A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

Three days later, the second lesson will be updated again.

Shen Moyan stood on the podium, with the title displayed on the screen behind him: Who has the right to decide her body? — Xianglin's Wife's marriage and feudal views on chastity.

"Last lesson we left a question: How did Xianglin's wife gradually walk towards her death? Today, we'll start with her marriage."

The scene shows Xianglin's Wife arriving in Luzhen for the first time.

Although her complexion was sallow, her cheeks were still rosy.

She was taciturn, but she worked "more diligently than any hardworking man."

By the end of the year, all the tasks—sweeping dust, washing floors, killing chickens and geese, and cooking the blessing offerings all night long—were done by one person.

She was actually satisfied; a smile gradually appeared at the corners of her mouth, and her face became plump and fair.

Shen Moyan paused her narration and turned to the camera.

"Students, please remember this scene."

This was the moment in Xianglin's life when she was closest to being a "normal person".

She sold her labor in exchange for temporary shelter and the illusion of being treated as a "human being".

But please note one detail: all her wages were kept by her employer; she didn't receive a single penny.

The camera zoomed in on the scene in Master Lu's study: a copy of "Reflections on Things at Hand" and half a couplet.

"Who is Master Lu? He is an old student of the Imperial Academy who studies Neo-Confucianism."

He described Xianglin's wife with seven words: "This person has big hands and feet."

It means that she was a strong working tool.

In his eyes, Xianglin's wife wasn't a complete person, just a pair of hands capable of working.

"Looking back at Xianglin's life, we see that she was not born numb, nor was she born in despair."

"When she first arrived in Luzhen, she was young, capable, and down-to-earth. She was quick-witted, hardworking, and took on all the household chores by herself, working through the night without complaint."

At that moment, she thought that diligence would save her life, and that being obedient would bring her stability.

"Women in feudal times never had the right to control their own lives."

His silence was slightly chilly as he began to dissect the matter layer by layer.

"Nothing she owns belongs to her."

The scene shifts, revealing a brutal reality.

In order to raise money for her youngest son's betrothal gifts, Xianglin's mother-in-law led a group of people to break into the Lu family home, where they tied up and dragged Xianglin in public, and forcibly took her away by boat.

No one stopped them, and no one held them accountable.

Shen Moyan amplified Master Lu's reaction: "'Damn it! However…'"

"How despicable! It's because his mother offended his dignity by harassing his employees."

"However, it is because, according to the rules of etiquette and morality, it is only natural and in accordance with the social order for a mother-in-law to deal with her daughter-in-law."

"From beginning to end, no one ever asked Xianglin's wife whether she was willing or not."

"The fourth aunt handed over all of Xianglin's wages, totaling 1,750 cash, to Xianglin's mother-in-law."

Xianglin's wife toiled and bled for so long, yet not a single penny fell into her hands.

"This is the first layer of cannibalism in feudal ethics, depriving women of their economic rights and personal freedom."

Under the feudal patriarchal system, a woman's body was a property that could be traded, inherited, or given away.

She obeyed her father, her husband, and after her husband's death, her son.

Shen Moyan continued, "Xianglin's wife was sold to Hejia'ao and married to He Laoliu."

Xianglin's Wife, who was forcibly sold, resisted remarriage to the death. She smashed her head against the incense table, her forehead bleeding profusely and leaving a lifelong scar.

But her resistance was futile.

But in the end, she still became He Laoliu's wife and had a son, Amao.

"Students, please pay attention: Why did Xianglin's wife fight so desperately?"

Her reason for rebelling was that she had already formed the concept of "remaining faithful to one man until death".

She believed that remarrying was unchaste and shameful.

Before she was even traded, feudal ethics had already transformed her thinking, making her feel guilty about her oppression.

The video shows a close-up of the scar on Xianglin's forehead.

"This scar is the only evidence of Xianglin's resistance to fate, but later it became a laughing stock for the people of Luzhen."

Shen Moyan mentioned the concept of chastity, saying, "The Neo-Confucian scholar Cheng Yi of the Northern Song Dynasty said that starving to death is a very small matter, but losing one's chastity is a very big matter."

This statement was originally used in the context of the integrity of the scholar-officials.

However, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was distorted into a tight-fitting curse specifically targeting women.

The imperial court used the honorary title of "chaste and virtuous woman" to encourage widows to remain chaste or even commit suicide for their husbands, thus packaging women's suffering as a form of "glory."

The scene showed rows of chastity arches.

The stone archways cast long shadows in the setting sun, resembling tombstones.

"Beneath each of these memorial archways lies the life of one or more women."

Emperor Qianlong's face twitched.

He recalled that he had personally inscribed the plaques for more than one chastity memorial archway.

On the sky, Xianglin's Wife returns to Luzhen once again.

He Laoliu died of typhoid fever, and Amao was carried away by wolves.

"What was truly fatal was that she was considered an 'impure' woman because she had been married to two men and had two husbands die."

"My fourth aunt stopped her from touching the sacrificial vessels twice during the ancestral worship ceremony."

"Xianglin's Wife, you leave it there! I'll arrange it."

"Leave it there, Xianglin's Wife! I'll take it."

Shen Moyan paused for a moment.

"Students, this is the second form of cannibalism in feudal ethics: the spiritual torture of the concept of chastity."

It defines women as taboo beings who, once "defiled," are forever impure.

It uses sacred religious rituals to carry out this rejection, making the victim not only ostracized by society but also a sinner before God.

Shaoxing, Qiu family.

Ruolan watched it secretly.

Her father led the male members of the clan in keeping vigil in the ancestral hall on New Year's Eve, while her mother chanted scriptures in the Buddhist hall.

She pretended to have a headache and went back to her room early. She opened the window a crack, covered her head with the blanket, and hid under the covers, staring wide-eyed at the sky.

Ruolan was sixteen years old. She had some education; her father was an enlightened merchant who allowed his daughter to study the Four Books and Five Classics, but that was all.

She writes poems, but only she can read them.

She had so much to say, but who could she say it to?

The mother would say, "A woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent," and the father would say, "It's better for a girl to behave herself."

She is talented and ambitious, but her future has already been written: get married, manage a household, have children, and grow old.

But now, there is a woman in the sky, a living woman, doing something that Ruolan would never have dared to dream of.

She is speaking.

She is teaching.

She is criticizing.

Ruolan's hands trembled as she pulled a notebook from under her pillow.

Those were her secretly hidden notebooks.

She turned to a blank page and, using the light from the sky, began to take notes.

With trembling hands, the young girl Ruolan wrote on the paper:

"What Tianmu said was shocking."

I suddenly remembered Sister Zhang next door, who had been a widow for three years.

Last year, the imperial court presented the Zhang family with a plaque inscribed with "Her Virtue and Filial Piety Endure," and the family held a three-day banquet to celebrate.

When I went to offer my congratulations, I saw Sister Zhang kneeling in the crowd, her face as white as paper.

At that moment, I didn't understand what she was afraid of; now I do.

From outside the window, in the direction of the Zhang family's house, came the faint sound of weeping.