Original Wu Hook
（黄日华与翁美玲饰演的郭靖、黄蓉）
Jin Yong wrote a lot of fairy beauties, such as Guo Jing and Huang Rong in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Zhang Wuji and Zhao Min in "Heaven and Dragon Slayer", and Ling Hu Chong and Ren Yingying in "Smiling Proud Jianghu". Jin Yong also wrote several couples with discordant feelings, but there seems to be no divorce in Jin Yong's martial arts world, even if the husband and wife turn against each other, they do not divorce, for example, in "Dragon Babu", Duan Yu's mother Dao Baifeng can't stand her husband Duan Zhengchun's mercy everywhere, and would rather become a monk and become a Taoist aunt who leads hair and practice, and never sees her divorce from her husband; Kang Min and Bai Shijing hooked up and conspired to kill her husband Ma Dayuan, but did not choose to divorce; Yue Lingshan would rather die at the hands of her husband Lin Pingzhi than think of getting a divorce, while her mother Ning Zhong would rather commit suicide and don't seem to have the idea of divorcing Yue Buqun.
This makes us can't help but have a question: Why did these women in the rivers and lakes take the initiative to file for divorce when they encounter an unhappy and unhappy marriage? Maybe we will say: The ancient society was a patriarchal society, and the rivers and lakes were no exception. This brings us to the topic we are discussing: in the Song Dynasty, the era of "Dragon Babu", could a woman ask her husband for divorce?
Let's start with the answer: In several cases, a woman in the Song Dynasty had the right to ask for a divorce from her husband.
Some friends may wonder how in ancient times it was not only the divorce of the wife, and how could the wife have the right to divorce? In fact, the form of divorce in ancient China was not only the divorce of the wife. In the Tang Dynasty, for example, there were four ways to dissolve marriage: breaking off marriage against the law, "righteousness", "seven outs" and "harmonious divorce".
Illegal marriage is an illegal marriage, such as good and low marriage, marriage with the same surname, and remarriage (bigamy) if there is a wife, and the government will forcibly order a divorce for illegal marriage;
"Righteousness" refers to the fact that if any couple of husband and wife has done serious harm to the relatives of the other party, the government will also force divorce;
"Seven outs" means that if the wife has no children (unable to have children), or is adulterous, or does not care about her aunt, or tongue, or theft, or jealousy, or has a bad disease, the husband can unilaterally file for divorce, regardless of whether the wife wants to or not, commonly known as "divorce";
"Reconciliation" refers to the husband and wife "who do not get along with each other and are willing to leave" (see "Tang Law Shu Discussion: Household Marriage Law"), which is a bit like today's divorce by agreement.
(A letter of resignation in the early days of the Republic of China)
Divorce in violation of the law and "righteous renunciation" are both state-mandated divorce methods, which have nothing to do with the "freedom of divorce", but rather, this is actually a deprivation of the "freedom not to divorce" of both husband and wife. Therefore, the expansion of the scope of application of illegal marriage and "righteousness" must not be regarded as an enhancement of women's right to divorce. For example, the Ming Law stipulates that if a husband condones his wife to commit adultery, the husband and the adulterer will be given 80 rods and the wife will be ordered to divorce and return to the sect, which is not stipulated in the Tang and Song Dynasty laws. This is the expansion of the scope of application of "righteousness", not the expansion of women's right to divorce.
As for the "seven outs", it is not only the husband's divorce privilege in the ancient patriarchal society, but also a restriction on the husband's divorce privilege, because according to the laws of the Tang and Song dynasties, if the wife does not commit the "seven outs" rule, and the husband does not commit it, she must be sentenced to "one and a half years in prison"; according to the laws of the Ming and Qing dynasties, if the wife does not have the right to do so, and the husband leaves his wife without authorization, he must also be "eighty rods". But in any case, the law of "seven outs" only protects a little bit of the wife's "right not to divorce", and has nothing to do with the wife's right to divorce.
On the contrary, the "harmony and divorce" allowed by the laws of the Tang Dynasty and all dynasties, because it is a divorce by mutual agreement between husband and wife, at least logically speaking, it contains a form of divorce that the wife takes the lead in proposing and the husband agrees. From a factual point of view, although "harmony" could not be said to be as common in ancient society as it is today, it is not very rare. We can even safely say that during the Song Dynasty, it was relatively common for women to take the initiative to file for divorce. Because the Song people said: "Those who are women regard their husband's family as if they were passing through the house, and they meet by chance, and leave suddenly." (See "Jiading Chicheng Chronicles")
However, the right of divorce of women that we are talking about here does not refer to the general "reconciliation" of husband and wife, but to the form of dissolution of marriage in which the wife unilaterally requests a divorce and the husband cannot disagree. Women in the Song Dynasty actually had such a right to divorce? Yes. According to the legislation of the Song Dynasty, the wife can take the initiative to request the dissolution of the marriage relationship in at least the following six situations, regardless of whether the husband is willing or not. If it is said that the "seven outs" reflect the husband's right to divorce his wife, the "six hearing and leaving" roughly reflects the wife's "right to divorce":
1) If the husband runs away from home with his property and the wife is unable to support herself, the wife may unilaterally dissolve the marriage and remarry freely.
2) If a wife is raped by her husband's common-law relative, the wife has the right to request a divorce even if the rape is attempted.
3) If the husband commits a crime and is sentenced to "emigration" or "arrangement" (i.e., forced transfer to another country for service), if the wife unilaterally files for divorce, she will be supported by the law.
4) If the husband does not return home after three years, the wife can also dissolve the marriage and remarry herself.
5) If a husband hires his wife as a slave, the wife may file for divorce.
6) In ancient times, the marriage contract was legally valid, and after the man and woman were engaged, if the man did not perform the marriage contract within three years without reason, the woman could unilaterally dissolve the marriage contract.
The so-called "six divorces" means that the law gives women the privilege to unilaterally request divorce in the above six circumstances, just as "out of seven" means that the law gives men the privilege to unilaterally file for divorce in seven situations. It is a pity that people today often only pay attention to the "seven outs" in the laws of previous dynasties, and ignore the significance of the "six hearings" right in the Song Dynasty that can compete with the male power represented by the "seven outs".
So, can we give an example of a Song Dynasty wife who unilaterally asked for a divorce and received judicial support? Let's take a look at a divorce case included in the "Minggongshu Judgment Qingming Collection":
Lin Xinzhong, a native of the Southern Song Dynasty, married Zhuo Wujie, and later Lin Xinzhong was sentenced to the punishment of arranging custody and transferred to another country because of the crime, and did not ask his wife for six years, Zhuo Wujie asked for divorce and remarriage, according to the law, she only needs to unilaterally apply to the government to dissolve the marriage, and it can be approved. However, out of affection, her father Zhuo Yizhi still asked his son-in-law to negotiate reconciliation and divorce, and returned the 45 yuan (huizi) of the bride money. Lin Xinzhong agreed, took away the money, and signed a divorce contract. But later, Lin Xinzhong repented and sued his ex-wife in court, asking for remarriage. The judge said: "In the law: If the wife is willing to leave after being married and moves to the countryside to take charge of the arrangement, the husband will also be remarried if he has been away for three years and does not return." ...... Lin Xinzhong can be described as a lie, and he will accept the crime together and avoid judgment. Lin Xinzhong should have been punished for his false words, but in the end, the judge was lenient and only rejected the complaint and exempted from punishment.
There is a detail in the judgment in this case that deserves our attention. Here's what the judge said: "Lin Xinzhong was in charge of the matter, and he didn't ask questions for six years, so he divorced himself in accordance with the law, and Zhuo Yizhi still thought of half a son, and made a contract with him. Here, the judge obviously distinguishes between "divorce by law" and "divorce by agreement", the former is a divorce privilege granted to the wife by law, and the wife can unilaterally propose it, regardless of whether the husband agrees or not, the judge should "listen to the divorce" and issue a divorce certificate; the latter is a divorce negotiated by the husband and wife, and the husband needs to sign a divorce contract.
Such a woman's right to divorce was inevitably weakened in other dynasties. If we examine the legal provisions of the past dynasties, we will find that the "Six Hearings" are not only not found in the "Tang Law Shu Yi", but also revised beyond recognition in the laws of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, the "Tang Law Discussion" stipulates that "all offenders should be matched,...... The wife and concubine obey it", the husband is exiled for sin, and the wife and concubine must follow and cannot be divorced. The "Laws of the Ming Dynasty" and the "Laws of the Qing Dynasty" also have similar provisions: "Whoever commits a crime, his wife and concubine shall obey him." Although the "Song Criminal Union" copied the relevant provisions of the Tang Law, it was later replaced by the compilation of "those whose wives are willing to leave". For another example, according to the legislation of the Southern Song Dynasty, if the husband was out for three years, the wife could divorce and remarry, but in the Yuan Dynasty, it was changed to "the husband fled for five years and did not return, and listened to the divorce", the wife waited for two years, and it must be the case of the husband abandoning his wife and fleeing (rather than going out in general). During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the time for the woman to unconditionally wait for the man to fulfill the marriage contract was also five years, which was two years longer than that of the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, we can safely say that, as far as the law is concerned, the opportunity for a woman in the Song dynasty to unilaterally dissolve her marriage with her husband was undoubtedly more readily available than that of a sister in the Tang or Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Kang Min lived in the Song Dynasty, and the historical background of "Smiling Proud Jianghu" is unknown, but it can be seen from the clues in the book that the background of the era should be the Ming Dynasty. For example, Kang Min can file a divorce appeal with the yamen on the grounds that Ma Dayuan has not returned home for three years (Ma Dayuan is the deputy leader of the beggar gang, running around the rivers and lakes, and not returning home for many years should be his normal life), or report Ma Dayuan's illegal behavior to the yamen (the beggar gang is a marginalized group in society, and there may not be too few forbidden things), once Ma Dayuan is sentenced to "move to the countryside" or "organize and manage" The famous Southern Song Dynasty poetess Li Qingzhao used this method to successfully divorce her second husband Zhang Ruzhou.
Huang Rong and Guo Jing are in love with each other, so naturally they will not divorce, but if Huang Rong wants to divorce Guo Jing one day, there is still a chance.