Part I.
To Marry Off a Daughter.
The ancient China is a typical male patriarchal society. The system even defines marriage differently for the bride and groom. When a woman gets married, the Chinese character is "嫁". The character is composed of two radicals, from the left "女", which means "female", and to the right "家", which means "home", combining together it means a girl leaves the home of her parents when getting married. In spoken language, it is called to marry off. .
In ancient China, a woman no longer belonged to the family clan of her parents after she got married, and she had to put her husband's family name before hers. From that day on, her honor and disgrace, the sacrifice to her after her death had nothing to do with her parents' family any more. Therefore, a girl's parents would strive to give her a luxurious wedding ceremony since they took it as the last thing they could do for their daughter, and by doing so it might help solidify her status in her husband's family. Hence, the preparation before the ceremony turned out to be the most complicated. In contemporary China, the social status of women has greatly upgraded compared to that in the past, and yet the term "marry off" is still kept in the daily language. .
Match-Making.
In China, match-maker is also called Red Maid or the Old Man of the Moon (God of Marriage).
There has been a taboo in ancient China for young couple to make random acquaintance, and a marriage had to be produced by match-making only. Even if the young couple they love each other and wish to get married, it has to be arranged by the match-maker. A marriage without match-making is immoral and illegal in the community.
Normally, the boy's family sends a match-maker to the girl's family to raise the proposal. Ethical customs always consider female as rare on demand, therefore it's improper for a girl's family to make a proposal even if both families enjoy equal social status.
In addition to working to eliminate violence against women in public and private life, this document advocated "the elimination of gender bias in the administration of justice and the eradication of any conflicts which may arise between the rights of women and the harmful effects of certain traditional or customary practices " (sec. ...