Mixing Chinese and Italian (Zhenjie Paifang vs Archi di castità)

One of my preferred methods of learning multiple languages at the same time, is reading something in one language and then writing about it in another language. So, this month, I take part in the Chinese reading challenge by Hacking Chinese and decided to read an anthology by Yu Qiuyu (余秋雨读本), one of the most famous and influential contemporary writers in China. I want to use what I read as an inspiration for writing texts in other languages. So, yesterday I wrote a short text in Italian about a topic inspired by this book. Let me first explain the topic a bit.

The first essay in the anthology is about paifang, traditional Chinese arches. When I stumbled upon the word zhenjie paifang (贞节牌坊), which means chastity arch, I remembered that I've been to a village called Tangyue (堂樾) in Anhui Province 14 years ago. The village is famous for their seven memorial archways built by the Bao family during the course of several centuries. The first archway can be traced back to the year 1420 in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the last one was built in 1820 (Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911). They represent the Confucian moral principles zhong (忠, loyalty), xiao (孝, filial piety), jie (节, moral integrity) and yi (义, righteousness). Every archway commemorates honorable members of the Bao family. Like the father and son, who were captured by a general and willing to give their own lives to save the other, when one of them was about to be executed. It is said that the general was so moved by their love for each other that he spared both their lives. The first paifang, called cixiaofang (慈孝里坊) was erected in their memory. The character ci represents the love parents have for their children, so this archway celebrates parental love and filial piety.

Another archway, the chastity archway of Mrs Wu (鲍文渊继吴氏节孝坊 baowen yuanji wushi jiexiaofang, erected in 1768), is quite remarkable because it honors a woman and that wasn't common at all in China. The archway commemorates Bao Wen's second wife, who was widowed at the age of 29 and instead of getting remarried, she took care of her stepson and their parents-in-law and stayed chaste until she died at the age of sixty. A second chastity archway commemorates another young widow of another man called Bao Wen but internet resources differ in regard to the name and the story behind it. Some resources (here and here) say that the archway was erected in 1784 and honors Mrs. Jiang, who was widowed at the age of 26 and died at 80 (鲍文龄妻江氏节孝坊 baowen lingqi jiangshi jiexiaofang). Other resources claim that her name was Mrs. Zhu, that she was widowed at the age of 25 and died at 45 (鲍文龄妻注节孝坊 baowen lingqi zhushi jiexiaofang). Well, I'd say the general idea is to honor women who were widowed at young age and stayed chaste for the rest of their lives.

Additional to memorial archways, there are two ancestral halls, one for honoring men (敦本堂dunbentang aka 男柌 nanci) and the other for honoring women (清懿堂 qingyitang aka 女祠 nüci). And that is exceptional because this is the only ancestral hall for women in China. When visiting the women's temple, the following painting of a woman holding a cord, about to commit suicide, caught my eye:


I asked the guide why the woman wanted to commit suicide and why she was honored. The guide explained that the woman's fiance had died and as a virtuous woman, she committed suicide instead of getting married to somebody else. I thought that she must have loved her fiance deeply but the guide said that most probably she hasn't even met him in person prior to the planned marriage. Hearing that I was dumbfounded. Well, and I never forgot that story, so when I read about chastity archways, I remembered that and yesterday I wrote a short Italian text about it and uploaded it on italki for correction. This is the corrected text:

Zhenjie Paifang - Archi di castità

Sto leggendo un libro di Yu Qiuyu, uno dei più famosi autori contemporanei in Cina. Il primo capitolo tratta dei paifang, gli archi tradizionali che spesso furono eretti all memoria di gente venerabile. Una forma speciale sono gli archi di castità, denominati zhenjie paifang. Gli archi di castità ricordano le donne caste. Mi ricordo di essere andata a Tangyue, un paese nel Anhui, dove ci sono tali archi di castità e c'è pure una sala degli antenati per le donne. Questa sala si chiama qingyi tang. Là ho visto questo quadro di una bella donna con una corda nelle sue mani. Ho domandato alla guida perché la donna ha voluto suicidarsi. La guida ha detto che il fidanzato della donna era morto. Ho pensato che certamente lei aveva molto amato il suo fidanzato, però la guida ha spiegato che la donna probabilmente non lo aveva mai incontrato. Allora, quella è una donna casta e venerabile. Cose da pazzi!