1
張延祚妻蔡，漳浦人。 國初，師既下福建，濱海數百里，猶群起負固。 有方祐者，謀舉兵，延祚與語，不合，被殺。 子才十餘歲，蔡哀慟，謀復仇。 一日，聞祐將其徒至，方夕，易男子服，挾刃詣祐壘。 未至，顧見其子踉蹌來，念母子並命，斬張氏祀，乃與俱歸。 既，祐降為民，娶於蔡，其婦，蔡大母行也，因得常見祐。 祐甘語謝蔡，蔡益憤，夜輒握刃刺壁，壁穿，刃猶擊。
Cai, the wife of Zhang Yanzuo, came from Zhangpu. Early in the dynasty, once the imperial armies had conquered Fujian, bands along hundreds of miles of coastland still rose in stubborn resistance. A man named Fang You planned an uprising; Zhang Yanzuo argued with him, their views clashed, and Zhang was killed. Their son was barely in his teens; devastated, Cai plotted vengeance. One evening she heard Fang You was leading his men that way; she dressed as a man, armed herself, and set out for his camp. Before she reached the camp she saw her son stumbling after her; fearing they would both die and the Zhang line would end, she turned back with him. Later Fang You surrendered and married into the Cai clan; his wife was a kinswoman of Cai's grandmother's generation, which gave Cai frequent access to Fang You. Fang You flattered her with thanks; Cai only grew angrier. Night after night she drove a blade into the wall until it passed clear through, the steel still ringing against stone.
2
順治五年春，蔡伺祐有所過，度道所必經，將其子止松林中，挾刃俟。 日午，祐雄服怒馬來，蔡自林中出叱祐，祐驚呼從者，從者駭走。 蔡持刀斫祐，祐墜馬，負創走，蔡疾追之。 行人聚而譁，蔡且奔且言曰：「吾夫為此賊害，有助者，吾與俱死！」 追及祐，祐攀松枝與鬥，中蔡額，血被面，鬥益力。 遂迫祐，左手捽祐，右手奮刃，斷其首，擲道旁，觀者皆大驚。
In the spring of Shunzhi 5, she lay in wait on a road Fang You had to take, left her son in the pines, and waited with her blade drawn. At noon Fang You rode up in battle dress on a spirited horse; Cai stepped from the woods and challenged him; he called to his followers, who fled in panic. She struck with her blade; Fang You fell from his horse and ran, bleeding; she gave chase. A crowd gathered as she ran, shouting: "This villain murdered my husband—help me, and we'll die together!" She caught him; he seized a pine bough to fight. He gashed her forehead until blood masked her face, yet she fought all the harder. She seized him with her left hand and with her right swung the blade through his neck, tossing the head by the roadside; onlookers were thunderstruck.
3
蔡持祐首告於延祚墓，將其子詣巡按御史台門請死，巡按御史霍達異其事，問：「有主者乎？」 蔡哭對曰：「夫死，所以不即死者，以有子耳。 今子且不顧，安肯受他人指耶？ 然殺人當死，公毋撓國法。」 達乃釋不問。
She presented Fang You's head at her husband's grave, then brought her son to the surveillance censor's gate to surrender herself for execution. Censor Huo Da was astonished and asked, "Did someone put you up to this?" Weeping, she answered: "When my husband died, I lived on only because I had a son. Now that I have set even my son aside, why would I take orders from anyone else? Still, murder is a capital crime—sir, do not bend the law for my sake." Huo Da released her without further prosecution.
4
陳時夏妻田，長樂人。 時夏父超鵬早卒，母高守節。 田讀書，知大義。 時夏貧，事王姑及姑高，朝夕扶持，不去左右。 病不能食，輒以口哺。 時夏卒，督諸子讀，嘗自述與夫論學語，為敬和堂筆訓，以授諸子，粹然儒家言。 其自序略曰：「餘苟延性命，祗以三子一女，冀其能自立，不至辱泉下耳！ 大兒今十一，猶有童心，況諸幼孤，未亡人心力垂盡。 恐旦暮死，而夫子之學行，與餘之出肝膽，忍艱苦以冀其有成者，將誰為餘告之耶？ 爰述先訓，書之於冊。 嗟乎！ 小子異日讀此，其能自省，使餘生不負於子女，死不愧於夫子否耶？」 居十餘年，卒。
Tian, the wife of Chen Shixia, came from Changle. Shixia's father Chao Peng had died young; his mother Gao remained a chaste widow. Tian had studied and understood the larger moral duties of life. The family was poor; Tian waited on her husband's grandmother and on Gao, supporting them from morning to night and never straying from their side. When they fell ill and could not eat, she fed them from her own mouth. After Shixia died she oversaw the boys' studies and wrote down her conversations with her husband on learning as Brush Instructions of the Jinghe Hall for her sons—utterly the voice of the Ru school. Her preface reads in part: "I cling to life only for three sons and one daughter, hoping they may stand on their own and not disgrace their father in the grave! My eldest is only eleven and still a child at heart; the younger orphans need me all the more, and this widow's strength is nearly gone. I may die any day; who will tell them of their father's learning and conduct, and of all I have poured out and endured in hope they may succeed? So I set down his teachings and commit them to writing. Alas! When you read this one day, boys, will you examine yourselves so that in life I do not fail you, and in death I need not be ashamed before your father?" She lived on more than ten years, then died.
5
傅光箕妻吳，宣城人。 吳歸於傅，光箕已病矣，逾年卒。 吳父母欲嫁之。 吳歸，留吳而訟傅氏，衣食吳。 吳還傅氏，以訟故勿納。 吳復歸，請自食，無累父母。 力紡，聞有媒至，輒求死，乃別居。 明季，飢，恆餓。 鄰饋之，勿受。 族姊歸於魏，亦嫠也，遺之米，乃半易糠覈。 或怪問之，曰：「雜糜之，可一月不死也。」 久之，紡有餘錢，得婢曰春蘭，拾籜供爨事。 裡媼或呼春蘭食，吳必審所自，戒勿輕受食。 春蘭自是即不受裡媼食。
Wu, the wife of Fu Guangji, came from Xuancheng. When Wu married into the Fu household, Guangji was already ill; within a year he was dead. Her parents wanted to marry her off again. When she went back to her parents' home they kept her there and sued the Fu clan to support her with food and clothing. She returned to the Fu household, but because of the lawsuit they refused to take her in. She went back to her parents once more and asked to support herself so she would not burden them. She spun for a living; whenever she heard a matchmaker was coming she threatened suicide, and so she lived apart. In the famine at the end of the Ming she was often starving. When neighbors offered food she would not take it. A widowed cousin married into the Wei clan sent her rice; she traded half of it for chaff and husks. When someone asked why, she said, "Mixed into gruel, this will keep me alive a month." In time her spinning brought in a little spare cash and she hired a servant girl named Chunlan, who gathered bamboo sheaths for the cooking fire. When village women called Chunlan to eat, Wu always asked where the food came from and warned her never to accept food lightly. From then on Chunlan would not take food from the village women.
6
鄭哲飛妻硃，哲飛，南安人； 硃，明魯王以海女也。 嫁哲飛，生丈夫子一，女子子三，而哲飛卒。 會以海亦殂，渡海至台灣，依明宗室寧靖王術桂以居。 康熙二十二年，師克台灣，術桂自殺，硃奉姑育諸孤，以女紅自給。 居五十餘年乃卒，年八十餘。 初師下舟山，以海妃陳入井死，以海諡之曰貞，而以海女又以節終。
Zhu, wife of Zheng Zhefei—Zhefei was a native of Nan'an; Zhu was the daughter of the Ming Prince of Lu, Zhu Yihai. She married Zhefei and bore one son and three daughters before he died. When Yihai too died, she crossed to Taiwan and lived under the protection of the Ming clansman Prince Ningjing, Zhu Shugui. In Kangxi 22 the imperial armies took Taiwan; Shugui took his own life. Zhu waited on her mother-in-law, raised the orphans, and supported them with her needlework. She lived on more than fifty years and died in her eighties. When the armies first took Zhoushan, Yihai's consort Chen drowned herself in a well; Yihai was posthumously titled "Chaste," and his daughter likewise ended her life in virtue.
7
李若金女，名訚，餘干人。 明季，字淮王世子由桂。 入國初，由桂出亡，訚誓不更字，嘗詠金環曰：「紅爐經百鍊，不失本來真。」 事父母孝，年五十九卒。
Li Rujin's daughter, named Yin, came from Yugan. Late in the Ming she was betrothed by letter to Zhu Yougui, heir of the Prince of Huai. Early in the dynasty Yougui fled into exile; Yin swore never to marry another and once wrote on a gold ring: "The red furnace tempers it a hundred times, yet it does not lose its original nature." She was filial to her parents and died at fifty-nine.
8
王師課妻硃，蕭山人。 師課，明天啟中官太醫院院判，卒。 明亡兵亂，硃率二子避九里坳，嘗遇賊，脅以刃，硃奪刃剺面，哭且詈。 賊欲殺之，二子號慟求代，得不死。 事平，歸老於家。 嘗為勗子歌五章，其三章曰：「我生之後逢世亂，白頭兵起蒼黃竄，膚血染點叢麻紅，母子支離宵不旦。 飛雷聚驚鼓鼙，秋雨淋漓斷薪爨。 嗚呼，九里坳邊真瓦全，爾曹性命天所憐。」 五章曰：「庭闈肅潔辭親族，薄田聊許資饘粥，震盪扁舟波复風，兒才卻聘家回祿。 此身直緣正氣生，機杼猶能活枵腹。 嗚呼，但原長作太平民，何嘗俯仰慚天人。」
Zhu, the wife of Wang Shike, came from Xiaoshan. Shike had served as vice director of the Imperial Medical Institute under the Ming emperor Tianqi and then died. When the Ming fell and war spread, Zhu led her two sons to shelter at Jiuli'ao. Once they met bandits who threatened them with blades; she seized a blade and slashed her own face, weeping and cursing them. The bandits meant to kill her; her two sons wailed and begged to die in her stead, and she was spared. When peace returned she went home to live out her days. She once wrote five songs to exhort her sons; the third runs: "Born into a world gone mad, I fled gray-haired when war broke out; flesh and blood stained the red thicket brush; mother and sons torn apart, night without dawn. Thunder rolled and drums clamored; autumn rain poured down and our cooking fires went out. Alas—by Jiuli'ao our roof tiles still stood whole; Heaven itself pitied your lives." The fifth runs: "We kept the household pure and left our kin; a few fields barely fed us gruel; tossed on a small boat through wind and wave; my son had just refused a match when fire consumed our home. This body was born of upright spirit; the loom still kept our empty bellies alive. Alas—I only pray to live always as a peaceful subject; how could I ever bow my head in shame before Heaven and men?"
9
秦甲祐妻劉，三原人。 甲祐病瘓，劉侍疾甚謹，筦家政甚飭。 越十年，甲祐卒，時歲饑，兵未定。 劉撫二子四符、四採。 嘗訓之曰：「年荒，眾人之荒； 學荒，則吾兒之荒也。 兵亂，眾人之亂； 心亂，則吾一家之亂也。」 聞者以為名言。 四符，甲祐前婦子也，劉愛之，均於所生。
Liu, the wife of Qin Jiayou, came from Sanyuan. When Jiayou was paralyzed by illness, Liu nursed him with scrupulous care and ran the household with strict discipline. Ten years later Jiayou died, in a time of famine when the armies had not yet been pacified. Liu raised her two sons, Sifu and Sicai. She once told them: "When the harvest fails, that is everyone's famine; when learning fails, that famine is yours alone. When war rages, that is everyone's chaos; when the heart loses its way, that chaos is ours alone." All who heard it took it for a saying worth remembering. Sifu was the son of Jiayou's first wife; Liu loved him no less than her own children.
10
艾懷元妻姜，米脂人。 懷元父穆，兄懷英，在明皆官參將。 穆卒，國初懷英降，入鑲藍旗，授牛錄章京，居京師。 順治八年，懷元往省其兄，既歸，仇家誣為逃人，遂亡命。 官收其孥，穆妻馬，老矣，妾金請代，姜方娠，皆就逮。 明年，事雪，西還。 姜襁稚子，金與相扶持，行數千里。 又明年，馬與金皆卒，懷元遣信至，言母死不得奔喪，誓畢生不歸。 姜食貧撫子，居四十餘年乃卒。
Jiang, the wife of Ai Huaiyuan, came from Mizhi. Huaiyuan's father Mu and his elder brother Huaiying had both held the rank of deputy general under the Ming. After Mu died, Huaiying surrendered early in the dynasty, entered the Bordered Blue Banner, was made a company commander, and lived in Beijing. In Shunzhi 8 Huaiyuan went to visit his brother; when he returned home, enemies denounced him as a fugitive and he fled for his life. The authorities seized his household: Mu's aged wife Ma, concubine Jin who offered to go in her stead, and Jiang, who was pregnant—all were arrested. The next year the case was cleared and they returned west. Jiang carried an infant in her arms; Jin helped her along on a journey of thousands of li. The following year both Ma and Jin died. Word came from Huaiyuan that his mother was dead and he could not return to mourn her; he swore never to come home again as long as he lived. Jiang lived in poverty raising her son and survived more than forty years before she died.
11
周子寬妻黃，順德倫教村人。 子寬刺船，與其侶戲，侶溺，坐減死戍貴定。 黃求從夫行，譁縣門，吏為註官書。 乃盡鬻嫁時物畀舅姑，制竹擔荷具從夫行。 夫道病，黃行經村市，操土音歌，求錢，得藥物酒食奉夫。 夫瘳，達戍所。 居十七年，舉一子、二女，而夫死。 黃求以夫骨歸，跪縣門搏顙二十餘日，吏許之，畀以牒。
Huang, the wife of Zhou Zikuan, came from Lunejiao village in Shunde. Zikuan worked a ferry boat; while playing with a companion the man drowned, and Zikuan was sentenced to penal servitude in Guiding in place of death. Huang begged to accompany her husband, raising such an outcry at the county gate that the clerk entered it in the official register. She sold everything from her dowry and gave the money to her parents-in-law, fashioned bamboo carrying poles, and set out with her husband. When her husband fell ill on the road, Huang passed through villages and markets singing in the local dialect for coins, buying medicine, wine, and food for him. When he recovered they reached the place of exile. They lived there seventeen years; she bore one son and two daughters, and then her husband died. Huang begged to bring her husband's bones home, knelt at the county gate and knocked her forehead on the ground for more than twenty days until the clerk agreed and gave her a travel permit.
12
黃懷牒裹夫骨，筥負小兒女，獨身以行。 其長女已嫁農家子，牽衣泣，黃斥不顧。 黔多虎，而黃負夫骨，逆旅禁不納。 日汲於澗，拾樹枝以爨，夜宿道旁廢廟，恆見虎殘人，餘骼狼藉，無所怖。 及至村，黃齒既長，黧黑醜惡，又雜羅施語。 有叟獨識之，指道旁塚曰：「此而翁也，而姑僵牆陰，不食已一日。」
Huang carried the permit, wrapped her husband's bones, bore her small son and daughters in a basket, and set out alone. Her eldest daughter had married a farmer's son; the girl clutched her mother's robe and wept, but Huang scolded her and would not look back. Guizhou swarmed with tigers, and because she carried her husband's bones the inns would not admit her. By day she drew water from the streams and gathered firewood; by night she slept in ruined temples along the road, often seeing tigers tear people apart and bones strewn about—yet she was not afraid. When she reached the village her teeth had grown long, her face was dark and gaunt, and she spoke a jumble of Luoshi dialect. One old man alone recognized her and pointed at a grave by the road: "That is your husband's grave; your mother-in-law lies stiff in the shade of the wall—she has not eaten for a day."
13
黃求得姑，姑兩目眊，黃引其手拊裹中骨，及筥中兒女。 姑抱而噎，黃大號，筥中兒女亦號。 鄉里皆走視，義之，畀以金，僦屋奉姑居。 黃行逮歸十九年，順德人號曰「女蘇武」。
Huang found her mother-in-law, whose eyes were nearly blind; she guided the old woman's hand to the bones in the bundle and to the children in the basket. The mother-in-law embraced them and sobbed until she choked; Huang cried out, and the children in the basket cried too. Neighbors came running to see; moved by her devotion, they gave her money and rented a house where she could care for her mother-in-law. Her journey out and back took nineteen years; the people of Shunde called her "the female Su Wu."
14
李有成妻王，常寧人。 寡，悉散奩飾於族鄰貧者。 將卒，呼諸婦曰：「吾寡居四十餘年，耳目如聾瞶，未嘗妄視聽，汝曹其識之！」
Wang, the wife of Li Youcheng, came from Changning. As a widow she gave away all her trousseau ornaments to poor kin and neighbors. On her deathbed she called the women and said: "I have been a widow more than forty years; my ears and eyes might as well have been deaf and blind—I never looked or listened amiss. Remember this!"
15
楊方勗妻劉，宣城人。 嫁五日而寡，剪髮自誓。 鄰婦或微諷，劉出刀以示，曰：「吾晝以是為鏡，夜以是為枕。」 鄰婦懾，不敢復言。
Liu, the wife of Yang Fangxu, came from Xuancheng. Five days after her marriage she was widowed; she cut her hair and bound herself by oath. When a neighbor woman dropped a hint, Liu showed her a knife and said: "By day this is my mirror; by night this is my pillow." The neighbor was frightened and never spoke of it again.
16
鄒近泗妻邢，昆明人。 寡而貧，或諷之嫁，邢曰：「吾能忍飢寒，不能忍恥。」 卒以節終。
Xing, the wife of Zou Jinsi, came from Kunming. Poor and widowed, when some suggested she remarry, Xing said: "I can endure hunger and cold; I cannot endure shame." She lived out her days in virtue.
17
胡源渤妻董，臨清人。 源渤卒，董年十五，為嫠八十年，年九十五乃卒。 裡婦或問：「守節易乎？」 曰：「易。」 「如無夫何？」 曰：「如未嫁。」 「如無子何？」 曰：「如有子而死若不孝。」 曰：「何以製此心？」 曰：「飢而食，倦而寢，不飢不倦，必有事焉，毋坐而嬉。 吾嘗為人傭，治女紅，必求其工。 求工，則心專； 心專，則力勤； 力勤，則勞而易倦。 倦即寢，寤即興，毋使一息閒，久之則習慣矣。」
Dong, the wife of Hu Yuanbo, came from Linqing. Yuanbo died when Dong was fifteen; she remained a widow eighty years and died at ninety-five. Village women sometimes asked her: "Is it easy to keep your chastity?" She answered: "Easy." What about having no husband?" She said: "As if I had never married." What about having no son?" She said: "As if I had a son who died—what would unfilial conduct matter then?" How do you restrain your heart?" She said: "When hungry, eat; when tired, sleep; when neither hungry nor tired, keep busy—never sit idle. I once worked for others at needlework and always demanded the finest workmanship. Demand excellence, and the mind concentrates; concentrate the mind, and the body works hard; work hard, and weariness comes easily. Sleep when weary, rise when awake, never let a moment go idle—in time it becomes second nature."
18
林國奎妻鄭，閩人。 國奎卒，有子二。 鄭將殉，姑誡以存孤，乃已。 一子殤，遂自沉於江，漁者拯以還。 姑疾，刲肝雜糜進，疾良已。 族有亡賴子嘗中夜至，告族人杖於宗祠。 亡賴子為嫚書汙鄭，鄭恚，取刀斷左耳，訟於縣，縣笞亡賴子。 亡賴子出，益妄語，鄭复割右耳。 巡撫卞永譽聞其事，坐轅門讞其獄，令隸以兩耳示觀者，械亡賴子至，閱嫚書一行，輒撻其面，復重榜荷校論戍邊。 居數月，鄭兩耳復生，永譽复坐轅門，召而察之，左耳完且晰，右耳赤如血，下廓乃微赬而短於左。 文武吏及諸觀者皆驚嘆，一時稱異事雲。
Zheng, the wife of Lin Guokui, came from Fujian. When Guokui died he left two sons. Zheng was ready to die with him, but her mother-in-law urged her to live for the orphans, and she desisted. When one son died in infancy she drowned herself in the river; fishermen pulled her out and brought her back. When her mother-in-law fell ill she cut a piece of her own liver, mixed it into gruel, and fed it to her; the illness soon passed. A worthless kinsman once came at midnight; she reported him to the clan, who flogged him in the ancestral hall. The ruffian wrote a lewd letter slandering her; furious, Zheng cut off her own left ear and brought suit at the county yamen; the magistrate had the man flogged. When the man was released he slandered her all the more; Zheng cut off her right ear as well. Governor Bian Yongyu heard of the case, held court at the yamen gate, had a clerk display Zheng's severed ears to the crowd, brought the ruffian in chains, and for each line of the lewd letter struck his face, then sentenced him to heavy flogging, the cangue, and exile to the frontier. Months later both of Zheng's ears had grown back; Yongyu again held court at the gate, summoned her, and inspected them—the left was whole and clear, the right red as blood, its lower rim slightly flushed and shorter than the left. Civil and military officials and all who looked on were astonished; for a time the story was hailed as a marvel.
19
陳仁道妻龐，博白人。 康熙十九年，吳三桂將程可任掠博白，仁道將與鄰人拒之，為所殺。 龐自經，家人救之，甦，乃斥產購得殺仁道者，殺諸仁道墓前。
Pang, the wife of Chen Rendao, came from Bobai. In Kangxi 19 Wu Sangui's general Cheng Keren raided Bobai; Rendao was about to resist with his neighbors and was killed. Pang hanged herself; her family revived her. She sold her property, bought the man who had killed her husband, and had him executed before Rendao's grave.
20
張某妻秦，三原人。 康熙三十一年，仍歲大祲，縣民多流亡。 秦內外無所依，至龍橋河北，河岸坼有隙，自匿其中，有老人憫之，遺以食。 明日復往，則昨所遺故在，勸之食，且問故，秦曰：「謝翁厚，然不可為常，先後等死耳，我坐岸隙，令死不至暴露足矣。」 遂餓而死，年二十餘。 老人為封焉。
Qin, the wife of a man surnamed Zhang, came from Sanyuan. In Kangxi 31 famine struck year after year and many in the county fled as refugees. With no kin to turn to, she went to the north bank of Longqiao River, hid in a crack in the bank, and an old man took pity on her and left her food. The next day he returned; the food he had left was untouched. He urged her to eat and asked why. Qin said: "I thank you for your kindness, sir, but I cannot live on charity—we all die sooner or later. I sit in this crack in the bank so that when I die I will not lie exposed in the open; that is enough." She starved to death at a little over twenty. The old man gave her a burial.
21
同時李氏女，從父母逐食至漢口，父母皆疫死。 女年十六，美，儈聘焉，將鬻使為妓，女得其情，力求死。 三原人賈漢口者群詰儈，儈陰殺之。
At the same time a daughter of the Li clan followed her parents in search of food to Hankou; both parents died of plague. The girl was sixteen and beautiful; a broker had engaged her intending to sell her into prostitution; when she learned of it she begged for death. Sanyuan merchants trading at Hankou questioned the broker in a body; the broker secretly killed her.
22
何某妻韓，張榮妻吳，張萬寶妻李，皆濰縣人。 韓早寡，求疏屬子為後。 康熙四十三年，濰大饑，韓晝抱子拾薪，夜則紡績，日一食。 久之，有所蓄，非甚飢則不食。 卒買宅娶婦生孫，年七十三卒。
Han, wife of a man surnamed He; Wu, wife of Zhang Rong; Li, wife of Zhang Wanbao—all came from Weixian. Han was widowed young and adopted a distant kinsman's son as heir. In Kangxi 43 Weixian suffered a great famine; by day Han carried her son while gathering firewood, by night she spun, and ate once a day. In time she saved a little and would not eat unless she was very hungry. In the end she bought a house, found a wife for her son, and had grandsons; she died at seventy-three.
23
吳嫁三日，夫死，貧甚，轉役自活，夜必歸其室。 得米雜糠粃樹葉為食，贏一日食，則一日閉戶。 年九十二，病將死，呼其侄，謂曰：「我有銀紉衣帶，猶昔吾夫物。 我死，以此市棺埋我夫墓側。」
Wu had been married three days when her husband died. Utterly poor, she took day labor to live but always returned to her own room at night. When she had rice she mixed it with chaff, bran, and leaves; if she earned enough for a day she shut her door for that day. At ninety-two, on her deathbed, she called her nephew and said: "I have a silver-threaded belt and sash—still my late husband's things. When I die, sell them for a coffin and bury me beside my husband's grave."
24
李嫁生子，方晬，而喪夫。 舅、姑謂曰：「汝不幸，我曹老，子幼，汝當如何？」 李泣曰：「婦非為舅姑老子幼，夫死何所不得？ 猶忍活至此，婦自審已決，原舅姑無疑。」 舅賣漿，暮出戶，聞鐸聲，必趨往代其擔。 抱子力作，人未嘗見其啟齒。 既喪舅、姑，娶婦生孫乃卒。 疾革，謂其子曰：「我死得見汝父，我甚喜，汝勿悲也！」
Li married and bore a son still in swaddling clothes when her husband died. Her parents-in-law said: "You are unlucky; we are old and the child is young—what will you do?" Li wept and said: "It is not for you or the child that I stay—when one's husband dies, what may a wife not do? Yet I have endured until now; I have examined my heart and my resolve is firm—please do not doubt me." Her father-in-law sold gruel; when he went out at dusk and she heard his bell, she always ran to carry his load for him. She labored with her child in her arms; no one ever saw her smile. After her parents-in-law died she found a wife for her son and had grandsons before she passed away. On her deathbed she told her son: "In death I shall see your father—I am glad; do not grieve!"
25
韓居縣東南草廟村，吳居縣西張家村，李居縣北長甿村。
Han lived in Caomiao village in the county's southeast, Wu in Zhangjia village in the west, and Li in Changmeng village in the north.
26
沈學顏妻尤，仁和人。 學顏卒，無子，以從子時吉為後。 時吉生子大震，又卒。 尤撫孤孫，其兄侮之。 秋將穫，以眾刈其禾，尤置針於髻末，外向踴而號，兄提其發，針創手乃去。 常恨其孫弱，曰：「我安得見曾孫，見曾孫，死不恨。」 大震娶婦舉子，尤乃卒。 既卒，大震复舉子近思，自有傳。
You, the wife of Shen Xueyan, came from Renhe. When Xueyan died without sons, they made his nephew Shiji the heir. Shiji fathered a son named Dazhen, then died in turn. You raised the orphaned grandson while her elder brother bullied her. At harvest time her brother brought men to reap her grain; You stuck needles in her hair bun pointing outward and leaped about wailing; her brother seized her hair, cut his hand on the needles, and left. She often lamented that her grandson was frail and said: "How can I live to see a great-grandson? If I see one, I shall die content." Dazhen married and had a son; then You died. After her death Dazhen had another son, Jinsi, who has his own biography.
27
王賜紱妻時，黃平人。 賜紱出行，宿於翁丙，為苗所殺，棄屍箐中。 時行求得之，告官，得苗五，俱伏罪，時年二十一。 母欲令更嫁，剪髮、烙左頰，毀容矢不行。
Shi, the wife of Wang Cifu, came from Huangping. Cifu was traveling and lodged at Wengbing; Miao tribesmen killed him and threw his body into a ravine. Shi found the body, reported to the authorities, and five Miao were captured and confessed; she was twenty-one. Her mother wanted her to remarry; she cut her hair, branded her left cheek, disfigured her face, and swore never to marry again.
28
王某妻張，灤州人。 早寡，無子。 以族子曰琦後，亦早卒，妻魏，亦州人。 所居村曰柳河，地卑濕，食不足，掇草根木葉，拾蘋藻，雜糠粃以食其孤，复殤。 復以族子後。 張卒，族人諷魏嫁，魏不可。 居十餘年，為所後子娶婦，乃語所親曰：「吾乃今志始遂，使嫁，不過溫飽死耳。 人恆苦貧，吾獨不自覺。 苦皆自樂生，吾生不知為樂，又焉知有苦？」
Zhang, the wife of a man surnamed Wang, came from Luanzhou. She was widowed young and had no sons. She adopted a clansman's son, Ziqi, as heir; he too died young. His wife Wei was also from the prefecture. They lived in Liuhe village, where the land was low and damp and food was scarce; they gathered roots, leaves, and duckweed and mixed chaff and bran to feed the orphan, who again died in infancy. Again they adopted a clansman's son as heir. When Zhang died, clansmen suggested Wei remarry; she refused. After more than ten years she found a wife for the adopted son, then told her intimates: "Only now is my purpose fulfilled; had I remarried I would merely have died fed and clothed. Others always complain of poverty; I alone never feel it. Suffering comes from taking pleasure in life; my life knows no pleasure—how then could I know suffering?"
29
州又有李學詩妻趙，學書妻高，娣姒以節著。 學詩、學書生友愛，行涉水，學書誤就深，學詩拯之，相抱持俱死。 趙生二女，高無出，食貧堅守，年皆逾八十。
In the same prefecture Zhao, wife of Li Xueshi, and Gao, wife of Li Xueshu—sisters-in-law—were likewise renowned for their virtue. The wives of the brothers Li Xueshi and Li Xueshu were devoted friends. Once, wading through a stream, Xueshu's wife stumbled into deep water; Xueshi's wife rushed to save her, and the two clung to each other until both drowned. Zhao bore two daughters, while Gao had no children; though they lived in bitter poverty, both remained faithful widows and lived past eighty.
30
高明妻劉，秦安人，早寡，子步雲幼。 貧甚，嘗伺鄰家炊，乞餘熱為兒煁餅。 步雲稍長，就學歸，則燃燈讀。 劉縫紉，夜必盡數線。 一夕，線未盡，步雲倦臥，撫之有淚跡，問曰：「兒耶病？」 曰：「無之，但飢耳！」 劉泫然曰：「兒不慣餓，我則常耳！」 步雲為賈，家漸起。
Liu, the wife of Gao Ming of Qin'an, was widowed while still young, with a small son named Buyun. They were desperately poor; she would wait until a neighbor's fire had nearly gone out, then beg the embers' warmth to bake a little cake for the boy. As Buyun grew older and came home from his studies, Liu would light a lamp so he could read at night. Liu sewed for a living and never went to bed until she had used up every skein of thread she had set out for the night. One night, before she had finished her thread, Buyun fell asleep from exhaustion; when she touched his face she found it wet with tears and asked, "Are you sick, my son?" He answered, "No—I'm just hungry!" Liu wept and said, "You aren't used to going hungry—but I am!" Buyun later went into trade, and the household slowly recovered its fortunes.
31
鄧汝明妻劉，崇善人。 康熙四十一年，歲大無，官煮粥食饑民，劉不食五日。 鄰家招偕赴，劉恥之，三出三返，終不行。 因投水，漁人拯之，坐岸側，漁人去，復入水死。
Liu, the wife of Deng Ruming, came from Chongshan. In the forty-first year of the Kangxi reign, famine struck the land; though the authorities served gruel to the starving, Liu went five days without food. A neighbor urged her to go to the relief kitchen with her, but Liu was too ashamed; three times she set out and three times turned back, and she never went. She then threw herself into the river. A fisherman pulled her out, but once he had gone and she was sitting alone on the bank, she went back into the water and drowned.
32
魏國棟妻龐，蠡縣龐家莊人。 祖姑徐、姑董，皆節婦。 國棟卒，無子，龐力女紅以養。 織日一疋，或授以纑，織成必增重，曰：「糨所滋也。」 或與值多一錢，不受。 祖姑八十餘，目昏，向曝、如廁，躬負以出入。 姑亦至八十，負出入如之。 再居喪，有周之者，龐曰：「吾貧，幸相貸，然必償。 如不使我償，是視我非人也。」 日夜織，不期月皆償。 當葬，衰而前柩，或請代，龐曰：「我祖姑、我姑無子孫，我在，即其子孫也，可代乎？」 姑葬以夏，方雨，龐涉潦號踴，見者皆流涕。 雍正三年，縣大水，歲無。 有縣治賑役自戶外呼告之，龐曰：「婦固飢，然食朝廷米，償否？」 曰：「賑也，何償？」 龐曰：「償則食，不償，則我孱婦何功報朝廷而徒食乎？ 不可！」 遂鍵戶，复呼之，不應。 縣使役具刺歸之米一石，龐复辭。 役曰：「此喬令君所以旌節義，毋辭！」 乃拜而受。 縣上其事，得旌，族人為立後。
Pang, the wife of Wei Guodong, came from Pangjiazhuang in Li County. Both her husband's grandmother, née Xu, and her aunt, née Dong, had been exemplary chaste widows. When Guodong died leaving no son, Pang supported the family through her own weaving and sewing. She wove a full bolt of cloth every day. When given coarse hemp to work with, the finished cloth always weighed more than expected; she would explain, "That's just the starch sizing." If a customer tried to pay her an extra cash, she refused it. Her husband's grandmother was in her eighties and nearly blind; Pang personally carried her outside to sun herself and to the privy. When her aunt too reached eighty, Pang cared for her in just the same way. During a second mourning period, when neighbors offered her aid, Pang said, "I am poor and grateful for your help, but I must pay you back. If you won't let me repay you, you're treating me as though I weren't a person of honor." She wove day and night and repaid every debt within the month. At the funeral she walked before the coffin in mourning dress; when someone offered to take her place, Pang said, "My husband's grandmother and my aunt have no other descendants—as long as I live, I am their child. How could anyone stand in for me? Her aunt was buried in summer during a downpour; Pang waded through the flooded ground, wailing as she walked, and everyone who watched wept. In the third year of the Yongzheng reign, catastrophic floods left the county without a harvest. A county relief worker called to her from outside; Pang asked, "I am hungry, yes—but if I eat the government's grain, will I have to repay it? He replied, "It's famine relief—why would you repay it? Pang said, "If I can repay it, I'll eat; if not, what have I ever done for the state that I should eat its grain for free? I won't do it!" She bolted the door. When he called again, she would not respond. The county then sent the worker back with an official letter and a gift of one shi of rice, but Pang refused that too. The worker said, "Magistrate Qiao is sending this to honor your virtue—please accept it!" Only then did she bow and accept the gift. The county reported her conduct to the throne; she received an official commendation, and her clan arranged for an heir to carry on the line.
33
呂才智妻王，博興人。 才智病傴僂，杖而行，鬻餅於市。 歲祲，才智將鬻王，王曰：「汝病廢，我去，汝不得生！ 且我身值幾何？ 汝不過得數日飽。 食盡，終當死。 等死，不如相依死也。」 乃令才智守舍，而出行乞。 生一子，才智死，終不嫁。
Wang, the wife of Lü Caizhi, came from Boxing. Caizhi was crippled by a hunchback, hobbled with a cane, and sold cakes in the marketplace. During a famine Caizhi planned to sell her; Wang said, "You're sick and helpless—if I leave, you won't survive! Besides, what would my body even fetch? You'd only buy yourself a few days of full meals. Once that food runs out, you'll starve anyway. If we're going to die either way, we'd be better off dying together. She made Caizhi stay home and went out to beg for food herself. She bore a son; after Caizhi died, she never remarried.
34
許爾臣妻駱，肅寧人。 家奇貧。 爾臣及其父母相繼卒，駱號於市，得柳棺瘞焉。 或勸：「盍嫁？」 駱曰：「乞食雖辱，猶勝於再嫁！」 卒以窮餓死。
Luo, the wife of Xu Erchen, came from Suining. The household was desperately poor. Erchen and his parents died one after another; Luo wailed in the marketplace until she scraped together willow-wood coffins and buried them all. People urged her, "Why not remarry? Luo replied, "Begging is humiliating, but it's still better than taking another husband!" In the end she died of hunger and want.
35
原某妻馬，河津人。 康熙六十年，飢，行乞食。 泣語人曰：「乞食至辱，不如死，顧安得死所無累人耶？」 或漫應曰：「去此十餘裡，有紅石崖，死此，可無累。」 馬明日徑至其所，脫耳環易餅，遲鄰人過者，囑以畀其母，曰：「為我語母，無復望我，我今死此矣！」 即投崖下死。
Ma, the wife of a man surnamed Yuan, came from Hejin. In the sixtieth year of the Kangxi reign, famine drove her to beg for food. In tears she told people, "Begging is the deepest humiliation—I'd rather die, but where can I die without becoming a burden to anyone? Someone answered offhandedly, "There's a Red Stone Cliff about ten li from here—die there and you won't burden anyone." The next day Ma went straight there, traded her earrings for a cake, stopped a passing neighbor, and asked him to tell her mother, "Tell Mother not to wait for me anymore—I am dying here today!" Then she leapt from the cliff to her death.
36
張揚名妻彭，臨江人。 早寡，貧，或謂行乞可得食，彭唾之，曰：「我亦書生婦，有餓死張氏舍耳，安能為丐？」 日夜操作，立後，娶婦，持門戶。
Peng, the wife of Zhang Yangming, came from Linjiang. Widowed young and left destitute, when someone suggested she could survive by begging, Peng spat in disgust and said, "I am a scholar's wife. I'd rather starve in the Zhang household than become a beggar! She worked day and night, arranged for an heir, saw him married, and kept the household together.
37
沈萬裕妻王，浙江山陰人。 萬裕早失母，王事後姑謹。 萬裕卒，子幼，後姑虐使之。 舅予田數畝，使別居。 後姑使嫁，王不可。 後姑陰取犬子胞擲王室，陽出之，曰：「寡婦室，何乃有此？」 迫嫁益厲。 或語王：「當以死自明。」 王曰：「吾當死。 吾死孤不得生，夫且無祀，事終當白。 吾死，又誰吾明也？」 藏其胞，事後姑愈謹。 後姑有少子訟於縣，知縣姚仁昌察胞非人，杖少子，而表王節。 其後少子死，王收其孤，為娶婦。
Wang, the wife of Shen Wanyu, came from Shanyin in Zhejiang. Wanyu had lost his mother young; Wang served her stepmother-in-law with scrupulous care. After Wanyu died, leaving a small son, her stepmother-in-law mistreated her and worked her mercilessly. Her maternal uncle gave her a few mu of land and set her up in a separate household. Her stepmother-in-law pressed her to remarry, but Wang refused. Her stepmother-in-law secretly placed a dog's afterbirth in Wang's room, then 'discovered' it and cried, "How could such a thing be found in a chaste widow's quarters? She then pressed Wang to remarry even more fiercely. Someone advised Wang, "You should die to prove your innocence. Wang replied, "I am willing to die. But if I die, my son won't survive and my husband's line will go unserved—yet the truth will come out in time. If I die now, who will be left to vindicate me? She hid the afterbirth and continued serving her stepmother-in-law with even greater devotion. When the stepmother-in-law's younger son brought a case to the county court, Magistrate Yao Renchang examined the afterbirth and found it was not human; he had the younger son beaten and publicly honored Wang's virtue. Later, when the younger son died, Wang took in his orphaned child and arranged a marriage for him.
38
盧廷華妻沈，永定人。 廷華好狹邪遊，擯沈異居。 姑溺愛，亦惡沈。 沈晨必謁姑，為理井臼。 或私具甘旨，姑不善也。 施鞭撻，無懟。 廷華得惡疾，沈乃歸侍。 廷華死，以節終。
Shen, the wife of Lu Tinghua, came from Yongding. Tinghua loved the brothels and cast Shen out to live apart from him. His mother indulged him and turned against Shen as well. Every morning Shen had to call on her mother-in-law and do the grinding and chores. When she brought special foods she had prepared, her mother-in-law rejected them. Her mother-in-law beat her, yet she never talked back. When Tinghua fell gravely ill, Shen came back to care for him. After Tinghua died, she remained a faithful widow for the rest of her life.
39
李豁然妻楊，永年人。 康熙十五年，豁然卒，楊年二十一。 事舅姑孝。 撫子尊賢，娶婦王，生子而尊賢卒，姑、婦共撫孤孫至成立。 楊以乾隆四十二年卒，壽百二十，守節百有一年。 王前一年卒，年亦九十八。
Yang, the wife of Li Huoran, came from Yongnian. In the fifteenth year of the Kangxi reign, Huoran died; Yang was twenty-one. She cared for her in-laws with devoted filial piety. She raised her son Zunxian, who married a woman named Wang and had a child before dying young; Yang and her daughter-in-law then reared the orphaned grandson together until he came of age. Yang died in the forty-second year of the Qianlong reign at the age of one hundred twenty, having remained a chaste widow for one hundred and one years. Wang had died the year before, also at the age of ninety-eight.
40
曾經佑妻林，惠安人。 早寡。 所居濱海，為漁家補網，夜無燈，隨月升落為作輟。 積數十年，目因以盲，而手甚習，操作如故。 舅姑資以老，復為夫立後。
Lin, the wife of Zeng Jingyou, came from Huian. She was widowed while still young. She lived on the coast and mended fishermen's nets; without a lamp at night, she timed her work and rest to the moon's rise and fall. After decades of this labor her eyes went blind, yet her hands remained so skilled that she worked as capably as ever. She supported her in-laws into their old age and also arranged for an heir to continue her husband's line.
41
梁曇妻李，臨汾人。 曇卒，時子生方兩月，貧，啖野菜以活。 曇嘗蒔槐於庭，李日紡其下，護之甚謹。 曰：「此吾夫手植，見之如見吾夫矣！」 鄉人因稱「節婦槐」。
Li, the wife of Liang Tan, came from Linfen. When Tan died their son was only two months old; destitute, mother and child lived on wild greens. Tan had once planted a locust tree in the courtyard; Li spun beneath it every day and tended it with great care. She said, "My husband planted this with his own hands—when I look at it, it's as though I see him again! The villagers came to call it the "Chaste Widow Tree."
42
姜吉生妻木，東川人。 雍正八年，東川屬夷叛，從吉生逃山中。 賊至，殺吉生及其子，木忍哭伏林間。 師至，賊降，木躡賊至城西，手搏殺吉生賊以告官，請得手刃之。 提督張耀愍而許焉，遂磔賊以祭吉生。
Mu, the wife of Jiang Jisheng, came from Dongchuan. In the eighth year of the Yongzheng reign, when the tribal peoples of Dongchuan rose in rebellion, she fled into the mountains with Jisheng. When the bandits came they killed Jisheng and his son; Mu wept and hid herself in the woods. When government troops arrived and the bandits surrendered, Mu followed them to the west gate of the city, seized the man who had killed Jisheng, reported him to the officials, and asked permission to dispatch him with her own hand. Governor-General Zhang Yao was moved and consented; the bandit was then torn apart as an offering to Jisheng.
43
曹某妻王，興縣人。 早寡，子喑，鄰婦亦早寡，相與約不嫁。 居十五年，王詣其戚，或自外至，曰：「鄰婦嫁矣！」 王曰：「信有之乎？」 曰：「信，我所目見也！」 王乃大慟，曰：「不意此婦，乃有此事！」 遂絕。
Wang, the wife of a man surnamed Cao, came from Xing County. She was widowed young and had a mute son; a neighbor had also lost her husband early, and the two women pledged never to marry again. After fifteen years Wang went to visit a kinsman; someone arriving from outside said, "Your neighbor has remarried! Wang asked, "Can that really be true? The visitor replied, "It is true—I saw it with my own eyes! Wang was stricken with grief and said, "I never dreamed this woman would do such a thing! She broke off all contact with her.
44
潘思週妻傅，名五芳，會稽人。 思週父為田州吏目，傅氏亦僑居廣西。 嫁年餘，生一女，思週卒。 或欲聘焉，傅截發矢曰：「所不終於潘者，如此發！」 未幾，母與兄死，兄公及娣又死，舅亦死，傅持六喪還。 出郭門，身衰絰，徒步號泣以從。 僮民皆感嘆，稱孝婦。 歸營葬，撫叔及其女畢婚嫁。
Fu, the wife of Pan Sizhou—her given name was Wufang—came from Kuaiji. Sizhou's father served as a clerk in Tianzhou, and the Fu family had also taken up residence in Guangxi. A little more than a year after she married, she gave birth to a daughter; then Sizhou died. When suitors came forward, Fu cut off her hair and vowed, "Anything that does not end with the Pan family shall be like this hair! Not long afterward her mother and elder brother died, then her brother's father-in-law and sister-in-law, and then her husband's uncle; Fu presided over six funerals before returning home. Outside the city gate she wore the coarse hemp of mourning and walked on foot, wailing as she followed the coffins. The local people were deeply moved and hailed her as a filial daughter-in-law. Back home she arranged the burials, cared for her husband's uncle, and saw her daughter married.
45
倪存謨二妾方、硃，富順人。 存謨為英山知縣，坐事戍伊犁，方、硃皆從。 存謨死，方、硃慟不食。 伊犁將軍為徵賻，俾持喪歸。 至富順，嫡子出郭迎，方、硃相謂曰：「我二人不死者，懼主人骨不歸。 今歸矣，請死。」 相攜躍入江，救不死，嫡子及孫死，撫曾孫二成立。
Fang and Zhu, the two concubines of Ni Cunmo, were natives of Fushun. Cunmo served as magistrate of Yingshan; after he was convicted and exiled to Yili, both Fang and Zhu accompanied him. When Cunmo died, Fang and Zhu mourned so bitterly that they stopped eating. The general at Yili raised funeral expenses and sent them home with the coffin. At Fushun the legitimate son came out to greet them at the city gate; Fang and Zhu said to each other, "The only reason we stayed alive was our fear that our master's bones would never come home. Now that we are home, we ask to die. Hand in hand they threw themselves into the river, but were pulled out alive. The legitimate son and grandson had already died; the two women then raised two great-grandsons to adulthood.
46
楊震甲妻楊，楊三德妻馬，張壺裝妻牛，皆秦州人。 夫皆出客遊，久不歸。 皆善事孀姑。 馬姑尤嚴，日被箠楚，奉之愈謹。 楊撫子女成立。 馬、牛皆無子，立後。 州人為之語曰：「馬牛羊，立人綱。 夫遠客，姑在堂。 胸中冰，頭上霜。」 蓋借「羊」目楊也。
Yang, wife of Yang Zhenjia; Ma, wife of Yang Sande; and Niu, wife of Zhang Huzhuang—all three were from Qinzhou. All three husbands had gone away on long journeys and did not return for many years. Each dutifully cared for her widowed mother-in-law. Ma's mother-in-law was especially harsh; Ma was whipped nearly every day, yet she served her all the more devotedly. Yang raised her children to adulthood. Ma and Niu had no sons of their own and each arranged for an heir. The people of the prefecture made up a rhyme about them: "Horse, ox, and sheep uphold the bonds of humanity. Husbands far from home, mothers-in-law still in the hall. Ice in the heart, frost upon the brow. The rhyme used the word for "sheep" as a homophone for the Yang surname.
47
陳大成妻林，連江人。 大成坐事戍黑龍江。 將行，遣林別嫁，林不可，從大成戍所。 居二十八年，大成死，林裹其骨，襁兒女，乞食跣行萬餘裡，還故鄉。 灌園自給，葬大成祖墓側。
Lin, the wife of Chen Dacheng, came from Lianjiang. Dacheng was convicted of an offense and exiled to Heilongjiang. Before he left he urged Lin to remarry, but she refused and followed him to his place of exile. After twenty-eight years Dacheng died; Lin wrapped his bones, took her infant son and daughter in her arms, and walked barefoot more than ten thousand li, begging for food all the way home. She tended gardens to support herself and buried Dacheng beside his family's ancestral graves.
48
溫得珠妻李，永清人。 得珠早喪母，父娶後妻，生二子，遂惡得珠，並憎李。 得珠病狂易，一日逃其叔杖，投井死。 父母聞，不哭，李力請，乃得斂。 遺腹生子經元，舅姑迫李嫁，謂李嫁，則田廬皆二少子產也，因虐之百端。 李度終不可留，抱經元辭舅姑還母家，賃地以耕，勞苦自食力。 經元娶婦生孫，而舅及二少子皆死，遺田亦殆盡，姑衰病無所依。 李乃率子婦還，起居床下。 姑執手流涕，道其悔也； 而得珠叔故助虐者，亦前死，其嫠仰食於經元。 經元有四子，皆力田，能孝養。
Li, the wife of Wen Dezhu, came from Yongqing. Dezhu lost his mother while still young; his father remarried and had two more sons, then turned against Dezhu and came to despise Li as well. Dezhu fell into madness; one day he fled his uncle's beating, threw himself into a well, and died. When his parents heard the news they did not weep; only after Li pleaded insistently were they persuaded to give him a proper burial. She bore a posthumous son, Jingyuan; her in-laws pressed her to remarry, declaring that if she did the fields and house would pass to their two younger sons, and they tormented her in every conceivable way. Seeing she could not remain, Li took Jingyuan, bade farewell to her in-laws, and returned to her mother's home, where she rented land to farm and supported herself by hard work. Jingyuan married and had a son of his own; then his grandfather and the two younger uncles died, the family lands were nearly gone, and his grandmother, old and sick, had no one to depend on. Li then brought her son and daughter-in-law back and waited on her mother-in-law day and night at her bedside. Her mother-in-law took her hand, weeping, and spoke of her remorse; Dezhu's uncle, who had once joined in the abuse, had also died; his widow now depended on Jingyuan for her livelihood. Jingyuan had four sons, all hardworking farmers who dutifully supported their elders.
49
賈國林妻韓，國林，扶溝人； 韓，淮寧人。 乾隆五十一年，大饑，民為盜。 國林有族子二，行無賴，執國林及韓，綁於庭之槐，而盡取其室所有，已乃斫綁釋之。 國林將指傷，越三日死。 韓欲告官，無人焉為之佐。 有子二，皆幼。 其弟日負薪米贍姊，夜執梃伺門戶。 居數年，無賴又至，徹其屋茅，擲大磚中韓手，遂奪田伐樹，一不與較。 二人者死，乃稍稍得安。 嘉慶二十三年，又大饑，無賴有子鬻其嫂，夜出走，韓為召其夫婦之。 因泣告其子曰：「害爾父者，某也。 今其子又鬻嫂，不仁哉此父子也！ 顧為賈氏婦，即餓死，豈可失清白，汝曹當死守之！」 此婦竟得免。
Han was the wife of Jia Guolin, who came from Fugou; Han herself was from Huaining. In the fifty-first year of the Qianlong reign a great famine drove people to robbery. Guolin had two clansmen, both ruffians, who seized him and Han, tied them to the locust tree in the courtyard, stripped the house of everything they owned, and only then cut their bonds and let them go. Guolin's finger was wounded; three days later he died. Han wanted to bring charges but had no one to help her. She had two young sons. Her younger brother brought firewood and rice every day to support her, and at night stood guard at the door with a club. Several years later the ruffians returned, tore the thatch from her roof, threw a large brick that struck Han's hand, then seized her fields and cut down her trees—she never resisted them. When the two men died she was at last able to live in some peace. In the twenty-third year of the Jiaqing reign famine struck again; a ruffian's son sold his sister-in-law and fled by night, but Han brought the couple back together. Weeping, she told the man's son, "The one who killed your father was so-and-so. Now his son has sold his own sister-in-law—what cruel men, father and son! Remember—you are women of the Jia clan; even if you starve, you must not lose your honor; you must defend it with your lives! That woman was spared after all.
50
孫雲妻白，興縣人。 生十四年而嫁，嫁十三年而雲卒。 又二十年，子長娶婦，白挈以拜雲墓，指而言曰：「此君子也，此君婦也，吾事畢，可以從君矣！」 慟而僕，遂絕。
Bai, the wife of Sun Yun, came from Xing County. She married at fourteen; thirteen years later Yun died. Twenty years later, when their son had grown and taken a wife, Bai brought the daughter-in-law to bow at Yun's tomb and said, pointing, "This is the gentleman; this is his wife; my duty is done—I may follow my husband now! Overcome with grief she collapsed, stopped eating, and died.
51
圖斡恰納妻王依氏，滿洲人，乍浦駐防。 圖斡恰納，瓜爾佳氏，早喪母，尋亦卒，無子，嗣絕矣。 父查郎阿謀為立後，王依氏曰：「子他人子，終非骨肉，不足奉大宗，原翁娶繼室。」 查郎阿感其意，娶於邵，生子觀成。 觀成生七月，而查郎阿卒，王依氏哀姑少寡，奉養甚謹，躬操作助姑撫孤。 既遘疾，猶不自逸，事輒代其姑。 卒時觀成已舉鄉試，以子鳳瑞為兄嗣，未百年而子孫繁衍至百餘人。
Wang Yishi, wife of Tuwohqiana, was a Manchu woman of the garrison at Zhapu. Tuwohqiana of the Guwalgiya clan lost his mother while young and soon died himself, leaving no son—the line was broken. His father Qialang'a planned to adopt an heir; Wang Yishi said, "Another man's son can never truly be one's own flesh and blood and is not fit to carry on the main line—I beg you, Father, to take a second wife. Moved by her words, Qialang'a married a woman of the Shao clan, who bore a son named Guancheng. When Guancheng was seven months old Qialang'a died; Wang Yishi pitied her young widowed mother-in-law, served her devotedly, and worked with her own hands to help raise the orphan. Even when she fell ill she would not rest, always taking over her mother-in-law's chores herself. By the time she died Guancheng had passed the provincial examinations; she had made her son Fengrui heir to her brother-in-law's line, and within a century their descendants numbered more than a hundred.
52
吳先榜妻鄭，陝西山陽人。 先榜卒，鄭誓殉。 家人慰喻之，曰：「兩兄公皆無子，若方有身，男也，吳氏幸有後。」 逾數月生男，撫以成立，吳氏得有後。
Zheng, the wife of Wu Xianbang, came from Shanyang in Shaanxi. When Xianbang died, Zheng vowed to follow him in death. Her family comforted her, saying, "Both elder uncles are without sons; if you are pregnant and the child is a boy, the Wu line will be saved. A few months later she gave birth to a son, raised him to adulthood, and the Wu clan had an heir.
53
王元龍妻李，嘉興人。 元龍悍，嗜酒，稍拂意，輒呵斥。 既，傷於酒而病，李斥嫁時所媵田供藥餌。 元龍病，益悍，稍間，則日夜博。 怒李，故以非禮虐使，或加以鞭楚，李安之，無幾微忤也。 元龍病三年而死，李朝夕上食，輒號慟。 服除，會兄公之官福建，姑老不能赴，李往奉姑，七年而姑卒。 李泣謂諸從子曰：「我當從汝叔於地下矣！」 會火發，李整衣坐樓上，有梯而援者，李戒毋上樓，燼死焉。
Li, the wife of Wang Yuanlong, came from Jiaxing. Yuanlong was violent and addicted to drink; the slightest provocation would set him shouting abuse. Later he fell ill from drink; Li sold the fields she had brought as dowry to pay for his medicine. As his illness wore on Yuanlong grew even more violent; whenever he felt a little better he gambled day and night. Angry at Li, he deliberately mistreated her and sometimes whipped her; Li endured it all without the slightest complaint. Yuanlong was ill for three years and died; Li visited his grave morning and evening with offerings, wailing each time. When her mourning period ended, her brother-in-law took a post in Fujian; the mother-in-law was too old to travel, so Li went in her stead and served her for seven years until she died. Li wept and told her nephews, "It is time for me to join your uncle in the grave! Soon afterward a fire broke out; Li dressed herself neatly and sat upstairs; rescuers came with a ladder, but she warned them not to come up, and she perished in the flames.
54
蔡庚妻吳，合肥人。 早寡，立從子為後，以事姑。 嘗為辭自序曰：「父母生我時，惟原得其所。 十六歸君子，同心祀先祖。 歸時舅已歿，姑老誰為主？ 嗟嗟夫質弱，終朝抱疾處。 十八幸生男，朝夕姑欣睹。 無端因痘殤，姑泣淚如雨。 堂上節姑哀，入幔痛肝腑。 二十再生男，視若擎天柱。 兒生甫一載，忽然夫命殂。 始婦並時啼，眷屬群相撫。 死者不復生，弱息堪承父。 那知天奪兒，骨肉又歸土。 姑祗有哭時，我豈無死所！ 還念朽姑存，我死誰為哺？ 隱痛斂深閨，衰顏原長護。 奇災偏遇火，焦爛姑肌膚。 和血以丸藥，年餘乃如故。 災退宜多壽，云何复病殂！ 送姑歸黃泉，夫缺我今補。 我今補夫缺，一死何所顧？ 哀哀我父母，惸惸將泣訴！」 卒，年八十有八。
Wu, the wife of Cai Geng, came from Hefei. Widowed young, she adopted a younger clansman's son as heir so she could continue caring for her mother-in-law. She once composed a verse about her own life: "When my parents gave me life, they only prayed I might find my proper place. At sixteen I married a good man; together we honored our ancestors. When I came to this house my father-in-law was already gone—who would care for my aged mother-in-law? Alas, my frail body kept me sick in bed all day long. At eighteen I was blessed with a son; my mother-in-law delighted in him every day. Then he died suddenly of smallpox, and my mother-in-law wept as though the sky itself were falling. In the hall my chaste mother-in-law mourned; behind the curtain my heart was torn apart. At twenty I bore another son and looked on him as the pillar holding up heaven itself. Her son was barely a year old when her husband suddenly died. At first she and her mother-in-law wept together while kinsmen gathered to comfort them. The dead cannot be restored, but the infant son could still carry on his father's line. But Heaven took the child too, and her flesh and blood returned to the earth. My mother-in-law had only her tears—did I not have a place to die as well? Yet I thought of my frail mother-in-law still alive—if I died, who would care for her? She hid her grief in the inner rooms and with a weary face went on caring for her. Then a terrible fire struck, scorching her mother-in-law's flesh. She mixed her own blood into medicinal pills; after more than a year her mother-in-law recovered. After the disaster she should have lived long—why did illness take her again! I sent my mother-in-law to the grave; now I would fill the place my husband left empty. Having fulfilled my husband's duty, what did I have left to live for? Alas, my poor parents—bereft and alone, they will weep in grief! She died at the age of eighty-eight.
55
韓某妻馬，萊蕪人。 貧，夫商於遼陽，馬出為傭。 聞夫死，其父欲嫁之，馬曰：「歸夫骨其可。」 乃乞食行五千里，得夫骨，負以歸。 日行一二十里，夜或露宿，犯風雪，行歲餘，乃至家。 既葬，其父終欲嫁之，馬執白刃自誓，乃已。
Ma, the wife of a man surnamed Han, came from Laigwu. They were poor; her husband went to trade in Liaoyang while Ma hired herself out as a laborer. When she heard her husband had died, her father wanted to remarry her; Ma said, "At least let me bring back my husband's bones. She begged for food along the way and walked five thousand li, found her husband's remains, and carried them home on her back. She walked ten or twenty li a day, sometimes sleeping in the open at night through wind and snow; after more than a year she reached home. After the burial her father still pressed her to remarry; Ma seized a bare blade and swore she would die rather than comply, and he gave up.
56
李鳴鑾妻黃，騰越人。 咸豐間，雲南迴亂，鳴鑾以千總戰，負傷卒。 黃截發，撫二子。 同治初，寇至，轉徙為人縫紉浣濯，日率一粥，仍督子讀不輟。 嘗曰：「人不讀書，與禽獸何異？」
Huang, the wife of Li Mingluan, came from Tengyue. During the Xianfeng reign the Hui rebellion broke out in Yunnan; Mingluan fought as a battalion commander, was wounded in battle, and died. Huang cut off her hair in mourning and raised their two sons. In the early Tongzhi years, when bandits came, she moved from place to place sewing and washing for others, living on a single bowl of gruel a day while still making her sons study without fail. She often said, "A person who does not read—how is he any different from a beast?"
57
金光炳妻倪，金華人。 光炳卒，倪殉，救免。 洪秀全兵至，攜二子竄山谷。 亂定，力作自給。 貧甚，督子讀，不少假。
Ni, the wife of Jin Guangbing, came from Jinhua. When Guangbing died, Ni tried to follow him in death but was saved. When Hong Xiuquan's army came, she fled into the mountains with her two sons. When the rebellion ended she supported herself by hard labor. Though desperately poor, she kept her sons at their books and never relaxed her demands.
58
徐嘉賢妻劉，嘉賢，天津人； 劉，桐城人。 嘉賢少從軍河南，嘗單騎入賊壘，拔陷賊婦女數百人出。 旋卒。 劉貧，輒數日不舉火，嚴督其子讀。 族有為令者招使往，劉曰：「今不自立，而託於人，懼吾子之不振也！」 謝不往。
Liu was the wife of Xu Jiaxian, who came from Tianjin; Liu herself was from Tongcheng. Jiaxian had served in the army in Henan as a young man; once he rode alone into a bandit camp and rescued several hundred captive women. He died soon afterward. Liu was so poor she often went days without cooking, yet she still kept her son at his books. When a clansman who had become a magistrate invited her to come live with him, Liu said, "If I cannot stand on my own feet now but depend on others, I fear my son will never make anything of himself! She declined and stayed away.
59
冒樹楷妻週，樹楷，如皋人； 週，祥符人。 樹楷以知縣待缺福建，早卒。 週挈子女從舅廣州，舅亦卒。 僑居，日食率百錢，翼子女以長。 子得官，將請旌，週拒之曰：「婦節常耳，人子於其母，奈何欲假以為名哉？」 父星詒，諸父星譼、星虓，並有文行，週刻其遺著，為父營葬，置墓田焉。
Zhou was the wife of Mao Shukai, who came from Rugao; Zhou herself was from Xiangfu. Shukai had been a magistrate awaiting appointment in Fujian when he died young. Zhou took her children and followed her husband's uncle to Guangzhou, where the uncle also died. Living as exiles, she spent about a hundred cash a day on food and raised her children to adulthood. When her son gained an official post and wanted to petition for an imperial commendation, Zhou refused, saying, "A woman's chastity is nothing extraordinary—how could a son use his mother's virtue to make a name for himself? Her father Xingyi and her uncles Xingxi and Xingxiao had all been men of letters; Zhou published their posthumous writings, arranged her father's burial, and set aside land for the family graves.
60
曾廣垕妻劉，衡陽人。 歸廣垕，舅老，姑前卒。 兄公初喪，舅痛子，幾失明，出入需人。 劉侍舅謹，日執炊，一飯三起視舅起居衣食。 雖貧，必具酒肉。 舅病，奉侍七晝夜不就枕。 舅卒，棄田廬治喪。 劉方產，徙陋巷，艱苦冰雪中。 廣垕又卒，乃與姒李同居，以子為之後。 李亦苦節，劉事之如姑。 晝治針黹，夜則紡績，節衣食，命子熙就學，卒成進士。 方極困，老稚或乞食，必分食與之。 晚少豐，年飢，必出穀以賑貧者。
Liu, the wife of Zeng Guanghou, came from Hengyang. When she married Guanghou, her father-in-law was elderly and her mother-in-law had already died. When her brother-in-law died, her father-in-law grieved so deeply for his son that he nearly lost his sight and needed help whenever he went out. Liu waited on her father-in-law devotedly, cooking for him every day and rising three times during a single meal to attend to his needs. Though they were poor, she always saw that he had wine and meat. When her father-in-law fell ill, she nursed him for seven days and nights without resting her head on a pillow. When her father-in-law died, she sold their fields and house to pay for the funeral. Liu had just given birth when they moved to a poor alley and endured bitter hardship through the winter snows. When Guanghou also died, she lived with her sister-in-law Li and made her son the heir to his line. Li was also a woman of steadfast virtue; Liu treated her as she would a mother-in-law. She sewed by day and spun by night, lived frugally, and sent her son Xi to school; he eventually passed the jinshi examinations. Even in their worst poverty, whenever old or young beggars came, she always shared what food she had. In later life she was somewhat better off, and in famine years she always gave grain to the poor.
61
馮丙煐妻俞，丙煐，大興人； 俞，婺源人。 丙煐為世父後，俞事兩姑，維護調和。 迭遘諸喪，丙煐亦卒，喪葬皆盡禮。 光緒二十六年，京師被兵，俞市米數十石與貧者，戚友相依者六十餘家，衣食之，亂定始去。 亂後多暴骨，募貲為收斂。 死難者，求其姓名為請旌卹。 獄囚衣糧主者不能給，斥銀米畀之。 其後直隸、安徽災，輒募貲至鉅萬。 京師卹嫠會、八旗工廠，皆輸金以助其成。
Yu was the wife of Feng Bingying, who came from Daxing; Yu herself was from Wuyuan. Bingying had been adopted as heir to his uncle's line; Yu served both mothers-in-law and kept harmony in the household. Death followed death in the family; when Bingying died as well, Yu saw that every funeral was conducted with full propriety. In the twenty-sixth year of the Guangxu reign, when Beijing was overrun by soldiers, Yu bought dozens of shi of rice for the poor and fed and clothed more than sixty families of kinsmen and friends who had taken refuge with her, staying until order was restored. After the chaos many corpses lay unburied; she raised money to collect and inter them. For those who had died in the disaster she traced their names and petitioned for imperial commendation and relief. When the authorities could not supply prisoners with food and clothing, she paid out silver and grain from her own funds. Later, when disasters struck Zhili and Anhui, she repeatedly raised tens of thousands in relief funds. She contributed funds to the Beijing Widows' Relief Society and the Eight Banners workshops to help establish them.
62
袁績懋妻左，績懋見忠義傳。 左名錫璇，字芙江，陽湖人。 事親孝，父病，刲臂和藥進。 工詩善畫，書法尤精，著有捲葹閣詩集。
Zuo was the wife of Yuan Jimao, whose biography appears among the Loyal and Righteous. Zuo's given name was Xixuan, her style name Fujiang, and she came from Yanghu. She was filial toward her parents; when her father fell ill, she cut flesh from her arm and mixed it into his medicine. She was accomplished in poetry and painting and especially skilled in calligraphy; her collected poems were published as the Juanwei Pavilion Poetry Collection.
63
績懋子學昌妻曾，名懿，字伯淵，華陽人。 通書史，善課子，著有古歡室詩集、醫學篇、女學篇、中饋錄。
Zeng, wife of Jimao's son Xuechang—her given name was Yi, her style name Boyuan—came from Huayang. She was well read in history and literature and skilled at teaching her son; she wrote the Guhuan Studio Poetry Collection, Medical Learning, Women's Learning, and Records of the Kitchen.
64
俞振鸞妻傅，振鸞，餘杭人； 傅名宛，號青泉，大興人，以禮女。 能承父學，工詩，著有山青雲白軒詩集。 教子嚴，建宗祠，立條教，示子孫。 光、宣間，江、浙遇災，屢蠲金賑之。
Fu was the wife of Yu Zhenluan, who came from Yuhang; Fu's given name was Wan, her style name Qingquan; she came from Daxing and was known as a woman of exemplary propriety. She inherited her father's scholarship, was accomplished in poetry, and published the Shanyun Yunbai Studio Poetry Collection. She was strict in raising her sons, built a family ancestral hall, and set down rules of conduct for future generations. During the Guangxu and Xuantong reigns, when disasters struck Jiangsu and Zhejiang, she repeatedly donated large sums for relief.
65
周懷伯妻邊，懷伯，餘杭人； 邊，諸暨人。 邊事姑孝，懷伯卒，有女子子三。 邊恃女紅養姑，營喪葬，嫁三女，貸於人以舉。 節衣縮食，數十年乃畢償。 年六十九，知將死，辭親族，啟夫墓右生壙，坐臥其中，遂死。 堅囑毋具棺，重以累人。 親族哀其志，樏梩而掩之。
Bian was the wife of Zhou Huaibo, who came from Yuhang; Bian herself came from Zhuji. Bian was devoted to her mother-in-law; when Huaibo died she was left with three daughters. Bian supported her mother-in-law with needlework, arranged the funeral, and married off all three daughters, borrowing money to pay for it all. She lived frugally for decades before she finally paid off the debts. At sixty-nine, sensing death was near, she said farewell to her kin, opened the prepared tomb beside her husband's grave, sat down inside it, and died. She firmly instructed that no coffin be made, not wanting to burden anyone. Moved by her resolve, her kin buried her in a simple plank coffin.
66
吉山妻瓜爾佳氏，名惠興，滿洲人，杭州駐防。 早寡，事姑謹，嘗刲肱療姑疾。 光緒季年，創立女學。 逾年，貲不足，校將散，乃飲毒具牘上將軍，自陳以身殉校。 且言曰：「雁過留聲，人過留名，我非樂死，不得已耳！」 既死，將軍瑞興與巡撫張曾易攵奏聞，賜「貞心毅力」額，眾為集貲擴校，以「惠興」名焉。
Huixing of the Guwalgiya clan, wife of Jishan, was a Manchu woman of the garrison at Hangzhou. Widowed young, she dutifully cared for her mother-in-law and once cut flesh from her arm to treat her illness. In the late Guangxu years she founded a school for girls. A year later, when funds ran short and the school was about to close, she drank poison and sent a memorial to the general declaring she would give her life for the school. She wrote, "Wild geese leave their call as they pass; people leave their names—I do not seek death for its own sake; I had no other choice! After her death General Ruixing and Governor Zhang Cengyi reported the matter to the throne; she was granted a plaque reading "Steadfast Heart and Resolute Will," and the public raised funds to expand the school, which was named Huixing in her honor.
67
張某妻錢，嘉興人。 生一女而嫠，還依父母居。 姑貧，計鬻之，度錢剛，言無益，陽攜以省戚。 先期告鬻婦家，待郭外，舟出郭，別有舟來並艤，則鬻婦家人也。 姑乃告錢，錢即起，躍入水。 鬻婦家人大驚，而姑已得錢，強婦往，趣舟行。 錢屢躍入水，持之不能止，至三。 眾皆懼，乃送還父母家，而錢為救者搤胸傷，咯血，數月卒。
Qian, the wife of a man surnamed Zhang, came from Jiaxing. She had borne one daughter when she was widowed and returned to live with her parents. Her mother-in-law was poor and planned to sell her; knowing Qian's protests would be useless, she pretended to take her to visit relatives. She had secretly arranged with the buyer's family to wait outside the city gate; when their boat left the gate, another boat pulled alongside—it was the buyer's party. The mother-in-law then told Qian what was happening; Qian at once jumped into the water. The buyer's family was horrified, but the mother-in-law had already taken the money and forced Qian aboard, ordering the boat to leave. Qian threw herself into the water again and again; those who held her could not restrain her, and she did so three times. Terrified, they sent her back to her parents' home; Qian's chest had been crushed by her rescuers, she coughed blood, and died a few months later.
68
戚成勳妻廖，江津人。 成勳家萬山中，張獻忠之亂，成勳出避寇，廖弱不能從，閉重門獨居。 家故有餘粟，粟將盡，就池畔種稻以食。 衣敝，綴草自蔽。 居四十餘年，山徑塞，與世隔絕。 成勳竄黔中，聞亂定，乃還，行求故山，斧竹木得道，見其宅盡圮，隱隱起炊煙。 呼且入，廖自樓上問誰何，成勳道姓名，廖乃泣曰：「我夫今得還耶？ 我無衣，君以餘衣畀我，乃得下相見。」 成勳解衣擲樓上，廖衣以下，面目黧黑，發如蓬，相持大慟。 其居又十餘年，年各至九十餘。
Liao, the wife of Qi Chengxun, came from Jiangjin. Chengxun's family lived deep in the mountains; when Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion broke out Chengxun fled to escape the bandits, but Liao was too frail to follow and shut herself inside their home alone. When the household grain ran low she planted rice beside a pond to feed herself. Her clothes wore out, so she patched together grass to cover herself. She lived there more than forty years, the mountain paths overgrown, completely cut off from the outside world. Chengxun had fled into Guizhou; when he heard the rebellion was over he returned, hacked his way through bamboo and trees to find the old mountain path, found their house in ruins, yet saw faint smoke rising from cooking fires. He called out and went in; Liao called from upstairs to ask who was there; when Chengxun gave his name she wept and said, "Has my husband truly come home? I have no clothes—throw me something to wear so I can come down to meet you. Chengxun stripped off his spare clothes and threw them up; Liao dressed and came down—her face was blackened, her hair a tangled mess—and they embraced and wept bitterly. They lived together another dozen years, each reaching more than ninety years of age.
69
曾惟庸妻譚，衡陽人。 順治五年，譚歸惟庸，方四閱月，惟庸為遊騎掠去。 亂定，有言惟庸死者，譚召族人，分授以田宅。 康熙二年，惟庸還，詐稱行賈，過譚，音容已盡變，譚不能識。 求食，與之； 求借宿，不可。 越日再至，乃自名惟庸，譚未敢信，問臨別時事，嘗授三鑰，鐵奇銅偶，語皆驗。 譚乃泣而言曰：「君別十六年，謂物故久，今幸生還，當告諸宗族。」 惟庸召族人，置酒，具白其事，為夫婦如初。
Tan, the wife of Zeng Weiyong, came from Hengyang. In the fifth year of the Shunzhi reign Tan married Weiyong; only four months later roaming cavalry carried him off. When order was restored and word came that Weiyong had died, Tan gathered the clan and divided the fields and houses among them. In the second year of the Kangxi reign Weiyong returned, posing as a traveling merchant; his voice and appearance had changed so completely that Tan did not recognize him. He asked for food and she gave him some; he asked to stay the night and she refused. The next day he returned and revealed his name; Tan still could not believe it until she tested him with details from their parting—he had once given her three keys, iron, copper, and an odd one—and everything he said checked out. Tan wept and said, "You have been gone sixteen years; I thought you dead long ago. Now that you have returned alive, I must tell the clan. Weiyong gathered the clan, set out wine, explained everything, and they lived as husband and wife again.
70
謝萬程妻李，唐縣人。 萬程父儀，順治間諸生，貧，卒無棺，萬程將鬻妻以為斂，不忍言。 李知萬程意，哭請行。 南陽民王全以二十四金鬻李歸，將以為妾。 李至全家，日涕泣，但原供織紝，不肯侍全，全亦聽，不強。 居一年所，全兄大有與全隙，詣南汝道告全匿逃人。 事下南陽府同知張三異，三異漢陽人，嘗為陝西延長知縣，有惠政。 詰大有，辭遁。 召全，並以李至，問何為匿逃人，全目李妾，因言：「妾至日涕泣，但原供織紝，居一年所，不我從也。」 問得自何所，乃復召萬程，具得賣妻葬父狀。 三異驚嘆，問萬程：「欲復合否？」 萬程言：「妻故無失德，聞其至王氏日涕泣，但原供織紝，居一年所，艱難以守身。 我豈不欲合，而無其貲，則奈何？」 三異出俸二十四金償全，而使吏以金幣送萬程夫婦還。
Li, the wife of Xie Wancheng, came from Tang County. Wancheng's father Yi had been a licentiate during the Shunzhi reign; when he died penniless without even a coffin, Wancheng planned to sell his wife to pay for the funeral but could not bring himself to say so. Li understood what Wancheng was thinking and, weeping, volunteered to go. Wang Quan, a man of Nanyang, bought Li for twenty-four taels of silver and intended to take her as a concubine. At Wang's house Li wept every day, offering only to weave and sew and refusing to serve him as a wife; Wang did not force her. After about a year Quan's elder brother Dayou, who had a grudge against him, reported to the Nannu Circuit that Quan was harboring a fugitive. The case went to Vice Magistrate Zhang Sanyi of Nanyang Prefecture, a native of Hanyang who had once served as magistrate of Yanchang in Shaanxi with a reputation for benevolent rule. He questioned Dayou, who evaded with excuses. He summoned Quan and brought Li as well; when asked why he was hiding a fugitive, Quan gestured at Li and said, "From the day she arrived she wept constantly, offering only to weave and sew; after a full year she still would not be my wife. Asked where he had gotten her, he summoned Wancheng and learned the full story of how he had sold his wife to bury his father. Sanyi was deeply moved and asked Wancheng, "Do you want to be reunited with your wife? Wancheng said, "My wife has done nothing wrong; I hear that at the Wang household she wept every day, offering only to weave and sew, and after a full year managed with great difficulty to preserve her virtue. Of course I want to reunite with her, but without the money to redeem her, what can I do? Sanyi paid twenty-four taels from his own salary to compensate Wang Quan and sent an official to escort the Wanchengs home.
71
李殿機妻王，名素貞，亳州人。 幼喪母，父以字殿機，殿機父範同，順治初坐法，妻張及殿機沒入象房，殿機方三歲。 稍長，自鬻於鑲紅旗護軍厄爾庫為奴，厄爾庫妻以婢蕭。 王從其父居二十餘年，其父病且死，以簪珥授女，泣曰：「此李氏物也！」 又數年，或傳殿機死，王氏諸父兄迫女別嫁，女原為殿機死。 久之，诇殿機猶在，欲走京師求殿機。 鄰有範一魁者，其父友也，王乞為導，諸父兄不欲，令處於樓，去其梯。 王以夜縋而下，從一魁至京師，求諸象房，有知者導至厄爾庫家，殿機荷畚拾馬通自厩出。 一魁前與語，王出父故所授簪珥，相向哭，行路聚觀，皆流涕。 厄爾庫義之，許放殿機及蕭，不督自鬻值。 巡視南城御史阿爾賽疏聞，下禮部。 禮部議：「八旗家奴不得復為民，惟王氏守節求夫，有裨風化，應如所題。」 康熙二十八年四月乙未，疏上，聖祖可其議，王年已三十有四，猶處女也。
Wang, the wife of Li Dianji—her given name was Suzhen—came from Bozhou. She lost her mother as a child; her father had betrothed her to Dianji, whose father Fan Tong was convicted in the early Shunzhi reign and sent with his wife Zhang and young Dianji, then only three, to serve in the imperial elephant stables. When he grew older Dianji sold himself as a slave to E'erku, a guardsman of the Bordered Red Banner; E'erku's wife was given a maid named Xiao. Wang lived with her father for more than twenty years; on his deathbed he gave her hairpins and earrings, weeping, "These belong to the Li family! Some years later word came that Dianji had died; her uncles and brothers pressed her to marry another, but she declared she would rather die for Dianji. Eventually she learned Dianji was still alive and resolved to go to Beijing to find him. A neighbor named Fan Yikui, her father's old friend, agreed to guide her; her uncles and brothers objected and locked her on an upper floor, removing the ladder. Wang lowered herself by rope at night and traveled with Yikui to Beijing; guided to the elephant stables and then to E'erku's home, she found Dianji coming out of the stables carrying a basket, shoveling horse dung. Yikui spoke to him first; Wang produced the hairpins and earrings her father had given her; they faced each other and wept while passersby gathered, all in tears. Moved by their story, E'erku agreed to release Dianji and Xiao without demanding repayment of the purchase price. Censor A'ersai, inspector of the Southern City, reported the matter to the throne, and the case was referred to the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites ruled: "Banner slaves may not ordinarily be restored to commoner status, but Wang's steadfast virtue in seeking her betrothed serves the cause of moral instruction and the petition should be granted. On the yimwei day of the fourth month of the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi reign the memorial was approved by the Emperor; Wang was thirty-four years old and still a virgin.
72
長清婦王氏，父王三，農也。 未行，歲祲，父母舅姑議鬻之，而均其值。 販挾以去，至饒陽，入妓家，矢死不肯汙。 轉至孔店村，村諸生孔繼禹、繼淳兄弟好義，愍其志，以五十金贖焉。 問所居地，曰焦家台。 問戚屬，以父王三對。 當春，村民祠泰山，具榜書女始末畀行者，誡使入長清界則揭榜。 焦家台農有見者，以告王三，詣孔氏以女歸，復歸所字壻。
A woman surnamed Wang of Changqing—her father Wang San was a farmer. Before the wedding, during a famine year, her parents and in-laws agreed to sell her and split the proceeds. A trafficker took her away; at Raoyang she was sold into a brothel, but she vowed she would die rather than be defiled. She was taken to Kongdian Village, where the licentiate brothers Kong Jiyu and Jichun, men of generous spirit, took pity on her and redeemed her for fifty taels. Asked where she was from, she said Jiajiatai. Asked about her family, she named her father Wang San. That spring, when villagers made the pilgrimage to Mount Tai, they wrote out her whole story on a placard and gave it to travelers with instructions to post it when they entered Changqing territory. A farmer at Jiajiatai who saw the placard told Wang San; he went to the Kong brothers, brought his daughter home, and restored her to her betrothed.
73
程允元妻劉，名秀石，允元，江南山陽山； 秀石，平谷人也。 秀石父登庸，康熙間為山西蒲州知府。 初謁選，允元父舉人光奎，亦在京師。 相與友，申之以婚姻。 時允元二歲，秀石生未期也。 光奎歸，尋卒。 乾隆初，登庸罷官，居天津北倉，亦卒。 秀石年二十二，母前卒，諸兄奔走衣食，弟崇善為童子師，徙廢宅。 姊妹姑侄猶五六人，食不得飽，寒無衣，相倚坐取暖。 崇善死，益貧，恆數日不得食。 屋破，群僵坐雨中，乃徙依比丘尼照震。 無何，家人相繼死，惟秀石存，力針黹自活。 照震徙天津，秀石從。 嘗有求婚者，介照震道意，秀石恚，不食，照震力謝乃已。
Liu, betrothed to Cheng Yun'yuan—her given name was Xiushi; Yun'yuan came from Shanyang in Jiangnan; Xiushi came from Pinggu. Xiushi's father Dengyong had served as prefect of Puzhou in Shanxi during the Kangxi reign. When Dengyong first went to the capital to await appointment, Yun'yuan's father Guangkui, a juren degree holder, was also in Beijing. They became friends and pledged their children to each other in marriage. Yun'yuan was two years old and Xiushi was not yet one. Guangkui returned home and soon died. In the early Qianlong years Dengyong was dismissed from office, settled at Beicang near Tianjin, and died there as well. Xiushi was twenty-two; her mother had died; her elder brothers struggled to find food while her younger brother Chongshan taught village schoolchildren from a ruined house. Five or six sisters, in-laws, and nephews still depended on them; they went hungry and had no warm clothes, huddling together for warmth. When Chongshan died they grew even poorer, often going days without food. When their house collapsed they sat huddled in the rain and then moved in with the Buddhist nun Zhaozhen. Soon her family members died one after another; only Xiushi survived, supporting herself by needlework. When Zhaozhen moved to Tianjin, Xiushi went with her. When suitors came, Zhaozhen conveyed their proposals; Xiushi was furious and refused to eat until Zhaozhen firmly turned them away.
74
允元既喪父，亦中落，聞登庸卒，家且散，顧不知女存亡。 或傳女死，勸別娶，允元不可，且曰：「女即死，必酹其墓乃別娶。」 乾隆四十二年，附運漕舟至北倉求劉氏，有舟人為言：「劉氏家已散，其孥殆盡死，惟第四女存，是嘗字淮安程氏，傳程氏子已死，而女矢不他適。 昔居準提菴，今徙天津，不知菴何名也。」 允元因言己即程氏子，舟人又言：「劉氏有故僕，瘖而義，歲時必問女起居。」 允元求得僕，偕詣照震，言始末，照震疑，且憚秀石，未敢以通。 允元言於監漕吏，牒天津縣知縣金之忠，之忠召允元問之，信。 使告女，且勉之嫁，女猶辭。 復使謂曰：「女不字五十七年，豈非為程郎？ 程郎至，天也，復何辭？」 乃成婚。
Yun'yuan had also fallen on hard times after his father's death; when he heard Dengyong had died and the family was breaking up, he had no idea whether Xiushi was alive or dead. When word came that Xiushi had died, people urged him to marry someone else; Yun'yuan refused, saying, "Even if she is dead, I must pour libations at her grave before I marry again. In the forty-second year of the Qianlong reign he traveled by grain boat to Beicang to find the Liu family; a boatman told him, "The Liu family is scattered and nearly all dead; only the fourth daughter survives—she was betrothed to the Cheng clan of Huai'an; though told the Cheng son had died, she vowed never to marry another. She once lived at the Zhunti Nunnery and has now moved to Tianjin, though I do not know which temple she is at. Yun'yuan said he was the Cheng son; the boatman added, "The Liu family has an old servant, mute but loyal, who inquires after the daughter's welfare every year. Yun'yuan found the servant and together they went to Zhaozhen and told the whole story; Zhaozhen was skeptical and feared Xiushi's reaction, and did not dare tell her. Yun'yuan appealed to the grain transport official, who wrote to Magistrate Jin Zhizhong of Tianjin County; Jin summoned Yun'yuan, questioned him, and found his story credible. He sent word to Xiushi and urged her to marry; she still refused. He sent word again: "You have remained unmarried for fifty-seven years—was it not for Cheng? Cheng has come—it is Heaven's will; what more is there to refuse? At last they were married.
75
大學士兩江總督高晉以其事上聞，下禮部，禮部議：「義夫貞婦，例得旌表。 至幼年聘定，彼此隔絕，經數十年之久，守義懷貞，各矢前盟，卒償所原，實從來所未有，應旌表以獎節義。」 上從之。
Grand Secretary and Governor-General of the Two Jiangs Gao Jin reported the matter to the throne; the Ministry of Rites ruled that righteous husbands and chaste wives were by precedent entitled to imperial commendation. But a betrothal made in childhood, followed by decades of separation during which both kept faith with their pledge and at last fulfilled their original vow—this was truly unprecedented and deserved commendation to reward their steadfast virtue. The Emperor approved.
76
楊某妻樊，字正，撫寧人。 既字而楊氏子病且廢，使辭於樊，樊母乃為正改字。 行有日，正請於母曰：「兒奚嫁？」 母曰：「嫁某氏。」 正曰：「兒幼非受楊氏聘乎？」 母曰：「然，楊氏子病且廢，使辭於我。 我憐兒，故為兒改字也。」 正不語，夜潛出，度山林數十里，晨至楊氏。 翁姑未即許，父母亦至，相與慰勉。 正曰：「夫病，天也，我為病夫婦，亦天也，違天不祥。 欲別嫁，我請死。」 乃卒歸於楊，楊氏子病良已。
Fan, betrothed to a man surnamed Yang—her style name was Zheng—came from Funing. After the betrothal the Yang son fell ill and was crippled; he sent word to break the engagement, and Fan's mother arranged a new match for her. When the wedding day approached, Zheng asked her mother, "Whom am I to marry? Her mother said, "You are to marry so-and-so. Zheng said, "Was I not betrothed to the Yang clan from childhood? Her mother said, "Yes, but the Yang son is ill and crippled; he asked to be released from the engagement. I felt sorry for you, so I arranged a new match. Zheng said nothing; that night she slipped out, crossed miles of mountain wilderness, and by morning reached the Yang household. Her future in-laws did not immediately agree; her parents arrived as well and all tried to reason with her. Zheng said, "His illness is Heaven's will; that I should be wife to a sick man is also Heaven's will; to defy Heaven brings misfortune. If you want me to marry someone else, I ask only to die. She was at last accepted into the Yang household, and the Yang son's illness fully recovered.
77
同縣又有劉柱兒妻魯，字春。 柱兒先為李氏義子，聘於魯，既復還劉氏。 李富而劉貧，於是李氏之人，嗾魯使罷婚，劉不敢爭也。 春聞，亡之劉氏，魯氏劫春歸。 訟於縣，縣判歸劉氏。 時乾隆十九年，先樊氏女事一歲。
In the same county there was also Lu, betrothed to Liu Zhu'er—her style name was Chun. Zhu'er had first been adopted by the Li clan and betrothed to Lu, but was later returned to the Liu clan. The Li were wealthy and the Liu poor; the Li clan pressured Lu to break the engagement, and the Liu family did not dare object. When Chun heard of this she fled to the Liu household, but the Lu clan seized her and brought her back. The case went to the county magistrate, who ruled that Chun belonged to the Liu clan. This occurred in the nineteenth year of the Qianlong reign, one year after the case of Fan Zheng.
78
李國郎妻蘇，南安人。 未行，父以國郎貧，為女別字富家子，焚李氏書幣。 蘇縊，未絕，父招富家子贅於家，以死拒，撻之不悔。 富家子自去。 國郎聞，訟於官，乃歸於李。 婚夕，泣曰：「吾父以吾故在系，何得遽言婚！」 國郎為請於有司，出其父。
Su, the wife of Li Guolang, came from Nan'an. Before the wedding her father, finding Guolang too poor, betrothed her to a wealthy man's son and burned the Li family's betrothal gifts. Su tried to hang herself but was cut down in time; her father brought the rich man's son to marry into the household, but she refused even under threat of death and did not yield despite being beaten. The wealthy suitor left of his own accord. When Guolang heard, he brought the case to the authorities, and Su was restored to the Li family. On the wedding night she wept and said, "My father is in prison because of me—how can we speak of marriage now! Guolang appealed to the authorities and secured her father's release.
79
同縣蔡登龍妻林，其父母亦以婿貧欲別字，不從，令別居。 積女紅得十五金，使以遺登龍佐聘錢，父母少之。 乃日減餐，治女紅益勤，逾年又得十餘金，卒歸登龍。 父母既喪，孤弟貧無依，乃收撫之。
In the same county, Lin, betrothed to Cai Denglong, also faced pressure from her parents to break the engagement because he was poor; when she refused they made her live apart from the family. She saved fifteen taels from her needlework and sent them to Denglong to help pay the betrothal fee, but her parents considered it insufficient. She ate less each day, worked harder at her needlework, and after another year saved more than ten taels more; at last she was married to Denglong. After her parents died she took in her orphaned younger brother, who had no one else to depend on.
80
又有黃元河妻戴，吳恆妻陳，婿皆有廢疾，父母議毀盟，力請行。 戴勤儉起其家，吳以節終。
There were also Dai, betrothed to Huang Yuanhe, and Chen, betrothed to Wu Heng—both fiances were crippled by illness and both sets of parents wanted to break the engagements, but the women insisted on going through with the marriages. Dai through hard work and thrift restored the family fortunes; Chen lived out her life in chaste widowhood.
81
趙維石妻張，小字瑤娃，寧羌人。 年十七，未行。 嘉慶初，教匪掠州，賊渠得之，以畀其妻。 其妻以瑤娃慧，畜為女，渠累欲汙之，賴其妻以免。 尋竄徽縣，一夕渠醉，召瑤娃，瑤娃拒之力，渠使其下將出殺之。 其妻知不可救，戒勿過創，棄諸野，而以死告。 次日賊引去，村婦舁之歸，藥其創良愈，將以為子婦。 會縣吏過門，瑤娃拔銀釵賄吏，使告縣。 瑤娃至縣庭，陳始末，乃召維石，為合婚，與俱歸。
Zhang, the wife of Zhao Weishi—her childhood name was Yaowa—came from Ningqiang. She was seventeen and not yet married. In the early Jiaqing years rebel sectarians raided the prefecture; the bandit chief captured her and handed her over to his wife. His wife, finding Yaowa intelligent, kept her as a foster daughter; the chief repeatedly tried to violate her, but his wife protected her each time. They soon fled to Huixian; one night the chief, drunk, summoned Yaowa; when she resisted fiercely he ordered his men to take her out and kill her. His wife, knowing she could not be saved, told the men not to inflict fatal wounds; they left her in the wilderness and reported that she was dead. The next day the bandits moved on; village women found her and carried her home, nursed her wounds until she recovered, and planned to make her their son's wife. When a county clerk passed by, Yaowa pulled out a silver hairpin to bribe him into reporting her case to the magistrate. Yaowa appeared before the magistrate and told her whole story; Weishi was summoned, they were married, and she returned home with him.
82
鍾某聘妻吳，武岡人。 待年於鍾氏。 鍾氏子從父賈四川，久不歸，或傳已死。 鍾母卒，吳紡績奉其祖母。 祖母卒，為營喪葬。 年四十餘，鍾氏子始歸，欲與婚，吳曰：「君出遊久，安用就木老處子為！」 出貲為買妾，而自居別室。 鍾氏子以不婦訟於官，吳曰：「若祖母，吾奉之； 若妾，吾畜之。 吾齒長，不能育子女，請以貞終。」 官判從之。
Wu, betrothed to a man surnamed Zhong, came from Wugang. She lived at the Zhong household awaiting the proper age for marriage. The Zhong son had gone with his father to trade in Sichuan and did not return for many years; some said he had died. When the Zhong mother died, Wu supported the grandmother by spinning and weaving. When the grandmother died as well, she arranged the funeral. When she was over forty the Zhong son finally returned and wanted to marry her; Wu said, "You have been away so long—what need is there to marry an old spinster now! She paid for a concubine for him and moved into a separate room herself. The Zhong son sued her for refusing to be his wife; Wu said, "I served your grandmother; I provided for your concubine. I am too old to bear children; I ask only to live out my life in chastity. The magistrate ruled in her favor.
83
岳氏，安平人。 嫁可仁言，病癇。 仁言以禮去惡疾，遂大歸。 居數年，病已，而仁言已別娶。 或諷其嫁，岳不應，以針線遍綴衣履投井死。 仁言聞，乞李恭銘其墓。
A woman of the Yue clan came from Anping. She married Ke Renyan, who suffered from epilepsy. Renyan sent her back to her natal home according to ritual because of his illness. After several years his illness was cured, but Renyan had already taken another wife. When people suggested she remarry, Yue did not reply; she stitched all her clothes and shoes together and drowned herself in a well. When Renyan heard the news he asked Li Gong to write the inscription for her grave.
84
姚氏，通州人。 嫁同州張維垣。 維垣移家湖北，歸既娶，复去。 逾年，遺書絕姚，令改嫁。 姚持書泣告鄉黨曰：「我無故見絕，死無以自白，原終守以明志。」 居五十餘年乃卒。 張氏之族高其義，持喪葬張氏兆，為立後。
A woman of the Yao clan came from Tongzhou. She married Zhang Weiyuan of Tongzhou. Weiyuan moved his family to Hubei, returned to marry her, and then left again. A year later he sent a letter renouncing her and telling her to remarry. Yao wept as she showed the letter to her neighbors, saying, "I have been cast off without cause; only by remaining chaste to the end can I prove my innocence. She lived in widowhood for more than fifty years before she died. The Zhang clan honored her virtue, gave her a funeral in the Zhang family graveyard, and established an heir for the line.
85
張氏，江南華亭人。 字金景山。 年十二，喪父母，待年於姑氏。 張莊而無容，景山憎焉。 稍長，當婚，景山故遲之。 既而病作，張奉湯藥，斥不使近，輒泣而退。 景山將死，指而語母曰：「彼非吾偶，兒死必嫁之。」 景山死，張矢不嫁。 或以夫不見答勸，曰：「我知夫死婦節而已，不知其他。 且祖姑及姑誰為養者？ 若必強我，我請死。」 是歲姑卒，越八年，祖姑卒，張為營葬。 日夕紡績，足不喻閾，又三十餘年乃卒。
A woman surnamed Zhang came from Huating in Jiangnan. She was betrothed to Jin Jingshan. At twelve she lost both parents and went to live at her future mother-in-law's home awaiting marriage. Zhang was plain and unattractive, and Jingshan despised her. When she came of age Jingshan deliberately put off the wedding. When he fell ill Zhang tried to bring him medicine, but he drove her away; she would withdraw in tears. On his deathbed Jingshan pointed at her and told his mother, "She is not my match; when I die you must marry her to someone else. When Jingshan died, Zhang vowed never to marry again. When people urged her to remarry because her betrothed had never loved her, she said, "I know only that when a husband dies the wife must remain chaste—that is all I know. Besides, who will care for his grandmother and mother? If you force me, I ask only to die. That year her mother-in-law died; eight years later the grandmother-in-law died as well, and Zhang arranged both funerals. She spun morning and evening and never stepped outside the door; more than thirty years later she died.
86
袁氏，名機，字素文，仁和人。 兄枚，見文苑傳。 機幼字如皋高氏子，高氏子長而有惡疾，其父請離婚，機曰：「女從一者也，疾，我侍之； 死，我守之。」 卒歸於高。 高氏子躁戾佻盪，遊狹邪，傾其奩具； 不足，抶之，且灼以火。 姑救，則毆母折齒。 既，欲鬻機以償博負，乃大歸，齋素奉母。 高氏子死，哭之慟，越一年卒。
Yuan Ji, style name Suwen, came from Renhe. Her elder brother Yuan Mei is the subject of a biography in the Literary Garden section. Ji was betrothed in childhood to a son of the Gao clan of Rugao; when he grew up and fell gravely ill, his father asked to dissolve the engagement; Ji said, "A woman belongs to one man—if he is ill, I will care for him; if he dies, I will remain faithful to him. She went through with the marriage to the Gao family. The Gao son was violent and dissolute; he frequented brothels and squandered her dowry; when that was gone he beat her and even burned her with fire. When his mother tried to protect her, he beat his mother and broke her teeth. Eventually he tried to sell her to pay his gambling debts; she returned to her natal home, ate only vegetarian food, and cared for her mother. When the Gao son died she mourned him deeply; a year later she died herself.
87
楊某妻張，名荷，寧國人。 某貧，無行，令張以非義，不應。 樓居，潛去床前板，紿使墮，折足，匍匐歸母家。 某鬻子，張積金贖之。 將卒，命子以喪歸楊氏。
Zhang, the wife of a man surnamed Yang—her given name was He—came from Ningguo. Yang was poor and dissolute; he demanded improper things of Zhang and she refused. They lived upstairs; he secretly removed the floorboards by the bed, tricked her into falling and broke her leg; she crawled back to her mother's home. When Yang sold their son, Zhang saved money to buy him back. On her deathbed she told her son to bury her in the Yang family graveyard.
88
周士英聘妻張，泰州人。 士英喪父母，叔狡，利其有，箠殺之。 時順治九年，張年十九，未行，聞其事，哭，不食。 遂自髡為尼，具牘丐母舅偕訴有司。 巡按為上其事，誅殺人賊，張乃理士英家財，葬士英及其祖若父，為廬奉佛，祀周氏三世。 張既為尼，名曰明貞，表其志也。
Zhang, betrothed to Zhou Shiying, came from Taizhou. Shiying lost his parents; his uncle, greedy for the inheritance, beat him to death. It was the ninth year of the Shunzhi reign; Zhang was nineteen and not yet married; when she heard the news she wept and stopped eating. She shaved her head and became a nun, then drafted a petition and asked her maternal uncle to help her bring the case before the authorities. The touring censor reported the case to the throne; the murderous uncle was executed; Zhang then settled Shiying's estate, buried Shiying along with his grandfather and father, built a hut where she worshipped the Buddha, and maintained sacrifices to three generations of the Zhou clan. As a nun she took the name Mingzhen—"Clear Chastity"—to express her purpose.
89
藺壯聘妻宋，名典，蔚州人。 典家西崖頭，壯居千字村，皆農家也，以羅帕為聘。 壯死，典方從母舂穀，聞，輟舂，慟不食。 父母喻之，意若稍解者，數日，以羅帕自經死。 時康熙四年正月庚辰。
Song, betrothed to Lin Zhuang—her given name was Dian—came from Yuzhou. Dian's family lived at Xiyaitou and Zhuang's at Qianzicun—both were farming families; a silk handkerchief served as the betrothal gift. When Zhuang died, Dian was helping her mother thresh grain; hearing the news she stopped work, grieved bitterly, and refused to eat. Her parents tried to comfort her and she seemed to relent; a few days later she hanged herself with the betrothal handkerchief. This was on the gengchen day of the first month of the fourth year of the Kangxi reign.
90
沈煜聘妻陳，名三淑，錢塘人。 幼能詩。 康熙間，訛言官中閱選，民間女子倉卒嫁娶殆盡，三淑父以許煜。 煜故貧，客松江，久不歸，三淑父從軍雲南，戰死。 其母欲改字富人子，揚言煜已他娶，以絕三淑意。 三淑聞，慟哭，自髡其發，矢不字，遂病，時時哭，極悲。 鄰生有聞而哀之者，求煜告以故，煜請婚，母持不可。 二十二年春二月，三淑病篤，其母以媒言召煜，煜至，使入省三淑。 三淑方寐，告以沈郎至，遽寤，手下帷自蔽。 煜問：「可有言乎？」 三淑徐曰：「既有成言，何為又他娶？」 煜辨其誣，三淑都無言，惟以袂掩淚。 煜辭出，三淑泣不已。 已而歎曰：「彼不負我，我死可。」 遂不飲藥，越日卒。
Chen, betrothed to Shen Yu—her given name was Sanshu—came from Qiantang. She wrote poetry from childhood. During the Kangxi reign a rumor spread that the palace was selecting girls for the court; families rushed to marry off their daughters, and Sanshu's father betrothed her to Yu. Yu was poor and had gone to work in Songjiang, staying away for years; Sanshu's father joined the army in Yunnan and was killed in battle. Her mother wanted to betroth her to a rich man's son and spread the rumor that Yu had already married someone else, hoping to break Sanshu's resolve. When Sanshu heard this she wept bitterly, cut off her own hair, vowed never to marry another, fell ill, and wept constantly in deepest grief. A neighbor who heard her story and was moved sought out Yu and told him what had happened; Yu asked to marry her, but her mother refused. In the second month of the twenty-second year Sanshu was dying; her mother sent for Yu through a matchmaker; when Yu arrived she let him in to see Sanshu. Sanshu was sleeping; when told that Shen had come she woke at once and pulled the bed curtain down to hide herself. Yu asked, "Does she have anything to say? Sanshu said slowly, "We had a pledge—why did you marry someone else? Yu protested that it was a lie; Sanshu said nothing, only covered her face with her sleeve and wept. Yu left; Sanshu wept without end. Later she sighed and said, "He has been faithful to me—I can die content. She refused her medicine and died the following day.
91
王國隆聘妻餘，懷遠人。 國隆遊不歸，或言在含山，餘父母挈餘行求不遇，遂僑居焉。 餘母死，從父灌園，紡績自活，恆以巾冪首，鄰女罕見其面。 康熙二十八年，父死，斂畢，女自經。
Yu, betrothed to Wang Guolong, came from Huaiyuan. Guolong went traveling and never returned; some said he was in Hanshan; Yu's parents took her there to search for him but failed to find him, and they settled there as exiles. After Yu's mother died she helped her father tend gardens and supported herself by spinning; she always kept her head covered and neighbors rarely saw her face. In the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi reign her father died; as soon as the burial was over she hanged herself.
92
韋思誠聘妻宣，廣德人。 思誠遠行，母以貧，欲令改字，宣不可，遂歸夫家。 慮有強暴竊伺，夜懸柝於床，微風柝有聲以警。 一夕，語諸姑、姊，夢夫告以死。 遂哀泣，不食死。
Xuan, betrothed to Wei Sicheng, came from Guangde. Sicheng went away on a long journey; his mother, citing poverty, wanted to break the engagement, but Xuan refused and went to live at her future husband's home. Fearing intruders, she hung a clapper by her bed at night so that even a slight breeze would sound an alarm. One night she told her sisters-in-law that she had dreamed her husband telling her he was dead. She mourned and wept, stopped eating, and died.
93
於天祥聘妻王，名秀女，祥符人。 天祥嘗育於陽武王氏，王氏為娶妻，生子，妻死，還於氏。 繼室以王，王未行，而天祥死，王父母秘不使知。 久之始聞，力請奔喪，天祥喪已小祥矣。 王請於陽武王氏，原得子天祥前室子，王氏靳不許。 及大祥，具奠，即夕自經。 於氏故有刈麥刀二，俄失其一，至是得諸王枕下。
Wang, betrothed to Yu Tianxiang—her given name was Xiunü—came from Xiangfu. Tianxiang had been raised by the Wang clan of Yangwu; they found him a wife who bore a son, and when she died he returned to the Yu family. Wang was betrothed as his second wife, but before the wedding Tianxiang died; Wang's parents kept the news from her. When she finally learned the truth she begged to go mourn him, though the first month of mourning had already passed. Wang asked the Wang clan of Yangwu to let her raise Tianxiang's son by his first wife, but they refused. At the end of the mourning period she made offerings and hanged herself that same evening. The Yu family had owned two wheat sickles; one had gone missing and was now found under Wang's pillow.
94
方禮祕聘妻範，名二妹，建水人。 幼事父可望孝，字禮祕，未行。 禮祕父良佐死，妻改嫁蕭伸，居方氏，禮祕及其兄、妹皆死。 範聞，哭之慟，請於父母歸方氏。 居久之，聞姑詬伸，始知禮祕非良死，以質姑，姑內慚，不復言。 範度事無證，禮祕冤不得白，恆時時號痛。 伸憚範，欲以妻其從子，百方強之，範不許。 伸怒揮範僕，手點額。 範怒曰：「奴汙我額！」 刀剜伸手所點處，血淋漓被面。 其弟訟諸吏，吏笞伸，以其室屬範，使奉方氏祀。
Fan, betrothed to Fang Limi—her given name was Ermei—came from Jianshui. From childhood she was filial to her father Kewang; she was betrothed to Limi but not yet married. Limi's father Liangzuo died; his widow remarried Xiao Shen and lived in the Fang household, where Limi and his siblings all died. When Fan heard the news she mourned bitterly and asked her parents to let her go to the Fang household. After living there some time she overheard her mother-in-law cursing Shen and realized Limi had not died naturally; when she confronted her mother-in-law, the woman was too ashamed to reply. Fan saw there was no proof of the crime; Limi's wrong could never be redressed, and she wailed in grief constantly. Shen feared Fan and tried every way to marry her off to his nephew; Fan refused. Shen flew into a rage and struck Fan's servant, his hand touching her forehead. Fan cried out in rage, "A slave has defiled my brow! She cut away the flesh where his hand had touched her; blood streamed down her face. Her brother brought the case to the authorities; Shen was flogged, the household was given to Fan, and she was charged with maintaining the Fang clan sacrifices.
95
姚世治聘妻陳，會稽人。 兩家皆居京師。 既定約，世治歸，陳父欲別嫁，陳易服行求世治，遇諸濟寧。 曰：「女違父非孝，得見君子，事畢矣！」 遂入水死。
Chen, betrothed to Yao Shizhi, came from Kuaiji. Both families lived in Beijing. After the betrothal was settled Shizhi returned home; when Chen's father wanted to marry her to someone else, Chen disguised herself and went searching for Shizhi, finding him at Jining. She said, "A daughter who disobeys her father is unfilial, but now that I have seen you, my duty is done! She threw herself into the water and died.
96
何秉儀聘妻劉，昆明人，農家女也。 秉儀卒，女請於父母，欲奔喪，不許。 乃竊出，兄追及之，度金汁河，將赴水，兄力持曳以歸。 秉儀父使迎女，女哀慟泣血，日夕力作。 父母畀田四畝，女為夫弟婚鬻半，喪舅又鬻半。 父母怒，使告姑，誣女有所私，當遣之嫁。 姑以責女，女不能自白，心疾作，縊死。
Liu, betrothed to He Bingyi, was a farmer's daughter from Kunming. When Bingyi died she begged her parents to let her go mourn him, but they refused. She slipped out secretly; her brother caught up with her at the Jinzhijiang River as she was about to throw herself in and forcibly dragged her home. Bingyi's father sent for her; she mourned so bitterly she wept blood and worked hard labor day and night. Her parents gave her four mu of land; she sold half to pay for her brother-in-law's wedding and the other half for her father-in-law's funeral. Her parents, angry, told her mother-in-law falsely that she had taken a lover and should be sent away to remarry. Her mother-in-law reproached her; unable to defend herself she fell into despair and hanged herself.
97
沈之螽聘妻唐，之螽，普安人； 唐，武進人。 之螽父文鬱，唐父元聲，康熙季年，同遊高州，相友善，約為婚姻，於是唐生三年矣。 元聲卒，喪歸，文鬱亦還普安。 普安去武進且萬里，而文鬱貧，慮不能為之螽娶，詭言之螽殤，使謝唐，唐矢死。 久之，文鬱將如京師求官，迂道至常州，唐出拜，涕泣慷慨陳所志。 文鬱心悔，則請為養女，期得官迓以歸。 既，文鬱以病還，唐聞大慟，遂不食，七日竟死。 後三十餘年，之螽以事過常州，始聞唐死狀，感痛求其墓，已火葬矣。 唐死時年十六。
Tang was betrothed to Shen Zhizhong, who came from Pu'an; Tang came from Wujin. Zhizhong's father Wenyü and Tang's father Yuansheng became friends while traveling in Gaozhou in the late Kangxi years and pledged their children in marriage when Tang was three. When Yuansheng died and his coffin was sent home, Wenyü also returned to Pu'an. Pu'an was nearly ten thousand li from Wujin, and Wenyü, too poor to arrange the marriage, falsely reported that Zhizhong had died young and broke off the engagement; Tang vowed she would die rather than marry another. Years later, when Wenyü was traveling to Beijing to seek an official post, he detoured to Changzhou; Tang came out to greet him, weeping as she passionately declared her steadfast resolve. Wenyü was filled with remorse and asked to adopt her as a daughter, promising to bring her home once he gained an official post. When Wenyü returned home ill, Tang was stricken with grief, stopped eating, and died after seven days. More than thirty years later, when Zhizhong passed through Changzhou on business, he first learned of Tang's death; grieving, he searched for her grave, but she had already been cremated. Tang was sixteen when she died.
98
貝勒弘暾聘妻富察氏，弘暾，怡親王允祥第三子。 上命指配富察氏，雍正六年，未婚卒。 富察氏聞，大慟，截發詣王邸，請持服，王不許； 跪門外，哭，至夕，王終不許，乃還其家持服。 越二年，王薨，复詣王邸請持服，王邸長史奏聞，上命許之。 諭王福晉收為子婦，令弘暾祭葬視貝勒例，以從子永喜襲貝勒。 諭謂：「俾富察氏無子而有子，以彰節女之厚報焉。」
A woman of the Fuca clan was betrothed to Prince Hongdun, the third son of Prince Yi Yunxiang. The Emperor had betrothed him to the Fuca woman; in the sixth year of the Yongzheng reign he died before the marriage could take place. When the Fuca woman heard the news she grieved bitterly, cut off her hair, and went to the prince's residence to ask permission to mourn; the prince refused; she knelt outside the gate and wept until evening, but the prince still refused, so she returned home to mourn on her own. Two years later, when the prince died, she again went to the residence to request mourning rights; the chief steward reported the matter and the Emperor granted permission. The Emperor ordered the prince's consort to take her in as a daughter-in-law, directed that Hongdun's funeral rites follow princely precedent, and had the clansman's son Yongxi inherit the beile title. The edict declared, "Thus the Fuca woman, though without a son, shall have a son—in reward for the virtue of a chaste woman."
99
濰上女子，不知其氏，雍正間，濰田家女也。 未行而夫死，其母往吊，女請從，母止之不可。 衣紅而襲以素，濰俗婦弔喪不至殯，女陽為如廁，因問得殯室，潛入，去襲，縊柩側。
A girl from Weishang whose surname is unknown was, during the Yongzheng reign, the daughter of a farming family there. Before the wedding her betrothed died; when her mother went to offer condolences the girl insisted on going along, and her mother could not stop her. She wore red beneath a white outer garment; by local custom women did not attend funerals until encoffining; she pretended to need the privy, found the coffin room, slipped in, removed her white covering, and hanged herself beside the coffin.
100
吳某聘妻林，漳浦人。 未行，夫坐罪當死，林欲入獄與訣，夫丐獄卒勿納，林晝夜哭不食。 夫使畀以錢三百，且曰：「速擇佳婿，毋自苦！」 越日，聞夫已決，以所畀錢易絙縊。
Lin, betrothed to a man surnamed Wu, came from Zhangpu. Before the wedding her betrothed was convicted and sentenced to death; Lin wanted to visit him in prison for a final farewell, but he begged the jailers not to admit her; she wept day and night and refused to eat. He sent her three hundred cash with the message, "Find yourself a good husband quickly—do not suffer for my sake! The next day, hearing he had been executed, she used the money he sent to buy a rope and hanged herself.
101
雷廷外聘妻侯，南安人。 廷外母黃，早寡，貧，慮不能娶，乞貧家女撫之，期長以為婦，故侯四歲而育於黃。 十一黃卒，十六廷外卒，死而不瞑，侯慟屢絕。 廷外有從兄，以其子震
Hou, betrothed to Lei Tingwai, came from Nan'an. Tingwai's mother Huang was widowed young and too poor to afford a proper marriage; she took in a poor family's daughter to raise, planning to make her her daughter-in-law—Hou had lived with Huang since she was four. Huang died when Hou was eleven; Tingwai died when she was sixteen, his eyes still open; Hou mourned until she repeatedly lost consciousness. Tingwai had a cousin who made his son Zhen
102
為後，侯乃笄，抱以拜祖。 侯母欲令別嫁，拒以死。 身自耕，跪而耨，十指皆胼。 嘗誡震曰：「婦人不可受人憐，況孀乎！」 震亦早卒，其妻傅，從姑織蓆以育子。
the heir to the line; Hou then put up her hair as a married woman and, holding the boy, bowed before the ancestral tablets. When Hou's mother wanted her to remarry, she refused, threatening death. She farmed herself, weeding on her knees until all ten fingers were calloused. She once warned Zhen, "A woman must never accept pity from others—especially a widow! Zhen also died young; his wife Fu wove mats alongside her aunt-in-law to raise their son.
103
程樹聘妻宋，名景衛，長洲人。 樹十三補諸生，喪母，复喪大父，旋亦卒。 景衛年二十，請於父，歸程。 以素服拜舅，見於廟； 謁其大父喪，成孫婦服； 謁其母喪，成婦服； 乃哭其夫，持服三年； 終，复補行姑服三年。 同縣陳氏女淑睿，未行而婿殤，有請婚者，遂自經。 景衛為作詩，於詩共姜用劉向說，於春秋伯姬用何休說，旁採硃彝尊、汪琬、彭定求諸家言，申女子子未嫁守貞之義。 貫穿賅洽，八百餘言，以破俗說，白己志。 景衛通經義，好讀先儒論學書，娣、侄皆從講說。 病女教不明，乃會通古訓，括聖賢修身盡倫之要，復作詩九百餘言，授娣、侄，令歌習之。
Song, betrothed to Cheng Shu—her given name was Jingwei—came from Changzhou. Shu became a licentiate at thirteen; he lost his mother, then his grandfather, and soon died himself. Jingwei, then twenty, asked her father's permission and went to the Cheng household. Dressed in plain white she bowed to her father-in-law and appeared before the ancestral shrine; she observed mourning for his grandfather as a grandson's wife; she observed mourning for his mother as a wife; then she mourned her husband for three years; when that ended she observed another three years of mourning for her mother-in-law. In the same county, Chen's daughter Shurui hanged herself when suitors came after her betrothed died before the wedding. Jingwei wrote a poem for her, citing Liu Xiang on Jiang Gong and He Xiu on Bo Ji in the Spring and Autumn Annals, drawing also on Zhu Yizun, Wang Wan, Peng Dingqiu and others to argue that an unbetrothed woman owes the same duty of chastity. In more than eight hundred tightly argued words she refuted popular opinion and declared her own conviction. Jingwei was well versed in the classics and loved reading Neo-Confucian works; her sisters-in-law and nieces all attended her lectures. Distressed that women's education was neglected, she synthesized classical teachings on sage self-cultivation and human bonds into a poem of more than nine hundred lines, which she taught her sisters-in-law and nieces to recite.
104
張氏子聘妻姜，名桂，元和人。 年十九，婿與舅、姑先後卒，依其母以居，不嫁。
Jiang, betrothed to the Zhang family's son—her given name was Gui—came from Yuanhe. At nineteen her betrothed and his parents died in succession; she lived with her mother and never married.
105
錢氏子聘妻王，吳人，亦年十九而婿卒，女絕食，大父母強起之。 居三年，有請婚者，复絕食，死復甦。 母哭之，女曰：「先年兒私吞金環不死，食銀硃又不死，頃复吞金環。 兒死原得葬錢氏之兆。」 遂卒。
Wang, betrothed to the Qian family's son and also from Wu, was nineteen when her betrothed died; she stopped eating until her grandparents forced her to take food. Three years later, when suitors came again, she stopped eating once more and nearly died. Her mother wept over her; the girl said, "Years ago I swallowed a gold ring and did not die; I ate cinnabar and did not die; just now I have swallowed a gold ring again. When I die I ask only to be buried in the Qian family graveyard. She died.
106
王誌曾聘妻張，亦吳人。 年二十，誌曾卒。 居六年，聞姑喪，因歸於王，奉佛以終。
Zhang, betrothed to Wang Zhiceng, was also from Wu. She was twenty when Zhiceng died. Six years later, hearing of her mother-in-law's death, she went to the Wang household and devoted herself to Buddhist practice for the rest of her life.
107
三女皆與景衛同時，而桂能詩善畫，嘗為柏舟圖，賦詩贈景衛。
All three women were contemporaries of Jingwei; Gui was accomplished in poetry and painting and once painted the Bo Zhou scene and wrote a poem for Jingwei.
108
景衛有二婢：曰衛喜，字於張，張死，不更字； 曰陳壽，嫁硃氏，寡，無子。 皆依景衛以老。
Jingwei had two maidservants: one named Weixi, betrothed to a man surnamed Zhang—when Zhang died she did not accept another match; The other was named Chen Shou; she had married into the Zhu clan, was widowed, and had no children. Both lived out their lives under Jingwei's care.
109
李家勳聘妻楊，海寧人。 楊富而李貧，家勳父為楊氏佃。 楊父行田，見家勳慧，問之，九歲，使入所立塾，資令讀。 年十五入學為諸生，家勳父來謝，楊年十四，呼令出拜。 楊母及兄皆恚曰：「是老顛！ 豈患女無家，而棄諸佃人子乎？」 父旋卒，楊氏之人薄家勳。 一夕，呼燈，無應者，楊自帷言曰：「丈夫不自處高明，何依人受慢為！」 家勳遂辭楊氏去。 乾隆十五年，舉浙江鄉試，楊氏請婚，家勳以試禮部辭。 留京師數年，病卒。 楊知母將為議婚他氏，請於母：「原得迎家勳喪，臨奠，然後聽母。」 母許之。 楊迎喪於郊，奠竟，要母，遂歸李氏。 家勳父老而瞽，楊請於姑，為買妾生子。 家勳父八十，目復明，德楊甚，命其子呼「嫂母」也。 楊或曰徐氏。
Yang, betrothed to Li Jiaxun, came from Haining. The Yang family was wealthy and the Li family poor; Jiaxun's father farmed land for the Yang clan. While inspecting his fields Yang's father noticed how bright Jiaxun was; learning he was nine, he enrolled him in the clan school he had founded and paid for his education. At fifteen Jiaxun passed the licentiate examinations; when his father came to give thanks, Yang, then fourteen, was called out to greet him. Yang's mother and elder brother were furious and said, "The old fool! Does he think his daughter cannot find a husband, that he would give her to a tenant farmer's son? The father soon died, and the Yang clan looked down on Jiaxun. One evening he called for a lamp and no one answered; Yang spoke from behind her curtain, "A man who will not stand on his own dignity—why live as a dependent and accept their scorn! Jiaxun then left the Yang household. In the fifteenth year of the Qianlong reign he passed the Zhejiang provincial examinations; when the Yang clan proposed marriage he declined, citing the metropolitan examinations ahead. He stayed in Beijing for several years and died of illness. Learning her mother planned to marry her to someone else, Yang asked, "Let me first receive Jiaxun's coffin and mourn before it; then I will obey you. Her mother agreed. Yang met the coffin outside the city, completed the mourning rites, pressed her claim on her mother, and went to live with the Li family. Jiaxun's father was old and blind; Yang asked her mother-in-law to take a concubine so the Li line could continue. When Jiaxun's father turned eighty his sight returned; deeply grateful to Yang, he had his son address her as "Sister-Mother." Yang was also known as a member of the Xu clan.
110
李家駒聘妻硃，高安人，大學士軾女。 家駒，乾隆三十六年舉人，早卒。 硃事父母孝，性和以肅，自諸弟妹及內外臧獲，咸敬憚之。 生惡華採，寸金尺帛不以加身。 及聞家駒訃，欲奔喪，飲泣不食。 時軾督學陝西，大母喻其意，誡當待父命，始復食。 軾還，越半載，乃以請，遂歸於李。 事祖姑及姑，如事父母。 軾有父喪，聖祖命奪情視事，疏請終喪，戚友或尼之。 硃泣曰：「吾父不得歸，雖官相國，年上壽，猶無與也。 彼姑息之愛何為者？ 聖主當鑑吾父之誠矣！」 卒得請。 鄰火且及，硃坐室中不肯出，曰：「死，吾分也！ 宋共姬何人哉？」 姑破扃挾以避。 病不肯藥，兩弟來省，曰：「吾死無恨，但恨不得終事吾父及吾舅姑！」 又曰：「我生惡華採，寸金尺帛不以加身，死毋負我！」 遂卒。
Zhu, betrothed to Li Jiaju of Gao'an, was the daughter of Grand Secretary Shi. Jiaju, who had passed the juren examinations in the thirty-sixth year of the Qianlong reign, died young. Zhu was filial toward her parents, gentle yet dignified; siblings and servants alike respected and feared her. She despised finery in life and would not wear even a scrap of silk or gold. When she heard of Jiaju's death she wanted to go mourn him and wept without eating. Shi was then serving as educational commissioner in Shaanxi; her grandmother understood her grief and told her to wait for her father's permission before eating again. When Shi returned home half a year later she made her request and went to live with the Li family. She cared for her grandmother-in-law and mother-in-law as devotedly as she would her own parents. When Shi's father died the Emperor ordered him to leave mourning and resume office; Shi petitioned to complete the full mourning period, and some kinsmen and friends tried to dissuade him. Zhu wept and said, "If my father cannot return home to mourn, what good is it even if he becomes chief minister and lives to a great age? What use is that misplaced indulgence? Surely the Sage Emperor will see my father's sincerity! In the end his request was granted. When a neighbor's fire threatened the house, Zhu sat in her room and refused to leave, saying, "If I die, so be it! Who was Gongji of Song? Her mother-in-law broke down the door and pulled her to safety. When she fell ill she refused medicine; when her two younger brothers visited she said, "I have no regrets about dying, only that I could not serve my father and in-laws to the end! She also said, "I despised finery in life and wore no silk or gold—in death do not dress me in finery! Then she died.
111
賈汝愈聘妻盧，汝愈，故城人； 盧，德州人，協辦大學士廕溥女。 汝愈卒，盧矢不嫁，賈氏迎以歸，為立後。
Lu was betrothed to Jia Ruyu, who came from Gucheng; Lu came from Dezhou and was the daughter of Assistant Grand Secretary Yin Pu. When Ruyu died Lu vowed never to remarry; the Jia family brought her home and arranged for an heir.
112
袁進舉聘妻某，天津梁進忠養女也。 進忠負薪行水次，有大舟泊焉，或抱女嬰出，授進忠曰：「此女生八月矣，父之官，卒於舟，母繼殞，其善視之！」 進忠撫以為女。 而進忠有長女悍甚，女稍長，貌端好，長女將鬻以為人妾，女不可，長女益恚。 進舉故無藉，長女咻父母使字焉。 進舉行不歸，又使告其母謀罷婚，女復不可。 進忠病，瘍生於脛，女刲股以療，家人皆不知，而長女虐愈甚。 進舉母憐之，迎之歸。 進忠及其長女皆死，女為營葬，迎義母進忠妻同居。 長女有子，失所，召為鞠之。 為進舉弟娶婦，生子為進舉後。 終姑及其義母喪，女遂自經死。 有司葬之天津西郭外五烈墓傍。
Yuan Jinju's betrothed was an adopted daughter of Liang Jinzhong of Tianjin. Jinzhong was carrying firewood along the riverbank when someone from a large moored boat handed him an infant girl, saying, "She is eight months old; her father died on the boat while traveling to his post, and her mother died as well—please care for her! Jinzhong raised her as his own daughter. Jinzhong had a fierce elder daughter; when the girl grew up comely, the elder daughter tried to sell her as a concubine; the girl refused and the elder daughter grew even angrier. Jinju was a man of no means; the elder daughter pressured her parents to betroth the girl to him. Jinju went away and never returned; the elder daughter also tried to have his mother break the engagement, but the girl refused again. When Jinzhong developed a sore on his leg the girl cut flesh from her thigh to treat him without telling anyone, while the elder daughter's abuse grew worse. Jinju's mother took pity on her and brought her to live in the Yuan household. When Jinzhong and his elder daughter died, the girl arranged their funerals and brought her foster mother Jinzhong's wife to live with her. The elder daughter's son, left orphaned, was taken in and raised by her. She found a wife for Jinju's younger brother, and when a son was born he became heir to Jinju's line. After completing mourning for her mother-in-law and foster mother she hanged herself. The authorities buried her beside the Tomb of the Five Martyrs outside Tianjin's west gate.
113
五烈墓者，先為三婦墓，葬譚應宸妻陳、阮某妻諸、趙某妻裴，陳、諸皆以捍強暴死，裴以節終。 乾隆元年，金振妻丁殉夫，附葬，稱節烈四婦墓。 七年，又有殷氏女誤嫁倡家，為所迫，箠楚砲烙，沃以沸湯，死，葬墓側，稱五烈墓。 五十六年，复葬女，更為六烈墓雲。
The Tomb of the Five Martyrs began as a tomb for three women: Chen, wife of Tan Yingchen; Zhu, wife of a man surnamed Ruan; and Pei, wife of a man surnamed Zhao—Chen and Zhu died resisting assailants, and Pei lived out her life in chastity. In the first year of the Qianlong reign, Ding, wife of Jin Zhen, died with her husband and was buried there as well; the site was called the Tomb of the Four Chaste Martyrs. In the seventh year a daughter of the Yin clan was mistakenly married into a brothel keeper's family; beaten, branded, and scalded with boiling water until she died, she was buried beside the tomb and the site was renamed the Tomb of the Five Martyrs. In the fifty-sixth year, when this girl was buried there as well, the site became the Tomb of the Six Martyrs.
114
李應宗聘妻李，昆明人。 所居曰廟前舖大河埂，父春榮。 未行，應宗卒。 其明年，應宗大母語春榮，將改字女，女聞，遂縊。 縊之夕，裂綾二尺許，刺血書九十四字。 民家女未嘗讀書，字多訛易，嘉興錢儀吉為之句讀。 曰「呈天子前」，曰「忠孝節烈」，曰「二月初九日」，二月初九日蓋女死日，事在乾隆末。
Li, betrothed to Li Yingzong, came from Kunming. She lived at Dahegeng in Miaowanpu; her father was Chunrong. Before the wedding Yingzong died. The following year Yingzong's great-grandmother told Chunrong she planned to betroth the girl elsewhere; hearing this, the girl hanged herself. On the night she died she tore off two feet of silk and wrote ninety-four characters in her own blood. The girl had never been to school and many characters were misspelled; Qian Yiji of Jiaxing added punctuation to make it readable. It read "To be presented before the Son of Heaven," "Loyal, filial, chaste, and martyred," and "The ninth day of the second month"—the date of her death; the event occurred in the late Qianlong years.
115
何其仁聘妻李，路南人。 嘉慶十一年，年十六，未行。 其仁及其父皆病篤，李割股畀叔母使送婿家。 至，則其仁及其父皆已卒，其仁母燖以奠。 李欲奔喪，母尼之，遂縊。
Li, betrothed to He Qiren, came from Lunan. In the eleventh year of the Jiaqing reign she was sixteen and not yet married. When Qiren and his father both fell gravely ill, Li cut flesh from her thigh and had her aunt send it to her betrothed's family. By the time it arrived Qiren and his father had both died; Qiren's mother warmed the flesh and offered it at the grave. Li wanted to go mourn them but her mother stopped her; she hanged herself.
116
王前洛聘妻林，潛山人。 前洛病，林父餽藥，林潛刲股入藥。 前洛卒，固請奔喪，引刀誓不嫁。
Lin, betrothed to Wang Qianluo, came from Qianshan. When Qianluo fell ill Lin's father sent medicine; Lin secretly cut flesh from her thigh and mixed it into the medicine. When Qianluo died she begged to go mourn him, drew a knife, and swore never to marry another.
117
節義縣主，成郡王綿懃第七女，選文緯為婿。 文緯，費莫氏，內閣學士英綬子。 未婚，嘉慶十八年文緯卒，主時年十六，詣文緯家守節，仁宗詔封節義縣主。 二十二年，卒。
The Princess of Jiayi County was the seventh daughter of Prince Cheng Mianqin; Wenwei was chosen as her betrothed. Wenwei of the Feimo clan was the son of Academician Yingshou of the Grand Secretariat. Before the marriage, in the eighteenth year of the Jiaqing reign Wenwei died; the princess was sixteen; she went to Wenwei's home to live in chastity, and Emperor Renzong enfeoffed her as Princess of Jiayi County. She died in the twenty-second year of the reign.
118
李承宗聘妻何，巢縣漁家女也。 兩家居濱溪，相違半里餘，而李氏廬當上流。 承宗卒，女年二十，請奔喪，父母不許。 不食四日，不死； 自經，或拯之。 越日自沉於溪，求其屍不得。 後三日，屍見溪上流，正值李氏門。
He, betrothed to Li Chengzong, was a fisherman's daughter from Chaoxian. Both families lived on Binxi Creek, a little over half a li apart, with the Li household upstream. When Chengzong died she was twenty; she begged to go mourn him but her parents refused. She fasted for four days but did not die; she tried to hang herself but was rescued. The next day she drowned herself in the creek and her body could not be found. Three days later her body appeared upstream, floating directly to the Li family's door.
119
江亨昭妻楊，侯官人，二氏皆漁家。 楊未嫁，與亨昭舟相值，必引避。 或遇水次，則自匿蘆葦中。 其母非之，女曰：「漁家獨不當有恥乎？」 既嫁，強暴窺其有色，潛逼之，楊擠使墮水。 亨昭死，殉焉。
Yang, the wife of Jiang Hengzhao, came from Houguan; both families were fishermen. Before marriage, whenever their boats passed on the water she always turned aside to avoid him. If they met at the shore she hid herself in the reeds. Her mother disapproved; the girl said, "Do fishermen's daughters have no sense of shame? After she married, a ruffian who lusted after her tried to force himself on her; Yang pushed him into the water. When Hengzhao died she followed him in death.
120
吳某聘妻硃，海鹽人。 吳某年十八，喪父母，遂出遊不歸。 硃貧，父老，闢纑織屨。 其兄悍，屢辱之。 硃曰：「兄貧不能食我父，我父衰，無所營，不得不就兄食。 我留，乃助兄耳。」 及父死，硃年五十八，吳不知其存亡，吳之族愍硃節，迎以歸，為立後。
Zhu, betrothed to a man surnamed Wu, came from Haiyan. Wu was eighteen when he lost both parents; he went traveling and never returned. Zhu was poor; her father was elderly; she spun hemp and wove sandals to support them. Her elder brother was violent and often humiliated her. Zhu said, "My brother is too poor to support our father; Father is old and has no other means—I must stay and help my brother feed him. By staying I am only helping my brother. When her father died Zhu was fifty-eight; Wu, unaware whether she was alive or dead, had long since vanished—but the Wu clan honored her virtue, brought her home, and established an heir for the line.
121
徐文經聘妻姚，名淑金，侯官人。 文經卒，淑金屢求死，乃歸於徐。 貧，舅歿，姑疾作，刲股以療。 姚掇芹供姑，自食其棄莖。 無何，姑亦歿，嗣子以貧去。 淑金目昏，不能治女紅，以缽為釜，以草為衾。 僦屋不償值，見逐，泣路隅。 有負擔者，憐而周之，里人醵金助衣食，僅得不死。 猶朝夕拜徐氏祏，祝其嗣子歸也。 居十餘年乃卒。
Yao, betrothed to Xu Wenjing—her given name was Shujin—came from Houguan. When Wenjing died Shujin repeatedly tried to kill herself; she then went to live with the Xu family. Though poor, when her uncle-in-law died and her mother-in-law fell ill she cut flesh from her thigh to treat her. Yao picked celery for her mother-in-law and ate the discarded stems herself. Before long her mother-in-law died as well; the heir left because of poverty. Shujin's eyesight failed and she could no longer sew; she cooked in a bowl and slept under grass for a blanket. Unable to pay her rent she was evicted and wept by the roadside. A porter took pity on her and gave her aid; neighbors pooled money for food and clothing, and she barely survived. Morning and evening she still bowed before the Xu ancestral tablet, praying the heir would return. She lived on this way for more than ten years before she died.
122
李煜聘妻蕭，秀水人。 煜酒家子，居郭南萬螺濱。 蕭未行，煜死。 蕭無母，請於父，原歸李，翁姑遣媒止之，勿聽，遂歸李。 視煜斂，即奉侍姑，執爨濯衣甚謹。 姑悍，既不欲李來，又見其貧也，晝夜詈，李唯唯無一言，鄰勿善也。 或勸姑，姑亦詈焉。 士大夫眾至，誡翁：「毋虐貞女，貞女光爾門，宜善視之！」 姑終不欲李同居，眾乃於室後闢小樓居貞女，醵金以佽之。
Xiao, betrothed to Li Yu, came from Xiushui. Yu was the son of a wine-shop keeper and lived at Wanluobin, just south of the city wall. Before the wedding Yu died. Xiao's mother was dead; she begged her father to let her go to the Li household; her future in-laws sent a matchmaker to dissuade her, but she refused and went to the Li family. After seeing to Yu's burial she immediately began serving her mother-in-law, cooking and washing clothes with great care. The mother-in-law was harsh; she had not wanted Li to come and despised her poverty; she reviled her day and night while Li endured in silence; the neighbors disapproved. When neighbors tried to reason with the mother-in-law she reviled them too. Scholar-officials gathered and admonished the old man, "Do not mistreat this chaste woman—she brings honor to your family; you should treat her well! The mother-in-law still refused to let Li live with her, so the community built a small room behind the house for the chaste woman and pooled money to support her.
123
劉戊兒聘妻王，名孝，武陟人。 未嫁，歲大無，戊兒行六年不歸。 父母欲別嫁，孝間出，如劉氏。 值老嫗，問劉戊兒母，嫗曰：「我即戊兒母也。」 孝拜且泣曰：「我王氏女，姑之子婦也！」 嫗驚未信，孝探懷出物示嫗曰：「此非姑家聘物耶？ 吾竊持以來為信。」 嫗視之亦泣，復以貧無食辭。 曰：「吾夙知姑貧，翁歿，兩叔幼，安得所食？ 我能女紅，茲固為養姑來也。 生未嘗一時離吾母，計無所出而後來。」 因复泣曰：「如不見容，我無歸理，惟赴水死耳！」 嫗告孝父母許焉。 孝勤紡績，夜磨作蒸餅，使叔鬻之。 姑病，日夜侍。 居數年，鄉里感其義，率錢周其姑。 葺舊屋，為叔娶婦生子。 姑卒，合葬於舅墓，乃授家事於叔，夜入室，扃戶，寂無聲。 翌晨叩戶不應，毀牖入，則自經死，衣履皆易新制者。 時嘉慶九年二月乙酉。 孝年二十四至劉氏，事姑十二年，姑死乃死。
Wang, betrothed to Liu Wu'er—her given name was Xiao—came from Wuzhi. Before she married, during a great famine, Wu'er went away and did not return for six years. When her parents wanted to marry her to someone else, Xiao slipped away and went to the Liu household. She met an old woman and asked for Liu Wu'er's mother; the woman said, "I am Wu'er's mother. Xiao bowed and wept, saying, "I am a Wang daughter—I am your son's wife! The old woman was astonished and did not believe her; Xiao drew something from her bosom and said, "Is this not your family's betrothal gift? I stole away with it as proof. The old woman looked and wept as well, but still refused, saying they were too poor to feed her. Xiao said, "I have always known you were poor; when your husband died your two young sons-in-law had nothing to eat— I can sew and spin—that is why I came, to support you. I have never been away from my mother until now; I came only because I could find no other way. She wept again and said, "If you will not take me in I have nowhere to go—I will throw myself into the water! The old woman sent word to Xiao's parents and they agreed. Xiao spun diligently and at night made steamed cakes for her brothers-in-law to sell. When her mother-in-law fell ill she nursed her day and night. After several years the neighbors, moved by her devotion, pooled money to help her mother-in-law. They repaired the old house and saw the brothers-in-law married and with sons. When her mother-in-law died she was buried beside her father-in-law; Xiao turned the household over to her brother-in-law, went to her room at night, bolted the door, and all was silent. The next morning no one answered the door; they broke in and found her hanged, dressed in newly made clothes and shoes. This was on the yiyou day of the second month of the ninth year of the Jiaqing reign. Xiao was twenty-four when she joined the Liu household; she served her mother-in-law for twelve years and died only after her death.
124
硃某聘妻李，字容，東安人。 父大純，幼字硃氏。 硃氏子遠遊十餘年不歸，或傳已死。 女既喪父母，無昆弟，獨與其婢春華居，誓不嫁。 春華稍長，其父謀嫁之，春華義不去，容亦誓不嫁。 其父不聽，春華乃告容，俱赴水死。
Li, betrothed to a man surnamed Zhu—her style name was Rong—came from Dong'an. Her father was Dachun; she had been betrothed to the Zhu clan since childhood. The Zhu son had been away traveling for more than ten years; some said he was dead. After her parents died she had no brothers and lived alone with her maid Chunhua, vowing never to marry. When Chunhua grew up her father wanted to marry her off; Chunhua refused to leave Rong's side, and Rong vowed never to marry either. When her father refused to listen, Chunhua told Rong and together they drowned themselves.
125
武稌聘妻李，伊陽人。 年十一，喪母，育於武。 從娣婦事舅姑謹，姑羸臥，調醫藥，治家事日勤。 姑卒，撫叔弟及二女妹。 年十七，猶未婚。 稌墮井死，誓從井，舅止之，幼弟妹環而哭，李大慟。 遂總發為紒，曰：「吾當終婦事。」 請於舅，立後，紡織以佐家。 舅娶後姑，又有疾，調醫藥，治家事如前時。 久之，叔弟補縣學生，兩女妹皆嫁。 又數年，為所後子娶婦，則語其兄曰：「妹曩不即死，誠不敢死也。 今吾家奉舅姑宗祏幸有人，井中人待我久，我將從之！」 晨起，從容問姑安，出行汲，自投稌所墮井死。 道光二十一年八月壬寅，稌生日也。
Li, betrothed to Wu Ren, came from Yiyang. She lost her mother at eleven and was raised in the Wu household. Like her sister-in-law she dutifully cared for her in-laws; when her mother-in-law fell bedridden she prepared medicines and managed the household with tireless devotion. When her mother-in-law died she raised her husband's younger brother and two younger sisters-in-law. At seventeen she was still unmarried. When Ren fell into a well and died she vowed to follow him; her father-in-law stopped her as her young brothers- and sisters-in-law wept around her. She bound her hair as a married woman and said, "I will fulfill a wife's duties to the end. She asked her father-in-law to arrange an heir and supported the family by spinning and weaving. When her father-in-law remarried and his new wife also fell ill, she cared for her and managed the household as before. In time her brother-in-law passed the county examinations and both sisters-in-law were married. Several years later, when the heir took a wife, she told her brother, "I did not die with Ren at once—I truly did not dare to die then. Now the family has someone to tend the ancestors; the man in the well has waited long enough—I will join him! That morning she calmly asked after her mother-in-law, went out to draw water, and threw herself into the well where Ren had died. This was on the renyin day of the eighth month of the twenty-first year of the Daoguang reign—Ren's birthday.
126
後稌死二十有一年。
This was twenty-one years after Ren's death.
127
陳霞池聘妻錢，桐城人，居東鄉。 未行而霞池卒，錢請奔喪。 東鄉俗以為子死婦奔喪，於家兇，辭之。 錢毀容矢不嫁。 久之，陳氏之族迎以歸，為立後。 居數十年，縣有士人往存問，為言：「朝廷旌貞女，與節烈並重，當請於有司。」 錢聞大驚，蓋初不知其行應旌也。
Qian, betrothed to Chen Xiachi, came from Tongcheng and lived in the eastern part of the county. Before the wedding Xiachi died; Qian asked to go mourn him. Local custom held that a betrothed woman mourning at the home of a dead fiancé brought bad luck to the family, and they refused. Qian marred her appearance and vowed never to marry. Eventually the Chen clan brought her home and arranged for an heir. After decades a local scholar visited her and said, "The court honors chaste women as highly as chaste martyrs—you should petition the authorities for commendation. Qian was astonished—she had never imagined her conduct might deserve official recognition.
128
汪榮泰聘妻唐，名鳳鸞。 榮泰，歙人； 唐，淳安人。 父以許榮泰，未聘而父卒，母更許他姓。 他姓來聘，唐自所居樓裂所製衣履擲於庭，俄砉然躍而出，遂墮地死。 榮泰請迎喪，母不許； 母卒，乃迎喪以歸。
Tang, betrothed to Wang Rongtai—her given name was Fengluan. Rongtai came from She; Tang came from Chun'an. Her father had promised her to Rongtai; before the formal betrothal her father died and her mother arranged a new match. When the new suitor's party arrived, Tang tore up the clothes and shoes she had made and threw them into the courtyard; then she leaped from her upper room and fell dead. Rongtai asked to bring her body home for burial; her mother refused; only after her mother died did he bring her coffin home.
129
季斌敏聘妻藺，斌敏，正藍旗漢軍； 藺，滄州人。 斌敏未婚卒，藺年十八，矢不嫁。 居二年，聞有媒妁至，截右耳，逾三日，又截左耳。 其父春以告季氏，迎以歸。 女事姑甚孝，為夫補行喪服。 喪終，歸訣父母，謂當死從夫，父母力勸喻之。 女復還，見姑，言笑如平時，即夕飲毒死。 啟篋封所割兩耳，識曰「全歸」。
Lin was betrothed to Ji Binmin of the Bordered Blue Banner Han Chinese Eight Banners; Lin came from Cangzhou. Binmin died before the wedding; Lin was eighteen and vowed never to marry. Two years later, when matchmakers came, she cut off her right ear; three days later she cut off her left ear as well. Her father Chun told the Ji clan, and they brought her to live with them. She served her mother-in-law devotedly and observed mourning for her husband. When mourning ended she went to bid farewell to her parents, saying she would follow her husband in death; her parents tried hard to dissuade her. She returned to her mother-in-law's home, chatted and laughed as usual, and that evening drank poison and died. In a casket they found the two ears she had cut off, sealed and marked "Complete Return."
130
董福慶聘妻馮，福慶，固安駐防漢軍； 馮，霸州人也。 福慶貧，餓猶耕，死於田。 女年二十，請奔喪，福慶父往沮之，曰：「子餓至死，复忍餓汝家女耶？」 女出拜，伏地哭不起，福慶父乃諾之，遂奔喪。 執婦禮以終，寒餒皆無懟。
Feng was betrothed to Dong Fuqing, a Han Chinese Banner guardsman stationed at Gu'an; Feng came from Bazhou. Fuqing was so poor that though starving he still worked the fields, and died there. She was twenty and asked to go mourn him; Fuqing's father tried to stop her, saying, "My son starved to death—how can I let your family's daughter starve as well? She came out to bow, prostrated herself and wept until Fuqing's father consented, and she went to mourn. She fulfilled a wife's duties to the end, enduring cold and hunger without a word of complaint.
131
喬湧濤聘妻方，桐城人。 湧濤卒，湧濤母丁亦病，方請於父母，歸於喬。 以姑病寒疾，亦薄其衣當風雪。 刲股以進姑，病良已。 乃營葬湧濤，以衣負土，三日不食。 為湧濤立後，淡食布衣，深自刻苦。 病將革，戒子婦毋以寸絲斂。
Fang, betrothed to Qiao Yongtao, came from Tongcheng. When Yongtao died and his mother Ding also fell ill, Fang asked her parents' permission and went to the Qiao household. Because her mother-in-law suffered from a cold illness she too wore thin clothes even in wind and snow. She cut flesh from her thigh for her mother-in-law, and the illness soon passed. She arranged Yongtao's burial, carrying earth in the hem of her garment, and fasted for three days. She arranged an heir for Yongtao's line, ate plain food, wore coarse cloth, and lived in strict austerity. On her deathbed she told her daughter-in-law not to bury her in even a thread of silk.
132
張氏女，名有，鄒平人。 歲饑，鬻為高唐硃氏婢。 及長，主母為議婚，有泣言幼已字人，不敢負。 主母使求得所許字者，則已別娶有子女矣。 以語有，有曰：「雖別娶，身不原更事他人。」 主母憐而聽之。 有終不別字以死。
A girl surnamed Zhang, given name You, came from Zouping. During a famine year she was sold as a maid to the Zhu family of Gaotang. When she grew up her mistress wanted to arrange a marriage; You wept and said she had been betrothed since childhood and could not break her pledge. Her mistress tracked down her betrothed—he had already married someone else and had children. When told this, You said, "Even though he married another, I will not belong to anyone else. Her mistress took pity on her and agreed. She died rather than accept another betrothal.
133
粉姐，失其姓，高郵人。 父為迮氏蒼頭，字某氏子。 歲饑，某氏子行乞，轉徙十餘年。 女父遇之江都市上，某氏子曰：「我終不能娶，還我聘錢，聽別嫁。」 女父喜，還聘錢，與析券。 歸告女，女嗚咽不語，夜自經。
Sister Fen, whose surname is unknown, came from Gaoyou. Her father was a bondservant of the Ze clan; she had been betrothed to a son of another family. During a famine the betrothed went begging and wandered for more than ten years. Her father met him in the Jiangdu market; the betrothed said, "I can never marry her—return the betrothal gift and let her marry someone else. Her father gladly returned the betrothal money and gave him a written release. When he told her she sobbed in silence and hanged herself that night.
134
闞氏女，名玉，浙江仁和人。 玉端麗，能詩文。 父亡，與母及兄嫂居。 年十三，福王由崧帝南京，選民間女子，玉母匿諸賣菜傭家。 玉父亡時，留百金畀玉兄備玉嫁，玉兄盪其貲，遂與傭謀字傭子。 玉在傭家尚待年，號泣求還，不可得，疾作，始遣歸。 玉垂絕，語其母曰：「兒今且死，原埋父棺側，不作傭家鬼也。」 复嚼齒曰：「兄陷我！」 遂卒。
Yu, a daughter of the Kan clan, came from Renhe in Zhejiang. Yu was graceful and beautiful and wrote poetry and prose. After her father died she lived with her mother, elder brother, and sister-in-law. At thirteen, when the Prince of Fu Zhu Yousong became emperor at Nanjing and began selecting girls from the populace, Yu's mother hid her with a vegetable peddler's family. When Yu's father died he had left a hundred taels for her dowry; her brother squandered it and conspired with the peddler to betroth her to the peddler's son. Yu was still living at the peddler's home awaiting marriageable age; she wept and begged to come home but was refused; only when she fell ill was she sent back. On her deathbed Yu told her mother, "I am dying now; bury me beside Father's coffin—I will not be a ghost in that peddler's household. She ground her teeth and said, "My brother ruined me! Then she died.
135
玉嘗作怨歌，好事者以琴譜其聲，曰闞玉操，辭曰：「父生我兮中道逝，母煢煢兮門衰瘁。 兄嫂難與居，抉我如目中之塵沙。 伊又遘此佻巧兮，胡迋我之實多。 彼六禮之已愆兮，曾貞女之貺從。 矧要予以桑中兮，夫豈其為予之匹雙。 我有母兮，癙思泣血。 我父而有知兮，怒衝發。 我兄摩挲傭之金兮，骨肉相蔑。 嫂旁睨兮，笑言啞啞。 我忽憤氣兮，如云。 指漆室女以為正兮，又告夫司命與湘君。 予不愛一死兮，弗忍速阿母之下世。 原死而有憑兮，為凶之厲。 嗚呼哀哉，我終死兮，魂獨歸去。 明告我母兮，幽告我父。 匪我夙夜兮，胡然遭此行露也。 縱謂行多露兮，寧能我之汙也。 重曰：嘉名為玉，父之命兮。 幽辱糞壤，終保貞兮。 憂思悄悄，淚淫淫兮。 蒙恥忍詬，日當心兮。」
Yu once composed a lament; enthusiasts set it to music for the qin and called it the Kan Yu Melody. It begins: "Father brought me into the world, then died midway; Mother stands alone, our house in ruin. Brother and sister-in-law are unbearable—they cast me out like grit in the eye. That frivolous schemer has come again—why does he wrong me so deeply? The six rites of marriage already broken—how could a chaste woman accept such a match? Much less summon me to a secret tryst in the mulberry grove—he could never be my true match. I have a mother—for her sake I grieve until my tears run like blood. If my father could know, his rage would burst forth. My brother fondles the peddler's gold—kin turn against kin. My sister-in-law looks on from the side, laughing coarsely. Suddenly my fury rises like storm clouds. I take the Woman of Lacquer Chamber as my model and appeal to the Lord of Fate and the Lord of Xiang. It is not that I fear death—I cannot bear to hasten my dear mother's departure from this world. May my death leave a vengeful spirit to punish the wicked. Alas—I must die at last, and my soul alone returns home. Openly I tell my mother; in the unseen world I tell my father. It is not for lack of diligence—why must I walk this dew-soaked road? Even if the road is heavy with dew—they cannot truly defile me. The refrain runs: My fine name is Yu—my father's gift. Though buried in shame like common earth, I preserve my chastity to the end. Quiet grief fills my heart; tears flow without end. Bearing shame and abuse, day by day it burns in my heart. [End of the lament.]"
136
趙氏婢，失其名，為杭州趙氏婢。 趙氏嘗有客，言珞琭子之學，使為婢算，曰：「是當七易其夫。」 婢恚曰：「吾嫁則有夫，有夫則有死。 吾今且不嫁，誰為之夫者？」 自是蓬首垢面，矢不嫁。 趙氏有婚嫁輒避匿，媒氏至，詬誶不可近。 主誨之，搶首乞終役。 年至七十餘，死於趙氏。
A maid of the Zhao family of Hangzhou, whose name is unknown. A guest versed in Luobozi's divination once read the maid's fortune for the Zhao family and said, "She is fated to have seven husbands. The maid angrily replied, "If I marry I will have one husband; when I have a husband I will die with him. If I never marry at all, who could ever be my husband? From then on she wore her hair unkempt and her face unwashed, vowing never to marry. Whenever the Zhao family arranged a marriage she hid; when matchmakers came she cursed them until they could not approach. When her mistress admonished her she kowtowed and begged to serve out her life in the household. She lived past seventy and died in the Zhao household.