Matthew H Sommer
Biographic Data
| ID | 753269 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew H Sommer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew H |
| FAMILY NAME | Sommer |
| SIGNATURE | SOMMER M H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stanford University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Gendered Body in the Qing Courtroom
This paper presents Qing legal cases in which magistrates scrutinized bodies for evidence about gender performance. These cases challenged the marital frame of reference, straining the legibility of the gendered body and the coherence of the normative categories that informed judicial reasoning. Several cases center on “stone maidens” who were rejected by husbands for vaginal impenetrability; one concerns a Buddhist nun who was raped, and whose t…
The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China
This book is a groundbreaking study of transgender lives and practices in late imperial China. Through close readings of court cases, as well as Ming and Qing fiction and nineteenth-century newspaper accounts, Matthew H. Sommer examines the social, legal, and cultural histories of gender crossing.
Polyandry and Wife-Selling In Qing Dynasty China
Polyandry and Wife-Selling in Qing Dynasty China
"This book is a study of polyandry, wife-selling, and a variety of related practices in China during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). By analyzing over 1200 legal cases from local and central court archives, Matthew Sommer explores the functions played by marriage, sex, and reproduction in the survival strategies of the rural poor under conditions of overpopulation, worsening sex ratios, and shrinking farm sizes. Polyandry and wife-selling represent…
Elizabeth J. Remick. Regulating Prostitution in China
Eschewing theoretical cant and abstruse number crunching, Elizabeth J. Remick has written the kind of political science that historians like: one that is richly documented in archives and other primary sources and tells an important story about historical change that is interesting in its own right but also of broader comparative significance. Remick's excellent book brings the perspective of gender to bear on state building in early-twentieth-ce…
The Gendered Body in the Qing Courtroom
T h i s a r T i c l e p r e s e n T s a va r i e T y o f court cases, including homicides and marriage disputes, from eighteenthand nineteenth-century China in which magistrates scrutinized bodies for evidence about gender performance. In order to judge these cases properly, magistrates needed to find out whether the persons under scrutiny were physically capable of normative gender roles or had violated the rules governing such roles; their judg…
Abortion in Late Imperial China
In late imperial China, a number of purported methods of abortion were known; but who actually attempted abortion and under what circumstances? Some historians have suggested that abortion was used for routine birth control, which presupposes that known methods were safe, reliable, and readily available. This paper challenges the qualitative evidence on which those historians have relied, and presents new evidence from Qing legal sources and mode…
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
This study of the regulation of sexuality in the Qing dynasty explores the social context for sexual behavior criminalized by the state, arguing that the eighteenth century in China was a time of profound change in sexual matters. During this time, the basic organizing principle for state regulation of sexuality shifted away from status, under which members of different groups had long been held to distinct standards of familial and sexual morali…
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
A Flourishing Yin
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Journal Article Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China Get access Sommer Matthew H., Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial ChinaStanford: Stanford University Press, 2000. xvi, 413pp. $55.00. Teemu Ruskola Teemu Ruskola American University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 44, Issue 4, October 2000, Pages 517–519, https://doi.org/10.2307/3113842 Published: 01 O…
The Penetrated Male in Late Imperial China
The Penetrated Male in Late Imperial China
The Gendered Body in the Qing Courtroom
T h i s a r T i c l e p r e s e n T s a va r i e T y o f court cases, including homicides and marriage disputes, from eighteenthand nineteenth-century China in which magistrates scrutinized bodies for evidence about gender performance. In order to judge these cases properly, magistrates needed to find out whether the persons under scrutiny were physically capable of normative gender roles or had violated the rules governing such roles; their judg…
The Penetrated Male in Late Imperial China
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Journal Article Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China Get access Sommer Matthew H., Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial ChinaStanford: Stanford University Press, 2000. xvi, 413pp. $55.00. Teemu Ruskola Teemu Ruskola American University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 44, Issue 4, October 2000, Pages 517–519, https://doi.org/10.2307/3113842 Published: 01 O…
A Flourishing Yin
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
This study of the regulation of sexuality in the Qing dynasty explores the social context for sexual behavior criminalized by the state, arguing that the eighteenth century in China was a time of profound change in sexual matters. During this time, the basic organizing principle for state regulation of sexuality shifted away from status, under which members of different groups had long been held to distinct standards of familial and sexual morali…
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Abortion in Late Imperial China
In late imperial China, a number of purported methods of abortion were known; but who actually attempted abortion and under what circumstances? Some historians have suggested that abortion was used for routine birth control, which presupposes that known methods were safe, reliable, and readily available. This paper challenges the qualitative evidence on which those historians have relied, and presents new evidence from Qing legal sources and mode…
The Gendered Body in the Qing Courtroom
T h i s a r T i c l e p r e s e n T s a va r i e T y o f court cases, including homicides and marriage disputes, from eighteenthand nineteenth-century China in which magistrates scrutinized bodies for evidence about gender performance. In order to judge these cases properly, magistrates needed to find out whether the persons under scrutiny were physically capable of normative gender roles or had violated the rules governing such roles; their judg…
Polyandry and Wife-Selling In Qing Dynasty China
Polyandry and Wife-Selling in Qing Dynasty China
"This book is a study of polyandry, wife-selling, and a variety of related practices in China during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). By analyzing over 1200 legal cases from local and central court archives, Matthew Sommer explores the functions played by marriage, sex, and reproduction in the survival strategies of the rural poor under conditions of overpopulation, worsening sex ratios, and shrinking farm sizes. Polyandry and wife-selling represent…
Elizabeth J. Remick. Regulating Prostitution in China
Eschewing theoretical cant and abstruse number crunching, Elizabeth J. Remick has written the kind of political science that historians like: one that is richly documented in archives and other primary sources and tells an important story about historical change that is interesting in its own right but also of broader comparative significance. Remick's excellent book brings the perspective of gender to bear on state building in early-twentieth-ce…
The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China
This book is a groundbreaking study of transgender lives and practices in late imperial China. Through close readings of court cases, as well as Ming and Qing fiction and nineteenth-century newspaper accounts, Matthew H. Sommer examines the social, legal, and cultural histories of gender crossing.
The Gendered Body in the Qing Courtroom
This paper presents Qing legal cases in which magistrates scrutinized bodies for evidence about gender performance. These cases challenged the marital frame of reference, straining the legibility of the gendered body and the coherence of the normative categories that informed judicial reasoning. Several cases center on “stone maidens” who were rejected by husbands for vaginal impenetrability; one concerns a Buddhist nun who was raped, and whose t…
History (10 works) · China (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · History of China (6 works) · Ancient history (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies (5 works)