31 pages • 1 hour read
Jonathan SpenceThe Death of Woman Wang
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1978A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Widow”
Spence discusses the position widows had in traditional Chinese society and the social and moral demands made of them. The Local History records biographies of widows who managed to make ends meet and raise their children successfully (59). In his stories, P’u mocks both the idea of widows being completely pure and the gentry who compiled these stories of virtuous widows “for their combination of fastidiousness and lechery, the very characteristics that they lavishly praised others for not having” (61). Still, Spence argues that P’u bought into Chinese society’s gender norms. For example, in one of his stories a widow who takes a lover before her husband’s funeral is complete is then killed by her husband’s vengeful ghost. Another story is about an intelligent widow named Hsi-liu, who uses strict discipline to ensure that her lazy stepson and son become an accomplished scholar and merchant, respectively (62-70).
Whatever the ideals, widows often had to remarry so that the deceased husband’s family could reclaim his property; otherwise, those same relatives would harass them for money (70-73). In one case, a widow named P’eng became the caretaker of her son Lien. Lien’s cousins, the Ch’en brothers, plotted to harass her into moving away or remarrying. Unsuccessful, they then plotted to kill Lien. One of the brothers, Ch’en Kuo-hsiang, took advantage of the fact that their father was killed and his body lost during the Manchu invasion of T’an-ch’eng: He would claim that Lien’s father murdered his own, hoping that he would receive a lighter sentence for acting to avenge his family. Ch’en Kuo-hsiang beat Lien to death. However, his case fell apart, and he was sentenced to execution. Nevertheless, the head of the Ch’en family had the right to choose her next heir.
Chapter 3 Analysis
This chapter focuses on attitudes toward and expectations of widows. The “prevailing views” upheld the “need for widows’ morality and fixity of purpose” (62). While sometimes poking fun at these standards, P’u’s stories ultimately support them. Widows faced harassment from their husbands’ families, who sought to reclaim the deceased husbands’ property. As P’eng’s story demonstrates, these conflicts could escalate into violence. The loss of a son would undoubtedly have represented a double blow to P’eng, given how much of a woman’s purpose revolved around motherhood; the story of Hsi-liu suggests that society measured women’s contributions to society through her ability to raise productive sons.
Despite how much the virtuous and hardworking widow was prized by Chinese society, her true situation was therefore a difficult and even dangerous one that the crises facing T’an-ch’eng worsened. Though Ch’en Kuo-hsiang’s story about avenging his father ultimately fell apart, the attempt shows how bad actors could exploit the era’s political turbulence for their own benefit. More broadly, the region’s poverty would have deepened the financial stress on widows (and those seeking their inheritances).
The story of the woman murdered by her husband’s ghost both underscores the superstitiousness of T’an-ch’eng (which P’u occasionally shares) and foreshadows the story of woman Wang. In the latter case, however, fears surface that Wang herself will become the vengeful ghost. This contrast reveals the ambivalent role of superstition in maintaining social hierarchies; although writers like P’u could use stories of the supernatural to reinforce women’s subordinate position, concerns that the supernatural could upend such hierarchies persisted.
