What are the traditional marriage systems in China's ancient culture?

First, the original group marriage stage.

When studying the ancient marriage system, modern scholars in China are basically influenced by Marx, Engels and Morgan as their important theoretical sources. Marx wrote in Morgan

Ancient scholars in China have no way of knowing Darwin and his theory of evolution, but some records coincide with the research results of western scholars. Men and women live in different places together. Men and women travel together without hiring or matchmaking. Travel is a free combination between men and women, the media is the intermediary role of marriage, and employment is a social process of gender combination. According to a similar statement, scholars speculate that in the early days of primitive group marriage, there was no limit to the marriage between brothers and sisters and their descendants. However, this is only a speculation, or imagination. As the saying goes, once upon a time, there was no taste of a gentleman, and the crowd lived in it. Anemarrhena knew nothing about his father, no relatives, no brothers, no difference between husband and wife, no way up and down. "Guan Zi Jun Ju pian" also said: In ancient times, couples had no choice.

This can also be found in fairy tales. Some people say that Eve is made of ribs drawn from Adam, so Adam and Eve should also be related by blood. At the same time, in Greek mythology, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, and also gave birth to four sons in partnership with his mother, which should also be the memory left by the disorder of the upper and lower generations in ancient times.

Second: blood marriage.

It is the second marriage system in the history of human marriage, also called class marriage and brother-sister marriage. Engels said: here, marriage groups are divided according to generations, and all grandparents in the family are husband and wife. The same is true of their children, that is, father and mother; Similarly, the children of the latter constitute the third circle of husband and wife.

There is a typical example in China ancient mythology-the legend of Fuxi and Nu Wa. They are brother and sister, but somehow, human beings are devastated and there are only two of them left in the world. In order to continue mankind, brother and sister must be combined. This myth is fully described in Li Rong's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio in the Tang Dynasty: when the universe first opened, only two brothers and sisters, Nu Wa, were in Kunlun Mountain (like all fairy tales, they couldn't care about this ending, and this legend couldn't explain how Nu Wa came from Fuxi), but there were no people in the world who felt ashamed that they were husband and wife. Brother and sister go to Kunlun Mountain. Curse: If heaven sends my brother and sister as husband and wife, smoke will meet, if not, smoke will disperse. As soon as I smoke, my sister becomes my brother, and my sister covers her face with a fan (I don't know whether my sister is shy or the storytellers of later generations are shy, and storytellers are shy of my sister. In short, my sister covers her face with a fan.

The brother-sister marriage between Fuxi and Nuwa is also reflected in the portraits of Han Dynasty. Both are snakeheads, intertwined. A portrait of Sui Renshi, Fuxi and Nu Wa hugging each other at the top of the pillar on the east side of the tomb gate was unearthed in the Han Tomb in Chengbei Zhai Village, yinan county, Shandong Province. Suirenshi is the father of Fuxi and Nuwa, and scholar Zheng Huisheng thinks Suirenshi is a third party, hehe, that is to say, this situation just reflects the disorderly characteristics of primitive group marriage. In the portrait of Dongjue, Nanwuyang, Feixian County, Shandong Province, the man sat in the middle, holding Fuxi and Nu Wa in his hands. Only two of them succeeded and stopped bidding for the Olympic Games-the key is to mix them together. Fuxi and Nu Wa were also found standing on Sui Ren's shoulders in Nanyang stone relief, which should mean that Sui Ren withdrew. In a word, the story of Fuxi and Nu Wa is the transition from primitive group marriage to class marriage.

In the stone room of Wuliang Temple in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is such a portrait: Fuxi and Nu Wa met on the tail of a snake, and above them, two children also met. They should be descendants of Fuxi and Nuwa. At the same time, a man under Fuxi is pulling Fuxi's sleeve, and a woman under Nu Wa is also pulling Nu Wa's skirt. It vividly embodies the characteristics of class marriage: peer marriage, between peers, regardless of you and me. Yours is mine and mine is yours. * * * wife * * husband. Someone once joked that it is true that God created Adam and Eve. It is true that Adam and Eve got married, but who are the in-laws of Adam and Eve? Yes, if you are interested, just study it.

Third: robbery of marriage.

The relationship between men and women is limited to the class within the family, supplemented by the production of robbing relatives outside the family. In ancient times, women may also be regarded as property. Tribal wars and family struggles led to women being robbed. From now on, it is certainly uncivilized to rob relatives and relatives, but scholars believe that this kind of robbery should not be underestimated. This robbery robbed civilization and eugenics. Look at the deformed mentally retarded baby born inside, and then look at the white fat child born by the robbed woman. The ancients finally realized that it was not uncommon for men and women to have the same surname. Until now, there is a so-called clan rule that people with the same surname do not marry in remote rural areas.

There is a passage in the Book of Changes, which is considered by scholars to reflect the phenomenon of stealing relatives. As the cloud says, chariots are like chariot, riding horses, bandits, and getting married. A group of people rode here, not to rob property, but to rob marriage. There is another paragraph: riding a horse like a class, crying like blood. It is also considered by scholars to be the situation after robbing the bride: the bride snatcher rode away at high speed, leaving a string of poor cries on the mountain road.

Some scholars believe that there is still a legacy of robbing relatives in China's old marriage customs. For example, when a man marries a woman, she should wear a red veil. It is said that the original intention was to prevent women from waiting for an opportunity to escape halfway, or to prevent them from writing down their way home. This skill is the same as tying people up with bandits and covering their eyes with black cloth. Scholars speculate that many activities in the wedding ceremony are like robbing the bride. For example, in the wedding ceremony in rural areas, there is a spear in front of the road, a dozen little boys holding colorful flags behind them, and many young and middle-aged guards such as brothers and nephews behind the groom. At first glance, it feels like a robbery. And the bracelet that a woman wears on her arm, we might as well think of it as handcuffs. As for the custom of crying marriage in some mountainous areas, it is even more doubtful that the bride was taken away. Later, robbing relatives became a ritual. The Lisu people in Yunnan, Guangxi got married, and the two sides agreed on a good place to grab it. The man is accompanied by a knife, the woman pretends to call for help, the relatives of the woman pretend to save people, the man throws money, and the relatives of the woman collect money. This is probably the red envelope thrown by Silla at the rural wedding now. As for some backward mountainous areas in southwest Henan, until liberation, there was a custom of robbing widows. This is a real robbery. There is no prior agreement. Whoever catches it will be the winner. Widows are not so easy to rob. They also have weapons, that is, menstrual pants and menstrual belts. China society looks down on women and thinks these things are unlucky. So these things are the best biochemical weapons for widows to protect themselves. During the Opium War, Yang Fang, a Guangzhou general, also used this technique against the British invaders, but the effect was not great.

There are also well-intentioned people who prove that Guan Ju is also stealing pro-poetry: My Fair Lady, My Gentleman … I can't wait, tossing and turning. What if I miss my daughter-in-law so much that I can't sleep at night? Mr. Wang said to Zhen Xuan, then you can rob it. Li Changzhi explained this in his Trial Translation of the Book of Songs: A good wife equals a spouse and a good wife equals an enemy. Enemy, enemy, what is not stealing relatives?

In addition, from the etymological point of view, some people joked that marriage is a behavior after a person loses consciousness. However, "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" explains it this way: If you marry a woman, you will faint. Imaginative scholars immediately concluded that it must be robbery to dare to get married after dark. Why not put it in the daytime?

Fourth: marriage outside the family.

Scholars who study the marriage system in China infer from archaeological data that intermarriage is a symbol of matriarchal society. According to Engels' exposition, scholars assume that the marital status of matriarchal clans is as follows: the clans prohibit intermarriage within the clan and must seek women from other clans and tribes; At the same time, marry indigenous women to foreigners. However, many myths and legends about the birth of saints in ancient China, such as "Huang Di was born with a sense of treasure attached to Beidou", "Du Qing married a red dragon and gave birth to Yao", and "seeing a rainbow has a meaning and being lucky", are only regarded by scholars as a reflection of marriage outside the family.

Extramarital affairs, also known as punaluan family family. But it is undeniable that there is still the habit of class marriage, brother * * * wife, sister * * * husband. Children, call all men fathers and all women mothers. For example, the Shang dynasty still retains the ancient appellation habits. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty, Wu Ding called his father Father A, Father B (this is Wu Ding's biological father), Father C, Father D and Father E, and they were multiple fathers. Call his mother Ma Jia, Ma C and Ma Geng (this is his birth mother). In modern society, the appellation of Xuchang area is also worth studying. It's called Dad. Dad's brother is Da Die, and Dad's brother is little dad. It's interesting anyway. However, the old marriage custom in China, that is, brothers are brothers, sisters are brothers, and even sisters marry a person, such as Yao's daughter, Ying Shun and Li Yu, after a big year and a small week, have been recognized by social morality since ancient times until the implementation of the new marriage law in new China. A popular folk song "Girl in Osaka City" a few years ago, there is a sentence in the lyrics that I still don't understand: take your dowry, take your sister and drive that carriage. Why do you think the bride brought her sister? Now I understand, it is estimated that my sister got married, but it is actually left over from the marriage in the class. When Liu was the editor-in-chief of People's Daily, he published a novel "If you don't spit out your tongue, it will be empty", which also touched on this ethnic custom in Tibet, and was protested by Tibetan students of the Central University for Nationalities, which led to Liu's dismissal. In short, whether you are doing academics or literature and art, you must talk about politics. Otherwise, politics is for you.

I want to say something superfluous here. With the improvement of people's ability to know themselves, after the Spring and Autumn Period, the theory of "telepathy" has no market. However, in the Western Han Dynasty, in order to flatter Liu Bang, people did not hesitate to put a big cuckold on Liu Bang's father: Aunt Liu slept on the hillside, the dragon attached to her, and she had a body, so she gave birth to Gaozu. Hey, now is not the time to play this game, you are too dirty! There are also some variants of foreign marriage, such as the story of daughter country and husband country. 198 1 Harbin Daily reported that there is a daughter country on the border of Brazil in South America, and there are no men in the country. One day every year, a group of men from another Hamno nationality come to marry them. After the man left, the woman gave birth. Meet again next year, girls stay and boys take away. In addition, there are many records in China ancient literature, such as Shan Hai Jing. Overseas Xijing. The daughter country is in the north of Wuxian County, where two women live. Wild West Classic contains: In the wilderness … there is a country of women. There are women in the sea, but there are no men. Or spread its state-owned wells, you can see it. But this can't solve the problem of how to give birth to a boy, so Guo Pu noted the Classic of Mountains and Seas, saying: There is a yellow pool, and a woman is pregnant. If she gives birth to a boy, she will die at the age of three. As for Journey to the West, we all know that Comrade Old Pig entered the daughter country, drank the water from the daughter river, got pregnant, and finally miscarried. As for the husband country, Shan Hai Jing and Huai Nan Zi both mentioned that since the daughter country is self-reliant and has children by itself, how can the husband country solve the problem of children? "Taiping Yu Lan" Volume 36 1 Quotations "Xuanzhong Ji": A husband and wife, Yin Taiwei sent Wang Ying, picked herbs from the queen mother of the West. So far, she has been deprived of food and can't enter. She eats wood, wears wood skin, and has no wife for life. She gave birth to two children (I guess it was almost a golden cicada) and two more. Her father passed away. These fables are night stories and should be variants of marriage outside the family.

Fifth: get married in pairs.

Marx said: Under the family system in punaluan family, there is more or less the fact that a man and a woman live together as spouses, which is caused by various social conditions. Every man has one of his wives as the master wife, and vice versa, so there is a tendency to transition to pairing marriage.

Well, I believe that people are emotional animals, which determines that people will have preferences and choices among many possible objects. The result of choice is pairing marriage, which is the transitional form of monogamy in punaluan family.

Marriage between husband and wife is divided into two stages or two ways. First, it is said that Dayu and Tu Shanshi did it. Second, the family system, Iroquois in the book "The Origin of Family, Private Ownership and State".

Sixth: Monogamy.