清代女子的财产继承——以“黛玉家产之谜”为例的考察

Women’s Inheritance of Property in Qing Dynasty——An Investigation Based on the Mystery of Daiyu’s Family Property

清代继承法以"重承祀轻财产"为宗旨,建立在父系丧服基础之上的宗祧继承甚为重要,女子不能承祧,亦不能参与家产析分,只有在户绝的情况下,女子才能依"户绝财产"例继承家产。由于户绝之家可以在昭穆相当的同宗亲属中选择应继之人承祧祭祀,户绝之家并不当然绝嗣,"户绝财产"例的适用大大受限。法律虽未赋予女子参与家产析分的权利,但在现实生活中,女子可以通过获取嫁妆的形式,间接参与娘家家产分割。

The core spirit of inheritance law in the Qing Dynasty is to attach more importance to inheritor’s identity rather than property. The ancestral temple inheritance system based on the mourning clothes of the patriarchal society is very important. Women are not allowed to inherit property,nor can they participate in the division of family property. Only when there were no other successors in the family could a woman inherit the family property according to the regulation of None Family Member. However,because the family could choose successors from the consanguinity’s relatives to inherit property,it is actually hard for families without offspring to exclude all their successors,which greatly results in the applicability limitation of regulation of None Family Member. Although the law did not delegate women the right to participate in the division of family property,in fact,women could also indirectly participate in the division of their family property in the form of dowry.