| The research about the legal status of female related, is one of the traditionallycontents of legal history research. The family is the basic and most important elementssociety, so put the research in marriage and family can reflect its meaning and valuebestly. In traditional feudal society, the legal status of women always lower than men ’s.And the status showed different characteristics in the different dynasties. During themarriage and family history of ancient China, the Song Dynasty is a representative ofthe transitional period, with its own distinct characteristics. Along with the commodityeconomy occupied the dominant position in the society, and female self-consciousnessgradually awakening, women got rights and had the subject qualification in law. At thesame time, science at this time rose quietly and affected all aspects of women life. Thisarticle discusses the legal status of Song Dynasty’s female in marriage and family fromthe three major roles(daughter，wife and mother) they play in marriage and family.This paper can be divided into five parts:The first part introduce the life of Song Dynasty’s female from the political,economic, cultural and legal point of view. Song Dynasty had lagerest number ofmothers who master affairs of state. With the development of commodity economy, thewomen began to participate in economic life. They accepted education, the work brokethe traditional feminine theme.The second part elaborated the legal status of women at home as a daughter.Thatthe women accepted the traditional education, but the right to education mentioned. TheSong Dynasty established the female’s inheritance in the law.The third part discusses the wife’s legal status. The womnn had certain autonomyin marriage, divorce, remarry,, but still subject to the control of feudal etiquette system.On their inheritance rights, they can inherited parents’ and her husband’s propertyconditionality. In the marital relationship, all laws are displayed husband respect hiswife Peel.The fourth part discusses mothers’ legal status. Under the feudal ethical codesethical influence, the mother, especially widowed mother, has highest position in theirlives. They had a certain elder rights and property rights. Finally concluded, different from the world’s thinking, female also had rights. TheSong Dynasty’s law gave female many rights. What’s more, female was in constantagainst feudal moral in real life and their rights is still be hindered. |
