“Dividing the Land and Letting the Woman Take Away Her Share”: Land Reform and Marriage Disputes in Guizhou, China (1949–1956)

In the opening years of the People’s Republic of China, two laws were enacted—the Marriage Law and the Land Reform Law. Based on an investigation of divorce cases across five periods in Ping county, Guizhou, between 1950 and 1956, this article argues that the successful implementation of the Marriage Law hinged on the success of land reform. Hence, it is not a coincidence that when land reform came to an end in 1953, the number of divorce cases reached its peak across the country. In adjudicating these cases, local cadres adhered to the longstanding legal tradition of “practical moralism,” prioritizing women’s survival over abstract ideological principles such as marital freedom and gender equality. As an ever-larger number of women obtained land through land reform, the court in Ping county shifted its attention from securing women’s livelihoods to the partition of landed property. In this new socioeconomic context, the principle of “dividing the land and letting the woman take away her share” was enforced to resolve marriage disputes, empowering women to seek divorce with greater autonomy.