While working on her dissertation in Beijing, associate professor of history Janet Theiss stumbled upon a cluster of case archives for a lawsuit involving slander and family resentment that took place during the 18th century. The case involved a scandalous twist of adultery, improper values and secretive desires of an elite Chinese family.
Theiss is a University of Utah professor and the author of the novel “Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in 18th Century China.” Her findings about the lawsuit and the understanding it brings about Chinese society and the orthodox norms of the time were the basis for the presentation she gave Thursday afternoon to Chinese studies majors, faculty and staff at the University. Among others, associate professor of Chinese Maram Epstein went to question and learn about the case and its relation to Chinese society during the 18th century.
Theiss began by explaining the 1739 lawsuit filled with scandal and improper desires. The report is full of twists and mazes of deception that were brought to the surface by a 41-year-old woman, Fei Li Shi, who filed a lawsuit against family members. She accused them of slandering her chastity with false accusations of adultery.
The case file contains the testimonies from several members of the Fei family. A stack of love letters proved adulterous acts by a so-called chaste woman. The accusations of illicit sex and the rebellion of orthodox ethics in this elite family led to the demise of a good name. The complexity of Chinese family life and the importance of a women’s virtue shines through in the letters, and may point to similarities in the emotions of this family and of Chinese society during the 18th century, Theiss said. In fact, the discovery of this case may bring to the surface a frightening array of corruption of chaste women in Chinese society at that time.
The characteristics of the Fei family are not unusual for the time period, Theiss points out. Their feelings and actions align with those of characters in the popular Chinese novel “The Story of the Stone,” also known under the title “The Dream of the Red Chamber” by Cao Xueqin. The book follows a similar path of adultery and desires.
“The book and the lawsuit both suggest that the Chinese during this era experienced conflicts with orthodox values and their own emotions,” Theiss said. “I’m suggesting a broader social ethos.”
“Wow,” Epstein said, reacting to the correlation Theiss draws between history and the novel. Epstein is an expert in East Asian studies and teaches in the Asian Studies Program.
To Theiss, the way the popular novel aligns with the account of history in the lawsuit enhances the argument that many Chinese people in this era struggled to conform to orthodox values and continued to express their emotions in the form of love affairs or illicit sex, though these actions ran counter to the demands of society.
“It’s amazing the crossover between history and fiction,” said Alisa Freedman, assistant professor of Japanese. “I think it’s really interesting.”