《周礼》“令男三十而娶,女二十而嫁”新解

A New Interpretation on “Ordering Males to Marry at the Age of Thirty and Females at the Age of Twenty” of Zhou Li

《周礼》中有关媒氏"令男三十而娶,女二十而嫁"的记载,自古以来理解歧义颇多,然而从婚姻进化的历程来看其风甚古。一夫一妻个体婚姻制度确立之初,社会上确实存在着大量"晚婚"甚至不婚的现象。舜禹亦有三十岁而婚的传说。《周礼》等文献有关婚年的规定,其本意不在倡导晚婚或婚龄早晚之限,而是针对着民间尚且存在的原始婚俗,政府适时引导和推行嫁娶礼法的举措,带有克服原始婚俗和巩固个体婚姻制度的意义,后来早婚措施的推行其原因亦在于兹。

The statement of Mei Shi(an organ which was in charge of marriage affairs) "ordered males to marry at the age of thirty and females at the age of twenty" recorded in Zhou Li, had many ambiguities since ancient times. However, from the history of marriage evolution, this ancient tradition of late marriage was on the base of the evolutionary and development of matrimony. At the beginning of the establishment of monogamy, there was a large number of late marriage or non-marriage in the society. There also had the legend of Shun and Yu married at the age of thirty. Records of the age of Marriage in historical documents, such as Zhou Li, had no intention to advocate late marriage or set a limit on the age of marriage, but measures of the government to regulate and promote marriage etiquette when the primitive marriage customs that still existed in the folk. Those measures had the significance of overcoming primitive marriage customs and strengthening the monogamous institution. The same tendency could be seen when the early marriage policy was later implemented.