Evaluation On Women Property Rights During Tang And Song Dynasties

Tang and song dynasties are the periods of economic and political developmentin our country and also are the change periods. During Tang and Song dynastieswomen’s social status has risen. From Tang to Southern Song period, with the risingsocial and economic status, women’s property rights are also gradually improved inthe aspect of law. Although with its gradual growth, their rights are obviously stilllower than the property right that men had.During Tang and Song dynasties, the property rights of women were dividedinto the property rights of unmarried indoor woman and of married women. Theproperty right of unmarried indoor women, which means unmarried women, wasmainly the maritagium from their families. The married women had the propertyright from their own families and also from the married families as wife.This thesis is focused on the property rights of unmarried indoor woman andmarried woman during Tang and Song period, referring to the female property rightsprovided by laws and regulations, as well as the change in Southern Song dynasty.This paper consists of three major parts, introduction, body and conclusion.Among them, the body includes the following two parts:The first section provides an overview of property rights of female and forunmarried indoor women. There are mainly maritagium and property rights forunmarried indoor women in case of no offspring in the family during Tang and SongDynasties. And the changes in women property rights of the Southern SongDynasty.The second part describes the property rights of married women which ismainly divided into two parts, the property right from their own families and alsofrom the married families as wife or concubine.This article, through the above research, found that：Compared with the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty, during theSouthern Song Dynasty, female rights of inheritance had improved a lot.But duringSouthern Song dynasty, whose rules are content to exercise sovereignty in they own land, women’s property right, along with the improvement of their social andeconomic status, went through great changes, especially their property rightexpansion. Married women could have free control over their dowries and eveninherit his husbands’ property, if they didn’t remarry after their husbands’ deaths.