The Supremacy of Female Chastity: Study on the Form and Images of Taiwan’s Existing Chastity Archways of the Qing Dynasty

• Main Author: 施雲萍
• Other Authors: 李建緯
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/12783401742117702627

碩士 === 逢甲大學 === 歷史與文物研究所 === 101 === The memorial archway is a unique architectural feature in China that combines the function of a gate and an arch design. Its form originated from the ancient Heng Gate, and its function stemmed from the local community public administration system called the “Li-fang (district zoning) System”. The archway was set up to denote a resident’s social status; therefore it also reflected his or her identity. To make the archway more exuberantly decorated with architectural details and embellishments, carved pillars and towers were gradually integrated. In the Song Dynasty, the Li-fang System faded away due to social and economic prosperity. This led to getting rid of the wall and the gate functions of the memorial archway, which became a small-scale architectural attraction. During the Ming Dynasty, the archway was used as a reward of honor from the emperor, and during the Qing Dynasty, it focused on honoring the virtue of widows’ chastity. Due to the Qing court’s well-established virtue recognition system, the number of people who were qualified to be recognized with an archway greatly increased, and as a result, most archways existing today were those installed during the Qing Dynasty. The female chastity archway represented an honor from the royal court and was thus highly significant in politics and moral teachings; such attributes were applied to the form of the archway, leading to its design uniformity. Its look was not apt to change in the effort to highlight the court’s policy of virtue recognition and moral teachings. In addition, craftsmanship was employed for the image arrangement on the archway in order to highlight such a policy to the greatest extent; moreover, the exquisite design also enabled beholders to get the most appreciation from varied distances and angles. Taiwan’s existing Qing dynasty chastity archways are in accord with the above forms and images. The uniformity in form and image arrangement contributes to the formality of the archway, and becomes internalized in beholders’ consciousness in regard to the customary and visual meanings of the archway. The process of appreciation is that the beholders compare and corroborate the archways they learn about from historical data and the actual archway they see; it is also in this process that the royal court’s “unspoken teachings” are conveyed.