Wude County was a seat of governance in the Tang Dynasty, located in Wude Town, Nanwen County, Henan Province today.
In 732 of the Gregorian calendar, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, there was a gruesome case of maternal eating in Wude County:
There is a family surnamed Zhang in the county, and the only family in the family is the old woman, her son and daughter-in-law. Due to the lack of land and the fact that their son had to work odd jobs to make ends meet, the family was extremely poor and often had no food. The daughter-in-law worries every day about how to cook: she has to serve her elderly mother-in-law in the spirit of filial piety and make sure that she gets food as soon as possibleHer husband is the only breadwinner in the family, and he can't be left to work with his stomach empty. But in reality, the food that the family had was very limited, and the two lids could only be used alternately between three pots, often struggling to meet their needs. In this case, the daughter-in-law has no choice but to reduce the amount of food she eats every day to ensure that there is enough food at home. Over time, the woman's body gradually lost weight, the soles of her feet became unstable, and she was prone to panic and shortness of breath when walking, as light as a piece of paper. Neighbors often slaughtered pigs and sheep, and a fragrant smell wafted into her daughter-in-law's nose, making her even more uncomfortable.
One day, the daughter-in-law finally couldn't stand this hunger and made a shocking decision. She gave birth to a child while her mother-in-law and husband were not at home. Then, with amazing perseverance and cruelty, she bit off the flesh of the newborn, chewed it, and swallowed it. She felt her body get a moment of energy and strength, but then this brief feeling of satisfaction was immediately replaced by a deep sense of guilt. When her mother-in-law and husband returned, they saw a heartbreaking scene. The mother-in-law is heartbroken by the crazy behavior of losing her grandson and daughter-in-law, while the husband is distressed and angry because he can't protect his wife and children. This incident caused a sensation in Wude County. When Tang Xuanzong learned of this, he was deeply shocked and saddened. He sent a special investigative team to investigate the case and decided to punish his daughter-in-law severely. 
However, before the execution, the daughter-in-law confessed her crime to the investigation team. She confessed to her madness and said she regretted it very much. She cried about her hunger and helplessness and begged for Tang Xuanzong's forgiveness. Tang Xuanzong was deeply sympathetic after hearing this, but he knew that he could not let his criminal behavior go undue to his personal misery. So, he decided to give his daughter-in-law a symbolic punishment to warn the world. Eventually, the daughter-in-law was sentenced to exile on the frontier and never to return to her hometown. Her husband and mother-in-law were also severely traumatized by the incident, and they were never able to return to their old lives.