日治時期臺灣文明結婚論述中的聘金問題

Bride Price in the Discourse of “Civilized Marriage＂ in Colonial Taiwan

日本政府為了殖民臺灣的需要進行「舊慣調查」（1910－1919），在懷抱文化優劣主義，自詡「文明」的先驅者姿態下，將臺灣婚姻習慣中的聘金賦予「身價金」與「人身買賣」的意涵，認為臺灣人的婚姻制度與經濟問題互為依存。除了殖民政府，社會輿論也以「進化觀」看待臺灣人的結婚問題，反覆宣傳「文明結婚」與「新式結婚」等新詞彙。本文即欲從日治時期臺灣的「文明結婚」論述出發，探討殖民者與受殖者如何討論聘金，進而擁護各自的婚姻進化論。本文首先討論日治初期殖民者如何透過舊慣調查認識臺灣人的訂婚條件，以及臺灣人在法律「依用舊慣」的原則下如何漸從婚姻舊慣走向「文明結婚」。其次，從1920年代殖民政府的矯風政策分析聘金制度如何成為婚姻改革論述的重點，以及臺灣社會廢聘論述與實踐間的落差。最後，1920年代末殖民政府因應日本國內的經濟節制政策、社會事業的集中統制，文明結婚論述的焦點再從「廢止聘金」擴展為「廢止虛禮」。殖民者主要意圖為「經濟節制」，但懷抱解放意識的受殖者，實為抵抗舊家族制度與殖民統治進而解放人身自由。然而，由男性主導的文明結婚論述、廢聘問題與女性地位，使臺灣女性不僅淪為被議價的「標的物」，更在討論中「失聲」，成為被討論的客體。 For the needs of colonial administration in Taiwan, the Japanese Government launched the Investigations of Laws and Customs between 1901 and 1919. However, the project was based on Japanese ethnocentrism that regarded Japan as a “civilized” pioneer and devalued Taiwanese marriage culture and customs. Japanese colonists believed that the bride price in Taiwan’s marriage in effect represented human trafficking and that marriage was built on economic needs. Meanwhile, public opinion was also based on cultural evolutionism that propagated the ideas of “civilized marriage” and “new-style wedding.” This article focuses on the discourse of “civilized marriage” in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule and explores how the colonists and the colonized respectively established their evolutionary theories of marriage in terms of the bride price issue. This article first discusses how the Japanese Colonial Government identified Taiwanese marriage culture and customs through the Investigations of Laws and Customs and how Taiwanese people gradually changed their wedding ceremonies from the principle of “following and applying old customs” in civil laws to the new idea of “civilized marriage.” The article then examines how bride price became the target of marriage reform in the Government’s kyōfū (moral reform) policy in the 1920s and suggests that the difference between discourse and practice of banning bride price actually existed in Taiwanese society. In response to Japan’s domestic austerity measures and centralized control of social undertakings in the late 1920s, the Colonial Government attempted to extend the focus of civilized marriage discourse from “banning bride price” to “abolishing empty formalities.” Although the colonists’ main purpose was austerity, Taiwanese intellectuals with self-liberated awareness had different considerations in rejecting the old family system as well resisting the colonists to achieve personal freedom. However, the discourse of civilized marriage, bride price prohibition, and women’s social status was always dominated by males. Taiwanese women were not just bargained objects but also lost their voices throughout the discussion.