With regard to this custom, we can find a similar phenomenon of "staying at home" among ethnic minorities such as Zhuang, Miao and Buyi in China, but women in Hui 'an area do not associate with men (including husbands) and regard chastity as their life during their "staying at home for a long time". The latter is different, and men and women communicate more freely.
This custom, which exists in the residential areas of Han nationality, is not only an example in Fujian Province, but also rare in other parts of China. Therefore, in recent decades, researchers have paid more and more attention to the marriage custom of Fujian Hui 'an women's "permanent residence at their parents' home". People have made various speculations, textual research and studies on its origin, race and spread reasons. However, due to the lack of strong material evidence, it has been circulated for a long time and its connotation has changed. So far, there is no completely satisfactory answer to this strange marriage custom.
As for its source, some local people think it is the shortage of labor between villages. In order to keep the married daughter, an unwritten rural custom has formed over time, that is, a woman must live in her family for a long time after marriage, and if she wants to settle in her husband's family, she must wait until she is pregnant and in labor. Others believe that this custom originated from Zhou Dexing's army in the Ming Dynasty. According to legend, Jiang Xiahou and Zhou Dexing led a large number of troops to set up health clinics along the coast of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty. This custom of Hui 'an has been spread since these soldiers were introduced.
Mr. Lin and others disagree with these statements. From the perspective of ethnology, they think that although this custom has changed from place to place, it should be traced back to the historical stage of the transition from matriarchal clan to paternal clan in primitive society. Many similar ethnological materials at home and abroad, as well as similar marriage customs such as "robbing marriage" and "giving birth to an old man", have repeatedly proved this fact. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Dexing led many members of the headquarters to "die in Chu" according to the records in Ming History. At that time, there was no such custom in Chu. As for the rules and regulations in rural areas, it is actually one of the reasons that have been passed down to this day, not the fundamental reason.
As for its ethnic group, most of the residents in the circulating area are Han nationality, so from the present situation, many people think it belongs to the custom of Han nationality.
Lin, Lin Weiwen and others believe that it should belong to the Guyue nationality. The reasons are as follows: First, the indigenous people in Fujian and other places are Guyue people and their primitive ancestors. They have lived here for a long time and have completely formed their own unique culture. Secondly, in ancient times, the Yue people kept the marriage custom of "never leaving their in-laws", which was also confirmed by the similar customs of their descendants, such as Zhuang, Buyi, Li and Gaoshan. 3. After the Han Dynasty, the Guyue people were gradually merged by the Han people in the Central Plains and their advanced cultures. However, due to some special historical reasons and social conditions, an ancient nation has disappeared in a certain area, but one of its customs can still take root and spread among new nations. Many nationalities in the world have many such examples, and Huian is one of them.
There are different opinions about the reasons why it has spread so far. After investigation, Lin Weiwen basically summarized as follows.
First of all, Hui 'an custom spread in Han areas only after its connotation changed. The main content of the change is to abandon the primitive freedom of communication between men and women and other things that are not allowed by feudal morality, and replace them with things that break up the relationship between men and women and protect chastity and other things that meet feudal moral standards. Because of this key change, this custom can continue. Second, compete for labor. Huian is the hometown of overseas Chinese and masons. Around the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many men mostly went to foreign countries or foreign lands to make a living. For a long time, local agriculture was entirely the responsibility of women. Keeping married young women is of course beneficial to her family, so we welcome the custom of "staying at her parents' home for a long time". Third, get married early. The local custom of early marriage has been circulating for a long time. For boys and girls who are eleven or twelve years old or younger, getting married is just a fun thing. These childlike boys and girls still need the care of their parents after marriage, so the ancient marriage custom of "staying at home for a long time" just caters to their appetite and can be spread. Fourth, the traditional ideological needs of local women. For example, local married women cherish chastity, and most of them are unwilling or intimidated by "public opinion" and dare not associate with their husbands. Before the founding of New China, there were various strange phenomena such as resisting men's "permanent residence in women's clubs" and even strangers when couples met.
In order to protect themselves from men, the marriage custom of "house" is their best umbrella. In addition, some people think that local women get less money when they get married, and women can get financial compensation from their parents if they live in their parents' home for a long time. Of course, these are only secondary reasons.
Like similar marriage customs at home and abroad, the remaining custom of "staying at home for a long time" in Hui 'an area is a rare and precious material for studying the evolutionary history of human marriage, ethnology and history. Mystery of ghost marriage
Ghost marriage, also known as ghost marriage, refers to the marriage between the unmarried and the dead, and later developed into the marriage between the living and the dead. This marriage custom has a long history. "Zhou Li Shi Mei" contains: "It is forbidden to move and bury and marry."
It shows that in the pre-Qin period, there was a custom of letting both parties be buried together and married. Cao Cao of the Three Kingdoms wanted his beloved son Cao Chong to marry his dead daughter Li Yuan. After being rejected, he also married Zhen Shiyin's dead daughter Cao Chong. In Song Dynasty, ghost marriage was very popular. Unmarried men and women died, and parents had to ask for matchmaking. This matchmaker is called "ghost matchmaker". Ghost marriage in Yuan and Ming Dynasties is even more absurd and inhuman.
According to the Biography of Yuan Nv, after her husband died, her husband's family was going to find the bones of the dead woman and hold a ghost wedding, but Yang committed suicide and was buried with her husband.
In the Ming Dynasty, the system and custom of praising chaste women were formed. Biography of Women in Ming Dynasty recorded many cases of unmarried and married women committing suicide because of their husbands' death. According to scholars, this kind of ghost marriage is quite cruel. There was a girl 14 years old whose fiance died. Her father locked her in the house and tried to starve her to death.
The girl was hungry and begged, and her father persuaded her with tears. The mother couldn't bear to poison her daughter. Father said, no, the government will conduct an autopsy after death, even if you starve to death. Here, the feudal ethics twisted human affection into: poisoning one's own daughter with one's own hands, and showing a kind of maternal love.
In the Qing Dynasty, after Nacai (the first step of six rites, just proposing marriage), the man died, the woman committed suicide, was buried together, or still married with her fiance's wooden owner (spirit tablet), and then celebrated her fiance's festival.
The latter is called "empty husband marriage". Before liberation, ghost marriage and empty husband marriage were quite popular in Guangdong. If the man dies in Nanyang or can't go home, he will still marry a daughter-in-law and hold Woodenhead or a rooster to pay homage.
In 1960s, the film Red women soldiers described that Qionghua Wu met a woman on the way to join the army, and her husband was lying in bed. This is not a fiction made up by the screenwriter out of thin air. This inhuman marriage did exist before liberation.