Chapter 23 The Fourth View of Chastity

Since the Southern Song Dynasty, widows' bad habits of chastity have been rampant in the world, and they began to be criticized by the society in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.Yan Fu, a famous modern bourgeois enlightenment thinker and translator in the late Qing Dynasty, seriously criticized the feudal morality of the three cardinal principles and five constant principles.He believes that the husband's guideline is only a one-sided obligation of the wife to her husband, and it has completely become a tool for men to oppress women. It is extremely unreasonable for Chinese women not to be able to choose their own husbands, but to be their guideline for life.Tan Sitong, a famous bourgeois reformist politician in the late Qing Dynasty, clearly put forward the demand for equal rights between men and women, and angrily denounced the reactionary concept of "starving to death is a small matter, but injustice is a major matter".He believed that men and women should have equal rights.Patriarchy, discrimination and persecution of women are against humanity and reason.By the eve of the Revolution of 1911, a large number of progressive bourgeois thinkers and revolutionaries such as Cai Yuanpei and Qiu Jin had practiced their own actions, enlightening women's conscience through means of propaganda, education and revolution, making them understand that arranged marriages, buying and selling marriages and the feudal concept of chastity are harmful to themselves. and social poisoning.After the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911, the southern provinces that were directly affected by the revolutionary wave even had a revolutionary event of smashing chastity archways, and the reactionary concept of chastity was shaken.After the achievements of the Revolution of 1911 were usurped by Yuan Shikai, women were put on the shackles of feudal ethics again.The "Praise Regulations" promulgated by the Beiyang government in October of the sixth year of the Republic of China (AD 1917) is a clear proof of this. The scope of praise for women is:

A. Good wife and virtuous mother: those whose friendship is in the style of the country (jin ban). B. Festival wife: those who are less than 30 years old and have kept the festival until they are over 50 years old; C. A woman who is unmarried and voluntarily observes the chastity after her husband dies. D. Martyr's Day Girl: Anyone who is raped and does not die, or commits suicide in shame and anger, and martyrdom after the death of her husband belongs to this category.It is the same as those who were martyred by the bandits. Combined with the "Praise Regulations", the Beiyang government has also imposed many restrictions on the remarriage of widows: "The grandparents and parents of the husband's family will preside over the remarriage of widows voluntarily. There are no grandparents or parents in the mother's family, and the remaining relatives of the husband's family still preside over the marriage." There is no freedom for widows to remarry.

Not only did the government advocate the feudal concept of chastity, but newspapers in the Republic of China also had absurd words advocating the martyrdom of women and martyrs by feudal apostles in the newspapers of the Republic of China to fuel the government's feudal ethics and moral norms that went against the trend.For example, some newspapers said that a martyr committed suicide by various means and finally achieved the goal of her husband as "perseverance", "a model of a martyr", and even suggested that she should "help" a martyr to "die" Lucky" murder logic.The good, evil, beauty and ugliness in the world, right and wrong, have been distorted beyond measure.

The perverse social reality has aroused the anger and protests of advanced Chinese intellectuals who pursue democracy and science and advocate new culture and new ideas. In 1915, "New Youth", which represented the culture and thought of the new generation, was founded and published by Chen Duxiu, the leader of the New Culture Movement.In the second year, Chen Duxiu took "1916" as the title and called for breaking the "Three Guidelines" in the magazine, calling on women not to be willing to be manipulated and dominated by others, but to rise from the conquered position to the conquering position.He also published several articles aiming at the trend of respecting Confucianism at that time, pointing out that the forced widowhood of young women caused many promising women to be "both physically and mentally abnormal", and the roots were all Confucianism.Hu Shi, a famous thinker, also published articles successively in magazines, criticizing the governor of Shanghai county for petitioning the governor of Jiangsu Province for the "feat" of a 17-year-old martyrdom woman. ", "In any case, the law should not officially praise the act of suicide and martyrdom."So he said: "I absolutely oppose the law that praises 'chastity'".The pioneer of the New Culture Movement, Lu Xun, deeply analyzed the social root of the concept of chastity, which is that the feudal society only regarded women as men’s private property and a tool for inheriting the family. However, it is not beneficial to others, it is not beneficial to the society and the country, and it is meaningless in the future of life.” Therefore, “it is necessary to get rid of hypocritical facial makeup, and get rid of the coma and rape that harm others and ourselves in the world.” Li Dazhao, Liu Bannong, Wu Yu, Zhou Zuoren Many progressive intellectuals also fiercely criticized the feudal ethics centered on the "three cardinal guides and five constant principles" and the "national quintessence" advocated by the authorities, and made many pioneering efforts in advocating "human rights" and "science" and promoting women's liberation. Sex work has had a great impact on modern Chinese people's views on marriage, family and life ethics.

The New Culture Movement, which began as an opposition to the old culture, finally led to the outbreak of the "May 4th" Movement in 1919.A group of revolutionary intellectuals with preliminary communist ideas became the backbone and leaders of the movement.The vast number of women, especially advanced intellectual women have also invested in this great movement.Some of them, such as Xiang Jingyu, Cai Chang, Deng Yingchao, Guo Longzhen, etc., later became the earliest group of female Communist Party members in the history of the Communist Party of China. Although the "May 4th" movement and the subsequent vigorous revolutionary movement had a violent impact on the old concepts and systems of marriage and family, the feudal concept of chastity that has been raging in Chinese history for thousands of years cannot immediately withdraw from history. The stage, its influence and virulence continue to exist to varying degrees in many parts of the country, mainly in the vast rural areas.