Research On The Female Jingbiao System In Ming And Qing Dynasties

Conferring honors on women appeared in Qin and Han Dynasties,and then gradually matured and eventually developed into the honor system of exemplary women.In Ming and Qing Dynasties,the system was inherited and developed.In early Ming Dynasty,the qualification of being an honored exemplary woman was only restricted to female civilians,subsequently,the limitations on titled women and deceased women were gradually broken.As the procedure of conferring honor was pretty complicated,drawbacks like false reports from officials endlessly emerged.Local gentries actively wrote Biography of women in local records.According to the records of the two dynasties in Ming and Qing Dynasty,a total of 9725 women were written in local records,including 7580 of them were officially honored,and 2145 of them were only written in local records.The imperial court granted the honor to the women who met the requirements,giving them the honor of building a workshop and entering the temple of filial piety.Most of the local officials commended the issue by issuing plaque.At the same time,the family also recorded this part of the women in the genealogy as a sign of praise.Because of the promotion of the imperial court and the regulation and guidance of the family on women's behavior,the number of exemplary women in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was greatly increased.In Ming and Qing Dynasties,the number of people in Yijing area changed greatly in the two dynasties.The number of Ming Dynasty increased steadily,and the Qing Dynasty doubled.Due to the war of chaos in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement,the number of women in the Yijing area reached its peak in the period of Xianfeng and Tongzhi.In the Qing Dynasty,the number of "biography" recorded in the local chronicles of the Yijing area was more than 44 times that of the Ming Dynasty,and the number of chastity women was more than 48 times that of the Ming Dynasty.In addition,the ratio of chastity in the Ming Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty was about 8 to 1,and the ratio of chastity in the Qing Dynasty was about 2 to 1.Honor on Yijing exemplary women in Ming and Qing Dynasties were almost conferred as individuals,and sometimes as groups.During the period of Daoguang,the group honor conferring upsurged,and then conferring honors on the deceased and comforting families was the main method to Conferring people who sacrificed in the war between Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.In Ming and Qing Dynasties,honors were mainly conferred on common civilians,and the honored women from officials' families continued on dropping.The rank of women honor greatly influenced by the class of husband's family or the class of parents' family and types of honor.In Ming Dynasty,the honor rank was higher for chaste women,while filial women stressed in Qing Dynasty,and chastity women-the majority of honoring had been ignored.In Ming and Qing Dynasties,exemplary women from Yijing represented those who from Jiangnan Region,and gentries from this area extremely pursued for morality to conform to the fancy of governors on the honor system.However,the dominant policies of honoring varied in Ming and Qing Dynasties.The amount of honored exemplary woman was great and the culture of chastity prevailed in Ming Dynasty,but the honor system was difficult to sustain for its corruption.At the at the beginning of Qing Dynasty,the authority of central government had been strengthened through the honor system.But after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement,the authority of honoring was controlled by local governments,so the whole system lost control.In conclusion,Ming and Qing Dynasties had reached a great increase in the amount of honored woman by relaxing restrictions on quantification.