Regarding the issue of inheritance of property, for Chinese society dominated by clan and patriarchal systems, the first thing a family values is the continuation and purity of the ancestor’s bloodline, followed by the inheritance of the family economy, and even the inheritance of property mainly serves the continuation of the bloodline.
Even in "extinct" families, in order to continue the bloodline, heirs must be selected from the blood family. Under this concept, descendants of the same bloodline, whether male or female, are treated equally, and they all have undeniable inheritance rights to the family's property.
The general form of in Chinese feudal society is that men occupy a dominant position and women are in a position of dependence on men. Although this state of dependence will change with changes in women's status in different historical periods, women's inferior position relative to men has not fundamentally changed. The property inheritance of women in ancient China was also dependent on male members of the family.
Wife's Property Inheritance
China's feudal system has developed to a period of unprecedented strengthening in the Ming Dynasty in the late fourteenth century. The status of women during this period is generally considered to have been reduced compared to previous generations. During this period, the wife's property status was completely dependent on her husband. Once the marriage relationship between husband and wife ends, not only will the wife not be able to share the property of her husband's family, but even the dowry brought from her natal family must be decided according to the wishes of her husband's family.
When the husband is alive, the ownership, management and disposal rights of family property are usually controlled by the parents, and the wife has no right to deal with the property. But when the husband dies, that is, when the wife becomes a "widow," her property status in the family will change.
The distribution of family property by a widow is basically divided into the following two situations:
First, if there are children, the widow usually has to form a small family with her biological children. The property of shall be inherited partly or entirely by his children according to the principle of equal division. When her son is young, the widow should supervise and manage the property for her son, and then hand over the property when the son reaches adulthood.
Secondly, in the case of childlessness, a widow from an extinct family can usually inherit all the property of her husband's family, which is called the "widow estate". However, families with an extinct family often have to establish another heir in accordance with legal provisions. The property inherited by the widow is actually part of the inheritance of the heir, that is, the heir has the obligation to support and bury the widow. After the death of the widow, the property inherited by the widow will be owned by the heir.
In other words, the wife actually has no inheritance rights to her husband's property. What she has is nominal ownership and a certain degree of management rights. The widow is just a relay in the property transfer process. Moreover, even this nominal property right must be based on the premise that the widow will keep her husband's will. Once the widow remarries, this property right will be deprived of her.
The concubine’s inheritance rights are not clarified in law, but because the law allows the concubine and the legitimate son to share property equally, the concubine’s maintenance expenses are actually included.
Daughter’s Property Inheritance
The "Da Ming Ling Household Order" stipulates that the only prerequisite for a son to have the right to inherit family property is that the family is extinct and there is no heir. In the case of biological children or heirs, the law does not give the daughter the right to inherit property . However, in real life, a daughter’s inheritance rights to personal property often exceed legal limits.
First, dowry is the most common way for daughters to get property from their biological family. Dowry, also commonly known as dowry and dowry, refers to the dowry property that a woman receives from her biological family when she gets married. Although the law of the Ming Dynasty did not explicitly stipulate the dowry for daughters, both social customs and official judgments recognized and maintained the inheritance of property in the form of dowry.
Secondly, even in the case of an heir, the daughter can often get a share of the biological property.
Japanese women’s property inheritance in the late fourteenth century
After Japanese society entered the Ritsuyo era, due to the serious remnants of the matrilineal clan, women and men basically had the same inheritance status, and women were often even given priority. However, by the Muromachi period in the late fourteenth century, Japanese women's property inheritance rights were completely lost. This is roughly due to two reasons, namely changes in marriage patterns and the influence of Confucianism .
First, the evolution of marriage forms.
After the establishment of the legal system, marriage by recruiting a son-in-law gradually replaced the original marriage by visiting the wife in Japanese society. The so-called son-in-law marriage means that the woman's family recruits a son-in-law, and the son-in-law usually lives in the woman's family. In this type of marriage, women often have a higher social status.
For example, from the Dahua reform at the end of the sixth century to the Nara era at the beginning of the eighth century, six female emperors were produced in Japanese society. This situation undoubtedly shows that women have the same status as men in terms of inheritance rights. Moreover, in the case of a son-in-law marriage, women have undeniable inheritance rights in terms of status and property.
The establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate in the twelfth century marked Japan's entry into samurai society, with men taking the dominant position, followed by the unprecedented development of patriarchal consciousness. Later, due to the status of samurai in war, women's living space was reduced. Marriage with a son-in-law is no longer suitable for the development of society, and marriage with a son-in-law has gradually replaced the marriage with a son-in-law as the main form of marriage.
In the Wu family society, a set of strictly hierarchical feudal order was established. Unlike the Chinese imperial examinations, both official positions and titles in Japanese society are completely hereditary. Under such circumstances, marriage in Japanese society has been completely reduced to a tool to maintain and strengthen family interests. Marriage no longer follows the opinions of the children but is arbitrarily operated by the parents.
Women’s marriage is not decided by themselves first, but requires the commitment and permission of their parents and other relatives. Because women have become tools and victims of marriage, women's identity and property inheritance rights are completely deprived of them under marriage. Women's economic independence has also been completely lost, and they have become dependent on male members of the family.
At the same time, with the establishment of the family governor inheritance system, for the sake of family interests and the continuation of the family business, the division of property among the sons was replaced by the inheritance of the eldest son, non-eldest sons were deprived of inheritance rights, and women were completely excluded.
Second, the influence of Confucianism.
Around the fifth century, Chinese Confucianism began to be introduced to Japan directly or indirectly. For Japanese society, Confucianism is basically absorbed based on the principle of "keep those who benefit me and leave those who are unfavorable". Therefore, unlike Chinese society, the impact of Confucianism on Japanese society is not extensive. However, some of these ideas are highly regarded by Japanese society and are even regarded as golden rules. The typical one is the social concept of "men are superior to women".
The Japanese society affected by this concept not only promotes women's " three obediences and four virtues ", treating women as tools in the hands of men and arbitrarily manipulating them, but also has a series of articles and theories promoting women's moral norms, such as "Women's Real Language Teaching", "Female Elementary School", "Female Doctrine" and so on. It can be seen that women have been deprived of self-assertion and have become subordinate to men.
Comparison of differences in property inheritance between Chinese and Japanese women in the late fourteenth century
Women in both China and Japan once had undeniable rights to the inheritance of family property. However, unlike the continuous inheritance of women’s rights in China, Japanese women’s inheritance of family property has gone through a transition from existence to non-existence.'s inherent property inheritance rights were eventually completely deprived of as history and times changed. From this, we can see the changes in Japanese society that are different from those in China.
Despite various legal restrictions, in actual life, Chinese women often have property inheritance rights that far exceed those provided by law, and these property rights cannot be deprived or reduced. Whether as mothers, wives or daughters, although women's roles in the family have been changing, they all have certain rights to manage and dispose of family property, which has become an undisputed part of women's property rights.
Unlike the property inheritance rights of male members of the family, which are recognized by law and custom, women's property inheritance is more secretive. This property usually does not appear in the form of public announcement, but is a dowry prepared by the biological family when the daughter gets married. This part of the property is not incorporated into the husband's family, and generally it will not be subject to the husband's family's control. It can be said that dowry is a part of the property that a female member obtains from her biological family and can fully control by herself.
Women’s property inheritance rights not only reflect Chinese society’s tolerance and recognition of women, but also the maintenance of family blood relationships. Because like male members, female members also inherit the blood of the same ancestors. Therefore, although traditional Confucian thought has led to the social concept of "men are superior to women", whether it is based on blood relations or parents' love for their daughters, they often give their daughters a relatively generous dowry as compensation for their daughters' foreign marriages out of habit.
Unlike Chinese women’s property inheritance rights, which are hidden but still exist, Japanese women’s property inheritance rights have experienced a transition from glory to decline, and were eventually completely deprived. In a marriage with a son-in-law, women are in the dominant position in the marriage, so women have a higher status in society.
In this type of marriage, women’s property inheritance is basically the same as that of men, and is often even given priority over men out of habit. But with the rise of marriage, the dominant position in marriage has changed from women to men, and the status of women has plummeted. Coupled with the influence and impact of traditional Chinese Confucianism at this time, the social concept of "men are superior to women" became the mainstream of society.
Female members are not only dependent on male members in the family, but also become a tool for family marriage. In this case, women's property inheritance rights are completely deprived. The loss of women’s property rights not only reflects Japanese society’s discrimination against women, but also reflects Japanese society’s indifference to blood relations. In the traditional Japanese concept, the most important thing in a family is the inheritance of the family business, not the continuation of the bloodline. Therefore, women's property rights are sacrificed in the family system that serves this purpose.
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