The Marriage System Evolution Research Of The Spring And Autumn Period

Marriage is a quite common and important phenomenon in human social life. It is the main way for reproducing and is the foundation for human existence. For a family, marriage is the way to inherit from the old and develop offspring. For a country, marriage is of great importance as to the inheritance of regime and the stability of social order. Therefore, every country in the word attach great importance to marriage, and focus on adjusting and standardizing problems in marriage by ways of legal system. Institutionalizing and standardizing marriage by legal system makes marriage serve the country better in political, military and other aspects. In spring and autumn period, which is also a special period in history, the country attached great importance to marriage. This essay analyzed the legal system of marriage in Spring and Autumn from three aspects as follows.In first Part, I illustrated the legal system of marriage in spring and autumn is derived from that in the Western Zhou dynasty and the reasons for that. The part includes the principles for marriage, like monogamy, parent’s arrangement, matchmaker’s words, no marriage among people of the same family name; the procedures of marriage is "six rituals" inherited from the Western Zhou Dynasty. propose a marriage to bride side by groom’s side; ask bride’s name and birth date; the groom’s side informs bride’s side of their decision of marriage; betrothal gifts; choosing a date of marriage, go to bride’s home to escort her to the wedding; the termination of matrimony---"seven situations"; in three conditions, termination of matrimony is prohibited. In analyzing the reasons of the derivation of the system from the Western Zhou dynasty, I think the reason is from one aspect, the authority of Western Zhou’s power still exists, from the other aspects, the system in Western Zhou dynasty is stable.The second part discusses the remains of the original legal system of marriage in spring and autumn period and the reasons for that. The main content is about marriage of the same surname、 "zheng" marriage、"bao" marriage、"ying" marriage、totem clan outside marriage. We think the reasons for remains of legal system of marriage in spring and Autumn Period is because of the influence of political power.The third part briefly summarizes the characteristics of legal system of marriage in the spring and autumn period, the author thinks that the spring and autumn period characteristics of marriage legal system includes four aspects, respectively is rank, politics and inequality, and pay attention to obligations, ignore the rights.From what has been discussed above, the author thinks that, during the spring and autumn period, the legal system of marriage, on the one hand, derives from that of the western Zhou dynasty, on the other hand there are remains of primeval marriage system, such as marriage, marriage of the same surname、"zheng" marriage、"bao " marriage in this period characteristics of marriage legal system is is rank, politics and inequality, and pay attention to obligations, ignore the rights.