1
長山鋪烈婦，無姓氏，不知何許人。 李自成南奔，驅荊、襄之民以從，婦與其夫俱被掠。 行至江夏長山鋪，其夫道殕，婦僅餘一珥，出以乞人求瘞其夫，有少年應焉。 瘞既，竟欲強其婦從去，婦入穴枕其夫慟哭，觸顙流血，以土自掩，曰：「乞並瘞我！」 眾挽之不起，日暮，風雨至，乃委去。 平明往視，則血被面死矣，眾因並瘞之。
A martyr wife of Changshanpu—her surname is unknown, and her place of origin is unrecorded. When Li Zicheng fled southward, he pressed the people of the Jing and Xiang regions into his ranks; she and her husband were both taken captive. When they reached Changshanpu in Jiangxia, her husband died along the way. She had only a single earring left, which she gave away to beg someone to bury him—a young man agreed. Once the burial was finished, he tried to force her to go with him. She climbed into the grave, laid her head on her husband, and wept until her forehead bled; she covered herself with earth and cried, "Please bury me as well!" The others tried to pull her out but could not move her. At dusk a storm broke, and they abandoned her. At first light they went to see—she lay dead, her face covered in blood, and the bystanders buried her beside her husband.
2
胡二妻，失其氏，吳洞庭人。 婦父，舟人； 胡二，農也，有母，兄若弟皆別居。 婦與二曰：「吾夫婦各減數口食，猶足以飽母，有如母但一子，不獨養，又誰養乎？」 夫婦忍飢養母，時時具甘脆。 母喪，求地以葬。 夫婦勤，歲倍收，始有居室，而二病瘵。 鄉好鬼，婦獨不信，奔走醫藥。 二病甚，婦曰：「我聞糞苦者生，甘者死。」 嘗之而甘，二竟死，無子。 婦計兄公一子，叔二子，詣叔，匄其次為後，姒不可。 居數月，兄公舉次子，又詣兄公曰：「吾女三歲，乳未盡，今兄公舉次子，天其欲使吾夫得有後乎？」 兄公頷之。 婦歸語父，貸百錢，將祀其夫告立後。 其父欲嫁婦，不許，且罵之，兄公亦中悔，婦乃自經夫柩側，時康熙五年十二月。 明年，縣人黃中堅等為斂錢，與其夫合葬。
The wife of Hu Er, whose maiden name is lost, came from Dongting in Wu. Her father was a boatman; Hu Er was a farmer. He had a mother, and his elder and younger brothers each kept separate households. She told Hu Er, "If we each eat a little less, we can still keep Mother fed. If she has only one son and he will not support her alone, who else will?" Husband and wife went hungry to feed her, yet still managed from time to time to set out choice foods for her table. After the mother died, they looked for a plot of ground for her burial. The couple worked hard; their yearly yield doubled, and they at last had a home—then Hu Er fell ill with consumption. Their neighbors trusted shamans; she alone did not, and went everywhere seeking physicians and drugs. When Hu Er grew very ill, she said, "I have heard that if the stool tastes bitter the sick person lives, and if sweet he dies." She tasted it—it was sweet—and Hu Er died childless. Her husband's elder brother had one son and his younger brother two. She went to the younger brother and asked that his second son be adopted as heir, but the elder brother's wife refused. Months later the elder brother offered his second son. She went to him again and said, "My daughter is three and still at the breast. Now that you have offered your second son, has Heaven perhaps meant that my husband shall have an heir after all?" The elder brother agreed with a nod. She went home and told her father, borrowed a hundred cash, and prepared to sacrifice before her husband's coffin and announce the adoption. Her father wanted to remarry her and forbade it, reviling her; the elder brother too wavered. She hanged herself beside her husband's bier in the twelfth month of Kangxi 5. The following year Huang Zhongjian and others of the county collected funds and buried her with her husband.
3
唐之坦妻曹，海寧人。 康熙十五年秋，之坦卒，曹矢死，治衣衾必有副。 食砒，不死； 屑錢吞之，又不死。 既斂，复飲滷，吐下而解； 乃不食二十二日，夜投舍傍池，家人出之，死矣，頃復甦。 曹謂其舅、姑及母曰：「大人愛我，乃苦我也！」 於是復飲食，操作如常，織自製衣一稱，婢乞餘布，不與。 家人竊議曰； 「數尺布，尚惜之，宜不死矣！」 及冬，黃梅方花，曹視而歎，為賦詩，美其不落，復不食。 至歲除，出餘布縊之坦柩旁，乃死。
Cao, wife of Tang Zhitang, was from Haining. In the autumn of Kangxi 15, Zhitang died. Cao vowed to follow him in death and had a full second set of shrouds made whenever burial goods were prepared. She swallowed arsenic but did not die; she ground copper cash to powder and swallowed that, yet still did not die. After the encoffining she drank brine, vomited, and recovered; then she went without food for twenty-two days. One night she threw herself into the pond by the lodge; her family pulled her out—she seemed dead, then revived a moment later. Cao told her uncle, aunt, and mother, "You love me, yet you make me suffer!" She took food again and worked as before, weaving a complete set of garments herself. When a maid asked for leftover cloth, she refused. The household whispered among themselves: "She begrudges even a few feet of cloth—she is not going to die after all!" When winter came and the yellow plum blossomed, Cao gazed at it, sighed, wrote a poem praising blossoms that do not fall, and stopped eating again. On New Year's Eve she used the leftover cloth to hang herself beside Zhitang's bier and died.
4
李岸妻焦，睢州人。 姑嚴，織紉炊舂皆焦任之。 岸卒，方斂，焦縊，遇救； 比葬，再縊，再遇救，乃操作如平時。 卒哭，拜墓歸，复縊，乃死。
Jiao, wife of Li An, was from Suizhou. Her mother-in-law was stern; weaving, sewing, cooking, and pounding grain all fell to Jiao. When An died, even as they were encoffining him Jiao hanged herself but was saved; before the burial she tried again and was saved again, then worked as if nothing had happened. When the mourning rites were finished, she visited the tomb, came home, hanged herself again, and died.
5
方引妻毛，遂安人。 父際可，為祥符知縣，而引父象瑛官編修。 引病瘵，自京師詣河南，既婚，未三日卒。 家人聞毛許引死也，閒之密。 一日，登樓自擲墜地，嘔血，絕復甦，遂歸於方氏，促為引營葬。 久之，地始定，葬有日，於是謂其人曰：「吾葬當同是日也！」 遂不食，家人喻之百端，起辭祖姑及舅及母皆四拜，終不食，十九日乃卒。 時康熙二十九年二月癸亥朔，距引喪十年。
Mao, wife of Fang Yin, was from Suian. Her father Ji Ke was magistrate of Xiangfu; Yin's father Xiangying was a Hanlin compiler. Yin had consumption. He traveled from the capital to Henan, married, and died within three days. The family heard that Mao had vowed to die for Yin and kept it secret. One day she threw herself from an upper story, vomited blood, lost consciousness and revived, then returned to the Fang home and pressed them to bury Yin. At last a grave was chosen and a day set. She then told those around her, "I should be buried on the same day!" She stopped eating. Her family pleaded in every way; she rose, bowed four times to her husband's grandmother, uncle, and mother, and still would not eat. On the nineteenth day she died. This was the first day of the second month of Kangxi 29, a guihai day—ten years after Yin's death.
6
林其標妻韓，福清人。 其標貧，依姊居，鬻餈自給。 鄰媼乞之粟，韓曰：「是必償！」 其標病，韓代鬻餈，垂蘆簾自蔽。 少間，析麻苧為布，以易米若藥。 其標語韓曰：「吾以貧累汝，終且以死累汝！ 吾死，汝自為計。」 韓痛絕不能語。 其標死，韓告其姊曰：「乞辦兩棺，並覓一抔土，俾夫婦相依！」 盡散器物償鄰媼，遂自經。
Han, wife of Lin Qibiao, was from Fuqing. Qibiao was poor and lived with his elder sister, selling rice cakes to get by. A neighbor woman asked for grain; Han said, "She must pay it back!" When Qibiao fell ill, Han sold the cakes for him, hanging a reed curtain for privacy. In spare moments she spun hemp and ramie into cloth to trade for rice and medicine. Qibiao told Han, "My poverty has weighed on you, and my death will weigh on you too! When I am gone, look to your own future." Han was overcome with grief and could not speak. When Qibiao died, Han told her sister, "Please get two coffins and a handful of earth so we can lie together!" She gave away everything they owned to repay the neighbor, then hanged herself.
7
馮雲勷妻李，武定人，大學士之芳女。 李年十五，適雲勷。 事舅姑謹，立侍竟日，訢訢無怠，命坐則坐，命退則退。 之芳督浙江，當耿精忠叛，駐軍衢州，傳語洶洶，李獨謂賊不足平，坦然無懼。 雲勷卒，無子，李方舉次女，矢死，遂不飲食。 其兄延醫，手為調藥，拒不納。 越數日，令侍者扶行，傍柩側，遽絕。
Li, wife of Feng Yunqiong of Wuding, was the daughter of Grand Secretary Zhifang. She was fifteen when she married Yunqiong. She served her parents-in-law devotedly, standing attendance all day without slackening; when told to sit she sat, when told to leave she withdrew. When Zhifang governed Zhejiang and Geng Jingzhong rebelled, he encamped at Quzhou amid wild rumors; Li alone said the rebels were easily crushed and showed no fear. Yunqiong died childless while Li had just borne a second daughter. She vowed to die and stopped eating and drinking. Her brother sent a doctor who mixed medicine himself; she refused it. Days later she had attendants help her to the coffin side, where she suddenly expired.
8
曹邦傑妻張，鎮寧州人。 邦傑早卒，張為文以祭，曰：「嗚呼！ 痛妾命之不辰也。 幼失嚴慈，撫育無人，形影伶仃，莫可言狀！ 幸得於歸夫子，庶幾夙夜事之，百年守之。 憶吾父擇婿時，亦曰：'吾女幸矣，終身之仰望者非婿耶？ 如賓如友，同心而同德者非婿耶？ '私心自慶，在妾尤深。 孰意甫歸故里，遽嬰疢疾，妾向之喜者，化而為憂，忘餐廢寢，祈以身代。 而天不假年，黃粱一覺，羽化升矣，傷心哉！ 夫子之人，如金如玉，夫子之文，如海如潮。 而今巳矣，不可復見矣！ 天耶人耶？ 孰為之耶？ 禮稱未亡人，妾不忍未亡也。 詩云：'之死靡佗。 '妾惟知之死也。 九原匪遠，妾必從之。 嗚呼！ 淒淒惻惻，踽踽涼涼。 拊膺呼號，瞻望無將。 臨風灑涕，對景悲傷。 削骨代筆，曷罄衷腸！ 夫子乎，其知之乎？ 何不飆輪少待，使妾欲追而難跡乎？ 靈其不寐，庶鑑妾心。」 邦傑死三日，張遂殉，康熙三十七年事也。
Zhang, wife of Cao Bangjie, was from Zhenning Prefecture. Bangjie died young. Zhang wrote a funeral lament that began, "Alas! How ill-fated is this handmaid's life! I lost my parents early and was raised by no one—alone and desolate beyond telling! Fortunate to marry my lord, I hoped to serve him day and night and keep faith for a lifetime. I remember that when my father chose a husband, he also said, 'My daughter is blessed; is not the one she will rely on for life her husband? Like guest and friend, of one heart and one virtue—is that not her husband?' I rejoiced in secret—and in me that joy ran deeper still. Who thought that barely home he fell gravely ill? Joy turned to grief; I forgot food and sleep and prayed to die in his stead. Heaven granted no years—a dream of millet, then ascension. How heartbreaking! My lord as a man was gold and jade; his writing sea and tide. And now it is over—never to be seen again! Heaven—or man? Who did this? Rites call me one "not yet dead," but I cannot bear that title. The Odes say, 'Until death, no other.' I know only death. The grave is not far; I will surely follow. Alas! Desolate and mournful, alone and forlorn. Beating my breast and crying out, with nowhere to turn my gaze. Shedding tears in the wind, grieving at the sight before me. Even carving bone for a brush could not exhaust what is in my heart! My lord—do you know? Why not wait a moment with your whirlwind carriage, that I might follow but find no track? Spirit, do not sleep—see my heart." Three days after Bangjie died, Zhang followed him in death. This was in Kangxi 37.
9
林守仁妻王，侯官人。 守仁以優貢生客死京師，無子，女汀哥，前室出也。 王矢死。 逾年，守仁喪還，王治喪竟，一日，為汀哥制履成，歎曰：「生一日，當作一日事。」 因語汀哥曰：「母去，兒無恐，但歲時具杯酒，一脡肉，母當歸，不相哧也。」 頃之，午食竟，入室自經，藏香屑袖中，解屍氣也。
Wang, wife of Lin Shouren, was from Houguan. Shouren, selected as a tribute student through the you system, died in the capital far from home, leaving no son. His daughter Tingge was by a former wife. Wang vowed to die. More than a year later the coffin returned. When the rites were done, one day she finished shoes for Tingge and sighed, "Live one day, do one day's work." She told Tingge, "Mother is leaving. Do not be afraid. Each season set out a cup of wine and a plate of meat—I will come back and will not frighten you." Soon after the noon meal she went inside and hanged herself, powdered incense in her sleeve to mask the smell.
10
張四維妻劉，四維，錢塘人； 劉，漢軍，失其所隸旗。 四維父商於廣東，挈四維以行。 劉父官潮州知府，見四維幼慧，因與論婚。 四維父喪其資斧，而四維長多病，遂跛，劉父母欲別擇婿，劉矢死，父母莫能奪，乃召四維就婚。 劉既失父母歡，姊婿達官子，相侮，劉勸四維挈以歸。 劉辭父母，奩具一不取，勤苦作畫刺繡易薪米，四維亦力學，舉於鄉。 康熙五十九年，四維試禮部，不第，卒於京師，劉聞，遂殉焉。
Liu, wife of Zhang Siwei—Siwei was from Qiantang; Liu was Han banner—her banner affiliation is lost. Siwei's father traded in Guangdong and took Siwei along. Liu's father was prefect of Chaozhou. Seeing how clever young Siwei was, he arranged a marriage for them. Siwei's father lost his traveling funds on the road, and Siwei had been sickly from childhood and was lame. Liu's parents wanted another match, but Liu vowed to die rather than break the engagement, and they could not sway her—so they called Siwei to marry her. She had fallen out of favor with her parents. Her sister's husband, a high official's son, mocked them, and Liu urged Siwei to take her away home. She left her parents, took nothing from her trousseau, and earned firewood and rice by painting and embroidery. Siwei studied hard too and passed the provincial exams. In Kangxi 59, Siwei sat for the metropolitan exams, failed, and died in the capital. When Liu heard, she died for him.
11
李長華妾吳，長華，鄆城人； 吳，封丘人。 幼孤，為人賣入娼家，矢死不從，其兄贖以歸，為長華妾。 長華以選人客京師，居八年，貧病死，其友檢討孫勷為具斂，吳飲鴆，勷往救，誡毋死，待長華子迎喪。 後十餘日。 長華子迎喪至，知其事，亦勸毋死，且將以其子為之孫，吳即夕自經死。 勷葬長華廣寧門外真空寺側，以吳祔。
Wu, concubine of Li Changhua of Yuncheng; Wu was from Fengqiu. Orphaned young, she was sold to a brothel. She vowed to die rather than submit; her brother redeemed her and she became Changhua's concubine. Changhua, a selected candidate, lived in the capital eight years and died poor and ill. His friend Compiler Sun Qiang arranged the burial. Wu took poison; Qiang saved her and urged her not to die yet—to wait for Changhua's son to receive the coffin. More than ten days passed. Changhua's son arrived with the coffin. Learning what had passed, he too urged her to live and offered to make his son her adopted grandson. That very night Wu hanged herself. Qiang buried Changhua outside Guangning Gate beside Zhenkong Temple, with Wu interred beside him.
12
周兆農妻王，長沙人。 兆農樵於山，大風拔木，被創死。 遺腹生子，母家憫其貧，勸改適。 王拜姑，泣而言曰：「兒不孝，敢以呱呱者累老人！」 語未竟，大慟。 姑知其且死，夜與俱寢，稍寐，聞有異，呼家人蹋戶入，火之，見王頭係於床，右手握拳，爪陷掌，左手指床上兒。 死時年十九。
Wang, wife of Zhou Zhaonong, was from Changsha. Zhaonong was gathering firewood when a gale uprooted trees and struck him dead. She bore a posthumous son. Her mother's family, pitying her poverty, urged her to remarry. Wang bowed to her mother-in-law and wept, "I am unfilial to burden you, old mother, with this crying infant!" Before she finished, she broke into great lamentation. The mother-in-law knew she meant to die. They slept together that night; when the old woman dozed she heard something amiss, called the family to break in, and found Wang's head tied to the bed, right fist clenched until her nails pierced her palm, left hand pointing at the child on the bed. She was nineteen.
13
陳國材妻周，江寧人，居揚州。 歸國材踰月，遽卒，週日夕居喪次，誓從死。 籍遺財授其族子曰：「明年寒食，以一卮酹我夫婦。」 其父往慰喻之，周曰：「兒無舅姑，無子，客居無所依，義當死，父勿誤兒！ 然兒死不忍傷肢體。」 遂吞金環二，不死； 時周羸甚，餌大黃，冀暴下死，反下所吞金環。 乃不飲食，七日，猶坐語； 又數日，眸陷欲枯，目光注國材棺不轉，兩手據席爬搔，席草寸寸碎裂。 不飲食二十日，雍正九年三月癸未卒，距國材死五十有一日。 縣人為葬孫大成妻裔墓側。 其先又有烈女池、霍，四塚比立如鱗次。
Zhou, wife of Chen Guocai of Jiangning, lived in Yangzhou. Within a month of marrying Guocai he died suddenly. Zhou kept vigil day and night and vowed to die with him. She registered the remaining property and gave it to a kinsman, saying, "Next Cold Food Festival, pour one cup for my husband and me." Her father came to comfort her. Zhou said, "I have no parents-in-law, no son, and live as a guest with nowhere to turn—by right I should die. Father, do not stop me! Yet I cannot bear to mutilate my body in dying." She swallowed two gold rings but did not die; She was very weak; she took rhubarb hoping to die by violent purging, but expelled the gold rings instead. She stopped eating and drinking. After seven days she still sat and spoke; days later her eyes sank as if to dry, her gaze fixed on Guocai's coffin, both hands clawing the mat until the straw shredded inch by inch. After twenty days without food or drink, on a guiwei day in the third month of Yongzheng 9 she died—fifty-one days after Guocai. Men of the county buried her beside the tomb of Sun Dacheng's wife Yi. Earlier there had been martyr women Chi and Huo; four tombs stood in a row like overlapping scales.
14
吳廷望聘妻池，江都人。 廷望從軍戰死，廷望父欲以妻其幼子，使其從母喻意，池不可，自經。
Chi, betrothed to Wu Tingwang, was from Jiangdu. Tingwang died in battle. His father wished to marry her to a younger son and had his wife convey the idea; Chi refused and hanged herself.
15
李正榮聘妻霍，甘泉人。 生十九年，事父母孝。 許字正榮，才十日，而正榮卒。 霍號慟自殺。 二女之葬，提督學政、右中允楊中訥為之銘曰：「蜀岡之巔，平山之側，鬱乎蒼蒼，憑高西望而歎息。 曰有同縣二烈女，此其幽宅。」 裔自有傳，葬在池、霍後。
Huo, betrothed to Li Zhengrong, was from Ganquan. At nineteen she had served her parents filially. She was betrothed to Zhengrong; ten days later he died. Huo wailed and killed herself. Education Commissioner Yang Zhongna inscribed their graves: "At the summit of Mount Shu, on the flank of Mount Ping, lush and green—gazing west from the heights one sighs. Here lie two martyr women of one county—this is their quiet abode." Yi had her own biography; she was buried behind Chi and Huo.
16
又有項起鵠妻程，亦揚州人。 程嫁三月，起鵠行賈，死廣西，訃聞，程自經。 州人葬其側，合為祠，號「五烈」。
There was also Cheng, wife of Xiang Qigu—also of Yangzhou. Cheng had been married three months when Qigu went trading and died in Guangxi. When word came, she hanged herself. The prefecture buried her beside them, combined them into one shrine, and called it the "Five Martyrs" shrine.
17
于某妻蔡，名貞仙，金壇人。 年十九，將嫁而婿病，卜者言：「迎婦吉。」 貞仙母難之。 貞仙請於母曰：「彼欲已病而違之，非義。」 乃行，而婿病不起。 及斂，納釵一、釧一於棺，自經棺旁，救不死； 諷姑為翁置媵，姑從之，且使主家事。 忌者譖之，因辭於姑，忌者遂言是且有他志，乃矢死。 取所讀書、所為詩詞盡焚之。 釵於髻，釧於腕，旦起襲故衣，問安於姑所，辭色如常時。 午侍食，既撤，入室縊。 時乾隆二年六月壬戌，年二十五。 貞仙有從父嘗過視貞仙，問曰：「聞舅姑以譖常挫汝，有之乎？」 對曰：「否，古賢婦未有訟其舅姑者，即死，毋有他言。」
Cai, wife of a certain Yu, called Zhenxian, was from Jintan. At nineteen, as she was to marry, her betrothed fell ill. The diviner said, "Welcoming the bride is auspicious." Zhenxian's mother hesitated. Zhenxian asked her mother, "He wishes to marry while already ill—to refuse would be unrighteous." She went, but his illness did not improve. At the encoffining she placed a hairpin and bracelet in the coffin and hanged herself beside it. She was saved but did not die; she urged her mother-in-law to find a concubine for her father-in-law. The mother-in-law agreed and put her in charge of the household. A jealous woman slandered her; she resigned to her mother-in-law. The slanderer then said she had other intentions, and she vowed to die. She burned all her books and poems. She fixed the hairpin in her hair and the bracelet on her wrist. Rising in the morning she wore her old clothes and greeted her mother-in-law as usual. At noon she served the meal; when it was cleared she went inside and hanged herself. It was a renxu day in the sixth month of Qianlong 2; she was twenty-five. A paternal uncle once visited and asked, "I hear your parents-in-law often thwart you because of slander—is it true?" She answered, "No. Worthy wives of old never accused their parents-in-law—even in death, let there be no other word."
18
張義妻李，交城人。 義坐罪當斬，免死，遣廣西義寧，李與偕。 義死遣所，李具棺以斂，以遺金上縣。 至夕，呼鄰媼共宿，俟其熟寐，赴水死，時乾隆五年九月辛未。 縣具其事上巡撫，巡撫以聞，下禮部，禮部議：「殉夫者令甲有明禁，惟李以從夫罪遣，孤踪殉節，非激烈輕生比，請旌表。」 得旨：「依議。」
Li, wife of Zhang Yi, was from Jiaocheng. Yi was guilty of a capital crime but spared and sent to Yining in Guangxi; Li went with him. Yi died in exile. Li prepared a coffin and turned the remaining gold over to the county. That evening she asked a neighbor woman to sleep with her, waited until she was sound asleep, and drowned herself—in the ninth month of Qianlong 5, a xinwei day. The county reported upward. The Ministry of Rites ruled: "Statutes forbid following one's husband in death, but Li followed her condemned husband into exile and died alone for constancy—not rash suicide—and we request an honorary tablet." The rescript read: "As deliberated."
19
黃敬升妻王，崑山人。 敬升貧，客授，王佐以績，食不足，制闢蚊藥，鬻諸市。 敬升病疫，一日門不啟，鄰人壞垣入視，敬升死於床，王死床下，兒臥地號，胸系王書，略言：「貧不能斂其夫，食製藥紅砒以殉，冀有惻隱者，斂夫育兒，身填溝壑不恨！」 有士人為斂其夫婦，將兒去，育以長。
Wang, wife of Huang Jingsheng, was from Kunshan. Jingsheng was poor and taught away from home. Wang helped with spinning. Food ran short, so she devised anti-mosquito medicine and sold it in the market. Jingsheng died of plague. For a day the door stayed shut. Neighbors broke through the wall: Jingsheng dead on the bed, Wang beneath it, the child wailing on the floor with a note on his chest—"Too poor to bury my husband—I ate red arsenic from my medicine to die with him, hoping the compassionate will bury him and raise our child; I fill a ditch without regret!" A scholar buried the couple and took the child, raising him to adulthood.
20
伊嵩阿，拜都氏，滿洲鑲黃旗人； 妻希光，鈕祜祿氏，正白旗人，總督愛必達女也。 伊嵩阿為大學士永貴從子，早卒。 方病時，希光割股進，終不起，許以死。 愛必達、永貴共喻之，誓畢婚嫁乃殉。 為伊嵩阿弟娶，嫁女妹及二女，次女行之明日，自縊死。 張遺詩於壁，略謂：「十載要盟，此日當報命。」 乾隆四十六年三月事也。 永貴疏聞，高宗為賦詩，旌其節。
Yi Song'a, who took the surname Du, was Manchu of the Bordered Yellow Banner; his wife Xiguang of the Niohuru clan, Bordered White Banner, was Governor Aibidai's daughter. Yi Song'a was Grand Secretary Yonggui's nephew and died young. When he fell ill, Xiguang cut flesh from her thigh for him; he still did not recover, and she vowed to die. Aibidai and Yonggui reasoned with her; she swore to die only after the marriages were done. She saw Yi Song'a's brother married, her sister and two daughters wed, and the day after the second daughter's wedding hanged herself. She left a poem on the wall: "A ten-year pledge—today I repay my life." This was the third month of Qianlong 46. Yonggui memorialized the throne; the Gaozong Emperor composed a poem praising her constancy.
21
張廷桂妻章，名孔榮，廷桂，常熟人； 章，秦安人。 廷桂父為吏陝西，初娶魏，其父宰秦安，廷桂從焉。 既歸，避事，复遊秦安，因贅於章。 居八年，事解，乃以孥還。 廷桂貧，恆出客遊，卒於撫寧。 喪歸，章為營葬。 既窆，將自投穴中，為家人所持。 章一女字催鳳，廷桂從弟廷梅，許生子為立後，乃依廷梅居。 廷桂嘗入貲牒授主簿，或購其牒，章曰：「吾以貧鬻牒，罔國家，罪也，況夫名，其可二耶？」 遂焚其牒。 既終喪，復自經。 家人覺，解之。 次日既夕，赴水死。
Zhang Tinggui's wife Zhang, called Kongrong—Tinggui was from Changshu; Zhang was from Qin'an. Tinggui's father was a clerk in Shaanxi. He first married Wei. When his father became magistrate of Qin'an, Tinggui went with him. After returning, to avoid trouble he went again to Qin'an and married into Zhang's family. After eight years the matter was resolved and he brought his family home. Tinggui was poor and often traveled for work; he died at Funing. When the coffin returned, Zhang arranged the burial. After the interment she tried to throw herself into the grave but the family held her back. Zhang had a daughter betrothed to Cuifeng. Tinggui's cousin Tingmei had promised his son as heir, and she lived with Tingmei. Tinggui had once bought a registrar's license with contributed funds. Someone wished to buy it. Zhang said, "We sold a license because we were poor—that deceives the state. And my husband's name—can it be doubled?" She burned the license. When mourning ended, she hanged herself again. The family found her and cut her down. The next evening she drowned herself.
22
死時為絕命辭數章，詞旨哀惻，其卒章曰：「憶往事兮，雙淚沾巾。 想當年兮，妾病沉昏。 感君愛兮，信誓殷勤。 雲妾歿兮，君必亡身。 嗟今日兮，命不由人。 君先亡兮，妾豈偷存！ 痛萬里兮，生會無因。 輕一命兮，地下從君。 求神明兮，引我孤魂。 覓天涯兮，不惜艱辛。 得伴君兮，死亦歡欣。 十七年兮，夫婦深恩。 食糟糠兮，敢怨君貧！ 中路訣兮，命蹇時屯。 喪葬畢兮，不死何云？ 傷幼女兮，失母誰親！ 死為君兮，此外奚論？」
At her death she wrote several stanzas of farewell, mournful and poignant. The last reads: "Recalling the past—both kerchiefs soaked with tears. Thinking of that year—your handmaid's illness sank into darkness. Touched by your love—oaths earnest and warm. You said when I died—you would surely die yourself. Alas today—fate is not in our hands. You died first—how could I live on in stealth! Pain of ten thousand li—no meeting in life. I lightly cast one life—to follow you underground. I pray to the spirits—lead my lonely soul. I seek the ends of earth—no hardship too great. To gain your company—even death is joyful. Seventeen years—deep kindness between husband and wife. We ate chaff and husks—how dare I resent your poverty! Midway we part—fate is harsh, the times adverse. Funeral rites complete—what reason to live on? Grieving the little girl—without a mother, who will cherish her! I die for you—what else is there to discuss?"
23
又留書與廷梅曰：「初聞訃，即欲死，念無後，無人主喪葬。 今服除，死更無餘事。 前議叔生子為立後，毋誑我！ 家貧，止田十四畝，當以十畝與所後子，四畝與催鳳，遺十金為我埋先夫塋次。」 催鳳旋殤，廷梅亦不為立後。 後二十年，縣諸生柏渭、吳慶長等始為合葬。
She also left a letter to Tingmei, saying: "When I first heard of your death, I wanted to die at once, but there was no heir and no one to oversee the funeral. Now that mourning is over, nothing remains but to die. You had agreed your uncle's son would be the heir—do not deceive me! We are poor, with only fourteen mu of land: give ten mu to the heir, four to Cuifeng, and set aside ten taels to bury my late husband beside his grave." Cuifeng soon died young, and Tingmei likewise never established an heir. Twenty years later, county licentiates Bai Wei, Wu Qingchang, and others finally arranged a joint burial.
24
郝某妻單，永寧人。 郝奇醜，眇小，鬝且跛，一目，口不能言。 禦小車，遂呼曰小車，而單美，鄰婦恆訕焉。 單曰：「夫可憎乎？ 吾命也，請勿再言！」 單躬紡績，養舅姑，育子。 舅姑死，鬻所居破屋以葬。 嘗數日不舉火，族人憫之，予蕎麥數斗制餅以鬻，分其餘以飽。 乾隆五十年，歲饑，單為鄰婦佐女紅，貸餘食食夫及子。 逾年，夫疫死，子亦殤，單裂席裹屍，以木杴掘坎瘞焉。 杴折，手捧土，瘞畢，血殷地。 乃號曰：「天乎！ 單氏事畢矣，而猶生乎？」 坐破窯中，餓數日死，年二十六。 族人瘞之夫側，裡稱賢婦墓雲。
The wife of a certain Hao, surnamed Shan, was from Yongning. Hao was grotesquely ugly—small in stature, balding and lame, blind in one eye, and mute. He drove a small cart and was nicknamed Little Cart; Shan was beautiful, and neighboring women often ridiculed her. Shan said: "Is my husband loathsome? It is my fate—please say no more!" Shan spun and wove herself, cared for her parents-in-law, and raised a son. When her parents-in-law died, she sold their dilapidated dwelling to pay for the burial. Once she went several days without lighting a fire; clansmen took pity and gave her several dou of buckwheat to bake and sell, keeping the rest so she could eat her fill. In Qianlong year 50, when famine struck, Shan helped neighbors with needlework and borrowed leftover food to feed her husband and son. The next year her husband died of plague and her son died young; Shan tore mats to wrap the bodies and dug a grave with a wooden shovel. When the shovel broke, she buried them with her hands; when she finished, blood stained the ground. She cried out: "O Heaven! Shan's work is done—why does she still live?" She sat in a ruined kiln and starved for several days until she died, aged twenty-six. Clansmen buried her beside her husband; locals called it the Worthy Wife's Tomb.
25
陳廣美妻李，河內農家女也。 生二十四年而歸廣美，廣美已病，李與異室居，侍疾甚謹。 事舅，日具饍甚恭。 閱三月，廣美死。 母往視之，且語之曰：「兒雖嫁，猶處子也，何患無佳婿？」 李誓不更適。 葬之明日，出廚刀，囑舅礪焉。 曰：「為翁作面，虞其鈍也。」 其舅竟礪以授李，李闔戶。 其舅知李且死，排戶入，見李猶立，右手握刀，首墮負于背，幾不屬，血從鬢間溢，殷地。 其舅疾呼，族鄰畢至，其母亦至，乃僕。 李死嘉慶五年四月丁未。
Li, wife of Chen Guangmei, was a peasant girl from Henei. She married Guangmei at twenty-four; he was already ill. Li kept to a separate room and nursed him with utmost care. She served her father-in-law, preparing his meals each day with great respect. Three months later Guangmei died. Her mother visited and said: "Though married, you are still a maiden—why worry about finding a good match?" Li swore she would never remarry. The day after the burial she took out the kitchen knife and asked her father-in-law to sharpen it. She said: "To make noodles for you, Father—I fear it may be dull." Her father-in-law sharpened it and handed it to Li; Li shut the door. Knowing Li was about to die, her father-in-law forced the door open and found her still standing, knife in her right hand, her head fallen against her back, nearly severed, blood pouring from her temples onto the floor. Her father-in-law cried out; kin and neighbors rushed in, and when her mother arrived Li collapsed. Li died on dingwei day in the fourth month of Jiaqing 5 (1800).
26
賀邦達妻陸，震澤人。 待年於賀氏。 邦達病，舅姑用卜人言，使成婚，踰月而邦達死。 或語其舅姑：「婦雖婚，猶處子也，盍為擇婿？」 陸聞，集族姻出拜，誓毋貳。 居三年，語姑曰； 「我夜數夢吾夫，豈魂魄常從我耶？」 遂入室自縊死。 時嘉慶十六年四月辛酉，陸年十九。
Lu, wife of He Bangda, was from Zhenze. She had been betrothed to the He family while awaiting marriage. When Bangda fell ill, his parents followed a diviner's counsel and hurried the wedding; a month later Bangda died. Someone urged his parents: "Though married, she is still a maiden—why not find her another husband?" Hearing this, Lu gathered kin and affines, bowed before them, and swore she would never remarry. After three years she told her mother-in-law: "I dream of my husband night after night—does his soul walk beside me?" She went inside and hanged herself. This was on xinyou day in the fourth month of Jiaqing 16; Lu was nineteen.
27
鄭宗墩妻陳，名淑定，長樂人。 宗墩客他縣，舁病歸，卒，無子。 陳求死，父喻止之。 陳力織，葬姑及宗墩。 舅以居隘，命歸依父。 嘉慶二十五年，父卒，還省舅。 退告叔弟曰：「兄歿十二年矣，未亡人懼傷吾父心，久而不死。 今已矣，舅老，有叔在。 叔能以子為兄後，兄其瞑乎！」 遂縊。
Chen, wife of Zheng Zongdun, named Shuding, was from Changle. Zongdun was away in another county; brought home dying, then died, leaving no son. Chen wished to die; her father reasoned with her and stopped her. Chen wove tirelessly and buried her mother-in-law and Zongdun. Her father-in-law, the quarters being cramped, sent her back to her father's house. In Jiaqing 25 her father died; she returned to see her father-in-law. She told her husband's younger brother in private: "Brother died twelve years ago; I stayed alive only lest I break Father's heart. That is over now; Uncle is old, and you are here. If you will make your son heir to my brother, perhaps he can rest in peace!" She then hanged herself.
28
任有成妻陳，蕭山人。 有成無昆弟，賈諸暨，卒，亦無子。 舅姑命歸母家，將徐奪其志，陳矢死不可。 力積貲為舅卜妾吳，逾年而有子。 舅姑卒，陳與吳居，育夫弟。
Chen, wife of Ren Youcheng, was from Xiaoshan. Youcheng had no brothers; he went trading in Zhuji and died there, also childless. Her in-laws sent her back to her mother's home, intending gradually to change her mind; Chen swore she would die rather than yield. She saved diligently and had her father-in-law take a concubine, Wu; within a year there was a son. After her in-laws died, Chen lived with Wu and raised her husband's younger brother.
29
錢儀吉為作二陳傳，謂：「當死生危苦之際，進退合度，得禮意云。」
Qian Yiji wrote biographies of the two Chens, observing: "In moments of life-and-death peril and hardship, their choices in advance and retreat were measured and true to the spirit of the rites."
30
丁三郎妻，失其氏，宜興人。 嫁逾年，夫死，不哭亦不拜，家人莫測也。 後四十九日，既奠，婦出就案前立，視其主，久之，拜，拜時若呼三郎，遂伏地不能起，掖之，則已死。
The wife of Ding Sanlang—her surname is unknown—was from Yixing. A year after marrying, her husband died; she neither wept nor bowed in mourning, and her family could not understand her. On the forty-ninth day, after the final offering, she stood before the spirit tablet a long while, then bowed—as if calling Sanlang—and collapsed; when they lifted her, she was dead.
31
丁采芹妻孫，震澤人。 嫁半年，采芹病瘵，舅姑謂婦命兇，詬罵之。 孫飲泣，脫簪珥，具湯藥。 采芹病日篤，謂孫曰：「我且死，所不能瞑目者為汝耳。 汝無子，家貧，母家亦無可依，當奈何？」 孫泣曰：「我念之熟，恐戚君，故不敢言。 人孰不死，死貴得所，當先待君地下耳！」 采芹垂泣不答，孫乘間自縊，道光六年四月也。 采芹乃扶病而拜曰：「從我於既死，不若殉我於將死，烈哉！」 三日采芹亦死。
Sun, wife of Ding Caiqin, was from Zhenze. Six months after marrying, Caiqin contracted consumption; his parents blamed her ill luck and abused her. Sun wept, removed her ornaments, and prepared medicine and broth. As Caiqin worsened he told Sun: "I am dying; what I cannot bear to leave behind is you. You have no child, we are poor, and your parents' home is no refuge—what will you do?" Sun wept: "I have thought it through, but feared upsetting you, so I held my tongue. Everyone dies; what matters is dying rightly—I should go wait for you in the grave first!" Caiqin wept in silence; Sun seized a moment and hanged herself—in the fourth month of Daoguang 6 (1826). Caiqin, leaning on others, bowed and said: "To follow me in death is less noble than dying with me while I yet live—how fierce!" Three days later Caiqin died as well.
32
王如義妻向，涪州人。 幼能為詩文。 如義，農家子，向恆勸之讀。 道光十六年，如義暴卒，姑喻之嫁，矢以死。 舅病，為刲股。 家益貧，將強遣之，二十三年三月戊申，自沉荷花灘死。 將死，為絕命詩十首，其序曰：「妾涪陵向氏女，適王氏，未一年，而夫即世。 昨歲翁又不幸。 孤苦煢獨，人勸以非禮，衣食事小，名節事大，惟一死以明志。 夜題詩十首，藏笥中，他日閱妾詩，毋累阿姑也！」 及入水，粘一紙橋柱，書五字，曰「名節江中見」，死時年二十五。
Xiang, wife of Wang Ruyi, was from Fuzhou. From childhood she could write poetry and prose. Ruyi was a farmer's son; Xiang constantly urged him to read. In Daoguang 16 Ruyi died suddenly; her mother-in-law urged remarriage, but she vowed to die. When her father-in-law fell ill, she cut flesh from her thigh to heal him. As poverty deepened and kin were about to force her away, on wushen day in the third month of Daoguang 23 she drowned herself in Lotus Flower Pool. Before dying she wrote ten farewell poems; the preface reads: "I am a daughter of the Xiang clan of Fuling, wed to the Wangs; before a year had passed my husband was gone. Last year my father-in-law died as well. Alone and destitute, people urged what is improper; food and clothing are trifles, but honor is everything—I have only death to prove my resolve. Tonight I wrote ten poems and hid them in my box; when you read them someday, do not bring shame on Mother-in-law!" As she entered the water she pasted a note on a bridge pillar: "Integrity seen in the river"; she was twenty-five.
33
狄聽妻王，名甥秱。 聽，溧陽人，道光九年進士，官至廣西道監察御史； 王，江陰人。 十九年七月，聽卒官，八月，子驄殤，九月丁巳，王縊。 王幼承父蘇教，通經史大義，能詩。 將殉，作書告聽諸同歲，略言：「夫亡當即死，諸君俱言撫孤重，故未敢爾。 孤又夭，復何言？ 念兩世單傳，不可無後，今已立後，可報舅、姑、夫子地下！」 王嘗撫從女，年十七，已許字，留金囑遣嫁。 又諭所後子，期明年以喪還葬，與前母三棺同穴，以殤祔。 並令斥貲佽祖祠，成父志。 書末題曰：「我自歸家去，人休作烈看。」 康熙間錢塘林邦基妻曾所為絕命詩也。
Wang, wife of Di Ting, named Shengzhi. Ting was from Liyang; jinshi in Daoguang 9 (1829), he rose to censor on the Guangxi circuit; Wang was from Jiangyin. In the seventh month of Daoguang 19 Ting died in office; in the eighth their son Cong died young; on dingsi in the ninth month Wang hanged herself. From childhood she studied under her father Su, mastered the classics and histories, and wrote poetry. Before her suicide she wrote to Ting's jinshi cohort, saying in brief: "When my husband died I should have died at once; you all said raising the orphan mattered most, so I did not dare. The orphan too is gone—what more is there to say? For two generations our line ran thin—there had to be an heir; now one is named, and I can answer to my in-laws and husband in the grave!" She had raised a niece of seventeen, already betrothed, and left gold for her marriage. She told the heir to bring the coffin home next year for burial in one tomb with her husband and his first wife, with their young son beside them. She also directed money to repair the ancestral shrine, fulfilling her father's wish. The letter ended: "I am going home—do not call me a martyr." These lines were from a farewell poem by Zeng, wife of Lin Bangji of Qiantang, in the Kangxi reign.
34
曾，名如蘭，邦基卒，曾立其兄子為後，葬舅姑畢，具牒上縣請死，知縣慰止之。 後十日，題辭，吞金殉。
Zeng, named Rulan; after Bangji died she named her brother's son as heir; when her in-laws were buried she petitioned the county to die, but the magistrate dissuaded her. Ten days later she wrote her farewell and swallowed gold to join him in death.
35
錢瀞甫妻汪，武進人。 善女工，所入足自給。 而瀞甫博，傾其貲。 其姑嚴，雖寒餓不敢告也。 夜風雪，家人皆臥，薄絮衣篝燈守後戶，待瀞甫。 嘗以除夕跪而諫：「無更博。」 瀞甫為少止。 後客死餘幹，汪請立後，所當立者不可汪意，乃勿復言。 葬畢，自經死。 未死前一日，以十碗致某醫，曰：「我為人無所受恩，惟是人嘗診我，以是償也。」
Wang, wife of Qian Jingfu, was from Wujin. Skilled at needlework, she earned enough to support herself. But Jingfu gambled away their savings. Her mother-in-law was stern; though cold and hungry she dared not complain. On snowy nights, while the household slept, she wore thin cotton, kept the lamp burning, and waited at the back door for Jingfu. Once on New Year's Eve she knelt and pleaded: "Stop gambling." Jingfu stopped for a while. He later died away in Yugan; Wang asked for an heir, but the proper candidate did not suit her, so she said no more. After the burial she hanged herself. The day before she died she sent ten bowls to a physician, saying: "I owed no one in life; only this man once treated me—this repays him."
36
謝作棟妻王，孟津人，王家白鶴鎮，作棟家南硃村。 作棟卒，王將殉，祖姑及舅姑勉以撫孤。 王朝夕奠，必抱其孤拜，哭涕如雨。 祖姑聞之，為輟食，王乃飲泣，不敢聲。 喪終，其孤殤，祖姑亦歿，王歸訣父母，父母慰喻之。 道光二十二年四月辛巳，作棟死三期，先日王哭於墓，誓死。 晡，盡以衣物與二女妹，夜中縊。 晨，眾蹋戶入，一鐙置高處，照屋樑，板障其外，王內衣皆密紉，貌如生。
Wang, wife of Xie Zuodong, was from Mengjin; the Wangs lived at Baihe Town, the Xies at Nanzhu Village. When Zuodong died Wang meant to die with him; his grandmother and parents urged her to raise the orphan. At each offering she held the orphan and bowed, weeping until tears streamed down. Hearing her, the grandmother stopped eating; Wang choked back tears and dared not cry aloud. When mourning ended the orphan died and the grandmother died too; Wang went home to say goodbye; her parents tried to comfort her. On xinsi in the fourth month of Daoguang 22, the eve of Zuodong's third anniversary, she wept at his tomb and vowed to die. That afternoon she gave her clothes to two younger sisters; that night she hanged herself. At dawn they broke in; a lamp lit the beam high above; boards screened the room; her undergarments were tightly stitched; she looked as if alive.
37
繆文鬱妻邱，吳江同里人。 同里有敝俗，歲二、三月祠劉猛，將輿以出，少年傅粉墨為婦人，參錯儀衛。 聞文鬱故磨豆家傭，與其役。 日昳過門，女伴呼邱出觀，邱以為恥，恚，闔戶。 文鬱歸，戒毋更出。 越宿，文鬱病，或恫以「神怒，且死」。 邱曰：「聰明正直為神，豈以茫昧致人死者？ 吾夫未即死，即死，吾與俱死耳！」 數日，文鬱竟死，邱迎母與居。 三日，語母入市市楮，邱自縊柩側。
Qiu, wife of Miao Wenyu, was from Tongli in Wujiang. The neighborhood had a vulgar custom: in spring they worshipped Liu Meng and paraded his image; young men painted their faces as women and joined the procession. Wenyu had once been a hired hand at a bean-grinding shop and joined the rite. One afternoon he passed their door; neighbors called Qiu out to watch; ashamed and furious, she shut the door. When Wenyu came home he forbade her to go out again. The next night Wenyu fell ill; some told her "The god is angry—you will die." Qiu said: "The gods are wise and just—would they kill people through such nonsense? My husband is not dying yet; and if he dies, I die with him!" Days later Wenyu died; Qiu brought her mother to stay with her. On the third day she sent her mother to market for funerary paper; Qiu hanged herself beside the coffin.
38
黃壽椿妻管，壽椿，江蘇華亭人； 管，陽湖人，父光烈，母林，皆死寇。 壽椿官江西德安典史，光緒二年，卒。 時壽椿父如琳官浙江上虞梁湖巡檢，管將壽椿喪挈子女以歸。 至曹娥江，距梁湖一日程，遣子女先行謁祖父母，管飲藥死。
Guan, wife of Huang Shouchun; Shouchun was from Huating in Jiangsu; Guan was from Yanghu; her parents Guanglie and Lin both died in the rebellion. Shouchun was registrar of Dean in Jiangxi; he died in Guangxu 2 (1876). His father Rulin was stationed at Lianghu in Shangyu; Guan took the coffin and children home. At the Cao'e River, a day from Lianghu, she sent the children ahead to greet their grandparents, then took poison.
39
馮桂增妾李，桂增，臨朐人； 李，肅州農家女。 桂增從左宗棠討叛回馬四，軍其地，納焉。 桂增會師新疆，李留肅州，與部曲諸婦居。 李禦諸婦有法度，諸婦憚之，若部曲之事其帥。 光緒二年正月，桂增克瑪納斯城，軍寡，為賊所乘，戰死。 李方有身，日夜哭。 既生子，逾年殤。 桂增喪還，李迎奠喪甚慟，須臾僕，不語。 視之，死，蓋先時已仰藥也。
Li, concubine of Feng Guizeng; Guizeng was from Linqu; Li was a peasant girl from Suzhou. Guizeng followed Zuo Zongtang against the rebel Ma Si; when the army was there he took her as concubine. Guizeng marched to Xinjiang; Li stayed in Suzhou with the officers' wives. Li kept the other women in order; they feared her as soldiers fear their general. In the first month of Guangxu 2 Guizeng took Manasi; outnumbered, he was overrun and killed in battle. Li was pregnant and wept day and night. She bore a son; a year later he died young. When Guizeng's coffin returned, Li received it in deep grief; she collapsed, unable to speak. They found her dead—she had taken poison earlier.
40
黃翥先妾彭，翥先，鍾祥人； 彭，貴築人，先為田興恕婢。 興恕戍新疆，寄家秦州，翥先方知秦州，得彭以為妾。 光緒二年，宗棠駐軍秦州，翥先為主計，四年，卒。 彭悉發篋，以衣物屬翥先子，吞金死。
Peng, concubine of Huang Zhuxian; Zhuxian was from Zhongxiang; Peng was from Guiyang; she had been a maid to Tian Xingshu. Xingshu was posted to Xinjiang and left his family at Qinzhou; Zhuxian was there and took Peng as concubine. In Guangxu 2 Zongtang's army was at Qinzhou; Zhuxian was chief accountant; he died in Guangxu 4. Peng emptied the chests, gave the clothes to Zhuxian's son, and swallowed gold.
41
方恮妻趙，陽湖人。 祖母方，節婦。 父烈文，嘗知易州，有文行。 歸恮，食貧，持門戶。 光緒四年，恮客遊，遽卒。 趙方有身，烈文迎以歸，徐告之，慟絕，首觸牖，將死，家人共寬喻之。 既免身，生女，趙曰：「生女亦善，使我無系戀也。」 後八日，自經死。
Zhao, wife of Fang Quan, was from Yanghu. Her grandmother Fang was a chaste widow. Her father Liewen had been magistrate of Yizhou and was known for learning and integrity. She married Quan; though poor, she kept the household in order. In Guangxu 4 Quan died suddenly while traveling. Zhao was pregnant; Liewen brought her home and broke the news gently; she grieved until her head struck the window; kin barely restrained her. She bore a daughter; Zhao said: "A daughter is fine—it frees me from longing." Eight days later she hanged herself.
42
姚森桂妻宋，秦安人。 森桂卒，宋入廚下自剄，血自咽出汨汨。 姑入視，右手握刀，猶力作再割狀。 母至，束以帛，乃能語，曰：「死已決，毋緩我！」 引母手掩口鼻，又解帶使縊，母手顫不可任。 睹宋狀至慘怛，乃飲以毒，毒自創溢。 但聞宋咽中若曰：「斫我，斫我！」 久之，乃無聲，遂死。
Song, wife of Yao Sengui, was from Qin'an. When Sengui died Song cut her throat in the kitchen; blood poured from her throat. Her mother-in-law entered and found her right hand still gripping the knife, still trying to cut again. Her mother came and bound her with cloth; she said: "I am resolved to die—do not delay me!" She pulled her mother's hand over her mouth and nose, then untied her belt to hang herself; her mother's hands shook too much. Seeing her so wretched, her mother gave her poison; it seeped from the wound. From her throat came sounds like "Cut me, cut me!" After a long while she fell silent and died.
43
惲毓華妻莊，陽湖人。 毓華死，莊飲藥殉。 毓華弟毓德妻許，毓德死，許絕食殉。 毓華侄寶元妻袁，寶元死，袁先服毒，急救之，复絕食三日以殉。 世稱「惲氏三烈婦」。
Zhuang, wife of Yun Yuhua, was from Yanghu. When Yuhua died Zhuang took poison to join him. Xu, wife of Yuhua's brother Yude; when Yude died Xu starved herself to death. Yuan, wife of Yuhua's nephew Baoyuan; when Baoyuan died Yuan took poison, was revived, then fasted three days and died. They were known as "the three martyr wives of the Yun clan."
44
曲承麟妻袁，承麟，瀋陽人； 袁，名桂珵，遼陽人。 嫁未百日，承麟卒，袁仰藥殉。
Yuan, wife of Qu Chenglin; Chenglin was from Shenyang; Yuan, named Guicheng, was from Liaoyang. Within a hundred days of marriage Chenglin died; Yuan took poison and followed him.
45
尹春妻張，歙人。 初為黃氏婢，名桂喜。 主婦程，知書，嘗與諸娣姒說古列女事，桂喜竊聽，輒稱羨。 既嫁而孀，遂矢死。 詣肆求毒藥，肆以他藥予之，飲不死。 市櫬，臥其中，主婦泣喻之，對曰：「桂喜聞主母講列女時，意已決，不可回也！」 卒不食死。
Zhang, wife of Yin Chun, was from She County. She had been a maid in the Huang household, named Guixi. Mistress Cheng was literate and often told the women stories of ancient exemplars; Guixi listened secretly and admired them. Widowed after marriage, she vowed to die rather than remarry. She sought poison at a shop; the shopkeeper gave her another drug, and she did not die. She bought a coffin and lay in it; Mistress wept and pleaded; she said: "When you told those stories my mind was set—nothing can turn me back!" She starved herself to death.
46
李氏，高密人。 夫嘉猷，失其氏。 嘉猷惑於讒，娶不與同室。 及病，李奉事甚謹，禱於神請代。 嘉猷聞而悔，遂死，李自經以殉。
Li, from Gaomi. Her husband Jiayou—his surname is unknown. Jiayou believed slander and took another wife but would not share Li's room. When he fell ill Li nursed him devotedly and prayed the gods would take her life instead. Jiayou heard and repented, then died; Li hanged herself to follow him.
47
陳三義妻王，掖縣人。 王未行，病而瞽，其父辭於三義，三義曰：「吾聘時未瞽也，聘而瞽，猶娶而瞽，其可棄乎？」 娶三年，王目良愈，三義尋卒。 王曰：「夫不負吾，吾豈負夫？」 遂縊。
Wang, wife of Chen Sanyi, was from Yexian. Before the wedding Wang fell ill and went blind; her father tried to withdraw; Sanyi said: "When I betrothed her she could see; betrothed then blind—how could I abandon her?" Three years after marrying her sight returned; Sanyi soon died. Wang said: "He did not fail me—how could I fail him?" She hanged herself.
48
遊開科妻趙，馬邊廳人。 開科貧，贅於趙。 趙有母及兄，皆厭之。 趙脫簪珥別賃屋以居，食盡，不貸於母家。 一日，趙還省母，方食，開科至，趙推食與之，母及兄逐開科，禁趙毋歸，且言：「此餓莩死，何患無家？」 趙縊死。
Zhao, wife of You Kaike, was from Mabian Hall. Kaike was poor and lived with his wife's family as a son-in-law. Zhao had a mother and elder brother who both despised her. She sold her ornaments and rented another house; when food ran out she would not ask her mother's family for help. One day she visited her mother while eating; Kaike came and she pushed her food to him; her mother and brother drove him off and forbade her return, saying: "That starving wretch will die—why worry about home?" Zhao hanged herself.
49
孫崇業妻金，赤城人。 崇業嗜酒，不治生，金勸之不聽。 順治中，歲祲，崇業計鬻金，陽語當偕詣戚屬。 金察其詐，曰：「汝乃忍嫁我，我嫁必且死。 然至汝家二十餘年，詎忍恝然行？ 盍沽酒為別！」 崇業出沽酒，金抽刃斷喉死。
Jin, wife of Sun Chongye, was from Chicheng. Chongye drank heavily and neglected the household; Jin urged him in vain. During a Shunzhi-era famine, Chongye planned to sell her, pretending they would visit relatives. Jin saw through it and said: "You would sell me—I would die if sold. Yet I have been in your house over twenty years—how could I leave so coldly? Let us buy wine to say goodbye!" He went out for wine; Jin cut her throat with a blade.
50
張某妻田，萬全人。 夫遊蕩，田屢諫。 一日歎曰； 「我生不能勸，死或憶我言。」 因仰藥死。 死時猶呼其夫，勸改過。
Tian, wife of a certain Zhang, was from Wanquan. Her husband was idle; Tian often urged him to reform. One day she sighed and said: "In life I could not persuade you—perhaps in death you will remember my words." She took poison and died. As she died she still called to her husband, urging him to reform.
51
張氏女，婁縣人。 農家女。 嫁魯氏子，姑與夫迫使為汙行，不從，箠楚凍餒，凡三四年，志不變。 康熙二十六年三月，其夫將劫以他往，夜入萬安橋下水中死。
A Zhang clan daughter from Lou County. She was a peasant girl. Married into the Lu family, she was forced toward shameful conduct by her in-laws and husband; beaten and starved for years, she would not yield. In Kangxi 26, third month, when her husband tried to abduct her elsewhere, she drowned herself under Wan'an Bridge.
52
又有湯氏女，奉天人。 有娼家為客娶之，使為娼，箠楚困辱，卒自殺。
There was also a Tang clan daughter from Fengtian. A brothel married her to a client then forced her into prostitution; after beatings and humiliation she killed herself.
53
滄州女，不知其姓，名黛城。 年十五，鬻入娼家，使應客，不從，撻辱之，大罵。 娼家支解之，棄屍於河。
A Cangzhou girl—surname unknown, named Daicheng. At fifteen she was sold to a brothel; forced to serve clients, she refused, was beaten, and cursed them loudly. The brothel dismembered her and threw her body in the river.
54
張氏，都昌人。 康熙十三年，耿精忠為亂，張之夫熊應鼎將從賊，張諫，勿聽； 質裙沽酒，以飲且勸，終不可。 乃告於其族，矢死。 應鼎入於賊，張自殺。
Zhang, from Duchang. In Kangxi 13 Geng Jingzhong rebelled; her husband Xiong Yingding meant to join the rebels; Zhang pleaded in vain; She pawned her skirt for wine to drink with him and plead, but he would not relent. She told her clan and vowed to die. Yingding joined the rebels; Zhang killed herself.
55
孫大成妻裔，江都人。 大成母姣，二女嫁而歸，皆與縣吏通。 迫欲汙裔，裔告大成，俱縊，救不死。 裔歸省母，告母狀，持母袂哭。 臨去，檢母奩，得青白線各一束，因曰：「兒必不辱母！」 俄縣吏宿姑室，复呼裔，不應； 姑詈，亦不應。 縣吏醉，裸而譟窗下。 裔以青白線綴上下衣，復合為絙，縊。 姑覺，不救，遂死。 鄰知其事，感泣拜裔屍。 或語侵姑，姑反脣，眾譁以告官。 官庇吏，旌裔，葬平山堂右岡，而不竟其獄。 後數十年，縣隸以事辱裔兄子，死於水。 裔兄痛子，亦死。
Yi, wife of Sun Dacheng, was from Jiangdu. Dacheng's mother was dissolute; two married daughters returned home and both consorted with the county clerk. They tried to violate her; she told Dacheng and they hanged themselves but were cut down alive. Yi visited her mother, told her plight, and clutched her sleeve weeping. Before leaving she found blue and white thread in her mother's chest and said: "I will never disgrace you!" Soon the clerk stayed in her mother-in-law's room and called again; she did not answer; Her mother-in-law cursed her; still she did not answer. Drunk, the clerk stripped and shouted beneath her window. Yi stitched her clothes with the thread, made a rope, and hanged herself. Her mother-in-law saw but did not help; Yi died. Neighbors who knew wept and bowed before her body. Some insulted the mother-in-law; she retorted; the crowd reported to officials. The magistrate shielded the clerk, honored Yi posthumously, and buried her by Pingshan Hall, but never finished the trial. Decades later a county runner insulted Yi's nephew and drowned. Yi's brother, grieving his son, died as well.
56
楊某聘妻章，字原姑，秀水人。 年十九，縣隸請婚，父不許，許楊氏。 縣隸與其徒譟於門，誣原姑與有私，原姑夜縊死。 縣吏欲寬隸，獄上，巡撫持不可，乃絞隸，旌原姑。
Zhang, Yang's betrothed, styled Yuangu, from Xiushui. At nineteen a county runner sought her hand; her father refused and betrothed her to Yang. The runner and his gang clamored at the gate, falsely claiming intimacy; Yuangu hanged herself that night. The magistrate wished to spare the runner; the governor refused; the runner was executed and Yuangu honored.
57
裔死康熙六十年四月戊申，原姑死嘉慶六年九月甲午。
Yi died wushen, fourth month, Kangxi 60; Yuangu died jiawu, ninth month, Jiaqing 6.
58
孟黑子妻苑，黑子，大城人； 苑，東安人。 其姑素無行，會永定河決，工役大集，賣酒堤上。 強苑與偕，苑不從，窘辱之。 姑與惡少入婦室飲，婦終不可犯，姑益怒。 婦度終不免，自沉死。 夫行求其屍，四日，得之武清境。 又四日乃斂。 方盛暑，屍未朽也。
Yuan, wife of Meng Heizi; Heizi was from Dacheng; Yuan was from Dong'an. Her mother-in-law was dissolute; when the Yongding flooded, laborers gathered and she sold wine on the dike. She forced Yuan to accompany her; Yuan refused and was shamed. The mother-in-law and ruffians drank in her room; she could not be violated; the mother-in-law grew fiercer. Seeing no escape, she drowned herself. Her husband searched four days before finding her body in Wuqing. Four more days passed before burial. In midsummer heat the body had not decayed.
59
北塘女子，業磨豆為腐，母迫為娼； 新河藍某妻，失其姓，姑迫為娼：皆自殺。
A Beitang girl who made tofu—her mother forced her into prostitution; A Lan wife of Xinhe and others whose mothers-in-law forced prostitution—all killed themselves.
60
武清芮氏女秉貞，寧河樂某妻左，並以姑迫與惡少暱，自殺。
Bingzhen of the Rui clan and Mrs. Zuo of Ninghe—forced by in-laws toward ruffians—both killed themselves.
61
蕭氏，靈州人，為張文彩妻。 文彩有友悅蕭美，欲污之，蕭力拒。 友懟蕭，譖諸文彩，謂蕭不潔。 文彩信之，紿蕭歸寧，與其友共殺諸途。 後事雪，雍正十二年旌。
Xiao of Lingzhou was Zhang Wencai's wife. A friend coveted Xiao and tried to violate her; she resisted fiercely. Enraged, the friend slandered her to Wencai as unclean. Wencai believed him, lured Xiao home on a visit, and with the friend killed her on the road. Later the truth emerged; she was honored in Yongzheng 12.
62
黃氏女，昭文人。 嫁張氏子，為縣小吏。 其母有所私，迫女從之，日箠楚。 或謂女：「盍歸？」 女曰：「女既嫁，安歸？ 待死而已！」 乾隆十六年夏，方暑，姑與所私裸而飲，女避，所私起持之。 女大號曰：「奴敢污我！」 持案上酒器提之。 姑怒，批其頰，复榜掠之。 夜半，女入井死。
A Huang clan daughter from Zhaowen. She married a Zhang who served as a petty county clerk. Her mother kept a lover and forced the daughter to join him, beating her daily. Someone said: "Why not go home?" She said: "Once married, how can I return? I can only wait to die!" In the summer of Qianlong 16, her mother-in-law and lover drank naked; she withdrew; the lover seized her. She cried: "You slave dare defile me!" She struck him with a wine vessel from the table. Her mother-in-law slapped her and beat her again. At midnight she threw herself into a well.
63
吳氏女，震澤人。 喪父母，方六歲，字李氏而待年焉。 稍長，美，李氏子行賈，久未歸。 姑悍，私於里豪。 裡豪啗姑金，欲得女。 女勿從，姑撻之極楚。 鄰嫗問其故，女不肯言。 當暑，浴，姑納里豪於室，鍵其戶。 女呼，不應，挾剪拒，創裡豪，裡豪持女褻衣去。 女求死，姑操巨箠撻之，女引剪自剨，未殊。 鄰人戒其姑，毋急女。 女與鄰女款曲如平時，晡啜粥盡一甌，鄰女謂不死矣。 夜漏二刻，自溺門外溪水死。 時乾隆三十七年七月丁未。
A Wu clan daughter from Zhenze. Orphaned at six, she was betrothed to the Lis and awaited marriage in their home. She grew beautiful; the Li son traded away and did not return for years. Her mother-in-law was fierce and consorted with a local bully. The bully bribed the mother-in-law, wanting the girl. She refused; her mother-in-law beat her savagely. A neighbor asked why; she would not say. One summer day while she bathed, the mother-in-law locked the bully in with her. She cried out; no one answered; she fought with scissors and wounded him; he fled with her undergarments. She wished to die; her mother-in-law beat her with a huge stick; she cut herself with scissors but did not die at once. Neighbors warned the mother-in-law not to drive her too hard. She chatted with a neighbor as usual and finished a bowl of gruel at dusk; the neighbor thought she would live. At the second watch she drowned herself in the stream outside the gate. This was dingwei, seventh month, Qianlong 37.
64
顧氏，泰州人。 夫張世英，日誨顧淫，顧不可。 或貸世英錢，世英陰欲顧與私，沽酒飲貸錢者，嗾其母呼顧出，不應； 與之酒，覆杯，慟。 貸錢者亟去，其母搤顧吭，幾絕。 鄰里咸憤，訴於州，世英乞悔過，以顧歸。 與其母益日夜迫之，顧飲滷，不得死。 乾隆十六年十月戊戍，世英語顧：「冬無衣，盍如吾言？ 即得錢衣汝。」 顧曰：「我寧死不辱。」 世英恚，夜扼殺之，年十七。
Gu, from Taizhou. Her husband Zhang Shiying daily urged her toward lewdness; she refused. A creditor lent Shiying money; Shiying secretly meant to offer Gu to him; he bought wine for the creditor and had his mother call Gu out; she would not come; They offered wine; she overturned the cup and wept. The lender fled; her mother throttled her nearly to death. Neighbors complained to the prefect; Shiying begged pardon and Gu was sent back. She and her mother pressed her relentlessly; Gu drank brine but could not die. On wuxu, tenth month, Qianlong 16, Shiying told Gu: "We have no winter clothes—why not do as I say? You will get money and clothes." Gu said: "I would rather die than be shamed." Enraged, Shiying strangled her that night; she was seventeen.
65
張氏，丹陽人。 夫陳彭年，嫁十年矣。 彭年貧，欲嫁張，張涕泣不應； 紿使出，而密使媒從，張覺之，號慟求死。 邏卒以告官，官笞彭年，令張還母家。 張曰：「我適陳矣，死生以之。」 彭年益迫張，張度終不免，從容言曰：「我無如何，今當聽爾！」 起隨彭年走出村。 塘水方盛，張躍入水死。 死之日，為乾隆十九年六月戊辰。
Zhang, from Danyang. Her husband Chen Pengnian—married ten years. Poor Pengnian wanted to marry her off; Zhang wept and refused; He tricked her outside while sending a matchmaker; she saw through it and begged to die. Patrolmen reported it; the magistrate flogged Pengnian and sent Zhang to her mother. Zhang said: "I married Chen—for life or death I am his." Pengnian pressed harder; seeing no escape she said calmly: "I cannot resist—do as you will!" She rose and followed him out of the village. The pond was full; she leaped in and drowned. She died on wuchen, sixth month, Qianlong 19.
66
許會妻張，潁州人。 姑姣而虐，惡張端謹不類，日詬且撻，張事姑益恭。 姑病，刲股以療，姑虐如故。 姑與鄰寺僧通，欲亂張。 姑匿僧室，召張入，而出鍵其戶，張大號，僧遁去。 翌日，自沉於井。 有司捕得僧，論如律。 鄉人裂僧屍以祭張。
Zhang, wife of Xu Hui, from Yingzhou. Her mother-in-law was dissolute and cruel, hated Zhang's propriety, and daily abused her; Zhang served her all the more respectfully. When the mother-in-law fell ill, Zhang cut flesh from her thigh; the abuse continued. The mother-in-law consorted with a temple monk and meant to violate Zhang. She hid the monk, called Zhang in, locked the door; Zhang screamed and the monk fled. The next day she drowned herself in a well. Officials captured the monk and punished him by law. Villagers tore the monk's body apart to avenge Zhang.
67
趙海玉妻任，名環，汝州人。 姑故與鄰人通，夜半，挾刃入任室，詬而免。 亦井死，年十九。
Ren Huan, Zhao Haiyu's wife, from Ruzhou. Her mother-in-law had a neighbor lover; at midnight she entered with a blade, cursed Ren, and left. Ren drowned herself in a well at nineteen.
68
殷氏，天津人，為同縣邢文貴妻。 文貴故無行，其母趙，姣。 文貴初娶於，以貞慎不相入，出之。 复娶殷，殷貞慎尤逾於，趙惡之，與文貴日捶楚，沃以沸湯，施燔灼焉，體盡潰。 有司聞，使吏就視，殷拒不可。 旋卒。 有司收趙及文貴，論如法。
Yin of Tianjin was Xing Wengui's wife. Wengui was dissolute; his mother Zhao was dissolute too. He first married Yu; her chastity kept them apart and he divorced her. He married Yin, even more chaste than Yu; Zhao and Wengui daily beat her, scalded her with boiling water, and burned her until her body festered. Officials sent an officer to inspect; Yin refused. She soon died. Officials arrested Zhao and Wengui and punished them by law.
69
嘉興女，失其氏，嫁賣酒家王氏子。 姑當壚，習與酒人姣，惎女不應，乃裁抑不使飽。 縣中李氏母，故大家女，聞賣花媼言女事，愍女有志，輒令媼市胡餅畀女。 一日見女餓，憊甚，而几上置餈果，媼怪女何棄不食，女曰：「李夫人飽我，哀我志也！ 此物西家以餌我，我有餓死耳，豈可食乎？」 李母病，且死，遺錢十餘緡週女。 女感泣，語媼：「我終不負李夫人望！」 惡少豔女久，嗾姑將脅以威。 女漸聞之。 乃請於姑，代當壚。 姑喜，授女戶鑰。 數日，女夜啟後戶投水死。 乾隆二十年六月事也。
A Jiaxing girl—surname unknown—married a wine-seller's son. Her mother-in-law ran the shop and consorted with drinkers; resenting the girl's refusal, she starved her. Mother Li, once of a great family, heard of the girl through a flower-seller and often sent her cakes. One day Li saw her starving though food lay untouched; the girl said: "Madam Li feeds me and honors my resolve! The western household offers these to bait me—I would rather starve!" When Li fell mortally ill she left the girl more than ten strings of cash. The girl wept and told the seller: "I will never fail Madam Li!" Ruffians coveted her and urged the mother-in-law to threaten her. She gradually learned of it. She asked to tend the counter herself. The mother-in-law gladly gave her the keys. Days later she opened the back door at night and drowned herself. This was the sixth month of Qianlong 20.
70
王某妻李，字黑姑，天津人。 姑不貞，與鹽運使隸有私，計欲並污李。 隸與姑飲，役李，李恥之，恆不如姑指。 姑以他故詈且撻，待隸為之解，复示意李，終不可，而隸意未已。 李枕側置刀以自衛，姑逐其子出，夜持被就李共寢。 夜半，啟戶納隸，隸迫李，李呼，姑掩其口。 取刀自剄，未殊，母來視之，复甦，語其故。 並言：「方自剄，血溢，不知人。 漸聞隸語姑，當言夫婦相爭詬自戕，宜無知者。」 越三日乃死，其兄告官，笞隸，不竟其獄，道光六年七月事也。
Li Heigu, Wang's wife, from Tianjin. Her mother-in-law was unchaste and kept a salt-office runner as lover; they plotted to violate Li. The runner drank with the mother-in-law and ordered Li to serve; shamed, she could not satisfy them. The mother-in-law beat her on pretexts; the runner interceded then pressed again—she would not yield. Li kept a knife by her pillow; the mother-in-law drove out her son and slept with Li. At midnight she let the runner in; he forced her; she cried out; the mother-in-law covered her mouth. She cut her throat but lived; her mother came and she told what happened. She said: "When I cut my throat I knew nothing. Then I heard the runner tell her to say we quarreled and she harmed herself—no one must know." Three days later she died; her brother reported it; the runner was flogged but the case never closed—Daoguang 6, seventh month.
71
何先祐妻孫，桂陽人。 先佑父在時，為先佑求塾師，授之讀。 未幾喪父，其母以家政屬塾師，因私焉。 孫既歸，嘗晨謁姑，塾師在其室，孫趨而避。 塾師與姑謀並亂之。 塾師出，孫入，諫姑曰：「家雖貧，粗有門閥，翁勤苦終身，不得意，所屬望者先佑。 姑念翁與先佑，勿復近塾師。」 姑慚，戒毋洩。 孫曰：「婦所言為門戶耳，雖先佑不敢告，第原姑終念婦言。」 塾師既與姑謀，遂屢挑孫，孫以告姑，又諫，姑終毋納。 塾師入孫室，孫大詬，塾師陽避。 孫欲還告其祖，忍未發。 姑陽出，塾師復入孫室，潛抱持之。 孫號，奮擊。 先佑入，塾師乃走。 孫傷於脅，遂自經死。 時乾隆二十九年三月。 明年，獄上，斬塾師，徙其姑新疆。
Sun, wife of He Xianyou, from Guiyang. While his father lived he hired a tutor for Xianyou. Soon the father died; the mother entrusted the household to the tutor, who seduced her. After Sun returned she once visited her mother-in-law while the tutor was there and hurried away. Tutor and mother-in-law plotted to violate her. Sun admonished her: "We are poor but respectable; Father's hope rests on Xianyou. Think of them—stay away from the tutor." Ashamed, the mother-in-law warned her to stay silent. Sun said: "I speak for the family; I will not tell Xianyou, but remember my words." The tutor tempted her repeatedly; she told and admonished the mother-in-law again, in vain. He entered her room; she cursed him; he pretended to leave. She meant to tell her grandfather but held back. The mother-in-law pretended to leave; the tutor entered and seized her. She screamed and fought fiercely. Xianyou came in and the tutor fled. Injured in the side, she hanged herself. This was the third month of Qianlong 29. Next year the tutor was beheaded and the mother-in-law exiled to Xinjiang.
72
邢氏，字福，濬縣人。 農家女也，而有容色。 嫁袁顯旺，姑姣，群奸聚其室，驚邢美，挑之，不從。 其姑誘且詆，邢若為勿喻也者。 謀益急，夜出，將赴水，風失道，遇同村人送還父家。 父願，與復至袁氏。 群奸迫其父使具狀，曰：「女再逃，杖死。」 夜二鼓，群奸縛邢裸撻數百，邢有娠，不勝楚，求滅燈，死不恨。 群奸縋邢於梁，而撻之益毒。 五鼓燈盡，邢死。 使顯旺劙其頸，若自戕。 官捕群奸，論如法。
Xing Fu of Jun County. A peasant girl of comely features. She married Yuan Xianwang; his dissolute mother hosted villains who coveted Xing; she refused. The mother-in-law tempted and reviled her; Xing pretended not to understand. At night she fled to drown herself, lost her way, and a villager returned her to her father. Her father sent her back to the Yuans. The gang forced her father to sign: "If she flees again, beat her to death." At the second watch they bound her naked and beat her hundreds of strokes; pregnant, she begged them to put out the lamp. They hung her from a beam and beat her more viciously. At the fifth watch the lamp went out; Xing died. They made Xianwang cut her neck as if she had killed herself. Officials arrested the gang and punished them by law.
73
遷安婦，不知其姓。 夫行賈，翁耄，姑私於傭。 傭計並污婦，稍近婦，婦色甚厲。 乃與其姑謀，嗾翁污婦，婦不可，遂嗾翁殺婦。 絮塞口，杙椓下體死。
A Qian'an wife—surname unknown. Her husband traded away; the father-in-law was old; the mother-in-law kept a hired lover. The hired hand plotted to violate her; she met him with fierce resolve. He urged the mother-in-law to have the old father violate her; when she refused they urged him to kill her. They stuffed her mouth and killed her with stakes driven into her body.
74
白鎔妻尹，亦遷安人。 鎔出為優，姑有外遇，迫婦，絕飲食，日啜米沈。 踰月，姑縛尹，以熾鐵烙下體。 尹號，擊其首，發皆燃，一目裂，遂死。
Yin, wife of Bai Rong, also from Qian'an. Rong became an actor; her mother-in-law kept a lover and starved her to rice water. After a month the mother-in-law bound her and branded her lower body with hot iron. She cried out; they struck her head; her hair burned; an eye burst; she died.
75
林氏，平湖人。 嫁顧大，家乍浦湯山麓。 顧大母故娼也，惡少往來其室，強林具茗，不可。 母惎林，與諸惡少謀，必欲並污之，林竊出赴海。 未至，值鄰女，送之還； 母益仇林，與大日共笞之，靳其食，不令飽。 居年餘，為嘉慶九年正月，方改歲，惡少至，群飲，林复竊出赴海； 既日受笞，且久飢，行不前。 大追至，執以歸，母遂欲殺林。 撞以重器，腰肋俱折，复砲烙其下體。 是月丙戌晦，林死。 事發，論大如律。
Lin, from Pinghu. She married Gu Da of Zhapu, at the foot of Tang Hill. Her mother-in-law had been a prostitute; ruffians visited; they forced Lin to serve tea; she refused. The mother plotted with ruffians to violate her; Lin slipped toward the sea. Before she reached the sea a neighbor girl brought her back; the mother hated her more; she and Da daily beat her and starved her. After a year, in the first month of Jiaqing 9, at New Year, ruffians came drinking; Lin again fled toward the sea; beaten that day and long hungry, she could barely walk. Da caught her and dragged her back; the mother meant to kill her. She struck her with a heavy object, breaking waist and ribs, then burned her lower body. On bingxu, last day of that month, Lin died. When exposed, Da was punished by law.
76
洪某妻徐，金谿農家女也。 姑與兄公有盜行，徐至未踰月，察得之，大戚。 脫簪珥畀洪，囑遠行賈以避，屢諫姑，姑不納，乃自經。
Xu, Hong's wife, was a peasant girl from Jinxi. Her mother-in-law and brother-in-law stole; within a month Xu learned of it and grieved. She gave Hong her ornaments and urged him to trade far away; she admonished her mother-in-law in vain and hanged herself.
77
敖氏，涼州人，嫁駐防涼州旗人四十九。 四十九有友相狎，丐與敖通，四十九許之，假以衣，夜入室，敖聞語，辨非夫也，奪戶出，友遁。 敖詈四十九，俟其出，自溺水L7中死。
Ao of Liangzhou married Forty-nine, a Liangzhou garrison bannerman. Forty-nine lent clothes to a friend who entered at night; Ao knew the voice, fled, and the friend escaped. She cursed Forty-nine and, when he went out, drowned herself in the canal.
78
塗氏，梁山人，嫁甘克桂。 克桂遊蕩，破其家，塗以女紅供日食。 克桂負《鹵差》賈錢，將以塗償。 一日，克桂從塗取故衣易錢以飲，醉歸，塗泣，克桂摑其頰，曰：「行且鬻爾！」 塗曰：「吾矢死不往。」 克桂撻之，兩晝夜不已，塗自經死。
Tu of Liangshan married Gan Kegui. Keui was idle and ruined the family; Tu supported them with needlework. Keui owed a salt merchant money and meant to pay with Tu. One day he took her clothes for drink money; drunk, he slapped her and said: "Soon I will sell you!" Tu said: "I have sworn I will not go." He beat her two days and nights; Tu hanged herself.
79
吳氏，彰化人，嫁康氏子。 姑不貞，欲並亂之，吳不從； 乃效治囚法，榜掠之無算，卒不為屈，剚刃其腹死。 道光七年事也。
Wu of Zhanghua married into the Kang clan. Her mother-in-law was unchaste and meant to violate her; Wu refused; they tortured her like a prisoner, beat her endlessly, then stabbed open her belly. This was Daoguang 7 (1827).
80
楊氏，江都木工女，嫁曹氏子。 姑迫使為汙行，楊不從，乃絕其食，鞭之至累千。 造諸酷刑，榜掠無完膚，創重死。 鄰以告縣吏，笞其舅及夫，葬諸梅花嶺下。
Yang, a carpenter's daughter from Jiangdu, married a Cao. Her mother-in-law forced shameful conduct; she refused; they starved her and whipped her thousands of times. They devised cruel tortures until no skin was whole; she died of her wounds. Neighbors reported it; the clerk flogged her in-laws and husband and buried her below Meihua Ridge.
81
趙氏，桐城人，夫同縣孫某。 洪秀全兵將至，其夫降，受署置。 咸豐十一年，秀全兵破桐城，其夫戴黃巾，被黃袍，乘馬迎趙。 趙望見，大慟曰：「汝非我夫也！ 父母遣我嫁乃諸生孫某，非作賊孫某也！ 且汝既讀書為士人，豈不知孫氏望族，文武仕宦不絕，而失身降賊，意氣揚揚自得，我不忍見也！」 起，投塘死。 子數歲，從之下。
Zhao of Tongcheng, wife of a Sun of the same county. When Hong Xiuquan's army approached, her husband surrendered and took office under them. In Xianfeng 11 the Taiping took Tongcheng; her husband wore yellow robes and rode out to fetch her. She saw him and wailed: "You are no longer my husband! My parents wed me to a scholar named Sun, not a rebel named Sun! You were a scholar—do you not know the Suns are a great clan of officials—yet you surrendered to rebels and strut about proudly? I cannot bear to see it!" She threw herself into a pond and died. Her young son followed her into the water.
82
同時又有王氏，合肥人。 夫繆錫疇，將降秀全，王力諫不聽，自經死。
There was also a Wang from Hefei. Her husband Miao Xichou meant to surrender; Wang pleaded in vain and hanged herself.
83
許氏，名領姑，歙人，夫亦縣諸生。 咸豐十年，賊至，其舅將降，許泣諫，勿納，亦自經死。 其舅後忤賊，舉家皆為戮。
Xu Linggu of She County—her husband was also a licentiate. In Xianfeng 10 rebels came; her father-in-law meant to surrender; Xu wept, pleaded, and hanged herself. Later he offended the rebels and the whole family was slaughtered.
84
梅氏，名蘭姑，不知何縣人。 嫁夫不肖，欲攜以為豪家奴，梅不可； 又使出乳人子為傭，亦不可。 夫引僧入其室，梅力拒。 鄰以告官，官笞僧及其夫。 夫怒梅甚，窘辱捶楚無不至； 又徙居木工家，夜，諸惡少入室，將強汙之。 鄰復以告官，官未即聽其獄，梅自經死。 張氏，武進人，字沈盤德。 父母卒，大母老，待年於沈。 盤德父故無賴，屢挑女，女謹避之，又不令歸省。 張之戚有與沈鄰者，女大母偶過之，女聞，得間問安否，因密訴其事。 嗚咽曰：「兒命苦，惟有死耳！」 又嗚咽久之。 囑大母曰：「勿揚於人也！」 未幾，里中為優，舉家往觀，女獨在，盤德父驟逼之，力拒得脫。 度終不免，自經死。
Mei Langu—from an unknown county. Her worthless husband meant to sell her as a slave to a great house; she refused; he also sent her out to nurse another's child; she refused. He brought a monk into her room; she resisted fiercely. Neighbors reported it; the magistrate flogged monk and husband. Her husband hated her and shamed and beat her without limit; he moved her to a carpenter's house; at night ruffians tried to violate her. Neighbors reported again; the magistrate delayed; Mei hanged herself. Zhang of Wujin, betrothed to Shen Pandé. Orphaned, with an aged great-grandmother, she awaited marriage in the Shen home. Pandé's father was a wastrel who repeatedly tempted her; she avoided him and he barred her from visiting kin. A kinswoman lived nearby; when the great-grandmother passed, the girl asked after her and secretly told her plight. Sobbing she said: "My fate is bitter—only death remains!" She sobbed a long while. She begged: "Tell no one!" Soon the neighborhood staged an opera; the family went; she stayed behind; Pandé's father forced her; she fought free. Seeing no escape, she hanged herself.
85
秦某妻崔，陽高人。 夫惡，崔諫勿聽，撻辱之。 逾年，坐罪流徙，懼見侮，先殺其子而自殺。
Cui, wife of a certain Qin, from Yanggao. Her husband was cruel; she admonished him in vain and was beaten. A year later he was exiled; fearing violation she killed her son then herself.
86
李某妻管，南平人。 夫不肖，管數諫，累被撻辱，逼之嫁，奔還母氏。 卒鬻於富家，乃自殺。
Guan, wife of a certain Li, from Nanping. Her worthless husband beat her for admonishing him and forced remarriage; she fled to her mother. He sold her to a rich family; she killed herself.
87
王某妻徐，東鄉人。 姑夏，早寡，而子無藉，夏戒勿聽，徐規之，輒鞭撻欲死。 夏謂徐：「夫無恩，可嫁。」 徐不去。 陳潛聘妻崔，名秋，宣德人。 秋大父與潛父希孔同官於肇慶，秋大父卒官，因迎秋至官廨，而潛在裡，阻亂，未婚。 順治十年。 希孔罷官，還道高明，遇仇家，熸焉。 縶秋及希孔二妾，將汙之，秋罵甚厲。 仇生瘞秋，以蜜傅其面，引蟻嘬之，秋至死，罵不絕。 二妾亦生瘞死。
Xu, wife of Wang, from Dongxiang. Her mother-in-law Xia, widowed early, had a worthless son; Xu admonished him and was beaten nearly to death. Xia said: "He shows you no kindness—you may leave." Xu would not leave. Cui Qiu, Chen Qian's betrothed, from Xuande. Their grandfathers served together at Zhaoqing; when hers died in office she was brought there while Qian stayed home; turmoil delayed the wedding. Shunzhi 10 (1653). Xikong left office; passing Gaoming enemies burned them. They bound Qiu and two concubines to violate them; Qiu cursed fiercely. They buried her alive, smeared honey on her face for ants, and she cursed until death. The two concubines were buried alive as well.
88
朱承宇妻曹，承宇，無錫人； 曹，武進人：皆農家也。 生二子、一女，而承宇死。 承宇弟迫之嫁，曹以死拒。 遍告鄰里戚族，乞言於叔，得毋嫁，承宇弟不許； 請終喪，不許； 請及大祥，不許； 乃請得見其姊，許之。 曹夜挈兒女詣姊家，曰：「我初不欲嫁，今已矣！ 特不能累累然抱兒女作新婦，暫累姊，三日後，當相取，慎勿告吾叔！」 姊謾許之，兒啼索乳，曹泣曰：「痴兒！ 母豈能長乳爾耶？」 辭姊出，復還視兒女，再三囑姊。 姊曰：「三日耳，何言之數？」 乃去，哭於承宇墓，還，遂縊。 姊往哭之，目猶視，許育其兒女以長，乃瞑。 及斂，左臂創未合，蓋承宇病時嘗割臂也。 父為訟於縣，罪迫嫁者。
Cao, wife of Zhu Chengyu; Chengyu was from Wuxi; Cao was from Wujin—both were farmers. They had two sons and a daughter; then Chengyu died. His brother forced remarriage; Cao vowed to die rather than yield. She begged kin to persuade her uncle; the brother refused; she asked to finish mourning—not allowed; she asked until the great mourning—not allowed; then she asked only to see her sister—granted. At night she brought her children to her sister and said: "I would not remarry—but now it is settled! I cannot drag my children to a new marriage—leave them with you three days—do not tell my uncle!" The sister agreed; the children cried for milk; Cao wept: "Foolish children! How can Mother nurse you forever?" She left, looked back at her children again, and charged her sister repeatedly. The sister said: "Only three days—why so many words?" She wept at Chengyu's tomb, returned, and hanged herself. Her sister mourned her; her eyes stayed open until the sister promised to raise the children. At encoffining the wound on her left arm had not healed—from cutting her arm when Chengyu was ill. Her father sued; those who forced remarriage were punished.
89
陳有量妻海，銅山人。 有量，儒家子。 貧無食，轉徙常州。 居逆旅，貲盡，惡少矙海年少，與有量遊，且週之； 時其亡，挑海，海詈之，走。 是時漕粟至京師，其舟謂之糧船，主者皆豪猾。 惡少繩海於主者，亦引與有量遊，招使佐會計。 且謂：「舟行當經徐州，盍以孥歸？」 有量以告海，海問孰為引致，則惡少嘗為所挑詈而走者也，謝毋往。 惡少使其曹訟有量逃人，有量懼，乃以海入其舟。 海入舟，日獨處，主者使有量有事於近縣，而夜就海，強抱持之。 海號，撾其面，猶不釋，大呼殺人。 舟人盡驚起，始得免。 即夕，自經。 主者藏其屍積粟中，賄舟人。 有篙師藍九廷者，愍海死，卻主者賄，告官，乃按誅主者及惡少。 常州人葬海於南郊，會者殆千人。
Hai, Chen Youliang's wife, from Tongshan. Youliang was a scholar's son. Destitute, they moved to Changzhou. At an inn, broke, ruffians eyed young Hai, befriended Youliang, and gave him money; when he was away they tempted Hai; she cursed them and fled. Grain boats bound for the capital were manned by fierce scoundrels. The ruffians bound Hai to a boat master and drew Youliang in as clerk. They said: "When the boat reaches Xuzhou, bring your wife aboard." Youliang told her; she learned the introducer was the ruffian she had cursed and fled from, and refused to go. Ruffians had their men sue Youliang as a fugitive; afraid, he put Hai on their boat. Hai was kept alone on the boat; the master sent Youliang away on errands while at night he assaulted her. She cried out; he struck her face and would not let go; she screamed that he was killing her. The crew woke and she escaped. That evening she hanged herself. The master hid her body in the grain and bribed the crew. Pole-man Lan Jiuting, pitying her, refused the bribe and reported it; the master and ruffians were executed. Changzhou buried her at the southern suburb; nearly a thousand mourners came.
90
樊廷桂妻張，襄城人。 廷柱早卒，張奉姑撫二子。 縣中有無賴子二，倚兵籍為暴，艷張欲汙之。 康熙五十五年四月戊申，日方午，姑與其幼子出郭穫麥，二子就塾。 二無賴诇張獨居，共入室，張走避。 一直前持之，一扼其吭，哧以死，張不為屈。 取菜刀揕其面，為所奪。 入室就床側解佩刀，刀長操其室，方出，又為無賴奪，遂共曳張使伏，張輒躍而起，屢僕屢立。 捽其發，縷縷脫，呼益急。 二無賴度終不可犯，一拾所解刀斫張額，張僕，一取菜刀斷其喉，遂死。 鄰見二無賴出自張室，衣漬血，告官。 縣吏憚兵家子，欲坐廷柱弟宣，民大譁，乃以疑獄上。 後四年，河道周銓元署按察使，察獄辭，詫曰：「此何名疑獄？ 城中殺人，非荒野； 日午，非昏夜。 且殺人者有主名，此何名疑獄？」 下縣逮二無賴，一前數月發狂死，將死，自承殺張； 一戮於市。
Zhang, wife of Fan Tinggui, was from Xiangcheng. Tinggui died young; Zhang cared for her mother-in-law and raised two sons. Two ruffians in the county, shielded by military rolls, coveted Zhang and meant to violate her. On wushen at noon, fourth month, Kangxi 55, the mother-in-law and youngest son went out to harvest wheat; both sons were at school. The ruffians saw she was alone and entered; Zhang fled. One seized her, one throttled her and threatened death; she would not yield. She grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed at them; they wrested it away. She took the long sword by the bed; they wrested it away and dragged her down; she fell and rose again and again. They tore out her hair in clumps; she cried louder. Seeing they could not violate her, one hacked her forehead with the sword; as she fell the other cut her throat. Neighbors saw them leave blood-stained and reported it. The clerk, fearing the soldiers' families, tried to blame Tinggui's brother Xuan; the people protested and it went up as a doubtful case. Four years later Zhou Quanyuan, acting surveillance commissioner, read the file and exclaimed: "What doubtful case is this? Murder in town, not wilderness; at noon, not at night. The killers are known by name—what doubtful case?" He ordered both arrested; one had gone mad and died, confessing before death; the other was executed publicly.
91
李有恆聘妻楊，偃師人。 少喪母，十七未嫁。 父為隸，歲暮，猶行役。 一夕大雪，同村有屠者，持刀入女室，女堅拒，被殺。 質明，其父歸，見女死，咽斷，左手數創，右手持衣帶不釋。 出戶外，逐雪上血跡至屠者家，得刀於床下。 屠者死獄中。
Yang, Li Youheng's betrothed, was from Yanshi. Orphaned of her mother, at seventeen she was still unmarried. Her father was a yamen runner, still on duty at year's end. One snowy night a village butcher entered with a knife; she resisted and was killed. At dawn her father found her dead, throat cut, left hand wounded, right hand clutching her belt. He followed blood in the snow to the butcher's house and found the knife under the bed. The butcher died in prison.
92
陳某妻，不知其姓，吳人。 夫圬者，出就傭。 鄰有酒人過，調婦，婦語夫，夫漫授以刃曰：「彼來，汝殺之！」 復出就傭。 酒人夜排戶入，婦擲刃，酒人拾刃刃婦，洞胸死。 兒號，鄰婦入視，一村皆集，獨酒人者不至，求之，方避入鄰村。 告於官，誅之。 裡有老塾師曹叔素，盡出所蓄金為建祠，圖像以祭。
Chen's wife—surname unknown—was from Wu. Her husband was a plasterer working away from home. A neighbor wine-seller flirted with her; she told her husband, who handed her a knife: "If he comes, kill him!" He went back to work. At night he broke in; she threw the knife; he picked it up and stabbed her through the chest. The child cried; neighbors gathered; the wine-seller fled to another village. They reported him and he was executed. Schoolteacher Cao Shusu spent his savings to build a shrine and enshrine her image.
93
劉埜妻李，太康人。 姑令採菽，鄰村子持鐮過，調婦，婦力拒，舉鐮剚胸死。 越數日，鄰村子疾作，持鐮趨採菽所，自言殺婦狀，乃執以告官。 兩家故有連，賄罷訟。 逾年，疾復作，持鐮趨採菽所，抉胸斷喉死。
Li, wife of Liu Ye, was from Taikang. Sent to gather beans, a neighbor's son flirted with her; she resisted; he stabbed her chest with a sickle. Days later the killer fell ill, confessed at the bean field, and was arrested. The families were connected; they bribed to drop the case. A year later he relapsed, returned to the field, and killed himself.
94
曲氏女，字登，永寧人。 年十三，父守瓜，母呼女饁之，父令女代守。 鄰園叟五十餘，望見女獨坐柿樹下，前調之。 女怒罵，叟執其臂，女躍上樹，叟攀樹，曳以下，女號益厲，乃走。 女歸訴父母曰：「兒臂為人執，不為急湔洗，何能立天地間乎？」 明日，持刀奔至鄰園叟門外，自剄死，目瞠視，立不僕，血湧出不止。 叟出戶見之，反走，提廚刀至女門外，跽，亦自剄死。
Qu Deng, a Yongning girl. At thirteen her father kept the melon patch; her mother sent food; he left her to guard it. A neighbor over fifty saw her alone under a persimmon tree and approached. She cursed; he seized her arm; she climbed the tree; he pulled her down; she screamed; he fled. She told her parents: "A man seized my arm—if I am not cleansed, how can I live?" Next day she ran to his gate and cut her throat, standing upright as blood poured out. He came out, fled back, took a kitchen knife to her gate, knelt, and cut his own throat.
95
宋氏五烈女，肅寧農家女也。 父佃於勢家，為莊頭，其主視若奴僕。 生女四、女孫一，長，並有容色。 其主將迫使為媵，五女一夕自經死。 以白縣，縣憚勢家，不敢上聞，葬而為之碣，曰「宋氏五烈女之墓」，康熙三十四年事也。
The five Song martyr daughters were Suning peasant girls. Their father farmed as bailiff for a powerful landlord who treated them like slaves. Four daughters and a granddaughter—all beautiful. The master meant to take them as concubines; all five hanged themselves in one night. The county, fearing the landlord, buried them with a stele "Tomb of the Five Song Martyr Daughters"—Kangxi 34.
96
東安陶子明妻張，解萬有妻劉，清苑戴國妻鄭，為營兵所挑，不從，見殺。
Zhang wife of Tao Ziming, Liu wife of Xie Wanyou, and Zheng wife of Dai Guo were killed for refusing camp soldiers.
97
通州邢德重妻王，為營兵所挑，入井死。
Wang, wife of Xing Dezong of Tongzhou, drowned herself rather than yield to camp soldiers.
98
龔行妻謝，興化人。 縣被水，行挈妻女至鎮江，屑豆為腐以活。 鎮江故屯軍，有江寧無賴子入軍籍，窺謝及女有容。 一日行出，挾群少過之，遂挑謝。 謝倉皇號呼，無賴擊謝僕，女奔救，又犯女，急走避。 無賴偽為行券索償，因毆行。 行愬縣官，官笞行，且逮謝。 謝持女泣曰：「以吾故，陷汝父，吾死不足卹，獨憐汝耳！」 女亦泣曰：「母死，女何能生？ 即生，且蒙不潔。 原相從，得仍為母子。」 相持而慟。 雞初鳴，投水死。 女名巧。
Xie, wife of Gong Xing, was from Xinghua. When flood struck, Xing took wife and daughter to Zhenjiang and made tofu to survive. A Jiangning ruffian on the military rolls coveted Xie and her daughter. One day Xing was out; the ruffian and his gang harassed Xie. She cried out; he struck her down; the daughter tried to help and was assaulted; she fled. The ruffian forged a debt note and beat Xing. Xing sued; the magistrate flogged Xing and arrested Xie. Holding her daughter she wept: "Because of me your father is ruined—I do not mind dying, only you!" The daughter wept: "If you die, how can I live? Even alive I would be defiled. Let us go together and remain mother and daughter." They embraced and wept. At first cock-crow they drowned themselves. The daughter was named Qiao.
99
楊文龍聘妻孫，字秀，錢塘人。 秀年十五，待年於夫氏。 文龍從父行販，秀依姑共處。 鄰家子無賴入室，牽其衣，秀囓其指，乃去。 方暑，秀晚浴，鄰家子穴壁，持其足。 秀驚起白姑，姑告諸鄰。 或引無賴謝，秀提以茶碗，中他人，其人亦無賴，相與噪於門，言終當致之。 秀慮不免，密紉上下衣，出視姑膳，膳畢，复瀹茗進，乃入室，飲滷死。 巡撫聞，按誅無賴，為文以祭。
Sun Xiu, Yang Wenlong's betrothed, was from Qiantang. At fifteen she awaited marriage in the Yang household. Wenlong traded with his father; Xiu lived with her mother-in-law. A neighbor's ruffian son entered and pulled her clothes; she bit his finger and he left. One hot evening she bathed; he bored through the wall and seized her foot. She told her mother-in-law, who told the neighbors. They brought the ruffian to apologize; she threw a teacup and hit another ruffian; they swore at the gate they would have her. Fearing capture, she stitched her clothes tight, served her mother-in-law, then drank brine and died. The governor executed the ruffian and wrote a funeral text for her.
100
梁至良妻鄭，至良，海陽人； 鄭，澄海人。 至良卒，其兄為諸生，迫鄭嫁。 鄭遺腹生子，家有田八畝，鄭悉推與至良兄，自分圃畝許。 力種溉，傭於群從娣姒間，縫紉舂磨，得米奉姑食子女。 歲大無，至良兄憾其不嫁，夫婦眾撻辱之。 鄭念不可留，夜檢故衣，付其女，曰：「明晨母當去，若善視幼弟！」 明晨，跪姑前泣告當還母家，遍辭群從諸娣姒，遂行。 至廣濟橋，仰天呼夫名三，投韓江死。 雍正六年六月庚辰朔也。
Zheng, wife of Liang Zhiliang; Zhiliang was from Haiyang; Zheng was from Chenghai. When Zhiliang died his licentiate brother forced her to remarry. Pregnant, she bore a son; she gave all eight mu to his brother and kept only a small plot. She farmed, hired out among kin, sewed and ground rice to feed her mother-in-law and children. In famine his brother resented her refusal to remarry and they abused her. She could not stay; at night she gave her daughter old clothes: "Tomorrow I leave—care for your brother!" At dawn she knelt before her mother-in-law, said she was returning home, bid farewell to kin, and left. At Guangji Bridge she called her husband's name three times and drowned herself in the Han River. This was gengchen, first day of the sixth month, Yongzheng 6.
101
郭進昌妻李，永寧人。 進昌卒，矢不嫁，與女若婿居。 進昌弟貪而狡，計嫂年三十許，尚艾，嫁可得錢，乃詣李，微諷之。 李怒，叱使去，進昌弟與族子謀，鬻女為富家妾，約以騎迎。 至日，進昌弟入李室，將強扶李出，婿與女詬鬥。 李忽改容，戒勿譁，入室作妝，以小刀薙鬢，遂上馬去。 至王范鎮，李大呼，袖中出薙鬢小刀刺喉，喉斷，血噴十餘丈，墜馬死。 鎮人大驚，共執進昌弟，問狀，呼婿與女訴官，論如律。
Li, wife of Guo Jinchang, was from Yongning. When Jinchang died she vowed not to remarry and lived with her daughter and son-in-law. His greedy brother, seeing she was still comely at thirty, hinted she should remarry for money. She drove him out; he plotted to sell her daughter to a rich house, with horses to carry her off. On the day the brother entered to drag Li out; her daughter and son-in-law fought him. Li calmed them, made up her face, shaved her temples with a small knife, and rode off. At Wangfan Town she cried out, stabbed her throat with the knife, blood spraying far; she fell from the horse dead. Townspeople seized Jinchang's brother; the son-in-law and daughter sued; he was punished by law.
102
龔良翰妻陳，葉縣人。 良翰卒，孤女才三歲，後母欲嫁之。 陳依叔父居，叔母有弟窺陳美，夜持刀入自牖，陳與鄰女宿，盜至，推鄰女床下，徒手捍盜，指斷目傷，身數創，卒不得亂。 叔父聞，撞扉，盜牖出，陳息僅屬。 鄰女出床下，血淋漓被體。 叔父心知盜其婦弟也，告官，置諸獄，陳遂不食。 叔母勗以育女，乃復食。 既女殤，而縣吏鞫盜獄未定，若有疑於陳，召庭質，雍正七年五月辛亥，陳自經死。 後五年，縣吏坐罪去，事乃白。
Chen, wife of Gong Lianghan, was from Ye County. When Lianghan died the orphan was three; the stepmother wanted to marry her off. Living with her uncle, his wife's brother broke in at night; Chen fought him off bare-handed, maimed but unviolated. Her uncle battered the door; the thief fled; Chen barely lived. The neighbor girl crawled out, covered in blood. The uncle reported his wife's brother; Chen stopped eating. The aunt urged her to live for the girl; she ate again. When the girl died and the clerk seemed to doubt her, on xinhai, fifth month, Yongzheng 7, she hanged herself. Five years later the clerk was dismissed and her innocence was cleared.
103
王均妻湯，均，吳人； 湯，寶山人。 湯故富，均贅於湯，湯父母遇之薄。 均客授，湯治針黹以養父母。 稍久，有田十二畝。 雍正十年秋七月，海潮大至，均夫婦倉卒緣樹，均攀枯枝折，溺焉，湯父母憖不問。 湯使僮午求均屍，三日始得之，被髮徒跣赴屍所，哭幾絕。 既斂，湯父母慾火之，湯不許，瘞均田中。 湯遺腹生女，名之曰潮音。 湯父母迫使嫁，輿至，湯麻衣腰絰，抱潮音繞場號。 眾劫納輿中，湯父母奪潮音，將抵諸石，午自旁篡得之，歸諸王氏。 眾卒舁湯去，湯哭數夕不絕聲。 守者稍怠，自經死。 湯父母以疫死訃於王，棄湯柩所死家。 居數年，慮事泄，惎其人焚柩。 午自詭湯氏使往視，既焚骨入罌，午易以空罌，得湯骨瘞均側。 潮音亦前殤，祔焉。
Tang, wife of Wang Jun; Jun was from Wu; Tang was from Baoshan. Tang's family was wealthy; Jun married in; her parents treated him coldly. Jun taught away; Tang supported her parents with needlework. In time they had twelve mu of land. In Yongzheng 10, seventh month, a tidal wave struck; Jun's branch broke and he drowned; her parents showed no care. She sent servant Wuwu to find his body; on the third day she went barefoot and wept over it. Her parents wanted cremation; she refused and buried him in the field. Pregnant, she bore a daughter named Chaoyin. Forced to remarry, she wore mourning, held Chaoyin, and circled the yard wailing. They forced her into the chair; her parents tried to kill Chaoyin on a stone; Wuwu saved the child. They carried her away; she wept for nights without stop. When guards slackened she hanged herself. Her parents lied that she died of plague and left her coffin at the house of her death. Years later, fearing exposure, they had someone burn the coffin. Wuwu tricked them, swapped an empty urn, and buried her bones beside Jun. Chaoyin too had died young and was buried there.
104
李氏女，名蘭香，長安李氏婢也。 李氏有僕，私慾妻蘭香，未敢言。 會有客至，治具，主母命蘭香取具樓上，僕從登，扃門，就擁之。 蘭香號，持之堅，卒不從。 僕慮事敗，以麻稭剚其腹，深數寸，遂死。
Lanxiang was a maid in the Chang'an Li household. A servant secretly desired Lanxiang but dared not speak. When guests came she was sent upstairs; the servant followed, bolted the door, and seized her. She cried out and held fast; she would not yield. Fearing exposure he stabbed her belly with straw stalks; she died.
105
翠金，不知其氏，平湖施氏婢也。 主客授於外，翠金侍主婦，不苟言笑。 鄰有無賴夜持刃踰垣入，翠金呼，無賴懾以刃，翠金曰：「我不畏死！」 罵愈厲，遂見殺。
Cuijin—surname unknown—was a maid of the Shi family of Pinghu. The master was away; she served the mistress with strict propriety. A ruffian climbed the wall with a blade; she cried: "I do not fear death!" She cursed fiercer still and was killed.
106
張元尹妻李，永寧人。 生女而元尹卒，李以己有色，自晦，不逾閾。 居十餘年，其家僕夜持刀踰牆，拔戶樞，入其室，李聞其聲，僕也，罵：「萬逆！」 僕出刀曰：「不從，截汝脰！」 李奮頸呼曰：「截，截！」 聲未斷，已殊。 手足擊床震，女驚呼，家人縛僕送官，自言殺李狀，論如律。 所居村曰太原村。
Li, wife of Zhang Yuanyin, was from Yongning. After bearing a daughter Yuanyin died; knowing she was beautiful, she kept to the inner quarters. After more than ten years, a household servant came at night with a knife, climbed over the wall, pried open the door bolt, and entered her room. Li heard the sound, knew it was the servant, and cursed him: "Utterly rebellious!" He drew his knife: "Consent or I cut your throat!" She thrust out her neck: "Cut—cut!" Before the words ended she was dead. Her limbs struck the bed; the daughter screamed; they bound the servant; he confessed and was executed. Her village was called Taiyuan Village.
107
張檢妻顏，其同縣人。 幼聞人言太原村張烈婦，輒嗚咽流涕。 長有色，歸檢，出應試。 客作伺顏夜省姑，懷刃潛入室，匿桁下。 人定，出，登床，顏驚。 脅以刃，罵。 起奪刃劙掌，罵益急。 迭刺胸臂肋腋十餘創，死。 客作夜走，還其家，捕得，坐誅。
Yan, wife of Zhang Jian, was from the same county. From childhood she wept whenever she heard of the martyr wife of Taiyuan Village. Beautiful, she married Jian, who went to sit the examinations. A hired hand spied on her, entered at night, and hid under the rafters. When all was quiet he came out; she was startled. He threatened her with the blade; she cursed. She seized the blade, cutting her palm, and cursed fiercer. He stabbed her more than ten times; she died. He fled home, was captured, and executed.
108
万某妻曾，南城人。 萬愚甚，有父不能養。 曾力女紅食其舅，且自食。 萬嘗忤其父，告官，縣隸至，見婦美，乃為計出萬，且引使為隸，假以錢，招共居。 曾謂夫曰：「汝與彼不相識，何以能得此？ 此其意，蓋在我也！」 辭毋往，隸怒，索錢。 曾有女才四五歲，隸曰：「汝無錢，當鬻此女以償。」 萬乃鬻女，曾至所鬻家抱以歸，且罵隸。 隸益怒，告官謂曾忤其姑。 官令逮至，撻其面數十。 是夜曾抱其女赴水死。 曾嫁時，姑死久矣。
Zeng, wife of Wan Mou, was from Nancheng. Wan was foolish and could not support his father. Zeng worked needlework to feed her father-in-law and herself. Wan offended his father and sued; a runner saw Zeng's beauty, ousted Wan, and lured him into service with money. Zeng told her husband, "You and he do not know each other; how could you have got this? His intention is surely fixed on me!" She refused to go. The runner was angry and demanded the money. Zeng had a daughter only four or five years old. The runner said, "If you have no money, you must sell this girl to repay it." Wan then sold the girl. Zeng went to the buyer's house, carried her back, and cursed the runner. The runner grew still angrier and accused Zeng before the authorities of disobeying her mother-in-law. The magistrate ordered her arrested and flogged her face several dozen times. That night Zeng carried her daughter and drowned herself. When Zeng married, her mother-in-law had long since died.
109
李繼先妻侯，忻州人。 奸民謀汙之，不遂，誣以不潔，訟之官。 官不能白，侯自裁訟庭。
Men who failed to violate her slandered her as unclean and sued. The magistrate could not clear her; she killed herself in court. A Tian clan daughter was from Ba County.
110
田氏女，巴縣人。 幼喪父母，依兄嫂以居。 年十五，美，有無行生欲挑之。 鄰有優人妻與謀，要女過其家，強以酒，欲汙之。 怒詈，脫歸告兄，兄訟於縣。 生丐縣中有力者語縣吏，誣女有汙行，縣吏撻其兄而釋生，女忿自殺。
Orphaned young, she lived with her brother and sister-in-law. At fifteen she was beautiful; a dissolute student coveted her. An actor's wife plotted with him, got her drunk, and tried to violate her. She cursed, escaped, told her brother, and he sued. He bribed the clerk to slander her; her brother was flogged; she killed herself in rage. Miao, Ma Mou's betrothed, was from Suning.
111
馬某聘妻苗，肅寧人。 早喪母，將嫁，謁外祖母，止宿。 鄰僕瞷其美，夜持刃排闥入，女驚呼。 傭婦起沮，僕殺之。 外祖母奔救，又殺之。 客作聞聲持械入，與鬥，刃頓，取莝刀支解之。 因持女，女呼益急，莝刀擊之，創遍體死。 時乾隆三年六月己亥。
Motherless, before marrying she stayed with her grandmother. A neighbor's servant broke in at night; she screamed. A hired woman intervened; he killed her. Her grandmother tried to save her and was killed. A laborer fought him; when his blade broke he dismembered the killer with a chaff-knife. He then struck her with the chaff-knife; she died covered in wounds. This was jihai, sixth month, Qianlong 3. Yang, wife of Gao Riyong, was from Zhenfan.
112
高日勇妻楊，鎮番人。 日勇傭於馮氏，與楊俱。 馮挑焉，楊不從，因辭去。 馮從子尤艷楊，乾隆十六年七月甲申，馮氏子诇楊獨處，踰垣入。 楊方炊，力拒，馮氏子擲塊中楊，楊僕，遽死。 馮氏子懸其屍，若自罄然，扃戶走。 日勇訴縣，窮治馮氏子，伏法。
Riyong worked for the Fengs; Yang lived with him there. Feng flirted with her; she refused and they left. Feng's cousin coveted her; on jiashen, seventh month, Qianlong 16, he climbed the wall while she was alone. She was cooking and resisted; he threw a block, struck her down, and she died. He hung her body to look like suicide, bolted the door, and fled. Riyong sued; the killer was executed. Qiuchan, Luo Jier's wife—clan unknown—was from Wuchang.
113
羅季兒妻秋蟬，不知其氏，武昌人。 為攸人傭，欲逼汙之，不勝辱，季兒、秋蟬皆自殺。
Hired out, harassed beyond bearing, husband and wife both killed themselves. Liu Hui, a Wuyang girl.
114
劉氏女，小字惠，舞陽人。 年十六，美而端。 父母出力田，女獨居治枲。 鄰子入其室，女詬，鄰子出，復還掩其口。 女怒，囓鄰子，傷手。 稍解，女搏膺號。 鄰媼入視，鄰子乃去。 晡，父母還，女言其事，大慟，謂為無賴辱，當死。 父母慰喻之百端，卒自縊。 告官，鄰子詭言故與女有私。 按女屍，處子，乃論殺鄰子。
At sixteen she was beautiful and proper. Her parents farmed; she stayed home tending hemp. A neighbor's son entered; she cursed him; he returned and covered her mouth. She bit him and wounded his hand. Freed briefly, she beat her breast and cried out. A neighbor woman came; he fled. Her parents returned; she told them and said a ruffian's shame meant she must die. They comforted her in vain; she hanged herself. They reported it; the neighbor's son falsely claimed an affair. Her corpse proved she was a maiden; he was sentenced to death. Cai, wife of Zhong Mou, was from Jiading.
115
鍾某妻蔡，嘉定人。 生農家，年二十一而嫁，嫁三月夫死。 力作，日斷布三疋，易粟養姑。 姑憐之，勸使更嫁，蔡泣誓以死。 有女妹嫁無賴子，欲得蔡，語姑偽為其弟娶者。 姑察蔡志堅，弗許，因構蜚語衊蔡。 姑審其誣，將率蔡愬諸縣，無賴子陽使其妻歸謝，而陰告母，將結惡少夜劫之。 姑惶遽無所出，縊焉。 蔡覺，趨救得甦，姑哽咽語曰：「吾女遇不淑，重為新婦累，吾不忍見新婦之受其累也！」 蔡曰：「母無慮！ 婦留，母不得安； 婦去，母不得食。 雖然，叔幼，非母焉依？ 請得卒哭焉以往。」 乃奠夫，慟，入戶，解絰自經死。
Cai, wife of Zhong, was from Jiading. Born into a farming family, she married at twenty-one; three months after the marriage her husband died. She labored hard, cutting three bolts of cloth each day and exchanging them for grain to support her mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law pitied her and urged her to remarry, but Cai wept and swore to die first. A younger sister had married a wastrel, who wanted Cai and falsely told the mother-in-law that he meant to marry her to his younger brother. The mother-in-law saw that Cai's resolve was firm and would not allow it, so he fabricated slanders to defame Cai. After the mother-in-law learned the slander was false, she was about to take Cai to complain at the county office. The wastrel outwardly sent his wife back to apologize, but secretly told his mother that he would gather ruffians to abduct Cai by night. The mother-in-law, terrified and with no way out, hanged herself. Cai discovered this, rushed to save her, and revived her. The mother-in-law sobbed and said, "My daughter met a bad man and has again burdened you, my new daughter-in-law; I cannot bear to see you suffer because of it!" Cai said, "Do not worry, Mother! If I remain, Mother cannot be at peace; if I go, Mother will have no food. Still, my brother-in-law is young; without Mother, on whom can he rely? Let me finish the mourning cries, and then I will go." She then made offerings to her husband, wailed, went inside, removed her mourning sash, and hanged herself.
116
段舉妻盧，延津人。 盧有色，一夕，與其子女為賊縊殺室中。 知縣詣視，盧帛系頸，爪殷血，子女縊床上。 知縣求賊，村人集視，一人手屈匿袖中。 令出手，絮裹指端，發視有齧跡，視胸及股皆爪傷。 問之，乃自言：「艷盧色，夜穴牆入，盧驚呼，掩其口，齧我指。 捽而逼之，屢僕屢起，爪傷我身，乃出腰間帛縊殺之。 子女號，因並縊焉。」 獄上，盧得旌。 乾隆十八年事也。
Lu, wife of Duan Ju, was from Yanjin. Lu was beautiful. One night, she and her son and daughter were strangled by a bandit in their room. The county magistrate went to inspect the scene. Lu had silk tied around her neck and her nails were dark with blood; her son and daughter had been strangled on the bed. The magistrate sought the bandit. The villagers gathered to look, and one man kept his hand bent and hidden in his sleeve. The magistrate ordered him to bring out his hand. Wadding wrapped his fingertips; when it was opened, bite marks were visible. Looking at his chest and thighs, they were all scratched. When questioned, he then confessed, "I lusted after Lu's beauty. At night I dug through the wall and entered; Lu cried out in alarm, so I covered her mouth, and she bit my finger. I seized and forced her; again and again she fell and rose, clawing and wounding my body, so I took the silk from my waist and strangled her. When her son and daughter cried out, I strangled them too." When the case was submitted, Lu received an honorary commendation. This happened in Qianlong 18.
117
王某妻劉，懷仁人。 歲大無，豪族結姦儈貨沒飢人子女。 劉度不免，從容語其夫曰：「姑老子幼，不耐飢，旦暮俱死，無益，計不若鬻我。 誠得多金，姑與子可無死。 汝第送我於郊，我得以身完！」 夫忍而許之。 儈至，遂鬻婦，夫送之行。 四日，儈屏其夫，夫未去。 劉語儈曰：「我夫不能庇我，以至此，戀戀何為者？ 是非痛詈之，弗肯去也。」 儈以為誠然，縱飲且醉。 劉出，呼其夫，拔簪刺喉死。 儈皆驚，散去。
Liu, wife of Wang, was from Huairen. In a year of great famine, powerful clans conspired with brokers to sell off the sons and daughters of starving people. Liu judged there was no escape and calmly told her husband, "My mother-in-law is old and my child is young; they cannot withstand hunger. If we all die morning or evening, it will be useless. Better to sell me. If we truly obtain much gold, my mother-in-law and child can avoid death. You need only send me to the outskirts, and I can preserve my body intact!" Her husband painfully agreed to it. When the broker arrived, she was sold, and her husband escorted her on the road. After four days, the broker tried to send her husband away, but he had not gone. Liu told the broker, "My husband could not shelter me and brought me to this point; what is there for him to linger over? Unless he is fiercely reviled, he will not be willing to go." The broker thought this was truly so and drank freely until he was drunk. Liu went out, called her husband, pulled out a hairpin, stabbed her throat, and died. The brokers were all alarmed and scattered.
118
張良善妻王，鞏縣雙槐村人。 事舅姑孝。 父為傭，母呼王還。 家故貧，穴土為室，母出，與幼弟二禮居。 有族子故無賴，夜以刀劙戶側土，土落，王驚問，族子已入室。 王怒叱曰：「我而姑也，而禽獸，速出！」 族子出刀。 曰：「刀何為者？ 任爾殺不懼。」 族子刺王中左肋，血溢自襦濺數步，益怒詈，复刺左右肋及乳。 王奪刀，刃裂掌僕。 二禮亦呼，族子斫其臂，亦僕。 王復自地上躍起，疾出戶，呼殺人，族子從之。 王創甚，躓於石顛樹下，族子劙其口，王口齧刀齒有聲。 族子抽刀，破其頤，王不能言，聲猶厲，身霍霍不已。 斷其喉，乃死。 乾隆三十五年十月事也。 質明，裡見王死，呼其父歸，二禮言姊死狀。 眾聞王死烈，吊者日千餘，上於官，誅族子。
Wang, wife of Zhang Liangshan, was from Shuanghuai Village in Gong County. She served her parents-in-law with filial devotion. Her father worked as a hired laborer, and her mother called Wang home. The family had always been poor and lived in a room dug into the earth. When her mother went out, Wang stayed there with her young brother Erli. A clansman, long a wastrel, came at night and cut through the earth beside the door with a knife. As the earth fell, Wang cried out in alarm, and the clansman had already entered the room. Wang angrily scolded him, "I am your aunt, and you are a beast. Get out at once!" The clansman drew his knife. She said, "What is the knife for? I do not fear you killing me as you please." The clansman stabbed Wang in the left ribs; blood poured from her jacket and splashed several paces. She cursed him still more fiercely, and he stabbed her again in the left and right ribs and in the breast. Wang seized the knife, but the blade split her palm and she fell. Erli also cried out; the clansman hacked his arm, and he too fell. Wang again sprang up from the ground, rushed out the door, and cried that someone was killing people. The clansman followed her. Badly wounded, Wang stumbled against a stone and fell beneath a tree. The clansman slit her mouth, and Wang bit the knife so that her teeth rang against it. The clansman pulled out the knife and split her jaw. Wang could no longer speak, but the sound of her struggle was still fierce, and her body kept convulsing. Only after he cut her throat did she die. This happened in the tenth month of Qianlong 35. At dawn the villagers saw Wang dead and called her father home; Erli told how his sister had died. Hearing of Wang's martyrdom, more than a thousand mourners came each day. The matter was reported to the authorities, and the clansman was executed.
119
李青照妻張，興國人。 鄉人赴官雲南，青照將妻、子以從，鄉人艷張，屢挑之，張以語青照。 過長沙，青照與妻、子夜脫走，青照復還取行橐，張抱子以待。 長沙縣役與相值，詰得其情，引以行。 稍遠，乃逆青照脅以逃人，詐得金，並解所佩象齒蝦蟆去，至張所示之，詭言青照招使往。 張從登舟，役迫之，抱子入江死。 青照聞告官，論役如律，乃自經死。
At Changsha they fled at night; he returned for luggage; she waited with their child. A Changsha runner learned their story and led them on. He then coerced Qingzhao as a fugitive, took his gold and ivory amulet, and lied that Qingzhao sent him. On the boat he forced her; she embraced their child and drowned. Qingzhao reported it; the runner was executed; Qingzhao hanged himself. Yao Jichun's daughter was from Fuliang. Her father was away; she tended her mother.
120
姚際春女，浮梁人。 際春方遠行，女侍母居。 有母之族為傭者，佻而獷，女惡之。 告母，母謂彼於汝尊行也，宜無他。 居稍久，傭益恣，女復告母：「不逐傭，且殺兒。」 母遣傭，傭不行，挾刃入女室。 女躍且呼，傭剚其腹，腸出。 母入視，傭自剄。 女目未瞑，移時甦，猶語其母曰：「兒惜此身以報父母，獨憾父出不一訣也！」 語竟，血飛濺，承塵盡赤，乃絕。
The daughter of Yao Jichun was from Fuliang. Jichun was away on a journey, and the girl stayed at home serving her mother. A maternal kinsman working as a hired laborer was frivolous and violent, and the girl hated him. She told her mother, but her mother said he was of an older generation than she was and should have no improper intent. After a while the hired man became more reckless, and the girl again told her mother, "If you do not drive the hired man away, he will kill me." Her mother dismissed the hired man, but he would not leave and entered the girl's room carrying a blade. The girl leaped up and cried out; the hired man stabbed her belly, and her intestines came out. Her mother came in to look, and the hired man cut his own throat. The girl's eyes would not close. After a while she revived and still told her mother, "I cherished this body to repay my parents; my only regret is that Father is away and I could not bid him farewell!" When she finished speaking, blood sprayed out and reddened the ceiling, and then she died.
121
王敦義妻張，新陽人。 敦義早卒，而家富，其弟覬得之。 有無賴為之計，夜使年少僕匿張床下，而偽為捕賊者。 僕自承與張私，因呼里長縛僕並及張。 天初明，偽為縣役持牒逮張，又偽為居間者，使張予金緩其事。 張歸，心知為叔賣，有女字俞氏，遂出橐中裝為一囊，攜女之俞氏，以女託翁、媼，歸自經死。
A ruffian hid a young servant under her bed while pretending to catch thieves. The servant confessed an affair; they bound him and Zhang. At dawn fake runners seized her; fake mediators extorted gold. Knowing her uncle had framed her, she entrusted her daughter to the Yus and hanged herself. Lu Zhao Feng, Chen Weizhang's wife, was from Zhuji. Her father was Xiaozhong.
122
陳維章妻陸，名趙鳳，諸暨人。 父效忠。 初有黠者聞陸美，欲娶之，以齒非偶，偽為其弟聘，而陰為弟別娶於李。 效忠聞，絕黠者，歸女於維章。 黠者易婚書，賄媒妁，以訟於縣，縣判歸黠者。 黠者以輿俟，得判則劫持陸置輿中，疾舁去。 陸方持祖姑服，黠者迫更衣，不可，手裂其衰。 陸詣縣，袖剪以往，計不直，則自殊。 倉卒被劫持行，不得出。 及拒黠者，裂衰，剡觸手，乃不敢迫，使弟婦李守之。 李憐陸，又自念處亂家，時時與陸屏語，或相持泣，數日乃共縊，繩不足，續以帶。 時道光四年二月，陸與李皆十七。
A cunning man, ages mismatched, betrothed his "younger brother" while secretly marrying another. Her father broke with him and returned her to Weizhang. He altered the contract, bribed the matchmaker, and won at court. He seized her in a bridal chair and rushed away. Still in mourning, she refused to change; he tore her mourning clothes. She went to court with scissors, resolved to die if justice failed. Seized en route, she could not escape. Resisting, she cut her hand; he had Li guard her. Li pitied her; they wept together; days later they hanged together, adding belts when rope failed. Daoguang 4, second month; both were seventeen. A He clan daughter of Shanyin lived in Tongzhou. A neighbor betrothed her to his performing son to violate her; she cut her hair and vowed.
123
何氏女，山陰人，居通州。 鄰有黠者聘為其弄兒婦，冀並亂之，女截發自誓。 鄰里以告官，官判歸父母家別嫁。 女減食六閱月，垂死，告父母曰：「兒失身於匪人，重見逼迫，不幸告官，又不幸判別嫁，此子誠不肖，兒則夫也。 兒欲為之死，又不敢傷父母意，乃減食以求死。 初減十五，逾二月減七，又二月減九，今不食已三日，兒死非病，原父母勿悲。」 遂卒。
A He clan girl was from Shanyin and lived in Tongzhou. A crafty neighbor betrothed her as wife to his plaything son, hoping to use the match to corrupt her as well; the girl cut off her hair and swore fidelity. Neighbors reported this to the authorities, and the magistrate judged that she should return to her parents' home and marry someone else. The girl reduced her food for six months. Near death, she told her parents, "Your child has lost herself to a wicked man and is again being forced. Unhappily, the matter was reported to the authorities, and unhappily again they judged that I should marry another. This son is indeed unworthy, but to your child he is my husband. Your child wished to die for him, yet did not dare wound her parents' hearts, so she reduced her food in order to seek death. At first I reduced it by fifteen, after two months by seven, after another two months by nine; now I have not eaten for three days. Your child's death is not illness. I pray Father and Mother not to grieve." She then died.
124
劉宏芳聘妻週，霍州人，未行而宏芳卒，周亦減食，數月乃死。
She married at twenty-one; widowed soon, she lived with her aunt.
125
謝亞煥妻王，名杏芳，東莞寶潭村人。 年二十一，歸亞煥，未期而寡，從姑居。 有諸生姦暴為縣豪，瞷王美，使告其姑，欲為從子娶。 姑辭焉，則宣言將毀其居。 一日，將數十人至，大譟升屋，撤椽發瓦，姑走匿。 王出語眾曰：「若曹欲何為？ 我在也，勿驚我姑！」 豪呼眾篡之歸。 王故惎豪，採毒草自備，輿中食之盡。 至豪家，登堂，毒發死。 豪夜還其屍，瘞於亞煥側。 姑與其母家愬縣，獄成，豪瘐死，道光十一年事也。
Wang, named Xingfang, wife of Xie Yahuan, was from Baotan Village in Dongguan. At twenty-one she married Yahuan; before a full year had passed she was widowed and lived with her husband's aunt. A licentiate, violent and licentious and a local bully in the county, glimpsed Wang's beauty and had someone tell the aunt that he wished to marry her to his younger male cousin. When the aunt refused, he proclaimed that he would destroy her home. One day he arrived with several dozen men, shouting loudly as they climbed onto the roof, pulled out rafters, and stripped off tiles. The aunt fled and hid. Wang came out and told the crowd, "What do you intend to do? I am here; do not frighten my aunt!" The bully called on the crowd to seize her and carry her home. Wang had long hated the bully and had gathered poisonous herbs in readiness; in the sedan chair she ate them all. When she reached the bully's house and entered the hall, the poison took effect and she died. That night the bully returned her body and buried her beside Yahuan. Her aunt and her mother's family complained to the county. When the case was completed, the bully died of illness in prison. This happened in Daoguang 11.
126
張樹功妻吳，常熟人。 樹功卒，吳遺腹生男，矢不嫁，事姑撫孤子。 樹功有弟共居，姒賢，與吳相得。 死，而再娶得悍婦，奴婢視吳母子，吳安之。 歲饑，悍婦凌吳，樹功弟用婦言欲嫁之。 吳痛哭告其子曰：「汝今九歲，飢寒可自知，我將舍汝從汝父去矣！」 其子魯，不知母將死也，吳遂自經。
When the sister-in-law died a fierce second wife abused them; Wu endured. In famine the brother meant to marry her off. She wept: "You are nine—I go to join your father!" The boy did not understand; she hanged herself. In famine the brother meant to marry her off. Wu wept: "You are nine—I go to join your father!" Her dull son did not understand; Wu hanged herself.
127
郭某妻李，仁和人。 早寡。 杭州初定，防軍守諸門，勢張甚。 車過，男子下，婦人必卷幔。 李從家人避兵郊外，歸入錢塘門，方小病，門卒遙見之，為嫚語，李坐車中微聞之。 至家，慟曰：「我不幸為門卒語所辱，我不可以生！」 晨夕涕泣，不食二十餘日，卒。
Li, Guo Mou's wife, was from Renhe. Widowed early. When Hangzhou was pacified, garrison troops arrogantly guarded the gates. Men dismounted for carts; women had to roll up curtains. Returning through Qiantang Gate, ill, she faintly heard a guard's lewd words. At home she said: "A gate guard shamed me—I cannot live!" She wept and refused food for over twenty days until she died.
128
趙謙妻王，威縣人。 當暑，謙出，王獨寢，風入牖簾開，若有窺者，王忿不欲生。 舅姑及謙曲喻之，終不釋。 曰：「與其疑而生，不若疑而死。」 遂自經。
Wang, wife of Zhao Qian, was from Wei County. In hot weather, Qian went out and Wang slept alone. Wind entered through the window, the curtain opened, and it seemed as if someone were peeping in; Wang was indignant and no longer wished to live. Her parents-in-law and Qian tried every way to explain it to her, but she never let it go. She said, "Rather than live under suspicion, it is better to die under suspicion." She then hanged herself.
129
郭氏女，鳳陽人。 順治十一年，女年十四。 樓居，鄰火，女披衣下樓，見救火者眾，不欲前，躍入火中死。
A He clan daughter was from Sishui. Fire broke out; her brother saved grandmother; she would not leave improperly dressed and died with sisters and cousin. Yan, Shen Dingyou's wife, was from Shanyin.
130
何氏女，汜水人。 侍祖母同寢，夜火，其兄援祖母出，復入救女，女以衣履不具，終不出，與妹二、表妹一同死。
Widowed, when fire came she could not dress in time. She sent her son out, closed the door, and burned.
131
沈鼎猷妻嚴，浙江山陰人。 寡，遇火，倉卒不得衣。 救者至，出其子門外，复閉門焚死。
An iron-mountain woman was from Dehua. Fire spread; she could not climb the trench wall, refused a hand, and died in flames. Wang and He clan daughters of She County lived as neighbors at the east gate.
132
鐵山婦，德化人。 火至傍舍，鐵山塹高，迫不得上，或援以手，婦不肯上，及於火死。
Orphaned, each in a tower, they were close as sisters. A great fire broke out; Wang ran to save He.
133
汪氏女，與賀氏女，皆歙人，家縣之東門，相鄰也。 父母俱歿，各居小樓中，汪長賀一歲，賀時從刺繡，相親若姊妹。 縣大火，初發，汪未寢，驚走出，呼家人救賀。 往叩門，賀自樓上問曰：「姊出乎？」 曰：「已出，故使來相迎。」 少頃，賀復曰：「吾求外襦不得，不可以出，幸謝姊！」 既而火及，汪氏之人欲排戶入救之，賀怒詈，乃不敢前，竟焚死。 還報汪，汪曰：「妹死，吾何忍獨生？」 趨賀死所，躍入火，亦死。
The Wang clan girl and the He clan girl were both from She. Their homes were by the county's eastern gate and were next to each other. Both girls' parents had died, and each lived in a small upper room. Wang was one year older than He; He often went to her for embroidery, and they were close as sisters. A great fire broke out in the county. When it first began, Wang had not yet gone to sleep; startled, she ran out and called her household to save He. They went to knock on the door. From upstairs, He asked, "Has Sister gotten out?" They said, "She is out and sent us to come for you." After a little while, He again said, "I cannot find my outer jacket and cannot come out. Please thank Sister for me!" Then the fire reached her. Wang's people wanted to force the door open and go in to save her, but He angrily cursed them, so they dared not go forward; in the end she burned to death. They returned and reported this to Wang. Wang said, "My younger sister is dead; how can I bear to live alone?" She rushed to the place where He had died, leaped into the fire, and also died.
134
馮光琦女，郭君甫妻吳，皆盱眙人。 光琦恆為客，女母死，囑吳為侶。 遇火，女扶母棺號，火益烈，救不至，吳引女出，女堅不肯起，俱焚死。
Wang, Huang Shengxie's wife, was from Wuyuan. Bandits came; she fled with her mother-in-law, lost her at a ford. The bridge was failing; a man offered help; she refused.
135
黃聲諧妻王，婺源人。 寇至，扶姑行避寇，道失姑，蹟之至渡口。 水方盛，行度橋，橋欲圮，有男子援以手，卻之。 橋圮，墮水，據木浮中流。 男子以雨蓋授，复卻之，遂溺。
The bridge fell; she clung to floating timber. He offered an umbrella; she refused again and drowned. Xu, Xu Weiyuan's wife, was from Nanling. In Kangxi-era banditry attendants offered to carry her; she refused. Bandits overwhelmed them; she entered the water and died.
136
徐惟原妻許，南陵人。 康熙間盜起，許行當涉水，從者請負以行，許曰：「僕焉可負我？」 寇大至，入水死。
Xu, wife of Xu Weiyuan, was from Nanling. During the Kangxi reign, bandits arose. When Xu was traveling and had to cross water, a follower asked to carry her. Xu said, "How can a servant carry me?" The raiders arrived in force, and she entered the water and died.
137
柯叔明妻鞏，貴池人。 大水，叔明及其子已出，使僕負鞏，鞏以僕裸，不肯出，死於水。
In flood every household took to the roofs. A naked neighbor climbed up; ashamed, she would not and drowned.
138
胡某妻裘，新城人。 大水，比戶皆乘屋。 鄰有裸而登者，裘恥之，不上，溺死。
Li, Chen Ruxian's wife—origin unknown. At midnight flood came; her clothes were swept away; she would not emerge and died. A Baiyang girl—origin unknown.
139
陳儒先妻李，不知何許人。 夜半水至，鄰人呼升屋避，李衣逐水去，死不出。
In Kangxi 47 she drifted in flood to Baiyang. Rescuers came; without clothes she refused rescue and died.
140
白洋女，不知何許人。 康熙四十七年，大水，從流至白洋。 有拯之者，女以無衣，不就拯，死。
A Gao clan wife was from Lu'an. At a neighbor's tower she took her daughter to open ground rather than mix with men. Her husband lowered a rope; she would not climb and died.
141
高氏婦，六安人。 避水鄰樓，惡男女雜處，挈幼女下，立曠地。 水大至，其夫垂綆使援以上，終不上，竟死。
A Duan Wukao daughter was from Jishan. Yongzheng 7, sixth month: night flood; she floated among reeds. Neighbors came; without clothes she refused rescue and drowned at fifteen.
142
段吳考女，稷山人。 雍正七年六月，山水夜發，壞廬舍，女從水浮沉葦間。 鄰人赴援，女以無衣，不肯出，入水死，年十五。
A Cao clan daughter was from Wuwei. A temple monk murdered a boy who saw his affair. The father sued; the monk confessed.
143
曹氏女，無為人。 州有寺僧與婦人私，鄰童入寺見之，僧殺而埋焉。 童父訟於州，僧辭服。 僧念罪當死，不如多所連染，得稽刑。 乃妄言良家子女與通者三十餘人，女家故近寺，亦在誣中。 州吏盡逮諸婦，女白父，當詣庭自列，父不可，旦入城，謀諸吏。 忽女自至，意色自如，詣庭。 州吏出僧質，僧曰：「汝非曹氏女耶？」 女曰：「然。」 僧曰：「吾所交惟汝最久且密。」 女曰：「果爾，吾身有異人處，汝當知。」 僧辭遁。 女固請入室使婦驗，則下體有疣贅，州吏始知僧言妄，慰遣女歸。 女既歸，歎曰：「吾所以蒙恥詣庭者，非為自表暴，蓋欲全此三十餘人而救其死耳。 今事既白，吾廢人也，安用生為？ 且可使昏暴之吏，有所愧懼也。」 遂自經死。
A Cao clan girl was from Wuwei. In the prefecture there was a temple monk who had illicit relations with a woman. A neighbor boy entered the temple and saw them, so the monk killed him and buried him there. The boy's father brought suit in the prefecture, and the monk confessed. The monk thought that since his crime deserved death, he might as well implicate many others and thereby delay punishment. He falsely claimed that more than thirty daughters and women of good families had had relations with him. The girl's family had long lived near the temple and was also included in the slander. The prefectural clerks arrested all the women. The girl told her father that she should go to court and clear herself. Her father would not allow it, and at dawn he entered the city to consult the clerks. Suddenly the girl herself arrived, calm in expression and bearing, and went to court. The prefectural clerks brought out the monk to confront her. The monk said, "Are you not the Cao clan girl?" The girl said, "Yes." The monk said, "Of those I had relations with, you were the one I knew longest and most intimately." The girl said, "If that is so, my body has a place unlike other people's; you should know it." The monk evaded the question. The girl firmly requested that women examine her in a private room. She had warts on her lower body, and only then did the prefectural clerks know the monk's words were false; they comforted her and sent her home. After the girl returned home, she sighed and said, "The reason I went to court in shame was not to display myself, but to preserve those more than thirty people and save their lives. Now that the matter is clear, I am a ruined person; what use is it to live? And this may make dark and violent officials feel shame and fear." She then hanged herself.
144
劉廷斌女，四川溫江人。 廷斌道光七年官台灣鎮總兵，八年，卒官。 喪還，渡海，遇盜。 盜殺其家十七人盡，女以美獨不殺。 有客附舟哀，盜擲岸上，盜以女還。 居十餘年，生四子。 一日，女入寺禮佛，見僧似若相識。 既歸，省僧即附舟客也。 乃為牒具遇盜始末，復入寺，密以畀僧。 僧告官，官取盜及其徒悉誅之。 縶四子，以問女，女曰：「我所以受汙不即死者，仇未報耳！ 仇報矣，此曹豈我子哉？」 手刃四子，自縊死。
The daughter of Liu Tingbin was from Wenjiang, Sichuan. In Daoguang 7, Tingbin served as garrison commander of Taiwan; in Daoguang 8, he died in office. As his coffin was being brought back and crossing the sea, it met pirates. The pirates killed all seventeen members of her family; because the girl was beautiful, she alone was not killed. A passenger who had attached himself to the boat pitied her, and the pirates threw him onto the shore; the pirates took the girl back with them. She lived there for more than ten years and bore four sons. One day the girl entered a temple to worship the Buddha and saw a monk who seemed familiar. After returning home, she realized the monk was the passenger who had been on the boat. She wrote out a document giving the full circumstances of the pirate attack from beginning to end, then returned to the temple and secretly gave it to the monk. The monk reported it to the authorities, and they captured the pirates and their followers and executed them all. She bound her four sons and questioned them. The girl said, "The reason I endured defilement and did not die at once was only that vengeance had not yet been repaid! Now vengeance has been repaid; how could these be my sons?" She killed the four sons with her own hand and hanged herself.
145
張氏女，山東人。 貧為婢，其主明魯王近屬也。 明亡，張挈硃氏子流離旁郡，行傭不給，得巨室子之。 硃氏子稍長，為諸生。 聖祖即位，詔先朝諸宗人得以本姓歸田廬，張乃為硃氏子泣言其故。 硃氏子復姓，召諸長老，原為張加冠，事之如母。 張艴曰：「吾硃氏不成妾也，今主君主婦何在？ 吾何敢竊位！ 吾以姐始，亦以姐終，原勿復言！」 俗謂婢曰「姐」，故張言如是。
A Zhang clan girl was from Shandong. Poor, she became a maid; her master was a close relative of the Ming Prince of Lu. When the Ming fell, Zhang took a Zhu clan child and wandered through neighboring commanderies. They could not support themselves by hired work until a wealthy household took them in. When the Zhu child grew somewhat older, he became a licentiate. After the Sacred Ancestor ascended the throne and issued an edict allowing former Ming clansmen to return to their fields and homes under their original surname, Zhang tearfully told the Zhu child the circumstances. The Zhu child restored his surname, summoned the elders, and wished to cap Zhang and serve her as his mother. Zhang flushed with anger and said, "I never became a concubine of the Zhu family. Where are my lord and lady now? How could I dare steal their place? I began as 'elder sister' and will end as 'elder sister.' Please do not speak of this again!" Custom called maids "elder sister," and so Zhang spoke in this way.
146
崇德五年，師伐明，下河間，河間知府曲阜顏賡明自焚。 有孫嫗者，傭於顏，挾其幼孫光敏，從師出關，間道徒步還曲阜，歸顏氏。 孫與張同以義行稱。
Jinlian, maid of Chen Qizhen of Liang County. Rebels sacked the county; she fled with his son. Bandits told her to drop the child; she refused.
147
陳氏婢金蓮，梁縣人，縣諸生陳其珍家婢也。 流賊破縣，金蓮負其珍幼子以逃。 賊追及，令棄陳氏子，與俱去，金蓮不可。 賊斫陳氏子，金蓮身覆翼之，被數創，終不捨。 賊去，金蓮死，陳氏子得全。
They hacked the child; she shielded him, died, but the child lived. Xinxi, maid of the Qiu household, from Lujiang. The rich Qius fled when bandits came. They beat her nearly dead; she never betrayed her master. She died of wounds; the Qius enshrined her for generations.
148
邱氏婢新喜，瀘江人。 邱氏富，寇至，舉室走匿。 執新喜，問其主安在，榜之垂斃，終不言。 寇退，創重死，邱氏世祠焉。
Dong of Jiangdu served the Han family. In Shunzhi 2 the army took Yangzhou; the Hans and eldest son died. Dying, Xiao entrusted three-year-old Wei to Dong. That night Dong crawled through chaos with the child and survived on wheat ears.
149
董氏，江都人，傭於韓氏。 順治二年，師下揚州，韓氏夫婦及其長子皆死難。 主婦蕭將死，以其幼子魏託於董，方三歲。 即夕，董懷幼子匍匐亂軍中，出自竇，匿江濱，拾麥穗噉之，得不死。 亂定，魏育於故人家，將婚，迎董。 董疾甚，輿以來，語新婦曰：「媼病且死，不復見爾夫婦！ 爾夫昔抱持從萬死中活，有今日。 其人賢，雖貧勿憂，後且大，毋效世俗兒女子，易爾夫也！」
Dong, from Jiangdu, was hired in service to the Han family. In Shunzhi 2, when the army took Yangzhou, the Han couple and their eldest son all died in the disaster. As the mistress Xiao was about to die, she entrusted to Dong her youngest son Wei, then three years old. That evening Dong carried the small child and crawled through the disorderly troops, escaped through a hole, hid by the riverbank, picked wheat ears to eat, and so survived. After order was restored, Wei was raised in an old friend's household. When he was about to marry, they brought Dong to him. Dong was gravely ill and was brought there in a carriage. She told the bride, "This old woman is sick and near death, and will not again see you husband and wife! In the past your husband was carried in my arms and lived through ten thousand deaths to have this day. He is a worthy man; though poor, do not worry. Later he will be great. Do not imitate worldly girls and lightly change husbands!"
150
任氏，西充人，夫曰楊汝學。 傭縣中龐可還家，為其子憼乳母。 流寇亂四川，可還且死，以憼囑任。 俄而寇萬騎猝至，任負憼走，間道得脫。 歲大饑，從汝學流轉陝西，嘗棄兄弟之子而全龐氏子。 四川定，任曰：「龐故儒也，子今且九歲，弗使就學，吾何以對龐君？」 攜以歸，使就學，夫婦力耕以給。 憼中康熙二年舉人，任曰：「吾乃今無媿於龐君！」 尋卒。
Ren, from Xichong, was wife to Yang Ruxue. She was hired in the county by the family of Pang Kehuan and served as wet nurse to his son Jing. When roving bandits threw Sichuan into disorder and Kehuan was about to die, he entrusted Jing to Ren. Soon ten thousand raiders suddenly arrived; Ren carried Jing on her back and escaped by side roads. During a great famine, she wandered with Ruxue through Shaanxi, at one point abandoning a brother's child in order to preserve the Pang family's son. When Sichuan was pacified, Ren said, "Pang was formerly a scholar. The child is now almost nine; if I do not send him to school, how could I face Lord Pang?" She brought him back, sent him to school, and she and her husband farmed strenuously to provide for him. When Jing became a recommended man in Kangxi 2, Ren said, "Only now am I without shame before Lord Pang!" She died soon afterward.
151
同時又有袁氏，明侍郎李兆家婢。 李氏，兆子映庚乳母也。 流寇亂，兆兄完謀舉義兵，不克，其族熸焉。 袁以計脫映庚，李行求映庚，得之僧寺，藏其家複壁。 范士龍者，兆僕也，自兆所至，因送映庚還兆。 士龍歸西充，歲饑，妻子五人皆餓死，蓋亦義者云。
Shilong went home; famine killed his wife and five children—he too was righteous. Liang, Lu Shangyi's wife, from Wen'an. She wove mats, fed her mother-in-law, and returned lost gold. Offered cloth, she firmly refused. Inspectors reported it; the throne rewarded her and plaqued her gate. Bai of Qin'an was Zhang Cui's maid.
152
盧尚義妻梁，文安人。 織蓆以養姑，得遺金，告於姑，求主者還之。 主者餽以布，告於姑，堅辭不受。 世宗時，命御史鄂昌等巡察直隸，以其事聞，特敕嘉獎，賜米十石、布十疋，並命有司扁其門，以旌良淑。
Cui's wife died first; dying, he wept over his children. Bai said: "These children are now mine to raise!" Cui nodded but still wept. Bai bowed: "I am your wife in life and death alike!"
153
白氏，秦安人，為張翠侍女。 翠妻先卒，而病且死，目其子女泣。 白曰：「君逝矣，此呱呱者，婢責也！」 翠頷之，而泣不止。 白挽髻拜床下，曰：「婢今為君婦，豈以死生異其志也！」 翠乃瞑。 白撫其子女至老。
Bai, from Qin'an, was maidservant to Zhang Cui. Cui's wife had died earlier, and when Cui was sick and near death he looked at his sons and daughters and wept. Bai said, "My lord is passing away; these crying children are this maidservant's responsibility!" Cui nodded, but his tears did not stop. Bai tied up her hair, bowed below the bed, and said, "Today this maidservant becomes your wife. How could death or life change my resolve?" Only then did Cui close his eyes. Bai cared for his sons and daughters until old age.
154
王氏，名秋波，為晉江蔡氏婢。 主將以為妾，而卒，無子。 秋波長，家人遣之，秋波泣曰：「郎君將以為妾，郎君死，不可以貳。 有為郎君後者，婢請得撫之。 不然，當殉。」 族人義焉，以從子六韜為其主後。 娶於吳，生子，而六韜又卒。 秋波與吳同處撫孤。
Wang, named Qiubo, was a maidservant of the Cai family of Jinjiang. Her master intended to take her as a concubine, but he died without a son. When Qiubo grew up and the family sent her away, Qiubo wept and said, "The young lord was going to make me his concubine. Now that the young lord is dead, I cannot serve another. If there is someone to succeed the young lord, this maidservant asks to be allowed to raise him. If not, I must die with him." The clansmen considered her righteous and made Liutao, a cousin's son, successor to her master. He married Wu and had a son, but Liutao too died. Qiubo and Wu lived together and raised the orphan.
155
秦士楚妻洪，晉江人。 早寡，事姑撫子，不憚艱苦。 父家覆於仇，中危法當收孥，侄走匿秦氏。 收者至，秦氏之人皆走避，洪獨不走。 收者詰之，對曰：「無也。」 斫以刃，被數創，終不言洪氏孤匿處。
Hong, wife of Qin Shichu, was from Jinjiang. Widowed early, she served her mother-in-law and raised her son without shrinking from hardship. Her natal family was ruined by enmity and was caught in a dangerous law that required relatives to be arrested; a nephew fled and hid with the Qin family. When the arresters came, all the Qin family fled and hid, but Hong alone did not run away. When the arresters interrogated her, she answered, "There is no one here." They hacked her with blades, wounding her several times, but to the end she would not tell where the Hong family's orphan was hidden.
156
張氏婢，海寧人。 主母寡而貧，其兄割屋與其婢居，紡績以食。 婢事主母謹，主母病將殆，無收卹之者。 婢度事亟，招媒氏，原自鬻，以其值治喪，曰：「無多求，得七十緡，以為主母斂。 事畢，吾來為之婦。」 以告主母，主母感其義。 主母死，婢以七十緡為之斂。 事畢，要夫家以輿迎，婢撫棺痛幾絕，既蘇，再拜乘輿去。
A Zhang household maid was from Haining. Her widowed mistress was poor; the maid spun in a separate house to support her. The mistress was dying with no one to bury her. The maid judged the matter urgent, summoned a matchmaker, and wished to sell herself, using the price for the funeral. She said, "I do not ask much; if I get seventy strings of cash, it will be enough to encoffin my mistress. When the matter is finished, I will come and become his wife." The mistress was moved. She buried her mistress. She mourned over the coffin, bowed twice, and rode away to marry.
157
楊氏婢，不知何許人，亦不詳其氏與名，主江西清江楊氏。 楊氏之妾寡，將嫁，前一夕，呼婢，不應。 怒曰：「汝，我婢也，何敢爾！」 婢曰：「我楊氏婢耳，汝今誰家婦者？ 曰我婢我婢！」 妾方持剪，墜，起，環走至曙。 呼其婢曰：「我復為爾主，汝當何如？」 婢叩頭泣，妾亦泣，遂謝媒妁不行。 後將嫁其婢，婢曰：「人以我一言故，忍死至今，我亦終不去楊氏門。」
A Yang household maid of unknown name served the Yangs of Qingjiang, Jiangxi. A widowed concubine was to remarry; she called her maid, who did not answer. Angry: "You are my maid—how dare you!" The maid said: "I am the Yangs' maid—whose wife are you now? Calling me maid—calling me maid!" She dropped her scissors and paced until dawn. She said: "I am your mistress again—what now?" Both wept; the remarriage was canceled. Later they were about to marry off the maid. The maid said, "Because of one word of mine, she endured death until now; I too will never leave the Yang household."
158
江貴壽妻王，名保姑，歙人。 貴壽樵也，年倍王，王事之無怨語。 既嫠，入縣曹氏為其女保母。 曹氏女嫁，從之往， 咸豐十一年，出避賊，曹氏女方娠，不能行，乃匿諸深草中，而立以護之。 賊至，創喉，猶求糠《麥乞》和水食曹氏女，凍餒數日死。 曹氏女卒得免。
Wang Baogu, wife of Jiang Guishou, was from She County. The Cao daughter was saved. Xu, wife of Zhang Lu, was from Shenzhou. In Tongzhi 7 Zhang Zongyu's rebels sacked the prefecture; bandits seized two gentry girls and made Xu cook for them. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng, Learning they were gentry daughters, she secretly led them out and pointed the way home. They asked her to flee with them; she said: "If I go, they will kill my husband." She returned to plot escape; when bandits asked about the girls she cursed them and was killed.
159
張祿妻徐，深州人。 同治七年，張總愚之徒破州，賊掠二女至其家，叱祿使飼馬，而令徐監二女炊。 徐詰二女皆世族，炊竟，賊皆據案食，徐導二女潛出巷，指歸路。 二女請徐偕，徐曰：「我去，賊且殺我夫。」 歸就祿，謀偕走，賊見，問二女，徐忿罵賊，賊殺之。
Xu, wife of Zhang Lu, was from Shenzhou. In Tongzhi 7, Zhang Zongyu's followers broke into the prefecture. The bandits seized two girls and brought them to Xu's house, shouted at Lu to feed the horses, and ordered Xu to supervise the two girls as they cooked. Xu questioned the two girls and found they were both from elite families. When the cooking was finished and the bandits all gathered around the table to eat, Xu led the two girls secretly out through an alley and pointed out the road home. The two girls asked Xu to go with them. Xu said, "If I go, the bandits will kill my husband." She returned to Lu and planned to flee with him. When the bandits discovered this and asked about the two girls, Xu angrily cursed them, and the bandits killed her.
160
任氏婢祥，不知何許人，亦不知其氏。 任氏子，僕也，故家京師東郭門外，徙保定。 囑其母於祥曰：「餘將之廣平，餘妻不足恃，而善事餘母。」 祥與其母居三年，母病，促任氏子歸，歸則母已死。 任氏子慟絕而甦，夜半，猶哽咽，翌晨視之，則亦死。 既斂，其妻將挾幼女嫁，祥爭之，乃留女。 女方四歲，乞食以為養，鄰里義焉，共週之。 持二棺還葬，祥終不嫁。
Xiang, a maid of the Ren family, came from an unknown place, and her surname too is unknown. A son of the Ren family was a servant; his old home was outside the capital's eastern Guo Gate, and he had moved to Baoding. He entrusted his mother to Xiang, saying, "I am going to Guangping. My wife cannot be relied on; serve my mother well." Xiang lived with his mother for three years. When the mother fell ill, she urged the Ren son to return; when he came back, his mother had already died. The Ren son wailed, fainted, and revived; at midnight he was still sobbing. The next morning they looked at him, and he too was dead. After the coffin was prepared, his wife intended to remarry and take the young daughter with her, but Xiang disputed this, so the girl was left behind. The girl was then four years old. Xiang begged for food to raise her, and the neighbors considered her righteous and all helped her. She carried the two coffins back for burial, and Xiang never married.
161
又有通州鄭氏女，婢於馬氏。 馬氏中落，他奴僕皆去，而鄭獨留，侍疾，育幼主，以浣衣得值贍其主。 曆七十餘年，終不去，以處子終。
She sold rice cakes, sent him to school, and had her son serve him respectfully. Yuanxun eventually passed the provincial exam. Chunmei, a Xu clan girl from Pinghu, was maid to the Caos.
162
王氏婢，不知其氏，石屏人。 王氏夫婦皆死，其子元勳生七月，婢已嫁生子，乃撫而乳之。 稍長，賣餈餌，供饘粥，令入塾，使其子事之甚謹。 元勳卒舉於鄉。
Her master died leaving a son and daughter. Over twenty, she never married and raised both children. She admonished their faults, worked hard, and saw them married. Her master's brother tried to marry her off; she refused.
163
徐氏女，平湖人，為曹氏婢，名曰春梅。 其主死，遺子女各一。 春梅年二十餘，不嫁，撫其子女。 其子女有過，涕泣勸導，勤苦，畢婚嫁。 其主有兄迫欲嫁之，終不行。
Dingxiang—surname unknown—was from Nanning, Yunnan. Maid to the Chengs, she followed the daughter into Wu. When the Wus fell, the daughter sewed for a living; Dingxiang served tirelessly. The daughter said: "A rich house offers dozens of taels for you—why not go?" Dingxiang knelt and swore to follow her to death; the daughter never spoke of it again.
164
丁香，不知其氏，雲南南寧人。 為程氏婢，程氏女嫁於吳，丁香從。 吳中落，程氏女以女紅自給，丁香執役不稍怠。 程氏女謂曰：「有富家以數十金聘汝，我受金，汝亦得所，盍行乎？」 丁香跪，誓死相從，程氏女知其意堅，乃不復言。 後益貧，丁香出為傭，得貲以養，數十年卒不嫁。
Dingxiang, surname unknown, was from Nanning in Yunnan. She served as a maid to the Cheng family. When a Cheng daughter married into the Wu family, Dingxiang followed her. The Wu family declined, and the Cheng daughter supported herself with needlework; Dingxiang served her without the slightest slackening. The Cheng daughter told her, "A wealthy family wishes to betroth you with several tens of taels of gold. I would receive the money, and you too would have a place. Why not go?" Dingxiang knelt and swore she would follow her to the death. The Cheng daughter knew her resolve was firm and said no more. Later they became still poorer, and Dingxiang hired herself out to earn funds to support her; for several decades she never married.
165
江金姑，金谿人，為硃氏婢。 硃氏女歸江，媵焉。 江夫婦皆卒，金姑矢不嫁，育其孤，娶婦，未有子，其孤又夭。 金姑告於江氏之族為立後，佐婦撫所後子，至成立。
Widowed, she did not remarry. Some tempted her with song; she remained unmoved and was famed among the Zhuang for integrity. Lu, wife of Long Liansong, was from Zhenxiong. Zhenxiong was a native chieftaincy; the Longs ruled as native prefects.
166
羅氏，荔浦僮婦也。 夫死，不更嫁。 僮俗善歌，或以歌誘婦，必正色不為動，以節顯於僮。
He died; son Qinghou succeeded. In Yongzheng 5 he was stripped and regular officials replaced the native rule. When subordinates rebelled she said: "Our house is loyal—accept fate and do not rebel."
167
隴聯嵩妻祿，鎮雄人也。 鎮雄故土司，聯嵩世領其地為土知府。 卒，子慶侯嗣。 雍正五年，坐事奪職，收其地，設流官。 所部欲為變，祿喻之曰：「我家以忠著，今日宜安義命，毋妄動。」 所部乃解。 八年，烏蒙土民叛，祿親至舊所部各寨，申喻利害，至欲自殺，所部僉讋服。 祿躬率眾衛官廨，佐軍食，城恃以全。 總督鄂爾泰建坊表其忠，請於朝，封安人，予田二十畝，使供隴氏祀。
Lu, wife of Long Liansong, was from Zhenxiong. Zhenxiong had formerly been a native chieftaincy, and Liansong's family had for generations governed the land as native prefects. When he died, his son Qinghou succeeded him. In Yongzheng 5, because of an offense, the office was taken away, the land was incorporated, and regular officials were installed. Those under their former rule wanted to rise in revolt. Lu instructed them, "My family is known for loyalty. Today you should peacefully accept the righteous command and must not act rashly." Those under their former rule then dispersed. In year 8, when the native people of Wumeng rebelled, Lu personally went to the various stockades of those formerly under their rule, explaining benefit and harm; she went so far as to threaten suicide, and they were all awed and submitted. Lu personally led the people to guard the government offices and assisted the army's food supply; the city relied on her and was preserved whole. Governor-general Ortai erected a gateway to honor her loyalty and requested it from the throne; she was enfeoffed as Lady An and granted twenty mu of land to provide for the Long family sacrifices.
168
者架聘妻直額，貴州大定仲民。 既許嫁，者架貧，不能娶。 直額父母欲女別嫁，不可； 強之，自殺。
At twenty-six, pressed to remarry, she wept at his tomb and hanged herself. Liu Aquan, wife of Luo Chaoyan; Chaoyan was Zhong; Liu was from Weng'an. When Chaoyan died his brother tried to seize her with thugs; she killed herself.
169
羅廷勝妻馬，名阿透，寧各司羊海寨仲民女也。 廷勝死，阿透年二十六，父欲為別嫁，阿透哭於廷勝墓，自經死。
Zhu and Tian, wives of An Yupán, a Guizhou native official. First wife Zhu cut her thigh for her mother-in-law, who still died.
170
羅朝彥妻劉，名阿全。 朝彥，仲民； 劉，甕安人。 朝彥死，其弟欲妻嫂，引強暴迫劉，自殺。
Second wife Tian cut her thigh when he fell ill. When he died she raised his sons to adulthood. Yang, wife of Tian Yangmin, Langxi native official; Yang was from Yimei.
171
安於磐妻硃、後妻田，於磐，貴州蠻夷司長官。 初娶硃，事姑孝，姑病，刲股，卒。 复娶田，於磐病，刲股。 於磐卒，撫諸子成立。
At twelve she cut her thigh when her mother fell ill. Yi, Li Ren's wife, was Luoe's daughter from Emei. Luoe was the Lis' tenant; when Li tried to violate her she refused. They bound her on firewood: "Consent or we burn you!"
172
田養民妻楊，養民，朗溪司長官； 楊，邑梅司人也。 年十二，母病，刲股。
She cursed fiercely and was burned alive. Li was punished when the affair was reported. Reyimu, wife of Edui of Kuche, feuded with chief Khojaji.
173
李任妻矣，㠄峩人，夷羅厄女也。 羅厄為李氏佃，李氏欲汙之，不從。 縛置積薪上，曰：「不從，將焚！」 矣大罵，遂焚死。 事聞，罪李氏。
Yi, wife of Li Ren, was from E'e and was the daughter of the Yi Luo'e. Luo'e was a tenant of the Li family. A man of the Li family wished to violate her, but she would not submit. He bound her and placed her on a pile of firewood, saying, "If you do not submit, I will burn you!" Yi cursed him loudly, and he burned her to death. When the matter was reported, the Li family was punished.
174
鄂對妻熱依木，鄂對，庫車回頭人，與其酋霍集占有隙。 霍集占以葉爾羌叛，鄂對與其子鄂斯滿棄家走，迎師於伊犁。 霍集占破庫車，憾鄂對不附，執熱依木欲納之，不可； 殺其子女三，而囚之，熱依木脫走。 師克霍集占，授鄂對貝勒、葉爾羌阿奇木伯克，鄂斯滿二等台吉、庫車阿奇木伯克。 居數年，烏什回叛，熱依木在庫車，請於辦事大臣曰：「回性喜效尤，今烏什叛，葉爾羌戶眾，伯克、阿渾輩不知順逆，鄂對懦無斷，請得往助之。」 熱依木行五日至葉爾羌，伯克、阿渾輩入見，言烏什，熱依木漫應之，期明日會飲。 明日，眾集，熱依木曰：「汝等皆無藉，蒙大皇帝恩為太平民，今烏什叛，即日夷滅，乃欲效尤，為不忠不義鬼耶？ 吾力尚能殺爾曹，爾曹今日毋思出此門！」 眾愕顧，門守甚嚴，皆跪白無反狀。 熱依木乃具筵，曉以利害，眾皆泣。 則出歌姬勸飲盡醉，陰使人遍收諸家戰具，驅其馬，令遠牧。 鄂對日率諸伯克集辦事大臣庭，夜分散，眾大定。 及烏什破，多所誅戮，葉爾羌獨全。
Reyimu was wife of Edui. Edui was a Kuche Muslim headman and had a quarrel with his chief, Khoja Jahan. When Khoja Jahan rebelled at Yarkand, Edui and his son Esman abandoned their home and fled to welcome the imperial army at Ili. Khoja Jahan captured Kuche, hated Edui for not joining him, seized Reyimu, and wanted to take her; she would not accept him. He killed three of her sons and daughters and imprisoned her; Reyimu escaped. When the army defeated Khoja Jahan, Edui was appointed beile and aqsaqal beg of Yarkand, and Esman became second-rank taiji and aqsaqal beg of Kuche. Several years later, when the Muslims of Ush rebelled, Reyimu was in Kuche. She petitioned the administrative minister, saying, "Muslims like to imitate one another. Now that Ush has rebelled, Yarkand has many households, and the begs and akhunds do not know obedience from rebellion; Edui is weak and indecisive. I ask to be allowed to go assist him." Reyimu traveled five days to Yarkand. The begs and akhunds came in to meet her and spoke of Ush; Reyimu answered vaguely and set a drinking feast for the next day. The next day, when everyone had gathered, Reyimu said, "You are all rootless people, yet by the Great Emperor's grace you have become peaceful subjects. Now Ush has rebelled and will be exterminated at once. Do you want to imitate them and become ghosts without loyalty or righteousness? My strength can still kill you all; today none of you should think of leaving this gate!" The crowd looked at one another in alarm. The doors were tightly guarded, and they all knelt and declared that they had no intention of rebellion. Reyimu then prepared a feast and explained benefit and harm to them; they all wept. She then brought out singing girls to urge them to drink until all were drunk, while secretly sending people to collect every household's weapons and drive their horses away to graze at a distance. Each day Edui led the begs to assemble at the administrative minister's office; at night they dispersed, and the crowd was greatly pacified. When Ush was broken, many were executed; Yarkand alone was preserved whole.
175
瓦寺土司索諾木榮宗母麥麥吉，早寡，撫索諾木榮宗成立。 綏輯番落，有功於邊，被詔旌表。
Maimaiji, widowed mother of chieftain Suonuomurongzong, raised him to rule. She pacified tribes and was honored by edict.
176
明正土司堅參達結妻喇章，無子，次妻夭夭生二子。 堅參達結死，喇章、夭夭同護土司印，撫二子成立。 乾隆間，從征金川有功，亦被詔旌表。
Lazhang, wife of Jiansandajie, was childless; concubine Yaoyao bore two sons. When he died Lazhang and Yaoyao guarded the seal and raised both sons. In the Jinchuan campaigns they too were honored by edict.
177
沙氏女，會理州人。 父為土千戶，所屬土百戶自氏富，妻以女。 嫁，弟送之往。 將入自氏所轄境，女語其弟曰：「自氏，奴也； 汝，主也。 我受父命不敢違，汝不當入。」 涕泣而別。 女至自氏，自氏子求合，女堅拒之，不食七日死。
A Sha clan daughter was from Huili. Her father was a native officer; a wealthy subordinate Zi married her to his son. Her younger brother escorted her at marriage. Entering Zi territory she told her brother: "The Zis are slaves; you are the master. I obey my father's command—you must not enter." Weeping, they parted. At the Zis the son sought her; she refused and starved seven days to death.
178
嘉義番婦，加溜灣社番大治妻也。 大治死，原變故俗，不更嫁，引刀誓曰：「婦發可封，婦臂可斷，婦節不可移！」 力耕育其子，居三十七年乃卒。
A Jiayi woman, wife of Dalizhi of Jialiwan. Widowed, she swore with a knife: "Hair may be bound, arms cut—but integrity cannot move!" She farmed, raised her son thirty-seven years, then died.
179
施世燿妻苗，世燿，龍溪人； 苗，傌辰港夷女。 世燿死，苗自經殉焉。
Miao, wife of Shi Shiyao; Shiyao was from Longxi; Miao was a Machengang aboriginal woman. When Shiyao died, Miao hanged herself to follow him.