Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century China (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520240339)

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.

Author: Janet Theiss
ISBN-10: 0520240332
ISBN-13: 9780520240339
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 01/10/2005
Pages: 281
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.46w x 0.98d