Abstract
Marriage is a kind of social tie by which a family is formed. Two persons form the relationship of husband and wife, and bear a child together. Through this mechanism, a triangular family structure is formed. Fei Xiaotong takes the relationship between husband and wife as a contractual relationship. Not only can it be applied to a monogamous society, but also found in the society of polyandry and polygamy, because all these societies are based on marriage relationship contract between two or more individuals. (1981: 77).
…there is no place in the world where a marriage could be entirely seen as the privacy of spouse themselves, in which no one else is allowed to take an interest.
Fei (1981: 33)
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Notes
- 1.
In areas governed weakly by the central power, the establishment and dissolution of marital relation were directly related to both sides’ social status. According to the investigation of Ma Rong in traditional Tibetan society, the marriage procedure of poor herdsman was extremely simple, so was marriage dissolution. Relatively speaking, marriages among rich herdsman or the noble were rather complicated (1996: 325–330).
- 2.
One of the Chinese classics, The Book of Rites records “Lineize”, which talks about ancient divorce system. It reads that “the husband may be very satisfied with his wife; but if his parents dissatisfy, he must get a divorce” (quoted from Tao 1934: 49).
- 3.
Somebody may generalize this activity as “superstition ”, but, in fact, superstition should have some positive function besides its negative effects, which is a proposition proposed by the founder of social anthropology Frazer. The proposition considers that in some specific tribes and specific periods, superstition reinforces people’s respect for marriage. Thereby it has made a great contribution in the establishment of a stricter gender-moral rule among married and unmarried people (Frazer 1988: 41). Modern law does not have such psychological force of constraint. If an individual violates the national Marriage Law , it won’t arouse his psychological fear. However, superstition will resort to misfortunes in individual’s life due to the offense of basic moral rules in marriage. For example, among Karens in Burma, if crops do not grow well in one or two years, people tend to relate it with “fornication” or “adultery”. They may think that God is angry at them. Therefore, all people in village should offer sacrifice to lighten gods up. This is the superstitious logic, and it will maintain the social order. We cannot say it is non-rational, but it can be explained that the rationality in our society is different from that in theirs. Because in their real life, their logic is tenable, so are their behaviors.
- 4.
According to a record of a divorce case in 1950s in Zhao County Archives, its verdict on property was as follows: “Take your own belongings. The man should give the woman a set of quilt and mattress. 16 yuan of child support fees should be paid by the man twice, on lunar August 15th and May 5th respectively; 8 yuan each time.” (Quoted from Divorce Files in Zhao County Archives, Vol. 2, July 1956). This kind of verdict can be seen in many divorce decrees.
- 5.
As Murdock said, property was one of the extremely important factors to maintain the family stability. Once a marriage relationship was ended or broken, the ownership of property kept in memory would be aroused (Murdock 1996: 258–266). The property inquest list in the No.1 case can verify this point.
- Record base on inquest: Location::
-
Li’s home at Li Village.
- Inspection Personnel::
-
Geng Qunyan, Chen Guoxin. Attendee: Li.
Articles of Zhao stored at Li’s home include: one suit of combination sideboard (five sets), one writing desk, one TV cabinet, one cupboard, five sets of round-the-corner sofa, one sewing machine of Bee Brand, one lockstitch of Tiangong Brand, one parallel-bars washing machine of Friendship Brand, one twenty-inch color TV of Yellow River Brand, one recording machine of Panda Brand (three sets), one floor-standing fan of Snowflake Brand, one quartz clock, one aggravated bicycle of Dove Brand, two toweling coverlet, two silk satins, one red and one green quilt, six base plates, one squared woolen upper garment, one yellow dress, one purple upper garment, one red long underwear pants, one white upper garment, two white shirts, two pink shirts, one red vest, two green upper garments, one jeans, one yellow shirt, one red cotton-padded clothes, one yellow upper garment, one red and one white upper long underwear, two white sweaters, one yellow long underwear, one stripe-squared upper long underwear, one green shorts, seven pairs of pants, six underpants, one vest, two red sofa covers, 5.5-m2 crash, one washbasin rack, four bed sheets, four pillows, four pillow covers, one bed sheet, one mosquito net, one bed-mat for summer, two quilt covers, one quilt sheet, two bumpers, a suit of sofa cover (plaintiff said the husband’s kindred bought it), one sewing machine cover, one lockstitch cover, two towels, one radio cover, four small mattress pads, one small quilt (plaintiff said the husband’s kindred bought it), two soup bowls, two washtubs, one hanger, one table lamp, one dinner table, one lamp, one tea table, four chairs (two were broken), two thermos bottles, one vacuum pot, one electric soldering iron, two tooth glasses, one small tea mug, one tea set (six), two big plates, one small plate, two candy boxes, two mirrors, two vases (with flowers), one kettle, one ashtray, one food box, one comb, one bag, one knitted bag, one toy panda, one pair of leather shoes, one scissors, one tape and ruler, one curtain, two packages, six-chi bedside cloth, one red long woolen underwear, six children cotton-padded clothes, one yellow upper long underwear, one scarf, ten single layer for children, a set of teapot (with six cups), one artificial leather cloth, five quilt covers, one tea box, one photo. All the articles are not broken.
The above record is correct. Li (fingerprint).
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Zhao, X. (2019). Marriage and Property Right. In: Power and Justice. China Academic Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53834-0_4
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