For the most trivial reason the Chinaman will take his own life.

Suicide with a Chinaman is an act that is recorded in his honour rather than to his opprobrium.
Thus a widow, as we have seen, may obtain much merit by sacrificing herself on the death of her husband.

But in a large proportion of cases the motive is revenge, for the spirit of the dead is believed to "haunt and injure the living person who has been the cause of the suicide." In China to ruin your adversary you injure or kill yourself.

To vow to commit suicide is the most awful threat with which you can drive terror into the heart of your adversary.

If your enemy do you wrong, there is no way in which you can cause him more bitterly to repent his misdeed than by slaying yourself at his doorstep.