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Available From UC Press
Disgraceful Matters
The Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century China
Looking beyond the familiar trappings of the cult of female chastity—such as hagiographies of widows and chastity shrines--in late imperial China, this book explores the cult's political significance and practical ramifications in everyday life during the eighteenth century. In the first full-length study of the subject, Janet Theiss examines a vast number of laws, legal cases, regulations, and policies to illustrate the social and political processes through which female virtue was defined, enforced, and contested. Along the way, she provides rich details of social life and cultural practices among ordinary Chinese people through narratives of criminal cases of sexual assault, harassment, adultery, and domestic violence.
Janet M. Theiss is Associate Professor of History at the University of Utah.
"An important contribution to the rapidly growing Chinese gender studies field. No other work has so persuasively demonstrated the significance of chastity in High Qing political, social and cultural lives as Theiss's investigation has done. The author's analyses are nuanced and her conclusions compelling. This is a particularly enlightening read."—Martin Huang, author of Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China
"Outstanding and timely, this book significantly advances our understanding of late imperial Chinese history on several fronts. Theiss tells us a great deal that is new about cultural attitudes of this era. Clear and lively, this is research of very high quality."—William T. Rowe, author of Saving the World: Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China
"Outstanding and timely, this book significantly advances our understanding of late imperial Chinese history on several fronts. Theiss tells us a great deal that is new about cultural attitudes of this era. Clear and lively, this is research of very high quality."—William T. Rowe, author of Saving the World: Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China