Disgraceful Matters

Janet M. Theiss is Associate Professor of History at the University of Utah.

"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. 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. Clear and lively, this is research of very high quality." - William T. Rowe, author of Saving the World"

• Acknowledgments A Note on Textual Conventions A Note on Dynasties and Reigns Introduction part one * The Chastening State: The Qing Chastity Cult in Ritual,Law,and Statecraft Prologue: A Chaste Barbarian Martyrs Herself on the Imperial Frontier 1. Defining Gender Orthodoxy for a Multiethnic Empire 2. Statecraft and Gender Order in the Qianlong Reign part two * Female Virtue and the Politics of Patriarchy Prologue: A Righteous Husband Plays the Politics of the Wifely Way 3. Enforcing Gender Order: Between the Ancestral Hall and the Yamen 4. Divided Loyalties: Natal Families and the Exercise of Patrilineal Authority 5. Adultery, Incest and the Multiple Meanings of Patriarchy part three * Mapping Chastity across Boundaries of Body,Mind,and Space Prologue: A Compromised Widow Sacrifices Her Body to Defend Inner Virtue 6. The Wages of Wanton Mixing: Violation and Gender Disorder 7. "Accommodating Sages": Gender Separation in Social Practice part four * "Being a Person": Female Humiliation and Social Power Prologue: Male Impropriety and Female Outrage Lead to a Tragic End 8. The Problem of Female Moral Agency 9. The Logic of Female Suicide Epilogue A Note on Archival Sources Notes Bibliography Character List Index