A Study On Women's Marriage Values In Jiangzhe Region During The Period Of Late Qing And Early Republic Of China

At the end of Qing Dynasty, Chinese society was a drastic changing period with changes of women's marriage values arising from the social changes. Furthermore, with the reconstructions of socio-political and economic status, Jiangzhe region was in the forefront of social changes. For there existed the combination of various factors such as the main female consciousness awakening and women's newspaper and Western culture's influence, female marriage values of this area had undergone a series of changes. These changes cover autonomy for marriage, postponement of first marriage age, and the choice of being single, divorce and remarriage for pursuit of marriage freedom. Corresponding to this, female marriage material values have also changed, for instance, both wedding ceremony and wedding dress have also undergone significant changes. This article is based on chorographys of Jiangzhe region, supplemented by female notes novels, miscellanies and other material. From the visual angle of gender analysis and by the use of sociology, history and other disciplines, the theory which is about the birth, development, evolution of Jiangzhe region's female marriage values and the dynamics of social development and mutual relations is based on the objective and accurate studys of different levels of female marital attitudes and behaviors.This article is divided into three major parts.Part one is the exordium. First, a profound understanding of the predecessors' study on the subject is given for further study. Second, several related concepts, such as "the period of late Qing and early Republic of China", "Jiangzhe region", "marriage values", are explained detailedly. Moreover, in this part, researching methods are described.In the second part, we discuss the material contents of the diverse values on Jiangzhe women's marriage and its embodiment by comparative research. They mainly refer to two areas: (1) the material contents of the change of women's values on marriage, embodying in the change of women's viewpoint on marriage, divorce and remarriage. (2) embodiment of the changes of women's marriage values ~ wedding ceremony and wedding dress, which changes can be seen as the evolution of the generalpublic thinking trajectory.The third part is the main body of the article. This part focuses on the evolution of women's marriage values and its reasons that are analyzed by the Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism from the positions and views within and outside the two factors. External factors include political changes, economic development, the rise of modern education and women's newspaper. Moreover, external factors also involve that advanced intelligentsia criticized on feudal con- sciousness and strongly advocated the Western ideas in the period of late Qing and early Republic of China. Inner factors include female relative economic independence, the awakening of the main consciousness, the changes of lifestyles and life attitudes. On the basis of the analyses and explorations above, the purpose is for revealing the reason of the Jiangzhe region's female's marriage values in the period of late Qing and early Republic of China through multi-angle and multi-level.