Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/39

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THE

LEGAL POSITION OF

WOMEN

IN CHINA.

BY R. VASHON ROGERS. THE subjection of women in China is extreme. When a Chinaman has only daughters he is said to have no children. The woman is submissive in every state of life, as a daughter to her parents, as a wife to her husband, and as a widow to her sons, especially to her eldest son. And yet for nearly forty years the too wellknown Empress-Mother, Tsu Tsi, first con jointly with the Dowager-Empress, Tsu An, and for the last twenty years alone, has wielded a predominant influence in the gov ernment of the empire. So great had been her sen-ices and so much the Emperor, Kwang Shu, delighted to honor her that when, irr 1894, she attained her sixtieth year he paid her the supreme compliment of add ing two more ideographs to her already elongated title, so that it then ran as fol lows : Tzu-hsi-tuan-yu-kang-i-chao-chuangchen-shu-kung-chin-hsien-chung-hsi. Nor is this the first time in Chinese history that there looms behind the throne one of those mysterious masterful types of Asiatic womanhood who, bursting asunder, by the subtle craft of their uncultured intellect and by the fierceness of their passions, all the trammels which Oriental custom and tradi tion impose upon their sex, get such a grip of power, when once they have been fortu nate enough to seize it, as male rulers sel dom acquire, even in the most autocratic states. Disobedience to parents is a sin punish able by death, whether the offender is an in fant or a full-grown son or daughter. It is immodest for a woman to show her artificially distorted foot to a man, although small feet are their chief charm; it is even improper to speak of a lady's feet, and in decent pictures they are always concealed by the dress. In deference to the prejudices of the god

of war, Kuan-ti, who was a confirmed misog ynist, women are not allowed upon the walls of the city of Pékin. Nearly all the Chinese, robust or infirm, well formed or deformed, marry as soon as they have attained the age of puberty. Were a grown-up son or daughter to die unmar ried, the parents would consider it a most deplorable event. So indispensable is matri mony deemed in the Flowery Kingdom that even the dead are married; the spirits of the males who die in infancy, or childhood, are in due time affianced to the spirits of females who have been cut off at a like early age. In everything referring to the marriage of their children the parents are omnipotent. The betrothed couple may not even know each other, and often the wedding is the first occasion on which a man catches a glimpse of his intended's face. (Among some of the aboriginal tribes, however, the daughter's inclinations are nearly always consulted.) (Gray's China, Vol. I, pp. 186, 216; Vol. II, pp. 203, 393.) Tf a Chinaman falls in love he must tell his father before he informs the object of his affections. If the parent permits prelimi nary matrimonial negotiations the suitor em ploys a go-between, and to this agent he en trusts a genealogical tree of his family. (This is to prevent persons of the same name unit ing in matrimony.) If the young woman's family is disposed to respond to the advance their genealogical tree is produced. A mu tual guarantee is then given against either family becoming allied with hereditary mad ness or crime. Ta Tsing Leu Lee says (the Leu Lee is held in the highest veneration by all): When a marriage is intended to be contracted it shall be in the first place reciprocally ex plained and clearly understood by the fam ilies interested, whether the parties who