%Menota_entities;] > The Chastity of Mr. Wu’s Wife Hong Mai 洪邁 Transcription by Likun Yang Translation by Likun Yang Encoded in TEI P5 XML by Jordan Rosen-Kaplan Global Medieval Sourcebook

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This story is one of five in the Global Medieval Sourcebook to have been selected from the Yijian Zhi (or Record of the Listener, hereafter the Record) by Hong Mai (1123-1202). Like many well-educated men in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), Hong Mai grew up in a prominent family, passed the civil service examination, and obtained a post in the imperial government. However, due to misconduct during a diplomatic mission, his career came to an abrupt end. From then on, he retreated to his study and devoted himself to writing the Record.

The corpus of the Record originally consisted of 420 chapters. What we have today, however, is but a small fraction of the original text. The Record shows a remarkable degree of accuracy when we compare it with the official documents and other texts of the same period. Nevertheless, many stories in the Record are outright fictitious or based on highly unreliable sources. The Record preserved much information about the society, culture and religion of the Southern Song Dynasty and was a source of inspiration for generations of writers after Hong Mai. Writers in late imperial China, for instance, took up many stories in the Record and refashioned them into stories that met the demands and expectations of their own times.

Allen, Sarah M. Shifting Stories: History, Gossip, and Lore in Narratives from Tang Dynasty China. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series. Harvard University Asia Center, 2014. Explores the tale literature of eighth- and ninth-century China to show how the written tales we have today grew out of a fluid culture of hearsay that circulated within elite society. Contains a chapter that explains the modern (mis)understanding of the tale literature as a genre.

Hansen, Valerie. Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1276. Princeton UP, 1990. Uses the Yi Jian Zhi tales as historical documents and shows that social and economic developments underlay religious changes in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1276).

Inglis, Alister David. Hong Mai's Record of the Listener and Its Song Dynasty Context. Suny Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture. SUNY P, 2006. A comprehensive survey of the scholarship on Yi Jian Zhi.

Luo, Manling. Literati Storytelling in Late Medieval China. The Modern Language Initiative. U of Washington P, 2015. Shows how the tales offer crucial insights into the reconfiguration of the Chinese elite, which monopolized literacy, social prestige, and political participation in tenth-century China.

Zhonghua Shuju edition: Hong, Mai. Yi Jian Zhi. Di 1 ban. ed. 4 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shu ju : Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing. 1981.

譚氏節操 The Chastity of Mr. Wu’s Wife

"The Chastity of Mr. Wu’s Wife" is published by The Global Medieval Sourcebook (GMS), a free, open access, and open source compendium of medieval texts in their original languages and in English translation. GMS comprises computer-readable transcriptions or editions alongside new translations of texts dating from the ninth to the sixteenth century and originating in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The GMS platform includes critical introductions as well as sources for further reading.

Transcriptions and translations are encoded in XML conforming to TEI (P5) guidelines. The original-language text is contained within <lem> tags and translations within <rdg> tags.

Texts are translated into modern American English with maximum fidelity to the original text, except where it would impair comprehension or good style. Archaisms are preserved where they do not conflict with the aesthetic of the original text. Scribal errors and creative translation choices are marked and discussed in the critical notes.

 <app> <lem wit="#Transcription">譚氏節操</lem> <rdg wit="#Translation">The Chastity of Mr. Wu’s Wife</rdg> </app>

英州真陽縣曲江村人吳琦, 略知書。 其妻譚氏。 In the Qujiang Village of the Zhenyang County under the Yingzhou Prefecture, there was a man named Wu Qi who had received some education and had a wife from the Tan family. 紹興五年閏二月, 本邑觀音山盜起, 攻剽鄉落。 In the second month of the fifth year of the Shaoxing era, some bandits emerged from the Guanying Mountain in the area and plundered many villages and counties. 琪竄去。 Wu Qi ran away. 譚氏與其女被執, 並鄰社村婦數人偕行。 His wife and their daughter were captured and joined other women captured from the same village. 譚在眾中頗潔白, 盜欲妻之。 mong this group of women, Wu’s wife was one of the more attractive, so one of the bandits wanted to have sex with her. 詬曰: “爾輩賊也。官軍旦夕且至。將為齏粉。我良家女。何肯為汝婦。” A Wu’s wife scolded him, saying: “People like you are nothing but bandits. The military will arrive in no time and you all will be crushed. I am from a reputable family. How can I become your woman?” 強之不已, 至於捶擊。 The bandit tried to force her into it but failed, and then hit her. 愈極口肆罵, 竟斃於毒手。 Wu’s wife started shouting and ranting but in the end was killed by the bandit. 後盜平, 鄰婦同執者皆還, After the bandits were suppressed, the other captured women all returned home. 曰: “使吳秀才妻不罵賊。今日亦歸矣。” They said: “If Mr. Wu’s wife had not scolded the bandit, she could have returned home too.” 因備言其死狀, 吳生始知之。 When they described her death in great detail, Mr. Wu understood what happened. 聞者高其節, 予嘗為之傳云。 All those who heard this story praised her chastity, and I therefore write this piece to spread her fame.