Social Change and Changes in Marriage and Family: Rural Areas in North Hebei from the 1930s to the 1990s

Author: Wang Yuesheng
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3. Before the land reform, traditional customs rather than modern laws played a dominant role in important family affairs in rural North China, such as property inheritance and family division. Although the new civil code enacted in 1929 granted equal inheritance rights to both men and women, it did not have a significant impact on inheritance practices in rural society. Fei Xiaotong, in his 1936 research on Jiangcun, pointed out: "Regarding this village, although the new law has been in effect for seven years, I have not yet found any actual signs of change in this direction. In fact, it's not just Jiangcun; rural North China largely adhered to the principle of patrilineal and unilineal inheritance. According to Huang Zongzhi's research, in North China, until the 1940s (20th century—editor's note), the principles of property inheritance in villages remained the same. This principle applied to land and almost all other immovable property, especially residential housing, as well as all movable property, such as farming tools, furniture, and livestock. Only clearly personal property was excluded, such as a woman's dowry and her personal savings, as well as bedroom items and personal clothing for married couples. Alternatively, in rural society, the true practice of family division was the division of ancestral property among brothers according to 'shares,' and sisters, whether married or not, could not participate in the division as a share. All of these indicate that the widespread protection of inheritance rights for both male and female family members by law was not accepted by rural people, and the power of custom still dominated.
4. Rural society's management still relied primarily on traditional methods. During the Republican era, the governance of rural North China was similar to that of the Qing Dynasty, with rural society basically self-governing or, at most,—village autonomy under government guidance. Since the Song Dynasty, Chinese villages had established baojia organizations, which were primarily responsible for social security and household registration but did not participate in economic management activities. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, lijia organizations were also established in villages to investigate land and grain, draft tax and labor rolls, etc. P11