Chapter 20 Chapter Five Marriage and Family from the Late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China

The high-ranking officials and nobles in the late Qing Dynasty still practiced the system of multiple concubines and were protected by the law.Both the "Laws of the Qing Dynasty" and the "Current Criminal Laws of the Qing Dynasty" made clear regulations on "disorder among wives and concubines" and bigamy, but the laws of the late Qing Dynasty clearly punished offenders lightly.For example, the "Law of the Qing Dynasty" said: "Anyone who takes his wife as a concubine shall be punished with one hundred sticks."For those who have a wife and marry another wife, that is, "bigamy", the former is "ninety sticks", and the latter is "nine punishments".In the late Qing Dynasty, there was no provision in the Ming Law that ordinary people above the age of 40 who had no children were allowed to marry concubines, so the concubine system was also popular among wealthy families at that time.

The concubine system in the late Qing Dynasty was resisted and opposed by the bourgeois reformists who advocated improving marriage and the bourgeois revolutionaries who followed.Reformist leaders such as Kang and Liang all advocated freedom of marriage and opposed men taking concubines.After Liang Qichao’s reform failed, he traveled to America. He once met an overseas Chinese girl, and they both developed feelings for each other. However, Liang finally kept his faith. He said to the girl: “Tan Liuyang and I are the first to advocate not taking concubines. I already have a wife, so I can’t Marry you against your own ideas.” Qiu Jin, a famous bourgeois female revolutionist, not only wrote poems and articles, opposed arranged marriages, bought and sold marriages, and opposed men who have sex with prostitutes and concubines, but also practiced it, broke free from the shackles of feudal marriage, devoted himself to the revolutionary cause, and finally heroically dedicated.

After the Beiyang warlord government took control of the national power, it followed the legal system of the late Qing Dynasty, respected Confucianism, and continued to implement the feudal traditional ethics and system of marriage and family throughout the country.Many provisions in the "First Draft of Civil Law" and "Current Criminal Law of the Qing Dynasty" promulgated in the third year of Xuantong of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1911) were still valid and implemented in practice at that time, so all the feudal warlords in Beiyang were wives and concubines. In groups, they live a decadent and extravagant life under the protection of the law.For example, Yuan Shikai had as many as 15 wives and concubines on the register.

In 1915, the Law Compilation Committee of the Beiyang Government compiled the "Draft of the Relatives of the National Law of the Republic of China" (not promulgated and implemented as a formal code, but quoted internally by courts at all levels as regulations), which included the "bigamous person" who could be adjudicated for divorce Regulation.In fact, for men, since they can take concubines, there is no such thing as "bigamy", but it is not allowed to "have a wife and marry a wife", and there are two wives in form.Therefore, this provision is useless and has little meaning in real life, and it is of course opposed by progressive forces who advocate reforming old-style marriages. After the "May 4th" Movement in 1919, the Women's Comrades Association, which was active in Beijing, clearly proposed in its action program that "marriage laws based on love" should be formulated, and "concubines should be treated as bigamy". Protest against feudal concubinage.

Although the Kuomintang government has legally denied the concubine system, it actually allows it to exist. In July 1930, the Kuomintang Central Political Conference passed the seventh point of "the problem of concubines" in the "Principles of the Civil Law of Relatives", which first said: "The system of concubines should be abolished urgently. Acknowledge its existence." Then he said: "What is its status, there is no need to be regulated by laws and separate laws." The "Criminal Law of the Republic of China" promulgated by the Kuomintang government in January 1935 included "bigamy" and "crime of obstructing marriage and family". "crime", in the precedents and interpretations, it is supplemented in this way: "The crime of bigamy must be established on the premise of formal marriage. If it is only a marriage of buying and selling, and there is no marriage method, the marriage will not take effect at all, and bigamy will not be considered. It is a crime.” In addition, it is stated in the precedents and interpretations of the Civil Law: “Concubinage is not marriage and cannot be used as a ground for divorce.” In this way, the government has provided legal protection and basis for men to take concubines in bigamy.

Here is an example of Yang Sen taking a concubine.Yang Sen is a three-star general of the Kuomintang. He served as commander of the 20th Army, deputy commander of the 27th Army, chairman of Guizhou Province, and mayor of Chongqing.Relying on his power, he married 12 wives and concubines in his life and had 43 children.The women he took as concubines were all under the age of 18 at the time. This is not only a portrayal of the corrupt official life of the Kuomintang, but also the best explanation of the Kuomintang law allowing concubines. Like previous feudal dynasties, the upper-level rulers in the late Qing and the Republic of China could take concubines publicly or privately, and live a luxurious life, while the majority of poor people were unable to marry wives.Even the Kuomintang government has to admit this. In July 1928, the government issued the "Decree on Improving the Marriage System", which stated: "The marriage system in our country is still very dark today. On the side of women, they are commodities in marriage and part of the property of father and brother. Those who don't know Not to mention, in the marriage trading system in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, the rich get three wives and four concubines, while the poor get three to forty years old. Unmarried people are everywhere, so people who become monks are often heard... Overseas Chinese back The village is away from the well, and the money earned for decades has been accumulated, but it is still difficult to fulfill the wish to return to the country to marry a wife. One can imagine the hardship and resentment of the poor children who cannot afford to marry a wife in the country.”