On The Marriage Autonomy Of The Women Of The Tang Dynasty

Marriage autonomy is an important criterion to measure women’s social andfamily status, and it is able to reflect more directly women’s self-awareness and thedemands of marriage. The women of the Tang Dynasty were affected by freedom ofsome era and upward spirit, so they have shown strong autonomy in the choice ofchoosing husband, divorcing, remarrying and preserving chastity in a variety ofmarriage patterns.Dictates of parents is one of the basic principles of the feudal social marriagewith their parents. The women of the Tang were effort to follow it because of theConfucian patriarchal system and filial piety. Thus, Dictates of parents and its variantwhich is governmental and superior dictates played a considerable role on themarriage of women, and the autonomy of women has been extremely limited onmarriage. Of course, the liberal "parents" in some cases gave autonomous powers forthe marriage of their children, and also it allows women to enjoy the fruits of the TangDynasty’s "enlightened culture".The law of Tang Dynasty more comprehensively referred to many women’sproblems on a variety of marriage patterns of choosing husband, divorce, remarriage,and preserving chastity. In the premise of maintaining the traditional feudal etiquetteand national politics, and from a legal perspective, it granted the women’s maritalautonomy.Economy is an important factor to determine the women’s marital autonomy. InTang Dynasty, the vast majority of women are difficult to compare with men ineconomic life, but because they are more open and free society, they can do their bestto participate in agriculture, handicrafts and commerce and productive labor, andacquired considerable economic benefits, meanwhile, they can have dowry,inheritance, which offered protection of their economic life, thus enjoy a certainautonomy in personal marriageA certain degree of autonomy presented in women in marriage of Tang Dynasty,showed the characteristics of the times of the Tang Dynasty which was relativelycivilized and open. However, the Tang Dynasty, after all, belonged to the traditionalmale-centered society, so not only social consciousness but also the state politics areconsiderable restrictions on women’s marital autonomy. Therefore, the women’sautonomy of marriage in the Tang Dynasty is limited and incomplete.