Massive stone portals, elaborately carved, and huge commemorative tablets cut from single blocks of stone and deeply engraved, here adorn the highway.

The archways have been erected by command of the Emperor, but at the expense of their relatives, to the memory of virtuous widows who have refused to remarry, or who have sacrificed their lives on the death of their husbands.

Happy are those whose names are thus recorded, for not only do they obtain ten thousand merits in heaven, as well as the Imperial recognition of the Son of Heaven on earth; but as an additional reward their souls may, on entering the world a second time, enjoy the indescribable felicity of inhabiting the bodies of men.
Cases where the widow has thus brought honour to the family are constantly recorded in the pages of the _Peking Gazette_.

One of more than usual merit is described in the _Peking Gazette_ of June 10th, 1892.

The story runs:-- "The Governor of Shansi narrates the story of a virtuous wife who destroyed herself after the death of her husband.