Tang And Song Female Property Inheritance System Exploration Research

How to safeguard the women's legitimate rights and interests in relation to succession of property and improve their overall status, is an important social problem we are facing at the present stage of constructing a harmonious society. This article tries to analyze the legal status of the female under the traditional property inheritance system of Tang and Song time and seeks the profound root forming this status, in order to obtain some enlightenment from it and to provide certain reference for maintaining and improving women's property inheritance status and even their entire social position.This article focuses on the central topic of the female property inheritance system of Tang Song time and conducts some research on it. It is altogether divided into four major parts and with 40,000 characters in total.The first part narrates in detail the legal rules on the female property inheritance system of Tang dynasty. First, As to the issue of daughter inheriting the property of the relatives with the same surname, the unmarried daughter may, according to the legal rules, to obtain half of unmarried brothers' betrothal property as her trousseau and in the circumstance where the family has no male inheritor such as the son and grandson, the daughter may completely succeed to the parents' inheritance. The married daughter can inherit her parents' property on the conditions that the family dose not have a son, all the daughters have been married and, moreover, they have to be filial and perform all the obligations before and after their parents' death. For the married daughter who however returns to the birth family, the succession of property for her is similar to that for the unmarried daughter.Second,The wife has certain right of inheritance to succeed the husband's household property. The laws of Tang dynasty stipulated that, where the husband died and there is no son left the wife may obtain the right of inheritance over the family property and, meanwhile, the wife has certain exclusive rights to the belongings and property which were brought from the maternal home. Third,The female right of inheritance over the property of the merchant of Tang Song time. The succession to the property of the merchant of Tang Song time is different from the general property inheritance. Based on its particularity, it shall be listed as a single question and be explained specially.Fourth,In the testamentary inheritance, the female also has the right of inheritance over property. In the Tang Dynasty, the law already had provided the possibility for advance allocation of the family property and the testamentary inheritance. If the will confirms that the daughter in the family as the successor to the inheritance, then the daughter has the priority to succeed the inheritance. When the women accept the property obtained in accordance with testamentary inheritance, the succeeded share of inheritance and the quality of property are influenced by ancestor's subjective tendency.The second part discusses the adoption of and variance to Tang dynasty by Song dynasty on the field of the female property inheritance system and contains four aspects as follows: First, the system of inheritance by the daughter achieved further development and was approaching perfection. It reserved sufficient rights of inheritance for unmarried daughter. Where the family has sons, the daughter also may allocate and succeed the family's property with brothers. Unmarried daughter may inherit the whole of or most part of the property of the family which has no son and grandson as inheritor and she also may obtain the right to succeed part of property by drawing the portion of property reserved as her trousseau. The right of inheritance for the married daughter who returns to the birth family was limited and under the conditions that her maternal family has no son and grandson as inheritor she can acquire some property, the amount of which is equivalent to half of the property inherited by unmarried daughter. The married daughter is provided with the least right of inheritance. If there is only the married daughter available to inherit, then the married daughter only could obtain one third of the total amount of the inheritance, and the other remaining amount of the inheritance would be confiscated by government. Second, the right of inheritance for wife and concubine was stipulated more concretely and specifically. Third, issues of the female's the property right on her trousseau. By virtue of the essential role of trousseau in society and family and its complication, it is listed as a single section to be explained and it is divided into two aspect: the female's right over the trousseau and the disputes arising out of the trousseau. Fourth, the case analysis on the female testamentary inheritance in "Ming Gong Shu Pan Qing Ming Ji". In this section, through the analysis on a case-by-case basis on "Qing Ming Ji", it is evidenced that where the family has no son and grandson as inheritor the female can also participate in testamentary inheritance and that where the wife is alive the husband can make a testament to give the property to his young sister and daughter as well. In ancient China, the institution of the joint ownership over family property was executed, which determines that when the Tang dynasty and Song dynasty were protecting the freedom of testament, in the meanwhile, the limitation to it was also committed.The third part elucidates the roots forming the female property inheritance system of Tang and Song time. In the traditional inheritance, though there is contradiction between men's monopoly inheritance and the female's participation in the property inheritance, the female's property inheritance was also the result synthetically affected by a variety of factors. First, social reason: Influenced by succession to the real origin of a house and the family standard theory, in ancient times, the property inheritance system was primarily established for the ancestor's masculine descendant and the female's status under this system was relatively low. And the Tang and Song time is not an exceptional case. Second, status reason: As for the aspect of personal relationship, the Tang and Song women's personal rights cannot be protected effectively. "The husband is the sky of the wife" explains the attachment relations of the wife to the husband. In the aspect of the property of husband and wife, the wife and the husband are deemed as the relation of one entity altogether. Revolving the husband's household family property, there is no such a portion of property holden by the wife. The female growing up and living under this kind of personal relationship are difficult to bear some independent idea of female self hood, nor can they engage in social practice with a status of the female. Third, economic reason: The synchronism of the changes between the women's status of property inheritance in the family and women's economic status. In the entire ancient times, women had no sufficient economic rights, no independent source of income and were totally not independent of men in the field of economy. Therefore, it is not hard to understand that the country would strictly restrict women's right of inheritance on basis of the consideration of economic status. However, the female's right of inheritance was recognized by the law and had certain expansion accordingly in Tang and Song time, which have close relation with women's increasing functions in production field in that time. Forth, political reason: Depriving of the female's fundamental political rights and restricting the female to participate in political issues are the universal rules in social political life since beginning of the ancient class society. This makes the female loss the conditions on which they can change the female's economic status through the conduct of participating in political issues. Nonetheless, the women in Tang and Song time would not like to be destined to be chained and, instead, they strived for some power to participate in political issues for themselves as possible as they could. Fifth, ideaistic reason: the feudal female under the restriction of Confucianism thought absolutely cannot have the right to control their own lives. Under the joint function of ethics, female rules, the patriarchal clan system and the imperial authority, the women not only voluntarily recognized their disadvantage position in succession of property, but also did they loss the idea and ability to fight. But the female in Tang and Song Time in limited social environment had in maximum limit realized their self-value.The fourth part is the reconsideration on the female's inheritance system of Tang and Song time. Under the idea of the harmonious society, to safeguard the female's property rights and interests and to improve the rule of law the points below are inevitably required to achieve: First,actively participating in the production practice and realizing women's the independence of economic status.Second,establishing new family property institution and actualizing the female's equal right of inheritance.Third, confirming the idea of equality of men and women and setting up women's idea of being social main body.Fourth, criticizing and succeeding the traditional female culture.