西漢劉向的《列女傳》可謂中國第一部女子傳記，全書內容共七篇，分別為〈母儀〉、〈賢明〉、〈仁智〉、〈貞順〉、〈節義〉、〈辯通〉、〈孽嬖〉，用意在於以賢妃貞婦和孽嬖亂亡者相互應照，以達到「戒天子」的目的。其中在〈貞順〉、〈節義〉兩篇，可約略看出劉向的貞操觀，只要符合「信」、「義」、「禮」都是他入傳的標準，並不偏頗在女子守貞上。而這兩篇大量記載貞烈守節的女子，她們採取激烈的手段守貞或自毀，可說是後代烈女的濫觴。然劉向列女之「列」，乃是「羅列」、「陳列」之意，並不特為表彰貞女烈婦而作《列女傳》，後世史家因各種因素，將「列」解為「烈」，造成《列女傳》轉化為《烈女傳》，所記載的女性己偏向「烈」，與劉向各種好壞女子之記載已大異其趣。本文主要針對劉向書中〈貞順〉、〈節義〉兩篇去探討劉向對女子的貞操觀，並藉此推衍出正史《列女傳》逐步轉為《烈女傳》的原因，期待能釐清這一轉化的過程

The Lie-Nyu Zhuan, written by Liu Xiang in the Han dynasty, is the first female biography in Chinese history. There are 7 chapters in this book: ”Manner of Female”, ”Virtuousness and Ability”, ”Benevolence and Wisdom”, ”Obedience with Morality”, ”Ethical Behavior with Righteousness”, ”Eloquent Communication”, and ”Sin deed”. The author's purpose is to provide a caution for Emperor by comparing female in virtuous manners with female in sin deed. We can find the chastity contention from Liu Xiang is not only limited on the moral virginity, especially on chapters ”Obedience with Morality” and ”Ethical behavior with Righteousness”. All stories about ”Honest”, ”Righteousness”, and ”Manners” are matched his criteria and compiled into this book. Most stories on these 2 chapters are recorded virtuous females how to protect their virginity by extreme methods or self-termination, and those stories are the fountainhead definition of ”Lie-Nyu” in history. The definition about ”Lie” from Liu Xiang means ”Listing”-listing all types of females. The purpose of his writing is not to honor females in virgin chastity. However, historiographers change the meaning of ”Lie” from ”Listing” to ”Martyrs” because of many causes. And it makes a shift in chastity contention definition and it is different from the initial concept of Liu Xiang discussing any good or sin deed of females. In this paper, we try to find out the causes about the shift of chastity definition by studying both chapters ”Obedience with Morality” and ”Ethical behavior with Righteousness” written by Liu Xiang. And we also expect to figure out how the shift of chastity definition is