本文主要利用晚明至清前期的判牘，分析其中的「誣姦」問題。在明清時代，不計其數的貞女節婦得到表彰，另一方面，在明清時期的史料裡，關於淫婦（淫蕩的婦女）的描述也屢屢可見。筆者認爲，這些史料裡的貞節婦女與淫蕩婦女的形象，並非直接反映現實狀況，而是被扭曲的形象。這些女性形象的構造與審判的過程有密切的關係，特別是訴訟當事人刻意訴諸於男女關係方面是否檢點的問題，這使得「貞女」或「淫婦」的形象被塑造出來。因此，本文透過「誣姦」來探討女性形象的塑造，以及訴訟當事人的貞節觀念。本文先從法條、地方官的認識、訴訟指南手冊等角度，對於「誣姦」與審判問題進行分析。接著從案例分析的方式分別考察重大與輕微案件中的「誣姦」。通過這此考察可以發現，進行誣姦的人們也許並沒有在自己的行動中，將貞節的規範作爲一種信念去遵守，但是他們卻清楚如何在訴訟中利用這一規範的價值判斷，從而在審判中獲得優勢。另外，訴訟當事人利用「貞節」或「淫蕩」作爲善惡的認定標準，並以誇大的形式進行告狀的行爲，就使女性的形象在史料書寫中出現了兩極化。

This article focuses on "false accusations of adultery" during the late Ming and early Qing periods. The main sources are officials' collections of legal decisions. In the Ming-Qing era, a large number of chaste widows and faithful maidens were granted official awards. However, we can also find many references to immoral women in materials of this period. This article argues that both the images of chaste women and those of immoral women were stereotypes thatimages were often constructed through the legal process itself. "False accusations of adultery" generally involved the construction of good and evil. Therefore, this paper looks at false accusations of adultery in order to highlight, first, the construction of extreme images of women, and second, litigants' feelings about chastity. This article begins with a discussion of the slander trials of "false accusations of adultery," while its latter two parts deal with actual cases. Although not all litigants who pursued false accusations of adultery necessarily believed in the norm of chastity or pursued it themselves, they nonetheless understood that chastity was an important norm and that claims to chastity could lead to favorable results in court. Litigants overstated their own "chastity" and their opponent's "immorality" to obtain sympathy and attention. The legal process itself thus tended to construct both extremely "chaste" and extremely "immoral" images of women.