Правовое положение женщин в истории средневекового Китая

317 Summary under the rule of Tang, Northern and Southern Song based on the legislation of crimes against sexual immunity (rape and harassment) and family offenses against common moral and ethical norms (for- nication, incest etc.). There are four appendices attached to the monograph: “Chinese Law Codes from the 4th Century B.C. to the 20 th Century”, “Term Glossary”, “Translations of Selected Articles of the Tang Code, the Song Code, Statutes Ling, Collection of Law of the Qing-yuan Pe- riod” and “Translations of Some Judicial Decisions of Qingming Ji”. The matter of the study demonstrates that the Tang-Song era (7 th century — 13 th century) was a unique period in the history of the Chinese law in general and the history of women’s legal position in particular. The research consecutively proves that the formed cliché of deeply discriminated position of women does not reflect historic reality. The traditional model of family and matrimonial relations brought inequality of men and women, but its extent was by all stand- ards different than some modern researchers imagine. The mother had the highest legal status among women in the fam- ily. The high legal and social status of a mother from the times of the empress Wu-hou (late 7 th century — early 8 th century) and later dur- ing the Song era was determined by the following circumstances: the decree of prolongation of the term of mourning for the mother, the influence of specific Buddhist views, and changes in political culture that brought a new mother’s duty, viz., direct participation in the sons’ preparation for state exams. The author came to a conclusion that in the studied period women as well as men had and used the right for divorce and subsequent mar- riage, contradictory to the prevailing idea of legislative limitations