Compendium of Chinese Folk Customs · Marriage Chronicle

Author: Wu Cunhao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features:
III. Current Status of Chinese Marriage Custom Research
As an important life ritual, marriage customs have attracted great attention from scholars since ancient times, making the study of this folk phenomenon one of the earliest recorded in history. However, throughout ancient times, research on marriage customs primarily focused on two aspects: first, the documentation of marriage customs, and second, using marriage customs as a starting point for traditional ethics and feudal law, which led to the construction of the "great separation between men and women" and the exploration of female oppression. Such research has clearly been unhelpful in deepening the understanding of Chinese marriage customs. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, scholars have begun to pay full attention to marriage customs in remote regions of China, resulting in relatively detailed records of some rare marriage customs. However, these records were not only fragmented but also lacked qualitative analysis of these unusual customs. Instead, they were dismissed as a whole through the lens of feudal scholars, aligning with the feudalization trend of marriage customs in China's remote regions since the Ming and Qing dynasties.
In modern times, scholars began to focus on the emergence, development, and evolution of Chinese marriage customs, and numerous works on the history of Chinese marriage systems were published. However, due to the lack of materials and differing perspectives of researchers, these works largely ignored the study of marriage customs in primitive society, particularly during the matriarchal era. As a result, the study of Chinese marriage customs during this period not only left many gaps but also provided incorrect interpretations of the nature of certain marriage customs.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, research on Chinese marriage customs took a winding path. In the 1950s, with the rise of folkloristics in China, marriage custom research flourished. During this period, researchers conducted comprehensive and systematic surveys of Chinese marriage customs, especially those in remote regions, leading to the publication of works such as Folkloric Survey Materials on China's Ethnic Minorities. These laid a solid foundation for future in-depth research on Chinese marriage customs. Unfortunately, due to well-known reasons, folkloristics soon fell into disfavor, and marriage custom research entered a period of decline.
After the Cultural Revolution, the study of marriage customs experienced a resurgence, becoming a hot topic in folkloristics research. Over the past two decades, nearly 100 books and thousands of papers on Chinese marriage customs have been published, including both reference works and specialized studies, as well as comparative research between China and the world. The academic achievements since the Cultural Revolution are particularly evident in three areas: