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ABSTRACT
This article explores women’s experiences during the White Lotus War (1796–1804), examining disparities related to the state’s calculation of women’s value as agents of institutional reproduction, sources of intelligence, and symbols of disorder. The state cared assiduously for widows of officers killed in battle, converting their grief into a commitment to raising sons as officers, while offering only meagre assistance to soldiers’ widows. Interrogators used female captives to verify identities of captured men, taking their emotions as evidence of attachment. Officials resettling female refugees treated them as threats to social order who need to be returned to families or remarried.
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Notes
1. Zhang, Chuanshan, 14:3b-5a.
2. Mann, “Widows,” 43.
3. Ko, Teachers; Mann, Talented Women; Li, Women’s Poetry; Fong, Herself an Author; and Li, Women and Trauma.
4. On women’s references to Mulan see, for instance, Fong, Herself an Author, 110; and Li, Women’s Poetry, 133–4.
5. Meyer-Fong provides detail of women’s experiences of the late nineteenth-century Taiping War, though focused more on commemoration than the experiences of those who survived. Meyer-Fong, What Remains. Swope provides some details on women’s experiences of violence and dislocation during the Ming-Qing transition. Swope, Yellow Tiger, 46, 177, 181.
6. On considerations of emotion in magistrate’s decision-making, see Huang, Chinese Civil Justice, 188; Rowe, Saving the World, 103–4.
7. Numbers based on Qinding huidian, Guangxu, juan 449–51.
8. Ba County 6–02-00267, 6–02-00266, 6–02-00269; Ba xian zhi, 5:5.
9. Kuizhou fu zhi, 18:6a-b; Xing’an fu zhi, j.5; and Jiaqing chao qinding Da Qing hudian shili 474:7b-8b, 475:7a.
10. For example, in Sichuan 200,000 militiamen received government salaries in 1797 and 1798. Dai, White Lotus, 176.
11. Yingshan xian zhi, “Wubei zhi,” 18:26b.
12. Ziyang xian zhi, 6:15b.
13. Longshan xian zhi, 11:18b-19a-b.
14. For instance, in Chongqing Central Garrison, of the 138 soldiers killed in the war, thirty-eight were survived by widowed mothers, and twenty-five by widowed fathers. In twenty-six cases, both parents were still alive. At least fifteen of the dead left behind wives. The small number of wives reflects the young age of the dead. Between 26 and 32% of men in their twenties remained unmarried. Wang, ‘Shiba shiji,’ 544. NGDK 000608–001; Sichuan tongzhi 140:31a.
15. Ba 06–02-00260.
16. NGDK 001556–001. Porter notes that in the Han Banners, it was common to give military posts to young boys as a way of supporting orphans and widows. Porter, “Ethnic and Status Identity,” 195.
17. Local gazetteers included war widows in longer lists of chaste widows, all of whom were presented as models of ‘loyalty, fidelity, and absolute commitment.’ Mann, “Widows,” 42–3.
18. On the mother-son bond and mothers as educators of sons, see Hsiung, “Constructed Emotions.”
19. For the most common posthumous title, the yunqiwei, 670 of 927 cases in which heirs are identified indicate that the heir was a son by birth. Bonk, “Military Men,” 113.
20. Hereditary titles and ranks gave Han Chinese war widows a role similar to Manchu widows: raising sons to replace fathers in the military. Elliott, “Manchu Widows,” 57–58.
21. For instance, revenues from the court’s pearl monopoly were used to give an additional 1,000 taels of silver to Wang Wenxiong’s mother. Wang, Wang Zhuangjie, 40b-41a. officials often built arches or inscribed door plaques honoring widows of officers. See, for instance, Gaolan xian zhi 9:57a, 58a.
22. On the order to build the shrine, see Qinding huidian, Jiaqing, “Li bu,” 366:14b-15a.
23. Zhang, Wuwei, 18b.
24. Most famous were the mothers of Mengzi and Yue Fei. On the role of mothers in raising sons for official service in the Qing, see Hsiung, “Constructed Emotions.” On Qing efforts to promote chaste widowhood, see Mann, “Widows,” 41–2.
25. Zhang, Wuwei, 213.
26. Other policies were implemented to ensure that heirs could stay close to their families, including a policy allowing training to be conducted at the closest garrison to their homes rather than in the provincial capital. See Bonk, “Military Men,” 100.
27. Wang, Wang Zhuangjie, 44b-45b; on Wang Kaiyun’s promotion of his father’s story, see Sheng Dashi, Yunsuge wenji, 4:6b.
28. He Xiang, “Guige zai xian yi jin hui,” Zuojia zazhi 10 (2013): 135–136.
29. In Sichuan, 230 officers were killed in the war. Sichuan tong zhi 140:31a-32a. Hereditary titles were also awarded to militia leaders killed in battle, but I have identified only fifty such cases.
30. The preferential treatment of officers’ widows also true of English and America before the 19th century. Collins, “Petitions,” 3.
31. Dai, White Lotus, 405–6.
32. Ibid., 383.
33. Robinson, “Military Labor,” 58.
34. Ba 6–03-00437.
35. Ibid.,00441.
36. Ba 6–03-00452.
37. In late eighteenth century Guangzhou, Han banner widows, orphans, and disabled soldiers were supported by contributions from soldiers. Porter, “Ethnic and Status,” 202.
38. The money paid out was earned through interest on an investment. Ba 6–03-00479.
39. Ba 6–02-00269.
40. According to Macauley, 27% of cases conducted by litigation masters were lodged on behalf of widows. Macauley, Social Power, 192.
41. Macauley, Social Power, 155.
42. Sommer, Polyandry, 10; Liang, Shishan, 153–9. The state and many elite men portrayed widow remarriage as a ‘violation of chastity,’ and the selling of widowed daughters-in-law for remarriage was forbidden without the widow’s consent.
43. In Europe too, the ‘assumption of state responsibility’ for all ordinary war dead and their families emerged only in World War I. Laqueur, Work of the Dead, 461–79.
44. Similar failures were apparent even in Communist China. See Diamant, “Martyrdom and Mischief.”
45. Military advisors, such as Bao Shichen, argued that militiamen could only be relied upon if they were paid well. Rowe, Speaking of Profit, 29.
46. On state support for widowed mothers as educators of sons and the parallel it drew between chaste widows and loyal subjects, see Theiss, “Managing Martyrs,” 56–7. The devotion to a mother was sometimes a motivation for fighting against rebels. Fuzhou, 9:25a-b.
47. For accounts of women’s travel during the Taiping War, see Zhang, Tiny Insect, 90–3; and Wang, Reverie and Reality, 87–8, 94–5.
48. Dai, White Lotus, 246.
49. On women in combat, see Dai, White Lotus War, 82. Commoner women also assisted in the war, most commonly to aid the defence of besieged cities or stockades. Yingshan xian, 18:24b. In Fang county, women’s menstrual blood was spread on cannons to fend off rebel attacks, and pregnant women hung bloody undergarments from the walls to counter rebel incantations. Fang xian, 6:22a-b.
50. QZQWS vol. 2, 244.
51. Ibid., 238. For another woman’s testimony about family pressure to join a sectarian movement, see Hegel, True Crimes, 188.
52. On women sectarian leaders, see McCaffrey, “Living through Rebellion,” 133–4; and Naquin, Millenarian Rebellion, 38.
53. For example, a gazetteer praised Ms. Wang of Zhushan county for refusing to join the rebellion with her husband. Ms. Wang’s biography notes that the government had executed all those in her husband’s family who had joined the ‘heterodox sect’, but ‘she was known for her purity, and was not executed.’ Zhushan xian, 6:47a.
54. SSXFFL 15:6b.
55. SSXFFL 15:35b.
56. SSXFFL 15:36a.
57. QZQWS vol. 5, 22, 33, 34.
58. Women’s deaths at the hands of the Qing military or through suicide to protect their chastity had been powerful symbols of Ming loyalism, and stories of these deaths continued to circulate throughout the Qing. See Theiss, “Managing Martyrdom,” and Struve, “Horrid Beyond Description.”
59. On deaths of these women, see Dai, White Lotus, 76, 489 f. 78.
60. A 1798 report described a group of several hundred women cavalry led by Wang. QZQWS vol. 2, 251.
61. SSXFFL 67:12b.
62. Spectacular executions and display of heads were common strategies for manipulating public sentiment. I have counted about 7,700 such beheadings in the war. For examples: SSXFFL, 87:31a, 94:28b-29a, 127:10a, 199:22a.
63. Yunxi xian zhi 2:13b.
64. Naquin, Millenarian Rebellion, 41–2.
65. Mann, “Widows,” 42. Kuizhou prefecture enshrined 514 local women as martyrs. Kuizhou fu zhi 18:2a.
66. QZQWS, vol. 2, 7.
67. Ibid., 20.
68. Ibid., 149.
69. QZQWS vol. 2, 166.
70. On the shift to guerilla warfare, see Dai, White Lotus, 128.
71. SSXFFL 71:12b, 135:24b-25a.
72. See not 66 above, 33.
73. Ibid., 355.
74. Some women were also held for ransom and redeemed by families or communities. SSXFFL xu, 12:10b.
75. Zheng, Dongyuan, 2:13b-14a.
76. In one instance, a militia learned that a woman being carried in a bamboo chair was the mother of a rebel general named Tang Daxin. Upon hearing this, they became enraged and kicked her until she died. SSXFFL 129:14a.
77. McCaffrey, “Living Through Rebellion,” 170. Similar stories of violence exist from the Ming-Qing transition. See, Idema, Red Brush, 443–4. On the use of rape in war, see Enloe, Maneuvers, ch. 8.
78. McLaren, “Lamenting.”
79. SSXFFL 261:12b-13a.
80. Huashana, De Zhuangguo, 16:50b.
81. SSXFFL xu 35:2a-2b.
82. Ms. Li had been captured earlier in the year in Shangzhou, where had been in hiding and working as a labourer. SSXFFL xu 35:2b-3a.
83. SSXFFL xu 35:3b.
84. SSXFFL xu 35:4b.
85. Theiss, “Managing Martyrdom.”
86. SSXFFL 257:22b.
87. SSXFFL 257:20b.
88. See above 86 above.
89. SSXFFL 257:23a.
90. SSXFFL 257:24b.
91. On this campaign, see McMahon, “Southern Shaanxi.”
92. Yang, Zibian nianpu, 140.
93. Zhang, “Heyi jiamai,” 20–1.
94. SSXFFL 95:7b-8a. The government rejected this proposal as impracticable, instead directing local officials to provide charity through homes for the poor (SSXFFL 103:20a). Given that few such homes existed in the region, the suggestion likely had little impact. Liang, Shishan, 270.
95. Huashana, De Zhuangguo, 16:50a.
96. SSXFFL267:34b-35a.
97. Fang xian, 6:32a.
98. QZQWS vol. 2, 151.
99. Shixiangcunjushi, Kanjing jiaofei, 5:2a.
100. Longshan xian, 12:16b-17a. For a similar story from the Taiping War, see Zhang, Tiny Insect, 91.
101. McMahon, “Qing Reconstruction,” 106–7. Lavelle, “Profits of Nature,” 23.
102. Zhou, Neizisong zhai, 5:2b.
103. McMahon, “Qing Reconstruction,” 100–1; Dai, White Lotus, 290–1.
104. Officials claimed that women without work often returned to the rebels. QZQWS vol. 1, 309, vol. 2, 349.
105. SSXFFL 339:24b. On risks faced by women fleeing from famine, see Tarpley, “Family and Gender,” 127.
106. In one case from the 1813 Rebellion, two widowed refugees were ‘picked up’ by a military officer. When one caused him trouble, the officer sold her. Xing’an huilan, juan 6, 474. On abduction by soldiers during the Taiping War, see Fong, “Signifying Bodies,” 124.
107. Dai, White Lotus, 578, f.30. Demand for women was driven by gender imbalance. 20–30% of men between 15 and 49 were unmarried. Jiang, “Bare Branches,” 544.
108. On trafficking women by boat, see also Sommer, Polyandry, 347. The river trade with Hubei was an important source of income for locals. Fuzhou zhi, 1:51b.
109. SSXFFL 339:24b.
110. SSXFFL 339:25b-26a.
111. Sommer, Polyandry, 152.
112. Ibid., 152. For conversion rates, see Smith, Qing Dynasty, 409–10.
113. Ibid., 213.
114. Ibid., 152.
115. Ibid., 288. The case I describe did not discuss punishments for the families who sold the women.
116. Ropp translates two songs attributed to early 19th century courtesans. Both condemn their parents for selling them. Ropp, “Ambiguous Images,” 35–41.
117. Sommer, Polyandry, Ch. 8.
118. Tarpley, “Family and Gender,” 139.
119. There was an expectation that wealthy families would arrange marriages for women servants. See Hua, Concubinage and Servitude, 125.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
James Bonk
James Bonk’s research focuses on the social and cultural history of war in eighteenth and nineteenth century China. He has published and presented on topics including war commemoration, economies of affect in times of war, the collection of war memorabilia, the gendered experience of war, and literary representations of war. He is currently serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies and East Asian Studies, at The College of Wooster.