Editing Polygyny (section)

====China====
{{See also|Concubinage#China}}
In mainland China, polygamy is illegal under the [[Civil Code of the People's Republic of China|Civil Code]] passed in 2020. This codified a similar 1950 and 1980 prohibition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lawinfochina.com/display.aspx?lib=law&id=11|title=Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China|website=www.lawinfochina.com}}</ref>

Polygyny where wives are of equal status had always been illegal in China, and had been considered a crime in some dynasties. In family laws from Tang to Qing Dynasties, the status of a wife, concubines and maid-mistresses could not be altered.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.douban.com/note/157772811/|title=毋以妾为妻|work=douban.com|access-date=10 December 2016}}</ref> However, concubinage was supported by law until the end of the [[Qing dynasty|Qing/Ching dynasty]] of the imperial China (1911).{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} In the past, Emperors could and often did have hundreds to thousands of concubines. Rich officials and merchants of the elite also took concubines in addition to legal wives. The first wife was the head or mother wife; other wives were under her headship if the husband was away. Concubines had a lower status than full wives, generally not being seen in public with their husband and not having rights to decisions in the house. Children from concubines were considered inferior to those of the wife and did not receive equal wealth/legacy from their father. However they were considered legitimate, therefore had many more rights to inheritance of status and wealth than illegitimate children conceived outside a marriage.

Polygamy was ''de facto'' widely practiced in the Republic of China from 1911 to 1949, before [[Kuomintang]] was defeated in the Civil War and retreated to Taiwan. [[Zhang Zongchang]], a well-known warlord, notably declared he had three 'unknowns' – unknown number of rifles, unknown amount of money, and unknown number of concubines.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Portwood| first1 = Matthew R.| last2 = Dunn| first2 = John P.| title = A Tale of Two Warlords. Republican China During the 1920s | journal = Asian Studies| volume = 19| issue = 3 | date = 2014 | url = https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/a-tale-of-two-warlords-republican-china-during-the-1920s.pdf }}</ref>

[[Chinese people|Chinese]] men in [[Hong Kong]] could practice concubinage by virtue of the [[Qing Code]]. This ended with the passing of the Marriage Reform Ordinance ({{Cite Hong Kong ordinance|178}}) in 1970. Kevin Murphy of the ''[[International Herald Tribune]]'' reported on the cross-border polygamy phenomenon in Hong Kong in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/1995/02/07/lunar.php |title= Hong Kong Targets Its Two-Family Men - International Herald Tribune|website=www.iht.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210131453/http://www.iht.com/articles/1995/02/07/lunar.php |archive-date=February 10, 2009}}</ref> In a research paper of [[Humboldt University of Berlin]] on sexology, Doctor Man-Lun Ng estimated about 300,000 men in China have mistresses. In 1995, forty percent of extramarital affairs in Hong Kong involved a stable partner.<ref>[http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/IES/hongkong.html "Hong Kong"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061105131143/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/IES/hongkong.html |date=2006-11-05 }}, ''The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality''</ref>

Period drama and historical novels frequently refer to the former culture of polygamy (usually polygyny). An example is the ''[[Wuxia]]'' novel ''[[The Deer and the Cauldron]]'' by Hong Kong writer [[Jin Yong|Louis Cha]], in which the protagonist [[Wei Xiaobao]] has seven wives (In a later edition of the novel, Princess Jianning was assigned as the wife, while others are concubines).