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"A Private Scandal and Its Public Afterlife in Eighteenth Century China"

This talk examines what two intertwined scandals tell us about the inner workings of family and dynastic politics in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. In 1739, a woman from an elite family of officials has an adulterous affair and when exposed by her husband's family, brings a lawsuit against them to claim innocence. Rebuffed by the local magistrate, she bribes the provincial governor to take her case and (falsely) vindicated her chastity. Her guilt is revealed when the governor is himself impeached for accepting bribes in her case and several others. Contrary to the common view that Chinese family life was structured by a clear division between inner and outer realms, these scandals show the limits of privacy and the powerful presence of the Qing state in elite family life. At the height of China's so-called "flourishing age," the paper trail of these scandals documents profound personal disillusion and political disaffection among elites at the top of the system that gave rise to familial and political dysfunction.

Janet Theiss, University of Utah Associate Professor History