Harvard
University Press recently published a book on marriage law during the reign of
Khubilai Khan.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Mongol
conquest of China in the thirteenth century and Khubilai Khan’s founding of the
Yuan dynasty brought together under one government people of different
languages, religions, and social customs. Chinese law evolved rapidly to
accommodate these changes, as reflected in the great compendium Yuan dianzhang
(Statutes and Precedents of the Yuan Dynasty). The records of legal cases
contained in this seminal text, Bettine Birge shows, paint a portrait of
medieval Chinese family life—and the conflicts that arose from it—that is
unmatched by any other historical source.
Marriage and the
Law in the Age of Khubilai Khan reveals the complex, sometimes contradictory
inner workings of the Mongol-Yuan legal system, seen through the prism of
marriage disputes in chapter eighteen of the Yuan dianzhang, which has never
before been translated into another language. Birge’s meticulously annotated
translation clarifies the meaning of terms and passages, some in a hybrid
Sino-Mongolian language, for specialists and general readers alike. The text
includes court testimony—recorded in the vivid vernacular of people from all
social classes—in lawsuits over adultery, divorce, rape, wife-selling,
marriages of runaway slaves, and other conflicts. It brings us closer than any
other source to the actual Mongolian speech of Khubilai and the great khans who
succeeded him as they struggled to reconcile very different Mongol, Muslim, and
Chinese legal traditions and confront the challenges of ruling a diverse
polyethnic empire.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bettine Birge is
Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures,
with a joint appointment in the Department of History, at the University of
Southern California.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Maps, Figures,
and Charts*
Abbreviations
Introduction
I. The Age of
Khubilai Khan and the Yuan dianzhang
1. The
Historical and Social Context of the Yuan dianzhang
2. Yuan
Administration and the Legal System
3. Origins,
Contents, and Transmission of the Yuan dianzhang
4. Notes on the
Translation
II. Chapter 18,
“Marriage,” from the Yuan dianzhang: An Annotated Translation
5. Sections 1–2:
Marriage Rites and Exchanges; Getting Married
6. Sections 3–5:
Marriage between Officials and Commoners; Marriages of Military Personnel;
Divorce
7. Sections 6–8:
When the Husband Dies; Levirate Marriage Approved; Levirate Marriage Rejected
8. Sections
9–12: Secondary Wives; Marriage between Slaves and Commoners; Marriage of
Entertainers; Marriage during the Mourning Period
Appendix A:
Translation of Title Page of the Yuan dianzhang
Appendix B:
Marriage Cases from Chapter 18 of the Yuan dianzhang in Chronological Order
Appendix C:
Marriage Cases from Chapter 18 of the Yuan dianzhang with Dates
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
More information
here
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