Susan Mann Widow Chastity Analysis

Ancient China was built largely on the principle of Li. Women chastity and Jingbiao system were the products of the ideology of Li, which further served as a means for rulers to promote moral standards. Susan Mann’s article had exploded the widowhood in Qing dynasty in great details. Mann emphasized “ the discourse on widowhood was a malleable discourse, shaped not only by class difference, but also by historical events that transformed the meaning of chaste widowhood”. She managed to explain her ideas clearly through further looking into historical backgrounds and family structure of widowhood although few areas were overlooked.
Mann evaluated the development of widow chastity clearly in her article and explicitly depicted what was the Jingbiao …show more content…
Since the historical background always provides the underlying causes for the rise of a social phenomenon. Mann successfully identified the specialty about the Qing government, which, according to her, is the Manchus, the conquering outsiders. The practice of widow chastity was rather a way to “ codify and enforce norms in traditional Chinese culture so that they could claim to represent, and indeed to restore, an indigenous moral and social system?” We may start to wonder what is the link between their originality and the reinforcement of widow chastity. First, as we all know, the Manchus, previously viewed as barbarians, are non-Chinese who ruin a large land with a large population of Chinese. As Janet Theiss mentioned in her article: Qing dominators were highly sensitive about that none Chinese ruler identity. They want to be seen as legitimized ruler as any other previous Chinese rulers governed by the Mandate of Heaven. In order to gain power, control and influences over the general public, the Manchu rulers “used the traditional Confucian ethical code to publicly demonstrate their Han Chinese subjects their benignity and refinement”. Through practicing the same social norms and ideology, the rulers managed to gain the Chinese’ support and acceptance. Joan W. Scoot claimed in her article that gender is always being used as a metaphor of the relationship between rulers and the ruled. Similarly, with the support of san gang wu chang, it was commonly believed that a woman should be absolutely loyalty to her husband just like an official is absolutely loyal to his emperor, so by emphasizing the chastity of woman, the Manchu rulers were actually stressing on the officer-king relationship in order secure their ruling position, so the common practice of widow chastity somehow