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Exploring and Clarifying Dissonance:

Female Suicide in Chinese Literature and the Tales of the Strange

Chinese 274 Prof. Andrew Miller

December 8, 2014

There is a striking moment in Liu Xiangs famed biographical anthology,

Exemplary Women1, where all of a sudden, women begin to die en masse. This would be
an understandable occurrence, if brigands or warlords were targeting women during these
times (late Han dynasty, 206 BCE to 8 CE)2 when China was still less urbanized and
structured. However, this is not the case; rather, these women who are lauded as
exemplary women (literally, that they are the example and pinnacle of society and
behavior)3 killed themselves. This mass suicide of women is inextricably linked with the
standards for female chastity and filial behavior; for women, if one is not chaste, then
ones life is effectively over.4 This strict code of chastity is not simply restricted to sexual
encounters between men and women; instead, chastity was understood ontologically
that is to say, a woman was supposed to be chaste in all of her actions (which includes
anything from performing the proper marital rites5 to exclusively walking outside in the
presence of a maid and tutor).6
This papers analysis of female chastity and its relationship with suicide would be
incomplete, though, if it only examined the historical texts, since there is a second set of

1 Anne Behnke Kinney, Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lien zhuan of Liu Xiang
trans. Anne Behnke Kinney, ed. Anne Behnke Kinney (New York: Columbia University
Press, 2014).
2 Kinney, introduction to Exemplary Women, XV.
3 Ibid., XXXVII.
4 Kinney, Exemplary Women, 83-85.
5 Ibid., 72-74.
6 Ibid., 68-69.

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texts with stories that are just as relevant to these issues. These Other7 texts are the tales
of the supernaturalghosts, foxes, goblins, etc.and, interestingly, do not seem to pay
as much attention to strict adherence to chastity as the historical works tend to do.
Therefore, this paper seeks to clarify the apparent dissonance on the topic of
chastity between the historical texts and the supernatural texts in an effort to contribute to
the dialogue Judith Zeitlin opens in her Historian of the Strange8 on the cultural
relevance and importance of strange tales to the ancient Chinese culture at large. The
term clarify is used, here, not in an attempt to bring the historical texts in consonance
with the supernatural tales; instead, the goal of this work is to provide clarity via
recognition because by recognizing that there is dissonance between the genres, clarity is
created around the representation of chastity in historical and supernatural texts.
This paper will use The Lien zhuan and Karl Kaos anthologized Classical Chinese
Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic9 as its key site of discord on the topic of
chastity between the historical texts and the tales of the strange because not only do the
texts contain a large number of different stories, but also, they represent well-established
and researched compilations which provided commentators with a large set of works to
write about.10 The Lien zhuan was chosen, specifically because it contained an entire
chapter of stories that culminate in female suicide or a suicide attempt (at the very least)
7 The word Other is capitalized in order to align these texts with those ideas and
thinkers who were seen as subversive or dangerous to the State.
8 Judith Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale
(Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1997).
9 Karl S. Kao, Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections
from the Third to the Tenth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985).
10 Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange.

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it should be noted, that sixty percent (ten of fifteen) of the stories in the chapter on
chastity in Exemplary Women contained mention of suicide, which is because the
remaining stories focus on instructing and informing men about the ways in which
women must be chaste (particularly, the basic concepts of chastity for women).11 Kaos
anthology was selected because it contains a large and diverse array of supernatural love
stories, which range from encounters with gods to intimacy with animal spirits;
moreover, this anthology is particularly useful because the majority of these love tales
center around a moment of erotic action, which stands in stark opposite to the chastity of
the The Lien zhuan. However, this paper will only utilize Kaos collection of tales from
the Six Dynasties, and not the Tang tales for two reasons: 1. The Six Dynasties (317-589
CE)12 immediately followed the end of the Han dynasty (the time when The Lien zhuan
was written), which provides the most direct comparison between the texts, historically
and 2. There are simply too many stories in Kaos compilation for a paper of this caliber
to properly represent and contextualize (in fact, even the Six Dynasty tales comprise of
over twenty individual stories of various lengths), and so, there will be many stories that
are not directly mentioned or even alluded to in the footnotes.
Before a discussion of Judith Zeitlins work on supernatural literature can take
place, though, it must be understood that, while her text is specific to Ming times and Pu
Songlings place in the greater Chinese literary history, her writing on the logic
surrounding the exterior position of strange writing is extremely relevant to the work in
Kaos anthology. While she presents Guo Pu, instead of his contemporary Gan Bao (who
11 Exemplary Women, 70-71
12 Kao, introduction to Classical Chinese Tales, 1.

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compiled many of the Six Dynasty tales13 in Kaos anthology) as the first Chinese
thinker to ask what the strange is and to ponder what makes something strange,14 the
stories operate within the same discourse: i.e. Pu Songlings compilation may be
different from Gan Baos in terms of the actual stories, but the genre of strange tales is
common to both texts. This lack of inclusion of Gan Bao is extremely interesting, since
he has been credited as the first anthologizer of strange tales, and as the initial critic who
saw relevance in supernatural texts,15 but this is, unfortunately, the work for another
paper. In History of the Strange, Zeitlin describes the various positions in the classical
debate (Ming era, 1368-1644 CE)16 on the relevance of supernatural literature to the
greater Chinese literary system of knowledge: strange writing should be documented,
strange writing is representative of its authors personal feelings, strange tales are a valid
form of fictive literature, and strange tales proliferate a conventional moral
didacticism .17
It is this fourth point, which Zeitlin mentions as taken for granted as the most
obvious line of defense and is rarely elaborated with much vigor18,19 that will be the
13 Gan Bao, introduction to In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record, trans.
Kenneth J. DeWoskin and James Irving Crump, (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press,
1996), XXVI-XXVII.
14 Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange, 18-19.
15 Gan Bao. In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record.
16 Encyclopedia Britannica, last modified December 8, 2014,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/383846/Ming-dynasty .
17 Zeitlin, Historian of the Strange, 16-17.
18 Ibid., 17
19 It is ironic that even though Zeitlin mentions this obvious argument, she does not
refer to it throughout the remainder of the chapter.

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driving point for this papers analysis. With this in mind, the reader should understand
that this paper represents a discussion of two different standards of chastity: the strict
code of conduct for royal, exemplary women, and the more relaxed and (ironically)
realistic desire for interpretation of the ghost women and their lovers (who in life, tended
to be regular folk with minimal connections to royal blood). The supernatural tales, at
first glance, only tangentially participate in moral dialogue (in the reiteration of the
existence of formal rites and rituals); instead, though, the morals are weaved into the
stories much in the same way modern European fairy tales are structured (preface, event,
moral of the story). However, Exemplary Women operates much more clearly as a
moralistic document (by design), as its compiler meant to create a work that would set a
standard for all female action in the future.
In order for one to understand the logic of suicides relationship to chastity in Exemplary
Women, a brief explanation of Liu Xiangs reason for creating the anthology is useful: to
combat what he considered to be the dangerous rise of women (and their belief systems)
from lower social classes into the royal realm, as well as to provide model examples for
royalty to imitate.20,21 Xiangs fervent desire for the reconstitution and purity of royal
families is very much echoed in the chapter on chaste women because like royal families
(the group Xiang was trying to rescue), women were expected to maintain their purity
and scorn outsiders and interlopers, even if it results in their deaths. Take, for example,
the story of The Woman from Shen, Shaonon,22 who is brought to trial by her fianc
20 Kinney, introduction to Exemplary Women, XVII.
21 To further this point, at least nine of the fifteen biographies involve women of royal or
high-born status or women being courted by a member of royalty.
22 Kinney, Exemplary Women, 67-68.

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and his family for her strict adherence to the orthodoxy of the time; she argues that
Marriage is the means whereby one transmits a familys most important legacies,
provides continuity for ones ancestors and [descendants] to preside over the ancestral
temple23 and is validated in the courts to the degree where she was upheld as an
example worthy of praise.24 In her obstinacy to compromising the rites, she declared that
she preferred to die rather than go to his [her fiancs] home.25
Interestingly, there is only one instance of a man killing himself in the throes of
love in the chapter on chastity in Exemplary Women: The Wife of the Lord of Xi.26 In
this tale, the Lord of Xi in enslaved and separated from his wife who kills herself out of
grief, causing the Lord of Xi to kill himself from the guilt of being unable to save his
wife. This biography is extremely relevant to the chapter on chastity because it exists
almost exterior to the rest of the chapters stories; not only is female suicide not
condoned, but also, a man kills himself out of love for a womanthis is just not typical
of the culture of the time. The existence of this biography is even stranger when one
considers that the Lord of Xi was of a much higher social class than common folk, and
while he was not royalty, he would have been close enough in social status to be a
reasonable member of Xiangs intended audience. Upon deeper inspection, this tale fits
better within the genre of a tale of the strange because the Lord of Xi and his wife

23 Ibid., 68
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.,74-75.

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confidently believe that when they die, they will return [to dwell together] in the
underworld.27
Other biographies in Exemplary Women present chastity as the definitive female
ontology, such as in Bo Ji, Consort of Duke Gong of Song.28 In the second half of this
account, a now-widowed Bo Jis home randomly catches fire and is evacuated; Bo Ji,
though, does not leave the inflamed house because the rules of correct deportment
for a married woman require that unless her governess and tutor are both present, she
does not leave the house at night, 29 and upon her death, Bo Ji was commended as
having perfected the Way of Womanhood.30 In declaring that there is a singular path
of womanhood, then, it is easier to justify any and all extreme acts as necessary for the
attainment of being. Additionally, since this story was meant to reiterate the social norms
of the time, it is apparent that female lives sit on the edge of a knife called chastity.
While the modern editor (Kinney) of Exemplary Women goes to lengths to explain in the
introduction to the book that female suicide was not a widespread practice, she does
concede that a consort of the last emperor did actually replicate suicide by immolation,
which suggests that Xiang reached his desired audience (members of the royal class). 31
Oppositely, many of the stories in Kaos anthology of the Six Dynasty tales are about a
human mans erotic encounter with a goddess or fairy, as was the case of the man who
27 Ibid., 74.
28 Ibid., 68-69.
29 Ibid., 69.
30 Ibid.
31 Kinney, introduction to Exemplary Women, XLII XLIII.

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took-on the Jade Maiden from Heaven as a lover.32 Like in The Daughter of Hsu
Hsuan-fang,33 many of these stories in the anthology speak of predestined relationships
between supernatural women and humans; these relationships tend to begin with the
preface of predestined love, move forward with an erotic event, and culminate in
marriage (although, sometimes the human scorns or violates the trust of the supernatural
being). From Chin Shu and the Woman who Lived Alone34 to the tale of Liu Chen
and Juan Chao,35 most of the encounters in the Six Dynasty stories between humans and
ghostly beings are sexual encounters that do not pay any deference to the rites and rituals
so thoroughly maintained and respect in Exemplary Women. Actually, these sexual
encounters are in such stark opposite to the proper order of the rites, and simply hearing
the stories would have likely driven Meng Ji of Duke Xiao of Qi to jump off of a cliff,
or worse.36
Unlike in Exemplary Women, there is only one woman in the entire set of Six
Dynasty tales who commits suicide in any direct manner (read. kills herself by her own
hands): the mother-in-law of The Filial Girl of Tung-hai.37 This woman, though, did not
kill herself to reiterate the doctrine of chastity and filial piety of Exemplary Women;
instead, she committed suicide because she felt guilty for the societal pressures that
32 Kao, Classical Chinese Tales, trans. Cordell D.K.Yee, 65-68.
33 Ibid., trans. Chris Connery, 130-132.
34 Ibid., trans. Pedro Acosta, 127.
35 Ibid., trans. Cordell D.K.Yee, 137-139.
36 Kinney, Exemplary Women, 72-74.
37 Kao, Classical Chinese Tales, trans. Kenneth J. DeWoskin, 76-77.

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forced her daughter-in-law to spend her youth taking care of the ailing mother-in-law38.
One could even interpret this womans suicide almost as a form of protest against the
aforementioned notions of chastity and filial duty, which is jarring when one compares
this story to one of the tales in Liu Xiangs anthology. It is important to note, though, that
the daughter-in-laws husband is never mentioned in this story, which
The only other woman in Kaos anthology who could be said to commit suicide in
the Six Dynasty tales is Su O, the Murdered Woman.39 A barbarian waylays Su O in her
travels and gives her the option to join him as his concubine or to die; in order to protect
her chastity vow, Su O chooses death. It is difficult to really consider this story a tale of
suicide for a few reasons: firstly, the title states that Su O was murdered, not that she took
her own life; secondly, her options were a. rape and relocation with a strange man who
raped her, or b. deathso it is very much a catch-22 for Su O. Finally, some could
compare Su Os dilemma as similar to Bo Ying of King Ping of Chus conflict with the
King of Wu40; however, unlike in the case of Bo Ying, the Su Os speech on chastity did
not sway the marauders heart or mind in any way at all.
There are, though, other mentions of chastity in the Six Dynasty texts; in fact,
some of these stories even criticize men for licentious behavior. The Temple at Mount
Chiang is the most explicit of these works; three men go to a temple and dream about
sexual romps with the maidens of the temple, which angers the divine master of the
38 It is useful to mention that while there are a wide variety of versions of The Filial
Girl of Tung-hai, the majority of versions begin with the mother-in-law killing herself
out of guilt for taking the daughter-in-laws youth.
39 Kao, Classical Chinese Tales, trans. Michael Broschat, 89-91.
40 Kinney, Exemplary Women, 76-77.

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temple who kills the men for their lechery.41 This situation of male execution for the
violation of chastity is not present in Exemplary Women likely because it was intended
for the elite who would be considered above common crimes like lechery, adultery, and
rape. Other works, like Wang Tao-ping and Wen Yu42 and The Daughter of the King of
Wu43 do mention female deaths; however, it is the lust in the hearts of these women that
cause them to die of lovesickness (which is even stranger when one considers the men
with similar feelings were brutally killed in the Temple at Mount Chiang).
This flagrant absence of chaste women killing themselves to preserve their
chastity in Kaos anthology provides an interesting counter to the text of the late Han
dynasty because the Six Dynasties immediately followed the fall of the Han era. Whether
or not this absence is representative of a cultural shift cannot be ascertained from this
paper; rather, looking at the audience of these tales that do not have fixed authors might
provide more insight into the obvious dissonance between Exemplary Women and Kaos
Classical Chinese Tales. Kao is extremely explicit in his analysis on the origin of the
stories in his anthology when he states that the motivation for compiling the tales remains
undocumented and there is no single progenitor of the stories.44 This author will utilize
Kaos analysis to suggest that most of these tales came from rural men who exchanged
the stories with a various group of traveling scholars who proceeded to document these
supernatural accounts.
41 Kao, Classical Chinese Tales, trans. Kenneth J. DeWoskin, 72-73.
42 Ibid., trans. Perng Ching-his, 84-85.
43 Ibid., trans. Michael Broschat, 93-95.
44 Kao, introduction to Classical Chinese Tales, 16-17.

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The values and moral standards of these folk tales do not deviate from the cultural
feelings toward chastity in terms of the concept of being chaste and filial in your actions
(which is an argument that even Kinney finds legitimate).45 It would be better, instead, to
understand the dissonance between the two texts and a dissonance surrounding the
practice of chastityrather than the acceptance/rejection of the concept as a whole. Of
course, there are many ways in which this work could serve as the basis for a thorough
feminist critique of classical Chinese literature and the rather violent ontology imposed
on women; again, though, that is work outside the scope of this endeavor.

The detailed rubric is provided with the "Guidelines for Final Paper" posted on Moodle.
Because of the limited time I have to grade your final papers, my comments are not as
extensive as those on previous papers, but I will be glad to discuss your work in person
after the break should you have questions.
Audience (10 points): 10 (You engage a larger discussion with an appropriate tone.)
Thesis (15 points): 15 (Your specificity is powerful and much appreciated.)
Development, Analysis, & Evidence (20 points): 17 (You choose your sources wisely and
justify your selection, but your discussion and analysis of the primary sources feel
abbreviated compared to your introductory and methodological remarks. Youre an
insightful reader, so give your reader more of your insight.)
Organization & Structure (15 points): 14 (Nicely structured paper and paragraphs, but the
conclusion feels incomplete.)
Diction, Syntax, & Grammar (10 points): 10
Total: 66/70 (Overall, it was a pleasure to read your paper.)

45 Kinney, introduction to Exemplary Women, XLIII.

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Bibliography
Encyclopedia Britannica. Ming Dynasty. Last modified December 8, 2014,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/383846/Ming-dynasty .
Gan Bao. In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record. Translated by Kenneth J.
DeWoskin and James Irving Crump. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Kinney, Anne Behnke. Introduction to Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lien
zhuan of Liu Xiang. Translated by Anee Benhke Kinney. edited by Anne Behnke
Kinney. Columbia University Press, 2014.
Kinney, Anne Behnke. Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lien zhuan of Liu Xiang.
Translated by Anee Benhke Kinney. edited by Anne Behnke Kinney. Columbia
University Press, 2014.
Kao, Karl S. Introduction to Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the
Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century. Translated by Pedro
Acosta, Michael Broschat, Perng Ching-hsi, Chris Connery, Kenneth J.
DeWoskin, and Cordell D.K. Yee. edited by Karl Kao. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1985.
Kao, Karl S. Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections
from the Third to the Tenth Century. Translated by Pedro Acosta, Michael
Broschat, Perng Ching-hsi, Chris Connery, Kenneth J. DeWoskin, and Cordell
D.K. Yee. edited by Karl Kao. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Zeitlin, Judith T. Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale.
Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Timothy Lewis

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