Ancient Chinese Marriage and Family

Author: Zhang Minjie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Traditional Chinese society is centered around families and clans, and the feudal marriage and family system left certain legacies worth learning from for the Chinese nation's culture, while also severely restricting and hindering the development of Chinese society and economy. Today, Chinese society has undergone tremendous changes, but conflicts between tradition and modernity still exist in the realm of marriage and family. These conflicts continue to manifest widely in real-life social dynamics. Reading this book will help you understand the history and evolution of Chinese families: The Family Policies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution was one of the most grand-scale peasant revolutionary wars in Chinese history. Starting from January 11, 1851, when Hong Xiuquan led the uprising in Jintian Village, Guiping County, Guangxi Province, under the banner of the "Heaven Worshipping Society," the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution attracted tens of thousands of peasant families and implemented many significant reforms to the feudal marriage and family system. Before the Jintian Uprising, Hong Xiuquan and others used the religious guise of the "Heaven Worshipping Society" to engage in anti-feudal revolutionary organization work, inspiring the masses to join the anti-Qing struggle. Hong Xiuquan's writings, such as "The Original Way to Save the World," "The Original Way to Awaken the World," and "The Original Way to Enlighten the World," were the fundamental doctrines of the "Heaven Worshipping Society," imbued with the idea of gender equality.
Based on the principle that "the Lord of Heaven is the great father of all under heaven," Hong Xiuquan promoted the idea that "all men in the world are brothers, and all women are sisters; how can there be private boundaries or the desire to dominate one another?" He advocated complete gender equality and sought to achieve a "world of one family, sharing peace and prosperity." Under this guidance, many members of the "Heaven Worshipping Society" abandoned their families, sold their land, houses, and converted everything into cash, donating it all to the society. The livelihoods of all members were supported by the sacred treasury, with equal distribution and a supply system akin to military communism. Those who did not comply were expelled from the "Heaven Worshipping Society."
When the conditions for armed uprising gradually matured, in July 1850, Hong Xiuquan issued a call to arms, and members from all over gathered swiftly to Jintian Village. They came from peasant families, impoverished, and deeply opposed the feudal hierarchy and the patriarchal, male-dominated feudal marriage and family system, thus becoming the backbone of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution. The reason many families joined the uprising was not only because they realized that only through revolution could they find a way out, but also because the situation was ruthless—if one family member joined the uprising, the remaining members could face armed retaliation and suppression from the enemy. As a result, many soldiers in the Taiping army shared familial ties such as spouses, fathers and sons, and in-laws, like Liang Litai, who joined the Jintian Uprising.
The "Household Register" records: "Liang Litai, aged 34, from Baisha Village, Guiping County, Xunzhou, Guangxi. In the Gengxu year, he joined the army in Jintian in July and was appointed as the head of the front camp's two marshals in August, promoted to the commander of the front camp's troops in September." His father had already passed away, and he joined the army with his mother, wife, sister, son, and daughter, totaling five people. His mother, Hu Dimei, who was past middle age, fought alongside the army and was later appointed as the female commander of the fourth army in Tianjing. His wife, Liao Dimei, served in the Embroidered Robe Office, and his sister, Liang Xiaomei, was appointed as an inner noble messenger of the North Palace. This shows that these revolutionary families utilized everyone's talents and found their places, adding new strength to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.