Marriage Law Petroglyph Texts of Neolithic China

Abstract

I discovered the marriage law petroglyph texts of Neolithic China a few years ago 1 , and now I will introduce my latest progress on this issue in this article. There are 9 sets of marriage law petroglyph texts of Neolithic China (10,000-4,500 B.P.) found so far. There are three models of two categories of the texts. Heaven and Earth Mapping Model was adopted in the texts of Early Neolithic China (10,000-7,000 B.P.), Only Earth Model and Cross Marriage Model based on the former were adopted in Middle Neolithic China (7,000-5,000 B.P.). Neolithic Chinese created Ziwei Lunisolar Calendar and established the laws to couple men with women imitating the rules of Ziwei Lunisolar Calendar to match Sun (seasons) with Moon (lunar months). The history of the marriage system of Neolithic China can be divided into three stages, the equivalent polygamy stage, the first phrase of the monogamy and the second phrase of the monogamy. Equivalent polygamy is a form of marriage unknown so far. It requires equal number of men vs. women from different groups to form a marriage unit. Only two combinations of this marriage form have been found so far. One is the form of ten husbands vs. ten wives, and the other is the form of three husbands vs. three wives. The monogamy is a logical result of the evolution of the equivalent polygamy, and consequently they share the common ideas of equality and parity. Freedom and equality are two cores of the thoughts of Neolithic Chinese. Based on distributive justice focusing on giving his due, equality between the sexes in quality and quantity was adopted by them to practice the idea of freedom of everyone; and based on cooperative justice focusing on doing their best, coupling equality between the sexes was adopted by them to practice the idea of common freedom.