Xiangling

— A handful of women did join the Tianzu hui; in Xiangling county five were commended, along with six men, for their extraordinary dedication. The men received a horizontal plaque inscribed with an auspicious saying whereas the women’s prize was a standing trophy.[…]But with the participation of female inspectors and the magistrate’s female kin, womanhood in Shanxi was divided into the educated and privileged who served as agents of the state on one side, and vile lage illiterate women who resisted their encroachment on the other.