西周时期的阶层外婚与阶层流动

The Cross-class Marriage and Social Mobility in the Western Zhou Dynasty

阶层外婚指来自不同阶层的男女之间的婚姻。西周时期的绝大多数婚姻是阶层内婚,但也存在少量阶层外婚。后者包括丈夫地位高于妻子和妻子地位高于丈夫两种情况。在这些阶层外婚中,夫妻双方精诚合作、共同拼搏是实现进一步向上流动的主要方式。除此之外,地位高的一方会有意无意、偶然必然地提带另一方,使后者地位提升。当时有些女子因婚姻使自身的社会地位获得了提高。值得注意的是,当时还有一些男子通过婚姻使自己获得了较高的社会地位。

The study of social mobility in the Western Zhou Dynasty inevitably involves the role of marriage, and the discussion of cross-class marriage is an effective way to distinguish and analyze this problem.The cross-class marriage refers to the one between men and women from different classes.The majority of marriages in the Western Zhou Dynasty are intra-class marriages, but there are a few cross-class marriages in which the social status of the husband is higher than that of their spouse or vice versa.In those cross-class marriages, sincere cooperation and joint efforts between husband and wife are the major way to achieve further upward mobility.Besides, one party with a higher status will, intentionally or accidentally, inevitably help improve the status of the other party.At that time, the status of some women was promoted by means of marriage.Especially noteworthy is that there were some men who, through marriage, enhanced their status as well.