ABSTRACT
The Chinese believe that when a woman becomes enceinte she should separate herself from her husband until after the birth of her child, in order to impart a pure disposition to her offspring. The Chinese woman gives a concubine to her husband just as Sarah gave her maid to Abraham, and sometimes, as we shall show, for the same reason, for there are good, pure homes in China as well as in Europe or America. When the Chinese ladies hear that a certain woman is about to give a concubine to her husband, they simply say of her that she is 'going to eat vinegar'. But in the whole Confucian writings, and in all the laws of China, there is no provision for a woman to obtain a divorce from her husband. This chapter discusses incident of concubinage which occurred in the palace of another of the Princes in Peking.
