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There are two types of government regulations on the age of marriage in ancient times on population and age of marriage. The first is conventional, determining the legal age of marriage, that is, stipulating the age at which a man and a woman can get married; One is temporary, formulated according to the social situation at the time, this kind of law is occasional in terms of a dynasty, and it can also be found that many dynasties are strung together: they are formulated to solve a prominent social problem.

Early Marriage Order

The Government forced people to marry at a certain age or face sanctions. According to the records we have seen, the earliest mention of this theory is the era of the holy king mentioned by Mozi, that is, the ancients said that there are more than three generations. Mozi said: "The former holy king said for the law: the husband is twenty years old, don't dare not be at home, the woman is fifteen years old, don't dare to be innocent, this holy king's law is also." Mozi believed that in ancient times, men and women must marry at the age of 20, which is a legal stipulation, and he dare not disobey it. Mozi is talking about the facts of that period, and it is difficult to confirm whether there is such a fact or not. We do know that the earliest time the government implemented this policy was the Yue Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period. Goujian, the king of Yue, was defeated by Wu and returned to Huiji, lying on his back and trying his courage, preparing for revenge, and implementing the policy of "ten years of life and gathering, ten years of lessons". One of the contents of the "birth gathering" is to multiply the population, so it is declared: "If a woman does not marry at the age of seventeen, her parents are guilty; If the husband does not marry twenty, his parents are guilty. Chinese This is to set 20 years old for men and 17 years old for women as the latest age for marriage, that is, the age at which they must be married, not the age at which they can be married.

Emperor Wu of Jin, who formally established the Western Jin Dynasty, issued an order in the ninth year of Taishi: "If the female is seventeen, and the parents do not marry, the elder will be matched." If the daughter's parents don't marry her off when she reaches the age of 17, the government will forcibly match her, or in that case, it is better for her parents to marry her before the age of 17.

Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty issued an edict in the third year of Jiande (574): "From now on, men are fifteen years old, women are more than thirteen years old, and widows and widows are located. ("Book of Zhou, Emperor Wu Ji") a woman is about to marry at the age of 13, and she is the youngest of the laws we know.

Population policy

Why do some dynasties force people to marry for a period of time? We can see the social situation in which that policy was formulated. Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was in the years of long-term melee between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty were after the large-scale long-term war, that is, when they were all long-term wars or just ended, the disasters of war caused many deaths and caused a sharp decline in population. In terms of the population figures controlled by the state, the population of the Eastern Han Dynasty reached more than 56 million, and after the Three Kingdoms Rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty, the Western Jin Dynasty was only more than 16 million, only 2/7 of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Sui Dynasty, with a population of 46 million, did not return to the level of the Eastern Han Dynasty after the long war between the Northern and Southern Dynasties. After the Peasant War at the end of the Sui Dynasty, although the population of Zhenguan increased compared with Wudejian, it was only more than 12 million, which was only 1/4 of the Sui Dynasty. In order to solve this problem, the rulers hoped to increase the population by forcing early marriages to force early marriages, which affected the collection of conscription and the source of troops.

Mencius said that the princes have three treasures: land, people, and political affairs, and that without a certain number of people, the state would not be a state. In order to make young people marry early, the government advocated simplifying marriage ceremonies and conducting marriages frugally, and the aforementioned call of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty in the edict of "marrying at the right time, be thrifty, and do not keep money for money" is this principle. If the parties to the marriage compete for money and dowry, it is difficult for the poor family to marry in time, let alone marry in advance.

Widows are encouraged to remarry

In the decree on compulsory early marriage, we can also see that the government advocated the remarriage of widows, as stated very clearly in the aforementioned edict of Zhenguan. Before the Tang Dynasty, people did not discriminate much or not much against women who remarried, but praised those who kept the festival. The Zhenguan Decree says that when a widow's mourning dress expires, the government requires her to marry again, and of course, it is not forced to insist on not remarrying. A woman's second marriage should be the same as a man's right, but in a society where men are inferior to women, they are blamed for women in second marriages, but when the early marriage decree was implemented, the government encouraged women to remarry, which was objectively an impact on the concept of observance.

All in all, it is extremely unreasonable for the governments of previous dynasties to force people to marry at an early age in order to increase the population, and even treat men and women who do not practice early marriage as criminals. Forcing teenagers to marry is a devastation to their physical and mental health. Therefore, even in a time when the population is sparse, the policy of forced early marriage is absurd and undesirable. People can only marry and have children when they are physiologically mature, which is not only in line with the interests of the maritator himself, but also the premise of high-quality reproduction of human beings. It reflects that the ancient rulers regarded people as a kind of reproductive labor force and a tool of force, and they did not treat civilians as human beings at all, which is the feudal era does not pay attention to human nature, which is a manifestation of its barbarism.

The age of marriage through the ages

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was common to marry men at 30 and women at 20. The ancients believed that a man in his twenties could be a father because he was strong in his thirties, and a woman in his twenties was mature and could be a mother.

Since then, the regulations on the age of marriage have gradually decreased in successive dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Duke of Qi Huan stipulated: Men should start a family at thirty, and women should marry at fifteen. King Goujian of Yue stipulated: Men do not marry at 20, and women do not marry at 16, and the sin is against their parents. This is an early marriage policy among the princes to speed up population growth, increase labor and military resources in order to compete for hegemony.

In the Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that women over the age of 15 who did not marry should pay five times the tax, forcing people to marry early, so that many parents did not know how to raise and educate their children, resulting in an increase in infant mortality.

The Western Jin Dynasty stipulates that when a woman is seventeen years old, her parents do not marry her, and the local officials choose her match. During the Northern Qi Dynasty, all the children of miscellaneous households under the age of 20 and over 14 were recruited into the army. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, men were fifteen and women thirteen and above had to get married.

In order to alleviate social contradictions, the early Tang Dynasty adopted a policy of recuperation and recuperation, and relaxed the age of marriage, stipulating that men should marry 20 and women should marry 15. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it was reduced to more than 15 men and 13 or more women. Otherwise, the government will intervene. Since then, from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the legal age of marriage is around 16 for men and 14 for women.

In modern times, the legal age of marriage has gradually increased. The Civil Law of the Republic of China stipulates that men under the age of 18 and women under the age of 16 may not marry. In the early days of liberation, China's marriage law stipulated that men could only get married at the age of 20 and women at the age of 18. The new marriage law now stipulates that a man must not be earlier than 22 years old and a woman must not be earlier than 20 years old.