The Preliminary Study Of The Customary Law Marriage And Family Of The Shui Minority

In the thousands of years’ Chinese legal system development, the statute law promulgated by the country constitutes the mainstream of Chinese legal system. However, China is a multinational country and each of nations adopts the living mode of "one nationality living compactly in a small community but mixed in a large area". Generally speaking, the ancient social minority lived in remote areas with comparatively closed living environment. During the process of their self-management, the evolved customary law has become the organic part of the minority cultural heritage, which has also constructed one of the inevitable parts in the Chinese legal system. The minority customary law of marriage and family is not only the traditional essence to investigate Chinese customary law and also the treasury for the investigation on the historical development of Chinese legal system, which plays an irreplaceable role on history, sociology, anthropology and the science of law. Till now, during the fusion process with the Han nationality, many minorities have gone through Chinesization with various extents that their original cultural essence has been integrated with the living habits of the Han nationality. Therefore, in order to find out the minority customary law of marriage and family and keep their original nationality, this essay puts the investigation focus of the minority customary law of marriage and family on the Shui nationality in the Sandu County in the south of Guizhou province. Shui nationality is full of miracle and distinction. Since the ancestors of Shui nationality were living in the high mountains and lofty hills of Guizhou province, many original national customary law are kept for the less communication with the outside environment along the history, nowadays which displays a broad demonstration of the distinctive national customary law marriage and family specified in Shui nationality for us and become the treasury of the investigation on the minority customary law of marriage and family. Due to the limited theory foundation of the author and the fact that although the Chinesizing extents of the Shui nationality is not high enough, with the development of times, some of the distinctive culture of Shui nationality may be neglected by the people, which leads to the defect of the material collection. Based on the material collection, the author generally divides the essay into three sections: the first section introduces the general overview on Shui nationality in Sandu to display the basic conditions of the current customarylaw marriage and family of Shui nationality and form the basic apprehension. The second section mainly introduces the main contents of the current Shui nationality by some distinctive customary laws marriage and family of Shui nationality like “Yee Lang system” and “Girl’s Land” to display the overall perspective on the customary law of Shui nationality. Finally, with the combination of the current rural social governance, the integration of the customary law in the minority and the villager’s autonomy organization et al are displayed to look for the advantages and disadvantages of the customary law marriage and family of the minority.