The Litigation Of Right To Inherit Property In The Ming Dynasty And Its Juridical Practice From "Mengshuizhai-cundu"

This article introduces the general legal processes of inherited property in late Ming Dynasty, based on the case analysis of "Mengshuizhai-cundu" (《盟水斋存牍》). "Mengshuizhai-cundu" is written by Junyan Yan, who is the judge officer of Guangzhou province in Chongzhen in late Ming Dynasty. He sorted out the records and documents of cases he had processed when he was holding the position. He classified these data to establish an official book before he was leaving the position.The book is divided by two parts and 23 chapters. There are 1448 cases and more than 600,000 characters. Except two volumes in "Gong Yi"(公移), which includes 123 cases of proposal for revolutions, almost other cases referes to "Yan Lue"(谳略), "Fan An"(翻案), "Jin Shen"(矜审), "Kan He"(勘合) and so on, which are the records of judgments of the lawsuit? The content includes criminal, civil, administrative and litigant laws, refers to the commercial environment, property regulation, family issues and agnation. It is very important research data for studying legal system of Guangzhou area in the late Ming Dynasty. "Mengshuizhai-cundu" records the practice of the legal judgment and the local regulation, and its jurisdiction reflects the legal situation in local law history.This article includes seven parts. The first one is the Introduction of "Mengshuizhai-cundu". It also presents the value and the research history of the book.The second part introduces the origin and history of property inheriting. Based on cases and rules in "Daming Law" (《大明律》), it analyses the regulation for property inheriting. The Part 3 to Part 6 analyzes the individual cases and processes the judgments from the government in Guangdong area.The Part 3 analyzes the inheriting cases refers to the family with 2 or more than 2 sons. According to laws, sons should inherit the same amount of property despite of different mother with the same father. However, it was hard to practice without any bias. In traditional Chinese culture, the first son born of the first legal wife would get priority than other sons. Sons born of other concubines in the same family were discriminated. The property distribution would be effected for even 3 generations because of this discrimination. In Ming's other regulation, inheriting process was also allowed for bastard sons as the results of rapes.The forth part analyzes how family without sons processes the inheritance. This is also an important part of the article. Adopting an heir is a particular system in Chinese traditional inheriting system. Chinese family had got ancestor worship. All sons were required to offer sacrifice to the ancestors annually. Females were not allowed to do so. Therefore, it was necessary for the family without sons to adopt an heir to continue the inheriting system. However, property inheriting caused conflicts and lawsuits. Choosing an heir was based on the principle of peers, consanguinities and orders of age. Different surname people were not allowed to get involved this issue. Widows had the relative rights to choosing an heir of the family. In most cases of "Mengshuizhai-cundu", the heirs were chosen because of the widows' preference. After being chosen as an heir, the son got responsibility with the most inheriting rights. However, there were a lot of other family members in the father side such as daughters, sons-in-law, semes, and they would contest for the benefits. This part of article analyzes the conflicts of the family members because of the heir rights, the principles of choosing an heir and the heir's responsibilities.The fifth part introduces the women's inheriting rights. Females had no rights of offering sacrifice to ancestors, but inheriting rights. Before marriage, most property reward is dowry. After marriage, widows had rights to manage properties and choose the heir. However, these rights came with the relative responsibilities.The sixth part introduces the willing. The willing was based on the preference of the father to a specific son. The father could leave more property to the son he preferred than other family members. But there were limitation of willing so it couldn't be precisely operated.The seventh part is the conclusion of the inheriting system analysis in Ming Dynasty. This article briefly describes the legal environment of resident inheriting process.