Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Maps, Figures, and Tables -- Maps -- Figures -- Tables -- Chronology of Chinese Dynasties -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Historical Context -- Contours of Change at the National Level -- Local Conditions: The Prefecture of Chien-ning, Fukien -- Chu Hsi (1130-1200) and the Learning of the Way (Tao-Hsüeh) -- Women's Property: Conceptions, Language, and Significance -- The Language of Minimization -- The Economic Significance of Women's Property -- 1 Women and Property before the Sung: Evolution and Continuity -- Chou Feudalism and Confucian Ideals -- Han Dynasty Developments: Communal Living, Common Property -- Dowry versus Betrothal Gifts -- T'ang Inheritance and Property Law -- Conclusion -- 2 Women and Property in the Sung: Legal Innovation in Changing Times -- Sung Law and the Legal System -- Transmission of Wealth to Women -- Daughters and Sons in Family Division -- THE HALF-SHARE RULE -- STATE SUPPORT OF FEMALE INHERITANCE -- DAUGHTERS' INHERITANCE BY TESTAMENT AND LEGAL PROTECTION OF THE PROPERTY OF MINORS -- Inheritance by Daughters without Surviving Brothers -- NEW PROVISIONS FOR DAUGHTERS IN CUT-OFF HOUSEHOLDS -- INTERVENTION OF THE STATE -- DAUGHTERS AND POSTHUMOUS HEIRS -- RULES OF DIVISION BETWEEN DAUGHTERS AND POSTHUMOUS HEIRS -- Women's Property within Marriage -- Taking Property out of a Marriage after the Husband's Death -- Son and Stepmother Dispute Property -- Hsiung Pang and His Brother Dispute Property with [the widow] Ah Kan -- REMARRIAGE AND THE LAW -- Separate Property within Marriage While the Husband Was Alive -- Divorce -- Disposition of Dowry When a Wife Died without Heirs -- Conclusion: Property, Gender, and the Law -- 3 Women's Property and Confucian Reaction in the Sung.

Patrilineality and Daughters' Inheritance -- Opposition to Private Property within Marriage -- Chu's Hsi's Encouragement of Dowry Donation -- Dowry Donation and the Learning of the Way Fellowship -- The Growing Concern over Dowry during the Sung -- Learning of the Way Ideals and Women as Household Bursars -- Northern Sung Discourse on Women as Household Managers -- Chu Hsi and Women's Roles in the Household -- Chu Hsi's Contemporaries and Followers -- Huang Kan's Enforcement of Learning of the Way Ideals -- I -- II -- III -- Conclusion -- 4 Transformation of Marriage and Property Law in the Yüan -- Marriage and the Levirate in Mongol and Chinese Society -- Law in the Yüan Dynasty -- Family Property and Daughters' Inheritance -- Inheritance in Cut-off Households -- Women's Separate Property in Marriage -- Changing Laws on Marriage and Property in the Yüan -- Stage 1: Separation of Mongol and Chinese Law, 1260 to the End of 1271 -- Stage 2: Mongolization of the Law and Universal Application of the Levirate, 1271-1276 -- Stage 3: Reassertion of Chinese Values and Lenient Enforcement of the Levirate, 1276-1294 -- Stage 4: The Confucian Transformation of Marriage and Property Law, 1294-1320 -- LEVIRATE MARRIAGE -- THE MOURNING PERIOD -- FAMILY PROPERTY AND WOMAN AS PROPERTY -- NEW LEGISLATION PROMOTING WIDOW CHASTITY -- Sample Petition for a Widow without Children Requesting a Permit to Remarry -- Stage 5: The Exaltation of Chastity in the Late Yüan -- Post-Yüan Developments -- Conclusion -- Conclusion: Gender, Mongols, and Confucian Ideals -- Bibliography -- Primary Sources -- Secondary Sources -- Glossary-Index.