Dr. Katherine Carlitz will share her research about the history of the Chinese cult of women's fidelity and chastity, namely the ideal wife's devotion to her mother-in-law. The wide currency of such devotion stories in Ming local histories has as much to do with late Yuan legal changes as with the traditions of filial piety per se. Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasty gazetteers, as well as legal materials, will be used to analyze the story of Yu Shiyuan's wife.