a strong measure to correct her son's lapses from these rules. He had caused great discontent by arbitrary and excessive exercises of authority, and there was danger of a revolt breaking out against him. His mother was aware of this, and came in state one day to the Hall of Audience, made him give up his seat to her, and then herself enumerated the offences of which he had been guilty, and sentenced him to receive so many blows in punishment! The officer did not dare to dispute the judgment of his natural superior; but the admiring crowd interceded for his pardon, and we are left to believe that he conducted himself with propriety in future. Such an assertion of maternal power would hardly be possible in modern China ; but even at the present day it may be taken as certain that no legal rights, powers, or immunities possessed by a Chinese gentleman of the highest rank would justify him in disregarding any reasonable command of his mother, or indeed enable him to do so legally. In China, therefore, as in Egypt, the legal position of the mother is higher than in Western Europe; and for civil purposes the wife, who is viewed as a factor in the civic unit, the household, is exempt from all the disabilities imposed by the civil law of Europe. "La femme Chinoise ⚫ peut remplacer le mari dans toutes les circonstances ou il fait acte de maitre, et la loi lui reconnait le pouvoir de vendre et d'acheter, d'aliéner les biens en communauté, de contracter des effets de commerce, de marier ses enfants et de leur accorder le dot qu'il lui plait de leur donner. En un mot, elle est libre." This civil competence, together with the nonexistence of the separate property of married women, practically proves that the primitive Chinese custom causes every lawful wife to become, on marriage, a partner in her husband's estate. The wife's dowry is merged in the family property, though its money value is not inconsiderable, so much so that in the event of a second marriage, the widow has no claim to recover it. But Chinese usage does not approve of systematically one-sided bargains, and the wife, as we have seen, obtains, in place of the exclusive control of her personal contribution to the joint estate, a life interest in the whole of her husband's property, inherited and acquired. This claim is so indefeasible that it is said the agnates sometimes bring pressure to bear upon the widow to induce her to marry again, which she can only do respectably with their consent, as it is essential that the bride shall be "given away" by relatives, who also make the customary presents. Second marriages on any terms are contrary to the best and oldest rules of propriety; but it is no doubt well for the cause of domestic harmony that it should be possible for the family council to free itself decorously from the presence of a widowed mother whose character unfitted her for the responsibilities of the head of a family, and to such a person a second marriage would probably not be unacceptable. But the contrast to Hindoo usage is curiously complete. 1 Les Chinois peints par eux-mêmes, p. 61. 2 Wang-ming-tse's sisters, it may be remembered, had a portion of about £70, equivalent in Europe to perhaps £400, and forming nearly of the capital value of the family property. The first li on the division of property explains that sons who divide and separate wrongfully do not escape punishment by failing to register themselves as independent householders. The second defines, what had previously been treated as notorious, the fair and lawful system of division : "all family property, movable and immovable, must be divided equally between all male children, whether born of the principal wife or of a concubine or domestic slave." That is to say, all sons born in the household are equally legitimate, and have an equal share in the inheritance. Other sons may be recognised, but are not equally legitimate, and are only entitled to a half share, unless a legal successor has been appointed in default of other children, in which case they have an equal share, while if no such successor is appointed, they receive the whole patrimony. Prior to division, all the family property, whether inherited or acquired by the father or acquired by the sons, is brought into a common fund. The children of a son dying before division do not inherit from their father, but receive subsequently the share which would have been his. The family community is not necessarily broken up when, as occurred in the Wang family, one or more of the sons are engaged in trade or have obtained office and are therefore separately established. In such cases the son retains command of his own earnings, and it is matter of arrangement whether his share of the family property is advanced to him at once or not; if not, he would share with the others on division. There is a traditional or popular maxim which says, "The younger brother should take the less share of the fruit ;" but recent legal decisions seem adverse to its authority. There is a similar maxim: "The will of the father should be respected ;' but wills in the technical European sense can scarcely be said to exist in China; what are so called is a verbal-more rarely a written--expression of a father's wishes, which it is proper for sons to respect, but which might be set aside for valid reasons, injustice, or change of circumstances or the like. Another 66 well-worn Chinese maxim" declares that "the son pays the father's debts;" 2 but there is nothing in the code concerning this obligation, any more than about the payment of other debts. It is thus a matter of custom or a point of honour,- -as among the Rhodians,-and we shall not probably go far wrong if, in both cases, we connect the reluctance to repudiate with the existence of customs unfavourable to the accumulation of a great burden of indebtedness, as to which the moral seems less than the legal obligation. In other words, Chinese sons pay their father's debts because such debts, as a rule, represent value received, and are not out of proportion to the family means, while the family credit is a part of the inheritance worth paying for. A few cases, showing the disputes that arise in practice, will perhaps help to explain the working of the laws, which are too simple to encourage much litigation. A father of four children, by two wives, left forty-seven 1 China Review, v. p. 194, "The law of inheritance." C. Alabaster. mow of land to the four in common. The first wife sells it secretly, for 150 taels, for the benefit of one of her own children, while one of the halfbrothers was bribed to agree. Decision fifty taels (more than enough!) are set aside for funeral expenses of the wife, and the residue is divided into four parts, one for each child, while the two conspiring half-brothers are punished. A man with no sons and one married daughter marries a second wife, and at the same time (to make sure) adopts a nephew. He then dies, leaving the second wife and a posthumous son: the first wife encourages her son-in-law to enter on the property, and exclude the adopted and posthumous sons, producing a will (prior to the adoption and birth) in the son-in-law's favour. But as the land is barely sufficient to support the two sons, the will is set aside, and the heads of the family instructed to draw up a deed settling the property on the two sons; "and, if there be any litigation, we will see," says the judge, "what the penal law will do!" In another case, where brothers dispute about their respective shares under the father's will, both parties are advised "to remember that further litigation will only lead to the utter waste of the family property, and their reduction from wealth to poverty." Another case involving the rights of sons-in-law is that of a man who, having no male heir, gave a daughter, by a concubine, to a husband in his own house, and it was claimed that this wing of the house was given to his daughter as dower, though the couple did not reside there after the marriage. On the man's death, the son-in-law claims to inherit; but the court decides that he must await the birth of a posthumous child, who, if son, will take all, and if daughter, will halve with his wife. In another case, a man dies and his father-in-law makes away with his son's inheritance; the father-in-law is flogged for "disregarding the dead and injuring the living," and his property is applied to recover as much of the infant's estate as is not wholly alienated. One brother has a right to prevent another, whose heir he is, from alienating property, which, if not alienated, would form part of the inheritance. A less common type of dispute relates to the question whether an entailed family estate was left for the benefit of the family in general or for that of students in preference. The estate was sold, and that is ruled to be wrong any way, as the sacrifices were a first charge on it, and the vendor is flogged accordingly. Similarly, the Chên family had seventy mow of land dedicated to the maintenance of its ancestral worship and administered by different branches in turn. An elderly reprobate tried. privately to appropriate twenty mow, and was excused punishment on account of his age; but the alienation was forbidden. Property, lawfully bought by one party, is not forfeited because the vendor had a bad title, if the purchaser had no means of knowing the fact, and the real owner made no protest at the time. In general, the Chinese courts seem to go upon the principle of assuming that deceased fathers will have wished to have the right and reasonable thing done, and that any living relative who does not entertain the same desire should be turned over to the tender mercies of the penal code. The code is far more copious on the subject of marriage than on any other civil contract. The penalties for offences against women are severe, and that of death is not commuted unless the family of the victim consent. There are seven lawful causes of divorce,1 besides infidelity, condonation of which is itself punishable. But there are three reasons which override the seven, and make the wife's position unassailable; namely, if she has shared the three years' mourning for her husband's parents; if the family has become rich after being poor before and at the time of marriage; and if the wife has no parents living to receive her back again. It is unlawful to pretend that a wife is a sister, and give her in marriage to another man ; but while there is little impediment to divorce by mutual consent, the law does all it can to protect the wife against repudiation without cause, when the dissolution of the marriage would be plainly injurious to her. It is not conceivable that a man should wish to divorce the mother of his sons (the example of Confucius notwithstanding), and for practical purposes the Chinese law of divorce only affects women who would not be considered wives at all by European law. Men are required to provide for the marriage of their female slaves; the families of slaves are never separated, and a master who was known to have taken liberties with the wife of a slave would be irretrievably ruined. In fact, "marriage is regarded as something indispensable," 3 and the aim and object of legislation is to produce a nation of married fathers. The effect of this principle upon the moral, physical, and economic well-being of a people is illustrated also in the experience of the Jews. The numerous restrictions on marriage, over and above that against marrying into the same surname, are all directed either against the marriage of blood relations, or against that sort of confusion of relationships which arises when persons, normally dwelling together in a relation resembling that of affinity, are considered to be marriageable if there is no tie of blood. The Chinese, with all their extreme regard for natural relationships, yet do not assign any magical influence to the ties of blood, but consider that for practical purposes those who live together as father and 1 Viz.: barrenness, lasciviousness, disregard of her husband's parents, talkativeness, thievish propensities, envious and suspicious temper, and inveterate infirmity. (Staunton, Penal Laws of China, p. 120.) 2 Lettres Edifiantes, xix. p. 146. 8 Mr. Parker adds a comment to this remark: "Possibly one explanation of the light-heartedness and cheerfulness observable amongst all ranks and classes of Chinese is the provision thus wisely made by the popular consensus for the early and honourable satisfaction of what Bentham calls one of the few imperious wants of mankind;'" and he suggests that the "order and serenity of mind," for which the Chinese are so much more distinguished than European nations, may be due to the same cause. "To marry men is to keep them quiet." (China Review, viii. pp. 73, 77.) The result noted by modern European observers was deliberately aimed at by ancient native legislators. The third of the twelve "general instructions" which the Director of the Multitudes is required to propagate throughout the Empire, formulates Mr. Parker's conclusion: "By the rites of the female principle (Yin), conjugal love is taught, then the people do not complain." (Biot, i. p. 196.) VOL. II.-P.C. A A son, or father and daughter, should reproduce all that is essential to the relationship, and accept the disqualifications it entails. It is clearly on this ground that a man may not marry the daughter of a wife's former husband, because she could only have been properly received into his household on the footing of a daughter. Such a marriage as that with the half-sister (on the mother's side) of a wife, are not only forbidden, but are regarded as incestuous; so is a marriage with any female relation, or the widow of any blood relation, within the fourth degree. Death is the penalty for marrying a grandfather's, father's, or brother's widow, or a father's sister. The following marriages are also penal and invalid: with a father or mother's sister-in-law (or aunt by marriage); with a father's or mother's aunt's daughter (or second cousin through a female); with the sister of either son or daughter-in-law (ie. father and son must not marry two sisters, nor father and daughter sister and brother); and with a grandson's wife's sister. The law against marrying any one of the same family name of course excludes the corresponding relations, such as second cousins, on the paternal side; but while the rule about the surname might have grown into a superstition, adhered to without any regard for its rational origin, the fact that relationship through females, which in so many other aspects is ignored, should be still treated as a bar to marriage, for as many degrees as it is likely to be remembered, seems to show that the Chinese regard the "confounding of families" as an evil to be resisted at every point. But it is so unusual for exogamous superstition to be associated with rational prohibitions against the intermarriage of relations not affected by the rule, that we must either credit the Chinese with a very exceptional delicacy of feeling on the subject of domestic relations, or account for their strictness as a reminiscence from the time when relationship through women was the most important; and the latter hypothesis is confirmed by the copious vocabulary distinguishing relationships through women previously quoted. The men of China are perfectly satisfied with the morality and propriety of family life as constituted in the Middle Kingdom. They say, and no doubt with truth, that virtuous and tender wives and mothers have all the influence that they desire within the household enclosure; and they contrast, to their own advantage, the material security and protection extended to women in China, with the precarious lot of those engaged in the struggle for existence on their own account in Western countries.1 And as a State has never yet been seen in which the men and the women are of an entirely different and opposite mind, it is probable that the majority of Chinese 1 La Cité Française par le lettré Fan-ta-gen, publié par G. Eugène Simon (1890), is an attempt to reproduce the impressions European society may be expected to make on a Chinese scholar. The same thing has been done with more wit and vivacity under the name of Tcheng-ki-tong. But on one point, no doubt, M. Simon is literally exact. Fan-ta-gen is moved to horror, amazement, and tears by the sight of an old woman and her granddaughter begging in the street. There are beggars in China, and sturdy ones too; but apparently even beggars take their earnings home and find them sufficient for the decent maintenance of their old women and young girls. |