其職傅婢，其恩猶母：明代的乳母身分論辨與母職重構

Maidservant and Mother: Discourse on the Identity of Wet Nurse and the Reconstruction of Motherhood in the Ming Dynasty

相較於前代，明代的乳母墓誌篇幅明顯增長且層次豐富。本文考量此一歷史變化，並在先行研究強調傳統中國母親嫡庶分野的基礎上，欲從乳母此一角色切入，探索明代母子關係、母親身分與母職的更多元可能。透過爬梳明代士人文集、筆記、方志、醫書、小說、政書等材料，本文從勾勒明代乳母的營生實況出發，探討乳子乳母關係建立與深化的過程，並分析時人的評價以及其中反映的母親身分與職責思辨。本文發現，在明代，乳母對乳子雖未有生育之恩，但其哺育及長期相伴所建立的親密關係，使乳母對乳子的重要性可與生母、嫡母相匹，並獲得乳子一生的感念。對女性乳子而言，乳母更是其出嫁後與本家的重要連結與自身利益代言人。然而，乳母雖有母名，卻未與乳子之父結合，僅藉其乳哺與照護之職穿梭上下階級、尊卑身分與不同家庭之間，大大挑戰儒家男女、內外的禮法秩序。乳母的污名在明中後期越見強烈，也進而激發一手包辦生育、乳哺、照護、教育之職的完美母親理想，成為當時婦德的重要一環。由此觀照性別與階級因素交織的討論，本文不僅希望填補宋代以降士民階層乳母研究的不足，更期能呈現母職與婦德於明代的重要轉變，藉此豐富中國性別、家庭與社會史的思考。

Compared to those of previous dynasties, epitaphs for wet nurses produced during the Ming dynasty were significantly longer and more layered in terms of content. Considering this historical change within the traditional context of demarcating a mother’s identity, namely the primary嫡or the secondary (concubine)庶wife, in pre-modern China, the present article examines the role of the wet nurse to reconstruct motherhood in the Ming period, exploring the possibilities of the mother-child relationship and related identities.
Relying on anthologies and miscellaneous notes of literati, gazetteers medical books, novels, and political documents it first summarizes the livelihood of Ming dynasty wet nurses, explores the process behind the establishment and then deepening of the relationship between a wet nurse and the child, and analyzes contemporary commentaries, such as reflections on the mother’s identity and responsibilities.
This article finds that, although a wet nurse did not give birth to the child she breastfed, the intimate relationship established by her nurturing and long-term companionship made her importance to the child comparable to that of a biological or“primary”mother, and was often remembered by the child. For a daughter more specifically, a wet nurse was an important link to her natal family and would speak for her interests after marriage. Despite operating under the name of“mother,”wet nurses were not married to the child’s father, and thus employed her roles as wet nurse and caregiver to navigate classes, statuses, and families, challenging Confucian propriety between men and women as well as inner and outer. The stigma of the wet nurse grew stronger in the mid- to late-Ming period, which inspired the ideal of the perfect mother, encompassing childbearing, breastfeeding, nursing, and education, that would become an essential component of female virtue.
By intersecting gender and class, this article not only fills the lacuna in the study of wet nurse in pre-modern China, but also presents important shifts in motherhood and womanhood in the Ming dynasty, broadly enriching the gender, family and social history of late imperial China.