From the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, was there a standard "name symbol" system? In ancient times, under what circumstances, ancient women could be named' Ming Fu'?

The chastity table was first recorded in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In Liu Xiang's Biography of Lienv, two chaste women were named "Zhen Jiang" and "Zhen Ji" by the King of Chu. Later, in the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang built a platform for Ba widow to reward her chastity. However, most of these examples are aimed at individual women, and it is not certain that there is a system involving most women.

Zhen Jing Table, which became a system, began to appear in the Han Dynasty. According to the earliest records, Xuan Di, Emperor Gaozu, presented silk to the "good women" in Yingchuan County. Later, from the relevant imperial edicts of Emperor Ping, Emperor An, Emperor Shun Di and Emperor Huan, it can be seen that this kind of reward and reward began to spread to the whole country. In particular, the imperial edict of Andi shows that there should have been a selection system for local officials.

In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, although there were still rewards for chastity women in various imperial edicts, there were clear requirements for the selection of local officials, and a set of responsible processes appeared at different levels, which showed that chastity was combined with local administration and supervision systems. For a chaste woman

In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the standard system of chastity officially appeared in the legal system. For example, the Sui Dynasty stipulated that "dutiful sons, obedient grandchildren, righteous husbands and virtuous women are exempt from class service". In other words, people who are recognized as having special virtues can get tax exemption and preferential treatment for labor services, and get rewards. Moreover, there is a complete selection method, which is based on the performance of local officials, interviews with visiting officials and recognition of local villages.

Apart from the Tang Dynasty, there are many ways to praise chastity women in the Song Dynasty, such as physical rewards, exemption from labor, etc., as well as signs (that is, adding specific signs and decorations on the family gate, and then chastity memorial archways in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are one of them), conferring titles, setting up shrines for villagers to sacrifice, and marking graves.

In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the increasing number of potential families demanding fame and fortune, the court began to make strict regulations on the identity of virtuous women, that is, the husband died before the age of 30 and was considered virtuous after the age of 50. In addition, strict regulations have been made on the process of applying for recognition. These systems were inherited and further tightened in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Generally speaking, although there was a chastity watch system before the Ming Dynasty, it has not been highly valued by the court and the general society, and there are not many chastity women being watched. Virtually all the chastity women who have been watched are regarded as a few model figures with high morality, rather than the norms that ordinary people should follow. Therefore, the watch system has little impact on the social atmosphere and the lives of ordinary women, such as remarriage.

Qualifications of recipients

Chastity Chastity can be divided into "virtuous women" and "heroic women", which inherited the system of the Yuan Dynasty. A virtuous woman defines it as a woman who lost her husband before the age of 30 and kept her virginity until she was over 50. There is no clear definition of martyr, but it generally refers to the behavior that women sacrifice to protect their virginity. In the Qing Dynasty, women who committed suicide at will were no longer encouraged as in the Ming Dynasty, so virtuous women dominated.

In addition, the Ming court also had two regulations on chastity. First of all, chaste women who have passed away are not allowed to watch. During the long application process, except for virtuous women who died at the time of application, she was not allowed to watch. This regulation was later criticized and questioned by the masses, so Jiajing abolished it for three years.

In addition, it also stipulates that married women, that is, women with high officials and dignitaries and royal titles, shall not be commended, because married women are honors given by the state, and once they are promoted to married women, they are not allowed to remarry, so the regulations on the commendation of civil widows are not applicable. However, with the society's emphasis on chastity honor, its value is even higher than that of married women. Many people began to ask married women to get a watch, and this rule was relaxed in some cases.