A Study On The Legal Protection Of Women’s Rights In Qing Dynasty

In a patriarchal society,the law itself is expressed as "male".Women’s rights in the modern sense did not exist in ancient China,as women were always subordinate to men in ancient times.However,women’s basic rights were always a reality,both in the biological and sociological sense.Were women’s rights guaranteed in ancient times and how did they change? The change of women’s rights in the Qing Dynasty shows the development and change of society,and also reflects the legislative wisdom of the ancients,which can provide the ideological foundation for the protection of women’s rights in the present stage.The Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in China,and its masterpiece,Qing Code of Laws,was the last feudal code.Qing Code of Laws was also the great achievement of ancient law.In this paper,we focus on the special provisions for women’s rights and interests in the period of the surviving codes since the Tang dynasty.Compared with the old ones,this paper also presents the inheritance as well as the new development of the legal system for women who lived in the Qing dynasty.This paper pursues to analyze and figure out the social status of women’s families by examining the inheritance and development of the Qing laws in the areas of marriage,inheritance,adultery and crime,punishment for assault and battery,and slave rearing and exile.This paper analyzes the inheritance and development of the Qing law in the areas of female offenders’ caning,maternal and fetal rights,and widowed women’s right to remarry,and reveals the basic characteristics of women’s rights and interests in the ancient Chinese legal system,which were "mainly suppressed,suppressed and protected".On the one hand,it analyzes the system of gender inequality established by law and the social ethics that met the needs of the ruling class,and on the other hand,it studies the evolution and even the demise of many unreasonable systems in the above-mentioned development.The article reveals the inferior status of Chinese women in the class society,but also uncovers the human side of the ancient law,which treated women’s rights from coldness to warmth,in four aspects: treating women prisoners differently,maintaining women’s social dignity,relaxing restrictions and punishments,and protecting vulnerable women.The article tries to guide the use of the right attitude toward the positive elements of ancient law.Firstly,we should recognize the basic human values embodied in ancient law.Although ancient law is deeply imprinted by the stage of economic and social development,it also contains the ancient people’s knowledge and trade-offs on the basic values of freedom,security and equality.Secondly,we should properly evaluate the good and bad of ancient law,and use the "contextualist" research approach to understand the historical justification and rationality of any long-standing legal system and rules in a historical context.It is worth noting that there are many irrationalities in contemporary Chinese discussions of feminist jurisprudence,mainly in the form of denying good traditions and ignoring inherent roots in favor of copying the West.While scholars are actively calling for women’s rights in contemporary China,there is always a different voice flogging and crusading against ancient Chinese history,questioning the fine traditions that have been precipitated for thousands of years.However,as the saying goes,only the traditional is national,and only the national is global.We should face up to history,respect tradition,and rationally understand the value of law and even the difference between "good law" and "bad law" to guide the practice of contemporary women’s rights legislation.We should maintain the soil that cannot be left for the development of contemporary women’s jurisprudence in China.The final call is to base on the history and reality of women’s rights protection in China,and to reasonably learn from the experience and practice of foreign women’s jurisprudence,that is,to integrate the ancient and modern and combine the relevant systems in China and abroad,and to treat history and foreign culture with a proper attitude.