A Case Study Of Marriage In The Republic Of China

The occurrence and settlement mechanism of marriage disputes reflect the legal institutions and the order of civil society.In traditional Chinese society,marriage is one of the deepest areas of traditional ethics.At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China,Chinese laws entered the transitional period of modernization.Modern legal systems and traditional customs coexisted in the settlement mechanism of marriage disputes.Taking Nanbu County,Sichuan Province,as an example,this paper mainly analyzes the historical and legal background of marriage disputes by means of the judicial archives of Nanbu County in the early Republic of China.The marriage disputes in the early Republic of China were under the background of modern legal reform,and the occurrence of marriage disputes resulted from combined effects of various factors.The introduction of concepts of marriage in western countries and the rapid development of the national government legal system have a significant impact on the order of marriage in traditional society.Specifically manifested in the establishment and dissolution of the marriage relationship,the beginning of the pursuit of marriage autonomy,the resistance to the arranged marriage that violates its will,which also forms a new type of marriage dispute.Secondly,through the classification of archives and materials,this paper introduces several different types of marriage disputes in Nanbu County of the early Republic of China,including marriage disputes,divorce disputes,marrying and selling disputes and forced marriage disputes.Analyzing the causes and solutions of these disputes,on the one hand,reflects the people’s pursuit of maintaining the relationship between marriages in the grassroots society.On the other hand,it reflects the imperfect legal system in the early Republic of China.Finally,this paper sums up different types of marriage disputes in Republic period and the characteristics of the marital dispute resolution method,indicating that due to the imperfect laws in the Republic of China,the marriage disputeresolution methods were diversified in the settlement of marital disputes.