Women's rights and status seen from the Tang legal documents and funerary epitaphs = You tang dai fa lü wen shu ji mu zhi ming zhong suo jian fu nü quan li yu di wei

Abstract

In traditional Chinese Patriarchal System, women were considered as men’s belong and part of family tree. According to “TangLuShuYi”《唐律疏議》, Tang Dynasty’s women contained distinctive role: Mother, wife, concubine and daughter, all have distinct right in their position of the family. However, whether they could actually exercise their right depends on many factors. One of these factors, the author believe, is the impact from the own family and the concept of society values.

In this dissertation, the author focus on cases described by legal instruments and funerary epitaphs (《文苑英華》、《白居易詩箋集》及《唐代墓誌銘彙編》), analysis the legal right which women entitled to exercise. When impacted between their family right and the society status, whether the women were still able to have their legal right. The dissertation will tries to figure out women in Tang Dynasty actual society right and status.

In conclusion, women in Tang Dynasty may have their social status which is depend on their family. Therefore they were able to enjoy better right than other dynasty, but were still under cover or protection of their feudal family.