The Study Of Some Marital Legal Issues In Yuan Dynasty

The traditional history was recorded by men who described women as two typical images: one was paragon of chastity,the other one was jezebel,both of which were extreme and dull.However,women had an assortment of character and wants in the real world.Many legal cases women taking part in reflected their realest positions and interest demands,helpful to study female group in Yuan dynasty.The study begins with female litigious activities,observing women’s status and choices by analyzing specific legal issues.Summarizing female litigious cases in Yuan Dynasty,it can be found that women got in trouble most frequently in marriage or family,thirty-four percent of these cases were about marriage and forty-eight percent of defendants were accusers’ families including husbands,parents-in-law and daughter-in-law,occupying more than one-third of the total.Pawning wife,illicit sexual behaviors and domestic violence are the typical issues showing the conflicts of women and families.The people who pawned their wives had not been punished until the interim in Yuan dynasty.The women who were raped were easily punished unless they had struggled with the rapists risking their lives,which was so unjust.Furthermore,some atrocities of husbands to wives were allowed by the law in Yuan dynasty.In short,women’s legal status depended on their status and behaviors in families since the law safeguarded the rights of men-centered families,which benefited from the gender conception that men were superior to women.However,most women had been accustomed to the gender conception who would not revolt it unless they were pawned,raped or ruled by violence in that era,let alone their litigious right had been deprived by law so that they could stay at home and be more obedient.Hence,many female victims found few ways to protect themselves except suiciding,suffering in silence or approving of the rules which made them the new injurers.