Monument to Chastity

    Anhui's Shexian is famed as the "hometown of paifang." According to historical records, more than 400 of their paifang were erected throughout the county after the seventh century. More than 100 can still be seen today. The best known is the heptad in Tangyue Village, built in the Ming and Qing dynasties for distinguished members of a local Bao family. Two of them are dedicated to chastity.

    The Wu's Chastity and Filial Piety Arch was built in the 18th century to honor Bao Wenyuan's second wife from the Wu family (ancient women were known only by their surname, plus their husband's family name after they married). She was married to Bao at the age of 22, became a widow at the age of 29 and remained single until her death more than three decades later. In her widowhood, Wu single-handedly brought up her husband's children by his first wife, and repaired the tombs of nine generations of the Bao family. Moved by her virtue, the Bao clan erected an arch in her honor.

    The other was built for Bao Wenling's widow from the Wang family, who became a widow at the age of 25 and remained in widowhood for two decades until her death. According to the Shexian County annals of the early 20th century, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Bao clan of Tangyue Village had 59 women of chastity.

    In ancient times, chastity arches were erected to commend women who maintained their widowhood or killed themselves in order to accompany their dead husband into the nether world. However, things were different during the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, when China experienced great economic, cultural and social prosperity and freedom. The Tang Dynasty permitted women to divorce and remarry, as evidenced by a "freeing the wife agreement" unearthed from a Mogao grotto in Dunhuang. The agreement says that the husband and wife had been united by predestination, but unfortunately their hearts remained too detached to become one; so the husband agreed that they divorce as a solution to their resentments and bitterness. Similar divorce agreements from the Tang Dynasty have also been found in other places. According to historical records, 23 of the Tang princesses divorced and remarried.

    Unfortunately however, women were cursed and oppressed by most Chinese dynasties. Their husbands could divorce them, but not vise versa. Beginning from the middle of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and continuing with the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, more severe rules of obedience and chastity were forced on women. In 1368, the newly enthroned Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang even decreed obedience and chastity among women. According to historical records, the Tang Dynasty had 51 women of "chastity," the Song had 267, and the Ming had 36,000. There were even more of them in the Qing Dynasty. On one of the chastity and filial piety arches in the town of Shexian are listed 65,078 names from Huizhou Prefecture.

"Eight-footed" Masterpiece

    The Xu Guo Stone Arch in the county seat of Shexian is a peerless paifang masterpiece. Its stone pillars, beams, panels and overlapped brackets are carved with exquisite patterns, including a dragon and phoenix symbolizing special imperial favor. There are also auspicious images such as a kylin, lion, crane, deer, cloud and peony. Its inscriptions were penned by celebrated calligrapher Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty. Its structure is also unique. An ordinary paifang has four pillars, forming a three-arch, two-sided structure. In contrast, the Xu Guo archway is composed of two four-pillar, three-story paifang arranged in tandem, their two ends spanned by horizontal beams that form a single arch on either flank. The locals call it the "eight-footed pailou." It is the only eight-pillar archway extant in China and has been listed as a cultural relic under national protection.

    Xu Guo (1527-1596), a native of Shexian, was a scholar official who served three emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Wanli, the last of the three, made him a cabinet minister and later tutor of the crown prince. Xu's ultimate position was second only to the prime minister in the imperial court. In 1584, Emperor Wanli offered him four months leave to build a paifang in his hometown, because of his "wise consultations" with the emperor.

    There is no official record of why Xu Guo was able to build an eight-pillar paifang; transgression of the imperial hierarchical system was a serious crime in ancient times. A local tale explains that since Shexian had too many four-pillared archways for virtuous officials and women, Xu wanted something different. He procrastinated and returned to the capital almost eight months later. The emperor was unhappy about Xu's belated return, especially when he knelt without any explanation upon his arrival. He scolded, "Why did it take you such a long time to build a paifang? Eight months are enough to build an eight-footed one." Xu Guo replied immediately, "Many thanks for your majesty's permission. It is such a paifang that I've built." According to historians, it is unlikely any official, prestigious or not, breached the hierarchical system without imperial permission in advance. Because of Xu's meritorious services to three emperors and his value to Wanli, it is possible that the emperor allowed an exception.

Archway Gates

    There is a kind of paifang that is called "Lingxing Gate," which evolved from the ancient entranceways built of two pillars spanned by a cross beam. In Chinese folklore, the Lingxing Gate is the entrance to Heaven, so it is used as a high-grade paifang and often found at religious sites and imperial tombs.

    The Confucius temples built in various parts of China usually feature a Lingxing Gate leading to a series of structures arranged along a central axis. Lingxing is one of the 28 constellations that is in charge of intellectual and cultural affairs in ancient Chinese astrology. The Lingxing Gate in front of the Confucius Temple in Qufu was first built of wood in the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt as a stone structure during the Qing Dynasty in 1754. The inscription is in Emperor Qianlong's hand.

    In fact, when paifang first appeared, they functioned as gates. During the Tang Dynasty, the city was divided by roads and streets into square blocks, called "fang." Walls were erected to demarcate the blocks, and a gate, called fangmen (fang gate) was placed in the center of each wall to allow passage. Later, these gates gradually lost their function and became street signs.

    Many Chinese cities have such signs. One has recently been built on the original site at Qianmen. Over the centuries, this unique constituent of ancient Chinese architecture has acquired rich social and cultural connotations.