Researching On The Separation System And The Inheritance System Of Aoyao

Separation system is regular which is based on the family property, and stipulates how to distribute the property. It has been spreaded for two thousand years. Today, it still be used in rural society, and root in the traditional culture system. Inheritance system is a regulation which stipulates how to inherit the property of the deceased. It was transplantated in western laws. Since inheritance law was enacted, separation system has left the stage of law and faded out people’s vision. However, state law can’t ajust the whole of society. Where state law can’t work, people believe in the power of habit, and stipulate the daily life through the local habit regulation. In AoYao area, people maintain the society and family harmony with Shi pai system. And they distribute the property with separation system. This article elaborated the two systems and compared similarities and differences of them. In a sense, it regarded separation system as a habit law, which showed the two has constituted the relation schema between habit law and the state law. It deeply discussed the value of separation system and inheritance system from the view of Legal Anthropology, and search the balance between the two to make them exist together.