Sanctioned Self-Mutilation and Suicide

The ancient and revered Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing) forbade self-mutilation and suicide.^[1037] The author reasons that because we receive our body as a precious gift from our parents, deliberately damaging it shows ingratitude.

In ancient China, a few exemplary figures mutilated themselves for the sake of loyalty to a superior or parent. As the cult of filial piety developed, stories of model sons focused on extreme acts of sacrifice, including self­mutilation, to emphasise the importance of this virtue. Moreover, tradi­tional medical teachings held that human flesh has powerful curative properties, making it the best possible medicine to offer a sick parent. Of course this item could not be purchased, so someone had to voluntarily cut off a piece of their own flesh for medicinal use. When a son cut off part of his body to cook and serve to an ailing mother or father, he expressed consummate filial devotion. Actual cases of self-mutilation were always probably extremely uncommon. Even so, people enjoyed reading about these dramatic incidents, and self-mutilation became a standard theme in biographies of filial sons.^[1038]

Although Chinese initially associated filial mutilation with sons, this prac­tice gradually became closely tied to women. In antiquity, when the judicial system often resorted to mutilating punishments, many people considered cutting, tattooing and branding inappropriate for women. Some ancient legal codes commuted mutilating punishments to incarceration when an elite woman was involved. However, shifts in attitudes towards medicine and morality led some women to mutilate themselves voluntarily, to express moral sentiments.

Although women originally owed filial devotion mostly to parents, changes in the kinship system shifted the focus of this obligation towards parents-in-law. Biographies of women also increasingly featured violent self­sacrifice as a way for women to display virtue. It became conventional to describe the ideal daughter-in-law as cutting off a breast, a slice of her arm, or even a piece of liver, then using this precious meat to brew a medicinal soup for her ailing mother-in-law. Confucian authorities such as the ancient philosopher Mencius (c. 372-c. 289 bce) considered filial piety the most basic foundation of moral order, and introducing violence further empha­sised its importance.^[1039]

Self-mutilation became one of the most widely discussed acts of exemplary female behaviour, and the number of cases increased over time. The standard history of the Eastern Han dynasty, compiled in the fifth century, mentions only one woman who mutilated herself. Official histories of the Tang dynasty (618-907) include twenty instances of female self-mutilation. However, in the fourteenth century, violence became an extremely common theme in narratives about exemplary women. The eighteenth-century encyclopedia Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times (Gujin tushu jicheng) mentions 2,470 women and men who mutilated themselves to obtain flesh for use as medicine.

This gruesome practice evoked concern from authorities. While the government never outlawed self-mutilation, edicts of 1394 and 1426 forbade women who had cut their bodies from receiving official commendation as role models. However, periodic attempts to restrict the practice failed and it became more common than ever. By cutting her body, a woman trans­formed it into a tangible symbol of virtue. Given this symbolic potency, mutilation remained a topic of frequent discussion in spite of widespread unease about these disturbing acts.

Suicide became another dramatic way for women to express virtue. Although both sexes killed themselves on occasion, suicide became very closely associated with female rectitude.

suicide.

Women committed suicide for various reasons. The most highly regarded suicides occurred to preserve chastity. In antiquity, female virtue consisted of manifold behaviours, but over time women's probity became increasingly identified with their physicality. Maintaining sexual purity and offering the body to one man through the course of a lifetime served as the primary manifestations of female virtue. Generally speaking,

20 Katherine Carlitz, ‘The Daughter, the Singing-Girl, and the Seduction of Suicide', Nan Nu 3.1 (2001), 22-46. a woman killed herself not just for her own sake but also out of a sense of duty to her husband and his kin, who would be disgraced if she had sex with another man. For example, a woman might kill herself to avoid being raped. She might even commit suicide upon a husband's death, either to express marital loyalty or because poverty would otherwise force her into a disgraceful remarriage. By the fifteenth century, it became common to portray female virtue as the quintessence of ancient classical teachings, hence emblematic of Chineseness. Authors often regarded female martyrs as having sacrificed themselves for the sake of civilisation itself.

Suicide carried highly subjective meanings, and the reasons behind a woman's self-destruction were often subject to interpretation. As the marital bond strengthened in the late imperial era, it became common for wife and husband to enjoy close emotional rapport.

Whatever the intentions behind a woman's suicide, her death might be deliberately misrepresented. Instead of admitting the negative reasons behind it, those around her might portray it as righteous self-sacrifice performed for the sake of loyalty or chastity. The subjective meaning of female suicide highlights the importance of interpretation in assessing the meaning of any act of violence. Did a woman die for the sake of love, loyalty, despair or spite? When violence entered into an area as hotly contested as female virtue, its significance became subject to manipulation.

The emergence of self-destructive violence as a way to claim lofty virtue cannot be ascribed to a single cause. A convergence of factors pushed women to take these extreme measures. For example, the increasing association of female fidelity with male loyalty increased the importance of female self-sacrifice. A woman who damaged her body dramatically expressed a virtue highly respected by men. Governments patronised the chastity cult to gain prestige for local elites and the state. And male authors actively encouraged female martyrdom, garnering respect by portraying themselves as devoted to the highest ethical standards. In other words, men could burnish their own public image by encouraging women to harm themselves. The pragmatic functions of female violence gave it varied functions and meanings.