File:Lion and dragon in northern China (1910) (14597451798).jpg

English: Monument to the Faithful widow, A monument to mark the medieval era "widow suicide" in China (page 223-227, Lion and Dragon in Northern China), a practice similar to the Indian sati.

Identifier: liondragoninnort00john (find matches)
Title: Lion and dragon in northern China
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Johnston, Reginald Fleming, Sir, 1874-1938
Subjects: Weihaiwei
Publisher: New York, E. P. Dutton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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approval will certainly begiven to its official publication throughout the Empire. In the courseof his memorial, in which he alluded to and bewailed the misfortunesof China and the crimes of those in high places, Yung Lin expressedhis belief that unless reforms speedily take place, the foreignerswill seize the excuse of protection for chapels and Legations to in-crease their garrisons, while secretly pursuing their scheme for convert-ing their sojourn in the land into ownership. He also makes someremarks which, though they would meet the hearty support of aRuskin, will not be relished by foreign traders. Writing of the wasteof the national resources, he says that vast sums of money arefrittered away in the purchase of useless foreign goods. After sendinghis memorial to the Press, Yung Lin cut his throat. The direct orindirect results of this affair will perhaps be more far-reaching thanmay at present be thought likely.1 G. Chatterton Hill, Heredity and Selection in Sociology, p, 187.
Text Appearing After Image:
SUICIDE OF WIDOWS 225 There is no doubt that the suicide of widows in China is a survival of the ancient custom (which flourished in countries so far apart as India and Peru, Africa and China) whereby wives and slaves were as a matter of ordinary duty expected to followtheir husbands and masters to the grave; and thoughthe day has probably long gone past when suchsuicides were encouraged or actually enforced by thedeceaseds relatives, it cannot be doubted that to thisday public opinion in China is strongly on the sideof the widow who chooses to follow her lord to theworld of ghosts.2 The present-day theory of the matter held by thepeople of eastern Shantung, including Weihaiwei,appears to be this. A woman undoubtedly performsa meritorious act in following her husband to the spirit world...

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