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Women, Property, and Confucian Reaction in Sung and Yuan China (960–1368)
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Taylor, Romeyn |
| Copyright Year | 2002 |
| Abstract | The Mongol invasion of China in the thirteenth century had far-reaching consequences, but it has generally been assumed that in the area of gender and property relations, Mongol rule had no long-term effect on Chinese society. In this path-breaking work, Bettine Birge argues that on the contrary, the Mongol occupation precipitated a lasting transformation of marriage and property law in China that deprived women of their property rights and reduced their legal and economic autonomy. Birge shows that just prior to the Mongol-Yüan dynasty, women’s property rights had been steadily improving, and laws and practices affecting marriage and property had been moving away from Confucian ideals. Mongol rule created a new constellation of property and gender relations that persisted to the end of the imperial era. Birge demonstrates how the confrontation between Chinese and Mongol-steppe culture ironically created the conditions for dramatic changes in the law that for the first time brought it into line with the goals of radical Confucian philosophers by curtailing women’s financial and personal autonomy. These changes resulted in a shift in the balance of power from a woman and her natal family to her in-laws and marital family and laid the groundwork for the spread of the cult of widow chastity in late imperial China. This book offers a fresh evaluation of the Mongol invasion and its influence on Chinese law and society and presents a new look at the changing position of women in premodern China. Birge’s analysis reveals the links between foreign invasion, social change, and the construction of gender, and her conclusions have implications for the study of comparative law, social history, and gender studies around the world. |
| Starting Page | 175 |
| Ending Page | 175 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1080/03612759.2002.10526248 |
| Volume Number | 30 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://journals.openedition.org/assr/pdf/777 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/80726/frontmatter/9780521180726_frontmatter.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1080/03612759.2002.10526248 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
