Abstract
The levirate marriage has been continued for thousands of years in the ancient time of China until after the People's Republic when it died out. In Yuan Dynasty, the levirate marriage was gradually ascended to state law from national habits; its position was so important that it was considered as the customs of the country, later it gradually moved towards collapse. The variation of laws as well as regulations for the levirate marriage reflect the process of which the two cultures of the Mongolian people and Han people blended continuously. Starting from the research on the policy of the levirate marriage for the Han Chinese, this article explores for the jurisdiction and control of rulers in Yuan Dynasty for the Han Chinese to disclose the ideological features of laws in Yuan Dynasty, which explore for the conflict and coordination of law culture in grassland of the law culture in central plains.
Highlights
The levirate marriage has been continued for thousands of years in the ancient time of China until after the People's Republic when it died out
As a kind of marriage policy, the levirate marriage was recognized by the central regime in history for the first time, in December of the eighth year of Zhi Yuan period under the sovereignty of Yuan Huizong (1271A.D.) the official of the central government issued an imperial edict: “The elder brother may accept the widower of the younger brother as his wife, the younger brother may accept the widower of the elder brother as his wife.” (Chen, Zhang, Liu, & Dang, 2011, p. 653) Since there is a legal accordance for the Han Chinese to ass.ccsenet.org
According to the regulations in Tong Zhi Tiao Ge (通制条格): “Those who have already married marry, even if the emperor releases a pardon, he will be forced to divorce, Mongolians are exceptions.” (Fang, 2001, p. 163) when it is against the current law and the related parties are against the levirate marriage, the feudal official still judged for the permission of Fu Wangbo to accept Niu Wang Er as his wife for which it can be seen that the official held a positive attitude towards the enhancement for the levirate marriage among the Han Chinese
Summary
According to the statistics of the data available there are 359 virtuous women in Yuan Dynasty, there is emergence of virtuous women in all the nations, among the women for the resistance against the levirate marriage, Han women are in the front of which their cases are all over the Collection of Laws in Yuan Dynasty (元典章). 836) Da Yuan Tong Zhi Tiao Ge (大元通制条格) and The History of Yuan Dynasty: Biographies of Exemplary Women (元史·列女传) recorded that between the periods of Zhizhi when Yingzong was the emperor of Yuan Dynasty, two Han women were not willing to be succeeded for the preservation of chastity after the death of their husbands for which they were awarded by the imperial court: after her husband was drowned, Wang, the wife of Zhao Mei swore that she would preserve the chastity and would not seek for marriage with other men Her father and mother in law would like to succeed Wang for their nephew, Wang refused to be succeeded with the reason of “no marriage for the chastity of women” This pattern of marriage ran in opposite direction from the traditional morality of Han Chinese, why is that the levirate marriage was still popular among the Han Chinese during the reign of the Mongolians in Yuan Dynasty and formed the situation of which each nation has something of their own customs?
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