New Order And Old Customs:the Study On The Lawsuit Of Uxorilocal Marriage In Longquan County In The Republic Of China

Since Qing Dynasty, the Uxorilocal marriage has been prevalent in Longquan district. As time went by, the Uxorilocal marriage gradually become the customs which had the conventional uxorilocal program. Because the specificity of this kind of marriage which was so different from the mainstream marriage, the law of Qing Dynasty had formulated more detailed provisions on it. These provisions regulated the life of citizens with the customs. However, the promulgation of new laws and the reform of Judicial system in the period of late Ching and early Republic had an significant effect on the social order controlled by the traditional laws of Qing Dynasty. In 1930, the enactment of the new Civil Law brought the dual challenge of ideas and practices to the public and the local judiciary. In this case, the numbers of Unxrilocal marriage was growing rapidly, and the working pressure of the judiciary also gradually increased. The public and the judiciary had to respond to this new change. This reaction presented in different ways between different subjects of litigation and trial subjects, because of different identities, social classes, interests and learnings.Drawing on the multilateral archival sources for example Judicial archives, legal instruments, genealogy books, oral history and newspapers, this paper, through the case of the Uxorilocal marriage litigation in Longquan Distirct, tries to analysis various influences caused by the rapid change of Civil Law in the period of late Ching and early Republic. The dissertation will focus on the reply and utilization to the new Civil Law of the public, clan and the local judiciary. Finally, the paper will discuss the socialization of Civil Law. Generally speaking, the dissertation insists that the formulation of Civil Law must lie on the realistic needs, the items and practices of Civil Law must be able to effectively resolve civil disputes and then we can acknowledge that this Civil Law is reasonable and applies. If the civil law does not fit with the needs of society, it is easy to create a dispute between new order and old customs. The conflict between the new order and the old customs can be worn off after a long run-in within law and society. But history has not given enough time, the ROC has declared the end.