First Trying To Discuss The Widow's Civil Rights Of Qing Dynasty

This paper studies the civil rights of widow under the condition of Chinese society that from people of Man nationality crossed the border to the first Opium War. In the part of introduction, it introduces the source of the theme, which is in the background of Qing dynasty governed by Man nationality, the widow's identity rights and property rights were the unity of universality and uniqueness, and the relevant study in the academic circle is insufficient, at the same time, this paper has made a brief summary of academic achievements until now. After that, an important concept is defined, which is the civil rights. Then the body of this paper is coming, this paper tries to analyze the widow's identity and property rights in the linguistic context of Qing Dynasty when they were during the widowhood and facing remarriage, as well as their civil rights in the civil process. National laws, policies and folk practice inevitably suffered the conflict and integration in adjusting widow's civil rights of legal system of Qing Dynasty, under the influence of all kinds of factors, it's not difficult to reveal that they were still the people who were more humble. However, when the social life was becoming more and more colorful, widow's role was not just the word"humble"to cover. Although their status was petty and low, to some extent they could enjoy some kinds of civil rights. In the end of this paper, a brief evaluation of widow's civil rights is made. The researching materials of this paper are from the background of Qing Dynasty, including law made by the country, folk habits, social customs, family rules and so on which were formed spontaneously in the society. A number of cases, notes, and anthologies of the people who lived in Qing Dynasty are used as a empirical support in the paper when necessary. Through the analysis of a large number of cases, the widow's civil rights inside and outside the family are reflected vividly, as well as the procedural rights the widow had on behalf of the family. It also reflects the consistency and the opposition between the national law and folk customs, ideal and reality. The paper has adopted the legal sociology method and the way of linguistic context, trying to explain the civil rights which the widow enjoyed truly and rationally. When looking back on the history, widow's fate can provide some inspirations for today.