| dc.description.abstract | 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
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