| Description |
This master's thesis examines two visions of male failure during the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1912): husband suicide and husband killing. The adjudication of these cases created a gap between narrative rhetoric and judicial logic that complicated the clear-cut ideology of the Qing Code. I examine this gap, arguing that while of little controversy in the law, husband suicide and husband killing stemmed from issues of patriarchal weakness and abuse that undermined orthodox notions of masculinity and ordinary women's expectations of marriage. Chapter 1 examines male suicide cases that presented the husband as simultaneously morally righteous and yet a disappointing example of Confucian manhood, exploring the hypothesis that judicial discourse gendered suicide as a female or yin form of agency. Chapters 2 and 3 move to a discussion of husband killing cases that complicated the Qing Code's image of a righteous husband as the victim of a villainous wife. These cases portrayed deeply flawed husb |
