Song, Liao, and Jin · Exemplary Widow

Cui 崔氏

Born c. AD 1199

Passages: 6
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Cui was an Exemplary Widow.

Life and dates

Age

29
AD 1227 丁亥歲 · Reckoning Stated
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 21

Attested activity

AD 1227 丁亥歲
Dated from the passage context · History of Yuan 200, passage 12

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Parent of Zhen (禎)
son 子
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 14
Spouse of Zhou Shuhu (周術忽)
wife 妻
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 11

Career and standing

Entered
Widow
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 21

Places and affiliations

Polity Id yuan · Relation Lived under
Strongly inferred · History of Yuan 200, passage 11
AD 1227 丁亥歲
At Pingyang 平陽 · Relation Traveled to
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 12

Works and attributed material

Speech · Speaker · Direct quotation
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 15

Events and relationships

Escaped Jin capture with son by ruse
AD 1227 丁亥歲 · Military · Escaped
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passages 14, 20
Swore never to remarry
Personal · Actor
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 21

Assessments and attributes

Assessment compared to exemplary widows of antiquity · Mode named-source-report
Directly stated · History of Yuan 200, passage 24

References in the histories

History of Yuan, Chapter 200Volume 200 Biographies 87: Exemplary Women 1 · 6 passages

崔氏，周術忽妻也。 Lady Cui was the wife of Zhou Shuhu.

時術忽以使事在上黨，崔氏急即抱幼子禎以詭計自言於將，將信之，使軍吏書其臂出之。 Shuhu was away on mission in Shangdang at the time. Lady Cui quickly took her young son Zhen, used a ruse to present herself to the general, won his trust, and had a clerk mark her arm so she could leave the city.

崔氏曰：「婦人臂使人執而書，非禮也。」 Lady Cui said, "It is contrary to ritual for another man to seize a woman's arm and write on it."

命崔自揎袖，吏懸筆而書焉。 He had Lady Cui roll up her own sleeve while he held the brush suspended and wrote the mark.

崔與禎伏土窖三日，得免，既與術忽會。 Lady Cui and Zhen hid in an underground cellar for three days and escaped capture, then rejoined Shuhu.

未幾，術忽以病亡，崔年二十九，即大慟柩前，誓不更嫁，斥去麗飾，服皁布弊衣，放散婢僕，躬自紡績，悉以資產遺親舊。 Before long Shuhu died of illness. Cui was twenty-nine. She wailed bitterly before his coffin, swore never to remarry, cast off fine adornments, wore plain black cloth in shabby dress, dismissed her servants, spun and wove with her own hands, and gave away all her property to relatives and friends.