A Study On The Marriage And Family In The Northern Song Dynasty

The Northern Song Dynasty ended the military governorship in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, formally established by the mercenary system as the main body of the military service system and built up a huge standing army. Soldiers have special identity and social responsibility, they not only to protect our homes and defend our country undertakes, are also a supporting pillar of an ordinary family. In addition to military training, due diligence to guard the defense, marriage and family is an important part of the soldier in daily life. The government of the Northern Song Dynasty in fully absorbed the lessons of soldier’ escape and rebellion, also used policy, legal means to intervene soldiers’ marriage and family, aimed at boosting the morale of the troops and maintainig the stability of the soldier class, so as to ensure the permsnent stability of the power of Song Dynasty.Affected by the social atmosphere, namely "Elevating the civilian official and debasing the military officer", soldiers have low social status, living condition is not stable, the main object is the bottom of society women in marriage. Among them, in addition to normal mating, the government sometimes assigned the crime women for his wife, it is a phenomenon that soldiers plundered women as their wives. The government of the Northern Song Dynasty also published a series of laws and regulations to protect the marriage and severly crack down on all kinds of crime of destruction of military marriage.The Northern Song Dynasty carried out two different management modes on the families of soldiers:the left camp and the camp, and supported different placement policies. Military placed properly or not would directly affect the soldiers’emotional and social stability:If the family gets a good placement, the soldiers will make all-out efforts for national peace; on the contrary, it may lead to military disaster and endanger the ruling order of the country.The main sources for soldiers family income are the army pension, government reward, and their families engaged in some labor. The Northern Song Dynasty has a complete set of pension policy for soldiers and their families.Marriage and family of the soldier class shows different characteristics:First, the identity of the soldier mating objects is relatively complex, but all low social status. Secondly, the law on protecting military marriage is also a need to maintain the rule of the government of Northern Song Dynasty. Thirdly, different services, different geographical soldiers has certain different living conditions. Finally, families can enjoy a series of pension policy established by the royal government, also to be the objects for the government to control soldiers. In addition, the military to military families implicated in the sentencing is a powerful way to control soldiers for the Northern Song Dynasty. Through the investigation and analysis of the marriage and family related issues of Northern Song Dynasty soldiers, can see the "keep empty outside" strategy of governing the country.