Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society

Until now our understanding of marriage in China has been based primarily on observations made during the twentieth century. The research of ten eminent scholars presented here provides a new vision of marriage in Chinese history, exploring the complex interplay between marriage and the social, political, economic, and gender inequalities that have so characterized Chinese society.

Rubie S. Watson is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. Patricia Buckley Ebrey is Professor of Chinese History at the University of Illinois.

Introduction, Patricia Buckley Ebrey
Marriages of the Ruling Elite in the Spring and Autumn Period, Melvin P. Thatcher
Imperial Marriage in the Native Chinese and Non-Han State, Han to Ming, Jennifer Holmgren
Shifts in Marriage Finance from the Sixth to the Thirteenth Century, Patricia Buckley Ebrey
The Marriage of Sung Imperial Clanswomen, John W. Chaffee
Ch'ing Imperial Marriage and Problems of Rulership, Evelyn S. Rawski
Grooming a Daughter for Marriage: Brides and Wives in the Mid-Ch'ing Period, Susan Mann
Wives, Concubines, and Maids: Servitude and Kinship in the Hong Kong Region, 1900-1940, Rubie S. Watson
Prostitution and the Market in Women in Early Twentieth-Century Shanghai, Gail Hershatter
Marriage and Mobility under Rural Collectivism, William Lavely
Women, Property, and Law in the People's Republic of China, Jonathan K. Ocko
Afterword: Marriage and Gender Inequality, Rubie S. Watson