The conversation between literature and statute : the adultery cases in Wu Jianren's The Chinese detective stories (Zhongguo zhentan an) = 文學與法規的對話 : 從吳趼人《中國偵探案》婚姻姦情案談起

Abstract

Law and literature often take “People and Society 人和社會” as the research object, and describe the relationships between people and society. This dissertation intends to reveal intersections between the fields of literature and law through crossexamining the literary works “The Chinese Detective Stories 中國偵探案”, the historical legal archives “Compilation of the Baxian Archives of the Qing Dynasty: Volume of the Qianlong Reign 清代巴縣檔案匯編 · 乾隆卷”, “The archives of the Grand Secretariat淸代內閣大庫原藏明淸檔案”, and select historical legal regulations. The author found close resemblance between the numerous adultery-related cases featured in the “The Chinese Detective Stories” and those found in actual historical legal archives. This finding revealed the prevalence of adultery amongst common women in the Qing Dynasty. Qing law curbed adultery through stringent laws and severe punishment, and gave legitimacy to husbands’ killing of adulterous spouses. On the other hand, Qing law was also known for according women involved in adultery lenient legal treatment. Both of these legal tendencies harboured moralising purposes. Upon committing crimes against the traditional code of feminine morality 婦道, Qing women could easily lose protection of the law. It can be seen from this that women’s legal and social statuses in the Qing Dynasty certainly suffered in the face of a context restrictive and unprogressive.