In traditional Chinese society, there are three major ways to dissolve a marriage.
The first one is no-fault divorce. According to the legal code of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a marriage may be dissolved due to personal incompatibility, provided that the husband writes a divorce note.
The second way (義绝) is through a state-mandated annulment of marriage. 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.
Finally, the husband may unilaterally declare a divorce. To be legally recognized, however, it must be based on one of the following seven reasons (七出):
- The wife lacks filial piety towards her parents-in-law (不順舅姑). This makes the parents-in-law capable of breaking a marriage against both partners' will.
- She fails to bear a son (無子).
- She is vulgar or lewd/adulterous (淫).
- She is jealous (妒). This includes objecting to her husband taking an additional wife or concubine.
- She has a vile disease (有惡疾).
- She is gossipy (口多言).
- She commits theft (竊盜).
Obviously, these reasons can be stretched quite a bit to suit the husband and his family. However there are three clearly defined exceptions (三不去), under which the unilateral divorce is disallowed, even if some of the above seven reasons exist:
- She has no family to return to (有所取無所歸).
- She had observed a full three-year mourning for a parent-in-law (與更三年喪).
- Her husband was poor when they married, and now is rich (前貧賤后富貴).
