Rubbing of a Stone from the Tang-Fang Collection

This rubbing corresponds in composition with stone reliefs from the east wall in stone chamber 3 of the Wu Liang shrine. The upper register illustrates stories of virtuous women. Read from right to left, the last scene in the upper left corner shows a bed under a roof that is labeled “Virtuous Woman of the Capital.” The story relates that a woman was blackmailed into helping to kill her husband. She pretended to cooperate but took her husband’s place in bed. When the killers realized in the morning that they had decapitated the woman, they abandoned their murderous plan.