The Study On The Group Of Wives Of Honor In Northern Song Dynasty

As the wife of Royal Northern Song Dynasty,they are not only important members of the imperial families,but also an important part of the upper female group in Northern Song Dynasty.Because they have duties to give birth and raise offsprings for the clan and they are the political tie between their own families and the imperial clan,they are attached importance to by emperors.The relevant legal provisions of Northern Song Dynasty about the birth of wives of Royal were gradually perfected.The emperor Renzong stipulated that families could be allied with imperial clans by marriage on conditions that not all three generations in the families were officials with ministers as their guarantors,and without birth from commercial,industrial,kabuki,or evil families.The emperor Shenzong stipulated that the patriarchal wives of Royal of far relatives of the clans should not come from a family of miscellaneous walks of life;the patriarchal wives of near relatives of the clans should not come from families who worked as petty officials in the divisions,or bought official positions with money and land tax within two generations,nor families with offical post conferred by payments,nor families that engaged in arts,commerce and industry,nor families of miscellaneous walks of life,nor of evil crimes,nor families that parents had been punished with penalties.The emperor Zhezong stipulated that there must be two generations of officials in the families of the patriarchal wives of the near relatives of imperial clans,and one generation of officials in the far relatives of imperial clans,and that the wives should not be descendants of the families of ministers,nor of families that engaged in arts,commerce and industry,nor of families of miscellaneous walks of life,nor of evil crimes,nor of vassals.A woman with the same surname could not be a patriarchal wife,a concubine could not be promoted to a patriarchal wife.When the Royal man selected a spouse,Ministry of Internal Affairs(?????)would play the role of intermediary,ZongZhengSi(???)examined and investigated,and then introduced by Ministry of Internal Affairs(?????).if without mistakes,for acheckout by DaZongZzhengSi(????).Besides,there were necessarily that the guarantor and officiator are with pedigree restrictions.Thus all these above led to three characteristics of the patriarchal wives in Northern Song Dynasty:more origin of military officers than civil officials,emphasis on the origin and pedigree of the family,and marriage within clans.The family life of the patriarchal wives in the Northern Song Dynasty mainly revolves around their husband's family.They manage the family affairs,courteous to the aunt,take care of the husband and teach the children,the harmonious husband clan,offer sacrifices,manage the livelihood and to maintain the order of the family.The vast majority of Northern Song Dynasty patriarchal women were able to make a clear point,persuade their husbands,teach their children,help their families and relatives and save their families and relatives.Many of them are good at reading,poetry,painting and rhythm,female merit,aesthetic art and others are outstanding,cultural activities are relatively rich.There are also many who worship Buddhism and Taoism..Although they cannot participate in politics,they have corresponding treatment in politic.For example,in the principle of bequeath and the letter of Patent,they are different from those ordered by officials.They enjoy a variety of branches and salaries of money,Lumi and spring and winter silk cotton and so on.In the inner-Korean invitation,Jia Li ChaoHe and other activities,they also have courtesy of preferential treatment.Because the marriage of the patriarchal wives belonged to political affairs between the royal family and her own one,the patriarchal wives basically had no rights to choose in marriage,and the conditions of divorce and remarriage were very harsh.As the link between the interests of the two families,rulers of Northern Song Dynasty paid attention to the legal protection of the patriarchal wives.Those who violated the law and related regulations,were punished only formally with cutting down their manor estates granted by the momarch,stripping their decoration of rank,or with drawing their official posts,because they were imperial relatives.Those who committed more serious crimes would be forced to become nuns.As imperial members of Northern Song Dynasty,they did not have rights to choose spouses in marriage within the background of ancient Chinese concept of the superiority of men to women,although they belonged to the special group in the upper class of Northern Song Dynasty,highly educated,with a lot of privilege and rather high status in the family and society.Under the shackles of feudal ethics,they got attached to their husbands' families,learning etiquette,serving husband and kids.Their personality development had been seriously suppressed and imprisoned with lots of restrictions.