First, the status of women in the mother's family when they are unmarried.
A woman who lives with her parents and brothers when she is unmarried is a "daughter in the house". Because Confucian ethics attached importance to the order of seniority, women in Song Dynasty enjoyed certain rights according to their seniority. Criminal code of song dynasty. The Law on Litigation stipulates: "Only two and a half years have passed since brothers and sisters were beaten, and only three years have passed since they were injured. The wounded flowed 3,000 Li, and the blade cut off the branches and twisted one eye. All the dead were beheaded, and one hundred people slapped the staff. ..... If you kill your brothers and sisters, brothers' children and grandchildren, it will be three years. With the blade and the dead, it flowed for two thousand miles. Manslaughter, anyway. "It can be seen that the punishment for beating brothers and sisters in the Song Dynasty is heavier than beating siblings. This shows that the hierarchy between brothers and sisters in the family is mainly based on "old and young", not entirely on "men and women".
In the Song Dynasty, "Maids" still had certain property inheritance rights. There is a saying in the Criminal Code and Family Marriage Law of the Song Dynasty that "when a brother dies, the son inherits the father's share. When all the brothers died, all the scholars shared equally. People who are not married should not be rich. Those aunts and sisters who are in the room will lose half their wealth. " The status of people is largely determined by the status of property. Women in Song Dynasty had certain property inheritance rights, which, to some extent, reflected that "the wife" had a certain position in the mother furniture.
Second, the position of the woman in her husband's family after marriage.
"Book of Rites. "Marriage Meaning" says: "The person who marries, and his second surname, should be a temple ancestor and a future descendant." Marriage is a matter of two surnames, not a personal matter. After marriage, a woman leaves her father's clan and joins her husband's clan, thus becoming a member of her husband's clan. In the husband's family, women are oppressed by clan forces and husband's power, with low status and no freedom.
1, the falsehood of monogamy
The laws of the Song Dynasty inherited the laws of the Tang Dynasty and took the principle of monogamy as the premise of marriage. It is stipulated that "those who have multiple wives will only serve for one year, and the female family will be reduced by one." If you cheat on your marriage, you will be separated for a year and a half, and your wife will not sit. ""Anyone who marries a wife will be isolated for two years, and my concubine will be reduced to second class. "But classical monogamy is monogamy for women, not for men. Because in the Song Dynasty, not only the concubine system was legal, but also the outer room began to be legalized.
Concubine system is an open male polygamy. At first, the so-called concubine refers to the sister or niece who married the woman. After the Warring States period, with the elimination of this marriage custom, she became a concubine. Concubine is a woman that a man marries outside his wife. There is a saying in the Criminal Code of the Song Dynasty that "concubines are above five categories and concubines are above Shu Ren", which shows that concubines are legal in the Song Dynasty and are set according to men's social status. The criminal system and struggle law of the Song Dynasty stipulated that "whoever beats or hurts his wife is reduced to a mortal, and the deceased is regarded as a mortal. If you hit a concubine and break her wound, your wife will be reduced by two. If a wife kills a concubine, it is the same as a husband killing his wife. Careless killers go their separate ways ","All wives beat their husbands for a year in vain. Those who were severely beaten, those who were injured by fighting, were given third-class injuries, and the deceased was beheaded. Those who have committed crimes by concubines will be given one level each. Those who commit manslaughter will be demoted two levels each. That is, those who marry wives and concubines will be eighty sticks. If a concubine commits a wife, she will be the same as her husband, and if she commits a wife, she will be downgraded to a mortal. Every chop will kill. " These two paragraphs fully explain the legal status of wives and concubines. A wife is superior to her husband and concubine, while a wife is inferior to her husband in legal status. It fully explains the inequality of the status of husband and wife in the family of Song Dynasty.
The outer room was originally called the outer woman. Refers to a man and a woman that Ming media is marrying without the words of a matchmaker. The phenomenon of outer chamber has existed since ancient times, but it was only in the Song Dynasty that it was legalized. The History of Song Dynasty (Volume 328) and Biography of Li Qingchen recorded that once Song Zhezong made a fortune in the palace of Chu, a woman stopped to make a phone call and accused Li Qingchen of rebellion. After investigation, the woman was "a prostitute, the wife of aunt Tian of Qing Dynasty". The reason why this outsider can prevent officials from telling their relatives who are officials must be because of frequent contact with her husband's relatives and conflicts in contact, so she will falsely accuse Li Qingchen. This phenomenon shows that since the Song Dynasty, the outer room has become a legal concubine room for men. This legalization fully shows that women in the Song Dynasty could not interfere in their husbands' private lives and were in a subordinate position to men.
2. One-way divorce system
There are three ways of divorce in Song Dynasty: seven fruits, one skill and harmony. Because at that time, both parties to marriage had no freedom of marriage, and marriage was a "wife" for the man's family. All these forms of divorce were confirmed from the interests of the man's family. But also reflects the one-way nature of men.
(1) "Seven Extinctions"
"Seven out" is the seven conditions stipulated by ancient laws to abandon his wife according to the needs of his husband's family. It was first seen in Da Dai Li that "a woman has seven things: disobeying her parents, being barren, being jealous, getting sick, talking too much, and stealing". The Song Criminal Code stipulates that "those who go out seven times, obey orders, and are barren, are twice, three times, five times, and six times." Although the order and words are slightly different, the basic content is the same.
Why do you take these seven things as reasons for getting married? In the twenty-seventh year of "The Legend of the Ram", He Xiuzhu made a specific explanation: "No children can be abandoned, and there is no one like you; Abandon it, and it will be chaotic; If you don't dislike your aunt, you will be wicked; Give up breathing and leave your loved ones; Stealing and abandoning are antonyms; Abandoned by jealousy is also chaos; Abandon evil diseases and not serve the ancestral hall. " Judging from this explanation, they are all put forward from the perspective of safeguarding the interests of the man's family. Although there is no specific situation prohibiting the abandonment of a wife in the etiquette, there are also provisions on "three don't abandon" in the criminal code of the Song Dynasty. "People who don't go say that once menstruation's funeral is held, the second marriage is cheaper and more expensive, and the third marriage has nothing to return." The law of Song Dynasty concretized "childless wife" as "wife has more than 50 children", but it is unilateral for women. On the contrary, they think that "women are husbands and can't be their own experts". If she runs away from her husband, she will be severely punished. "If the wife and concubine leave for two years, she will be awarded the second class." This shows that women have no status under the power of their husbands.
The content of "Seven Outings" is that, except for one article that was stolen because of the woman's own fault, the other articles are all excuses for the husband's family to exile their daughter-in-law, and their basic purpose is to maintain the marriage purpose of "taking things as the ancestral hall and carrying on the family line". Minister Fu Bi said in Song Renzong: "In this ordinary family, if you become a wife, you must also sue your parents. Parents promised before they dared to come out. " This shows that the love and will of husband and wife in marriage have no status. Although the son and daughter-in-law have a good relationship, their parents don't like her, so the daughter-in-law has to be abandoned. No matter how bad the relationship between son and daughter-in-law, parents like daughter-in-law and are not allowed to divorce for life. Lu You, a poet in the Song Dynasty, and his ex-wife Tang Wan are typical examples. This shows that women in husband's family have heavy clan power besides husband power.
(B) "A unique skill"
"Righteousness" means that any spouse and their relatives do things that violate the righteousness of husband and wife, and the law will force divorce. If the parties do not take the initiative to divorce, they should be investigated for criminal responsibility. Song's Criminal Law, Family Marriage Law and Marrying a Wife stipulate that "① meaning refers to the grandparents and parents who beat their wives and killed their grandparents, uncles and parents; ② If the grandparents, parents, uncles and parents commit suicide, the grandparents and parents will be killed. At first glance, the stipulation of righteousness is two-sided, focusing on maintaining family kinship and consolidating feudal ethics and family order. However, if we look closely at its regulations, we will find that the center of "one must" is still the male family, which is still unequal. Of the five situations of "loyalty", only the second one is that both husband and wife are equal, and the others are unequal. As long as a wife insults or hurts her husband's relatives, it constitutes loyalty; It is the only righteous thing for a husband to beat and kill his wife's relatives. As long as the wife rapes her husband's relatives above hemp, it constitutes a courageous act; The husband wants to rape his mother-in-law. Only the wife wants to hurt her husband constitutes a righteous rule, and there is no reciprocal rule that the husband wants to hurt his wife. Obviously, the sketch of justice lawyer is also one-sided.
(3) "Harmony but Difference"
"Harmony without difference" means that couples have bad feelings and both sides are willing to divorce, which is recognized by law. The criminal law of Song Dynasty stipulates that "husband and wife leave without harmony and don't sit", and there is also the saying that "they don't sit without love". From a legal point of view, husband and wife seem to be in an equal position, but in fact it is not. Because in feudal times, women did not engage in public labor with social significance, had no independent economic income and were attached to their husbands. Moreover, in the collection of cases in the Song Dynasty, Qingming Collection, which has taken legal effect, there is a saying that "a husband has the reason to abandon his wife, and a wife does not abandon her husband", which shows that women's right to divorce is not recognized in law. Coupled with women's attachment to their husbands and the restrictions imposed on their wives by the "seven endings" rule, wives can only succumb to their husbands and try their best to get their pity. How dare they not be in harmony with them? Therefore, the seemingly most equal "harmony without difference" is actually biased towards the husband. The premise of harmonious separation is that the man agrees to divorce, but the man does not have to ask the woman's consent to leave. For example, before Lin Chong was sent to other places in Water Margin, he wrote a divorce certificate for fear that Zhang's youth would be mistaken, but it was still valid without Zhang's consent. Although this is a novel description, it is undoubtedly a reflection of real life.
The second son of Song Wang, named Pei, is a great blessing of Taichang Temple. He had a heart attack and married Ponzi's daughter in the same county. After giving birth to my son in these years, I tried to kill him because of his appearance, but I was scared to death and fought with my wife day after day. Jing knew that his son had lost his heart and thought his wife was innocent. If he wants a divorce, he is afraid of being misunderstood by evil voices. So I married my husband.
It can be seen that divorced women have a bad reputation. Yuan Tan Volume 1: Wang Kan, the son of Prime Minister Gong Shu, is ungrateful. He has a wife who has never taken over his aunt, but he is very poor. He is very relieved to marry her. After remarriage, it was fierce. Once he died, the court worried that he abused his ex-husband's son. He had a purpose and could not be Hou Shi's wife. At that time, there was a saying circulating in the capital: "Wang Taizhu married before his death, and Hou Bingbu divorced his wife after his death. It can be seen that my widowed mother abused the illegitimate child, and even the emperor could not stop it, so I could only divorce my wife on behalf of my husband.
Third, the status of women as mothers in-laws
Women in Song Dynasty had the lowest status when they first became wives. After becoming a mother, especially after having a son, its status began to rise, and when the son grew up and married a woman (in his later years), its status was quite superior.
The "ten evils", evil disobedience and unfilial in the criminal code of the Song Dynasty are all about elders. Evil disobedience refers to beating and killing grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, grandparents, husbands, grandparents and parents, and unfilial refers to cursing grandparents, parents and grandparents' presence. If you lack support, you will lose your parents and marry yourself. Let go if you have fun. "Mother plays an important role in these two things. Widowed mothers, in particular, in the Song Dynasty, if the father who was the head of the family died and the mother survived, my widowed mother became a successor parent. Although there is a saying that "the husband dies and the son succeeds", in fact, the widowed mother has great authority over her children. In the case of only the mother, her descendants can also divide the property or move out. Widowed mothers have the right to manage their own property and limit the separation of their children. Even have the right to marry their own children. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Liu was the "queen mother" in regency, which was a typical representative of "matriarchal system". The story of Lu You and Tang Wan, on the one hand, embodies the freedom as a married woman, but from another angle, it also fully embodies the authority as a mother.
The family status of women in Song Dynasty was based on "orderly aging" and "filial piety". The low status of a fledgling woman lies in the fact that she is at the bottom regardless of gender or seniority, so she is oppressed by clan power and husband power. The superior position of a widowed mother is also because she has lost the bondage of husband's power and is superior in generations. Therefore, the study of women's status in the Song Dynasty can never be simply summarized from "men are superior to women", but should be seen in its complexity.