Concubines in Court: Marriage and Monogamy in Twentieth-Century China

(Hardback)

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This groundbreaking book analyzes marriage and family reform in twentieth-century China. Lisa Trans examination of changes in the perception of concubinage explores the subtle, yet very meaningful, shifts in the construction of monogamy in contemporary China. Equally important is her use of court cases to assess how these shifts affected legal and social practice. Tran argues that this dramatic story has often been overlooked, leading to the mistaken conclusion that concubinage remained largely unchanged or quietly disappeared in modern China. Customarily viewed as a minor wife because her husband was already married, a concubine found her legal status in question under a political order that came to be based on the principles of monogamy and equality. Yet although the custom of concubinage came under attack in the early twentieth century, the image of the concubine stirred public sympathy. How did lawmakers attack the practice without jeopardizing the interests of concubines Conversely, how did jurists protect the interests of women without appearing to sanction concubinage How law and society negotiated these conflicting interests dramatically altered existing views of monogamy and marriage and restructured gender and family relations. As the first in-depth study of the meaning and practice of monogamy and concubinage in modern China, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Chinese society and legal norms. In addition, by crossing the 1949 divide, it compares the Guomindangs designation of concubinage as adultery with the Chinese Communist Partys treatment of it as bigamy, and draws out the legal implications for the practice of concubinage as well as for women who were concubines. Poised at the intersection of Chinese history, womens history, and legal history, this book makes a unique and significant contribution to the scholarship in all three fields.

Reviews

Concubinage has a long and intricate history in China, where it was a deeply entrenched part of the institution of marriage. How did it make the transition into post-dynastic China Lisa Tran tackles this issue in a thorough and masterful way, taking the reader through the complex dismantling of concubinage in the pre- and post-communist eras. She attends to both legal and social/ideological aspects, drawing on an impressive array of documents and archives. Concubines in Court treats one of the most important facets of the historical transition from post-dynastic times and is a study that I have long awaited. -- Keith McMahon, University of Kansas
Lisa Trans study of the legal treatment of concubinage during the transition from late empire to Republic and then Peoples Republic will be required reading for anyone interested in gender, family, and law in modern China. Polygyny had been standard practice and an important status symbol under the Qing dynasty, but new ideals of monogamy and gender equality in the twentieth century induced reformers to redefine concubinage first as adultery and then as bigamy. Based on careful exegesis of cases from legal archives, Tran shows how concubines took advantage of their changing status to secure new rights in court. She also shows how Republican-era debates about concubinage strangely anticipated the controversy over wealthy mens pursuit of sexual privilege in China today. -- Matthew Sommer, Stanford University

Author Bio

Lisa Tran is associate professor of modern Chinese history at California State University, Fullerton.