Song Lingzhao was stunned by the question.
"This... no life?"
Song Ci nodded and said, "This world is harsh on won’s chastity, and people value it highly. That Wang woman behaved immorally, even at her late husband’s funeral engaging in promiscuity, her morals are corrupt without any sha. Tell , which family would tolerate her? In a peasant family, such a woman would directly be bundled into a pig basket and drowned in a pond."
Song Lingzhao was silent. He naturally knew the importance of a woman’s reputation, but, reputation—isn’t life more important?
Seeing him silent, with a hesitant expression, Song Ci said, "Zhao’er, although you are a man, you should have heard of many girls losing their chastity. The better outco is being married by the other party. But the bad outco is either losing their life or living as a monk for a lifeti, or being abandoned and confined in the family temple."
"Yes." Song Lingzhao said, "Isn’t there confinent in the family temple or being sent to a Daoist Temple to beco a nun? Is death the only path?"
Song Ci smiled and said, "Not by one’s own will, perhaps not just death, but was this the case for that Wang woman?"
Song Lingzhao heard this and felt uncomfortable.
At that ti, he saw clearly from the tree, that Wang woman was a widow, but her face was clearly adorned, and she actively accommodated that wandering man, was there any reluctance?
In his view, she seed quite willing.
"She engaged in promiscuity, not out of compulsion, but willingly," Song Ci said flatly. "If she had no interest in that Master Xia or felt she couldn’t continue, she could have requested divorce and remarried, but she did not, she chose to betray and indulge her desires."
"Zhao’er, Great Qing has laws. Once a couple has a marriage contract, it’s protected and bound by law, yet Wang woman did not abide by them. She ignored the proprieties, didn’t want to be bound by them. Those who challenge the proprieties must bear the consequences and price they bring. Otherwise, if everyone ignores the laws and proprieties, what becos of this world?"
Song Lingzhao pressed his lips.
"Knowing it’s wrong and doing it anyway, that Wang woman is voluntarily heading down a dead-end path. Most importantly, the one she engaged in promiscuity with wasn’t anyone, but her own relative, flagrantly disregarding ethical relations, and causing a scene during the husband’s funeral. Which can the society tolerate? Once it spreads out, the Xia family’s girls, including her daughter, cannot survive, and her maternal family’s girls as well. So, she must die. If she doesn’t, those girls cannot live."
Song Lingzhao’s face flushed, and he said, "Grandmother, I was narrow-sighted, only knowing life is more important than reputation, not realizing it would cause such severe consequences."
"In so places, Grandmother could indeed say nothing is bigger than birth and death, but not here. Wang woman’s deeds are selfish and shaless, making her daughter, her husband’s family’s girls pay for her absurdity. Her life had long been dragged into the Abyss by her own hands."
A human life is indeed important, yet it’s impossible to trade the lives of many for hers, especially one who knows no sha and disregards ethical relations of such a an person.
Song Ci said, "For such people, only by paying a bloody price will they know where they are truly wrong, and thus warn others to abide by and revere the proprieties. Instead of lightly picking it up and putting it down, otherwise, it will only lead to indulgence in repeated offences, and the proprieties will beco a joke."
"Grandmother knows you aspire to beco a Great General. The Song Family indeed isn’t optimistic about producing a Military General, but if you truly walk this path in the future, rember this: military orders are as firm as mountains and laws are as iron, the law does not tolerate sentint."
User Comments
0 comments from readers