. Utterly filial by nature, she lost her father-in-law early. Pitying her aged mother-in-law, she attended her day and night in sleeping and waking, living apart from her husband for fifteen years. Her mother-in-law's nose was afflicted with a gangrenous sore near death. Ni personally sucked and treated the wound, but it did not heal. She then burned incense at night and prayed to Heaven, cut flesh from her left arm to present, and when her mother-in-law ate it, she recovered. Near and far they praised her as a filial wife.

劉氏，張能信妻，太僕卿憲寵女，工部尚書九德婦也。性至孝，姑病十年，侍湯藥不離側。及病劇，舉刀刲臂，侍婢驚持之。舅聞，囑醫言病不宜近腥膩，力止之。逾日，竟刲肉煮糜以進，則乃姑已不能食，乃大悔恨曰：「醫紿我，使姑未鑒我心。」復刲肉寸許，慟哭奠簀前，將闔棺，取所奠置棺中曰：「婦不獲復事我姑，以此肉伴姑側，猶身事姑也。」鄉人莫不稱其孝。

Lady Liu was the wife of Zhang Nengxin, daughter of Grand Master for the Imperial Studs Zhang Xianchong and daughter-in-law of Minister of Works Zhang Jiude. Utterly filial by nature, she nursed her mother-in-law through ten years of illness, never leaving her side with medicines and care. When the illness grew critical, she raised a knife to cut her arm. A maid in attendance, startled, seized her. Her father-in-law heard and instructed the physician to say the illness ought not be exposed to rich or greasy foods, forcibly stopping her. The next day she cut flesh after all and boiled it into congee to present—but by then her mother-in-law could no longer eat. She repented bitterly: "The physician deceived me, so that my mother-in-law never witnessed my devotion." Again she cut off an inch of flesh, wept bitterly, and placed it as an offering before the mat on which her mother-in-law lay. When the coffin was about to be closed, she took what she had offered and placed it in the coffin, saying: "Your daughter-in-law can no longer serve you in person. Let this flesh keep you company—it is as though I still attend you." The people of the district all praised her filial devotion.

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