After Yuan Ji’s death, he blogged a good biographical article and you can a keen elegy when you look at the memories out of the woman
New spouse of one’s bend creator away from Jin reasoned on Duke and you can certain him in order to free their husband’s lifestyle. She also trained the fresh new leader anything or a couple about how exactly to help you shoot a keen arrow (Liu ch. 6). (East Western Library TBQ)
Even though Lie nu? zhuan earned notoriety for its female martyr stories, the book is not all about dead and good women. Plenty of women, including a girl as younger since the a dozen and you can titled Zhuang Zhi (Liu ch. 6), offered courageous criticisms and sage tips so you can rulers. By revealing moral prices, using smart metaphors, and you may mentioning convincing historical instruction they might use moral impact on rulers, produced these to senses, aided him or her hire greatest anyone and you may enact way more benevolent rules. Some of the lady managed to help save their dads, husbands, sons, brothers, and you can by themselves from unfair punishments in the process. Tales such as those, as the strengthening while they might possibly be within this Confucian limits towards female, describe a portion of the attractiveness of the publication to women intellectuals and you can members inside premodern China.
Lie nu? zhuan also pioneered the idea of “fetal studies” (??), acting how to be a beneficial mom during pregnancy. Whenever Consort Ren are pregnant that have Queen Wen, inventor of the Zhou dynasty, she would maybe not look through to evil sights otherwise pay attention to perverse songs, adding new fetus to help you a stimuli only (Kinney seven; Liu ch. 1).
Impact: The situation regarding Yuan Ji
Lie nu? zhuan was a major identity suitable for girls’ ethical training, given that exhibited in the Rules In this Females’ Quarters???? [v] . Written in this new accessible rhyming texts and you can vernacular concept, this book advised females to learn Lie nu? zhuan and the chapter “Pattern of the Family” (??) in Record of Rites, a Confucian classic. It cites the famous exemplary women featured in Lie nu? zhuan, instructs ideas on how to eradicate members of the family (that have a paragraph towards good concubine interactions), and you can emphasizes the worth of filial piety, chastity, and you may fidelity. The impact of Lie nu? zhuan on female conduct was pervasive, with a trickling effect on people who had never even been exposed to the book directly.
One of many tragic victims of your sort of sacrificial opinions internalized of the Chinese girls was Yuan Ji??, just who passed away during the years 39 inside 1759. We realize on the the woman small existence owing 
to this lady cousin Yuan Mei?? (1716-1797), a student of Qing dynasty and a caring brother so you can their sisters. When she had been a toddler, Yuan Ji is actually lined up to ily, a pal off the girl father’s. If the friend pointed out that their son got grown into a beneficial violent beast, the guy published with the Yuan members of the family so you can annul brand new arrangement, about to spare Ji off spoil. Ji, however, would not break the fresh new agreement and voluntarily joined the fresh doomed marriage. Ji try personally abused and you will punished in the possession of away from her psychopathic spouse, it doesn’t matter what compliant a wife she strove is. She are nearly marketed to pay off his gambling financial obligation when Ji’s father intervened and you may rescued the woman by the acquiring a split up. She stayed a lonely existence afterwards but nevertheless reduced filial piety so you’re able to the woman previous-mother-in-rules by the delivering dresses and you can dining. When she turned unwell she’d perhaps not search lose.
Literacy and you may training don’t associate immediate emancipation, and can become a tool having indoctrination. Yuan Mei blogged when they were students his sis made use of to take sessions towards the classics with your. This new sister lamented regarding the elegy you to definitely, in the event the their sibling hadn’t read Odes–an authoritative work frequently quoted in Lie nu? zhuan–and Book of Documents, she might not have subjected herself so resolutely to harsh circumstances. He found three chapters of collective biography of women she had compiled, as well as poems she wrote.