Young Girls

When a family is bringing up a daughter, her father and mother are sure to wish her well by saying, “May you have what really matters in future may you marry thousands and thousands of husbands!”

When they are 7-9 years old—if they are girls from wealthy homes—or only when they are eleven-if they come from the poorest families-girls have to get a Buddhist monk or a Daoist to take away their virginity, in what is called zhentan.

So every year, in month 4 of the Chinese calendar, the authorities select a day and announce it countrywide.

The families whose daughters should be ready for zhentan let the authorities know in advance.

The authorities first give them a huge candle.

They make a mark on it, and arrange for it to be lit at dusk on the day in question.

When the mark is reached the time for zhentan has come.

10 days to 1 month beforehand, the parents have to choose a Buddhist monk or a Daoist depending on where the Buddhist and Daoist temples are.

The temples often also have their own clients.

Officials’ families and wealthy homes all get the good, saintly Buddhist monks in advance, while the poor do not have the leisure to choose.

Wealthy and noble families give the monks wine, rice, silk and other cloth, betel nuts, silverware, and the like, goods weighing as much as 100 piculs and worth 300 ounces of Chinese silver.

The smallest amount a family gives weighs 10-40 piculs, depending on how thrifty the family is.

The reason poor families only start dealing with the matter when their girls reach 11 is simply that it is hard for them to manage these things.

Some wealthy families do also give money for poor girls’ zhentan, which they call doing good work.

In any one year a monk can only take charge of one girl.

Once he has agreed to and accepted the benefits, he cannot make another commitment.

On the night in question, a big banquet with drums and music is laid on for relatives and neighbors.

A tall canopy is put up outside the entrance to the house. Various clay figurines of people and animals are laid out on top of it.

There can be 10 or more of these, or just 3-4, or none at all in the case of poor families.

They all have to do with events long ago.

They usually stay up for 7 days before people start taking them down.

At dusk, the monk is met with palanquin, parasol, drums, and music and brought back to the house.

Two pavilions are put up, made of colorful silk.

The girl sits inside one, and the monk inside the other.

You cannot understand what he’s saying because the drums and music are making so much noise on that night the night curfew is lifted.

When the time comes, the monk goes into a room with the girl and takes away her virginity with his hand, which he then puts into some wine.

Some say the parents, relatives and neighbors mark their foreheads with it, others say they all taste it.

Some say the monk and the girl have sex together.

Others say they do not.

They do not let Chinese see this, so I do not really know.

Toward dawn, the monk is seen off again with palanquin, parasol, drums, and music.

Afterwards silk, cloth, and the like have to be given to the monk to redeem the body of the girl.

If this is not done, the girl will be the property of the monk for her whole life and will not be able to marry anyone else.

I saw this on month 4 night 6 of 1297.

Before this happens, the parents always sleep together with their daughter.

Afterwards, she is excluded from the room and goes wherever she wants without restraint or precaution.

When it comes to marriage, there is a ceremony with the giving