The Woman Who Ran Away Summary and Analysis

Women commit suicide when their husband is jailed, dies from illness, or even castrates himself. There is a strong impulse to maintain family honor, which cause both men and women to sometimes mutilate or kill themselves. A woman refuses to remarry after her husband's death and disfigures herself to avoid remarriage.

In the "Local History," women are listed who are considered virtuous. Some of these women, in order to be loyal to their husbands, commit suicide, rather than being raped by attacking soldiers. Many women face rape and death in the Manchu looting of T'an-ch'eng in 1643. In a similar situation, with a happier ending, P'u Sung-ling writes about a woman confronting rampaging soldiers. She offers herself to the soldiers, entices them, one by one, into a hole covered with bedding, and then sets...