Child brides-in-law, also known as "brides-in-law", "adopted daughter-in-law", refers to a woman who is raised by her in-laws from childhood and then formally married to her son after she reaches adulthood. In ancient times, the phenomenon of child brides was extremely popular, and the reason why it was so popular was mainly because the people in the old days were poor, and there were daughters who could not afford to raise them, and the sons could not afford to marry their daughters-in-law, so they handed their daughters over to the families who had sons to raise them.
The phenomenon of child brides-in-law originated earlier, but the name appeared relatively late
Although the name of child brides-in-law appeared later, this phenomenon actually appeared very early, dating back to the "wife system" of the Zhou Dynasty, that is, when noble women married, they often had sisters or nieces of the same clan marrying with them, and when their sisters or nieces grew up, they became the husband's concubines. In "Corpse", there is a saying that "the wife is the emperor, and the wife is the wife", that is, the two sisters of The Emperor E and the Daughter Ying are married to Shun at the same time, and the Emperor E is the wife, and the Daughter Ying is the concubine.
After the Qin and Han dynasties, this system began to be used in the court, and the emperor would often select the daughters of noble relatives into the palace from an early age, and when they became adults, they would either be crowned as the concubines of the emperor, or given to the children of the royal family as wives and concubines. This practice is actually a kind of child brides, but it should be noted that child brides in this period mainly appeared in the court or the nobility, and the common people have not yet appeared.
Chao makes up for it
The large-scale implementation of this phenomenon of child brides-in-law should have begun from the Northern Song Dynasty, and the "Chicken Rib Collection" of the Northern Song Dynasty Chaozhi has a record of "folk girls and children, those who have not married and raised sons-in-law's clans, known as 'adoptive women'", and the title of "daughter-in-law" also began to appear in the Song Dynasty, of which the word "interest" has the meaning of "nurturing life", and this word later evolved into "daughter-in-law".
After the development of the two Song Dynasties, the phenomenon of child brides-in-law during the Yuan Dynasty has become extremely common, and gradually became a folk custom, for example, in the "Yuan Shi Penal Chronicle", there are "all unmarried men and women who raise children with children, transfer their slaves, flogging fifty-seven, and women return to the sect." The provision of not pursuing wealth shows the prevalence of the phenomenon of "child brides" at that time.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, many places formed a conventional rule for the marriage of "child brides-in-law", such as the woman did not need to distribute the dowry, and the man did not have to buy a dowry. Until the Republic of China period, although Western culture had begun to be introduced to China, the phenomenon of "child brides" was still widespread.
It was not until after liberation, with the promulgation of the Marriage Law by the state, that "child brides- and daughters-in-law" began to become an illegal marriage, but for a long time thereafter, some remote areas still retained this phenomenon, but with the continuous development of society, this phenomenon was eventually basically eliminated.
The reason for the phenomenon of "child brides" is that poverty is the most fundamental reason
As mentioned above, the phenomenon of "child brides" originally existed only as an aristocratic marriage system, and the reason why it was widely popular in the folk for a long time was mainly due to the restrictions of the poor people. As for the reasons for the phenomenon of "child brides", there are mainly the following aspects:
child bride
1. Evade the tax of people. For a long time, the "people's tax" was a more important tax for the imperial court, that is, a tax was levied according to the family population. For rich families, one more person is naturally not a big problem, but for the poor people, this burden is often unbearable, not to mention that women have to marry out of bounds when they reach adulthood, while men are a strong laborer when they grow up, and if they send their daughters to their in-laws' families early, then the family is equivalent to saving a person's tax.
2. Save marriage costs. In addition, poor families with men often have difficulty marrying daughters-in-law because they cannot afford a dowry, and child daughters-in-law can undoubtedly greatly reduce this expenditure, after all, the man does not need to provide a dowry to raise a "child bridesmaid", and when it comes to formal marriage, the ceremony is much simpler than the big wedding, and it does not cost much at all. But in this case, the "child bride" is generally older, because this not only saves a sum of money, but also equals an extra labor force at home.
3. The phenomenon of "rushing joy". That is, if there is a serious illness in the family or the boy suffers from a congenital disease, he will use the marriage to "wash away" bad luck in order to achieve the effect of treating the disease. When this kind of wedding is held, at least one of the men and women is often not of the age of marriage, but has the title of husband and wife, and the woman is also raised in the in-laws' family.
4. Other reasons. In addition to the above reasons, wealthy families often have the phenomenon of "child brides" because of exchange, trading, finger marriage and other reasons. Unlike the previous types of poor people who are forced to choose, the "child brides" of this kind of wealthy family are either out of family marriage relations, or out of pre-marriage planning for children, or in order to better take care of their sons. In this case, the age of the child bride is generally young, and unless the two families are equal and the door is right, the woman will most likely not become a wife, but will only become a concubine.
As far as "child brides-in-law" are concerned, although a few are lucky enough to get better living conditions or are treated as biological daughters by their in-laws, most of them have a more tragic fate, not only are their status generally low, but they often need to engage in a lot of housework, and even be abused by their in-laws, but they can only bear it in silence because of the loss of their mother-in-law's support.