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Biography of the He Lineage’s Chaste Widow Wang
Created by: Yung-chang Tung
Title: |
Biography of the He Lineage’s Chaste Widow Wang |
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Text: |
Biography of the He Lineage’s Chaste Widow Wang The chaste widow née Wang of the He was from Wuyi [County] of Wu [Jinhua Prefecture], was the elder sister born of different mothers of the student Wang Weisun.. She lost her mother when she was young. She was a moral person by nature and understood the cardinal principles of the righteousness. She married He Yongzhi of the same county when she was eighteen. The Hes are a respected lineage. Her father-in-law was county level Government Student.[1] Her mother-in-law née Xu was the sister of the Chaste Widow’s mother. Yongzhi’s elder brother Yongfang and his wife née Jin passed away early, and left a son Zhaobin. The energy Yongzhi put into his studies made him feeble and constantly ill. He had a daughter, but she died when she was one. Then Yongzhi died because of illness when he was twenty two--the Chaste Widow was twenty one at the time. In his will he asked to adopt Zhaozhen, the second son of his male cousin Yongqin who was then six years old, to continue his family line.,. The Chaste Widow vowed to [follow the example of] Bozhou[2] and raised the adopted son with great love and diligence. After passing his seventh birthday, the son suddenly died. At that time, her father-in-law had already died and only her mother-in-law was still alive. She then asked her mother-in-law’s permission and then adopted Zhaohu, the younger brother of Zhaozhen, to continue the family line. More than ten years later, when Zhaohu was eighteen, she arranged a marriage with the Xu lineage for him. Within two years, however, he took ill and died. The Chaste Widow cried to his wife: “I am not protected by the Heaven! I have repeatedly met with familial disaster and now have gotten you into this trouble as well! What shall I do?” Her daughter-in-law had learned the Chaste Widow’s teachings well. A moral person by nature as well, she was deeply inspired. So she too committer herself to moral principle and vowed never remarry again. Then they took Rongpan, the second son of Zhaobin, to continue Zhaohu’s family line. The Chaste Widow is fifty-five this year. Her adopted grandson is sixteen. He is very filial and careful, and is able to respectfully comfort the moral commitment [of the two women]. The Chaste Widow’s home is poor. When there is a poor harvest they do not have enough food. Having to melt ice for water and eat bark, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law face each in solitude at their spinning wheels of sewing machines. The relatives and neighbors who see their situation think them to be in great distress. However, they remain undisturbed; they do not think it difficult. They only concerned with teaching and raising the adopted grandson, so that he will grow up and continue the offerings to their husbands. When I supervised education in Zhejiang Province [Wang] Weisun was one of those I selected [to participate in the Metropolitan Examinations]. After he arrived at the capital, he came to tell me the righteous deeds of the Chaste Widow, and asked me to write a biography of her. I think the cardinal virtues and core human relationships are Heaven’s constants. The reason why chastity is as important as loyalty and filial piety is that they are all rooted in the mind and arise from the nature; they do not depend on instruction to be realized, they do not depend on learning to be apprehended. That one can experience a multitude of hardships and difficulties yet in the end stay true to one’s original commitment is due to the nature Heaven endows in us. The Chaste Widow’s commitment and behavior are magnificent yet she has encountered many difficulties. The He family did not have son but got a son, it did not have grandson but got a grandson. Not only did she stay true to her commitment but she also gained the trust of her daughter-in-law and continued the family line. What she has established is of the greatest importance. Therefore I have recorded her deeds and composed her biography, so that people will understand that it is not by chance that chastity is regarded highly. When she is honored by a banner on a black column and she enters the sections of the histories that cover exemplary women, , let this serve as the evidence. On the first one third of the tenth month, in the gengxu year of the Qianlong reign period (1790), Written by Zhu Gui of Daxing, bearing the title of Metropolitan Graduate, Grand Master for Glorious Happiness bestowed by imperial order, Participant in the Classics Colloquium, Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel concurrently serving in the Upper Study with a rank one degree higher, newly appointed as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Military concurrently appointed as Right Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Governor of Anhui and other Provinces, Military Superintendent concurrently in charge of provisions. [1] It is referred to fully subsidized students in Confucian schools at prefectural and lower levels of territorial administration, Therefore it is also a common variant of those who were eligible to participate in the Provincial Exmainations, i.e., Prefectural Graduate. [2] “Bozhou,” a poem in The Book of Odes, tells of Gong Jiang, the wife of Count Gong, the crown prince of Wei. After Count Gong died, her parents wanted her to remarry. She vowed that she would never remarry, and composed this poem to express her intention. The title of the poem thus became a symbol of the chaste widow. |
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Collection: | Guodong text |
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