用英語說中國家庭生活 第2期:傳統離婚程序
Traditional Divorce Process
In traditional Chinese society，there are three major ways to dissolve a marriage.
在中國傳統社會有三種解除婚姻的主要方式。The first one is no-fault divorce.
第一種是無過失離婚。
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.
根據唐代律法（618-907），如果丈夫寫了休書，雙方可以因個性不合而離婚。The second way is through a state-mandated annulment of marriage.
第二種是通過國家下達的婚姻無效。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.
這種方法適用於夫妻其中一方觸犯了嚴重的不利於他/她所屬宗族的條規（定義廣泛，通常對妻子那方更廣義）。Finally, the husband may unilaterally declare a divorce.
最後一種是丈夫可以單方面要求離婚。To be legally recognized，however，it must be based on one of the following 7 reasons：
法律上的承認需要基於以下七條原則：The wife lacks filial piety towards her in-laws. This makes the in-laws capable of breaking a marriage against both partner’s will.
女方不孝敬她的姻親。因爲姻親足以在違背雙方意願的情況下強行解除婚約。She fails to bear a son.
女方生不出兒子。She is vulgar or lewd/adulterous.
女方粗俗、淫蕩、通姦。She is jealous. This includes objecting to her husband taking an additional wife or concubine.
女方吃醋。這包括不同意男方娶妾。She has vile disease.
女方有難治的病。She is gossipy.
女方閒言碎語。She commits theft.
女方盜竊。Obviously, these reasons can be stretched quite a bit to suit the husband and his family.
明顯地，這些原則的延伸更利於男方及他的家族。However there are 3 clearly defined exceptions, under which the unilateral divorce is disallowed ：
然而有三種明確的例外使單方面離婚無效。She has no family to return to.
女方沒有孃家。She had observed a full 3-year mourning for an in-law.
女方曾爲一位姻親服過三年喪。Her husband was poor when they married, and now is rich.
女方嫁過去時男方一貧如洗，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.
以上關於單方面離婚的法律從唐代開始施行，直至1930年新中國才最終廢除。
