136 



EXOGAMY IN CHINA 



Translation of 

 extracts from 

 the Little 

 Calendar of Hsia, 

 and the History 

 of the Chou 

 Dynasty. Journal 

 Asiatique. Vol. 

 X. pp. 651-568. 



Li Ki. Legge. 

 S.B.E. Part III. 

 pp. 259, 260, 

 266, 280, 307. 



upon others, as well as those committing it, and that 

 irregularities in human relations and in nature were 

 interrelated and introactive. 



The good, or bad, behaviour of the women of the 

 race was thought to be related to the due flighting of 

 swallows, birds connected with miraculous births in 

 Chinese legend, and with the seasonable appearance of 

 rainbows. 



The fourth book of the Li Ki, Yueh Ling, the 

 Proceedings of Government in the different months, 

 preserves a record of, and enjoins, such primitive and 

 savage usage as the "tearing of animals in pieces" to 

 avert pestilence. In the second month of Spring "the 

 swallow makes its appearance. On the day of its 

 arrival, the son of Heaven sacrifices to the first match- 

 maker. " In the same month "three days before the 

 thunder, a bell with a wooden tongue is sounded to 

 give notice to> all the people. 'The Thunder,' it is said, 

 'is about to utter its voice.' If any of you be not 

 careful of your behaviour, you shall bring forth children 

 incomplete; there are sure to be evils and calamities." 



As to each month of the year, it is said that, if the 

 proceedings proper to that season were not observed, 

 disorder in nature and calamity to man would result. 



As to the third month of summer, it is said : — 



"If the proceedings proper to> Autumn were 

 observed, even the high grounds would be flooded, the 

 grain that had been sown would not ripen ; and there 

 would be many miscarriages among women." 



When Ts'ang Woo-tsze, greatly daring in marrying 

 the widow who was of the same surname, of the same 

 blood as himself, said "Her former husband bore the 

 brunt of it" he was referring to her defloration and to 

 a primitive fear of the shedding or contact with, blood 

 which had survived to his own day. Fear of the risks 

 run in the shedding of blood, especially blood which, 

 as that of one's kin, was in fact one's own, a fear 

 enforced as a taboo by the fears of one's fellow tribes- 

 men who, as their belief was, would also suffer for 

 such incest, w T ould appear to be the origin of exogamy 

 in China. 



