Life in Eastern Wu Changsha in the Three Kingdoms Period: Lifecycle and Cohabitant Family Members

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K01013
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 03030:History of Asia and Africa-related
• Research Institution: Ritsumeikan University
• Principal Investigator: Washio Yuko 立命館大学, 文学部, 非常勤講師 (60642345)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 走馬楼呉簡 / 住民家族名簿 / 戸籍 / 女性史 / ジェンダー / 家族 / ライフサイクル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We use the resident registers of the Zoumalou boards and slips to reveal the lifecycle of people in 3rd century Changsha. We gather a total of six registers from 235 to 237 A.D., identify the target, period, organization, purpose, and characteristics thereof, and determine the information necessary to compile them into a historical document, thereby reconstructing each household. This information indicates that many people got married for the first time in their late teens, established their own household in their 30s, and became dependents in their 60s and above. Marital relationships were fluid, as it was common for people to remarry multiple times. Women increasingly tended to be considered as belonging to their husband’s family, but mutual support among kin existed beyond the framework of the paternal family. The sources also point to sex-related differences, such as the tendency of infanticide of newborn girls, as well as the growing age gap between couples in older age ranges.

Free Research Field

中国古代・中世史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

史料的価値が未確定な走馬楼呉簡住民家族名簿(吏民簿)の史料化に成功した。名簿を分類し作成年・用途と特徴を定め、毎年住民把握のための日常的業務として複数の簿の対校が行われており、記載内容に信憑性があることを明かにし、これらの簿を史料とすることの有効性を証明した。
家族員や世帯の情報により、当時の男女のライフサイクルを明かにし、高齢になるまで婚姻可能であること、配偶者は入れ替わることなど、当時の婚姻に関する従来の見解を覆す知見を得た。また、高齢時の婚家帰属傾向や配偶者との年齢差の性差など、ジェンダーについて新たな情報を得、必ずしも父系・母系に拘束されない世帯の様態についても新たな知見を得た。