Why Could a Husband in Ancient China Divorce His Wife for Talking Too Much?
The Old Rules
2,480 views
In Tang dynasty China, a husband could send his wife back to her parents for seven reasons, and talking too much was one of them. But the same law code gave wives three ways to stop him, and a husband who broke those protections faced a hundred strokes with the heavy rod. The divorce papers that ordinary couples actually signed tell a different story.
00:00 The Seven Reasons
01:09 Why Talkativeness Made the List
03:10 Three Ways to Stop Him
05:31 How Marriages Were Made
07:55 The Divorce Papers
09:20 Found in a Desert Cave
📌 SOURCES:
Jacques Gernet, "A History of Chinese Civilization" (1996)
Johnson, Wallace, trans, "The Tang Code: Volume One: General Principles" (1979)
Johnson, Wallace and Denis Twitchett , "Criminal Procedure in T'ang China", "Asia Major" (1993)
Ray Erwin Baber, "Marriage in Ancient China" (1934)
Bijia Chen et al., "Interethnic marriage in Northeast China, 1866–1913" (2018)
John Fairbank et al., "China: A New History" (2006)
Why Could a Husband in Ancient China Divorce His Wife for Talking Too Much?
The Old Rules
2,480 views
In Tang dynasty China, a husband could send his wife back to her parents for seven reasons, and talking too much was one of them. But the same law code gave wives three ways to stop him, and a husband who broke those protections faced a hundred strokes with the heavy rod. The divorce papers that ordinary couples actually signed tell a different story.
00:00 The Seven Reasons
01:09 Why Talkativeness Made the List
03:10 Three Ways to Stop Him
05:31 How Marriages Were Made
07:55 The Divorce Papers
09:20 Found in a Desert Cave
📌 SOURCES:
Jacques Gernet, "A History of Chinese Civilization" (1996)
Johnson, Wallace, trans, "The Tang Code: Volume One: General Principles" (1979)
Johnson, Wallace and Denis Twitchett , "Criminal Procedure in T'ang China", "Asia Major" (1993)
Ray Erwin Baber, "Marriage in Ancient China" (1934)
Bijia Chen et al., "Interethnic marriage in Northeast China, 1866–1913" (2018)
John Fairbank et al., "China: A New History" (2006)