Marriage norms and practices in the period of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern, Sui and Tang dynasties

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K13115
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 03030:History of Asia and Africa-related
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Itahashi Akiko 東京大学, 附属図書館, 助教 (30837290)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 魏晋 / 五胡十六国 / 南北朝 / 隋唐 / 妻妾 / 嫡庶 / レヴィレート婚 / ジェンダー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, I explored the norms and deviations in terms of marriage (especially the relationship between a wife and concubines) in the period of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern, Sui and Tang dynasties, when Han and non-Han people conflicted and gradually became integrated. It was a universal rule and phenomenon in pre-modern China that a man in the upper part of society had concubines as well as a wife in order to certainly have sons who were supposed to inherit the rites of ancestor worship. In this research, I clarified the following by examining individual cases, Confucian texts, and legal codes: In the period of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties, when non-Han dynasties were established for the first time in Chinese history, and the Sui and Tang dynasties, who were descended from the Northern (Xianbei) dynasties, marriage practices sometimes included non-Han elements but returned to the doctrines written in Confucian canon in terms of rites and laws.

Free Research Field

魏晋南北朝史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究が得た成果の学術的意義は、経書に明示される「妻妾間の尊卑」や、漢代以降に定着した「収継婚の否定」が魏晋南北朝隋唐時代において規範として共有されつつも、実態としては地域・時代による多様性や柔軟な応用がみられることを指摘し、各種の婚姻実践の検証を通じて、伝統中国社会において一貫して重視される「嫡庶」という序列をより多角的に把握したことが挙げられる。社会的意義は、上記の成果にもとづき、日本や朝鮮半島など、中国由来の婚姻規範の影響を長らく受けつつも、（時期によっては妻妾間に実質的な序列がないなど）独自の婚姻文化を形成した周辺地域の歴史的ジェンダー秩序を考える上での新たな視座を提供する点である。