Qing DynastygdpFirst, how is property inherited?
The Qing Dynasty, as the last feudal dynasty in China, its image is often limited to the details of the late Qing Dynasty, such as decadence, backwardness, feudalism and ignorance. However, if you leave these details aside, from an objective point of view, the GDP of the Qing Dynasty was the first in the world until the end of the Qing Dynasty.
So, how did people inherit property in such a dynasty with a lot of wealth? The Qing Dynasty was a distinctive feudal dynasty founded by a small number of ethnic minorities.
It reached the pinnacle of feudal society in terms of population, territory, wealth, and social productivity, and the prosperous Kangqian era appeared. Before entering the customs, the Manchus (or Jurchens) were forest woodcutters and hunters in the Baishan and Heishui regions, living in a place with a harsh natural environment, a small population, and many tribes were relatively barbaric, and the accumulation of wealth was not much.
During this period, the Manchus had a unique way of inheriting property, and like their society, they were in a more primitive stage, usually using the method of "property separation".
To put it simply, it is to distribute property according to the preferences of the head of the family, but the "preferences" here generally do not include women. The distribution of a family's property depends entirely on the wishes of the head of the family.
It was not until Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne that the Manchus completed the process of feudalization as a whole, and at this time there were many things to consider and institutionalize, especially with the acceleration of wealth accumulation, the property inheritance system was also put on the agenda.
The Huang Taiji inheritance system is similar to the distribution of property according to personal preference, and the Manchus practice inheritance by young sons, which is common in Manchu society. The Mongols and Tibetans also have the custom of inheriting property, but the Manchu inheritance of young sons is not limited to the youngest son, but refers to the minor son in general, so it is more flexible.
During his lifetime, Nurhachi divided his property into two tranches, one to his adult nephews and the other to his three youngest sons in his later years. Huang Taiji incorporated these ideas and habits into the content of the legal system.
In the early days of the Qing Dynasty, due to the frequent and large military activities, there was a provision that all property was inherited by the wife after the death of the head of the family. These rules were derived from custom and etiquette, and were gradually incorporated into law.
At the same time, Huang Taiji was surrounded by many Han and Confucian ministers, and their suggestion of "participating in the Han Dynasty and considering the Later Jin as appropriate" laid the foundation for the opening of the Manchu-Han integration situation.
In 1644, when the Qing troops entered the customs, Dolgon ordered that "the punishment should be followed by the Ming law", which was established in the context of the Manchu minority in Chinese society since the Qing Dynasty, and laid the foundation for the Qing Dynasty's 300-year rule.
In addition, the centralized rule of the Manchus has also brought the characteristics of ethnic minorities to the legal system and better takes care of more people.
The Manchu regime's earnestness and focus on revising the law made the property inheritance system a major highlight. The ways and means of property inheritance are marked in the form of law, and are supervised and guaranteed by the organs of state power.
The property inheritance system of the Qing Dynasty included a variety of situations, such as statutory inheritance, testamentary succession, subrogation, "household extinction" inheritance, and female inheritance. The equal distribution of sons was the main way of inheritance of property in ancient China, which was quickly accepted by the Qing Dynasty and written into the law.
In addition, the Qing Dynasty stipulated that all heirs, whether born to wives, concubines, or slaves, were equal, which greatly promoted social fairness and avoided family strife and strife caused by property entanglements.
Interestingly, the Qing Dynasty also provided inheritance rights for illegitimate children, usually half of the normal heirs, and in the absence of suitable stepsons, illegitimate children could even receive the entire property.
However, this kind of provision is generally only present in the law, because it conflicts with the traditional patriarchal system of the people. The people have adopted the method of "recognizing their ancestors and returning to their ancestors" to solve this problem.
Legal inheritance was an important part of the property inheritance system in the Qing Dynasty, which provided a good guarantee for maintaining the development and stability of the family. Even in the case of a will, statutory succession is still the basis.
The Qing Dynasty respected and recognized wills, and in civil property inheritance disputes, family relatives, high-ranking people in the family, and the government would work together to ensure the inheritance form of the will.
When the government needs to come forward, the government will come out and rule on the suitability of the will.
In the Qing Dynasty, when the government handled cases, it was often a common phenomenon to inherit on behalf of the government. This was due to the limitations of social productivity and medical security at that time, which led to short life expectancy and frequent accidents.
In such cases, it is not uncommon for a grandson to inherit property in place of a grandfather, or a grandson to inherit property in place of a childless family. The wife's subrogation was more to help manage the property, because the Qing law was very strict with the widow's acquisition of property, which reflected the male-centric nature of Manchu society at that time.
There were not a few families in the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to these families"Succession", that is, the stepson received by the head of the household during his lifetime, or after the death of the heir of the head of the household, the people in the clan and the widow look for the stepson to inherit the property for him.
There is a rule that this person should be from the same clan as the nephew. If there is no such candidate, distant relatives and people with the same surname will be chosen. In addition, the Qing Law is also responsible for the order of respect and inferiority, the supervision of pure blood, the prohibition of inheritance of different surnames, the prohibition of the inheritance of only sons, and once it appears, it will be punished by a rod of 80 or a rod of 100.
In the Qing Dynasty, step-sons were generally considered immutable, but step-parents had the right to depose stepsons. In order to maintain social stability and clan harmony, the Qing Dynasty allowed the stepson to give up the stepfamily property and return to the original family under special circumstances, such as if the stepparents had biological children or the biological parents lost their children.
Even if you stay in the stepparent's family, if the stepparent has a biological son, the stepchild and the biological son have the same inheritance rights to property. The Qing Dynasty had very strict regulations on the stepson system, but among the people, people adopted various methods and measures to solve the problem of property inheritance, with less clan interference, and everything was based on the principle of convenience.
The emergence of this situation is related to the Qing Dynasty's wars, population decline, economic development and the improvement of people's quality of life. It also reflects the human nature of property inheritance, i.e., people can decide on inheritance according to their personal preferences.
Due to the serious loss of population and the average life expectancy is not long, it has become a bright spot and feature of property inheritance, it is like a flat shoulder, both ends of the biological parents and step-parents two families, responsible for maintenance, but also inherit the property of both parties, is a supplement to the Qing Dynasty law "only son can not be inherited", but also the feudal society people according to the actual situation to create the wisdom of property inheritance.
In the Qing Dynasty, women were a disadvantaged group in the inheritance of property, and only in special circumstances could a widow inherit property, and issues such as her chastity had to be considered.
Due to the existence of a patriarchal society, even daughters are at a disadvantage in property inheritance, and only in the Song Dynasty did the daughters of the families inherit a large amount of property, and the next three dynasties returned to the "tradition" of property inheritance in a patriarchal society.
The Qing Dynasty women's summary of the Qing Dynasty's property inheritance system reflects the Qing Dynasty's efforts to maintain social stability and realize the unification of royal power. This is closely related to its social productivity, civilization and social reality, which not only reflects the influence of the cultural integration of the Manchu and Han dynasties and other ethnic groups, but also reflects the consideration made by the centralization of power to achieve the needs of social rule, and also reflects the choices made by the people for their own or clan interests.
As an important part of human social and cultural life, the inheritance methods and methods of property also reflect the development level of culture and civilization in an era. People make their own property inheritance choices while seeking harmony and long-term development.
The content of this paragraph mainly refers to the "Great Qing Law", "Qing History" and "Qing Legal History" and other related documents.