"During the Ch'ing period, Chi Hsiao-lan, a great Confucian scholar, in his Yüeh Wei Ts'ao T'ang Pi Chi (Diary at the Small Thatched-roof House), described stories of famine and cannibalism in the northwestern parts of China (Shensi Province). The sale of human meat at open markets and its consumption among the people in this region were so common that the government officially sanctioned this inhumane transaction to stave off food shortage. Those who dealt in this business were known as people cooking human meat (ts'ai-jen); their profession was to kill people and sell their meat for food. The most famous story is about a traveler and a woman. A traveler heard a screaming voice from inside a restaurant. He went in and found a woman, totally naked, who was being washed and put on the board to be butchered for food. He was shocked at the scene, and he decided to save her life because she was so young and beautiful. So he tried to buy her from the butcher; he offered to pay double the price, hoping to make her his wife. Knowing of his motive, she declined the offer with thanks because she was already married to another man. She said, however, that she was willing to work for him as a slave servant for the rest of her life. In short, she could not compromise morality for life. Finally, she was butchered and her meat was cooked and sold for food."