Sex, law, and society in late imperial China / Matthew H. Sommer.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [369]-383) and index.

Introduction -- A vision of sexual order -- The evolution of rape law : female chastity and the threat of the outside male -- The problem of the penetrated male : Qing sodomy legislation and the fixing of male gender -- Widows in the Qing chastity cult : the nexus of sex and property in law and in women's lives -- Sexual behavior as status performance : the regulation of prostitution before 1723 -- Extension of commoner standards : Yongzheng reforms and the criminalization of prostitution -- Conclusion -- Appendixes. Basic legislation against sex offenses ; Qing sodomy legislation ; Forced remarriage of Chaste widows ; Lu Kun's "Prohibitions Issued to Yue households" ; Dynasties and reign periods.

"This study of the regulation of sexuality during the Qing dynasty explores the social context for sexual behavior criminalized by the Chinese state. It argues that the eighteenth century witnessed profound change in imperial law: the basic organizing principle for the regulation of sexuality shifted away from status, under which members of different groups had long been held to distinct standards of familial and sexual morality." "In addition to presenting official and judicial actions regarding sexuality, the book tells the story of people excluded from accepted patterns of marriage and household who bonded with each other in unorthodox ways (combining sexual union with resource pooling and fictive kinship) to satisfy a range of human needs. This previously invisible dimension of Qing social practice is brought into sharp focus by the testimony, gleaned from exhaustive research in local and central court archives, of such marginalized people as poor peasants, laborers, and beggars."--BOOK JACKET.