A Study of Dunhuang Women's Marriage Life of The Tang Dynasty

Dunhuang was situated at very northwest frontier both as fortified outpost formed the furthermost extension of the Great Wall of China and a folkway of culture exchange and trade center. Here in Dunhuang, both of social environment of the living together of different races of people and the important location had enact Dunhuang women marital status side-featured: at the one hand, the marital status and valued as the society of the most of Chinese women do, at the other hand, Dunhaung had displayed its own features during the long period of the Tang Dynasty. For those of a married couple, there stands an important value of families of equal class standing. The marriage age (on the common sense) were found to be similar to contemporary legal marriage age although there were a few cases to marry young; The age of a married couple differ by a wide margin, and many senior aged women remained single at home; There were cases of divorce among Dunhuang women and it seems the rate of divorce was low in Dunhuang; On the question of a widow remarry, the adopted attitude was rather loose from any one before or after the Tang times that had left much freedom of marriage for women of the Tang Dynasty, but there were not much cases in the practice.