Study Of The Infringement Between Spouses In Qing Dynasty:

The spouses relationship is an important part of family relationships in Qing Dynasty. The infringement between spouses is a family problem that can not be ignored under the influence of a complex society. Unfortunately, however, only a few scholars among those who have had voluminous research results about traditional marriage and family began to concern about this issue. Many scholars refer to it always as"take the husband as noble, his wife as humble"in a nutshell. The current research does not provide us with a concrete and integrated image of the infringement between spouses in Qing Dynasty, even there is no study to verify the impact of The Qing Code on this issue. Therefore, I will have considerable space to study it.In this dissertation, I have systematically collated and analyzed the Collection of Criminal Cases, New Collection of Criminal Defense and some materials of Qing Dynasty served in the No.1 Historical Archives through the legal empirical analysis method as a research idea. Based on those research and analysis, I proposed the concept of"the infringement between spouse"in Qing Dynasty, quantified the spouse relationship, infringement approach and the response to social various aspects, outlined to restore the original appearance of"the infringement between spouses"of Qing Dynasty, and understood the historical background, family and social environment impact on it . This dissertation attempts to discover and demonstrate the intention of"punish severely the adultery crime"and the characteristics of"take the husband as noble, his wife as humble"of Qing Code have some impacts on"the infringement between spouses".For above object, this dissertation sets out as following five chapters in addition to the Introduction and the Conclusion: In Chapterâ… , I discuss Qing Dynasty's spouse relationship and through the description of the relationship background , the concept of"the infringement between spouses"is proposed in such situations. In Qing Dynasty,"Li"became the orthodox doctrine enshrined in the country. The Qing Code showing the primacy of the husband right and chastity made the spouse relationship regarded as noble and humble. More specifically, the husband's rights include: property rights; disciplinary rights; abandonment rights; selling rights; even killing rights. The obligations of his wife include: chastity obligations, cohabitation, and shielded obligations, the obligation not to remarry, the obligation to support parents-in-laws,etc. Through horizontal comparison, The Qing Code's provisions do not take into account the interdependence of spouse in fact; its extremely uneven provisions of rights and obligations will lead to frequent occurrence of"the infringement between spouses"cases. Based on the analysis of husband-wife relationship in Qing Dynasty, the following study will further the research of"the infringement between spouses"and its legal analysis.In Chapterâ…¡, I discuss some behavior that the husband infringed his wife in Qing Dynasty. This chapter systematically combs the comprehensive social situations, and analyzed the reasons why husband violated his wife and the relevant manners, which are all based on the wife's reactions and responses from all sectors of society, and the penalties that Qing Code provided. In order to achieve the integration of law and reason, the Qing Code expressly punished the husband who was guilty of violating his wife for their manners such as: selling the wife randomly, pawning his wife, forced his wife into prostitution, bigamy, as well as the random killing of his wife, and so on. Such punishment relatively protected status and chastity of his wife, but these penalties to the husband are extremely limited. When the husband violated his wife, the wife will have a variety of reactions, such as: obedience to enduring humiliation, active resistance or violence for violence, and even suicide. Whatever it was, the wife would pay a tragic price. All sectors of society will also have different reactions to the husband's violence towards his wife, the reaction of the husband side mainly resolved the disputes by the method of mitigation, and only when some serious violence happened, will the husband side be offered to stop such violence.In Chapterâ…¢, I discuss the illegal behavior when the wife infringed her husband's rights in Qing Dynasty. This chapter has fully demonstrated how and why the wife infringed her husband, summarized the response from the husband, the adulterer and other sectors of society. The spouse relationship is a complex relationship, which is subject to many factors, such as human nature, ethics, morality, public opinions and habits, and thus reflects the complexity and diversity of features. For the ordinary family in Qing Dynasty, the wifes were regarded as playing an increasingly important role in the family, which gradually undermined the traditionally stereotyped ideas"husband authority, the first", and the law's authority was deteriorating, so the cases that the wife infringed her husband were in an blooming trend. In the criminal division files, the wife infringed her husband in different ways: to flee, to do the adultery, to force her husband to suicide, to sue her husband, to kill her husband and so on. In general, the causes include: pressure from the life, coercion from others, his wife's aggression and so on, of which the most common one is adultery and abuse by her husband in advance. In accordance with the degree ranged from weak to strong, I would like to divide the responses of all sectors of society into six levels: private agreement, suicide, connivance, complaints, extortion, murder and so on. Through these analysis, I found some problems listing as follows. Firstly, in order to maintain supreme authority, The Qing Code strictly confines the rights to dealing with adultery; secondly, the particular emphasis on chastity ideas in Qing Dynasty leads to the facts that various social subjects have committed suicide; thirdly, as a result of subjects of interest to the connivance of adultery expectations, coupled with"objective helpless"of adulterer and adulteress, the Qing Code can not control condoned behavior; last but not least,The Qing Code provisions about arresting and killing the adultery not only led to extort money and sex crimes, but also have resulted in a large number of murder cases.In Chapterâ…£, I discuss the legal applicability to"the infringement between spouses". This chapter first examines if there are express statutes, The Qing Code actually operated in practice and its actual opearation made a difference to the society. when the Qing Code was expressly provided, the judge hearing the case will strictly implement the laws in practice. So judges comply with the principles of applying to The Code as the base, decrees as supplemented, and in some cases, decrees have the priority. This shows that the Qing Code has been standardized in"the infringement between spouses"cases. when the Qing Code wasn't expressly provided, the judge hearing the like cases will either directly adopt other laws and decrees, or refer to other laws and decrees by mutatis mutandis, or assistance according to an old case, it mostly reflects the reasonable and ethical importance.In Chapterâ…¤, I discuss the legal analysis to"the infringement between spouses". This chapter applies the social gender analysis method to analyze why The Qing Code could not contain"the infringement between spouses", and then come to the conclusion that the cause roots in the characteristics of"take the husband as the noble, his wife as humble"of The Qing Code. I try to point out the"male bias"hidden in The Qing Code and then explore the impact of spouses behavior, as well as the legal reasons for leading to"the infringement between spouses". The Qing rulers had supreme chastity requirements with zero tolerance for adultery. Therefore, The Qing Code achieved the purpose of the severe penalties for adultery by encouraging the arrest and kill of adulterer and adulteress act, but it led to a large number of other murder cases.