What was the status of women in ancient China.

The status of women in China's Shang Dynasty was very high, and the decline of Chinese women's status came with the Zhou Dynasty or the emergence of Confucianism. The Xia Dynasty was still a matrilineal clan society at the time of its founding, and its settlement was characterized by two features: one was nomadic, and the other was from wives. Marriage in Shang society was by multiple fathers and multiple mothers***, which was also typical of a matrilineal clan society. According to the Zhou Ritual, male nobles could marry more than one concubine, but there could only be one main wife. In the Book of the Ram, it is said, "Once a vassal marries nine daughters, the vassal marries no more." This custom was ritually passed on to future generations. During the Zhou Dynasty, the status of married women was inferior, and the maintenance of the marriage relationship depended on the husband's good or bad will. If the husband was willing to maintain the relationship, she was subordinate to him; if the husband was unwilling to maintain the relationship, she would be swept away by him. Some poems in the Classic of Poetry, such as the narrative-oriented "Name Wind - Valley Wind" and "Wei Feng - Hooligans", and the lyrical-oriented "Name Wind - Sun and Moon" and "Wang Feng - Zhonggu You蓷", were all the sorrowful voices of the abandoned women of that time. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, there were frequent wars and heavy population losses over the centuries, and the development of productive forces required more labor, which made the task of reproducing the population assumed by marriage even more important. Therefore, even the elopement of young men and women was not absolutely prohibited at that time, and the remarriage of widows was naturally not a problem. Even among the vassal states, this was a common occurrence. It is written in the history that Duke Xuan of Wei had an affair with his stepmother, and when his son grew up, he married a woman from Qi, who was so beautiful that Duke Xuan seized her for himself. Poetry. Name: Feng Feng. Xin Tai" was written by the Wei people to satirize Duke Xuan. After the death of the Duke of Xuan, his eldest son, Gong Zi Xiu, married Xuan Jiang and had many children, two of whom later became the king of the country. The Wei people also wrote "Walls with Cards" to stab at him. He was the king of the country, even married again, three married women, and their descendants were not discriminated against, so it can be seen that the popularity of this custom. From the surviving records on the legal provisions of the pre-Qin era, there is no restriction on the remarriage of women.

Second, the Qin and Han Dynasties

Since Shang Yang changed the law, the Qin State has implemented the legalist ideology, emphasizing the supremacy of national interests, and the tradition of etiquette and morality has been relatively neglected. In the family legislation of the Qin Dynasty, women could have equal status with their husbands in certain aspects, such as women could kill their adulterous husbands, and husbands could be punished equally for beating their wives and wives beating their husbands, and so on. Reflected in the issue of women remarriage, also very tolerant. From the Jiangling Zhangjiashan Han Jian about the Qin law can be seen in the records of the "husband died and his wife to marry, take the one who is not guilty" provisions.

After Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Confucianism gradually became China's official orthodoxy. The moral and legal standards advocated by Confucianism also exerted more and more influence, gradually becoming the mainstream moral norms and behavioral norms of society. Confucian scholars and bureaucrats during the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty utilized the ideology of male superiority and female inferiority as expressed in the pre-Qin canonical texts, and gave a further negative moral evaluation to the issue of women remarrying. In Ban Zhao's "Commandments for Women," it is said, "Men have the intention of remarrying, and women have no text of remarriage..." This strict restriction of same-sex freedom in the voice of a woman has done far-reaching harm over the centuries. The rulers of the two Han dynasties also began to honor the virtuous widows, and Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty rewarded the "chaste and obedient women" of the Yingchuan area with cloth and silk in the fourth year of the Shenjue reign (58 years ago). After the Eastern Han Dynasty, such actions became very frequent.

However, in the two Han dynasties, the words of the orthodox Confucians had not yet fully constrained people's social behavior. The written laws of the time did not explicitly restrict women from remarrying. And in practice, women remarried all the time. Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu's sister, Princess Huyang, who was widowed, fell in love with Song Hong, a married man, and Emperor Guangwu personally acted as a lobbyist for her. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Yong's daughter, Cai Yan (Cai Wenji), a famous literary scholar, first married Hedong Wei Zhongdao, captured into the Xiongnu and married King Zuo Xian, and had children, returned to the Han Dynasty and then married Dong Sisi, has remarried twice. Her life was not tainted by such a life, on the contrary, her legendary experience and literary talent were included in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty by Fan Ye of the Southern Dynasty, which was the first book in a thousand years to be published in the Han Dynasty. The Biography of the Ladies, which is unbelievable after more than a thousand years. The ancient poem "Southeast Flight of the Peacock" recounts the story of Liu Lanzhi, who was forced to leave her mother-in-law after she failed to show respect for her husband, and who was immediately approached by numerous marriage proposers when she returned to her family home, showing that it is not a matter of shame for a woman to remarry, even if it is a woman who has been removed from her husband's family.

Three, Wei, Jin, North and South Dynasties period

The Three Kingdoms era, due to years of war, the population has been sharply reduced. In order to survive and reproduce, the rulers gave loose regulations on the elements of marriage for the issue of women remarriage, also followed the Han Dynasty law of loose regulations. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Quan, Lord of Wu, took a widowed woman, Mrs. Xu, as his consort. Cao Pi's empress, Zhen, was originally the wife of Yuan Shao's son, Yuan Xi, who returned to Cao Pi after Yuan Shao was defeated by Cao. After the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty, the rituals and rules of the Jin Dynasty were revived for a short period of time, and Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty issued several edicts forbidding the marriage between the scholar and the commoner and clarifying the distinction between the first and the commoner. As for the issue of widow remarriage, similar to the situation in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the official ideology had already frequently praised the martyrs who kept the vow, while the phenomenon of civil remarriage still occurred from time to time. Generally speaking, Confucianism was at a relatively low ebb during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Song and Qi dynasties of the Southern Dynasties, and the Sixteen Kingdoms and Northern Wei Dynasties in the north, due to the rise of esotericism. As reflected in the field of family law, the status of women improved slightly. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was even a situation where a woman repudiated her husband. As for women's remarriage, it was also more common. Princesses in the Liu and Song dynasties were generally at odds with their extra horse harnessed by the side of a team, and were allowed by the emperor to divorce and remarry. In the south, after the Liang Dynasty, Confucianism began to flourish again, and the rulers began to escalate their propaganda for chaste and virtuous women. In the north, even during the long period of war between the Sixteen Kingdoms and the early Northern Wei Dynasty, the propaganda for chastity and righteousness of women persisted. The Northern Zhou government issued a formal edict declaring that "filial sons, obedient grandchildren, righteous husbands, and chaste women are to be listed on their doorsteps." This is also a move to follow the measures of the Han and Jin, the Han regimes in history.

Fourth, the Sui and Tang Dynasties

The Sui and Tang Dynasties were the heyday of the development of feudal society in China, and due to the intermingling of the northern alien cultures and the Chinese culture in the centuries prior to this period, the traditions of the northern ethnic groups that emphasized the status of women and the freedom of marriage and union were preserved to a large extent. Therefore, in the Sui Dynasty and the early years of the Tang Dynasty, social opinion and official legislation appeared to be very tolerant of the issue of women's remarriage. The royal family of the Tang dynasty, with its northern ethnic origins, used to pay no attention to women's remarriage itself, when their words and deeds were a model for the whole world. According to "New Tang Book. Princess biography" records calculate that the Tang dynasty in the early middle of the princess remarried that is, there are twenty-nine people, of which five people even three married. The famous Princess Xiangcheng, Princess Taiping, have remarried. The royal family is so, the folk is more commonplace, the great Confucian scholar Fang Xuanling, Han Yu's wife or daughter have been remarried. It can be seen that at that time, "women do not remarry the text" of the ancient teachings to a certain extent forgotten, even the orthodox intellectuals who advocate the moral article is not to remarry as wrong. The old book of Tang Dynasty - the female biography" records: "Chu Wang Ling Guifei Shangguan's, the king's death, the end of the service, the brothers said: 'Fei is still young, and no births, remarriage of a different family, the etiquette of the normal model.'" This shows that the young and childless widow remarried, is the social norm, "keep the festival" may be abnormal. In contrast, men, even noble men, were not ashamed to marry remarried women. It is well known that Wu Zetian was originally a concubine of Emperor Taizong, but was made Empress by Emperor Gaozong. Yang Guifei was originally the consort of Prince Shou, the son of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, but remarried Emperor Xuanzong. These behaviors, which are considered incestuous in the eyes of posterity, existed openly in the Tang Dynasty royal family. As for courtiers and well-known figures, it was even more common for them to marry remarried women. In addition, in the middle and early Tang Dynasty, although social norms did not strongly advocate women to keep their will, but if a woman voluntarily did not remarry for life, she was still protected by law. The Tang Law Review in the "husband mourning to keep the will and forced to marry" article stipulates: "all husbands in addition to the funeral service and want to keep the will, not the woman's grandparents, parents, and forced to marry the person, futile for one year; period of pro-marriage, reduced by two grades. Each of them shall be separated from the other." Explained in the sparing: "the woman's husband mourning clothes in addition to the vow to keep the will, only the grandparents, parents can be taken away and married." However, from the provisions to analyze, in fact, women to keep the festival is subject to great restrictions. In an era when social mores did not particularly emphasize chastity, parents and grandparents were likely to force their daughters to remarry.

So, in the Tang dynasty, especially in the early and middle periods, it was not uncommon to see female heads of dynasties. Wu after Gaozong, Wei after Zhongzong, and Zhang after Suzong were all political women who held real power and were in hot demand. After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang dynasty went from strength to strength, and thought control was even greater than before. Princesses remarried, mother and queen of the dynasty, etc. tend to be extinct.

Fifth, the Song and Yuan dynasties

Because of the Cheng and Zhu rationale strongly advocate "the survival of the reason of heaven, extinguish human desire", in the marriage and family system, contempt for the rights of women, and even proposed: "starvation is a small matter, the loss of temperance is a big matter. Under the influence and long-term penetration of the science of science, from the early Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, during the centuries, the public opinion of women's remarriage and the social atmosphere itself have gone through great changes.

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the social trend of women remarrying was still popular, riding on the legacy of the Tang Dynasty. Within the royal family, after years of turmoil during the Five Dynasties, even the rule that princesses were not allowed to remarry, which was established at the end of the Tang Dynasty, was not observed. The sister of Emperor Taizu was first married to Mi Fude, and after being widowed, she was re-married to Gao Huaide. Among the social celebrities, Fan Zhongyan, a great writer, lost his father at an early age and remarried with his mother before returning to the clan when he grew up. In the Song Dynasty, Emperor Renzong issued regulations similar to those of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, forbidding the remarriage of those of the royal family who had sons, but the trend of civil remarriage did not diminish in the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Yi and other propaganda, "starvation is a small matter, the loss of modesty is a big thing," and so on, at that time in the Northern Song Dynasty did not have a great impact, Cheng Yi's nephew died, the daughter-in-law also failed to keep the festival. However, after the Southern Song Dynasty, the etiquette of the wind is becoming more and more severe, on the one hand, Zhu Xi and other spared no effort to implement, control the concept of intellectuals; on the other hand, its social life in the community has also begun to show a huge impact. After this, no royal princesses and princes and princesses married many times recorded, the general government officials and eunuchs of the family's daughter, remarriage is also gradually reduced. Correspondingly, the "Song History", "Yuan History" in the biography of the women of the festival women, martyrs of the record compared with previous generations, greatly enhanced. Originally, this genre was created by Liu Xiang, and Fan Ye included it for the first time in the official history in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty. In the early days, several historical books praised the outstanding women in various fields, such as Tie Ha who saved her father, Cai Wen Ji who was outstanding in literature, and Le Yang Zi's wife who assisted her husband, which was equivalent to a "biography of outstanding women in various professions". But after the "Song History", the so-called women are almost all chaste, do not serve two husbands, of course, there are determined to abide by the festival, but also unbearable bandit abuse, and with the death of the. In short, the revisionists believed that the only virtue of women worth honoring was their chastity, and that other talents were worthless. The biographies of the women have become a real "biography of martyrs".

Li Qingzhao, a famous female lyricist, was originally married to Zhao Mingcheng and lived a happy life. The iron hooves of the Jin soldiers shattered her leisurely life, and soon after the South China Sea, Zhao Mingcheng died. Li Qingzhao and remarried to Zhou Ruzhou as his wife, after marriage, found that her husband's character is poor, illegal behavior, unbearable **** with life. Qingzhao and sued the officials to report her husband, her husband was brought to justice. Song Dynasty law, the wife sued the husband, even if the report is true, but also to "two years in prison". Qingzhao was saved from imprisonment by her friends and divorced her husband. However, the second half of Li Qingzhao's life this experience is often appreciated by the literati to hide her talent, may be that her behavior is not very honorable, detrimental to the image of ice and jade.

Yuan dynasty northern peoples prevailed in the brother died, sister-in-law remarried to the custom of the brother. During the Yuan Dynasty, the custom not only continued to exist among the Mongols who entered the Central Plains, but also entered the lives of the Han Chinese residents. Many examples of the practice of a brother-in-law marrying his sister-in-law are recorded in the "Dajuan Tongshi Jiege - Household Orders". The marriage of uncle and sister-in-law, which in traditional Han customs would have been adultery between relatives, is an example of the influence exerted by minority customs on the culture of the Central Plains. The remarriage of a sister-in-law to a younger uncle was not only ethically unacceptable to the Han Chinese, but also created a legal conflict. Yuan dynasty law for Han men and women to continue the marriage of "have a wife not to marry more", "keep the will of the person shall not be forced to remarry" and other restrictions, and if the brother-in-law has a wife and sister-in-law, in the law will be at a loss. Based on this, after the middle of Yuan Dynasty, there were strict restrictions on the acceptance of levirate, such as: levirate only betrothed not accepting inheritance, uncle already has a wife not accepting inheritance, age difference between uncle and levirate not accepting inheritance, and so on. Moreover, there are some other inheritance systems in Mongolian customs, such as nephews adopting aunts and brothers adopting younger brothers and daughters-in-law, which are too incompatible with the traditional rituals of the Han people and are not practiced in the Han areas.

For a long time, the Confucianists advocated one thing, and the folk people's concept was another. The idea of forbidding women to remarry penetrated very slowly into the civil society, spreading at best among the nobility and the scholars.

Sixth, Ming and Qing Dynasties

The suppression of women's freedom of life and marriage in the Ming and Qing Dynasties reached an unprecedented level of cruelty.

The Daming Laws for the first time condensed the two provisions of the previous code on the issue of women's remarriage, "mourning and marrying" and "women's observance of the festival and forced marriage" into a single article, but the punishment became lighter. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the punishment for "marriage in mourning", which was punishable by three years' imprisonment, was changed to "one hundred strokes of the cane", and in the Tang and Song dynasties, the punishment for "forced marriage by a person other than a parent or grandparent", which was punishable by one year's imprisonment, was changed to "one hundred strokes". The crime of forcing a widow to remarry by someone other than her parents or grandparents in the Tang and Song dynasties was changed to "one hundred canes", and the crime of forcing a widow to remarry by someone other than her parents or grandparents in the Tang and Song dynasties was changed to "eighty canes". On the face of it, the Ming laws were even more lenient than those of the Tang Dynasty. But the Ming law in order to focus on maintaining the rule of the dynasty, focusing on the punishment of those who conspire against the regime's interests, such as plotting rebellion, conspiracy, and other violations of the behavior of the interests of the regime, and for the marriage of such private matters, can be lenient on leniency, but not too much intervention. That is, the so-called principle of "lightness is light and heaviness is heavy". Therefore, the reduction of punishment does not necessarily mean that women can enjoy a more lenient choice in this matter.

The Daming Law also clearly stipulated for the first time: "If the life of a woman's husband died, remarried, the crime is the same (cited: refers to the above quoted on the residence of the husband's funeral remarriage provisions), the pursuit of deprivation and divorce." Regarding the prohibition of remarriage of the official's wife, there was a provision as early as the Sui Wendi, but it was soon abolished. It was not reinstated until the fourth year of the reign of Yuan Zhidai (1311). The rationale for this was that "a woman who has been granted a county title by her husband is different from a commoner's wife, and if her husband dies, she is not permitted to remarry after receiving the order from the imperial court." The Daming Laws formally deprived noblewomen of the right to remarry in the written law code. The feudal law deprived countless ordinary people of their happiness, and gave no care to its defenders.

The Qing Law made an unprecedented new provision for the forced remarriage of widows who had been forced to keep their ambitions: "If their husbands' mourning service is completed and they are willing to keep their ambitions, and the grandparents of the woman, her parents, and her husband's family are forced to marry them, they will be punished with eighty strokes of the cane. The period of kinship is increased by one grade. Another grade shall be added below the level of great merit." Since ancient times, parents and in-laws have been able to force a widow to remarry regardless of her wishes, without any legal responsibility. This brand-new provision of the Qing Dynasty was in no way intended to respect a woman's right to free choice, but only because at that time the trend of despising women's remarriage was already y rooted in the folklore. The legislator, after consideration, thought that the significance of maintaining the rules and regulations and preventing women from remarrying could already compete with the absolute control of parents over their children, which was also one of the highest norms of feudal ethics. This legislative change is noteworthy.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, feudal clan power had grown further, and a large number of township rules were filled with provisions that persecuted women and denied them the right to remarry. At that time, the state enacted laws, especially civil norms, the implementation of which was subject to significant discounts. In the vast countryside, clan customary law and local customary law actually played a major regulatory function. Therefore, if a woman wanted to successfully remarry, she first had to encounter the obstacles of extremely powerful clan forces.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the rulers, based on the need to maintain their own corrupt system, constantly strengthened the promotion and encouragement of women's honor. The "inner training", "ancient and modern biographies of women", "norms" and other so-called women's education readings are all over the place, the Ming and Qing emperors have issued a number of such edicts, the system of text. From the folk that densely covered chastity plaques and various local history of the keeper of a lifetime, and even martyrdom from the death of a large number of women, we can feel the majority of women's misfortunes and the cruelty of the feudal rites.