Shui Women In The Marriage, Upper The Inscription Form The Mid-qing Dynasty

Mainly based on actual record from tombstone inscription and some visiting materials from filed survey, this study described and discussed some key aspects in terms of the marriage in the Shui nationality after mid-Qing.During the Qing and the Republic of China period, most of the Shui women got married around 15-17 years old, and giving birth to three or four children in average in their lifetime. Although a small number of the Shui women died earlier, the average life span was about sixty years, slightly longer than the Shui men's. After the founding of new China, even though the age of marriage was slightly delayed, no significant change in the number of births and the life span, however, increased considerably.It should be pointed out significantly that the Shui women played a key role in family, though the convention of men preference was still prevailing in the past, even in New China. Not only were they the principal participants in household production and the decision-makers in domestically economic activities but also were the cores in families standing and children raising. They were mutual interdependence and help with their counterparts, and monumentalizing when one part was died, which were reflected their concern and love for each other.For various reasons, some of the Shui women had to be acting as a concubine in the history. In contrast with that in the Han nationality where wife was superior and played a dominant role in a family, concubine had comparably high status in the Shui culture, nearly identical with wife. Moreover, the status of concubine and wife had not any difference with respect to the management of family affairs, the funeral and monumentalizing ceremony as well as the upbringing of children.Historically, more windows happened in the Shui area. Some of them have to be responsible to payment in family and raise children. However, they struggled for bringing it back to life and obtained respect from family and society as a result. As for younger windows, recombination of a new family was also very common. The women for the remarriages were not thwarted and discriminated, and still keeping comparably high status.The in-law, constructed by the Shui women, was one of the most significant relationships in the Shui society. They kept close ties with their parents after they got married. They often chose to go back to the maiden home if unluckily were forced to leave their husbands. The tombstones were often recorded the places where they lived before the marriage or their parent's home on their death, the maiden family always wrote the inscriptions as well.