The Research Of Marriage Contract Problems In Song And Yuan Dynasty

In China, men and women get married is for life. Marriage has important position in life, soour country has always been very strict to etiquette rules and regulations of the marriage. In theprocess of the whole marriage, marriage contracts are necessary documents. Marriage contracts arenot only including marriage books，answer papers in narrow sense but also including divorce books,remarriage papers, uxorilocal papers and other marriage contracts in broad sense. This paperanalyzes and studies marriage contracts in broad sense during Sung and Yuan dynasty.Firstly, marriage contracts, as a marriage certificate, are closely related to the law. From Sungto Yuan dynasty, the restraint of marriage contracts was strengthened by law. Marriage contractscould be used to prove the engagement in Sung dynasty law. But the Sung dynasty law had notenough rules for the format, the content, the legal status and authentic. Yuan government, bycontrast, imposed restrictions on marriage contracts by law: first, engagements had to writemarriage contracts; second, bride-price must be write specified; third, the authentication of marriagecontracts was affirmed from legislation angle. Furthermore, due to uxorilocal marriage wascommon in Yuan society, there were related regulations for uxorilocal marriage in Yuan dynastylaw.Secondly, this paper analyzes marriage contracts from social status quo in Sung and Yuandynasty. First, the commodity economy developed quickly in the Sung dynasty, under the drive ofthe economy, the idea of the whole society changed. Stressing pragmatism became main stream ofthe society. Marriage on fiscal became a distinguishing feature when people got married, so thenumber of dowries was written clearly in marriage contracts. Since the Yuan dynasty founded bynomadic peoples, polygamist phenomenon was not rarely, by contrast, people paid more attention tothe number of bride-price in marriage contracts. Then, due to the influence of pragmatism in theSung dynasty and Mongolian uninhibited personality in Yuan dynasty, special marriage form wascommon in Sung and Yuan dynasties. Therefore, the number of remarriage papers and uxorilocalpapers increased in those two dynasties; finally, divorce books had similarities in Sung and Yuandynasties, such as, the way of divorce in law, the shape and structure of marriage contracts.This paper comparative studies the content and form of marriage contracts in Sung and Yuandynasty, also combining the law and social reality. It is not only can comb the social marriage property and marriage characteristics but also can provide enlightenment when solve the maritalproperty disputes in modern society through those studies.