Yuan · Family Member

Lady Chai 柴氏

Chai shi

Attested AD 1358 - AD 1364

Passages: 8
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Lady Chai was a Family Member.

Life and dates

Attested activity

AD 1364 二十四年
Dated from the passage context · History of Yuan 201, passage 178
AD 1358 至正十八年
Dated from the passage context · History of Yuan 201, passage 168

Family

Immediate relationships attested in the translated histories.

Parent of Younger son of Qin Run (秦閏夫次子)
bore a son 有子
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 166
Parent of Elder son of Qin Run (秦閏夫長子)
raised as her own 鞠如己出 · Step parentage
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 165
Spouse of Qin Run (秦閏夫)
wife 妻 · Widowed
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passages 164, 167

Career and standing

spinner and weaver 紡績
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 167
commemorative arch and household restoration 旌其門而復其家
AD 1364 二十四年 · Granted
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 178

Places and affiliations

At Jinning 晉寧
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 164

Works and attributed material

Petition · Speaker · Direct quotation
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 171

Events and relationships

Claimed the younger son had joined the rebels
Legal · Petitioner
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 171
Raised the first wife's young son as her own
Domestic · Stepmother
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 165
Spun and wove and sent both sons to school
Domestic · Widow
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 167

Assessments and attributes

Assessment contemporaries regarded this as extraordinarily hard · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 177
Assessment kept faith with her husband's dying charge · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · History of Yuan 201, passage 175

References in the histories

Search passages

History

8 passages

History of Yuan, Chapter 201Volume 201 Biographies 88: Exemplary Women 2 · 8 passages

秦閏夫妻柴氏，晉寧人。 Qin Run and his wife Lady Chai came from Jinning.

閏夫前妻遺一子尚幼，柴氏鞠如己出。 Run's first wife had left a young son, and Lady Chai raised him as her own.

未幾柴氏有子，閏夫病且死，囑柴氏曰：「我病不復起，家貧，惟二幼子，汝能撫其成立，我死亦無憾矣。」 Soon Lady Chai bore a son. Run fell mortally ill and told her, "I won't recover. We're poor, with only these two little boys. Raise them well and I'll die content."

閏夫死，家事日微，柴氏辛勤紡績，遣二子就學。 After Run died the household grew poorer, but Lady Chai spun and wove tirelessly and put both boys in school.

及官軍至，福訴其事，事連柴氏長子，法當誅。 When government troops arrived, Zhang Fu reported it. The case implicated the elder son, who by law faced execution.

柴氏引次子詣官泣訴曰：「往從惡者，吾次子，非吾長子也。」 Lady Chai brought her younger son to the magistrate in tears and claimed, "The son who followed the rebels was my younger boy, not the elder."

官反疑次子非柴氏所出，訊之他囚，始得其情。 Officials doubted the younger son was really hers and questioned other prisoners until the truth came out.

官義柴氏之行，為之言曰：「婦執義不忘其夫之命，子趨死而能成母之志，此天理人情之至也。」 Moved by Lady Chai's conduct, the magistrate declared, "The wife kept faith with her husband's dying charge, and the son faced death to fulfill his mother's wish—this is the highest expression of heaven's order and human devotion."