1
田緒宗妻張嵇永仁妻楊妾蘇張英妻姚
Zhang, wife of Tian Xuzong; Yang, wife of Ji Yongren; Su, concubine; Yao, wife of Zhang Ying.
2
蔡璧妻黃子世遠妻劉尹公弼妻李錢綸光妻陳
Huang, wife of Cai Bi; Liu, wife of Zi Shiyuan; Li, wife of Yin Gongbi; Chen, wife of Qian Lunguang.
3
胡彌禪妻潘張棠妻金洪翹妻蔣張蟾賓妻姜
Pan, wife of Hu Mizhan; Jin, wife of Zhang Tang; Jiang, wife of Hong Qiao; Jiang, wife of Zhang Chanbin.
4
施曾錫妻金廷璐妻惲汪楷妻王妾徐馮智懋妻謝
Jin, wife of Shi Zengxi; Yun, wife of Ting Lu; Wang, wife of Wang Kai, and his concubine Xu; Xie, wife of Feng Zhimao.
5
鄭文清妻黎程世雄妻萬高學山妻王
Li, wife of Zheng Wenqing; Wan, wife of Cheng Shixiong; Wang, wife of Gao Xueshan.
6
王氏女張天相女周氏女王孜女繆滸妻蔡濮氏女
Wang's daughter; Zhou, daughter of Zhang Tianxiang; Wang Zhi's daughter; Cai, wife of Miao Hu; Pu's daughter.
7
李氏女來氏二女曾尚增女王氏女劉魁妻徐薛中奇女
Li's daughter; Lai's two daughters; Wang, daughter of Zeng Shangzeng; Xu, wife of Liu Kui; Xue Zhongqi's daughter.
8
呂氏女佘長安女王法夔女武仁女唐氏女
Lü's daughter; Wang, daughter of She Chang'an; Fa Kui's daughter; Wu Ren's daughter; Tang's daughter.
9
張桐女汪儼聘妻周劉氏女吳某聘妻周李荐一聘妻曾
Zhang Tong's daughter; Zhou, betrothed to Wang Yi; Liu's daughter; Zhou, betrothed to a certain Wu; Zeng, betrothed to Li Jianyi.
10
袁斯鳳女丁氏女硃棫之女杜仲梅女方氏二女劉可求女
Yuan Sifeng's daughter; Ding's daughter; Zhu Yi's daughter; Du Zhongmei's daughter; Fang's two daughters; Liu Keqiu's daughter.
11
楊泰初女孫承沂女趙承穀聘妻丁彭爵麒女陳寶廉女
Yang Taichu's daughter; Sun Chengyi's daughter; Ding, betrothed to Zhao Chenggu; Peng Jueqi's daughter; Chen Baolian's daughter.
12
吳士仁女王濟源女董桂林女耿恂女吳芬女
Wu Shiren's daughter; Wang Jiyuan's daughter; Dong Guilin's daughter; Geng Xun's daughter; Wu Fen's daughter.
13
邵氏二女蔣遂良女徐氏二女李鴻普妻郭牛輔世妻張
Shao's two daughters; Jiang Suiliang's daughter; Xu's two daughters; Guo, wife of Li Hongpu; Zhang, wife of Niu Fushi.
14
高位妻段鄭光春妻葉子文炳妻吳屈崇山妻劉
Duan, wife of Gao Wei; Ye, wife of Zheng Guangchun; Wu, wife of Zi Wenbing; Liu, wife of Qu Chongshan.
15
謝以炳妻路弟仲秀妻鄭季純妻吳王鉅妻施陳文世妻劉
Lu, wife of Xie Yibing; Zheng, wife of Di Zhongxiu; Wu, wife of Ji Chun; Shi, wife of Wang Ju; Liu, wife of Chen Wenshi.
16
張守仁妻梁韓守立妻俞路和生妻吳諸君祿妻唐
Liang, wife of Zhang Shouren; Yu, wife of Han Shouli; Wu, wife of Lu Hesheng; Tang, wife of Zhu Junlu.
17
牛允度妻張遊應標妻蕭蔣廣居妻伍
Zhang, wife of Niu Yundu; Xiao, wife of You Yingbiao; Wu, wife of Jiang Guangju.
18
週學臣妻柳王德駿妻盛張茂信妻方林經妻陳
Liu, wife of Zhou Xuechen; Sheng, wife of Wang Dejun; Fang, wife of Zhang Maoxin; Chen, wife of Lin Jing.
19
張德鄰妻李武烈妻趙孫朗人妻吳李天挺妻申劉與齊妻魏
Li, wife of Zhang Delin; Zhao, wife of Wu Lie; Wu, wife of Sun Langren; Shen, wife of Li Tianting; Wei, wife of Liu Yuqi.
20
周志桂妻馮歐陽玉光妻蔡子惟本妻蔡蕭學華妻賀
Feng, wife of Zhou Zhigui; Cai, wife of Ouyang Yuguang; Cai, wife of Zi Weiben; He, wife of Xiao Xuehua.
21
張友儀妻陳馮氏王鉞妻隋林雲銘妻蔡
Chen, wife of Zhang Youyi; a woman of the Feng clan; Sui, wife of Wang Yue; Cai, wife of Lin Yunming.
22
陳龍妻胡王懃妻岳魯宗鎬妻硃馬叔籥妻丁
Hu, wife of Chen Long; Yue, wife of Wang Qin; Zhu, wife of Lu Zonghao; Ding, wife of Ma Shuyue.
23
許光清妻陳黃開鼇妻廖黃茂梧妻顧高其倬妻蔡
Chen, wife of Xu Guangqing; Liao, wife of Huang Kai'ao; Gu, wife of Huang Maowu; Cai, wife of Gao Qichuo.
24
陳之遴妻徐詹枚妻王柯蘅妻李艾紫東妻徐
Xu, wife of Chen Zhilin; Wang, wife of Zhan Mei; Li, wife of Ke Heng; Xu, wife of Ai Zidong.
25
郝懿行妻王汪遠孫妻梁陳裴之妻汪汪延澤妻趙
Wang, wife of Hao Yixing; Liang, wife of Wang Yuansun; Wang, wife of Chen Peizhi; Zhao, wife of Wang Yanze.
26
吳廷珍妻張諸妹章政平妻等程鼎調妻汪
Zhang, wife of Wu Tingzhen; various sisters; the wives of Zhang Zhengping and others; Wang, wife of Cheng Dingdiao.
27
陳瑞妻繆馬某妻阮富樂賀妻王仁興妻瓜爾佳氏耀州三婦
Miao, wife of Chen Rui; Ruan, wife of a certain Ma; Wang, wife of Fu Lehe; a Guwalgiya woman, wife of Ren Xing; the three women of Yaozhou.
28
杉松郵卒婦楊芳妻龍崔龍見妻錢沈葆楨妻林
Shansong, wife of a postal courier; Long, wife of Yang Fang; Qian, wife of Cui Longjian; Lin, wife of Shen Baozhen.
29
王某妻陳李某妻趙羅傑妻陳楊某妻唐姚旺妻潘蓋氏
Chen, wife of a certain Wang; Zhao, wife of a certain Li; Chen, wife of Luo Jie; Tang, wife of a certain Yang; Pan, wife of Yao Wang; a woman of the Gai clan.
30
積家而成國，家恆男婦半。 女順父母，婦敬舅姑，妻助夫，母長子女，姊妹娣姒，各盡其分。 人如是，家和； 家如是，國治。 是故匹婦黽勉帷闥之內，議酒食，操井臼，勤織紝組紃，乃與公卿大夫士謀政事。 農勞稼穡，工業勢曲，商賈通貨財，同有職於國，而不而闕。 晚近好異議，以謂女豢於父，妻豢於夫，戚戚求自食。 或謂女制於父母，婦制於舅姑，妻制於夫，將一切排決，舍家而躐國，務為閎大，其過不及若殊，要為自棄其所職而害中於家國則均。 嗚呼，何其誣也！ 古昔聖王經國中而為之軌，億萬士女毋或逾焉。 是故矜其變，所以誨其正； 愍其異，所以勵其庸：範而趨於一。 使凡為女若婦者，循循各盡其職。 則且廣之為風俗，永之為名教。 有國者之事，以權始，以化終。 權故行，化故成，國以治平。
Households build up into a nation, and in every home men and women are always half and half. Daughters defer to their parents, daughters-in-law honor their husbands' parents, wives support their husbands, mothers raise their children, and sisters and sisters-in-law each perform their allotted parts. When everyone acts this way, the household is at peace; and when households are thus, the realm is well governed. Thus ordinary wives, laboring within the inner quarters over meals and drink, the well and mortar, and the steady work of weaving silk and hemp, share in the nation's business no less than dukes, ministers, and gentlemen who deliberate policy at court. Farmers till the soil, artisans master their trades, and merchants move goods and wealth through the realm; each has a duty to the state, and none may be dispensed with. In recent times many have taken to eccentric views, claiming that daughters are kept by their fathers and wives by their husbands, and fretting only over how to earn their own bread. Others hold that daughters are ruled by their parents, daughters-in-law by their husbands' parents, and wives by their husbands, and would cast all such bonds aside, forsake the home, and vault straight to the nation, chasing a grand public role. The excess of one view and the shortfall of the other look different, yet both come to the same thing: abandoning one's proper station and wounding the heart of family and state alike. Alas, what a slander on the truth! In antiquity the sage kings set the norms of the realm, and countless men and women did not step beyond them. Therefore the state honors those who depart from the norm, in order to teach others what is right; and commiserates with the extraordinary, in order to stir the common run of women to virtue—offering models until all converge on a single way. So that every daughter and every wife may quietly and fully perform her allotted duty. Then custom may be broadened and moral teaching made enduring. For those who govern a realm, the work begins with authority and ends in moral transformation. Authority makes policy effective; transformation makes it endure, and the realm is governed and at peace.
31
清製，禮部掌旌格孝婦、孝女、烈婦、烈女、守節、殉節、未婚守節，歲會而上，都數千人。 軍興，死寇難役輒十百萬，則別牘上請。 捍強暴而死，爰書定，亦別牘上請，皆謹書於實錄。 其徵之也廣，其襮之也顯，流風餘韻，綿綿延延，風雨如晦，雞鳴不已。 故知權所以能行，化所以能成，尤必有當於人人之心，固不可強而致也。 列女入史，始後漢書，用其例，擇尤炳著如乾人，賢母、孝女、孝婦、賢婦、節婦、貞婦、貞女、烈婦義行，邊徼諸婦，以類相從，其處變事相亞者，厭而比焉。 纂昔懿，傃來淑，敬我彤管，宜有助於興觀。
Under the Qing system the Board of Rites oversaw honors for filial wives and daughters, heroic martyrs, chaste women, widows who preserved their chastity, those who died for chastity, and betrothed maidens who remained faithful—each year the lists were compiled and sent up, amounting to several thousand cases in the capital alone. When war broke out and deaths from bandit raids or forced labor ran into the millions, separate petitions were sent up. Women who died resisting violence, once the case was legally settled, were also reported in separate memorials, and all were carefully recorded in the Veritable Records. The call went out far and wide, the honors were proclaimed openly, and the lingering moral force stretched on unbroken—like the verse says: though the night is dark as rain, the cock still crows without end. From this we see that authority can take effect and transformation succeed only when they answer to what lies in every heart—they cannot be imposed by force. The inclusion of exemplary women in the histories began with the Book of Later Han. Following that precedent, we select the most striking cases—the woman of Qian, worthy mothers, filial daughters and wives, worthy wives, chaste and faithful wives and maidens, heroic wives and women of righteous conduct, and women of the borderlands—arranged by kind; where their conduct under trial and their deeds are alike, they are set side by side for comparison. Gathering the excellence of the past and summoning the virtue yet to come, honoring the red brush of the Odes, these records should help awaken the reader's heart.
32
田緒宗妻張，德州人。 緒宗，順治九年進士，官浙江麗水知縣，有聲。 卒官。 張預戒管庫，謹視賦徭所入，發牘覈其數。 代者至，請知府臨察，無稍舛漏，乃持喪歸。 教三子雯、需、霢，皆有文行。 張通詩、春秋傳，能文。
Zhang, wife of Tian Xuzong, came from Dezhou. Xuzong passed the jinshi examination in Shunzhi 9 and served as magistrate of Lishui in Zhejiang, where he won a strong reputation. He died in office. Zhang had already warned the treasury clerks to keep careful watch on tax and corvée receipts; she opened the account books and verified every figure. When his successor arrived, she asked the prefect to inspect the accounts in person; once he found not the slightest error, she bore the coffin home in mourning. She raised her three sons Wen, Xu, and Mai, each distinguished for learning and character. Zhang was versed in the Odes and the Spring and Autumn Annals and was herself a capable writer.
33
年七十，裡黨將為壽，誡諸子曰：「禮，婦人無夫者稱未亡人，凡吉凶交際之事不與，亦不為主名，故春秋書'紀履緰來逆女'。 公羊傳曰：'紀有母，何以不稱母？ 母不通也。 '何休云：'婦人無外事，所以遠別也。 '後世禮意失，始有登堂拜母之事。 戰國時，嚴仲子自觴聶政母前，且進百金為壽。 蓋任俠好交之流，有所求而然耳，豈禮意當如是耶？ 吾自汝父之歿於官，攜扶小弱，千里歸櫬，含艱履戚，三十年餘。 闔戶闢績，以禮自守。 幸汝曹皆得成立，養我餘年，然此中長有隱痛。 每歲時膢臘，兒女滿前，牽衣嬉笑，輒怦怦心動，念汝父之不及見。 故或中坐嘆息，或輟箸掩淚。 今一旦賓客填門，為未亡人稱慶，未亡人尚可以言慶乎？ 三十年吉凶交際之事不與知，而今日更強我為主名，其可謂之禮乎？ 處我以非禮，不足為我慶，而適足增我悲耳。 汝曹官於朝，宜曉大體，其詳思禮意，以安老人之心！」
When she turned seventy, her neighbors planned a birthday celebration. She warned her sons: 'By ritual, a woman without a husband is called one who is not yet dead. She takes no part in others' occasions of joy or mourning, nor does she lend her name as host. That is why the Spring and Autumn Annals records only "Ji Lüxi came to receive the bride," and not the mother. The Gongyang Commentary asks: 'Ji had a mother—why is she not called mother?' Because the mother does not appear in the record. He Xiu explains: 'A woman has no business outside the home—that is why she is kept apart from public affairs.' Later ages lost the true meaning of ritual, and only then did men begin ascending the hall to pay court to another man's mother. In Warring States times Yan Zhongzi poured wine himself before Nie Zheng's mother and even offered a hundred pieces of gold as a birthday gift. That was the way of swaggering men who court friends because they want something in return. How could ritual propriety ever require such behavior? Since your father died in office I have led you little ones home a thousand li with his coffin, bearing hardship and walking in grief for more than thirty years. I shut the door and kept to my loom, holding myself to ritual. Fortunately you have all grown up and can support me in my old age, yet a hidden sorrow has never left me. At every festival my children would crowd before me, tugging my clothes and laughing, and my heart would pound with the thought that your father could not see it. So sometimes in the middle of a feast I would sigh, or set down my chopsticks and hide my tears. Now suddenly guests crowd the door to celebrate a woman not yet dead—can such a woman speak of celebration at all? For thirty years I have had no part in others' joys and sorrows, yet today you would force me to stand as host—can that be called ritual? Treating me contrary to ritual is no honor for me—it only deepens my grief. You serve at court and ought to understand the larger principles. Think carefully about what ritual requires, and set your old mother's heart at ease!"
34
張年七十七而卒，有茹荼集，雯官至戶部侍郎。
Zhang died at seventy-seven. She left a collection called Bitter Herb, and her son Wen rose to Vice Minister of Revenue.
35
嵇永仁妻楊，永仁，無錫人； 楊，長洲人。 永仁死福建總督范承謨之難，楊時年二十七，子曾筠生七年。 舅姑皆篤老，黽勉奉事，喪葬謹如禮。 福建定，永仁僕程治乃克以其喪還，楊質衣營葬。 葬竟，撫曾筠而泣曰：「我前所以不死，以有舅姑在。 舅姑既而葬，今又葬汝父，我可以死，則又有汝在。 汝父以諸生死國事，汝未成人，當如何？」 則又嗚咽曰：「我其如何？」 曾筠長而力學，楊日織布易米以為食，指謂曾筠曰：「汝能讀書，乃得啖此，未亡人則歠粥。」 及曾筠官漸顯，恆誡以廉慎。 雍正十一年，卒，年八十有四。 永仁、曾筠皆有傳。
Yang, wife of Ji Yongren—Yongren came from Wuxi; Yang came from Changzhou. Yongren died in the disaster that claimed Fujian Governor Fan Chengmo. Yang was twenty-seven, and her son Zengyun was seven. Both parents-in-law were elderly; she served them diligently, and the funerals were conducted scrupulously according to ritual. After Fujian was pacified, Yongren's servant Cheng Zhi was finally able to bring the coffin home. Yang pawned her clothes to pay for the burial. When the burial was over, she held Zengyun and wept: 'I did not die before because my parents-in-law were still alive. Now they are buried, and your father is buried too. I could die—but then there is still you. Your father died as a scholar-official for the state. You are not yet grown—what then am I to do?' Then she sobbed again: 'What am I to do?' Zengyun grew up and studied hard. Each day Yang wove cloth and traded it for rice. Pointing to the food she told him: 'Only because you study do you get to eat this. As for one not yet dead, she drinks only gruel.' As Zengyun rose in office, she constantly admonished him to be honest and cautious. She died in Yongzheng 11, aged eighty-four. Both Yongren and Zengyun have biographies elsewhere in the histories.
36
永仁妾蘇，字瑤青。 從永仁福州，臨難，取帶面永仁而縊，年十七。
Yongren's concubine Su, whose style was Yaoqing. She followed Yongren to Fuzhou. When disaster struck she took her belt, turned to face Yongren, and hanged herself. She was seventeen.
37
張英妻姚，桐城人。 英初官翰林，貧甚，或餽之千金，英勿受也。 故以語姚，姚曰：「貧家或餽十金五金，僮僕皆喜相告。 今無故得千金，人問所從來，能勿慚乎？」 居恆質衣貰米。 英祿稍豐，姚不改其儉，一青衫數年不易。 英既相，彌自謙下。 戚黨或使婢起居，姚方補故衣，不識也。 問：「夫人安在？」 姚逡巡起應，婢大慚沮。 英年六十，姚制棉衣貸寒者。 子廷玉繼入翰林，直南書房，聖祖嘗顧左右曰：「張廷玉兄弟，母教之有素，不獨父訓也！」 卒，年六十九，有含章閣詩。 女令儀，為同縣姚士封妻，好學，有蠹窗集。 英、廷玉皆有傳。
Yao, wife of Zhang Ying, came from Tongcheng. When Ying first served in the Hanlin Academy the family was very poor. Someone once offered him a thousand taels of silver, but Ying refused to accept it. He told Yao about it. Yao said: 'In a poor household, even ten or five taels make the servants crow with delight. To receive a thousand taels for no reason—when people ask where it came from, how can we not be ashamed?' In ordinary times she pawned her clothes to buy rice on credit. When Ying's salary grew more ample, Yao did not change her frugal ways. One blue gown she wore for years without replacing it. After Ying became chief minister, she became all the more modest and unassuming. When relatives sent maidservants to call on her, Yao would be mending old clothes and did not even recognize who they were. The maid asked, "Where is the lady?" Yao rose hesitantly to reply. The maid was utterly ashamed. When Ying turned sixty, Yao made cotton padded coats to lend to those in need during the cold. Her son Tingyu later entered the Hanlin Academy and served in the Southern Studio. The Kangxi Emperor once turned to those around him and said, "Zhang Tingyu and his brothers owe their upbringing not only to their father's instruction—their mother's teaching has been thorough." She died at sixty-nine. Her collected verses were published as the Hanzhangge Poems. Her daughter Lingyi married Yao Shifeng of the same county. A devoted student of books, she compiled the Duochuang Ji. Both Zhang Ying and Zhang Tingyu have biographies elsewhere in the histories.
38
蔡璧妻黃，漳浦人，世遠母也。 璧喪妻，以為妾。 耿精忠為變，璧方客京師，黃奉璧父母避山中。 璧母老不能粒食，輟女子子乳乳之。 璧父母命璧以為妻。
Huang, wife of Cai Bi, came from Zhangpu. She was the mother of Cai Shiyuan. After Bi lost his wife, he took Huang as a concubine. When Geng Jingzhong rebelled, Bi was away in the capital. Huang led Bi's parents into the mountains for safety. Bi's mother was too old to eat grain. Huang stopped nursing her own daughter and suckled the old woman instead. Bi's parents commanded that she be made Bi's wife.
39
世遠妻劉，事舅姑孝。 世遠既貴，家人謀買婢，勿許。 謀傭乳母，劉曰：「吾六子四女皆自乳，吾不以貴易其素。」 世遠有傳。
Liu, wife of Cai Shiyuan, served her parents-in-law with exemplary filial devotion. Once Shiyuan had risen to high office, the family proposed buying servants. She refused. They suggested hiring a wet nurse. Liu said, "I nursed all six sons and four daughters myself. I will not abandon my accustomed ways now that we are wealthy." Shiyuan has a biography elsewhere in the histories.
40
尹公弼妻李，博野人。 公弼早卒，家貧，舅姑老，父母衰病，無子。 養生送死，拮据黽勉。 教子會一有法度，通籍，出為襄陽府知府，李就養。 雨暘不時，必躬自跽禱，禳疫驅蝗亦如之。 冬寒，民六十以上，量予布帛。 襄陽民德之，為建賢母堂。 李賦詩辭之，不能止。 會一移揚州府知府，揚州俗奢，李為作女訓十二章，教以儉。 累遷河南巡撫，所至節俸錢，畀高年布帛，週貧民，佐軍餉，皆以母命為之。 民間輒為立生祠，如在襄陽時。 會一內擢左副都御史，李以疾不能入京師，陳情歸養。 復以母命，裡塾社倉次第設置。 居數年，高宗賜詩嘉許，榜所居堂曰「荻訓松齡」。 卒，年七十八。
Li, wife of Yin Gongbi, came from Boye. Gongbi died young. The household was poor. Her parents-in-law were elderly, her own parents were frail and ill, and there were no sons. She supported the living and arranged the funerals of the dead, struggling on with tireless effort. She raised her son Huiyi with strict discipline. He took office and was appointed prefect of Xiangyang, and Li went to live with him. Whenever rain and sunshine failed in season, she knelt in prayer herself. She did the same to dispel plague and drive away locusts. In winter's cold she measured out cloth and silk for every commoner over sixty. The people of Xiangyang were grateful and built for her the Hall of the Worthy Mother. Li wrote a poem declining the honor, but the people would not be dissuaded. When Huiyi was transferred to Yangzhou, whose customs were luxurious, Li wrote for him twelve chapters of Instructions for Women teaching thrift. He rose to become governor of Henan. Wherever he served he economized from his salary, gave cloth to the elderly, relieved the poor, and assisted military provisions—all at his mother's command. The people everywhere erected shrines to her in her lifetime, as they had in Xiangyang. When Huiyi was promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief in the capital, Li was too ill to go to Beijing. She petitioned to return home and tend her mother. Again at his mother's direction, village schools and community granaries were established one after another. Some years later the Qianlong Emperor bestowed a poem of praise and inscribed the name of her hall as "Lessons from the Reeds, Longevity of the Pine." She died at seventy-eight.
41
公弼曾孫溯醇妻徐，亦早寡，與其族公亮妻高、公聘妻楊、德一妻韓、成一妻李、多福妻劉、林妻王、二喜妻硃，合稱「尹氏九節」。 會一有傳。
Xu, wife of Yin Suochun (a great-grandson of Gongbi), was also widowed young. Together with Gao, wife of Yin Gongliang; Yang, wife of Yin Gongpin; Han, wife of Yin Deyi; Li, wife of Yin Chengyi; Liu, wife of Yin Duofu; Wang, wife of Yin Lin; and Zhu, wife of Yin Ersi—they were known collectively as "The Nine Chaste Women of the Yin Clan." Huiyi has a biography elsewhere in the histories.
42
錢綸光妻陳，名書。 綸光，嘉興人； 陳，秀水人。 幼端靜，讀書通大義。 初婚，綸光侍其父瑞徵出上塚，陳從樓上望見少年毆佃客幾死，咯血，方大雪，血沾衣盡赤，佃客家以其族黨至，洶洶。 陳遣蒼頭問，少年，從子也。 乃舁佃客入室，召醫予藥，畀其母錢米，呼從子使受杖，眾乃散。 瑞徵還，亟賢之。 陳善事舅姑，助綸光款賓客，週鄰里，曲盡恩意。 綸光卒，教子尤有法度。 子陳群，自有傳； 界，官陝西醴泉知縣，有賢聲。 陳晚為詩，號复庵； 署畫，號南樓老人。 詩三卷，戒陳群毋付刻。 畫尤工，山水、人物、花草皆清迥高秀，力追古作者。
Chen, wife of Qian Lunguang, whose personal name was Shu. Lunguang came from Jiaxing; Chen came from Xiushui. From childhood she was composed and reserved. In her reading she grasped the larger moral principles. Not long after her marriage, Lunguang accompanied his father Ruizheng to tend the ancestral graves. From upstairs Chen saw a young man beat a tenant farmer nearly to death until he spat blood. Snow was falling heavily and blood soaked the man's clothes crimson. The tenant's kin arrived in an uproar. Chen sent a servant to inquire. The young man was a nephew of the family. She had the tenant carried indoors, sent for a physician and medicine, gave his mother money and rice, called the nephew forward to be beaten with rods, and only then did the crowd disperse. When Ruizheng returned, he praised her highly. Chen tended her parents-in-law with devotion, helped Lunguang entertain guests, and aided the neighbors, extending kindness in every detail. After Lunguang died, she raised her sons with especial discipline. Her son Chen Qun has his own biography; Jie served as magistrate of Liquan in Shaanxi and won a reputation for worth. In her later years Chen wrote poetry under the sobriquet Fu'an; On her paintings she signed herself the Old Man of the Southern Tower. Her poems filled three scrolls. She warned Chen Qun not to have them printed. Her painting was especially accomplished. Landscapes, figures, flowers, and grasses were all clear, lofty, and refined, as she strove to follow the ancient masters.
43
曾孫女與齡，字九英，為廣西太平府同知吳江蒯嘉珍妻。 亦能畫，題所居曰仰南樓。
Her great-granddaughter Yuling, whose courtesy name was Jiuying, married Kuai Jiazhen of Wujiang, vice prefect of Taiping in Guangxi. She too painted, and named her residence the Gazing-up-at-the-Southern-Tower Studio.
44
胡彌禪妻潘，桐城人。 彌禪卒，遺三子，長子宗緒，方十歲。 貧，遣就學村塾，旦倚閭泣而送之，踰嶺不見，乃返，暮复迎之而泣。 三年，貧益甚，罷學，潘不知書，使兒誦，以意為解說。 一日，聞程、硃語，嘆且起立曰：「我固謂世間當有此！」 聞誦司馬相如美人賦則怒，禁毋更讀。 諸子出必告，襟濡露，則笞之，問：「奈何不由正路？」 歲饑，潘日茹瓜蔓，而為麥粥飯兒，有餘，以周里之餓者。 嘗命僕治室，發地得千金，獻宗緒，宗緒不受，母聞乃喜。 宗緒成雍正八年進士，官至國子監司業，篤學行，有所述作。
Pan, wife of Hu Mizhan, came from Tongcheng. When Mizhan died he left three sons. The eldest, Zongxu, was only ten. They were poor, so she sent him to the village school. Each morning she leaned in the doorway weeping as she sent him off. When he crossed the ridge and vanished from sight she would return; each evening she went to meet him again, weeping. After three years their poverty grew worse and schooling had to stop. Pan could not read, yet she had the boy recite and explained the texts as best she could. One day, hearing teachings of the Cheng–Zhu school, she sighed and rose to her feet. "I always knew such men must exist in the world! When she heard Sima Xiangru's Rhapsody on the Beautiful Woman recited, she grew angry and forbade them to read it again. Whenever her sons went out she made them announce their departure. If their collars were damp with dew she beat them and asked, "Why do you not keep to the straight path?" In famine years Pan ate melon vines herself while cooking wheat porridge for her sons. Whatever remained she gave to hungry neighbors. Once she had a servant renovate a room. Digging in the ground they found a thousand taels of gold and presented them to Zongxu, who refused them. When his mother heard of it she was pleased. Zongxu passed the jinshi examination in the eighth year of Yongzheng, rose to Vice Director of the Directorate of Education, was devoted in learning and conduct, and left written works.
45
張棠妻金，秀水人。 棠卒，金作苦奉姑，晨炊偶有餘，日午復以進。 姑呼金共食，金慮姑不足，輒以腹痛辭。 姑病，侍食嘗藥，搔癢滌牏，鬋發拭垢，靡不躬焉。 夜坐床下，聞呻吟即起。 姑歿，哭之痛，曰：「吾將何怙，以冀孤兒長乎？」 則愈益作苦。 方冬捆屨，兩手龜且裂，敷以醬及蠟淚，痛如割，必畢事乃寢。 子庚，稍長有文行，客遊以為養。 一日，金晨起，理髮竟，登案扳甍西南望曰：「我安得望見江西？」 時庚方客南昌，南昌於浙為西南，故云。 既得旌，泣而言曰：「我姑亦早寡，徒以年已逾三十，不中令甲，而我得被旌，我於是有私痛也。」 年七十九而卒。
Jin, wife of Zhang Tang, came from Xiushui. After Tang died, Jin practiced bitter devotion in serving her mother-in-law. If anything remained from the morning meal she brought it again at noon. When her mother-in-law invited her to eat together, Jin, fearing there would not be enough for her, always pleaded stomach pains. When her mother-in-law fell ill she attended her meals, tasted her medicine, scratched her itches, washed the privy, combed and washed her hair—she did everything herself. At night she sat beside the bed. At the slightest moan she rose at once. When her mother-in-law died she wept bitterly. "On whom can I rely now," she said, "to hope that my orphaned son may grow up?" She then redoubled her bitter devotion. In deep winter she wove straw sandals. Her hands cracked and bled. She dressed them with sauce and beeswax—the pain was like cutting—yet she would not sleep until the work was done. Her son Geng, when he grew older, showed literary promise. He traveled abroad to support the household. One morning Jin finished combing her hair, climbed onto a table, gripped the roof ridge, and gazed southwest. "How could I ever see Jiangxi?" she said. Geng was then staying in Nanchang as a guest. Nanchang lies southwest of Zhejiang—hence her words. When she received official commendation she wept and said, "My mother-in-law was also widowed young, yet because she was already past thirty she did not qualify under the statutes, whereas I was commended. At that I feel a private grief." She died at seventy-nine.
46
洪翹妻蔣，武進人。 翹尚義而貧，僦居臨大池，隘且濕，蔣擇處其尤陋者，暴雨，水浸淫床下。 翹既不第，客遊養父母。 俄書報病且歸，蔣挾二子舟迎，聞來舟哭聲，審其僕也，號而自擲於水，女傭持之，免。 自是率諸女針紉組織，力以自食。 授其子禮吉讀，至禮經「夫者婦之天」，哭絕良久，呼曰：「吾何戴矣！」 遂廢其句讀。 禮吉稍長，出就里中師，里中師不辨音訓，母為正其誤，日數十字。 母織子誦，往往至夜分。 翹大父嘗守大同，父公寀獨償大同官逋十有餘萬，不以累弟昆。 受託趙氏孤，坐累家破，卒全之，以此名孝義，蔣恆舉以勗禮吉。 喪舅姑，毀甚，既复喪母，疾作遂卒。 禮吉更名亮吉，有傳。
Jiang, wife of Hong Qiao, came from Wujin. Qiao valued righteousness but was poor. They rented beside a great pond—a cramped, damp place. Jiang took the most miserable room. In a downpour water rose under the bed. Qiao failed the civil examinations and traveled as a guest scholar to support his parents. Soon a letter came saying he was ill and returning. Jiang took her two sons by boat to meet him. Hearing weeping from the approaching boat she realized it was his servant. She wailed and threw herself into the water. A maidservant seized her and pulled her back. From then on she led her daughters in needlework and weaving, supporting themselves by their own labor. Teaching her son Liji to read, when they reached in the Book of Rites "the husband is the wife's heaven," she wept until she nearly fainted and cried, "What heaven have I left to live under!" She stopped the lesson at that passage. When Liji grew older he studied with a village teacher who could not distinguish pronunciation and meaning. His mother corrected his errors, several dozen characters each day. The mother wove while her son recited, often until midnight. Qiao's great-grandfather had once governed Datong. His father Gongcai alone repaid more than a hundred thousand taels of official debt from Datong without burdening his brothers. Entrusted with a Zhao orphan, he was ruined in the affair yet in the end preserved the child entirely, winning a reputation for filial righteousness. Jiang constantly cited this to encourage Liji. Mourning her parents-in-law, she grieved excessively. After she had mourned her mother again, illness seized her and she died. Liji changed his name to Hong Liangji and has a biography elsewhere in the histories.
47
張蟾賓妻姜，武進人。 蟾賓父金第客死京師，妻白，食貧撫諸孤。 蟾賓复早卒，姜撫二子惠言、翊。 貧，惠言就其世父讀，歸省姜，無食，明日，惠言餓不能起，姜撫之曰：「兒不慣餓，憊耶？ 吾與而姊、而弟時時如此也！」 惠言稍長，使授翊書，姜與女課女紅，常數線為節，晨起，盡三十線乃炊。 夜燃燈視二子讀，恆至漏四下，裡黨稱姜苦節如其姑。 惠言有傳。
Jiang, wife of Zhang Chanbin, came from Wujin. Chanbin's father Jindi died in the capital while away on business. His wife Bai, in bitter poverty, raised the orphans. Chanbin also died young. Jiang raised their two sons Huiyan and Yi. They were poor. Huiyan studied with his uncle and returned to visit Jiang, but there was nothing to eat. The next day Huiyan was too hungry to get up. Jiang stroked him and said, "Child, you are not used to hunger—are you worn out? Your sister, your brother, and I go hungry like this all the time!" When Huiyan grew older she had him teach Yi to read. Jiang and her daughter kept to needlework, counting threads as their measure. Each morning they would not cook until thirty threads were spun. At night they lit lamps and watched the two sons study, often until the fourth watch. Neighbors said Jiang's bitter devotion matched that of her mother-in-law. Huiyan has a biography elsewhere in the histories.
48
施曾錫妻金，名鏡淑。 曾錫，桐鄉人； 金，震澤人。 曾錫故有文行，以副榜貢生終。 孤福元生七年矣，教之嚴，夜篝燈讀書，福元稍怠，欲撲之，撲未下，涕泗交於頤，輒罷。 初曾錫喪父母及所生父，金撤簪珥以佐葬； 及葬曾錫，家益貧。 紡績，冬寒皸瘃，十指皆流血。 所生姑亦卒，乃還依母。 歲大無，具飯飯母，並及福元，而自食豆粥雜糠覈。 母病，侍尤謹。 福元以舉人知西江安福縣，而金已前卒。
Jin, wife of Shi Zengxi, whose personal name was Jingshu. Zengxi came from Tongxiang; Jin came from Zhenze. Zengxi was known from the first for literary accomplishment and ended his career as a tribute student from the supplementary civil service list. Widowed when Fuyuan was seven, she taught him strictly. Each night by lamplight he studied. When Fuyuan slackened she would reach for the rod, but before it fell tears streamed down her face and she always stopped. When Zengxi was mourning his adoptive parents and his birth father, Jin sold her hairpins and earrings to help pay for the funerals; By the time they buried Zengxi, the household had grown still poorer. She spun and wove; in the winter cold her hands cracked with chilblains until all ten fingers bled. When her father's sister-in-law also died, she returned to live with her mother. In a year of famine she set out proper meals for her mother and for Fuyuan, while she herself ate only bean porridge mixed with chaff and bran. When her mother fell ill, she nursed her with exceptional devotion. Fuyuan passed the provincial examination and governed Anfu County in western Jiangxi, but Jin had already died.
49
廷璐妻惲，廷璐，完顏氏，滿洲鑲黃旗人。 惲，陽湖人，名珠，字珍浦。 惲自壽平以畫名，其族多能畫。 毛鴻調妻惲冰，字清於，畫尤工粉墨，映日有光，於珠為諸姑。 珠亦能畫，善為詩。 廷璐為泰安知府，卒官。 珠撫諸子麟慶、麟昌、麟書，教之嚴。 持家政，肅而恕。 嘗擬列女傳為蘭閨寶錄。 撰定清女子詩，為國朝女士正始集。 校刻壽平父日初遺書及李顒集，皆傳世。 麟慶有傳。
Yun was wife of Tinglu; Tinglu was a Wanyan, a Manchu of the Bordered Yellow Banner. Yun came from Yanghu; her personal name was Zhu and her style was Zhenpu. The Yun family had been renowned for painting since Shouping, and many of its members were skilled painters. Mao Hongdiao's wife Yun Bing, styled Qingyu, excelled in ink painting whose colors shone in sunlight; among the Yun women she was Zhu's senior aunt. Zhu could paint as well and wrote poetry with skill. Tinglu served as prefect of Tai'an and died in that post. Zhu raised her sons Linqing, Linchang, and Linshu and instructed them with great severity. In running the household she was austere yet forbearing. She once drafted a work modeled on the Biographies of Exemplary Women, titled Treasured Records of the Orchid Boudoir. She compiled poetry by Qing women into the Correct Beginnings Anthology of Ladies of Our Dynasty. She edited and published the posthumous writings of Shouping's father Richu and the collected works of Li Yong, works still preserved today. Linqing has a biography elsewhere in the histories.
50
汪楷妻王、妾徐，蕭山人。 楷為河南淇縣典史，嘗廉民冤，白令為平反。 既去官，客死廣東。 母七十，徐有子輝祖，幼。 喪歸，索債者至，王鬻田、出嫁時衣裝以償。 楷弟不肖，恆求錢以博，甚或篡輝祖去，得錢乃歸之。 已，將以母遷，王與徐力請留，奉侍甚謹。 母垂歿，歎其賢孝。 教輝祖讀，或不中程，徐奉箠呼輝祖跪受教，王涕泣戒督，往往棄箠罷。 貧益甚，互稱疾減食食輝祖。
Wang Kai's wife Wang and his concubine Xu were natives of Xiaoshan. As clerk of Qi County in Henan, Kai once took up a commoner's false conviction and persuaded the magistrate to reverse the case. After leaving his post he died far from home in Guangdong. His mother was seventy years old; Xu had borne a young son named Huizu. When the funeral party returned, creditors came calling; Wang sold land and her bridal finery to satisfy the debts. Kai's dissolute younger brother constantly extorted money for gambling and once even kidnapped Huizu, returning the boy only after he was paid. When the family planned to move the mother elsewhere, Wang and Xu pleaded to keep her and attended her with scrupulous devotion. On her deathbed the mother praised their virtue and filial devotion. When Huizu's lessons fell short, Xu would take the stick and make him kneel for correction; Wang would weep and plead for mercy, and often the rod was cast aside unfinished. As poverty worsened, each would feign illness and eat less so that Huizu might have more.
51
輝祖長，出遊，佐州縣治刑名，王戒之曰：「汝父嘗言生人慘怛，無過囹圄中，偶撲一人，輒數日不怡，曰：'彼得無恚恨戕其生乎？ '汝佐人當知此意。」 輝祖自外歸，必問：「不入人死罪否？ 破人家否？」 曰：「無。」 則喜。 即言法不免，王與徐輒相視為流涕。 王尤不喜言人過，輝祖或偶及之，必曰：「汝能不爾即佳，此何與汝事？」 徐居常布衣操作，歲饑，日織布一疋，易三斗粟，雖瘧不為止。 一絮被，餘二十年，輝祖請易，曰：「此汝父所予，不可易也！」 徐病，輝祖進蓡，卻之，曰：「汝父客死，吾不獲以此進，吾何忍飲？」 王強之，微啜而罷。 徐卒十餘年，輝祖成進士而王卒。 輝祖有傳。
When Huizu came of age he went out to assist prefectures and counties in criminal cases. Wang warned him: "Your father used to say that among human miseries none surpass those in prison; if he punished even one man he would be troubled for days, asking, 'Will he bear resentment and throw away his life? You who assist others must keep this in mind." Whenever Huizu returned from his work she would ask: "Have you condemned anyone to death? Have you ruined any household?" If he answered no, she rejoiced. If he said the law left no choice, Wang and Xu would look at each other and weep. Wang especially disliked gossip about others' faults; if Huizu chanced to mention them she would say: "It is enough that you do not act so yourself—what concern is it of yours?" Xu always wore plain cloth and worked with her own hands; in famine years she wove one bolt of cloth a day to trade for three dou of grain, and would not stop even when stricken with malaria. A single cotton quilt had lasted more than twenty years; when Huizu asked to replace it she said: "Your father gave you this—it must not be exchanged!" When Xu fell ill Huizu brought her ginseng; she refused it, saying: "Your father died far from home and I could not offer this to him—how could I bear to take it?" Wang pressed her until she took a small sip and would take no more. More than ten years after Xu died, Huizu passed the metropolitan examination; Wang died afterward. Huizu has a biography elsewhere in the histories.
52
馮智懋妻謝，智懋，長洲人； 謝，嘉興人。 智懋家中落，再遇火，謝處貧，黽勉無所恨。 子桂芬，入學為諸生，謝喜曰：「汝家久無秀才，汝繼之，甚善。 原世世為秀才，毋覬科第也！」 及得第，訓之曰：「人必有職，女紅中饋，婦職也，易盡耳； 汝當思盡其職。」 又曰：「好官不過多得錢，然則商賈耳，何名官也？ 汝謹，當不至是，勉旃！」 蘇州、嘉興，皆困重賦，謝氏以催科破家。 謝每謂桂芬：「汝他日為言官，此第一事也！」 同治初，江、浙初定，桂芬佐江蘇巡撫李鴻章幕，成減賦之議。 蘇州、松江、太倉三府、州，減三之一； 常州、鎮江減十之一。 浙江巡撫左宗棠繼請嘉興亦得量減，時謝已前卒。 桂芬有傳。
Xie, wife of Feng Zhimao; Zhimao was from Changzhou; Xie was from Jiaxing. The Feng household fell on hard times and twice lost everything to fire; Xie endured poverty with tireless effort and no resentment. Their son Guifen entered school and became a licentiate; Xie rejoiced: "Your family has long lacked a xiucai; you have taken up that place—very well. I only wish that generation after generation you remain xiucai—do not set your heart on higher degrees!" When he passed a higher examination she admonished him: "Every person must have a calling; needlework and household provision are a woman's work, and soon done; you must think how to fulfill yours to the full." She also said: "A 'good official' is no more than one who amasses money—then he is but a merchant; what does he deserve to be called an official for? You are careful and should not come to that—strive on!" Suzhou and Jiaxing were both crushed by heavy land tax; the Xie family had been ruined by tax collection. Xie often told Guifen: "When you one day become a censor, this must be your first concern!" In the early Tongzhi era, after Jiangsu and Zhejiang had been pacified, Guifen served on Governor Li Hongzhang's staff in Jiangsu and helped draft proposals to reduce land tax. In the three prefectures and departments of Suzhou, Songjiang, and Taicang, the levy was cut by one third; in Changzhou and Zhenjiang by one tenth. Zhejiang Governor Zuo Zongtang later petitioned that Jiaxing receive a proportional reduction as well—but by then Xie had already died. Guifen has a biography elsewhere in the histories.
53
鄭文清妻黎，遵義人。 事祖姑及姑能得其歡心。 貧，令長子珍就傅，諸子力田，教督之甚肅。 珍錄平生所訓誡為母教錄。 嘗曰：「婦人舍言、容、工，無所謂德。 言只柔聲下氣，容只衣飾整潔，工則針黹、紡績、酒漿、葅醢，終身不能盡。」 又曰：「人雖貧，禮不可不富； 禮不富，是謂真貧。」 珍，儒林有傳。
Li, wife of Zheng Wenqing, was from Zunyi. She won the affection of both her husband's grandmother and her mother-in-law. Though the family was poor, she sent her eldest son Zhen to a teacher while the other sons worked the fields, instructing them with great strictness. Zhen compiled her lifelong teachings into Records of a Mother's Instruction. She once said: "Apart from speech, bearing, and handicraft, a woman has nothing that may be called virtue. Speech means a gentle voice and humble manner; bearing means neat dress and adornment; handicraft means needlework, spinning, wine, and pickles—work that can never be finished in a lifetime." She also said: "Though one be poor, ritual observance must not be poor; when ritual is impoverished, that is true poverty." Zhen has a biography in the section on Confucian scholars.
54
程世雄妻萬，衡陽人。 世雄兄世英早卒，妻何無子，世雄旋亦卒。 子學伊弱，族有爭嗣者，萬以學伊兼承世英後。 姑喪未殯，火發，何、萬與諸婢號泣奉柩出，火為之止。 萬善治家，學伊長，家漸起。 咸豐間軍興，諸將唐訓方、陳士傑、彭玉麟皆倚學伊籌兵食。 萬日具
Wan, wife of Cheng Shixiong, was from Hengyang. Shixiong's elder brother Shiying died young; Shiying's wife He was childless; Shixiong soon died as well. Their son Xueyi was still young; when kinsmen fought over the succession, Wan had Xueyi inherit Shiying's line as well. Before her mother-in-law could be interred, fire broke out; He and Wan, with the servant girls weeping, carried the coffin from the house—and the flames died away. Wan managed the household well; as Xueyi came of age the family slowly recovered its fortunes. In the Xianfeng period, generals Tang Xunfang, Chen Shijie, and Peng Yulin all relied on Xueyi to supply their armies. Each day Wan provided
55
百人饌，為規畫周至，賢母名益聞。 力施與，贍諸戚族，教孫曾，皆成立。 年八十九卒。
food for a hundred men, arranging every detail with care, and her renown as a virtuous mother spread far and wide. She gave liberally, supported kinsmen, and taught her grandchildren and great-grandchildren until each made his way in the world. She died at the age of eighty-nine.
56
高學山妻王，瀘州人。 王歸學山，視前室子四皆羸弱，鞠育甚至。 長子病且死，泣語申母恩，原再來為母子。 第三子病，亦如之。 逾年，學山夢二子者至，即夕，王孿生二子。 王教諸子讀書、擇友有法度，多取科目，孿生子同舉於鄉。
Wang, wife of Gao Xueshan, was from Luzhou. After marrying Xueshan, Wang found the four sons of his first wife all frail and weak; she reared them with the utmost devotion. The eldest son, dying of illness, wept and praised her kindness as a mother and prayed they might be mother and son again in the next life. The third son, when he fell ill, did the same. A year later Xueshan dreamed the two sons had returned; that same night Wang gave birth to twins. Wang taught her sons to study and choose companions with discretion; many entered officialdom through the examinations, and the twins passed the provincial examination together.
57
王氏女娥，九江屠者女也。 順治十四年，火，屠者方醉臥，娥奔火中，呼不起，遂並焚死。
Wang's daughter E was the daughter of a butcher in Jiujiang. In Shunzhi 14 a fire broke out while the butcher lay drunk; E rushed into the flames but could not wake him, and both were burned to death.
58
張天相女巧姑，儀徵人。 乾隆十年正月庚寅，火，天相方病，巧姑年十四，負父欲出，同死。 明日得其屍，猶負父也。
Zhang Tianxiang's daughter Qiaogu was from Yizheng. On a gengyin day in the first month of Qianlong 10, fire broke out; Tianxiang was ill; fourteen-year-old Qiaogu bore her father toward the exit and died with him. When their bodies were found the next day she was still carrying her father on her back.
59
周氏女，六安人。 父瞽，女八歲，火作，母抱女出，問：「父胡不出？」 母曰：「父瞽不能行，奈何？」 女入火中，導父行，火烈迷路，俱死。
A daughter of the Zhou clan, from Lu'an. Her father was blind; the girl was eight years old; when fire broke out the mother carried her out, and the girl asked: "Why hasn't Father come out?" The mother said: "Your father is blind and cannot walk—what can be done?" The girl went back into the flames and led her father by the hand; the fire was fierce, they lost their way, and both perished.
60
王孜女，慈谿人。 康熙十六年七月乙未，乙夜慈谿火。 女方居母喪，停棺於堂。 火至，女呼舁棺，無應者，伏棺上泣。 父從火光中遙見之，抱之出，則已死。 灌以礬水，稍甦，聲出喉間，僅屬。 問：「母棺出否？」 家人不答，遂哽咽而絕。 女年十五。
The daughter of Wang Zhi was from Cixi. On an yiwei day in the seventh month of Kangxi 16, during the second watch, fire swept Cixi. The girl was mourning her mother; the coffin still lay in the main hall. As the flames drew near she called for help to lift the coffin, but no one came; she clung to the coffin weeping. Her father glimpsed her through the fire, pulled her out, but she was already dead. They poured alum water on her; she revived slightly, but her voice was no more than a thread in her throat. She asked: "Has my mother's coffin been carried out?" Her family did not answer; she choked on a sob and died. The girl was fifteen.
61
薩玉瑞妻許，閩人。 夫亡，姑初喪，火發，護姑柩不去，同燼。
Xu, wife of Sa Yurui, was from Fujian. After her husband died and her mother-in-law had only just been laid in her coffin, fire broke out; she would not leave the bier and perished with it in the flames.
62
繆滸妻蔡，名蕙，泰州人。 父孕琦，生五女，而蕙為長。 字滸，未行，孕琦坐法論死，繫獄待決。 蕙絕嗜好，屏服飾，寢不解衣，嚴寒不設爐火。 居四年，滸請婚，蕙謝不行。 康熙二十八年，聖祖巡江南，蕙伏道旁上疏，略云：「妾聞在昔淳于緹縈為父鳴冤贖罪，漢文帝憐而釋之，載之前史，傳為盛典。 今妾父孕琦被仇害，自逮獄以來，妾日夜悲號，籥天無路。 每夕遙望宸闕，禮拜數千，於今三年，寒暑靡輟。 今幸駕臨淮海，是誠千載奇逢，妾原效緹縈之故事，冒死鳴哀，伏維天鑑。」 上下其疏江南江西總督覆讞，二十九年，讞上，孕琦得減死。 蕙歸滸，未一年，卒。
Cai, wife of Miao Hu and called Hui, was from Taizhou. Her father Yun Qi had five daughters; Hui was the oldest. She was betrothed to Hu but had not yet married when Yun Qi was convicted and condemned to death, held in prison awaiting execution. Hui renounced every pleasure, laid aside fine dress, slept fully clothed, and would not light a brazier even in bitter cold. Four years on, Hu asked to complete the marriage, but Hui refused and would not go to him. In Kangxi 28, when the emperor toured the south, Hui knelt by the roadside and submitted a petition that began: "I have read how long ago Chunyu Tiying cried out her father's innocence and offered herself in his stead; Emperor Wen of Han took pity and set him free—a story the histories praise as a noble precedent. Now my father Yun Qi has been destroyed by his foes; from the day he was taken I have cried out day and night, yet heaven seems barred against me. Every night I turn toward the palace and bow thousands of times; for three years, through winter and summer alike, I have not stopped. Now that Your Majesty has come to the Huai-Hai coast, this is a chance that comes once in a thousand years; I beg to follow Tiying's example, risking my life to plead, and trust that Heaven will see." The petition was sent up and down the bureaucracy; the governor-general of Jiangnan and Jiangxi reheard the case; in the twenty-ninth year the review was submitted and Yun Qi's sentence was reduced from death. Hui went to Hu as his wife; within the year she was dead.
63
濮氏女，桐鄉人。 其父無子，而母妒，不使置媵侍，家萬金悉畀女。 嫁吳生，予田宅、奴婢、什物皆具。 女獨愍父未有子，嘗從容諫母，母怒，罵曰：「吾萬金餉汝，犬豕猶知人意，況人乎？」 女不敢復言。 乃為父置婢其家，時父至，使侍父。 歲餘，果生男，載而之母家，會濮氏長老，見男於廟。 具白母，賀母有子，母憾女，盡收田宅、奴婢、什物，驅就他舍，屏勿復相見。 吳生既以婦富，乃驟貧，憤恚欲殺女，女度無所容，自經死。
A daughter of the Pu family, from Tongxiang. Her father had no son, but her mother, jealous, would not let him take a concubine; the family's entire fortune of ten thousand in gold passed to the daughter. She married a man of the Wu clan, who received fields, a house, servants, and a full household outfit. The girl alone grieved that her father still had no heir; once she gently urged her mother, who flew into a rage and shouted: "I have poured ten thousand in gold into you—dogs and pigs know gratitude; are you less than they?" The girl dared not speak again. So she secretly set a maid in her father's home and, whenever he visited, had the maid wait on him. After a year a son was born; she brought the child to her mother's house, summoned the Pu elders, and presented him in the clan temple. She told her mother everything and congratulated her on having a son; the mother, furious at the daughter, seized back every field, house, servant, and possession, drove her into another lodging, and forbade her ever to return. Wu, who had grown wealthy through his wife, was suddenly ruined; in rage he meant to kill her, and seeing no refuge she hanged herself.
64
李氏女，鹿邑人，次三。 父麒生與族人礎、挺九有隙，挺九語礎，若與麒生有殺姊仇，不先之，終為害。 礎與其子兆龍行求麒生，共毆之，垂死，乃棄去。 三時年十九，麒生將死，唶曰：「仇殺我，我無子能報者，尚何言！」 呼：「天，天！」 遂絕。 三請於母，訟縣及府，皆不省。 訟巡撫，下開封府同知治，挺九好語三，原養母，請得息訟，三扼其吭，齧面盡壞，卒脫去。 獄上，當礎死，礎自殺。 兆龍杖，創甚，亦死。 三以禍始挺九，顧無罪，走京師，擊登聞院鼓自列。 下巡撫覆按，會挺九亦死。 三泣告父墓曰：「仇雖盡，然不棄於市，恨未雪也！」 乃不嫁養母。 居十五年，康熙三十七年八月，母卒，三治喪葬竟，自經死。 乾隆中，知縣海寧許菼表其墓，環墓為之田，曰「李孝女墓田」。
A daughter of the Li family of Luyi, the third child, called San. Her father Qisheng was at odds with kinsmen Chu and Tingjiu; Tingjiu urged Chu, "Qisheng killed your elder sister—if you do not strike first, he will destroy you in the end." Chu and his son Zhaolong went out after Qisheng, beat him together, and left him for dead. San was nineteen; as Qisheng lay dying he groaned: "My enemies have killed me, and I have no son to avenge me—what is left to say!" He cried, "Heaven! Heaven!" And breathed his last. San begged her mother's leave and brought suit at the district and prefectural yamens, but no one would hear her. She appealed to the governor; the case was sent to the Kaifeng vice-prefect. Tingjiu spoke her fair words, promising to support her mother if she would drop the suit; San seized him by the throat and tore his face to shreds before he broke free. When the case was reported upward Chu was condemned to death; he killed himself. Zhaolong was beaten with the rod; his wounds were grave and he died as well. San held that Tingjiu had started the feud yet gone free; she fled to the capital, beat the drum at the Memorials Gate, and laid out her case herself. The throne ordered the governor to reinvestigate; by then Tingjiu was dead as well. San wept at her father's grave: "My enemies are gone, yet none was executed and exposed in the market—my vengeance is still incomplete!" She never married and devoted herself to caring for her mother. Fifteen years passed; in the eighth month of Kangxi 37 her mother died; when the mourning and burial were done, San hanged herself. In the Qianlong era the Haijing magistrate Xu Shan marked her tomb and set aside encircling fields for its upkeep, called the "Fields of the Li Filial Daughter's Tomb."
65
來氏二女，蕭山人。 姊曰鳳筠，年十四。 父客福建，從渡古田篛洋。 父墮水，鳳筠方臥病，聞遽起，躍入水，呼救。 魚舟集，援出水，鳳筠栗無人色，猶為父易衣。 夜半，遂死。 鳳蓀，其女弟也。 父病，露禱百餘夕，不勝寒，亦死。
Two daughters of the Lai family, from Xiaoshan. The elder sister was called Fengyun; she was fourteen. Their father was working in Fujian and was crossing from Gutian by way of Zhuoyang. Their father fell into the river; Fengyun, though bedridden, heard the cry, sprang up, plunged in after him, and shouted for help. Fishing boats came; they hauled him out. Fengyun shook, her face drained of color, yet she still changed her father's wet clothes. By midnight she was dead. Fengsun was her younger sister. When their father fell ill she prayed outdoors for more than a hundred nights; she could not endure the cold and died as well.
66
曾尚增女衍綸，長清人。 尚增以庶吉士改官，遷知郴州，衍綸從。 母病瘓不能起，衍綸日夜侍。 居四年，一夕，母命衍綸少休，女傭就床下熏衣，遺火灼帷。 衍綸突火入抱母號，救者以衍綸出，復入，哭且呼曰：「速救夫人！ 夫人出，我乃出。」 火冪床，救者不得入，尚增厲聲呼衍綸出，不應，火益熾，遂殉。 既滅火，見衍綸身覆母，兩體膠結不可解。 時乾隆二十三年十二月乙亥，衍綸年十五。
Yanlun, daughter of Zeng Shangzeng, was from Changqing. Shangzeng left the Hanlin academy for regular office and was appointed magistrate of Chenzhou; Yanlun went with him. Her mother was paralyzed and could not rise; Yanlun waited on her day and night. Four years on, one night her mother urged Yanlun to rest; a maid was steaming clothes under the bed and a spark set the curtains ablaze. Yanlun rushed through the flames to her mother, wailing; rescuers dragged her out, but she ran back in, crying: "Save my mother first! Only when my mother is safe will I leave." Flames engulfed the bed and no one could reach them; Shangzeng shouted for Yanlun to come out, but she would not answer; the fire roared on and she died with her mother. When the fire was out they found Yanlun sprawled over her mother; the two bodies had fused and could not be pulled apart. This was on a yihai day in the twelfth month of Qianlong 23; Yanlun was fifteen.
67
又有王氏女，懷遠人，母亦病瘓，火作，女突火入負母，俱燼。
There was also a Wang girl of Huaiyuan whose mother was likewise paralyzed; when fire broke out she charged in, lifted her mother on her back, and both were burned to ash.
68
劉魁妻徐，霍丘人。 既嫁而歸省，火作，負父出，復入負母，病瘓不能起，俱焚。 火熄，見徐跪床下，猶執母手。
Xu, wife of Liu Kui, was from Huoqiu. Married, she had come home on a visit when fire broke out; she carried her father out, went back for her mother, who was paralyzed and could not rise, and all three perished in the flames. When the flames died they found Xu kneeling under the bed, still clutching her mother's hand.
69
薛中奇女，宿州人。 侍祖母，火作，扶祖母出，樑折，承以肩，焚死，祖母得免。
A daughter of Xue Zhongqi, from Suzhou. She was caring for her grandmother when fire broke out; as she helped her out a beam gave way; she took the weight on her shoulder, was burned to death, and her grandmother escaped.
70
呂氏女，平陸人。 父卒，母且嫁，女生七年，痛哭諫其母，母不聽，則日長跽母前，且哭且言，母意終不回。 一日晨，潛出，家人求之勿得； 暮，途人或言墦間有幼女死焉。 家人就視，則女哭父瘞所，死矣，淚血溢兩眶，遍地盡碧。 及斂，視其寢處，枕上血深漬數重。
A daughter of the Lü family, from Pinglu. Her father died and her mother meant to remarry; the girl was seven. She wept and pleaded, but her mother would not listen; day after day she knelt before her, weeping and begging, yet her mother's mind never changed. One morning she slipped away; the family searched but could not find her; at evening a traveler said a little girl lay dead beside a burial mound. They went to look and found her at her father's grave, already dead; blood and tears had filled both eyes, and the ground around her was green with it. When they laid her out they saw that her pillow at home was soaked through with blood in layer upon layer.
71
佘長安女，名酉州，四川重慶人。 長安妄訟人聚博宰耕牛，坐誣，戍湖北。 嘉慶十六年，酉州走京師，詣都察院，自陳祖父、母年皆逾八十，乞赦其父得侍養。 事聞，仁宗以長安罪非常赦所不原，至配所已九年，其女年甫十一，不遠數千里匍匐奔訴，情可愍，命赦長安。
Youzhou, daughter of She Chang'an, was from Chongqing in Sichuan. Chang'an had falsely charged a man with gambling and butchering a plow ox; convicted of malicious prosecution, he was banished to labor in Hubei. In Jiaqing 16, Youzhou fled to the capital and petitioned the Censorate, declaring that her grandfather and mother were both past eighty and begging that her father be pardoned so he could come home to support them. When the case reached the throne, Emperor Renzong noted that Chang'an's offense was not one ordinary amnesties covered, yet he had already served nine years in exile and his daughter, only eleven, had crawled nearly a thousand li to plead—her devotion moved him, and he ordered Chang'an released.
72
王法夔女，名淑春，揚州人。 法夔老而貧，淑春誓不嫁，力針黹為養。 方冬，手龜身寒顫，工不輟。 法夔至七十餘卒，淑春以首觸壁，額裂死。
Shuchun, daughter of Wang Fakui, was from Yangzhou. Fakui grew old and poor; Shuchun vowed never to marry and supported him by tireless needlework. In deep winter her hands split with cold and her body shook, yet she never laid down her work. Fakui lived past seventy and died; Shuchun dashed her head against the wall until her forehead split open and she died.
73
武仁女，名端，錢塘人。 能讀書，原不嫁事父母，父母不可。 少長，母偶疾，夜求藥，墜樓，折脊，則喜曰：「吾今形殘，不可匹人，吾自是得終事父母矣！」 仁客死貴州，端從母迎喪，至則貲已盡，力針黹奉母，而蓄其餘。 居十有七年，始克以喪歸。
Duan, daughter of Wu Ren, was from Qiantang. She could read and wished to remain unmarried to serve her parents, but they would not permit it. As she grew, her mother fell briefly ill; going out at night for medicine she fell from a stair and broke her spine. She rejoiced: "Now I am maimed and no man will have me—I may at last devote my life to my parents!" Ren died far from home in Guizhou; Duan went with her mother to fetch the body, but their money was spent by the time they arrived; she sewed to support her mother and saved every spare coin. Seventeen years later she was finally able to bring his coffin home.
74
唐氏女，名素，無錫人。 貧無昆弟，亦不嫁，鬻畫以贍父母。
Su, a daughter of the Tang family, was from Wuxi. Poor and without brothers, she too refused to marry and sold her paintings to support her parents.
75
張桐女，名富，蔚州人。 道光九年，山水暴發，家人皆走避。 桐方病臥，富將負父出，弱不勝。 水大至，父揮之去，號泣，俱溺。 水退，家人至，見富兩手猶握父臂不釋。
Fu, daughter of Zhang Tong, was from Yuzhou. In Daoguang 9 a sudden mountain flood struck and the whole household fled. Tong lay sick in bed; Fu tried to carry him out but was too frail. The torrent rose; her father waved her away, but she clung to him, wailing, and both drowned. When the water fell the family returned and found Fu's hands still locked on her father's arm.
76
汪儼聘妻周，劉氏女名密，吳某聘妻周，皆六安人。 儼卒，周歸注氏，事舅姑，水至，周從姑乘屋，攀樹，姑墮水，周躍下拯之，與俱死。 密與母同墮，得板扉，緣以上，扉欹屢墮。 母呼密速上，密曰：「扉狹不足全我母女，冀活母，兒不上矣！」 遂死。 週既入水，或援之登舟，問：「父母存否？」 皆曰：「不知。」 復躍入水死。
Zhou, betrothed to Wang Yi; a Liu girl named Mi; and another Zhou, betrothed to a Wu—all were from Lu'an. Yi died and Zhou went to live with the Zhu family and serve her in-laws; when the flood came she climbed onto the roof with her mother-in-law and then into a tree; when the older woman fell into the water Zhou leaped after her and both drowned. Mi and her mother fell in together, seized a plank door, and tried to climb on it, but it tipped and nearly capsized again and again. Her mother urged Mi to climb up at once; Mi said, "The plank is too narrow for both of us—I pray you live, Mother; I will not climb up!" And she drowned. The other Zhou was already in the water when someone hauled her into a boat and asked whether her parents still lived. No one could tell her. She threw herself back into the flood and died.
77
李荐一聘妻曾，南豐人。 未行，遇水，室盡圮，母投水死。 女援不及，入水殉。
Zeng, betrothed to Li Jianyi, was from Nanfeng. Before the marriage could take place a flood destroyed their home; her mother threw herself into the water and died. The girl could not reach her in time and followed her into the water to die.
78
袁斯鳳女璱，字儀貞，江蘇華亭人。 斯鳳官河南懷慶府黃沁同知，璱事父母孝，視疾尤謹。 母陳有寒疾，璱榻母側，視起居。 母命之臥，頃輒起。 八年，陳疾少瘥，璱乃曰：「世無不可治之疾，人力未至，而委之天命，則以為不可治爾。」 斯鳳疾作，乍劇乍瘥，夜靜或大雪，璱嚴立窗外，伺聲息，往往不眠。 道光十四年，斯鳳疾大作，醫謝不治。 璱聞涕泣，已而怒曰：「誰謂不可愈，吾必欲愈之！」 而斯鳳竟卒。 後四日，璱闔扉欲自經，嫂過而勸之，璱泣誓死。 嫂喻以殺身非孝，璱作色曰：「吾自欲死，此時雖孔子、硃子以吾為不孝，吾亦惟死爾！」 嫂曰：「獨不念病母乎？」 璱曰：「有汝在。」 乃告其母，共諭慰之。 又二日，璱竟死。 死後，母察奩具，得斷釧。
Se, daughter of Yuan Si-feng and known by the courtesy name Yizhen, came from Huating in Jiangsu. Si-feng held the post of subprefect of Huangqin in Huaiqing Prefecture, Henan. Se was devoted to her parents and exceptionally attentive in nursing them through illness. When her mother Chen fell ill with a chronic chill, Se slept on a pallet at her bedside and attended to her every movement. When her mother urged her to rest, she would lie down only briefly before rising again. In the eighth year Chen's illness eased a little, and Se said, "There is no sickness under heaven that cannot be cured. When effort has not been tried and men call it fate, they only mean they have given up." When Si-feng fell ill, his condition shifted between crisis and respite. On quiet nights when snow piled deep, Se would stand rigidly outside his window, listening for his breathing, often until dawn without sleep. In the fourteenth year of Daoguang (1834), Si-feng's illness grew desperate. The doctors gave him up. Se wept when she heard it, then cried in anger, "Who says he cannot be saved? I will save him!" Yet Si-feng died all the same. Four days later Se barred her door to hang herself. Her sister-in-law came upon her and pleaded with her; Se wept and swore she would die. Her sister-in-law argued that suicide was not filial piety. Se flushed and said, "I mean to die. Even if Confucius and Zhu Xi himself stood here and called me unfilial, I would die all the same." Have you no thought for your sick mother?" her sister-in-law asked. Se said, "You are here." They told her mother, and mother and daughter-in-law together pleaded with her until she yielded. Two days later she was dead. After her death her mother searched her dresser and found a bracelet snapped in two—the trace of her suicide.
79
丁氏女，鶴慶人。 父貧，段石為灰以自給，女助之。 年十六，父卒，女力作養母。 嘗負重而躓，遂痀僂。 為傭，食於傭家，每飯思母，輒哽咽。 人憐之，許其分食以遺。 否必為母炊竟乃出傭。 居四十餘年，母卒女亦卒。
A daughter of the Ding family, from Heqing. Her father was poor. He quarried stone and burned it to lime to live; his daughter worked beside him. At sixteen her father died. She took up hard labor to support her mother. Once she stumbled under a heavy load and was left hunchbacked for life. Hired out as a laborer, she ate at her employer's table; at every meal she thought of her mother and could not swallow without weeping. Those who pitied her let her set aside part of her meal to carry home. When they would not allow it, she cooked for her mother first and only then went out to hire herself. After more than forty years her mother died; the daughter died soon after.
80
硃棫之女，武清人。 字縣諸生曹文甲。 早喪父，母病，奉事良謹。 將婚，女堅請留侍母。 母卒，治喪葬，請旌母節，奉母主入祠，見祠有孝女，為低徊甚久，歸遂自裁。 遺書告文甲曰：「君家孝娥以身殉父，兒愚祗知有母，深負舅姑慈，原更得賢婦奉饔飧也。」
The daughter of Zhu Yu, of Wuqing. She was betrothed to Cao Wenjia, a licentiate of the district school. Her father died while she was young. When her mother fell ill, she waited on her with scrupulous devotion. When the wedding drew near, she begged to stay home and nurse her mother. When her mother died she arranged the funeral, petitioned for an official commendation of her mother's virtue, and installed her mother's spirit tablet in the shrine of chaste women. There she saw the tablets of other filial daughters. She lingered a long while, went home, and cut her throat. She left a letter for Wenjia: "Your house has its filial daughter who gave her life for her father. I, foolish girl that I am, knew only my mother and have failed your parents' kindness. I pray you find a worthy wife to keep your hearth."
81
杜仲梅女末姑，安徽太平人。 賊至，刃其母，抱持乞代，刃及，終不釋。 賊去，母創死，女抱母屍泣，達旦，尋毀卒。 同時二方氏女，一年十四，一方九歲，皆代母死。
Mozhu, daughter of Du Zhongmei, from Taiping in Anhui. When bandits came they slashed at her mother. She threw her arms around her and begged them to take her instead. The blades cut her; she would not let go. The bandits left. Her mother died of her wounds. The girl held the body and wept until dawn, then died of grief herself. About the same time two daughters of the Fang clan—one fourteen, one nine—also died in their mothers' stead.
82
又有劉可求女，亦太平人。 弟被掠，女請於父易弟歸，即夕自殺。
There was also the daughter of Liu Keqiu, likewise of Taiping. Her younger brother was taken captive. She asked her father to ransom the boy by surrendering her in his place, and that night she killed herself.
83
楊泰初女徽德，孫承沂女錦宜，皆休寧人。 徽德年十二，母死寇，抱屍不食死。 錦宜七歲，寇殺其祖母，守屍側五日，賊與食，卻之，餓死。
Huide, daughter of Yang Taichu, and Jinyi, daughter of Sun Chengyi—both from Xiuning. Huide was twelve when bandits killed her mother. She clung to the body, refused all food, and starved to death. Jinyi was seven when bandits killed her grandmother. She kept vigil beside the corpse for five days. When the bandits offered her food she refused it and died of hunger.
84
趙承穀聘妻丁，名畹芬，武進人。 父士衍，官蠡縣知縣，母趙及畹芬從。 咸豐十年，洪秀全兵破常州，承穀大父起殉焉。 或傳承穀亦見執，母感傷發病卒。 明年二月壬子夕，畹芬自經死。 將死，書所為思親賦及詞六篇，字畫端靜如平時。
Ding Wanfen of Wujin was betrothed to Zhao Chenggu. Her father Shiyan was magistrate of Li County; her mother, née Zhao, and Wanfen accompanied him to his post. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), the armies of Hong Xiuquan took Changzhou. Chenggu's great-grandfather Qi died defending the city. Rumor spread that Chenggu too had been captured. His mother fell ill with grief and died. On the evening of the renzi day in the second month of the following year, Wanfen hanged herself. Before she died she wrote out her "Rhapsody on Longing for Kin" and six song lyrics. The hand was as steady and graceful as on any ordinary day.
85
彭爵麒女，名詠春，懷寧人； 陳寶廉二女慧莊、慧敬，侯官人：皆殉母。 詠春哭母殯僧寺，登浮屠自投死。 慧敬請以身代母，慧莊居母喪，皆仰藥死。
Yongchun, daughter of Peng Jueqi, of Huaining; and Huizhuang and Huijing, daughters of Chen Baolian, of Houguan—all died with their mothers. Yongchun wept beside her mother's coffin in a Buddhist temple, climbed the pagoda, and cast herself down to her death. Huijing offered her own life in her mother's stead; Huizhuang kept mourning at her mother's side. Both took poison and died.
86
吳士仁女，獻縣人。 幼喪父，無兄弟，誓不嫁養母。 會寇至，女求利刃置袖中，扶母出避，遇二寇，擠母僕，母怒詈，寇持刃欲斫，女急呼曰：「毋殺我母！ 我從若，不則死。」 寇乃止。 扶母還其家，藏母於室，出問寇飢否？ 具食使食。 食畢，一方飲，一出臥他室中，女躡飲者後，挾刃刺其頸，貫喉，嘶而僕。 女陽為嬉笑，拔所佩刀至他室，臥者方起立，遽前剚其胸，亦死，乃負母出走。
The daughter of Wu Shiren, of Xian County. Her father died when she was young. She had no brothers. She vowed never to marry and devoted herself to supporting her mother. When bandits came she secured a sharp blade and hid it in her sleeve, then helped her mother flee. They met two raiders who knocked her mother down. Her mother cursed them. One raised his blade to strike. The girl cried out, "Do not kill my mother! I will go with you—or I die here." The bandits held their blades. She led her mother home, hid her in an inner room, and went out to ask whether the bandits were hungry. She set out food and made them eat. When they had eaten, one drank wine while the other lay down in another room. The girl stole up behind the drinker and drove her blade through his neck and throat. He gurgled and fell. She laughed as if at ease, drew the knife at her belt, and went to the other room. The second man was just rising when she lunged and stabbed him through the chest. He too died. Then she carried her mother on her back and fled.
87
王濟源女，棗強人。 幼即能事父母。 寡兄弟，遂矢不嫁。 嘗有盜，夜破門入，女持火槍立暗陬，擊一盜斃，盜乃去。 喪父母，葬祭皆如禮，為立後。 同治間，寇至，負父母木主行避寇。 逾六十，父母忌日，歲時祭墓，猶號泣哽咽。
The daughter of Wang Jiyuan, of Zaoqiang. From childhood she knew how to serve her parents. Her brothers were few; she swore never to marry. Once, when thieves broke in at night, she stood in the dark with a fire-lance, killed one of them, and the rest fled. When her parents died she buried and mourned them according to every rite and adopted an heir for the family line. During the Tongzhi era, when bandits came, she fled with her parents' spirit tablets strapped to her back. Past sixty, on her parents' death anniversaries she still went to their graves each year, weeping until she could not speak.
88
董桂林女，樂亭人。 桂林卒，女十二，矢不嫁，耕織以養母。 昌黎富家子，聞其賢，請婚，原代之養，女堅拒不許。 母卒，女五十餘矣，鬻田以為斂，存屋數椽，田一畝，杏五樹，女即牖外置母棺，手畚土以封。 獨處，晝夜懸刀自衛。 又十餘年，鄰里高其義，醵金為營葬。
The daughter of Dong Guilin, of Leting. Guilin died when she was twelve. She swore never to marry, farmed and wove, and supported her mother. A rich young man of Changli, hearing of her virtue, asked for her hand and offered to support her mother in her stead. She refused him firmly. When her mother died she was past fifty. She sold her fields to pay for the funeral, keeping only a few roof-beams of house, one mu of land, and five apricot trees. She set her mother's coffin outside her window and sealed the mound herself, basket by basket of earth. She lived alone and kept a knife hung at her side day and night. More than ten years later the neighbors, honoring her devotion, pooled money to give her mother a proper burial.
89
耿恂女，名一圭，望都人。 恂舉人，無子，客授保定。 母劉病痺，一圭按摩抑搔，嘗六七晝夜不少休。 母少間，因臥床下，恂自外至，誤踐其手，指甲脫，血流至肘，倦不自知也。 嘗議婚某氏子，未聘而某氏子夭，女聞泣曰：「我得終事父母矣！」 遂矢不字。 劉病垂二十年，哽噎不能食，食必女口哺。 恂卒，持喪奉病母歸里。 逾年，劉亦卒，一圭營喪葬，自為文以表於阡。 一圭嘗以生日上塚，掬土以益墓，憊僕墓側，家人掖以歸，數日卒。
Yigui, daughter of Geng Xun, of Wangdu. Xun was a provincial graduate with no son. He earned his living teaching in Baoding as a guest lecturer. Her mother Liu was paralyzed. Yigui rubbed, pressed, and scratched her limbs, sometimes six or seven days and nights without rest. When her mother slept she lay under the bed within reach. Once Xun came in from outside and stepped on her hand by mistake. A nail tore off and blood ran to her elbow; exhausted, she did not even feel it. Marriage to a certain family's son had been discussed, but before betrothal the young man died. When she heard, she wept and said, "Now I can serve my parents to the end of their days!" She swore never to accept another betrothal. Liu's illness lasted nearly twenty years. She could not swallow; whenever she ate, Yigui fed her from her own mouth. When Xun died she observed mourning, took her ailing mother home, and cared for her there. A year later Liu died as well. Yigui arranged the funeral and wrote the epitaph herself to set up at the graveside. Once, on her birthday, she went to the tomb and scooped earth to mend the mound. She collapsed beside the grave from exhaustion. Her family helped her home; she died a few days later.
90
吳芬女，開縣人，女次第二。 芬，光緒二十三年拔貢生，以知縣發山東，女留侍母。 芬病，女聞，夜輒焚香露禱。 三十一年，芬卒，女聞大悲，且恚曰：「人謂天有眼，我夜焚香露禱，叩頭至數百，乃漠然不一顧耶？」 越日飲藥死，時年十三。
The second daughter of Wu Fen, of Kai County. Fen, selected as a tribute student in the twenty-third year of Guangxu (1897), was appointed magistrate and sent to Shandong. His daughter stayed behind to wait on her mother. When she heard her father was ill, she burned incense each night and prayed under the open sky. In the thirty-first year (1905) Fen died. When she heard, she grieved bitterly and cried in anger, "Men say Heaven sees. Night after night I burned incense and prayed in the dew, knocking my head hundreds of times—and Heaven never once looked my way?" The next day she took poison and died. She was thirteen.
91
邵氏二女，黟人，長名媚，十五； 次名揚，十三。 從父入山樵，虎出噬其父，媚持父揮樵斧斫虎，虎負創去，父女皆不死。
The two daughters of the Shao family, of Yi—the elder named Mei, fifteen; the younger named Yang, thirteen. They followed their father into the hills to cut firewood. A tiger sprang out and seized him. Mei clung to her father and swung the woodcutter's axe at the tiger. Wounded, the beast fled. Father and daughter both lived.
92
蔣遂良女，城步人，虎挾其母去，女奪以還。
The daughter of Jiang Suiliang, of Chengbu—a tiger seized her mother and dragged her away. The girl fought the beast and won her mother back.
93
徐氏二女，淑雲、淑英，溫江人。 父瞽，兄登雲早卒。 嫂凌疾革，撫子成龍而泣，淑雲、淑英在側，曰：「我二人在，當扶持以長，嫂何虞？」 時成龍方二歲，淑雲、淑英皆不嫁，以女紅事蓄，卒扶持以長。
The two daughters of the Xu family, Shuyun and Shuying, of Wenjiang. Their father was blind. Their elder brother Dengyun had died young. Their sister-in-law Ling lay dying. She held her son Chenglong and wept. Shuyun and Shuying said at her side, "While we two live we will raise him. What have you to fear?" Chenglong was then two years old. Shuyun and Shuying never married. They saved from needlework and in the end raised him to manhood.
94
李鴻普妻郭，禹州人。 鴻普母王，明季流賊破州，自經死，失其屍。 鴻普將斫檀為之像，未成而卒。 郭力紡織，奉其舅及後姑。 子以達，稍長，喻以父意。 求檀，輒不中像材。 郭乃刺左腕，出血盈盂，和香屑為像，复剪髮飾其首。 以達驚，叩首泣，郭曰：「我姑以節死，我何愛發若血不以奉姑？ 吾無恙，汝又何悲？」 像成，藏潔室，日上飲膳，事如生。
Guo, wife of Li Hongpu, of Yuzhou. Hongpu's mother Wang, in the closing years of the Ming when roving bandits overran the prefecture, hanged herself. Her body was never found. Hongpu had begun to carve a sandalwood image of her, but died before it was finished. Guo spun and wove to support her father-in-law and stepmother-in-law. When their son Yida grew old enough, she told him of his father's wish. They searched for sandalwood, yet no piece proved fit for carving the statue. Guo pierced her left wrist until a bowl brimmed with blood, mixed the blood with incense powder to form a statue, and cut her own hair to crown it. Yida was horrified and kowtowed, weeping. Guo said, "My mother-in-law died faithful to her vows. Why should I spare my hair or my blood when they are meant for her? I am well. Why do you weep?" When the statue was finished, she enshrined it in a clean room and every day set out meals, tending it as if her mother-in-law still lived.
95
其後又有牛輔世妻張，太原人。 姑卒，刻木祀之，飲食必祭。
Later there was Zhang, wife of Niu Fushi, of Taiyuan. When her mother-in-law died, she carved a wooden image for her and never took a meal without first making an offering.
96
高位妻段，宛平人。 位卒，段年十七，二子幼，依其兄以居。 兄勸改嫁，段不可，攜二子徙居小市板屋中。 長子早死，次子為吏，以罪徙遼左，乃復撫諸孫。 段年九十，孫裔成進士，贖其父以歸。
Duan, wife of Gao Wei, of Wanping. Wei died when Duan was seventeen, leaving two small sons. She went to live with her brother. Her brother urged her to remarry, but she refused and moved with her sons into a plank shack on the edge of the market town. Her elder son died young; her younger son entered government service but was banished to the far northeast for a crime, and she took up raising her grandchildren again. Duan lived to ninety. Her grandson Yi became a jinshi and secured his father's release, bringing him home from exile.
97
裔母谷，事姑孝。 始處賤，躬灑掃。 晨侍盥櫛，食時，就灶下作羹，親上之。 食畢，然後退，日以為常。 既貴，終不改。 或以為言，谷曰：「若毋言，吾與姑故寒苦，姑習我，非我供事，姑終不適。 吾老矣！ 灑掃盥饋以事我姑，此日可多得耶？」 康熙二十七年，段卒，年九十六。
Yi's mother Gu was devoted in her service to her mother-in-law. While they still lived in humble circumstances, she herself swept and cleaned the rooms. Each morning she helped her wash and dress; at mealtimes she cooked at the kitchen hearth and brought the food up herself. She withdrew only after her mother-in-law had finished eating, and did this day after day without fail. Even after the family rose to prosperity, she never changed her ways. When others remarked on it, Gu said, "Say nothing. My mother-in-law and I knew poverty together. She taught me these ways—without my service she could never have been content. I am old now! How many more days will I have to sweep rooms, wash her hands, and set her meals before my mother-in-law?" In the twenty-seventh year of the Kangxi reign, Duan died at ninety-six.
98
鄭光春妻葉，莆田人。 光春遊湖南，久不歸，葉以紡績養姑。 子文炳幼，或不率教，輒拊心號天，文炳懼，向學。 姑老病痺，葉負以出入。 七年，姑乃卒。
Ye, wife of Zheng Guangchun, of Putian. Guangchun went to Hunan and stayed away for years. Ye spun and wove to support her mother-in-law. Their son Wenbing was still a boy and sometimes unruly. She would clap her breast and cry to Heaven until Wenbing, frightened, applied himself to his books. When her mother-in-law grew old and crippled with paralysis, Ye carried her on her back wherever she needed to go. Seven years later her mother-in-law died.
99
文炳長，娶於吳，念父不歸，婚夕惘惘無歡。 吳逡巡得其故，勸文炳行求父，曰：「事姑，我任之！」 文炳行求得父以歸，吳已卒，猶處子。 文炳子任仁，婦張，能繩其孝。
When Wenbing came of age he married a woman named Wu. His father still had not returned, and on their wedding night he was lost in grief, unable to rejoice. Wu gradually learned why and urged him to go find his father. "Leave your mother to me," she said. Wenbing set out, found his father, and brought him home—but Wu had already died, still untouched as a bride. Wenbing's son Renren married Zhang, who carried on Wu's devotion to the family.
100
屈崇山妻劉，鄠縣人。 崇山卒，劉奉姑以居。 康熙三十年，歲兇，姑勸之嫁，不從。 飢益甚，姑泣語劉曰：「我旦暮且死，盍自鬻，尚可活我！」 劉泣不應。 姑大慟曰：「死耳，夫何言！」 劉哽咽久之，乃曰：「如姑命。」 自鬻於豪家，得金畀姑，號泣登車去。 豪家方具酒食為賀，劉入廁自經死。 豪家大恨，以敝藁裹屍棄野外。
Liu, wife of Qu Chongshan, of Huxian. After Chongshan died, Liu lived with and cared for her mother-in-law. In the thirtieth year of the Kangxi reign famine struck. Her mother-in-law urged her to remarry, but she refused. Famine deepened. Her mother-in-law wept and said to Liu, "I will not live much longer. Sell yourself—you could still save my life." Liu wept and said nothing. Her mother-in-law cried out in anguish, "Death is all that awaits us. What is there left to say?" Liu choked back tears for a long time, then said, "I will do as you say." She sold herself to a wealthy family, gave the money to her mother-in-law, and left wailing in the carriage. The household was preparing a feast to celebrate when Liu slipped into the privy and hanged herself. Enraged, the family wrapped her body in tattered matting and cast it out beyond the walls.
101
謝以炳妻路，仲秀妻鄭，季純妻吳，湖口人。 以炳兄弟並早卒，三婦勵節事姑，姑病癰，迭吮之，良愈。
Lu, wife of Xie Yibing; Zheng, wife of Zhongxiu; and Wu, wife of Jichun—all of Hukou. Yibing's brothers had all died young. The three daughters-in-law upheld their vows and cared for their mother-in-law. When she developed a festering sore, they took turns drawing out the poison with their mouths until she recovered.
102
王鉅妻施，鉅，蕭山人； 施，富陽人。 姑嚴，小不當意，輒呵斥，施屏息不敢聲。 姑病反胃甚，醫以為不治，施刲股和藥進，病良已，姑遇施如故。 鉅疾作，施視疾憊，病瘵卒，姑猶不善施。 鉅以刲股事告，視其屍，信，乃大慟曰：「吾負孝婦！」 及疾篤，出珠花付鉅曰：「汝婦孝，以此志吾痛，使汝子孫勿忘。」 蕭山人因稱鉅後為珠花王氏。
Shi, wife of Wang Ju. Ju was from Xiaoshan; Shi was from Fuyang. Her mother-in-law was severe and scolded her at the slightest fault. Shi held her breath and dared not speak. When her mother-in-law fell gravely ill with vomiting and the doctors gave up hope, Shi cut flesh from her thigh, mixed it into medicine, and fed it to her. The illness passed—but her mother-in-law treated her no better than before. When Ju fell ill, Shi nursed him until she was worn out, then herself sickened with consumption and died. Her mother-in-law still showed her no kindness. Ju told her about the thigh-cutting. Seeing the wound on her body, he believed it and cried out in anguish, "I have wronged a devoted wife!" When her own illness turned grave, she took out pearl hair ornaments and gave them to Ju. "Your wife was devoted," she said. "Keep these in memory of my grief, and let your descendants never forget." The people of Xiaoshan thereafter called Ju's line the Pearl-Flower Wang family.
103
陳文世妻劉，鄖人。 陳、劉皆農家，劉待年於陳。 既婚，姑年七十二，病噎，劉割臂和藥以進，疾少間； 既而復作，不食已十日，垂盡矣。 劉夜屏人，殺雞誓於神，持小刀自劙其胸二寸許，出肝刲半，取布束創，以肝與雞同瀹湯奉姑。 姑久不言，忽曰：「湯香甚！」 飲之竟，病良愈，劉亦旋平。 為乾隆四十四年夏六月事。 知縣嘉興李集出俸為買田宅，宅北有大陂，幾三頃，因命曰孝婦陂。
Liu, wife of Chen Wenshi, of Yun. Both the Chen and Liu families were farmers. Liu had been betrothed to Chen as a child and lived in his household awaiting the wedding. After they wed, her seventy-two-year-old mother-in-law fell ill with choking sickness. Liu cut her arm, mixed the blood into medicine, and fed it to her. The illness eased for a time; then returned. She had eaten nothing for ten days and was near death. That night Liu sent everyone away, slaughtered a chicken, and vowed to the gods. With a small knife she cut open her chest nearly two inches, took out her liver and sliced off half, bound the wound with cloth, and boiled the liver with the chicken into a broth for her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law had been silent for a long while, then suddenly said, "How fragrant this broth is!" She drank it all. The illness lifted completely, and Liu soon healed as well. This took place in the sixth month of summer in the forty-fourth year of the Qianlong reign. Magistrate Li Ji of Jiaxing used his own salary to buy fields and a house for her. North of the house lay a great pond of nearly three qing, which he named Filial Wife Pond.
104
張守仁妻梁，獻縣人。 守仁卒，祖姑穆，耄而瞽且痿，日偃仰床蓐，梁傭力以養。 或諷梁嫁，梁曰：「我今日嫁，明日祖姑飢且死，義不忍。」 祖姑善恚，小不當意，則怒詈，或攫其面，血出，梁事之自若。 祖姑卒，依其女以終。
Liang, wife of Zhang Shouren, of Xian County. After Shouren died, his great-grandmother Mu was very old, blind, and paralyzed, confined day and night to her bed. Liang hired herself out as a laborer to support her. When others urged her to remarry, Liang said, "If I wed today, my great-grandmother-in-law will starve tomorrow. I cannot bring myself to do it." Mu was quick to anger. At the slightest fault she would rage and curse, sometimes clawing Liang's face until it bled. Liang served her without change. After Mu died, Liang went to live with her daughter until the end of her life.
105
縣又有韓守立妻俞，祖姑及姑皆瞽，或妄言割肉以燃燈可愈，守立原試之，俞請代，刲右股燃之，盡十餘日，祖姑目復明。
In the same county was Yu, wife of Han Shouli. Both his great-grandmother and mother were blind. Someone claimed that cutting flesh to fuel a lamp could restore sight. Shouli meant to try it himself, but Yu insisted on taking his place, cut flesh from her right thigh, and burned it. After more than ten days his great-grandmother's eyes could see again.
106
路和生妻吳，靖遠人。 善事姑。 姑喪明，吳侍左右，非整衣不入。 或言姑無見也，吳曰：「吾心自不可欺耳。」
Wu, wife of Lu Hesheng, of Jingyuan. She was devoted in her care for her mother-in-law. When her mother-in-law went blind, Wu stayed at her side and would not enter her presence unless fully dressed. When someone said her mother-in-law could not see, Wu replied, "My own heart is not something I can deceive."
107
諸君祿妻唐，零陵人。 姑胡，老無齒，兼病痺，唐日操作畢，輒跪而乳之。 或曰：「坐可也。」 唐曰：「是乳小兒也，乳姑不可。」
Tang, wife of Zhu Junlu, of Lingling. Her mother-in-law Hu was old and toothless and crippled with paralysis. Each day after her chores Tang would kneel and nurse her from her own breast. Someone said, "You could sit to do that." Tang replied, "One sits to nurse a child. One does not sit to nurse a mother-in-law."
108
牛允度妻張，通渭人。 三十而寡，奉姑謹。 嘉慶六年，大祲，求野菜以食。 姑老病，久之，不能復食。 張貸錢得市脯進姑。 又久之，貸不繼，姑病欲絕，張慰之曰：「姑稍待，婦制草笠，可得錢數十，猶足為數日供也。」 笠成，賣得錢，姑已死。 乃求市脯祭，朝夕哭，以馂餘活夫弟。
Zhang, wife of Niu Yundu, of Tongwei. Widowed at thirty, she cared for her mother-in-law with scrupulous devotion. In the sixth year of the Jiaqing reign a great famine struck, and they lived on wild greens gathered from the fields. Her mother-in-law was old and sick. In time she could no longer keep food down. Zhang borrowed money and bought dried meat at market for her mother-in-law. Before long she could borrow no more. Her mother-in-law was failing fast. Zhang comforted her, "Wait a little longer. I am weaving straw hats—I can earn a few dozen cash, enough to feed you for several days yet." When the hats were done and sold, her mother-in-law was already dead. She bought dried meat for the funeral offerings and wept morning and night. With what remained from the sacrificial food she kept her husband's younger brother alive.
109
遊應標妻蕭，新都人。 應標出耘，蕭居績。 火發翁室，翁老病不能行，蕭冒火入，負翁，將及門，門焚，俱死。
Xiao, wife of You Yingbiao, of Xindu. While Yingbiao was out in the fields, Xiao stayed home at her loom. Fire broke out in her father-in-law's room. He was old and sick and could not walk. Xiao rushed into the flames, lifted him on her back, and had nearly reached the door when it collapsed in fire. Both perished.
110
蔣廣居妻伍，桐城人。 寡，奉姑徐。 嘉慶二十四年，火作，徐年九十六矣，臥不能起。 伍自火中奔赴，負徐至灶前，火逼，俱死。 伍屍倚牆，背負徐，俱僵立不僕，面如生。
Wu, wife of Jiang Guangju, of Tongcheng. A widow, she cared for her mother-in-law Xu. In the twenty-fourth year of the Jiaqing reign fire broke out. Xu was ninety-six and bedridden. Wu ran into the blaze, carried Xu to the kitchen hearth, and was overtaken by the flames. Both died. Wu's body was found leaning against a wall with Xu on her back. Both stood rigid, neither fallen, their faces serene as in life.
111
又有扶溝蔣有廣妻陳，救翁； 洧川閻惠妻李，救姑：皆火死。
There was also Chen, wife of Jiang Youguang of Fugou, who died saving her father-in-law; and Li, wife of Yan Hui of Weichuan, who died saving her mother-in-law—all perished in the flames.
112
週學臣妻柳，湖口人。 早寡。 夜，虎突門，翁出視，驚僕。 柳徒手擊虎，虎自去。
Liu, wife of Zhou Xuechen, of Hukou. She was widowed young. One night a tiger burst through the gate. Her father-in-law went out to look and collapsed in fright. Liu beat the tiger with her bare hands until it fled.
113
王德駿妻盛，益陽人。 事祖姑孝，病噎，哺以乳。 寇掠縣，負姑夜遁，墮虎穴，禱於虎，虎不咥。
Sheng, wife of Wang Dejun, of Yiyang. She was devoted to her great-grandmother-in-law. When the old woman fell ill with choking sickness, Sheng nursed her from her own breast. When raiders overran the county she fled by night with her mother-in-law on her back, fell into a tiger's lair, and prayed to the beast. It did not harm them.
114
張茂信妻方，茂信，河津人； 方儀徵人。 方嘗割股愈舅疾，舅與茂信皆卒，奉姑劉。 姑嚴，方事之謹。 當夏，姑病暴下，方躬滌茵席，不以為穢。 夜與姑共枕寢，微呻輒起，撫摩抑搔五十餘日，姑愈，亟稱其孝。
Fang, wife of Zhang Maoxin. Maoxin was from Hejin; Fang was from Yizheng. Fang had once cut flesh from her thigh to cure her uncle's illness. After both uncle and husband died, she cared for her mother-in-law Liu. Her mother-in-law was severe, and Fang served her with scrupulous devotion. One summer her mother-in-law fell gravely ill with dysentery. Fang washed the bedding herself and thought nothing of the filth. She slept beside her mother-in-law at night, rising at the slightest groan to stroke and massage her. After more than fifty days the old woman recovered and praised her devotion without end.
115
林經妻陳，連江人，姑盲性卞，常臆婦藐己，陳斷三指自明，姑為之悔。 經病，刲股； 經卒，以節終。
Chen, wife of Lin Jing, of Lianjiang, had a blind and irascible mother-in-law who constantly suspected her daughter-in-law despised her. Chen cut off three fingers to prove her loyalty, and her mother-in-law repented. When Jing fell ill, she cut flesh from her thigh; After Jing died, she remained a widow to the end of her days.
116
張德鄰妻李，遷安人。 寡，從弟欲奪其志，力拒。 歲饑，驅驢鬻石灰易米以養姑。 一日遇盜，泣曰：「驢可將去，丐留囊中物俾我姑，不即餓死！」 盜舍之去。
Li, wife of Zhang Delin, of Qian'an. Widowed, she was pressed by a cousin to remarry and refused with all her strength. During a famine she drove a donkey to sell lime for rice to feed her mother-in-law. One day she met bandits and wept, "Take the donkey, but leave what is in the bag for my mother-in-law—without it she will starve at once!" The bandits let her go.
117
武烈妻趙，烈，永年人； 趙，宣化人。 趙事姑孝，姑病，夜露禱，得寒嗽疾。 烈病疫，或謂口吮胸，汗出則愈，而吮者當病，趙曰：「果爾，死不恤。」 卒吮之，烈竟卒，趙病幾殆。 貧，操作紡績，諸子成進士，自奉恆觳。 親族有緩急，往往傾其貲。 出千金置義學，卒，遂祠焉。
Zhao, wife of Wu Lie. Lie was from Yongnian; Zhao was from Xuanhua. Zhao was devoted to her mother-in-law. When the old woman fell ill, Zhao prayed outdoors through the night and caught a chill that left her coughing. Lie contracted plague. Some said sucking the pus from his chest until he sweated would cure him—but the one who sucked would fall ill. Zhao said, "If that is so, I do not care if I die." She did as they said. Lie died anyway, and Zhao herself nearly died of the illness. Though poor, she spun and wove. All her sons became jinshi, yet she lived always in frugal restraint. When kin fell on hard times she often gave away everything she had. She gave a thousand taels of gold to found a charity school. When she died, she was enshrined there.
118
孫朗人妻吳，連江人。 姑陳，早寡，遺腹生朗人。 性嚴急，有不當意，輒堅臥，朗人偕吳跪床下，俟意解，命之起，乃起。 朗人卒，吳以節終。
Wu, wife of Sun Langren, of Lianjiang. Her mother-in-law Chen was widowed young and bore Langren after her husband's death. She was stern and quick-tempered. When displeased she would lie rigid in bed. Langren and Wu knelt at her bedside until her mood softened and she told them to rise—only then would they stand. After Langren died, Wu remained a widow to the end of her days.
119
李天挺妻申，日照人。 天挺早卒，姑嚴，申年六十，猶終日跪庭中。 居姑喪，以毀卒。
Shen, wife of Li Tianting, of Rizhao. Tianting died young. Her mother-in-law was severe, and even at sixty Shen still knelt in the courtyard all day long. During her mother-in-law's mourning she wore herself to death with grief.
120
劉與齊妻魏，秦州人。 既寡，事姑，日被笞罵，歡顏受之。 躬薉賤，十餘年不怠。
Wei, wife of Liu Yuqi, of Qinzhou. Widowed, she served her mother-in-law and was beaten and reviled every day, yet received it all with a smiling face. She did the foulest chores herself for more than ten years without slackening.
121
周志桂妻馮，湘鄉人。 姑暴，忍飢以養，猶時時加箠楚。 姑病瘓，不能舉杖，叱馮跪自撾，流血，不敢怨。 曆三十餘年，人名其里曰孝婦村。
Feng, wife of Zhou Zhigui, of Xiangxiang. Her mother-in-law was violent. Feng went hungry to support her and was still beaten with the rod from time to time. When her mother-in-law fell paralyzed and could no longer raise the staff, she ordered Feng to kneel and beat herself until she bled. Feng dared not complain. After more than thirty years the people named her lane Filial Wife Village.
122
歐陽玉光妻蔡，湘鄉人。 玉光母劉，治家有法度。 玉光居父喪，以毀卒。 蔡承姑教，董家事，率妯娌，與子侄傭奴，各有專職，家漸起。
Cai, wife of Ouyang Yuguang, of Xiangxiang. Yuguang's mother Liu ran the household with strict order. Yuguang mourned his father and wore himself to death with grief. Cai followed her mother-in-law's teachings, managed the household, and led her sisters-in-law. Sons, nephews, hired hands, and servants each had fixed duties, and the family gradually prospered.
123
子惟本，亦娶於蔡。 婦家貧，將嫁，宗族週焉，得錢三千有奇，陰置稈薦中，而係鑰其端。 父送女還，入室，引鑰，則錢在焉。 曰：「孝哉我女，留此以活我！」 惟本亦早卒，從姑敬事祖姑，祖姑興，姑執笄侍左，婦自右為約發。 盥，姑奉水，婦奉槃。 及食，婦具饌，姑侑之。 寢，三世連床。 一夕，姑起，墮床折肋，婦號泣就援，姑戒勿聲，毋令祖姑驚也。 祖姑晚喪明，手足痿痺，挽箯輿，日遊庭中，姑肩前，婦肩後。 祖姑劉，年至九十，姑蔡，九十六，婦蔡，八十三。 曾國籓為之傳，謂：「歐陽姑、婦，雖似庸行無殊絕者，而純孝兢兢，事姑至六十年、五十年之久而不渝，天下之至難，無以逾此。」
Their son Weiben also married a woman of the Cai clan. The bride's family was poor. When she was to marry, the clan raised a little over three thousand cash for her. She hid the money inside a straw mat and tied a string to one end. Her father escorted her home. She entered the room, pulled the string, and found the money still there. He said, "How filial my daughter is—she left this to keep me alive!" Weiben also died young. Following her mother-in-law, the younger Cai reverently served the great-grandmother. Each morning when the old woman rose, the mother-in-law held the hairpin on the left while the wife bound her hair on the right. At her washing, the mother-in-law held the water and the wife the basin. At meals the wife prepared the food and the mother-in-law served it. At night all three generations shared one bed. One night the mother-in-law rose, fell from the bed, and broke a rib. The wife rushed to her wailing, but the mother-in-law hushed her—do not alarm the great-grandmother. The great-grandmother went blind in old age and her limbs withered. They pulled a bamboo sedan and each day walked her through the courtyard—the mother-in-law at the front, the wife at the rear. Great-grandmother Liu lived to ninety, mother-in-law Cai to ninety-six, and the wife Cai to eighty-three. Zeng Guofan wrote their biography, saying, "The Ouyang mother-in-law and daughter-in-law seem to perform only ordinary deeds without marvels—but in pure, earnest devotion they served their mother-in-law for sixty and fifty years without wavering. Nothing under heaven is harder; nothing surpasses this."
124
蕭學華妻賀，湖南安化人。 賀父徙陝西，學華贅其家。 年餘，學華歸省母，賀欲與俱，父不許，賀割股肉付夫以奉姑。 姑適病，學華烹肉進，病良已。 後學華攜賀歸，事姑以孝稱。
He, wife of Xiao Xuehua, of Anhua in Hunan. He's father moved to Shaanxi, and Xuehua married into the household as a live-in son-in-law. After a year Xuehua went home to visit his mother. He wished to take her with him, but her father refused. He cut flesh from her thigh and gave it to her husband to present to his mother. His mother happened to be ill. Xuehua cooked the flesh and fed it to her, and she recovered completely. Later Xuehua brought He home, and she became renowned for her devotion to her mother-in-law.
125
張友儀妻陳，福建永定人。 事姑孝，姑嘗稱曰：「諸婦汝最樸訥，然酒漿筐篋瑣碎無不治，得吾意者，汝也！」 友儀早卒，陳未三十，勉痛事姑，撫孤子。 同治初，寇至，負姑入山避，徒行數十里，踵裂血流，屢踣屢起。 匿深林中，燃枯枝，採野蓛以活，卒得免。
Chen, wife of Zhang Youyi, of Yongding in Fujian. She was devoted to her mother-in-law, who once said, "Of all my daughters-in-law you are the plainest and most taciturn—yet wine, broth, baskets, and boxes, nothing however small escapes you. You alone understand what I want!" Youyi died young. Chen was not yet thirty. She mastered her grief to serve her mother-in-law and raise their orphaned son. At the start of the Tongzhi reign bandits came. She carried her mother-in-law into the mountains on foot for dozens of li, heels split and bleeding, falling again and again yet rising each time. They hid deep in the forest, burned dead branches, and gathered wild greens to survive until at last they escaped.
126
子日焜妻李，嘗刲股愈母病，事祖姑及姑孝。 姑病，割臂進，病目，舐以舌，良已。 嘗赴族人飯，心動，歸，正姑病。 又嘗宿姻家，夜半，索輿還。 姑曰：「吾正念汝，知汝必念我速歸也。」
Li, wife of their son Rikun, had once cut flesh from her thigh to cure her own mother's illness and was devoted to both her great-grandmother-in-law and her mother-in-law. When her mother-in-law fell ill she cut her arm and offered the flesh. The illness afflicted the eyes; she licked them with her tongue and they healed. Once she went to a kinsman's feast, felt a sudden unease, and returned—to find her mother-in-law indeed ill. Another time she stayed overnight at a relative's house and at midnight called for a sedan chair to take her home. Her mother-in-law said, "I was just thinking of you—I knew you would be thinking of me and hurry home."
127
馮氏，武進人。 嫁吉龍大，事舅姑謹。 姑病偏廢，飲食臥起皆需馮，而龍大遊蕩，欲衒馮以媒估客，馮不可。 龍大引外婦入室，舅怒而逐之，馮曰：「姑病，婦終日侍，苦為他事閒，得一人分其勞，甚善。」 因持臥具從姑寢。 龍大時時毆辱馮，馮未嘗有怨色。 舅病，龍大市毒藥授馮，令飲其父，馮擲藥，跪諫數日，龍大別市藥，毆而逼之，馮歎曰：「我所以不死，為舅姑耳，今無冀矣！」 入視姑寢，至龍大所，舉藥盡飲之。 謂龍大曰：「我代舅矣，後毋萌此念！」 須臾毒發死。
A woman of the Feng clan, of Wujin. She married Ji Longda and served her parents-in-law with scrupulous care. Her mother-in-law was half-paralyzed and needed Feng for every meal and every movement. Longda idled about and wished to parade Feng before merchant guests to broker deals. Feng refused. Longda brought another woman into the house. Her father-in-law was furious and drove her out. Feng said, "Mother is ill and I attend her all day. Other duties wear me thin—having someone share the labor would be a blessing." She took her bedding and slept beside her mother-in-law. Longda beat and reviled her from time to time, yet Feng never showed resentment. When her father-in-law fell ill, Longda bought poison and ordered Feng to give it to his father. Feng threw the medicine away and knelt pleading for days. Longda bought poison elsewhere and beat her into compliance. Feng sighed, "The only reason I have stayed alive is for my parents-in-law. Now there is no hope." She looked in on her sleeping mother-in-law, then went to Longda's room and drank every drop of the poison. She told Longda, "I have taken Father's place. Never think this way again." In a moment the poison took hold and she died.
128
王鉞妻隋，諸城人。 敏而有定識。 明季，奉姑避兵，航海行數千里。 寇至，負姑夜踰垣匿谷中以免。 鉞成進士，為廣東西寧知縣。 康熙十三年，吳三桂反，鉞城守，賊至，鉞謂隋：「當奈何？」 隋出匕首曰：「有此何懼！」 賊去，鉞行取主事，隋請以諸子先行。 是時賊方盛，行人道絕，隋得敝舟，挾幼子經肇慶、度大庾、入鄱陽湖，水陸行數千里，率僕婢佩刀晝夜警備。 家居，地震，自樓墮，血淋漓，持子泣，地搖搖未已，子請避，隋曰：「諸婢壓其下，吾去，死矣！」 督家僮發磚石出之，皆復活。 火發於樓，煙蔽梯不可登，命以水濡被予諸婢，身持濕衣障火先登，諸婢汲水次第上，火遂得熸。 子沛恩、沛憻、沛恂，皆成進士，官於朝，隋益勤儉自斂抑，鄉人稱老實王家。
Sui, wife of Wang Yue, of Zhucheng. She was quick-witted and resolute. In the late Ming she escorted her mother-in-law away from the wars, traveling thousands of li by sea. When raiders came she carried her mother-in-law over the wall by night and hid with her in a valley until they were safe. Yue became a jinshi and served as magistrate of Xining in Guangdong. In the thirteenth year of the Kangxi reign Wu Sangui rebelled. Yue defended the city. When rebels arrived he asked Sui, "What shall we do?" Sui drew a dagger and said, "With this, what is there to fear?" The rebels withdrew. Yue was promoted to director in the ministries. Sui asked that their sons travel ahead first. Rebels still held sway and the roads were cut. Sui found a battered boat, took her young son through Zhaoqing, over Dayu Pass, and into Poyang Lake—thousands of li by water and land—with servants and maids belted with daggers, alert day and night. At home an earthquake struck. She fell from the upper story, blood streaming, clutching her son and weeping while the ground still shook. Her son begged to flee. Sui said, "The maidservants are pinned beneath—if I leave, they die!" She directed the household servants to dig through the brick and stone. All were brought out alive. Fire broke out in the building. Smoke choked the stair so no one could climb. She ordered wet quilts for the maidservants, wrapped herself in wet clothes to shield against the flames, and went up first while the maids drew water and followed one by one until the fire was put out. Her sons Peien, Peixian, and Peixun all became jinshi and served at court. Sui grew still more frugal and restrained. The villagers called them the Honest Wang family.
129
林雲銘妻蔡，雲銘，閩人； 蔡名捷，字步仙，侯官人。 雲銘，順治十五年進士，授江南徽州推官。 鄭成功兵入江，徽州兵叛，蔡矢死不去。 官省，還居建寧。 耿精忠反，下云銘獄，蔡憂之，嘔血殷紫，女瑛佩剜臂肉入藥，旋蘇。 師至，雲銘乃出獄。 雲銘無子，蔡為買妾七，乃生子。 蔡禦諸妾有恩，所親有婦妒，而五十無子者，蔡延至家，與處三日，歸為夫買妾生子。 裡婦忤其夫，共指蔡以勸，曰：「毋令林孺人知。」 瑛佩為閩清鄭郯妻。
Cai, wife of Lin Yunming. Yunming was from Fujian; Cai was named Jie, styled Buxian, of Houguan. Yunming became a jinshi in the fifteenth year of the Shunzhi reign and was appointed investigating censor of Huizhou in Jiangnan. When Zheng Chenggong's troops entered the Yangtze and the Huizhou garrison mutinied, Cai swore to die rather than flee. He left office and returned to live in Jianning. When Geng Jingzhong rebelled and threw Yunming into prison, Cai grieved until she vomited dark purple blood. Her daughter Yingpei scraped flesh from her arm to mix into medicine, and Cai soon revived. When the imperial army arrived, Yunming was released from prison. Yunming had no sons. Cai bought him seven concubines, and at last sons were born. Cai treated all the concubines with kindness. Among her kin was a wife consumed by jealousy who at fifty still had no son. Cai invited her to stay at the house and kept her company for three days, then returned home and bought a concubine for her husband so she might at last bear a son. When village wives defied their husbands, others would point to Cai as an example and say, "Do not let Lady Lin find out." Yingpei was the wife of Zheng Tan of Minqing.
130
陳龍妻胡，龍溪人。 龍少恃勇，為暴於鄉里，父老群謀去害。 時胡未嫁，使密勸乘時立
Hu, wife of Chen Long, was from Longxi. In youth Long trusted in his strength and terrorized the countryside; the village elders together plotted to rid themselves of him. Before she was married, Hu sent someone in secret to urge him to seize the moment and establish
131
功名。 龍亡命為盜海島，父母將別字，胡堅拒。 聞龍娶，不貳。 龍降，官金門總兵，知胡猶未字，乃成婚。 海澄許貞嘗以逋餉繫獄，胡告龍代償其負，釋使去，貞卒為名將。
a name for himself. Long fled and became a pirate on the islands; when her parents were about to betroth her elsewhere, Hu steadfastly refused. When she heard Long had married, she did not waver in her devotion. Long surrendered and was appointed commander-in-chief at Jinmen. Learning that Hu was still unbetrothed, they were married at last. Xu Zhen of Haicheng had once been imprisoned for unpaid rations. Hu urged Long to pay his debt and have him released; Zhen eventually became a renowned general.
132
王懃妻岳，曲周人。 岳奉舅姑篤謹，若不能言。 懃移家臨清，而商於天津。 王倫為亂，將攻臨清，臨清民爭走避，岳請於舅姑曰：「賊將以臨清為窟，必不剪居民以自弱。 從眾以行，不死於奔竄，必死於蹂藉，宜若可緩然。」 舅姑用其言，出者爭道，多擠入水死。 岳曰：「乃今宜可徙，官軍且至，賊方謀出禦，不暇捕逃人。 且徙者已十八九，今行，無慮蹂藉； 今不行，免於賊，或不免於官軍。」 遂相將潛出城，還曲周，懃亦歸。 人稱其能量事，岳篤謹如故。
Yue, wife of Wang Qin, was from Quzhou. Yue served her parents-in-law with devoted, reticent care, as though she scarcely spoke at all. Qin moved the household to Linqing while he traded in Tianjin. Wang Lun rose in rebellion and was about to attack Linqing. The townspeople rushed to flee. Yue said to her parents-in-law, "The rebels will make Linqing their stronghold—they will not slaughter the populace and weaken themselves. If we join the fleeing crowd, we will die not in flight but underfoot. It seems we can afford to wait." Her parents-in-law took her advice. Those who fled crowded the roads, and many were crushed into the water and drowned. Yue said, "Now we may leave. The government troops are near, and the rebels are planning to march out against them—they have no time to hunt down fugitives. Besides, nine in ten have already fled. If we go now, there is little fear of being trampled; if we stay, we may escape the rebels but not the government troops." They stole out of the city together and returned to Quzhou; Qin came home as well. People praised her judgment in a crisis; Yue remained as devoted and careful as ever.
133
魯宗鎬妻硃，名如玉，字又寒，仁和人。 事舅姑孝。 或以賄幹宗鎬，有所關說，硃勸毋受。 宗鎬曰：「我度是無利害。」 硃曰：「諸為不義事，皆以為無利害耳，奈何以貧隳素行！」 宗鎬悟，謝之。
Zhu, wife of Lu Zonghao, was named Ruyu and styled Youhan; she was from Renhe. She was filial in serving her parents-in-law. When someone tried to bribe Zonghao with a petition for favors, Zhu urged him to refuse. Zonghao said, "I judge this harmless." Zhu said, "Everyone who does wrong thinks it harmless. How can we let poverty ruin a lifetime of upright conduct?" Zonghao understood and thanked her.
134
馬叔籥妻丁，揚州舊城人，事舅姑甚謹。 叔籥兄弟三，既分，而伯兄以訟破家，丁義不
Ding, wife of Ma Shuyue, was from old Yangzhou; she served her parents-in-law with scrupulous care. Shuyue had three brothers. After they divided the estate, the eldest lost everything in litigation. Ding held it wrong to
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己食，雖壺酒豆肉必以分。 一日，語叔籥，請致家於伯氏，叔籥許之。 丁事伯如舅，姒如姑，米鹽纖悉一關姒，嫁時衣裝飾首約臂皆不私。 家故賈也，叔籥兄善賈，遂以其家富。 叔籥有所請於姒，姒不時給，叔籥怒曰：「乃我家所有，嫂何與？」 丁曰：「始讓而終怒，人其謂我何？」 勸叔籥毋校。
eat alone; even a cup of wine or a scrap of meat she would share with them. One day she spoke to Shuyue and asked to turn the household over to his elder brother's line. Shuyue agreed. Ding served the elder brother as she would a father-in-law and the sister-in-law as a mother-in-law. Grain, salt, and every trifle went through the sister-in-law's hands; her bridal clothes, hair ornaments, and bracelets were never kept for herself alone. The family had long been in trade. Shuyue's elder brother was a skilled merchant, and under his hand the household grew wealthy. When Shuyue made a request of his sister-in-law and she did not promptly comply, he said in anger, "This is our family's property—what is it to you, sister-in-law?" Ding said, "To yield at first and rage at the end—what will people say of me?" She urged Shuyue not to quarrel.
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許光清妻陳，海寧人。 善持家。 戚有鬻婦者，婦誓死不從，陳偕姒婦硃醵金畀其夫，要之署券。 曰：「彼人遊蕩，金盡終且鬻婦，不如是，婦不免。」 乃招婦至，善視之。 其夫死，复醵金贖所居，遣婦還，並前券焚之。 鄰童入其室竊壺去，陳戒家人勿言，曰：「彼何以為人？」 禦婢寬，聞有虐婢者，必以陶潛語勸曰：「彼亦人子也！」
Chen, wife of Xu Guangqing, was from Haining. She was skilled at managing the household. A kinsman was selling his wife, who swore she would rather die than go. Chen and her sister-in-law Zhu pooled money, paid her husband, and required him to sign a deed of sale to them. She said, "That man is dissolute. When the money is gone he will sell his wife in the end. This way, at least, she is not lost to him entirely." They brought the wife into their household and treated her with kindness. When her husband died they again pooled money to redeem her home, sent her back, and burned the deed. A neighbor's child stole a pot from the house. Chen forbade the household to speak of it, saying, "How is he to grow into a decent person?" She was lenient with her maidservants. When she heard of one being abused, she would quote Tao Qian: "He too is someone's son!"
137
黃開鼇妻廖，開鼇，高安人； 廖，沔陽人。 開鼇善為針，設肆衡州，廖佐以紡績。 開鼇病瘓，廖習為針，針成，置諸版，摩以掌，針乃澤，數以是創，不懈。
Liao, wife of Huang Kai'ao. Kai'ao was from Gao'an; Liao was from Mianyang. Kai'ao was skilled at making needles and opened a shop in Hengzhou; Liao helped with spinning and weaving. When Kai'ao was paralyzed, Liao learned the craft herself. When a needle was finished she laid it on the block and polished it with her palm until it gleamed. She cut her hands again and again at the work but never slackened.
138
開鼇卒，子長發幼，婦劉，監利人，待年於姑氏。 稍長，夫婦共為針，長發截鐵，圓本而銳末，持就段，睨火察純窳。 劉削竹，綴以鋼，懸雙絙環竹，曳則竹轉以穿針鼻。 針良，市者多，家漸裕。 洪秀全之徒躪湖南，家破，長發治針益力。 當冬，得敝羊裘奉廖，與劉皆敝
Kai'ao died, leaving a young son Changfa. His wife Liu of Jianli was still awaiting the wedding at her mother-in-law's home. When he was older, husband and wife made needles together. Changfa cut the iron, rounded the base and sharpened the tip, held each piece to the forge, and by the fire's glow judged its purity and flaws. Liu shaved bamboo, fitted it with steel, and hung twin cords around it so that when pulled the bamboo would turn and thread the needle's eye. Their needles were excellent, buyers flocked to them, and the household gradually grew prosperous. When Hong Xiuquan's followers ravaged Hunan their home was ruined, and Changfa worked at needles all the harder. That winter he obtained a worn sheepskin coat for Liao; he and Liu wore worn
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褐短褌，手足龜，不敢怠。
brown short trousers. Their hands and feet cracked with cold, yet they never dared to slacken.
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長發旋卒，子才三歲，被火，家再破。 於是廖語劉曰：「天乎！ 此誠不可再活，盍同死？」 劉對曰：「火，亦常也，姑、婦惟當復食苦耳。」 鬻簪珥為貿遷，居賤鬻貴。 廖持算，劉主議值。 又數年，家复裕。 廖老而卞，易怒，劉進淡巴菰，徐言他事輒解； 不解，即跪謝，相持泣乃已。 廖七十六而卒。
Changfa soon died, leaving a son of only three. Fire struck the house and the family was ruined again. Then Liao said to Liu, "Heaven! We truly cannot endure this again. Shall we die together?" Liu replied, "Fire is a common misfortune. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law need only endure hardship again." They sold their hairpins and earrings to go into trade, buying cheap and selling dear. Liao kept the accounts; Liu set the prices. After a few more years the household was prosperous again. Liao grew old and obstinate, easily angered. Liu would offer her tobacco and speak gently of other matters until her mood softened; if not, she would kneel in apology; they would hold each other weeping until the anger passed. Liao died at seventy-six.
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劉既善貿遷，鄰家就求術，劉為謀至詳，貧者貸以貲。 同巷居五十餘家，多以貿遷富。 開鼇初設肆，才錢六千四百，劉晚年積白金至十萬，督子孫就學，取科目，家益大，年七十九而卒。
Liu was skilled at trade. Neighbors came to learn her methods; she advised them in detail and lent capital to the poor. More than fifty households on the same lane grew wealthy through trade. When Kai'ao first opened his shop he had only 6,400 cash. Liu in her later years amassed 100,000 taels of silver, urged her descendants to study, and saw them win degrees at the examinations. The family grew still greater. She died at seventy-nine.
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黃茂梧妻顧，名若璞，字和知，仁和人。 顧好言經世之學，為詩、古文辭，自為集序曰：「若璞不才，少不若於母訓，笄事東生，十有三年。 閒事詠歌，大抵與東生相對憂苦之所為作也。 東生溘逝，帷殯而哭，不如死之久矣。 徒以藐諸孤在。 發藏書，日夜披覽，二子從外傅，入輒令隅坐，為陳說吾所明。 日月漸多，聞見與積，聖賢經傳，旁及騷雅詞賦，冀以自發其哀思。 題曰臥月軒稿。 軒為東生所嘗憇，志思也。」 東生，茂梧字。 顧至康熙中乃卒，年九十。
Gu, wife of Huang Maowu, was named Ruopu and styled Hezhi; she was from Renhe. Gu delighted in practical statecraft and wrote poetry and ancient-style prose. In her own preface to the collection she wrote, "Ruopu is without talent. In youth I fell short of my mother's teaching. At my hairpinning I married Dongsheng, and thirteen years followed. In my spare moments I turned to song—mostly what was written as we faced each other in shared sorrow and hardship. When Dongsheng passed suddenly, I wept beside his bier and felt I had long wished for death. Only because my little orphans still remained. I opened the family library and read day and night. My two sons studied with outside tutors; when they came in I had them sit to one side and explained what I had grasped. As days and months passed, what I heard and saw accumulated—the classics of the sages, and beside them the Songs and elegant fu—hoping thereby to give voice to my grief. I titled it Drafts of the Reclining Moon Pavilion. The pavilion was where Dongsheng had once rested—a memorial to longing." Dongsheng was Maowu's style name. Gu lived until the Kangxi reign and died at ninety.
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子燦妻丁，從顧學，亦好言經世，先顧卒。
Ding, wife of their son Can, studied under Gu and likewise delighted in statecraft; she died before Gu.
144
高其倬妻蔡，名琬，字季玉，漢軍正白旗人，綏遠將軍毓榮女也。 毓榮、其倬皆有傳。 琬諳政事，其倬章疏文檄每與商榷。 能詩，有蘊真軒詩鈔。 集中辰龍關、關鎖嶺、江西坡、九峰寺諸篇，追懷其父戰績，尤悲壯，為世傳誦。 嘉慶間，鐵保錄滿洲、蒙古、漢軍旗人詩，為熙朝雅頌集，以琬為餘集首。 同入選者，珠亮妻、嵩山妻皆宗室女。 張宗仁妻高，名景芳，詩最多。 珠亮妻有養易齋詩，嵩山妻有蘭軒詩，景芳有紅雪軒詩。
Cai Wan, wife of Gao Qipei, styled Jiyu, was of the Han Banner of the Plain White; she was the daughter of General Yurong of Suiyuan. Yurong and Qipei both have biographies in these annals. Wan understood government affairs; Qipei often discussed his memorials and proclamations with her. She wrote poetry; her collection was the Yunzhen Xuan Poems. Among her poems, those on Chenlong Pass, Guansuo Ridge, Jiangxi Slope, and Jiufeng Temple, commemorating her father's campaigns, are especially stirring and widely recited. In the Jiaqing era Tie Bao collected poetry by Manchu, Mongol, and Han Banner writers in the Elegant Odes of the Glorious Dynasty, placing Wan first in the supplement. Also chosen were the wives of Zhuliang and Songshan, both daughters of the Imperial Clan. Gao Jingfang, wife of Zhang Zongren, was the most prolific poet among them. Zhuliang's wife wrote the Yangyi Zhai Poems, Songshan's wife the Orchid Pavilion Poems, and Jingfang the Scarlet Snow Pavilion Poems.
145
陳之遴妻徐，名燦，字明霞，吳縣人。 之遴自有傳。 徐通書史，之遴得罪，再遣戍，徐從出塞。 之遴死戍所，諸子亦皆歿。 康熙十年，聖祖東巡，徐跪道旁自陳。 上問：「寧有冤乎？」 徐曰：「先臣惟知思過，豈敢言冤？ 伏惟聖上覆載之仁，許先臣歸骨。」 上即命還葬。 徐晚學佛，更號紫{言}，有拙政園詩詞集。 詞尤工，陳維崧推為南宋後閨秀第一。 畫得北宋法。
Xu Can, wife of Chen Zhipin, styled Mingxia, was from Wuxian. Zhipin has his own biography elsewhere in these annals. Xu was versed in history and the classics. When Zhipin fell from favor and was exiled a second time, Xu followed him beyond the frontier. Zhipin died in exile, and all their sons perished as well. In the tenth year of the Kangxi reign the Emperor toured the east. Xu knelt by the roadside to plead her case. The Emperor asked, "Is there injustice in your case?" Xu said, "My late husband knew only to reflect on his faults. How dare we speak of injustice? We humbly beg Your Majesty's heaven-enfolding mercy to permit my late husband's remains to return home for burial." The Emperor at once ordered his remains brought home for burial. In her later years Xu turned to Buddhism, took the style name Ziyan, and left the Zhuzheng Garden Collection of Poetry and Lyrics. Her ci lyrics were especially accomplished; Chen Weisong hailed her as the foremost woman poet since the Southern Song. In painting she mastered the methods of the Northern Song masters.
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詹枚妻王，名貞儀，字德卿。 枚，無為人； 貞儀，泗州人，而家江寧，祖者輔，官宣化知府，坐事戍吉林，貞儀年十一。 者輔卒戍所，從父錫琛奔喪，因僑居吉林，侍祖母董，讀書學騎射。 十六還江南，又從錫琛客京師，轉徙陝西、湖北、廣東，二十五歸於枚。 後五年，嘉慶二年，卒。
Wang Zhenyi, wife of Zhan Mei, styled Deqing. Mei was from Wuwei; Zhenyi was from Sizhou, though her family resided in Jiangning. Her grandfather Zhe Fu, who had served as prefect of Xuanhua, was punished and exiled to Jilin when Zhenyi was eleven. When Zhe Fu died in exile, her uncle Xi Chen went to perform the funeral rites, and the family remained in Jilin. Zhenyi attended her grandmother Dong, studying the classics and learning riding and archery. At sixteen she returned to the south. She again accompanied Xi Chen to the capital as his dependent, later moving through Shaanxi, Hubei, and Guangdong, and at twenty-five she married Mei. Five years later, in the second year of the Jiaqing reign (1797), she died.
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貞儀通天算之學，能測星象，旁及壬遁，且知醫。 為詩文皆質實說事理，不為藻採。 撰星像圖釋二卷，曆算簡存五卷，籌算易知、重訂策算證訛、西洋籌算增刪，皆一卷，像數窺餘四卷，女蒙拾誦、沈痾囈語，皆一卷，繡紩餘箋、文選詩賦參評，皆十卷，德風亭集二十卷。
Zhenyi mastered astronomy and mathematical astronomy, could observe the stars, and also studied renchen divination and medicine. Her poetry and prose were plain and factual, setting forth real matters without ornamental flourish. She authored Explanations of Star Charts (2 juan), Brief Preserved Notes on Calendar Calculation (5 juan), Easy Introduction to Rod Calculation, Revised Collated Rod Calculation with Errors Corrected, and Additions and Deletions to Western Rod Calculation (each 1 juan), Glimpses of Image-Number Studies (4 juan), Selected Chants for Girls' Education and Delirious Words in Deep Illness (each 1 juan), Embroidered Loom: Remaining Annotations and Critical Commentary on Wen Xuan Poetry and Fu (each 10 juan), and Defeng Pavilion Collected Works (20 juan).
148
貞儀病且死，謂枚曰：「君門祚薄，無可為者。 我先君死，不為不幸。 平生手稿，為我盡致蒯夫人，蒯夫人能彰我。」 蒯夫人者，吳江蒯嘉珍妻錢，附見曾伯母錢綸光妻陳傳中，時僑居江寧，貞儀與相習，枚以貞儀書歸焉。 錢侄儀吉，為曆算簡存序，言：「貞儀有實學，不可沒，班惠姬後一人而已。」 女子治曆算蓋至鮮。
When Zhenyi fell gravely ill and faced death, she told Mei, "Your family's fortunes are slender; there is little to be done. That I die before you is no misfortune. Take all my lifelong manuscripts and deliver them in full to Lady Kuai—she can bring my work to light." Lady Kuai was Qian, wife of Kuai Jiazhen of Wujiang, who appears in the biography of Chen, wife of Qian Lunguang—the husband's grand-aunt by marriage. She was then living in Jiangning. Zhenyi knew her well, and Mei sent Zhenyi's manuscripts to her. Qian's nephew Yiji wrote a preface to Brief Preserved Notes on Calendar Calculation, saying, "Zhenyi possessed genuine learning and must not be forgotten. Since Ban Zhao there has been only one such as she." Women who mastered calendar calculation have been exceedingly rare.
149
咸豐間，膠州柯蘅妻李，名長霞，邃於選學，著文選詳校八卷。 工詩，有錡齋詩集。
During the Xianfeng era, Li Changxia, wife of Ke Heng of Jiaozhou, was deeply versed in Wen Xuan scholarship and wrote Detailed Collation of the Wen Xuan in eight juan. She was accomplished in poetry and left the Qizhai Collected Poems.
150
光緒間，濟陽艾紫東妻徐，名桂馨，治音韻之學，有切韻指南四卷。
During the Guangxu era, Xu Guixin, wife of Ai Zidong of Jiyang, studied phonology and wrote Guide to the Qieyun in four juan.
151
郝懿行妻王，名照圓，字瑞玉，一字婉佺，福山人。 懿行見儒林傳。 照圓文辭高曠，得六朝人遺意。 懿行有所述作，照圓每為寫定題識。 其所自為書有列女傳補註八卷，序曰：「列女傳補註者，補曹大家註也。 照圓六歲而孤，母林夫人恩勤鞠育，教以讀書。 嘗從燕間，顧照圓而命之曰：'昔班氏註列女傳十五卷，今其書亡，如能補為之註，是餘所望於汝也。 '照圓謹誌之不敢忘。 分陰遄邁，奄忽四七，寸草盟心，遂成銜卹。 追省前言，隕越滋懼。 不揣愚蒙，略依先師之詁，用達作者之意，凡所詮釋，將以通其隱滯，取供吟諷。 至於義所常行，或傳記成文，舊人已註，則皆闕而弗論。 誠知疏陋，無能纂續前修，庶幾念昔先人，少酬明發之懷。 補註成，請夫子辨析疑義，時加訂正，無隱乎爾，竊所慕焉！」
Wang Zhaoyuan, wife of Hao Yixing, styled Ruiyu and also Wanquan, was from Fushan. Yixing has his own entry in the Biographies of Scholars. Zhaoyuan's prose was lofty and expansive, catching something of the spirit of the Six Dynasties writers. Whenever Yixing completed a work, Zhaoyuan would fair-copy it and add the colophon. Among her own works was Supplementary Commentary on the Biographies of Exemplary Women in eight juan. Her preface reads, "This Supplementary Commentary supplements the commentary of Lady Cao Ban. Zhaoyuan lost her father at six. Her mother, Lady Lin, raised her with tireless devotion and taught her to read. Once, in a quiet moment at leisure, she turned to Zhaoyuan and said, "Long ago the Ban family annotated the Biographies of Exemplary Women in fifteen juan; that book is now lost. If you can restore and complete its commentary, that is what I ask of you. Zhaoyuan recorded this carefully and never forgot it. The days flew by; before she knew it she was twenty-eight. With the humblest offering she had pledged her heart, and now she bore the weight of mourning. Recalling her mother's charge, she feared more than ever that she might fall short. Despite my dullness, I have drawn on my teachers' glosses to convey the authors' intent. My explanations seek only to clear what is obscure, for reading and reflection. Where the moral is plain, or where earlier commentators have already glossed a passage, I omit comment altogether. I know my work is crude and that I cannot match the masters of old; yet I hope, remembering my mother, to repay in some small measure the charge she gave me at dawn. When this supplementary commentary is done, I ask my husband to resolve doubtful points and revise it freely from time to time—that openness is what I most admire!"
152
又校正列仙傳二卷，舊有贊，考以隋書經籍志，知為晉郭元祖撰，复別出為一卷。 又集傳記言占夢者為夢書一卷，皆自為序，附懿行書以行。 尤喜言詩，著葩經小記，書未成。 懿行撰詩問，謂與照圓相問答，條其餘義，別為詩說，皆採照圓說為多。 光緒間，其孫聯薇以書進，因誤為照圓著雲。 自照圓為列女傳補注，其後又有汪遠孫妻梁校注。
She also collated the Biographies of Immortals in two juan. The old encomia, she found by consulting the Sui History bibliography, were by Guo Yuanzu of Jin; she therefore published them separately in one juan. She also compiled biographical accounts of dream divination into Book of Dreams in one juan, wrote her own prefaces, and published the work together with Yixing's writings. She especially loved to discuss the Book of Odes and began Notes on the Flowery Classic, but never completed it. Yixing wrote Inquiries on the Odes, recording his exchanges with Zhaoyuan, sorting out further meanings and setting them down as separate Ode Explanations—mostly drawn from Zhaoyuan's interpretations. During the Guangxu era her grandson Lianwei presented the work at court, and it was mistakenly attributed to Zhaoyuan as author. After Zhaoyuan's Supplementary Commentary, Liang, wife of Wang Yuansun, also produced a collated annotation.
153
梁，名端，字無非，錢塘人。 幼為祖玉繩所愛。 元和顧之逵校刻列女傳，玉繩為審定，端輒臚其同異，退而筆之，玉繩為之折衷。 既歸遠孫，與參酌增損。 端既卒，遠孫為刻行。
Liang Duan, styled Wufei, was from Qiantang. As a child she was cherished by her grandfather Yu Sheng. When Gu Zhikui collated and printed the Biographies of Exemplary Women, Yu Sheng oversaw the edition. Duan would report variant readings, write them down afterward, and Yu Sheng would adjudicate between them. After she married Yuansun, they revised the text together, adding and cutting as they saw fit. After Duan's death, Yuansun had the work printed and published.
154
陳裴之妻汪，名端，字允莊。 七歲賦春雪詩，擬以謝道韞，因又字小韞，錢塘人。 長為
Wang Duan, wife of Chen Peizhi, styled Yunzhuang. At seven she wrote a poem on spring snow and was compared to Xie Daoyun, for which reason she also took the style Xiaoyun. She was from Qiantang. When grown she devoted herself to
155
詩，旨遠而辭文，嘗撰定明詩初、二集，上始開國，下逮遺民，都三十家，附錄又七十人。 自定凡例，以為：「初集，猶主盟之晉、楚； 二集，猶列國之宋、鄭、魯、衛； 附錄，猶附庸之邾、莒、杞、薛。」 梁德繩稱其宗尚清蒼雅正，能掃前後七子門徑。 吳振棫稱其論一代升降正變，元元本本，縱橫莫當。 端所自為詩，有自然好學齋集。 裴之卒，子又有疾，舅文述素奉道，端詩亦多為道家語。 既卒，諸侄重定其集，盡刪晚作，二本並行於世。
poetry. Her meaning ran deep and her diction was refined. She compiled the First and Second Collections of Ming Poetry, from the dynasty's founding down to the loyalist survivors—thirty principal poets in all, with an appendix of seventy more. She laid down her own principles of selection, writing, "The first collection is like Jin and Chu when they held the hegemony; the second is like Song, Zheng, Lu, and Wei among the feudal states; the appendix is like the subordinate states of Zhu, Ju, Qi, and Xue. Liang Desheng praised her taste for clarity, restraint, and correctness, and her ability to break free of the mannerisms of the earlier and later Seven Masters schools. Wu Zhenshu praised her account of how a whole age rose and fell, of orthodoxy and change, as thorough, grounded, and altogether commanding. Her own poetry survives as the Natural Love of Learning Studio Collection. After Peizhi died their son fell ill as well. Her uncle Wen Shu was a lifelong follower of the Way, and much of Duan's later poetry takes the language of Daoism. After her death her nephews revised her collected works, removing all her late compositions, and two editions circulated.
156
汪延澤妻趙，名棻，字儀姞。 延澤，烏程人； 趙，上海人，戶部侍郎秉衝女也。 幼讀書，能詩文，有濾月軒詩集四卷，文集二卷，詞一卷。 自為序，略曰：「宋後儒者多言文章吟詠非女子所當為，故今世女子能詩者，輒自諱匿，以為吾謹守'內言不出於閫'之禮。 反是，則迋欺炫鬻於世，以射利焉耳。 是二者，胥失之也。 禮昏義女師之教，婦言居德之次，鄭君注云：'婦言，辭令也。 '夫言之不文，行而不遠，文章吟詠，非言辭之遠鄙倍者歟？ 何屑屑諱匿為！」
Zhao Fen, wife of Wang Yanze, styled Yiji. Yanze was from Wucheng; Zhao was from Shanghai, daughter of Bing Chong, vice minister of revenue. She studied from childhood and wrote poetry and prose. Her works include Filtered Moon Studio Collected Poems (4 juan), prose (2 juan), and lyrics (1 juan). In her own preface she writes, "Since the Song, scholars have often said that literary composition and verse are not women's proper work. Women who can write poetry therefore hide it, believing they uphold the rule that a woman's words must not pass beyond the inner gate. The opposite is to parade and peddle one's talent in the world merely for profit. Both extremes miss the mark. The Rites of Marriage teaches that a woman's speech ranks next to her virtue. Zheng Xuan's commentary says, "A woman's speech means command of language. If words lack refinement they do not travel far. Are not literary composition and verse the fullest expression of eloquent speech? Why trouble oneself to hide it!"
157
子曰楨，撰二十四史日月考，趙為之序，曰：「劉羲叟撰劉氏輯術，迄於五季，書久佚，僅存通鑑目錄。 自宋迨明，六百餘年，未有續為之者。 曰楨好史學，習算，考當時行用本術，如法推步，得其朔閏。 自史記至新、舊唐書，屬草已一百餘卷，餘亟欲睹其成，預為此序，俾寫定冠諸簡端。」
Her son Zhen wrote Investigation of Dates in the Twenty-Four Histories. Zhao wrote its preface, saying, "Liu Yisou compiled the Liu Clan Chronological Arts down to the Five Dynasties period. That book has long been lost, surviving only in the catalogue of the Comprehensive Mirror. From the Song through the Ming—more than six hundred years—no one has continued it. Zhen loves historical studies and has mastered calculation. Working from the calendrical methods then in official use, he has computed by rule and determined the new and intercalary months. From the Records of the Historian through the New and Old Books of Tang, his draft already runs to more than one hundred juan. I am eager to see it finished and write this preface in advance, to be copied at the head of the work when it is done."
158
吳廷珍妻張，廷珍，常熟人，道光六年進士，官至刑部員外郎。 張名䌌英，字孟緹，陽湖人。 世父惠言，父琦，皆博通能文章。 䌌英與諸女弟承其教，咸有述作，皆能詩。 䌌英兼為詞，秀逸有王沂中、張炎遺意。 妹惸英亦能詩詞； 綸英尤工書，傳琦筆法，真書出入歐陽、顏、楊諸家，分書自北碑上溯晉、漢，遒麗沉厚； 紈英兼治古文。 䌌英嘗編次國朝列女詩錄，紈英為作傳，簡雅合法度。 惸英，江陰章政平妻； 綸英，同縣孫劼妻； 紈英，太倉王曦妻。
Zhang, wife of Wu Tingzhen of Changshu, who passed the jinshi examination in the sixth year of Daoguang (1826) and rose to vice director in the Ministry of Justice. She was Zhang Lunying, styled Mengti, from Yanghu. Her uncle Zhang Huaiyan and her father Zhang Qi were both broadly learned and accomplished writers. Lunying and her sisters received their instruction, all left writings of their own, and all wrote poetry. Lunying also wrote ci lyrics, graceful and unfettered, with something of the spirit of Wang Yizhong and Zhang Yan. Her younger sister Qiongying could also write poetry and lyrics; Lunyin was especially accomplished in calligraphy, inheriting her father's brush methods. Her regular script drew on Ouyang, Yan, and Yang; her clerical script, tracing Northern Stele models back through Jin and Han, was forceful, beautiful, and weighty; Wanying also studied ancient-style prose. Lunying once compiled a Record of Exemplary Women's Poetry of Our Dynasty; Wanying wrote the biographical notices, concise, elegant, and within proper bounds. Qiongying married Zhang Zhengping of Jiangyin; Lunyin married Sun Jie of the same county; Wanying married Wang Xi of Taicang.
159
程鼎調妻汪，名嫈，字雅安，歙人。 好學，通儒家言，詩文皆雅正。 病將卒，為詩曰：「秋風一葉落，餘亦歸荒墟。」 遺書戒其子葆，言家事至詳。 复謂：「武侯著書，內有八務、七戒、六恐、五懼，武侯第一流人，務一，而戒恐懼居其三，可不識所致力耶！」 葆編其所作為雅安書屋詩文集。
Wang Yin, wife of Cheng Dingdiao, styled Ya'an, was from She county. She loved learning, was versed in Confucian teaching, and wrote poetry and prose that were refined and correct. When she fell gravely ill and faced death, she wrote a poem: "The autumn wind drops a single leaf; I too return to the wasteland." She left a final letter admonishing her son Bao, setting forth household affairs in meticulous detail. She also wrote, "Zhuge Liang's book sets forth eight duties, seven admonitions, six fears, and five dreads. He was a man of the first rank: one section on duties, yet three on admonition and fear—should we not know where to fix our effort?" Bao compiled her writings as the Ya'an Studio Collected Poetry and Prose.
160
陳瑞妻繆，名嘉蕙，字素筠，昆明人。 工書、善畫。 光緒中，召入宮供奉，為皇太后嘉賞，特賜三品服。
Miao Jiahui, wife of Chen Rui, styled Suyun, was from Kunming. She was accomplished in calligraphy and painting. During the Guangxu era she was summoned to serve at court. The Empress Dowager praised her work and specially granted her the robes of a third-rank official.
161
時同被召者，馬某妻阮，字蘋香，儀徵人，賜名玉芬。 富樂賀妻王，名韶，字矞雲，杭州駐防滿洲人，著有冬青館詩。 仁興妻瓜爾佳氏，名畫梁，亦杭州駐防滿洲人，著有超範室畫範。
Those summoned at the same time included Ruan, wife of a certain Ma, styled Pingxiang, from Yizheng, who was granted the name Yufen. Wang Shao, wife of Fulehe, styled Yuyun, was a Manchu bannerwoman stationed at Hangzhou and wrote Winter Green Pavilion Poems. A Guwalgiya clanswoman, wife of Renxing, named Hualiang, was likewise a Manchu bannerwoman at Hangzhou and wrote Models from the Transcendent Standards Studio.
162
耀州三婦：一青嘉努妻，一納岱妻，一邁圖妻，所居寨曰蕎麥衝，在耀州城南。 天命十年六月癸卯，明將毛文龍遣兵三百夜薄寨，方踰牆入，寨兵未即出，三婦者見之，倚車轅於牆，以為梯，青嘉努妻持利刃先偕登城奮擊，三百人皆驚，墜牆走。 耀州守將揚古利以兵至，追擊，盡殲之。 太祖召三婦，賚金、帛、牛、馬，賜青嘉努、納岱妻備禦，邁圖妻千總。
The three wives of Yaozhou were the wives of Qingjianu, Nadai, and Maitu. They lived at a stockade called Buckwheat Pass, south of Yaozhou. In the sixth month of Tianming 10, on the guimao day, Ming general Mao Wenlong sent three hundred troops to storm the stockade at night. As they vaulted the wall, the garrison had not yet rushed out. The three wives spotted them, propped cart shafts against the wall for a ladder, and Qingjianu's wife—blade in hand—was the first up the rampart beside them, fighting with abandon. The three hundred attackers panicked and tumbled back over the wall in retreat. Yaozhou's garrison commander Yang Guli arrived with his force, pursued the raiders, and wiped them out to the last man. The founding emperor summoned the three wives and rewarded them with gold, silk, cattle, and horses. He gave Qingjianu's and Nadai's wives the military rank of beiyu, and Maitu's wife the rank of qianzong.
163
杉松郵卒婦，祿勸人，失其姓。 康熙五十七年正月，有常應運者為亂，逼杉松，諸郵卒方耕於山，無御者。 婦曰：「此可計走也。」 挾鉦鳴山巔，若且集眾，賊引去，婦乃走告夫，州始為備。 事定，知州李廷宰聚父老賚婦酒食，具鼓吹，簪勝披錦，以矜於市民。
The wife of a postal courier at Shansong was a native of Luquan; her surname was not recorded. In the first month of Kangxi 57, a rebel named Chang Yingyun rose in revolt and advanced on Shansong. The postal couriers were all farming in the hills; no one was left to defend the place. The wife said, "We can devise a way to make them retreat." She carried a gong to the mountaintop and beat it as if rallying a host. The rebels withdrew. She then ran to tell her husband, and the prefecture at last took defensive measures. When order was restored, Prefect Li Tingzai assembled the elders to reward the wife with food and wine. With drums and pipes sounding, victory flowers in her hair and brocade over her shoulders, she was paraded before the townspeople in public acclaim.
164
楊芳妻龍，芳，松桃廳人； 龍，華陽人。 芳有傳。 龍善鼓琴，工畫蘭。 嘉慶十一年，芳自寧陝鎮總兵署固原提督，龍留寧陝。 是歲秋，鎮兵以餉不給，將叛。 龍使告署總兵楊之震，之震不之省。 或請龍行避亂，龍曰：「不可，若我出而兵叛，是知其叛也，人其謂我何？」 七月辛亥夕，亂作，芳素得兵心，兵有以匪降者，尤感芳不殺，皆入署為龍衛。 民婦就避兵，廊廡盈焉。 龍嚴戒奴婢毋號泣，鄉明，叛兵叩閤請謁，諸避兵者忷懼，請毋納。 龍曰：「愚哉！ 彼輩且自入，孰能御之？」 乃啟門，納其渠數十人，咸泣謝，且請龍行。 龍謂之曰：「若曹雖叛戕官，其渠罪不逭，於多人何尤？ 主將旦夕歸，白若曹於朝，非盡殲也，可各罷歸伍。」 叛兵不欲罷，堅請龍行，龍命以輿來，盡出諸避難者，而殿其後。 叛兵送至清澗，哭而返。 龍兄為興安知府，乃之興安。 芳自固原至，撫叛兵，复定。
Long, wife of Yang Fang: Fang was from Songtao Subprefecture; Long came from Huayang. Fang has his own biography elsewhere. Long was accomplished on the qin and skilled at painting orchids. In Jiaqing 11, Fang was promoted from commander of the Ningshan garrison to provincial military commander of Guyuan, while Long stayed behind at Ningshan. That autumn, the garrison troops, unpaid, were on the verge of mutiny. Long sent word to Acting General Yang Zhizhen, but he ignored the warning. Some urged Long to flee the unrest. She refused: "I cannot. If I leave and the troops rebel, everyone will know I foresaw it—what would they think of me? On the xinhai night of the seventh month, the mutiny erupted. Fang had always held the soldiers' trust; some in the ranks were former bandits who had surrendered and especially remembered that he had spared their lives. They all filed into the yamen to protect Long. Local women crowded into the compound seeking shelter from the fighting; corridors and cloisters overflowed. Long sternly ordered the servants not to weep. At dawn, rebel leaders knocked at the gate to pay their respects. The frightened refugees pleaded that she refuse them entry. Long said, "Fools! They will force their way in—who can keep them out? She opened the gate and admitted several dozen rebel leaders. They wept and apologized, then begged her to leave with them. She told them, "You rebelled and killed officials; the leaders cannot escape justice—what guilt do the rank and file bear? Your commander will return soon. I will plead your case to the court; you need not be wiped out to a man. Each of you may stand down and return to your posts." The mutineers refused to disperse and insisted she accompany them. Long had a sedan chair brought, evacuated everyone who had sought shelter, and marched at the rear herself. The rebels escorted her to Qingjian, weeping as they turned back. Her elder brother served as prefect of Xing'an, and she went to join him there. Fang returned from Guyuan, pacified the mutineers, and restored calm.
165
蒲大芳者，叛兵渠也，請於芳，迎龍歸。 芳遣大芳等二十輩以往，龍初舉子，即冒雪就道，道中大芳與其曹詬爭，舉刀傷其曹。 行至漢陰，龍使假刑具於有司，召大芳責曰：「汝叛，幸不死，更弄刀杖，又待叛耶？」 杖之四十，械而行。 三日，將至寧陝，其曹十九人者為之請，乃令脫械。
Pu Dafang, leader of the mutiny, petitioned Fang to bring Long home. Fang sent Dafang and twenty men to fetch her. Long had only just borne a son, yet she set out at once through the snow. On the road Dafang quarreled with his companions and struck one with his blade. Reaching Hanyin, she borrowed punishment gear from the local office, summoned Dafang, and rebuked him: "You rebelled and were spared—now you brandish weapons again. Are you plotting another mutiny? She had him beaten forty blows and marched him on in shackles. Three days later, nearing Ningshan, the other nineteen men interceded for him, and she ordered the shackles struck off.
166
龍至，語芳曰：「事雖事，然君且有遠行。」 芳曰：「何至是？」 龍曰：「朝廷自有法度，兵叛事大，不容無任其咎者。」 果有命戍伊犁。 龍歸侍姑，姑風緩不能言，惟龍達其意，左右在視。 居姑喪盡禮。 芳復起，遷湖南提督，道光五年，龍卒。
On her arrival she told Fang, "The crisis has passed, but you are bound for exile far away." Fang said, "Surely it will not come to that— she replied. "The court has its laws. A mutiny of this scale cannot pass without someone held accountable." An order came indeed: he was banished to garrison duty in Yili. Long returned to nurse her mother-in-law, who was paralyzed and speechless. Only Long could read her wishes; attendants stood by at every hour. When her mother-in-law died, she observed the mourning rites to the letter. Fang was reinstated and promoted to provincial military commander of Hunan. In Daoguang 5, Long died.
167
崔龍見妻錢，名孟鈿，字冠之，一字浣青。 龍見，永濟人； 錢，武進人，侍郎維城女。 九歲刲臂療父疾。 歸龍見，事姑謹，龍見以進士官州縣，為四川順慶知府。 川東啯匪為亂，龍見師出禦，賊自間道來襲，吏民驚擾。 錢诇賊自府西至，遣人掣渡舟泊東岸。 賊至，不得渡，遂引去。
Qian, wife of Cui Longjian: her given name was Mengtian, her courtesy name Guanzhi, and she also used the style Huanqing. Longjian was from Yongji; Qian was from Wujin, daughter of Vice Minister Qian Weicheng. At nine she cut her own arm to heal her father's illness. After marrying Longjian she served her mother-in-law with scrupulous care. Longjian advanced through the examination system to county and prefectural posts and became prefect of Shunqing in Sichuan. Gelaohui rebels rose in eastern Sichuan. Longjian marched out against them, but the rebels struck by a hidden route and threw officials and townspeople into panic. Qian learned the rebels were approaching from west of the city and sent men to haul the ferryboats to the east bank. The rebels arrived, found the river uncrossable, and withdrew.
168
及為湖北荊宜施道，值白蓮教匪為亂，龍見出督餉，錢居危城中，烽火四偪，以龍見指發書，戒所屬州縣，令收附郭積聚，謹守備，毋與賊浪戰。 賊偵有備，亦引去。
As intendant of the Jing-Yi-Shi circuit in Hubei, he faced the White Lotus rebellion. Longjian went out to supervise grain transport while Qian remained in the besieged city, beacon fires closing in on every side. Writing in his hand, she issued orders to subordinate counties: concentrate stores from the suburbs, fortify defenses, and do not engage the rebels rashly. Finding the defenses ready, the rebels withdrew as well.
169
龍見在官廉，錢每出餘財週戚黨。 自四川還，泊燕子磯，見渡舟覆溺，出錢募救者，活十餘人，皆應試士也，羅拜岸上。 龍見卒，教諸子成立。 錢工詩詞，即以「浣青」名其集。
Longjian served with integrity; Qian often used their surplus income to aid relatives and friends. On their return from Sichuan they stopped at Yanziji and saw a ferry overturn. She paid to hire rescuers and saved more than ten candidates for the civil examinations, who lined the bank bowing in gratitude. After Longjian's death she raised their sons to maturity and standing. Qian was accomplished in poetry and named her collected works Huanqing.
170
沈葆楨妻林，名普晴，字敬紉，侯官人，雲貴總督則徐女也。 則徐、葆楨皆有傳。 葆楨故則徐甥，林六七歲時，嘗侍諸姑坐，臧否戚黨諸子弟。 戲以諮林，輒曰：「無逾沈氏兄賢。」 及歸葆楨，葆楨貧，董中廚，斥奩具佐饈，能得姑歡。
Lin, wife of Shen Baozhen: her given name was Puqing, courtesy name Jingren. She was from Houguan and daughter of Governor-General Lin Zexu of Yunnan and Guizhou. Both Lin Zexu and Shen Baozhen have biographies elsewhere. Baozhen was Zexu's nephew by marriage. When Lin was six or seven she would sit with her aunts as they appraised the young men of the clan. Teasing, they asked her opinion, and she always said, "None surpasses Cousin Shen. When she married Baozhen he was still poor. She ran the household kitchen, sold items from her dowry chest to help with meals, and won her mother-in-law's favor.
171
咸豐六年，葆楨知廣信府，八月，出行縣，洪秀全將楊輔清自吉安潛師越山谷入。 戊子，破貴溪，己丑，破弋陽。 吏具舟促林避寇，林勿行。 庚寅，葆楨還，時遵義鎮總兵饒廷選駐軍玉山，乃為書乞援，而輔清兵益進，去廣信八十里。 辛卯，廷選報書，言水涸，師不得下。 僕役散走，林懷印倚井坐誓死。 乙夜，城南火，達曙，大雨火滅。 林謂葆楨曰：「城中炊煙斷，火何由起？ 此賊諜所為，以空城告也。 今日賊當至，吾殉君固其所。」 解劍授葆楨曰：「雨甚，吾不可露坐，賊至，君以劍當之，使吾倉卒得入井也。」 賊得諜，知城無人，易之，待霽乃發。 癸巳，輔清兵復進四十里，而廷選師至，葆楨徒步迎以入。 甲午，輔清兵薄城，廷選軍出禦，其裨將畢定邦、賴高翔戰甚力，林煮粥啖士卒，士卒益奮。 丁酉，賊大至，圍合，文吏竄伏，饋運犒勞，皆林會計而出納之。 乙亥望，大戰，解圍，輔清乃引去。
In Xianfeng 6, Baozhen served as prefect of Guangxin. In the eighth month he left on a county tour while Hong Xiuquan's general Yang Fuqing stole over the hills from Ji'an with hidden troops. On wuzi the rebels seized Guiqi; on jichou, Yiyang. Officials arranged boats and urged Lin to flee the rebels; she refused. On gengyin Baozhen returned. Rao Tingxuan, general of the Zunyi garrison, was stationed at Yushan; Baozhen wrote begging relief even as Fuqing's army advanced to within eighty li of Guangxin. On xinmao Tingxuan replied that low water blocked his march. Servants fled in all directions. Lin clutched the official seal, seated herself by a well, and vowed to die rather than yield. At the second watch fire blazed south of the walls; at dawn a downpour put the flames out. Lin said to Baozhen, "No cookfires smoke within the walls—how could a fire spring up? Rebels' spies did this to signal that the city is abandoned. The rebels will come today; to die at your side is only right." She drew her sword and gave it to him: "The rain is fierce; I cannot sit in the open. When they come, use this blade to hold them off so I can throw myself into the well in time." The rebels learned from their spy that the city stood empty, grew careless, and waited for fair weather before moving. On guisi Fuqing's force pressed another forty li, then Tingxuan's troops arrived; Baozhen went out on foot to meet them and led them in. On jiawu the rebels closed on the walls. Tingxuan's men marched out; lieutenants Bi Dingbang and Lai Gaoxiang fought fiercely. Lin boiled porridge for the troops, and their spirit rose. On dingyou the rebels came in strength and the siege closed tight. Clerks hid in terror; Lin alone tallied and disbursed every ration, convoy, and reward. On the yihai full moon a great battle broke the siege, and Fuqing withdrew.
172
自是葆楨治軍日有聲，擢江西巡撫。 治船政，林佐治官書，一一中條理。 治家尤有節度，斷線殘紙，必儲以待用。 方葆楨試禮部，鬻金條脫治行，代以蜀藤，雖貴，弗易也。 光緒三年，卒。
Thereafter Baozhen's reputation as a commander grew daily, and he was promoted governor of Jiangxi. Directing naval affairs, he relied on Lin to handle official papers, every document in flawless order. She ran the household with strict economy; every scrap of thread or torn paper was saved against need. When Baozhen sat for the metropolitan examination he sold his gilt travel equipage to pay the journey and carried Sichuan rattan instead—pricey, yet he would not trade it for show. She died in Guangxu 3.
173
王某妻陳，皋蘭人。 同治六年，河州回攻蘭州，師自平番來援，阻黃河不得渡。 陳家河北，令其子化鳳集族黨，以舟濟師，蘭州以全。
Chen, wife of one Wang, was from Gaolan. In Tongzhi 6, Hezhou Muslims besieged Lanzhou. Relief forces from Pingfan were stopped at the Yellow River and could not cross. Chen's family lived north of the river. She sent her son Huafeng to rally clansmen and ferry the army across by boat, saving Lanzhou.
174
李某妻趙，營山人。 縣多虎，李子赴市，暮未還，李立村外待。 虎驟至，李驚呼，趙聞，持梃出，與虎鬥，虎弭尾去。
Zhao, wife of one Li, was from Yingshan. Tigers plagued the county. Their son went to market and failed to return by dusk; Li waited outside the village gate. A tiger sprang upon him; Li shouted. Zhao seized a club, rushed out, fought the beast, and drove it off with tail lowered.
175
羅傑妻陳，安徽太平人。 傑與陳共入山採薪，虎攫傑，陳與爭，不得脫，急觸虎口，虎舍傑咥陳，陳死，傑得脫。
Chen, wife of Luo Jie, was from Taiping in Anhui. Jie and Chen went into the hills for firewood. A tiger seized Jie; Chen grappled with the beast but could not free him. She thrust her hand into its jaws; the tiger dropped Jie and killed her instead. Jie escaped.
176
楊某妻唐，衡陽人。 夫婦偕耘，虎攫其夫去，唐曳虎尾不捨，三踰嶺，傷左臂，卒負夫歸。 數日夫死，以節終。
Tang, wife of one Yang, was from Hengyang. As they plowed together a tiger seized her husband. Tang seized its tail and would not release her grip though the beast dragged them over three ridges. Her left arm was torn, yet she carried her husband home alive. Her husband died a few days later; she remained a chaste widow to the end.
177
姚旺妻潘，旌德人。 旺遇虎，潘奔救，同死。
Pan, wife of Yao Wang, was from Jingde. Wang met a tiger; Pan ran to his aid, and both were killed.
178
蓋氏，吉林涼水泉金廣年妻也。 廣年貧，眇一目，有友與狎。 一日，戲語廣年：「汝何修得美婦？」 廣年心動，即曰：「若艷我婦，予我百金，以婦與若。」 遂與友偕還語蓋，蓋曰：「貧死命也！ 以貧而鬻其婦，生何心矣？」 噭然哭。 廣年出以語友，聞哭止，入視，則自罄死矣。 呼友共解之，友因摩其足，蓋蘇，以足抵友僕，走廚下，取刀自斫其足，立斷。 昏臥血中，鄰里趨視，唾廣年。 其友懼，請以百金療，廣年亦悔，力負販，育子姓甚繁。
A woman of the Gai clan was wife to Jin Guangnian of Liangshuiquan in Jilin. Guangnian was poor and blind in one eye and kept a close friend. One day the friend teased him, "What virtue earned you such a beautiful wife? Guangnian took it to heart and replied, "If you want my wife, give me a hundred taels of gold and she is yours." He went home with his friend and told his wife. Gai said, "To die in poverty is our lot— but to sell your wife for poverty—what heart is left in living? She burst into loud weeping. Guangnian went out to tell his friend. When the crying stopped he went in to look—and found she had hanged herself. He called his friend to help cut her down. The friend rubbed her feet and she came to, kicked the friend's servant, ran to the kitchen, seized a knife, and chopped off her own foot—it came off at once. She lay unconscious in the blood. Neighbors rushed in and spat on Guangnian. His friend was frightened and offered a hundred taels for her care. Guangnian repented as well, worked as a porter and peddler, and raised a large family of sons and daughters.