内容简介

《公主之死》是一部法律史作品。作者爬梳史料，详细讲述了北魏兰陵长公主被驸马殴打流产致死这一经典案例的来龙去脉，以大处着眼、小处入手的写作方式探讨了婚姻暴力、性犯罪、亲属容隐、连坐、夫家认同、男尊女卑等重要而深刻的法律及婚姻伦理议题。

通过零星残存的条文、案例和判决，作者分析了儒家官僚集团与皇权在确定涉案人员罪名及刑罚轻重方面的共识和分歧，深刻揭示了汉唐之间几百年里女性的法律地位情况、法学和司法的传承状况，显示出虽然从汉朝开始婚姻和家庭伦理已被纳入法律规范之中，但儒家伦理法制化的进程是曲折的，在胡汉交融的北朝时期，夫尊妻卑的伦理并未完全进入法律体系之中。读懂这一案件，对于中国法律“儒家化”或“父权化”的发展过程，以及中国古代法律制度会有更深入的理解。

作者简介

李贞德，台湾大学历史系学士、硕士，华盛顿大学历史学博士。曾任哈佛大学燕京学社坊问学者、台湾清华大学历史研究所教授兼所长。她的研究取径与焦点，主要从性别的角度探讨传统中国的法律制度和医疗文化，代表作为《公主之死：你所不知道的中国法律史》《女人的中国医疗史》。

她喜欢读书、旅行和说故事。

精彩书评

《公主之死》就从胡太后所操控的这一案件的审判及相关官员的讨论中，引申出妇女的法律地位问题，并且把这个问题置于中国法制史的大背景下考察，旁征博引，纵横古今，既说明了中古法律的儒家化趋势，又特别突出了妇女在法制实践中的被动与主动角色。

——北京大学历史学系教授罗新

这一案件可谓是切入点，不仅牵涉议题多元，而且涵盖中国传统女性所遇到的大多数法律问题……魏晋南北朝处于中国历史的转型期，儒家思想对法律的影响可能会以更加复杂的面向展示出来，不同程度地涉及到族群、性别、尊卑等关系。这也是作者选择这一案例作为分析儒家化或父权化之切入点的原因之一。

——中国人民大学法学院副教授尤陈俊

Content introduction

The Death of a Princess is a work of legal history. The author, combing historical data, recounts in detail the classic case of the death of Princess Lanling Chang who was beaten by the emperor's son-in-law, and discusses the important and profound legal and marital ethical issues such as marital violence, sexual crimes, kinship concealing, consort, husband's family identification, male superiority and female inferiority.

Through scattered surviving texts, cases, and judgments, the author analyzes the consensus and divergence between the Confucian bureaucracy and the imperial power in determining the severity of the crimes and punishments involved, revealing the legal status of women and the inheritance of jurisprudence and justice in the centuries between the Han and Tang dynasties, showing that although marriage and family ethics had been incorporated into legal norms since the Han Dynasty, However, the process of legalization of Confucian ethics was tortuous. In the Northern Dynasty when the Hu and Han Dynasties blended, the ethics of respecting husbands and wives were not fully incorporated into the legal system. Reading this case, we will have a deeper understanding of the development process of "Confucianization" or "patriarchy" of Chinese law, as well as the ancient Chinese legal system.

About the author

Lee holds a B.S. and M.S. in history from Taiwan University and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He was a scholar at Harvard Yenching Institute and a professor and director of the Institute of History, Tsinghua University, Taiwan. Her research focuses on the traditional Chinese legal system and medical culture from a gender perspective, including The Death of a Princess: What You Don't Know About Chinese Law and Women's Medical History in China.

She likes reading, traveling and telling stories.

Wonderful book review

From the trial of this case controlled by Empress Dowager Hu and the discussion of relevant officials, the Death of the Princess extends the issue of women's legal status, and examines this issue in the context of the history of Chinese legal system, and draws on extensive references throughout the ancient and modern times, which not only shows the trend of Confucianization of medieval law, but also highlights the passive and active role of women in legal practice.

Luo Xin, professor of History at Peking University

This case can be described as an entry point, not only involving a variety of issues, but also covering most of the legal issues faced by traditional Chinese women... The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were in the transition period of Chinese history, and the influence of Confucianism on law might be displayed in a more complex way, involving the relationship of ethnic group, gender, and supremacy to varying degrees. This is also one of the reasons why the author chooses this case as the starting point to analyze Confucianism or patriarchy.

-- You Chenjun, associate Professor, Law School, Renmin University of China