True to Her Word The Faithful Maiden Cult in Late Imperial China [Hardcover]

This path-breaking book examines the broad cultural, social, and gender meanings of the faithful maiden cult in late imperial China (13681911). Across the empire, an increasing number of young women or faithful maidens, defied their parents' wishes and chose either to live out their lives as widows upon the death of a fianc? or killed themselves to join their fianc? in death. The book analyzes the familial conflicts, government policies, ideological controversies, and personal emotions surrounding the cult. Concentrating on the dramatic acts of spirit wedding and suicide, the faithful maidens' unique code of conduct, and the extraordinary life journey of virgin mothers, Lu documents the ideological, psychological, cultural, and economic aspects of these young women's mentality and behavior, and the implications of this behavior for their families and the broader society. The book's narrative of the faithful maiden cult interweaves late imperial political, cultural, social and intellectual history, thus, providing a new window onto the history of the late imperial period.

This book is a comprehensive study of faithful maidenhood in late imperial China from the vantage points of state policy, local history, scholarly debate, and the faithful maiden's own subjective point of view. Marshaling an impressive array of original archival documents, Lu Weijing gives a finely nuanced presentation of that highly wrought figure in late imperial China, the Faithful Maiden. Her book places this veritable cult of extreme female chastity in the contexts of cultural and intellectual debates of the time and is a valuable addition to the scholarship on womens lives and on Chinese history. Weijing Lu is Assistant Professor in History at the University of California, San Diego. She has published many journal articles in English and Chinese; this is her first book. Lu's book contributes to a growing body of recent scholarship that problematises earlier perspectives on the vicl#