| 摘要: | 溺嬰，一直是中國父母處理不願撫育孩子的方式之一。溺嬰的記錄在中國各朝代都存在於史冊之中，而父母溺殺嬰孩的原因甚多，一般以經濟因素及性別選擇為主；當面臨經濟壓力時，男嬰與女嬰皆可能是父母溺殺的對象，但若是因為性別因素，則女嬰多半是被犧牲的對象。 本文以婦女在明代社會的地位為引，了解婦女在家庭與婚姻中的角色，觀看明代社會對婦女角色的理想與期許，兼以了解婦女在明代社會的地位。並以明代奢侈風氣作為背景，了解在明代社會從過去的簡樸到奢侈的發展下，政府一再禁止社會上競奢的行徑，卻總是成效不彰，在一個競奢的社會下，奢侈風氣的擴散與影響卻是降低父母親撫育女嬰的意願，因為奢侈導致奢嫁，奢嫁風氣使父母擔心未來嫁女的負擔沉重；一旦父母對養育女嬰的意願降低，除了造成出生女嬰被殺害的情形外，對地方造成的影響是男女間的性別比例不平衡，而地方若產生性別不均的問題，直接反映於地方則是男子難以有結婚對象，男子為求結婚，則可能發生搶婚、娶孀等非正常婚嫁的問題不斷發生，形成地方隱憂。 而地方的官員與知識分子面對溺女嬰造成的地方婚娶的問題，往往透過禁令和勸諭希冀能禁止地方父母溺嬰的惡俗；特別是透過禁奢的宣導以期恢復過去簡樸的社會，也透過禁奢來減低奢嫁風氣避免父母因擔心女嬰未來嫁妝而溺女，達到多撫育女嬰的目的；社會上亦有以宗教的因果報應觀念去影響父母心理以求能增加父母撫育女嬰的意願，但這些方式雖然能在短期收到部分成效，但實際上禁溺女卻總是一禁再禁效果不彰，顯示背後支持父母不育女的力量是大過於禁止的力量。 Infanticide by drowning had been a way for reluctant Chinese parents to rid unwanted newborns. Such practices are recorded in many dynasties of Chinese history. Parents choose to kill unwanted babies by drowning for many reasons. Generally speaking, main reasons are economic factors and gender selection; when faced with economic pressures, both the boys and girls can become victims. However, if it is because of gender concern, female babies are usually the object of sacrifice. This paper aimed to explore the aspects of Ming Dynasty: the marriage, family, social status and expectations of women in the Ming . and how the lifestyle transition from thrifty to spendthrift affected desires to raise female newborns. Though the Ming government repeatedly campaigned against social acts of extravagance, the efforts were fruitless. Wasteful weddings were a norm and competition between households to outdo extravagance had parents worry about future cost of marrying their daughters off, thus reducing their willingness to raise female newborns. In addition, local sex ratio was also affected, causing difficulty for men to find a mate. Gender inbalance brought about social problems such as marriage by capture, marrying widows and other non-normal marriages. In response, the local officials and intellectuals prohibited parents from vulgar infanticide by employing warnings and bans, particularly, on wasteful living and weddings. The Ming society had a religious concept of incarnation, which discouraged parents from infanticide and helped increase parental willingness to raise female baby. These approaches remained ineffective though receiving some results in the short term, indicating the prevailing force against raising female infants Keywords: Infanticide, Infanticide, extravagance in marriage, delayed marriage , sumptuary |
