CHAPTER IV MARRIAGE AND THE STATUS OF WOMAN But happy they! The happiest of their kind! Their hearts, their fortunes and their beings blend. Thomson. The woman followed the man. In youth she obeyed her father and brother. Married, she obeyed her husband, and, after the death of her husband, she obeyed her son. Li Ki, xi:38. The family being the social unit in China, marriage as the foundation of the family has always from the most ancient times been treated by the Chinese with all the seriousness which its importance demands. The marriage state for them has always been one to be entered into only with due formality and with the observance of religious rites. RELIGIOUS SANCTION In the Li Ki, which is the Chinese Leviticus, dating in its present form from the second century A.D. but containing a record of ceremonies observed from before the time of Confucius, we are told that "the marriage ceremony is the root of all ceremony." In antiquity, it is said, the proposal of marriage was received by the young woman's father in the ancestral temple. The spirits of his ancestors were witnesses of the solemn betrothal. "As for the marriage rite," says the Hun I, "it secured the affectionate union of two families. Looking back, it sought to keep up the worship of ancestors; looking forward, it aimed to continue the line of descendants." 1 Li Ki, Book xliv, Hun J or "Meaning of Marriage." 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. To-day some of the young people of China, under the impression that what is old is useless, are rejecting the ceremonies of their fathers and trying to make marriage a purely legal relation. But this is perhaps merely a passing phase in the modernization or Westernization of the country. The masses of the people still adhere to the traditions of their ancestors and to the ceremonies of Confucianism. Betrothal and marriage for most Chinese are not only matters of formal contract duly witnessed, as they have always been, but solemn ceremonies to which Heaven and Earth and the spirits of ancestors are called to bear witness. Marriage, indeed, is represented as foreshadowed by the "Union of Heaven and Earth," which "has given birth to the myriad creatures of the world." MONOGAMY AND CONCUBINAGE Marriage is not compulsory in China as men have sometimes tried to make it in other lands, but celibacy is frowned upon, just as it was in the Mosaic legislation." Old maids are rarely seen and, if a young man is unmarried it is usually due to poverty. Monogamy is the rule, but bigamy has been legalized in the past under certain circumstances, and concubinage is tolerated. Even polyandry is known in at least two regions. Generally speaking, in China a man has but one wife, but he may have many concubines, as many as he cares to support. Even the revised Penal Code does not forbid concubinage. But, while the practice is still tolerated, it is falling more and more under the ban of public opinion. Under the Empire the Emperor had one wife, the Empress, but he usually had also a secondary consort, four ladies of the third rank, and many of lower grades. The 4 Li Ki, Vol. V. Book XI, Chiao T'e Sheng, or Sacrifies at Suburban Altars. 5 A quaint discussion of this is given in an old work, "The Antiquities of the Hebrew Republick," by Tho. Lewis, M.A. LONDON. Printed for Sam. Illidge under Serle's Gate, Lincoln's Inn, New Square; and John Hooke, at the Flower-de-Luce, over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet St. Emperor Kuanghsü, who died in 1908, had one wife, the Empress Lungyü, who died in 1913. But he had also two concubines two sisters-daughters of a Grand Secretary and women of considerable education, who exerted great influence over the young Emperor and sympathized with his liberal views and his plans for a reform of the government. The body of one was found in a well in one of the palace court-yards after the flight of the Court in 1900. She was said to have been drowned by order of the Empress Dowager. The sister, who was a pleasant little lady, was seen at all the Court entertainments to which, after the settlement of the Boxer troubles, the ladies of the diplomatic corps were invited. The Great Empress Dowager, who conducted the Government at the time of the Boxer rising, entered the palace at first as a concubine, but after the birth of her son, the only son of the Emperor Hsienfeng, she was raised to the rank of "Western Empress," that is to say Secondary Consort. The principal wife occupied the Eastern Palace, the east in court etiquette being the side of honor. In practice, except among the nobility and the rich, concubinage is not common. If practiced by the ordinary man it is usually because his wife is childless, and because children are needed to keep up the worship of ancestors. It sometimes happens that a childless wife will herself provide her husband with a concubine, just as, our own Bible tells us, was done by Sarah in order to provide her husband, Abraham, with a son. The concubine in China has a legal status and is, therefore, duly protected. Her children are all reckoned as the children of the principal wife. The principal wife they call "mother," and not the woman who gave them birth. The latter takes an inferior place in the household as the servant of the wife. The concubine is usually selected, however, by the husband himself. Formerly, while slavery was tolerated, she was frequently chosen from a lot of slave girls educated by their masters for this purpose. They were taught to read and write, to play upon some musical instrument, and gen erally to make themselves attractive in appearance and manners. Every evening in the Foochow Road, Shanghai, one could see these girls carried in their sedan chairs, or sometimes upon the shoulders of a servant, going from one tea house to another to sing and play and to chat with the young men gathered in these places. If a man wanted to entertain his friends at dinner under the old régime, he did not invite them to meet his wife and daughters. They were kept secluded. He would give a dinner at a restaurant and provide for each guest a young girl, engaged from one of these slave masters, to chat with him or to play the lute and sing. They were not prostitutes and had to be treated with respect. It was only with such young women that a young man in the old days could get acquainted. Young ladies of good family were kept secluded except among the very poor. A young man's wife was chosen for him by his parents to please themselves. His concubine he chose himself to please himself. A very just requirement of the law is that a man who seduces a girl and begets a child out of wedlock, must marry her if he be unmarried, and if he be married must make her his concubine. The child in any case is his legitimate child. Concubinage, of course, makes for disorder in the household. It is degrading to the unfortunate women whom it condemns to lives of drudgery, and it is a fruitful source of jealousy and strife. It is not always so, however, among the very wealthy. I recall the instance of a Chinese official some years ago at Shanghai, who provided a beautiful home for his wife in the foreign settlement, but had at his official residence a brilliant woman as his concubine, who was also his secretary and kept his accounts. She was a woman of middle age. In addition he had two younger women also as concubines, one of whom was mother to the only child on the premises. The secretary managed the official home and was waited upon by the younger women as though she were their mother, while all three were mothers to the baby, who was being petted and spoiled. Such exceptions, however, attract attention because they are in striking contrast with the rule. The system to-day is recognized as evil by the most enlightened opinion in China, and is one that is being abandoned. Not only do the children of concubines call the principal wife the mother, they must wear full mourning for her when she dies, that is for three years (by custom reduced to 27 months) if they are sons or unmarried daughters. They are not permitted to wear such mourning for their natural mother. All children, whether of wife or concubine, stand upon an equality as regards inheritance. If the wife, however, should have a son, he will become the head of the household after his father's death, even though he may have an older brother who is the son of a concubine. LAWFUL BIGAMY I have said that under certain circumstances bigamy is legalized. The circumstances are those which require a man to keep up a double sacra. The present boy Emperor, Hsüant 'ung, who, although he has no empire is still permitted to retain his title, was the adopted son of the late Emperor Kuanghsü, but also made adopted son and heir of the former Emperor T'ungchih, cousin of Kuanghsü. T'ungchih died childless. It becomes necessary, therefore, for this heir to provide two lines of descendants, one for T'ungchih, the other for Kuanghsü. Hence, it was agreed that when he should reach marriageable age he should take two wives and maintain two households of equal rank. He was married in December, 1922, but, in so far as reported, he has taken but one wife. POLYANDRY Polyandry is practiced in Tibet and in two districts of Fukien Province. In both regions the custom is due to poverty. A woman becomes the wife of all the brothers |