Study On The Family Provision Manners For The Aged During The Late Qing Dynasty In North China

There are few researches into the problem of the aged during the late Qing dynasty in North China, let alone the systematic research on the family provision manner for the aged. Therefore, the study into this problem not only can add something to research literature but also probe into the true history. In this paper, the author chose four main aspects connected family provision manner for the aged—the number and proportion, family habitation manner, family provision manner and its practice with the historical material such as censes record, the first historical archives of China, annals of local history, pen jottings.In detail, the paper discusses from the following six aspects:The first part is the introduction. The learning history and the deficiencies are briefly introduced, and the true history of living conditions of the aged is our study way.The second part is about the number and proportion of the aged. I use two census records and the census data of the first year of Republic of China (1912) to conclude that the population structure was like a nucleus of a jujube, and the problem of the aged was not obvious, but it did exist at that time.The third part section is about the family habitation manner of the aged. In this part, the family survey, the habitation manner, the family members of the aged are discussed. And through the investigation, we can conclude that the aged mostly lived with then-sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, wives etc. And from the kinship of the family, we can see the relations between the members rather complex.The family provision manners are studied in the forth part. According to the relation between the generations, we can divide the manners into three types: by the same generation, by the next generation, by the next two generations. The second manner is the main, while the last is seldom, which shows that the relation between the generations in the families of the aged not only refers to the relation between the father and son, but also between brothers, spouses, spouses of the sons, and sons of brothers. Moreover, the family provisions for the vestal virgins are reviewed in the charpter.The fifth part is the study on the practice of the provision manner for the aged in the criminal cases. In order to investigate into the true visage, on the one hand, we must notice the inter-generational exchange between the aged and the minors. If the aged...