用英语说中国家庭生活 第2期:传统离婚程序
Traditional Divorce Process
In traditional Chinese society，there are three major ways to dissolve a marriage.
在中国传统社会有三种解除婚姻的主要方式。The first one is no-fault divorce.
第一种是无过失离婚。
According to the legal code of Tang Dynasty (618-907)，a marriage may be dissolved due to personal incompatibility, provided that the husband writes a divorce note.
根据唐代律法（618-907），如果丈夫写了休书，双方可以因个性不合而离婚。The second way is through a state-mandated annulment of marriage.
第二种是通过国家下达的婚姻无效。This applies to when one spouse commits a serious crime (variously defined, usually defined more broadly for the wife) against the other or his/ her clan.
这种方法适用于夫妻其中一方触犯了严重的不利于他/她所属宗族的条规（定义广泛，通常对妻子那方更广义）。Finally, the husband may unilaterally declare a divorce.
最后一种是丈夫可以单方面要求离婚。To be legally recognized，however，it must be based on one of the following 7 reasons：
法律上的承认需要基于以下七条原则：The wife lacks filial piety towards her in-laws. This makes the in-laws capable of breaking a marriage against both partner’s will.
女方不孝敬她的姻亲。因为姻亲足以在违背双方意愿的情况下强行解除婚约。She fails to bear a son.
女方生不出儿子。She is vulgar or lewd/adulterous.
女方粗俗、淫荡、通奸。She is jealous. This includes objecting to her husband taking an additional wife or concubine.
女方吃醋。这包括不同意男方娶妾。She has vile disease.
女方有难治的病。She is gossipy.
女方闲言碎语。She commits theft.
女方盗窃。Obviously, these reasons can be stretched quite a bit to suit the husband and his family.
明显地，这些原则的延伸更利于男方及他的家族。However there are 3 clearly defined exceptions, under which the unilateral divorce is disallowed ：
然而有三种明确的例外使单方面离婚无效。She has no family to return to.
女方没有娘家。She had observed a full 3-year mourning for an in-law.
女方曾为一位姻亲服过三年丧。Her husband was poor when they married, and now is rich.
女方嫁过去时男方一贫如洗，如今富有。The above law about unilateral divorce was in force from Tang Dynasty to its final abolition by the government of Republic of China in 1930.
以上关于单方面离婚的法律从唐代开始施行，直至1930年新中国才最终废除。
