As a unique custom of ancient China,the phenomenon of the selling and hiring wives and daughters was denied by the official culture from it’s beginning,and was prohibited by law.

On the Change of Novels Concerned with the Theme of Wife-pawned Since the May Fourth Movement of 1919;

Different from general customary law of employment,special customary law of employment is a mixture of employment system,tenancy system,loan system and mortgage system,which are mainly embodied as such systematic forms as leaders of cultivation,two-eight sharing of cultivation,tenant with land,mortgage and employment.

Like a prism, and through hundreds and thousands of years of historic development and cultural integration, the marriage custom of pawning wife reflects the various social group s notion of the folk marriage customs in different times and regions.