CHINESE MARRIAGES. 
163 
In the case of Ngai Lau Sliia the scholarly pen of Mr. Justice 
Eibden has illuminated and summed up the whole views of our 
Courts on the subject of Chinese secondary marriages: and an 
article such as this would be quite incomplete and ineffective with- 
out reprinting in it the following passage from his judgment. 
“ The Chinese equivalent of the English word “ marriage ” 
in its most careful sense is used only of the man and only with 
reference to his union with the t’sai, the principal wife, chosen 
for him by his father or by the person under whose patria potestas 
he happens to be. 
“If the man enters on a second hit-fat union [full marriage] 
during the lifetime of his t’sai he is punishable with 100 blows of 
the bamboo (the usual instrument) and the union is null and void. 
“ The man who degrades a t’sai to the level of a t’sip or raises 
a t’sip to the level of a t’sai is punishable with 100 or 90 blows 
according to the respective offences, and the ladies in each case are 
to be replaced in the position to w'hich they are originally entitled. 
The process of elevation or reduction is not defined but the provision 
indicates that the t’sip has some position from which she can he 
wrongly elevated and to which she can be reduced. 
“ The t’sai becomes a relative of her husband’s family and a 
‘ senior to be treated with respect.’ The t’sip does not enjoy 
these privileges. She cannot share the man’s honours. She can 
attain to honours onlv through her sons. 
A man having married a t’sai at his father’s choice may buy 
or ‘ acquire ’ as many t’sips as he pleases at his own. The t’sai 
l! is chosen from his own rank: he may take his t’sips from a low r er 
class. Rut the t’sip may not any more than the t’sai be taken from 
the Seh [family name] of the man. 
“ As to this the “ Book of Rites ” mentions an interesting 
injunction bv Confucius : — 
“‘ In marrying a t’sai do not marry anyone of the same family 
name so as to make a distinction. 
“* So in the purchase of a t’sip whose name is unknown find it 
out by divination.’ 
“This because the t’sip may be drawn from a class in which 
girls are the subject of barter and sale in their childhood with 
the result that her Seh may have been lost. 
“ The Manchu Code accepts the t’sip as having an established 
position in the Chinese family system and protects her in that 
position though it does not define it. 
“ Scholars and lexicographers have not hesitated to define the 
concubinage of the patriarchs as amounting to legitimate marriage 
though implying an inferior condition of the wife to whom the 
R. A. Soc., No. 83, 1921. 
