Chapter 12 Chapter Four Marriage Etiquette

Before the formal establishment of monogamy, the marriage system in ancient China experienced various forms such as primitive group marriage, blood group marriage, sub-blood marriage, and pairing marriage. Primitive group marriage refers to a primitive group whose marriage relationship is completely dominated by physiological needs and emotional sympathy, and is in a primitive state of "men and women wandering together, neither matchmaker nor lover".Their sexual life is extremely free, even including the sexual relationship between parents (parents) and sons (children).This situation lasted until about 18,000 BC in the late Paleolithic period.

Blood group marriage is a kind of interbreeding marriage restricted by age class.Although this form prohibits intermarriage between parents and children and excludes the marriage relationship between grandparents and descendants, it still retains the sexual relationship between brothers and sisters.This period was about 10,000 years ago in the early Neolithic Age. Marriage of the sub-blood clan excludes one's own brothers and sisters as spouses, and intermarries between brothers or sisters of different clans (surnames).This was implemented after entering the matrilineal clan society, and the clan exogamy system adapted to the stage of social development, which is equivalent to the middle and late Neolithic age 5,000 years ago.

Pairing marriage occurred in the prosperous era of matrilineal clan society.This kind of marriage system usually has a man and a woman as spouses, but the union of the sexes is not solid.Often a man has one wife among many women, and a woman has one husband among many men.Among them, women are in the dominant position, and the lineage is calculated according to the matrilineal line.Pairing marriage is a transitional marriage form between group marriage and monogamy.With the gradual establishment of the patrilineal clan society, men gradually assumed a dominant position, not only controlling all the privileges of the clan society, but also controlling their wives and children.This broke the marriage order of the matrilineal society, realized the transition from living with wives to living with husbands, and monogamy came into being.

Monogamy is an individual marriage system that has been implemented since the patrilineal clan society and continues to this day.At this time, the woman left her clan to marry the man and lived with her husband, and the children born were counted by the paternal line.Husband and wife can also be buried together in the same clan cemetery after death, which can be confirmed from the unearthed large number of tombs where men and women were buried together in the patrilineal clan society period.After entering the class society, with the acceleration of civilization evolution, monogamy has become increasingly consolidated.In individual small families, the husband-wife relationship is an exclusive and solid union with an independent economic basis.If the relationship between husband and wife is not harmonious and a divorce is required, certain procedures must also be performed.The monogamous individual marriage system is a great historical progress, and the monogamous marriage system is generally practiced by most of the nations in the world today.